England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Minterne Magna St Andrew

The Parish

The parish of Minterne Magna lies in the northwestern portion of central Dorset roughly 9 miles south of the market town of Sherborne. Minterne Magna sits on the A352 road which links Sherborne with Dorchester. Minterne Magna is an estate village dominated by the parkland estate of Minterne House, whilst that house is a modern incarnation it sits within a Capability Brown inspired piece of landscaping involving a ponded stream forming picturesque water features together with artfully placed clumps of manicured trees. The village sits astride the A352 which performs a lazy S-bend through the cottages. Minterne Magna sits at the spring-head of the River Cerne surrounded on 3 sides by chalk downland, at the time of this transcript these would have been sheep-walks but nowadays there is much arable. Minterne Magna is drained southwards by the Cerne which meets the Frome on exiting from the chalk, here water turns eastwards to Wareham and into Poole Harbour before reaching the English Channel. Minterne Magna sits at 170 metres above the sea at its parish church, the hills to the west, Telegraph & Gore Hills both rise to 265 metres whilst to the east Little Minterne Hill touches 240 metres before the escarpment falls away almost 100 metres onto the Jurassic clays to the north. Minterne Magna parish covered almost exactly 2,000 acres and would have supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Minterne Magna is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Andrew's church stands on the eastern side of the A352 opposite the car park for Minterne Gardens. The core of the church is in the Perpendicular style but much has been modified and changed at the whim of the Digby family of the House. Both nave and chancel seem to have been constructed at the same time during the later Perpendicular period of the 15th century in a design utilising flints in bands. The northern chapel was added to this structure between 1615 & 1620 beginning a series of design changes. Whilst the western tower was probably built contemporaneously with the main body it was rebuilt in 1800, acquiring its crocketed pinnacles and gargoyles in work of 1894 when it was heightened. Slightly earlier in the middle of the 19th century the main core of the church had been "thoroughly" restored according to Pevsner. The gardens car park makes a useful facility to visit the church, the western tower stands almost within the busy road, there being only the white boundary line differentiating it from the fast moving traffic. the remainder of the churchyard is dotted with individual large trees but all are easily avoidable by the photographer.