England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Ryme Intrinseca St Hippolytus

The Parish

The parish of Ryme Intreseca lies in northern Dorset forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Somerset. Ryme Intreseca is located roughly 6 miles southwest of the market town of Sherborne and sits just under a mile east of the A37 road which links Yeovil with Dorchester. Ryme Intreseca is a crossroads settlement sitting on a low ridge where 4 lanes meet, with Yetminster less than a mile to its east it is fast becoming merely an adjunct to that place. Ryme Intreseca sits within an area of the county renowned for the quality of its cheese with most farming land devoted to the cattle that provide the milk necessary. Remarkably this small village was once granted a charter for a market but that failed early in the medieval period following competition from both Yeovil & Sherborne. Ryme Intreseca was a noted property of the Duchy of Cornwall, the personal estates of the Princes of Wales. Ryme Intreseca is drained northwards by the infant River Yeo which passes Yeovil before heading northwest through the Somerset Levels to join the Parrett for its journey to the outer Bristol Channel. Ryme Intreseca is sited at around 70 metres above the sea, across the Yeo land rises to breach the 110 metre contour in a few spots in this gently undulating countryside. Ryme Intreseca parish was quite small only just rising above 1,000 acres which would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. Ryme Intreseca is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Hippolytus' church stands a little to the east of the main crossroads within the village on the southern side of the lane headed for Yetminster. St Hippolytus a third-century Christian priest, major theologian, and the first recorded anti-pope in history who later reconciled with the Church and died as a martyr. The church is first recorded in 1297 as a chapel to neighbouring Yetminster, both nave and chancel date from this late 13th century period with both showing lancet styled windows characteristic of the Early English Gothic period. The western tower, however, is a late Perpendicular structure it has 2-stages, battlements and a stair turret, all frequent features of the later Perpendicular era but comes with an unusual conical roof. Also Perpendicular is the northern doorway from the early 15th century. For once Pevsner fails to mention any Victorian restoration so if work was carried out it was light and sensitive. Ryme Road is of adequate width to allow parking outside the churchyard which has an unusual design in being highly elongated with the church at the extreme southern end, a rising pathway leads from the road. A consequence of this design is the removal or, at least, impeding of the favoured southern aspects, all other angles, however, are available.