Melbury Bubb

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Melbury Bubb
Dorset
Melbury Bubb Church and Manor House - geograph.org.uk - 287672.jpg
St Mary, Melbury Bubb
Location
Grid reference: ST596065
Location: 50°51’26"N, 2°34’31"W
Data
Population: 40  (est.)
Local Government
Council: Dorset

Melbury Bubb is a small village in Dorset, found about seven miles south of Sherborne.

The village is in the vale beneath the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs, sited on Cornbrash limestone[1]. The A37 trunk road between Dorchester and Bristol passes about half a mile to the west, on the other side of Bubb Down Hill. This hill used to be the site of a beacon.

The first half of the village’s name derives from the Old English mæle burg, meaning "multi-coloured fortified place". The second element of the name, Bubb, is a manorial name which derives either from an Anglo-Saxon named 'Bubba' or from mediæval lords of the manor. A 2013 estimate put the parish population at 40.

Bubb Down Hill, seen from Batcombe Hill

The parish church, St Mary, has a 15th-century tower but the rest of the building was largely rebuilt in a 19th-century restoration. Its font however is carved out of the column of an upturned Saxon cross; it is elaborately carved, although the carvings are upside-down.[2]

Outside links

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References

  1. Ralph Wightman (1983). Portrait of Dorset (4 ed.). Robert Hale Ltd. p. 18. ISBN 0 7090 0844 9. 
  2. Roland Gant (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. p. 69. ISBN 0 7091 8135 3.