Hammoon
| Hammoon | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 St. Paul's parish church and cross | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST817145 |
| Location: | 50°55’48"N, 2°15’39"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 40 |
| Post town: | Sturminster Newton |
| Postcode: | DT10 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Dorset |
Hammoon is a small village in Dorset, sited on a river terrace[1] of alluvial silt by the River Stour,[2] about two miles east of the small town of Sturminster Newton.
The name of the village is derived from the Old English ham, meaning home or homestead, and the surname of the Norman lord of the manor ('de Moion' or 'Mohun').[3]
In 2001 the parish had 19 households and a population of 49. A 2013 estimate put the parish population at 40.[4]
History
In 1086 in the Domesday Book Hammoon is recorded as Hame;[5] it had 15 households, 4 ploughlands and 50 acres of meadow. It was in the Hundred hundred of Newton and the tenant-in-chief was William of Mohun.[6]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Paul dates probably from the late 12th or early 13th century, though only the north wall of the nave is original. The first building was likely only about twelve feet wide, and in the mid-13th century the chancel and south wall of the nave were rebuilt to a slightly larger floorplan; the nave's north wall should also have been rebuilt at this time, but the work was not completed. New windows were installed in the north wall in the 15th century. The nave's west wall was rebuilt in 1885, extending the building westwards.[1]
The parish was the first incumbency of the academic and clergyman Humphrey Gower (1638–1711), who later went on to become Master of Jesus College, Cambridge and then St John's College, Cambridge.
About the village
Near St Paul's is the thatched and mullioned manor house, which dates from the 16th century and which Sir Frederick Treves described in 1906 as "the most picturesque of its kind".[7] It has an L-shaped plan and has had several changes since first construction, including the addition of a classical porch around 1600. According to Pevsner the building overall has "an air [...] of simple innocence under its thatched roof".[8] It is a Grade II* listed building.[9]
The old open fields of the parish were enclosed before 1771.[1]
Hammoon House was built in the 1890s for use as a hunting lodge by the 2nd Viscount Portman of nearby Bryanston. It is an early example of the use of shuttered concrete as a building material, though the exterior was finished to give an appearance of stone. It is now a private residence.[10]
Geography
Hammoon parish covers an area of 690 acres[1] at an altitude of about 135 to 210 feet.[11][12] The highest land is on Kimmeridge clay in the south.
Beside the Stour at Hammoon Bridge is an ox-bow lake; it is upstream of the bridge, on the south side of the river. Next to the bridge there is also a gauging station that measures the river flow.[13] It opened in 1968 and is operated by the Environment Agency. The river level typically varies between six inches and 8 feet. The highest recorded level is 11 feet, which occurred on 24 December 2013.[11]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hammoon) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hammoon: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 3, pages 98-101Hammoon'
- ↑ Wightman, Ralph (1983). Portrait of Dorset (4 ed.). Robert Hale Ltd. p. 17. ISBN 0-7090-0844-9.
- ↑ Gant, Roland (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. p. 53. ISBN 0-7091-8135-3.
- ↑ "Parish Population Data". Dorset County Council. 20 January 2015. https://www.dorsetforyou.com/344882. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ "Dorset H-R". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. 2013. http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset2.html. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
- ↑ @"Place: Hammoon". Open Domesday. domesdaymap.co.uk. http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST8114/hammoon/. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
- ↑ Treves, Sir F (1906). Highways and Byways in Dorset. London: Macmillan. p. 38. https://archive.org/details/highwaysandbywa00penngoog.
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09598-2
- ↑ National Heritage List 1110215: Manor House, Hammoon
- ↑ Newth, John (March 2007). "Hammoon House". Dorset Life Magazine. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2007/03/hammoon-house/. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "River Stour at Hammoon". The Environment Agency. 10 April 2014. http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/river-and-sea-levels/120714.aspx?stationId=3306. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Pathfinder Series, sheet 1281 (ST 81/91) (Shillingstone & Tollard Royal), 1987, ISBN 0-319-21281-5
- ↑ Chaffey, John (May 2008). "Dorset’s rivers — The Stour, Sturminster Newton to Blandford". Dorset Life Magazine. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2008/05/dorsets-rivers-the-stour-sturminster-newton-to-blandford/. Retrieved 7 January 2015.