Seaborough

St Johns Church, Seaborough
© Kim Parker 2010

Seaborough is a hamlet and small parish on the River Axe, bounded by two Dorset parishes, Broadwinsor to the South and Mosterton to the East, and two Somerset parishes, Crewkerne to the West and North and Misterton to the North-East. The River Axe traditionally formed a natural boundary between Dorset and Somerset, but Victorian politicians had other ideas. In 1896 Seaborough was transferred to Dorset from Somerset, consisting at that time of only one farm on the south side of Seaborough hill. The principle street through the hamlet is so very steep, it must have taken real skill to manoeuvre a horse and cart up or down it in bygone days.

In his seminal work, ‘The History and Antiquities of Somerset’, Reverend Jon Collindon recounts how Seaborough evolved from the combining of several ancient manors, two of which are recorded under the name of Seveberge in the 1086 Domesday Book. ‘Seveberge’, far from having anything to do with the sea, is Old English for ‘seven hills or burrows’. Late in the 11th century, William the Conqueror gave Seaborough to Le Sieur de Vaus, or Vallibus, who came over with him from Normandy, requiring a feudal service of one soldier. Seaborough had been in the Vallibus family for several generations when Henry III called on Ralph de Vallibus to fulfil this feudal service. A certain John Gole was sent from Seaborough to fight in the Crusades. Having distinguished himself, particularly at the siege of Damietta, John Gole was rewarded with an estate at Seaborough in 1229. It was probably one of his descendents, a certain John Gold, who bought the estate in the 14th year of the reign of Edward II from the de Rochford family into whose hands Seaborough had passed after Grecia, the last of the Vallibus line, married Eudo de Rochford in 1245

Seaborough continued in the Gold family without incident for 300 years, when in the time of Mary Tudor the then Lord of the Manor, another John Gold, fell off his horse while out hawking and was set upon and brutally murdered by a discontented neighbour and his men. Gold’s murderers were tried and executed at Crewkerne and his widow, Elizabeth, enjoyed the estate for a further 30 years, but they had had no children and on her death the estate passed to John Gold’s four married sisters: Margaret Martin, Catherine Hoskins, Alice Bale and Anne Stretchly. The rivalries this unleashed resemble a game of Monopoly played for real stakes, in deadly earnest over several centuries. Through further deaths and sales the land became concentrated, one-third in the hands of the Martins and two-thirds in the hands of the Bales. Collindon tells us that the families of Martin and Bale inhabited each their respective parts of the mansion house, but relations having soured, in 1591 Hugh Martin pulled down his part of it and built a new house further off. After Hugh Martin’s house burnt down in 1877, a new building, Seaborough Court, was erected on higher ground to the North. By then, both the Martins and the Bales were long gone.

During the reign of Henry V, the Golde family gifted a parcel of land for the express purpose of building a church. Since the list of incumbents starts in 1244, it is probable that there was already a church at Seaborough, but it is not known where. The resulting Church of St John has undergone various enlargements and renovations during the centuries: the transept was added in 1729 and the chancel in 1882, the latter designed by Crickmay of Weymouth. More work was carried out in 1988 when the church was re-roofed and the bell-cot strengthened. There are two bells, one of which was presented to the parish in 1711 by then incumbent Faithful (Fidelis) Aish – a resonant name that recurs often in Seaborough’s parish registers. Inside the church are some rare treasures, including the 15th century font and original piscina, a silver communion cup bearing a 1591 hallmark, a life-sized bust of one Adam Martin and a stone effigy of a 13th century Crusader, sadly mutilated, believed to be that of John Gole who went off to the crusades and laid the foundations of his family’s fortune

Seaborough Court
© Kim Parker 2010

The new Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Seaborough is Theresa Rose
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