Thorncombe

Set in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the parish of Thorncombe is situated in north-west Dorset, bordering both Somerset and Devon, and forming part of the latter until 1843. The name derives from the Saxon words ‘torn’ and ‘cumb’, meaning ‘low ground where thorns grow’ and at the time of Domesday, Tornecome was held by Viscount Baldwin de Brionne. Since then it has been associated with several ancient families, including the Brook, Prideaux, Gwynn, Bragge and Trenchard families.

As well as the village of Thorncombe, there are a number of hamlets in the parish, including Hewood, whose houses are “group listed”, Holditch, with its picturesque ivy-clad ruins of the Brook family’s fortified manor house and Laymore, site of a former flax works, which straddles the parish boundary with Crewkerne (Somerset).

Also within the confines of the parish is the beautiful Forde Abbey, formerly a Cistercian monastery, but converted to a sumptuous private residence by its successive owners since its dissolution in 1539, incorporating some of the original buildings of the monastery. In Georgian times, other great houses were built at Sadborow and Greenhill.

In the seventeenth century, Thorncombe was a hotbed of revolt, although few of the 33 Thorncombe men wanted by Judge Jefferies for participating in the failed Monmouth Rebellion were caught.

By the 1770s, Thorncombe had become a centre for the wool trade and enjoyed a successful lace-making industry. The population peaked at around 1,500, but declined steadily throughout the nineteenth century as the cloth industry moved north. In 2001 the population stood at 714 and the principal activity of this 5,200-acre parish is now agriculture.

Dedicated by Bishop Brewster of Exeter in 1239, by 1770 the old church of St. Mary the Virgin was not large enough to accommodate 'the fourth part of the inhabitants', but it was not until 1886-7 that a new church was built, to a design of Mr. J. Mountford Allen of Crewkerne, 50 yards to the north of the old one. Some artefacts from the former church were preserved, including a fine fifteenth century brass representing Sir Thomas and Lady Joan Brook, arguably the best in the county. Formerly, there were also two dissenting chapels just outside the village of Thorncombe; the Venn Chapel at the top of Venn Hill and an Ebenezer Chapel at Stony Knaps, but both are now private residences.

The rectors of Thorncombe have numbered both the fortunate and the unfotunate.The fate of two successive Rectors of Thorncombe provides a case in point. Fortune smiled on Robert Gomersall, Rector of Thorncombe in the early 17th century, blessing him with moderate success as a poet and playwright. In marked contrast, his successor, royalist sympathiser John Bragge from the Sadborrow family, fell foul of fortune, being so frequently and so heavily fined by Cromwell’s government after the Civil War that he was unable to properly carry out his duties to his parishioners during the last six months of his life. When he died his post was left vacant for so long that the villagers were forced to petition Parliament for a replacement. Although not particularly illustrious in his own right, the Reverend Samuel Hood, rector here from 1761 to 1777, was the father of two sons who rose through the ranks of the navy to become admirals.

The OPC for Thorncombe is Kim Parker

If you email Kim with queries about this parish please include "OPC Thorncombe" in your email subject line
Please note that Kim does not live in the vicinity of the parish