Coombe Keynes

Thatched houses at Coombe Keynes

Parish church of the Holy Rood

Coombe Keynes is a hamlet and former parish in the Purbeck district of the English county of Dorset. It is situated some five miles west-south-west of Wareham. The parish has a population of 79 (2001). There are 22 houses in the hamlet itself and 37 properties across the parish as a whole.

Coombe Keynes was historically part of the Winfrith Hundred. It appears in the Domesday Book (as Cume), when it was held by Gilbert de Magminot, Bishop of Lisieux^[1]. The name Keynes derives from the later Lords of the Manor, the de Cahaignes family, who also held Tarrant Keyneston.

Holy Rood Church in Coombe Keynes was formerly the centre of a large parish which included the nearby village of Wool. This was until 1844 when Wool was established as a separate parish. Finally, the parish of Coombe was merged into that of Wool in 1967^[2]. The church is now used as a function room managed by the Coombe Keynes Trust^[3]. The Coombe Keynes Chalice, a rare pre-Reformation chalice with an octagonal foot with embellished angles on the stem, is now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum^[4].

Notes

1. ^ http://www.domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SY8484/coombe-keynes/
2. ^ Coombe Keynes OPC
3. ^ Coombe Keynes (Holy Rood)
4. ^ Victoria and Albert Museum - The Coombe Keynes Chalice

External links

• Census data (2001)
• grid reference SY842842

Coordinates: 50°39′26″N 2°13′30″W / 50.65726°N 2.22488°W / 50.65726; -2.22488