Nether Compton

Coordinates: 50°57′15″N 2°34′27″W / 50.9542°N 2.5742°W / 50.9542; -2.5742 Nether Compton is a small village in north west Dorset, England, situated 3 miles west of Sherborne and 3 miles east of Yeovil.

The village has an estimated population of 300 (As of 2001^[update]).

History

Nether Compton Church

Nether Compton was burnt in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy.

The parish church of St. Nicholas can be found at the south end of the village on a road leading to the A30 between Yeovil and Sherborne. The chancel, nave and south porch date from the 13th century while the west tower, north chapel and nave windows demonstrate that the church was altered significantly in the 15th century. The whole building was then restored in the 1880s, when the chapel was extended and various internal modifications made.^[1] The stone screen is Perpendicular and the pulpit early 17th century.^[2] The west tower houses five bells: one from the 15th century (Salisbury foundry, inscribed "Sit Semper Sine Ve Qui Michi Dicit Ave"), one dated 1585, two dated 1658 (Thomas Purdue, Closworth) and one from 1886 (Gillett and Co., Croydon).^[3]

Many of the buildings in the village date from when it was improved in the last decades of the 19th century^{[citation needed]}, Colonel John R. P. Goodden having inherited Compton House in 1883. Architect Evelyn Hellicar (1862–1929) is responsible for a number of the buildings.^[4] These include Sherriff's Lodge (1889).

Personalities

Nether Compton was also the childhood home of BAFTA Award winning actress Kristin Scott Thomas and her younger sister, Serena Scott Thomas, also an actress.

External links

• Census data
• Dorset OPC - Nether and Over Compton

References

1. ^ Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. 1, West Dorset, London: HMSO, 1952, pp. 100-101.
2. ^ John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 304. ISBN 0-300-09598-8
3. ^ Christopher Dalton, Bells and Belfries of Dorset, Ullingswick: Upper Court Press, 2000-2005, vol. 2, pp. 491-494. See also the relevant page of the online Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers
4. ^ Hellicar obituary, RIBA Journal, 21 September 1929, p. 772