Description
Hamworthy, a village and parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands on Holes Bay 1/2with two stations on the L. & S.W.R. -High Junction, 1 1/2 mile from Poole, and Hamworthy, close to Poole-120 miles from London, and 1 1/2 mile W by N of Poole, and was the place where Charles X. of France landed after his abdication in 1831. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Poole. Acreage of parish, 1077; population, 673. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £90 with residence. Patron, Lord Wim-borne. The ancient church was destroyed in the Civil War of Charles L; the present one was built in 1826, and has. a tower. In the churchyard are two mounds supposed to contain soldiers killed in the war. Cannon balls have been dug up, and the masonry of the old manor house (formerly a stronghold of the Carews, now used for the rectory) shows marks of dilapidation from Cromwell's guns. The largest industry is clay-cutting, while many are employed as shipwrights and in the brickyards and ropewalks; recently oyster culture has been started.
Parish Church
The church of St. Michael, rebuilt in 1826, is an edifice of stone, incorporating much of the old material, and consists of chancel, nave, and fine embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and one bell: the church was reseated in 1860, and in 1897 was redecorated and new heating apparatus put in at a cost of £80 : in 1901 a new marble pulpit was presented at a cost of about £100 by Miss Slade, as a memorial to her father, who died in the church on Christmas day, 1888; in the same rear a new font was given by the late Rev. Edmond Sellon M.A. rector here 1887-96, in memory of his nephew, Melville Sellon: in 1902 the church was again redecorated, the chancel new-roofed, and choir stalls and a new lectern provided: there are about 300 sittings. A piece of land measuring 2 roods 33 perches was given by Lord Wimborne in 1897 for the enlargement of the churchyard, in which is a large mound, said to mark the burial place of some Cromwellian soldiers.
The register of baptisms dates from the year 1826, and of burials from 1813: the entries previous to these dates were made in the register of Lytchett Minster.
