Description
Marnhull, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands 1 mile E of the river Stour, 1 3/4 SE of the boundary with Somerset, and 3 miles N of Sturminster Newton station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway. It is large and irregularly built, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blandford. The parish contains also the hamlets of Moorside, Hayes, Lambress, and Thorley. Acreage, 3838; population, 1415. Nash Court is the chief residence; it was the birthplace of Giles Hussey, the ingenious painter who drew by the musical scale; and contains some choice paintings of the old masters. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £530 with residence. The church is large and good, and has a tower; it was rebuilt in 1882. There are Congregational, Wesleyan, and Methodist chapels, and a Roman Catholic church. Brewing and malting are carried on.
Parish Church
The church of St. Gregory is a building of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, south porch, and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells, two of which were recast and the whole rehung, and a clock was placed in the tower in 1887: a memorial window has been erected by the Misses Senior to their parents: the stained east window, by Burne-Jones, was given by his late widow in memory of the late R.B. Kennard esq. J.P.; the old east window, now removed to another place in the church, was the gift of the Rev. R.B. Kennard, rector 1858-95, who also inserted two windows in the chancel, one to his first wife, d. 1878, and the other to his second wife, d. 1897; there is also a window given by Mr. John Hunt as a memorial to his wife, who died 13 Feb. 1894: the chancel was rebuilt in 1882, and in 1898 part of the church was restored, revealing several features of interest hitherto covered up: an organ chamber was built and a new organ provided in 1900: there are 650 sittings. The churchyard was enlarged in 1902, the additional land being the gift of Lord Stalbridge.
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