Description
Tarrant Gunville, a parish, with three tithings, in Dorsetshire, 5 miles NE by N of Blandford station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blandford. Acreage, 3469; population, 369. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £345 with residence. Patron, University College, Oxford. The church is good.
Parish Church
The church of St. Mary is a building of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 3 bells: the church was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1845: the organ was the gift of the Rev. W. H. Hitchcock M.A. rector 1889-1900: there are 370 sittings, 288 being free.
The register dates from the year 1719.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Eastbury, a tithing in Tarrant-Gunville parish, Dorsetshire, 5 miles NNE of Blandford Forum. Eastbury Park here belonged to George Bubb Dodington, afterwards Lord Melcombe ; passed to Earl Temple, and now belongs to the Farquharson family. A mansion, after designs by Vanbrugh, was erected on it by Dodington at a cost of £140,000, was visited by several distinguished literati as frequent guests, was sung by the poets Thomson and Young, and was demolished, on account of the cost of keeping it in repair, by Earl Temple.
Gunville, a tithing in Tarrant Gunville parish, Dorsetshire, 4 1/2 miles NNE of Blandford. Gunville Park is a chief residence.
