Description
Thorncombe, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands 3 miles ESE of Chard Road station on the L. & S.W.R., and 5 1/2 NE of Axminster. It has a post and money order office under Chard; telegraph office, Chard Road railway station. The parish includes Ford Abbey, and comprises 5416 acres; population of the civil parish, 941; of the ecclesiastical, 931. Sadborow House is the seat of the Bragge family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £360 with residence. The church was built in 1867, and is a handsome building of stone in the Perpendicular style. There are a Plymouth Brethren chapel and a village Jubilee hall.
Parish Church
The church of St. Mary, built in 1867, at a cost of about £4,000, is a fine stone building in the Perpendicular style, embattled throughout, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, south transept and a western tower, containing 5 bells: the south transept was built at the sole expense of the late Mrs. Bertram Evans, of Forde Abbey: there is a monument to Sir Thomas Brooke Knt. d. April 10, 1419, and three memorial windows to the Rev. Charles Egerton and Mary, his wife, and John, their son; the stained east window, placed in 1893, is a memorial to Col. Bragge, Margaret, his wife, and Adela, their daughter: there are 400 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1540.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Forde Abbey, a hamlet in Thorncombe parish, Dorsetshire, on the river Axe, at the boundary with Somerset, 4 miles SSE of Chard. The abbey from which it takes its name was begun in the year 1141, in the reign of King Stephen, by Cistercian monks; was erected in lieu of a previous abbey at Brightley, near Okehampton, Devonshire, founded by Richard de Brioniis; was endowed and patronized byAdeliza deBrioniis; and subsequently by the Conrtenays, Earls of Devon; was restored, adorned, and extended by its last abbot, Thomas Chard; was given at the dissolution to Richard Pollard, who was afterwards knighted; passed to the families Poulett, Rosewell, Prideaux, and Gwyn; and in 1847 to the Miles family. The buildings, escaping demolition or damage both at the dissolution and in the Civil War, were altered by Inigo Jones, and are now the finest specimen of a monastic edifice in England. The front facing the terrace and lawn, presents a facade 300 feet long adorned with sculpture and much coloured with lichens and mosses, and comprises chapel, cloister, saloon, porch, tower, refectory, and state apartments. The chapel, formerly the chapter-house, continues principally as built in the time of Stephen, is mainly Norman or transition Norman, but with Tudor east window, and has a vaulted roof with pendants, a finely carved screen, and a pulpit. The cloister, the tower, and the abbot's hall are the work of Thomas Chard, continue nearly as he left them,, and bear his initials and the arms of the families of Courtenay, Poulett, and Prideaux. The cloister measures 82 feet in length. The abbot's hall is 55 feet long and 28 feet high, and has four large Tudor windows. The saloon and the state apartments are the work of Inigo Jones, present the characteristic features of his style, and are adorned with elaborate old English furniture and famous tapestries. Jeremy Bentham tenanted the abbey in 1815-17, and wrote here some of his works. The abbey, which stands in a beautifully undulated park, has since 1864 been the seat of the Bertram-Evans family, and contains some noble apartments.aos
