Tyneham (St. Mary)

TYNEHAM (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Wareham and Purbeck, hundred of Hasilor, Wareham division of Dorset, 6 miles (S. S. W.) from Wareham; containing 250 inhabitants. This parish is situated at the western extremity of the Isle of Purbeck, and bounded on the south by the English Channel. It comprises 2840 acres, of which 1193 are common or waste: limestone is abundant, though not much quarried; and there are good veins of Purbeck marble and some gypsum, but neither worked. On the coast is a circular battery, for the defence of Worbarrow bay. The living is a rectory, united, by an act passed in the 8th of George I., to that of Steeple, and valued in the king's books at £11. 0. 10: the tithes have been commuted for £210, and the glebe consists of 25 acres. The church is a small cruciform structure, with a campanile turret rising at the intersection; the south side has lately been rebuilt, and a south transept added, at the expense of the Rev. William Bond. There was formerly a chapel at Povington, in the parish; and another, dedicated to St. Margaret, at North Egleston. Here was an alien priory subordinate to the abbey of Bec, in Normandy, which, at the suppression, was given by Henry VI. to St. Anthony's hospital, London; by Edward IV. to Eton College, and afterwards to the Dean and Prebendaries of Westminster. Flowers-barrow, an ancient encampment, is situated in the parish; and a large mound, a little to the west of the church, has been lately opened, and found to contain several skeletons, some of them in a very perfect state. The bold escarpment of the rocks which bound one side of the parish, is highly interesting to the geologist, abounding in organic remains.