Coombe-Keynes (Holy Rood)

COOMBE-KEYNES (Holy Rood), a parish, in the union of Wareham and Purbeck, hundred of Winfrith, Wareham division of Dorset, 6 miles (W. S. W.) from Wareham; containing 135 inhabitants. The village appears, from numerous old foundations and traces of the sites of gardens, to have been originally of greater extent, and is supposed to have dwindled into its present state of a few inconsiderable cottages, from the want of a supply of water. Sandstone of very inferior quality is dug on the heath land for fences. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £13. 18. 11½., and in the gift of J. Weld, Esq., the impropriator: the great tithes have been commuted for £201. 15., and the vicarial for £110. The church is partly early English, and partly of later date.