Charborough is an historic former parish and manor in Dorset, England. It survives today as a hamlet, situated on an affluent of the River Stour, 6 miles west of Wimborne Minster, [1] but without any of its former administrative powers, and is today part of the parish of Morden. The surviving former parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary. [2] The manor house survives as Charborough House.
The mediaeval church of the former parish of Charborough was situated to the immediate south-west of the manor house (in its latest form Charborough House). The mediaeval church was demolished and rebuilt on the same site ( 50°46′49″N2°06′27″W / 50.78018°N 2.10752°W ) in 1775 in the Gothic Revival style, [3] by Thomas Erle Drax, and dedicated to St Mary, and was remodelled in 1837 by John Sawbridge Erle-Drax who in 1826 had married the heiress Sarah Frances Erle-Drax of Charborough, [4] and had assumed her surname and arms. It faces almost due east, as is usual, whilst the front facade of the house faces north-east. It is a grade II* listed building, but the listing relates only to its furnishings. [5] Today it serves as a mausoleum and burial place for the Drax family, the functioning parish church being at Morden. Above the door of a small arched building nearby is an inscription, dated 1686, commemorating the meeting of the "Patriotic individuals who concerted the plan of the Revolution in 1688".
Charborough Tower is a Grade II* listed octagonal folly tower dating from 1790, extended in 1839 into a five-storey building. It is situated on a hill southeast of the house ( 50°46′39″N2°06′06″W / 50.77753°N 2.10178°W ), [6] with the vista of a triumphal way running between them. [7]
Charborough with its tower is the model for "Welland House" in the novel Two on a Tower by Thomas Hardy. [8]
The manor is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. [9] It was later acquired during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) by the Erle family whose eventual heiress Frances Erle married Sir Edward Ernle, 3rd Baronet (c.1673–1729). It descended by various further female lines to the present (notional) [10] lord of the manor Richard Drax, [11] the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Dorset since 2010, a member of the quadruple-barrelled surnamed family of Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. The Erle (alias Earl, Earle, etc.) family originated in east Devon and moved to neighbouring Dorset in about 1500, but soon died out in the male line. Female co-heiresses brought the Erle estates to various other families.
Longburton or Long Burton is a village in Dorset, England, three miles (5 km) south of Sherborne. It is sited on a narrow outcrop of Cornbrash limestone, at the western end of Blackmore Vale. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 470.
Morden is a civil parish in the Purbeck district of south Dorset, England. Morden is about 6 miles (10 km) north-west of Poole. At the 2011 census the civil parish had 141 households and a population of 323.
Athelhampton is a settlement and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of Dorchester. It consists of a manor house and a former Church of England parish church. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish is 30.
The Ernle Baronetcy, of Etchilhampton in the County of Wiltshire, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 2 February 1661 for Walter Ernle, later Member of Parliament for Devizes. He died on 25 July 1682, and was buried at Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire. He was succeeded by his grandson, Sir Walter Ernle (1672–1690), 2nd Baronet, of Maddington, Wiltshire, who was, in turn, succeeded at his own death by his younger brother, Sir Edward Ernle (1673–1728/9), 3rd Baronet, P.C., MP. The third Baronet was succeeded by a kinsman, Sir Walter Ernle (1676–1732), 4th Baronet, of Conock, in the parish of Chirton, Wiltshire, who died childless, and was succeeded by his younger brother, the Reverend Sir John Ernle, 5th Baronet, Rector of All Cannings, Wiltshire, who was predeceased by his only son.
Ernle was the surname of an English gentry or landed family descended from the lords of the manor of Earnley in Sussex who derived their surname from the name of the place where their estates lay.
Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, JP, DL, commonly known as Reginald Plunkett or Reginald Drax, was an Anglo-Irish admiral. The younger son of the 17th Baron of Dunsany, he was Director of the Royal Naval Staff College, President of the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control in (Berlin), commander-in-chief of successive Royal Navy bases. His brother Edward, who became the 18th Baron of Dunsany, was best known as the famous playwright and author Lord Dunsany. Edward inherited the paternal estates in Ireland, while Reginald was bequeathed most of his mother's inheritance across portions of the West Indies, Kent, Surrey, Dorset, Wiltshire and Yorkshire. He extended his surname by special Royal licence in 1916, and was noted for the quadruple-name result, Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.
Drax Hall Estate is a sugarcane plantation situated in Saint George, Barbados, in the Caribbean.
Charborough House, also known as Charborough Park, is a Grade I listed building, the manor house of the ancient manor of Charborough. The house is between the villages of Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England.
John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany was an Anglo-Irish Conservative politician and peer.
Almer is a village in Dorset, England. Almer is located on the A31 road near Winterborne Zelston, Huish Manor, Sturminster Marshall and opposite the Drax estate. The main features of the village are Almer Manor, Almer Parish church and the old school house. The school was co-educational; it opened in 1925 and closed in 1964. The Almer School Honours tablet is now kept in Winterborne Zelston village hall. The seven residential properties in Almer are owned and let by the Charborough (Drax) Estate.
John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax was a British Member of Parliament (MP) during the Victorian era.
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax is a British Conservative politician, journalist and landowner, serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dorset since 2010.
Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor was a British politician.
Collaton St Mary is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, England, situated about 2 miles (3 km) west of the town of Paignton. The village is bisected by the A385 Paignton to Totnes road. The parish is now administered within the unitary authority of Torbay, Devon.
Roger Wyck of Bindon in the parish of Axmouth in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle in 1413.
Bindon is an historic manor in the parish of Axmouth in Devon, England.
Walter Erle (c.1515/20-1581) of Colcombe in the parish of Colyton, of Bindon in the parish of Axmouth, both in Devon, and of Charborough in Dorset, England, was a courtier and servant of the Royal Household to two of the wives of King Henry VIII, namely Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, and successively to his son King Edward VI (1547-1553) and two daughters, Queen Mary I (1553-1558) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) during their successive reigns.
Henry Drax of Ellerton Abbey, Yorkshire and Charborough, near Wareham, Dorset was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1718 and 1755.
Thomas Erle Drax was an English Tory politician. He served as a Member of Parliament for constituencies in Dorset in the 18th century. He was the son of Henry Drax, British MP and owner of slave plantations in Barbados and Jamaica.
Ellerton Abbey is an historic building and estate in Ellerton Abbey, North Yorkshire, England. It was built around 1830 for the Fore Erle-Drax family, and has been designated a Grade II listed building by Historic England. The property is located at the end of a long driveway off the northern side of the B6270 Richmond Road, about 450 feet (140 m) southwest of Ellerton Priory, now ruined.