Owermoigne

Owermoigne Church
© Kim Parker 2013

Owermoigne is a quaint village, ancient parish and formerly a liberty situated 7 miles South-East of Dorchester and 8 miles East of Weymouth. Settled since Roman times, the first part of this enigmatic place-name suggests a remoter past, ‘Ower’ being a corruption of the Celtic word ‘ogrodrust’, referring to gaps in the chalk hills funnelling winds off the sea. The second part of the name is manorial, from the Le Moigne family who were Lords of the Manor here for three centuries after the Normal Conquest. Within the boundaries of the parish are the hamlets of Southdown, or Sudden as it was once known, Galton famous for its market gardens and Holworth on the cliffs above beautiful Ringstead Bay, which until 1882 was an extra parochial area belonging to the Abbot of Milton Abbey..

From earliest times until the early 20th century the Manorial Court played an essential part in handling matters of local justice, although the Lords of the Manor were not always above and beyond reproach. The Estate descended with the marriage of the last Le Moigne heiress, Elizabeth, to the Stourton family. During the reign of Mary Tudor, Charles, Lord Stourton, murdered two villagers by the name of Hartgill, father and son, with whom he was at variance. Although he buried them 15 feet under his cellar floor, the bodies were discovered and Stourton was convicted. He appealed to the Queen to reprieve him, citing his unwavering faithfulness to Roman Catholicism, but the only concession he received was to be hung with a 'halter of silk in respect of his quality' and to be buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

After a brief period of ownership by Archbishop of Canterbury William Wake who had purchased it from the Stourtons in 1703, Owermoigne was acquired by French-born Theodore Janssen, the fabulously wealthy son of a Dutch baron who was later knighted by Queen Anne. He was hated by the villagers who earned only 7 or 8 shillings a week, not least because of the role he had played in the South Sea Bubble of 1720-1. Being a director of the South Sea Company, when the bubble burst, Janssen was forced to return £250,000 to the British Treasury – a massive sum at the time.

A few decades later the Estate was sold to the Cree family who were great benefactors to both the village and the church, building a school in 1873 and restoring the church in 1883. Even before the fire in 1882, St Michael’s church was in a dilapidated state, with tea chests being used as pews. S. Jackson of Weymouth was engaged as architect and John Beer of Wareham carried out the work. Only the 13th century tower remains from the old church, with its complement of three Elizabethan bells, cast locally by Salisbury founder J. W. Wallis. The Jubilee Arch and Lantern spanning the entrance to the churchyard were erected in 1897 to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. Also of note is the 16th century rectory, sporting beams salvaged from the wreck of a Spanish Galleon after the failure of the great Armada of 1588. Seeking refuge in Ringstead Bay, the ship was plundered by the local inhabitants who shamefully showed the crew no quarter.

Owermoigne Cottages
© Kim Parker 2013

Generations of ancestors of the writer Thomas Hardy lived in Owermoigne and their christenings, weddings and burials are recorded in the parish registers, which date from 1569. They must have handed down their smugglers’ tales to him, inspiring him to write “The Desperate Preacher”, set in ‘Nether-Moynton’ and relating the misadventures of a Wesleyan Minister who gets caught up with a gang of smugglers lead by his alluring landlady and condoned by the local clergyman, who even permits the contraband to be hidden in the Church tower. Ironically, despite its strong associations with smuggling and the fact that it today boasts a cider museum on the site of an old mill mentioned in the Domesday book, the village of Owermoigne has never had a pub.

The OPC for Owermoigne is Kim Parker
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