Oborne is a village in north west Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, situated in the Blackmore Vale

Blackmore Vale

The Blackmore Vale is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. The vale is part of the Stour valley...

 close to the border with Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, on the A30 road

A30 road

The 284 miles A30 road from London to Land's End, historically known as the Great South West Road used to provide the most direct route from London to the south west; more recently the M3 motorway and A303 road performs this function for much of the route and only parts of A30 now retain trunk...

 adjacent to the town of Sherborne

Sherborne

Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...

. The village has a population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 115 . Oborne is in the group parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Yeo Head together with the three villages of Castleton

Castleton, Dorset

Castleton is a village in west Dorset, England. The village had a population of 130 in 2001. Castleton is in the group parish of Yeo Head together with the three village parishes of Poyntington, Goathill and Oborne. This parish is within the district of West Dorset....

, Goathill

Goathill

Goathill is a hamlet in the county of Dorset in England. It is situated a couple of miles east of the town of Sherborne in the West Dorset administrative district of the county...

 and Poyntington

Poyntington

Poyntington is a village in north west Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale two miles north of Sherborne. The village has a population of 135.The parish was part of the hundred of Horethorne....

. This parish is within the district of West Dorset

West Dorset

West Dorset is a local government district and parliamentary constituency in Dorset, England. Its council is based in Dorchester. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and Lyme Regis, along with...

.

A new parish church, designed by William Slater, was built on a fresh site in 1862. The volume on Dorset in the Buildings of England series by John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner

Nikolaus Pevsner

Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...

 describe this as having "nave with bellcote, chancel and apse ... Slater's and Carpenter's typical single and twin lancets with pointed-trefoiled cusping." The remains of the Old St Cuthbert's Church

Old St Cuthbert's Church, Oborne

The Old St Cuthbert's Church in Oborne, Dorset, England was built in 1533. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust...

 are half a mile south, on the other side of the A30. Only the chancel remains. Oborne had been given to Sherborne Abbey

Sherborne Abbey

The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin at Sherborne in the English county of Dorset, is usually called Sherborne Abbey. It has been a Saxon cathedral , a Benedictine abbey and is now a parish church.- Cathedral :...

 by the Saxon King Edgar in the 10th century and it remained a 'chapel of ease' to the abbey until the Dissolution

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 in 1539. Above the lintels of windows on the east and north sides are inscriptions entreating prayers for the good standing of Abbot John Myer (1533) and Sacristan John Dunster of Sherborne. The interior of the chancel contains a 17th century pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

 and communion rails as well as a piscina

Piscina

A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. Roman Catholics usually refer to the drain, and by extension, the basin, as the sacrarium...

 and font

Baptismal font

A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...

 from the former church at North Wootton. Nothing now remains of the medieval nave that was demolished in the 1860s. The chancel lay neglected until the 1930s, when a new incumbent began to restore it, taking advice from A. R. Powys (secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and J.J.Stevenson, and other notable members of the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian...

) who was also responsible for the restoration of the church at Winterborne Tomson, Dorset.