Wootton Fitzpaine

Wootton [or Wotton] Fitzpaine lies in the south west of the county, situated in the Marshwood Vale. To the west is Hawkchurch, Marshwood is to the north and to the east lies Symondsbury, Chideock and Catherston Lewiston, Charmouth and Lyme Regis to the south. A small branch of the River Char runs through the parish.

The church [no dedication] is ancient and of stone construction and is located in the grounds of Wootton Fitzpaine House. It comprises chancel, nave, north transept, south aisle, south porch and a plain western tower with one bell.

The manor house is a fine Queen Anne building in red brick. The original manor open fields to the south have lost their strip cultivation marks but the enormous hedgebanks which were once the boundaries of a medieval deer park can still be seen

The registers date from the year 1667. The parish covers 3307 acres, although this includes Monkton Wyld. Monkton Wyld is an ecclesiastical parish formed from part of Wootton Fitzpaine in 1850. The soil is stone brash with clay and gravel and the chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The population in 1891 was 327 in the civil parish and 162 in the ecclesiastical parish. There was no post office but a wall letter box at Knap. The Parochial School for infants was built in 1860 for 50 children with an average attendance of 20. Elder children attend the board school at Charmouth. Details from the 1895 Kelly's Directory Photograph of the church courtesy of Michael Day's Dorset Churches site.

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