Description
Lytchett Minster, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands at the head of Lytcbett Bay, 2 1/4 miles from Hamworthy Junction station on the L. & S.W.R., and 4 WNW of Poole, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Poole. Acreage of parish, 3325; population, 929. There is said to have been an alien priory here, which gave rise to the suffix name Minster. Much of the land is heath and waste. A large tumulus, called Lytchett Beacon, is 1 1/2 mile NE of the village, and serves as a landmark for vessels entering Poole harbour. Potter's clay is dug from pits, and sent to Poole harbour. Lytchett Bay is a northern offshoot of Wareham harbour, about 3 miles in circuit, separated by the upper part of a small peninsula from the Holes Bay off shoot of Poole harbour. A rivulet, called the Rock Lee or Organ river, falls into the W side of Lytchett Bay, and is crossed, near, the village, by a bridge. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £200 with residence. Patron, Eton College. The church is modern, is said to have been built from the materials of the old priory, and has an ancient tower. In the churchyard there are two yew trees of groat antiquity. There is a building in use by the Congregationalists and Baptists, wliich is called a United Independent Baptist chapel, and also Lockyer's charity for apprenticing poor boys of the parish. A Wesleyan chapel, built in 1866, is in the Pointed style, of red brick, with white stone dressings.
Parish Church
The church, rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1834, is a structure of brick in the Perpendicular style, and consists of small chancel, nave, south porch and a low embattled western tower containing 6 bells, of which one was added to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII. and one the accession of H.M. King George V.: there is an ancient font of Purbeck marble: in the nave is a chained book: the stained windows include one given by Sir E. Lees in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee: one to Sir Elliott Lees, 1st bart. and one to his second daughter Katharine Hope Gracia Lees, who was lost in the s.s. "Waratah" : the church affords 350 sittings: in the churchyard, enlarged in 1891, are two venerable yew trees.
The register of marriages dates from the year 1554, baptisms 1555.
