Description
Okeford Fitzpaine, a village and a parish in Dorsetshire. The village stands 1 1/2 mile WSW of the river Stour and of Shillingstone station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway, and 6 miles NW of Blandford Forum. It has a post and money order office under Blandford; telegraph office, Shillingstone. Acreage of the civil parish, 3742; population, 687; of the ecclesiastical, 557. The manor belonged formerly to the Nicholes and the Fitz-Paynes, and belongs now to the Pitt-Rivers family. A circular single-trenched camp is on Bunbury Hill, 1 1/2 mile NW of the village, and several British coins were found there in 1753. Bricks are made. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £370 with residence. The church is Decorated English, was partly restored, partly rebuilt in 1866, and comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with N porch and W tower. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.
Parish Church
The church of St. Andrew is a building of stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 6 bells: the ancient stone pulpit, used as a font in the 18th century by the Rev. D. Butler, a former rector, has since been restored to its original purpose: there is a memorial window to the Rev. G. Rivers Hunter, 52 years rector here, and the west window was erected in 1914 in memory of the Rev. Robert Cholmeley Price, a former curate in charge, and of Florence his wife: the church was thoroughly restored in 1866 at a cost of over £2,000, and has 344 sittings.
The register of baptisms dates from the year 1592: burials, 1593, and marriages, 1594.
