Description
Tarrant Rushton, a parish in Dorsetshire, 3 3/4 miles E of Blandford station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint railway. Post town, Blandford. Acreage, 2073; population of the civil parish, 179; of the ecclesiastical, 219. The living is a rectory, with Tarrant Rawston annexed, in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £195 with residence. The church is good, and has been thoroughly restored.
Parish Church
The church of St. Mary is an ancient cruciform building of flint and stone in the Norman and Early English styles, chiefly of the 13th century, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and a bell chamber containing one bell: there are three perfect hagioscopes, of the Decorated period, and a piscina of the same period: two earthenware vessels have been found built into the chancel arch, and remains of stone tomb covers: there are memorial windows to the Rev. Francis A. Smith, d. 1877, and Miss Isabella Wilson, d. 1887, and brasses to Captain Smith, d. 1885; Captain Arthur Roe, died of wounds 1914; and the Rev. J. Penney M.A. rector 1877-1915, died Jan. 1915; the church was restored between 1878 and 1887, and has sittings for 120 persons.
The register dates from the year 1700.
