Editing Mappowder (section)

{{Short description|Village and civil parish in Dorset, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox UK place
|country = England
|static_image_name = Mappowder Church - geograph.org.uk - 367095.jpg
|static_image_caption = Parish church of St Peter and St Paul
|official_name = Mappowder
|coordinates = {{coord|50.8535|-2.3784|display=inline,title}}
|map_type = Dorset
|population = 166
| unitary_england=       [[Dorset (district)|Dorset]]
| lieutenancy_england=   [[Dorset]]
|post_town = Sturminster Newton
|postcode_area = DT
|postcode_district = DT10
|constituency_westminster = [[North Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)|North Dorset]]
|region = South West England
|os_grid_reference = ST735061
}}
'''Mappowder''' is a village and [[Civil parishes in England|civil parish]] in the [[English county|county]] of [[Dorset]] in southern [[England]]. The parish lies approximately {{convert|9|mi|km|abbr=off|0}} southeast of the town of [[Sherborne]] and covers about {{convert|1900|acre|ha|sigfig=2|abbr=off}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/pp145-148 |title='Mappowder', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 3, Central (London, 1970), pp. 145-148 |work=British History Online |date=2014 |publisher=University of London |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref> at an elevation of {{convert|75|to|160|m|ft|abbr=off|sigfig=2}}.<ref>Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Pathfinder Series, sheet 1299 (ST60/70) Cerne Abbas & Hazelbury Bryan, published 1986, {{ISBN|0-319-21299-8}}</ref> It is sited on [[Corallian limestone]] soil<ref>{{cite book |last=Wightman |first=Ralph |title=Portrait of Dorset |publisher=Robert Hale Ltd |year=1983 |edition=4 |page=17 |isbn=0-7090-0844-9}}</ref> at the southern edge of the [[Blackmore Vale]], close to the northern [[escarpment|scarp]] face of the [[Dorset Downs]]. In the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]] the parish had 71 dwellings,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=11126300&c=Mappowder&d=16&e=62&g=6418021&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1433164885855&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2481 |title=Area: Mappowder (Parish). Dwellings, Household Spaces and Accommodation Type, 2011 (KS401EW) |publisher=Office for National Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |date=30 January 2013 |access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref> 69 households and a population of 166.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11126300&c=Mappowder&d=16&e=62&g=6418021&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1385933262935&enc=1|publisher=Office for National Statistics|title=Neighbourhood Statistics. Area: Mappowder (Parish). Key figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics|access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref>

The village name comes from ''mapuldor'', Old English for 'maple tree'.<ref>Gant, p73</ref> In 1086 in the [[Domesday Book]] Mappowder was recorded as ''Mapledre'' and appears in four entries; it was in [[Buckland Newton Hundred]], had 33.3 households and a total taxable value of 8.3 geld units.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST7306/mappowder/ |title=Place: Mappowder |work=Open Domesday |access-date=28 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402140235/http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST7306/mappowder/ |archive-date=2 April 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset2.html |title=Dorset H–R |work=The Domesday Book Online |publisher=domesdaybook.co.uk |access-date=28 January 2015}}</ref>

The church, dedicated to St Peter & St Paul, is [[Perpendicular Period|Perpendicular]] and was built in the late 15th and 16th centuries. However, it includes features remaining from an earlier 12th-century church. The chancel was extended in 1868 by the Wingfield Digby family of [[Sherborne Castle]], who owned the village in Victorian times.

Mappowder was once the home of the Coker family, who built a large mansion here in 1654,<ref name=Treves>Treves, Sir F., ''Highways and Byways in Dorset'', Macmillan, 1905, p331</ref> although this was pulled down in the mid-eighteenth century.<ref>Gant, p74</ref> The building which occupies the site now, Mappowder Court, is mostly of mid-eighteenth-century origin, with some earlier remnants.<ref name=BritListed>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-102597-mappowder-court-mappowder |title=Mappowder Court, Mappowder |publisher=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |work=British Listed Buildings |access-date=25 December 2011}}</ref> The stone gateposts at the entrance remain from the original Coker manor; these are topped by carved human heads which in 1905 [[Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet|Sir Frederick Treves]] described as "[[Blackamoors (decorative arts)|Blackamoors]]" these being "those indefinite natives of the tropics having been used for the crest of the Coker family."<ref name=Treves/> In 1559 [[Henry Coker (MP)|Henry Coker]] (c.1528–1596) was [[Member of parliament#United Kingdom|member of parliament]] for the constituency of [[Shaftesbury]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/coker-henry-1528-95 |title=COKER, Henry (c.1528-95), of Mappowder, Dorset |publisher=Crown copyright and The History of Parliament Trust |work=The History of Parliament. British Political, Social and Local History |access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref> Mappowder Court is [[Listed building|listed]] by [[English Heritage]] as Grade II*,<ref name=BritListed/> with the gateposts and courtyard walls as Grade II.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-102598-gate-piers-approximately-10-metres-east- |title=Gate Piers Approximately 10 Metres East of Mappowder Court Together with Walls and Piers to North an, Mappowder |publisher=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |work=British Listed Buildings |access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref>

Novelist and short story writer [[Theodore Francis Powys]] lived in Mappowder for the last 13 years of his life; he died and was buried here in 1953.