Glass and Shillings

A very late 14c stained glass window at Winchester College is of Simon de Membury, a significant Membury estate of the time, soon to become that of Frys, who held the property for ten generations.

The Manor of Membury appears in the Doomsday Book, 1086, valued at 10 SHILLINGS (50P).  Whilst the boundaries of the manor of the time are still a matter of debate, ownership moved between state and church, at one time having a connection with Bec, an abbey, in Normandy, France.  There is evidence of the consecration of Membury church in 1316, but a Norman column at the back of the church MAY indicate a church of an earlier date.   It was a time of much church building activity, Newenham Abbey, as big as Exeter Cathedral, was erected in 1246 just south of Axminster; next to nothing remains of the structure, which is in the area of the Axminster carpet warehouse on the Musbury road out of Axminster.                                                                                                                    

It must have been in the middle ages that the parish began to be settled sheep farming country, but in 1635 Risdon writes of Membury, that was, "Famous for it's cheese"                                                     

        A document of 1550 records Membury Court as the  Manor House. 

Web site address: www.thelocalchannel.co.uk/memburylocalhistorysociety