{{Short description|Hamlet in Dorset, England}} {{Use British English|date=February 2026}} [[File:Charborough Park, estate chapel - geograph.org.uk - 456591.jpg|thumb|200px|St Mary's Church, Charborough, behind which is seen part of Charborough House]] '''Charborough''' is an historic former parish and manor in Dorset, England. It survives today as a hamlet, situated on an affluent of the River Stour, 6 miles west of Wimborne Minster,<ref>Wilson, John M., ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'', London, 1870</ref> but without any of its former administrative powers, and is today part of the parish of Morden. The surviving former parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-108403-parish-church-of-saint-mary-charborough-|title=Parish Church of Saint Mary, Charborough, Morden, Dorset}}</ref> The manor house survives as Charborough House.
==St Mary's Church== The mediaeval church of the former parish of Charborough was situated to the immediate south-west of the manor house (in its latest form Charborough House). The mediaeval church was demolished and rebuilt on the same site {{nowrap|({{coord|50.78018|-2.10752|format=dms|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline}})}} in 1775 in the Gothic Revival style,<ref>[http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-108403-parish-church-of-saint-mary-charborough-#.WGA3JX25Qqf Listed building text]</ref> by Thomas Erle Drax, and dedicated to St Mary, and was remodelled in 1837 by John Sawbridge Erle-Drax who in 1826 had married the heiress Sarah Frances Erle-Drax of Charborough,<ref>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/erle-drax-grosvenor-richard-1797-1828 www.historyofparliamentonline.org]</ref> and had assumed her surname and arms. It faces almost due east, as is usual, whilst the front facade of the house faces north-east. It is a grade II* listed building, but the listing relates only to its furnishings.<ref name=EH_church>{{NHLE |num=1120553 |desc=Parish Church of Saint Mary, Charborough |access-date=6 July 2014 |fewer-links=x}}</ref> Today it serves as a mausoleum and burial place for the Drax family, the functioning parish church being at Morden. Above the door of a small arched building nearby is an inscription, dated 1686, commemorating the meeting of the "Patriotic individuals who concerted the plan of the Revolution in 1688".
==Charborough Tower== thumb|upright|Charborough Tower Charborough Tower is a Grade II* listed octagonal folly tower dating from 1790, extended in 1839 into a five-storey building. It is situated on a hill southeast of the house {{nowrap|({{coord|50.77753|-2.10178|format=dms|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline}}),}}<ref name=EH_tower>{{NHLE |num=1120555 |desc=Charborough Tower |access-date=6 July 2014 |fewer-links=x}}</ref> with the vista of a triumphal way running between them.<ref name=Pevsner>{{cite book |title=The Buildings of England: Dorset |last1=Newman |first1=John |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2 = Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1997 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=0-14-071044-2 |pages=139–141}}</ref>
Charborough with its tower is the model for "Welland House" in the novel ''Two on a Tower'' by Thomas Hardy.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/images/maps/windle.htm# |title=Letter from Hardy to Bertram Windle, transcribed by Birgit Plietzsch, from CL, vol 2, pp 131-133 |access-date=2016-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102192023/http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/images/maps/windle.htm# |archive-date=2007-01-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Descent of the manor== The manor is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.<ref>[http://www.charborough.co.uk/ Charborough House - Domesday Book]</ref> It was later acquired during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) by the Erle family whose eventual heiress Frances Erle married Sir Edward Ernle, 3rd Baronet (c.1673–1729). It descended by various further female lines to the present (notional)<ref>Manors and manorial courts were largely abolished on the abolition of feudal tenure in the Tenures Abolition Act 1660</ref> lord of the manor Richard Drax,<ref>[http://dorset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/meeting...richard-drax-5878/ Biography from Great British Life]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Dorset since 2010, a member of the quadruple-barrelled surnamed family of Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. The Erle (''alias'' Earl, Earle, etc.) family originated in east Devon and moved to neighbouring Dorset in about 1500, but soon died out in the male line. Female co-heiresses brought the Erle estates to various other families.
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Category:Villages in Dorset