About Us

Christ Church Melplash is part of the Beaminster Area Team Ministry which covers 50 square miles of beautiful rural West Dorset. The team consists of 14 individual parishes plus the chapel in the grounds of Mapperton House. Our worship shows a wonderful variety of styles ranging from services from the Book of Common Prayer to the child-centred Messy Church, with music a vital part of our activities.

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Christ's Church, Melplash was built between 1845 and 1846. Its construction was funded by James Bandinell in memory of his father, who had been vicar of Netherbury, some 3 miles from Melplash. James Bandinell was at one time secretary to William Wilberforce. The church was designed and built by Benjamin Ferrey, a pupil of Augustus Pugin and a friend of his son Augustus WN Pugin, and is a Neo-Norman structure, based on a church in Shoreham, in Sussex. (The Neo-Norman style was apparently very popular in the 1840s).