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The market and ‘fare’ had gone by 1815 for Stevenson makes no mention of it in his list of markets and fairs when he made his report on the State of Agriculture in the County of Dorset. There was, however, within recent living memory a Powerstock Feast. Ths was held on the. first Sunday in July and traditionally new potatoes and veal were eaten. Swings and Roundabouts were erected in the field at Merriot at the bottom of School Hill where the sewage disposal plant has since been built. Stall holders came from Bridport and Beaminster and the school log book shows that the children were not averse to staying away on these occasions.
The Manor House was Hooke Court, just over the north~east parish boundary. The available Court Rolls are from 1797 to 1803 and throw an interesting light on life in the Parish at that tirne:-

Cottage and garden granted to Ed. Taylor
for his own life - he was 54 years of age
- the lives of Samuel Taylor, his son
aged 3 years and Sara Best (now called
Roberts) and the life of the longest lived
of them at the will of. the Lady according
to the custom of this Manor paying the
yearly rent of eight pence.
Also fined £2.2.Od. for delapidations.
All who refuse to pay their respective share
for fencing Powerstock Common and Icen Hill
to be fined 13s/4d. (The Common was not
enclosed until 1863.)
Those not present for driving the prey at
5am. to be fined 2s/&I.
The Parsonage to keep sufficient Buil and
Boar for the use of the Parish at all time.
(The people still had rights in the Common
at this time.)

Fines for sheep on hill 3d each.
For cutting stick without right in Common fined 40s.
Fined for cattle on highway. To the hayward1d and 6s/8d to the pound.
(This was in the middle of the village opposite the Inn).
Then followed the presentments:-
That we can fell Fire boot, Plough boot,
Sole boot and Hay boot. (This was the
request to cut wood for firing, for making
a plough, for making a yoke for an animal to
stop it breaking out and for wood for mending fences.)
That the Poor House is outof repair.
(This is the orily mention of a Poorhouse
in the Parish although the Overseer’s
accounts of 1745 mention the ‘indoor poor’).
The number of deaths since the last Court
was announced and Haywards; Tythingmen,
(Nettlecombe,a hamlet in the Parish was a
Tything). Constable and Reeve were appointed.
The most intriguing item is this:-
All those who cut turf in the Common to be
fined 40s/- except Blanch Mower (!)

The civic and ecclesiastical parish of Powerstock embraces the Village itself, theVillage of West Milton the Hamlet of Neff lecombe, Whetley, Wytherstone and North~oorton.~ their heyday with the exception of Whetley and Nettlecombe, each place boasted a church. In addition West Milton had a chapel which is now a private house. The Chapel in Powerstock, a converted barn at the bottom of the village has go; ~ as also the Chapel at Nettlecombe.
In 1848 Thomas Sanctuary took the living and virtually built the Powerstock we know today. In 1859 he knocked down the old Norman Church at West Milton (the tower remains and is an ancient monument) and used some of the material to build a school at Powerstock. This preceded the Compulsory Education Act by several years. He builj a new church to replace the demolished one. (This new one was puiled down shortly after its centenary and now West Milton is without a church).
At North Poorton, a parish on its own but under his jurisdiction, he knocked down the church and rebuilt it a few yards away and somewhat bigger. To provide employment in bad times he personally financed the making of roads and other works and although in 1885 he is mentioned in Kelly’s directory as being one of the principal landowners along with Lord Sandwich he was not a rich man when he died. In 1848 when he first arrived in the Parish he went up into the Rood Loft to preach wearing a surplice, not seen in the church before. Qne villager named Hansford stood up and said “All those who believe in Christ follow me’, and the whole congregation walked out. They wanted no Popery!

Thomas Sanctuary is also said to have closed down the Leopard Inn at West Milton as too many of his parishioners were spending too much time there. Such was the power of the Parson in those days. There was already a Red Lion in West Milton and that too was replaced by a new building on the opposite side of the road. The new Red Lion has been a private house for some years now.
The Three Horseshoes in Powerstock was rebuilt several times between 1800 and 1906, each time because of fire, probably from the blacksmith’s shop in the building. The last time it was rebuilt, the date is on the wall of the building, the Lord of the Manor and his agent came to inspect the work. Whilst they were on the site two shots were heard to the east of the village towards the road that runs to Eggardon. They galloped off to find the sons of two tenant farmers had shot some partridges. The birds and guns were confiscated and both the fathers received notice to quit the next quarter day. The Marquis of Lorne at Nettlecombe was apparenily named after one of Queen Victoria’s sons-in-law, but the Inn must be older than that.
The school Sanctuary built in 1848 incorporated living accommodation for the schoolmaster but soon became too small so another was built a few yards away on land given by Lord Sandwich. The new school was probably opened in September 1875 as the Inspector’s report carries for the first time:-
Powerstock National &hool Dorset.
Attendance better this week - some still
away leasing.
The new school had obviously become necessary as four years earlier Her Majesty’s Inspector had said that 87 pupils must be the maximum but the number went up to 97 in March 1872 despite “Several boys absent bird starving and potato planting’. On 12th April the master noted ‘The attendance this week has been very bad. Generally during Bridport Fair the attendance is bad’. The school fees of id per week were often not forthcoming and were the cause of regular complaint by the headmaster. Mr. Pine, the relieving officer paid the money owing from the pauper children. The school inspectors often complained about the standard of education and at one time deducted money from the master’s wages until there should be an improvement! It was not always his fault. His pupil teachers had just left school themselves and being an agricultural parish, children were often kept home to work or had to leave school early to help with the milking. Poverty also provided the excuse that there were no boots.
In January 1875 it was written that ‘Attendance very good for this time of the year although there are not so many children from Milton as there should be. At least thirty ought to be attending, whereas there are only eight from this hamlet on the books. From Poorton also there are only five boys on the books, whereas there ought to be at least 15 boys and girls. From Whetley there are none - ought to be at least eight’.
In September 1883 Mr. Willett died suddenly after thirty-four years as headmaster. A year later the new master, who found standards bad, ‘Administered corporal punishment to Fred Hansford for fighting and tyranny towards a younger boy. This boy, Hansford is the worst in the school. His language is filthy and his behaviour indecent. He corrupts all the other boys and is the terror of the girls’.
Again ‘Charles Riglar is the laziest boy in the school. He is fond of sitting still and doing nothing if not attended to’. There is a note of a mother who came to the school because her son had been mildly punished and she ‘behaved disgracefully before the children’.
As with modem schools there was trouble with the building. Windows were broken, the floor bad, the stove no good and the walls were damp. This had been going on for two years. In January 1890 the school fees were doubled to 2d per pupil per week, ‘the parishioners having agreed to pay a voluntary school rate’.
In August that year ‘Fanny Hansford, Candidate on Probation sent home for Disobedience and impertinence’. On the 8th however, F. Hansford, after being censured by the Vicar, promised to conduct herself better for the future’.
By 1900 there were 104 pupils attending school. This was the peak, during the next fifty years the number dwindled to 34. Twentynine years later the figure is down to 23 and the school is under notice of closure. For some years it has been a junior (primary) school with the older children being taken to Bridport by bus.
Almost at the same time as the school was built the people of Bridport were pressing for a railway and the Bridport Railway Company was floated to build a line which would run across the parish of Powerstock to join the Great Western Railway at Maiden Newton. The total cost of the line which was eleven and a quarter miles long was £65,000. It was originally laid in broad gauge and opened in 1857 but forty years later was changed to standard gauge to fit the lines it joined at Maiden Newton. A press cutting of 1887 said that if it had not been for the heavy cost of filling in the cutting at Wytherstone Marsh the Shareholders would be very happy.

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