Charborough

The mediaeval church was demolished and rebuilt on the same site (50°46′49″N 2°06′27″W / 50.78018°N 2.10752°W / 50.78018; -2.10752) in 1775 in the Gothic Revival style,[3] 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,[4] and had assumed her surname and arms.

[5] 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".

It descended by various further female lines to the present (notional)[10] lord of the manor Richard Drax,[11] the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Dorset since 2010, a member of the quadruple-barrelled surnamed family of Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

family originated in east Devon and moved to neighbouring Dorset in about 1500, but soon died out in the male line.