The Manor house was rebuilt in 1630 and has a beautiful west frontage topped by a large stone eagle, and was the home of the Sydenham family during the 16th and 17th centuries. The most famous being Thomas who was a hero of the Civil War and father of English Medicine. But the last of the Sydenhams died in Dorchester Prison in 1709. The cause of his imprisonment and later his death here was a woman! William Sydenham decided that he would put the estate up as a prize in a lottery in the hope that it would bring in some much needed money, but he arranged it so that a woman friend would win and hand him the ticket back as a reward. But she refused to hand the house back and also William refuse to move out. So the law intervened and he was found guilty and sent to prison where he died nine years later.

The church is dedicated to St Lawrence and is set on its own, rebuilt in 1840 in what is said to be a mean manner and re-using the 15th century chancel arch from the earlier church,

Thomas Sydenham and his brothers joined the Commonwealth Army and was left for dead on the battlefield. But he was still alive and returned and carried on with his studies at university and ended up with a medical degree which he used to open a practice in London where he later became known as the Father of Medicine as he did not believe in the concoctions that were made up in those days and set out to find new treatments and he was the first person to us a tincture of opium and also he was the first to use quinine as a cure for plague.

Set in  a wall by the porch is a late 15th century tympanum, which is the stone that filled the head of an arch, in this case a doorway, showing two confronted Wyverns. But the most important piece lies in the inscription

'Mahald de l'egele' for Matilda Eagle who presumably paid for it, and 'Alvi me feci', for the sculptor, Alvi who made it.