Melbury Bubb
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place
Melbury Bubb is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in South West England, situated approximately Template:Convert south of the town of Sherborne. It is sited on Cornbrash limestone<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> beneath the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The A37 trunk road between Dorchester and Bristol passes about Template:Convert to the west, on the other side of Bubb Down Hill. This hill used to be the site of a beacon. The first half of the village name derives from maele and burh—Old English for "multi-coloured" and "fortified place"—and the second half is a manorial name which derives either from a Saxon resident named 'Bubba' or from medieval lords of the manor.<ref name=opc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 40.<ref name=dcc/>
The parish church of St Mary has a 15th-century tower but the rest of the building was largely rebuilt in a 19th-century restoration. Its font however is carved out of the column of an upturned Saxon cross; it is elaborately carved, although the carvings are upside-down.<ref name=opc/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Families were often noted as owners in books, for instance: the Blain family recently sold the property, despite occupying it for just shy of 100 years.