As with all the Winterborne villages and hamlets the first part of the name comes from the river that runs through them. The second part of the name of Winterborne Came comes from Caen. However, in some old records prior to 1391 this is recorded as Winterborne Hundyngton or Houndyngton.

A charter of Richard I says that Winterborne Came was given to the abbey of St. Stephen at Caen by William the Conqueror. At the dissolution of alien priories Came and the priory of Frampton of which it was part was given to the college of St. Stephen at Westminster.

The Manor of Winterborne Came was granted to William, Earl of Pembroke in the reign of Edward VI. Later, in the third year of the reign of Elizabeth, it came into the hands of John Meller, so beginning the long line of descent of the manor through the Meller (sometimes recorded as Miller) family. This family also held Bridehead in the parish of Little Bredy but returned home for burial.

The church, dedicated to St. Peter has seen some historic figures through its doors. An interesting entry in the marriage register records that Napolean Louis Bonaparte, the Emperor of the French at the time, was a witness to the marriage of Hugh Fortecue, Viscount Ebrington and Georgiana Augusta Charlotte Caroline Dawson Damer on March 11th 1847.

A rector by the name of Christopher Laurence, an intruder who was ejected in 1662, was born at Dorchester in 1613 at the time that the town was on fire.

Another rector, famed for his Dorset dialect poetry in particular, was none other than William Barnes who came to the rectory in 1862 where he later died.

Nearby Parishes and Places