Church Knowle

Barnston Manor is a 13th-century manor house and farm near Church Knowle in Dorset, England. The house is a Grade I listed building, and some farm buildings at the property are also Grade II listed.

Blue Pool is a flooded, disused clay pit where Purbeck ball clay was once extracted. It is now a lake within the Furzebrook Estate, a 25-acre (10 ha) park of heath woodland and gorse near Furzebrook on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset, southern England.Furzebrook Estate is about 3 mi (5 km) south of Wareham and 2 mi (3 km) west of Corfe Castle. The pool started life early in the 17th century as a chalk pit. Purbeck ball clay was dug from the pit from the mid-17th century to the early 20th century. The ball clay was used to make fine ceramic products, such as smoking pipes, plates, cups and tea pots. The pit became disused before the First World War, but ball clay is still extracted from other pits in the area. The title 'blue' arose because there are minute particles of clay in colloidal suspension within the water. These suspensions variously diffract the light depending on the particles' size (with differences in size often linked to changes in concentration and pH), yielding colours from red-brown, through grey and green, to the more typical turquoise. The metallic blue sometimes found in photographs is more likely to be a reflection of the sky, as the attraction's own website makes no such claim for the water, and their leaflets call it “a turquoise jewel set in the heart of Purbeck”. In 1935 a café was opened at the site. There is also a museum and gift shop. In 1985 the estate was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Now law protects the habitat of a variety of rare plants and animals. The site includes nature reserves managed by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and a private nature reserve. Blue Pool is now a popular tourist attraction, especially because it is a place of peace and tranquillity. The pool is surrounded by 25 acres (10 ha) of heathland. The nationally rare Dorset heath and marsh gentian are common to the area. The estate is crossed by a network of sandy paths. There are steps down to the edge of the pool and there are also steps on some paths around the pool, but there is also a completely flat route around the pool, which is suitable for wheelchairs. The lush vegetation around the pool is inhabited by grey squirrels, rabbits and badgers. The Estate supports numerous rare birds, amphibians and reptiles. Visitors may therefore be lucky enough to spot the Dartford warbler or the nightjar. Both of Britain's endangered and protected reptiles, the green sand lizard and the smooth snake, live here in considerable numbers. There are also many dragonflies and the rare Sika deer.

East Creech is a hamlet in the parish of Church Knowle in the county of Dorset, England. East Creech lies at the northern foot of the Purbeck Hills about 3 kilometres west of Corfe Castle. It is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference SY9282. It also lies within the East Creech Conservation Area which was first designated in 1990.In 1224, East Creech Manor was in the possession of Walter Le Franke. It passed down through his family to Mary Franke, who in 1637 married Edmund Hayter (d.1657) and the manor was transferred to him. It remained in the Hayter family until 1770, when Samuel Hayter (1736-1800) sold up and moved to Wareham Priory.

The Stonehill Down Nature Reserve is a downland nature reserve on the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset, England. It is managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.Stonehill Down covers an area of 20 hectares and lies high on the chalk ridge running west/east across the Isle of Purbeck with far-reaching views across the Wareham Forest, with Poole Harbour to the east. It is bounded by the line of the Purbeck Hills to the south, with the summit of Ridgeway Hill about 1 kilometre to the west-southwest, and Corfe Castle about 3 kilometres to the west.

Bucknowle Farm is the site of a Romano-British settlement and a Roman villa, located one kilometre southeast of Church Knowle and one kilometre southwest of Corfe Castle village in Dorset, England (grid reference SY95368146). It is about seven kilometres south of Wareham and approximately nine kilometres west of Swanage in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck. A number of Romano-British sites have been discovered and studied on the Isle of Purbeck. The Romano-British villa complex found at Bucknowle Farm is the first substantial villa to be found south of the Purbeck Hills. It was excavated between 1976 and 1991. The first signs to its existence were unearthed in 1975 as fragments of pottery were found in a field. The excavations, that subsequently lasted until the summer of 1991, conclusively revealed a complex of domestic and farmstead buildings. Moreover, beneath these, a more complicated system of Iron Age and early Roman Age habitation was uncovered.There is a camping site within the grounds of Bucknowle Farm.

Bucknowle Roman villa is a Roman villa in Dorset, England. It is located within a camping site within the grounds of Bucknowle Farm.

Furzebrook is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wareham and 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Corfe Castle, and is in the civil parish of Church Knowle. The name Furzebrook derives from the furze/gorse and a brook. The first use of the name was probably by Furzebrook Farm. Furzebrook became the centre of the clay industry as all the local Purbeck Ball Clay was taken there to ripen by exposing. The clay was repeatedly turned for six months. As the ball clay ripened it acquired plasticity and became suitable to mix with various other clays which made them more plastic. At Furzebrook there are several narrow-gauge railway tracks; these converged from outlying local mines and claypits, the Furzebrook Railway. A further narrow-gauge line ran to Ridge Wharf. As the Wareham to Swanage branch line of the London and South Western Railway was built it passed through Furzebrook and therefore a lot of clay was transferred via the mainline trains. Furzebrook is now well known as being the railhead for the oil extracted from the local Wytch Farm oil well.

The Smedmore Hill Settlement is an archaeological site about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of Corfe Castle, in Dorset, England. The site is a settlement and an associated field system, dating from the Iron Age and Romano-British period. It is a scheduled monument, described in the list entry as "a rare and well preserved example of its class".

Blashenwell Farm Pit (grid reference SY952805) is an 11.4 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset, United Kingdom, notified in 1954. It is of scientific interest because the tufa at the site provides a detailed record of molluscan biostratigraphy and environmental history during the early- and mid-Flandrian interglacial.

Creech Barrow Hill is a steep, conical hill, 193 metres (633 ft) (one source 637 feet) high, near the coast of Dorset, England, and the highest point of the Dorset Heaths. It has been described as "one of Dorset's most distinctive landmarks." Geologically, it is also the highest Cenozoic hill in England.There is a single, round barrow at the summit that gives Creech Barrow Hill its name and, from some angles, the appearance of a double summit. To the southeast is Stone Hill Down long barrow. There is also a trig point on the summit.The name of the hill means "hill" three times. "Creech" is derived from the Celtic crich = hill and "barrow" from the Saxon for "mound".The hill is a classic viewpoint that was once the site of King John's hunting lodge.

Norden railway station is a railway station located one mile to the north of the village of Corfe Castle, on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is situated on the Swanage Railway, a heritage railway that operates over the former London and South Western Railway line from Wareham to Swanage. Norden is the northern terminus of the railway's steam service from Swanage, and an intermediate stop on the railway's diesel hauled service that connects Swanage with the national rail network at Wareham station. The site is the home of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum, a museum about the history of ball clay mining in the Isle of Purbeck. The museum includes the relocated header building of one of the areas last underground mines, together with a reconstruction of an underground gallery. There is also a section of the narrow gauge railway that served the clay industry, and a collection of narrow gauge rolling stock. A large car park, provided by Purbeck District Council, allows the station to function as a park & ride facility for the tourist centres of Corfe Castle and Swanage.

The Purbeck Mining Museum exists to preserve and interpret the historic extractive industries in ball clay mining in the Isle of Purbeck. The museum is located adjacent to Norden station on the Swanage Railway and is open from the end of March to the end of September on weekends, some weekdays and Bank Holidays. A redundant mine has been relocated to Norden with a railway laid around the site, a new engine shed and the restoration of wagons that worked on the lines around Norden. One of the future aims of the museum is to construct a new building at Norden to house Secundus, a 2-foot 8 inch steam loco, wagons and other artefacts not on display at present. It will also contain a library and education centre. It is planned to extend the narrow gauge railway to the other side of the Swanage Branch line to land owned by the group via Bridge 15. In 2010 a structural engineer surveyed Bridge 15, a skew bridge over the Swanage Railway. The condition of the bridge was good for a "temporary" bridge built in 1885. Since then the Bridge has been involved in a serious incident in which it has been severely damaged.