Dorset Downs

Mappowder is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. The parish lies approximately 9 miles (14 kilometres) southeast of the town of Sherborne and covers about 1,900 acres (770 hectares) at an elevation of 75 to 160 metres (250 to 520 feet). It is sited on Corallian limestone soil at the southern edge of the Blackmore Vale, close to the northern scarp face of the Dorset Downs. In the 2011 census the parish had 71 dwellings, 69 households and a population of 166.The village name comes from mapuldor, Old English for 'maple tree'. In 1086 in the Domesday Book Mappowder was recorded as Mapledre and appears in four entries; it was in Buckland Newton Hundred, had 33.3 households and a total taxable value of 8.3 geld units.The church, dedicated to St Peter & St Paul, is Perpendicular and was built in the late 15th and 16th centuries. However, it includes features remaining from an earlier 12th-century church. The chancel was extended in 1868 by the Wingfield Digby family of Sherborne Castle, who owned the village in Victorian times. Mappowder was once the home of the Coker family, who built a large mansion here in 1654, although this was pulled down in the mid-eighteenth century. The building which occupies the site now, Mappowder Court, is mostly of mid-eighteenth-century origin, with some earlier remnants. The stone gateposts at the entrance remain from the original Coker manor; these are topped by carved human heads which in 1905 Sir Frederick Treves described as "Blackamore's" these being "those indefinite natives of the tropics having been used for the crest of the Coker family." In 1559 Henry Coker (c.1528–1596) was member of parliament for the constituency of Shaftesbury. Mappowder Court is listed by English Heritage as Grade II*, with the gateposts and courtyard walls as Grade II.Novelist and short story writer Theodore Francis Powys lived in Mappowder for the last 13 years of his life; he died and was buried here in 1953.

Hazelbury Bryan is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, approximately five miles (eight kilometres) southwest of the small town of Sturminster Newton. The parish includes the hamlets of Droop, Kingston, Parkgate, Pidney, Pleck, Wonston and Woodrow. In the 2011 census the parish had 480 dwellings, 454 households and a population of 1,059.In 1201 the village name was spelled Hasebere. The name is derived from the Old English hæsel and bearu, meaning a hazel grove or wood, plus the manorial name of the Bryene or de Bryan family; Sir Guy de Bryan, of Woodsford Castle, gave his surname to the village in the 14th century when he married the daughter of the First Earl of Salisbury.The original settlement in the village is the hamlet of Droop, which is the location of the parish church. The church dates mostly from the 15th century, though it is perhaps the third building to have existed on the site. The other hamlets in the village are believed to have originated as a result of the Black Death twice afflicting the original settlement, and the villagers responding by burning it and rebuilding several smaller settlements on higher ground nearby.The geology of the parish consists of Oxford clay in the northwest, a band of Corallian limestone and sand running from southwest to northeast, and Kimmeridge clay in the southeast. Drainage consists of several small streams flowing northwest and north into the River Lydden and northeast into the River Stour.Hazelbury Bryan civil parish is the most populous parish within the electoral ward of Lydden Vale, which extends from Fifehead Neville parish in the north to Mappowder in the south and Glanvilles Wootton in the west. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 1,967.

Stoke Wake is a hamlet and civil parish, formerly part of the Whiteway hundred in north Dorset, England. It is situated under Bulbarrow Hill on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, west of Blandford Forum. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the parish population is 60.In 1086 Stoke Wake was recorded in the Domesday Book as Stoche; it had 15 households, 4 ploughlands, 15 acres (6 hectares) of meadow and one mill. It was in the hundred of Hilton and the lord and tenant-in-chief was Shaftesbury Abbey.The parish church was built in 1872.

King's Stag Memorial Chapel is a Church of England chapel in King's Stag, Dorset, England.

Pulham is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, 7 miles (11 kilometres) southeast of Sherborne. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had 105 dwellings, 103 households and a population of 269.Pulham was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and was once owned by Cirencester Abbey, a connection remembered in the name of Cannings Court Farm (the "Court of the Canons"). Priests from nearby Milton Abbey also used to visit the village church; they resided above the porch in a priests' room, accessed via a staircase within the wall.

Bulbarrow Hill is a 274 metres (899 ft) hill near Woolland, five miles west of Blandford Forum and ten miles (16 km) north of Dorchester in Dorset, England. The chalk hill is part of the scarp of Dorset Downs, which form the western end of the Southern England Chalk Formation. Part of the hill is used for arable agriculture, but most is calcareous grassland. The hill overlooks the Blackmore Vale, and offers views of Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon. Rawlsbury Camp, a five acre Iron Age hill fort, is situated on a promontory of the hill. Little remains of the camp except the twin embankments and intermediate ditch which surrounded it. The hill gets its name from the several barrows that adorn the hill. Additionally, a medieval trackway crosses the ridge. The hill is a popular launch site for paragliders. The TV presenter Jack Hargreaves who died in 1994 had his ashes spread on Bulbarrow Hill above his home, Raven Cottage.

Ansty is a village in Dorset, England, north of Cheselbourne and west of Milton Abbas. It consists of the settlements of Higher Ansty, Lower Ansty, Pleck (also known as Little Ansty) and Ansty Cross. The Hall & Woodhouse brewing company founded a brewery in the village in 1777, and brewing continued here until the 1940s. The village hall used to be a brewery building, and the old malthouse became Malthouse Cottages.

Ansty Cross is a village in Dorset, England.

Woodbridge is a hamlet in Dorset, England. The village is on the A3030 road and to the north east of Holwell.

Holwell is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east of Sherborne. It is sited on Oxford clay in the Blackmore Vale. Its name derives from the Old English hol and walu, meaning a bank or ridge in a hollow. The parish includes the hamlets of Sandhills, Westrow, Barnes Cross, The Borough, and Woodbridge. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 369 and is part of the Cam Vale electoral ward. Until 1844 Holwell was an exclave of Somerset, being part of the parish of Milborne Port.Holwell parish church is situated with a few houses at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small settlement called The Borough. This is the original medieval part of the village, sited next to the Caundle Brook in the north of the parish. Secondary settlements were established later to the south, east and west; these were outside The Borough's open field system and had their own enclosures. The most southerly part of the parish was enclosed in 1797. The church, dedicated to St Lawrence, largely dates from the late 15th century, though it was restored in 1885. The biblical scholar Henry Adeney Redpath was rector at Holwell between 1883 and 1890.A short distance north of the church the Caundle Brook is crossed by a packhorse bridge, probably of medieval origin. About 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the west and also crossing the Caundle Brook is Cornford Bridge, dating from the 15th and 18th centuries and designated a grade II* listed building and a scheduled monument. Also grade II* listed is Naish Farm, situated approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southeast of The Borough and a good example of a medieval domestic farmhouse. At Barnes Cross—between The Borough and Cornford Bridge—is a pillar box which is the oldest still in everyday use in Britain. It is hexagonal with a vertical letter slot and was made between 1853 and 1856 by the Gloucester firm John N. Butt & Co. It is also grade II* listed.

Fifehead Neville is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated in the Blackmore Vale about two miles (three kilometres) southwest of the town of Sturminster Newton. In the 2011 census the population of the parish was 147.