Spetisbury

Spetisbury Priory, also Spettisbury Priory, was a medieval priory in Spetisbury or Spettisbury, Dorset, England.

Spetisbury railway station was a station in the English county of Dorset. It was located between Blandford Forum and Bailey Gate on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The station consisted of two platforms, a station building, signal box and shelters. The ‘down’ platform is the station's original platform, which opened with timber booking office and waiting rooms on 1 November 1860. The platform was extended and a separate brick-built ladies’ waiting room was provided in 1888. The concrete floor and fireplace you see today is the foundation of this building. During reconstruction of the station around 1900 when double track was laid, this platform was again extended to a total length of 300 ft. It then became the ‘down’ platform for trains to Bailey Gate, Broadstone, Poole and Bournemouth (West). You can clearly see the different methods of construction where this platform has been extended.The ‘up’ platform is 300 ft long and was built during reconstruction of the station around 1900. It was used for trains to Blandford, Templecombe, Evercreech Junction (change for the Burnham-on-Sea branch) and Bath (Green Park). This platform opened on 29 April 1901 and was provided with a brick station building containing a booking office, waiting rooms and lavatories. The rear wall of this building still survives as it holds back the field behind the station. The foundations of the various rooms with the three fireplaces can still be seen today.

The River Tarrant is a 12 km long tributary of the River Stour in Dorset. The valley lies to the east of Blandford Forum. The river rises near Cranborne Chase, an area of chalk downland, and flows broadly from north to south before joining the river Stour. The eight Tarrant Valley villages/hamlets all bear the name of the river. Listed in order from the river's source they are: Tarrant Gunville: the source of the river is in the grounds of Gunville House, now demolished. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary. Tarrant Hinton: a village at a crossroads. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary. Tarrant Launceston: a hamlet with a 17th-century three-arched bridge. The church, dedicated to St Mary, was demolished in the 1700s (the site is on Higher Dairy Farm). Now part of the parish of Tarrant Monkton. Tarrant Monkton: a village with a parish church dedicated to All Saints. Tarrant Rawston: a very small settlement. This once had a parish church dedicated to St Mary, which still exists and is in private ownership but remains as a church. Tarrant Rushton: a village with a parish church dedicated to St Mary. Near here was a World War II RAF airfield. Tarrant Keyneston: this is the largest village of the eight; it has a parish church dedicated to All Saints. Tarrant Crawford, the final settlement, lies at the confluence of the rivers Tarrant and Stour. Here there is the church of St Mary the Virgin held by the Churches Conservation Trust and Tarrant Abbey farm, where once stood a nunnery. Tarrant Crawford became part of the parish of Tarrant Keyneston.There were possibly one or two other Tarrant communities: Tarrant Stubhampton, north of Tarrant Gunville and part of that parish: This is now known as Stubhampton. In the Middle Ages, a church existed in that village. This is the source of the Tarrant. Tarrant Antioch which may have been an earlier name for Tarrant Rawston, or may have been a distinct community just north of Tarrant Rawston. Tarrant Antioch was served by St Mary Tarrant Crawford, where there was a devotion to St Margaret of Antioch. Tarrant Preston, now Preston FarmA Roman road followed the valley and there are many tumuli on the hills on both sides of the river, evidence of long occupation.

Tarrant Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England.

Tarrant Crawford is a small village and civil parish at the lower end of the Tarrant Valley in Dorset, England. The River Tarrant joins the larger River Stour here. The village consists of two small settlements: Crawford Farm and a few houses in the Stour Valley, and Tarrant Abbey Farm, a church, and a few houses in the Tarrant Valley about 1⁄2 mile (800 metres) to the north. Locals regard the two settlements as separate villages. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 20.At the Crawford settlement there is a wayside cross which has an inscription which reads: "THIS WAYSIDE CROSS WAS RESTORED & SET ON NEW STEPS ON THE OLD SITE BY MANY FRIENDS OF TARRANT CRAWFORD ANNO DOM MDCCCCXIV" The 1881 census says - No. of households/schedules 11, Uninhabited houses 0, Males 31, Females 30, Total 61

The Church of St Mary the Virgin in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England, was built in the 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was vested in the Trust on 1 July 1988.The church is all that remains of Tarrant Abbey, for which it may have been a lay church. The Abbey was founded in the 13th century by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby Tarrant Keyneston) as a Cistercian nunnery. The flint chancel, dates from the 12th century, with the nave, tower and porch being built in the 14th century. The 15th-century tower houses three bells, two of them medieval and one 17th century. The nave roof added in the early 16th century. In 1911 a major restoration of the church was undertaken. The interior includes several coffin lids from the 13th century. These have been moved from the Abbey and may relate to two of the famous people associated with it. The first is Queen Joan, the wife of Alexander II of Scotland and daughter of King John of England (Richard I's brother and successor) who is buried in the grave yard (supposedly in a golden coffin). The second is Bishop Richard Poore, builder of Salisbury Cathedral, who was baptised in the abbey church and later (in 1237) buried in the abbey, which he founded. He was at one time Dean of the old cathedral at Old Sarum, and later became bishop of first Chichester, then Salisbury and finally Durham.There are also 15th century stained glass, a font from the 16th century and an octagonal pulpit pews with moulded panelling from the 17th century. Mediaeval wall paintings cover most of the walls of the nave and chancel, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. One set of pictures depicts the acts of St Margaret of Antioch. The Annunciation dates from the 14th century and shows the winged figure of Gabriel and the virgin. The south wall has two rows of paintings one above the other. The lower set show three kings or princes, and three skeletons, which are believed to represent "the emptiness of earthly rank and riches".Attendance at the church fell after World War II and it was declared redundant becoming the responsibility of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1988. £100,000 was spent on masonry repairs and make it weather-proof. Another £68,000 was spent between 2003 and 2007 to improve the drainage, eradicate death watch beetle and stabilise and re-roof the tower.

Charlton Marshall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies within the North Dorset administrative district, on the A350 road 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of the market town of Blandford Forum. It is sited on a river terrace above the floodplain of the River Stour, with most of the land in the parish stretching south-west over chalk hills. In the 2011 census the number of dwellings recorded within the parish was 513 and the population was 1,156.Within the parish boundary is evidence of the sites of Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and human habitation in the parish can be dated back at least a thousand years. Next to the river were three earlier settlements, which influenced the elongated layout of the current village. The parish church was rebuilt in 1713 and restored in 1895, although the tower dates from the 15th century. Charlton Marshall Halt railway station was once a halt on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Within the last half century Charlton Marshall has grown considerably, and there are now more than five times as many homes in the village as there were in the middle of the 19th century. A proposal to jointly bypass Charlton Marshall and neighbouring Spetisbury has never been realised.Charlton Marshall civil parish is in Riversdale electoral ward, which also includes Spetisbury civil parish to the south. The total ward population in the 2011 census was 1,711.

All Saints' Church is a Church of England parish church in Tarrant Keyneston, Dorset, England. Most of the church dates to a rebuild of 1852–53, but the tower is 15th-century. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Charlton Marshall Halt was a station in the English county of Dorset. It was located between Blandford Forum and Bailey Gate on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The station consisted of two short platforms and shelters.

Church of Mary is a Grade I listed church in Almer, Dorset, England. It became a listed building on 18 March 1955. According to Arthur Mee's The King's England: Dorset (ISBN 0-340-00079-1), "the embattled tower is 15th Century, and has a fine arch. In a chancel window is much old glass with fragments of drapery, architecture, and fleur-de-lys; the centre panel has bright-hued glass pictures by Continental artists of the days when men and woman wore stiff ruffs about their necks. One window has what appears to be a group of saints, the other has the Last Judgment, with Our Lord enthroned among angels blowing trumpets. A good soul is being rescued by an angel with lilac wings and a blue dress, while a crimson demon with golden horns is seizing a wicked one."

Buzbury Rings is an Iron Age hillfort about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Blandford Forum and 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of the village of Tarrant Keyneston, in Dorset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Tarrant Keyneston is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated in the Tarrant Valley, five miles (eight kilometres) southeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had 152 dwellings, 145 households and a population of 310.On the hills northwest of the village are the earthworks of Buzbury Rings (or Busbury Rings), the remains of an Iron Age and Romano-British fortified encampment or settlement, described by Sir Frederick Treves in 1905 as "a circle of entrenchments, composed of a stout vallum and a ditch". The outer enclosure covers about 10 acres (4 hectares) and within this is an inner enclosure, covering about 3 acres (1.2 hectares), which is the location of most of the finds from the site, including Roman pottery, animal bones and daub imprinted by wattles. The site has been much damaged by ploughing and by the road between Wimborne Minster and Blandford Forum, which crosses the site.The village's parish church has a 15th-century tower, though the rest of the building was rebuilt in 1852 by Thomas Henry Wyatt. The chancel of the earlier building contained an anchorite's cell. The Bishop of Salisbury Richard Poore is most likely to have been buried at Tarrant Keyneston in accordance with his wishes.Almost all of Tarrant Keyneston parish is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).