St Leonards, Dorset

St Leonards and St Ives is a civil parish in Dorset, England. The parish contains the settlements of Ashley Heath, St Ives and St Leonards, which have merged to form a single urban area.

Ashley Heath is a village in Dorset, England adjacent to the villages of St Leonards and St Ives. Together these make up the majority of the St Leonards and St Ives civil parish. In Braeside Park, St Leonards, there is a youth club next to the village hall and the Scout hut. It was once served by Ashley Heath Halt railway station on the Southampton and Dorchester Railway the route of which is now known as the Castleman Trailway. Unusually part of one platform, including a station name board, remain.

Ashley Heath Halt was a railway station on the Southampton and Dorchester Railway formerly in the county of Hampshire (now part of Dorset). Opened in 1927, it served the areas of St Leonards and St Ives as well as the village of Ashley Heath itself. This was an emerging residential area, the northern part of what is now the South East Dorset conurbation. The halt consisted of two concrete platforms each with a shelter. There was also a public siding for goods traffic behind the down (south) side platform. The halt was closed during the Beeching Axe, losing its passenger trains in 1964.

St Ives is a village in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It lies close to the border between Dorset and Hampshire, near Ringwood, Verwood and Ferndown. The village is adjacent to St Leonards and Ashley Heath. The parish of St Leonards and St Ives has a population of 6,672 (2001); 41.6% are retired. The joint population including two electoral wards (east & west) had risen to 6,859 at the 2011 Census.The village has a shop and post office, a doctor's surgery, an ex-services club and two public houses. A youth club is situated in Braeside Park, St Leonards, next to the scout hut and the village hall. St Ives First School has 128 students between the ages of 4–9 years old. In 2008 Ofsted described the school as "outstanding". The school contains a swimming pool which is open to the public during the summer months, and holds several community events such as the strawberry fair and Easter fair. To the north is Moors Valley Country Park which has many attractions such as train rides, cycle tracks, a fishing lake and a café. To the south is Avon Heath Country Park which has a large visitor centre, play park and picnic area. To the east of the park, by the river Avon, is Avon Castle, a country house built about 1872 and now divided into apartments.

Lions Hill (grid reference SU106040) is a 42.9 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset, notified in 1985.

Avon Heath Country Park is a Green Flag–awarded park located in St Leonards, Dorset, approx 10 miles north of Bournemouth. The park is dominated by acres of lowland and wetland heath, grassland and heather, while pine and birch woodlands make up much of the rest of the scenery. The park contains internationally important wildlife, including rare species such as sand lizards, smooth snakes, Dartford warblers, woodlarks and the silver-studded blue butterfly. Facilities including a discovery centre, a café that's open daily, picnic areas, a children's adventure playground, and barbecues to hire.

St Leonard's Hospital is a health facility in Ferndown, Dorset, England. It is managed by Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust.

Moors Valley Country Park, officially Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, is a Country Park jointly managed by Dorset Council and Forestry England situated in Ashley Heath, Dorset on the border with Hampshire, in the south of England. The park has adventure play equipment, a tree top walkway, a 'Go Ape!' high ropes course, a visitor centre and restaurant. There is also a narrow gauge steam railway (the Moors Valley Railway), a golf course, lakes, cycle hire, waymarked walks and cycle routes. A ranger service provides a wide range of events and an educational programme. A parkrun event takes place every Saturday morning at 9am on the park.

The Moors Valley Railway is a 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) narrow gauge passenger railway, in the Moors Valley Country Park at Ashley Heath, Dorset, England near Ringwood in Hampshire. There are 20 steam engines and 2 diesel engines. The railway is fully signalled, with two signal boxes, one in a Great Western Railway style and one in a British Rail Southern Region style. The latter box also contains a mini lever frame and push button panel, for the control of the Lakeside area. The railway was constructed at its present location in 1985/86 and opened to the public in July 1986, after the closure in 1985 of its predecessor at Tucktonia in nearby Christchurch, which had run since 1979. Moors Valley uses a narrow gauge prototype to produce tank engines in which one may sit, allowing running during the harshest of conditions, so much so that it runs throughout the year. A further benefit of the style of locomotives built to this prototype is that, unlike models, and standard gauge 71⁄4 inch locomotives, the locomotives used on the Moors Valley Railway are considerably more powerful due to the increased boiler size that can be achieved through almost freelance prototypes.Roger Marsh was a pioneer of this principle and built Tinkerbell; when this was spotted a tank locomotive, Talos, was ordered and so started the Tinkerbell-class of locomotives. Coincidentally, when Tinkerbell was seen for sale, it was purchased by the then Tucktonia Railway, becoming its second locomotive. Several more were built at Tucktonia, several far more powerful than previous engines, before everything was moved to Moors Valley Railway. Moors Valley Railway owns approximately 12 locomotives and a further 7 are privately owned. Hartfield is the most recent addition, being purchased from an owner who rarely used the loco. 'Hartfield' follows the general idea of Jason (a Tinkerbell variation) as per many other private locomotives. There are many other tender locomotives such as Offa, almost certainly the most powerful 71⁄4 inch gauge locomotive in existence until recently. The carriages at Moors Valley have no roof, but have a bench in the centre to sit on. Each carriage is approximately eight feet long. There are four rakes of eight carriages, in green, brown, olive and red liveries.

The Ringwood Raceway (formerly known as Matcham Park Stadium) was a raceway in Ringwood, Hampshire, England.

Avon Lodge was a private untimetabled railway station in the county of Hampshire (now Dorset), opened on 13 November 1862 by the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway. Becoming part of the London and South Western Railway, it was taken into the Southern Railway in the grouping of 1923 and closed on 30 September 1935.

Lapland New Forest was a Christmas-themed park near Ringwood, Hampshire, UK. The park had been advertised as being a "winter wonderland" with a variety of exciting family events such as a Christmas market and a "magical tunnel of light", but the majority of the promised attractions either malfunctioned or were of a very low quality. The park closed after a week following complaints from customers and poor press attention, and the organisers were charged with misleading advertising, and sentenced to 13 months in prison.