West Stafford

Frome Billet is a former village in Dorset, just to the north of West Stafford.It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There is slight archaeological evidence of a mediaeval settlement. It is now represented only by Stafford House.

Whitcombe is a small village and civil parish in the Dorset unitary authority area of Dorset, England, situated 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Dorchester. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the parish is 20.Whitcombe village is next to the A352 main road between Broadmayne and Dorchester, between the parishes of West Knighton and Broadmayne to the east, West Stafford to the north, and Winterborne Came to the west. Whitcombe does not form an ecclesiastical parish, although Whitcombe Church has registers dating from 1762. The earlier registers were destroyed in a fire. The church, now redundant, is in a "modest but perfect location" according to Pevsner.In the surrounding area there are a number of prehistoric earthworks. Whitcombe was originally recorded as Widecome, with a land measurement of two hides. King Athelstan gave it to the Milton Abbey. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, its ownership passed to the King. Around 1600, it was sold to a Mr Hull from Tolpuddle. Whitcombe Hill is located 0.25 miles (0.40 km) west of the church. A Portland stone relief of a bearded man on horseback, dating from 2nd–3rd century AD, was found here in 1963 and subsequently added to the collection of the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. There are a Grade II listed manor house, riding stables and a tithe barn at Whitcombe.

Whitcombe Church in Whitcombe, 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 declared redundant on 29 October 1971, and was vested in the Trust on 12 February 1973.The site of the church was used for worship in the Saxon era and there are fragments of two Saxon crosses. The nave of Whitcombe Church dates from the 12th century, with the chancel being added in the 15th. The tower was added in the late 16th century.The interior includes several wall paintings, including one of St Christopher, and a 13th-century Purbeck marble font.William Barnes the English writer, poet, minister, and philologist was the curate at Whitcombe from 1847 to 1852, and again from 1862 preaching his first and last sermons in the church. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect and much other work including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages.

West Knighton is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of the county town Dorchester. It has an 11th-century church and a village pub. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 375.The village name derives from the Old English cniht and tūn, meaning the village or farmstead of the young men or retainers. At Little Mayne Farm 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southwest of the village is the site of a deserted medieval village, which was recorded in the Domesday Book as Maine and in 1201 was known as Parva Maene.West Knighton parish historically developed out of the amalgamation of four medieval settlements within the ancient hundred of Cullifordtree: the existing main village, the previously mentioned Parva Maene, another medieval settlement at Friarmayne to the south—also deserted and now within neighbouring Broadmayne civil parish—and the fourth at Lewell to the north (now just a farmhouse).

Kingston Maurward House is a large Grade I listed Georgian English country house set in a 750-acre (3 square km) estate in Dorset situated in the Frome valley two miles east of Dorchester.

Kingston Maurward College is a college for land-based studies situated two miles east of Dorchester, Dorset, England. The college is a member of the Landex group [1], an association of institutions that provide courses in agriculture and horticulture. Kingston Maurward House on the college grounds is used for administration purposes and private functions.

Mount Pleasant henge is a Neolithic henge enclosure in the English county of Dorset. It lies southeast of Dorchester in the civil parish of West Stafford. It still partially survives as an earthwork.

Old Came Rectory is a former rectory on the A352 road in Winterborne Came, Dorset, England. It was built in the 19th century for the Reverend William England in a rustic cottage orné style from a plan by the architect John Nash. It is a two-storey building with a thatched roof and walls of cob and rendered rubble. It was subsequently the home of William Barnes, who became the rector in 1862 and lived there until he died in 1886. Thomas Hardy visited him there many times, and other literary tenants and guests have included Tennyson, Coventry Patmore, Edmund Gosse, Francis Palgrave, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden and T. E. Lawrence.The building was listed for protection as Grade II in 1956. Features include three thatched verandas, french windows and a large garden which contains an orchard and well.

Stinsford is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Dorchester. The parish includes the settlements of Higher and Lower Bockhampton. The name Stinsford may derive from stynt, Old English for a limited area of pasture. In the 2011 United Kingdom census, the parish had a population of 334.The parish has five large country houses - Birkin House, Frome House, Kingston Maurward House, the Elizabethan era Old Manor House and Stinsford House. Much of the land in the parish is occupied by Kingston Maurward College, a further education college.

Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, is a small cob and thatch building that is the birthplace of the English author Thomas Hardy. He was born there in 1840 and lived in the cottage until he was aged 34—during which time he wrote the novels Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)—when he left home to be married to Emma Gifford. The cottage was built by Hardy's great-grandfather in 1800. It is now a National Trust property, and a popular tourist attraction. The property has a typical cottage garden, and the interior displays furniture which, although not from the Hardy family, is original to the period. The property is situated on the northern boundary of Thorncombe Wood. It is only three miles from Max Gate, the house that Hardy designed and lived in with Emma Gifford from 1885 until his death in 1928. The cottage was given listed building status in 1956 and is listed Grade II the National Heritage List for England.In 2012 the go ahead was given to a project to build a new visitor centre near the cottage. The project also included new trails in Thorncombe Wood. The project, which secured £525,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a joint partnership between Dorset County Council and the National Trust. The visitor centre opened in September 2014.

Mayne Preceptory was a medieval house of Knights Hospitaller in Dorset, England, which caused the name of the settlement to change from Domesday-era Maine (one of two manors named Maine in Cullifordtree Hundred) to Friar Mayne by the mid-14th century. It was located formerly in West Knighton parish, now in modern Broadmayne parish. The preceptory was established between 1290 and 1338. It declined in activity until 1533, where it began leasing its bailiwick to provide stipends for rectories, vicarages and the larger preceptories in other locations. Its lands were forfeited to the crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the early 16th century and were eventually sold. The preceptory also owned a property at Kingston in Stinsford, given to the Hospitallers by Thomas del Boys, sometimes described as the 'camera' of Kingston (camera meaning in this context an estate with no community and farmed out to a tenant). In 1338 it comprised a house (messuagium) and garden, 68 acres of arable land, an acre and a half of meadow, pasture for 6 oxen, 8 cows and 100 sheep, and the church of Stinsford. The preceptory also owned further property at Waye (i.e., somewhere in Upwey or Broadwey).

Broadmayne is a village in the English county of Dorset. It lies two miles south-east of the county town Dorchester. The A352 main road between Dorchester (from Sherborne) and Wareham passes through the village. In the 2001 Census the population of the village was 1,864, reducing to 1,204 at the 2011 Census. There is an electoral ward of the same name whose population at the above census was 1,870. Village facilities and services include a post office, a clinic (closed since 2014) and a public house (The Black Dog). There are two churches in the village, both of which were redesigned by Thomas Hardy, who was an architect before he became a novelist. The parish church of St Martin dates from the 13th century and has a notable south tower.