Cranborne Chase

Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering 379 square miles (980 km2) of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in England. The area was designated as an AONB in 1981 and confirmed in October 1983. Since 2014, the AONB Partnership of local authorities has used the abbreviated name Cranborne Chase AONB in its promotion of the area.The AONB includes several distinct landscape areas, among them: Cranborne Chase, an area of chalk downland in the south. West Wiltshire Downs, an area of chalk downland in the north. The Vale of Wardour, a wide clay valley between the two areas of downland. The area around Stourhead and Longleat on the Somerset-Wiltshire border, which has a distinctive characteristic of upper greensand hills.Much of the landscape is farmed chalk downland. The people who populated the area thousands of years ago constructed Ackling Dyke and the Knowlton Circles. The area was later the scene of conflict in the Civil War, seeing the destruction of Old Wardour Castle. Other features include the Larmer Tree Gardens at Tollard Royal; and Fovant, where soldiers training during the First World War cut regimental badges into the chalk hillside. The AONB includes two large blocks of woodland, Grovely Wood and Great Ridge Wood.

Woodcutts is a hamlet within the parish of Sixpenny Handley and is located in the north of Dorset, near to the Wiltshire border. Originally named "Woodcotes", in its present form the 18th century country estate still consists of the Manor House, the Manor Farm, a number of cottages, a school house and a chapel. It lies within the Cranborne Chase an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The estate and much of the land and several of the properties were bought and amalgamated with the neighbouring Rushmore Estate by its owner Augustus Pitt Rivers, a noted archaeologist of the 19th century, for the purpose of doing archeological research. Woodcutts includes the site of a Romano-British settlement excavated in 1884-5 by Pitt Rivers. The 1st Woodcutts Scouts group was founded in 1957 and provides activities for the young people of the area with Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorer sections.

Woodcutts Settlement is an archaeological site of the late Iron Age and Romano-British period on Cranborne Chase, England. It is situated about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the hamlet of Woodcutts, and about 1.75 miles (2.8 km) north-west of the village of Sixpenny Handley, in Dorset, near the boundary with Wiltshire. It is a scheduled monument.

South Lodge Camp is an archaeological site of the Bronze Age, about 0.6 miles (1.0 km) south-east of the village of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, England. The site is on Cranborne Chase, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.

Sandroyd School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for day and boarding pupils aged 2 to 13 in the south of Wiltshire, England. The school's main building is Rushmore House, a 19th-century country house which is surrounded by the Rushmore Estate, now playing fields, woods and parkland. Sandroyd School was originally established by Louis Herbert Wellesley Wesley as a small private coaching establishment for boys hoping to enter Eton College. In the latest Independent Schools Inspectorate report carried out in 2014, Sandroyd School was judged as 'excellent' in all nine inspected categories.

Farnham is a village and civil parish in North Dorset, in the south of England, on Cranborne Chase, seven miles (eleven kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 183.

Rotherley Down Settlement is an archaeological site of the late Iron Age and Romano-British period on Cranborne Chase, England. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Berwick St John, and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.

Pincombe Down (grid reference ST966217) is a 23.8 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in southwest Wiltshire, England, notified in 1971. The site lies in Alvediston and Berwick St John parishes.

King John's House is a former manor house in the south Wiltshire village of Tollard Royal, England. Just south of the church, the building has at its core a 13th-century hall house. Remodelling in the 16th and 17th centuries added wings, in part timber-framed. By 1811, it was described as a farmhouse. Augustus Pitt Rivers restored and extended the house, and opened it to the public around 1890 as a museum to display the finds from his excavations on Cranborne Chase, but by 1907 it was again a residence. Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the house as "memorable".The house was designated as Grade II* when it was listed in 1966. It lies within and is owned by the Rushmore Estate, which today operates it as a holiday let and a base for events such as weddings.

Tollard Royal is a village and civil parish on Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, England. The parish is on Wiltshire's southern boundary with Dorset and the village is 6 miles (10 km) southeast of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury, on the B3081 road between Shaftesbury and Sixpenny Handley.

Sixpenny Handley or Handley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in north east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase ten miles (16 km) north east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 1,233. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Pentridge to form Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge.

Rotherley Downs (grid reference ST946196) is a 120.05 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1989. The site consists of two north–south aligned combes – Rotherley Bottom and Malacombe Bottom. Most of the site is in Berwick St John parish, with a western portion in Tollard Royal parish.