Oakley, Dorset

Merley House in Wimborne, Dorset, England, is a building of historical significance and is Grade I listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built in 1752 by the bibliophile Ralph Willett and remained in the Willett family until about 1875. For the next century it was the residence of many notable people. It is now a hotel.

Merley is a large housing estate in Poole, a mile (2 km) south of Wimborne Minster. Originally called Myrle, Merley was a manor in the tithing of Great Canford (or Canford Magna). The village merges with that of Oakley, and the housing estate was originally going to be called "Oakley Garden Village", note Oakley Shops and other signposts around the community but the name was changed. The housing estate only covers part of the area that was originally called Merley/Myrle. The Poole ward is Merley and Bearwood. The population of this ward taken at the 2011 census was 10,392.

The Lady Wimborne Bridge (London and South Western Railway Bridge 77) is a former railway bridge built in 1853, and now a listed building. Its highly ornate design reflects the power of landowners over British railway companies in the mid-nineteenth century. Built shortly after the railway came to the town of Wimborne in Dorset, England, it is now a Grade II listed structure.

The River Allen is a river in the county of Dorset in South West England. It flows for 14 miles (23 km) to its confluence with the River Stour immediately south of Wimborne Minster, between that town and the village of Oakley. It has two main tributaries, the Gussage Stream and the Crichel Stream.

Wimborne was a railway station in Wimborne Minster in the county of Dorset in England. Open from 1 June 1847 to 2 May 1977, it was sited just north of the River Stour in what is still Station Road. Built for the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, the station was operated from the start by the London and South Western Railway, which took over ownership in 1848. It was then operated by the Southern Railway (1923–47) and from 1948 by the Southern Region of British Railways which traded as British Rail from 1965.

Corfe & Barrow Hills is a 102.8 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset, notified in 1986. One part of it is a Local Nature Reserve also called Corfe & Barrow Hills, while another part is Corfe Hills Local Nature Reserve.

Wimborne Market was an historic market in a large covered structure in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. It ceased to trade on 19 December 2021 after 165 years of trading. The market was demolished and the land redeveloped.

Ashington is a hamlet in Dorset, England. It lies within the unitary authority of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, between the villages of Corfe Mullen and Wimborne Minster.

Wimborne Minster is the parish church of Wimborne, Dorset, England. The minster has existed for over 1300 years and is recognised for its unusual chained library (one of only a few surviving chained libraries in the world). The minster is a former monastery and Benedictine nunnery, and King Æthelred of Wessex is buried there.

Wimborne Minster astronomical clock is a fourteenth-century astronomical clock in Wimborne Minster in Dorset, regarded as "one of the most ancient working clocks in Europe."

The Museum of East Dorset (formerly known as the Priest's House Museum) is a local museum in the town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England. It is located on the high street, opposite the Church of Wimborne Minster. The museum occupies a historic Grade II* listed building, a hall house dating from the late 16th or early 17th century.The museum is dedicated to rural life in a market town in Dorset and the exhibits are based on the daily lives of people within the house and within Wimborne and Dorset. There are also exhibits on the religious use of the building and its home to past ministers of the Minster Church. The building has been restored and many of the original features remain intact for public appreciation. Notable rooms are the 17th-century main hall and the 18th-century parlour and Victorian kitchen with its working 'Beetonette' range. Displays include reconstructions of local businesses that once ran from the building. Mr Low's Victorian stationery shop (closed up for over 30 years) and the Coles' Ironmongers were both recreated from original shop stock. In addition to the main museum house, the East Dorset Villages Gallery gives a taste of local community life from industry to shopping, school to church life, with a hands-on Victorian schoolroom. A walled garden, with seating, behind the Priest's House covers one third of an acre and is open to visitors to the house. A tea room, formerly the 1920s Boathouse, also in the garden and on the banks of the River Allen, is open to visitors. The Museum is run by an independent charitable trust. It is supported by East Dorset District Council but relies on admission income to operate.

Wimborne Model Town, situated on the edge of the town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, is one of the largest and most established model towns in England. It depicts the town of Wimborne as it was at the time the model was originally made in the 1950s, and captures the essence of a typical market town of rural England at that time. The concrete model, built at 1/10 scale, features 120 buildings including 108 shop fronts and a 15 ft (5m) high Minster. The shop windows accurately show the goods the shops were selling in the post war years.Originally built on a site just to the north-west of the actual Wimborne Minster church, it became run-down in the 1980s, and a group of volunteers set up a charity and were given an area of 0.4 hectare (1 acre) of Green Belt land off King Street to restore the attraction. Although such use of Green Belt land would normally have been deemed inappropriate development, the District planners considered that the model's retention in the town was a 'special circumstance'. The council has since permitted over 245 square metres of temporary classroom buildings incorporating a visitors centre, cafe/gift shop, toilets etc. together with play cabins associated with the children's play area.Additional attractions have been added in recent years, including a model railway based on Thomas the Tank Engine, which was opened by Christopher Awdry. Today the model town is still run by volunteers, and is visited by thousands of people every year.