Portesham railway station

Portesham, sometimes also spelled Portisham, is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England, situated in the Dorset Council administrative area approximately 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Weymouth, 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the county town Dorchester, and 2 miles (3 km) northeast of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site at Chesil Beach. The parish is quite large, covering several outlying hamlets and what were once their manors. In the 2011 census it had a population of 685 in 316 households and 342 dwellings.

St Peter's Church is an Anglican church, the parish church in the village of Portesham, Dorset. It is a Grade I listed building. The earliest parts date from the 12th century, and it has suffered comparatively little from restoration.

The Hell Stone is a badly-restored Neolithic dolmen on Portesham Hill in Dorset, England. It is around half a mile (0.8 km) north of the village of Portesham, and approximately three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) southeast of the Valley of Stones.

The Hampton Down Stone Circle is a stone circle located near to the village of Portesham in the south-western English county of Dorset. Archaeologists believe that it was likely erected during the Bronze Age. The Hampton Down ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3,300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that they were likely religious sites, with the stones perhaps having supernatural associations for those who built the circles. However, it has been suggested that the site is not a stone circle at all, but is instead made up of kerbstones from a Bronze Age round barrow. A number of stone circles were built in the area around modern Dorset, typically being constructed from sarsen stone and being smaller than those found elsewhere. The Hampton Down ring was erected on an open downland ridge overlooking the coast. It originally contained either eight or nine sarsen stones and had a diameter of 20 feet (6.5 metres) across with a track leading to it from the north. By 1908 the circle had been shifted east of its original position, with a hedge built across the site, and the number of stones increased to sixteen. By 1964 the number of stones had further increased to twenty-eight. In 1965, Geoffrey J. Wainwright oversaw an archaeological excavation which revealed the circle's original location and dimensions, after which it was reconstructed in its original location with the extraneous stones removed.

Black Down is a hill on the South Dorset Ridgeway about 2 kilometres north-northeast of the village of Portesham in the county of Dorset, England and around 5 kilometres from the coast. The treeless summit of Black Down is a popular viewing point, crowned by the 72 foot high Hardy Monument built in 1844 in memory of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy who was Admiral Nelson's Flag Captain at the Battle of Trafalgar.From the top there are views of the Fleet and Chesil Beach as well as the South Dorset Downs. On a fine day The Needles may be visible, some 50 miles away.The site is owned by the National Trust.

The Hardy Monument is a 72-foot-high (22 m) monument on the summit of Black Down in Dorset, erected in 1844 by public subscription in memory of Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, flag captain of Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Admiral Hardy lived in Portesham and his family owned the Portesham estate which stretched from the middle of Portesham to Black Down. The site for the monument was chosen because the Hardy family wanted a monument which could be used as a landmark for shipping. The monument has been shown on navigational charts since 1846 and is visible from a distance of 60 miles (97 km). The monument is situated on Black Down, a hill overlooking the English Channel near Portesham in Dorset, England, on the road between Abbotsbury and Martinstown. It was restored in 1900 by his descendants and bought in 1938 by the National Trust for the sum of £15. The monument was designed to look like a spyglass, as Admiral Hardy would have used on board ship. Its eight corners are aligned with the compass points. Viewed from the ground the corner to the right of the lightning conductor points due south. The bench mark on the northwest face denotes the altitude of Black Down at 780 feet (240 m). From the top of the monument at a height of 850 feet (260 m) above sea level it is possible on a clear day to see the coast from Start Point, Devon to St. Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight, both of which are 56 miles (90 km) distant. To the north can be seen Pen Hill in the Mendip Hills which is 38 miles (61 km) away. The monument was closed to the public in 2009 when major renovation work was required. This work was completed in January 2012. To date, the monument is regularly opened during the peak season, where visitors can climb the 120 steps to the viewpoint at the top. The heathland area around the monument was in 1984 designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, when the Nature Conservancy Council decided that the geology of the area was very rare. The monument was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1956.Adjacent to the monument is a stone seat erected in memory of Lt Col William Digby Oswald who was killed on the Somme in 1916.

Uggescombe Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Abbotsbury Chilcombe Fleet Hawkchurch (part) Kingston Russell Langton Herring Littlebredy Litton Cheney Portesham Puncknowle Swyre Weymouth (part of Wyke Regis; a borough from 1252) Winterbourne Steepleton

Langton Herring is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in South West England. It lies about 5 miles (8.0 km) north-west of the coastal resort town of Weymouth. It is "prudently set on a ridge above the Fleet", the Fleet being a brackish lagoon behind Chesil Beach. Dorset County Council estimate that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 120. In the 2011 census the population of the parish combined with the small parish of Fleet to the south was 240.The name of the village comes from the Old English 'Lang + tun' meaning 'long farmstead or estate' with the 13th Century 'Harang' family affix, from their time as Lords of the Manor. Literature in the church records that all the men of Langton Herring returned from both World Wars, making it one of only a handful of doubly Thankful Villages in the country, and the only village in Dorset to be spared fatalities in the Great War. Just over half a mile to the east of the village, by the B3157 road, is Langton Cross, a medieval stone monolith, which is missing the top arm.Langton Herring has one public house the 'Elm Tree Inn', a historic building dating back approximately 400 years.

St Peter's Church is a Grade II listed church in the village of Langton Herring, Dorset, England. The church stands behind The Elm Tree Inn public house.

Abbotsbury was the terminus of the Abbotsbury branch railway in the west of the English county of Dorset. Serving the village of Abbotsbury, it was sited across the fields a mile from the village on the Weymouth to Abbotsbury road, because the railway could not buy the land needed to build the station nearer to the village. Plans for westward expansion came to nothing and led to the railway petering out in a shallow cutting to the west of the station.

The Grey Mare and her Colts is a megalithic chambered long barrow located near Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. It was built during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). The tomb was partially excavated in the early nineteenth century, and was found to contain human bones and several pottery fragments.

Coryates Halt was a small railway station on the Abbotsbury branch railway in the west of the English county of Dorset. It consisted of a single platform and GWR pagoda shelter. Opened on 1 May 1906, it was sited next to an overbridge carrying a lane to a dairy and the villages of Coryates and Shilvinghampton. Part of a scheme that saw several halts opened on the GWR and other railways to counter road competition, it was served by Railmotors, carriages equipped with driving ends and their own small steam engine.