Blue Pool, Dorset

Furzebrook is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wareham and 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Corfe Castle, and is in the civil parish of Church Knowle. The name Furzebrook derives from the furze/gorse and a brook. The first use of the name was probably by Furzebrook Farm. Furzebrook became the centre of the clay industry as all the local Purbeck Ball Clay was taken there to ripen by exposing. The clay was repeatedly turned for six months. As the ball clay ripened it acquired plasticity and became suitable to mix with various other clays which made them more plastic. At Furzebrook there are several narrow-gauge railway tracks; these converged from outlying local mines and claypits, the Furzebrook Railway. A further narrow-gauge line ran to Ridge Wharf. As the Wareham to Swanage branch line of the London and South Western Railway was built it passed through Furzebrook and therefore a lot of clay was transferred via the mainline trains. Furzebrook is now well known as being the railhead for the oil extracted from the local Wytch Farm oil well.

East Creech is a hamlet in the parish of Church Knowle in the county of Dorset, England. East Creech lies at the northern foot of the Purbeck Hills about 3 kilometres west of Corfe Castle. It is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference SY9282. It also lies within the East Creech Conservation Area which was first designated in 1990.In 1224, East Creech Manor was in the possession of Walter Le Franke. It passed down through his family to Mary Franke, who in 1637 married Edmund Hayter (d.1657) and the manor was transferred to him. It remained in the Hayter family until 1770, when Samuel Hayter (1736-1800) sold up and moved to Wareham Priory.

Church Knowle is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset in the south of England. Church Knowle village is situated about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Corfe Castle, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Wareham and 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Swanage. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the settlements of East Creech and Furzebrook to the north—had 114 households and a population of 261. The church is named Saint Peter's Church. Church Knowle Fete is held in the grounds of the Old Rectory every August.

The Stonehill Down Nature Reserve is a downland nature reserve on the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset, England. It is managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.Stonehill Down covers an area of 20 hectares and lies high on the chalk ridge running west/east across the Isle of Purbeck with far-reaching views across the Wareham Forest, with Poole Harbour to the east. It is bounded by the line of the Purbeck Hills to the south, with the summit of Ridgeway Hill about 1 kilometre to the west-southwest, and Corfe Castle about 3 kilometres to the west.

Barnston Manor is a 13th-century manor house and farm near Church Knowle in Dorset, England. The house is a Grade I listed building, and some farm buildings at the property are also Grade II listed.

Creech Barrow Hill is a steep, conical hill, 193 metres (633 ft) (one source 637 feet) high, near the coast of Dorset, England, and the highest point of the Dorset Heaths. It has been described as "one of Dorset's most distinctive landmarks." Geologically, it is also the highest Cenozoic hill in England.There is a single, round barrow at the summit that gives Creech Barrow Hill its name and, from some angles, the appearance of a double summit. To the southeast is Stone Hill Down long barrow. There is also a trig point on the summit.The name of the hill means "hill" three times. "Creech" is derived from the Celtic crich = hill and "barrow" from the Saxon for "mound".The hill is a classic viewpoint that was once the site of King John's hunting lodge.

Stoborough Green is a village in the English county of Dorset. It is situated to the south of the village of Stoborough and about 2 kilometres south of the town of Wareham. Stoborough Green forms part of the civil parish of Arne, within the Dorset unitary authority.

Hartland Moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the south side of Poole Harbour near the town of Wareham in Dorset, England. It consists of lowland heathland.

Ridge is a village in the English county of Dorset. It is situated on the south bank of the River Frome, about half a mile due south east of the town of Wareham. Ridge forms part of the civil parish of Arne, within the Purbeck local government district. A wharf on the River Frome at Ridge was once a major transhipment point for Purbeck Ball Clay. The clay was brought to the wharf by the Furzebrook Railway, and transferred to barges for the voyage to Poole Harbour. The railway is now abandoned, and the wharf has become a marina.

The Purbeck Hills, also called the Purbeck Ridge or simply the Purbecks, are a ridge of chalk downs in Dorset, England. It is formed by the structure known as the Purbeck Monocline. The ridge extends from Lulworth Cove in the west to Old Harry Rocks in the east, where it meets the sea. The hills are part of a system of chalk downlands in southern England formed from the Chalk Group which also includes Salisbury Plain and the South Downs. For most of their length the chalk of the Purbeck Hills is protected from coastal erosion by a band of resistant Portland limestone. Where this band ends, at Durlston Head, the clay and chalk behind has been eroded, creating Poole Bay and the Solent. The ridge of steeply dipping chalk that forms the Purbeck Hills continues further east on the Isle of Wight. The height of the chalk ridge and proximity to Poole Harbour and the south coast have made the hills of strategic importance. There are a number of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon archaeological sites, such as Nine Barrow Down. At Corfe Castle the hills are broken twice leaving a steep round hill between the ridges on which stood a medieval castle, guarding the only easy route through the hills, until the English Civil War of the 17th century, when it was slighted. Some of the ridge, around the village of Tyneham, near Lulworth, has been closed to the public for use by the army as a firing range. This has protected them from damage from farming and development, and these areas are now nature reserves. At the eastern end Ballard Down is a National Trust nature reserve which is managed for its calcareous grassland habitat.

Norden railway station is a railway station located one mile to the north of the village of Corfe Castle, on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is situated on the Swanage Railway, a heritage railway that operates over the former London and South Western Railway line from Wareham to Swanage. Norden is the northern terminus of the railway's steam service from Swanage, and an intermediate stop on the railway's diesel hauled service that connects Swanage with the national rail network at Wareham station. The site is the home of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum, a museum about the history of ball clay mining in the Isle of Purbeck. The museum includes the relocated header building of one of the areas last underground mines, together with a reconstruction of an underground gallery. There is also a section of the narrow gauge railway that served the clay industry, and a collection of narrow gauge rolling stock. A large car park, provided by Purbeck District Council, allows the station to function as a park & ride facility for the tourist centres of Corfe Castle and Swanage.

Bucknowle Farm is the site of a Romano-British settlement and a Roman villa, located one kilometre southeast of Church Knowle and one kilometre southwest of Corfe Castle village in Dorset, England (grid reference SY95368146). It is about seven kilometres south of Wareham and approximately nine kilometres west of Swanage in the heart of the Isle of Purbeck. A number of Romano-British sites have been discovered and studied on the Isle of Purbeck. The Romano-British villa complex found at Bucknowle Farm is the first substantial villa to be found south of the Purbeck Hills. It was excavated between 1976 and 1991. The first signs to its existence were unearthed in 1975 as fragments of pottery were found in a field. The excavations, that subsequently lasted until the summer of 1991, conclusively revealed a complex of domestic and farmstead buildings. Moreover, beneath these, a more complicated system of Iron Age and early Roman Age habitation was uncovered.There is a camping site within the grounds of Bucknowle Farm.