Melbury House

Melbury Sampford is a village and civil parish 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Dorchester, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 33. The parish touches East Chelborough, Evershot, Melbury Bubb, Melbury Osmond and Stockwood.

Evershot is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of Yeovil in Somerset. It is the second highest village in the county at 175 metres (574 ft) above sea-level. Evershot parish encompasses part of the nearby hamlet of Holywell, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) east of Evershot village. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 210. The village has connections with the writer Thomas Hardy.

Melbury Osmond is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the Somerset town of Yeovil. The underlying geology is Cornbrash limestone, with adjacent Oxford clay. Within the clay can be found deposits of stone which can take on a very high polish, earning them the name "Melbury marble". The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of the Arundell family, and remained so until the 19th century. The parish church, St. Osmund's, was totally rebuilt in 1745 and restored in 1888, although it has registers dating back to 1550. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 199.The major part of Melbury Osmond village lies on a cul-de-sac lane which from the church descends past cottages to a stream and ford. The attractive appearance of the village has been noted by commentators: it has been described as "a calendarsmith's dream of thatched cottages" and in 1906 Sir Frederick Treves wrote that it was "the most charming village in these Western backwoods".In its history the village has been involved in the trade of plated buckles and horn buttons, and the manufacture of dowlas. During the 19th century, the village was home to the Dorset Ooser, a wooden mask brought out during "Rough Music" ceremonies.There are 34 listed buildings and structures within the parish, including the Grade II* Old Rectory and the Grade I parish church.Thomas Hardy's mother lived in Melbury Osmond as a child, and she was married in the church. The village appears as "Little Hintock" in Hardy's novel The Woodlanders, in which the heroine's name is "Grace Melbury". Hardy also incorporated a legend about the Duke of Monmouth taking refuge in one of the village's cottages into his short story "The Duke's Reappearance".

St Osmund's Church is a Church of England parish church at Melbury Osmond, Dorset, England. The church is a Grade I listed building.

Stockwood is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, around eight miles south-west of Sherborne and less than a mile away from Chetnole railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line. There are a few houses on the road leading to the A37 between Yeovil and Dorchester. In 2001 the parish had a population of 27. St Edwold's Church, often described as Dorset's smallest church, is located in Stockwood.

St Edwold's Church in Stockwood, Dorset, England was rebuilt in the 15th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 23 January 1959, and was vested in the Trust on 1 March 1972. St Edwold's Church is often described as Dorset's smallest. The church sits next to a farmhouse directly under the wooded heights of Bubb Down. It is a single-celled building. The porch has the date "1636" inscribed, reflecting the fact that the church was rebuilt to some extent in the seventeenth century when a bell turret was also installed. However, John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner in their Buildings of England volume describe it as "Perp, with Henry VIII side windows and a three-light E window with panel tracery," and also refer to the "delightfully naive bell-turret, round, with a cap on four stumpy columns and a big grotesque face." A Piscina is mounted on the outside south wall probably as a result of a Victorian restoration. Inside, the church is very plainly furnished. The dedication to St Edwold (9th century) is unique in Dorset. Edwold was the brother of St Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia, and he lived as a recluse at nearby Cerne after his sibling's death. It is not entirely clear why Stockwood church is dedicated to Edwold, but Kenneth Smith's guidebook suggests that he may have also had a cell here as well as at Cerne.

West Hill is a prominent hill, 224 metres (735 ft) high, just to the west of the village of Evershot in the county of Dorset in southern England. Its prominence of 63 metres (207 ft) means it is listed as one of the Tumps. It is located within the Dorset Downs. The summit is relatively flat and open. A public footpath runs past the summit to the south and there is a lane called Horsey Knap that crosses the northern flank of the hill and descends into Evershot.

Melbury Bubb is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in South West England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the town of Sherborne. It is sited on Cornbrash limestone beneath the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The A37 trunk road between Dorchester and Bristol passes about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the west, on the other side of Bubb Down Hill. This hill used to be the site of a beacon. The first half of the village name derives from maele and burh—Old English for "multi-coloured" and "fortified place"—and the second half is a manorial name which derives either from a Saxon resident named 'Bubba' or from medieval lords of the manor. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 40. The parish church of St Mary has a 15th-century tower but the rest of the building was largely rebuilt in a 19th-century restoration. Its font however is carved out of the column of an upturned Saxon cross; it is elaborately carved, although the carvings are upside-down. Families were often noted as owners in books, for instance: the Blain family recently sold the property, despite occupying it for just shy of 100 years.

Holywell is a hamlet in Dorset, England, located on the A37 roughly midway between Yeovil and Dorchester. A tributary of the River Frome passes through the hamlet. A number of Bronze Age objects have been discovered locally and are now in the British Museum. From 1857 to 1966 Holywell was served by Evershot Station on the Heart of Wessex Line, which was named after the nearby village to the west.

Evershot was a railway station in the county of Dorset in England. Served by trains on what is now known as the Heart of Wessex Line, it was two miles from the village it served, at Holywell, just south of Evershot Tunnel. The station consisted of two platforms, a small goods yard and signal box. It had a station building on the up platform.

Chetnole railway station is a small rural station serving the village of Chetnole, Dorset, England. The station is on the Heart of Wessex Line 21¼ miles (34 km) north of Weymouth towards Westbury, and 147.5 miles (237.4 kilometres) from the zero point at London Paddington, measured via Swindon and Westbury.

East Chelborough is a small village and civil parish 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Beaminster in Dorset, England. Dorset County Council estimated in 2013 that the population of the parish was 50. On the top of the ridge at the nearby Castle Hill are the earthwork remains of a motte-and-bailey castle.