Holton Heath

The Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath (RNCF) was set up at Holton Heath, Dorset, England, in World War I to manufacture cordite for the Royal Navy. It was reactivated in World War II to manufacture gun propellants for the Admiralty and its output was supplemented by the Royal Navy Propellant Factory, Caerwent. After the end of World War II, the explosive manufacturing areas of the site were closed down and some areas of the site reopened as the Admiralty Materials Laboratory. A major part of the explosives site became a nature reserve in 1981. Other parts of the site were converted into an industrial estate; and some may be used for housing. The Admiralty Materials Laboratory was later merged with other departments to become the Admiralty Research Establishment which later became part of Defence Research Agency (DRA) and DRA Holton Heath finally closed in the late 1990s. None of the site is now owned by the Ministry of Defence.

Holton Heath railway station serves the area of Holton Heath in Wareham St Martin, Dorset, England. It is 118 miles 61 chains (191.1 km) down the line from London Waterloo. It was opened to serve the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath during the First World War. It did not open to the public until 1924.

Mid Dorset and North Poole is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Michael Tomlinson, a Conservative.

Organford is a hamlet in the county of Dorset, England. It is located just south of the A35 between Lytchett Minster and Slepe.

The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural Dorset river which rises in the Dorset Downs and flows into Poole Harbour near Wareham.

Sandford is a village in the English county of Dorset, on the A351 road some two miles from Wareham and seven miles from Poole. Sandford forms the only significant settlement within the civil parish of Wareham St. Martin, which otherwise covers much of the rural area to the north of Wareham. The parish forms part of the Purbeck local government district within the county of Dorset. It is within the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency of the House of Commons. Prior to Brexit in 2020, it was in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament. The electoral ward is also called St.Martin, and includes Holton Heath with the surrounding countryside. The total population at the 2011 census was 2,774.To the north lies Gore Heath, part of Wareham Forest, which is the subject of a controversial proposal for gravel extraction.

Lytchett Minster is a village in Dorset, England. It lies around 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Poole town centre. The village forms part of the civil parish of Lytchett Minster and Upton, Upton now being a suburb of Poole.

The River Sherford, also frequently called the Sherford River, is one of the four main rivers flowing into Poole Harbour in the county of Dorset, England. It is about 12 kilometres long and drains over the tertiary beds near the harbour.

Gigger's Island is an island in Poole Harbour in the English county of Dorset. The island is situated near to the Frome and Piddle rivers, near to the opening of Poole Harbour. The entrance to the harbour is lit to the north of Gigger's Island. Historically, the island was part of the boundary of the parish of Arne, and in 2006, the island was purchased by the Dorset Wildfowlers Association. Landing on the island is only permitted below the high water mark, and at nighttime the island is sometimes home to 20,000 gulls.

Lytchett Minster School is a comprehensive school, with about 1,400 students aged 11 to 18, and 100 teachers, in Lytchett Minster, just outside Upton, 4 miles (6 km) from Poole, Dorset, England. The school uses a house system to arrange the students. The head of house remains the same person for each pupil for the whole first 5 years of school. In the upper school there is no house system.

Wareham St Martin is a civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The parish spreads across a large, and mostly rural area to the north of the town of Wareham including much of Wareham Forest. However the town of Wareham lies within its own civil parish, and the only significant settlement within Wareham St. Martin parish is the village of Sandford on the A351 road between Wareham and Poole. The parish also includes the Holton Heath trading estate. The parish has an area of 29.66 square kilometres. At the time of the 2001 census, it had a population of 2,752 living in 1,146 dwellings. The parish was part of the Purbeck local government district of the county of Dorset. It is within the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency of the House of Commons. Prior to Brexit in 2020, it was in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.

Gore Heath is an area of coniferous woodland and open heathland forming part of Wareham Forest west of the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation in south Dorset, England. It is part of the Dorset Heaths and an SSSI. Gore Heath lies about 1 kilometre west of the hamlet of Organford and 2 kilometres north of Sandford. To the west, on the far side of the B3075, are Decoy Heath and Morden Heath. Its northern boundary is the River Sherford, beyond which is farmland and the hamlet of Slepe on the A 35. Gore Heath is a popular walking, horse riding and cycling destination as well as a habitat for rare sand lizards and ground-nesting birds.It has recently been the centre of a controversial plan to turn most of the area over for the extraction of gravel with fears that it will subsequently become a landfill site.