St Mary's Church, Long Crichel

Long Crichel () is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Crichel, in east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase five miles northeast of Blandford Forum. In 2001 it had a population of 81. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Moor Crichel to form Crichel.Long Crichel village and surrounding lands were once part of the Crichel Estate for many centuries, before it was broken up. The estate's owners lived at Crichel House in Moor Crichel.

Knowlton Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Gussage All Saints Long Crichel Woodlands

Gussage Saint Michael is a small village in East Dorset, in the south of England. At the 2001 census, the village had a population of 219. Gussage St Michael is tucked off the main A354 as it runs through the Cranborne Chase, ten miles from Blandford Forum and fourteen miles from Salisbury. The village has no local shops, with the nearest store being in Cranborne, some 6 miles (10 km) away. The nearest public house is the Drovers Inn, a mile down a country lane in the sister village of Gussage All Saints. The ecclesiastical parish of Gussage St Michael has recently merged with neighbouring Gussage All Saints and joined the Knowlton Circle Benefice which also includes the parishes of Cranborne, Edmondsham, Wimborne St Giles and Woodlands.

Gussage is a series of three villages in north Dorset, England, situated along the Gussage Stream, a tributary of the River Allen on Cranborne Chase, 8 mi (13 km) north east of Blandford Forum and 10 mi (16 km) north of Wimborne. The stream runs through all three parishes: Gussage All Saints, population 192, Gussage St Michael, pop. 219 (in 2001) and Gussage St Andrew, population unknown, but smaller than the other two villages.

The Thickthorn Down Long Barrows are two Neolithic long barrows, near the village of Gussage St Michael in Dorset, England. They are near the south-western end of the Dorset Cursus, a Neolithic feature. The long barrows are a scheduled monument.

Moor Crichel () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Crichel, in East Dorset, England situated on Cranborne Chase five miles east of Blandford Forum. The civil parish includes the hamlet of Manswood notable for a terrace of twelve thatched cottages. Dorset County Council's 2013 estimate of the parish population is 140. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 180. In the 2011 census the population of Moor Crichel parish combined with the neighbouring parish of Long Crichel was 246 (figures have not been released for Moor Crichel separately). The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Long Crichel to form Crichel.

Crichel House is a Grade I listed Classical Revival country house near the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset, England. The house has an entrance designed by Thomas Hopper and interiors by James Wyatt. It is surrounded by 400 acres (160 hectares) of parkland, which includes a crescent-shaped lake covering 50 acres (20 hectares). The parkland is Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Bryanston SSSI (grid reference ST974070) is a 0.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset, England notified in 1977. It is used as a roost site by Greater Horseshoe bats.

Gussage All Saints is a village and parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It nestles within the East Dorset administrative district of the county, about 8 miles north-east of the town of Blandford Forum. It is sited by the side of a small stream in a shallow valley on the lower dip slope of Cranborne Chase. Ackling Dyke, a disused Roman road, crosses the valley to the northwest, and forms the parish boundary at that point. The village church dates mostly from the early 14th century. Since 2001 The Ecclesiastical Parish of Gussage All Saints has been one of ten Ecclesiastical Parishes which form ‘The Chase Benefice’ under its first incumbent the Reverend Dr Michael Foster. The other Parishes are Gussage St Michael, Farnham, Chettle, Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Monkton, Tarrant Rushton, Tarrant Keyneston, and Tollard Royal in Wiltshire. To the south of the village lies an Iron Age settlement excavated in 1972 by Dr G. J. Wainwright, of the Department of the Environment. The settlement is formed by an enclosure that is roughly circular in plan and some 3 acres in extent, with a single entrance in the east defined by two pairs of flanking antennae ditches.

Witchampton is a village and civil parish in East Dorset, England, situated on the River Allen 5 miles (8 km) north of Wimborne Minster. The 2011 census recorded a population of 398.Witchampton lies close to where the dip slope of the chalk hills of Cranborne Chase is overlain by newer deposits of London Clay. Although Witchampton is sited within the area of the chalk, where cob and thatch are the traditional building materials, the nearness of the clay has resulted in many of the older houses in the village being built from brick. The early 16th-century Abbey House contains some of the earliest brickwork in the county.To the northeast of the village there used to be a paper mill by the river. In 1980 it was described by writer Roland Gant as a "discreet industrial oasis in an agricultural plain". It had been in operation since the early 18th century, but has now been converted to residential accommodation.11th-century whalebone chess pieces have been found within the parish, and are some of the best surviving early English chess pieces.

Chettle House is a Grade I listed country manor house with Queen Anne style architecture in Chettle, North Dorset, England, about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of the town of Blandford Forum. It was built in 1710 for George Chafin, to designs of the architect Thomas Archer. The builders were William and Francis Smith from Warwick.The property was bought by the banker William Castleman in 1846, who together with his solicitor son Charles Castleman built the first railway into Dorset in 1845–47 (the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, which was known as "Castleman's Corkscrew" because of its convoluted route). By that time the house "was a ruin used for storing grain, sans floors, ceilings or fireplaces", according to a 2019 report. During the renovations, the family modified some of the interior layout; that included lowering the north and south wings.Pevsner called it "the plum among Dorset houses of the early 18th century, and even nationally outstanding as a specimen of English Baroque".In 1946, the property was inherited by Esther Bourke who eventually converted it into a series of flats. As of 2010, the property was still owned by the Bourke family, who were also long-time owners of the entire community in a form of "benevolent feudalism".In May 2015, the manor was listed for sale at a guide price of £3.95m, and soon sold, "reputedly for more than 50% above the guide price", and was described by Country Life as "arguably, the country-house sale of 2015". The article described the property as "the magnificent, 14,580sq ft mansion, set in 117 acres of gardens, grounds, parkland and woodland, needed substantial renovation". The new owners planned to restore the house into a single family private home.As of late 2020, the owners were Tom and Rosamond Sweet-Escott, who received a Georgian Group award the previous year for the restoration they had completed, with the guidance of Hugh Petter of Adam Architecture. A November 2020 article in Country Life highlighted the results of the work and documented them with photographs.

Chettle is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies 6 miles (10 kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. It is sited at the head of a gently sloping valley on the dip slope of the chalk formation called Cranborne Chase. The A354 trunk road crosses the valley about 1 km to the south. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 90. A 2008 report indicated that the entire village was owned by the Bourke family and operated in the mode of "benevolent feudalism". A news item from 2015 confirmed the ownership and provided the following update about the community:The tiny hamlet, with its hotel, manor house, 40 cottages, farms and lumber yard has belonged to the Bourke family for more than 400 years, in a benign throwback to feudal times. Chettle House, the village manor, is a red brick Baroque mansion designed by Thomas Archer, a pupil of Vanbrugh, and built by the Bastard brothers of Blandford Forum during the reign of Queen Anne. Pevsner called it "the plum among Dorset houses of the early 18th century, and even nationally outstanding as a specimen of English Baroque". Two rounded ends were added to the house in 1912. From the 1950s to 2015 the house was a series of flats. After 2015, extensive renovations were completed by new owners; the house and gardens were closed to the public.A book about Chettle, "Enduring Village", was published in August, 2008.