River Winterborne

Sturminster Marshall is a village and civil parish in the east of Dorset in England, situated on the River Stour between Blandford Forum and Poole. The parish had a population of 1,895 at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,969 at the 2011 Census and includes the village of Almer (50.78°N 2.12°W / 50.78; -2.12) west of Sturminster Marshall, near Winterborne Zelston and the hamlet of Henbury to the south-east of the village. The village is twinned with the French commune of Sainte-Mère-Église in Normandy. The appropriate electoral ward is called 'Stour'. From Sturminster Marshall the ward goes east to Pamphill, with a total population of 2,582.King Alfred the Great, in his will of 899, a copy of which can be seen at the British Library, left the village to his youngest son Æthelweard (c.880-922). Sturminster Marshall has a 13th century church, St. Mary's. Its predecessor contributed to the village's name; 'Sturminster' meaning "church on the River Stour". The second part of the name came from William Marshall. Until 1857, St. Hubert's Church in Corfe Mullen acted as a chapel of ease to Sturminster Marshall. St. Mary's pre-reformation chalice, dating to 1536, has survived although the stem has been replaced. It is on loan to Dorset County Museum.

Bailey Gate railway station was on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway in the English county of Dorset.

White Mill is an 18th-century water powered corn mill near Sturminster Marshall in Dorset on the River Stour which is in the care of the National Trust. The first record of a mill on the site is from the Doomsday Book; the current watermill was rebuilt in 1776 and extensively repaired in 1994. It still retains its original elm and applewood machinery though this can no longer be used.

Shapwick is a village and civil parish in east Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour five miles south-east of Blandford Forum and eight miles north of Poole. The village had a population of 190 in 2001. Within the parish, about a mile to the north-east of the village, is the Iron Age hill fort of Badbury Rings.In Roman times there was a Roman Fort at Crab Farm, between Shapwick and Badbury Rings. Just to the west of the fort was a small Romano-British town, believed to be that listed in the Antonine Itinerary as Vindocladia.Shapwick lay on the important Roman Road from Old Sarum to Durnovaria. The river Stour was forded here. House numbers above 200 in the High Street contrast with the smaller number of houses there at present. As the village declined, burnt down thatched cottages were not replaced. In 1983 Shapwick was used as one of the two real life locations for the Doctor Who story The Awakening. The other village used was Martin in Hampshire. One of its most famous residents was Charles Bennett who won the 1500 metres at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Henbury is a hamlet in the civil parish of Sturminster Marshall in Dorset, England. It lies on the A31 road. Henbury House is a classical Georgian house built in 1770. In the 19th century the estate was held by the Parke family. In the 1870s two members of the family emigrated to Australia and founded Henbury Station, a cattle station some 140 km south of Alice Springs, near where the Henbury Crater was discovered in 1899. Henbury House (renamed Henbury Hall) was the subject of a failed holiday time-share scheme in the 1980s which was designed to cover the cost of its refurbishment. In 1982 the then owners Charles and Susan Maitland offered bonds for sale at £500 each, guaranteeing investors a week's family holiday a year in the house for five years. This was followed by a second Bond issue in 1983 at £1500. However, the venture failed during 1984 and in 1985 the property was sold to Roy and Guy Baylis. The Maitlands filed for bankruptcy which was completed in 1988 with a dividend of 24 pence in the pound for creditors. A private housing development called Henbury House Gardens was then built on the land surrounding the house.

Badbury Rings is an Iron Age hill fort and Scheduled Monument in east Dorset, England. It was in the territory of the Durotriges. In the Roman era a temple was located immediately west of the fort, and there was a Romano-British town known as Vindocladia a short distance to the south-west.

Charborough House, also known as Charborough Park, is a Grade I listed building, the manor house of the ancient manor of Charborough. The house is between the villages of Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England. The grounds, which include a deer park and gardens, adjoin the villages of Winterborne Zelston, Newton Peveril and Lytchett Matravers: they are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, and have been called the most splendid parkland in Dorset.

St Mary the Virgin is the Church of England parish church of Lytchett Matravers in Dorset. Its parish is part of the Diocese of Salisbury. The building is Grade I listed.

Barrow Hill is a small settlement in Dorset, England, situated in the East Dorset administrative district on the A350 road approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Poole. It lies between Lytchett Matravers (in the neighbouring Purbeck District) and Corfe Mullen, though is in the civil parish of Sturminster Marshall.

Lytchett Matravers is a large village and civil parish in Dorset, England. The 2011 census recorded the parish as having 1,439 households and a population of 3,424.

Tarrant Keyneston is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated in the Tarrant Valley, five miles (eight kilometres) southeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had 152 dwellings, 145 households and a population of 310.On the hills northwest of the village are the earthworks of Buzbury Rings (or Busbury Rings), the remains of an Iron Age and Romano-British fortified encampment or settlement, described by Sir Frederick Treves in 1905 as "a circle of entrenchments, composed of a stout vallum and a ditch". The outer enclosure covers about 10 acres (4 hectares) and within this is an inner enclosure, covering about 3 acres (1.2 hectares), which is the location of most of the finds from the site, including Roman pottery, animal bones and daub imprinted by wattles. The site has been much damaged by ploughing and by the road between Wimborne Minster and Blandford Forum, which crosses the site.The village's parish church has a 15th-century tower, though the rest of the building was rebuilt in 1852 by Thomas Henry Wyatt. The chancel of the earlier building contained an anchorite's cell. The Bishop of Salisbury Richard Poore is most likely to have been buried at Tarrant Keyneston in accordance with his wishes.Almost all of Tarrant Keyneston parish is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The Church of St Mary the Virgin in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England, was built in the 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was vested in the Trust on 1 July 1988.The church is all that remains of Tarrant Abbey, for which it may have been a lay church. The Abbey was founded in the 13th century by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby Tarrant Keyneston) as a Cistercian nunnery. The flint chancel, dates from the 12th century, with the nave, tower and porch being built in the 14th century. The 15th-century tower houses three bells, two of them medieval and one 17th century. The nave roof added in the early 16th century. In 1911 a major restoration of the church was undertaken. The interior includes several coffin lids from the 13th century. These have been moved from the Abbey and may relate to two of the famous people associated with it. The first is Queen Joan, the wife of Alexander II of Scotland and daughter of King John of England (Richard I's brother and successor) who is buried in the grave yard (supposedly in a golden coffin). The second is Bishop Richard Poore, builder of Salisbury Cathedral, who was baptised in the abbey church and later (in 1237) buried in the abbey, which he founded. He was at one time Dean of the old cathedral at Old Sarum, and later became bishop of first Chichester, then Salisbury and finally Durham.There are also 15th century stained glass, a font from the 16th century and an octagonal pulpit pews with moulded panelling from the 17th century. Mediaeval wall paintings cover most of the walls of the nave and chancel, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. One set of pictures depicts the acts of St Margaret of Antioch. The Annunciation dates from the 14th century and shows the winged figure of Gabriel and the virgin. The south wall has two rows of paintings one above the other. The lower set show three kings or princes, and three skeletons, which are believed to represent "the emptiness of earthly rank and riches".Attendance at the church fell after World War II and it was declared redundant becoming the responsibility of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1988. £100,000 was spent on masonry repairs and make it weather-proof. Another £68,000 was spent between 2003 and 2007 to improve the drainage, eradicate death watch beetle and stabilise and re-roof the tower.