Church of St Candida and Holy Cross

Whitchurch Canonicorum () is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale 5 miles (8.0 km) west-northwest of Bridport. In the 2011 Census the parish – which includes the settlements of Morcombelake, Ryall and Fishpond Bottom – had a population of 684.In the 899 will of King Alfred the Great it was left to his youngest son Æthelweard, and in 1086 in the Domesday Book, the village was recorded as Witcerce.On the northern edge of the village is the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross. It is noteworthy as containing the only shrine in Britain to have survived the Reformation with its relics intact, apart from those of Saint Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey and St Eanswythe in Folkestone. The saint in question is the somewhat obscure Saint Wite (Latinised as Saint Candida) after whom the church and the village are named. She is thought to be either a Christian martyred by the Danes or alternatively a West Saxon anchoress. Nothing more is known of her. The shrine of St Wite in the north wall of the transept is foramina-style, with three large vesica-shaped apertures for pilgrims to insert heads, hands, arms or feet. When the shrine was opened in 1900 it was found to contain a lead casket with the inscription +HIC. REQUIESCT. RELIQU. SCE. WITE (Here rest the relics of Saint Wite). The flag of Dorset makes dedication to St Wite. Sir George Somers (1554–1610) was the Mayor of Lyme Regis and later Governor of The Somers Isles (Bermuda). He died "of a surfeit in eating of a pig", on 9 November 1610 in Bermuda. His heart was buried in Bermuda but his body, pickled in a barrel, was landed on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in 1618. A volley of muskets and cannon saluted his last journey to the church at Whitchurch Canonicorum where his body is buried. It is also the burial place of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov and Sir Robin Day.The hamlet of Fishpond Bottom contains St John's Church, which was built in 1852 as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Whitchurch Canonicorum.

Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred or Whitechurch Canonicorum Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Burstock Catherston Leweston Charmouth Chideock Lyme Regis Marshwood Pilsdon Stanton St Gabriel Stockland (part) (i.e., Dalwood, transferred to Devon 1844) Symondsbury Whitchurch Canonicorum Wootton Fitzpaine

Morcombelake (also spelled Morecombelake) is a small village near Bridport in Dorset, England, within the ancient parish of Whitchurch Canonicorum. Golden Cap, part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, is nearby.

Ryall is a small village in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of Great Britain. It is situated roughly midway between the towns of Bridport and Lyme Regis, with the county town of Dorchester about 20 miles to the east. The village lies on the northern slopes of Hardown Hill, about 2 miles inland from the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. To the north the village looks across the Marshwood Vale towards a line of hills including Pilsdon Pen. Ryall is the home of 200 people.

Chardown Hill is a prominent, rounded hill, 194 metres (636 ft) high, just to the southwest of the village of Morcombelake in the county of Dorset in southern England. It overlooks the Dorset coast around 1½ kilometres to the south. Its prominence of 63 metres (207 ft) means it is listed as one of the Tumps. It is located within the South Dorset Downs. The summit area is open and crossed by a bridleway running roughly north to south. Just south of the actual summit it is joined by a public footpath approaching from Stonebarrow Hill, the western spur of Chardown. The South West Coast Path passed along the foot of Chardown Hill and above the coastal cliffs.

Hardown Hill (207 metres, 679 feet high) is a hill between Ryall and Morcombelake in the county of Dorset, England. It rises west of the South Dorset Downs, close to the Dorset coast, and overlooks the Marshwood Vale to the north. Its prominence qualifies it as one of Dorset's four Marilyns and it is listed as one of the "top 12 Dorset views to take your breath away" by Dorset's official tourist website.The hill lies about 6 kilometres west of Bridport and about 500 metres north of the A 35 road. It is not nearly as well known as its southern extremity, Golden Cap, which is a spectacular bluff on the coast, 2 kilometres to the south. From the top of the hill, which is owned by the National Trust, there are impressive views that take in Thorncombe Beacon, Chardown Hill, Quarry Hill and Langdon Hill.There is a group of ten barrows, mostly covered in gorse and bracken, about 300 metres north of the summit above the hamlet of Ryall. These barrows are thought to be of disc and bowl form, likely dating to the Bronze Age. Wyatt Wingrave excavated fifteen artefacts dating to the Early Middle Ages in 1916, which he interpreted as the associated objects of an early Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial. No skeletal remains were found, and it is not clear which of the barrows was excavated. Vera Evison later reinterpreted the assemblage as a group of Anglo-Saxon burials that represented secondary interments in a Bronze Age barrow. A recent consideration of the context and a reclassification of the artefacts has cast doubts on the burial interpretation, and has instead interpreted the assemblage as a hoard.

Marshwood Castle was a motte-and-bailey castle in Marshwood, Dorset, within the Vale of Marshwood. It was built by William de Mandeville following his elevation to Baron Marshwood in 1205 by King John, and is first recorded as a built castle in 1215. The castle is no longer standing, but ruins remain and they are a scheduled monument.

Stonebarrow Hill is a hill, east of Charmouth, near the Dorset coast in southern England. It has a height of 148 metres (486 ft) and forms the west-southwestern spur of Chardown Hill. Stonebarrow and the surrounding area is notable for its landslides. The hill is often a starting point for walks around the Golden Cap estate.There is a National Trust Centre at Stonebarrow Hill and also a permanent orienteering course established by Wimborne Orienteers in conjunction with the Trust.

Stanton St Gabriel is a civil parish in west Dorset, England. It lies approximately midway between the towns of Lyme Regis and Bridport on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and includes within its boundary the highest cliff on the south coast of England, Golden Cap. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 110. The population in 1921 was 54.In 1086 Stanton St Gabriel was described in the Domesday Book as "Stantone", a derivation from Old English meaning "farm on stoney ground". The old settlement had become virtually deserted by the 18th century; the inhabitants had moved either a short distance inland, where the new Dorchester to Exeter turnpike road had been rerouted, or to Bridport, where work was available in its ropewalks.In 1856 the philanthropist and anti-catholic Charlotte Julia Weale of Whitchurch Canonicorum donated £200 to the parish church so that it could build be restored and have an extension. She was buried in the churchyard here in 1918 leaving money to build an Anglican church for the poor in Whitchurch.Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves described Stanton St Gabriel as "a village which was lost and forgotten centuries ago." He stated that all that remained of the settlement was "an ancient farmhouse, in a state of musty decay, and a cottage. Close to the farm and encumbered with its litter are the ruins of the village church."

Golden Cap is a hill and cliff situated on the English Channel coast between Bridport and Charmouth in Dorset, England. At 191 metres (627 ft), it is arguably the highest point near the south coast of Great Britain (although the highest point is set back some 250 m (820 ft) from the coastline) and is visible for tens of miles along the coastline. It is accessible via a coastal footpath from Seatown, and takes around 40 minutes to reach the summit. The hill is owned by the National Trust and forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site.The base of the cliff is covered with large boulders, and is popular with fossil collectors. Storms have previously exposed fossilised ammonites and belemnites in the Blue Lias base.The name derives from the distinctive outcropping of golden greensand rock present at the very top of the cliff.Behind the cliff is Langdon Wood, a small wood of mainly Corsican Pine, planted in the 1950s, whose trees originate from a nearby copse known as "Eleanor's Clump". Langdon is owned by the National Trust, and encompasses a circular walk of approximately one mile.As a result of its height, on a clear day views can extend to Portland Bill and to Start Point and Dartmoor in Devon.

The River Char is a river in Dorset. The Char runs a few miles from Bettiscombe to Charmouth, passing Pilsdon and Whitchurch Canonicorum.

The Marshwood Vale (or Vale of Marshwood) is a low-lying, bowl-shaped valley of Lower Lias clay, in the western tip of the county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies to the north of the A35 trunk road between the towns of Bridport and Lyme Regis, and to the south of the two highest hills in Dorset, Lewesdon Hill (279m) and Pilsdon Pen (277m). It is drained by the River Char, which flows south-west to its mouth on the English Channel coast at Charmouth. All of the vale lies within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is an electoral ward with the same name stretching from Whitchurch Canonicororum north to Thorncombe. The total population of this ward is 1,717.