Creech Barrow Hill

The Stonehill Down Nature Reserve is a downland nature reserve on the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset, England. It is managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.Stonehill Down covers an area of 20 hectares and lies high on the chalk ridge running west/east across the Isle of Purbeck with far-reaching views across the Wareham Forest, with Poole Harbour to the east. It is bounded by the line of the Purbeck Hills to the south, with the summit of Ridgeway Hill about 1 kilometre to the west-southwest, and Corfe Castle about 3 kilometres to the west.

East Creech is a hamlet in the parish of Church Knowle in the county of Dorset, England. East Creech lies at the northern foot of the Purbeck Hills about 3 kilometres west of Corfe Castle. It is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference SY9282. It also lies within the East Creech Conservation Area which was first designated in 1990.In 1224, East Creech Manor was in the possession of Walter Le Franke. It passed down through his family to Mary Franke, who in 1637 married Edmund Hayter (d.1657) and the manor was transferred to him. It remained in the Hayter family until 1770, when Samuel Hayter (1736-1800) sold up and moved to Wareham Priory.

The Purbeck Hills, also called the Purbeck Ridge or simply the Purbecks, are a ridge of chalk downs in Dorset, England. It is formed by the structure known as the Purbeck Monocline. The ridge extends from Lulworth Cove in the west to Old Harry Rocks in the east, where it meets the sea. The hills are part of a system of chalk downlands in southern England formed from the Chalk Group which also includes Salisbury Plain and the South Downs. For most of their length the chalk of the Purbeck Hills is protected from coastal erosion by a band of resistant Portland limestone. Where this band ends, at Durlston Head, the clay and chalk behind has been eroded, creating Poole Bay and the Solent. The ridge of steeply dipping chalk that forms the Purbeck Hills continues further east on the Isle of Wight. The height of the chalk ridge and proximity to Poole Harbour and the south coast have made the hills of strategic importance. There are a number of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon archaeological sites, such as Nine Barrow Down. At Corfe Castle the hills are broken twice leaving a steep round hill between the ridges on which stood a medieval castle, guarding the only easy route through the hills, until the English Civil War of the 17th century, when it was slighted. Some of the ridge, around the village of Tyneham, near Lulworth, has been closed to the public for use by the army as a firing range. This has protected them from damage from farming and development, and these areas are now nature reserves. At the eastern end Ballard Down is a National Trust nature reserve which is managed for its calcareous grassland habitat.

Ridgeway Hill, also referred to as Grange Hill or Steeple Hill, is the third highest point of the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset standing at 199 metres (653 ft), is one of the only hills with a prominence of over a hundred metres, HuMPs, in the county. Near the top of the hill is an 18th-century folly known as Grange Arch, built by the former owner of Creech Grange, Denis Bond. On the eastern spur of the hill is Stonehill Down which is now a nature reserve. There are also good views of Swyre Head on the Jurassic Coast.

Barnston Manor is a 13th-century manor house and farm near Church Knowle in Dorset, England. The house is a Grade I listed building, and some farm buildings at the property are also Grade II listed.

Grange Arch, also known as Creech Folly, is an 18th-century folly that is located near the second highest point of the Purbeck Hills, Ridgeway Hill (199 m), in Dorset. It lies within the parish of Steeple. The folly, which was built by a former owner of Creech Grange, Denis Bond, in 1746, is built in the form of a triple arch of ashlar stone. The central archway is surmounted by battlements and flanked by stone walls with smaller doorway arches.Today the arch is owned by the National Trust. English Heritage have designated it a Grade II* listed building.

Furzebrook is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Wareham and 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Corfe Castle, and is in the civil parish of Church Knowle. The name Furzebrook derives from the furze/gorse and a brook. The first use of the name was probably by Furzebrook Farm. Furzebrook became the centre of the clay industry as all the local Purbeck Ball Clay was taken there to ripen by exposing. The clay was repeatedly turned for six months. As the ball clay ripened it acquired plasticity and became suitable to mix with various other clays which made them more plastic. At Furzebrook there are several narrow-gauge railway tracks; these converged from outlying local mines and claypits, the Furzebrook Railway. A further narrow-gauge line ran to Ridge Wharf. As the Wareham to Swanage branch line of the London and South Western Railway was built it passed through Furzebrook and therefore a lot of clay was transferred via the mainline trains. Furzebrook is now well known as being the railhead for the oil extracted from the local Wytch Farm oil well.

Creech Grange is a country house in Steeple, south of Wareham in Dorset at the foot of the Purbeck Hills. Historic England designate it as a Grade I listed building. The park and gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Blue Pool is a flooded, disused clay pit where Purbeck ball clay was once extracted. It is now a lake within the Furzebrook Estate, a 25-acre (10 ha) park of heath woodland and gorse near Furzebrook on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset, southern England.Furzebrook Estate is about 3 mi (5 km) south of Wareham and 2 mi (3 km) west of Corfe Castle. The pool started life early in the 17th century as a chalk pit. Purbeck ball clay was dug from the pit from the mid-17th century to the early 20th century. The ball clay was used to make fine ceramic products, such as smoking pipes, plates, cups and tea pots. The pit became disused before the First World War, but ball clay is still extracted from other pits in the area. The title 'blue' arose because there are minute particles of clay in colloidal suspension within the water. These suspensions variously diffract the light depending on the particles' size (with differences in size often linked to changes in concentration and pH), yielding colours from red-brown, through grey and green, to the more typical turquoise. The metallic blue sometimes found in photographs is more likely to be a reflection of the sky, as the attraction's own website makes no such claim for the water, and their leaflets call it “a turquoise jewel set in the heart of Purbeck”. In 1935 a café was opened at the site. There is also a museum and gift shop. In 1985 the estate was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Now law protects the habitat of a variety of rare plants and animals. The site includes nature reserves managed by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and a private nature reserve. Blue Pool is now a popular tourist attraction, especially because it is a place of peace and tranquillity. The pool is surrounded by 25 acres (10 ha) of heathland. The nationally rare Dorset heath and marsh gentian are common to the area. The estate is crossed by a network of sandy paths. There are steps down to the edge of the pool and there are also steps on some paths around the pool, but there is also a completely flat route around the pool, which is suitable for wheelchairs. The lush vegetation around the pool is inhabited by grey squirrels, rabbits and badgers. The Estate supports numerous rare birds, amphibians and reptiles. Visitors may therefore be lucky enough to spot the Dartford warbler or the nightjar. Both of Britain's endangered and protected reptiles, the green sand lizard and the smooth snake, live here in considerable numbers. There are also many dragonflies and the rare Sika deer.

Steeple is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Purbeck district of the English county of Dorset. It is situated 8 miles (13 km) west of the coastal resort town of Swanage at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 60. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2014 and merged with Tyneham to form Steeple with Tyneham.The Gerrard family of Longhide were the principal landowners here fromb the fourteenth to the sixteenth century; the lands then passed by inheritance to the Napier family. The ancient Norman church of Steeple, dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, lacks a steeple. It has a coat of arms engraved in stone in the porch and another painted in scarlet of the roof interior that is precisely the same as George Washington's coat of arms, showing stars and stripes. The Washington arms is quartered with those of the squires of Steeple village, the Lawrence family, who are allied with the Washingtons by the marriage of one of its sons, Edmund Lawrence, to Agnes de Wessington in 1390. The flag of the US capital hangs inside the church, presented on 25 July 1977 by Walter E Washington, Mayor of Washington DC from 2 January 1975 - 2 January 1979 On the highest local point of the nearby Purbeck Ridge is an 18th-century folly built by the former owner of Creech Grange and known as Grange Arch. Today it is a Grade II listed building owned by the National Trust.

St Nicholas's Church is a parish church in Kimmeridge, Dorset. It is dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra. The church is in the Archdeaconry of Dorset, in the Diocese of Salisbury. The church is of 12th-century origin, much restored and rebuilt in the 19th-century. It is Grade II listed.

Church Knowle is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset in the south of England. Church Knowle village is situated about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Corfe Castle, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Wareham and 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Swanage. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the settlements of East Creech and Furzebrook to the north—had 114 households and a population of 261. The church is named Saint Peter's Church. Church Knowle Fete is held in the grounds of the Old Rectory every August.