Chettle House

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.

Farnham is a village and civil parish in North Dorset, in the south of England, on Cranborne Chase, seven miles (eleven kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 183.

Tarrant Hinton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated in the Tarrant Valley, approximately five miles (eight kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 160.The village's name appears in medieval sources. In 935, King Æthelstan granted land at Tarrant Hinton to the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey under condition that they would pray hard for the king.The village no longer has a public house, shop or post office, but it has a medieval parish church and a newly rebuilt village hall. In 2001 the ecclesiastical parish of Tarrant Hinton was grouped with nine other surrounding parishes to form the Chase Benefice in the Anglican Diocese of Salisbury. Tarrant Hinton is well known as the location of the Great Dorset Steam Fair, which is annually visited by some 200,000 people. There is a local church benefice newsletter published regularly called the Tarrant Times.

Eastbury Park was a country estate near Tarrant Gunville in Dorset, England. It contained a large mansion designed by Sir John Vanbrugh. The mansion has not survived, but its former service wing has become a country house known as Eastbury House, a Grade I listed building.

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.

Tarrant Launceston is a small village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated in the Tarrant Valley 5 miles (8 kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. The parish includes part of Blandford Camp to the west and a few buildings on the northern edge of neighbouring Tarrant Monkton to the south. In the 2011 census the parish had 156 households and a population of 498.Although the Great Dorset Steam Fair is advertised as being located in Tarrant Hinton, the actual show site itself is in Tarrant Launceston, which is one of the adjacent parishes.

Larmer Tree Festival was a three-day music, comedy and arts festival held annually from 1990 until 2019 at the Larmer Tree Gardens, near Tollard Royal on the Wiltshire-Dorset border in England. The 2020 festival was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the event was not held in 2021, 2022 or 2023. Performers included Paloma Faith, Jake Bugg, First Aid Kit, Tom Odell, KT Tunstall, Tom Jones, Kae Tempest, Jools Holland and Gomez.

The Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal in south Wiltshire, England, were created by landowner Augustus Pitt Rivers in 1880 as pleasure grounds for "public enlightenment and entertainment". They were the first private gardens opened for public enjoyment in the United Kingdom, and were free to enter. The 11-acre (4.5 ha) Grade II* listed gardens are within the Rushmore Estate in Cranborne Chase, an ancient royal hunting ground and now an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Tarrant Gunville is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated at the head of the Tarrant Valley on Cranborne Chase five miles (eight kilometres) northeast of Blandford Forum. The parish covers 3,469 acres (1,404 hectares) at an elevation of 70 to 170 metres (230 to 560 feet). In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the settlement of Stubhampton to the north—had 119 dwellings, 108 households and a population of 233.The parish has three round barrows and an unexcavated Iron Age enclosure with a 15' deep ditch, which Pevsner suspects was built in a hurry. The medieval settlements in the parish were Stubhampton and Gunville. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary, is on the edge of Tarrant Gunville. It is on the site of an earlier building which probably dated from around 1100. The present building has a south porch, aisles and tower arch that are partly 14th-century, and a 15th-century west tower that was partly rebuilt in the 16th century, but the chancel and nave were rebuilt in 1843. The architect of the rebuilding was Thomas Henry Wyatt. Eastbury House, the surviving part of a much larger house designed by John Vanbrugh and built between 1717 and 1738, stands just east of Tarrant Gunville village. The larger part of the house was demolished in 1782. The grounds still display evidence of the original gardens, designed by Charles Bridgeman. It is probable that several of the ashlar and flint houses in the village were built using material taken from the demolished house. The photographer Thomas Wedgwood moved into the surviving part of Eastbury in 1800; his brother, the potter Josiah, had bought nearby Gunville House in 1799, shortly after its construction.The modern village hall was completed in 2001. There are 23 structures in the parish that are listed by English Heritage for their special historical or architectural interest. These include Eastbury House (Grade I) and the parish church (Grade II*).

South Lodge Camp is an archaeological site of the Bronze Age, about 0.6 miles (1.0 km) south-east of the village of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, England. The site is on Cranborne Chase, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.

Tarrant Monkton is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated in the Tarrant Valley about four miles (six kilometres) east-northeast of Blandford Forum. Within the parish boundary, 1+1⁄2 miles (2.5 kilometres) over hills to the west, lies the major part of Blandford Camp army base (including the Royal Signals Museum). In the 2011 census the parish—including the army base—had a population of 1,986. The village is centred on the All Saints Parish Church, opposite which is the Langton Arms, a public house and restaurant.

The Great Dorset Steam Fair (abbreviated GDSF, and since 2010 also known as The National Heritage Show) is an annual show featuring steam-powered vehicles and machinery. It now covers 600 acres (2.4 km2) and runs for five days. This used to be from the Wednesday after the UK August bank holiday, but from 2016 has been from the Thursday before the Bank Holiday until the Bank Holiday itself. It is reputedly the largest collection of steam and vintage equipment to be seen anywhere in the world. The fair was founded by the Dorset Steam & Historic Vehicle Club, and has been held in Dorset, England, every summer since 1969. The show is now organised by Michael Oliver's son, Martin Oliver, through Great Dorset Steam Fair Ltd.