Wyndham's Oak

Silton is a small village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale four miles (six kilometres) northwest of Gillingham. In the 2011 census, the civil parish had 57 households and a population of 123.In 1086, Silton was recorded in the Domesday Book as Seltone; it had 16 households, 11.5 ploughlands, 28 acres (11 hectares) of meadow and 4 mills. It was in the hundred of Gillingham and the tenant-in-chief was William of Falaise. This original settlement was near the church, on a low ridge between the River Stour and a minor tributary to the southwest.Silton was for many years the country residence of Sir Hugh Wyndham (1602–1684), whose memorial by the sculptor Jan van Nost is in the parish church of St Nicholas. Wyndham's Oak, an historic tree named after Wyndham, stands nearby.

The former town of Milton (or Middleton) in Dorset, England was cleared by the local landowner, Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, in the 1770s. This was a result of a fashion amongst English landowners to improve the amenity of their homes by converting surrounding farmland into open parkland. Where buildings were deemed to spoil the view, they were removed, including villages and towns, as in the case of Milton.Damer's former residence, Milton Abbey, is now occupied by Milton Abbey School.

Bourton is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated north of the A303 road on the border with Somerset and Wiltshire between Mere and Wincanton. The parish is the most northerly in Dorset and in the 2011 census had a population of 822. Bourton is the most populous village in the electoral ward called Bourton and District. The District extends to Silton then south to Buckhorn Weston and Kington Magna. The total ward population at the abovementioned census was 1,905. The village lies on the River Stour which passes through the historic Bourton Mill, once home to the second largest water wheel in Britain (60 feet (18 m) in diameter) . The village has two stores, a petrol station and a public house. The White Lion Inn stands on the High Street, which leads off what was the old main London to Exeter road before the village was bypassed to the south in 1992 by the A303. St George’s Church, which stands on one of the highest points in the village, was built via public subscription in 1810 and borders the primary school of the same name. The point at which the counties of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire meet beside the lake at the rear of Bourton Mill is marked by Egbert's Stone which once fell into the River Stour, but was rescued and re-erected. In 878 it formed the rallying point for Alfred the Great's troops before the Battle of Ethandun. His grandfather, Egbert of Wessex, was said to have placed the stone there to settle the shire boundaries. Just over the county border is King Alfred's Tower. The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels. During the First World War Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to restart on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998. It has now been demolished to make way for the Mill Lake development. Chaffeymoor Lodge, located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at Chaffeymoor, is a large 17th-century house which retains original features including stone mullioned windows, large fireplaces and exposed beams. The extensive grounds include mature gardens, an ornamental pond, a croquet lawn and a lake, are recommended by The Royal Horticultural Society.The nearest railway station is in neighbouring Gillingham. Trains run on the Exeter to Waterloo line.

Zeals is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England. The village is about 2.2 miles (3.5 km) west of Mere, next to the A303 road towards Wincanton, and adjoins the villages of Bourton, Dorset and Penselwood, Somerset. Its name comes from the Old English sealh meaning a small willow or sallow. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Long Cross, White Cross, Lower Zeals and Wolverton. The River Stour forms the west boundary of the parish.

Milton on Stour is a small village in North Dorset, England. It lies on the River Stour, a mile north of the town of Gillingham. The Church of St Simon and St Jude, built in 1868, is a Grade II listed building.

St George's Church is a Church of England church in Langham, Gillingham, Dorset, England. It was designed by Charles Ponting and built in 1921. It has been a Grade II listed building since 1985. Today the church is used for occasional services, and is maintained by the Manger family trust.

Royal Air Force Zeals, or more simply RAF Zeals, is a former Royal Air Force station in Wiltshire, sited to the north of the village of Zeals, next to the village of Stourton and the Stourhead estate.

Peacemarsh is a section of the town of Gillingham in the north of the county of Dorset. It lies on the northern side of Gillingham, on the B3095 about 4 miles south of the A303. A neighbouring village is Milton on Stour. Other areas of Gillingham include Wyke and Bay. Peacemarsh is in the census area of Gillingham which has a population of 9,323.One of the local employers in Peacemarsh is Neal's Yard Remedies.

Gillingham Friary was possibly a Dominican friary in the town of Gillingham, Dorset, England.

Gillingham Liberty was a liberty in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Bourton (from 1866) Gillingham Motcombe

St Mary's Church is the parish church for the town of Gillingham in the Blackmore Vale in the north of Dorset. The church is in the Diocese of Salisbury in the Church of England, and part of the Anglican Communion. There is believed to have been a Christian presence in the area since Anglo-Saxon days, evidence being a stone with a complicated interlaced pattern, now in the museum, which is believed to be the remains of a 9th-century cross – either a preaching cross or a grave marker. But most of the current building, particularly the nave, dates from an early Victorian rebuild. The chancel (choir and sanctuary) however, is older; the five great pointed windows with their trefoil heads, which stand on the south side of the chancel, show that it was built in the Decorated Gothic style popular in the 14th century. On the north wall of the chancel, only two feet above the floor, can be seen the archway of an Easter Sepulchre. Some bench ends, a screen at the east end of the north aisle, and the font, are in the Perpendicular Gothic style of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Chapel of the Good Shepherd was given by Mr and Mrs Carlton Cross in memory of their son who was killed in France during the First World War while carrying in some of the wounded men from his regiment. W. D. Caroe, the architect who designed the chapel, went on to create many other fine works, including the east end of the Lady Chapel in Sherborne Abbey. The reredos beneath the east window in the main chancel is another reminder of the tragedy of the First World War. It was given in 1925 by Mr and Mrs Matthews of Wyke House in memory of two of their sons who were both killed in the war. Further examples of the work of Nathaniel Hitch (1846–1938), the sculptor responsible for the reredos, may be seen in Westminster Abbey and Truro and Bristol Cathedrals. Memorials to those who died in the First World War can be seen hanging above the Jacobean communion table in St. Catherine's Chapel. The Book of Remembrance nearby records all those who served in the two world wars and also those who died. St. Mary's is still being enhanced as it has been over the centuries for the needs of the current worshipping community.

Bugley is a small hamlet in the district of North Dorset, in the county of Dorset, England. The River Stour runs past the hamlet. It is close to the town of Gillingham.