Bowerchalke Downs

Bowerchalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of the county, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the boundary with Dorset and 2 miles (3.2 km) from that with Hampshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Mead End, Misselfore and Woodminton. Bowerchalke is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The River Chalke, a classic chalk stream, rises in the village and joins the River Ebble at Broad Chalke, flowing into the Hampshire Avon south of Salisbury. The Grade II* listed church of the Holy Trinity dates from the 13th century, and Nobel Prize winning novelist William Golding is buried in the churchyard.

Garston Wood is a 34-hectare (84-acre) woodland nature reserve on the border between Dorset and Wiltshire in England, around 3 km (2 mi) north of the village of Sixpenny Handley, owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to protect species living in the region. The reserve is a mixture of ancient woodland and managed coppices and scrubland. To help maintain the park, the RSPB sets annual population targets for certain breeding pairs of birds, and manages the forest by clearing out taller and non-native trees. In an effort to help tourists and volunteers enjoy the park, the RSPB holds an annual event programme, biannual volunteer working parties, and publishes a regularly updated trail guide. They also work to improve their visitor facilities, and maintain a media profile.

Ebbesbourne Wake is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, some 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Salisbury, near the head of the valley of the small River Ebble. The parish includes the hamlets of Fifield Bavant and West End.

Fifield Bavant (/'fʌɪfiːld 'bavənt/) is a small village in the civil parish of Ebbesborne Wake, in Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Wilton, midway between Ebbesbourne Wake and Broad Chalke on the north bank of the River Ebble. Fifield Bavant was formerly a separate civil parish. The small Church of England parish church, begun in the 13th century, is dedicated to Saint Martin and is a Grade II* listed building. The population is now about 20. In 1931 the parish had a population of 43.

Sixpenny Handley or Handley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in north east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase ten miles (16 km) north east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 1,233. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Pentridge to form Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge.

Alvediston Manor, Alvediston, Wiltshire, England is an 18th-century house. From 1968 until his death in 1977, it was the home of the former prime minister Anthony Eden. The manor is a Grade II listed building.

Prescombe Down (grid reference ST985255) is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1951.

Alvediston is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 7 miles (11 km) east of Shaftesbury and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Salisbury. The area is the source of the River Ebble and is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb is a hillclimb in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England, organised by the South Western Centre of the British Automobile Racing Club. The first practice meeting was held on 25 June 1967, when Patsy Burt, driving a McLaren-Oldsmobile set a time of 39.90 sec. The first competition event was held on 23 July 1967. The track currently hosts eight competitive events each year; two, two-day events, and five are single-day events. In addition, a Test Day is held annually just before the competitive season starts. The venue also conducts four Hill Climb School days each year, which follow the syllabus set by AHASS (the Association of Hill Climb and Sprint Schools). The venue currently hosts two rounds a year of the British Hill Climb Championship during May and August and seven events of its own championship. The 2020 Hill and Championship Sponsor is Turbo Dynamics, a company owned and run by Peter Marsh, son of the hill's designer, Tony Marsh. In addition to the Turbo Dynamics Championship, the venue hosts rounds of the ASWMC, ACSMC and HSA championships and a number of other national championships. Motorcycles also visit the venue five times a year, and run as part of five of the single-day events. The motorcycle riders are members of the National Hill Climb Association (NHCA). The farmland the course traverses is also used for pheasant shoots and the course itself has found a dual use as a gravity racing venue. The course measures 1058 yards (967 metres), and rises a total of 140 feet (43 metres), although the first section of the track is downhill, a feature unique in British hill climbing, but not unknown elsewhere in Europe. The course was designed in 1965 by Tony Marsh, who was still competing the course in the premier over 2000cc racing car class in 2007. In July 2009, the third round of the Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb Championships was dedicated to Marsh's memory following his death in May.The outright hill record is held by Wallace Menzies, who completed the course in 25.34 seconds on 30 May 2021.

The River Chalke is a small river within the English county of Wiltshire. It is the most significant tributary of the River Ebble. The river rises at Mead End near Bowerchalke and flows 1.2 miles north through the Chalke Valley to join the Ebble at Mount Sorrel, just upstream of Broad Chalke. It provides a steady, year-round flow of water; above the junction the Ebble is a winterbourne. A typical chalk stream, the Chalke is noted for its brown trout and fish farms.

Pentridge is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial of Dorset, England, lying in the north-east of the county. It is situated on the edge of Cranborne Chase down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of Blandford Forum (ten miles to the south-west) and Salisbury (twelve miles to the northeast). In 2001 the parish had a population of 215. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Sixpenny Handley to form "Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge".The village name derives from the Celtic pen ("hill") and twrch ("boar"), and thus means "hill of the wild boar"; its existence was first recorded (as "Pentric") in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of Alfred the Great.The village is located amongst many Neolithic, Roman and Saxon earthworks, notably Bokerley Dyke, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the Romano-British to keep out the Saxon invaders. Nearby is Pentridge Hill, formed by a band of more resistant chalk than the surrounding land. Approximately 2 km East of Pentridge is Blagdon Hill. On 17th January 1947 Mr.A.L.Parke of Salisbury reported that the round barrows on this hill had been recently "trenched" and a grave was opened. He supposed it to be the main interment, it "being situated in a hole scooped in the solid chalk". He further stated that " a few sherds of a well baked urn were found" and "fragments of burnt bone and charcoal accompanied" the urn.

Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering 379 square miles (980 km2) of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in England. The area was designated as an AONB in 1981 and confirmed in October 1983. Since 2014, the AONB Partnership of local authorities has used the abbreviated name Cranborne Chase AONB in its promotion of the area.The AONB includes several distinct landscape areas, among them: Cranborne Chase, an area of chalk downland in the south. West Wiltshire Downs, an area of chalk downland in the north. The Vale of Wardour, a wide clay valley between the two areas of downland. The area around Stourhead and Longleat on the Somerset-Wiltshire border, which has a distinctive characteristic of upper greensand hills.Much of the landscape is farmed chalk downland. The people who populated the area thousands of years ago constructed Ackling Dyke and the Knowlton Circles. The area was later the scene of conflict in the Civil War, seeing the destruction of Old Wardour Castle. Other features include the Larmer Tree Gardens at Tollard Royal; and Fovant, where soldiers training during the First World War cut regimental badges into the chalk hillside. The AONB includes two large blocks of woodland, Grovely Wood and Great Ridge Wood.