Gallows Hill SSSI, Wiltshire

Ansty Coombe is a hamlet in Ansty parish, southwest Wiltshire, England. It lies about six miles (10 km) east of Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Ansty is a small village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) east of Shaftesbury. The village is just north of the A30, between Shaftesbury and Salisbury. The parish includes the hamlet of Ansty Coombe.

Berwick St John is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Shaftesbury in Dorset. The parish includes the Ashcombe Park estate, part of the Ferne Park estate, and most of Rushmore Park (since 1939 the home of Sandroyd School).

Winkelbury Camp is an Iron Age hillfort, a short distance south-east of the village of Berwick St John, in Wiltshire, England. It is a scheduled monument.

Winkelbury Hill (grid reference ST952216) is a 62.95 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Berwick St John parish, south-west Wiltshire, England. The site is on the southern flank of the Ebble valley and was notified in 1971 for its herb-rich unimproved chalk grassland, which has some nationally scarce plants and butterflies.

Wardour Castle in Wiltshire was besieged twice during the First English Civil War; once in May 1643, and then again between November 1643 and March 1644. During the first siege, a Parliamentarian force of around 1,300 men led by Sir Edward Hungerford attacked the castle, which was the home of Thomas Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Wardour, a prominent Catholic and Royalist. Arundell was absent, fighting for King Charles at the time of the attack, and the defence was led by his wife, Lady Blanche Arundell, in command of 25 soldiers. The siege was started on 2 May, and lasted for a week before the Parliamentarians forced Lady Arundell to surrender on 8 May. The Parliamentarians garrisoned the castle with 75 men, led by Colonel Edmund Ludlow. Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, the son of Thomas and Blanche, brought a Royalist force to reclaim the castle, and by November 1643 a tight blockade had been established. The castle was well-provisioned, and it was only when the Royalists exploded mines under the walls, creating large holes in the defences, that they forced the castle's surrender. The damage to the castle left it uninhabitable, and over 100 years later, the Arundell family commissioned New Wardour Castle to be built nearby.

Wardour Castle is a ruined 14th-century castle at Wardour, on the boundaries of the civil parishes of Tisbury and Donhead St Andrew in the English county of Wiltshire, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Salisbury. The castle was built in the 1390s, came into the ownership of the Arundells in the 16th century and was rendered uninhabitable in 1643 and 1644 during the English Civil War. A Grade I listed building, it is managed by English Heritage and open to the public.

Swallowcliffe is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Tisbury and 11 miles (18 km) west of Salisbury. The village lies about half a mile north of the A30 Shaftesbury-Wilton road which crosses the parish.

New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, who was a principal architect of the Imperial Russian capital city, Saint Petersburg. The building of the house was begun in 1769 and completed in 1776, with additional buildings being added in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1961 to 1990, it was the home of Cranborne Chase School, an independent boarding school for girls. New Wardour Castle is approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) from Old Wardour Castle, which was left as a landscape feature of the parkland of the new house. This was formerly the home of the Arundell family before it was besieged, damaged and slighted in the Civil War.

Cranborne Chase School was an independent boarding school for girls, originally opened in 1946 at Crichel House in the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset. In 1961, the school moved to New Wardour Castle near Tisbury in Wiltshire, and extensively renovated the building, which had fallen into a severe state of disrepair.In 1985 there were 130 girls, aged between 11 and 18 years, and 26 teachers at the school. The school eventually closed in July 1990.

Pincombe Down (grid reference ST966217) is a 23.8 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in southwest Wiltshire, England, notified in 1971. The site lies in Alvediston and Berwick St John parishes.

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.