Woodbridge, Dorset

Holwell is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east of Sherborne. It is sited on Oxford clay in the Blackmore Vale. Its name derives from the Old English hol and walu, meaning a bank or ridge in a hollow. The parish includes the hamlets of Sandhills, Westrow, Barnes Cross, The Borough, and Woodbridge. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 369 and is part of the Cam Vale electoral ward. Until 1844 Holwell was an exclave of Somerset, being part of the parish of Milborne Port.Holwell parish church is situated with a few houses at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small settlement called The Borough. This is the original medieval part of the village, sited next to the Caundle Brook in the north of the parish. Secondary settlements were established later to the south, east and west; these were outside The Borough's open field system and had their own enclosures. The most southerly part of the parish was enclosed in 1797. The church, dedicated to St Lawrence, largely dates from the late 15th century, though it was restored in 1885. The biblical scholar Henry Adeney Redpath was rector at Holwell between 1883 and 1890.A short distance north of the church the Caundle Brook is crossed by a packhorse bridge, probably of medieval origin. About 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the west and also crossing the Caundle Brook is Cornford Bridge, dating from the 15th and 18th centuries and designated a grade II* listed building and a scheduled monument. Also grade II* listed is Naish Farm, situated approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southeast of The Borough and a good example of a medieval domestic farmhouse. At Barnes Cross—between The Borough and Cornford Bridge—is a pillar box which is the oldest still in everyday use in Britain. It is hexagonal with a vertical letter slot and was made between 1853 and 1856 by the Gloucester firm John N. Butt & Co. It is also grade II* listed.

King's Stag Memorial Chapel is a Church of England chapel in King's Stag, Dorset, England.

Stourton Caundle is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England. It lies within the Blackmore Vale, about five miles (eight kilometres) east of Sherborne. In the 2011 census the parish had 181 households and a population of 439.Stourton Caundle is one of several settlements in the area to bear the name "Caundle", the others being Bishop's Caundle, Purse Caundle and Caundle Marsh. The origin of "Caundle" is uncertain. In the Domesday Book in 1086 there are seven Domesday entries connected to the village, recorded as "Candelle", "Candel" or "Candele" in the hundred of Brunsell. The entries record a total of 45 households and a total taxable value of 17 geld units. Sir Henry de Haddon, a lord from Northamptonshire, bought land and founded a manor here in 1202, and the resultant settlement was called "Caundel Haddon" or "Caundle Haddon". The Haddons retained the manor until 1461 when it passed to the Stourton family, which resulted in the current village name.The manor was on the west side of the main village street and was probably fortified, resulting in it being referred to as a 'castle', though only a thirteenth-century chapel building (no longer used as such) and two fish ponds associated with the site now remain.Stourton Caundle's parish church is dedicated to St Peter and has a thirteenth-century nave and chancel, and a fourteenth-century tower.The village was once a venue for stave dancing.The village has a small pub called The Trooper, but villagers must travel to local town Stalbridge for other amenities. Enid Blyton used Manor Farm as inspiration for her novel Five on Finniston Farm. She owned the farm for a short time in the late 1950s.

Bishop's Caundle is a village and civil parish in Dorset, South West England. It is situated 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Sherborne. The local travel links are located 4 miles (6.4 km) from the village to Sherborne railway station and 28 miles (45 km) to Bournemouth International Airport. The main road running through the village is the A3030, connecting Bishop's Caundle to Sherborne. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish is 390.

Pulham is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, 7 miles (11 kilometres) southeast of Sherborne. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had 105 dwellings, 103 households and a population of 269.Pulham was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and was once owned by Cirencester Abbey, a connection remembered in the name of Cannings Court Farm (the "Court of the Canons"). Priests from nearby Milton Abbey also used to visit the village church; they resided above the porch in a priests' room, accessed via a staircase within the wall.

Lydlinch is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale in north Dorset, England, about three miles (five kilometres) west of Sturminster Newton. The village is sited on Oxford clay close to the small River Lydden. The parish – which includes the village of King's Stag to the south and the hamlet of Stock Gaylard to the west – is bounded by the Lydden to the east and its tributary, the Caundle Brook, to the north. The 2011 census recorded the parish as having 199 dwellings, 192 households and a population of 437.At King's Stag is the King's Stag Memorial Chapel which was built in 1914 at the expense of the Right Rev. Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, the Bishop of Worcester, in memory of his wife, Lady Barbara Yeatman-Biggs, who died in 1909.

Caundle Brook is a 13.4 miles (21.6 km) tributary of the River Lydden that flows through Blackmore Vale in Dorset, England.Its headwaters rise at the foot of Dogbury Hill near Cosmore. The brook then flows in a northerly direction past the villages of Middlemarsh and Tiley until it collects The Cam and a second tributary that drains Caundle Marsh. Here it turns east, and is then crossed by Cornford Bridge and then the A3030 near Bishop's Caundle. It continues past Rowden Mill south of Stourton Caundle before being crossed by the A357 at Warr Bridge, beyond which it joins the Lydden near Lydlinch.

Hazelbury Bryan is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, approximately five miles (eight kilometres) southwest of the small town of Sturminster Newton. The parish includes the hamlets of Droop, Kingston, Parkgate, Pidney, Pleck, Wonston and Woodrow. In the 2011 census the parish had 480 dwellings, 454 households and a population of 1,059.In 1201 the village name was spelled Hasebere. The name is derived from the Old English hæsel and bearu, meaning a hazel grove or wood, plus the manorial name of the Bryene or de Bryan family; Sir Guy de Bryan, of Woodsford Castle, gave his surname to the village in the 14th century when he married the daughter of the First Earl of Salisbury.The original settlement in the village is the hamlet of Droop, which is the location of the parish church. The church dates mostly from the 15th century, though it is perhaps the third building to have existed on the site. The other hamlets in the village are believed to have originated as a result of the Black Death twice afflicting the original settlement, and the villagers responding by burning it and rebuilding several smaller settlements on higher ground nearby.The geology of the parish consists of Oxford clay in the northwest, a band of Corallian limestone and sand running from southwest to northeast, and Kimmeridge clay in the southeast. Drainage consists of several small streams flowing northwest and north into the River Lydden and northeast into the River Stour.Hazelbury Bryan civil parish is the most populous parish within the electoral ward of Lydden Vale, which extends from Fifehead Neville parish in the north to Mappowder in the south and Glanvilles Wootton in the west. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 1,967.

Purse Caundle is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England. It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Sherborne. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 90.Purse Caundle manor house was built in the 15th century under the instruction of Richard Long, who bought 575 acres of land here in 1428. The manor's site was recorded as early as the Domesday Book in 1086, when it was a tenancy of Athelney Abbey.The village church provides the final resting place for the seventeenth-century physician Nathaniel Highmore, whose father was rector here.

The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Hampshire Downs, Chiltern Hills, North Downs and South Downs.