Creech Grange

Grange Arch, also known as Creech Folly, is an 18th-century folly that is located near the second highest point of the Purbeck Hills, Ridgeway Hill (199 m), in Dorset. It lies within the parish of Steeple. The folly, which was built by a former owner of Creech Grange, Denis Bond, in 1746, is built in the form of a triple arch of ashlar stone. The central archway is surmounted by battlements and flanked by stone walls with smaller doorway arches.Today the arch is owned by the National Trust. English Heritage have designated it a Grade II* listed building.

Ridgeway Hill, also referred to as Grange Hill or Steeple Hill, is the third highest point of the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset standing at 199 metres (653 ft), is one of the only hills with a prominence of over a hundred metres, HuMPs, in the county. Near the top of the hill is an 18th-century folly known as Grange Arch, built by the former owner of Creech Grange, Denis Bond. On the eastern spur of the hill is Stonehill Down which is now a nature reserve. There are also good views of Swyre Head on the Jurassic Coast.

Steeple is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the Purbeck district of the English county of Dorset. It is situated 8 miles (13 km) west of the coastal resort town of Swanage at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 60. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2014 and merged with Tyneham to form Steeple with Tyneham.The Gerrard family of Longhide were the principal landowners here fromb the fourteenth to the sixteenth century; the lands then passed by inheritance to the Napier family. The ancient Norman church of Steeple, dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, lacks a steeple. It has a coat of arms engraved in stone in the porch and another painted in scarlet of the roof interior that is precisely the same as George Washington's coat of arms, showing stars and stripes. The Washington arms is quartered with those of the squires of Steeple village, the Lawrence family, who are allied with the Washingtons by the marriage of one of its sons, Edmund Lawrence, to Agnes de Wessington in 1390. The flag of the US capital hangs inside the church, presented on 25 July 1977 by Walter E Washington, Mayor of Washington DC from 2 January 1975 - 2 January 1979 On the highest local point of the nearby Purbeck Ridge is an 18th-century folly built by the former owner of Creech Grange and known as Grange Arch. Today it is a Grade II listed building owned by the National Trust.

The Purbeck Hills, also called the Purbeck Ridge or simply the Purbecks, are a ridge of chalk downs in Dorset, England. It is formed by the structure known as the Purbeck Monocline. The ridge extends from Lulworth Cove in the west to Old Harry Rocks in the east, where it meets the sea. The hills are part of a system of chalk downlands in southern England formed from the Chalk Group which also includes Salisbury Plain and the South Downs. For most of their length the chalk of the Purbeck Hills is protected from coastal erosion by a band of resistant Portland limestone. Where this band ends, at Durlston Head, the clay and chalk behind has been eroded, creating Poole Bay and the Solent. The ridge of steeply dipping chalk that forms the Purbeck Hills continues further east on the Isle of Wight. The height of the chalk ridge and proximity to Poole Harbour and the south coast have made the hills of strategic importance. There are a number of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon archaeological sites, such as Nine Barrow Down. At Corfe Castle the hills are broken twice leaving a steep round hill between the ridges on which stood a medieval castle, guarding the only easy route through the hills, until the English Civil War of the 17th century, when it was slighted. Some of the ridge, around the village of Tyneham, near Lulworth, has been closed to the public for use by the army as a firing range. This has protected them from damage from farming and development, and these areas are now nature reserves. At the eastern end Ballard Down is a National Trust nature reserve which is managed for its calcareous grassland habitat.

Creech Barrow Hill is a steep, conical hill, 193 metres (633 ft) (one source 637 feet) high, near the coast of Dorset, England, and the highest point of the Dorset Heaths. It has been described as "one of Dorset's most distinctive landmarks." Geologically, it is also the highest Cenozoic hill in England.There is a single, round barrow at the summit that gives Creech Barrow Hill its name and, from some angles, the appearance of a double summit. To the southeast is Stone Hill Down long barrow. There is also a trig point on the summit.The name of the hill means "hill" three times. "Creech" is derived from the Celtic crich = hill and "barrow" from the Saxon for "mound".The hill is a classic viewpoint that was once the site of King John's hunting lodge.

The Stonehill Down Nature Reserve is a downland nature reserve on the Purbeck Hills in the county of Dorset, England. It is managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.Stonehill Down covers an area of 20 hectares and lies high on the chalk ridge running west/east across the Isle of Purbeck with far-reaching views across the Wareham Forest, with Poole Harbour to the east. It is bounded by the line of the Purbeck Hills to the south, with the summit of Ridgeway Hill about 1 kilometre to the west-southwest, and Corfe Castle about 3 kilometres to the west.

St Nicholas's Church is a parish church in Kimmeridge, Dorset. It is dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra. The church is in the Archdeaconry of Dorset, in the Diocese of Salisbury. The church is of 12th-century origin, much restored and rebuilt in the 19th-century. It is Grade II listed.

The Etches Collection (also known as the Museum of Jurassic Marine Life) is an independent fossil museum located in the village of Kimmeridge, Dorset, England. It is based on the lifetime collection of Steve Etches, a fossil hunter for whom some of his finds have been named, from the local area on the Jurassic Coast, an SSI and World Heritage Site, especially around Kimmeridge Bay and the Kimmeridge Ledges.

Kimmeridge ( ) is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Wareham and 7 miles (11 km) west of Swanage. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 90. Kimmeridge is a coastal parish and its coastline forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The coast is also part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole parish is part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Kimmeridge is the type locality for Kimmeridge Clay, the geological formation that covers most of the parish. Within the clay are bands of bituminous shale, which in the history of the village have been the focus of several attempts to create an industrial centre. An oil well has operated on the shore of Kimmeridge Bay since 1959. The village is the origin of the name of the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic. The roughly semi-circular Kimmeridge Bay is southwest of Kimmeridge village. It is backed by low cliffs of Kimmeridge clay, and beneath the cliffs is a large wave-cut platform and a rocky shore with rock pools and attendant ecology. Kimmeridge Bay is a surfer and diver area.

East Creech is a hamlet in the parish of Church Knowle in the county of Dorset, England. East Creech lies at the northern foot of the Purbeck Hills about 3 kilometres west of Corfe Castle. It is located at Ordnance Survey grid reference SY9282. It also lies within the East Creech Conservation Area which was first designated in 1990.In 1224, East Creech Manor was in the possession of Walter Le Franke. It passed down through his family to Mary Franke, who in 1637 married Edmund Hayter (d.1657) and the manor was transferred to him. It remained in the Hayter family until 1770, when Samuel Hayter (1736-1800) sold up and moved to Wareham Priory.

Hasler Hundred or Hasilor Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Arne Church Knowle East Holme Kimmeridge Steeple Tyneham

Kimmeridge Bay ( ) is a bay on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England, close to and southeast of the village of Kimmeridge, on the Smedmore Estate. The area is renowned for its fossils, with The Etches Collection in the village of Kimmeridge displaying fossils found by Steve Etches in the area over a 30-year period. It is a popular place to access the coast for tourists. To the east are the Kimmeridge Ledges, where fossils can be found in the flat clay beds.