Nunnery Mead

Frampton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in the Frome valley among chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The village's name is a derivation from "Frome Town".The A356 main road and the Heart of Wessex railway line run through the village; the nearest railway station is approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away at Maiden Newton. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 524. Frampton was once the centre of a Liberty of the same name. Roman tessellated pavements have been found at Frampton, depicting one of the earliest known Christian symbols in England. In 1704 Robert Browne built Frampton Court in the vicinity of the village. The site was where there had at one time been a cell of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne in Caen, Normandy. In the nineteenth century the Game Laws, which govern English field sports, were drafted at the Court. Many of the cottages in the village are from the Frampton estate. Around 1840 the owner of the Court demolished many houses in the village (on the south side of the main road) and replaced them with trees, to improve the view from the Court. Today the legacy of the Court and its park is that the valley around Frampton is still well-wooded, and most of the houses in the village lie to the north of the main road. Frampton Court itself was demolished in 1935.Frampton includes the small hamlet of Southover on the south side of the river. This previously comprised two farms—Southover Farm and Longlands Farm—and accompanying labourers cottages, plus a large private house with tiered gardens and an orchard. Today the agricultural basis of Southover has declined and most of the cottages and houses are in private hands. Nunnery Mead, a nature reserve managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust, is near the village. It includes the site of Frampton Roman Villa, a scheduled monument.

Frampton Liberty was a liberty in the county of Dorset, England, which contained the following parishes: Bettiscombe Bincombe Burton Bradstock Compton Valence Frampton Winterborne Came (In part)

Frampton Priory was a Benedictine priory in England, near the village of Frampton in Dorset and mentioned in the Domesday Book. The priory was subordinate to the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, in Caen, Normandy. The land on which the priory stood was given to the Browne family after King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. Robert Browne built his residence Frampton Court at the priory's former location in 1705. Frampton Court was demolished in 1932.

Cruxton is a hamlet in the English county of Dorset. It lies eight miles north-west of the county town of Dorchester, and one mile south-east of the village of Maiden Newton. It is sited on the west bank of the River Frome, amongst the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. According to the Dorset author and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, the old house in the hamlet "was certainly a manor. William Crox gave thirty marks to have seizin of the vill in 1205."The Froome Valley Trail long distance foopath runs throught Cruxton.

Hog Cliff is a national nature reserve (NNR) and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) located 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south east of Maiden Newton, Dorset and north-west of Dorchester. It was notified as an SSSI in 1981. The site is also part of the much larger Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It is adjacent to the Court Farm, Sydling SSSI.The area of the site is 86.7 hectares (214 acres). It is a chalk downland and thus part of the Dorset Downs. The site includes grassland, scrub and a small amount of woodland (mostly ash and oak, with a hazel and field maple understory); within the grassland there is a difference in character, and the species that it supports, which varies according to the gradient and aspect of the slopes. While the invertebrates on the site have not been extensively studied, it is known that species such as the rare Adonis blue and marsh fritillary butterflies can be found there; this is in addition to more common species such as the green hairstreak, common blue and gatekeeper. Fungi, particularly grassland varieties, are very well represented at Hog Cliff; the SSSI citation indicates over 60 genera as having been identified, whilst Natural England claim 100 species for the NNR. Cattle and sheep graze the site throughout the year to keep the grassland open.In 2008, a case was brought by the Environment Agency against a nearby pig farmer who was deliberately allowing pig slurry to be discharged onto land that included part of the Hog Cliff reserve.

St Francis' Church is a Church of England church in Frome Vauchurch, Dorset, England. It has 12th-century origins, with a major rebuild in the 17th-century and restoration work in the 19th-century. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

Frome Vauchurch is a parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It includes the hamlets of Frome Vauchurch, Higher Frome Vauchurch, Lower Frome Vauchurch and Tollerford. Frome Vauchurch is sited in the Frome valley amongst the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The parish is adjacent to the village of Maiden Newton, with which the parish's hamlets are virtually contiguous. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 160.The Frome Valley Trail and the Mackmillan Way long-distance trails pass through the parish.Frome Vauchurch was the home of the writers Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland. They moved into a house called Riversdale beside the River Frome in 1937, which they first rented and later bought.The Parish Church of St Francis is originally 12th century but was substantially rebuilt in the 17th century and restored in c.1879, and is a Grade II* listed building.

Maiden Newton railway station is a railway station serving the village of Maiden Newton in Dorset, England. The station is located on the Heart of Wessex Line, 154.12 miles (248.03 kilometres) from the zero point at London Paddington, measured via Swindon and Westbury.

Maiden Newton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, about 9 miles (14 km) north-west of the county town, Dorchester.

The River Hooke is a small river in the county of Dorset in southern England. It runs from its source at Toller Whelme through the villages and hamlets of Hooke, Kingcombe, Toller Porcorum and Toller Fratrum to join the River Frome at Maiden Newton, a course of some 6 miles. The river was formerly called the River Toller, whence the name of the three Toller villages, as well as of the hundred of Tollerford. At some point, however, this former name was replaced in use by reference to a particular feature in the river's course: "Hooke" is a derivation of hoc, Old English for "sharp bend in a stream". It is possible that this description gave the village of Hooke its name, which then transferred to the river by back-formation. Although the River Hooke is flanked on both sides by chalk slopes of the Dorset Downs, in its course it has cut down to greensand. According to the Dorset-born author and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, this has resulted in "many springy and boggy patches which are not typical of chalk valleys." Writing in 1965, Wightman commented that at Hooke village itself "the largest spring I have ever seen used to gush out of the steep hillside, and was immediately used for watercress."

Compton Valence is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of the county town Dorchester. It is sited at the head of a narrow valley, formed by a small tributary of the River Frome, and is surrounded by the hills of the Dorset Downs, which has led to it having been described as "a pocket of habitation in the downs." Dorset County Council estimate that in 2013 the population of the parish was 50.The parish church has a 15th-century tower, but the rest of the building was rebuilt in 1838–1839 by Benjamin Ferrey. The church is a Grade II* listed building.The locality is known to geologists for the 'Compton Valence Dome', arising from the local upcoming of the chalk strata. The core of this geological structure has been eroded to reveal the older underlying Middle Jurassic mudstones. It lies astride the Wynford Fault and is thought to arise from a complex intersection of faults in the area.Compton Valence is known locally for its display of snowdrops, which fill the road verges in late winter.

The Grimstone Viaduct is a railway bridge on the Castle Cary-Weymouth "Heart of Wessex" line in Dorset, England. It is directly north of the site of Grimstone and Frampton railway station, in the hamlet of Grimstone at the western edge of the parish of Stratton. The viaduct was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and was built as part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway line, opened by the Great Western Railway in 1857. It consists of three arches; the central arch passes over the road from Grimstone to Sydling St. Nicholas, and is connected to the arches either side of it by a series of arches within the bridge. Sydling Water flows underneath the bridge. It is a Grade II listed building.