Marshwood Castle

The Marshwood Vale (or Vale of Marshwood) is a low-lying, bowl-shaped valley of Lower Lias clay, in the western tip of the county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies to the north of the A35 trunk road between the towns of Bridport and Lyme Regis, and to the south of the two highest hills in Dorset, Lewesdon Hill (279m) and Pilsdon Pen (277m). It is drained by the River Char, which flows south-west to its mouth on the English Channel coast at Charmouth. All of the vale lies within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is an electoral ward with the same name stretching from Whitchurch Canonicororum north to Thorncombe. The total population of this ward is 1,717.

Pilsdon is a hamlet and civil parish in the Dorset unitary authority area of Dorset, England. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the parish population is 50.The Grade II* Pilsdon Manor House dates from the start of the 17th century. It was owned by the Wyndham family until 1958, when it became an Anglican religious community, similar in principle to the 17th-century Little Gidding community. The Pilsdon Community also has a branch at West Malling in Kent.

Bettiscombe is a small village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale four miles (6.4 km) west of Beaminster. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish is 50.

The Church of St Candida and Holy Cross is an Anglican church in Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset, England. A Saxon church stood on the site but nothing remains of that structure. The earliest parts of the church date from the 12th century when it was rebuilt by Benedictine monks. Further major rebuilding work took place in the 13th century and in the 14th century the church's prominent tower was constructed. The church features some Norman architectural features but is predominantly Early English and Perpendicular. George Somers, founder of the colony of Bermuda, is buried under the vestry and the assassinated Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is interred in the churchyard. It is an active Church of England parish church in the deanery of Lyme Bay, the archdeaconry of Sherborne, and the diocese of Salisbury. It is one of only two parish churches in the country to have a shrine that contains the relics of their patron saint. The relics belong to St. Candida (the Latin form of Saint Wite) to whom the church is dedicated. The church been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.

Whitchurch Canonicorum () is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale 5 miles (8.0 km) west-northwest of Bridport. In the 2011 Census the parish – which includes the settlements of Morcombelake, Ryall and Fishpond Bottom – had a population of 684.In the 899 will of King Alfred the Great it was left to his youngest son Æthelweard, and in 1086 in the Domesday Book, the village was recorded as Witcerce.On the northern edge of the village is the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross. It is noteworthy as containing the only shrine in Britain to have survived the Reformation with its relics intact, apart from those of Saint Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey and St Eanswythe in Folkestone. The saint in question is the somewhat obscure Saint Wite (Latinised as Saint Candida) after whom the church and the village are named. She is thought to be either a Christian martyred by the Danes or alternatively a West Saxon anchoress. Nothing more is known of her. The shrine of St Wite in the north wall of the transept is foramina-style, with three large vesica-shaped apertures for pilgrims to insert heads, hands, arms or feet. When the shrine was opened in 1900 it was found to contain a lead casket with the inscription +HIC. REQUIESCT. RELIQU. SCE. WITE (Here rest the relics of Saint Wite). The flag of Dorset makes dedication to St Wite. Sir George Somers (1554–1610) was the Mayor of Lyme Regis and later Governor of The Somers Isles (Bermuda). He died "of a surfeit in eating of a pig", on 9 November 1610 in Bermuda. His heart was buried in Bermuda but his body, pickled in a barrel, was landed on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in 1618. A volley of muskets and cannon saluted his last journey to the church at Whitchurch Canonicorum where his body is buried. It is also the burial place of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov and Sir Robin Day.The hamlet of Fishpond Bottom contains St John's Church, which was built in 1852 as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Whitchurch Canonicorum.

Ryall is a small village in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of Great Britain. It is situated roughly midway between the towns of Bridport and Lyme Regis, with the county town of Dorchester about 20 miles to the east. The village lies on the northern slopes of Hardown Hill, about 2 miles inland from the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. To the north the village looks across the Marshwood Vale towards a line of hills including Pilsdon Pen. Ryall is the home of 200 people.

Hardown Hill (207 metres, 679 feet high) is a hill between Ryall and Morcombelake in the county of Dorset, England. It rises west of the South Dorset Downs, close to the Dorset coast, and overlooks the Marshwood Vale to the north. Its prominence qualifies it as one of Dorset's four Marilyns and it is listed as one of the "top 12 Dorset views to take your breath away" by Dorset's official tourist website.The hill lies about 6 kilometres west of Bridport and about 500 metres north of the A 35 road. It is not nearly as well known as its southern extremity, Golden Cap, which is a spectacular bluff on the coast, 2 kilometres to the south. From the top of the hill, which is owned by the National Trust, there are impressive views that take in Thorncombe Beacon, Chardown Hill, Quarry Hill and Langdon Hill.There is a group of ten barrows, mostly covered in gorse and bracken, about 300 metres north of the summit above the hamlet of Ryall. These barrows are thought to be of disc and bowl form, likely dating to the Bronze Age. Wyatt Wingrave excavated fifteen artefacts dating to the Early Middle Ages in 1916, which he interpreted as the associated objects of an early Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial. No skeletal remains were found, and it is not clear which of the barrows was excavated. Vera Evison later reinterpreted the assemblage as a group of Anglo-Saxon burials that represented secondary interments in a Bronze Age barrow. A recent consideration of the context and a reclassification of the artefacts has cast doubts on the burial interpretation, and has instead interpreted the assemblage as a hoard.

Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred or Whitechurch Canonicorum Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: Burstock Catherston Leweston Charmouth Chideock Lyme Regis Marshwood Pilsdon Stanton St Gabriel Stockland (part) (i.e., Dalwood, transferred to Devon 1844) Symondsbury Whitchurch Canonicorum Wootton Fitzpaine

Morcombelake (also spelled Morecombelake) is a small village near Bridport in Dorset, England, within the ancient parish of Whitchurch Canonicorum. Golden Cap, part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, is nearby.

Pilsdon Pen is a 277-metre (909 ft) hill in Dorset in South West England, situated at the north end of the Marshwood Vale, approximately 4.5 miles (7.2 km) west of Beaminster. It is Dorset's second highest point and has panoramic views extending for many miles. It was bequeathed to the National Trust by the Pinney family in 1982. For many years it was thought to be Dorset's highest hill, until modern survey revealed that nearby Lewesdon Hill was 2 metres higher.

St Mary's Church is a Church of England church in Marshwood, Dorset, England. The earliest part of the church is the tower, which dates to 1840, while the rest of the building dates to a rebuild of 1883–84. St Mary's has been a Grade II listed building since 1983.

Marshwood is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated on the northern edge of the Marshwood Vale approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council estimate that the parish had a population of 310 in 2013. Figures published from the 2011 census are for Marshwood parish combined with the small neighbouring parish of Bettiscombe: the combined population was 346.The village school was opened in 1842 and covers the catchment areas of Marshwood, Pilsdon, Bettiscombe, and Blackdown Ward of Broadwindsor. Secondary education is provided at Woodroffe School, Lyme Regis. The church of St Mary's was built in 1840-41 and underwent a rebuild in 1883–84. The Bottle Inn on the outskirts of Marshwood is home to the world stinging nettle eating championships. It is also the 2016 Regional (Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire & the Channel Islands) CAMRA winner for its range & quality of ciders & ales. The parish contains the ruins of Marshwood Castle, which is a scheduled monument.