St Osmund's Church, Melbury Osmond

Melbury Osmond is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the Somerset town of Yeovil. The underlying geology is Cornbrash limestone, with adjacent Oxford clay. Within the clay can be found deposits of stone which can take on a very high polish, earning them the name "Melbury marble". The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of the Arundell family, and remained so until the 19th century. The parish church, St. Osmund's, was totally rebuilt in 1745 and restored in 1888, although it has registers dating back to 1550. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 199.The major part of Melbury Osmond village lies on a cul-de-sac lane which from the church descends past cottages to a stream and ford. The attractive appearance of the village has been noted by commentators: it has been described as "a calendarsmith's dream of thatched cottages" and in 1906 Sir Frederick Treves wrote that it was "the most charming village in these Western backwoods".In its history the village has been involved in the trade of plated buckles and horn buttons, and the manufacture of dowlas. During the 19th century, the village was home to the Dorset Ooser, a wooden mask brought out during "Rough Music" ceremonies.There are 34 listed buildings and structures within the parish, including the Grade II* Old Rectory and the Grade I parish church.Thomas Hardy's mother lived in Melbury Osmond as a child, and she was married in the church. The village appears as "Little Hintock" in Hardy's novel The Woodlanders, in which the heroine's name is "Grace Melbury". Hardy also incorporated a legend about the Duke of Monmouth taking refuge in one of the village's cottages into his short story "The Duke's Reappearance".

Melbury Sampford is a village and civil parish 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Dorchester, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 33. The parish touches East Chelborough, Evershot, Melbury Bubb, Melbury Osmond and Stockwood.

Melbury House is an English country house in the parish of Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset. The Grade I listed mansion is the home of the Honourable Charlotte Townshend, a major landowner in east Dorset, through her mother, Theresa Fox-Strangways (Viscountess Galway), daughter and heiress of Harry Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester.

Stockwood is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, around eight miles south-west of Sherborne and less than a mile away from Chetnole railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line. There are a few houses on the road leading to the A37 between Yeovil and Dorchester. In 2001 the parish had a population of 27. St Edwold's Church, often described as Dorset's smallest church, is located in Stockwood.

St Edwold's Church in Stockwood, Dorset, England was rebuilt in the 15th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 23 January 1959, and was vested in the Trust on 1 March 1972. St Edwold's Church is often described as Dorset's smallest. The church sits next to a farmhouse directly under the wooded heights of Bubb Down. It is a single-celled building. The porch has the date "1636" inscribed, reflecting the fact that the church was rebuilt to some extent in the seventeenth century when a bell turret was also installed. However, John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner in their Buildings of England volume describe it as "Perp, with Henry VIII side windows and a three-light E window with panel tracery," and also refer to the "delightfully naive bell-turret, round, with a cap on four stumpy columns and a big grotesque face." A Piscina is mounted on the outside south wall probably as a result of a Victorian restoration. Inside, the church is very plainly furnished. The dedication to St Edwold (9th century) is unique in Dorset. Edwold was the brother of St Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia, and he lived as a recluse at nearby Cerne after his sibling's death. It is not entirely clear why Stockwood church is dedicated to Edwold, but Kenneth Smith's guidebook suggests that he may have also had a cell here as well as at Cerne.

The Church of All Saints in Closworth, Somerset, England was built in the 13th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Closworth is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Yeovil in the South Somerset district, on the border with Dorset. The village has a population of 220.The parish includes the villages of Pendomer and Sutton Bingham, the location for Sutton Bingham Manor, Sutton Bingham Sailing Club (SBSC) and Sutton Bingham and District Canoe Club (SBDCC). It sits on a reservoir of the same name owned by Wessex Water. It has an approximate population of 25.

Ryme Intrinseca ( ) is a village and civil parish in northwest Dorset, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Yeovil and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Yetminster. It is sited on a low ridge of cornbrash limestone on the edge of the Blackmore Vale. The Intrinseca part of the name derives from the existence of the manors of Long Bredy and Langton Herring in the south of the county which also went by the name Ryme; that Ryme was known as Ryme Extrinsica but the name has long fallen out of use. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 115.The church at Ryme Intrinseca, which dates back to the 13th century, is dedicated to St. Hippolytus and there are only two churches dedicated as such in England: cf. St Ippolyts, a village on the southern edge of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. The chancel and nave of the church are basically from the 13th century, but architecturally the most interesting features lie in the unusual 17th-century work which includes the east window and most of the windows in the nave, (including the little trefoil placed high to light the pulpit). Also from the early 17th century is the tower, with its intricate profile caused by the projecting stairway. There is an alms dish in the church which was lost in 1873 and found its way back to Dorset from Bideford in Devon in 1938. Ryme once constituted a separate liberty, containing only the parish itself.

Evershot is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of Yeovil in Somerset. It is the second highest village in the county at 175 metres (574 ft) above sea-level. Evershot parish encompasses part of the nearby hamlet of Holywell, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) east of Evershot village. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 210. The village has connections with the writer Thomas Hardy.

Melbury Bubb is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in South West England, situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the town of Sherborne. It is sited on Cornbrash limestone beneath the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The A37 trunk road between Dorchester and Bristol passes about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the west, on the other side of Bubb Down Hill. This hill used to be the site of a beacon. The first half of the village name derives from maele and burh—Old English for "multi-coloured" and "fortified place"—and the second half is a manorial name which derives either from a Saxon resident named 'Bubba' or from medieval lords of the manor. Dorset County Council's latest (2013) estimate of the parish population is 40. The parish church of St Mary has a 15th-century tower but the rest of the building was largely rebuilt in a 19th-century restoration. Its font however is carved out of the column of an upturned Saxon cross; it is elaborately carved, although the carvings are upside-down. Families were often noted as owners in books, for instance: the Blain family recently sold the property, despite occupying it for just shy of 100 years.

West Hill is a prominent hill, 224 metres (735 ft) high, just to the west of the village of Evershot in the county of Dorset in southern England. Its prominence of 63 metres (207 ft) means it is listed as one of the Tumps. It is located within the Dorset Downs. The summit is relatively flat and open. A public footpath runs past the summit to the south and there is a lane called Horsey Knap that crosses the northern flank of the hill and descends into Evershot.

Chetnole railway station is a small rural station serving the village of Chetnole, Dorset, England. The station is on the Heart of Wessex Line 21¼ miles (34 km) north of Weymouth towards Westbury, and 147.5 miles (237.4 kilometres) from the zero point at London Paddington, measured via Swindon and Westbury.