Donhead St Andrew

Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows (grid reference ST916236) is an 11.34 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, England which sits on the Upper Greensand and Gault Clay. The site is home to rare fen meadow and neutral grassland communities in an unimproved grassland. Species such as Triglochin palustris, Caltha palustris and Oenanthe pimpinelloides can be found at the location. Three streams, which form headwaters of the River Nadder flow through the site. It was notified in 2002.

Donhead St Mary is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Dorset. The village lies about 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury and stands on high ground above the River Nadder, which rises in the parish. In the south of the parish, on the A30 Salisbury-Shaftesbury road, are the village of Ludwell and its neighbouring hamlet of Birdbush; Charlton hamlet is south of the road. To the north are the hamlets of Coombe, comprising Higher Coombe, Middle Coombe and Lower Coombe. In the north-west of the parish, near Shaftesbury, is the hamlet of Higher Wincombe.

Shute House, Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire, England is a former rectory, now a private home, notable for its gardens designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe. Situated about 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) east of Shaftesbury, the house and garden are at the very southern edge of Wiltshire, on the border with Dorset. The house is a Grade II listed building, while the gardens have a higher Grade II* listing on Historic England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. They have been described as Jellicoe's finest work. He worked at Shute House between 1969 and 1983 for the then owners, Michael and Anne Tree, returning to revitalise the garden for new owners in the mid-1990s, in what became his final work before his death in 1996.

Ludwell is a small village in south Wiltshire, England, approximately 3 miles (5 km) east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury. It lies within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the A30 Salisbury-Shaftesbury road. For the purposes of local government, Ludwell is part of Donhead St Mary civil parish. Peckons Hill, Birdbush and Brook Waters are neighbouring hamlets to the northeast of Ludwell, along the A30 towards Ansty and Swallowcliffe. The village has a primary school which was established in 1875, and an Anglican church, St John the Baptist, built in 1839 in Neo-Norman style with a two-tower west facade.Notable buildings are Ludwell Stores & Post Office, a late 18th-century house with attached former bakery; and the Grove Arms public house, from the early 17th century with additions in the early 18th and 19th. Other businesses include T. Buttlings traditional butchers and Greenacre farm shop.

Wardour is a settlement in Wiltshire, England, about 13 miles (21 km) west of Salisbury and 4 miles (6 km) south of Hindon. Formerly a parish in its own right, it is now part of the civil parish of Tisbury.

Ferne House is a country house in the parish of Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire, England, owned by Viscount Rothermere.There has been a settlement on the site since 1225 AD. The current house, known as Ferne Park and the third to occupy the site, was designed by the 2005 Driehaus Prize winner Quinlan Terry in 2001. The estate grounds straddle Donhead St Andrew and Berwick St John parishes.Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts were found in the vicinity of the house during 1988 archaeological fieldwork.

Gutch Common (grid reference ST896259) is a 35.1 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1951.

New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, who was a principal architect of the Imperial Russian capital city, Saint Petersburg. The building of the house was begun in 1769 and completed in 1776, with additional buildings being added in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1961 to 1990, it was the home of Cranborne Chase School, an independent boarding school for girls. New Wardour Castle is approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) from Old Wardour Castle, which was left as a landscape feature of the parkland of the new house. This was formerly the home of the Arundell family before it was besieged, damaged and slighted in the Civil War.

Cranborne Chase School was an independent boarding school for girls, originally opened in 1946 at Crichel House in the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset. In 1961, the school moved to New Wardour Castle near Tisbury in Wiltshire, and extensively renovated the building, which had fallen into a severe state of disrepair.In 1985 there were 130 girls, aged between 11 and 18 years, and 26 teachers at the school. The school eventually closed in July 1990.

Wardour Castle in Wiltshire was besieged twice during the First English Civil War; once in May 1643, and then again between November 1643 and March 1644. During the first siege, a Parliamentarian force of around 1,300 men led by Sir Edward Hungerford attacked the castle, which was the home of Thomas Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Wardour, a prominent Catholic and Royalist. Arundell was absent, fighting for King Charles at the time of the attack, and the defence was led by his wife, Lady Blanche Arundell, in command of 25 soldiers. The siege was started on 2 May, and lasted for a week before the Parliamentarians forced Lady Arundell to surrender on 8 May. The Parliamentarians garrisoned the castle with 75 men, led by Colonel Edmund Ludlow. Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, the son of Thomas and Blanche, brought a Royalist force to reclaim the castle, and by November 1643 a tight blockade had been established. The castle was well-provisioned, and it was only when the Royalists exploded mines under the walls, creating large holes in the defences, that they forced the castle's surrender. The damage to the castle left it uninhabitable, and over 100 years later, the Arundell family commissioned New Wardour Castle to be built nearby.

Wardour Castle is a ruined 14th-century castle at Wardour, on the boundaries of the civil parishes of Tisbury and Donhead St Andrew in the English county of Wiltshire, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Salisbury. The castle was built in the 1390s, came into the ownership of the Arundells in the 16th century and was rendered uninhabitable in 1643 and 1644 during the English Civil War. A Grade I listed building, it is managed by English Heritage and open to the public.

Pythouse, sometimes spelled Pyt House and pronounced pit-house, is a country house in southwest Wiltshire, in the west of England. It is about 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) west of the village of Tisbury. Described as a "fine classical house", Pythouse is set in parkland with a ha-ha separating the formal house lawn from surrounding parkland on which livestock may graze. It has an Ionic portico, and the front elevation may have inspired the design of Philipps House at nearby Dinton, which was begun in 1813 and designed by Sir Jeffry Wyatville. Leigh Court in Somerset was later built to the plans used for Pythouse.