Stourhead
Stourhead is a 1,072-hectare estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire. The estate is about 2 1⁄2 miles northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens and woodland. Stourhead has been part-owned by the National Trust since 1946; the Stourton family had lived at the Stourhead estate for 500 years until they sold it to Sir Thomas Meres in 1714. His son, John Meres, sold it in 1717 to son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare; the original manor house was demolished and a new house, one of the first of its kind, was designed by Colen Campbell and built by Nathaniel Ireson between 1721 and 1725. Over the next 200 years, the Hoare family collected many heirlooms, including a large library and art collection. In 1902, the house was gutted by fire but many of the heirlooms were saved, the house was rebuilt in a nearly identical style; the last Hoare family member to own the property, Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, gave the house and gardens to the National Trust in 1946, one year before his death.
His son and sole heir, Captain Henry Colt Arthur "Harry" Hoare, of the Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry, had died of wounds received at the Battle of Mughar Ridge on 13 November 1917 during World War I. The last Hoare family member to be born at the house was Edward Hoare on 11 October 1949; the National Trust's corporate font, designed by Paul Barnes, is based on an inscription in the grotto, created around 1748. The inscription was destroyed in error around 1960 and a replica was made from photographs. Although the main design for the estate at Stourhead was created by Colen Campbell, other architects were involved in its evolution through the years. William Benson, Henry Hoare's brother-in-law, was in part responsible for the building of the estate in 1719. Francis Cartwright, a master builder and architect, established as a "competent provincial designer in the Palladian manner", worked on Stourhead between 1749 and 1755. Cartwright was a known carver of materials such as wood and stone, it is assumed that his contribution to Stourhead was in this capacity.
Nathaniel Ireson is the master builder credited for much of the work on the Estate: it is this work that established his career, in 1720. The original estate remained intact, though additions were made over time. Henry Flitcroft built three temples and a tower on the property: the Temple of Ceres was added in 1744, followed by the Temple of Hercules in 1754 and the Temple of Apollo in 1765. During the ownership of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the mason and surveyor John Carter added an ornamental cottage to the grounds and the architect William Wilkins created a Grecian style lodge. In 1840, over a century after the initial buildings were constructed, Charles Parker was hired by Sir Hugh Hoare to make changes to the estate. A portico was added to the main house, along with other alterations; the design of the additions was in keeping with original plans. The lake at Stourhead is artificially created. Following a path around the lake is meant to evoke a journey similar to that of Aeneas's descent in to the underworld.
In addition to Greek mythology, the layout is evocative of the "genius of the place", a concept expounded by Alexander Pope. Buildings and monuments are erected in remembrance of family and local history. Henry Hoare was a collector of art. Passages telling of Aeneas's journey are quoted in the temples surrounding the lake. Monuments are used to frame one another; the use of the sunken path allows the landscape to continue on into neighbouring landscapes, allowing the viewer to contemplate all the surrounding panorama. The Pantheon was thought to be the most important visual feature of the gardens, it appears in many pieces of artwork owned by Hoare. The plantings in the garden were arranged in a manner that would evoke different moods, drawing visitors through realms of thought. According to Henry Hoare,'The greens should be ranged together in large masses as the shades are in painting: to contrast the dark masses with the light ones, to relieve each dark mass itself with little sprinklings of lighter greens here and there.'The gardens were designed by Henry Hoare II and laid out between 1741 and 1780 in a classical 18th-century design set around a large lake, achieved by damming a small stream.
The inspiration behind their creation were the painters Claude Lorrain, and, in particular, Gaspard Dughet, who painted Utopian-type views of Italian landscapes. An early feature, predating the lake, is the Temple of Flora. Lakeside features include the five-arched Palladian Bridge at the eastern extremity of the lake. In the garden are a number of temples inspired by scenes of the Grand Tour of Europe. On one hill overlooking the gardens stand an obelisk of 1839 and King Alfred's Tower, a 50-metre-tall, brick folly designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772; the large medieval Bristol High Cross was moved from Bristol to the gardens. The gardens are home to a large collection of shrubs from around the world. Richard Colt Hoare, the grandson of Henry Hoare II, inherited Stourhead in 1783, he added the library wing t
Gillingham, Dorset
Gillingham is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It lies on the B3095 and B3081 roads in the North Dorset administrative district 4 miles south of the A303 trunk road and 5 miles northwest of Shaftesbury, it is the most northerly town in the county. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 11,756; the neighbouring hamlets of Peacemarsh and Wyke have become part of Gillingham as it has expanded. Gillingham is pronounced with a hard initial'g', unlike Gillingham, pronounced with a soft'g'. There is a stone age barrow in the town, evidence of Roman settlement in the 2nd and 3rd centuries; the church of St Mary the Virgin has a Saxon cross shaft dating from the 9th century. The name Gillingham was used for the town in its 10th century Saxon charter, in an entry for 1016 in the annals, as the location of a battle between Edmund Ironside and the Vikings. In the Domesday Book in 1086 it is recorded as Gelingeham, spellings include Gellingeham in 1130, Gyllingeham in 1152 and Gilingeham in 1209.
The name derives from a personal name plus the Old English inga and hām, means a homestead of the family or followers of a man called Gylla. Half of the town's population of 2,000 died of the Black Death in the four months following October 1348. In the Middle Ages, Gillingham was the site of a royal hunting lodge, visited by Kings Henry I, Henry II, John and Henry III. A nearby royal forest, Gillingham Forest, was set aside for the king's deer; the lodge fell into disrepair and was destroyed in 1369 by Edward III. Edward Rawson, the first secretary to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was born in Gillingham. Gillingham became a local farming centre, gained the first grammar school in Dorset in 1516 and a mill for silk in 1769. Gillingham's church has a 14th-century chancel, though most of the rest of the building was built in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many other buildings in the town are of Tudor origin. In the 1820s, the artist John Constable stayed at Gillingham vicarage and, being impressed by the beauty of the countryside, executed several local sketches and paintings.
His painting of the old town bridge is in the Tate Gallery. In the 1850s, the arrival of the railway to the town brought prosperity and new industries including brickmaking, cheese production, soap manufacture and at the end of the 19th century one of the first petrol engine plants in the country. In the Second World War Gillingham's position on the railway from London to Exeter was key to its rapid growth. In 1940 and 1941 there was large-scale evacuation of London and other industrial cities to rural towns in the north and Wales. Gillingham grew because of this.. Gillingham was the centre of a liberty of the same name. In the 2011 census Gillingham civil parish had 5,345 dwellings, 5,107 households and a population of 11,756; the population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2011 is shown in the table below: Gillingham is divided into four electoral wards: Gillingham Town, Lodbourne and Wyke. Their total population in the 2011 census was 9,799, they form part of the constituency of North Dorset, represented in the UK parliament by the Conservative Simon Hoare.
Gillingham has good transport links, being 4 miles south of the A303, the main road from London to the South West, having a railway station on the Exeter to London railway line. Salisbury is about 30 minutes away by train, 50 minutes by car, it is two hours into central London, with trains arriving at Waterloo. The town has 70 shops and two commercial estates and the Gillingham education area has 7 primary schools and 1 secondary school; the town plays host to the annual'Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show', an agricultural show held every August at the showground on the outskirts of the town. Gillingham Town Carnival is held every October. Gillingham has a Non-League football club, Gillingham Town F. C. who play at Harding's Lane, a rugby union club. Until 2009, when it ceased for financial reasons, Gillingham hosted an annual 10-day festival of music and sport. Gillingham has had a brass band since 1928. Gillingham has the only night club in North Dorset. List of hundreds in Dorset Porter, John. Gillingham's royal forest: the medieval centuries.
Gillingham: Gillingham Museum. ISBN 9780992706302. Gillingham Town Council North Dorset District Council Gillingham Museum
West of England line
The West of England line is a British railway line from Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Exeter St David's in Devon, England. Passenger services run between Exeter. Despite its historic title, it is not today's principal route from London to the West of England: Exeter and everywhere further west is reached more from London Paddington via the Reading–Taunton line. At Salisbury, the line intersects with the Wessex Main Line; when all sections had been incorporated into the London and South Western Railway, they consisted of the following: Basingstoke to Salisbury Basingstoke to Andover, opened 3 July 1854 Andover to Salisbury, opened 1 May 1857 Branches: Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed 30 May 1936 From Hurstbourne and Andover to Romsey and on to Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via Longparish opened 1 June 1885. At Andover, junction with the Midland and South Western Junction Railway to Cheltenham Bulford Camp branch Salisbury to Romsey, with a branch to Bournemouth At Salisbury, the Great Western Railway line from Westbury and Bristol had its own terminus: the L&SWR continued the route southeast towards Southampton.
This route is known nowadays the Wessex Main Line. Between Salisbury and Exeter: Salisbury–Yeovil opened 2 May 1859 Yeovil–Exeter opened 19 July 1860 Branches: To Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR To Chard joint station with the GWR To Lyme Regis from Axminster To Seaton from Seaton Junction To Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction To Exmouth from Exmouth Junction near ExeterThe line was downgraded by being singled for long sections west of Salisbury by British Rail; this restricts the number of trains on this section, but passing loops have been added to alleviate this problem. Beyond Exeter, the line continued to Plymouth via Okehampton and Tavistock as the Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR; this line is now closed, with the surviving sections downgraded to branch lines. The section from Exeter to Coleford Junction, near Yeoford, is still in existence as part of the Tarka Line; the Dartmoor Railway still exists as a heritage line and industrial line from Coleford Junction to Okehampton, where the track breaks.
Tavistock lacks a rail connection, the final section of the original main line, from Bere Alston, continues to Plymouth as part of the Tamar Valley Line. Trains between London Waterloo and Exeter run on the South Western Main Line as far as Basingstoke; the West of England Line diverges from this line at Worting Junction, a short distance west of Basingstoke. Network Rail splits the line into two sections: the first section from the line's start at Worting Junction to Wilton Junction is classified as "London & SE commuter"; the secondary route west of Salisbury is predominantly single track, but has three sections of double track and four passing loops. The double track sections and passing loops are: a loop just outside Tisbury station,a loop at Gillingham station, double track from Templecombe to Yeovil Junction, a loop at the former Chard Junction station, 3 miles of double track centred on Axminster, a loop at Honiton station, double track from Pinhoe to Exeter; the line's speed limit is 80–90 mph over its whole length from Basingstoke to Exeter.
Speed is further limited around the junctions. The first section to Wilton Junction has a listed line speed of 50–90 mph, the secondary section to Exeter has a line speed of 85 mph with parts at 70 mph. Passenger services are operated by South Western Railway using Class 159 and Class 158 trains, they run half-hourly from London to Salisbury and hourly to Exeter, calling at Clapham Junction and/or Woking and most stations between Basingstoke and Exeter St David's although some smaller stations east of Salisbury and near Exeter have a reduced service. The Network Rail South West Main Line Route Utilisation Strategy recommended building an extended section of double track from Chard Junction to Axminster, plus a passing loop at Whimple. However, Network Rail's Route Plan is silent on the Whimple loop; the Axminster Loop is centred on Axminster station, does not extend to Chard Junction as proposed. The line between Basingstoke and Exeter is not electrified. Exeter to Plymouth railway of the LSWR Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 3 – South West Main Line Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 4 – Wessex Routes Network Rail Business Plan 2006: Route 12 – Reading to Penzance Ordnance Survey R.
V. J. Butt; the Directory of Railway Stations. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens. ISBN 9781852605087. J. H. Lucking. Railways of Dorset: an outline of their establishment and progress from 1825. Lichfield: Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. OCLC 31916. Johnston, Howard. "Unlocking the potential to Exeter". RAIL. No. 329. EMAP Apex Publications. Pp. 20–24. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699
Canford Magna
Canford Magna is a village in Dorset, England. The village is situated just south of the River Stour and lies between the towns of Wimborne Minster and Poole. Canford School, a boarding school is located in the village; the school was the mansion and estate of Lord Wimborne. A golf club lies on the edge of the school; the village has a mixture of thatch and brick buildings serving as residences for teaching staff. The western edge of the village merges with the residential suburb of Merley and the village community of Oakley; the village has a church, the oldest part of, nearly a thousand years old. The village school was built in 1866 and now serves as the youth club for Canford and Merley
Bournemouth Borough Council
Bournemouth Borough Council was the local authority of Bournemouth in Dorset and ceased to exist on April 1st 2019. It was a unitary authority, although between 1974 and 1997 it was an administrative district council with Dorset. Most of the borough was part of Hampshire; the Borough can trace its history back to 27 August 1890 when the Municipal Borough of Bournemouth was created by Royal Charter. On 1 April 1900 it received County Borough status which lasted until 1974. In February 2018 the'Future Dorset' plan was approved by the Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government Sajid Javid, which means that Bournemouth and Poole borough councils merged on April 1st 2019 into one singular unitary authority; the borough is administered by Bournemouth Borough Council. The Council has 18 wards covering the borough. Boscombe East Boscombe West Central East Cliff & Springbourne East Southbourne & Tuckton Kinson North Kinson South Littledown & Iford Moordown Queen's Park Redhill & Northbourne Strouden Park Talbot & Branksome Woods Throop & Muscliff Wallisdown & Winton West West Southbourne Westbourne & Westcliff Winton East The Council consists of 54 elected members, 3 from each of the 18 wards.
Prior to 2003 there were 19 wards. Elections take place every four years; the composition of the Council: The Council will be abolished on 1 April 2019 and replaced by Bournemouth and Poole Council. The arms of Bournemouth were granted on 24 March 1891; the crest consists of four English roses surmounted by a pine tree. The motto is Pulchritudo et Salubritas, Latin for "beauty and health"; the colours of the shield, the main part of the coat of arms, are taken from the royal arms of King Edward the Confessor, in whose royal estate the area now known as Bournemouth was situated. The four salmon represent those to be found in the River Stour, which marks the boundary between Christchurch and Bournemouth; each of the lions holds a rose between its paws. The six birds taken from Edward the Confessor's arms, are martlets, heraldic birds with no legs; the roses in the arms are emblems both of England and of Hampshire, which Bournemouth belonged to. Bournemouth local elections
Sturminster Newton
Sturminster Newton is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It is situated on a low limestone ridge in a meander of the River Stour; the town is at the centre of a large dairy agriculture region, around which the town's economy is built. The larger part of the town lies on the north side of the river, includes most shops and services, whilst to the south is the smaller Newton. Between these two areas is a wide flood plain; the town was the home of poet and author William Barnes, for part of his life, Thomas Hardy. The town has 43 shops, a primary and secondary school, a school and college catering for children with special educational needs. In the 2011 census the town's civil parish had a population of 4,292. A market is held in the town on Mondays. One of the largest cattle markets in England used to be held here, but it was closed in 1998 and now in its place stands a housing estate and a 300-seat community arts centre called The Exchange; the town is part of the historic West Country Carnival circuit.
Sturminster Newton was recorded in the Anglo Saxon charter in 968 as Nywetone at Stoure, in the Domesday Book as Newentone. Newton refers to a new farm or estate, Sturminster to a church on the Stour; the two parts of the name referred to the settlements on the north and south of the river, but were combined to distinguish the town from Sturminster Marshall and other Newtons. Hidden on the hill above the bridge over the river are the ruins of Sturminster Newton Castle, a manor house rather than a defensive building; the 14th-century building stands on a crescent shaped mound which could be the site of an Iron Age hill fort. The town and castle were part of Sturminster Newton hundred. Sturminster Newton is situated at a historic fording point on the Stour; the ford was replaced in the 16th century with a six-arch stone bridge, a quarter kilometre embankment crossing the flood plain. The bridge was widened from 12 to 18ft in 1820. A 19th-century plaque affixed to the bridge states that anyone damaging the bridge would be transported to Australia as a felon.
On the south bank of the river is the watermill, restored in 1980 and is now a museum. The town centre is built in a mixture of styles, including 17th- and 18th-century thatched cottages, Georgian stone buildings, 19th-century brick buildings. Set back from the main road is the market square and parish church of St Mary, rebuilt in 1486 by the abbots of Glastonbury; the church was modified in the 19th century, but the carved wagon roof remains. From 1863 the Somerset and Dorset Railway ran through the town until 1966 when it was dismantled as part of the Beeching Axe; the railway goods yard gave milk trains access to the private sidings of the local creamery. Started in 1913 by local farmers to produce cheddar cheese and pasteurised milk, it was taken over by the Milk Marketing Board in 1937. Milk trains ceased in 1966 on closure of the line, with the creamery remaining in operation until 2000 under successor Dairy Crest; the station and goods yard were demolished in the mid 1970s. The town is set in the vale on which Thomas Hardy based his fictional Vale of the little dairies and Sturminster had the largest cattle market in Europe, which stood close to the town centre until it was closed and demolished in 1997.
In the United Kingdom national parliament, Sturminster is in the North Dorset parliamentary constituency, represented by Simon Hoare of the Conservative party. At the top tier of local government Sturminster is governed by Dorset County Council, which has responsibilities that include education and transport, social services, trading standards and libraries. At the middle tier of local government Sturminster is governed by North Dorset District Council, which has responsibilities that include local planning, refuse collection and recycling, building regulations and housing. Since 2006 North Dorset District Council has reduced its direct service provision via a system of decentralised community partnerships with local organisations such as town councils. North Dorset District Council is in a'tri-council' partnership with two other district-level councils in Dorset, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council. At the bottom tier of local government Sturminster is governed by Sturminster Newton Town Council, which has responsibilities that include allotments, public conveniences, the cemetery, grit bins, footway lighting and recreation grounds.
In national parliament and district council elections Sturminster is in Sturminster Newton electoral ward. In national parliamentary elections this is joined with 25 other wards that together elect the Member of Parliament for the North Dorset constituency, in district council elections the ward joins eighteen other wards within the North Dorset District to elect councillors to North Dorset District Council; the Conservative Party has overall control of the district council. In county council elections Sturminster is in Blackmore Vale Electoral Division, one of 42 divisions that each elect councillors to Dorset County Council; the county council has 45 councillors and the Conservative Party has overall control. Sturminster Newton civil parish covers about 4,550 acres at an altitude of 45 to 119 metres, with the highest ground being in the southeast; the geology of the parish comprises Oxford clay in the northwest, Corallian limestone and sands in the northeast and southwest, Kimmeridge clay in the southeast.
In the 2011 census the town's civil parish—which in
Dorset
Dorset is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, Hampshire to the east; the county town is Dorchester, in the south. After the reorganisation of local government in 1974 the county's border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, while the rest of the county is rural with a low population density; the county has a long history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorset's indigenous Celtic tribe, during the early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area and made Dorset a shire in the 7th century; the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348.
Dorset has seen much civil unrest: in the English Civil War, an uprising of vigilantes was crushed by Oliver Cromwell's forces in a pitched battle near Shaftesbury. During the Second World War, Dorset was involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the large harbours of Portland and Poole were two of the main embarkation points; the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges and low-lying clay valleys. Over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and palaeontologic significance, it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline and tourism has become important to the economy.
There are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole and Portland, an international airport; the county has a variety of museums and festivals, is host to the Great Dorset Steam Fair, one of the biggest events of its kind in Europe. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the principal setting of his novels, William Barnes, whose poetry celebrates the ancient Dorset dialect. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester; the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria, a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word meaning "place with fist-sized pebbles". The Saxons named the town Dornwaraceaster and Dornsæte came into use as the name for the inhabitants of the area from "Dorn"—a reduced form of Dornwaraceaster—and the Old English word "sæte" meaning people, it is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD 845 and in the 10th century the county's archaic name, "Dorseteschyre", was first recorded.
The first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, a 10.5-kilometre monument for ritual or ceremonial purposes. From 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorset's woodlands for agricultural use and Dorset's high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of hill forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle, one of the largest in Europe; the Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD 43. Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby. Bokerley Dyke, a large defensive ditch built by the county's post-Roman inhabitants near the border with modern-day Hampshire, delayed the advance of the Saxons into Dorset for 150 years. However, by the end of the 7th century Dorset had fallen under Saxon control and been incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex.
The Saxons established a diocese at Sherborne and Dorset was made a shire—an administrative district of Wessex and predecessor to the English county system—with borders that have changed little since. In 789 the first recorded Viking attack on the British Isles took place in Dorset on the Portland coast, they continued to raid into the county for the next two centuries. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, feudal rule was established in Dorset and the bulk of the land was divided between the Crown and ecclesiastical institutions; the Normans consolidated their control over the area by constructing castles at Corfe and Dorchester in the early part of the 12th century. Over the next 200 years Dorset's population grew and additional land was enclosed for farming to provide the extra food required; the wool trade, the quarrying of Purbeck Marble and the busy ports of Weymouth, Melcombe Regis, Lyme Regis and Bridport brought prosperity to the county. However, Dorset was devastated by the bubonic plague in 1348 which arrived in Melcombe Regis on a ship from Gascony.
The disease, more known as the Black Death, created an epidemic that spread a
