Buckland Newton is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated beneath the

scarp slope An escarpment is a steep slope landform, slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangea ...

of the Dorset Downs, south of Sherborne. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 622. The village covers around 6000 acres. The village lies within the Buckland Newton Hundred. Amenities in the village include a pub (The Gaggle of Geese), shop, primary school and village hall. Approximately three quarters of the parish lies within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History

The name 'Buckland' derives from ''bōc-land'',

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for 'charter land' or land with special privileges created by royal diploma, while 'Newton' is a more recent addition taken from

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 ...

, a nearby town. Evidence for prehistoric settlement comes from Bronze Age barrows at Gales Hill and the Iron Age hill fort of

Dungeon Hill Dungeon Hill is an Iron Age hillfort, about north of the village of Buckland Newton in Dorset, England. It is a scheduled monument. Description The fort is on a low hill, height ; it has a single bank in a roughly oval shape, enclosing an area ...

. The parish originally had five settlements, each with their own open field system: Buckland Newton, Brockhampton, Duntish, Henley (perhaps previously known as Knoll) and Minterne Parva, the last now part of Minterne Magna parish. Farms based on small mediaeval enclosures include Chaston Farm, Revels Farm, and possibly Bookham. Although the Parish Church of the Holy Rood was restored in the 19th century, it has a 13th-century chancel and 15th-century nave, west tower and aisles, plus fragments of 12th-century sculpture which are evidence of an earlier structure. In 1980 the writer and literary director Roland Gant described Holy Rood as "a lovely church", but that the first impression it created was not favourable due to its exterior having been rendered in cement, "giving the Perpendicular square tower the look of a Foreign Legion fort". The church has six bells, the oldest having been cast around 1380. Duntish Court, sited about north of the main village, was a compact, classical country house built in 1764 beside the main Weymouth to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

turnpike road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

. Designed by Sir William Chambers for Fitzwalter Foy, the Court — originally named Castle Hill — had notable plasterwork, grounds of and played a role in the arrest of agricultural labourers in Dorset's '

Captain Swing "Captain Swing" was a name that was appended to several threatening letters during the rural Swing Riots of 1830, when labourers rioted over the introduction of new threshing machines and the loss of their livelihoods. The name was made-up and ...

' riots of 1830. It was demolished in 1965.

Geography

Prominent nearby hills at the top of the escarpment to the southeast include the Ball Hill and the Lyscombe Hill near the Dorsetshire Gap. Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series The southern part of the parish is mainly chalk with an elevation ranging from . The northern lies between above sea-level and is mainly clay with Gault and

Corallian Limestone The Corallian Group or Corallian Limestone is a geologic group in England. It is predominantly a coralliferous sedimentary rock, laid down in the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic. It is a hard variety of "coral rag". Building stones from this geo ...

beds. The

River Lydden The River Lydden is a tributary of the River Stour that flows through Blackmore Vale in Dorset, England. Its headwaters rise at the foot of the scarp slope of the Dorset Downs near Buckland Newton. These headwaters streams coalesce south of P ...

rises in the numerous springs round the village, principally Buckland Bottom and Bladeley Bottom There are 11 locally recognised Sites of Nature Conservation Interest within or close to the parish, as well as areas of Ancient Woodland. The main habitat types for sites of wildlife interest are deciduous woodland and calcareous grassland (the latter is particularly significant for butterflies). There is also a small area of lowland meadows within Buckland Newton Itself.Neighbourhood Plan - http://www.planvu.co.uk/wdwp/written/cptbnnp3.htm

References

External links

Buckland Newton Community
{{authority control Villages in Dorset