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Tarrant Crawford is a small village and
civil parish at the lower end of the
Tarrant Valley
The River Tarrant is a 12 km long tributary of the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour in Dorset. The valley lies to the east of Blandford Forum. The river rises near Cranborne Chase, an area of chalk downland, and flows broadly from north to ...
in
Dorset,
England. The River Tarrant joins the larger
River Stour here. The village consists of two small settlements: Crawford Farm and a few houses in the Stour Valley, and Tarrant Abbey Farm, a church, and a few houses in the Tarrant Valley about to the north. Locals regard the two settlements as separate villages. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 20.
At the Crawford settlement there is a
wayside cross which has an inscription which reads:
"THIS WAYSIDE CROSS WAS RESTORED & SET ON NEW STEPS ON THE OLD SITE BY MANY FRIENDS OF TARRANT CRAWFORD ANNO DOM MDCCCCXIV"
Th
1881 censussays - No. of households/schedules 11, Uninhabited houses 0, Males 31, Females 30, Total 61
Tarrant Abbey
Tarrant Abbey Farm was in medieval times the site of
Tarrant Abbey, founded in the 12th century by Ralph de Kahaines (of nearby
Tarrant Keyneston
Tarrant Keyneston is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated in the Tarrant Valley, southeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had 152 dwellings, 145 households and a population of 310.
On the hills nor ...
) as a
Cistercian nunnery
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church.
History
The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in t ...
, later supposedly the richest in England.
Two famous people are associated with the abbey:
Queen Joan, the wife of
Alexander II of Scotland and daughter of King
John of England (Richard I's brother and successor), is buried in the graveyard (supposedly in a golden coffin), and Bishop
Richard Poore, builder of
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buildi ...
, who was baptised in the abbey church and later (in 1237) buried in the abbey, which he founded. He was at one time Dean of the old cathedral at
Old Sarum, and later became bishop of first
Chichester, then
Salisbury and finally
Durham.
St Mary's Church
Saint Mary's Church, near Tarrant Abbey Farm, is known for its 13th- and 14th-century wall paintings, many of which are in a remarkable state of preservation.
References
Further reading
* Miller, Alan. ''Monasteries of Dorset''. Albemarle Books 1999.
External links
Personal interest site with information about Tarrant CrawfordPhotographs and Information on St Mary's Church etc. from Strolling Guides
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Villages in Dorset