Wootton Fitzpaine is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

. It lies approximately north-east of

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...

in a small side valley of the

River Char The River Char is a river in Dorset. The Char runs a few miles from Bettiscombe to Charmouth, passing Pilsdon Pilsdon is a hamlet and civil parish in the Dorset unitary authority area of Dorset, England. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-y ...

, close to the

Marshwood Vale The Marshwood Vale (or Vale of Marshwood) is a low-lying, bowl-shaped valley of Lower Lias clay, in the western tip of the county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies to the north of the A35 trunk road between the towns of Bridport and Lyme R ...

. The civil parish covers an area of and includes the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

and small settlement of Monkton Wyld to the west. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 180 dwellings, 134 households and a population of 345.

Wootton Fitzpaine village

Wootton Fitzpaine village consists primarily of two small centres: a larger western part comprising the village hall and about 50 densely placed houses, and a smaller eastern part comprising about a dozen houses, the church and manor house. (Note: this document is also published by Dorset County Council at dorsetforyou.co.uk) The village is sited on

Middle Lias The Lias Group or Lias is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) found in a large area of western Europe, including the British Isles, the North Sea, the Low Countries and the north of Germany. It consists of marine limestones, sha ...

and

greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and c ...

and has a history of being agriculturally relatively prosperous. The village name derives from 'Wodetone', meaning a farm close to a wood, plus the name of the manorial family, Fitzpaine. The parish church was built mostly between the 13th and 15th centuries but was restored and added to in 1872. It lies within the grounds of the adjacent Wootton House, a three-storey brick-built house re-built in about 1765 by Thomas Rose-Drewe (1740-1815), second grandson of

Thomas Rose Thomas Rose may refer to: * Thomas G. Rose (1901–1979), English cricketer * Thomas M. Rose (born 1948), U.S. federal judge * Thomas Rose (RAF officer) (1895–1968), British flying ace * Thomas Rose (died 1837), publican and pioneer settler i ...

(died 1747) of Wootton House, but also restored and added to in the late 19th century. The rectory dates from the end of the 15th century. Twenty structures within the parish are

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

for their historic or architectural interest. The village has a website http://www.wootton-fitzpaine.co.uk/

Monkton Wyld village

St Andrew's Church, Monkton Wyld St Andrew's Church is a Church of England church in Monkton Wyld, Dorset, England. It was built in 1848–49 to the designs of Richard Cromwell Carpenter and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1960. History Before the construction of St ...

was designed by

Richard Cromwell Carpenter Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic style. Family Carpenter was born on 21 October 1812 in ...

. Monkton Wyld Court is the largest building in this hamlet, a Grade II listed Victoria Gothic former rectory built in 1848. It was also designed by Carpenter. It offers terraced south facing lawns, a dairy farm and an organic walled kitchen garden. The building was used between 1940 and 1982 as a progressive boarding school. In 1982, Simon Fairlie and Gill Barron run it as an educational centre for sustainable living,

The Land is Ours The Land is Ours is a British land rights campaign advocating access to the land, its resources, and the planning processes set up in 1995 by George Monbiot and others. History Their first campaign was the occupation of the disused Wisley Airfi ...

campaigns for ''Landrights in Britain'' there, and Guest House accommodates 42 visitors.

Footpaths and trails

The

Wessex Ridgeway The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance footpath in southwest England. It runs from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Lyme Regis in Dorset, via the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and across Cranborne Chase AONB. The footpath was opened in 1994. At ...

and

Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Sus ...

long-distance footpaths pass through the parish, as does the

Liberty Trail The Liberty Trail is a 28-mile (45.1 km) trail between Ham Hill in Somerset and Lyme Regis in Dorset, England. History The route of the Liberty Trail route is based on information recorded by six rebels from various villages in Somerset ...

, a more local designated way.

References

External links

Parish Church Of Wootton Fitzpaine
{{Authority control Villages in Dorset