Powerstock is a village and civil parish in south west Dorset, England, situated in a steep valley on the edge of the

Dorset Downs The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Ham ...

, north-east of the market town of Bridport. The civil parish includes the village of West Milton to the west and the summit and northern slopes of

Eggardon Hill Eggardon Hill is a prehistoric hillfort on a hill in Dorset, England. It is located on chalk uplands approximately four miles to the east of the town of Bridport. The Hill Eggardon Hill stands above sea level and is classified as a Hump (hil ...

to the south-east. Powerstock village contains many cottages and 2 inns: ''The Three Horseshoes'' near the church and ''The Marquis of Lorne Inn'' on the other side of the valley in a small hamlet called Nettlecombe. The small Mangerton River runs through the valley. In 2013 the parish had an estimated population of 290. In the 2011 census figures have been published for Powerstock parish combined with the small parish of North Poorton to the north; the population in this area was 358. The origins of the name Powerstock have not been fully determined; the second part derives from the

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 ...

''stoc'', meaning an outlying farmstead, but the first part—similar to the nearby settlement of Poorton—is unresolved. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as ''Povrestoch''. According to one source, the name was 'Poorstock' until the Bridport Railway was built through the village in 1857, when the change to Powerstock was made to avoid connotations of 'poor (rolling) stock'. However another source states the name existed in its current form as early as 1787.

Powerstock railway station Powerstock was a railway station on the Bridport Railway in the west of the England, English county of Dorset. The station served the villages of Powerstock, and Nettlecombe, Dorset, Nettlecombe, which was nearer the railway. Opened with the br ...

(and the entire Bridport branch line) closed on 5 May 1975. Powerstock was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club memb ...

in 2020.

Landscape

Poorstock Forest was one of the 80 royal forests created by the Normans in the 11th, 12th and early 13th centuries, in part to support medieval hunting. The term ''forest'' originally referred to land where

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

and forestry rights were reserved for a monarch or the

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At t ...

. The nearby

(height 252 metres) lies about 1.5 miles south-east of the village. On the summit is a 14 hectare Iron Age hill fort, from which can be viewed a wide panorama of the Dorset countryside. Just over a mile to the east of the village lies the nature reserve of Powerstock

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

. Another prominent hill is

Drackenorth DrackenorthOrdnance Survey OpenStreetMap
Accessed on 27 Apr ...

, some 3 kilometres north-northeast, which lies on the

Jubilee Trail {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 ''Jubilee Trail'' is a novel written by Gwen Bristow, copyrighted in 1950. It follows the adventures of two strong women in the mid-19th century as they travel across the United States to the then-Mexican territo ...

There is also a cricket pitch located at The Weir playing field in Nettlecombe. This has traditionally been used by Powerstock and Hooke Cricket Club. It has also been used to host Powerstock's Village Fete.

In popular culture

Powerstock was used as the filming location for a BBC production of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

's '' A Murder is Announced'' and the 2010 Springwatch series.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Dorset