Poxwell (; sometimes written Pokeswell) is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

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 of

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 ...

in southwest

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is located east of Weymouth. The current population of the parish is around 50.

Sites of interest

The name originates from the ‘Pokes well’ – a well dating from the period when occupied by the Romans in the first century which is located on a hillside in the village. In 1989,

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 ...

excavated a site nearby to this and found ruins of a settlement dating to around the same period, in which various artefacts were found. The hamlet is named ''Pocheswelle'' in the Domesday Book of 1086, located in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

Winfrith Winfrith Atomic Energy Establishment, or AEE Winfrith, was a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority site near Winfrith Newburgh in Dorset. It covered an area on Winfrith Heath to the west of the village of Wool between the A352 road and the South ...

. The oldest building in the village is the tithe barn that dates from the thirteenth century, which is a Grade I listed building. It remains in very good condition and has had various uses throughout its history including: a tithe collection point, a corn mill, a stable, a hay barn and has held many church services there; in recent times they are held during the harvest festival period. In the Middle Ages, Poxwell, or Pokeswell, was a possession of

Cerne Abbey Cerne Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 987 in the town now called Cerne Abbas, Dorset, by Æthelmær the Stout. History The abbey was founded in 987 by Æthelmær the Stout. Ælfric of Eynsham, the most prolific writer in Old Engli ...

. Following the abbey's dissolution, it was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Thomas Howard of Lulworth and Bindon. Poxwell Manor was the seat of the Henning family. It was built in 1613 by Poole merchant John Henning, whose son John had been High Sheriff of Dorsetshire in 1609. In 1699, the Manor passed to Elizabeth Trenchard née Henning, the wife of Colonel Thomas Trenchard of Wolfeton (in the parish of Charminster near Dorchester). In 1727, the Trenchards resettled the Henning estates. It is understood that King George III visited the house on a number of occasions.

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

used the Manor as Oxwell Hall in ''“The Trumpet Major”''. The Manor remained in the Trenchard family of Lytchett Matravers and Wolverton until the 1970s. Since then, the previous owner has held many charitable functions in which one of its visitors was

The Princess Royal Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been sev ...

on 14 June 1997. There was once a small church alongside the Manor, dedicated to

St John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

, that dated to around the twelfth century. This was rebuilt by John Trenchard (who built the Trenchard cottages that line the road in 1843) in 1868, only to be demolished a hundred years later in 1969, as it was too costly to maintain, and it was believed to be unsafe; however, it took two steel cables to pull the spire down. On the edge of the village stands Cairn Circle, a small stone circle that is said to have been worshipped by the druids during pagan worship over two millennia ago. It has been dubbed "mini Stonehenge", being just fourteen feet in diameter.

References

External links

Villages in Dorset Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub