Shillingstone is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between

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 ...

and

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this ...

. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had 479 households and a population of 1,170. South of Shillingstone is a large area of woodland on Okeford and

Shillingstone Hill At 258 metres, Bell Hill is one of the highest hills in the county of Dorset, England and a high point on the Wessex Ridgeway. Location Bell Hill lies about 5 miles west of Blandford Forum. The village of Ibberton nestles against its southwes ...

which forms part of

Blandford Forest Blandford Forest is a scattered area of woodland centred to the northwest of the town of Blandford Forum in North Dorset, England.OS Explorer May 117: Cerne Abbas & Bere Regis. Location According to the Forestry Commission, Blandford Forest co ...

History

Shillingstone features in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a settlement of 46 households, with meadow, woodlands and a mill, under the lordship of Ascelin. Its name is a derivation of Eschelling's (or Ascelin's) town. It once had the tallest

maypole A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place. The festivals may occur on 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at ...

in Dorset – high. An agricultural community, it specialised in the production of moss. In the first World War, it earned the title, "the bravest village in Britain", because of the high proportion of residents who volunteered to join the armed forces. In 1924 the Shillingstone lime works was started to extract lime from the chalk beds at

. Shillingstone Parish Council meets monthly to discuss planning applications, maintenance of allotments and the local recreation ground, and other local amenities.

Parish church

The parish Church of the Holy Rood is a short distance away from the village and is of 12th-century origin, constructed in banded flint and ashlar masonry. It was enlarged in the 15th century and in the 19th century;

G. F. Bodley George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Wat ...

added the north aisle. The font is of the 12th century and the pulpit of the 17th. The hymn writer

Edward Dayman Edward Arthur Dayman, BD, (11 July 1807 – 30 October 1890) was an English clergyman and hymn writer. Life Dayman was born at Padstow in Cornwall, the third son of John Dayman, of Mambury in Devon, and educated at Blundell's School in Tiverto ...

was appointed

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of Shillingstone in 1842. About 165 yards 50msouth of the church is a Medieval cross base.

Railway station

Shillingstone railway station still survives intact on the former line of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, now part of the

North Dorset Trailway North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

. The station is one of the best-preserved on the Somerset and Dorset line since the railway's closure in 1966. It opened on Monday 31 August 1863 and closed just over a century later on Sunday 6 March 1966. The station is undergoing extensive restoration by the Shillingstone Station Project, supported by the North Dorset Railway Trust. The village also had a light railway serving Shillingstone House, the post-war home of

Sir Thomas Salt Sir Thomas Salt, 1st Baronet (12 May 1830 – 8 April 1904), was a British banker and Conservative politician. Career His grandfather John Stevenson Salt, (High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1838), married Sarah Stevenson, the granddaughter of ...

Education

The village has a primary school, affiliated to the Church of England and is also home to independent special school, The Forum School. Until around 1997, Shillingstone was the location of the now-defunct girls'

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, Croft House School. The independent Hanford School is also near the village.

Governance

Shillingstone is the most populous area of Bulbarrow

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

, which extends south to Winterbourne Strickland and had a population of 1,850 in the 2011 census. Bulbarrow forms part of the

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

North Dorset North Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. It was largely rural, but included the towns of Blandford Forum, Gillingham, Shaftesbury, Stalbridge and Sturminster Newton. Much of North Dorset was in the River Stour ...

, which is currently represented in the UK parliament by the Conservative

Simon Hoare Simon James Hoare (born 28 June 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dorset since May 2015. Education Hoare was educated at the Bishop Hannon High School, Cardiff, a Roman Catho ...

References

External links

*
Shillingstone Station Project
{{authority control Villages in Dorset