West Orchard is a small 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 ...

in southern

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 situated in the

Blackmore Vale The Blackmore Vale (; less commonly spelt ''Blackmoor'') is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. Geography The vale is part of the Stour valley, part of t ...

in the

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 vall ...

administrative district, approximately halfway between the towns of

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

and

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 ...

. It is separated from the adjacent settlement of

East Orchard East Orchard is a small village and parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies in the Blackmore Vale within the North Dorset administrative district. It is situated roughly midway between the hilltop town of Shaftesbury and the ri ...

by a stream. In 2013 the civil parish had an estimated population of 50. For local government purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes of

and

Margaret Marsh Margaret Marsh is a hamlet (place), hamlet and civil parish in north Dorset, England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, halfway between the towns of Shaftesbury and Sturminster Newton. It is sited on Kimmeridge Clay close to a small tributa ...

, to form a Group Parish Council. St Luke's Church was rebuilt in 1876–77 to the designs of

Thomas Henry Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for A ...

, but the chancel is 15th-century.

References

External links

Villages in Dorset Civil parishes in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub