Sandford is a village in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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. Covering an area of , ...

, on the A351 road some two miles from Wareham and seven miles from Poole. Sandford forms the only significant settlement within the

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 authorit ...

of Wareham St. Martin, which otherwise covers much of the rural area to the north of Wareham. The parish forms part of the Purbeck

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

within the

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

. It is within the

Mid Dorset and North Poole Mid Dorset and North Poole is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Michael Tomlinson, a Conservative. Boundaries 1997–2010: The District of Purbeck wards of Bere Regis, Lytchett Matravers, ...

constituency of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

in 2020, it was in the

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 ...

constituency of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. The electoral ward is also called St.Martin, and includes Holton Heath with the surrounding countryside. The total population at the 2011 census was 2,774. To the north lies

Gore Heath Gore Heath is an area of coniferous woodland and open heathland forming part of Wareham Forest west of the Poole- Bournemouth conurbation in south Dorset, England. It is part of the Dorset Heaths and an SSSI. Gore Heath lies about 1 kilometre w ...

, part of

Wareham Forest Wareham Forest is an area of countryside in Dorset, England, consisting of open heathland, including Decoy Heath and Gore Heath, and plantations of conifers such as Morden Heath and Bloxworth Heath. The site is managed by Forestry England fo ...

, which is the subject of a controversial proposal for

gravel extraction A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eith ...

.''Dorset gravel plan for forest gets over 200 objections''
at www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 Dec 2014''Gravel plan to ‘destroy’ area''
at www.bournemouthecho.co.uk. Retrieved 14 Dec 2014.

References

External links

Villages in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub