Stinsford is a 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 authorit ...

in southwest

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 , ...

, England, about east of Dorchester. The parish includes the settlements of Higher and Lower Bockhampton. The name Stinsford may derive from ,

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for a limited area of pasture. In the 2011 United Kingdom census, the parish had a population of 334. The parish has five large country houses - Birkin House, Frome House, Kingston Maurward House, the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

Old Manor House and Stinsford House. Much of the land in the parish is occupied by

Kingston Maurward College Kingston Maurward College is a college for land-based studies situated two miles east of Dorchester, Dorset, England. The college is a member of the Landex grou an association of institutions that provide courses in agriculture and horticulture ...

, a further education college.

St Michael's Church

There has been worship at the site since at least Norman times, but the only remaining parts of the earliest structure are the sculpture of

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, inside the west wall of the south aisle, and the restored Purbeck Marble font. St Michael's was the local church of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy and he was baptised here. Stinsford is the original 'Mellstock' of Hardy's novels ''

Under the Greenwood Tree ''Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School'' is a novel by the English writer Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, and the first of what was to become his series of Wessex n ...

'' and ''

Jude the Obscure ''Jude the Obscure'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895 (though the title page says 1896). It is Hardy's last completed novel. The protagonist, Jude Fawley ...

''. Hardy's heart was buried in the churchyard in 1928, alongside the grave of his first wife,

Emma Lavinia Gifford Emma Lavinia Gifford (24 November 1840 – 27 November 1912) was an English writer and suffragist, who was the first wife of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. Early life Emma Gifford was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 24 November 1840 The sec ...

, who died in 1912 and his second wife,

Florence Dugdale Florence Emily Dugdale (12 January 187917 October 1937) was an English teacher and children's writer, who was the second wife of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. She was credited as the author of Hardy's posthumously published biography, ''The ...

, who died in 1937. The churchyard also contains the grave of

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Cecil Day-Lewis, who died in 1972 and had arranged for his burial to be close to Hardy whom he admired. Also here are the remains of the actor and dramatist

William O'Brien William O'Brien (2 October 1852 – 25 February 1928) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, agrarian agitator, social revolutionary, politician, party leader, newspaper publisher, author and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons o ...

and his wife Lady Susan Fox-Strangways.

Football

Stinsford has a six-a-side football team which plays in the Dorset six-a-side leagues. The team is noted for its luminous orange

strip Strip or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Namibia to ...

and has provided players who have later moved on to play for football teams such as Yeovil Town F.C.Welcome to Soccerpitch
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References

External links

Stinsford Parish Council
Geography of Dorchester, Dorset Villages in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub