Pentridge is a village and former

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in the

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

, England, lying in the north-east of the county. It is situated on the edge of

Cranborne Chase Cranborne Chase () is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is dominated by, ...

down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour, north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the United Kingdom 2021 census, 2021 census. The town is notable for its Georgian archit ...

(ten miles to the south-west) and

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

(twelve miles to the northeast). In 2001 the parish had a population of 215. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with

Sixpenny Handley Sixpenny Handley or Handley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in north east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase north east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish ...

to form "Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge". The village name derives from the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

''pen'' ("hill") and ''twrch'' ("boar"), and thus means "hill of the wild boar"; its existence was first recorded (as "Pentric") in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

. The village is located amongst many

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

earthworks, notably

Bokerley Dyke Bokerley Dyke, Bokerly Dyke, Bokerley Ditch, is a linear earthwork long on Cranborne Chase in Dorset, partially running along the county's border with Hampshire between Woodyates and Martin. It is part of a Scheduled Monument together with Grim ...

, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

to keep out the Saxon invaders. Nearby is Pentridge Hill, formed by a band of more resistant

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

than the surrounding land.

Blagdon Hill

Approximately 2 km east of Pentridge is Blagdon Hill. On 17 January 1947, Mr.A.L.Parke of Salisbury reported that the round barrows on this hill had been recently "trenched" and a grave was opened. He supposed it to be the main interment, it "being situated in a hole scooped in the solid chalk". He further stated that "a few sherds of a well baked urn were found" and "fragments of burnt bone and charcoal accompanied" the urn. A Blagdon Hill Burial, P.60, Papers and Proceedings of The Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, 1944,Pub H.M.Gilbert and son. Soton.

References

External links

Census data
Villages in Dorset Former civil parishes in Dorset East Dorset District Populated places disestablished in 2015 {{Dorset-geo-stub