Stoke Abbott
Parish church of St Mary
Stoke Abbott is located in Dorset
Stoke Abbott
Stoke Abbott
Location within Dorset
Population190 [1]
OS grid referenceST453006
Unitary authority
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBeaminster
Postcode districtDT8
PoliceDorset
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament

Stoke Abbott is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Beaminster. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 190.[1]

The author Ralph Wightman, agriculturist, broadcaster, and native of Dorset, described the village as "a beautiful place of deep lanes, orchards and old houses, with a church of quiet charm",[2] and, in a similar vein, Sir Frederick Treves in 1906 considered it "as pretty a village as any in Dorset".[3]

On Waddon Hill to the northwest of the village are the remains of earthworks of an early settlement, consisting of a low bank 9 metres (30 ft) wide and traces of a ditch, though historic quarrying around the hill may have destroyed more. Mid-1st-century Roman and Romano-British military artefacts were found on the hill's southern slopes in 1876–8.[4] In the Domesday Book in 1086 the village was recorded as Stoche[5] and had 32 households.[6]

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has Norman origins but has been altered and added to over the centuries. The 12th-century font is notable.[4] The poet William Crowe was rector here between 1782 and 1786; at the end of his incumbency he published his most well known piece, Lewesdon Hill, about the hill to the west of the village.[7] The Very Rev Hedley Robert Burrows (1887 - 1983), who later became Archdeacon of Winchester and then Dean of Hereford, was incumbent at Stoke Abbott for a time.

References

  1. 1 2 "Parish Population Data". Dorset County Council. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Ralph Wightman (1983). Portrait of Dorset (4 ed.). Robert Hale Ltd. p. 154. ISBN 0 7090 0844 9.
  3. ↑ Treves, Frederick, Sir (1906). Highways and Byways in Dorset. Macmillan & Co. Ltd. p. 284.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 "'Stoke Abbott', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1: West (1952), pp. 224-226". British History Online. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. November 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Dorset S–Z". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Place: Stoke [Abbott]". Open Domesday. domesdaymap.co.uk. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Hyams, John (1970). Dorset. B. T. Batsford Ltd. pp. 137–8. ISBN 0-7134-0066-8.
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