Parish Details

The Parish is roughly rectangular and approximately 1800 acres in area. It lies across the valley of the South Winterborne Stream which is a tributary of the River Frome. The Frome reaches the sea in Poole Harbour some 25 miles away. The village itself is in the east of the parish, about 4 miles west of the county town of Dorchester.  The busy A35 trunk road runs east/west through the village on the same line as the late C18th Turnpike.

It lies on chalk with extensive areas of later gravel deposits. Many older buildings are built using the local flint together with stone brought from the nearby ridgeway.

The southern boundary lies on the south Dorset ridgeway (locally known as the seawall !) at about 776ft (236m) above sea level. The ground slopes down the river at approximately 300ft (91m) broken by deep dry cut valleys. On the north side of the river the ground rises to the north boundary on the old Roman Road at a height of 400ft (122m)

It became "united" with the neighbouring parish of Winterbourne Steepleton immediately to the east in many ways from 1667 onwards.