Alton Pancras is a small 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

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 ...

, England. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 175. The village church is dedicated to Saint Pancras, which provides part of the village name. The parish was formerly a

liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

, containing only the parish itself.

History

Evidence of prehistoric human activity within the parish includes two round barrows on the hills to the east of the village (one on West Hill and one on Church Hill), the remains of 'Celtic' fields and

strip lynchet A lynchet or linchet is an earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lynchets". Lynchets appe ...

s on many of the surrounding hills, and a possible settlement just south of the summit of Church Hill. Dating is not definite but the 'Celtic' fields were probably in use between the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and the end of 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, ...

period. The possible settlement is probably Romano-British. Subsequent cultivation, particularly in modern times, has destroyed much of the evidence. The village itself was likely first settled by

Saxons 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 ...

during the expansion of the Kingdom of

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

. The name of the village was then Awultune, meaning in West Saxon 'village at the source of the river' (the

River Piddle The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural Dorset river which rises in the Dorset Downs and flows into Poole Harbour near Wareham. Etymology The river's name has Germanic origins and has had various spellings over the years. I ...

). The village was previously two separate settlements: Barcombe and Alton, both of which had their own

open field system The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acr ...

. In 1086 in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

the village was recorded as ''Altone''. It had 26 households, was in Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury Hundred, and the

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

was the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

. Local tradition believes that after conversion to Christianity, the village name incorporated the little-known St Pancras and that by the time of the

Battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected victory of the vastly outnumbered English troops agains ...

(1415), was known as Aulton Pancras. However, in

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

's map of 1575 it is still known as 'Ælton' and in

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

's map of 1610, it is listed as 'Alton'. In a later 1760 map by

Emanuel Bowen Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries f ...

, the village is listed as 'Alton Pancras'. The current church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...

in the 19th century after an earlier

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

church was near collapse. All that remains of the old church is the 15th-century tower and a Norman arch. The church organ used to be a fairground organ. The floor tiles were created by

Poole Pottery Poole Pottery is a British pottery brand owned by Denby Pottery Company, with the products made in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. It was founded as a manufacturer in 1873 on Poole quayside in Dorset where it produced pottery, before moving ...

Governance

For elections to the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

, Alton Pancras is in the West Dorset parliamentary constituency. In local government, Alton Pancras is in the Dorset unitary authority. For elections to Dorset Council it is in the Chalk Valleys electoral ward. At the parish level – the lowest tier of local government – Alton Pancras is one of three parishes governed by Piddle Valley Group Parish Council. The other parishes are

Piddlehinton Piddlehinton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated in the River Piddle, Piddle valley north of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census the parish had a ...

and Piddletrenthide.

Geography

Alton Pancras civil parish covers at the head of the valley of the

. The valley is on the

dip slope A dip slope is a topographic or geomorphic surface which slopes in the same direction, and often by the same angle, as the true dip or apparent dip of the underlying strata.Jackson, JA, J Mehl and K Neuendorf (2005) ''Glossary of Geology.'' Ame ...

of the

Dorset Downs The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, ...

and drains from north to south. Several small side

combe A combe (; also spelled coombe or coomb and, in place names, comb) can refer either to a steep, narrow valley, or to a small valley or large hollow on the side of a hill; in any case, it is often understood simply to mean a small valley through w ...

s extend east and west. In the east the parish includes part of a tributary valley at Watcombe Bottom, north of

Plush Plush (from French ) is a textile having a cut nap or pile the same as fustian or velvet. Its softness of feel gave rise to the adjective "plush" to describe something soft or luxurious, which was extended to describe luxury accommodation, ...

, and in the northeast it extends north of the escarpment to Alton Common in the

Blackmore Vale The Blackmore Vale (; less commonly spelt ''Blackmoor'') is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. Geography The vale is part of the Stour valley and part of ...

.Ordnance Survey (1986), 1:25,000 Pathfinder map series, sheet 1299 (ST 60/70) (Cerne Abbas & Hazelbury Bryan), The underlying geology of the parish is mostly

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 ...

, except for the Alton Common extension, which is on

greensand Greensand or green sand is a sand or sandstone which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called ''glauconies'' and co ...

gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

and

Kimmeridge clay The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation (geology), form ...

. Alton Pancras village is sited in the valley near the source of the River Piddle at an altitude of about . The altitude of the parish is between about at its highest point on the hills to the west, to about at its lowest point where the river leaves the parish in the south. The broadcaster and agriculturist

Ralph Wightman Ralph Wightman (26 July 1901 – 28 May 1971) was an English lecturer, journalist, author, and radio and television broadcaster. He wrote many books on farming and the countryside and in the 1950s and 1960s became a well-known national figure, esp ...

, who was born and lived in the nearby village of

Piddletrenthide Piddletrenthide () is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The village lies on the small River Piddle in a valley on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs, north of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish—which inclu ...

, described the hills surrounding the village as "very much in the centre of Dorset". All of Alton Pancras parish is within the

Dorset National Landscape Dorset National Landscape is a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Landscape area in Dorset, southern England, formerly known as and still legally designated as the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The conservation desig ...

area. Horse Close Wood on Alton Common is a

Woodland Trust The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has planted over 68 million trees since 1972. The Woodland Tru ...

wood, though it is not open to the public. Alton Pancras village is situated on the B3143 road, which connects it to the county town of Dorchester to the south. Other local travel links include Maiden Newton railway station to the south-west, and

Bournemouth International Airport Bournemouth Airport (previously known as Hurn Airport and Bournemouth International Airport) is an international airport located north-northeast of Bournemouth, England. The site opened as RAF Hurn in 1941, but was transferred to civil cont ...

to the east.

Demography

In the 2011 census Alton Pancras civil parish had 72 dwellings, 71 households and a population of 175. The average age of parish residents was 42, compared to 39.3 for England as a whole. 16.0% of residents were age 65 or over, compared to 16.4% for England as a whole.

References

External links

Village history

{{Authority control Villages in Dorset Liberties of Dorset