Long Crichel () is a small 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 Crichel, in east

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, situated on

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, ...

five miles northeast 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 ...

. In 2001 it had a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 81. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with

Moor Crichel Moor Crichel () is a village and former Civil parishes in England, civil parish, now in the parish of Crichel, in Dorset, England situated on Cranborne Chase five miles east of Blandford Forum. The civil parish includes the hamlet (place), hamle ...

to form Crichel.

Etymology

The name of Long Crichel is first attested 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 ...

of 1086 as ''Circel'', with forms such as ''Crechel'' attested from 1204 onwards. This name comes from the

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

word *''crüg'' ("mound, hill, barrow"), compounded with the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word , meaning the same thing: this Old English element was added to the name after Old English became the dominant language in the area and the Brittonic name of the settlement was no longer understood. The addition of ''long'', to distinguish the settlement from

, is first attested in 1208, in the form ''Langecrechel''.

Crichel Estate

Long Crichel village and surrounding lands were once part of the Crichel Estate for many centuries, before it was broken up. The estate's owners lived at

Crichel House Crichel House is a Grade I listed Classical Revival country house near the village of Moor Crichel in Dorset, England. The house has an entrance designed by Thomas Hopper (architect), Thomas Hopper and interiors by James Wyatt. It is surrounded ...

in Moor Crichel.

St Mary's Church

The village church is St Mary's Church, Long Crichel. The tower of the church dates from the 15th century, and the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1851. It closed in 2001, was declared redundant on 1 July 2003, and was vested in the

Friends of Friendless Churches Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As ...

in 2010. The Friends restored the

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

church's medieval tower and east stained glass window. Christian services can still take place in the church and burials are still allowed in the churchyard, which is now the responsibility of the neighbouring Witchampton church council.

Long Crichel House

Long Crichel House, the Grade II listed Georgian

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

, was bought jointly in 1945 by Edward Sackville-West, the music critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor and artist and art dealer Eardley Knollys,Fight for your rights - Friends of Friendless Churches
Retrieved 8 October 2020 who along with architectural historian

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extens ...

, literary critic

Raymond Mortimer Charles Raymond Bell Mortimer Order of the British Empire, CBE (25 April 1895 – 9 January 1980), who wrote under the name Raymond Mortimer, was a British writer on art and literature, known mostly as a critic and literary editor. He was ...

and the gay activist and eye surgeon Patrick Trevor-Roper, established "one of the last great post-war salons, hosting guests including Sibyl Colefax,

Anthony Asquith Anthony Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among other adaptations ...

Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmakin ...

Lord Berners Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (18 September 188319 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer, novelist, painter, and aesthete. He was also known as Lord Berners. Biography Early life and education B ...

Nancy Mitford Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973) was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford family#Mitford sisters, Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the ...

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan Lee, (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy '' Cider w ...

, Ben Nicolson,

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...

and

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

and E.M. Forster were also visitors.

Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...

and

Duncan Grant Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a Scottish painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets, and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. His father was Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major ...

stayed at the house; Bell did a number of paintings of it and made painted plates for it, while Grant designed the dining room curtains.News. InSight No. XVI
in ''Piano Nobile'', 1 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020 Sackville-West died in 1965 and Knollys and his friend Mattei Radev bought another country home in Hampshire in 1967. Shawe-Taylor remained at Long Crichel House until he died there, aged 88, on 1 November 1995, following a country walk."Desmond Shawe-Taylor – Obituary" (3 November 1995) ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

References

External links

Census data

Historic England - Long Crichel House
{{authority control Villages in Dorset Former civil parishes in Dorset East Dorset District Populated places disestablished in 2015 Dorset places with etymologically Brittonic names