Long Crichel () is a small village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

, now in the parish of Crichel, in east

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of ...

, 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 ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this was abolished and it ...

. In 2001 it had a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...

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

Moor Crichel Moor Crichel () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Crichel, in East Dorset, England situated on Cranborne Chase five miles east of Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dors ...

to form Crichel. 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 and interiors by James Wyatt. It is surrounded by of parkland, which in ...

in Moor Crichel.

St Mary's Church

The village church is

St Mary's Church, Long Crichel St Mary's Church is in the village of Long Crichel, Dorset, England. It is a redundant Anglican parish church that has been under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches since 2010. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List ...

. 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 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 of April ...

in 2010. The Friends restored the

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

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 Witchampton is a village and civil parish in East Dorset, England, situated on the River Allen north of Wimborne Minster. The 2011 census recorded a population of 398. Witchampton lies close to where the dip slope of the chalk hills of Cranbor ...

church council.

Long Crichel House

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Long Crichel - Churchyard - geograph

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 religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically o ...

, was bought jointly in 1945 by

Edward Sackville-West Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville (13 November 1901 – 4 July 1965) was a British music critic, novelist and, in his last years, a member of the House of Lords. Musically gifted as a boy, he was attracted as a young man to a lit ...

, the music critic

Desmond Shawe-Taylor Desmond Philip Shawe-Taylor (born 30 September 1955) was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures from 2005 to 2020. He succeeded Christopher Lloyd on Lloyd's retirement.Eardley Knollys (Edward) Eardley Knollys (1902–1991) was a member of the Bloomsbury Group of artists - variously an art critic, art dealer and collector, active from the 1920s to 1950s. He only himself began to paint in 1949, and had his first solo exhibit ...

,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 extensi ...

, literary critic

Raymond Mortimer Charles Raymond Bell Mortimer 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, who also wrote a classic history of th ...

and the gay activist and eye surgeon

Patrick Trevor-Roper Patrick Dacre Trevor-Roper (7 June 1916 – 22 April 2004) was a British eye surgeon, author and pioneer gay rights activist, who played a leading role in the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in the UK. Life and career He was born in Nor ...

, established "one of the last great post-war salons, hosting guests including

Sibyl Colefax Sibyl Sophie Julia, Lady Colefax (''née'' Halsey; 1874 – 22 September 1950) was an English interior decorator and socialite in the first half of the twentieth century. Biography Colefax was born at Wimbledon, third but only surviving daughte ...

Anthony Asquith Anthony William Landon 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 ot ...

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 printmaking ...

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 ...

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

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (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 ...

, 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 Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

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 English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

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 Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

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 British 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 i ...

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 daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

References

External links

Census data

Historic England - Long Crichel House
Villages in Dorset Former civil parishes in Dorset East Dorset District Populated places disestablished in 2015 {{Dorset-geo-stub

St Mary's Church

Long Crichel House

See also

References

External links