Maiden Newton is a 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 ...

in the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 ...

in south-west England. It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, about north-west of the county town, Dorchester.

Geography

The village is sited on

Upper 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 ...

at the confluence of the River Frome with its tributary of equivalent size, the

Hooke Hooke may refer to: * Hooke, Dorset, England ** River Hooke, nearby watercourse ** Hooke Court, former manor house at Hooke ** Hooke Park, Woodland to south west of Hooke * Robert Hooke (1635–1703), English natural philosopher who discovered Hook ...

. Both these rivers have cut valleys into the surrounding

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 ...

hills 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, ...

. The A356 main road passes through the village. In the 2011 census the parish—which does not include the adjacent settlements of

Frome Vauchurch Frome Vauchurch is a parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, situated approximately northwest of the county town Dorchester. It includes the hamlets of Frome Vauchurch, Higher Frome Vauchurch, Lower Frome Vauchurch and Tollerford. ...

and Tollerford— had a population of 1,119.

History

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 ...

, Maiden Newton was recorded as ''Newetone''; it had 26 households, 7

ploughland The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax assessment. ...

s, of meadow and 2 mills. It was in

Tollerford Hundred Tollerford Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes: * Chilfrome *East Chelborough *Evershot * Frome St Quintin *Frome Vauchurch *Maiden Newton *Melbury Sampford * Rampisham * Toller Fratrum * Tol ...

and the lord and

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

Waleran the Hunter Waleran the Hunter (floruit 1086) (Latin: ''Waleran Venator'') was an Anglo-Norman magnate who held 51 manors as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, including Whaddon in Wiltshire and several in Hampshire, including West Dean, within the New ...

Maiden Newton was the basis for the village of Chalk-Newton, South Wessex, in many of the works of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

. In the vicinity of the village is evidence of Roman occupation and early British settlements.West Dorset District Council, ''Holiday and Tourist Guide'', c.1983, p13 The parish church of St Mary contains much

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 ...

work, with additions from the 14th and 15th centuries. The shaft of the Village Cross is 15th century and is Grade II* listed. There is also the shaft of a medieval cross in the churchyard which is a scheduled monument. Maiden Newton is also home to one of the country's oldest

fire engines A fire engine or fire truck (also spelled firetruck) is a vehicle, usually a specially designed or modified truck, that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to ...

, restored and in full working order, the fire engine house built for it in 1842-3 is a grade II listed building. Maiden Newton is in an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

with the same name, which also contains much of the surrounding countryside including the villages of West Compton,

Toller Fratrum Toller Fratrum () is a very small village and civil parish in Dorset, England, near Maiden Newton, anciently in Tollerford Hundred. The name is taken from the village's situation on the brook formerly known as the Toller, now called the Hooke. ...

Toller Porcorum Toller Porcorum () is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Toller valley northwest of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil parish—which also includes the small settlements of Higher and Lower Kingcombe to the n ...

and

. The population of this ward was 2,081 at the 2011 census.

Transport

The village is served by Maiden Newton railway station on the

Heart of Wessex Line The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth Line, is a railway line that runs from to and Weymouth in England. It shares the Wessex Main Line as far as Westbury and then follows the course of the Reading to Taunton Line ...

. There was also a railway line from Maiden Newton to

Bridport Bridport is a market town and civil parish in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the River Asker, Asker. Its origins are Anglo-Saxons, Saxon and it has a long history as a ...

which opened in 1857 and was extended to West Bay in 1884. The Bridport branch line was recommended for closure in the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. It is either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Sur ...

of 1963. By the time the line closed in 1975 it was the last remaining branch line in Dorset. Work is underway to turn the line into a footpath and cycle track. The A356 passes through the village as does

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...

Route 26. Three long distance footpaths the

Macmillan Way The Macmillan Way is a long-distance footpath in England that links Boston, Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury in Dorset. The route's distance is . It is promoted to raise money for the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief. The fully waymarked route fol ...

and the

Wessex Ridgeway The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance footpath in southwest England. It runs from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Lyme Regis in Dorset, via the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and across Cranborne Chase AONB. The footpath was opened in 1994. At ...

pass through the Village as does the shorter

Frome Valley Trail Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

References

External links

"Unofficial" village websiteParish Council website
Villages in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub

Geography

History

Transport

References

Further reading

External links