Minterne Magna is a village and

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 ...

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 midway between Dorchester and Sherborne. In the 2011 census the parish 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 184. The village is sited near the source of the River Cerne among the

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. Cha ...

hills of the Dorset Downs. Some of the highest points in Dorset, including

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Dow ...

(267 m) and

Dogbury Hill At , Dogbury Hill is one of the highest hills in the county of Dorset, England. It is the site of a prehistoric hill fort. __NOTOC__ Location Dogmore Hill rises just a few hundred yards north of the village of Minterne Magna in the Blackmore ...

(248 m), are nearby. The church contains the tombs of several members of the Napier family, who were Lords of the Manor from c.1600 to 1765.

Minterne House

Minterne House is the ancestral home of the

Digby Digby may refer to: Places Australia * Digby, Victoria, a town Canada * Digby (electoral district), a former federal electoral district in Nova Scotia (1867–1914) * Digby (provincial electoral district), a provincial electoral district i ...

family and earlier the Churchill family. The estate was once owned by the Abbey of Cerne from around the year 987 and after the dissolution of the monasteries around 1539 it was passed to

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

who in 1642 leased it to the John Churchill father of the first Sir Winston Churchill (1620-88), then it was inherited by his son

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

who died without an heir so the house went to his wife's family the Goulds who sold it to Admiral Robert Digby in 1768. Robert Digby's brother was Henry the 7th Lord Digby who owned Sherborne Castle. When Robert died in 1815 the house passed to his nephew Sir Henry Digby who later purchased the freehold from Winchester College in 1856. Sir Henry was a senior British naval officer, who served in the French Revolutionary and

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

and it was his wealth that established the original manor house, the bulk of which came from prize money. In 1799 he had been given command of the frigate HMS ''Alcmene'', during which time he captured dozens of small merchant ships and had a hand in seizing the Spanish treasure frigates ''Santa Brigada'' and ''Thetis''. The resulting prize fund was one of the richest ever recorded, the sterling value of the cargo was calculated as not less than £618,040 in 1799 () Sir Henry's children Jane Digby, the noted adventuress and mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria, was also raised there along with her brother Edward Digby, 9th Baron Digby. In 1900 the house was found to be riddled with dry rot and was demolished and the current house, designed by Leonard Stokes, was built. Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman, (1920–1997), daughter of

Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby Edward Kenelm Digby, 11th Baron Digby, (1 August 1894 – 29 January 1964), also 5th Baron Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain, was a British peer, soldier and politician. Early life Digby was the son of Edward Henry Trafalgar Digby, 10th Bar ...

, was raised at the manor house from 1920 to 1938, and lived there before her marriage to Randolph Churchill in 1939. Minterne House has a large woodland garden with many ''

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nativ ...

'' species, which runs in an elongated 'u' shape around the slopes of a small spur of land that stretches into the valley floor. Providing shade for the rhododendrons are many mature trees, including more unusual specimens such as '' Davidia involucrata'' ('handkerchief tree').

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{{authority control Villages in Dorset Woodland gardens