Stour Row is a village in north

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, situated beside Duncliffe Hill southwest of

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

. It lies within the parish of the neighbouring village of

Stour Provost Stour Provost is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Gillingham. In old writings it is usually spelled Stower Provost. Stour Provost once ...

. Stour Row has approximately 150 houses and 300 residents. It has a village hall, which is used for social events. Today it has few other amenities, but it had a petrol station, pub and shop prior to the early 1980s. It has a church, All Saints, which was built in 1867 but which has now closed due to falling congregation numbers. The last service was held in the church on 15 October 2015. Stour Row lies within the SP7 postcode area on the edge of 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 ...

History

Stour Row developed as a small hamlet along the Shaftesbury to Marnhull road, some west of Shaftesbury. Originally, known as Stower Row, it was part of the manor of Stour Provost which itself is mentioned in the Domesday Book simply as ‘Stur’. The manor and lands of Stower had been granted to Eton College by Henry VI but the manor was later granted to the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, by Edward IV. King's College retained possession of much of the land until they sold it in 1925, at which point many farmers and cottagers were able to buy their property as sitting tenants. Ownership of the Duncliffe Wood rested with the Forestry Commission by 1980, who in turn put it up for sale for £120,000 in 1984. The Woodland Trust launched a campaign to raise funds through a public appeal and the purchase was completed that year. Many of the houses in Stour Row were built alongside the main routes through the village in a typical "Dorset strip" fashion with long thin gardens running alongside the road. Most date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of the farms appear to date back far further and many take their names from former owners. Formerly the village had a pub, The College Arms. It is not certain when the dwelling which housed it became an inn but it may have been around 1829 when Edward Painter, a 'Common Brewer', bought the house. The property was bought by the brewers Hall and Woodhouse in 1963, but they sold it on to the licensee Robert Martin on condition that it ceased to sell alcohol, and the pub closed.

Village Hall

Stour Row village hall is a converted Congregationalist chapel built in 1847 and bought by the village for £105/1s/6d in 1949. Among the necessary alterations a kitchen extension was built at the cost of £361/17s/3d. During 2013 the Hall underwent restructuring, redecoration and modernising as a result of the contributions of local residents in time and finance.

Notable residents

* Gwendoline Courtney (1911-1996), children's writer

References

External links

Stour Row village community website
{{authority control Villages in Dorset