Winterborne Kingston
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Winterborne Kingston 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 ...
of
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 southern
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 ...
. It lies south of the town 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 ...
and northeast of the large village of Bere Regis. It is situated in a winterbourne valley on the edge of the
dip slope A dip slope is a topographic or geomorphic surface which slopes in the same direction, and often by the same angle, as the true dip or apparent dip of the underlying strata.Jackson, JA, J Mehl and K Neuendorf (2005) ''Glossary of Geology.'' Ame ...
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, ...
. In the 2011 census the parish had 282 households and a population of 643. In 2001 it had a population of 613.


Description

Winterborne Kingston consists of Kingston, which is two thirds of the western area of the parish, and Turberville (later called Abbots Court Farm) to the east. Still further east is the hamlet of Winterborne Muston. The River Winterborne which flows through the village is a tributary of the Stour. As the name Winterborne implies, the river tends to flow only in winter. Kingston means the King held land here and bourne is an old Dorset word meaning river, thus the name of the village can be translated as "King's Land by the Winter River". Amenities in the village include the Greyhound Inn, the Church of St Nicholas, Dunbury Academy School, the village hall and a recreational ground (including a children's playground).


History

Icknield Street Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire () to Templeborough in South Yorkshire (). It passes through ...
, a prehistoric route used by the Romans, passes through the village, and Roman artefacts have been found in ploughed fields. Dorset historically had many cottage industries related to the clothing trade. Button-making (buttony) developed in the 1680s in the villages with Blandford the main centre. The 1851 census shows that many of the women in Winterborne Kingston were button makers. Most of the men worked as agricultural labourers. The farms supplied dairy products to the
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
markets. There were also kilns that produced lime for spreading on the land. Barley was one of the main crops, and was used in the production of malt for brewing beer in Dorsetshire and London. Other trades were carpentry, bricklaying, blacksmithing and shoemaking.


Parish church

The village church is named after
St Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
. It is in the
Decorated style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...
and faced with
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
. The
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
architect
George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...
remodelled the church in 1872.


Notable residents

The chemist and botanist
Humphry Bowen __NOTOC__ Humphry John Moule Bowen (22 June 1929 – 9 August 2001) was a British botanist and chemist. Early life and education Bowen was born in Oxford, son of the chemist Edmund Bowen and Edith Bowen (nee Moule). He attended the Dragon Sc ...
(1929–2001), author of ''The Flora of Dorset'' (2000), lived near the village during his retirement when he wrote the
Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
.


Prehistory: Duropolis and Celtic finds

In July 2015, archeologists discovered
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
remains of what is believed to be Britain's oldest planned town near Winterborne Kingston. In 2025, archeologists described the "women-centric society" of the
Durotriges The Durotriges were one of the Celtic tribes living in British Iron Age, Britain prior to the Roman invasion of Britain, Roman invasion. The tribe lived in modern Dorset, south Wiltshire, south Somerset and Devon east of the River Axe (Lyme Bay), ...
, a Celtic tribe, in the area dated from about 100 B.C. to A.D. 100. Under a system called
matrilocality In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Description Frequently, visiting marriage ...
, women remained in their ancestral communities and men migrated for marriage. The scientists had "a bit of a shock" when they identified "such a strong signature of matrilocality," said Lara Cassidy, an assistant professor in genetics at Trinity College Dublin who led the study. They found maternal lineages typical of matrilocality when they analysed the genomes of 57 Durotrigan people. It was the first time this system had been identified in European prehistory.


References


External links

{{authority control Villages in Dorset