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West Knighton
Dorset

West Knighton
Location
Grid reference: SY733875
Location: 50°41’16"N, 2°22’49"W
Data
Population: 375  (2011)
Post town: Dorchester
Postcode: DT2
Local Government
Council: Dorset
Parliamentary
constituency:
West Dorset

West Knighton is a village in Dorset, sitting three miles south-east of the county town, Dorchester. It has an 11th-century church and a village pub. The 2011 census recorded the the civil parish with a population of 375.

The village name derives from the Old English cniht tun, meaning the village or farmstead of the young men or retainers.[1] At Little Mayne Farm, half a mile south-west of the village, is the site of a deserted mediæval village, which is recorded in the Domesday Book as 'Maine'[2]

West Knighton parish historically developed out of the amalgamation of four mediæval settlements within the ancient hundred of Cullifordtree: the existing main village, the previously mentioned 'Parva Maene', another mediæval settlement at 'Friarmayne' to the south—also deserted and now within neighbouring Broadmayne civil parish[3]—and the fourth at 'Lewell' to the north, which is now just a farmhouse.[4]

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about West Knighton)

References

  1. Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
  2. West Knighton in the Domesday Book
  3. Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map
  4. 'Knighton, West': An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2: South East (1970), pp. 135-140