Hinton Martell

Hinton Martell
Dorset
Fountain and Parish Church, Hinton Martell
Location
Grid reference:	SU013061
Location:	50°51’14"N, 1°58’59"W
Data
Population:	368
Post town:	Wimborne
Postcode:	BH21
Dialling code:	01258
Local Government
Council:	Dorset
Parliamentary constituency:	North Dorset

Hinton Martell (also known as Hinton Martel) is a village in Dorset, in the east of the county three miles north of Wimborne Minster. With neighbouring Hinton Parva it forms a civil parish called just 'Hinton'.

Hinton Martell was once known as Hinetone, meaning "monks' village". It was owned at this time by Eudo Martel, a Frenchman whose family name gives the village its suffix.

The village has a church and thatched cottages, and also a rather unusual fountain. The current fountain is a replacement for an original which was built low for sheep to drink from. In 1905 in his Highways and Byways in Dorset, Sir Frederick Treves called the original "a fountain as may be found in a suburban tea garden or in front of a gaudy Italian villa." He continues, "The fountain, of painted metal, tawdry and flimsy, represents a boy standing in one dish while he holds another on his head. No unhappy detail is spared: the ambitious pedestal, the three impossible dolphins, the paltry squirt of water, are all here. How this café chantant ornament has found its way into a modest and secluded hamlet there is no evidence to show". The fountain was irreparably damaged in the severe winter of 1963. It was replaced, and was revealed in 1965 by Miss Anne Sidney of Poole, the 'Miss World' winner of that year.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hinton Martell)

• Our Benefice: Hinton Martel