Ashmore
| Ashmore | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
.JPG) Ashmore pond | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST912178 |
| Location: | 50°57’35"N, 2°7’31"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 188 (2011) |
| Post town: | Salisbury |
| Postcode: | SP5 |
| Dialling code: | 01722
LG district=Dorset |
| Local Government | |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Dorset |
Ashmore is a village in Dorset, in the north of the county and just yards from the border of Wiltshire. The village is in Cranborne Chase, with Fonthill Magna three miles to the west of Ashmore and Tollard Royal two miles to the east, in Wiltshire. Ashmore is twenty miles south-west of Salisbury, in the latter county.
The village is centred on a circular pond and consists of a church and several stone cottages and farms, many with thatched roofs. It is the highest village in the county. The pond or mere is what gave the village its original name of "Ashmere". The 2011 census counted a parish population of 188.
History
Three round barrows have been found in the parish: two in the south near Well Bottom and one in the west near the parish boundary with Fontmell Magna; this latter barrow was removed in the 19th century and bones were recovered.[1] Ashmore may have been the site of a Neolithic market place or settlement.[2]
The Roman road from Bath to Badbury Rings passes through the east of the parish.[1] The situation of the village is similar to Romano-British sites in the area,[1] and there may have been a Roman military camp and trading post here.[2] It is possible that Ashmore may have been a Romano-British village that has been occupied without a break up to the present day; the parish church is sited away from the pond at the edge of the village, which could indicate that the village pre-dated the church and Christianity.[3]
In 1086 Ashmore was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Aisemare";[4] it had 24 households, 7 ploughlands and 10 acres of meadow. It had a value of £15 to the lord of the manor, who was the King.[5]
Until 1859 Ashmore had an open field system; the three fields—North Field to the north, and Sandpit Fields and Broadridge to the south—were roughly equal in size and covered an area of 380 acres. At the same time there was also a considerable area of enclosed fields, covering 240 acres in 1590.[1]
Geography
Ashmore parish is situated on the hills of Cranborne Chase four and a half miles south-east of Shaftesbury and seven miles north of Blandford Forum. The underlying geology is chalk, overlain by clay-with-flints in the south and south-east.[1] The village, which at 700 feet above sea level is the highest in Dorset,[6] is sited on a spur of land between dry valleys which drain south and southwest.[1] All of Ashmore parish is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).[7]
Events
The village holds ana annual[[midsummer celebration known as 'Filly Loo' (or 'Filleigh Loo'[8]) takes place around Ashmore pond, with a Green Man, country dancing, morris dancers and live music.[6][9] The event's ancient origins are mysterious: theories include that it celebrated either the pond's constancy as a water supply,[6] the summer solstice,[9] or the end of the cultivated filbert (hazelnut) harvest.[2] The meaning of the name 'Filly Loo' has also attracted more than one explanation, including that it is West Country dialect for 'uproar',[10] a corruption of the French 'La Fille de l'Eau', ('maiden of the water'),[11] or a corruption of 'Filbert Louis', a nickname of Louis Rideout, one of the historical instigators of the event. The event was revived in 1956[8] as a folk dance festival, and takes place on the Friday night nearest to Midsummer Day or the Feast of St. John the Baptist.[11]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Ashmore) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 'Ashmore', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset Volume 4: North (1972), pp. 1–3 (British History Online)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Ashmore Parish Plan 2006". Parish Plans. Dorset County Council. https://www.dorsetforyou.com/398135. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ↑ Professor W G Hoskins (1955). The Making of the English Landscape. Book Club Associates. p. 52.
- ↑ "Dorset A–G". The Domesday Book Online. domesdaybook.co.uk. http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset1.html. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ↑ "Place: Ashmore". Open Domesday. domesdaymap.co.uk. http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST9117/ashmore/. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Roland Gant (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. pp. 37–8. ISBN 0-7091-8135-3.
- ↑ "Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". ccwwdaonb.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130808041911/http://ccwwdaonb.org.uk/docs/General_MapSW.pdf. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ken Ayres (July 2012). "Ashmore – a photo essay". Dorset Life Magazine. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2012/07/ashmore-a-photo-essay/. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Shappi Khorsandi (18 September 2006). "Filly Loo". Inside Out. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series10/week3.shtml. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ↑ Clive Aslet (2011). Villages of Britain: The Five Hundred Villages that Made the Countryside. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408817995. https://books.google.com/books?id=EevCB9br6F4C&pg=PA1842&lpg=PA1842&dq=filly+loo+ashmore&source=bl&ots=wvMMS81ncE&sig=v7uKzFzK1kQlMGdYCwIPsliAFSU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sD6oU6TCBY6S7Aar7YDADQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=filly%20loo%20ashmore&f=false. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Filly Loo". darkdorset.co.uk. http://www.darkdorset.co.uk/filly_loo. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- Pitt-Rivers, Michael: 'Dorset' (Faber & Faber, 1968)
- Taylor, Christopher: 'The Making of the Dorset Landscape' (Hodder & Stoughton,1970)