Pentridge

Pentridge
Dorset
Parish church of Saint Rumbold
Location
Grid reference:	SU033178
Location:	50°57’32"N, 1°57’14"W
Data
Population:	215  (2001)
Post town:	Salisbury
Postcode:	SP5
Dialling code:	01725
Local Government
Council:	Dorset
Parliamentary constituency:	North Dorset

Pentridge is a village in Dorset, in the north-east of the county, sitting on the edge of Cranborne Chase down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of Blandford Forum (ten miles to the south-west) and Salisbury in Wiltshire (twelve miles to the northeast). In 2001 it had a population of 215.

The name of the village appears to derive from the old British language words pen ("hill") and twrch ("boar"), and thus means "wild-boar hill"; it is first recorded (as "Pentric") in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of King Alfred the Great.

The village is located amongst many Neolithic, Roman and Saxon earthworks, notably Bokerley Dyke, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the Romano-British to keep out the Saxon invaders.

Nearby is Pentridge Hill, formed by a band of more resistant chalk than the surrounding land.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Pentridge)