Shillingstone
| Shillingstone | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 Gospel Hall and cross, Shillingstone | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST825112 |
| Location: | 50°54’0"N, 2°15’0"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,170 (2011) |
| Post town: | Blandford Forum |
| Postcode: | DT11 |
| Dialling code: | 01258 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dorset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Dorset |
| Website: | http://www.shillingstone.info |
Shillingstone is a village in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Blandford Forum. The 2011 Census recorded in the civil parish 479 households and a population of 1,170.
South of Shillingstone is a large area of woodland on Okeford and Shillingstone Hill which forms part of Blandford Forest.
History
Shillingstone is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086[1] as a settlement of 46 households, with meadow, woodlands and a mill, under the lordship of Ascelin of Rochester. Its name is a derivation of Eschelling's (or Ascelin's) town.
Shillingstone once had the tallest maypole in Dorset - 86 feet high.[2] An agricultural community, it specialised in the production of moss.[3]
In 1924 the Shillingstone lime works was started to extract lime from the chalk beds at Shillingstone Hill.
Parish church
The parish church of the Holy Rood is a short distance away from the village and is of 12th-century origin, constructed in banded flint and ashlar masonry.[4] It was enlarged in the 15th century and in the 19th century; G. F. Bodley added the north aisle. The font is of the 12th century and the pulpit of the 17th.[5]
The hymn writer Edward Dayman was appointed Rector of Shillingstone in 1842.
About 160 yards south of the church is a mediæval cross base.[6]
Railway station
Shillingstone railway station still survives intact on the former line of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, now part of the North Dorset Trailway.[7] The station is one of the best-preserved on the Somerset and Dorset line since the railway's closure in 1966. It opened on Monday 31 August 1863 and closed just over a century later on Sunday 6 March 1966. The station is undergoing extensive restoration by the Shillingstone Station Project, supported by the North Dorset Railway Trust.
The village also had a light railway serving Shillingstone House, the post-war home of Sir Thomas Salt.[8]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shillingstone) |
References
- ↑ Shillingstone: Domesday Book
- ↑ Ashley, Harry & Hugh: The Dorset Village Book (Countryside Books)
- ↑ Shillingstone in 'Dorset Life'
- ↑ Hidden Dorset gems
- ↑ Betjeman, John, ed. (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches; the South. London: Collins; p. 176
- ↑ National Heritage List 1013675: Mediæval cross base south of Holy Rood Church
- ↑ "The Dorset walk 2 - North Dorset Trailway". Dorset Life. June 2014. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2014/06/the-dorset-walk-2-north-dorset-trailway/. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
- ↑ Shillingstone Light Railway