Steeple, Dorset

Steeple
Dorset
Steeple parish church
Location
Grid reference:	SY910812
Location:	50°37’46"N, 2°7’38"W
Data
Population:	60  (2013 est.)
Post town:	Wareham
Postcode:	BH20
Dialling code:	01929
Local Government
Council:	Dorset
Parliamentary constituency:	South Dorset

Steeple is a hamlet on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, found eight miles west of the coastal resort town of Swanage, at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In 2013 the estimated population was 60.

The ancient Norman church of Steeple, dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, lacks a steeple.

Within the church are the engraved arms, also painted in scarlet of the roof interior, of the Washington Family, of which the first American President, George Washington, came, showing stars and stripes. The Washington arms are quartered with those of the squires of Steeple village, the Lawrence family, who are allied with the Washingtons by the marriage of one of its sons, Edmund Lawrence, to Agnes de Wessington in 1390.

Hanging within the church is the flag of City of Washington DC, the capital of the United States, which flag was presented on 25 July 1977 by Walter E Washington, Mayor of that city from 2 January 1975 to 2 January 1979

About the village=

On the highest local point of the nearby Purbeck Ridge is an 18th-century folly built by the former owner of Creech Grange and known as Grange Arch. Today it is a Grade II listed building owned by the National Trust.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Steeple, Dorset)

References

• Dwyer, Jack: 'Dorset Pioneers' (The History Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0-7524-5346-0