Stour Provost
Stour Provost | |
Dorset | |
---|---|
Stour Provost | |
Location | |
Grid reference: | ST793215 |
Location: | 50°59’32"N, 2°17’45"W |
Data | |
Population: | 579 |
Post town: | Gillingham |
Postcode: | SP8 |
Local Government | |
Council: | Dorset |
Parliamentary constituency: |
North Dorset |
Stour Provost is a village standing in the Blackmore Vale in northern Dorset, on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Gillingham.
In old writings, the name of the village is usually spelled 'Stower Provost'.
Stour Provost once constituted a liberty, containing only the parish itself. Today the civil parish includes the settlements of Woodville and Stour Row to the east, which parish at the 2011 census had 235 households and a population of 579.
After the establishment of Stour Provost village near the River Stour, at least four smaller settlements were established in a piecemeal fashion from the 13th century, or perhaps earlier, in the common land or "waste" further east, at Woodville and beyond. These small groups of farms, with their own irregular shaped fields, were separated by unenclosed "waste" probably until the 18th century, when it was enclosed and divided into rectilinear fields.[1]
The nearest railway station is in neighbouring Gillingham. Trains run on the Exeter to Waterloo line.
Outside links
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stour Provost) |
References
- ↑ Stour Provost: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, pages 79-84