Woodsford

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Woodsford
Dorset
Woodsford Castle - geograph.org.uk - 924711.jpg
Woodsford Castle
Location
Grid reference: SY762905
Location: 50°42’50"N, 2°20’17"W
Data
Population: 80  (2013 est.)
Post town: Dorchester
Postcode: DT2
Dialling code: 01305
Local Government
Council: Dorset
Parliamentary
constituency:
South Dorset

Woodsford is a village in Dorset standing beside the River Frome, about four miles east of the county town, Dorchester. A mid-year estimate in 2013 out the parish population at 80.

In the Frome Valley at Woodsford there used to be a system of watermeadows.[1]

Manor

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as Waredesford,[2] which the 18th-century historian John Hutchins]] interpreted as meaning a ford across the 'Varia', an alternative name, he asserts, for the River Frome. More recent opinion is that Waredesford referred to a ford belonging to a man named Weard. Two holdings were recorded in Woodsford, which have been interpreted as corresponding to East Woodsford (the current village) and West Woodsford (now Woodsford Castle).[3]

Woodsford Castle is the surviving range of a 14th-century fortified manor house. King Edward III granted William de Whitefield a licence to crenellate in 1335. The house has the largest thatched roof in the county[4] and has been restored by the Landmark Trust.[5] The house is a Grade I listed building.[6]

Parish church

St John the Evangelist parish church

The parish church of St John the Baptist is of the 13th-century. It was largely rebuilt in 1862–63 to designs by the Gothic Revival architect Thomas Henry Wyatt, who was responsible for many Victorian church restorations. Remnants of the 13th-century church include the lower part of the west tower and an Early English Gothic lancet on the south side of the nave west of the south porch.[7] The parish is part of the Benefice of Moreton, Woodsford and Crossways with Tincleton.[8]

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Woodsford)

References

  1. Wightman 1983, p. 49.
  2. Open Domesday: Woodford
  3. RCHME 1970, pp. 397–402.
  4. Rodger, MA (February 2009). "Some Lost Castles Of Dorset". Dorset Life. http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/02/some-lost-castles-of-dorset/. Retrieved 28 November 2013. 
  5. "Woodsford Castle". Landmark Trust. http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/woodsford-castle-13233. Retrieved 20 May 2016. 
  6. National Heritage List 1155314: Woodsford Castle (Grade I listing)
  7. National Heritage List 1155283: Church of Saint John the Baptist (Grade II listing)
  8. Archbishops' Council. "Benefice of Moreton, Woodsford and Crossways with Tincleton". A Church Near You. Church of England. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=34/237BK. Retrieved 1 September 2015.