Cheselbourne Explained

Country:England
Official Name:Cheselbourne
Static Image Name:Parish Church of St Martin - Cheselbourne (2) - geograph.org.uk - 887187.jpg
Static Image Caption:Parish Church of St Martin
Coordinates:50.7966°N -2.338°W
Population:296
Population Ref:[1]
Unitary England:Dorset
Shire County:Dorset
Post Town:Dorchester
Postcode Area:DT
Postcode District:DT2
Constituency Westminster:West Dorset
Region:South West England
Os Grid Reference:SY763997

Cheselbourne (sometimes spelled Chesilborne[2] or Cheselborne) is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Dorset Downs, 7miles north-east of Dorchester. The parish is at an altitude of 75 to 245 metres (approximately 250 to 800 feet) and covers an area of 1175ha; the underlying geology is chalk.[3] In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 296.[1]

The village, which contains a mix of buildings of different ages and styles, is spread along four lanes which meet here. It has a public house called the Rivers Arms. The 13th- to 14th-century parish church has a pinnacled tower with battlements, numerous gargoyles[4] and a canonical sundial.

In 1086, in the Domesday Book Cheselbourne was recorded as Ceseburne;[5] it had 36 households, 10acres of meadow and one mill. It was in the hundred of Hilton and the lord and tenant-in-chief was Shaftesbury Abbey.[6]

Cheselbourne used to be the site of a tradition known as "Treading in the Wheat", in which young women from the village would walk the fields on Palm Sunday, dressed in white.[4]

At Lyscombe Farm in the northwest of the parish are the remains of an early 13th-century chapel. The nave was once used as a bakehouse and then a farmworker's dwelling. In 1957, a Dutch barn was built over the ruins.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Area: Cheselbourne (Parish). Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics. Office for National Statistics. 20 January 2014. Neighbourhood Statistics.
  2. Book: Portrait of Dorset. Ralph Wightman. Ralph Wightman. Robert Hale Ltd. 1983. 4. 107–8. 0 7090 0844 9.
  3. Web site: 'Cheselbourne', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 3: Central (1970), pp. 73-79. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. British History Online. November 2013. 8 June 2014.
  4. Book: Dorset Villages. Roland Gant. 88–9. Robert Hale Ltd. 1980. 0 7091 8135 3.
  5. Web site: Dorset A-G . domesdaybook.co.uk . The Domesday Book Online . 27 February 2015.
  6. Web site: Place: Cheselbourne . domesdaymap.co.uk . Open Domesday . 27 February 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402105909/http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SY7699/cheselbourne/# . 2 April 2015 . dead .