| Official Name: | Winterborne Clenston |
| Static Image Name: | The Manor House - Winterborne Clenston - geograph.org.uk - 626944.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | The Manor House, Winterborne Clenston |
| Coordinates: | 50.827°N -2.23°W |
| Population: | 40 |
| Population Ref: | (2013 est.) |
| Os Grid Reference: | ST838031 |
| Civil Parish: | Winterborne Clenston |
| Unitary England: | Dorset |
| Lieutenancy England: | Dorset |
| Region: | South West England |
| Country: | England |
| Post Town: | BLANDFORD FORUM |
| Postcode Area: | DT |
| Postcode District: | DT11 |
| Dial Code: | 01258 |
| Constituency Westminster: | North Dorset |
Winterborne Clenston is a small village and civil parish in Dorset, England, around NaNround=0.5NaNround=0.5 southwest of Blandford Forum. In 2013 the civil parish had an estimated population of 40.[1]
The first part of the village name comes from the River Winterborne, which flows from north to south through the village.[2] The river only flows overground during the winter, hence the name. In 1312 the patron of the church was Roger de Clencheston, who most likely had a farm here, after which the second part of the village name derives.[3]
To the north of the village is Winterborne Stickland and to the south is Winterborne Whitechurch. The river flows through both these villages as well.[4]
The parish church of St Nicholas dates from 1840. It is built in bands of stone and flint and has a spire on top of a narrow tower. It stands alone above the Winterborne on the site of an earlier church.[3]
The village manor is a late-15th- to early-16th-century building of Purbeck and Portland stone with courses of flint. It was built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is a Grade I listed building.[5] It has mullioned windows and a gabled staircase turret on the west side.[3] [6] Nearby is a sixteenth-century tithe-barn with a hammerbeam roof, also a listed building but falling into disrepair. In 2008, Historic England funded the erection of scaffolding and temporary repairs to the structure, but by 2016, a permanent repair had not been made.[7]
About 100-2NaN-2 east of the manor house is a field barn which is also a Grade II listed building. It is also built in bands of flint and stone and has a door made of planks and a thatched roof. It forms an important group with the Manor House and the Manor House Barn.[8]