Stinsford

The parish of Stinsford is made up of a number of hamlets and settlements at Higher and Lower Bockhampton, Stinsford, Bhompston, Higher Kingston, Kingston Maurward, Coker’s Frome, Frome Whitfield and Waterston Ridge. 

Perhaps because of the proximity of Dorchester, two miles away, there is now no shop, school or village hall and no pub.  

The beer-shop at Lower Bockhampton closed in the 1860s, the school in 1961 and the Post Office in 1970.

The parish is no longer dominated by the two great estates of Stinsford and Kingston Maurward. Much of the land is now occupied by Kingston Maurward College, a further education college.

The parish has five large country houses, Birkin House, Frome House, Kingston Maurward House, the Elizabethan Old Manor House and Stinsford House. In the past almost everyone who lived in the parish would have been employed on the land or as servants at these houses.

Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist, was born at Higher Bockhampton in 1840 and his birthplace is visited by many thousands of people from this country and abroad.

Most of the material on this page was transcribed and donated by Kay Kearsey, the former OPC. Many thanks to Kay for all of her contributions to this site over the years

 

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