West Knighton, Dorset

West Knighton

West Knighton
West Knighton
West Knighton shown within Dorset
Population 375 [1]
OS grid reference SY733875
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Police Dorset
Fire Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament
  • West Dorset

West Knighton is a village and civil parish in south Dorset, England, situated 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of the county town Dorchester. It has an 11th-century church and a village pub. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 375.[1]

The village name derives from the Old English cniht and tūn, meaning the village or farmstead of the young men or retainers.[2] At Little Mayne Farm 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southwest of the village is the site of a deserted medieval village, which was recorded in the Domesday Book as Maine[3] and in 1201 was known as Parva Maene.[4]

West Knighton parish historically developed out of the amalgamation of four medieval settlements within the ancient hundred of Cullifordtree:[5] the existing main village, the previously mentioned Parva Maene, another medieval settlement at Friarmayne to the south—also deserted and now within neighbouring Broadmayne civil parish[6]—and the fourth at Lewell to the north (now just a farmhouse).[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Area: West Knighton (Parish), Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  2. ↑ David Mills, ed. (2011). A Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-19-960908-6. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  3. ↑ http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SY7286/mayne/ Open Domesday: Mayne
  4. ↑ West Dorset, Holiday and Tourist GUide. West Dorset District Council. c. 1982. p. 21.
  5. ↑ http://domesdaymap.co.uk/hundred/cullifordtree/%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D Open Domesday: Cullifordtree
  6. ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map
  7. ↑ "'Knighton, West', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2: South East (1970), pp. 135-140". British History Online. University of London & History of Parliament Trust. November 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2014.


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