Pentridge

Human settlement in England
  • Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge
Unitary authority
  • Dorset
Ceremonial county
  • Dorset
Region
  • South West
CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townSALISBURYPostcode districtSP5Dialling code01725PoliceDorsetFireDorset and WiltshireAmbulanceSouth Western UK Parliament
  • North Dorset
List of places
UK
England
Dorset
50°57′32″N 1°57′14″W / 50.959°N 1.954°W / 50.959; -1.954

Pentridge is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial of Dorset, England, lying in the north-east of the county. It is situated on the edge of Cranborne Chase down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of Blandford Forum (ten miles to the south-west) and Salisbury (twelve miles to the northeast). In 2001 the parish had a population of 215. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Sixpenny Handley to form "Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge".[1]

The village name derives from the Celtic pen ("hill") and twrch ("boar"), and thus means "hill of the wild boar"; its existence was first recorded (as "Pentric") in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of Alfred the Great.[2]

The village is located amongst many Neolithic, Roman and Saxon earthworks, notably Bokerley Dyke, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the Romano-British to keep out the Saxon invaders.

Nearby is Pentridge Hill, formed by a band of more resistant chalk than the surrounding land.

Approximately 2 km East of Pentridge is Blagdon Hill. On 17th January 1947 Mr.A.L.Parke of Salisbury reported that the round barrows on this hill had been recently "trenched" and a grave was opened. He supposed it to be the main interment, it "being situated in a hole scooped in the solid chalk". He further stated that " a few sherds of a well baked urn were found" and "fragments of burnt bone and charcoal accompanied" the urn. [3]


References

  1. ^ "The East Dorset (Reorganisation of Community Governance) Order 2015" (PDF). Lgbce. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  2. ^ Roland Gant (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 0 7091 8135 3.
  3. ^ A Blagdon Hill Burial, P.60, Papers and Proceedings of The Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, 1944,Pub H.M.Gilbert and son. Soton.

External links

Media related to Pentridge at Wikimedia Commons

  • Census data


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