Community
Community
Housing and Building
Development
The village is bisected by the main A350
Shaston Road, which leads to Shaftesbury
approximately 9 miles to the north and is
about 2.5 miles north west of Blandford
Forum.
The older part of the village generally lies to
the west of the main road between here and
the east bank of the River Stour.
The whole of the lower part of the village is
designated as a Conservation Area in the
NDDC Local Plan. This area also extends to
the east of the A350 in the central part of the
village between Bottom Road to the north
of the Vicarage and the area around
Stourpaine Manor to the south.
The older parts of the village are
predominately 18th and early 19th Century
cottages of vernacular style and local
materials, including rendered cob, brick and
flint walls, with variants in roof lines with
thatch and slate, or clay plain tile.
Some larger properties are set in their own
grounds together with Victorian farmhouses
of brick and slate.
The North Dorset Trailway
A Trailway is a 3 metre wide path with access to walkers, cyclists, horse riders
and the less able. It has hard wearing all-weather surface so that it can be used
as a genuine alternative transport route throughout the year.
The railway line through Stourpaine is part of the former Somerset and
Dorset Joint Railway. To look at it now, you would think that it had been
some little branch from nowhere very much; but from 1927 to 1962 it was part
of the route of one of the more famous named
trains, the Pines Express, which ran daily from
Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth; so called
apparently because the approach to Bournemouth
is through a pine forest. The line provides an ideal
route for a Trailway as it links many of North
Dorset's towns and villages.
There are 5 sections of Trailway in North Dorset
that are currently open to the public. These are
Charlton Marshall, Blandford, Shillingstone,
Sturminster Newton and Stalbridge.
Stourpaine is our village in the Blackmore Vale in North Dorset, England, on the River Stour
The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity
The foundation of Holy Trinity goes back before written records. There is no definite knowledge of when the first church was
built and it is not certain whether or not there was a Saxon Church. The village must have been of some importance in Saxon
times, however, for after the Norman Conquest it was taken from Alward its Saxon owner and given to Humphrey the
Chamberlain, one of William's henchmen. We can assume therefore that it was important enough
to have had a church. It was a large parish, including not only the Manor of Stourpaine itself but
also the Manors of Ash and Lazerton.
Friends of Blandford Community Hospital
Stourpaine Tennis Club
We have a thriving tennis club that is interested in
new members joining.