Child Okeford

© Dorset OPC 2018

Child Okeford is a village on the River Stour and is 4 miles south east form Sturminster Newton and 6 miles north west from Blandford Forum. To the north & west are the parishes of Manston & West Orchard, Iwerne Courtney lies to the east, Steepleton Iwerne to the south east, Shillingstone to the south west and Hammoon to the west. The village is situated at the foot of the ancient Hambledon Hill, a Neolithic ceremonial burial site with an Iron Age hill fort. The Hill was also the site of a battle in the English Civil War. A century later General James Wolfe used the hill's steeper sides to prepare his troops; they later surprised the French at Quebec by scaling the Plains of Abraham under cover of darkness.

The church of St Nicholas (left) has a fine Norman tower and the east wall of the chancel has some excellent wall paintings. The registers date from the year 1651. There is also a Wesleyan chapel in the parish. The war memorial in the form of a stone cross stands at the road junction known in the village as The Cross. Old records speak of a megalith that used to lie where The Cross is now, marking an ancient crossroads.

In 1884 the hamlet of Fiddleford, which was in a detached part of the parish of Child Okeford, was transferred to Okeford Fitzpaine.

There is a Post Office and the National School was built in 1846 and then rebuilt and enlarged in 1874 for 220 children. The area of the parish extends to 1561 acres and most of this is laid to pasture, with some wheat, barley and roots being grown. The population in 1851 was 778, in 1861 it was 777, in 1881 it had risen to 837 and in 1891 was 789 persons.

Text above extracted from Kelly's Directory of 1895. Photographs courtesy of Dorinda Miles.

© Dorset OPC 2018

The OPC for Child Okeford is Kevin Pearce

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