West Country Genealogy
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West Country Genealogy - The Blackmore Vale, Dorset
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West Country Genealogy

Gillingham
1835 Robsons Directory Kington Magna 1841 Census Oborne 1841 Census 1851 Census
Pulham Marriages Sherborne Bishop's Transcripts 1835 Robsons Directory 1841 Census - Workhouse Stalbridge Marriages 1694 to 1799 Marriages 1800 to 1859 1835 Robsons Directory Sturminster Newton Marriages 1835 Robsons Directory

As the name Blackmore Vale is more historical than geographical, it's modern boundaries are not so clear. The most geographically logical would be the valley country enclosed by the Stourton Hill, Castle Hills, Mere, Shaftesbury, Melbury Hill, Hambledon, Bulbarrow, High Stay Balcombe Downs and other points on the Dorset Downs.

Another description of the Vale states it "may conviently be divided into three sections. The first, on the east, is overlooked by Shaftesbury and the wooded height of Duncliffe Hill, a useful landmark visible from many miles away in Wiltshire and Somerset. Here the landscape consists of gently undiluting pastureland. On the north near the Somerset border , the higher ground that culminates in Stour Hill forms a platform from which to view the valley of the Stour and the low ground to the east of Stalbridge, and to the east towards the chalk foothills. The Stour introduces a wide band of level water meadows that curve irregularly with the immense sweeps of the river till they disappearin the gap of the downs near Shillingstone. The second section lies between the Stour and the Sherborne-Dorchester road. Here is the true heart of the Vale with all its melancholy charm. The downs themselves have receded and are therefore less immense. Farther to the west the third section begins to mingle with the hilly country of West Dorset. The downs have returned to close all southern views, and the great wooded hills of Melbury on the west and High Stoy on the east overshadow the lower-lying woods and meadows........
There is a quality in the landscape of the Blackmore Vale that captivates the senses.............Geoffrey Clark & W. Harding Thompson, The Dorset Landscape. 1935.

The towns and villages actually covered by these webpages will actually be those closer to the County Line with Somerset, but may eventually include some of the villages on the Blackmore Vale and also the surrounding hills.


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