The Holy Trinity Church tower, the Moon and St George - (c) George McCavitt, 2012

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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.

Trailway Bridge plaque and mini-snowman - (c) George McCavitt, 2012

Stourpaine is our village in the Blackmore Vale in North Dorset, England, on the River Stour

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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.