Marnhull is a village in the Blackmore Vale

Blackmore Vale

The Blackmore Vale is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. The vale is part of the Stour valley...

 area of north Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Sturminster Newton

Sturminster Newton

Sturminster Newton, known to locals as Stur, is a town in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It is situated on a low limestone ridge in a meander of the River Stour. The town is at the centre of a large dairy agriculture region, around which the town's economy is built...

, between Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...

 and Sherborne

Sherborne

Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...

 and about 30 miles (48.3 km) north of Bournemouth

Bournemouth

Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...

 and Weymouth. The village has 960 dwellings with a population of 1,951 (2001), of whom 42.3% are retired.

The early origins of Marnhull were in the 13th century though a Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 settlement was established at Ashley Wood in the east of the parish. It is a village in constant transformation with post war developments existing alongside properties dating back to Tudor

Tudor period

The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

 times and earlier and now comprises several hamlets. It is located on a low limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 ridge above the valley of the River Stour

River Stour, Dorset

The River Stour is a 60.5 mile long river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. It is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from rivers of the same name...

 which forms the northern and western boundaries of the parish.

Marnhull has three churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Methodist), two primary schools, two public houses (The Crown and The Blackmore Vale), a Post Office and General Stores, a Newsagent and General Stores, a shop selling soft furnishings, two hairdressers, a doctor's surgery, chemist and two garages including one serving petrol and diesel. The village has several societies and clubs, a recreation ground with a village hall and pavilion, a children's' playground and skate park.

Filmography

The television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 adaptation of Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...

was filmed in the village. Marlott was Hardy's name for Marnhull and The Pure Drop Inn was his name for The Crown Inn.

Notable residents

• Catherine Parr
  Catherine Parr
  Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...
  
   the last of Henry VIII
  Henry VIII of England
  Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
  
  's wives was given the original manor of Nash Court in 1544. From her it passed to Edward VI and then to Elizabeth I after which it passed through the families of several noblemen and eminent civilians.
• Giles Hussey
  Giles Hussey
  Giles Hussey was a painter from Dorset, England. He has works in the Tate Gallery. His portraits are well regarded, but his theories on art never received the attention he craved. Hussey created the first portrait of Charles Edward Stuart, the pretender to the British throne...
  
   was born here and lived at Nash House before studying art in Italy.
• Sir Peter Robin Harding
  Peter Harding
  Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Peter Robin Harding, GCB is a retired Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff, and Chief of Defence Staff.-RAF career:...
  
  , GCB, (born 2 December 1933) is a retired Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff, and Chief of Defence Staff.

External links

• The Marnhull Village Parish Plan 2006