Farrington

Farrington is a hamlet in the civil parish of Iwerne Courtney or Shroton. The village of Iwerne Courtney, known locally as Shroton, is about 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Blandford Forum. The parish grew from three joined settlements: Iwerne Courtney in the centre, Farrington to the north-west and Ranston just east of the river. Farrington is a small cluster of farms and farmhouses, so this is farmland rather than a village with a centre of its own.

Hambledon Hill rises close by, south of Farrington and west of Iwerne Courtney. It is an Iron Age hill fort on a chalk outcrop at the south-western corner of Cranborne Chase, with extensive Neolithic earthworks. The hill is now a National Nature Reserve, with chalk grassland plants and butterflies including the Adonis blue.

Iwerne Minster sits roughly midway between Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum. Its church of St Mary has a nave, north aisle and north transept dating from the mid-12th century, and the part of the village east of the A350 lies in the Cranborne Chase National Landscape.

Shillingstone, on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Blandford Forum, had 1,165 residents in 2021. Its former railway station, open from 1863 to 1966, survives on the North Dorset Trailway, a walking, cycling and horse-riding route from Sturminster Newton to Spetisbury with links to Hod and Hambledon Hills.