Maiden Newton

Maiden Newton sits where the River Frome meets its tributary the Hooke, about 9 miles north-west of Dorchester. Both rivers have cut valleys into the chalk of the Dorset Downs, which gives walkers a choice of river paths and ridge tracks. The parish had 1,119 residents at the 2011 census.

You can reach it without a car. The station is on the Heart of Wessex Line, which carries Great Western Railway services between Bristol Temple Meads and Weymouth via Dorchester West, and the Dorset National Landscape’s Valley to Market Trail runs 8.5 miles from here to Dorchester along National Cycle Network route 26, paved all the way. The Macmillan Way and the Wessex Ridgeway also pass through the village, as does the shorter Frome Valley Trail. For a long day out, a 17.6-mile walk from the station loops via Cerne Abbas, with options to shorten it or finish in Dorchester, and stays inside the Dorset National Landscape throughout.

The parish church of St Mary has much Norman work, with additions from the 14th and 15th centuries, and the shaft of the village cross is 15th century and Grade II* listed. Thomas Hardy used the village as the basis for Chalk-Newton in his Wessex novels. The village has a post office and a convenience store. Dorset Knob Throwing, a biscuit-hurling contest, is part of the Cattistock Countryside Show; in 2026 both were held on Sunday 19 July.

A railway once branched from here to Bridport, opening in 1857 and closing in 1975. The A356 still runs through the village.