Winterborne Stickland

Winterborne Stickland is a village in the Dorset Downs, about 4 miles west of Blandford Forum. It is sited in a winterbourne valley, which gives the first half of its name; the second half comes from the Old English sticol, meaning steep. A river, the Winterborne, flows through the village green.

The parish church of St Mary is grade I listed. The nave and chancel date from the 13th century, the tower from around 1500, and the walls are built in bands of stone and flint. Many of the thatched cottages in the village are listed too. The Pamela Hambro Hall on West Street hosts Artsreach shows and the parish council meetings.

The high ground is close. Bulbarrow Hill, 899 feet high and five miles west of Blandford Forum, overlooks the Blackmore Vale with views into Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon, and the Wessex Ridgeway runs along its top. The hill is a popular launch site for paragliders, and Rawlsbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort, sits on a promontory. Walkers can follow a route from Bulbarrow past Winterborne Houghton to Milton Abbas, a planned village of identical thatched homes, built in the 1770s after the old town was demolished.

To reach the village from the A354 Dorchester to Blandford road, turn off in Winterborne Whitechurch. From Blandford, follow the signs from Bryanston Gates.