TARRANT HINTON

Tarrant Hinton is a very small ancient village on the A354 road between Salisbury Salisbury and Blandford Forum in Dorset. The population explodes on a certain day in September for the annual Great Dorset Steam Fair.

The village is one of several small communities with a Tarrant name prefix along the seven and a half mile River Tarrant, that runs into the River Stour.

Church Cottages, Tarrant Hinton
  © Copyright Toby and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

(Click to see the full image of this attractive photo)

Its pretty church, dedicated to St. Mary, is medieval and dates from the 1200's There is a Norman font. A splendid carved Easter sepulchre of the Decorated period adorns the Church, one of two surviving examples in Dorset, the other being in Gillingham.

Excavations locally have proved that the village dates at least from the Iron Age and later became Roman. Several Iron Age burials have been found, one of a man in this thirties who had tuberculosis, the earliest known case in Britain.

A silver gilt Anglo Saxon fitting was found with a metal detector by a Mr Mitchell. The British Museum decided it night have been a plate for a small buckle.

World War I saw men of the Naval Division training In the village. From there they proceeded to Gallipoli. During WWII a Hurricane with a Polish pilot, Pilot Officer Rohacek, crashlanded in the village. It was one of four that crashed that day in the area.

Not far away is Chettle House which is open to the public on the first Sunday of each month between Easter and September from 11 am to 5pm. It is a Queen Anne style manor designed by Thomas Archer for the Chafin family. Commissioned in 1710 it was not finished until about 1735. The gardens are said to be particularly beautiful.

Tarrant Hinton is most famous for being the venue of the Great Dorset Steam Fair held this year from Wednesday 31st August to Sunday 4th September. This 5 day event attracts 200,000 people to view the largest gathering of steam traction engines in Europe. Alongside the Fair is a musical festival.

© Copyright Dr Neil Clifton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

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