Tarrant Hinton
Tarrant Hinton is a very small ancient village on the A354 road between Salisbury and Blandford Forum in Dorset. The population explodes for the annual Great Dorset Steam Fair.
 Church Cottages, Tarrant Hinton © Copyright Toby and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. |
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. As well as Tarrant Hinton, they are Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Launceston, Tarrant Monkton, Tarrant Rawston, Tarrant Rushton, Tarrant Keyneston and Tarrant Crawford. |
Tarrant Hinton's 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 might 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 the gardens of which are 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.
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Great Dorset Steam Fair
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Tarrant Hinton is most famous for being the venue of the Great Dorset Steam Fair. 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. |
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Other pages that may be of interest
Events in Dorset (shows date of the famous Great Dorset Steam Fair, as well as lots of other events)
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Useful Information
Accommodation
Hotels can be found locally from Wessex HotelsThere are some delightful cottages around the county. Probably one near where you would love to stay.
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Car Rentals
Want a cute car? Large car? Small car? Whatever you need you will find it here. You will probably even find your favourite car hire firm here and Car Rentals do not add a penny to their price for looking all over for you!
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Please note that National Express coach services have been suspended due to the current pandemic.
Why not travel by Coach
If you do decide the leave the car at home and help the environment too, why not go National Express. They run coaches all over the country. Some pretty good fares too.
Just imagine - sit back and relax, no hassling with the traffic!!!
Do you know that you can book on your mobile phone and they will send the ticket as a text!!!!
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Trains
Virgin Trains is an excellent main line railway.
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More Public Transport
Traveline is a very useful resource for public transport throughout Wessex, even local buses. There are other pages on Traveline for other parts of the country.
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