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Maiden Newton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in south-west England. It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, about 9 miles (14 km) north-west of the county town, Dorchester.

The village is sited on Upper Greensand at the confluence of the River Frome with its tributary of equivalent size, the Hooke. Both these rivers have cut valleys into the surrounding chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. The A356 main road passes through the village. In the 2011 census the parish€”which does not include the adjacent settlements of Frome Vauchurch and Tollerford€” had a population of 1,119.

In 1086 in the Domesday Book, Maiden Newton was recorded as Newetone; it had 26 households, 7 ploughlands, 18 acres (7.3 ha) of meadow and 2 mills. It was in Tollerford Hundred and the lord and tenant-in-chief was Waleran the Hunter.

Maiden Newton was the basis for the village of Chalk-Newton, South Wessex, in many of the works of Thomas Hardy. In the vicinity of the village is evidence of Roman occupation and early British settlements. The parish church of St Mary contains much Norman work, with additions from the 14th and 15th centuries. The shaft of the Village Cross is 15th century and is Grade II* listed. There is also the shaft of a Medieval cross in the churchyard which is a scheduled monument. Maiden Newton is also home to one of the country's oldest fire engines, restored and in full working order, the fire engine house built for it in 1842-3 is a grade II listed building.

Maiden Newton is in an electoral ward with the same name, which also contains much of the surrounding countryside including the villages of West Compton, Toller Fratrum, Toller Porcorum and Hooke. The population of this ward was 2,081 at the 2011 census.

The village is served by Maiden Newton railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line. There was also a railway line from Maiden Newton to Bridport which opened in 1857 and was extended to West Bay in 1884. The Bridport branch line was recommended for closure in the Beeching Report of 1963. By the time the line closed in 1975 it was the last remaining branch line in Dorset. Work is underway to turn the line into a footpath and cycle track.

The A356 passes through the village as does National Cycle Network Route 26.

Three long distance footpaths the Macmillan Way and the Wessex Ridgeway pass through the Village as does the shorter Frome Valley Trail.

The manor house was used in the filming of the 1996 film Emma, in which it became Randalls, the home of Mrs Weston; the 1997 BBC version of The History of Tom Jones; and the 2015 version of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. The manor was used again in Rebecca as Manderley's garden, which is open to the public from Spring to Autumn.

The original stone church of Norman times had a tower with three bells, at least one transept, and a west door. It survived until 1852 when it was in poor condition and was demolished.

The present church is said to cost Sir Richard Glyn £2500.00. At this time Sir Richard owned most of the village. On 21 December 1852 the Bishop of Salisbury dedicated the new church to St Thomas, whose feast day it was.

Dorset County Council have considered bypass schemes, but none has got further than preliminary because Melbury Abbas village is surrounded by conservation land.

More Media related to Melbury Abbas can be found at Wikimedia Commons

2004: Murderer followed by police

Danilo Restivo, a convicted murderer, was under round the clock surveillance by Dorset Police detectives, after being suspected in the murder of his neighbour, Heather Barnett, in 2002. On 11 May 2004, Restivo was filmed getting changed and then watching lone woman from the bushes around Throop. On this occasion, Restivo seemed to get spooked and went home. However, on returning to the area, a decision was made that police would intervene under the pretext that there had been thefts in the area. Officers asked to see what was in his bag and car and chillingly, they found a large filleting knife, two pairs of scissors, gloves, a balaclava, wipes and tissues; effectively his 'murder bag'. Restivo was found guilty of murdering Barnett, and later found guilty in his absence for murdering Elisa Claps in 1993, in his home town of Potenza, in Basilicata Southern Italy, by an Italian court. Restivo is serving a life sentence with a 40-year tariff.

2011: Red Arrow crash

Following a display at the Bournemouth Air Festival 2011, one of the Red Arrows Hawk aircraft crashed into a field near Throop Mill, one mile from Bournemouth Airport. Flt Lt Jon Egging, pilot of Red 4 (XX179), died in the accident. The investigation into the incident determined that Flt Lt Egging was incapacitated due to the effects of g-LOC until very shortly before impact.

2019-2021: Hicks Farm 'Sang' Plans

In order for planned large-scale developments in Bournemouth to go ahead, BCP Council were required to find and develop a 'Sang' (Suitable natural alternative green space). An area proposed by the council was 12 hectares of green belt land, known as Hicks Farm in Throop.

In November 2019, a planning application was submitted for the SANG to the council. However, on 17 October 2020, the SANG was refused by the council, voting 11 1. The plans had received over 200 letters of objection.

On 27 February 2021, it was reported that revised plans had been submitted, in a bid to win approval. On 7 June 2021, it was reported that the second application had received 399 objections. However, In August 2022, much to the malign of the residents of Throop, with very little changes carried out to the original planning application a 'put-together' planning committee of BCP approved the development of a SANG adjacent to Hicks Farm.

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) as 'Stanpeta' meaning 2 estates with meadows.

Somerford is a historical district of Christchurch that borders with Mudeford and is intersected by the Somerford Road (B3059). Somerford was named after a ford over the River Mude which was only passable in summertime its approximate site is that of the current day Somerford Roundabout.

Historically part of Christchurch, Mudeford Spit was sold to Bournemouth Borough Council in 1935. It is the larger of the two features, the other being the Haven, that almost enclose Christchurch Harbour, leaving its water to rise and fall through a narrow channel known as The Run. Formed by sand and shingle brought around Hengistbury Head by longshore drift and pushed towards the shore by waves from the east, the spit is the most mobile of Dorset's geographical features. Prior to the construction of the long groyne at Hengistbury Head in 1938, it tended to grow steadily in a north-easterly direction and on occasion stretched as far as Steamer Point and Highcliffe Castle; most notably in 1880. It has been breached a number of times naturally; 1883, 1911, 1924, 1935 and once deliberately in the 17th century when an attempt was made to construct another entrance to the harbour. After the last breaching in 1935, the end of the spit broke off and drifted towards the section of eastern beach known as Friars Cliff where it formed a lagoon. The groyne built in 1938 to protect Hengistbury Head from erosion had an adverse effect on the spit as it prevented movement of material around it. The spit began to erode due to wave action from the east and many attempts have been made since to stabilise the situation. Small seawalls were constructed on the spit in the 1960s and a large number of rubble groynes were put down during the 1980s.

Beach huts on Mudeford Spit can be reached on foot or land train from the main part of Bournemouth Bay, or by ferry from Mudeford Quay. On the spit is the "Black House", a local landmark in various local smuggling legends, it was built in 1848 for the manager of the Hengistbury Head Mining Company, and therefore these tales are unlikely to be true.

Mudeford is part of the Christchurch parliamentary constituency for elections to the House of Commons. It is currently represented by Conservative MP Christopher Chope.

Mudeford is also part of the Mudeford, Stanpit and West Highcliffe wards for elections to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

Muscliff is a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset.

Muscliff is part of the Muscliff and Strouden Park ward for elections to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council which elect three councillors.

Muscliff is part of the Bournemouth East parliamentary constituency, for elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

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We also used the following coordinates to generate the Google Map displayed on this page.  latitude 50.777487 and longitude -2.572774