Woodsford

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as Waredesford,[1] which the 18th-century historian John Hutchins interpreted as meaning a ford across the Varia, an alternative name for the River Frome. More recent opinion is that Waredesford referred to a ford belonging to a man named Weard. Two holdings were recorded, which have been interpreted as corresponding to East Woodsford (the current village) and West Woodsford (now Woodsford Castle).[2]

Woodsford Castle is the surviving range of a 14th-century fortified manor house. King Edward III granted William de Whitefield a licence to crenellate in 1335. The house has the largest thatched roof in the county[3] and has been restored by the Landmark Trust.[4] The house is a Grade I listed building[5]

The Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist was 13th-century, but was largely rebuilt in 1862–63 to designs by the Gothic Revival architect Thomas Henry Wyatt. Remnants of the 13th-century church include the lower part of the west tower and an Early English Gothic lancet on the south side of the nave west of the south porch.[6] The parish is part of the Benefice of Moreton, Woodsford and Crossways with Tincleton.[7]

In the Frome Valley at Woodsford there used to be a system of watermeadows.[8]

Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the parish population is 80.[9] The 2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 67.[10] In the 2011 census figures for Woodsford parish have been combined with those of neighbouring Tincleton parish; the population in this combined area was 236.[11]

• Newman, John; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1972). Dorset. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 494–495. ISBN 0-14-071044-2.
• RCHME, ed. (1970). "Woodsford". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset. 2 – South East. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. pp. 397–402.
• Wightman, Ralph (1983) [1965]. Portrait of Dorset. Portrait Books (4 ed.). London: Robert Hale. p. 49. ISBN 0-7090-0844-9.