- Child Okeford
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Coordinates: 50°54′47″N 2°14′13″W / 50.913°N 2.237°W
Child Okeford 
Child Okeford seen from Hambledon Hill
Child Okeford
Child Okeford shown within DorsetPopulation 1,065 OS grid reference ST834127 District North Dorset Shire county Dorset Region South West Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Police Dorset Fire Dorset Ambulance South Western EU Parliament South West England List of places: UK • England • Dorset Child Okeford (sometimes written Childe Okeford) is a quiet village in north Dorset, England, situated four miles east of Sturminster Newton and downstream from it along the River Stour which passes half a mile west of the village. The village had a population of 1,065 (2001), 41.9% of whom were retired.
Child Okeford is situated at the foot of Hambledon Hill, a Neolithic ceremonial burial site with an Iron Age hill fort. The hill was the site of a battle in the English Civil War. General James Wolfe, a century later, used the hill's steeper sides to prepare his troops; they later surprised the French at Quebec by scaling the Plains of Abraham under cover of darkness.
A World War I war memorial in the form of a stone cross stands at the road junction known in the village as The Cross.
There are a variety of shops and businesses in Child Okeford, from the Post Office and Cross Stores in the centre of the village, next to The Baker Arms, one of two pubs. On the way out of Child Okeford there is a second pub, The Saxon Inn, close to the Gold Hill Farm, a small business community, with a rapidly expanding organic food shop (Gold Hill Organics), a café (The Farmyard Picnic), a rushwork workshop and an art Gallery (The Art Stable) which exhibits contemporary and modern British art, including many local painters.
In 1561 William Kethe was appointed vicar. He remained in the village until his death in 1594. Kethe is best known as the author of the well-known hymn, The Old Hundredth, better known by its first line "All People That on Earth Do Dwell", which he adapted from Psalm 100.
The village was the last home, until his death in 1989, of the puppeteer and children's entertainer Harry Corbett, creator of the TV glove puppet characters Sooty and Sweep.
It is also the present home of composer Sir John Tavener.
The Somerset and Dorset Railway ran to the west of the village, through neighbouring Shillingstone, until the line closed in 1966 under the Beeching cuts. The Shillingstone Station, however, is being refurbished under the Shillingstone Station Project.
Old records speak of a megalith that used to lie where The Cross is now, marking an ancient crossroads[citation needed].
Famous residents
Well known people who live, or lived, in Child Okeford and its environs include:
- Harry Corbett Sooty & Sweep creator
- David James, author, politician and adventurer lived in the village whilst Conservative MP for North Dorset
- Tom Mennard, comedian and actor, best known as Sam Tindall in Coronation Street
- Mick Robertson TV presenter, best known for Magpie
- Rodney Fryer Russell and his wife Pamela lived in the nearby hamlet of Manston, both widely acclaimed artists who often painted together
- Sir John Tavener, composer
Further reading
- Knight, Peter, Ancient Stones of Dorset, 1998.
External links
Media related to Child Okeford at Wikimedia CommonsCategories:- Villages in Dorset
- Dorset geography stubs
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