Woodsford
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Woodsford is a village and civil parish beside the River Frome, Dorset, England, about Template:Convert east of the county town Dorchester. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the parish population is 80.
Manor
The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as Waredesford,<ref>Open Domesday: Woodford</ref> 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).Template:Sfn
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<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and has been restored by the Landmark Trust.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The house is a Grade I listed building.<ref>Template:NHLE</ref>
Parish church
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.<ref>Template:NHLE</ref> The parish is part of the Benefice of Moreton, Woodsford and Crossways with Tincleton.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Economic history
In the Frome Valley at Woodsford there used to be a system of watermeadows.Template:Sfn
Demography
Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the parish population is 80.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 2001 Census recorded the parish's population as 67.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
References
Sources
External links
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