Drimpton is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the heart of rural Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was a mainly farming community, but with the decline of British farming this has turned to commuters travelling to their places of work in larger towns

Geography

The Little Axe stream runs through the village, hence the rich farming area. Neighbouring settlements include, Clapton, Broadwindsor, Burstock, Netherhay and Greenham. Netherhay is an older hamlet which Drimpton has joined onto. Greenham is a small hamlet which once housed a thriving flax mill

Flax mill

Flax mills are mills concerned with the manufacture of flax. The earliest mills were ones for spinning yarn for the linen industry.John Kendrew and Thomas Porthouse , both of Darlington developed the process from Richard Arkwright's water frame, and patented it in 1787...

, part of which still survives as a factory making pet products. The village has two places of worship: the Anglican parish church of St Mary's and the Netherhay Methodist chapel.

History

The village has recently compiled three books, chronicling life in the area; the project was called 'Village Voices'. The first book, Village Voices: Local Lives, is a series of anecdotes, both modern and historical, from the area around Drimpton, Netherhay and Greenham. The second was Village Voices: Farming Families, this Compiled accounts from some of the oldest local farming families.It describes the changes in farming and the area. The third "The Nameless Stream" refers to the fact that the stream flowing through the village was un-named until 2005 when, after a vote by villagers, it was officially named the "Little Axe". All three books were compiled by Andrew Pastor and edited by Chris Beck. A fourth volume is in preparation for 2008.

Notable residents

It is home to renowned artist Jenny Beck, who specialises on painting houses and gardens in a traditional style. The village also boasts upcoming abstract landscape artist, Keith Tubb, who has received international recognition for his reflective work.

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