Dorset Life

The best of Dorset in words and pictures

Winfrith Newburgh
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Until the arrival of the Atomic Energy Establishment to which it gave its name, Winfrith Newburgh slumbered peacefully on its byway off the main Wareham-Weymouth road

The Old Pound. The first half of the village’s name means ‘bright stream’, a reference to the little tributary of the Frome that runs through the village. Henry I granted Robert de Newburgh the manor of Winfrith, which later came into the possession of the Weld family.

Cheriton House. The village street is a pleasing mixture of cottages and larger Georgian houses.

The parish church of St Christopher has an early 13th-century chancel arch decorated with scallops but is mainly a Victorian restoration

The north porch of the church is basically Norman, but was heavily restored in 1852 to allow for the building of the north aisle

The lych-gate of St Christopher’s was built by local craftsmen

Among the outbuildings of the Manor House is a 16th-century barn. The road alongside winds through a chalk valley down to Lulworth.

So quiet and out-of-the-way was Winfrith Newburgh that even the indefatigable Treves does not mention it in Highways and Byways in Dorset

The village still supports a post office, a pub and a school (a satellite of the school at West Lulworth)