Long Crichel

The name of Long Crichel is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Circel, with forms such as Crechel attested from 1204 onwards. This name comes from the Common Brittonic word *crüg ("mound, hill, barrow"), compounded with the Old English word {{lang|ang|hyll}}, meaning the same thing: this Old English element was added to the name after Old English became the dominant language in the area and the Brittonic name of the settlement was no longer understood. The addition of long, to distinguish the settlement from Moor Crichel, is first attested in 1208, in the form Langecrechel.{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521168557 |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=Victor |location=Cambridge}}, s.v. Crichel.{{Cite book |last=Coates |first=Richard |title=Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain |last2=Breeze |first2=Andrew |publisher=Tyas |year=2000 |isbn=1900289415 |location=Stamford}}.{{rp|295}}

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Long Crichel village and surrounding lands were once part of the Crichel Estate for many centuries, before it was broken up. The estate's owners lived at Crichel House in Moor Crichel.

The village church is St Mary's Church, Long Crichel. The tower of the church dates from the 15th century, and the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1851.{{NHLE |num= 1323488|desc= Church of St Mary, Long Crichel|accessdate= 10 September 2011}} It closed in 2001, was declared redundant on 1 July 2003,{{Citation | year = 2011| title = Diocese of Salisbury: All Schemes| series = Church Commissioners/Statistics| publisher = Church of England| page = 6| format = PDF | url = http://www.churchofengland.org/media/811097/salisbury%20-%20all%20schemes.pdf| access-date =10 September 2011}} and was vested in the Friends of Friendless Churches in 2010.{{Citation|url=http://www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/CMSMS/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=12&cntnt01returnid=124 |title=New Vestings |access-date=10 September 2011 |publisher=Friends of Friendless Churches |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110701083240/http://www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/CMSMS/index.php?mact=News%2Ccntnt01%2Cdetail%2C0&cntnt01articleid=12&cntnt01returnid=124 |archive-date=1 July 2011 }} The Friends restored the Grade II listed church's medieval tower and east stained glass window. Christian services can still take place in the church and burials are still allowed in the churchyard, which is now the responsibility of the neighbouring Witchampton church council.

File:Church of St Mary the Virgin, Long Crichel - Churchyard - geograph.org.uk - 426424.jpg

Long Crichel House, the Grade II listed Georgian rectory, was bought jointly in 1945 by Edward Sackville-West, the music critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor and artist and art dealer Eardley Knollys,[https://friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/fight-for-your-rights/ Fight for your rights - Friends of Friendless Churches]. Retrieved 8 October 2020 who along with architectural historian James Lees-Milne, literary critic Raymond Mortimer and the gay activist and eye surgeon Patrick Trevor-Roper, established "one of the last great post-war salons, hosting guests including Sibyl Colefax, Anthony Asquith, Graham Sutherland, Lord Berners, Nancy Mitford, Benjamin Britten, Laurie Lee, Ben Nicolson, Cecil Day-Lewis and Graham Greene."{{cite web|title=Life and times of artist in public gaze|url=http://www.haslemereherald.com/article.cfm?id=109984&headline=Life%20and%20times%20of%20artist%20in%20public%20gaze§ionIs=newssearchyear=2016|work=Farnham Herald|access-date=8 October 2020}} Somerset Maugham and E.M. Forster were also visitors.

Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant stayed at the house; Bell did a number of paintings of it and made painted plates for it, while Grant designed the dining room curtains.[https://www.piano-nobile.com/news/127/ News. InSight No. XVI] in Piano Nobile, 1 June 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020

Sackville-West died in 1965 and Knollys and his friend Mattei Radev bought another country home in Hampshire in 1967. Shawe-Taylor remained at Long Crichel House until he died there, aged 88, on 1 November 1995, following a country walk.Warrack, John (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60403 "Taylor, Desmond Christopher Shawe- (1907–1995)"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, May 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2010 (requires subscription)"Desmond Shawe-Taylor – Obituary" (3 November 1995) The Times

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• [https://archive.today/20060519132749/http://www1.dorsetcc.gov.uk/LIVING/FACTS/Census2001.nsf/6cadf4da179fc19500256663004afece/afb722edf7b149a980256ec5003433c8?OpenDocument Census data]
• [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1120150 Historic England - Long Crichel House]

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Category:Villages in Dorset

Category:Former civil parishes in Dorset

Category:East Dorset District

Category:Populated places disestablished in 2015

Category:Dorset places with etymologically Brittonic names