Pentridge

{{about|the village in Dorset}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox UK place

| official_name= Pentridge

| country= England

| region= South West England

| static_image_name= Pentridge, parish church of St. Rumbold - geograph.org.uk - 521772.jpg

| static_image_caption= Parish church of Saint Rumbold

| population = 215

| population_ref = (2001)

| os_grid_reference= SU033178

| coordinates = {{coord|50.959|-1.954|display=inline,title}}

| label_position= bottom

| post_town= SALISBURY

| postcode_area= SP

| postcode_district= SP5

| dial_code= 01725

| constituency_westminster= North Dorset

| civil_parish= Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge

| unitary_england= Dorset

| lieutenancy_england= Dorset

}}

Pentridge is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in the Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England, lying in the north-east of the county. It is situated on the edge of Cranborne Chase down a dead-end minor lane just south of the A354 road between the towns of Blandford Forum (ten miles to the south-west) and Salisbury (twelve miles to the northeast). In 2001 the parish had a population of 215. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Sixpenny Handley to form "Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge".{{cite web| url=https://www.lgbce.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/26098/EastDorset-RoCG-Order-No1-2015.pdf| title=The East Dorset (Reorganisation of Community Governance) Order 2015| publisher=Lgbce| accessdate=10 March 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015202329/https://www.lgbce.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/26098/EastDorset-RoCG-Order-No1-2015.pdf| archive-date=15 October 2017| url-status=dead}}

The village name derives from the Celtic pen ("hill") and twrch ("boar"), and thus means "hill of the wild boar"; its existence was first recorded (as "Pentric") in the eighth century, eighty years before the birth of Alfred the Great.{{cite book|author=Roland Gant|date=1980|title=Dorset Villages|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd.|page=16|ISBN=0 7091 8135 3}}

The village is located amongst many Neolithic, Roman and Saxon earthworks, notably Bokerley Dyke, a long defensive ditch which was dug by the Romano-British to keep out the Saxon invaders.

Nearby is Pentridge Hill, formed by a band of more resistant chalk than the surrounding land.