Stoke Abbott

{{Short description|Village in Dorset, England}}

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

{{Infobox UK place

|static_image_name = Stoke Abbott, parish church of St. Mary - geograph.org.uk - 447454.jpg

|static_image_caption = Parish church of St Mary

|country = England

|official_name = Stoke Abbott

|coordinates = {{coord|50.8027|-2.7776|display=inline,title}}

|map_type = Dorset

|population = 190

|population_ref = {{cite web|url=https://www.dorsetforyou.com/344882|title=Parish Population Data|date=20 January 2015|accessdate=7 March 2015|publisher=Dorset County Council}}

|unitary_england= Dorset

|lieutenancy_england= Dorset

|region = South West England

|post_town = Beaminster

|postcode_area = DT

|postcode_district = DT8

|constituency_westminster = West Dorset

|os_grid_reference = ST453006

}}

Stoke Abbott is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, {{convert|2|mi|km}} west of Beaminster. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 190.

The author Ralph Wightman, agriculturist, broadcaster, and native of Dorset, described the village as "a beautiful place of deep lanes, orchards and old houses, with a church of quiet charm",{{cite book|author=Ralph Wightman|title=Portrait of Dorset|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|year=1983|page=154|edition=4|isbn=0 7090 0844 9}} and, in a similar vein, Sir Frederick Treves in 1906 considered it "as pretty a village as any in Dorset".{{cite book |last=Treves |first=Frederick, Sir |title=Highways and Byways in Dorset |url=https://archive.org/details/highwaysandbywa00penngoog |publisher=Macmillan & Co. Ltd |year=1906 |page=[https://archive.org/details/highwaysandbywa00penngoog/page/n312 284]}}

On Waddon Hill to the northwest of the village are the remains of earthworks of an Iron Age settlement, consisting of a low bank {{convert|9|m|ft}} wide and traces of a ditch, replaced in AD 50 to AD60 by a short lived Roman Fort, though historic quarrying around the hill has destroyed much of the fort. Mid-1st-century Roman and Romano-British military artefacts were found on the hill's southern slopes in 1876–1878, and in Graham Webster's 1960's excavations. Roman artefacts fron Chartknolle, a flat area further east, are on display in the village hall, along with a replica of a gold durotrigian stater. {{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=127270|title='Stoke Abbott', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1: West (1952), pp. 224-226|work=British History Online|publisher=University of London & History of Parliament Trust|date=November 2013|accessdate=23 April 2014}} In the Domesday Book in 1086 the village was recorded as Stoche{{cite web|url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset3.html#stokeabbot|title=Dorset S–Z|work=The Domesday Book Online|publisher=domesdaybook.co.uk|accessdate=22 April 2014}} and had 32 households.{{cite web|url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST4500/stoke-abbott/|title=Place: Stoke [Abbott]|work=Open Domesday|publisher=domesdaymap.co.uk|accessdate=22 April 2014}}

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has Norman origins but has been altered and added to over the centuries. The 12th-century font is notable. The poet William Crowe was rector here between 1782 and 1786; at the end of his incumbency he published his most well known piece, Lewesdon Hill, about the hill to the west of the village.{{cite book |title= Dorset |first=John |last=Hyams |publisher=B. T. Batsford Ltd |pages=137–8 |year=1970 |isbn=0-7134-0066-8 }} The Very Rev Hedley Robert Burrows (1887–1983), who later became Archdeacon of Winchester and then Dean of Hereford, was incumbent at Stoke Abbott for a time.