Stour Provost

{{Short description|Village and civil parish in Dorset, England}}

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

{{Infobox UK place

|country = England

|official_name = Stour Provost

|static_image_name = Terraced houses in Stour Provost - geograph.org.uk - 348605.jpg

|static_image_caption = Stour Provost

|coordinates = {{coord|50.9923|-2.2957|display=inline,title}}

|population = 579

| unitary_england= Dorset

| lieutenancy_england= Dorset

|post_town = Gillingham

|postcode_area = SP

|postcode_district = SP8

|constituency_westminster = North Dorset

|region = South West England

|os_grid_reference = ST793215

}}

Stour Provost is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Gillingham. In old writings it is usually spelled Stower Provost.

Stour Provost once constituted a liberty, containing only the parish itself. Today the civil parish includes the settlements of Woodville and Stour Row to the east.{{cite book|title=North Dorset District Official Guide|publisher=Home Publishing Co. Ltd|author=North Dorset District Council|date=c. 1983|pages=47–9}} In the 2011 census the civil parish had 235 households and a population of 579.{{cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11129187&c=Stour+Provost&d=16&e=62&g=6418103&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1433424245542&enc=1 |title=Area: Stour Provost (Parish). Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics |publisher=Office for National Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |accessdate=6 February 2015}}

After the establishment of Stour Provost village near the River Stour, at least four smaller settlements were established in a piecemeal fashion from the 13th century – or perhaps earlier – in the common land or "waste" further east, at Woodville and beyond. These small groups of farms, with their own irregular shaped fields, were separated by unenclosed "waste" probably until the 18th century, when it was enclosed and divided into rectilinear fields.{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol4/pp79-84 |title='Stour Provost', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 4, North (London, 1972), pp. 79-84 |publisher=University of London |work=British History Online |accessdate=16 March 2015}}