Charlton Marshall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies within the North Dorset administrative district, on the A350 road 2 miles south of the market town of Blandford Forum. It is sited on a river terrace above the floodplain of the River Stour, with most of the land in the parish stretching south-west over chalk hills.
Within the parish boundary is evidence of the sites of Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and human habitation in the parish can be dated back at least a thousand years. Next to the river were three earlier settlements, which influenced the elongated layout of the current village. The parish church was rebuilt in 1713 and restored in 1895, although the tower dates from the 15th century. Charlton Marshall Halt railway station was once a halt on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
Selected services and amenities provided in the Village by the Parish Council and other organisations are listed below. Click a letter below to show all other services and information filed under that letter. You can also download the Charlton Marshall Parish Council Info Booklet.
Charlton Marshall Cemetery
The Cemetery is located on Church Lane which is opposite the Church. For burials or interment of ashes please contact the Parish Clerk.
Charlton Marshall Parish Centre
QE11 Playing Field
The playing field at the end of Hopegood Close (and the dedicated car park for Playing Field and Trailway users only) is owned and maintained by the Parish Council. There is fitness equipment, children’s play park and football nets. Various organised events are held including an annual Fun Day sponsored by the Parish Council. The field gained QEII Fields in Trust status as part of the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
Riverside Gardens
The Parish Council owns and maintains the Riverside Gardens behind the church, the Village Garden by the river in Gravel Lane and the two red telephone kiosks for which a use is still being sought.
The Charlton Inn, Bournemouth Road (external link)
Food and drink seven days a week. Bed and Breakfast. 01258 453160
The North Dorset Trailway (external link)
The Trailway is owned and managed by Dorset County Council. There are six access points from the village on to the trailway – Hopegood Close (by the Playing Field), Church Lane, Cereleton Park via Woodland Trust area, Park Hill, Charlton on the Hill, and from the A350 opposite Tannery Court. The Trailway follows the route of the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which closed to traffic in 1966. It is suitable for walking, cycling and horse riding, and runs from Louse Lane in Spetisbury to Ward’s Drove in Blandford St Mary. At the site of the former station, off Damory Court Street in Blandford, you can re-join the trailway and follow it to Sturminster Newton. At Sturminster Newton and at Spetisbury you can join other footpaths and bridleways. See www.northdorsettrailway.org.uk
- Dog waste bins are provided
- On Park Hill by access to trailway
- On Church Lane by access to trailway
- In Hopegood Close by access to trailway near play area
- On Gravel Lane near Barnwheel
- On Bournemouth Road – opposite Meadow Road, near the church, and by the bus stop at the bottom of Park Hill