Fontmell Magna

The name Fontmell is first attested in a fifteenth-century copy of charters from between 871 and 877, as Funtemel, and 932, as Funtmel and Funtemel. It then appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Fontemale. This name comes from the Common Brittonic words that survive in modern Welsh as ("spring") and ("bare"); thus it once meant "spring by the bare [hill]". The name is first attested with the addition of the Latin word ("great") in 1391, as Magnam Funtemell, to distinguish the settlement from Fontmell Parva ("Little Fontmell", first attested in 1250 as Parva Funtemel), which is a few miles southwest in Child Okeford parish. ==History==

Evidence of early human presence occurs in the east and northeast of the parish in the form of earthworks on the chalk hills: these consist of three cross-dykes, a barrow and a mound that is also possibly a barrow. In 932, King Æthelstan granted an estate at Fontmell to the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey under the condition that they would sing 50 psalms after Prime and offer masses at Terce, for the king's intention. Of settlements existing within the parish today, the earliest is the main village, which originated before the Norman Conquest. it had 3 mills, 68 households, and the estate's lord and tenant-in-chief was Shaftesbury Abbey. A second survey made in about 1170–80 shows the population had increased to 80 tenants, of whom 55 were villeins. To the west of the main village, the hamlet of Bedchester is also of pre-Conquest origin, though the settlement furthest west in the parish, Hartgrove, wasn't recorded before 1254. Hill Farm, over the chalk hills in the east of the parish, first appears in records in 1333. ==Governance==

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2019, the village comes under the unitary authority of Dorset Council. Fontmell Magna is in The Beacon electoral ward, which extends to Cann in the north, Sutton Waldron in the south and Guy's Marsh in the west. The ward, which had a population of 2,277 in the 2011 census, is part of the constituency of North Dorset, and is currently represented in the UK parliament by the Conservative Simon Hoare. ==Geography==

The parish covers and extends from the dip slope of Cranborne Chase in the east, to the area around the settlement of Hartgrove in the Blackmore Vale in the west. Climate The Met Office has a climate station at Fontmell Magna. Between 1991 and 2020 it recorded an average of of rain per annum, and average temperatures between in January, and in July. {{Weather box | width = auto | metric first = yes | single line = yes | location = Fontmell Magna (1991–2020) | Jan high C = 8.1 | Feb high C = 8.6 | Mar high C = 11.1 | Apr high C = 13.9 | May high C = 17.1 | Jun high C = 19.9 | Jul high C = 21.8 | Aug high C = 21.4 | Sep high C = 19.0 | Oct high C = 15.0 | Nov high C = 11.1 | Dec high C = 8.6 | year high C = 14.7 | Jan mean C = 4.9 | Feb mean C = 5.1 | Mar mean C = 6.9 | Apr mean C = 9.0 | May mean C = 12.1 | Jun mean C = 14.7 | Jul mean C = 16.6 | Aug mean C = 16.4 | Sep mean C = 14.1 | Oct mean C = 11.0 | Nov mean C = 7.6 | Dec mean C = 5.3 | year mean C = 10.3 | Jan low C = 1.8 | Feb low C = 1.6 | Mar low C = 2.8 | Apr low C = 4.1 | May low C = 7.0 | Jun low C = 9.6 | Jul low C = 11.4 | Aug low C = 11.4 | Sep low C = 9.3 | Oct low C = 7.0 | Nov low C = 4.1 | Dec low C = 2.1 | year low C = 6.0 | precipitation colour = green | Jan precipitation mm = 93.8 | Feb precipitation mm = 67.0 | Mar precipitation mm = 64.3 | Apr precipitation mm = 66.6 | May precipitation mm = 54.4 | Jun precipitation mm = 54.6 | Jul precipitation mm = 55.9 | Aug precipitation mm = 66.7 | Sep precipitation mm = 64.2 | Oct precipitation mm = 100.1 | Nov precipitation mm = 108.3 | Dec precipitation mm = 100.8 | year precipitation mm = 896.5 | unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm | Jan precipitation days = 13.2 | Feb precipitation days = 11.4 | Mar precipitation days = 10.4 | Apr precipitation days = 10.3 | May precipitation days = 8.9 | Jun precipitation days = 8.6 | Jul precipitation days = 8.6 | Aug precipitation days = 9.7 | Sep precipitation days = 9.4 | Oct precipitation days = 13.0 | Nov precipitation days = 13.8 | Dec precipitation days = 13.5 | year precipitation days = 130.7 | Jan sun = 51.1 | Feb sun = 70.0 | Mar sun = 109.7 | Apr sun = 176.1 | May sun = 196.6 | Jun sun = 185.8 | Jul sun = 189.6 | Aug sun = 172.8 | Sep sun = 131.4 | Oct sun = 92.8 | Nov sun = 61.7 | Dec sun = 45.5 | year sun = 1483.0 ==Demography==

In the 2011 census Fontmell Magna civil parish had 334 dwellings, 319 households and a population of 734. The population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2011 is shown in the table below: ==Notable buildings==

There are 45 structures within Fontmell Magna civil parish that have been listed by Historic England for their architectural or historical interest. There are no structures listed as Grade I – the designation of highest significance – but the parish church is designated as Grade II*. All the other listings are Grade II. In 1906 Sir Frederick Treves described the church as "one of the handsomest in Dorsetshire". ==Notable residents==

Lieutenant Philip Salkeld V.C., who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his role in blowing open the Kashmir Gate in Delhi, India, in 1857, was born and grew up in Fontmell Magna, where his father was the rector. In 1930, art collector Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill bought the Springhead estate near Fontmell Magna. In 1934, writer and rural revivalist Rolf Gardiner and his wife Marabel bought a cottage on the estate, which they farmed. Gardiner was active in Dorset society, becoming a member of Dorset County Council between 1937–1946, High Sheriff of Dorset 1967–68, President of the Dorset Federation of Young Farmers Clubs 1944–46, a Chairman and then President of the Dorset branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England between 1957-1972 as well as other rural and landscape committees and working parties. The Gardiners' son, orchestral conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC, was born in Fontmell Magna in 1943. The village was also home to cinematographer Oswald Morris (1915–2014) in the last twenty years of his life. ==References==