Donhead St Mary

Donhead St Mary is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Dorset. The village lies about east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury and stands on high ground above the River Nadder, which rises in the parish. In the south of the parish, on the A30 Salisbury-Shaftesbury road, are the village of Ludwell and its neighbouring hamlet of Birdbush; Charlton hamlet is south of the road. To the north are the hamlets of Coombe, comprising Higher Coombe, Middle Coombe and Lower Coombe. In the north-west of the parish, near Shaftesbury, is the hamlet of Higher Wincombe. History Castle Rings, an Iron Age hillfort, is in the far north of the parish. A Roman road between Bath and Badbury Rings ran north–south through the parish, past the future sites of St Mary's church and Ludwell village. Donhead St Mary and its neighbour Donhead St Andrew were once part of a single Donhead estate which belonged to Shaftesbury Abbey. In the 11th century the boundary between the two parishes was drawn, and in the 12th century each had a church.