Is it a very large village or a very small town? There does not seem to be universal agreement on this point. Even today Maiden Newton remains something of a backwater. In the Dorset edition of Pevsner it is condescendingly described as “…a townlet with nothing to show for itself except the weathered remains of a once fine late medieval market cross.” However, based on the criterion that a settlement must possess at least one cinema to qualify as a town, then Maiden Newton probably does not, though it had – and still has – home-grown industries of its own.
Maiden Newton was founded at the confluence of the Hooke and Frome rivers, when what was then the main road north-west from Dorchester passed near the point. The discovery of a Roman tessellated pavement appears to have been the earliest evidence of settlement in the area until the early medieval royal charters established the rights to hold fairs. The unearthed Roman floor portrayed Neptune slaying a sea monster.
One of the earliest documents relating to Maiden Newton was a grant issued by Henry III to Geoffrey de Insula, conferring the right to hold a fair at the ‘Manor of Neweton’ until the King came of age. Another charter of Henry III dated 12th of December 1242 was issued to William de Insula as “a mandate to the Shire of Dorset to proclaim a fair and desire it to be held.” A further document states that Bartholemew de Insula, deceased, had held the manor of Maiden Newton, while Elizabeth, widow of John Lisle, was holding Maiden Newton in 1431.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the pasture around the village was converted to water meadows to cultivate an early crop of grass for sheep and cattle by preventing freezing in winter. The meadows occupied about 4.2 acres and are now about 200 years-old, being bounded on three sides by rivers and a railway on the fourth side. The nationally rare moth Blair’s Wainscott is locally abundant, and the water meadows are a haven for other wildlife.
The Church of St. Mary stands at the end of the parish and is built of stone in the Perpendicular style. The square, central, embattled and pinnacled Norman tower with six bells survives, one bell bearing a 17th century inscription. A Norman door with zig-zag décor also survives, but much of the rest of the church is 15th century. A decayed door in the blocked Norman doorway is said to date from 1450, making it one of the oldest in England still hanging on its original hinges.
The living includes 122 acres of glebe (church) land and residence. Registers began in 1555. There are also Wesleyan and Congregational chapels in the village. It is noted that following the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles I made a brief stay at the Rectory, and it was at this time that St. Mary’s acquired the unusual distinction of sustaining the first of what would be two sets of bullet holes from two wars 300 years apart.
Other early buildings in Newton were the Mill, and the White Hart Inn. This 17th century hostelry was a magnet for travellers and tourists, but the people of the village were unable to save it from demolition. In its day it had two storeys with dormers in the thatched roof, windows with stone mullions, and a gateway leading under the house to the stable yard. The medieval market cross, put up to mark the market area, with its square base, squarish stem and carved, weathered figures on the west face has since been moved a few yards from the middle of the road.
However, it was during the 19th century that Maiden Newton really took off in growth in size and importance. By this time it was a sprawling, not particularly pretty place with rambling streets and a somnolent air, but still one having known excitement. Its importance may have declined when the new road from Dorchester along the ridge to the east opened, had not the railway movement layed a branch of the Bristol to Dorchester line through Newton, en route to connecting Bridport.
In 1841 a National School was opened, eventually enlarged to take 200 children in 1865 and 1870. By the end of the century Maiden Newton had a railway station, police station, congregational chapel, iron foundry, cattle market and three branch banks. The old Mill was converted into a carpet factory, which was closed in 1970. Apart from pasture, Newton’s gravely soil has supported crops of wheat, barley and oats.
The impact of the railway on the demographics of this 2,854-acre parish is reflected clearly in the century’s census returns as follows: 1851: 345; 1861: 844; 1871: 856; 1891: 694. After falling to 557 in 1931, the population reached its maximum of 940 in 2000.
But Maiden Newton has one other claim to fame – as a place where, in 1952, a Royal train bearing the as yet uncrowned Queen Elizabeth II made a night stop-over on her first tour of the west country. Although the stop was not intended to be a public visit, but secret, the Parish Council obtained permission to present the Queen with an address of welcome. Today, all that remains of the line that train ran on is the track-bed, which can still be followed as a country walk south-west from the station.
Oh, those other bullet holes in the church? They were put there during the last war when a German fighter fired upon the Church, penetrating the altar window.