{{Short description|Village in Dorset, England}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox UK place | static_image_name = High Street, Sydling St Nicholas - geograph.org.uk - 907612.jpg | static_image_caption = High Street, Sydling St Nicholas | country = England | official_name = Sydling St Nicholas | coordinates = {{coord|50.7931|-2.5239|display=inline,title}} | map_type = Dorset | population = 414 | unitary_england = [[Dorset (unitary authority)|Dorset]] | lieutenancy_england = [[Dorset]] | post_town = Dorchester | postcode_area = DT | postcode_district = DT2 | region = South West England | constituency_westminster = [[West Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)|West Dorset]] | os_grid_reference = SY632995 | website = [http://www.sydlingstnicholas.org.uk/ Village website] | dial_code = 01300 }}
'''Sydling St Nicholas''' is a village and [[civil parish]] in [[Dorset]] within southwest England. The parish is {{convert|5|to|9|mi}} northwest of the county town [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]] and covers most of the valley of the small [[Sydling Water]] in the [[chalk]] hills of the [[Dorset Downs]]. The parish has an area of {{convert|2075|ha|acres}}<ref name=ONS1>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=11129401&c=DT2+9NU&d=16&e=13&g=6418472&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1360275410906&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2473|publisher=Office for National Statistics|title=Usual Resident Population, 2011, Neighbourhood Statistics, Sydling St Nicholas (parish)|access-date=7 February 2013}}</ref> and includes the hamlet of [[Up Sydling]] in the north.
Sydling St Nicholas village was recorded in the 11th-century [[Domesday Book]], though evidence of much earlier human occupation has been found in the surrounding area. Over the last thousand years the village has been owned by [[Milton Abbey School#History of Milton Abbey|Milton Abbey]], [[Sir Francis Walsingham]] and [[Winchester College]].
The whole of Sydling St Nicholas parish lies within the [[Dorset National Landscape]] area. In addition, parts of the parish lie within the [[Hog Cliff|Hog Cliff National Nature Reserve]] and the Cerne and Sydling Downs [[Special Area of Conservation]].
In the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]] the parish had a population of 414.<ref name=ONS1/>
==Toponymy== 'Sydling' derives from the [[Old English]] ''sīd'' and ''hlinc'', which mean 'broad ridge'<ref name=Mills>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXucAQAAQBAJ&q=sydling+st+nicholas+dictionary+place+names&pg=PA447|title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names|editor=David Mills|year=2011|page=447|access-date=29 April 2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199609086}}</ref> and refer to the hills around the village.<ref name=ayres>{{cite web|url=http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2005/01/sydling-st-nicholas/|date=January 2005|title=Sydling St Nicholas|access-date=2 November 2013|author=Ken Ayres|publisher=Dorset Life}}</ref> In the 10th century the village was recorded as ''Sidelyng'' and in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 it was ''Sidelince''. The second part of the name comes from the dedicated saint of the parish church.<ref name=Mills/> [[File:Sydling Water - geograph.org.uk - 724365.jpg|thumb|240px|Sydling Water]]
==History== People have lived in the area for nearly 5,000 years,<ref name=ancestors>{{cite web|url=http://dorset-ancestors.com/?p=1877|title=The Long History of Sydling St Nicholas|date=22 December 2011 |publisher=Dorset Ancestors|access-date=8 February 2013}}</ref> though in pre-Roman times human habitation was confined to the hilltops.<ref name=Gant/> Early artefacts found in the vicinity include [[Neolithic]] hand-axes and [[Bronze Age|Bronze]] and [[Iron Age]] pottery.<ref name=ancestors/> [[Shearplace Hill Enclosure|Evidence of an early village settlement]] exists at Shearplace Hill,<ref name=WDDC>West Dorset District Council, ''West Dorset Holiday and Tourist Guide'', c. 1983, p18</ref> about 0.75 miles (1.25 km) to the south-east of the current village. Remains of [[Celts|Celtic]] field systems have been found in the north and west of the parish.<ref name=inventory>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=127273|publisher=University of London & History of Parliament Trust|title='Sydling St. Nicholas', An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1: West (1952), pp. 230–236|date=November 2013|access-date=29 April 2014|work=British History Online}}</ref> [[Saxons|Saxon]] settlers arrived in the valley in the 7th or 8th century;<ref name=Gant/> evidence of their [[Lynchet|strip lynchets]] can still be seen on the surrounding hillsides.<ref name=boots>{{cite web|url=http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/03-04/the-genuine-article-sydling-st-nicholas-england.html|publisher=bootsnall.com|title=The Genuine Article – Sydling St. Nicholas, England|date=15 April 2003|author=Joanne Paul|access-date=11 March 2013}}</ref> In 933 AD land was given to the monks at [[Milton Abbey School#History of Milton Abbey|Milton Abbey]], who provided the village with a priest.<ref name=Gant/>
The abbey was the lord of the village at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, which recorded 54 households with a value to the abbey of £25.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/sydling-st-nicholas-and-up-sydling/|title=Place: Sydling [St Nicholas] and [Up] Sydling|work=Open Domesday|access-date=1 May 2014|publisher=domesdaymap.co.uk}}</ref> In subsequent centuries the village has been owned by [[Sir Francis Walsingham]], Secretary of State to [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]],<ref name=Treves>Treves, Sir F., ''Highways and Byways in Dorset'', Macmillan, 1905, p340</ref> and by [[Winchester College]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Ralph Wightman|author-link=Ralph Wightman|title=Portrait of Dorset|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|year=1983|page=97|edition=4|isbn=0-7090-0844-9}}</ref>
[[Sir John Smith, 1st Baronet]], lived in Sydling St Nicholas and the Smith family remained a leading local family through the 18th and 19th centuries, with a number of memorials in the parish church.
Sydling St Nicholas once constituted a [[liberty]], containing only the parish itself.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}
==Geography== Sydling St Nicholas is sited in the valley of Sydling Water, a [[tributary]] of the [[River Frome, Dorset|River Frome]]. The valley is one of several roughly parallel valleys which cut into the [[escarpment|dip slope]] of the Dorset Downs, a line of chalk hills that span the centre of the county. The village lies at an altitude of {{convert|110|m|ft}} and the surrounding chalk hills rise to {{convert|265|m|ft}} at Gore Hill to the north. The hills and all of the civil parish lie within the [[Dorset National Landscape]] area. In the south of the parish and within the Cerne and Sydling Downs [[Special Area of Conservation]] are two parts of the three-part [[Hog Cliff|Hog Cliff National Nature Reserve]] (the third part lies within the neighbouring parish of [[Maiden Newton]]).<ref name=nnr>{{cite web|title=Hog Cliff NNR|url=http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designations/nnr/1006077.aspx|publisher=Natural England|access-date=3 February 2015}}</ref><ref>Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Second Series, Sheet SY 69/79 (Dorchester), published 1978</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/protectedsites/sacselection/sac.asp?EUCode=UK0030115 |title=Cerne and Sydling Downs |publisher=Joint Nature Conservation Committee |access-date=3 February 2015}}</ref>
Measured directly, Sydling St Nicholas village is {{convert|6.5|mi|km}} NW of Dorchester, {{convert|11|mi|km}} ENE of [[Bridport]] and {{convert|11.5|mi|km}} SSE of [[Yeovil]].<ref>Bartholomew 1:100,000 National Map Series, Sheet 4 (Dorset), published 1980 {{ISBN|0-7028-0327-8}}</ref> The [[A37 road (England)|A37]] Dorchester-Yeovil main road runs along the top of the hills about {{convert|1|mi|km}} to the west of the village.
===Sydling Water=== Sydling Water is a chalk stream that rises just to the north of Sydling St Nicholas in the hamlet of Up Sydling. The stream divides upon entering the village, and many cottages are reached across small bridges.<ref name=Gant>{{cite book|author=Roland Gant|title=Dorset Villages|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|date=1980|page=97|edition=1|isbn=0-7091-8135-3}}</ref> The stream used to flow along the High Street in an open course,<ref name=ancestors/> resulting in occasional floods; after a thunderstorm in June 1889 one local man, Tom Churchill, drowned after having been swept away,<ref name=ancestors/> and his body was found about a mile downstream.<ref name=Gant2/> Today Sydling Water is known for its [[watercress]] farms.
==Notable buildings== [[File:Gargoyle - Church of St Nicholas - geograph.org.uk - 1053548.jpg|thumb|left|170px|One of the [[gargoyle]]s on the parish church]] Within the parish are more than fifty structures [[Listed building|listed]] by [[Historic England]] for their architectural or historic interest.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The List Search Results {{!}} Historic England|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/advanced-search-results|access-date=2021-12-07|website=historicengland.org.uk|language=en}}</ref> In 1905 [[Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet|Sir Frederick Treves]] described the village as "the most charming in the district".<ref name=Treves/>
The 15th-century parish church of St Nicholas, which is built on slightly higher ground than most of the houses in the village, replaces at least two other buildings previously built on the site.<ref name=boots/> It possesses a [[Normans|Norman]] font and a fine tower.<ref name=WDDC/> The tower clock has no face and dates from 1593, making it one of the oldest in England.<ref name=Gant3/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/place/S410.htm|publisher=The Dorset Page|title=Sydling St. Nicholas|date=2000|access-date=11 March 2013}}</ref> The south aisle has settled since construction, so the south wall is buttressed and has only a small door.<ref name=Gant2/> In 1905 Treves described the church as being "quite famous for its numerous and amazing gargoyles",<ref name=Treves/> although seventy-five years later Dorset-based writer Roland Gant noted it instead for being "Light, open, airy, free of restorers' excesses", and for possessing a "noble wagon-roof" in the nave.<ref name=Gant2>{{cite book|author=Roland Gant|title=Dorset Villages|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|date=1980|page=98|edition=1|isbn=0-7091-8135-3}}</ref> The church is a Grade I listed building.<ref>{{Cite web|title=PARISH CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, Sydling St. Nicholas - 1156621 {{!}} Historic England|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1156621|access-date=2021-12-07|website=historicengland.org.uk|language=en}}</ref>
Next to the church are Court House and Court Farm. Court House is the village manor house and was the venue for meetings of the local [[Court leet]]. Court Farm has a large [[Elizabethan]] tithe barn which overlooks the churchyard; it was built in 1590 and constructed from flint, with stone buttresses and oak roof beams.<ref name=Gant3>{{cite book|title=Dorset Villages|author=Roland Gant|publisher=Robert Hale Ltd|edition=1|date=1980|page=99|isbn=0-7091-8135-3}}</ref> In his 18th-century ''History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset'', [[John Hutchins (antiquary)|John Hutchins]] stated that one of the beams in the barn was inscribed with 'L.V.W. 1590', the initials being those of [[Ursula St. Barbe|Lady Ursula Walsingham]],<ref name=inventory/> though searches by subsequent writers have failed to find them, and the beam may have been removed when the roof thatch was removed in the 20th century.<ref name=Gant3/>
The Old Vicarage is based on an early [[Tudor architecture|Tudor]] building which was expanded and altered in 1640. Adjoining it is the [[mullion]]ed old bakery, dating from 1733 upon a 17th-century core.<ref name=Gant/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-105507-3-high-street-sydling-st-nicholas-dorset|publisher=British Listed Buildings|access-date=12 March 2013|title=3, High Street, Sydling St Nicholas}}</ref>
==In literature and film== [[File:Combe Hill - geograph.org.uk - 551735.jpg|thumb|240px|Looking ENE from Combe Hill across the Sydling valley towards Eastfield Hill and Cowdown Hill.]] [[Thomas Hardy]] names the village as Sidlinch or Broad Sidlinch in his story 'The Grave by the Handpost' (1897)<ref name=ayres/> published in ''The Changed Man and Other Tales'' (1913). These names are reminiscent of previous forms of the village's name, such as 'Broadsidlynch' in 1333<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/search_results.aspx?Page=1&QueryText=Sydling+St+Nicholas+1333&SelectedDatabases=A2A%7cARCHON%7cBOOKSHOP%7cCABPAPERS%7cEROL3%7cMOVINGHERE%7cNRA%7cNRALISTS%7cPREM19%7cRESEARCHGUIDES%7cE179%7cWEBSITE%7cTRAFALGAR|title=Christenings and burials PE/SSN/RE 1/4 |publisher=The National Archives|access-date=15 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=031-pessn&cid=-1#-1|title=Sydling St Nicholas Parish|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=15 November 2012}}</ref> and 'Brodesedelyng', in a legal record, in Latin, dated 1440, where John Tidde was a clerk.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no717/bCP40no717dorses/IMG_1722.htm|publisher=Anglo-American Legal Tradition. Documents from Medieval and Early Modern England from the National Archives in London digitised and displayed through The O'Quinn Law Library of the University of Houston Law Center by licence of the National Archives, sponsored by the University of Houston Law Center and by the University of Houston Department of History|title=Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40 / 717; last entry, second line|access-date=15 November 2012}}</ref>
The parish church was used as a location in the 1967 [[Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)|film adaptation]] of Hardy's ''[[Far From the Madding Crowd]]'', in a scene that involved water pouring from one of the church's gargoyles onto the grave of Fanny Robin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.south-central-media.co.uk/ffmc_feature.htm |title=Far From The Madding Crowd MGM/EMI 1967 Directed by John Schlesinger, script by Frederic Raphael from the Thomas Hardy novel |publisher=South Central MediaScene |access-date=3 February 2015}}</ref>
The Sydling valley is used as a location within [[Geoffrey Household]]'s 1939 novel [[Rogue Male (novel)|''Rogue Male'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.countrybus.co.uk/sydling.htm|title=Jimmy Crabb and Albie Lovell; the buses of Sydling St Nicholas|publisher=countrybus.co.uk|date=|access-date=11 March 2013}}</ref>
==Demography== In the 2011 census Sydling St Nicholas parish had a population of 414<ref name=ONS1/> in 206 dwellings, with 89.8% of households having at least one usual resident.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=11129401&c=DT2+9NU&d=16&e=7&g=6418472&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1360275835812&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2481|title=Dwellings, Household Spaces and Accommodation Type, Sydling St Nicholas (parish)|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=7 February 2013}}</ref> The average age of the population was 46.6, compared to 39.3 for England as a whole; 26.1% of residents were 65 years old or older, compared to 16.4% for England as a whole.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=11129401&c=DT2+9NU&d=16&e=13&g=6418472&i=1001x1003x1004&o=362&m=0&r=0&s=1422891256894&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2474 |title=Area:Sydling St. Nicholas (Parish), Age Structure, 2011 (KS102EW) |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=2 February 2015}}</ref>
The historic population of Sydling St Nicholas parish from the censuses between 1921 and 2001 is shown in the table below.
{| class="wikitable" style="width:800px;" ! colspan= "15" style="background:; color:" | <span style="margin-left: 80px; color: ">Census Population of Sydling St Nicholas Parish 1921—2001 <small>(except 1941)</small></span> |- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background:; color: height:15px;"| Census ! style="background:;"| 1921 ! style="background:;"| 1931 ! style="background:;"| 1951 ! style="background:;"| 1961 ! style="background:;"| 1971 ! style="background:;"| 1981 ! style="background:;"| 1991 ! style="background:;"| 2001 |- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background:; color: height:15px;"|Population | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 346 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 341 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 383 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 338 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 320 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 320 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 380 | style="background:#F2F2F2;"| 400 |- style="text-align:center;" | colspan="15" style="background:#F2F2F2; color: text-align:center;"| <small>Source:Dorset County Council<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dorsetforyou.com/345043|title=Parishes (M-Z), 1921–2001 Census Years|publisher=[[Dorset County Council]]|access-date=1 May 2014|date=17 March 2010}}</ref></small> |}
==See also== *[[List of liberties in Dorset]].
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Sydling St Nicholas}} {{Dorset}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Villages in Dorset]] [[Category:Liberties of Dorset]]