Description
Holwell, a parish in Dorsetshire, on a branch of the river Lidden, 6 miles SE of Sherbome station on the L. & S.W.R. It includes the hamlet of Bnckshaw, and till 1844 was part of Somerset. There is a post office under Sherbome; money order office, Bishops Caundle; telegraph office, Sherbome. Acreage, 2423; population, 377. The parish was part of Blackmore Forest, and had within its limits the principal lodge of that forest. King John appears to have visited Holwell at several times, probably for hunting. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £340 with residence. Patron, Queen's College, Oxford. The church, excepting the chancel, is Later English, and was restored in 1885.
Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5
