Winterbourne Steepleton

The Village Name

Researched and written by Richard Crumblehorne

The Doomsday Survey of 1086 lists only Wintreburne for the whole area along the south Winterbourne river.  Later, the first recordings of the village name appear as :

            Stipelwinterburn 1199;   Stepelton 1219;   Wynterburn Stepilton 1244; [i]

There are two Winterborne rivers in Dorset, this south Winterborne is a tributary of the river Frome and ultimately flows to the sea in Poole harbour some 30miles to the east. The name means a winter stream - one that flows most strongly in winter and derives from the old English   winter-burna

The south Winterborne river emerges at Winterbourne Abbas immediately to the west of Winterbourne Steepleton. The addition is Latin Abbas - "abbot" because this manor belonged to the Abbey of Cerne. In medieval times, it was sometimes known as Watreleswyntreburn  from OE waeter-leas = waterless .

The spelling of Winterbourne was never constant. By local custom only Steepleton & Abbas retain the "u" [ii]

There is a suggestion that Steepleton means a village with a church steeple from the Old English stiepel and tun. However, as the church tower was not built until the C14th, this seems unlikely. It is far more probable that the steepness of the valley sides at this location gave rise to the name.

Early History

Pre-historic Occupation :  The parish has forty nine round barrows and large areas of Celtic field systems.  Originally the barrows would have been white chalk and would have been far more conspicuous than they are today. Most of the barrows or tumuli appear to have been sited to be viewed  from the valley itself. This would suggest that the valley was occupied for hundreds of years in this early period. Winterborne St Martin to the east has the most barrows of any Dorset parish and Maiden Castle, Europe's largest earthwork.

Roman Occupation : The line of the Roman road heading west from Dorchester forms the north boundary of the parish.  A possible early Roman fort of the 1^st century AD was excavated in 1970.[iii] on an earthwork on Blackdown (SY603881). A classic playing card shaped rampart with external ditch was found measuring some 45m x 25m. A single entrance on the east side was located with large sockets for gate posts. Evidence of a platform within gave rise to speculation that this formed a signal post between Dorchester & Abbotsbury hillfort.

The proximity of Dorchester as a major Roman centre together with the Roman road to the north of the parish (a major route to Exeter) must have ensured that the valley was occupied fully during the four centuries of Roman occupation.

Saxon Occupation : From the tenth century, the Saxons established methods of land management and administration with land divisions known as Hundreds. These were nominally 100 hides in area. A hide was originally the amount of land that could be ploughed in a year using one plough with an eight-ox team. The area thus varied with soil quality and could vary between 60 to 180 acres. The Hundred Court, presided over by the Hundred Reeve, would usually meet monthly to consider criminal offences, minor ecclesiastical matters, private pleas and also to levy taxes.

Meetings were held at an agreed traditional site, the hundredal moot. These places were either well known by name or by physical feature and were often at the junctions of parish boundaries.  Dorset had a total of 39 Hundreds, 7 met on church land, 6 on Royal Manors, 15 met at ancient monuments and the remaining 11 at geomantic sites.

Winterbourne Steepleton was sited in the northernmost tip of the Uggescombe Hundred. This Hundred extended north to enclose the village whilst the adjoining villages of Winterborne Abbas and St Martin on the Winterbourne river were rather strangely in neighbouring Hundreds. 

The Uggescombe Hundred met at an ancient site - a Motbeorh[iv] . This site is mentioned in the Portesham Charter[v] of 1024 and appears to be located at the junction of the Abbotsbury, Longbredy and Portesham parishes on the ridgeway. The Littlebredy parish probably also extended to this point once but is now some 100 yards away.

The site is almost certainly near the gateway to the present day Gorwell Farm just off the small back road leading from Hardye’s Monument down to Abbotsbury.  Near the gateway, there are some ancient hedges together with a small pudding stone of approx 1500mm long and 450mm in diameter. This is thought to be the Moot Stone. (OS 588 867)[vi].  It is now loose and has been moved as it was formerly standing and on the other side of the gate[vii]. The nearby steep valley bottom to the south of the road was the original Ucga’s Coombe[viii] which gave its name to Uggescombe. This Hundred was recorded as Oglescoma in Domesday and consisted then of 104 hides.

The moot stone was perhaps on an ancient processional route to Kingston Russell stone circle via the Hellstone, Hampton Stone Circle and the Grey Mare & Her Colts.

In Steepleton village, the RCHM [ix] identify the Parish Church as having quoins at three corners of the nave dating from the C11th (ie pre-conquest). This makes St Michael’s church the oldest along the Winterbourne river. The well known stone carved Angel is a rare example of Anglo-Saxon sculpture probably relating to the casting down of Satan by St Michael. It is thought that this was originally one of two supports to a rood or crucifix within the church. It was moved outside the building in the 18^th century but has been moved inside again in the late 20^th century for protection. 

Sources :

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