STURMINSTER NEWTON CASTLE, a market town, parish, and railway station, on the Dorset Central Railway, in the hundred and union of the same name, distant 108 miles from London, 10 N.W. from Blandford, 12 W. from Sherborne, 5 S.E. from Stalbridge, and 8 S.W. from Shaftesbury. The town is situated on the banks of the river Stour,. Which, flowing through the vale of Blackmoor, empties itself into the sea at Christchurch, in Hampshire. The church, St. Mary’s, within about the last twenty years has been nearly rebuilt, and very considerably enlarged, at the sole expense of the late Rev. T. H. Lane Fox; it is in the Norman style, in the form of a cross. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of Lord Rivers, lord of the manor, and the tithes have been commuted for £712, with residence; glebe, 200 acres; the Rev. Richard Lowndes is the vicar. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel. The Wesleyans have a chapel and Sunday school. There are schools for children of both sexes and for infants, supported by voluntary subscriptions. On the Newton side of the river are the remains of an old castle, supposed to have been erected by the Romans; they consist of a keep, within a vallum and ditch, seated on a hill. The ground-plan was in the form of the letter D. There is a large camp, called Banbury. A Literary and Scientific Institution was established in 1850. There is a market every alternate Thursday, chiefly for cattle. The fairs are held on the 12th of May and 24th of October, at which is appointed the high constable of the hundred of Sturminster. The petty sessions of the division are held monthly here, The population in 1861 was 1,880, and the acreage 4,229. In the union of Sturminster there are twenty parishes. The workhouse is at Sturminster. Board meeting every Wednesday.

NEWTON tithing is divided from Sturminster by the river. Bagbere is a tithing 2 miles W., on the road to Sherborne.

FIDDLEFORD is a hamlet of Sturminster Newton, 2 miles S.E. from that town, and 8 N.W. from Blandford; Kingsdown, 1 S.E.; Hole, half a mile S.; Knacker’s Hole, Garland, and Common Gate, 2 miles S.; Darknell, 2 miles S.W.

POSTAL REGULATIONS.– William Trite, postmaster. Letters delivered at 7.30 a.m. Box closes at 6.15 p.m.; letters received until 6.25 by affixing an extra stamp; dispatched for Blandford at 6.25. Money-orders are issued and paid at this office, and Savings Bank business transacted.

BANKERS:–
Dorset Bank – (Robert and Herbert Williams) (William Colbourne, Esq., manager); draw on Williams, Deacon and Co.
National Provincial Bank – (J. W. Coffin, manager); draw on London Joint Stock Bank.

PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS:–
Excise Office – ‘Swan’.
Stamp Office – William Trite, distributor.
Union Workhouse – M. Williams, Esq., chairman; R. Stiby, Esq., vice chairman; Samuel Walter Long, Esq., clerk; William Kemp Clough, master; Mrs. Grace Goodenough Clough, matron; Miss A. Roe, Schoolmistress; J. Tarzewell, Esq., surgeon.

PUBLIC OFFICERS:–
Clerk to the Commissioner of Taxes – H. C. Dashwood, Esq.
Clerk to Magistrates of Petty Sessions – Robert Rideout Harvey, Esq.
Clerk to Board of Guardians – Samuel Walter Long, Esq.
Superintendent Registrar – Samuel Walter Long, Esq.

PLACES OF WORSHIP:–
St. Mary’s Church – Rev. R. Lowndes, vicar; Philip Adams, parish clerk.
Primitive Methodist Chapel – ministers various.
Wesleyan Chapel – ministers various.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS:–
Parochial – J. Holmes, master; Miss Anne Bennett, mistress.
Infant – Mrs. Betsey Bennett, mistress.

CARRIERS:–
T. Bright, Blandford to Yeovil, Tuesday and Thursday; return, Wednesday and Friday.