East Orchard is a small village and parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies in the Blackmore Vale within the North Dorset administrative district. It is situated roughly midway between the hilltop town of Shaftesbury and the riverside town of Sturminster Newton. It is separated from the neighbouring village of West Orchard by a small stream. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 100.[1] For local government purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes of West Orchard and Margaret Marsh, to form a Group Parish Council.[2]

East Orchard
East Orchard is located in Dorset
East Orchard
East Orchard
Location within Dorset
Population100 [1]
OS grid referenceST833179
Civil parish
  • East Orchard
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSHAFTESBURY
Postcode districtSP7
Dialling code01747
PoliceDorset
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Dorset
50°57′38″N 2°14′21″W / 50.9605°N 2.2392°W / 50.9605; -2.2392

Etymology

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The name of East Orchard is first attested in a charter of 939 (surviving in a fifteenth-century copy), in the form Archet.[3] It does not appear in the Domesday Book[3] (the Horcerd found there is more likely to refer to Orchard near Church Knowle on Purbeck).[4][5] The name derives from the Common Brittonic words that survive in modern Welsh as ar ("on") and coed ("wood"), and thus the name once meant "at the wood". Its modern form shows assimilation to the English noun orchard through folk-etymology.[3][6]: 295  The element East was added to the name later when the settlement became distinct from West Orchard.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Parish Population Data". Dorset County Council. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  2. ^ The Orchards and Margaret Marsh Group Parish Council, dorsetforyou.com
  3. ^ a b c Watts, Victor, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521168557., s.v. Orchard.
  4. ^ National Archives
  5. ^ H. C. Darby, G. R. Versey, (2008), Domesday Gazetteer, page 124. Cambridge University Press.
  6. ^ Coates, Richard; Breeze, Andrew (2000). Celtic Voices, English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in Britain. Stamford: Tyas. ISBN 1900289415..
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