Child Okeford

All you want to know about Child Okeford

Child Okeford (sometimes written Childe Okeford) is a quiet village in north Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale four miles east of Sturminster Newton and downstream from it along the River Stour which passes half a mile west of the village. The village had a population of 1,065 (2001), 41.9% of which were retired.

Child Okeford is situated at the foot of Hambledon Hill, a Neolithic ceremonial burial site and Iron Age hill fort.

A World War I war memorial in the form of a stone cross stands at the road junction known in the village as The Cross.

There are a variety of shops and businesses in Child Okeford, including the Post Office and Cross Stores in the centre of the village. On the way out of Child Okeford, at Gold Hill Farm, there is also a small business community, with a rapidly expanding organic food shop (Gold Hill Organics), a café (The Farmyard Picnic), a rushwork workshop and an art Gallery (The Art Stable) which exhibits contemporary and modern British art, including many local painters. There is also a large battery chicken farm standing to the north of the village.

In 1561 William Kethe was appointed vicar he remained in the village until his death in 1594. Kethe is best known as the author of the hymn, The Old Hundredth, which went on to become one of the most famous in the English language, better known from its first line "All People That on Earth Do Dwell".

The village was the last home, until his death in 1989, of the puppeteer and children's entertainer Harry Corbett, creator of the TV glove puppet characters Sooty & Sweep.

It is also the present home of composer Sir John Tavener.

The Somerset and Dorset Railway ran to the west of the village, through neighbouring Shillingstone, until the line closed in 1966 under the Beeching cuts.

Local author and dowser Peter Knight believes that the village is at the centre of several ley lines, some of which pass through nearby Hambledon Hill. Old records speak of a megalith that used to lie where the cross is now, marking an ancient crossroads^{[citation needed]}.

Famous residents

Well known people who live, or lived, in Child Okeford and its environs include:

Harry Corbett Sooty & Sweep Creator
Jack Hargreaves TV Presenter, best known for having devised and presented How! and Out of Town lived at nearby Belchalwell
David James Author, Politician and Adventurer lived in the village whilst Conservative MP for North Dorset
Tom Mennard Comedian and Actor, best known as Sam Tindall in Coronation Street
Mick Robertson TV Presenter, best known for Magpie
Rodney Fryer Russell and his wife Pamela lived in the nearby hamlet of Manston, both widely acclaimed artists who often painted together
Sir John Tavener Composer