Lydlinch

Lydlinch
Parish church of St Thomas Becket
Lydlinch  Lydlinch shown within Dorset
Population	437 (2011 Census)
OS grid reference	ST743135
Civil parish	Lydlinch
District	North Dorset
Shire county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Sturminster Newton
Postcode district	DT10
Dialling code	01963
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
List of places UK England Dorset

Lydlinch is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) west of Sturminster Newton in the Blackmore Vale in North Dorset, England. The village is sited on Oxford clay close to the small River Lydden. The parish—which includes the village of King's Stag to the south and hamlet of Stock Gaylard to the west—is bounded by the Lydden to the east and its tributary the Caundle Brook to the north.

The 2011 census recorded the parish as having 199 dwellings, 192 households and a population of 437.

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Thomas Becket has a 12th-century baptismal font, but the rest of the building is Perpendicular Gothic. The nave, chancel and west tower are 15th century. The north aisle and south porch were added in the 16th century. In the 19th century the north aisle was rebuilt and the north vestry added and the building was twice restored, the second time in 1875. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

The tower has a ring of five bells. The 19th-century Dorset dialect poet William Barnes (1801–86), who was born just outside the parish in nearby Bagber, wrote of them "Vor Lydlinch bells be good vor sound, And liked by all the neighbours round". Thomas Purdue of Closworth, Somerset cast the second, fourth and tenor bells in 1681. Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry recast the treble and third bells in 1908.

The parish is part of the Benefice of Sturminster Newton, Hinton St Mary and Lydlinch.