Minterne Magna

Minterne Magna
Minterne House, south front
Minterne Magna  Minterne Magna shown within Dorset
Population	184
OS grid reference	ST659042
District	West Dorset
Shire county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	West Dorset
List of places UK England Dorset

Minterne Magna is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the West Dorset administrative district on the A352 road halfway between Dorchester and Sherborne. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 184.

Minterne Magna village is sited near the source of the River Cerne among the chalk hills of the Dorset Downs. Some of the highest points in Dorset, including Telegraph Hill (267 m) and Dogbury Hill (248 m), are nearby.

Minterne House

Minterne House (set back from the main road along a curved drive) is the ancestral home of the Digby family. Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman, (1920–1997), daughter of Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby, was raised at the manor house from 1920–1938, and lived there before her marriage to Randolph Churchill in 1939. Jane Digby, the noted adventuress and mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria, was also raised there along with her brother Edward Digby, 9th Baron Digby. They were the children of Admiral Henry Digby, a senior British naval officer, who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy. It was his wealth that established the original manor house, the bulk of which came from prize money. In 1799 he had been given command of the frigate HMS Alcmene, during which time he captured dozens of small merchant ships and had a hand in seizing the Spanish treasure frigate Santa Brigada with $1,400,000 on board.

Minterne House has a large woodland-style Rhododendron garden, which runs in an elongated 'u' shape around the slopes of a small spur of land that stretches into the valley floor. Providing shade for the rhododendrons are many mature trees, including more unusual specimens such as Davidia involucrata ('handkerchief tree').