--- title: "West Stafford – what is there, and how you get there | Mixroutes" description: "West Stafford, United Kingdom: West Stafford is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Frome valley 2 miles (3.2 km)…" url: "https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/west-stafford" markdown: "https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/west-stafford.md" image: "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Birmingham_New_Street_railway_station_MMB_18_350104_220014_323212.jpg/1920px-Birmingham_New_Street_railway_station_MMB_18_350104_220014_323212.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail" --- Village and civil parish in Dorset, England · United Kingdom # West Stafford West Stafford is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Frome valley 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Dorchester. ![West Stafford](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Birmingham_New_Street_railway_station_MMB_18_350104_220014_323212.jpg/1920px-Birmingham_New_Street_railway_station_MMB_18_350104_220014_323212.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) West Stafford · mattbuck The place West Stafford is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Frome valley 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 291. The village contains the public house 'The Wise Man Inn', and St Andrew's Church. The river Winterbourne runs beside the village and 2 miles south lies the village of West Knighton. Thomas Hardy, when training as an architect, assisted in the design of Talbothays Lodge and the cottages opposite. The village is also accepted as the setting for part of Hardy's novel Tess or the D'Urbevilles, during the period when Tess works at the Talbothays Dairy. Adapted from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Stafford), CC BY-SA 4.0. What is there ## Worth seeing in and around West Stafford 10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name. 1. The Dinosaur Museum, Dorchester The Dinosaur Museum is a museum presenting dinosaurs in Dorchester, the county town of Dorset, in southern England. The Dinosaur Museum is the only museum in mainland Britain dedicated purely to dinosaurs. 3.4 km · museum in Dorchester, Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Museum_(Dorchester%29) 2. Maumbury Rings Maumbury Rings is a Neolithic henge in the south of Dorchester town in Dorset, England. It is a large circular earthwork, 85 metres in diameter, with a single bank and an entrance to the north east. 3.6 km · Neolithic henge monument · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maumbury_Rings) 3. Dorset Museum & Art Gallery Dorset Museum & Art Gallery is located in Dorchester, Dorset, England. It was known as the Dorset County Museum until 2021. 3.6 km · museum in Dorchester, Dorset, United Kingdom · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorset_Museum) 4. Mount Pleasant henge Mount Pleasant henge is a Neolithic henge enclosure in the English county of Dorset. It lies southeast of Dorchester in the civil parish of West Stafford. 1.7 km · Neolithic henge monument in Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pleasant_henge) 5. Thomas Hardy's Cottage Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, is a small cob and thatch building that is the birthplace of the English author Thomas Hardy. He was born there in 1840 and lived in the cottage until he was aged 34—during which time he wrote the novels Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd —when he left home to be married to Emma Gifford. 3 km · cob and thatch building in Stinsford, Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy%27s_Cottage) 6. Kingston Maurward House Kingston Maurward House is a large Grade I listed Georgian English country house set in a 750-acre estate in Dorset situated in the Frome valley two miles east of Dorchester. 1.8 km · Grade I listed English country house in West Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Maurward_House) 7. Church of St George St George's Church is a Church of England church in Dorchester, Dorset, England and the parish church of the suburb of Fordington. St George's has been Grade I Listed since 1950. 2.9 km · church in Fordington, Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s_Church,_Fordington) 8. Church of St Mary St Mary's Church, also known as St Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset, England. It was built in 1910–12 for a cost of £11,500. 3.9 km · church in Dorchester, Dorset, England, UK · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Dorchester) 9. Statue of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Statue is a statue of Thomas Hardy, located at Dorchester, Dorset, England. It was funded by public subscription to commemorate Hardy's life and works, three years after his death. 3.9 km · statue in Dorchester, Dorset, England, by Eric Kennington · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy_Statue) 10. Dorchester Castle Dorchester Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the market town of Dorchester, Dorset, southern England. 3.6 km · medieval castle in Dorset, England · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorchester_Castle) Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0. Go there ## Getting to West Stafford **Airports:** Bristol (BRS), 79 km · Cardiff (CWL), 102 km · London Heathrow (LHR), 159 km\ **Stations:** Dorchester South railway station, 3.4 km · Dorchester West railway station, 3.8 km\ - Bristol → West Stafford 85 km · quickest by road, 2h 4m · £10–13 [Guide](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/bristol-to-west-stafford) [Today](https://www.mixroutes.com/results?from=Bristol&to=West+Stafford) - Cardiff → West Stafford 103 km · quickest by road, 2h 48m · £18–24 [Guide](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/cardiff-to-west-stafford) [Today](https://www.mixroutes.com/results?from=Cardiff&to=West+Stafford) - London → West Stafford 181 km · quickest by road, 2h 56m · £19–25 [Guide](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/london-to-west-stafford) [Today](https://www.mixroutes.com/results?from=London&to=West+Stafford) - From anywhere The planner compares every way there from wherever you are. [Plan a trip](https://www.mixroutes.com/?to=West%20Stafford) Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds. Not yet researched ## No local-transport research exists yet for West Stafford Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for West Stafford. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more. What Wikivoyage says about moving around - Get in Despite its history as a cross-Channel ferry port, these days the furthest you can get on a passenger vessel from Weymouth is Portland; ships from the Channel Islands and France dock at Poole. - Get in Services to Poole from the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, as well as Cherbourg in Normandy and Saint-Malo in Brittany by fast or traditional ferry are provided by Brittany Ferries and Condor Ferries. - Go next Isle of Portland – take the A354 south or a ferry to Portland, a tied island known for its stone. From [Wikivoyage: Weymouth](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Weymouth), CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09. The nearest places where the work is done 1. [Isle of Wight](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/isle-of-wight) GB 11 ways of moving, 22 sources 76 km 2. [Lundy](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/lundy) GB 7 ways of moving, 11 sources 168 km 3. [Inis Mór (Inishmore)](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/inis-mor) IE 8 ways of moving, 21 sources 570 km 4. [Isle of Arran](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/isle-of-arran) GB 10 ways of moving, 36 sources 572 km 5. [Vlieland](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/vlieland) NL 10 ways of moving, 47 sources 579 km If you know how people move in West Stafford – the stand, the rule, the fare – [tell us](https://www.mixroutes.com/report?key=blog%7Cwest-stafford&title=West+Stafford&sub=Field+notes&back=%2Fnotes%2Fwest-stafford), and the note gets an entry. Around it ## Next door to West Stafford - [Dorchester](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/dorchester) town in Dorset, England, UK 3.6 km - [Woodsford](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/woodsford) hamlet in south west Dorset, England 3.7 km - [Broadmayne](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/broadmayne) village in Dorset, England, UK 3.1 km - [Winterborne Came](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/winterborne-came) village and civil parish in Dorset, UK 2.3 km - [Stinsford](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/stinsford) village in Dorset, England, UK 2.1 km - [West Knighton](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/west-knighton) village and civil parish in Dorset, England, UK 2 km [The place page for West Stafford](https://www.mixroutes.com/places/west-stafford) [All the notes](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes) [Every note on United Kingdom](https://www.mixroutes.com/notes#c-GB) --- This is the markdown version of https://www.mixroutes.com/notes/west-stafford, for search crawlers and AI assistants. 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