WINTERBOURNE-CLENSTONE, a parish in the
hundred of COOMBSDITCH, Blandford (North) division
of the county of DORSET, 4 miles (S. W.) from Blandford-
Forum, containing 73 inhabitants. The living is a
rectory, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of
Bristol, rated in the king's books at £6. IS. l., and
in the patronage of E. M. Pleydell, Esq. The church
is dedicated to St. Nicholas. Anciently there were three
churches, the livings of which were rectories, and the
parish was much more populous, as is evident from
the foundations of houses still visible within its limits.
A little south of the church, on the side of a hill,
commences Coombs-ditch, which gives name to the
hundred, and where the courts were formerly held: it
is thought by Dr. Stukeley to have been a long rampart
and ditch of the first colony of the Belgae.