STOURPAIN, a parish in the hundred of PIMPERNE,
Blandford (North) division of the county of DORSET,
3 miles (N, W. by N.) from Blandford-Forum, containing
499 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Dean
and Chapter of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at
£7.18.6., and endowed with £200 parliamentary grant.
The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The river
Stour is navigable on the west and south of this parish.
Lacerton, formerly a distinct parish, was united, in 1431,
to Stourpain, to which it is now only a hamlet. In a
field, called Chapel Close, adjoining a farm-house, the
foundations of its ancient church, which was dedicated to
St. Andrew in 1331, may be still traced. On an eminence,
called Hod-hill, are the remains of a Danish camp, in
the form of the letter D, with a double rampart and fosse,
which, on the north and south sides, are almost inaccessible;
there are five entrances, and, within the area,
which comprises several acres, are many circular trenches,
four and five yards in diameter, and some round pits,
contiguous to each other, supposed to have been so
deep and numerous, at one period, as to be capable of
concealing a large army.