Gussage All Saints

Gussage All Saints is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is in the Dorset unitary district of the county, about 8 miles (13 km) north-east of the town of Blandford Forum. It is sited by the side of a small stream in a shallow valley on the lower dip slope of Cranborne Chase. Ackling Dyke, a disused Roman road, crosses the valley to the northwest, and forms the parish boundary at that point. The village church dates mostly from the early 14th century. The ecclesiastical parish of Gussage All Saints has recently merged with neighbouring Gussage St Michael and joined the Knowlton Circle Benefice which also includes the parishes of Cranborne, Edmondsham, Wimborne St Giles and Woodlands. To the south of the village lies an Iron Age settlement excavated in 1972 by Dr G. J. Wainwright, of the Department of the Environment. The settlement is formed by an enclosure that is roughly circular in plan and some 3 acres in extent, with a single entrance in the east defined by two pairs of flanking antennae ditches.