Wool | |
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High Street, Wool |
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Wool shown within Dorset | |
Population | 5,310 (2011) |
OS grid reference | SY839865 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Wareham |
Postcode district | BH20 |
Dialling code | 01929 |
Police | Dorset |
Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
Ambulance | South Western |
EU Parliament | South West England |
UK Parliament | |
Wool /wʊl/ is a large village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes Bovington Camp army base to the north—had 2,015 households and a population of 5,310. The village lies at a historic bridging point on the River Frome, half-way between Dorchester and Wareham. Woolbridge Manor House, a 14th-century building, is a prominent feature just outside the village and the location of Tess's honeymoon in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Other prominent features of the village include the medieval church of Holy Rood, the railway station on the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo to Weymouth, and the thatched cottages along Spring Street.
Nearby, to the east of the village, are the ruins of Bindon Abbey, which was demolished in the Dissolution of the Monasteries of 1539, the stone being used to build castles in Portland, Lulworth and Sandsfoot.