Horton is a village inDorset, England, situated on the boundary between thechalkdownland ofCranborne Chase and theDorset Heaths, and ten miles north ofPoole. The village has apopulation of 515 (2001).
The nameHorton is a common one in England. It derives fromOld Englishhoru 'dirt' andtūn 'settlement, farm, estate', presumably meaning 'farm on muddy soil'. The earliest reference to the one in Dorset is in a charter of 946 ACE, albeit surviving only in a fourteenth-century copy, which mentions 'oþ hore tuninge gemære' ('to the boundary of the people of Horton').[1]
The village has two unusual buildings: the Horton Tower, a five storeygothic red brick observatory designed byHumphrey Sturt whose principal purpose now is that of a disguised mobile phone mast for operator Vodafone, and the 18th centuryGeorgian church of St Wolfrida, built on the site of the tenth centuryHorton Priory.Wolfrida was the mother of SaintEdith of Wilton.[2]
Horton is claimed as the location whereJames Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, was captured after the failedMonmouth Rebellion. Monmouth hid in a ditch under anash tree disguised as ashepherd but was betrayed by a local woman who, according to legend, later killed herself in remorse.
The village once had amanor house but this was superseded byCrichel House, a nearbystately home, and the manor house decayed and was pulled down. The stables, now converted into therectory, and a large ornamentallake, remain.[3]
Horton church is the burial place ofSir George Hastings.[4]
5.http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2009/01/28/folly_horton_tower_feature.shtml
