Fordington

“FORDINGTON, a parish and liberty, county Dorset. It is situated on the river Frome, in the immediate vicinity of Dorchester, the whole of which town is surrounded by, and isolated within, it. This is a part of the estates belonging to the duchy of Cornwall, and was formerly a market town. It takes its name from the ford across the Frome, over which are now several bridges. The village, which is a suburb of Dorchester, contains several woollen factories and an iron foundry. The workhouse for the Dorchester Poor-law Union is in this parish. A great extent of the land here is used as pasture, on which some hundreds of thousands of sheep are fed. The old Roman highway, Icknield Street, passed through this district, nearly in the line of the Great Western road. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Salisbury, value £225, in the patronage of the prebendary. The church, an ancient edifice in the form of a cross, partly in the Norman style of architecture, with some antique carvings at the S. entrance, is dedicated to St. George. There is also the district church of West Fordington, the living of which is a perpetual curacy in the gift of the vicar. In the vicinity Roman coins, utensils, and human remains have been found."

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from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868