On the north-westerly outskirts of Weymouth in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is Sutton Poyntz. Referred to as a village despite its adjacency to Preston, Sutton Poyntz is a peaceful, picturesque place to live, alive with community pride and spirit. Bisected by the River Jordan, the village is almost entirely residential, with a well-regarded gastropub and millpond – complete with resident ducks – at its heart.

The rolling landscape surrounding Sutton Poyntz is rich in evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age human activity, and provides myriad fascinating walking opportunities. Of particular note is the Iron Age Chalbury Hillfort. Believed to date back to 800 BC, it is one of the oldest in the area, predating even Dorchester’s world-famous Maiden Castle by approximately 400 years. The village itself, like many others in Dorset, was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, but, less commonly, also warranted documentation in an earlier Saxon charter dated 891 AD. In the centuries that followed, Sutton Poyntz became an agricultural community based on farming and market gardening, and remained so until the last working farm was sold in 1992. Since then, the village has been the rural idyll it is today, invigorated by the biennial street fayre and numerous other events hosted by its thriving community.