Gussage (St. Michael)

GUSSAGE (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Wimborne and Cranborne, hundred of Badbury, though locally in the hundred of Knowlton, Wimborne division of Dorset, 6 miles (W. by S.) from Cranborne; containing, with the hamlet of Sutton, 280 inhabitants. The parish comprises 2882 acres, of which 64 are waste land or common. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20. 0. 2½.; net income, £393; patron, Lord Portman. The church is a handsome edifice, with a lofty embattled tower. On the line of the London road, near Cashmore inn, is the easternmost of seven earthworks, supposed to have been thrown up by the Belgæ across the road between this and Tarrant-Hinton, and which afford reason for the opinion that the neighbourhood was the scene of some remarkable action in the time of the ancient Britons.