About the town » Lydlinch, Dorset, England, Great Britain

Lydlinch is a village in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies within the North Dorset administrative district of the county, three miles west of the town of Sturminster Newton. It is sited on Oxford clay close to the small River Lydden in the Blackmore Vale. In the 2001 Census the village had a population of 431. 19th-century Dorset dialect poet William Barnes was born in the hamlet of Bagber which lies about half a mile to the east. He wrote about the five bells which hang on the tower of Lydlinch parish church: "Vor Lydlinch bells be good vor sound, And liked by all the neighbours round. " The church, dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, is perpendicular Gothic and has a 13th-century tower, a twelfth-century font and many stained glass windows.