Woodyates is a small hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, sometimes considered a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

, in the county of Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, near its border with Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, in the west of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

The name means "wood gates" and is believed to refer to the position of Woodyates at the entrance to the wooded area of Cranborne Chase

Cranborne Chase

Cranborne Chase is a Chalk plateau in central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The plateau is part of the English Chalk Formation and is adjacent to Salisbury Plain and the West Wiltshire Downs in the north, the Dorset Downs to the south west and the...

.

The topographer James Bell described it thus in 1835 -
The Roman road is especially well preserved. In Highways and Byways in Dorset (1935), Sir Frederick Treves notes that "In no part of Dorset can the actual undisturbed Roman road be seen at greater advantage or for greater extent than about Woodyates."

A Romano-British

Romano-British

Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...

 defensive ditch called Bokerley Dyke

Bokerley Dyke

Bokerley Dyke is a Romano-British defensive ditch in north east Dorset, England, near the villages of Woodyates and Pentridge. The ditch ran for several miles, cutting across the Roman Road between Old Sarum and Badbury Rings on the Cranborne Chase ridgeway. Dated to 367 CE, it was constructed to...

 also runs near the village.

The estate also contained an important coaching inn

Coaching inn

In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...

, once called the Woodyates Inn, later the Shaftesbury Arms. This was a staging point of the Trafalgar Way, and a commemorative plaque can be seen there.

In the 18th century, Woodyates was a property of Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt , born at Blandford Forum, Dorset, to a rector and his wife, was a British merchant involved in trade with India....

.

Present day

Woodyates is served by a Damory Coaches

Damory Coaches

Damory Coaches is a bus and coach operator based in Blandford Forum in Dorset, England. Officially registered as Hants & Dorset Motor Services Limited, Damory Coaches is a subsidiary of Wilts & Dorset, which is itself part of the much larger Go-Ahead Group...

 bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

 which runs between Salisbury

Salisbury

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...

and Wimborne St Giles.