Charborough House

Charborough House is is a rural estate located between the villages of Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England. The Deer Park and estate adjoins the villages of Winterborne Zelston, Newton Peveril and Lytchett Matravers. The house and grounds have been owned by the same family since Elizabethan times and is first recorded in the Doomsday Book http://www.charborough.co.uk/. The quadruple-barreled surname of the owners is now Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, the Earles/Erles having arrived in Dorset from east Devon circa 1500, and continued via several female lines. The current occupier is Richard Drax, the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Dorset. The current house is in the centre of the park and incorporates parts of the house built by Sir Walter Erle (1586–1665), the Governor of Dorchester and commander of the Parliamentary forces which besieged Corfe Castle in 1646, (stone and timber taken from Corfe Castle were used in the building).