Standing proudly and dominantly on the main A31 this arch is a surprise as you admire the natural views with its stag high on the top. Charborough Park is a large estate built before 1661 for Sir Walter Erle, the Parliamentarian.
Wikipedia describes the estate and its history: visit link
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This extract is about the actual stag:
'The Drax estate is thought to consist of nearly 7,000 acres (28 km2). Although the stag on top of 'Stag Gate' appears to have five legs, the 'fifth leg' is actually a 'tree stump' originally incorporated into the sculpture to add strength. There are quite a few comments on-line and in publications that the stag has five legs so that it appears to have four when viewed from any angle, which is clearly imaginative but incorrect.'
'Charborough House is located between Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England. The Deer Park and estate adjoins the villages of Winterborne Zelston, Newton Peveril and Lytchett Matravers. Charborough Park is surrounded by one of the longest brick walls in England built between 1841 and 1842 by the then owner of the park John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge-Erle-Drax who had successfully had the new Wimborne/Dorchester turnpike moved further away from his house, a detour of over half a mile. More than 2 million bricks were used in the wall, but unfortunately for Sawbridge-Erle-Drax - who was also its chief promoter - the turnpike lost money, mainly because the railway between Wimborne and Dorchester opened shortly afterwards.
The wall runs alongside the A31 and is punctuated by 'The Stag Gate' at the northern extremity and the 'Lion Lodge' at the eastern most entrance. 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).
Charborough House has been owned by the same family since Elizabethan times and their surname 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.
In 1686, a group of conspirators met at Charborough House to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts", this was hosted by Thomas Erle, MP for Wareham since 1678, and Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset since 1685. This meeting was effectively the start of the build up to the Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, which resulted in the overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau, (William of Orange).
The church of St Mary at Charlborough was built by Thomas Erle Drax in 1775 and transformed in 1837 by John Sawbridge Erle Drax who had married Sarah Frances Erle-Drax, the heiress of Charborough, in 1826 and assumed her surname. It is now used only as the burial-place of the Drax family. Above the door of a small arched building nearby is an inscription, dated 1686, commemorating the meeting of the patriotic individuals, who concerted the plan of the Revolution in 1688.
Charborough House and its folly tower at 50°46'38.75?N 2°6'7.09?W? / ?50.7774306°N 2.1019694°W? / 50.7774306; -2.1019694 is the model for Welland House in the novel Two on a Tower by Thomas Hardy.
Charborough Park, the private grounds of Charborough House, are only open to the public once or twice a year, when the local villagers sell tea and cakes.'