Lytchett Minster is a village in Dorset, England. It lies around north-west of Poole town centre. The village forms part of the civil parish of Lytchett Minster and Upton, Upton now being a suburb of Poole.

Etymology

The name of Lytchett Minster is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lichet. This name comes from the Brittonic words that survive in modern Welsh as ("grey") and ("wood"). The name is first attested with addition of Minster in 1244, in forms such as Licheminster. This was used to distinguish the settlement from Lytchett Matravers and arose because the estate was a chapelry of the minster Sturminster Marshall.

Geography

Location

Lytchett Minster lies on low-lying farmland around west of the Poole district of Upton, southeast of the village of Lytchett Matravers, and 1.2 miles east-northeast of Organford. To the northeast are Lytchett Heath, Beacon Hill and Upton Heath; to the southwest are Gore Heath and Holton Heath. The A35 dual carriageway bypasses the village to the east and south. It was bought by the local Council and became Lytchett Minster Secondary Modern School, now Lytchett Minster School.

Post Green

In July 1942 Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband, explorer and spiritual writer, suffered a stroke. He then retired to Post Green House, as a guest of Lady Madeline Lees, where he died shortly after. He was buried in the village churchyard.

Lady Madeline Lees (née Pelly) was a passionate Christian with a desire to communicate the story of Jesus. After the local school Nativity play for many years, she decided it was time to produce something that could be shown around the world. So she roped in the whole village as actors, retired actor Gerald Rawlinson as a narrator, plus extras from Poole, Upton and other villages to create two successful amateur religious films, "A Voice Crying in the Wilderness" (1958) and "Messiah", released in 1960.

In the mid-1960s, Sir Thomas Lees and his wife, Lady Faith, started offering hospitality to people in need, accommodating up to 25 people at a time in their home and later expanding this community support using local homes they owned, to form the Post Green Community.

References

  • Lytchett Minster School
  • Bowmen of Lytchett Archery Club