Blandford Outer & Tarrants

The Blandford Outer & Tarrants area sits in the chalk landscape around Blandford Forum, where small lanes link farms, coppices and clustered villages. Fields are divided by hedgerows and sunken tracks, and a narrow watercourse, the Tarrant, threads the valley; it runs through a sequence of villages that all carry the Tarrant name before meeting the River Stour. Parish churches and village halls mark settlements, and public footpaths cross downland and arable mosaics, offering views over river meadows and flint walls.

Local life revolves around agriculture, small businesses and community events held in village spaces. Wildlife favours the chalk-stream corridor and hedgerow network; wet meadows and ditches provide habitat for waders and small mammals. Road patterns reflect historic parish boundaries, and scattered farmsteads retain traditional layouts alongside more recent buildings. For visitors and residents the area reads as a working rural landscape shaped by the Tarrant valley and the rhythms of cropping, grazing and seasonal change.