In national parliament and district council elections, Dorset is divided into several electoral wards, with Alton Pancras being within Piddle Valley ward. In county council elections, Alton Pancras is in the Three Valleys electoral division, one of 42 divisions that elect councillors to Dorset Council. At the parish level – the lowest tier of local government – Alton Pancras is one of three parishes governed by Piddle Valley Group Parish Council. The other parishes are Piddlehinton and Piddletrenthide. Geography Alton Pancras civil parish covers at the head of the valley of the River Piddle. The valley is on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs and drains from north to south. Several small side combes extend east and west. In the east the parish includes part of a tributary valley at Watcombe Bottom, north of Plush, and in the northeast it extends north of the escarpment to Alton Common in the Blackmore Vale. The underlying geology of the parish is mostly chalk, except for the Alton Common extension, which is on greensand, gault and Kimmeridge clay. Alton Pancras village is sited in the valley near the source of the River Piddle at an altitude of about . The altitude of the parish is between about at its highest point on the hills to the west, to about at its lowest point where the river leaves the parish in the south. The broadcaster and agriculturist Ralph Wightman, who was born and lived in the nearby village of Piddletrenthide, described the hills surrounding the village as "very much in the centre of Dorset". All of Alton Pancras parish is within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Horse Close Wood on Alton Common is a Woodland Trust wood, though it is not open to the public. Alton Pancras village is situated on the B3143 road, which connects it to the county town of Dorchester to the south. Other local travel links include Maiden Newton railway station to the south-west, and Bournemouth International Airport to the east. Demography In the 2011 census Alton Pancras civil parish had 72 dwellings, 71 households and a population of 175. The average age of parish residents was 42, compared to 39.3 for England as a whole. 16.0% of residents were age 65 or over, compared to 16.4% for England as a whole. References External links Village history Church history Villages in Dorset Liberties of Dorset