Okeford Fitzpaine is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset, situated in the Blackmore Vale south of the town of Sturminster Newton. It is sited on a thin strip of greensand under the scarp face of the Dorset Downs. In the 2011 census the civil parish—which includes the village of Belchalwell to the west and most of the hamlet of Fiddleford to the north—had 404 dwellings, 380 households and a population of 913. History Prehistoric remains within the parish include three cross dykes and five round barrows on the chalk hills south of the village, and an Iron Age hill fort on Banbury Hill, towards Sturminster Newton. Banbury covers about and is of univallate (single rampart) construction, though its defences have been reduced by cultivation. In 1086 in the Domesday Book Okeford Fitzpaine was recorded as Adford; it had 40 households, 16 ploughlands, of meadow and one mill. It was in Sturminster Newton Hundred and the tenant-in-chief was Glastonbury Abbey. Since then it has been known as "Aukford Alured" and "Ockford Phippin", the latter echoing the modern colloquial "Fippenny Ockford" and its shorthand, "Ockford". The present parish of Okeford Fitzpaine includes several areas that used to be within other parishes: Banbury Common (formerly in Child Okeford parish), the centre of the old parish of Belchalwell (plus four of its five separated parts), and part of Fiddleford (east of the Darknoll Brook). Until 1966 almost the entire village was owned by the Pitt-Rivers family, so it has no "big house", and comprised mostly tenant farmers. The village was sold off at auction by his mistress Stella Lonsdale following the death in 1966 of George Pitt-Rivers, who specified that the Estate not be sold as such, but that each property be sold individually, so that existing tenants might buy their leased farms. Governance In the United Kingdom national parliament, Okeford Fitzpaine is in the North Dorset parliamentary constituency which is represented by Simon Hoare of the Conservative party. In local government Okeford is governed by Dorset Council at the highest tier and Okeford Fitzpaine Parish Council at the lowest tier. The first meeting of the parish council took place on 1 January 1895. For electoral purposes in national government and district council elections, Okeford Fitzpaine is in Bulbarrow electoral ward. In national parliamentary elections this is joined with 26 other wards that together elect the Member of Parliament