Arne is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated east of Wareham. The local travel links are located at Wareham railway station. Bournemouth International Airport is away. The main road through the village is Arne Road connecting Arne to Wareham. The village is situated on the Arne Peninsula, which protrudes into Poole Harbour opposite the town of Poole. Toponymy The name "Arne" is first recorded in 1268. It probably derives from the meaning a "house" or "building. Alternatively, it may derive from (dative plural hærum) meaning "at the heaps of stones" or "at the tumuli". History Evidence of prehistoric human activity within the civil parish consists of 19 barrows and the remains of 4 linear dykes. The most significant of the barrows is the 'King's Barrow' at Stoborough, which probably dates from the Early Bronze Age. The dykes are on Worgret Heath; they are undated but analogy with similar structures elsewhere suggests Romano-British origins. In the Roman period there was also a salt industry of significant size on the shore of Poole Harbour. Arne village is not recorded in the Domesday Book. The earliest record of the village is from 1285, though the parish church, which consists of a single-cell chancel and nave, dates from around 1200, and has not been substantially altered since, though it was restored in the 19th century and in 1952. The village was owned by the wealthy Shaftesbury Abbey until its dissolution in 1539, but was never a large village, and by 1894 its population was only 123. A school had been opened in the village in 1832, but the shrinking population forced it to close in 1922. In medieval times the parish of Arne was much smaller; it covered on the Arne peninsula and adjacent heathland. In the late 19th century it was expanded to include the two parts of Wareham Holy Trinity parish that separately covered Stoborough and Middlebere, and the part of Wareham Lady St Mary parish that covered Worgret, resulting in Arne parish more than doubling in size. During World War I Holton Heath, three miles north west of Arne in the neighbouring parish of Wareham St Martin, was chosen as the site of the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, a key site for the manufacture of explosives used in military shells. Its isolated location would have mitigated civilian losses should an explosion have occurred, but following the start of