Cattistock

Cattistock is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, sited in the upper reaches of the Frome Valley, northwest of the county town Dorchester. The Dorset poet William Barnes called it "elbow-streeted Cattstock", a comment on the less-than-linear village street. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 509.

==Parish church== A church was built here in the 12th century by the monks of Milton Abbey, though this structure has not survived. The current church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, was rebuilt in the 19th century by architects Sir George Gilbert Scott and his son George Gilbert Scott Junior. The Perpendicular-styled tower was the work of the latter, and has led to the church being dubbed the 'Cathedral of the Frome Valley'; he was also responsible for the porch, north aisle and vestry. A carillon of 35 bells was installed in the new tower a few years after its construction. This was the first carillon to be introduced to England and attracted hundreds of visitors to the valley, though the bells were destroyed by a fire in the tower on 15 September 1940. The fire also destroyed the very large clock, which previously almost spanned the width of the tower. In 1972 the Pevsner guide to Dorset architecture said that "for the mid- to late-nineteenth century, this is the masterpiece amongst Dorset churches". The church is a Grade I Listed Building.