The parish church of Winterborne Monkton is dedicated to St. Michael and St. Jude. The patronage having once belonged to the prior of Wast and afterwards to the Staffords of Hook then passed to the Strangways of Melbury and the Earls of Ilchester. Being situated along the route from Dorchester to Weymouth, an old turnpike road established as such in 1761, the parish of Winterborne Monkton once had a turnpike gate. It is recorded that the turnpike gatekeeper in 1841 was Charles Vallis who lived there with his wife Jane, but ten years later in 1851 the gatekeeper and toll collector is Joseph Spracklen aged 49. On the 1851 census the enumerator recorded that the area covered the two parishes of Winterborne Monkton and Winterborne Herringstone, including Monckton Turnpike. In total there were 87 people occupying 18 houses and 1 uninhabited house. Winterborne Monkton and Winterborne Herringston were divided by a boundary set out in 1438 after a dispute had arisen between the then respective landholders. The Dean of Exeter was concerned with Monkton and John Filiol, Lord of the Manor of Herringston had his concerns there and it was agreed that a bank should be built to serve as a boundary marker. Historical Parish Information