Steeple, with Creech and Church Knowle
Glole, Stipple, and Griz.  were the Domesday Book names for Church Knole, Steeple and Creech. Later Steeple and the now dead village of Tyneham were united. Steeple a little hamlet has a delightful manor house, a farm and a church. Many years before the Stars and Stripes was used as the flag of the United States of America these symbols were carved in the church wall, and the Lawrence family who were squires of the hamlet were linked with George Washington's family. The two families coming from the Duchy of Lancaster were intermarried during the 14th century and it was in 1540 that the Lawrence's came to Steeple and at the same time a descendant of the Washington's settled in Virginia and became the great grandfather of the first President of the United States.

Some people believe that the American flag was derived from the Lawrence Coat of Arms

In 1682 Samuel Bolde a rector here said in a sermon that 'everybody had a right to their own beliefs'. and this upset King James II so much that he had the rector put in prison.

The church has a barrel organ on which the tune is picked out by pins on a drum which revolves and strikes differently tuned reeds.

Creech is on the other side of a high down is  and the home of the Bonds of Bond Street who took over in 1691 and still retain the house. The famous London Shopping street was built on swamp and rubbish tips by Thomas Bond during the Stuart period.

A view of Church Knowle
(Photo kindly submitted by Mark Urry, Marans, France)



Church Knowie once the burial place of ancient Britons is known as the 'village on a hillock' and derives from the Saxon name for the village, cnoll which means a hillock, and it was called Chenolle during the time of the Domesday Survey. The village is a lovely place most of the houses made in the Purbeck style with a church from the 13th century and inn and an old manor house.