Geographical Background

Bradford Abbas is a village and parish to the west of the Dorset market town of Sherborne and on the Somerset border with the town of Yeovil to the east. The parish limits are not only defined by the county boundary, but by the River Yeo, the Sherborne to Yeovil road (A30), the Bristol to Weymouth mainline as well as the adjoining parishes of Sherborne, Castleton and Clifton Maybank. The main London to Exeter railway line also runs east to west through the village.

The village lies on the north side of the Yeo valley, whilst the parish extends to the south side of the River Yeo at the foot of Babylon Hill. It is in the south-east corner of the parish, which is mainly open landscape. The northern part of the parish is mainly sandstone, but the village stands on limestone which covers the whole of the Yeo valley in this area. It produces a fertile soil well suited to arable farming, with the lower lying riverside areas being used for mainly dairy cattle. The area has always had an agricultural economy, that is still largely true today, although many of the villagers work other than on the land.