Clifton Maybank: a tiny Dorset parish with a remarkable Tudor house

Clifton Maybank is a small village and civil parish in Dorset, about a mile south-west of Bradford Abbas and close to Yeovil. It is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Clistone, and the “Maybank” suffix derives from William Malbank, the tenant recorded there. The parish is best known for Clifton House, a Grade I listed country house with surviving Tudor fabric; much of the original building was dismantled in 1786, with part of its front re-erected at Montacute House. The old parish chapel, already described as a chapel in 1291, later fell into ruin and was demolished in 1824.
Population: about 40 inhabitants (Dorset estimate).
Distance: about 1 mile south-west of Bradford Abbas and close to Yeovil.
Highlights: Clifton House, the historic parish landscape, and the quiet rural setting on the Dorset-Somerset border.