The A352 main road between Dorchester (from Sherborne) and Wareham passes through the village.

[2] Village facilities and services include a post office, a clinic (closed since 2014) and a public house (The Black Dog).

There are two churches in the village, both of which were redesigned by Thomas Hardy, who was an architect before he became a novelist.

[3] The parish church of St Martin dates from the 13th century and has a notable south tower.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, one of two settlements named Maine in Culliford Tree Hundred[4] was later called Friar Mayne to avoid confusion with another Maine (Parva Maene) sited at Little Mayne Farm in West Knighton parish.