It lies within the Dorset Council administrative area, about 9 miles (14 km) north-west of the county town, Dorchester.

The village is sited on Upper Greensand at the confluence of the River Frome with its tributary of equivalent size, the Hooke.

[1] In 1086 in the Domesday Book, Maiden Newton was recorded as Newetone;[3] it had 26 households, 7 ploughlands, 18 acres (7.3 ha) of meadow and 2 mills.

[4] Maiden Newton was the basis for the village of Chalk-Newton, South Wessex, in many of the works of Thomas Hardy.

[13][14] Three long distance footpaths the Macmillan Way[15] and the Wessex Ridgeway[16] pass through the Village as does the shorter Frome Valley Trail.