Manston is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England, lying next to the River Stour in the Blackmore Vale, two miles (three kilometres) east of Sturminster Newton.

The geology of the parish consists mostly of Kimmeridge clay, with a thin strip of Corallian limestone in the west.

[2][3] In 1086 in the Domesday Book, Manston was recorded as Manestone;[4] it had 19 households, 8 ploughlands, 25 acres (10 hectares) of meadow and 2 mills.

[2] The first legal cremation in Britain took place at Manston House in 1883,[6] carried out by Captain Thomas Hanham.

It grows oats, wheat and fava beans, and has received the Biocyclic Vegan Standard.