PUBLIC SERVICES

Banks, Doctors, Clinics, Dentists, Opticians, Lawyers, Hairdressers, Restaurants, Theatre, Cinema, Caravan Park, Supermarkets, Estate Agents, Hospital, Ambulance, Youth Centre, Clothes Shops, Shoe Shops, Hardware, Furniture, Furnishings, Photographic Supplies and Dispensing Chemists must all be sought in  Swanage or Wareham. The nearest Railway Station, Sports Complex and Weekly Market are nine miles away in Wareham.


Although Swanage (2 miles east) is the nearest shopping centre, for Department Stores or wider selection of goods one must travel to Poole or Bournemouth (both slightly over an hour's journey away). Crown Offices are at Poole or Dorchester. Langton's Post Office Stores is extremely obliging and stocks a wide range of goods, but is obviously limited by the size of the premises.
The village is regularly visited by the County Library Mobile Service.

Refuse is collected once a fortnight and certain goods for recycling once a fortnight.
The village has mains drainage, water-supply, gas, electricity and telephone. Overnight accommodation can be obtained at the King's Arms and the Ship Inn, and also at six homes in the village.
There is a Camp Site for tents at Tom's Field, which is ten minutes' walk from the local beauty spot called Dancing Ledge and the scenic cliff-side path.

The coastline is now a World Heritage Site to which Langton Matravers is designated as one of the three eastern gateways.

The Parish Museum's prestigious collection of over 14,000 items is now in store until suitable premises can be found, but some items are displayed in the Lecture Room of the Parish Museum which also displays the history of the Purbeck Stone Industry.  The Museum is situated in St. George's Close, behind the Parish Church. It is open on weekdays from April 1st. to October from 10 am to noon and from 2 to 4 pm.

The Parish Church produces a monthly magazine called the 'Dubber', which is delivered free of charge into every home in the parish. It contains a parish diary of what will take place shortly and reports of what has taken place recently. A few copies are usually available in the church.
 

TRANSPORT

A horse-drawn Omnibus was in existence in the village in 1880 to take villagers into Swanage, and wagonettes plied their trade until 1920. A pioneer private Bus Service called the Comfy Cars was founded in 1922, and another, called the Langton Bus Company, in 1926. The Wilts & Dorset Bus Company now provides the only public transport to Swanage, Worth Matravers, Kingston, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Poole and Bournemouth. Buses run through the village in both directions roughly every hour. Another service runs along the Valley Road, but less frequently.
 
 
 

SCHOOLS

In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century there were several Dame Schools in the village, attended by the sons of local farmers and stonemasons. The Parish Church Sunday School was founded in 1818. This became a Day School in the 1830s, but still assembling in the church. The National Schoolroom was built in 1845 opposite the church. The school moved to its present premises in 1872 because of a considerable increase in the number of pupils to due the passing of Education Acts which required all children to attend school and fixed fines for non-attendance. The former National Schoolroom is now the Village Hall, and the former National School is now the St. George's Grant-Aided Church of England First School.

Between 1893 and 1929 six other schools were established in the village: Durnford Preparatory School for Boys in 1893, Leeson House School for Girls in 1903, The Old Malthouse Preparatory School for Boys in 1906, Spyway Preparatory School for Boys in 1927, Garfield Boarding School in 1929, and Steppeshill Domestic Science School (a Girls' Finishing School) in 1929. Of these The Old Malthouse School alone still exists. It runs a Pre-Prep School in adjoining premises.

Leeson House is now a Residential and Day-visit Field Studies Centre run by Dorset County Council Education Department. A Pre-school now operates on the premises of St. George's First School. There are, therefore, five schools now within the parish and also the Church Sunday School or Junior Church, whereas in 1930 there were seven schools and two Sunday Schools. Middle School pupils (aged 11-13) must travel east to Swanage. Upper School pupils (14-17) must travel north to Wareham. Further Education Colleges are in Poole and Bournemouth, and the nearest University is also in Bournemouth.