Rawston, like the other Tarrants and most parishes with a stream running through them, is long and relatively narrow, having meadows for cattle and sheep to graze and drink from the stream. The land runs up to downland through some arable land, to crop with cereals or roots for sheep. Dewponds provided some water on the downland but they were mainly grazed by dry sheep which need little water. Most parishes had some woodland or coppice for firewood and hazel for sheep hurdles or spars for thatching.

So far as can be found, Rawston Farm has included almost all of Tarrant Rawston, but in the 1800's some of the land belonged to the Church or Rector and was separately owned.

During the 1300's Nicholas, Henry and John Antioch are recorded as Patrons. During the 1500's George, John, Thomas and Edmund Lovel are listed, then in 1626 the property was settled on Arthur Radford on his marriage to Margaret the daughter of Sir Laurence Hide.

By 1731 Thomas Gundry came into the property and he is credited with building the brick, stones and flint front of Rawston House. The centre part is older and the rear western façade later. Some features of the front eastern part suggest that the Bastard brothers, who lived at Tarrant Keynston for a while, contributed to the design. Radford Gundry, thought to be a cousin of Thomas came into the property in 1773 and on his death in 1778 aged 67 it came to his elder brother Thomas who died in 1805. The Gundry family came from Dewlish.

On the Enclosure Award and Map of Cranborne Chase for 1829 it records Sir John Wyldbore Smith having Rawston Farm and 161 acres, whereas the 1840 Tithe Map records 664 acres. In the same year the Reverend Francis Smith held the Glebe totalling 32 acres. The occupying farmer of both properties around that time, was William Watts.

In 1877 Sir William Henry Smith-Marriott of Down House, Blandford St. Mary let the 619 acres Rawston Farm to James Cossins, then on James' death in 1891 to his son John who in 1919, with his sons Ernest and Harry, bought the farm. They had bought the Glebe Farm from the Reverend Allwright in 1918.

Apart from the Church and Rawston Farmhouse, all dwellings in the village have been built or re-built since the First World War. In 1922, the four Addison Cottages were built as part the government's rural housing policy. In 1936 three houses were built at Rawston Corner to replace those on the road and in 1938 the four houses at Rawston Farm were made into two. Wayside was built on the site of an earlier house with a county council grant. The Glebe House was extended in the 1980's. The two houses at Down Barn were also extended. Dormy House, Hill View, Glebe Bungalow and The Orchard were all built since 1948.

The Ashley Wood 9 hole golf course was started in 1896, and became privately owned in 1952, but in the 1970's became a members club. It was extended to 18 holes in 1992 with the inclusion of land in Tarrant Keynston.

With the construction of the Tarrant Rushton Airfield in 1942, the cart track up to the top of the Cliff was made into a major road and is now the main route to Witchampton.

Water was obtained from wells until the 1920's when a water wheel was installed and bore sunk below the river some 40 feet deep. When the stream dried, an engine driven pump in the yard at Rawston Farm augmented the supply. In the same way, there was a petrol driven pump at Down Barn which supplied water to the houses and nearby fields. It was not until 1959 that mains water was laid through the valley and all the houses connected. Electricity arrived in the early 1940's.

The population of Rawston has always been small and it has continued to decline. In 1841 it contained 64 persons, in 1891, 49 persons. and by 1901 only 44 persons. the present population is just over 50.

Milk production was started at Rawston Farm in 1910 with a herd of Shorthorn Cows. In the 1930's a gradual change to black and white cattle took place with the use of a British Friesian Bull. A new dairy unit was built at Down Barn in 1956 by which time all the cows were British Friesian. Together with the Luton farm herd (in Tarrant Monkton), started in 1928, there are now over 360 milking cows.

The sheep at Rawston were one of the original Dorset Down Flocks, noted for quality wool and fat lamb production but were sold in 1945.

Grain production has continued to increase over the centuries with a move from oats to milling wheat, and malting barley remaining an important feature. Harvesting with binders started in 1893 and the first combine from the USA in about 1943, marking the beginning of the end of corn ricks. Grain is now dried, cleaned and stored in purpose built stores; both the acreage grown and yields have considerably increased.

Farm tours are a popular summer event, many local people and their friends tour the adjoining farms of Preston and Rawston by tractor and trailer which, in conjunction with the summer fete has become known as The Hay Ride.

Tree planting at Rawston is first recorded when 670 were planted around the farm in 1897. This continued thereafter but increased from 1946 onwards, since when about 30,000 have been planted in hedges, copses, shelter belts and as specimens.
Following the call to feed the nation, some of Ashley Wood was cleared in 1950 for cropping, this after the mature oak trees were felled in 1940, as part of the war effort and, in 1976, Dutch Elm disease, which killed many fine specimen parkland trees.

Another feature of Tarrant Rawston is fencing with concrete posts. Manufactured on the farm the first were used along the road by the Golf Course in 1936 dividing the land that before then had been open downland. Records however show that Rawston Down was cropped in 1870.

The Parish Church of St Mary with walls of flint and stone and tiled roof with stone slate verges, stands to the north east in front of Rawston House. The nave is 14th Century, the South Chapel and South Porch were added in the 16th Century, the North Chapel in the 18th Century with the Gallery in the West end added in the 19th Century. In 1973 St. Mary's was declared redundant and passed into private ownership. It was extensively restored in 1975/6 following the report and recommendations of the Ecclesiastical Architect.