Beaminster ( ) is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England, approximately northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the small River Brit. The population of Beaminster parish was recorded as 3,177 in the 2021 census.[
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Beaminster is the product of the Anglo-Saxon age, dating back to around the 7th century, when it was known as Bebingmynster, meaning the church of Bebbe
In its history Beaminster has been a centre of manufacture of linen and woollens, the raw materials for which were produced in the surrounding countryside. The town experienced three serious fires in the 17th and 18th centuries; the first of these, during the English Civil War, almost destroyed the fabric of the town.
Beaminster's parish church – the Church of St Mary – is notable for its architecture, particularly its tower, and is grade I listed.[ Historic England]
History
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of Beaminster was recorded as being owned by the See of Salisbury. Bishop Osmund gave it as a supplement to two of the Cathedral in 1091.Reginald J. W. Hammond (1979). 070635494X, Ward Lock. 070635494X
In the English Civil War the town declared for Roundheads and was sacked by Cavaliers forces in 1644. Prince Maurice stayed in the town on Palm Sunday,[ though his stay was brief because a fire, caused by a musket being discharged into a Thatching roof,][ The town suffered further accidental fires in 1684 and 1781.][Newman & Pevsner, 1972, page 86]
By 1841 the population was 2,938.
Previously Beaminster was a centre for the production of linen and woollens. Flax was grown and sheep kept on the surrounding hills and the town was locally more important than it is today: factories were constructed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and as many as seventeen inns existed in the town in the early 20th century.
No railway line came through Beaminster and as a result the town declined relative to other local towns such as Bridport and Dorchester.
Horn Park, about northwest of Beaminster, is a neo-Georgian country house of five bays and two storeys, designed by architect T. Lawrence Dale and completed in 1911.[Newman & Pevsner, 1972, page 88] Inside the house the central corridor is and leads to a drawing room whose groin vault is reminiscent of the work of Sir John Soane (1753–1837).[ The drawing room includes Jacobean features re-used from the largely mid-16th-century nearby Parnham House,][ which was being altered and restored at about the time that Horn Park was being built.][Newman & Pevsner, 1972, page 87] Horn Park is grade II listed. Its gardens are occasionally open to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme.
Geography
Beaminster is sited above sea level in a bowl-shaped valley, surrounded by hills which rise to at Beaminster Down to the northeast. The River Brit and many small streams emerge from springs on the slopes above the town.[Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Pathfinder Series, Sheet ST 40/50 Crewkerne & Beaminster, published 1984] The confluences of several of these streams are within the town's boundaries. Beaminster's growth has historically been along the course of these streams, resulting in a settlement pattern that is roughly star-shaped.
Beaminster is situated approximately south of Bristol, west of Bournemouth, east of Exeter and northwest of the county town Dorchester.
Geology
Beaminster is sited mostly on Middle Jurassic fuller's earth clay, with some Inferior Oolite in the south of the town and Bridport Sand Formation north of the town centre. The hills north and east of the town are Cretaceous chalk with a scarp face of Upper Greensand Formation, while those to the south and west are of Bridport Sand Formation. There are several faults running west-northwest to east-southeast through the town and its southern environs.[ Horn Park Quarry SSSI]
Demography
Beaminster parish
Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of Beaminster parish is 3,100.
The historic population of Beaminster parish from the censuses between 1921 and 2001 is shown in the table below.
>| +Census population of Beaminster Parish 1921-2001
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Source: Dorset County Council
2011 census
Published results from the 2011 national census combine information on Beaminster parish with the small neighbouring parish of Mapperton to the southeast. Within this area there were 1,680 dwellings,
Economy and society
International Flavors & Fragrances[ iff.com Locations] (previously DuPont) produce Nisaplin (E234), a commercial formulation of the natural bacteriocin nisin, at a factory in the town.
The Clipper Teas company is based in Beaminster. It is currently owned by the Dutch company Royal Wessanen.
Beaminster hosts the Beaminster Festival, an annual music and art festival.
Buckham Fair, a fundraising vintage fair held annually on land near the town, took place for ten years until the last event in 2018.
Transport
The nearest railway station is , north of the town. Exeter International Airport is to the west. The main road through the town is the A3066, which leads to Bridport to the south and Mosterton and Crewkerne to the north. The road north passes through Horn Hill tunnel, which opened in June 1832
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Stockland Hill TV transmitter and local relay transmitter.
Beaminster's local radio stations are BBC Radio Solent on 103.8 FM, Heart West on 97.1 FM,Wessex FM on 97.2 FM and Abbey104, a community based station that broadcast on 107.4 FM.
The town's is served by the local newspaper, Dorset Echo.
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Beaminster, at civil parish (town) and unitary authority level: Beaminster Town Council and Dorset Council. The town council is based at the Public Hall at 8 Fleet Street.
Beaminster is part of the Beaminster ward for elections to Dorset Council.
Beaminster is part of the West Dorset constituency for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Historically, Beaminster was a chapelry within the ancient parish of Netherbury. Beaminster was treated as a separate civil parish from an early date, but remained part of the ecclesiastical parish of Netherbury until 1849.
Education
Primary schools in the town include St Mary's Church of England Primary School.
Beaminster School is the town's secondary school. It has a combined sixth form with The Sir John Colfox Academy, in the nearby town of Bridport.
Beaminster is also home to Mountjoy School
Hooke Park is the woodland campus of the Architectural Association School of Architecture.
Religion
Beaminster has an Anglicanism church, dedicated to St Mary of the Annunciation; and a Catholic Church church, St John's.[ The tower in particular has been described as "a handsome example of its period" and "the glory of Beaminster".]
St Mary's construction mostly dates from the 15th and 16th centuries, but was restored twice in the 19th. The eastern part of the north aisle incorporates part of an earlier 13th-century building, and the baptismal font is late 12th century.[ The pulpit is Jacobean.][ A chapel of ease, Holy Trinity Church, was built in 1849-51.]
In literature
Beaminster is referenced as "Emminster" in the fictional Wessex of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Dorset's 19th-century dialect poet William Barnes wrote of Beaminster:[
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Sweet Be'mi'ster, that bist a-bound
By green and woody hills all round,
Wi' hedges, reachèn up between
A thousand vields o' zummer green.
It is a location for part of the story for the post-apocalyptic novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.
Notable people
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Beaminster was the boyhood home of the Arctic explorer, naturalist and author Samuel Hearne. Hearne is considered by some to have been the inspiration for the tragic figure in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
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Beaminster is the adopted home town of actor Martin Clunes.
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Mat Follas had his first restaurant The Wild Garlic
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Beaminster was also home of Lynne Reid Banks, author of The L-Shaped Room and The Indian in the Cupboard; both books were filmed.
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Furniture maker John Makepeace lives in the town after selling nearby Parnham House
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Soldier and politician John Holden (1810-1860) was born in the town.
Parnham was the home of William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, the first airman to receive the Victoria Cross.
Twin towns
Beaminster is sister city with:
Bibliography
External links
