Wimborne Minster

Wimborne Minster
	Wimborne Minster with west tower and crossing tower
Coordinates	50 ° 48 ′ N , 1 ° 59 ′ W Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ N , 1 ° 59 ′ W
	Wimborne Minster
	Wimborne Minster
Residents	6418
administration
Post town	Wimborne
ZIP code section	BH21
prefix	01202
Part of the country	England
region	South West England
Ceremonial county	Dorset
Unitary authority	Dorset
Website: http://www.wimborneminster.org.uk/ www.wimborneminster.org.uk/

Wimborne Minster is a small town with about 6500 inhabitants in the southeast of the county of Dorset in the south of England . The city was the administrative seat of the East Dorset district until 2019 .

location

Wimborne Minster is at the confluence of the Stour and Allen Rivers, five miles north of the major towns of Poole and Bournemouth .

economy

In earlier centuries the place was a trade, handicraft and service center for the agricultural businesses in the region, whose main source of income was sheep breeding. Wimborne Minster is now home to Cobham plc , a major UK aerospace and military company.

history

The founding of a monastery in the wooded and at that time only sparsely populated region by St. Cuthburga took place around the year 705. With the burial of Ethelred , the brother of the King of Wessex Alfred the Great , the abbey was given royal honor. From Norman raids is unknown, but the Danes destroyed in 1013 parts of the abbey buildings. With the Norman conquest of England (1066), Wimborne-Abbey also enjoyed modern administration ( Doomesday Book ) and contemporary architecture, because the old abbey church was rebuilt from 1120 to 1180. It can be assumed that by then a town center had already formed in the immediate vicinity of the abbey church, which grew steadily in the following years. Around 1496 Margaret Beaufort opened a school in Wimborne Minster that was open to all; around 1686 one of the first public libraries ( chained library ) in the country followed.

Attractions

Old Grammar School

architecture

The St. Cuthburga, sister of Ine , King of Wessex , former abbey church consecrated probably stands in the same place as the abbey of the monastery founded here by Cuthburga around 705. It is the dominant building in the city.
Two streets of the old town ( Corn Market and High Street ) still contain several stone and half-timbered houses from the 15th to 18th centuries.
The old grammar school from the middle of the 19th century is a remarkable building in the neo- Tudor style .
A 1:10 scale open-air city model ( Wimborne Model Town ) made in the 1950s is also worth seeing.

Others

A town crier is often seen in downtown Wimborne Minster shouting old and new things for the amusement of visitors.

Fireworks are held annually on Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th).

The Wimborne Folk Festival has been held every June since 1980 , and both music and dance groups perform.

Surroundings

A visit to the gardens and house of Kingston Lacy (four kilometers to the northwest) is interesting and delightful . The center of the garden is an obelisk that was transported here from Egypt in 1827 .