Beaminster, Dorset - St. Mary's Parish Church - art postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  'Peaceful Beaminster' - shows St Mary's Parish Church
• Publisher:  none given
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Beaminster /'b?m?nst?r/ BEM-in-st?r is a small town and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the West Dorset administrative district approximately 15 miles (24 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the small River Brit. The 2012 mid-year estimate of the population of Beaminster parish is 3,090.

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 parish church is notable for its architecture, particularly its handsome tower.

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 prebends in 1091.^[2]

In the English Civil War the town declared for Parliament and was sacked by Royalist forces in 1644. Prince Maurice stayed in the town on Palm Sunday,^[2] though his stay was brief because a fire, caused by a musket being discharged into a thatched roof,^[3] almost totally destroyed the town.^[2] The town suffered further accidental fires in 1684 and 1781.^[4]

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.^[5]

No railway line came through Beaminster and as a result the town declined relative to other local towns such as Bridport and Dorchester.^[6]

Horn Park, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Beaminster, is a neo-Georgian country house of five bays and two-storeys designed by architect T. Lawrence Dale and completed in 1911.^[7] Inside the house the central corridor is barrel vaulted and leads to a drawing room whose groin vault is reminiscent of the work of Sir John Soane (1753-1837).^[7] The drawing room includes Jacobean features re-used from a 16th-century country house at nearby Parnham,^[7] which was being altered and restored at about the time that Horn Park was being built.^[8] Horn Park is Listed Grade II. Its gardens are occasionally open to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme.

Beaminster is sited between 50 to 80 metres (160 to 260 ft) above sea-level in a bowl-shaped valley, surrounded by hills which rise to 244 metres (801 ft) at Beaminster Down to the northeast. The River Brit and many small streams emerge from springs on the slopes above the town.^[9] 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.^[10]

Beaminster is situated approximately 45 miles (72 km) south of Bristol, 38 miles (61 km) west of Bournemouth, 35 miles (56 km) east of Exeter and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of the county town Dorchester.

Beaminster is sited mostly on Middle Jurassic Fuller's earth clay, with some Inferior Oolite in the south of the town and Bridport and Yeovil Sands north of the town centre. The hills north and east of the town are Cretaceous chalk with a scarp face of Upper Greensand, while those to the south and west are of Bridport and Yeovil Sands. There are several faults running westnorthwest to eastsoutheast through the town and its southern environs.^[10]

type=printed

city/ region=beaminster

period=world war ii (1939-45)

postage condition=unposted

number of items=single

size=continental/ modern (150x100 mm)