Winterborne St Martin
Encyclopedia
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, situated four miles south west of Dorchester, beside Maiden Castle
Maiden Castle, Dorset
Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hill fort south west of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age...
. The village has a population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of 754 .
Saint Martin's Church dating from the 12th Century with a Norman font is in the centre of the village. Other amenities include a village shop and post office, public house ( The Brewers Arms ), village hall and a farm shop ( Stevens Farm Shop ). Bronze Age barrows including the famous Clandon Barrow
Clandon Barrow
right|thumb|200px|The Clandon Barrow gold lozengeClandon Barrow is a very large bowl barrow dating from the Bronze Age, which overlooks the village of Martinstown, near Dorchester in Dorset, and which lies on the same ridge as Maiden Castle. It was excavated by Edward Cunnington in 1882. Gold...
surround the village and Maiden Castle hillfort is nearby.
A winterbourne (stream)
Winterbourne (stream)
A winterbourne is a stream or river that is dry through the summer months. A winterbourne is sometimes simply called a bourne, from the Anglo-Saxon for a stream flowing from a spring, although this term can also be used for all-year water courses....
runs through the length of the village.
The village is in the UK Weather Records
UK Weather Records
The UK Weather Records note the most extreme weather ever recorded in the United Kingdom, such as the most and fewest hours of sunshine and highest wind speed.-Temperature:-Rainfall:...
for the Highest 24-hour total rainfall, which was recorded in Martinstown on July 18th 1955 at 279 mm (11 inches) in a 15 hour period.
History
In 1268 Henry IIHenry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
granted a charter to Winterborne St Martin ( Martinstown ), which allowed the village to hold an annual fair within five days of St. Martins Day. The fair, which in times past was a leading horse market and amusement fair, had been revived but the old-time custom of roasting a ram was replaced once during an event in the 1960s with a 'badger roast'. The 80 lb badger was caught in a snare and many villagers thought they were eating goose.
After a hundred years silence, bells in the church rang out in 1947. Five new bells were hung as a village memorial to those who died in the war. An earlier peal had been sold to defray debts.
The village fights to retain its rural charm. In 1980, the villagers were 'up in arms' because the vicarage was built in brick. Despite initial opposition, housing estates have now been built too.
In 2007 Martinstown won the Best Kept Village in Dorset Award, in the Large Village Category.
The Catholic martyr John Adams
John Adams (martyr)
John Adams was a Catholic priest and martyr.He was born at Winterborne St Martin in Dorset at an unknown date and became a Protestant minister. He later entered the Catholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving on December 7, 1579. He was ordained a priest at...
was born in Winterborne St Martin in about 1543.
See List of hundreds in Dorset
External links
- Brewers Armshttp://www.thebrewersarms.com/