by Carol Larsson

Created on: November 03, 2010   Last Updated: November 06, 2010

Wimborne Minster is an ancient market town that sits on the banks of the rivers Stour and Allen, in the south east of Dorset.

Wimborne today is an interesting place with a history stretching back well over a thousand years.

The most dominant building you see as you enter the town is the Minster church, that the town is named after. The Minster as you see it now was built after the Norman Conquest, in the 12th century, and is dedicated to St Cuthburga.

St Cuthburga was a sister of King Ina, King of Wessex who ruled 688-728.
Cuthburga founded a Benedictine nunnery in Wimborne in 705 ad and the abbey church is believed to be on the same site as the present day Minster. The nunnery became famous with over 500 women being trained there. It was from Wimborne that St Boniface recruited Missionaries to help him convert the pagan tribes of Germany.

The Minster is also the last resting place of King Ethelred the First (840-871), King Alfred the Great’s, elder brother. King Ethelred was brought here when he died of his wounds after fighting in a battle against the Danes at Martin near Cranborne in 871.  St Cuthburga’s nunnery and its church were raided and destroyed by the Danes sometime in the 10th century and was never re-established.

The Minster church now standing was first built by the Normans between 1120 and 1180. The Minster is a cruciform shape with two towers, the central tower and the western tower. The tower at the centre of the Minster is thought to be the oldest part of the building and once had a spire. The spire fell down during a service in1600, during a service with no loss of life or even injury.
 
Inside the Minster there are many things of interest one of them being the astronomical clock, it was made in about 1325 by Peter Lightfoot, a monk from Glastonbury, the maker of a similar clock that is in Wells Cathedral. The clock shows the sun, moon and stars revolving around the earth. The sun ends its circuit every twenty-four hours and from its position shows the time. The moon also turns on its axis in a lunar month and waxes and wanes by showing more or less of its gilt surface.

The Minster is also home to the one of the largest chained libraries in the country the other is at Hereford Cathedral. The chained library was founded in 1686 and was one of the first free public libraries. It has many ancient books including a manuscript written in 1343, a book bound for Henry vii, and many more. A chained library is a library where the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>