Wimborne Minster

including Holt

Wimborne, East Street circa 1915

Wimborne, or Wimborne Minster, a parish, market town, and railway station, is 22 miles E by N from Dorchester and 6 miles north from Poole. The town is of great antiquity, justly celebrated for its venerable collegiate church.  This ancient edifice, which is dedicated to St Cuthberga, is of a cross shape with two square towers - one of them rising from the centre of the roof, and the other terminating the west end; a lofty spire, which surmounted the former, is said to have fallen down in the year 1660; the whole structure is divided in the manner of a cathedral, and consists of a chancel, nave, choir, and aisles, a transept, a cross aisle, and three porches; the chancel and choir were restored in 1835 and 1855, and the nave in 1857.

The tithing of Holt has been formed into a separate district for ecclesiastical purposes, and a chapel and school-houses built.  There are chapels for the Baptists, Wesleyans, and Independents.  St Margaret's hospital (or almshouses), Courtnay's Hospital, and a school and almshouse at Pamphill is in this parish. Here is a National school a British school and a Grammar School dating from Elizabethan times. The cemetery is situated on the Blandford Road.  It is neatly laid out with shrubs, &c., and is well adapted for the solemn purpose it is used. Wimborne parish contains 11,966 acres, and in 1861 a population of 4,807.

Wimborne High Street circa 1910

The Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Wimborne is not available at present

Please refer to the transcriptions below or contact the coordinator for any queries