Beaminster
Beaminster photos (35 available)
Beaminster maps (2 available)
Map of Dorset
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
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Beaminster books (13 available)
- 4 photos on Beaminster appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Beaminster
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Beaminster and Dorset
Beaminster memories
Read and share memories of Beaminster and Dorset inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Dorset below.
Dorset memories
Evacuee
I have happy memories of Corscombe. Having been evacuated from Southampton at the age of eight years. I do remember attending the small school a short distance from where I lived in a small house that had been converted into two living quarters
I have not been back to Corscombe since those wartime days.
A memory of Corscombe contributed by william smith
Triggering memories.
We were clearing the last furniture from my mother's bungalow a few weeks ago. A heartbreaking task, having lost her in April. Behind the last set of drawers, on the floor, I found an old sepia photograph. It showed a group of children with some adults, outside a building which must have been a chapel or a school. From the clothes they wore, the photo would have been taken in the early 1920s.
Later, I searched the internet for clues, looking especially at the areas where my mother grew up - Salway Ash in particular. So I found the Francis Frith site.
There were no clues for Salway Ash, but I came to the Pymore site. One ...read more here
A memory of Pymore contributed by Veronica White
Haywards of Loders
Wondering if anyone knows of Hayward family, buried in the churchyard surrounds, that farmed in the Loders area back to at least 1750 or further back. Any info for family tree welcome.
A memory of Loders contributed by Yoga-Prakash Saraswati
haywards of loders
John (1813) moved to Berkshire. Thomas (1787), Robert (1759) and John(1738) are all connected to Loders by being born, baptised, married and buried here, or in surrounding villages. Their ancestral home one might say. Still tracing them further via Dorset OPC and BT records. Collecting any photos related to these ancestors of mine and where they lived. Photos bring back happy memories and are good records of events.
A memory of Loders contributed by Yoga-Prakash Saraswati
Extracts From Beaminster & Dorset books
Beaminster today is not so very different from the old Dorset village that the dialect poet William Barnes would have known. Its name is always pronounced Be’mister as in Barnes’s famous poem, and it remains the quaint old market town it always was.
An extract from from"Dorset Pocket Album".
In its heyday, Beaminster could boast at least seventeen inns, built to cater for the many farmers who came to town for the weekly market, as well as passengers on the Crewkerne to Bridport coach. The New Inn, shown here, was favoured by rural workers who would come to sample Mr Weaver’s famous ales.
An extract from from"Dorset Pocket Album".
Much of old Beaminster was destroyed during several catastrophic fires in previous times. But there are several old and architecturally attractive manor houses within strolling distance of the town.
An extract from from"Dorset Revisited Photographic Memories".
Beaminster is the ‘Emminster’ of Hardy’s novel ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’. Here was the home of Tess’s estranged husband Angel Clare, and here Tess ended her long and fruitless walk across Dorset to meet the Clare family. Hardy drew a very accurate picture of Beaminster, and it is possible to follow in his heroine’s footsteps.
An extract from from"Dorset Pocket Album".
Beaminster is the ‘sweet Bemmister’ of William Barnes’ famous Victorian poem. The town has acquired a popularity with Thomas Hardy fans, being the place where Tess of the D’Urbervilles finished her famous walk across the north of the county. Many literary pilgrims follow in Tess’s fictional footsteps to this day.
An extract from from"Dorset Living Memories".