You are here:
Wimborne
Wimborne maps
Historic maps of Wimborne and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wimborne maps
Wimborne area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Wimborne and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wimborne
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Wimborne.
There are 10 shared memories to read.
Add your memory of Wimborne
or of a photo of Wimborne.
Wimborne Square
Apart from lack of traffic, this picture of the Square doesn't show too many changes from when I remember it. I left Wimborne Grammar School in 1951 and became a trainee reporter with the Wimborne News in Mill Lane, just outside this photo to the right. My dad was a waiter at the Kings Head Hotel in the square.
Minster View
Looking at this photo it is amazing to remember that double-decker buses used to travel along here. I would travel in one from my home at Ferndown while attending Wimborne Grammar School (1945-51) and it always had trouble turning right at the point seen here in the centre of the picture and often scraped the brickwork.
Crown Hotel Wimborne
Ingram Richards was my grandfather. My father (John) was the only child of Ingram to emigrate (in 1927) to Australia. Dad died in 1978. I am a former Australian regular army officer and visited Wimborne on a couple of occasions in the 1970s while on exchange in Germany with the British Army and later when on a secondment to the School of Signals in nearby Blandford. The Richards family lived in 'Lewens' in Lewens Lane. The house was sold after Ingram's death in the late 1920s and I note that at October 2009 it is for sale at 1.25 million pounds. Ah! what might have been...
Hobbs, Haywards And Quarterjack Toys
My parents bought the shop and house in the foreground in 1980. You could just see a 'Hobbs' sign painted on the front of the building and Mr L E Hayward had a toy and pram shop there which he had run since just after the war, I think. You can still see his shop in the model town in Wimborne. When my parents took over the toyshop they called it Quarterjack Toys and the sign my dad painted is still outside the building.
Under the floorboards in the shop you used to be able to see the foundations of the building that had stood on the site before this building, which was built in 1720 - so probably a medieval cottage. The well-worn front step of the cottage and the base of a fireplace were visible and was still sooty! It's all still under there somewhere!
I loved growing up above the shop in Wimborne. I have a photograph of me somewhere at about the age of... Read more
Langers Sport Shop
I can remember being a very nervous new entrant to the Grammar School and going to Langers to buy a tennis racket and hockey stick. The public conveniences and telephone box were opposite, if I remember rightly.
Whitethorn Morris at Wimborne Folk Festival - 2008
I enjoyed this 2008 Wimborne Folk Festival and consider it one of the best of the many I have performed at with Whitethorn Morris over the last 20 plus years. The Saturday procession was packed with spectators enjoying both the performers and the glorious weather - there must have been hundreds watching from the Minster Green alone!
The Festival camp site at the QE School was well looked after by the security team and the town centre streets were packed with the usual Sunday stalls run by Dorset organisations, huge crowds and around forty morris teams from miles around. There was even a Festival church service on the Minster Green shown here in this view (although the railings along the top of the stone wall have long gone!).
My own morris team - Whitethorn Morris - were well looked after by the lovely people in Wimborne Methodist Church who opened up their buildings to provide refreshments over the entire weekend. Altogether it was a... Read more
The Crown Tap
My wife was born in the crown tap in 1959 her parents i believe were the last tennants of the pub. One of the stained glass windows was on display in the priest house musem.
Morris Dancing at Wimborne Folk Festival in 2007
Wimborne Folk Festival takes place every year in June - it is a glorious mixture of dancing, music and dressing up with visitors from all over England bringing their entertainment to the streets, squares and pubs of this pretty town. The festival attracts morris dancers and musicians who are delighted to perform in front of the huge crowds thronging the High Street and The Square in particular.
In almost every year since the mid 1980's the dancers from Whitethorn Morris join in the Folk Festival together with the Whitethorn Band of accordians, melodeons, fiddles and drums. Its a colourful display of red white and blue with lively music and always draws a crowd of onlookers all day long at the various venues. Fortunately many of the dance venues arranged by Brian Bisp and his Festival organizers are in front of the pubs in the High Street so refreshments are available! This year our first "spot" was in "The Square" and the photograph shown here from 1965 is... Read more
