Bells Cathedrals: Wimbourne Minster and Christchurch Priory | Page 2

Central Tower 35 The Tower Arches 36 North
Transept and Crossing 37 Thirteenth-Century Piscina, South Transept
39 Choir Stalls 40 West View from the Choir 41 The East Window 43
Sedilia 44 The Beaufort Tomb 45 Brass of Aethelred 46 The Etricke
Tomb 49 Ancient Chest 50 The Uvedale Monument 51 Entrance to
Crypt 53 The Library 54 The Crypt 55 The Font 56 The Clock in the
West Tower 57 St Margaret's Hospital 61
CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY

Christchurch Priory from the Bridge 66 Christchurch Priory from the
North-East 77 Tower Door 78 The North Porch 79 The North Door 81
The North Transept in 1810 83 The North Transept 85 South Aisle of
Nave 87 The Nave in 1834 93 The Nave 95 North Arcade of the Nave
96 From the North Triforium 97 Bay of the Triforium, South Side 98
South Aisle of the Nave 99 The Montacute Chantry 101 North Aisle of
the Nave 103 The Crypt 105 The Rood Screen 107 Stall Seats (3) 108
Choir Stalls 109 Miserere on Stall Seat (circa 1300) 110 The Choir 111
The Reredos 113 The Salisbury Chantry 115 Interior of the Salisbury
Chantry 117 The Draper Chantry 119 Piscina in the Draper Chantry
120 The Sacristy 121 The Miraculous Beam 122 Tomb of Thomas,
Lord West 123 The Lady Chapel 124 St Michael's Loft 125 The
Shelley Monument 127 Remains of the Norman House 133
PLANS 136, 137

[Illustration: WIMBORNE MINSTER FROM THE NORTH-EAST.]
[Illustration: By Rev. J. L. Petit. WIMBORNE MINSTER IN 1840.]

WIMBORNE MINSTER
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
Of the churches connected with the religious houses which once existed
in the county of Dorset, three only remain to the present day. Of some
of the rest we have ruins, others have entirely disappeared. But the
town of Sherborne, once the bishop-stool of the sainted Aldhelm, who
overlooked a vast diocese comprising a great portion of the West Saxon
kingdom, has its Abbey now used as its Parish Church. The great
Abbey of Milton, founded by Æthelstan, has handed down to us its
choir and transepts--rebuilt in the fourteenth century, after the former
church had been destroyed by fire--and this, though private property, is

still used for occasional services; and the minster church at Wimborne
has became the church of the parish of Wimborne Minster.
The town has been by many supposed to stand on the site of the Roman
Vindogladia, though this station has by others been identified with
Gussage Cowdown, or the circular encampment of Badbury Rings,
about three miles to the north-west of Wimborne Minster. Be this as it
may, the district was occupied by the Roman conquerors of our island;
and Roman pottery and other remains have been found in the
neighbourhood, including a small portion of pavement beneath the
floor of the minster church.
The derivation of the name Wimborne, or Winborne as we find it
sometimes written, has been much disputed; but as we find the same
word appearing as the name of several other places which lie on the
course of the same stream, now generally called the Allen, though
sometimes the Wim, it is highly probable that the name is derived from
that of the river. Compound names for villages are very common in
Dorset--the first word being the name of the river on which the village
stands, the second being added to distinguish one village from another.
Thus we find along the Tarrant, villages known as Tarrant Gunville,
Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Launceston, Tarrant Monkton, etc.; and along
the Winterborne we find Winterborne Houghton, Winterborne
Stickland, Winterborne Clenstone, etc.; and in like manner we meet
with Monkton up Wimborne, Wimborne Saint Giles, and Wimborne
Minster along the course of the Allen. The characteristic name of
Winterborne for a brook that is such in winter only, but is a dried-up
bed in a hot summer is borne by two streams in Dorset, each giving its
name to a string of villages. May not the word Wimborne or Winborne
be a contraction for this same word Winterborne, the "burn" of the
rainy winter months, applied to the little stream of the Allen, though it
cannot now be said to be dry in summer?
The small town of Wimborne Minster stands not far from the junction
of the Allen with the slow-running Dorset Stour, in the midst of
pleasant fertile meadow-land, from which here and there some low hills
rise. Its chief glory has been, and probably always will be, its splendid

church, with its central Norman and its Western Perpendicular towers,
its Norman and Decorated nave, its Early English choir, and its
numerous tombs and monuments of those whose names are recorded in
the history of the country.
The exact year of the foundation of the original religious house is
differently given