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Wareham, Dorset
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wareham is a historic market town in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles south west of Poole. The population of Wareham is 8,417 and the town has 1,146 dwellings.1.
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The town is built on a strategic dry point between the River Frome and the River Piddle and beside Poole Harbour. The Frome valley runs through an area of unresistant sand, clay and gravel rocks, and much of its valley has wide flood plains and marsh land. At its estuary the river has formed the wide shallow ria of Poole Harbour. Wareham is built on a low dry island between the marshy river plains.
The town is situated on the A351 Poole-Swanage road and at the eastern terminus of the A352 road to Dorchester and Sherborne, both roads now bypassing the town centre. The town has a station on the South Western Main Line railway, and was formerly the junction station for services along the branch line to Swanage, now preserved as the Swanage Railway. The Steam Railway has ambitions to extend its service, currently from Swanage to near Corfe Castle, to Worgret Junction and into Wareham again.
To the north-west of the town a large conifer plantation, Wareham Forest stretches several miles to the A35 road and the southerm foothills of the Dorset Downs. To the south east is Corfe Castle and the heathland that borders Poole Harbour, including Wytch Farm oil field and Studland & Godlingstone Heath Nature Reserve. Five miles to the south is a Chalk ridge, the Purbeck Hills, and ten miles to the south is the English Channel.
The town's strategic setting has made it an important settlement throughout its long history. The older streets in the town follow a Roman grid pattern, though the current town was founded by the Saxons. The town's oldest features are the town Walls, ancient earth ramparts surrounding the town, which were built by Alfred the Great in the 9th century to defend the town from Norsemen. The town was a Saxon royal burial place, notably that of King Beorhtric (800 CE); also in the town is the coffin of Edward the Martyr, dating from 978, his remains now to be found in Shaftesbury Abbey in north Dorset. The River Frome serves as a small harbour and the town was a port in centuries when boats were smaller and before the river silted up.
After the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Wareham was one of a number of towns in Dorset where Judge Jeffreys held the Bloody Assizes, with traitors being hanged from the town walls.
In 1762 a fire destroyed two thirds of the town, which has been rebuilt in Georgian architecture with red brick and Purbeck limestone, following the Roman street pattern. The town is divided into four quarters by the two main roads, which cross at right-angles. The medieval Almshouses escaped the fire, and some of the Georgian facades are in fact disguising earlier buildings which also survived. Because of the constraints of the rivers and marshland Wareham grew little during the 20th century, while nearby towns, such as Poole, grew rapidly.
Near the town is Bovington army camp, near the place where T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) died due to a motorcycle accident. There is an effigy of Lawrence in Arab clothing in St Martins Church. He is buried at Moreton churchyard where every year a quantity (decreases by one each year) of red roses are left.
Wareham Town Museum, in East Street, has an interesting section on T. E. Lawrence and in 2006 produced an hour long DVD entitled T. E. Lawrence - His Final Years in Dorset, including a reconstruction of the fatal accident. The Museum also contains many artefacts on all aspects of the history of the town.
Since the 15th century Wareham has been a market town, and still holds a market on Thursdays and Saturdays.
- Figure obtained by combining the populations of Wareham town parish (5,665) and Wareham St Martin parish (2,752) from the Census 2001.
- Pitt Rivers, Michael, 1970. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber.