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Photo: Bellminsterboy, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
For over 1300 years this church has been a living centre for pilgrimage, prayer, mission and worship. The foundation goes back to c. 705 AD, when Cuthburga, sister to Ina, King of the West Saxons, founded a nunnery on the site. Five hundred nuns are reputed to have lived at Wimborne, many of whom followed St. Boniface to the then pagan Germany, as missionaries. The chained library, founded in 1686, can be visited on weekdays Apr-Oct, no disabled access.
Wimborne Minster is a market town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, 5 miles (8 km) north of Poole, on the Dorset Heaths, and is part of the South East Dorset conurbation. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 9,059, while the wider Wimborne built-up area had a population of 16,630.
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Built in 1936 as a theatre and cinema. It features a wide variety of Art Deco features, including original chrome and Bakelite door handles.
10 galleries on East Dorset archaeology, costume and more, including period rooms, plus a tea-room.
Located on the outskirts, is one of the largest and most established model towns in England. It depicts Wimborne at the time it was made, in the 1950s. It is at 1/10 scale, so the model of the Minster is several feet high. The shop windows accurately show the goods the shops were selling at the time. The exhibition also includes a model railway based on Thomas the Tank Engine, which was opened by Christopher Awdry. Children are invited to complete a quiz sheet (there are several, graded by age).
Kayak and rowing boat hire, run by a charity.