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Photo: Thejemanator, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An annual event of traditional folk dance and music that is one of the largest gathering of dance teams and musicians in the South of England. The festival involves morris dancing, Appalachian dancing, concerts, workshops and children's activities, with parts of the town being closed to traffic.
Wimborne Minster Folk Festival took over from the previously known Wimborne Folk Festival in 2013 when the previous organisers retired in August 2012, after over 30 years organising the festival. The annual festival is still internationally recognised for its traditional English folk music and dance, held in the market town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England.
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.
Built in 1936 as a theatre and cinema. It features a wide variety of Art Deco features, including original chrome and Bakelite door handles.
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).
10 galleries on East Dorset archaeology, costume and more, including period rooms, plus a tea-room.
Kayak and rowing boat hire, run by a charity.