Wimborne Minster is a lovely old town to visit, the town is dominated by The Minster which sits proudly in the centre, small streets curving around it. The Minster is dedicated to St Cuthburga, who started a Benedictine Nunnery here around 705 AD. Nuns from here were sent to Germany to convert the pagan tribes. In 871, Alfred the Great buried his brother Ethelred here after a battle nearby in Cranborne. In 1043 Edward the Confessor founded a secular college here. But the greater part of the church that remains here now was built by the Normans between 1120 and 1180. What an incredible place, it is popular with visitors as you can imagine…. but with the luck I am blessed with, I found myself one of only 3 visitors and 2 volunteers. Looks like having the place to myself again!!
There is so much fascinating history here that it would be impossible to really do it justice in one post. But here are a couple of pieces which piqued my interest. First (but not favourite… wait for it) this incredible Astronomical Clock, built around 1320 before Copernicus showed that the earth moves around the sun. So this is a geocentric clock with the earth in the centre. The sun in the outer circle represents the hour hand, the moon in the middle represents the phases of a lunar month and the earth is fixed. It is a twenty four hour clock and still accurate after seven hundred years…
And here we come to my favourite piece…. yes I know it isn’t as glamorous but bear with me. Tucked away in a corner, this oak chest. Carved from a single oak tree in Saxon times. Over a thousand years old. I confess I stroked this rather affectionately for a while as I imagined all the people who moved it over the years, all those who opened it, sat on it, I get lost in stories like this in my mind.
It contained holy relics, Look at the list of all the previously held contents (see below). What do you think? The big scams of the day? I mean…. I could imagine the first guy to sell pieces of the cross to unsuspecting Christians, can’t you? (“Yeah, o’course it’s genuine mate, what do you take me for?”) Imagine that as a list for the insurance company, (“Sorry sir but hair shirts don’t cost much these days and we’re paying out on replacement value of a NEW hair shirt only.”)
So the Victorians…. good points to them for their stained glass work, but oh boy did those people ruin a lot of history. Good grief, they white washed over the Saxon Wall painting (below). This is all we have left of it now, but it’s incredible to think that this was painted a thousand years ago. It’s lucky the church was empty as I had to move flower displays, a sign and fire extinguisher to take pictures, as well as find the light switch to highlight it (hidden behind a pew).
The Victorians also had a good old tidy up in the churchyard. I was on the hunt for the grave of the most famous smuggler in Dorset. I’m not going to give the game away about where I found it (it will have a post of it’s own) but suffice to say…. tut tut Victorians, you were apparently the first health and safety officers, tidying up graveyards by smashing up old stones.
Wimborne Minster also has a chained library which contains books over 500 years old and is worthy of it’s own post!
Thanks for reading.
Ever onwards with courage.
ARH
