Sherborne

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Sherborne

Sherborne is an affluent market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a law term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host Market, distinguishing them from villages and city....
in north west Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a Counties of England in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, Dorset, situated in the south of the county at ....
, England. It's situated on the River Yeo

River Yeo (South Somerset)

The River Yeo, also known as the River Ivel, or River Gascoigne is a tributary of the River Parrett in north Dorset and south Somerset, England....
and A30 road

A30 road

The A30 is an old trunk road which runs from central London to Land's End, the westernmost point of the mainland of southern Great Britain , and is sometimes called the Great South West Road....
, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale

Blackmore Vale

The Blackmore Vale is a vale, or wide valley, in North Dorset, and to a lesser extent South Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England....
six mile

Mile

A mile is a Units of measurement of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems. In contemporary English contexts, mile most commonly refers to the statute mile of 5,280 Feet or the nautical mile of 1,852 meters ....
s east of Yeovil

Yeovil

Yeovil is a town in south Somerset, England, on the A30 road and A37 road. It has a population of 41,871 at the 2001 census . The town lies within the local district of South Somerset and the Yeovil ....
.

The town has a population of 9,350 (as of 2001), and 40.8% are retired. Sherborne is famous for its history, including its abbey

Sherborne Abbey

The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin at Sherborne in the English county of Dorset, is usually called Sherborne Abbey. It has been an Anglo-Saxons cathedral , a Benedictine abbey and is now a parish church....
, castles

Sherborne Castle

Sherborne Castle is a 16th-century Tudor period mansion southeast of Sherborne in Dorset, England. Sherborne Old Castle is the ruin of a 12th-century castle in the grounds of the mansion....
, manor house and private schools. The picturesque town is a popular, though relatively unknown, tourist

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
town.

Much of the town, including many medieval and Georgian

Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking world to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George IV of the...
buildings, is built from distinctive ochre

Ochre

Ochre or Ocher is a color, usually described as Gold -yellow or light yellow brown....
ham stone, including the Abbey.

The town is served by Sherborne railway station

Sherborne railway station

Sherborne Station serves the town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. It is situated on the West of England Main Line between London and Exeter. The station is operated by South West Trains....
.

town was named scir burne by the Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
inhabitants, a name meaning "clear stream" (see: Bourne (placename)

Bourne (placename)

Bourne is a word from the Old English language language of England. It means a stream, flowing from a spring. It is commonly used in southern England, as a name for a small river, particularly in compound names such as Winterbourne ....
). The town was made the capital of Wessex

Wessex

West Saxon redirects here. For other meanings of Wessex or West Saxon see Wessex .Wessex , from the Old English Westseaxe , was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, under the Wessex dynasty....
, one of the seven Saxon kingdoms of England, and King Alfred's elder brothers King Ethelbert

Ethelbert of Wessex

Ethelbert or ??elberht of Wessex was the third son of Ethelwulf of Wessex and was born around 835. He got his first taste of kingship in 855 when he was left in charge of Kent while his father, Ethelwulf, was in Rome....
and King Ethelbald

Ethelbald of Wessex

King ?thelbald of Wessex or Ethelbald was the second of the five sons of King Ethelwulf of Wessex and Osburga and was born in about 831 or 834....
are buried in the abbey.

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Encyclopedia

Sherborne is an affluent market town

Market town

Dorset

River Yeo (South Somerset)

The River Yeo, also known as the River Ivel, or River Gascoigne is a tributary of the River Parrett in north Dorset and south Somerset, England....
and A30 road

A30 road

Blackmore Vale

The Blackmore Vale is a vale, or wide valley, in North Dorset, and to a lesser extent South Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England....
six mile

Mile

Yeovil

Sherborne Abbey

Sherborne Castle

Tourism

Georgian architecture

Ochre

Ochre or Ocher is a color, usually described as Gold -yellow or light yellow brown....
ham stone, including the Abbey.

The town is served by Sherborne railway station

Sherborne railway station

Sherborne Station serves the town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. It is situated on the West of England Main Line between London and Exeter. The station is operated by South West Trains....
.

History

The town was named scir burne by the Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Bourne (placename)

The town was made the capital of Wessex

Wessex

Ethelbert of Wessex

Ethelbald of Wessex

King ?thelbald of Wessex or Ethelbald was the second of the five sons of King Ethelwulf of Wessex and Osburga and was born in about 831 or 834....
are buried in the abbey. In 705 the diocese

Diocese

In many rites of the Roman Catholic Church and in Anglicanism, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bi...
was split between Sherborne and Winchester, and King Ine

Ine of Wessex

Ine was List of monarchs of Wessex of Wessex from 688 to 726. He was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, C?dwalla of Wessex, who had brought much of southern England under his control and expanded West Saxon territory substantially....
founded an Abbey for St Aldhelm

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm , Abbot of Malmesbury of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and Anglo-Saxon literature scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th century....
, the first bishop of Sherborne. The Bishop's seat was moved to Old Sarum

Old Sarum

Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, in England. The site contains evidence of human habitation as early as 30th century BC....
in 1075 and the church at Sherborne became a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy....
Monastery

Monastery

Monastery , a term derived from the Greek language word ???ast?????, neut. of ???ast????? - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of Monk, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in Cenobium or alone ....
. In the 15th century the church was deliberately burnt down during tensions between the town and the monastery, and was rebuilt between 1425 and 1504, though some of the Norman

Norman architecture

The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries....
structure remains. In 1539 the monastery was bought by Sir John Horsey and became a conventional church. Sherborne was for many centuries the centre of a hundred

Sherborne (hundred)

Sherborne Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes:*Beer Hackett*Bishops Caundle*Bradford Abbas...
of the same name.

See the article Sherborne Abbey
Sherborne Abbey

The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin at Sherborne in the English county of Dorset, is usually called Sherborne Abbey. It has been an Anglo-Saxons cathedral , a Benedictine abbey and is now a parish church....
for more on the history of the abbey.

In the 12th century Roger de Caen, Bishop of Salisbury

Bishop of Salisbury

The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the Counties of Wiltshire and Dorset....
and Chancellor of England, built a fortified palace in Sherborne. The palace was destroyed in 1645 by General Fairfax, and the ruins are owned by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England....
.

In 1594 Sir Walter Raleigh built an Elizabethan mansion in the grounds of the old palace, today known as Sherborne Castle

Sherborne Castle

Sherborne Castle is a 16th-century Tudor period mansion southeast of Sherborne in Dorset, England. Sherborne Old Castle is the ruin of a 12th-century castle in the grounds of the mansion....
.

Sherborne was also home to Capt. Christopher Levett

Christopher Levett

Capt. Christopher Levett was an England writer, explorer and naval captain, born in York. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the Charles I of England to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first European to do so....
, a Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
native who came to the West Country as His Majesty's Woodward

Woodward

Woodward is a common English language surname meaning "ward of the Woodland" or "guardian of the wood"....
of Somersetshire, and who remained in Sherborne as he turned to a career as a naval captain and early explorer of New England

New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
.

Education

There has been a school in Sherborne since the time of King Alfred, who was educated there. The school was refounded in 1550 as King Edward's public school

Sherborne School

Sherborne School is a British independent school for boys, located in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. It is one of the original member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
, using some of the old abbey buildings, though it is now known simply as Sherborne School

Sherborne School

Sherborne School is a British independent school for boys, located in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. It is one of the original member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
. The school remains one of the top fee-paying schools in Britain, boasts numerous successful alumni, including Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society was a British mathematician, logician and Cryptanalysis....
, Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons

Jeremy John Irons is an England film, television and stage actor. He has won an Academy Award, a Tony Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards....
, Chris Martin

Chris Martin

Christopher Anthony John Martin is an England singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, best known for his work as lead vocalist of the band Coldplay....
and John le Carré

John le Carré

John le Carr? is an English author of spy fiction, several of which have been adapted for film and television. He worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the secret service to devote himself to writing after the success of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold....
. Until 1992 there were also two Grammar School

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries....
s, Foster's School for boys and Lord Digby's School for girls. Now, the tradition of excellence in learning within the town is continued with Sherborne School for Girls (another top fee-paying school), The Gryphon School

The Gryphon School

The Gryphon School is a British school established in September 1992 it is a Comprehensive school, Church of England, school for 11-18 year olds in the town of Sherborne, Dorset....
and the Sherborne International College (for children from overseas).

Historical Buildings

Other notable historical buildings in the town include the Almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are Charitable organization houses provided to enable people to live in a particular community. They are often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain forms of previous employment, or their widows, and are generally maintained by a charity or the trustees of a bequest....
s of Saint

Saint

A saint in Christianity is a human being who has been called to holiness. The term is used differently by various denominations, with some, such as the Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans distinguishing between Saints and saints....
s John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel....
and John the Evangelist

John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist , or the Beloved Disciple, is traditionally the name used to refer to the author of the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John....
, founded in their current form in 1438 and expanded in the Victorian Era

Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
in indistinguishable medieval style architecture

Medieval architecture

Medieval architecture is a term used to represent various forms of architecture popular in Middle Ages....
. The conduit

Conduit

A conduit is a general term for a means of conveying something from one location to another or between persons.Examples of conduits:* Waterways ...
, Hospice

Hostel

Hostels provide budget-oriented lodging where guests can rent a bed , sometimes a bunk bed in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen....
of St Julian, and Lord Digby's school, now known as Sherborne House (designed by Benjamin Bastard

Benjamin Bastard

Benjamin Bastard was a British architect during the first half of the 18th century working in the Dorset area of England. A member of a notable family of west country architect-surveyors and masons, he was related to the Bastard brothers who rebuilt Blandford Forum following its great fire of 1731....
) are also well preserved old buildings in the town.

Twin towns

Sherborne is a founding member of the Douzelage

Douzelage

The Douzelage is a town twinning association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union.The name is a combination of the French words "douze" for twelve and "jumelage" for twinning and stands for the twelve founder members, one for each European Union member state in 1991, when the Douzelage Charter was signed in Gra...
, a town twinning

Town twinning

Town twinning, also known as sister cities, is a concept whereby towns or city in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links between their inhabitants....
association of 22 towns across the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
. This active town twinning began in 1991 and there are regular events, such as a produce market from each of the other countries and festivals.

Altea
Altea

Altea is a Valencia town and municipality located in the province of Alicante , Spain, north of Benidorm on the section of Mediterranean Sea called the Costa Blanca....
, (Spain)
Bad Kötzting
Bad Kötzting

Bad K?tzting is a town in the Cham , in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech Republic border. It is situated in the Bavarian Forest, 15 km southeast of Cham, Germany....
, (Germany)
Bellagio
Bellagio

Bellagio is a comune in the Province of Como in the Italy region Lombardy, located on Lake of Como. It has long been famous for its setting at the intersection of the three branches of the Y-shaped lake, which is also known as Lario....
, (Italy)
Bundoran
Bundoran

Bundoran is a town on the coast of County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Republic of Ireland. Attractions include a beach/seafront, golf course and swimming pool with flumes....
, (Ireland)
Chojna
Chojna

Chojna [] is a small town in western Poland in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It lies approximately 60 km south of Szczecin and participates in the Douzelage....
, (Poland)
Granville
Granville, Manche

Granville is a Communes of France in the Manche Departments of France in northwestern France.The residents are called Granvillais.Administratively, the island of Chausey is part of the commune of Granville, which includes a small harbour....
, (France)
Holstebro
Holstebro

Holstebro is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 790 square kilometre, and has a total population of 57,020 ....
, (Denmark)
Houffalize
Houffalize

Houffalize is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Luxembourg .On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 166.58 km?, had 4,802 inhabitants, giving a population density of 28.8 inhabitants per km?....
, (Belgium)
Judenburg
Judenburg

Judenburg is a town in the province of Styria in Austria. It is located on the western end of the Aichfeld at the banks of the River Mura....
, (Austria)
Karkkila
Karkkila

Karkkila is a a List of cities and towns in Finland and a municipalities of Finland of Finland.It is located in the provinces of Finland of Southern Finland and is part of the Uusimaa regions of Finland....
, (Finland)
Koszeg
Koszeg

Koszeg is a town in Vas county, Hungary. The town is famous for its historical character....
, (Hungary)
Meerssen
Meerssen

Meerssen is a place and a municipality in southeastern Netherlands.The Treaty of Meerssen was signed in Meerssen in 870. The Treaty of Meerssen was an agreement of the division of the Carolingian Empire by the surviving sons of Louis the Pious, Charles II of France of the West Franks and Louis the German of East Franks....
, (Netherlands)
Niederanven
Niederanven

Niederanven is a Communes of Luxembourg and town in Luxembourg. Its population is 5,440 and it is located north-east of Luxembourg , adjacent to the Luxembourg-Findel International Airport ....
, (Luxembourg)
Oxelösund
Oxelösund

Oxel?sund is a urban areas of Sweden in S?dermanland, Sweden and the seat of Oxel?sund Municipality, S?dermanland County....
, (Sweden)
Preveza
Preveza

Preveza is a town in northwestern Greece, located at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. It is the capital of Preveza Prefecture, which is part of the periphery of Epirus ....
, (Greece)
Prienai
Prienai

Prienai is a city in Lithuania situated on the Neman River. In 2001 the city had 11,353 inhabitants. The name of the city is a derivative from a surname Prienas....
, (Lithuania)
Sigulda
Sigulda

Sigulda is a town in the Vidzeme Region of Latvia, 53 km from the capital city Riga.Sigulda is situated on a picturesque stretch of the primeval Gauja river valley....
, (Latvia)
Sesimbra
Sesimbra

Sesimbra is a municipality of Portugal, in the Set?bal district, lying at the foothills of the Serra da Arr?bida, a mountain range between Set?bal and Sesimbra....
, (Portugal)
Sušice
Sušice

Su?ice is a town in the Pilsen Region of the Czech Republic. It lies on the Otava River, some to the south from the region capital of Pilsen....
, (Czech Republic)
Türi
Türi

T?ri is a town in J?rvamaa, Estonia. It is located at around ....
, (Estonia)
Zvolen
Zvolen

Zvolen...
, (Slovakia)

External links

Sources

Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1968. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber.
The 1985 AA illustrated guide to the towns and villages of Britain.