On either side a Griffin segreant reguardant the aquiline parts Argent beaked and gorged with an Ancient Crown Or the leonine parts also Or armed and langued Gules.
The town was named scir burne by the Saxon inhabitants, a name meaning "clear stream", after a brook that runs through the centre of the town,[5] and is referred to as such in the Domesday Book.
History
The Conduit
In 705 the diocese of Wessex was split between Sherborne and Winchester, and King Ine founded an abbey for St Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne, which covered Dorset, Somerset, and Devon. King Alfred the Great's elder brothers, King Æthelbald and King Æthelberht, are buried in the abbey. The large Sherborne diocese lasted until about 909 when it was further sub-divided into three sees, with Sherborne covering Dorset. In 933, King Æthelstan granted land at Sherborne to the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey under the condition that they would recite the Psalter once a year on All Saints' day and say prayers for the king.[6] The bishop's seat was moved to Old Sarum in 1075 and the church at Sherborne became a Benedictinemonastery. In 1437 the Abbey was damaged by fire after tensions between the town and the monastery came to a head, but much of the Norman structure stands today. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1539, the vacated monastery buildings were bought by Sir John Horsey and became the parish church. Sherborne was the centre of a hundred of the same name for many centuries.
Sherborne became home to Yorkshireman Captain Christopher Levett, who came to the West Country as His Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire, and who remained in Sherborne when he turned to a career as a naval captain and early explorer of New England.[7]
For local council elections, Dorset is divided into several electoral wards, with Sherborne forming two of these: Sherborne West and Sherborne East.[8][9][10] In county council elections, Dorset wasdivided into 42 electoral divisions, with Sherborne's two wards together forming Sherborne Electoral Division.[11]
Leweston School was founded as St. Anthony's in 1891 by the Sisters of Christian Instruction, Sacred Heart nuns from Belgium with Jesuit principles, who originally operated a full boarding school for girls in Sherborne town. The senior school moved to the Leweston Manor estate in 1948 and became known as St Antony's-Leweston; in 1993 the Preparatory school, which has since grown to include a nursery, followed. Leweston transitioned from a girls only school to fully co-educational in all years during a four-year transitional period from 2018 to 2021. The 2022 ISI inspection report described the quality of pupils' personal development in the senior school as excellent. The early years provision was described as outstanding in every category of inspection. Notable alumnae include businesswoman and conservative life peer Dido Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe and actresses Kristen Scott Thomas and Serena Scott Thomas
Sherborne Preparatory School is located opposite Sherborne School, and many of its pupils choose to go on to Sherborne School or Sherborne Girls.
Until 1992 there were also two grammar schools, Foster's School for Boys and Lord Digby's School for Girls. Both schools merged with another local school to form The Gryphon School.
The town also has two primary schools, Sherborne Abbey Primary School and Sherborne Primary School.
Lord Digby school, now known as Sherborne House (designed by Benjamin Bastard). Sherborne House, famed for its mural by Sir James Thornhill,[14] was a subject for the BBC's Restoration programme in 2004, and was sold in 2008 by Dorset County Council to a developer, Redcliffe Homes, for £3 million.[15] Its renovation included rebuilding an unstable rear wall.[16]
St Emerenciana's Chapel (now known as Nethercoombe Farm); built in the late 14th century. The only building in the country to have been dedicated to this saint.
There are 378 listed buildings within the town[17] and 23 in Castleton (considered to be an inclusion of Sherborne),[18] totalling 401, including 14 Grade I listed buildings and 21 Grade II* listed buildings.
Churches
United Reformed and Methodist Church, viewed from Cheap Street.
There is a Catholic church – the Church of The Sacred Heart and St Aldhelm – located on Westbury.[20]
Cheap Street Church is a joint Methodist and United Reformed congregation.[21] Originally a Methodist church, it was built in stages through the mid-late 19th Century and is Grade II listed.[22]
Olympic field hockey player Michael Walford lived and worked here for many years before his death in 2002.
Environment and community
Sherborne has an active green community, with various environmental and sustainability organisations in the area. The Quarr Local Nature Reserve at the northern end of the town makes use of an old quarry and landfill site, Sherborne Area Partnership oversees a successful environment forum and, in 2009, Sherborne became an official Transition Town,[24] running a number of projects and events as a community response to climate change and peak oil.
Pack Monday Fair
The town has for centuries hosted an annual street fair, Pack Monday Fair, starting on the Monday following 10 October (Old Michaelmas Day). Originally an agricultural fair, it is now devoted to stalls, sideshows and a funfair.[25]
Sherborne is a founding member of the Douzelage, a town twinning association of 24 towns across the European Union. 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.[26][27] Discussions regarding membership are also in hand with three further towns (Agros in Cyprus, Škofja Loka in Slovenia, and Tryavna in Bulgaria).
Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex. He was certainly not, as his early biographer Faritius asserts, the brother of King Ine. After his death he was venerated as a saint, his feast day being the day of his death, 25 May.
Sherborne Abbey, otherwise the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Sherborne in the English county of Dorset. It has been a Saxon cathedral (705–1075), a Benedictine abbey church (998–1539), and since 1539, a parish church.
Romsey Abbey is the name currently given to a parish church of the Church of England in Romsey, a market town in Hampshire, England. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the church of a Benedictine nunnery. The surviving Norman-era church is the town's outstanding feature and is now the largest parish church in the county of Hampshire since changes in county boundaries led to the larger Christchurch Priory being now included in Dorset. The current vicar is the Reverend Thomas Wharton, who took up the post in September 2018.
Shaftesbury is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, 20 miles west of Salisbury and 23 miles north-northeast of Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about 215 metres above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase.
Stalbridge is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale, near the border with Somerset. In the 2011 census the civil parish—which includes the hamlets of Stalbridge Weston, and Thornhill—had 1,160 households and a population of 2,698. The nearest towns are Sturminster Newton, four miles southeast, Sherborne, 6 mi (10 km) west, and Shaftesbury, 7 mi (11 km) northeast. Stalbridge is situated on the A357 on a low limestone ridge, one mile west of the River Stour. It officially became a town in April 1992.
Abbotsbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The settlement is in the unitary authority of Dorset about 1 mile (1.6 km) inland from the English Channel coast. The village, including Chesil Beach, the swannery and subtropical gardens, is owned by the Ilchester Estate, which owns 61 square kilometres of land in Dorset. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 481.
Sturminster Newton is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It is situated on a low limestone ridge in a meander of the River Stour. The town is at the centre of a large dairy agriculture region, around which the town's economy is built. The larger part of the town (Sturminster) lies on the north side of the river, and includes most shops and services, whilst to the south is the smaller Newton.
Portesham, sometimes also spelled Portisham, is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England, situated in the Dorset Council administrative area approximately 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Weymouth, 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the county town Dorchester, and 2 miles (3 km) northeast of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site at Chesil Beach. The parish is quite large, covering several outlying hamlets and what were once their manors. In the 2011 census it had a population of 685 in 316 households and 342 dwellings.
Sherborne School is a 13–18 boys public school and boarding school located beside Sherborne Abbey, in the parish of Sherborne, Dorset. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by St Aldhelm and, following the dissolution of the monasteries, re-founded in 1550 by King Edward VI, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. Sherborne is one of the twelve founding member public schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 1869 and is a member of the Eton Group and Boarding Schools Association.
Cranborne is a village in East Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 779, remaining unchanged from 2001.
Charmouth is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England. The village is situated on the mouth of the River Char, around 1+1⁄2 miles (2 km) north-east of Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council estimated that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 1,310. In the 2011 Census the population of the parish, combined with the small parish of Catherston Leweston to the north, was 1,352.
Longburton or Long Burton is a village in Dorset, England, three miles (5 km) south of Sherborne. It is sited on a narrow outcrop of Cornbrash limestone, at the western end of Blackmore Vale. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 470.
Alton Pancras is a small village and civil parish in Dorset, England. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 175.
The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese of the greater part of southwestern England in Saxon times, but after the Norman Conquest was incorporated into the new Diocese of Salisbury. The title Bishop of Sherborne is now used by the Church of England for a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury.
Askerswell is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southwest England. It is sited on the small River Asker. It lies 11 miles (18 km) west of the county town Dorchester. The parish has an area of 1,724 acres and in the northeast includes the western slopes of Eggardon Hill, including part of the Iron Age hill fort close to its summit. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 154.
Bishop's Caundle is a village and civil parish in Dorset, South West England. It is situated 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Sherborne. The local travel links are located 4 miles (6.4 km) from the village to Sherborne railway station and 28 miles (45 km) to Bournemouth International Airport. The main road running through the village is the A3030, connecting Bishop's Caundle to Sherborne. Dorset County Council's 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of the civil parish is 390.
Wookey is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Wells, on the River Axe in Somerset, England. The parish includes the village of Henton and the nearby hamlets of Yarley and Bleadney where the River Axe travels the length of the village. There used to be a port at Bleadney on the river in the 8th century which allowed goods to be brought to within 3 miles (5 km) of Wells. Wookey is often confused with its sister village Wookey Hole, site of the Wookey Hole Caves.
Leweston School is an independent day and boarding school near Sherborne in Dorset, England. The school is co-educational in the Nursery and Preparatory School and follows the co-educational diamond model in the Senior School and Sixth Form. The School consists of a Nursery, Prep School, Senior School and Sixth Form. Leweston's values are based upon a supportive Catholic ethos. In 2017, Leweston announced that it was moving to a diamond model for the delivery of STEM subjects in Years 9 to 11 whilst becoming co-educational in all years during a four-year transitional period from 2018 to 2021.
Malmesbury is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately 14 miles (23 km) west of Swindon, 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Bristol, and 9 miles (14 km) north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upper waters of the Bristol Avon and one of its tributaries.
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