Beaminster (St. Mary)

Tower of St. Mary's Church, Beaminster, Dorset

Sources:

• Betjeman, J., Sir John Betjeman's guide to English parish churches, revised and updated by Nigel Kerr. London: HarperCollins, 1993, p. 180.
• Dorset Historic Churches Trust, Dorset Churches. [Dorchester]: DHCT, 1988, p. 9.
• John Hutchins, The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd ed., edited by William Shipp and J.W. Hodson, Westminster: J.B. Nichols, 1861-1873, Vol. 2, 1863, pp. 135-139.
• Simon Jenkins, England's thousand best churches. London: Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 1999, pp. 146-147.
• John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, The buildings of England: Dorset. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, pp. 84-85.
• Arthur Mee, ed., Dorset: Thomas Hardy's country. The King's England. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939, pp. 22-25.
• F.P. Pitfield, Dorset parish churches, A-D. Milborne Port: Dorset Publishing Company, 1981, pp. 48-52.
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), An inventory of historical monuments in the County of Dorset, Vol. I, West Dorset. London: HMSO, 1952, pp. 17-21.
• Terence and Eliza Sackett, Francis Frith's Dorset Churches. Salisbury: Frith Book Co., 2000, p. 40.

Be'mi'ster by William Barnes

Sweet Be'mi'ster, that bist a-bound
By green an' woody hills all round,
Wi hedges, reachèn up between
A thousan' vields o' zummer green,
Where elems' lofty heads do drow
Their sheädes vor haÿ-meakers below,
An' wild hedge-flow'rs do charm the souls
O' maïdens in their evenèn strolls.

When I o' Zunday nights wi' Jeäne
Do saunter drough a vield or leäne,
Where elder-blossoms be a-spread
Above the eltrot's milk-white head,
An' flow'rs o' blackberries do blow
Upon the brembles, white as snow,
To be outdone avore my zight
By Jeäns gaÿ frock o' dazzlèn white;

Oh! then there's nothèn that's 'ithout
Thy hills that I do ho about, --
Noo bigger pleäce, noo gaÿer town,
Beyond thy sweet bells' dyèn soun',
As they do ring, or strike the hour,
At evenèn vrom thy wold red tow'r.
No: shelter still my head, an' keep
My bwones when I do vall asleep.

From: William Barnes, Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1898, p. 67.

Bells:

10, 22-1-27½ in D.

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Maintained by Michael Day, Last updated: 14 May 2012.