Blandford Forum

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"Blandford" redirects here. For the town in Massachusetts, see Blandford, Massachusetts.

Map sources for Blandford Forum at grid reference ST881064

The town hall

Blandford Forum, or Blandford is a town on the River Stour in Dorset, England. In the 2001 census the population was 9,854 people. Blandford is the location of North Dorset's district council, though it is situated in the far south-east of the district. Nearby is the small village, Blandford St Mary. The town lies at the junction of the A350 and A354 main roads but is skirted by an eastern bypass, and is situated 25 km (16 miles) northwest of Poole and 34 km (21 miles) south of Salisbury.

The parish church of St Peter and St Paul is a classical building with a copula on top of the tower and was built in 1732. To the south of the town a six arch stone bridge spans the slow-moving River Stour. One of the largest industries in the town is the Badger Brewery which supplies beer and ale to public houses across the region.

Blandford Forum is often given as an example of a Georgian town, as the entire centre was rebuilt at once in the 1700s, due to a fire, and is hence uniformly Georgian. All facades remain in fair to good condition.

A number of renowned private schools are near Blandford, such as Knighton House, Bryanston and Hanford School (the general area of Dorset holding many of the nation's famous schools).

Some 2km northeast of the town lies Blandford Camp, which has long been home to the Royal Corps of Signals, the communications wing of the British Army. The base incorporates a modern technology training college plus a cinema for military personnel, and the National Signals Museum (a museum of items relating to the history of the Royal Signals since its inception) which is open to the public. The museum contains many items of interest including uniforms, medals, signals equipment, (some of which is interactive) and not least, an Enigma cryptographic machine, famous for cracking the German High Level ciphers during World War 2.

Sights in the town include Blandford Corn Exchange and Blandford Church. There's a medium-size Tesco supermarket (no longer 24 hour) and a Homebase on the edge of town. Blandford has versatile shopping such as appliance, bike, bedding, curtain, sports, electronics, antique and book stores. There is resasonable car parking right in the town square. The Crown Hotel in the town centre overlooking the river is the main residential hotel. There are a number of busy pubs, such as the Three Choughs and the Greyhound, perhaps due to the nearby Army camp. In addition, The Railway, located near the old railway line in the town, was recently voted the seventh best pub in England in an independent poll.

Thousands of people attend the titularly Georgian Fayre which fills the town center and is held in the first week of May each year.

One less pleasant local resident is 'The Blandford Fly', a local biting insect which has caused several fatalities.In recent years the weed beds in the river have had to be sprayed to stop it breeding.

1 History
2 Literature
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 Photographs

[edit] History

Blandford has been a fording point since Anglo-Saxon times, when it was recorded as Blaen-y-ford and as Blaneford in the Domesday Book, meaning ford of the river of blay or gudgeon. By the 13th century it had become an important market town, with a livestock market serving the nearby Blackmore Vale with its many Dairy farms. The Latin word Forum, meaning market, was recorded in 1540 ^[1]. It was an important break on the journey between the port of Weymouth and the capital London. There is still a bi-weekly market held in the town.

In 1731 much of the town was destroyed in a fire. John Bastard and William Bastard rebuilt the town over the following 30 years and the town centre is an excellent example of Georgian architecture from the 1730s to 1760s.