Charminster

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For other uses, see Charminster (disambiguation).

Charminster is a village in west Dorset, England, situated on the River Cerne and A352 road one mile (2 km) north of Dorchester. The village has a population of 1,940 (2001).[1] The village has a small church of St. Mary. These two things give the village its name, Cerneminster (recorded in 1223), which eventually evolved into Charminster.[2] The village includes Wolfeton house.

Charminster is also a small suburban area of Bournemouth in Dorset. It is located just north of the town’s main railway line with the A338 (the Wessex Way) on its eastern edge and Talbot Woods and Winton (also a suburban areas) on its western egde. It has a main high street with a wide selection of shops, bars and restaurants – of which a large percentage are foreign including Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, etc... A large section of the housing is late Victorian or early Edwardian with the main bulk of this smaller terraced housing located just off from the main high street (Charminster Road) westwards to the A338. This includes Stewart Road, St Leonards Road, Capstone Road, Bennet Road etc. To the north and south there are larger Edwardian villas in typical two and half story arrangement and each in their individual plots of land – some of which are of considerable size, even though today many have been now converted to flats. In fact the majority to Richmond Park Road is now nearly all been lost to redevelopment and have been demolished to make way for new builds. Luckily in the southern half of Charminster these large properties have mainly survived and most are in good repair. This area includes Porchester Road, Milton Road, Beechy Road, and Ophir Road. There is in place a conservation area (The Porchester Road Conservation area) to try and protect some of these buildings – as are there many in the Bournemouth area.


Charminster was the English town of origin of Richard Norman and family, one of the Planters of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America, who arrived there in ca. 1626.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Census data
  2. ^ Mills, A.D., 1986. Dorset Place Names. Ensign, Southampton. ISBN 1-85455-065-9.
  3. ^ Leslie Mahler, "The English Origin of Richard Norman of Salem, Massachusetts." The American Genealogist, Vol. 77, No. 2 (April 2002).


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Coordinates: 50°44′N, 2°27′W