Bere Regis

Coordinates: 50°45′13″N 2°13′09″W / 50.7537°N 2.2191°W / 50.7537; -2.2191

Bere Regis /ˈbɪər ˈriːdʒᵻs/) is a village and civil parish in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England, situated 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Wareham. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,745.

The village has one shop, a post office and two pubs, The Royal Oak and The Drax Arms. The parish church is St. John the Baptist Church. The village features in the Domesday Book.

History

Woodbury Hill, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of Bere Regis village, is the site of an Iron age contour hill-fort, the ramparts of which enclose 12 acres (4.9 ha) on a flat-topped spur of land.

The original settlements in the parish were Shitterton, Bere Regis village and Dodding's Farm, which are all sited by the Bere or Milborne Stream. Later settlements were small farms in the Piddle Valley to the south, first recorded between the mid 13th and mid 14th centuries.

Edward I made Bere Regis a free borough and it was an important market town for a long period, though all domestic buildings built before 1600 have since been destroyed by serious fires in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Bere Regis Hundred

Coordinates: 50°46′19″N 2°12′04″W / 50.772°N 2.201°W / 50.772; -2.201 Bere Regis Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes:

Milborne Stileham was created from Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston in 1866

See also

Sources