Beaminster’s industries
The town of Beaminster has a long and fascinating industrial heritage going back to the Middle Ages; Michael Handy explores it
Published in February ’20
A somewhat idealised view of the work of child turners in the cloth-making industry
COMPARED TO much of Dorset, Beaminster is an unusual town in terms of the level of industry within its bounds, especially considering its size.
This is far from a new phenomenon, though. In his 1914 book A History of Beaminster, Richard Hine looked back over centuries of different industries’ presence in the town and compared it to ‘modern times’.
He started by saying: ’A century or more ago Beaminster was a place of business and bustle, for scattered around were many factories, which afforded employment to a considerable number of the inhabitants…
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