Winterborne St Martin, commonly known as Martinstown, is a village in south west Dorset, England, situated four miles south west of Dorchester, beside Maiden Castle. The village has a population of 754 (2001).
Saint Martin's Church dating from the 12th Century with a Norman font is in the centre of the village. Other amenities include a village shop and post office, public house (The Brewers Arms), village hall and a farm shop (Stevens Farm Shop). Bronze Age barrows including the famous Clandon Barrow surround the village and Maiden Castle hillfort is nearby.
A winterbourne (stream) runs through the length of the village.
The village is in the UK Weather Records for the highest daily recorded rainfall, which was recorded in Martinstown on July 18th 1955 at 279 mm (11 inches) in a 15 hour period.
In 1268 Henry II granted a charter to Winterborne St Martin (Martinstown), which allowed the village to hold an annual fair within five days of St. Martins Day. The fair, which in times past was a leading horse market and amusement fair, had been revived but the old-time custom of roasting a ram was replaced once durind an event in the 1960's with a 'badger roast'. The 80 lb badger was caught in a snare and many villagers thought they were eating goose. Fairs are no longer held in Martinstown on an annual basis. The Village in recent time has held successful Open Garden Events and Craft Fayres. The village still has a very active Village Hall, hosting many local activities.
After a hundred years silence, bells in the church rang out in 1947. Five new bells were hung as a village memorial to those who died in the war. An earlier peal had been sold to defray debts.
The village fights to retain its rural charm. In 1980, the villagers were 'up in arms' because the vicarage was built in brick. Despite initial opposition, housing estates have now been built too.
The MWMC Cycle group was formed here in 1996.
In 2007 Martinstown won the Best Kept Village in Dorset Award, in the Large Village Category.
*Thanks to an entry in Wikipedia
John Adams was a Catholic Priest and Martyr from here.
He was born in Winterborne St Martin in Dorset at an unknown date (c. 1543?) and became a Protestant minister. He later entered the Catholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving on December 7, 1579. He was ordained a priest at Soissons on December 17, 1580. He set out for the mission in England on March 29, 1581. He is known to have worked in Hampshire but details of his later, as of his earlier life are patchy. It may be that he was taken prisoner at Rye only a short time after landing in England and that he escaped.
In 1583 he was described as a man of "about forty years of age, of average height, with a dark beard, a sprightly look and black eyes. He was a very good controversialist, straightforward, very pious, and pre-eminently a man of hard work. He laboured very strenuously at Winchester and in Hampshire, where he helped many, especially of the poorer classes."
Captured at Winchester, he was brought to London and arrived at the Marshalsea prison on March 7, 1584. His sentence this time was banishment and he was expelled with some seventy-two other priests. He arrived at Rheims on November 14, 1585 but then set out again and was again captured, being taken to the Clink in London on December 19 the same year. This time, as was to be expected, he was not treated so lightly, especially since that year the Act had been passed making it a capital offence to be a Catholic priest in England.
The sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was completed at Tyburn, London on October 8, 1586. His fate was shared by two fellow priests, John Lowe and Robert Dibdale, and maybe his own brother, a layman. This latter fact is not certain and the forename is not in any case known. All three priests were declared Blessed (the last stage prior to sainthood) by Pope John Paul II on November 22, 1987.
Sources
• The most reliable compact source is Godfrey Anstruther, Seminary Priests, St Edmund's College, Ware, vol. 1, 1968, pp. 1–2.
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. , with corrections and adaptations.
Retrieved from Wikipedia.
The Village Hall
The "Wishing Well"
Winterbourne Valley CE First School
St Martins Church
Parish Council Office
The 'Brewers Arms' Pub
The Winterbourne Stream
In 1268 Henry II granted a charter to Martinstown, (also known as Winterborne St. Martin which allowed the village to hold an annual fair within five days of St. Martins Day. The fair, which in times past was a leading horse market and amusement fair, has been revived but the old-time custom of roasting a ram was replaced with a 'badger roast', during an event in the 1960s. The 80lb badger was caught in a snare and many villagers thought they were eating goose.
After a hundred years silence, bells in the church rang out in 1947. Five new bells were hung as a village memorial to those who died in the war. An earlier peal had been sold to defray debts.
The village fights to retain its rural charm. In 1980, the villagers were 'up in arms' because the vicarage was built in brick. Despite opposition, housing estates have now been built too.
QUICK LINKSClick on the links below:
2001 Census data for Martinstown Courtesy of dorsetforyou.com
Aerial Map of Martinstown
Courtesy of GetMapping.com
Martinstown Website
Courtesy of Gerald Duke
More pictures of Martinstown
Courtesy of dorset-pictures.co.uk
If anyone would like to add to this page, please let me know or send their content to: info@martinstown-news.co.uk
John Adams
Should the village consider erecting a blue plaque to commemorate John Adams?
John Adams was one of the many people of all religions executed for their beliefs during the 16th and 17th centuries.He probably worshipped in the old part of St Martin's church with the rest of his family as he was born and bred in the village.