Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/759

WAREHAM. 747 WAEEHAM. of parliament, the last of which was obtained in 1850 the expense of the improvements being defrayed by tolls It appears to have been a place of importance in the Saxon times, and is tho place where King Alfred is saic to have taken the Danish fleet, in 894, by turning the course of the river. It is called in Domesday book Waras, and was then held by Hugh de Grentemaisnil, who founded here a Benedictine cell to Uticain Abbey, in Normandy, which at the Dissolution came with Shene priory to Trinity College, Cambridge. The manor was subsequently held by several illustrious families, Roberl do Blanchmain, the Earls of AVinchester, AVake, Mon- tacute, Neville, Plantagenet, the Fair Maid of Kent, mother of Richard II., Lady Margaret, mother oi Henry VII., to whom it was granted after tho battle oi Bosworth Field. The Fanshaws obtained it in the reign of Elizabeth, of which family the last was Sir R. Fanshaw, tho ambassador in Spain and husband of Lady Fan- shaw, author of the memoirs. A grand tournament was held here in 1242, at which the Earl of Pembroke was trampled to death. The par. includes the hmlts. ol AVaro Side and Amwell End the latter situated on the S. bank of the river Lea. The population of tho parish in 1861 was 5,397, and of tho town 5,002. The town is lighted with gas and well supplied with water. It con- tains a town-hall, market-house, and assembly rooms, built on arches in 1827, union poorhouse, a branch of tho London and County Joint-Stock Bank, an institute, library and reading-room, and above 70 mailing-houses, returning a greater amount to the inland revenue on that article than any other town in the kingdom. There are also considerable operations in brewing, rope, sacking, and brick-making. Tho town is governed by a board of health. The county magistrates hold petty sessions fortnightly on Tuesday at the townhall, and the board of guardians meet weekly on Tuesday. The Poor-law Union comprises 14 parishes. It is also the scat of a superintendent registry, but is included in tho Hertford New County Court district. The principal seats in the vicinity are AVaro Priory, with traces of the old priory, and AVare Park, which last was rebuilt by Alderman Byde, a London brewer, who obtained the manor by purchase from the Fanshaw family, and afterwards by AV. Parker, Esq., the present owner. The living is a vie.* in tho dioc. of Rochester, val. 333, in tho patron. of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is of the reigns of Edward III., Richard II., and Henry VII., and has recently been restored at a cost of 5,810. The interior contains some stained glass, an antique font, and some brasses, including one to Ellen Cook, bearing date 1450. There are also tho district churches of Christ Church and Holy Trinity Ware Side, the livings of which are perpet. curs., val. 150 and 100 each. Christ Church was built and endowed by Robert Hanbury, Esq., in 1858. In tho High Street is a congregational church, built in 1859. There are chapels for AVesleyans, Independents, and Baptists, also a free grammar school, British and foreign, National and infant schools, and a school founded by tho widow of tho late Edward Chuck, Esq. The parochial charities produce about 410 per annum. A Roman coin of the Emperor Constantino and several stone coffins were discovered in 1802 in Bury Field. At the " Saracen's Head" is exhibited tho "great bed of AVare" a carved oak bedstead 1 2 feet square. Market day is on Tuesday. Fairs are held on the last Tuesday in April and tho Tuesday before the 21st of September. WAREHAM, a post and market town, municipal and ) niiamentary borough, in tho hund. of AVinfrith, co. Dorset, 4 miles N.AV. of Corfe Castle, and 15 S.E. of Dorchester. It is a station on the Dorchester railway. This place is situated on a branch of the ancient Icknield Street, at the extremity of a peninsula formed by the rivers Piddle and Frome, tho estuary of which streams forms AVareham Harbour, inside Poole Harbour. The quay, which lies on tho 8. side of tho town, was long dilapidated, but has recently been restored, and is chiefly used for tho export of plastic and pipe clay, which are brought from tho pits by a short line of VOL. III. railway, and shipped at the quay for the potteries in Staffordshire. The tides arc felt as high as Holmo Bridge, 3 miles above the town, which now covers a quadrangular area of about 100 acres, nearly inclosed by high ramparts of earth, said to have been originally formed by the Britons, and subsequently surmounted with walls by the Romans, whose stations, Morinio and Stoborough were within the limits of the present borough. In the Saxon times it was called WuerMin, and had a fort destroyed in 876. King Athelstane made it a mint town, and Edward the Martyr, who was murdered at Corfe Castle by Elfrida, was first buried in the S. aisle of St. Mary's Church, but after three years his remains were removed to Shaftesbury. It Buffered much from the Danes in the 10th century, and in 1015 was ravaged by Canute. It is mentioned in Domesday Survey as belonging to the crown, and then contained 125 houses with 8 churches, Z of which are alone remaining. After the Conquest the manor was given to Robert do Bellomonto, who rebuilt the castle, which being garrisoned for the Empress Maud, was taken by Stephen, who burnt the town. In 1205 it was visited by King John, who landed here from France, and in the reign of Edward III. it supplied three ships to the siege of Calais. At the commencement of the civil war of Charles I. it was garrisoned for the parliament, but was taken by the royalists in 1644, when the town was much damaged, as it was again in 1762 by an accidental fire. By the passing of the Reform Act in 1S32 it was de- prived of one of its members, having previously returned two members to parliament from the time of Edward I., and its boundaries were then extended so as to includo besides the three town parishes of the Holy Trinity (including Stoborough Liberty, Middlebere, Ridge, and Redclifte) St. Mary Within and Without, St. Martin Within and Without, the adjoining parishes of Corfe Castle, Arne, Bere Regis, and parts of East Stoke and Morden. The population of the parliamentary borough in 1851 was 7,218, and in 1861, 6,094, inhabiting 1,339 houses. AVareham is not under the Municipal Corpora- tions Act, but is a borough by prescription, governed under a charter of Queen Ann, by a mayor, recorder, 6 capital and 12 assistant burgesses. The borough sessions are held annually before the mayor and recorder, also a court of record before tho mayor on the first Monday in each month. A court-leet is hold annually at which tho borough constables and other officers are appointed. Wareham is tho head of New County Court and Superintendent registry districts, and of a Poor-law Union embracing 24 parishes ; it is also a polling place for the county elections. The manor, which once be- longed to Robert de Bellomonte, the Clares, Mortimers, Queens of Henry VIII., Plunkets, and Erics, is now the property of J. Hales Calcraft, Esq. , of Rempstone, with whom is the chief influence in the borough. The town consists mainly of four streets, intersecting each other at right angles, and skirted by gardens occupying the unedificed space within the ancient enclosure. There are a townhall and gaol, union poorhouse, barracks, savings-bank, two commercial banks, reading room, and library in connection with the mutual improvement society ; also two bridges that across tho Frome, con- necting tho northern part of the county with the Isle of L'urbeck, was rebuilt in 1779, to replace one of the time of William Rufus, the other across the Piddle. Tho principal trade is in agricultural produce and jotters' clay ; there were until lately some persons employed in shirt-button making, straw plait, and stocking knitting, but machinery has superseded them. The salmon fishery has been nearly destroyed by the system of taking the fish out of season. There are )ut slight traces of the castle where Robert de Belemo died a prisoner, but tho nunnery founded at the com- mencement of the 8th century by Bishop Adhelm, and which was subsequently made a Benedictine cell o Lira Abbey by tho Bellomonts, is still standing, >elongs to the Earl of Eldon, and is the residence of ho family of Thomas Phippard, Esq. Chapman, tho ,ulor of Lord Camden, was born here in 1704 ; and 5 D