Editing Yetminster (section)

==History==

In 1086 in the [[Domesday Book]] Yetminster was recorded as ''Etiminstre'';<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/dorset3.html#yetminster |title=Dorset S-Z |publisher=domesdaybook.co.uk |work=The Domesday Book Online |access-date=1 March 2015}}</ref> it had 76 households, 26 [[ploughland]]s, {{convert|42|acre|ha}} of meadow and 2 mills. It was in [[Yetminster Hundred]] and the [[tenant-in-chief]] was the [[Osmund (bishop of Salisbury)|Bishop of Salisbury]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/ST5910/yetminster/ |title=Place: Yetminster |publisher=domesdaymap.co.uk |work=Open Domesday |access-date=1 March 2015}}</ref>

The parish church of St Andrew has [[Saxons|Saxon]] origins, though only part of a 10th-century standing cross remains from that period;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/yetminster.htm |title=Yetminster St Andrews |publisher=dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk |work=The Dorset Historic Churches Trust |access-date=3 March 2015}}</ref><ref>Bettey, p27</ref> the current building dates mostly from the mid-15th century, though the [[chancel]] was built around 1300 and the whole church was [[Victorian restoration|restored]] in 1890 and several times subsequently.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol1/pp270-274 |title='Yetminster', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 1, West (London, 1952), pp. 270–274 |publisher=University of London |work=British History Online |access-date=2 March 2015}}</ref>

In 1300 the bishop of Salisbury founded a weekly market and three-day annual fair in the village. Records do not state whether the market thrived, but the fair continued until the 19th century.<ref>Bettey, p65</ref> It was revived in the 20th century,{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} and today takes place on the second Saturday in July.

[[Robert Boyle]], pioneer of modern chemistry who is best known for [[Boyle's law]], left an endowment for the provision of a school for poor boys in the district; the building was constructed in 1697 and functioned as a school between 1711 and 1945.<ref name="yetminster">{{cite web|title=Boyle's School, Yetminster ...|url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/boyle_whatsnew/on_the_boyle_issue_08.htm#school|website=Robert Boyle website|date=December 2007}}</ref>

In the early 19th century, several buildings in the village accommodated a thriving [[dowlas]] industry.<ref name=Hall>Hall, J. J. (1898). James Padbury, obit. ''The Horological Journal'' October 1898, vol. 41. The British Horological Institute, Newark.</ref> Records from 1848 indicate Yetminster's degree of self-sufficiency as a community; nearly 20 trades and crafts were conducted in the village, including a glazier, a saddler, several shoe and boot makers, a tailor and a [[maltster]].<ref>Bettey, p134</ref>

In 1857 the [[Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway]] between [[Weymouth, Dorset|Weymouth]] and [[Westbury, Wiltshire|Westbury]] opened; it passed through Yetminster and a station was built for the village.<ref>Bettey, p86</ref>

Many of the buildings still standing in the village were built from the local limestone between the end of the 16th and the middle of the 18th centuries,<ref name=Gant>{{cite book |title=Dorset Villages |first=Roland |last=Gant |year=1980 |publisher=Robert Hale Ltd |page=68 |isbn=0-7091-8135-3}}</ref> resulting in an unusually unified architectural appearance. Writing in 1905 [[Sir Frederick Treves]] described the village as "probably the most consistent old-world village or townlet in the county",<ref>Treves, Sir F., ''Highways and Byways in Dorset'', Macmillan, 1905, p321</ref> in 1965 [[Ralph Wightman]] stated that "Yetminster [...] is the nearest Dorset equivalent to the stone building of the Cotswold country",<ref>{{cite book |title=Portrait of Dorset |first=Ralph |last=Wightman |publisher=Robert Hale Ltd |page=145 |edition=4 |isbn=0-7090-0844-9 |year=1983 |orig-year=1965}}</ref> and in 1980 Roland Gant wrote that "little has come since to spoil this largish village."<ref name=Gant/>