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Bridgnorth

Bridgnorth is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.

History
Bridgnorth is named after a bridge over the River Severn, which was built further north than an earlier bridge at Quatford. The earliest historical reference to the town is in 895, when it is recorded that the Danes created a camp at Cwatbridge; subsequently in 912, Æthelfleda constructed a mound on the west bank of the River Severn, or possibly on the site of Bridgnorth Castle, as part of an offensive against the Danes. Earliest names for Bridgnorth include Brigge, Brug and Bruges, all referring to its position on the Severn.

After the Norman conquest, William I granted the manor of Bridgnorth to Roger de Montgomerie. The town itself was not created until 1101, when Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, the son of Roger de Montgomerie, moved from Quatford, constructing a castle and a church on the site of the modern-day town. The town became a royal borough on Robert Bellême's attainder in 1102. The castle's purpose was to defend against attacks from Wales. The town was attacked and burnt by Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March during the Despenser War in 1322. A small Jewish community was established in the town in 1267, but was expelled in 1274; one of the community was arrested in a campaign against alleged Jewish coin clipping, a prelude towards Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.

Bridgnorth's town walls were initially constructed in timber between 1216 and 1223; murage grants allowed them to be upgraded to stone between the 13th and 15th centuries. By the 16th century, the antiquarian John Leland reported them in ruins and of the five gates, only one survives today.

It is probable that Henry I granted the burgesses certain privileges, for Henry II confirmed to them all the franchises and customs which they had had in the time of Henry I. King John in 1215 granted them freedom from toll throughout England except the city of London, and in 1227 Henry III conferred several new rights and liberties, among which were a gild merchant with a hanse. These early charters were confirmed by several succeeding kings, Henry VI granting in addition Assize of Bread and Ale and other privileges. The burgesses were additionally granted two fairs: a yearly fair on the feast of the Translation of St Leonard and the three following days was granted in 1359, and in 1630 Charles I granted them licence to hold another fair on the Thursday before the first week in Lent and two following days. The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1295, and continued to do so until 1867, when they were assigned only one member. The town was disfranchised in 1885.

During the Civil War, Bridgnorth was one of the Midlands' main royalist strongholds, and in 1642 many royalist troops were garrisoned there. In 1646, Cromwell's Roundheads arrived with orders to take Bridgnorth for the Parliamentarians from the garrison led by Sir Robert Howard. After a three-week siege, Cromwell was successful and he ordered that the castle be demolished.

Bridgnorth had an ironworks in Low Town run by Hazledine and Company which in 1808 built the locomotive Catch Me Who Can designed and promoted by Richard Trevithick. A plaque on the foundry's site commemorates this association.

By 1824, the borough and liberties of Bridgnorth were well defined.

The population of the municipal borough in 1841 was 6,198, and that of the town was 5,770.

More than 255 men from the Bridgnorth area volunteered in the first months of the First World War. Their names were published in the Bridgnorth Journal on 26 December 1914 and those killed in action are remembered on the war memorial, sculpted by Adrian Jones, in the castle grounds.

Until 1961 the Royal Air Force's initial recruit training unit was at RAF Bridgnorth, a station opened in 1939. During the Second World War, two women were killed in a German air raid in August 1940 when bombs hit neighbouring houses in High Town. In 2005, unverified German papers dating from 1941 were found, outlining new details about Operation Sea Lion, the military plans of Nazi Germany for an invasion of Britain. Two quiet Shropshire towns were mentioned in the documentation: Ludlow and Bridgnorth. Some experts believe that it was Hitler's intention to make Bridgnorth his personal headquarters in Britain, due to its central position in the UK, rural location, rail connections and airfield.

In 1978, Bridgnorth was twinned with the French town of Thiers, and in 1992 it also twinned with the Bavarian town of Schrobenhausen, Germany that had already twinned with Thiers a few years earlier. On 21 August 2003 Bridgnorth was granted Fairtrade Town status.

Geography
The town is located in the Severn Valley, where the river passes through a relatively narrow valley with largely-wooded slopes. High Town, the part of the town sited on the west side of the Severn, is built on a notable promontory, at the southern end of which the castle was constructed, and is known as Castle Hill. Low Town is situated on lower-lying ground on the banks of the river. High Town is at an elevation of 65–68 metres (213–223 feet) above sea level, whilst Low Town is at 32–33 metres (105 feet). The lie of the land of Low Town is less hilly but then rises steeply to its immediate east.

The West Midlands Green Belt covers the countryside to the east of the Severn and the settlement.

The civil parish includes Danesford, Oldbury and Quatford.

Landmarks
Bridgnorth is home to a funicular railway that links the High and Low towns, the Castle Hill Railway, which is the steepest and only inland railway of its type in England. Additionally, within the High Town is Bridgnorth railway station on the Severn Valley Railway, which runs southwards to Kidderminster. The ruins of Bridgnorth Castle, built in 1101, are present in the town. Due to damage caused during the English Civil War, the castle is inclined at an angle of 15 degrees.

High Town has two prominent Church of England churches. Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, a church built in the classic style of the late 18th century, was designed by Thomas Telford; and is still used for worship. St. Leonard's was formerly collegiate, and Bridgnorth was a Royal Peculiar until 1856. It was subsequently largely rebuilt but is no longer used for regular worship. It has many community uses and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Bishop Percy's House on the Cartway was built in 1580 by Richard Forster and has been a Grade 1 listed building since 18 July 1949. It was one of the few properties of its type to survive the great fire of Bridgnorth in April 1646, and was the birthplace of Thomas Percy (Bishop of Dromore), author of 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'.

Other notable buildings in the town are the 17th century Bridgnorth Town Hall, a half-timbered building, and a surviving town gate the Northgate which houses the museum. Daniel's Mill, a well known watermill is situated a short distance along the River Severn from Bridgnorth.

The remains of an old hermitage can be seen from the high town, they are commonly called The Queens Parlor by locals. One local legend tells of its occupation in AD 925 by a hermit called Ethelred or Ethelwald, a grandson to Alfred the Great. This may not be such an unlikely story as Bridgnorth was founded in 912 by Alfred the Great's daughter Ethelfleda.

Education

There are a number of primary schools in Bridgnorth, including: Castlefields County Primary School, two Church of England schools, St Mary's and St Leonard's; the Roman Catholic St John's school; and, in addition, the Morville and Brown Clee schools.

The town has two secondary schools: Oldbury Wells School and Bridgnorth Endowed School (previously named Bridgnorth Grammar School). These serve the town and its outlying villages, including Alveley and Highley.

There is a sixth form in Bridgnorth, Bridgnorth Sixth Form, which is run within Oldbury Wells School. A consultation was published which outlines consideration of no new student intake in September 2024 and potential closure in September 2025. In September 2023, Telford College made a deal with both Bridgnorth secondary schools.

Culture
There is a theatre, the Theatre on the Steps, and a 1930s cinema, the Majestic. The Northgate Museum contains many artefacts connected with the town and surrounding area. It was the first independent museum in Shropshire to be accredited by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

Sport and clubs
Bridgnorth Town F.C. was the football club based in Bridgnorth. They joined the Worcestershire Combination in 1938 and twice reached the 5th round of the FA Vase. They won the championship of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division in 2008. Affiliated to the club was the junior section known as "Bridgnorth Town Juniors". The teams ranged from under 8s to under 16s and competed in the Telford Junior League. After folding, the club was effectively replaced by "phoenix club" A.F.C. Bridgnorth. Bridgnorth Spartans Juniors Football Club run junior and adult teams. These teams include boys' teams, ranging from Under-8s to Under-15s, girls' teams and women's teams. Home games are played at Oldbury Wells School.

Bridgnorth Rowing Club occupies 'The Maltings' building on the edge of Severn Park, which was purchased by the club in 1983. Work to convert the malting building into the boat house started in 1993. It competes in events in the local region and further afield, including attending the annual Head of the River Race on the Thames in London, and hosts an annual regatta with racing along the length of the Severn Park.

Bridgnorth Army Cadets is the oldest Army Cadet detachment in Shropshire. The Army Cadet Force (ACF) in 2010 celebrated 150 years.

In 2007, Bridgnorth hosted the UK Downhill Street Race in cycling.

In January 2010, the Kidderminster branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts expanded to Bridgnorth, providing the town with a part-time performing arts school for people of ages between 6 and 18. The Kidderminster School is now named "Stagecoach Kidderminster & Bridgnorth".

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Wrekin and the local relay TV transmitters.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Shropshire, Heart West Midlands, Capital North West and Wales, Smooth West Midlands, Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, and Severnvalley Radio, a community based station.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Shropshire Star (formerly Bridgnorth Journal).

Roads
Bridgnorth grew initially as a market town at the centre of a system of local radial roads linking it with more rural, smaller settlements. Many of these roads crossed Bridgnorth at the point on the High Street where the town hall now stands. The River Severn historically also played a major role as a trading connection for the town, but is no longer generally navigable this far upstream.

Bridgnorth is connected to Shrewsbury and Stourbridge by the A458 road, Telford and Kidderminster by the A442 road, and Wolverhampton via the A454 road. The town is 11 mi from the M54 motorway, at Telford.

The A458 passes to the south of the town centre on a by-pass, construction of which was started in 1982 and now serves to relieve the town centre of the congestion that once plagued it. The bypass also provided a second bridge across the Severn at Bridgnorth, which remains the only local alternative to the historic bridge that connects Low and High towns.

Buses
The town is served by buses to and from Telford, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Much Wenlock, Ironbridge, Shifnal and Kidderminster. These are operated by Arriva Midlands, Select Bus Services, and Diamond Bus.

Railway

Currently the closest towns with active railway stations on the National Rail network are Telford and Wolverhampton. However, Bridgnorth does still have a station on an active heritage line, the Severn Valley Railway. Bridgnorth station was not the northern terminus of this line when built, but the main intermediate station, being 18$1/4$ miles from Hartlebury and 22$1/2$ miles from Shrewsbury. The station, which was opened to the public by the SVR on 1 February 1862, was passed to Great Western Railway (GWR) and then eventually to British Railways in 1948. It closed to passengers after 101 years of service on 8 September 1963 and to freight traffic on 30 November 1963. Although thought by some to have been closed as part of the Beeching cuts, its planned closure pre-dated his report.

The neo-Jacobean station is the only listed railway station on the Severn Valley Railway. Necessitating that, any future plans to enhance visitor facilities will need to be carefully designed to be in keeping with the railway station's architecture and historic character.

The line now ends just north of the modern-day station, where the line formerly bridged Hollybush Road and passed through Bridgnorth Tunnel and on to the next station on the line, Linley. There exists an ongoing debate whether the railway should extend beyond its current limits north of Bridgnorth.

Cliff railway
The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, also known as the Bridgnorth Funicular Railway or Castle Hill Railway, is a funicular railway which has operated in Bridgnorth for over 100 years. The line links the lower part of High Town to the upper part. The bottom entrance is adjacent to the River Severn while the top is adjacent to the ruins of Bridgnorth Castle.

Opened on 7 July 1892 to great fanfare and the proclamation of a public holiday, the line is one of four funicular railways in the UK built to the same basic design - the others were the Clifton Rocks Railway in Bristol; the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway in Devon; and the Constitution Hill Railway in Aberystwyth, Wales.

It is one of the steepest railways in the country and at least one source (the information panel outside the top station) claims it is both the steepest and shortest. It is the only functional inland funicular railway in England - there are about 15 more at English seaside towns. Originally, the railway was powered by a simple system using water and gravity, but was converted in 1943–44 to run on electricity. Then, in 1955, new cars were installed on the railway; these were able to carry 18 passengers each and are still in use today. As of return tickets cost £2.00 with discounts available for groups of 15 or more. Single tickets are not available.

The railway allows people to easily get between the two parts of High Town as the only other way down is down 200 steps or by using roads which drastically increase the journey. The terminals at the upper and lower part of the railway are currently used as tea-rooms and guest houses.

The railway was temporarily closed in December 2022 due to damage to a retaining wall and further damage was discovered during repairs. The railway reopened on 4th March 2024.

Walking and cycling
Bridgnorth is on National Route 45 of the Sustrans National Cycle Network, which is named the Mercian Way.

The long-distance trail called the Geopark Way begins in the town.

Every year since 1967, a sponsored walk has been held in Bridgnorth. Since 2017 this has been organised by the Bridgnorth Lions Club.

Economy
On the eastern side of the town is a large aluminium works, founded in the 1950s.

Governance
The town council has sixteen members, with four elected from each of the four wards that cover the civil parish (named Castle, Morfe, East, and West). Castle ward includes Oldbury, while Morfe ward includes Danesford and Quatford.

Local government and services are otherwise provided by Shropshire Council and the town elects four of its members — one electoral division comprises East and Morfe wards together with Astley Abbotts, and the other comprises West and Castle wards together with Tasley. From 1974 until 2009, there was also Bridgnorth District Council, a tier of local government between the county and town councils.

Active up to 1900

 * Richard Baxter (1615–1691) English puritan divine, called by Dean Stanley “the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen”
 * Edward Synge (1621 in Bridgnorth-1678) Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in the Church of Ireland
 * Francis Moore (1657–1715), physician and astrologer, originator of Old Moore's Almanack.
 * Elizabeth Jeffries (1727–1752) was an English woman executed for murder
 * Thomas Percy (1729–1811) was Bishop of Dromore, County Down, Ireland
 * Mary Martha Sherwood (1775-1851), children's author, lived at Bridgnorth between 1795 and her marriage in 1803, in a house in the High Street.
 * William Macmichael (1783–1839) physician and medical biographer, author of The Gold-Headed Cane (1827)
 * Samuel Bache (1804–1876) was an English Unitarian minister

Active after 1900

 * Henry Southwell CMG VD (1860-1937), Church of England clergyman, later Bishop of Lewes 1920/1926, was from Bridgnorth, where his family lived at Woodlands Hall.
 * Henry Cope Colles (1879 in Bridgnorth-1943) music critic and lexicographer
 * Sir Terence O'Connor KC, MP (1891–1940) a Conservative Party politician, MP for Luton 1924/1929 and Nottingham Central 1930/1940 and Solicitor General 1936/1940
 * John Dudley North (1893–1968), CBE, HonFRAeS, MIMechE, was chairman and managing director of Boulton Paul Aircraft
 * Katharine St. George (1894 in Bridgnorth–1983) was a Republican member of the US House of Representatives and cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
 * Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson VC (1894–1916) Canadian and British Army officer, posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
 * Elizabeth Dilys Powell, CBE (1901–1995) journalist who wrote for The Sunday Times for over fifty years, best known as a film critic.
 * Air Commodore Cathcart Wight-Boycott CBE DSO and bar MA (1910–1998) fighter pilot during WW2 and then a senior RAF officer.
 * Ross Antony (born 1974) musical actor, singer, TV entertainer in Germany.
 * Peter Bullock (1937–2008) soil scientist, worked on soil morphology and land degradation.
 * George Helon (born 1965) Freeman of the City of London, author, businessman and historian.
 * Dominic Sandbrook (born 1974) historian, author, columnist and TV presenter.

Sport

 * Richard Colley (1833-1902) first-class cricketer for Oxford University and county player for Oxfordshire and Shropshire, retired to Bridgnorth where he died.
 * Ken Armstrong (born 1959) former footballer, about 170 pro appearances, injured, became NHS manager in Tayside.
 * Trevor Meredith (born 1936) footballer, 270 pro appearances, mainly for Shrewsbury Town.
 * Gareth Mumford (born 1973) cricketer
 * Craig Parnham (born 1973) field hockey defender and coach, represented GB in the 2000 & 2004 Summer Olympics.
 * David Preece (1963–2007), midfield footballer, played three times for the England B team.
 * Ashley Westwood (born 1976) former footballer and football manager; made over 400 pro appearances mainly for Crewe Alex, Sheffield Wednesday F.C. and Wrexham F.C.

Twin towns
Bridgnorth is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme, France
 * 🇩🇪 Schrobenhausen, Germany

title: Bridgnorth


text:
Woodwardian Professor of Geology

The Woodwardian Professor of Geology is a professorship held in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. It was founded by John Woodward in 1728 under the title of Professor of Fossils. Woodward's will left to the University a large collection of fossils and also dictated that the professor should be elected by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely, the President of the Royal Society, the President of the Royal College of Physicians, the Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, and the University Senate.

Incumbents of the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology

 * Conyers Middleton, 1731
 * Charles Mason, 1734 (died 1770 and described on his tomb in Orwell church as "Woodwardian Professor of Fossils")
 * John Michell, 1762
 * Samuel Ogden, 1764
 * Thomas Green, 1778
 * John Hailstone, 1788
 * Adam Sedgwick, 1818
 * Thomas McKenny Hughes, 1873
 * John Edward Marr, 1917
 * Owen Thomas Jones, 1930
 * William Bernard Robinson King, 1943
 * Oliver Meredith Boone Bulman, 1955
 * Harry Blackmore Whittington, 1966-1983
 * Ian Nicholas McCave, 1985-2008
 * David A. Hodell, 2008-

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Woodwardian Professor of Geology


text:
Bridport

Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, 2 mi inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour also known as Bridport Harbour.

The town features as Port Bredy in Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels. In the 21st century, Bridport's arts scene has expanded with an arts centre, theatre, cinema and museum.

In the 2011 census the population of Bridport's built-up area was 13,568. The town is twinned with Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, France.

History
Bridport's origins are Saxon. During the reign of King Alfred it became one of the four most important settlements in Dorset – the other three being Dorchester, Shaftesbury and Wareham – with the construction of fortifications and establishment of a mint.

Bridport's name probably derives from another location nearby. In the early 10th century the Burghal Hidage recorded the existence of a fortified centre or burh in this area, called 'Brydian', which is generally accepted as referring to Bridport. 'Brydian' means 'place at the (River) Bride', and this name may have come from an earlier burh in the Bride Valley a few miles to the east, which perhaps was abandoned or not completed in favour of the harbour site at Bridport. A probable location for an earlier burh is at Littlebredy. In 1086 the Domesday Book recorded that the town was called 'Brideport'; 'port' is Old English for a market town, thus 'Brideport' may have described the market town belonging to or associated with Bredy. At a later date, in a reversal of a more typical derivation, the town lent its name to the river on which it stood; previously this had been the River Wooth, but it became the River Brit.

The Domesday Book recorded that Bridport had 120 houses in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). In 1253 the town was awarded its first charter by Henry III, and by the subsequent reign of Edward I Bridport sent two members to Parliament. In the 14th and 15th centuries, like other Dorset coastal towns, Bridport suffered heavy losses due to frequent outbreaks of the Black Death; one 14th-century account by Geoffrey Baker recorded that the disease "almost stripped the seaports of Dorset of their inhabitants". Around this time the town was also subjected to attacks by raiding French and Spanish forces.

Since the Middle Ages Bridport has been associated with the production of rope and nets. The earliest official record of this industry dates from 1211, when King John ordered that Bridport make "as many ropes for ships both large and small and as many cables as you can". The raw materials needed, flax and hemp, used to be grown in the surrounding countryside, though they were superseded in modern times by artificial fibres such as nylon. Bridport's main street is particularly wide due to it previously having been used to dry the ropes, after they had been spun in long gardens behind the houses. Ropes for gallows used to be made in the town, hence the phrase "stabbed with a Bridport dagger" being used to describe a hanging.

In the English Civil War (1642–1651) the population of Bridport mainly supported the royalists. At the end of the war in 1651 Charles II briefly stayed in the town at the George inn as he sought to escape Parliamentarian forces after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. Local loyalty to the king again played a part in the first action in the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion when on 16 June 1685, 40 cavalry and 400 foot soldiers, commanded for Monmouth, moved on from Lyme Regis to Bridport, where they encountered 1,200 men from the local royalist Dorset militia. The skirmish ended with retreat of the rebel force, although many of the militiamen deserted and joined Monmouth's army.

Many buildings in Bridport, particularly in the main street, date from the 18th century. Bridport Town Hall was built in 1785–6, with its clock tower and cupola added about twenty years later. Older buildings can be found in South Street, and include the 13th-century St. Mary's parish church, the 14th-century chantry and the 16th-century Bridport Museum.

The population of Bridport in 1841 was 4,787. During the 19th century Bridport's population grew little, unlike many Dorset towns, although many sturdy buildings were constructed at this time, showing that at least parts of the population remained prosperous. In 1857 the Bridport Railway was opened, which joined the town with the existing national rail network. This benefitted the town's textile industry and brought cheaper goods such as coal to the area. In 1884 the line was extended from Bridport's station to a new terminus on the coast at Bridport Harbour, which was renamed West Bay as part of attempts to promote it as a resort. The West Bay extension closed to passengers in 1930 and all traffic in 1962. The entire Bridport line closed in 1975.

Governance
In the UK national parliament, Bridport is within the West Dorset parliamentary constituency. , the Member of Parliament (MP) is Chris Loder of the Conservative Party. In local government, Bridport is governed by Dorset Council at the highest tier, and Bridport Town Council at the lowest tier.

In national parliament and local council elections, Dorset is divided into several electoral wards, with Bridport forming two of these: Bridport North and Bridport South. In county council elections, Dorset was divided into 42 electoral divisions, with Bridport being within two: Bridport Electoral Division (the majority of the town) and Bride Valley Electoral Division (includes Bothenhampton, Bradpole and St Andrew's Well).

After 2019 structural changes to local government in England, Bridport is part of the Bridport ward which elects 3 members to Dorset Council.

Geography
Bridport is in the county of Dorset in South West England. Measured directly, it is about 14 mi west of the county town Dorchester, 15.5 mi SSW of Yeovil in Somerset, 33 mi east of Exeter in Devon and 1.5 mi inland from the English Channel at West Bay. The town centre is sited between the small River Brit and its tributary the Asker, about 0.5 mi north of their confluence, at an altitude of 10 - 15 m. Another small tributary, the River Simene, also joins the Brit to the west of the town centre.

Bridport is composed of several small suburban districts, some of which used to be separate villages. These include Allington, Skilling, Coneygar, Bothenhampton, Bradpole, Court Orchard and St Andrew's Well. One and a half miles from the town centre and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour known as Bridport Harbour until the arrival of the railway.

The geology of Bridport comprises rocks formed in the Pliensbachian, Toarcian, Aalenian, Bajocian, Bathonian and Callovian ages of the Jurassic Period, overlain by superficial Quaternary deposits of alluvium alongside the rivers. There are several faults in the area, including the Mangerton Fault, which is aligned SSW-NNE and runs from West Bay up the valleys of the River Brit and Mangerton River. This intersects with several E-W faults, including three in the lower Brit Valley, between Bothenhampton and West Bay, that run east, and two, north of the town centre, that run west. The land beneath the town centre and to the west and southwest (around the neighbourhood of Skilling) is mostly Eype Clay, a micaceous mudstone/siltstone, though slightly younger Down Cliff Sand crowns the hill at Watton Cross. The hills immediately north of the town are formed from Bridport Sand, with Allington Hill and Watton Hill having small caps of Inferior Oolite. North of the hills, moving away from the town's built-up area, undifferentiated Down Cliff Sand and Thorncombe Sand is separated from the Bridport Sand of the hills in most places by a band of Beacon Limestone. The hills east of the town, around Walditch and Loders, are also mostly of Bridport Sand capped by Inferior Oolite, with the Beacon Limestone outcropping near their base and the undifferentiated sands closer to the town. To the south east however, the faults running east from the lower Brit Valley are associated with a change to slightly younger material, mostly calcareous mudstones and sandstones (Fuller's Earth, Frome Clay and Forest Marble), with small outcrops of Cornbrash limestone and Kellaways Formation to the south of Bothenhampton parish church.

The coast at Bridport is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site that covers a continuous 96 mi of coastline in Dorset and neighbouring east Devon. Chesil beach starts at Portland and ends at West Bay. The east pier of West Bay is at the east end of Chesil beach. All of the town is also within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a protected landscape designation of national significance. The town's most notable landmark is the conical Colmers Hill, its distinctive shape and small clump of summit trees being very noticeable from West Street.

Bridport is a Met Office coastal weather observation point.

Demography
The built-up area of Bridport extends into the neighbouring parishes of Allington, Bradpole and Bothenhampton, as well as covering Bridport parish. In the 2011 census the population of these four parishes was 13,568. The 2012 mid-year estimate of the population of Bridport's built-up area is 14,697.

The change in the population of Bridport parish only over preceding decades—not including neighbouring parishes—is shown in the table below.

According to council tax records, in 2014 the proportion of homes within Bridport's built-up area that were second homes was 4.8%. The figure for Bridport parish alone was 5.6%.

Economy
Writing in 1965, Ralph Wightman stated that "in the best possible meaning of the word Bridport has always been an industrial town, and its industries always had a connection with the countryside and the sea [...] Bridport has not had any industrial revolution. It has not blasted the countryside, and it has escaped the worst depressions. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that it has always been famous for good food and drink".

In 2012 there were 4,900 people employed in Bridport, 59% of whom were employed full-time and 41% part-time. The most important types of employment were distribution, accommodation and food (39% of non-agricultural employment), public administration, education and health (20%), production (18%) and construction (9%), with the remaining 14% accounted for by finance, ICT and other services. Major employers in the area include AmSafe, Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust, Denhay Farms, Dorset Community NHS Trust, Dorset County Council, Edwards Sports Products, Gundry Bridport Ltd, Morrisons and Waitrose. Several firms in the town continue Bridport's heritage of rope and netmaking: Gundry Bridport Ltd manufacture rope and nets, AmSafe – formed by the industrial division of Gundry Bridport in 1979 – specialise in the design and manufacture of textile safety products for aerospace and defence, and Edwards Sports Products, operating in the town since 1884, manufacture sport nets for major events. Other companies in the town include Palmer's Brewery (JC & RH Palmer Ltd) and valve-manufacturer Curtiss Wright. There are seven business estates in and around the town: Gore Cross Business Park (6.1 hectares or 15 acres), St Andrews Trading Estate (2.4 hectares or 5.9 acres), North Mills Trading Estate (2.2 hectares or 5.4 acres), St Michael's Trading Estate (1.8 hectares or 4.4 acres), Dreadnought Trading Estate (1.6 hectares or 4.0 acres), Pineapple Business Park (1 hectare or 2.5 acres) and Old Laundry/Sea Road North (0.55 hectares or 1.4 acres).

Bridport has a twice-weekly street market and monthly farmers' market. In 2005 there were 128 shops in the town, with a floorspace totalling 119000 sqft. Several national chains have stores in the town, including WHSmith, Boots, Morrisons, Co-op, Superdrug, Waitrose, and Fat Face. The food retail catchment area of the town extends up to 5 miles north, east and west, and in 2001 had a population of 19,200. R J Balson & Son, a butcher's shop on West Allington, is known as "England's Oldest Family Butchers", and claims a continuous line of family butchers back to the year 1515. According to the Institute for Family Business, it is the oldest continuously trading family business in the UK.

West Bay is the nearest port to Bridport. West Bay harbour was used by ships carrying cargoes of timber during part of the 1970s.

Culture, art and media
In the 21st century, Bridport's arts scene has contributed to the town becoming increasingly popular with people from outside the locality. It has an arts centre, theatre, library, cinema and museum, and several annual events.

Bridport Arts Centre originated in the early 1970s when local activists bought an old Wesleyan chapel and adjacent schoolroom on South Street and converted them into a theatre and art gallery—named the Allsop Gallery in memory of broadcaster and local resident Kenneth Allsop. The centre hosts a diverse programme of cultural events and since the 1990s has received funding from the Arts Council. In 1973 the centre founded the Bridport Prize, an annual international poetry and short story competition described by its patron Fay Weldon as "a prize really worth fighting for in terms of prestige and genuine literary accomplishment".

The Electric Palace Cinema has occupied its existing site since 1926. It closed down in 1999 but an ensuing campaign to 'Save the Palace' resulted in the building being listed before being bought by a new owner and refurbished to include a digital projector, auditorium murals, a new restaurant and art deco bar. It reopened in 2007 and in March 2009 hosted the world premiere of The Young Victoria.

The Lyric Theatre, which reopened in 2010, hosts quirky theatre, puppetry, comedy, clowning and music. It is also the base of children's theatre company Stuff and Nonsense. Bridport Museum, located in South Street, includes an extensive exhibition of the town's long history of rope-making.

Bridport features as 'Port Bredy' in the fictional 'Wessex' of Thomas Hardy's novels, and is the setting for Eden Phillpotts' 1918 novel The Spinners. Frederick Harcourt Kitchin, under the pseudonym Bennet Copplestone, used the area in his 1922 novel The Treasure of Golden Cap.

Events
Bridport holds a number of festivals. The Bridport Literary Festival has been running since 2005 and has played host to literary figures such as Elizabeth Jane Howard, Victoria Glendinning, Minette Walters and Fay Weldon. Bridport Food Festival is held in late June at Asker Meadow. It showcases locally produced foods for which the area is well known. The Food Festival week concludes with the Round Table Beer Festival. Since 2010, there has been an annual Hat Festival which takes place in 'Bucky Doo Square' for a weekend every September. An annual Christmas Tree Festival is held every December in the United Church. Over sixty trees are decorated by local and national charities, with visitors able to make donations.

Bridport holds an annual carnival on the third Saturday in August. The main feature is a carnival parade of floats, walking acts and majorettes, with other attractions including a car boot sale, fete and funfair. After the carnival South Street is closed for the night as live music is played while people dance in the street. The funfair is also open late. On the following night a torchlight procession takes place, with 1,500 torches carried 2 miles from the town centre to a bonfire at West Bay. This is followed by live music and fireworks. West Bay's funfair opens until late. The events raise money for local good causes and organisations.

Melplash Show, described by its organisers as "the South West’s premier agricultural exhibition", is held annually on the showground at West Bay on the Thursday before the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Local artists in Bridport and the surrounding area open up their studios as part of Bridport Open Studios, which marked its 15th year in 2013. The event takes place over the three days of the August Bank Holiday weekend and over 100 artists participate. The popularity of the event has led to three more open events in November, Easter and May. The biggest artist led venue is the St Michael's Studio complex on the St Michael's Trading Estate. It provides studios for 25 artists and attracted over 700 visitors to the 2009 event.

Other one-day events include the West Bay Wallow, a charity swim event in which participants often wear fancy dress, organised by the Bridport Round Table on Boxing Day, and a raft race in the River Brit basin, also at West Bay, in July; it is organised by the RNLI and participants race in homemade rafts and usually wear fancy dress. It has been run for over forty years and attracts thousands of spectators, with money raised for the RNLI.

Media
Bridport has one local weekly newspaper, the Bridport News, owned by Newsquest and published on Thursdays. The Dorset Echo also serves Bridport.

Bridport receives BBC Spotlight and ITV West Country television, transmitted in digital from the Stockland Hill Transmitter and a digital relay transmitter based at Highlands End. Local radio includes Greatest Hits Radio and BBC Radio Solent.

Bridport has one community website, Bridport Radio, which uses a newspaper style format. It mixes local information with comedic made-up news stories. The site allows users to comment on local subjects.

Filming location
Bridport and the surrounding area was used to film Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Channel 4 television programme River Cottage and the BBC dramas Harbour Lights starring Nick Berry and Rockliffe's Folly starring Ian Hogg. West Bay was used to film the 1950s film The Navy Lark (based on the radio series of the same name), the opening credits of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and much of the filming of the crime drama Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, and was written by Chris Chibnall who lives in Bridport.

Transport
The A35 trunk road between Honiton and Southampton passes around the centre of Bridport on a bypass. Routes which start in the town include the A3066, which heads north through Beaminster towards Crewkerne, and the B3157 coast road to Weymouth. The busiest main route in the Bridport area is the A35 west of the town at Miles Cross, which in 2012 had an average of 15,200 vehicles per day – this was an 85% increase over vehicle numbers in 1983, but a 3% decrease compared to 2007. Other main routes around the town have experienced similar changes. Bridport is quite some distance from the UK motorway network with the nearest motorway access at junction 25 of the M5 at Taunton, 32 miles (51 km) away via the B3162 and A358 roads.

Bridport railway station was closed in May 1975, along with the Bridport – Maiden Newton branch line. The nearest railway stations to Bridport are Maiden Newton, Crewkerne, Dorchester (West and South) and Axminster. There is a bus service (X51) linking the railway stations in Axminster, Dorchester and Weymouth, and another (X53) between Axminster and Weymouth via Bridport. There are a few buses a day northwards to Beaminster, Crewkerne and Yeovil, although travelling beyond Beaminster often involves a change. In 2017 Dorset County Council cut all rural bus subsidies in the area and so most of the surrounding villages are not served by scheduled services, with the exception of buses provided mainly for school transport but upon which the public is allowed to travel.

The nearest port with scheduled passenger services is Poole, although pleasure trips occasionally operate from Weymouth. The nearest international airports are Exeter and Bournemouth.

Education
Primary schools in Bridport are Bridport Primary School, St Mary's CE VC Primary School, St Catherine's RC Primary School and Symondsbury CE VC Primary School. The Sir John Colfox Academy is the town's only secondary school. It is located on the outskirts of the town and serves ages 11 to 18. The sixth form is combined with Beaminster School in nearby Beaminster. Children also attend other secondary schools within the region: The Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, Colyton Grammar School in east Devon, and the Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester. There are daily buses running to these schools from Bridport. Further and higher education in the region is provided by Yeovil College, Weymouth College, Kingston Maurward College and Bournemouth University.

Religion
St Mary's Church was founded in the 13th century though much of it dates from the 15th century and it was substantially restored and altered in the 19th century. There is a 17th-century brass in St. Catherine's Chapel that commemorates Edward Coker who was killed in 1685 during the Monmouth Rebellion. There is a strong connection with the Bridport United Church (Methodist/URC) and the two hold joint services, study groups and children's holiday clubs. The parish is linked with Roumois in the Diocese of Évreux, Normandy. The church has a maximum capacity of 400 and hosts many events. It has a peal of eight bells.

Opposite the church is a Society of Friends Meeting House. There has been a Quaker presence in the town since the middle of the 17th century. George Fox visited the Friends in the town in 1655 and said, "A fine Meeting there is there." The Bridport Quaker Meeting still meets for worship on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.

Bridport has a history of nonconformism; a Dissenters' Academy was built in the town in 1768, and by 1865 the single Anglican church, St Mary's, was outnumbered by non-Church-of-England establishments by seven to one. The Wesleyan chapel on South Street, now the Bridport Arts Centre, is a Grade II listed building; it was erected in 1838, designed by James Wilson of Bath, Somerset, and built by Charles and Joseph Galpin of Bridport.

The Unitarian "Chapel in the Garden", on the north side of East Street, provides a neutral development resource for an open faith community.

Notable buildings
Within the parishes of Bridport, Allington, Bradpole and Bothenhampton are 514 structures that are listed by Historic England for their historical or architectural interest. Three of these are listed as Grade I (the designation of highest significance), seventeen are Grade II*, and the rest are Grade II. The three Grade I structures are Bridport Town Hall, the Parish Church of St Mary, and Holy Trinity Old Church in Bothenhampton. The seventeen Grade II* structures are: Bridport Museum, The Chantry and Daniel Taylor's almshouses (and wall of the Friends' burial place) in South Street;   No. 34 and Granville House in West Street;  the Literary and Scientific Institute (the old library), Granby House Masonic Hall, No.9 and the walls to the garden behind No.74 in East Street;     Nos.133–139 (one structure) and the Church of St Swithun in North Allington;  Nos. 27 and 29 (one structure) in West Allington; Downe Hall in Rawles Way; the Unitarian chapel in Rax Lane; Berry Farmhouse on Lower Walditch Lane; Messrs Norman goods warehouse in West Bay; and the new Holy Trinity Church in Bothenhampton.

Sport and leisure

The town's football club is Bridport F.C., known as "The Bees". They currently play in the Western Football League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 and the home ground is St. Mary's Field. The town's rugby union club is Bridport RFC. Bridport & West Dorset Golf Club is situated atop of the east cliff at West Bay. The club has an 18-hole links course, driving range and pitch and putt course. Bridport Barracudas Swimming Club is based at Bridport Leisure Centre. A Water Polo section has junior and senior teams competing in the Dorset Water Polo League. Water Polo matches are held in summer in the outer harbour at West Bay, continuing a tradition dating back to 1898. The area also hosts a real tennis court, one of 27 in the UK. Hyde court, near the village of Walditch, was renovated and re-opened in 1998 with the aid of a lottery grant. Bowling is represented by Bridport Bowling Club, in Priory Lane (flat green outdoors in summer and short mat in winter), and Bridport Indoor Bowling Club in Shoe Lane.

Notable people
Notable people connected with Bridport and its environs include Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham and rock musician singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, who were born there, as was first-class cricketer William Hounsell. American painter John Hubbard was based there in the 1960s and 1970s. Writer Tom Sharpe moved to the town in 1978, and socialist musician Billy Bragg lives at nearby Burton Bradstock. Restaurateur Mark Hix grew up in Bridport.

title: Bridport


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Hexham

Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. In 2011, it had a population of 13,097.

Smaller towns and villages around Hexham include Corbridge, Riding Mill, Stocksfield and Wylam to the east, Acomb and Bellingham to the north, Allendale to the south and Haydon Bridge, Bardon Mill and Haltwhistle to the west. Newcastle upon Tyne is 25 mi to the east and Carlisle 37 mi to the west.

Toponym
The name Hexham derives from the Old English Hagustaldes ea and later Hagustaldes ham from which the modern form (with the "-ham" element) derives. Hagustald is related to the Old High German hagustalt, denoting a younger son who takes land outside the settlement; the element ea means "stream" or "river" and ham is the Old English form of the Modern English "home" (and the Scots and Northern English "hame").

History
Hexham Abbey originated as a monastery founded by Wilfrid in 674. The crypt of the original monastery survives, and incorporates many stones taken from nearby Roman ruins, probably Corbridge or Hadrian's Wall.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Manuscript D: Cotton Tiberius B IV) records the murder of King Ælfwald by Sicga at Scythlecester (which may be modern Chesters) on 23 September 788: This year Alfwald, king of the Northumbrians, was slain by Siga, on the ninth day before the calends of October; and a heavenly light was often seen on the spot where he was slain. He was buried at Hexham in the church. ''Her wæs Alfwald Norðhymbra cyning ofslægen fram Sigan on .viiii. Kalendas Octobris, 7 heofonlic leoht wæs lome gesewen þær þær he ofslægen wæs, 7 he wæs bebyrged on Hagustaldesee innan þære cyrican.''

Like many towns in the Anglo-Scottish border area and adjacent regions, Hexham suffered from the border wars between the kingdoms of Scotland and England, including attacks from William Wallace who burnt the town in 1297. In 1312, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, demanded and received £2000 from the town and monastery in order for them to be spared a similar fate. In 1346 the monastery was sacked in a later invasion led by King David II of Scotland.

In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Hexham was fought somewhere to the south of the town; the actual site is disputed. The defeated Lancastrian commander, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, was executed in Hexham marketplace. There is a legend that Queen Margaret of Anjou took refuge after the battle in what is known as The Queen's Cave, where she was accosted by a robber; the legend formed the basis for an 18th-century play by George Colman the Younger (The Battle of Hexham); but it has been established that Queen Margaret had fled to France by the time the battle took place. The Queen's Cave in question is on the south side of the West Dipton Burn, to the southwest of Hexham.

Until 1572, Hexham was the administrative centre of the former Liberty or Peculiar of Hexhamshire.

In 1715, James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, raised the standard for James Francis Edward Stuart in Hexham Market place.

"Hexham" was used in the Borders as a euphemism for "Hell". Hence the term "To Hexham wi' you an' ye’r whussel!", recorded in 1873, and the popular expression "Gang to Hexham!". "Hexham-birnie" is derived from the term and means "an indefinitely remote place".

Hexham riot
In 1761, the Hexham Riot took place in the Market Place when a crowd protesting about changes in the criteria for serving in the militia were fired upon by troops from the North Yorkshire Militia. Some 45 protesters were killed, earning the Militia the sobriquet of The Hexham Butchers.

Notable buildings
Hexham's architectural landscape is dominated by Hexham Abbey. The current church largely dates from c. 1170–1250, in the Early English Gothic style of architecture. The choir, north and south transepts and the cloisters, where canons studied and meditated, date from this period.

The abbey stands at the west end of the market place, which is home to the Shambles, a covered market built by Sir Walter Blackett in 1766; it is a Grade II* listed building.

At the east end of the market place stands the Moot Hall, originally commissioned as a gatehouse that was part of the defences of the town. The Moot Hall, which is considered one of the best examples of a medieval courthouse in the north of England, is a Grade I listed building.

The Old Gaol, behind the Moot Hall on Hallgates, was one of the first purpose-built jails in England. It was built between 1330 and 1333 and is a Grade I listed building.

The Leazes on Shaws Lane is a Grade II listed mansion built in 1853 by John Dobson for William Kinsopp.

Hexham Library and the Queen's Hall Art Centre can both be found in the Queen's Hall, completed in 1866. The building contains the Brough Local Studies Collection which is the second-largest local history collection in the county.

Dare Wilson Barracks, the home of X Company, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was completed in 1891.

Governance
Hexham is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham. Guy Opperman has been the Conservative member of parliament for Hexham since May 2010. In 2023 Joe Morris was selected to stand as the Labour Party candidate at the next General Election. The town comes under Northumberland County Council and contains three wards: Hexham Central with Acomb, Hexham East and Hexham West.

Local media
The Hexham Courant is the local newspaper, serving Hexham and Tynedale since 1864. It was first launched by J. Catherall & Co., and at that time espoused the Liberal cause. It later absorbed the Conservative-supporting Hexham Herald. In 1977, CN Group acquired the newspaper.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees.

Hexham's local radio stations are BBC Radio Newcastle on 103.7 FM, Capital North East on 105.8 FM, Heart North East on 96.4 FM, Smooth North East on 101.2 FM and Hits Radio North East on 103.2 FM.

Horse racing from the town's course on Yarridge Heights is regularly featured on telecasts by Racing UK and other selected broadcasters. Regular sound broadcasts of cricket commentary for Tynedale CC can be heard via the internet during summer on Spreaker Internet Radio.

Education
Hexham is served by state first, middle and high schools and uses the three-tier system as does the rest of Northumberland. Queen Elizabeth High School, partly located in a former hydropathic hotel, is the town's major educational centre. The nearest private school is Mowden Hall School, a prep school located 10 mi away in Stocksfield.

Air
The nearest airport to Hexham is Newcastle International Airport, which is located around 20 mi away by road. Carlisle Lake District Airport and Teesside International Airport are located around 32 and 58 mi away by road, respectively.

Rail
The town is served by Hexham, a station on the Tyne Valley Line. It is situated on part of the original Newcastle and Carlisle Railway route, dating back to 1837, and links the city of Newcastle upon Tyne with Carlisle. The line follows the course of the River Tyne through Northumberland.

Services on the Tyne Valley Line are currently operated by Northern Trains. As of the December 2019 timetable change, the station is served by a twice-hourly service heading west towards Carlisle, and three trains per hour heading east towards Newcastle.

Road
Hexham is served by the A69 road, which runs for 54 mi from Carlisle to Newcastle upon Tyne. This road serves as an alternative to the original route, the A695, which runs from Hexham to Newcastle upon Tyne, serving Corbridge, Stocksfield, Prudhoe and Blaydon.

Hexham Bus Station
The original bus station was located at Priestpopple, dating back to the 1930s. In November 2016, the bus station was relocated to its current site at Dene Avenue – at a cost of £2.28 million.

Go North East provide most services in and around Hexham, with local services operating under the Tynedale Links brand. The AD122 tourist bus service operates year-round with increased services during the summer months, serving a number of locations along Hadrian's Wall, as well as the market town of Haltwhistle. Memorably, the route number, AD122, is the date of the building of the wall.

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Awards
Hexham won the town award in the 2005 Britain in Bloom awards. In the same year, it was also named England's Favourite Market Town by the magazine Country Life.

Hexham was voted the happiest place to live in Britain, 2019 and 2021.

Economy
The major employer in Hexham is Egger (UK) Limited.

Hexham had been long famous for its manufacture of leather. Wright (1823) gives some statistics"77 men & boys employed as Leather dressers and Glove-cutters, 40 boys employed as Dusters and 1,111 women employed as Sewers. Skins dressed annually were 80,000, and 18,000 skins of dressed leather were imported. From these were made and exported annually 23,504 dozens of pairs of gloves. Dutch Oker was used in the processing, but local fell clay could be used if necessary."Tanning was a necessary allied industry and there were four tanneries, employing a score of men. In a year they dealt with 5,000 hides and 12,000 calf skins. They supplied local saddlers, bootmakers and cobblers. Hexham also had 16 master hatters, and the trade employed 40 persons. There were two woollen manufactories, worked by steam power, and two rope manufactories. There were corn water mills below the bridge. A windmill on the Sele was ruinous, but there was one still working on Tyne Green. It was, and still is a flourishing market, including a mart for cattle and other farm animals.

In Hexham the Subskimmer was designed and made by Submarine Products. The town is also the site of a chipboard factory owned by the Austrian firm Egger Retail Products GmbH, which vents steam which can be seen from miles away.

Botanical brewery Fentimans is based in Hexham.

Shopping
Hexham has many shops commonly found in other English market-towns, with five central supermarkets, multiple clothes shops, charity shops, banks, estate agents, antique shops and chemists. Cafes and coffee shops are also common in Hexham, from commercial chains to family run independents.

Sport
Hexham's racecourse is at Yarridge Heights in the hills above the town, with National Hunt (steeplechase) races throughout the year.

Tynedale Cricket Club

The town is also home to Tynedale Cricket Club, who play their home matches on Prior's Flat. (NE46 3EW)

Founded in 1888, the club has had its most successful period over the most recent 40 years when they dominated the Northumberland County League, before starting the 21st century by winning several championships in the newly created Northumberland & Tyneside Senior Cricket League.

In late 2017 Tynedale CC became a founder member of the new Northumberland & Tyneside Cricket League (NTCL), formed when a merger between NTSCL & Northumberland Cricket League was voted through by constituent clubs at the inaugural AGM held at Kingston Park Rugby Ground.

This new league will comprise six divisions with divisions 5 and 6 regionalised into north and south sections.

Twin towns

 * 🇩🇪 Metzingen, Germany
 * 🇫🇷 Noyon, France

title: Hexham


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Horncastle

Horncastle is a market town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England. It is 17 mi east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains.

Romans
Although fortified, Horncastle was not on any important Roman roads, which suggests that the River Bain was the principal route of access to it.

Roman Horncastle has become known recently as Banovallum (i. e. Wall on the River Bain). Although this Roman name has been adopted by some local businesses and the town's secondary modern school, it is not firmly known to be original. Banovallum was merely suggested in the 19th century through an interpretation of the Ravenna Cosmography, a 7th-century list of Roman towns and road-stations, and may equally have meant Caistor.

The place-name ‘Horncastle’ is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ‘Hornecastre’. It appears as ‘Hornecastra’ in the Pipe Rolls of 1130. The name means “the Roman fort in the tongue of land” between the River Bain and River Waring.

The Roman walls remain in places. One section is on display in the town's library, which was built over the top of the wall. The Saxons called the town Hyrnecastre, from which its modern name derives.

Domesday Book
Horncastle is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book with 41 households, including 29 villagers and twelve smallholders, and had 100 acre of meadow and two mills, all belonging to King William.

Church
Dating from the 13th century, well before the Reformation, the Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It is a Grade II* listed building in the Early English style, but was extensively restored 1859–1861 by Ewan Christian.

English Civil War
Four miles out is the village of Winceby, where in 1643 the Battle of Winceby helped to gain Lincolnshire for Parliament, although its leader, Oliver Cromwell, was almost killed. Local legend has it that the 13 scythe blades hanging on the wall of the south chapel of St Mary's Church were used as weapons at Winceby, but this is mainly seen as apocryphal. The historical opinion is that they probably date from the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536. Both theories on the scythes appear in the "Church History" Lincoln website.

Blood sports
Horncastle was once a centre for cockfighting and bull-baiting. The Fighting Cocks remains the name of a local pub. Bull-baiting was practised in the area known as the Bull Ring. One historian finds that the practise continued until about 1810. Both these sports were banned in England and Wales under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835.

Market and horse fair
Horncastle gained a Crown market charter in the 13th century. It was long known for its great August horse fair, a famous trading event that continued until the mid-20th century. It ended after the Second World War, when horses had largely ceased to be used on farms. The town remains a centre of the antiques trade.

The annual horse fair was probably first held in the 13th century. It would last for a week or more every August. In the 19th century it was probably the largest such event in the United Kingdom. The slogan, "Horncastle for horses", was a sign of the town's standing in this trade. The fair was George Borrow's setting for some scenes in his semi-autobiographical books Lavengro and The Romany Rye. The last was held in 1948. Livestock markets continued for pigs and cattle, the last cattle market being held in 2000.

In 1894 the Stanhope Memorial, designed by E. Lingen Barker, was raised in the centre of the Market Place in memory of Edward Stanhope MP. It is a Grade II listed structure made of limestone, red sandstone and pink and grey streaked marble.

Notable buildings
The Grade II listed Old Court House in Louth Road was built in 1865. There are 116 other listed edifices in the town, including the three places of worship – St Mary's (Grade II*), Holy Trinity (Grade II) and the Congregational Church (Grade II) – and several sections of the Roman walls (Grade I). The former Horncastle Town Hall was built as a drill hall and completed in around 1903.

Population
Historically, the civil parish lost population from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, as urbanisation and agricultural changes drew people to cities, where more work was available. However, the population since the late 20th century it has risen, to 6,815 in 2011, its highest so far. The estimated population in 2019 was still higher at 7,123.

Geography
Horncastle lies 7 miles from Woodhall Spa, 18 miles from Boston, 21 miles from Lincoln and 13 miles from Louth. It is near the main A158 road between Lincoln to Skegness, to the south of the Lincolnshire Wolds, where the north–south River Bain meets the River Waring from the east, and north of the West and Wildmore Fens. The south of Horncastle is called Cagthorpe. Langton Hill to the west was part of Horncastle Rural District in the Parts of Lindsey, but is now in the district of East Lindsey, based in Manby.

North of Horncastle are the villages of West Ashby and Low Toynton, and to their south Milestone House and Mareham on the Hill on the eastern outskirts. The Viking Way meets the River Waring, then north of the A158 the village of High Toynton. The A153 skirts the southern edge of the River Bain to reach Roughton and Thornton. The border follows the Old River Bain west of the A153 and north over the river meadows, crossing the Horncastle Canal and Viking Way. Eastwards it crosses the B1191 to the village of Langton and northwards to Thimbleby. It meets the B1190, then the A158 at the B1190 junction, following Accommodation Road to the east and skirting the north of the town along Elmhurst Road, past Elmhurst Lakes, to reach West Ashby at the River Bain near Hemingby Lane.

Economy
Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service is based at the Boston Road Industrial Estate. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is based in Banovallum House. Mortons of Horncastle is a major national magazine publisher of classic motorcycles, aviation and road transport heritage titles, based in the industrial estate off the A153 (Boston Road).

Governance
An electoral ward of the same name exists. It includes Thimbleby and had a total population at the 2011 Census of 7,073.

Politics
Horncastle has always been a safe area for the Conservative Party, except for two years in the early 1920s, when it had Liberal Party representation. It had an eponymous parliamentary constituency for 98 years, from 1885 to 1983. It then became Gainsborough and Horncastle, and after 1997 Louth and Horncastle. Henry Haslam served as MP in the Second World War and the five years of the Churchill wartime government. The veteran politician Sir Peter Tapsell was MP for the town in 1966–1983 and 1997–2015, being Father of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015. After a redistribution of parliamentary constituencies, Edward Leigh was MP from 1983–1997. In 2024 Victoria Atkins was re-elected as the Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle.

Primary schooling
Horncastle Primary School stands in Bowl Alley Lane.

Secondary schooling
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School was founded in 1571, and is among the top schools in Lincolnshire, having been at times among the top schools in the country. Its tennis, hockey, netball and cricket teams compete regionally, and the tennis team was a regional winner in the 2005 British Schools Tennis Championships. Queen Elizabeth's is a specialist Science College and Language College. Its Design and Technology department recently entered two teams in the National 4X4 for Schools engineering competition, one of which came first nationally in its age group, while the other came second nationally overall.

The Banovallum School is a non-selective community school serving Horncastle and surrounding villages; it forms a science specialist school jointly with Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. The most recent Ofsted inspection in 2019 judged the school to be overall Grade 2 (good). It had a building added in 2010, with facilities for cookery, woodwork, metalwork, art and music.

St Lawrence School is a special-needs school with a county-wide intake. It comprises the Lincolnshire Wolds Federation with St Bernard's School, Louth.

Colleges
Horncastle College was a "lifelong-learning" adult education college that ran short and residential courses in I.T., art, languages and local history. It has been replaced by Fortuna Horncastle Business Centre.

Roads
Horncastle sits at the crossroads of two major Lincolnshire roads: the east–west A158, joining the county town of Lincoln with the resort of Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast, and the north–south A153 joining Louth with Sleaford and Grantham in the south. These meet at the Bull Ring in central Horncastle.

The A158 through Horncastle becomes busy in the summer holidays with Skegness holidaymakers. To alleviate traffic pressure in the town centre a relief road, Jubilee Way, was built in the 1970s. Minor roads run from Horncastle to Bardney, Boston (via Revesby), Fulletby and Woodhall Spa.

Horncastle is a hub for the InterConnect rural bus service. Regular services run to Lincoln, Skegness and across the Wolds. The Viking Way long-distance footpath passes through the town.

Railway
The Great Northern Railway's Lincoln–Boston line ran through Kirkstead, 8 mi from Horncastle, and a branch line from Kirkstead (later Woodhall Junction) through Woodhall Spa to Horncastle opened on 11 August 1855. The last passenger service ran in 1954, with complete closure to goods traffic in 1971. Horncastle railway station was demolished in the 1980s and replaced by housing. The nearest railway station now is Metheringham (15 mi) on the Peterborough to Lincoln Line. Part of the old railway is followed by the Viking Way footpath.

Waterways
Horncastle Canal, based on the River Bain, was begun in 1792 and opened in 1802. In 2004 it was suggested that the canal be renovated with the help of private capital and promoted as a route for pleasure craft, as has been done successfully in other areas. A local kick-start programme raised money for the project.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from the Belmont TV transmitter. BBC East Midlands and ITV Central can also be received from the Waltham TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lincolnshire on 94.9 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Lincolnshire on 102.2 FM, Lincs FM, an DAB radio station and County Linx Radio that broadcast online.

The Horncastle News is the town’s weekly local newspaper.

Field games
Horncastle Town FC, founded in 1873, is an amateur club based at The Wong. It joined the Lincolnshire Football League in the 1996/1997 season.

The town's cricket club at Coronation Walk has two men's and five youth teams.

Horncastle Hockey Club is a voluntary field-hockey body set up in November 1970 at Coronation Walk, Horncastle. In 2020 it had two men's and two women's teams and a junior section.

Court games
Horncastle and District Tennis Club has served for over 70 years. Initially on grass courts in Stanhope Road, the club moved to the current Coronation Walk location in the 1970s.

Horncastle Community Members Squash Club in Hemmingby Lane was founded in November 2006 to preserve an existing club by buying out retiring owners who had run it for 25 years.

Floods
The town has been susceptible to flooding, notably in 1920 and 1960, and with three floods between 1981 and 1984.

Folk belief associates the occurrence of floods with installations of new vicars in Horncastle's Anglican Church. The vicar changed in 1919 and 1959, both less than a year before a flood. The flooding of the early 1980s was attributed to the change of vicar in 1980, but there was no flooding after the change of vicar in 1999. The River Bain and River Waring overflowed during the 2007 United Kingdom floods.

Flooding recurred in 2012. A £15 million, 30-year-old proposed flood-defence scheme was seen as unlikely to have prevented the 2012 flood, but new flood defences are being discussed. An anti-flood pump was installed in 2013.

On 7 October 1960 Horncastle entered the UK Weather Records with a "highest 180-minute total" rainfall of 178 mm. Water levels are said to have risen 8 ft as a consequence.

Real-time river levels are available from the Environment Agency:
 * River Bain at Horncastle Victoria Mill
 * River Waring at Horncastle's Banks Road

Flood warnings for the town:
 * Watermill Road, Bridge Street, St. Lawrence Street, Prospect Street and West Street areas
 * Stanhope Road, Banks Road, East Street, North Street, Wharf Road and Waring Street areas

Twin town
Horncastle is twinned with Bonnétable, a ville de marché (market town) in the French department of Sarthe, with a population of about 4,000. The towns' relationship is commemorated by a Rue Horncastle in Bonnétable and a Bonnetable Road in Horncastle (without the acute accent).

Notable people

 * Rev. William Blaxton (also William Blackstone) (1595 – 26 May 1675) was an early English settler in New England and the first European settler of modern-day Boston and Rhode Island.
 * Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) was botanist to Captain James Cook.
 * Alec Brader (born 1942) professional footballer, schoolteacher and youth athletics coach
 * Annie Dixon (1817–1901), miniature portrait painter
 * Sir Lionel Dymoke (died 1519)
 * Robert Merrick Fowler (1778–1860), a Royal Navy officer, served with Matthew Flinders and at the Battle of Pulo Aura (1804).
 * Tim Garbutt, DJ/producer and one half of the dance music act Utah Saints
 * Richard Hill (1795 - 1872), lawyer and campaigner for the rights of people of colour in Jamaica
 * Connie Lewcock (1894–1980), suffragette
 * Henry Simpson Lunn (1859–1939), religious leader and co-founder of Lunn Poly travel agents
 * William Marwood (1818–1883), public hangman
 * Erasmus Middleton (1739–1805), clergyman, author and editor
 * Ben Pridmore (born 1976), memory champion, attended school in Horncastle.
 * Samuel Roberts (1827–1913), mathematician and Fellow of the Royal Society
 * Thomas Sully (1783–1872), portrait painter
 * Emily Tennyson, Lady Tennyson (1813–1896)
 * Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), Poet Laureate, was born six miles from Horncastle in the village of Somersby. Tennyson opined, "Of all horrors, a little country town seems to me to be the greatest."
 * Arthur Thistlewood (1774–1820), radical and Cato Street conspirator, was baptised in Horncastle on 4 December 1774.
 * Robert Webb (born 1972), actor and comedian, lived in Woodhall Spa, but went to school in Horncastle.
 * Harold A. Wilson (1885–1932), 1908 Olympic athlete, was the first to run an under four-minute 1500 metres.

title: Horncastle


text:
Brad Davis (actor)

Robert Creel Davis (November 6, 1949 – September 8, 1991), known professionally as Brad Davis, was an American actor. For his debut film role as Billy Hayes in the 1978 film Midnight Express, he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor and was nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, along with BAFTA Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

Davis subsequently played the title role in the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film Querelle (1982), and appeared in such films as A Small Circle of Friends (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981), and Cold Steel (1987). He also starred in television films and miniseries.

Davis, who struggled with substance abuse issues throughout his adult life, was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and died of AIDS-related illness in 1991.

Early life
He was born in Tallahassee, Florida, to Eugene Davis, a dentist whose career declined due to alcoholism, and his wife, Anne (née Creel) Davis. His brother Gene is also an actor. Davis was known as Bobby during his youth, but took Brad as his stage name in 1973. He attended and graduated from Titusville High School.

According to a 1997 New York Times interview with his widow Susan Bluestein, Davis suffered physical abuse from his father and sexual abuse from his mother. As an adult, Davis was an alcoholic and an intravenous drug user, then became sober in 1981. Davis was bisexual.

Early acting roles
At 16, after winning a music-talent contest, Davis worked at Theater Atlanta. He later moved to New York City and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the American Place Theater where he studied acting. After a role on the soap opera How to Survive a Marriage, he performed in Off-Broadway plays.

In 1976, he was cast in the television mini-series Roots, then as Sally Field's love interest in the television film Sybil. The same year, he married casting director Susan Bluestein. They would have one child together, Alex Blue Davis (b. 1983), a musician and actor.

In 1977, he was cast as John Rambo in First Blood when John Frankenheimer was scheduled to direct the film before it was cancelled due to Orion Pictures' acquisition of Filmways.

Midnight Express and stardom
His most successful film role was as the main character Billy Hayes in Midnight Express (1978), for which he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut – Actor. He was nominated for a similar award at that year's BAFTA Awards, in addition to receiving Best Actor nominations at both ceremonies (Richard Dreyfuss won for The Goodbye Girl).

In 1980, Davis would play war correspondent Phil Caputo in the biographical made-for-television film A Rumor of War. The same year, he would be top-billed for his role in the film A Small Circle of Friends.

In 1981, he played American track star Jackson Scholz in the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire.

In 1982, Davis played the title role of Georges Querelle in the film film Querelle, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film before his death by a drug overdose.

Supporting roles and television films
Davis played the lead role of Ned Weeks in The Normal Heart (1985), Larry Kramer's play about AIDS.

While continuing to play supporting roles in theatrical films, Davis appeared regularly in made-for-television films, including Chiefs, Robert Kennedy & His Times, The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy, and The Plot to Kill Hitler. He played Queeg in a 1988 television adaptation of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, directed by Robert Altman, opposite Eric Bogosian and Jeff Daniels.

Illness and death
Diagnosed with HIV in 1985, Davis kept his condition private until shortly before his death at age 41 on September 8, 1991, in Los Angeles. In 1997, his wife Susan revealed that he probably contracted HIV through intravenous drug use, and that he committed assisted suicide by a drug overdose. It was revealed in a book proposal that Davis had written before his death that he had to keep his HIV-positive status a secret to be able to continue to work and support his family.

He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.

title: Brad Davis (actor)