Bere Regis, Dorset - <>

Bere Regis ) is a village and civil parish in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England, situated 6mi north-west of Wareham. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 1,745.The village has one shop, a post office and two pubs, The Royal Oak and The Drax Arms. The parish church is St. John the Baptist Church. The village features in the Domesday Book.HistoryWoodbury Hill, 0.5mi east of Bere Regis village, is the site of an Iron age contour hill-fort, the ramparts of which enclose 12acre on a flat-topped spur of land.The original settlements in the parish were Shitterton, Bere Regis village and Dodding's Farm, which are all sited by the Bere or Milborne Stream. Later settlements were small farms in the Piddle Valley to the south, first recorded between the mid 13th and mid 14th centuries.Edward I made Bere Regis a free borough and it was an important market town for a long period, though all domestic buildings built before 1600 have since been destroyed by serious fires in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.GovernanceBere Regis is in an electoral ward that bears its name and includes neighbouring Bloxworth. The ward population in the 2011 census was 1,945. The ward forms part of the parliamentary constituency of Mid Dorset and North Poole. Its Member of Parliament since 2001 is the Liberal Democrat Annette Brooke.

Tags: City