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East Dorset

2019 disestablishments in EnglandEast Dorset DistrictFormer non-metropolitan districts of DorsetPages with non-numeric formatnum argumentsUse British English from June 2019
East Dorset UK locator map
East Dorset UK locator map

East Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council met in Wimborne Minster between 2016 and 2019.The district (as Wimborne) was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging Wimborne Minster Urban District with Wimborne and Cranborne Rural District, plus the parish of St Leonards and St Ives transferred from the Ringwood and Fordingbridge Rural District in Hampshire. The district was renamed East Dorset with effect from 1 January 1988. The district was abolished in 2019 at the same time that Dorset County Council and the other districts in the county were abolished, with the area becoming part of the Dorset unitary authority on 1 April 2019. The popularity of the area, being close to the New Forest, Bournemouth and the Dorset coast saw a rapid expansion in housing from the 1970s with the Verwood, Ferndown, West Moors and Corfe Mullen populations more than quadrupling. Rural landscape prevailed in the north and west of the area. Wimborne Minster retained its identity as a historic market town. The most notable geography is lowland heath, managed by East Dorset Countryside Management Services in partnership with the Forestry Commission. The expansion of housing has led to a massive decrease in the area of this unusual and unique habitat, which once covered 500 km2 but now covers only 15% of that. Statistics released by the Office for National Statistics show that life expectancy at birth for males in East Dorset was 80.1 years in 2001–2003, the highest in the United Kingdom. Female life expectancy at birth for the same period was 83.4 years, ranking seventh in the UK. The figures for East Dorset during 1991-1993 were 77.9 years for males and 82.5 for females.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article East Dorset (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

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Latitude Longitude
N 50.816622222222 ° E -1.9814888888889 °
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K 3900
74722
Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland
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East Dorset UK locator map
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Museum of East Dorset
Museum of East Dorset

The Museum of East Dorset (formerly known as the Priest's House Museum) is a local museum in the town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England. It is located on the high street, opposite the Church of Wimborne Minster. The museum occupies a historic Grade II* listed building, a hall house dating from the late 16th or early 17th century.The museum is dedicated to rural life in a market town in Dorset and the exhibits are based on the daily lives of people within the house and within Wimborne and Dorset. There are also exhibits on the religious use of the building and its home to past ministers of the Minster Church. The building has been restored and many of the original features remain intact for public appreciation. Notable rooms are the 17th-century main hall and the 18th-century parlour and Victorian kitchen with its working 'Beetonette' range. Displays include reconstructions of local businesses that once ran from the building. Mr Low's Victorian stationery shop (closed up for over 30 years) and the Coles' Ironmongers were both recreated from original shop stock. In addition to the main museum house, the East Dorset Villages Gallery gives a taste of local community life from industry to shopping, school to church life, with a hands-on Victorian schoolroom. A walled garden, with seating, behind the Priest's House covers one third of an acre and is open to visitors to the house. A tea room, formerly the 1920s Boathouse, also in the garden and on the banks of the River Allen, is open to visitors. The Museum is run by an independent charitable trust. It is supported by East Dorset District Council but relies on admission income to operate.

Wimborne Model Town
Wimborne Model Town

Wimborne Model Town, situated on the edge of the town of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, is one of the largest and most established model towns in England. It depicts the town of Wimborne as it was at the time the model was originally made in the 1950s, and captures the essence of a typical market town of rural England at that time. The concrete model, built at 1/10 scale, features 120 buildings including 108 shop fronts and a 15 ft (5m) high Minster. The shop windows accurately show the goods the shops were selling in the post war years.Originally built on a site just to the north-west of the actual Wimborne Minster church, it became run-down in the 1980s, and a group of volunteers set up a charity and were given an area of 0.4 hectare (1 acre) of Green Belt land off King Street to restore the attraction. Although such use of Green Belt land would normally have been deemed inappropriate development, the District planners considered that the model's retention in the town was a 'special circumstance'. The council has since permitted over 245 square metres of temporary classroom buildings incorporating a visitors centre, cafe/gift shop, toilets etc. together with play cabins associated with the children's play area.Additional attractions have been added in recent years, including a model railway based on Thomas the Tank Engine, which was opened by Christopher Awdry. Today the model town is still run by volunteers, and is visited by thousands of people every year.