- from the lofty Medieval splendour of Lady St Mary's Church to the cosiness of the quaint, bustling quay from where you can enjoy a peaceful boat trip. And Wareham's quaint back lanes are a visitor's delight: each lane opening up a new vista and unexpected delights as you walk along thoroughfares dating back hundreds of years. Visit the town at the end of July and you can join in Wareham's carnival capers as local people dress up and spend several days , enjoying themselves in a series of fun events and crazy antics to raise thousands of pounds for local charities and good causes. Wareham can easily be reached by rail from Weymouth, Poole, Bournemouth and Waterloo -the smart and convenient station being just a short, refreshing walk across the north causeway from the town. By road, the Saxon walled town of Wareham - traditionally the gateway to Purbeck is a short drive from Dorchester, Blandford, Poole and Swanage. Wareham has a fine array of shops, pubs and restaurants for every pocket, as well as its own small 1930s style cinema - the Rex in West Street - run by a dedicated band of volunteers. High up on a plateau overlooking Poole Harbour and the Dorset heath land so immortalised for readers world-wide by Thomas Hardy, Wareham is bounded by two rivers-the Piddle or Trent to the North and the Frome to the South.

Enter the quaint market town devastated but rebuilt with fine Georgian architecture after a fire in the 1762 - and you step back in time. A must for any visitor to Wareham is the town's museum in East Street- next to the splendid Victorian town hall at the market cross. You can discover Wareham in more detail by following the walks in a free visitors' guide available from the Tourist Information Centre, or take a guided walking tour of Wareham by a Blue Badge Tourist Guide. You can discover Wareham in more detail by following the walks in a free visitors' guide available from the Tourist Information Centre, or take a guided walking tour of Wareham by a Blue Badge Tourist Guide.

Brief History of Wareham

Wareham. A small riverside town, with much to Interest the visitors lying between the rivers Piddle and Frome, with surviving earthen defences around three sides dating from the time of King Alfred (later 9th century). Captured by the Vikings in 876, who over wintered here. The town seems to have developed inside the defences from the 10th century. Until the 14th century Wareham was a port, but the increasing size of ships and the silting of the river led to the use of Poole at the expense of Wareham. Most recent development Is over the river valley to the north, so that the town is still bounded on the east. north and partly on the west by the Saxon banks, which were refurbished In the Norman period, and heightened on the west during the Second World War.

It is possible to walk around the town on these grassy banks (called the Town Walls) which give good views, especially on the north. Many later 18th and early 19th century houses line all the main streets dating from after a bad fire in 1762, and two thatched cottages survive in the town. East Street has fine almshouses of 1741, with an interesting little bell cote. Opposite is Wareham Town Museum , a large room containing local and natural history exhibits. Further east the street is mostly residential, with a small market at the end. The horrid town hall in the centre is of 1870, by Crickmay and particularly unfortunately it faces The Red Lion and other fine 18th century buildings. West Street has many good houses and the Rex a gas-lit early cinema, and South Street has the elegant three stored stone manor house, with opposite, set back from the street, the rather odd facade of the Unitarian Chapel of 1830, now the Conservative Club. Further down is the Black Bear Hotel with superb restored bow windows, and a huge bear. Trinity church's 16th century tower can be seen below - the church is now used as a picture gallery. Right on the river is the Quay, a pleasant 2-sided square where the river can be admired, boats hired, or boat trips taken. Immediately to the east is Church Green, and south of the church is The Priory (now an hotel) a 16th and 17th century building with later alterations on the site of the medieval priory. St Mary's church preserved until the 1840's a large late Saxon nave, which was then demolished to make way for a very plain new one. It would be difficult to forgive the new nave even lf It was charming and it is not. The chancel is basically 14th century with a fine east window and two 13th century Purbeck Marble effigies of knights. To the south is the little medieval chapel of St Edward (martyred at Corfe In 978 - his body was here for a year), with 13th century vaulting and window, Norman doorway. Plaque to the Rev John Hutchins, the county historian who was Wareham's rector from 1744 and died in 1773. He was away when the great fire of Wareham (1762) broke out and but for 'the care and presence of mind of Mrs Hutchins who preserved his MS not without hazard to herself' his great history would have been lost. In the north-east corner of the nave, some loose and some set in the wall, are rather insignificant looking scratched carvings, memorials, in Latin and a strange script dating from between the late 7th and early 9th centuries, a tenuous link with the Celtic population of Dorset, as their form is purely Celtic. The superb lead font is 12th century, and probably shows the Apostles. The fine tower is 15th century on top of which is a weather vane of a salmon (still caught In the river). In the middle of North Walls, In North Street is St Martin's church, the only Saxon church in Dorset surviving in anything like its original state. Well worth visiting both for the building of 1030 and the superb full length marble effigy of T E Lawrence (died 1935) in Arab dress, by Eric Kennington. In the south west quarter of the town is a large mound with a Victorian house on it. This was the castle but no medieval buildings survive. It was probably built soon after the Norman conquest, but was overtaken in importance by Corfe. Stoborough is almost a rural extension of Wareham, Just across the river valley. The road crosses this on a causeway.