Bere Regis

Woodbury Hill, 0.5 mi east of Bere Regis village, is the site of an Iron Age contour hill-fort, the ramparts of which enclose 12 acre 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.

Having suffered extensive fires throughout its history, including the most serious in 1777, the village has lost many of its older buildings. There is, however, a selection of Georgian and Victorian buildings. The nearby hamlet of Shitterton, protected by the Bere River from the fires, still retains an extensive selection of older buildings, predominantly thatch. Amongst them is the oldest residential building in the parish; the 550-year-old Honeycombe Cottage. The oldest parts of the parish church of St John the Baptist are of the 12th century, but additions were made in the following three centuries. The tower is built of stone-and-flint chequerwork, and the timber roof of the nave is…