Bincombe

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Bincombe
Dorset
Bincombe - geograph.org.uk - 913838.jpg
Bincombe
Location
Grid reference: SY685846
Location: 50°39’37"N, 2°26’45"W
Data
Population: 514  (2011)
Post town: Weymouth
Postcode: DT3
Dialling code: 01305
Local Government
Council: Dorset
Parliamentary
constituency:
West Dorset
Website: www.bincombe.co.uk

Bincombe is a small village, or hamlet,[1] in Dorset, standing five miles north of Weymouth.

The village is a mile from Upwey railway station. The main road running through the village is Icen Lane. The civil parish (which includes a small part of the settlement of Broadwey to the west) had a population of 514 at the 2011 census.

The village stands on a limestone ridge three miles south of Dorchester.

The parish church, Holy Trinity Church dates from the early 13th century.[1]

History

Large military camps for the observation of the English Channel were formed on the hills in this parish in the reign of King George III, and two deserters, trying to escape with details of the different camps, were captured in the English Channel, tried by court martial and shot on Bincombe Down. Their remains are buried in the churchyard, where the stone can still be seen.[2] The same incident, differently interpreted, forms the basis of Thomas Hardy's short story, The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion.

The Master and Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, are the principal landowners.

Outside links

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References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09598-2pages 92–93
  2. Kelly’s Directory of Dorset, 1895, p25.