Coordinates: 50°46′52″N 3°00′00″W / 50.7812°N 3.0001°W
| Axminster | |
 A view of Axminster |
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Axminster
Axminster shown within Devon |
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| Population | 6,000 |
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| OS grid reference | |
| Shire county | Devon |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | AXMINSTER |
| Postcode district | EX13 |
| Dialling code | 01297 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | East Devon |
| List of places: UK • England • Devon | |
Axminster is a market town on the eastern border of Devon, England. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmouth, and is in the East Devon local government district. The market is still held every Thursday.
Axminster gave its name to a type of carpet. An Axminster-type power loom is capable of weaving high quality carpets with many varying colours and patterns. While Axminster carpet is made in the town of Axminster, this type of carpet is now manufactured all over the world.
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The town dates back to the Celtic times of around 300 BC. It lies on two major Roman roads: the Fosse Way from Lincoln to Seaton, and the Dorchester–Exeter road. There was a Roman fort on the crossroads at Woodbury Farm, just south of the present town.
Axminster was recorded in the late 9th century as Ascanmynster and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aixeministra. The name means "monastery or large church by the River Axe" and is a mixture of languages; the river name Axe has Celtic origins and mynster is an Old English word.
The history of the town is very much linked to the carpet industry, started by Thomas Whitty at Court House near the church in 1755. The completion of the early hand tufted carpets was marked by a peal of bells from the parish church as it took a great amount of time and labour to complete them.
Axminster railway station was opened on 19 July 1860, with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) offering direct services between Queen Street Station in Exeter and Yeovil. The station building was designed by the LSWR's architect Sir William Tite in mock gothic style. In 1903, the branch line from Axminster to Lyme Regis was opened. This branch line was closed with the Beeching cuts, in the 1960s. One engine has been preserved on the Bluebell Line, in Sussex, while the station was dismantled and reconstructed at New Alresford, on the Watercress Line, in Hampshire.
Axminster is the southern starting point of the Taunton Stop Line, a World War II defensive line consisting of pillboxes and anti-tank obstacles, which runs north to the Somerset coast near Highbridge.
Nearby Kilmington was used as a location for the 1998 LWT adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The celebrity chef and TV presenter Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has his River Cottage H.Q. at a 60-acre (240,000 m2) farm in the Axe valley. He has since purchased an old inn of the town to convert to an organic produce shop/market and canteen.
Axminster is located at 50°47′00″N 03°00′00″W / 50.7833333°N 3°W (50.7833, -3.0000)1.
The parish church is located at Ordnance Survey mapping six-figure grid reference SY 296985.
Devon villages within 5 miles (8.0 km) of Axminster include; Chardstock, Colyford, Combpyne, Dalwood, Hawkchurch, Kilmington, Membury, Musbury, Raymond's Hill, Rousdon, Shute, Smallridge, Tytherleigh, Uplyme and Whitford.
Axminster Museum
Backdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty East Devon Way
Forde Abbey Jurassic Coast Lambert's Castle
Loughwood Meeting House Musbury Castle Shute BartonThe town has Cloakham Lawns, the Axe Valley Sports Centre and Flamingo Swimming Pool, a library, several churches and a museum of local history. Shops include two supermarkets, a small department store and several independent retailers.
Axminster is at the crossroads of the A358 which links with the A303 at Ilminster and the A35 from Southampton to Honiton, which has been diverted by a bypass to the south of the town.
Axminster railway station is on the West of England Main Line that runs from Exeter via Salisbury to London Waterloo.
Douvres-la-Délivrande, France
Axminster is a small town in the English county of Devon, close to the Dorset border.
The famous coastal town of Lyme Regis on the Jurassic Coast can be reached by bus from Axminster train station in around 20-25 minutes.
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AXMINSTER, a market-town in the Honiton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the river Axe, 27 m. E. by N. of Exeter by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 2906. The minster, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, illustrates every style of architecture from Norman to Perpendicular. There are in the chancel two freestone effigies, perhaps of the r4th century, besides three sedilia, and a piscina under arches. Axminster was long celebrated for the admirable quality of its carpets, which were woven by hand, like tapestry. Their manufacture was established in 1755. Their name is preserved, but since the seat of this industry was removed to Wilton near Salisbury, the inhabitants of Axminster have found employment in brush factories, corn mills, timber yards and an iron foundry. Cloth, drugget, cotton, leather, gloves and tapes are also made. Coaxdon House, the birthplace in 1602 of Sir Symonds d'Ewes, the Puritan historian, is about 2 m. distant, and was formerly known as St Calyst.
Axminster (Axemystre) derives its name from the river Axe and from the old abbey church or minster said to have been built by King lEthelstan. The situation of Axminster at the intersection of the two great ancient roads, Iknield Street and the Fosse Way, and also the numerous earthworks and hill-fortresses in the neighbourhood indicate a very early settlement. There is a tradition that the battle of Brunanburh was fought in the valley of the Axe, and that the bodies of the Danish princes who perished in action were buried in Axminster church. According to Domesday, Axminster was held by the king. In 1246 Reginald de Mohun, then lord of the manor, founded a Cistercian abbey at Newenham within the parish of Axminster, granting it a Saturday market and a fair on Midsummer day, and the next year made over to the monks from Beaulieu the manor and hundred of Axminster. The abbey was dissolved in 1539. The midsummer fair established by Reginald de Mohun is still held.
See Victoria County History - Devon; James Davidson, British and Roman Remains in the Vicinity of Axminster (London, 1 &33).
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Categories: AUS-AZY | South West England
Axminster
   | Axminster (DMOZ.org) - Open Directory - Regional: Europe: United Kingdom: England: Devon: Axminster |
| | Axe Valley Midweek Herald - local newspaper - Midweek Herald | East Devon news, sport, leisure, jobs, cars & homes |
| | Axminster Power Tool Centre - Axminster Power Tool Centre : Power Tools to your door |
| | A 360 degree 'virtual reality' panorama of the 12th Festival of Gardening and Crafts at Axminster - http://www.europanoramas.eu/axminster-1.htm |
| | Axe Vale Festival - an annual show held in June, which raises fund for local charities - Axe Vale Festival: Probably the best gardening and crafts festival in the South West |
| | AxminsterTown.org - The pro-enterprise, business & community website - axminstertown.org :: Home |
| | Devon Local Studies - Axminster community page - Etched on Devon's Memory |
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