Town Map
Wimborne has had its Militia since 1998 wth the largely ceremonial role of ensuring the safety of the Mayor and keeping good order in the town, but the roots of town militias
go back some considerable time further than that.
Each Lord in an area was obliged to provide an army to support the king in whatever ventures thought to be profitable to the Crown and Country and each small community was obliged to keep men in training with archery practice and other such military
training (maybe, research the area known as Hillbutts just outside
Wimborne, towards Pamphill)
Another reason in Dorset where Militia’s are found dates to the Civil War in the seventeenth Century. Dorset had supporters for Cromwell and the Parliamentarians as well as for Charles and the Crown; the Royalists - and so the armies of each side
would take whatever provisions they needed from the farms and the only thing for the agricultural workers to do was to band together in Militias to protect their property
from the ravages of both fighting forces. The ‘Clubmen’ were just such a military
group out at Hambledon Hill.
(…yet another research project !)
