IWERNE-MINSTER, a parish in that part of the
hundred of SIXPENNY-HANDLEY which is in the Shaston
(West) division of the county of DORSET, 7 miles (S.)
from Shaftesbury, containing 622 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Dorset,
and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at
£10. 1. 0., endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the
Dean and Canons of Windsor. The church, dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, is a large and handsome structure,
partly in the Norman, and partly in the early English,
style, having a tower and spire one hundred and sixty-two
feet high. The small river Ewern has its source here,
from which, and the church, the parish derives its name.