AXMINSTER

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 68 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: AUD-BAI

AXMINSTER , a market-town in the Honiton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the river Axe, 27 M. E. by N. of

Exeter

EXETER
EXETER, EARL, MARQUESS AND DUKE OF

by the London &

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-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 14th century, besides three

sedilia

SEDILIA (the plural of Lat. sedile, seat)

, 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

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, 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 EEthelstan. The situation of Axminster at the intersection of the two

great

GREAT

ancient roads, Iknield Street and the Fosse Way, and also the numerous earthworks and hill-fortresses in the neighbour-hood indicate a very early

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

. 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

FAIR

on Mid-summer 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

FAIR

established by Reginald de Mohun is still held.
See Victoria County HistoryDevon; James Davidson, British and Roman Remains in the Vicinity of Axminster (London, 1833).

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