Beaminster is a village as well as civil parish in Dorset, England, located in the Dorset Council administrative location roughly 15 miles (24 kilometres) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the small River Brit. The 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of Beaminster church is 3,100. In its background Beaminster has actually been a centre of manufacture of linen as well as woollens, the raw materials for which were generated in the surrounding countryside. The town experienced three major fires in the 17th and 18th centuries; the initial of these, throughout the English Civil War, nearly destroyed the textile of the town. Beaminster parish church is significant for its style, especially its tower.