Beaminster is a town as well as civil parish in Dorset, England, situated in the Dorset Council management location around 15 miles (24 kilometres) northwest of the county town Dorchester. It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the tiny River Brit. The 2013 mid-year quote of the population of Beaminster church is 3,100. In its background Beaminster has been a centre of manufacture of linen as well as woollens, the raw products for which were generated in the bordering countryside. The community experienced 3 major fires in the 17th and 18th centuries; the very first of these, throughout the English Civil War, practically destroyed the textile of the town. Beaminster parish church is notable for its architecture, especially its tower.