page_title: Blandford Forum
section_title: Art, culture and media
hierarchical_section_title: Blandford Forum / Art, culture and media
caption_attribution_description: English: Blandford Forum bowls club
context_page_description: Blandford Forum, commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour about 13 mi northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this was abolished and its area incorporated into the new Dorset unitary authority.
  Blandford is notable for its Georgian architecture, the result of rebuilding after the majority of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1731. The rebuilding work was assisted by an Act of Parliament and a donation by George II, and the rebuilt town centre—to designs by local architects John and William Bastard—has survived to the present day largely intact.
  Blandford Camp, a military base, is sited on the hills two miles to the north east of the town. It is the base of the Royal Corps of Signals, the communications wing of the British Army, and the site of the Royal Signals Museum.
  Dorset County Council estimates that in 2013 the town's civil parish had a population of 10,610. The town's economy is based on a mix of the service sector and light industry, and provides employment for about 4,000 people.
context_section_description: Blandford Georgian Fayre, a one-day celebration of the town's Georgian heritage, is held in the town centre every year in the first week of May. The event includes cultural presentations, stalls, historical re-enactments, music and dancing, and a fun fair on the meadows along the banks of the River Stour. The town also hosts an annual carnival and the Great Dorset Steam Fair is held at nearby Tarrant Hinton.
  There are three museums in Blandford and its vicinity: Blandford Town Museum in Bere's Yard, Blandford Fashion Museum in The Plocks, and the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp military base. Blandford Town Museum has no admission charge but is not open on Sundays or during the winter. It has artefacts from the history of the town and the surrounding area, and a small Victorian garden that was created in 2008. Blandford Fashion Museum has collections of fashions between the early 18th century and the 1970s; it is also closed in the winter. The Royal Signals Museum contains items relating to the history of the Royal Corps of Signals and military communication since the Napoleonic Wars.
  In 1590, Edmund Spenser mentioned the Stoure flowing through the town in The Faerie Queene.
  Blandford features in Thomas Hardy's novels as the Wessex town of Shottesford Forum.
  Blandford Forum railway station which is now gone – the train line to Blandford was removed in the 1960s – was mentioned in the 1963 song Slow Train by Flanders and Swann.
  BFBS Radio broadcasts across Blandford on 89.3FM from a studio at the military base as part of its UK Bases network. Local television news is provided by BBC South Today and ITV Meridian.
caption: Blandford Bowls Club
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