Whitchurch Canonicorum

Whitchurch Canonicorum or Whitechurch Canonicorum is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale 5 mi westnorthwest of Bridport. The village has a population of 647 ; 10.1% of dwellings are second homes.

On the northern edge of the village is the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross. It is noteworthy as containing the only shrine in Britain to have survived the Reformation with its relics intact, apart from that of Saint Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. The saint in question is the somewhat obscure Saint Wite (Latinised as Saint Candida) after whom the church and the village are named. The flag of Dorset makes dedication to St Wite.

Sir George Somers (1554–1610) was the Mayor of Lyme Regis and later Governor of The Somers Isles (Bermuda) he died "of a surfeit in eating of a pig", on November 9, 1610 in Bermuda. His heart was buried in Bermuda but his body, pickled in a barrel, was landed on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in 1618. A volley of muskets and cannon saluted his last journey to the church at Whitchurch Canonicorum where his body is buried. It is also the burial place of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov and Sir Robin Day.