Dorset

Dorset (pronounced Dorsit, sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the southwest of England, on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, situated in the south of the county at {{coor dms|50|43|00|N|02|26|00|W|}}. Between its extreme points Dorset measures 50 miles (80 km) from east to west and 40 miles (64 km) north to south, and has an area of 1,024 square miles (2,653 km²). Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east and Hampshire to the east. The county is largely rural with a low population and population density. Dorset's motto is Who's Afear'd.

History

The earliest recorded use of the name was in AD 940 as Dorseteschire meaning the dwellers (saete) of Dornuuarana (Dorchester), the place of fisticuffs (Welsh: Dwrn, "fist" and gwarae, "play"){{ref|name}}.

Related Topics:
940 - Welsh

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The first known settlement of Dorset was by Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BCE. Their populations were small and concentrated along the coast in the Isle of Purbeck, Weymouth and Chesil Beach and along the Stour valley. These populations used tools and fire to clear these areas of some of the native Oak forest. Dorset's high chalk hills have provided a location for defensive settlements for millennia, with neolithic and bronze age burial mounds on almost every chalk hill in the county, and a number of iron age hill forts, the most famous being Maiden Castle. The chalk downs would have been deforested in these times, making way for farmland.

Related Topics:
Mesolithic - BCE - Isle of Purbeck - Weymouth - Chesil Beach - Stour valley - Oak - Forest - Neolithic - Bronze age - Iron age - Hill fort - Maiden Castle

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Dorset has many notable Roman artifacts, particularly around the Roman town Dorchester, where Maiden Castle was captured from the Celtic Durotriges by Vespasian in 54 AD, early in the Roman occupation. Roman roads radiated from Dorchester, following the tops of the chalk ridges to the many small Roman villages around the county. In the Roman era, settlements moved from the hill tops to the valleys, and the hilltops had been abandoned by the 4th century. A large defensive ditch, Bokerley Dyke, delayed the Saxon conquest of Dorset from the north east for up to two hundred years. The Domesday Book documents many Saxon settlements corresponding to modern towns and villages, mostly in the valleys. There have been few changes to the parishes since the Domesday Book. Over the next few centuries the settlers established the pattern of farmland which prevailed into the 19th century, as well as many monasteries, which were important landowners and centres of power.

Related Topics:
Roman - Dorchester - Celt - Durotriges - Vespasian - 54 AD - 4th century - Bokerley Dyke - Saxon - Domesday Book - 19th century - Monasteries

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In the 12th century civil war, Dorset was fortified with the construction of the defensive castles at Corfe Castle, Powerstock, Wareham and Shaftesbury, and the strengthening of the monasteries such as at Abbotsbury. In the 17th century English Civil War, Dorset had a number of royalist strongholds, such as Sherborne Castle and Corfe Castle, which were ruined in the war. In the intervening years, the county was used by the monarchy and nobility for hunting and the county still have a number of Deer Parks. Throughout the late Medieval times, the remaining hilltop settlements shrank further and disappeared. From the Tudor to Georgian periods, farms specialised and the monastic estates were broke up, leading to an increase in population and settlement size. During the industrial revolution, Dorset remained largely rural and still retains its agricultural economy. The Tolpuddle Martyrs lived in Dorset, and the farming economy of Dorset was central in the formation of the trade union movement.

Related Topics:
12th century - Civil war - Corfe Castle - Powerstock - Wareham - Shaftesbury - Monasteries - Abbotsbury - 17th century - English Civil War - Royalist - Sherborne Castle - Monarchy - Nobility - Deer Park - Medieval - Tudor - Georgian - Industrial revolution - Tolpuddle Martyrs - Trade union

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