Dorset

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
Map of Dorset
Wiltshire on the Map of England

Dorset (डॉर्सेट) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast.

Variants

Jat clans

Toponymy

Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester.[1] The Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning "place with fist-sized pebbles".[2] The Saxons named the town Dornwaraceaster (the suffix -ceaster being the Old English name for a "Roman town"; cf. Exeter and Gloucester) and Dornsæte came into use as the name for the inhabitants of the area from Dorn (a reduced form of Dornwaraceaster) and the Old English word sæte (meaning "people").[3] [4]It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD 845 and in the 10th century the county's archaic name, Dorseteschyre (Dorsetshire), was first recorded.[5]

Location

The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The county town is Dorchester, in the south.

After the reorganisation of local government in 1974, the county border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, while the rest of the county is largely rural with a low population density.

Geography

Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges and low-lying clay valleys. Over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and palaeontologic significance. It features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline and tourism has become increasingly important to the economy. There are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport near Bournemouth. The county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to the Great Dorset Steam Fair, one of the biggest events of its kind in Europe. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the principal setting of his novels, and William Barnes, whose poetry celebrates the ancient Dorset dialect.

History

The county has a long history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorset's indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the Early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area and made Dorset a shire in the 7th century. The first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. Dorset has seen much civil unrest: in the English Civil War, an uprising of vigilantes was crushed by Oliver Cromwell's forces in a pitched battle near Shaftesbury; the doomed Monmouth Rebellion began at Lyme Regis; and a group of farm labourers from Tolpuddle were instrumental in the formation of the trade union movement. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, and the large harbours of Portland and Poole were two of the main embarkation points. The former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating.

Early history

The first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC.[6][7] The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, a 10.5-kilometre monument for ritual or ceremonial purposes.[8] From 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorset's woodlands for agricultural use and Dorset's high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows.[9] During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of hill forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe.[10][11]

The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD 43. Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby.[12] Bokerley Dyke, a large defensive ditch built by the county's post-Roman inhabitants near the border with modern-day Hampshire, delayed the advance of the Saxons into Dorset for almost 150 years.[13] It appears to have been re-fortified during this period, with the former Roman Road at Ackling Dyke also being blocked by the Britons, apparently to prevent the West Saxon advance into Dorset.[14]

However, by the end of the 7th century, Dorset had fallen under Saxon control and been incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex[15]. The precise details of this West Saxon conquest and how it took place are not clear, but it appears to have substantially taken place by the start of the reign of Caedwalla in 685.[16] The Saxons established a diocese at Sherborne and Dorset was made a shire—an administrative district of Wessex and predecessor to the English county system—with borders that have changed little since.[17] In 789 the first recorded Viking attack on the British Isles took place in Dorset on the Portland coast, and they continued to raid into the county for the next two centuries.[18]

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, feudal rule was established in Dorset and the bulk of the land was divided between the Crown and ecclesiastical institutions.[19] The Normans consolidated their control over the area by constructing castles at Corfe, Wareham and Dorchester in the early part of the 12th century.[20] Over the next 200 years Dorset's population grew substantially and additional land was enclosed for farming to provide the extra food required.[21] The wool trade, the quarrying of Purbeck Marble and the busy ports of Weymouth, Melcombe Regis, Lyme Regis and Bridport brought prosperity to the county.[22] However, Dorset was devastated by the bubonic plague in 1348 which arrived in Melcombe Regis on a ship from Gascony.[23] The disease, more commonly known as the Black Death, created an epidemic that spread rapidly and wiped out a third of the population of the country.[24] Dorset came under the political influence of a number of different nobles during the Middle Ages. During the Wars of the Roses, for instance, Dorset came into the area influenced by Humphrey Stafford, earl of Devon (originally of Hooke, Dorset) whose wider influence stretched from Cornwall to Wiltshire. After 1485, one of the most influential Dorset figures was Henry VII's chamberlain Giles Daubeney.[25]]

Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hillfort 2.6 km south west of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset.[26][27] Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age.

The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity on the site consists of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and bank barrow. In about 1800 BC, during the Bronze Age, the site was used for growing crops before being abandoned. Maiden Castle itself was built in about 600 BC; the early phase was a simple and unremarkable site, similar to many other hill forts in Britain and covering 6.4 ha. Around 450 BC it was greatly expanded and the enclosed area nearly tripled in size to 19 ha, making it the largest hill fort in Britain and, by some definitions, the largest in Europe. At the same time, Maiden Castle's defences were made more complex with the addition of further ramparts and ditches. Around 100 BC, habitation at the hill fort went into decline and became concentrated at the eastern end of the site. It was occupied until at least the Roman period, by which time it was in the territory of the Durotriges, a Celtic tribe.

After the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, Maiden Castle appears to have been abandoned, although the Romans may have had a military presence on the site. In the late 4th century AD, a temple and ancillary buildings were constructed. In the 6th century AD the hill top was entirely abandoned and was used only for agriculture during the medieval period.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Mills, A.D. (2003). "A Dictionary of British Place-Names". Oxford University Press.
  2. ↑ Mills, A.D. (2003). "A Dictionary of British Place-Names". Oxford University Press.
  3. ↑ Mills, A.D. (2003). "A Dictionary of British Place-Names". Oxford University Press.
  4. ↑ Yorke, Barbara (1995). Wessex in the Early Middle Ages. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-7185-1856-1. p. 84
  5. ↑ "Dorset County Boundary Survey". Dorset County Museum. 2010.
  6. ↑ Putnam, Bill (1998). Discover Dorset: The Prehistoric Age. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-874336-62-8. p. 15
  7. ↑ Cullingford, Cecil N. (1980). A History of Dorset. Chichester, West Sussex: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 0-85033-255-9. p.13
  8. ↑ Putnam (p. 19); Cullingford (p. 14)
  9. ↑ Cullingford (p. 15)
  10. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 16–17)
  11. ↑ Historic England (2007). "Maiden Castle (451864)". Research records (formerly Pa
  12. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 18–19)
  13. ↑ Cullingford (p. 26)
  14. ↑ Hinton, David A. (1998). Saxons and Vikings. Dovecote Press. p. 19. ISBN 1874336504.
  15. ↑ Draper, Jo (2003). Dorset; The Complete Guide. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 0-946159-40-8. p.142
  16. ↑ Yorke, Barbara (2002). Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-134-70725-6.
  17. ↑ Cullingford (p. 28)
  18. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 30–36)
  19. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 37–38)
  20. ↑ Cullingford (p. 43)
  21. ↑ Cullingford (p. 52)
  22. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 52–54)
  23. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 54–55)
  24. ↑ Cullingford (pp. 55–56)
  25. ↑ Stansfield-Cudworth, R. E. (2009). Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 191–225, 317–321. ISBN 978-0-77344-714-1.
  26. ↑ Historic England, "Maiden Castle (451864)", Research records (formerly PastScape)
  27. ↑ Sharples, Niall M (1991a), English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle, London: B. T. Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-6083-0, p. 20.
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