Historically a medieval hunting forest, the area is also noted for its Neolithic and Bronze age archaeology and its rural agricultural character.[2]
Definitions
As an informally defined region, the boundaries of Cranborne Chase vary depending on usage. When defined as the chalk plateau, it is clearly bounded by escarpments which face the valleys of the Blackmore Vale to the west, the Vale of Wardour to the north, and the Hampshire Avon to the east. To the south the chalk gently slopes, giving way more subtly to the Dorset Heaths landscape around Verwood and Wimborne Minster.[3][4][1]
The name is derived from its historic use as a medieval hunting forest, which at its height covered an area bounded by Salisbury, Shaftesbury, Blandford Forum, Wimborne Minster and Ringwood, incorporating a slightly larger area than just the chalk plateau.[5] Early written records of this definition include a jury verdict at New Sarum in 1246 and the Quo Warranto of Edward I, issued in or around 1280.[6] Over time this estate shrank, and the term has also been used to describe a smaller remnant area of around 10 mi (16 km) by 4 mi (6.4 km) immediately to the west of Cranborne village.[7]
A more recent usage of the term, used since 2014 by the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB Partnership of local authorities, has been to promote the much larger AONB area simply as "Cranborne Chase AONB".[8] This usage includes a large area outside of the more established landscape and historical definitions of Cranborne Chase, including the West Wiltshire Downs and an area of greensand landscape on the Somerset-Wiltshire border around Longleat and Stourhead.[9]
The downland has a long history with many earthworks and archaeology from the Neolithic age onwards. The dense woodland originally covering the downs would have gradually been cleared by the first farmers, but would have grown back repeatedly over the centuries as soils became exhausted and the agricultural carrying capacity of the land was exceeded several times over the course of six millennia. Much of the area therefore remained wooded from the Middle Ages until World War II.
Analysis of remains found in some of the Bronze Age burial mounds, by experts at Bournemouth University, has revealed that many of the bones had small holes drilled in then, enabling them, it is hypothesised, to have been articulated by means of wooden pegs, i.e. the skeletons were prevented from falling apart during repeated removal and re-burial.[citation needed]
The downs have been sparsely populated since Saxon times, largely preserving archaeology until World War II when the need for agricultural land outweighed the archaeological importance. It was here that Augustus Pitt Rivers developed modern archaeological field work in the 19th century.
The downs are named after the village Cranborne, founded by the Saxons, which had a manor house and a small monastery. The word "chase" comes from the hunts, frequented by royalty (including Kings John, Henry VIII and James I), which took place on the downs.[11]
The landscape of Cranborne Chase is remarkably varied, its most dramatic scenery being near the boundary between Dorset and Wiltshire where the chalk downland rises sharply to the rounded summits of Breeze Hill (262 m), with the hairpin bends of the B3081 climbing Zig Zag Hill on its northwestern flanks, and Win Green (277 m). Nearby, another prominent top, Melbury Hill (263 m) above Melbury Abbas, "appears almost like an island rising above the flat, sea-like expanses of" Compton Abbas airfield.[14]
Further south are two more summits on an outlier of the Chase that define its southern limits: Hambledon and Hod Hills.[14][15]
As some of the wooded areas in the chase are centuries old, they possess a diverse ground flora that is associated with such sites. The area is one of the richest in southern England for numbers of lichen species; over 160 have been recorded.[16]
See also
Bowerchalke – geological profile of a Lower Greensand inlier on chalklands of Cranborne Chase
References
^ abPitt-Rivers, Michael (1966). Dorset: a Shell Guide. London: Faber & Faber. p. 65. Cranborne Chase is now the name for the chalk uplands of East Dorset as far as the escarpment which overlooks the Blackmore Vale.
^Hawkins, Desmond (1981). Cranborne Chase. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. ISBN0575027681. Physically the Chase is a chalk plateau, bordered by the valleys of the Stour and the Avon, rising steeply along its northern escarpment and sloping gently southward to lose itself in the wastes of heather, gorse and pine that run westward from Christchurch to Wareham.
^Hawkins, Desmond (1981). Cranborne Chase. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. ISBN0575027681. To gain a tolerably accurate impression of the size of Cranborne Chase it is sufficient to sketch a rough quadrangle with Shaftesbury, Salisbury, Ringwood and Wimborne at the four corners. [...] The accepted definition of what are termed the outer or greater metes and bounds of the Chase is contained in the Quo Warranto of Edward I, issues in or about the year 1280. [...] It merely confirmed the unanimous verdict of the jury at New Sarum in 1245, which was appointed by Henry III following a complaint by Richard de Clare, who was a ward from 1230 to 1245, that during his minority his inheritance had been neglected.
^Thompson, M.W. (1977). General Pitt-Rivers. Moonraker Press. SBN239001621.
^Hawkins, Desmond (1981). Cranborne Chase. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. p. 18. ISBN0575027681. William the Conqueror gave it to his queen. Their son, William Rufus, gave it to a cousin. An illegitimate son of Henry I acquired it by marriage. So did King John later: he is known to have made at least fourteen visits in order to hunt in the Chase. The lordship of the Chase was never far from the Crown until James I gave it to his 'little beagle', Robert Cecil, who was created Viscount Cranborne.
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