The area around the town was first settled in prehistoric times. The Romans established a garrison there after defeating the Durotriges tribe, calling the settlement that grew up nearby Durnovaria; they built an aqueduct to supply water and an amphitheatre on an ancient British earthwork. After the departure of the Romans, the town diminished in significance, but during the medieval period became an important commercial and political centre. It was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jeffreys after the Monmouth Rebellion, and later the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
In the 2011 census, the population of Dorchester was 19,060, with further people coming from surrounding areas to work in the town which has six industrial estates. The Brewery Square redevelopment project is taking place in phases, with other development projects planned. The town has a land-based college, Kingston Maurward College, The Thomas Hardye School, three middle schools and thirteen first schools. The Dorset County Hospital offers an accident and emergency service, and the town is served by two railway stations. Through vehicular traffic is routed round the town by means of a bypass. The town has a football club and a rugby union club, several museums and the biannual Dorchester Festival. It is twinned with three towns in Europe. As well as having many listed buildings, a number of notable people have been associated with the town. It was for many years the home and inspiration of the author Thomas Hardy, whose novel The Mayor of Casterbridge uses a fictionalised version of Dorchester as its setting.
Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. The earliest settlements were about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the modern town centre in the vicinity of Maiden Castle, a large Iron Agehill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain. Different tribes lived there from 4000 BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there when the Romans arrived in Britain in 43 AD.[3]
The Romans defeated the local tribes by 70 AD and established a garrison that became the town the Romans named Durnovaria, a Brythonic name incorporating durn, "fist", loosely interpreted as 'place with fist-sized pebbles'. It appears to have taken part of its name from the local Durotriges tribe who inhabited the area.[4]
Durnovaria was recorded in the 4th-century Antonine Itinerary and became a market centre for the surrounding countryside, an important road junction and staging post, and subsequently one of the twin capitals of the Celtic Durotriges tribe.[5]
The remains of the Roman walls that surrounded the town can still be seen. The majority have been replaced by pathways that form a square inside modern Dorchester known as 'The Walks'. A small segment of the original wall remains near the Top 'o Town roundabout.[6]
Other Roman remains include part of the town walls and the foundations of a town house near the county hall. Modern building works within the walls have unearthed Roman finds; in 1936 a cache of 22,000 3rd-century Roman coins was discovered in South Street.[7]
Other Roman finds include silver and copper coins known as Dorn pennies, a gold ring, a bronze figure of the Roman god Mercury and large areas of tessellated pavement.[8]
The Dorset Museum contains many Roman artefacts. The Romans built an aqueduct to supply the town with water. It was rediscovered in 1900 as the remains of a channel cut into the chalk and contouring round the hills. The source is believed to be the River Frome at Notton, about 12 miles (19 km) upstream from Dorchester.[9] Near the town centre is Maumbury Rings, an ancient British henge earthwork converted by the Romans for use as an amphitheatre, and to the north west is Poundbury Hill, another pre-Roman fortification.[6]
Little evidence exists to suggest continued occupation after the withdrawal of the Roman administration from Britain. The name Durnovaria survived into Old Welsh as Durngueir, recorded by Asser in the 9th century.[10][11]
The area remained in British hands until the mid-7th century and there was continuity of use of the Roman cemetery at nearby Poundbury. Dorchester has been suggested as the centre of a sub-kingdom of Dumnonia or other regional power base.[12]
Medieval
One of the first raids of the Viking era may have taken place near Dorchester around 790. According to a chronicler, the King's reeve assembled a few men and sped to meet them thinking that they were merchants from another country. When he arrived at their location, he admonished them and instructed that they should be brought to the royal town. The Vikings then slaughtered him and his men.[13]
By 864, the area around Durnovaria was dominated by the Saxons who referred to themselves as Dorsaetas, 'People of the Dor' – Durnovaria. The original local name would have been Dorn-gweir giving the Old English Dornwary. The town became known as Dornwaraceaster or Dornwaracester, combining the original name Dor/Dorn from the Latin and Celtic languages with cester, an Old English word for a Roman station. This name evolved over time to Dorncester/Dornceaster and Dorchester.[14]
At the time of the Norman conquest, Dorchester was not a place of great significance; the Normans did build a castle but it has not survived. A priory was also founded, in 1364, though this also has since disappeared. In the later medieval period the town prospered;[15] it became a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset, with a textile trading and manufacturing industry which continued until the 17th century.[16] In the time of Edward III (1312–1377), the town was governed by bailiffs and burgesses, with the number of burgesses increasing to fifteen by the reign of James I (1566–1625).[17]
Judge Jeffreys' lodging house, now a restaurant, at 6 High West Street
Early modern
"The town is populous, tho' not large, the streets broad, but the buildings old, and low; however, there is good company and a good deal of it; and a man that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend his time, and as well in Dorchester, as in any town I know in England". – Daniel Defoe, in his A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1724–26).[18]
In the 17th and 18th centuries Dorchester suffered several serious fires: in 1613, caused by a tallow chandler's cauldron getting too hot and setting alight; in 1622, started by a maltster; in 1725, begun in a brewhouse; and in 1775, caused by a soap boiler.[15] The 1613 fire was the most devastating, resulting in the destruction of 300 houses and two churches (All Saints and Holy Trinity).[15]
Only a few of the town's early buildings have survived to the present day, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings and a Tudoralmshouse. Among the replacement Georgian buildings are many, such as the Shire Hall, which are built in Portland stone. The municipal buildings, which incorporate the former corn exchange and the former town hall, were erected in 1848[19] on the site of an earlier town hall, which was built in 1791 and had a marketplace underneath.[20][21]
In the 17th century the town was at the centre of Puritanemigration to America, and the local rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts. The first colonisation attempted was at Cape Ann, where fishermen who would rejoin the fishing fleet when the vessels returned the next year, tried to be self-sufficient. The land was unsuitable, the colony failed and was moved to what is now Salem. In 1628, the enterprise received a Royal Charter and the Massachusetts Bay Company was formed with three hundred colonists arriving in America that year and more the following year.[22] For his efforts on behalf of Puritan dissenters, White has been called the unheralded founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Some observers have attributed the oversight to the fact that White, unlike John Winthrop, never went to America.)[23]
In 1642, just before the English Civil War, Hugh Green, a Catholic chaplain was executed here. After his execution, Puritans played football with his head.[24] The town was heavily defended against the Royalists in the civil war and Dorset was known as "the southern capital of coat-turning", as the county gentry found it expedient to change allegiance and to swap the sides they supported on several occasions.[25] In 1643, the town was attacked by 2,000 troops under Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon. Its defences proved inadequate and it quickly surrendered but was spared the plunder and punishment it might otherwise have received. It remained under Royalist control for some time, but was eventually recaptured by the Puritans.[26]
Shire Hall in High West Street, where the trial of the Tolpuddle martyrs took place
In 1833, the Tolpuddle Martyrs founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Trade unions were legal but because the members swore an oath of allegiance, they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall.[27][28] Beneath the courtroom are cells where the prisoners were held while awaiting trial. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th century and was used for holding convicted and remanded inmates from the local courts[29] until it closed in December 2013. Plans have since been made to erect 189 dwellings and a museum on the site.[30]
Dorchester remained a compact town within the boundaries of the old town walls until the latter part of the 19th century because all land immediately adjacent to the west, south and east was owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The land composed the Manor of Fordington. The developments that had encroached onto it were Marabout Barracks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1794,[31] Dorchester Union Workhouse, to the north of Damer's Road, in 1835,[32] the Southampton and Dorchester Railway and its station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847,[33] the Great Western Railway and its station to the south of Damer's Road, in 1857,[33] the waterworks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1854,[34] a cemetery, to the west of the new railway and east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1856,[35] and a Dorset County Constabulary police station in 1860, west of the Southampton railway, east of Weymouth Avenue and north of Maumbury Rings.[36]
The Duchy land was farmed under the open field system until 1874 when it was enclosed – or consolidated – into three large farms by the landowners and residents.[37] The enclosures were followed by a series of key developments for the town: the enclosing of Poundbury hillfort for public enjoyment in 1876, the 'Fair Field' (new site for the market, off Weymouth Avenue) in 1877, the Recreation Ground (also off Weymouth Avenue) opening in 1880, and the Eldridge Pope Brewery of 1881, adjacent to the railway line to Southampton. Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892 and land was purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road.[37] The clock and bandstand were added in 1898.[38]
A 1937 map of Dorchester
A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of the Depot Barracks in 1881.[39] The High West Street drill hall was created, by converting a private house, around the same time.[40]
Land was developed for housing outside the walls including the Cornwall Estate, between the Borough Gardens and the Great Western Railway from 1876 and the Prince of Wales Estate from 1880. Land for the Victoria Park Estate was bought in 1896 and building began in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in February 1897.[37]
Poundbury is the western extension of the town, constructed since 1993 according to urban village principles on Duchy of Cornwall land owned by Charles III. Being developed over 25 years in four phases, it will eventually have 2,500 dwellings and a population of about 6,000. Charles was involved with the development's design.[41]
Dorchester became Dorset's first Official Transition Initiative in 2008 as part of the Transition Towns concept. Transition Town Dorchester is a community response to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil and climate change.[42]
The town's coat of arms depicts the old castle that used to stand on the site of the former prison. The royal purple background represents Dorchester's status as part of the monarch's private estate, a position held since before the Domesday Book was published. The shield is divided into quarters, two depicting lions and two fleur-de-lis. These are copied from the shields of the troops from Dorset who took part in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The fleur-de-lis have a scattered arrangement which shows that permission for the armorial bearings was given before 1405, after which date the rights were varied by King Henry VI. The inscription 'Sigillum Bailivorum Dorcestre' translates as 'Seal of the Bailiffs of Dorchester'. The mayor has a similar seal of office, but this has the inscription Dorcestriensis Sig: Maioris.[45]
There are four electoral wards in Dorchester (North, South, East and West) showing a combined population of 19,060. The town has been growing steadily with 11,620 residents in 1951, 13,740 in 1971 and 15,100 in 1991.[46]
On 15 December 2004, Dorchester was the first town in Dorset to be granted Fairtrade status.[47]
In 2011, Dorchester was one of more than 20 towns across the country to apply for city status to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II,[48] although in March 2012 it was revealed that Dorchester's bid had been unsuccessful.[49]
The River Frome on the edge of the town
Geography
Dorchester town centre is sited about 55 to 80 metres (180 to 262 ft) above sea-level on gently sloping ground beside the south bank of the River Frome.[50] Measured directly, it is about 7 miles (11 km) north of Weymouth, 18 miles (29 km) SSE of Yeovil in Somerset, and 20 miles (32 km) west of Poole.[51] The town's built-up area extends south, west and southeast of the town centre; to the north and northeast growth is restricted by the floodplain and watermeadows of the river.[52]
The geology of the town comprises bedrock formed in the Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch, overlain in places by more recent Quaternarydrift deposits. The bedrock is chalk of various formations. The drift deposits comprise a cap of clay-with-flints on the western edge of the town around Poundbury, alluvium in the river's floodplain, and several narrow ribbons of poorly stratified head deposits, found particularly around the town's northeastern and southwestern boundaries but also elsewhere.[55]
Economy
In 2012 there were 17,500 people working in Dorchester, 51% of whom were working full-time. 57% of jobs were in public administration, education and health, 18% were in professional and market services (including finance and ICT), 17% were in distribution, accommodation and food, 4% were in production and 2% in construction. The unemployment rate in July 2014 was 0.9% of residents aged 16–64.[56]
Dorchester has six industrial estates: The Grove Trading Estate (7.1 ha or 18 acres), Poundbury Trading Estate (5 ha or 12 acres), Marabout Barracks (2 ha or 4.9 acres), Great Western Centre (1.4 ha or 3.5 acres), Railway Triangle (1.4 ha or 3.5 acres) and Casterbridge Industrial Estate (1.1 ha or 2.7 acres). The estates mostly house light industrial units, wholesalers and the service sector.[57] Significant employers for residents in the town include AEA Technology, BAeSEMA Ltd, Dorset County Council, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Goulds Ltd, Henry Ling Ltd, Kingston Maurward College, Tesco, and Winterbourne Hospital.[56]
In 2008 the Dorchester BID, a business improvement district, was set up to promote the town and improve the trading environment for town centre businesses. Local traders were overwhelmingly in favour of the decision, with 84% voting in favour at the February 2008 ballot. The BID is funded by a levy on the businesses in the town. The BID lasts initially for five years, and between 2013 and 2018 the projects being undertaken include business support, security projects, town promotion, the provision of green spaces and making the town more visually attractive.[58] In June 2018 the Dorchester BID was successful in being voted in for a second term.
The catchment population for major food retail outlets in Dorchester is 38,500 (2001 estimate) and extends eight miles west, north and east of the town, and two miles south.[59] The Brewery Square redevelopment project now includes retail outlets, residential units, bars, restaurants, hotel and cultural facilities. The regeneration of Dorchester South railway station will make it the UK's first solar powered railway station.[60] The Charles Street development has had a first phase completed that includes a library and adult education centre for Dorset County Council, and offices for Dorset Council. Future phases are planned to include 23 shops, an underground car park, hotel and affordable housing. The second phase has attracted funding of £4 million from the former West Dorset District Council and includes new Marks & Spencer and Waitrose stores.[61]
Demography
In the 2011 census Dorchester civil parish had 8,996 dwellings,[62] 8,449 households and a population of 19,060, with 48.35% of residents being male and 51.65% being female.[63] 17% of residents were under the age of 16 (compared to 18.9% for England as a whole), and 22.4% of residents were age 65 or older (compared to 16.4% for England as a whole).[64]
Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester, and his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge is set there. Hardy's childhood home is to the east of the town, and his town house, Max Gate, is owned by the National Trust and open to the public.[65] Hardy is buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart was removed and buried in Stinsford.[66]
John Cowper Powys's novel Maiden Castle (1936) is set in Dorchester and Powys intended it to be "a Rival of the Mayor of Casterbridge.[70] Powys had lived in Dorchester as a child, between May 1880 and Christmas 1885, when his father was a curate there.[71] Then, after returning from America in June 1934, he had lived at 38 High East Street, Dorchester, from October 1934 until July 1935, when he moved to Wales.[72] The building is commemorated with a plaque erected by the Dorchester Heritage Committee, but giving the date of his residence as 1936.[73]
Dorchester Arts, based in a former school building, runs a seasonal programme of music, dance and theatre events, participatory arts projects for socially excluded groups and the biannual Dorchester Festival. Dorchester Arts is an Arts Council 'National Portfolio organisation'. Dorchester Arts has been resident at the corn exchange since 2015.[74]
Within Dorchester parish there are 293 structures that are listed by Historic England for their historic or architectural interest, including five that are listed Grade I and sixteen that are Grade II*.[78] The Grade I structures are the Church of St George on Fordington High Street, the Church of St Peter on High West Street, Max Gate on Syward Road, the Roman town house on Northernhay, and Shire Hall on High West Street.[78]
The Church of St George has a late-11th-century south door that has a Caen stone tympanum with a realistic carved representation of St George surrounded by soldiers, said to depict the miracle of his appearance at the Battle of Antioch. The south aisle and the north part of the porch date from the 12th century.[79] The Church of St Peter mostly dates from 1420 to 1421, with a 12th-century south doorway reset into it. There are many notable monuments, including two 14th-century effigies and a 14th-century tomb chest. Thomas Hardy contributed to the addition of the vestry and chancel in 1856–7.[80]
Max Gate was designed by Thomas Hardy in the Queen Anne style, and was his home until his death in 1928. It was built in 1885.[81] The remains of the Roman house north of county hall date from the early 4th century, with later 4th-century enlargements. It has a hypocaust heating system and mosaic pavements. It is the only visible Roman town house in Britain.[82] The current Shire Hall building was designed by Thomas Hardwick and built in Portland stoneashlar in 1797.[83] It replaced a previous structure that had fallen into disrepair.[84]
A tablet commemorates the sentencing of the Tolpuddle Martyrs here in 1834.[83] The building housed the Crown Court until 1955; Thomas Hardy was a magistrate here and his experience provided inspiration for his writing.[84] The building has changed little since the 19th century, and in 2014 planning permission was granted to transform it into a heritage centre and tourist attraction, to open in 2017.[85]
Kingston Maurward College is a land-based studies college on the outskirts of the town. It offers full-time and part-time courses, apprenticeships and university-level courses in a wide range of subjects including agriculture, horticulture, conservation, construction, countryside and wildlife management.[90]
Dorchester RFC is an amateur rugby union team who currently play in the Dorset & Wilts South 1 League.[93] Dorchester Cricket Club play in the Dorset Premier League, being last crowned champions in 2009.[94]
In May 2009, a skatepark was opened at the junction of Maumbury Road and Weymouth Avenue in Dorchester after 12 years of planning and construction.[96]
Mowlem completed a bypass road to the south and west of the town in 1988, diverting through traffic using the A35 and A37 roads away from the town centre.[97]
Many homes in Dorchester have access to fibre broadband services provided by private companies.[103] The town is part of the second phase of Superfast Dorset, a project to increase fibre broadband availability within the county, which has been completed.[104]
Lübbecke in Germany since 1973, initiated when the Durnovaria Silver Band met the Lübbecker Schützenmusik Corps in Bayeux in 1968, when that town was in the process of twinning with Lübbecke.[117]
Holbæk in Denmark since 1992, resulting from a shared interest in community drama. Actors from each town have appeared in plays in the other community.[118]
^Kessler, Peter. "Durotriges (Britons)". The History Files: Celtic Kingdoms of the British Isles. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
^Kessler, Peter (14 February 2007). "Lost Kingdoms". The History Files: Post-Roman Britain. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
^Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council, 1999 – 'King Alfred the Great and Shaftesbury Abbey'， Simon Keynes
^Eckwal, Eilert (1960). Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names. Oxford University Press. p. 148.
^Mann, Stephanie A. (19 August 2011). "Hugh Green, English Martyr". Supremacy and Survival: The English Reformation. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
^"Dorchester". History of Parliament Online. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
^"Dorset West". Constituencies beginning with a "D". The House of Commons. 18 August 2016. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2016.((cite web)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^"The Town Seal". Dorchester Town Council. 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
^British Geological Survey (2000), 1:50,000 Series, England and Wales Sheet 328 (Dorchester); ISBN978-0-7518-3310-2
^ ab"Dorchester town profile". dorsetforyou.com. Dorset County Council. 3 November 2014. Archived from the original on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
^"Thomas Hardy". Visit Dorsetshire. Archived from the original on 16 October 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
^Unpublished Diary 25 January 1935, quoted in Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007, pg. 313.
^ ab"The history of Shire Hall". dorsetforyou.com. Dorset County Council. 14 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
^Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "Hannah Gifford", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67537, retrieved 18 June 2023
Chandler, J. H. (1990) Wessex images, Gloucester: Alan Sutton and Wiltshire County Council Library & Museum Service, ISBN0-86299-739-9
Draper, J. (1992) Dorchester : An illustrated history Wimborne: Dovecote Press, ISBN1-874336-04-0
Morris, J. and Draper, J. (1995) "The 'Enclosure' of Fordington Fields and the Development of Dorchester, 1874–1903", Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings, v. 117, p. 5–14, ISSN0070-7112
Pitt-Rivers, M. (1966) Dorset, A Shell guide, New ed., London: Faber, ISBN0-571-06714-X
Taylor, C. (1970) Dorset, Making of the English landscape, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p. 197–201, ISBN0-340-10962-9
Waymark, J, (1997) "The Duchy of Cornwall and the Expansion of Dorchester, c. 1900–1997", Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings, v. 119, p. 19–32, ISSN0070-7112
.jpg)
.jpg)
