Dorchester

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This article is about the town in Dorset, England. For other uses see Dorchester (disambiguation).
Dorchester
Dorchester

Shown within Dorset (above) and the UK.
Dorchester
OS Grid Reference: SY690906
Lat/Lon: 50°42′N 2°26′W
Population: 16,171 (2001 Census)
Dwellings: 7,386 (2001 Census)
Formal status: County town
Administration
District: West Dorset
County: Dorset
Region: South West
Nation: England
Post Office and Telephone
Post town: Dorchester
Postcode: DT1
Dialling Code: 01305
Dorchester
Enlarge
Dorchester

Dorchester is a market town in southern central Dorset, England, situated on the River Frome and at the junction of the A35 and A37 20 miles west of Poole and eight miles north of Weymouth. In 2001 the town had a population of 16,171 and a catchment population of approximately 40,000. There were 7,386 dwellings in 2001 and 205 shops in 1991. Dorchester has been the county town of Dorset since 1305.

A market is held in the town on Wednesdays and Sundays. Major employers include Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Hospital.

The town has three first schools, two middle schools and one upper school. The upper school, The Thomas Hardye School, can trace its origins back to 1569, when it was founded by a Dorchester merchant of the same name.

Contents

[edit] Railways

The town has two railway stations, which connect the town to London, Bournemouth & Southampton via the South Western Main Line and to Westbury, Bath and Bristol via the Heart of Wessex Line. Dorchester South railway station on the South Western Main Line, once an idiosyncratic structure where trains running in one direction would reverse and then rejoin the through line, was rebuilt in 1989, but Dorchester West railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line is still the original Great Western Railway structure designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

[edit] Roads

In the late 1980s a bypass was constructed by Mowlem to the south and west of the town, removing through traffic using the A35 and A37 from the town itself.

Poundbury is the well-known western extension of the town, constructed on Duchy of Cornwall land (i.e. owned by Charles, Prince of Wales) according to urban village principles since 1993.

On December 15, 2004, Dorchester was granted Fairtrade Town status.

Dorchester Town F.C., a Conference South football (soccer) team plays in the town and is based at the Avenue Stadium on Weymouth Avenue.

[edit] History

[edit] Prehistory and Roman

Two miles southwest of the town centre, sat on a steep chalk hill, are the remains of a large Iron Age hill fort Maiden Castle, which was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain. The fort was important to the Romans and the Saxons, whose invasions of Dorset weren't seen as complete until they had captured the hill. No actual fort exists at the site now but the impressive ramparts surrounding the hill still exist.

The town, originally named Durnovaria, was founded by the Romans in AD 70. The town still has some Roman features, including part of the town walls and the foundations of a Roman town house, which are freely accessible near County Hall. There are many Roman finds in the County Museum. The Romans built an aqueduct to supply the town with water but only a few traces remain at nearby Whitfield Farm. Near the town centre is Maumbury Rings, an ancient British earthwork converted by the Romans for use as an Amphitheatre, and to the north west is Poundbury Hill, another pre-Roman fortification.

[edit] Medieval

Athelhampton is a fine 15th-century manor house five miles east of Dorchester.

[edit] 17th century

"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 Tour through the whole island of Great Britain (1724 - 1726) [1]

In 1613 and 1725 two great fires destroyed large parts of the town, but some of the mediaeval buildings, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings, and the Tudor almshouse can still be found in the town centre, amongst the replacement Georgian buildings, many of which are built in Portland limestone.

In 1642 just prior to the English Civil War, Hugh Green a Catholic chaplain was executed at Dorchester. After his execution, Puritans of the town then played football with his head.

In the 17th century the town was at the centre of the Puritan emigration to America, and local Rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The town was heavily defended against the Royalists in the English Civil War.

In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth failed in his invasion attempt, the Monmouth Rebellion and almost 300 of his men were condemned to death or transportation in the "Bloody Assizes", held in the Oak Room of the Antelope Hotel, Dorchester and presided over by Judge Jeffreys.

[edit] 19th century

Dorchester remained a compact town within the boundaries of the old town walls until the latter part of the 19th century, due to the ownership of all land immediately adjacent to the west, south and east by the Duchy of Cornwall. This land composed the Manor of Fordington, and a select few developments had encroched onto this; namely:

  • The Marabout Barracks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1794
  • The Dorchester Union Workhouse, to the north of Damer's Road, in 1835
  • The Southampton & Dorchester Railway, and the station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847
  • The Great Western Railway, and the station to the south of Damer's Road, in 1857
  • The Water Works, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1854
  • A new cemetery, to the west of the new railway and east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1856
  • The Dorset County Constabulary police station in 1860, west of the London railway, east of Weymouth Avenue and north of Maumbury Rings.

This remaining Duchy land was farmed as an open field system until, in 1874, after repeated attempts by both landowner and some residents, the land was enclosed - or in reality, consolidated - into three large farms [2]. Soon afterwards followed 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 (again, off Weymouth Avenue)opening in 1880, and the imposing Eldridge Pope brewery of 1881, situated adjacent to the railway line to London. Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892 and with land being purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road [3]. The clock and bandstand were added in 1898 [4].

Meanwhile, land had begun to be developed for housing outside the walls. This included the Cornwall Estate - located between the Borough Gardens and the Great Western Railway - from 1876 and the Prince of Wales Estate, centred on Prince of Wales Road, from 1880. Land for the Victoria Park Estate was sold in 1896 and begun in 1897, Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in the February of that year [5].

[edit] Hardy and Barnes

A map of Dorchester in 1937
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A map of Dorchester in 1937

Local author and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester. Hardy's childhood home can be found to the east of the town, and his house in town, Max Gate, is owned by the National Trust and open to the public. William Barnes, the local dialect poet, was Rector of Winterborne Came, a small hamlet near Dorchester, for 24 years until his death in 1886 [6], and ran a school in the town. Both men have statues in the town centre. Cecil Day Lewis is buried in Stinsford, one mile from Dorchester. Although Hardy is buried in London, his heart was buried here also. A statue of Hardy stands beside the Top o' Town crossroads in the town.

On the hills to the south west of the town stands Hardy Monument, a memorial to the other local Thomas Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, who served with Horatio Nelson, which overlooks the town and provides views of Weymouth, the Isle of Portland and Chesil Beach.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chandler 1990 p72
  2. ^ Morris & Draper 1995
  3. ^ Morris & Draper 1995
  4. ^ Waymark 1997
  5. ^ Morris & Draper 1995
  6. ^ Bingham 1987

[edit] Further reading

  • Bingham, A, 1987. Dorset: Landranger Guidebook Norwich: Jarrold.
  • Chandler, J, 1990. Wessex Images Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing.
  • Morris, J. & Draper, J, 1995. The 'Enclosure' of Foridngton Fields and the Development of Dorchester, 1874 - 1903 Dorset Proceedings pp5 - 14
  • Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1969. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber.
  • Waymark, J, 1997. The Duchy of Cornwall and the Expansion of Dorchester, c. 1900 - 1997 in Dorset Proceedings 119, pp19 - 32
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