Dorchester

Dorchester
Image:DorsetDorchester.png Shown within Dorset (above) and the UK. Image:Uk outline map.png
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 is a market town in southern central Dorset, England, on the River Frome 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 on Wednesdays and Sundays. Major employers include Dorset County Council, West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Hospital (the replacement for Dorchester 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 that name. The Dorset County Museum is centrally located in a Gothic-style building.

History

Prehistory and Romano-British

Main article: Durnovaria

Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. Settlements were first based around Maiden Castle, a large Iron Age hill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain, with varying tribes having existed there since 4000BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there at the arrival of the Romans in AD43.

The Romans finally defeated the local tribes by AD70. After being converted from a garrison to a town, the Romans named the settlement Durnovaria. This was a Brythonic name meaning 'place with fist-sized pebbles' and almost certainly took part of its name from the local Durotriges tribe who inhabited the area.^[1] Durnovaria was first recorded in the 4th century Antoine Itinery and became a market centre for the surrounding countryside, and an important road junction and staging post,^[2] and eventually one of the twin capitals of the Celtic Durotriges tribe^[3].

The Romans walled the town and the remains can still be seen today. The walls were largely replaced with walks that form a square inside modern Dorchester. Known as 'The Walks' a small segment of the original Roman wall still exists today near the Top 'o Town roundabout.

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.

There is little evidence for continued occupation after the withdrawal of the Roman administration from Britain. However, in 1996, David Nash Ford suggested that the town became known as Caer Durnac, mistakenly recorded by Nennius as Caer Urnac.^[4]. The area remained in British hands until the mid 7th century and there was certainly continuity of use of the Roman cemetery at nearby Poundbury where a settlement later grew up.^[4] Dorchester has therefore been suggested as the centre of a sub-kingdom of Dumnonia or other regional power base.^{[4] [5]}

Anglo-Saxon

By 864, Durnovaria/Caer Durnac was also dominated by the newly established Saxons or Dorsaetas as they referred to themselves. In their own language, they referred to the town as Dornwaraceaster/Dornwaracester, combining the original name 'Dor/Dorn' from the Latin/Celtic languages with the word 'cester', which was an Anglo-Saxon word used for 'Roman Fort'.^[6] The survival of the name as Dornwaraceaster to the Saxons would certainly suggest some Romano-British occupants remained.

The name would further change to Dorncester/Dornceaster until modern Dorchester emerged some time later. It continued as a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset with a textile trading and manufacturing industry continuing until the 17th century.^[7]

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).^[8]

In 1613 and 1725 great fires destroyed large parts of the town, but some of the mediaeval buildings, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings, and the Tudor almshouse survive 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 here. After his execution, Puritans then played football with his head.

In the 17th century the town was at the centre of the Puritan emigration to America, and the 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.

19th century

In 1833, The Tolpuddle Martyrs formed the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. However, despite trade unions now being legal and due to them actually swearing an oath of allegiance, they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall in Dorchester. This building still remains and is preserved as it was at the time. Under the court are the cells in which prisoners were kept while waiting for their appearance in court.

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 it:

• 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 its station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847
• The Great Western Railway and its 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 Southampton railway, east of Weymouth Avenue and north of Maumbury Rings.

This remaining Duchy land was farmed under the open field system until, in 1874, after repeated attempts by both landowner and some residents, the land was enclosed - or consolidated - into three large farms.^[9] 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 (also off Weymouth Avenue) opening in 1880, and the imposing Eldridge Pope brewery of 1881, adjacent to the railway line to Southampton. Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892, with land being purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road.^[9] The clock and bandstand were added in 1898.^[10]

Meanwhile, land had begun to be developed for housing outside the walls. This included the Cornwall Estate, 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 bought in 1896 and building began in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in the February 1897.^[9]

Railways

The town has two railway stations. Dorchester South railway station on the South Western Main Line to London, Bournemouth & Southampton, until the 1970s an idiosyncratic structure where trains to London reversed twice, then rejoined the through line, was rebuilt in 1989, but Dorchester West railway station, serving Westbury, Bath and Bristol via the Heart of Wessex Line, is still the original Great Western Railway structure designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

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.

Poundbury is a well-known western extension of the town, constructed on Duchy of Cornwall land (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, is based at the Avenue Stadium on Weymouth Avenue.

Hardy and Barnes

Local author and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester. Hardy's childhood home is 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,^[11] and ran a school in the town. Both men have statues in the town centre, Hardy's beside the Top o' Town crossroads. Cecil Day Lewis is buried in Stinsford, one mile from Dorchester. Hardy is buried in London, but his heart was buried here.

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

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