'Dorset' (
IPA pronunciation: ) (sometimes in the past called 'Dorsetshire'), is a
county in
South West England on the
English Channel coast. The
county town is
Dorchester, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of . Dorset borders
Devon to the west,
Somerset to the north-west,
Wiltshire to the north-east, and
Hampshire to the east. Around half of Dorset's population lives in the
South East Dorset conurbation. The rest of the county is largely rural with a relatively low population density. Dorset's motto is 'Who's Afear'd'.
Dorset is famous for its coastline, the
Jurassic Coast, which features landforms such as
Lulworth Cove, the
Isle of Portland,
Chesil Beach and
Durdle Door, as well as the holiday resorts of
Bournemouth,
Poole,
Weymouth,
Swanage, and
Lyme Regis. Dorset is the setting of the novels of
Thomas Hardy, who was born near Dorchester. The county has a long history of human settlement and some notable archaeology, including the
hill forts of
Maiden Castle and
Hod Hill.
History
Main articles: History of Dorset
The earliest recorded use of the name was in AD 940 as 'Dorseteschire', meaning the dwellers (''saete'') of 'Dornuuarana' (Dorchester), the place of fisticuffs (
Welsh: 'Dwrn', 'fist'; and 'gwarae', 'play').
[1]
The first known settlement of Dorset was by
Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000
BC. Their populations were small and concentrated along the coast in the
Isle of Purbeck,
Weymouth and
Chesil Beach and along the
Stour valley. These populations used tools and fire to clear these areas of some of the native
Oak forest. Dorset's high chalk hills have provided a location for defensive settlements for millennia, there are
Neolithic and
Bronze Age burial mounds on almost every chalk hill in the county, and a number of
Iron Age hill forts, the most famous being
Maiden Castle. The chalk downs would have been deforested in these times, making way for farmland.
Dorset has many notable
Roman artefacts, particularly around the Roman town
Dorchester, where Maiden Castle was captured from the
Celtic
Durotriges by
Vespasian in 54 AD, early in the Roman occupation. Roman roads radiated from Dorchester, following the tops of the chalk ridges to the many small Roman villages around the county. In the Roman era, settlements moved from the hill tops to the valleys, and the hilltops had been abandoned by the fourth century. A large defensive ditch,
Bokerley Dyke, delayed the
Saxon conquest of Dorset from the north east for up to two hundred years. The
Domesday Book documents many Saxon settlements corresponding to modern towns and villages, mostly in the valleys. There have been few changes to the parishes since the Domesday Book. Over the next few centuries the settlers established the pattern of farmland which prevailed into the nineteenth century, as well as many
monasteries, which were important landowners and centres of power.
In the twelfth century
civil war, Dorset was fortified with the construction of the defensive castles at
Corfe Castle,
Powerstock,
Wareham and
Shaftesbury, and the strengthening of the
monasteries such as at
Abbotsbury. In the seventeenth century
English Civil War, Dorset had a number of
royalist strongholds, such as
Sherborne Castle and
Corfe Castle, which were ruined by
Parliamentarian forces in the war. In the intervening years, the county was used by the
monarchy and
nobility for hunting and the county still has a number of
Deer Parks. Throughout the late
Mediaeval times, the remaining hilltop settlements shrank further and disappeared. From the
Tudor to
Georgian periods, farms specialised and the monastic estates were broken up, leading to an increase in population and settlement size. During the
industrial revolution, Dorset remained largely rural and still retains its agricultural economy. The
Tolpuddle Martyrs lived in Dorset, and the farming economy of Dorset was central in the formation of the
trade union movement.
Physical geography
Main articles: Geology of Dorset
Most of Dorset's landscape falls into two categories, determined by the underlying
geology. There are a number of large ridges of
limestone downland, much of which have been cleared of the native
forest and are mostly
grassland and some
arable agriculture. These limestone areas include a band of
chalk which crosses the county from south-west to north-east incorporating
Cranborne Chase, the
Dorset Downs and
Purbeck Hills. Between the areas of downland are large, wide
clay vales (primarily
Oxford Clay with some
Weald Clay and
London Clay) with wide
flood plains. These vales are primarily used for
dairy agriculture, dotted with small villages, farms and
coppices. They include the
Blackmore Vale (
Stour valley) and
Frome valley.
South-east Dorset, around Poole and Bournemouth, lies on very non-resistant
Eocene clays (mainly
London Clay and
Gault Clay),
sands and
gravels. These thin soils support a
heathland habitat which supports all seven native British
reptile species. The
River Frome estuary runs through this weak rock, and its many
tributaries have carved out a wide estuary. At the mouth of the estuary sand
spits have been deposited turning the estuary into
Poole Harbour, one of several worldwide which claim to be the second largest natural
harbour in the world (after
Sydney Harbour, though Sydney's claim is disputed). The harbour is very shallow in places and contains a number of islands, notably
Brownsea Island, famous for its
Red Squirrel sanctuary and as the birthplace of the
Scouting movement. The harbour, and the chalk and limestone hills of the
Purbecks to the south, lie atop Britain's largest onshore
oil field. The field, operated by
BP from
Wytch Farm, produces a high-quality oil and boasts the world's oldest continuously pumping well (
Kimmeridge, since the early 1960s) and longest horizontal drill (), ending underneath Bournemouth
pier). The
pottery produced by
Poole Pottery from the local clays is famous for its quality.
Most of
Dorset's coastline was designated a
World Heritage Site in 2001 because of its geological
landforms. The coast documents the entire
Mesozoic era from
Triassic to
Cretaceous, and has yielded many important
fossils, including the first complete
Ichthyosaur and fossilised Jurassic trees. The coast also features examples of most notable coastal landforms, including a textbook example of
cove (
Lulworth Cove) and
natural arch (
Durdle Door). Jutting out into the
English Channel is a limestone island, the
Isle of Portland, connected to the mainland by
Chesil Beach, a
tombolo. One of the best ways to explore the Jurassic Coast is to follow the
South West Coast Path National Trail that runs along it.
In the west of the county the chalk and clay of south-east England begins to give way to the
marl and
granite of neighbouring
Devon. Until recently
Pilsdon Pen at , was thought to be the highest hill in Dorset, but recent surveys have shown nearby
Lewesdon Hill to be higher, at . Lewesdon is also a
Marilyn.
The county has the highest proportion of
conservation areas in England— including an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (44% of the whole county),
[2] a
World Heritage Site (),
[3] '
Heritage Coasts' ()
3 and '
Sites of Special Scientific interest' (19,945
hectares).
[4]
The climate of Dorset has warm summers and mild winters, being the third most southern county in the UK, but not westerly enough to be afflicted by the
Atlantic storms that
Cornwall and
Devon experience. Dorset shares the greater winter warmth of the south-west (average 4.5 to 8.7 °C),
[5] while still maintaining higher summer temperatures than that of Devon and Cornwall (average highs of 19.1 to 22.2 °C).
[6] The average annual
temperature of the county is 9.8 to 12 °C, apart from the
Dorset Downs.
[7] In coastal areas around Dorset it is rare to have frosts, and it almost never snows.
The south coast counties of Dorset,
Hampshire,
West Sussex,
East Sussex and
Kent enjoy more sunshine than anywhere else in the
United Kingdom, receiving 1541–1885 hours.
[8] Average annual rainfall varies across the county—southern and eastern coastal areas receive as little as 741
mm per year, while the Dorset Downs receive between 1061 and 1290 mm per year; less than Devon and Cornwall to the west but more than counties to the east.
[9]
Demographics
Poole Quay
Dorset has a
population of 407,217, plus 165,370 in
Bournemouth and 137,562 in
Poole (total 710,149—mid-year estimates for 2006). The following statistics exclude Poole and Bournemouth, which are no longer part of the administrative county.
91.3% of Dorset's population were born in
England and 95.2% were born in the
United Kingdom. 98.8% are indigenous, an extreme example of the disproportionately small
ethnic minority population in rural areas. 78% of the population are
Christian and 13.7% are not religious.
Dorset has the second highest proportion of elderly people of any county in Britain, second only to
East Sussex, 25.9% of the population are over 65 and 13.9% of the 16–74 age range are retired. The county has the lowest
birth rate of the 34
English counties, at 9.6 births per 1000. It has the third highest mortality rate, behind East Sussex and
Devon. In 1996 deaths exceeded births by 1,056, giving a natural population decline of 2.7 per 1000, however, in 1997 there were 7,200 migrants moving to Dorset and the
Poole-Bournemouth conurbation, giving Dorset the second highest net population growth, behind
Cambridgeshire, at 17.3%.
[10][11]
Politics
Dorset County Council is based at County Hall in Dorchester. Following the local council elections in May 2005, 24
Conservative, 16
Liberal Democrat, four
Labour and one independent councillor sit on the county council. All Labour councillors were elected in the built up area of
Weymouth and Portland; rural areas elected Conservatives and Liberal Democrat councillors.
This pattern is repeated at the national level.
South Dorset is represented in Parliament by Labour MP
Jim Knight, though this constituency was Labour's smallest majority and was one of the most fiercely contested seats in the General Election of 2005.
[12] In the event, the seat went against the national trend and Mr Knight's majority increased slightly on a swing from the Conservatives.
[13] In all other Dorset constituencies, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are the most successful parties:
Mid-Dorset and North Poole is represented by the Liberal Democrats, and
West Dorset,
Christchurch and
North Dorset by the Conservatives.
The built up area of Poole and Bournemouth is divided into three constituencies,
Bournemouth East,
Bournemouth West and
Poole, all of which are currently represented by Conservative MPs.
Economy and industry
Abbotsbury Great Barn
In 2003 the
gross value added (GVA) for the county was
£4,673 million, with an additional £4,705 million for Poole and Bournemouth.
[14] 4% of GVA was produced by
primary industry, 26% from
secondary industry and 70% from
tertiary industry. The average GVA for the 12 statistics regions of South West England was £6,257 million. Using 2004 population estimates, the GVA per person was £6,671 for Dorset, £15,683 for Poole and Bournemouth, £15,235 for the South West and £16,100 for the UK.
The principal industry in Dorset was once agriculture. It has not, however, been the largest employer for many decades as
mechanisation has substantially reduced the number of workers required. Agriculture has become less profitable and the industry has declined further. Between 1995 and 2003 GVA for primary industry (largely agriculture with some fishing and quarrying) declined from £229 to 188 million—7.1% to 4.0% of the county's GVA. In 2002, 1,903 km² of the county was in agricultural use, down from 1,986 km² in 1989, although the figure has fluctuated somewhat.
Cattle, the principal animal stock in the county, fell from 240,413 to 178,328 in the same period, the
dairy herds falling from 102,589 to 73,476.
Sheep and
pig farming has declined similarly.
West Dorset General Hospitals
NHS Trust employs around 2,500 multi-disciplinary staff; the majority at the 500-bed
Dorset County Hospital which provides a turnover of £76 million.
[15] This new hospital was a larger replacement for the now closed
Dorchester Hospital.
One of Dorset's famous products is the Dorset Knob, a hard biscuit. It can be used as an accompaniment to
cheese, especially the local Dorset cheese,
Blue Vinney.
Tourism has grown as an industry in Dorset since the early 19th century. 4.2 million British tourists and 260,000 foreign tourists visited the county in 2002, spending a combined total of
£768 million. Foreign tourism declined in 1999 (310,000, down from 410,000 in 1998), and again in 2002 (down from 320,000), the latter decline being blamed on the effects of the global economy and security.
Dorset has little manufacturing industry, at 14.6% of employment (compared to 18.8% for the UK), and is ranked 30th out the 34 non-metropolitan English counties. The
gross domestic product for the county is 84% that of the national average.
Dorset will host the only Olympic event at the
2012 Summer Olympics held outside London –
sailing – at the
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in
Portland Harbour.
Weymouth and Portland's waters have been credited by the
Royal Yachting Association as amongst the best in Northern
Europe.
[16]
Culture
Cerne Abbas Manor House
As a largely rural county, Dorset has fewer major cultural institutions than larger or more densely populated areas. Major venues for concerts and theatre include Poole Borough Council's Lighthouse arts centre, Bournemouth's
BIC and Pavilion Theatre, Wimborne's
Tivoli Theatre, and the
Pavilion theatre in Weymouth. Dorset's most famous cultural institution is perhaps the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1893 and now one of the country's most celebrated orchestras. Dorset is not especially famous in sport, though
Football League One A.F.C. Bournemouth,
Conference National Weymouth F.C., and minor
county cricket club
Dorset CCC play in the county. The county is notable for its watersports, however, which take advantage of the sheltered waters of
Weymouth and
Poole bays, and
Poole and
Portland Harbours.
Dorset is famed in
literature for being the native county of
author and
poet Thomas Hardy, and many of the places he describes in his novels in the fictional
Wessex are in Dorset. The
National Trust owns
Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in woodland east of Dorchester, and
Max Gate, his former house in Dorchester. Several other writers have called Dorset home, including
Douglas Adams (author of ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''), who lived in
Stalbridge for a time;
Ian Fleming (''
James Bond''), who boarded at
Durnford School, poet
William Barnes;
Theodore Francis Powys;
John le Carré, author of espionage novels;
P.D. James (''
Children of Men'');
satirical novelist
Thomas Love Peacock;
John Fowles (''
The French Lieutenant's Woman''), lived in
Lyme Regis before he died in late 2005;
John Cowper Powys, who set a number of his most famous novels in Dorset and Somerset; and
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote ''
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' while living in
Bournemouth.
Dorset is also the birthplace of
artist Sir
James Thornhill, musicians
P.J. Harvey and
Robert Fripp,
photographer Jane Bown,
palaeontologist Mary Anning and
archbishops
John Morton and
William Wake.
Explorer Sir
Walter Raleigh lived in Dorset for some of his life, while
scientist and
philosopher Robert Boyle lived in Stalbridge Manor for a time. Dorset is a popular home for celebrities. Those who have moved to or own second homes in Dorset include
Madonna and
Guy Ritchie, actor
Martin Clunes, singer-songwriter
Billy Bragg,
Jonathan Ross,
Oasis singer
Noel Gallagher and footballer
Jamie Redknapp.
[17] Many of
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's television programmes are filmed at his home, just outside of
Bridport.
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the
World Wide Web lived in
Colehill near
Wimborne. Classical composer
Muzio Clementi lived and worked near Blandford in Dorset.
Settlements and communications
Main articles: List of places in Dorset,
Transport in Dorset
Gold Hill, Shaftesbury
Weymouth Promenade
Dorset is largely rural with many small villages, few large towns, and no cities. The largest
conurbation is the
South East Dorset conurbation which consists of the
seaside resort of
Bournemouth, the historic port of
Poole and the town of
Christchurch plus many villages. Bournemouth was created in the
Victorian era when sea bathing became popular. As an example of how affluent the area has become,
Sandbanks in Poole was worthless land unwanted by farmers in the nineteenth century, but is said to be amongst the highest land values by area in the world.
[18] Bournemouth and Christchurch were added to the county from
Hampshire in the county boundary changes of 1974.
The other two major settlements in the county are
Dorchester, (the county town), and
Weymouth, one of the first
tourist towns, frequented by
George III, and still very popular today.
Blandford Forum,
Sherborne,
Gillingham,
Shaftesbury and
Sturminster Newton are historical
market towns which serve the farms and villages of the Blackmore Vale (Hardy's ''Vale of the Little Dairies''). Blandford is home to the Badger brewery of
Hall and Woodhouse.
Bridport,
Lyme Regis,
Wareham and
Wimborne Minster are also market towns. Lyme Regis and
Swanage are small coastal towns popular with tourists.
Still in construction on the western edge of Dorchester is the experimental
new town of
Poundbury, commissioned and co-designed by
Prince Charles. The suburb is designed to integrate residential and retail buildings and counter the growth of dormitory towns and car-oriented development.
Dorset is connected to
London by two main
railway lines. The
West of England Main Line runs through the north of the county at Gillingham and Sherborne. The
South Western Main Line runs through the south at Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester and the terminus at Weymouth. Additionally, the
Heart of Wessex Line runs from Weymouth to
Bristol. Dorset is one of only four non metropolitan counties in England to not have a single motorway. The
A303,
A31 and
A35 trunk roads run through the county. The only passenger
airport in the county is
Bournemouth International Airport, and there are two passenger
sea ports, at Poole and Weymouth.
See also
★
List of places of interest and tourist attractions in Dorset
★
List of Dorset beaches
★
List of Parliamentary constituencies in Dorset
★
West Country dialects
★
UK topics
References
1. Mapping The Dornsaete (Dorset) Domesday
2. Dorset AONB
3. Length of coastline and coastal designations
4. Nature Conservation Designations - SSSIs
5. Mean Temperature Winter Average
6. Maximum Temperature Summer Average
7. Mean Temperature Annual Average
8. Sunshine Duration Annual Average
9. Rainfall Amount Annual Average
10. 2001 Census
11. Dorset Count Council Facts & Figures
12. A print-out-and-keep guide to election night
13. Channel 4 -Election 2005
14. Regional Gross Value Added (pp.240–253)
15. Trust Profile
16. 2012 Olympic Games sailing venue
17. Dorset Celebrities
18. Island on the market for £2.5 million
★ Arkell, W.J., 1978. ''The Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe & Lulworth''. London: Geological Survey of Great Britain,
HMSO.
★ Davies, G.M., 1956. ''A Geological Guide to the Dorset Coast, 2nd ed.'' London:
A & C Black.
★
Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911. ''
Dorsetshire''.
★ Perkins, John W., 1977. ''Geology Explained in Dorset''. London:
David & Charles.
★ Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1968. ''Dorset''. London:
Faber & Faber.
★ Taylor, Christopher, 1970. ''The making of the Dorset landscape''. London:
Hodder & Stoughton.
★ West, Ian, 2004. ''
Geology of the Wessex Coast and Southern England'',
Southampton University, (Accessed between September 2003 and October 2004).
External links
★
Full list of Dorset links at dmoz.org
★
★
Dorset County Council
★
Dorset County Museum
★
The Dorset Evening Echo
★
Dorchester County Hospital
★
Dorset Wildlife Trust
★
BBC Dorset 'Where I Live' site
★
Dorset Family History - Online Parish Clerk Project (OPC)
★
Dorset Echo - Dorset Beach Guide
★
Dorset Genealogy heraldry and history
; 'Photographs'
★
By wikipedian Steinsky
★
Photos
★
Photos
★
Photos
★
Aerial Photos
.jpg)
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