Shaftesbury
208480
221419720
2008-06-24T12:31:14Z
Neelix
1169106
Added alternate name for the town in Thomas Hardy's Wessex
{{dablink|For other uses, see [[Shaftesbury (disambiguation)]]}}
{{Infobox UK place
| official_name= Shaftesbury
| local_name=
| shire_district= [[North Dorset]]
| shire_county= [[Dorset]]
| country= England
| region= South West England
| static_image= [[Image:Gold Hill, Shaftsbury, Dorset, England.JPG|240px]]
| static_image_caption= <small>[[Gold Hill, Shaftesbury |Gold Hill]]</small>
| population= 6,665 <ref>[[Census 2001]]</ref>
| os_grid_reference= ST861228
| map_type= Dorset
| latitude= 51.0066
| longitude= -2.198
| london_distance=
| post_town= SHAFTESBURY
| postcode_area= SP
| postcode_district= SP7
| dial_code= 01747
| constituency_westminster= [[North Dorset (constituency)|North Dorset]]
}}
'''Shaftesbury''' is a [[town]] in North [[Dorset]], [[England]], situated on the [[A30 road]] near the [[Wiltshire]] border 20 [[mile]]s west of [[Salisbury, Wiltshire|Salisbury]]. The town is built 750 [[foot (unit of length)|feet]] (over 200 [[metre]]s) above sea level on the side of a [[chalk]] and [[greensand]] [[hill]], which is part of [[Cranborne Chase]], the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset. It is one of the oldest and highest towns in [[UK|Britain]].
In 2001, the town had a [[population]] of 6,665 with 3,112 dwellings, only a small increase from 1991. There are currently 5 primary schools and an enlarged secondary school. Major employers include [[Pork Farms]], [[Stalbridge Linen]] (a commercial laundry), [[HMP Guy's Marsh]], [[Wessex Electrical]] and the [[Royal Mail]].
Many of the older buildings in the town are of the local greensand, while others built from the grey [[Chilmark, Wiltshire|Chilmark]] [[limestone]], much of which was salvaged from the demolished Shaftesbury Abbey, and have [[thatch]]ed roofs. [[Tourism]] is one of the main industries in the town.
The town looks over the [[Blackmore Vale]], part of the river [[River Stour, Dorset|Stour]] basin. From different viewpoints, it is possible to see at least as far as [[Glastonbury Tor]] to the north-west.
The town is famous for [[Gold Hill, Shaftesbury|Gold Hill]], a steep cobbled street featured on the cover of countless books about Dorset and rural England. It was perhaps most famously used as the street in the popular [[Ridley Scott]]-directed [[Hovis]] bread advertisement used through the 1970s and '80s. The hill most recently featured in a [[Morrisons]] supermarket advert, also for bread. The town is also famous for its ruined Abbey and nearby [[Wardour Castle]].
A [[market]] is held in the town on Thursdays. The Blackmore Vale is [[Thomas Hardy]]'s ''Vale of the Little Dairies'', and until 2004 Shaftesbury was the location of one of the last remaining [[livestock market]]s in Britain. The site has since been redeveloped as a supermarket.
The town features in [[Thomas Hardy's Wessex]] with the names ''Shaston'' and ''Palladour'', of particular significance in ''[[Jude the Obscure]]''.
Actor [[Robert Newton]], best known for his portrayal of [[Long John Silver]], was born in Shaftesbury.
== History ==
[[Image:Shaftsburystpeters.JPG|thumb|Church of St Peter]]
Although Shaftesbury's recorded history dates from [[Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon]] times, it may have been the [[Celt]]ic Caer Palladur. Its first written record as a town is in the ''[[Burghal Hidage]]''. [[Alfred the Great]] founded a [[Burgh]] (fortified settlement) here in 880 as a defence in the struggle with the Danish invaders. Alfred and his daughter [[Ethelgiva]] founded [[Shaftesbury Abbey]] in 888, which was a spur to the growing importance of the town. [[Athelstan]] founded three royal mints, which struck pennies bearing the town's name, and the abbey became the wealthiest [[Benedictine]] [[nunnery]] in England. On February 20th 981 the relics of St [[Edward the Martyr]] were translated from Wareham and received at the Abbey with great ceremony, thereafter turning Shaftesbury into a major site of pilgrimage for miracles of healing. In 1240 [[Cardinal Otto]], legate to the [[Apostolic See]] of [[Pope Gregory IX]] visited the abbey and confirmed a charter of 1191, the first entered in the [[Glastonbury]] [[chartulary]].
[[King Canute]] died here in 1035. In the [[Domesday Book]], the town was known as ''Scaepterbyrg''; its ownership was equally shared between King and Abbey. The Abbey was in the [[Middle Ages]] the central focus of the town.
In 1260, a charter to hold a [[market]] was granted. In 1392, [[Richard II of England|Richard II]] confirmed a grant of two markets on different days. By 1340, the [[mayor]] had become a recognised figure, sworn in by the Steward of the Abbess.
In 1539, the last Abbess of Shaftesbury, [[Elizabeth Zouche]], signed a deed of surrender, the (by then extremely wealthy) abbey was demolished, and its lands sold, leading to a temporary decline in the town. Sir [[Thomas Arundel]] of Wardour purchased the abbey and much of the town in 1540, but when he was later [[exile]]d for [[treason]] his lands were forfeit, and the lands passed to Pembroke then [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury]], and finally to the Grosvenors.
Shaftesbury was a parliamentary [[constituency]] returning two members from 1296 to the [[Reform Act 1832|Reform Act of 1832]], when it was reduced to one, and in 1884 the separate constituency was abolished.
The town was broadly Parliamentarian in the [[English Civil War|Civil War]], but was in [[Cavaliers (royalists)|Royalist]] hands. [[Wardour Castle]] fell to Parliamentary forces in 1643; Parliamentary forces surrounded the town in August 1645, when it was a centre of local [[Clubmen]] activity. The clubmen were arrested and sent to trial in [[Sherborne]]. Shaftesbury took no part in the [[Monmouth]] Rebellion of 1685.
[[Image:Shaftesbury Town Hall.jpg|thumb|Town Hall]]
The town hall was built in 1827 by Earl Grosvenor after the Guildhall was pulled down to widen the high street.It has been designated by [[English Heritage]] as a grade II [[listed building]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Town Hall | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?id=102044 | accessdate=2007-12-29}}</ref> The town hall is next to the 15th century St Peters church.<ref>{{cite web | title=Church of St Peter | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?id=102046 | accessdate=2007-12-29}}</ref>
The major employers in the 18th and 19th centuries were buttonmaking and weaving. The former became a victim of mechanisation, and this caused unemployment and emigration.
The five turnpikes which met at Shaftesbury ensured that the town had a good coaching trade. The railways, however, bypassed Shaftesbury, and this influenced the subsequent pattern of its growth.
In 1919, Lord [[Stalbridge]] sold a large portion of the town, which was purchased by a syndicate and [[auction]]ed piece by piece over three days.
Most of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] and [[Medieval]] buildings have now been ruined, with most of the town dating from the 18th century to present. [[Thomas Hardy]] wrote:
:''"Vague imaginings of its castle, its three mints, its magnificent apsidal Abbey, the chief glory of south Wessex, its twelve churches, its shrines, chantries, hospitals, its gabled freestone mansions—all now ruthlessly swept away—throw the visitor, even against his will, into a pensive melancholy, which the stimulating atmosphere and limitless landscape around him can scarcely dispel."''
==See also==
* [[St Mary's Shaftesbury]] school
* [[Shaftesbury Abbey]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
* Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1979. ''Dorset''. London: Faber & Faber.
* The 1985 AA illustrated guide to the country towns and villages of Britain.
==External links==
* [http://shaftesburytown.co.uk/ Shaftesbury Town Web Site]
* [http://www.shaftesburydorset.com/ Shaftesbury, Dorset Community Website]
* [http://www.somerset3d.co.uk/logos%20&%20pictures/town%20&%20village%20pages/dorset/shaftesbury.htm Photos of Shaftesbury in 3d] ([[anaglyph image]]s)
{{Dorset}}
[[Category:Towns in Dorset]]
[[Category:West Country Carnival]]
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