Dorset Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
This page is about the county of Dorset in England. See Dorset (disambiguation) for other places called Dorset
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Status: | Ceremonial & (smaller) Administrative County |
| Region: | South West England |
| Area: - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area | Ranked 20th 2,653 km² Ranked 21st 2,542 km² |
| Admin HQ: | Dorchester |
| : | GB-DOR |
| ONS code: | 19 |
| NUTS 3: | UKK22 |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2002 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop. | Ranked 30th 696,327 263 / km² Ranked 31st 394,581 |
| Ethnicity: | 98.1% White |
| Politics | |
Dorset County Council http://www.dorsetcc.gov.uk/ | |
| Executive: | Conservative |
| Members of Parliament | |
| David Atkinson, Annette Brooke, John Butterfill, Christopher Chope, Jim Knight, Oliver Letwin, Robert Syms, Robert Walter, | |
| Districts | |
| |
Dorset (pronounced 'Dorsit', sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the southwest of England. The county town is Dorchester. The county borders Devon (w), Somerset (nw), Wiltshire (ne) and Hampshire (e). The county motto is "Who's Afear'd".
| Table of contents |
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2 Geology, landscape and ecology 3 History 4 Dorset people 5 Settlements 6 Places of interest 7 See Also 8 External links 9 References |
Demographics
Dorset has a population of 390,980, plus 163,444 in Bournemouth and 138,288 in Poole (total 692,712). The following statistics exclude Poole and Bournemouth.
91.3% of Dorset's population were born in England and 95.2% were born within the United Kingdom. 98.8% are white, an extreme example of the disproportionately small ethnic minority population in rural areas.
78% of the population are Christian, 13.7% are not religious.
Dorset has the highest proportion of elderly people of any county in Britain with 25.9% of the population over 65 and 13.9% of the 16-74 age range retired.
Data taken from the 2001 census, full raw data can be found here.
Geology, landscape and ecology
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 were cleared of the native forest hundreds or even thousands of years ago 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 encorporating 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 unresistant 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 very wide estuary. At the mouth of the estuary sand spits have been deposited turning the estuary into Poole Harbour, 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 Purbeckss 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 contiuously pumping well (Kimmeridge, since the early 1960s) and longest horizontal drill (5miles, ending underneath Bournemouth pier). The clay 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 unique 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. Jutting out into the English Channel is a limestone island, the Isle of Portland, connected to the mainland by Chesil Beach, a tombolo.
The highest point in Dorset is Pilsdon Pen at 909ft.
History
The earliest recorded use of the name was in A.D.940 as Dorseteschire meaning the dwellers (saete) of Dornuuarana (Dorchester), the place of fisticuffs (Celtic: Dwrn, "fist" and gwarae, "play") [1].
The first known settlement of Dorset was by Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BCE. 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 millenia, with neolithic and bronze age burial mounds on almost every chalk hill in the county, and a number of iron age hill forts. 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 taken 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 by the 4th century the hilltops had been abandoned. A large defensive ditch, Bokerley Dyke, delayed the Saxon conquest of Dorset from the north east for up to 200 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 19th century, as well as many monasteries, which were important landowners and centres of power.
A number of military events took place in Dorset in the 12th century civil war, and this gave rise to the defensive castles at Corfe Castle, Powerstock, Wareham and Shaftesbury. In the 17th century English Civil War Dorset had a number of royalist strongholds, such as Sherborne Castle and Corfe Castle, which were ruined in the war. In the intervening years the county was used by the monarchy and nobility for hunting and the county still have a number of Deer Parks. Throughout the late Medieval times the remaining hilltop settlements shrank further and dissapeared. From the Tudor to Georgian periods farming specialised and the monastic estates broke 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.
Dorset people
Dorset is famed in literature for being the native county of author and poet Thomas Hardy. Many of the places he describes in his novels in the fictional Wessex are in Dorset. The National Trust own Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in woodland east of Dorchester, and Max Gate, his house in Dorchester. Stalbridge was home of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Poet William Barnes, authors Theodore Francis Powys, John le Carré, P.D. James and satirical novelist Thomas Love Peacock are also locals. The author John Fowles lives in Lyme Regis.
Dorset is also the birthplace of artist Sir James Thornhill, musicians P.J. Harvey and Robert Fripp, paleontologist Mary Anning and archbishops John Morton and William Wake. Explorer Sir Walter Raleigh lived in Dorset for a time. Scientist and philosopher Robert Boyle lived in Stalbridge Manor for a time. Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg lives in Burton Bradstock, near Bridport.
Dorset is largely rural with many small village but few large towns and no cities. The largest town is the south-east coastal conurbation consisting of the seaside resort Bournemouth, the historic port of Poole and the town Christchurch plus many villages. The conurbation is the only settlement in Dorset that could be described as a city (though it does not legally have city status), but in the mid 19th century it was little more than a small town on Poole quay. 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 19th century, but is now boasts the third highest land value by area in the world. 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 popular.
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 and Wareham are also market towns.
Currently in construction on the western edge of Dorchester is the experimental new-town Poundbury, commissioned and co-designed by Prince Charles. The suburb is designed to integrate residential and retail buildings and counter the growth of domitary towns and car-orientated development.
Settlements
Places of interest
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This is an Article on Dorset. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Dorset See Also
External links
Photographs
References