Place:Dorchester, Dorset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Dorchester is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 major road. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome to the south of the Dorset Downs and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway that separates the area from Weymouth, 7 miles (11 km) to the south. The civil parish includes the small late 20th century town of Poundbury and the suburb of Fordington. The Romans established a garrison at Dorchester, calling the settlement that grew up nearby "Durnovaria"; they built an aqueduct to supply water and an amphitheatre on an ancient British earthwork. After the departure of the Romans, the town diminished in significance, but during the medieval period became an important commercial and political centre. It was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jeffreys after the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and later of the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1833). In the 2011 census, the population of Dorchester was 19,060, and attracting people from surrounding areas to work in the town which now has six industrial estates.

Further notes from Wikipedia

By 864, the area around Durnovaria/Durngueir was dominated by the Saxons who referred to themselves as "Dorsaetas", 'People of the Dor' - Durnovaria. The town became known as Dornwaraceaster or Dornwaracester, combining the original name Dor/Dorn from the Latin and Celtic languages with cester, Old English for "walled town". This changed over time to Dorncester/Dornceaster and Dorchester. The town was a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset with a textile trading and manufacturing industry which continued until the 17th century.

In 1613 and 1725 great fires destroyed large parts of the town, but some of its mediaeval buildings, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings, and a Tudor almshouse survive in the town centre. Among the replacement Georgian buildings are many which are built in Portland limestone.

In the 17th century the town was at the centre of Puritan emigration to North America, and the local rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts. For his efforts on behalf of Puritan dissenters, White has been called the unheralded founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Some observers have attributed the oversight to the fact that White, unlike John Winthrop, never went to America.)

In 1833, the Tolpuddle Martyrs founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Trade unions were legal but because the members swore an oath of allegiance [to the union], they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall which is preserved as it was at the time. Beneath the courtroom are cells where the prisoners were held while waiting trial. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th century and was used for holding convicted and remanded inmates from the local courts until it closed in December 2013.

Dorchester, Dorset in A Vision of Britain Through Time

Governance

Dorchester was originally made up of three ecclesiastical (ancient) parishes (Dorchester All Saints, Dorchester St. Peter, and Dorchester Holy Trinity) which were all within the Uggscombe Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. All three parishes became civil parishes in 1866. Dorchester Holy Trinity (which included the rural area of Frome Whitfield since the 17th century) was absorbed into Dorchester St. Peter parish in 1898. In 1927 Dorchester St. Peter, and Dorchester Holy Trinity merged into the single parish of Dorchester which at the same time became a municipal borough.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts, together with municipal and county boroughs across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Dorchester joined the non-metropolitan West Dorset District District.

Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, West Dorset District was abolished, and the county of Dorset (excluding the single urban area Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council.

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