Saxon
A large defensive ditch on Cranborne Chase in the north east of the county, Bokerley Dyke, dated to 367, delayed the Saxon conquest of Dorset, with the Romano-British remaining in Dorset for 200 years after the withdrawal of the Roman legions. The inhospitable coastline prevented an invasion from the sea. When the Roman road across Cranborne Chase was rebuilt in the 6th century the Saxons advanced into Dorset. The Romano-British retreated, constructing another defence, Combs Ditch, which also fell within a century. It is thought that the Saxons captured east Dorset in the mid-7th century and west Dorset shortly afterwards, but the details are not known.
Dorset was initially part of Saxon Wessex, with the first record of Dorset being in 841. Coenred, the sub-king of Dorset at the end of the 7th century, was father of King Ine. St Martin's church at Wareham is reputedly the oldest in Dorset but there were many other Saxon foundations including Shaftesbury Abbey and Sherborne Monastery. King Ethelred I (866-871) is buried at Wimborne, while St Cuthberga, abbess of Wimborne, died in 725. Gillingham is first mentioned in a 10th century charter.
Aldhelm was the first bishop of the Diocese of Sherborne, created in 705 AD. This covered the part of Wessex "west of Selwood".
In 876 King Alfred the Great trapped a Danish fleet at Arne then drove it out, 120 ships being wrecked at Studland. Corfe Castle in 978 saw the murder of King Edward the Martyr, whose body was taken first to Wareham and then to Shaftesbury.
Read more about this topic: History Of Dorset
Famous quotes containing the word saxon:
“It is remarkable what a value is still put upon wood even in this age and in this new country, a value more permanent and universal than that of gold. After all our discoveries and inventions no man will go by a pile of wood. It is as precious to us as it was to our Saxon and Norman ancestors. If they made their bows of it, we make our gun-stocks of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The canoe and yellow birch, beech, maple, and elm are Saxon and Norman, but the spruce and fir, and pines generally, are Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)