Editing Dorset (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Dorset}}

=== Early history ===
The first human visitors to Dorset were [[Mesolithic]] hunters, from around 8000&nbsp;BC.<ref name=Put15>Putnam (p. 15)</ref><ref name="Cullingford p13">Cullingford (p. 13)</ref> The first permanent [[Neolithic]] settlers appeared around 3000&nbsp;BC and were responsible for the creation of the [[Dorset Cursus]], a {{convert|10.5|km|adj=on}} monument for ritual or ceremonial purposes.<ref name=Put19>Putnam (p. 19)</ref><ref name="Cullingford p.14">Cullingford (p. 14)</ref> From 2800&nbsp;BC onwards [[Bronze Age]] farmers cleared Dorset's woodlands for agricultural use and Dorset's high chalk hills provided a location for numerous [[round barrows]].<ref name="DFY Culture">{{cite web |url=http://www.dorsetforyou.com/339547 |title=Cultural History |work=Dorset For You |publisher=[[Dorset County Council]] |access-date=24 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710145637/http://www.dorsetforyou.com/339547 |archive-date=10 July 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Cullingford (p. 15)</ref> During the [[Iron Age]], the [[Britons (Celtic people)|British]] tribe known as the [[Durotriges]] established a series of [[hill fort]]s across the county—most notably [[Maiden Castle, Dorset|Maiden Castle]] which is one of the largest in Europe.<ref name="Cullingford p.16">Cullingford (pp. 16–17)</ref><ref>{{PastScape|mnumber=451864|mname=Maiden Castle|year=2007|access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref>

The Romans arrived in Dorset during their [[Roman conquest of Britain|conquest of Britain]] in AD&nbsp;43. Maiden Castle was captured by the [[Legio II Augusta]] under the command of [[Vespasian]], and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby.<ref>Cullingford (pp. 18–19)</ref><ref name="vespasian">{{cite web |year=2007 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/vespasian.shtml |title=Vespasian (9 AD&nbsp;– 79 AD) |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=2 April 2008 |archive-date=21 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421201934/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/vespasian.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Bokerley Dyke]], a large defensive ditch built by the county's post-Roman inhabitants near the border with modern-day [[Hampshire]], delayed the advance of the Saxons into Dorset for almost 150 years.<ref>Cullingford (p. 26)</ref> It appears to have been re-fortified during this period, with the former Roman Road at [[Ackling Dyke]] also being blocked by the Britons, apparently to prevent the West Saxon advance into Dorset.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hinton |first=David A. |title=Saxons and Vikings |publisher=Dovecote Press |year=1998 |isbn=1874336504 |pages=19}}</ref>

However, by the end of the 7th century Dorset had fallen under Saxon control and been incorporated into the [[Kingdom of Wessex]].<ref name="Draper142">Draper (p. 142)</ref> The precise details of this West Saxon conquest and how it took place are not clear, but it appears to have substantially taken place by the start of the reign of [[Caedwalla]] in 685.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yorke |first=Barbara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BC6EAgAAQBAJ&q=yorke+kings+and+kingship |title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-70725-6 |pages=137 |language=en}}</ref> The Saxons established a diocese at [[Sherborne]] (later to develop into the [[Diocese of Salisbury]]) and Dorset was made a [[shire]]—an administrative district of Wessex and predecessor to the [[Ancient counties of England|English county]] system—with borders that have changed little since.<ref>Cullingford (p. 28)</ref> In 789 the first recorded [[Viking]] attack on the British Isles took place in Dorset on the Portland coast, and they continued to raid into the county for the next two centuries.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/vikinganglosaxons_timeline_noflash.shtml |title=Vikings and Anglo-Saxons |publisher=[[BBC]] |year=2012 |access-date=13 May 2012 |archive-date=23 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423064907/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/vikinganglosaxons_timeline_noflash.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Cullingford (pp. 30–36)</ref>

After the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]] in 1066, [[Feudalism in England|feudal]] rule was established in Dorset and the bulk of the land was divided between the Crown and ecclesiastical institutions.<ref>Cullingford (pp. 37–38)</ref> The Normans consolidated their control over the area by constructing castles at [[Corfe Castle|Corfe]], [[Wareham Castle|Wareham]] and [[Dorchester Castle|Dorchester]] in the early part of the 12th century.<ref>Cullingford (p. 43)</ref> Over the next 200 years Dorset's population grew substantially and additional land was enclosed for farming to provide the extra food required.<ref name="Cullingford p52">Cullingford (p. 52)</ref> The wool trade, the quarrying of [[Purbeck Marble]] and the busy ports of [[Weymouth, Dorset|Weymouth]], [[Melcombe Regis]], [[Lyme Regis]] and [[Bridport]] brought prosperity to the county.<ref>Cullingford (pp. 52–54)</ref> However, Dorset was devastated by the bubonic plague in 1348 which arrived in Melcombe Regis on a ship from [[Gascony]].<ref>Cullingford (pp. 54–55)</ref> The disease, more commonly known as the [[Black Death]], created an epidemic that spread rapidly and wiped out a third of the population of the country.<ref>Cullingford (pp. 55–56)</ref><ref>Hilliam (p. 17)</ref> Dorset came under the political influence of a number of different nobles during the Middle Ages. During the Wars of the Roses, for instance, Dorset came into the area influenced by [[Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon|Humphrey Stafford, earl of Devon]] (originally of [[Hooke, Dorset|Hooke]], Dorset) whose wider influence stretched from Cornwall to Wiltshire. After 1485, one of the most influential Dorset figures was Henry VII's chamberlain [[Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney|Giles Daubeney]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stansfield-Cudworth |first=R. E. |title=Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-77344-714-1 |location=[[Lewiston, New York]] |pages=191–225, 317–321}}</ref>

=== Modern history ===
{{Further|Dorset in the English Civil War}}
[[File:Corfe Castle3.jpg|thumb|left|alt=the ruins of Corfe Castle|[[Corfe Castle]], captured and destroyed by [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell's]] army in 1646]]
The [[dissolution of the monasteries]] (1536–1541) met little resistance in Dorset and many of the county's abbeys, including [[Shaftesbury Abbey|Shaftesbury]], [[Cerne Abbey|Cerne]] and [[Milton Abbey School#Abbey church|Milton]], were sold to private owners.<ref>Cullingford (pp. 59–60)</ref> In 1642, at the commencement of the [[English Civil War]], the [[Cavalier|Royalists]] took control of the entire county apart from Poole and Lyme Regis. However, within three years their gains had been almost entirely reversed by the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]].<ref>Cullingford (pp. 68–69)</ref> An uprising of [[Clubmen]]—vigilantes weary of the depredations of the war—took place in Dorset in 1645. Some 2,000 of these rebels offered battle to [[Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron|Lord Fairfax's]] Parliamentary army at [[Hambledon Hill]] but they were easily routed.<ref name="Cullingford pp70–71">Cullingford (pp. 70–71)</ref><ref>Hilliam (pp. 144–145)</ref> [[Sherborne Castle]] was taken by Fairfax that same year and in 1646 Corfe Castle, the last remaining Royalist stronghold in Dorset, was captured after an act of betrayal: both were subsequently [[Slighting|slighted]].<ref name="Cullingford pp70–71"/><ref>Yarrow (p. 26)</ref> The [[James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth|Duke of Monmouth's]] unsuccessful [[Monmouth Rebellion|attempt to overthrow James II]] began when he landed at Lyme Regis in 1685.<ref>Cullingford (p. 75)</ref> A series of trials known as the [[Bloody Assizes]] took place to punish the rebels. Over a five-day period in Dorchester, [[Judge Jeffreys]] presided over 312 cases: 74 of the accused were executed, 175 were sentenced to [[penal transportation]], and nine were publicly whipped.<ref>Cullingford (p. 78)</ref> In 1686, at [[Charborough House|Charborough Park]], a meeting took place to plot the downfall of [[James II of England]]. This meeting was effectively the start of the [[Glorious Revolution]].<ref>Cullingford (p. 80)</ref>

During the 18th century, much [[smuggling]] took place along the Dorset coast; its coves, caves and sandy beaches provided opportunities for gangs such as the [[Hawkhurst Gang|Hawkhursts]] to stealthily bring smuggled goods ashore.<ref>Cullingford (p. 99)</ref> Poole became Dorset's busiest port and established prosperous trade links with the fisheries of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] which supported cloth, rope and net manufacturing industries in the surrounding towns and villages.<ref>Cullingford (p. 92)</ref> However, the [[Industrial Revolution]] largely bypassed Dorset which lacked coal resources and as a consequence the county remained predominantly agricultural.<ref name="Cullingford p105">Cullingford (p. 105)</ref><ref name="Draper143">Draper (p. 143)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_LAND&data_cube=N_LAND2001&u_id=10104210&c_id=10001043&add=Y |title=Agriculture and Land Use |work=A Vision of Britain Through Time |publisher=[[University of Portsmouth]] |access-date=8 March 2011 |archive-date=28 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628203312/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_LAND&data_cube=N_LAND2001&u_id=10104210&c_id=10001043&add=Y |url-status=live}}</ref> Farming has always been central to the economy of Dorset and the county became the birthplace of the modern [[trade union movement]] when, in 1834, six farm labourers formed a union to protest against falling wages. The labourers, who are now known as the [[Tolpuddle Martyrs]], were subsequently arrested for administering "unlawful oaths" and sentenced to transportation but they were pardoned following massive protests by the working classes.<ref>Hilliam (p. 10)</ref><ref>Cullingford (pp. 114–116)</ref>

The [[Dorsetshire Regiment]] were the first British unit to face a [[Chemical weapons in World War I|gas attack]] during the [[First World War]] (1914–1918) and they sustained particularly heavy losses at the [[Battle of the Somme]].<ref>Cullingford (p. 133)</ref><ref name="bbc somme memorial">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-13154655 |work=[[BBC News]] |title=Somme memorial to Dorset World War I soldiers |date=21 April 2011 |access-date=13 May 2012 |archive-date=22 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110422084200/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-13154655 |url-status=live}}</ref> In total some 4,500 Dorset servicemen died in the war and of the county's towns and villages, only one, [[Langton Herring]], known as a [[Thankful Villages|Thankful Village]], had no residents killed.<ref name="bbc somme memorial"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15671943 |work=[[BBC News]] |title=Thankful villages: The places where everyone came back from the wars |date=11 November 2011 |access-date=17 May 2012 |archive-date=11 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111131118/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15671943 |url-status=live}}</ref> During the [[Second World War]] (1939–1945) Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the [[invasion of Normandy]]: beach landing exercises were carried out at [[Studland]] and Weymouth and the village of [[Tyneham]] was requisitioned for army training.<ref>Cullingford (p. 134)</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2009/05/18/dday_exercise_smash_feature.shtml |title=BBC Local&nbsp;– Dorset |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=1 April 2011 |archive-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307075923/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2009/05/18/dday_exercise_smash_feature.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref> Tens of thousands of troops departed Weymouth, Portland and Poole harbours during the D-Day [[Normandy landings]] and gliders from [[RAF Tarrant Rushton]] dropped troops near [[Caen]] to begin [[Operation Tonga]].

Dorset experienced an increase in holiday-makers after the war.<ref>Cullingford (p. 135)</ref> First popularised as a tourist destination by [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III's]] frequent visits to Weymouth, the county's coastline, seaside resorts and its sparsely populated rural areas attract millions of visitors each year.<ref name="Cullingford p105"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dorsetforyou.com/370025 |title=Key facts&nbsp;– tourism |work=Dorset For You |year=2005 |publisher=[[Dorset County Council]] |access-date=2 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003124948/http://www.dorsetforyou.com/370025 |archive-date=3 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> With farming declining across the country, tourism has edged ahead as the primary revenue-earning sector.<ref name="Draper143"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/archive/1255030.stm |title=Panorama&nbsp;– Farming in Decline |date=1 April 2001 |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref>