DORCHESTER, a market town and municipal borough and the county town of Dorsetshire, England, in the Western parliamentary division, 1351 m. S.W. by W. from London by the S.R. and also served by the Weymouth section of the G.W. rail way. Pop. (1931) 10,030. It stands on an eminence on the right bank of the river Frome, within a wide open tract of beautiful views, 6 m. N. of the English Channel at Weymouth bay. St. Peter's church is a Perpendicular building with a fine tower. All Saints and Holy Trinity churches were rebuilt in the last century, but St. George's, Fordington, retains Norman and Transitional details. Of public buildings the principal are : the town-hall, market-house and corn exchange, shire-hall, the interesting coun ty museum, the county hospital and the former county, now Government, prison. The grammar school (founded in 1569) re ceived a new set of school buildings in 1928. There is a statue to William Barnes the Dorsetshire poet (1801-86). Thomas Hardy, the poet and novelist, was born near Dorchester, which is the "Casterbridge" of the Wessex novels. The town is noted also for its ale. It is a place of considerable agricultural trade, and large sheep and lamb fairs are held annually. The borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors, has its own commission of the peace and owns the water and electricity undertakings.
Durnovaria at the intersection of a number of Roman roads, was a Romano-British country town of considerable size, probably successor to a British tribal centre of the Durotriges. The walls can be traced in part, and many mosaics, remains of houses, etc., have been found. The notable remains of a Roman amphitheatre are seen at Maumbury Rings, near the town. Maiden castle, on a hill 2 M. S.W. is a vast earthwork considered to have been a stronghold of the Durotriges. Another smaller encampment is at Poundbury close by, and barrows and numerous other remains have been found in the vicinity. Little mention of Dorchester (Dornceaster, Dorcestre) occurs in Saxon annals, but a charter from Aethelstan to Milton abbey in 939 is dated at villa regalis quae dicitur Doracestria, and at this period it possessed a mint. According to the Domesday Survey it was a royal borough and had contained 172 houses, of which loo had been totally destroyed since the Conquest. Mention is made of a castle at Dorchester in records of the 12th and 13th centuries; and the Franciscan priory, founded some time before 1331, is thought to have been con structed out of its ruins. The latter was suppressed among the lesser monasteries in 1536. Edward II. granted the borough to the bailiffs and burgesses at a fee-farm rent of £20 for five years, and the grant was renewed in perpetuity by Edward III. Richard III. empowered the burgesses to elect a coroner and two con stables, with other privileges. The first charter of incorporation, granted by James I. in 161o, established a governing council, which Charles I. in 1629 enlarged, while also incorporating the freemen of the borough, with power to make laws for the regula tion of the markets and trade. Dorchester returned two mem bers to parliament from 1295 until the Representation of the People Act reduced the number to one; in 1885 the representation was merged in the county. Edward III. granted to the burgesses the perquisites from three fairs, and three weekly markets. Elizabeth granted an additional three days' fair at Candlemas. The cloth industry which flourished during the 16th century never recovered from the depression following the Civil War. The malting and brewing industries came into prominence in the 17th century, when there was also a considerable serge manufacture, which has since declined.