Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury stands on a hill in Dorset overlooking the Blackmore Vale. Its Benedictine abbey, founded by King Alfred in 888, became a wealthy religious house and a destination for pilgrims to the shrine of St Edward the Martyr. By 1340 the abbess's steward swore in the town's mayor; in 1392 Richard II confirmed rights to hold two markets. The abbey was surrendered and demolished in 1539 during the Dissolution, and its lands were sold. Shaftesbury continued as a market and road town. In the seventeenth century cloth production employed households in the surrounding countryside, while brewing and malting were also important. In the eighteenth century local makers produced coarse woollen swanskin cloth, used by Newfoundland fishers and for uniforms.