Dorchester

This historic county town of Dorchester was the 'Durnovara' of the Romans and the fictional Casterbridge of Thomas Hardy's novels. The town has a busy shopping centre and a flourishing market.

Communications

Dorchester lies at the junction of the A35, South Coast trunk road, and the A37 to Yeovil and the north. It also has direct rail links to London and Bristol.

Education

Dorchester pyramid area:
13 first schools, 3 middle schools, 1 upper school, 1 secondary school,
The secondary school for the town
The Thomas Hardye School
(Comprehensive - 2,283 pupils- 2011).

For more information on The Thomas Hardye School (opens in a new window)

Commercial land

Between 1994-10, 8.3 hectares of industrial land has been developed in Dorchester. The total area of land with permission or allocated in the local plan is 5.2 hectares.

Crime

Domestic burglaries

Rate per 1,000 households

Area	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/2009	2009/10
Dorchester	13.6	10.4	8.4	5.0	5.1	n/a	5.9	5.0
DCC Dorset	6.6	6.6	6.5	5.7	4.4	n/a	4.1	3.8
South West	14.8	12.3	10.7	8.9	8.4	n/a	8.2	7.6
England and Wales	20.0	18.6 (GB)	14.4	13.5	13.1	n/a	12.2	11.6

Note: Due to small numbers burglary rates for small geographical areas (e.g. towns) can vary significantly from year to year.
Source: Dorset County Council

Other sources of crime data

Access the Police crime mapping Dorchester (opens in a new window) where you can find crime data on a month by month basis (starting December 2010) mapped to neighbourhood and street level. This looks at the crime types of burglary, anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime, violent crime and other crime. Note this comprehensive and up-to-date database only looks at numbers of crimes and not crime rates for individual crimes. It does give an overall crime rate (per 1,000 people) for the neighbourhood.

Population

Latest population figure (2010 mid year estimate) for the town is 18,280

Year	1921	1931	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Census population (enumerated)	9,960	10,030	11,620	12,260	13,740	14,050	15,100	16,160

Housing growth

Year	98	99	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Housing development	63	170	101	103	153	140	124	167	190	189	107	167	84

Note: Figures allow for losses from re-development etc.

The 2001 Census records 7,413 dwellings in Dorchester.

Since 2001, a further 1,321 units have been built giving a total of 8,734.
At March 2010, a further 1,084 units have permission and 1,065 are allocated in the local plan. The Prince Charles inspired development at Poundbury has grown since it started in 1994. By 2010, 970 dwellings have been built. At the same date the site potential was for a further 1,347 units, making a total of 2,317. The latest population estimate for Poundbury (2008) is 1,821 residents - 455 aged 19 or under and 489 aged over 60.

Index of deprivation, 2007

(Figures show LSOA ranking out of 247 LSOAs in Dorset with 1 being the most deprived)

SOA	Multiple	Income	Employment	Health	Education and skills	Housing & Services	Crime	Living
Dorchester Castle Park	163	184	81	72	98	116	128	231
Dorchester Manor Park	243	237	220	155	245	235	155	215
Dorchester Monmouth Road	221	192	196	149	240	193	167	162
Dorchester Queen's Ave	147	119	72	42	194	226	54	143
Dorchester Town Centre	14	24	9	9	189	136	26	69
Dorchester Victoria Park	94	57	83	70	114	196	110	24
Fordington East	31	22	22	36	64	148	55	108
Fordington Fields	177	165	129	119	183	75	180	208
Fordington West & Thomas Hardye	175	94	121	147	176	159	105	172
Poundbury North	119	86	111	54	153	127	75	71
Poundbury South	47	45	23	34	46	204	56	76

LSOA = LowerSuper Output Area (minimum 400 households or 1,000 population).

Index of deprivation, 2010

SOA	Multiple	Income	Employment	health	Education & Skills	housing & services	crime	Living
Dorchester Castle Park	152	156	60	78	110	131	180	221
Dorchester Manor Park	242	247	221	124	246	208	210	224
Dorchester Monmouth Road	229	213	208	162	236	206	212	154
Dorchester Queen's Ave.	128	82	76	50	191	240	76	113
Dorchester Town Centre	15	16	11	10	168	145	28	80
Dorchester Victoria Park	68	86	92	49	59	228	96	9
Fordington East	24	15	16	14	27	172	120	99
Fordington Fields	183	162	136	142	155	82	222	206
Fordington West & Thomas Hardye	180	118	100	139	180	186	170	174
Poundbury North	137	89	106	86	188	166	59	79
Poundbury South	41	41	31	39	53	230	38	75

Please see The Index of Deprivation, 2010 for detailed information and mapping.

Source: DCLG

Average house prices

Dwelling type	Average Price July - Sept 2009	Average Price July - Sept 2010	July - Sept 2010 (sales)
Detached	£319,194	£336,269	13
Semi-detached	£242,652	£222,519	24
Terraced	£200,400	£255,005	34
Flats/maisonettes	£143,805	£157,237	28

Land Registry average prices (Prices may be affected by low number of sales). Figures include postcodes sectors DT1 1, DT1 2 and DT1 3.

Area:

Approx. 'built-up' area = 550 hectares (1,360 acres)

Local authority revenue

Council tax band D for Year	Council tax payable
11/12	£1,691.99
10/11	£1,691.99
09/10	£1,643.24
08/07	£1,584.75
07/08	£1,516.62
06/07	£1,450.95
05/06	£1,385.70
04/05	£1,331.01
03/04	£1,254.92
02/03	£1,086.74
01/02	£991.43
00/01	£931.78
99/00	£880.87

Second/holiday and Empty homes, 2011

Total dwellings on Council Tax Register	8,876
Total number of second homes	165
Second homes as a % of total dwellings	1.84
Total number of long term empty properties	70
Empty homes as a % of total dwellings	0.79

Source: Council Tax Register (parish figure, rounded)

Population 2010: Mid Year Estimates, ONS

Gender breakdown	Dorset	Dorchester
Totals	404,790	18,280
Males	196,420	8,770
Females	208,370	9,510

Age structure (%): 2010 Mid Year Estimates, ONS

Age range	Dorset	Dorchester
0-15	17.0	18.3
16+17	2.7	2.9
18-44	25.4	27.6
45-59	20.9	21.4
60-84	30.0	25.4
85+	3.9	4.3

Ethnicity (%): 2001 Census

Ethnicity	Dorset	Dorchester
White British	96.8	96.5
BME	3.2	3.5

Health: 2001 Census

Health category	Dorset	Dorchester
% with Long-term Illness / Disability	19.2	18.9
Health: % Good	68.1	68.4
Health: % Not Good	8.4	8.2
% Providing Unpaid Care	10.8	10.4

Poverty Indicators: Housing/Council Tax Benefit, 2009

Benefit Population	Dorset	Dorchester
as a % of total town population	13.6	14.8

ACORN socio-economic classifications, 2010

Classification	Dorset	Dorchester
% Wealthy Achievers	40.1	14.7
% Urban Prosperity	7.1	17.4
% Comfortably Off	33.2	38.4
% Moderate Means	9.2	14.8
% Hard Pressed	10.2	14.3
% unclassified	0.2	0.4

ACORN is a geodemographic segmentation of the UK's population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into five categories, 17 groups and 56 types.
The five higher level categories, wealthy achievers, urban prosperity, comfortably off, moderate means and hard pressed are shown above.

A full profile of the town and its four wards is available. You can access the Dorchester ACORN Profile (pdf, 1Mb) (opens in a new window) for this information.

Retail profile - total town floorspace

230 shops/274,000sq.ft. (2005)
(excludes 'out of town shops')

Town centre:

Many national chain stores such as Marks & Spencers, Next, Body Shop, Boots, Burtons, Co-op, Argos, Iceland, Laura Ashley, Monsoon, Mothercare, Waitrose, Focus, New Look. Out of Town Shopping: Tesco, Halfords, Dreams, Currys.

Catchment population

The shopping catchment for Dorchester (major food shopping) extends around eight miles in a north, west, east direction but only two miles south towards Weymouth. The population within that catchment is around 38,500 (Mid 2001).

Library - Number of issues of books etc:

Library	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Dorchester	274,923	269,507	253,764	227,994
Mobile	26,070	26,052	26,425	25,507

Industrial estates

Casterbridge Industrial Estate (1.1h), Great Western Centre (1.4h), The Grove Trading Estate (7.1h), Marabout Barracks (2.0h), Poundbury Trading Estate (5.0h), Railway Triangle (1.4h)

Unemployment % (persons)

Year	Male	Female	Total
July 1998	3.9 (156)	1.8 (63)	2.9 (219)
July 1999	2.9 (116)	1.2 (42)	2.1 (158)
July 2000	2.8 (113)	1.1 (41)	2.0 (154)
July 2001	1.4 (56)	1.0 (36)	1.2 (92)
July 2002	1.3 (55)	0.7 (29)	1.0 (84)
July 2003	1.3 (60)	0.5 (23)	0.9 (83)
July 2004	1.0 (46)	0.4 (20)	0.7 (66)
July 2005	1.5 (71)	0.6 (27)	1.1 (98)
July 2006	1.5 (71)	0.7 (31)	1.1 (102)
July 2007	1.1 (60)	0.6 (31)	0.9 (91)
July 2008	1.2 (63)	0.6 (30)	0.9 (93)
July 2009	2.4 (124)	1.0 (50)	1.7 (174)
July 2010	2.1(108)	0.7 (39)	1.4 (147)

(Of July 2009 unemployment figures, the long term unemployed=5.2%)
Of July 2010 unemployment figures, the long term unemployed= 10.2%)

2009 employment

Total number of people working in the town: 17,400
Number of firms (excluding the self-employed): 910

Work pattern/gender category	percentage
Full-time	56%
Part-time	44%

Type of employment	%
Manufacturing and other non service	4
Construction	2
Accommodation & Food Service activities	3
Other Services	4
Distribution including motor	14
Finance and business services	16
Public administration, Ed and Health	56

Source: Buisness Register and Employment Survey, 2009, ONS

Major employers

AEA Technology PLC, BAeSEMA Ltd, Dorset County Council, Goulds Ltd, HM Prison, Henry Ling Ltd, Kingston Maurward College, Tesco, West Dorset District Council, West Dorset General Hospital NHS Trust, West Dorset General Hospital, Winterbourne Hospital.

Traffic Counts in the Dorchester Area - Annual average daily traffic

Road	Location	AADF (Annual Average Daily Traffic)							Percentage Growth Since
No.		1983	1990	2000	2005	2008	2009	2010	2009	2008	2005	2000	1990	1983
									1 Year	2 year	5 Years	10 Years	20 Years	27 Years

A35(T)	Kingston Russell	6,900	9,100	11,700	13,900	14,100	14,300	14,100	-1%	0%	1%	21%	55%	104%
A356	Whitesheet Hill	1,500	2,100	2,300	2,500	2,600	2,300	2,300	0%	-12%	-8%	0%	10%	53%
A37	Stagg's Folly	3,600	5,200	8,500	9,900	10,100	10,000	10,000	0%	-1%	1%	18%	92%	178%
A352	South of Cerne Abbas	1,000	1,300	1,200	1,200	1,300	1,400	1,400	0%	8%	17%	17%	8%	40%
C12	Buck Hill	1,700	2,500	3,200	3,900	3,700	3,600	3,600	0%	-3%	-8%	13%	44%	112%
B3143	South of Piddletrenthide	1,400	2,300	1,900	1,800	2,100	2,300	2,300	0%	10%	28%	21%	0%	64%
A35(T)	Yellowham Hill	10,900	15,200	23,000	27,100	27,400	27,400	27,200	-1%	-1%	0%	18%	79%	150%
A352	Came Park	3,900	5,600	5,300	6,300	6,400	6,500	6,500	0%	2%	3%	23%	16%	67%
A354	Monkton Hill	10,200	15,600	19,200	20,700	20,600	19,800	18,900	-5%	-8%	-9%	-2%	21%	85%
B3159	North of Upwey	1,100	1,100	1,300	1,500	1,900	1,700	1,700	0%	-11%	13%	31%	55%	55%
A37	Grimstone	6,000	9,300	n/a	13,500	13,400	13,300	13,400	1%	0%	-1%	n/a	44%	123%
B3163	Toller Down Gate	600	1,000	1,200	1,300	1,300	1,300	1,400	8%	8%	8%	17%	40%	133%
A37	Dorchester Western By Pass	n/a	n/a	7,850	10,600	10,700	10,600	9,900	-7%	-7%	-7%	26%	n/a	n/a
B3147	Weymouth Road Dorchester, North of Tesco.	n/a	n/a	16,000	15,600	16,700	15,700	14,800	-6%	-11%	-5%	-8%	n/a	n/a
B3150	Grays Bridge - Dorchester	n/a	n/a	10,350	11,100	11,800	11,600	11,900	3%	1%	7%	15%	n/a	n/a
B3147	The Grove Dorchester	n/a	n/a	n/a	13,500	14,100	14,000	13,900	-1%	-1%	3%	n/a	n/a	n/a
A35(T)	Dorchester By Pass (East)	n/a	n/a	15,600	19,500	19,800	18,700	17,300	-7%	-13%	-11%	11%	n/a	n/a