News January 2012 - History of the Town on the Hill

Thanks to a grant from  The National Archives (opens in a new window) Cataloguing Grants Fund awarded in early 2011, work has started on a project that will see the creation of a complete catalogue of this important archive which spans nearly 700 years of Shaftesbury's history.

The archive and its contents are fundamental to understanding the development and history of this famous Dorset town, said to have been founded by King Alfred. An archivist will work on the collection to create a full catalogue of the entire collection which will then be available to search on Dorset History Centre's online catalogue.

The archive will also be re-packaged to aid its preservation and a selection of items will be digitised.

Items uncovered to date include:

• The 1348 will of Alice atte Halle of Shaston in which her tenement in Holy Trinity is to be sold and 5 shillings from the sale to be given to Richard Goche, the rest of the sale money to be used for Masses, and bread for the poor of Shaston, for 'her soul'

• Council minute book, 1909-1919. This includes a pasted-in government circular giving advice on what to do in the event of a Zeppelin raid (essentially, don't stand around outside watching!)

• The Shaftesbury Overcrowding Survey of 1936 - a street by street survey of the town noting sanitary conditions of each property detailing facilities or lack thereof

• An agreement from 1700 (shown here) for "supplying the Borough and the Inhabitants thereof with water more Comodiously than before"

Dorset History Centre is delighted to be working in conjunction with volunteers from Shaftesbury's recently refurbished Gold Hill Museum (opens in a new window) along with Shaftesbury and Gillingham U3A Local History Group (opens in a new window) . Volunteers are helping to extract detailed information from elements of the archive which will then be used by the museum to assist with narrating the story of this ancient borough. We are grateful to  Shaftesbury Town Council (opens in a new window) for a grant which has enabled training and support to be offered to the volunteer group.

Cataloguing began in September 2011, and the project will run through 2012 with a long-term resource being created for visitors to both Dorchester and Shaftesbury. Engagement with schools will also be promoted through the creation of online educational resources.

For further information, please contact us.