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Shaftesbury Abbey

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Shafton

In the civil parish of Shaftesbury.
In the historic county of Dorset.
Modern Authority of Dorset.
1974 county of Dorset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST86182291
Latitude 51.00531° Longitude -2.19857°

Shaftesbury Abbey has been described as a probable Fortified Ecclesiastical site.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

Nunnery founded circa 888, probably on the site of a 7th century minster which may have been extant circa 670. It was reformed to the Benedictine rule, presumably in the reign of Edgar, and was dissolved in 1539. (PastScape)

A stone wall bounding Gold Hill on the west, which although repaired and rebuilt in several places, dates mainly from the late 14th or early 15th century and probably formed part of the boundary of the Abbey land. The portion which stands nearest the bottom of Gold Hill has been rebuilt but original material appears to have been re-used. Towards the top of the hill the original masonry is preserved with buttresses of two and three weathered stages; supplementing these are probable 19th century buttresses with inclined faces. About half-way up the hill there is a blocked round-headed doorway. (PastScape No. 206569–ref. RCHME)

Licence to crenellate granted 1367. A large Lady chapel was added to the church in the C14 and possibly the precinct wall was started around this time. Undoubtable parts of the precinct wall and associated gates would have been crenellated but the function of this wall was to keep unwanted visitors out, particularly poachers out of the park and fishponds.

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1367 Oct 20 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling        
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
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This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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