Cranborne Chase

Cranborne Chase (grid reference ST970180) is a chalk plateau in central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The plateau is part of the English Chalk Formation and is adjacent to Salisbury Plain and the West Wiltshire Downs in the north, and the Dorset Downs to the south west. The scarp slope of the hills faces the Blackmore Vale to the west, and to some extent the Vale of Wardour to the north. The chalk gently slopes south and dips under clays and gravels.

An area of 379 square miles (981 square kilometres) of Cranborne Chase and the West Wiltshire Downs has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the sixth largest AONB in the country. The highest point is Win Green, in Wiltshire, at 910 ft (277 m).

History and archaeology

The downland has a long history with many earthworks and archaeology from the Neolithic age onwards. The dense woodland originally covering the downs would have gradually been cleared by the first farmers, but would have grown back repeatedly over the centuries as soils became exhausted and the agricultural carrying capacity of the land was exceeded several times over the course of six millennia. Much of the area therefore remained wooded from the Middle Ages until World War II.

Cranborne

Coordinates: 50°55′08″N 1°55′19″W / 50.919°N 1.922°W / 50.919; -1.922

Cranborne is a village in East Dorset, England. In 2001 the village had a population of 779 people, unaltered at the 2011 Census. The appropriate electoral ward is called 'Crane'. This ward includes Wimborne St. Giles in the west and south to Woodlands. The total population of this ward at the 2011 census was 2,189. The town is situated on chalk downland called Cranborne Chase, part of a large expanse of chalk in southern England which includes the nearby Salisbury Plain and Dorset Downs.

History

The village dates from Saxon times and was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Creneburne, meaning stream (bourne) of cranes.

In the 10th century the Benedictine abbey known as Cranborne Abbey was founded by a knight by the name of Haylward Snew who made it the parent house of the religious foundation at Tewkesbury. This arrangement lasted until 1102, when Robert Fitz Hamon greatly enlarged the church of Tewkesbury and transferred the community from Cranborne there transforming Cranborne Abbey into a priory subject to Tewkesbury Abbey. The priory was fully subject to Tewkesbury until the dissolution of the abbey in 1540. The priory buildings were demolished in 1703, but the Norman priory church of St Mary and St Bartholomew survives as the parish church.

Cranborne Hundred

Coordinates: 50°55′08″N 1°55′19″W / 50.919°N 1.922°W / 50.919; -1.922 Cranborne Hundred was a hundred in the county of Dorset, England, containing the following parishes:

See also

Sources