This post looks at King Alfred in the history of Dorchester (Dorset), and is adapted from, and provides additional materials for, my book , King Alfred: A Man on the Move, available from Amazon and book shops.
I have lived near Dorchester for many years. Evidence from charters (legal documents showing transfers of land or rights) indicates that Alfred came to Dorchester while his elder brother Æthelred was king, and therefore presumably there would have been some sort of Saxon base there. Links to transcripts of these charters are here and here. Please note that very few charters have not been challenged as to their authenticity, either in whole or in part.
Where was the royal residence?
Clues about the Saxon history of Dorchester are scant, and this includes any evidence that might help us establish the location of a Saxon royal residence at the time of King Alfred. My personal speculation, which I have heard others suggest as well, is that the royal site would have included the location on the northern edge of the town where the current prison buildings are sited, where we know that the Norman castle was also located. It seems to make sense that if a site was deemed defendable by the Saxons (which a royal site would need to be) then it would hold a similar appeal for the Normans. It therefore seems plausible that the Normans would have built their castle on the site of the previous Saxon fortification/royal residence. There is a very pleasant footpath that follows the River Frome and which passes below the site of the former castle. From there one can understand how elevated (and therefore defendable) the site would have been.
Fordington
It has been suggested that King Alfred spent every Christmas at a royal manor at Fordington, which is now part of Dorchester but was once a separate settlement, not only to the east, but also around the south and to the west (where it was called West Fordington). I have found nothing to support the claim that there was a Christmas residence of the Wessex court in or near Dorchester. The oldest reference I could find referring to this was in Beatrice Adelaide Lees’ 1915 book on King Alfred where she states “…there is nothing to show that he was in North Wiltshire at the time of the inroad, and the Dorset Dorchester, which was a more usual place for the Christmas sojourn of the West-Saxon court…”. However, she does not indicate where she gets this information from. The Viking attack of Chippenham of 878 is being referred to.
It has been suggested that King Alfred spent every Christmas at a royal manor at Fordington, which is now part of Dorchester but was once a separate settlement, not only to the east, but also around the south and to the west (where it was called West Fordington). I have found nothing to support the claim that there was a Christmas residence of the Wessex court in or near Dorchester. The oldest reference I could find referring to this was in Beatrice Adelaide Lees’ 1915 book on King Alfred where she states “…there is nothing to show that he was in North Wiltshire at the time of the inroad, and the Dorset Dorchester, which was a more usual place for the Christmas sojourn of the West-Saxon court…”. However, she does not indicate where she gets this information from. The Viking attack of Chippenham of 878 is being referred to.
I have also read that Fordington became a royal manor after the Romans left and that the first church there had been built about 857, and that this was a royal church dedicated to St George. Although the earliest parts of the current St George’s church date to the 11th century, it is located at the site of a Roman cemetery so the location was clearly a significant one stretching back to ancient times, which makes the presence of a church being there in 857 seem more plausible.
It is thought that burials found at the site of what is now the Trumpet Major pub were Saxon (although earlier than the time of King Alfred) (DNHAS Proceedings 1984)
So, we have two potential royal locations that are close to each other, one in the centre of Dorchester at the site of the former prison, and the other at Fordington. Although the evidence from charters suggests that Dorchester really was a royal location, I am not aware of any charters having been issued from Fordington. It is perhaps possible that a royal residence at Fordington would have been close enough to Dorchester to go under that name, or that the residence was at Fordington while the charters were signed at nearby Dorchester. Fordington is so close to Dorchester that I found that I could walk, at a brisk pace, from St George’s church in Fordington to the closest point of Dorchester’s former Roman walls in a matter of three minutes.
Dorchester’s walls
It seems to me that the Roman walls (perhaps replaced or repaired in places) would have been present in Alfred’s time and would have probably continued to define and defend the town. This is supported by the fact that even today much of the line of the walls can still be followed. The exception to this is the northern section stretching between Northernhay and Salisbury Street where it is possible that there was no wall at all, with the River Frome providing defence instead. My personal opinion is that there would have been a wall here as well, which has long since been destroyed and built over. A recognition that the town was walled leads to a discussion about the location of gates through which King Alfred might have passed, including when he was pursuing the Vikings from Wareham to Exeter, perhaps passing through Dorchester, in 876. The main east-west road through Dorchester is probably just slightly north of the line of the Roman road and at the West Gate, which would have been near the Top o’ Town roundabout, two Roman roads led to Exeter (via Bridport) and Ilchester. The Exeter road is still the main road to Winterborne Abbas. The road to Ilchester survives in the road to Bradford Peverell, but is no longer evident near the Top o’ Town roundabout, where it is submerged under the car park. It is perhaps possible that the small shift to the current east-west road alignment took place in the Saxon period.
It is easy to think of a wall in isolation, but here in Dorchester it was surrounded by (at least in parts) a triple ditch. On the south side the ditches stretched from where South Walks footpath is, right across South Walks Road and well into the land on the other side (from map RCHM. Dorset II. Part 3).
The layout of the main streets seems to have changed somewhat from Roman times to now. The alignment of the main east-west street has already been mentioned, but the Roman road leading from this street to the south gate (and therefore the main north-south road, possibly the cardo maximus) is postulated to run approx 15 degrees divergent to the current main north-south route (map RCHM. Dorset II. Part 3). Taking these Roman orientations to be correct, it is not known when the orientation of the main streets changed to what it is today. Given that changes are recorded in texts for other towns in King Alfred’s reign (eg London and Shaftesbury), it seems possible that the changes at Dorchester also took place in this period.
If there was indeed a north wall, there may well have been a gate in it. However, we only know of a North gate from Civil War records when it was repaired ( source: Hutchins, 3rd ed.).
In 1891 William Miles Barnes, son of William Barnes, made a bold effort to try to demonstrate that the 7th century St Birinus had been the bishop of Dorchester in Dorset, as opposed to Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. I am not aware of this hypothesis still being “live” and it seems to me that nobody now thinks other than that Birinus was bishop at Dorchester-on-Thames. His attempt appears in Vol II of Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset. There is a remarkable, sometimes unpleasant, to-and-fro between Barnes and a “W.B.W.” (and others) throughout this volume. However, Dorchester never had a bishop, although there was a bishop of Dorset, based at Sherborne, between 909 and 1075 (when the seat was moved to Old Sarum). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles tell us that at 639 Birinus baptised a Cuthred in Dorces ceastre. This spelling matches Dorchester-on-Thames better than Dorchester in Dorset, which is rendered as variations on Dornwaraceaster. A Dorchester is also mentioned in ASC A at 636 where Birinus baptises a Cwichelm, although the text (Corpus Christi MS173) is unclear at this entry. Further, it seems unlikely that Dorchester (Dorset) would have been a comfortable place to set up a (unrecorded) bishopric in the early 600s, because this area may still have been contested or even held by the British at this time – the battle at Peonnum did not take place until 658.
To learn more about locations across southern England associated with King Alfred, perhaps try my book, King Alfred: A Man on the Move, available from book shops and Amazon. Click the image below to learn more.
Many thanks to Copper Street Brewery, near Dorchester South station, for stocking copies of my book. It goes well with the names of their beers, which have a King Alfred/Anglo-Saxon theme. I have sampled most of their beers and they are excellent. A shout out also to KeeP 106 (Dorchester) radio, where I talked on air about my book and the history of Dorchester in Saxon times.
