Dorset

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This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

In the absence of a dominant noble interest, Dorset was controlled by a small group of interrelated gentry families. Most of these were relative newcomers to the county. The Strangwayses, Trenchards, Husseys, Tregonwells and Napers had all come to prominence through the purchase of monastic lands in the 1540s. T. Coker, Survey of Dorsetshire (1732), 31, 63-4, 83, 98. In the century that followed other families moved into the county, including the Erles from Devon, the Digbys from Warwickshire and the Bankeses from Cumberland.

The borough of Bridport was situated near Lyme Regis in west Dorset, at the confluence of three small rivers, the Brit, the Simene and the Asker, which enter the English Channel at West Bay, two miles to the south of the town.

Lyme Regis was a small coastal borough in the far western corner of Dorset, situated in a cleft between two hills, where the River Lim ran into the English Channel. The town was divided by the river, with the two main streets, Broad Street to the west and Church Street to the east, converging on the harbour created by the long seawall known as the Cobb. It was this medieval bulwark, periodically repaired, strengthened and lengthened, that gave Lyme its commercial advantage, as it provided a safe haven for ships trading along the coast.

‘Well situated naturally for strength’, the town and county of Poole played an important role as Parliament’s main stronghold in eastern Dorset during the first civil war.Bodl. Tanner 62, f. 281. The strategic importance Poole depended on its site, on a low-lying alluvial peninsula, surrounded by tidal creeks and marshes, extending into the natural haven of Poole Harbour. The physical separation of the town was matched by its political independence.