LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dorset
built 657 days ago
The first known settlement of Dorset was by Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. Their populations were small and concentrated along the coast in the Isle of Purbeck, Weymouth and Chesil Beach and along the Stour valley. These populations used tools and fire to clear these areas of some of the native Oak forest. Dorset's high chalk hills have provided a location for defensive settlements for millennia, there are Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds on almost every chalk hill in the county, and a number of Iron Age hill forts, the most famous being Maiden Castle. The chalk downs would have been deforested in the Iron Age, making way for agriculture and animal husbandry.
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D[O]rset is a delight. It is a county that can still give you the feeling that no one but you has discovered its richness before. This is of course an illusion; Dorset is popular as only a southern county with a magnificent coastline** can be. But while it has seaside resorts to compare with any, there are ... long stretches of unfrequented coast to enjoy, because there are no main roads that hug the coastline. And in the inland heart of the county you are constantly enticed into the byroads by the very names of the villages. Who can resist the urge to discover such places as Worth Matravers, Bingham's Melcombe, Sydling St. Nicholas, Piddletrenthide, Mappowder or Plush?
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Dorset has many notable Roman artefacts, particularly around the Roman town Dorchester, where Maiden Castle was captured from the Celtic Durotriges by Vespasian in 54 AD, early in the Roman occupation. Roman roads radiated from Dorchester, following the tops of the chalk ridges to the many small Roman villages around the county. In the Roman era, settlements moved from the hill tops to the valleys, and the hilltops had been abandoned by the fourth century. A large defensive ditch, Bokerley Dyke, delayed the Saxon conquest of Dorset from the north east for up to two hundred years. The Domesday Book documents many Saxon settlements corresponding to modern towns and villages, mostly in the valleys. There have been few changes to the parishes since the Domesday Book.
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Dorset has a change of Area Commissioner for 2008, with Alison Trevett stepping back into the 'hot seat' from 1st January. Thank you to Nicky Simpson, who has held the post for two years, and ... to Assistant Area Commissioner Sara Angel and Rights of Way Officer Ivan Smith, who have stepped down, along with other members of the Steering Group. We welcome Dorothy Webb as the new Rights of Way Officer, and Carol Cuff will be co-ordinating rallies and drives for the Area, while Ann Poole will continue to look after our website and will resume the role of Area Treasurer; the Area Newsletter will be edited by Sandy Smyth.
Dorset is ... the birthplace of artist Sir James Thornhill, musicians John Eliot Gardiner, P.J. Harvey and Robert Fripp, photographer Jane Bown, palaeontologist Mary Anning and archbishops John Morton and William Wake. Explorer Sir Walter Raleigh lived in Dorset for some of his life, while scientist and philosopher Robert Boyle lived in Stalbridge Manor for a time. Dorset is a popular home for celebrities. Those who have moved to or own second homes in Dorset include Madonna and Guy Ritchie, actor Martin Clunes, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, Jonathan Ross, Oasis singer Noel Gallagher and footballer Jamie Redknapp.[20] Many of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's television programmes are filmed at his home, just outside of Bridport. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web lived in Colehill near Wimborne.
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Dorset ewes weigh from 150 to 200 pounds at maturity, some in show condition may very well exceed this weight, Dorset rams weigh from 225 to 275 pounds at maturity. Dorsets are one of the few breeds that carry the "out-of-season" breeding characteristic. The ewes are good mothers, good milkers and multiple births are not uncommon. Dorsets work well in commercial situations both in the ewe flock and from a terminal sire aspect.
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