Shaftesbury

For other uses of this term, see Shaftesbury (disambiguation). Photograph of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury.

Shaftesbury is a town located in the north of the county of Dorset (England), on the route A30, near the border with Wiltshire. It was built about 200 m above sea level and is the only significant settlement in Dorset found on a hill. Existing already in the Anglo-Saxon period and possibly in the Celtic under the name of Caer Palladur, constitutes one of the settlements of greater altitude and antiquity in the United Kingdom. In 2001 it had a population of 6,665 inhabitants distributed in 3,112 homes, which means that there was a small population growth since 1991. Tourism is one of the main industries of the locality, from which you can see the Blackmore Valey, which forms part of the Stour River Basin.

Shaftesbury appears in Thomas Hardy's Wessex with the name Shaston, of particular importance in the novel Jude the Obscure.

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