Description: Durotriges, the tribe and its lands through the ages
county (2631) survey (1631) dorset (1472) boundary (309) shire (71) hrf (11)
The Old English shires of Wessex (which became counties to the Normans) were already well established by Domesday and were to remain unchanged until the revisions of the 19c ( SDNQ 1906) and 1974. 'The shiring of England was a major feat of government ... an administrative system of formidable and integrated power ... notably systematic ... every shire was divided into hundreds or sub-units, retaining administrative, judicial, tax and even a military significance into the 19c' (James Campbell, 1993). The of
The first reference to Dorset is for the year 845 when we read that ' Dux Eanwulf with the Somerset men, and Bishop Ealhstan [of Sherborne] and Ealdorman Osric with the Dorset [Dornsaetum] men, fought against a Danish raiding-army at the mouth of the Parrett, and made great slaughter there and took the victory. ' In the tenth century we find Dorseteschyre and under the Normans it is Dorsete and Dorsetscira .
Dorset is [literally] the saete , 'inhabitants', of Duro - or Doro - country centred on Dorchester, the Roman castra/ceaster of the Iron Age Durotriges . Its partner territory is Somerset - 'inhabitants of the summerlands' - hints here of seasonal exploitation of the moors and levels over the border. Somerset was administered into historical times from Ilchester, Givelchester , the Ivel/Yeovil ceaster . Access to the heart of this pair of saete -named territories from the north was up the RiverParrett and f