Shaftesbury Abbey and Gold Hill

Last updated on February 25th, 2025 at 04:14 pm

The Abbey and Gold Hill are two very good reasons to visit the historic town of Shaftesbury.  Another is the views; at something over 700 feet, it is the highest settlement in the county of Dorset.  To get to know it a bit, you also need to understand that, whilst most places are happy to have just one name, Shaftesbury appears to have had several.

Sometimes, Shaftesbury is Shaston, sometimes Caer Palladour.  At one time, some called it Edwardstowe, but it is mostly recorded as variations of Sceftesberie (fort of a man called Sceaft, or a fort on a shaft-shaped hill).  Caer Palladour, ‘fort of the shaft’, may have been a stronghold founded by the internationally renowned King Rud Hud Hudibras, even before the Romans came.  On the other hand, that may be pure invention on the part of Geoffrey of Monmouth in his fascinating, but unreliable, 12^th century Historia Regum Britanniae – the History of the Kings of Britain.  However, if you say ‘Shaston’ to older residents, they should know what you mean.  According to the Survey of English Place Names, Shaston may have resulted from a misreading of ‘f’ as the long ‘s’ in older forms of writing.  Makes sense.  Thomas Hardy used both Palladour and Shaston in his books and several locations in Shaftesbury appear in his last novel, ‘Jude the Obscure’, published in 1895.  Now you know.

We will come to Edwardstowe later and say that, putting the uncertain romance of Geoffrey of Monmouth to one side, Shaftesbury’s history is generally said to have started with the Saxons.  That said, it seems likely that things were going on there years before, but no one is terribly sure what they were.  It would be satisfying to include Rud Hud Hudibras in this, if only because his name rolls off the tongue so nicely.  Say it again – Rud Hud Hudibras!  Moving on, there are hints of a Roman settlement and even a royal Saxon manor.  However, what is beyond dispute is that King Alfred the Great of Wessex founded Shaftesbury as a fortified, planned, town in around 880 AD.  It was one of the network of defensive burghs or burhs that he established after defeating the Danes at the Battle of Edington in 878 AD.  The ‘bury’ suffix in Shaftesbury is derived from ‘burgh’ – a fortress or fortified town.  The burgh system successfully kept Wessex Lego-free and was expanded by Alfred’s successors.  In the late 880s, Alfred also founded Shaftesbury Abbey as a religious community solely for women.  His monastery at Athelney was established at the same time.  Alfred’s daughter, Aethelgifu, became Shaftesbury’s first Abbess and part of the Abbey’s southern boundary wall runs along the west side of Gold Hill.

Shaftesbury’s Gold Hill

Shaftesbury’s Gold Hill is a magnet for visitors and one of the most famous and photographed streets in Britain.  It appears in countless guides and is generally believed to have been launched on an unsuspecting universe via a 1973 television advert for Hovis bread.  The advertisement was an early directing endeavour by Ridley Scott before he went on to make more trivial efforts, such as ‘Alien’ and ‘Gladiator’.  The Hovis commercial is known as ‘The Bike Round’ or ‘the Boy on the Bike’.  A young boy wearing a flat cap pushes a bread-laden bicycle up a steep cobbled street, while a narrator, apparently the boy in old age, reminisces about taking bread ‘to the top of the world’ to a soundtrack brass band playing part of Dvořák’s New World Symphony.  Despite the West Country accent, somehow people believed the street was somewhere in the north of England, not in the deep south.  Maybe it was the flat cap and brass band.  The New World Symphony is of course Dvořák’s nod to America, not Lancashire; and the composer hailed from what is now the Czech Republic, not West Yorkshire.  The late, great, comedian Ronnie Barker lampooned the ad in 1978 – using a northern English accent. (See below).

I can’t help wondering whether Gold Hill, a wonderfully picturesque old cobbled street with traditional cottages on one side, the (probably 14^th century) buttressed precinct wall of Shaftesbury Abbey on the other and a fabulous view of Blackmore Vale at the end, needed TV to make it famous.  It would probably have got there on its own eventually, before it became Instagram fodder.  In the 19^th century, though, Shaftesbury’s industries having been killed off by competition from the new industrial towns of the north and midlands, it was a shabby, impoverished, place. Doubtless, the Boy on the Bike has brought thousands of spending visitors to Shaftesbury and, in celebration of this, a giant plastic Hovis loaf has been placed at the top of Gold Hill.  As some have suggested, I’ve included a photo of this – such style!

At the top of the hill, near the model Hovis, is Gold Hill Museum.  This is a truly excellent local institution, telling the story of the town.  It includes bits about Dorset’s button-making industry, King Alfred (of course) and features a replica of the wonderful Alfred Jewel – which you can read about in a fascinating article about Athelney.  Also on display is Dorset’s oldest fire engine from 1744 and an old Bakelite TV showing a reel of US Sherman tanks clanking through the High Street in World War Two.  Presumably, they were on their way to D-Day; you can’t help wondering what was going through the minds of the troops – and how many made it back home.  Within a glass case is Shaftesbury’s ‘Byzant’.  This is not, as you may think, a coin.  It is a kind of decorative mace that once formed part of a ceremony in which the town’s residents payed homage to the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham for the privilege of taking water from springs in the village of Enmore Green below the hill. Each year, a calf’s head, a purse of coins, a pair of gloves and loaves of bread (surely, not Hovis?) were offered to the Lord and a celebration ensued.  These days, residents instead contribute to the profits and executive bonuses of private water companies.  It is interesting how little we have progressed and I can’t help observing that we should know better by now.

The museum occupies two converted historic buildings. One provided lodgings for market traders and the other was a priest’s house, which still has a ‘squint’ through the wall to St Peter’s Church next door.  Outside is a lovely little garden, with a truly magnificent view over the countryside below.  When you visit Gold Hill, it would be rude not to visit the museum.  From there, it is but a short walk to the Abbey.

Here is a link to the Gold Hill Museum website.

Shaftesbury Abbey

The abbey that Alfred founded prospered and maintained its royal connections for more than six and a half centuries.  In c946 AD, Queen Aelfgifu (or Elgiva), wife of King Edmund, grandson of Alfred, was buried there and it is said to have attracted women from the upper echelons of society.  King Cnut was nursed at Shaftesbury Abbey and died there in 1035.  By the time of the Conquest, it had become England’s wealthiest Benedictine nunnery.  A major contributory factor in this was what we might call the Edward factor, because Shaftesbury Abbey became the shrine of ‘Edward the Martyr’ – see below.  A shrine attracts pilgrims – and pilgrims bring money to the abbey and town.

It is not known whether the Saxons built Shaftesbury Abbey in timber or stone.  In any event, between 1080 and 1120, the Normans replaced the Saxon abbey with a grand, stone, church and other essential buildings were constructed for the nunnery too.

The royal connection continued after the conquest.   Elizabeth de Burgh, wife of Robert the Bruce and Queen Consort of Scotland, was held for a short time at Shaftesbury in 1313, during her eight year detainment by the English King.  Catherine of Aragon stayed there too, on her way to marry Prince Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII – whom she married after Arthur died unexpectedly.  Ironically, it was Henry who brought about the Abbey’s end, when he forcibly dissolved all Roman Catholic religious houses in England, Wales and Ireland between 1536 and 1540.  Shaftesbury was the wealthiest nunnery in Tudor England – as it had been in Norman England almost 500 years earlier.  Its last abbess, Elizabeth Zouche, surrendered the Abbey to the Crown on 23 March 1539 and was pensioned off, along with the prioress, sub-prioress and 50 nuns.

The Abbey, so long an essential part of Shaftesbury’s life, to say nothing of its socio-economic health, had gone.  In common with other dissolved abbeys and monasteries, all valuables were taken away and sold.  Buildings were demolished and the stone reused elsewhere.  Eventually, the site was abandoned.

Edward the Martyr

On 18 March 978 AD, the teenage King Edward was murdered while visiting his step mother Elfrida and half-brother Ethelred at, or near, Corfe Castle. The details of what happened next are shrouded in the mists of time, but most accounts say that the young king, aged about 16 at the time, was stabbed to death having stopped, on horseback, to take a drink of water, or mead.  The general suggestion is that this murder was carried out on the orders of his stepmother, Elfrida.  The motive was succession.  Edward was the son of King Edgar the Peaceful and his first spouse, Ethelflaed (possibly).  Edgar had a second son, Aethelred, with Elfrida.  On Edgar’s death, both boys were very young and a dispute arose over which one should rule.  Edward was chosen but, once he was out of the way, Elfrida’s son, Aethelred (the Unready) became king.

Edward’s body was barely cold when he became associated with miracles – particularly healing the blind.  His body was buried, quickly and with little ceremony, at Wareham.  Within a year, however, his remains were disinterred and were said to be miraculously preserved – a sure sign of saintly attributes.  He was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey, where a cult soon developed around his memory and alleged continuing miracles. Thus, Shaftesbury became a place of pilgrimage, which helped keep the abbey coffers full.  The town also became known as Edwardstowe (I told you we’d get there).  In the year 1001, (other dates are available), Edward was canonised and his bones were placed in a shrine.  The dedication of the abbey was changed to Saints Mary and Edward and, for more than 500 years, the saint helped bring visitors and money to the town.  However, during the 16^th century Reformation, Edward’s remains were hidden to prevent them being stolen, or desecrated.  Then, in 1931, a lead box, or casket, containing bones from the skeleton of a young man, dated to Edward’s period, were found in the ruins of the abbey’s north aisle.  For reasons I don’t fully understand, in 1982, the bones were donated to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which placed them in a church whose sole purpose is as a repository for the remains.  It is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church, in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey. The Church also founded the Saint Edward Brotherhood in 1982 to act as custodians of the relics. The old casket is in the museum at Shaftesbury Abbey.

Visiting Shaftesbury Abbey

In 1985, Shaftesbury Abbey came into the care of a charity, the Shaftesbury Abbey and Museum Preservation Trust Company.  Within the partially excavated ruins of the Abbey church, a peaceful walled garden has been created.  It is a beautiful, spiritual, place.  The plants soften jagged edges, trace the paths of old walls and, somehow, a continuity with the Abbey’s original purpose has been achieved.  A visit is a relaxing, tranquil, experience.

The garden is home to a medieval inspired herb and fruit tree collection, named for the King’s daughter, Aethelgifu, the first abbess.  This includes medicinal plants, culinary plants and utility plants (eg plants used for dyes) that the nuns would have been familiar with.

Footnote
Shaftesbury Abbey Museum and Garden had a stall at the Chalke History Festival, which I attended.  I got chatting to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, who was charming, and promised that, if I visited, I would feature the Abbey on A Bit About Britain. I hope this does it justice.  You will find much more on the Shaftesbury Abbey Museum and Garden’s excellent website, which includes a digital museum.

Here’s a clip of the Boy on the Bike advert.  (Is it as good today as it’s always been?) It is followed by Ronnie Barker’s parody.