Wikipedia
Shaftesbury is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near to the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase.
The town looks over the Blackmore Vale, part of the River Stour basin. From different viewpoints, it is possible to see at least as far as Glastonbury Tor to the northwest.
Shaftesbury is the site of the former Shaftesbury Abbey, which was founded in 888 by King Alfred and became one of the richest religious establishments in the country, before being destroyed in the Dissolution in 1539. Adjacent to the abbey site is Gold Hill, the steep cobbled street made famous in the 1970s as the setting for Ridley Scotts television advertisement for Hovis bread.
In the 2011 census the town's civil parish had a population of 7,314.
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England
Shaftesbury may also refer to:
Places- Shaftesbury, Newport, in Wales
- Shaftesbury, Belfast, an electoral ward in Northern Ireland
- Shaftesbury Estate, a housing estate in London, England
- Shaftesbury Settlement, Alberta, Canada
- The Earl of Shaftesbury:
- Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–1683)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury (1652–1699)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713)
- Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (1711–1771)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 5th Earl of Shaftesbury (1761–1811)
- Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury (1768–1851)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (1831–1886)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury (1869–1961)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury (1938–2004/5)
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 11th Earl of Shaftesbury (1977–2005)
- Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury (1979–)
- Shaftesbury plc, a British property company
- Shaftesbury Films, a Canadian television production company
- Shaftesbury High School, a school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- Shaftesbury School, a school in Dorset, England
- Shaftesbury Avenue, a street in London
- Shaftesbury Theatre, a theatre in London
- Shaftesbury, a British merchant ship sunk by Wolf pack Hai in 1942
- Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, an athletics club in London
Shaftesbury was a parliamentary constituency in Dorset. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1295 until 1832 and one member until the constituency was abolished in 1885.