North Dorset District Dorset England United Kingdom
51.0046,-2.198083
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of Salisbury and 23 miles (37 kilometres) north-northeast of Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about 215 metres (705 feet) 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.
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, a steep cobbled street used in the 1970s as the setting for Ridley Scott's television advertisement for Hovis bread.
In the 2021 census the town's civil parish had a population of 9,162.
Distance between:
London to Shaftesbury96 Miles / 155 Kms Liverpool to Shaftesbury170 Miles / 273 Kms
51.0046,-2.198083