Template:FP-Shaftesbury

Gold Hill, Shaftsbury, Dorset

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, on the A30 road twenty miles west of Salisbury. Many of the older buildings in the town are of the local stone, and others from the grey Chilmark limestone salvaged from Shaftesbury Abbey, demolished at the Reformation. The town stands on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, and one of the oldest towns in Britain. Its most famous street, Gold Hill, plunges form the hilltop down the escarpment. From its hill, Shaftesbury looks over the Blackmore Vale and from some vantages it is possible to see at least as far as Glastonbury Tor. (Read more)