Introduction

The records of settlements and society show that the coastline from Christchurch to Lyme Regis has a long-established pattern of towns, villages and large estates. Roman Dorset left a pattern of towns, villas and roads, parts of which have disappeared, but this was mostly inland with few traces at the coast. By the sixteenth century when the archives begin to grow, towns in the east of the county sheltered within the estuaries at Christchurch, Poole and Wareham. Westwards, towns and villages nestled in the shelter of headlands (e.g. Swanage), on the coast (e.g. Lyme Regis) or were inland, often at the point where the river or shallow estuaries could be crossed (e.g. Bridport). Many of these towns and villages are recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086, but some villages disappeared in the 13th century when the plague swept into Dorset through Melcombe. In 1800, the present area of Bournemouth and Poole was still mostly heathland with settlements along the valleys of the Rivers Avon, Stour, Frome and Piddle. Holdenhurst parish included much of what became Bournemouth, and Poole was surrounded by Canford Magna. From the mid-nineteenth century, the coastal towns and resorts expanded on to coastal land which had previously been only very sparsely occupied (see Life on the Land and in the Town).

The landscapes and ownership

Most coastal land was held by large estates, as it is today. Many of the earliest detailed records are in the estate maps (e.g. Ralph Treswell's 1585-6 estate map of Studland).

The maps were drawn up to provide the landowners with details of their tenants and provided the basis for levying rents. Some of the estates had later surveys which provide an opportunity to discover the extent of changes in tenancies, area or use. Arguments about ownership and inheritance of land went to the courts. Many of their records, and some of the reports in newspapers of the time, form part of the archive.

Enclosure and Tithes

The Enclosure Acts and the Tithe maps were the first great detailed surveys of each parish. They detail the ownership or tenancy of each field or plot of land, its use and area. Each parish maintained detailed records of the births and deaths in the Parish registers and so it is possible to compare the records of population change with the changes of the landscape in each parish.

Nineteenth century landscapes

With the establishment of the Ordnance Survey and the Census of Population at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it becomes possible to trace both the growth and movements of people, and the ways in which towns and villages changed. As the towns expanded during the nineteenth century, there are numerous detailed plans of the new town areas (for example see Life on the Land and in the Town). Finally, the development of aerial photography in the twentieth century provides a visual record of the landscape in the second half of the twentieth century, but it needs to be interpreted with care.

Vincent May