Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is positioned on the A30 road, 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of Salisbury, near to the boundary with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being constructed about 215 metres (705 ft) over sea level on a greensand hillside on the edge of Cranborne Chase. The community looks over the Blackmore Vale, part of the River Stour basin. From different perspectives, it is possible to see at least as far as Glastonbury Tor to the northwest. Shaftesbury is the website of the previous Shaftesbury Abbey, which was founded in 888 by King Alfred as well as became one of the richest spiritual establishments in the country, before being damaged in the Dissolution in 1539. Adjacent to the abbey website is Gold Hill, a high cobbled road made use of in the 1970s as the setup for Ridley Scott's television ad for Hovis bread. In the 2011 census the town's civil parish had a population of 7,314.
