e. During the two
following centuries Dorset was constantly ravaged by the Danes, and in
1015 Canute came on a plundering expedition to the mouth of the Frome.
Several of the West Saxon kings resided in Dorsetshire, and AEthelbald
and AEthelbert were buried at Sherborne, and AEthelred at Wimborne. In the
reign of Canute Wareham was the shire town; it was a thriving seaport,
with a house for the king when he came there on his hunting expeditions,
a dwelling for the shire-reeve and accommodation for the leading thegns
of the shire. At the time of the Conquest Dorset formed part of Harold's
earldom, and the resistance which it opposed to the Conqueror was
punished by a merciless harrying, in which Dorchester, Wareham and
Shaftesbury were much devastated, and Bridport utterly ruined.

No Englishman retained estates of any importance after the Conquest, and
at the time of the Survey the bulk of the land, with the exception of
the forty-six manors held by the king, was in the hands of religious
houses, the abbeys of Cerne, Milton and Shaftesbury being the most
wealthy. There were 272 mills in the county at the time of the Survey,
and nearly eighty men were employed in working salt along the coast.
Mints existed at Shaftesbury, Wareham, Dorchester and Bridport, the
three former having been founded by AEthelstan. The forests of
Dorsetshire were favourite hunting-grounds of the Norman kings, and King
John in particular paid frequent visits to the county.

No precise date can be assigned for the establishment of the shire
system in Wessex, but in the time of Ecgbert the kingdom was divided
into definite _pagi_, each under an ealdorman, which no doubt
represented the later shires. The _Inquisitio Geldi_, drawn up two years
before the Domesday Survey, gives the names of the 39 pre-Conquest
hundreds of Dorset. The 33 hundreds and 21 liberties of the present day
retain some of the original names, but the boundaries have suffered much
alteration. The 8000 acres of Stockland and Dalwood reckoned in the
Dorset Domesday are now annexed to Devon, and the manor of Holwell now
included in Dorset was reckoned with Somerset until the 19th century.
Until the reign of Elizabeth Dorset and Somerset were united under one
sheriff.

After the transference of the West Saxon see from Sherborne to Sarum in
1075, Dorset remained part of that diocese until 1542, when it was
included in the newly formed diocese of Bristol. The archdeaconry was
coexten