Built on top of a sandstone hill, Shaftesbury (19mi/30km southwest of Salisbury; pop. 4,900) is a picturesque little market town, steeped in the past. King Alfred the Great gave the little town of Shaston its charter and then in 888 founded a Benedictine abbey with an extensive landholding in Shaftesbury, naming his daughter Elgiva as the first
abbess. After Edward the Martyr was murdered at Corfe Castle in 979 and the remains of the canonized king were brought to the abbey to be buried, the town became a popular place of pilgrimage with almost a dozen churches. By the 15th century some 140 nuns were living in the abbey, which had become so prosperous that it was popularly maintained that if the abbess of Shaftesbury were to marry the abbot of Glastonbury, the offspring would be wealthier than those of the royal family. Small wonder then that Henry VIII should have been quick to dissolve both monastic houses in 1539, confiscate their property and sell off their buildings for demolition. Today only the foundation walls are left as a reminder of the abbey's existence, while in the Abbey Ruins Museum there is a model of the building as it once was, as well as numerous finds from the Middle Ages.
Shaftesbury is a notable tourist destination with its steep cobbled streets especially Gold Street, the abbey ruins and the market held every Thursday.
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