List of boroughs in Dorset explained

The following were historically ancient boroughs in the county of Dorset.

Boroughs, pre-Conquest

• Bridport
• Dorchester
• Shaftesbury
• Wareham
• Wimborne Minster (see also Lapsed boroughs below)

Boroughs, post-Conquest

• Blandford Forum (from 1605)
• Corfe Castle (from 1268 or 1576)
• Lyme Regis (from 1284 or -85)
• Melcombe Regis (from 1268)
• Poole (from 1248; a County of itself from 1571)
• Sherborne (from 1227)
• Weymouth (from 1252)

(Weymouth and Melcombe Regis were joined as a double borough in 1571)

"Lapsed" boroughs

• Castleton (in Oborne)
• Charmouth
• Newton (in Studland)
• Stoborough (in Wareham Holy Trinity)
• Whitchurch Canonicorum
• Wimborne Minster

Sources

• Boswell, Edward, 1833: The Civil Division of the County of Dorset (published on CD by Archive CD Books Ltd, 1992)
• Hutchins, John, History of Dorset, vols 1-4 (3rd ed 1861-70; reprinted by EP Publishing, Wakefield, 1973)
• Mills, A. D., 1977, 1980, 1989: Place Names of Dorset, parts 1-3. English Place Name Society: Survey of English Place Names vols LII, LIII and 59/60