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King's Arms, Dorchester

Buildings and structures in Dorchester, DorsetCoaching innsGrade II* listed pubs in DorsetHotels in DorsetPubs in Dorset
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Kings Arms Hotel, Dorchester geograph.org.uk 4042207
Kings Arms Hotel, Dorchester geograph.org.uk 4042207

The King's Arms is a large pub and hotel on High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset. It is grade II* listed. The Buildings of England describes its frontage as a "fine expansive early [nineteenth-century] composition", with an attached assembly room, although the hotel is older than this. It is a former coaching inn.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article King's Arms, Dorchester (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

King's Arms, Dorchester
High East Street,

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.7156 ° E -2.4359 °
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Kings Arms Hotel

High East Street
DT1 1HB
England, United Kingdom
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Kings Arms Hotel, Dorchester geograph.org.uk 4042207
Kings Arms Hotel, Dorchester geograph.org.uk 4042207
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Dorchester, Dorset
Dorchester, Dorset

Dorchester ( DOR-ches-tər) is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport on the A35 trunk route. An historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome to the south of the Dorset Downs and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway that separates the area from Weymouth, 7 miles (11 km) to the south. The civil parish includes the experimental community of Poundbury and the suburb of Fordington. The area around the town was first settled in prehistoric times. The Romans established a garrison there after defeating the Durotriges tribe, calling the settlement that grew up nearby Durnovaria; they built an aqueduct to supply water and an amphitheatre on an ancient British earthwork. After the departure of the Romans, the town diminished in significance, but during the medieval period became an important commercial and political centre. It was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jeffreys after the Monmouth Rebellion, and later the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. In the 2011 census, the population of Dorchester was 19,060, with further people coming from surrounding areas to work in the town which has six industrial estates. The Brewery Square redevelopment project is taking place in phases, with other development projects planned. The town has a land-based college, Kingston Maurward College, The Thomas Hardye School, three middle schools and thirteen first schools. The Dorset County Hospital offers an accident and emergency service, and the town is served by two railway stations. Through vehicular traffic is routed round the town by means of a bypass. The town has a football club and a rugby union club, several museums and the biannual Dorchester Festival. It is twinned with three towns in Europe. As well as having many listed buildings, a number of notable people have been associated with the town. It was for many years the home and inspiration of the author Thomas Hardy, whose novel The Mayor of Casterbridge uses a fictionalised version of Dorchester as its setting.

Dorchester Friary

Dorchester Friary, also known as Dorchester Priory, was a Franciscan friary formerly located in Dorchester, Dorset, England.The friary stood on the north side of the town (grid reference SY693909), on the banks of the River Frome, a little east of the site of Dorchester Castle. Possibly a royal foundation, it was in existence by 1267, and it was dissolved in 1538.In 1296, the establishment is recorded as being home to 32 friars. In the course of its existence it received legacies and gifts from such notable people as Thomas Bitton, Bishop of Exeter; Elizabeth de Clare; and John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury. The Hospital of St John the Baptist in Dorchester was placed in their care by King Richard III of England, even though his predecessor, Henry VI, had given it to Eton College. The friars' other properties included profitable local watermills, barns and gardens. In 1485, in return for his generosity to the friary, Sir John Byconil was recognised as "chief founder" and it was agreed that henceforth boys newly admitted to the order would be known as "Byconil's Friars".Richard Yngworth, the newly appointed Bishop of Dover, had the task of dissolving the friary and seizing its assets on behalf of King Henry VIII of England, and the long-standing warden, Dr William Germen, eventually signed the deed of surrender at the end of September 1538. Edmund Peckham, a cofferer in the King's Household, purchased the buildings and land and sold them on to Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton in 1547. The estate later passed into the hands of Denzil Holles, MP, who had married Dorothy Ashley, a Dorset heiress, whose father, Sir Francis Ashley, had bought it from Southampton. Ashley had made many alterations to the house Holles' son, Francis Holles, 2nd Baron Holles, was born there in 1627. When the Holles barony became extinct, the estate passed to John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle. The house was described by James Savage in his 1837 History of Dorchester as having been standing "a few years ago". Savage described it as "a long low and irregular building; the eastern part seemed to be the most ancient by three old windows. At the West end there was a long gallery perhaps once a dormitory."