Liberties were an administrative unit of local government in England from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, co-existing with the then operative system of hundreds and boroughs but independent of both, generally for reasons of tenure. The following were the liberties in the county of Dorset and the areas they contained:
- Chaldon Herring
- Edmondsham (part)
- Moreton (part)
- Pulham (part)
- West Lulworth
- Wool
- Broadwindsor
- Corfe Castle (also described as a hundred)
- Dewlish Liberty:
- Dewlish
- Milborne St Andrew (part)
- Fordington
- Hermitage
- Minterne Magna (part)
- Stockland (part) (ie, Dalwood, transferred to Devon 1844)
- Bourton (from 1866)
- Gillingham
- Motcombe
- Owermoigne (formerly part of Winfrith Hundred)
- Piddlehinton
- Piddletrenthide Liberty:
- Gorewood (from 1858)
- Minterne Magna (part)
- Piddletrenthide
- Powerstock (part)
- Chickerell (part)
- Preston
- Stockwood
- Upwey (part)
- Elwell, part of the parish of Upwey
- Wyke Regis
Sources
[edit]- 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