Centurie de Dorcic
Cette petite ville, bien défendue par un mur romain, nommée « Dorchester » par les marchands saxons, tire sa richesse du commerce sur la Tamise et de son abbaye d'Augustins. Sous le règne des frères usurpateurs, le supérieur de l’abbaye, le père Filaen, avait réussi le tour de force de s’imposer à la tête de la ville et à la protéger des exactions, si courantes dans le reste du Comté. En échange, il devait payer un tribut aux trois frères, leur rendre hommage et assurer par lui-même le secours aux pauvres dans tout le Comté, la dîme n’étant versée nulle part... L’avènement de Floriane a mis fin à cette pratique détestable, mais le père Filaen est resté gouverneur de Dorcic.
Dorchester on Thames (or Dorchester-on-Thames) is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Wallingford and 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Oxford. The town is a few hundred yards from the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. A common practice of the scholars at Oxford was to refer to the river Thames by two separate names, with Dorchester on Thames the point of change. Downstream of the village, the river continued to be named The Thames, while upstream it was named The Isis.
The area has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic. In the north of the parish there was a Neolithic sacred site, now largely destroyed by gravel pits.[citation needed] On one of the Sinodun Hills on the opposite side of the Thames, a ramparted settlement was inhabited during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Two of the Sinodun Hills bear distinctive landmarks of mature trees called Wittenham Clumps. Adjacent to the village is Dyke Hills which is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort. The Romans built a vicus[4] here, with a road linking the settlement to a military camp at Alchester, 16 miles (25 km) to the north.[5]
In 634 Pope Honorius I sent a bishop called Birinus to convert the Saxons of the Thames Valley to Christianity. King Cynegils of Wessex gave Dorchester to Birinus as the seat of a new Diocese of Dorchester under a Bishop of Dorchester; the diocese was extremely large, and covered most of Wessex and Mercia. The settled nature of the bishopric made Dorchester in a sense the de facto capital of Wessex, which was later to become the dominant kingdom in England. Eventually Winchester displaced it, with the bishopric being transferred there in 660.[citation needed]
Manoirs Domesday
Name Households Dorchester 153 Frampton 57 Dorchester 47 Fordington 47 Charminster 36 Bradford [Peverell] 27 Martinstown 22 Frome [Whitfield] 13 Hunesworde 8 Stinsford 8 [Higher and Lower] Bockhampton 6
Lieu situé sous
Organisation Propriétaire