Corfe Castle

The Dorset Historic Towns Project report on Corfe Castle.

The historic urban character of Corfe Castle is closely bound up with its distinctive landscape setting and the quality of its historic fabric. The Castle ruins provide a magnificent backdrop to the medieval streetscapes of the town.

The medieval town plan survives almost completely, and the associated post-medieval streetscapes are largely intact, while modern suburban development is largely limited to the southern part of East Street.

The landscape and topographic setting of the town, in particular its location in a gap in the Purbeck ridge and its containment between the two branches of the Corfe River, is fundamental to its character.

Summary report

Here is a summary of the report (February 2011).

Detailed sections of the report

We have broken down the full report into individual sections, please select one of the parts to read:

• Part 1 and 2 Introduction and overview
• Part 3 and 4 Context and sources
• Part 5.1 and 5.2 Historical development - Medieval and post-medieval
• Part 5.3 and 5.4 Historical development - Nineteenth century and twentieth century
• Part 6 Character appraisal
• Part 6 Historic Urban Character Area 1 The Castle and Medieval Town
• Part 6 Historic Urban Character Area 2 West Street
• Part 6 Historic Urban Character Area 3 East Street
• Part 7 Research and appendices