Sherborne

Sister cities

• Holstebro
• Škofja Loka
• Zvolen
• Türi Rural Municipality
• Bundoran
• Sesimbra
• Sušice
• Niederanven
• Chojna
• Houffalize
• Bad Kötzting
• Kőszeg

History

In 705, the diocese of Wessex was split between Sherborne and Winchester, and King Ine founded an abbey for St Aldhelm, the first Bishop of Sherborne, which covered Dorset, Somerset, and Devon. King Alfred the Great's elder brothers, King Æthelbald and King Æthelberht, are buried in the abbey. The large Sherborne diocese lasted until about 909 when it was further sub-divided into three sees, with Sherborne covering Dorset. In 933, King Æthelstan granted land at Sherborne to the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey under the condition that they would recite the Psalter once a year on All Saints' day and say prayers for the king. In 1075, the bishop's seat was moved to Old Sarum and the church at Sherborne became a Benedictine monastery. In 1437, the Abbey was damaged by fire after tensions between the town and the monastery came to a head, but much of the Norman structure stands today. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1539, the vacated monastery buildings were bought by Sir John Horsey and became the parish church. Sherborne was the centre of Sherborne Hundred for many centuries. In the 12th century, Roger de Caen, Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England, built a fortified palace in Sherborne. During the English Civil War, it was besieged by Sir Thomas Fairfax in 1645, then slighted and left in ruins. Its ruins are now owned by English Heritage. In 1594, Sir Walter Raleigh built an Elizabethan mansion in the grounds of the old palace, today known as Sherborne Castle. Sherborne became home to Yorkshireman Captain Christopher Levett, who came to the West Country as His Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire, and who remained in Sherborne when he turned to a career as a naval captain and early explorer of New England.