In the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell's troops crushed an uprising of vigilantes in a battle near Shaftesbury, Dorset.

The famous Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, is England's fifth steepest street at 16:09 degrees.

In the 1973 Hovis bread TV ad filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, the young lad pushing his bicycle up the hill was 13 year old Carl Barlow. He went on to a 30 year career with the London Fire Brigade.