Dorchester-on-Thames

Town in Oxfordshire, England, 14 km/9 mi southeast of Oxford; population (2001) 1,000. Traces of Neolithic, Iron, and Bronze Age settlements have been found on the Sinodun hills southwest of the town. Dorchester was the seat of a bishop in the early Middle Ages, and has an abbey church dating from the 12th century.

The Dyke Hills just south of Dorchester are an ancient British earthwork. The town was also the site of a Roman station and a Romano-British town. In 635 Cynegils, King of the West Saxons, was baptized in Dorchester by St Birinus, the apostle of Wessex, King Oswald of Northumbria standing sponsor. The bishopric founded here in 634 was moved in the late 7th century but was re-established in the late 9th century and lasted until 1072, when it was transferred to Lincoln.