Shaftesbury Abbey was founded around 888AD by Alfred the Great, who installed his wife Ethelgifu as the first Abbess. Elfgifu, the wife of Alfred's grandson, Kind Edmund 1, was buried at Shaftesbury and soon venerated as a Saint. Shaftesbury Abbey soon regarded her as it's true founder.
In 981 the bones of St Edward the Martyr were moved from Wareham to Saftesbury Abbey. In 1001 it was recorded that the tomb of St Edward was observed regularly to rise from the ground and so his brother, King Ethelred, instructed the Bishops to raise the tomb from the ground and place it somewhere more fitting.
At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries Bishop Thomas Fuller quoted a common saying, "If the Abbess of Shaftesbury Abbey and the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey had been able to wed, their son would have been richer than the King of England."; a testament to just how much land etc the two abbeys had between them. In 1539 the last Abbess signed a deed of surrender and the abbey was demolished.
