Dorchester
Dorchester is covered by postcode districts DT1 and DT2. It is in the Dorset council area, England.
ONS publishes this built-up area as Dorchester (Dorset).
Every postcode in Dorchester, by flood risk
- A home or business at high risk: 9
- At medium risk at worst: 2
- At low risk at worst: 11
- At very low risk only: 0
- Not on the at-risk list: 750
- Outline: where 5 or more postcodes at high or medium risk lie together
Of the 772 postcodes in Dorchester that ONS places, 9 have a home or business at high risk, 2 are at medium risk at worst, 11 are at low risk at worst and 750 are not on the Environment Agency's at-risk list.
Each mark is a postcode's centre point as ONS gives it, not a building. Press one to see its postcode and open its page. A dashed outline shows where 5 or more lie within 150 metres of each other. It is not a boundary, and no boundary is drawn. Where marks overlap, the one first in the key is drawn; the counts include every postcode.
The middle of its postcodes: latitude 50.7118, longitude -2.4454. Open this area on OpenStreetMap
Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026; roads, rivers and built-up areas: Ordnance Survey open maps. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Drawn by us. Street map: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Zoomstack, Open Government Licence v3.0, drawn with MapLibre.
The postcodes at high risk
Beside each: how many of its homes and businesses the Environment Agency puts at that risk.
Where the postcodes at high or medium risk lie together
- 5 postcodes at high or medium risk, outlined on the map. DT1 1LX, is the one with most homes and businesses at high risk.
What is it like to live in Dorchester?
Homes sold for a typical £290,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, down 10.8% on the 12 months before. At 597 of the 747 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 42 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 22 of its 772 postcodes. It has 5 primary schools and 3 secondary schools at its postcodes. At least 5 GP practices are at its postcodes. The nearest railway station is Dorchester West, 250 metres from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line.
We don't rate places; here are the figures so you can judge.
Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data; Ofcom Connected Nations; Environment Agency flood risk; Get Information about Schools; NHS GP practices; NaPTAN. Each figure is from a section of this page, which gives its date.
What do homes cost in Dorchester?
Homes in Dorchester sold for a typical £290,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 319 sales, down 10.8% on the 12 months before, HM Land Registry's figures show.
- Detached £515,000 49 sales
- Semi-detached £360,000 53 sales
- Terraced £297,500 104 sales
- Flat or maisonette £175,000 113 sales
Each bar is that kind's typical price, against the most expensive kind here.
Across the whole DT1 district, Dorchester's main postcode district: a typical £293,000.
Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Dorchester: standard sales of homes at market value. A typical price is the median, the middle sale. Sales take weeks to be registered, so the last month or two are incomplete. Each postcode page gives the figure for its own postcode sector.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.
Are new homes being built in Dorchester?
55 of the 772 postcodes now in use in Dorchester came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 16 of the 436 homes sold in Dorchester were newly built (4%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the DT1 district, 8%.
The newest postcodes
A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones, so not every one means new homes. Only postcodes still in use are counted.
New homes among the homes sold
| Period | In Dorchester | Across the DT1 district |
|---|---|---|
| The 12 months to September 2026 | 4 of 319 (1%) | 9 of 325 (3%) |
| The 12 months to September 2025 | 16 of 436 (4%) | 35 of 456 (8%) |
Standard sales of homes at market value that HM Land Registry marks as newly built. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold. A share is given from 5 sales or more.
Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.
What broadband can you get in Dorchester?
Ofcom reports on 747 of the 772 postcodes in Dorchester. At 597 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband.
Ofcom gives each postcode's share of homes and businesses, not how many there are, so these count postcodes. Each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.
Check one address on Ofcom's checkerSource: Ofcom Connected Nations, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026.
Is Dorchester at risk of flooding?
22 of the 772 postcodes in Dorchester have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 42 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk.
High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.
Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them, added up over the postcodes. It is for the land, not each building, and leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.
Source: Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026.
Which schools are in Dorchester?
The open schools at the postcodes in Dorchester. A school for ages 4 to 18 is listed under both. Distances are straight lines from the middle of its postcodes. Distance is not a catchment: each council sets its own admission rules. Special schools and alternative provision, which children join by referral, are not listed.
Primary
- Sunninghill Preparatory School900 m 167 pupils, 200 places
- The Prince of Wales School1.0 km 156 pupils, 150 places
- St Mary's Catholic First School, Dorchester1.2 km 177 pupils, 183 places
- Damers First School1.2 km 475 pupils, 600 places
- Manor Park Church of England First School1.4 km 396 pupils, 450 places
An orange bar: the school has as many pupils as places, or more (Department for Education's figures).
Find and compare schools in England, on GOV.UKSource: Get Information about Schools, read 17 October 2026. Each school opens its own record there.
How far is the station from Dorchester?
The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Dorchester is Dorchester West Rail Station, 250 m away in a straight line.
- Dorchester West Rail Station Railway station 250 mWalk
- Dorchester South Rail Station Railway station 650 mWalk
- Upwey Rail Station Railway station 7.2 kmDrive
Straight-line distances from the centre point, not routes. Walk: under 1.2 km. Cycle: 1.2 to 5 km. Drive: further.
Straight-line distances from the middle of the postcodes, not routes. Each postcode page lists its own nearest stations and bus stops. The Department for Transport's register does not say how often services run.
Source: NaPTAN, read 17 October 2026.
Which GP surgeries are in Dorchester?
The GP practices at the postcodes in Dorchester, the first 5 by distance from its middle. Each practice sets the area it takes patients from, so check with it before registering.
- Queens Avenue Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report December 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 01305 262886 450 mWalk
- Atrium Health Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report April 2017, over 3 years old · Phone 01305 251545 500 mWalk
- Poundbury Doctors Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report July 2022, over 3 years old · Phone 01305 251128 900 mWalk
- Prince of Wales Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report September 2016, over 3 years old · Phone 01305 250989 900 mWalk
- Fordington Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report February 2020, over 3 years old · Phone 01305 250515 1.3 kmCycle
Sources: NHS GP practices, read 17 October 2026; Care Quality Commission, ratings of 1 October 2026.
Is Dorchester safe? Crime recorded around it
Police.uk records 1,546 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Dorchester over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. August 2026 is the latest month it has published. These are counts, not a rate: we hold no count of the people who live, work or pass through, so we do not say whether a place is safe.
Each month, September 2025 to August 2026
- 113 September 2025
- 158 October 2025
- 148 November 2025
- 109 December 2025
- 111 January 2026
- 105 February 2026
- 139 March 2026
- 123 April 2026
- 142 May 2026
- 121 June 2026
- 138 July 2026
- 139 August 2026
By kind, over the 12 months
Also: drugs 28, robbery 11, other crime 11, possession of weapons 8, bicycle theft 7, theft from the person 2.
Police.uk says its locations "always represent the approximate location of a crime". Each crime is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street centre, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that every point covers at least eight addresses or none. A mile is a wide circle: in a town it takes in the centre and its shops, where much crime is recorded.
Crime around one postcodeSource: police.uk, data to August 2026, from its download of 30 September 2026.
Who runs Dorchester?
- Council
- Dorset
- Parliamentary constituency
- West Dorset
- Police force area
- Dorset
- Region
- South West
- Country
- England
- MP
- Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat)
All 772 postcodes here share these. Wards differ: check a postcode for yours. What council am I in?
Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; UK Parliament, read 14 October 2026.
Moving to Dorchester
Who to tell and what to sort out in your first week.
- Tell Dorset about council tax Council tax, on dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
- Register to vote at the new address Register to vote on GOV.UK
- Register with a GP practice The GP practices in Dorchester
- Take meter readings on the day you move in
- Power cut? Call 105. It is free. About 105, the power cut number
- Find out your bin day Check your bin day on BinDayBuddy, which reads the council's own collection system
Dorchester postcodes
772 postcodes in use in Dorchester, by district:
Those districts are all in the DT postcode area.
Check a Dorchester postcode
Enter a full postcode to see its ward, its flood risk, house prices in its sector and its nearest schools.
Do not know the postcode? What is my postcode?
Places near Dorchester
With the typical price of a home in each, to set beside Dorchester's £290,000. Distances are straight lines between the middles of each place's postcodes.
Quick answers about Dorchester
- What is the postcode for Dorchester?
- Postcode districts DT1 and DT2, with 772 postcodes in use. Source: ONS.
- Which council is Dorchester in?
- Dorset. Source: ONS.
- Who is the MP for Dorchester?
- Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat), for West Dorset. Source: UK Parliament and ONS.
- How much are houses in Dorchester?
- A typical £290,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, from 319 sales, down 10.8% on the 12 months before. Source: HM Land Registry.
- What schools are in Dorchester?
- Primary schools at its postcodes include Sunninghill Preparatory School, The Prince of Wales School and St Mary's Catholic First School, Dorchester; secondary schools at its postcodes include Dorchester Middle School, The Thomas Hardye School and St Osmund's Church of England Middle School. Source: Department for Education.
- Does Dorchester have a railway station?
- Yes: Dorchester West station, 250 metres from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line. Source: Department for Transport.
- What broadband can you get in Dorchester?
- Ofcom reports on 747 of the 772 postcodes in Dorchester. At 597 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband. Source: Ofcom.
- Is Dorchester at risk of flooding?
- 22 of the 772 postcodes in Dorchester have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 42 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk. River and sea risk for the land, not surface water. Source: Environment Agency.
- Are new homes being built in Dorchester?
- 55 of the 772 postcodes now in use in Dorchester came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 16 of the 436 homes sold in Dorchester were newly built (4%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the DT1 district, 8%. Source: ONS and HM Land Registry.
Where the facts on this page come from
- Office for National Statistics: ONS Postcode Directory
- Environment Agency flood risk
- HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
- Ofcom Connected Nations
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools
- Department for Transport: NaPTAN
- NHS England: NHS GP practices
- Care Quality Commission
- data.police.uk: police.uk
- UK Parliament
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This uses Care Quality Commission information. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.
Licences: Open Government Licence v3.0; Open Parliament Licence v3.0.
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