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The area has been peopled for a considerable time. About 10,000BC the glaciers of the last ice age retreated & the climate became drier & generally warmer. By 4000BC people were farming & adopting a more settled way of life. Small communities were forming & working together. That local society was organised, is indicated by the construction of The Dorset Cursus (~ 3000BC) which starts only some 7 kms north east of Tarrant Hinton. The presence of long (constructed between 3,400-1800BC) & round (1650-800BC) burial barrows suggests continuous occupation on both sides of the valley. At Tarrant Launceston a cremation cemetery has been discovered, presumably for less important people as there appears to have been no indication of its presence above ground.
Between 2000 & 700BC the climate was noticeably wetter. During this period ownership of land for farming became more organised as can be seen in "the ten dykes (banks) which lie on the rolling downland of the parishes bordering the Tarrant". Hill top sites were occupied from about 1000BC. These were not the famous hill-top forts, like Hod Hill, but earth banks used as animal enclosures & as minor defensive positions like Buzbury Rings, which is crossed by the Wimborne to Blandford road just beyond Tarrant Keynston. Old divisions of much surrounding land into Celtic fields suggest its largely peaceful use. Little use seems to have been made of the land beside the Tarrant.
The Romans arrived towards the end of 43AD when II Augusta legion (Vespasian) came ashore probably at Hamworthy & set up base at Lake Farm near Wimborne. Their move westward was delayed by fierce fighting at Spetisbury Rings & Hod Hill. No evidence of any fighting has been found at Buzbury Rings or elsewhere in the Tarrant Valley. Badbury Rings was a major Roman road junction which included the road towards Bath which ran along part of the valley. A large villa at Tarrant Hinton was discovered in 1845.
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