The village is separated from the castle mound by a moat which is largely of natural origin (but widened and deepened by the Normans). Most of its buildings are constructed of the local grey Purbeck limestone, the majority in the eighteenth century when the Purbeck stone trade was at its height. The village's prosperity declined when the centre of the trade moved from Corfe to Swanage, but this had a unique side-effect: house construction ceased before architectural fashions changed, which means that the village has retained a remarkable unity of appearance.

Below is a tracking shot of the main street leading into the village's centre, with the castle in the background.

The village's principal claim to fame is as the site of the murder of the Saxon king Edward by his stepmother Queen Elfrida in 978, so that she could put her own son Ethelred on the throne. Thanks to the bad advice of his counsellors and the Danish raids which punctuated his reign, he subsequently entered history as Ethelred the Unready. Below is the stone erected to mark the millennium of the murdered Edward.

The rest of this page shows some of the village's handsome stone buildings.