Buried most simply at Wareham, King Edward's remains were interred at the Abbey with great ceremony in the presence of the great nobles of Wessex, led by Archbishop Dunstan.

Edmund Ironside's Queen was buried here in 971 and, ten years later, the remains of the murdered King Edward the Martyr were brought to Shaftesbury from Wareham.

The remains of Edward the Martyr caused Shaftesbury to become one of the great centres of pilrimage and brought the Abbey enormous wealth; its site covered ten acres and the Abbey Church was over seventy-nine metres (260 feet) long.

Edward the Martyr's Remains Edward's remains were brought to the Abbey in 981 and removed to a shrine in 1001. At the Dissolution of the Abbey, the nuns hid the relics and they remained lost for nearly four hundred years until they were discovered in a grave by Mr Wilson-Claridge on the morning of January 22nd, 1931. The casket containing the brocken bones was fashioned from six pieces of lead. About half of the skeleton was present, but it is known that some of the bones were sent to other sacred sites such as Abingdon in Oxfordshire and Leominster in Herefordshire.

For his efforts, Dorian Webb was made a freeman of the town.

With Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, the fabric of the Abbey was dismantled to provide stone for other buildings in the town. Excavations in the late 19th century revealed some of the Abbey but the site was covered again. New excavations in the early 20th century, led by Dorian Webb led to further discoveries.