The village dates from Saxon times and was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Creneburne, meaning stream (bourne) of cranes.

The medieval hunting lodge was modified by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury by William Arnold between 1607 and 1611 to create Cranborne Manor House, a mixture of medieval walls and Renaissance architecture, for King James I who also came to the downs for the hunt.

The village was a market town in times when it was frequented by royalty, and housed a garrison of soldiers to protect the king.

[6] In the 1980s, a reproduction of an Iron Age dwelling, a roundhouse, was built at the back of Cranborne Middle School, as an exercise in experimental archaeology.

It was later expanded into a living museum as the Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre, operated by Dorset County Council.