The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, from the former municipal borough of Wareham, Swanage urban district and Wareham and Purbeck Rural District.

Its name is recorded in 948 AD as Anglo-Saxon Purbicinga = "of the people of Purbic", where Purbic may be a former Celtic name, or may contain a supposed Anglo-Saxon word *pur = "male lamb".

The Purbeck Hills and South Dorset Downs are a ridge of chalk downs in Dorset, England. The hills extend from the Dorset Downs west of Dorchester, where the River Frome begins to form a valley dividing them from the larger area of downland to the north. The ridge then runs east through the Isle of Purbeck to Old Harry Rocks where it meets the sea. The hills are part of the southern England Chalk Formation which also includes Salisbury Plain and the South Downs, and would once have been continuous with the Isle of Wight to the east. For most of their length the chalk is protected from coastal erosion by the a band of resistant Portland limestone, where this band ends, at Durlston Head, the clay and chalk behind has been eroded, creating Poole bay and the Solent.

The height of the chalk ridge and proximity to Poole Harbour and the south coast have made the hills of strategic importance. There are a number of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon archaeological sites, such as Nine Barrow Down. At Corfe Castle the hills are broken twice leaving a steep round hill between the ridges on which stood a medieval castle, guarding the only easy route through the hills, until the English Civil War of the 17th century, when it was ruined.

Some of the ridge, around the village of Tyneham, near Lulworth, has been closed to the public for use by the army as a firing range. This has protected them from damage from farming and development, and these areas are now natural reserves. At the eastern end Ballard Down is a National Trust nature reserve which is managed for its calcareous grassland habitat.

Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarried in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods. Purbeck Marble is not a metamorphic rock like a true marble, but like true marble it can take a fine polish. Its characteristic appearance comes from densely-packed shells of the freshwater snail Viviparus, which are also seen in Sussex Marble (also known as Petworth Marble or Winklestone) with generally larger Winkles of the same species.

In seams of the stone, which lie between layers of softer marine clays and mudstone, laid down in repeated marine ingressions, mineral impurities give some Purbeck Marble fine red and green varieties.

During the Romano-British period, Purbeck Marble was used for inscriptions, architectural mouldings and veneers, mortars and pestles, and other articles.

Purbeck Marble was also quarried in medieval times and can be seen in virtually all the cathedrals of the south of England, in columns and slab panels and flooring.