John Newth

The Channel is the moat that has made England as difficult to storm as any fortress. But whilst armies have failed, the deadliest invasion was by tiny bacilli riding on the back of black rats. These rats, stowaways on ships from plague-ridden Europe, disembarked first at Melcombe Regis: the

‘Here lie German soldiers in a foreign land but not forgotten’ – so reads the German inscription on the only free-standing war memorial to German prisoners-of-war who were held in this country. It is to be found at Fordington cemetery. There was a PoW camp in Dorchester during

Think of a Dorset thatched roof and you might think first of a small cottage tucked away in a quiet village, with roses climbing up towards the eaves. We have lots of those, but less well-known is that the largest thatched roof on any inhabited building in England is

As they glow yellow-orange in the sunset and their buttresses soar up to serrated edges, the cliffs at West Bay present a spectacle like nothing else in Dorset. About 43 metres high, they consist of layers of fine-grained sandstone separated by bands of calcite which are more weather-

A typical English country church, buried deep in the quiet Purbeck valley, has an unexpected connection with the USA. Edward Lawrence of Creech Grange married an Agnes Washington, so the Washington coat of arms, which was based on a pattern of stars and stripes, was quartered with that of the

William John Bankes, the owner of Kingston Lacy two centuries ago, spent much of his life abroad because his pursuit of homosexual activities was considered too enthusiastic to be acceptable. You can still see the paintings and other treasures he sent back to beautify his beloved mansion, to which he