John Newth

A thousand years is enough time for a tree to gather a lot of history. Wyndham’s Oak, possibly planted to mark the border of Gillingham Forest and now with a girth of almost eleven metres (35½ feet), has been standing near the village of Silton for that long. It

Anything beautiful can be reduced to a scientific explanation. So a geologist will explain that Lulworth Cove was formed when the stream that still flows through West Lulworth broke through the enclosing arms of what is now the cove and rising sea levels flooded its lower valley. All true, but

‘Nothing important happens in Dorset’ is a familiar cry, but it did in 1833. In an act that was to prove of national significance, six agricultural labourers banded together to protest against reduced wages. It was the birth of the trades union movement. Such impertinence infuriated landowners, who demanded their

Next time you visit Milton Abbey, one of Dorset’s most magnificent churches, look up the hill to the east. You will see another ecclesiastical building that is much more modest but at least 100 years older, the Abbey having been rebuilt after a fire in 1309. St Catherine’s

‘Weird but compelling’ is the best description of the font in the little church of St Basil, Toller Fratrum. It is probably 1000 years old, but its origins are lost in the mists of that long history. All round it are crudely carved heads and figures, some with arms outstretched

Open the front door of the Tudor House when it was built some 450 years ago, and you would nearly step into an inlet of Weymouth Harbour. The house almost certainly belonged to a wealthy merchant who had warehouses nearby and used it as home and office. The water would