After his six wives, Henry VIII may be best known for shutting down the monasteries in around 1540 and pinching their land. It changed social life in England and the landscape, as many of the monastic buildings were knocked down or left to decay. This was the fate of Cerne

The centre was founded over 30 years ago by a teacher at Cranborne Middle School. His pupils helped build an accurate copy of an Iron Age roundhouse and since then further replicas have been added, from the Stone Age to the Viking era. Today, the centre is run by Dorset

In the course of its 30-mile journey from Evershot to Poole Harbour, the River Frome passes through many attractive spots, but none matches this ford. Easy to get to and on a public bridleway, it is a popular alternative to the beach for paddling and generally messing about by the

Many Dorset village crosses are very old, but one of the newest embraces its modernity, portraying Concorde, the double helix and a World War 2 bomb among ancient features such as vines and knots. It stands near St Nicholas’s church, Studland. This masterpiece was created by the late Trevor

The massive stone structure known as the Cobb conjures up in the modern mind the image of a windswept Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, gazing out to sea as she awaits the return of her lover. Or Louisa Musgrove in Jane Austen’s Persuasion falling down the