Latest

Sandford Heath anti-aircraft tower

You can’t fight a war without shells, and until the end of World War 2, the main explosive used to propel shells was cordite. So the factory at Holton Heath, where cordite was produced for the Royal Navy, was a prime target for Luftwaffe bombers. Raids on the factory

Pilsdon Manor

How lucky we are to live in the age of the welfare state, yet there are still those who fall through the cracks and cry out for rescue. For nearly 70 years the Pilsdon Community has offered a refuge, spiritual support and practical help to those in crisis or on

Dorsetshire Gap

It may not be the Arlberg or the Brenner, but the Dorsetshire Gap is the closest the county has to a mountain pass. It is where one of the ancient routes from the south breaks through the chalk escarpment into the Blackmore Vale. The gap is also a crossroads, as

Sea Music, Poole

Like it or loathe it – and there are plenty of people on each side of that argument – this large abstract sculpture creates a focal point on Poole Quay in a central position at the junction with the High Street. It was created in 1991 by Sir Anthony Caro, regarded as

Musket ball holes, Abbotsbury church

Less than 400 years ago, Englishmen slaughtered Englishmen in the pitched battles of the Civil War. There were many smaller skirmishes as well, including one in Abbotsbury, which was held for the King by the Strangways family. In 1644 the Parliamentarians attacked the village. Some of the Royalist garrison hastily

Corfe Castle station

A country station on a summer’s day with a steam train puffing in. It’s hard to imagine a better place to be. And Corfe Castle sums up all that is best about a country station.  It is one of five stations on the Swanage Railway. The Swanage branch

Market bell, Sturminster Newton

The Monday market at ‘Stur’ was more than a market, it was a gathering of the farming community. It was held weekly for 700 years and earned the town the title, ‘The capital of the Blackmore Vale’. As the auctioneer moved on to the next type of livestock, a bell

White Mill Bridge, Sturminster Marshall

The oldest river crossing in Dorset? It can’t be proved for sure, but White Mill Bridge over the Stour has a better claim than most. The structure we see today is only 500 years old, but beneath it are timber pilings that were there 400 years before that. As

Halsewell mirror, Worth Matravers

A fierce snowstorm blew up the Channel on 6 January 1786. It drove the Halsewell, a ship of the East India Company bound for Calcutta, onto the rocky Purbeck coast between Seacombe and Winspit. The survivors, who numbered 74 out of the 242 on board, scrambled onto what was later

Winterborne Stickland village sign

Agriculture, button-making, blacksmithing, spinning, brewing: these were the jobs that occupied people in rural Dorset in the days before revolutions in transport and communications opened up the world and ended villages’ isolation for ever. They are all to be seen on Winterborne Stickland’s beautifully carved village sign, which

Colmers Hill, Bridport

Stand in the middle of Bridport, and the view to the west is dominated by Colmers Hill. It is more than a mile away and not especially high (about 120 metres), but there is no higher ground nearby and the hill is in direct line of sight from the town.

King Alfred statue, Shaftesbury Abbey

Middle schools (for ages 8-13) are a rarity in Dorset now. Fondly remembered is King Alfred’s Middle School, Shaftesbury, which closed in 2004. As well as nostalgic regrets, there was concern about what would happen to its prized possession: the 2½-metre-high statue of King Alfred, who

Still falling, Portland

Once there were over a hundred working quarries on the Isle of Portland. Today the number is in single figures. Tout Quarry was one of the casualties, the last stone being taken from there in 1982, but it lives on as a sculpture park run by the Portland Sculpture &

Horton Tower

‘A megalomaniac folly,’ Pevsner calls Horton Tower. Megalomaniac maybe, but not a folly, because it did have a practical use when built by Humphrey Sturt of Horton Manor 200 years ago. A keen huntsman, he wanted to follow his hounds when he was too old to ride, so he watched