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Tudor House, Weymouth

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

Sandbanks to Shell Bay ferry

For at least 200 years, some sort of ferry has carried passengers between Sandbanks and Shell Bay across the narrow entrance of Poole Harbour. When a road was first built along the Sandbanks Peninsula after World War 1, it became necessary to provide a ferry that could carry motor traffic,

Eggardon Hill

Eggardon is an Iron Age hillfort with three banks and two ditches enclosing most of its twenty acres. That factual description does not convey the varied beauty and haunting atmosphere of the hill. Each approach, from the four points of the compass, is completely different. From the top, the views

Christchurch Priory misericords

Monks had a hard life, working for their community and the glory of God. The many church services they attended might have been a chance of a rest, but no: the monks had to spend most of them standing up. The monastic authorities did relent by allowing misericords, or mercy

Ashmore pond

The pond has never dried out naturally, which is remarkable as the water table is 300 feet below Ashmore, the highest village in Dorset. There may be evidence of a clay-lined dew pond having been here 3000 years ago, or it may have been created by the Romans, whose

Stockwood church

Roughly the size of the lower deck of a bus – about nine metres by four metres – Stockwood church is the smallest in Dorset. That is not its only claim to fame: the dedication to St Edwold is unique. Most of the church is about 700 years old. It was declared

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