Dorchester arise!

Dorchester, once a sleepy market town, is undergoing a radical transformation.
At one end lies Poundbury, Prince Charles' venture into the vernacular,  while at the other end, and in complete contrast, stands Dorchester Moderne otherwise known as Brewery Square. 
The centrepiece of this radical development is a group of beautiful Victorian brewery buildings. These have been transformed into contemporary apartments while around them have been created a variety of contemporary buildings and spaces.

 At a stroke Dorchester has been thrust into the 21st century with the creation of a plethora of restaurants, a cinema, a theatre, a large square and a new station. It's definitely something that the town needed.
The quality of the whole development is superb though the modern stuff is your typical mall architecture. It has its use though in creating a striking counterpoint to the Victorian buildings, which, needless to say, win hands down.

The restaurants, are the usual suspects, no local establishments are in evidence, but then places such as Carluccio's do what they do well and for a reasonable price...which is more than can be said for many of Dorset's native eateries.

Poundbury Pt. 1

Once upon a time there was a prince who dreamed an impossible dream, to build a magical town; a town where harmony, proportion and humanity reigned for ever and ever. 

The Arts and Crafts Brownsword Hall

That prince was named Charles; the town, Poundbury. As to whether it is a fairytale or a nightmare, the jury remains firmly divided down the middle.
The mere mention of the place transforms normally sane people into po-faced armchair architects...while architects...well they simply turn purple and expire in a puff off self righteous hot air.

Bread and coffee

Attitudes are invariable coloured by the man rather than the vision; but given that his dream is so benign, it is a mystery as to why people become so hot under the collar.
The development on the edge of Dorchester is now in its twenty first year and when completed in 2023 will contain 2,500 new homes and a population of 5000; increasing the population of Dorchester by a quarter.

Superdoopermarket - the Waitrose building

The  master plan never had any pretence to be architecturally cutting edge. The novel element to the scheme was far more subtle, to create a development where factories, private dwellings, social housing and retail were carefully integrated with the consequence that car dependency was to be dramatically reduced. Given Charles green credentials there is even an anaerobic digester chugging away somewhere producing gas for up to 25,000 homes.

Wandering Poundbury's streets makes you appreciate just how ambitious the scheme is in fact you can quite easily get lost in its expanse, while the deft use of proportion and detail lends the place wit, style and humanity which most (all?) new domestic developments lack. 

Stubby columns of the Brownsword Hall

Nothing is perfect though; the shops are of a niche variety; the interiors are often cramped and lacking the style and quality of the exteriors while there still seems to be an over-reliance on gas guzzlers. 
...Buts that's enough of my views...best take a saunter around the development, partake of latte (or royaltea) at Olives Et Al then lay aside vain prejudice then form your own right royal opinion.

The influence of Burns - the fire station

 

Hills and Views - Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle, the largest Iron Age hill fort in Europe, occupies a low hill just a mile or so from the town of Dorchester, yet  it still manages to retain an atmosphere of airy isolation. The still-lofty defensive banks and ditches rise up like frozen waves and are a charmed place to lie back and listen to the atmospheric cry of the invisible skylark.

To really appreciate the earthwork requires wings, as only then can you appreciate the sophisticated layout of this ancient structure.
Here, 2000 years ago, the Roman army, led by Vespasian faced the local lot, the Durnovaria, in a battle that was probably a forgone conclusion; British slingshots would have been no match for Rome's state-of-the-art ballistas.

The story of their last stand was painted in chilling detail when archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler conducted an extensive dig here some seventy years ago. A mass grave of the defenders was uncovered, the skeletons clearly exhibiting battle wounds; while huge reserves of slingstones brought from nearby Chesil Bank lay unused .
Today life here is much more peaceful, the occupation force is mainly sheep, lambs and dog walkers; the hill's occupants having  long ago forsaken their ancestral home for the bright lights of Dorchester town.

Roman Dorset

The Roman conquest of Dorset and the southwest was led by the future emperor, Vespasian, later responsible for the sack of Jerusalem. The locals stood little chance against the well organised legions. Evidence of battle, slingstones and mass graves (see here) were discovered at Maiden Castle on the outskirts of Dorchester in the 1940's.

Vespasian

Dorchester itself was originally the Roman town of Durnovaria and has proved rich in in artefacts, many of which can be found in the County Museum.

The remains of this centuries-long occupation are surprisingly scant, though worth searching out. 

I suppose you could say Colosseums aren't legion in Dorset...

Roman Town House, Dorchester  This site is the best preserved example of a Roman town house in the country. 

A chance discovery in 1937 revealed a complex of eight buildings dating from the early 4th century AD. it was adorned with costly mosaics and painted plaster around 350ad. The Roman Town House can be seen in Colliton Park, in the grounds of County Hall, Dorchester. The site is open every day of the year. Admission is free.

Roman Road, Puddletown Forest  Only recently rediscovered, it was originally part of a road that ran from Exeter to London. Remains run for half a mile and take the form of a high bank more than 15ft high with ditches either side.

Roman aqueduct  The aqueduct ran for about twelve miles from Notton to Dorchester places where it was cut into the hillside can still be seen. Originally about 5 ft wide and 3 ft deep and delivering 8 million gallons a day.

Ackling Dyke Roman Road  The route of the road runs for 22 miles arrow straight from the outskirts of Salisbury to the hill fort of Badbury Rings cutting through any pre Roman monuments which happens to be in its way. The route can be easily followed as it is a right of way much of it takes the form of a raised bank or agger for drainage and to create a statement of Roman might to the newly vanquished Britons.

Roman Temple, Maiden Castle Dorchester  Constructed about 400AD similar in plan to Jordan Hill and as beautifully situated within the ramparts of the hillfort of Maiden castle the site of a resounding Roman victory over the Britons and looking across the fields to the Roman town of Dorchester.

Maumbury Rings  Originally a Neolithic henge this large circular earthwork 85ft in diameter was adapted by the Romans to serve as a amphitheatre and in the 17thcentury as a place of execution.

Maumbury Rings

Late Roman Temple, Jordan Hill, Weymouth  Only the foundations are visible of this 4-5th century square columned temple various ritual foundation deposits were discovered as well as the remains of hundred burials in the area surrounding it. It is an atmospheric site with fine panoramic views

Dorset museums-Dorset County Museum

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Well silly season is here... so today, rather than the Dorset blog, I give you the Dorset bog...
Tucked away in the County Museum in Dorchester is the invention of local Dorchester lad, Rev Henry Moule from way back in 1852. 
Beating the organic sandal brigade by a good century he invented the composting toilet. Moule disagreed with the flushing water closet as he (quite rightly ) felt it caused pollution, whereas earth mixed with waste produced useable compost in just a few weeks.
Finally, in 1873 he patented his design which was exported far and wide across the Empire for the princely sum of 30 shillings.
Earth from the hopper at the back drops on the neatly on the waste a the pull of a lever...then, Hey presto! The stuff of Empire!
Never was it so patriotic to do your duty. 

Dorset History- A tale of the great slave rebellion

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High on the wall of the St Peter's Church in Dorchester is an unassuming eighteenth century marble memorial commemorating the death in 1774 of John Gordon a member the illustrious Clan Gordon. The inscription then takes a sinister turn when it mentions Gordon's contribution to the quelling of a slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1760 and the humanity he displayed afterwards.
This slave rebellion mentioned so briefly touched on was one of the first serious slave uprisings and from all accounts its outcome far from humane. 

The uprising is remembered as Tacky’s Rebellion, and its memory is preserved in a monument in Kingston, Jamaica. Tacky, a Coromantee chief by birth, was an overseer who, with a group of fellow tribesmen, fell on their British oppressors on Easter Sunday, a time when most whites would have been attending church.

What happened next is related by a contemporary witness:

"The rebellion amongst the Negroes has been of bad consequence to the whole island. Their design was to rise at Kingston and Spanish town, and to have set fire to these towns in several places at once, and to murder everybody in them. 

They afterward seized what arms and ammunition were to be found, and went to a small fort at Port Maria, where there was only one white man and a Negro; they killed the white man, and took away three barrels of powder, and marched to another Estate, where the overseer was apprised of their intentions. He defended the house for an hour and a half, and the rebels were going away; upon which he opened the door, and wanted to bring them to their duty by speaking to them. Whilst he was doing so, one of his own Negroes shot him in the back. The rest rushed in and killed all the white people except one, whom they mangled in the most awful manner, cutting off his nose, and leaving him for dead. They cut off the overseer's head,  put his blood in a calabath, mixed gunpowder with it, and eat their plantains dipped in it, as they did by every white man they killed. In short their savage barbarity can scarcely be paralleled."

Defeat was inevitable, and retribution swift and cruel...

"...There are about 25 of them made prisoner, who are severally carried to Spanish Town and the places they committed their barbarities. Ion who had not been the rebel actually was burnt alive for having sworn to cut his master's and mistress's heads off and make punch bowls of them. On Saturday I heard trials of four more, who were found guilty of being concerned in the murder of white people. Two were burnt alive the same day; two were hanged, their bodies burnt, and their heads stuck on poles. Two were tried at Kingston for the same offence and found guilty. Their sentence was to be gibbeted alive 20 feet high. One of them lived nine days without a drop of water, hanging in an excessive hot place."

Little evidence is shown of the 'humane treatment' mentioned on John Gordons memorial the account omitting to mention that several rebels were slow roasted in front of open fires.

Tracing John Gordon is all but impossible- there was always a strong Scots presence in Jamaica and a Gordon, even a well connected one is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

A John Gordon, whose dates correspond with the John Gordon of Dorchester, was transported to slavery to a nearby Martinique for taking part in the battle of Culloden in 1745 ( as many Scots, including well connected ones were) so could have well served his time and travelled to Jamaica by 1760 and taken part in this shameful episode...its a romantic notion if nothing else...

Dorset Museums-Dorchester Military Museum

The Keep Military Museum stands at one end of Dorchester and looks very much like William the Conqueror's second home. Its castle-like appearance, though, can be credited to the Victorians rather than the Normans.

The Keep Military Museum

 
Amongst the usual war-like paraphernalia can be found strange and off-beat pieces which make small museums so interesting. 
Take the object above, a useful addition to anyone's handbag. It belonged tothe Thugees,  an Indian sect believing in ritualised murder and robbery. Called a 'Wagnuk' or 'tigers claw' it was used to give the impression that their unfortunate victim had been killed by a tiger. No use in Dorchester then...

Dorset Villages Pt1 - Moreton

T.E.Lawrence. Great man not such a great  motorcyclist

Good old Lawrence of Arabia? He's right up there with Corfe Castle as an esteemed tourist attraction...And he doesn't take a penny for it...fine chap..!

His mortal remains lie in the pretty village of Moreton near Dorchester. Looking down on his humble resting place, bear in mind that you would very probably have looked down on him as well. 

Unlike the popular filmic image; Lawrence was actually a rather squat little tiddler, measuring just 5'2," though still a giant of a Renaissance man; archaeologist, writer philosopher, warrior etc. It was sad then that it was his motor bike skills that would let him down in the end. 

After paying your respects the nearby church of St Nicholas is worth a visit its stained glass windows, destroyed by a bomb in World War Two, were replaced with clear, engraved panes; lending it an unusually light and airy quality. The engraving was carried out over a period of thirty years by Sir Laurence Whistler, brother of the painter Rex Whistler. Sir Laurence was originally a poet but turned to glass engraving and produced work for both Salisbury Cathedral as well as the Oxford colleges. 

The village also has a private walled garden open to the public and an award-winning tearoom set in the old schoolhouse.

For your ghoulish delectation, the cake trolley was the bier that carried Lawrence to his final resting place. 

Don't they say it's a rocky road to Heaven?

Dorset Museums 9- Dorchester Military Museum

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Its may be hard to imagine but these innocuous blighters were the catalyst for an event that shook the British Empire to its core and changed British India forever. 

They are examples of pre-packed cartridges introduced in the 1850s as standard issue to Indian native troops. The powder in the cartridges was kept dry by coating them with pork or beef fat, the troops being

expected to bite off the ends before loading them. This was highly offensive to the religious sensibilities of Muslim and Hindu troops. Pork was considered unclean by the Muslims while cattle were sacred to the Hindu. It caused a simmering undercurrent of discontent and a a match to a tinder box of grievances that finally exploded into bloody rebellion; a rebellion remembered today as The Indian mutiny.

Dorset shops- Harris's of Dorchester

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Forget that Porsche...what really makes an arty-types's heart beat faster is a well stocked, voluptuous art shop, and they don't come more voluptuous than Harrises of Dorchester. 

It is an exuberant, eclectic and eccentric riot of a shop and if anyone was ever tasked with stocktaking, they must have shot themselves long ago. 

If there's no method there's certainly a deal of of madness; doll's eyeballs jostle with pom poms, glitter sparkles beside ersatz diamonds and rubies (I think they're fake..), gouache vies with oils, inks, balsa and battle ships and that's just the ground floor taken care of. Upstairs is weavers nirvanah and spinner's paradise while finally should you fancy a bit of soul saving rather than soul searching  there is a well stocked room of Christian literature and DVD's (obviously...)

Dorset Museums 7- Dorchester County Museum

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Hanging was always an unpredictable business, misjudging a felon's weight would leave the victim half throttled and members of his (or her) family yanking on the unfortunate's legs to speed dispatch.

Pictured above is one of a pair of aptly named mercy weights. They were attached to the victim's legs to make sure of an efficient despatch without the recourse to mum and dad.

The last public execution took place in Dorchester 1863 and was witnessed by Thomas Hardy. 

A contemporary account tells 
"...of the thousands that used to gather below the gaol at the 'Hang Fairs.' By day-break the best places were taken, and the waiting time was spent in drinking, fiddling, and dancing. 
The time, it is said, of the executions in early days determined by the arrival of the coach from London, which might possibly bear a reprieve at the last moment. 

The story is told of a poor fellow who declined to halt at the Bell Inn for a parting glass with the constables; listening to his ernest request, they hastened their business, and turned him off just as the postmaster came shouting up the hill bearing a delayed reprieve. They cut the rope in a moment and fetched a surgeon. He could only shake his head and announce 'Too late.'

...'Sarved him right,' cried the indignant beer swillers standing around, 'he should have stopped for his drink.' 

'Quite the contrary,' retorted the surgeon, with ill-timed levity, ' I will stake my reputation on the fact—the poor fellow has taken a drop too much.' "

Dorset Museums 6- Dorchester County Museum

Hot on the heels of my Viking piece here's some telling evidence from the Dorset County Museum showing that Dorset men didn't always get the best of a fight.
Two thousand years ago at Maiden Castle, a fortified hill on the outskirts of Dorchester, the locals faced a load of Italian Johnnies in a no-holds barred battle between two civilisations. Iron age man faced the might and technological superiority of the Roman Empire, armed with little more than slingstones taken from nearby Chesil Beach. 
The outcome changed the course of British history.

The skeleton belongs to one of those Iron Age defenders who was struck down by a bolt from a ballista (a powerful floor-standing crossbow). When Maiden Castle finally fell to the victorious Romans, the unfortunate victim was hastily bundled into a mass grave; the ballista bolt, which would have killed him instantly, still embedded in his vertebra.

Dorset Detail

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 Most people have heard of Prince Charles' architectural experiment, Poundbury, and most people have a view about it. Unfortunately opinion is often prejudiced, coloured by the man rather than the development. This is a bit of a shame because what is being built on the outskirts of Dorchester is at least worth a good look, if only to have an informed, rather than biased, opinion.

Below are a few examples of the variety and the high quality of detailing and materials to be found there...
More about Poundbury will follow...