Dorset Walks - Portland

Portland has always been different. Its people. Its landscape. Its traditions.
Joined to the mainland by the merest sliver of shingle its only communication with mainland Dorset until 1839 was by ferry. In bad weather it could be cut off for days.

The best way to experience its otherness is to pull on a pair of boots and walk...the route is clear and simple and can easily be shortened by cutting across the island.

Distance around 8 miles

Artistic Dorset - John Constable

John Constable first visited Dorset in 1816 as the the guest of his close friend Reverend Fisher (later Bishop of Salisbury) who officiated at his marriage.

Weymouth Bay from the Downs

Fisher then invited the newly weds to honeymoon at his vicarage in Osmington Mills. 

View of Weymouth from the downs today

"...My house commands a singularly beautiful view, and you may study from your very window. You shall have a plate set by the side of your easel, without your sitting down to dinner. We never see company, and I have brushes paints and canvas in abundance.

Of an evening, we sit over our autumnal fireside, read a sensible book, perhaps a sermon, and after prayers, get us to bed..."

View of Osmington by Constable

The couple spent six memorable weeks there with Constable producing many sketches some of which he went on to finish in oils.

In 1820 and 1823 Constable again visited Dorset as the guest of Fisher who was now vicar of Gillingham where he painted his celebrated view of Gillingham Mill.

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 Cycling 8-Moreton Circuit

This is a wonderful cycle.
The ride starts from Moreton village (see here), burial place of Lawrence of Arabia and home to a fine tea room. Crossing a wide, picturesque ford (with a bridge for those who want to keep dry...) it whizzes along a firm and level cinder track to Turners Puddle.

Here stands a small neglected church. The bells, dating from the 14th C, were stolen in the 1950s but mysteriously reappeared, covered in mud, that Christmas Eve at the door of the farm with a note attached saying simply 'Sorry, Christmas.'

The rest of the trip along quiet lanes and heath is exhilarating with sightings of deer if you're lucky. Should those deer turn out to be twenty feet high with green horns, that is probably because the path passes close to the now decomissioned Winfrith atomic station.

Distance 19 miles On and off road.

Dorset Cycling 5 - A visit to Thomas Hardy's homes

Hardy's birth place at Higher Bockhampton is a picture-postcard thatched cottage, while his home in later years, Max Gate, a rather austere Victorian pile. Designed by Hardy himself it rather proves that he did well to stick to the day job. Both are owned by the National Trust and lie close to Dorchester.
Being just a few miles apart it is possible to walk or cycle between the two, along the footpaths and lanes that Hardy must have walked many times visiting the family cottage.

Max Gate

This off and on-road route passes through the grounds of Kingston Maurward, a beautiful Palladian mansion, now an agricultural college, and past the Old Manor, an exquisite late Elizabethan mansion, available for B&B.
From Max Gate you can stroll through Dorchester to the County Museum which holds a collection of Hardy memorabilia including his writing desk.

Distance around 7 miles there and back.

Dorset Museums-Gold Hill Museum Shaftesbury

There was a time when this wiggly-woggly instrument, called for obvious reasons, a serpent, was a mainstay of the long defunct village church orchestra. The serpent and orchestras were swept way with the onslaught of new-fangled harmoniums and organs by the Victorians.

By Thomas Hardy's time they had already become the stuff of nostalgia as this piece from 'Under the Greenwood Tree' testifies...

'Times have changed from the times they used to be,' said Mail, regarding nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an inward eye, and letting his outward glance rest on the ground, because it was as convenient a position as any, 'People don't care much about us now! I've been thinking we must be almost the last left in the county of the old string players? Barrel-organs, and the things next door to 'em that you blow wi' your foot, have come in terribly of late years.'

'Ay!' said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, did the same thing.

'More's the pity,' replied another. 'Time was - long and merry ago now! - when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served some of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings as we did, and kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you'd thrive in musical religion, stick to strings, says I.'

'Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go,' said Mr Spinks.

'Yet there's worse things than serpents,' said Mr Penny. 'Old things pass away, 'tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a deep rich note was the serpent.'

A drawing of the Sutton Montis church orchestra in action in 1827

Details over the Border

Straying over the border I believe I may have  discovered a  completely new school of art - The Somerset  School of Medieval Crap Art.
I'm just glad it wasn't me that parted with my hard earned groat to get these jokers to carve my grave stone. Will stick to Dorset in future...
(Actually I think they're great!)