Dive into Deepest Dorset...
An insider’s guide to a county awash with surprises – from vast arts centres to the unique Knobfest
THINK of Dorset and you probably conjure up images of Broadchurch, the Jurassic Coast, the Hovis boy pushing his bike up Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, the hooded figure of The French Lieutenant’s Woman on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, or dramatic Corfe Castle, where Lady Bankes held out against Oliver Cromwell’s forces for two bitter sieges.
But there is a lot more to this beautiful county than these familiar scenes. It’s the perfect place for a day-trip, a weekend break or a more leisurely holiday.
Discover some of the hidden gems missed by visitors as they dash down to Devon and Cornwall.
Here, Fanny Charles and Gay Pirrie-Weir, authors of Deepest Dorset, highlight what the county has to offer and choose some of the best things to do, food to eat and places to visit…
LITERARY LINKS
DORSET is Thomas Hardy’s county, but it has also inspired many other renowned writers.
An important scene in Jane Austen’s Persuasion was set on the Cobb, long before Meryl Streep in the movie version of John Fowles’s novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman helped make the location world-famous.
In the early 20th Century, the Powys brothers – John, Llewellyn and Theodore – helped to create a literary hothouse on the Purbeck coast. They were part of the Chaldon Herring set, which also included Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland.
Contemporary authors who have made their homes in Dorset include Minette Walters and American-born Tracy Chevalier, whose novel Remarkable Creatures tells the story of Mary Anning, the Lyme Regis fossil collector and ‘mother of palaeontology’.
OUR PICK:
To get a feel for the lives of the Powys brothers, park in Chaldon Herring, have lunch at the excellent Sailor’s Return pub, and then walk to the cliffs and along to Lulworth Cove.
FESTIVALS
THE varied Dorset cultural scene includes Artsreach, one of the country’s best rural touring schemes. The Lighthouse at Poole is the biggest arts centre outside London, while Lyme Regis’s Marine Theatre has hosted performers as varied as Hollywood actor James Cagney and musician and composer Tunde Jegede.
Annual festivals range from the eccentric Bridport Hat to Dorset Opera in the grounds of Bryanston
School, from the Great Dorset Steam Fair (the world’s largest country heritage event) to Purbeck Film Festival (the country’s biggest rural filmfest), and from the Weymouth Pirate Festival to literary events at Bridport, Wimborne, Sherborne and Dorchester.
The vibrant visual arts scene comes together for the biennial Dorset Art Weeks – open studios and group exhibitions are staged all over the county.
OUR PICK: See a film in October at either the Purbeck Film Festival or the Screen Bites Food Film Festival.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
DORSET is a place where history is written in the landscape, from the massive Iron Age hillforts of Hambledon Hill and Eggardon, to 19th Century Nothe Fort, built to defend Weymouth and Portland. Elsewhere, the South Dorset Ridgeway has more than 1,000 ancient monuments along its route.
Archaeologist and farmer Martin Green has found evidence of human activity dating back 8,000 years on Cranborne Chase, an area of outstanding natural beauty. And on the Purbeck coast at Kimmeridge, plumber Steve Etches has made some extraordinary fossil finds.
The best-known of the Iron Age forts is Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, where Terence Stamp’s Sergeant Troy dazzled Julie Christie’s Bathsheba in the 1967 film Far From The Madding Crowd. King Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey for his daughter, Aethelgifu. Many houses in hilltop Shaftesbury are built from sandstone plundered from the great building. St Giles House, the 17th Century ancestral home of the Earls of Shaftesbury at Wimborne St Giles, had been boarded up for 40 years. After his father was murdered and his elder brother died, Nick Ashley-Cooper inherited the estate. As the 12th Earl, with his wife Dinah he has rescued the magnificent Restoration mansion. It is not open to the public, but events in the park, including the Great Dorset Chilli Festival, allow visitors to see the house in all its glory. Bournemouth had its heyday in the 19th Century but the town still has its pleasure gardens and glorious golden sands. The Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery was built by diplomat Sir Merton Russell-Cotes as a birthday present for his wife. Visitors can enjoy the architecture while they admire Sir Merton’s treasures, collected from around the world.
OUR PICK: See the ruins of Corfe Castle, awe-inspiring from all angles, and continue to Steve Etches’s museum at Kimmeridge, where dinosaurs meet 21st Century technology.
THINGS TO DO
KIMMERIDGE, which is part of the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve, is famous for its rock pools, and they have delighted generations of children.
The 630-mile South West Coast Path runs from Poole Harbour, along the Jurassic Coast and around to Minehead in Somerset.
Dorset’s other best-known walking route is the Hardy Trail, linking places associated with Thomas Hardy and his books.
King George III set the fashion for bathing at Weymouth and the resort is still popular, with its annual sand-sculpture display and Pirate Festival.
Portland is home to the National Sailing Academy, and the unique island is full of legends, wrecks and stone quarries. Don’t miss the sculpture park in Tout Quarry, with Sir Antony Gormley’s Falling Man.
Poole, the second-largest natural harbour in the world, is a mecca for watersports, while the Sandbanks peninsula has some of the world’s most expensive real estate. Glimpse the multi-million-pound homes before you take the chain ferry across to Studland, where you can walk and swim in peace.
Dorset is a county of rivers – the chalk streams of Cranborne Chase, the Frome and Brid in West Dorset, and the Stour, rising above the National Trust’s Stourhead Gardens and meandering down through the countryside to Christchurch.
OUR PICK: An ancient town with a magnificent Norman priory, Christchurch has a fine harbour.
WAYS OF LIFE
FARMING has been a way of life here for centuries and the county has a superb choice of products on sale at farm shops and markets.
Dorset’s most famous foods are Dorset Knob biscuits (celebrated in the May Knobfest), and Dorset Blue Vinny cheese, saved from extinction by farmer Mike Davies at Stock Gaylard.
Fishermen practising sustainable fishing bring sea bass, crab and scallops to West Bay and Lyme Regis. You can buy them from companies including Dorset Shellfish or Samways – or let the experts cook them at restaurants along the coast.
Man has been quarrying in Dorset for thousands of years – the ball clay still used for china was first mined in the Bronze Age. Stone from Portland helped to create the Georgian city of Bath.
OUR PICK: Bridport celebrates its 1,000-year rope-making history at the Bridport Ropewalk Fair.
Deepest Dorset, by Fanny Charles and Gay Pirrie-Weir, is published by Deepest Books at £20. It is raising funds for Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance, Dorset Community Foundation and Weldmar Hospicecare Trust. For details, visit deepestbooks. co.uk or call 01963 32525.