Dorset is one of our favourite counties in England. It’s one of a few favourites of course but its rolling countryside, English Channel beaches with their Jurassic Coast history and pretty villages throughout even in the height of summer make it a must visit. Having great friends living in the north of the county is of course a double bonus and their village of Sturminster Newton this year had a new Bangladeshi Curry restaurant and what a find that was!!!
Visiting old English villages is often a treat. Thatched or stone cottages, history on every corner, lovely village public houses, nearly always with great food options, and the compulsory local Parish Church. Beautiful as these are, and with declining patronage – the Churches not the Pubs – get plenty of inquisitive tourist visitors, just like us. And we are potentially a source of revenue, if only it can be made easy, and these days it is:-
The St Mary’s Parish Church at Sturminster Newton, is quite a simple lovely stone construct, that goes back to its rebuild in 1486. One can see from the cemetery area where iron railings were removed for the War effort in the 1940s, but the issue for parishioners today is the East Window. Here the medieval stonework has developed a number of fractures at the top of the mullions which support the arches. 40,000 pounds sterling of work later, the remedial work will return this beautiful stained glass to safety for many generations to come. We “tap and go” tourists can do our bit too, and its easy!!
A Dorset visit also means the opportunity for a bike ride, down old rail tracks to the now privatised Shillinghurst Railway Station, where new track has been laid, the road over bridge checked and train travel can recommence in a modest way, 400 metres is a start. Amateur enthusiasts keep these railways going and it’s great to see progress year on year. Did I mention that the cycle ride takes in a lovely local pub, the Fiddelford Inn where it’s obligatory to stop for refreshment? Dorset Gold anyone??
A visit to Dorset, also means an opportunity to check out more National Trust gems, and this trip its Lacock Abbey and the Fox Talbot Museum.
The Abbey was founded as a Nunnery in the 13th century . After King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, it became a private home and in the early 18th century John Talbot inherited Lacock, and added amongst much, the Great Hall. In 1835 William Talbot captured the first photographic negative, an event that changed the world as we see it. It’s not just the Abbey that the National Trust now is responsible for but also the village , that is constructed in the same lovely honey coloured stone. It was a very hot day, low 30sC when we visited but inside, it was cool, the stone walls repelling much of the suns rays.
Finally a visit to Dorset would be incomplete without a day at the seaside, and so this time it was to Burton Bradstock and the Jurassic Coast overlooking the English Channel that we headed . A bit of a coastal walk gave us good views, sadly some with ugly semi permanent caravan sites, and we did contemplate a swim, which ended up as a paddle, the Channel just not very inviting. The beach was very clean, a good car park close by and an ok cafe for ice creams, teas and coffee .
Queuing for hot drinks I witnessed a funny but unfortunate event with an ice cream. The ice cream was dispensed into its cone by creating a loop around the cone rim and building up from there to a point, rather like a “ helter skelter”. A customer in front of me took his ice cream cone, turned and in clenching the cone too tightly, like toothpaste, propelled the ice cream with its chocolate stick – “ a 99”- into a fellow customers beach bag. It was hard not to laugh as the whole thing was seemingly performed in slow motion.
Travels with My Wife 