Fire has swept through Dorset’s towns and villages, transformed heathland, destroyed historic houses and sometimes been deliberately used as a weapon or a tool. Its effects remain written across the county, in Georgian streets, roofless rooms, scorched stone and the stories passed between generations. What happened in the aftermath reveals just as much about Dorset. … Continue reading Dorset on Fire
Wander around the small hamlets that combine to make the parish of Hazelbury Bryan. From escaping the Black Death and the flames they used to extinguish it, the settlement has shifted away from the church leaving it isolated and alone. Skim the tip of the valley of the River Lydden that fed the old mill, … Continue reading Hazelbury Bryan
Starting at a hidden Church in the little village of Netherbury, cross fields and streams to Stoke Abbott, with its medieval lion fountain and ghosts of a travelling coach and horses. Pass the Roman remains on Waddon Hill to the peak of Gerrard’s Hill, home to an elusive black cat and views out to sea. … Continue reading Netherbury, Stoke Abbott and Beaminster
