Dorchester

Dorchester - busy county town surrounded by beautiful countryside.

Dorchester is the county town of Dorset. You are in Hardy country here - but did you know there were two famous Dorset Thomas Hardys?

The Hardy Monument just outside Dorchester is set in the most beautiful Dorset countryside.

It was built for that particular nautical Hardy who was Admiral Lord Nelson's captain on the HMS Victory - not Hardy the famous author of the Mayor of Casterbridge and Far From the Madding Crowd.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were tried in Dorchester before being cruelly deported under the most appalling conditions - a heinous crime against working people attempting to defend their rights to organise.

The old court where their trial was held has been opened to the visiting public - one has to question in what role and why!

Dorchester Museums are hosting impressive major Dinosaur and Tutankhamun exhibitions.

Maiden Castle is a truly massive and world famous iron age fort only just outside Dorchester - students, historians and archaelogists come from far and wide to learn about it, and the views from the ramparts are stupendous. Did you see it on Time Team?

Dorchester is not far from the seaside, with Weymouth its principal resort and port just a stop along the railway track - the line runs from London Waterloo via Bournemouth and Poole, and is fully electrified. Buses run to all the local attractions.

The Hardy Trail

Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist 1840-1928, was born near Dorchester at Lower Bockhampton and spent the best part of his life living in Dorchester and Weymouth. He wrote most of his stories centred on South Wessex - Dorset.

Wessex was the ancient Saxon kingdom in the south and west of England, and Hardy invented a part real, part dream country, altering the real names of places to suit.

If you read The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far From the Madding Crowd, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, or any of Thomas Hardy's books, or television and film adaptations, and want to follow the Hardy tour through Dorset you may find the "translations" provided useful:

Athelhampton - Athelhall
Beaminster - Emminster
Bere Regis - Kingsbere
Bournemouth - Sandbourne
Bridport - Port Bready
Cerne Abbas - Abbot's Cernel
Dorchester - Casterbridge
Eggardon Hill - Haggardon Hill
Higher Bockhampton - Upper Mellstock
Lower Bockhampton - Lower Mellstock
Marnhull - Marlott
Melbury Osmond - Great Hintock
Pilsdon Pen - Pilsdon Crest
Poole - Havenpool
Portland - Isle of Slingers
Puddletown - Weatherbury
Salisbury - Melchester
Shaftesbury - Shaston
Sherborne - Sherton Abbas
Stinsford - Mellstock
Sturminster Newton - Stourcastle
Swanage - Knollsea
Wareham - Angelbury
West Stafford - Woodsford
Weymouth - Budmouth Regis
Wimborne Minster - Warborne

Not far from Dorchester: Weymouth