Dorchester

It is here that the Romans came in 43AD. They called it “Durnovaria”, built an aqueduct and marched out again in 410AD. Thomas Hardy, the Wessex writer lived here and his statue can be seen, sitting and viewing the turmoil’s of modern man. William Barnes, the dialect poet wrote the words to “Linden Lea” and this has been sung to Vaughan Williams music ever since. His statue stands in the main street, right by the museum that holds the fossils of the nearby coast and the jaws of a dinosaur, called “Kevan”!

Dorchester has much to offer visitors with a rich history that spans the Romans with it’s Roman Town House, the Shire Hall where the Agricultural Labourers from Tolpuddle were tried and convicted, the Antelope Hotel where Judge Jeffries condemned to death those involved in the Monmouth Rebellion right through to the modern town of Poundbury. With this new nearby developing town designed by Prince Charles, Dorchester has become one of the most interesting county capitals in Wessex.