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Archive for March, 2010

Roman Town House Dorchester

Friday, March 26th, 2010
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The Romans have left a lasting impression on Britain following their occupation of the island from AD43 until about AD410. The Romans introduced us to new developments in agriculture, urbanization, industry and architecture, leaving a legacy that is still apparent today. Most of our knowledge of Roman Britain stems from archaeological investigations and the Roman Town House at Colliton Park, Dorchester is one of the best preserved examples of a Roman Town House in the Country.

The Discovery

The Roman Town House in Dorchester was discovered, almost by chance, in 1937 during an archaeological dig. The County Council had bought the land at Colliton Park to build a new County Hall and this led the team from the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society to make a historical find – at least 8 buildings were discovered of which the Town House was the most important. The more recent work on the buildings and mosaics has enabled archaeologists to write the story of the building and to imagine more about the people who could have lived here.

Dorchester Roman Town House

Dorchester Roman Town House

The Roman Town House Past

The earliest part of the Town House dates from the first part of 4th Century and the building was expanded and adorned with fine mosaics around AD350. It was probably home to a local Romano-British family who may also have owned a farm or Villa nearby, and were most likely involved in the governing council of Durnovaria (the site of present-day Dorchester). This is the only fully exposed example of a Roman Town House in Britain.

When you visit the site, contact the telephone number 01305 230042 using your mobile phone and you will hear the music and voices of the Roman era along with additional facts to help you gain a deeper understanding of the life and times of this important site. There are also lots of information boards around the excavation area giving detailed background about this historical site.

Tony Robinson presenter of Chanel 4’s acclaimed archaeology series, Time Team, said

“It’s such an important site. For a start, it’s the only example of a fully exposed Roman Town House in the country and is definitely the best preserved.”

There are upcoming free events you and your family can attend to get the Roman experience.

DOMUS 10th to 12th April

Between 8pm and 10 pm you will be able to view a looped projection piece created by the Film maker Dan Farberoff and  PVA MediaLab.

The video is based on workshops which took place between 23 – 25th March with the aim to explore the site’s history and environment through the use of digital media, communicating through light the message of a unique and historic structure. The project was funded with £5000 from The Big Lottery Fund.

Dorchester Roman Festival 22 & 23rd May 2010

You can visit the atmospheric Roman amphitheatre at Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, between 22nd and 23rd May between 11am – 4pm to celebrate the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman Rule. It is a free family event with Roman re-enactors Legio II Augusta providing displays by legionaries and gladiators and demonstrations of everyday life in Roman Britain.

The festival is being organised by Dorchester Roman Town House, Dorchester Town Council, Dorset AONB and Dorset County Museum.

What the Romans Did! 30 & 31st May Bank holiday weekend

Roman Mosaic

Roman Mosaic

This is another family event where you can all get creative at the Dorchester Roman Town House – Drop in between 10.30am to 5pm and make a mosaic and help make Roman costume jewellery. The Ancient Wessex Network will display art and craft inspired by the Romans and demonstrate their techniques using clay, metal and textiles.

If you are visiting on the bank holiday Monday, why not bring a picnic and take part in the National Family Week Picnic. Bring your picnic to the Roman Town House between 12.00 and 2.00pm and join in the World Record breaking attempt for the biggest picnic ever.

Please visit the Roman Town House website for more details on future events.

The Roman Town House is open all year round and admission is free. The Roman Town House is an ideal site for an educational visit. A guided tour and associated activities can be booked through the Dorset County Museum. Educational resources for use in the classroom are available through the Dorset County Schools Library Service.  For a fee, an artefact box can be loaned, the box contains a range of small items reflecting life in a Roman Town House over the period that the Dorchester House was occupied.

Joining the Friends of the Roman Town House will give you a chance to take part in events, meet new friends and learn more about the site. Membership starts at £5.00 per year for individuals and £10.00 for families.

Why not try a visit to the 360 degrees virtual tour of the Roman Town House to get an overview of this fantastic family attraction and be part of our Roman past. There are also many Roman finds to be found in the Dorset County Museum.

How to get to the Roman Town House

Pedestrian access is well signed from the top of the town to the entrance at Northernhay. The Town House is five minutes walk from the town centre and ten minutes from Dorchester’s rail stations.

Links:

Combine your visit to the Dorchester Roman Town House with a trip around the town where you will find some great places to eat and shop.

Enjoy visiting Dorchester!

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Welcome For Heroes in Dorchester

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
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Heroes Welcome in Dorchester

Heroes Welcome in Dorchester

Stories about the work of our armed forces and their heroic deeds are never out of the daily news. They work in difficult conditions far from their home and family, and wouldn’t it be good to express our admiration for their work regardless of our views on the war in question. With that in mind, the Dorchester Business Improvement District (DBID) in partnership with the Dorchester Town Council (DTC) proposed the idea of Dorchester giving a warm welcome and a little quiet acknowledgment to members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces who are doing a difficult job in dangerous circumstances.

Heroes Welcome in Dorchester Initiative

The Heroes Welcome initiative is part of a national scheme showing support for British Armed Forces personnel. The scheme is simple, all participating shops and businesses in Dorchester will display the ‘Heroes Welcome’ sticker (available FREE on request from DTC and DBID) showing their appreciation and support of our armed forces at home and overseas.

The ‘Heroes Welcome in Dorchester’ sign alerts service personnel and their direct dependants that there are either discounts, special offers or at the very least a special and warm welcome awaiting them in these participating stores and businesses. If you are a Dorchester based shop or business, you can decide at your own discretion what discounts or special offers are made available to qualifying service personnel and their dependants.

Welcoming our Heroes in Dorchester

Welcoming our Heroes in Dorchester

The Dorchester BID has created a ‘Welcome for Heroes’ webpage on the Dorchester Dorset website that includes a list of the participating shops and businesses, it includes local museums, restaurants & cafés and retail shops. The names will also appear on posters displayed at a number of local barracks and garrisons in the area. If you would like your business to be included on the website and poster and wish to support this worthy cause, please email Phil Gordon at philg@dorchesterdorset.co.uk.

Phil Gordon, Project Director at DBID says

”It’s certainly about time that the silent majority stood up and showed how much support and appreciation there is for what our brave service men and women are doing for us during difficult times.  I am delighted to be putting Dorchester firmly on the ‘Heroes Welcome’ map (the first in the South West of England) but we follow in the footsteps of many other towns across the UK. There is a rapidly growing list of Dorchester businesses offering a warm welcome and wanting to show their support.”

Roy Dean, Secretary Dorchester Royal Naval Association said

“Dorchester Royal Naval Association is delighted that the town has adopted this scheme.  This simple method for communities to show support for our Armed Forces has been a great success elsewhere in the UK and it is heartening that local businesses are eager to establish a Heroes Welcome in Dorchester”.

The Mayor of Dorchester commented:

‘Heroes Welcome’ gives us all an opportunity to thank our service men and women by welcoming them to our town and to show our support for all that they do for us by backing the scheme and supporting the shops and businesses who are taking part”.

To benefit from the offers at participating business, all service personnel and dependents will be required to show their ID as confirmation of their eligibility for a ‘Heroes Welcome’ discount or offer.

For more information on Welcome For Heroes please contact The Dorchester BID by email or telephone 07799 494886.

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History of Fordington and St. George’s Church

Friday, March 19th, 2010
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Fordington St George Church

Fordington St George Church

Fordington lies just to the East of Dorchester town centre and could be considered to be a suburb of the town. However, this beautiful area has long been established as a village and to this day retains its own special character.

Here’s an insight into the history of Fordington and St George’s Church that is one of the most visible landmarks in the area.

Fordington History

Fordington was, until well into the 20th Century, a separate entity from Dorchester, as well as being considerably larger in area. It was also distinguished from Dorchester by belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall. The Romans called Dorchester ‘Durnovaria’ and the importance to them of Fordington can be gauged from the standard of work on the Romana Stone found beneath the aisle of the church in 1908, (it bears an inscription commemorating one Carinus, probably a Roman noble, whose widow, Romana, caused it to be carved) and other foundations of Roman origin which have been unearthed around the church, suggest that a Roman temple may well have stood on the site.

The Royal Manor of Fordington

After the Romans left, Fordington became a Royal Manor, and it is rumoured that Alfred the Great spent Christmas there every year. The first church was built there in about 857A.D. and St. George’s was the royal church of the Kings of Wessex.  After the Norman Conquest the manor was given by William the Conqueror to St.Osmund who became the first Bishop of Salisbury, he added the porch, which contains a fine tympanum dating from Norman times depicting the Battle of Antioch. St. George’s became one of the churches of the diocese of Salisbury and several of its priests in due course became famous, including the founders of All Souls College Oxford and Winchester College; Henry Morton, Henry VII’s Chancellor of the Exchequer and the originator of Morton’s Fork, (a system of taxation that outstrips even the most ingenious of modern Chancellors!) was also from St.George’s.

Thomas Hardy Connection

One of the more notable of the rectors was Henry Moule (pronounced ‘mole’), who not only fathered eight sons, one of whom, Horace, was a close friend of Thomas Hardy, but also battled for the health of his parishioners in the cholera outbreak of 1856, he still had time to invent, patent and champion the cause of the earth closet, considering the water closet to be considerably inferior and the cause of illness, as well as being a waste of  natural nutriments available to fertilise the soil. He tirelessly, but unsuccessfully, sought to convince the Government that the future lay with his invention (Queen Victoria had one installed in Windsor Castle in preference to a water closet.) For some years he was chaplain to the troops in Dorchester Barracks, and from the royalties of his 1845 book ‘Barrack Sermons’ he built a church at West Fordington.

Thomas Hardy was a member of the St.George’s Parish Council, until he resigned in protest over the alterations made when the church was enlarged in the early part of the 20th century, apparently his principal objection, in which he was not alone, was the addition of the small tower on the North-eastern corner of the tower, described as looking like a pepperpot.

St George’s Church

The church has a quantity of interesting features, including a 15th century font, a 16th century pulpit and a stained glass window by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, which is surmounted by angels designed by William Morris. The chancel roof is a fine example of a barrel roof, made in Oregon pine, at the West end is a pair of Baroque doors, possibly of Bavarian origin.

Fordington’s Fair on the Green

St. Georges Day is commemorated by the Fair on the Green on the nearest Saturday to 23rd April every year, with the permission of the Duchy, and although the lamb roast has been replaced by the a hog roast, the Fair retains all the atmosphere of a village fair. Fordington Green has the distinction of being the only ‘village green’ designated under the Commons Act 2005, in Dorchester.

Image: www.ancestry.com

Article kindly written by John Ungley

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Borough Gardens to Join Virtual Dorchester

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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Molly Rennie Borough Gardens

Molly Rennie Borough Gardens

Our Virtual Dorchester is proving such a success that the Dorchester Town Council has agreed to look into featuring Borough Gardens (the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the county town).

Hopefully, you will soon be able to take a virtual tour of Borough Garndens in all its glory.

Virtual Dorchester has proved a success in the town, with dozens of businesses signing up to be included on the virtual tour and the website receiving thousands of hits since going live in January.

Virtual Borough Gardens

Town Councillor Molly Rennie suggested that the council investigate putting a tour of the gardens on the website at a meeting of the management committee.

She said:

“The Borough Gardens are our jewel in the crown and if anything is going to get people into Dorchester it’s seeing the gardens.

“I think it would be a really good idea to have a virtual tour of the Borough Gardens on the website.”

Committee members agreed investigate the possibility, with chairman Andy Canning suggesting they arrange for a tour of the gardens to be filmed when they are in full bloom.

Mayor of Dorchester Susie Hosford also suggested putting a tour of the Corn Exchange on the site.

The Virtual Dorchester project was launched by the Dorchester Business Improvement District (BID), which enlisted the services of photography and marketing company Estate Vue to create the site.

Our very own Project director of the Dorchester BID Phil Gordon confirmed that there are now more than 30 businesses signed up to the site. Because of its popularity the BID is also considering extending the subsidising scheme that allows businesses to sign up at a reduced rate.

Phil said:

“More and more people are joining every month – I’m delighted with the take up on it.”

Virtual Dorchester could be a valuable tool for tourist attractions in the town as well as businesses and the more that are featured on the site, the more people will be enticed to visit the town.

He went on to say:

“There is scope for tourist attractions and we would be delighted if the town council wanted to join in and put the Borough Gardens on there – it makes perfect sense.”

Don’t forget you can take a tour of Virtual Dorchester on www.dorchesterdorset.com

Original story and photo: Dorset Echo

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Wellworths Birthday Celebrations

Friday, March 12th, 2010
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Staff enjoying the Wellworths Party

Staff enjoying the Wellworths Party

The staff at Wellworths celebrated their 1st anniversary of opening their Dorchester store last night with a party at the Wessex Hotel.

Friends and local businesses helped them celebrate meeting the milestone with a buffet and a great local band, called Infrasky.

Claire Robertson who worked for the chain for 18 years, reopened the Dorchester store exactly a year ago.

Although she has admitted a weekly sales target of £38,000 has been revised, the store is doing well in view of the recession and was looking to expand.

Woolworths went into administration in 2008. More than 800 stores closed after the chain had debts of £385m.

Claire said:

“It’s been a fantastic year, I would not have changed a minute of it. I can’t thank the staff enough, they have been fantastic.

We had a really good summer with great support from the town and tourists coming down to look at the store. Christmas was brilliant, especially as the one before was really depressing when Woolworths was shutting down.”

Clare Robertson and Chris Evans at last year's Wellworths opening

Clare Robertson and Chris Evans at last year's Wellworths opening

The range in the new store has also expanded with DVDs, CDs and computer games now on sale alongside old Woolworths favourites like pic ‘n’ mix.

And there could be mire good news in store soon. Clare is now considering opening another store, but she would not be drawn on any possible locations.

“A new store is definitely in our plans for this year. The idea is still in its infancy so watch this space.”

We wish Clare and all the staff at Wellworths the best of luck for their 2nd year and hope that the Dorchester Wellworths store might be one of many to come.

Read the full Wellworths Story

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The Keep Military Museum

Friday, March 5th, 2010
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The Keep Museum Dorchester

The Keep Military Museum

The Keep Military Museum is housed in an impressive prominent historical building located at the top of the town in Dorchester, Dorset. ‘The Keep’ used to be the guardroom and gateway to the depot barracks of the former Dorset Regiment and was in active use until 1958. It houses the splendid archive collection of the participating regiments that make up the Military Museum of Devon and Dorset. People of all ages can experience realistic battle environments, together with exhibitions and tales of courage, humour and sacrifice spread over 300 years.

The Keep Museum’s Constituent Regiments

The Keep Museum’s constituent Regiments are The Devonshire Regiment, The Dorset Regiment, The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, The Dorset Yeomanry, The Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry, The Dorset Militia, The Royal Devon Yeomanry and 94 Field Regiment RA. The Museum aims to provide a fine tribute to all those who have served in the regiments of Devon and Dorset and to preserve the memory of the Countys’ infantry and yeomanry cavalry.

The Keep Museum Experience

You can transport yourself back in time while at the Museum and experience the heroic stories of the soldiers and their families and much more.  The artefacts, weapons, uniforms, and medals are on display over three floors. The museum uses computer and digital presentation to relate the history of the Napoleonic Wars, Boer War, World Wars I and II, and the Falklands and Iraq conflicts. A vast array of military campaigns are represented and put into a historical context in the video introduction in the bunker. There are also Spectacular views from the battlements from where you can observe Hardy’s Dorset.  On-line is a new 360 degree virtual tour of The Keep Military Museum that provides an excellent overview of this unmissable family attraction.

Regimental & Military History books

The Keep Museum Ground Floor

The Keep Museum Ground Floor

If you are researching your family’s military background, The Keep Military Museum Library holds an extensive collection of rare books and military journals which have been donated to the Museum over the years. Photocopies can be made dependent on copyright restrictions and the general condition of the volume concerned.

War Diaries

Copies of some War Diaries, more so for World War I than for World War II, are also held in The Keep Military Museum. The museum is happy to check these records for you if you let them know the name of the Battalion and approximate dates in which you have an interest.

The Accessions Database

The Keep Museum 2nd Floor

The Keep Museum 2nd Floor

The Keep Military Museum’s MODES accessions database holds details of 28,000 documents, photographs, medals and artefacts donated to the Museum over the years. The searchable database is updated daily and all names of individuals are recorded wherever possible. Other records available include Nominal Rolls for the Queens Own Dorset Yeomanry (QODY), Enlistment Records for the Dorsetshire Regiment and Journals for the Devonshire and Dorset and Dorset Regiments and much more.

Home Front 1939 – 1945

There are also web pages dedicated to the Home Front 1939 – 1945 with historical and educational information as well as image galleries featuring photographs taken of The Blitz, The Home Guard and front line Dorset and American troops. The Home Front Recall Project was completed with the support of Heritage Lottery Funding.

The Keep Military Museum is open, Monday to Saturday during April to September from 10.00am to 5.00pm (last admission 4.00pm) and opens Tuesday to Saturday during October to March (plus Mondays during school holidays) from10.00am to 4:30pm (last admission 3.30pm). The Museum is closed on Sundays throughout the year . Note, during March 2010, The Keep Military Museum is also closed on Saturdays in addition to Sunday and Monday.

Admission is £6 per adult, Children 8-16 years £2 (under 8 years free), Seniors/concessions £4 and a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) is £13. Please contact the Keep Military Museum for special rates for groups and schools.

There is Wheelchair access to all display floors by lift. Disabled toilet facilities are available.

Virtual Galleries

The Keep Museum Roof

The Keep Museum Roof

Having visited ‘The Keep’ you may want to view their website which contains Virtual Galleries and documents covering the regiments’ part in the Gallipoli Campaign (WWI) of 1915, the Middle East Campaign (WWI) , the Battle of the Somme (WWI) and the Home Front (WWII). The Keep Military Museum has developed educational teaching packs in support of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 and these packs are available to download from the website.

The Keep Military Museum shop holds a large selection of items in the Museum shop, including books, DVD and museum souvenirs. Entry to the shop is free. The online shop also sells a selection of Regimental goods including books, badges, cufflinks, ties and plaques.  You can also become a member of ‘Keep Friends’ which was established in 2002 to provide practical and financial assistance – individual £10, Family £15 and Corporate £75.

Archive Research Service

The Keep Military Museum offers an enquiries and research service, in return for a donation, based on the information held in its archives. The Keep Military Museum holds collections and archives for its constituent Regiments listed above. The National Archives also holds many records and is a good source of information.

If you are visiting Dorchester, do take time out to see this historic Military Museum which is located next to the ‘Top of town’ car park. This is a great Dorset attraction to combine with a bit of shopping in Dorchester which is only a short walk away..

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