The triceratops has been with the museum for 23 years, and after decades of wear and tear it was felt that the fiberglass beast, named Tricky, could do with being sent for a makeover to get it back to looking its best.

The logistics of removing the dinosaur presented quite a challenge for the Pickfords team, and their operation to winch it up off the ground and place it onto a flatbed lorry was all captured on film by the camera crew from the Channel 5.

Dinosaur Museum Discount Vouchers

While the Dinosaur Museum staff are eager for the return of Tricky as soon as possible, in the meantime they have plenty of other features inside the museum to wow kids and adults alike, including full dinosaur skeletons, genuine prehistoric fossils and hands-on multimedia displays.

The museum is open daily from 11am-4pm, and the entry prices are £6.99 for adults, £5.99 for seniors, and £5.50 for children (free for under 3s). For 50p off each ticket purchase, print off a discount voucher from the Dinosaur Museum website.

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The Dorchester BID is always trying to find new ways to boost trade and tourism in Dorchester, ensuring it stays a vibrant, eclectic and fun place to visit and live in. Our newest scheme, which we hope to introduce in the two weeks before Christmas, we feel could really enhance the experience of visitors to the town.

The idea is for a team of ‘Town Ambassadors’ (probably about 4) to help promote the town by encouraging people to explore and discover just how much Dorchester has to offer. These volunteers would be stationed in the town’s car parks to act as meeters and greeters – welcoming visitors to the town, showing them where to park, and then offering them suggestions for where to shop, which Dorchester attractions to visit and where to eat and drink.

Our plan is for one ambassador to be present in the Charles Street car park, and another to have a roaming role between the other town car parks. We would ideally be looking for two people available from Monday to Saturday to do two hours in the morning between 9.30am-11.30am, and two more to cover between 11.30am-1.30am. This could of course be different people every day, depending on the level of volunteer interest.

Skills/Qualifications required: Outgoing personality, a passion for Dorchester, pride in our county town and of course good local knowledge!

The Dorchester BID will be organising this initiative and although we are asking for volunteers, there is some funding to allow us to reimburse the Ambassadors for time spent on the pilot project.

If it is a success DBID will hope to encourage the local authorities to consider joining in with financial support to make the Dorchester Ambassadors a more permanent feature in town during peak periods (Wednesdays, Easter, Summer holidays and during the Olympics for example).

Anyone interested in being considered as a Dorchester Ambassador please contact the DBID by post to 49 High West Street, or by email to philg@dorchesterdorset.co.uk

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Dorchester has long been known as one of the best places in the UK to see remains from the Roman Empire and the Iron Age Celts, and this month it will become a home to yet another great ancient civilisation. On October 15th the Dorset County Museum will open its doors to the glittering treasures of Ancient Egypt, as part of a national tour of the British Museum’s Pharaoh: King of Egypt Exhibition.

The exhibition will consist of 130 carefully selected objects, including sculptures, palace ornaments, papyri and many other fascinating artefacts. This exhibition will be the first time these objects, the oldest of which are over 3,500 years old, have been seen outside of London, so it really is a massive coup for the County Museum.

The objects tell the incredible story of Ancient Egypt, a civilisation characterised by wealth, power and a bit of an unhealthy pre-occupation with death and the afterlife. This superstitious side will be particularly evident in the Dorchester exhibition, with a wealth of funerary objects including a giant tomb guardian statue from the Valley of the Kings.

The exhibition will also give an insight into day to day life in the kingdom, with tablets and papyrus documenting the family life, diplomacy and military campaigns of the Pharaohs and their subjects. The objects will highlight the incredible lifestyles of Egyptian royalty, including Rameses II, who was said to have fathered over 80 children – it’s a miracle he had any time left to rule!

The process of actually bringing these several thousand year old artefacts to Dorchester is in itself no mean feat. The objects first need to be packed and secured with military precision in order that they can be transported down to Dorset without any wear and tear. The museum assistants use a special kind of conservation-approved foam called Plastazote, carefully moulded to keep the objects secure and limit the amount of vibration and friction they are exposed to.

When you consider all this work required to ensure the precious Egyptian cargo can be brought here unscathed, it is a real credit to the County Museum that they have been chosen to host this incredible exhibition, and a great thing for our town as a whole.

The museum will be celebrating the exhibition with a whole programme of Egyptian-themed events throughout the Autumn and Winter, and we’ll be keeping you informed of those on our Dorchester events page.

If your knowledge of Ancient Egyptians currently conjures up only images of people staring at cats and doing a funny sideways walk, this is a great opportunity to expand your understanding of their fascinating culture and mythology. The exhibition will be open to the public from next Saturday until 22nd January, so please help to spread the word and make it a great success.

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Virtual Dorchester

We first introduced the tool back at the beginning of 2010 with the help of photography and marketing company Estate Vue, as a way to promote Dorchester and attract more visitors to the town. It instantly caught on, with coverage in major national newspapers such as the Metro and the Telegraph.

Initially the virtual tool encompassed Dorchester’s main attractions and shopping streets, and with enthusiastic support from local businesses we were able to add interiors of shops, cafes, restaurants and museums from across the town.

Inside Dorchester's Panasonic Store

With so much to see, we’ve now organised the tool into a really user-friendly interface with a new layout to make it easier to find what you are looking for. There is a search function if you want to see a particular business or attraction, and there is also an interactive map, allowing you to choose what you want to see by zooming in on a particular area or street.

On the home screen businesses and attractions are now arranged by category, making it simpler to browse for what you’re interested in. If you’re from outside the town and are planning a trip to Dorchester, you can click on the ‘places to visit’ category and are given the opportunity to see inside some of our biggest attractions, such as the Dorset County Museum and the Dinosaur Museum.

Borough Gardens on Virtual Dorchester

Similarly, if you decide you want to eat out in Dorchester somewhere with great decor and atmosphere, click the ‘Food and Drink’ section, and have a peek inside popular Dorchester cafes and restaurants like the Rajpoot and No.6 Restaurant.

We’re so lucky here in Dorchester to be surrounded by unique places of interest, incredible history and a fantastic variety of thriving small businesses. We feel the virtual tool is a great way of sharing that richness with the world, and who knows, it may even serve as a vital resource for future generations who want to understand what Dorchester was like in 2011!

If you have any suggestions or comments about the virtual Dorchester tool, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via our twitter @DorchesterBID, or leave your comments below.

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To give you a hand, over the next few weeks on the DBID blog we’ll be talking about some of our favourite places, events and activities around Dorchester that you and the family might enjoy this summer. Here’s a few ideas to kick off with this week…

Borough Gardens

Dorchester Borough Gardens have been a popular summer hangout since the Victorian era, and it’s still a fantastic place to go for a picnic on a warm sunny day. You can read or sunbathe on the grass and let the kids run off and play, meaning you get time to relax while the kids go and tire themselves out!

The gardens often play host to special events, such as the All Day Gymathon sponsored by British Heart Foundation on 14th August. Go down and cheer on the cyclists – they’re going to need all the encouragement they can get!

Ratty’s Trail

Ratty’s Trail was created in 2005 to encourage people to explore the Dorset countryside and discover the incredible range of wildlife that lives in it, including the elusive water vole.

The trail begins in Dorchester by the County Hall and takes you out into the surrounding countryside following the River Frome, before leading you back into Dorchester where you started. For the full route, you can download and print a PDF here.

Ratty’s Trail is a leisurely way to spend an afternoon, and there are plenty of benches along the route, enabling to sit down and enjoy the wildlife and country surroundings before heading back into the town.

Dorchester Market

Always popular, always buzzing, the Dorchester market is one of the most famous attractions in Dorchester, and runs every Wednesday opposite the Brewery Square development. With locally grown fresh produce, bric-a-brac, and lots of sweets, toys and puzzles to get the youngsters excited, it’s a great way to pass a morning in Dorchester, but be aware it can get quite crowded at times!

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Dinosaur Skeleton at The Dinosaur Museum

Although dinosaurs became extinct nearly 65 million years ago, they are very much alive in the hearts and minds of today’s children and adults all over the world. For dinosaur lovers, Dorset offers 2 great attractions, The Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester and fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coastline. The coastline of Dorset is a fossil hunting haven for both novice and experienced fossil collectors. The 150km (95 mile) stretch of coastline covering Dorset and East Devon spans 185 million years of geological history and has been granted World Heritage Status.

The Dinosaur Museum is located on Icen Way in the centre of Dorchester. The museum, which celebrated its 25th birthday on Saturday 27th June 2009, was an instant success when it opened being the only museum on mainland Britain dedicated to dinosaurs. It has won many accolades including twice being voted one of Britain’s Top Ten Hands-on Museums, as well as Dorset’s Family Attraction of the Year. Most recently it was chosen as one of Britain’s Ten Best Child-Friendly Museums.

Our fascination with Dinosaurs

The museum is a real treat for children and it combines life-sized reconstructions of dinosaurs with fossils and skeletons to create an exciting hands-on experience. Our fascination with dinosaurs started in the 1820s when the first true discoveries of dinosaur bones were made in England. Then in 1841 Sir Richard Owen invented the word “dinosauria” – meaning terrible lizard’ – to describe this group of prehistoric monsters. More recently the Steven Spielberg films “Jurassic Park” and the BBC’s magnificent science programmes ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ has excited people’s imagination.

This interest in the history of dinosaurs and sense of “dinomania” is reflected in The Dinosaur Museum. Multimedia displays tell the story of the prehistoric animals that ruled the land for some 150 million years, finally becoming extinct 65 million years ago. Life-size dinosaur reconstructions – including Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops – beg to be touched by little hands – that’s encouraged.

Children Love Dinosaurs

Children from a very early age seem fascinated by these prehistoric beasts. They quickly learn their names, and all the dinosaur facts associated with them. Dinosaurs help to extend a child’s imagination and channel that interest to study science and this is recognised in the National Curriculum. It is no surprise then, that the Museum is extremely popular with schools linking various topics to the study of dinosaurs, and the Dinosaur Museum has an enviable reputation for its educational services. The Dinosaur Museum is a family museum and has frequently appeared on television, usually in children’s programmes such as Blue Peter, the Tweenies and many others.

The Triceratops dominates the Museum’s courtyard and on entering the museum children will encounter a complete dinosaur skeleton of the famous meat-eating Megalosaurus, a Jurassic dinosaur, with its sickle-shaped claws and teeth, mounted over a set of very rare footprints made by that dinosaur.

Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named 175 years ago, by Reverend William Buckland. This skeleton vividly contrasts with the skeleton of the small fleet-footed vegetarian dinosaur Hypsilophodon. My son visited the museum with his school this week and enjoyed creating his own dinosaur on the computer. There are hands on displays, dinosaur skeletons and dinosaur reconstructions to keep the children entertained.

In the Buckland Room there is a life size reconstruction of a Corythosaurus known affectionately as Dina to all in the museum. She was originally made by the special effects team of the BBC hit sci-fi series Dr Who. Called “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” the programmes starred Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Elizabeth Sladen as his assistant – Sarah Jane Smith.

Among the most dramatic displays are the awe inspiring life-size dinosaur reconstructions. There are two life-size dinosaur reconstructions, of T rex, one of the largest meat eating land animal ever and of a Stegosaurus with its strangely shaped ridge of plates along its back. Children are encouraged to touch the displays with hands including some of the dinosaur fossils.

After visiting the museum you can view the dinosaur news blog which offers an up to date source on palaeonthology and prehistoric creatures and news on fossil finds during the year.  Or, view the recent Pliosaur film reporting on the 25 large pieces of a fossil collected by Mr Sheehan along the Dorset coast.

The Dinosaur Museum Facilities

Look inside The Dinosaur Museum at Virtual Dorchester

The ground floor of the Museum is accessible for people using a wheelchair (only one step with temporary ramp at the entrance). The two upstairs galleries are inaccessible to wheelchair users and to compensate a concessionary rate is charged. Car parking and a wide range of cafes and restaurants in Dorchester can be found within easy walking distance of the Museum.

The Dinosaur Museum is open all year round and during the holiday period April to October it is open Monday to Sunday between 9.30am and 5.30pm.

Between November and March it is open reduced hours 10.00am to 4.30pm. Admission is £6.75 per adult, Children over 4 £4.95, Seniors/Students £5.75 and a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) is £21.00.

Please contact the Museum for special rates for groups and schools.

There is an online shop selling everything from fossils, dinosaur DVDs, toys, dinosaur t-shirts, stationery and museum souvenirs.

Why not try a visit the Virtual Dorchester pages to view the new 360 degrees virtual tour of the Museum to get an overview of this fantastic family attraction and be part of the Jurassic Experience.

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Virtual Dorchester

If you are new to Dorset and just want to see what Dorchester has to offer or you want to share the atmosphere of the town with friends and relatives you can now log on to www.dorchesterdorset.com and visit Dorchester without leaving the comfort of your own home!!

Dorchester is one of the first market towns in the UK to be part of a ‘Virtual town centre’ project that allows an amazing ‘virtual’ 360 degree tour of the town centre together with its main attractions and shopping areas.

Virtual Dorchester uses the latest in virtual reality software to give on-line visitors a taste of what is on offer in our Historic town. You can even go into the museums or shops to see what how they look on the inside before you visit.

The virtual tour went live this week and the feedback we have had so far is tremendous. Dorchester has a fantastic variety of independent businesses and chain stores, museums and leisure facilities that it seemed obvious it was time to put the town on the “virtual map”.

Using the Virtual Dorchester couldn’t be easier. You don’t need any additional plugins on your PC apart from Flash player. Navigate the streets by following the red arrows or move your mouse. Simply click on the white buttons to move to that location, or on one of the images at the bottom of the screen.

Wander around the local shops and attractions that have the virutal interiors.

Virtual Thomas Hardy Room within The Dorset County Museum

South Street within Virtual Dorchester

Dorchester in Virtual Reality

The Dorchester BID has spearheaded this exciting new development and paid for the ‘virtual’ town. If you have a business in the Dorchester Town Centre area and would like us to add a “virtual tour” of it to those already featured please contact Phil Gordon for details – call Phil on 07799 494886.

The cost for a business to be hosted within Virtual Dorchester is normally £200 per year plus £29 per 360 view however to kick off the launch, the first 30 places are available for just £79 including one 360° internal view (additional 360° views are £29).

There are now just 15 subsidised places left after which the cost to link will be £200 + £29 per 360° view for a year.

Please call or email Phil to secure one of the remaining launch slots if you have not already done so.

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