Discover Dorset Series

(Sarah Welton)  Much of Dorset’s coast is now a World Heritage Site; one of Britain’s first underwater marine wildlife reserves is at Kimmeridge. Add Dorset’s rock pools and coastal waters, the unique shingle bank of Chesil Beach and the Fleet…..

(J.H. Bettey) No periods in Dorset’s past have been so packed with pure history as those of the Tudors and Stuarts. The dissolution of the monasteries shifted wealth and power to a new landowning class of merchants and adventurers. The…..

(Anne Horsfall) Woodland in Dorset is a diversity of mixed plantations, conifers, beech belts, deciduous woods and copses.  Ancient oak and hazel woods are scarce, but have long and interesting histories associated with Royal Forests, monastic estates, medieval deer parks…..

(John Porter) Dorset’s towns are the survivors of a once much larger number of urban settlements.  Bere Regis, Cerne Abbas, Charmouth, Corfe Castle, Cranborne, Milton Abbas and Stalbridge, were all once towns, with markets and fairs, even MPs, yet none…..

(David Viner) Dorset’s roads and tracks have sustained the movement of man, livestock and goods since time immemorial.  They are a delightful way of discovering the county, both by car and on foot.  Green roads, holloways, ancient ox droves, priests’…..

(Hilary Towsend) The Blackmore Vale is Dorset at its most intimate and down-to-earth. The author brings a wonderfully personal touch to what is the first guide to the Blackmore Vale to be published. 87 pages.  Soft covers.  

(John Wright) The natural history of Dorset’s rivers and streams owes much to the character of its many different landscapes. They include Chalk streams like the Frome and the Piddle with their seasonal winterbournes, the fast-flowing Axe in the west,…..

(Desmond Hawkins)  Cranborne Chase is Dorset’s best kept secret.  Not least of its attractions is that most people are uncertain of where or what it is.  Much of the area is high rolling downland that sprawls untidily across Dorset’s eastern…..

(Jonathan Holt)  Dorset’s follies are amongst its greatest architectural delights.  Some, like the Horton Tower and Hardy’s Monument, are famous landmarks. Throughout the county there are grottoes, obelisks, temples, shell gardens, fake forts, arches, pavilions and even a sham chapel……

(Jim White)  The tiny fragments of Dorset grassland that remain rich in wildlife are widely scattered, mirroring the underlying geology.  They range from ancient pasture in the clay vales to the herb-strewn turf of the chalk downland, from a handful…..

(David McFetrich & Jo Parsons)  Dorset’s bridges form a rich architectural legacy that is all too often overlooked. Those pictured and described in the book span 800 years, from the Middle Ages to the present, and range from the simple…..

(Lesley Haskins)  Dorset’s heaths are internationally renowned as the finest example of this most fragile of habitats anywhere in Britain.  They embrace an ever-changing mosaic of dry sandy ridges, bogs, pools and streams, which together support an exceptional wealth of…..

(Colin Pomeroy)  Dorset’s surviving castles and forts are the visible record of a past that stretches back for more than a thousand years. They belong to three main periods: those dating to the Middle Ages, the coastal castles built during…..

(Jo Draper)  Two centuries of agricultural change and the growth of the towns have transformed Dorset’s Georgian landscape. Using contemporary illustrations and concentrating on those who lived in the eighteenth century Dorset, the author has superbly captured the character of…..

(Peter Stanier)  One of the delights of a rural county like Dorset is its mix of traditional small-scale industries, many based on natural resources. The book details location of these industries, broken down by categories: raw materials, manufacturing, power and…..

(Paul Hyland)   Despite its popularity, few corners of England have as much to offer as the Isle of Purbeck – or remain so unspoilt. The author vividly describes the character of the area; its past dominated by the marble…..