DORCHESTER WORKHOUSES – October 2023

by | Jan 18, 2024 | Blog

By Ian Gosling, DCS Chair There were three distinct phases in the provision of Workhouses in Dorchester. THE ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN PERIOD. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 confirmed earlier practices by creating a system of relief of the poor administered at Parish...

THE HISTORY OF MAUMBURY RINGS – SEPTEMBER 2023

by | Jan 18, 2024 | Blog

By Ian Gosling, DCS Chair Whilst manning the DCS stall during Hengefest in late July I thought about how this ancient structure has been used in different ways by generations of Dorchester inhabitants over the past 4500 years. It was created in the late Neolithic...

FORDINGTON SLUMS, FILTH AND CHOLERA

by | Aug 20, 2023 | Blog

NEW HERITAGE INFORMATION BOARD: Dorchester Town Council is preparing a heritage information board to be erected in front of the Old Malthouse in Fordington. As well as signalling that part of the 18th century building later became the Noah’s Ark pub, it will also show...

PUBLIC OPEN-AIR SCULPTURES IN DORCHESTER

by | Aug 20, 2023 | Blog

THE DORSET MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL was created in 1983 by the world-renowned sculptress Dame Elizabeth Frink (1930-1993) and installed in 1986 on Gallows Hill, to one side of Salisbury Fields, the site of public executions in Dorchester in the 16th and 17th centuries. It...