MAP
OF WEST DORSET
Click
map for a higher resolution version
As
the above map shows, Grays Farmhouse is between Dorchester,
Bridport and Beaminster, ideally placed as a centre from which
to explore an area rich in interesting places to visit and things
to do, in the heart of West Dorset.
Click
here for a selection of
nearby Interesting Places
While
every attempt is made to ensure that the links are all working
properly, I do not have the time to check them regularly and
I hope you will be patient if some are out of date.
Agricultural
Shows
/ Biking off road /
Children / Coastal
Attractions /
Cycling /
Fishing / Fossil
hunting / Gardens
to Visit / Golf /
History /
Houses to Visit / Museums
/ Music / Painting
and Photography / Riding
/ Swimming /
Walking / Tourist
Information
Agricultural
Shows
Melplash in August and Dorchester in September are the two big
ones.
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Biking
Off Road
Guests
tell us that the off-road biking in the area is superb. There
is ample space to leave bikes locked up and we shall be getting
a power-hose so you can wash them down easily after your ride.
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Children
Dorchester Museum has an interactive Children's Trail, while
the Tithe Barn, Children's Farm and Swannery at Abbotsbury are
much loved by children www.abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk
, as is the Dinosaur-museum.org.uk
, Tel.
013052699880.) Lovers of Teddy Bears should
visit the Teddy Bear house and the annual Teddy Bears' Picnic
in Dorchester. Older children may enjoy
The Tutankhamun Exhibition
At
Easter Abbotsbury hosts a Great Egg Hunt and there is a Kite
Festival at Weymouth in the Spring, and on Eggardon in September.
There are summer regattas and Trawler races, Red Arrow and firework
displays along the coast.
The Kingcombe-Centre
near us runs Children's Days for budding naturalists aged eight
upwards. Tel.01300320684 ( Web site:- ) .
Further afield is the Wildlife Park at Cricket St. Thomas Tel.01460
30111.
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Coastal
Attractions
Grays Farmhouse is
near the World
Heritage coast, which within a 25 minutes drive offers remarkable
variety. Nearest to us is the National Trust family beach
at Burton Bradstock, with golden honey-combed cliffs and an
excellent cafe overlooking the beach. Slightly further afield
to the east are the magnificent chalk cliffs and rock formations
of the Isle of Purbeck, including Kimmeridge, Lulworth and Durdle
Door and to the west lie Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
Weymouth has a long sandy beach set in a beautiful, expansive
bay, and a fascinating old harbour. The east coast of
Portland is unique, with disused, luxuriantly overgrown quarries
right by the water's edge. At the southern tip, Portland
Bill has a lighthouse overlooking a wild shoreline piled with
slabs of the famous stone from which many of London's grandest
buildings were created.
The
cliff path on Portland's west coast provides glorious views
towards Lyme Regis down the Chesil Beach, an eleven-mile strip
of shingle. The inland water behind it, the Fleet, is a bird
sanctuary, and Abbotsbury is renowned for its swannery.
Nearer us, the western end of the Chesil is the sandiest part.
See "Swimming".
West Bay is where "Harbour Lights" was filmed. The
golden cliffs to each side are quite different in character
from the chalk ones east of Weymouth, reaching their highest
point between West Bay and Charmouth at Golden Cap.
The
marvellous coastal views, from Portland to the tip of South
Devon, combined with the gentle folds of meadow and woodland
close to a cliff edge full of tiny inlets, make this an idyllic
stretch of coast.
Coastal
erosion means that this part of the cliffs is forever changing.
Charmouth and Lyme are renowned for their fossils,
and Lyme in particular is a fascinating old town with its famous
cobb and some tempting teashops!
To the west of Lyme the cliffs slipped dramatically in the nineteenth
century, resulting in a huge rift where almost jungle-like vegetation
and sheer inland walls of stone create an environment reminiscent
of Conan Doyle's "Lost World". By then
you are into Devon...
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Cycling
Even
in the height of summer the lanes around us are quiet enough to
make cycling enjoyable, and there are also plenty of bridle paths
and tracks through Hooke Woods. Much of the disused railway line
from Maiden Newton to West Bay is still accessible. Bikes may
be hired at Dorchester cycles.
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Fishing
The nearby River Frome
is stocked with trout and some salmon. For details of fly fishing
see www.goflyfishing.co.uk
Course fishing and trout fishing are available on various lakes
in the area. West Bay and Lyme Regis offer mackerel fishing trips
round the bay, or deep sea fishing for conger, cod, skate and
pollack. Fishermen are usually to be found fishing from the pier/cobb
or on the beach at Burton Bradstock.
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Fossil Hunting
Lyme Regis and Charmouth
are famous for the crumbling Jurassic
rock cliffs, which have revealed 200 million-year-old fossils.
For more information, contact the Charmouth Heritage Coast Information
Centre, 01297 560772.
In July 2000 a 40 foot ichthyosaur was discovered at Charmouth.
For a fascinating account of this, see
www.charmouthfossils.co.uk Most of our own very modest collection
has been found under the cliffs at Burton Bradstock.
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Gardens
to Visit
Mapperton Manor, a very lovely 2 hour walk from us, has an Italianate
water garden set in idyllic surroundings. The well- known garden
-writer Anna Pavord describes it as her favourite garden anywhere.
Open April- October, not Saturdays. Tel.01308 862645.
On the coast is the spectacular subtropical garden at Abbotsbury,
open and well worth seeing all year, while inland are the landscaped
gardens of Minterne, with a hillside of Himalayan rhododendrons
and azaleas overlooking a chain of lakes, waterfalls and streams.
Open daily 10A.M. - 7p.m., April- October.
To the North West, Forde Abbey was winner of Christies Garden
of the Year Award. Open Daily, 10a.m.- 4.30 p.m. Tel. 01460 221290
For details of these and others in West Dorset and Somerset, www.visitourgardens.co.uk/
Rosie
can advise you on many more worth visiting, as well as the local
village Open Garden days,and our library of garden books and magazines
would keep an enthusiast happy for hours.
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Golf
There are eleven golf courses in West Dorset, many of them in
stunning settings on the coast. Guests tell us that those at both
Lyme Regis and West Bay are interesting courses. We can provide
a leaflet giving full details, or the local T.I. office will send
you one on request.
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History
From the World Heritage Jurassic, fossil-rich cliffs of Lyme,
to Dorchester,
capital of Hardy's Wessex, the past is probably as apparent in
West Dorset as in any part of England.
Iron-age hill forts and burial mounds, Roman roads and settlements,
the Cerne giant, motte and bailey castles, Norman churches, farmland
completely untouched by modern methods, the Jacobean facades of
medieval manor houses, the 200 listed honey-coloured buildings
of lovely Beaminster, the wide streets of rope-making Bridport:
the list is almost endless of the way the past still makes its
presence felt within moments of leaving the A35 .
Roger researched and wrote the local Millennium Community Play,
celebrating four thousand years of life in Powerstock, and charting
the fascinating impact through the ages of national events on
this tiny, seemingly timeless, community.
Alastair Chisholm, a delightfully entertaining and knowledgeable
extrovert, does a range of guided walks round Dorchester, and
Maiden Castle by moonlight. Tel. 01305 261135
See
also Museums
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Houses
to Visit
Nearby
Mapperton Manor was voted the "The nation's Finest Manor
House" by 'Country Life' It is open in peak holiday season
and bank holidays.Tel.01308
862645.
Athelhampton, built in 1485, has a magnificent early Tudor Great
hall, and houses an outstanding collection of English furniture,
from Jacobean to late Victorian.
Athelhampton
Tel.01305 848363.
Slightly
further afield, Forde Abbey, a magnificent family home since the
17th.Century, was a Cistertian Monastery, founded in 1140 (see
above, but the house only open in summer and on certain days).
http://www.bournemouth.co.uk/ptg/dd003889.htm
Montecute
houses much of the Tudor and Stuart collection of the National
Portrait Gallery.
On
a far humbler scale, Hardy's birthplace, Higher Bockhampton, is
an idyllic little cottage just outside Dorchester . Both these
last two are National Trust.
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Museums
All the local towns boast museums, and those at Dorchester and
Lyme Regis are award-winning. (01305 262735 www.dorset.museum.clara.net
and 01297 443370 . The former houses a reconstruction of Hardy's
study.
Apart from general local social and natural history, there are
specialist museums to be found on such widely ranging themes as
Tanks (Bovington 01929405096 www.tankmuseum.co.uk
), Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm Museum, Dorchester Keep, ENIGMA (Blandford,
Royal Signals Museum, 01258 482248, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, (Tolpuddle,
outside Dorchester, 01305 848237), Ropemaking (Bridport, 01308
4216659), Underwater Exploration and the 'Titanic' and The Museum
of Coastal Defense (Weymouth), and much more.
Honiton
Lace All hallows Museum www.mda.org.uk/vlmp
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Music
and the Arts
Our nearest Summer Festival is at Beaminster in late June. For
a whole glorious week there are concerts in the church each evening,
events in the square at lunch time, several exhibitions, a garden
walk-about, and much else.
tel. 01308 863000.
Sherborne
Abbey and Sherborne School have a full programme of events:
www.concertsinsherborne.org.uk/
Abbotsbury,
Burton Bradstock and Cerne Abbas also have interesting festivals.
Lyme Regis has a Jazz Festival www.lymeregis.com/jazz-festival
Kingston Maurward, Sherborne Castle, and Abbotsbury all host open
air concerts and operas . www.westdorset.com/whatsnew.htm
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Painting
and Photography
The wildlife artist, Gordon Beningfield, passionately loved this
area and made regular pilgrimages to Powerstock to paint the wild
flowers and animals, while the wildlife photographer, Colin Varndell,
considers the wildlife around Powerstock second to none.
If broad landscape or seascapes are more your interest, the wide
horizons from Eggardon, Golden Cap, Abbotsbury Castle or Hardy's
Monument could hardly be bettered, while those who love to paint
mellow old buildings will be spoilt for choice. Recently I have
been painting Corfe Castle, Abbotsbury and Eggardon
my painting
site
There
is plenty of room to store your painting gear in my studio,
and if the weather is bad, there are covered areas from which
to work around the grounds.
Dorset
Art Weeks is a biennial event. From 24May -8th. June 2008,
over 300 studios, including mine, will be opening to the public
in what will be the biggest show of its kind in the country. Bridport
Open Studios is every August Bank Holiday and there are other
opportunities to see the work and studios of many local artists
and craftspeople.
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Riding
There are plenty of bridle ways, both following the coastline
and inland, and good tracks of open countryside suitable for galloping.
Horse
Riding is available at
Cattistock 01308 863006
Portisham 01305 871011
Monkton Wilde 01297 678747
Llama
Trekking in the Brit Valley
Beaminster 01308 8868674
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Swimming
There are a number of good family beaches with golden sand, notably
Burton Bradstock, West Bay, Charmouth and Lyme Regis. In season
dogs are banned.
Bridport has a Leisure Centre with an indoor pool. 01308 427464
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Walking
Grays Farmhouse lies at the heart of a seemingly endless maze
of paths and tracks and is near the The Jubilee Trail. After years
of regular walking, we are still discovering new routes from our
doorstep, including variations on our favourite walks to nearby
Powerstock, Powerstock Common, Eggardon, and Mapperton Manor.
The Wessex Ridgeway and the South-West Coastal Path are within
easy reach. Local T.I. Centres and the Websites given below
provide details of nearly 300 guided walks, including many from
the Kingcombe-Centre
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Tourist
Information
The West Dorset District Council website is a mine of helpful
information, www.westdorset.com
, and in addition West Dorset produces an interesting tourist
guide, along with much other information, available for order
by email or at the following T.I. offices:-
Bridport
01308 424901
Dorchester 01305 267992
Lyme Regis 01297422138
Sherborne 01935 88815341
West Bay 01308422807
Weymouth 01305 785747/ 772444
In
addition, the following websites are very informative:
Bridport
and Westbay Charmouth
Dorchester
Lyme Regis Weymouth
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c)
Copyright 2007 Rosie Britton. All Rights Reserved.
