The area around Blandford and to its north is true rural Dorset, much of it remaining the same as it was in Hardy’s day. This is definitely a place where you can just relax and unwind.
Delightfully situated where the wooded valley of the Stour cuts through the chalk downlands, Blandford is an ancient crossing point of the river. The town is unique in having been almost totally re-built, following a conflagration in 1731 which started in a tallow shop on the site of the present King’s Arms pub. A strong northerly wind was blowing that June afternoon and the fire swept through the town burning 400 houses and every fire engine. A handful of buildings remain from before the 1731 fire, notably Ryves Almshouse and the Old House.
The best way to approach Blandford is through Blandford St. Mary, crossing the old six-arched bridge over the meandering River Stour, with a glimpse of the road curving round to the right tantalisingly before it opens out into the market square.
On the edge of the town lies Blandford Camp, now home to the Royal Signals it was first established back in the 18th century as a military training camp for local volunteers. The arrival of the Royal Signals in 1967 also saw the first permanent home to what is now The Royal Signals Museum, the fastest growing visitor attraction in Dorset.
The Museum has a wide and far-reaching appeal to all ages and after two successful lottery bids is modern, high tech and interactive. With exceptionally well conceived and constructed displays, it illustrates the fascinating story of Military Communications, from wartime spies to high-tech satellites.
ou can drive an armoured vehicle through a virtual landscape, guide a laser beam around a course, ‘direction find’ the enemy, set up a satellite network or practice Morse code. ‘Operation Secret Wave’ is an exciting exhibition that explains through interactive experiments how the Electromagnetic Spectrum is used in communications and how both of these affect our lives in so many ways, every day.
Find out how secret agents were trained in WWII, what life was like as a Secret Agent with the SOE in France, why pigeons were so important to the British Army, what it was really like laying cables under fire on the front and how Germany’s Enigma code was broken during the war.
Four new interactive displays covering the 1st and 2nd World Wars, Post War and Modern, highlight the role of women at war from 1907 and follows the story of the FANY, ATS, SOE, Y SERVICE and WRAC. The display’s live interviews, archive film and photographs provide a fascinating personal insight and eyewitness account.
A special offer is available to all handbook readers saving £9.00 on a family ticket. Simply quote “The Tourist Handbook” when purchasing your ticket.
Directly north of Blandford, some 13 miles along the winding A350, lies Shaftesbury. The prominent ridge on which it stands was first inhabited at least two thousand years ago; traces of earthen walls still survive. With the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, Alfred founded a nunnery in 880 with his daughter, Aethelgeofu as abbess. A town grew up around this abbey, and it became so important that Edward the Martyr was buried there in 981, following his exhumation from Wareham.
Shaftesbury today is a busy little town with a mixture of buildings and styles; the High Street is fairly ordinary but the real interest lies at the top of the town. In Victorian times, some excavation was carried out on the abbey site, but it was not until the early 1930s, that work was renewed and some exciting discoveries made, including the bones of Edward, sealed in a leaden box and thought to have been hidden by the nuns prior to their eviction from the abbey. The abbey buildings covered twenty acres, and today the site is open to the public who can also inspect the museum there.
Next to the ancient church of St Peter is the former Sun and Moon Inn and a former doss house, now the home of the Shaftesbury Museum. This is at the top of Gold Hill, an extremely steep, cobbled hill plunging down to St James’s. This is the sight for which most people these days know Shaftesbury, with some gorgeous higgledy-piggledy houses on one side and the massive retaining walls of the abbey grounds on the other. Up this street, every day, the people of Shaston used to cart their water, for there was none on top of the hill. Professional water carriers received a farthing a bucketful or two pence for a horse-load.