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*Twilight on the Frome*
Last Twilight of 2020 on the River Frome at Lower Bockhampton
"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
T.S. Eliot.
From his Poem 'Little Gidding' 1942. Final poem of his 'Four Quartets'
#bockhamptom #lowerbockhampton #riverfrome #Dorset #tseliot #chalkstreams #twilight #Hardy
Nether Cerne in the tranquil Cerne Valley
The hamlet comprises a church and late 17th-century house, plus a few cottages
In 1906 Sir Frederick Treves described the house and church (late c13th, restored 1876) as "ancient old cronies, still hobnobbing together".
St Luke’s Chapel, northwest of Abbotsbury, built by monks from Netley Abbey on land given to them in 1246 by William of Litton, the order founded 1239 near Southampton, . As dedicated farmers and labourers it is likely that St Luke’s was built for the use of a small Cistercian community who began to work a farm in Ashley as well as to serve the medieval village of Sterte (Sturthill).
According to author C J Bailey in his book The Bride Valley: ‘the chapel of St Luke was served by parsons from 1240 to 1545 when it became so impoverished that the living was left vacant. Whatever the reason, by approximately 1545, both Sterte and the Chapel were abandoned and St Luke’s descended into ruin.’
Stair Hole and the Lulworth Crumple is a small cove located adjacent to Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
Folded limestone strata known as the Lulworth crumple are particularly visible at Stair Hole and a magnificent example of geological and tectonic processes such as the Alpine orogeny.
The Alpine Orogeny occurred mainly between 65 and 2.5 million years ago, although it is still active today. It saw the collision of the African and Eurasian plates, and the closure of the Tethys Ocean as oceanic lithosphere was subducted northwards beneath the Eurasian Plate, leaving today what we now know as the Mediterranean Sea.
The continental collisions of the Alpine Orogeny formed the Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathian Mountains in Europe. With the UK being over 1000 km from the collision zone, only minor structures record the orogeny. The majority of evidence comes from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks of southern England, where it gave rise to localised folds and faults.
Stair Hole featured in Nuts in May, a Play for Today directed by Mike Leigh, and in Five on a Treasure Island, a 1957 film serial by the Children's Film Foundation and the background for the climactic sword fight between George Baker and Peter Arne in The Moonraker
Overcombe - a couple of miles north east of Weymouth.
At the beginning of the c20th there was a golf course and the painter John Constable had his honeymoon here.
In the field north of Bowleaze Coveway road are the remains of the C4th Romano-Celtic Temple and in 1928, an important hoard of late 4th century Roman coins was unearthed.
Overcombe is the principal location for Thomas Hardy's 1880 novel 'The Trumpet-Major', set during the Napoleonic Wars.
The green rolling chalk hills of Dorset. View from the ancient trackway - The South Dorset Ridgeway, archaeologically as important as the Stonehenge and Avebury region in the neighbouring county - looking towards Europe's most impressive Iron Age forts - Maiden Castle - and one of Dorsets many ancient hillforts.
#landofstoneandbone #Dorset #england #southdorsetridgeway #Wessex #durotriges #scenicengland #rollinggreenhills #landscape #Dorsetsummer #CycleDorset #swisbest #lovefordorset #dorsethillforts #scenicDorset #greenhills #ruralengland #exploringDorset #June2021 #Summer2021 #Dorsetsummer #S21ultra #Dorchester #Gouldshill
Morton House | Elizabethan E-Plan Grade II* listed | National Heritage Register.
Built in 1590 and the home of several notable families over the next four centuries; now a hotel.
The Dacombe family built Mortons House in 1590 - acquiring the estate by marriage in about 1500 when Thomas Dacombe married Elizabeth Clavell daughter and heir of Richard Clavell of Corfe Castle.
The Dackombe's were prominent Corfe citizens. Edward, son of William and Mary was mayor in 1623 and M.P.
His younger brother, Henry, also MP post in 1614 and 1621. Edward, son of Brune, was mayor in 1679 and called to Parliament to answer a charge of 'miscarriages in the returning of Members during elections.' His son, Henry who was mayor in 1699, was accused of 'partiality' when vowing his favourite candidate would win regardless of the election.
Henry Dacombe sold it to John Morton of Henbury in 1712 when it became known as Mortons House. With no direct heir it was left to his nephew Reverend John Colson.
Reverend John Colson (1701-1769) was the son of Robert Colson, mayor of Dorchester who had married John Morton’s sister Mary in 1700. Reverend John Colson sold it to John Bond (1717–1784) who was Member of Parliament in 1751.
It remained in the hands of the Bonds for two centuries, mostly rented out to wealthy tenants. One of the first was the Dampier family who have a memorial plaque in Corfe Castle Church. They were tenants for many years until the last daughter Mary died in 1820.
The most notable tenants were the Cavendish-Bentincks, residents from 1898 until 1933. (William George) Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) was the son of George Cavendish-Bentinck. In 1887 he married Ruth St. Maur (1867-1953) and the couple had five children two of whom became the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland.
Ruth Cavendish Bentinck, became a famous suffragette and political activist. In 1911 she wrote a letter from Morton’s House which is still noteworthy in which she railed against changes to fair wage legislation. She thought these changes would damage the next generation as working men were struggling to feed their families, she said, and widows were expected to be grateful for a pittance to raise their fatherless children: “The West Country labourer is supposed to live on the beauty of his scenery and his picturesque (and too often insanitary) house,”
Ruth Cavendish-Bentinck was a most unlikely socialist and suffragist whose life reads like a Who’s Who of the late 19th/early 20th century. Her close friends were diverse, from George Bernard Shaw and Keir Hardy, to the Duke of Argyll and Edward VII’s mistress, Alice Keppel. Her extensive collection of books, about and for women, formed the basis of the culturally-important Women’s Library, now part of the LSE. Ruth’s unusual parentage is also thought to have been an inspiration for Pygmalion.
Ruth was the beautiful great-great-granddaughter of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By marriage to Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, from a family of dukes and other notables, she was related to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), and today to Timothy Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, better known as David Archer in The Archers. Ruth was also the mother of both the 8th and 9th (the last) Dukes of Portland.
She had a wide variety of close friends from George Bernard Shaw and Keir Hardie, to the Duke of Argyll and Edward VII’s mistress, Alice Keppel.
She was also friends with the famous Hungarian painter Philip de László and his wife Lucy (from the banking branch of the Guinness family) and in the 1920s this couple visited them at Mortons House.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_de_L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3
De Laszlo owned one of the first motion cameras given to him by George Eastman founder of Kodak and there is short home movie of their visit together with the Duke and Duchess of Somerset.
The Cavendish Bentinck’s lived at Mortons House until 1933 and then lived in London. Freddie died in 1948 at the age of 92 and Ruth died in 1956 at the age of 86. They are both buried nearby at St James Churchyard in Kingston. In 1983 Sir John Rupert Colville wrote a book on Ruth’s interesting life called “Strange Inheritance".
janedismore.com/2017/12/14/of-dukes-soviets-and-suffragis...
In about 1940 the Bond family returned to live at Mortons House. Lieutenant Colonel Ashley Raymond Bond moved in with his wife Annette Hester Mary Bowles.
Hartland Moor
Declared a national nature reserve in 1954 and part of a larger area designated as a SSSI in 1986.
The northeastern part of the original SSSI was later excluded to become part of Poole Harbour SSSI. A large part of the site is owned by the National Trust.
The site is a lowland heathland. Plant communities range from dry heath to valley mire and together with adjoining reserves, Hartland Moor forms one of the largest areas of lowland heath and mire in the county—(the Dorset Heaths) The underlying soil, which formed on sands and clay of the Bagshot Beds, is very low in fertility.
The wetland surrounding the northern branch of the stream supports acid-loving wetland plants; golden bog-moss is abundant in this area. The wetland around the southern branch supports wetland plants that thrive in alkaline conditions; it is dominated by black bog-rush, which forms tussocks Rare plants on the site include Dorset heath, and, around a series of pools, bog sedge and the rare bog orchid.
The plants on the site are in turn a habitat for various animals, both local and rare. All six British reptile species are present on the site the rare sand lizard and smooth snake both breed on the property.
The site is grazed by a herd of Red Devon cattle that help to keep scrub vegetation from taking over the habitat.
Gorse found on the dry heath provides habitat for the European stonechat and the rare Dartford warbler, which is only present on a few sites in the United Kingdom.
Hartland Moor was the location of the first railway in Dorset; built in 1805, the Middlebere Plateway transported ball clay from Corfe Castle through the moor to Poole Harbour
Morton House | Elizabethan E-Plan Grade II* listed | National Heritage Register.
Built in 1590 and the home of several notable families over the next four centuries; now a hotel.
The Dacombe family built Mortons House in 1590 - acquiring the estate by marriage in about 1500 when Thomas Dacombe married Elizabeth Clavell daughter and heir of Richard Clavell of Corfe Castle.
The Dackombe's were prominent Corfe citizens. Edward, son of William and Mary was mayor in 1623 and M.P.
His younger brother, Henry, also MP post in 1614 and 1621. Edward, son of Brune, was mayor in 1679 and called to Parliament to answer a charge of 'miscarriages in the returning of Members during elections.' His son, Henry who was mayor in 1699, was accused of 'partiality' when vowing his favourite candidate would win regardless of the election.
Henry Dacombe sold it to John Morton of Henbury in 1712 when it became known as Mortons House. With no direct heir it was left to his nephew Reverend John Colson.
Reverend John Colson (1701-1769) was the son of Robert Colson, mayor of Dorchester who had married John Morton’s sister Mary in 1700. Reverend John Colson sold it to John Bond (1717–1784) who was Member of Parliament in 1751.
It remained in the hands of the Bonds for two centuries, mostly rented out to wealthy tenants. One of the first was the Dampier family who have a memorial plaque in Corfe Castle Church. They were tenants for many years until the last daughter Mary died in 1820.
The most notable tenants were the Cavendish-Bentincks, residents from 1898 until 1933. (William George) Frederick Cavendish Bentinck (1856-1948) was the son of George Cavendish-Bentinck. In 1887 he married Ruth St. Maur (1867-1953) and the couple had five children two of whom became the 8th and 9th Dukes of Portland.
Ruth Cavendish Bentinck, became a famous suffragette and political activist. In 1911 she wrote a letter from Morton’s House which is still noteworthy in which she railed against changes to fair wage legislation. She thought these changes would damage the next generation as working men were struggling to feed their families, she said, and widows were expected to be grateful for a pittance to raise their fatherless children: “The West Country labourer is supposed to live on the beauty of his scenery and his picturesque (and too often insanitary) house,”
Ruth Cavendish-Bentinck was a most unlikely socialist and suffragist whose life reads like a Who’s Who of the late 19th/early 20th century. Her close friends were diverse, from George Bernard Shaw and Keir Hardy, to the Duke of Argyll and Edward VII’s mistress, Alice Keppel. Her extensive collection of books, about and for women, formed the basis of the culturally-important Women’s Library, now part of the LSE. Ruth’s unusual parentage is also thought to have been an inspiration for Pygmalion.
Ruth was the beautiful great-great-granddaughter of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By marriage to Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, from a family of dukes and other notables, she was related to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), and today to Timothy Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, better known as David Archer in The Archers. Ruth was also the mother of both the 8th and 9th (the last) Dukes of Portland.
She had a wide variety of close friends from George Bernard Shaw and Keir Hardie, to the Duke of Argyll and Edward VII’s mistress, Alice Keppel.
She was also friends with the famous Hungarian painter Philip de László and his wife Lucy (from the banking branch of the Guinness family) and in the 1920s this couple visited them at Mortons House.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_de_L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3
De Laszlo owned one of the first motion cameras given to him by George Eastman founder of Kodak and there is short home movie of their visit together with the Duke and Duchess of Somerset.
The Cavendish Bentinck’s lived at Mortons House until 1933 and then lived in London. Freddie died in 1948 at the age of 92 and Ruth died in 1956 at the age of 86. They are both buried nearby at St James Churchyard in Kingston. In 1983 Sir John Rupert Colville wrote a book on Ruth’s interesting life called “Strange Inheritance".
janedismore.com/2017/12/14/of-dukes-soviets-and-suffragis...
In about 1940 the Bond family returned to live at Mortons House. Lieutenant Colonel Ashley Raymond Bond moved in with his wife Annette Hester Mary Bowles.
Chesil Beach Walk/Cycle between Abbotsbury and West Bexington.
Littered with WW2 pillboxes, machine gun emplacements and radar stations.
Following Hitler's directive on 16 July 1940 to ensure England could not be a base from which war could be pursued against Germany, codenamed Operation Sealion, an invasion of the southern English Coast seemed imminent and Dorset was identified to be a favoured landing point.
Britain’s ability to defend herself was seriously compromised especially due to the fact that so much crucial equipment had been abandoned during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The Directorate of Fortifications and Works at the British War Office was set up in May 1940 to devise specific designs for small defensive constructions to be built along the coast, such as the hexagonal pillboxes.
The success of the Battle of Britain forced Hitler to indefinitely postpone the invasion and after the war the defenceswere left to be demolished, gradually decompose or crumble into the sea.
#Jurassiccoast #WestBexington #Dorsetcoast #ww2 #pillboxes #June2021 #southwestcoastpath #wessex #Dorset #CycleDorset #ExploreDorset
Corfe Castle and the Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham to Swanage, Dorset opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway
The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic.
After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the area around Corfe Castle was known for its supply of Purbeck Ball Clay, which at that time was shipped by a pair of horse-drawn tramways to Poole Harbour. The port of Swanage at the tip of the Isle was equally well known for the Purbeck Marble mined locally and shipped out by sea.
While the development of Swanage as a tourist resort brought additional passenger traffic to the line, the collapse of both the clay and marble industries, and the increase in private car ownership in the second half of the 20th century made the line unprofitable. Closure was first proposed in 1967, and despite local opposition the line finally closed on 3 January 1972.
In the meantime the Swanage Railway had started operating a steam service at the Swanage end of the line in 1982.
There were concerns that reopening Corfe Castle station as a northern terminus for the Swanage Railway would cause parking problems in the village. It was therefore decided to extend the line a further half a mile north to a new Park and Ride site built on the former location of the exchange sidings
Corfe Castle station reopened on 12 August 1995, although the official opening was not until February of the following year.
Corfe Castle station is also the home of the Swanage Railway's Railway Museum, which is housed in the old goods shed and an adjacent rail van.
Hartland Moor Nature Reserve on the road from Arne to Corfe. Together with adjoining reserves, Hartland Moor forms one of the largest areas of lowland heath and mire in the county—known as the Dorset Heaths #sssi #dorsetheaths #lowlandheath #wessex #bagshotbeds #purbeck #cycledorset #arne #wareham #eastdorset
The Himalayan Gardens at Minterne House, Minterne Magna in the Cerne Valley, Dorset. .
20 acres of wild woodland gardens, noted for the historic collection of Rhododendrons, Azaleas & Magnolias.
Between 1850 and 1947, Victorian plant hunters voyaged across the world, sponsored by amateur garden enthusiasts and brought countless new exotic species to English gardens; the seeds were shared around the sponsors who propagated this as a basis for exotic subtropical shrub gardens. Minterne Gardens were at the forefront of planting these newly introduced species.
#minterne #localguide #cernevalley #minternemagna #RHS #royalhorticulturalsociety #rhododendron #garden #subtropicalgarden #minternemagnagardens #Dorset #January #Lockdown3 #Wessex #englishgarden #Himalayangarden #Digby #guidelocal #exploredorset #farfromthemaddingcrowd #Dorsetguide #england #swisbest❤️ #lovefordorset #secretdorset #january2021 #Dorsetwinter #cycledorset
Corfe Castle and the Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham to Swanage, Dorset opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway
The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic.
After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the area around Corfe Castle was known for its supply of Purbeck Ball Clay, which at that time was shipped by a pair of horse-drawn tramways to Poole Harbour. The port of Swanage at the tip of the Isle was equally well known for the Purbeck Marble mined locally and shipped out by sea.
While the development of Swanage as a tourist resort brought additional passenger traffic to the line, the collapse of both the clay and marble industries, and the increase in private car ownership in the second half of the 20th century made the line unprofitable. Closure was first proposed in 1967, and despite local opposition the line finally closed on 3 January 1972.
In the meantime the Swanage Railway had started operating a steam service at the Swanage end of the line in 1982.
There were concerns that reopening Corfe Castle station as a northern terminus for the Swanage Railway would cause parking problems in the village. It was therefore decided to extend the line a further half a mile north to a new Park and Ride site built on the former location of the exchange sidings
Corfe Castle station reopened on 12 August 1995, although the official opening was not until February of the following year.
Corfe Castle station is also the home of the Swanage Railway's Railway Museum, which is housed in the old goods shed and an adjacent rail van.
Grade 2.
Table-tomb Monument to Combe in churchyard. Early C18. Grey stone with bolection-moulded panel with round-headed ends. . Momento mori on east end. Inscription to Frances Combe, wife of Mr Brian Combe of in the parish of Evershot, died Dec 1704"
Grade 1.
C12 and C13 nave and chancel. Octagonal bell-turret. South doorway Norman.
Table-tomb Monument to Combe in churchyard. Early C18. Grey stone with bolection-moulded panel with round-headed ends. . Momento mori on east end. Inscription to Frances Combe, wife of Mr Brian Combe of in the parish of Evershot, died Dec 1704"
The Himalayan Gardens at Minterne House, Minterne Magna in the Cerne Valley, Dorset. .
20 acres of wild woodland gardens, noted for the historic collection of Rhododendrons, Azaleas & Magnolias.
Between 1850 and 1947, Victorian plant hunters voyaged across the world, sponsored by amateur garden enthusiasts and brought countless new exotic species to English gardens; the seeds were shared around the sponsors who propagated this as a basis for exotic subtropical shrub gardens. Minterne Gardens were at the forefront of planting these newly introduced species.
#minterne #localguide #cernevalley #minternemagna #RHS #royalhorticulturalsociety #rhododendron #garden #subtropicalgarden #minternemagnagardens #Dorset #January #Lockdown3 #Wessex #englishgarden #Himalayangarden #Digby #guidelocal #exploredorset #farfromthemaddingcrowd #Dorsetguide #england #swisbest❤️ #lovefordorset #secretdorset #january2021 #Dorsetwinter #cycledorset
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Chesil Beach Walk/Cycle between Abbotsbury and West Bexington.
Littered with WW2 pillboxes, machine gun emplacements and radar stations.
Following Hitler's directive on 16 July 1940 to ensure England could not be a base from which war could be pursued against Germany, codenamed Operation Sealion, an invasion of the southern English Coast seemed imminent and Dorset was identified to be a favoured landing point.
Britain’s ability to defend herself was seriously compromised especially due to the fact that so much crucial equipment had been abandoned during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The Directorate of Fortifications and Works at the British War Office was set up in May 1940 to devise specific designs for small defensive constructions to be built along the coast, such as the hexagonal pillboxes.
The success of the Battle of Britain forced Hitler to indefinitely postpone the invasion and after the war the defenceswere left to be demolished, gradually decompose or crumble into the sea.
#Jurassiccoast #WestBexington #Dorsetcoast #ww2 #pillboxes #June2021 #southwestcoastpath #wessex #Dorset #CycleDorset #ExploreDorset
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Late afternoon in January up along the ancient South Dorset Ridgeway with views across Weymouth Bay to Portland and above the famous White Horse depicting King George III riding away from his favourite seaside town towards Poxwell.
King George was advised to spend as much time as possible by the sea for the benefit of his health. He would often ride along the Ridgeway to visit his friend at Poxwell Manor.
You can just make out two of the 'stranded' Cruise Ships inside Portland Harbour, probably to shelter from Storm Christophe
#January #cycledorset #AONB #UNESCO #Osmington #DorsetHistory #PortlandHarbour #swisbest #lovefordorset #cyclejurassiccoast #DorsetJanuary #wessex #Poxwell #cyclewessex #portland #southdorsetridgeway #weymouth #thomashardycountry #sheep #lockdown3 #lockdown2021 #lockdowncycle #januarysunset #england #VisitDorset #walkDorset #winterdorset #landofboneandstone #farfromthemaddingcrowd #farmland #thomashardycountry
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Chesil Beach Walk/Cycle between Abbotsbury and West Bexington.
Littered with WW2 pillboxes, machine gun emplacements and radar stations.
Following Hitler's directive on 16 July 1940 to ensure England could not be a base from which war could be pursued against Germany, codenamed Operation Sealion, an invasion of the southern English Coast seemed imminent and Dorset was identified to be a favoured landing point.
Britain’s ability to defend herself was seriously compromised especially due to the fact that so much crucial equipment had been abandoned during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The Directorate of Fortifications and Works at the British War Office was set up in May 1940 to devise specific designs for small defensive constructions to be built along the coast, such as the hexagonal pillboxes.
The success of the Battle of Britain forced Hitler to indefinitely postpone the invasion and after the war the defenceswere left to be demolished, gradually decompose or crumble into the sea.
#Jurassiccoast #WestBexington #Dorsetcoast #ww2 #pillboxes #June2021 #southwestcoastpath #wessex #Dorset #CycleDorset #ExploreDorset
The Himalayan Gardens at Minterne House, Minterne Magna in the Cerne Valley, Dorset. .
20 acres of wild woodland gardens, noted for the historic collection of Rhododendrons, Azaleas & Magnolias.
Between 1850 and 1947, Victorian plant hunters voyaged across the world, sponsored by amateur garden enthusiasts and brought countless new exotic species to English gardens; the seeds were shared around the sponsors who propagated this as a basis for exotic subtropical shrub gardens. Minterne Gardens were at the forefront of planting these newly introduced species.
#minterne #localguide #cernevalley #minternemagna #RHS #royalhorticulturalsociety #rhododendron #garden #subtropicalgarden #minternemagnagardens #Dorset #January #Lockdown3 #Wessex #englishgarden #Himalayangarden #Digby #guidelocal #exploredorset #farfromthemaddingcrowd #Dorsetguide #england #swisbest❤️ #lovefordorset #secretdorset #january2021 #Dorsetwinter #cycledorset
Chesil Beach close to West Bexington.
Littered with WW2 pillboxes, machine gun emplacements and radar stations.
Following Hitler's directive on 16 July 1940 to ensure England could not be a base from which war could be pursued against Germany, codenamed Operation Sealion, an invasion of the southern English Coast seemed imminent and Dorset was identified to be a favoured landing point.
Britain’s ability to defend herself was seriously compromised especially due to the fact that so much crucial equipment had been abandoned during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The Directorate of Fortifications and Works at the British War Office was set up in May 1940 to devise specific designs for small defensive constructions to be built along the coast, such as the hexagonal pillboxes.
The success of the Battle of Britain forced Hitler to indefinitely postpone the invasion and after the war the defenceswere left to be demolished, gradually decompose or crumble into the sea.
#Jurassiccoast #WestBexington #Dorsetcoast #ww2 #pillboxes #June2021 #southwestcoastpath #wessex #Dorset #CycleDorset #ExploreDorset