The Postcard
A Plastichrome Series postcard that was published by Colourpicture Publishers Inc. of Norwich, Norfolk. The photography was by W. Skipper, and the card was printed in the United States.
Note the large sign for cigarettes which would not be allowed today.
On the divided back of the card the publishers have printed:
'High West Street,
Dorchester.
County Town of Dorset and
'Casterbridge' in the novels
of Thomas Hardy who was
born nearby in Higher
Bockhampton.
Dorchester, located by Roads
A35, 37, 353, and 354, is also
associated with Judge Jeffreys'.
Judge Jeffreys
Note the restaurant on the right.
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15th. May 1645 – 18th. April 1689), also known as "The Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge.
He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor. His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy, resulting in an historical reputation for severity and bias.
Dorchester, Dorset
Dorchester is the county town of Dorset, England. It is situated between Poole and Bridport. A historic market town, Dorchester is on the banks of the River Frome and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway that separates the area from Weymouth, 7 miles (11 km) to the south.
The area around the town was first settled in prehistoric times. The Romans established a garrison there, calling the settlement that grew up nearby Durnovaria; they built an aqueduct to supply water, and an amphitheatre on an ancient British earthwork.
After the departure of the Romans, the town diminished in significance, but during the medieval period became an important commercial and political centre. It was the site of the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jeffreys after the Monmouth Rebellion, and later the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
In the 2011 census, the population of Dorchester was 19,060, with people coming from surrounding areas to work in the town which has six industrial estates. The Brewery Square redevelopment project is taking place in phases, with other development projects planned.
Through vehicular traffic is routed round the town by means of a bypass. The town has a football club and a rugby union club, several museums and the bi-annual Dorchester Festival.
As well as having many listed buildings, a number of notable people have been associated with the town. It was for many years the home and inspiration of the author Thomas Hardy, whose novel The Mayor of Casterbridge uses a fictionalised version of Dorchester as its setting.
History of Dorchester
Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. The earliest settlements were about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the modern town centre in the vicinity of Maiden Castle, a large Iron Age hill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain.
Different tribes lived there from 4000 BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there when the Romans arrived in Great Britain in 43 AD.
The Romans had defeated the local tribes by 70 AD, and established a garrison that became the town the Romans named Durnovaria, incorporating durn, "fist", loosely interpreted as 'place with fist-sized pebbles'.
Durnovaria became a market centre for the surrounding countryside, and an important road junction and staging post.
The remains of the Roman walls that surrounded the town can still be seen. The majority have been replaced by pathways that form a square inside modern Dorchester known as 'The Walks'. A small segment of the original wall remains near the Top 'o Town roundabout.
Other Roman remains include the foundations of a town house near the county hall. Various Roman artefacts have been unearthed; in 1936 a cache of 22,000 3rd.-century Roman coins was discovered in South Street.
Other Roman finds include silver and copper coins known as Dorn pennies, a gold ring, a bronze figure of the Roman god Mercury, and large areas of tessellated pavement.
The County Museum contains many Roman artefacts. The Romans built an aqueduct to supply the town with water. It was rediscovered in 1900 as the remains of a channel cut into the chalk and contouring round the hills. The source is believed to be the River Frome at Notton, about 12 miles (19 km) upstream from Dorchester.
Near the town centre is Maumbury Rings, an ancient British henge earthwork converted by the Romans for use as an amphitheatre, and to the north west is Poundbury Hill, another pre-Roman fortification.
Medieval Dorchester
One of the first raids of the Viking era may have taken place near Dorchester around 790. According to a chronicler, the King's reeve assembled a few men and sped to meet them, thinking that they were merchants from another country.
When he arrived at their location, he admonished them and instructed that they should be brought to the royal town. The Vikings then slaughtered him and his men.
By 864, the area around Durnovaria was dominated by the Saxons who referred to themselves as Dorsaetas, 'People of the Dor' – Durnovaria. The town became known as Dornwaracester. This name evolved over time into Dorchester.
At the time of the Norman conquest, Dorchester was not a place of great significance; the Normans built a castle, but it has not survived. A priory was also founded, in 1364, though this also has since disappeared.
In the later medieval period the town prospered; it became a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset, with a textile trading and manufacturing industry which continued until the 17th. century.
Early Modern Dorchester
Daniel Defoe, in his A tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–26), wrote of Dorchester:
"The town is populous, tho' not large, the streets
broad, but the buildings old, and low; however,
there is good company and a good deal of it;
and a man that coveted a retreat in this world
might as agreeably spend his time, and as well
in Dorchester, as in any town I know in England."
In the 17th. and 18th. centuries, Dorchester suffered several serious fires: in 1613, caused by a tallow chandler's cauldron getting too hot and becoming alight; in 1622, started by a maltster; in 1725, begun in a brewhouse; and in 1775, caused by a soap boiler.
The 1613 fire was the most devastating, resulting in the destruction of 300 houses and two churches (All Saints and Holy Trinity).
Only a few of the town's early buildings have survived, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings and a Tudor almshouse. Among the replacements there are many Georgian buildings, such as the Shire Hall, which are built in Portland stone.
The municipal buildings, which incorporate the former corn exchange and the former town hall, were erected in 1848 on the site of an earlier town hall, which was built in 1791 and had a marketplace underneath.
In the 17th. century the town was at the centre of Puritan emigration to America, and the local rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
The first colonisation attempted was at Cape Ann, where fishermen who would rejoin the fishing fleet when the vessels returned the next year, tried to be self-sufficient. The land was however unsuitable, the colony failed and was moved to what is now Salem.
In 1628, the enterprise received a Royal Charter, and the Massachusetts Bay Company was formed with three hundred colonists arriving in America that year, and more the following year. For his efforts on behalf of Puritan dissenters, White has been called the unheralded founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Some observers have attributed the oversight to the fact that White, unlike John Winthrop, never went to America.)
In 1642, just before the English Civil War, Hugh Green, a Catholic chaplain was executed here. After his execution, Puritans played football with his head.
The town was heavily defended against the Royalists during the civil war, and Dorset was known as "the southern capital of coat-turning", as the county gentry found it expedient to change allegiance and to swap sides on several occasions.
In 1643, the town was attacked by 2,000 troops under Robert Dormer, 1st. Earl of Carnarvon. Its defences proved inadequate and it quickly surrendered, but was spared the plunder and punishment it might otherwise have received. It remained under Royalist control for some time, but was eventually recaptured by the Puritans.
In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth failed in his invasion attempt, the Monmouth Rebellion, and almost 300 of his men were condemned to death or transportation in the "Bloody Assizes" presided over by Judge Jeffreys in the Oak Room of the Antelope Hotel in Dorchester.
In 1833, the Tolpuddle Martyrs founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Trade unions were legal, but because the members swore an oath of allegiance, they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall.
Beneath the courtroom are cells where the prisoners were held while awaiting trial. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th. century and was used for holding convicted and remanded inmates from the local courts until it closed in December 2013. Plans have since been made to erect 189 dwellings and a museum on the site.
Modern Dorchester
Dorchester remained a compact town within the boundaries of the old town walls until the latter part of the 19th. century because all land immediately adjacent to the west, south and east was owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The land composed the Manor of Fordington.
The developments that had encroached onto it were Marabout Barracks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1794, the Dorchester Union Workhouse, to the north of Damer's Road, in 1835, the Southampton and Dorchester Railway and its station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847, the Great Western Railway and its station to the south of Damer's Road, in 1857, the waterworks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1854, a cemetery, to the west of the new railway, in 1856, and a Dorset County Constabulary police station in 1860.
The Duchy land was farmed under the open field system until 1874 when it was enclosed – or consolidated – into three large farms by the landowners and residents. The enclosures were followed by a series of key developments for the town: the enclosing of Poundbury hillfort for public enjoyment in 1876, the 'Fair Field' (new site for the market, off Weymouth Avenue) in 1877, the Recreation Ground (also off Weymouth Avenue) opening in 1880, and the Eldridge Pope Brewery of 1881, adjacent to the railway line to Southampton.
Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892, and land was purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road. The clock and bandstand were added in 1898.
A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of the Depot Barracks in 1881. The High West Street drill hall was created by converting a private house, around the same time.
Land was developed for housing outside the walls including the Cornwall Estate, between the Borough Gardens and the Great Western Railway from 1876 and the Prince of Wales Estate from 1880.
Land for the Victoria Park Estate was bought in 1896 and building began in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in February 1897.
Poundbury is the western extension of the town, constructed since 1993 according to urban village principles on Duchy of Cornwall land owned by Prince Charles. Being developed over 25 years in four phases, it will eventually have 2,500 dwellings and a population of about 6,000. Prince Charles was involved with the development's design.
The town's coat of arms depicts the old castle that used to stand on the site of the former prison. The royal purple background represents Dorchester's status as part of the monarch's private estate, a position held since before the Domesday Book was published.
The shield is divided into quarters, two depicting lions and two fleurs-de-lis. These are copied from the shields of the troops from Dorset who took part in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The fleurs-de-lis have a scattered arrangement which shows that permission for the armorial bearings was given before 1405, after which date the rights were varied by King Henry VI. The inscription 'Sigillum Bailivorum Dorcestre' translates as 'Seal of the Bailiffs of Dorchester'.
The town has been growing steadily with 11,620 residents in 1951, 13,740 in 1971 and 15,100 in 1991.
There are over five hundred ancient monuments along the chalk hills that form the nearby Ridgeway, including barrows, stone circles and hillforts; many archaeological finds from the area are on view at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.
Dorchester Culture
Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester, and his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge is set there. Hardy's childhood home is to the east of the town, and his town house, Max Gate, is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public. Hardy is buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart was removed and buried in Stinsford.
William Barnes, the West Country dialect poet, was Rector of Winterborne Came, a hamlet near Dorchester, for 24 years until his death in 1886. He ran a school in the town. There is a statue of Hardy and one of Barnes in the town centre; Barnes outside St. Peter's Church, and Hardy's beside the Top o' Town crossroads.
John Cowper Powys's novel Maiden Castle (1936) is set in Dorchester, and Powys intended it to be "a Rival of the Mayor of Casterbridge. Powys had lived in Dorchester as a child, between May 1880 and Christmas 1885, when his father was a curate there. Then, after returning from America in June 1934, he lived at 38 High East Street, Dorchester, until July 1935, when he moved to Wales. The building is commemorated with a plaque erected by the Dorchester Heritage Committee.
Notable People Associated With Dorchester
Notable people include:
-- Frances Bagenal, (born 1954), Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
-- Paul Blake (born 1990), Paralympian athlete.
-- James Campbell (born 1988), cricketer, was born in the town.
-- Aaron Cook (born 1991), a taekwondo athlete who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games, finishing in fifth place, was born and educated in Dorchester.
-- Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), novelist and poet, architecturally trained and settled in the town where he died at his home, Max Gate.
-- Paul Hillier (born 1949), classical singer and composer, was born in Dorchester. He attended the Thomas Hardye School.
-- Henry Moule (1801–1880), vicar of Fordington from 1829, and inventor of the dry earth closet.
-- Llewelyn Powys (1884–1939), novelist and essayist, was born in Dorchester.
-- Henry Pyrgos (born 1989), Scottish International rugby player, was born in the town.
-- Tom Roberts (1856–1931), Australian painter, was born in Dorchester.
-- Sir Frederick Treves (1853–1923), surgeon to King Edward VII, was born in Dorchester and buried at St Peter's Church.
-- Orlando Bailey, Rugby Union fly half for Bath Rugby was born in the town and attended Thomas Hardye School.
-- Julian Fellowes (born 1949 ), House of Lords, novelist, screenwriter, actor and producer. Producer of TV shows Downton Abbey and Gilded Age.
-- Lettice D'Oyly Walters (1880–1940), poet and editor
Twinned towns.
