North Dorset

North Dorset is almost entirely velvety green and undulating, with farms and small pretty villages. Much of it is taken up with the huge Vale of Blackmore, in its turn part of the Stour Valley. Blandford Forum, Sherborne, Gillingham, Shaftesbury and Sturminster Newton are the historic market towns, which serve the area.

I'm approaching today, from the New Forest, crossing the Dorset Heaths to Horton. There are several villages called Horton in England, but only one has a mysterious tower. The Horton Tower, looming from the hillside, is a seven storey gothic red brick observatory, designed by Humphrey Sturt. Its actual history, and construction, is vague. There were even two Humphrey Sturts, father and son, who could have been responsible. One possible date, is 1726 and one possible story suggests that Sturt built the tower to overlook the Earl of Shaftesbury’s adjacent estate at Wimborne, the two men being said to be ‘at variance’. It might even have been intended as a watchtower, for local hunting parties.

It seems to have been neglected quite quickly and used as a granary store. So, just as quickly, it became known as ‘Sturt’s Folly’. In 1906, Sir Frederick Treves published a celebration of his birth county, called Highways and Byways in Dorset. Treves described the tower thus: ‘The only blot on the landscape is the nightmare tower of Horton, built for an observatory, and now happily falling into decay.’ Today, its been partially restored and is used as a disguised mobile phone mast for operator Vodafone. Is that a happy ending?

Cranborne Chase

But, the local jewel in the crown is Shaftesbury, worth the extra hour it takes me, to traverse the east of the county, from south to north. From Horton, I'm crossing the Cranborne Chase National Landscape. It's a chalk plateau, once part of this medieval hunting forest. The roads are narrow, as I roll up and down routes carved out of the hillside and through slender high streets. Sometimes we're down to passing places only. It's a good job it's a glorious day and I'm not in any hurry.

Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury (which featured in Thomas Hardy's books as Shaston) is on the edge of the Cranborne Landscape, unusually perched on the top of a hill, with glorious views across the Blackmore Vale, from the crest of the scarp slope. There's even a walkway along the top of the ridge, so you can admire it, and visit the abbey ruins (when they're open). The abbey is ancient, founded by King Alfred, in 888, but destroyed in Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.

Gold Hill, running down the side of the scarp slope is nationally famous. It's chocolate box exquisite, with its perfect cottages, strung along a curve. It featured for many years in Ridley Scott's Hovis adverts, for TV. There's even a loaf above the slope, to remind us tourists. There are also the usual churches and market town shops, of course. And there's even a Saxon hillfort on Castle Hill.

Stock Gaylard Deer Park

Tootling south, across the Dorset Downs, and through more charming villages, I spot a herd of deer, elegantly meandering towards a lake. They're a mix of fallow and common deer and this seems to be Stock Gaylard, possibly the oldest deer park in the country, created in the thirteenth century. Though records are hazy.

Dorchester - The County Town

Dorchester is small for a county town, but it's suitably historic, a market town, on the banks of the River Frome, to the south of the Dorset Downs. Settlements around here date back to prehistoric times. The Romans established a garrison, after defeating the Durotriges tribe, calling the nearby associated dwelling areas Durnovaria; they built an aqueduct to supply water and an amphitheatre on an ancient British earthwork. Then, in the Middle Ages, Dorchester became an important commercial and political centre. In Stuart times it was one of the sites of the "Bloody Assizes", presided over by Judge Jeffreys, after the Monmouth Rebellion and later, in 1834, the trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Dorchester has listed buildings galore (mostly churches) and there are also a surprising number of museums, for a relatively small place. There's the Town Museum and Art Gallery and a Dinosaur Museum. (You can't get away from dinosaurs round here.) There's the Shire Museum and the Military Museum in the Castle Keep. But for some reason there's also a Tutankhamun Exhibition. It has been there for some years and has good reviews. Though, oddly, it's housed in an old church, with stained glass windows. And it's been joined by a Terracotta Warriors Exhibition and a Teddy Bear Museum. Clearly, dinosaurs are not enough to keep the grockles (tourists) entertained.

Most of Dorchester is clustered around the High Street, with boutique shops, in little arched malls, and squares sprouting along the sides. There are more historic buildings alongside the River Frome, to add a tad more lustre, and numerous church spires.

Dorchester and Thomas Hardy

Dorchester boasts numerous celebrities. The most notable is author Thomas Hardy (a magistrate here), who placed Dorset at the centre of his fictionalised 'Wessex'. He was definitely not a contented man. I've read nearly all his books and none of them has a happy ending. In the worst, the heroine has a heart attack just as she is being reunited with her younger lover. Far from the Madding Crowd has the only vaguely positive conclusion, but even Bathsheba didn't end up with the man she really wanted. The Mayor of Casterbridge uses a thinly disguised Dorchester as its setting.

Hardy's home (self-designed), Max Gate, is now owned by the National Trust. Closed, of course, when I visit. And, if you really want to push the boat out, his birthplace cottage is also accessible to tourists, a little further out of town. There are numerous Hardy references around Dorchester, of course. Casterbridge Accommodation anyone? But there's also a Judge Jeffries pub. Despite the bloodiness of the Assizes.

Dorchester isn't only about history. Under construction, on the western edge of Dorchester, is the experimental new town of Poundbury, commissioned and co-designed by Charles III, when he was Prince of Wales. The suburb, which is expected to be fully completed by 2025, was designed to integrate residential and retail buildings and counter the growth of dormitory towns and car-oriented development. Its name is prominent on several of the passing buses.

Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle, just outside Dorchester, is one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts in Europe - the size of 50 football pitches. It's believed that occupancy of some kind here, dates back over 6,000 years. Archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler excavated the hillfort, and the nearby Iron Age cemetery. The story is told in the Dorchester Town Museum.

Wheeler believed this was a war cemetery, evidence for a Roman attack on the hillfort following their invasion of Britain in AD 43. While most of the hillforts in Wessex went out of use during the later Iron Age, Maiden Castle was still occupied at the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43. The 2nd Legion Augusta, under their leader Vespasian, is indeed known to have led a campaign through this part of southern England. It's a good excuse for my class to stage a mock battle up the ramparts.

And the great view across the towering ramparts, and over to Dorchester, is another good reason to revisit in early January. Although the ice and mud prove almost lethal.