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Dorchester

Dorchester is known for being the birthplace of Thomas Hardy but it has more to offer. Dorchester was founded in 70AD by the Romans, who called it Durnovaria.
The Romans first came to the area in 43AD , after defeating the native Durotriges tribe in siege at the nearby hillford of Maiden Caste. Today the traces of a Roman time can still be seen at a villa Colliton Park, and a variety of local Roman mosaics can be seen at the County Museum.

The county town of Dorchester has much to offer the visitor. Take a walk through the city centre with its bustling shopping precincts, vital cultural life and an attractive market town with most of its interesting buildings dating from the 18th century.

Dorchester is quite conscious of its connections with novelist Thomas Hardy.
Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton a small village tree miles outside Dorchester. He attended school in Dorchester to later settle in town, living in the house he had built at Max Gate. When he was 16, he started working for John Hicks, a local architect whose offices were at 39 South Street, Dorchester.

After living in London for a while he returned to Dorset it he then published his first novel, Desperate Remedies. He went on to write a number of novels, and in his later life went on to write eight volumes of poetry, his last being Winter Words, in 1928, the year he died, aged 87.
A statue of Hardy, sculpted by Eric Kennington, was erected in 1931, and is located at the top of town in Dorchester.

Other attractions in Dorchester include The Teddy Bear House, the award-winning Dinosaur Museum, and The Tutankhamun Exhibition, displaying in meticulous detail the world of ancient Egypt and the buried treasure found at the tomb of King Tutankhamun.