Roman Wall, Albert Road, Dorchester, 29/04/15.

Tags

Albert Road Dorchester, Dorchester, Dorset, Highways & Byways in Dorset, Roman, Roman Britain, Roman occupation, Roman Wall Dorchester, Romano-British, Sir Fredrick Treves, Thomas Hardy

“Very numerous indeed are the Roman remains which have been found in and about Dorchester. The town, as Thomas Hardy says, “announced old Rome in every street, alley, and precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome. It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town, fields and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire, who had lain there in his silent, unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years”. In the museum are piles of Roman relics. The town itself still conforms to the lines laid down by the builders from Rome – a town of four main streets, North, South, East, and West”. 

Sir Fredrick Treves, “Highways & Byways in Dorset“.

Thomas Hardy Related Blue Plaque, Barclays Bank, 10 South Street, Dorchester, 29/04/15.

Tags

architecture, blue plaques, brickwork, Dorchester, Dorset, English Literature, South Street Dorchester, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

“This house is reputed to have been lived in by…”.

To paraphrase my good friend and occasional travelling companion Mr. W, “Perhaps, one day, someone will write about us looking at this blue plaque and then they might put up a blue plaque to commemorate the fact we looked at it“. I didn’t mention it at the time, but I did think to myself, “Getting the fact we looked at this blue plaque in print and published, on the internet at least, might be easier than you think!” My travelling companions and I are not well versed in the works of Thomas Hardy, although we had all heard of his novel “The Mayor of Casterbridge” and you can’t visit Dorchester for long before you find out Hardy’s fictional Casterbridge was based on Dorchester, so the presence of a Thomas Hardy related plaque did not come as a surprise. The unusual wording of the plaque was quite a talking point though, because it seems to commemorate the occupation of the building by a fictional character, although I think the spirit of the message is meant to convey that Thomas Hardy’s description of the house in the novel was inspired by this rather grand building. Perhaps I should read more Hardy before I return to Dorchester in the Summer and then I might see the place very differently.

I used that cash machine.

So, in the hope of getting our pseudonyms on a blue plaque in Dorchester one day, I would like to put into writing that Mr. W [my advisor in all things relating to Dorset folklore, public houses and micro breweries], Mrs. W [my advisor in all things historical, knitted or baked] and myself, Mr.B, [flâneur, blogger, man of letters and amateur photographer] stood outside number 10 South Street, Dorchester, on the afternoon of the 29th April 2015.

Now, how long do we have to wait for a blue plaque?

pS. Speaking of knitting, have you seen the Dalek Mrs. W knitted for me? It’s quite something!  https://anticsroadshowblogspot.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/souvenirs-knitted-dalek-wimborne-minster-september-2011/