Welcome to Shaftesbury

04/10/2024

with .repost
・・・
We are always so mesmerised with Gold Hill but the more time you spend here we notice the beauty extending over to the rolling green hills and into the sky. And look at the wall on the right, so crooked yet maintaining its strength to hold up the structures behind. Still standing so strong despite being around since approximately the 1360s.

Come and admire this stunning view with us . We are situated at the top of the hill, but don’t worry you can access us via town so there’s no need to tire out any legs walking up the cobbles.

25/09/2024

IT’S the biggest illuminated parade in and will bring its razzmatazz to the streets of this Saturday, the 28th. Follow .carnival for all the news and bring your goodwill and cash 👍😊

26/06/2024

Very nice of to pop by this morning and post this on his Twitter/X account. It had received 600k views within a few hours giving plenty of coverage to . Unsurprisingly, most answering his question recognised - some had different answers: “Behind your phone,” and “The historic village of Loafthwaite in deepest Hovisshire.” Loved this response the best - “Gold Hill! I remember my trusty horse managed that hill several times a day pulling their load. As we know, these days, a good cart is hard to find.” 👏👏

03/04/2024

There are a number of pillar boxes in North Dorset decorated with knitted covers - but this one takes the biscuit. Found on the post box atop today, it’s a wonderful woollen depiction of the famous bike seen in that iconic advert from the 1970s. Thanks to for posting and emphasising that is indeed

07/03/2024

Shaftesbury is sandwiched between two delightful vales - to the east .chase and to the west Blackmore Vale. This is Kington Magna, a village seven miles west of with a sunset equally visible from our town

19/02/2024

is a brilliant Dorset-based outfit that stages a ton of runs across the county of all standards - and has just introduced its first 24-hour event! Check them out - an intoxicating way to discover Dorset including environs and indeed

with .repost
・・・
Could you run for 24 hours? Why not find out at the new Cider 24 – our first-ever 24-hour race!

This will be running like our usual Frolics (normally 12 hours; we have one on the same weekend if you prefer the shorter time span). You can run as a team, with one of you out on the course at a time while the rest of you get some sleep, or you can challenge yourself to go solo, having breaks whenever you need to.

The race will start at 6pm on Friday 19th July, so you can get some distance in before it’s dark and also while it’s cooler. You can then run as many laps as you like up until 6pm on the Saturday. We will have entertainment and the bar on the Saturday night to celebrate your achievement.

There’s an amazing new medal in the works to show you soon too!

Sign up to take on our most epic challenge to date! Link in Profile.

07/02/2024

They’re here, bang on cue as , the universally recognised home to all things gears up to host a whole week of events to celebrate the vast arrays of 250,000 perfectly formed specimens that carpet the town, aka - go to the website shaftesburysnowdrops.org for full details of events from Feb 10-18

20/01/2024

Via - Winter Wellness Snowdrop Walk Saturday 10th February 10:30am
This is one for your diary: an hour-long wellness walk led by Shaftesbury Walking Group and taking in some of the best spots to enjoy snowdrops. The walk kicks off the 9 days of activities around Shaftesbury Snowdrops Festival. Combine winter wellness with learning a little more about Galanthus, the dainty harbingers of spring. The route does cover slopes and muddy areas, so please wear suitable footwear and note that this route is not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs.
Departing at 10.30 from in front of King Alfred’s Kitchen.
Free to all - just come along.

20/01/2024

Nobody ever got bored of posts and this is why - the same cottages but mixed with a little mist, two willing subjects and a style theme completes a palette that enthralls all and encourages a visit to - thanks again to

13/01/2024

The The BV magazine covers a swathe of Dorset and its borders west of Shaftesbury. It’s a free online mag and January’s issue is packed with countryside stories: forestry plans at , the best walks, beekeeper plans, housing issues, history, dark skies, great women artists, Dorset Food & Drink, farming resilience, wildlife and fantastic photography. A real taste of the land surrounding

It's the first BV of 2024! Come on in, it’s nice and warm in here
(actually, maybe go and make yourself a mug of tea or coffee first. And grab a couple of biscuits while you’re there - this one's a longer read, it's a bit of a thinky issue).
Click to read 👉 https://bvmag.co.uk/LatestIssue 👈

What you'll find inside:

📌 A forestry plan on farmland near Stourhead is proving contentious with the local community – F***y Charles heard from both sides as she takes a deep dive into the issue | Page 4
📌 Steve Keenan met Christopher Somerville to talk about his 35-year journey chronicling Britain’s footpaths for The Times and The Telegraph. We're lucky enough to have Christopher as our guest editor for Take a Hike this month too. | Page 12
📌 Not bootiful at all. Andrew Livingston is still furious about a recent Channel 4 documentary exposing the concerning food safety and standards at a Bernard Matthews’ factory. And even more furious we’re not all talking about it | Page 91
📌 Robert Cowley, MBE – magistrate, volunteer, actor, passionate campaigner … and plumber – selects his Dorset Island Discs
| Page 34
📌 Great women artists in Dorset. A major new exhibition at Dorset Museum explores the life and work of the world-famous sculptor who lived on Bulbarrow for nearly 20 years, and a new touring exhibition of the early work of an international feminist icon comes to Poole Lighthouse | Page 72
📌 Local Flavours is back! F***y Charles created the original column in the old BVM 20 years ago – and this month she returns to discuss how and why it came into being, and kicks off with an interview with Dorset Food & Drink's Caz Richards | Page 72
📌 Plus all the usual community news, local history, farming, wildlife, health, puzzles ...

🟩 The BV magazine 🟩 – every month we’re jam-packed with Dorset goodness. News, opinion, people … and frankly stunning photography. And it’s FREE. Why wouldn’t you want a flick through?
Click to read 👉 https://bvmag.co.uk/LatestIssue 👈

09/01/2024

The cold water experiment at lido in has really taken off, so much so that a part time manager has been appointed. Take a look then come take the plunge 😁

27/12/2023

Fabulous collaboration between Shaftesbury Snowdrops and ace cartographer Gary Cook cookthepainter.com - a brilliant combination that will give visitors the best February walk ever. Come see 200,000 snowdrops!

01/12/2023

・・・
We are delighted to welcome the Salisbury Cathedral stained-glass team who will be carrying out repairs/renovations to the Town Hall windows.

Kate, Sam and Saffron will be rebuilding the lead lights (some windows will actually need to be removed for this process), renovating the frames and then putting them back to together.

The Town Hall, which was built in 1827, so will be 200 years old in 2027, still has its original oak-framed windows, which is quite unusual for a building of this age.

These works form part of the wider repairs that are taking place at the Town Hall over the next five months.

09/10/2023

A particularly fine image of thanks to
・・・
A little stroll around Shaftesbury, including the ancient cobbles of Gold Hill made famous in the Hovis advert 🚲, and the remains of the old abbey founded by King Alfred in AD 888, the first abbey just for women. Such a pretty and interesting little town with lots of lovely independent shops too. Just be warned if you decide to venture down that hill your knees won't thank you for it!

Hope your week is going well xx

22/09/2023

Oh yes - nailed the autumn look there 👍
・・・
We 🧡 autumn! Do you?

09/09/2023

When you visit then a seven mile detour to will introduce you to and his artistic connections to
・・・
📣 Today we unveiled a new information board on the Town Meadow which summarises the two visits John Constable made to Gillingham in the 1800s.

💫 Exactly 200 years ago the great English landscape painter visited Gillingham and painted his famous oil painting ‘The Bridge at Gillingham’ which is housed in the Tate Gallery, London.

💫 We were honoured that John Constable’s descendant Sasha Constable and her mother Valerie were able to join us for the unveiling.

Thank you to Gillingham Local History Society, Gillingham Museum and Dr John Porter for providing the information for the board.

We would also like to thank the designer Jane Franklin and everyone else involved with the project.