The Character of Wessex: The Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase

Cranborne Chase has been a hunting ground since the time of the Bastard. It forms part of a wider character area stretching from just south of Salisbury to just north of Weymouth, and otherwise known, along with the neighbouring Dorset Heaths character area, as Hardy Country. It is a sparsely-populated chalk downland dominated by food production, though much of its arable land has been given over to the production of biofuels.

There is archaeological evidence of human settlement on the Downs from the Mesolithic onwards. Important Neolithic and Bronze Age sites include Maiden Castle, Hambledon Hill and the Dorset Cursus. The area also contains the famous “rude man” of Cerne Abbas. Dorchester, civitas capital of the Durotriges, was an important settlement in Roman times.

The chalky grasslands and prehistoric woodlands are an important habitat for species such as the skylark and marsh fritillary. Meanwhile, the chalk streams contain threatened species of fish such as the bullhead and brook lamprey. The local Wiltshire Horn and Dorset Horn are two of the oldest English sheep breeds.

The A354 highway from Salisbury to Portland bisects the area, linking the main settlements of Dorchester and Blandford Forum. For a couple of miles, it follows an old Roman road, Ackling Dyke, which once connected Old Sarum with the Badbury Rings near Wimborne.

The linear villages are mainly clustered along the deep river valleys. Older houses tend to be timber-framed and made of brick, sometimes mixed with flint or the chalky limestone rock known as clunch.

Wessex Attractions: Stoke-sub-Hamdon Priory

Stoke-sub-Hamdon Priory, two miles west of Montacute House, is a collection of 14th century farm buildings that once housed the college of priests serving the Chapel of St Nicholas, which no longer survives. The 15th century Great Hall, a Grade I listed building, is open to visitors, and the entire complex is maintained by the National Trust.

The buildings are constructed from the local Ham Hill stone, and originally housed four priests. The college had already fallen into disrepair before the dissolution of the monasteries, and passed into the hands of the laity in 1548. The buildings changed hands several times over the next 70 years, eventually being sold to the Strode family. The National Trust acquired the complex in 1946.

The satnav postcode is TA14 6QP, and the what3words is ///resembles.backfired.contour. Bus numbers 81 and 652 stop at nearby Main Street Post Office.

Wessex On Screen: The Mother of Dartmoor

 The Mother of Dartmoor is a 1916 British silent drama film directed by George Loane Tucker., based on the novel The Mother by Eden Philpotts. It’s also a very difficult film to write about, at’s not clear whether any copies even survive more than a century later. Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), abd Letterboxd only have scant details about it, and it is not available to view on YouTube or any streaming service. In desperation, I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post about it. Now, ChatGPT is notorious for simply making things up when it doesn’t know the answer to a question, so I can’t guarantee that any of what follows is accurate. But here’s what it came up with:

In the rugged and hauntingly beautiful landscape of Dartmoor, a gripping tale unfolds. The heart of the story revolves around a mother’s love, loyalty, and the painful choices she must make.

Avesa Pomeroy, portrayed by the talented Elisabeth Risdon, finds herself in an agonizing predicament. Her son, Ives Pomeroy (played by Bertram Burleigh), is ensnared in a forbidden love affair with a married woman. Driven by passion, he turns to poaching, risking everything for the sake of this illicit romance.

But fate takes a cruel turn. Avesa, torn between her maternal instincts and the law, testifies against her own flesh and blood. Ives is sentenced to prison, and the weight of her decision hangs heavily upon her.

As the silent film unfolds, we witness the emotional turmoil, the stark beauty of Dartmoor, and the moral complexities that bind these characters. The haunting silence of the moors mirrors the unspoken grief and sacrifice that permeate the narrative.

Cast:

  • Elisabeth Risdon as Avesa Pomeroy: Her portrayal of a conflicted mother torn between love and duty is both poignant and powerful.
  • Bertram Burleigh as Ives Pomeroy: His performance captures the desperation of a man trapped by desire and circumstance.
  • Enid Bell as Jill Wicket: The enigmatic woman who ignites Ives’ passion.
  • George Bellamy as Matthew Northmore: The stern figure of justice who presides over the trial.
  • Sydney Fairbrother as Mrs. Bolt: A secondary character whose presence adds depth to the story.
  • Frank Stanmore as Sammy Bolt: A fellow poacher entangled in the web of secrets.
  • Hubert Willis as Moleskin: A mysterious figure lurking in the shadows.

The Mother of Dartmoor resonates beyond its silent frames. It explores themes of sacrifice, love, and the inexorable ties that bind families. The haunting landscapes of Dartmoor serve as a metaphor for the human soul—wild, untamed, and often unfathomable.

Though silent, this film speaks volumes about the human condition. It reminds us that our choices ripple through generations, leaving indelible marks on those we love.

As we revisit this cinematic relic, let us honor the silent era—a time when storytelling transcended words. The Mother of Dartmoor invites us to reflect on our own allegiances, the sacrifices we make, and the echoes of our decisions across time.

So, dear reader, step into the mist-shrouded moors, listen to the silent whispers of the past, and immerse yourself in the haunting beauty of this forgotten gem.

Wessex in Fiction: Wolf Solent

Wolf Solent is a 1929 novel by John Cowper Powys (1872-1963), the first of his four Wessex novels, though he was living in New York City when he wrote it. It tells of the eponymous character, modelled on Powys himself, returning to his childhood home town of Ramsgard in Dorset, a fictionalised version of Sherborne, following a mental breakdown which had cost him his previous job as a history teacher in London. There, he takes up a job as a literary assistant to the squire of nearby Kings Barton, modelled on Bradford Abbas.The novel chronicles his inner turmoil as he comes to believe that the book he is working on is immoral, and the squire the embodiment of evil.

The novel was published to great critical acclaim. VS Pritchett, writing in The Spectator, called it “as beautiful and strange as an electric storm”. However, this strangeness has meant that Powys has always remained something of a cult author, and has never achieved the mainstream appeal of Thomas Hardy, whose Wessex novels provided the model for Powys’s.

St Ealdhelm’s Day 2015: Salisbury’s Chequers

This article originally appeared in Wessex Chronicle Volume 16, Issue 2 (Summer 2015)

Jim Gunter’s annual tour for St Ealdhelm’s Day this year visited Salisbury. Jim’s notes for the our run to 50 pages and so only the faintest flavour of the experience can be reproduced here. We started at Crane Street Bridge, calling first at the nearby Diocesan Offices, still
with the original 15th century doors.

Then we were off into the city centre, stripping back the centuries to consider how Salisbury – New Sarum – has evolved since its foundation as a planned settlement in the 13th century. Some 170 new towns were built in England between 1066 and 1350, but Salisbury is the only one planned as a cathedral city and this shows in the contrast between the ecclesiastical Close and the Chequers, the grid plan of commercial streets to its north. Each block has a name, often taken from one of the pubs, as do many of the corners. Because the Bishop of Salisbury controlled the land and regulated its use, and because the records have survived, it is possible to trace which trades have used which streets when and even who was in residence. Modern street names are no guide to past uses as trades have moved around. Even the Poultry Cross

was originally the site where fruit and veg were sold; the original poultry market was in Silver Street. In the side streets, many mediæval buildings have survived relatively unchanged.

Even in the main streets, once it’s remembered that the shopfronts are new and that behind those Georgian windows lurk half-timbered buildings, on plots whose dimensions are fixed by ancient deeds, it becomes clear that the city remains remarkably true to its original plan. There’s been infilling (the Market Place today being about half its original size), plots have been amalgamated and sub-divided and roof lines have been raised

but look up or in and you see a different Salisbury from the one of chain stores and motor traffic. Two examples must suffice. Externally, the Odeon cinema on New Canal looks like modern mock Tudor.

Inside it’s something much older, its foyer

being the hall of a mediæval merchant’s house, restored in the 1830s by A W N Pugin, the neo-Gothic architect and designer who worked on the Houses of Parliament, and sensitively adapted in the 1930s by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. It’s a surreal experience to walk from the ticket counter to the auditorium by way of something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Harry Potter film. The hall was built between 1470 and 1483 by a Hall, John Hall, a leading Wiltshire wool dealer.We broke for coffee at the Boston Tea Party, whose premises occupy the former Old George Hotel in High Street. Upstairs is all half-timber, panelling and plaster, including some striking wyverns.

Occasionally, an old building emerges from its modern skin; the example on the corner of the Market Place

is now known as ‘Nuggs 1268’, referring to the name of the first known occupier and the date of occupation, though this is of the plot not the building, which dates from a century or two later. A mere youngster by Salisbury standards. Besides its ancient tradition of commerce, Salisbury also has a fine heritage of public buildings, such as the Guildhall (the latest of several civic chambers that have moved location around the Market Place), St Thomas’ Church with its dramatic ‘Doom’ painting and local coats-of-arms, St Edmund’s Church and numerous imposing almshouses.After lunch at our usual venue, the Royal George, we searched the grounds of Wiltshire County Council’s offices, further up on Bedwin Street, for an 17th century urn.

It marks the spot where some old armour was discovered and assigned at the time to the Anglo-Saxon era, relics, it was thought, of King Cynric’s battle against the Britons in 552.

The Latin inscription is worn now but starts off with a reference to ‘Cynricus, Occidentalium Saxonum Rex’. So close to our regular meeting point and all that; we couldn’t have planned it better.