AC Kershaw's latest Crime Fiction Series -The Mancunian Tales

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

A Year in a Motorhome Adventure - Dorset - Jurassic Coast - Charmouth - Lyme Regis - New Forest - Sherbourne, Week 46

 Monday, 6 July 2015 Week 46

 This week we have moved out of Devon and into Dorset, stopping of first in Charmouth, a charming little village just down the road from the pretty seaside town of Lyme Regis. Because it was raining I couldn't get great pictures, but I think this gives you an idea.

Dorset is famous for its Jurassic coastline and Lyme Regis is full of references to this with Dinosaur heads and fossils decorating a lot of the shop windows. This T-Rex skull was enormous and took up most of the shop window, very impressive.

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  I joked that this was where I first found Del! He didn't find it funny... Teehee!

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 I couldn't resist this. A Bear shop in Lyme Regis has a Teddy Bear and Doll hospital at the back of the shop. Each Bear has it own bed and little monitor graphs at the end of the beds. All Bears and Dolls are genuine cases and rushed there for treatment from all over the country.

The guy that fixes them is also referred to as Bear Doctor!  It's really cute and just reminded me of when Cabbage Patch Kids first exploded onto the market and they were born from actual cabbages as a marketing ploy!
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We had a drive inland one day and went to Sherbourne, but on the way, there we stopped off to look at the Cerne Giant. A white chalk painting of a nudey dudey holding a club! Some say it's from ancient Britain’s others think it's only from the 1600's and is a caricature of Oliver Cromwell as historians have only found a mention of it in historical documents since civil war times.

This was the best view of the Giant, apparently, it's been linked to the White Horse and the Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex.
Although some people believe it's a depiction of Hercules and others say it’s a Saxon or Celtic Deity, but no-one can really agree!

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This is the Almshouse of St John the Baptist in Sherborne. We went to Sherborne on a Friday and The Castle was closed, this Almshouse was closed and the church/abbey was closed for a private service! Hey ho, we still had a wander around the town and it was as they say one of the most picturesque towns in England. The Sherborne Church and Abbey which was closed. 

But we could wander around the pretty grounds and gardens.

The Elizabethan Square and Sherborne's Museum was here. It was cute, I think is the best way to describe the place. Not much of interest to me except the folklore and witchcraft section which explained where some of today’s odd folk-tales and superstitions come from.

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We moved on further into the New Forest for a few days and took an open top bus trip around about a third of the New Forest, which took a whole day. We stopped off at this quaint little village of Burley which is famous for Smugglers and Witches - Sybil the witch used to walk around with Crow on her shoulder.

This was a fascinating shop in Burley. Loved it. Lots of witchy and new age stuff in there.

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A beautiful view of Isle of Wight from Milford On Sea on our open top bus tour... 

New forest ponies. Very calm and not frightened around humans at all. We could walk right up to them to take pictures. Lovely.

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 The Views over the New Forest.

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Selfy on the Bus tour. I suggest a helmet for some areas where one gets whacked in the face by overhanging branches through the foresty bits. Inside the Coven of Witches shop. Very cool place.


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