Gallery

North Easterly view from Dorchester. Most of the land in the middle to far distance (excluding Puddletown woods on skyline) classified as ‘developable’.

Separating Dorchester from Cokers Frome are the water meadows and flood plain of the River Frome. This area floods regularly.

From Poundbury hillfort, a scheduled monument of national significance, the link road will be clearly visible as it cuts across the water meadows between Westleaze and Lower Burton Farm, joining the A37 with a major junction below the hillfort.

One of three signs put up on public foot paths at Cokers Frome Farm during the corona virus lockdown, March 2020.

Joint walk with the Thomas Hardy Society.

The site is popular with walkers and ramblers’ groups.

The shallow water at Blue Bridge is a natural play area.

Cars streaming in to the Dorchester Show.

STAND, Dorchester Show, 2019.

The best agricultural land is leased by Kingston Maurward College from the Ilchester Estates to teach agriculture.

Nearly 1,000acres of productive farmland will be destroyed.

Wheat field. Site of the link road and a ‘Local Centre’, ie retail and leisure.

Barley field. 472 acres of arable land will be destroyed.

Dorset Poll sheep, used for wool and meat.

213 acres of improved and unimproved pasture are used to graze cattle and sheep.

Maize – an important crop for livestock feed and oil.

River Frome, the most westerly example of a major chalk stream in UK. Photographed near Blue Bridge, a local hotspot for wildlife and unofficial nature reserve already much valued by townspeople.

Summer floods. View North towards Cokers Frome from near Grey’s Bridge. Proposed location for footpath / cycle link.

Summer flood water threatening to overwhelm Grey’s Bridge, July 2012.

View North from London Road towards Cokers Frome. The water meadows regularly flood in winter.

Kingfishers occasionally nest in the banks of the River Frome.

Roe deer breed in the grounds of Frome House and surrounding farmland.

Small tortoiseshell butterfly, a species of conservation concern.

Song thrush eating sloe, fruit of the blackthorn, a common hedgerow shrub.

The hedgerows and local farmland provide habitats for flocks of yellow hammers, a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Blue Bridge, the old drove road heading north out of Dorchester, now a popular recreational area.

Blue Bridge was built in 1877 by Major General Shurlock Henning who lived at Frome House, Frome Whitfield.

1908 postcard. “Do you know this little walk? It is lovely.” Quote from 1912 postcard.

1914 postcard showing continuation of Frome Path, now part of the Cerne Valley Trail.

The drovers’ path and the water meadows link Dorchester with its hinterland, the rolling downland of north Dorchester.

Frome Path as it skirts the grounds of Frome House.

Frome Path remains a very popular recreational walk.

Several Dorset Council walkers’ trails converge around Blue Bridge / Frome Path.

Ratty’s Trail links Blue Bridge and Grey’s Bridge and is named after the water voles slowly returning to the Frome.

Looking south from Ratty’s Trail across the water meadows to Dorchester, showing the sharp transition between the town and the water meadows. This area designated as ‘Open Space / Nature Reserve’. © Rupert Hardy.

Mature trees support the UK Biodiversity Action Plan including rare lichens.

Cokers Frome Farm. Development land south of Frome Whitfield Lane.

Water meadows designated as ‘Open Space’. ‘Convenient’ foot/cycle links will cross the flood plain of the River Frome even though it floods every year.

The Dorset County Show, the largest annual outdoor event in Dorset, will have to be relocated.

The Dorset County Show attracts 60,000 visitors over two days.

Development land. Imagine houses instead of cars dominating the sky line.

The Showground, location of the Dorset County Show and similar events, will be developed.

Foreground, site of Cokers Frome medieval village, a scheduled ancient monument. In the distance, development land.

The raised platforms of medieval houses are just visible in the foreground.

Fields of barley. Even outside the AONB the landscape is of high quality and in places designated Land of Local Landscape Importance. Development land.

The gentle downland that characterises the setting of the River Frome and Dorchester. Looking south west from the continuation of Frome Whitfield Lane. Development land.

Dorchester’s rural setting is integral to the town’s history and character. The development site will be clearly visible from Dorchester’s Conservation Area.

Between Frome Whitfield Lane, where this picture was taken, and the farm cottages, will be a main road, development and ‘Local Centre’, i.e. retail and leisure.

The tranquillity of early morning in Lovers Lane will become a memory, replaced by the roar of traffic.

The proposed link road will cut across Lovers Lane, destroying this vital green corridor.

Mature hedges provide an excellent habitat for wildlife including farmland birds, mammals and wild flowers.

Development land.

Habitat networks, including hedgerows vital for wildlife, will be destroyed by the link road and development.

Development land.

This dry valley will be the site of several Attenuation Ponds intended to cope with the massive run off and pollution from the link road and development.

The link road between the A35 and A37 will cut across this public right of way.

Mature trees provide habitats for rare species such as lichens. Attenuation tanks will be located in the dry river valley to reduce nitrate pollution draining into the river.

Kingston Maurward College leases the land from Ilchester Estates to teach agriculture.

Hedges provide a linear habitat and are Priority Habitats in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

The hedgerow on the skyline is the site of a Bronze Age cemetery. People have lived, farmed and died here for thousands of years.

Bronze Age cemetery site. Although the burial mounds have been destroyed above ground, the primary burials may still be intact. ‘Developable’ land.

On the horizon, Hardy’s Monument and the prehistoric South Dorset Ridgeway. The cemetery site may be part of a northern equivalent. ‘Developable’ land.

Looking west from the cemetery site. At least 6 burial mounds have been identified; further mounds may be obscured by the hedgerow.

View south west. The development site, including houses, a schools campus and link road, will be intervisible with Dorchester.

The line of burial mounds must have been a prominent feature on the skyline and used to delineate field boundaries. The hedge probably dates to the time of the enclosures.

View east beyond Eweleaze Barn to Bockhampton and Thomas Hardy’s birthplace.

Approx 1,000 acres will be taken out of food production if the development goes ahead.

View north. Beyond the barn will be an open space to provide a buffer with Higher Kingston Farm, also owned by the Ilchester Estates.

View south towards Hardy’s Monument and AONB. Poundbury is clearly visible to the west. The proposed development is 1½ times the size of Poundbury and will be even more visible.