Exploring Dorset’s heritage
Upton House is a stunning 17th century mansion house, housing an outstanding collection of English and Continental Old Master paintings and English and French 18th century porcelain. Its superb terraced gardens boast distant views, terraced flower borders, herbaceous borders, tranquil water gardens and the National Collection of asters.
Dorset Architectural Heritage Week is an annual event which aims to make Dorset’s architectural heritage more accessible to visitors, increasing their knowledge and understanding of local history. During the week, historic properties normally closed to the public are opened up and sites that visitors would have to pay to visit are free of charge. As part of ICM’s commitment to promoting social, economic and community development, the Institute is one of the event’s main sponsors. Our aim is to help ensure that Dorset’s historic buildings are preserved for the future and therefore enjoyed by many more generations to come.
The county of Dorset lies on the UK’s southern coastline set snugly between Hampshire and Devon and bordering Somerset and Wiltshire to its north. It is steeped in a rich history, boasting a wealth of historic buildings and sites of great architectural interest. Records suggest that some of Dorset’s oldest surviving buildings were constructed in the Middle Ages, whilst the county’s castles are estimated to date back over 1,000 years to the Viking and Saxon eras.
Dorset has been described by many historians as being a ‘house or mansion county, rather than a church county’. Peruse through lists of prominent sites of architectural interest and one realises that this is certainly true. Properties of significance range from country houses, fashionable terraces and sprawling farmhouses through to small cottages and farm buildings. The area is also, of course, home to a number of impressive castles and there are many notable churches to inspire the imagination.
Preserving history for future generations
Christchurch is a borough and town in Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth and the New Forest.
To help ensure that local residents and visitors can enjoy the local environment to its full potential, the East Dorset Heritage Trust (EDHT) was founded in 1987. The Trust is an environmental education charity, which is committed to the ‘care of our environment for the benefit of future generations’. It hopes that by increasing local residents’ knowledge and understanding of local heritage, they will be more likely to appreciate it and wish to conserve it.
In the early 1990s, the European Commission decided that it would be beneficial for each of its member states to provide their residents and visitors with a special focus one weekend a year. In the UK, the task was passed to the Civic Trust in London which concluded that the project should focus its attention on architecture and buildings. Following the Civic Trust’s decision, each of the UK’s counties was briefed with making the idea a reality and in 1994 EDHT was invited to help coordinate and develop Dorset’s programme. The Trust’s involvement grew gradually as the event grew in stature, and today it is in charge of organising virtually the entire programme of events, now known as ‘Dorset Architectural Heritage Week’.
A jam-packed itinerary
Ian Utley, Systems Manager, right, and Alan Wilson, Director of East Dorset Heritage Trust.
Architecture enthusiasts can choose between a whole range of events and activities held during Heritage Week. It’s an extremely popular occasion, with over 1,500 people applying for tickets to attend the free events on offer. Current statistics from EDHT show that visitors come from a variety of UK counties, including Somerset, London, Chichester, Hampshire and Worcester. Tourists are given the opportunity to visit buildings which are not normally open to the public or to go to sites for free that they would normally have to pay for. They can also make trips to see local churches and private homes opened up by their residents, as well as taking part in a range of activities, such as open days, walks and lectures by keynote speakers.
New additions such as Woodside, a timber framed, clad and ‘eco friendly’ roofed house, are very popular with visitors.
The most popular activities, according to Alan Wilson, Director of EDHT and Events Manager for Dorset Architectural Heritage Week, are the invitations to view private houses when owners from across Dorset kindly open up their homes for perusal. One of the most popular properties is ‘Tudor House’ which is one of Weymouth’s few remaining Tudor buildings, furnished as the home of an early 17th century middle class family. The Trust is continually adding new properties to its itinerary and so for the first time in 2007, 20 lucky members of the public were able to take a peek at ‘Woodside’, a new property built with sustainability in mind. The house is equipped with environmentally-friendly features, including photovoltaic panels, a ground source heat pump and solar water heating, as well as facilities for rainwater harvesting.
According to Alan, tickets for viewing Woodside were snapped up within minutes of them being released. He said: “People seem to have an insatiable curiosity to see how other people live – proved by the popularity of tickets for a property like Woodside. We only had enough room for 20 people to visit over two days, but we could have had the house filled for days on end.” Alan is also keen for more people to come forward and open up their homes to visitors during Heritage Week: “We only add one or two new buildings to our schedule each year so it would be fantastic if more people let us use their homes,” he added.
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