Check out this stunning timelapse video of Bridport Dorset at night. Definitely going to add a visit to Bridport on our itinerary for May. From the video description: A labour of love, four months in the making. I moved to Bridport just over a year ago and immediately fell in love with the … [Read more...]
Top 12 things to do in Dorset – Best Tourist Sites in Our Favorite County – Dorset
November 11, 2011 By 1 Comment
Here's another great article from our friends at Visit Britain that highlights the best sites to visit in Dorset - our favorite English county. 1). Explore the glorious Dorset countryside by following one of the many walking trails which criss-cross the county. The Wessex Ridgeway is one of … [Read more...]
Video: Secrets of Dorset – What to See and Do in Dorset
July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I recently found an older show that chronicled the secrets of various counties in Britain and I downloaded the Dorset episode. I really enjoyed it and decided to throw it on YouTube for everyone else to enjoy. Check it out below: … [Read more...]
Be Beside The Seaside in Britain: Brighton, Blackpool or Bournemouth?
June 29, 2011 By 1 Comment
There’s nothing like holidays to the British seaside. Fish and chips, games arcades, buckets and spades and sticks of rock candy have formed a popular image in the minds of travellers everywhere. But where exactly does one find the quintessential British seaside? Take your pick from the three … [Read more...]
Video: Discover Dorset’s Hidden Treasure – Little Bredy Village
April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Midway between Dorchester and Bridport and just a few miles inland from Dorset's spectacular Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site lies the beautiful small village of Littlebredy. Missed by most visitors to the area, the village is a living testament of all that is good about Dorset's countryside. … [Read more...]
Videos: Check out Thomas Hardy’s House and Max Gate in Dorset
April 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Max Gate was Thomas Hardy's home for over 40 years from 1885 to his death in 1928. He bought the 1.5-acre site, on the windswept ridge a mile from the centre of Dorchester, from the Duchy of Cornwall. Hardy's Cottage was the birthplace of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). He spent his … [Read more...]
Video: Exploring Athelhampton House & Gardens in Dorset
April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Athelhampton Manor was around prior to 1066 and was mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086. The present house and gardens date from around 1485, when Sir William Martyn received a license to enclose and fortify his manor with walls of stone and lime and build towers and crenellate them. The … [Read more...]
Video: West Dorset’s views around Beaminster and Bridport
March 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
From Mapperton to Pilsdon Pen, Beaminster to Bridport, this tiny part of West Dorset is what I now call home. Here is a French view of this sleepy corner of the world. … [Read more...]
Thomas Hardy’s House to Open to the Public in 2011
January 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I'm definitely going to add this to the list of things I want to do on our next trip to England (slated for November 2011). This news comes via Dark Dorset: The country home where Thomas Hardy wrote some of his best known novels is to be opened in full to the public for the first time. Max … [Read more...]
Lovely Old Newsreel of Shaftesbury, Dorset from British Pathe Films
July 22, 2010 By 2 Comments
I found this little gem on the British Pathe films website - a great archive of old British newsreel footage. It's a short travelogue on Shaftesbury, Dorset - my favorite village in England. What's amazing is how little has changed since this film was made. Though the trees on the Park Walk are … [Read more...]
Great Short Film Starring Updown Cottage in Shaftesbury
July 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
I heard through the grapevine that a short film was shot in Updown Cottage - the picturesque cottage on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset that we stayed in last November. It's an interesting little short - but I'm most interested in the on location shooting. The cottage looks lovely. It's a shame … [Read more...]
Pictures of England – Gold Hill in Shaftesbury Covered in Snow
January 18, 2010 By 1 Comment
These pictures were sent to me from someone who lives on Gold Hill and also happens to work in the new Gold Hill Books bookshop located at the top of the hill. She snapped these pictures during the last bout of snow. Frankly, they are lovely. I would give my left foot to sled down that hill. Thanks … [Read more...]
Shaftesbury News: Hovis Bread and Gold Hill Get a New Spokeswoman – Victoria Pendleton
January 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Since I love Shaftesbury so much, I have news alerts set up to notify me of the latest news. However, Shaftesbury is such a quiet village, I don't get many alerts! Got an interesting one yesterday - Hovis Bread, who made Gold Hill in Shaftesbury iconically famous with the classic 'boy on a bike' … [Read more...]
Trip To England 2009 – Recap of All Posts
December 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Editor's Note - In case you missed any of the posts about our recent trip to England, here's an aggregated list of all the posts so you can check out what you didn't have a chance to read. Enjoy! Trip to England 2009 - Day One - The British Airways Face to Face Events - In case you're new to the … [Read more...]
Anglophile Oddities: Town Replaces Christmas Tree With Giant Traffic Cone – Citizens Revolt
December 15, 2009 By 1 Comment
This is just one of those stories that could only come out of Britain. A town in Dorset, Poole to be specific, decided to replace their traditional real Christmas tree with a fake one, for health and safety reasons (many Anglophiles will have heard of that phrase). So, they replaced a beautiful … [Read more...]
A Video Tour of Updown Cottage – Self Catering Cottage in Shaftesbury, Dorset
December 14, 2009 By 1 Comment
While we stayed in Updown Cottage, I took the chance to use my iPhone to take a video tour of Updown Cottage in Shaftesbury, Dorset, so that you guys could get an idea of just how lovely the place really is. If you're looking to get away from it all and stay in your own Self Catering Accommodation … [Read more...]
Disappearing Britain: Savings the Red Phone Boxes of Dorset
December 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This came across my feeds a couple days ago. BT - formerly known at British Telecom - wants to phase out the ubiquitous red phone boxes. While from a business perspective, it makes sense (who actually uses them anyway?), from a cultural perspective, it's a tragedy. Can you think of a bigger British … [Read more...]
Trip to England 2009 – Day 6 – Final Bits of England and the Journey Home
December 9, 2009 By 3 Comments
My Final Shot of Gold Hill - and England Editor's Note: This is the fifth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England two weeks ago. If you'd like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here. This will be a rather short post and will be the hardest to write. I … [Read more...]
Trip to England – Day Five – The Heaven That is Shaftesbury, Updown Cottage, Weymouth
December 8, 2009 By 3 Comments
Editor's Note: This is the fifth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England two weeks ago. If you'd like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here. On Saturday I awoke in our warm, soft and comfortable bed in Updown Cottage. I woke up as the sun was coming up. … [Read more...]
Trip to England 2009 – Day Four – Leaving London for Salisbury and Shaftesbury
December 3, 2009 By 1 Comment
Salisbury Catheral - Hiding Behind a Tree Editor's Note: This is the Fourth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England last week. If you'd like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here. Even though we'd had an exhausting day touring the sites in London … [Read more...]
Gold Hill Gets a Weeding
November 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
One of the most beautiful parts of Gold Hill is the abbey ruins that make up one side of it. The whole reason Shaftesbury exists is because of the founding of the abbey in the 14th century.The abbey was 'dissolved' by Henry the VIII during the Reformation and all that's left is the old abbey walls … [Read more...]
Ghosts of England Trip Past – Video of our Trip to Shaftesbury in March 2007
November 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment
We lost the power cable to our video camera on our last trip to England and never got around to replacing it, so that tape sat in the camcorder for nearly three years. We finally got a new charger and loe and behold we found the video footage of our last trip to Blighty. I edited it together and … [Read more...]
Dreams of Britain: My Love Affair with Shaftesbury Dorset Finally Explained
November 3, 2009 By 12 Comments
When I publish this post I will actually be in Britain in two weeks. Just 14 days. It's been almost three years since I set foot in the green and pleasant land that is Britain. It's been a long, tough journey with several trips planned and several trips canceled. At one point we even had plane … [Read more...]
Pictures of Britain: Beautiful Pictures from All Over Dorset
October 7, 2009 By 6 Comments
One thing that was heavily requested in the recent Anglotopia user survey was more pictures. Ask and you shall recieve. I'll try to do one giant picture post of week, focused on a place in Britain - my goal is to go county by county, but we'll see. Up first this week is my favorite county, … [Read more...]
Live Like Farmer Oak From Far From the Madding Crowd
August 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Far From the Madding Crowd is by far my favorite British Novel. I love Dorset, where most Thomas Hardy stories are set and love to see traditional crafts kept alive. So, I was a little interested to see this article on the BBC Website about a couple who have started restoring traditional Shepard's … [Read more...]
From the Telegraph: Dorset, There is nowhere I’d rather be
July 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
A recent article in The Telegraph stated the bold claim that people who live in the English county of Dorset live longer and more fulfilling lives that people who live in the rest of the UK. I have a special connection to Dorset - specifically Shaftesbury and it's a statement I would proudly back … [Read more...]
Unfortunate News: Trip Cancelled
January 5, 2009 By 7 Comments
You'll notice the trip countdown is now absent from the sidebar. Well, my wife and I have decided to put our trip to London in March on hold. There were many reasons behind our decision that I won't really go into. I'm really gutted about it but it's the right thing to do right now. We're … [Read more...]
Super Cheap Transatlantic Flights Coming Next Year! £10 Tickets to London!
November 3, 2008 By 2 Comments
Picture from Flickr 2008 is riddled with the corpses of fallen Transatlantic airlines. We saw the loss of Eos, Silverjet, MaxJet and Zoom. Their failures reduced competition and choice for those looking to travel to England and to Europe. I've been the advocate of introducing a low cost … [Read more...]
New Hovis Bread Ad – 122 Years of History
September 25, 2008 By 1 Comment
As I've mentioned before, Shaftesbury, Dorset is my favorite place in the UK. While many people probably haven't heard of it, it's actually rather famous, as far as small English Villages go. It was made famous in the 1970's by an ad that was directed by the great Ridley Scott, depicting a boy … [Read more...]
Dorset Getting it’s own Flag
September 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment
On my news feeds, I caught this rather interesting turn of events. Apparently there was a competition to design a flag for the county of Dorset that people would then vote on. What a lovely idea. Dorset is my favorite English county and I'm all for it trying to create a distinct identity (you can't … [Read more...]
British Pound Exchange Rate
Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.