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 and some other ruins.
Many of the quaint cottages in town are built from the stone salvaged from the abbey ruins over the years.
Fast forward to today and the abbey wall is national landmark that’s Grade I listed – meaning it can never be torn town or altered in anyway.
Despite that – it needed a spot of weeding to prevent the whole thing from falling down. So, it took some clever kit and know how to clean up the abbey wallk without harming them in anyway.
From a recent BBC Article:
The survey and measuring instruments used during the extensive clean will mean that any changes to the wall’s structure can be monitored.
The two-day weeding process involved a team of four men removing all vegetation and roots that had grown along, and through, the wall.
If left unchecked they would have eventually damaged the wall’s structure.The space behind the wall has gradually been filled in with soil, and now reaches near to the top of the wall and forms the gardens of nearby private homes.
Cllr Lester Dibben, Shaftesbury’s Mayor and Chairman of Shaftesbury Town Council, said:
“We were getting comments from the public about the amount of foliage on the wall, and if the wall was safe, so we asked the Dorset Countryside Ranger Service to have a look at it.
“We also decided to do a survey of the wall.”
Here’s hoping it won’t need any more weeding for a few hundred years!
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
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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 dream of living in the UK a reality.