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Memories of Shaftesbury
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Shaftesbury, Gold Hill c1955
Ref: S593025
Shaftesbury's position high on a hilltop with only a meagre water supply meant that water had to be brought up to the town from wells at the bottom of the steep slopes, usually by horses and donkeys carrying barrels. Water sellers then went round the town's houses selling water by the bucketful. However, Shaftesbury's position at the crossroads of several main coaching routes meant that it was abundantly supplied with inns and beer houses. This scarcity of water and preponderance of inns, together with the fact that the churchyard for the now vanished St John’s Church (on St John’s Hill) was set on a steep slope high above the church itself, prompted Thomas Hardy's famous description of the town in his novel 'Jude the Obscure' as a town 'remarkable for three consolations to man ... It was a place where the churchyard lay nearer heaven than the church steeple, where beer was more plentiful than water, and where there were more wanton women than honest wives and maids'.
Shared on 30 June 2008
Shaftesbury, Gold Hill c1955
Ref: S593025
This is the hill that appeared in the Hovis television adverts - supposedly in a northern town, but in reality in deepest Dorset! At the top it is about 700 feet above sea level. It is now the scene of the once a year Gold Hill Festival in July.
Shared on 08 June 2006
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