Starting immediately after the Spring lunch we had our Spring tour in Dorset. Despite the appalling weather conditions with torrential rain, with spray coming over the bonnets at times, to say nothing of the wind, the tour was judged a great success, being notable for the camaraderie and joie de vivre.
The week-end tour was based for two nights at Plumber Manor Sturminster Newton, about 70 miles from the spring luncheon venue, and as we drove closer to Plumber we were given a quick introduction to some of Dorset’s charmingly named villages, such as River’s Corner, Knacker’s Hole and Fifehead Neville. We were thankful that Saturday was forecast to be fine, it rained all day; not that this made difference to our enjoyment of Athelhampton House – a beautiful 15th century manor house scarcely modernised in any way and full of a fascinating collection of family possessions as the family still live there. This very photogenic house has appeared as a feature in various films and numerous calendars. For lunch we drove to West Bay for a gastronomic fish triumph, following which we drove to Lyme Regis and the Cobb, not to be walked upon in the prevailing conditions!
Sunday dawned with even more rain and even more wind, but we bravely ventured forth and drove up Zig Zag hill, about two miles southeast of Shaftesbury on the B3081. It has five hairpins, two rising bends and a climb of 170 feet in two thirds of a mile. Half an inch of flood water white with chalk cascaded across each hairpin, making driving exciting. More glorious ridge views across the wetern edge of Cranbourne Chase led us to a wonderful mile long avenue of Beech trees and Kingston Lacy. The house, which was given to the National Trust in 1981 is full of wonderful pictures by Rubens, Titian, Velazquez, Romney and Lely. Lunch had been arranged at Bovington Tank Museum where we hurried for a shorter time than we would have wished. Due homage was paid to the RR armoured car.
All in all it was a varied and most enjoyable tour despite the weather, beautifully organised and masterminded by Brian Palmer and John Stuttard.
