August in Dorchester

What can you do in Dorchester when it rains? It depends on your age and interests, but there is lots to do and see. This months blog post will help to give some ideas that perhaps you may not have considered.

Have you been to all of our museums? Purchase a Gold Saver Pass and you can visit five for the price of two. There is a wide variety of interests here. If these do not appeal to you then perhaps The Keep Military Museum , Dorset County Museum or the Shire Hall courtroom and cells might be more to your taste. 

If it is not raining and is just dull, like it has been for the past few days then why not have a go at either the Dorchester Supersleuth competition or try out one or more of the Dorset Dialect Trails.

The Supersleuth photo competition has two age groups, 10 and under, and 11 - 16 years. You will need to collect a sticker album from the Tourist Information Centre in Trinity Street, then your mission is to search the town for photo clues. When you find them you will be given a sticker to put on your album. There are prizes for this competition and it runs until the 14th September 2015. 

The Dorset Dialect Trails help you to immerse yourself in some of our local history. There are six trails which have different themes. Placed around Dorchester are ceramic clocks, your mission is to locate the clocks and to record the word that is written in the clock. The word may not make sense to you, as it is a word that has been taken from a 'Glossary of the Dorset Dialect' that was used by the local poet William Barnes. 

Translating the words is fun as some of them are rather amusing. If you are a smartphone user and download the Aestheticode App, you can use it to scan the clocks, as each one has an embedded code in the face, which enables you to link directly to the glossary. I have tried this and it does work through glass, so you don't necessarily have to go inside for it to work. 

A set of playing cards with all of the words on are available from the Tourist Information Centre for £7.99, but if you do all of the trails first then they are available for a reduced price of £4.99.

So in the words of William Barnes if you have any 'Sluggards' in your family then perhaps these activities may get them inspired! 

Sluggard definition - A Sluggard's manner, idle in nature. "Lwoth to goo to bed, an 'lwoth to rise"

(There is your first clue to get you started) 

Have fun!