All content copyright David Amey © 2006 dorsetscountryside.co.uk
The county of Dorset in southern England shares borders with Hampshire, Wiltshire, Devon, Somerset and to the south the English Channel.
This website is more-or-less about the countryside, particularly around my part of West Dorset. The area is mainly dairy farmland. The fields are small, the largest about 15 hectares - mostly enclosed by mixed hedgerows.
Small pockets of ancient deciduous woodland occur widely - home to roe deer, badgers and foxes.
This website then is largely a pictorial peek at Dorset’s wonderful wildlife and scenery, in sounds, pictures and video.
There are few natural ponds. Sherborne Lake and Sutton Bingham Reservoir - both man-made - are the only large areas of water in the district. But fortunately, as farming declined, a few farmers have, where it is suitable, replaced their dairies with fishing lakes. There are four such fisheries in my immediate location, which have dramatically increased the bird and insect life. Dragonflies and kingfishers now reside where none existed before. Buzzards and kestrels are common here and may be seen on most days.
The rivers, apart from the Yeo in Sherborne, are small and reduced to a trickle in warm summers.
Just a few miles to the south, we climb up to the chalky, flinty hills where the scenery changes dramatically. Huge areas of wheat and barley grow in wide open spaces. From here, on fine days, there are spectacular views of the Blackmoor Vale. Thankfully some hedges and a few small blocks of woodland remain. In spring, roe deer are often seen in numbers resting or feeding on young cereals.
Dorsetshire Poet William Barnes (1801-1886) wrote ‘Linden Lea’ - a poem which mirrors my feelings and thoughts about the Dorset countryside. Listen to Heddle Nash’s version of Linden Lea here
A very warm welcome to the Dorset’s Countryside web site. Come in, relax and listen to sounds of the wild; watch wild videos; see some great pictures and pause for a while to watch birds feeding on one of the webcams.
I hope you enjoy your visit, please call again soon.
David Amey, near Sherborne, Dorset, England.
