Shaftesbury is Thomas Hardy's Wessex. It is steeped in history and probably for its own good, the town centre has not been gentrified. There is an absence of chain stores on the High Street, but a proliferation of gift shops. Oh, these gift shops, they stock all manners of merchandise that serve little utilitarian purpose except to add clutter. But there is a pull in them that attracts passers-by with a vengeance. On a late October day, the wet and the wind was spine chilling, and the grey skies above hung like a huge musty wet blanket. Unexpectedly, the town's people were very friendly, hailing hello to strangers and passers by.
The image of Gold Hill appears on the covers of many books about Dorset and rural England, as well as on countless chocolate boxes and calendars. Gold Hill was used as a setting for the television commercial "Boy on Bike" for Hovis bread, which later was voted as Britain's favourite advertisement of all time. It was directed by Ridley Scott, and includes the distinctive main theme of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9. Such is the nostalgia for the old days, when life was hard and luxuries were few for the majority of the working population.
In front of the town hall was this object made in the image of a Hovis loaf. One would have thought that freshly baked loaf would be a distant memory since most of us are purchasing sliced bread from the supermarket. But according to the internet, the resident of No. 8 Gold Hill (that's the house on the top of the steep hill) brought her mother a daily loaf of bread which she had baked herself. How we hang onto traditions, including having milk delivered by milk floats everyday.
A restaurant situated at the top of Gold Hill, in a mock Tudor setting, selling soups (with a mini loaf), baps (bread rolls) and puddings (desserts). The fillings for the baps : friend egg, bacon, sausage, certainly pre-date the times when the younger generation switches their allegiance to chicken and pesto, salmon and cream cheese, prawn and rocket salad, and all sorts of new concoctions.
An independent retailer, with merchandise neatly arranged outside. All signs were handwritten. Emphasis is on local produce. But, to be in tune with the times, even this local greengrocer is selling Chinese cabbage, olive oil, such is the invasion of all things foreign into our eating habits.
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A restaurant situated at the top of Gold Hill, in a mock Tudor setting, selling soups (with a mini loaf), baps (bread rolls) and puddings (desserts). The fillings for the baps : friend egg, bacon, sausage, certainly pre-date the times when the younger generation switches their allegiance to chicken and pesto, salmon and cream cheese, prawn and rocket salad, and all sorts of new concoctions.
An independent retailer, with merchandise neatly arranged outside. All signs were handwritten. Emphasis is on local produce. But, to be in tune with the times, even this local greengrocer is selling Chinese cabbage, olive oil, such is the invasion of all things foreign into our eating habits.
