Celebrate New Year in West Dorset!

Our family-friendly self-catering accommodation in Dorset is perfect for your New Year holiday and celebrations.

Celebrate the New Year and welcome in 2011 while staying in a stunning apartment by the sea with spectacular sea views; breath taking winter walks on the nearby beaches and coastal walks; mouth-wateringly delicious home cooked and locally sourced meals, and easy access to many excellent local restaurants and attractions in the beautiful Dorset countryside.

Why not make it an extra special New Year and invite your wider family or circle of friends? We have three delightful centrally-heated one bedroomed self-catering apartments available to book for New Year. They all include a 4’sofa bed in the lounge and sleep up to four people. Our Jurassic apartment has wonderful views over Burton Bradstock and the Jurassic Coast, and our Chesil and Fossil apartments have stunning coast and ocean views, and wood burners for supplemental heating.

Our Lyme Bay self-catering apartment has two bedrooms and a 4’ sofa bed in the lounge, and sleeps up to six people. It has a fully fitted kitchen, central heating, a large conservatory, direct access to the patio and garden and spectacular sea views.

All our apartments have digital Freeview TV and DVD player, and free WiFi. Well behaved dogs are welcome by prior arrangement, and we have lots of off-road parking.

To book accommodation in Dorset for New Year, please contact us as soon as possible. We very much look forward to welcoming you here and celebrating the arrival of a new year with you.

A Writer’s Dorset

The Dorset County Museum, in Dorchester, has a fascinating gallery exhibition exploring the lives and work of Dorset’s authors, poets and playwrights – all of whom were inspired by Dorset’s landscape and people. Authors’ work explored in this exhibition includes that of Thomas Hardy, Sylvia Townsend Warner; Dorset poet William Barnes, novelist John Meade Falkner; Jane Austen, William Wordsworth and Sir Walter Raleigh.

Thomas Hardy was born and raised in Dorchester and is perhaps the most well-known and celebrated of Dorset’s authors. The exhibition includes a reconstruction of Thomas Hardy’s study from his home at Max Gate, complete with his furniture, personal possessions and the pens he used to write Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.

From the 11th October to 11th December, the Dorset County Museum also has a brand new and very interesting exhibition, Thomas Hardy on Stage and Screen, which explores Thomas Hardy's relationship with dramatic adaptations of his novels and stories for stage, screen and TV.

Many of Hardy’s works have been adapted for film and television and the exhibition has displays of posters, photographs and film clips, as well as previously long-lost footage of some early adaptions of his work.

The New Hardy Players were formed in 2005 to celebrate the works of Thomas Hardy. Recent performances include The Mayor of Casterbridge and The Distracted Preacher. Norrie Woodhall (who is 104 years old) is their “guide, inspiration and President”: she is one of the last people who knew Thomas Hardy and she was a member of the original Hardy Players, an amateur dramatic group which performed Hardy's works between 1908 and 1924.

If you’re visiting Thomas Hardy country this autumn and winter, don’t forget to book bed and breakfast accommodation in Dorset or self catering accommodation in Dorset as soon as possible. We look forward to meeting you.

10 tips for a Sustainable Christmas

Here at Chesil Beach Lodge in Dorset, we are very proud of our eco-credentials and our sustainable holiday accommodation. We are firmly committed to reducing the impact of tourism on the environment, of course; but we are also committed to doing our best to be eco-friendly in every area of our lives.

We love Christmas, but there’s no doubt it’s potentially one of the most wasteful and un-environmentally friendly times of the year! We might not be guaranteed a white Christmas this year, but here are some of our favourite tips for helping to make your Christmas a green one.

• Have a living Christmas tree. A tree in a pot can be re-used for several years, or planted in your garden if you have space. Why not try something completely different this year and rent a Christmas tree?! Dorset’s Christmas Tree Rental Company will deliver a tree of your choice to your door (with simple instructions on how to take care of it). After Christmas, on a date specified by you, they will collect your tree and look after it until next Christmas. You can even have the same tree back the following Christmas.


• If you’re not saving your Christmas tree for another year, check out your local council for chipping services and use the resulting mulch on your garden.


• Make your own Christmas cards.


• Make your own gifts: make special food products, knit a jumper, paint a picture, take a photograph of a favourite place and frame it, make a quilt, grow a plant or bulbs – the list is endless. If you have a skill why not share it and offer a few hours’ gardening, a massage, a makeover, or help designing a personal web site? What skills do you have that someone else would appreciate?


• Buy locally made and locally sourced products as presents.


• Find gifts that are recycled wherever possible. Jaxson’s Gifts in Bridport, Dorset offers a quirky and fun range of recycled gifts: from flat glass bottle clocks and flat champagne bottle platters; to recycled beer bottle fridge magnets and stationery made from recycled maps.


• Use recycled wrapping paper, or use imaginative alternatives such as fabric remnants or left-over rolls of wallpaper, pages from old magazines and newspapers, or your children’s pictures or paintings,


• Find alternatives to battery powered toys. Myriad Natural Toys and Crafts near Cranborne in Dorset has a wide range of environmentally friendly wooden toys, plus natural play products and art and craft materials.


• Minimise your use of outside electric lights and decorations or, even better, don’t use them at all.


• After Christmas, recycle or reuse your Christmas cards, wrapping paper and packaging. Recycle your cards via the Woodland Trust and they pledge to plant more trees.
  

We are open over Christmas and New Year and are taking bookings for eco-friendly Christmas holiday accommodation in Dorset. We would love to welcome you here for Christmas so please contact us to book self-catering and bed and breakfast accommodation, or for more details.

What’s on in Dorset: November

We hope you had good October. Now that November’s here, and the days are growing ever shorter and the weather is distinctly chilly; it’s sometimes very tempting to stay indoors in the warm. However, there are many things to do in Dorset in November, and the crisp sunny days we’ve been having recently are perfect for enjoying the autumn colour, and wrapping up warm to venture out and enjoy all that Dorset has to offer.

Here’s our pick of some of the best for November….

On the weekend of the 21st November, you can take part in Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre’s ‘Fossil Fantastic Weekend’ - a whole weekend of fossil hunting and activities. Booking is essential. Telephone 01297 560772.

The Corn Exchange in Dorchester is presenting A Christmas Carol on the 11th to 13th November (adapted by John Mortimer from the story by Charles Dickens). The performance starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 (£9 on the door), under 18's £5, and are available from Words Etecera, Dorchester. Telephone 01305 257694 (www.dorchesterdrama.org.uk)

The Dorset Art and Crafts Show takes place on the 20th – 21st November at Woodmead Halls, Hill Road, Lyme Regis, 10am - 4pm. You can see over 20 exhibitors selling & demonstrating original arts & crafts – and perhaps make a few early Christmas present purchases? Refreshments are available and admission is free. Telephone 07730 557090.

How about the wonderfully titled Fur, Feathers, Footprints & Faeces course at Kingcombe Environmental Studies Centre on the 27th November? “Learn how to become a nature investigator and identify the signs that animals leave behind of their presence. You will learn a range of field craft skills that will enable you to call birds from the trees, and track animals. You may even spot signs of our local otter!” Telephone 01300 320684.

For the more energetic among you, the Dorset Adventure Races take place at Lulworth Castle on the 27th November. Events organised by Cumulus Outdoor Events include 15km running, walking, mountain biking and navigation challenges around Lulworth Castle and Estate,. The cost is £35 per person - 10% discount if you book early. Telephone 01929 426044. If this all sounds a little too energetic for a chilly November day, perhaps you could go along as an enthusiastic spectator J

Also on the 27th November, is the official ‘Switching On of the Christmas Lights’ at Lyme Regis.

We hope this gives you a small taste of the many interesting and entertaining events coming up in November. To book accommodation in Dorset for your November break, please contact us.