Ilsington Lawn

Puddletown

Dorset

DT2 8TE

Nick & Lauran Church welcome you to Ilsington Lawn and our Dorset holiday cottage and bed & breakfast website.

We warmly invite you to visit our secluded, characterful 18th century home in the heart of Hardy country to stay awhile in our adjacent holiday cottage, or for B&B in the former stables.

Thomas Hardy was born in the neighbouring hamlet of Upper Bockhampton. Hardy’s Cottage is within walking distance from us. Indeed, Hardy frequented Puddletown - which he called ‘Weatherbury’ in his novels, notably ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’ - where many members of his family lived.

It is likely that Hardy visited Ilsington Lawn regularly as it is believed that his childhood doctor dwelled in this house and held his surgery here.

We are also situated close to Athelhampton (within a mile). Here stands the beautiful Jacobean Athelhampton Hall or Athelhampton House, which is now a popular wedding venue.

A couple of miles beyond is the village of Tolpuddle, the birthplace of the Trades Union movement which resulted from the deportation sentence of the six farm labourers subsequently known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is held annually during the summer.

Another local attraction that brings in thousands of enthusiasts from around the world is the Great Dorset Steam Fair near Blandford Forum.

Maiden Castle (Britain’s largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort), Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, Monkey World, Zorb South UK, Bovington Tank Museum, the Cerne Giant, Abbotsbury swannery, Weymouth & Portland (venue for the 2012 Olympic Games sailing events), Purbeck with Corfe Castle and the Saxon town of Wareham, Studland, Poole, Bournemouth, the stunning Dorset coastline known as the Jurassic Coast (a World Heritage Site)... These are but a few of the attractions close to Puddletown and our holiday cottage and B&B accommodation. The list of nearby and easily accessible places of interest goes on and on!

From our heart of south Dorset holiday cottage you can go fossil-hunting at Lyme Regis and take a cream tea in Devon to the west, or go east and enjoy the New Forest in Hampshire, spot red squirrels on Brownsea Island, or drive up northwards to Sherborne and on to Roman and Georgian Bath in Somerset, as each is within a comfortable day-trip outing.

Come and discover - or rediscover - this truly beautiful corner of southern England. Ilsington Lawn with its Dorset holiday cottage and B&B suite in the charming and sought-after village of Puddletown, just five miles outside the county town of Dorchester, is perfectly situated as a base for your holiday of discovery.

We hope to hear from you and to meet you soon here at Ilsington Lawn, Puddletown, on the little River Piddle, in the southern heart of beautiful Dorset.

Ilsington Lawn offers an excellently located Dorset B&B and a holiday cottage near the county town of Dorchester. From our Dorset bed and breakfast location you can easily access all parts of this most beautiful south coast county.

Please phone us on 01305 848003

or email at english.home@virgin.net

for any further information or booking enquiries.

See us on a Google Map at http://ilsingtonlawn.yolasite.com