What’s On – Local events guide

Dorset Archives Trust invites you to their Summer Gala, for the talk “Concerning Hardy” by Dr Ruth Burton, at Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal, by kind permission of the Rushmore estate. Tickets £30 for members of DAT, Thomas Hardy Society and William Barns Society or £35 for non-members. Please book via ticketsource by following web link below. Picnics are permitted. Tickets include strawberries & cream & a glass of fizz.

This Friday is our Pop up Charity Shop and FREE Coffee Morning! Come along to our centre in Poundbury from 10am-12pm for a chat and a drink, and maybe even bag yourself a bargain! Everyone welcome. Find us in between Castle Vets and Casterbridge Dental Studio, just around the corner from Mansell Square.

Tickets £14, available from Dorchester Arts. Performances: Friday 7:30 pm, Saturday 2:00 pm matinee and 7:30 pm. The play tells a true life WWII story of Mary who is forced to deal with an agonising choice whilst her husband is away in Borneo. Written by Local playwright, Vince Jones. Audio and more information here: ‘Not for Keeps’ – a local and personal story of adoption, as told by Dorchester Drama

11:00 am. A talk on genealogy & family history by experienced researcher, Val Brenton. The talk will discuss: How the law regarding school attendance changed. What entries on the 19th-20th century census returns might mean. How to identify which school your ancestor may have attended. What records may exist to help you add to your family history. Tickets are £8 for DAT members or £10 for non-members.

Raising money for Dorchester Poverty Action to provide grants to local people living in DT1 and DT2 at points of financial need eg washing machine for family with a member with incontinence, furniture for a care leaver moving into their first home, help for a family escaping domestic abuse. Coffee morning – free entry, coffee and biscuit £2. Stalls – cakes, books, plants, bric-a-brac, raffle etc.

Summer Fayre – refreshments -BBQ- bacon rolls. homemade Cake stall. Raffle, Tombola, craft stalls spaces available either inside or out for craft stalls, games etc. £5 per pitch/table. Please contact cycc@mail.com or click on email link below for more information

Beautiful open garden with the NGS – 4 acres of natural woodland with springs, streams & pools. Formal front garden designed by Arne Maynard with pleached crabtree border, topiary and roses. Walled garden, kitchen garden and 350 rose bushes for a cut flower business. Tea & cake. Dogs on short leads welcome. Perfect day out for families and garden enthusiasts! Admission £8, children free.

Fete Day Attractions: Silent Auction • Inflatable Assault Course & Bouncy Castle • Dorset Knob Games • Teddy Tombola • Plant Stall • Dog Show at 2 pm • Bottle & Games Tombola • Glow&Co • Coconut Shy • Crockery Smash • Children’s Games • Lock & Key Game • Craft Stall • Book Stall • CCF Stand • Cakes, Savouries & Preserves Stall • The Ladies BBQ Team • Richard’s Mr Softee Ice Cream & More.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky… and they’re coming to Thomas Hardye School! Tickets are now on sale for our delightfully dark production of The Addams Family musical! Join Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, and the rest of the quirky clan for an unforgettable evening of laughs, love, and the unexpected. Tickets Adult £13/Student £9. This is a fundraising event for the Performing Arts Department.

Come and join us for a relaxed opportunity to meet the team and chat about volunteering over a cuppa & biscuits. Whether you’re interested in supporting local families, want to learn more about what we do, or are curious about how you can get involved — we’d love to meet you!

7:30 pm. Make a note in your diary – Summer concert with Encore Singers. Admission is free, but there will be a retiring collection to raise funds for DorSAR, the Dorset Search & Rescue Team. Please come along, enjoy the music and help raise funds for this wonderful charity.

Join the #WillDoes Bus Pull Challenge! On Saturday 12 July 2025 at Dorchester Rugby Club, teams of 8 will battle the clock to pull a bus in just 25 seconds — all to help raise £25,000 for Dorset charities supporting young people. Sign up via the web link below.

After heavy rain washed out Charminster’s traditional fete in June, organisers are planning a “crazy sale” of bric-a-brac, books and glassware, together with a children’s tombola. The WI is once again organising tea, coffee and cakes and there’ll be a barbecue outside Charminster Village Hall. The fete committee say they’re determined not to be beaten by the weather again.

Large 1.5 acre garden open with the NGS. 35m long south facing herbaceous border with year round colour. Formal rose garden. Lavender borders. Orchard, vegetables in raised beds, stream & bridge to pasture. Plants for sale. Teas. Dogs on short leads welcome. Admission £6, children free. Visits also by arrangement for groups of 10 to 20 – follow web link below for further details.

You are warmly invited to our monthly, cathedral-style service of Choral Eucharist on Sunday 13th July at 10.30am in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. The music includes: Ole Gjeilo’s ‘Ubi caritas’, Michael Haydn ‘Missa brevis in C’ and Philip Stopford’s ‘An Irish Blessing’. All are very welcome to this free service and for refreshments afterwards.

A fun community cycle event to promote the benefits of safe cycling and the need for better cycle routes in and around the town and out into our surrounding villages. There will be a short ride for young cyclists just round The Great Field, then a longer ride for adults and older children down and around Dorchester and through the town returning to The Great Field for a picnic. It’s all free!

7:30 pm (doors open 7:00 pm). Ahoy, mateys! The Dorset Wrecks be playin’ so expect a jolly good time with their fun and wondrous shanties! Tickets be 10 doubloons a piece (£10), and half o’ the booty collected will go to National Coastwatch – Portland Bill. There’ll be grog aplenty at the bar, too. If ye want passage aboard, let Susana know, and we’ll be lookin’ forward to seein’ ye there!

Join us at St Peter’s Church on Dorchester Saturday 19th July between 12.30pm and 1pm for our free lunchtime concert. This is a thirty-minute programme of music given by soprano Verity Joy, who will be accompanied by Jonathan Prentice. Verity is in the last few months of postgraduate study at Arts University Bournemouth, where she is a music scholar.

Open Garden with the NGS. Lovely herbaceous borders with peonies and roses. Old walled kitchen garden filled with fruit trees & vegetables. Magnificent trees underplanted with copper beech, magnolias and hydrangeas. Home-made teas. Admission £6, children £3.

Free activities including Punch and Judy shows, face painting, a treasure hunt and music provided by Keep 106. More activities to be confirmed.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

Join us at DHC for a free conference of talks celebrating Dorset’s history on rail! Featured talks include: Dorset’s first railway; British Rail’s employment of women in the late 1980s; migration of railway workers; and Dr Beeching’s railway closures in the 1960s. Explore original railway plans, photographs and more from DHC’s collections. Tickets are free. Please call us to book your place.

The Villagers of Milton Abbas invite you to their 18th Century Street Fair Whatever the weather, we hope you join in the fun of our Street Fair. We have tried to recreate the flavour of a country occasion using costume, rural crafts, entertainment and craft demonstrations. We expect to have a large number of stalls, with food and drink venues throughout The Street and Lake Field.

You are warmly invited to our monthly, cathedral-style service of Choral Evensong on Saturday 26th July at 4.30pm in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. The music includes Parsons’s ‘Ave Maria’, the ‘Preces & Responses’ by David Trendell, Howells’s ‘St Paul’s Service’ and Bainton’s ‘And I saw a new heaven’. Admission is free and there is a glass of wine to follow. All are very welcome.

Get Safe for summer: 5 days for middle school students upwards to learn how to help if someone is in danger esp near the beach and water. Cost for week : £37.50

Join us for a fun evening of live music with The Mother Ukers, begin your night with a scenic harbour cruise aboard the Dorset Queen, with a complimentary drink. Enjoy the quirky performance, featuring unique and lively ukulele tunes. Savour a delicious pasty as you soak in the music and the stunning island views. The event price is all inclusive.

The superb annual Sunflower Trail to raise funds for local good causes. Check dates. The trail will be throughout August, but check exact dates nearer the time.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

From 12:00 pm. Purbeck Valley Folk Festival is a small festival set on a farm on the beautiful Jurassic Coastline. We’re a festival that’s loved by everyone because there’s loads for kids to do, loads for parents, and loads for the old folkies too! This year’s lineup is already shining with Buster Sledge, John Bramwell, and Ellie Gowers—and there’s more to come! Stay tuned!

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

Join us for a fun evening of live music with The Mother Ukers, begin your night with a scenic harbour cruise aboard the Dorset Queen, with a complimentary drink. Enjoy the quirky performance, featuring unique and lively ukulele tunes. Savour a delicious pasty as you soak in the music and the stunning island views. The event price is all inclusive.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

An annual Dorchester event where artists of all ages and abilities paint outdoors amidst the sunflowers and can compete for cash prizes and art supply vouchers. The event raises money for Dorset County Hospital Emergency and Critical Care Appeal. Winning work is displayed at Dorchester County Hospital while all work is displayed in an online gallery.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.

Internationally renowned vocal ensemble The Gents of St John’s are presenting a concert at St Peter’s Church. For more information follow web link below. Tickets are £18 or £14 and available online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/dorset/st-peters-church

We bring live performance to unexpected places – town centres, village squares, beaches and hilltops – for everyone to enjoy. At the heart of what we do is a belief that performing arts should be accessible for all – no matter what your experience or background. Therefore, all of Inside Out Dorset 2025 events are free to attend. Featured will be artists from as far away as India and Catalonia – as well as UK and Dorset-based companies. In addition to Corfe Castle and Weymouth, other locations include Christchurch, Moors Valley Country Park and Forest, and Yeovil.

Retired or thinking of retiring? Joining u3a gives you the chance to make friends and learn something new or further an existing interest. We currently have over 85 member run groups/activities in Dorchester during the day for you to take part in ranging from Archaeology, Art and Badminton to Science, Weaving and Wine Appreciation . Please come along to learn more about what we have to offer.

We are running both morning and afternoon 1 hour Bushcraft taster sessions every Friday during school holidays. Starting at 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Master skills including basic knife techniques, fire lighting, shelter construction, and identifying plants and trees. at the birthplace of Scouting.