Sturminster Newton is a small market town in the Blackmore Vale, the area that Thomas Hardy, who once lived in the town, called the Vale of the Little Dairies. The town’s economy would once have been built on these dairies and it is not hard to picture the old cattle market days when everyone – and their animals – gathered there.

To reach the higher part of Newton, farmers and traders would have had to cross the meandering Stour via a very handsome six-arch stone bridge. On this bridge is a sign warning that if anyone were to damage it in any way, they would be punished by deportation.