An ornate facade and elaborate crest distinguish the College of Matrons, which was founded in 1682 for the widows and unmarried daughters of clergymen. It sits just inside narrow High St Gate.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
24.34 MILES
Ostentation oozes from almost every inch of this arresting structure – a mash-up of Italianate villa and Scottish baronial pile. It was built at the end…
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26.67 MILES
A 2-mile, wafer-thin peninsula of land that curls around the expanse of Poole Harbour, Sandbanks is studded with some of the most expensive houses in the…
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23.75 MILES
England's finest burial mound dates from around 3500 BC. Its entrance is guarded by huge sarsens and its roof is made out of gigantic overlapping…
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25.86 MILES
The building alone is worth seeing – a beautifully restored 15th-century warehouse. The star exhibit is a 2300-year-old Iron Age logboat dredged up from…
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27.82 MILES
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–77) pioneered the photographic negative. A prolific inventor, he began developing the system in 1834 while working at…
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24.93 MILES
Bournemouth's 1920s heyday is beautifully evoked at a subtropical enclave containing plants from the Canary Islands, New Zealand, Mexico and the Himalayas…
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20.29 MILES
The Chained Library, in Wimborne Minster, was established in 1686 and is stacked with some of the country's oldest medieval books, 12th-century lambskin…
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12.86 MILES
Six-sided Old Wardour Castle was built around 1393 and suffered severe damage during the English Civil War, leaving these imposing remains. The views from…
Nearby attractions
0.04 MILES
Magnificent plasterwork ceilings, exceptional period furnishings and a sweeping carved staircase grace this fine Queen Anne (1701) building. All that made…
0.09 MILES
Collections include a cannonball from the American War of Independence, Victorian redcoat uniforms, and displays on 19th- and 21st-century conflicts in…
0.16 MILES
Dating from the 15th century, the Poultry Cross is the last of four crosses that once stood on the town's market square.
0.17 MILES
This stately church was built for cathedral workmen in 1219 and named after Thomas Becket. Its most famous feature is the amazing doom painting above the…
0.21 MILES
Markets were first held here in 1219, and the square still bustles with traders every Tuesday and Saturday (from 8am to 4pm), when you can pick up…
0.21 MILES
Parts of the former Bishop's Palace date back to 1220; it's now the Cathedral School.
2.8 MILES
The 22 acres of parkland and gardens of Wilton House are bordered by the rivers Wylye and Nadder, and were largely laid out by the famous landscape…