Dorset Delight!

Hinton St Mary is a local village sited on a low Corallian limestone ridge beside the River Stour, one mile north of the market town of Sturminster Newton. The parish church, dedicated to St Peter, has a 15th-century tower. The manor house next to the church was once owned by the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey.

The village is best known for the discovery of a Roman building of unknown type, possibly a villa or a church. On the floor of one room was laid a large 4th century mosaic depicting Bellerophon and the Chimera (illustrating good defeating evil) and a portrait bust that may, or may not, be Christ. The bust is now on display in the British Museum. The mosaic was chosen as Object 44 in the BBC Radio 4 programme A History of the World in 100 Objects, presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. The mosaic was discovered in 1963 by the local blacksmith, (Walter) John White. Although it was excavated by the Dorchester Museum and lifted for preservation, none of the rest of the building has been examined.

My blip today is the old village stocks marking the community garden constructed in an episode of the BBC series Charlies Garden Angels, hosted by Charlie Dimmock. The garden was made during 1999, with local people and businesses helping to create it. It is now known as the Millennium Garden as it was built to celebrate the new millennium.