Having spent much of my adult life living in the beautiful villages of Swallowcliffe and Chicksgrove on the outskirts of Tisbury, with their chocolate box cottages and fabulous country pubs, I get asked on so many occasions why my husband and I decided to make the move from a picturesque village to the North Dorset town of Shaftesbury.
Back in April 2020, in the chaos that was the start of the covid era, my husband and I welcomed the arrival of our first son Fergus, we were living in a beautiful 400-year-old thatched cottage in the middle of a farm in Chicksgrove. It was idyllic during the summer months and we were in our own little family bubble, however once the weather started changing and having a young child, we soon came to the conclusion that we were going to have to make a change, so we made the decision to move to the market town of Shaftesbury and we have not looked back since.
Fast forward 3.5 years, we could not be happier. Shaftesbury has so much to offer, from its breathtaking views over the Blackmore Vale, lovely independent shops, weekly Thursday markets, regular Sunday farmers markets, and the iconic Gold Hill that was made famous by the Ridley Scott ‘Boy on the Bike’ Hovis advert. It gives the community feel that we were so worried about loosing from village life.
So if you are ever in Dorset, you must make the visit to see what Shaftesbury has to offer all ages.
