The original toll round house stood in the angle between the Blandford and Wimborne roads, with the Poole road going off to the right. The entire junction has now been replaced by a large roundabout – named the Roundhouse Roundabout for now-obvious reasons. This card was posted to Uplyme in 1907.
Above, Sturminster Marshall’s High Street looked very different in 1906. Sturminster Marshall grew around the Bailey Gate milk, cheese and whey products factory. It was so large it had it’s own station – called Bailey Gate to avoid confusion with Sturminster Newton, further north on the Somerset & Dorset Railway.
The factory was started by Henry Tory in 1888 and at one time was the largest cheese producing factory in Europe. The ’Then’ image was taken from the S&D Railway bridge, with the Churchill Arms on the left and Bailey Gate Milk Factory on the right. The original factory warehouse building on the right is gone, though there remains an industrial park on the site, and the Churchill Arms on the left has recently been demolished.
Too many of Dorsets old buildings are being demolished. I’m sure the majority of them can be refurbished and re used in most building schemes, but the attitude today seems to be, get rid of it and start again with modern lumpy strange looking stuff, which soon needs refurbishment itself.