Women walking the Dorset landscape
Our walks
Someone described these walks as ‘rewilding the body and brain’. Walking puts you back in touch, not just with nature and natural processes, it also rebalances your personal ecosystem. Walking clears out the noise of modern life and lets your own landscape emerge. Findlater & Sisters’ walks are designed for a range of abilities and distances. Before each walk you will receive detailed instructions for accessing the start point. Our preferred location finder is What Three Words. Click on the dates below to book a walk with us soon. Our walks are free.
Women of Tyneham
BOOK NOW: Sunday 9th August
(7 miles. Some short steep ascents – worth it for the views)
10.00am - 2.30pm
Tyneham village was evacuated by the Ministry of Defence in 1943, so that the land could be used for the ‘war effort’. Villagers were forced to leave their homes and were relocated to nearby towns, never to return. The tragic story of the ghost village of Tyneham is well recorded, but this walk focuses on two women who stand out in this story of displaced community. Campaigner Monica Hutchings and seamstress Helen Taylor. Monica was a prolific author of books about Dorset. Helen Taylor was the last villager to leave, and her final gesture has been remembered to this day. On this wonderful walk we will hear the stories of these two women whose actions ensured that Tyneham is remembered for us and for future generations.
‘A Scandalous Woman’
BOOK NOW: Sunday 16th August
(7 miles. A few steep ascents - breath-taking views)
10.00am - 2.30pm
Fighting for womens’ rights long before the suffragettes, Caroline Norton (1808-1877) was an early campaigner for the rights of women.
In 1836 she left her abusive, jealous husband but as a consequence was denied access to her children as they legally belonged to him. As a married woman she had no rights at all. Undeterred, she went to court and in over the following twenty years she singlehandedly changed the law to give women the right to custody of their children.
In the tiny village of Southover, the house Frampton Court was owned by Caroline’s brother Brinsley Sheridan, son of the playwright. Set in riverside gardens, it was a refuge for Caroline during the tumultuous legal battles. As well as advocating for womens’ rights, Caroline championed workers’ rights, marching with the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
If you want to hear more about this extraordinary woman, come with us on this walk over the undulating hills of a hidden bit of Dorset just west of Dorchester.
Portland, Isle of Independent Women
BOOK NOW: Sunday 23rd August
(7 miles. A moderate hike)
10.00am - 2.30pm
The rugged landscape of the Isle of Portland contrasts with the gentle hills of mainland Dorset, but its wild scenery created by years of quarrying provides wonderful walking routes. Portlanders have always been independent folk, and this includes their women, who would only agree to marry the man of their choice once he had fathered a baby with them - no baby, no marriage. Perhaps it was this independence that attracted birth control pioneer Marie Stopes to settle here. Women have shaped Portland from neolithic to modern times - come and hear their stories as we walk.
Sherborne, Suffragettes, and Sapphic love
BOOK NOW: Sunday 26th July
(7.5 miles. Some mild ascents)
10.00am - 2.00pm
Evelina Haverfield was a fearless suffragette who not only championed women’s rights, but challenged the heteronormativity of Edwardian life. Evelina’s childhood home was a Scottish castle, she married well and lived the life of a privileged Edwardian society lady at West Hall, near Sherborne. But it was the fight for women’s rights that became her passion. In 1909 she held the inaugural meeting of the Sherborne branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in the Digby Hotel. Impatient, however, with their peaceful approach to securing change, she joined Emeline Pankhurst’s WPSU and embraced the direct action of the militant suffragists. It was in London that she met Vera ‘Jack’ Holmes, an actress, suffragette and chauffeur for Emmeline Pankhurst. Turning her back on her marriage Eveline, Eve, became Vera’s lover and they were together for the rest of Eve’s life. United in their determination that women should get the vote, they both went to Holloway prison for their actions. Eve was arrested for hitting a policeman. Her response: ‘I didn’t hit him hard enough, I’ll bring my revolver next time.’ The outbreak of World War One meant that many suffragettes were deployed in munitions and as nurses to support the war effort. Jack and Eve played their part too. They ran field hospitals and drove ambulances near the front line of war in Russia and Serbia where Eve died in 1920 of pneumonia.
Join us on circular walk of Sherborne exploring Eve and Jack’s life together.