Preston and Sutton Poyntz, Dorset

The village of Sutton Poyntz, main setting for "The Trumpet Major".  The hamlet of Sutton Poyntz, with some attributes of neighbouring Preston, becomes the village of Overcombe.  Overcombe is home to the gormless and yet charming Anne Garland, her mother (a rip-off of an Austen mother) and Miller Loveday, their landlord:

" ... a steep slope rose high into the sky, merging in a wide and open down, now littered with sheep newly shorn. The upland by its height completely sheltered the mill and village from north winds, making summers of springs, reducing winters to autumn temperatures, and permitting myrtle to flourish in the open air."
The soldiers pitch their tents on the slopes above the villages, while the King's late-night arrival takes place along the top of Ridgeway Hill.   (The Trumpet Major)Today, both villages are effectively suburbs of Weymouth.  Sutton Poyntz retains its rural feel, while Preston is more suburban, and largely taken up with a caravan site.  

The millpond at Sutton Poyntz; 

"Immediately before her was the large, smooth millpond, over-full, and intruding into the hedge and into the road. The water, with its flowing leaves and spots of froth, was stealing away, like Time, under the dark arch, to tumble over the great slimy wheel within. On the other side of the mill-pond was an open place called the Cross, because it was three-quarters of one, two lanes and a cattle-drive meeting there. It was the general rendezvous and arena of the surrounding village."
(The Trumpet Major)
Sutton Poyntz Mill.  Now  a bed and breakfast.  A plaque on the building opposite commemorates Hardy's use of the location in The Trumpet Major.  
The chalk cutting of George III on his white horse, on the downs above Preston.  In The Trumpet Major, Anne Garland and  John Loveday watch workmen creating this image: 

"When they reached the hill they found forty navvies at work removing the dark sod so as to lay bare the chalk beneath. The equestrian figure that their shovels were forming was scarcely intelligible to John and Anne now they were close, and after pacing from the horse's head down his breast to his hoof, back by way of the king's bridle-arm, past the bridge of his nose, and into his cocked-hat, Anne said that she had had enough of it, and stepped out of the chalk clearing upon the grass. The trumpet-major had remained all the time in a melancholy attitude within the rowel of his Majesty's right spur."

Pity Corporal Tullidge and Simon Burden: 

"Instead of sitting snugly in the settle of the Old Ship, in the village adjoining Overcombe, they were obliged to keep watch on the hill. They made themselves as comfortable as was possible in the circumstances, dwelling in a hut of clods and turf, with a brick chimney for cooking. Here they observed the nightly progress of the moon and stars, grew familiar with the heaving of moles, the dancing of rabbits on the hillocks, the distant hoot of owls, the bark of foxes from woods further inland; but saw not a sign of the enemy. As, night after night, they walked round the two ricks which it was their duty to fire at a signal--one being of furze for a quick flame, the other of turf, for a long, slow radiance--they thought and talked of old times, and drank patriotically from a large wood flagon that was filled every day." 

(The Trumpet Major) 
The  renamed Spice Ship is still a decent pub to visit today, with a good pint of Ringwood Best, a large restaurant, a large garden and a very large TV screen in a separate sport-watching room. 

 

The view from Ridgeway Hill over Preston, towards Weymouth and the Isle of Portland.   

St Andrew's Church, Preston, where Anne Garland worshipped and noticed the pikes stored in the tower.  

 

 

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