The Town is also renowned as the location of one of Judge Jeffrey’s "Bloody Assizes" which follows the unsuccessful Monmouth rebellion in 1685. Almost 300 men were condemned to death in Dorchester, although many of them subsequently had their sentences reduced to transportation or imprisonment. One of the comparatively few buildings to have survived the series of disastrous fires which ravaged the Town during the 17th and 18th centuries is judge Jeffrey’s Lodgings in High West Street.

Dorchester is well known for its literary associations, perhaps best for Thomas Hardy who both lived and worked here, but there are other, lesser known connections as well. William Barnes, the Dorset dialect poet, had a school here and was Rector of a hamlet just outside the town for many years. Both Hardy and Barnes have statues in the town centre. But Dorchester also has associations with the Powys family, who used to live in High East Street, and with the poet Cecil Day Lewis who, like Hardy, is buried in Stinsford, 1 mile from Dorchester.

There is a memorial by Dame Elizabeth Frink to the Christian martyrs of all persuasions in South Walks and the most recent addition to Dorchester’s enviable collection of public art is a statue of Dorset Shepherd by John Doubleday in Durngate Street.

But Dorchester is a town with a present as well as a past. It is a thriving market town with an attractive pedestrianised town centre and it serves as a focus for the commercial and cultural life of the huge community surrounding the town. The Dorchester festival, which happens at the beginning of may every other year, attracts large audiences from far afield for high quality, varied programmes of entertainment’s and exhibitions.