(Unlisted)
(Unlisted)
This row of houses was first proposed by Dorchester Rural District Council in 1944. The Parish Council criticised the idea, because the site stood higher than the water reservoir outlet, opened on to "a muddy road", and was on Glebe land. Perhaps they were right: the Appreciation comments that the group "has none of the sensitivity in form or the affinity with its natural surroundings which the local craftsmen gave their own vernacular architecture". Be that as it may, they went up in the early 1950's, and were originally intended only for agricultural workers.
In 1956, the tenant of a house in West Street complained to the Parish Council that somebody had jumped the queue for one of the Hands Lane houses ~ after enquiries, it emerged that the rival claimant had been allocated the house by RDC officers without consultation either with the Housing Committee or the Parish Council, and the system was tidied up as a result. Following changes in the law, however, some of the houses have been bought, and come on the market from time to time at prices probably beyond the reach of the intended original occupants.
Unlike the typical Abbotsbury house, these all have front gardens, and they are built well above the shelter of the valley. It is interesting, though, that traditional styles and materials have returned in the construction of the garden walls, and the maturing trees have done much to soften the original atmosphere of the little estate.