Shaftesbury: The Town Hall and St. Peter's Church

After a wonderful bus ride from Salisbury to Shaftesbury, during which we seemed to pass loads of small, old churches and manor houses, the bus pulled up outside Shaftesbury Town Hall and St. Peter's church:

What wonderful buildings to be greeted with on a fine sunny, English afternoon.

As I've said before, one of the reasons why I enjoy travelling round Hardy's Wessex is that it still feels like you're in England (for me, this is a really precious feeling):

Have just read that St. Peter's church dates back to the 14th century, and that due to the Black Death, it took over a century to build with a mixture of different styles:

And of course, at the side of Shaftesbury Town Hall, there was the ginnel leading down to Gold Hill:

Yeah, as soon as I arrived in Shaftesbury, I could see I was going to love the place (it was the same kind of feeling I have for Dorchester).