Dorchester - High Street Area

At the Antelope Hotel in South Street (16th-19th century) during the Bloody Assizes, Charles II's Lord Chief Justice, Judge Jeffreys, presided over the trial of Protestant supporters of Monmouth's rebellion.

Judge Jeffrey's Lodgings across the street from the Victorian Corn Exchange were linked by secret passageway to the courtroom in the Antelope Hotel.

High West Street leads to the oldest part of Dorchester, with remains of the Roman walls visible in Albert Road (south) and a fourth century Roman town house in Northernhay (northwest).

In High West Street, St Peter's Church, built in the 12th century but greatly altered in the 19th, has a monument in the churchyard to William Barnes (1800-86), a local schoolmaster who wrote poetry in the Dorset dialect; the interior of the church contains tombs of various 14th century knights.

Near the Antelope Hotel stands an obelisk erected in 1784 on the site of the old town pump, still called Town Pump.

The Tutankhamun Exhibition is found on High West Street in Dorchester. The exhibit was designed to replicate the original Tutankhamun Exhibition that was shown in London at the British Museum in 1972 and then traveled the world. All of the treasures on display have been recreated from the originals.

The Victorian Corn Exchange (1847-48), opposite the east end of St Peter's Church, served many different purposes: prison, covered market and courts.