Brewery Place, Blandford

Brewery Place is located approximately 680m from Blandford Forum Town Centre; East Street and Salisbury Street are both located approximately a 10–12-minute walk or a 5–6-minute cycle, to where majority of the local facilities are.

There are several benefits to walking; whether it is to work or a small journey to the shops, it can be incorporated into your everyday lives. Walking can improve your cardiovascular fitness, lower anxiety and stress, boost your energy, and strengthen your muscle power. Alongside the positive health impacts, walking helps to decrease the number of trips made by car use and this is a step forward to supporting the local environment and becoming a more sustainable traveller.

Blandford Health Walks offer free walks run by trained volunteers. The following walks are available:

• Tuesday Mornings – 10am from the Black Cactus Cafe
• Tuesday Evenings – 6.15pm (summer only) from The Ham car park, opposite the tourist information office

No booking is required, just turn up 10-15 minutes before the start time. For more information visit https://www.helpandkindness.co.uk/organisations/353/blandford-health-walks

Milldown Nature Reserve is located close to Blandford Forum Town Centre. It is ideal for picnics, exercise, wildlife or simply enjoying the superb views and wildlife.

Largely made up of sections of the old Somerset and Dorset Railway which linked Bristol and Bournemouth until the 1960s, North Dorset Trailway is a well-maintained path which extends approximately 14 miles from Sturminster Newton to Spetisbury. This route is perfect for runners, cyclists, walkers, equestrians, and people with mobility scooters.

There are some great opportunities for cyclists from Brewery place and in the Dorset area. Cycling is a sustainable and enjoyable way to travel which allows you to keep fit whilst being money efficient.

The National Cycle Routes 25, 250 and 253 are directly passing by your home and Blandford Frum and are easily accessible. The full route information can be found at: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/on-the-train/train-travel-with-bicycles/

Bike Servicing

Offcamber is a local bike retailer in Blandford Forum. They offer a great range of bikes which are available to purchase with finance options. They offer bike servicing and repairs (£30-£150 depending on the type of service) and provide support for competitive cyclists. For more information visit https://offcamber.co.uk/

Halfords is located on Ringwood Road, Poole, which offers a free bike check to all customers. This is a great way to ensure your bike is safe to ride on the roads and doesn’t cost you a penny. They also offer bike servicing, starting from £35.

Bike Craft, Dorset (https://www.bikecraftdorset.co.uk/) offer all levels of servicing and repairs, as well as ‘Bike Doctor’ appointments. The mobile bike mechanic can come to your home or place of work to carry out the work on your bike, with prices starting as low as £15.

Cycle Training

Bikeability – There are three Bikeability levels, each designed to improve cycling skills, no matter what is known already. Levels 1, 2 and 3 take trainees from the basics of balance and control, all the way to planning and making an independent journey on busier roads. Bikeability training may be offered in Schools but other training programmes, including family training, is available UK wide. To find out more visit: https://www.bikeability.org.uk/

Adult Cycle Training – Dorset Council have teamed up with local cycle trainers to offer vouchers giving you one-to-one bespoke tuition at a reduced rate. Each voucher entitles you to a two-hour session, individually tailored to you with a qualified instructor. You are allowed to purchase up to three vouchers for £12.50. This means you could have up to six hours bespoke cycle training at a time and location convenient to you for just £37.50! Find out more here: https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/w/adult-cycle-training-vouchers?p_l_back_url=%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcycle%2Btraining

Cycle Groups

Monday Cycle Group Blandford Forum – MCG offer MTB/Offroad rides as well as Leisure/Touring rides. The MCG also holds maintenance workshops, along with some social events for members and their families. Find out more here: https://www.cyclinguk.org/local-groups/monday-cycle-group

Dorset Cyclist Network (DCN) offer regular rides and events across Dorset. For more information, visit: https://www.cyclinguk.org/local-groups/dorset-cyclists-network

The closest stops to Brewery Place are ‘The Brewery’ stops located just outside Stour Gate along Bournemouth Road. There are a variety of bus services available from ‘The Brewery’ offering travel to destinations such as Blandford Forum, Shaftesbury, Dorchester, Poole, Weymouth, and Yeovil. Damory Coaches, Morebus and First Bus Somerset operate these services. The services, along with the operator websites are listed below.

• Damory Coaches (CR7, CR8, CR9): https://www.excelsior-coaches.com/bus-timetables
• Morebus (X8): https://www.morebus.co.uk/services
• First Bus Somerset (CR4): https://www.firstbus.co.uk/somerset

Don’t forget to check times before you travel!

Why not save yourself the hassle and download the Morebus or First Bus App! You can plan your journey wherever you are by purchasing tickets from your phone, live tracking your bus, checking timetables, and getting service updates.

Our map below highlights the main bus routes running in your local area and the nearest bus stops.

Your Closest Railway Station

Poole Station (POO) is approximately 13.7 miles from Stour Gate and accessible with a 37-minute journey on the X8 bus service.

South Western Railway operate this station and provide services to:

• London Waterloo (2h 10m)
• Weymouth (39m)
• Bournemouth (13m)
• Winchester (1h 8m)
• Dorchester (28m)

Poole Station has step-free access, waiting rooms, an ATM, Wi-Fi, customer help points, a manned ticket office, toilets, and 90 sheltered cycle storage spaces.

If you are a cyclist and have questions about bringing your cycle on your train journey, PlusBike is here to help.

PlusBike is a free resource tool which will show information specific to your journey including:

• Cycle facilities at stations, along with the number of cycle parking spaces.
• Cycle-hire at stations or nearby hire-stations with links directly to them.
• Cycle carriage rules, including taking cycles on train specific to your rail journey.
• Whether a cycle needs to be reserved to take on board.

For more information visit https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/on-the-train/train-travel-with-bicycles/

Car sharing

Need to find a lift or want to share yours? Why not join the Lift share database?

Liftshare have a database of over 700,000 people to car share with. Its free to join and find both drivers and passengers to share with! You could help reduce CO2 emissions, reduce the stress of driving by sharing and you could save up to £1000 on average per year!

https://liftshare.com/uk/community/dorset

Benefits of Car Sharing:

• Less cars on the road = less congestion and less pollution.
• Reduced demand for parking.
• Financial Savings – Share the ride, split the cost.
• Social benefits from travelling with someone else.