This engraving of Athelhampton House dating from 1816 (ref D/ENG/10050) is taken from The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, by John Hutchins. The Dorset History Centre holds various editions of this excellent source for Dorset's history, including a wonderful extra illustrated version. John Hutchins was the Rector of Wareham and Sywre, and started to write his informative history in the mid 1730s, but died shortly before the first edition was published, in 1774. Hutchins tells us that 'there is a tradition in the county, that [Athelhampton] was a chief seat of the Saxon kings.' Hutchins gives a detailed description of the Athelhampton House, which he describes as the 'ancient seat of the Martins'. The oldest part of the building was built by Sir William Martyn, who died in 1503.

Athelhampton House is in the news at the moment as it is the setting for the filming of the children's fantasy 'From Time to Time', which is an adaptation of the book 'The Children of Green Knowe'. The film will star Dame Maggie Smith and Timothy Spall, who have appeared in the Harry Potter films, and is directed by our local Oscar-winning screenwriter, Julian Fellowes.

It is not the first time that Athelhampton has appeared on screen. The house was used as the setting the 1972 film 'Sleuth' starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier and a 1976 episode of Doctor Who, 'The Seeds of Doom' starring Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen.

The History Centre is currently working to produce an image database that will make images from their collections, including this one of Athelhampton House, available for purchase, via the internet. The idea is to provide a group of beautiful, interesting and quirky high specification digital copies of images. As the project develops further material will be digitised and added in to build up a substantial image resource.