The Blossoming Of Shaftesbury

Gay Pirrie-Weir talks to the Mayor of Shaftesbury, John Lewer about how this historic hilltop town is rediscovering its confidence and celebrating its great community spirit

- Gay Pirrie-Weir

JOHN Lewer’s unanticipated accession to Shaftesbury’s Mayoralty might have been the result of a confidence motion, but he’s determined that, before his 16 months in office ends in May 2018, Dorset’s Saxon hilltop settlement will have rediscovered its own confidence.

Across the world, more or less any English guidebook will include an image of Gold Hill, the steep cobbled street that leads down from Shaftesbury town centre to St James. But with a population of about 7,000 and almost 1,000 new homes in the pipeline, the growing town is now struggling with a road system that can’t deal with the demands of 21st century traffic. That’s one aspect of life in Shaftesbury that engineer John Lewer wants to address - in consultation with his fellow Shastonians.

He first visited Shaftesbury as a 16-year old, en route with his family from their Isle of Wight home to holiday in Somerset. He didn’t return until 1982, when he and his wife Liz bought “the next OS map up.”

Newly engaged to Liz, and with a degree in electrical engineering, John decided to leave London for the country. The couple agreed he would take the next available job and that was as a civilian lecturer at Blandford army camp, where he stayed for 25 years.

The Lewers were (and still are) keen hill walkers, so they bought an OS map of their new home area and explored. When John was promoted, they moved just south of Shaftesbury – buying the next map northwards. The town has been their home since then, and 22 years later they moved “a little north” to their current house in Layton Lane. “It was the views that sold it to us,” says John.