We are very lucky to have an award-winning town crier who is so passionate about Dorchester and its history.

We caught up with Alistair Chisholm after he was recently named champion in the Loyal Company of town Criers' virtual competition.

Alistair was born and brought up in the suburbs of London but moved to Dorset around 30 years ago.

"You don't get tired of London," he said, "I just wanted my kids to see some sky and possibly even some stars at night, which you can't do in London.

"There's something about Dorset that is very, very compelling, so people who can't live here come here regularly on holiday and if you get the chance to move here, I quite understand why people want to be here - which raises another issue."

Alistair is a supporter of the STAND for Dorchester campaign, which is against the proposed development of around 4,000 homes north of the town.

He added: "I think we should be looking after the people who live and work here before we put eye to those who like the idea of retiring here or having a second home here."

Alistair became big campaigner of Dorchester, promoting its rich history through being a tour guide and as town crier.

"The more I learnt about Dorchester the more unbelievable it became," he said.

"I knew a little bit about Hardy having had to study his poetry for A level and that was an interesting introduction which I now appreciate.

"I can remember asking people who lived in the town, 'where's Max Gate?' and they would say, 'I'm not quite sure'.

"This town and the surrounds contain everything that visitors to this county want to tick off their list - whether it's a literary figure, the Romans, whatever it is - so I thought I am going to go back as a tour guide, I had been a tour guide in London."

From that Alistair looked into being the town crier to promote the town and the tours. At that time, Dorchester didn't have one, but David Wathen from Gillingham was doing some crying in the town.

He added: "I said I would like to do it and the town council gave me an audition, which was a bit of a joke because I think I had two pages of A4 for the cry and the whole quintessence of a town cry is that it is short and sharp, but they appointed me.

"Like many towns, the first bellman was appointed in the middle of the 17th century and his job was to sound a warning, if that warning was necessary and that principle is something that I still adhere to and I see this monstrous idea of development north of Dorchester as a real threat to the whole feeling of the county town and I feel as town crier to write cries about it, warning people the everlasting destruction as once it's done, it's done, it can never be undone.

"Hardy said when they started building in the 19th century beyond the Roman walls, we would become a suburb of London. The present suburbs of London probably do come down to Dorset.

"Dorchester is a fantastic town with an extraordinary history.

"If we want to play to our strength, which is our extraordinary story, then we really must raise our game generally and take pride.

"We have world heritage status for the coast but I would argue that if we're clever, we could get heritage status for Dorchester. It has been muted and it's a lot of work but we could aspire to something like that.

"I think it's a very, very precious place, I think it's completely deserving to be the county town."

Alistair was named the country's champion in the Loyal Company of Town Criers virtual town crier championships, which was a bit different this year and raised money for charity.

He didn't actually have to cry and the competition was held in silence for the first time.

Alistair said: "I thought it was a brilliant plan B and we're a pretty wacky group.

"We were raising money for a mental health charity called Shout. They gave us the title, nature and the environment, and I didn't read it that carefully - I thought it was nature and the environment and the mental health charity, so I wrote a cry that linked the two and how good it is for your mental health.

"Writing a cry is important, it's like a well-written poem and as long as it's well-written, then you can read it well and you can convey the meaning. I tend to write mine in rhyme, just because it's quite an interesting challenge, you don't have to but I notice more criers are these days.

"I realised I had gone way beyond nature and the environment and thought I'll probably only get to the second round, but there was obviously something they liked about it.

"I was surprised, delighted and flattered because I subsequently read the second and third cries and they were very good.

"I think I must be doing something right."

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