Anger as Dorset estate withdraws public entry to ‘stunning’ local landmark

Visitors lament tremendous shame' as notice withdrawing public access appears after 30m sale of Bridehead Estate

For decades the lake and waterfall on the Bridehead Estate in Dorset have brought joy to visitors who used the permissive path to access a scene of pastoral loveliness that could have come straight from the pages of a Thomas Hardy novel.

But there was melancholy - and anger - among the hundreds, possibly thousands, who made final pilgrimages to the village of Littlebredy this week after it was announced that access to the public was being halted from 2 June.