Dorset Man is a rural arts project documenting men's working lives within the 'Chalk and Cheese' area of Dorset. Here you will find blacksmiths, thatchers, fisherman, shepherds, sheep shearers, foresters, hurdlemakers, bakers, butchers, cheese makers, publicans, millers, scrap dealers, charcoal burners, bee-keepers, grave diggers, rat catchers and swill men. They live and work in an area stretching from Thorncombe and Monkton Wyld in the West Country, to Farnham, Cann Common and Melbury Abbas in the east.

Dorset Man was masterminded by James Crowden, a local poet and historian who has worked here for 25 years. He collaborated with photographer George Wright, (who lives at Rampisham in Dorset), to create this invaluable historical record of how rural life has changed since the 1900s. James made digital recordings of the men talking about their lives while George photographed them on 35mm black and white film. The result shows a landscape rich in stories and depicts a rural way of life sure to inspire a new generation interested in local food and indigenous craft skills.