Thousands of visitors flocked to the county town for its second heritage open day on Sunday.

High West Street and High East Street were closed to traffic to allow people to explore the town centre without cars, noise or fumes.

Meanwhile, there were plenty of opportunities to learn about Dorchester’s rich history, including tours of the old town jail.

Visitors then joined hands for a giant hokey cokey down High East Street -a video of the dance can be seen on our website courtesy of Keep 106 radio.

Andy Stevens, Director of Crackingday Ltd along with site owners City and Country, kindly enabled Dorchester Prison to be open for the heritage open day.

Mr Stevens said he was blown away by the popularity of the tours.

He said: “It’s been a privilege to open the prison to so many local people.

“I look forward to working with Dorchester Town Council and the Joint Heritage Committee in the future.”

The heritage open day talks including Dorchester’s Tunnels and Dorchester Through Time also proved very popular, as did the tours of the High Street, Shire Hall, Brewery Square and the Roman Town House.

Cllr Gareth Jones of Dorchester’s Joint Heritage Committee said: “Dorchester’s second heritage open day has been a wonderful event and we are very grateful to the weather.

“But what makes me so proud is that the event was made possible by volunteers sharing their passion for their local heritage.”

In the afternoon, Visitors headed to Tom Brown’s Pub in High East Street to take part in a giant hokey cokey.

Katy Jones, who runs the pub, said: “This year we had somewhere between 500 and 700 people taking part.

“The hokey cokey went the whole length of the street. We are really pleased with the turnout.

“We didn’t know what to expect because 2,000 people said they were interested on Facebook, but you never know who will turn up.

“The heritage open day has been really successful. Last year was like a practice run to see how it goes, but we’ve had some really good feedback this year, it just seems to get bigger and better.

If you enjoyed taking part in the giant hokey cokey, Tom Brown’s Pub is encouraging people to make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Society.