We've written about many lost pubs in recent times but here is a collection of photos of Dorset country pubs that have lasted the course.

These old pictures of some of Dorset's most stunning rural pubs and how they look today make for fascinating viewing.

Scroll down and celebrate the staying power of these beautiful old inns in our gorgeous countryside.

Blue Vinny, Puddletown - 1911

Dorset Echo:

As you can see from the picture below, this pub - named after the Dorset cheese - hasn't changed much.

Dorset Echo:

It used to be popular for its coffee bar and had a thriving darts team.

The pub's website explains the origins of its name: "The word Vinny comes from the old English words vinew or fyne meaning “mould”. Traditionally the farmer’s wife, in small farms around the Dorset countryside, would use the milk from her cows (after skimming the cream) to make her own Blue Vinny.

"However, being skimmed, the cheese didn’t “blue” naturally so to encourage the growth of the mould, old horse harnesses would be dipped into the vats or the cheeses would be stored on damp flagstones or even next to mouldy old boots!"

Blue Vinny is a hard, crumbly cheese, creamy white in colour, with blue veins – lighter and finer than a Stilton. It’s drier and tighter with a rounded sharpness, a positive taste of blue.

Ilchester Arms, Symondsbury, taken in the 1950s

Dorset Echo:

This rather unusual image is of Symondsbury Mummers (Doctor, St. George and Turkish Knight) and Alan Simpson, cameraman.

The Symondsbury version of traditional Christmas mummers plays is one of the fullest surviving versions in the country. There are many characters including St George. Father Christmas, a Doctor and Dame Dorothy.

Dorset Echo:

This traditional English country pub, with its stone built skittle alley, remains popular today.

Brace of Pheasants, Plush - taken in the 1960s

Dorset Echo:

This has to be one of the nicest looking pubs in Dorset, with traditional red phone box and fingerpost situated outside.

It's a thatched cottage with a Tolkien-like interior, including an open fire and skittle alley.

The old picture shows two classic cars, one of which is a Ford Consul 375 parked outside.

In the 1950s, pub trade novices Joan and John Elven, took over the old inn. It was soon included in the Good Food Guide thanks to Joan’s culinary skills and her quiet charm as ’Mine Hostess’. Notable people came to stay including Cecil Day-Lewis who first stayed here with his actress wife Jill Balcon in May 1960.

Day-Lewis became Poet Laureate in 1968 but he was also a successful thriller writer under the non-de-plume of Nicholas Blake. His novel ’The Deadly Joker’ is dedicated to Joan and John and set in Plush with many of the scenes taking place in the pub. In the story the village becomes Netherplash Cantorum, and the inn appears as the Quiet Drop.

Dorset Echo:

This is a lovely old character pub, with its food offering proving popular and was known for its beloved pub dog.

Enter its low doorway and you're greeted with a sign that said 'Duck or grouse'. In the 1980s the pub used to have an upstairs dining room.

There's an orchid nursery just behind the pub.

Rivers Arms Cheselbourne, 1981

Dorset Echo:

In the late 1960s/early 1970s Mrs Allen was the landlady. Apparently she had a pet mynah bird which proved quite a talking point! You could hear it saying "Where's Jack?" - her husband's name. At that time the bar had an old upright piano in the corner!

Hosts Jack and Beryl Darcy bought the freehold from Hall & Woodhouse around 1979/1980.

This typically old fashioned pub was a place where you could get a steak and kidney pie from a warm cabinet!

Dorset Echo:

The darts board was a big draw there. The pub is still going strong today, although, like all others in current times, closed for the national lockdown.