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On the A31 road between Wimborne and Bere Regis, near Winterbourne Zelston, you will come to a crossroads with a rather unusual signpost.
It is of the usual metal post variety with 4 wooden fingers pointing the directions, typical of the type you find in country areas, except it is painted red with white lettering.

     Located at 388357 097054 - 2.7 miles NE of Bere Regis.

Gibbet
The story I first heard about this signpost was that it was placed at the site of where a gibbet used to be situated, so the post tended to end up red, for obvious reasons.
The tradition of having a red post there carrying on, even after the grizzly practice of displaying the bodies of criminals had finished.
This is an interesting story but far from correct - although criminals were involved.



Prisoners
The truth is that the post was used as a marker or reference point, for illiterate guards who were escorting prisoners from Dorchester Prison 15 miles away, to Portsmouth. From Portsmouth they then went for a long cruise to Botany Bay Australia.
If you approach the post from Dorchester and turn right at the sign, after a short distance you will come to the aptly named Botany Bay farm. Here can still be found the remains of part of a substantially built barn, which doubled as a cell where the prisoners were held on their first overnight stop.
Apparently there used to be a large post in the centre where the prisoners would be chained up, before continuing their 70 mile walk the next day.
The barn unfortunately suffered from a fire in the 1930`s, so a lot of its history was lost.

A Second Post

     Located at 355305 103985 - 2.4 miles West of Evershot.

Photo Submitted by, and Copyright of :- Peter Cresswell of Beaminster

In the book "Old Roads of Dorset" by Ronald Good [Page 35] mention is made of several sites around Dorset where Red, and also White Posts existed.
The post shown above is situated 12 miles to the north west of Dorchester, in the direction you would have approached from Taunton prison. This fact made the sender of the picture, Peter Cresswell, point out that it could also have been used as a guide for prisoners, in this instance being marched to Dorchester prison.
This seems very plausible to me, so the question now is whether the posts were erected by the local populace to assist themselves, or by the local prison authorities to assist their warders.

A third post can also be found 1.9 miles north of Sherborne on the B3145 at location ST 640198

Co-Ords:
388357 097054 / SY 883970

355305 103985 / ST553039

364021 119891 / ST 640198

  

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