by Faith Eckersall
An archive of items gifted to Dorset Museum by the alternative rock musician PJ Harvey, have gone on display.

Fans of the Dorset-based singer can see the exhibits, which relate to the publication of her Dorset dialect poem, Orlam, until July 9 outside the Museum’s Collection Discovery Centre.

PJ Harvey spent an afternoon at the museum last year, pursuing her interest in 19th-century Dorset dialect poet William Barnes. She donated a signed copy of Orlam ahead of the work’s publication.

She also gifted the museum proofs of the book’s text and cover, marked with her hand-written edits, and an exclusive signed photograph of her wearing a brooch of traditional Dorset buttons.

Harvey’s verse novel Orlam is the first substantial work written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. It brings a modern, surreal twist to traditional West Country words and phrases.

Although the poem offers a fictionalised and distorted view of the county, it draws upon Harvey’s memories of her secluded childhood in a small Dorset village, particularly in its depictions of nature and folklore.

Harvey is the only musician to have won the Mercury Prize twice, for her albums Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (written partly in Dorset) in 2001, and Let England Shake in 2011.

The latter was recorded in Eype, West Dorset. She was awarded an MBE for services to music in 2013 and in 2015 published her debut poetry collection with photographs by Seamus Murphy, The Hollow Of The Hand.

Dorset Museum’s interim director, Elizabeth Selby, said: “We were thrilled to receive these items from PJ Harvey in April 2022 and are delighted that we now have an opportunity to display them for visitors to see.”