In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Barbary corsairs – pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa – regularly attacked the ships and coastlines of European countries. Not only that, but they took thousands of men, women and children as captives, holding them to ransom or forcing them into slavery. While the existence of… Read more The Barbary Pirates in Dorset
Halloween and Bonfire Night have come and gone, and we have remembered those who fought in various conflicts. Now the race is on for Christmas. However, there is an old tradition where, at the end of November, the last Sunday before Advent which this year falls on Sunday 23rd November 2025, “Stir-Up Sunday” is celebrated.… Read more Stir-up Sunday!
Between Monday 24 November and Saturday 6 December 2025, Dorset History Centre will be closed to the public for two weeks for our annual Collections Fortnight. This period offers us a chance to work on collections and material which need attention, but that we are otherwise unable to get to when we are open. You… Read more Collections Fortnight 2025
This week we thought we would lean into the spirit of Halloween by looking at evidence of witches and witchcraft in Dorset from a selection of records held here at DHC. Witchcraft and Superstition The superstitious belief in witchcraft was a widespread phenomenon throughout Britain, particularly during the height of the witch trails in the… Read more Witchcraft and Witches in Dorset
In the summer we were joined by our new Collections Assistant Chris who is working on the Wessex Water archive alongside Project Archivist Emma. We wanted to introduce readers to Chris on today’s blog… — Hello everyone. My name’s Chris and I joined the Dorset History Centre as a Collections Assistant in July 2025. Previously,… Read more Welcoming Chris to Dorset History Centre!
This past summer Bridport Arts Centre held a season of events titled “Queer in The Countryside”, for which BAC’s Director, Claire Tudge, set out ‘to demonstrate and acknowledge their unique position as a multidisciplinary arts centre to use storytelling to highlight issues and contribute towards importance societal discourse.’ In this blog, artist Paul Sammut talks… Read more Lisome Rum
Everybody loves the fair and we here at Dorset History Centre are no exception so, on an unusually quiet day, Chris decided to have a perusal of our public catalogue and a poke about in our repositories to see if he could find out anything of interest about the many fairs to have graced our… Read more All the Fun of the Fair
A few months ago, we kicked off our postcard blog series with a selection of postcards from Bournemouth. This month, we’re focusing on another of Dorset’s tourist hotspots: Weymouth. Weymouth’s rise as a fashionable seaside resort began in the second half of the eighteenth century, helped by the endorsement of King George III, who visited… Read more The Dorset Postcard Collection – Weymouth
Dorset History Centre is the official archives and local studies service for Bournemouth, Christchurch, Dorset, and Poole. Whether you’re tracing your family tree, digging into local history, or looking for legal records, our collections are here for everyone. More information about the kinds of archives we hold can be found on our online catalogue and also on the… Read more We NEED You!
Join us at Dorset History Centre for Heritage Open Day this Sunday 21 September, 10am to 4pm, to find out more about what we do and how we do it! Our behind-the-scenes tours are now sold out, but there will still be plenty to drop in and do on the day! In our searchroom, there will… Read more Heritage Open Day 2025
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