Dorset History Centre holds many fascinating documents and books that tell the stories of the people, villages and towns of Dorset. We would like to give people the chance to discover these stories, so in January 2020 we will be starting monthly ‘Explore Dorset’s Archives’ sessions.
These sessions will be run from 10.15 to 11.45 on the last Monday of every month, starting on the 27th January, and are open to anyone who wishes to attend. These sessions have been inspired by the Shared Reading groups that are run by the libraries and will following a similar format.
Each month we will read one or more document, poem or story and discuss the texts (a bit like a book group, but without the homework as the text is read in the session!) The discussion may include some of the historical context of each document, but there will also be a chance to talk about how the text makes us feel, if it makes us think of events in our own lives or anything else that people wish to consider.
We will be looking at diaries, letters, newspaper articles, short stories and poems, as well as anything else we think might be interesting to read. We will be using a mix of sources that include books from our local studies library as well as original documents.
Texts that we have prepared so far include extracts from the diary of a vicar as he prepares for his wedding, a letter written by a man in Borneo to his sister at home in Dorset, a story of Dorset life in World War One and a poem in the Dorset dialect about three old men trying to work out how steam trains operate.
If you are interested in giving these sessions a try, then come along and join us on the 27th January.
If you have any questions or would like any further information please contact us by emailing archives@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk, or phoning us on 01305 250550.
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The full list of dates for the first six months of 2020 are as follows:
- Monday 27 January
- Monday 24 February
- Monday 30 March
- Monday 27 April
- No meeting in May due to the Bank Holiday
- Monday 29 June