There are a great many sources for information about your family and genealogical advice. If you’re searching a little further afield than Dorset, then the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society might be able to help… — When asked to write a blog for the DHC on the collection of pedigrees held at the Somerset… Read more Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
Sir Stephen Gaselee was an irascible judge who used to sit in judgment at the Dorchester Assizes in the 1820s & 1830s. He was well-known for his prosecution of radicals and reformers. This was evidenced in March 1832 when he sentenced Blandford’s George Long and Sturminster Newton’s Richard Bleathman to be hung in Dorchester Jail… Read more What the Dickens?!
Henry Maidment was an agricultural labourer who lived in the North Dorset village of Pimperne. In 1866, Henry was one of the few surviving British Army veterans who had fought Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Army in the Spanish Peninsular War. At 83, he could not work and had hit hard times. He was surviving on a… Read more Henry Maidment: Our Forgotten War Hero
A new book by Brian Bates tells about some of the dramas, tragedies and even comedies that played out at the Dorset assize courts during the nineteenth century… At the Lent assizes, in 1856, 15-year-old servant Flora Everitt stood in the dock accused of trying to poison her master, and in that same year Elizabeth… Read more Stories from the Dorset Assizes
At Dorset History Centre we are fortunate to be able to work with a large cross-section of different groups. One of these groups is Cranborne Chase and Chalke Valley Landscape Partnership. In this blog, as part of Local and Community History Month, they explain a little more about what this partnership does… — In 2003… Read more Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership: Connecting our Communities
Dorset’s population, being a coastal county, has always had people involved in the shipping trade, in boat building, or aboard one of the many sea going vessels. Probate records exist for many sailors who ‘considering the Perrils & dangers of ye Sea and other uncertainties of this Transitory Life’ made their Wills before they set… Read more Probate Records – Mariners
At Dorset History Centre, we hold a large number of fascinating collections which tell of a rich history. One such collection is that of Loewy Engineering of Bournemouth… — The County of Dorset has been home to many individuals, men and women who in their own specialist fields have made a great impact upon society… Read more Ludwig Loewy – The Story of a Czech Jew who escaped Nazi Germany
This the fourth and final instalment of our blog series about the non-conformist Reverend James McClune Uffen and the journal he kept of his journey from Dorchester to New Zealand in 1911. If you have missed the tale so far, you can read part one, part two and part three to learn the full story… Read more Reverend Uffen’s Leaving Dorset (part 4)
A new collection we have recently taken in (DHC ref: D-3291) contains some very interesting plans and sketches dating from the 1920s to the 1960s… One of the earliest set of plans from 1924 show the design of a larger version of the familiar shelters that can be seen along the Weymouth Esplanade (a popular place to eat fish and chips) to seat 32 or 40 persons, that… Read more Weymouth seafront – What is, was, and what could have been
One of Dorset History Centre’s team has recently passed a driving test, and this, coupled with a photograph from the Herbert Collection inspired a deeper look into the archive! — The roads of Weymouth have certainly changed and so too have motor vehicles and driving lessons. It was amusing to see these two rather large… Read more Driving – how times have changed!
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