Hello! My name’s Eimear and I started working at the Dorset History Centre at the beginning of 2021 as a Digital Archives Trainee. I’ve been here thanks to The National Archives Bridging the Digital Gap Programme which aims to increase digital skills in the archives sector but sadly my fifteen-month traineeship has come to an… Read more Goodbye from our Digital Archives Trainee
Could you imagine the song of French birds in Cattistock? The estate-name Chantmarle is formed of a surname deriving from a French place-name ‘sing blackbird’. Brog Street in Sleight, Corfe Mullen, was found to be on the line of a Roman road or strǣt – a demonstration that place-names can be significant for archaeology. Cancer… Read more The Survey of English Place-Names: Dorset – congratulations are in order!
The village of Broadwindsor in Dorset well and truly put itself on the map with the culmination of a community project led by Windrose Rural Media Trust. Artist Megan Edwards created an interpretive map as part of The Place I Love, which celebrates the local landscape and rural heritage. The project included field names research,… Read more Broadwindsor: The Place I Love
It is unknown how long the custom of April Fools has been popular. But it’s safe to say this day of practical jokes ignites everyone’s mischievous streak! Delving into the newspaper archive has revealed a Victorian perspective to the historical and cultural reasoning for the jokes and japes that occur on the 1st of April,… Read more A Fool’s Education
This week we have celebrated International Women’s Day, and March is Women’s History Month, so is the perfect occasion to celebrate a local trailblazer who broke into the male dominated world of architecture. Elisabeth Whitworth Scott was born in Bournemouth in 1898. She soon realised that the girls in her large family were not receiving the… Read more Elisabeth Whitworth Scott (R.I.B.A. 1898-1972)
On March 8th we celebrate International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. A national holiday in several countries worldwide; including China, Russia, Laos, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Uganda – International Women’s Day has been celebrated for over a century, with the first official IWD gathering taking place in… Read more Women’s History month – Celebrating women, International Women’s Day
Gertrude Ethel Sharp, the youngest of seven children, was born in 1890. In her early 20s, she studied Applied Art at the Royal College of Art in London, there meeting, and marrying in 1915, John Adams, a potter, designer and technical ceramicist from a famous Staffordshire family. After their marriage, Truda and John moved to… Read more The Mystery of Truda Carter
In modern life, we’re aware of the prevalent use of photo manipulation – in film and TV, advertising, and even on social media through filters. We know not to take photos at face value and can even spots the signs of tweaking. Now consider the clear skinned, slim-waisted subjects of Victorian and Edwardian photographs –… Read more Photoshopping the Past
Arne has always been a small village parish, recorded in 1894 to comprise of 2,668 acres plus 2,209 acres of water and foreshore. By 1932 little of the area had been developed as stated in the Poole and Dorset Herald article: ‘its principal features have remained untouched for centuries and have suffered none but geological… Read more From Wartime Decoy to Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
As the Winter Olympics continues with scenes of snowy mountains and icy racetracks, we are looking back at two of the biggest snowfalls in Dorset in the 20th century. A white Christmas in 1962 was the start of a prolonged period of heavy snow across Dorset, blocking roads and cutting off villages. The freeze continued… Read more In Search of Snow…
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