The fourth and final volume of ‘Royal Weymouth’ contains perhaps the most unusual addition of any of the books by Broadley that we have looked at in our blog series – some of Lord Cathcart`s hair, which was in an envelope that had been stuck into this volume. Lord Cathcart was a Scottish general who… Read more Royal Weymouth Volume 4: Horatio and Hair
In recent weeks the Black Lives Matter movement has shone a spotlight on the importance of making sure that history reflects the lives of all people and we have found stories of black people in the records from our archive that may surprise you. It is easy to think that in a predominantly white rural county such as Dorset there are few stories to discover, but we were able to… Read more Black Voices Matter
Wednesday 24th June 2020 is Midsummer’s Day and the Feast of St John the Baptist. It is a celebration that has links to the old summer solstice festivities, although it occurs a few days after the longest day, which usually falls on the 20th or 21st of June. Traditional celebrations for Midsummer began at sunset… Read more A Dorset Midsummer
A quick search of the catalogue reveals that we hold over 4,000 records relating to Kings or Queens, which is a rather large figure given Dorset’s relative removal from Royal life! As with everything though, you can scratch away at the surface and find that this figure is swollen by the ‘other’ records, ones which… Read more Archives A-Z: K is for Kings and Queens
At Dorset History Centre we have lots of collections of varying sizes, and in previous blogs have explored some of the bigger collections. Now, in the first of a new series of blogs, we want to shine a light on some of the smaller, less well known collections that we hold to demonstrate that every… Read more Collection Spotlight: Audrey Mary Walder
In a recent blog we looked at what sort of information title deeds can tell you. In this blog, one of our volunteers, Louise Haywood, has explored this theme in more detail, looking at a recent purchase made by Dorset Archives Trust… — Nowadays we have a conveyance to transfer property or land between a seller… Read more Marriage and Property in 16th Century Kimmeridge
‘Royal Weymouth’ is a four-volume book that we hold within our collection. Like ‘The Extra Illustrated Edition of Hutchins’, it has been put together by A.M. Broadley, but instead of grangerising one book, these volumes are based around several accounts of the Royal visits to Weymouth by King George III and his family. — The… Read more Royal Weymouth Volume 3: A Pardon and a Petite Princess
We are sharing a monthly look at the farm diary of John Foss, written from his dairy farm in Kingston Russell in 1851. May 1851 May of 1851 starts cold with a snowstorm on Monday the 5th, but soon improves. John describing many of the days in a similar manner: “Fine morning, continued so all… Read more The Diary of John Foss: May 1851
With the 75th anniversary of VE Day upon us, we asked The Keep Military Museum to write a short piece about how Dorset celebrated the end of the war in 1945… — When post-war generations think of V.E. Day, images of street parties, celebrations in London, and the famous story of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret… Read more VE Day in Dorset
Gerardus Mercator (1512 – 1594) never travelled very far. Apparently, he was a bit of an armchair traveller, which is most relevant today as, due to the lockdown, none of us can go very far. However, in 1569 he designed the map of the world that we all still recognise today. His principle known as… Read more Armchair Travellers – Maps in a time of lockdown
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