Thursday 6 June 2019 is the 75th anniversary of D Day. This important landmark of World War Two will be commemorated across the country, and much of Europe. D Day holds particular significance for Dorset as the county was in the front line of the build up to the invasion of Europe. Soldiers from America,… Read more D Day on the Home Front
The fifth volume of Hutchins Extra Illustrated contains some very old documents and has a focus on the towns and villages around Beaminster. Perhaps the most notable are a set of three documents giving grants of land at Marshwood to the Cary family. These date from the 1300’s, the earliest being from 1312. There is… Read more Antiquities, Adventurers and an Actress
On 1 April 2019, Dorset County Council (DCC), along with the district and borough councils, was succeeded by the new unitary Dorset Council. DCC was thus in operation for 130 years, over which time it administered a large part of Dorset’s local services from roads, libraries and small holdings to social care, country parks, Trading… Read more 130 Years of Dorset County Council
Volume four of Hutchin’s Extra Illustrated Edition covers just two places; Bridport and Lyme Regis. A M Broadley, the creator of the book, lived near Bridport in Bradpole and this may explain the large number of additions connected with the town. Amongst the drawings, newspaper clippings and portraits is a flyer for The Greatest Human… Read more A Phenomenon, Fake News and a Philanthropist
The Isle of Purbeck is the focus of the third volume of Hutchins Extra illustrated and many of the additions to this volume are pictures of the spectacular coastline. Numerous sketches and prints of Lulworth, Kimmeridge, Studland and Swanage have been included. — There are also three castles that feature in this volume; Woodsford Castle,… Read more Coastline, Castles and Catastrophe
Tracing its roots back to 1837, Eldridge Pope was the staple of Dorchester enterprise. Upon its restructuring and the development of the new brewery site in 1880 by the new owners Edwin and Alfred Pope, ‘Eldridge Pope & Co. Ltd.’ soon became the largest and most important employer in Dorchester. These were successful times, but… Read more Eldridge Pope: The best beer in town!
It is impossible to list all the additions in the Extra Illustrated Edition of Hutchins, but several items catch your eye as you browse the second volume; the drawing of a maze at Pimperne, a rubbing of a coat of arms alongside sketches of archaeological finds from a house at Langton Long, the account of… Read more Hutchins’ Extra Illustrated Volume 2 – The Pitt family, a piano player and a plague of caterpillars
In our thousands of records there are a wide variety of old jobs mentioned, many familiar to us in the 21st Century, but some which seem slightly peculiar to modern audiences. For this Archives A-Z we thought we would use the letter J to look at some of the more unusual jobs of old in… Read more Archives A-Z: J is for… Jobs of Old
February typically marks the end of winter, and leads us towards spring. This transition from the snow and cold of winter into the new shoots of growth in spring is something which is reflected in a wide variety of material held at the archives. William John Bankes was as aware as anyone about the transitional… Read more Spring has Sprung
One of the most consulted books at the Dorset History Centre is Hutchins’ History and Antiquities of Dorset. John Hutchins, then Vicar of Swyre and Melcombe Horsey and later Rector of Holy Trinity Wareham, began collecting information for his History of Dorset in the 1730’s. It took him nearly forty years to complete and, were… Read more Hutchins’ Extra Illustrated: Volume 1
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