Dorset History Centre has been working with Kushti Bok for a while, and we have previously published a range of blogs highlighting their work in the local Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. June is Gypsy Roma Traveller History month and we have asked Bryan Keet, a member of the organisation, to explain more about one… Read more Mapping the GRT communities in Dorset
Jo Amey first encountered the archive material of Carter and Co of Poole over 40 years ago in their tile factory in Hamworthy. As a final year ceramics student she was researching the history of tiled buildings in the local area for her thesis. She can still recall carefully copying the tile designs from the… Read more The Art of Industry – A Lost Tiled Mural?
Our final blog about the Dorchester men who died in the advance spear-headed on D-Day commemorates two further men who served with the Dorsetshire Regiment. Nicholas O’Connell Nicholas’s parents were Daniel and Kathleen O’Connell, and he was born in Waterford, Ireland. He became a Warrant Officer Class II with the Dorsets and forged a connection… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 4
We continue our commemoration of Dorchester men who died on or around D-Day by remembering two men who were not from the Dorsetshire Regiment. Leonard Clifford Elmes served with the Durham Light Infantry and Thomas Henry Baker was in the East Yorkshire Regiment. Leonard Elmes Leonard was the youngest of the Dorchester men killed around… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 3
Of the eight Dorchester men killed on or around D-Day, five were in the Dorsetshire Regiment, including Privates George Adams and Robert Rogers and Sergeant George Ernest Cheffey. George Adams George’s parents, Thomas and Rebecca Jane Frampton, married in Dorchester in 1904, and George was one of their eight children. His siblings were Henry, William,… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 2
80 years ago, World War Two wasn’t won. Nazi Germany occupied most of Western Europe, and was in full occupation of the French coast, just across the English Channel. British forces had been forced into an ignominious retreat from Dunkirk in N France in 1940. The struggle for aerial superiority had seen British and German… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 1
Dorset History Centre acquired this album of beautiful albumen prints recently. Whilst the front cover is missing and there is some foxing to the pages, the prints are in remarkably good condition considering the age of them. Albumen prints date from 1850 when they were invented by Louis Désiré Blanquat-Evrard and were in regular use… Read more Albumen Prints of Bournemouth and Beyond
Let’s take a trip back 70 years to 1954, when The Pavilion Theatre on Weymouth Pier was destroyed in a devastating fire. History Sat in a prime position in Weymouth Harbour, The Pavilion opened on 21st December 1908, offering locals and tourists a go-to spot for performances. Over the years, it evolved from hosting lively… Read more Capturing the Blaze: Fire on Weymouth Seafront
Dorset History Centre has just acquired a set of records detailing the activities of the Blackmore Vale Hunt (BVH). Once again, we’re hugely grateful to the Purchase Fund of the Dorset Archives Trust which has supported this auction acquisition. DHC already held a small quantity of records relating the BVH but this new material (D-3383)… Read more Rural Pursuits – Hunt History of the Blackmore Vale
Welcome to our latest blog, The Frog Blog, where we are celebrating all things relating to our amphibian friends in Dorset! The idea for this blog actually began with the discovery of a ‘Toad Fair’ that was held in Lydlinch in the mid-19th century, but ‘The Toad Blog’ didn’t have quite the same ring to… Read more The Frog Blog
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