The exciting one-year project to catalogue the collection of sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink, who spent the last 16 years of her life in Dorset at Woolland, near Blandford Forum, has now been running for three months. Project Archivist, David Johnston-Smith, has now designed a catalogue structure and is currently working his way through the approximately… Read more The Dame Elisabeth Frink Project – an update
As 2019 slowly draws to a close we thought we would take a look at some of the many things which have happened at DHC through the course of the year… — On the blog… 2019 has seen our blog grow in popularity, and we are delighted so many people are reading about our records,… Read more 2019: A review of our year
Every year, councils across the country use a social media campaign to promote how they operate, and all the hundreds of fantastic things that go on on a daily basis. This campaign is called ‘Our Day‘ and this year it has fallen on Tuesday 19 November 2019. As part of this campaign, this blog aims… Read more Our Day 2019
Volume 10 of Hutchin’s Extra Illustrated mainly focuses on North Dorset and includes Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Cerne Abbas. — The volume contains a large amount of material connected with the Earls of Shaftesbury, including letters, portraits, printed leaflets and a poster advertising some music composed in honour of the Countess of Shaftesbury and her daughter… Read more Music, medical miracles, and mills
Earlier in the year Dorset History Centre had two work experience students join us for a month. In the second of three blogs they have written, Maddie talks us through her experience… — As part of my second year of Museum Studies at Reading University, I undertook a work placement at DHC, in particular indexing… Read more Work Experience and Herrison Hospital
In a previous blog, our volunteer Clare discussed working on the ‘grade 2’ railway plans, and explained how the conservation grading system works. Here, Jenny, our Conservator, takes us through what is required for those plans graded 3 and 4, those with significant damage or active deterioration. — Of the original 132 railway plans, there… Read more Tough Grades: Conserving the Railway Plans
Earlier in the year Dorset History Centre had two work experience students join us for a month. In this blog, Sarah talks us through her experience… — Throughout July I was lucky enough to complete a work placement at the Dorset History Centre. I have studied the different aspects of archiving including public services, cataloguing… Read more Work Experience and Dorset Heritage Week
Having looked at taxes last month, this month we will shift our attention to look at the other half of that famous expression… deaths! Dorset History Centre holds parish burial registers for 300 different parishes around Dorset, but what if your ancestor met an unnatural death that had to be investigated? Whilst we hold recent… Read more Death of a Sailor-man (and other tales from the Coroners of Poole)
In this blog Colin Divall describes how sometimes the railway plans can help crack open age-old puzzles. Timber was often used for bridges on the early railways, especially when they were cheaply built like the Southampton and Dorchester; Dorset’s first main line. At Wimborne, the River Stour was crossed by a timber viaduct that was… Read more Troubled Bridges over Dorset Water
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” – Benjamin Franklin Throughout Dorset’s history the certainty and importance of tax collecting has lead to some meticulous record keeping. Auditors and future collectors might refer to the records of a tax collection that had been produced decades earlier. For local… Read more Death and Taxes
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