Throughout July, Dorset History Centre have been joined by Eve and Caeron as part of our work experience offer for young people interested in learning more about the world of archives. Today, Eve reflects on her experience with us over the last month… — For the last four weeks, I have had the privilege of… Read more Work Experience 2025: A Month at the Archives
The Bankes collection is a remarkable assortment of records covering all sorts of time periods and subject matters. There are antiquarian records, there are estate records, there are examples of account books, farm records, or personal papers. The oldest thing in this collection dates from 1249, and the collection runs through until the 1980s. In… Read more Digging Through History
Did you know that we regularly receive material to add to our archive collections? Each separate deposit of material at Dorset History Centre is called an accession. Here are a selection of the new accessions received by the archives during the past months. — D-3480 Acc 12305a – Monkwood Farm map This detailed 19th-century map of… Read more New Accessions: July 2025
Thanks to generous support from Dorset Archives Trust and a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries, Dorset History Centre (DHC) was recently able to purchase some fascinating records and photographs relating to the naval and maritime history of Portland (reference D-3155). Within the material is a series of photographs, some of them in… Read more Portland – the building of a breakwater
On Saturday 26 July 2025 Dorset History Centre will be hosting an all-day conference about the history of railways in Dorset. The conference is free to attend, but we have a maximum capacity in our lecture room, so need to be booked ahead of time. You can book your tickets here. **Please be aware that… Read more Rail 200: Dorset On Rail
Recently, we have been working on adding our many uncatalogued parish magazines to our online catalogue. Though we still have a long way to go, we thought now would be a great time to highlight what a useful, and often neglected, resource parish magazines are for both family and local history research. What are Parish… Read more How Can Parish Magazines Help with Family and Local History Research?
Between 2015 and 2018 Dorset History Centre undertook the ‘Unlocking the Bankes archive‘ project. During the life of this project, staff and volunteers contributed well over 100 blogs to the project website. By 2024, this project website was no longer functional in the way it originally was, and we made the decision to close the… Read more “One of the most beautiful countries that can be imagined”: Frances Bankes’ trip to the Isle of Wight
Since time out of mind in England all land originally derives from the King or Queen. It is therefore not surprising that some of the earliest surviving records in this country are charters recording grants of land by Anglo-Saxon monarchs. Only about two hundred original, authentic Anglo-Saxon charters are believed to survive, although about a… Read more A Rare Glimpse of Anglo-Saxon England at Dorset History Centre
Last year we introduced you to Emma, who has been working alongside our Thomas Hardy Project Archivist. Since last August, Emma’s project has developed, and we wanted to give you an update… — For the last fourteen months I have been working as an intern on the Empty Rooms Project, a collaborative initiative between the… Read more Hardy and the Empty Rooms Project
We recently discovered this letter of reference, praising the cook at Crag Head, Bournemouth. It was written by the chamberlain for the Queen of Sweden and Norway, who resided at the property in 1881. The letter reads: I have much pleasure in testifying to the thorough efficiency & excellent caracter [sic] of Sarah Hutchings, who… Read more Cooking for Royalty
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