{"id":2249,"date":"2021-03-08T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2021-03-08T08:37:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T08:37:52","slug":"the-burton-bradstock-religious-community-that-almost-never-existed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/03\/08\/the-burton-bradstock-religious-community-that-almost-never-existed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Burton Bradstock Religious Community That Almost Never Existed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive-catalogue.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/records\/D-ACO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In the collections, Dorset History Centre holds a number of locally published works and manuscripts of Miss Adela Marion Curtis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2253\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2253\" style=\"width: 512px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2253\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Image-of-archive-volumes-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Image-of-archive-volumes-1.jpg 512w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Image-of-archive-volumes-1-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>A pencil sketch of Miss Curtis. (No date) \u00a9 Othona Community<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Miss Curtis (1867-1960) founded a community which existed just outside Burton Bradstock for almost 30 years in the mid 20<sup>th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 The members were known locally as The White Ladies because of the flowing white robes they wore.\u00a0 Recent research is focusing on papers relating to Miss Curtis and the community which are not held at DHC.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Chronicle of the Community, type-written by her niece, Phil Hutchinson in 1972<\/li>\n<li>Letters written by Miss Curtis in the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s to her sister Clara who was living in America<\/li>\n<li>Notebooks and a diary belonging to Miss Curtis<\/li>\n<li>A Prospectus for the \u2018Bible Students\u2019 Colony\u2019, dated 1930.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Evidence has been found in this research that when she bought the 17 acre plot of field and scrub on the south side of the Coast Road between Burton and Swyre in 1921, Miss Curtis had no intention of building a community house.\u00a0 Moreover, the farmhouse which she did have built on the site, she put on the market in the late 1920s.\u00a0 If it had sold, the history of the site, which has also been the home of the Othona Community for over 50 years, would have been very different.<\/p>\n<p>In 1921, Miss Curtis, a Christian mystic, teacher and author, was 53.\u00a0 Phil Hutchinson\u2019s Chronicle states that she had moved to Dorset intending to live a life of retirement here.\u00a0 Miss Curtis had already had experience of leading a community at Cold Ash Common in Berkshire, called The Order of Silence, but it had recently closed and this had been a bitter blow to her.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2250\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2250\" style=\"width: 880px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2250\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-Notebook-dated-Dec-1926-1024x658.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-Notebook-dated-Dec-1926-1024x658.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-Notebook-dated-Dec-1926-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-Notebook-dated-Dec-1926-768x494.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-Notebook-dated-Dec-1926.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2250\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Extract from her Notebook. (Dated Dec 1926) Used by permission of Jeremy Jay.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She invited her nieces, Phil and Eve Hutchinson from New Zealand, to live with her in Dorset and by 1924, they were living in huts on the land.\u00a0 Miss Curtis wanted to provide a more permanent home and in a notebook from 1926 records her intention to,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u2018Build stone farmhouse for self, Phil, Eve, &amp; Francesca as housekeeper, with two guestrooms.\u2019\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2254\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2254\" style=\"width: 880px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2254\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/The-House-under-construction-with-AMC-in-the-foreground-1024x591.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/The-House-under-construction-with-AMC-in-the-foreground-1024x591.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/The-House-under-construction-with-AMC-in-the-foreground-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/The-House-under-construction-with-AMC-in-the-foreground-768x443.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/The-House-under-construction-with-AMC-in-the-foreground.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2254\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Photo of house under construction with AMC in the foreground. (Likely to be 1927) \u00a9 Othona Community<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This the building, now known as the Community House, was originally envisaged and built as a family home.\u00a0 In her Chronicle, Phil describes the early days of what was then known as Little Farm:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u2018It had a fine dairy with thick slate shelves for dairy produce and storage shelves for bottled fruit and vegetables.\u00a0 Joined to the outside of the walled garden was a mouse-proof granary for storage of fresh fruit and roots and foodstuffs for the stock.\u00a0 This granary and the cow sheds formed the North side of a spacious enclosed yard for the cows and later goats, before they went out into pasture.\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Their life on the farm was short-lived however, as seen in letters written by Miss Curtis to her sister Clara living in America.\u00a0 Phil and Eve were finding it too lonely in Dorset and wanted to live in London, so Miss Curtis put the farmhouse on the market in around 1928.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2255\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2255\" style=\"width: 880px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2255\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-letter-to-Clara-Eaves-likely-1928-1024x796.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-letter-to-Clara-Eaves-likely-1928-1024x796.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-letter-to-Clara-Eaves-likely-1928-300x233.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-letter-to-Clara-Eaves-likely-1928-768x597.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Extract-from-AMC-letter-to-Clara-Eaves-likely-1928.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2255\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Extract from letter AMC wrote to her sister Clara Eaves. (Dated June 9 and likely to be 1928) Used by permission of Cabot Lee Sweeney.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She explains to Clara that she was intending to buy herself a cottage in Richmond once the sale had gone through.\u00a0 If she had sold Little Farm then, neither her own Christian Contemplatives Charity, nor Othona, would have existed in this part of the country.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2252\" style=\"width: 880px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2252\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433-1024x549.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"880\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433-1024x549.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433-300x161.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433-768x412.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433-1536x824.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/House-before-chapel-was-built-e1614092496433.jpg 1964w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The House completed. (Undated but before the chapel was constructed in 1937) \u00a9 Othona Community<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Miss Curtis had restarted her bible teaching whilst in Dorset and students would come and stay to attend her lectures.\u00a0 Whilst she was waiting for the farmhouse to be sold, Miss Curtis had let rooms in it to some of these bible students to cover the costs of maintaining the building.\u00a0 Presumably because it did not sell, this arrangement continued and became more formalised, with a Prospectus dated 1930 describing the house as The Bible Students\u2019 Colony.\u00a0 In this way, a family home became a community house, with the chapel and cloister added in 1937.\u00a0 Her community, the Christian Contemplatives\u2019 Charity, became legally constituted as an independent charity in 1939.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2251\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2251\" style=\"width: 683px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2251\" src=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Front-page-of-Prospectus-showing-house-1930-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Front-page-of-Prospectus-showing-house-1930-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Front-page-of-Prospectus-showing-house-1930-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Front-page-of-Prospectus-showing-house-1930-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2021\/02\/Front-page-of-Prospectus-showing-house-1930.jpg 854w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Front page of prospectus for The Bible Students&#8217; Colony, showing the House. (Dated 1930)\u00a0 \u00a9 Othona Community<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Phil\u2019s Chronicle continues to recount how during the Second World War, the house was requisitioned by the Army and the Sisters had to move out into other small dwellings on the land.\u00a0 In another of her letters to Clara, Miss Curtis describes how they had to store the main house\u2019s furniture in their beloved chapel.\u00a0 The Community did not really recover after the war and by the late 1950s Miss Curtis was the last of them to remain living on the site.\u00a0 She died in 1960 at the age of 92.\u00a0 She had stipulated that the site could not be sold but that a successor community must be found and this was how the Othona Community came to take it on from 1965, with a small resident community continuing to live there to the present day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>A guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Liz Howlett. Liz is a member of the Othona Community living on the site originally purchased by Miss Curtis in 1921, and is researching Miss Curtis and the community she founded in this place. If you are interested in learning more you can contact Liz directly:\u00a0 <a href=\"mailto:liz@othona-bb.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">liz@othona-bb.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the collections, Dorset History Centre holds a number of locally published works and manuscripts of Miss Adela Marion Curtis. Miss Curtis (1867-1960) founded a community which existed just outside Burton Bradstock for almost 30 years in the mid 20th century.\u00a0 The members were known locally as The White Ladies because of the flowing white&hellip; <span class=\"kuorinka-read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2021\/03\/08\/the-burton-bradstock-religious-community-that-almost-never-existed\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Burton Bradstock Religious Community That Almost Never Existed<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,36],"tags":[282,82,284,283,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2257,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions\/2257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}