“Originally I come from Hythe, in Kent, where I was born 83 years ago. My father was a builder, and I had two brothers and a sister. We lived there until 1940, about the time of the evacuation of Dunkirk. That was when my school was evacuated also, but we went to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, where it was thought to be a lot safer for children in case there was an invasion. I was there for two years, and when I came back, I started my apprenticeship as a plumber, working for my father. When I was old enough, I registered for National Service.

Julia Mear met Yvonne Burton at her home in Morcombelake, Dorset. This is Yvonne’s story:

“I was born in the farmhouse at Westhay Farm, Stonebarrow, Dorset, in 1943, named Sylvia Yvonne, but I am known as Yvonne. My grandparents and great grandparents, on my mother’s side, farmed Westhay and Stonebarrow Hill between Morcombelake and Charmouth. They grew a lot of wheat on the land and milking must have been very hard work in those days – I remember how cold the cowshed was in winter, all the milking was done by hand.

Robin Mills went to West Bexington, Dorset, to meet Michael Michaud. This is his story.

“I was born in 1950 in Maine, USA, which is closer to the UK than it is to California. I always wanted to get away from Maine, but not too far away, which is maybe why I finished up here rather than California. My background, like so many Americans, is multicultural; my mother was Lebanese, and my father French Canadian.

Robin Mills went to Corscombe, West Dorset to meet Eva Harvey. This is her story.

“My memories of wartime Weymouth are quite vivid, where I lived as a child. We were on Wyke Road, and I can remember bombed houses, and American soldiers giving my sister and me chewing gum. My mother worked on the buses, she was a clippie, and I didn’t really know my father, who was in the army. By the time I was 4, I’d had all the diseases around at the time; scarlet fever, pneumonia, diphtheria.

Julia Mear met Rosie Giles at her home by the sea in Seaton, Devon. This is Rosie’s story:

“I was Farmer Giles’ daughter, born in Kingsbridge, Devon in 1949. When I was seven we moved to a farm in Clyst St Mary – father was told he had three months to live – he had asthma and we lived near a granite quarry in Kingsbridge. We sold up and moved – my father lived for another 30 years. We lived on a mixed farm, mum used to take in B&Bs to make ends meet – it was just after the war and times were hard – there were four children to feed then.

Robin Mills went to Dorchester to meet Town Crier Alistair Chisholm. This is his story.

“I was born in Surbiton, Surrey, the archetypal suburb, famed location for the TV series The Good Life. My father came from Aberdeen, and worked for most of his life at the Bank of Scotland in the City. This of course was in the “old days” of banking, and he would be spinning in his grave given what’s happened recently. Mother was from South Africa, and was in London to take up a singing scholarship when they met.

Julia Mear met Maya Kaye at the family home where she grew up; Hinkhams Farm, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset. This is Maya’s story.

“I was born in Andover, Hampshire in the summer of 1975 to Peter and Marion Ray. My Mother had grown up in Weymouth, then Bridport and finally Griddleshay Farm in Whitchurch Canonicorum. Her parents had bought the farm so that they could have ponies, which was a passion of my mum’s and still is to this day. In her teens my mum went to the Norland College, Bath, to study to become a nanny but somewhere along the way she met my dad, Peter Ray, who was working on a farm near Andover.

Robin Mills went to Bridport to meet photographer John Miles. This is his story.

“My first memories, being born in 1939, are of war damaged Croydon, near where we lived. The aerodrome was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, and after our house got hit, my parents felt it was all getting a bit too risky, so I was evacuated to Norfolk to a farm which belonged to a distant relative.

Robin Mills went to meet Nonie Dwyer in West Bay, Dorset. This is Nonie’s story.

“My life started in rural Australia, on a beautiful 100 acre farm where my Mum bred Welsh Mountain ponies and raised cattle. My brothers like to call me the token Aussie, one of them being born in Tokyo, the other in England. My Dad is English, and my Mum is Australian, and we lived in the Southern Highlands, between Sydney and Canberra.

Julia Mear met Charlie Holbrow at his home in Chard, Somerset. A hard working man with an independent spirit, he truly has a marvellous memory for detail. This is part of Charlie’s story. “I was born in 1923 and brought up in the foothills of Clee Hill in South Shropshire. Before I was six I’d been choked, strangled and almost drowned.

Carole Nevitt has lived in Bridport since she moved to the town in the early 1970s. A hairdresser by trade, Carole and her late husband, Mike, went on to run a successful restaurant business in Beaminster in the 1980s. This is her story, as told to Maddie Grigg.

Fergus Byrne met photographer George Wright in Bridport. This is George’s story.

‘I was born in London in 1950 and grew up in a basement in Holland Park Avenue. My grandmother and great grandmother lived above us. It was real old fashioned Kensington but surrounded by, as I recall, bombsites. I remember London in that period as very grey. It lacked colour. I remember the buses were red and the sky blue etcetera, but otherwise it was a very colourless place. I was then dispatched to boarding school in Buckinghamshire at age 7½.

Some years ago Julia Mear worked for the Woodruff family at their home in Offwell, East Devon. It was a busy household with four lively young children. Just after the revolution in 1990 Sue and David had travelled to Romania and managed, with a degree of tenacity, to successfully adopt two small babies, Ana and Alex. It therefore came as little surprise to Julia when in 2000 she met Ema, another addition to the Woodruff family, who had just arrived from Romania. Though Ema has only just turned twenty, her life is already a rich tapestry. This is her story.

Robin Mills went to Rampisham, in West Dorset, to meet Peter Thomas, wood-turner and stick-maker. This is Peter’s story.

‘I’m a Wiltshire moonraker: born between Calne and Marlborough on the Wiltshire downs, and I grew up in a small village very much like Rampisham is today. Father was one of thirteen children: every one of his brothers and sisters farmed except him. So, sadly I was unable to inherit a farm, but there’s no doubt farming is in my genes. From a very early age I spent all my time on my uncle’s farm, and I can remember that all I ever wanted to do was farm.

When I left West Dorset to go to university in 1959, I never expected to return to live here.  I grew up in Forde Abbey, where I was born in December 1939, and my earliest memories are of the War, with the house full of displaced relatives, many knitting sweaters for seamen in the evenings, the lawns given over to grazing rabbits; and as D-Day approached, the lanes blocked by trucks full of gum-chewing American soldiers.

Robin Mills went to Nether Cerne in the Cerne Valley, Dorset, to meet medical herbalist Eleanor Gallia. This is her story.

“It was the River Cerne which drew my father to Nether Cerne when he first came to Dorset. I was conceived and christened here, with water from the river filling the 11th Century font.

Robin Mills went to meet Bill Crumblehome in Upwey. This is Bill’s story.

“I started pottery when I was at Weymouth Grammar School. My big brother was at the same school, and he had fun with clay sculpting: he’d made pots with figures crawling out of them and I persuaded the teacher, Peter Goodson, to let me go to after-school sessions. I potted for relaxation during A-levels, teaching myself how to throw on the wheel and producing vases which were ideal for my mother’s flower arranging – nice and heavy with interesting glazes!