When I was 16 I took up a General Engineering apprenticeship with a large manufacturing company and was placed with a foundryman for a few months. The Works Manager, an impressive figure, processed through the factory, rotund with a prominent Read more »
In 1882, legislation was started to enable Somerset County Council to acquire land for smallholdings. But it was not until the passing of the Smallholdings and Allotments Act of 1908 that Somerset began to create a smallholdings estate. Margery Hookings’ Read more »
This is a story of 1833 Bridport. Arson had taken place but the punishment meted out to the perpetrator was much more extreme than would be considered now. It is a true story of earlier life with disastrous consequences and Read more »
Perhaps I should not have included ‘Lingo’ in the title as I have since seen a repeat of Dad’s Army in which Captain Mannering rebuked one of his subordinates for using it. I think he thought it to be un-English. Read more »
Margery Hookings is intrigued after receiving a phone call about an innovative project aimed at combating loneliness. She goes to East Devon to find out more. The wonderful sweet smell of waffles is the first thing your senses pick up Read more »
John Aubrey, the 17th century Wiltshire antiquarian wrote about the monuments of Britain, under this title. However, this article is about monumental inscriptions in the churchyards of parts of West Dorset. The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society decided in Read more »
A large group of us is sitting around a big table at Marsh Barn, on the outskirts of West Bay towards Burton Bradstock. I’ve been here before, to learn about family history with local expert Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard. I’ve done a Read more »
Last month I related the description by Chaucer of some of the pilgrims starting along the Canterbury road. Now I propose to look at the remaining pilgrims, the laity. They might possibly be described as ordinary people, from middle class Read more »
The Cirl Bunting is an attractive songbird once found throughout the southern half of the UK. Its numbers declined precipitously in the second half of the 20th century following changes in farming practice and, by the late 1980s, it was Read more »
Margery Hookings makes some musical connections when she discovers the raucous singing past of her local pub, The White Lion at Broadwindsor. When folksinger and folklorist Nick Dow visited West Dorset with his wife in the late 1980s, it Read more »