At 2.30p.m. on Tuesday 03 March at Gold Hill Museum, Professor Karen Hunt will give an illustrated talk entitled ‘Women’s Suffrage in Dorset: forgotten stories’. She writes: Dorset is not a county usually associated with the long campaign for votes for women that culminated in partial enfranchisement in 1918. However, that does not mean that […]
On 30 September 1940 at the culmination of the Battle of Britain the town of Sherborne in Dorset was heavily bombed. There have been numerous attempts to explain why, who was involved and the cost. Many of the assertions have been wrong, as aviation expert Vic Flintham will demonstrate in an illustrated talk at Gold […]
Under the Antiquities Law devised by Iraq’s newly appointed Honorary Director of Antiquities, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), archaeological finds were to be divided equally between the finders and the kingdom of Iraq. Thus 25% of Woolley’s finds from Ur went to Philadelphia, 25% to the British Museum, and 50% remained in Iraq, where sadly many have […]
Twenty-one-year-old Max Mallowan arrived at Ur in southern Iraq in October 1925, where he was to assist the renowned Leonard Woolley in supervising a major archaeological dig. Rising above the flood plain of the River Euphrates was the ancient Sumerian stepped pyramid or Ziggurat, whose name might be called “the Hill of Heaven” or “the […]
“Harrison”, the salmon-pink 1934 Rolls-Royce 20/25 Barker Sports Saloon belonging to former Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Stuttard, can often be seen at local village fetes and charity events. The unusual colour reflects that of the Financial Times, to which Sir John sent regular reports of his 10,000 mile marathon drive from Peking to […]
Claire Ryley and Ann Symons deliver their latest findings on the rivals and contemporaries of Shaftesbury-based photographer Albert Edward Tyler (1873-1919) at 2.30p.m. on Tuesday 02 December at Gold Hill Museum. Whereas anyone today with a smart phone can point, shoot and achieve near-perfect instant results, photography in the Tyler era was far more complicated, […]
At 2.30p.m. on Tuesday 04 November at Gold Hill Museum Andrew Vickers will explore the origins of Shillingstone’s claim to be – as the road signs still assert – the Bravest Village in England. Andrew, the Chairman of Okeford Fitzpaine Local History Group, has researched this story with impeccable thoroughness, and made some surprising discoveries. […]
Place: Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum Time: 10.30 – 12.30 and 1.30 – 3.30 Booking: Not Necessary Activity: Learn how to make a cartwheel button Suitable for: All ages welcome, but children (we recommend 8+) must be accompanied Cost: £5 per participant (No charge for an adult accompanying a participating child)
Millionaire Shopping is the first full, detailed and original account of the huge and unstoppable collecting and artistic patronage of Alfred Morrison (1821-1897) of Fonthill House. From 25 September it can be accessed and downloaded for free at Millionaire Shopping | UCL Press We are delighted to welcome the editor and one of the principal […]
A new temporary exhibition for the final two months of our season presents documents and artefacts from the Gold Hill Museum Archives relating to Shaftesbury During the Second World War. One intriguing item is a handmade wooden model Spitfire, made by a German Prisoner of War from Camp 47 in the grounds of Motcombe House, […]
