The first of four free August craft sessions at Gold Hill Museum was a resounding success, reports organiser and volunteer Claire Ryley. We had our first summer session (on Friday 07 August) which went very well and was great fun. Adults and children all enjoyed themselves making mosaics and games and writing Roman scrolls. Our […]
At 6.30p.m. on Thursday 06 August there is an opportunity to see an evening presentation at Gold Hill Museum by Ann Symons and Claire Ryley of their researches into Early and Lesser Known Shaftesbury Photographers. The headline image of Shaftesbury High Street was taken by George Lydford in March 1877. Born in Gillingham in 1835, […]
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The story of Shaftesbury Football Club, founded in 1888, is told through a new temporary exhibition of archives and artefacts at Gold Hill Museum, from July to October 2026. We are indebted to Hilltop Historian Dave Hardiman for much of the research into the Club’s history, and all the content of this blog. On 05 […]
Alongside the temporary exhibition following the documentary trail of the Tomkins family’s 1853 emigration is the story of the redoubtable Elizabeth Hunt (nee Lemon) from West Orchard, researched and written by Dave Hardiman. There are parallels in the stories of both families, confirming that life was hard and sometimes short in rural Dorset. A three […]
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912, as the newest, largest, and undeniably the most luxurious, ocean liner yet built. She was entering the highly competitive trans-Atlantic market where her USP was the superb quality of first-class passenger accommodation and service, matching the standards provided by the world’s most expensive hotels. Passengers on Cunard […]
The story of Dorset unfortunates like the Tolpuddle Martyrs, deported as convicts to Australia in the 1830s, is well known. A more obscure Shaftesbury ne’er-do-well, Elijah Upjohn, transported at the age of 16, achieved some kind of fame in 1880 by deputising for the hangman at the execution of the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly. Less […]
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 […]
