Gold Hill Museum volunteers and supporters were prominent among the re-enactors of the Byzant Ceremony during the 2019 Shaftesbury Food Fair. The procession formed up at the Gold Hill Museum stall near The Commons and made its way down Tout Hill to Enmore Green, the location of the springs which once supplied most of the […]
Tudor England was a dangerous place. There were plagues and wars, perilous childbirths and shocking infant mortality. But what risks did people face as they went about their everyday lives? Steven Gunn of Merton College and Tomasz Gromelski of Wolfson College are investigating this problem using evidence from coroners’ reports preserved in the National Archives. […]
Shaftesbury Camera Club return for their fifth Annual Exhibition in the Garden Room at Gold Hill Museum, opening at 1p.m. on Saturday 04 May and running until, and including, Friday 10 May. Entry to the Exhibition is free at any time during the normal opening hours of the Museum (also free to enter), between 10.30a.m. […]
May 2019 marks the centenary of The Sale of Shaftesbury…
Each week during the season (starts Monday 01 April) Gold Hill Museum needs 42 volunteers to meet and greet the visiting public. That’s three pairs of stewards per day each doing a two hour stint. All our regulars, who met this week for two lunchtime social gatherings and briefings, comment on how rewarding it is […]
The Tea and Talks session provides an informal opportunity for members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society to share with others historical gems that they have discovered recently, as well as enjoy delicious home-made cake. This year Richard Clarke has observations on the Hinton St Mary Roman Mosaic; Kathie Clarke has been collecting Postcards […]
By Friday 01 March Shaftesbury & District Historical Society Trustee Claire Ryley will have contributed to three educational events in ten days. At Gold Hill Museum on Wednesday 20 February, 10a.m. till noon, the education team from Gold Hill and Shaftesbury Abbey Museums will be helping workshop participants make Chinese Dragon Lanterns. On Thursday 21 […]
Shillingstone Station opened in 1863 lit by oil lamps and closed just over a century later, still without gas or electricity. Built by the Dorset Central Railway, it became part of the Somerset and Dorset Junction Railway which provided a through route from Bath to Bournemouth. From 1910 The Pines Express gave holidaymakers from Manchester […]
Shire Hall in Dorchester was Dorset’s courthouse from 1797 until 1955. Through that time, it saw everything from the 1834 trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the 1856 domestic abuse case that inspired Thomas Hardy to write ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’, to victims of mesmerism, child perpetrators and American GIs tried during the Second World […]
David Carter, Trustee of Portland Museum, brings an illustrated talk about the eventful life and times of the founder, benefactor and first curator of Portland Museum, Dr Marie Stopes (1880-1958), to the January meeting of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society. In 1923, in the wake of a protracted and ultimately unsuccessful libel case, Marie […]
