On the afternoon of Tuesday 06 June members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society have the opportunity to make privilege visits to Tisbury Tithe Barn and Fonthill Old Abbey. The Tithe Barn at Place Farm, reputedly the largest in England, is now a venue for art exhibitions and events. The history of the Fonthill estate will be […]
Hanging once again outside Gold Hill Museum, above the passageway down from the High Street, is the newly restored Sun and Moon Inn sign. During the winter months Shaftesbury & District Historical Society Trustee John Parker repainted and repositioned the sign, derived from the crest of the Bowles family after whom the Bowles Arms (or Sun and […]
Members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society were treated to a diverse range of local insights at their annual Tea and Talks on Tuesday 04 April. The cakes baked by Elaine Barratt were excellent too. Ray Simpson unfolded the tangled story of Pasqualino Fuoco, the Italian proprietor of the Edwardian lodging house in Sun […]
From Saturday 01 April to Tuesday 31 October Gold Hill Museum will be open to visitors between the hours of 10.30a.m. and 4.30p.m. Newly installed in the centre of Room 8 is a case displaying a fascinating range of objects collected by the Heritage Lottery Funded Shaftesbury and the Great War Community Project. Next door […]
A photograph recently acquired by the Heritage Lottery Funded Shaftesbury and the Great War Community Project shows a group of local men, possibly at the Wimborne St Giles camp, who had enlisted in the Dorset Yeomanry. On the left (seated) is Frank Pickford from Melbury Abbas, and behind him is Ernest Foot from Compton Abbas. […]
Dorchester author Philip Browne gave a graphic account of The Unfortunate Captain Peirce and the Wreck of the Halsewell as The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society’s February lecturer. The Halsewell, an outward bound 800 ton East Indiaman, foundered beneath the sheer cliffs of the Purbeck coast in the early hours of 06 January 1786, in […]
A few winter weeks have seen the passing of three strong supporters of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society. The death of Rachel Caldwell was followed on 28 December by that of Trustee and Treasurer Marjory Kellett (above). A graduate of Glasgow University, Marjory taught A Level Maths in Hamilton, Carlisle, Sherborne and Shaftesbury, and began […]
A full house at December’s Shaftesbury & District Historical Society lecture heard a lively presentation from Dr Wayne Bartlett on Cnut the Great – a Shaftesbury Perspective. The English crowning of the conceivably twenty-one year old Cnut took place at Christmas 1016 and by 1027 he was a major figure at the coronation of the Holy […]
At the AGM of the Dorset Museums Association held on 24 November Chris Stupples of Shaftesbury was honoured as one of the Dorset Museums Volunteers of the Year. Chris was nominated by both Shaftesbury Abbey and Gold Hill Museums, and received his award at the newly-opened Steve Etches Collection, a remarkable display of marine fossils at […]
A moving commemorative event organised on Saturday 12 November by volunteers of the Gold Hill Museum Shaftesbury and the Great War Community Project attracted over 130 people to St James Church. Against a background of images recorded during the Heritage Lottery Funded Project, relatives of World War One participants, Shaftesbury School students, and the Community Choir […]
