Fourteen British ships were sunk, and over 6000 Royal Navy personnel died, in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. Two British battlecruisers blew up spectacularly with almost total loss of life. At least three local men died at Jutland: Gilbert John Maidment of Shaftesbury, Cecil Herbert Riggs of Berwick St John, and Harold Percival Hoskins […]
On 14 June eighteen members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society enjoyed a privilege visit to The Salisbury Museum organised by Lavender Buckland. Curator Jane Ellis-Schon explained the rationale behind her design of the state-of-the-art archaeological display in the new Wessex Gallery. Chronology runs backwards from Norman Old Sarum to the Old Stone Age, […]
Local herbalist Kate Scott returns to the Garden Room at Gold Hill Museum at 10.30a.m. on Friday 17 June for another practical workshop. This month participants will be able to make and flavour soft cheese with hedgerow and garden herbs. Kate provides all the ingredients and a tasty light lunch. Further details are available on […]
Recent entries in our Visitors’ Book: 23 April 2016 A really fascinating place! Thank you. And we especially liked the basket of traditional toys, listening to the serpent and seeing the cat mummy. All the exhibits are so well researched and full of facts. Thanks too to the volunteers for being so welcoming. (A family […]
Claire Ryley (left) and Ann Symons are staging a “Shaftesbury Remembers the Great War” display in the Large Exhibition Room at Gold Hill Museum. This charts the progress of the Heritage Lottery Funded community project collecting evidence about the impact of the First World War on the people of Shaftesbury and surrounding villages in Dorset and Wiltshire. Currently on show […]
As part of the Shaftesbury Food and Drink Festival on Sunday 15 May, Gold Hill Museum volunteers will be turning the clock back to the Middle Ages. In period dress they will be offering visitors, especially accompanied children, sample tastings from the dinner table of seven hundred years ago. So why not follow the cheese […]
Kate Scott returns to Gold Hill Museum on Friday 13 May with another of her popular workshops on a herbal or countryside theme. “Old Wives’ or Old Wise Tales” explores the folklore and uses of our native hedgerow plants. The workshop runs in the Garden Room from 10.30a.m. until 3.00p.m. and includes a herb walk […]
448 visitors came through the door of Gold Hill Museum during the three days of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. Apart from the permanent local history displays, there were FIVE temporary exhibitions for them to see. Shaftesbury Camera Club’s exhibition of top-class prints (above) continues in the Garden Room until Friday 06 May. Also available […]
The focus for the next Reminiscence Afternoon at Shaftesbury Library on Tuesday 26 April at 2.30p.m. will be “Childhood”. Ann Symons and Claire Ryley are hoping that contributors will recall their own experiences, and stories told by older family members, about growing up in the early twentieth century. Ann and Claire are currently putting the finishing touches […]
