See ‘The Goddess, the Hound and the Fox’ for free

From Tuesday 01 April free-to-enter Gold Hill Museum is open every day. Its volunteer supporters have been hard at work during the close season preparing two new temporary exhibitions and much larger shop, office and storage spaces. The intriguingly titled The Goddess, the Hound and the Fox presents the exciting discovery of a previously unknown Romano-British settlement near Shaftesbury by two Historical Society members and keen amateur archaeologists, Matthew Tagney and Peter Stanier. Much of the evidence was simply picked up from the ground, having been brought to the surface by ploughing and the action of the weather. (See the headline image. You do, of course, need to know what you’re looking for, and have the landowner’s permission.)

Intrepid amateur archaeologists Matthew Tagney (left) & Peter Stanier are interviewed for the Alfred Daily podcast

There was a brief window of opportunity in February to see our other new temporary exhibition The High House Press. We are grateful to Matthew and Peter for providing the images in this blog, and all the words that follow about their exhibition:

This temporary exhibition at Gold Hill Museum from April to October 2025 tells the story of discovering and investigating a previously unrecorded Romano-British farmstead in the parish of Melbury Abbas and Cann near Shaftesbury. It shows just how much can be achieved by amateurs “in the field”; and along the way, we meet a goddess, a hound, and a fox!

The exhibition, focused on the Roman site’s discovery, also tells two intertwined stories: first, of settlement here across time; and second, of the Roman period in this area. The wider area has a long history of human occupation from at least Mesolithic times, over 6,000 years ago. The site has open views towards surrounding hilltops with ancient activity: Melbury Hill, Fontmell Down, Hod Hill, Hambledon Hill, Rawlesbury, Nettlecombe Tout, Dungeon Hill, Stourhead Woods, Whitesheet Hill, and of course Shaftesbury. Known Romano-British sites are at Ashmore (Roman Road east of village), Iwerne Minster, Hod Hill, Shillingstone, Todber, Duncliffe Hill, Gillingham, Mere and Shaftesbury.

Until very recently there was no indication of any Roman or prehistoric site at this location, despite many finds recorded in surrounding areas. But in 2023, regular ploughing of a field crossed by a public footpath turned up first a stone-age flint tool, then fragments of Roman-era pottery. These first finds, once confirmed by experts, led to further investigations organised by Shaftesbury residents and archaeology enthusiasts Matthew Tagney and Peter Stanier, with local volunteers, specialist advice and professional support; and with thanks to the landowner for permission.

The finds discovered in 2023 and 2024 came mainly from “surface collection”, or field-walking, supplemented by a small excavation.

After initial discoveries were confirmed as prehistoric and Roman, permission was obtained for field-walking: systematically spotting items brought to the surface by ploughing and rain. Roman expert Mark Corney (from Channel 4’s “Time Team”) was invited to review the results. Many fragments had abrasion from acid soil and ploughing, but Mark identified pottery from early to late Roman, all from one limited area: it suggested a previously unrecorded settlement.

Goddess on the only Roman coin found so far

The next phases of investigation were:
• metal-detecting – which turned up a Roman coin with the image of a goddess;
• geophysical survey – which revealed possible features; and
• limited excavation: guided by geophysical results in choosing where to dig, with volunteers who had previously worked together on a Shaftesbury Abbey dig featured on BBC TV’s “Digging for Britain”.

In April 2024 Carole and Barbara uncover more Roman pottery as they trowel in Trench 3

Nearly 10 kilos of Roman potsherds was found, including Dorset-produced vessels similar to Roman-era styles found in an earlier landmark excavation at Greyhound Yard, Dorchester. As well as pottery from over 300 years of everyday cooking and dining on the farm, finds included higher-status items (one fragment decorated with the image of a hound’s hindquarters, tail up and legs stretched); evidence of iron-working in a blacksmith’s hearth; and a range of prehistoric worked flint.

But of course digging is not the end: after that comes cleaning every find, marking them with a site code; and then specialist reports, e.g. by Dr Richard Massey of Ridgeway Heritage on the pottery assemblage. Dr Denise Allen advised on a Roman glass fragment; Julian Richards (who led the Abbey dig) picked out the best prehistoric flint tools for including in this exhibition. The display also shows what emerged from the field from later centuries, including thimbles, a Cavalry button, horseshoes, and a fragment of glass from the world’s largest bottle factory!

Conclusions to date are that this project has confirmed a previously unsuspected farmstead on this site, persisting throughout Rome’s occupation of Britain (1st to 4th Centuries AD). This is important: the Roman period in this part of North Dorset is still poorly understood, and we’ve added a new point on the map. Also, this site had been a place of settlement for thousands of years before; and finally, it revealed traces of human occupation from centuries after the Roman occupation ended.

The early morning fox photographed guarding the site

Much has been lost to the ravages of acid soil, ploughing and sheer length of time; but fragments that do survive can offer us intriguing glimpses of the past. Perhaps what has survived at this site, to be found in the 21st century, was protected by the Goddess, or by some other guardian watching over it? During preparations on the morning of the geophysical survey, the two-legged workers in the field were quietly observed by a bright-eyed four-legged figure: a fox, who did not object to having his photo taken … perhaps the guardian of this site?

The Liberty of Alcester, but not in Warwickshire

On Tuesday 01 April at 2.30p.m. at Gold Hill Museum Matthew Tagney will deliver an illustrated talk on The Liberty of Alcester. This is, Matthew says, A tale of peculiar historical boundaries, pious medieval practices, Mr Raspberry the brolly-maker, and “convenient buildings & exceeding rich meadow land”, wandering from past to present on Shaftesbury’s western edges. Strange though the persistence of the name of a small Midlands town on maps of Shaftesbury might seem, this is no April Fool story, and Matthew has diligently researched the origins and surviving evidence of Shaftesbury’s Alcester. What follows is Matthew’s synopsis of his (highly entertaining) talk, for which he has also supplied most of the images.

1809 auction sale poster for the Manor, Hundred, or Liberty of Alcester in the parish of Shaston St James, Shaftesbury

Some time ago, Matthew Tagney spoke briefly on two occasions at Shaftesbury & District Historical Society’s “members’ tea and talks” sessions about his research into first the Bury Litton, the former St John’s churchyard at the western end of Bimport; and second, an auction sale that took place in the early 19th century of certain farms, cottages and fields near Shaftesbury owned by a Mr George Foyle. Now he has pulled these topics together with a deeper investigation of the history of the ancient Liberty or Manor of Alcester. Earlier versions of this talk were given to a local ladies’ luncheon club and to Gillingham Local History society, but this is its premiere in Shaftesbury.

How did an area on the western edge of Shaftesbury come to bear the name of a town in Warwickshire? What is a Liberty, anyway? We will remind ourselves of Thomas Hardy’s riddle about the churchyard nearer heaven than the church steeple, and consider what traces remain now to the observant eye.

The Throckmorton family’s Tudor house Coughton Court near Alcester Warwickshire. Photo by DeFacto, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License

Along the way, we shall meet the Common Ground charity and its championing of “the commonplace, the local, the vernacular and the distinctive”; the Reverend Hutchins, and a list of vicars; the history of butlers; the Bayeux Tapestry; the National Trust’s Coughton Court, and the redoubtable Mrs Dorothy Styles; the puzzlement of our Town Council as to who owned a disused graveyard, and why it was eventually surveyed by a professor from Vienna; and the struggles of 19th century census-takers to spell surnames of residents who – like the speaker’s own forebears at Chesil on Portland – might have signed their own name only with an X.

Professor Neubauer making an archaeological survey at Bury Litton

We shall finish with a workhouse, a community farm, an Italian cook, and the surviving marks of a Rural District boundary – which those attending the talk could view by stepping out of the museum and taking a five-minute walk. It all adds up to a celebration of local distinctiveness and a glimpse of how, as we go about our lives in the present, the past – always there just below the surface – might now and then unexpectedly tap us on the shoulder.

Bimport properties bearing the name Alcester, on an early 20th century OS map

Matthew’s talk is free to S&DHS members, while seats for members of the public should be available from 2.20p.m. on payment of £5 at the door of the Garden Room. Admission to Gold Hill Museum is otherwise free and visitors might like to view the new temporary exhibition The Goddess, the Hound and the Fox curated by Matthew and fellow S&DHS member Peter Stanier.

Did the outlawed William Bankes ever see his Dorset palazzo?

On Tuesday 04 March at 2.30 p.m. at Gold Hill Museum John Hubbard will tell the story of William Bankes’s transformation of Kingston Lacy, despite being driven into exile by a draconian Victorian moral and legal code. John writes: Bankes was obliged to complete the enrichment of his major restyling of the family home from a great distance. His exile in Europe from 1841 to his death in Venice in 1855 did, however, give him access to craftsmen and materials of the highest order. Through a consideration of his methods of work and relationship with his sister Anne, this richly illustrated talk will explore his lifelong commitment to Kingston Lacy, to architect- ure and interior design and to the ideal country house. This talk is free to members of the Shaftesbury & District Historical Society, while seats should be available from 2.20p.m. to the public on payment of £5 at the door.

Before his personal crisis in 1841 Bankes enjoyed a privileged lifestyle. At Trinity College Cambridge he became a friend of the poet Byron and a rival for the affections of wealthy heiress Annabella Milbanke, who rebuffed Bankes and made a disastrous marriage with Byron in 1815. In 1811, fascinated by the speculation surrounding the building and lavish contents of William Beckford’s inaccessible Fonthill Abbey, Bankes disguised himself as a labourer and climbed the high perimeter wall. He even inspected Beckford’s dinner table (a profusion of gilt plate but only one knife and fork) before taking advantage of the workmen coming away to get out in the crowd at the gate. Bankes enjoyed a reputation in society as an amusing raconteur and this tale (see a similar story here) no doubt was gilded by repetition, but his political speeches were dull and uninspiring. He represented four different constituencies, some of which were in the pocket of local landowners, so he didn’t need to impress the (few, male) voters. His unfalteringly reactionary views (Anne Sebba: The Exiled Collector) set him against the tide of change on two great issues of the day, Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform.

The site of William Bankes’s Egyptian Obelisk, acquired in 1819, was chosen by the Duke of Wellington, who laid the foundation stone in April 1827. Photo Adrian Farwell Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Bankes noticed during his travels in Egypt and the Near East, 1815-19, that there were inscriptions on the Philae Obelisk in both Hieroglyphs and Ancient Greek, including the name of Cleopatra. The Rosetta Stone, found by the French in 1799 and seized by the British after Napoleon’s defeat in Egypt, was inscribed in three languages, giving scholars the chance to decipher the meaning of unknown hieroglyphic symbols by comparison with known languages. The Philae obelisk was the first imported into Britain, in December 1821, and carried to Kingston Lacy on a gun carriage provided by the Duke of Wellington, whom Bankes had served as an aide-de-camp in Spain. Bankes had acquired the finest collection of Egyptian antiquities held in any British country house, including a black basalt Roman head of Cleopatra’s lover Mark Antony.

By chance in Egypt Bankes had met the architect Charles Barry, who shared his enthusiasm for Italianate architecture. When Bankes inherited Kingston Lacy in 1835, he commissioned Barry to turn a brick-built Restoration mansion into a stone-clad Italian palazzo. Into this was to be inserted a 30 feet-wide Carrara marble staircase, together with a dormered attic. More than a hint of scandal now attached itself to Bankes, who had been acquitted on a charge of indecency in December 1833 largely as a result of character references from the likes of Wellington. But, writes Sebba, Bankes’s public career was irreparably damaged after the trial of 1833.

The circumstances in August 1841 of Bankes’s second arrest were altogether more incriminating. A dalliance with a guardsman in Green Park, witnessed by a policeman. A guilty verdict was almost certain; a sentence of death was not out of the question. Bankes’s own solicitor advised him to jump bail and flee the country. If he did so without protecting his assets, they would almost certainly be confiscated by the Crown, as Bankes would have rendered himself an outlaw. Bankes therefore transferred ownership of his properties to his brother George, before finally settling in Venice, a once-beautiful city now in decline. Mary Shelley, in 1842, commented that it was almost impossible to spend much money in Venice as even an apartment filled with antique furniture could be had for a modest cost … even at its best Venice was often cold, damp and smelly. (Sebba)

Venice, the Grand Canal. The railway bridge into Venice was opened in 1846, making the city more accessible to travellers and buyers. Until then, desirable if decayed properties on the Grand Canal could be had fairly cheaply. (IK)

In December 1846 Bankes shipped to Dorset the first of about a dozen cargoes of art works, mainly copies created by Italian craftsmen from his meticulous drawings. These were accompanied by precise instructions as to how they should be assembled, and where they were to be installed. Increasingly Bankes relied on his sister Anne, the widowed Countess of Falmouth, to act as project manager in his absence, as George is but a poor judge in art and has but an indifferent eye.

Venice lost 3000 well heads in the first half of the nineteenth century, most for use as planters in aristocratic gardens, as here at Kingston Lacy. Bankes usually had copies made by Italian craftsmen. Photo by Michael Dibb. Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike License 2.0

William Bankes died in Venice in April 1855 and despite his outlaw status was returned to Dorset to be buried in the family vault at Wimborne Minster. The idea that he came back secretly in his lifetime, landing at Studland, to inspect the progress of his plans at Kingston Lacy is perhaps supported by the wording of some of his letters in 1854. Open therefore the two great cases (which you shewed me) containing blocks of purple and white marble it appeared to my eye that the plaster cornice round the saloon …

High Quality Exhibits from The High House Press

You can never have too many striking images of Gold Hill. This woodcut engraving was made in the early 1930s by the youthful John R. Biggs (1909-88), a recent graduate of the Derby School of Art. James Masters, the co-proprietor of The High House Press in Shaftesbury with his wife Beatrice, had advertised for an extra pair of hands (literally) to help with the hand-crafted output of the Press. Examples from this highly regarded artisanal publishing concern are now on show, until July and for free, at Gold Hill Museum. Biggs contributed 9 of the 14 woodcuts to one of their most prestigious publications Shaftesbury: the Shaston of Thomas Hardy. In lieu of payment, Masters gave his young assistant a fount of type called Cloister for which Masters had no further use. At home Biggs had a second-hand Albion press, bought for 30 shillings from an insolvent Derby newspaper, but no type to use with it..

John Biggs contributed 9 engravings to this book, including the High House logo and a view of Bell Street not used in this edition

Biggs was a lodger at the High House, the home of the Masters, which still stands opposite the junction of the High Street with Mustons Lane. The room over the shop, facing the High Street, was the dining room and printery, with their Albion press in a corner by the window. It seemed quite natural to be eating beside the press with proofs lying around. James … was dedicated to printing … and prepared to work well into the night to get the press-work right. He was the first artist-craftsman in print that I had met and he was an example and an inspiration. (John R. Biggs, writing in the Book in Hand’s 1983 facsimile edition of the Shaston of Thomas Hardy)

The High House Press was located here from 1924 to 1936

We are grateful to Claire Ryley, Jill Clasby and Gina Patrick for researching The High House Press from items kindly deposited at Gold Hill Museum archives by Beatrice Masters, and for staging this temporary exhibition. Claire, who also provided most of the images used in this blog, writes:

The exhibition showcases the work of James and Beatrice Masters who set up an Albion press in their front room in High House. They hand printed limited editions of classical texts, poetry and prose on handmade paper and with woodcut illustrations. The woodcuts were made by James and John Biggs who later went on to have an eminent career in craftsmanship. The press operated between 1924 and 1936, and was recognised for its exemplary publications. Beatrice Masters generously donated many woodcuts, prints, books and letters to Gold Hill Museum. Most people will not know of this slice of history on our High Street, so we are delighted to be able to share the Masters’ archive and artefacts with visitors in this new exhibition.

A woodcut engraving, also by John Biggs, showing the view of Shaftesbury High Street facing west, probably from the top floor of High House
The Masters moved to Westbury-on-Trym in 1936. The High House Press published a total of 42 books, often bound in marbled paper-covered boards. John Biggs finished an illustrious career in art, design and publishing as Head of Graphic Design 1951-74 at Brighton School of Art

How a forgotten racy novel eclipsed The Great Gatsby

F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , published in April 1925, is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece and a classic example of the Great American Novel. By 2020 it was thought to have sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide, and 500,000 annually. Through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway it tells the story of mysterious millionaire Gatsby who throws extravagant Jazz Age parties at his Long Island mansion, while pursuing his obsessive love for the married Daisy Buchanan.

The novel’s huge reputation, however, was established long after Fitzgerald’s death aged 44 in 1940. By October 1925 it had sold fewer than 20,000 copies, and to his great disappointment as an already popular author, made him only $2000. In contrast, British author Robert Keable’s Simon Called Peter, published in September 1921, was into its 77th printing by March 1923, and thought to have sold over 600,000 copies in the 1920s. This told the story of Army chaplain Peter Graham’s wartime affair in France with nurse Julie, and how he wrestled with his conscience and almost repudiated his religious belief.

The semi-autobiographical depiction of the seamier side of the soldier’s experience in France was too much for many contemporaries. Many early reviews were hostile. Not only is the theme unpleasant but its working out is infinitely nasty … If Mr Keable has not written an actually immoral book he has certainly produced a very offensive one trumpeted The Guardian. There is no reason why the book should not be very popular, but we think Mr Keable will live to wish he had burnt it harrumphed The Observer. Fitzgerald denounced the book as “utterly immoral”, and had Nick Carraway say: I sat down discreetly in the living room and read a chapter of Simon Called Peter – either it was terrible stuff or the whisky distorted things, because it didn’t make any sense to me.

Robert Keable’s fame on both sides of the Atlantic was relatively short-lived, and perhaps not that welcome. He emigrated to the South Pacific in 1922 with the nurse, Jolie Buck, whom he had met in France while serving as a chaplain to black South African labourers, and deploring the discriminatory practices to which the labourers were subjected. He died in Tahiti in 1927 aged 40. Jolie predeceased him in 1924, shortly after giving birth to a son. His grandson, Simon Keable-Elliott, has done sterling work in rediscovering both Robert’s “scandalous novel” and his diverse career, telling his story with wit and humour at Gold Hill Museum on Tuesday 07 January at 2.30p.m.

Robert and Jolie Keable on a Tahitian beach near Paul Gauguin’s former house in 1923

The Greatest Treasure Hunts Start in Dorset

This autumn we’re celebrating artists and artisans who have been ‘Inspired by Dorset’. Gold Hill Museum is one of 12 across the county hosting special creative hands-on activities or celebrating artworks and local artists. Shaftesbury was the cradle of the Dorset Button cottage industry, founded in 1622 by Abraham Case. (You can read about Four Hundred Years of Dorset Buttons by clicking here ) Our volunteers are passionate about making Dorset Buttons and you can join them in free, drop-in Button Making Workshops on Monday 28 October or Friday 01 November. On both days the workshops run from 11a.m. to 1p.m. and 2p.m. to 4p.m. These are open to all from the age of 8. Children must be accompanied.

Dorset Button Mice
Basil, Lavender, Poppy, Rocket, Rosemary, and Snowdrop are our Dorset Button Mice; they are hiding in six different display cases in various rooms in Gold Hill Museum, waiting to be discovered by visitors of all ages.

Kits for making Dorset Buttons at home are on sale in the Museum Shop.

Whether you want to discover more about Alfred Stevens, ‘the Michelangelo of Great Britain’, Corfe Castle based artist Amy Krauss who created a beautiful miniature artwork for Queen Mary’s dolls house in Windsor Castle or the 400 year-old cottage industry of Dorset Button making, there’s plenty of amazing stories to discover this October and plenty of fun, hands on experiences to get involved with. There’s something for all ages and all interests. Follow in the footsteps of Dame Elisabeth Frink and become a ‘Wire Warrior’ and have a go at making your own costume armour, make a hobbyhorse, miniature masterpiece, origami lion or even have a go at stone carving on Portland! To start planning your inspirational autumn days out head to: www.visit-dorset.com/inspired-by-dorset/ and look out for posts on Visit Dorset’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Visit Dorset, Dorset Council’s tourism team is working with the Dorset Museums Association and Wimborne based agency, Fathom, to deliver this Shared Prosperity Government Funded campaign which aims to encourage local residents and visitors to explore Dorset’s amazing range of museums this October.

Was Biggles in Real Life a Dorset Farmer?

At 2.30p.m. on Tuesday 05 November at Gold Hill Museum Tony Otton will give an illustrated talk on the remarkable career of aviation pioneer Louis Strange, born on the family farm at Spetisbury, Dorset, in 1891. The first powered flight in Britain was achieved in 1908 by the American Samuel Cody. Louis Strange saw the first Bournemouth Air Show in 1910, where Charles Rolls, co-founder with Henry Royce of Rolls Royce Ltd, crashed and was killed. Undeterred, Strange took his first flight in 1911 as the passenger of exhibition pilot Lewis Turner, who lived at Sturminster Newton but was best known for stirring flying displays at Hendon. Having been kicked by an unruly ewe in July 1913, and rendered temporarily unfit for farm work, Strange sought out Turner at Hendon, determined to learn to fly. By the end of 1913 Strange was established as an exhibition flier, race winner, and instructor. In 1914 he transferred from the Dorset Yeomanry to the infant Royal Flying Corps, and trained on military aircraft – such as they were – at the Central Flying School on Salisbury Plain. In August 1914 he was one of 37 pilots who left for France in a motley collection of under-powered aircraft, with a brief to gather intelligence on the enemy’s movements. This was a hazardous pursuit, with slow and level flight often provoking a hail of friendly fire. Strange and his colleagues, lacking an effective playbook, began to write their own, as you can read in an earlier blog. By August 1915 Strange was the last of the original 37 still in France, and a wise C.O. ensured that he was posted to Home Establishment, where his talents and experience could be employed in improving the quality of training and thus the longevity of new pilots. He didn’t return permanently to France, in a much more exalted role, until July 1918.

The first collection of stories about pilot James Bigglesworth was published by WE Johns in 1932. This is the cover of the Red Fox edition from 2003 (illustration by David Frankland)

Captain W.E. Johns might have been remembered as the RAF Recruiting Officer who in 1922 rejected the thinly disguised Lawrence of Arabia, who presented himself as T.E. Shaw. When “Shaw” came back with an official letter from the Air Ministry, Johns referred the weedy specimen as a special case to the medical officer, who also declined to accept “Shaw.” By the winter of 1928/29 Aircraftsman Shaw had been posted to RAF Miramshah in British India, where his presence complicated the first mass evacuation by air from Afghanistan.

Johns states in his Foreword that Biggles was a fictitious character, yet he could have been found in any RFC mess during those great days of 1917 and 1918 when … air duelling was a fine art … he represents the spirit of the RFC – daring and deadly when in the air, devil-may-care and debonair on the ground. By the last chapter Biggles has been promoted Major to command 319 Squadron, and crash-lands behind German lines, only to discover that an Armistice has been signed half an hour earlier. It’s a great ending but one that would have to be forgotten about as Johns began writing another 90 or so Biggles books, which ultimately also embraced the inter-war period, the Battle of Britain, and the beginning of the Cold War. Biggles is said to have been born in India in 1899, which makes him just about old enough to have flown a Sopwith Camel and young enough to have been a Squadron Leader in 1940.

Restored Sopwith Camel at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

The Sopwith F1 earned the nickname “Camel” because of the hump over its forward-facing twin Vickers machine guns, synchronised to avoid hitting the propeller. It was introduced in 1917 when Louis Strange was Assistant Commandant at the Central Flying School. In the hands of an experienced pilot it was a formidable piece of kit, but too many novices lost control, and their lives. In spite of the care we took, Strange wrote, Camels continually spun down out of control when flew [sic] by pupils on their first solos. At length, with the assistance of Lieut Morgan, who managed our workshops, I took the main tank out of several Camels and replaced [them] with a smaller one, which enabled us to fit in dual control.

Both Strange and Biggles have breaks from their RAF service between the Wars. Strange retired on medical grounds in 1921 while according to Hilary Mantel Biggles was a charter pilot with a side-line in working for MI6. After going back to farming, in the 30s Strange became involved in the running of commercial airlines. In 1939 he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a humble Pilot Officer; by 1944 he was helping to plan the execution of the D Day Campaign, and back in France. His story is (pardon the pun) stranger than fiction.

Tony’s fascinating talk is free to S&DHS members. Seats should be available to non-members from 2.20p.m. on payment of £5 at the door.

“Commanding Scenery” and “Very Fine Air for the Restoration of Health”

“Welcome to Shaftesbury” is our final temporary exhibition of the season, showcasing a range of local printed tourist guides selected by our volunteer archives team and spanning nearly a century. Magnificent views to north, south, and west from Shaftesbury’s hilltop location are extolled by all the writers. (We are still doing it, with the benefit of drone photography, in the promotional video on our Home Page.) The earlier publicists tend to be equally interested in stressing the merits of Shaftesbury as a health resort, a kind of mini-Switzerland for the tubercular.

Shaftesbury enjoys breath-taking views into three Counties, and highly breathable fresh air according to the writers of early tourist guides. (Gold Hill Museum Guide)

The earliest tourists would be medieval pilgrims, attracted to the shrine of St Edward the Martyr (d.978) at Shaftesbury Abbey. While many might have been motivated by the prospect of remission of sins and shortening of time spent in Purgatory, others would also have hoped for miraculous cures from the plethora of diseases rife at the time. Roger Mason, writer of the RH Guide above, states that The pilgrims visiting Edward’s shrine were so numerous … they caused hygiene problems, so they were housed in an area with a sloping floor, which could be easily sluiced out each morning.

One of the scourges of 19th century Britain was tuberculosis of the lungs. Records show that between 1851 and 1910 there were about 4 million deaths from TB in England and Wales. Robert Koch, the German scientist who demonstrated in 1882 that the disease was caused by infection from a bacterium, reckoned that TB was responsible for one-seventh of human mortality. Knowing the cause was not the same, however, as being able to prevent or cure the disease. Neither was feasible in Britain until widespread adoption of the BCG vaccination and availability of the antibiotic Streptomycin in the 1950s. Until then, TB was a commonplace and widely feared. Melvyn Bragg (b. 1939) recalls in his 2022 memoir Back in the Day that Wigton near Carlisle was swept by TB just after the war. My mother and I both caught it. Like many others, as a child I slept in the same bed as my mother. Diseases spread rapidly, especially in those cramped central streets … Ray Galton contracted TB aged 17 in 1947 and first met future comedy co-writer Alan Simpson as a fellow patient at Milford Sanatorium near Godalming. Later they achieved joint fame as creators of Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.

Victorian treatments varied from the optimistic: vinegar massages and inhaling turpentine fumes or hemlock; to the practical, but expensive: isolation in a plush Swiss sanatorium with plenty of bed-rest, good food, and fresh air. If altitude accompanied the fresh air, all the better, as the German physician Hermann Brehmer, returning from the Himalayas in 1854, claimed to be cured of TB. Brehmer initiated a trend by establishing a sanatorium 650 metres above sea level. Shaftesbury, at a more modest 215 metres, still warranted an entry in the the 1890s New Illustrated Guide to some of the Picturesque Health and Holiday Resorts on the Midland Railway System. (Change at Templecombe if travelling from the Midlands and the North.) South-Western Railways advised that Passengers taking tourist tickets to the West of England will be allowed to break the journey at Semley Station … in order to visit the town of Shaftesbury, two miles distant, situate about 780 feet above the level of the sea, recommended by medical men as a health resort for persons requiring bracing air, and commanding landscape views that for extent and grandeur are scarcely surpassed in the kingdom.

Coombe House Hotel (currently a School for pupils with Special Educational Needs) was still claiming to be a good Health resort in the 1930s.

By the 1930s hoteliers advertising (above) in the Shaftesbury Tourist Guides had to be more cognisant of the expectations of travellers who might arrive by private motor car. The beneficial, health-giving climate was still a selling point. Coombe House’s “Magnificent Ballroom” was added c.1912 by the first owner, the vinegar tycoon, M.P., philanthropist, and all-round sportsman Mark Hanbury Beaufoy (1854-1922). His son sold off the estate in 1930. The 9-Hole Golf Course was probably carved out of acreage originally reserved for pheasant shooting. Subsequently Coombe House was occupied by USAAF bomber crews for R & R during World War Two, and after 1945 by the Sisters of The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary who operated an independent Girls’ School until its closure in 2020.

Presumably different postcards of various views could be inserted into this generic poster, with the distance altered to suit.

Welcome to Shaftesbury is on show in Exhibition Space ‘A’ outside the Museum Library until the end of the season in late October. Like all our displays, it is free to view every day between 10.30 and 4.30.

‘Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen’ as told by the author

Dr Nicola Tallis is fast emerging as one of Britain’s most popular historians, according to fellow writer Gareth Russell. Her brilliant new study of the early life of Elizabeth I, says the doyenne of Tudor biographers Alison Weir, is an outstanding achievement. The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society is delighted to welcome Nicola to Shaftesbury Town Hall at 7.30p.m. on Tuesday 01 October as the 2024 Teulon Porter Memorial Lecturer. This illustrated talk is free to members and open to the public on payment of £5 at the door.

Dr Nicola Tallis’s latest book on the troubled early years of Elizabeth I was published in February 2024. Photo from https://nicolatallis.com/

Nicola is a rising star in the firmament of Tudor historians. Her PhD thesis was published as ‘All the Queen’s Jewels 1445 -1548: Power, Majesty and Display’. She is speaking on this subject at a sold-out Six Lives Study Day at the National Portrait Gallery on 07 September. (Coincidentally Elizabeth I was born on 07 September in 1533.) After ‘Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey’ (2016), Nicola raised the profiles of other Tudor women in ‘Elizabeth’s Rival: The Tumultuous Tale of Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester’ (2017) and ‘Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch.’ (2019)

Elizabeth I was 25 when she became Queen in 1558. An awful lot of personal trauma was packed into her early years, starting with the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, on 19 May 1536. Elizabeth joined her elder half-sister, Mary (b.1516), in the non-status of officially decreed illegitimacy. Both were much reduced in rank and household, from Princess to mere Lady. Any sympathy Mary might have felt for her younger sibling tended to be crushed by her burning resentment at Henry VIII’s treatment of her mother, Katherine of Aragon, and harassment over her (Mary’s) traditional religious beliefs. Both were blamed squarely on the malign influence of Anne Boleyn. At the beginning of Mary’s reign, when Kentish gentleman Sir Thomas Wyatt raised an unsuccessful rebellion against Mary’s Spanish Marriage to the future King Philip II, Elizabeth found herself in the same Tower of London quarters, contemplating the same fate, as her mother.

Detail of Claude de Jongh’s View of London Bridge in 1632. Original in the Yale Center for British Art

Wyatt had planned to depose Mary and replace her with Elizabeth. If Wyatt had written to her, Elizabeth denied ever having received his letter. Her own ‘Tide Letter’ to Mary, the writing of which delayed Elizabeth’s passage to the Tower beneath the low arches of London Bridge (above), may have saved her from sudden retribution. Elizabeth also knew enough to score out the blank space at the bottom of her letter to prevent any forged additions.

This was not the first time that Elizabeth had to use her quick wits and inner resilience to rebuff bullying by male interrogators. In 1548 she had been part of the household of Henry VIII’s last Queen and widow, Katherine Parr. Katherine was now free to marry Thomas Seymour, uncle of the boy-king Edward VI, and in June 1548 they began residing at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.

The medieval part of Sudeley Castle, granted by the young Edward VI to his uncle, Thomas Seymour, in 1547, probably at the instigation of his other Seymour uncle, Edward, Duke of Somerset. Nicola Tallis was at one time Curator here.

In his will Henry VIII had made provision for advising his son Edward, aged 9 at his father’s death, to be shared by 16 executors. These were all male courtiers, though Mary was named second and Elizabeth third in the line of succession. Within days Edward Seymour subverted the terms of the will by being appointed Lord Protector, and Duke of Somerset. But Somerset’s nemesis was his younger brother, Thomas Seymour, who jealously coveted the post of Governor of the King’s Person. Although made Lord Admiral and given a barony as Lord Seymour of Sudeley, Seymour was not so easily bought off. Handsome, dashing and reckless, his consuming ambition made him a highly disruptive force. (John Guy, The Children of Henry VIII.) Thomas’s behaviour towards the 14 years-old Elizabeth was highly dubious, even by the lax standards of the day. He began to visit her bed-chamber at the crack of dawn. Lady-in-waiting Kat Ashley confessed that if Elizabeth were up, he would bid her good morrow and ask how she did, and strike her upon the back or on the buttocks familiarly … and if she were in her bed, he would open the curtains and bid her good morrow, and make as though he would come at her. Perhaps hoping to curb her husband’s excessive, abusive familiarity, Katherine took part in some of these romps, including a notorious incident in the garden at Hanworth where Elizabeth’s gown was cut to tatters as she was wearing it. I could not do withal, for the queen held me while the Lord Admiral cut it.

St Mary’s Chapel at Sudeley is the burial place of Katherine Parr. She died 05 September 1548 of puerperal fever six days after giving birth to her only child.

In May 1548, amid a rising tide of scurrilous gossip about the relationship between her errant husband and Elizabeth, Katherine sent the teenager to live with the Denny household. Within months, Katherine, who had been widowed three times, died of an infection sustained in childbirth. She was 36. Elizabeth learned from all these experiences. Thomas, thwarted in his schemes to groom Elizabeth, and to pitch a marriage to Mary, was arrested in January 1549 while trying to seize the person of the King. These were treasonous activities for which he was executed in March 1549. Sir Robert Tyrwhit, sent by Somerset to establish the extent of Elizabeth’s involvement, reported somewhat shamefacedly: I do assure your grace she hath a very good wit, and nothing is gotten of her, but by great policy. Legend has it that when in 1553 Elizabeth was released, reluctantly, by her sister from the Tower into house arrest at Woodstock, she used a diamond to etch into a window pane Much suspected of me. Nothing proved can be.

Facsimile of “Alfred Ordered Me Made” Masterpiece Returns To Gold Hill Museum

The ninth century Alfred Jewel was unearthed by the ploughing of a field at North Petherton, Somerset, in 1693. It was given to the University of Oxford in 1718 and is now one of the Ashmolean Museum’s most prized treasures. North Petherton lies between Bridgwater and Taunton, six miles from King Alfred’s reedy Athelney hideaway in the marshes of the Somerset Levels. Here c.878 the refugee Alfred allegedly “burned the cakes” while planning a successful Saxon counter-attack on the marauding Vikings. Part of his strategy was to build a network of fortified “burhs”, of which hilltop Shaftesbury was one.

A number of replica Alfred Jewels were made in 1901 to mark the Millennium of Alfred’s death (actually in 899). In 1964 a replica was presented to Gold Hill Museum by Major Meyrick-Jones of Layton House, Layton Lane, Shaftesbury. As Dave Hardiman writes in a well-researched article in the most recent Byzant magazine: The accession book notes that the replica had an “Ashmolean look about it”. With King Alfred’s great association with Shaftesbury due to his foundation of the Abbey and installation of his daughter as the first Abbess, the replica jewel was proudly displayed for some 20 years until, sadly it disappeared, believed stolen, and has never been recovered. (Security was tightened as a result of the theft).

King Alfred and daughter, first Abbess of Shaftesburry
Alfred portrayed in Room 1 with daughter Ethelgiva, said by Asser to be the first Abbess of Shaftesbury

In 2015 the present writer queued for an hour at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton to snatch a brief and not very satisfactory look at the original Alfred Jewel while it was on temporary loan. Now, thanks to the generosity of S&DHS member Phil Proctor, you can enjoy a much more leisurely and rewarding inspection, for free, in Room 1 of a high quality replica. Phil was inspired by Dave’s article to buy a replacement for the stolen piece and donate it to us. This follows his kind gift last year of a Shaftesbury-made longcase clock.

Side view of the original Alfred Jewel showing part of the “Alfred ordered me to be made” inscription. Photo by Giles Watson (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence)

The Ashmolean Museum’s online description begins: The Alfred Jewel is a masterpiece of goldsmith’s work formed around a tear-shaped slice of rock crystal. Its inscription: AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN – ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’ – connects the jewel with King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) making it among the most significant of royal relics. Other contextual evidence tends to strengthen the identification with Alfred. Apart from proving his military prowess by victories over the Danes, Alfred was a considerable scholar and believed passionately in the merits of Christian education. In the Preface to his translation from Latin to Old English of Pope Gregory’s Pastoral Care he writes: When I reflected on all this, I recollected how – before everything was ransacked and burned – the churches throughout England stood filled with treasures and books. Similarly, there was a great multitude of those serving God. And they derived very little benefit from these books, because they understood nothing of them, since they were not written in their own language.

Accordingly Alfred ordered that translations of texts he considered most needful for all to know, should be distributed to churches throughout his kingdom. In the particular case of the Pastoral Care each copy of the (handwritten illuminated) book was to be accompanied by an aestel worth fifty mancuses. And in God’s name I command that no one shall take that aestel from the book, nor the book from the church.

An aestel was a pointer used to follow a line of text in scripture, an aid to reading out loud. Alfred’s aestels were expensive as a mancus was a gold coin worth 30 silver pence, equivalent to a month’s wages for a skilled worker. It is reasonable to assume that the Alfred Jewel is one of six surviving aestels. The functional part of the pointer, made of wood or ivory, would be clamped into the dragon’s mouth at the base of the Jewel. There has been much speculation as to the identity of the enamelled figure: Christ; St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne; Alfred himself? and the symbolism intended. In her recent book Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It Dr. Janina Ramirez suggests that The Alfred Jewel, meant to accompany books that spread wisdom, may depict not sight, as in eyesight, but rather insight; the pursuit of knowledge.

The “pursuit of knowledge” of Shaftesbury’s history is available every day for free until late October at both Gold Hill Museum and Shaftesbury Abbey and Gardens.

Click here to listen to Fontmell Magna native Dave Hardiman, interviewed on the Alfred Daily, describing a forthcoming village Archive Society Exhibition on the theme of the Parish at Work. It’s at Fontmell Village Hall for the weekend starting 26 July 2024.