Place: Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum

Time: 10.30 – 12.30 and 1.30 – 3.30

Booking: Not Necessary

Activity: Learn how to make a cartwheel button

Suitable for: All ages welcome, but children (we recommend 8+) must be accompanied

Cost: £5 per participant (No charge for an adult accompanying a participating child)

A new temporary exhibition for the final two months of our season presents documents and artefacts from the Gold Hill Museum Archives relating to Shaftesbury During the Second World War. One intriguing item is a handmade wooden model Spitfire, made by a German Prisoner of War from Camp 47 in the grounds of Motcombe House, to give to a local lad, a very youthful Tom Crabbe (1938-2025). The story is best told in Tom’s own inimitable style, as recorded by Librarian Ann Symons in September 2024:

I’ve brought this Spitfire up here to present to Shaftesbury Museum, which the family agreed on. It was given to me in nineteen forty-four, forty-five Christmas by a German Prisoner of War. He used to come to Iwerne Minster in the Army lorry every morning. There was about ten or eleven of them on there and they were dispersed at different farms at Iwerne Minster. And this particular chap and his friend, his mate, they worked for Mr Harry Hunt of Iwerne Minster’s Preston Farm where my dad worked as well.

And they were two nice chaps and this particular Christmas he said to my father “I’ve got something for your son Thomas.” And Dad said, “Well, that’s kind of you Henry, what’s that?” And he said, “I’ve made him a model Spitfire back at the camp at Motcombe, near Shaftesbury.” And he said, “I want him to have it and keep it.” And that’s how I came to get it. And as from that time my granny used to pay a taxi to go to Motcombe once a month and pick Henry up because he was a trusted prisoner down at the camp and he used to come to our house for lunch once a month. And he done that for the two years that he was down there.

And he was the headmaster of a school in Berlin and he could speak better English than I could. But he was a very nice friend and we thought a lot of him. And I think that’s really the end of the story, but he did tell Dad that him and his friend that was with him still together at Iwerne on the farm, they never shot a gun in anger. As soon as the British landed in France – they were on the coast there guarding some different things in this particular village in northern France – as soon as the British came – the tank came round the corner and they came out with their hands up and they were took Prisoner of War and that was the end of their wartime – they didn’t want to fight – and they were really nice chaps. And that’s the end of my story about that.

As with all our displays, this exhibition – on the landing outside the Museum Library – is free. For some items we don’t have the wealth of background detail that the late Tom Crabbe was able to provide. Perhaps somebody will recognise some of these Shaftesbury Grammar School army cadets, in an uncaptioned photograph from a wartime album? On the back of the photograph were written the names C/O L.P. Veale and Sgt Tim Corson. School Magazines for 1940 reported a very successful inspection in July by visiting Brigadier-General H.C. Stanley-Clarke, when the strength of the Cadet Corps had just passed 100. Corporal Corson was to be promoted Sergeant in October 1940, so perhaps this is a later inspection.

A Footnote about Camp 47. The parkland of Motcombe House was requisitioned during World War II for the building of a standard pattern Prisoner of War Camp, to accommodate Italian, then German POWs after the D Day Landings in June 1944. It was in use until at least 1947, when the House was leased by Port Regis School, who bought the freehold of the property including 150 acres of parkland from the Prideaux family in 1972. At some stage the contents of Camp 47 were auctioned off, as implied by this extract from our Byzant Magazine for January 2017:

A member of the public asked for our help in tracing a Second World War German POW at Motcombe Park Camp. He has a collection of Nissen huts which came from the camp and on the inside of one of them are 10 or more painted panels done by a prisoner with the initials ‘EG’. The paintings depict scenes from his homeland. The present owner is seeking help in tracing any descendants of the POW so that he might offer them these panels.

The present writer has no knowledge of whether the artist’s family was identified, and is pretty certain that no traces of Camp 47 will be found by trespassing on Port Regis property, so please keep out!

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.)

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.

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”.

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.

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?

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.

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)

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.

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 …