Local History Librarian and Archivist Ray Simpson has created a new display on the histories of great estates within easy reach of Shaftesbury. These include Old and New Wardour Castles (film locations for Robin Hood and Billy Elliott respectively), Ferne House at Donhead St Andrew, Pythouse (scene of a Swing Riot in 1830), Stourhead, and Fonthill. Most of William Beckford’s Gothic Fonthill Abbey (pictured) has disappeared and several of these properties are still privately owned. Ray’s exhibition is, however, easily accessible on the first floor landing outside the Library of Gold Hill Museum, 10.30 to 4.30 daily until October 31.

The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society is shortly to publish its programme of lectures for 2017-18. At 2.30 p.m. on 02 January 2018 in the Garden Room at Gold Hill Museum historian and writer Dave Martin will discuss Cast Bronze Reputations; statues in the Wessex street. Dave promises that all the statues featured will be visible to the public and within 50 miles of Shaftesbury. But where is the somewhat decayed stone statue in the photograph? (Please click on the image to see the whole statue.) Who is the headless figure and for what was he well-known? A year’s membership of The S&DHS for the first entirely correct answers submitted to Gold Hill Museum.

Renowned wild bee advocate Brigit Strawbridge has expressed her delight at discovering a perfect location at Gold Hill Museum for two nesting boxes provided by Shaftesbury Bee Group’s Big Bee Project. The boxes, funded by Shaftesbury Town Council, are designed to provide maternity homes for solitary cavity-nesting species such as Mason and Leafcutter bees. The bees fill tubes with pollen as food for their larvae, performing a vital role in plant pollination in the process. Their offspring pupate in the autumn and emerge as adults in the following year. These bees are harmless to humans and pets as they do not sting. Planting in recent years in the Wildlife Friendly Gold Hill Museum Garden  by Ian Kellett and his late wife Marjory was always intended to be pollen-rich and attractive to insects and birds. The garden is free to visit during the daily 10.30a.m. to 4.30p.m. opening hours of the Museum, also free.

 

The 06 June summer outing of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society brought 30 members to the site of William Beckford’s great Gothic folly at Fonthill Old Abbey. Only a fragment remains of the original cruciform pile, built on the proceeds of sugar and slavery. That the tip of the northern limb of the Abbey still stands is a credit to the current owners, the Morants, who have added a modern house in sympathetic style. In the Tower Room Sidney Blackmore of the Beckford Society outlined the ambitions of the son of Alderman Beckford, a former Lord Mayor of London and MP for Shaftesbury. William’s own dreams were frustrated by his association with scandal – he was gay in an intolerant age – and he compensated by grandiose building which later collapsed, as did his income from the sugar plantations. He was still wealthy enough to remodel numbers 19 and 20 Lansdown Crescent in Bath, where Beckford Tower is his monument. The afternoon concluded with a delicious tea at The Angel in Hindon, where members thanked Lavender Buckland for conceiving and Claire Ryley for organising a memorable outing.

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 described by Sidney Blackmore of the Beckford Society in the tower room of the surviving remnant of Fonthill Old Abbey, and in the grounds, courtesy of Mrs Morant. The afternoon concludes with tea at The Angel in Hindon. A great deal of interest in Fonthill was stirred by Professor Caroline Dakers’s Teulon Porter Lecture in October 2016 and this promises to be a fascinating follow-up. Details of membership of The S&DHS can be found in the About Us menu of the Gold Hill Museum website.