Category: Local History

Rats, fleas and Black Death (the shaping of north Dorset)

Why are so many north Dorset parish churches outside their villages? The answer is the Black Death, argues Paul Birbeck Across the Vale, there are...

The Georgian phoenix that rose from the ashes of disaster | Then and Now

When fire ripped through Blandford on June 4, 1731, it was a catastrophe for the town and a personal disaster for most of its...

When Dickens came to Sherborne | Looking Back

‘Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.’ So began the greatest occasion in Sherborne’s literary history, and there...

Child Okeford Co-op – 100 years on | Then and now

One of the commercial stories of the 20th century centres on the gradual decline of the village and corner shop as supermarkets took over...

Dorset’s first woman driver | Looking Back

She was Dorset’s first woman driver, and she documented her motoring adventures in a diary written almost 120 years ago. Roger Guttridge shares the...

A tale of two changes at the Old Rectory | Then and Now

Happily tucked away from the passing A357 traffic is this magnificent example of Georgian architecture – the Old Rectory in Holebrooke Lane, Lydlinch. The...

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School’s out for summer

With 68 wins and a personal best for Joe, it’s finally turnout time at the Tizzard Yard – and the spring pressure-washing begins … The...

FOLDE named South West’s best bookshop again!

Shaftesbury’s bookshop specialising in nature writing has been named the best independent bookshop in the South West – for the second time in three...

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