Category: Local History

Farmer’s Jesty’s Quantum Leap | Looking Back

Edward Jenner usually gets the credit as the world’s first vaccinator but arguably the title should belong to North Dorset’s own Benjamin Jesty. Almost 250...

Church House Wimborne | Then and Now

It’s not Wimborne’s prettiest building but what Church House lacks aesthetically it makes up for in prominence. Standing alongside the Minster, the two-storey parish room...

Iwerne Minster | Looking Back

By all accounts Bob was a simple fellow, known unkindly to the locals as the Village Idiot. But a story I learned some years ago...

Ibberton Church | Then and Now

Ibberton Church is one of three in England that are dedicated to St Eustace, the others being at Tavistock in Devon and Hoo in...

Sherborne Bombings | Looking Back

It was North Dorset’s worst day of the Second World War, yet it was also a case of mistaken identity. When 37 Heinkel He.111 bombers...

Milton Abbas | Then and Now

It’s regarded as one of Dorset’s most picturesque villages and a magnet to tourists, but it wasn’t always so. In fact the tyrannical village squire...

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Where the horse work happens

Margaret Millward agreed to help with the show’s equestrian classes – temporarily – in the 1990s. She’s still there and does most of the...

How Dorset Became One of England’s Finest Food Counties

There are counties in England with a food reputation that precedes them: Yorkshire for its puddings, Cornwall for its pasties, Kent for its orchards....