The Blandford Express

When 149 Dorset adults and children joined the vessel, the Emigrant at Plymouth on the 5 th March 1849 they were joining a vessel that was to become known as the ‘ Ship of Death’ . More than half were from the villages of Stourpaine & Durweston, about 30 were from Child Okeford and the remainder came from different villages around Blandford.  Durweston clergyman, Sydney Godolphin Osborne saw them all embark on board the 754 ton three-mast barque, whose master was William Henry Kemp. Also on board were the captain’s wife, Sarah and three-year old daughter, Fanny. The voyage had been organised by the Blandford Colonisation Society who had held its first meeting in January earlier that year. It could be said, however, that the real purpose of the Society was to export the problem of the district’s poor to the Antipodes. Living conditions at the time for ordinary folk were poor and often insanitary with the situation in the village of Stourpaine being particularly bad. For those ...

  James Bartlett was a staunch advocate of the Conservative political cause, was strongly opposed to vaccinations and was strictly teetotal. He was owner of local newspaper, the Blandford Express in whose columns he had argued that the number of public houses in the town should be drastically reduced. Born in Durweston, he spent his early years working on a farm before moving to Blandford to set up a printing business without any training in this trade. George Vince was a fishmonger with different political views and certainly was not teetotal. In fact he had two convictions for being drunk and disorderly. The two clashed at lunchtime on Monday 15 th June 1885 when Bartlett refused to buy any fish. The altercation took place outside the newspaper offices, known as 'Printer's Corner' at the corner of Salisbury Street and White Cliff Mill Street. Bartlett’s refusal angered Vince such that he described the former as ‘a --------- turnip hacker, shepherd boy and that’s what h...

  The inhabitants of Stourpaine were on Sunday morning thrown into a state of most painful excitement by the report that their most highly esteemed clergyman, the Reverend C F Tufnell had committed suicide by cutting his throat. It appears that the unfortunate gentleman had been labouring for sometime past under depression of spirits. (Somerset County Gazette 3 rd August 1867)   Six dairy cows belonging to Stourpaine farmer, John Coles were killed on the Somerset & Dorset line near Shillingstone.   On Friday afternoon a little boy, eight years of age was sent after the cows. He let them in on the line but before he could get them off on the opposite side the up-express, which is booked to arrive at Blandford at 3.30pm, emerged from the cutting and dashed through the cows. Five of the seven which were killed on the spot and another died in the night through injuries received. (Western Gazette – 8 th September 1871) The Stourpaine Temperance Friends were so satisf...

Dorset dialect is said to have originated from the Saxon invaders that landed in the county in the sixth century. Some less well-known ‘ Do’set ’ words include: ‘ Boris-noris’ meaning to go on recklessly without thought to risk or decency; ‘ Twanketon ’ meaning melancholy; ‘ Dumbledore ’ meaning a bumblebee; ‘ Torididdle ’ meaning to be out of one's  mind and ‘ God’s almighty cow’ which surprisingly is a ladybird! In June 1932, the following message was sent to King George V from the Society of Dorset Men; ‘Sire, Do’set Men at the yearly feast in the King’s Hall, Holborn Restaurant has ‘bidden woonce mwore to zend ‘ee their loyal and loven greetens. May ‘ee be spared vor years to zit wi friends avore the vierzide an’ dwell at hwome in peace. God bless ‘ee I d’bide your vaithful survint. Angus V Hamro; Society of Do’set Men.’ Radio fright claimed its first victim in July 1927 and deprived listeners of the opportunity of hearing the Dorset dialect over the radio for the first...

  From Dorset Gallows to Van Diemen’s Land is the unlikely but true story of political corruption, hangings and transportation in the small market town of Blandford in Southern England.  It is available as a paperback from  Amazon in the United Kingdom, Australia and the USA. The book uncovers the extraordinary tale of two ordinary men, George Long a shoemaker and Richard Bleathman a butcher. Driven by belief and dissatisfaction they are swept along by events. Sentenced to be hanged in Dorchester Gaol for their protests against political corruption they are instead, following clemency appeals,  transported to Van Diemen’s Land -  on the other side of the world. ‘A fascinatingly  good read.  This book entirely complements the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs - also transported to Australia.’ (Richard Holledge, newspaper editor, freelance journalist - London. As read in the Independent, New York Times & Financial Times. Author of   Voices of the M...

  Blandford’s 1891 Census lists the following people in Alexandra Street: Ambrose Tiller            (48)      Head               Marionette  Proprietor Elizabeth Tiller            (61)      Wife Ambrose Tiller             (22)      Son                  Musician Lucy Tiller                    (19)      Daughter         Costumier   Walter Tiller               (25)      H...

  Jack Hargreaves OBE was a television presenter and writer who lived for several years in the village of Belchalwell. Despite being London born, he is remembered for his nostalgic and gentle programmes about the countryside. These included ‘ Gone Fishing’ , ‘ Out of Town’ and ‘ Old Country ’. They appeared long before and were forerunners of ‘ Countryfile ’.  Many of his programmes were filmed in his Belchalwell home’s potting shed and this provided the inspiration for comedian Charlie Higson’s character, Bob Fleming who regularly appeared in television’s ‘ The Fast Show’. Jack also conceived and presented ‘ How? ’ for 15 years the children’s how does it work programme with co-presenters Fred Dineage and Bunty James. Behind his gentle and unassuming broadcasting manner Jack Hargreaves was a shrewd individual and successful businessman. His reputation as a communicator earned him a role setting up broadcasting services for the allied military services before and after D Da...

Leonard Burt was a Dorset Constabulary policeman whose groundwork led to the arrest of five members of the Portland Spy Ring in 1961. During the autumn of 1959 the Detective Officer became aware of Harry Houghton, a Portland Naval Base clerk whose lifestyle and excessive drinking were incompatible with his clerk’s salary. Burt found it quite incredible that this man, who had been sent back from Poland because of his excessive drinking and black market activities, had been posted to the Portland Underwater Establishment. Here, some of Britain’s most secret submarine defence activities were carried out. Houghton had been involved in selling penicillin, a drug which was in short supply in Poland. He also frequently boasted about his invitations to attend parties at the Polish Embassy where he met up with old Polish friends. Burt’s discreet observations led to him finding that Houghton spent many evenings drinking heavily in the Elm Tree public house, Langton Herring. He would then make hi...

North Dorset Railway is a heritage project which is, step by step, bringing Shillingstone station back to life. Here are some newspaper cuttings from the station’s past. Some show that then, safety was not always a prime consideration. The station was closed as a result of Beeching cuts back in the 1960s. Accident on Line. ‘On Wednesday morning when the Somerset & Dorset train leaving Poole at 8.10 was within half a mile off Shillingstone, and going at the rate of 30mph, the driver noticed a bull jump the fence from a field and stumble into the line when the train was only a dozen yards off and before it could get out of the way the right-hand life-guard and buffer of the engine caught it and literally cut it in pieces.’ (Weymouth Telegram: 22 nd May 1874) Railway Supper. On Friday, the employees of the Traffic & Permanent Way at Shillingstone Station held their annual supper in the school room (kindly lent by Reverend EA Dayman). Upwards of 30 partook of an excellent repast ...

Known as the ‘ Victoria Cross Pigeon’ , the heroic last flight of carrier pigeon 2709 is remembered in the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp. During World War I, the British Army used pigeons to carry messages. A miniature container would be attached to a bird’s foot in which a note with a message would be put. As pigeons can fly quite fast, the message could be delivered quite quickly. A bizarre feature of the time was the mobile pigeon loft. These were initially horse drawn but later London buses were converted into pigeon lofts. Quite a strange sight they were on the Western Front and some change from their previous role in the streets of London. Each vehicle could carry 60 to 75 birds in specially made coops on the upper deck with feed, stores and an office below. In October 1917, pigeon 2709 was given an important message to deliver from the Passchendaele front-line to the Divisional Headquarters. It left from the Menin Road area at around 1.30pm on the 4 th October 1917...

Thomas Hardy wrote of this Barley Wine style beer: ‘It was the most beautiful colour that the eye of an artist in beer could deliver full of body yet brisk of as a volcano; piquant, yet without a twang; luminous as an autumn sunset, free from streakiness of taste but fully rather heady.’ ( Trumpet Major) Named after the Dorset author and poet, it was created by Dorchester brewers, Eldridge Pope to mark the 40th anniversary of Hardy’s death. However production ceased when the brewery closed in 2003 following its sale to a property company. In 2013 the recipe was acquired by Italian  brewer, Interbrau and from time to time they arrange for special batches of Thomas Hardy Ale to be produced. It has been claimed that Thomas Hardy Ale will last for 25 years.

For stealing four and a half pints of milk, valued at eleven pence and a farthing (around 4.5p),  Adilene Blanche Plaister, a single woman, of Shillingstone was sentenced by Sturminster Newton Magistrates to four months in prison with hard labour. Witnesses had observed her crossing a field at around 5.15am with a bucket under her arm. She was then seen milking a cow which belonged to Shillingstone farmer Edwin Charles Tuffin - a charge she did not deny. The farmer claimed this was the sixth occasion his cow had been milked. The Court was told that Adilene Plaister had previously failed to appear at court stating she would definitely not go even for forty policemen. She was brought to Court under custody. Before Sturminster Newton Magistrates, Adilene Plaister pleaded not guilty but added: ‘I milked his cow but only did it for a bit of fun. I did it to get my own back.’ She alleged that Mr Tuffin had milked someone else’s cow.  On hearing the sentence, Adilene Plaister exclaim...

At one time members of the Dorset Constabulary were subject to regulations that today would not be acceptable and possibly illegal. A  Dorset police constable could not marry without obtaining the permission of the Chief Constable, Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Symes Cox. He was worried that so many of his constables were married men that he issued the following instruction. ‘The number of married police constables being out of all reasonable proportion to the total strength of the Force so much as to be increasingly inconvenient to the efficient working of the police, No constable for the future will be allowed to marry until he has served at least twelve months and then permission will not be granted until he satisfies the Chief Constable he has saved a sufficient sum of money to enable him to start in life with respectability as a married man.’ (Dorset Constabulary General Orders – August 1864) When the Force had been established in 1856, it had been determined, unless there wer...