The Blandford Express

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Iwerne Minster Film - 1918.

In August 1918, the Ministry of Information made a film about rural life in the North Dorset village of Iwerne Minster. Filmed during the last summer of World War I, this remarkable record has survived and still is available to view today. The silent film features many of the Iwerne Minster villagers engaging in country activities such as butter making, poultry farming and beekeeping. There is also the local cattle market, hurdle making and the breaking in of a horse. Apparently, everyone in the village kept pet rabbits at the time. Children are seen entering their school and maypole dancing. Although generally painting an idyllic picture, there are still reminders of the war. There are scenes of German prisoners of war being put to work on the land with local farmers. They haul wood to be used for aircraft manufacture. While close to the village pump there was a notice board, known as the ‘W ar Office, where news from the battlefronts and from local newspapers was posted. Whil

Blandford St Mary Diamond

Nicknamed ‘ Diamond Pitt’, Thomas Pitt was a clergyman’s son who was born in Blandford St Mary in 1653. During his lifetime, he bought and sold a diamond considered by many to be the most pure and beautiful ever discovered. In 2018, it was valued at £14,000,000. Today, it is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is known as both the ‘ Pitt Diamond’ and also the ‘Regent Diamond’ . The diamond was found by a slave in southern India and he hid it in a large wound in his leg. An English sea captain found out about the diamond and lured the slave onto his vessel. He threw the slave overboard and stole the gem which he sold to a diamond merchant. The seaman later committed suicide. Thomas Pitt, who was the Governor of Madras and a testy character, bought the diamond for £20,400. His son, Robert brought the jewel back to England hidden in the heel of his shoe. The jewel was cut, a process which took two years and cost £5,000. The cut-off fragments fetched around £4,000. By then, Th

Portland’s pioneering railway.

One of Dorset’s first railways was built on the Isle of Portland. Opening in 1826, it was not designed to carry passengers but to carry Portland stone. It was a response to a growing demand for the stone and to improve transportation between the quarries and the shipment point at Castletown Pier. Here stone was loaded onto ships. The railway cost £5,000 to build which was financed by the issue by the Portland Railway Company of a hundred fifty pound shares. Income was generated by the quarry operators who used it. The company had been formed two years earlier by local residents and people involved in the stone trade. The railway had no power other than gravity. The weight of the loaded wagon descending pulled by cable the empty wagon back up the slope. Bizarrely, the track had just three rails on stone sleepers with the middle rail shared by both wagons. However, at the mid-point there were separate tracks to enable the two wagons to cross over. At the top of the slope there was a brak

Manslaughter in Salisbury Street.

It was in the George Inn in Blandford (featured) that an argument between George Seaviour and his married lover, Emma Tanswell led to her tragic death. Originally known as the Three Swans, the pub’s name had been changed to celebrate King George III passing through the town on the way to Weymouth. Emma (28), a married woman, had left her husband about four years earlier and was living with George Seaviour (27) in two small rented rooms. He was a carter who worked for Charlie Coates who was a straw and hay dealer. A Bridport newspaper was to describe Seaviour as ‘somewhat repulsive in countenance..’ Seaviour was drinking in the George Inn in Salisbury Street when Emma entered with friends. He was 5ft 8ins in height, powerfully built and was described as ‘not well-educated’. An argument broke out between the two drinkers after Seaviour began abusing her using particularly bad language and urging her to go home to her husband and children. Emma claimed during the previous night he tied

Eric Cobham, Poole Pirate and the Pirate Queen.

In times gone by, Poole was notorious for its fearsome pirates. Among the most terrifying was Poole born Eric Cobham. In his first act of piracy he stole £40,000 worth of gold and goods from a French vessel. From his base in Newfoundland in Canada, he practised piracy on the high seas. It is said he operated out of Sandy Point on the island’s west coast. Throughout his ventures between 1740 and 1760, he was accompanied by his wife, the formidable Maria whom he met in a Plymouth tavern. It was a time when piracy was an all male club and Maria was one of the few exceptions. Both were notorious for their cruelty and for sparing no quarter. Captured crews were murdered with some survivors even used for target practice. This left no witnesses. Then, their vessels were sunk to the bottom of the sea. Chillingly and frighteningly, Maria has been described as Canada’s Pirate Queen . She was definitely not a lady with which to tangle. By all accounts, Maria did not play second fiddle to her husb

Transports of Delight

Going for a spin around the Market Place - reckoned to be Blandford's first motor car. North of the town - Blandford's airfield in the 1930s. West Country locomotive Blandford Forum. 1919 transport to Blandford Camp for clerical staff. Bere Regis coaches - gone but not forgotten. Sprackling of Winterborne Stickland's double decker in the Market Place (1930s). Wilts & Dorset bus depot - no More!

'One for the Road!’

Drunkenness was an issue both within and outside the Dorset Constabulary in the mid 19th century. Dorset Constabulary Records - General Orders: 23 rd January 1862. ‘The conveyance of prisoners is one of the most important duties connected with the Constabulary. On 24 th December last a prisoner named Jeremiah Fudge was brought into Headquarters by PC Collins under the influence of liquor. The Chief Constable finds upon inquiry that he was given over to PC Marsh at Buckland Newton who took him to the Royal Oak Inn and gave him a pint of ale having been marched from Sturminster. He then brings him onto Piddletrenthide (4 miles) to PC Collins, who directs PC Marsh to go with the prisoner to the Green Dragon Inn where they were served with two pints of strong beer and PC Collins marched him on from there to Dorchester, going into a public house on his way and of course brings him in drunk. Persons in custody are to be allowed ordinary refreshment and nothing more but it appears that

Holton Heath's Tragic Explosion

Ten were killed and 23 were injured according to newspaper reports at the time. This made it one of Dorset’s worst ever industrial accidents. Holton Heath employees were blown into unrecognisable fragments necessitating a roll call of the factory’s entire staff before the identities of those killed were identified. Eleven men were originally believed to have been killed but when a roll call was held one turned up. A crimson red plume of acid vapour had towered into the sky resembling the shuddering eruption of a volcano. It was caused by the bursting of a sulphuric acid tank. Close by low buildings vanished and the shock affected houses for 20 miles with roof slates dislodged, ornaments knocked down and windows broken. The sound of the explosion could be heard at Shillingstone some 18 miles away. Closer to the factory, a hoe was wrenched from the hands of a gardener who was flung against a tree. One fortunate employee, Charles Rogers owed his life to having to leave, just before the

Bridport’s French Twin Town.

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in Normandy.

‘Stingo’, Dorset’s finest!

Stingo was a popular Dorset drink in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a barley wine yet it was not a wine. The drink was a strong ale. It was called a wine because Stingo was known for its high alcoholic content similar to wine and for its rich and complex flavours. It was most definitely a drink for sipping rather than quaffing. Barley wine was produced elsewhere in England and was also known as Ind Coope Triple A and as Tennant’s Gold Label but in Dorset it was definitely known as Stingo. Produced by Hall and Woodhouse in Blandford, it was brewed at a time when the company was managed by brothers John and Edward Woodhouse. The latter was a fine cricketer who captained Somerset County Cricket Club. Such was the fine pedigree of Stingo that it was truly a time in Dorset when you could truly claim: ‘I’m only here for the beer!’

William Chafin - Sport Mad Parson

He was the high-spirited parson initially of Lydlinch and then Chettle who was mad about sport. However, these were the uncivilised ‘ past times’ of the 1700s such as bull baiting, cockfighting and owl hunting. It was said he hunted ‘everything from the flea in the blanket to the elephant in the forest.’ He was also an author and a magistrate although writer Desmond Hawkins reckoned he regarded the law as an inconvenience to be broken or upheld according to what suited him. William Chafin was a crusty character and rural eccentric who wore old boots and greasy leather breeches even when dining with royalty. Young William’s sporting career began when he accidently shot and killed an old lady called ‘Goody’ . Somehow, the future cleric avoided court conviction but his father insisted he spent a month in a loft as a penance on just bread and water. During this confinement, he passed the time trap baiting sparrows. Only four of his eleven brothers and sisters survived which his fath

Blandford 34107

There were Shaftesbury, Blackmore Vale and Templecombe… and also Blandford Forum. All were railway locomotives from the age of steam with names from the West Country. Appropriately as a class, they were known as the ‘ West Countries’ . Because of their distinct and streamlined appearance they also became nicknamed the ‘ spam cans'. The ‘ West Countries’ were designed by Oliver Bulleid who was the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway Company. The company ran trains in the south and west of England from Cornwall to Kent before the railways were nationalised in 1947. Locomotive Blandford (34107) was built by British Railways (Southern Region) and was the 1,000 th to be constructed by the Brighton Works when completed in April 1950. In November 1952, it was renamed as Blandford Forum. Initially Blandford was allocated to Bournemouth motive power depot which resulted in its use on the Weymouth-London (Waterloo) line. Occasionally, it might pass through Blandford on the

King Charles and the Hidden Trousers

With a large bounty for his head and after the execution of his father, King Charles II was prepared to pay virtually any price for help to flee the country. The King was hiding away from his pursuers in the home of Francis Wyndham at Trent on the Dorset/Somerset border. Wyndham was given the task of finding a vessel to convey the Monarch across the English Channel to safety. Mariner Stephen Limbry from Charmouth was due to take a cargo from Charmouth to St Malo in France on 22 September 1651. After some tough negotiating, a consideration of £60 was agreed to secure a crossing for the King’s party. (This would be around £25,000 in today’s money!) Disguised as a servant to a married couple, the King arrived at the Queen’s Arms Inn at Charmouth. The building gained its name, it is said, from it housing Catherine of Aragon for a night soon after she arrived in England. So as not to be recognised because the Inn was busy, Charles remained in the stables. Francis Wyndham and his servant

Dorset’s Smallest Station

Chetnole Halt, 20 miles north of Weymouth on the Heart of Wessex Line, is Dorset’s smallest station - around 1,000 passengers use it annually. It’s also a train request halt so passengers on the station platform have to signal to the driver to stop. Opened in September 1933, it was originally constructed of wood as in the above photograph. In the early 1960s, the Government tasked Dr Richard Beeching with reducing the cost of running the country’s railways. Dorset stations such as Wimborne, Lyme Regis and Blandford closed. How did Chetnole, a village with a population of just over 300 people, keep its station? Maybe it was an administrative oversight by the British Railways Board bureaucrats at 222 Marylebone Road in London?