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Assembly Rooms

 

Built in 1771, the Blandford Assembly Rooms once played an important role in the town. They could be found on the east side of West Street near a causeway which led to Blandford Bridge.

The Assembly Rooms had a grand staircase which led to a ballroom. Each year at the time of the Blandford Horse Races there was the Blandford Races Ball. In 1829, the event covered two nights. It was said that the dancing went off with great spirit and the ‘company did not break up until past six o’ clock in the morning.’

The Dorset County Ball was frequently held there. In January 1837, upwards of 100 of the county’s great and good attended this prestigious social event. The Salisbury & Winchester Journal reported that the evening ‘passed off with much spirit and animation.’ In August 1840, Hungarian composer and piano playing genius Franz Liszt played in the Assembly Room packed with the local nobility and gentry. Tickets cost six shillings (30p) or twenty one shillings (£1.05) for a family ticket for four. In 1867, the Ohio Minstrels gave a concert ‘for the benefit of the poor’ and were supported by Robert Eyers and his Quadrile. Eyers was also the owner of the Crown Hotel and a fine musician. In 1863, he had led the Blandford Town Band when it had won the National Brass Band Championship at Crystal Palace.

The Assembly Rooms also played a sort of further education role. In 1792, the Blandford Reading Society was formed for the purposes of studying literature. Membership was not however for the ordinary working man or woman most of whom at the time could neither read nor write. Members were mainly clergymen, surgeons, lawyers or trades people. Then, in 1833 the town’s first public library was opened in the Assembly Rooms.

It is understood that the Assembly Rooms were sold around 1890 and were thereafter put to other uses. Nevertheless, the former Blandford Assembly Rooms became an historic listed building in December 1972.

(Illustration: former Blandford Assembly Rooms)


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