The Blandford Express

  Mary Lawrence was a Dorset born granny who sometimes carried a gun. A servant she was wrongly found guilty in 1813 of stealing a gold watch, valued at over two pounds,  from T Coorton Esq of Weymouth. Mary Lawrence was sentenced to be hanged in Dorchester Gaol. Yet according to her gravestone in Yass, Australia, Mary Lawrence lived to be 113 years old - leaving children to the fourth generation said to number 600. Instead of facing the gallows, Mary Lawrence was transported to Australia for a period of seven years leaving Dartford on the convict vessel Broxbournebury in February 1814. After Mary had served four years of her sentence, the news arrived in Australia that someone in Weymouth had admitted, on their death bed, to have stolen the gold watch. As a result, Mary Lawrence was granted a full pardon and awarded sixty acres of land at Yass by the Governor as compensation. She was said to be the first white woman in the ‘Outback’. Mary had married ex-convict George Davis o...

Around 120 years ago, the Blandford Gazette & Three Shires Advertiser was a local newspaper published in Dorset, Wiltshire & Somerset. Comfortable in Prison . Robert Grass of Farnham was summonsed at Blandford Police Court for poaching in the day time on land belonging to Captain Kidson of Farnham. Defendant did not appear. Gamekeeper, George Elliott said he saw Grass take two rabbits from snares which he had been watching.   There was a long list of previous convictions and it was stated that the defendant had confirmed he was very comfortable in Dorchester Prison and had gained four pounds in weight when last there. He was fined £1 or alternatively 14 days in prison. (Blandford Gazette & Three Shires Advertiser, Saturday 31 st October 1903) Monstrous Turnip . Recently, there has been pulled on Mr J Mitchell’s Shroton Farm an enormous turnip weighing 24lbs and measuring 3ft. 3ins. in circumference. (Blandford Gazette & Three Shires Advertiser, Saturday 14 th ...

  James John Farquharson of Langton Long was a man who loved to party and also  quite liked a drink. Nicknamed ‘Old Farqy’, he was the Commanding Officer of the Blandford Troop of the Dorset Yeomanry. They had been recruited in 1831 to put down the prospect of the locals rioting in the town. The Troop exercised on Blandford Race Down. ‘Old Farqy’ was a splendid sight in his uniform of a scarlet jacket with blue facings and trimmings of silver lace. There was a regulation cap with red and white plumage and trousers with red stripes at the side and a red and yellow girdle. Troop membership required the attendance at an Annual Troop Muster for six days but there was the privilege of exemption from hair powder and horse taxes. When the Blandford Troop of the Dorset Yeomanry was stood down in 1841, it became the excuse for a Grand Dinner in the town’s Crown Hotel. ‘The Dinner was served up with a sumptuous, profusion and elegance.’ Toasts drunk at the end of the meal were too numer...

Three Choughs - West Street. Red Lion - Market Place. Blue Anchor - Salisbury Street (closed around 1790!). Farquharson Arms - Pimperne. Railway Hotel - Oakfield Street. Badger - Junction of Salisbury Road & Park Road. New Inn - East Street. Rose & Crown - Dorset Street. Half Moon - White Cliff Mill Street. Coachmakers Arms - Damory Street/corner of the Close. Damory Arms Hotel - Salisbury Road. Blue Boar Inn - East Street Damory Oak - Damory Oak Street Wheatsheaf - Albert Street Wheatsheaf's Etched Window