The Blandford Express

Despite being only ten  years old, Charlie King of Orchard Street, Blandford was much travelled. With his passion for trains, he had visited  many destinations by rail including Plymouth, Bournemouth, Dover, Templecombe, London, Bath and Weymouth.  Only problem was that he made these journeys on his own and without a ticket. In total, it was reckoned Charlie made as many as sixteen such rail trips without paying his fare. When asked for his rail ticket he would admit he had none and would explain that his mother had given it to the train guard at Blandford. Whichever was his destination he would say he was travelling to meet his uncle. He claimed he was encouraged by other children at his school to go on his railway adventures. Because of his exploits, Charlie King became particularly well known to Sergeant Underwood of the Blandford Police. Matters came to a head when in December 1877 he had to appear before Blandford Magistrates, the Viscount Portman and James John Farq...

Tom Cox, the son of a Blandford gentleman, was known as the ‘ handsome highwayman. ’ With a colourful life, his story had all the ingredients for a Hollywood adventure film. When his father died he was left some money which he soon squandered. So to fund his high living lifestyle, he took up highway robbery. Near Shepton Mallet, he met Killigrew who was the court jester to King Charles II. Killigrew had been given licence by the King to mock and revile even the most prominent in the land without penalty. Nevertheless, Tom ordered Killigrew to ‘ stand and deliver. ’ ‘ You must be joking’ was the jester’s reply to which Tom retorted: ‘Nay, I am in earnest for though you live by jesting, I cannot. So deliver your money before a brace of balls makes the sun shine through your body!’ Three times in Gloucester, Winchester and Worcester, Tom Cox was tried for highway robbery. Thanks to his charm and silver tongue, he was acquitted. A moneyed lady in Worcester was so besotted that she ...

When Thomas Rose and his family arrived in New South Wales, Australia, in January 1793 with their four children, they were the first free and independent British settlers in the new colony. They had arrived from England on the sailing vessel, Bellona . Thomas Rose was born in Blandford in 1754 and baptized later that year in Sturminster Newton. In 1779, he had married Jane Topp also in Sturminster Newton. According to the Sydney Gazette , she would later become the Australian colony’s first great grandmother. Australian Governor, Arthur Phillip had made repeated requests to London for intelligent and experienced farmers. Rose fitted this description and it was noted that he was ‘ the most respectable of these people and apparently the best calculated for a bona fide settler.’ Previously, Britain had sent out convicts, accompanied by soldiers. The First Fleet brought out 730 convicts in eleven vessels arriving in January 1788. The Rose family eventually put down their roots in th...

‘Here comes old Father Christmas Bringing Christmas cheer The juicy beef and pudding The brown and foaming beer. Quoth he – “The beer is famous, Better I cannot find”; It’s warms the aching bosom, It cheers the laden mind. JOHN LEWIS MARSH , he brewed it, I like it more and more, Then go to his Town Brewery, To buy your Christmas Store.’   John Lewis Marsh, Christmas 1885. John Lewis Marsh’s beer was brewed in his Bryanston Street Brewery just behind the King’s Arms public house in Blandford. John had an eye for publicity promoting his brews sometimes adopting a Dorset dialect. ‘When I be tired, vaint or dry Then MARSH’S ALES’s the drink vor I Do gee me strength to work apace And makes me laugh all awver me face!’ Some of his claims were a little excessive and no doubt made ‘ tongue in cheek.’ He claimed his beers had health-giving benefits and even reckoned by regular consumption you could live for ever! Sadly as John Lewis is no longer with us...

In January 1927, the Western Gazette reported the death of Charles Hunt the last surviving member of Blandford’s award winning town band. He was one of four Hunt family members in the band. In 1863, they had secured the prestigious National Brass Band Championship at the Crystal Palace against some of the country’s best bands. It was evident the Blandford Band was well placed because they had won a major contest in Exeter two years earlier. While in 1862, they had been placed fourth in the National Championship.  First prize in 1863 was £30 together with a fine cup worked in aluminium gold. There was also a contra-bass and ‘ various other apparatus’ which were presented to Blandford’s bandmaster. Bandmaster was owner of the Crown Hotel, Wimborne born Robert Eyers. He was a talented musician. In days gone-by he had driven a horse drawn coach between Wimborne and Blandford. Many a time the passengers took the reins so he could cheer them on their way with his bugle. He had many con...

  Three local men believed they had sound theories to identify Jack the Ripper. This was the name given to the murderer who savagely killed five women in London’s impoverished Whitechapel district in 1888. The three men with these views were Henry Richard Farquharson, Frederick George Abberline and Sydney Godolphin Osborne. Henry Richard Farquharson who has been unkindly nicknamed ‘ loose-lipped Farqie’ was the controversial and outspoken Member of Parliament for West Dorset from 1885 to 1895. He lived at Eastbury House in Tarrant Gunville. Apparently, Farquharson claimed that the murderer was the son of a surgeon who had committed suicide. Fearing libel, he did not identify him specifically but his description pointed to Wimborne-born, Montague Druitt. In February 1892, the Western Mail later confirmed that the West Dorset MP’s theory was that ‘ the author of the outrages killed himself. ’ Druitt had committed suicide in November 1888 and his body had been recovered from the Ri...

First person to lose his life in Antarctica came from Blandford Forum. George Vince was born in the town in September 1880 and was the son of a local fishmonger. He had joined the Royal Navy in October 1895 as a Boy Second Class.  When serving in Cape Town, South Africa, George Vince was transferred to the British National Antarctic Expedition’s vessel, the Discovery. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition sought to explore the undiscovered frozen continent of Antarctica. The expedition’s aim was to work in the Ross Sea sector and in February 1902 the vessel entered McMurdo Sound.  George Vince was a member of an excursion party which in March 1902 became caught in a blizzard. They had managed to pitch their tents but were unable to prepare any hot food. As frost bite started to set in, and according to their reckoning they were close to the Discovery, they set off for the ship. Believing they were heading towards the vessel, they were in fact walking towards a c...

  There were five Withrington brothers, all born in Blandford, and they were all hung at the gallows for their crimes. It is known because of his notoriety that brother Jack was hung at the infamous Tyburn, near Marble Arch in London. His brothers met their fates in different parts of the country but no records remain as to where these hangings occurred. Jack Withrington was the youngest brother and he trained initially to be a tanner. However, he left his apprenticeship in Shaftesbury to become a soldier. He joined the Earl of Oxford’s Horse Regiment where he gained quite a reputation. This was as a result of being involved in two fights in which it was said he behaved with great valour. The first was with a man famous for his fighting in which Jack showed great skill and bravery. The second fight was with a man of great wealth, who was generally regarded to be a coward, when Jack behaved with much dignity. Unfortunately, having achieved minor celebrity status Jack became, as ...

When the Venerable Archdeacon Charles James Hoare was looking for a subject for his sermon in Blandford on the 13 th August 1820 his choice was obvious. Everyone was talking about the execution by hanging of the two Blandford brothers, John and Moses Blanchard. They had been found guilty of highway robbery. The day before the delivery of the clergyman’s sermon both had been hung ‘ at the new drop’ at Dorchester Jail. This was after their trials at Dorchester Assizes. Using a slang term, the two highwaymen were ‘ stabbed by the Bridport Dagger’ . The hangman would have used rope made in Bridport which was one the country’s biggest rope making centres. It is hard to believe but for many years public executions were a popular form of entertainment. Many Dorchester folk turned out to witness the ’Hang Fairs’ held just below the Jail.  By daybreak, the best places would be taken. Time spent waiting for the executions would be spent dancing and drinking. Executions would be delayed ...

  He has his own dedicated memorial plaque and Corner in Blandford but is now almost a forgotten man. His name is Henry Durden and he was the founder of the town’s first museum. Henry Durden was born in 1807 and in 1859 was listed as a grocer and seller of wines and spirits. The Durdens were a respected Blandford family and they played an active part in the town’s life. There is a Durden listed in a 1791 trade directory as a Blandford grocer. Henry’s father, John was Mayor in 1837. Henry held this role on three occasions while his son, another John, was Mayor in 1893. In his shop, he opened a highly regarded museum. On display were 60 urns which were over 2,000 years old and all found within eight miles of Blandford. Most exhibits in the museum were from Dorset including prehistoric items from Hod Hill and various local barrows. There were also flint arrowheads, bracelets and coins including a ten shillings piece of Elizabeth I’s reign. So respected were his acquisitions that i...

  Politics can stir powerfully strong emotions yet nothing since in Blandford has matched the town’s riots of 1831. Back then only those with property could vote so most ordinary men and women were disenfranchised. In North Dorset discontent was heightened by low wages and widespread unemployment among the agricultural labouring poor. Most of the Dorset landowners were against reform although locally Mr Portman at Bryanston was more sympathetic. Matters rose to a head in October 1831 when following the suicide of the sitting MP, John Calcroft a Dorset by-election was called. Candidate Willian Ponsonby was in favour of reform to which the second candidate, Lord Ashley was opposed. With strong feelings and vested interests on both sides, the battle lines were drawn up. Richard Bleathman, George Long, William Kent and Thomas Jackson were among a crowd of around 100 waiting in the Market Place for the arrival of the mail coach from Dorchester. This would bring news of the by-electi...

  Politics can stir powerful feelings and nothing since, not even Brexit, has quite matched the raw emotion and riots in Blandford after the declaration of the 1831 Dorset by-election result. Blandford born George Long, aged 23 and unmarried, was judged to be the rioter leader. There were two candidates in the by-election, the Lord Ashley and William Ponsonby. George Long was a supporter of the latter. At the time the parliamentary system was quite corrupt. Lord Ashley’s expenses show he paid for accommodation and drinks in twelve Dorchester public houses in addition to the King’s Arms where he was staying. No doubt William Ponsonby offered similar hospitality to his supporters. Entitlement to vote was mainly limited to the landed gentry and the clergy. While, for example, Shaftesbury had two MPs the large city of Birmingham had none. Ponsonby wanted parliamentary reform while Ashley’s desire was to preserve the status quo. George Long was among a crowd of about one hundred who...

  On Thursday 22 March 1832 in a Dorchester courtroom, the jury found George Long guilty. He had been indicted of having both riotously assembled and of beginning to demolish the property of lawyer George Moore. Stephen Gaselee was the judge and he passed sentence of death on Long leaving him with no hope of mercy. Author Charles Dickens allegedly caricatured Judge Gaselee as having ‘ a broad pink face surrounded by a big and very comical wig .’ Dickens also wrote ‘ his temper borders on the irritable and brooks no contradiction. George Long was sentenced to be hanged in Dorchester Jail on 31 st March 1832. In Blandford and surrounding villages there was strong opposition to the severity of the penalty and a petition for clemency was organised which many signed. No doubt fearful of further rioting, and despite initial reluctance, Gaselee commuted the sentence to transportation for life. George Long was transferred from Dorchester Jail to the Captivity, a rusting prison hulk be...