The Blandford Express

‘Pas possible’ were the words spoken by Napoleon Bonaparte when, according to Dorset folk-lore, he stepped ashore in 1804 at Lulworth Cove. Translating as ‘it’s not possible’ this was said to be a judgment on the suitability of Lulworth as a landing-point for a French invasion of England. Author Thomas Hardy would later write a short story A Tradition of 1804 which would be loosely based on this report. Legend has it that the French emperor was recognised by a Dorset farmer’s wife, Mrs Voss who was able to speak a little French. It was a language scarcely ever learned in England in those days but her father was a pottery merchant who had many dealings with France and she had helped him with the paperwork. She was able to recognise his distinctive features from the many caricatures of Napoleon Bonaparte published at the time. It was feared that some 160,000 men and 15,000 horses would make the Channel crossing in a French fleet of flat bottomed boats. Her  husband was too close to t...

William Lawrence was a Dorset soldier who fought the French from 1808-1813 and again at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Yet, despite this, he married a French girl, Clotilde Clairet from St Germain-en-Laye some ten miles from the centre of Paris. Returning to civilian life at the age of 28, he ran an inn with his wife at Studland. Born in 1791, and from a large impoverished Briantspuddle family, he was compelled to seek out his own livelihood at an early age. Initially, he was paid just two old pennies (1p) per day to frighten birds off corn fields and then he worked as a ploughboy earning just six old pence per day. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to Henry Bush, a Studland builder. Running away from a harsh master, William Lawrence joined the British Army. William Lawrence served in the war in South America in 1805 and through the whole of the Spanish Peninsular War. He was awarded a silver medal with no less than ten clasps representing the battles in which he fought an...

  According to railway locomotive driver Andrew Thomas (above) there was a major accident near miss on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (‘S & D’ ) that could have changed the course of European history. It occurred at Wellow station, some six miles south of Bath, and involved the future twice French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau. It is believed this incident occurred in 1884 when the Frenchman is known to have visited England. Clemenceau is generally regarded as the statesman who prevented the collapse of the French military forces towards the end of World War I. Such was his tenacity, that he gained the nicknames ‘Le Tigre’ (Tiger) and ‘Le Pere la Victoire’ (Father of Victor y). The French politician was a guest of Lord Wolverton who had been the Liberal MP for Shaftesbury before succeeding his father in the House of Lords. Wolverton lived at Iwerne Minster and had already entertained Prime Minister William Gladstone on his estate. Lord Wolverton decide...

Onion Johnnies were once a familiar sight along the highways and byways of Dorset. They were French farm labourers and farmers who travelled on bicycles selling the distinctive pink and flavoursome Breton onion. These were sold door to door. The history of the Onion Johnny dates back to 1828. Breton farmer Henri Ollivier, put off by the prospect of a long road journey to Paris, decided to make the much quicker journey across the English Channel to Plymouth to sell his onions. Word spread of his success and others followed. Every July, farm labourers and farmers took their pink onions and sailed to England. For several generations, the county of Dorset experienced a mini invasion of French men usually wearing berets and Breton pullovers  riding bikes laden with onions. This became the stereotypical image of a Frenchman in England. Tragedy struck in 1905 when 70 Onion Johnnies were drowned when the London & South Western Railway’s steamer SS Hilda   sank off the French coast...

When a Member of Parliament disappeared in December 1881 off the coast at Eype’s Mouth, near Bridport, it made the national news. What was unusual was that Walter Powell MP was the sole occupant of a balloon. It was named ‘Saladin’ and filled with coal gas. Rumour has it that so much coal gas was needed that the people of Bath had to do without. Walter Powell had taken off from Bath to carry out research for the Meteorological Society accompanied by friends Arthur Agg-Gardner and Captain James Templar. They had flown over Glastonbury, Crewkerne and Beaminster. Approaching  Bridport, at around 35mph, they realised they were heading in a direction that would take them out to sea. Anxiously hearing the roar of the sea, Templar opened a valve to allow gas to escape to make a hurried emergency descent. They landed heavily and Powell’s two passengers fell out with Arthur Agg-Gardner  breaking his leg. The Parliamentarian remained in the basket and the balloon much lighter took off a...

  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...

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in Normandy.

Many Dorset towns and villages are twinned with places which can be found in the La Manche Department of Normandy. Such links include: Bridport is twinned with St-Vaast-la-Hougue  (population 1828 – 2015). In 2019, the latter gained an award as the prettiest village in France. A must place to visit in St-Vaast-la-Hougue is the fine quality grocery store, La Maison Gosselin famous across France which has successfully traded there for more than 130 years. Lyme Regis is twinned with Barfleur (population 564 – 2018). Both now are popular seaside resorts but in 1066 it was the port where William the Conqueror embarked before the Norman invasion of England. In 1944, its German commander evacuated Barfleur, prior to any battle with the Allies, to avoid it being damaged because he liked the small port so much. Sturminster Marshall is twinned with Sainte-Mere-Eglise (population 3074 – 2018). In June 1944, American parachutist, John Steele was caught on the tower of the town church...

  Pilot Jim Wallwork and his co-pilot Johnnie Ainsworth were the first Allied troops to land in Normandy as a part of the June 1944 D-Day Landings. They had flown their Horsa glider, named Lady Irene across the English Channel from Tarrant Rushton Airfield. Between 1943 and 1947, Tarrant Rushton was a Royal Air Force airfield and it played an important role in the war effort. It was used for glider operations and also for secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE) exercises such as weapon drops to the French Resistance. Wallwork and Ainsworth’s glider had taken off around 11.00pm on 5 th June 1944 towed by a Halifax aircraft known as a ‘tug’ . Behind them were 30 fighting men with blackened faces and just a little over an hour later, they landed in France. Their glider landed heavily hitting the ground at 95mph and ploughed through barbed wire before the cockpit collapsed. They were both catapulted through the windscreen of their glider. Although stunned, this made them the...