The Blandford Express

Dorset clergyman, Henry Moule’s claim to fame was the invention of the earth closet toilet. Born in 1801, he was the sixth son of twelve children of a solicitor, went to Cambridge University and was appointed Rector of Fordington in 1829 -  now part of Dorchester. In 1860, he patented his invention. At the time, Fordington had an inadequate water supply from polluted shallow wells. All the closets in the village were cesspits or privies and as a consequence fever was hardly ever absent. Conditions were ripe for the spread of cholera and he became convinced that its spread was caused by appalling sanitation. Cholera outbreaks in Fordington in 1849 & 1854 had a devastating effect on the clergyman. The village suffered in particular from crowded dwellings, filthy courtyards and a poverty stricken population. When administering to a dying man, Moule witnessed sewage bubbling up through the cottage’s floor. Within a space of no more than five acres some 1,100 people were congregat...

  Dorset clergyman, John White (1575-1648) did as much as any person to set up the colony of  Massachusetts leading eventually to the establishment of the United States of America. He was Rector of Holy Trinity and St Peter’s Churches in Dorchester, England from 1606-1648. For organising and encouraging emigration to the New World, John White has been described as the Founder of Massachusetts. Yet he never visited the new colony. He was a puritan at a time when there was much religious persecution in England. His first colonial project, the Dorchester Company failed but his second involving the forming of the New England Company was more successful. In March 1830, the Mary  and John  set sail from Plymouth for the New World with 140 passengers on board. Upon landing after a ten week crossing the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts was founded. Many were from Dorset, Devon and Somerset. Weeks later other ships followed and the Great Migration began. John White was...

Back in the 1600s, attendance at church on Sundays was compulsory, particularly in Dorchester.  Failure to do so could lead to a fine of one shilling (5p) - at a time when the average weekly wage was around six shillings (30p). Costs could also be added to the fine. Legislation on church attendance had been introduced back in 1558. Going to church was not only required on the Sabbath but also on all Holy Days. Both constables and church officers regularly called into the homes of non-attendees. Excuses were varied and those received  in Dorchester included: John Facy and his wife said they were too busy baking to go. While a man who missed an afternoon service claimed that his constitution could not cope with three sermons in a day. Despite this he was still fit enough to walk two miles to fetch a horse. Other excuses made included coming home from Blandford and making a deal at Fordington. Barber-surgeon Gabriel Butler was allowed one absence by pleading he was attending a pa...

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...

While Florence Nightingale may be regarded as the pioneer of modern nursing a now almost forgotten Dorset cleric played a not insignificant role. Reverend Sydney Godolphin Osborne from Durweston travelled out to Turkey, at his own expense, to witness the appalling conditions in a British military hospital in Scutari, Constantinople. This was during the Crimean War (1853-56) when the British, French & Turks were fighting the Russians. He found soldiers wounded and dying in horrifying conditions. There were rats and lice in the hospital which was located close to a cesspit. He observed men lying in bed with dysentery or with open sores who had not had a change in linen for months. It is reckoned for every British soldier who lost his life in battle there were seven who died due to disease. He wrote: ‘I sought the truth and took my own way to arrive at it. Whether that truth would please or displease the public or the Government was to me a matter of indifference.’ Osborne spe...

John West is an almost completely forgotten cleric who was the Rector of Chettle from 1828 to 1845. In fact, he is far better known in Canada for his pioneering missionary work than he is remembered in his home country. In the Canadian Calendar of Holy Persons, 31 December each year is John West Commemoration Day. Yet in the 1830s, he helped many poverty trapped families from the Blandford villages secure a far better life in New South Wales, Australia. Families helped included agricultural labourer, George Butt and his wife, Charlotte and their six children from Winterborne Stickland. Emigrating with them were his brother, Stephen and his wife, Martha from the same village. There were also Samuel and Ann Arnold from Child Okeford and their baby daughter, Sarah Ann. Samuel was a wheelwright by trade and became a successful businessman. His inn which he founded, the Plough & Harrow just outside Sydney is still open for business today. John West had worked with the Australian landown...