The Blandford Express

From the mid-18th century onwards, many Dorset towns and villages set up sparrow clubs. These were not, however gatherings of bird watchers and nature lovers. Their sole purpose was to destroy as many sparrows as possible because it was thought these birds devoured much of the grain being grown. The sparrow was looked upon as an avian rat and a pest. Sparrows were considered such a threat to the harvest that to kill one was almost considered to be a civic duty. They would also burrow into the roofs of farm buildings made of thatch with the consequence the roofs would leak. For many years sparrow  pie was a traditional working class dish and was considered to be a food of the poor. Because the bird is so small at least a dozen would be required for even a family sized pie. In her book The Experienced English Housekeeper  published in 1769, Elizabeth Raffald provided a recipe for sparrow dumplings. In 1931, the College of Pestology even offered  a prize for the best sparrow...

Elm Tree Inn, Langton Herring in South Dorset is a 400-year-old hostelry with a colourfully checkered history - that includes smugglers, bouncing bombs, espionage and knicker bunting. Originally leased by the Prince of Wales, it became a known haunt for wreckers and smugglers. Wreckers plundered cargo from shipwrecks. The dangerous shingle banks and deep waters off nearby Chesil Bank led to many local shipwrecks. Folklore has it that wreckers would tie a lantern to a cow’s tail and the gentle up and down motion would simulate that of a ship at anchor. Passing captains would mistake the false light for a safe harbour. Disaster would follow. A fisherman who had cheated others on the size of his catch was chased through the village in 1780 and was hung from a beam at the Elm Tree Inn. In 1834, William Whittle was sentenced to death for smuggling and for assaulting a Revenue Official. Following a petition for clemency, signed by more than 600, he was transported to Australia. The village’s...

William Whittle was a seaman with a lucrative sideline. He was also a smuggler of foreign spirits.  The Dorset coastal village of Langton Herrimg was his place of birth and he was born there in 1810 on New Year’s Eve. His secondary trade of smuggling seems to have been a family affair as relative Thomas Whittle, a Langton Herring shoemaker, had been sent to prison for smuggling three years earlier. In 1834, William Whittle was charged with assaulting a Customs Officer at Abbotsbury and of being the leader of a smuggling gang. It was reported that a gang of around 60 men were helping with the landing of the liquor. Smuggling of wines, spirits and luxury goods from France was the local industry and the men of Abbotsbury and Langton Herring seem to have been particularly busy. At Dorchester Assizes in March 1835, William Whittle was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in Dorchester Gaol. This prompted a petition for clemency signed by William Devenish, Thomas Margrie - Secretary t...

One of Dorset’s first railways was built on the Isle of Portland. Opening in 1826, it was not designed to carry passengers but to carry Portland stone. It was a response to a growing demand for the stone and to improve transportation between the quarries and the shipment point at Castletown Pier. Here stone was loaded onto ships. The railway cost £5,000 to build which was financed by the issue by the Portland Railway Company of a hundred fifty pound shares. Income was generated by the quarry operators who used it. The company had been formed two years earlier by local residents and people involved in the stone trade. The railway had no power other than gravity. The weight of the loaded wagon descending pulled by cable the empty wagon back up the slope. Bizarrely, the track had just three rails on stone sleepers with the middle rail shared by both wagons. However, at the mid-point there were separate tracks to enable the two wagons to cross over. At the top of the slope there was a brak...