The Blandford Express

Bell ringer, Edward Hart paid the ultimate price in September 1884 when he failed to release his bell rope in the belfry of  St Nicholas Church, Winterborne Kingston (featured). Hart was a 34 years-old sawyer from Sturminster Marshall and was taking part in a peal with other ringers to celebrate a local wedding. The unfortunate man got entangled in his rope and was pulled up to an overhead beam. There, he suffered a severe blow to his head and then he fell heavily to the floor. He was never to speak again. Medical assistance was obtained immediately from a Bere Regis doctor but the unlucky woodworker died just four days later. As it was reckoned the occurrence was purely accidental, an Inquest was considered by the Coroner to be unnecessary. To prevent bell ringers flying into the air, foot straps (below) were invented. However, it seems this health and safety measure never really caught on. Reverend William Russell Ware Mortimer was struck by a 10 cwt swinging bell in July 1957. I...

When 149 Dorset adults and children joined the vessel, the Emigrant at Plymouth on the 5 th March 1849 they were joining a vessel that was to become known as the ‘ Ship of Death’ . More than half were from the villages of Stourpaine & Durweston, about 30 were from Child Okeford and the remainder came from different villages around Blandford.  Durweston clergyman, Sydney Godolphin Osborne saw them all embark on board the 754 ton three-mast barque, whose master was William Henry Kemp. Also on board were the captain’s wife, Sarah and three-year old daughter, Fanny. The voyage had been organised by the Blandford Colonisation Society who had held its first meeting in January earlier that year. It could be said, however, that the real purpose of the Society was to export the problem of the district’s poor to the Antipodes. Living conditions at the time for ordinary folk were poor and often insanitary with the situation in the village of Stourpaine being particularly bad. For those ...

A wedding, due to take place in Southampton, had to be cancelled because the bridegroom, Uriah Jones (29) was shot when visiting his fiancé in Sixpenny Handley a few days earlier. As he was kissing his intended Beatrice Sheen (23) ‘goodnight’, sixty-eight shotgun pellets crashed through a window into Uriah Jones’s neck killing him. Fortunately, Miss Sheen was only slightly injured. Suspicion fell on Percy Brownsea, also of Sixpenny Handley, who had enjoyed a previous relationship with Miss Sheen.. He had claimed she had severed this relationship because Uriah Jones, known as Hughie, had money, a house and a lorry. Brownsea had tried his hardest to get her to reconsider her decision. Uriah Jones was a partner with his brother and father in a Southampton sand and gravel business. Brownsea, a woodman and ex-serviceman, was taken into custody by the Dorset Police. He admitted to firing the gun saying he was drunk at the time and he only meant to frighten them. He remembered that Miss Sheen...

  Twenty-year-old Scottish seaman, Robert Banks (right) from Greenock arrived at Blandford Station in December 1914. The young recruit slowly made his way up the muddy unmade track connecting the town with the newly opened Blandford Naval Camp. Upon the outbreak of World War I, he had volunteered with thousands of others to join the Royal Navy. This meant leaving his marine engineering job in Glasgow’s River Clyde shipyards. Robert Banks was joining the Anson Battalion of the newly formed Royal Naval Division. Another recruit was his long standing pal, Henry Short (left) who was a trumpeter.  As a break from training, the Mayor of Lyme Regis, Alban Woodruffe invited the Battalion to spend time at the seaside in early February 1915. Local resident, Mrs Emmett invited Robert to stay with her. Before leaving Lyme Regis, the Mayor gave the Battalion this message: ‘We hope you will take away pleasant memories of your short visit here and we wish you God-speed and all good luck.’ ...

What links Blandford Camp, motor racing and chocolate? The answer sadly is Joseph Gibson Fry who lost his life on the 29 th July 1950 in a crash in the British Army camp. ‘ Joe ’ Fry was a member of the Fry chocolate family. The company, J S Fry & Sons had merged with Cadburys in 1919. Joe lost his life after suffering injuries while practising for a hill climb event when he lost control and crashed at speed. A bystander said: ‘Fry’s car approached a bend known as Cuckoo Corner at about 90mph. He appeared to drift towards the outside of the course, hit the right hand grass bank and somersaulted.’ He was driving his Freikaiserwagen racing car at the time of the accident. This name had a distinctly German twist and was a tongue in cheek combination of the surnames of Fry and Caesar. Dick Caesar was one of its designers. The Freikaiserwagen was an extremely powerful little sprint and hill climbing machine but was difficult to drive. It is reckoned it set the standard for the ma...

When a  Baptist Minister predicted Weymouth would be destroyed by a mammoth tidal wave it caused quite a stir. The South London clergyman prophesied that this massive tsunami would arrive at exactly 3.53pm on Tuesday 29th May 1928. As this was a bank holiday weekend, Weymouth would be packed with people. The prediction received widespread coverage in the local and national press. Panic spread and a local resident announced he had placed his canoe on the roof of his house to await the tsunami’s arrival. The Mayor of Weymouth reckoned he would be alright because he would be entertaining visitors on a boat in Portland Harbour. As they were from Holland he claimed they would be used to flooding. Weymouth had been hit by quite large waves in the past. A Weymouth magistrate tried to allay fears by claiming the giant wave would instead hit Weymouth, Massachusetts in the USA. While enterprising restaurant owners were adverting Tidal Wave Teas. A bright red sunset the night before was said ...

  Lassie and Bruce were two canine heroes from the First World War. Their touching but sad story concerns one of the greatest of ever local maritime tragedies. Lassie was a rough-haired collie who saved the life of Scottish seaman, John Cowan. The Able Seaman had come ashore with a boatload of survivors at Lyme Regis from the Royal Navy’s HMS Formidable. This 16,000 ton but obsolete battleship had been torpedoed in the English Channel by German submarine U24 during the early hours of New Year’s Day 1915. It had sunk some 30 miles off Portland Bill. As the weather was bad, it was wrongly assumed a submarine attack was unlikely. HMS Formidable had been engaged in gun practice. Given up for dead, John was laid out with six others on the beer cellar floor of the Pilot Boat Inn which publican, Tom Atkins had agreed could become a makeshift mortuary. As all the Scot was wearing were a pair of thin pants and a vest, it was reasonably assumed he had not survived his 22 hour experience. Oth...

Gussage St Michael is a quiet North Dorset village with a population of few more than a couple of hundred. Yet for several months in 1913, it made headlines across the world as far away as Australia and New Zealand. William Walter Burton, a rabbit catcher, was found guilty of murdering his lover, 24 year-old Winifred Mitchell and had buried her in a lonely wood. Winifred Mary Mitchell was 5ft 5 ins tall, dark haired and was employed as a cook. She was known as ‘ Winnie ’ and ‘cookie’ . Winnie wore false teeth that had been given to her by a former employer. On the 9 th August 1913, South Australia’s Adelaide Advertiser reported. ‘ In the annals of crime, there have been few murders so carefully planned and so ingeniously carried out and it will be remembered that the judge in passing sentence of death intimated that Burton was beyond human forgiveness.’ William Burton walked alone to the scaffold and was hanged at Dorchester Prison on the morning of Tuesday 24 th June 1913....

  Around 100 years ago, there was an influenza outbreak in Blandford and the surrounding villages which had similarities with the corona virus pandemic. Just as Boris Johnson and Prince Charles have been viral victims so were Prime Minister David Lloyd-George and King George V in 1918. Called ‘ Spanish Flu’ , there is little on record showing how the Blandford district was affected. This was because of widespread press censorship. At the end of World War I, newspapers were not allowed to publish stories that might have undermined national morale. However, at Blandford Camp there were so many ‘ Spanish Flu’ deaths that the authorities were unable to suppress this story. Today, the camp is associated with the British Army yet in 1918 it was a massive Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force base. Blandford Camp’s story broke in October 1918, when it was suggested that sick recruits had to lie on dirty straw mats and there were insufficient doctors and nurses. Despite this, new recruit...