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...

Powerstock Station’s great train robbery took place on April 14th 1858 at a time when the station master was away at Sunday morning church. Powerstock Station was on the railway branch line which connected Bridport with Maiden Newton and it served both the  villages of Powerstock and Nettlecombe. The station consisted of a single platform, a siding and a bungalow style building.   This meant that it could be used as a dwelling if the station became unviable. The station had opened in 1857 and until around 1862 was known as Poorstock. The  Bridport News  of Saturday 24 April 1858 reported that the plunderers effected their entrance by breaking a window. Fortunately there was little cash to be found in Powerstock Station at the time and the burglars escaped only with coppers to the amount of one shilling (5p) or just one shilling and sixpence (7.5p). No clue was found as to the identity of the depredators so the case of the Great Powerstock Station Robbery still remain...

  West Bay, or Bridport Harbour as it was once called, is not now somewhere normally associated with shipbuilding. Yet, around two centuries ago it was an important shipbuilding centre with around 350 vessels being built there. Most of the workers were from Bridport while others came from Eype and Burton Bradstock. The clipper, Speedy  was the largest vessel ever built there. Some 200 feet in length, it took several attempts in 1853 to launch her. She sat firmly aground for two weeks, awaiting a higher tide to float her. The vessel was featured in a December 1853 edition of the Illustrated London News. It was said it was ‘very lofty between decks’ and the passenger cabins were ‘of the highest order.’ Like the Cutty Sark , which can still be viewed at Greenwich, the Speedy was constructed for the Australia run. She was constructed of teak and English oak and first arrived in Sydney on 22nd March 1854. This passage took 83 days with the Equator being crossed on the 20th day. Bui...

West Bay is known for ice creams, fish & chips and holidays. Yet at one time Bridport Harbour, as it was then called, was famous for building ships. It was one of the busiest shipyards in the country. Bridport Harbour Shipyard was initially established by Nicholas Bools who had learnt his trade in a naval dockyard. He had moved from building vessels on the beach at Burton Bradstock to the west side of Bridport Harbour where slipways were built. First ship to be constructed in Bridport was the Northern Star in 1769 - a sloop of 52 tons. Timber was supplied locally and came from Marshwood Vale. During the Napoleonic War it is reckoned that 16 vessels were launched in the Harbour. It would have been a noisy, busy but hazardous place to work. In 1849 master shipwright, John Cox acquired the lease of the shipyard for £1,200 and he was joined by his son, Elias. They began building larger and larger vessels including the prestigious Speedy that was bigger than the Cutty Sark which is now ...

Beaminster Tunnel opened on 29th June 1832. It is reckoned to be the only pre-railway road tunnel in the country still in use. The tunnel was built to take the road under Horn Hill thus avoiding a 1 in 6 gradient which was particularly difficult for horse-drawn traffic. Teams of horses were required to pull the wagons and carts up and over the hill. Engineer Michael Lane on this project also worked with the Brunels on the Thames Tunnel linking Rotherhithe with Wapping. Lane rose from foreman bricklayer to become one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s most trusted assistants because of the quality of his work. He almost lost his life when the Thames Tunnel flooded. Michael Lane later became Chief Engineer on the Great Western Railway. The tunnel was opened with much ceremony with the day being regarded in Beaminster, according to the Dorset County Chronicle,  as something of a holiday. Promoter of the project was local solicitor, Giles Russell who raised £13,000 by public subscription. Ce...

Beaminster Tunnel is said to be the oldest pre-railway road tunnel still in use in Britain. It opened with great ceremony on 29th June 1832. Yet not too far away there was another even earlier tunnel. This opened in January 1832 with equally resplendent ceremony. This was Charmouth Tunnel built by the Bridport Turnpike Trust through Thistle Hill which eased the climb over the ridge on the road from Charmouth to Axminster. On the centenary of Charmouth Tunnel’s opening, the Western Gazette of January 8th 1932 reproduced  a 100 years-old report from the  Hants Advertiser: ‘The opening of the tunnel between Charmouth and Axminster took place on Monday last. It was arranged that His Majesty’s royal mail should first traverse the tunnel. About one o’clock both coaches were seen approaching the tunnel in opposite directions the one from London was first to pass through, and was almost instantly succeeded by the other from Exeter, amidst the loud cheers and congratulations of a delig...

  Henry, the diminutive vacuum cleaner with eyes and a cheeky grin was conceived in Beaminster. Today, Henry is the only mass-produced consumer vacuum cleaner still produced in Britain. Numatic, the company that produces Henry was founded in Crewkerne in 1969 with just six employees. In 1971 the business moved to a Yeovil watermill and with  continued growth transferred to Broadwindsor Road,, Beaminster in 1974. During a trade show in Portugal in the 1970s, business owner Chris Duncan chalked a a wide grin under the hose outlet of the latest model together with a pair of eyes above. The model was then named, Henry. This caused such an amused reaction among onlookers that  Chris Duncan realised he had stumbled upon a potentially winning concept. The Henry model was then introduced commercially in 1981. To meet the growing customer demand, the company had to move production to Chard, Somerset in 1990. Henry also has sibling model variants named Hetty, Harry and James. There...

Bridport’s bread riots were unusual for their times because they featured three female rioters. They were  Elizabeth Phillips (25), Susan Saunders (22) and Hannah Powell (21) and all three were twine spinners. Twine spinning was part of the rope making process. The riots took place on 23rd April 1816 when hundreds of Bridport people came onto the streets to protest against the high price of bread. In the previous twelve months wheat prices had doubled with the consequential effects on bread prices. This was caused by an extremely poor harvest. Wages were particularly low in Dorset and many men returning from the Napoleonic Wars could not find employment. The weather that year was bad such that the year became known as ‘eighteen hundred and freeze to death!’ Bakers were a particular target because they had a reputation for corruption. As it was usually the women who bought bread they probably knew which bakers overcharged and provided short measure. Some of the Bridport bakers had t...

  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...

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...

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in Normandy.

  With a large bounty for his head and after the execution of his father, King Charles II was prepared to pay virtually any price for help to flee the country. The King was hiding away from his pursuers in the home of Francis Wyndham  at Trent on the Dorset/Somerset border. Wyndham was given the task of finding a vessel to convey the Monarch across the English Channel to safety. Mariner Stephen Limbry from Charmouth was due to take a cargo from Charmouth to St Malo in France on 22 September 1651. After some tough negotiating, a consideration of £60 was agreed to secure a crossing for the King’s party. (This would be around £25,000 in today’s money!) Disguised as a servant to a married couple, the King arrived at the Queen’s Arms Inn at Charmouth. The building gained its name, it is said, from it housing Catherine of Aragon for a night soon after she arrived in England. So as not to be recognised because the Inn was busy, Charles remained in the stables. Francis Wyndham and his...

In 1840, 13 year-old Alfred Chilcott of Burton Bradstock was signed up to a seven year rope making apprenticeship with Ephraim Matthams from Bridport. He was to be paid three shillings a week (15p) during the first year rising to seven shilling (35p) in the final year. His contract required him, during the term of his apprenticeship, not to: 1) Marry or commit fornication. 2) Play at cards or dice tables. 3) Haunt taverns or playhouses. 4) Absent himself from his master’s services unlawfully day or night. Young Alfred Chilcott, in agreeing to sign the contract, agreed to forfeit also any right to follow the trade of a miller or baker. In 1851, he was to marry blacksmith’s daughter Maria Knight in Burton Bradstock. A decade later, with a young family, they had moved to Portsea Island, Portsmouth. No doubt he was attracted by better pay making ropes for the Royal Navy. Around 1870, Alfred moved to the growing commercial port of Southampton living in the St Mary district. Burton Bradstock...

More than 100 years ago, women workers in Gundry’s rope factory in Bridport ‘downed tools’ and went on strike. In February 1912, this dispute broke out when the employer wanted to change pay rates which would have resulted in some women being paid less. After marching around the town singing songs, they assembled outside the factory gates to dissuade others from entering the works. Factory manager Mr Macdonald suggested that West Dorset’s Conservative MP Colonel Robert Williams should be appointed as an arbitrator to resolve the dispute. The women turned this proposal down believing this appointment would favour the employer too much. The strike continued and nine pounds thirteen shillings and eight pence (£9.68) was donated by the public and distributed among the strikers. (This sum would be worth around £1,300 today.) Ada Newton, an officer in the National Federation of Women Workers, arrived in Bridport from London and convened a meeting of strikers in the Hope & Anchor pub in B...

It used to be possible to travel from Lyme Regis to London (Waterloo) directly by train. True, it would probably have meant sitting in a single Lyme Regis carriage which had to be attached to a London bound train at Axminster. The six and a half-mile branch line between Lyme Regis and Axminster opened in 1903 and there had even been plans for an onwards rail line to be built to Bridport. Lyme Regis station was in the north of the town as the descent down towards the sea was too step for a conventional railway. It was a difficult, steeply graded and sharply curved route with a concrete viaduct being built at Cannington. Problems in construction delayed the opening of the line requiring the railway company to put in place a horse bus connection between Lyme Regis and Axminster. On the opening day, a special train left Lyme Regis carrying not only dignitaries but also 200 local children. Mr C D Ley, a railway booking clerk from Poole, was appointed  as Lyme Regis’ first station master...

  Diminutive Ethelbert Holborrow (53) from Bridport had a clear mission in life. He wanted to sail single-handedly across the Atlantic to Bermuda. Yet, he had never been to sea before. A gunsmith by trade, he was only able to get about with the help of crutches. Despite having no boat building experience, Ethelbert planned to do this in a small sailing vessel that he intended to build himself. For two years he worked on his boat on the beach at Burton Bradstock. His only construction tools were a butcher’s knife, a hammer and a chisel. Local opinion was strongly against the voyage describing it as ‘ fool hardy’ . Ethelbert Holborrow set sail from West Bay in July 1914 on his lonely voyage in his homebuilt vessel that he named the Burto n. On board the 14 feet long craft were 40 gallons of water and a hundredweight of biscuits. Five days later he had only travelled some sixty miles. The Burton was sighted by a fishing vessel drifting dangerously close to some rocks off Salcom...

Opened in November 1857, the stations on this line were: Bridport West Bay . Opened 31-3-1884: closed to passengers 22-9-1930: closed to freight 3-12-1962. Bridport (East Street ). Opened 31-3-1884: closed to passengers 22-9-1930. Passenger station only. Bridport (from 1887-1902 was known as Bradpole Road ). Opened 12-11-1857: closed to freight 5-4-1965: closed to passengers 5-5-1975. Powerstock . Opened 12-11-1857: closed to freight 13-3-1961: closed to passengers 5-5-1975. Toller . Opened 13-3-1862: closed to freight 4-4-1960: closed to passengers 5-5-75. Maiden Newton. Opened 20-1-1857: closed to freight 5-4-1965.  (Featured: Bridport Station in August 1954..)

Greyhound Inn, Blandford was the twelfth stop for Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere during his express dash from Falmouth to the Admiralty in London. His purpose was to tell both the King and the Prime Minister of Nelson’s victory over the French & Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar but also of Horatio Nelson's death. This route is now known as the ‘ Trafalgar Way’ . Lapenotiere  arrived in Blandford around lunchtime on the 5 th November 1805 and paid just two pounds ten shillings & sixpence (£2.52) for a change of horses. This he would do 21 times during the 271 mile journey. A plaque commemorating his arrival in Blandford can be found in the Greyhound Yard.   He was travelling in a ‘ post-chaise’ which was the quickest form of horse travel for a passenger at the time. Before Blandford, he had stopped and changed horses at both Bridport and Dorchester. The next stop would be Woodyates and then Salisbury. That day was the 200 th anniversary of the Gunpowder ...