The Blandford Express

Ken Baily was the England football and rugby cheerleader for three decades and Bournemouth Football Club mascot from the 1950s. An eccentric character and lifelong bachelor, he had a love of trifle and in his spare time could be seen riding his bicycle around the town dressed as either Winston Churchill or the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie. As a cheerleader, he was recognisable in his trademark costume of Union Jack waistcoat, scarlet tails, white gloves and top hat. When meeting royalty, Prince Charles is said to have once remarked ‘ where did you escape from?’ He is also the only man to become both a Freeman of Bournemouth and a Subbuteo figure. Ken Baily was a keen runner and swimmer and maintained his fitness by regular sea bathing. This included regular dips in the Bournemouth briny on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Eve. He worked as a clerical assistant in a Bournemouth telephone exchange and also wrote a gossip column for a local newspaper using the pen name Genevieve...

  Not many towns or villages can claim their very own vampire…yet Tarrant Gunville can! Tarrant Gunville’s vampire is reckoned to be William Doggett a ‘ corrupt manservant’ who stole a large sum of money from his employer, the Second Earl Temple. The Earl had inherited Eastbury House, then one of England’s finest country houses, but was finding it far too expensive to run. In 1795, he moved to Italy and to reduce house running costs he instructed William Doggett to dismantle the wings of the massive property. The greedy Doggett believed that the Earl had moved permanently abroad and saw an opportunity to make money for himself. Doggett demolished the main house and also the south wing and then pocketed the proceeds from selling the building materials. With evidence of his fiddling all around him, Doggett was told that the Earl had just alighted from the London mail coach. It had stopped on the Blandford – Salisbury Road at the Tarrant Gunville turning. The distressed servant sc...

Their correct name is Simulium Posticatum , yet more commonly they are known as the Blandford Fly. It is a small, blood-sucking black fly that can be found in Blandford and in Russia and Eastern Europe. They are also considered a nuisance in Africa and North America. The insect gained its name from the many people in Blandford being bitten in the 1960s and 1970s. In the spring of 1972, some 600 people visited their doctor in the town complaining of pain, itching and scratching in the lower leg. Found in slow moving rivers similar to the Stour at Blandford Bridge, the female of the species seeks out a blood feast before mating. This blood meal is required before allowing its 200-300 eggs to mature. They lacerate the skin and then suck out the blood. Just two to three millimetres long, they also inject an anaesthetic so that the bite is not felt. However, if the bite is scratched germs are released causing the infection. Scissor like mandibles can deliver a bite with painful consequences...

On 18 th November 1940, Blandford was bombed by German aircraft when an estimated 100 explosive devices were dropped on the town and its outskirts. Yet Blandford was not an obvious enemy target with Portland’s naval dockyard, Yeovil’s Westland aircraft factory or the newly reopened army base at Blandford Camp being more obvious targets. So why did the German air force decide to bomb Blandford? At the time the River Stour was in flood, so many of the explosive devices just fell into the water. However, an incendiary device did land on the roof of the Crown Hotel setting it alight. Thanks to prompt action by the town’s fire brigade, led by Captain C M Timbrell, the fire was quickly brought under control. Despite much charring to the beams, the fire fighters were able to confine damage to the hotel roof. After the raid, the brigade’s efforts were acknowledged by the hotel’s management in a letter enclosing a £10 cheque. It was decided, following the raid, to supplement the brigade’s wate...

Why do all pirates talk with an exaggerated Dorset accent? Blame rests firmly on the shoulders of Dorset actor, Robert Guy Newton born in Shaftesbury in June 1905. A colourful, hell raising individual, both on and off stage, Robert had a long and distinguished career in the theatre, in films and on television. For anyone who wants to talk like a pirate, it is almost obligatory to copy the vocal intonations of Robert Guy Newton. He excelled at playing cunning villains. With his thunderous voice and rolling eyes he mesmerised audiences. He is best remembered for playing the rapscallion one-legged pirate Long John Silver in the Disney film, Treasure Island and in its sequel made in Australia four years later. This was followed by a television mini-series filmed on Sydney beaches and on South Sea Islands in the mid 1950s. He had also played the two-legged but bearded pirate, Edward Teach in Blackbeard the Pirate in 1952. Robert was married four times and is remembered also for his pa...

There were four German prisoner of war camps in the Blandford area during World War One. These were on Blandford Camp, at the Blandford Milldown, at Crichel and in Iwerne Minster. The last two were small agricultural camps. Blandford Camp was by far the largest and in March 1917 held nearly 1,400 prisoners. It covered 12 acres together with another 17 acres for recreation. The majority of prisoners were German although there were some Austrians. Reflecting the class structure of the time, officers were accommodated separately from the men and in better conditions. The Camp had around 50 wooden huts including 34 dormitories heated by stoves and lit by electricity. One way in which internees kept themselves entertained was by what was known as ‘Schiebung’ . Life in the camps was lived under strict rules which internees would challenge to break whenever it was safe to do so. The more ingenious the initiative the better it was enjoyed. Alcohol was prohibited but empty bottles would be co...

  Three local men believed they had sound theories to identify Jack the Ripper. This was the name given to the murderer who savagely killed five women in London’s impoverished Whitechapel district in 1888. The three men with these views were Henry Richard Farquharson, Frederick George Abberline and Sydney Godolphin Osborne. Henry Richard Farquharson who has been unkindly nicknamed ‘ loose-lipped Farqie’ was the controversial and outspoken Member of Parliament for West Dorset from 1885 to 1895. He lived at Eastbury House in Tarrant Gunville. Apparently, Farquharson claimed that the murderer was the son of a surgeon who had committed suicide. Fearing libel, he did not identify him specifically but his description pointed to Wimborne-born, Montague Druitt. In February 1892, the Western Mail later confirmed that the West Dorset MP’s theory was that ‘ the author of the outrages killed himself. ’ Druitt had committed suicide in November 1888 and his body had been recovered from the Ri...

At one time, the Western Gazette was the most widely read newspaper across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. Apart from the readership in the three counties it was also highly valued by those who had left these districts. One reader wrote: ‘I am not certain about Tibet or Mars but it is quite safe to say there is not a country on earth which does not receive its quota of Western Gazettes. In hundreds of cases, it is the only remaining link between exiles and the land of their birth.’ For one man in Kenya, it was reckoned to be part of his ritual every Sunday to sit on the equator and read his Gazette. Another read it overlooking Lake Victoria ‘ not far from slimy crocodiles nearly 30 ft. long and hippopotami almost as big as submarines.’ In a little community not far from Calgary, in Alberta, Canada there were six families who regularly received the ‘Western’ . Another, who had worked himself into a position of trust on the Canadian Pacific Railway called it the ‘ Zet ’, at one time ...

Ria and Bill Bleathman are descendants of Richard Bleathman who, with George Long, were condemned to death by Judge Stephen Gaselee in Dorchester for their involvement in the 1831 Blandford riots. Bill Bleathman is the retired Director of Tasmania’s Museum and Art Gallery while Ria is a management consultant and company director. Both Bleathman and Long were found guilty of damaging the property of Blandford lawyer, George Moore following the declaration of the result of a Dorset by-election. Many old Blandford records were lost in the disturbance and others that were recovered were found stained with horse manure. Moore was a political agent of the successful candidate, Lord Ashley who was strongly opposed to extending the right to vote beyond a small number of eligible property owners. Bleathman and Long believed that Moore had used confidential client information to prevent political opponents from voting in the by-election which Ashley narrowly won.  Following protests from bot...

Benjamin Danford was just 14 years old when he was serving in the British Navy as a Midshipman in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He was the son of Nicholas and Mary Danford who lived in the village of Shroton in North Dorset. When he was baptised, in December 1792, it was quite a family event because also christened there at the same time were his brothers Joseph and young Nicholas junior. Benjamin had volunteered to join the Royal Navy and began his maritime career in March 1805 on HMS Ajax. He saw early bloody action just four months later when his vessel was involved in the Third Battle of Finisterre. This conflict cost Ajax two men killed and 16 injured. The vessel had to return to Plymouth for repairs and then sailed for Cadiz with Nelson’s HMS Victory. At the Battle of Trafalgar, Ajax lost a further two men killed and nine wounded. While this bloody naval battle would have been traumatic and stressful for all involved it must have been particularly so for a 14 year old. After T...

First person to lose his life in Antarctica came from Blandford Forum. George Vince was born in the town in September 1880 and was the son of a local fishmonger. He had joined the Royal Navy in October 1895 as a Boy Second Class.  When serving in Cape Town, South Africa, George Vince was transferred to the British National Antarctic Expedition’s vessel, the Discovery. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition sought to explore the undiscovered frozen continent of Antarctica. The expedition’s aim was to work in the Ross Sea sector and in February 1902 the vessel entered McMurdo Sound.  George Vince was a member of an excursion party which in March 1902 became caught in a blizzard. They had managed to pitch their tents but were unable to prepare any hot food. As frost bite started to set in, and according to their reckoning they were close to the Discovery, they set off for the ship. Believing they were heading towards the vessel, they were in fact walking towards a c...

Nicknamed the ‘ Powder Puff Line’ , Blandford Camp railway probably had the shortest and most controversial working life of any railway in Britain. Blandford Camp railway was a small branch line built towards the end of World War I which connected the town with Blandford Camp designed to carry both supplies and personnel. It left the Somerset & Dorset line just to the south of Blandford Station passed along the borders of Langton Long, crossed the Blandford-Wimborne road and climbed up to the military camp. At the Camp end of the line there was a 200 yards long halt style platform. This remained in place until the 1960s. Although today Blandford Camp is an army establishment, its first permanent occupants were the Royal Naval Division to be followed by the Royal Air Force in 1918. The RAF had been formed in April 1918 and its Blandford base of 15,000 military personnel became a major entry point for new recruits. It was also the location of the Royal Air Force’s Headquarter’s Gen...

  There were five Withrington brothers, all born in Blandford, and they were all hung at the gallows for their crimes. It is known because of his notoriety that brother Jack was hung at the infamous Tyburn, near Marble Arch in London. His brothers met their fates in different parts of the country but no records remain as to where these hangings occurred. Jack Withrington was the youngest brother and he trained initially to be a tanner. However, he left his apprenticeship in Shaftesbury to become a soldier. He joined the Earl of Oxford’s Horse Regiment where he gained quite a reputation. This was as a result of being involved in two fights in which it was said he behaved with great valour. The first was with a man famous for his fighting in which Jack showed great skill and bravery. The second fight was with a man of great wealth, who was generally regarded to be a coward, when Jack behaved with much dignity. Unfortunately, having achieved minor celebrity status Jack became, as ...

Robert Young is a now almost forgotten poet born in Sturminster Newton in 1811. He wrote in the Dorset dialect about life around his home town in the 1800s. Living until he was 97, he was able to remember back to celebrations when Napoloeon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. He wrote with intelligence, kindness and great humour. He had a character, called Billy Sweet who kept a pet toad called Maria. Liking a drink too much, he would delight in taking his pet to the pub. After a few pints, Billy would take the toad out of his pocket to entertain fellow imbibers. Placing it on a table, he would urge his fellow imbibers to look into the toad’s beautiful eyes. Robert Young was also amused by the local pigs who after devouring the remnants from a cider press would charge drunkenly through the streets of Sturminster Newton. In fact, he was concerned about alcohol abuse in the countryside and was a supporter of the Temperance Movement. Another of Young’s characters was the argumentative...

Blandford businesses where you can no longer be served: A Cherry – draper, Salisbury Street. Alex J Hicks – outfitters & café, West Street. Art Shop – art & models, Salisbury Street/White Cliff Mill Street. Ashford – draper, Market Place. Backway – draper, Salisbury Street. Blandford Radio – radio & television, Market Place. L Bunce – footwear, Salisbury Street. Chamen & Richards -  wine & spirits, the Close. Cleal - confectionary, Salisbury Street. C Collier – butcher, East Street. Durden – grocer, Durden’s Corner. Eyers & Kerridge – clocks & watches, Salisbury Street. E Jeans – tobacconist & confectionaries, Market Place. Fianders – garage, White Cliff Mill Street. Fricker – baker, Market Place. Hobbs – stationers, Salisbury Street. Lindsay & Dalryple – ironmonger, Market Place. John Lewis Marsh – brewer, Bryanston Street. L Jay – tobacconist & confectionaries, Oakfield Street. Loader - newsagent, East St...