History

LOST DORSET NO. 24 WIMBORNE MINSTER

David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

Towns and villages throughout Dorset will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee over the four-day holiday weekend this month. 125 years ago, in June 1897, Dorset dressed its streets with flags and bunting for another Jubilee, that of the Queen’s greatgreat-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Those in East Street, Wimborne, were modest compared to many. Sherborne’s streets, ‘presented an appearance the equal of which has never before been seen in the town.’ Typical, in even the humblest village, were processions, a funfair and sports, as well as a celebratory lunch or tea – both washed down with copious quantities of beer and cider. Sturminster Newton’s procession included a flotilla of boats on the Stour, Wareham’s was led by cyclists in fancy dress, whilst at Stoke Abbott in the Marshwood Vale the village fiddle band scratched away from a hay-laden farm wagon. One permanent memorial, and the grandest, is the clock tower in the centre of Thornford, complete with a weathervane by Albert Gabe, the local blacksmith.

Lost Dorset: The Towns 1880-1920, the companion volume to Lost Dorset: The Villages and Countryside, is a 220-page large format hardback, price £20, and is available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers.

dovecotepress.com

OBJECT OF THE MONTH THE ‘CORONATION’ MUG

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

The museum holds many items related to royalty as our collections reflect those events of national importance which have an impact on the town and local area. We have a strong grouping of commemorative china, including this striking earthenware mug with its vivid printed and painted pattern.

The mug is cylindrical, widening slightly towards its base, 8cm high and with a beast form handle in the shape of a lion with protruding tongue. It was designed by Dame Laura Knight in 1936 for the ‘Coronation that never was’, that of Edward VIII which was projected for May 12th 1937. Compared with the Ravilious design for Wedgewood at the Coronation of Elizabeth II, this one has been somewhat overlooked but it shares a similar strength of design and idiosyncratic quality. The artist threw aside conventions, so that instead of the usual royal tropes, she portrayed a circus elephant and a depiction of St. George and the Dragon alongside her portrait of a youthful and somewhat reflective Edward. The elephant was drawn from Knight’s extensive sketching and painting backstage at circuses though it was not meant as a comment on the pomp and circumstance of the occasion. A Royal Coat of Arms, with a flamboyant lion and unicorn, is positioned on the opposite side.

Dame Laura Knight (nee Johnson) 1877-1970 was an English artist who belonged to the figurative realist tradition but who also embraced Impressionist techniques. Fascinated and inspired by marginalised communities and individuals, including Romani peoples and circus performers, she painted amidst London’s theatrical world but later also became a Second World War artist. Her success in what was then a male-dominated establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.

Many souvenirs were created and celebrations planned across the country in readiness for the occasion. Sherborne’s Urban District Council formed a committee to arrange the details for an event that was intended to represent all sections of the community, with Colonel F.J.B. Wingfield Digby DSO as its President. Subcommittees were delegated to arrange decorations, sports, entertainments and fireworks; the activities to take place in the meadow east of the Old Castle grounds. A decision was taken that all schoolchildren under the age of 14 would receive the Coronation mug as a keepsake.

After less than one year on the throne, however, Edward became the first British monarch to voluntarily abdicate, in a speech broadcast on the evening of 11th December 1936. He chose this course of action after the British Government and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcee Wallace Warfield Simpson. It stunned the nation who had largely been kept in the dark about his relationship by the British media, but it has been suggested that this was a convenient hook by which the establishment could remove the King. Although Edward was popular and appeared to have genuine concern for the unemployed and war veterans, he had expressed right-wing authoritarian sympathies and was deemed to be a security risk.

Knight was forced to adapt her original design to accommodate the Coronation of George VI, Edward’s brother, to include a portrait of him and his wife Elizabeth. The day went ahead on the original date as planned with minimal disruption, although with more pageantry than Edward had wanted. The mug remains as a quirky reminder of an anomaly in British history.

sherbornemuseum.co.uk

Sherborne Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am–4.30pm. Admission is free.

George III Jubilee statue, Weymouth

THE PUDDLETOWN SCANDAL

Cindy Chant

Now everyone loves a scandal. So I am going to tell you a story that involves a big scandal, and a royal one too! Here in Dorset, about 300 years ago, the little village of Puddletown guarded a secret that would have scandalised the royal family at that time.

For a brief period at the end of the eighteenth century, Weymouth took on the appearance of a fashionable spa, as sea-bathing was becoming popular. Each summer George III would visit Weymouth for calm, rest and bathing, which was said to help his condition, porphyria. The royal residence, Gloucester Lodge, became too small for the many courtiers who accompanied him and his family on these trips, therefore many houses in the area were either bought or leased so that they could attend the King. General Garth, the King’s senior equerry, rented Islington House, in nearby Puddletown, to ensure that he had a suitable residence to entertain the royal family.

The King’s condition caused him to become very eccentric. The first attack was at the age of 25, but gradually it became more serious, and his behaviour and the symptoms became impossible to hide from the court and the people. ‘The King is mad!’ they whispered. George had a large family – fifteen children, of whom six were daughters and this story is about one of them – Princess Sophia. George became very obsessive about his daughters, denying them the right to move freely in society and banning them from marrying men of their choice – although the princesses did occasionally enjoy secret romantic liaisons with the men of the royal household and Princess Sophia was no exception.

General Garth, who was a plain man with a large birthmark on his face, was thirty-three years older than Princess Sophia and had been in the King’s service since she was a young girl. One day he found himself alone with her as she had been unwell for some time and stayed in a bedroom beneath Garth’s room. On 8th August 1800, she gave birth to a baby boy. Now, no matter what it cost to those involved, this secret had to be kept from the king for fear it may have brought on an attack of madness.

News of both pregnancy and the birth were kept from the king who was told that his daughter had ‘dropsy’, but had made a remarkable recovery! The king was told that she had been ‘cured by eating roast beef!’ He often commented on this, saying that it ‘was a very strange thing’. But many in the royal court needed to know the truth, and of course, did. So arrangements had to be made for Sophia and her baby, and this proved more than enough gossip for the day.

Mrs Sharland, a tailor’s wife from Weymouth, was expecting a baby at about the same time. The baby had just been delivered, when she received a surprise visit from the princess’ s doctor. The midwife was told to leave and come back later. When she returned there were two babies! And she was told that Mrs Sharland had given birth to a twin. The midwife, of course, was surprised and questioned Mrs Sharland who eventually revealed that the second baby had been brought in from a carriage, and placed by her side with a purse containing money, and instructions to say it was her own baby. The infant spent his first two years with the Sharlands, but then was taken by Garth to Islington House in Puddletown to be brought up as his son, and became known as Tom Garth. Many suspected that the general was the real father, and rumours abounded that Sophia was passionately in love with him and that they had married in secret. Officially she remained a spinster for the rest of her life.

There was also some suggestion that Tom Garth was the result of an incestuous relationship between Sophia and her brother Ernest, the Duke of Cumberland, as the royal siblings were often spotted arm-in-arm in Weymouth. But Tom was threatening to make his parentage public, which made the royal family nervous, so an agreement was decided. All of his debts were settled, and young Tom was allowed £3,000 a year for life (a huge amount) on the understanding that he live a life of obscurity. On leaving the army he went to live in Yorkshire, and true to his word, he never mentioned his parents again.

General Garth died on 17th November 1829, aged 83. His son was the chief mourner. Princess Sophia eventually became totally blind and spent her final years in Kensington Palace. Now, we do not know Sophia’s secret, whether she loved the father of her son, or not. She may have had his name locked in her heart. ‘Sophia’ marks the solitary grave in Kensal Green. To the side is the text ‘Come unto me all who are heavily laden, and I will give you rest’.

Specialist Matthew Denney will be in the Sherborne area on Thursday 30th June to value your objects & antiques

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