History

LOST DORSET NO. 27 SHERBORNE

David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

Unable to take a train to London recently because of the railway strike I was reminded of how the arrival of the railway in the 19th century transformed Dorset’s fortunes, bringing even the smallest hamlet within reach of a station. Of Dorset’s 74 stations and halts, only 25 remain open – of which Sherborne is one. This view dates to the late 1920s, with the ‘up’ platform and a W H Smith bookstall on the left. Just visible is the main building, which incorporated the station master’s house and was built of local Ham stone. The station was nearly placed north of the town. The Wingfield Digby family owned the land, and only withdrew their objection to the line going near Sherborne Castle when the railway company guaranteed that two fast trains a day would always stop at Sherborne. The line opened on 7th May 1860, watched by 1,200 children assembled on the slope overlooking the station. Bands played, bells pealed, a cannon roared. In 2010 a plaque was installed commemorating the 150th anniversary of the opening.

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The Dovecote Press has been publishing books about Dorset since 1974. This photograph comes from Railway Stations, one of 35 titles in the ‘Discover Dorset’ series, all of which are available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers.

OBJECT OF THE MONTH THE TRADE BILLS

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

Ephemera’ is a term used to describe the minor transient documents of everyday life, items which are not intended to be retained or preserved and which can include menus, newspapers, postcards, tickets and programmes. They can be ornate or notably utilitarian. Nowadays there is a greater academic interest in preserving them so that they are commonly found in archives and library collections where they illustrate many diverse aspects of human culture.

Sherborne Museum is fortunate in that this bundle of bills was not discarded but discovered by the redoubtable Miss Elizabeth O’Shea in the roofspace of her house ‘Whiteley’ in The Avenue. She was a founder member of the museum and in 1969 donated the collection of over ninety documents. They open an insightful window onto the daily lives of local Sherbornians which played out against the backdrop of the First World War. They also illustrate how well the town was able to provide for most of its inhabitants’ needs and the attractive images and lettering are redolent of the pride that working people took in their trades and businesses.

The house was formerly occupied by Henry Hudson (1863-1943), his French wife Anna Martha Rosa Petre and their two sons. It had been built, originally named ‘Le Nid’, at the turn of the 20th century for the couple to settle into upon their marriage in August 1900; part of the upper-middleclass development in that area of town. Henry, born in Bishopsgate in London, had at first taken up lodgings in Cheap Street and succeeded Alexander Longmuir as Art Master at Sherborne School in 1891. He is most remembered for his contribution to the artistic design of the 1905 Pageant for which he created several posters and programmes as well as collaborating with Florence Drewe on the costumes. Cataloguing this collection has made available an array of delightfully evocative images: picture Madame Hudson sashaying along Cheap Street visiting Miss Beedell to have her silk scarf darned, requesting cod and plaice from E.E. Harvey, fishmonger, poulterer and game dealer, and paying L.B. Hilliam, ladies tailor and fancy draper, £5 12s and 6d for a dress and matching hat in ‘champagne crepe’. On the Parade, Edward Spiller, ironmonger, provided her with ‘a muffin cover and a pair of vases’, while at Christmas William Coombs of Coldharbour, baker, confectioner and flour merchant, reserved her loaves and cake for the festive season in 1914. Meanwhile, Henry Hudson, paterfamilias, purchased his Primer of Greek Grammar by Abbot and Mansfield at F. Bennet & Co. Ltd, had a metronome cleaned and regulated at Samuel Beaton the music seller’s, ordered a brown leather strap for his lantern slide case at Chennell’s in Half Moon Street and in March 1916 arranged for the family toboggan to be reframed from J.H. and G. Elliot of Newland for a charge of 12 shillings. We are even able to visualise the couple’s garden since Mr Dean, their gardener, presented them with a bill for ‘soil, manure, labour and plants including hollyhocks, delphiniums and forget-me-nots’.

These fleeting glimpses allow us, through the medium of such humble and often overlooked slips of paper, to provide an experience that is both human and haunting and enables us to draw parallels with the transience of life itself.

Sherborne Museum is open from Tuesday - Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm. Admission is free of charge, though donations are welcome.

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SHERBORNE AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL WARS

Cindy Chant

The first and second civil wars, 1642–1648, were the inevitable result of opposition to the King, Charles I, and his autocratic attitude to Parliament. Taxation and leanings towards Catholicism also played their role. It ended with the execution of the King in 1649.

The civil wars divided the country, and even members of the same family fought on opposite sides. In general, London and the Home Counties fought for Parliament, the North, the West, and counties near Wales were for the King. Sherborne was a royalist stronghold though not of major importance. Other Dorset towns such as Dorchester, supported Parliament. The role of Dorset in the English Civil War is not well known, nor were any of the great battles fought within the county’s borders. And yet, balanced between the royalist’s heartlands in the East and Midlands, and the great population and manufacturing centres of the South-east, Dorset was of crucial importance. Its ports also played a vital role, with Weymouth being the nearest place to London where King Charles I could reasonably hope for his long-awaited French allies to land. Furthermore, whichever party controlled Dorset dominated the war. Thus the story of Dorset at the time is the story in miniature of the whole civil war.

During the wars, Sherborne Old Castle was besieged twice and the town attacked and looted by Parliamentary forces, with fighting in the middle of Cheap Street. The siege and destruction of the Castle, though considered of little importance in the history of the civil war, is not without interest to us. Lord Bristol allowed the Old Castle to be garrisoned for the King at the start of the war in 1642. A royalist force under the command of William Seymour, Marquis of Hertford, made repairs to the castle defences in anticipation of an attack.

Later that year, Parliamentary forces under William Russell, Earl of Bedford, approached and camped on the high ground to the north near the present Gryphon School. From here they fired their cannons and bombarded the Castle and its walls. The spot, now marked by a clump of trees, is still known as Bedford’s Camp.

On 4th September they attacked again only to be seen off by a battery of field gun fire from the Castle. The siege dragged on until 20th September when Seymour surrendered and was allowed to withdraw.

Parliamentary commissioners then occupied the Castle until they were evicted four months later, by a small royalist force.

On 2nd October 1644, Charles I and his nephew, Prince Rupert, reviewed their troops at the Castle and had a picnic lunch in the deer park. The following year in August 1645, Sherborne, ‘a malicious mischievous Castle, like its owner’, according to Oliver Cromwell, was again besieged. Sir Lewis Dyve, the Earl of Bristol’s stepson and the local royalist commander, held the Castle against Parliamentary forces led by Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax. Dyve, with 150 soldiers and some cavalry, held out for 11 days despite artillery bombardment, mining, and being forced to retreat into the great tower. Some Parliamentary officers were killed and wounded by sniper fire from the estate gamekeepers! Dyve surrendered and gave up the Castle, and many were sent by ship to London, as prisoners. The Castle goods were sold off in the local market and Parliament ordered the Castle to be damaged to prevent it from being used again as a royalist stronghold.

Apart from the military operations, the war caused a lot of destruction to the life of the town. The school governors collected their rents with difficulties, annual accounts were not presented, and the Master and the Usher were not paid for many years. The town was scourged with the plague as well as the war, and in the summer of 1645 the death rate rose to its highest - many huts, on the site of the Yeatman Hospital, were set aside to isolate the sufferers.

In 1660 Charles II, son of Charles I, was restored to the throne. The King’s restoration was greeted with much rejoicing and merriment - the Conduit ‘ran for two days with Claret, besides much Beer too.’ George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, returned from France and reclaimed the estate. His son John, the third Earl, died without an heir in 1698 and the title became extinct. Sherborne then passed to a cousin William, 5th Baron Digby, and so life continued peacefully.

Sherborne Old Castle is now a picturesque ruin, hiding its turbulent history. It remains very much the same as when it was left, destroyed by Parliament’s orders in 1645, with a few features from before the civil war. Among them is Dynney Bridge, within the grounds and built by Bishop Roger all those years ago, the civil war bastions, deer park, the church of Castleton village, and the surrounding landscape, which was later improved by Lancelot Brown, more commonly known as ‘Capability Brown’.

Specialist Matthew Denney will be in the Sherborne area on Thursday 29th September to value your objects & antiques

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