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Category: Local History

Dorset’s first woman driver | Looking Back

She was Dorset’s first woman driver, and she documented her motoring adventures in a diary written almost 120 years ago. Roger Guttridge shares the...

A tale of two changes at the Old Rectory | Then and Now

Happily tucked away from the passing A357 traffic is this magnificent example of Georgian architecture – the Old Rectory in Holebrooke Lane, Lydlinch. The...

The intelligent poltergeist | Looking Back

On January 11, 1895, the Western Gazette published a story about strange goings-on in a Dorset village. The paper described ‘considerable excitement’ at Durweston...

The rich history that makes Yetminster a unique village

Tucked away on the western edge of ‘The Vale’ is a village with a very unusual history, indeed, possibly unique – Yetminster. Situated about five...

How an 1857 murder in India halted Dorset traffic last month

A young Dorset army officer, severely wounded during the 1857 Indian Mutiny, succeeded in leading women and children to safety despite being under constant...

The Milborne Martyrs | Looking back

This historic picture, dating from April 1874, provides a rare photographic glimpse of the agricultural turmoil and early trade unionism that played such a...

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Grief and gratitude

As the eventing community reels from the death of one of their own, Jess Rimmer reflects on the special solidarity found in the sport As...

Rain, reactors and running out

Bovine TB dominates farm life, George Hosford says, as flawed testing and policy inertia persist (and January rain only adds to the pressure) The total...

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