The Blackmore Vale logo

Category: Local History

A tale of two number plates | Then & Now

My 1904 picture of Gillingham High Street is historically interesting on several fronts, not least because it features the town’s first car and its...

Handley’s Blackest Day | Looking Back

May 20, 1892, was the blackest of days in the annals of Sixpenny Handley. In a matter of hours, a fire that started in a...

Fontmell Magna’s Gossips Tree | Then and Now

Fontmell Magna’s Gossips’ Tree It’s sometimes known as the Cross Tree but a more evocative name is the Gossips’ Tree – and it’s just as...

A Garden Shed’s Unique Place in History | Looking Back

It’s home to wheelbarrows and gardening tools today but this glorified garden shed in the grounds of Manston House also holds a unique place...

Where Nuns Daily Trod | Then and Now

A 1930s woodcut by Shaftesbury’s High House Press features the L-shaped thatched cottages that formerly occupied the end of Laundry Lane. The cottages probably stood...

Hill View Dairies | Then & Now

The clue is in the street name but ‘Old Dairy’ appears to be the only on-site reminder of a corner of Okeford Fitzpaine that...

Popular

The science of diet, and prepping for Hurdles

Feeding different diets to a range of growing foals and mares living in the same field is an art form which Lucy Procter has...

Stur’s spring diary starts here …

Love SturA new community initiative, Love Stur, is launching to shine a spotlight on the people, passion and connections that make Sturminster Newton’s local...

Latest comments