The Blandford Express

Twenty-four years old leather breeches maker, Tom Hill has the unusual distinction of being condemned to be transported to both America and Australia for his crimes. On 13 th March 1783, Tom had been sentenced in a Dorchester courtroom to be transported to America for stealing a silver watch valued at one pound. At the time, this sum was the equivalent of three weeks wages for a Dorset agricultural labourer. The decision was a particularly bizarre one as America was no longer a British colony after the British defeat in the American War of Independence. However, the British were surreptitiously trying to restart the American convict trade as its prisons were overfull. Prior to this war, which had halted the scheme, around 50,000 convicts had been sent to the American colonies despite its unpopularity with locals. British authorities hired a London merchant who did a deal with a Maryland merchant to receive convicts and sell them as indentured servants. Consistent with the furtiven...

‘Tis not well-known, but one year in the 1970s Shillingstone had the privilege of hosting the County’s Dwyle Flonking Championships. Equally little-known are the rules of the game. Two teams of twelve players are formed who dress up as yokels. To play they use a ‘dwyler’ (knitted cloth), a ‘dribbler’ (stick used to hurl the cloth) and two chamber pots, known as ‘guzunders’. The latter are filled with beer. Turns are determined by tossing a sugar beet. One team gathers in a circle and moves around an opposing player known as the ‘flonker’. This competitor dunks the cloth into one of the pots and then throws it at the opposing circling  players.  Points are awarded according to which area of the body the thrower hits with three points awarded for hitting a head.  However, if the player misses, called a ‘swadge’, the thrower has to drink as a forfeit the contents of the other chamber pot within a strict time limit. Alternatively, the player can dump the contents of the guzul...

Riots and protests are not normally associated with towns like Gillingham. Yet, that is what happened back in the 1620s. Gillingham Forest on the Dorset/Wiltshire borders was a medieval royal hunting ground and deer park which had been particularly popular with King John. A moated hunting lodge had been built there  to accommodate his annual visits. Gillingham Royal Forest consisted of some seven thousand acres and included the villages of Motcombe, Bourton and West & East Stour. In 1625, the area was deforested, the land enclosed but this  led to riots and protests. King James I and King Charles I had sold off parts of the forest to raise money. Erection of fences prevented the locals from grazing their animals and from collecting wood which had been long-standing practices. Also during the winters of 1626 & 1627 the deer were slaughtered and trees were felled. One of the more bizarre protests involved Lady Skimmington cross-dressing parades designed to poke fun at th...

Despite the duties being unpleasant, ‘Groom of the Stool’ to the King of England was considered a prestigious position. The role involved assisting the Monarchs with their bodily functions and bathroom needs using a close stool (see above). This historical piece of furniture was an early portable toilet which enclosed a chamber pot. Historians disagree as to whether this servant was required to wipe the Monarch’s bottom. Proximity to the Monarch with no-one else present led to the sharing of many royal confidences. In turn, the post holder became a feared and influential figure around the Court because of his access to the Sovereign.  The Groom of the Stool was also responsible for monitoring the King’s bowel movements and for liaising with doctors when necessary. Elizabeth I was served by a Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Sir William Compton, Sir Michael Stanhope and Sir James Fullerton were all Grooms of the Stool. Compton performed the role between between 1509 until 152...

Archie Wellman, a Dorchester postman and his friend, Owen Wicks, a hairdresser’s assistant who worked on South Street, were both charged at Dorchester Assizes in May 1910 with fraudulently seeking to obtain money from a football betting company based in Holland. To secure their ends, the two men put together an ingenious scheme.  The betting company, owned by Fred Archer & Fred Bacon offered money prizes if the match scores were accurately predicted in return for an entry fee. All entries had to be posted before 2pm on Saturdays. Legal restrictions in Britain on betting were quite restrictive at the time and this is probably why the scheme operated out of Holland. Wicks made arrangements with a Cheshire based newspaper, the Athletic News to have the result of Saturday’s football matches telegrammed to him as soon as the games finished. These he would later post up in the hairdresser’s salon where he worked. Wicks received the football results at 4.56pm on the Saturday in questi...

It was a long time ago but 25th June 1348 was probably Dorset’s worst day ever. For it was when it is believed that infected sailors arrived at Melcombe, near Weymouth from Gascony in France carrying the Black Death. Like most ships, it would have been carrying rats. No-one knew at the time the causes of the epidemic which became known as the Great Pestilence. Local townsfolk were the first victims of the epidemic. The Great Pestilence quickly spread around Weymouth and people left the town taking the Black Death with them. So many died in Portland that the quarries fell silent. Within weeks, it had spread along the coast and up river valleys. Quickly, it passed through Devon and Somerset and onto Bristol and beyond. The disease was transmitted it is believed by fleas. Sufferers first experienced a black rash, then swollen glands, a high fever and finally death. Such was the devastation of the epidemic that the Bishop of Salisbury appointed new priests in Dorset on 22 days during the 3...

  Such was the sympathy among Dorset folk towards smuggling that sometimes in the Dorchester Courtroom there were unexpected legal outcomes. Two Dorset men, James H Adstock and William White, who were natives of Portland, appeared before Justice Sir Stephen Gaselee at the Dorset Assizes in July 1826. They were charged with making signals to smugglers at Chesil Cove on the Isle of Portland. Their actions, on the 8th April, provided the bootleggers with the opportunity to make their escape from the pursuing customs men. It was a fine night so the officers said they could see clearly what was happening. It was reported in the Dorchester Courtroom that the two men were loitering on the beach at around two o’clock in the morning and were heard whistling extremely loudly after they espied two Prevention Officers approaching. Both men were known to these Officers. Upon hearing the whistling sound, a small boat carrying five men quickly departed the shore. Others ran towards the cliff. The...

  From Dorset Gallows to Van Diemen’s Land is the unlikely but true story of political corruption, hangings and transportation in the small market town of Blandford in Southern England.  It is available as a paperback from  Amazon in the United Kingdom, Australia and the USA. The book uncovers the extraordinary tale of two ordinary men, George Long a shoemaker and Richard Bleathman a butcher. Driven by belief and dissatisfaction they are swept along by events. Sentenced to be hanged in Dorchester Gaol for their protests against political corruption they are instead, following clemency appeals,  transported to Van Diemen’s Land -  on the other side of the world. ‘A fascinatingly  good read.  This book entirely complements the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs - also transported to Australia.’ (Richard Holledge, newspaper editor, freelance journalist - London. As read in the Independent, New York Times & Financial Times. Author of   Voices of the M...

In June 1936, the people of Portesham, near Weymouth came up with an ingenious way to promote their village - cat racing. For newspapers it was the ‘silly season’ and there was a shortage of serious news, so Portesham’s cat racing exploits spread like a wild fire. Daily Express thought it was a good enough story to send a photographer to the village, so several stray  cats were rounded up for him at the inn. The newspaper announced that the 440 yards four-lane track would be open in August and that the Dorset moggies would be chasing an electric rat. If challenged, the licensee of the King’s Arms agreed to confirm that a well-attended experimental cat race had already taken place. It was said that female cats were the better chasers and that tailless cats were not allowed to enter. The cats would wear different coloured ribbons around their necks so that punters could more easily recognise their favourites. Owners would have to pay a two shillings and sixpence (12.5p) fee to enter ...

William Whittle was a seaman with a lucrative sideline. He was a smuggler of foreign spirits.  The Dorset coastal village of Langton Herrimg was his place of birth and he was born there in 1810 on New Year’s Eve. His secondary trade of smuggling seems to have been a family affair as relative Thomas Whittle, a Langton Herring shoemaker, had been sent to prison for smuggling three years earlier. In 1835, William Whittle was charged with assaulting Lieutenant Rowe, a Customs Officer at Abbotsbury and of being the leader of a large smuggling gang. It was reported that a gang of around 600 men were helping with the landing of the liquor. Many were carrying bludgeons. One of the Customs Officers suffered three broken ribs and was unfit for work for seven weeks. Smuggling of wines, spirits and luxury goods from France was a local industry and the men of Abbotsbury and Langton Herring were much involved in the activity. At Dorchester Assizes in March 1835, William Whittle was found guilty ...

Elm Tree Inn, Langton Herring in South Dorset is a 400-year-old hostelry with a colourfully checkered history - that includes smugglers, bouncing bombs, espionage and knicker bunting. Originally leased by the Prince of Wales, it became a known haunt for wreckers and smugglers. Wreckers plundered cargo from shipwrecks. The dangerous shingle banks and deep waters off nearby Chesil Bank led to many local shipwrecks. Folklore has it that wreckers would tie a lantern to a cow’s tail and the gentle up and down motion would simulate that of a ship at anchor. Passing captains would mistake the false light for a safe harbour. Disaster would follow. A fisherman who had cheated others on the size of his catch was chased through the village in 1780 and was hung from a beam at the Elm Tree Inn. In 1834, William Whittle was sentenced to death for smuggling and for assaulting a Revenue Official. Following a petition for clemency, signed by more than 600, he was transported to Australia. The village’s...

These days most toys seem to be made in China. Yet 70 years ago, some very fine toys were made in Blandford. Wend-al was a Blandford company which was a highly regarded maker of aluminium toy figures. Edgar Kehoe was its founder. Immediately after World War II he was looking for a business opportunity. Travelling in France, he discovered his opportunity in the town of Luxeuil-les-Bains where a company named Quirala was making die cast aluminium figures. At the time, lead was more commonly used in the manufacture of toy figures. This company, located in the French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Compte, did not use lead but solid aluminium. Quirala was a combination of the company founder’s surname Quirin and the word aluminium. Edgar Kehoe realised that solid aluminium was stronger and lighter than lead and would not break. As a consequence, he struck up a deal to use French moulds and so production began in Blandford in 1946. He opened his factory in the former Blandford Isolation Hospita...

From the mid-18th century onwards, many Dorset towns and villages set up sparrow clubs. These were not, however gatherings of bird watchers and nature lovers. Their sole purpose was to destroy as many sparrows as possible because it was thought these birds devoured much of the grain being grown. The sparrow was looked upon as an avian rat and a pest. Sparrows were considered such a threat to the harvest that to kill one was almost considered to be a civic duty. They would also burrow into the roofs of farm buildings made of thatch with the consequence the roofs would leak. For many years sparrow  pie was a traditional working class dish and was considered to be a food of the poor. Because the bird is so small at least a dozen would be required for even a family sized pie. In her book The Experienced English Housekeeper  published in 1769, Elizabeth Raffald provided a recipe for sparrow dumplings. In 1931, the College of Pestology even offered  a prize for the best sparrow...

Until it was banned outright under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835, the blood sport of cockerel fighting was a popular pastime in Blandford. Large bets were regularly placed on the results and the fighting cocks were specially bred for their aggression. Training was notoriously cruel and well-off owners even employed cockerel trainers. At considerable expense, the pastime was regarded as a ‘predominant amusement’ at the time by the local gentry. At these events, much alcohol was consumed. The enclosed dirt area where the roosters fought became known as a cock pit. This led to the expression ‘to be pitied against.’ Sometimes, the cockerels were required to wear razor-sharp mettle spurs when fighting. Victory was awarded to the cockerel that either killed its opponent or rendered it so injured it could not continue. Some spectators, in the interests of comfort, brought their own light-weight chairs which became known as cock fighting chairs. According to the Salisbury & Wiltshire ...