Blandford Throwback Facts VIII

In 1786, Lord Milton of Milton Abbey, Lord Shaftesbury of St Giles and Lord Arundel of Wardour Castle all attended Blandford Races.

When 74 survivors from a Swanage shipwreck stopped off at the Crown Inn in Blandford on the way to London, the Inn Master gave them all a good dinner and two shillings & sixpence (12.5p) to see them on their way.

In 1787, the Blandford Bank was founded. In 1858, it had to suspend all payments with liabilities of £48,792 and assets of only £18,167.

In 1788, Mr Bailey’s Annual Ball was held in the Assembly Rooms for the young ladies of Mrs Smith’s and the young gentlemen of Mr Chisholm’s and the Reverend P Warton’s Boarding Schools.

In 1789, it cost eighteen shillings and eight pence (93p) for beer and brushes to clean the streets for when King George III passed through the town. He received a ‘tumultuous’ reception on his way to Weymouth where he would regularly bathe in the sea waters.

In 1790, a ‘balloon coach’ called at the Greyhound Inn each day on its way from Exeter to London.

In 1791, innkeeper James Moore changed the name of the Three Swans public house to the George in commemoration of King George III passing through the town two years earlier.

Mailbags for London were sealed at half past two in the afternoon for London. There was no postup to London on Saturdays or down on Mondays.

In 1793, James Shatford, manager of the Salisbury Company of Comedians appeared in Blandford’s ‘New Theatre.’

Blandford born Thomas Rose arrived at Port Jackson, near Sydney in Australia as an early free settler with his wife, Jane and three children aged between 3 & 13 years and an 18 year-old niece.

In 1794, Adam Hunt was sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing four pounds and one shilling (£4.05p) from Thomas Hatsell in a house of ill-repute in Blandford.

(Illustration: Blandford Market Place)

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