The Blandford Express

Here are some old Dorset countryside words now almost completely lost. Curleywig – earwig. Dumbledore – bumblebee. Flittermouse – bat. God ‘lmighty cow – ladybird. Hoss-tinger – dragonfly. Hoss – horse. Palmer – caterpillar. Rot – rat. Wops – wasp. Cutty – wren. Devil Screecher – swift Ruddock – robin. Spadger – sparrow. Tiddies – potatoes. Pissabed – dandelion Chipple – spring onion. Bithy-wine – bindweed. Daffidowndilly – daffodil. Snag – sloe. Culver – dove. Greygle – bluebell. Churry – cherry. Beetlehead - tadpole. Black Bob - cockroach. (Source: A Bit of a Bumble by Alan Chedzoy - 2003.)

When a  Baptist Minister predicted Weymouth would be destroyed by a mammoth tidal wave it caused quite a stir. The South London clergyman prophesied that this massive tsunami would arrive at exactly 3.53pm on Tuesday 29th May 1928. As this was a bank holiday weekend, Weymouth would be packed with people. The prediction received widespread coverage in the local and national press. Panic spread and a local resident announced he had placed his canoe on the roof of his house to await the tsunami’s arrival. The Mayor of Weymouth reckoned he would be alright because he would be entertaining visitors on a boat in Portland Harbour. As they were from Holland he claimed they would be used to flooding. Weymouth had been hit by quite large waves in the past. A Weymouth magistrate tried to allay fears by claiming the giant wave would instead hit Weymouth, Massachusetts in the USA. While enterprising restaurant owners were adverting Tidal Wave Teas. A bright red sunset the night before was said ...

Blandford is well-known today for brewing beer. Yet in the past, it was probably better known for the making of buttons – a trade known as ‘ buttony ’. All these buttons were hand- made. It is reckoned early in the 19 th century, there was an estimated 3,000 people around Blandford engaged in the button trade. The town was particularly known for the making of shirt buttons and a button known as the Blandford cartwheel. Robert Fisher opened a button depot in the 1830s in his draper’s shop in the Market Place. Travelling salesmen would visit the depot and buy buttons in bulk. Smallest buttons were known as mites and were made popular when Queen Victoria bought dozens for just a single dress. At its peak the town could boast of six button merchants. The making of buttons in Dorset had begun in Shaftesbury in 1650 by a man named Abraham Case. It is said a waistcoat that King Charles I wore to his execution had locally made buttons. The earliest buttons were made from the horns of the ...

Hector’s Brewery could once be found on the bank of the River Stour at Blandford St Mary close to Blandford bridge. Described as ‘most delightfully situated’, it had gained its name from John Hector who bought the lease and ran the brewery with his sons between 1826 and 1879. Hector played an important role in the local community and was also a churchwaden. The brewery had been in existence since 1789. Before this, many houses had their own malt houses. In those destroyed in the 1731 fire, there were six in Blandford St Mary with malt houses. In 1879, Hector’s Brewery was bought by Horace Baydon Neame. He was a Kent farmer and hop grower and a member of the Kentish Shepherd Neame brewing family from Faversham. Neame then sold the brewery, together with two maltings at Winterborne Stickland and 15 pubs, to Hall & Woodhouse in 1882. Brewing by Hall & Woodhouse continued for almost 20 years at both Ansty and Blandford St Mary. Some 30 people were employed at Ansty and around 4...