On 23 May 1949, Lady Clare Hartnell of The Wilderness, St Swithin’s Road, Sherborne, offered herself as candidate for Sherborne East in the Dorset County Council by-election and set out her manifesto: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen. I beg to offer myself as your Candidate in the forthcoming County Council By-Election… I have now lived for over … Read more
Women have always been inventive. Where would we be today without Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)[1] who wrote the first computer programme, or Marie Cure (1867-1939)[2] the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize who discovered radium and polonium and used her knowledge to improve x-ray machines, or Dorset-born business woman Eleanor Coade (1733-1821) [3] who developed … Read more
Dotted around Sherborne are a number of public benches dedicated to women, so why not see how many you can find? Please do let me know if you find a bench I’ve missed. CASTLETON, ST MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH ‘In loving memory of Katherine Louis [sic] Staunton Bunch 19.01.06-4.04.99. A devoted member of Castleton Church’ Katherine … Read more
In January 1881 four days of extremely severe weather brought large areas of England to a standstill, with southern England particularly badly effected. From the 17th to 20th January 1881 a heavy fall of snow accompanied by very strong winds created deep snow drifts that blocked homes, roads and the rail network. Telegraph wires were … Read more
In 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to certain women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification. The study of the suffrage movement has tended to focus on the actions of militant suffragettes in the larger cities, but women’s fight for the right to vote was also carried … Read more
The case of Miles v. Magan for breach of promise of marriage was scheduled to be held at the Bristol Assizes on 18 August 1858. With the defendant named as the member of parliament for Westmeath in Ireland, damages laid at £10,000 and some hundreds of love letters ready to be produced as evidence, the … Read more
At 4.40 pm on Monday, 30 September 1940, the Blitz came to Sherborne when German planes dropped several hundred bombs across the town in a straight line from Lenthay Common to Crackmore. Seventeen people, including six children, died as a result of the bombing, and over thirty casualties were taken to the Yeatman Hospital.[1] Under … Read more
Mrs Effield Bogle breathed her last at the Old Bank House, Long Street, Sherborne, on 28 May 1905. A few days later the following obituary appeared in the Western Chronicle: ‘The death is recorded of Mrs Bogle, widow of the late Major Bogle, V.C., a very old resident of the town, who passed away at … Read more
The Te Deum stained glass window in the south transept of Sherborne Abbey was designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) and made in 1851-2 by John Hardman & Co.[1] The window was one of a number commissioned from Hardman & Co. by the architect Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812-1855) for his restoration of the Abbey. … Read more
Margaret Millicent Billinger (1883-1942) was born on 30 June 1883 at 18, Cardiff Street, Aberdare, Glamorgan, daughter of James Fussell Billinger (1858-1928), a newsagent and railway bookstall manager, and Margaret Jane (née Thomas) (1857-1928). By 1891, Margaret and her family were living at 11, Alfred Street, Neath, and by 1901 they were living at 11, … Read more
Elizabeth Ellen Young was born on 4 November 1858 in Longburton, Dorset, daughter of James Young, a farm labourer, and Elizabeth Young (née Gay). In 1881 Elizabeth was working as an assistant teacher at a school in Hougham, Kent. In 1888 she went to Sherborne School to help nurse an epidemic. She remained at the … Read more
Constance Ellen Wise was born on 17 June 1882, the daughter of George Jason Wise (1852-1924) and Annie Matilda Wise (née Taylor) (1851-1907) of 11 Portland Place, Marylebone, London, where they ran an upmarket boarding house, or residential chambers, for single people. Following the death of Constance’s mother in 1907 her father remarried in 1908 … Read more
In 1899, Charlotte and her husband John Kenelm Wingfield Digby founded Sherborne School for Girls. The school opened on 20 September 1899 at Ramsam House on Greenhill with just 14 pupils, including five little boys. Charlotte was also a founder and governor of Headington School for Girls in Oxford, a governor of Foster’s and Lord Digby’s Schools in Sherborne, and … Read more
Diana Ruth Wilson was born on 31 May 1886 in Sherborne at The Green, a Sherborne School boarding house run by her father Thomas Ward Wilson (1849-1924) and his Canadian wife Augusta Louisa Wilson (née Jarvis) (1855-1929). Diana was educated firstly at St Antony’s Convent School in Westbury, Sherborne (now Leweston School), and from September … Read more
Mary Hudson was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1745. Her mother Susannah Hudson (c.1720-1778) remarried in 1765 at St Andrew, Holborn, to Thomas Kirby, who died in January 1773 in Sherborne. Mary was married on 14 February 1767/8 at the church of St Bartholomew the Less in London, to William Willmott (1741-1787), a silk … Read more