On the afternoon of Saturday 4th November 1933, a football match was played on the Fairfield in Sherborne between the female employees of the Sherborne Laundry and a ladies’ football team from Yeovil. The match was held as part of Sherborne Carnival’s fundraising week, which, after a lapse of ten years, saw a procession through … Read more
According to her legend, Juthware, or Juthwara (Judith), was a Saxon woman who lived sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries in Halstock, Dorset. Juthware was very religious and known to pray and fast and to give alms to the poor. After her mother’s death, Juthware’s father remarried but when he too died Juthware began … Read more
Emerenciana was a foster sister of St Agnes and was stoned to death when she was found praying at Agnes’s tomb. She is often represented holding stones and lilies and is the patron saint of stomach problems and colic. The feast day of St Emerenciana (also known as St Emerentiana) is celebrated by the Catholic … Read more
On 7 June 1891, Reverend Mother Ignace Pollenus, the Superior of the Religious of the Christian Instruction in Ghent, Belgium, arrived in Sherborne with seven nuns to establish a Roman Catholic community in Westbury in a former Sherborne School boarding house. The Order had many English students in Ghent whose parents wanted them to open a … Read more
Barbara Helen Rawson was born on 2 March 1893 at Brand Hall, Norton in Hales, Shropshire, the eldest child and only daughter of Philip Heathcote Rawson (1864-1917) and Lillie Campbell Rawson (née Clarke-Preston) (1867-1927). A second child, Philip Colin Rawson (1896-1915), was born at Brand Hall on 1 June 1896. By 1904, the Rawson family … Read more
Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Throckmorton was born in 1565, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, a cousin of Catherine Parr who served as ambassador to France and Scotland, and Anne Carew, daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington, Surrey. Bess’s brother Arthur Throckmorton paid to install her as one of Queen Elizabeth I’s Ladies-in-Waiting, where she was … Read more
Vera Gwendolen Pragnell was born on 23 September 1896 at 10, West Chislehurst Park in Eltham, London, the daughter of Sir George Pragnell (1863-1916) and Leonora Caroline Louise Jenkins (1872-1950). Vera’s father was a self-made man, born in Sherborne, Dorset, his father William George Pragnell (1837-1898) was head gardener to the Wingfield Digby family at … Read more
Mary Gibbs was born in 1832 at St Blazey in Cornwall, the daughter of Philip Gibbs, an agricultural labourer. On 20 September 1862 she was married at Tywardreath, Cornwall to William Pearce. Their first child Joseph Henry Pearce (1865-1950) was born in Truro on 26 September 1865, a second son Frederick Gibbs Pearce (1867-1888) was … Read more
Daphne Blake Oram was born at Devizes in Wiltshire on 31 December 1925, the youngest child and only daughter of James Oram MBE (1890-1964) and Ida Murton Oram (née Talbot) (1887-1972), of Belle Vue House, Devizes. Daphne’s middle name was the maiden name of her grandmother Alice Blake (1851-1941). Daphne’s father was a town councillor … Read more
The church of All Hallows was built in the 14th-century against the west end of Sherborne Abbey and, from 1437 until 1539, it served as the town’s parish church. All Hallows was demolished in about 1540 after the town acquired the adjoining Abbey church for its parish church, although the remains of the north wall … Read more
During her short life Elizabeth Myers wrote numerous short stories and three novels, A Well Full of Leaves (1943), The Basilisk of St James’s (1945), and Mrs Christopher (1946). Elizabeth Myers was born on 23 December 1912 at 3, Apollo Street, Manchester. Her parents, George William Myers, a Manchester warehouseman [a wholesaler of linen and cloth made in the factories surrounding … Read more
In 1899, Beatrice Mulliner was appointed the first Headmistress of Sherborne School for Girls, a post she held for thirty years. Beatrice oversaw the growth of the school from 14 pupils when it first opened on 20 September 1899 at Ramsam House to 287 pupils when she left in 1929. From 1929 until her death in 1940, Beatrice … Read more
‘Send party to cottage Newland opposite cinema. I trapped’ – this message was relayed to the local emergency services at 17:19 on 30 September 1940 by Maude Steele (1901-1997), the supervising telephonist at Sherborne Telephone Exchange who was later awarded the George Medal for her bravery that day when she refused to leave her post … Read more
Mary Kilsbey (also known as Kelsbey, Kelsby or Kilsby) of Sherborne was from the age of five brought up by her relative John Derbie of Sherborne, a wealthy mercer. ‘By a great pain in the head’ Mary lost her sight when she was nine-years-old. In his will, John Derbie (died 1 May 1713) left to … Read more
Ada Elizabeth Kearvell was born on 24 October 1871 at Warfield, Berkshire, daughter of Francis Kearvell and Charlotte (née Sparkes). She trained as a nurse at the Royal Devonport Hospital. In 1901 she was appointed staff nurse at the Yeatman Hospital in Sherborne and in 1908 she succeeded Miss Clarke as matron, a position she … Read more