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
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
In 1657, Mary Whetcombe gave to Sherborne Abbey a candelabra in memory of her husband John Whetcombe, a former churchwarden. The candelabra, which was probably made in Holland or by London silversmiths to a Dutch design, is the earliest dated example of its type in England. Made of brass, the candelabra is topped by a … Read more
Lucia (the Latinised version of Lucy) Toogood is named in the 1547 Sherborne Court Rolls as a ‘tithingman’ – a parish officer elected to preserve good order. Was she Sherborne’s first policewoman?! Rachel Hassall Further reading: Joseph Fowler, Mediaeval Sherborne (Dorchester: Longmans Ltd., 1951), p.222.
Emmeline Mary Tanner was born on 28 December 1876 at Locksbrook Place, Weston, Bath, Somerset. The eldest of seven children born to Samuel Thomas Tanner, a coal merchant, and Jeanetta Jane (née Fry). At the age of 13, Emmeline became a student teacher and went on to teach at private schools in Birmingham, Southampton, and … Read more
WOMAN “MAGNIFICENT” was one newspaper headline reporting the news that Miss Maude Steele, supervising telephonist at Sherborne Post Office Telephone Exchange, had been named as one of sixteen recipients of the George Medal listed in the London Gazette on 3 January 1941. Instituted by King George VI on 24 September 1940, the George Medal (GM) … Read more
In the Commonwealth War Grave section of Sherborne Cemetery can be found the only war grave in Sherborne to commemorate a woman who died on service during the First World War. The grave belongs to Dorothy Stacey (1893-1918) (1923-1943), and the inscription on her headstone reads: 2/R/S/519 STAFF NURSE D.L. STACEY Q.A. IMP. MIL. NURSING … Read more
Winifred Spooner was born at Woolwich in Kent on 11 September 1900, the fifth child and only daughter of Major Walter Boulton Spooner and Annie (née Kirk). From 1916 to 1918, Winifred attended Sherborne Girls’ School, boarding at Aldhelmsted West. After briefly studying domestic science at Reading University she worked for a short time at a … Read more
Was this Dorset’s last witch trial? At the County Petty Sessions held at Sherborne on 25 September 1884 a woman was tried for stabbing her elderly next-door neighbour with a darning needle. This seemingly minor case created considerable interest because the attack was the result of the woman believing her neighbour had ‘witched’ her daughter … Read more