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August, 2012:

Bloxworth

Aug 24th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Nowadays there are only a few cottages in Bloxworth fighting to be seen amongst the modern housing developments that were causing controversy as long as forty years ago, when Nikolaus Pevsner speaking of Bloxworth complained: “Many of the red brick cottages are derelict, or have already been demolished, and new housing south and west of the church includes some unpleasing showy abodes of Bournemouth commuters.”  But it has not always been such. In 1939 Arthur Mee spoke of Bloxworth as being: “as pretty a village as an artist could wish to see, with its thatched cottages scattered among the trees…” and in 1906 Frederick Treves called it: “..the daintiest hamlet…”.

The parish covers a little over 2,800 acres in a narrow strip of land about five miles North, North West of Wareham; it is a wooded area stretching across the northern edge of the south Dorset Heath and bordered by Morden and Bere Regis.

The Church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The reset late 12th century south doorway to the nave and the early cross-head in the vestry suggest there has been a church on this site since before the end of the 12th century. The tower was built in the 14th century and the nave was partly or possibly wholly rebuilt around the same time, though the south wall was refaced and the north wall rebuilt in the late 17th century. The north chapel, known as the Savage Pew, is also of the late 17th century, dating before 1683. Also, the 17th century saw the south porch added, which was restored during the general restoration of 1870 when the vestry was added and the chancel rebuilt to the design of George Evans. It has been described as over-elaborate and is a good example of our Victorian forefathers getting over enthusiastic about their church restorations. The font is from the early 17th century and the tower houses two bells.

Inside the church there are some interesting memorials including some to the Trenchard and Pickering families and there are heraldic paintings of arms belonging to the Savage and Strode families. The Savages were lords of the manor here in the 17th century. Most unusually there remains the original hour glass with stand; after the reformation the length of sermons was limited to one hour (see photo in gallery.)

In the churchyard there is the tomb of Robert Welsteed, who was Rector here from 1597 until his death in November 1651. The inscription reads:

“Here lies that reverend orthodox divine

Grave Mr Weksteed, aged seventy-nine

He was the painful pastor of this place

Fifty-five years compleate, during which space

None justly could his conversation wound

Nor’s doctrine taint, ‘twas so sincere so sound

Thus having his long thread of life well spunne

Twas cutt, November tenth in fifty-one,

1651.”


Another Rector of this parish, John Morton, went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury (see our article: ‘A Cardinal’s Progress – the Life of John Morton of Stileham’ in the Bloxworth Category.)
 
In 1868 The Reverend Octavius Pickard-Cambridge came to be Rector of Bloxworth in addition to his service to the parish of Winterbourne Tomson. He immediately set about planning the re-building of the chancel as a memorial to his father. He was an expert on spiders and is reputed to have identified in the county 800 species of these creatures and wrote a book about the Spiders of Dorset. After forty-nine years of ministry at Bloxworth he died in 1917.

Of interest also is Samuel Crane who was born at Bere Regis in 1746. (See our article: ‘Samuel Crane – Farmer Diarist of Bloxworth’ in the Bloxworth Category.)

Bloxworth House was home to the Strode family and is essentially a 17th century building of some note. It is occasionally open to the public. There is a story that says there were originally three bells hanging in the church tower but the tenor bell was damaged and the Squire and the Churchwardens had it removed for repair. However, it seems it was sold for sixteen shillings and converted into a large brewing copper, which was installed in Bloxworth House.

Hutchins says life in this parish was hard. Today, it seems that many who live here work elsewhere and possibly enjoy a less physically demanding life-style than that endured by their forefathers.

Solved! – the Sherborne Horse-Bone Mystery

Aug 15th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Philip Grove and Arnoldo Cortesi came from very different backgrounds and had very different destinies. Cortesi would one day become Rome correspondent of the New York Times; Grove however, put on a uniform for the First World War and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in 1917. Yet as boys in 1911 these two men found themselves fellow pupils and friends at Sherborne School. They also shared a passion for the ancient merely because it was old, including fossils that they discovered they could collect from a disused quarry to the north of the town out of school hours.

One day the boys returned from one of their explorations in the quarry with a fragment of bone they claimed to have found on a pile of rubble at the entrance to a cave since quarried away. Cortesi first showed the bone to some other boys who were not interested, but when he attempted to discard the bone in the dayroom fire an older boy called Ross Jefferson intervened and advised Cortesi to show it to the school’s science master, Robert Elliot Steel, first. Steel, who had himself collected mammoth and woolly rhinoceros bones from the quarry for the school’s geological collection, could see that the ancient looking bone bore the crude engraving of a horses head, and asked Cortesi to supply a statement about how the bone was found.

The school bursar then passed this certificate on to Joseph Fowler, a master, who in turn donated all his papers about the bone to the Smith Woodward Archives at the Natural History Museum in London. The bone itself was sent to the museum’s curator of geology, Arthur Smith Woodward, for examination. In a paper prepared for the Geological Society in 1914 Smith Woodward described the find as “an apparent Palaeolithic engraving of a hog-maned Mongolian horse”, and at a subsequent meeting his opinion remained unchallenged by members.

The next development in the saga came in 1924 when William Sollas, Professor of Geology at Oxford, wrote a paper in which he expressed the opinion that, to date, finds from known Palaeolithic sites in England lacked evidence of early artwork. Woodward considered that the semi-fossilised condition of the bone proved its Palaeolithic authenticity because such a condition would have been impossible for a modern forger to replicate. Any attempt to do so, he thought, would have resulted in flaking.

Woodward contacted Arnoldo Cortesi, by then writing for the New York Times
in Rome, for an assurance that the find was genuine, since he thought that Sollas suspected that Cortesi had forged the artefact. However, after Grove had been killed at Arras, his mother and brother affirmed that Phillip was adamant the Sherborne “Palaeolithic” horse was genuine.
 
In 1926 Sollas said that his assistant, C J Bayzand, would confirm that the etching on the bone had been copied from the drawing of a horse on a bone found in a cave at Cresswell in Derbyshire without Sollas ever having seen the Sherborne specimen.
 
A group of boys working on the school’s museum collection told Bayzand that the bone was a fake, even claiming that it came from a rubbish tip on the Bristol road.

Woodward did not reply to his charge of forgery, but in a letter to Nature in 1926 Elliot Steel apologised to Bayzand for the hoax the boys in the museum had played on him! He described how the bone had been found and that a group of older boys, jealous of the discovery, concocted and disseminated the forgery story. Sollas never replied to Steel’s letter, but Professor Boyd-Dawkins effectively demolished Sollas’ evidence.

From the 1950’s onwards however, the bone came under much more intense scientific scrutiny and examination. In 1957 Dr Kenneth Oakley conducted a fluorine test, which gave the bone an upper Palaeolithic age. But when was the image of the horse’s head carved onto it?

In 1978 Professor Douglas, who had succeeded Sollas, accused him of neglecting
to notify Woodward that the Sherborne bone was really a fake before Woodward presented his paper to the Geological Society in 1914, in order to discredit him.

Further tests by Dr Anne Sieveking and Dr M Newcomer demonstrated it was possible for the bone to be engraved with a flint, a finding at odds with Smith Woodward’s opinion that it wouldn’t have been possible to inscribe bone without flaking it. In addition, high magnification showed that the image’s etched lines disappeared into fine cracks. This indicated the bone was already degraded before the etching was done. But were the cracks the result of heat or frost? – and when were they formed? Could an artistic Palaeolithic hunter have used an already degraded bone?

It was pointed out that the odds against two boys only ten days at school finding in a large quarry a bone from a horse species long extinct in this country, then engraving a representation of its head on it were so remote as not to merit consideration. DNA analysis however, was considered but thought to be too hit and miss.

If the bone could be identified as coming from the species of horse apparently portrayed on it, then this would be evidence pointing towards a prehistoric age, though this could not prove anything about the age of the image. As this was not possible and as there was some distinction between the muzzle detail of the Sherborne and Cresswell horses, a conclusion of probable forgery was arrived at.

Furthermore, in 1994 high magnification examination of the bone at Cambridge revealed the grooves of the etch-marks to be so fresh that, unless they had been scrubbed clean, they must have been cut in modern times. Radiocarbon dating and chemical analysis did prove the bone to be a mammalian rib – and no older than the 14th century, thus conflicting with the Palaeolithic result from Oakley’s 1957 fluorine test. Evidently the etching was carried out by a modern person using a modern tool.

The probable reconstruction of events is as follows. It was true that Cortesi was a skilled draughtsman who had won a prize for drawing at the school. It was believed therefore, that, with no intent to deceive, he had copied the Cresswell horse onto the bone in the school’s museum, his talent in this regard contributing to its acceptance as genuine. The idea of hoaxing Elliot Steel may have been Ross Jefferson’s, who suggested that the boys should show the bone to Steel. After learning the bone had been sent to the British Museum, the boys decided to confess to Bayzand, but he failed to pass the information on.

Sollas and Bayzand thus dismissed the engraved rib upon the word of two schoolboys without seeing or inspecting the find. So the overall conclusion is that the horse bone was indeed a forgery, and one fooling many scholars and scientists for almost a century.

Incidentally, the school’s museum, around which so much of this drama unfolded, was bombed and gutted during an as yet incomprehensible air raid on Sherborne in 1940, despite being a small country abbey town having no munitions factories, ordnance depots or obvious strategic significance.

Melbury Bubb

Aug 7th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The small parish of Melbury Bubb sits on the eastern slope of the wooded Bubb Down in the north west corner of the county, several miles south of Sherborne and  close to the border with Somerset. “Very extensive and beautiful view” is how the Imperial Gazetteer of 1872 describes the area.

 Melbury comes from the Old English ‘maele’ and ‘burh,’ translated this means ‘many coloured fortified place.’ Where the suffix “Bubb” comes from is uncertain; perhaps it is no coincidence that a Saxon named Bubba resided here before the Norman Conquest.

Melbury Bubb Manor House was rebuilt during the 17th century and includes remains from an earlier building; it stands close to the Parish Church of St. Mary in the north-west of the parish.
 
The church is built from local rubble with freestone dressings. The roofs are slate covered. The south tower forms the main entrance to the church and dates from the 15th century. The initials ‘W B’ appear on the tower suggesting a date of 1470-1480 when Walter Bokeler was rector. The rest of the church seems to have been rebuilt about the same time and was rebuilt again in 1854 under the supervision of Withers, the Sherborne architect. Several of the older windows are incorporated; these traces of 15th century glass depict scenes from the life of St. Mary, the parable of the foolish virgins, symbols of the evangelists and the coats of arms of the Maltravers and Warre families.

The Font is remarkable, being a pre-Conquest stone from the 10th or early 11th century. A cylindrical tapering bowl, formerly part of a circular shaft reversed, the face is carved with a continuous design depicting beasts and interlacement. Beasts include a stag (frequent on Celtic crosses), biting a serpent whose coils interlace the feet of the other animals; a tall horse with paws not hooves; a lion with a mane, biting a small dog with its tail between its legs; and a large animal with a mane (probably a wolf) facing the horse. There are two small legged dragons between the larger animals. This whole scene is presented upside-down and suggests there was a standing cross here in Saxon times.

Among the monuments in the churchyard is a stone to Thomas Baker (alias Williams) “Murdered 1694.” Thomas Baker was a farmer who was murdered on 10th of November 1694. Some will have us believe that on the anniversary of this horrible event the ghost of Thomas Baker and his horse and cart can be seen in the village travelling along Murderer’s Lane.

Portesham Hellstone

Aug 3rd, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The Hell Stone is an example of a Long Barrow with stone interior; it was the entrance to a Neolithic long barrow burial chamber that was originally covered by a mound of earth and consists of nine upright sarsen stones supporting a single capstone. There are several other long barrows in the vicinity; these were used before the round barrows of which there are about four hundred in the Bride Valley area west of Dorchester.

As the centuries passed the burial chamber collapsed and on the 11th of June 1886 a team of men came from Portland to restore it, incorrectly it seems, and failed to reposition the massive capstone. This was placed in position three years later on the 14th of August 1869 when eight quarry men came and completed the task using screw jacks.

Hutchins in his ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset” says: “The common people call it Hellstone, and have a tradition that the devil flung it from Portland Pike, a north point of that island full in view, as he was diverting himself at quoits.” The opening of the barrow faces towards Portland. Hellstone is a local variant of the Old English ‘Heelstone’  or the Saxon word ‘Helian’  meaning to cover or conceal and refers to the capstone. The name has nothing to do with the Devil or his domain.

We have placed a photograph of the Hellstone in the photo area.

Winterborne Stickland

Aug 1st, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Winterborne Stickland, together with the closely associated Winterborne Houghton, are two of the settlements occupying a chalkland valley on the edge of Blackmoor Vale between Blandford and Milton Abbas. The forename Winterborne refers to a seasonal spring which dries up in summer; Stickland, means “the dweller at the steep path” (from the old English sticol or stickel, meaning steep.) It is likely that the name refers to the Chalky Path, an ancient trackway leading up the hill from the village.

Pevsner records the survival of about 12 prehistoric round barrow burials in the two parishes, indicating human activity, at least for funerary purposes, was taking place from at least the early second millennium BC. But in the centuries following the Norman Conquest the village was peripheral to the estate of Milton Abbey, and grew and prospered as “Winterborn Stikelline” under the influence of the Abbey up until the dissolution.

After the church, the oldest building to survive in the village today is Quarlestone Farm. This farm is thought to have been most likely established as a grant of land by William I, though it is first mentioned as being held by William Quarel in 1232. Later it became the home of the Skinner family, Thomas Skinner being interred in the church. The farmhouse is L-shaped with a rendered façade, and the north range incorporates an early hall assigned to the early 15th century.

There are no original window settings in this farmhouse, so the banded walling cannot be original either. The roof of the hall was constructed with arched braces, but these are now concealed by an inserted floor. The 17th century east range and stair projection, are in alternating ashlar and square flint bands. To see the original flint and stone walls the visitor needs to go to the rear of the farmyard. Today the farmhouse is separated from the farm and its outbuildings.

The parish church of St. Mary’s is mainly 13th century, with a late 15th to early 16th century tower and later re-orderings and alterations carried out in the 18th century. The vicarage was built in brick with flint bands in 1685; a further wing was added in 1768 and further additions were made to the building in the 19th century. Above the main door the coat of arms of the vicar incumbent at the time is displayed. (See our feature about St. Mary’s in the Winterborne Stickland Category.)

Stickland had a brewery, which survived as such until the 1890’s, when it became The Malt House, originally a range of three cottages later converted into a private home. The brewery made use of the pure water of the Winterborne stream, which rises on Bulbarrow, and was formerly run by Hall and Woodhouse before that business moved its operations to Blandford. During the conversion of the Malt House a pair of shoes made for a small child was discovered in an attic, sparking an intriguing mystery with possibly sinister undertones as to who the shoes belonged to and how they came to be there.

Two other important public buildings in the village are the Crown Inn and the village pub, The Shire Horse. Although it has traditionally been an isolated, self-contained community, Stickland has enjoyed good services and supplies, including a store and a good Post Office.

Consequently, the villagers have rarely had to travel as far as Blandford for their provisions. Until about the 1920’s a drainage gully ran down the west side of the village’s North Street.

The village had grown up with a mixture of building types and ages, with vernacular thatched cottages interspersed with more modern housing including some bungalows. Three roads converge at the village green, where the base of an old cross survives. There are also two prominent old lime trees. The northernmost of these trees stands near the church and a cluster of several thatched cottages; more cottages built in courses of red brick and flint stand near the southern lime tree. During the 19th century some Victorian villas were added to the housing stock.

But early photographs reveal that many houses have since been demolished. For instance, next to St. Mary’s there stood a white single-storey building (known as the Terrace) believed to have been the centre of a milling industry. The post office, originally occupying Corner Cottage, was re-located in 1906.

A school to accommodate 130 pupils was opened in 1861, and two Methodist chapels, a Wesleyan and a Primitive, where also established here. However, Whitchurch Chapel was demolished in 1973, and a cottage in The Hollow and two other cottages were demolished in the 1950’s. A serious fire in 1955 destroyed the Church View Stores and a pair of cottages.

In 1896 Mr & Mrs Henry Hambro of Milton Abbey visited the village and gave each household a joint of beef. The memory of this family and the philanthropic gesture behind this unusual event is commemorated in the Pamela Hambro Hall, opened in 1934. Part of the Milton Abbey estate was sold by auction at Blandford Corn Exchange in 1932.

One interesting addition of the 20th century commemorating the local industries is a new village sign set up on the green where the three roads meet. The sign unveiled by the sculptress Elizabeth Frink in 1988, is the work of local craftsmen and portrays brewing, smithing, spinning, button making and working the land.

Stickland suffered in the agricultural depression of the 1870’s, when there was a decline in the population, partly due to northward migration in search of factory work. Indeed the 1881 census returns for Chorley in Lancashire showed that 12 people in that parish working in the cotton mills had come from Stickland. As recently as 1991 that year’s national census recorded a village population of 540, of which 51% were of retirement age or over.

One interesting tradition of Stickland in particular is an extended family with scions or offshoots which has adopted the main name of the village; for example the present parish priest of Quedgeley near Gloucester is only a first generation descendant of a man from Stickland who migrated to South Wales.