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John Pouncy

Mar 23rd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Although beginning his working life as a house decorator, John Pouncy became a pioneer in the development of photography, a creative but somewhat immodest genius who had to contend with rivalry over the inventor-ship of the process he was convinced he could rightly lay claim to. He also had a sympathetic and philanthropic side to his character that was once put to good use when he lent nursing assistance at the local hospital during an epidemic of cholera. John Pouncy’s was a fascinating and innovative nature, at first somewhat restrained in the full potential of its expression by his first mundane occupation, but the course of his life was first to take a drastic turn.

Pouncy was born in Dorchester on July 16th 1818, the son of William Pouncy, a Piddletrenthide labourer and his wife Mary. In 1843 he married Mary Ann Sprackley, the mother of his first child Walter, though she died in 1846. Just four years later Pouncy met and married Mary Catherine Wills, who presented him with another son and four daughters who all apparently died young or before reaching adulthood.

Until 1854 Pouncy was painting and decorating houses, glazing windows, gilding and carving, but then the new science of photography so gripped his imagination that he resolved to dedicate the rest of his life to it. From then on, and for the next four years, he had to support his new occupation with the earnings from his first one. As late as 1859 the Dorset County Chronicle carried a report “…Mr Pouncy’s proper profession is that of a house painter.”  Three years earlier Pouncy announced through the Chronicle that he intended to publish a photo-illustrated gazetteer of Dorset featuring pictures captioned with historic commentaries.

But John Pouncy had another aim: to resolve through experimentation a major drawback of early photography: that of fading. At the time photographic prints were produced by the salts of silver process, an emulsion notoriously susceptible to fading, and which would hinder Pouncy’s intention to produce permanent visual records of Dorset. To circumvent the shortcoming, Pouncy resorted to photo-lithography, itself a still very imperfect process. Yet Pouncy’s attempt to unite lithography with photography met with some success with the publication in 1857 of his book “Dorsetshire Photographically Illustrated” – the first English publication ever to feature photo litho-graphic illustrations.

Dorset Photographically Illustrated is a remarkable achievement for the time. It is original in technique and so not at all what would be expected from one who semi-abandoned the painting and decorating trade for a discipline in which he had no prior training. The book features 80 illustrations, each with two or more pages of historical narrative and 200 double-panel 8” x 11” pages. The text is peppered with erudite classical quotations from nature poets such as Cowper, Thomson and Wordsworth, and the writing is that of one trying to impress the reader with his learning. What comes across is the mind of an intelligent, practical autodidact who clearly shows an overriding preoccupation with landscapes. Indeed, Pouncy was only concerned with photography for professional reasons; he nurtured no desire to undertake commissioned work for illustrating the publications of others.

Despite the success of the book Pouncy was sufficiently dissatisfied with the quality of the prints to attempt further improvement through experimentation. Spurned on by the offer of an award from the Photographic Society of London to anyone who could solve the problem of fading. Pouncy worked on a process, the basic principle of which had been discovered by Mungo Ponton in 1839. Ponton had noticed that paper coated with potassium bichromate became photo-reactive. Pouncy then coated paper with bichromate, but added gum Arabic and vegetable carbon to it. Having reported his results to the Photographic society in 1858, Pouncy then patented his process. He then continued to perfect the process over the next four or five years, and in 1863 he took out another patent, though acrimony was following not far behind as the question of who had truly been the inventor of carbon printing arose.

Pouncy did however receive some recognition for his pains from Thomas Sutton, editor of the journal “Photographic Notes,” and in 1859 he was finally awarded the French silver Duc de Luynes Medal. It is probable that John Pouncy did have a legitimate claim as the inventor of carbon printing, and he himself certainly thought so, even believing that he could rightly lay claim to the gold Duc de Luynes medal, awarded to a French rival, Alphonse Poitevin eight years later.

Besides the Duc de Luynes prize Pouncy was awarded medals from Scotland (1863), Prussia (1865) and Edinburgh (1867); furthermore his studio received patronage from the Prince Consort, Albert, and the Prince of Wales. It is widely suspected that a photograph of Thomas Hardy as a boy of 16 in the author’s archive was taken by Pouncy – not by any means the sole connection between the two men, as will presently be noted.

But the dispute over rival claims of inventor-ship and bickering within the profession that Pouncy experienced, diminished his ardour for the new art soon after the 1863 patent was granted. Throughout the 1860’s he was still ‘moonlighting’ as a decorator, but the premature deaths of his sons by his second wife left Pouncy with only Walter to inherit his photography business. And in September 1872 the transition from father to son was done and dusted.

What Hardy did in writing to exteriorise Dorset, Pouncy did likewise in his photographs. And it is through this common life-mission that the two men’s paths inevitably converged. Consequently there exist several firm pieces of evidence that Hardy knew of Pouncy’s work and book, even if the latter had never taken that teenage portrait of the famous writer. These points can be summarised as follows:

(1) In Hardy’s novel “A Laodicean,” the central character William Dare is a photographic inventor seemingly modelled directly upon John Pouncy. In his carrying about of camera, tripod and equipment, Dare appears to be doing precisely what Pouncy would have done in preparing for his book on Dorset.

(2) When compiling Dorsetshire, Pouncy was in consultation with the architect John Hicks over matters of style and restoration. At exactly this time (July 1856) Hardy became apprenticed to Hicks for his architectural training.

(3) In 1881 Hardy was contemplating producing a book of his own on Dorset, very much along the lines of Pouncy’s, though in collaboration with Henry Moule.

(4) Even more compelling evidence that Dorsetshire was known to Hardy comes from the book itself. In its description of Kingston House, Pouncy explains how the brick building came to be faced in Portland stone: “…on one occasion before the notion had even entered the worthy owner’s head that Portland stone might be used advantageously to veil the brick walls of his mansion he was conversing with his illustrious visitor about the house.. The King [George III] however, did nothing but utter the words “Brick Mr Pitt, Brick…..” Hardy appears to be reproducing the same incident in almost identical wording in “The Hand of Ethelbert:”  “…to a stone mask worn by a brick face a story naturally appertained…one which has since done service in other quarters. When the vast addition [i.e. the modern manor house]…had just been completed, King George visited Enchworth. The owner pointed out the features of his grand architectural attempt and waited for commendation. “Brick, brick, brick, said the King…Thin freestone slabs were affixed to the whole series of fronts by copper cramps and dowels.”

John Pouncy died in March 1894, aged 75, after contracting a cold that developed into bronchitis. In its obituary the Dorset Chronicle & Somerset Gazette stated that he was a successful worker whose long study of his subject and its intricacies imparted much valuable information to the younger generation. Even in his last weeks of illness he was not content to stay indoors but would set out in the winter cold that probably hastened his untimely end.

Walter Pouncy, John Pouncy’s only surviving son and business heir, was born in Fordington in 1845. The 1891 census for Dorchester records that he married Eliza Rudduck, a Reading woman, at Leeds in December 1881, and lists his occupation as that of “Photographic Artist.” By the time of the census Walter would have had full control of his father’s business (thereafter renamed W. Pouncy’s Photographic Institution) for 19 years.

Walter seems not to have possessed either his father’s inventiveness or his flair for controversy; he therefore did not cut a noticeable dash in Dorchester society. Nevertheless he maintained and built upon John’s archive of Dorset landscapes over another four decades and, perhaps like his father, personally knew and took studio portraits of Hardy.

Pouncy also made slides for illustrated lectures given by Harry Pouncy, a distant relative and namesake, on the subject of Wessex. When in 1914 the Dorset County Chronicle published a large landscape panorama of Maiden Castle taken by Walter (his chef d’oeuvre) it credited him with being simply “the doyen of Dorchester photographers.” A large collection of his pictures is in the possession of the County Museum. Walter Pouncy died in 1918, exactly a century after the birth of his father.

The Shaftesbury Byzant

Mar 16th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The military significance of Shaston would not have been lost on Alfred the Great when he built the town in 880 AD; perched on a hilltop 700 feet above the plain approaching enemies could be seen while they were still miles away. There was, however, one major drawback: Shaston had no natural water supply.

Alfred was king of Wessex from 871 to 899 but no record exists of how this problem was overcome in the early days of the town. The existing wells were not adequate for the task and the sandstone rock being very porous possibly rainwater would have been collected and stored. Shaston’s demand for water increased as it grew in importance and became a place of pilgrimage attracting medieval tourists from far and wide. At some point the Corporation came to an agreement with the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham to draw water from the springs at Enmore Green, and carting water up to the town became a source of employment for many people.

Records dating back to 1518 tell how it was the custom on the Sunday after Holy Roode Day in May for the Mayor and Burgesses to lead the people of every parish within the borough of Shaston down to Enmore Green at one o’clock in the afternoon. There followed an hour of dancing led by a couple married during the year who were born and had lived all their days in the borough of Shaston.

At 2 o’clock the dancing ceased and the serious business of the afternoon got under way. Shaston’s greatest treasure in those days was its prize Besom, the Byzant. Made by a craftsman the Byzant looked somewhat like an umbrella gilded and mounted on a tall pedestal and decorated in the style of a May garland with valuable jewels lent for the occasion by some of Shaston’s better off citizens.

The precious Byzant was offered by the Mayor to the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham who accepted it as payment for the right to draw water from the spring. So valuable was the Byzant to the people of Shaston they had no intention of giving it away even for the right to draw water and they would take with them gifts with which to buy it back.

Tradition has it that the Mayor presented the Lord of the Manor with a pair of white gloves, two wheaten loaves, a calf’s head and a gallon of ale all for his own use. The Lord of the Manor would then hand the treasured Byzant back to the Mayor and invite him and all the people of Shaston to stay awhile. There followed a further hour of dancing before the Mayor and Burgesses led a procession of townsfolk back up Tout Hill to the town where the rest of the day was spent dancing and making merry.

After over four hundred years the ceremony ceased in May 1830, a time when many of the townsfolk were living in poverty and it was felt the considerable cost of staging the ceremony, with large sums being spent on feasting and drinking could not be justified. The minutes of a meeting on the 3rd of May 1830 read, “The Corporation resolved to approach Lord Grosvenor to dispense with the ceremony.” Lord Grosvenor (created Marquess of Westminster in 1831) was then the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham and he agreed to abolish the ceremony but he kept the borough’s Byzant.

The ceremony was briefly re-introduced in 1972 and by all accounts was an attraction that was a great success.

The Byzant found its way back to Shaston (nowadays known as Shaftesbury) in 1924 after the death of Lady Theodora Guest, daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Westminster. Her daughter, Miss Augusta Guest, presented it to the Shaftesbury Town Council. For many years it resided in the Mayor’s parlour but more recently its home has been the Shaftesbury Town Museum where it is on permanent display.

All Saints – Hilton

Mar 12th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The heart of this place is a quintessential sleepy Dorset village tucked up on all sides by surrounding hills. Arthur Mee spoke of it “gladdening the traveller’s heart,” but that was long before the local authority built an estate of modern housing here in the seventies. Nevertheless this is a quiet and peaceful part of the county and the surrounding woodland is an ideal setting for the nearby Nature Reserve run by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

What we see today of All Saints Church at Hilton is of the 15th and 16th century but the 12th century font, fragments of 12th century architectural ornament and the quirky position of the south porch reveal that there was an earlier church on the site.
 
The church is built of partly squared rubble and flint, the roofs covered with slate and lead. Consisting of west tower, nave, chancel, north and south aisles to the east of each and structurally undivided from the aisles are north and south chapels entered from the chancel through side arches; to the north of the tower is the vestry.

The west tower and the south porch are of the 15th century and the anomalous position of the south porch extending more than four feet into the south aisle suggests that at some time the aisle has been widened, probably when the nave, with its north and south arcades, and chancel were rebuilt and the north aisle added: the north arcade probably rests on the foundations of the original north wall. The windows in the north wall are from nearby Milton Abbey as are some of the gargoyles found on the north wall including one of a man playing the bagpipes.

The tower has three stages topped off with an embattled parapet and pinnacles rising from gargoyles at the corners. The top stage has a belfry window on each side and there is a smaller similar east window in the second stage. There are six bells dating from 1626 to 1684.

More hand-me-downs from Milton Abbey can be found hanging on the north and south walls of the lower stage of the tower just above the 12th century font. The two large modern frames each carrying six 15th century panels depicting the apostles. Each panel is 7’3” x 1’3” and they come from a screen in Milton Abbey. About these Pevsner brusquely comments “badly done” but the parishioners of Hilton seem to like them well enough and prominently display them.

Chesil Churches

Mar 3rd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Dorset’s Chesil Bank is a 15-mile (25-km) shingle bar, which has impounded a coastal lagoon, The Fleet. This geographical feature has a long tradition as a beachhead for smuggling and as a danger to walkers and shipping. The belt of coastal country up to about 5km inland encompasses a number of parishes, which have been protected from the sea by the Chesil. The churches of five of these parishes are described here. From north-west to south-east these are Puncknowle, Abbotsbury, Portesham, Langton Herring and Fleet.

Puncknowle lies about 1km east of Swyre and possesses a predominantly Norman parish church dedicated to St. Mary. The church stands on raised ground beside the manor overlooking the one-sided Village Street and the Crown Inn. St. Mary’s incorporates the Bexington Chapel in the south aisle. This commemorates St. Giles, the original chapel of the Saxon village, which was sacked and raised to the ground by French pirates in 1440.

Since the 8th of September 1451, Puncknowle has been unified with neighbouring Bexington, a move carried out by the Bishop at the behest of patrons. The chapel was built for the use of visitors and for some time before the Dissolution it had been in the possession of Bindon Abbey. Following unification with Bexington it was decreed that the Rectors should celebrate in the chancel of Bexington once a week and on St. Giles Day. The chapel was restored in 1660 and later presented to Puncknowle as the Bexington Chapel (or Aisle.) Since 1966 it has been in use as the church’s vestry.

The nave of St. Mary’s is modern, and the memorials to be seen here and elsewhere are mainly those of the local manorial family. The north aisle in particular features many Napier memorials, such as a helmet, gauntlet and spurs of the early 17th century, and tablets dated to 1616 and 1620. There is also an undated tablet, which is thought by some to date from when Sir Robert Napier, a former High Sheriff of Dorset, died in 1615. An unusual feature of this inscription is that it consists only of initials in English, Latin and Greek. It could refer to Robert Napier of Puncknoll (1617-1686,) Sir Robert’s grandson, or his son Robert Napier (1642-1700.) There is a further undated memorial to William Napier in the Bexington Aisle. The north aisle of St. Mary’s was added in 1891. Outside, there is a moss-covered slab at the foot of the tower, believed to be the lid of a stone coffin dating from the 14th century. Near the back of the burial ground an iron gate leads to a turreted and gabled early Jacobean manor in grey weathered stone, widely regarded, as the county’s most charming. Chestnuts; popular with rooks enclose the churchyard.

The village of Abbotsbury is noted for the large swannery, which the Fleet lagoon has naturally created, and is the largest of the five occupying the coastal hinterland described here. The Church of St. Nicholas is built of local buff sandstone with Portland dressings. It is mainly 15th century, but was rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 16th century with portions of the older building incorporated. The church was restored in 1885. There is a fine embattled tower with six bells. The lintel of the west tower doorway bears an emblem of the Trinity.

On the hill to the south west and situated 700 yards seaward of the church is the chapel of St.Catherine. St. Nicholas was defended for the King during the Civil War, and to this day the fine panelled Jacobean pulpit bears two bullet holes it sustained during the conflict. Standing in the porch is an effigy in Purbeck marble, (actually a grave slab from the earlier Abbey church) of a late 12th century abbot, possibly a general representation of the ecclesiastical figure after whose title the village takes its name. Two stone coffins can be seen against the wall opposite the north porch. The 15th century stained-glasswork is a notable feature of this church and the panes in the north and south aisle windows are noted for their subtlety of colour. Of special interest is the second window in the south aisle which shows the delicate face of a woman thought by some to represent St. Catherine, but is more likely to be the Virgin Mary from a Crucifixion window. The Chapel of St. Catherine, although it is only 45 feet by 15 feet, has walls 4 feet thick. Every part, including the panelled ceiling and roof, is of stone.

Portesham is a parish with a rich historical background, and further has responsibility for the hamlets and manors of Corton, Shilvinghampton and the Waddons. The Church of St. Peter already existed at the time of Domesday, though the Norman structure dates from the 12th century. Originally the chancel and nave may have been shorter, and the aisles further west than today. The chancel is 13th century and these are two blocked 12th century windows above the chancel arch. St. Peters was largely re-built in the 15th century. Indeed, it is the oldest building in the village. The lower part of the tower is Saxon, though traces of Norman work remain to be seen in the north wall of the nave and in the 13th century font. There is a 13th century piscina in the south aisle. The church is built in a limestone reflecting almost white in sunlight, with a well built, typically ‘Dorset’ tower incorporating the remains of an earlier tower on the north side.

As at Abbotsbury, the church and village suffered skirmishing during the Civil War, when some musket balls were discharged into the door of St. Peter’s, though these have since been removed. The interior is mainly re-ordered Victorian work. It displays the hatchment of Sir Andrew Riccard, a Portesham-born seaman and squire who was Lord of the Manor following the Restoration in 1660, and who granted many of his tenants 999 year leases. The inscription reads ‘Possum’ (I am able.) His father Walter Riccard is commemorated by a slab in the floor of the nave near the font. There are also memorial hatchments or plaques to members of the Mansfield and Thresher families, and to a former vicar, John Charles Molyneux.

Probably the most curious feature of the church is the grave of a local farmer, William Weare. Weare had the outlandish death wish of not wanting to be buried inside or outside the church. Accordingly he was buried beneath the wall of the south aisle in 1675, where a table-tomb and plaque mark the spot. The plaque bears an 8-line epitaph, which begins: “William Weare lies here in dust as thou and I and all men must…” There is a monument to Mary Weare inside the south aisle, abutting that of William. There is also a rough-hewn rock grave memorial to John Galpin, a former vicar, in the churchyard.

The principal commercial activity of the village of Langton Herring has been the production of lime, and the buildings are mainly constructed in the local yellow stone. The manor owns (or owned) a one-mile stretch of Chesil Beach. The Church of St. Peter is a building of local rubble with freestone dressings, possibly built or rebuilt in the 14th century. It is said to have been severely damaged in a fire in the 17th century, after which the west tower – one of the country’s smallest – was added in the 18th century. Major restoration also took place in 1827 & 1858. On these occasions the vestry and south aisle were added, and the nave was largely rebuilt with an arcade or two bays. The floor of the chancel features slab memorials to John Hazelwood, rector 1670 and his son Francis and William Sanford, rector in 1627. The font is an octagonal bowl with quatrefoil panel in each face, a stem with trefoil-headed panel in each face, and a stepped square base. In the chancel there is a stained glass window inscribed “In the Resurrection they are as the Angels of God.” There are memorials to Edward Cox Trenow (1851,) the son of a former rector who is buried with his wife in the churchyard, and to William Sparks who died in 1829 aged 70. The churchyard also contains the communal grave of four boys who were overcome by the fumes of a lime kiln they were playing near.

The original church of the small community of Fleet, only half a kilometre from The Fleet, is only one of the five to have just the chancel remaining after the rest of the church was severely damaged in a great storm in 1824. The manorial Lords were the Mohun’s, a family who came to England with William the Conqueror, and who are remembered in two brass plates in the chancel.

However, a new Holy Trinity with chancel, nave and west tower, was built a quarter of a mile further up the valley at the expense of the vicar George Gould, in memory of his son John who died in 1818. This church is built in the style of the 18th century Gothic Revival, though today the ashlars are reddened by lichen. In the tower there is a wall plaque recording the destruction of the first church and the building of the new. Its first stone was laid on the 25th of April 1827, and the Rev Robert Gray, the Bishop of Bristol consecrated the church, on the 25th of August 1829. Several beech trees grow in the grounds, which are fenced off by railings.

In the old church there is a brass memorial to John Meade Falkner, the author of Moonfleet. But it was in this churchyard, not Holy Trinity, that the John Trenchard of the story sat on a tombstone above the Mohun vault, where the smugglers hid their contraband.

John Gould – Dorset Birdman With a Dark Secret

Mar 3rd, 2010
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Dorset can number many noted figures among its sons and daughters. Perhaps the most extraordinary character to emerge from the county in the 19th century was John Gould, though many would not have heard of him. Gould made a name for himself as an ornithologist of undeniable ability, and apparently he was also a gifted illustrator, who rose to become the toast of Victorian society.

John Gould was borne in Lyme Regis in 1804, the son of an estate gardener. Of his earliest years and education little or nothing is known, though his schooling appears to have been very elementary. His father’s own talents however, led him to secure a position as a gardener in a country estate and, ultimately, to a position of head gardener at the Royal Gardens at Windsor. But his son John’s real educator was the natural world. In the gardens, woods and fields of Dorset the boy’s future passion for ornithology was fostered.

This led young Gould onto an almost obsessive desire to preserve birds and animals for posterity. From another gardener who was skilled in the practise he learnt taxidermy, and discovered in himself an ability to preserve birds using only their dehydrated skins and feathers. With this newly acquired skill John Gould set up a taxidermy business in Windsor, where his unusual eye for the natural stance of birds and animals won for him the recognition of many clients and even the patronage of George IV.

When in 1827 the newly formed London Zoological Society held a competition to fill the position of its first director and curator, Gould entered and won the competition. Three years later, following the acquisition by the Society of a large collection of Himalayan exotic bird skins, the first curator was fired with the desire to bring the specimens to life in a lavishly illustrated book. The subsequent publication proved to be the turning point in Gould’s life. It won such great acclaim from the scientific world that it was said of John Gould that his expertise even surpassed that of the great French artist Audubon. Other books of exotic bird illustrations followed including ‘Birds of Europe’ and the seven-volume ‘Birds of Australia,’ which has an estimated value of over £150,000 at auction today.

But Gould’s reputation didn’t stop at being a master-ornithologist and illustrator. He was also a producer, director, publishing magnate, and entrepreneur – even a bit-player in the emergence of evolutionary theory. For it was John Gould to whom Charles Darwin entrusted for identification the bird-skins he had collected in the Galapagos Islands during the famous voyage of The Beagle. He was able to classify the specimens as eleven new species of finch – the very birds, which through the subtle changes or adaptations to different niches they displayed, Darwin would later use as a pivotal piece of evidence for evolution by natural selection. Darwin, on later reviewing his notes for ‘The Origin of Species’ realised that the birds had come from different islands in the archipelago, but it was Gould’s eye for detail which played an important part in the conclusion the naturalist came to concerning evolution.

Though his Victorian public were awe-struck by the apparent skill he showed in the reproductions in his bird books the underlying truth about John Gould was rather different. The buyers of his books were led to believe that he was a gifted ornithologist and illustrator, but Gould was no artist. He was actually perpetuating a caddish deception upon his readers when he had absolutely no need to mislead them.

The myth was perpetuated partly through a crafty captioning of the pictures in a way that suggested that he and his wife Eliza were the co-illustrators responsible for them. Certainly Eliza Gould was responsible for some of the lithographs in the books. But the truth is that the brilliant hand-coloured pictures were mainly the work of others, and the main illustrator was not mentioned at all. Some of the lithographs featured were even the work of Edward Lear! Gould is said to have worked these illustrators unreasonably hard, though he had no need to resort to the pretence of being a competent artist; his genuine reputation as an ornithologist would have stood by itself, as his knowledge of birds was second-to-none.

Furthermore, John Gould was far more a shrewd businessman than an accomplished draftsman and one with a very mean streak. His avian knowledge assisted Darwin in conceiving the theory of evolution, yet he would brazenly lie to dealers to save himself the expense of a new specimen, borrowing it instead for an artist to draw before returning it unvalued. Gould seems to have believed that his books would have greater appeal if they were considered the work of his genius alone. And almost certainly he intended that the general public and the scientific establishment would believe he was as much bird artist as bird expert.

But if Gould was miserly and deceitful in business he was a genteel and affectionate father in his family life. After Eliza’s early death he reveals in a surviving letter to another correspondent a heartfelt concern for his offspring’s welfare, writing that he “wanted to do the best for my dear little children.” But to Edward Lear, himself riddled with insecurity he was “a queer fellow who meant well, though a more singularly offensive-mannered man hardly can be.”

Gould’s life is now well told in a biography by travel writer Isabella Tree. In ‘The Bird Man: the Extraordinary Story of John Gould’ the author suggests that it was insecurity about his lack of education which lay at the root of Gould’s predisposition to deceive and plagiarise.

But bird fanciers have him to thank for one more legacy: he was responsible for introducing the budgerigar into Britain.

Fire at Evershot

Feb 23rd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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18 Houses Destroyed – Over 100 Homeless

On Tuesday 26th September 1865 at Evershot a fire destroyed eighteen houses, the property of the Earl of Ilchester, making more than one hundred people homeless. The houses were in Summers Lane and the main street: the residents living in Summers Lane lost nearly all their possessions the people on the main street were more fortunate having time to salvage some of the contents of their homes before the fire took them. The wind carried the flames and sparks across the narrow road on to a barn and slaughterhouse occupied by Mr. Trenchard a butcher.

Reporters from ‘The Western Gazette’ and ‘The Western Flying Post’ ascertained from enquiries on the spot that the fire was started by hot ashes being placed in a back house connected to the premises occupied by Mr. English, a carpenter. The flames were discovered about one o’clock in the afternoon “the whole house being almost instantly enveloped in flames.” The neighbouring houses with their thatched roofs as dry as tinder, the result of a long drought, it was clear that the whole of the lower end of the town was in danger of being engulfed in the fire.

Police Constable Hare was on the scene almost immediately and despatched messengers for the two fire engines kept at Melbury House. Telegraphic messages were sent to Yeovil for more fire engines and to Dorchester for police officers. ‘The Western Gazette’ reported “ The request for the engines reached Mr. Bradley, the Captain of the Yeovil Volunteer Fire Brigade, at a quarter past two, and his engine started in fifteen minutes after its receipt, and reached Evershot in 45 minutes” drawn by four of Mrs. Bulleu’s best horses. Before its arrival a change in wind direction had driven the flames across the main street and “house after house fell victim to the flames” making both the main street and Summers Lane impassable.

The heat was so great that it was impossible to approach any of the burning premises. ‘The Western Gazette’ reporting “It seemed probable that the fire would sweep up both sides of the street, and wipe Evershot out altogether. It was only by dint of the most strenuous and well-directed exertions of those in charge of one of the Melbury House engines, and of the Yeovil Brigade engine, that this catastrophe was averted, and the fire confined to the lower end of the village.”

It being agreed that attempting to extinguish the fire in the houses where it was already raging was useless all the efforts of the firemen were directed to cutting off the flames and preventing the fire spreading down the street. Fortunately there was an abundant supply of water in a stream only a hundred yards or so away. By keeping the houses next to those which were burning completely saturated with water, the firemen finally got control and saved the rest of the village.

The names of the families of those persons made homeless: Charles White, labourer; George Brett, tailor; E. Rutley, labourer; T. Frampton, labourer; A English, carpenter; S. Christopher, butcher; W. Groves, labourer; J. Groves, shepherd; J. Childs, labourer; J. English, labourer; J. Tompkins, labourer; J. Groves, gamekeeper; A Sartin, widow; J. Perrett, cooper; S.Chubb, shopkeeper; J. Edwards, bootmaker; E Knell, tailor; S. Jessop, labourer and Mr Trenchard, butcher, lost his barn and slaughterhouse.

The buildings were uninsured presenting the Earl of Ilchester with a substantial loss. Mr Chubb’s stock and furniture were insured but his loss still amounted to £100. The local newspapers reported “A body of police soon arrived from Dorchester; and under Supt. Brown, who happened to be in the village, and Sergeant Vickery, they rendered valuable assistance.” No life was lost nor was anyone injured. 

Those reporting the event were quick to comment on the way the community all pulled together regardless “to class or station.” Singled out by the Press for particular praise were the following individuals:Mr. Baskett, solicitor; Mr.Martin; Mr Baring, the Earl of Ilchester’s steward; the Rev.Greenhill, Mr Clapcott and Mr.Forward; and the Rev. Collins, the clergyman of the parish, and his wife and daughters, were seen handing to each other the buckets of water for the engines. Mr. Clapcott, Mr.Collins Mr.Martin and others, opened their houses and provided refreshments for all that needed them.

The following week the local press was still following the story but by now it was the darker side of human nature they had to write about. “Blankets and bedroom carpets, which had been saved from the fire disappeared most mysteriously, and the contents of a butt of cider, the property of Mr. S. Christopher, which had been removed to Mr Knell’s garden for safety, were likewise stolen”  ‘The Western Gazette’ continued “ We trust that the heartless wretches who took advantage of this great calamity to rob their neighbours may be speedily brought to justice.”

By early morning on the Sunday following the disaster it was reported that from 600 to 1,000 people, the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns and villages, had come to see the scene of the fire. In the evening the church was crowded and many strangers were present. The Rev. E. Collins selected his text from the first verse of Proverbs chapter 27.“For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

The Parish Church of St. Mary’s – Glanville’s Wootton

Feb 22nd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Elsewhere we have looked at the history of Glanville’s Wootton, a parish in “the Vale of the Little Dairies” as Hardy called the Blackmore Vale. Today the tradition of dairy farming continues in the parish, carried on at Round Chimneys Farm by Mr Rich. I went to see the Church, which is to the east of the village and approached by the narrow Church Farm Lane. You can park opposite the church in an area provided; I was greeted from an adjacent paddock by a friendly and inquisitive mare and her foal.

St. Mary’s is surrounded by a well kept churchyard in an attractive setting bounded by stone walls. Built from course rubble with ashlar dressings and roofed with stone slates, the south chapel, the oldest part of this house of God, has walls of knapped flint with Ham Hill ashlar dressings and bonded courses.

Entered through the 15th century south porch St. Mary’s comprises a west tower, nave, chancel and south chapel. The short west tower is 14th century and embattled having two stages outside and three storeys inside with a lancet window in each side of the upper storey. The belfry is home to six bells. The nave is 15th century; subsidence of the north wall due to it having been built over a line of ancient coffins resulted in it being re-built under the supervision of G. R. Crickmay in 1875-1876. The Norman font is of Purbeck marble.

It seems the only part of the chancel not re-built during the restoration by Crickmay is the very large hagioscope or squint. There are two modern clergy stalls by Robert Thompson of Kilbury, York, known as the “Mouseman,” because all the work produced by this firm of craftsmen is decorated with a carved mouse.

The gem of this place is the Chantry south chapel of 1344, separated from the nave by a wide spanning arch. It is a well preserved example of 14th century architecture about which the experts say “it has not greatly altered from its original form.” This was endowed by Sybil de Glanvyll so a priest would say Mass for the departed every day for ever. The beautiful stained glass east window is pointed with three lights with tracery. The chapel has two bays and two windows in the south wall, each are of three lights with tracery. All the chapel windows are 14th century. In the south east corner of the chapel is a piscina (there is another in the chancel) and directly under the windows in the south wall are two tomb recesses; the one to the east with an effigy of a man clad in a military style cloak. The chapel is furnished with high Victorian benches.

Inside St. Mary’s are monuments to Rev. Humphrey Evans (1813); Thomas Mew (1672) rector; members of the Williams and Henley families; John Every (1679) and his mother Anne (Williams) Hurding (1670; James Dale (1833); John and Elizabeth Leigh (1752 and 1783). There are floor slabs in the chancel of Margaret Allen (1662) and Nicholas Rickard, rector, (1707.) In the tower of John Pine (1643) and Ursula Pine (1639).

The church registers date from 1546. Available at the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester are the registers of baptisms 1549-1886; marriages 1546-1997; banns 1754-1908 and burials 1578-2000.

You will find a selection of photographs of St. Mary’s in the photo gallery.

John Mowlem

Feb 21st, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Many people will have noticed the name Mowlem on the side of heavy construction machinery without giving a thought to the story behind the name. But this business of international renown had, as had so many others, very lowly beginnings: with a man born in an ancient cottage at Carrants Court, Swanage on October 12th, 1788. John Mowlem was one of six children; four of who were boys, born to a general store keeper whose name was also John.

By the early 1800’s when he would have been in his early teens, young John joined his three other brothers at work in the Tilly Whim Purbeck stone quarry. These were the days when child labour for farms and industries was universal because it was cheap. But by 1812 the effect of the recession caused by the long naval war with France had hit the Purbeck quarries, and Tilly Whim closed.

During these years it is believed that Mowlem came under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Bell, Rector of Swanage from 1801 to 1809 and a learned schoolmaster, though the younger John’s education came mainly through the experience of his working life. Another milestone for Mowlem came in 1804, when Henry Manwell, a son of a friend of John Mowlem senior, left Swanage to go to work as a stone cutter in Portsmouth, but not before suggesting that his son John could find employment in the same industry in the Isle of Wight.

Accordingly and soon after, Mowlem threw up his job in the Purbeck Quarry with the original intention of finding a job in London. About this move there is a romantic story of how, with little more than his sack of tools, John persuaded a local captain to grant him a free berth on his vessel. But Mowlem’s nephew George Burt later noted that John did not go directly to London but stopped off at the Isle of Wight. Here, at the Norris Castle Quarry, he found his first job outside of Dorset.

After he had been at work in the Norris Castle Quarry for some while Mowlem was spotted by James Wyatt, an architect who recommended him to Henry Westmancott, one of two brothers in charge of running a masonry and sculpture workshop for the Government Masons Department in London. Following up this recommendation Mowlem left the Isle of Wight and moved into lodgings adjacent to the Westmancott’s in Mount Street, near to the site of the shared workshop in Pimlico.

It was during these earliest years in London, sometime in the first decade of the 19th century, that Henry Manwell’s sister Susannah visited her brother, by then living in London and working as the rate collector for St. Marylebone. Inevitably this brought her into contact with John Mowlem, to whom she soon found herself attracted, and in 1812 he and Susannah were married. That year Robert Burt, long a friend of John’s married Susannah’s sister Letty in Swanage Church.

At this time the Government masons works had contracts for work at Greenwich and Kensington Palaces, the Royal Mews and Somerset House. For all these contracts in the capital Mowlem was made foreman over all the workers in 1816. He was later to record that he was put over men “..old enough to be my father.” But despite the promotion, Mowlem did not hold his boss in any high esteem. Indeed, he said of Westmancott that he was a hard niggardly taskmaster who paid him only punitive wages. He further wrote that the only virtues he (Westmancott) possessed, which he made a point of emulating were punctuality and cleanliness.

Mowlem left the Westmancott’s works in 1822 to found his own company with only about £100 capital, though he was much helped by several friends including MacAdam, who pioneered pitched road surfacing. Initially the company had much to do with the paving of roads, but as soon as he was solvent Mowlem took out a lease on a wharf in Pimlico basin, on the site later occupied by Victoria Station. It was to these works that the contractor imported Purbeck Limestone, York Sandstone, and Aberdeen Granite for many of the London landmarks we know today. With the help of his brother-in-law Henry, Mowlem next moved his office and yard to Paddington Wharf, then known as Little Venice.

Two of John’s brothers James and Joseph also went into business of their own in London, leaving Robert the only one of the brothers never to leave Swanage. Then in 1853 George Burt, who had mastered the craft of masonry in the Swanage Quarry, went into partnership with Mowlem in the capital. A third, a Yorkshireman called Joseph Freeman then joined the two men to form a company, which then operated under the name Mowlem, Burt and Freeman. Freeman married Elizabeth Burt, George’s sister in 1839.

Shortly before 1840 the company began work on its first major contract: re-paving Blackfriars Bridge with a Telford pavement of Granite setts. This was the first such pavement of its kind, and the contract specified that a delay in completion would incur a heavy penalty with no stage payments. But a shortfall in the supply of the granite led Mowlem to purchase another quarry on Guernsey. It was therefore Burt and Freeman who were left to manage the business during the time that Mowlem was overseeing the shipping of the rock from the Channel Island. Following the success of the undertaking Mowlem went on to re-pave London Bridge and the Strand.

But Mowlem was considering retirement before 1838, when he would have been 50. He is often regarded, together with Burt and William Morton Pitt, as one of the three gentlemen of Swanage. Morton Pitt was a wealthy entrepreneur and Dorset MP who had built Belvedere, a seven-room house in Swanage for which Mowlem made a failed purchase bid of £260. A Chancery sale took place at the Royal Victoria Hotel in 1838 and included the hotel itself, the Quay, Seymer Place, Sentry Field, the Watch and Preventative Station, Durlston Quarries and Whitecliff Farm. Mowlem moved into 2, Victoria Terrace, a road named after the future Queen who, when a Princess, made a brief stay at the hotel Pitt had developed and which was itself re-named after her.

Between 1858 and 1860 Mowlem bought the estate now occupied by most of Swanage north of the brook and extending to Ulwell. During these years he played a part in the construction of the town’s first pier (now gone) and the granite memorial on the seafront to King Alfred. In 1862 he added a memorial to Prince Albert and founded the Mowlem Institute, now the Mowlem Theatre.

Mowlem passed his retirement by watching the coast from an observatory on the roof of the house and by starting a famous diary, which he kept for the rest of his life. Burt meanwhile took full charge of Mowlem’s company in 1844 and undertook an ambitious landscaping project in what is today Durlston Park. This included the estate’s castle and The Great Globe, a massive 40-ton stone ball made in the Mowlem works and shipped to Durlston in 15 segments. Here the monument was set up on a platform just below the castle.

John Mowlen died in 1868, ten years before his company would become involved in electrifying the tramways, including the work of building the Northumberland Avenue Tramway, so beginning the long association of the name Mowlem with today’s transport infrastructure. In recent times Mowlem’s company also built the Dorchester by-pass, the new London Bridge, the Vickers Tower on Milbank, London Airport, and roads and docks, sewers and tunnels.

St. Edwold’s, Stockwood – Dorset’s Smallest Church

Feb 19th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Tucked away below the northwest slopes of Bubb Down between Chetnole and Melbury Osmond is the tiny hamlet of Stockwood, home to the smallest church in Dorset.

The church, unseen from the road, is not difficult to miss. First you must find the farm track that leads without announcement to Church Farm. The church is huddled together with the farmhouse and easily mistaken for an outbuilding, even from the track. A footpath thankfully sign posted leads across a field to a brick footbridge and once over that you may have the uncomfortable feeling that you are trespassing in the farmer’s front garden. Directly ahead of you is the church and to your left, just four gravestones.

These lonely memorials to past inhabitants reinforce the feeling that life and time has passed this place by. Even Pevsner when he visited tarried only long enough to scribble half a dozen lines about the place.

As well as being the smallest of Dorset’s churches it is alone in being dedicated to St. Edwold. According to the Salisbury Cathedral calendar St. Edwold is remembered on August 12th a fact that will probably pass un-remarked in Stockwood.

Edwold was the younger brother of Edmund; the East Anglian king who in 870 during the late Saxon period was brutally murdered by or on the orders of the Dane Ivarr the Boneless. Edwold, perhaps wisely in the circumstances, declined the throne choosing instead the hermit life. He spent the last year of his life in Dorset.

Edwold, according to legend, was told in a vision to go to Silver Well. When he arrived in Cerne he paid a shepherd for bread and water with silver pennies and in thanks the man showed Edwold the well and he established a hermitage nearby. It is assumed he also had a cell at Stockwood, because this place was earlier known as Stoke St. Edwold. The holyman was ‘a heremite of high perfection’ and in 987 when the monastery at Cerne was rebuilt Edwold’s remains were reburied in the Abbey.

The present building dates from the early 15th century although its dedication to St. Edwold suggests it was built on an earlier Saxon foundation. The single cell construction, in which the Chancel and Nave are structurally undivided, measures just 30ft by 12ft. The early to mid 15th century east window is of three trefoiled lights with tracery in a two- centred head with a label and returned stops. In the north wall is a window with two trefoiled lights; while on the south wall are two windows, the eastern of early 15th century date and of two trefoiled lights in a square head. The western window is of 16th century date and of three four-centred lights in a square head with a label. The west porch was added towards the middle of the 17th century around the same time as the delightfully pillared and domed bell turret, which is topped off with ball terminal and pinnacles. The present bell was purchased in 1877 and was re-hung in a new framework in 1988.

“Neatly pewed” is how the church was described in 1870 so it seems that during some later restoration probably carried out towards the end of the 19th century much of the original church furniture was removed. The remaining altar rails and pews date from the later part of the 19th century, as does the font.

The four headstones beside the church mark the graves of 10 people. The small upright stone commemorates the short life of a beloved daughter, Mabel Christopher; she died in March 1884 aged just 6 years and 9months. A large upright stone is a memorial to John Bird (1812-1867). Another large upright stone tells us that Jonathan Wilton is buried here, he died three days before Christmas 1873 aged 72 years. The fourth monument, an upright stone with a cross on top, remembers the Wilton family: William (1770-1840), his wife Elizabeth (1775-1805), William Jeans (1790-1825), three children who died in infancy, and Samuel Wilton Jeans (1820-1826) are all buried here.

For hundreds of years this was a separate living, with its own parish priest but in 1888 it was united with the rectories of Melbury Sampford and Melbury Osmond. St. Edwold’s Church is now in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust.

Services are rarely held here now but the church remains consecrated and through its simplicity and tranquillity continues to minister to anyone persistent enough to find it.

The Church of St. Nicholas – Nether Compton

Feb 16th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Approached by turning off the Sherborne toYeovil road Nether Compton is a picture postcard village sitting on the county border with Somerset. A narrow lane, edged by thick hedgerows that shield large houses from prying eyes, leads to the centre of the village widening, as it becomes the main thoroughfare bordered by houses in a variety of designs. Some of these homes are not quite as old as they appear, and many built from the local stone, which on a sunny day glows golden, as does the church.

The Saturday afternoon I visited the village was the day of the fete: blue skies and a minor heat wave blessed the event and the older gentlemen, seen making their way to the fete, had used this opportunity to don shorts and straw hats. Not many women about but I think they were all occupied putting the final touches to the arrangements for the fete.

I had come to see the church, dedicated to St. Nicholas it has stood here for seven-hundred-years. Approaching the 13th century south porch you can see dials cut into the stone on each side of the entrance; add a peg and you have a basic sundial, used in times past to tell the time for services. As you enter the church you will see on your right (east) the stoup.

Entering the 15th century nave through the south porch before you on the opposite wall is a cross in sunken relief enclosed by a circle, it is one of several about the place; “They are the crosses cut where the stone was splashed with holy water during the church’s consecration,” I am told. The seating consists of some twenty pews dating from the 17th century. There is an oak pulpit moulded and carved probably 16th century.

The stone screen is of the 15th century and a feature of the church. Including the doorway to the chancel, it has five bays; the wide bay to the south allows priest and congregation to see each other. The chancel’s east window is 15th century and I am told the stained glass is modern.

The west end of the north chapel is 15th century but the rest is later. In the chapel is a beautifully carved statue of St. Nicholas date unknown but probably 15th century.

The 14th century font is at the base of the west tower and has an octagonal bowl, moulded under edge with an octagonal to square stem and chamfered base. The bell chamber above is home to five bells; one from the 15th century, one-dated 1585, two dated 1658 and one modern. The tower houses the mechanism of a clock erected in 1770 about which the church guide tells us “It works well except for its tendency to lose five minutes a week” – the guide was written some years ago so that has probably been put right by now.

Hutchins tells us that in the 18th century a third of the inhabitants of Nether Compton were employed making coarse linen cloth from flax grown locally. A century later according to the 1851 census, no one in the village was employed in this trade but some of the women were glovers; probably out-workers for factories in Yeovil and Sherborne, which we have discussed elsewhere on Dorset Ancestors. The 2001 census counted a population of 303 of whom about 170 were of working-age: most of them would commute to Sherborne or Yeovil.

It occurred to me as I was leaving that Nether Compton could be the backdrop for many of my favourite television dramas – Jane Marple would have been very much at home here.

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