History

LOST DORSET NO. 21 STURMINSTER NEWTON

David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

This view of a busy Monday market in 1906 perfectly depicts ‘Stur’ as the bustling provincial capital of the Blackmore Vale. It was then a world of yeoman farmers, Hardy’s ‘Vale of the Little Dairies’, whose small dairy herds grazed the Vale’s wellwatered clays. The arrival of the railway in 1863 transformed their fortunes, opening up a new market for liquid milk, to London and Bournemouth, as well as the creamery that opened in the town shortly before the First World War. In Tales of Dorset Olive Knott, born in Rixon Hill in 1903, gives an account of the fortnightly market as described by her father. ‘Pigs, cows, sheep and dairy produce were bought and sold under the watchful eye of all and sundry, midst hearty greetings and backchat, a jovial gathering of folks from miles around all clad in their ‘second best’.’ A policeman watches proceedings from outside the police station. The livestock market finally closed in 1997, and the more recent closure of Shaftesbury Cattle Market in January 2019 means that there are now no livestock markets in Dorset, ending a once vital link in the rural economy that stretches back to medieval times.

dovecotepress.com

Lost Dorset: The Towns 1880-1920, the companion volume to Lost Dorset: The Villages and Countryside, is a 220-page large-format hardback, price £20, and is available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers.

OBJECT OF THE MONTH THE SHALE BRACELET

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

In advance of the building of residential development at Foster’s Field, Tinneys Lane, an excavation was undertaken by Exeter Archaeology in the summer and autumn of 2002. A multi-phase prehistoric settlement was uncovered with traces of occupation ranging from the Early Bronze Age to the 14th century.

The Late Bronze Age phase, around the C12th – C11th BCE, revealed compelling evidence of one of the best examples of pot-firing to have been obtained within the whole of prehistoric Britain. This included burnt bases for bonfire firing, spreads of broken, burnt and over-fired pottery sherds, structures that were possibly drying racks and pits for holding clay and water. Analysis of the sherds, from one of the largest assemblages ever recovered, showed that bucket-shaped or ovoid jars were predominant amongst other vessels being made on the site. These were hand-built using the coil method and most contained deliberately crushed calcite within their fabric. They were decorated using fingertip, fingernail or tool impressions; some having incised diagonal or horizontal lines. Clay was dug out from the matrix of Fullers Earth just south of the site, forming terraces. Speculation grew that some of the pottery may have been produced for distribution covering a limited local area, including South Cadbury, where similar plain ware had been found. There was further evidence for the manufacture of bronze items in the form of moulds and bellows tubes, indicative of melting and casting taking place.

Alongside this industry there was also evidence for domestic activity such as small tools, ornaments and items related to food consumption: querns, charred plant remains and animal bones, mostly from sheep and goats. Bones and teeth of small horses were found; these were not eaten, however, but used for riding and traction. Spindle whorls were indicative of the craft of weaving. Late Bronze Age peoples were early farmers and grew and ate grains like spelt, emmer wheat and barley supplemented with hazelnuts, hedge fruits and arable weeds such as fat hen and orache. The excavation further revealed a series of seven post-built roundhouses as living quarters, which would have been thatched with reeds. A number of cores and hammerstones suggest they created multi-purpose tools from the flint-knapping process; they also worked bone and antler to make some extraordinarily delicate implements such as gorges for fishing in the river Yeo.

Society was tiered and the status of individuals was indicated in a highly visual manner through the wearing of bone pins, pendants or shale bracelets, as pictured. The shale is hand-worked and finely finished, about 76 mm in diameter; some pieces were found in an outer post hole of a hut, perhaps as a special deposit of some kind. This ‘exotic’ item was likely to have been imported from the Kimmeridge Beds some 55 km away and provides exciting evidence of trade and long-distance contact.

While the settlement, artefacts, crafts and trading of specialist goods like the shale bracelets are very typical of other known Late Bronze Age sites across southern England, the major difference with the Foster’s Field site was the discovery of specialisation of potterymaking on a large household scale, linked to probable export within the local area.

sherbornemuseum.co.uk

Several items from the Foster’s Field excavation are currently on view at Sherborne Museum, on long-term loan by kind permission of the Dorset County Museum.

Sherborne Museum is open for its winter hours of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10.30am-4.30pm

DORSET VILLAGE CUSTOMS

Cindy Chant and John Drabik

powerofforever/iStock

Dorset’s folklore is rich with fascinating customs and unusual seasonal rites. Some have their roots embedded deep in our history and originate from rituals to ensure the growth and survival of the community. Many are shared with other counties, but some are unique to particular towns or villages.

In Sherborne we have our Pack Monday Fair, held in October shortly after Michaelmas, when the harvest was complete and a new cycle in the farming year had commenced. However, despite many suggested theories, the origins of this annual custom are uncertain. One popular belief is that it celebrates the completion of the Abbey restoration in 1490, after the fire damage. The evening before, at midnight, there is the ‘Teddy Roe’s Band’ – a custom where children and townsfolk gather, with cows’ horns, to bugle their way in procession through the streets of Sherborne. Over the years, many other noise-making instruments, such as pots and pans, were employed. The fair itself is a colourful array of stalls, sideshows, eating outlets, and a travelling funfair. For some, the highlight of the year, with entertainment, socialising, shopping and feasting.

A lesser-known Sherborne custom was ‘Up to Lodge’, where children from Sherborne and surrounding villages looked forward to receiving two brand new shiny pennies presented to them by the castle owners. At 9am on Christmas morning they would eagerly make their way to the Castle Lodge to receive this gift. The custom may have started with gifts of oranges, but by the 19th century it had evolved into giving four pence to adults and two pence to each child.

In Leigh, there is a survivor of an ancient method of selling, a ‘candle auction’, which takes place annually in June. The bidding is for one of two separate plots of land within the Parish, and the winner has rights to the land for a year. A candle is lit and the auctioneer takes bids until the candle flame goes out, whoever bids last is the winner. The auction was once conducted in the Carpenters Arms, with a customary free glass of whisky with every bid, but now it is held in the village hall. Originally the money raised was for the poor and to maintain the parish cottages, with the earliest records dating from 1732, but it is believed to date back before then.

In 1897 a grotesque, wooden mask went missing from a barn in Melbury Osmond. It was a huge hairy bull head with horns and human features, and a hinged jaw with gnashing teeth. It is called the Ooser, and some suggest it had connotations with medieval witchcraft and fertility, as it, or he, was often depicted

chasing women to fulfil his carnal desires. It was used in parades around the village on Christmas and May Day festivities. The larger-than-life Ooser has now been adopted by the Wessex Morris Men and regularly appears with them, including at their annual ‘Fertility’ May Day gathering on the Trendle, at dawn, followed by dancing in the streets of Cerne Abbas, and breakfast in one of the hostelries.

The Trendle is a small rectangular earthwork above the Cerne Giant and may have been the site of a temple dedicated to the cult of Hercules. This hill was a regular site for pagan rituals, as a maypole was sited permanently here until 1635. The villagers would go up the hill every May Day and dance the maypole, which has its origins as a fertility dance and possibly connected with early druids. Regardless of its origins, there were always garlands of flowers, Church Ales, and joyful merrymaking to ‘Bring in the May’.

Many villages have an annual custom where residents, with bells and musical instruments, would walk the entire boundary of their village, to make known to all where the boundaries lie. ‘Beating the Bounds’ has its origins in Roman times as a festival dedicated to the god Terminus. This quaint custom once had a whiff of violence, as at various places boys in the parade would get a tanning from the village elders, so that they would always remember the boundary landmarks.

Dorset has its fair share of gruesome customs, one of which was ‘cudgel fighting’, open to all daring young men who felt inclined. Revels Inn near Middlemarsh was once a popular venue for this bloody sport. It consisted of a rowdy crowd, much alcohol, and two protagonists with one arm padded with sackcloth and the other sporting a three-foot-long hazel staff. Initial blows would be to the body until the opponent bends doubled up with pain, and then you are allowed to whack your opponent over the head, and if there is a substantial stream of blood, the winner is declared and he stays on to fight the next man. There were intercounty championships with teams of up to 20.

I hope you have enjoyed our little foray through just some of the many legends, folklore and customs of our beautiful county.

Cindy and John offer guided outings to some of the places mentioned in this series plus many more of Dorset’s churches, stained glasses, wayside crosses, sacred springs and ancient stones. For details, please contact John at dorsetchikung@hotmail.co.uk or on 07807 835227.

Specialist Matthew Denney will be in the Sherborne area on Thursday 31st March to value your objects & antiques

CORNELIS DE MAN (1621-1706) & JACOB VAN SPREEUWEN (1611-c.1650/60) SELF PORTRAIT WITHIN A TROMPE L’OEIL CARTOUCHE PANEL BOUGHT FOR £156,250

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