LOST DORSET NO. 33 RHODE BARTON, LYME REGIS

David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

The sight of early primroses in Dorset’s hedgerows has long been a first glimpse of the coming of spring – of longer days and warmer weather. But I don’t think I have ever seen such an abundance of primroses as in this postcard from about 1910. Here they completely cover a hillside at Rhode Horn, north of Lyme Regis on the county boundary with Devon. The children sold the flowers in Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Another seasonal task for children was gathering hazelnuts in the autumn. Working children were an important source of income in many rural households. Boys provided extra hands in the field, helping with the ploughing and carting. Girls scared birds, picked stones and weeded crops. Dorset’s school log books, which legally had to be kept by the schoolmaster or mistress, regularly list absences by both girls and boys for potato planting, haymaking, and harvest. The beginning of the autumn term was often delayed by a late harvest.

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The Dovecote Press has been publishing books about Dorset since 1974, many of which are available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers. This photograph is taken from Lost Dorset: The Villages & Countryside.