The Greenwood Tree – December 2025
Posted on 25th November 2025
The theme of the December issue of The Greenwood Tree is My Favourite Story and it marks the fourth and final edition of our 50th anniversary year. Editor Paul Radford previews the magazine which will be mailed to members at the end of November and which SDFHS members can already view or download from the Members’ Area of the Society’s website.
The front cover of the magazine present something of a novelty – an image produced by Artificial Intelligence. The image represents a scene from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles with Tess propped up against a stone amid a misty background.
The magazine’s theme produces several interesting stories with probably the most eye-catching being the tale of an unlikely and tumultuous romance between Irish MP, Captain William Magan, and fishmonger’s daughter, Ellen Miles. Rachel Hassall’s account has everything you could imagine – a court case for breach of promise, adultery with an earl’s daughter, an acrimonious divorce, a wedding, bouts of excess and a suspicious death soon afterwards.
Janet Hall’s tale of an ancestor with the wonderful name of Artemas Golledge is also fascinating. Her investigation tended to suggest that this affluent tea dealer from Bath led a double life involving a woman named only as Miss Jay by whom he had at least three children.
Other contributors to our theme include Glen Jennings, Ann Fell, Cynthia Walcot, Mark Lindley-Highfield, Jill Hosker and Richard Smith.
In other stories, Jeannette Simpson recounts the tragic life story of a distant cousin, Arthur Disball, a Dorset train driver who went to India during World War One to work on the East India Railway. He married while in India but died of typhoid within a distressingly short time.
Our continuing interview series takes a different direction. Since the series started, The Greenwood Tree editor has always conducted the interview. In this issue Bob Barber, the previous editor and subject of the interview in the September magazine, turns the tables and interrogates current editor Paul Radford.
Regular features include Dorset Spotlight, this time on Yetminster, the Dorset History Centre Roundup, the SDFHS Photographic Project and Letters to the Editor. There is also a brief report on our recent AGM/Open Day in Sturminster Newton.
Paul Radford