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The SDFHS Blog

Somerset Photographers 1839-1939

Posted on 25th June 2018

On 31 August 1844, an advertisement in the Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser announced that, during the following week at the Bowling Green, Warwick “Master Augustus Gyngell, only eight years of age, the child with the iron nerve, will make his daring and astonishing flight across the Green, from an immense altitude, surrounded with fireworks, as the Spirit Ariel, travelling at the rate of 200 miles an hour” We’ve not found a report which might have verified the height or the speed of... more

Milborne Port and the local area in WWII

Posted on 23rd June 2018

Our next Sherborne event is on Saturday 30 June - 230pm in the Raleigh Hall on Digby Rd - when Richard Duckworth will be presenting old film footage of the area around Milborne Port/Sherborne during World War II The film, which Richard has compiled, shows what was happening in our area during WWII, including footage of Home Guard training, events just before D Day in 1944 and the celebrations in Sherborne at the end of the War We hope that the film will revive memories for those who lived... more

The Railway History of Yeovil, South Somerset & West Dorset

Posted on 2nd June 2018

On Saturday 9 June, Roger Marsh will be giving a talk for the Society on The Railway History of Yeovil, South Somerset & West Dorset in the Raleigh Hall, Digby Rd, Sherborne DT9 3NL at 230pm With the advent of Brunel’s broad gauge railway from London to Bristol and onwards to the west and the London & South Western Railway line from London to Southampton under the leadership of Joseph Locke, South Somerset and West Dorset found itself in an area eagerly wanting to join the new era in... more

The Greenwood Tree – June 2018

Posted on 26th May 2018

Paul Radford, Editor of the SDFHS Journal, The Greenwood Tree, previews the contents of the June issue which is now being printed and will be posted to all members in early June SDFHS members can already download the electronic version from the Members' Area of the Society's website Migration from the West Country to the New World and the colonies is the main theme of the June edition of The Greenwood Tree, coinciding with the staging of what should be one of the most exciting family... more

Emigration from the West Country

Posted on 11th May 2018

It is now twenty years since the successful ‘Dorset and the New World’ event took place in Lyme Regis in June 1998 when more than 250 people attended, including a group of Americans from the Mary & John Clearing House who happened to be in the area at that time The Mary and John was the ship that sailed to Dorchester, Mass in 1630 carrying settlers from Dorset, Devon and Somerset The voyage was arranged by the Rev John White, the vicar of St Peters, Dorchester The speakers in... more