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The SDFHS Blog

Intriguing Photographs (1) – Some Answers

Posted on 4th July 2017

My thanks to Gareth for coming up with an answer to my query so promptly and pointing out that the castle in question is on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, and known as Branksome Castle The two photographs above are taken from the same angle Brownsea Island is now owned by the National Trust and Branksome Castle is leased to the John Lewis partnership and is used as 'a corporate hotel by their employees' Brownsea Island has a very interesting history and more can be found on the National... more

Intriguing Photographs (- first in series)

Posted on 25th June 2017

We cannot help but be intrigued by mystery photographs They may be of people staring out at us from long ago or they could be of buildings or locations now completely unknown to us I would like to challenge you with two photographs found in one of those lovely old Victorian albums which, if we are very lucky, are found to exist somewhere in our family The album belonged to my great, grand aunt Ada Collings born in Nether Compton in 1869 and I have reason to believe it was a gift, possibly... more

The Greenwood Tree – June 2017

Posted on 30th May 2017

The June issue of The Greenwood Tree will be appearing shortly and is due to be posted to all 2017 Members this week It can also be viewed and/or downloaded as a PDF file in the Members’ Area of our website As we did in the March issue, we have preserved the colour content in the digital version, so it’s well worth having a look on-line In addition to the usual wide range of articles, this issue contains details (yellow page i, and p61) of the Society's annual... more

Creating and printing your own personalised family tree

Posted on 18th May 2017

I fell into using a desktop publishing package quite by chance In the village in which I was living a skilled resident had taken the local parish council newsletter, sent three times a year to all residents, and the parish church news, distributed six times a year, to church parishioners, and turned them into very satisfactory publications from the cutting and pasting of paper and photocopying that had been done before He liaised with a helpful local printing company and the results were much... more

Railway Staff in East Dorset

Posted on 9th May 2017

We are very pleased to announce that an important dataset has been added to the Members’ Area of our website, thanks to the generosity of Peter Russell (of the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust) Together with Colin Divall, Emeritus Professor of Railway Studies at York University, he has been studying the railways around East Dorset, including the careers and families of those who worked on the railway from the 1840s to the 1970s, particularly in the Wimborne area, where both Peter... more

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