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The SDFHS Blog

An evening with Sir Tony Robinson

Posted on 8th November 2013

Barry Brock describes a recent event in Dorchester A trip to the Dorset History Centre on 30 October provided the chance to meet Sir Tony Robinson, ‘actor, TV presenter, historian and Ancestrycouk spokesperson’ This was a ‘meet the customer’ event, organised by Ancestry in conjunction with the Dorset History Centre - a ballot for tickets had been four times over subscribed It may be difficult to think of Tony Robinson as a knight of the realm, especially as the obvious name linked... more

Bonfires and Dragons

Posted on 6th November 2013

Patricia Spencer summaries an event held in the SDFHS Meeting Room On Monday afternoon (4th November) Jacqueline Dillion of Harding University gave a fascinating talk on the history of bonfires in Britain for our next-door neighbours, Sherborne Museum, who use our Meeting Room for some of their events Jacqueline is currently finishing her PhD thesis on Folklore in the Works of Thomas Hardy and so started her talk with Hardy’s description of a bonfire on Egdon Heath in Return of the... more

Lucky Wedding Charm

Posted on 3rd November 2013

Barbara Elsmore describes a wedding tradition of the Collings family I am off to the wedding in Chicago of my nephew, Simon Collings, and his bride, all American girl Sarah, asked if there is a family tradition that could be observed and I racked my brains to think of one Then I remembered my mother had me walking up the aisle with a silver three penny piece in my shoe A quick look through a box of family treasures and I found a little box with five silver ‘thrupenny bits’ in it I did not... more

A preview of the November ‘Greenwood Tree’

Posted on 26th October 2013

Bob Barber, Editor of The Greenwood Tree previews the latest issue The November edition of The Greenwood Tree will be reaching members shortly The cover features a snapshot from our Facebook page, recently set up by new website manager, Patricia Spencer You can read more about it on the Research and Society News page at the back of the journal The impact of social media will have important implications for family historians, and our Society And it will certainly be a challenge to see how The... more

Sherborne is now Casterbridge

Posted on 23rd October 2013

Patricia Spencer describes the temporary transformation of the SDFHS centre Arriving this morning for a meeting at our Sherborne Centre we found that the exterior of our building had been transformed into 'The Friends' Alms-House' as it will appear in the new version of Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd which is being filmed in Sherborne this week There is a news report about the filming in Sherborne here on the BBC website Patricia... more

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