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The SDFHS Blog

Keeping Occupied – Your Tips

Posted on 9th February 2021

Thank you for all the helpful tips that have come my way following my recent request to find out how you have been keeping yourselves occupied - my what an industrious lot you are! Barry: Barbara's Blog post reminded me of how much I am missing a trip to the pub Not just for the beer, but as a place to play some of those games she found in the charity shop If the same thought occurred to you, then a partial solution might be to find a copy of a wonderful little book by Arthur Taylor,... more

Lust and Litigation in 17th Century Dorset

Posted on 24th January 2021

Family history research can sometimes reveal the most fascinating and unexpected results This happened to me recently when I was researching my FULFORD ancestors I discovered details of a lawsuit that gave startling insight into a family member Margaret JEWELL was born in 1665 daughter of Anne Jewell (neé Fulford) The first name of her father and the marriage details of her parents are unknown (records are scarce for the Commonwealth period) On 4th August 1685 at Sydling St Nicholas she... more

Keeping Occupied

Posted on 14th January 2021

Keeping occupied during these strange times is a major challenge so I would like to take you back to the day I saw a wooden box of dominoes in the window of a charity shop and I bought it for the princely sum of £10 The dominoes came in a baize lined wooden box with a satisfactory brass catch and on the base it said ‘hand crafted by Tiverton craftsmen’ I gave the box a polish and put it up on a shelf in the sitting room The following week I was passing the same charity shop and there in... more

A Family Tradition of Bakers

Posted on 23rd December 2020

When I first tasted the delicious mince-pies on sale at The BakeOut my interest was sparked mainly because of the welcoming smiling face of Marcus, who is a great communicator, and so I asked him a couple of questions and I discovered that the mince-pies are made to an old family recipe and he showed me the machine that is used I found all this very intriguing —the 100 year old machine, the fact that I could buy items in Waitrose with the name Thomas Fudge on them and I was... more

Dorset’s Poldark?

Posted on 11th December 2020

The Captain Poldark of Winston Graham’s novels and the television series is well-known to many He was not though the only such military officer to have exciting adventures at the time of the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards Dorset too had such a hero Naval General Service Medal 1847 Photo courtesy of Hugh Pitfield - see below Joseph Edward Chilcott PITFIELD was baptised in 1788 in Buckland Ripers, the eldest son son of Joseph Pitfield and Mary SLADE,... more

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