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Barbara Elsmore

Christmas memories

Posted on 23rd December 2015

Barbara Elsmore continues our theme about Christmas decorations and the family memories they evoke I was so pleased that Patricia reminded us of the joy of getting out the box of Christmas decorations and being re-acquainted once again with the treasures that lie within My personal collection of old favourites contains a 'Bambi' made in felt by my late mother in the 1970s from a pattern found in one of her magazines My dad added a little wooden sledge and with a few special tiny parcels on... more

More Family Treasures

Posted on 22nd October 2015

Barbara Elsmore has been scouring the charity shops of Sherborne collecting items, with no apparent monetary value, and using them to create a display at our Family History Centre where she hopes they will act as reminders to members and visitors of things they may have used, or seen used, in the past and become talking points You may have noticed that I love coming across old things, once in regular use, that have a story to tell First up I trawled through my own garage where I found a... more

Do you have a carpenter in the family?

Posted on 9th October 2015

Barbara Elsmore describes how learning a new trade enabled her great-grandfather, George Collings, to improve his own life and that of his descendants Many of his carpentry tools are still in the family and some are now on display in the SDFHS Family History Centre in Sherborne In 1862 fourteen year old George Collings signed an apprenticeship form and for the next four years he would learn how to become a carpenter How could he possibly have known how this would change his life from that of... more

Tracking down John Deacon – basketmaker in Bristol

Posted on 13th May 2015

Barbara Elsmore is researching the Deacon family of basketmakers and here describes how enlisting the help of other SDFHS members helped her to track down a missing son On Saturday 16 May Barbara will be talking in Sherborne about basketmaking as an occupation in the first of our occasional series of events What did your Ancestors Do The other speaker will be John Damon on 'Families in the Utilities': full details I have just read Patricia Spencer's excellent article in the latest Greenwood... more

Making Baskets for Saddlers

Posted on 22nd February 2015

While researching items in Sherborne Museum for a forthcoming exhibition on basketmaking I came across a photograph, donated by a member of the Deacon family, who made baskets here in Sherborne and in the nearby village of Nether Compton over four generations The photograph says on the back 'Our Workshop and the baskets we are making for Saddlers' If you look closely at this photo, I am sure you will find this as exciting as I do because you can see that the photographer has clearly set up all... more

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