Author: Dick Stainer

  • Job Rose, John, William and Dr Geoffrey Tapper

    Job Rose was born in Sturminster Newton in 1812, he was the son of James Rose, a miller, and Charlotte his wife. Job married Hannah Chaffey in Sturminster Newton in 1838. Being the son of a miller, he would have learned the trade during his childhood and, in the 1840’s, he moved to become the…

  • The 1922 Tea Party

    The 1922 Tea Party

    During his time as Rector of Fontmell Magna the Rev. Charles Pigott Edmonds held annual tea parties for the villagers and their children in the Rectory Garden, but on the 28th August 1922 an additional celebratory party was held for the elders of the village who were 80 years of age or more, and he…

  • The Shaftesbury & County Golf Club

    The Shaftesbury & County Golf Club

    Fontmell Magna is dominated by the hill known as Foretop. Back in the 1960’s, I spent my childhood in that village and recall my Father and others telling me about a golf course that used to be situated up there on the hill, and of local farmers who used to play golf there. So, more…

  • Land Use in Medieval Fontmell Magna AD 932 – AD 1539

    Before AD 932. DNA mapping suggests that many of the people in Dorset today are substantially the direct descendants of the people who colonised the land in the bronze age after the ice sheets melted. That would imply a continuity of farming ideas, methods and boundaries that goes back much further than the Roman period. It is important…

  • Archive Exhibition – 27th to 30th July 2017

    Fontmell Magna Village Archive Society will be holding its 11th Exhibition from Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th July from 10.00am to 4.00pm at the Village Hall. Entry, including light refreshments, is free. The Exhibition is on ‘Land use and ownership in the parish of Fontmell Magna up to 1945’. Members of the Society will present…

  • Hartgrove

    Hartgrove

    Hartgrove Although considered to be part of the parish of Fontmell Magna for civil purposes; during the 19th Century Hartgrove was originally a division of East Orchard, which itself was a chapelry of Iwerne Minster. The scattered settlement, the irregular field shapes and the existence of Blackven Common, all indicate late occupation of the area, which…

  • Fontmell Magna and General Elections

    Fontmell Magna and General Elections

    Before 1832, only male landowners could vote. The Reform Act 1832 extended voting rights to adult males who rented property of a certain value but, even so, only about 440,000 men in the whole country could vote (about 1 in 7 men), and no women. Some of the old (“rotten”) boroughs had survived in 1832…

  • A Local Hero

    A Local Hero

    Samuel Lemon DCM (1875-1953) Samuel was the 2nd son of George Thomas and Eliza Lemon of East Orchard. George Thomas was born in West Orchard and was baptised there on 17th, September, 1843. He was the illegitimate son of Jane Lemon, through what appears to have been an incestuous relationship with her brother, Thomas. George…

  • Middle Mill – a short history

    Middle Mill was a grain mill powered by a millpond downstream from Springhead (Higher Mill). Middle Mill was operated at various points in the 19th century by the Bishop, Hussey, Lawrence and Ralph families. In about 1797, Samuel Bishop moved to Fontmell and rented both Higher Mill and Middle Mill from Mrs Alexander. In 1801,…

  • St Andrew’s Parish Church Clock

    St Andrew’s Parish Church Clock

    Some information about the 18th century Clock….. …..and Carillon The Clock The church clock was made in 1732 by William Monk (1689-1753) of Berwick St John in Wiltshire, a prolific clockmaker.  It replaced a previous clock made before 1675. The clock has the distinctive Monk ‘tulip’ finials on each corner post and characteristic clock frame,…

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