Author: Dick Stainer

  • The Devil’s Piece

    John Gadd, our accessions officer, is a local historian and writer.  He has published several short stories in Fontmell Magna`s monthly magazine “ The Gossip Tree”  As this periodical is distributed to residents and ex-residents only, website viewers may be interested in these intriguing tales based on an imaginary Fontmell of the past.  The author…

  • Reminiscences from past and present residents

    A few years ago  a supplementary meeting was organized by the Fontmell Society at which parishioners were invited to speak on their memories of people and events. Some notes were taken which are interesting and should be recorded before  memories fade – and the notes get lost! Happily the late Harold and Ida Stainer were…

  • Manorial Court Records

    Manorial Court Records At the Dorset History Centre can be found 4 books under the reference D/GLY/B/1,2,3,4.  These are the records of the court of the Hundred of Sixpenny and the Manor of Fontmell. The first book commences with the court held in October, 1698; the 4th book ends with the record of the court held…

  • A Village Built on Water

    The first part of this poem has already appeared in the article Fontmell Poems – Grave and Gay. The full version of the poem written by Jeany Poulsen during the Dorset Landscape in Words and Pictures Course at Springhead in 1994 fully deserves to be read in its entirety. Far below ground clear water trickles…

  • The War Memorial

    Names on the War Memorial The War Memorial In 1919, a committee was set up to look into the design and cost of a Memorial Cross.  At a meeting with parishioners in April, a “very beautiful, though not elaborate” design by Sir Richard Glyn was chosen.  The cross itself was to be of Portland stone,…

  • Summer Exhibition 2009

    ‘Aspects of Fontmell’s Past’ will be the theme of the Archive Society’s summer exhibition in Fontmell Magna Primary School from Thursday 6th of August to Sunday 9th of August between 10:30am and 4:00pm. There will be displays on various topics including Roads and Postal Services, Education, Maps and Plans, Names on the War Memorial, Country…

  • Fontmell Poems – Grave and Gay

    FONTMELL POEMS – GRAVE AND GAY The Gossip Tree, established in 1994 and now in its 180th edition, has always been more than just a monthly village newsletter, as it also carries items of literary merit. There are now over 50 poems written by Fontmellians or about the village itself in the magazine. A selection…

  • February 2008

    The Society is still here! When our chairman, who was also our web site manager, relocated to Cambridge, considerable reorganisation was necessary. The projects we had initiated with funding from the Local Heritage Initiative, including the publication of a book and a large summer exhibition, were completed. The archive needed re-housing, which we have managed…

  • Brookland Wood 10 Years on

    Brookland Wood 10 Years on

    Kenneth Watkins (1909-1996) founded the Woodland Trust in 1972 in Devon where he had built up a successful agricultural machinery business. At the time there was no conservation body to protect small woods, spinneys and copses and he recognised the value of these to people, the environment and wildlife. He could not have dreamed how…

  • The Still Family of Fontmell Magna

    INTRODUCTION During 2006 our website received many enquiries about Fontmell antecedents, and several from descendents of the Still family. With their approval, we put them in touch with each other. It soon became apparent that their family stories revealed a vivid and detailed account of aspects of the village history which broad generalizations cannot provide.…

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