All posts in Articles

  • Hartgrove
    29/02/2016

    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 […]

  • 47 Church St serving as an election office
    Fontmell Magna and General Elections
    25/10/2015

    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 […]

  • A Local Hero
    13/03/2015

    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 […]

  • Middle Mill – a short history
    07/09/2014

    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, […]

  • St Andrew’s Parish Church Clock
    23/02/2014

    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 […]

  • More of Fontmell in the news
    02/02/2014

    Life, death, Crime & punishment in the 19th & 20th Centuries   SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO A BOY (16th, September, 1866) On Saturday, the 3rd inst., an accident of a serious nature […]

  • The Dorset Clubmen
    03/10/2013

    The Dorset Clubmen (This article formed part of the Archive Society Exhibition August 2013) Clubmen’s Down Between Compton Down and Fontmell Down, on the very edge of the north east […]

  • Fontmell Magna in Australia
    09/04/2012

    Fontmell Magna in Australia In 2011 a couple, Brenton and Therese Leitch from Highbury, South Australia visited Fontmell  where their their family lived and worked 150 years ago.  They were […]