Land is the source of all material wealth. From it we get everything that we use or value, whether it be food, clothing, fuel, shelter, metal, or precious stones. We live on the land and from the land, and to the land our bodies or our ashes are committed when […]
Reading the Landscape Several books have been written about the appearance of the English Countryside, the most famous of which is W G Hoskins ‘Making of the English Countryside’. Other favourites are the History of the English Countryside by Oliver Rackham and Richard Muir’s 1981 ‘Shell Guide to Reading the […]
The young Arthur Martin The making of a Victorian Gentleman Arthur Martin Esq., JP, Sheriff, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. Arthur Martin, Lord of the Manor at Rampisham. The way of all flesh In 1818 John Martin became the Steward at Rampisham and for at least the next 48 years […]
The Tithe Commutation Act had been drafted with two incommensurable clauses in it concerning the provision of a map. Clause 35 allowed the apportioners, to base their apportionment on “any admeasurement, plan, or valuation previously made of the lands…..the accuracy of which they shall be satisfied”.[1] Such plans were not […]
“When the parish became a prison it was the poor-law settlement system which made it so; when the parish became a vast almshouse it was an ill-advised relaxation of the poor-law principles which pauperised the labourer and bankrupted the small farmer.”[1] Contents In the 1640’s John Lilburne , a member […]
Smallpox -it sounds innocuous enough, particularly when the great pox was syphilis, but historically, depending upon which population it affected it killed between a third and a quarter of its victims. Today we know it to be an infection but in the 17th century even this simple fact was not […]
The process of implementing the Tithe Commutation Act was vested in three Tithe Commissioners based in London. The Chairman was William Blamire, whose simple description was ‘Cumberland farmer’. Born in 1790 he was educated at Westminster School, Christchurch Oxford and was friends with the Vicar of Dalston – William Paley, […]
Place names have a particular significance and are a source of considerable interest. Their primary purpose is functional. They help identify the position of a place for example, although not always precisely. At the time of Domesday three villages, Child Okeford, Okeford Schilling [Shillingstone] and Okeford Fitzpaine were all referred […]
The most famous historian of Dorset was John Hutchins and his most famous work was the ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset’. For anyone interested in the people and places of Dorset it essential reading. Hutchins was born in 1698 at Bradford Peverell just a few miles north […]
Tithe and inclosure maps were not the only maps to be produced by surveyors and estate maps were probably more commonly produced than indicated by the number that survive or are known about. Two maps relating to Child Okeford were given to the village archivist [not me] in the parish. […]
