News Archive: April 2026

Diaries of Major C J Bell - new acquistion

30^th Jun 2025

Dorset Archives Trust, have been able to purchase and make available to the Dorset History Centre a small archive collection belonging to Major Cuthbert Bell, a water bailiff working for the Avon and Dorset River Board. (DIARIES OF MAJOR C J BELL) His diaries cover nearly a decade of his life working in the water industry, as well as his interests as a Dorset man supporting Boscombe’s foo ... click for more

New Panels for DHC Searchroom

26^th Jun 2025 Anyone visiting DHC’s searchroom will be greeted with the sight of three new sets of colourful panels. The panels have been funded by Dorset Archives Trust as part of its work to support DHC and its promotion of the service and its collections. The images reflect the range of material held by the service – over 1000 years of recorded history – as well as giving researchers a sense of what li ... click for more

Round up of May events

24^th May 2025 It was a busy week for of events for DAT and the Dorset History Centre. Firstly onWednesday evening saw a packed audience held enthralled by an enchanting mix of music, songs and words. Thank you to the Wessex based Wyvern group for an amazing performance inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy.Wyvern comprise: Sophia Wright - Director (Voice and Guitar), Sarah Deere-Jones (Harp, Voice, Concertin ... click for more

Visit from Antiques Road Trip

24^th Mar 2025 The Dorset History Centrehad a visit recently from the BBC Antiques Road Trip team, Tim Laycock came in to tell them all about William Barnes, with resources bought for the History Centre by DAT, it'll be a few months till you can see it on screen - we'll let you know when it's due to go on air! DAT are running a fundraising campaign withthe William Barnes Society, working with Dorset History C ... click for more

A Sad Farewell and a New President For Dorset Archives Trust

19^th Dec 2024 With sadness we said goodbye to our President Mrs Anthony Pitt-Rivers, CVO DL who stepped down in December 2024. Mrs Pitt-Rivers presided over DAT since its inception in 2009 and we are hugelyappreciative of all of the help and support that she has given DAT. We are therefore delighted that our previous chair who stood down in July 2024, Carola Campbell, has agreed to take on the role of DAT Presi ... click for more

Barnes for All!

25^th Jun 2024 DAT is supporting the efforts of the William Barnes Society, working with Dorset History Centre and Dorset Museum and Art Gallery to raise funds to catalogue the Dorset dialect poet’s archive. The collection, owned by the museum but deposited at DHC is the key resource to understanding and studying the man who along with his acquaintance Thomas Hardy best defines the county’s literary traditio ... click for more

The Place Names of Dorset - Dorset History Centre event

15^th Sep 2023 Join The English Place Names Society at the Dorset History Centre, to find out the fascinating stories behind of some of Dorset's unusual place names. Sat 14 October, 2pm - 4.30pm tickets £8 available from eventbrite. This is not a DAT event. ... click for more

DAT Purchase of Portland Naval Plan

10^th Aug 2023 Latest DAT purchase for the Dorset History Centre Hand-coloured planA Draught of Portland the Shambles, and the Race of Portland,late 18thcentury print of a 17thcentury original. Drawn by Captain Greenville Collins (DHC reference: M/207) Collins was an important figure in naval history, being a prominent hydrographer, appointed by Samuel Pepys (Secretary to the Admiralty) to chart the coa ... click for more

Summer Gala at Hinton St Mary

25^th Jul 2023 We were lucky on the evening of the DAT Summer Gala, it was a bit breezy but the rain held off! This meant that the various parties could enjoy theirpicnics in the beautiful gardens that surround the Tithe Barn before coming in to listen to Martin Gething talk about T.E. Lawrence and his connections with Dorset. These proved to be many and various, ranging from a possible (but dubious) family conn ... click for more

Successful Grant Bid for Hardy Appeal Boosts Fundraising

25^th Jul 2023 Dorset Archives Trust and Dorset History Centre with the support of the Thomas Hardy Society are leading a campaign to create a complete catalogue of all the archives of Thomas Hardy and so make this UNESCO-inscribed, internationally important collection available to everyone. We require £68,000 to employ an archivist to complete this task. Work is progressing well, but we are still some way off ... click for more

Listening to a serpent!

19^th Oct 2022 Recently I achieved something that I had wanted to do - I heard a serpent being played! I had seen one of these amazing instruments but never hear it; but at a concert put on by the Ridgeway Singers and Band one was played. The Ridgeway Singers and Band perform music from Dorset both old and occasionally new, specialising in West Gallery Music. The concertwas a collaboration with the Dorset His ... click for more

Unlocking Thomas Hardy – Julian Fellowes

25^th Sep 2022 "The Hardy Archive on deposit at the Dorset History Centre is the biggest and most important collection of material by and about Thomas Hardy in the world. It is a treasure trove of 150 boxes containing thousands of items, books, diaries, notes, paintings, even his mother's kettle. So many of his thoughts and his beliefs are made clear by this archive, and having access to it is vital to any resea ... click for more

Dorset Music Unboxed! Ridgeway Singers & Band October Concerts

25^th Sep 2022 The well-known Dorset music group The Ridgeway Singers & Band, led by Phil Humphries and Tim Laycock, has been collaborating with the Dorset History Centre to bring to life old music long hidden in its archives. The result will be three concerts, taking place in Dorchester, Wareham and Poole Thursday 6 October – Dorchester. Dorford Centre, 7.30pm Saturday 8 October – Wareham. Lady ... click for more

Unlocking Thomas Hardy – fundraising to open up access to the finest Hardy archive in the world.

20^th Jul 2022 Dorset Archives Trust is supporting a campaign to create a complete catalogue of all the archives of Thomas Hardy and so make this UNESCO-inscribed, internationally important collection available to everyone. What is it?Hardy’s archive provides the key information to understanding his life and times. It sits in 150 boxes and is made up of thousands of items - diaries, letters, books, photogra ... click for more

DAT Event – Minette Walters In Conversation with Carola Campbell – ‘Dorset Women in History – a Novelist’s Perspective’

12^th May 2022 Dorset Archives Trust was pleased to restart its live events programme on the 5th of May with a spectacular evening featuring Minette Walters, the internationally acclaimed author, in conversation with Carola Campbell (DAT Chairman). Minette has written 20 books which have sold over 25 million copies. In the last 5 years she has moved genre from contemporary murder mysteries to historical novels s ... click for more

Upcoming Event - In Conversation with Minette Walters

25^th Apr 2022 Dorset Women in history – a novelist’s perspective, Thurs 5 May at 6.30pm, Dorset History Centre Booking essential, tickets available fromeventbrite, £10 for members and £12 for non members. Following a fascinating discussion about her first historical novel, The Last Hours, we are delighted to welcome back award winning novelist Minette Walters 'In Conversation' with Carola Campbell, ... click for more

Latest Purchases

15^th Nov 2021 Recent purchases at auction throw new light on our understanding oftwo of Dorset’s most prominent historical figures, writer Thomas Hardy and his earlier namesake Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy. The purchases were funded jointly by Friends of the National Libraries and Dorset Archives Trust and will be held for public benefit at Dorset History Centre. DHC is extremely grateful for the financ ... click for more

Fundraising Target Acheived

7^th Dec 2020 Thanks to the generous contributions received, we are delighted to say that as of today (7 December) we have reached our fundraising total. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has contributed. All monies raised will go towards the purchase. It is hoped that the collection will soon be brought to Dorset History Centre where it can be viewed by all. Dorset Archives Trust would ... click for more

Fundraising Appeal to Ensure Public Ownership of Important Thomas Hardy Archives

24^th Nov 2020 Dorset Archives Trust (DAT) has started a campaign to raise the final £5,000 needed to purchase a collection of important manuscript and printed material once owned by Dorset’s literary giant Thomas Hardy. The archives, for sale via a London dealer have been in private hands for decades. If successful, the purchase will mean that the collection will be returned to the county and held for public ... click for more

Volunteer Profile 3

13^th Nov 2020 Name: Carola Lives: North Dorset Why do you volunteer with DAT/DHC? I have always had a passion for history and archaeology. My university degrees and first love was for Near Eastern archaeology. As fate would have it I settled in Dorset, only to discover my own family tree dated back to Bagber in 1587. Dorset is definitely in my DNA – who cannot love this fascinating and beautiful county? ... click for more

Volunteer Profile 1

28^th Oct 2020 Volunteer Profile We thought it would be nice to find out a bit more about the people who volunteer with DAT/DHC. Name: Julia Lives: Wimborne Why do you volunteer with DAT/DHC? I was just finishing up my Masters in Local History and I had done quite a lot of research at the History Centre, when I saw a poster asking for a volunteer to help with DAT’s marketing and website, I thought ... click for more

Volunteer Profile 2

28^th Oct 2020 Volunteer Profile We thought it would be nice to find out a bit more about the people who volunteer with DAT/DHC. Name:Anne Why do you volunteer with DAT/DHC?I had just completed a Masters (in Garden History) and so much enjoyed the research element of it and wanted to continue in some form or other my link with the History Centre and to learn more about the archives that are held and the ... click for more

Traditional Dorset Flower Names

24^th Sep 2020 Do you know any traditional Dorset flower names or even better do you know how they came by them? One of our Trustees across this list she had photocopied last time shewas able to go to the Archives - it is a list of Dorset flower names - some were familiar to her like Grannies Bonnets and Queen Anne's Lace but most were quite new. 'Kiss me John at the Garden Gate' is a good name but it's pr ... click for more

Dorset History Centre Mini Garden Competition

5^th Apr 2020 Fancy having a go at designing a mini garden, why not enter the Dorset History Centre competition - deadline 13 April, more details here. ... click for more

Dorset History Centre Review of the Year

4^th Apr 2020 Find out here what's been happening at the History Centre this year . ... click for more

DAT in the Dorset Yearbook

28^th Jan 2020 DAT featured in the 2020 edition of The Dorset Yearbook published annually for over century by the Society of Dorset Men. The article explains the background to DAT and discusses some of the ways in which it works to support Dorset History Centre through projects and the purchase of documents. You can read the article here. ... click for more

Important Thomas Hardy correspondence purchase will guarantee long-term public access

9^th Sep 2019 An important letter by literary giant Thomas Hardy has been jointly purchased by Dorset Archives Trust and the Thomas Hardy Society for public benefit. The handwritten letter, composed in June 1922, six years before the author’s death was addressed to Sir Clifford Allbutt, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge. Hardy references the “strange experience” of visiting a mental institution, Cle ... click for more

Save Herbert's Weymouth - We did it!

20^th Dec 2017 We did it! We have reached our £8,000 fund raising target thanks to your generous pledges https://twitter.com/DorsetArchives/status/940881522776735744 and a wonderful gift from the Dorset Masons https://twitter.com/DorsetArchives/status/943516219780370432. We will now be able to digitise this unique collection ofphotographs and save the images for future generations.Thank you to you all. ... click for more

An evening with Paul Atterbury - Design and Decoration at Poole Pottery

15^th Feb 2019 A packed house was in Dorchester on 14 February to listen Paul Atterbury, who not surprisingly, kept a packed audience engaged and enthralled at his recent talk on Poole Pottery and the archives. Whether you were and expert or an enthusiastic amateur you would have learnt something about the structure of Poole Pottery; and also about the importance of archives in preserving the truth. ... click for more

Publishing in Dorset - David Burnett of Dovecote Press

22^nd Apr 2019 There was a packed house at the Dorset History Centre to listen to David Burnett give us a potted history of Dovecote Press. He emphasised the importance of using the archives in uncovering lost and forgotten stories. Dorset Archives Trust Chair Carola Campbell spoke for all there when she thanked David for his amazing support of Dorset and telling it's stories. ... click for more

Poole Borough Archive Project Event

28^th Apr 2017 The Dorset History Centre held a reception on 29th of March to celebrate the completion of the Poole Borough Project. This significant project catalogued over 1600 boxes of parchment and paper spanning 800 years. A tremendous effort which included the creation of a digital catalogue, conservation of documents where needed, and the repackaging of all the boxes for storage in the History Centre’s ... click for more

New Purchase by DAT

9^th Jun 2017 Two albums kept by a Mildred Baker of Lennox Street Weymouth dated “1899” and a note states “Age 8”. The second album has an address in Ashley Road Parkstone (near Poole) which has been crossed through and the Lennox Street Weymouth address added again, dated “March 27th 1900”. The pages comprise a lovely mixture of nature notes, detailing the names of plants and from where they wer ... click for more

DAT Purchases part of Battens Archive

12^th Jun 2017 This archive is part of a larger Batten’s collection purchased by Somerset Heritage Centre. The smaller, Dorset element of the archive was in turn acquired thanks to DAT’s Emergency Purchase Fund. The collection which consists of several hundred documents contains some really interesting early items – written in Latin and dating back to the eras of Henry VI, Henry VII and Elizabeth. The arch ... click for more

DAT Summer Gala

24^th Sep 2017 DAT SUMMER GALA EVENT AT THE TITHE BARN HINTON ST. MARY STURMINSTER NEWTON (by kind permission of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Pitt-Rivers). The wonderful setting of the Tithe Barn, at Hinton St Mary set the scene for this year’s Summer Gala. After a glass of fizz with strawberries and shortbread; the background live music being provided by members of the Wessex Youth Orchestra around 60 guest ... click for more

History Centre Shopping List

15^th Sep 2017 Here at the DAT we love to support our friends at the History Centre, with things that make it easier for them to share our love of Dorset history with everyone – so we asked them to make a shopping list of things they would like and this is what they came up with: Funding a school trip £80 per trip An artist to work with a development group to design a template for responding to a do ... click for more

Tyneham Village Talk

18^th Oct 2017 It was a mild October evening when a packed house gathered at the Priest’s House Museum in Wimborne to listen to Lynda Price give a fascinating talk on the lost village of Tyneham. Lynda has worked at Tyneham since 2004 and is responsible for all the interpretation visitors encounter when they visit as well as the restoration of Tyneham Farm. Using images purchased jointly by the MoD and the Dor ... click for more

Minette Walters in conversation about her new book - The Last Hours

2^nd Mar 2018 Minette Walters is a long-term resident of Dorset and the author of a series of novels that have sold over 25 million copies. It was her Dorset surroundings, a more particularly rumours of a plague pit close to her home that prompted her to move from contemporary to historical fiction. The Last Hours was published in 2017. A generous ‘thank you’ is inscribed to the Dorset History Centre which ... click for more

Poole Power Station

20^th Oct 2017 The latest by purchase by the Dorset Archives TrustDocument Purchase Fundaresome photographs of Poole Power Station at the end of its construction in 1950. The black and white photos include internal views of the boilers and control room. Poole Power Station was a coal fired power station constructed between 1946 and 1950 in Hamworthy. It was demolished between 1993 and 1994. More detail at htt ... click for more

Save Herbert’s Weymouth – Update

20^th Nov 2017 Our crowdfunding campaign is going well, over £1000 reached so far – visithttp://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-herberts-weymouth/? to see how you can help and what rewards you could be entitled to. ... click for more

Save Herbert’s Weymouth

8^th Nov 2017 Great support for our crowdfunding campaign so far – over £350 donated in the first few hours! Thank you to everyone who has supported so far. You can help by sharing the project or pledging your support athttp://ow.ly/z7WE30grBjo Thanks! ... click for more