Rooting Around the Ridgeway

What a wonderful culmination to the South Dorset Ridgeway (SDR)Landscape Partnership, bringing together musicians and literary lovers at Broadmayne Village Hall on 20 March 2016.

The Ridgeway on Bronkham Hill near the Hardy Monument

                Fanny Charles of the FTR kicked off the event by introducing James Sharpe, Manager of the SDR Partnership. He explained that this cultural heritage partnership has at its heart art, literature and music, and is about ‘exploring creativity, continuity and social change in the South Dorset Ridgeway area’. The project was run in association with Artsreach, AONB Dorset and Heritage Lottery funding.

St George's Church, Reforne, Portland (photo taken from The Spirit of Portland
by Gary Biltcliffe - www.rovingpress.co.uk)

The Ridgeway Choir and Band treated us to some wonderful music. Phil Humphries explained that the inspiration for this came from the tradition of ‘West Gallery music’. In local churches up and down the Ridgeway, such as at Winterbourne Steeple, Winterbourne Abbas and Abbotsbury, a choir and instrumentalists comprising men, women and boys, of mixed abilities, would come together to sing and play, not only in support of church services but also at dances and other occasions. This is described by ThomasHardy in some of his novels, especially vivid in Under the Greenwood Tree.  West Gallery music was popular from the 1700s to the mid-1800s, after which it petered out, replaced by the organ and more formal choirs.

Water meadows and River Frome at Stinsford near Hardy's Cottage

Dr Alan Chedzoy then performed renditions from William Barnes’ poetry. An expert on both Barnes and Hardy, he explained how Barnes wrote more than 500 poems in the Dorset dialect, painting a picture of village life, before the coming of the railway. For over 300 years, village living had changed very little, being very isolated, with people from neighbouring villages often only coming together on special occasions (at harvest, feasts, fairs, and so on). Yet, in those days, work was a communal thing, not solitary as so often today. There was communal feeling and strong village opinion and politics. But this began to be eroded away with the coming of the railway. Barnes recorded a complete and valuable repertoire of manners, words and sentiments of those times.

Part of the SDR project involved fifteen local writers coming together to find inspiration, under the guidance of poet and writer Greta Stoddart. This Creative Writers Group would meet at different village halls along the SDR, walking the Ridgeway, making notes and working on poems. Greta explained: “The Ridgeway is an evocative place. ‘Evocative’ means to call out, rouse or summon, in the sense of calling spirits or being called by them. It conjures up presences from the past. The act of walking is also physical, allowing the mind to switch off and the consciousness to let go, welcoming other thoughts in. With a meditative stride, in such an alert yet relaxed state, thoughts are allowed to flow.” Listening to the inspired poems read by members of the Group, you certainly grasped this sense of inspiration and emotion.

Chalbury hillfort above Preston
(photo taken from Preston, Bowleaze and Overcombe by D. Joan Jones - www.rovingpress.co.uk)

Maiden Castle

Greta feels that the Ridgeway affords height and length, thus offering a different perspective. “Seamus Heaney is good at conjuring up the sense of being in the present and past at the same time (for example, in his poem ‘Bone Dreams’, inspired by Maiden Castle near Dorchester). 

Thinking about stones, bones and time, we become aware of the natural transience of all things. This provides an understanding of our mortal place in the world.” The poets went on to write a communal poem, strung out along the route of the Ridgeway – and we were treated to part of this as an inspired group reading.

 Christopher Nicholson was the last speaker of the afternoon. He has written three diverse novels, but spoke mainly of his love of the countryside and Hardy, which inspired his latest novel Winter, a story based on Thomas and Florence Hardy. He explained: “The old place name ‘Wessex’ was rescued by William Barnes when he referred to it in a Foreword to a book. Hardy picked this up and developed it as a semi-fictional place, ‘partly real, partly dream country’. He later included a map of fictional Wessex in his novels, such was its romantic appeal to him and his readers.

Hardy was interested in ‘deep history’ – an archaeological idea but also psychological. Wessex offered him a sense of Old England, stretching back, evoking folklore, myths and legends, the old stories of his grandparents. It was important and valuable to Hardy and gave him a unifying idea for all his novels. It also acted as a get-out in case anyone accused him of making a mistake: it’s Casterbridge, not Dorchester, after all!. It became an effective marketing tool, still used today in names like Wessex FM, Wessex Alarms, and so on. Indeed, the red burglar alarm installed by the latter at Max Gate would have raised a Hardy smile.

Hardy's home Max Gate, now owned by the National Trust

His novel The Woodlanders is particularly atmospherically rich, yet Hardy’s view of the countryside remained ambivalent; he wrote about the tension between city and countryside very well. He succeeded because he invented this part real, part dream country, which many of his readers (town people) loved. In other narratives, the countryside is variously described as poor but virtuous; a place of boredom that you must escape from; nostalgic (not as beautiful of it once was); full of secret violence and nocturnal skulduggery (Sherlock Holmes had this anti-romantic view of the countryside).

Hell Lane linking North Chideock and Symondsbury
(photo taken from More Secret Places by Louise Hodgson - www.rovingpress.co.uk)

Top o' Town, Dorchester (photo taken from She Opened the Door
by Peter John Cooper - www.rovingpress.co.uk)

All views contain a certain truth, but it is what you make of it. Hardy was very good at offering us these various views and different notions. For instance, contrast Eustacia Vye with Clym Yeobright in The Return of the Native. Hardy was a sort of returning native, an oddity to local people, having left his birthplace, living the high life elsewhere, then returning to write, with some humour, of local places and characters. There was a lot of mistrust and suspicion of him locally.”

As a final thought, Christopher concluded that biographers are constrained by the facts, while novelists can get inside people’s heads and say what they might have been thinking. In his book Winter, he offers a personal view of Hardy, as exists in his own head, mixing fact with fiction.

To sum up the SDR project, it is about being in the past and present at the same time. It invokes lots of voices: singers, historians, poets (ancient and contemporary), readers and writers. I hope there’s more to come, maybe even a book to celebrate the project, people and places involved.

© Julie Musk, 2016

Special offers on all our books - to help with Chrismas shopping

Get your Christmas shopping under way with special offers on all our Dorset books:

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-          an easy way to say happy Christmas and thank you to friends, the postman, customers,      business colleagues, staff, etc.

-          thoughtful presents that lasts longer than chocolates

-          not just for Chrismas.

At these prices until 31 Dec, with minimum order £15.

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New book - £11.99

See www.rovingpress.co.uk for details.

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Roving Press

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Mill Street Memories

Our latest Dorset book looks at part of Dorchester immortalised in ThomasHardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge as ‘Mixen Lane’. 

Since early 2014, the local community, with Mill Street Housing Society, has been recording people’s memories of old Mill Street and its remarkable history since the 1850s. Together they form a fascinating story of the life and hard times of the people living there. 

The resulting book by David Forrester is a fascinating read and illustrated with plenty of old images. In his first book, Fordington Remembered, David reminisces about growing up in and around Dorchester during the 1940s/50s. In Mill Street he takes you further back in time  to this troubled area of Dorchester.  

Terry Hearing comments in the Foreword: ‘The wealth of feeling evident in the words of those who were there creates an emotional atmosphere that brings home a vivid picture of a different world.’ And David says, ‘To myself and other like-minded people, it is important that this part of our local history is recorded, before it is lost forever down the mill stream.’

[The following is an extract from Anita Harries' 'Durnovaria Diaries']

Mill Street Memories – what an amazing exhibition this was, filling the Town Hall in Dorchester not just with people eager to see this intrinsic part of local history but with countless photographs, interviews, drawings and snippets of information many thought had been lost forever. 



     David Forrester along with an army of volunteers and researchers cleverly brought to life this once deprived area of Dorchester, a dark corner of our town with a reputation it took many years to shake off. An area once shunned by all but those who lived there, nevertheless with a life of its own, brimming with history, packed with stories to tell, Mill Street is a place well known to David, a place close to his heart. So much time and energy went into this exhibition, a revelation of times gone by, of lives fraught with hardship and suffering, yet a place where community spirit thrived and people looked out for one another.

     So much to see, so much to marvel at. And of course mention of the two local men who dedicated time and energy into working to improve conditions for those whose lives were contained in what was without doubt the most disadvantaged area of Dorchester. How could you break the terrible reputation that clung to Mill Street and the folk who lived in and around it? 
   The Reverend Henry Moule, vicar of Fordington, and A.H. Edwards, the founder of the Mill Street Mission and the Mill Street Housing Association are names many of us know, but how much to we really know about these two gentlemen and the work they did? 

    Mill Street holds a fascination for many, of whom Thomas Hardy was one. And it is wonderful to see that David Forrester has written a new book “Mill Street,Dorchester, Thomas Hardy’s Mixen Lane", to keep these stories alive and pass them on to future generations. 
     This is sure to be a great read, and will be launched by the time you read this, so be sure to buy one. We owe it to the hard work of David and his fellow workers to make sure that all he has revealed is never lost again. Published by Roving Press, it costs £6.99, a real bargain, with author proceeds going to the Mill Street Housing Association and the West Dorset Women’s Refuge. You must know someone who would like one in their Christmas stocking.

Books are available from us with free delivery (www.rovingpress.co.uk, tel 01300 321531).

Copyright © 2015 Durnovaria Diaries, All rights reserved.

Durnovaria Diaries

3 Aconbury Avenue

Poundbury

Dorchester, Dorset DT1 3RE

United Kingdom

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Dorchester Remembers the Great War – by Anita Harries from 'Durnovaria Diaries'

Dorchester Remembers the Great War is a book by Brian Bates, a positive fount of knowledge when it comes to the subject of World War One. 

He is definitely like a dog with a bone when it comes to delving into the many names depicted on war memorials and carved into stones held within churchyards and cemeteries. He must devote countless hours researching these names, contacting surviving relatives of those lost before their time, never to grow old and have families of their own. 

It is hard to believe that over eleven hundred men enlisted from Dorchester alone, spread across the far reaches of the globe from France to Russia, Mesopotamia and beyond. Those who survived returned home with terrible tales to tell. Those who never returned have only their name to bear witness to the pointless loss of life, a cross, a memorial, death their only salvation, a grave holding their stories for ever, memories lost …until now. 

Dorchester Remembers gives a voice to these stories, personal yet with a lasting effect on those left behind. Read through this book and you learn how war reflected on their lives, unravelling a fascinating but often tragic picture of the social history of the war years. Little would have impacted more on the town of Dorchester, and Brian brings this to life with his insight into these brave soldiers and their families, reliving the times and creating reminders of all that has now been lost to the town. 

There are few signs, if any, of the largest prisoner-of-war camp the town once housed and the important military presence we once had. 

We are fortunate to have such a wonderful jewel in our crown as the Keep Military Museum …. 

And of course people like Brian who highlight the importance of those lost and the way their lives are still embedded in the life we have today.

This book is well worth a read. I find the whole thing spell-binding, discovering names I recognise, including my maiden name of Bascombe – not as common as some. This is another treasure from the Roving Press. If you love local history this is a must. You never know what you may discover about your own family. 

           Author royalties from the book are being donated to the charities Sense and Sightsavers.

Dorchester Remembers the Great War is available from Roving Press (www.rovingpress.co.uk, tel 01300 321531) and on sale locally.

Stepping into Jane Austen’s world, with Lesser Known Lyme Regis and a trip to Chawton House

Jane Austen was only 41 when she died, but during her short life she produced some wonderful romantic fiction, loved the world over.

Born in 1775, she went to boarding school in Oxford and Abbey School in Reading (still a girls school today). From the age of 11 she was home schooled. Her father had an extensive library at home and Jane would spend long hours fostering her love of reading.

In her early 20s she began drafting her first novels. When her father retired, the family moved to Bath, but Jane didn’t take to the place and was unhappy there. She wrote little. She did, however, enjoy visits to the seaside, including Lyme Regis.

‘A very strange stranger it must be

who does not see charms

in the immediate environs of Lyme

to make him wish to know it better.’

(Persuasion, Jane Austen)

[The following text extracts and photos are taken from one of our book, 

Lesser Known Lyme Regis by Joanna Smith]

Jane and her family first came to Lyme in autumn 1803 and returned in the summer of 1804, staying for 3 months each time, when it was very much the fashion for those recovering from the Bath season to visit the recently established resort of Lyme. In a letter to her sister Cassandra, Jane describes how she spent her days dancing, rambling and sea-bathing. ...
            Although Jane was rather dismissive of the town, it is clear she loved its surroundings. In Persuasion she writes: ‘As there is nothing to admire in the buildings themselves, the remarkable situation of the town, the principal street almost hurrying into the water, the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant little bay, which in the season is animated with bathing machines and company, the Cobb itself, its wonders and new improvements, with the very beautiful line of cliffs stretching out to the west of the town, are what the stranger’s eye will see’.

         

Many locations in Austen’s novels are imaginary, but in Persuasion she describes recognisable places in Lyme: the Walk (today’s Marine Parade), cottages, inns and coastal scenery. In one of the best-known scenes in Persuasion, the foolish Louisa Musgrove throws herself from a set of stone steps on the Cobb into the arms of an unprepared Captain Wentworth.

Lyme Regis Museum has a Literary Gallery dedicated to John Fowles, Jane Austen and other writers and artists associated with the town.
 

When their father died, the family moved to Southampton. Shortly afterwards, Edward, Jane’s brother, inherited some estates from the Knight family. One of these estates was Chawton in Alton, Hampshire. Edward moved into the great house (now Chawton HouseLibrary) and offered his mother and sisters a large ‘cottage’ rent free, about a quarter of a mile away in the village. They moved in in 1809 and Jane spent the remainder of her life there.

Her writing flourished, and she settled into a happy routine of sitting at her writing table after breakfast, enjoying long walks in the afternoons, then reading, sewing and conversing in the evenings. She was an accomplished pianist, and many of Jane’s heroines in her novels also played the piano.

However, Jane knew how it felt to be a poor relation, and this sense of being slightly outside high society is keenly felt in her novels. She lived always in the company of her parents and siblings, yet enjoyed her fair share of romances, and although never marrying was a fond and willing aunt to her nieces and nephews.

[Extract from Lesser Known Lyme Regis]

Diana Shervington is doubly related to Jane as both her grandmothers were grand-daughters of Jane’s brother, Edward. She came to live in Lyme in 1986.

‘When I was young we spent a lot of time at the Dower House, near Chawton in Hampshire, where Jane spent the last 8 years of her life. My cousin Edward inherited Chawton, but he was bored stiff with Jane Austen! He was only interested in sport and said, “Everyone keeps turning up all the time and asking about her. I don’t want to be bothered with all this stuff!” So most of the things that were owned by Jane and her sister Cassandra came down to our Aunt. My brother had some of the larger artefacts such as all the first editions, and as the youngest of the children, some of the smaller, personal things came down to me. I inherited these things when I was 16.

When I first visited Lyme as a young woman, I loved it straight away. I was delighted with Pyne House and was absolutely thrilled to see all the places Jane had described in Persuasion. I’d been very aware of Jane all my life and walked around in a wonderful Jane Austen dream.

           I began to take a serious interest in Jane when my children were off my hands. I started researching some of her music books and worked with the founder of the JaneAusten Society. Gradually I came to realise that I could help others by showing them the artefacts and giving talks. I’ve given some of Jane’s things to the Lyme Regis Museum, including some of her embroidery, the set of spillikins and some bone counters with letters on them that Jane probably used to learn her alphabet. I like to think that these things will always stay in Lyme for people to enjoy.’

 Jane Austen's cottage (or Chawton cottage) is now a museum – Jane Austen's House Museum –  a wonderful place telling the story of Jane and her family. Its furnished rooms contain objects owned by the family, and there is a learning centre with interactive exhibits.

At Chawton Jane shared a room with her sister Cassandra, with whom she was very close. Neither sister married and tender relationships between sisters are often a part of Jane’s stories. Without central heating, it was quite common to sleep several to a bed. And, interestingly, the bed was made to the exact specifications of each customer.

Jane writes with precision and attention to detail, describing every-day little things vividly. Also, both her brothers were in the Navy and this undoubtedly influenced her writing. Both Mansfield Park and Persuasion have strong naval themes. She doesn’t give many descriptions of her characters’ physical features or clothing – maybe this is intentional, allowing the reader the freedom to create pictures in his or her own mind.

Links

Jane Austen Detectives

Jane Austen Lyme Regis Weekend 16–19 October

Literary Lyme Walking Tours

Regency History blog by Rachel Knowles

Jane Austen Literacy Foundation

Jane Austen Festival in Bath

Lesser Known Lyme Regis is available from Dorset publisher Roving Press (www.rovingpress.co.uk, tel 01300 321531).