We’ll start with a touch of Christmastide shenanigans. A well respected farmer and businessman, Thomas Hole, was stood in the dock garbed only in a sheet and rug, much to the amusement of the court’s public attendees, in stark contrast his hands and face were blackened. Thomas was accused of being drunk and disorderly at the Crown hotel.
Category: Weymouth tales
Stories from around Weymouth
Smugglers Secrets Revealed 100 Years Later! Weymouth’s George Inn.
I know, I know, I’m always banging on about my love of old newspapers, but they really are fascinating. They fittingly flesh out Weymouth’s history. Such was the case when I read an article in the Dorset County Chronicle of Thursday 5th June 1884. It’s headline revealed ‘A Record of Smuggling Days.’ Apparently some modernisation…
When Andromeda and the Naval Fleet went Walkabouts from Weymouth. August 1899.
via When Andromeda and the Naval Fleet went Walkabouts from Weymouth. August 1899.
Granfer Henry Reads the News; Every Day Lives in Weymouth; 1884.
What I find fascinating about mooching through old newspapers is not only the sensational crimes and usual misdemeanours that fill the columns of the local papers, but also those mundane snippets that give us every day glimpses of our Victorian ancestors lives. In some sense, they really weren’t that much different from us. Take The…
Naughty Naughty…Knocker Wrenching.
Originally posted on NOTHE FORT AND BEYOND…:
Throughout its history, Weymouth’s Red Barracks and Nothe Fort have seen various troops come and go. Some good, some bad, some just plain bored and a few high spirited. Their boots marched through the town on parades, they wooed and (sometimes) wed the local girls, or maybe snatched a sneaky bit…
Men of the Sea; Greenhill Weymouth 1869
Folks lined the grassy slopes along Greenhill common, watching as men dragged their wooden boats and heavy rope nets down the beach and into the water. Time after time they rowed out into the wind swept bay, laying nets behind them. Having circled round, they then began the hard work. Men heaved and hauled in their cumbersome nets, moving ever closer to shore.
19th c New Years Eve in ‘Dorset Lunatic Asylum.’
This New Year’s Eve musing takes on a slightly different tone. Maybe not quite so light a subject as I would normally cover, but it’s a subject that I feel strongly about and that I think often gets brushed under the carpet. (The words used, though not nowadays politically correct, are ones that were used during…
What Were Your Weymouth Ancestors Up To December of 1888?
Christmas is nearly upon us, its that time of year when we think about absent family and friends and especially those no longer here to celebrate with us. Our long departed ancestors knew how to celebrate Christmas too, albeit sometimes in a very different way, though their life often mirrored ours of today, with the same…
Victorian St Nicholas Street: Weymouth
Numerous narrow streets tuck themselves away in and around Weymouth town. Ones that we don’t pay much attention to. Maybe sometimes travelling their length merely to avoid excess holiday traffic or that proliferation of poodling summertime pedestrians. They are merely a means of getting from A to B as quickly as possible, never a place to stop and admire the…
A Sorry Tale of Love and Betrayal; Weymouth 1880.
During my perusals of various sites and old local newspapers I often come across some intriguing stories. Such was the case a few weeks ago when I was mooching through the old Police Gazettes, a periodical which gives a fascinating and highly detailed insight into our Victorian ancestors lives and their mishaps or misdemeanours. Should…
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 