For children, life at school can be pretty rough and tough. Even during the Victorian period, with their propensity for strict discipline, the class room wasn’t always the safest place to be. In December of 1879, at the Borough petty sessions a case was brought before the three officials of the court, Mr W Talbot,…
Tag: artwork
1834; Weymouth’s Grand Park.
Isn’t it odd, you grow up somewhere, and the place names of streets, areas, and houses just trip off the tongue. You’ve always called them that, never known them as anything different. But have you ever stopped and wondered why they were so named in the first place? I was born in Weymouth more than…
1888; Chesil swallows up another wreck.
Chesil beach in Dorset is world renown. It is part of the World Heritage Jurassic coastline. A more stunning place for scenery is hard to find…but it does have it’s dark side, as anyone who’s witnessed it in storms will realise. Many a ship has fallen foul of the weather and tides here, the sea…
1896; Tragedy at Upwey mill, Weymouth.
One of the prettiest little villages on the outskirts of Weymouth is Upwey. As you drive into the meandering village, the houses and buildings snuggle themselves down into a wooded valley, and in the midst of this stands the tall building of the Upwey mill. It’s fed by the river Wey which springs out of…
1864; Weymouth as a nudist resort…
It’s quite weird really, you always have this perception of Victorians as being prudes and covered from head to toe, less some signs of sinful bare flesh should reveal itself. It wasn’t quite like that though…well at least for for the gentlemen! In 1864 a letter was sent to the Times, part of which was…
Weymouth 1873; Rub a dub dub, 3 men (not) in a tub….
Well, o.k. maybe the title is a bit lighthearted for such a tragedy, but when I read that it allegedly concerned 3 butchers assistants that the misfortune had befallen, a visual image immediately flashed in my mind of the popular nursery rhyme. Just put that down to my extremely warped sense of humour which seems…
1870; Pilfering pilots in Portland Roads
Being on the coast, and having both Weymouth Harbour and Portland Roads on our doorstep, a lot of the local men had always earned their living from the sea, and fiercely guarded their rights to do so. Not least the men who worked the local waters as pilots. These were were the men who from…
1865; Portland…keeping it in the family.
I know that Portland is not technically an island, (the Chesil causeway connects it to Weymouth), but it’s treated as such in many respects, not least that the folks on the island (I.m sure that being a proud race, they won’t mind me saying) have a long history of being fairly insular! nd When a…
1899, Weymouth; The mysterious disappearance of the train driver.
At one time in Weymouth there existed a railway line that ran from Weymouth station, across an iron girder bridge over the large stretch of water known as the Backwater and on to Portland. (Virtually where the new road bridge now sits.) In the year 1899 came a report in the newspapers of the rather…
1866; Portland quarry men and boys…theyz toils ‘n toils.
Portland is world famous for it’s quarries. This Isle is littered with immense craters in the ground, and large roughly hewn blocks of stone tumble in seemingly haphazard piles across the almost lunar landscape. There’s absolutely no doubt that those men and boys who slogged away day in day out in the quarries at Portland earnt…
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 