Weymouth has enjoyed trade with the Channel islands for many decades. Ships have been plying their trade between the three ports, Weymouth, Jersey, and Gurnsey ever since the the end of the 18thc, transferring anything and everything from tomatoes, potatoes, cut flowers, passengers…oh, and of course illegal goods! ! Many a ships crew member was thwarted in their…
Tag: victorian
1863; Royal Wedding Celebrations at Osmington Village Dorset.
On the 10th March 1863, Queen Victoria’s son Prince Albert Edward, otherwise know as Bertie married the pretty young Danish Princess Alexandra. Bertie was the eldest son of Victoria and Albert and up till then had gained a certain reputation for enjoying the highlife and his scandalous dalliances, much to his parents disgrace. The couple…
1838; Shipwreck at Osmington, Smugglers and Coastguards.
Life at sea has always been hazardous, natures fickle whims, and mans unpredictability has always caused dramas and deaths. For those whose livelihoods depended on the sea, and those who relied on the open water as their means of transport, they literally took their life in their hands every time they entered a boat. Nowadays…
1873; Weymouth, violence in the classroom.
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,…
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…
1886; Guy Fawkes night on Portland leads to riots!
The forbidding Verne citadel stands atop of Portland, built originally as part of Lord Palmerston’s coastal defences. Nowadays it hold prisoners serving their sentence for crimes to the community, but in the Victorian era it contained the might of the military. The soldier’s billeted within those strong walls came and went, some companies had better…
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; Sutton Poyntz and wedding celebrations.
The surrounding areas to Weymouth were and still are prime farm land, and as such they had been worked throughout the centuries. In the Victorian era, and of course before even then, rural life was very much divided into 2 groups. You had those who had the lot… land, money and prestige…and then those who…
1883; Weymouth and the Great Western railway. A signal-mans tale.
The railway finally rolled into the seaside resort of Weymouth in the year 1857. Anyone who’s travelled the Weymouth line knows of the long Bincombe cutting and tunnel that burrows under the Bincombe chalk downs. As a child it was always with a sense of excitement that we would approach this tunnel…as the line began…
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…
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 