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.
Tag: Wyke Regis
Misdemeanours and misfits in the Victorian courts; 1863.
I just love to browse the old newspapers and see what our ancestors were up to. The papers columns are filled with intriguing snippets of their daily lives, the usual hatch, match and dispatches, arrivals and departures, accidents and fights, and the misfortunes of those whose day to day activities managed to fall foul of…
Who’s a naughty boy then? Victorian prisoners, were they really all bad?.
The Prison Registers contain many intriguing stories within their yellowed pages, and the faded elegant script tells us of our ancestors past lives. They are just a tiny snapshot of their life’s story, but can reveal a great deal about the person or the family. On the very last day of the year 1872, James…
1899; Thwarted love…never cross a woman!
In the April of 1899 a case came before the Under-Sheriff’s Court at Dorchester. It concerned a breach of promise, that was back in the day when people declared themselves engaged…it really meant something! Not like the business of today where it seems to be a question of how many engagement rings they can accumulate….
1891; Wyke Regis church receives its new bells
There is a sound you don’t hear very often these days, the ringing of church bells. I loved to hear them. At one time their merry peel would call villagers to worship on Sundays, ring out joyfully at wedding ceremonies, or the solemn death knell rung to mourn a person passing. In the Victorian era…
1892; Wyke Working Men’s Club.
A lot of us probably remember going to a working Mens Club of an evening, either with family or friends, or if you weren’t a member, then signing in as a guest to attend a party or wedding reception. In my case it was the under 18’s disco’s at the Weymouth workies. The Weymouth one…
1872; Chesil Royal Adelaide shipwreck; part 2. Armageddon.
This is the second part of the tale of the sinking of the Royal Adelaide on Chesil beach that happened on the 25th November 1872. Well, in fact, it’s actually about what happened after…the dreadful scenes that hit the national papers and shook a lot of people. Despite there being many shipwrecks around the coast over…
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 