*Please note- This site search does not include the Vic. & Tas. BMD's, Lots o' Links & Worth a Look Book
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Now Castles were built long ago,
To guard the surroundings from foe;
Invaders arose
their will would impose,
defeated and wounded they'd go
To guard the surroundings from foe;
Invaders arose
their will would impose,
defeated and wounded they'd go
PECULIAR PLACEs
and other destinations
1. Isle of Purbeck, Dorset
2. Corfe Castle
3. Purbeck Villages
4. Baden-Powell & Brownsea Island
5. Jurassic Coast
6. Purbeck Marblers
7. Masons vs Freemasons
8. Complicated Brotherhood
9. Offshoots & Persecution
10 Mason's Marks
11 Purbeck Clay
12 Enid Blyton & Dorset
2. Corfe Castle
3. Purbeck Villages
4. Baden-Powell & Brownsea Island
5. Jurassic Coast
6. Purbeck Marblers
7. Masons vs Freemasons
8. Complicated Brotherhood
9. Offshoots & Persecution
10 Mason's Marks
11 Purbeck Clay
12 Enid Blyton & Dorset
Isle of Purbeck
Protruding out from the chalk cliffs at Handfast Point, are what is known as Old Harry Rocks, this marks the start of the Jurassic Coast in Dorset
From the viewpoint at Handfast Point, you can see the Isle of Wight
There are three parts to this coastal cliff section, which has been formed by the sea breaking through a narrow Chalk ridge that once continued eastwards to the Needles, Isle of Wight. The first part extends from Swanage Bay (Punfield Cove) to Ballard Point. The upper Lewes Nodular Chalk forms the Headland and was estimated by Dr Rowe (1901) to be about 42 ft (13 m) thick. The second part, from this point northwards to Handfast Point and Old Harry Rocks, contains the Ballard Fault and the long Upper Campanian section. The third part is the Studland Bay section from Handfast Point to Studland, which exposes the Studland Chalk and overlying Palaeogene deposits.
http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount206.pdf Isle of Portland, Dorset, Upper Jurassic The famous rocky peninsula with Upper Jurassic oolitic limestone, the Portland Stone, used for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire in 1666. The fascinating "island" has numerous cliff sections, quarries, some caves, giant ammonites, fossil trees and a Pleistocene raised beach...... Fossil insects are common in the Purbeck Formation. The raised beaches, of round about 100,000 years old, contain numerous low-tide mollusc shells...The large-scale quarrying of Portland Stone by convicts to build the great breakwaters of Portland Harbour has left an interesting maze of old quarries.
How they look today How great is modern photography? A violent thunderstorm broke over Somerset and Dorset, in 1896, one of the pillars known as Old Harry's Wife, had her upper half swept away into the sea by the wind, leaving little more than the base remaining. Is Old Harry's wife, the short one?
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Purbeck is a district of Dorset that takes its name from the peninsula known locally as the 'Isle of Purbeck'. This sixty square mile chunk of land jutting into the English Channel is bordered on three sides by water and, although not actually an island, has an insular character which is largely due to its geography.
https://www.dorsets.co.uk/purbeck The area known as The Isle of Purbeck is a 60 square mile stretch of South East Dorset
http://rmgwildlife.co.uk/the-isle-of-purbeck/ The Purbeck Hills traverse the Isle of Purbeck from east to west, commencing at the chalk cliffs of Handfast Point and terminating at the chalk cliff in
Worbarrow Bay. Old Harry & Old Harry's Wife are the Two Needle Rocks at the edge of Handfast Point, Isle of Purbeck
Not Technically an Island, Purbeck only has water on three sides
Old Harry Rocks-
Husband & Wife, Dorset Father & Son, Newfoundland Watch 30 second Aerial view video
https://www.videoblocks.com/video/ "Who is Old Harry?"
Harry was a nickname for the devil "How did the devil get the name of 'Old Harry'?"
The Article below, suggests that it may have it's roots in
Greek Satyr or Roman fauni? |
King Henry VIII. Not very well liked! Having Six wives & not very nice to them either, what did these girls see in him, apart from the fact that he was King?
https://www.britannica In 1547 when he died,
he weighed almost 400 pounds. Between 57,000 – 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed during his reign of 37 years. |
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On Studland Heath 1 mile north-west of the village of Studland on the Isle of Purbeck, stands a strange rock formation called The Agglestone, which has now fallen on its side. Locally it has associations both in myth and legend with the devil who is said to have hurled the rock from the Needles on the Isle of Wight https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2014/08/16/ |
Swanage Bay lies between Handfast and Peverel Point: it was the scene of a naval battle, in 876, in which the Danes, on their way from Wareham, lost 120 galleys, and, when they landed, were pursued by King Alfred to Exeter. In 1785, a Purbeck lighter, with 300 tons of stone, sunk off Poole Harbour, and forming a bar, has thrown the channel one mile nearer
Peverel Point. A Guide to the South Coast of England...By Mackenzie Edward Charles WALCOTT 1859 https://books.google.com.au/books?id
The Beauties of England and Wales; or, Delineations... of each county, England, by John Britton 1803 https://books.google.com.au/books |
Secrets of Dorset
12:16 |
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. History and description of Corfe....by Bond, Thomas 1883
The Castle had become a fortress of great strength and importance within twenty years after the compilation of the Domesday book, is proved from its having been selected by King Henry I for the incarceration of his unfortunate elder brother, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, who having been vanquished at the battle of Tinchebray, in 1106, was sent as a prisoner to England. In the 15th year of King Stephen it (the castle) was attacked by Baldwin de Bedvers, Earl of Devon, and delivered up to him by the Governor. The king's attempt to retake it was unsuccessful. In the time of King John, William de Braose, a powerful baron, to whom King Henry II. had given the whole kingdom of Limerick, falling into disgrace, fled into France; but his wife, and also William, his son, were taken prisoners. According to one authority, they were confined in the Castle of Corfe and died there. In 1198, Griffin, Prince of Wales, who had frequently invaded England, having at length been captured, was sent as a prisoner to Corfe. Arthur, Duke of Britany, rightful heir to the Crown of England, son of Geoffrey, Duke of Britany, the elder brother of King John, having taken arms against his uncle, the latter besieged him in 1202, in the castle of Mirabeau, in Poictu, and took him prisoner, together with his sister, the Princess Eleanor, and two hundred knights. Arthur is supposed to have been murdered at Bouen by King John ; but the Princess, having inherited her brother's legal right to the throne, was brought to England and kept a close prisoner for the rest of her life. She is said to have been confined for forty years in Bristol Castle, where she died; but the whole of her captivity was not passed at Bristol, for it was not till after the death of her uncle that she was removed to that place. For some time she was confined in Corfe Castle, where she still remained at her uncle's decease. History and description of Corfe....by Bond, Thomas 1883 History and description of Corfe Castle, in the isle of Purbeck, Dorset. by Bond, Thomas, of the Inner temple 1883 https://archive.org/details/historydescript |
Before the close of the seventh century, Corfe must have been a place of consideration, for we are told that the Great St. Aldhelm, then Abbot of Malmesbury, and afterwards Bishop of Sherborne, built a church here, which he would not have done unless there had been a Christian population to frequent it.
The next notice of Corfe shows it to have been in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon kings, at which time it formed part of the great manor of Kingston, it afterwards became the property of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, to which it belonged at the time of the Norman invasion. 978. This year was King Edward slain, at eventide, at Corfe gate, on the 15th day before the Kalends of April and then was buried at Warham without any kind of kingly honours. The author of Brompton's Chronicle relates that in the cottage in which the corpse was temporarily concealed, lived a woman who had been blind from her birth and whom the Queen supported by her alms. To this person, while watching the body at night, the glory of the Lord appeared ; the house was filled with a brilliant light, and the woman, overwhelmed with terror, received her sight. Search being afterwards made for the body, the place where it was concealed was discovered* and thereupon some devout people of Wareham, having conveyed the corpse to the church of St. Mary, in that town, buried it in a plain and homely manner on a spot where religious men afterwards built a wooden church History and description of Corfe....by Bond, Thomas 1883 Two other princesses shared the captivity of the beautiful and high-spirited Eleanor, during her residence at Corfe, and were her companions there. These were Margery and Isabel, the two daughters of William, King of Scotland. How long they remained at Corfe is uncertain.
The cruelties of King John were so intolerable...even the Queen herself was at one time placed in strict confinement in Corfe Castle. History and description of Corfe....by Bond, Thomas 1883 |
The Battle of Tinchebray took place on 28 September 1106, in Tinchebray, Normandy, between an invading force led by King Henry I of England, and the Norman army of his elder brother Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tinchebray Topographical_And_Historical_Guide_To_Corfe_Castle_by Bournemouth Times Ltd. 1944
https://archive.org/details/Topo |
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During the civil wars of the 17th century, Corfe Castle was rendered famous by the heroic defence made by its mistress, Lady Bankes, in the absence of her husband. The next memorandum is a paper endorse in the handwriting of Lady Bankes, "about things lost in the castle," entitled,
The Goods lost in the Castle out of the Wardrop :--
* 7 or 8 suits of fine tapestry hangings. * A suite of watchet damask hangings. * A suite of green plush hangings. * A suit of pentado hangings, and curtains and quilt. *A furniture for a bed, and carpet, and quilt of green cloth embroydered with work. * A white dimity bed and canopy, with the whole furniture wrought withe black. * 4 Turkey carpets, with a white ground, 2 of them very long. * 8 other Turkey and Persia carpets, some long, some less sizes. * A wrought quilt, white and yellow. * A suite of scarlet and gilt leather hangings. * Several trunkes of linen, diaper, and damask, with NB., the other linen * Several trunkes with flaxen sheets and table linen marked. * A very large ebony cabinet. * A very large trunke, inlayed all over with mother of pearle. * A trunke, with all sorts of tine child bed linen, as sheets, and pillow-cases, and mantles. * One of crimson plushe, with 2 fair silver and gold laces. * One crimson damask mantle laced and divers others. * Some crimson damask curtains, and long cushions for a couch. * 1 very tine and long down beds, with bolsters, and pillowes and blanckets. * Several trunkes of wearing clothes and wearing linnen. * Many books and papers, at the value of 1,300/ all new and good, with many other things not mentioned. The goods which were about the castle:-- * A large suit of crimson velvet chairs, stooles, couch embroydered, long cushions of crimson velvet. * Turkey carpets for the tables. * 2 furnitures for beds, one purple, the other crimson, with counterpoints, carpets, stooles, chairs. * Stript hangings for 4 or 5 chambers. * One suit; 8 pieces of superfine dorcas, 12 foot deep ; the story of Astrea and Caledon. * A second suit of tapestry, 12 foot deep. * A third suit of tapestry, the story of Constantine. * A fourth, fifth and sixth suit, 12 foot deep. In a trunk, with letter Q :-- * One suit of hangings of rich Watehet damask, lined with blew cloth, 9 'pieces, and one carpet. In a trunk marked with letter O :-- * A furniture for a bed of French green cloth embroydered ; * 6 curtains and valences, with changeable taffety teaster head-cloth and fringe, all of the same taffety ; * 2 carpets of cloth embroydered ; an Indian quilt of white, wrought with yellow, to the bed. * 6 large down and five feather beds and bolsters. * 4 pair of down pilowes and quilts. * 5 pair of fine long blanckets. * Fine linen particularly- enumerated, in boxes numbered and lettered from A to the letter O. The memorandum thus continues :--
"All these things before mentioned in particular, with many others not so well remembered, were layed up together in one roome in paekes and trunkes, and brought away, first to the Isle of Wight, and then to London, and most of the bed-hangings and other things sold to brokers, where some of them have been seen. There were besides lost in the castle all that which was in use about the castle: a suit of crimson velvet in the parlour; above 20 good feather beds and bolsters, pilows, blanckets, rugs, and furniture to them all; new and good hangings in several chambers ; household linnen, new and good ; all other necessaries of pewter, brasse, iron, tables, stooks, and all else belonging to a house ; with many armes in the magazine and hall of Sr Jo. Bankes owne, all there, to the value of above 400/, pilledg'd by the souldiers. History and description of Corfe....by Bond, Thomas 1883 Now owned by the National Trust,
Corfe Castle is open to the public The Manor of Corfe is now held by Henry John Ralph Bankes, Esq., of Kingston Lacy, direct descendant of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Bankes, and of Sir Ralph Bankes. Colonel Bingham, who commanded the besiegers, agreed that all the lives of the defenders should be spared, and that those who lived in the neighbourhood should be permitted to return to their homes. But while the terms were being arranged, two of the investing force, eager for plunder, scaled the walls, and were fired on by the garrison, and had it not been for the exertions of Colonel Bingham, a general massacre might have ensued. This was, fortunately, averted, and the intrepid Lady Bankes was permitted to leave the Castle, which she had so long held in the name of the king, with her family and dependants, but with all her property sequestrated, to seek a new home as best she could.
Topographical & Historical Guide 1944 *A Brief Passage in U.S. Immigration History
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/07/01/ Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset (Accredited Museum) http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/ |
Mary, Lady Bankes née Hawtry was a Royalist who defended Corfe Castle from a three-year siege during the English Civil War from 1643 to 1645. She was married to Sir John Bankes, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Attorney-General of King Charles I.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bankes The Story of Corfe Castle, and of Many who Have Lived There: 1853 By George Bankes
https://books.google.com.au/books On Cromwell's accession to power Lady Bankes was permitted to receive her jointure, on payment of a fine of one thousand four hundred pounds for herself and seven younger children. The Castle was surrendered on 27th February, 1646, and on the 5th March following a vote was passed in the House of Commons to demolish it. This order was carried out much more rigorously than was absolutely necessary to make it untenable for military purposes; thus the buildings of the central Keep were so mutilated that it is impossible, at the present time, to form a correct idea of their previous state. The outer walls were ruined, some portions of them were blown up, while others appear to have sunken down bodily into the mines before they were exploded.
Topographical & Historical Guide 1944 Castle Place Names on the
Ulster Free Pages Site *Rent Rolls of the Castlestewart & Lissan Estates from 1786 *Castleblayney Residents, 1846 *Account Book- Ballycastle Merchant 1700's *Census of Carncastle 1851 *Castlecaulfield, Co Tyrone residents The Parliamentarian forces plundered the castle immediately after its surrender, and carried away a rich store of tapestry, carpets, and furniture
*The Royal Archives is based in the Round
Tower at Windsor Castle and holds documents that relate to the Royal Family and British Monarchy for a period of over 250 years. *Barnard Castle Birth & Baptism Records *OLD CASTLE STREET AREA, WHITECHAPEL, 1851 One large bed, minus the feathers, and one red velvet chair, appear to constitute the amount of furniture and building materials recovered by Sir Ralph Bankes, out of the property purloined at Corfe. He lived to complete the new mansion at Kingston Lacy, but not long enough to see another revolution, or the final expulsion of the royal race of Stuarts, in whose cause his family had suffered so severely.
Topographical & Historical Guide 1944 Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset
*CASTLE GARDEN: America's First Immigration Center
*New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 *Passengers of the Pennsylvania 1803 Destination: Newcastle, Wilmington & Philadelphia, USA *Passengers of the Catherine 1804 : Newcastle & Philadelphia, USA *Passengers of the President 1804 Destination: Newcastle USA *2nd Census of the U.S., Delaware, 1800, New Castle County https://www.historykat.com/US/census/ |
Corfe Castle - 3D Historical Reconstruction 1:18
Castles- The Magnificence Of the Medieval Era 42:54
Mysteries Of England's Forgotten Castles 45:46
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*Dorset records by Fry, Edward Alexander, 1894
*Corfe Castle 1790 Census *Parish of Corfe Castle Records *Corfe Castle CP/AP: Census Tables *Dorset, England, Bastardy Records, 1725-1853 (Ancestry.com) Putlog holes or putlock holes are small holes made in the walls of structures to receive the ends of poles or beams, called putlogs or putlocks, to support a scaffolding. Putlog holes may extend through a wall to provide staging on both sides of the wall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putlog |
Corfe Castle model village 3:29
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Corfe Castle, Dorset 3:41
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Purbeck Villages
Dorset's Isle of Purbeck features Corfe Castle (pictured)... and the status of the only district in Britain
where the proportion of migrants fell between 2001 and 2011
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2917912/The-place-UK-immigration-Isle-Purbeck-Dorset
where the proportion of migrants fell between 2001 and 2011
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2917912/The-place-UK-immigration-Isle-Purbeck-Dorset
The Church of St James, Kingston, Isle of Purbeck
The font inside the church is made from a combination of Purbeck stone & Purbeck marble, also the columns that support the church itself
*Calendar of Dorset Wills
1383-1700 https://archive.org/details/ *Registers of Thornford, Dorset 1677-1812https://archive.org/details/ *Register of Stourpaine, Dorset. Bap & Mar 1631-1799, Bur 1631-1752 https://archive.org/details/ *Registers of Sturminster Marshall, Dorset. 1563-1812 https://archive.org/details/ *The Fleet of Fines, Dorset. 1327-1485 https://archive.org/details/ *Dorset Protestation Returns 1641-42 https://archive.org/details/ *Registers of Long Burton, Dorset. 1580-1812 https://archive.org/details/ Dorset, By Arthur L. Salmon 1915
https://archive.org/details Frances Coke, Viscountess Purbeck, was the sister-in-law of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and the central figure in a notorious sex scandal within the English aristocracy of the early 17th century that was known at the time as “the Lady Purbeck’s business”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck; a scandal of the XVIIth century
by Longueville, Thomas, 1909 https://archive.org/details/ |
The Isle of Purbeck, is divided into two nearly equal parts, by a lofty ridge of chalk hills. The only opening in this range of hills, apart from Ulwell, near its eastern extremities, is about midway between its two ends, here the continuity of the range, by nature, has been completely severed.
The earliest divisions of England were tribal. The tribe was a large family, or cluster of families more or less connected, under one head or chieftain and it occupied as much territory as it was able to hold by the strong arm. The delimitation of a tribe's frontiers was usually assisted by nature; hill-ranges, forests, rivers, or great swamps forming the natural boundaries that divided one tribe from another...... Tribes of Saxons and Angles gradually spread
westward and northward, never really reaching Cornwall or Wales, and to a considerable extent they adhered to the old tribal divisions, thus proving the force of the natural boundaries that in most cases had governed the to Alfred though there is some doubt is the term "scir " certainly existed earlier. In Alfred's time we find, for legislative purposes, the township (in more important cases the burh) ; the Hundred, which is sometimes explained as denoting a hundred families, but more probably signified a division that was expected to supply a hundred men for military service ; and the shire or county. The shire had its own " folk-moot " or court, and the Hundred, if not originally, came later to have a similar judicial assemblage. Dorset then was a shire of the great kingdom of Wessex. Dorset, By Arthur L. Salmon 1915
The Illustrated Historical and Picturesque Guide to Poole and the Isle of Purbeck, Part 3 1858
https://books.google.com.au/books The illustrated historical and picturesque guide to Corfe castle, Wareham, By Philip Brannon 1878
https://books.google.com.au/books Isle of Purbeck and the nearby coastal areas.
http://www.markedbyteach |
Baden-Powell & Brownsea Island
15 February 1853, Dorchester, Dorset -
7 Dec 1923, Lausanne, Switzerland https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2014/12/ In his book Highways and Byways in Dorset, Sir Frederick Treves – baronet, royal surgeon and more than occasionally acerbic travel writer – visits the most famous of Poole Harbour’s islands. ‘The largest of the isles is Brownsea, which is a mile and a half long and three-quarters of a mile wide…, notable owners of the island were the Sturts of Crichel and Colonel Waugh, who built the church and restored and enlarged the castle. Brownsea Castle, already subject to many vicissitudes according to Treves, was to face more over the next 100 years.
Sir Frederick Treves, Doctor to Jos. Merrick (The Elephant man)
Mary Bonham Christie took Brownsea out of circulation for 34 years, just left it alone."The Demon of Brownsea" also unwittingly helped to sell several million books by catching the imagination of Enid Blyton, who could see the "mysterious island" as she played golf at Godlingston Heath across the harbour. Brownsea was almost certainly the inspiration for Kirrin Island, and you can't help feeling the Famous Five would have loved the real thing - and its irascible owner.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ The man who became known as B-P was born Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell in London on 22 February, 1857, the son of an Oxford University professor.
The eighth of ten children, B-P was only three years old when his father died, leaving his mother, Henrietta Powell, to bring up the family on her own. He took the entrance exam for the army & came in second of the several hundred applicants and was commissioned straight into the 13th Hussars, bypassing the officer training that was the usual route into the cavalry regiment. As a young army officer, he specialised in scouting, map-making and reconnaissance, and began to train other soldiers in essential skills. Later, a Lieutenant-General, B-P found himself the leader of a British garrison defending the town of Mafeking against some 5,000 Boer soldiers. Returning home in 1903, B-P discovered that he had become a national hero. In 1910, at the age of 53, B-P retired from the army to devote his life to the Scout Movement, travelling the world to inspire more young people to join scouting. In 1938, with his health declining, B-P returned to Africa to live in semi-retirement in the shadow of Mount Kenya at Nyeri. On 8 January 1941, at the age of 83, B-P died. He left the following message for his young Scouts- “Try and leave this world a little better than you found it,” https://www.scout.org/node/52292/ His successful defense of Mafeking (1899-1900) in South Africa made Baden-Powell a well-known British national hero
Scouting for Boys: The Original 1908 Edition By Robert Baden-Powell
https://books.google.com.au/books?id Siege of Mafeking
The siege of the railway town on the Bechuanaland border, from 14th October 1899 to 16th May 1900, that fired the British imagination with its resourceful defence by Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement. Mafeking lies on the railway north to Rhodesia, in the Northern tip of Cape Colony in South Africa, near to the Bechuanaland border. Combatants at the Siege of Mafeking: British against the Boers. https://www.britishbattles.com/ The South African Boer War begins between the British Empire and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers of southern Africa. Britain took possession of the Dutch Cape colony in 1806 during the Napoleonic wars, sparking resistance from the independence-minded Boers, who resented the Anglicization of South Africa and Britain’s anti-slavery policies. In 1833, the Boers began an exodus into African tribal territory, where they founded the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The two new republics lived peaceably with their British neighbors until 1867, when the discovery of diamonds and gold in the region made conflict between the Boer states and Britain inevitable. Minor fighting with Britain began in the 1890s, and in October 1899 full-scale war ensued.
https://www.history.com/this-day The official language in the Orange Free State was Dutch.
https://alchetron.com/Orange-Free-State The Orange River was not named after the reddish orange colour of its silt-laden water. It was in fact named in 1779 by Colonel Robert Gordon, the commander of the garrison of the Dutch East India Company (Cape Town) during a reconnaissance into the interior, in honour of the Dutch House of Orange.
http://www.dwaf.gov.za/orange/intro.aspx
South Africa 1750-1900 Timeline
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/ The Dutch and the Colour Orange https://www.tripsavvy.com/significance House of Orange https://oudeennieuwekerkdelft.nl/ |
Brownsea Island is the largest of eight islands formed out of mud and sand deposits in Poole harbour.
William the Conqueror gave Brownsea to his half-brother, after which it passed into the hands of Cerne Abbey, who held onto it for three hundred and fifty years, until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Henry VIII noticed the strategic importance of the island and built a blockhouse from which to defend Poole Harbour. The blockhouse eventually came to be known as Brownsea Castle. After the civil war Brownsea passed into private ownership, the village of Maryland was built and left in ruins, a new pier with castellated watch towers was constructed, St Mary's church was added, the castle burned down and was rebuilt.
https://www.dorsets.co.uk/poole/brownsea-island Brownsea Castle was threatened with demolition, but this was cancelled when the island was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie at auction for £125,000 in 1927. Whilst she didn’t demolish the castle, neither did she live there, opting instead for an adjacent building. The island was left to nature, which as an animal lover she clearly thought the best option. The much renovated castle, is now leased by the island’s owner, the National Trust, to the John Lewis Partnership, which uses it as a hotel for employees and retired staff.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/artsandculture
The "Fleur-de-lis" (Lily flower) can be found anywhere from the Ancient Egyptians, Freemasons, French Royalty, even Scouts
Baden-Powell reasoned that the fleur-de-lis was commonly used as the symbol for north on maps, and a Boy Scout was to show the way in doing his duty and helping others. The plumes of the fleur-de-lis became symbols for Service to Others, Duty to God, and Obedience to the Scout Law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Scout_Emblem The symbol has been regarded as a sign of purity, others say differently
We can read a hidden meaning into anything, but Baden-Powell's meaning was, Service, Duty to God & Obedience to Scout laws
Museum of the Manchester Regiment Object Focus
The Fleur-de-Lys https://www.tameside.gov.uk/MuseumsandGalleries/ 'Food' for thought with the Ancient Egyptians
List of World Organization of the Scout Movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Organization |
*National Archives of South Africa (NASA)
*Ancestor South Africa *South Africa Genealogy FamilySearch *South African Genealogy *South Africa Ancestry.com *Research South African genealogy on the internet *HELPING YOU FIND YOUR STH AFRICAN FAMILY *South African heritage *South African Genealogy F.H.research The Dutch East India Company originally established on March 20 1602 as a chartered company to trade with India and Indianised Southeast Asian countries |
On the Boy's Life site, click on decade Dial, then the Magazine that you want to read
https://boyslife.org/wayback/
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Jurassic Coast
Photography https://www.robertharding.com/index
The Great Globe at Swanage is one of the largest stone spheres in the world. The Great Globe is constructed of Portland stone. It weighs about 40 tonnes and is 3 metres (10 ft) in diameter. Its surface is carved in detail and lettered to show the continents, oceans and certain more specific areas of the world. Erected by W.M. Hardy upon a platform chopped 136 feet (41 m) above sea level into the solid rock of the hill. Around the Globe are stone plaques carved with quotations from English and Roman poets and the Bible, as well as facts about the natural world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Globe https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset
Since this Christopher Saxton map of 1575, there has been major erosion along the coastline http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/Chapmans-Pool How the Coastline looked, 1000's of years ago, who knows?
On Occasions, there are landslides, pieces of the rock just fall away into the sea
The coastline has seen numerous stabilisation projects
Old Harry's Wife (rock) wasn't the only thing that's taken a tumble on the Jurassic coast
Lyme Regis is built on a particularly unstable stretch of coastline, landslips are quite frequent there and previous smaller landslips have exposed fossils on the beaches. The coastline has seen numerous stabilisation projects in the past to stop it from crumbling into the sea. (Purbeck, is at the end of the jurassic coast & is the jut out to the right of Portland)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset The Peninsulas of Purbeck and Portland are continually wasting away. In the latter, the soft argillaceous substratum (Kimmeridge clay) hastens the dilapidation of the superincumbent mass of limestone. In 1665 the cliffs adjoining the principal quarries in Portland gave way to the extent of one hundred yards, and fell into the sea; and in December, 1734, a slide to the extent of 150 yards occurred on the east side of the isle, by which several skeletons, buried between slabs of stone, were discovered. But a much more memorable occurrence of this nature, in 1792, occasioned probably by the undermining of the cliffs, is thus described in Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire :.--"Early in the morning the road was observed to crack: this continued increasing, and before two o'clock the ground had sunk several feet, and was in one continued motion, but attended with no other noise than what was occasioned by the separation of the roots and brambles, and now and then a falling rock.
At night it seemed to stop a little, but soon moved again; and before morning, the ground, from the top of the cliff to the water-side, had sunk in some places fifty feet perpendicular. The extent of ground that moved was about a mile and a quarter from north to south, and six hundred yards from east to west." Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how Far the Former Changes, Volume 2 By Sir Charles Lyell 1835 |
The Purbeck coastline is part of the ninety-five mile stretch known as the 'Jurassic Coast'
From Exmouth in East Devon to
Studland in Dorset The different rocks tell a fascinating story from ancient deserts to tropical seas throughout the eras
The Jurassic Coast
2:12 A huge section of the cliff near the beauty spot of Durdle Door in Dorset gave way
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317213 From this angle, it actually looks like a Dinosaur, with it's head bending over to have a drink & the tail just popping out of the water at the other end
Dorset cliff - suffers 100 tonne rockfall at West Bay
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ |
Portland is connected with the main land by the Chesil Bank, a ridge of shingle about seventeen miles in length, and, in most places, nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth. The pebbles forming this immense barrier are chiefly of limestone; but there are many of quartz, jasper, chert, and other substances, all loosely thrown together... 'The formation of this bar may probably be ascribed, like that of Hurst Castle, to a meeting. of tides, or to a great eddy between the peninsula and the land...The storm of 1824 burst over this bar with great fury, and the village of *Chesilton, built upon the southern extremity of the bank, was overwhelmed, with many of the inhabitants. The fundamental rocks whereon the shingle rests are found at the depth of a few yards only below the level of the sea.
*Cheshilton, now called Chiswell. Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how Far the Former Changes, Volume 2 By Sir Charles Lyell 1835 |
Overlooking Portland Harbour in Dorset stands one of Henry VIII's finest coastal forts, built in the early 1540's to protect against French and Spanish invasion
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/ The ancient castles of England and Wales by William Wollnoth Vol 1 1825 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=4dYH The ancient castles of England and Wales by William Wollnoth Vol 2 1825 https://archive.org/details/ancientcastles Castles & Forts in Dorset https://www.visit-dorset.com/things-to-do/ Castles in England https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/ England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935 (find my past)
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records Prison Registers 1770-1951 (digital project) This a large and complex data set, containing information from a number of documents pertaining to a range of prisons. https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Prison_Registers |
The Geological Society
Index of Obituaries, 1828 - Date https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/About/History/Index The Geology Of Dorset: The Palaeogene rocks
http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2012/12/the-geology Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. (wiki)
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Why is the Coastline falling away?
The Jurassic coast is Limestone and Calcareous Sandstone
Calcareous sandstone is grains of sand cemented with calcium carbonate.
Although there are different forms of Limestone, it's basically dead marine organisms, mixed with calcium carbonate, which cements them all together
Purbeck Marble is semi-crystalline white spaces filled with carbonate of lime, between a quantity of shelly spaces
Limestone and Chalk are mostly calcium carbonate. When acidic rainwater falls on limestone or chalk, by a chemical reaction, new soluble substances are formed. These dissolve in the water, and are then washed away, eroding the rock.
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zwd2mp3/ Geology of the Wessex Coast
Ian West, has a very comprehensive site, covering the South coastline of England. With more than 20 years as a websmaster, his site includes about 10,000 images and information on all aspects of ROCK! Scroll past the last images, for page index http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~imw/Studland List of types of limestone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List Cretaceous chalk that runs from the south-west to the north-east of the county. It is a soft, white, porous, sedi-mentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite (wiki)
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Layers of the Portland series (stone), which are found in the island of Portland, on the southern coast, pass into the Purbeck series. These upper oolitic members are composed of shelly hands of limestone of a granular character. If we examine a piece of Purbeck marble we shall find it made up of semi-crystalline white spaces between a quantity of shells of dark grey colour. The crystalline spaces are filled apparently with carbonate of lime. Portland, on the contrary is finer grained. more granular in texture, and its roe-like particles are cemented together. It is far less shelly than Purbeck, though on close inspection it is found to contain shelly fossils. The least shelly is the best. But the shelliness of Purbeck is the character that gives it its value as an ornamental stone. The specimen sent from Poole has quite a granite-like appearance, the fossils being large and well marked. When polished it makes an extremely handsome material for shafts, and was far more extensively used in ecclesiastical architecturem during the middle ages than now. Both the Purbeck and Petworth marbles, the latter belonging to the Wealden series, are charged with the fossil shell called Poludina, and are sometimes called paludinal marbIes. There is not the colour or variety of grain seen in the ornamental limestones of South Devon, .... and the rich limestones, filled with fossil remains, of Derbyshire; but we believe the architect has a more valuable material for this specific purposes in the Purbeck variety.
The Building News & Engineering Journal Vol 29 1875
The Building News & Engineering Journal Vol 29 1875
Plenty of Fossils to be found, especially around Lyme Regis
Due to coastal erosion, the rock formations are ideal for fossil hunting, especially around Lyme Regis and Chesil Beach
http://www.lymeregis.org/fossils.aspx |
The Fossil Hunter
6:30 The Purbeck Society was set up in 1852 as a semi-learned society for the study of local matters in the fields of history, natural history, local industries, architecture and associated subjects in the Isle of Purbeck. Its early members were local scientists but ‘those who may be merely casual observers of nature’ were also encouraged to join. The introductory lecture took place in Corfe in November 1855. The Society, now as the civic society for the area, as well as campaigning on its own account supports other such appropriate organisations is concerned with the preservation of Purbeck’s heritage.
http://purbecksociety.co.uk/about/ Archaeological discoveries were identified by the Purbeck Society
From the Purbeck Papers
......The next discovery was upon the floor of the barrow, at the distance of twelve feet east from the centre; it consisted of a large deposit of burnt bones which appeared to have been pounded, or broken into small pieces, and lay upon a layer of brown matter, resembling some rotten vegetable substance, such as a slab of wood, or bark, upon which the deposit had been placed....Over the whole extent of the floor existed evident traces of a very strong fire, most probably the funeral pile, over the ashes of which the barrow had been raised....The skeleton which was found with the knees gathered up, beneath slabs of stone, I consider of a later, but still early date. |
World Heritage Sites Featuring the Fossil Records
http://naturalworldheritagesite |
First; they lay with their feet towards the east, as is usual in our times. Second; though some had the face turned towards the south, the sun being an object of Pagan veneration, others had it turned to the north: and, whilst some were covered, others had no protection, which I think satisfactorily proves that they were not all buried at the same time. Third; with one exception, no ornaments were discovered: they were not therefore, a rich people. Fourth; there were no traces of armour, or implements of war: we hence conclude that these burials took place during a time of peace. Fifth; their arms were not crossed, a circumstance which militates against the supposition that they might be Christians...The whole of the interments were, consequently, recovered with flagstones, and the earth thrown over them. The barrow itself, was eventually restored to its original form. JOHN H. AUSTEN
A 'Barrow', is a round or elongated mound of earth or stones used in early times to cover one or more burials; a grave mound. Encylopedic Dictionary of Archaeology, By Barbara Ann Kipfer |
Evidence of human settlement in the Swanage area dates back as far as 6000 BC and ancient burial mounds have been discovered around Corfe Castle. Swanage History Facts and Timeline: Swanage, Dorset, England http://www.world-guides.com/europe/england/dorset |
Transactions of the Geological Society
of London 1836 https://books.google.com.au/books?id Monograph on the Fossil Reptilia of the Wealden and Purbeck ..., Parts 1-5 By Richard Owen 1853-1864 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=f_khU |
Limestone is a naturally occurring mineral complex that contains varying quantities of quartz (crystalline silica)
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar (wiki)
Silica is the name given to a group of minerals composed of silicon and oxygen, the two most abundant elements in the earth's crust.
https://www.eurosil.eu/what-silica
THE INVENTION OF THE FIRST SILICON CHIP FOR COMPUTERS
http://gria.org/history-invention-silicon-chip Computer memory, How it works https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-computer Silicon Valley's name is derived from the dense concentration of electronics and computer companies there Silicon Valley, industrial region around the southern shores of San Francisco Bay, California, U.S., with its intellectual centre at Palo Alto, home of Stanford University. Silicon Valley includes northwestern Santa Clara county as far inland as San Jose, as well as the southern bay regions of Alameda and San Mateo counties. Its name is derived from the dense concentration of electronics and computer companies that sprang up there since the mid-20th century, silicon being the base material of the semiconductors employed in computer circuits.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Silicon-Valley |
Quartz is used in watches, because the Crystals maintain a precise frequency standard
Quartz- made up of silica & oxygen
Why Is Quartz Used in Watches?
Quartz, made up of silica and oxygen. Some materials, such as certain ceramics and quartz crystals, can produce electricity when placed under mechanical stress. The ability to convert voltage to and from mechanical stress is called piezoelectricity. Quartz crystals maintain a precise frequency standard, which helps to regulate the movement of a watch or clock, thus making the timepieces very accurate. https://www.livescience.com/32509-why-is-quartz Silicon is used in radios, televisions, computers, memory cards, smartphones, iPhones, solar cells and more.
https://www.reference.com/science/things-silicon Silicon is used for electronic devices because it is an element with very special properties. One of it’s most important properties is that it is a semiconductor. Without silicon and the silicon wafers they are manufactured into, most of the electronic devices you use everyday wouldn’t be possible.
https://www.waferworld.com/silicon-used-electronic 1966: Semiconductor RAMs Serve High-speed Storage
https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/ Making silicon chips https://www.intel.com/content/www/us From silicon to finished wafer https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory Zoom into a computer chip https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191996-zoom |
Limestone Caves, or Structures (such as castles, or buildings), are known to produce Paranormal Activity
Limestone and Its Paranormal Properties: A Comprehensive Approach to the Possibilities by Timothy Yohe
There has always been a sweeping assumption among paranormal investigators and the para-community that limestone has the ability to absorb and release electromagnetic and psychic energies. This phenomenon explains why one site may be more haunted than another. T.C. Lethbridge proposed the Stone Tape Theory in the 1970's as an attempt to explain how this could happen, but his efforts yielded little scientific merit. Finally, here in this book, the first steps in bridging science and the paranormal have been taken to definitively explain the absorption and release mechanisms for limestone's paranormal properties. |
There are well known ‘haunted’ cave systems in the US and the UK, but Jenolan Caves may be Australia’s best example of a ‘haunted’ limestone cave system. In recent years, some paranormal investigators have theorised that rocks containing a high percentage of quartz (such as limestone) can somehow absorb energy from people. (Quartz is silicon dioxide, and silicon is used in the manufacture of computer memory chips.) The stored energy may somehow be able to release itself in a sort of replay - a full ‘manifestation’ or partial sounds such as voices or footsteps. This is known as the 'Stone Tape Theory'. https://www.jenolancaves.org.au/blog/ghost-or The Jenolan Caves are limestone caves located within the Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve in the Central Tablelands region, west of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenolan_Cave |
Jenolan Caves are the largest, most spectacular caves in Australia, having a long history, known to the Gundungurra people as 'Binoomea' which means "the dark place". Tours of the caves, tell of strange legends or stories about the unexplained phenomena experienced there. Strange sounds, sights and experiences have been reported from all the show caves over the years.
https://www.jenolancaves.org.au/the-caves/ |
'The Stone Tape Theory', attempts to explain paranormal activity in Rock
The Stone Tape Theory, is not talking about demons, but, the repetitive actions of so called 'Ghosts' in haunted locations
Great British Ghosts, is a series of Documentaries, hosted by Michaela Strachan, covering reported supernatural activity in inns, ancient buildings and gaols, in the U.K. Building owners, historians, paranormal experts etc, take you through the history of the buildings, as well as local folklore, which makes these episodes, well worth a look.
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The “Stone Tape Theory” (STT) is frequently used as a sciencey-sounding quasi-explanation to explain hauntings. Amateur paranormal investigators use the idea to account for appearances of images, sounds, and apparitions that do not interact directly with people. Instead, they play out like a movie or recording. This is most commonly labeled a “residual haunting” to suggest something was left behind in the past to account for the current effects perceived. The premise of the stone tape concept is that bedrock or building stone of the location “captured” emotional energy from a traumatic event. The preferred rock type is said to be quartz, but limestone is mentioned nearly as frequently. The sound and visual representations of an event are “recorded” into the rock media in a process analogous to a magnetic tape recording data. At a much later date, a person sensitive to this energy can receive the “playback,” or the playback can be initiated by certain conditions. The recording/playback sequence has been used as an explanation for noninteractive apparition sightings and haunted places.
https://www.csicop.org/ If you like 'Antique Roadshow' or 'Escape to the Country', then you'll like 'Great British Ghosts' |
Known as one of the most haunted places in England, Lulworth Cove has a long history. Among the legends are, Napoleon on the beach, strange lights, ghostly dancers and more.
https://www.paranormalpapers.com/haunted/lulworth |
Areas full of Limestone, such as Lulworth Cove, are known to be 'Haunted'
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If this Theory is in any way correct, then 'ghosts' or 'spirits', are not at these locations at all, it's just history
replaying itself Food For Thought-
If you believe in an 'Afterlife' of any kind, then, what sort of a life (after) would it be, just marching up a hill all the time, with your other dead soldier friends? |
Bindon Hill, above Chapman's (or Shipman's) Pool
People have defended this high ground since prehistoric times. There is a Bronze Age burial mound on Hambury Hill dating from 1900 BC, and the ditches of a Celtic hillfort from 400 BC are still visible on Bindon Hill. A Roman grave dating from the first century AD was discovered on a nearby farm, and the ranges are said to be haunted still by a Roman army. https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/walksdb/531/ Bindon Abbey, above Lulworth cove
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindon_Abbe A video playback, might be a better explanation, than an unfulfilling, repetitive afterlife, what do you think?
The effect of our actions on our environment, was suggested long before the 1970's, when the Stone Tape Theory
came to be. |
The Effect of our Deeds & actions on the Environment, was suggested long before the 1970's, when The Stone Tape theory came to be. The following book was written in 1837, Chapter lX 'On the permanent impression of our words & actions, on the Globe we inhabit'. Written by Charles Babbage (the father of computers) & an associate.
The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise; a Fragment
By Charles Babbage & John F.W. Herschel 1837
https://archive.org/details/ninthbridgewatai00babb/page/108
The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise; a Fragment
By Charles Babbage & John F.W. Herschel 1837
https://archive.org/details/ninthbridgewatai00babb/page/108
Purbeck Marblers
There has been quarrying in Purbeck, Dorset, for longer than anyone really knows. Even the rights of the quarry-men, though well understood, are based mainly on ancient tradition, for a charter, perhaps of the 16th century (Country Life Vol 163 1977)
The fact that all members of the Company (even those who worked in quarries) had to be skilled as masons, is important in understanding their migration patterns.
The Ancient Guild of Purbeck Marblers One of the most peculiar quarrying industries in the world is that carried on in the Isle of Purbeck. “The Company of Marblers and Cutters of the Island of Purbeck.”
Practical Stone Quarrying, Greenwell & Elsden 1913 *Records for Stonemasons and Quarrymen
*Langton Matravers parish Wills, Isle of Purbeck *Memories of Purbeck, facebook *Worth Matravers Wills, Isle of Purbeck *Purbeck Ancestry Research facebook *Four documents related to the Stone Merchants and Marblers of Corfe Castle (includes Names) *The Dorset Protestant Records 1641-1642 *The Registers of Swanage, co. Dorset. 1563-1812. *Langton Matravers Local History and Preservation Society *Dorset Mines & Their Owners (includes other counties) *Family Trees, Crests, Genealogies, Biographies, DNA, and More *Wareham and_Purbeck_Poor_Law_Union,_Dorset *Poole- Search War Memorial Records Portland stone is famous itself, but there is more "Portland" stone in Purbeck than in Portland.
Purbeck Marble was used for
inscriptions, architectural mouldings, veneers, mortars and pestles Until the south side of Swanage Bay is reached there is no sign of stone or of its trade, but running out from Pevril Point is a ledge (or rather two ledges) of rock—just rock to the mariner, but composed of some of the finest beds of Purbeck marble. Here is the beginning of the mineral wealth that runs through the hills to jut out into the sea again at Worbarrow in the west.....Portland stone is famous itself, and rightly so, but there is more "Portland" stone in Purbeck than in Portland itself. Bed for bed the seams are the same, and side by side in a building only an expert could tell one from the other, but for some reason stone that is dug in Portland is far kinder to work.
Purbeck Shop: A Stoneworker's Story of Stone - Eric Benfield 1940 Museum, Langton Matravers Purbeck
Purbeck Limestone has been used from Roman times to the present day for the walls, roofs and floors of many buildings, from humble homes to great cathedrals and its history is displayed in an old stone coach-house in the centre of the stone-built village of Langton Matravers in the heart of Purbeck Stone country. http://www.langtonia.org.uk/The%20Museum.html “The Company of Marblers and Cutters of the Island of Purbeck”, held meetings annually at Corfe Castle town Hall, on Shrove Tuesday
Upon reaching the age of 21 years an apprentice was eligible to be enrolled as a freeman at the Company's annual meeting, held every Shrove Tuesday at Corfe Castle. An apprentice who wished to become a freeman had to demonstrate his ability as a stonemason by preparing an 'apprentice-piece'. Once this 'apprentice-piece' had been inspected and passed by the Wardens of the Company, he was admitted as a "freeboy", and given a Certificate of Membership.
Rural–Urban Relationships in the Nineteenth...... Kicking the Ball. — The custom of kicking the football “to be provided by the man who was last married amongst the freemen “, is alluded to in the above account. In a later set of rules provision was made for the carrying of the ball to Ower — I believe on the following day, Ash Wednesday. I have seen it stated somewhere that in these degenerate days it was carried, not kicked, to its destination. The Bridport News in March, 1884, speaks of the annual custom of the Swanage Freemen ” kicking the ball ” as having taken place at Corfe on Shrove Tuesday. It says that the custom was one that had been kept up annually for generations past. The ball was taken to Corfe Castle, and kicked from the Castle grounds through Corfe on towards Swanage.
Purbeck’s Shrove Tues Custom of “Kicking the Ball” They had a custom every year, that the last freeman married, kicked a ball from Corfe Castle, to Swanage
*Looking for an Ancestor? *Swanage Index of PCC Wills 1555-1856 *Information as to Stonemasons & Quarrymen *Obituaries from the Fortnightly Returns of the *Operative Society of Masons, Quarrymen and Allied Trades of England and Wales *Stonemasons *Occupations_Quarrying_and_Stone_Working * Heritage Tasmania *Bylaws of the Marblers of Corfe Castle, Co. Dorset renewed and confirmed 3rd March 1651 *Worth Matravers MARRIAGES 1585 - 1841 *Probate Kingston, (near Corfe Castle) *DORSET'S VOLUNTEER INFANTRY 1794—1805 *Dorset Genealogy Index *Swanage Roll of Honour *Tom's Wills: Addresses in UK wills 1931-1939 Dorsetshire *The Gazette Wills and Probate notices *Search Dorset History Centre’s online catalogue of our archival holdings |
The stone-working families were there before any real bridge passed over the Frome, they thought of themselves as cut off from the mainland
The stone industry of Purbeck has been the economic mainstay of the ‘Isle’ for over 500 years. For Britain, and for the Empire through export, it has been a font of supply for several kinds of rock belonging to the Portland and Purbeck Beds.
https://dorset-ancestors.com No active quarries for Purbeck Marble exist today. Occasionally, the Marble is needed for restoration work
Purbeck marble- a polished limestone
All marble in the quarries at the Isle of Purbeck, England, belongs to the descendants of the original Purbeck quarrymen, who founded the guild, and no other person has any right in the quarries
The Purbeck quarriers, masons and merchants were all required to be members of an institution known as 'The Company of Marblers and Stone Cutters'
The peculiar rights the charter grants the Isle of Purbeck quarrymen, or " marblers " as the ancient parchments call them, are : that, for services rendered, all the stone or marble to be found in the Isle of Purbeck is theirs and their descendants'
Practical Stone Quarrying....... Scores of girls came to work from other counties, and almost one and all have married quarrymen
The rules and organisation of the Company are reminiscent of those of medieval craft or trade guilds. Their basis was that employment in the Purbeck stone industry should be reserved to freemen of the Company and their apprentices. Freemen employing non-Company labour, or taking non-freemen as partners, were liable to fines and forfeitures. An apprenticeship lasted seven years, during which time the apprentice had to be lodged in the home of a freeman. In practical terms, by the nineteenth century this restricted apprenticeship to the sons or relatives of freemen.
Rural–Urban Relationships in the Nineteenth Century: Uneasy neighbours? edited Mary Hammond, Barry Sloan Purbeck Marble was used for inscriptions, architectural mouldings and veneers, mortars and pestles, and other articles. Purbeck Marble was also quarried in medieval times and can be seen in virtually all the cathedrals of the south of England, in columns and slab panels and flooring. Used in many places, including Exeter, Norwich, Chichester, Southwark, Canterbury Cathedrals and Westminster Abbey. It has been less used in modern times, but a remarkable example is the church at Kingston, Purbeck, Dorset built in 1874–1880.
Though other strata of Purbeck Limestone are being quarried at the present time (2008), there are no active quarries in Purbeck Marble, but from time to time for restoration work is needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purbeck_Marble THE QUARRIES
In the Purbeck beds.....the debris and waste from the pits are piled in heaps around the shafts, and give to the hill side the appearance of a gigantic warren, or.. a series of vast mole-hill like perforations and hillocks... “Moulham,” or as it is spelt in Domesday Book “Moleham,” was at that time the estate and residence of the king’s carpenter, Durandus, Durand, and according to the prevailing custom of attaching the name of a family estate to its member's personal cognomens, the successors of Durand were named De Moulham, so that Moulham ultimately became the family name, and so stands in the registers of Swanage and Studland. The Illustrated Historical and Picturesque Guide to Poole and the Isle of Purbeck, Part 3 1858 The Bill Quarries (Portland) were largely based along the west side of the Bill and stone was transported along a short tramway to a shipping quay, now the site of Red Crane. One area absorbed into the quarries was the natural stone formation known as White Hole, which was largely retained while quarrying progressively worked the surrounding cliffs. During the late 19th century, much of White Hole was removed by quarrymen, leaving a stack of rock detached from the rest of Portland Bill.
Pulpit Rock. http://www.portlandhistory.co.uk/pulpit-rock.html THE QUARRYMEN
The history of digging for slate in Wales, presented by Rhun ap Iorwerth. Radio Documentary 27:15 There were 3 kinds of Stone workers- The Quarriers, The Stone Masons & The Stone Merchants
Stone workers shared many of the occupational hazards of other miners
These stone workers shared many of the occupational hazards of miners, because their ‘quarries’ were, in fact, more like mines, consisting of shafts and tunnels rather than holes in the ground. Like many other groups of miners, they formed a tightly-knit society.....In addition to the quarriers, the stone trade also included two other types of worker: stone masons and stone merchants. Masons worked on the surface to cut and dress the quarried stone to the required size and shape. Quarriers and masons, however, were not separate groups. The quarriers were all skilled to some degree as masons and many men would switch between the two activities. On the other hand, the third group, the stone merchants, was distinct. The merchants were a small group of men (no more than six at any one time) who purchased every ton of stone quarried in Purbeck and sold it on to customers throughout England and Wales. This meant that they effectively controlled the entire trade.....The stone workers of Purbeck in the second half of the nineteenth century were descended down the male line over many generations from a small number of individuals.
Death on a strange isle: the mortality of the stone workers of Purbeck in the 19th century...... |
At a meeting of the Company of Marblers this day held at the New Inn, being the anniversary of the said company, it is agreed to admit the following persons, who have served their lawful apprenticeship, as freemen of the said Company of Marblers, by paying the sum of six shillings and eight pence together with one quart of Beer and one penny loaf, according to ancient custom (1845)
Probably the biggest single stimulus for Purbeck marblers to settle in London was service in the royal works, especially at Henry III's Westminster Abbey, which began
in 1245. Stonemason societies began to emerge in New South Wales and Victoria during the early 1850's. The 1850s were a particularly significant time for stonemason and other skilled building trades workers including carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers and cabinet-makers, as they began to campaign strongly for an eight hour work day. In 1855, Sydney-based stonemasons warned their employers that they would shortly commence working an eight hour day and members of the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons of New South Wales....An Eight Hour League was formed and stonemasons in New South Wales and Victoria began to agitate for change.In Victoria, the eight hour day campaign was spearheaded by two masons...James Galloway (1828-1860) &.......James Stephens (1821-1889). Stephens and Galloway became President and Secretary respectively of the Operative Stonemasons’ Society.
Operative Stonemasons (Archives) From Selected records of Australian Trades http://archives.anu.edu.au/exhibitions/forgotten The better carvers & stone-masons moved from Corfe to London
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*Dorset election, Sept & Oct, 1831. The poll (names)
*Swanage Baptisms 1796-1809 *Swanage Other Records *Swanage Marriages 1565-1841 *Dorset 1830, Pigot's Directory *1807 DORSET POLL BOOK The Company of Marblers and Stone Cutters of the Isle of Purbeck, was incorporated into the
London Masons' Company The Main Factor... for the rapid spread of Purbeck for effigies was that the important workshops for Purbeck marble were situated in London...quarried at Corfe in Dorset..Some preliminary carving was done near the quarries at Corfe....Some effigies were even finished on the spot. London, however, had the main workshops for carving Purbeck marble into funerary effigies, and it was here that the typical Purbeck marble style was created.The better carvers and the stone-masons moved from the Corfe area to London. Those who stayed and worked at Corfe, or other places in the South of England, seem to have been the less expert craftsmen....At first it was a bold & firm style....But as the London style ...derived from the art & craftsmanship of the Meuse Valley of the 12th century & beginning of the 13th century, it gradually developed into a soft, rich gold-smith like style, which is so typical of the London School of Purbeck Marblers.
Early Secular Effigies,Eng: 13th Cen-H.A.Tummers https://books.google.com.au/books?id=aNUUAA |
Some Stone Workers & Purbeck Dwellers, in various Censuses from 'Freecen'
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Stoneworkers played a big part in establishing
the Eight Hour Working day |