Saturday 2 October 2021
A Day in a Georgian House or Nothing like home for real comfort | Gordon Le Pard
An exploration of Georgian and Regency domestic life. We will journey through the day, from lighting fires in the morning to having a warming pan in bed at night. From the dangers of a Georgian kitchen, through the complexity of washing linen to the risks of drinking unregulated tea, and the question of whether to snuff, or extinguish, a candle.
Saturday 6 November 2021
The Dorset Soldier who won the First World War: General Lord Rawlinson of Trent | Rodney Atwood
Henry Rawlinson (1864-1925) was born in London but had a close and lasting association with Dorset through his mother’s family, with an ancestral home at Trent north of Sherborne. It is as a soldier that he is known, partly through a long connection to India, but chiefly through his command of IV Corps and Fourth Army on the Western Front 1914-1918. Although he will be forever associated with Britain’s bloodiest battle, the Somme campaign 1 July-18 November, 1916, his claim to outstanding generalship rests on a series of spectacular victories August 8 – 11 November, 1918.
Saturday 4 December 2021
A Victorian Head Gardener | Francis Burroughes
Francis’ father started his career in horticulture as a gardener’s boy on a large estate before the First World War. Hear about the life on a Victorian country estate, which has now entirely vanished. Learn how to mow a lawn properly, with a horse-drawn mower, how to grow grapes, and why William Robinson’s butler served his master a pear on a silver tray. Also discover why the Ministry for War issued thousands of stirrup pumps in the Second World War.
Saturday 8 January 2022
For whom the bell tolls (or not!): the wartime ban on ringing and tragedy in a Dorset belfry | Robert Wellen
Two different historical explorations linked to Church bell ringing; one national and another local. The stories Robert will tell this time result from original research that he undertook during the recent lockdowns.
The first tells the story of when all the nation’s church bells were silenced between 1940 and 1943, and is based on ringing records and government and military papers held at the National Record Office in Kew. Thought you knew about ‘the wartime ban’? You might be surprised!
Secondly we have the fascinating story of the Reverend William Mortimer who was killed in 1957 in Okeford Fitzpaine whilst showing local children the bells. This includes testimony from people who witnessed the tragedy and still live in or around the village.
Saturday 5 February 2022 | Rev Canon Eric Woods
Reformations and the English Landscape: the dissolution of the monasteries, the rise of the landed gentry – and their new homes
The Christian Reformations from the 16th Century had a significant impact on the rural landscape. Example: The dissolution of the monasteries changed landownership and thus farming patterns, and many monasteries were converted into houses, the largest later having parklands and gardens. In the South West there is Buckland Abbey NT Devon, Lacock Abbey NT Wiltshire and Forde Abbey in Somerset. English Heritage has Cleeve Abbey and Muchelney, both in Somerset.
Saturday 5 March 2022
AGM
The AGM will be followed by a talk given by Mark Musgrave, a National Trust Lead Ranger, entitled Triton, son of Poseidon and his Tritons.
Blackmore Vale and Yeovil National Trust Association 