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Batcombe
Batcombe maps
Historic maps of Batcombe and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Batcombe maps
Batcombe photos
We have no photos of Batcombe, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Leigh| Evershot| Melbury Osmond| Cattistock| Sydling St Nicholas| Yetminster| Maiden Newton| Frome Vauchurch| Halstock| Sutton Bingham| Toller Porcorum| Godmanstone| Frampton| Bradford Abbas| Barwick| Piddletrenthide| East Coker| White Lackington| Piddlehinton| Powerstock
Batcombe area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Batcombe and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Batcombe
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Dorset memories
Leigh VC School
The village school was very small and later converted into a home, but I will always remember Mr Riley the headmaster, an ex-Policeman who drove a very flashy sportscar to school (Equipe- something on the badge?) The pupils were mainly farmers' sons and daughters and we did lots of crafts from cardboard. I remember seeing my first black person there, a student teacher from Guyana, who was very nice lady. I also remember a Mrs Hoskins and a Mrs Ball who gave me a Penny Farthing stamp on an envelope that I later lost unfortunately...probably worth a fortune today! There was also a wonderful man called Mr Goldsack who came in and taught us to grow vegetables in a little plot next to one of the buildings and it was a lot of fun. I left for secondary school in 1972 in Sherborne and I think the village school closed soon afterwards.
The Seasons of Childhood
This story written by Bee Snow 1928-2007 (nee Barbara Whitaker) about her childhood in Evershot, Dorset. Reared with three sisters, four brothers, four terriers and a jackdaw, I insisted by the age of five in accompanying this mixed mob on twice daily walks my mother decreed. We ran wild and free over the Dorset countryside. I supose largely tolerated because my father was the local GP. We were really an immature group of hunter-gatheres. Hunting was meant to be confined to rabbits, and we aquired some skill in helping our four terriers catch them. The death of the rabbit was often very painful to see and hear. I know I avoided witnessing it by tightly shutting my eyes, sticking my fingers in my ears and screaming "Kill it! kill it!" My eldest brother usually ran and dispatched the poor rabbit more quickly than could the terriers. My mother was always full of praise for the rabbits we carried home for the pot, but she always knew before we opened our mouths if... Read more
My Childhood Memories
I was born at Drive Villa, Melbury Osmond in 1938, my parents coming both from London. But my father had a music shop in Yeovil.
My memories of Melbury Osmond are very happy ones, we had a school then infants and juniors, the school's still there as a house now. We had a shop and a post office and a bakery round the back.
The cottages were for the farm labourers who worked for the tenant farmers as Lord and Lady Ilchester owned most of them. Today that is all gone and so is the wonderful community as most of the cottages and farms have been bought or leased to weekenders from London etc.
When the war times came we had Americans in Melbury Park and I used to swing on my front gate waiting for the Yanks to throw sweets to me, I was too young for the nylons. On Sundays we would go to watch them playing basket ball in the park.
My mother who had a... Read more
Me Remembering My Youth
I remember when Yetminster had farms and no yuppies, I also remember when there was a garage and two schools which I went to both of in the late 1940s. We also had 2 proper pubs. I still have relatives in the village, oldest of which is 96, and some cousins. I hope someone remembers me, so long.
Evacuated
My mother and I lived in Laurel Cottage for the duration of the Second World War. I seem to remember it was next to the pub. I had a friend called Peggy. Her parents had a farm and I seem to remember it being in the village. We used to gather nuts from the hedgerows. I was 4 when we left but isn't it funny how happy memories linger. Anne
The Garage in Yetminster
Yes, the garage I remember was owned by O.C.C. Curtis...I remember the little pocket calendars my father used to receive when he filled up his green Hillman Hunter car there in the 1960s and 70s.
Easter 1962
I was one of 14 cyclists from Sussex who descended upon Cerne Abbas on Good Friday 1962, staying until Easter Monday. We literally descended, as the route we used was to come over the hill from Piddletrenthide swooping down the narrow lane into the village. We had left Sussex that Friday morning at about 7am and arrived in Cerne at about 7pm. We were 8 blokes and 6 girls and we were booked in at the Old Cerne Union workhouse, then doing bed and breakfast, now in 2007 a rest home. Torrential rain on the Saturday didn't stop us visiting Weymouth but on Sunday, when we went to Sherborne and Sturminster Newton the sun came out to allow us to don shorts for the first time that year. But the real enjoyment came from the two evenings spent in Cerne, especially Saturday night at The Royal Oak. In 1962 the pub bar area was much smaller than today, but we crowded in there, drinking the pub dry of draught Taunton... Read more
