Canford Magna, Village 1904

Canford School

My mother was a cook at Canford School. I remember her Christmas parties being held in the great hall. It was/is such a magnificent house.  Oh - happy memories.

Crown Hotel Wimborne

Ingram Richards was my grandfather. My father (John) was the only child of Ingram to emigrate (in 1927) to Australia. Dad died in 1978. I am a former Australian regular army officer and visited Wimborne on a couple of occasions in the 1970s while on exchange in Germany with the British Army and later when on a secondment to the School of Signals in nearby Blandford. The Richards family lived in 'Lewens' in Lewens Lane. The house was sold after Ingram's death in the late 1920s and I note that at October 2009 it is for sale at 1.25 million pounds. Ah! what might have been...

Hobbs, Haywards and Quarterjack Toys

My parents bought the shop and house in the foreground in 1980. You could just see a 'Hobbs' sign painted on the front of the building and Mr L E Hayward had a toy and pram shop there which he had run since just after the war, I think. You can still see his shop in the model town in Wimborne. When my parents took over the toyshop they called it Quarterjack Toys and the sign my dad painted is still outside the building.

Under the floorboards in the shop you used to be able to see the foundations of the building that had stood on the site before this building, which was built in 1720 - so probably a medieval cottage. The well-worn front step of the cottage and the base of a fireplace were visible and was still sooty! It's all still under there somewhere!

I loved growing up above the shop in Wimborne. I have a photograph of me somewhere at about the age of these boys stood in about the same place but 80 years later!

Langers sport shop

I can remember being a very nervous new entrant to the Grammar School and going to Langers to buy a tennis racket and hockey stick. The public conveniences and telephone box were opposite, if I remember rightly.

Whitethorn Morris at Wimborne Folk Festival - 2008

I enjoyed this 2008 Wimborne Folk Festival and consider it one of the best of the many I have performed at with Whitethorn Morris over the last 20 plus years. The Saturday procession was packed with spectators enjoying both the performers and the glorious weather - there must have been hundreds watching from the Minster Green alone!

The Festival camp site at the QE School was well looked after by the security team and the town centre streets were packed with the usual Sunday stalls run by Dorset organisations, huge crowds and around forty morris teams from miles around. There was even a Festival church service on the Minster Green shown here in this view (although the railings along the top of the stone wall have long gone!).

My own morris team - Whitethorn Morris - were well looked after by the lovely people in Wimborne Methodist Church who opened up their buildings to provide refreshments over the entire weekend. Altogether it was a lovely Folk Festival experience.