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Nether Cerne
Nether Cerne maps
Historic maps of Nether Cerne and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Nether Cerne maps
Nether Cerne photos
We have no photos of Nether Cerne, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Godmanstone| Sydling St Nicholas| Piddletrenthide| White Lackington| Piddlehinton| Frampton| Charminster| Maiden Newton| Frome Vauchurch| Cattistock| Stinsford| Higher Bockhampton| Fordington| Dorchester| Puddletown| Martinstown| Melcombe Bingham| Leigh| West Stafford| Evershot| Hazelbury Bryan| Littlebredy| Melbury Osmond
Nether Cerne area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Nether Cerne and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Nether Cerne
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Dorset memories
A Tiny Sketch by Judges 1958 Found in Brisbane Charity Shop
I found a delightful pair of sketches beautifully framed 16cm x 11cm - one of the subjects was a skillfully crafted sketch of the Smith's Arms at Godmanstone - almost identically as it appears in the above photo - it was a real place.
The artist signed his/her name Judges.
The second sketch is of a Dorset cottage in Cerne Abbas the year earlier.
These sketches are a window to a place in a time long ago.
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
The 1st Hatch End Scouts Camp at Piddletrenthide
This view is EXACTLY as I remember this lovely village where the scouts from Hatch End spent a two week summer camp in 1957.
Although I no longer recall the name of the particular farm where we set up camp, I do remember our troop carrying out a good turn for the farmer. We were asked to demolish one of the ruined outbuildings and a month or so later we received an impressive scroll from him giving us the "right to call ourselves barnstormers and to march over his land forever with flags flying and knives unsheathed". A great impression on this 11 year old! The farmer's scroll was displayed in the Scout Hut back in Hatch End for many years as we all had such lovely memories of our two weeks in Piddletrenthide!
Emigrant Ancestor Baptised There Christmas Day 1773
George Coombs was born in Maiden Newton in 1773. He later took a soldier's grant of 200 acres in Ontario - where we still live.
Riversdale House, Maiden Newton
I lived here as a child of nine in 1950-1. We rented it from the owner, the delightful Sylvia Townsend Warner, author, who lived there with her partner, Valentine Ackland. The house literally stands with one wall in the river Frome. Paintings which hung about the house by "John Crask" must have had a special significance for the couple. You could sit in the library and watch the rabbits on the opposite bank and herons would sometimes come there too. There was a music room with a grand piano overlooking the river (middle of the house). In 1951 the Frome flooded, turning the house into an effective island. Today, the place looks much the same but the corrugated cladding has disappeared from the walls.
A Family Business
To anyone local to Dorchester this was a familiar scene day in and day out for almost 50 years. My grandfather Ben Courtney started selling 'fruit and veg' in 1947 from hand-carts on the roadside. His son Doug started in 1950 and various members of the family helped out through the week.
This picture shows my Aunt Isabel serving a regular customer with his two sons. Her father Ben is behind in his hat, serving, and her brother Doug is extreme left, carrying a box. My father (Doug Courtney) tells me his wife Joan was not at work at this time because she was expecting me to be born, in the June of that year!
Doug took over in 1960 and Trevetts worked alongside from the mid 1960s. Doug, Joan, Win, Isabel and Glad were the familiar faces that served. I did my fair share, working on busy Saturdays to ease the load. Everything was seasonal, and spring into summer brought a surge of fruit and... Read more
Parallel Parking in South Street in The 1960s
I had recently passed my driving test and drove a Morris Minor Saloon, to practice my parallel parking I used to drive down South Street after work or on a Sunday and park outside of Woolworths or Marks and Spencers and try various manoeuvres with the aid of the reflection of the car in the plate glass windows.
