Cranborne
Cranborne maps (2 available)
Map of Dorset
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Cranborne books (24 available)
Dorchester Town Walk Guide
Paperback
Bournemouth Photographic Memories
Paperback
- 5 photos on Cranborne appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Cranborne
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Cranborne and Dorset
Cranborne memories
Read and share memories of Cranborne and Dorset inspired by Frith photos
Cranborne 1938
I was living at Cranborne where my father was the police sergeant. At the time of a crisis, members of the government came to stay with Lord Cranborne at the manor.
The matter of security arose and it was decided a policeman should be on duty at all times as he would notice any strangers. Around the same period the massive German air ship flew over at a few 1000 feet. The Hindenberg; the largest thing I have ever seen in the sky.
Contributed by painter robert
Cranborne in the early sixties
I lived in Cranborne for two years from November 1963. My father owned the shops at the far end of the terrace in this picture and the building immediately facing, although it was derelict at that time. My sister and I were enrolled in the local secondary school that had opened two months earlier.
Contributed by Gillian Graystone
Dorset memories
Cranborne 1938
I was living at Cranborne where my father was the police sergeant. At the time of a crisis, members of the government came to stay with Lord Cranborne at the manor.
The matter of security arose and it was decided a policeman should be on duty at all times as he would notice any strangers. Around the same period the massive German air ship flew over at a few 1000 feet. The Hindenberg; the largest thing I have ever seen in the sky.
A memory of Cranborne contributed by painter robert
Cranborne in the early sixties
I lived in Cranborne for two years from November 1963. My father owned the shops at the far end of the terrace in this picture and the building immediately facing, although it was derelict at that time. My sister and I were enrolled in the local secondary school that had opened two months earlier.
A memory of Cranborne contributed by Gillian Graystone
Extracts From Cranborne & Dorset books
Cranborne lies at the heart of an ancient woodland chase; it is still relatively unspoiled. Once the headquarters of poaching gangs, Cranborne is now a peaceful venue for rambles and sightseeing.
An extract from from"Dorset Revisited Photographic Memories".
We are looking northwards towards the Square (centre),
with 18th-century brick and tile houses on both sides
of Wimborne Street. Behind the brick, however, the
Fleur-de-Lis Hotel (right) dates from the 16th century.
It is celebrated in an ode by war poet Rupert Brooke
from 1910, in which he wishes he was there because he
arrived after it had closed for the night, and had to
book into an uncomfortable alternative around the
corner. The shop-front (left) is that of boot-makers
C Adams & Son.
An extract from from"Dorset Villages Photographic Memories".
Once at the heart of King John’s hunting ground of Cranborne Chase, the village of Cranborne is rich in history.
Its old manor house was a temporary refuge for Charles I at the height of the Civil War, and the parish church
stands on the site of an important Saxon monastery.
An extract from from"Dorset Photographic Memories".
Cranborne Church, at the heart of the ancient hunting Chase, is one of the largest churches in Dorset. Cranborne and the villages round about were the residences of many local poachers until very recent times. Notice the advertisements for Mazawattee Tea and Spratt’s Patent Dog Cakes on the building in front of the church.
An extract from from"Dorset Living Memories".
Thomas Hardy writes of a journey into Cranborne in ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’, where the present Fleur-de-Lys tavern is depicted as the much less salubrious ‘Flower-de-Luce’. In the woodlands of the Chase, Tess is seduced by Alec D’Urberville, though Hardy’s imagination makes the area much wilder than it would probably have been even in his day.
An extract from from"Dorset Pocket Album".