Kittwhistle
Kittwhistle 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!
Kittwhistle books (13 available)
Kittwhistle memories
Read and share memories of Kittwhistle and Dorset inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Dorset below.
Dorset memories
My Dad
My Dad
The church at Whitchurch is a lovely place to wander and muse. My father died out shooting at Mapperton when I was 11, and what a terrible shock it was.
What is nice for me now, 25 years later, is to still be able to walk down through the village past the 5 Bells pub, or over the lovely rolling fields, to the church yard where his grave lies amongst the rustling of the trees, birds chatting to each other, gentle sunshine making patterns on the grass as it peeks through the trees, and a general sense of timelessness and peace that I have found over recent years to be so soothing.
What a special place!!
read more here
Great Great Grandpa
I was delighted to find this photograph as the Edward Archer Vince who owned the shop shown and mentionned in the text was my Great Great Grandfather and my Great Grandfather Frederick Harold Vince grew up here.....
A memory of Charmouth contributed by Sarah Sutton
Triggering memories.
We were clearing the last furniture from my mother's bungalow a few weeks ago. A heartbreaking task, having lost her in April. Behind the last set of drawers, on the floor, I found an old sepia photograph. It showed a group of children with some adults, outside a building which must have been a chapel or a school. From the clothes they wore, the photo would have been taken in the early 1920s.
Later, I searched the internet for clues, looking especially at the areas where my mother grew up - Salway Ash in particular. So I found the Francis Frith site.
There were no clues for Salway Ash, but I came to the Pymore site. One ...read more here
A memory of Pymore contributed by Veronica White
Evacuee
I have happy memories of Corscombe. Having been evacuated from Southampton at the age of eight years. I do remember attending the small school a short distance from where I lived in a small house that had been converted into two living quarters
I have not been back to Corscombe since those wartime days.
A memory of Corscombe contributed by william smith
Extracts From Kittwhistle & Dorset books
These holiday caravans are sited behind Rivermead House. This
was among the ‘horror pictures’ used by the land agent John
Cripwell in order to encourage Lord Antrim and the council of the
National Trust to buy two thousand of acres from Lyme Regis to
Eype. Mobile homes between River Way and Bridge Road, on the
west bank of the River Char, have also been targeted by nature,
notably in a flash flood in the 1970s.
An extract from from"Lyme Regis Photographic Memories".
There are sea defences
(top left) where Lower
Sea Lane converges with
Higher Sea Lane. Below, a
shingle beach with patches
of pea-grit provides a spot
for rest and relaxation
between Raffey’s Ledge and
the Mouth Rocks, where
the River Char enters the
sea. Evan’s Cliff is to the
east (centre), followed by
the higher cliffs of Cain’s
Folly and Golden Cap (top
right). Jane Austen writes in
‘Persuasion’: ‘Charmouth
with its high ground and
extensive sweeps of country,
and still more, its sweet
retired bay, backed by dark
cliffs where fragments of
low rock among the sands
make it the happiest spot
for watching the flow of the
tide; for sitting in unwearied
contemplation.
An extract from from"Lyme Regis Photographic Memories".
We are looking eastwards from the blocked mouth of the River Char, which ends its journey to the sea by having to break
through a ridge of shingle (right). The coastal footpath from Charmouth (left) crosses to a shelter on Evan’s Cliff (centre),
but is then subject to recurrent problems as it crosses the landslip zone at Cain’s Folly (central skyline). Here a Royal Air
Force coastal radar station slipped down the cliffs on 14 May 1942. Its concrete and brick remains are entombed in the
undercliff. The distant cliff, towards Bridport, is Thorncombe Beacon (towards top right).
An extract from from"Lyme Regis Photographic Memories".
The turnpike road through Charmouth was run
by the Bridport District Trust from 1764 to 1877.
For several decades in the next century it carried
the A35 Folkestone to Honiton trunk road. The
lorry climbing the hill belonged to Grabham’s
Transport. This view is south-eastwards, towards
Bridport, from Gear’s Garage with its AA and
RAC signs (far right). L M de Ville ran the
Queen’s Armes Private Hotel (right) in the mid
20th century, and Edward Hunter was across
the street in the George Hotel (left). The early
16th-century Queen’s Armes is described by the
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments as
‘an unusually complete example of a small late
medieval house’. King Charles II spent a sleepless
night here on 22 September 1651, disguised as
a servant, during his escape from the Battle of
Worcester to exile in France.
An extract from from"Lyme Regis Photographic Memories".
We look north-westwards up The Street to the Coach and Horses
Hotel (left centre), where the Victorian landlord was James
Ingram. Charmouth House is further up the hill (centre). The
shopkeeper Edward Archer Vince (centre right) ran the archetypal
general store, and could claim to supply just about everything.
The sign lists ‘linen and woollens, clothing, hats, fancy articles,
boots and shoes, groceries and ironmongery’.
An extract from from"Lyme Regis Photographic Memories".