Shillingstone, Dorset

Second World War welcome home plaques

I have lived in Shillingstone since 1977.  By default I seem to have become the village archivist.

In March I was given 14 brass plaques, still in named envelopes, which were meant to be presented to individual soldiers returning to Shillingstone after the Second World War. They were produced by the Parish Council Welcome Home Committee, under the chairmanship of... [more]

Shillingstone Station

I have always been interested in trains, and Shillingstone Station gives me some great memories.
I did not enjoy the best of health when I was young so spent a lot of my childhood down at the station, even on days when my asthma was bad, in the summer months when the line was busy I would take an old camp... [more]

The Central Stores.

My parents ran the Central Stores from 1951 to 1955, their names were Tony and Eunice Jeanes. The date of c1955 is about right as this was the year that my father and mother sold the business to Mr Dean, whose sign appears in the photograph. I was two years old when my parents took over the business and... [more]

Coronation Day in Shillingstone plus other memories

I can remember Coronation Day in Shillingstone, the weather was not settled and there were showers, I can remember watching the crowning of the Queen on a TV which was in Mrs Fudge's house at the lower end of the village. In the afternoon we had a parade of fancy dress and walked to the recreation field where a fete was... [more]

Dorset Villages Photographic Memories

For more than a century, from 1863 till 1965, passenger trains of the Somerset and Dorset Railway (centre) passed through Shillingstone en route from Bournemouth to Bath. The view looks northwards from Shillingstone Hill over Eastcombe Cottage (bottom left) and its beehives (bottom centre) to Eastbrook Farm and the council houses at the east end of the village (centre left). Hambledon Hill, with the earthworks of an Iron Age hill-fort, dominates the skyline.

Dorset Revisited Photographic Memories

In Norman times this was 'Schelling's Town', for the parish belonged to the Eschelling family. The building on the left is Dean's Central Stores --a modern retail outlet for a Dorset village of half a century ago.

Dorset Villages Photographic Memories

With a half-hipped timbered frame, visible at the gable end, and attic windows plus roadside flowers, early 16th- century Anthorn Cottage continues to give character to Blandford Road in the linear village of Shillingstone. Under the roof and inside there are plenty more timbers, including rare cruck trusses with original tally marks, though it is clad on the outside in later brick.