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Stourpaine
Stourpaine maps
Historic maps of Stourpaine and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Stourpaine maps
Stourpaine area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Stourpaine and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Stourpaine
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Stourpaine.
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Hod Hill
We used to often walk along the lovely River Stour, walk under Hod Hill then over the hill, down to the road, cross over to the lane that led up to Hambledon Hill, up to the top then back to Child Okeford. I think it was in the 1950s that a dig was done on the Roman fort on Hod Hill. In spring the hill was coverd in flowers, including the wonderful Bee Orchid.
Dorset memories
The New Hospital.
I moved to Blandford to take up a new position, at the time the extension of the hospital was near completion. The hospital was very much a community orientated place where local people were employed and cared for local members of the community. Through a hospital function, I met my current husband John, so I not only have very special work-related memories, but also have happy personal memories, thanks to the hospital.
Many A Good Memory.
Over the few years I lived in Blandford, John and I would take his parents for a drink at the Crown Hotel, lovely relaxing evenings, great atmosphere, good company, what more could you ask for. On my first Christmas in Blandford, the hospital held its Christmas dinner at the Crown Hotel, food and service were faultless and it was a great evening.
Blandford
In the 1960s we used Blandford as our main shopping town, we lived in Child Okeford six miles away. Hobbs were a good toy shop, Frisbys shoe shop, Cherrys outfitters were another must when shoppinG for clothes, indeed both Frisbys and Cherrys used to bring their vans round the villages every other week. We used to catch a Hants and Dorset bus from Steepleton Corner to visit one of the two Cinemas, and after the show there was a great Fish & Chip shop next door to one of them. Thursday was the best day to visit, it was market day and the town square was full of stalls, you could also visit Boots lending library to cHange your books.
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 held, with skittles and side shows. During the evening some of the villagers went to Okeford Fitzpaine hill to look at beacons that had been lit across the Blackmore Vale.
Shillingstone folk were always ready to celebrate in style.
The parade started from the village cross, this is where as boys we would on some days buy a loaf of bread and a bottle of fizzy drink from England's the baker and sit on the cross and eat the loaf. A Mr and Mrs Mowlem lived in the cottage near the cross, it was called Maypole Cottage. Mr Mowlem's son Bob worked at Sloper's garage in the village, and... Read 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 my earliest childhood memories are of life in this Dorset village. It was from these premises that at the age of four years old I was taken to the isolation hospital suffering with poliomyelitis in the outbreak of 1953. I was one of the lucky ones having no long term disability as a result of contracting the disease. Central Stores was a veritable Aladdin's Cave to a young boy, full of delights...sweets, colouring books, comics, fizzy lemonade and joy of joys, ice cream in a huge chest freezer. I well remember being rescued from the cavernous interior by my father after falling in while... Read 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 bed down and sleep in the signal box. When the last down train to Bournemouth had gone at 9.30 the signalmen would make a drink and then it was heads down untill 3.00am when bells started to ring, which was the first excursion from the north of England on its way to Bournemouth. I would stay there untill the last train up at 11.05 Sat evening.
They were great days of steam. The signalmen who gave me the privilege were Mr Harry Scammel and George Ainsworth.
My father Jack Newman was a lengthsman at Shillingstone and I would go fogging with him in the winter time. The porters... Read more
