Dorset County Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1XA

01305 262735 www.dorsetcountymuseum.org

enquiries@dorsetcountymuseum.org

Company No. 3362107 Charity No. 1062400

Newsletter 90 - Summer 2013

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

ANIMATE! From Pencil to Pixel

An exciting new exhibition at Dorset County Museum

13 July to 19 October 2013

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Chairman’s Chat Firstly, my heartiest congratulations to Gwen Yarker on her award of the British Empire Medal for services to the Museum over many years and in particular for the success of her exhibition, Georgian Faces: Portrait of a County, in 2011. She was also responsible for Dorset’s contribution to the Public Catalogue Foundation,. The award is a great honour and thoroughly deserved. It is good for her and very good for the museum. She was presented with her medal at the museum on 21st May by the Lord Lieutenant for Dorset, Mrs Valerie Pitt-Rivers, acting on behalf of the Queen.

One of the benefits of membership of our society is the Museum Library. Originally designed as a reading room for our Victorian forebears (men only), it is a haven of peace and quiet with a superb collection of books, journals, maps, and ephemera. These include an almost complete set of the Gentleman’s Magazine dating from 1731, all three editions of Hutchins’ History of Dorset, and several tomes dating back to the early 17th century. About 5,000 books can be taken out. There is also a stack of material, including 108 volumes of 19th century newspapers, in the basement. As usual we are very short of space in which to store everything. A team of volunteers led by Brenda Turnock and Peter Anthes has been cataloguing the collections. They are in residence every Tuesday morning and are always delighted to help members find what they want. It is pleasing that more of us are using the library although the number is probably no more than 20 per cent. A recent innovation has been the installation of JSTOR whereby several thousand journals can be accessed on line.

Several projects were completed over the winter. The permanent exhibition in the Victorian gallery is now on view. It celebrates the contribution by Dorset’s collectors, artists, sculptors, and writers during the last 200 years and has many of our finest objects on display. In the process of setting this up many structural problems in the gallery were revealed and have been rectified.

The Dorset Photographic Record storeroom has been completely re-roofed and refurbished with a smart new racking system in place. At the same time the old workspace next to it has been overhauled and makes a fine rest room for staff and volunteers. Special thanks to Peter Runeckles, Roy Martindale and others for their hard work on the interior decorating. The room includes a kitchenette that will help the cafe staff and provide better failiities for all our volunteers.

As you enter the museum you will note changes to the front of house and shop. This was undertaken with the help of a grant from the Arts Council who are supporting our new trading partnership with Salisbury and South Wiltshire museums. We expect the changes to make the shop more profitable and we have also taken professional marketing advice.

The feasibility study for the proposed Collections Centre at the back of the museum should be available in July after which I hope we will be in a position to apply for Heritage Lottery Funding. My sincere thanks to our staff and volunteers for their hard work and support during the endless winter and especially under difficult conditions while the builders were here.

Peter Down

Thank you to those who have brought in bottle tops and small plastic bottles for our model making projects, we now make models with all our family groups and they are very popular.

We are hoping that some of you may be able to help us out with some fabric - either lengths or scraps which we can use for textile projects and for making small toys for our new pre-school group which meets every Monday afternoon. The fabric can be plain, printed, cotton, synthetic, felt or even

leather, whatever you can spare. With many thanks, The Learning Team

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Director’s Diary

The last few months have proved to be eventful ones yet again for the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society and the Dorset County Museum. Possibly most important, has been the work to resolve some long-standing maintenance and structural problems within the Museum’s historic buildings.

Much work has taken place in the Victorian Gallery, with the installation of new lighting, heating, ultra-violet resistant glazing and PA systems, com-bined with an overhaul of the gallery’s displays. These now showcase the quality and diversity of the collections the Society has in its museum and my thanks go to all those Staff and Volunteers who have contributed to this work and to the many funders who have made it possible.

Perhaps even more important is the work that has gone on behind the scenes, with the comprehensive refurbishment over the winter months of the store for the Dorset Photographic Record and the creation of a new Common Room and Kitchen space. None of this vital project could have been completed without the generosity of one of our late members, Bill Butcher, who left the Society a substantial bequest. Such thoughtful gifts are vital and are invested in the infrastructure of the Museum to create a long-term legacy. So I ask, if you are thinking of making a will and are considering leaving a gift to charity, please remember the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. Should you wish to discuss any thoughts you might have about such a legacy with me in the strictest confidence, I will always be happy to do so.

Another important development has been the creation of the Wessex Museums Partnership. Working together with Wiltshire Museum and Salisibury Museum, and with support from Arts Council England, we were able to examine areas where we have overlapping interests or share the same issues, with a view to arriving at solutions together. The result of this thinking, which considered retail facilities, energy efficiency audience development and marketing, was a considerable expenditure (paid for in full by the Arts Council I might add!) in new shop fittings, LED lighting in the Temporary Exhibition Gallery and Foyer, new donation boxes and an automated front door. All of these developments have made a tremendous difference to the feel of the Museum as you enter, and are investments that will help ensure our future success.

I must also take this opportunity to thank all the members who contributed to our appeal last year for funds towards the £23,000 purchase of the ‘Chesil’ Mirror—which I can now reveal was actually found near Langton Herring! As a result of your generosity, and support from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Headley Trust, we were delighted to be able to purchase the mirror earlier this year. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is on temporary display in the Archaeology Gallery while additional funds are raised to enable a full conservation mount to be made. Why not drop in to see us in Dorchester and take a look at it, or come and see some of the other changes we’ve made to improve your Museum. We also have a fantastic exhibition this summer called Animate! which showcases the art and technology of animation over the past two centuries—so we’re confident there is something new to interest most tastes at Dorset County Museum this summer!

Jon Murden

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Annual General Meeting 2013

24th September at 6:30pm in the Victorian Gallery at Dorset County Museum

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Exciting New Benefits for Society Members

We are delighted to announce that, as a result of a reciprocal agreement, DNHAS members can now visit our partners in the Wessex Museums Partnership absolutely free of charge!

Wiltshire Museum Wiltshire Museum in Devizes has an internationally important archaeological collection including significant finds associated with the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge—including the Bush Barrow gold lozenge pictured.

Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

Set in the surroundings of Salisbury Cathedral Close, the Museum’s nationally important collections span the history and archaeology of Salisbury and south Wiltshire, from prehistoric times to the present day.

Tales From Wedding Days An Update and a Request

All being well, fingers crossed and touch wood, Dorset County Museum will soon see an exhibition of Dorset Weddings material.

Suggested years before, it was scheduled for Spring 2013 and preliminary planning begun, when personal preoccupations sadly overwhelmed me and the Director very understandingly postponed it. That’s the update.

The original inspiration remains i.e. to show the varied wedding garments in DCM’s collection, (many of which have good provenance) complemented where possible by items from other collections. Borrowing has not been ruled out (there have been some kind offers already) but our own have first claim on available space.

As for the request: some of you may remember the costume exhibition of 2001, when we included a file of memories of clothes and dressmaking, contributed by staff and volunteers, to which the visiting public could and did contribute? I should like to repeat that exercise this time but possibly a little more ambitiously hence this early notice. Depending on the initial response, there might even be a small publication for sale or article for the Proceedings; at the least it could form a local social history archive.

So, members, staff and volunteers, please do send in your anecdotes or family legends concerning weddings and things associated with them. Comical, nostalgic, informative, masculine views – whatever – all will be welcome but do include the date (no limit) and whether a photograph would be available. Paper (leave at museum) or email, any font or format at this stage, with contact details. There’s no deadline but the sooner the better really in case we manage a booklet; later submissions would be in a ring-file displayed as before.

Billie Brown billiebrown@uwclub.net

Wiltshire Museum 41 Long Street

Devizes Wiltshire SN10 1NS

01380 727369 www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk

Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum The Kings House

65 The Close Salisbury Wiltshire SP1 2EN

01722 332151 www.salisburymuseum.org.uk

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New Book: "Discovering Dorset's Wild Flowers" by Peter Cramb.

Dorset is a special county for wild flowers. Its natural features provide many different plant habitats which in turn support a rich variety of beautiful, interesting and sometimes rare wild flowers. These flowers have been recorded by many generations of botanists and used by Dorset people as medicines, food, dyes, decorations and garden plants. As importantly, they have over the ages been a source of inspiration, joy and spiritual refreshment to countless individuals.

This book traces the history of the botanical exploration of Dorset from the early pioneers such as William Turner (c.1510-1568) and John Ray (1627-1705) to the first Dorset resident botanist, Richard Pulteney (1730-1801) and John Mansel-Pleydell, one of the founder members of the Dorset County Museum in 1845. The latter published the first full flora of Dorset in 1874, listing all the wild flowers then known in the county and was the first President of the Dorset Field Club—forerunner to the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society we know today. Subsequent floras were published in 1948 by Ronald Good (1896-1992), President of the Society from 1961-65, and in 2000 by Humphry Bowen (1929-2001).

The book also describes twenty of Dorset's most interesting wild flowers, giving details of when, where and by whom they were first recorded in the county, their current distribution both in Dorset and Britain as a whole and their importance to people. These include Tree-mallow, first recorded by John Ray at Chiswell, Portland, in 1670, and the beautiful and rare Early Spider-orchid, first recorded by John Mansel-Pleydell near Worth Matravers in 1874. Both these and many of the other flowers described can still be found where they were first discovered, enabling the reader to follow in the footsteps of the pioneering botanists.

Illustrated with the author's photographs of the flowers and their habitats and line drawings by Margaret Cramb, Discovering Dorset's Wild Flowers will appeal to members interested in the county's wild flowers and also make an attractively priced gift for family and friends.

Published by P. & M. Cramb (2013). 64pp. ISBN 978-0-9537746-4-7. Price £5.95.

The author and publishers are generously donating all sale proceeds from this book to the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society. It is on sale now in the Museum Shop.

Trip Advisor Accolade for Dorset County Museum

All of us at Dorset County Museum were delighted to receive the news recently that we have won a Trip Advisor ‘Certificate of Excellence 2013’. Awarded by the Trip Advisor website on the basis of the number, quality and consistency of reviews posted by the general public, it is only given to organisations in the top 10% for positive visitor feedback worldwide.

We hope all members of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society will share in the pride the staff and volunteers feel to know that the Dorset County Museum is so highly respected and enjoyed by visitors.

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The part Dorset County Museum played in

a Biography

Recently the Sylvia Townsend Warner Archive has been given a cache of letters from Sylvia to Michael Howard who, in the 1950s and 60s, was Managing Director of Jonathan Cape Publisher. The gift prompted me to review the other material in the Collection connected with her writing of the biography of T.H. White. It is extensive, and taken as a whole, pieces together a rather remarkable story of the writing of that biography with all its difficulties. I am presently writing an article about this period in Sylvia Townsend Warner’s creative life.

In 1964, Sylvia was asked by Michael Howard if she would write the biography of White, author of The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone. She agreed, and by 1966 she was well along but needed to read White’s later diaries which White had bequeathed to Howard. In June, 1966 she wrote to Howard:

“Is there any possibility that the diaries could be entrusted to the Dorset County Museum, whose curator would reliably keep them in his safe? (He already houses all the White mss for me whenever we leave home: among the Hardy relics, a most suitable marriage of odd minds). I could read and note them there while remaining on the boil. “

Until this point Howard had refused to let anyone see them. He felt a “responsibility towards the people who could be harmed by the contents of the journals becoming known” and “to Tim’s own reputation.” It was a sign of the great trust he put in Sylvia’s professionalism – and perhaps her discretion – that he agreed to this and made the arrangements with Roger Peers, then Curator and Secretary of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society.

Sylvia also wrote about this to William Maxwell, her editor at the New Yorker, and a close confident:

“Dear William, White’s late diaries are so agonisedly personal that he bequeathed them to his publisher with the proviso that they must remain in the publisher’s hands. I needed to read them, and with leisure, so we have made a solemn compromise. The diaries, in a solid yellow tin trunk, c.1890 I should say, are deposited in the Dorchester Museum and every other day or so I am let into the Hardy room, where they repose, unlock the trunk, and take relays of them to the library. It is a

Sylvia Townsend Warner in around 1932

T.H. White

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A New Store For The Dorset Photographic Record

For many years, all of us in the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society have been aware of the shortcomings of the photograph store at Dorset County Museum.

After receiving a very generous bequest, the Board agreed to Dr Murden’s proposal to use the money to modernise the store where the Dorset Photographic Record is kept.

As with many listed buildings, repairs and refurbishments tend to uncover other problems, and the scheduled completion of the works was delayed by some months. Bad weather contributed to the delays. But happily there is now a fully watertight roof with excellent insulation, new flooring, heating, lighting and wiring, new work spaces, a computer terminal and customised racking.

We are now in the process of returning the boxes of photographs to the new system of rolling shelves and organising the room. Mid-June saw the official opening of the new facility and adjacent common room, although the aerial and large photographs will be unavailable for the time being. We apologise to the many researchers who have been waiting patiently for the system to be up and running.

The volunteers are grateful to the late Mr Bill Butcher, the Director and staff as well as the many volunteers who have been assisting us over the months during the building works and upheaval.

Val Dicker, Honorary Curator, Dorset Photographic Record

Val Dicker takes a moment to celebrate during the arduous task

of moving the photographic collection back into its new

purpose designed storage facility

charming library, very large, with very solid smooth tables and chairs, and singularly unvisited. A few old gentlemen or old ladies come in to read periodicals…. One day the curator had a conversation with an old gentleman in a white coat about a portrait of Hardy which represented him with a broken nose. It was debated as to whether or no Hardy had a broken nose. I intervened in a godlike manner, & said Sir Sydney Cockerell spoke of it as broken and that he could be trusted as a careful observer….The statue of Hardy in the town by Kennington shows him with a straight nose. It is the work that Augustus John called the statue of a frustrated market-gardener (it has some borage round the feet) and nobody likes it except visitors.

All this is quite delightful and makes me feel I am back in the North Library of the B.M. with the added pleasure of being old enough to speak with authority about eminent noses. I loved the Bodleian too, but nobody could call it either calm or spacious.”

On the 29 September she wrote to Michael Howard:

“I gather that the Dorchester Museum is getting a little tired of breaking its shins over Tim’s yellow trunk which lurks like a tiger in their Hardy room.”

Howard picked the diaries up himself on 16 October, and STW wrote:

“Had you time to enjoy the cart horse and the headless Hardy window? It has caused some pain to locals who know the points of a horse; that no one had animadverted on the window: perhaps win-dows haven’t points?”

Warner’s biography of T.H. White was published in 1967 to great critical acclaim. The Hardy statue and the cart horse still cause some pain to locals!

Morine Krissdóttir, Honorary Curator, Sylvia Townsend Warner Archive

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UNESCO recognition for Thomas Hardy

The Thomas Hardy Archive and Collection has recently been awarded inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ‘Memory of the World’ Register of Documentary Heritage. Awarded this prestigious status alongside such collections as the Churchill Archive and the Domesday Book, UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme works to celebrate and preserve documentary heritage and to improve awareness of the information that these collections contain. David Dawson, who is Chairman of the UK Memory of the World Committee, said the significance of Hardy’s works and the picture he was able to capture of his time and place meant the archive was fully deserving of its place on the register:

“It really is that picture of the late 19th Century and the way that life was changing. Hardy was talking primarily about Dorset but he also captured the spirit of change coming across Britain and had such an impact on literary works both nationally and internationally. It is for that reason it was such a privilege to be able to inscribe these archives on the UNESCO register.”

Recent donations to the Hardy Collection include two paintings, one by Hardy’s sister Mary, which is a portrait of their brother, Henry, and a small watercolour of ‘Egdon Heath’ by Emma Hardy. These have been generously given by relatives of the Hardy family. Professor Barrie Bullen, whose book launch was in the museum, has donated a copy of Thomas Hardy: the World of his Novels. We are grateful for these important additions to the collection. A talk about Tess of the d’Urbervilles and a detailed tour of the Hardy Gallery was requested for forty members of NADFAS who visited the museum from Romsey. Jennifer Young conducted the tours and Helen Gibson showed The Graphic of 1891 illustrated serialisation and other related items, including first editions and early stage dramatisations. Research continues to be undertaken by visiting scholars on subjects as diverse as natural history, music and dramatisations, cataloguing schemes of Hardy’s books, and the annotations and marginalia in his own hand. New volunteers, Andrew Leah and Sue Theobald, are welcome additions to the Hardy Collection team. Jennifer Young is continuing to catalogue the books in the Hardy study and to guide visiting groups round the Writers’ Gallery. She oversaw filming in the study by Rosita Clarke, with her small film crew, of a

Helen Gibson and Jon Murden receiving the UNESCO Memory of the World inscription certificate from David Dawson, Chairman of the UK UNESCO Committee, at a special ceremony in Tamworth on Tuesday 9th July.

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Animate! From Pencil

to Pixel

An exciting new exhibition at Dorset County Museum

13 July to 19 October 2013

This summer some of the most famous names in cartoon history will be at Dorset County Museum in a new exhibition that reveals the wonderful world of animation, its origins and evolution over the last two centuries.

From Magic Lanterns and Victorian flick books to Disney film cells, Harryhausen models and Aardman toys, publicity material, concept sketches, puppets and posters, learn how well-loved characters come alive under the artist’s hand and how technology has led the way in this ever growing industry.

A mini-cinema within the exhibition will show examples of the many forms of animated film. And thanks to Hue Animation Studio and Aardman, children can make their own animated films within the exhibition or participate in a series of workshops to learn how it’s done. A range of talks and lectures in the Museum’s Victorian Gallery by experienced animators and writers will also provide a fascinating insight behind the scenes of famous animated films.

The exhibition was developed in partnership with the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at the University of Exeter, with loans also coming from the British Film Institute and the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation. The DNHAS would also like to thank Arts Council England, the Mansel-Pleydell Trust and Pardoes Solicitors for their financial support of ANIMATE!

promotional trailer for her latest film project, ‘Love Lies Bleeding’: this will explore the relationship be-tween Hardy, Martha Browne (whose hanging Hardy witnessed) and Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The museum will receive copies of all filming. Rosita, drama teacher at The Gryphon School, Sherborne, wrote and di-rected an acclaimed 2009 film of Far from the Madding Crowd with a cast of 140 pupils. This year being the centenary of the death of Emma, Hardy’s first wife, there has been renewed interest in her. A memorable poetry reading of the ‘Poems of 1912-13’ (Hardy’s elegies to Emma: in of Satires of Cir-cumstance manuscript, on display) was given by Furse Swann and Sue Theobald with violinists Lorraine Tillbrook and Elspeth Gracie in the Victorian Hall. Images of her sketches and watercolours were provided by George Wickham for use at a Hardy Society weekend conference in St Juliot, Cornwall, and these were also screened in the museum for two talks about Emma’s life and accomplishments, by Marilyn Leah and Helen Gibson. Interest in Tess continues with a request for images from publications, film and drama, for a display in the ‘Tess wedding church’, St Andrew’s, West Stafford, for the July village fair.

Helen Gibson

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Dorset County Museum Volunteer celebrated

in the Queen’s New Years Honours

On Tuesday 21 May 2013, Gwen Yarker, Honorary Curator of Art at Dorset County Museum, was presented with the British Empire Medal by the Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, Mrs Valerie Pitt-Rivers.

Gwen received her award in the 2013 New Year Honours List as a result of her voluntary services to Museums. Many friends, staff and other volunteers came to the presentation to show their support and thank Gwen for her unique contribution to the work of the Museum over two decades. For over twenty years Gwen has served as an Honorary Curator at Dorset County Museum and as a Trustee of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. She has been instrumental in fundraising to support the development of the Museum, in building links with other fine art organisations, in growing, training and leading a group of collections management volunteers, and in researching, documenting and displaying the history of the county’s artists and paintings.

In this regard Mrs Yarker’s work to raise £350,000 to acquire three portraits by George Romney detailing Thomas Rackett, one of Dorset’s earliest antiquarians and collector of one of the Museum’s foundation collections, is particularly noteworthy. So too is her singlehanded contribution to the research, coordination, writing, fundraising and management of the production of the Public Catalogue Foundation’s volume on the oil paintings of Dorset.

However, perhaps Gwen’s finest achievement to date was her curatorship of the exhibition Georgian Faces: Portrait of a County held at Dorset County Museum in 2011 and authorship of an accompanying catalogue. The result of over four years work, undertaken on a completely voluntary basis, this critically acclaimed exhibition which ran for four months in early 2011, contained over 70 portraits from both national and private collections, including many never seen in public previously. It resulted in significant long-term improvements to the security and facilities of the Museum, dramatically raised its profile and standing, and attracted a large audience – helping grow the museum’s income in otherwise difficult economic circumstances.

Jon Murden, Director of Dorset County Museum has praised Gwen’s work at the Museum:

“She is an invaluable and unique resource for the Society and its Museum – we would never have acquired the Romney portraits without her, and she continues to provide help, advice and support at the highest level.”

Whilst Mrs Yarker wished to keep the presentation of the award low-key, she was keen to use the award as an opportunity to publicise the Museum and to recognise and celebrate the contribution of all the other volunteers who generously give so much of their time and expertise to the Museum’s ongoing work.

Gwen Yarker receiving her British Empire Medal from the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Mrs Valerie Pitt-Rivers.

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Blockbuster Autumn Book Sale!

10.00 am to 4.00pm

22 - 25 November 2013

This year the Book Sale will be held over three days in November. This popular event is a good fundraiser for the Museum and it is even more important than ever this year. Good condition paperbacks will be priced at 50p and hardbacks will start at £1.50

As in previous years we urgently need donations of books from Members for the sale to be a success and will be pleased to receive good quality hard and paper back donations on all kinds of subjects. However, sadly we know from previous years that there are certain categories that just do NOT sell. It seems a pity that the Museum volunteers should have to spend time and energy in disposing of items which are so unsalable. These include ‘self help / improvement’, out of date guides and maps, magazines (including parish ones), calendars, novelettes, most religious items and out of date and/or poor quality children's books and paperbacks. Videos and condensed books also NEVER sell. In fact, any book whose condition is such that you would not buy either, is of little use to us in setting up the book sale.

We hope that this will not unduly discourage members from donating books to the sale and bags and boxes of books can be left at reception from now on. We look forward to any contributions you may care to make and even more so to seeing you during the sale.

Peter D Anthes

In Memoriam

All of us at the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society were deeply saddened to learn of the recent deaths of two of our most passionate supporters.

John Railton

The obituary of John Railton in The Times on 4th May 2013 reminded the Curator and Secretary of the day of this remarkable man. He enriched the world of music as teacher, conductor, examiner, organist, composer, pianist and adjudicator. In c. 1967, he brought his Ealing Youth Orchestra down to Dorset specially to put on a concert to help the DNHAS to raise the money needed to restore the Georgian and Victorian Museum buildings. Funds were also raised to build the multi-purpose gallery which became such a versatile space for the Society’s activities. Already, by 1965 the choral scholars of Kings College, Cambridge had given concerts in the Victorian Gallery and demonstrated the excellence of its acoustic for music.

The memorable programme the Ealing Youth Orchestra brought to us included Schubert’s 9th Symphony and the Great C major. The only time a full symphony orchestra has performed in the ironwork hall. We did wonder whether a particularly fragile and significant exhibit, the engraved glass bowl from the Roman Town House, might shatter during the full brass and timpani passages in sundry climaxes throughout the symphony – fortunately, the glue held. It was a performance which thrilled a packed audience (far larger than would be allowed nowadays). We were left marvelling at the musicianship and ability of John Railton and the young performers who produced such a triumph.

Roger Peers

Roy Heeler

The DNHAS and Dorset Wildlife Trust lost a dear friend in December 2012 when William Roy Heeler passed away aged 69. Roy loved both the DNHAS and DWT attended virtually all the work parties at our jointly managed Dorchester Wildlife Garden behind All Saints Church since its inception in 2007 helping with planting, weeding, tidy and events. A passionate supporter of Dorset County Museum, Roy had done much over the last few years to help recruit new members to the DNHAS. A Rowan tree has recently been planted by the DWT in Roy’s memory at the Dorchester Wildlife Garden. Jon Murden

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DNHAS Day School:

Lyme to Lyminge, Dorset to Kent – and back again!

16 November 2013

An invitation to contribute to this issue of the DNHAS Newsletter provides an opportunity to announce the re-scheduling of a dayschool which had regrettably to be cancelled last year. Join us on Saturday 16 November when members of the Dorset County Boundary Research Group welcome Dr Gabor Thomas of Reading University as ‘keynote’ speaker. It was his thought-provoking paper in Oxford last year that prompted the theme of the day.

‘Lyme in Dorset and Lyminge in Kent: the unfolding of the story of two Early Christian foundations which share rather more than a place-name’

‘Lyminge’ presents the suffix –inge connoting ‘district;’ one bordered by a Limenaea river (now the Rother) dividing the Cantiaci (Kent) and Regnenses (Sussex). It was Sherborne’s Lim-named episcopal estate on the Dorset /Dumnonian border which prompted the founding of the County Boundary Survey. Lyme also has a ‘district,’ those of Colway, Regis, Up[Lyme] and the former Abbas, the Sherborne estate on the West Bank providing the bishopric with a strategic harbour on the border of the West Saxon kingdom.

Reading the words of first [prince-] bishop, Aldhelm, this was *portus Limina. The later seventh century also saw the founding by Kentish kings of an episcopal estate at Lyminge served by Lympne, portus Lemanis. Lyminge is currently the subject of archaeological excavation throwing fresh light on the major developments of this period; an elite royal foundation, the ‘Christianising’ of a large estate complex. Aldhelm’s words hint at the ‘Christianising’ of the Lyme estate structure and complement, ‘flesh out,’ in a thought-provoking way some of the finds made at Lyminge which reflect high-status continental trading.

Join us for a subject of almost limitless potential in the bringing together of a pair of complementary sites through archaeology, history, patristic literature, borders, bounds and the liminal; the mapping of that elusive seventh century.

Katherine Barker

J-STOR Now Available in the Society Library

Research minded members of the DNHAS will doubtless be pleased to learn that JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources ,is now available on a dedicated terminal in the Society’s Library at Dorset County Museum. This was trialled for a short period earlier this year, the feedback from which encouraged the Society to take out a full subscription.

JSTOR provides searchable access to the digitised full text content of over 1,900 journals in more than 50 disciplines, provided by more than 900 publishers and greatly expands the range of research publications and source material available at the Museum.

With such a world of resources now accessible at the click of a mouse, why not drop into the Library soon and see what you can discover...