Dorset Museums-Gold Hill Museum Shaftesbury

There was a time when this wiggly-woggly instrument, called for obvious reasons, a serpent, was a mainstay of the long defunct village church orchestra. The serpent and orchestras were swept way with the onslaught of new-fangled harmoniums and organs by the Victorians.

By Thomas Hardy's time they had already become the stuff of nostalgia as this piece from 'Under the Greenwood Tree' testifies...

'Times have changed from the times they used to be,' said Mail, regarding nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an inward eye, and letting his outward glance rest on the ground, because it was as convenient a position as any, 'People don't care much about us now! I've been thinking we must be almost the last left in the county of the old string players? Barrel-organs, and the things next door to 'em that you blow wi' your foot, have come in terribly of late years.'

'Ay!' said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, did the same thing.

'More's the pity,' replied another. 'Time was - long and merry ago now! - when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served some of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings as we did, and kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you'd thrive in musical religion, stick to strings, says I.'

'Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go,' said Mr Spinks.

'Yet there's worse things than serpents,' said Mr Penny. 'Old things pass away, 'tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a deep rich note was the serpent.'

A drawing of the Sutton Montis church orchestra in action in 1827

Camping 1 - Church Farm Sixpenny Handley

Camping can be heaven. Camping can be hell.
Dodging muddy puddles past dripping canvas suburbias to find an unlit cold wash block in the dead of night isn't my bag, so this site is a great find.
It nestles in the shadow of the church in the peaceful village of Sixpenny Handley.
The great attraction of North Dorset is that the lemmings generally by pass it by in the mad rush to the coast, this means that even at the height of summer the site is bearable and the users a considerate and civilised bunch. 

Most importantly, the shower block is relatively new and very clean though the clincher is the restaurant which is a far more sophisticated affair than you'd expect from a campsite this size.
The site is divided among several fields; the larger for families  though you can ask for the  Donkey field (no comment) which is reserved for adults.

Footpaths and bridleways start from the door while the lanes make for great, almost traffic free, cycling. It is also close to both Blandford, Shaftesbury and Sherborne.

Charges are £9.00 per person per night for an unserviced pitch in the high season.



Church Farm Camping

High St. Sixpenny Handley, Salisbury, SP5 5ND
Tel: 01725 552563.
Mob. 07766 677525/07990 603289

Dorset Museums 13- Shaftesbury Abbey Museum

FOR FOR YOUR REGULAR DOSE OF DORSET ENTER YOUR EMAIL IN THE BOX ON THE RIGHT!

Looking somewhat like a water-damaged Clark's shoebox, this humble lead casket tells a mighty story. It held the remains of an English king and for centuries was the focus of veneration and pilgrimage to the Abbey.
The king was Edward the Martyr, son of the Saxon king, Edgar. Crowned at only sixteen, Edward was murdered soon after at Corfe Castle and his remains interred in Shaftesbury Abbey around 979 AD.  Edward was canonised in 1001AD and his feast day became one of national celebration. 
He was obviously not a smoker because centuries later Edward's lungs, kept in a glass jar, were reportedly still breathing...

Lost for centuries receptacle and bones were discovered during an archaeological dig in1933 and while the box remains above ground Edward's bones were eventually reinterred in a cemetery in... Woking...but that's another story...

The Abbey Museum stands next to the site of Shaftesbury Abbey; once home to Britain's the leading Benedictine community for women.

Buttony

'Buttony,' as Dorset button making was called, originated in Shaftesbury in the 17thC and was once an important cottage industry in East Dorset. There were several distinct styles; high tops, the dorset knob, bird's eyes and the cross wheel (above, from the Blandford Costume Museum). 
Its hard to believe that each button, a piece of miniature macrame, was hand-woven round a metal ring. 'Winders and dippers' formed the wire rings while 'stringers' wove the actual buttons. 
Button makers could each turn out a gross of a day and their products were exported across the world. They even had royal approval... Charles I went  to the block wearing a waistcoat embellished with Dorset Buttons.
The industry lasted until the 1850's when along came the button machine and out went the buttoners, many emigrating to the new world rather than face starvation.