Roots of Research
Above: Parish Packs...
Above: Busy researchers
Above: Help and encouragement on hand...
Above: An amazing amount of information available...
‘I got married at Symondsbury Church nearly 60 years ago,’ says Peggy Wrixton. ‘My mother was wed there. My grandmother, my great-grandmother, my great-great…...’
Although she has travelled the world, Peggy has never moved more than a mile from her roots. In fact, she can track her family connections with the village of Eype, near Bridport, back to the 1600s. This link with the past, to really know who we are, is something so many of us yearn for. To have a strong sense of belonging is to be cherished because it is the continuous thread running through our lives. It helps define and confirm our identity. And sometimes, you have to go looking for it.
Reconnecting with your history...
Interest in ancestry has never been so popular, thanks in part to the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are? For some of the participants it turned out to be a very special time, as if they held hidden feelings for long-gone relatives. As personal stories unfolded about the slave trade, workhouses and Nazi-occupied Europe, several interviewees shed tears. The programmes showed that reconnecting with your history can be a very emotional journey. Consequently, it is no surprise to learn that the website for the West Dorset Research Centre has had over 50,000 hits, from all over the world, since it went live in October 2006.
The success of the Research Centre is thanks to much hard work by founding members Celia Martin, Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard, Maureen Stollery and Diana Trenchard. After successful applications for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Chalk & Cheese, the office moved from West Street in Bridport to larger premises at Manor Garden, Burton Bradstock, opened by Oliver Letwin MP.
The new Centre is the only one of its kind in England, and provides access via its website to an impressive database which will, in time, hold a record of many of the people who have moved from Dorset since the 17th century. Records suggest that in the 19th century a staggering 100,000 people left the area. When you start looking at the migration, the plot thickens and the whole question of exactly why so many people deserted Dorset is a fascinating aspect of social history.
Poor Dorset...
David Burks is the project director as well as being a trustee and committee member. With his colleagues he has been exploring some of the reasons for the migration. ‘By the time the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, the rope- and net-making industry, for which West Dorset is so famous, was in decline. So, soldiers returning home from mainland Europe had to move elsewhere in the search for jobs.’ In addition, as David continues: ‘Dorset was considered to be one of the poorest areas in England. People had to go away to find work. Even The Times, carried reports about poverty in the county.’
But why weren’t Somerset, Devon or Hampshire in the same boat? ‘Because,’ says David, ‘at least they had boats! Dorset lacked towns of a substantial size or bustling ports that could absorb those leaving the countryside to seek work – places like Bristol, Plymouth or Portsmouth with their adjacent shipyards. Our county is, and always was, much more rural. It’s always been that way. Even now, hundreds of years later, there are huge tracts of open land.’
The risk of a new life...
Prior to 1834 each parish was responsible for looking after its own poor. Relief was administered locally by elected overseers and could be money to bolster low wages, bread, coal, the cost of a child’s apprenticeship or, later on, help with migration. The 1855 vestry minutes for the parish of Netherbury report: ‘Churchwardens to pay £2 to John Welchford to assist himself and his family in emigration to Australia.’ In 1865 the Bridport News continued to run advertisements that offered help for those prepared to risk a new life down under.
Tempting though a new life may have been, not everyone was lured by the Antipodes and a three-month journey by sea into the unknown. Apart from migration to Australia and New Zealand it appears that Dorset folk also moved in large numbers to other parts of England and Wales. Many from the Bridport area resettled in the mill towns of Lancashire, although not always to work in the mills as David explains: ‘We’ve noticed, because of emails coming to us looking for information, that a number of people settled in places like Oldham in Lancashire.’ More research needs to be done but David’s thoughts are that as the agricultural workers of the North found employment in a booming, mechanised textile industry, there was a gap to be filled in the fields.
Unravelling history...
Again, the story is still unravelling but one wonders why Dorset lost out so much during the Industrial Revolution. In 1907 the Reverend Ogie, at the opening of a new chapel in Waytown, near Netherbury, put forward his own theory. Did Dorset miss an opportunity?
‘Prior to the introduction of steam, Dorset was an important manufacturing county, not only of nets, rope and canvas but of cloth. But Dorset men sneered at the power of looms and did not realise the advantages until the trade had gone from them into the North of England. The consequence was that there was not a mill stream in the county on which there was not a mill rotting away… Out of their own county they did remarkably well; there were famous Dorset men all over the world, carrying the smell of flax and cheese with them….’
Ironically, a century or so later, the tide of migration seems to be turning back. In January 2007 the Daily Mail reported: ‘Thousands of young families are deserting the pressures of urban Britain for a healthier life in the South West.’ A survey conducted by the Halifax Bank showed that in the last 10 years 1.4 million people have headed this way.
For those interested in the heritage of their adopted county, a trip to the West Dorset Research Centre would be very fruitful. To date, the Centre has produced Parish Packs (costing £9.95 each) for Netherbury and Allington, and more titles will follow soon. Each parish folder is unique but all of them cover topics such as the local history, education, World Wars I and II, trade and services. Anyone further afield can contact the Centre by post or email. Private commissions are undertaken. There are also Dorset road shows – visit www.dorsetmigration.org.uk for dates and locations.
Sadly, since this feature was commissioned, West Dorset Research Centre’s project director David Burks has passed away. He was a man of great vision, and his energy was the driving force at the Centre. David, who during his working life owned a chain of garden centres, was also involved with many other West Dorset organisations. Tania Cash is now project manager at the Centre.
Also, the West Dorset Research Centre has moved from its Burton Bradstock premises to The Coach House, Gundry Lane, Bridport DT6 3RJ. Tel: 01308 425888, or email info@dorsetmigration.org.uk