|
Pack Monday Fair
Pack Monday Fair is an annual street fair held in the country town of Sherborne in Dorset, starting on the Monday following 10 October ( Old Michaelmas Day). Originally an agricultural fair, it is now devoted to stalls, sideshows and a funfair. Origins The origins of the fair are unknown, though it must be of some antiquity as John Hutchins in the second edition of his ''History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset'' (1815) states that it has been an "immemorial custom", for boys and young men to blow horns in the evenings in the streets for some weeks before the fair "to the no small annoyance of their less wakeful neighbours". The fair was ushered in by cows' horns and by the ringing of the great bell at a very early hour of the morning. It was a great holiday for the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood. According to one local tradition, set out in William Hone’s ''Every Day Book'' of 1826, the fair and its noisy announcement originated at the completion of the bui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. In the 2011 census the population of Sherborne parish and the two electoral wards was 9,523. 28.7% of the population is aged 65 or older. Sherborne's historic buildings include Sherborne Abbey, its manor house, independent schools, and two castles: the ruins of a 12th-century fortified palace and the 16th-century mansion known as Sherborne Castle built by Sir Walter Raleigh. Much of the old town, including the abbey and many medieval and Georgian buildings, is built from distinctive ochre-coloured ham stone. The town is served by Sherborne railway station. Toponymy The town was named ''scir burne'' by the Saxon inhabitants, a name meaning "clear stream", after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The county town is Dorchester, in the south. After the reorganisation of local government in 1974, the county border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, while the rest of the county is largely rural with a low population density. The county has a long history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorset's indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the Early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area and made Dorset a shire in the 7th century. The first recor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, and on 8 November in the Eastern tradition. Michaelmas has been one of the four quarter days of the English and Irish financial, judicial, and academic year. In Christian angelology, the Archangel Michael is the greatest of all the angels; he is particularly honored for defeating Lucifer in the war in heaven. History In the fifth century, a basilica near Rome was dedicated in honour of Saint Michael the Archangel on 30 September, beginning with celebrations on the eve of that day. 29 September is now kept in honour of Saint Michael and all Angels throughout some western churches. The name Michaelmas comes from a shortening of "Michael's Mass", in the same style as Christmas (Christ's Mass) and Candlemas (Candle Mass, the Mass where t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hutchins (antiquary)
John Hutchins (1698–1773) was a Church of England clergyman and English topographer, who is best known as a county historian of Dorset. Life John Hutchins was born at Bradford Peverell, Dorset, on 21 September 1698. He was the son of Richard Hutchins (died 1734), who was for many years curate there, and from 1693 rector of All Saints', Dorchester. His mother, Anne, died on 9 April 1707, and was buried in Bradford Peverell Church. His early education was under the Rev. William Thornton, master of Dorchester Grammar School, and on 30 May 1718 he matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford. In the next spring (10 April) he migrated to Balliol College, and graduated B.A. on 18 January 1722, but for some unknown reason became M.A. from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1730. Late in 1722 or early in 1723 he was ordained, and served as curate and usher to George Marsh, who from 1699 to 1737 was vicar of Milton Abbas and the master of its grammar school. In his native county Hutchins remained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hone
William Hone (3 June 1780 – 8 November 1842) was an English writer, satirist and bookseller. His victorious court battle against government censorship in 1817 marked a turning point in the fight for British press freedom. Biography Hone has been described as one of the fathers of modern media. According to Associate Professor Kyle Grimes from the University of Alabama, "William Hone arguably did more than any other writer, printer or publisher to shape British popular print culture in the early decades of the nineteenth century." Hone was born at Bath on 3 June 1780, one of three children to William Hone Senior (born aHomewood Farmin Ripley, Surrey) and Francis Stalwell. William's only surviving brotherJoseph Hone(1784–1861) was a Supreme Court judge in Tasmania, Australia. William was an inquisitive child, whose father taught him to read from the Bible. For a number of years William attended a small school run by Dame Bettridge, to whom he was very close. In 178 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherborne Abbey
Sherborne Abbey, otherwise the Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin, is a Church of England church in Sherborne in the English county of Dorset. It has been a Saxon cathedral (705–1075), a Benedictine abbey church (998–1539), and since 1539, a parish church. History This site has been occupied since Roman times. During the restoration 1849–58, excavations were carried out in which part of a Roman Mosaic pavement was found deep beneath the floor, as well as evidence that the Saxon cathedral of 705AD had been built on the site of a previous church. It is possible that there was a Celtic Christian church called ''Lanprobi'' here as early as AD658, when it was part of the Celtic Kingdom of Dumnonia, and Kenwalc or Cenwalh, King of the West Saxons is believed to be one of its founders. However, it is probable that this church was actually on the site of modern-day Castleton Church. Cathedral (705–1075) and Abbey (998–1539) The Saxon Diocese of Sherborne was founded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Roud
Steve Roud (; born 1949) is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society. Life and career Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of over 240,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It began in around 1970 as a personal project, listing the source singer (if known), their locality, the date of noting the song, the publisher (book or recorded source), plus other fields, and crucially assigning a number to each song, including all variants (now known as the 'Roud number'). The system initially used 3x5-inch filing cards in shoeboxes. In 1993, Roud implemented his record system on a computer database, which he continues to expand and maintain and which is now hosted on the website of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Packhorse
A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of wheeled vehicles. Use of packhorses dates from the neolithic period to the present day. Today, westernized nations primarily use packhorses for recreational pursuits, but they are still an important part of everyday transportation of goods throughout much of the developing world and have some military uses in rugged regions. History Packhorses have been used since the earliest period of domestication of the horse. They were invaluable throughout antiquity, through the Horses in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages, and into modern times where roads are nonexistent or poorly maintained. Historic use in England Packhorses were heavily used to transport goods and minerals in England from medieval times until the construction of the first toll roa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Articled Clerk
Articled clerk is a title used in Commonwealth countries for one who is studying to be an accountant or a lawyer. In doing so, they are put under the supervision of someone already in the profession, now usually for two years, but previously three to five years was common. This can be compared as being an intern for a company. Trainees are obligated to sign a contract agreeing to the terms of being an articled clerk. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a fixed period of employment. ''Wharton's Law Lexicon'' defines an articled clerk as "a pupil of a solicitor, who undertakes, by articles of clerkship, continuing covenants, mutually binding, to instruct him in the principles and practice of the profession". The contract is with a specific partner in the firm and not with the firm as a whole. Now, some professions in some countries prefer to use the term "students" or "trainees" (e.g. a trainee solicitor) and the articles of clerkshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charivari
Charivari (, , , alternatively spelled shivaree or chivaree and also called a skimmington) was a European and North American folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade. Since the crowd aimed to make as much noise as possible by beating on pots and pans or anything that came to hand these parades are often referred to as rough music. Parades were of three types. In the first, and generally most violent form, a wrongdoer or wrongdoers might be dragged from their home or place of work and paraded by force through a community. In the process they were subject to the derision of the crowd, they might be pelted and frequently a victim or victims were dunked at the end of the proceedings. A safer form involved a neighbour of the wrongdoer impersonating the victim whilst being carried through the streets. The impersonator was obviously not themselves punished and often cried out or sang ribald verses mocking the wrongdoer. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
October Observances
October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans. In Ancient Rome, one of three Mundus patet would take place on October 5, Meditrinalia October 11, Augustalia on October 12, October Horse on October 15, and Armilustrium on October 19. These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. Among the Anglo-Saxons, it was known as Winterfylleth (Ƿinterfylleþ), because at this full moon, winter was supposed to begin. October is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, and autumn in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. Oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorset Folklore
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The county town is Dorchester, in the south. After the reorganisation of local government in 1974, the county border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, while the rest of the county is largely rural with a low population density. The county has a long history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorset's indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the Early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area and made Dorset a shire in the 7th century. The first recorded Vik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
