Volunteers Needed!

Please come and join our friendly group of volunteers

• Greet visitors from all over the world, as well as local people
• Make new friends, learn about Dorchester’s fascinating history, and make a valuable contribution to the village community
• Time commitment: six or seven afternoons between Easter and the end of September
• Full training provided

For further information and a chat please email: museum@dorchester-abbey.org.uk

New pop-up exhibition from Easter

Shops, Pubs and other Businesses from Dorchester’s past

Please can you help?

As part of the Dorchester Festival, on 5 May three Museum and Historical Society volunteers are repeating their popular themed walk exploring Dorchester’s past.

The Museum plans a pop-up exhibition to complement the walk.

Can you help by lending or donating objects related to Dorchester’s businesses from bygone times, especially those which no longer function?

We have, for example, a painting of the George, a milk bottle from Belcher’s dairy (lent by James Pratt), invoices from old shops, a shop ledger from Fletcher’s store, some pub/hotel menus and several photographs. Please do contact me if you can offer any similar items:

Margot Metcalfe, Curator, museum@dorchester-abbey.co.uk, or phone 01865 340054.

Volunteers Needed!

Please come and join our friendly group of volunteers

• Greet visitors from all over the world, as well as local people
• Make new friends, learn about Dorchester’s fascinating history, and make a valuable contribution to the village community
• Time commitment: six or seven afternoons between Easter and the end of September
• Full training provided

For further information and a chat please email:
museum@dorchester-abbey.org.uk

Museum opening

The museum is open on Saturday 28 October, 2-5 pm

Christmas shopping

• Saturday 2 December 10am-5pm,
• Sunday 3 December 2pm-5pm,
• Tuesday 5 December 10am-12.30pm

Alyce Chaucer – the story continues

Alyce Chaucer was Geoffrey Chaucer’s granddaughter and became Duchess of Suffolk. She lived in Ewelme for many years and is buried in a fine alabaster tomb in St Mary’s Church, Ewelme.

If you have read Christina Hardyment’s novel about Alyce, The Serpent of Division, you’ll want to know that Volume 2 of the series, entitled The Book of the Duchess, will be published on October 22, and will be available in the museum shop and from Linda Hender (lindakhender@gmail.com)

Exciting new acquisition

The museum has just acquired a silver bodkin, found in a field in Dorchester in 2019 by a detectorist, passed to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and then assessed at the British Museum. The bodkin is thought to be possibly from the period 1500-1700, weighs 10.83g and measures 70mmx30mm, and has the inscription SW on one side and a maker’s mark ‘D S’ within a flower on the other, a five-pointed star above and a pellet below. We can only speculate about its possible owner, and how it came to be in the middle of a field! It will be on display in the museum before the winter closure.

Database progress

We now have MODES software, a widely used system for museum collections management. The MODES database update and editing is progressing well, thanks to Candy Madeley’s excellent work in training us to use the system. A collection of old postcards of Dorchester which belonged to the late Muriel (Jane) Hill, and kindly donated by her daughter Paula Elias, has been documented on the database by Megan Parry and Denise Line, each with a description and photograph. We plan to keep adding new items as well as editing the older records on the database.

Museum opening

The museum officially closes on Sunday October 1, but will open on Saturdays in October, 2-5 pm, including the half-term weekend. Closed in November except for tours.

Christmas shopping weekend: Saturday and Sunday December 2 and 3, 2-5pm, as well as the following Tuesday morning, December 5,10am-12.30pm

Alyce Chaucer – the story continues

Alyce Chaucer was Geoffrey Chaucer’s granddaughter and later became Duchess of Suffolk. She lived in Ewelme for many years and is buried in a fine alabaster tomb in St Mary’s Church, Ewelme.

If you have read Christina Hardyment’s novel about Alyce, The Serpent of Division, you’ll want to know that Volume 2 of the series, entitled The Book of the Duchess, will be published on October 22, and will be available in the museum shop and from Linda Hender (linda.hender@gmail.com)

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Come and see our new display!  Open until 31 July.

The Victorians – Master Makers

Please come in and have a look at our latest temporary handling collection of Victorian objects. The Victorian makers of these objects were very inventive, and their precision and craftsmanship were outstanding. These objects tell us so much about the lives of our Victorian ancestors.

I wonder how many of these objects you can name and whether you can explain how they were used?

Interesting Objects from Dorchester

Open during August and September

Our next temporary display project will show interesting objects that have been found in the Dorchester area, and tell their stories. We live in such a rich historical setting, I am sure many of you have treasures to share. These might be items you’ve inherited from your family, or found in the garden or bought locally.

If you have any interesting local objects that you would like to share and tell their stories, please contact Gill Whitten on 01865 341833.

New Curator

We are very pleased to welcome Margot Metcalfe as our new museum curator!

Margot writes:

I am delighted and proud to be able to introduce myself as the new Curator of our museum. My late husband John fulfilled this role for 10 years to 2015, and although there have been four curators since, he is still a hard act to follow! I am a local historian, have chaired the Dorchester Historical Society for many years, and have been a member of the museum committee since 2015, looking after the archive, and answering queries about Dorchester history and archaeology.

The museum’s theme is ‘Dorchester through the Ages’, some 6000 years of history, with a collection of objects and documents which reflect this. We are now embarking on an exciting new project to convert our existing database to a widely-used museum collections management software system, MODES. This will help in making the museum’s collection more easily accessible to Dorchester residents and the wider public.