Burton Bradstock's History from the Village Society

A collection of nearly 200 historic photographs of the village and some associated documents.

At a Committee Meeting of the Village Society in April, 1978, Len Coles proposed the idea of preserving as much village information as possible in the form of old and new photos, slides, reports, articles etc..  The committee agreed and Len volunteered to organise such a collection. At some point in time, Maurice Ouseley's widow made a significant contribution by donating more than 50 photographs taken by her late husband in the 1930's. (All of the material gathered by the Village Society is included, except for duplicate photographs that already appear in Chris Wilkinson's web pages and in the Church History, which again, already appears on the Church web pages.)    Pictures include many old locals, plus there are photos of most of the various craftsmen of the day at their work e.g. carpenter, smythie, butcher, baker etc..and include a fascinating set of old paintings.  The Grove Road section shows village connections with Admiral Thomas Hardy.

Much of the material is shown in the streets or places where they belong, but several were considered worth showing as a ‘collection’ e.g. Old Paintings, Farming & Countryside Crafts etc.. The remainder can be seen under the 'General' heading.

Much of the text is taken from the original found in the Village Society collection - it was presumably written by Len Coles and/or Maurice Ouseley.

List of Contents:

General Photographs		Varied photo's covering a range of miscellaneous topics
Old paintings of the village		A wonderful collection of a number of old paintings on different parts of the village
Farming & countryside crafts		An interesting  collection of old photos showing people at work in the countryside
Village Events		Photos and press cuttings on a variety of events held in the village over recent years including BBC’s ‘Any Questions’
Flooding and snowdrifts		Many photos of the snowdrifts and floods the village has endured
High Street & Mill Street		Old photos, some going back to the very early part of the last century
Shadrach		Photos, mainly of Girt House and the adjacent cottages, showing the buildings before and after the disastrous fire of 1925
Church Street		Includes separate sections on the Church, with some sample pages taken from the 1899 ‘Home Words’ Church magazine
Grove Road & Admiral Hardy		Contains some interesting material on the connection the village has with Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy
Hive Beach		A range of very old to more recent pictures of views and some of the locals involved in fishing or collecting shingle etc.
West Bay		Some old pictures showing storm damage and including a shipwreck

Note: Dating of the photographs is (where given), in most cases, approximate. If you can give dates for the pictures,

spot any inaccuracies, and in particular, can advise names of people in the pictures, or add any other information,

we would very much like to hear from you. - Ken Pett

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