Trained in guerilla tactics, including demolition, sabotage and assassination, “the Wrackleford Auxiliary Unit formed part of a secret army formed in 1940 under the direction of Winston Churchill.” Author David Dunford uncovers the mysterious wartime story in the 2018 Dorset Year Book. “They were to provide undercover resistance behind the lines in the event of a German invasion. The unit operated from a camouflaged bunker in a copse called ‘The Rookery’ opposite Wrackleford House, just north of Dorchester.” A commemorative stone was unveiled this year on Stratton Village Green in memory of the Wrackleford Patrol.
The existence of this shadowy local wartime unit is among the many Dorset stories recounted in the 2018 Dorset Year Book. Published by The Society of Dorset Men every year since the Society’s foundation in 1904- apart from four war years- the 2018 edition is the 109th, comprising 202 pages.
The 2018 Dorset Year Book contains the usual varied selection of 68 interesting articles and features– historic and topical- on the life and times of Dorset people, events, towns and villages- incorporating many interesting contemporary photographs and illustrations, many in full colour. The cover picture shows Milton Abbey.
This is the third Dorset Year Book to be edited by Selwyn Williams, one of the Guardians of the Old Town Hall in Weymouth. Selwyn read physics at King’s College, London and then went into banking. He later became Transportation Survey Manager at Dorset County Council. Selwyn is a Freemason and involved in several other local organisations, including singing with the Dorset Wrecks sea shanties group and Chairman of the Local Underwater Archaeological Research Society.
Since his first dive at age 15, Selwyn has been fascinated by the many shipwrecks scattered in the waters around Weymouth and Portland, always a graveyard for ships in the treacherous currents and depths. He has chronicled over 300 ships sunk off Chesil Beach, some dating to before 1700. His book Treasure of the Golden Grape, tells of the dark days of Weymouth in the 16th. century, when piracy and wrecking were common.
Editor Selwyn Williams comments: “This is the first year where we have had the opportunity of colour throughout the Dorset Year Book and this not only enhances the stories, poems and articles in the Year Book, but also the adverts. Having said that, Dorset’s history is also epitomised in some of the poignant black-and-white photographs. Dorset has a rich history of explorers, pioneers, the armed forces, spies, pirates, privateers, ships, wrecks, castles, forts- as well as its geology, flora and fauna and archaeological monuments. If you are tired of Dorset, you really are tired of living. We hope to open all aspects of Dorset to everyone.”
The 2018 Dorset Year Book has been sent free to all Society members, but is now on sale at £8 from Books Afloat in Park Street, Weymouth, Tourist Information Centres at Dorchester and Shaftesbury, Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne, Waterstones at Dorchester and Bridport, D. J. Brookings Bookshop in Upper Parkstone, Abbey Bookshop in Sherborne, Cards & Celebrations at Easton and the Orchard Garden Centre at Shaftesbury.
Individual Dorset Year Books can be ordered by post from Alderman Andy Hutchings at 23 Hereford Road, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 0QB at a cost of £10- including UK postage. Please make cheques payable to The Society of Dorset Men.
Among the 68Dorset topics covered in the 2018Dorset Year Book are:
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Philip Knott chronicles the course of the Dorset Stour through the Blackmore Vale, fed by ten tributaries from the source at St. Peter’s Pump. The author talks of the many mills along the river, including Hinton St. Mary, listed in the Domesday Book.
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John White, Rector of Dorchester until 1648, had rallied the folk of the town following the disastrous fire of 1613, inspiring them to reform the government of the town into a model Commonwealth, after the Puritan ideal which he espoused.
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Longstanding links between Poole and Newfoundland began by fishing, led to trade in Dorset goods like ropes from Bridport and swanskin cloth from Sturminster Newton.People migrated across the ocean,taking their customs and dialect.
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“To enter the chancel, all that remains of Fleet Old Church, is to encounter more than a thousand years of history.” The villagers of Fleet have welcomed visitors to this church since medieval times, when Benedictine monks paused for refreshment.
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Greg Schofield brings to light some previously unknown facts about the Monmouth Rebellion in June 1685, which marched from Lyme Regis to an unhappy end at Sedgemoor. An attempt to raise followers in Bridport was dashed by Royalists.
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The William Barnes Society hosted a Christmas service of lessons and carols at Whitcombe Church. “As the guests arrived, the candles from within the church shone brightly- offering a welcome glow as 130 guests walked across the field.”
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Brian Moore tells of the Dorset Volunteer Rifle Corps silver bugle, presented in 1861, rescued from the mud at Arromanches in 1944 by the late Sergeant Percy Matthews of Blandford Forum,whichtravelled with him across France& Holland.
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Frome Valley Morrismen were formed at Hardye’s School in 1978, rehearsing at West Stafford Village Hall on the banks of the River Frome, until a recent move to the Old Town Hall in Weymouth– practising “robust and precise Cotswold morris.”
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Paul Snow tells how in around 787, three Viking longships landed on Portland, probably at Church Ope Cove. Beaduheard, the King’s Reeve at Dorchester, was despatched to meet them and killed by the Norsemen before they sailed away.
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In the quiet graveyard at St. Nicholas Parish Church in Studland, Graham Allard came across the simple gravestone of Mabel Annie St. Clair.In 1910, she formed the Womens’ Sick & Wounded Convoy Corps,with50 “strong and practical” ladies.
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Editor Selwyn Williams found a World War II plane off Chesil Beach while diving. It was laying upside down with a still inflated rubber tyre.He describes the research and further diving which led to the identification of the American-built P40 fighter.
The Society of Dorset Men was founded 113 years ago on 7 July 1904. The Society has a long and rich history, beginning as The Society of Dorset Men in London and aiming to bring together fellow Dorsets in the capital city. Since the 1950s, the main activities of the organisation are centred on Dorset. Today, there are around 1,200 members throughout the UK and all over the world.
Royal surgeon Sir Frederick Treves GCVO was the first President of the Society in 1904, followed by Thomas Hardy OM in 1907. The current President is Oscar winner and ITV Downton Abbey playwright Lord Fellowes of West Stafford DL.
The four objects of The Society of Dorset Men are: “to make and to renew personal friendships and associations, to promote good fellowship among Dorset men wherever they may reside, to foster love of the county and pride in its history and traditions and to assist, by every means in its power, natives of Dorset who may stand in need of the influence and help of the Society.”
Membership of The Society of Dorset Men costs £15 a year. For further information, consult www.societyofdorsetmen.co.uk or telephone Membership Secretary Peter Lush at 01305 260039.
FURTHER INFORMATION FROM: MICHEL HOOPER-IMMINS [SOCIETY OF DORSET MEN PR] AT 01305 779705 and 0785 012 6349
OR SELWYN WILLIAMS [EDITOR] AT 0780 588 4786.
