We are delighted to announce that Professor June Hannam will be speaking at our joint SDNQ BALH one-day conference on 17 October 2026. June Hannam is Professor Emerita of Modern British History at the University of the West of England and has published widely on socialist women and feminist politics in Britain 1880-1940. She is … Read more
The March 2026 issue of SDNQ (vol. 41, part 403) contains the following articles, book reviews, queries and news: Articles: Neil Howlett, A Response to East Somerset Maltsters 1647. In response to Steve Hobbs’s article (SDNQ, March 2023, vol. 39, pt.397, pp.289-92) Neil Howlett discusses what JP licences granted in Wiltshire and Somerset to badgers … Read more
The committee of SDNQ are delighted to announce that they have teamed up with the British Association for Local History (BALH) to host a joint one-day conference at Sherborne on 17 October 2026. Rebellion and Protest Across Six Centuries will explore how rebellion, protest and popular resistance have shaped communities, identities and historical memory across … Read more
In Dorset’s Private Lunatic Asylums: Cranborne, Halstock, Stockland and the foundation of the county asylum at Forston, 1774-1860, Sally Morgan investigates three private asylums established in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in three Dorset villages and looks at their impact on the lives of local families and the wider community. At Halstock the … Read more
SDNQ’s Editorial Board can never be accused of letting the grass grow under their feet. Here is an insight into some of the projects they are currently involved with. Our Chair David Burnett is a Trustee of the Dorset Archives Trust. Currently he is helping Dorset’s Lord Lieutenant, Michael Dooley, in his campaign to encourage and … Read more
On this eve of All Hallows, some gruesome and ghostly tales from Somerset: A Somerset Body Snatcher A Yeovil Ghost Story Find more stories from SDNQ visit our Spotlight on SDNQ page. Back issues of our journal from 1980 to 2020 can be viewed for free on our SDNQ Journal page.
We are delighted to announce that David Burnett has been elected Chairman of SDNQ. David, who has been a member of SDNQ’s editorial committee since 1986, said he is ‘well aware of the honour of stepping into the shoes of so many illustrious predecessors, not least Roger Peers.’ David Burnett is a trustee of the Dorset … Read more
‘Primitive, isolated and obscure, as one of the world’s earliest public railways, the Portland Railway can yet claim an honourable place in railway history’ is how J.H. Lucking summed up the Portland Railway’s significance. 2025 marks not only the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton to Darlington Railway, but also the incorporation of … Read more
Edited by Sue Berry and Dr Adrian Webb, Penruddock’s Rebels and West Country Royalists, 1655-1657 provides a unique insight into the identities of the Royalist combatants in the English civil wars of the 1640s and 1650s. Penruddock’s Rebellion, as it became known, was an uprising in 1654/5 of Royalist supporters led by Sir Joseph Wagstaffe … Read more
The latest issue of SDNQ (vol. 40, part 402) contains the following articles, book reviews, and obituary: Articles: Philip Ashford, ‘Forest of Exmoor graziers and flock sizes, 1594-1656: new revelations’. Philip Ashford discusses what a Fine Exemplification for 1594 discovered at the Devon Heritage Centre (1508M/0/Moger/301) reveals about rights to common of pasture in the … Read more