Archive of 2011 documents

There were few comforts in the trenches of the Western Front during Christmas 1914. But gifts and greetings from home raised spirits a little.

Fireworks and bonfires are most commonly associated with Guy Fawkes Night, but have been used for all sorts of celebrations, including coronations.

In 1948, with the Olympics having just finished in London, Lyme Regis was hosting a very different type of competition - the National Town Criers' Championship.

The September Document of the Month looks at the dangerous work of a 'Preventative Officer', part-customs official, part-policeman.

Our August Document of the Month is a wanted poster from 1830, asking Dorset residents to be on the look-out for two men accused of arson. Were they just arsonists, or political activists?

World War One was the first time Britain had faced modern, industrial 'total war', which required huge numbers of men to be taken out of the regular workplace and conscripted into the armed forces instead. This left thousands of jobs which needed to be filled by women.

The June Document of the Month is a letter nominating attorneys, and accompanied the will of Jeremiah Croomey, a sailor who spent part of his naval career engaged in legalised piracy!

What would have happened if mainland Britain had been invaded during the Second World War? A leaflet from 1942 gives some of the answers.

In 1830, a wave of riots swept across the rural parts of southern England.

Our March Document of the Month is a Bournemouth souvenir programme for the 1937 coronation festivities of reluctant king George VI.

The dangers of sea travel are explored in our February Documents of the Month.

January's Document of the Month is a certificate from 1746, setting up an apprenticeship of a 14-year old girl to a button maker in Sherborne.