One of the most common questions asked by people enquiring about the Tolpuddle Martyrs concerns the legality (or otherwise) of their conviction, and what exactly they were convicted for. The…

Barbara Kerr’s Preface to her splendid book, Bound to the Soil: A Social History of Dorset says it all. Here she explains why the rural history of Dorset is so…

After my talk at the Old Chapel on Wednesday 3rd April, I was asked by a number of the audience to post further details of some of the books to…

The Primitive Methodists (founded in 1810) were Methodists who wanted to reclaim the revivalist spirit of Wesley's early church and they were keen missionaries.  In 1832, George Cosens, the son…

The Methodists were major contributors to increasing literacy in the 18th and 19th centuries, but they were commonly working in straitened circumstances.  Paper was expensive; slates and chalk perhaps less…