Swanage History
A Web site exploring Swanage’s distant past from the 18th Century and its transition from an exporter of local stone to a seaside resort.
World War II
Swanage during 1940-1944.
Topics covered , Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), Swanage Air Raids, Italian Invasion and the D-Day landing. This includes the Studland and Slapdown Sands British Operation Smash and American Operation Tiger exercises respectively, that took place six weeks before the Normandy invasion.
Learning-History-Post 1900 (Select from menu bar)
Pre-History
Purbeck Sedimentary Rock Formations
The Chicxulub Asteroid
When an asteroid collided with Earth, its impact triggered shockwaves, massive tsunamis and sent a large cloud of hot rock and dust into the atmosphere. As the super-heated debris fell back to Earth, they started forest fires, increased temperatures and wiped out the dinosaurs
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The Halsewell Wreck 6th January 1786
The ship wreck of the Halsewell, at the Cliffs near St Aldhelms Head, on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. From the Halsewell’s compliment of 286 persons only 74 survived the ordeal.
The web pages consists of seven topics starting from the initial build, description of the gradual demise of the the ship during its journey along the south coast and terminating in a conclusion. It provides recent images of the wreck site and topic research from books written by the second mate and fifth mate who survived the tragic event.
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William Morton-Pitt
Extracts of his obituary published in The Gentlemen’s Magazine, Volume 159, January to June 1836.
William Morton Pitt (1754-1836) was a cousin of the Prime Minister William Pitt (the younger)
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Swanage Entrepreneurs
ctSJohn Mowlem (1788-1868)
Introduction of John Mowlem (1788-1868) could be described as Swanage’s own ‘Dick Whittington’. He left Swanage in 1807 as a stone mason, by 1822 he had become a self employed stone merchant, at Pimlico Basin, London and later made his fortune in Victorian London.
George Burt (1816–1894)
George grew up in Swanage, Dorset. In 1835, at the age of 19. George Burt moved to London to join Mowlem’s business, becoming a partner in 1844 and managing the business after Mowlem’s semi-retirement the following year. Upon taking over the Mowlem’s company, Burt substantially expanded the firm’s operations. In the 1860s the company grossed an average of over £50,000 per annum.
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London Morning Chronicle, Labour and the Poor Swanage Survey 1850
On the 18th October 1849, the Morning Chronicle, a leading Victorian newspaper, embarked on a social investigation of working class life in England and Wales. Its intention was to provide a full and detailed description of the moral, intellectual, material and physical condition of the industrial poor. The Swanage report was compiled by Charles Shirley Brooks, who was responsible for rural agriculture labour, the tin mining and fishing communities and small town industries for instance Swanage Quarries.
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Tolpuddle Martyrs. The Victims of Wiggery 1834
Consists of nine topics starting from the description of their plight or the Victims of Whiggery followed by: the Creation of the Friendly Society; The Arrest of the Martyrs; The Dorchester Trial, including a Prison Internment Records image; Transportation to Botany Bay; Transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (George Loveless), disembarkation to this Penal Colony, description of Loveless’ work during the four years of internment and the return journey to London, the ship docked at London on the 13 June 1837.
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Swanage Railway Arrival 1885
Construction started in 1883 by the contractor Curry and Reeve at a cost of £76,646 (current equivalent £9.155 m) and the Track Bed engineering started in March 1883.
In May 1883, the promoters of the line George Burt, John Robinson and William Landsdowne Beal, purchased and took the first delivery of the railway tracks, from a Steamer, the Lord John Russel. In February 1884, the first tracks were laid from Swanage.
Transporting railway tracks was a mammoth task, the contractor supplied a steam locomotive from Waraham. This was hauled to Swanage using 20 Shire Horses, that struggled when ascending Kingston Hill on the Wareham to Swanage Turnpike Road. The project was completed on 5th May 1885, inspected by the Board of trade and opened to passengers on the 20th May 1885.
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Online Quiz Halsewell Wreck
Typical Questions:
The Halsewell was built in 1778 using the keel of an older ship, what was her name?
What weight or tonnage was the Halsewell?
De Loutherbourgh’s Eidophusikon, describing the awful and pathetic Scene of the Storm and Shipwreck. What was it powered by? Steam, Clockwork or Electricity
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