Villagers celebrated a decade since Remembering Piddletrenthide – A Picture Book of Village Memories, was published with an exhibition of photos, videos and memorabilia.
The 200-page A4 book, compiled by Bridget and the late Dave Bowen with the photographs edited by Ian Condon, traces the social history of Piddletrenthide from the end of the 19th century to 2015, when the book was completed.

Ian spent several years researching the village, spending thousands of hours in the Record Office, now The Dorset History Centre, and interviewed scores of residents past and present, capturing their memories of everyday village life.
The making of the book became a village affair as a series of exhibitions, such as The Happiest Days of your Life, were held where Piddletrenthide folk would come together with rich and varied memorabilia along with their photos of days gone by.

GRIM END:
Vicar Dicker dressed for the village pageant. Sadly, he met a nasty end when he skidded on his new motorbike and ended up squashed under the steam lorry he was overtaking. His body was transported back to the vicarage on the local butcher’s cart

Bridget said: “When it was first suggested we should write a book about the village we’d called home for 25 years, we had no inkling what such a project would involve, or the new friends we would make, let alone the extent to which villagers, both past and present, would share with us their own personal memories.
“So an exhibition was held at the nearby Memorial Hall on Jan 9, 2009 for which we found a small handful of old photos, hastily enlarged to A3 size to cover big display boards. Many villagers past and present turned up with an amazing selection of personal photos. As it turned out, that was to be the first of several exhibitions stretching on to November 2013.
“Each time increasing numbers attended, some even from overseas, the event becoming like a village reunion with faces being incredulously recognised, despite the passing years.
“One family even used the event as an annual reunion, starting the celebration with lunch at the nearby pub.”

The recent event was in celebratory mood with the showing of a 1940s farming video and listening to a captivating talk by David Burnett of Dovecote Press, about celebrated broadcaster and author Ralph Wightman.
Ralph who was born in Piddletrethide, became ‘Voice of Rural Britain’ taking part in BBC farming programmes and Question Time on the Home Service, to which he brought his rich Dorset tones.
Jan Burnett, a relative of Ralph’s, brought some photos and artefacts to add to the exhibition – including Ralph’s hat!
n Order Remembering Piddletrenthide from beepeebee66 @icloud.com