Jessop Wedding - Local History
Maddy and Simon's Wedding
Local History
As a service to historically-minded guests, here are some unrelated snippets, garnered from the worldwide webster:
One well known orchard at the beginning of the 19h Century was that of Mr Ottan at Wootton Fitzpaine. It was in extent about 20 acres and the trees were on an average 20ft apart. The yield varied considerably but in general it was thought to be about 10 hogsheads per acre. As to the methods employed in manufacture Mr Ottan observed that when cider ferments too much
"It should be checked as much as possible; and this may be done by straining the sediment; which is left after racking through a canvas bag and putting clear liquor thus obtained among the cider."
Sour bitters and cluster apples were useful to make the cider keep well and sometimes one pound of hops was added to each hogshead for the same purpose. Itinerant brewers often superintend the flavouring and clearing of liquor…
In the 1800's Netherbury labourers had 2/6d a day and 12 pints of cider.
The first settlement at Charmouth began in the early Iron Age. It was undertaken by a Celtic tribe known as the Durotriges. Evidence of their impressive hill forts survive today at Lambert's Castle and Coney's Castle and Pilsdon Pen.
Charmouth's first claim to fame came in 833, now a Saxon settlement, when the Wessex King Egbert failed to repel Viking invaders. In 840 King Ethelwulf again tried to repel the Vikings who eventually began to settle peacefully among the local people living at the bank of the river then known as the Cerne (stony river), the village being known as Cernmunde. In 1501 Catherine of Aragon stayed at what is now the Queens Armes Hotel as did Charles II as he escaped from his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
Jane Austen visited Charmouth and apparently used to walk around. Once she said this about the village:
"its high grounds and extensive sweeps of country and its sweet retired bay backed by dark cliffs, where fragments of low rock among the sands make it the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation."
Nowadays, she would probably be more struck by the static caravan parks and the numbers of prodigiously fat people queuing to get into the fish and chip shop.