News and Events

Past Events

The LMLHPS Annual General Meeting

Members only
Thursday 9th May 2024
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
at 7.30pm
Copies of the Agenda along with the Revised Constitution Document which will be discussed at the meeting can be downloaded below.
The LMLHPS AGM Agenda
LMLHPS AGM 2024 Agenda
File Size: 136 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Revised Constitution Document 2024
File Size: 223 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Life, Death and Feasting
​at Football Field, Worth Matravers
​A talk by Lilian Ladle FSA MBE

Thursday 21st March 2024
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
This small site on the northern edge of Worth Matravers gave evidence for an Early Neolithic enclosure, a Late Bronze Age roundhouse, a huge Midden area with  evidence for feasting and trade activities, Iron Age and Roman settlement in the form of stone-built houses and barns and a significant cemetery dating to the 6/7th century CE.  The associated finds of pottery, stone, metalwork and animal and human bone give real insights into the lives of the people who lived there.

​Lilian Ladle is an independent archaeologist and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Bournemouth University and directed a Bestwall Quarry, Wareham and Druce Farm Roman villa near Puddletown. She was awarded the MBE for services to Dorset archaeology in 2008 and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2021.

Purbeck and the English Civil War in Dorset, 1642 - 1646
​A talk by Anthony Moore

Thursday 29th February 2024
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
Purbeck, with its two fortified sites of Wareham and Corfe, was strategically important to both sides in the English Civil War for control of the coast, ports and economic resources of the area.
The talk will put local events in Purbeck in the context of what was happening in Dorset and nationally. It will identify local  leaders and families on both sides and explain their motivation and roles. It will then go on to describe the key events and outcomes and how they related to the ebb and flow of the war across Dorset and the rest of the  kingdom. The English Civil War was a very bloody conflict and killed more people per capita than the Great War (1914 -1918) and inevitably left its scars on every community including  Purbeck.

For Sale, Old World Village: the 1919 sale of Worth Matravers (x2)
​​A talk by Mary Sparks

Monday 15th January 2024
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
at 2.30pm.
​The talk will be followed by tea.
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
In 1919 the whole of the village of Worth Matravers, until then a quarrying, fishing and farming community,  came under the hammer, twice. This unlikely scenario, opening up possibilities for a different future, paved the way within a century for the very different village which we know today.  
Worth Matravers Village Centre

LMLHPS Christmas Event​

Thursday 7th December 2023
7.30pm

​£3 Members
​£4 Guests
All are most welcome to the Society’s Christmas Event, to be held at Langton Matravers Village Hall on 7th December at 7.30pm.  There will be a mix of seasonal music and readings to entertain you, and refreshments will be served: £3 for members, £4 for non-members.  There will also be an opportunity at the event to buy Society booklets.

The Mortar Wreck
A talk by Tom Cousins

Thursday 30th November 2023
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
Found in Poole Bay in 2020 by local diver Trevor Small, this is the oldest protected wreck in English waters. Its timbers date from between 1242 and 1265, during the reign of Henry Ill. The many artefacts found at the site include Purbeck marble mortars (for grinding grain), copper cauldrons and two marble gravestones, both in pristine condition. The marble is from Purbeck and most likely to have been quarried near Langton. 

(Tom is the Diving and Maritime Archaeology Officer at Bournemouth University. Projects include investigations into the Duplex drive tanks in Studland Bay, the Swash Channel wreck and prevention of timber damage by marine organisms.)

The Hundred of Aileveswoda

Monday 13th November 2023
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
at 2.30pm in the afternoon
​with tea afterwards.
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
An 'armchair guided walk' round the manor of Ailwood and brief introduction to the history of the landscape of East Purbeck, told in pictures and maps.
This will be a chance for those of you who missed the actual guided walk to learn more about history of the landscape of the area, told in maps and pictures. Put the date in your diary, and we'll look forward to seeing you then.  The talk will be approximately an hour in length.

The History of Swanage Pier
​A talk by Nick Reed

Thursday 26th October 2023
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm​
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
The history of Swanage Pier from late Georgian time to the present.
Slippery ledge had been used since time immemorial to beach working boats, but developments during the 19th century include William Morton Pitt's 1825 beach residence, John Mowlem's 1859 Stone Pier (and tramway), and George Burt's 1895 Steamer Pier.
Nick will tell the story of the Victorian beginnings as well as more recently, scuba diving, underwater photography and the Swanage Pier Trust.

Langton Invades Europe: The D-Day Deceptions
A talk by Phil Judkins

Thursday 28th September 2023
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests

A Guided Walk by Mary Sparks: A Trail Through Langton Matravers
Originally devised by Reg Saville

Friday 18th August
and
Saturday 19th August

​starting ​at 10.30am at the Museum, St Georges Close, BH19 3HZ
You have a choice of dates but the walk will be limited to a maximum of 10 participants per group, owing to lack of space on the pavements.

The cost is £5 per person payable in cash at the start of the walk. Proceeds towards fund for cataloguing software for LMLHPS Museum Collection.

The walk will take a about 2 hours.
​You can download the poster for this walk, which contains all the details, by clicking the icon below.
Village Trail Poster 2.pdf
File Size: 152 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

A Guided Walk by Mary Sparks: The Manor of Ailwood
An introduction to the history of the landscape of East Purbeck.

Saturday 29th July ​at 10.30am
Meet at the north side of Harman's Cross crossroads, by the bench.
The cost is £5 per person payable in cash at the start of the walk. Proceeds towards fund for cataloguing software for LMLHPS Museum Collection.

Parking is available in the carpark opposite Harman’s Cross Village Hall, Haycrafts Lane.

The walk will take a maximum of 2 hours and will be about 3 miles, much of it along roads, but with 3 stiles.
​
Waterproof footwear and leg coverings are recommended (tall grasses).

The Sale of Worth Matravers in 1919
​and
A Short History of Worth Village School
Talks by Mary Sparks

Thursday 23 March 2023
​in Langton Matravers Village Hall
​Doors open at at 7.00pm and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
'For Sale: Old World Village'
In 1919 the Rempstone Estate sold the entire village of Worth Matravers, including farms and cottages, by auction. The talk explains the context for the sale, how the village was sold and what happened next. Included is a short illustrated presentation on the history of Worth's village school.

Open Meeting for Museum Custodians and 'Interested Others'

Tuesday 28 February 2023
​in the Events Room at Langton Matravers Village Hall
​at 10.30am
ALL are welcome to attend: do come along to find out more about the Society, about volunteering and getting involved. Refreshments will be served. Put the date in your diary now, and we look forward to seeing you there.

East Indiaman Wrecks of the Dorset Coast
A Talk by Nick Reed

Thursday 16 February 2023
​​in Langton Matravers Village Hall
​Doors open at at 7.00pm and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
The talk includes the 'Earl of Abergavenny' and the 'Halsewell'

Mysteries of Creech Barrow
A Talk by Ben Buxton

Thursday 26 January 2023
in Langton Matravers Village Hall
Doors open 7.00pm
​and talk begins at 7.30pm
​£3 Members, £4 Guests
The conical hill, Creech Barrow, is a conspicuous feature of the landscape south of Wareham. Earthworks on the hilltop, including a cross-shaped feature visible on aerial photographs have, until now, defied explanation. In this talk Ben will reveal the results of his investigations into 4,500 years of human activity on the hill.

Shopping in Bygone Swanage
​​John Patrick

Thursday 19 December 2019
​at 7.30pm
​in the Village Hall
John Patrick is a popular speaker in Langton and this is a ‘new’ talk in which he will explore the wide range of shops in Swanage before the wide-scale arrival of supermarkets and chainstores!​ Oh for the days of Robsons the Grocer whose salesman came out to the villages on his motorcycle to take weekly orders for delivery the next day; or Mr Bruton the Ironmonger whose van came to Langton to sell a wide range of goods, but especially paraffin which kept the stoves burning and smelling in the winter; or Louise, the ‘huge’ fashion emporium in Station Road which offered many a Swanage girl a chance to be a catwalk model in their regular fashion shows.

Helen Muspratt: Photographer
​Jessica Sutcliffe

Thursday 21 November 2019
​at 7.30pm
​in the Village Hall
Born into an army family in India in 1907, Helen Muspratt was a lifelong Communist, a member of the Cambridge intellectual milieu of the 1930s, and a working mother at a time when such a role was unusual for women of her class. She was also a pioneering photographer, creating an extraordinary body of work in many different styles and genres. Helen Muspratt became very well known in Swanage. Following Helen's death in 2001, her daughter, Jessica Sutcliffe, became increasingly aware of her mother’s importance in the history of 20th century photography and the talk will give a fascinating insight into an important artist.

Discovering Dorset
Stewart Timbrell

Thursday 24 October 2019
​at 7.30pm
​in the Village Hall
The Rev Stewart Timbrell will present a very interesting illustrated talk on places in Dorset which you may or may not have found for yourselves.  Come and discover places of which you have no knowledge!

Raise a Glass to Reg

Friday 4 October 2019
​at 7.30pm
​in the Village Hall
Admission will be free for this meeting but there will be no complaints if donations are pressed into the Treasurer's grubby hands to help defray expenses.

​Langton Matravers Local History and Preservation Society
Registered Charity No. 272407
© 2024 Langton Matravers Local History and Preservation Society