Roger Guttridge recalls a fire that ripped through terraced cottages at Shaftesbury

What a difference 63 years makes!

The above picture shows some of the devastation after fire swept through six terraced cottages at St James’s Street, Shaftesbury, on June 17, 1955.

The modern picture features the same terrace in 2018 complete with the tiled roofs that replaced the thatch of yesteryear.

The fire was accidentally started when a painter’s blowtorch set light to the thatch below the galvanised sheeting that also covered the terrace pre-1955.

A strong wind fanned the flames, which quickly spread from No. 77 to five neighbouring cottages, including No. 79, home of James Parsons, one of the 50 Dorset and Wiltshire firemen who fought the blaze.

His uncle, Charles Parsons, was Shaftesbury’s chief fire officer.

Almost 300 residents formed a human chain to rescue furniture and other possessions, most of which were saved and stored in the nearby school and church hall.

The 1955 picture, from the Gold Hill Museum collection, features trucks from the US Air Force, stationed at Guy’s Marsh, who helped to fight the fire and clear up the debris.

Their efforts were hampered by the design of their hoses, which didn’t fit the local hydrants.

There was also a general shortage of water and hoses had to be run hundreds of yards to supplement the supply.

More pictures of the fire appear in Roger Guttridge’s book Shaftesbury Through Time (Amberley).

Roger Guttridge recalls a colourful character from old Dorset

Thomas Hardy fans will remember a character in The Return of the Native called Diggory Venn, the Reddleman.

This Victorian travelling salesman made his living by selling reddle or raddle, a red powder widely used by shepherds.

Long before Hardy’s death in 1928, Dorset’s Reddleman had been succeeded by the Reddlewoman.

And Mary Ann Bull was every bit as colourful as Venn, whom Hardy described as ‘completely red’ with dye covering ‘his clothes, the cap upon his head, his boots, his face and his hands’.

Dorset writer Olive Knott remembered the Reddlewoman’s visits to Sturminster Newton before the First World War.

‘Year after year this woman pitched her tent on the same spot in the grassy lane,’ Olive wrote.

‘To the children of the neighbourhood, she was wrapt in mystery.

‘A fire of sticks usually burned outside her tent. Nearby was her dark brown pony tethered to a four-wheeled open van. Even the van was bright red in colour.’

In this picture the Reddlewoman has a two-wheeled cart pulled by a pair of donkeys.

The late Roy Adam, of Pimperne, once told me that Mary Ann actually came from Somerset and her reddle from Cornwall.

‘At sheep-dipping time she would peddle her wares, also selling brickdust for cleaning harness,’ he said.

‘According to my late mother, she had a weather-beaten countenance and wore layers of petticoats, which made a good hiding place for her money.

‘She trusted her monies to various publicans and collected on the return journey. They included my grandfather, Joe Dowling, a horse dealer and licensee of the Farquharson Arms, Pimperne.

‘Mary Ann smoked a pipe and had a bad temper, like the lurcher that was tied to her cart.

‘She knew the value of herbs and prescribed cures for many ailments.’

The Reddlewoman was a regular at events such as Shroton Fair and Woodbury Hill Fair, Bere Regis.

She slept under bags and canvas beneath the cart, guarded by the lurcher.

The dog took its duties so seriously that when its mistress fell ill at Stourpaine chalk pit, it had to be put down before she could be helped.

Mary Ann was taken to Cerne Abbas Union and died on waste ground at Cerne, according to information given to me many years ago by Doris Allen, of Dorchester.

The late Larry Skeats, a former Dorset shepherd and landlord of the Deer Park at Lydlinch and the Trooper at Stourton Caundle, explained to me how reddle was used either side of World War Two.

‘Reddle was a very fine powder which came in three colours,’ he said.

‘It was mixed to a paste with oil to make it waterproof.

‘It was used to age-mark the flock and was also put on the ram’s brisket so the ewes were marked when served at tupping-time.

‘The shepherd used the colours in the order of yellow, red and blue and changed every 14 to 17 days.

‘So if the ewes returned, the lighter colour was obliterated by the second colour and in turn by the third.

‘This enabled the shepherd to bring the ewes into the lambing yard in their respective colours without overcrowding the yard.’

Ewes that returned a third time were usually barren but not always.

Roger Guttridge