Picture Library

Around 50,000 prints, 20,000 negatives, 12,000 slides and 5,000 glass plates offer a photographic record of Dorset from the 19th century onwards.

Images include views of landscapes, towns, villages, buildings and people. They represent the lifestyles and traditions of Dorset over time. Significant photographers featured include Harry Pouncy, Francis Frith and Charles Cornish-Browne. We also hold photographs within our Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Townsend Warner collections.

We are now digitising and cataloguing these collections and can license images where digitised versions are already available. For an additional fee, it is also sometimes possible to commission the digitisation of images identified through research.

Below is a selection of images that are on permanent display in the TASTE café at Dorset Museum.

  • Opening hours:

    Dorset Museum & Art Gallery
    Daily: 10.00am - 5.00pm

    TASTE Café
    Daily: 9.00am - 4.00pm
    Sunday: 10:00am - 4:00pm

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  • Dorset Museum

    High West Street
    Dorchester DT1 1XA

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  • For more information
    [email protected]

Highlights

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1935

Thatching a rick a rick at Bredy Farm

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

1956

Milking time at Herrison Dairy

Taken L. Frisby…

c.1935

Edgar Hawkins milking at Burton Bradstock

Taken by M.H. Ouseley…

c.1960

Drink More Milk or from Producer to Consumer

Postcard…

c.1920

Carey & Grimsdell butter factory, Dorchester

c.1935

Collecting milk from Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Taken by by M.H. Ouseley…

2000

Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

Taken by M. Collier…

1950

Vegetable seller at The Conduit, Sherborne

1993

Courtney’s Fruit and Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

Taken by V. Dicker…

c.1955

Fruit and Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

1920

Demonstration of Debenham’s patented hay sweep and tractor driven baler, Affpuddle

c.1928

Picking watercress at Lawrences’s Farm, near Shaftesbury

c.1900

Cutting hay with scythes

Pouncy Collection…

c.1880

A sheaf of wheat

Pouncy Collection…

c.1955

Hauling in the sprat harvest, West Bay

Taken by I. Hardwick…

c.1890

Woman selling plaice at Burton Bradstock

Taken by Colonel Colfox…

c.1890

Purbeck Fisherman, Lulworth Cove

Taken by Reverand Perkins…

c.1935

Fishing, Bournemouth Pier

c.1920

Fishing from Chesil Beach

Taken by F. Ollet…

c.1910

W. J. Parsons Wine and Spirit Merchant, Boscombe

c.1950

Bottling at Victoria Wine Co. High East Street, Dorchester

c.1900

High West Street, Dorchester

1941

Hall and Woodhouse Brewery Wagons outside The New Inn at Blandford St Mary

Taken by Thoedora Almack…

1900

The Old Brewery at Netherbury

Taken by R. Hine…

c.1935

Loading a wagon at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

1942

A convoy taking a lunch break on a journey from Sherborne to Hardy’s Monument

1954

A Whit Monday breakfast at Tregonwell Lodge

Taken by J. Parke…

c.1965

Staff cafeteria at Herrison Hospital

c.1975

Staff Social Club at Herrison Hospital

c.1910

Sheep Shearing

Pouncy Collection…

c.1930

Sheep Washing

Pouncy Collection…

c.1870

Shearing Sheep

Pouncy Collection…

c.1900

Shepherd with his flock of Dorset Down sheep

Pouncy Collection…

c.1900

Shepherd with a lamb

Pouncy Collection…

c.1880

Higgins Butchers, 51 High East Street, Dorchester

1977

Jubilee Day hog roast at Piddle Valley Carnival

Taken by B. Jackson…

1911

The Roasting of the Ox, Celebration of the Coronation of King George V

1977

Roast Pig at Stoborough Fayre

Taken by A. Grant…

c.1910

Wareham & Dale Ltd., Butchers & Poulterers, Parkstone

c.1935

A rest from haymaking on Lenthall’s Farm, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1935

Making a hayrick

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1955

Picking watercress at Hollow Oak, Bere Regis

c.1935

Thatching at Grove House

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1965

Learning kitchen skills at Summer Hill House, Herrison Hospital

Taken by L. Frisby…

c.1935

Breadmaking at Rendalls Mill, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1891

Bryant Bakery, Broadmayne

c.1935

Loading dough into the oven at Rendalls Mill, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1968

Staff coffee break at Herrison Hospital

1975

Picnicking at Ringstead Bay

Taken by D. H. Leadbetter…

c.1965

Staff cafeteria at Herrison Hospital

1965

Taking a break during archaeological excavations at Eggardon Hill

Taken by Professor C. Wrigley…

1935

Milking, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1910

Milking in farmyard, West Stafford

Pouncy Collection…

1935

Hauling Milk at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Taken by M. H. Ouseley…

c.1920

Pigs and dairy cattle in the yard at West Stafford

1935

Milking at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock