Still in the other world

The Rainfall Rescue project I mentioned recently is now complete. In a little under three weeks 65,000 pages of records dating from 1960 back to 1678 were digitised by an army of 16,000 volunteers. Each page contained up to a decade's worth of monthly readings for a particular gauge and , in all, 5.25 million observations were rescued. Quite a feat. Looking at my own stats I made 1061 classifications (a classification being either 12 monthly readings, or some location information, and the earliest year I was asked to process was 1682 . So I went way back!). To be fair some of those entries were blank if the year from a sheet I was asked to process had no readings recorded. Even so, I like to think I played my part. As I think I said before it is amazing what a bit of crowd sourcing can achieve (and of course Captain Tom Moore's exploit is another extraordinary example of that).

I miss the engagement in this project. I have found another one – Southern Weather Discovery – which is focussed on weather in the Southern Hemisphere and at the moment is asking people to digitise weather records made in New Zealand in 1939. Topical for me as I have just returned from a holiday in NZ. I've made my start on this project as I thought it would be interesting to see how many places I would recognise, and I am recognising quite a few, although the location detail is not so precise and doesn't offer the same opportunity as the UK records for heading off down internet rabbit holes researching places and people. So I don't think this project is going to capture my imagination in the same way.

The last time I was banging on about this (Rainfall Rescue) project I was back in the 1890s. It was at this point I got completely obsessed with one particular UK location identified on a Met Office sheet I was asked to enter. The gauge location was Cattistock Lodge at Cattistock in Dorest. Cattistock is only a few miles from Evershot, a village Mrs Darce and I spent a few days at on a short holiday a couple of years ago. It is possible we have driven past it. If you Google the Lodge you will quickly find a number of threads on a forum where people discuss and show pictures of derelict or semi derelict places. I am fascinated by derelict places myself. So that was enough to get me burrowing down the Lodge's rabbit hole!

As recently as 2011 Cattistock Lodge appeared to be in at least a half decent state of repair judging by Google Street View. However by around 2015 it was in a sorry state, and following the death in 2016 of an old lady who had lived there at least until the time of that Street View snap, and who may or may not have owned it, the place was finally sold last year and just last month a planning application was lodged to build a number of new dwellings on the site. Whether or not any of the existing Lodge can be saved as a part of that development I don't know but it would be a shame to lose a building which undoubtedly has a rich history. The earliest reference of its existence I have found states it was where The Cattistock Hunt was started by a parson in the mid 18^th century.

Late in the 1880s it started to be mentioned in rainfall records. Initially an A Chapple was making the recordings, but soon he was joined by a Henry Hamilton Palairet. The Lodge returned rainfall records until 1922. The end of the recordings coincided with HH Palairet's death and it seems no one then continued the job.

I have established HH Palairet was a Justice of the Peace, played cricket for the MCC and was a national archery champion. His son, Lionel, played cricket and amassed a prodigious number of runs for Somerset, holding their run scoring record until recently.

Although Palairet seemed to record the rainfall at Cattistock for many years between the 1890s and his death in 1922 he doesn't seem to have always lived there. Kelly's Directory 1895 lists him as of Cattistock Lodge, but the 1901 census states Edward Sitwell as the principal resident (and he returned the rainfall records in 1903). by 1911, and 1915, Kelly's listed a Major H H F Fagan as living at Cattistock Lodge. During this time Henry Palairet was listed in Kelly's as a Dorsetshire County Magistrate but he was residing at Norton Court, Pensford, Somersetshire. (His family had a lot of links to that area).

The next references I can find to Cattistock Lodge are from 1951. Detailed diary entries from a retired Royal Navy Captain, and latter day Reverend, lovingly (no doubt) transcribed by his grandson. The diaries are incredibly detailed and I spent more time than I really should have reading them. A fascinating insight into the life of an elder gentleman in 1950s England, they are a delight. He lived in a thatched cottage (a rather grand one) in the centre of Cattistock (it is still there, but not looking as “chocolate box” as it did 15 or so years ago judging by a few pictures I have found) and I have worked out that his mother moved into nearby Cattistock Lodge in the latter years of her life. There are a number of entries where he states they have tea at the Lodge. Whether the Lodge was still a private residence or it had become a hotel, or a nursing home or something similar I don't know.

As I said, and the above I think you will agree has clearly demonstrated, I have become obsessed with with this place, and the people who have been associated with it. Much too much time on my hands in these strange times.

I guess I could pursue more Kelly's Directory records, and Met Office records, to put more meat on Cattistock Lodge's bones (a place I didn't even know existed two weeks ago) but I really should move on!

Enough of this! It's time for some music. I can't believe I haven't featured Judy Roberts here before. She got a mention and a Youtube link back in 2009, but that is it. Talking of obsessions, I have always been mildly obsessed with her ever since I bought her album The Other World back in 1980. I love her brand of, often, latin tinged soul-jazz and, to be frank, I love her staring at me from the album cover in that seductive way even more (there, I've said it!). I won't expand any more on her career here now, she deserves her own dedicated post, which I will attempt do in the near future.

Here is the title track from that 1980 album. An appropriate title as I have been talking about ancient rainfall records, a Justice of the Peace who died more than a hundred years ago, and a retired Royal Navy Captain. Their worlds seem far removed from now, as in fact does our recent holiday in New Zealand and the pre-lockdown life we all led just a few short weeks ago.

Judy Roberts – The Other World 1980