LOCAL history author Philip Browne will talk about a violent episode in Dorchester’s past at the town’s Shire Hall Museum next month.
In 1850, on a wet February day, a violent disturbance over the Corn Laws culminated an irate farmer killing a 19-year-old youth.
The subsequent manslaughter trial at the Shire Court revealed a deep split in Dorset society and led to a verdict many saw as a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Browne explains why the Corn Laws provoked such strong feelings and pitted Dorset landowners against free traders and the poor of Dorchester.
Mr Browne is a retired education adviser and author of The Unfortunate Captain Peirce and the Wreck of the Halsewell. He is currently working on a history of 19th century Fordington.
The talk, ‘Sticks and Stones, the trial of John Brake, 1850’, is on Saturday 4 February at 2pm and tickets are £6 on the door or from www.shirehalldorset.org/whats-on