Friday Talk: Tales From East Street

In this month’s talk, Terence Dear will present research recently carried out by the Museum’s East Street Research Group. In 2025, the Group held an open day at the Museum inviting the community to bring their stories of East Street, and these memories are now captured in the Museum’s research archives. Terence’s talk, which coincides with the publication of a booklet with the same title, will focus on some of the properties in East Street, their history and development. Some of the tales will be about people who lived in the street or had connections with it – Caroline, the blind poet; the Pitt family, which produced two British Prime Ministers; the fraudster hanged at Tyburn; Queen Elizabeth I; and Russell’s Flying Waggons – all feature in this fascinating tale of Blandford’s East Street.

Terence Dear’s early working life included designing facilities to aid the passage of travellers with disabilities through airports for BAA, and managing SPCK Bookshops for the Church in London. Four years at university as a mature student, where his thesis “Planning for the Elderly” addressed how town centres should be planned and designed to meet the needs of older members of the community and those with disabilities, led to two First Class degrees in Town Planning. These set him on course for a career in conservation, piloting English Heritage’s first “Buildings at Risk” Survey and taking conservation areas through to designation. At a national level, Terence has been instrumental in changing government policy to include the countryside surrounding market towns within conservation areas, and helping to develop environmental appraisal techniques and sustainability indicators and the new area of community planning. His work in conservation and environmental sustainability has been published in professional journals. Terence’s membership of a commission concerned with the future of market towns in the age of out-of-town supermarkets led to the establishment of Action for Market Towns, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the vitality and viability of small towns. This brought him to North Dorset, initially on a temporary contract, but he ended up staying for eleven years as Business Manager.

Since retirement, Terence has been an active member of The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) and The English-Speaking Union (ESU); established a community theatre group, Forum Drama; and served as Chairman of the Blandford & District Civic Society. He spends most of his time today immersed in historical and genealogical research.

Admission £8 (£5 for Museum members, free to Friends and Patrons)

We have a variety of talks about our history and heritage from a range of expert speakers lined up for Autumn 2026 and Spring 2027. These will take place on Fridays (usually, but not always, the last Friday of the month) at either the Parish Centre or the Town Hall in Blandford. Please visit our Calendar for information about future talks.