Local history

Sir Peter Mews, whose uncle was Peter Mews Bishop of Winchester - the last Warrior Bishop - built the grand manor house on the Hinton Admiral estate near Christchurch, Dorset and was the local MP from 1710 until his death in 1725.

The year is 1963.

The building of this railway line between Brockenhurst and Christchurch from 1884 to 1888 provided a direct link between Bournemouth and London and was to have a profound effect on the local communities and was instrumental in Bournemouth's rapid expansion during the latter part of the 19th century.

This books gives a short history of hand-made buttons through the centuries and then an appraisal of the rural cottage industry of East Dorset making the different types of buttons from locally resourced materials, its founder Abraham Case to its almost overnight demise during the Industrial Revolution, a history of the Lytchett Minster Button shop to the recent Dorset Button revival.