History of Dummer &
All Saints' Church

​LIBRARY OF CONTENT RELEVANT TO DUMMER

 

How they lived then - one family's life in Dummer from the 1540's to the 1740's

By Jackie Wilkinson - Dummer Resident

​

​

​

​

​

​

As well as working with the Victoria County History Group, tracing the history of Villages in North Hampshire, Jackie Wilkinson spends much of her spare time researching and writing about ordinary women of the past. This fascinating article finalised in 2025, and entitled "How they lived then - one family's life in Dummer from the 1540's to the 1740's", takes a closer look at Martha Neale and her family and how they lived up until her death in May 1703.​

 

Burning Passions - A Brief History of Kempshott Park

By Stafford Napier - Dummer Resident​ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This brief monograph, written by Stafford Napier and finished in December 2023, traces the history of Kempshott Park from humble beginnings as a simple farm, that formed part of the Manors awarded to Norman knights after the Conquest, through a time of royal and societal notoriety, onwards through times of national importance and, finally, to sad decline and devastation with the land overrun by swathes of suburbia.

​​​​​

​

​

Dummer and Kempshott Two Chalkland Parishes

In 2022 a soft cover book written by Jennie Butler and Sue Lane was published.

​

The book is available via Amazon and other publishers online: The Victoria History of Hampshire: Dummer and Kempshott (VCH Shorts) : Butler, Jennie, Lane, Sue: Amazon.co.uk: Books

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​​

 

John Holden, local resident, has also sent a great list of further reading and recordings about Dummer as follows:

​

Dummer Village by Anne Pitcher (printed by the author, 1986)
Contains many old photographs of the village. [Unable to find a copy online but worth contacting John Holden who may have a copy]

​

The Diaries of Dummer, by Stephen Terry, edited by A.M.W Stirling (Unicorn Press,1934).  

Stephen Terry (1774-1867) was a hunting squire who lived at Dummer House, where he entertained Jane Austen. His favourite song was:

“Anything’s fun in the country you know, or else in rainy weather,
What should we poor mortals do for weeks and weeks together?
We laugh, we dance, we drink, we sing,
And away dull care to the devil we fling,
For anything’s fun in the country!”

​

The Life of the Reverend Mr James Hervey, to which is added A
Collection of His Letters (R Taylor, 1772)
James Hervey (1714 - 1758) was Rector of Dummer in the 1730s. Many of his printed letters are addressed from Dummer. When James Hervey was Rector, he appointed the famous preacher George Whitfield as his young
Curate. Whitfield was later known as “the Evangelist of America”, a country he visited often and where he delivered sermons to huge crowds.

As well as being a notable clergyman and a member of John Wesley’s Holy Club, James Hervey was a writer who influenced William Blake. He was one of the “Graveyard School” of poets (“the dreadful pleasure inspired by gazing at fallen monuments and mouldering tombs”) and thus an early Goth. The most famous quotation from his works is:

​

“I am a poor unworthy sinner; but worthy is the Lamb that was slain, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain, for whose sake I shall receive both pardoning mercy,
and everlasting glory. This is my only hope….”
He died on Christmas Day 1758

​

Pigeon Shooting by Archie Coats ( A Deutsch, 1963)
The Amateur Keeper by Archie Coats (A Deutsch, 1978)

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archie Coats (1916 -1989) lived with his wife Prue Coats (see below) in Tower Hill, Dummer. He was a famous pigeon shooter who appeared in the Guinness Book of Records and in addition to these two books he wrote
journal articles in The Field and elsewhere. The Amateur Keeper records the development of his ten-acre shoot in Dummer. There is a wonderful TV programme featuring Archie and his distinctive voice available here:
https://www.thefield.co.uk/features/video-pigeon-shooting-with-archie-coats-20925

​

Prue Coats was the author of several cookbooks:

• Prue’s Country Kitchen (World Pheasant association, 1988)

• Prue’s Perfect Guide to the Shoot Lunch (Pen & Sword Books 1991)

• Prue’s Perfect guide to the Fishing Picnic (Wharncliffe Books, 1991)

• The Poacher’s Cookbook (Merlin Unwin 2003)

• Prue’s New Country Kitchen (Merlin Unwin 1997)

• Prue’s New Country Cooking (Merlin Unwin 2004)

• Simply Salmon and other Good Food (Merlin Unwin 1995)

​

Prue Coats (1925 - 2020) had a regular cookery column in The Field magazine, and most of her books and recipes are for game and fish. She was a first-class cook, and invented many ways to deal with all the produce that her husband Archie brought home from fishing expeditions and shoots.

The Restoration of Dummer Bells 2011 (Dummer Church, 2011) See below link to All Saints' Church.
An illustrated account of the 2011 restoration of the ancient Church bells, which need to be re-cast every 100 years. As well as describing how the bells were restored, this book describes the Church and some notable residents of Dummer.

​

John Betjeman, ABC of Churches, 1960
The Poet Laureate John Betjeman made a series of TV programmes for the BBC about his favourite churches. One of them was All Saints Dummer, and the film can be found by searching on YouTube for John Betjeman’s ABC of Churches (BBC May 1960.​​​

​