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New Forest
The train passes through the historic New Forest (not as new as you might think) a National Park Flew British Airways 747 from Dallas, Texas to London Heathrow. The last two rows of outboard sides of coach have extra room because they have two seats instead of three, just my dumb luck - my seat mates said they paid extra - not me. fine food in coach.
After connecting up with Kathy and a day layover we caught the train at Waterloo Station for Lymington and the Isle of Wight, a clean and pleasant train about two hours travel with one change of train - direct to the ferry dock in Lymington.
We took the ferry from Lymington, Hampshire to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight (also Hampshire). Lymington, at the southern edge of New Forest national park, is a quiet town, seemingly notable for its bustling yacht harbor.
Yarmouth is the oldest town on the Isle of Wight, is the closest port to England, and in earlier years was the primary port of access, it has a small harbor largely serving pleasure boats. It lies at the mouth of the river Yar.
Some Yarmouth Dores:
James Dore was master of a pilot boat out of Yarmouth Harbor in 1820.
Richard Dore commanded the paddle-wheel steamer "Glasgow"
Ferry
Makes regular 3.5 mile crossings of the Solent between the Isle of Wight and what the locals sometimes refer to as "the North Island" - England from 1830 to 1848 on the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry route.
Around 1850 an enterprising mariner named John Dore used to meet steamers docking at the new Yarmouth City Pier with his skiff, where he would offer to ferry passengers ashore for half the landing fee levied by the city at the pier.
We had a very pleasant stay at the Buttercup House B & B in Freshwater (about 3 miles from Yarmouth) while exploring the surroundings. Freshwater is a clean and quiet small village becoming gentrified with retirees, tourism seems to be its primary economic driver. The name Freshwater derives from its historic business of providing water for sailing ships preparing for long sea voyages, its water was reputed to stay fresh twice as long as water from other sources.
In Freshwater I met with a local archivist who had researched the Dore family with the objective of obtaining historic registration for an old cottage. He pointed out for me the locations of a number of homes of Dore families, adding that there were no Dores presently living in the area. Going over the Hampshire Archives list of old wills of Dores together,
the Needles
Iconic geologic formations at the extreme West end of the Isle of Wight he noticed that the few who were not living in the Isle of Wight, were living in coastal communities of Hampshire. This led to the observation that smuggling had been a significant part of the local economy (with the occupation of "mariner" frequently being a euphemism for smuggler), and that having contacts across the Solent in England might have been useful in that trade. He then pointed out a Dore cottage in a remote and barren site overlooking Totland Bay, with the implication that there was little else to recommend the site but its potential for smuggling.
The most impressive and well kept house associated with a Dore family (tracing their Freshwater roots back to 1505) is the Blackbridge House, officially dated to 1560, but said by its current resident to date as far back as the 14th century.
Many of the local Dore family graves are found in the parish Church of All Saints graveyard, a brief wander through this good size cemetery located a number of Dore graves, but few if any stones older than 1850 were readable due to erosion by acid rain and lichens.
There are several Richard Dores in the Freshwater records,
Welcome Lymington
The town of Lymington just visible through a forest of masts but how they relate to the available genealogy of Freshwater Dores, or perhaps any relationship to our own immigrant Richard Door is not clear. It seems unlikely that much evidence for our possible connections are to be found in Freshwater itself.
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