Today we ventured down to Weymouth to visit Dave Allen & the team at the Weymouth Heritage & Visitor Centre and share some tea and tea smuggling history.
Dave & the team here have a real passion for bringing history to life and the Dorset Coast certainly has a lot of secrets to share. With such a rich heritage, the team work tirelessly to promote Dorset, and Weymouth in particular, as the place to visit for Culture & Heritage in this part of Dorset.
Why were we here? Well this area of Dorset has rich smuggling history and with a new two-part adaptation of the much loved John Meade Falkner novel, Moonfleet (set in the small Dorset village of Moonfleet) due to air later this year on Sky Dave is ready to energise the wider public on this fascinating topic [ref 1].
A bit more about Moonfleet : In the story, young John Trenchard (Barnard) is desperate to join the local band of smugglers led by Elzevir Block (Winstone). Together they embark on an adventure full of action, friendship and humour, and hunt for a fabled lost diamond. Their journey takes them from 18th Century Dorset, to the Jewel quarter of The Hague and on to a gripping, final sea voyage [ref 1]
What has this got to do with tea? Quite a lot really. Read on for a bit of an introduction....
What's next? We love the work that Dave & the team do and will be working closely with them over the coming months to explore and share this particular area of tea history and its links to Dorset. Dave will also be coming to the Tea House. Can't wait!
