The Bulls Head - Fordington Hill


© Michael Pitfield - depicted in the picture

From 1839 to 1849 - The earliest reference that I have been able to locate to the Bulls Head Inn on Fordington Hill is 1839 when Giles LODER was the Innkeeper. It probably existed as an Inn prior to that date but it is not listed in the Post Office directory for 1830 and I could not trace any grade II listing at English Heritage, or enries on the A2A website made by the Dorset History Center, which might have helped to date the building. If anyone has knowledge of when it was built or additional information from that listed below please make contact.

Giles LODER (1780-1849) married in Fordington on 16th May 1803 to Elizabeth FRAMPTON (1785-1849) and was described as a carrier by trade on the baptims of his 15 children born between 1803 and 1830. He was living at Fordington Cross in 1839 when one of his daughters died. He appears to have run the pub with his wife Elizabeth for over a decade but they both died in 1849 - almost certainly as a direct result of the major Cholera outbreak that year. See the biography of Rev Henry Moule Vicar of St Georges Church and the accounts of Cholera outbreaks of 1849 and 1854.

From 1849 to 1857 - Robert HAWKINS (1790-1857) a native of Winterbourne Kingston, originally an agricultural labourer, became a Serjeant in the Dorset Militia and in 1849 took over the running of the Bull's Head Inn on Fordington Hill. In reality in 1851 the pub was being run by his son George HAWKINS (1823) who is described as the Innkeeper with the assistance of his elder sister Mary Ann (1821-1854) who also worked as the barmaid. They also had a lodger William Payne who was a seedsman by trade but also doubled up as a guard at the Inn, presumably mainly in the evenings. George married when he was 29 years old on 29th Nov 1852 in his brides parish of Blandford Forum. His bride was Jemmima [Jemima] WATTS (1814) a 28 year old spinster the daughter of James Watts whose occupation on their marriage certificate is given as 'post boy'. Presumably Robert who was then aged 62 had retired from the Dorset Milita as described at their marriage as the Innkeeper and George as a Porter. Both George and Jemmima were literate and his sister Mary Ann died at the young age of 35 being buried at Fordington on 1st June 1854. Robert Hawkins also then died, at the age of 66, and was buried at Fordington on 22nd Jan 1857. The running of the pub then seems to have passed onto Thomas Riggs although George, described as a gardener, was still living next door to the Bull's Head in 1861 with his wife Jemima and his family.

From 1877 to 1896/7    George PITFIELD (1844-1917) (picture left) was born at Gallows Hill Fordington in 1844. He was baptised at Fordington on 24th Nov that year the son of George PITFIELD (1815-1874) & Caroline Margaret CRITCHELL (1822-1885). As a young man he worked as a tailor with his father in Bell Street in All Saints parish Dorchester, a trade he was still following when he married in 1870 to Elizabeth Brushett a 21 year old spinster living in St Peters Parish.

Elizabeth BRUSHETT (1850-1891) was the daughter of another publican John Brushett who was managing the 'Three Mariners' in High East street in 1865. He moved to manage 'The Star Inn' in Bell street by 1875 so Elizabeth was already well versed in the trade when she married George Pitfield. After marriage they settled to live in All Saints Parish in Durngate Street where George continued with his trade as a tailor, but they also obtained a licence to sell ale. The 1871 Census records their premises as a public House called 'The Old House at Home' and the Post Office Directory for 1875 shows them still in residence. Above his entry in the Directory is that of his mother Caroline Pitfield who is running the "Union Arms" Pub in Fordington.

With both families running public houses it is not surprising that George seized the opportunity presented in 1877 by the death of Thomas RIGGS (1815-1877) to take over as Innkeeper of the Bull's Head. George and Elizabeth ran the Inn for 20 years and raised 6 children before her death in 1891.

George then re-married to Eliza Jane LEGGE (1858-1915) in 1891 in Epsom Surrey and she came to live at the "Bull's Head" until they moved to reside in Parkstone where for a time he continued to be a publican. George and Eliza had a daughter they named Joyce Christine Pitfield born at Fordington on 24th June 1894, but she was baptised at St Philip's church at Cheam Common in Surrey on 10th Oct 1894. Unfortunately Joyce died at the age of 7 months and was buried at St Georges Church in Fordington on 22nd Jan 1895. By 1911 he was the proprietor of the Halfway Hotel on Poole Road in Parkstone. George was buried at Longfleet aged 72 on 13th Jan 1917

From 1896/7 to 1905   When George left Fordington the Bull's Head was run by his son George John PITFIELD (1871-1947) and his wife Alice Mary nee Scard (picture right). George had married Alice at Cerne Abbas on 24th May 1894 and they lived at 2 Green Hill Terrace in Fordington. They are shown running the pub in the 1901 census and her father died there in 1905 but they left in 1906 to live in Uxbridge Middlesex where he worked as a hairdresser

[© pictures by kind permission of Michael Pitfield ]

From 1906 to 1927   We know from Jury lists that have survived and are kept at the Dorset History Centre that John Henry DOMINEY (1862-1909) took over the running of the Bull's Head in 1906

Born at East Coker in Somerset he was a carpenter and joiner by trade and married Anna Maria Rose in the district of Sherborne at the tail end of 1880. They settled initially in Melcombe Regis, St John's parish, where they had a daughter (1) Ethel Mary baptised on 30th Nov 1881. By 1883 they had moved to live at number 2 Ayling Terrace in West Fordington and they had the following children baptised at Christchurch (2) Ernest Herbert bap on 1st July 1883, he was confirmed at the age of 20 at Christchurch on 13th Nov 1903. He became a monumental mason and executor of his mothers will (3) Mabel Annie Elizabeth bap on 7th Dec 1884 (4) Letitia Victoria bap on 24th July 1887 (5) Reginald John bap on 13th Oct 1889 (6) Esther Maud bap on 2nd Aug 1891. In the 1901 Census the family is living at 16 Maie Terrace in the parish of St Peters Dorchester and John is described as a Railway Company's carpenter. John Henry moved to Fordington Hill and took over the running of the Bull's Head in 1906. He died there on 24th Nov 1909 leaving a modest estate to his widow of £258.

His widow Anna Maria DOMINEY (1862-1927) continued to run the pub, initially with the help of her 21 year old son Reginald, 19 year old daughter Esther, and a 16 year old neice called Eleanor Kate Sartin. Anna remained as Innkeeper of the Bull's Head until she died there on 23rd Jan 1927.

[Note:- There is currently insufficient information available to me concerning the period after 1927 to attempt a consistent account but I hope to add to the following over time]

From 1927? to post 1939 -
John William PATTENDEN Junior (1891-1958) was born at Croydon in Surrey the son of a coachman John William PATTENDEN Senior (1860-1937) by his wife Eliza Ann GLADDES (1854-1937). Growing up in Croydon he followed his parents when they moved to live in Canford Poole circa 1918 working as a gardener. He was still living there in 1921 which unfortunately is the last year currently available for Electoral Registers. He married May VACHER (1894-1976) the daughter of George VACHER at Milton Abbas in Dorset on 16th May 1922. It's possible therefore that he took on running the Bull's Head in 1927, as Kellys Directory of Dorchester confirms he was in residence at the Inn in 1931. The War Census taken on 29th September 1939 also shows them living at the Bull's Head on Fordington Hill and reveals that he had been born on 9th Jan 1891, and his wife May Pattenden born on 12th April 1894. John died whilst living at 47 Sherringham Road, Parkstone in Dorset, administration of his estate of £626 being granted to his widow May Pattenden on 16th September 1958.

From Sep 2009 - Martin and Sarah GIFFORD were Landlords.
Martin had experience in mechanics whilst Sarah had experience in the pub trade and they reopened the pub on 12th Sep 2009 after it had been closed for 5 months. Their daughters Leah aged 14 and Holly aged 11 in the photograph lived in accommodation with their parents upstairs in the pub.

In 2013 - Christopher DUNHAM was Landlord

I have located the following references to the 'The Bull's Head' from which I have compiled the above account:- (If anyone has additional information on owners or Innkeepers of the Inn particularly between 1927 and the present day please make contact via my email address given at the top of the home page)