Thanks to more Looking Backers for getting in touch this past week as we've been winding up our series of articles on the Jubilee Hall.

Rod Wild got in touch to point out that part of the Jubilee Hall in Weymouth was given a new lease of life in Poundbury after it was demolished in 1989. Parts were taken from a Portland quarry and used to help build the Jubilee Hall, which is next to Waitrose in Queen Mother Square, Poundbury.

It was built in 2011 after an inspired idea by the Duchy of Cornwall and Woodpecker Properties to recover some of the historic relics from the 1887 Weymouth hall and incorporate them in Jubilee Hall.

At present the hall is unused and residents have been consulted and asked how they would like to see the hall used as a community space.

Another Looking Back reader who got in touch online, Coastal Quibbler, said that most of the original structure of the Jubilee Hall was so badly damaged during the demolition that it was eventually scrapped.

And now we return to our Victorian tale of the Falkner family who moved into the Rectory in Weymouth, a Georgian building which was discovered when the Jubilee Hall was demolished.

The Rev Thomas Alexander Falkner, 50, his wife Elizabeth and their six children moved into the Weymouth building in 1871. Also moving into the Rectory along side the family were their staff.

There was the cook, 28 year-old Harriet Churchill, and an 18 year-old housemaid, Mary Bridle.

However, virtually as soon as the family settled into their new home disaster struck.

Mum Elizabeth became seriously ill, along with her children. At first the doctors diagnosed a simple case of gastric fever…but it turned out to be far more sinister than that.

Despite the best medical care available, Elizabeth passed away after a few days, and the children remained critically ill. They weren’t expected to survive,

According to the press the death had “cast quite a gloom over the town.”

The said ‘town’ became a hive of gossip about this terrible state of affairs. That poor new curate losing his wife…and now more than likely to lose his entire family too.

Thankfully, the children pulled through, and slowly began to regain their health.

Elizabeth was laid to rest in the Melcombe Regis graveyard on March 17, 1871.

Despite all the rumours that circulated around town on what led to Elizabeth's death, the doctors made startling discoveries within the household itself .

The young housekeeper, being rushed off her feet, had taken water from a tank in the house instead of collecting fresh from the well nearby. She had then used that water to make the tea…in it was part of a rat's tail.

After Elizabeth’s death, and when investigations into the origin of the disease were under way, the old water tank in their home became one of the sources under suspicion…in there they found the rotting, putrid body of a rat! A couple of weeks after the heartbreaking events, Thomas received a stark reminder of his great loss.

To his door came the enumerator, he needed to fill in that years census returns form.

Thomas had to state who would be resident in his home on the night of the April 2.

By then, two new names were added to the household, two new members of staff, 28 year-old Jane Shepherd, and 50 year-old Ann Hatton, both were nurses employed to take care of the slowly recovering children.

For the newly widowed Thomas, the pain must have been very raw still, having to list himself as a widower for the first time.

It was a hard time for all the family, but like most who lost a parent or sibling, despite the grief, life simply went on.

One of those who pulled through the sad times was only 13 when he lost his mother, but despite this unhappy time in his childhood, he went on to make a name for himself, John Meade Falkner.

John Meade was enrolled as a pupil at Weymouth college and Weymouth Grammar School.

He went on and became a successful businessman and author - one of his most famous novels being Moonfleet.