THE vicar of Sherborne will tell all about the life, and occasionally riotous times, of the town’s past vicars.

Eric Woods will be delivering a lecture titled ‘Anecdotes from the Archives’, in conjunction with the Dorset History Centre, detailing the lives of his predecessors.

Canon Woods read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, before going on to read Theology Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge.

He has served at the Abbey, and its cluster of small churches, since 1993 alongside his position as a Trustee of the Dorset Archives Trust.

His talk will concentrate on two very different Victorian incumbents including William Hector Lyon, who was actually born in the Abbey of which he was to become vicar of for 40 years.

Guests will discover how the Reform Bill Riots of the 1830s came to Sherborne, including the ransacking of the vicarage, and how the parish was divided by one vicar’s adherence to the ‘high church’ doctrine.

The event will take place at Dorset History Centre, Bridport Road, Dorchester, on Thursday, May 11 at 7.15pm Tickets cost £10 for DAT members, or £12 for non-members, to include canapés and a glass of wine.

All proceeds go towards the Dorset Archives Trust, a charity which works to archive Dorset’s vast written history.

To book tickets visit www.dorsetarchivestrust.org/events