IT'S a treat every year when we we receive the Dorset Year Book.

This annual publication from the Society of Dorset Men, the 2020 edition being the 111th year of issue, is crammed with entertaining and absorbing articles and stories which are of a wider general interest.

You can read about Dorset people, Dorset places, Dorset institutions and societies, Dorset history, dialect and poems.

Every year we are grateful to those behind the compendium for allowing us to delve into some of these articles on all aspects of life in Dorset.

This week we've picked out a rather interesting piece of research by Susan E. Dean, nee Brown, in which she shares the history of a Portland home.

She was born at 13 Easton Street on September 24, 1960. Susan's father Philip moved the family there in 1958 and had big plans for the building. Sadly he died a few weeks after Susan was born and was unable to complete his renovation.

Another door down in Easton Street was Beale & Scott, drapers and modern cleaners. There was also a dry cleaning firm to the right called Sam's and a sewing machine sales and repairs shop to the left. A partnership of Norman Beggs and David Hall ran the business and Susan's mother Florence worked as a receptionist for them occasionally.

At the back of the house in the garden was a one bedroom flat that was rented out to various tenants, Susan remembers. Among them were Ken and Rosemary Whyman staying on naval duties, and two girls from St Helena, one of whom married another tenant.

The Brown family lived in the three bedroomed flat above the shops and Susan remembers entering the living quarters from a long passage off the main street via stairs, edged on the left with several large tanks of fish. The bay window on the left was the room of Susan's birth, the 'best' sitting room. It contained a piano and the Christmas tree was always placed in the window.

The bay window on the right was where the family watched TV and played games. On the top floor Susan shared a bedroom with her sister Helen and the right hand top floor window was their parent's bedroom, while the back bedroom was the domain of brother Paul, who could access the greenhouse from his bedroom.

When all three children were at school Florence joined the WI. She met the wife of the retired Captain Chibnell and became secretary for the Friends of St George's group, which was formed to save the redundant historic church, which so many people visit today. At the time it was in danger of falling down. Other friends besides Mrs Chibnell who called in were women from the nearby St John Ambulance HQ - June Cox and Mrs Strewkesbury.

When the family moved to 20 Marshallsay Road, Chickerell, the home was bought by estate agent Mr I.F. Timms. In the 1990s the building was painted green and it became a DIY shop with a workshop.

After a change of paint colour 13 Easton Street became a B&B. Susan even remembers a fish tank inside the lounge when she saw the sale details.

"It would seem that to live at 13 Easton Street you must like indoor fish," she notes.

Now, in 2019, White Stones gallery and cafe occupies the building.

On a recent visit Susan enjoyed coffee in the area that would have been her father's workroom on the left of the top of the slope.

"As my 60th year approaches, I think how lucky my family has been to have shared so much history with the building," she says.

*The Dorset Year Book 2020 costs £8 and is available at Books Afloat in Weymouth, Waterstones Dorchester and Bridport, Tourist Information in Dorchester and Shaftesbury, Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne and DJ Brooking in Parkstone. It is also available by calling 01305 833700.