by Edith Ditmas
with Appendices by Paul Smith & John Leighfield

ISBN-13: 978-0-948598-18-0

published 2009

224pp - six in full colour

full colour laminated cover

size: 21cm x 20cm

£15.00
 

The original text for THE DITMAS HISTORY OF BENSON was completed by Edith Ditmas MA (Oxon), a Benson resident in 1981 and had limited circulation in typescript but for some reason was never published in book form. She died two years later at the age of 90.

The Bensington Society decided that Miss Ditmas’s work is worthy of a wide circulation. Accordingly the text was scanned to disc, and has been produced as a 224 page paperback with glossy full-cover colour covers in a matching format to the other two books, Benson - A Village Through Its History and Benson - A Century of Change.

The new book contains the original text, unedited apart from some typographical and spelling errors, and all her maps, which have been brought up to publication standard. In addition, the text is enlivened by a number of historic photos from the Society’s rich pictorial archive. But that’s not all - there are two very important new appendices.

• Since Miss Ditmas’s day there have been massive amounts of very significant new archaeology in and around Benson. County Archaeologist, Paul Smith, provides a very comprehensive guide to this in the first Appendix, complete with a map of all the sites. This is the most up-to-date overview of Benson archaeology currently available.
   

• In the second Appendix, maps expert Professor John Leighfield, has selected and introduces a unique set of historic maps of Benson - some reproduced in full colour.

Miss Ditmas was a very private person - the only known photograph is a fuzzy image from a group snapshot of a WI outing - apart from history, the Women’s Institute was one of her greatest loves. Appropriately, the cover image is a water-colour painting of Benson waterfront taken from a 1955 WI history of Benson.

Full Name Index & General Index

Published on behalf of The Bensington Society.