Today we relive a fascinating account of one man s life and times in south Dorset during the First World War and in the 1920s and 30s. The late Herbert William Bird was born in Islington in 1912 and spent his childhood years in Chickerell. He died in 2004 but his memories live on in 13 volumes of his autobiography. They have been kept in perfect order in red folders that were passed on to Norman Bennett, founder of the Bennetts Water Gardens in Chickerell, by Herbert s son Michael. Norman said that he found the writing fascinating as it reflected his own interests and memories of growing up in the Suffolk countryside.