Six Men on the Stour

Perhaps inspired by Jerome K. Jerome’s 1889 classic Three Men in a Boat, a group of young men and two boats set out from Wimborne in 1892 to follow the River Stour to the sea at Mudeford. They camped along the way and their adventures were recorded in a hand-written leather-bound volume by ‘the Skipper’, Ernest J. Brett, along with photographs and sketches. After Skipper Brett’s death in 1940, the book was given to Wimborne ironmonger Bill Topp. He showed it to Roger in 1985 with a view to a story in the Bournemouth Evening Echo but they went on to publish it in book form.