Brooms
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The besom broom trade
One of the surprises from looking at censuses for the area was the huge
number of people making besoms - witches' brooms. In 1898 there were fourteen
in Three Legged Cross, making brooms of heather to sweep stables and yards
with. By the 1930s this had changed to proper witches' brooms of birch,
sadly mostly used to sweep gardens rather than for transport.
Many of the brooms were sold alongside the pots, travelling out of Verwood
in a horse-drawn wagon. The industry seems to have disappeared during the
second world war.
Read more about broom-makers and their craft.
