Introducing the Flanns

Father was a Flann, born in 1891 and on Portland. As children, on holiday visits when we stayed in his old family home-85 Easton, the character of Portland fascinated us. Apart from the joy of being free and on holiday, there were always a great number of aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles, and wherever we went on the Island we were introduced to cousins of a greater or lesser degree, and with excruciating detail as to the particular relationship.

This is not to forget Grandma Flann. She was a large woman, and an intimidating figure habitually clothed in an old fashioned long black dress. And it seemed sitting perpetually in a little back room at 85 Easton. This had been the Flann family home in the village of Easton for a very long time.

As the ancient rhyme had it:

“…Comben and Stone they came alone, Fancy, Flann, Flew were the rest of the crew…”

This network of relations on Portland was the result of intermarriage over the centuries of a number of old families.

This was because, as mentioned in the Introduction, those on Portland were virtually isolated from mainland Dorset with the only access to it being by sea, or by land along Chesil Beach and then across The Fleet by ferry. This body of water lies behind the Beach and stretches 18 miles or so to Abbotsbury, with the crossing often impossible due to storms, high winds and dangerous currents. So many times, indeed, Portland was an island. That was until 1839 when the first bridge was built. Even then few ventured off the Island, and those who did come (and a lot didn’t) voluntarily, came because of their employment.