This is one of the earliest post-card views of Bere Regis. The shop at the right was then a saddler, and no doubt obtained work from the Royal Oak public house at the left of the picture, which advertises "Good Stabling". A sign projecting from Beminster's Stores, obscured in this view, advertises Pratt's Spirit, while outside that shop's entrance is a pile of horse droppings probably left during a delivery of goods there. In the top-right dormer window of the Royal Oak someone is pulling back the curtain to watch the photographer!

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