Why Plewman House?

Plewman is a name which echoes through centuries from Anglo Saxon England, through Yorkshire and Herefordshire. Thence to Ireland; from Ireland to the farthest fringes of the Cape Colony in Southern Africa. Now the name returns from Africa to England, here in Dorset, maintaining the links, across distance and time.

Dr.G.P. (Gert Petrus) Visser inherits his own name from Hollander ancestors, who in the 1680's was one of the earliest 'burgher' landowners in the first Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. The Plewman link came when GP's great-great grandfather, also G.P. Visser, married Comfort Victoria, daughter of the Irish 'Aristocrat' Thomas Plewman, one of the first '1820' settlers.

Dr. Vissers Plewman ancestry can be trace back to Pleymund who contributed to the Anglo Saxon  Chronicle and was Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Alfred the Great. The Plewman s who settled in Ireland did so in the 17th Century, buying land honourably. They became landed gentry, living on attractive estates in County Wicklow, south of Dublin. This idyllic existence came to a disastrous end with rebellions in the late 18th century - Plewman properties were attacked, destroyed and burnt, many owners were killed. Thomas Plewman's parents fled to Dublin and it was from a devastated family that Thomas Plewman and his older brother left in 1820 to seek a better life on the other side of the World. Thomas Plewman made good: regarded as an 'aristocrat' by his contemporaries in the colony, he prospered as a trader, acquired property, became a figure in the community and sired a splendid family.

His daughter, Comfort Victoria was the first white child to be baptised in the little Karoo town of Colesberg, where the house Thomas built, Coniston, is now a historic monument. Comfort Victoria's husband was a leading Free State politician. His beautiful farm Lokhoek has been home to 6 generations of Vissers. Comfort Victoria bore Gert Petrus six children , who received an  'English' education, but lived through stirring times in history and all were involved in the Anglo-Boer war.

Now their descendant, a professional man, has made a similar endeavour to his Anglo-Irish ancestor -starting a career back at the source, the centre of the old British Empire. Plewman House, the building that houses his practice here, celebrates that move and the long , romantic story behind it.

This is a personal story that symbolises the personal care Dr. G.P. Visser, Dr. Stephen Bray  and their team wish to offer you at The Story Lane Dental Centre.