Battens Solicitors celebrate 50 years of success in Sherborne in 2023

Battens Solicitors is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the opening of its Sherborne office. The law firm has played a leading role in the Sherborne business community during the past fifty years, supporting many local good causes through its charitable trust as well as taking an active part in promoting many business organisations and events.

To mark the occasion Battens held a celebration party for staff and businesses at the Eastbury hotel in Long Street.

In 1973, Battens Solicitors took over the former Nat West Bank building in Long Street in Sherborne with high hopes despite the gloomy economic times. It was a bold move, interest rates peaked at 13% that year with millions of UK workers going on strike faced with galloping inflation and an energy crisis.

The Batten’s Sherborne office began life under the management of solicitor William Christopher who had left London with his wife Meredith to start a new life in Dorset after being offered the job by Henry Batten. The couple initially lived in a flat above the office before moving into the town, where William took on an active role in the business community, becoming Mayor of Sherborne and supporting the local Round Table and Rotary Club, as well as helping to set up the Sherborne Rugby Club.

William was instrumental in building the practice up into a successful business and is very proud of what the company has achieved; “I do take a pride in how the Battens’ Sherborne office has grown and turned into the thriving business it is today. It was a risk, back then in 1973 to take on a new business venture given the economic circumstances at the time, but I never regretted it. Sherborne is a very welcoming place and many of my former clients have now become friends, I still enjoy being part of an active and friendly community.”