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02 June 2023
Battens Solicitors is celebrating the 50th 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.
The Manager of Battens Sherborne Office, Director Naomi Dyer says that the company is grateful to the local community for the support it has given to the firm; “During the past fifty years the Sherborne office has grown from a sole practitioner firm to a team of 20 employees. We have always supported many local initiatives such as the Sherborne Food Bank and Community Kitchen, but we would like to work with many more organisations and charities which make Sherborne the vibrant community it is today.”
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.”
