Most people think a Dorset Knob is a very stupid Dorset man, they could be right; I've known a few in my time!  There is also a public house quite local to me called the 'Dorset Knob', which I felt was quite brave of them to call it such, and it does seem to attract a few Dorset men and women; perhaps these girls believe that the boys have more than two legs to stand on? Well I mean to say; they did model the Cerne Giant on a Dorset man, didn't they?

 So this question has called for some research! I can now explain to all!!

   Dorset Knobs are typically eaten with cheese and are very crumbly, rather like very dry stale bread in consistency, but tastier than this sounds. They are normally sold in a distinctive and traditional tin, in which they keep well. Yum yum you're probably thinking!

   A Dorset Knob is created from small rounds of dough, left over from that mornings baking. The dough was moulded in small rounds, the shape of an embroidered 'Dorset Knob' button; a large cottage industry at the time. Proved and baked overnight in the falling heat of a wood-fired oven. In the morning the biscuits would emerge crisp and golden with a remarkable keeping quality.

  The Dorset Knob was a staple diet for the farming folk. You're probably thinking it's a good job they're not a staple diet today, due to the state of NHS dentistry!

    But these farming folk used to eat them for breakfast by pouring hot tea and adding sugar, thus making them nice and soft. Victorian dentistry must have been up to par though, because at other times they would eat them with salted butter or with a mature cheese, for example 'Dorset Blue Vinney'.

   Now that this has been concluded you're probably thinking about your daily chores, but please hang-on a minute. Did you read the words 'embroidered 'Dorset Knob' button? 

   For two hundred years before the biscuit, Dorset had a cottage industry of buttons; Crosswheels, Beaded Crosswheels, High Tops and the Dorset Knob. Initially the buttons were made from discs cut from the horns of Dorset sheep, especially the Portland sheep that provided a plentiful source of raw material. The discs were covered with a piece of cloth, then overworked with a fine tracing of linen thread and came in a variety of sizes. After a revolution in the button making industry, metal rings were sent from Birmingham to use as a base for the buttons instead of horn. These metal rings were far easier to work and cheaper. Combined with a ready supply of female labour the industry now spread in all directions, stretching from Shaftsbury to as far as Bere Regis with the centre point of operation being Blandford.

   At the Great Exhibition 1851, a Mr. John Ashton demonstrated a button making machine. It spelt disaster for the cottage industry of Dorset, buttons could be made at a reliable rate, identical and would cost far less.