Sherborne Times September 2018

SEP TEMBER 2018 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

UNDER STARTER'S ORDERS with Emma Morris of The Paddock Project

sherbornetimes.co.uk

WELCOME

T

he tiny immaculate acrobats are heading home, back to where the weather suits their clothes. Their reds, whites and blues giving way to the greys as our sombre portly natives reclaim the skies. Out of place stragglers determined to linger, cling on while the going’s still good.

Filling their bellies with the last of the bugs, fuel for the journey ahead.

As a fully paid up member of the All Things Autumn Club, I’ll be uncharacteristically sorry to see this summer go. It’s been glorious of course, one for the archives, but it also marks our eldest son’s final year at primary school. No matter how much we pull and heave at the levers there’s no slowing these things down. All there is left is letting go and the liberating realisation that moments last longer when you’re actually in them.

This month we meet, among many others, Emma Morris, director of The Paddock Project. I can’t and won’t pretend to curb my enthusiasm for this endeavour, one made possible only through an act of tremendous individual generosity and the collective will of our community. These are exciting times.

So as rain heals the cracked, gasping earth, and leaves swollen with summer sugars turn from green, to red, to dead, I am reminded to “hold things lightly” as a wise mother of a close friend once said.

Have a wonderful month.

Glen Cheyne, Editor glen@homegrown-media.co.uk @sherbornetimes @sherborne_times

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard @round_studio Sub editors Jay Armstrong @jayarmstrong_ Elaine Taylor Photography Katharine Davies @Katharine_KDP Feature writer Jo Denbury @jo_denbury Editorial assistant Helen Brown Illustrations Elizabeth Watson @DandybirdDesign Print Pureprint Distribution team David Elsmore David and Susan Joby Christine Knott Sarah Morgan Mary and Roger Napper Alfie Neville-Jones Mark and Miranda Pender Claire Pilley Geoff Wood

Simon Barber Evolver Magazine @SimonEvolver evolver.org.uk

Sarah Hitch The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms @SanctuaryDorset thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk

David Birley davidpfbirley@hotmail.co.uk

Maudie Holmes Fired Earth @FiredEarthUK firedearth.com

Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum @SherborneMuseum sherbornemuseum.co.uk Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers @CharterhouseAV charterhouse-auction.com Jennifer Brown Sherborne Preparatory School @Sherborneprep sherborneprep.org Mike Burks The Gardens Group @TheGardensGroup thegardeneronline.co.uk Cindy Chant Sherborne Walks @sherbornewalks sherbornewalks.co.uk Ali Cockrean @AliCockrean alicockrean.co.uk Gillian M Constable DWT Sherborne Group @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk David Copp Jenny Dickinson Dear to Me Studio, Fine Stationery @DearToMeStudio deartome.co.uk Jimmy Flynn Milborne Port Computers @MPortComputers computing-mp.co.uk

81 Cheap Street Sherborne Dorset DT9 3BA

Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.)

CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS Fort Financial Planning ffp.org.uk

01935 315556 @sherbornetimes glen@homegrown-media.co.uk helen@homegrown-media.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk

Eileen Fort Sherborne Floral Evening Group

Sherborne Times is printed on Edixion Offset, an FSC® and EU Ecolabel certified paper. It goes without saying that once thoroughly well read, this magazine is easily recycled and we actively encourage you to do so.

Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, neither Sherborne Times nor its editorial contributors can accept, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party to loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause. Sherborne Times does not officially endorse any advertising material included within this publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without prior permission from Sherborne Times.

Additional photography: contributor's own, Shutterstock and iStock

4 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Andy Foster Raise Architects @raisearchitects raisearchitects.com Paul Gammage & Anita Light EweMove Sherborne @ewemoveyeovil ewemove.com John Gaye & Mark Greenstock Sherborne Literary Society @SherborneLitSoc sherborneliterarysociety.com Craig Hardaker Communifit communifit.co.uk Andy Hastie Cinematheque cinematheque.org.uk Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom The London Road Clinic @56londonroad 56londonroad.co.uk

Victoria Lewis Mogers Drewett Solicitors @mogersdrewett md-solicitors.co.uk Gemma Loader MRCVS Kingston Veterinary Group @TheKingstonVets kingstonvets.co.uk Loretta Lupi-Lawrence The Sherborne Rooms thesherbornerooms.com Sasha Matkevich The Green Restaurant @greensherborne greenrestaurant.co.uk Suzy Newton Partners in Design partners-in-design.co.uk Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Partnership @swanhousevet newtonclarkevet.com Kitty Oakshott Upstairs Downstairs Interiors @updowninteriors updowninteriors.co.uk Jan Pain Sherborne Scribblers Simon Partridge SPFit @spfitsherborne spfit-sherborne.co.uk Mike Riley Riley’s Cycles @rileyscycles rileyscycles.co.uk Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom Glencairn House Clinic glencairnhouse.co.uk doctortwrobinson.com Deacon Jonathan Simon Sacred Heart & St Aldhelm Roman Catholic Church sherbornecatholicchurch.org.uk Paul Stickland Black Shed Flowers @NaughtyDinosaur blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk Val Stones @valstones bakerval.com Ruth Sullivan Sherborne Girls @SherborneGirls sherborne.com Sally Welbourn Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Wayne Winstone Winstone’s Books @winstonebooks winstonebooks.co.uk

72 8

What’s On

SEPTEMBER 2018 64 Gardening

122 Tech

18 Shopping Guide

72 EMMA MORRIS

124 Directory

22 Wild Dorset

80 Food & Drink

126 Short Story

26 Family

88 Animal Care

128 Literature Festival Preview

38 Art

94 Cycling

132 Crossword

40 History

96 Body & Mind

133 Pause for Thought

44 Architecture

110 Property

134 Out and About

46 Interiors

118 Legal

60 Antiques

120 Finance

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 5

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Free guides now available at libraries, arts venues and tourist information centres throughout Wessex www.somersetartworks.org.uk

Telephone: 01458 253800 / Facebook: @somersetartworks Twitter: @SAW_Somerset / Instagram: somerset_art_works

8 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

@elizabethwatsonillustrations

ST/BT_SOS_advert:Layout 1 07/08/2018 10:53 Page 1

SEPTEMBER 2018 Listings ____________________________ Mondays 9.30am-10.30am

Booking essential - Bev 07983 100445

Pageant Gardens. 07707 444556,

____________________________

catholic-church.aspx

justbyoga@outlook.com

sherbornetown.com/directory/sherborne-

Yoga Flow

First Thursday of

Chetnole Village Hall. £6 per drop-in

each month 9.30am

Saturday 1st 7pm

class 07983 100445 justbyoga@outlook.com

Netwalking

The Somerset Songsters -

____________________________

Come On, Get Happy

Mondays 10.30am-12pm

from Bean Shot, South St. Free walk & talk with other small

business owners & entrepreneurs.

Cheap Street Church, DT9 3BJ. Music

FB: Netwalk Sherborne Instagram

hall entertainment. £6, £5 in advance (inc. refreshments) from Church Councillors,

Yoga with Gemma Longburton Village Hall. 07812593314 or gemski81@hotmail.com

____________________________

yourtimecoaching Twitter @yt_coaching

____________________________

____________________________

Sherborne TIC 07525 402566

____________________________

Mondays 7pm-8pm

First Thursday of each month

Saturday 1st 2-5pm and 6-9pm

Kunda Dance

2pm-3.30pm

Vineyards Gin Fest

Yetminster Sports Club. Booking

“My Time” Carers’ Support Group

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road. Gin,

justbyoga@outlook.com

Advice, relaxed atmosphere, coffee & a

essential - Bev 07983 100445

The Shielings, The Avenue, DT9 3AJ.

____________________________

chat. Info 01935 601499 or 01935 816321

Mondays 2pm-3.30pm

____________________________

music, food and masterclasses. Tickets £20 from Vineyards. 01935 815544 vineyardsofsherborne.co.uk

____________________________

‘Feel Better with a Book’ group

Fridays 2pm from Waitrose

Monday 3rd - Tuesday 4th

Sherborne Library, Hound St. Do you

Sherborne Health Walks

Gryphon Sports Centre

love classic stories & poems & would

Holiday Activities

enjoy listening or taking part in shared

Free, friendly walk around Sherborne.

reading aloud with a small & friendly

07825 691508

____________________________

Bristol Road, DT9 4EQ. Ages 6-14.

group? Free. 01935 812683

Saturday 21st July -

£18 a day/£9.50 1/2 day. 01935 814011

____________________________

Sunday 9th September

enquiries@gryphonsportscentre.org.uk

Last Monday of month 5pm-6pm

Maize Maze

Wednesday 5th 3.30pm & 6.45pm

Bookchat

Toy Barn, Blackmarsh Farm DT9 4JX.

A Photographic Odyssey

Sherborne Library, Hound St. A lively

____________________________

From £6, toy-barn.co.uk

- Shackleton’s Endurance

____________________________

Expedition Captured on Camera

welcome.

Saturday 1st throughout

____________________________

September & October, 10am to

Memorial Hall, Digby Road.

Tuesdays & Thursdays 10.30am

4.30pm Monday to Saturday

Sherborne Town Walk

An Exhibition of Paintings

From Sherborne TIC, Digby Road. 1½-2

by Laurence Belbin

Friday 7th 8.45am-1pm

hrs with Blue Badge Guide Cindy. 1000

Marie Curie Fundraising Group -

years of history for £6

The Old School Gallery, Yetminster.

Coffee Morning & Market

____________________________

01935 872761

____________________________

Tuesdays 10.30am

Saturday 1st 11am-3pm

Digby Hall, Digby Road. Inc. artwork

& Fridays 2.30pm

Cider Saturday

from Quince Arts School. 07717 220119

Sherborne Abbey Guided Tours

Sherborne Museum, 1 Church Ln,

Friday 7th 7.15pm

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Profits to

book discussion group, new members

April-September, 01935 812452

With Mark Cottle. Visitors £5, theartssocietysherborne.org.uk

____________________________

____________________________

DT9 3BP. Free event, tastings, Q&A.

Old Time Music Hall in Sherborne

Wednesdays 9am-10am

Saturday 1st 1pm-4pm

Yoga Flow

Sacred Heart & St Aldhelms

Weldmar Hospicecare Trust. £12 from

ALW, Corton Denham.

Church Fete

____________________________

Sherborne TIC playerstheatre.co.uk

____________________________ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON

Children

____________________________

____________________________

Monday 3rd 10am-12.30pm

Wednesdays 1pm-3pm

Little Strawberries Summer

The Hen House -

Cookery School

Mums & Tots Group

Cooking & eating with homegrown

West End Hall. £1 coffee/tea & chatter!

session includes refreshments for 1 adult

Every Friday 10am-12pm

717678 hayley@hayleyfrancesnutrition.com

St Pauls Church Sherborne. £3.50

Sundays 11am-1pm

Wednesdays 11am-12pm

Art Club@Thornford

Mummy & Baby Yoga Classes

pipsnpodssherborne.co.uk

No 1 Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

Digby Hall Sherborne

1st Saturday of the month

exam prep. 07742 888302, alicockrean@

justbreatheyogauk or justbreatheyoga.uk

Sticky Church

Please share your recommendations and contacts via FaceBook @sherborneparents

____________________________

DT9 6QE. Tuition for scholarship & gmail.com or visit alicockrean.co.uk

ingredients. For 0-10 years old. £25 per

____________________________

& lunch for up to 3 children. 07586

Edible Messy Play

____________________________

per session. FB @ediblemessyplay or ____________________________

Advance booking only. FB @

10.30am-12pm

____________________________

Cheap Street Church Hall. Free group for playgroup & primary age children.

____________________________

01963 251747

____________________________

£8 from Sherborne TIC. Proceeds

Specialist Auction of

friendsofholnestchurch.wordpress.com

Charterhouse, Long Street, DT9 3BS.

Denham. £30. Bev 07983 100445

Sunday 9th 10am-4pm

____________________________

____________________________

Friday 7th Relaxing Yoga & Sound Bath Evening Another Little World - Corton

to Friends of Holnest Church.

Classic & Vintage Cars

____________________________

01935 812277

justbyoga@outlook.com

Heritage Open Day

Wednesday 12th 7.30pm ArtsLink Flicks - The Guernsey

Saturday 8th 2pm-5pm

Church of the Assumption, Holnest, DT9 5PU. Teas & cakes. Proceeds

Literary & Potato Peel Society 12a

to Friends of Holnest Church.

friendsofholnestchurch.wordpress.com

Digby Church Hall, Digby Road. £6

____________________________

(pre-film supper £12) 01935 815341 sherborneartslink.org.uk

Flowers & Fun Day Church of the Assumption, Holnest,

DT9 5PU. Stalls, cream teas, dog show, art & scarecrow competitions

Monday 10th 9.30am-3.30pm

____________________________

West Country Embroiderers -

Thursday 13th 7.30pm

Saturday 8th 6.30pm-11pm

Blackwork Fruits

Sherborne & District

Angel Cottage Organics

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Tutor

Gardeners’ Association

____________________________

Marion Dale Summerdale Garden

____________________________

Beppy Berlin. Ann 01963 34696

Digby Hall, Hound St, DT9 3AA.

DT10 2AQ. 5 course fine dining £45 pp

Tuesday 11th &

Design - ‘Wicked Plants’. 01935 389375

Pop-Up Dining Haddon Copse Farm, Fifehead Neville,

angelcottageorganics.co.uk or 07810 628504

Tuesday 25th 7.30pm

____________________________

Sherborne Bradford

Saturday 15th 10am-12pm

Saturday 8th 7.30pm

Abbas Camera Club

Christian Aid Coffee Morning

The Extraordinary Genius

Village Hall, Bradford Abbas, DT9 6RF.

Cheap Street Church Hall, DT9 3BJ

____________________________

Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th

Wednesday 12th

11.30am-3.30pm

of Sir Christopher Wren Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road.

With Adrian Tinniswood OBE FSA. 10 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

sbacameraclub.co.uk

____________________________

____________________________

DT9 3LN. 01935 815261

Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9 3NL.

Oborne Road, Sherborne, DT9 3RX.

Friday 21st 2pm service,

Parish Office 01935 812452 or insight.

by donation. 01935 816324 sswc.co.uk

The Rifles Regiment

Sherborne Steam & Waterwheel Centre Open Day

____________________________

Speaker Ruth Gledwell. £5 tickets from

Collection of Victorian engineering. Entry

2.30pm march starts

sherborneabbey.com

____________________________

Freedom Parade

Monday 24th 7.30pm

Saturday 15th 7.30pm

Sherborne Abbey, DT9 3LQ then march

(doors & bar 7pm)

____________________________

from Half Moon Street

MOVIOLA: The Guernsey Literary

____________________________

& Potato Peel Pie Society 12A

Maclean. £10, refreshments available. In

Friday 21st 7pm

Leigh Village Hall, DT9 6HL. £6,

Fund pandy.brown@btinternet.com

Raleigh Hall, Digby Rd. With Johnny

Sunday 16th 8am sellers (£5 per

AGM is free.

Tuesday 25th

____________________________

Sherborne Historical Society

Friends of the Yeatman

Saturday 22nd 2.30pm–4.30pm

Talk: Lies, Spies & Surprises -

Car Boot Sale

ArtsLink Artist Demonstration

Berlin in the Cold War

The Terraces, DT9 5NS. Free parking,

& Q&A - Portrait Painting with

Digby Hall, Hound Street, DT9 3AA.

____________________________

Raleigh Hall, Digby Road. £7.50 01935

North Korea & Other Travels Jubilee Hall, Yetminster. Talk Rory

aid of St Andrew’s Church Restoration

AGM & Words With Wine

____________________________

Mercer. £5 inc a glass of wine & canapes.

car), 9am-12pm buyers (50p pp)

sorry no dogs

James Budden

Sunday 16th 11am-3pm

815341 sherborneartslink.org.uk

Heritage Open Day

____________________________

interval ice creams. leighvillage.org.uk/ events/moviola 01935 873269

____________________________

With Major General Peter Williams.

Members: free, non-members: £5 sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

____________________________

Sherborne Museum, 1 Church Ln, DT9

Saturday 22nd

Wednesday 26th 6.30pm (AGM)

3BP. Behind the scenes on a day when the

Skydive over Old Sarum

7.30pm (talk)

museum is normally closed. Free event.

Sherborne Science Café AGM

____________________________

Raising funds for Friends of the Yeatman

& talk ‘How Trident Words’

Wednesday 19th 7pm

Hospital. friendsoftheyeatman.org.uk

____________________________

Sherborne Group of DWT ‘How

Saturday 22nd 7.30pm

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9

Technology is Revealing Insights

Lyrus Winds – A Wind

3NL. Talk by Commodore Tim Hare (RN

into the life of Birds’

Quintet From the Royal

Digby Memorial Church Hall, Digby

Academy of Music

Thursday 27th 7.30pm

Road. Speaker is from Biotrack,

Sherborne Floral Group

specialists in animal tracking.

St Peter’s Church Stourton Caundle.

Workshop - Using Unusual

____________________________

Tickets £15 inc wine. 01963 362692 terry@barleyclose.co.uk

or Challenging Containers

____________________________

Illustrated talk - My Solo Three

Saturday 22nd 7.30pm

Catholic Church Hall, Westbury DT9

Thousand Mile Walk Across Africa

Male Voice Choir -

3EL. 01935 813316

Martock Church TA12 6JL. With Fran

The Mill Singers

Friday 28th 2pm-3pm

Sandham. £6 on door/£5 via 07955

Sir Walter Ralegh in 10 Objects

467896. martockonline.co.uk/events

Memorial Church Hall, Digby Road

____________________________

Raising funds for Friends of the Yeatman Hospital. £8 from Abbey Bookshop &

Sherborne Library, Hound St. Free lively

Winstone’s friendsoftheyeatman.org.uk

chat with Cindy Chant

____________________________

Thursday 20th 7.30pm

Friday 21st - 12th October Tuesday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm

rtd.) sites.google.com/site/sherbornesciencecafe

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

Saturday 29th 7.30pm

Exhibition of New Work

Monday 24th 7.30pm

Sherborne Town & Youth Band

by Richard Pikesley

Insight Lecture:

Community Choir - Last Night

The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street,

Truth & the Media

of the Proms sherbornetimes.co.uk | 11

WHAT'S ON Digby Hall, Hound Street, DT9 3AA.

inc). 07742 888302, alicockrean@gmail.

____________________________

door or via sherbornetownband.co.uk

£7, concessions £6 from Sherborne TIC,

com or alicockrean.co.uk

Saturday 8th 8.30am (trade)

____________________________

9.30am (public) until 4pm

01935 815341

Saturday 15th 10am-1pm

Chasty Cottage Antiques

____________________________

or 10am-4pm

& Collectables Fair

Sunday 30th 2.30pm

Autumn Woodland Needle Felting

Walk & Talk about Ralegh with

With Carla from the Mousehole

Digby Hall, Hound Street

Blue Badge Guide Cindy Chant From Castleton Church. £6 (See Cindy’s article on page 40)

____________________________

Workshops and classes

Woolery. 1/2 £30, full £50. Book at

Entrance £1. 01963 370986

____________________________

Slipped Stitch theslippedstitch.co.uk

Saturday 15th 10am-4pm

____________________________

Fleamarket

Sunday 16th 1.30pm–4.30pm

Memorial Hall, Digby Road. 1000s of

Sherborne Folk Band Workshop Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road

DT9 3NL. All levels & all instruments.

collectables, antiques & crafts. Free entry.

01749 677049 westcountrycraftfairs.co.uk

____________________________

£10 adv/£12 on door. 01935 817905

Saturday 22nd 9am-3.30pm

____________________________

Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. 30+ sellers

laurelswift.co.uk

Vintage Market

10.00am - 10.45am Improvers

Thursday 27th 6.30pm-9pm

10.45am -12.00am Intermediates

Beginners Knitting with Sarah

of quality vintage. 07809 387594

Sherborne Ukulele Band

£25. Book at Slipped Stitch

Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd

____________________________ Tuesdays (during term time)

Tinney's Youth & Community Centre,

____________________________

theslippedstitch.co.uk

11am-5pm

____________________________

Healing & Spirit Fayre

both sessions. Contact Robin Walter for

Saturday 29th 10am-12.40pm

Digby Hall, Hound Street, DT9 3AA.

theukeshack.co.uk

With Sophie from Jessali. £25. Book

Tuesdays & Thursdays 10am-12pm

____________________________

Tinneys Lane DT9 3DY. £7 or £10 for details: robinhdwalter@gmail.com

Machine Embroidery

____________________________

at Slipped Stitch theslippedstitch.co.uk

Knit & Natter at The Slipped Stitch The Julian, Cheap St. To book call 01935

Fairs and markets

Stalls, talks, demonstrations &

refreshments. £1. 07855 175357

____________________________ Saturday 29th 8.30am (trade) 9.30am (public) until 4pm Chasty Cottage Antiques

508249, email info@theslippedstitch.

____________________________

& Collectables Fair

co.uk or online theslippedstitch.co.uk

Thursdays & Saturdays

____________________________

Pannier Market

Digby Hall, Hound Street.

Thursdays 2.30pm-4pm

The parade

ArtsLink Parkinson’s Dance

____________________________

Entrance £1. 01963 370986

____________________________

Thursdays 9am-11.30am

Sport

Sherborne. Class with movements

Country Market

____________________________

designed for those experiencing the

Every Sunday 9am

symptoms of Parkinson’s & social time.

Church Hall, Digby Road

____________________________

Digby Etape Cycling Club Ride

Free - donations welcome. 01935 815899

Every third Friday 9am-1pm

From Riley’s Cycles. 20 - 30 miles,

____________________________

Cheap Street

Tinney's Youth & Community Centre,

sherborneartslink.org.uk

Farmers’ Market

Thursdays 7.30pm-9.30pm

____________________________

average 12 to 15 mph. Drop bar road

bike recommended. Facebook: Digby

Etape Sherborne Cycling Club or text Mike 07443 490442

Art Club@Thornford for Adults

Every fourth Saturday

No 1 Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

(exc. April & December) 9am-4pm Saturday Antiques & Flea Market

Every Tuesday and Thursday

session (tuition only) or £15 (materials

Church Hall, Digby Rd

7.30pm–8.30pm

DT9 6QE. With Ali Cockrean. £10 per

12 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

____________________________

SEPTEMBER 2018 Mixed Touch Rugby

____________________________

Saturday 8th

Sherborne School Floodlit Astroturf,

Sherborne Town FC

v Frome RFC (H)

Ottery Lane. DT9 6EE. Novices very

Saturday 15th

welcome. £2 per session, first four

First XI Toolstation Western League

v Grove RFC (A)

sessions free. Visit sherbornetouch.org

Division 1. Terrace Playing Fields,

Raleigh Grove, Sherborne DT9 5NS

Saturday 29th

sherbornetownfc.com 3pm kick-off

v North Dorset RFC (A)

Saturday 1st

____________________________

or call Jimmy on 07887 800803

____________________________ Sherborne Cricket Club

v Ashton & Blackwell (H)

The Clubhouse, The Terraces, Sherborne

Saturday 8th

sherborne.play-cricket.com 1pm start

DT9 5NS. DCB Premier League

v Corsham (H)

To include your event in our FREE

Saturday 22nd

listings please email details – date/

Saturday 1st

v Bristol Telephone (H)

time/title/venue/description/

Dorchester (A)

Saturday 29th

price/contact (in approx 20

____________________________

v Calne Town (A)

words) – by the 5th of each

Compton House Cricket Club

____________________________

preceding month to gemma@

Over Compton, Sherborne DT9 4RB.

Sherborne RFC

homegrown-media.co.uk

comptonhousecricketclub.co.uk

Gainsborough Park, The Terrace Playing

Due to the volume of events received

com/clubs/sherbornerfc 3pm kick-off

acknowledge or include them all.

Dorset League County Division 1

First XV Southern Counties South.

Saturday 1st

Fields, Sherborne, DT9 5NS. pitchero.

v Parley 2nds (H)

we are regrettably unable to

DAYS OUT and HOLIDAYS with TAYLORS COACH TRAVEL Day Trips ____________________________ New Forest Drive & Lunch Sunday 21st October Adult £35.50, Club £33.50

____________________________ Cardiff Christmas Market and Shopper Saturday 17th November Adult £21.50, Club £19.50

Holidays

____________________________

____________________________

Winter Wonderland – Hyde Park

Brugge Christmas Shopper

Sunday 25th November

1st – 2nd December

Adult £23.00, Club £21.00

2 Days - £145.00

Winchester Christmas Market

Thursford Christmas Spectacular

Sunday 2nd December

13th – 16th December

Adult £20.00, Club £18.00

4 Days - £445.00

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

2018 Day Excursions and Holiday brochures available.

To join our mailing list please call the office on

01935 423177 www.taylorscoachtravel.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 13

PREVIEW In association with

Inside Out Dorset 2018 And Now: ‘Wayfaring’ 15th - 22nd September Maiden Castle, Winterbourne Monkton, Dorchester, DT2 9EY

Installation: 17th - 22nd, daylight hours. Live Event: 22nd September, 2pm. Free entry “Wayfaring is a journey of exploration. Using local and found

a Way of thinking about the World by Les Souffleurs

music, light and performance transform the artwork into a

by Waterlanders, and Olie by Collectief Waldon, both from

materials the artists will craft an installation, before parades, rousing celebration.”

Biennial arts festival Inside Out Dorset is a rare chance to

Commandos Poetiques from France and De Weide Wereld the Netherlands.

Inside Out Dorset co-artist director Kate Wood says:

see rural and urban locations in Dorset transformed by some of

“We are looking forward to welcoming artists from all over

This year’s sites and national heritage locations include Poole

to present so many premieres by companies that have never

the best international outdoor circus, theatre, dance and art.

Quay, Weymouth, the Iron Age earthworks of Maiden Castle at Dorchester and woodlands around Shelley Park in Boscombe.

Boscombe will be the location for three UK premieres

on 15th and 16th September: Manimal: Gesticulating, 14 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Europe to perform in our distinctive county. The opportunity worked in the UK before is very special.” evolver.org.uk

insideoutdorset.co.uk

ARCADIA

+ Q&A WITH ADRIAN COOPER OF COMMON GROUND

SATURDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER Doors 7pm Start 8pm

UK 2017 | Dir Paul Wright | Music by Adrian Utley, Will Gregory | 78 mins | Cert 12A

Arcadia is a provocative and poetic new film about our contradictory relationship with the land, crafted from archive footage.

‘Absorbing…Fascinating…Seductive’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (Film of the week) Tickets £10 in advance from www.other-side.eventbrite.co.uk CHURCH STUDIO HAYDON DORSET DT9 5JB

A series of talks, live performances and screenings + food and drink of an interesting ilk In association with

Film

CINEMATHEQUE Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017) 20Th Century Fox

H

aving been involved in film societies for over 45 years, it is my belief that cinema, as a visual art form, is a universal language. This makes it all the more perplexing when I hear people say, ‘Oh, I can’t watch sub-titled films - too much effort’ etc. In effect, what they are saying is that they will only watch English language films, i.e. almost exclusively American films. That’s akin to saying, ‘I like going to art galleries but I will only look at the American paintings.’ There is a rich wealth of foreign language films around but to be able to see any locally is a challenge: this is where Cinematheque comes in!

We are a world cinema film society which, for the past 37 years, has operated out of Yeovil College. For this coming 15-film season, however, we have moved to the impressive Swan Theatre in Park Street, Yeovil (swan-theatre.co.uk) to screen our programme in an auditorium more suited to film watching. This is a positive move for us and we hope that others will agree.

Our season sets off at a gallop with 3 films in the first month, which should provide something for everyone. On 3rd October we start with the multiaward winning, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, written and directed by noted London-born Irish playwright and screenwriter Martin McDonagh.

This astonishing, dark-humoured drama stars Frances McDormand as a Missouri mother accusing the local police of failing to properly investigate her daughter’s murder - ‘with a grim fury worthy of Greek Tragedy’ 16 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Andy Hastie

(The Hollywood Reporter). If you haven’t seen it, and you must, come along as a guest (only £5) or, if you have already seen it, come again to catch all the snappy dialogue you missed first time round!

On 17th October the 2017 Russian masterwork, Loveless, concerns loss, grief, and the state of modernday Russia. An ongoing bitter divorce, a missing child and disinterested police make compelling viewing of visceral, raw emotion.

Finally, 31st October brings the award-laden Hotel Salvation, a wry poetic portrait of modern India. With beautiful landscapes around the Ganges, this is a subtle comedy drama ‘that anyone who has spent time with an ageing parent could relate to easily’ (The Guardian). The insight, humanity and wit of this film are a real treat.

We are a friendly group, passionate about films, so do think about becoming a member. Alternatively, come along as our guest and enjoy the show, then chat about it afterwards if you wish. All details can be found on our website.

More film talk next month but, before I close, I would like to congratulate Alex Ballinger for his many informative and interesting articles on Sherborne as a location for film-makers over the years. Also, don’t forget the excellent Sherborne International Film Festival in the Powell Theatre at the end of October. Details available at shiff.org.uk. cinematheque.org.uk

Classical Music

Ralegh 400 Festival Sunday 30th September

Walk & Talk with Cindy Chant From Castleton Church, 2.30pm, £6

Saturday 6th October

Tudor Banquet (costumes welcome) Memorial Hall, Digby Road, 7pm for 7.30pm, £30

Thursday 11th October

Literary Society Talk with Maria Wingfield Digby Digby Hall, Hound Street, 11am

I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI BELLINI’S TRAGIC ROMEO AND JULIET (Opera Holloway)

Be thrilled by this passionate interpretation of a classic love story.

Friday 14 September Dorchester Corn Exchange

Friday 26th October

Talk with Biographer and Lecturer Dr Anna Beer Memorial Hall, Digby Road, 7pm for 7.30pm

Wednesday 28th November

Literary Society Elizabethan Charity no.Poetry 1151205 Raleigh Hall, Digby Road, 2.30pm Tickets and information from Sherborne TIC and Winstone’s Books sherbornetimes.co.uk | 17

Shopping Guide

Carry-All Bike pannier, £49.99 Riley’s cycles

Las Bayadas Traditional Mexican Beach Blanket, £42 Circus

Steiff Bear, £34.99 Just Bears

EITHER/OR

Jenny Dickinson, Dear To Me Studio Whether you’re planning a late getaway, hoping for an Indian summer or settling in for autumn; Sherborne has everything you need! deartomestudio.com 18 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Lexon bluetooth & handsfree speaker, £29.99 Circus

Candles, from £3.75 Suzy Watson Designs

Libra Constellation Birthday Card, £3.60 deartomestudio.com

Chinti & Parker Love jumper, £250 Circus

Aromatherapy Salts & Candle, £6.50 & £9.50 The Village Shop, Charlton Horethorne sherbornetimes.co.uk | 19

LIFESTYLE BOUTIQUE

OPEN 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM 33 CHEAP STREET, SHERBORNE, DT9 3PU PHONE 01935 816551

20 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Wild Days All our lives are better when they are a bit wild. www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/events

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST Photos © Damian Garcia

An evening with

IAN BOTHAM & GEOFF MILLER

Saturday September 15th TICKETS FROM £50

1/2 price for under 16’s

MEET & GREET £75

Grab your chance to meet the legend.

Photo, signature and meet opportunity VIP / Corporate tables available - ask for details Memorabilia Auction Evenings MC - Mr. Paul Booth Two course meal included in the ticket price followed by Ian & Geoff’s after dinner speech TICKET BOX OFFICE

01935 483430

George Albert Hotel Wardon Hill, Evershot, Nr. Dorchester, Dorset DT2 9PW Tel: 01935 483430 www.gahotel.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 21

Wild Dorset

YEAR OF THE DRAGON Sally Welbourn, Dorset Wildlife Trust

Emperor Dragonfly © Ken Dolbear MBE

N

o summer is complete without experiencing the sights and sounds of a dragonfly as it hunts over a nearby pond. Agile and colourful, dragonflies are a joy to watch with their aerial manoeuvres rivalling the fastest military aircraft as they duck and turn in pursuit of prey or narrowly avoiding the clutches of hungry hobbies. These adaptable insects lord over wetlands, moorland and even woodland glades, feeding on flies, midges and sometimes each other. Maybe you thought butterflies were the only insects worth a second glance; well, these multi-coloured, iridescent predators are equally worthy of our appreciation.

In addition to occasional visitors from continental Europe, there are 17 species of damselfly and 23 species of dragonfly resident in the UK. They are found in almost every habitat, bringing a splash of colour to the landscape just as the wildflowers and butterflies are winding down – so now is the perfect time to spot them!

This year in Dorset we’ve been lucky enough to witness the arrival of the southern migrant hawker dragonfly, which is usually found in warmer climes. Spotted in Lytchett Bay Nature Reserve in east Dorset, this is a first recording for the county, most likely due to the prolonged period of warm weather this summer. The overall appearance of the male southern migrant hawker is much Southern bluer thanHawker the more common migrant hawker, and it is 22 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

often called the blue-eye walker on account of its blue eyes.

The migrant hawker dragonfly is one of the most exciting dragonflies to spot, and you can often find them hunting along sheltered hedgerows in August and September.

Another impressive dragonfly you may see this year is the emperor dragonfly, a characteristic dragonfly of new ponds where, for the first few years, its larvae may be extremely common. The males are pale blue with an apple-green throat and a black stripe running the length of the body.

To help with your identification of dragonflies and damselflies, visit The Wildlife Trust ID website.

Three facts:

1 The difference between the damselfly and dragonfly is that the damselfly is slimmer and rests with its wings folded, while the stockier dragonfly keeps its wings spread outwards.

2 Like insects, dragonflies are at their most active in warm and sunny conditions.

3 They are most commonly found near water, although several species travel a long way from water to feed in gardens, fields and woodland edges. wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

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01935 578004 bovishomes.co.uk Home exchange scheme is subject to independent valuations, survey and contract on your existing property and is subject to criteria, which include the property you are selling is worth no more than 75% of the value of the new Bovis Home you wish to purchase. Home Exchange market value figures are based on reports from 2 independent local NAEA registered agents for a selling period of 8 weeks. Available of selected plots only. Maximum property price excepted via the Home exchange scheme is ÂŁ400,000. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Photograph depicts a typical Bovis Home interior. Elevation may differ to that shown. Internal images may include optional upgrades at an additional cost. Price & availability correct at time of going to print/broadcast. Please ask our sales advisor for details.

Wild Dorset

Image: Biotrack

SHERBORNE DWT

T

Gillian M Constable, Committee Member, Dorset Wildlife Trust Sherborne

his month we recommence Sherborne Group’s programme of talks. These are held on the third Wednesday of the month in the Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road. Non-members of DWT are most welcome. The doors open at 7pm; drinks and nibbles are available for a small contribution from 7.10pm. We try to resolve any natural history questions you may have during this time before the talk starts at 7.30pm. Following a question and answer session, we usually finish about 9pm.

September’s talk, on Wednesday 19th, is entitled, ‘How Technology is Revealing New Insights into the Life of Birds.’ Our speakers, Dean Cresswell and Sarah Deans, come from Biotrack which is based in Wareham. The company has 30 years’ experience in radio-tracking and radio tag manufacture. I have mentioned previously the British Trust for Ornithology’s use of satellite tracking to discover the different routes used by cuckoos to get to their wintering area in Africa, and how the route taken might be linked to the cuckoos’ decline.

Biotrack’s picture, shown here, is of a nightjar with a tag attached. This project was used to determine the 24 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

previously unknown African wintering areas of the nightjars which breed in Dorset. Nightjars can often be seen in summer on a twilight walk on many of DWT’s heathland reserves in south-east Dorset - DWT often organises twilight walks on these reserves. Who can forget, I think on Springwatch some years ago, Bill Oddie leaping about waving a white handkerchief in the twilight on a Dorset Heath? His strange behaviour was successful in attracting a nightjar. Do come and discover features of Biotrack’s equipment and some of the research for which it has been used.

In July a birdwatcher was at the DWT reserve at Lytchett Heath, part of the Great Heath Living Landscape project. Fortunately, he is also a dragonfly expert and he noticed three ‘different’ dragonflies which he was able to identify as southern migrant hawkers.

This was a first sighting for Dorset. This species occurs in southern Europe and it is thought the warm south winds brought them to Dorset. They were exceedingly rare in England but in recent years a few have been seen in south-east England. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

ARE YOUR RETIREMENT PLANS ON COURSE? Contact us for a pension review.

PETER HARDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT Principal Partner Practice of St. James’s PlaceWealth Management

40 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JG Tel: 01747 855554 9 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PU Tel: 01935 315315

www.peterhardingwm.co.uk

Partner Practice represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the Group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the Group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives. Peter Harding Wealth Management is a trading name of Peter Harding Practice Ltd.

@elizabethwatsonillustrations 26 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Excellence

in and outside the classroom

For more information or to arrange a visit please contact the Registrar, Charlotte Carty

01935 810911 or registrar@sherborneprep.org Acreman Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NY

Fo u

nd King 11 ati s + B Av on S rut ail ch on ab ol le ars hi

p

www.sherborneprep.org

You are invited to join us for our

Autumn Open Mornings Saturday 6th & Friday 12th October 2018 For further information, call 01963 442 606 and ask for Sarah-Jane

Please come and see us...

Co-educational boarding and day prep school, ages 2½ - 13, in beautiful Somerset 01963 442 606 | www.hazlegrove.co.uk | admissions@hazlegrove.co.uk | Sparkford, Somerset, BA22 7JA sherbornetimes.co.uk | 27

UNEARTHED FINLAY RIDOUT, AGED 14 Gryphon School

F

inlay Ridout started running as most of us do shortly after learning to walk. A combination of natural selection and determination took him hurtling through primary school sports days, senior school competitions and on to Yeovil Olympiads for whom he now represents in the South West League and where he trains twice a week with sprint coach, Bob Gutteridge.

Taking 1st in the 100m and 200m in both the North Dorset Area Championships and Dorset School Championships makes Finlay officially the fastest 14 year old in Dorset and has inevitably led to higher stake competitions. The Gryphon School has supported Finlay along the way, seeing him secure qualifying times at the South West Schools Championships and aiding his subsequent foray into the Nationals at Birmingham.

As if that wasn’t enough, Finlay has also signed for Gillingham Town FC, where apparently the Under 15’s team is so strong that they are playing a year above their actual age group.

He also plays football at county level and has been accepted into Exeter City FC’s Performance Centre. It’s of little surprise that The Gryphon has awarded him Sports Personality of the Year.

Ahead then lies the luxury of a quandary – professional footballer or athlete? Decisions, decisions… Either way, best of luck Finlay. gryphon.dorset.sch.uk yeovilolympiads.com gillinghamtownfc.org.uk exetercityfc.co.uk

KATHARINE DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY Portrait, lifestyle, PR and editorial commissions 07808 400083 info@katharinedaviesphotography.co.uk www.katharinedaviesphotography.co.uk

28 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Family

Children’s Book Review

Wayne Winstone, Winstone’s Books, Independent Bookshop of the Year 2016

The Cook and the King by Julia Donaldson (Pan Macmillan, 2018) Illustrated by David Roberts £11.99. Ages 3-7 Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £10.99 from Winstone’s Books

There once was a very hungry king Who needed a cook like anything...

… but the king is very fussy, and none of the cooks he tries can make a dish that tastes just right. Then the most unlikely of chefs comes along: the shuffling, shaking Wobbly Bob. He’s scared of everything, from catching fish to digging for potatoes. Can he convince the hungry king to give him the job?

Julia deploys a story-telling device full of cunning in this witty story about the way a king is tricked into doing some work. The King demands his favourite meal – fish and chips. The cook is frightened of all things he needs to do to cook fish and chips: he’s too frightened to fish because he might get his apron wet or dig potatoes because he hates worms, or to chop up

'Independent Bookseller of the Year 2016’ 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PX www.winstonebooks.co.uk Tel: 01935 816 128

the potatoes because he might cut himself with a very sharp knife. But is that just a ruse?

Soon the King is cooking his very own fish and chips – and loving every moment of it!

David Robert’s blustering king and wimpy cook are a delight.

This book is based on a story that the son of the Gruffalo author, Julia Donaldson, made up for her daughter Poppy. Its message is a head-scratcher and the story asks more questions than it answers, which is all rather refreshing in the often overly simplistic land of the modern picture book. winstonebooks.co.uk

Fun books for the big day

Family

COURSE OF ACTION Philip Rogerson, Higher Education Consultant

C

hoosing a university course is like writing an A-Level essay: if you research carefully and refer closely to evidence in reaching unprejudiced conclusions, you will achieve a good result.

Applicants find it difficult to penetrate beyond prospectuses’ marketing gloss: every university is top in some survey, is near a “vibrant” city, and has constant sunshine beaming down on uniformly contented students. Blind reliance on brand name prejudice, a prejudice bolstered by clumsily constructed league tables and what employers are alleged to want, is dangerous. A more evidence-based approach is safer.

The ‘Choose your future’ database on the UCAS website, ucas.com, shows which universities offer particular subjects. University websites give detailed information about the focus of each course. Make no assumptions.

‘French’” might include anything from medieval literature to translation of The Simpsons. Even courses whose content is largely determined by external professional bodies (e.g., Medicine) might be delivered very differently.

Those considering research-intensive universities, in which students are largely expected to teach themselves by using research-based methods, should examine the 2014 Research Excellence Framework results ref.ac.uk. These show a department’s research (but not teaching) strengths.

Universities such as Bath and Surrey, which provide detailed information about their graduates’ destinations, tend to offer a year’s paid work placement as part of a course. Business Management applicants, for instance, might consider that this can enhance their c.v.

The National Student Survey of satisfaction among students unistats.ac.uk is a useful check, but it might show how easily students are satisfied as much as the quality of what is provided.

30 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

It is very important to ask university admissions’ staff about the size and frequency of tutorials/classes/ seminars. Lecture size is far less crucial. Even at ‘big brand name’ universities the classes might range from 5 to 35 students, depending on the subject. Moreover, the role of a ‘Personal Tutor’ can be interpreted very differently.

It is vital to visit. I have visited 130 UK universities, and each one has its own ‘feel’, a mixture of situation, site(s), size and atmosphere, the last of which is most discernible during term-time. Student helpers on an Open Day are a most important source of information on the current situation in their degree programmes.

Applicants should consider carefully the full range of routes open to them, including the new Higher and Degree Apprenticeships. The focus should be on where the individual thinks she or he is most likely to thrive.

Ultimately, it is a thriving student who is most likely to impress employers.

Such an approach is more likely to be effective than relying on a false sense of continuity in a rapidly changing area. Those who were undergraduates a generation ago should check current student numbers before advancing claims about their alma mater based on nostalgia. Above all, if anyone makes sweeping statements such as, ‘University X is good for Subject Y’, ask for the evidence and its date. It is what a conscientious A-Level student should be doing anyway.

Philip was Director of Higher Education and Careers at Sherborne School 1997-2017 and Higher Education Consultant to The Gryphon School 2017-2018. pro.uniadvice@gmail.com

OPEN DOORS

EDITION FOUR

18 September 10am 15 October 2pm

SIXTH FORM INTRODUCTION EVENING 5 October 5pm

With contributions from Jackie Morris, Alex Preston, Neil Gower, Catherine Hyde, Helen Scales and Whitney Brown.

AVA I L A B L E L O C A L LY O R O N L I N E

EL E M E N TU M J O URNA L . C O M

NEVER MISS A COPY

We are inquisitive A Co-educational Diamond Model School Flexi, weekly and full boarding Daily buses across Dorset and Somerset

Call: 01963 211015 Visit: www.leweston.co.uk

If you enjoy reading the Bridport or Sherborne Times but live outside our free distribution areas you can now receive your very own copy by post 12 editions delivered to your door for just £30.00 To subscribe, please call 01935 315556 or email subscriptions@homegrown-media.co.uk NURSERY

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 31

Family

MOVING WEST

Jennifer Brown, Director of Studies, Sherborne Prep School

“there is a softness to the air of Dorset”

W

hen I was approached to write an article about moving to Dorset, and more specifically to the Prep School, it was mid-April and it prompted me to begin with a compliment to Dorset by quoting Robert Browning’s poem which begins, ‘Oh to be in England now that April’s here’. My introduction to the town of Sherborne was immediately coloured by early morning walks with my wonderful beagle, Hugo, down at Purlieu Meadow, where the contrast to my former home in the Thames Valley was obvious: the freshness, the reduced pollution levels, the swishing quiet of the trees, the sticky gurgle of the river during the rapidly warming spring days. Later in the poem, beyond its oft-quoted opening line, thoughts develop through May and on to the arrival of the swallows, much like our own delightful ‘Swallows’, Sherborne Prep’s nickname for the students we welcome from the Continent for a few weeks or half a term at a time to sample British life and improve their English.

However, that was then and now it is September which is a greater challenge. The long days of summer are, for many teachers, a mirage which presents itself during dreams and moments of stress. When the mirage finally arrives, the days fly by in short, overlapping phases of family and home-related trips and projects, visits to relatives and far-flung friends, picnics and snoozes, followed up at the rear by preparation for ‘La Rentree.’

Anyway, my idea was to itemise the changes to my life since arriving, as a testament to city versus country and in the form of gentle advice to anyone following my most recent path. Unfortunately, the wonderful columnist India Knight has beaten me to it (The Times, 28th June) with a superb ten-point list of guidance for the great move west.

I am going ahead anyway, in the form of observation rather than judgement, with a little list (‘I have a little list...’) of my own: 1 Expect to meet interesting and accomplished people; it is a reverse of the brain drain to London many of us experienced in our twenties.

2 Take longer to have everyday conversations in shops and cafes, at work and even in the street; people are friendlier, genuinely pleased you have moved west and keen to tell you about the marvellous places you can visit.

3 Enjoy improved health as the clean air clears your chest and invigorates you; your longer hours spent out of doors will (heatwave or not) afford you a natural tan and a spring in your step.

4 Be prepared to drive further or jump on the fabulous, less crowded but expensive train service to visit the places which aforementioned strangers have recommended.

5 Be kind; there is a softness to the air of Dorset and I wonder if, as in the poetry of Hardy, there is a pathos and humanity here to penetrate the soul.

Jennifer Brown is the new Director of Studies at Sherborne Preparatory School and has recently relocated from Oxford. sherborneprep.org

32 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33

Family

USING THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY WISELY Dr. Ruth Sullivan, Headmistress, Sherborne Girls

A

nyone who spends time with young people will know what a dominant force digital technology can be in their lives. The hours spent clicking, swiping and liking can seem endless, with a phone or mobile device a seemingly constant fixture. But a survey conducted by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) reveals that young people themselves may be less enamoured of the technology than their actions suggest.

According to the HMC research, some 63% of young people wouldn’t mind if social media had never been invented, while 71% admitted to undergoing 34 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

‘digital detoxes’ in an effort to wean themselves off the technology. More than half admitted to receiving abusive comments online or said that social media makes them feel less confident about how they look or how interesting their life is, and 56% said they feel on the edge of addiction to social media - that makes for sobering reading if you work in education, especially in a boarding school environment.

A study at Sherborne Girls conducted in advance of launching a new policy on mobile phone use last autumn highlighted a clear link between screen time and screen dependency and issues such as anxiety, depression, sleep

deprivation and problems concentrating in class. That is why I firmly believe young people have to learn the right habits regarding digital technology if they are to flourish. Schools must take a lead in managing pupils’ engagement with technology, ensuring they strike an appropriate balance between realising its potential and mitigating its risks. The evidence is that each school should shape their own approach to suit their respective students and the school ethos.

My instinct is that a separation needs to exist between using digital devices for educational purposes and using them for pleasure or recreation. If a pupil wants to research a project using the internet or use the latest software to produce a presentation for their next talk in assembly, schools should certainly ensure they have access to a suitable device. It is also my view that pupils should be given some space to use the internet in the way they will undoubtedly do so as adults, albeit with appropriate controls: roaming from

site to site, using search engines to discover new things about the world around them or acquire some piece of fascinating knowledge.

The advice given to Sherborne Girls from the neuroscientist and psychologist Dr Aric Sigman indicated that a blanket ban on the use of digital technology during pupils’ downtime is not the way to encourage healthy habits. A far better approach was to give pupils the opportunity to shape a school-wide policy that offers a balance between appropriate usage and periods of social media blackout. Our pupils were very mature in their response to this challenge and most girls were pleased to agree a limit on social media use. Indeed, even though we have not extended our restrictions to the sixth form, many abide by them of their own volition, because they recognise the benefits.

Introduced in autumn 2017, our mobile technology policy requires pupils up to Year 11 to leave their mobile phones in boarding houses during lessons and we block access to social media throughout the school day. The block is lifted during break times and in the evenings. All devices are taken in an hour before bedtime and given out again at breakfast. This allows our students to have time in the evening to read, talk, play games and interact with each other face-to-face before they go to bed.

By engaging with parents and pupils alike, and drawing insight from experts such as Dr Sigman, schools can work effectively to develop a policy that is right for them. It is crucial to secure buy-in from everyone who the policy affects and to be clear about the continued encouragement to engage with technology for academic purposes.

To thrive in the twenty-first century, our pupils need to be digital natives who can communicate using the very latest technology. However, no one wants their life to be dominated by a screen. By developing and adopting the right policies, schools can set up the conditions for their pupils to thrive in a world of opportunity. Then they will understand that moderation is the key to appropriate consumption of the latest technology. Schools must take their responsibility to support their students in this area very seriously.

Ruth takes up her role as Headmistress at Sherborne Girls this month following the announcement of her appointment in November 2017. sherborne.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 35

HANFORD SCHOOL ADVENTURERS

&EXPLORERS

Festival

10th 15th September

PUBLIC TALKS

LALAGE SNOW • SARAH OUTEN • PEN HADOW NICHOLAS FOULERTON • JASPER SHACKLETON Tickets are £8 (including a glass of wine) can be obtained by visiting

www.hanfordschool.co.uk

Open Morning Saturday 6th October 9.30am - 11.30am A co-educational day and boarding school from 2-13

‘‘It is possible to go and do anything after coming here.’’

TATLER SCHOOLS GUIDE 2018

t. 01747 857914 | www.portregis.com | e. admissions@portregis.com

36 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Minibus routes available

SHE WILL FIND THE PATH THAT SUITS HER BEST

Public School of the Year Tatler School Awards 2017/18

01935 818224

registrar@sherborne.com

Sherborne.com

Art

DO STARVING ARTISTS PRODUCE BETTER ART? Ali Cockrean, Artist

38 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

I

t amazes me that, in the 21st century, this debate is still raging strong. Don’t believe me? Well, take a look on Facebook where currently there’s an advert circulating that suggests all professional artists should take a course in business and marketing to further their careers. What fascinates me are the comments posted by hundreds of disgruntled individuals complaining that art should ‘speak for itself ’ and how dare anyone suggest that artists might want to ‘prostitute their talent to earn money.’

And it’s not just Facebook. I’ve come up against this attitude myself on several occasions, most notably during a solo exhibition of my work in a trendy little gallery in Notting Hill where an enraged fellow artist pinned me against a wall and demanded to know how I justified my pricing.

It’s an emotive subject. But what’s all this angst based on? Are there really any artists in the history of time who weren’t painting to put food on the table and pay the rent? And where did this romantic notion come from that artists paint better with an empty stomach and a bailiff knocking on the door?

I would argue vehemently that nobody chooses to be an artist for any reason other than a passion for the subject: like nursing and teaching, it’s a vocation rather than a profession. For me it was a calling I could no longer ignore after 20 years in corporate marketing and PR. The desire simply became too strong to satisfy with an odd sketching session on a Sunday afternoon.

The stakes were high. My biggest concern associated with this significant career change was my total lack of knowledge of the art market. I took on the challenge and the risks regardless, not because I thought there was money in it but because I had a deep yearning to communicate my own inner dialogue rather than yet more corporate hot air. Having decided to sell my work direct (so I could understand who my customers were) I joined the London art fair circuit. It was a baptism by fire - hundreds of artists and galleries displaying thousands of works of art to a relatively small number of discerning buyers.

It would have been easy to be overwhelmed and disillusioned, however I quickly discovered that my

business and PR background came in very handy. I had no problem selling my own wares, something many artists find very difficult. I understood how to market my paintings. Crucially, I realised very early on that it was as necessary to build my own profile as an artist as it was to promote my work. Why? Because at some point, when there’s a demand for your work and before a buyer writes a big cheque, they’ll want to know who you are and what your status is in the market.

The truth is that, whether people like it or not, art is a business if you make it a career choice. The question is… does that make you a less authentic artist?

No, of course not. No artist worth their salt alters their work to suit the market. They follow their calling and allow their work to shift, adapt and change over time. Galleries don’t always make this easy. They often dissuade artists from developing their work because the current style sells well. The irony of this is, I know more than one artist who is bored with what they’re doing because they are simply satisfying a gallery’s demand for work. I would argue that the best galleries see authentic artists as an investment, promoting them as they develop to reach their full potential. When the synergy is right, this is without doubt the most powerful recipe for success - for both parties. The artist isn’t compromising and the gallery is selling truly authentic art.

I guess the romantic idea of the starving painter is based on the notion that the best work is produced by artists who are able to follow their passion unencumbered by the demands of the market. So let’s look at one of the most highly esteemed artists of all time. In the 1630s, Rembrandt’s main source of income was private commissions for portraits; he also ran a painting school for over forty apprentices, each paying him a hundred guilders a year in tuition fees, and he operated as an art dealer.

Rembrandt was a successful painter and businessman.

I rest my case. alicockrean.co.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 39

History

RALEGH, JAMES I AND ELDORADO Cindy Chant

R

alegh did not take his imprisonment in the Tower very well. He was a noisy prisoner and spent a lot of time making fierce protests. The same lifelong pride and passions continued and he was consumed with daydreams of finding riches and gold in the Empire of Guiana (modern Venezuela). He frequently voiced his thoughts, knowing that, if he could convince King James that there was gold in Guiana, he might be asked to lead a voyage there, thus freeing himself from imprisonment in the Tower.

At the same time, James too was preoccupied with thoughts and daydreams of finding gold. He was heavily in debt and, with the crown’s finances in dire straits, he was desperate for money and prepared to snatch at any opportunity that seemed to offer him the chance to obtain it. He had himself begun to think that if he could persuade Ralegh to lead another voyage to Guiana, where Ralegh was convinced there was gold, then he might just release him - a perfect solution for both men, if all went to plan.

So, at long last and under licence, Ralegh was finally released from the Tower to organise the voyage he had so much longed for. It was now March 1616. Ralegh was in his mid-sixties and very weakened by having had several mini-strokes. He really was in poor physical health but, like a bird set free from a cage, he was prepared to face any risks for freedom.

Both Ralegh and James were desperate to find the gold mines, however, a dark cloud hovered. Living in London during this time was Count Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador. He was a relative of the Spaniard whom Ralegh had captured back in 1586, on an earlier voyage to Guiana. Thirty years later, Gondomar had still not forgotten this and he planned to avenge his relative’s capture. Ralegh, meanwhile, was under the strictest orders from James and in a written statement had promised, ‘not in any 40 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

circumstances to attack any Spaniards.’ He also promised, ‘to give a detailed account of his ship, the Destiny, the total armament on board, and details of the sea route he would take.’

Unbeknown to Ralegh, James passed all that information onto Gondomar. Ralegh was now involved in a political gamble. He knew that if he arrived home with enough gold then he would have achieved what he had set out to do, but if he came home with nothing,

Angel Falls, Venezuela. Ralegh's fabled city of El Dorado?

or got involved with any fighting with the Spanish, that was to be his end. Cunningly, Ralegh began to play a “foxy” game and secretly set up plans with the French, with whom he had always had a special relationship. If the voyage was to go badly wrong, then he arranged for the French to give him shelter on the way home and, if he landed there, a safe home for the rest of his life, thus avoiding the death sentence in England.

Many people, including Ralegh’s friends, thought

that he had taken on too much with this voyage, but by now he was itching to set sail. On 19th June, the Destiny and the fleet left Plymouth in a grand send-off and, for the last time, under the command of Ralegh, now a free man and on the open ocean once more.

Next Month: ‘The Disastrous End’. sherbornewalks.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 41

History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

THE HARDY LETTER Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

T

he museum is fortunate enough to possess an original letter, 11.5 cm x 17.5 cm, written by Thomas Hardy in his own hand, dated the 30th September 1904. It has a black border, conventional stationery for use during mourning since Hardy’s mother, Jemima, had recently died, and ‘Max Gate, Dorchester’ embossed in the right-hand corner.

It reads: Dear Sir, Sherborne Celebrations: I am obliged for your request that I should form one of the General Committee. I do not quite know what this involves, but if it means (as I imagine) that I highly approve of the celebrations, and recommend it to the public, I shall be pleased to have my name on the list. Yours truly, Thomas Hardy.

Hardy is here referring to the creation of the Sherborne folk pageant scheduled for 1905 to celebrate the 1200th anniversary of the founding of the town.

Ever enthusiastic about folk customs and history, he was keen to lend the concept the weight of his support.

The note is addressed to Herbert James Seymour who was head of the Urban District Council at the time.

However, in another letter to Louis Napoleon Parker, the director of the Pageant, Hardy declines to get involved in actually writing part of the script as he has long-term writing projects to occupy him; we can assume this was probably The Dynasts, his huge epic drama in verse concerning the Napoleonic Wars.

The letter was donated to the museum by Norman James Atkins (1899-1984), one of the original Hardy Players (he played Alec in a production of Tess of the D’Urbervilles under Hardy’s direction), who became a friend of the author, often dropping into Max Gate ‘for tea’, and who was to prove a great source of information 42 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

for future Hardy scholars.

We can set the note in a wider context; Sherborne is named in Thomas Hardy’s works as ‘Sherton Abbas’, and its main thoroughfare as ‘Sheep Street.’ His novel The Woodlanders (1887) is an intense evocation of the locality: the once extensive woodland, interspersed with orchards, and the landscape of the White-Hart Vale. The life cycle of the impassive woods provides a pastoral and melancholic setting for the characters’ converging destinies. Hardy examines their livelihoods, such as copse-work, wood-turning and cider-making, in great detail, using language to convey a dreamlike quality that contrasts with the harshness of rural existence. One iconic scene depicts Giles Winterborne, a woodsman with a portable cider press, standing in Sherborne’s market-place with the symbol of his trade, a specimen apple-tree: ‘the boughs rose above the heads of the farmers and brought a delightful suggestion of orchards into the heart of the town.’ Sherborne Old Castle features in a short story, Anna, Lady Baxby (1891), which is set against the backdrop of the Parliamentarian siege during the Civil War, an exploration of the conflicting claims of familial and sexual love. Hardy took a great risk as an author here, since he based the plot on his reading of an entry in Hutchins’s History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset which relates to the Digby family.

Visitors can view the letter and our Thomas Hardy Trail interpretation in the Marsden gallery.

The museum is open Tuesday - Saturday 10.30am–4.30pm.

Admission free though donations welcome. sherbornemuseum.co.uk

31 Cheap Street Sherborne 01935 815 657

traditional | contemporary | heritage sensitive | simple | sustainable raisearchitects.com

Architecture

WHY ARE YOU DOING IT LIKE THAT? Andy Foster, Raise Architects

I

started doing what I do when I was a child. My father would design and draw at home, so I watched what he was doing. I was keen to help him; I wanted to do what he did. And so, in true father-andson spirit, he would show me and I would have a go.

As I grew up, I would ask him lots of questions and he would answer them. Many questions were straightforward, such as, ‘What’s this for?’ and, ‘How do you do this?’ To his eternal credit, he was always very patient and happy to explain everything to me. But the questions that I found most revealing, the ones that would elicit the most interesting answers, were invariably ‘why’ questions, particularly, ‘Why are you doing it like that?’

Unlike the answers to other questions, these were often preceded by long pauses while he thought about things. Usually they involved stories, such as how he used to do things, or how his father had done them, or what was standard practice in the industry and why he did things differently. He would tell me how, in the early days, things had been done one way but now, with the advent of this device or that regulation, it was all different. Depending on what was being done, it could lead to all sorts of revelations, of battles won or lost and of characters that had helped or hindered.

That simple question was like a geologist’s hammer which, when applied with a gentle tap to the right rock, splits it apart to reveal a previously unseen world.

Of course, when asked innocently and with curiosity, (rather than aggressively and critically) that question has embedded within it some other implied questions. For instance, ‘Of all the ways that this could be done, why are you doing it this way?’; ‘You have thought about it, haven’t you?’; ‘You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?’; and ‘You are sure that your way is the best way, aren’t you?’

So it turns out that my simple, child-like question, asked in everyday terms and possibly preceded with, ‘Er, out of interest…’ or ‘I was just wondering…’ or ‘I’m fascinated to know….’ is actually quite powerful. It simultaneously questions what we think, what we believe and what we do.

44 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

In the time since then, in my chosen field of architecture, I have asked that question many times.

I’ve asked it of builders, craftsmen, consultants, regulators, clients and colleagues. I’ve learnt a lot in the process and my experience is much the richer for it. The answers that I have received can be broadly assigned to two categories: those that follow the pattern of my father’s answers, i.e. considered, selfaware, and knowledgeable, and those that can be summarised by the following often-heard responses: ‘It’s how I’ve always done it.’

‘It’s how I was told to do it.’

‘I don’t know.’

In the early part of my career, I tended to think that these two types of responses represented two different kinds of people. On the one hand you have skilled and expert professionals or craftsmen, knowledgeable and aware of their position within their trade. On the other, there are those that are not very good at what

they do or have, to some extent, fallen asleep on the job.

But then, finding myself at the mid-point of my career, ‘life’ happened. Like most people, I suffered failure and setback as well as success and triumph. At various times I lost confidence in my ability to be as good as I wanted to be. Increasingly, self-doubt set in and I frequently applied my question to myself. I thought about things, probably over-thinking them, and concluded that I too had nodded off on duty.

‘To think, to dig into the foundations of our beliefs is a risk, and perhaps a tragic risk. There are no guarantees that it will make us happy or even give us satisfaction.’ (from How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds by Alan Jacobs) I was wrong. Now that I am in, let’s say, the mature stage of my career I have a different view of things. I realise that, no matter how good we are at what we do, there are always vast subject areas that we take for granted.

Knowledge about ways of doing things that are handed

down to us without question, that are built into our training or that are generally accepted as the norm in our industry. It is impossible for us to be conscious of everything that we do and without shortcuts and culturalconditioning we just wouldn’t be able to function.

Which means that, depending on the subject at hand, we are all capable of delivering the two categories of response that I described earlier. But they shouldn’t be viewed as signals of competence and, rather than feel guilty about those things that we can’t explain, it is much better to become conscious of them; to see them as opportunities to explore and dig deeper; to brandish our geologists hammer and tap to reveal previously unseen worlds.

Further resource: How to Get Better at the Things You Care About – Eduardo Briceno, TedX Manhattan Beach November 2016. ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_ get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about#t-670078 sherborne@raisearchitects.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 45

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Interiors

PATTERN, PALETTE AND PROPORTION

A

Maudie Holmes, Colour Consultant, Fired Earth

ll homes come in different shapes and sizes and it can be tricky to decorate when you’re restricted or overwhelmed by the scale of the rooms. Whether it’s a country manor or a 1-bedroom apartment, there are some tricks when it comes to making the most of your space and creating a scheme that’s beautiful, no matter what the proportions.

Small rooms can offer some real challenges. This is where some clever colour and pattern play can be introduced to really enhance the space you do have. A tonal palette of soft colours - shades of grey such as Fired Earth’s Dowager, Garden Folly and Mockingbird – is a great solution for a house made up of a series of small rooms. This blurs the boundaries between each room and creates a flow from space to space. Paler colours in general are suited to small rooms as they create an airy, open feel and make the walls seem further away. Another clever trick is to paint the whole room the same colour – walls, ceilings and woodwork – eliminating any contrast that might draw the eye and again enhancing the sense of space.

People are often wary of using pattern in smaller rooms, worried it might be too intense. Be brave! Intricate and striking floor tiles or a large print wallpaper on one wall can transform a small space into something really special. Fired Earth’s Sorrento tiles are perfect for this, combining bold patterns with a distinctive monochrome colourway. Team these with a light and bright neutral and you’re on your way to the perfect scheme. A soft and unobtrusive pattern can also work well in a small space and can be used more freely. Wall to ceiling patterned tiling in a bathroom in an understated design or a wallpaper in the most subtle of colourways on all four walls of a bedroom are two great examples.

It’s often thought that larger rooms are easier to decorate as there is so much more space to work with, however this isn’t always the case. A large room - and especially a house made up of several large rooms - can be a real challenge. They are difficult to make ‘cosy’ and too much pattern or colour can be overpowering. A bold or dark colour on the walls teamed with understated furniture can make a real statement without being too OTT. Darker colours, as well as making the room feel smaller, will also enhance the cosiness of the space. Try Fired Earth’s Malachite or Burnt Juniper for a deep, indulgent and jewel-like wall colour. In contrast, a bright off-white or pale neutral can work beautifully too. Embrace all the space you have and create a statement of the size by making it seem as big as possible.

Pattern can enhance a larger area by breaking up the room and adding interest. Feature patterns on curtains or sofas and mixing or layering patterns with plain blocks of colour can really bring a larger room to life. Be wary of using too much of a busy pattern which, in a large room, can be altogether too powerful and overwhelming. A more modest design in a large print for floors will help define the space and help it to flow. Tiles that make a bigger pattern when placed together are ideal in this instance and are much kinder on the eye, as are subtly patterned rugs or carpets.

There are many ways to make the most of the space you have available and create a beautiful and considered scheme. It just requires some clever thinking, plenty of planning and a little confidence! firedearth.com

48 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Dragons Blood

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Sorrento Turro sherbornetimes.co.uk | 49

INVITE YOU TO...

Farrow & Ball’s New Colour Launch Thursday 27th September, 7pm You’ll doubtless be aware of the imminent launch of Farrow & Ball’s fantastic 9 new colours!

Partners in Design would like to invite you to a reception at our Sherborne showroom to discover these new colours. We’ll be joined by Farrow & Ball’s colour expert, Nicola Harwood, who will talk about new interior trends, use of colours and ideas on how to use each colour in your home.

To join us for this colourful evening of bubbles, canapes and design inspiration please call or email to reserve your place:

01935 508100

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Interiors

TOP TO TOE

Kitty Oakshott, Upstairs, Downstairs Interiors

F

rom headboards to footstools, here’s your guide to interiors from top to toe. Fabric-covered headboards are often thought of as old-fashioned but we are going to show you some ideas that may have you opting for one. Choose a plain linen or velvet, perhaps with studding and a straight edge design.

Buttoned or flat, either can look lovely, making a real feature of the contrasting studs. Alternatively opt for a patterned fabric to create a bolder look. Go for a sumptuous cut velvet or a pretty floral, it’s your choice.

Wooden-framed headboards can look great when newly upholstered; look out for a second-hand headboard that can be updated, and why not give it a lick of paint before upholstering? Tone the painted wood 52 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

colour with your fabric choice to bring it all together.

Shaped headboards can really make a statement in a complementary fabric. Frame the shape with a studded border to draw the eye to the design.

Use the same stud detail at the foot of the bed too with a bespoke ottoman or long footstool. Footstools can be made to measure with your choice of design and finish. What about a classic buttoned footstool with ornate turned legs? This can look really lovely in any choice of fabric and would work in either a bedroom or living room.

If buttoning isn’t for you then go for a plain, upholstered footstool; make it interesting with a row of studs or a braid at the base. Again, this looks great

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with classic tapered legs and can work well in any fabric - a bold pattern particularly lends itself to this type of footstool. Why not cover it in something more unusual, a metallic cowhide or kilim rug? We have done both of these before and, trust us, it looks great!

Square, rectangular, long or narrow, the options are endless when it comes to footstools and which style works for you and fits your space. The height can be altered too if the footstool is going to be functional (most will be), to make sure it suits you when sitting on the sofa.

Remember that interiors aren’t just curtains and blinds; think about ideas from top to toe too! updowninteriors.co.uk

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Interiors

WONDERWALL

W

Suzy Newton, Partners in Design

hatever you have in your rooms, think first of the walls: for they are that which makes your house and home.’ So said William Morris, one of the founding fathers of 19th century wallpaper design.

Five years ago there was a move away from using wallpaper in favour of the subdued off-greys and taupes of designer paints. Today, however, wallpapers are enjoying a comeback.

Of course, the rooms we live in today are generally on a smaller scale than those of Morris’ day but there is still huge variety and potential in the use of wallpapers to create unique and striking interiors. There has been a move away from the stark, contemporary designs in wallpapers we saw a few years ago in favour of heritage-inspired styles. Period printed papers have been reinterpreted with a contemporary twist. Fabric houses have raided their archives and released period designs in dramatic shades.

Wallpaper is a design staple that can add subtle sophistication to one room and make an exciting statement in the next, allowing you to channel your unique sense of style throughout your home. While patterns are often varied, a cohesive look is achieved by keeping to the same colour palette. Increasingly wallpapers are no longer background to artwork but are, in many cases, considered as artwork in their own right. Dramatic statements are often used to great effect on feature walls, with some of the recurrent tones pulled out in plain fabrics or woodwork colours to balance the scheme. If you are nervous about using bold or large-scale papers you can achieve interest and depth with textured plain wallpapers. James Hare have backed over 500 of their beautiful silks, both plain and embroidered, to create wall coverings with a natural feel, luxurious look and great intensity of colour.

For advice in terms of wallpapering rooms with various aspects: in general north facing rooms have light which is cooler and harsher making it more challenging to create a sense of space and light. Don’t fight nature but rather embrace the darkness and go with a more dramatic, intimate interior. You can achieve this using strong colours and motifs such as deep reds and purples in the wallpapers. If you would prefer to use lighter colours, avoid green- or grey-based colours and opt instead for warm yellows and creams which will help bounce light around the space.

South facing rooms are full of warm light throughout the day so most colours will look good here. Pale blue and greys in the paper will enhance that feeling of space whilst using a bright white on the woodwork will give the room a crisp fresh look.

In the main, the rule of thumb is to avoid large scale patterns in a small room and vice versa. However, the occasional use of statement wallpapers in small rooms creates a ‘wow’ factor and adds that element of surprise and delight when a door is opened. Think of a downstairs cloakroom, bootroom or statement wall in a kitchen.

As an inexpensive option to completely change the look of a room or a definitive creative expression around which to anchor a room scheme, wallpapers are back with a vengeance! partners-in-design.co.uk

56 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

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Antiques

WWI trio to Royal Marine Bandsman F W Wood £250-£350

RESEARCH PAYS OFF

W

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

orking as an auctioneer and valuer is a learning curve. Not just when you start out, but every working day.

In the mid-1980’s (or, as my children like to say, back in the last century) I was a young, keen and enthusiastic valuer ready to learn, learn, learn. However, with youth there was also an assuredness that I knew most, if not all, of it already.

I remember visiting a client in Cheltenham. As is often the case, they were sorting through some items they

60 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

had inherited. They already had a house full of items with their own style, and the items they had inherited either did not fit due to lack of space or clashed with their taste.

Most of the lots they were looking to auction were runof-the-mill items which auctioneers see on a regular basis.

Georgian chests of drawers, silver tea sets and Victorian Staffordshire pottery were the order of the day along with some brass and copper. They were mostly happy, or at least in agreement, with what I said and the values I placed on their items.

The vans and porters were dispatched to wrap, pack and collect the items and it all went smoothly. However, a week or so later, I received a phone call from the client expressing concern about a pair of brass candlesticks I had looked at and valued at around £100. According to family lore, the candlesticks had previously been valued

by Sotheby’s at considerably more. Nothing unusual, I thought, if you ask two valuers the same question you are likely to get three answers, and besides, what did they know?

Despite ‘knowing it all’ I went over and took another look at the brass candlesticks and was very pleased I did. I had assumed, quite incorrectly, that they were just a nice pair of decorative brass candlesticks but, upon second inspection, discovered they were a pair of ormolu (gilt bronze) candlesticks which had been made out of a hoard of Roman bronze coins in 1742.

All the information was there; I just could not see the wood for trees and had missed it the first time around.

After a second look, and my fair share of homework, the candlesticks went on to sell for £8,000. I had learnt a lesson, a very big lesson.

Moving forward to 2018, I recently conducted a probate valuation locally. In the estate, there was a World War One trio of medals. By this point in my career, I have seen and sold hundreds of this particular set. The trio comprises a 1914-15 Star, a War medal and a Victory medal. Generally, these groups sell within the £50-100 range but, having learnt my lesson decades ago, I set about researching the medal group.

This led me to discover that Royal Marine Bandsman F. W. Wood served on HMS Queen Mary. Those of you keen on WWI naval history will know that HMS Queen Mary was at The Battle of Jutland in 1916. One shell hit forward and detonated either one or both of the forward magazines which broke the ship in two. She went down with the loss of 1,266 officers and men with just 18 survivors.

Sadly, RM Bandsman Wood was one of those lost but, because of where he lost his life, his medals are of great interest to collectors. Rather than being valued at just £50, they carry a pre-sale estimate of £250-350.

Thanks to the research, this exciting group will go under the hammer in our 21st September medals, coins, stamps and collectors auction. charterhouse-auction.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61

CHARTERHOUSE A u c t i o n e e r s & Va l u e r s

1929 Ford Model A

We are now accepting entries for our forthcoming auctions: Classic and Vintage Motorcars Wednesday 12th September

Medals, Coins, Stamps and other Collector’s Items Friday 21st September

Picture and Books with a selection of Sporting Items 18th & 19th October

Contact Richard Bromell for advice and to arrange a home visit The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne DT9 3BS | 01935 812277 | www.charterhouse-auction.com

62 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

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Gardening

SHERBORNE FLORAL EVENING GROUP 65th ANNIVERSARY 1953 – 2018 Eileen Fort

T

he Sherborne Floral Evening Group was set up in the year of the Queen’s Coronation, 1953, and originally had just 12 members, led by Gwen White. All were keen flower gardeners, most with young children and eager to enjoy an evening out. Their initial meeting venue was Coombs Restaurant, located above what is now M&Co. Founder member and the club’s Life President, Doreen Sharpe (now aged 98), remembers the simple arrangements that the club produced in those early days using flowers from their gardens, wildflowers and foliage, with only the occasional florist flower. Flowers were held in place with chicken wire and pin holders and there was much experimentation with different containers and sizes of arrangements. The group grew and, over the intervening years, held many flower festivals in Sherborne House, Compton House and local churches.

Famous flower arrangers such as Constance Spry, who lectured in the West Country in the 1940’s, helped inspire arrangers to form societies. Mary Pope formed the first Dorset floral society in Dorchester in 1949; other towns in Dorset quickly followed in the 1950’s. Constance Spry was famous for using a purple cabbage in an arrangement, which caused great excitement and publicity due to its novelty and gave others inspiration to experiment.

Floral foam, invented in America and then exported to Britain, made manipulation of flowers and foliage easier in, for example, pew-end arrangements.

Unfortunately, this product was not biodegradable and hence not environmentally friendly however, finally, this year a biodegradable foam has at last been produced.

The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) was formed in 1959, with the South

West Area’s floral groups affiliating so their members could enjoy a national arena in which to showcase their skills and attend talks and floral demonstrations. Over the years many Sherborne members have undertaken City and Guild courses teaching them the ‘Elements and Principles of Floral Design’. In 2017 our Chairman, Philippa Louden, produced sculptural ammonites for the Dorset and Guernsey Area who won a Gold Award for their floral display at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The club meets once a month for 9 months of the year and our current members are every bit as enthusiastic and motivated as the founder members back in 1953. Meetings consist of either watching an experienced demonstrator with an ability to entertain and teach (not an easy skill!) or workshops run by our own members, three of whom belong to the teaching group for the Dorset Area. The workshops vary but might, for instance, teach a new skill, such as leaf manipulation, or a new arranging technique in traditional or contemporary style - table arrangements, miniatures etc. Our annual Open Meeting (open to the public) will take place at the Digby Hall in November this year. Emily Broomhead from Wessex, who gained international fame representing Britain at the World Flower Arranging Championships in Barbados in 2017, will be attending. We are also planning a Christmasinspired workshop in December.

If you have a passion for flowers and creativity, why not come along to one of our meetings and join us? You will experience a warm, social gathering where you can learn to create beautiful floral arrangements. dorsetandguernseyflowerclubs.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 65

Gardening

BEARING DIFFERENT FRUITS Mike Burks, Managing Director of The Gardens Group

T

he cold, late winter and the hot, dry weather over the summer have had an interesting impact on fruiting plants this year and, as I began my usual trail of foraging for summer pudding fillings, I noticed that the range available is very different.

My usual selection of plums, damsons and myrobalans has been limited by the poor weather conditions when the flowers were out in the spring. The crops are pretty thin but, where there is fruit, it’s a couple of weeks earlier in ripening. Contrarily, the old Bramley apple tree that I scrump from has a really good crop; the apples are filling out nicely despite the lack of rain. Later flowering avoided the bad weather and the pollinating insects were probably fairly hungry by then.

Blackberries have really thrived this year. They have a good, deep root system and can find water that other, shallower-rooted plants can’t get to. There were lots of flowers, perhaps a result of the cold winter, and now we are blessed with an abundance of fruit. Like the plums, the fruit has come a week or so early, and the blackberry pickers in the family have already been out in force. I have also discovered, during a conversation in the accounts office, that a number of the team there are harvesting what I claim to be my blackberries from the hedges in the garden centre car park! I was indignant, of course, but secretly delighted that the art of blackberry picking has not been lost. Chef Charlie Graziano has been using them in his menu at the Walled Garden restaurant. We also came across blackberries on a recent trip to the Isle of Wight, where my wife and friends enjoyed a blackberry mojito cocktail.

Strawberries have been abundant where some watering has taken place and, listening to The Archers, Adam Macy has had a good year with his fruit even if everything else in his life isn’t going so well! But the real and very pleasant surprise this year, and I am sorry to bury the headline, has been figs. We have a very large fig tree in a pot outside the back gate to the garden and we have been picking from it since late July.

Figs don’t fit in hugely well with our climate, not because of hardiness but because of the length of the season required for the fruit to ripen. There are usually two lots of fruit: those that have overwintered as small buttons and a second batch that come in the current year. The latter fruit will form but hasn’t the time to reach a size that will ripen, so it then sits on the tree and is damaged over the winter. This year though has been warm enough for the fruit to ripen already, and they are tasting superb.

Elsewhere, in the walled garden behind the nursery, there is an enormous fig tree that must have been there for 60 years or more. It is covered in huge quantities of enormous fruit. The fruit isn’t yet ripe and looks very different from the tree outside my garden but as both are unlabelled I will have to do some work to identify them. My fig tree is very dark and is already ripe, whereas the one in the corner of the walled garden is green at the moment, and just turning yellow. This may well be Brown Turkey which is the most reliable variety for our conditions, whereas my own is from our Italian grower and may well be more unusual.

This year we’ve been reaching for our recipe books as we have had to adapt, and certainly records won’t be broken for the range of available fruits, but I for one relish the challenge and it will be good to have a change in diet. thegardeneronline.co.uk 66 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 67

Gardening

DIARY OF A FIRST TIME FLOWER FARMER Paul Stickland, Black Shed Flowers

T

here’s no doubt that the stars of the Black Shed flower farm at the moment are the dahlias. That dahlias are enjoying a comeback goes without saying, but what triggered it I wonder? It started a few years back and shows no sign of abating. Some of my earliest memories are of lying under what were then towering dahlias in my mother’s Surrey garden. I can remember lurid, yellow, cactus-style forms and even now recall comparing them to the wonderful rubber bathing hats that my grandmother used to wear. There’s a fashion waiting to return!

Dahlias are native to central and northern South America and the tubers were used by the indigenous peoples as a starchy food crop, although this use has died out. An early attempt to introduce them into Europe as a vegetable did not meet with much success. Some tubers have a refreshing fennel or anise smell and it was this that tempted us to try them last year. We dug up and split all our dahlias last November and, as a result, ended up with an enormous quantity of spare tubers. So we tried cooking them. Thinking that they might behave like potatoes, we had to decide how to cook them - should we boil, mash or roast them? Perhaps a Dahlia Gratin or Dauphinoise? In the end we roasted them. They took a while to soften, rather a long while in fact! When eventually they yielded to the touch, someone had to try them… me. Interesting texture, perhaps a bit fibrous but the taste! Oh dear, that’s not something I’ll forget in a hurry. Perhaps we chose the wrong variety. We chose the bride’s delight, the creamy and ethereal Café au Lait. For many people this is one of the ultimate dahlias - but not for those with a culinary bent! The Cafés have been very late this year, I’m sure they’re sulking!

There are approximately forty species of Dahlia but very few of them look anything like the Dahlias of our gardens. Most of the species have single flowers for a start and range in size from the diminutive to true giants such 68 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

as the orange Dahlia coccinea at well over 2 metres, and the truly vast Dahlia imperialis, which attains tree status in the very mildest parts of the country but which rarely flowers in the UK. There are no true doubles in nature, the first ones appeared quite soon as a cross between two species. These have been further bred by legions of dedicated growers in the last couple of centuries, sometimes in the gardens of stately homes but more often on the allotments of keen amateur growers the length and breadth of this country.

Dahlias are often thought of as rather vulgar and showy but in recent years, breeders have concentrated on creating garden-worthy forms, far from the gangly show-bench specimens of yore. Plants such as the handsome dark-leaved and orange-flowered David Howard and its near relation the flaming scarlet Bishop of Llandaff are worthy border plants for a hotthemed bed. We’re not seeking this quality though;

we’re looking for flowers that have excellent colour, form, stem length and, most importantly, vase life. Colour choices have shifted too. The garish colouring has gone, replaced by some really subtle and ravishing colourways, often an unlikely mix of colours which makes them especially useful in bouquets and arrangements where their mixes of hues help to pull together disparate colours in an arrangement. Some varieties are much better than others. The Karma series was bred for the vase - Karma Fuchsiana, a vivid psychedelic pink, Karma Choc, a velvety near black and Karma Serena, a pure and gorgeous white are all first class. Similarly, any of the Jowey series are excellent cut flowers, with long stems and the most exquisite blooms in subtle shades of peach, coral, pink and apricot. They’re probably my favourites, their mathematically perfect fibonacci spirals are so beautifully defined.

We grow about a couple of hundred types, all chosen

for the vase, from the tiniest mini-poms, through the larger pom-poms, the starry cactus types right up to the outrageous ‘dinner-plate’ types such as our poor, illfated Café au Laits. However, if you want to see a truly enormous array of varieties, then a visit to The National Dahlia Collection in Longrock, near St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall may be in order. Be warned though, there are nearly 2000 varieties and it takes a strong constitution to view and assess them all. That many different-coloured varieties looks like an explosion in a paint factory; we had to take a break half-way round to rest our poor eyeballs.

The things we do to bring you the best of British cut flowers! nationaldahliacollection.co.uk blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk instagram.com/paulstickland_ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 69

Free talks with The Gardens Group this September: A-Z of UK Wildflowers and Shrubs

Plants for Autumn Interest

Autumn Tasks in the Garden

Brimsmore Gardens Tuesday 4 September

Brimsmore Gardens Tuesday 11 September

Brimsmore Gardens Tuesday 18 September

Poundbury Gardens Wednesday 5 September

Poundbury Gardens Wednesday 12 September

Poundbury Gardens Wednesday 19 September

Castle Gardens Thursday 6 September

Castle Gardens Thursday 13 September

Castle Gardens Thursday 20 September

Open Monday-Saturday 9.00am-6.00pm, Sunday 10.00am-4.30pm (tills open at 10.30am).

Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR.

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70 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

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72 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

EMMA MORRIS

THE PADDOCK PROJECT Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

I

n May, The Paddock Project announced the appointment of Emma Morris as the director of this ambitious and exciting venture. Since then, she has moved to the town and, with her loyal Jack Russell terrier Charlie at her side, has settled into the role, working to bring this longed-for project to fruition.

‘I’m passionate about the role of art and creativity in our lives,’ she says, ‘and I’m looking forward to working with the Trustees in establishing The Paddock Project as a world-class gallery. Our aim is to attract local and national audiences as well as establishing the centre as a social hub for the community.’

We’re sitting in the Glove Factory, a short stroll from the Paddock site, where Emma has been hosting public meetings to give local residents the opportunity to view the plans, learn more about the project and voice their opinions. Emma is very upbeat about the response so far, whilst understanding that inevitably some may feel nervous about change. However, as one Sherborne born and bred woodsman mentioned, ‘Every person who moves to this town, be it to retire or bring up a family, will inevitably bring change – and change is what towns do, they naturally evolve.’ >

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 73

74 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Emma began her career studying English and Drama at Hull University. ‘I suppose I had ambitions to become an actor,’ she laughs. ‘But I ended up at the Old Bull Arts Centre in High Barnet and then spent eight years at The Photographers Gallery. Photography is one of her passions and she cites Bill Brandt as a particular favourite. She later went on to become the Deputy Director for the De La Warr Pavilion Project at Bexhill-on-Sea where, over eight years and despite initial local hesitancy, the multi-million-pound renovation turned the modernist building into a popular hub for the seaside town.

Emma’s time at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne, where she worked before joining The Paddock Project and where she was responsible for the curation of over 5,000 important works of art, has given her experience of managing a contemporary space. As she puts it, however, ‘the offer to be the Director of The Paddock Project was irresistible. It’s a wonderful opportunity to build a gallery from scratch and thankfully I’m able to become involved at this early stage.’ Emma expects the project to be completed in spring 2020. ‘The trustees have worked hard to drive this project forward and I’m very excited to be building up

a diverse and talented team. Once this is in place I’ll be looking for volunteers and there’ll also be opportunities for local teenagers to gain work experience.’

What becomes clear while talking to Emma is that she’s keen to convey the wider scope of this new project.

People connect to one another through common values and interests, and having The Paddock Project as a central place where this will be actively encouraged affords it a clear social purpose. ‘The building will have two workshop areas where ‘messy’ activities will be held for children as well as older people,’ she explains. ‘There will be spaces for drawing and sculpture for all ages and workshops for teenagers in coding and digital work.’

Emma also tells me about the planned restaurant and café which will serve locally-sourced fresh food, the shop and the auditorium where she hopes to screen films, hold a children’s film club and host music events with performers coming from near and far.

‘We plan to have two gallery spaces,’ Emma continues. ‘Both will be double-height and in a controlled environment so that we can secure artwork loans from galleries such as the Tate and the V&A.’ She hopes that the galleries will each host four shows a year, with work ranging from fine art to photography. > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 75

76 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 77

78 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

In addition, there’ll be a shop with opportunities for local designers and artisans to show and sell their work.

‘It’s very exciting that Sherborne could potentially host world-class exhibitions. It can only have a positive economic impact on the town,’ she explains. Emma is understandably enthusiastic about the positive influence the gallery will have. ‘I believe we must all think about the future of the town and be open to change.’ Recently there has been much talk about the impact of the digital age on country towns’ high streets as they compete with online equivalents. ‘It’s going to be difficult and challenging,’ she agrees, ‘and I worry about the so-called ‘death of the high street’, but I really do believe that with The Paddock Project we can bring about a change which will renew the town’s vigour for future generations.’

It sounds as if Emma has a busy few years ahead of her. So what about downtime? ‘Well, I come from farming

stock,’ she says ‘so there’s nothing I like more than going for a walk with Charlie. I love the Dorset countryside, with its stunning panoramic vistas often glimpsed through high hedges.’ Emma laughs, ‘and handily I live within walking distance of the Rose & Crown at Trent, which is always a worthwhile destination!’

‘In all seriousness,’ she says, getting promptly back to business, ‘we have a hugely generous local benefactor who has stepped forward to support the project. I truly believe that this is a unique opportunity for the town that we should seize with both hands – it won’t come around again and I’d hate to think that we’d let it go.’

Indeed, and judging by the number of hands raised last year in support of this game-changing endeavour, I doubt we’re in danger of letting that happen. thepaddockproject.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 79

@elizabethwatsonillustrations

COFFEE BREAK Kafe Fontana

Old School Gallery

Oliver’s Coffee House

The Three Wishes

82 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3BJ

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The Trooper Coffee House The Trooper Inn, Stourton Caundle, DT10 2JW @TrooperinDorset @thetrooperinn 01963 362405 thetrooperinn.co.uk

80 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

The Eastbury is a luxury country house hotel with lovely gardens located in the centre of the unspoilt, vibrant, charming and historic town of Sherborne in the beautiful county of Dorset. easons Restaurant at The Eastbury offers multi award winning fine dining, lighter options and afternoon teas all served with 5 star service.

Tel: 01935 813131 to reserve a room or table Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 3BY

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Family owned by Peter de Savary

Food and Drink

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

COURGETTE, PISTACHIO AND LEMON CAKE

Serves 8-12 depending on the size of portions

Image: Katharine Davies

I

can remember a time when courgettes were vegetables and you had them with a meal. They were cooked Italian style with tomatoes and things.

Then they started to appear in cakes. I supposed it would be like a carrot cake, so why not?

I usually make this cake in summer when I have too many courgettes and my friends bring me their overflow crops. The first time I made it I fell in love with the idea and didn’t want to just follow a recipe, so I played with it until I had my perfect bake. I make it as a tray bake because it sells well that way (more easily cut up) but it can be made as a round cake. For a smaller cake, halve the recipe.

You can make the lemon curd - it’s quick and easy but if you haven’t time use shop-bought. You can also use ready-shelled pistachios to save time. This cake can also be made as a courgette and lime cake and you 82 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

can leave out the nuts.

What you will need

A 4cm deep traybake tin, 38cm x 28cm, or two 20cm round, loose-bottom cake tins, preferably spring form.

Grease and line the tins. I use a silicon sheet in the tray and silicon rounds in the round tins. A stand mixer or a electric hand mixer is useful. If you are making the lemon curd, you will need a microwaveable bowl and a microwave oven.

Ingredients

For the cake: 500g of courgettes, grated then placed in a colander over a bowl to drain as much of the water as possible (to ensure that as much liquid as possible is removed, I use my fists to push down on the grated courgettes until

hardly any liquid drips out) 200g sultanas soaked in the juice and zest of a lemon with 2 tablespoons of boiling water, so that the fruit plumps up 4 large eggs 250ml groundnut oil 200g caster sugar 450g self-raising flour 3g bicarbonate of soda 2g baking powder 2g ground cinnamon Zest of two lemons or 8 drops of lemon zest liquid 75g shelled and chopped pistachios, optional For the lemon curd: 75g unsalted butter 3 large eggs 75g caster sugar 125ml freshly squeezed lemon juice Zest of one unwaxed lemon For the cream cheese icing: 150g cream cheese 175g sifted icing sugar Juice of one lemon Method

1 Set the oven for 160C fan assisted, 170C, 325F, gas mark 4.

2 Place the eggs, oil and sugar in a stand mixer and beat until light and frothy.

3 Add the zest of two lemons or 8 drops of lemon extract.

4 Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a bowl and then fold into the egg mixture.

5 Fold in the courgettes then the sultanas (if there is too much liquid remaining, drain the sultanas first).

6 Pour the mixture into the traybake tin and tap down on the worktop to even the mixture out.

7 Place on the middle shelf and bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

8 Let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

10 Whisk the eggs in a bowl and then pour them into the butter mixture, whisking in the eggs until all combined. Place the mixture in the microwave and heat on medium for one minute. Remove from the oven and whisk, repeat this until the curd thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.

11 Cover with cling film and allow to cool. I like to let the cake and curd cool overnight.

To assemble the cake 12 With a sharp serrated knife, cut the cake in half.

13 Spread one half with lemon curd and place the remaining half on top.

To make the cream cheese icing 14 Beat the cream cheese in a stand mixer until smooth, add a spoonful of icing sugar at a time until all combined, then add the juice of the lemon. If the icing is a little slack add a little more icing sugar.

15 Pour the icing on the top of the cake and spread it to the edges allowing it to slip over the edge of the cake a little.

16 Chop the pistachios and scatter them over the top of the cake.

This cake will keep in the fridge for a week but with so much moisture it should be eaten within a few days. bakerval.com

While the cake is baking make the lemon curd.

9 Place the butter, sugar, zest and lemon juice in the microwaveable bowl and place in the microwave on a low heat for one minute to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

Food & Drink

VODKA David Copp

W

here does vodka come from? The Russians say Russia, the Poles say Poland. G & J Greenalls said it came from Warrington.

Today vodka is distilled all over the world, with Smirnoff being the biggest spirit brand. However, in the beginning, we probably have to look at potatoes in about 800BC or, in fact, any surplus agricultural product that had to be reduced to make way for the new harvest, whether beets, grains or vegetables. I suspect the monasteries had something to do with it. They maintained substantial herb gardens and were the ‘go-to’ Boots pharmacy of the times. The monks also had the know-how to boil up the crop and extract the clear, clean spirit from their stills.

Vodka in Russian means ‘little water’ – distilled water - and I can image it being dispensed as a medicine quite frequently in cold winters. Apparently, it did have other uses such as washing the chin after shaving!

It took a few hundred years for vodka to become the big business it is today. Krakow, Gdansk and Potsdam were significant production centres, and still are. The vodka habit spread into neighbouring Russia and Peter 84 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

the Great gave it respectability by being more particular about the quality of spirit distilled.

Today grain, usually rye but sometimes wheat or barley, is distilled and re-distilled and passed through a charcoal filter to make sure it is pure and clean. Is it tasteless? Well, after two or three distillations there is not going to be much flavour around other than charcoal although Somerset Maughan did once get carried away and declare he had drunk a vodka with, ‘the taste of fresh mown grass and spring flowers, thyme and lavender, soft and delicate, making you feel as though you were listening to music in the moonlight.’ He was actually talking about Zubrowka or Bison Grass, one of a number of really interesting variations on the theme. I have come across enthusiasts who like dry vodka flavoured with rowan berries, others prefer cherries. I have tasted ten-year-old vodka aged like whisky in oak casks that had a kick like a mule, and enjoyed vodka flavoured with honey.

Vodka production in the west really took off when Russian and Polish émigrés settled in the United States after the Russian Revolution. Smirnoff became popular.

Warrington – not the birthplace of vodka

Its appeal was as a neutral spirit which could be used to add life to flavoured liqueurs used in cocktails, a very fashionable way of ending the day in busy New York bars.

In the 1950s Smirnoff re-crossed the Atlantic to Britain and, by the time I got to launch Vladivar for Greenalls, it was rightly the established brand leader.

Vodka sales began to overtake gin, which had been the preferred white spirit tipple of the English for 200 years.

Smirnoff was a wonderfully marketed brand and we knew we would have to do something special to compete with it. We decided to advance Warrington as the centre of the vodka world. We ran a series of outrageous promotions including the Vladivar Vodka Holiday competition which offered one week’s holiday in Warrington (a wire and soap town for those who haven’t been there). The second prize was two weeks... We also sponsored with Export Times the Vladivar Vodka Incredible Export Award for the most imaginative exports from British Companies. It was won by a Leicestershire firm making percussion instruments.

They equipped the Congolese Army with drums, sent tambourines to Venezuela and ornithologist’s whistles to

the Portuguese islands. The citation praised the company for selling bongos to the Congo, maracas to Caracas and bird whistles to the Canary Islands. We were the brand to advertise vodka on cow jackets. The jacketed cows were herded into a field alongside the Brighton line in the week before the Brighton festival. We also sponsored a team of brilliant British white-water canoeists to canoe down Mount Everest.

I hope you have got the picture. Vodka is a fun drink, which doesn’t leave you with a hangover thanks to the relative absence of congeners, those little devils that tend to cause headaches after a surfeit of scotch, brandy and gin. At our dinner parties we served vodka ice cold and neat in small, gulp-sized glasses accompanied by a Russian toast such as, ‘Here’s to the four corner posts of my bed.’ Vodka goes with just about everything, from tonic to Coca Cola. My personal favourite was vodka with really, really fresh orange juice. It was first dreamed up by American oil workers in Iran where fresh oranges were freely available; they squeezed the juice into their vodka and stirred it with their screwdrivers. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

Food and Drink

KHINKALI

Sasha and Tom Matkevitch, The Green Restaurant

K

hinkali are traditional dumplings from the Caucasus region, an area of beautiful steppes and mountains, where east meets west. Chinese dim sum and Italian ravioli somewhat merge in this satisfying dish, which is best served traditionally, lathered in butter and served with plenty of sour cream.

Ingredients (makes roughly 30 khinkali)

For the dough: 225g plain flour 1tbs olive oil 150ml water Pinch of salt

For the filling: 250g beef mince 1 finely diced onion 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced or crushed 100ml cold water 1tbs fresh parsley, chopped ½tbs fresh dill, chopped 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely diced 30g butter Salt Black pepper Sour cream or yoghurt to serve

86 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Method

1 For the dough. Put all four ingredients into a bowl and mix into a smooth dough. If it sticks to your hands, add some more flour, and if some flour is left at the bottom of the bowl, work in a little water.

2 Knead on a floured work surface for a couple of minutes, then return to the bowl and rest in the fridge for 45 minutes.

3 For the filling. Put the mince, onion, garlic, water, fresh herbs and chilli in a bowl and mix. Season and set aside until the dough is ready.

4 On a heavily floured work surface, roll the rested dough onto a large sheet around 2-2.5mm thick. Use a 7cm (or similar) diameter ring mould, cookie cutter or glass to cut out circles of dough. Add a dollop of filling into the centre of a circle, then bring the edges of the dough round the filling to create a little bag. Pinch the neck. Repeat for the remainder of the dough circles. As you get more confident with the shaping of the dumpling, try with a little more filling.

Dust your khinkali with some extra plain flour.

5 Bring a pan of salted water to the bowl and add the dumplings. Cook for 3-4 minutes then drain and return to the pan with the butter and plenty of black pepper.

Toss gently, then serve with sour cream or yoghurt. greenrestaurant.co.uk

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Animal Care

TIME AND TIDE

Mark Newton-Clarke, MA VetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

88 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

W

ith the hot summer rolling on, I think I have said enough about heat stroke and skin disorders to last us, so I thought I would say a little about the practice and our recent recruits. Many of you who are clients will know that I first started working in Sherborne almost 20 years ago, opening up at the Station House after the building had been derelict for some time.

When I think back to those days, with patients having to go to Yeovil for x-rays and blood tests taking days not minutes, I realise things have moved on. Our digital radiography and ultrasound at both clinics is used several times a day and although we could do without them (as clinical experience still reigns), the possibility of a faster diagnosis allows us to take action without delay, when necessary. Although technology is established in medicine, I would choose a good clinician over a good technician any day, even though our team of vets and nurses are all experienced in both. We have been lucky to recruit local vets and nurses who, along with our reception staff, have become a real team with the skills to deal with our growing case load.

We have just been joined by Peter Luscombe who has been a vet in Yeovil for over 2 decades and who brings all that knowledge and experience with him. Peter has a special interest in dermatology, really useful as up to 20% of the dogs and cats we see have skin problems.

Just last week, I examined a cockerpoo (wish we could adopt a better name) with recurrent ear problems - pretty common in both spaniels and poodles so you can guess that a mixture of the two will be no better! A combination of hairy ear canals and long ear flaps makes for quite a culture medium, even more so as this was a dog that loved to dive under water for stones. Actually duck-dived. No matter how vigorous the head-shake, the residual water in the ears helps the bugs thrive. Anyway, Peter overheard my consultation and suggested a simple and quick way to find out the type of infection causing the problem.

Using just a cotton wool bud, a sample of the waxy, yucky stuff from the ear was spread on a microscope slide and examined. The result was clear: vast numbers of skittleshaped microbes that indicate a yeast infection (called malassezia) a lover of warm, wet ears. However, our canine diver had been treated with the appropriate medication for some time and still had an active infection, so what

was going wrong? Most likely the bugs were growing faster than they could be killed and so Peter suggested a systemic antifungal called itraconazole. Our diving dog is now much better – let’s hope someone invents canine ear plugs otherwise he’s going to be back at some future time.

The other addition to our veterinary team is Amaia, who has been working locally for the last 10 years and has married and settled in Somerset. Although Amaia will be working in Yeovil, you may see her in Sherborne on Saturdays for our morning clinic before the afternoon session at Preston Road that goes on until 3.30pm.

Or longer, like last Saturday which was busy even by our standards. I was asked to help out as Amaia had admitted a dog belonging to a keen angler. You may not be surprised to learn that it wasn’t a fish on the end of the line, but the poor dog! The hooks were clearly visible on the X-ray and it seemed straightforward to find them but past experience has taught me otherwise. The canine stomach is rarely completely empty and needles in haystacks come to mind. However, Amaia retrieved the offending tackle from the depths of Tricky’s stomach and I am happy to report that an uneventful recovery ensued. As someone who likes to fish occasionally and has three hungry dogs, I try to make sure a baited hook stays well away from my four-legged fish. The tendency for dogs to eat first and ask questions later can make it impossible to stop the occasional dietary indiscretion.

It was unfortunate in this case that the snack was so potentially lethal.

I may as well continue this theme of dogs and water and leave you with one last thought. Beware of the garden pond or paddling pool and small dogs or puppies.

Our plumber, Kevin, has been helping me with a new bathroom and Poppy, his adorable Labrador-cross, spent her days in our garden with my dogs. Our little pond has vertical sides and is quite deep so getting out represented no more of a challenge to Poppy than getting in. Poppy was very happy with the result. A smaller dog would have a very different experience as dogs (unlike cats) cannot pull themselves up easily, especially if there is no purchase for their hind feet.

Enjoy whatever we have left of the summer and use water wisely! newtonclarkevet.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

Animal Care

IS YOUR CHICKEN LOSING ITS FEATHERS? Gemma Loader MRCVS, The Kingston Veterinary Group

S

eeing your chicken coop laden in feathers can be a frightening sight! First and foremost you may think of a predator attack, however there are other causes of feather loss that are less serious.

The most common cause is the ‘annual moult’ where chickens lose their old feathers and replace them with new, over the space of a few weeks. This generally occurs in late summer as daylight hours reduce and the egg-laying season begins to cease. During the moult, chickens tend to lose their neck feathers first, followed by back, breast and finally tail feathers. You may find 90 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

that chickens no longer lay eggs during this moulting period; this is because a lot of protein is needed to make eggs and feathers themselves are 80% protein. So, a chicken cannot have enough protein available to both moult and produce eggs at the same time.

Secondly, bullying/pecking from other chickens can result in feather loss. This is usually around the head or back of the chicken. There is generally a hierarchy amongst the coop and, to establish this, sometimes there is some minor, harmless jostling. On occasions this establishment of hierarchy can result in chickens being

"On occasions, the establishment of hierarchy can result in chickens being singled out and bullied. "

singled out and bullied.

Pecking can become a problem when new birds are introduced to a flock and the hierarchy is adjusted. It’s advisable to introduce the new birds by putting them in a cage within the coop. After a few days, attempt releasing the new ones so that they run together. An alternative is to place new chickens in the coop at night when it’s nesting up time. Place them on the roosting perch with the others and usually they settle in.

Other possible reasons for bullying or chickens pulling out their own feathers could be boredom or stress, for example, lack of space, an unsuitable living environment, extreme heat, water deprivation and being shut in for long periods. This can be avoided by providing enrichment for the chickens such as swings, sand/dust baths, allowing them access to fresh forage daily, hanging up cabbage/swedes in the coop and providing a large space for them to roam.

Bullying can end up being a real problem. When feathers are pulled out, the skin can become broken.

Chickens are drawn to red flesh and blood so will then peck more at this chicken, causing more serious damage and sometimes cannibalism.

Mite or lice infestation can be a cause of feather loss.

If parasites are involved the hens usually stop laying eggs too. Red mite would be the most common parasitic complaint. These are mites which live within the chicken house and feed on the chickens at night. You can spot them in the chicken house rather than on the bird. Lice, however, live on the chickens themselves. There are forms of ‘poultry dust’ available which can help reduce the parasite burden. In the case of red mites you would need to dust the house and in the case of lice you will need to dust the bird itself. On occasion, this dust is simply not enough and stronger veterinary products may be required.

To prevent either of the parasites returning make sure you regularly clean your chicken coop and wash your hands both before and after handling your chickens.

Finally, the cockerel! He can be a cause of feather loss to his females; sometimes he may single out a preferential hen who suffers more, or he may have excessive mating habits. When cockerels mate with hens, they hold onto the hen’s back with their beak - this is known as treading.

As a result, feathers on the neck and back get damaged or lost. You may need to separate the cockerel occasionally if this happens or give him a larger number of hens to keep him more occupied! kingstonvets.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 91

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Cycling

SPINNING HOOPS Mike Riley, Rileys Cycles

A

s I write this Geraint Thomas, aka ‘G’, coasts across the line in Paris to win the Tour de France. Bicycle makers and sponsors names will get the limelight but without a good set of ‘hoops’ the result would be different. Around the course you see wheels held aloft at strategic places or carried on cars; these are neutral service wheels which riders can access if they have a failure. I found so much to share on the subject that it needs two articles, so I’ll discuss wheels this month and tyres next.

94 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

The bicycle wheel is fascinating to engineers. Each rotation, a spoke changes from pulling to pushing; at 400rpm, that’s 24,000 squeezes and stretches per hour. A wheel may weigh 1kg or less, however a pair will support a load of 100kg or more. Mass-produced wheels are laced by machines which reduces costs, but the human touch is used to tension and true the best wheels.

Wheel types

Our store above the shop is full of wheels. There are

many types and sizes varying in application and material.

Most modern rims are aluminium; they don’t rust and brake pads grip better. The downside is the braking surface wears and riders may not notice until the rim is so thin that it splits. Washing the bike or wiping road grit from the rims and brake pads slows down the wear rate and better-quality pads are less abrasive and extend the life of the rim.

Although carbon fibre (CF) is seen as a wonder material for bicycles, carbon wheels need to be used with caution. When braking hard, the rim may heat up to around 200oC. This is bad news as the resin used in some CF softens at 180oC. The heat also increases tyre pressure which deforms the rim with catastrophic results. In my opinion, carbon wheels are best reserved for disc brakes, where the brake is separate from the rim.

Wheels designed for disc brakes don’t have the problem of rim wear. The choice of spoke lacing patterns is more limited because the forces on the wheel are different when braking.

Steel wheels are still supplied on budget bikes or vintage bikes. The most curious wheels have rims of wood, as made for generations by the Ghisallo family in Italy.

Free speed

In a previous career working on product development in wind tunnels, I learned about aerodynamics and saw the testing of early drag-reducing skin suits and helmets for skiers and cyclists. Bicycle manufacturers realised that drag becomes the most dominant resistance at relatively low speed so drag from wheels needs to be reduced. Bladed spokes together with shaped and deeper rim sections help the rider seeking performance gains. However, the real world isn’t like a wind tunnel and a side gust from a gap in a hedge can push a rider with deep rims across the road, so they are best kept for suitable conditions.

The route home from my workplace involved a big hill on the South Downs and I learned there the benefits of good hub bearings. I could tuck in my elbows and freewheel downhill and overtake other cyclists who were pedalling. So how did I gain this free speed boost? Ball bearings are graded from 2000 to 3 (3 being the best).

At the Campagnolo factory my hubs came from, they selected the best of the highest grade to use. So, when we service a vintage Campag hub we don’t automatically replace the bearings; we carefully clean and inspect the originals because they are the best of the best.

Modern high-performance wheels use sealed

cartridge bearings and the quality of these can also affect the ride. We choose replacement bearings with good seals to keep the dirt and wet out and the grease in.

It is advisable to service hubs, especially if ridden regularly in the wet. They can last many years if cared for but when the hub bearing surface is wrecked due to lack of grease, the wheel is a write-off.

The wheel-builders art

Building wheels takes patience and concentration or the lacing pattern can be messed up. That is why I let my retired friend Paul do any complete rebuilds. We replace broken spokes and true wheels ourselves but more than that is not practical as we have to keep stopping and starting whenever the phone rings or a customer comes in.

Repairs and truing

Truing involves adjusting the spoke tensions so the wheel spins without deflection. Knowing how much to adjust each spoke nipple is a skill developed through experience. We have an ancient truing jig and a modern one with dial gauges, and it is interesting that the results with the old jig are still pretty good; this is because the ‘feel’ of the mechanic is the most significant factor. I was very pleased recently when asked to true a steel wheel with a ding in the rim edge because an old rim-setting tool I had kept in the workshop gathering dust for 5 years worked a treat on it.

Looking after your wheels

It is surprising that people are often unaware when they have a wheel problem; a quick inspection will tell you if something is failing and needs to be repaired. When checking the bike before a ride, have a look at the spokes to see if there is any damage and how the rim spins as it passes the brakes blocks. Grasp parallel pairs of spokes and squeeze them to feel the tension; work your way round the wheel and you will feel spokes that are too slack. While spinning the wheel, listen for noises; a rumble indicates bearings need fresh grease. Take hold of the top of the wheel and give it wiggle from side to side; if there is slack, the hubs need attention.

A common problem arises when rear gears are not correctly set and the chain comes off by the spokes. The rider is not aware that the chain has cut the spokes and some miles later a spoke will break and several will then need replacing. rileyscycles.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 95

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Body and Mind

GOING FOR GOLD Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms

T

o keep a holiday tan going or to create a tan from a blank canvas can be a tricky process. The active ingredient in self-tanning formulations is Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) which is derived from sugar beets or sugar cane by the fermentation of glycerine. The DHA activates the melanocytes (pigment-producing cells) into making colour within the top layers of the skin. Sunless tanning products contain DHA in varying concentrations, usually ranging from 3-5%, with professional products ranging from 5-15%. The higher the percentage, the darker and richer the tanning effect.

However, the depth of colour you can achieve from using self-tanning products largely depends on how many melanocytes you have naturally. For example, someone who is naturally fair skinned will not have large numbers of pigment-producing cells to be stimulated into making a tan and will therefore tan less darkly, no matter what strength of product they use.

Coppertone introduced the first consumer sunless tanning lotion into the marketplace in the 1960s. This product was called ‘Quick Tan’ or ‘QT’. It was sold as an overnight tanning agent but had a bad reputation for orange palms and streaky skin! By the 1980s, new sunless tanning formulations appeared on the market and refinements in the DHA manufacturing process gave rise to products that produced a more natural-looking colour and improved fading. Now, the newest generation of selftanners provides plenty of choices for different skin types, skin tones, lifestyles, application methods, development time and desired length of colour wear.

Lighter products are more beginner-friendly but 98 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

may require multiple coats to produce the desired depth of colour. Darker products produce a dark tan in one coat but are also more prone to streaking, unevenness, or unnatural tones. It’s also easy to make the mistake of using a product that is just too dark for your natural tanning ability, which adversely affects melanocyte activity resulting in an unnatural and ‘orangey’ tone.

Pre-tan preparation is key to ensuring that your skin has an even and ‘new’ base over which to apply any product. Complete any hair removal at least 24 hours in advance of application, exfoliate the skin thoroughly and then apply moisturiser to areas such as face, feet, hands, elbows and knees before applying the tanning product.

Most self-tans will fade gradually over 3 to 10 days in conjunction with the skin’s normal exfoliation process. However, prolonged water submersion, tight fitting clothes or heavy sweating all speed up the shedding of the surface skin cells and can therefore lighten your tan more quickly. So take short showers rather than baths and pat yourself dry rather than rubbing. Apply a moisturiser daily to keep the top layers of the skin moist and well-adhered to the skin. Gentle, circular buffing with a soft exfoliating mesh puff and foamy shower gel every 3-4 days will also help the colour to fade more evenly and reduce any patchiness caused by clothes rubbing.

And remember, self-tans give you confidence in your summer wardrobe but they don’t give protection from the sun! thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 99

Body & Mind

POSITIVE CHANGES Loretta Lupi-Lawrence, The Sherborne Rooms

L

ast September I wrote about ‘back to school’ and how it ties in so neatly with the autumn equinox.

This time of the year can often feel more of a fresh start than January does at the beginning of a new year. As each year passes we all learn a little more, whether from big life stuff or small incremental lessons.

There is a motto I like to mull over when I feel stagnant and need encouragement: ‘If you live your life by the same patterns year in and year out you are not really living at all.’

Change, newness, firsts... all words that can inject fear into us as we wade into the unknown. Did you 100 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

know that fear and excitement display the same feelings, evoking the same level of adrenaline? Think this way and life can open up in a more positive way.

Personally, September brings about a stack of ‘new.’

Our new men’s clothing brand launches, work life changes, however our biggest change is that our twins start ‘big school.’ While my heart aches for them to stay little, feeling that I’ve just not had enough time with them, I am also learning so much from them at this time. I listen to them talking about their upcoming adventure and how they are so proud to be growing up, with excitement for learning, playing and making new

friends but also, now they are old enough, excitement for such things as learning to climb and be in team games such as rugby or football. It has not once occurred to them that this big step into education is anything but the best thing ever to happen to them.

Unless it’s deep water or sharp objects then fear is almost an alien concept. It’s so inspiring to watch a child embrace life and run into it with wild abandon.

As adults we lose that carefree attitude and belief that we can do anything as we experience the less sunny side of life.

Are you changing something in your life?

Starting something new? Adding to your plate?

Whatever you are doing it starts with your attitude towards it. Try the following ways to aid you during this time to succeed: Meditation: For ten minutes a day, more if you can, simply let your mind rest. I can highly recommend Dawn Hart from Yoga Sherborne who offers relaxation and meditation classes at lunchtimes. If you are doing it at home try the new Meditation Blend from Neal’s Yard Remedies; it creates a wonderfully restful yet uplifting aroma that can be diffused to help promote a sense of calm and focus, ready for meditation or when you want to create a moment of zen.

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Writing: Keep a notebook of all your thoughts and use it as a journal, documenting everything; it will become a key reference for you. Some of our thought processes can skip ahead and you may not remember them six months down the line.

Find a Mentor: Using someone you can bounce ideas off is a great way to expand your thinking and your confidence. Find someone you trust your ideas and thoughts with.

Feel the fear and do it anyway! Embrace your inner child and let yourself fully live!

Loretta invites you to join her closed, online ‘Positive Changes’ Facebook group from xx September for two weeks. Here you will be supported with whatever you are embarking on. Learn how to click your mind to the right dial and succeed. £9.99 per person. Search ‘Positive Changes’ on eventbrite.co.uk for the link to sign up. thesherbornerooms.com

New original men’s leisure clothing brand from The Sherborne Barber in store now!

Order online at www.fixupclothing.com or pop into the shop

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Fix Up ‘Look Sharp’! sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Body & Mind

BOXING FOR FITNESS

M

Simon Partridge BSc, Personal Trainer, SPFit

uch is now being written about the psychological benefits of exercise as well as the physiological, so what better way to relieve the stress of our modern world than boxing? I am not talking about the sports of boxing or martial arts there are some brilliant local clubs and coaches who will help those specifically interested in these sports. This is about boxing for fitness.

Boxing training provides some of the best all-over body conditioning you can get, no matter what your age, gender or level of ability. In July, BBC Breakfast went to a boxing club in Manchester that now hosts ladies-only training nights. All forms of exercise should be inclusive and no-one 102 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

should feel intimidated and excluded from joining in.

Olympic-style boxing is very different from the professional boxing most people are familiar with seeing on TV. Anyone who has ever tried their hand at sparring will tell you how hard it is! There’s a reason why boxing is the workout of choice for so many celebrities and models. Not only is fighting a strength and cardio workout all in one, it’s the best way to get in tune with your inner ‘demons/stresses.’ You don’t need to follow Brad Pitt’s example in his famous film, The Fight Club; just give ‘pad work’ a go and have fun getting fit. If that’s not enough to convince you to add boxing to your regime, these five benefits surely will.

You’ll sculpt every muscle

A 2-for-1 cardio and strength workout, boxing improves overall fitness. It also improves several skill-related parameters of fitness, including balance, co-ordination, reactivity, and agility. Boxing is NOT predominantly an upper-body workout. If you do it correctly, you get a full-body workout. Your arms extend for each punch, however the power comes from your hips and legs. You will also work your back, shoulders and core.

You’ll burn calories fast

The main physical benefit beginner boxers will see is cardiovascular. Boxing improves your resting heart rate and muscular endurance. Lower resting heart rate and increased stamina can give you an edge in your other workouts. With a potential burn rate of 13 calories a minute, boxing goes head-to-head with other types of cardio such as running and cycling. 30 minutes sparring with a partner can blast 300 calories.

You’ll relieve stress like never before

Boxing will help you calm down. Stress relief sets boxing apart from other workouts. Not only is hitting something a healthy and productive way to help you let go of tension, the rush of endorphins may make you happier too.

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You’ll improve your co-ordination

Hand-eye co-ordination is key for boxing. Sparring with pads requires focused movements, challenging your muscles and your mind. Muhammad Ali didn’t ‘float like a butterfly’ for nothing.

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You’ll never stop learning

It’s easy for your fitness routine to become, well, routine, but boxing will keep you on your toes. Unlike running on the treadmill, there’s always something new to learn, so you have a serious incentive to keep training.

Give it a go. Try ‘boxing’ with a personal trainer or in a bootcamp/HIIT type class. Boxing is serious fun. Just ask the 2 ladies shown in the photograph.

SPFit has a variety of training options designed for all abilities from 1:1 coaching and a Running Club to small group training that includes power yoga (Broga), outdoor bootcamps, weight lifting and crossfit-type classes. spfit-sherborne.co.uk

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www.56londonroad.co.uk Email: info@56londonroad.co.uk 56 London Road, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5DW Free Parking and Wheelchair access sherbornetimes.co.uk | 103

Body & Mind

SAVING YOUR SKELETON

Image: Stuart Brill

Craig Hardaker BSC (Hons), Communifit with Peter Ward, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dorset Hip Clinic

W

e have discussed in previous articles, the importance of muscle strengthening. Muscle naturally deteriorates as part of the ageing process. We know that by staying stronger for longer, everyday activity becomes easier and more manageable.

Having a proactive rather than reactive approach to muscle deterioration is key to successful ageing. But what about our bones? To answer this, I call upon my friend, Peter Ward of Dorset Hip Clinic. CH Trip on a kerbstone at the age of 30 and you will be bruised. Trip on a kerbstone at the age of 70 and you may be broken. So why the difference? We all build up bone density and bone strength from our childhood until the age of about 30. After that there is a slow but steady decline in our bone quality and our ability to fall 104 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

without breaking. With ladies, once past the menopause, the rate of this bone loss soon triples! For some of us this loss may be critical and lead to the condition of osteoporosis. This often causes our bones to fail with resulting stress or insufficiency fractures of the hip, wrist or spine. Such breaks can happen with little or no warning or trauma.

What can we do to reduce this rate of bone loss?

Bone is a living, active tissue. It responds to the forces we subject it to and strengthens with repetitive loading.

We can therefore influence this bone strengthening.

When the first astronauts returned to earth they had marked weakness of their bones and some suffered spinal insufficiency fractures. We soon learnt that being without gravity causes rapid, significant bone loss. The

same is seen in patients who are immobilised with illness. With increasing age we see the same.

As an orthopaedic surgeon I see many patients whose bones have failed them secondary to osteoporosis. I also see patients whose legs or arms are immobilised after trauma, and their X-rays show that rapidly the bone quality reduces, the bone melting away. This is called ‘disuse’ osteoporosis and tends to recover rapidly once patients are walking or loading their injured limbs again.

Astronauts are now taught to protect their bones using resistance training with bands. We can protect our bones by working them against gravity or with weights. Whilst weight-bearing exercises such as brisk walking are excellent, yoga with twisting and pulling movements and using appropriate elastic bands and free weights also stresses our skeleton and stimulates bone activity. For those unable to mobilise, even doing structured upper limb exercises whilst seated can help load and so protect bones.

Another important strategy to protect our skeleton is to eat well. A balanced diet with particular attention being paid to green vegetables and possibly dairy products will provide all the calcium and vitamins we need for bone strength. Vegan and vegetarians eating a balanced diet with fresh produce will also have no need for additional supplements.

Those with established osteoporosis may require additional calcium and vitamins. Being too slim with little body fat can cause problems. Our fat cells produce hormones needed to control our bone quality so those who are very underweight may be at risk of fragility fractures.

So, protect your skeleton. Make your bones stay with you by loading them. Try to walk not drive.

Exercise not only protects bone quality, it helps keep muscle function and coordination, reducing the very risk of a fall.

Strength and balance training is best achieved by directed supervision and adequate facilities such as exercise classes. Although this requires commitment from both the individual and our society, prevention will always be better than cure. PW For more advice consider visiting the National Osteoporosis Society nos.org.uk or talking to your doctor. communifit.co.uk dorset-hip-clinic.co.uk

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An active circuit-based class improving muscle strength, aerobic fitness & core stability. Be proactive, not reactive, towards your health & fitness! Suitable for all ages.

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Communifit is currently delivering specific exercise classes to nursing, care and residential homes. Using a variety of equipment, the classes’ main objectives are to improve functional independence and fall prevention. Specifically targeting all the major muscle groups of the body, the class is carefully tailored to the participants’ strengths, weaknesses and limitations. £35 for 45 minutes.

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 105

Body & Mind

AN INTEGRATED PRACTICE

W

Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom, London Road Clinic

hilst in Africa in the 1970s and ‘80s I became quite ill. Eventually I discovered a naturopath (a therapist who uses a range of ‘natural’ therapies) and regained my health. The naturopath was able to select from a range of complementary therapies that worked together or could work alone.

On retraining fifteen years ago, I determined to establish an ‘integrated practice’ for myself, training in therapies that would work in conjunction with each other but remain strong individually. Now, my practice consists of the Bowen Technique, Myofascial Release, Light Touch Spinal Alignment (LTSA) and Facial Energy Release (FER). Alongside these bodywork therapies I use homeopathy and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

My choice of therapies is based on their breadth of healing and the ‘gentleness’ of their action. This allows me to treat patients from the neonatal stage through to end-oflife support. The depth and strength of healing that these therapies are capable of allows me to address a very broad range of health problems, both physical and emotional.

The bodywork therapies focus largely on the fascia (connective tissue) which wraps individual muscles, organs and joints, and connects like a ‘web’ throughout the body.

This ‘connective web’ allows for release and ‘communication’ across the body’s systems, encouraging a very wide range of healing. Homeopathy addresses a similar range of healing ‘medicinally,’ whilst EFT approaches emotional blocks ‘energetically’ through ‘tapping.’

Here’s an example of working with more than one therapy. Soon after I qualified as a homeopath, a patient 106 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

arrived experiencing great pain in her lower back which also extended down her leg. She had recently finished courses of chemotherapy and radiation for uterine cancer. The pain had become unbearable; prescriptions for pain were not helping. She received sessions of Bowen combined with LTSA. Homoeopathically, I helped clear her system of the chemo and radiation then prescribed a ‘constitutional’ remedy to help her regain strength. After a scan showed a fracture of the sacroiliac joint, I prescribed a remedy to speed healing followed by low potency remedies to strengthen her bones. Finally, she had two EFT sessions to ease the remaining pain from the fracture and to teach her how to use EFT as a self-help tool. She recovered well and returns for ‘maintenance’ sessions, helping her to remain balanced.

A second example is of a young footballer who came to me suffering from sciatica and shin splints. He responded within two sessions to LTSA combined with Myofascial Release. I recommended RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for his shin. Homoeopathically, I prescribed a low potency remedy for two weeks followed by a single high potency remedy. He recovered quickly and returns for ‘maintenance,’ helping to ensure against further injury.

These therapies work safely with the totality of the patient, helping their system to return to a healthy balance. They use the body’s own natural healing power and energy to restore health on all levels.

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Body & Mind

HOW TO BOOST THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

A

Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom, GP and Complementary Practitioner, Glencairn House

s our wonderful summer draws to a close, the ‘cough and cold’ season approaches. To protect against infection we need to boost our immune system, our defence against infection. It is made up of millions of cells with many functions which include the death of bacteria as well as the production of antibodies and anti-viral substances.

In order to function efficiently the immune system needs a plentiful supply of vitamins, minerals and immune boosters. A mixed and balanced diet of fresh fruit and vegetables will provide vitamins C and E, as well as Zinc, Selenium and Iron. Vitamin C suppresses the activation of viral genes; studies have shown that it reduces the duration of a common cold by 20% as well as reducing the severity of symptoms. Zinc boosts the action of infection-fighting white blood cells in the throat and reduces symptoms of the common cold.

Selenium assists the production of ‘killer’ white blood cells and Vitamin E stimulates antibody production.

Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are important to maintain optimal immune system activity.

Eggs are an excellent source of amino acids as well as Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin that is essential for so many cellular functions. While diet should always come first, taking a multi-mineral/vitamin provides a nutritional safety net.

Omega 3 fish oils have protective antiinflammatory properties – try to include oily fish (mackerel, salmon) in your diet twice weekly. Another popular supplement, Echinacea, has been shown to boost immunity by increasing the number and activity of white blood cells. Garlic has natural antiseptic, antibacterial and antiviral actions.

Besides these dietary and supplement measures, 108 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

there are a number of lifestyle changes that can improve the action of your immune system. Regular exercise has been shown to increase the number of infectionfighting cells. A good night’s sleep is important for rejuvenation and regeneration; one study demonstrated that people having less than 7 hours’ sleep are more likely to develop symptoms with the common cold. Try to reduce your stress levels as this puts a strain on your adrenal glands which then interferes with the body’s ability to fight disease and increases susceptibility to infection. Perhaps consider stress-relieving strategies such as ‘mind–body’ techniques (yoga, meditation). It should go without saying but stopping smoking cuts out all the damaging oxidants and noxious components that encourage inflammation.

Along with all the above, don’t forget to book your flu jab at your GP surgery, especially if you have asthma, emphysema, diabetes or heart disease. You may also be eligible for the pneumonia vaccine.

If you should be unlucky enough to contract a viral cold or sore throat, besides taking Vitamin C and Echinacea you could also take the homeopathic remedy Aconite 30c four times daily to stimulate the immune response and shorten the duration of the cold.

In summary, the key messages are: eat a mixed balanced diet; supplement with a multi-mineral/vitamin for insurance purposes; take regular exercise; stop smoking; address any stress situations. If you get a cold take extra Vitamin C and Zinc. Also consider taking Echinacea and homeopathic Aconite. Hopefully the above strategies will boost your immune system and fend off virus and bacterial infections. doctorTWRobinson.com

Brister&Son Independent Family Funeral Directors

When your family suffers the loss of a loved one, we are here to support, guide and reassure you – every step of the way Call Daniel on 01935 812647 100 Lenthay Road, Sherborne DT9 6AG Email: daniel@wsbrister.com www.wsbrister.com

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 109

@elizabethwatsonillustrations 110 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Chesters Commercial are pleased to announce the sale of St John’s House, Yeovil

Property

THE HOUSE THAT TALKED Mark Lewis, Partner, Head of Agency, Symonds and Sampson

C

an a house talk? Of course it can’t. It doesn’t have a larynx, voice box, lungs or even a brain! We can sometimes hear the creaks and noises that older houses make as they gently move as wood expands and contracts, but why do some people insist that the house has spoken to them? Are they deluded, gullible, fantasists, romantics or do they have special powers?

We visit a lot of houses and I get an immediate feel for the property. We often visit with a colleague and, whilst walking and talking, we appreciate the ambience and atmosphere but rarely listen to the voice of the house. In June, however, I became a fully paid up member of the believer’s gang when I am sure a house talked to me.

We had been marketing Hayden Farm at Charminster, near Dorchester - an unspoilt, Grade II listed farmhouse requiring modernisation, with a range of farm buildings, pasture and water meadows, the land bordering the river Cerne. We were due to auction the property the next day and I visited so that I could prepare my notes to read out from the rostrum.

Although the farm had been in the Miles’ family for many generations, they had only bought it in 1952 as sitting tenants. The last member of the family, Olive - by all accounts a formidable woman - had died a spinster aged 97 and she had stipulated in her will that the property must be sold at auction. Meetings to draw up her will were always conducted in front of a roaring fire, whatever the time of year!

This was a proper Dorset farm. Olive kept Dorset Horn sheep and was a true character; she loved pointto-points, walking hound puppies and hosting a hunt meet every year. Apparently there were 93 consecutive meets at Hayden.

When I entered the house it had such a bright, happy, feel. The accommodation was well laid out but ‘raw’ and every room needed some work. I stood in the 112 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

hall on the well-worn flagstones and thought of all the people who had walked through the house over the last 300 years. I then felt that the house was talking to me. It was as though it was sizing me up, “Who are you? What do you want?” I shrugged, thinking my mind was playing tricks, and I walked in and out of every room admiring the views over the fields and wondering how much money needed to be invested to bring the house up to acceptable modern standards.

Before I left I stood in front of the fireplace and I suddenly felt that I was being lectured, “Now then young man you make sure somebody decent buys this house, someone who will breathe life back into it and make it a happy home once again”. I shook my head and, with a wry smile, I locked the door and leaned over the field gate wondering whether I had begun to lose the plot. Was I imagining it or was the house really talking to me? I shook myself out of my reverie and went back to my desk to prepare for the auction.

Symonds & Sampson property auctions in Sherborne are a very popular way to spend a few hours and people come along for the drama, the theatre and for unpredictable excitement. The saleroom, therefore, was full and many who could not attend arranged to bid over the telephone. After various lots of agricultural land, commercial buildings and cottages for renovation were sold our last property was Hayden Farm. I told the audience what a privilege it was for me to offer such a prestigious property to them and I mentioned that the house may have spoken to me. Many people laughed and assumed I was joking but I noticed that one couple smiled and nodded as though they had felt the same way.

The guide was £575,000 and I was started with a bid of £550,000. The bidding rose gently, in £5,000 bids, until £735,000 when the increments became smaller: £738,000, £740,000, £742,000, £745,000 and buyers dropped out as new ones raised their catalogues to bid.

Up and up went the price until we just had two couples

competing to buy. When one reluctantly shook their head, my gavel fell at £848,000.

The saleroom erupted into an impromptu round of applause to celebrate the good fortune for the executors and as congratulations to the buyer. When I spoke to the buyers afterwards I said that I had seen them nod and smile when I had mentioned that the house may have spoken to me and they fully understood what I meant.

So who really was talking to me? Was it the house or the spirit of the powerful, hard-working spinster who had lived her whole life at the farm? Or was my romantic nature just getting the better of me? If it was Olive Miles let us hope that she approves of the new owners. I am sure she will once she sees them renovate her house to its former glory and make it a happy home once more. Perhaps she and they will have many convivial conversations in the years to come. symondsandsampson.co.uk

Holwell Lettings & Property Management

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Tel: 01935 814946 114 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

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Meet

your local experts

Your local property team at Knight Frank Sherborne will ensure a fresh, forward thinking service, grounded in local knowledge and true market expertise.

Our long-standing relationships with clients show our dedication to providing the best service possible. Let us sell your property, so you can get back to what you love, sooner.

Luke Pender-Cudlip MRICS Partner, Office Head With over 30 years of property experience plus a chartered surveyor’s credentials, Luke’s experience is extensive.

He has been involved in property of all shapes and sizes from £400,000 to £20 million. His client base has also been varied having dealt with those in finance, food, modelling, recruitment, sport, government and many more from all corners of the world.

Simon Barker MRICS Partner Simon has been selling country houses from the Sherborne office since 1995. He mainly concentrates on the sale of properties up to £1,250,000. He has also assisted with a number of sales over this price point, since joining Knight Frank.

For property advice or a no-obligation market appraisal of your home, please call our team.

We’d love to help you.

T: 01935 590023 sherborne@knightfrank.com 15 Cheap Street, Sherborne DT9 3PU

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 115

Property

YOUR FUTURE HOME COULD BE VERY DIFFERENT! Paul Gammage and Anita Light, Ewemove Sherborne

L

ook around your home for a moment and think about how much has changed since you were a child. For some of us older folk, it doesn’t seem long ago that there was no such thing as a family computer or laptop. Instead, there was a free-standing TV in the corner, a telephone on a lead (often on its own table) and, if you were lucky, a record or cassette player. The garden shed wasn’t a man-cave or an outside office - it contained mowers and garden tools.

If you think back a bit further, duvets were an exciting innovation that replaced sheets and blankets, central heating and double-glazing were not guaranteed and, for the really mature amongst us, you might have had to go outside to the WC! Out with the old, in with the new

Anglian Home Improvements recently did some research into how we think our homes will evolve in the foreseeable future. The research unsurprisingly revealed that working from home is having a big impact and is likely to change how we use our homes and our space.

At present, most of us don’t have our own office space even though ever-increasing numbers of us spend at least some of our working week at home. 35% of those surveyed aspire to underfloor heating and, reassuringly, 29% want their homes to be more energy efficient.

Entertaining, cooking and relaxing spaces were also important considerations for those planning their homes and 50% want technologically-smarter homes.

AXA Insurance have also been doing some research into what people want from their future homes. Again unsurprisingly, technology ranked highly, with 27% believing that, in the next 10 years, we’ll all have smart TVs in our homes to contact our friends instead of using phones. Charging points for electric cars was another big hitter as was the belief that cars will be driverless in the foreseeable future.

116 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Moveable space to suit your needs

With advances in artificial intelligence, the wish-lists of those that took part in the surveys are remarkably modest. Smart fridges and robotic hoovers are now a reality and many of us are already controlling our heating, lights or home security from our phones. Smart technology combined with a continued squeeze on space means it’s not difficult to imagine how one room could soon become a central hub for all a household’s requirements, e.g. cooking, eating, entertaining, working with smart worktops that can weigh, measure, stir and cook, and then convert into a table with in-built entertainment, or a desk with a smart screen.

In fact, it’s perfectly feasible that walls and ceilings will be moveable soon so that you can reconfigure your space throughout the day to suit your needs.

With that in mind, you have to wonder whether home decoration will soon become 3D and virtual, allowing you to change the colour of your walls by using voiceactivated technology!

With technology making such massive advances, design was always going to try and keep up. Ikea has already launched their ‘charging furniture’ which includes tables and lamps that have integrated, wireless charging points. Other smart furniture is also available, including a sofa with integrated sound system and speakers, a fully interactive coffee table with integrated fridge, an intelligent mattress for sleep monitoring and anti snoring, and tables that talk!

There’s no doubt that the need to create millions of homes out of increasingly scarce space will result in exciting innovations that we’ve yet to imagine. Necessity can be a formidable driving force and I, for one, am looking forward to my home being able to cook my dinner and tidy up for me afterwards! ewemove.com/estate-agents/sherborne

F I N D O U T W H AT YO U R H O M E IS WORTH Use Our FREE Instant Online Valuation Tool If you’re thinking of selling your home our Hometrack valuation report is a great starting point to find out what your home might be worth or what you could rent it out for.

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Get your FREE online valuation report at: www.EweMove.com/Sherborne Or Call 24/7: 01935 350 350 EweMove respects any existing sole agency agreement already in place with another agent.

Legal

EXPLORING THE VALUE OF A SHAREHOLDER’S AGREEMENT Victoria Lewis, Company and Commercial Solicitor at Mogers Drewett

W

hen starting a business, there can be so many competing demands that sometimes it’s easy to overlook the important and prioritise the urgent. Drawing up a shareholders’ agreement is one example of something you should consider doing at the outset and not leaving until another day.

What?

A shareholders’ agreement is a contract between all or some of the shareholders which supplements the company’s Articles of Association. In effect, it creates the internal ‘rules’ by which the company is governed and regulates all aspects of the relationship between shareholders, providing the framework for a company’s management.

Why?

There are a number of benefits to adopting a shareholders’ agreement. Firstly, it’s a private, internalfacing document which doesn’t need to be filed at Companies House. As a result, there can be total confidentiality regarding the terms inside.

A shareholders’ agreement is also totally flexible and can be tailored to the specific needs of shareholders, building in appropriate protection and restrictions according to individual requirements. It sets out the rights and obligations that all shareholders will be bound to and therefore gives them confidence and minimises the potential for any disputes, as terms are agreed upfront.

Having a shareholders’ agreement ensures that each shareholder’s financial interest in the company is safeguarded as well as the interests of their families in

118 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

the event of a shareholder’s death. Finally, agreements can also offer protection for a business’s minority shareholders and provide guidelines for issuing shares to employees.

Why not?

Once in place, any alterations must be agreed by all shareholders (or the prescribed majority) involved in the original agreement, and this can be difficult to achieve.

In addition, any new shareholders are not automatically bound by the agreement unless they sign a deed of adherence to it. They can then request changes are made and all parties must agree. This means there could be a two-tier system in place – those shareholders who are bound by the terms and those who aren’t. In light of these challenges, it is important to consult legal professionals who can advise on whether an agreement is appropriate or necessary.

When?

The best time to draw up an agreement is when a company is initially set up but, if this hasn’t happened, there are several other occasions when we would recommend establishing one, for example, prior to a share issue, when a shareholder departs or a new one joins, upon a reorganisation, or upon a change of personal circumstance.

If you are starting a business with friends or family, you may feel this sort of contract is overly formal or unnecessary, however it can be crucial in successfully steering a business through unforeseen circumstances and ensuring strong shareholder relationships. mogersdrewett.com

EXPERT LAWYERS ON YOUR SIDE, AT YOUR SIDE. Forward-thinking legal advice on your doorstep Sherborne | Bath | Wells | Frome mogersdrewett.com | 01935 813 691

Your Life, Your Money, Your Future Trusted, professional, fee based advice We live in a complex world. At FFP we aim to remove complexity, replacing it with simplicity and clarity so that our clients can enjoy their lives without worry

FFP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Telephone: 01935 813322 Email: info@ffp.org.uk Website: www.ffp.org.uk

AHEAD IN THE CLOUD Our real-time cloud accounting solutions present you with a full picture of your financial position 24/7, allowing you to proactively plan and respond ahead of tax deadlines.

For a fresh take on your accounts, speak to Hunts

T: 01935 815008 E: info@huntsaccountants.co.uk W: huntsaccountants.co.uk @Hunts_Sherborne The Old Pump House, Oborne Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3RX

120 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Finance

SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR INVESTMENT SUCCESS

Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.) CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS, Certified and Chartered Financial Planner, Fort Financial Planning

S

ince the beginning of the year each of my monthly articles has attempted to explain the Seven Principles for Investment Success:

1 Clear Goals – an understanding of how much money you need to live the life you want to live in the future.

2 Asset Allocation – the proportion of shares that you hold to bonds is the most important driver of returns.

3 Regular Rebalancing – making sure that your portfolio does not become riskier than you had intended.

4 Lowering Costs – a £1 reduction in cost is the same as a £1 extra return.

5 Behavioural Finance – learning to control your investing emotions (by not making the mistakes that most investors make).

6 Spending Strategy – generally withdrawing from taxable investments first.

7 Total Return Investing – focusing on both income and capital return.

Keeping an eye on all these factors is a bit like spinning plates: most of us can’t manage it but some experts, with skill, knowledge and training, can.

Unfortunately for the investing public, there are few investment advisers that follow this approach. In general,

the financial services industry focuses on what sells rather than focusing on what works.

Not only does FFP follow the Seven Principles for Investment Success but it also has (in the best traditions of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition) an 8th principle.

Regular reviews, at least annually, are the key to continuing success.

Regular reviews enable people to focus on what they can control. We can’t control inflation, tax, stock market movements, politicians and so on but we can control how we react. If taxes go up, we may need to spend less.

Rather like sailing a yacht, sometimes we will be blown off course. It is generally more sensible to make small adjustments frequently than having to make a significant detour. Unfortunately, many people get too wrapped up in just living without giving thought to their futures. Most of us wouldn’t set off on a long journey without a map (or at least a satnav!). Having clear goals and reviewing them regularly makes success much more likely.

FFP specialises in providing lifelong advice to relatively affluent families who recognise the advantages of expert impartial advice. ffp.org.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 121

Tech

I

keep harping on about this, but that’s because the message seems to fall on deaf ears. If you woke up one morning and found that all your photos, documents and music had been lost, either by virus attack, disk failure or simple error on your part, what would you do? A back-up is simply a copy of your precious data stored elsewhere so that, if your primary storage is compromised, you have a fall-back position. It’s not difficult, it’s not expensive and it’s not complicated.

There are two basic methods of backup available: removable devices and on-line. A removable device is either a USB memory stick or a removable hard disk and the simple difference is the size. A USB stick can provide between 8 and 64 gigabytes of storage (you can get bigger but they are expensive) whereas a removable hard disk can be between 500 gigabytes and 1 terabyte in size.

So how much backup space do you need? Most computers we see have between 20 and 80 gigabytes of data made up of documents, pictures and music. You’ll see therefore that a memory stick, whilst useful for taking a quick copy of something from one computer to another, is not practical for a proper backup. A removable hard disk is much more suitable, robust and long-lasting. Whatever you do, you must never move data from your PC to a backup as the whole idea is to have TWO copies of your precious data in case of failure.

Let’s dispel a myth here. Don’t be worried about how much is stored on your PC in terms of documents, pictures and videos; it won’t affect the speed of your PC one little bit. The speed of your PC is dented by the programs you’ve installed and have running at any one time. Don’t delete pictures in the hope that your PC will 122 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

speed up again; have it cleaned up properly.

Once you’ve got your backup device, then it’s simply a matter of copying the data from your PC to your device. You can do this manually, use the Windows Backup system that came on your PC or use any of the many proprietary backup programs. If you are a MAC user, use the built in ‘Time Machine’ backup system. If you accidentally lose a file or have a disaster with your PC then you simply restore your data from your device using the same method as you used to create the backup.

On-line backup is a paid-for service (about £50 a year) where your computer uploads all your data to a secure storage server for safe keeping. It automatically updates every day and restoring is simply a matter of downloading your data again. I always recommend this method as it’s automatic and you don’t have to mess about with sticks or other USBs; also, you don’t have to remember to do it!

Finally, if you want your emails to be safe against computer failure, virus encryption or accidental loss, you should be using a synchronous web-based email system using the IMAP method. The proprietary providers now all offer this service where your computer replicates email with their server. If you fall victim to loss, then you simply re-synchronise the data on the server.

As always, if in doubt or if you need help, you know where to come!

Coming Up Next Month …

Artificial Intelligence (if you can call it that!) computing-mp.co.uk

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 125

Short Story

FIRST LOVE

T

Jan Pain, Sherborne Scribblers

he father of the children with whom I used to play in the summer holidays, Bill Ford, was a man of uncertain temper. In Civvy Street, he was an accountant but in 1943, when other fathers from our cul-de-sac had disappeared in uniform, Bill remained. Rumoured to be ‘something in the Ministry,’ he travelled fortnightly to London, but otherwise made his presence felt on the home front. He owned the largest house on our road, set in over an acre of garden.

An authoritarian, he often came down hard on his eight year old son, Tony, for the slightest misdemeanour, while his two submissive daughters could do no wrong.

To my young eyes this was monstrously unfair, since it was usually only some boyish mischievousness that landed Tony in trouble. At the age of six he was my hero, a blond, athletic lad with a sensitive nature.

The garden had mainly been given over to digging for victory, producing food for the war effort. We were forbidden to trespass in the fruit and vegetable areas but could never resist the tempting line of peas. Careless with the discarded pods, Bill Ford soon picked up our trail and often carried out his threat to give Tony a good hiding.

There were other childish distractions, such as collecting the occasional egg from the hen run, but the biggest diversion of all was the pig! In a sty, with a fencedoff concrete yard, lived Mavis, acquired through the wartime initiative of joining a Pig Club. Bill Ford and his brother were joint owners, the latter often providing some swill, although Mavis’s diet consisted mainly of scraps of discarded food and vegetable peelings from Mrs. Ford’s kitchen and those of neighbours.

We children were unaware of the fate that would befall Mavis. Once slaughtered, her carcass would be divided into quarters, two for the brothers and the remaining half going to the Ministry for distribution in the community through the rationing system. To us, however, this strain of Large Black was an adored domestic pet growing fatter by the week, as we scratched behind her ears and she lapsed into a piggy trance. She wallowed in muck and smelt terrible but we visited her daily and argued as to whose turn it was to tip the bucket of swill into her trough.

126 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Then, towards the end of August, the fateful day arrived. We were crowded round Mrs. Ford at the gas stove, stirring bran for Mavis, when we heard the telephone. A few minutes later Bill Ford appeared in the kitchen doorway.

‘Well, Dorothy,’ he said, ‘today’s the day. You children can stop pestering mother and go outside. There’ll be no food needed for that animal today.’

Tony was the first to speak. ‘Why’s that, father?’ he ventured.

‘Because she’s being picked up shortly and taken to the abattoir, that’s why.’

There was a horrified silence. ‘But, father, that means she’s to be killed, doesn’t it? You can’t mean that, surely?’

Bill Ford’s face turned puce as he bore down on his son. ‘You idiot,’ he said, ‘She’s got to go! She’s part of the war effort, you silly ass, as well as putting food on the table for this family. Use your brains!’

Tony paled and tears welled in the clear blue eyes I loved so much, which had the effect of further enraging his father.

‘For God’s sake, boy, be a man instead of blubbering.

What a lily-livered example you set your sisters and friend. You make me ashamed.’

‘But we love Mavis, all of us,’ he choked, as he ran from the kitchen and up the stairs.

Dumbstruck, we three girls fled to the seclusion of our den in the laurel hedge where we remained until a vehicle chugged up the drive with two hefty men on board. Soon, we heard Mavis’s anguished squeals and could imagine her putting up a fight as they secured her little legs with ropes. The transport drove away and silence returned to the garden. There was no sign of Tony.

And with the tragic demise of Mavis so, too, ended my first love. In September, Tony was dispatched to boarding school and by the Christmas holidays had metamorphosed into a serious boy in long trousers.

Mannerly to a fault, he politely raised his cap to my mother and me as we came out of church, but no glimmer of our former closeness remained.

Unsurprisingly, I have had a lifelong aversion to bacon.

J. Biskup

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SHERBORNE LITERARY FESTIVAL PREVIEW John Gaye and Mark Greenstock, Sherborne Literary Society

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,

by Douglas Adams (Pan Macmillan) ÂŁ8.99 Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of ÂŁ7.99 from Winstone's Books

T

here is something about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (henceforth HHGG) that appeals to all ages and to all English-speaking nations, even though it was written specifically for a British audience. I am no fan of the science fiction genre but I must have read HHGG at least half a dozen times 128 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

and each time new jokes and new degrees of sublime silliness make me chuckle out loud. It is one of those few books that I regard as a modern classic, worthy of returning to on a regular basis.

The book is a product of the 1970s, a period of unequalled creative surrealism during which both

On set of the 80's television production (c) 1980 KJD

"As with many of our wiser science fiction authors there is much accurate foretelling of gadgets yet to be invented "

Monty Python and Fawlty Towers were hugely popular, both being still regularly enjoyed today. It is exquisitely British, indeed in my edition there is a wonderful letter from Adams to his American editor explaining the importance of maintaining that Britishness and not Americanising it for his US readers. Even the letter makes me laugh.

The phrasing throughout HHGG is very English, the geographical references are all English (those that are not in galactic hyperspace) and the irony is classic British humour, usually so appreciated by our latecolonial cousins – or so we like to think.

The self-deprecating insights into some of our national characteristics are sublime, one of my favourites being the parallels drawn between the thinking of our town and country planners and those of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council, not to mention the attitudes of those who carry out their respective work.

As for literary criticism, can this be bettered when reviewing poetry – interesting rhythmic devices which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor…? I must remember that in my next literary review.

As with many of our wiser science fiction authors there is much accurate foretelling of gadgets yet to be invented: the iPad/Kindle/tablet – the micro sub-meson electronic component with instant access to one million pages; the drone camera – the robot tri-D camera; and, of course, Siri/Alexa based on the computer that responds to voice questions and commands.

Who else could have dreamed up a ‘paranoid android’ robot computer with depressive problems that has a hatred of automatic doors with human personalities and whose vocabulary includes the wonderful, ‘Ghastly it all is. Absolutely ghastly.’

Then of course there are the much-quoted classic lines that include such gems as the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything and the immortal message left by the dolphins when they departed planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. ‘So long, and thanks for all the fish.’

Douglas Adams was a genius; a writer who could plunge the depths of philosophy, of science and, of course, of humour at its most surreal. JG To commemorate the 40th anniversary of HHGG, the Sherborne Literary Festival will have a special exhibition, introduced by Douglas’s sister Sue Adams, in the Digby Hall on Wednesday 10th October starting at 11am. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 129

130 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

Robin Butler: At the Heart of Power from Heath to Blair,

by Michael Jago (Biteback Publishing 2017), £25 hardback Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £24.00 from Winstone’s Books

R

obin Butler, now Lord Butler of Brockwell, was Parlimentary Private Secretary (PPS) to three Prime Ministers (Heath, Wilson and Thatcher), and Cabinet Secretary under Thatcher, Major and Blair.

He was Head of the Civil Service from 1987 to 1997 and Master of University College, Oxford, from 1998 to 2008. In the book we meet many of the key figures from those 30 years. When the IRA bomb exploded in the Brighton hotel in 1984, Butler was at Margaret Thatcher’s side, and he found himself underneath the table with John Major when Downing Street came under mortar fire in 1991.

Michael Jago has written political biographies of Clement Attlee and Rab Butler (no relation) and, having followed Robin Butler at Harrow and ‘Univ’, has insider knowledge of both establishments. There emerges a skilfully drawn picture of a man who really was at the heart of power through his own merits, which included a saving sanity and common sense as well as a first-class brain and an ability to work with people of very different mindsets without personal animosity.

Perhaps the crux of Butler’s career was his few months as Cabinet Secretary under Tony Blair, after New Labour’s landslide victory. He was dismayed by the shift from John Major’s cabinet-style government to the formulation of strategy by a narrow group of special advisors (Mandelson, Powell, Campbell and others). This was to change the status of Prime Minister from being ‘first among equals’ in cabinet to something more akin to a president. 1997 therefore was a watershed year in which the relations between Prime Minister, the cabinet

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and the civil service underwent a major shift. None of this is a surprise to those of us who experienced the Blair years, but it is illuminating to be taken through them from the inside.

Despite criticisms of Butler’s judgment regarding, for example, Jonathan Aitken (deserved) and the Report on WMD (undeserved), he emerges from this book without a trace of the sleaze or vitriol which dogged many another career. This will prove to be one of the standard biographies from the modern era, essential and intriguing reading for anyone needing to understand the mechanisms of power. It is a meaty volume but is leavened by well-chosen excerpts from a wide range of sources as well as fragments of conversation and memories from Butler himself, who, despite the gravitas of his manner and voice, never lost a certain schoolboy-ish impishness and informal irreverence. This is illustrated by photographs of Butler cycling to work on a rusty bicycle, and of his daughter Nell pulling him in a go-cart down a London street.

In his preface, Jago admits that the current book can be no more than an interim study, until further confidential documents can be released – even so, it’s a fascinating and well-rounded account which deserves to appear in paperback as soon as possible. MG Michael Jago will be interviewing Robin Butler at the Sherborne Literary Festival on 12th October 2018. sherborne.literarysociety.com

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AUGUST SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Topical information (4) 3. Head of a government department (8) 9. Time off (7) 10. Speech sound (5) 11. Cereal grain (3) 12. Woollen fabric (5) 13. Make a physical or mental effort (5) 15. Opposite of old (5) 17. African country whose capital is Niamey (5) 18. Belgian town (3) 19. Military opponent (5) 20. Person devoted to love (7) 21. Responded to (8) 22. Fail to speak clearly (4) 132 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

DOWN 1. Former President of South Africa (6,7) 2. Arm joint (5) 4. Time of widespread glaciation (3,3) 5. Detective (12) 6. In the direction of (7) 7. Amusement park ride (6,7) 8. Short tale told to children (7,5) 14. Deviate from the subject at hand (7) 16. Refined in manner (6) 18. Motionless (5)

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

I

Deacon Jonathan Simon, Sacred Heart and Saint Aldhem Church

n April, I mentioned my experience of Easter snow in Cornwall. Unexpectedly, I found myself staying with an old friend in the same area near the end of June. You will remember how warm and sunny it was then: a complete difference from the beginning of April. The contrast between my visit in the 1970s, and my visit this year, started me thinking about all the other changes in my life over those 45 years.

Looking back to that time, it is sometimes difficult to understand how the person I was then, became the person that I am now. I know that I am still me, but so many of my ideas have changed, and so many of the things that I thought were important have become un-important, and vice-versa.

When I try to understand the changes in life, I realise that most of what happens to us is out of our control. We make lots of decisions about what to do next, and we feel at the time that we know which ones are the big important decisions that will greatly influence our future but we can be so wrong.

A simple decision, like choosing to walk in the park on a nice day could mean meeting someone new, who may become a life-long friend or partner.

And then there are all the events that are completely out of our control, that happen because of a political decision, or because of the state of the economy. Events that mean war or peace, that mean redundancy for employees, or new job opportunities. We are at the mercy of accidents and sickness, happening to ourselves, or to those close to us. And sometimes, things that at first seem to be bad for us can turn out to have a very positive effect on our future.

Most of the time, we think that we want more control of our lives, but really, many of the things that we did not plan, and which we would not have chosen for ourselves, turn out to be great fun, and great experiences that help us to grow. In particular, meeting new people who become friends can change us; can help us to grow in ways that we would never have expected.

So what can we control, what can we choose, to change our lives for the better? I think that there are two sorts of choices that are important.

Firstly, we can choose to always try and do what we feel is kind, generous, friendly or considerate.

We can choose to not be unkind or selfish. And when we find that we have been selfish or unkind, we can make the effort to ask forgiveness from the person we have hurt, so that our future relationship with them is not damaged.

Secondly, we can choose to do the things that make us feel good about ourselves. We can choose activities that we enjoy, we can choose to learn new things, to meet new people who are interested in the same things as us, to spend time with people we like, with people we love. We can choose to put down things that no longer nourish us and replace them with things that we find fulfilling.

We can’t control all the things that happen to us, or around us but we can greatly influence what sort of people we become.

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 133

OUT AND ABOUT

I

David Birley

n May my wife and I went on a safari holiday in Botswana. Apart from being the perfect way to recover after my spell in Yeovil hospital, it was quite simply the best holiday we have had in our thirty-four years together. How you may be wondering is this relevant to Sherborne? There were two factors that made it so special - the wildlife and the people.

Of course you won’t see the Big Five in Sherborne but a number of old African hands have chosen to make it their home. I am sure part of the reason for this is the second factor we found so special in Botswana, the people. Wherever we went we were greeted by smiles and everyone was so polite, courteous and helpful, just like Sherborne!

Everyone is so friendly in Sherborne. Any newcomer is quickly made to feel at home and all our shops give a great personal service and make a point of getting to know their customers and their needs. There is none of the hustle and bustle that alas is so prevalent in our cities. Things are done in a more gentle but still very efficient way. It is also a very caring society, everyone keeps an eye on their neighbours and anyone they feel may need help. For some time I have been part of the Good Neighbours team. Apart from being able to help people I always find it particularly interesting to talk to those I am driving.

For anyone needing medical care we are extremely fortunate to have not only great surgeries but also the Yeatman. For a town of our size to have a fully fledged hospital is a remarkable blessing and it needs to be cherished and preserved. No Government cuts here please.

We are also lucky there is so much one can do. Our annual U3A fair in the autumn always attracts large numbers keen to join the many clubs, societies and activities that are open to all. Whatever your interest you can meet and enjoy the company of fellow enthusiasts. To paraphrase Doctor Johnson’s quote ‘when a person is tired of Sherborne he is tired of life!’

How nice it is to see and welcome new shops to Cheap Street. Earlier this year it was sad to see empty units on our beautiful street, however many have now been filled by interesting new ventures. I find it particularly encouraging that most of them are independents and I am sure we all wish them a long and prosperous life in our town.

134 | Sherborne Times | September 2018

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