The BV, Jan 22

NEVER PRINTED - YOUR GREEN CHOICE

January ‘22

ISSN 2634-8810

From the heart of the Blackmore Vale.

POLITICS

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Front cover: Little Owl by Derrick Pannell (spotted on his post round in Stoke Trister)

INDEX

These are clickable short cuts: just click the number to jump to the page

32

A Country Living - Rachael Perrett

54

Animals

82 63

Art with Edwina Baines Book Corner

92

Business News

64 100

Charity pages Deaths

16

Dorset Island Discs - Dr Luckett

42

Equestrian

90 49

Family Law Farming

66

Food & Drink

26 103

Health Jobs

24

Letters to the Editor

38 14

Local History Looking Back | Roger Guttridge

4

News

80 58 76

Night Sky Out of Doors Photography

88 20

Police Politics

110 86

Property Puzzles

14 40

Random 19 - Cozmo Jenks Rural Matters - CPRE

56 18

Take a Hike Tales from the Vale | Andy Palmer

35 97

Then & Now | Roger Guttridge What's on

52

Wildlife

Contact the BV Team: Editor: Laura Hitchcock editor@theblackmorevale.co.uk Dep. Editor: Andy Palmer andy@theblackmorevale.co.uk Advertising: Courtenay Hitchcock advertising@theblackmorevale.co.uk Everything else: Try Courtenay, he’s the organised one...

It’s one of my favourite quotes (no one ever asks me what MY Random19 are y’know) “Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote it, I have repeated it far too often at my children over the years, and in recent weeks it has been bouncing around the back of my brain.

After a beautiful, restful, almost-perfect Christmas (it was our first without a full nest. We missed him), the last couple of weeks back in the full force of emails, news, and social media have been a lot.

One of the first lessons I learned as an adult was ‘be honest’. I thought, now I was a grown up, I was supposed to just pretend I knew stuff. But every time I try to be something I’m not, or blag my way through, it all goes horribly wrong.

Yet somehow, when you’re honest and open, things have a habit of working out.

It’s fascinating, then, to watch other adults adultier adults than me, I would have said - still not having learned this basic life lesson.

Being honest really does just make things easier.

Whether it’s watching to the neverending circus of Westminster, listening open-mouthed to the blithe naivety (I’m being kind here. She IS just 22) of ‘celebrity’ Molly-Mae merrily extolling the idea that we all have the same 24hrs, or simply watching events unravelling far closer to home, the same basic rules come back again and again.

We teach it to our children - act always with kindness and honesty, because anything else will only circle back around and bite you. Call it Karma. Call it balance.

Or call it being responsible for the consequences of our own actions.

I’m a little late to wish you a Happy New Year, so I’ll wish you a grand January. May your dogs be good, your cats permit nose boops, and your socks never slither down inside your wellies.

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by Steve Keenan

NEWS

High speed internet with free installation coming your way!

A moleplough in a rural network build

Dorset and Somerset homes and businesses are offered internet service 18 times faster than the national average, says Steve Keenan Wessex Internet is accelerating plans to bring fibre broadband to dozens of villages and hamlets across the Blackmore Vale in 2022.

A total of 34 rural communities will be connected to high-speed broadband this year, with fibre direct to the home for the first time.

And the company is planning its first foray into towns, with 8,000 premises in Sturminster Newton and Blandford set to be fibreconnected this year or next. The Milldown area of Blandford is the first target.

“Our rural rollout will continue but the towns are a new area of build,” said managing director Hector Gibson Fleming. “It was always the plan to serve the whole community.”

The company’s ambitions are supported by Dorset Council and Local Enterprise Programme (LEP) funds are available to top up government grants.

Residential homes are eligible for a total grant of £2,500, while businesses can receive £6,000.

Free installation The money goes to Wessex and means there is no installation 4

charge to home and business owners, other than a £49 activation fee and monthly rental fees from £29.

“We can make projects work within that funding,” said Fleming, who plans to double his workforce by the end of 2022 as the Shroton-based company expands. It is also launching an apprenticeship programme.

Landowners across the Vale are now queuing up to allow Wessex to run the fibre cables across their land.

Rather than dig up roads, a mole plough cuts a slit across fields and through gardens and buries the fibre 3ft deep. “We work with landowners and build in an efficient way,” said Fleming.

Some landowners are not convinced, while bodies such as The National Trust, Church of England and Forestry Commission are resistant. But Wessex has grown adept at finding new routes. “We are more confident we can work around villages,” he added.

The landowner is not paid but gets cut rate, high-speed connection which could prove vital in the growing agri-tech industry, while homeworking

becomes more practical for the community.

Faster fibre connection Download speeds with fibre will be up to 18 times faster than the national average of 54 megabits per second for rural areas – although many parts of the Blackmore Vale have a far lower figure than that at present.

The existing network largely consists of fibre to a junction box, then copper wires to the premises. Half of Wessex Internet’s existing customers also receive their broadband wirelessly, via a network of 150 masts.

Only 20% of properties in Britain currently have full fibre. Wessex’s plan is to eventually get everyone connected to its own fibre network, with speeds from 100900 Mbps.

Its target area is a 50km radius of Shroton, which covers south Somerset and Wiltshire, and parts of Hampshire.

The 34 Blackmore Vale communities in line for fibre in 2022 are predominantly those with no connection or the lowest existing download speeds, and/or those who have expressed

by Steve Keenan the most interest in getting connected.

Homeowners elsewhere are still encouraged to express an interest via the company’s website. But Fleming added: “These days, we know the communities well enough to know what the demand is likely to be.

“We are trying to build pipelines in a number of areas which can then link off to other communities.”

For example, Wessex is in the final stages of connecting fibre to tiny hamlets like Eccliffe and Bugley near Gillingham – but can then loop off that link to larger villages nearby such as Buckhorn Weston and Kington Magna, which have an average 20 Mbit/s speeds at present.

Moving into Somerset Wessex is also busy with two publicly funded projects to bring fibre to South Somerset, while connecting community

NEWS The 36 Blackmore Vale communities to be connected to fibre in 2022:

• • • • • • • • • • •

Bapton Bayford, Riding Gate, Leigh Common Blandford Berwick St John Binghams Melcombe Buckland Newton Charlton Horethorne Chilmark Corton Donhead St Andrew East Knoyle, Upton & The

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Green Fifehead Magdalen Henbury & Partyfield Henstridge Airfield Hilton Hinton St Mary Horsington Huntingford Middlemarsh Milborne Wick North Cadbury Ryme Intrinseca Sedgehill Semley

buildings between Blandford and Sherborne: • Network construction is under way to connect fibre to 3,618 homes and businesses in South Somerset. Work began in Woolston, near North Cadbury, in May and the first homes went live last month, followed by fibre to homes in North and South

•

• • • • • •

• • • • • •

Shroton South Cheriton Stockton Stowell & Wilkinthroop Sturminster Newton Tarrant Keynston, Monkton, Rawston & Rushton Tollard Royal Turnworth Tytherington White Lackington Woodminton Yenston

Barrow, Babcary, Queen Camel and Marston Magna.

Dorset’s Council and the Local Enterprise Council are funding fibre connection to 60 community buildings between Blandford and Sherborne.

The first connection was made to Durweston Village School.

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www.trethowans.com

NEWS

by Fanny Charles

A303 improvements are shelved yet again to MP’s “horror”

This single-carriageway section of the A303 between Chicklade and Mere is part of the strategic route to the West Country.

MP Dr Murrison is frustrated at the further delays to its improvement and the impact on local residents.

Yet another delay to relieve the congested A303 and ‘dual’ the remaining single carriageway sections infuriates local MP Dr Andrew Murrison SOUTH West Wiltshire MP Dr Andrew Murrison has reacted with horror to the announcement by the National Highways Agency “that it intends to long grass (delay) much of its plans for the strategic A303 corridor.”

He plans to tell Transport Secretary Grant Shapps that if the Highways Agency is not going to invest in the A303, it should make it clear that the M4-M5 is the strategic route to the West Country.

For many years, Dr Murrison has been calling for the remaining single carriageway sections, from Chicklade to Mere, to be dualled, to give relief to his constituents. Improvements along this stretch of the A303, including Chicklade Bottom, were in “the pipeline” of what was then Highways England’s long-term strategy.

The MP was informed of the change in a letter from Elliot Shaw, the National Highways’ executive director for strategy and planning. It effectively pushes the planned – and much-needed – improvements to the A303 from Mere to Wylye into the long grass, many years into the future, Legal challenge to ‘Stonehenge bypass’ While there was no specific start date for the Wiltshire improvements, they were in the official plan to begin after the completion of the A303 Stonehenge bypass, which is currently stalled following a High Court ruling upholding a legal challenge to the tunnel scheme.

Dr Murrison says: “It’s now clear that any improvement locally will be several years away at best.

“It’s all looking like a bit of a mess. I will be writing to the Transport Secretary to point out his department and agency can’t shunt more and more traffic down a spindly single carriageway whilst 6

pretending it’s a strategic route.

“There is an alternative if you’re not going to invest in the A303 which is to confirm the M4/M5 as the strategic route into the South West and push traffic, especially the heavy stuff, along the motorway network.”

Small scale upgrades The new timetable for the trunk road schemes, outlined by Mr Shaw, gives priority to a section of the A303 connecting from the South Petherton roundabout to Southfields, (the notorious Ilminster bypass), at the junction with the A358.

Work is already under way on an A303 upgrade and dualling between Sparkford and Podimore.

Consultation has now ended on plans to dual the A358 Southfields to Taunton (connecting to the M5), but no start date has been announced for the work.

The South Petherton-Southfields project, as outlined in the National Highways letter, is for initial development work to take place in 202324, after which the government will consider the viability of the scheme.

Mr Shaw writes: “Whilst this will be good news for many of our customers and stakeholders, I recognise that for others the section between Wylye and Mere may have been the preference for this initial development activity.

Upgrading the A303/A358 corridor is a significant undertaking, requiring the adoption of a sequential approach which minimises impacts on users of the route and is proportionate to funding available at a national level. Preparation for subsequent corridor improvements will need to await future Road Periods.”

Come and visit our warm community in action Arrange your bespoke visit by contacting Charlotte at admissions@sherborneprep.org | 01935 810911 www.sherborneprep.org

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NEWS

by Andy Palmer

Can you host a lonely and scared Afghan child?

Dorset Council is looking for people willing to foster or provide supported lodgings for unaccompanied children In the year ending September 2021, the UK received 3,103 applications for asylum on behalf of unaccompanied children and many more are arriving each day.

Along with other local authorities, Dorset has a responsibility to provide a warm welcome and meet their needs.

‘The majority of the young people arriving as asylum seekers are 16 or 17 years old,’ says Cllr Andrew Parry, Dorset Council Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Early Help.

‘They may have travelled for many months before arriving in the UK and would have experienced difficult and traumatic living circumstances, including time in refugee camps, separation from their families, being victims of human trafficking, physical and sexual abuse and their basic needs generally not being met.

‘Many of them also face uncertainty about their future life in the UK while their immigration status and right to remain are determined. As with any child, these young people need safe and supportive environments that living in supported lodgings can bring to help them prepare to lead independent lives.

Fabulous youngsters ‘We also know from the unaccompanied children that we have supported over the years that they are frequently fabulous young people and add so much to the homes and schools they join and are a real asset to our communities.’

Hosts can be from all backgrounds and either married, single or in a partnership, from

In the year ending September 2021, the UK received 3,103 applications for asylum from unaccompanied, or separated, children and many more are arriving each day.

all ethnic groups and cultures) who: • have a spare room available (and permission from your landlord or housing provider if living in rented accommodation) • can provide support to a child or young person • have relevant experience or skills in caring for young people (although this is not essential).

Supported lodgings Supported Lodgings are usually for young people aged 1625, who need a small level of support to help them experience the transition to adulthood in a supportive home environment.

You don’t need to provide fulltime care and you will be paid a fee to assist with day-to-day living costs. Full training will be given and support, advice and guidance will be available throughout.

To find out about providing supported lodgings, email supported-lodgings@

dorsetcouncil.gov.uk or call 01305 225809 and ask for Val Clark. You can also find more information on our website.

Foster parents Fostering is usually for younger children (under 18), who need more support and care to make sure they are well looked after.

Short-term foster carers look after children for a few weeks or months while more permanent arrangements are made for them.

Some older children need a permanent home where longterm foster care is the best option. You will be paid a fee to assist with day-to-day living costs.

Full training will be given and support, advice and guidance will be available throughout.

To find out more about fostering in Dorset, email fosteringenquiries@ dorsetcouncil.gov.uk or call 01305 225568. You can also find more information on our website.

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by Rachael Rowe

NEWS

What’s the point of village halls?

Are you aware of the surprising wealth of activities organised by village halls throughout the Blackmore Vale, asks Rachael Rowe Village halls have a reputation for being rather lacklustre; hosting jumble sales and tiresome meetings.

Not so; especially in rural communities. Our village halls are critical in reducing social isolation.

It’s Village Halls Week from 24-30 January, when the community spirit of these remarkable buildings is celebrated, especially the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep them open.

Although the pandemic has seen many halls unable to open, the positivity in this community space has not gone away. Most

are back in action with even living alone, newcomers to the more activities and fun to keep village and for finding out the Dorset’s rural communities latest news and gossip. amused and supported. So if you Organiser Sue Finklaire thought your village described the “...a meeting point atmosphere. hall only organised for people living jumble sales, take a “The Mud look at just a few of the alone, newcomers to Pie Cafe is events in north Dorset. brilliant the village and for aweekly event Grab a Coffee at The finding out the latest that brings Mud Pie Cafe news and gossip” the whole Okeford Fitzpaine’s community village hall is together and transformed into a vibrant is run by volunteers. pop-up cafe on most Saturday “Villagers love our home-made mornings. bacon rolls, cakes and freshly It’s a meeting point for people filtered coffee. It’s definitely the first place to head for if you’re new to the village and want to quickly settle in. And if you’re keen to find out about local issues and make new friends, the Mud Pie Cafe can help with it all.”

The Mud Pie Cafe in full swing most Saturday mornings in Okeford Fitzpaine. Image Rachael Rowe

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Learn a new craft!

Village halls are also creative spaces, with many hosting classes.

Bishops Caundle Village Hall hosts many engaging workshops and classes, from an embellishing group to quilters and a craft group.

Colin West, the management

by Rachael Rowe committee secretary and treasurer says, “My wife set up the quilters group which has really taken off. Proof that if there’s a gap in the community, it just takes one person to come forward and start up a successful community activity.”

And over at Winterborne Whitechurch they have a community library in an old storeroom. There’s also ‘Crafty Natter’, which is an informal gettogether on Fridays.

And now they’ve introduced ‘new age kurling’ – a contemporary fun activity where the modest fees generates funds to help maintain the building.

If you, like me, always associate curling with ice, kurling is different and can be played indoors by most people, including wheelchair users. The group invited me to have a go, and I can assure you it is harder than it looks (my excuse for not

Winterborne Whitchurch’s community library, making use of an old unused store room in the village hall.

Image Rachael Rowe

NEWS

New Age Kurling at Winterborne Whitchurch.

Image Rachael Rowe

hitting the target) but definitely fun. In Winterborne Whitchurch there’s also puppy training and other fitness activities. ’Our fish & chip quizzes are over-subscribed’ Mappowder boasts perhaps the least glamorous village hall in the Vale, but it hosts cracking events including a superb annual quiz which is always over-subscribed.

“For just a tenner, villagers enjoy a really great evening and the price includes an excellent supper, such as a generous plate of fish ‘n chips or a choice of curries,” says ex-village hall committee chair Kae Palmer.

“We’re packed with happy people and lots of laughter.”

For the anniversary of VE Day the hall hosted a party where villagers were invited to bring and share authentic dishes from the war - although one eccentric villager brought along a big dish of sauerkraut and German sausage. “This was served during the war,” he explained, “just not to English people.”

Imaginative fitness classes Perhaps gym fees have put you off exercising, or you fancy trying out a new activity. In that case, there’s probably something within walking distance at your village hall. Popular activities

include yoga, keep fit, short mat bowls and badminton.

Colin West says Bishops Caundle Parish Council acquired spin exercise bikes for the community.

There’s now a regular spinning class in the village hall.

Over at Hinton St Mary, the village hall doubles as a clubhouse for the cricket club with the green just outside.

Be part of something good!

Most village halls are run by volunteers; sometimes also trustees of charitable organisations set up as part of the governance.

Volunteers or trustees organise events and manage bookings, and fundraise to keep the buildings viable. Some help with maintenance and cleaning, as well as events.

Winterborne Whitechurch Chair Teresa Goddard summed it up: “We have an excellent committee - and a good committee makes all the difference.”

If you want to get involved to keep these valuable community assets safe for future generations, volunteer a little time to help out. Also, simply support your village hall activities to keep the spirit of these unique places alive.

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THE RANDOM 19 QUESTIONS

The Random 19 with one of Europe’s most celebrated milliners Cozmo Jenks

by Laura Hitchcock Cozmo Jenks

When Cozmo was a little girl her dream was to have the largest hat collection in the world. Today, she is recognised as one of Europe’s leading milliners, famed for her quirky updates on classic British hats and having designed pieces for a host of high profile clients, countless celebrities and many members of the Royal Family.

1. What’s your relationship with the Blackmore Vale (the loose North Dorset area, not us!)?

My dad moved down here because of the hunting 30 years ago - chasing hedges! I then attempted to join too. After lots of port, I did finally get over those hedges!

I’ve been living on the edge of the Vale for the past 14 years and can’t imagine living anywhere else.

make another. I was really very surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

It was amazing.

4. It’s Friday night - you have the house to yourself, and no work is allowed. What are you going to do?

Honestly? Marijuana and a box set!!

But if that’s not allowed, then feel

free to say it’s a box of Bendicks Bittermints, good friends and a movie... (Ed whistles innocently) 5. Who’s your celebrity crush?

I fancy loads of people on the TV because that’s all I have to fancy (pause while the editor tunes her violin...) (I didn’t write that - Ed) Henry Cavill (Superman), George Clooney, Jamie Dornan...

2. What was the last song you sang out loud in your car?

Elton John, Tiny Dancer! But I’ll also sing the entire album start to finish of the original Les Mis soundtrack. I know every single word!

3. What was the last movie you watched? Would you recommend it?

Dune. Totally wasn’t expecting to enjoy it, but I absolutely loved it. Desperate for them to 12

Cozmo’s handsome trio of current celeb crushes: Henry Cavill, Ceorge Clooney & Jamie Dornan.

THE RANDOM 19 QUESTIONS

by Laura Hitchcock 6. What would you like to tell 15yr old you?

Have fun. Be kind. Tell the truth.

Cozmo and four of her six dogs: Two labradors, Hamish and Betty; two terriers, Cabbage and Maud; two whippets, father and sonGeorge and Wilfred

7. What’s your comfort meal?

Big chunky fish fingers and veg.

Hellmann’s mayo (has to be Hellmann’s) and sriracha (hot sauce made from a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt) are essential additions.

8. The best crisps flavour?

Originally Walkers smoky bacon (Andy Palmer will no doubt be cheering the first ‘correct’ answer in two years - Ed) but nowadays I love salt and vinegar Squares and PomBears mixed up together in the bag! (*makes note to try this at first available opportunity* - Ed) 9. And the best biscuit for dunking?

I won’t dunk. Ever.

And if I found out Henry Cavill dunked, then he’d be straight off my crush list!

10. What book did you read last year that stayed with you?

Worldbridger by Juliet Carter.

Totally mind blowing and eye opening. A few weeks after finishing it, I wandered randomly into a shop with a friend and saw the book on display. I got chatting to the guy behind the desk and found out the shop was owned by the author!

I’m now completely obsessed with their shop Portal in Glastonbury and buy a lot of things from them.

11. What’s your secret superpower?

My psychic powers. Which I’m lucky enough to have harnessed, and now practice and teach energy work thanks to the amazing Louise Mita (www.taoenergy.com).

12. A penguin just walked in the door wearing a panama hat. Why is he here?

To get a new hat obviously. I AM a milliner!

13. Your favourite quote?

Movie, book or inspirational - we won’t judge.

‘Fit in or f**k off!’

Because it’s completely true – it’s how I run my house!

14. Cats or Dogs?

Dogs, obviously. I’ve got six, about to be seven! Two labradors, Hamish and Betty; two terriers, Cabbage and Maud; two whippets, soon to be three, father and two sons, George, Wilfred and waiting for Frank to be old enough to come and live with me.

15. Chip Shop Chips or Home Baked Cake?

A home baked classic Victoria sponge with fresh cream and strawberry jam wins every time.

16. What shop can you not pass without going in?

Harts of Stur. And I have to go and buy something from Alistair at Holebrooks butchers and deli in Sturminster Newton because he sells the best meat ever! Any time I celebrate anything I’ll get a big fillet from Al. 17. What’s your most annoying trait?

Wind!!!

(Burping and farting) (sorry) 18. What in life is frankly a mystery to you?

The desire for drama in people’s personal lives. Why people want to make drama and thrive off it is a complete mystery to me.

19. You have the power to pass one law tomorrow, uncontested. What would you do?

Legalise cannabis. It’s a total wonder plant.

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LOOKING BACK

by Roger Guttridge

Violet’s wars: the story of a Dorset heroine

Miss Cross inspecting ATS recruits .

Images taken from a Scrapbook by Violet Cross, 1942-1946. From the Keep Military Museum Archive

The outstanding story of a humble Dorset woman who nursed soldiers in two world wars, and outwitted the Nazis, is told by Roger Guttridge Few, if any, can match the extraordinary record of Hazelbury Bryan’s Violet Cross, a heroine of not one but both world wars.

She twice gave the Germans the slip, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government for her outstanding nursing work at Verdun, the slaughter house, which saw French casualties exceed 400,000.

This was a rare honour for a woman.

Violet, a vicar’s daughter who was born and raised at Sturminster Marshall, was 24 in 1916 when she volunteered to help in the field hospitals in 14

France, which were flooded with wounded soldiers.

“It seemed to me that here was an opportunity of getting to know another country and of making my own known to them,” she later recalled.

“Perhaps there would be fewer wars if we all knew each other better.”

She was appointed Matron of a field hospital at Verdun and faced enormous challenges.

“We were all understaffed and under-equipped, and during the last big attacks of 1918 we were dealing with 700 arrivals and 700 evacuations a day,” she said. ”I have seen men queued up on stretchers for three days

and three nights waiting for admission to the operating theatres.”

Outstanding heroism “Many boys, whose limbs were amputated in the morning, offered to go on stretchers on the floor the same evening to give their beds to the newcomers. If that isn’t courage, I don’t know what is,” she wrote.

Violet stayed in France for another three years after the First World War, nursing prisoners-of-war who were too sick to return home.

Meanwhile, her father, the Rev. James Cross, had retired after 54 years as Vicar of Sturminster

get in touch with Roger: roger.guttridge@btinternet.com

by Roger Guttridge

Marshall and moved to the Manor House at Hazelbury Bryan.

He died six months after moving but Violet never married and continued living there for more than 50 years.

She was a churchwarden, a parish, district and county councillor, an ATS officer, a governor of Sturminster Newton High School and a major contributor to village life at Hazelbury.

Projects she was involved in included the 1938 restoration of the church’s chancel in memory of her father, construction of the Civic Trust awardwinning lychgate at the church entrance, the restoration of several cottages and the conversion of others to become church rooms.

Back to another war When the Second World War broke out, the French surgeon that Violet had worked under 20 years earlier asked her to return.

“I was in France with the Expeditionary Force,” she said.

But after arriving at the hospital site to find an acute shortage of bedding, she immediately returned to Dorset to seek help.

“When I finally got back to France after ten days of intensive begging, I had so many bales [of hay to make mattresses] that I had to commandeer a French army lorry to convey them from the docks to the train,” she said.

“I felt it was an example to the French of what warm-hearted British generosity meant. It also benefited many of our own men.”

Violet also described the scenes as French refugees poured through the town where she was working.

“Bicycles, hand-carts, perambulators and great horse drawn-carts piled high with bedding and household possessions, on top of which old women and little children were perched precariously, began to stream night and day, fleeing the German terror,” she wrote.

“Children were even crammed into hearses and one old lady had been squeezed into an ice-cream cart, her old husband pedalling wearily behind.

‘On, on, on, they knew not where, as long as they were moving.”

When Violet herself had to flee the Nazis, she initially tried to get back to England by boat.

When that proved impossible, she and a fellow nurse decided to seek help from the colleague’s relatives in Paris.

Outwitting the Hun Violet feared the worst when a German soldier demanded to see her identity papers, which identified her nationality. Discovery would have made her a prisoner-of-war.

But when the soldier was distracted by an officer,

LOOKING BACK Violet Cross, from the Keep Military Museum Archive

“my hand shot out from under my cloak and the card was back in my pocket whilst I continued to sit meekly in my chair.”

When the soldier returned, he was in a rush and authorised her to pass.

After escaping the authorities in Paris a second time, Violet travelled through Spain and Portugal, where she negotiated a seat on a flying boat that was heading for Britain’s seaplane HQ in Poole Harbour.

From Poole she walked the 25 miles to Hazelbury.

A few weeks after D-Day, Violet returned yet again to the continent, where she helped reunite children with their parents in Belgium and Holland.

She died in 1989, aged 98. A memorial plaque in Hazelbury church includes the inscription: ‘I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.’

Violet’s memorial plaque isn’t easily seen, being hidden away on the wall behind the organ in Hazelbury Bryan’s St Mary and St James’ Church.

15

DORSET ISLAND DISCS

(Warning) Don’t listen while driving A piece of music, scientifically established as the most relaxing ever written, reducing heart-rate, and inducing sleep to the extent that it is not advisable to listen to it while driving, is chosen by the head teacher of Sherborne school, Dr Dominic Luckett

Dr Luckett, headteacher of Sherborne School, is our first ‘Dorset Island Discs’ guest, choosing the eight pieces of music he could not live without.

One of the joys of working at surpassingly beautiful Sherborne Sherborne is the sheer quality Abbey. of the music. The school has an Being cast away on a desert outstanding musical reputation island would be hard in many and we are triply ways but being “...specialist blessed by having a starved of live classical record music would be wonderful team of music teachers, led shop on London’s high on the list by our inspirational deprivations.

Cheapside where of and utterly fabulous Music has the days were Director of Music, always been mostly spent in important James Henderson; exceptional talent conversation with to me and in among our boys, who gap year people far more my regularly gain grade 8 between my knowledgeable undergraduate distinctions, ATCL and LTCL diplomas; and degree and than me” superb performing doctorate, I venues including our own Music worked in a (now sadly defunct) School and Chapel, Cheap Street specialist classical record shop Church and, of course, the on London’s Cheapside where

the days were mostly spent in conversation with people far more knowledgeable than me who would analyse and debate the relative merits of the latest recordings.

It was a great education and, since then, music has continued to be a central part of my life, whether attending choral evensong whilst at Oxford, concert-going in London or listening to recordings at home and at work (Penny, my longsuffering PA, is immensely tolerant of the constant disturbance). Choosing just eight records is no easy task but, in anticipation of the day when my ship goes down, I have selected the following.

Maurice Ravel – Le Tombeau de Couperin Ravel is a much-underrated composer and I could easily choose nothing but his music to while away the long hours on the island. If I had to select just one piece it would be the orchestral version of Le Tombeau de Couperin whichhe adapted from his original piano score. It was written during World War One in memory of friends who had died and is a work that is both poignant and joyful. However many times I listen to it, it is never anything other

than fresh and life-affirming. The recording by Pierre Boulez and the New York Philharmonic is especially brilliant.

Ernest Moeran – Serenade in G Major A neglected genius of English music is Ernest Moeran. Born in 1894, he endured the horrors of World War One and was seriously wounded on the Western Front. After the war, he worked as a composer and was particularly influenced by the English folk-song tradition. Although his productivity was limited by the effects of alcoholism and the significant mental health issues from which he suffered, he wrote some achingly beautiful music of which the Serenade in G, with its moments of quiet reflection tempered by passages of great wit and verve, is a prime example.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2 All Mahler’s symphonies are magnificent but none more so than the second. A colossal work, it

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DORSET ISLAND DISCS combines sheer power and force with writing of the most exquisite subtlety and spirituality. Simon Rattle and the CBSO released an awe-inspiring recording at about the time I started working in the record shop and, when the manager was not around, we would drive customers from the premises by playing the final movement far, far too loud.

J.S. Bach – Goldberg Variations Whereas Mahler shows what can be done with massive orchestral forces, Bach’s keyboard repertoire reminds us of the elegant perfection that can be coaxed by skilled hands from a single instrument. When in need of a moment of quiet contemplation on my isolated beach, I will listen to Lang Lang playing the Goldbergs.

And, for as long as that lasts, all will be well within the narrow horizons of my solitary world.

Miles Davies – Kind of Blue Considered by many to be the greatest jazz album ever, Kind of Blue is a work of improvisatory genius, and has been the soundtrack to many of the most memorable moments of my life since I first heard it nearly 40

years ago. I would hate to be without it.

Tomasz Stanko Quartet – Soul of Things Where Miles Davis led, the great Polish free jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stanko followed. His work ranges from the lyrical to the more challenging avantgarde. Soul of Things is towards the more accessible end of his spectrum and I defy anyone not to be moved by the haunting poetry of Variation 4.

Marconi Union - Weightless When life on my island becomes stressful, or when I can’t sleep, I shall listen to Weightless, a piece of ambient music written with the express intention of reducing anxiety. It has, apparently, been scientifically established as the most relaxing piece of music ever written, reducing heart rate, and inducing sleep to the extent that it is not advisable to listen to it whilst driving. Then, when I need to wake up again, I shall listen to the Mahler …

Herbert Howells – Like as the Hart When planning my wedding (or, at least, those elements of it where my input was permitted), Cara and I spent hours thinking about the music we wanted. We were married in St Etheldreda’s, a little-known medieval gem in central London and England’s oldest Catholic church.

The music was performed by a fabulous choir assembled by musician friends of ours. Being married at Christmas, the service and the music had a suitably festive theme but we also asked for Howell’s setting of Psalm 42. It is not remotely festive, nor particularly suitable for a wedding, but it is beautiful and, whenever I listen to it, it reminds me of my very happy wedding day; of Cara; and of our children, Charlie and Jemima, with whom we were subsequently blessed and all of whom I would miss terribly whilst languishing on my island.

My book For my book, I would take Some Notes on Lifemanship by Stephen Potter, purely because it is absurd, clever and very funny, and would serve to cheer me up on those days when the sun didn’t shine.

My luxury item And, finally, for my luxury, I would take my Concept2 rowing machine in the hope that I could stay in reasonable shape until I get rescued and not pile on the pounds after eating too many coconuts.

Click here to listen to Dr Luckett’s entire playlist on YouTube 17

by Andy Palmer

TALES FROM THE VALE

Tales From The Vale

A sticky moment Right, the Editor’s asked me to put something funny in this issue. ‘Our 12,000 subscribers will be a bit down as we plod through January and the excitement of Christmas is over,’ she explained.

So here’s a true story.

Ages ago my girlfriend, Sarah, went to the gynae. It was a private consultancy and she needed to visit the loo before the inspection. He (why are so many gynaes men?) directed her to the bathroom in his immense town house.

The loo was spotless and beautifully appointed but lacked loo roll. So Sarah fumbled in her handbag for a loose tissue and gave herself a quick dab.

With her legs in the straps in the clinic (what women go through!

I’m pretty sure if men had to visit the gynae a more elegant method would immediately be invented) the gynae had a quick gander, looked quizzical, curbed a nascent smile, and reached for some tweezers. He delved into the coal face, removed 18

something, gave an astonished look then delicately popped it in the waste bin.

The inspection over, everything tickety boo, he left and after dressing Sarah peeped into the bin to see what he’d removed.

I’m sure gynaes see a lot of strange things but this must have been a first for him as when he saw Sarah out he was clearly sweating with the effort to not laugh or mention what he delicately placed in the bin.

Which was a first class stamp.

How to tell if you’re aging We were discussing with friends how to tell when you’re approaching middle age. There are 10 signs that we came up with.

1 You start to use the word ‘pop’ a lot: ‘I’m just popping to the shops,’ or ‘I’ll pop the kettle on.’

2 You start putting the early morning tea mugs, spoons, sweetener etc. out the night before.

Initially you do this just before

you go to bed, then it gets earlier until you find yourself doing it straight after washing up that morning’s tea stuff.

There’s a word for this: TOMA. It stands for ‘Tray Of Middle Age.’ 3 When you watch TV or a film, you cannot help ruining it for everyone else by endlessly saying “Oh she was in that film with that bloke (you can’t remember the bloke’s name, obviously).

What was it called? It was set in Hollywood, no not Hollywood… err...” which really infuriated me when I was a kid and my parents did it.

Now I’m doing it.

4 Not only can you remember Angel Delight, you know for a fact that no-one liked the butterscotch flavour which tasted synthetic and looked like cat poo.

(So so wrong. Butterscotch is literally everyone else’s favourite flavour, Andy - Ed) 5 You value function over style: for example we pulled up at some red traffic lights and a load of Hell’s Angels revved up ahead of us. They were all on those customised bikes with laid-

by Andy Palmer back seats and long curved handle bars so each rider was shaped like a cross leaning backwards. A few years ago we’d have thought them really cool, but Kae just said “that can’t be good for their backs.”

TALES FROM THE VALE and who love you, tell you how brave and brilliant you are while simultaneously (and affectionately) taking the piss out of you every single day, you don’t believe them.

(I thought you were being nice to me so I left this in. But I just realised it’s no.9 in a ‘you’re aging’ list so you basically just told me I’m old now - Ed)

perfect, you’ve earned your fee.’

The print and TV advertising agents started working – and invoicing. The invoices were not small.

Germany was one of the brand’s biggest markets.

But the main German franchisee 6 There’s a great blues band was less than impressed when he playing at a pub five minutes was consulted. away. Gig starts at 9pm. Not too He told the car-maker that the long ago you’d be there by 8pm word Mist in his A few years ago we’d language could getting some pints in, chatting to 10 You are the band and checking out their pathetically be translated as have thought them guitars and equipment. grateful on a day really cool, but Kae just slang for ‘crap.’

Now you stay in and watch that your tiny Can you image Yorkshire Farm on catch-up. village is flooded said “that can’t be good the hilarity if a for their backs.”

(And you still refer to the TV soap by torrential top German car Emmerdale as Emmerdale Farm). rain and you brand launched, mail your editor to say ‘we need for example, ‘the Audi Crap?’

7 You’re early for appointments. wine and we can’t get out of the I can picture the ad tag line, You’ve got the doctors at 5pm, village. Courtenay’s got a huge ‘Don’t go through the motions, you arrive at 3.55pm ‘in case 4x4, what are you going to do?’ have a Crap. Buy Audi.’ there’s a delay on the roads’. You And an hour later C arrives with ‘Did you pay the consultancy then spend an hour in your beige provisions. their fee,’ I asked.

Fiat Twingo sucking Werther’s Totally not me, by the way.

He gave me an old-fashioned Originals and failing to complete look shaking his head. the Telegraph crossword.

The Audi Crap Lesson there – always question But you feel it’s worth it.

Laura, the Editor, made me laugh the ‘experts’. when she mentioned that in the 8 You don’t know why, but 80s a brewer was about to launch Goats on the line somehow you’ve gone from an ‘Irish Red Ale.’ ‘The 7.15 to Charing Cross is wearing tight black jeans from They’d spent tens of thousands delayed. There are goats on the GAP or Next to elasticated-waist in product development, testing, line.’ jeans from M&S. You genuinely branding consultation, marketing I was in a queue at the ticket don’t know when this happened – etc. office at Wadhurst station when and even worse, you’re not really Then a newcomer to the team I heard this and we all collapsed shocked by it. questioned whether a beer called with laughter. Being English we IRA was a good idea. all become instant friends.

9 You may decide I responded by A lady ahead of me announced You genuinely to start a digital telling her that I was that she was at a country station don’t know when rather matey with magazine. It’s in Wales and a train was delayed bloody exhausting a bloke who used due to a refrigerated lorry this happened – and terrifying and be the marketing carrying tons of soft cheese got and even worse, to you quickly realize director of one of the stuck on a level crossing. The you’re not really UK’s most famous you lack the skills refrigeration failed, the cheese to succeed and you and luxurious car melted and ran out of the lorry shocked by it. have the 3am terrors marques. onto the tracks. A team were and are convinced you’ve made They had developed a new model called to clean the tracks of thick the most God-awful mistake. and spent a fortune with a brand greasy substance. Big laugh.

But the magazine quickly consultancy to get exactly the I said (and my life’s gone becomes an enormous success right name for the new super downhill since) ‘did they put up with incredible on-line stats luxury motor– a name which a sign for motorists saying Drive (even though your Deputy reflected style, glamour, an air of Caerphilly.’ Back in the queue at Ed consistently fails to learn mystique and exclusiveness.

Wadhurst that got a big laugh. that online is now a real word The consultancy came up with But I got a bigger one when I and never hyphenated - Ed).

Mist. Sounds good, eh? truthfully added, ‘You don’t know And when people you love, Everyone was delighted. ‘It’s how long I’ve waited to use that.’

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POLITICS

Taking tough decisions for a better future is what politicians must do

by Simon Hoare MP There are few simple solutions to the problems that face our communites, which is why we must not rush into simplistic ‘populist’ policies, argues Simon Hoare MP May I begin by wishing you a belated, but sincere, Happy New Year. Let us hope that it will be a calmer year for all of us.

The Opinion Polls are moving and perhaps, one could argue, that the normal rules of politics are returning?

Governments, certainly those nearly 12 years in office, rarely win by-elections and they certainly do not lead in the polls.

I can remember Labour being 20-25% ahead in the polls in the 1990s and the then SDP scoring around 50% in the early 1980s.

But while interesting, they make no difference to the job in hand, i.e., for the government of the day to get on with governing and delivering.

Balancing issues is key I have been reflecting on the events that have dominated my close to seven years as your MP: the 2016 the EU referendum; 2017, my second general election; 2019, my third general election.

In between we have had confidence votes in Theresa May, the Corbyn years and two leadership elections. I am now serving under my third Prime Minister. It is indeed a curse to live in interesting times.

Most of us, I believe, crave calm seas where we can take stock, 20

set a course and make headway. to focus on what we used to call the ‘bread-and-butter’ issues of politics.

The delivery of Brexit was always going to command a significant proportion of governance bandwidth. When we overlay the high and continuing demands of a global public health pandemic with the cross-government needs it has created, I would urge a degree of sober reflection on the performance of the Government in those bread-and-butter areas of public policy.

The impact of both events mentioned above on the public finances have yet to be fully assessed but they will be there, and they will shape how we move forward.

Our public services and infrastructure require investment and I support that. Of course, the drive for efficiencies will continue but those are not infinite seams to mine. We will need to continue to invest in order to secure a prosperity dividend of sustainable economic growth.

We’ll hold our nerve!

While we are all worried about inflationary impacts on living costs, we do our own and future generations no good if

we are side-lined away from a net zero goal. Fuel costs stabilise when we can, at scale, generate sustainable power at home, rather than importing price-fluctuating foreign power sources.

On this issue the Government must hold its nerve and it’s why I’ve signed up to my colleague Chris Skidmore’s group on this. (in a tweet last week, Chris Skidmore, the Tory MP for Kingswood near Bristol, said that he had “decided to set up the Net Zero Support Group to demonstrate and maintain Conservative support for net zero carbon emissions and policies needed to deliver this” - Ed).

As I said in a recent Tweet, ‘I love my children and home planet more than anything and will do all I can for them’.

So, as we saunter through 2022 we need to keep cool heads and clear visions. Common sense, and serious and sober Tory pragmatism must command the centre ground of British politics.

The tantalising siren voices of easy solutions to complex problems, the chorus of the populist stating all is black or white with the didactic certainty of a Jesuit Inquisitor, are not the answers. They never have been.

They never will be.

POLITICS

We all have difficult decisions – what will yours be?

More people choosing between public health advice or putting food on the table and a few quid on the key, says Labour’s Pat Osborne

Like many others, the Covid crisis currently dominates my thoughts.

Having contracted the virus at work, I was one of the many people celebrating a different kind of Christmas. Doublejabbed and boosted, symptoms where thankfully very mild in my case, but we’re currently seeing infection numbers ballooning and bracing ourselves for impacts of this on the NHS. In North Dorset, the planned temporary closure of Minor Injury Units in Blandford and Sherborne from January promises to protect the NHS. But as the recent problems with access to GP services in Blandford demonstrated, people living in isolated rural areas are considerably more

vulnerable when part of our NHS infrastructure is removed, even temporarily.

Although undoubtedly intensified by the current public health crisis, a social media post from five years ago popped up in my timeline last week to remind me that a ‘winter crisis’ in the NHS was not a new phenomenon. It has been happening with increasing intensity since the Government introduced its programme of austerity in 2010.

Tory hypocrisy Nevertheless, we are where we are, and despite Westminster’s ‘do as I say, not as I do,’ hypocrisy (which does untold damage) it’s important that we continue to look out for each other. For the foreseeable future, this means

wearing masks, washing hands, taking tests, and getting jabs.

But we must also be patient with one another. Government support for small businesses and those on Universal Credit has ‘dried up,’ despite the exorbitant cost of gas and electric and the rising cost of living. We can therefore expect more and more working people to be faced with a difficult decision between following the public health advice to the letter or putting food on the table and a few quid on the key.

Cllr Pat Osborne Labour’s former Parliamentary Candidate for North Dorset

Not much COP

Ken Huggins, local councillor and member of the Green Party, examines Dorset Council’s Climate Action Plan in the wake of COP26

The COP26 conference brought some modest advances, including formal recognition that human activities have caused around 1.1ºC of global warming to date but we are still very far from doing what is now needed. Even with such an apparently small increase in average global temperature, the serious far-reaching consequences are ever more apparent. Deadly heatwaves, fires, droughts and floods etc are a staple of the news. Even in Dorset we’ve had increasing floods recently, and the UK has just experienced the warmest New Year’s Day on record. Extreme weather events are nothing new, but it is the increasing severity and regularity of such events that tells us unwelcome change is happening. The alarm bell is ringing. It is still not too late

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to slow down and eventually reverse this over-heating, but it requires bold and rapid action by governments, business, local councils and, whenever possible, the public.

A plan for action Dorset Council (DC) recently published its Climate Action Plan, available on the DC website here.

Sadly, the Plan is too tentative in its timetable and too weak in many areas. The four Green Party councillors on DC will seek every opportunity to win over other Party’s councillors to the necessity of upgrading its ambition.

There is opposition to wind and solar farms, but these are an essential part of achieving the decarbonisation required of our present unsustainable way of life.

Since the Government scrapped

the zero carbon building regs in 2015 over a million new homes have been built that should have had solar panels in their roof. That’s a lot of roof space that could now be generating renewable energy.

Global heating is a global issue, and what happens here in the UK has consequences for the poorest people in countries most vulnerable to drought, floods and rising sea levels. The countries least responsible for climate change are the ones experiencing the worst effects. So far.

Ken Huggins, Parish Councillor Hazelbury Bryan

We need to build a fair society

POLITICS

We are fighting the growing problem of ‘south east prices but south west prices, says Mike Chapman, north Dorset chair of the Liberal Democrats In a rousing speech, Vikki Slade, three-time parliamentary candidate, told the AGM that a strong Liberal Democrat showing in Dorset Council and national elections was important. Core Liberal Democrat values are vital in the fight against the increasingly immoderate trend in politics today. She urged people to stand as candidates at local, unitary and parliamentary levels.

Aid for low income families Mike Chapman, newly-elected north Dorset chair, outlined the activities of the past year. NDLD has run projects such as the Community Fridge in Sturminster Newton, bought by Lib Dems and managed and stocked twice a week in a campaign to reduce food waste. There has been a focus on climate change practicalities through a workshop and tree planting. The team manned a stand at the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show, reminding people of the strength and capability of the Lib Dem presence. The local party has a growing social media presence (ndorsetlibdems) and campaigning on the streets has started again. Much valuable experience

has also been gained by supporting campaigns in surrounding counties.

Mike thanked the executive team and the hundreds of members across the constituency for their efforts through the year, thanking everyone who has turned out, delivered leaflets, planted trees, got food for the Fridge or said a kind word on Facebook. ’Do better, or depart’ In 2022 we have a number of key themes: the UK’s graceless response to the migration crisis; the levelling up agenda that needs to acknowledge the real and growing problem in Dorset of ‘south-east prices but south-west wages’; providing a positive future perspective for farming, nurturing small businesses as the lifeblood of rural communities; ensuring Local Plans truly reflect local needs and are not a top-down, remote, bureaucratic imposition.

Liberal Democrats’ positive approach and local initiatives on these issues is the way to challenge those presently in power to do better or depart.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the Editor Want to reply? Read something you feel needs commenting on? Our postbag is open! Please send emails to letters@theblackmorevale.co.uk The slow painful death-byvisitor It is particularly apparent in winter when driving through villages after dark, just how much of our housing stock is used for second homes and holiday lets.

I understand Tim Farron MP has outlined some simple steps for his Yorkshire constituency which could work equally well nationwide to prevent the slow painful death-by-visitor of our village life. A way of life which can only thrive when residents live and work in the same community?

Shouldn’t we make second homes and holiday-lets new and separate class categories of planning use? This would mean that councils could monitor and control numbers and tax effectively.

Also give councils the power to increase council tax by up to 100 per cent on second homes in the worst affected communities. This would protect communities and generate revenue to improve infrastructure and provide new affordable housing for local families.

And let’s ensure all holiday-let owners pay council tax, rather than avoiding paying anything at all if they are deemed a small business.

Lastly, give councils the power to ensure that new builds are genuinely affordable.

Mr P Thomas, Shaftesbury *** Can Aldi mend a town?

Further to AP’s points on Aldi coming to Sturminster Newton (Dec 22 issue), I don’t wholly disagree - anything which brings

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people to a town can only be a good thing. However, I do feel the geography of Sturminster Newton in particular will work against it - in this case the supermarket will be easily accessible from the main road, with little reason for people to drive on and work through the traffic lights over the bridge and find parking.

It will of course be a useful alternative for the people of Stur, but I am yet to be convinced that visitors from outside the town, coming solely to find the cheaper supermarket prices, will be lured across the bridge purely by what Sturminster Newton has to offer - unless of course the town is newly motivated to up its game.

John Collins, Sherborne

I have to strongly agree with AP (Dec issue) - the arrival of Aldi in Sturminster Newton can only be a great thing for many in Stur.

Though if I’m honest, this is purely from self-interest; I’m admittedly less concerned about how well it will work for the small businesses currently trading in the town.

If you are struggling to feed your family, access to affordable shopping is an urgent necessity - and yet with a car so old and broken down it was finally resigned to a scrap heap, I have to rely on public transport or kind friends. A return trip to Blandford’s supermarket by bus is £9 out of my weekly food budget, even were they to run at useful times. And let’s not discuss the loss of three hours on the round trip (no, not everyone’s 24hrs are the same Molly-Mae). Instead I have to rely heavily on the utterly wonderful Vale Pantry in order

to keep my bills paid and stay out of debt.

The arrival of a reasonablypriced, well-stocked supermarket within walking distance is an absolute blessing. Hopefuly I will be able to stop relying on the charity of strangers, plan my meals in advance and finally hold my head up.

Please hurry up Aldi.

Name withheld *** Generosity for refugees Dear Editor, can I use your magazine to thank wonderful locals for their generosity.

When the news reports showed the desperate situation at Kabul airport during the evacuation from Afghanistan, many of us were deeply moved.

These were people in urgent fear, escaping with nothing more than their lives. A Salisbury pub began a collection of clothing, but it was all going to Care4Calais where the warehouses were already full, with no means of distribution.

Eventually, we found a small group in Wiltshire with direct access to the Afghan families, who were glad to receive anything we could gather.

We had to wait for phone calls to be told where to meet - each different rendezvous an hour’s drive away - as security for the Afghan translators’ families was paramount.

We were amazed to fill a whole carload - our family and our kind Iwerne neighbours gave warm coats, men’s and women’s jumpers, men’s shoes, and shirts, and socks.

We’d heard that having lost everything, it meant so much to be given even a toothbrush which was their own - so we bought 100 toothbrushes from Amazon, and our dentist gave three boxes of toothpaste samples.

Then more people gave more

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR warm clothing.

The idea of Harvest Festival seemed perfect: thinking of the Bible passage about Ruth, where we read of generosity towards incomers - and we asked each of the five local churches to consider inviting donations of warm clothing for all ages, from babies upwards.

St Andrew’s at Fontmell agreed to be the collection point for gifts.

Your wonderful gifts arrived in bags and case. The Afghan box was filled to overflowing, and still more people emailed - from a young mum who brought three bags of baby clothes to someone giving her late father’s treasured coat.

We have taken four bulging car-loads to various different rendezvous The Afghan families – who are beginning to feel more settled as their children start going to school - have asked us to pass on their overwhelming thanks and gratitude to all these amazingly generous people.

John and Lavender Buckland, Iwerne Minster. *** Flexible workspace in Stur The Sturminster Newton Community Benefit Society has been working hard for three years to support local businesses by attracting more customers into the town. We are currently considering a project to bring the ground floor of the former NatWest building back into use as an indoor market. The aim would be to provide another good reason for coming to Stur. as a shopping destination by offering a venue to buy high quality goods sourced or produced in the Blackmore Vale.

We want to hear from people who may be interested in hiring customer facing space for their businesses, at relatively low cost

and with some support offered.

At this stage we need to have a conversation about what the needs may be. We plan to hold an initial information event in the near future and registering interest at this stage will insure an invitation to attend.

If you are interested please contact me on cllr.p.batstone@ btinternet.com.

Cllr. Pauline Batstone, Secretary Sturminster Newton Community Benefit Society *** Dickens and Macready Crafting Together What a fascinating story on Dickens coming to Sherborne for the public reading of A Christmas Carol (Dec issue, here).

I’ll admit I was entirely unaware of Macready, but having read some more it transpired they really were firm friends, which is the sole reason Dickens deigned to come to Sherborne, though ‘it smells of cow shit’.

In fact it seems he came regularly to visit Macready at Sherborne House. I have also discovered the existence of the William Macready & Charles Dickens’s Scrap Screen which is housed in the collections of Sherborne House - apparently, according to family lore, the two worked together to produce this remarkable object. The vision of Dickens and a great Shakesperean actor spending their evenings ‘crafting’ together was wonderful - I thought your other readers may also be interested: https://www. sherbornehousedorset.org.uk/ history-macready-dickens-thescreen.php Violet Hill, Sherborne

so lucky to have such a business in our community. I, like so many others, relied on them during the first lockdowns, and was never greeted without a smile. Thank you Steve and your whole team. May your oven run for another hundred years!

Patricia Ball, Sturminster Newton. *** The other side of the debate Your correspondent BJ of Shaftesbury (Dec 21 issue, here ) finds it ‘unbelievable’ that so many people are still refusing the Covid-19 vaccines and speaks of ‘aggressive and selfish idiots with no scientific and medical knowledge, who think they know better than the world’s leading medical professionals and scientists’.

So let’s consider the words of a few of these professionals and scientists.

Top cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough, president of the Cardiorenal Society of America, said after changing his view on vaccine safety: ‘Covid-19 vaccines are killing huge numbers of people and the government is simply ignoring it.’

Britain’s Dr Mike Yeadon, former vice-president and chief scientist of Pfizer, said: ‘Everything your government has told you about this virus is a lie.’ *the above letter is greatly abridged. For the full-length article, please visit: holding-the-line.com Roger Guttridge As requested by ‘J Green of Mere’ - your monthly Pog :)

*** Oxford’s oven What a terrific and well-written article on Steve Oxford (‘happy baker happy bread, Dec)- we’re 25

HEALTH

A shocking history of sexual bigotry Until relatively recently even consensual homosexual sex was a crime in the UK – and the US viewed homosexuality as ‘an illness’ as late as 1973. The startling history of sexual prejudice against those who express different gender orientations is explained by Dee Swinton of Dorset Mind Anyone can experience a mental health problem.

But people that identify as LGBTQI+ are more likely to develop issues such as low self-esteem, depression, social anxiety, eating problems and misuse drugs and alcohol.

They are also more likely to develop suicidal feelings as they battle isolation and difficult experiences coming out.

February sees LGBTQI+ History Month, where the UK celebrates and raises awareness of LGBTQ+ history and the many accomplishments of people from their community.

What does Lgbtqi+ stand for?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) persons face specific obstacles when it comes to accessing many of their rights, including their right to social protection.

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mental illness in their manual, But, it’s important to recognise the Diagnostic and Statistical that the fight for equality and Manual of Mental Disorders respect is far from over. Many LGBTQI+ persons still experience (DSM). It’s still used to diagnose mental disorders hate crime, “this classification today. stigma and The first edition provided medical discrimination today. Simply for support for abusive of the DSM characterised being who they treatments, such as homosexuality are - and loving electroshock therapy as a ‘sociopathic who they do. and lobotomies to personality Sadly, the This mental health ‘treat’ homosexuality” disorder’. perspective of profession has homosexuality contributed to this stigma provided by the influential through the pathologization of people who are not heterosexual authority in mental health validated the prejudices of or cisgender (someone who’s businesses and the government. gender identity Is the same as It gave them excuses to their sex assigned at birth).

Here’s a potted history of mental discriminate against and repress LGBTQI+ people. health professionals and the Even worse, this classification LGBTQ+ community. provided medical support for abusive treatments, such Being gay is ‘an illness’ as electroshock therapy Until 1973, the American and lobotomies to ‘treat’ Psychiatric Association (APA) homosexuality. classed homosexuality as a Fortunately, thanks to the tireless

HEALTH work of remarkable LGBTQI+ activists, the APA voted to remove homosexuality from the second edition of the DSM. But the effects of pathologization are still evident in society today.

Mental health today The fight towards equality is still not over.

You might have heard of the phrase ‘conversion therapies’ recently. According to NHS England, conversion therapy or ‘reparative therapy’ or ‘gay cure therapy’ - tries to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The NHS and other professional bodies have deemed all conversion therapies ‘unethical and potentially harmful.’

Despite acknowledging the devastating traumatic effects of these ‘therapies’, it still takes place today.

Recent research by Stonewall

indicated that people from the LGBTQI+ community still experience discrimination in healthcare settings. About 14% of those surveyed avoid seeking healthcare due to fear of discrimination from staff.

Evidence like this confirms that healthcare has a long way to go to ensure that LGBTQI+ persons can experience the same level of care and respect as everyone else. And particularly with their mental health.

Dorset Mind Dorset Mind charity delivers a safe, confidential and accepting space for LGBTQI+ people experiencing mental health issues.

MindOut is delivered pan-Dorset every other week online. It comprises recovery-based peer and guided support with time to share experiences with others, followed by inclusive workshops.

Visit Dorset Mind’s website at https:// dorsetmind.uk/helpand-support/supportgroups/lgbtiq/ for more information.

If you find yourself in a crisis, call 999 - or the Samaritans FREE on 116 123 if you need emotional support – it’s available 24/7.

Dorset Connection helpline is also 24/7 and can help FREE on 0800 652 0190 or by dialling 111 and selecting mental health.

For additional non-urgent mental health resources, support, and information, visit dorsetmind.uk.

Same-sex marriage became legal in the UK in 2014.

Being LGBTIQ+ doesn’t cause mental health issues. But some things LGBTIQ+ people go through can affect their mental health, such as discrimination, homophobia or transphobia, social isolation, rejection, and difficult experiences of coming out. image by Dorset Wedding Photographer We’ve used the term LGBTIQ+ in this feature but we realise this doesn’t cover all the ways people define their gender or sexuality. Stonewall has a glossary that lists many more terms.

27

HEALTH

by Karen Geary, a Registered Nutritional Therapist DipION, mBANT, CNHC at Amplify

Be realistic about the ‘new you’ ‘I’m done with making impossible new year resolutions that I know I can’t keep – but I’ve got a plan that works for me and my clients’, says Karen Geary I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the ‘new year, new you’ marketing at this time of year.

We’re told we don’t need to buy into quick fixes to burn the extra pounds, but are then subject to a long list of things to do. Then the usual suspects of Weight Watchers, detoxes, resets, Whole 30, Keto, Bulletproof, 5:2 diet, Fast 800 and Veganuary (just to name a few), get trotted out as ‘the answer’.

There is then a list of things we need to ‘worry less’ about, as well as the list of things we need to do that are ‘free’.

This years’ list of ‘must do’s’ include things to better manage our mental health, stress levels and anxiety; consideration of which may actually make us feel more anxious.

Just say no I’m done with lists which make us feel unworthy. It is already well known that most people give up their resolutions by the third week in January. Given the past couple of years we have had, messages that try to exhort us to act while we have a glimmer of positive new year vibes just feel like more pressure. ‘Becoming the best version of ourselves,’ is damaging subliminal messaging and suggests that you are ‘less than’, that somehow you are not good enough and have not done enough. No wonder we feel we have failed before we have even started!

Ensure your success So give yourself a break from all of that nonsense this year.

Success comes from two things; 1. being consistent 2. small, incremental gains And absolutely no massive 28

“If you do happen to be participating in Veganuary, then let me help you do it the healthy way by downloading my free meal plan here. It appears in the pop up window!”

Karen overhauls that cannot be sustained.

If you are in business, you will know that one of the best forms of personal development is one where you play to your strengths, rather than trying to do things that you are not cut out for.

People who succeed in business play to their strengths instead of expending major effort on ironing out their weaknesses – it’s why you see leaders who are often idiosyncratic in nature; they to excel in some things very well and they are extremely consistent about practising it.

So this year when it comes to health, and in particular nutrition, start with what you already know so you can make small incremental gains that you can apply consistently.

Small is good When I look at the successes of my clients, the ones who truly excel take small achievable steps that they can stick with. For

example: the client who only gave up sugar and lost 10lbs; the client who consistently just added a few more plants into their diet each day to improve gut health; the client who only stopped snacking between meals and turned around their menopausal weight gain.

When it comes to weight loss intentions, any plan works in the short term, but for it to be sustainable, it needs to be something that you feel you can do habitually; long past the time when the initial motivation or willpower fades. Weight loss has many layers; behavioural, socio-economic, genetic and environmental. You can read more about it here.

So reflect on that one thing you feel you can do that plays to your strengths and stop putting pressure on yourself. You are already good enough. My one thing this year is to do one extra walk a week.

I hope that the new year is a wonderful year for you.

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by Mel Mitchell

HEALTH

Easy tips to ensure your new fitness resolutions stick

Your six point guide to achieve New Year fitness goals

We all say this every New Year’s eve. ‘I will get fit and I will lose weight,’ but has it worked yet? Mel Mitchell advises how to plan a routine that ensures you achieve a better body.

With a new year upon us, now is the time that many of us think about the new year fitness resolutions, whether it is to live a more active lifestyle or to train for that all important event you’ve booked into.

Everyone will have different goals depending on what you want to achieve and where you are on their fitness journey.

Whatever your goal is, the following are ways to help: Make yourself a success!

1. Set yourself a long-term goal (or even two) whether it is to loose weight or to run your first marathon. It is important that you set your goals within an achievable time frame such as six to 12 months. Set an unachievable timeframe and you’ll become deflated that you haven’t hit your target. Be real!

2. Break your long-term goals down into medium and short term such as one to three months.

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3. This will help the long-term goal seem less daunting and more achievable. Consider the short-term goals as building blocks to reach your ultimate target.

4. Your medium- and short-term - goals can be further broken down into weekly and daily targets. This will help you keep focused and motivated to keep you on track.

5. Remember to reward yourself! The journey to your long-term goal shouldn’t be a chore. Rewards can be used as incentives. Give yourself something to work towards. If food is your motivator, then why not treat yourself to your favourite pudding or snack when you hit your weekly target.

6. Don’t lose sight of your ‘why’.

It is important to always remember why you set your goal in the first place. This will help you stay on track and keep focused on the end goal.

My advice is not to put too much pressure on yourself - reaching your goals shouldn’t be a stressful process.

Have a friend that wants to reach the same goal? Great! The more the merrier! Having a support system makes the journey to your goal more pleasurable and you have the added bonus of accountability.

I am always happy to answer your questions - send them to me on melmitchellmassage@gmail.com

By Kate Goddard

Directed by Paula Skinner

31

A COUNTRY LIVING

by Rachael Rowe

The farm where cows milk themselves!

Park Farm Meggy Moo’s has a herd of 180 Holstein cattle, with a robot milking system, so the cows are free to come as they please to be milked.

Image: Rachael Perrett

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by Rachael Rowe

A COUNTRY LIVING

The trend for sourcing food locally has benefited some farmers. Rachael Rowe talks to Rachael Perrett, owner of Meggy Moo’s at Park Farm in Shroton, and is amazed to witness their ‘robot milker’ in action When I arrive at Park Farm, started, we were producing owner Rachael Perrett is salting 100 litres a week. We used an butter in the processing room. honesty box system - it was a The farm lies at the foot of basic way to start a business.

Hambledon Hill in Shroton, We’re not on a busy road, and near Child Okeford, giving a people have tended to find us. spectacular view from Meggy The village of Shroton has always Moo’s dairy, which has a herd of supported us.’

180 Holstein cattle.

There’s a feeling of peace and Super-fresh dairy products serenity on this sunny January Meggy Moo’s produces nonafternoon in what turns out to be homogenised milk. It has been a busy farming environment. gently pasteurised using a lower How long has Meggy Moo’s been temperature within hours of operational? milking. As a result, it is super “Since 2016. I have a background fresh, with cream naturally in retail, and after my first staying at the top. There’s a milk daughter, Megan, was born (the vending machine on the farm farm’s direct which also sells sales business “...the cows are free to other products.

Meggy Moo’s - is come as they please to But there’s a named after her) lot more to the be milked... once the milking process my husband cow has given milk, at Meggy Moo’s, Alan and I tried to come up they just go off into the as Rachael with something fields and ‘be a cow’!” explains: I could do that “Everything would add value on the farm to the farm. revolves around the welfare “We began with whole milk and of the cows. We have a robot then expanded. When we first system, so the cows are free

Rachael Perrett, owner of Meggy Moo’s at Park Farm in Shroton

to come as they please to be milked. It typically takes 15 minutes to milk each cow.

Compared to conventional milking, which can take two to three hours twice a day, this is a lot easier. Once the cow has given milk, they can just go off into the fields and ‘be a cow’!

In a conventional dairy, they don’t always have the time to develop as a herd. Our cows are happy and contented – and they are their own bosses.”

My mind is racing as I think about how it works, and I immediately wonder what happens if all the cows want to go to the Some cows even have a favourite robot and head for that one each time. More dominant members of the herd go for their favourite ones, leaving the ‘less popular’ robot for those lower down in the pecking order.

Image: Rachael Perrett

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by Rachael Rowe

A COUNTRY LIVING

“Our butter,” she says without hesitation. “It’s robots simultaneously. After all, they are ladies proper farmhouse butter.”

- I’m wondering how polite they might be with a I ask about the difference the pandemic has made loo-style wait. to the business. Rachael smiles: Rachael laughs: “Oh yes, they all queue up. Some “As a food producer, it has done us nothing but cows even have their favourite robot and head for good, which I know is an odd thing that one each time. And some When the robot is to say. It has made people look for of the more dominant members milking the cows, they alternatives to the supermarkets, and of the herd go for their favourite ones, leaving the ‘less are fed. Some are crafty to see what they can source locally. enjoy the concept of milk popular’ robot for those lower enough to try and get People straight from the farm and they bring down in the pecking order. One more food, so they their children to see the calves. Those or two try to push in if they all that found us have stayed with us.” want the same robot at once!” queue up again Meggy Moo’s has also expanded the It sounds like those old business to include wholesalers. characters in pubs with afavourite seat that no one “We now have 65 wholesalers, without any else dares use. But some of the cows also try to advertising - they all found us, usually by word of milk the system. mouth. Our clients include The Pig at Brockenhurst.

We also do ‘producers days’. We deliver milk direct Foiling crafty cows to the wholesale customer in reusable 15-litre “When the robot is milking the cows, they are fed. containers, reducing the need for plastic. People Some are crafty enough to try and get more food, so they queue up again to try and get to the feeder! love the concept of the farmer delivering directly to a business, but it’s not just ‘a nice thing’, it’s But the robot is always right, it detects they have important. For example, sometimes the milk just been milked, and gently shoos them on their changes with the season; this way the business can way.” speak directly to the farmer if they notice a change.”

I watch as a cow enters the robot for milking. A What has been the highlight of your business? sensor scans the cow and brushes clean their “Seeing the business grow and also developing teats. The robot can detect early signs of mastitis relationships with the wholesale customers. It’s also and other problems and send a message to Alan’s satisfying to produce something that is ‘your own smartphone. As the milk is produced, a computer thing’ that people enjoy, and where the animals are measures the weight and yield of the cow. It’s all not put under any pressure.” very high-tech, but the cows appear content, and it’s a quick process. The cows also get a weekly visit from the vet to check for problems.

Growing the business Meggy Moo’s has grown and now produces a variety of items as the business has expanded.

‘We started with whole milk. Then customers asked us about semi-skimmed, so we did that, and of course, a by-product is cream. We also now produce our own butter and a range of school-approved milkshakes.’

Which one product would Rachel recommend people try?

As well as milk, cream and butter (plus the milkshakes!), Meggy Moo’s stock a range of local Dorset cheese, yoghurt and ice cream as well as homemade cakes baked in our farmhouse Aga and free range eggs

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Meggy Moo’s farm shop at Park Farm, Shroton.

Meggy Moo’s whole and semi-skimmed milk has been very gently pasteurised using a traditional, lower temperature method, making it taste so different to the mass-produced milk you find in a supermarket

POLITICS THEN AND NOW

by Roger Guttridge March 1929, and a lorry hangs precariously over the river after crashing at Durweston bridge

Living on the edge: Durweston bridge takes another hit Traffic mayhem at Durweston bridge is nothing new. A spectacular neardisaster 90 years ago is explained by Roger Guttridge.

Durweston’s long-suffering river bridge is a regular target for miscreant lorries – and as this picture shows, that’s nothing new.

It was taken on March 25, 1929, after a lorry belonging to Park’s of Portsmouth crashed through the stonework and ended up hanging precariously over the river.

The accident happened after the lorry’s gearing snapped as the driver turned left towards Durweston.

‘The lorry swerved to the right and made straight for the stone wall of the bridge,’ says a contemporary newspaper report.

‘Realising that a collision was inevitable, the driver and his assistant jumped out of the cab and got clear of the vehicle without any injury.

‘The lorry completely blocked the road, and it was found impossible to haul it back owing to the dangerous position it was in. A crane had to lift it out.’

The road was blocked for hours forcing traffic to make

a ‘wide detour, considerable Shillingstone, told me about 20 inconvenience being caused to years ago. those who were using the road’.

‘The lorry had to be unloaded The lorry was so carefully because “...they would in the chemicals it was carrying cargo of all probability carrying would have chemicals for the chemists Timothy polluted the river.’ have been White’s.

Ethel, whose brother drowned as The report adds that Herbert is in the there is a drop picture, lived at France driver Mr A O Haker and his assistant Mr of about 30 feet Hill just outside Newell, both from to the river and Blandford.

Portsmouth, had a was about 13 at the the water at ‘Itime ‘miraculous escape’. and it obviously this spot is very made an impression on Fear of drowning me,’ she said. deep” ‘Had they not ‘Even now I don’t like jumped clear they would in all sitting in the front of a coach to probability have been drowned come round that bridge. It gives as there is a drop of about 30 feet me a funny feeling that it’s going to the river and the water at this to do the same thing.’ spot is very deep.’

Sue Sloper, of Stour Close, As the large crowd in the Shillingstone, whose mother is in background suggests, the the picture, told me: ‘She and a spectacle generated much friend cycled out from Blandford interest among the locals. to see the lorry. The accident was ‘It was quite a thing in those days big news. and hundreds of people went to ‘Mum also said the driver was so see it,’ Ethel Light (née Hardy), of frightened that he passed out.’

35

STURBIZ

This month’s news from the unofficial capital of the Blackmore Vale...

Bringing Stur back to life You wouldn’t believe the work that goes into making the heart of the Blackmore Vale a vibrant town, says Pauline Batstone The start of a new year is a good time to review what Sturminster Newton’s own Community Benefit Society has achieved in the past three years and what it hopes to achieve in the next year.

Raising thousands of pounds from people’s unwanted goods to plough back into the town, is a pretty good start!

Take the Emporium: it brings one old, and unloved, former bank building back to life in the centre of town as a community shop – with everything you need for your home, with: furniture, furnishings, kitchenware, crockery and cutlery, and, for your relaxation, jigsaws, books, CDs, DVDs and even exercise gear.

We’ve also got two fridges and a freezer packed with free food which helps prevent food waste.

Inside is also a very upmarket clothes shop for Dapper Chaps!

And our other shop, The Boutique, sells quality pre-loved ladies clothes for all occasions.

The Emporium has revived a former bank building into a community shop – with everything you need for your home

Sturminster’s Community Benefit Society has funded new level crossing style gates to enhance the entrance to the Trailway from the town The Boutique in Sturminster Newton has an ever-rotating stock of quality pre-loved ladies clothes

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STURMINSTER NEWTON The money raised by the community shops goes towards: • Running the shops and creating two shopping destinations in the town • Installing a defibrillator on the front of The Emporium • Developing, managing and paying for running the town web site – sturminster-newton.org.uk • Taking on the “Who’s who” listing, print and distribution and online presence • Improvements in the Town’s built environment including; • Supporting improvements to the entrance to town from the Trailway by paying for new level crossing style gates • Commissioning a steam train and station mural to be painted in the Station Road car park (this work is underway) • Paying for the large pictures on the redundant bank’s windows.

• Initiating more flowers in the town centre in winter as well as summer by paying for the first flower troughs – now supported by SturBiz, the Town Council and the traders • Paying for the erection of 50 small Christmas trees and their battery lighting around the centre of town in 2020 and 21, the trees being purchased by the traders and organised by SturBiz. • Paying for five parasols to go on the tables in the Market Cross seating area • Supporting and part-paying for the planting of wild daffodils at the Trailway entrance • Paying annually for insurance cover for small events being run in the town including: the monthly Classic Car Event; Producer’s Markets and our popular Literary Festival.

• Insuring Bib The Bike, the trishaw owned by the Blackmore Vale Practice and used to get otherwise housebound people out into the countryside • Underwriting the first Literary Festival costs including payment towards guest speakers’ fees.

• Providing Yewstock work experience for four students • Providing office space for the SturBiz Economic Development Coordinator who organises town events, in particular the Christmas events Other less obvious benefits of the charity include; • Setting up two re-use, recycle, re-purpose charity shops with minimal environmental footprint.

• Creating a community-focused, volunteer-led organisation with around 40 full and part time volunteers

Of course, a major benefit of secondhand shopping is that you have the opportunity to save a lot of money.

But buying second-hand instead of new is also one of the best things you can do to reduce your environmental impact - it’s the greenest way to shop.

• •

Creating three new jobs (one full-time and two part-time) in the town Increasing footfall in the town centre to the significant advantage of the town’s retailers by creating two enjoyable browsing venues and supporting retail friendly events

In the coming year the renamed Sturminster Newton Community Benefit Society will sustain its projects as above and also work to: • Continue to renovate the two upstairs floors of the former Lloyds Bank Building to be used to provide meeting and training rooms plus “hot desking” space for local charities and those endeavouring to develop their own careers • Establish a “destination” indoor market on the ground floor of the former NatWest Bank offering space to traders showcasing goods principally produced in the Blackmore Vale • Work closely with the Town Council to identify future projects to make Stur. “a good place to live work and play” 37

by Paul Birbeck

COMMUNITY

The birth of a modern Fire Service

The Bridport Fire Service in action in 1906 image - © The Barry Cuff Collection

Our modern Fire Brigade was formed in 1939 with an aim to end a random and inefficient service. Historian Paul Birbeck explains.

While leading a group around Yetminster, someone stated that Mallow’s House, a wooden fronted building in Church Road, used to be the village fire station.

It was an assertion that led me to reveal some interesting facts about the history of fire management in rural areas.

C19th reports in local newspapers suggest serious fires were actually uncommon. Fires in hayricks, thatched roofs, and barns in villages are recorded; often being ignited by natural events like lightening, sparks from chimney fires and surprise changes in wind direction. Loss of human life was rare, but as the following report of a farm fire in 1911 shows, loss of livestock and property was not unheard of.

“Shortly after midnight some straw thatched buildings, in which were a considerable number of farm stock, were found to be alight, and very quickly an alarm was raised. While heroic efforts were being made by the farm bands and villagers 38

generally ‘ for the suppression of the outbreak’ a message was despatched for the Fire Brigade from Dorchester. The Brigade turned out promptly, and with four horses supplied from the Antelope Hotel stables the steam fire engine was quickly on its way to Bere Regis. But this was just over a ten mile journey, and although the best possible pace was made under the circumstances a considerable time necessarily went before the arrival of the Brigade at the scene the fire.

The buildings were then practically doomed, and what is a still more regrettable phase of the occurrence is the fact that it was found impossible to save a considerable number of farm animals that were quartered in the premise.”

Extract from The Western Gazette, April 1911 In October 1874 a fire broke out in the kitchen chimney of the Great Western Temperance Hotel in Yetminster. This was

interesting because once the cry of fire was raised, many able-bodied villagers were on the spot helping. Females were reported transferring buckets of water from all parts of the village and the owner Mr Wynne and his family were able to escape unharmed. Records show that the property was insured, as were the family possessions.

Clearly, before 1938 no village fire stations existed, although Dorchester, Sherborne, Shaftsbury, Sturminster and Maiden Newton had small municipal fire brigades run by local councils.

Our modern fire brigade The Fire Service we know today was created in 1939 when a National Fire Service ensured uniformity in the basic equipment used by fire-fighters during the war.

This was a busy time. Firefighters assisted in rescues following the Sherborne bombing in September 1940; were on the

COMMUNITY beaches on the D-Day landings Council declared that if villagers detailed to extinguish any fires desired this extra protection they caused by the soldiers fighting might be prepared to raise the and to protect the villages. necessary money by voluntary Interestingly, in 1941, the subscriptions. question of response “The Council declared In providing extra to a pamphlet that if villagers desired distributed into protection for villages in case this extra protection the villages, of fire, was they might be prepared and at a public considered by meeting in to raise the necessary Sherborne Rural Yetminster, money by voluntary local people Council.

The idea was expressed a subscriptions” to locate basic keen interest in fire equipment in the villages learning how to fire-fight. The which had pressure water Council confirmed a mutual supply. These were to include assistance arrangement after a long reel of corrugated hose which time the evidence trail with the standpipe adjustment stops. and a dual purpose nozzle, as used on a stirrup pump.

Also in the Spring of 1941 This equipment, with three Sherborne Rural Council fire buckets, would enable the purchased 12 hydrant stand village fire-fighting party to carry pipes - but only four had out first-aid action on the fires operating hydrant keys! Each until the fire brigade arrived. village was allocated a stand pipe The cost was about £5 for each to be kept in the village Wardens unit (worth £265 today). The Post for use by the fire brigade

when they arrived with a hydrant key. The Council did order additional keys.

Following the end of the war the National Fire Service was taken over by local County Authorities, and by 1974 many brigades were amalgamated, losing many City and County Borough Fire Brigades.

Since the 1990s firefighting has needed to deal with new and challenging issues from engaging with the community in fire safety to new equipment and techniques to meet a changing new world.

Thankfully, today, we have well-trained and better teams equipped who quickly respond the fire hazards and problems in the countryside.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has a copy of the pamphlet or evidence of a village brigade. Please get in touch on paul@sherbornewalks.co.uk.

Volunteer Drivers Needed Enjoy driving? Enjoy meeting people?

Have some spare time?

Why not join Gillingham Area Car Link?

Our drivers take people living in Gillingham and the SP8 area who have no transport to hospitals and other necessary appointments.

If you live in SP8 and need help with travel, ring

07599 311443.

Leave a message and one of our friendly co-ordinators will call you back.

Due to the heavy demand for our services, we are urgently trying to recruit extra drivers. Might you be interested?

We pay 45p/mile expenses, and you decide what journeys you will undertake and how often you are available.

If you are aged under 80, own a car, and are interested, please call Philip on 01747 824645 or email: walkerphilsu@gmail.com. Further information is also available on our website: www.gillinghamcarlink.org.uk Gillingham Area Car Link Scheme, registered charity no 1138732

39

RURAL MATTERS - monthly column from the CPRE

BIMBY - Beauty in my backyard

Attractive vernacular estate at Old Dairy, Okeford Fitzpaine Image Rupert Hardy

The CPRE is often accused of being NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) - Rupert Hardy explains that the correct accusation is that CPRE are BIMBY. Over the last year Dorset CPRE has been very critical of Dorset Council’s (DC) housing strategy in its Draft Local Plan, particularly on excessive targets. However we have not said much about housing design recently, other than chastise DC for its total lack of ambition in pushing developers to adopt more sustainable and energy efficient building standards, compatible with its declared Climate Emergency strategy. Good aesthetic design, which is mostly lacking in new housing estates, is so important if Dorset’s residents are to accept the large numbers of new houses that will be built regardless of the target that is finally adopted.

Back in 2014 the Prince’s Foundation for Building Communities developed an online toolkit BIMBY (Beauty in My Back Yard - click here to explore it) to help communities have a say on new housing 40

in their area, and overcome opposition to new building.

The Toolkit supported communities to tell planners about the type of housing they wanted. Many communities tried out the resource, especially when developing Neighbourhood Plans.

CPRE is often accused of being NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) so a good response can be that we are really BIMBY. Leading designers share their experience and thoughts Last year Dorset CPRE staged a highly successful conference to examine the question of how to achieve new housing that is better designed and planned than is currently the norm.

Speakers included Ben Bolgar from The Prince’s Foundation, who traced the gradual acceptance of the Prince of Wales’s once-ridiculed concerns for design and planning.

The well-known designer Ben Pentreath (who has been very much involved in the Poundbury development) concluded that ultimately it was for the landowners who release the land for development to make sure that higher standards were observed, and that most new housing fitted better with local vernacular traditions.

The landscape designer Kim Wilkie made a plea for landscape to be central to any new major developments.

It was generally agreed that the small number of big developers, who dominate housing, do not have the answers to the challenge, since they rarely employ proper architects and are more interested in big profits than aesthetics. Small local builders, such as CG Fry and Morrish, were much more likely to be sensitive to the Dorset context.

The conference was attended

RURAL MATTERS - monthly column from the CPRE by many of the county’s leading landowners, along with a number of Dorset Councillors and members of the planning department. It came hard on the heels of the publication of the report of the government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.

Led by the late Sir Roger Scruton it observed “We seem to have lost the art of creating beauty in our built environment”.

It recommended a much greater emphasis on the need for new housing developments to be visually attractive, to take greater account of local architectural traditions, and generally to be acceptable to the local people on whom they have the most impact.

Although the government has largely accepted most of its recommendations, there appears little sign yet of this being implemented at either national or local level.

In Praise of Dorset Vernacular Architecture In 2019 I extolled the virtues of Dorset vernacular architecture.

Before the 17th Century all domestic architecture was generally vernacular with houses built from local materials, based on the variety of the underlying geology, so that in North Dorset around Shaftesbury the local greensand stone was used most effectively, as you can see in

Handsome brick and flint houses at Manor Fm Close, Pimperne Image Rupert Hardy

the Ship Inn. We do not expect little attention to local tradition modern housing estates to fully and diversity. It is true that emulate historic vernacular traditional building requires buildings, but to blend into more skilled labour, and is a little existing villages they more expensive - you “We seem to need to pay more can see this in the form have lost the of thatched roofs, or than lip service. Some builders try quite hard art of creating brick and flint fascias. to do vernacular; but But the premium is not beauty in it has been the local high. our built rather than national We await Michael environment” developers. The Groves’s new Planning former were hit hard Bill next year. He by the 2008 financial crisis, has criticised the use of steel with little support provided by and concrete in favour of more government. We praised estates traditional materials, saying that were both well designed these materials often had higher and vernacular in style, such as embodied carbon.

Old Dairy in Okeford Fitzpaine Conservative Chairman Oliver (Parsons & Joyce, image Dowden has said that the opposite) and Manor Farm Close government would now look in Pimperne (Wyatt Homes, to “set out in law measures to image above). This compares to protect our towns, villages and the dull uniformity of the serried precious countryside from being rows of “Noddy box” houses built despoiled by ugly development”. by national house builders like Will they deliver?

Persimmon in north Blandford Rupert Hardy, (see below) for example, offering Chair, North Dorset CPRE

Rupert describes the ‘dull uniformity’ of the Persimmon estate at Gurkha Rd, Blandford Image Rupert Hardy

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EQUESTRIAN

Put your heart into endurance rides How do you go about preparing for one of the equestrian world’s most fulfilling events? Local endurance rider Claire Fowler explains Endurance riding is a sport in which most horses and riders can take part. If you enjoy spending a few hours in the saddle and would take pleasure in riding over different terrain, then why not give endurance riding a try?

Endurance GB is the sport’s governing body in England and Wales - it runs classes from 16km (10 mile) pleasure rides to 160km (100 mile) competitive rides.

To get a taste for the sport, riders can enter the non-competitive Pleasure Rides or sign up for a ‘Try Before You Buy’ scheme, which permits entry in up to two Novice Graded (affiliated) classes of between 20km and 40km.

Can my horse participate?

While pure and part-bred Arabs dominate the longer distances of endurance, any fit healthy horse can compete easily up to 65km and beyond. There are many horse breeds and types currently competing in endurance very successfully.

Most horses in regular work will be fit enough to complete a 30km ride within the required speed and heartbeat parameters.

Before moving up the levels, horses will require a variety of slow and fast work, schooling and rest periods to build the correct stamina and fitness.

Safety and comfort of both horse and rider is paramount.

Correct saddle fit is essential, and balanced riding makes it much easier for the horse to carry a level load. Riders also need to consider their own fitness. Safety hats to current standards are required.

Fitness checks Horse welfare is obviously key to endurance riding; at Graded

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Claire Fowler riding her 11 year old pure Arabian ‘B Wing’ (William at home!), an ex-racing Arabian now turning his hoof to endurance.

Here they are midway on a 35k novice class, in which they gained a grade one with a final Heart Rate of 44 and an average speed of 11.3kph.

(affiliated) rides pre- and post- ride vet inspections are administered to ensure that all horses competing are fit and sound to do so. At pre-ride, the horse will be briefly examined, have its heart rate noted (must be 64bpm or less) and trotted

up to assess soundness. The post-ride check follows the same pattern.

There is also a farrier check which is done during the pre-ride inspection just before presenting to the vet. This is to ensure the hooves and footwear are

EQUESTRIAN Claire performs a last minute check of tack before starting a 35k graded ride.

satisfactory for the ride distance entered. Horses can be shod, barefoot or hoof-booted.

For Graded rides, grades are awarded based on speed and final heart rate. Fit horses who complete at good speeds and have low heart rates at the final

vetting will be rewarded with higher grades.

In Novice competitions the minimum speed is 8kph.

Completing three Novice rides enables a horse to upgrade to Open level, where the minimum speed rises to 9kph. Placings in graded rides are also given based A pre ride vet check for B Wing: Heart rate checked followed by a trot up away and back to the vet.

on a formula derived from the speed and final heart rate.

A collaborative sport What is great about this sport is riders can involve family and friends to be part of their crew team; handing out cooling water for the horse, refreshments for both horse and rider at designated crew points on the ride route and of course lots of moral support along the way!

Endurance riding is a great opportunity for developing a partnership between horse and rider. It offers access to beautiful countryside, and chances to win titles at all distances and levels of competition.

For more information on getting started, regional groups and rides in your area https://egb.myclubhouse.co.uk or follow the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ EnduranceGB 43

by Lucy Procter

EQUESTRIAN

The calm before the storm Sending colts to the salesroom requires more work than at first glance - as does overwintering a stud filled with thirty horses, shares Lucy Procter At the time of writing we still have several mares living out, albeit well rugged against any rain. The erection of our temporary stables is finished, so by the you’re reading this column these last mares will be coming in at night - and then the real slog of winter begins.

Winter with 30 horses We’ll have over thirty horses onsite, which means 30 horses to put out into the all-weather turnouts, over 30 boxes to muck out and mares to be exercised on the walker. At the end of the day, the turnouts need poo- picking and preparing for the following day... and so the cycle begins again.

Shortly, this will be added to by newborn foals and a morning routine of breeding scans as we start to get mares ready to visit their chosen stallion.

We will all be flat out so, most importantly, we keep the staff well fuelled with bacon rolls, cake and biscuits at morning coffee.

Colts together Our main focus this month is the GoffsUK Breeding Stock sale in Doncaster at the end of the month. This year we are sending ten foals and one pregnant mare; some of our own and some for clients. All the foals have been ‘in

prep’ for the past month which involves daily walking in-hand for 20 or 30 minutes to make sure they are fit enough for long days of being shown to prospective purchasers when at the sales.

During prep, the foals also have a daily groom and are turned out in a field together for a few hours. But beware - see the video above. Turning out three colts together is like touching a match to tinder!

By the sale, the foals will also have been checked by our equine physiotherapist in the hope that a few tweaks might help them walk with a longer, more athletic stride, the most important attribute of a potential racehorse.

A buyer’s dealbreakers Along with the walk, there are several other factors a purchaser The sales foals all have equine physiotherapy sessions to help them walk with the long, athletic stride of the successful racehorse.

44

considers when they are trying to decide whether a particular foal might turn into a good racehorse.

Often, before even arriving at the sale, purchasers will examine the foals ‘page’ in the sales catalogue.

This will show the racing and breeding performance of several preceding generations of the family. Purchasers will also be influenced by the foal’s sire and whether or not a particular stallion is currently fashionable.

A horses catwalk Buyers mark the foals they would like to view in a catalogue.

Then they walk the sales stables complex asking for particular foals to be brought out and ‘shown’ - walked and trotted up and down showing strips to assess their athleticism. They then stand to be examined for their overall conformation. Good conformation doesn’t just look nice, it improves the chances of a foal maturing into a horse who will stand up to the demands of training to become a racehorse, one that we can excitedly follow the career of in the coming years.

By this time next month, we’ll hopefully have at least a couple of newborn foals to report on – watch this space!

Lucy Procter, co-owner of The Glanvilles Stud, shares a diary of life on a Thoroughbred stud.

This month - sales foals and poo-picking after 30 horses.

Walking the sales foals for 20 or 30 minutes each day is an important step in getting them fit enough for long days of being shown to prospective purchasers. Image - The Glanvilles Stud

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EQUESTRIAN

Advertorial

Point to Point returns to Badbury Rings in February A Dorset sporting highlight: pull on your wellies, don a warm coat and head to Badbury Rings for a family day at the races Point to Point it is a form of amateur horse racing where horse and jockey race over steeplechase fences. It is a great day out; when you arrive grab a race card and study the form of each horse as they walk around the parade ring.

It’s a super family day out - meet friends, enjoy a picnic, or purchase food and drinks from the stalls as you stroll around the trade stands in the Shopping Village selling many great locallyproduced gifts and products.

There is no better location than historic Badbury Rings - an Iron Age Hillfort between Wimborne and Blandford - with sweeping views across Dorset.

The course is rectangular and undulating with an amazing view of the four fences home straight, so you can watch the horses battle it out to the winning line.

The Event gates open at 10am, and the first event is the Family Dog Racing at 10.30pm. The Race Card sports six races, starting at noon and running until after 3pm. The going is currently described as good to soft and the bookies and big screen are there to help bring an extra flutter of excitement to your Day Out! Experience all this and more at the Countryside Alliance Point to Point on Sunday 20th February, Badbury Rings, Dorset, DT11 9JL. Tickets can be bought online here or on the day for cash on the gate, £10 per person. Also available is a Patrons tent which opens at 11.30am on the day. The Patrons tent tickets (£40 ea or £70 a pair)

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include a champagne reception, complimentary bar, food and a reserved viewing stand.

Visiting Artists’

Sandroyd Seedlings, The Walled Garden Free stay & play toddler group Every Thursday 9.30-11am

Tindall Recital Series at Sherborne School

Dave Newton Jazz Trio

Thursday 20th January 2022, 7.30pm

Tindall Recital Hall

Music School, Sherborne School, Abbey Road, DT9 3AP

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of “Inspired”, Newton’s fourth trio album, the band will the album with a fresh eye and ear — with the artistry that only twenty years of listening and learning can deliver.

Featuring Dave Newton on piano, Steve Brown on drums and Adam King on double bass.

Tickets £12.50

01935 812249 or tickets@sherborne.org

Indoor & outdoor exploring Messy play Story time Refreshments The Walled Garden Sandroyd School Rushmore Park, Tollard Royal Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP5 5QD 01725 530 124 office@sandroyd.com www.sandroyd.com

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A wintry sunset near Sutton Waldron image: Laura Hitchcock

The cruellest month!

January is traditionally bleak but we’ve got a lot to celebrate and farmers are working hard for the good of us all, explains Louise Stratton

The month of January does not often spark enthusiasm!

After the festivities and family time of December comes another month of winter. January is known as the chilliest month of the year.

For our farmers, work continues aplenty: cattle are often housed against the elements, getting fed, watered, and bedded down; calving commences on many farms and even the early lambing systems start, bringing the delight of a new year and new life to farms.

Arable farms are busy loading grain lorries, seeing their produce off to millers, maltsters and feed mills across the country.

January is also a time for conservation work, with hedging work and tree planting happening.

So, this month also symbolises new beginnings: the beginning of the new year, new life and it is also the time to make new year’s resolutions, however far-fetched.

We’ll come back to those resolutions!

The conservation work on farm has always been embraced by farmers alongside the productivity element of a farm.

Farmers naturally enhance the countryside by maintaining habitats to support our native plants and animals. This winter the South West NFU have teamed up with the Woodland Trust and Lloyds Bank to make a positive contribution to tackle the impact of ash dieback in our region; to work towards the NFU’s Net Zero by 2040 climate change ambition (see Andrew Livingston’s column next page) that we have discussed previously; and to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Tackling ash dieback Ash dieback is a tree disease caused by a fungus that

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FARMING

originated in Asia and arrived in the UK via Europe It affects the common ash, young and old, across the whole of the UK. It is devastating as it has the potential to kill 80 - 90% of our ash in the UK, which could affect the landscape and threaten species that rely on ash.

(See the CPRE’s column in Sep 21 issue: ‘Ash Tree Crisis: A Disaster in the making’) The collaborative tree planting initiative helps counteract the loss and farmers planting a variety of native trees will help diversify our tree population, increasing its resilience to pest and diseases in the future.

Planting trees in the right places will help lock up even more carbon on farms and it allows our members to join us in celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by being part of the Queen’s Green Canopy, which is an initiative inviting people in the UK to ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee’.

With more than 15,000 trees having been snapped up by Dorset farmers, look out this new

year for hedges being in-filled with hawthorn and dogwood, little copses being created of English Oak, wild cherry and silver birch, and wet areas switching to willow, alder and aspen wet woodlands.

This is not about creating vast new woodlands; we don’t want to take swathes of farmland out of production. Instead we aim to encourage small plantings on unproductive farmland and infilling and bolstering our iconic hedgerows.

Your resolutions!

Back to those resolutions: have you made yours?

I like to keep resolutions positive and with so much to be proud of in British farming, what better time is there than a brand new year to celebrate great British food?

We know that eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and wellbeing; food is not produced in the same way across the globe but we know that the food produced by UK farmers is high-quality and meets or

surpasses world-class standards.

As part of a healthy, varied diet, red meat such as beef, pork and lamb, provides a rich source of protein and a range of vitamins and minerals including iron, zinc and vitamin B12. A 200ml glass of semi-skimmed milk provides 35% of calcium, 44% of iodine and over 100% of vitamin B12 of an adults recommended daily intake.

Therefore if you have not found a resolution yet, why not try eating with our seasons? Choosing British fruit and veg means that you know your food has travelled fewer miles to reach your plate.

We have seen incredible levels of public support for domestic food in 2021 and we remain extremely grateful to everyone who has backed British farming and British food. We look forward to working with you and producing ingredients for you to enjoy in 2022. We hope British produce will be your number one supplier of choice this coming year, however long the other resolutions last!

Louise Stratton NFU Dorset County Adviser

Dorset’s winter farmland image: Laura Hitchcock

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In association with VOICE OF A FARMER

by James Cossins, a fifth generation farmer in the Tarrant Valley.

Four legs bad, spring crops good We had a terrible Christmas with the animals, but the spring crops are looking good, hopes James Cossins I think we will be pleased to see progress in clearing this disease the back of 2021. from the farm. We may have to The last 10 days of December blood test our animals which provided us with rain everyday involves a more sensitive test which made looking after our and can lead to animals without cattle during the festive season the disease being found positive. less pleasant than it could have For many years there has been been. talk of a vaccine against TB in One young yearling animal cattle but we are always told decided to get it is five years away. “...stuck in stuck in a feeder I believe there are a feeder on on Christmas currently trials taking Day which took a Christmas Day place to test the bit of extracting. which took a bit effectiveness of the Fortunately she vaccine, so let’s hope of extracting. progress can be made. was still alive, Fortunately she although a little dazed, and with was still alive, A new year some pain-relief although a little As we look forward treatment she is to 2022 it seems that dazed...” making a good Covid will still be recovery. playing a part in our lives. I think The week before Christmas we we are fortunate to be able to had our 60 day TB cattle test work outside and generally in which ended up finding six small groups so our chance of reactors in milking cattle. These having to isolate is, hopefully, animals will now have to go to reduced. the abattoir for a post mortem Some of our deliveries and examination. collections have been affected by We thought we were making delays, although up to now our 50

milk collections have thankfully not been disrupted.

Spring looking good Our autumn-sown crops generally look in good condition, so we have gone into the new year in a positive mood. We have the majority of our fertiliser now in stock and spring barley seed is soon to be delivered, so we can look forward to longer days and spring will soon appear.

Divided loyalties As a season ticket holder for AFC Bournemouth, I managed to watch them play against Cardiff which they won 3 – 0, to go the top of their league.

As I write I am sure that there will be some divided loyalties in the Blackmore Vale area Bournemouth have been drawn against Yeovil in the FA Cup, and are playing today...

(Bournemouth won 3-1, are through to the fourth round, and play Boreham Wood on the 5th Feb)

FARM TALES

by Andrew Livingston

The concept of fried insects on a plate is a far off concept for a human diet, but they are already moving into our animal feed.

The future of our food is… bugs (yes, really!)

Shocking as it may sound, insects will prove the path to sustainable food stocks, argues Dorset farmer and writer Andrew Livingston This new year means British agriculture takes one step closer towards the Nation Farmers’ Union (NFU) aim of all farms being carbon neutral by 2040.

It’s clear that in its goal of achieving ‘net zero,’ farming practices that have been used for centuries need to be replaced with more sustainable methods of producing the nation’s food.

Over the next three months, I will explore how agriculture will start to look.

Farming for yields There is a reason why some farming traditions haven’t been changed for centuries; it’s because they achieve the highest possible yield, from either crop or animal.

Admittedly, some traditions already look archaic and have been replaced with new scientific methods; for example, ploughing has now become an obsolete practice.

Arrow straight and paralleled ploughed fields looked great, but were not only destructive to the habitat below the surface, but soil being broken and turned released huge amounts of carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Today, technological advancements are used such as

seed drills and minimum tillage cultivators.

a cricket curry, but farming insects has many positives. For starters, insect farms don’t look A new delicacy like your everyday farm; there is Changing the way we farm an insect farm in the centre of is fine, but we still need to London. Bugs and insects don’t produce the same amount of need fields or natural sunlight: food. The world’s population is they are grown in tanks that can expected to reach be stacked on top of Entomophagy each other to most over 9.7 billion by is basically why greatly utilise space.

2050, so how can you feed everyone If you can’t envisage I don’t ride while protecting bikes without a yourself chowing your environment? down on bugs, then face mask - it’s fear not. The insect’s One answer, the process of role in farming in the entomophagy, has been consumed all eating bugs! future is expected across the globe, to be as additives and particularly in densely for feed for livestock. Local populated countries. protein from insects has many Entomophagy is basically why I benefits - currently, a fifth of don’t ride bikes without a face the soya imported from Brazil mask - it’s the process of eating is a result of deforestation. bugs!

It is also cheaper than soya, For thousands of years in Asian, while allowing us to be more African and South American self-sufficient and rely less on countries, the consumption of imports and fluctuating global insects is considered a delicacy. prices.

I have never dabbled, but the Morrisons has already begun critters are renowned for being utilising insects into the feed to full of protein while being more hens, aiming towards carbon efficient than conventional neutral egg production. livestock, as they can better However, it will be a few more utilise energy from plants and years till bugs and flies are the add weight more easily. norm for birds across the UK. We can all thank the humble Steak v beetle stew chicken for consuming the bugs Right now it may seem ludicrous and flies that we really aren’t to replace your fillet steak with quite ready to eat ourselves.

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by Jane Adams

WILDLIFE

Jane Adams - Naturalist. bTB Badger Vaccinator.

Nature writer.

Photographer. Bee Watcher.

Robins are adapted to life in poor light and are often active in half-light when few other birds are about. They tend to be among the earliest birds to start the dawn chorus and one of the last to stop in the evening.

Street lights and floodlights can trigger singing in the middle of the night, and if roosting robins are disturbed, they can burst into song even in complete darkness. image: Jane Adams

Why are cheeky robins our favourite visitors?

On a chilly day, the arrival of an impudent wild friend interrupting an outdoors chat gives wildlife columnist Jane Adams pause for thought.

The yearly gas boiler check is complete. Adam, the boiler engineer, is waiting in the driveway. Two metres away I’m leaning on the backdoor, and we’re both wearing facemasks - how quickly we’ve got used to these open-air, socially distanced chats.

Though it’s chilly today, the arrival of a wild friend, a robin, lessens our discomfort.

A shamelessly nosy visitor As I quiz Adam on the cost of heat pumps, the robin hops between his feet. After perching on his boots and pecking at his laces, it darts off to balance on the rim of a terracotta pot but soon returns, flapping, dipping, and bobbing.

Finally, it pauses on the garden table, where it tilts its head and stares at us.

You, madam, are a boar.

Robins see us as modern day wild boar. Boar disturbed insects as they foraged through ancient woodlands. We fork over compacted earth, throw 52

dead stalks onto the compost heap, and rake fallen leaves - all supplying a similar smorgasbord of insects for our avian neighbours.

But this bird isn’t feeding. In fact, there’s not an insect in sight and the ground lays undisturbed and stiff with ice. Surely it can’t be trying to chase the boilerman out of the garden. Can it?

The gardener’s friend is a thug Our culture is full of robin symbolism. We think of them as lucky; they are the gardener’s friend and make us smile. Yet within their own world, their life is violent and territorial. If your garden has plentiful food and perfect nesting sites, your

The robin is one of the few birds in the UK that sing all year round.

This is due to the importance of holding winter territories.

resident red-breast will chase trespassing robins out of its patch. Fights lead to injury, sometimes death, so any new robin needs to watch its back.

Today’s visitor is pecking at Adam’s boot again, but not aggressively.

It reminds me of a saying linking robins to deceased friends and family; “Robins appear when loved ones are near”.

Has Syd, my husband’s godfather and former owner of this house, returned in the body of this bird?

Is he scrutinising our choice in boiler engineer?

The next time you’re approached by a robin, it’s worth considering why it’s there.

POLITICS

WILDLIFE

The nimble woodland resident with the acrobatic swift exit.

As Dorset’s most widespread deer species, you might be lucky enough to spot a roe deer or two tentatively emerging from woodlands or bounding across frosted fields this winter. But how much do you know about the lives of these mysterious wild mammals?

Roe deer live a mostly solitary life during the summer, but in winter they may come together and form small, loose groups.

They are most active at dawn and dusk, and live in areas of mixed countryside where they can be close to woodland, farmland, grassland and heathland. They eat buds and leaves from trees and shrubs, as well as ferns, grasses, brambles and heathers.

Is it a roe deer?

Be prepared to look out for the roe deer’s identifying features; if you do glimpse one, it may be on the move and disappear swiftly.

They are a slender, mediumsized deer with short antlers (males) and no tail. Roe deer are mostly brown in colour, turning reddish in the summer and

darker slate grey in the winter, and you’re most likely to spot the flash of their pale buff rump as they dash away from you with dramatic leaps and bounds!

Their eyes are large and black, and they have black noses and mouths, with large ears atop their heads and a white chin.

The animated Disney character Bambi is thought to have been based on a roe deer - roe deer fawns, just like the film’s title character, are born with white spots on their back and sides, which disappear with age.

A male’s antlers are quite small, typically have three points each and undergo a cycle of growth and re-growth that takes a full year. They begin to grow their antlers in November, shedding the velvet from them in the spring. By summer, they are

ready for the rutting season.

After mating, they shed their antlers in October and begin to grow a new set. Adult roe deer have no natural predators.

However, their young can be taken by foxes.

Spotting tracks If you don’t happen to spot a deer itself, you might spy some tracks left behind. Their hoofprints will be around 4cm long – remarkably small for such a substantial animal (an adult roe deer can be up to 1.3 metres in length and 75cm in height) - and they tend to follow the same paths regularly.

To find out more about deer and more wildlife you might spot around Dorset at this time of year, visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org. uk.

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VET Puppy parties will resume at Damory Vets over the coming months

Parties make for happy puppies Puppy Parties are a perfect way to introduce your puppy to the vets in a fun and playful way. Mandy Walters, Small Animal Practice Manager & Head Nurse at Damory Vets explains why they’re important In the next couple of months, we will start Puppy Parties at Damory Vets. Puppy Parties are a perfect way to introduce your puppy to the vets in a fun and playful way.

After your puppy has had their first vaccination and before they have their second, they can join up to two parties. The parties include playtime to help

Puppy parties are a safe way for your puppy to learn to socialise and not fear a trip to the vet!

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with socialisation, discussion with the Veterinary Nurse about flea and worm treatment, training, food and feeding, and anything else that we can help you with.

Puppies have a lot to learn about the world in a short amount of time, and it is our job as owners to guide them as best as we can so that at the end of the day, we have a happy and confident puppy.

It is important to think about what a puppy will experience in their day-to-day life with you, whether it is gunshots, traffic, school playground and so on. It is important that early exposure is started as soon as possible in a safe and controlled way.

Puppies are not able to socialise freely until they are fully vaccinated, so these parties help them to socialise in a safe environment. It is important to socialise your pup from the moment you take them home, however, after 16 weeks of age new things and situations may take them longer to get used to and are more likely to be initially scared of them.

We try to make the parties fun and interactive for both puppies and owners, encouraging training, grooming, general handling as well as playing with the other puppies. The nurses are happy to discuss further socialisation with you as well. We want the puppies to have a fun and enjoyable experience at the vets and to make happy early memories.

RESCUE ANIMALS

All looking for their forever homes...

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POLITICS

Take a Hike:

Beautiful coastal circular with stunning views!

7 miles

The Dorset coastal path is always super-busy in the summer, but there’s nowhere more glorious on a sharp and sunny winter’s day.

Extra note this month - while walking the coastal path section in November, I foolishly didn’t stop moving as I checked the route on my phone. I immediately clattered into a very low and frankly insignificant bush, and a ridiculous amount of pain bloomed in my shin, despite there being no visible damage.

Three days later I was in A&E with a serious infection spreading up my leg thanks to a single deep puncture wound in my shin from that blackthorn bush.

Apparently it’s a common issue - so beware the blackthorn!

The routes we feature have always been created and walked recently by ourselves, so you know you can trust them - we aim for unpopulated routes with as little road and as many views as possible!

You can always see the route and follow it yourself via the free Outdoor Active app - see all our routes here.

All images Laura Hitchcock

Looking back across Dancing Ledge (seen in the foreground), from the half way breathing point of the toughest uphill section of the route - the views are all the reward you need to keep plodding upwards

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CLICK THE MAP TO SEE THE ROUTE ON OUTDOOR ACTIVE, OR SCAN THE QR Starting from the small car park in Worth Matravers (honesty box) you walk past the smallest pub I know, the Square & Compass (which has been in the same family for 100 years), and then follow the path through a gorgeous gully straight down to the clifftop (the relatively steep downhill is mildly treacherous in wet).

In the central section, if you’ve never visited, it’s worth leaving the route to clamber down to Dancing Ledge for an explore.

Wear good footwear in the winter - the coastal path is narrow and busy, and therefore gets incredibly muddy. Also do please keep dogs on leads, the cliff edge is suprisingly close in sections.

The route back along the Priest’s Way runs parallel to the coastal path. It’s an ancient track taken by a local priest as he travelled back and forth between the churches at Swanage and Worth Matravers.

On a sunny winter’s day, a hike on Dorset’s coastal path takes some beating.

The track inland from the coast to pick up The Priest’s Way doesn’t take much map reading to follow...

The first glimpse of the sea appears just a few minutes after leaving the car at Worth Matravers Even away from the breathtaking coastline the views are constant and beautiful

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FLOWERS

The joy of growing from seed

Charlotte Tombs, an experienced Dorset flower farmer at Northcombe Flowers in Sturminster Marshall, shares her growing year and seasonal thoughts with us.

I use January as a month to plan and dream about my new year’s flowers and vegetables, says Charlotte Tombs, who explains why a garden diary is a great idea New beginnings, new start, new catalogues, new varieties, new compost, new trays, new gloves, new seed markers, new tools (it’s always their fault)... all the things I love about growing from seed.

We get another chance to try again each year, we can wipe clean all those gardening mishaps and go in with a clean slate, a new approach, a determination to do things better or differently - like Groundhog Day but with us in control – almost!

My slow start in January I don’t start seed sowing in earnest until February, when the natural light levels improve, but I will sow a few sweetpea seeds somewhere warm then put them in the greenhouse as soon as they germinate. Or I’ll soak a few anemone or ranunculus corms and claws and get them to sprout, plant them and put them in my little zip-up greenhouse next to the back door so I can monitor the new life emerging.

Don’t throw old seeds!

I use January as a month to plan and dream - but mainly to procrastinate.

Did you know that seed, if stored correctly, only loses 10% of it’s viability per year? Do the maths: nine year old seed will have a 10% germination rate. So never give up on an interesting old packet of seeds found in your grandparents’ drawer - you may 58

just get a successful outcome, wash the trays/pots in warm even if only partial. If you sow soapy water and put them away 50 seeds, then you could get five for the winter as there may be healthy and attractive plants. slugs and snails (or their eggs) It’s also worth remembering that hiding; the last thing you want if you can save seed from your is a slug chomping through your own plants, that seed newly emerging “I love the may grow better for germinating seeds. theory, but the I love the theory, you - it could have adapted to your soil practice takes but the practise type and growing takes discipline, discipline, conditions. That’s which frankly I don’t often why those self- which frankly I possess. don’t possess” I don’t however buy seeded seedlings in your gravel path are new plastic pots - all so much healthier than the ones gardeners have hundreds and you mollycoddled last year. they can be re-used time and So check what seeds you have again. left, pore over those seed catalogues, make a list of Make 2022 the year you begin everything you want to grow, keeping a garden diary (and check with a fellow seed If you haven’t done so, think geek - you may be able to share about keeping a gardening diary or swap seed varieties, or your or making notes. It will be a very acquaintance may have grown it useful aid. before and advise that it was a And if you have gardening geek waste of space or time). tendencies like I do, you’ll find it Then if you are anything like me, fascinating that last New Year’s you’ll need to cut your list down Eve the temperature was -3º C, considerably as you never have and this new year +14º C and we as much space for what you had snow at the end of January want.

2021. Yes I know, crazy!

I simply keep a note of when Clever use of January I sowed a seed and when it Use this ‘down-time’ time to flowered. Some gardeners go finally tidy and organise your further; they will record dates of seed trays and pots: take an old germination, potting on, planting brush to clean out all the old soil out, flowering and then when if they are lying around outside they were ripped up and another and have been buried under a flower grown in its place. The pile of leaves like mine.

RHS have a great five year diary At the back end of Autumn and you can start it at any time we were all meant to clear up, in the year.

ADVERTORIAL

Happy Blue Year?

January feeling a struggle? Thorngrove’s expert team share their own enjoyment in the start of the year, the steady, busy transition to spring and invite you to share in it Here we are again; a fresh start, right? The decorations are boxed away, and at Thorngrove our eyes are firmly fixed on the Spring that will be upon us before we know it. The first week back in January mainly consists of A LOT of pre-spring cleaning and preparing room for the new plants that will be along soon.

Both our Glasshouse and Plant Nursery team have their work cut out for them, but experts Chris and Mark have also expressed excitement about this time of year.

“Sometimes the first few weeks after Christmas can be seen as a bit of recuperation time – but not for me!” said Chris “Things have already started ramping up with sowing continuing, potting up of wedding trees – I enjoy it though, I prefer to be occupied. We’ve also been getting our Employ My Ability students back into the swing of things after their welldeserved break, and they’ve all shown great enthusiasm and brought lots of Christmas stories with them.

Mark agrees “January isn’t as bare as some may think. The Camellias are still looking lovely, and just coming through now

are Hamamelis, winter flowering has caught up with us, Christmas shrub. This time of year can be dented our wallets but payday is understated in terms of vibrancy far off and the weather is often on the shrubs, but there is plenty grim! to take in (and lots of work to Being in an environment like the be done), trust me. I enjoy this one we have here at Thorngrove transition from really does help Back to work fatigue Winter towards make things that has caught up Spring very little bit easier. much!” with us, Christmas Shrubs springing life, and the dented our wallets to Blue Monday different teams but payday is far off pottering around to Supposedly the saddest day of and the weather is make our garden the year, this year centre the best it often grim!

Blue Monday can possibly be. (supposedly the saddest day If you’re feeling a little low in this of the year) falls on the 17th early part of the year, consider January - approaching as I stopping by - even just for a walk write. It can often feel like an around, we promise you’ll spot overbearing, dark day on the something that will bring a smile calendar. Back to work fatigue to your face.

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In association with OUT OF DOORS

Time to look back and learn with Barry Cuff

Romanesco Broccoli - also known as Roman Cauliflower - has small lime green conical florets and was first documented in Italy in the 16th century. image - Barry Cuff

In the quiet days of the middle of winter, Barry Cuff reflects on the last year of growing in order to improve this year’s harvest The plot supplied us with May and October. The driest wonderful fresh produce over April and August. White frosts the Christmas period. occurred at the end of April and For our dinners there was the first week of May. cauliflower, romanesco, sprouts, leek, carrot and parsnip.

Under attack Romanesco has small lime green Our five lines of Hurst Green conical florets which are more Shaft peas suffered attacks tender than cauliflower curds. from pea and bean weevil so With no real frosts, the salad yields were somewhat down on patch continued producing previous years. excellent leaves of Mizuna, Palla Attacks usually are worse during Rosso radicchio, two mustards, cold dry spells when emergence Golden Streaks is slow.

“Our beetroot yields For some reason and Red Frills plus were well down this the mangetouts Bluemoon and Redmoon Autumn year - some of this were not attacked. radishes. Both was due to sparrows The garlic these radishes produced much who love the young smaller bulbs than have coloured seed leaves!” flesh and look usual, despite great in the salad being planted bowl. early. Our beetroot yields were well down - some of this was due How our 2021 looked to sparrows who love the young Looking back over the last twelve seed leaves! months, it is time to assess the The rain in May and June did performance of the varieties we wonders for growth, so despite grew. these problems most vegetables Of course, as in farming, the gave excellent yields. Sweetcorn weather has a major role in (Lark), squashes (Crown Prince, this, and I keep records of the Butterfly and Sweet Dumpling) weather on the allotment. carrots (Early Nantes) Parsnip Rain, or lack of it, is the most (Palace) and French beans important factor for us. Rainfall (Safari) were the top performers. for 2021 was about 39 inches, Onion, broad beans, runner which is above average. beans and celeriac all did well The wettest months were too.

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Barry is still cropping exotically-coloured salads thanks to the mild winter, with leaves of Mizuna, Palla Rosso radicchio, two mustards, Golden Streaks and Red Frills plus Bluemoon and Redmoon Autumn radishes image - Barry Cuff

Our potatoes loved the wet May and June and yielded well.

Top performers were Rooster, Elfe, Picasso, International Kidney and Charlotte.

The brassicas all benefited from the rain in June. Once again Cendis cauliflower produced heads weighing two to three kilograms! We were pleased that Ironman produced secondary heads well into December.

So a good year on the whole, with a few exceptions. We now look forward to the new growing season.

by Pete Harcom Head Gardener at Sherton Abbas Gardening

Garden jobs for January This month’s jobs from Sherborne’s expert gardener Pete Harcom • Pruning Winter pruning can be done now on your climbing roses, apple and pear trees. Also magnolias, cotinus, berberis and flowering currants can all be pruned now.

Try not to cut too far away from - or too close to - a bud, and always make the cut slope away from the bud.

• Sowing Sow your antirrhinum, sweet peas, lobelia, begonia semperflorens, geraniums (pelargoniums) now, in gentle heat in the greenhouse or simply on an indoors windowsill - in a propagator if possible.

• Planting If the soil is not too wet or frozen, now’s the time to plant bare root roses, shrubs, hedging and ornamental trees. Bare rooted plants are far less expensive than container grown plants and can establish swiftly. Many deciduous and

evergreen shrubs, trees and hedging plants can be planted bare rooted as they are dormant between November and March. After this time of dormancy, the roots will then establish themselves quickly as the soil warms up in the spring.

• Organising Check that small alpines in the garden don’t become smothered by fallen leaves and other wind-blown debris.

Check for rot on stored bulbs and tubers, and ensure dahlia and canna tubers haven’t totally dried out.

Clear away soggy and collapsed stems of perennials and compost them.

Remove and bin hellebore foliage marked with black blotches, to limit the spread of leaf spot disease - do not compost these leaves.

Deadhead winter pansies and other bedding regularly, and remove any foliage affected by downy mildew.

Take hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs, such as forsythia, willow and viburnum.

Take root cuttings of fleshy-rooted perennials such as oriental poppies, acanthus and verbascum.

Order seeds and plug plants An idea worth trying might be to press mistletoe berries into the bark of apple trees to establish your own mistletoe plants!

• Planning Now’s an excellent time to plan and replant herbaceous borders. You don’t need to be an experienced gardener; ideas can be drawn from the web such as www.rhs.org.uk. There are many websites that will help with your design ideas.

Pete

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BOOK CORNER

Voice of the Books

POLITICS

“Lordy it’s cold at the moment, and drizzle abounds. I have the antidote; two perfect, award-winning, stay-indoors books to keep you enthralled and entertained” - Wayne FALL by John Preston £9.99 Ghislaine Maxwell has achieved notoriety of a different sort recently, but her father blazed a trail of infamy well before her.

Winner of the Costa Biography Award 2021 The dramatic, gripping account of the rise and fall of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell by the acclaimed author John Preston is breathtaking.

Born an Orthodox Jew, he escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, fought in the Second World War, and was decorated for his heroism with the Military Cross. He went on to become a Labour MP and an astonishingly successful businessman, owning a number of newspapers and publishing companies. But after his dead body was discovered floating in waters around his superyacht, his empire fell apart as long-hidden debts and unscrupulous dealings came to light.

Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption. What went so wrong? How did a man who had once laid such store by ethics and good behaviour become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck?

In this gripping book, John Preston delivers the definitive account of Maxwell’s extraordinary rise and scandalous fall. ‘engrossing, amusing and appalling’ Robert Harris

The Manningtree Witches

by A.K. Blakemore £8.99 Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2021 1643. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the Civil War began, the women are left to their own devices and Rebecca West chafes against the drudgery of her days.

But when Matthew Hopkins arrives, asking bladed questions and casting damning accusations, mistrust and unease seep into the lives of the women. Caught between betrayal and persecution, what must Rebecca West do to survive?

‘Deft and witty... dazzling and precise’ New Statesman

Sherborne’s independent bookshop Winstone’s has won the ‘British Book Awards South West Bookseller of the Year’ four times and was winner of the ‘Independent Bookseller of the Year’ national award in 2016. Owner Wayne Winstone was previously one of the three judges for tthe Costa Prize for Fiction.

This year Wayne was selected as one of the top 100 people in the Book Trade’s Most Influential Figures listing.

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CHARITY NEWS

Are you tough enough to take on the 2022 cycle ride’s new 75 mile ‘Challenging’ Route?

Image supplied courtesy of James Thrift Photography

Shaftesbury Rotary Club are delighted to announce that their hugely popular charitable fundraiser, the North Dorset Cycle Ride, will be back again in May with some exciting additions.

This popular annual ride, taking in the towns and villages around the Blackmore Vale, is Shaftesbury Rotary’s biggest fundraising event of the year.

The Rotary committee have set themselves their most ambitious fundraising target yet – hoping to raise £25,000.

As usual Prostate Cancer UK will be the main beneficial charity, and the remaining funds will be distributed to the benefit of local charities and good causes.

New innovations in the old routes There are some exciting changes for the 2022 event – the old 12 mile Family Fun Ride has been adapted to be more inclusive for younger riders and their families.

While still finishing on the iconic Gold Hill, the course itself is now much shorter and flatter than previous years and there will be entertainment along the way to keep the smaller riders engaged 64

and happy.

The traditional start for all the routes is still from Castle Hill with its glorious views over the Vale.

New for the 2022 event are staggered start times for groups; so you can set off together with friends in sociable waves.

As always, the ride’s pinnacle will be the iconic Gold Hill finish line that will involve cycling (or attempting to cycle!) up the famous ‘Hovis hill’.

A new 75 mile course has also been introduced for 2022 for the ambitious – the challenging and scenic course will really push the keenest of cyclists to their limits.

Perfect partners Jim Highnam, Managing Director of ride sponsor BV Dairy, comments; “We’re proud to be involved. We have some keen cyclists at BV Dairy, including myself, that will be taking part, and many employees will be volunteering as marshals too”

Gillingham & Dorset Wheelers will be providing rider numbers that will make a great keepsake souvenir (no more soggy paper numbers!). They have also generously offered to put on a mechanical stand on Castle Hill to deal with any last minute punctures or bike repairs.

How to enter There are four routes to choose from, all starting on Castle Hill and finishing on Gold Hill. The easiest is the family-friendly 6 mile route. Then there are the 25, 50 and the new 75 mile challenger route to choose from.

Registration is now open online for a modest £25 per adult for the 25 mile and 50 mile ride, £30 per adult for the 75 mile ride and only £5 per rider for the Family Fun ride.

Riders can sign up by going to the website www.cycleride. shaftesburyrotaryclub.org

CHARITY NEWS

£20,000 granted to local charity working with grieving children There is delight at Milborne St Andrew-based charity Mosaic upon receipt of a large grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation.

Local charity Mosaic offers support to bereaved children and young people across Dorset.

They have continued to offer support and help throughout the pandemic, using online services and other creative ways of working, and ensured that they have kept in contact with every family who needed their help.

They are, however, continuing to see a significant increase in enquiries and referrals, many directly due to COVID. Over the past 18 months, like every other chairty they have been unable to hold events to fundraise and income from donations has greatly reduced.

The Garfield Weston Foundation

is a family-founded, grantmaking charity which supports causes across the UK and, in the most recent financial year, has donated over £98 million. Since it was established, it has exceeded donations of more than £1.2 billion, of which well over half has been given in the past ten years.

Known for its transparency, flexibility and straightforward approach, the Foundation supports a broad range of charities from small community organisations to large national institutions. Around 2,000 charities across the UK benefit each year from the Foundation’s grants.

The £20,000 grant awarded to Mosaic will make a real difference to all the young people they work with at such a difficult time in their lives.

The charity hopes they will be able to resume their own fundraising in 2022 - in the meantime they have extended their Christmas appeal to the 31st January.

Five bikes, 50 ladies, 2,000 miles The Ladies of St Greg’s Primary School in Marnhull are soon to undertake a mammoth challenge: spin bike 2000 miles in 24 hours. For books!

The ‘Ladies of St Greg’s’ hail from all corners of the community; Headteacher Mrs Field, Year 6 pupils, teachers, governors, our local Reverend, doctor, nurses... but they are united in one endeavour; to raise £3,000 for a series of high quality, inspiring and aspirational texts to engage the children.

left to right: Daisy the dog, Mrs Field (Headteacher), Felicity, Molly, Ella, Grace, Lily)

In times gone by it would have been inconceivable that a school should need to fundraise for books - but that is the reality all schools now face.

With usual fundraiser events largely curbed during the pandemic, the Ladies have set their aim on this one big fundraising endeavour. The 2000mile ‘journey’ will take the Ladies from St Greg’s to London, then on to Paris-Prague-Vienna-Venice before finishing in the eternal city, Rome.

They will spin from 14:30 on the 20th of January and aim to complete the journey by the same time on the 21st of January.

Along the way the children will learn of the famous cities they travel through, and Cookie and Cream (the school Guinea Pigs)

will enjoy different backdrops representing each city; this truly is a journey for the whole school.

Special thanks go to Simon Hoare MP who attended the launch, channelling his inner Brucie with a game of higher or lower that the children loved. He went on to say “I’ve never been lonely with a book; every culture, story, myth & country can be found there”. Also thanks to sponsor Robert Frith Optometrists. James Risley said “Frith are privileged to be able to help this initiative - I have the utmost respect for the ladies taking part!”

The Ladies of St Greg’s would appreciate any support readers may feel they can offer: https:// stgregorymarnhull.dorset.sch. uk/bike4books/ 65

by Heather Brown

FOOD & DRINK

Simple and delicious - Breakfast Pasties (and they’re easy!)

Ingredients (makes six large pasties)

For the pastry: • 125g butter (room temperature) • 125g lard (room temperature) • 500g plain flour For the filling: • 8 sausages •

• • • • • •

1 packet streaky bacon 1 small carton of button mushrooms 1 onion 1 tin of baked beans A little oil for frying 1 egg for an egg wash

Method

Put the flour in a bowl and rub in the butter and lard - literally rubbing the butter and lard with the flour between your finger tips so that they combine. When completed, your bowl will be a pile of golden crumbs.

• Pour in some cold water, a little at a time, mixing it into the crumbs until you form a ball of dough. Don’t knead or handle the dough too much.

• Wrap the dough in cling film or pop in a sandwich bag and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. This step allows the gluten in the flour to relax before you shape it.

• Whilst the dough is in the fridge, use the time to prepare the filling. Cut the onion into small chunks and quarter the button mushrooms. Fry these together in a frying pan over a medium heat with a little oil (or butter if you prefer), until they have softened and coloured a little.

Place into a bowl.

• Cut the bacon into 1cm pieces (I use a pair of scissors for ease) and fry in a little oil until crispy. Add to the onion and mushroom.

• Take off the skins from the sausages and pull into pieces. Fry the sausage pieces in a little oil until cooked. Add to the onion, mushroom and bacon pieces, give them a good mix together and leave to cool.

To make ahead, stop here: leave the mixture to cool, cover with some cling film and fridge

until the morning. The pastry will also keep well overnight. This allows you to get a lot of the prep done ahead of time for an easier morning.

• • •

•

•

• •

To make the pasties – preheat the oven to 200º/gas 6/fan 180º. Line two flat baking trays with a piece of baking parchment.

Liberally flour your work surface and rolling pin.

Divide your ball of pastry into 6 equal pieces.

Roll out each piece of pastry into a rough circle shape, about half a cm thick and 15cm in diameter (you don’t have to be at all accurate here – these measurements are just a guide).

Place a good size dollop of the fried mixture in the centre of the pastry and add a large, tablespoon sized amount of baked beans on top (straight from the can).

Fold the pastry in half and crimp the edges together so that the mixture can’t get out (forming a crescent pasty shape).

Place on the prepared tray, and repeat for the remaining 5 pasties.

Crack the egg into a small dish and beat quickly.

Brush the beaten egg over the pasties.

Bake for 20-30 mins.

When baked, the finished pasties will look a lovely golden brown all over.

After 20 minutes, if you have used 2 trays, they may need to be swapped over in the oven to give them all an even bake.

These delicious pasties are the perfect indulgence for a weekend cozy brunch. It looks like a long recipe, but it’s super-simple. Plus you can make the pastry and cook the filling the day before, so all you need to do is pop the pasties together and bake.

A full English inside some buttery pastry, served with lashings of tomato ketchup… what could be better?

Heather x 66

POLITICS

Heather Brown is on the committee of the Guild of Food Writers; a home economist with a passion for Dorset’s brilliant foodie scene.

Heather runs Dorset Foodie Feed, championing Dorset’s food and drink businesses, as well as working with her food industry clients.

Breakfast Pasties image: Heather Brown

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MEET YOUR LOCAL

by Rachael Rowe

Ye Olde Two Brewers, St James Street, Shaftesbury - all images Rachael Rowe

Meet your local: ‘Ye Olde Two Brewers Inn’, Shaftesbury

This month we’ve been chatting to Chris and John Henson-Ball, the new landlords of the Ye Olde Two Brewers almost at the bottom of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury. It’s a pub with a view. a complex issue around outdoor How did you end up at Hill with its wildlife and views.

And we can’t forget Gold Hill of music which ran on for some Ye Olde Two Brewers?

We have been here since September 2020. We had been talking to the landlord earlier, but illness got in the way. Once we got it, we planned to stay.

How big is your team?

There are ten staff members at present. We do employ up to 16 in the summer as it is busier.

One lady came across to us from the previous landlord, but we have built the team up.

What’s your favourite local place to visit on an afternoon off?

Well, if you’re talking pubs, we like The Mitre. We’d also recommend a walk on Castle 68

course.

What’s been your biggest challenge since taking over?

Our recent license review was a significant challenge. It was quite

Diner-style seating in the Skittle Alley which can booked for private functions (skittles can be covered and set up for seating!)

time. We are happy with a fair outcome for everyone, and we now have outside entertainment every other weekend.

Another challenge has been the cost of staff to meet catering requirements for events. There is a lot more table service now.

by Rachael Rowe

MEET YOUR LOCAL

Do you have a pub pet?

We have five!

We’re very dog friendly (no kidding with five dogs!). There’s Charlie, Jazz, Hollie the Collie, Bentley, and Teddy.

We have always been pet-friendly and have rescued several dogs.

What are you most proud of so far?

Since we arrived, we have worked so hard. We’ve been right through the pub decorating, and have re-done the gardens.

We’re now working on the skittle alley and its dining area, which looks like an American diner.

We’re also getting busier. Our Sunday lunches are making themselves known - last week we had 20 bookings, but did 81 covers.

We’re slowly changing the pub - putting our own stamp on it, we’re keen to make it more appealing to families, with good food and of course always the live music.

What part of the building is your absolute favourite?

Without a doubt, the snug. It has lower level seating and tables near the fire. It’s the best place to chill out.

And then there’s the view from the garden in summer.

Which meal is your most popular? What do people drive from afar to come specifically to you for?

Our Sunday lunch! It’s very popular, and we serve loads of fresh vegetables.

Obviously our pizzas, steaks, and burgers are also good, though...

We’re trying to develop our steak menu at the moment. Another area we think we are good is special dietary requirements such as vegan menus.

The traditionally cosy Snug

What’s next?

There are lots of plans in the broadest sense - we’ve already made quite a big impact in the garden, which will obviously come into its own as the weather improves!

The skittle alley is being used, but we have more work to do there.

And we have a small annexe that we’re just trying to decide what to do with.

For the pub itself, we’re tryinng to build our appeal to families.

We’ve had the lawns relaid and extended the garden. People can now get to the hedge and look at that amazing view.

But in the short term, a lot is happening!

In January, we have a Burns Night theme on the 29th, and Project 17 a Pop Rock Covers Band from Gillingham are coming. On Valentine’s Day we’re creating a special menu, and there will be live music. We’re also planning a special event for Mother’s Day.

Ye Olde Two Brewers are open Tuesday - Saturday 12-10pm and Sunday 12-6pm.

Food is served 12-2pm and 6-8pm, and 12-3 on Sundays. https://www.2brewers.co.uk/ The bright airy restaurant can seat 30

The amazoing view from Ye Olde Two Brewers’ beer garden

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FOOD AND DRINK

by Rachael Rowe

7 Things You Can Get From a Local Butcher that You Can’t Get in a Supermarket

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by Rachael Rowe

FOOD AND DRINK

We all appreciate our local independent shops - but are we using them properly? Rachael Rowe asks just what your local butcher can do for you North Dorset is fortunate enough to have good butchers shops in most towns. But, do we appreciate them as much as we could or should do- and how often do we tap into their knowledge and expertise? Here’s why we should spend more time at local butchers shops.

Food miles and provenance One of the best things about a local butcher is provenance. A large board proudly displaying a list of farms where the produce is sourced is common to see. Quality is the priority - ask a local butcher where their meat comes from, and they can usually name the farm, the farmer and often the breed of animal.

Some Butchers Rear their Own Meat We’re fortunate in the Blackmore Vale. Some butchers don’t just know the farm - they own the herd!

Several local butchers rear their own beef and other meats. Holebrooks in Sturminster Newton, the Udder Farm Shop at East Stour, and Rawston Farm Butchery all have their own herds. They know the animals’ life, how they are fed and cared for and choose small, skilled, local slaughterhouses to reduce stress and enhance quality of the meat.

You Can Get Britain’s best sausages Ludwell’s claim to fame is that T Buttling Butchers won the coveted 2020 Britain’s Best Sausages. The prizewinning traditional pork and sage sausages are on sale in their shop along with other quality meats. You really can’t get better than that in Dorset (or the whole of Great Britain, for that matter...).

Advice on cheap cuts of meat You can learn a lot from local butchers. I’m always curious about different cuts of meat and how to cook them. Farmers like Kimbers have patiently advised me on what a bread and butter joint or hogget is, and also how to cook it. Cuts of meat you can’t find outside of an independent butchers, and it’s not only cheaper, but the quality is evident when you buy locally.

Their Online Shopping Works If you ever used online supermarket shopping and got an odd substitution, you’ll know what I mean when I say it doesn’t always go to plan.

Some Blackmore Vale-based butchers have online services and deliver what you order. The Dorset Meat Company is an innovative, award-winning

All the meat sold at Rawston Farm Butchery has been expertly cut by hand, by their own skilled butchers under the watchful eye of head butcher Martin (pictured) in the farm’s own butchery,

quality online business with a vast range of local food.

Local Milk (and less plastic) In fact, you don’t just get any milk but really local milk. Some butchers, including Parsons of Sherborne, have a Dorset Dairy Co milk station in the shop. Customers can buy the milk and refill their bottles, reducing plastic waste and helping even more local farmers. Talking of plastic waste there’s significantly less packaging when you visit a traditional butchers shop.

Good customer service You can get good customer service in supermarkets, of course, but local butchers Paul and Andrew in Parsons, Sherborne (which was established in 1840) were keen to emphasise it is something integral to their work.

With expert customer advice, taking care of the provenance and quality, there’s a lot the butchers do to drive up standards in the food industry. And we can do our bit by supporting these great local businesses.

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POLITICS

Blanchards Bailey are a Dorset based law firm specialising in commercial and private law.

Recognised by the Legal 500 as one of the top firms in the south west.

The Dorset food & drink stories behind the ‘Love Local Trust Local’ Awards

In association with

Barbara Cossins, founder of the Love Local Trust Local label and Awards.

Barbara Cossins, founder of Dorset’s Love Local Trust Local label and annual food producer awards, shares some of the most moving stories behind this year’s deserving winners Love Local Trust Local more than just a label. It is becoming an entire Dorset food movement. And in the annual Love Local Trust Local Awards there is a way to tell the story of where our Dorset food & drink comes from.

The Awards celebrate the best of the best in those small Dorset businesses who put their heart and soul into creating our locla produce. Organisations that create honey and cheese, source local fish and meat, bake cakes and savouries, blend gins & mixers, cook jams & condiments, pick flowers and fruit and much more.

The 2021 awards counted 14 categories, including

A Dorset Oysters shoppping list: Lobsters £36 kilo, oysters 65p each, clam £9 kilo cockles £7.50 kilo, mussels £4.50, scallops in half shell £2

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ones for those who contribute significantly to innovation, diversity, conservation and sustainability in Dorset food & drink production.

This year there were many impressive achievements by the award entrants, as they battled to survive against the pricing and weight of the big supermarkets and chains, and against a worldwide pandemic that nearly destroyed many of them.

Sewage in the oyster farm Dorset Oysters are one of the heart-warming stories. Runners Up in the 2021 Love Local Trust Local Fish Awards category, they faced an immense challenge last summer when the authorities poured sewage into their local Dorset waters and they not only had to immediately stop farming, but also withdraw thousands of oysters that had already been sold to loyal customers. The financial implications were huge and they were left to salvage what they could. They have survived in the face of adversity and were celebrated at the awards for their hard work and determination.

The terrible children There was also an award for a local Dorset restaurant that not only supports Weymouth fishermen but has become an integral part of local life.

Les Enfants Terribles, led by Chef Eric, was ‘on its knees’ when a large group of diners left without paying a huge food & drink bill in the midst of the pandemic. They almost went under - and say it was

In association with

Blanchards Bailey are a Dorset POLITICS based law firm renowned for their personal expertise, excellent client service and active role in local communities.

The Gullivers Team (far right) accepted the special Love Local Trust Local Champions Award from the joint sponsors Barbara Cossins (far left) and Rachael and Alan Perrett of Meggy Moo’s Dairy.

purely due to the support of the local fishermen judges of the Love Local Trust Local Awards were who continued to supply them that they didn’t, and ‘blown away’ by the positive spirit of everything got them back on their feet. This unpretentious, they had to offer the Dorset public. As well as cosy bistro is a gem of a restaurant and was the winning the Conservation & Sustainability Award, well deserving winner of the Love Local after a powerful and “a large group of Trust Local 2021 Recognition Award for emotional presentation on diners left without Awards night, Gullivers were Showcasing Local Produce. paying a huge food & awarded the special Love Successful enterprise built on ethics Local Trust Local Champions drink bill in the midst and sustainability Award. The full support of of the pandemic. They everyone in the room was One of the outstanding achievements of the 2021 awards were the sterling efforts almost went under” behind Gullivers as they of Gullivers Farm Shop & Kitchen. A social received a £300 Winner’s enterprise that regenerated the oldest building Prize Cheque given jointly by Meggy Moo’s Dairy & in West Moors and in 2015 opened as a market Love Local Trust Local. garden, a deli kitchen, a farm shop and a farm.

“Quite simply blew us away, truly inspiring, Their committed team have gone from strength to educating their community, championing all the strength, they farm mindfully and responsibly and values of Love Local Trust Local.” hold themselves 100% accountable for maintaining Champions Accolade from the LLTL Judges ethical and environmental standards on their organic, biodynamic farm.

Local food is good for more than our plates “A clear winner. Not taking from the Love Local Trust Local are loudly sharing their environment, but contributing to it. Conservation love for local food with the wider community so and sustainability at its best.” that they can continue to educate and encourage Love Local Trust Local Judges people to eat and shop from small, independent businesses nearby. This in turn ensures support As part of Sturts Community Trust, Gulliver’s for the complex and skilled network of local also offer inclusive living and work employment Dorset farmers and producers, building a thriving and work opportunities to those with learning economy. We all have to champion British food if disabilities and special educational needs. The we want to keep it in our shops and on our plates.

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by Hannah Wilkins, Indie Wine Merchant

How to use your wine merchant!

The most common mistake with quality wine is to leave it too long before uncorking. Your wine merchant is always delighted to advise, says Hannah Wilkins, who offers two top recommendations for this year To be drunk or not to be drunk?

That is the question!

And no, I don’t mean you personally: I mean a bottle of good wine. When should you open it for maximum enjoyment?

Alongside my carefully curated collection, each year I put together a box of wines from the shop that I have enjoyed during the year and earmarked for Christmas consumption.

Prices in this personal selection range from £8 to £30; something for every holiday season need!

People often jest how lovely it must be to have such choice at my fingertips, and of course it is. But the truth is it doesn’t make the what-to-drink decision easier. In fact, it’s possibly more difficult to pick; and that’s before you consider the expectation from guests knowing the wine in their glass has been chosen by a ‘specialist’.

I use that term in inverted commas as our daily grind at Vineyards is breaking down the stigma of wine and making it accessible to all.

Anyhow, I digress…

A common wine mistake!

Choosing wine for special occasions is tricky.

You have to decide whether you are cracking open that wine you’ve saved for a ‘rainy day,’ or whether you opt for something that you have tried recently and know you like right now.

The tragedy is that all too often people keep wines, champagnes and ports in their wine racks for far too long.

I’ve done it myself with a wine I coveted from Chile: I bought a case of six bottles and kept two bottles for far too long; they went past ‘their best’, which is such a shame. I am a firm believer that wine is made to be enjoyed —it’s what the winemaker intends. It’s just hard making that step and committing to popping the cork.

The art of wine There is an art to producing a a great bottle wine that expresses: • Terroir (the land and climate in which it is grown) • Profiles of each grape variety in the bottle • The ageing processes used (oak or steel barrels?)

• Aromas connecting together in a glass But, to me, the one thing I look for when judging a wine is its balance. When key elements are brought together, wines do

Hannah’s recommendations: 2018 La Bri ‘Double Door’ Petit Verdot from Franschhoek, South Africa: £20.

This wine really is a stunner and is drinking well now, however I can’t wait to see how this wine develops over the next few years. At the moment, it’s silky smooth with ripe hedgerow fruit and luscious integrated vanilla notes 74

get better with some ageing, that is true. Just keeping a wine for a couple of years really can change a wine’s dynamic.

But some wines are ready to be drunk right now.

This is why we try every bottle we source, and each new vintage - so we can ‘monitor’ the quality for our customers (it really is a hard life!).

So this month’s recommendations are two deeply satisfying wines that we personally thoroughly enjoyed over Christmas. We can wholeheartedly say they are drinking incredibly well right now.

The best thing about both is that they each have some potential to develop further these wines are great for those of us who want the best of both worlds. And, after two years of a pandemic, I think that’s fair enough!

A good wine merchant will be able to guide you with a new recommendation, but also advise you on the optimum time to drink the wines already in your rack.

If you need any help please just get in touch. Happy New Year!

from the ageing.

2013 Weingut Reichsrat Von Buhl Ungeheuer Riesling from Pfalz in Germany: £47.

What a wine! Where do I start? Silky, citrus, honeyed with complex hints of ginger and amazing purity.

Just delicious! A real treat - I loved it so much I have purchased another ready for next Christmas.

READER’S PHOTOGRAPHY

A robin enjoying some rare winter sun - Myles Carpenter A woodland fairytale - Ben Churchill

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READER’S PHOTOGRAPHY

Blue tit at my bird bath Geri Shepherd

We welcome photography submissions from readers - the only rule is that they must have been taken locally in the last month. Our cover shot is usually selected from our submissions pile each month.

If you’d like to join in, please either use #BVPhoto and tag us on Instagram (@ theblackmorevale), share it in our Facebook Group, or simply email it to photos@ theblackmorevale.co.uk.

A Boxing Day Ball of Starlings - Rebecca Cooke

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READER’S PHOTOGRAPHY

The full cold moon in December Hannah Rochford

‘Double yellows’ - Kristian Thomas 78

READER’S PHOTOGRAPHY

‘Dove in Flight’ in Henstridge - Claire Norris

‘Christmas at the Old Inn’ near Wimborne - David Williams 79

NIGHT SKY THIS MONTH

The brightest star cluster is now showing

by Rob Nolan Find RPN Photography on Facebook here

The distances between us and the stars are simply mind-blowing and beautiful, says our astronomer Rob Nolan Christmas and New Year were mild, and wet.

This is not ideal for astronomy.

In fact we had only one or two clear nights throughout December. However I did manage to capture a real favourite of mine, and one of the first objects I captured when I started this hobby, the Orion Nebula (M42, also known as The Hunter). This is part of one of the most dominating constellations in the winter night sky.

It is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion and it is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky.

It is 1,344 light-years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. At an estimated 24 light-years across, it has a mass of about 2,000 times that of our Sun. The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinised and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial features.

A clue to life’s beginning The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.

The core of the Orion nebula (The Trapezium cluster) is extremely difficult to expose without blowing out the details due to the extremely bright stars.

Many shots you see of Orion simply have a white, blownout core. There’s also so much surrounding gas and nebulosity; space really isn’t just black and empty!

This image was taken using my new 350mm Refractor Telescope, meaning those of you with a DSLR or mirror-less camera and telephoto lens can also take a snap of the nebula using short exposures of 10 seconds or fewer if using a static tripod.

The Night Sky, January 2022 - what to see this month: The new year began with a spectacular Quadrantid meteor shower which peaked on the 3rd and 4th of January, happily coinciding with the first clear nights of the month - hopefully you had the heads-up from my BV Facebook Post and got outside to see them.

It was absolutely fascinating!

The Orion Constellation dominates the sky at this time of year, making it the perfect image of the month for me.

The Orion Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, but using binoculars you’ll be able to make out luminous clouds of gas. Look for the fuzzy patch below the three distinctive stars making up Orion’s Belt.

The Earth reached Perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on the 4th January at 6.54 am precisely.

At that time we were a mere 147 million km away from our local star.

Evening turns to morning At the beginning of the Month, Venus appeared as the Evening Star, but since the 9th January, after passing between us and the Sun, Venus now appears as the Morning Star as you look to 80

the south-east around 7am.

Mercury continues to be visible low in the evening sky, fading as it reached its greatest separation from the Sun on January 7th.

Saturn has been in Capricornus this month, low in the sky towards the south-west setting around 6pm, but will disappear from view shortly, now we’re in the middle of the month.

Jupiter lies to the upper left of these planets early in the evening, setting around 9 pm.

Look to the far side of Aquarius to see Neptune setting below the horizon around 9.30 pm, closely followed by Uranus residing in Pisces, setting later at 2am.

Mars will rise early morning at 6 am - look to the south-east as it moves from near Antares to Ophiuchus and Sagittarius as the month continues.

This next event is time specific: between 5:20 and 6:50 am on January 26th, look to the constellation Lebra to see the Moon pass in front of the double star known as Zubenelgenubi.

At the end of the month, on the 29th of January, the Crescent Moon lies to the right of Venus, with Mars in between before dawn.

ART

by Edwina Baines edwina@theblackmorevale.co.uk

In the studio with Nicholas Hely Hutchinson image: Edwina Baines

I wake up thinking about painting Nicholas Hely Hutchinson explains that art must share an artist’s emotion, and provides some sage advice for young artists trying to find their voice. Interview by Edwina Baines Artist Nicholas Hely Hutchinson’s ‘Before coming back to the inspiration is fired during walks studio, I might do a sketch to with his two lurchers, Olive and get the composition and to Martha, around the beautiful remember the colours. I don’t Dorset coast and countryside. make any initial marks but use His paintings “I want the viewer to large brushes are easily to under-paint share the same feeling the canvas. identifiable.

I felt in that moment: When this is dry, He observes and sketches a smattering of winter I use rags and the changing brushes to build snow, a covering rhythms of the up the layers of frost, a bluebell seasons. of paint. Slowly ‘Little things wood in Spring or the I move from inspire me and vulnerability of a little larger to smaller I try to capture brushes, I use bird in the landscape” fine sables, to those moments.

Sometimes it happens when you create details. I want the viewer least expect it because it touches to share the same feeling I felt you, because it’s poetic. in that moment: a smattering of 82

winter snow, a covering of frost, a bluebell wood in Spring - or the vulnerability of a little bird in the landscape.’

I was told I’d be bored!

Nicholas studied at St Martin’s School of Art and Bristol Polytechnic, where the emphasis was not only on technique but also on the History of Art. This latter gave him much of the rigour for his work.

At the start of his career, he was told that once he had got over the initial excitement of being a full-time artist, he would be bored by the time he got to forty.

However, he told me: ‘I wake up most mornings thinking about

In his studio, Nicholas shared a painting currently underway image: Edwina Baines

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ART painting. It’s constantly exciting. I haven’t got bored yet!

‘The trouble is, I have too many ideas and not enough time to get them all down. That was one of the good things about lockdown, it did provide more time. There are always distractions - but I’m very disciplined. I treat it like a job - but not a job I don’t want to go to. It’s a bit like an itch. I want to be in the studio. I just potter along! On a good day I work all day, walk Olive and Martha the lurchers in the afternoon and then carry on until about seven.

‘You have to have the discipline and the passion but if you want to have a family life you have to do a juggling act.’

Break the rules Nicholas likes to have a clear idea of how his finished painting should look and he suggests that amateur artists should follow this rule.

Not that he is keen on some of the established ways: “Personally I always think there aren’t rules to painting. I’ve never quite understood why these rules exist. For example, you are discouraged from using black.

“Most people who are learning want to get things ‘In an Autumn Wood’ - one of Nicholas Hely Hutchinson’s digital works

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by Edwina Baines edwina@theblackmorevale.co.uk Nicholas chatted to Edwina in his home studio, surrounded by recent works

‘right’ but it is more important to know what the painting should look like. I try to get the essence of the thing, a fleeting moment in time, rather than trying to paint just what is there. After a certain period of time, you will find your voice. I tend to use the same limited palette of perhaps 10 colours

ART and I use a warm and cold version of each.’

He continued: ‘A painting can create a mood with the colours you use or the thickness of the paint.

‘That’s what I find most interesting. Essentially, I’m a landscape painter - but I never feel that tells the whole story.

When you look at Van Gogh, you can see his excitement about nature. It’s a passion that he gets that into the painting - and we can still see that. Or we can look at Graham Sutherland’s paintings before the War. They are dark and gloomy with a sense of foreboding. Artists can convey the way they feel about things in a painting - and the observer can sense that.’

Some of the paintings show a clear passion for the sea, especially when the weather is not always benign. ‘A stormy sea is such an interesting subject for a painter,’ Nicholas remarked.

The exhilaration of Portland Bill often provides this drama and the different forces of nature are

‘Bonfire on a Summer Night’ - one of Nicholas Hely Hutchinson’s digital works

beautifully portrayed in some of his works.

Nicholas also showed me some digital artwork created on his iPad. ‘You can get such wonderful textures using the software. It’s such a good medium. I tend to complete some on holiday when it is easy to carry the iPad around. You can even do these

paintings on the plane and you can use all the colours without the mess. Sometimes I turn these images into paintings. I often wonder what Turner would have made of this technology. I bet he would have loved it!’

I had the privilege of being shown the dining-room mural Nicholas painted between 1993 -1995, soon after the family had moved into their current house.

As well as favourite local locations, it includes images of several of his pets and even the Cerne Abbas Giant. The mural covered the doors, walls and even the ceiling of the room and I’m sure would look beautiful on a candlelit evening. A real labour of love.

The prestigious Portland Gallery in London has represented Nicholas’ work for many years and another successful one-man show was held recently. A peek at the gallery’s website will convey how few of his paintings remain unsold: https://portlandgallery.com/ exhibitions/nicholas-helyhutchinson-5/.

Nicholas shared his dining room mural with Edwina (accompanied by one of his lurchers)

However, 2022 may include a small show in Dorset, which is an event to which we can all look forward. https://www. nicholashelyhutchinson.com 85

PUZZLES

Crossword

Jigsaw

Simply click to complete on your tablet, computer or phone - or there’s a download option if you prefer pen and paper.

Winter woodland Sunset on Okeford Hill (image Courtenay Hitchcock) Just click the picture to complete the jigsaw

(you can choose a different number of pieces - make it harder or easier, it’s up to you!).

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A CITIZEN’S ADVICE

A local expert from Citizen’s Advice provides timely tips.

This Month: energy companies going bust and ‘green scams’ Q: My New Year’s Resolution is to make my home more energy efficient, to help me save money and to help save the planet too. What steps can I take and what should I look out for?

A: Citizens Advice has found that in the South West, 65% of adults are thinking about making their homes more energy efficient in the next 12 months but 36% said they have already been targeted by a ‘green scam’. Scammers have no qualms about playing on our need to do our bit for the environment, so if you’re thinking of making your home more energy efficient, take your time doing research, getting quotes and reading reviews. And as always, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Being scammed doesn’t just leave us out of pocket; it can leave us feeling very vulnerable, isolated and really knock our confidence. If you’ve been scammed, or are worried about how to spot a scam, our advisers are here to listen and help.

Citizens Advice in Dorset has five top tips to stay safe when making your home more energy efficient: 1. Do your research. Before you buy anything, check the company or website you’re using. Read reviews on different websites, ask for references, verify the company’s details using external sources, and read any terms and conditions.

2. Check certified schemes.

When looking for a trader

to use, check certified schemes that recommend traders, like TrustMark - the Government’s endorsed quality scheme. If yours is an older home or a listed property, make sure that the scheme is appropriate and that you have permission for the work to be carried out.

3. Get written quotes and a contract. Try to get quotes from at least three different contractors to help you decide if you’re getting a fair price. Once you’ve decided, always get a written contract before you give a contractor the go-ahead. If something goes wrong it can help get what you paid for, or at least get some of your money back.

4. Pay with a secure method.

Credit cards offer the most protection, followed by PayPal or debit card. If you’re paying for large home improvement works, see if you can pay in stages, and avoid paying for costs upfront where possible.

5. Be suspicious. Scammers and rogue traders can be very smart. Take your time to make sure you’re happy with your decision - if someone pressures you or contacts you out of the blue, it’s most likely a scam.

If you’ve been scammed, talk to your bank or card company immediately if you’ve handed over any financial and sensitive information or made a payment.

See Citizens Advice’s page on What to do if you’ve been scammed for more information.

To report a scam or ask for advice contact Citizens Advice consumer service. Offline scams, like telephone, post and doorstep, can be reported via the Citizens Advice consumer service or by calling 0808 223 1133. Report online scams to the dedicated Scams Action service either online or on 0808 250 5050.

Text scams can be reported to your mobile phone provider by forwarding it to 7726. You can also report the scam to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Q: I keep hearing on the radio that energy companies are going bust.

I am worried about what will happen if my energy company goes bust. Will I still have gas and electricity or should I go and buy a dozen candles?

A: You’ll still have gas and electricity if your energy supplier goes out of business. There is a tried and tested safety net in place to ensure things keep running if a firm goes bust. If you can, take a meter reading, make a note of your account balance and keep hold of any bills. The gas and electricity regulator, Ofgem, will move you to a new supplier. This usually takes a few weeks. Don’t switch tariff or supplier until your account is moved to the new supplier. The Government is considering options to support customers if larger suppliers fail - but whatever happens any credit balance should be protected and you won’t lose your gas and electricity.

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POLICE

Voice of the Blue Light:

Monthly news from the North Dorset Police Team. This month Sturminster Newton’s PCSO Mandy Robinson

Is your car ‘winterised’?

Do you know the icy road rules?

Driving in the winter has its own challenges; wet weather, flooding, fog, snow and ice all lead to hazardous driving conditions. Stur’s PCSO Mandy Robinson shares the police tips to keep you safe.

Prepare your vehicle correctly Always check the following: • Lights are clean and working • Battery is fully charged - batteries typically last three to five years, and even a healthy, fully charged battery only supplies about 65% of its power at 0ºF. If you typically make lots of short journeys, aim for an hour’s drive every couple of weeks to fully recharge it.

• Windscreen, wiper blades and other windows are clean and the washer bottle filled with screen wash • Tyre condition, tread depth and pressure (of all the tyres, including the spare) - minimum tread is 1.6mm check the inner, centre and outer areas of the tyre.

• Brakes are working well • Fluids are kept topped up, especially windscreen wash (to the correct concentration to prevent it freezing), anti-freeze and oil Winter driving You can keep yourself and others safe by: • Slowing down and driving to the conditions of the road. Is it wet, icy or muddy?

• Keeping a greater distance between yourself and the vehicle in front, (increase the 2 second rule to 4 seconds or even more) • Setting aside extra time to complete your journey • Keep your mobile phone fully charged.

• On colder days be particularly careful on tree lined roads - the trees prevent the sun’s warmth from reaching the road, which may still be icy when all around has thawed • Properly demist and clear frosty/snow covered windscreens - don’t start driving as soon as a small patch on the windscreen is ‘goodenough’! Demist and clear mirrors too.

• Use headlights when foggy and in poor light.

Do NOT use fog lights unless it is foggy.

• Do not drive through road closures - they are there for a reason!

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Special rules for icy roads The Highway Code has the following advice when driving in icy conditions: • Drive extremely carefully when the roads are icy. Avoid sudden actions as these could cause loss of control.

• Drive at a slow speed in as high a gear as possible; accelerate and brake very gently • Drive particularly slowly on bends where loss of control is more likely. Brake progressively on the straight before you reach a bend. Having slowed down, steer smoothly round the bend, avoiding sudden actions • Check your grip on the road surface when there is snow or ice by choosing a safe place to brake gently. If the steering feels unresponsive this may indicate ice and your vehicle losing its grip on the road. When travelling on ice, tyres make virtually no noise.

Life’s complicated.

Instructing a solicitor shouldn’t be

We’re all about listening, understanding and advising Whatever you require, we will advise you with clarity and efficiency, offer value for money and an unparalleled level of legal advice.

Contact Karen Watts in our Bridport office on 01308 555639 to discuss your matrimonial and family matters.

We can also help with: • Wills and LPAs

• Employment law

• Conveyancing

• Dispute resolution

• Trusts

• Commercial property

• Funding care

• Corporate commercial

info@porterdodson.co.uk www.porterdodson.co.uk

FAMILY LAW

ADVERTORIAL

Expert help on common domestic legal issues from the team at Porter Dodson LLP.

This month: When making a Trust helps clear muddy waters In the last of their series on Trusts, family lawyer Clare Sanderson runs through the key reasons making a Trust may be right for your family A Trust is a legal structure which distinguishes between the legal and beneficial ownership of an asset. The Trustees are the legal owners whilst one or more people receive the actual benefit.

Trusts have been in existence for thousands of years - however they do still play an important role in modern day life. They are still frequently created by Will, or during a person’s lifetime. Trusts can also arise automatically by law and can be created by the Courts.

Although Trusts are often associated with tax and estate planning, they do not always need to be aimed at saving tax.

There are a number of situations where Trusts can be particularly important: To provide for a child or vulnerable beneficiary Due to their age or vulnerability some beneficiaries are unable to own assets themselves and therefore the Trustees hold the assets for their benefit. A Trust protects such beneficiaries against undue influence from 90

other people, or against the beneficiary’s own immaturity.

The Trust could end at a specified date, for example when the beneficiary turns 25, which is when they then take control of the assets, but for vulnerable or disabled beneficiaries it may continue for the beneficiary’s lifetime.

Asset protection Placing assets into certain types of trusts can protect against creditors or marriage breakdown as the assets held do not belong to any particular beneficiary. Sometimes people gift their assets into trust but include themselves as one of the beneficiaries; these are known as “Settlor Interested” trusts which can have adverse tax implications so caution should always be taken. The assets are however technically outside of their ownership and therefore out of reach of potential third party claims.

Inheritance planning Trusts can be used to ensure

that a person’s wishes regarding the distribution of their assets after death are met, particularly where there are children from a previous relationship or family tensions.

Where assets are left outright to a particular person there is the risk that they may then pass to unintended recipients, if that person remarries or became bankrupt.

A Trust allows a beneficiary to benefit from an asset but with limited control, so they are not able to dispose of it.

A Trust can be extremely important in the right circumstances, provided the document creating it is drawn up correctly. Professional advice should always be sought to ensure that the right Trust is created, and to avoid any unintended tax consequences.

If you are interested in discussing your own situation, please contact Clare Sanderson on 01823 625818 or clare. sanderson@porterdodson.co.uk

ADVERTORIAL

FAMILY LAW

Will the new ‘No Fault Divorce’ help you?

It has been widely reported that the new ‘no fault divorce’ will change the landscape of getting divorced, but what does that mean?

Lesley Powell of Battens Solicitors investigates Currently, in order to petition for divorce in England and Wales, you have to prove that your relationship has irretrievably broken down - based on a number of factors, the most common of which are adultery or unreasonable behaviour.

You must provide reasons as to what behaviour was unreasonable. In situations where couples have ‘fallen out of love’ this can cause a high degree of animosity, picking apart a relationship for reasons that are simply needed for a form.

The coming changes mean that parties will now be able to make a joint application for a divorce, preventing assigning blame in a situation where there is none.

application will also be removed, and replaced with the ability to contest only on very limited grounds: • Jurisdiction • The marriage did not exist • Fraud • Lack of procedural compliance

Terminology The language around divorce is also going to change. It will no longer be a ‘petition’, but an ‘application’, and the person who applies, will be an applicant.

There will also no longer be a decree nisi and a decree absolute, but instead a conditional order and a final order respectively.

These language changes are done with an aim of neutralising the tone and bringing it in line with other family proceedings.

Timescales The legislation is further introducing new timelines, with a 20 week window to permit reflection after issue of proceedings and before the

Applications No evidence will be required for the irretrievable breakdown of the relationship, just a signed statement that the relationship has broken down.

In a joint application, this will be unchallengeable, as you will have both agreed that the marriage has broken down.

The ability to defend a no fault

Lesley Powell of Battens Solicitors discusses the new No Fault Divorce

This allows for cases where there are true issues of law that could impact the validity of a divorce to be dealt with appropriately.

Cross applying, where both parties independently apply for a divorce, will also be removed. In instances where two applications are made, the divorce will become disputed instead, as it will be assumed the parties do not agree.

conditional order can be made.

This allows for a chance for reconciliation, but also a chance for agreement of practical arrangements for the future.

The period between the new conditional order being issued, and the ability to apply for a final order (previously the decree absolute) will remain at 6 weeks.

What Next?

Seeking legal advice on the breakdown of a relationship is always advised, especially in situations where there are children or joint property. A solicitor can highlight issues that you may not have noticed, and support you with communication between you and your partner at this difficult time.

For more information contact Lesley Powell at Battens Solicitors on 01935 846089 lesley.powell@battens.co.uk

Solicitors

For your business, family and future Expert legal advice in the heart of The Blackmore Vale 0800 652 8373 enquiries@battens.co.uk www.battens.co.uk Agriculture • Corporate Law • Media & IP • Residential & Commercial Property • Construction Debt Recovery • Dispute Resolution • Employment • Family Law • Immigration • Landlord & Tenant Medical Negligence • Personal Injury • Planning • Lasting Powers of Attorney • Probate • Wills & Trusts

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POLITICS BUSINESS NEWS

10 New Year resolutions to achieve a better balance between work and your personal life Are you prepared for this new year? Dorset Chamber’s CEO Ian Girling suggests a quick business re-think.

I’d like to belatedly wish you a very happy and successful 2022 - and I hope that you had the opportunity for a break to relax.

The Christmas period is always a good time to reflect and look at your plans for the future – to improve both your business, and the quality of your personal life.

Here are 10 resolutions that you may want to consider in your business for the coming year: 1. Review your business plan.

This isn’t just something you occasionally dust off for the bank manager. It should be a living relevant plan for your business giving you structure and direction. It should also include your financial forecast as well.

Now is the ideal time to make sure you have direction for the year ahead.

2. Within this, it’s worth reviewing how you are embedding technology in your business. This should include your digital marketing and online presence, but also how your business is using technology to improve productivity and to better utilise resources.

3. This is a good time to review your employee policies to ensure they are legally up to date but 92

also relevant. It’s a good idea to specifically look at your wellbeing and reward policies for your staff.

A healthy and motivated team is the backbone of any business.

4. Plan your holidays. This may sound strange given you’ve possibly just had a break but planning a holiday provides a psychological boost; something to look forward to and work towards.

5. Be part of a business organisation or community.

You’d expect me to say this, but I would recommend any business should be a part of a business organisation.

You’ll find benefits for your business and importantly be part of a community of likeminded people which is a hugely important.

6. Undertake a customer survey and review what your competition are up to. Ask your customers about the value you deliver for them and also look for ways you can improve. It’s always good to have a look at your competition and see how you can strive to stay ahead. Even look at any best practice you can learn from them.

7. Look at how you can improve your work and life balance.

Running a business can be stressful, and can place pressures on our time and life outside work.

Take time to consider how you can improve this. It could be as simple as removing email from your phone, or making a conscious effort to leave work by a certain time each day.

8. Look at your environmental policy – do you even have one?

Businesses are facing increasing pressure to do the right thing for our environment and this is something every business owner needs to be considering.

9. Learn a new skill. It’s never too late to sharpen up your business skills. There are a huge amount of courses around, many free, to help you improve your skills in business.

10. Finally, if you don’t already, get involved with a charitable cause. This is a great thing to do and encouraging your employees and even allowing time off for volunteering is hugely motivational and also develops their skills.

ADVERTORIAL

Landlords face new legal obligations

BUSINESS

The new Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill needs some consideration from landlords before it passes into law, expected in March, says the team at Blanchards Bailey LLP Restrictions were put in place during the pandemic - and remain in place - to stop landlords seizing goods in lieu of rent, forfeiting leases and stopping businesses in rent arrears from being made insolvent. The government also published a voluntary code of practice encouraging landlord and tenant to work together to resolve unpaid rent arrears.

Ringfencing rent debt The government is now hoping to pass the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill which allows for ringfencing of rent debt built up by businesses who have been forced to close during the pandemic. It establishes a binding arbitration system which will decide what happens to that ringfenced debt. The current moratorium measures will continue until the Bill has become law, which is believed to be on 25 March 2022.

There is also a new code of practice for commercial property relationships following the pandemic.

The Act The Act provides that protected rent debts (including service charges and insurance) incurred by a tenant under a business tenancy which was adversely affected by COVID (where the whole or part of the business or premises was subject to closure requirements as a result of COVID restrictions) can be referred by either the landlord or tenant to binding arbitration to resolve disputes.

The Bill will effectively extend the existing moratorium which will run from the date that legislation comes into force until: 1. six months from the date the legislation comes into force (when the parties must apply for arbitration) with a maximum time frame of 24 months for repayment; 2. Where a party has applied for arbitration, the date the arbitration is concluded or abandoned.

In addition to the current restrictions, the Bill will prevent landlords from issuing debt proceedings whilst arbitration is available or ongoing and enable the debt covered by certain debt proceedings to be considered in arbitration.

The Code The new code makes clear that the preservation of the tenant’s business viability should not come at the expense of the landlord’s solvency and that, where it is affordable, a tenant should aim to meet their obligations under their lease in full. However, it also states that a tenant should not have to take on more debt or restructure their business in order to pay their rent. The code provides guidance on how parties should approach negotiation with the intention that, where possible they should resolve rent disputes before the Bill comes into force.

The code states that tenants will need to show landlords sufficient evidence to substantiate their need for assistance with rent.

It also states that, if settlement

New laws aim to restrict landlords from seizing goods on lieu of rent

cannot be reached, the parties should consider mediation in this interim period. If debt proceedings are issued prior to the passing of the Act, then either party may request a stay of the proceedings and, if the claim is not stayed and judgment is obtained, any judgment debt will constitute a ring fenced debt and may be subject to the arbitration process. For further advice contact our Litigation and Disputes Resolution team on 01258 459361 93

BUSINESS NEWS

Farm Consultancy Group welcomes new Environmental Consultant The Farm Consultancy Group is delighted that John Hunt has joined the Sherborne Office as Environmental Consultant, covering the South West After graduating from the Royal Agricultural College in 2011, John worked for Rothamsted Research in Devon as a Farm Experiment and Trials Manager for eight years, and then for the Westcountry Rivers Trust as a Senior Farm Advisor.

John’s remit with the Farm Consultancy Group is to provide farm and environmental advice, including Countryside Stewardship, the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS), the Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI) and woodland grants to support the FCG client portfolio.

As a FACTS qualified advisor, John also specialises in nutrient management planning, Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, soil health, and maximising the efficient use of

fertilisers, livestock manures and slurries.

In addition, John holds a BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection covering grassland and forage crops and is a member of the BASIS Professional Register.

John said ‘I’m looking forward to working with a variety of different farm types across the whole South West. It’s a challenging time in agriculture and I believe this new role will help farms adjust to the new environmental schemes and maximise their potential.’

to farmers and land owners across England and Wales.

John joins the Farm Consultancy Group team of over 20 independent consultants and advisors across their eight offices, providing bespoke agricultural and business advice

Dolphin Centre calls to makers and small businesses to trade at Street Market

The Dolphin Centre in Poole is encouraging local small businesses and start-ups to trade at its Street Market.

Introduced in September last year, the Dolphin Centre is encouraging applications from all Dorset makers and small businesses.

Based in the main mall area of the Dolphin, stalls can be booked for initial trials with single day stall hire currently available, encouraging online businesses that may be interested in exploring physical retail.

Carmen Moore, Community Manager at the Dolphin Centre, said: “The Street Market is a way for The Dolphin to champion all the wonderful makers and small businesses here on our doorstep..”

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A business that has been trading at the Street Market since its inception is &gooey, owned by Andreia Sousa. Specialising in brigadieros, a traditional Brazilian truffle, Andreia has highlighted how her time trading at the market has brought invaluable experience. &gooey originally exclusively sold its products through its website, before Andreia decided to take the plunge and book a weekly trading slot at the Dolphin.

Andreia said: “Nothing is better than face-to-face contact with our customers. The Dolphin Centre offers reasonable rent and everyone was super friendly. We

met so many other businesses with amazing people behind them – they’ve have been so kind to share advice and support one another, which is a beautiful thing to see.”

The Dolphin Street Market is part of a wider initiative to breathe new life into Poole’s high street.

Trading hours for the markets are from 9am-5:30pm every Saturday and Sunday, and costs start from £20 per day.If you are interested in learning more about the markets, please contact carmen@ dolphinshoppingcentre.co.uk

BUSINESS NEWS

Brad highly commended at estate agent ‘Oscars’ awards

Brad Hansford, Meyers Estate Agent for Shaftesbury, was awarded ‘highly commended’ for New Agency of the Year at the prestigious awards From an entry list described as: “the biggest in the history of the Awards” was awarded for his and his partner Tamsin Bell’s achievements in setting up a highly successful agency during some of the most challenging times in recent history.

Brad said “it is such an honour to be highly commended for this amazing award. I joined Meyers just before the Pandemic hit, so it has been a rollercoaster ride to say the least, but despite the challenges faced, we’ve successfully built a reputation for customer-centric operations in addition to supporting local charities and businesses. I am delighted that the Meyers’ difference has been recognised in this way.”

Mark Meyer, CEO Meyers Estate Agents, said “We are so proud of Brad and Tamsin’s achievement. As franchisees they have worked diligently to ensure Meyers is always at the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to buying or selling property in the Shaftesbury area and in a short space of time have created a superb and successful agency. However, they have still made time to ‘give back’ and contribute to several local projects including: The Blackmore Vale Partnership, The Headstrong Project and the GAP project. That’s the essence of what Meyers is all about – setting the bar higher to look after customers better and support the communities that support us at the same time.”

At the Negotiator Awards Meyers Estate Agents was also awarded bronze in the Community Champion of the Year category recognising the whole team’s contribution to raising £250K for more than ten local charities as well as creating the GAP project in association with the mental health charity Dorset Mind.

10 new pubs for local brewery family as expansion continues across the south Blandford’s independent family brewer, Hall & Woodhouse, has made a number of pub acquisitions as part of its ongoing estate expansion, with more in the pipeline. The company currently has a collection of 170 pubs that make up its managed house and Business Partner estate, stretching from Bristol to Exeter, London to Brighton.

Early in 2021, Hall & Woodhouse sold a small collection of pubs in order to reinvest in assets which are better aligned to the business’ long-term strategy.

Mark James, Property Director at Hall & Woodhouse, explained: “We continually look to evolve as a business by proactively

managing our estate and investing in pubs of the future.

Our recent acquisitions add real quality, with many located in popular tourist locations across the south of England. These acquisitions will also significantly increase our bedroom stock.

“We continue to seek out further high-quality acquisitions that

complement and enhance our existing estate.”

Recent acquisitions include Masons Arms, Odcombe; Hit or Miss, Amersham; Old Ship Aground, Minehead; and The Dolphin Hotel, Bovey Tracey. The pipeline also includes further sites in Devon, Dorset and Surrey.

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WHAT'S ON MY MOUNTAIN LIFE BY SIMON YATES

FRIDAY 21ST JAN, 7:30pm Simon Yates is best known for his role in Joe Simpson’s bestseller Touching the Void and is one of the most accomplished exploratory mountaineers of all time. This is his amazing journey from that mountain in Peru to some of the remotest on the planet. £16/ £15 conc

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THE EXCHANGE

SEE ALONGSIDE TOUCHING THE VOID (15)

THURS 27TH JAN, 7PM The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. £5/ £4 U18s

NO TIME TO DIE (12A)

THURS 24TH FEB, 7PM James Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter, an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. £5/ £4 U18s

Cinema sponsored by TOYAH'S POSH POP TOUR

FRI 25TH FEB, 7:30PM GREATEST SONGS FROM THE MOVIES

SNADS PRESENTS

SAT 22ND JAN, 7:30PM

THE LITTLE MERMAID

From Pinewood to Hollywood!

Join us for an unforgettable mix of themes and songs from the greatest movies of all time - Star Wars, James Bond, Lawrence of Arabia and more... £17/ £16 conc RADIO GAGA THE ULTIMATE QUEEN TRIBUTE

WED 16TH - SAT 19TH FEB, 7:30PM* SNADS 2022 Pantomime is the classic tale of The Little Mermaid, brought to life in an action packed, animated show. *Additional matinee (2pm) Sat 19th Feb £12/ £8 U18s/ £35 family

SAT 29TH JAN, 7:30PM The ultimate celebration of one of the biggest bands to have ever graced the stage – Queen.

Be part of a night like no other as we bring you the concert you’ve been dreaming of! £21.50 ABBA FEVER

FRIDAY 4TH FEB, 7:30PM Live vocals, authentic costumes and exciting choreography all contribute to a spectacular show that will entice audiences to their feet. £15

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OSKAR'S AMAZING ADVENTURES

TUES 22ND FEB, 10AM An original, heart-warming and entertaining play by Theatre Fideri Fidera for a young children and their families, full of good humour, adventure, music and song. £6/ £5 U18s/ £20 family

A unique chance to experience Toyah up close and personal with a show that has a lively cinematic sound using Toyah's vocals, keyboard/ stand up bass and story telling. £22 GO NOW! THE MOODY BLUES TRIBUTE

SAT 26TH FEB, 7:30PM Performing the music of The Moody Blues. All the hits plus deep cuts, recreated live, that sound as close to the initial recordings as you will ever hear live. £22

WHAT’S ON

Little Red Riding Hood Is Coming To Town Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s 2022 Pantomime is Little Red Riding Hood, a family show filled with comedy and music. In these challenging times, we all need our spirits lifted and this performance will have you smiling, dancing and howling with laughter.

Come along and enjoy a traditional story with many twists along the way.

Shaftesbury Arts Centre from Thursday 27 January Tickets available from www.shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk or the Box Office 01747854321 98

WHAT’S ON

A fantastic community arts organisation hosting great music & theatrical acts, and home to Petherton Picture Show.

Saturday 22nd January 8 pm Willie and The Bandits This 4 piece band have toured with artists such as Deep Purple through to the John Butler trio and played major festivals across Europe. £18 / £17.

Wednesday 26th January Coffee Morning 10 am Pop in for a cup of real coffee and a chat. Look around the book and bric-a-brac stalls and more often than not, listen to some live music.

28th January Petherton Picture Show Film presents Cruella (12A) 2021 8:00 pm.

A live-action prequel feature

film following a young Cruella de Vil.

Saturday 29th January 8pm The Churchfitters.

The three flamboyant characters that make up Churchfitters present their uplifting and entertaining show with a unique dynamism and describe their music as ‘Folk Unlimited’.

Sunday 30 January Acoustic Night – 7:30pm Donations Only.

Live at the Hall. Do please book ahead rather than, as previously, just turning up.

A great night for all.

Details of all shows, plus online booking at www.thedavidhall.com 99

Pre-paid funeral plans

If you want your ashes sent into space, Holst’s The Planets played on your departure and your service broadcast on the web, have them.

It’s your funeral.

PROPERTY SPECIAL

Our pre-paid, inflation-proof funeral plans guarantee the way you want to be remembered and protect your loved ones from unnecessary burden and costs.

Drop in to see us today, visit us at funeralcare.co.uk or call us on 0800 243 380 Funeral homes in: Frome l Gillingham l Shaftesbury l Sturminster Newton l Warminster

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Enter BLACKMOREVALE21 at: funeralcare.co.uk/funeralplans or take this coupon along to your local funeralcare home. *Terms & Conditions: The voucher may only be redeemed against eligible Southern Co-op funeral plans costing £3,000 or more and will be deducted off the cost at time of sale. The voucher has no cash value and cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount, offer or promotion. For full terms and conditions visit: funeralcare.co.uk/ funeralplanterms, request a copy from any Southern Co-op funeralcare home or by calling 0800 008 6878. This voucher is valid until 31/12/2021.

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Free training courses in skilled trades for Dorset adults

Bournemouth & Poole College are offering adults in Dorset the chance to upskill or re-train through government-funded skills bootcamps. #Train4Tomorrow offers free, high quality, digital and technical training to employed and unemployed adults. The training is designed by industry to meet their open vacancies.

Ten training providers across the South West, including Bournemouth & Poole College, are offering adults access to 12-16 week intensive training courses to help them to boost existing skills or retrain for free.

Who can take part The courses are open to all adults aged 19+ who are employed or self-employed, career returners or those who have been unemployed for less than 12 months and looking to upskill or re-train.

Free welding and marine electrical bootcamps The Bournemouth & Poole College is offering free 12-week bootcamps in welding and marine electrical. Both courses are taught two days a week, and offer a guaranteed interview with a local employer upon completion.

The bootcamps have been developed alongside industry partners to upskill adults who have no prior experience in the sectors, and are looking to

retrain for a new career.

During the Bournemouth & Poole College bootcamps, learners will gain practical skills and knowledge in welding or marine electrical to prepare them for progression onto an apprenticeship, further study, or employment.

No experience necessary Simone Tyrie, Employment & Skills Project Coordinator at Train4Tomorrow, says: “The programme offers adults in Dorset access to free and flexible training programmes with little or no experience required.

The courses, worth up to £3,000, have been developed in response to regional skills gaps and help people access secure and well-paid employment.

The free courses run for an intensive 12-16 weeks, meaning people juggling employment, and or caring responsibilities can gain skills quickly, and start putting them into practice as soon as they complete the course.”

A new career One learner who has taken advantage of the opportunity to retrain in welding is Jac Bunney.

Jac reflects: “I loved metal work when I was at school in the 80s, but a career in welding just

wasn’t something which was considered an option for girls back then.

“Now that my children have grown up and left home, I felt it was time to do something for me. I absolutely love it and it’s definitely the way I want to take my career.”

Nigel Smalley, Director of Learning for Engineering & Construction at Bournemouth & Poole College, says: “The bootcamps are crucial in helping employers meet industry demands, and encouraging more people in the area to develop in-demand skills. We are delighted to be partnering with local employers Sunseeker and Iracroft to fast-track our learners to interviews, and meet local labour needs.”

If you’re looking to learn new skills or to update your existing knowledge visit train4tomorrow. org.uk to discover a range of digital and technical courses.

Digital and Technical Skills Bootcamps are open for applications for January and February start dates. If you’d like to apply directly to the courses at Bournemouth & Poole College, starting on the 18th January (welding) and 19th January (marine electrical), go to www. thecollege.co.uk/skills-bootcamps

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NEW Volunteer opportunity!

We are launching a new Working Group that will work collaboratively with young people to review our impact. We need young volunteers (18-25yr olds) to get involved.

For more information on the Working Group visit: https://lnkd.in/dHPSUuWA.

To apply Tell us in 250 words or through a short video why you would like to join our Working Group and what skills and experience you can bring.

Email your submissions to dmyh@dorsetmind.uk Deadline: Monday 24th January Applicants must be 18-25yrs old and live in Dorset

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PROPERTY

Rare chance to buy ‘impressive’ £1.25m equestrian home in Marnhull

A spacious five bedroom property in Marnhull that has adjoining land with planning permission has been brought to the market.

Harts House has accommodation laid out over three floors. The Dorset village home also comes with paddocks, a stable block and additional outbuildings, and a guide price of £1,250,000.

The property is set within approximately three acres of grounds; the land also benefits from planning permission for mixed equestrian and agricultural use.

Family living On the ground floor the family home comprises a bright reception hall, a well-appointed downstairs cloakroom with shower, a snug and a spacious sitting room with fireplace. Beyond that double doors lead to a dining room with fireplace.

Further to the rear is an utility room and a high spec kitchen with range cooker and good quality appliances.

Master bedroom suite The property’s first floor has three double bedrooms (one en suite), a family bathroom and a

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superb principal suite with sitting room, dressing room, high specification en suite bathroom, double bedroom and balcony overlooking the gardens and land. An additional double bedroom space with potential for an additional bathroom and useful eaves storage areas is found on the second floor.

Lizzie Ball, Savills, says: “This home not only benefits from a beautiful village location, it also provides additional outbuildings and the potential to expand upon the existing equestrian facilities.”

e th e u l a v We xt adventure ne

Your home is where your family comes together, where you create precious moments all year round.

We understand the value of a property, but it’s our appreciation of those moments - which don’t have a price tag – that make us a valued partner, whether you are buying or selling.

Come inside, or get in touch, and start creating your next precious memories.

01202 842842 | edwards@fineandcountry.com 111

PROPERTY

Does your estate agent really tell you the truth about your house?

In a frenzied sellers market, many of us are wondering if now is a good time to move. Two local estate agents share the truth about the local housing market - and whether they would be honest about your home.

Nearly one-third of homes in England and Wales sold for more than their asking price in 2021 — twice the average over the previous decade — underlining the strength of the ‘sellers’ market’ during the pandemic as well as the impact of stock shortages.

What will the property market look like in 2022?

With the ongoing pandemic affecting choice of location as homeowners compete for properties better suited to home-working, and interest rates set to rise further, there are plenty of factors affecting the market.

Have there been fundamental changes?

Has covid caused any permanent changes to the housing market, or are things returning to ‘normal’?

“I think everyone’s aware the property market has been extremely busy over the last year, with record numbers of transactions and recordbreaking prices being achieved” acknowledged Laura Lewis “Local prices have increased 10.2% in 12 months. Covid has

“a vaulted ceiling in a home is a show stopper!” says Laura Lewis of Edwards estate Agents, Wimborne. This property currently available for £1.4m in Struminster Marshall.

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So we gathered two experienced local experts to talk specifically about what’s happening in our own marke in north Dorset, to see what’s selling and who’s buying, and most importnatly, some insider tips on how to make the whole process as painless as possible.

Sarah Cull from Strutt and Parker’s Salisbury office has been an estate agent in the South Wiltshire/ North Dorset area for over twenty years.

Laura Lewis of Edwards Estate Agents is the experienced head of the Wimborne office, with an insightful knowledge of the middle of the county.

definitely changed what buyers look for in a home - the way we live and work has altered. The home has to become the office too, and the office and outside space is highly prioritised.”

Sarah Cull agrees the changes feel like a ‘new normal’: ”it’s all just business as usual masks for appointments, a handy bottle of sanitiser in the car door etc. Some things have definitely changed - Virtual Viewing tours which were so useful at the very beginning of the pandemic are

now firmly a permanent part of any marketing package.”

What do you see 2022 bringing?

Will the ‘rush to the country’ slow down, are certain types of houses more in demand?

Sarah: “We are still seeing an extreme shortage of houses, and many keen buyers which will continue to drive prices. The impact of the Omicron wave is yet to be seen but we very much feel that country living will remain ‘en vogue’.”

Laura agrees: ” There is currently the lowest ever available stock on Rightmove for sale per estate agency branch. With this, the imbalance between supply and demand means we are seeing multiple buyers per property.

Homes which offer space to work from home, generous gardens and desirable locations are very much in high demand and we can’t see this changing!”

What are the popular features?

What makes a house easier to sell – not the basics of ‘number of bedrooms, big kitchen, nice garden’, but something that you know adds a powerful attraction?

PROPERTY If you have £3.7m, Poxwell Manor near Dorchester is currently for sale through Strutt & Parker

Laura: “Buyers are loving garden rooms at the moment, they a great bonus room with flexibility.

It offers extra space to work, relax, escape the family or use as a home gym. I also think a vaulted ceiling in a home is a show stopper!”

Sarah: “I totally agree. Outside space is still a big seller; home offices, outside kitchens and beautiful gardens can all really help to sell a home.”

needs! So it’s ok to show where you keep the toys, it’s ok to have a high chair in the kitchen or clothes out in the utility.

We recommend that the house looks clean (if not always perfectly tidy!) and smells fresh.”

Will you point out a problem?

When initially valuing a house you can see a couple of glaring issues which your experience tells you will put buyers off. What do you do - will you be honest Last minute viewing tips? with the homeowner?

A house owner has a presentable Laura: “I’m always completely but busy family home, and honest. If there are any you call to say they have a new recommendations that can be viewing; in two made to help “You’ve got two hours? a property be hours.

What would you Make the beds, air more attractive hope they would the house, clean and to market, I’ll do with that time share them! Also, to give the house clear any clutter, put if there are any the best chance? the toilet seats down, issues that cant Sarah: “Make get the dogs and their be resolved, the beds, air the beds out of the way transparency is house, clean and key with buyers.” and try to pop some clear any clutter, Sarah: “As agents fresh flowers on the we are employed put the toilet seats down, get for our expertise kitchen table” the dogs and any and for knowing dogs beds out of the way and try what buyers think and warm to pop some fresh flowers on the to – I wouldn’t be doing my job kitchen table. “ properly if I kept those thoughts Laura: “Buyers want to see to myself.” their home in a house. If clients are selling a busy family home Is the market still moving then they are likely to be selling super-fast? to another busy family, who If so, what tips do you have for understand and have the same potential buyers who are finding

the speed of the market difficult?

Sarah: The best advice is to get yourself in a position where you can go ahead, have your finances lined up and a buyer in tow if you need to sell. There is a lot of competition still, with many properties going to ‘best bids’ and the ability to swiftly move forwards is paramount.”

Laura: “The market is still moving fast and like Sarah, my best advice is for buyers to get themselves in the best position possible by finding a buyer for their own property first.

Get a mortgage agreement in principle, and be prepared to show the agent you wish to purchase from that you have the ability to buy.”

Location, location, location?

Are there specifically desirable locations within the Blackmore Vale area?

Laura: “We are very lucky to live and work in such a beautiful and popular location. Both Wimborne & Blandford are very well desired and we have very high demand for prices here - and increasing prices” Sarah: “Tisbury and The Donheads have been very popular locations of late, primarily due to the rail line and good road links, not to mention the great pubs, shops, beautiful countryside and charming village atmospheres.”

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