Down to earth

BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO BA Hons History of Architecture and Design

What can we find at Osmington Mills? I know there are hag stones and fossils there. I hoped to find some vintage corn utensils from the old mills or at least some crocks. Unsurprisingly, the glamour of pirates and smuggling seems to have eclipsed that of the miller and corn. I asked in the wonderful old 13th century (in parts) pub, The Smugglers and although the bar staff were very helpful, especially Holly – I drew a blank about where the remains of the old mill(s) were. Above the waterfall the stream looked like it had potential for antique bottles or crocks – but nothing! There is a registered monument of the Mill – 736817 ‘of two storeys and attics has a slated roof. None of the mill machinery remains’. How tantalising! However I had spent enough time searching and had to cut my losses. In The Smugglers Inn I had seen a huge fossil used as a door wedge. The skull of a pliosaur was discovered in 2009 at Osmington Mills and is now on display at Dorset County Museum. The fossils are mostly locked in the rocks and no hammering into the cliffs is allowed. Although, you are allowed to collect fossils from rockfalls which were in plentiful evidence. Zelda (my dog) and I gravitated to the type of beachcombing which is always available –photographs. It’s easy to see why Constable chose this hamlet to honeymoon in, with its subtle tones and silhouettes. I wanted to photograph the old wreck of The Minx from 1927 and along the way found quite a few hag stones but only brought one home. Hag stones are thought to have magical qualities and be protective. They are stones which running water has bored a hole through. It was a common belief that magic wouldn’t work on running water and therefore the stones were used as talismans against evil. They were hung on bed posts to stop nightmares and I remember in the show Vikings pausing the action to enjoy the hag stone interior design of just such a bed. Sailors also hung them from their masts as witches were thought to have power over the winds which the hag stones could negate. I remember at Burton Bradstock, in St Marys Church, hag stones being used on the door as part of a wind-block. These days they are mostly used as personal ornament.

The waterfall at Osmington Mills, left, and above, the wreck of the Minx provides a lookout for cormorants

An animal head hag stone Burger bun stones

A hag-stone as a pendant on a seaweed necklace Get your buns to Osmington

Soil sleuth is so very down to earth

By Dan Goater

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A soil sleuth is sharing his top tips for green-fingered West Dorset residents. Dr Dave Aplin, director of Soil Values, says his fellow horticulturists need to pay attention to the specific needs of their land, especially farmers, vintners, and commercial growers. Dr Aplin, who has a doctorate in botany and ecology from the University of Sussex, said: “My job is to analyse soil samples that I either collect myself or that are sent in by clients. I test these samples for the nutrients that are present, the soil’s texture and its pH balance. From these readings I can determine whether or not a soil will be able to retain its nutrients or whether it will need specific treatments to keep it fertile “A few months ago, I was working for someone who thought their neighbour was poisoning their plants because they looked quite yellow. But the issue was just that the soil was poor and low in nutrients nothing to do with the neighbour. I advised her on how to feed her plants and they bounced back to be a lush green.” Dr Aplin said his work includes testing potential new sites for farms or vineyards and that his analysis includes testing the soil’s composition as well as the gradient of the land, which can affect how crops grow. “It’s about getting the nutrient balance right,” he said. “For example, if you have a greenhouse and you’re growing tomatoes, you would likely give them a potassium fertiliser but you may notice eventually that the leaves start to go yellow. This is often because it is deficient in magnesium, putting too much potassium in the soil stops the magnesium from reaching the leaves.” Dr Aplin added: “If you look at the weather recently, it’s been very dry with the odd shower of rain. “If we’re going to have increased periods of drought, people need to look at getting irrigation systems in place. “I would also advise people not to use peat because it’s just the worst thing you can use in terms of environmental impact. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic product but it’s not renewable or sustainable. It’s the largest store of carbon – other than the oceans – that is released into the atmosphere. “My main advice to people is to compost at home and to add mulch to your garden. “Overall, try to put the right plant in the right location. Choose plants that you don’t have to water all the time just to get them to survive.”

EARTH TO EARTH: Bride Valley Vineyard, above, and Dr Dave examines soil samples, inset

From grapevines to celandines

30 The West Dorset Magazine, April 8, 2022 Down to earth Colours tell us the story of the stars

Kevin Quinn is a Dark Sky Custodian for the Cranborne Chase Dark Sky Reserve who lives in Piddletrenthide. Read his blog at theastroguy. wordpress.com

It may not seem obvious, when taking a quick glance up at the stars as we rush from house to car to supermarket or wherever our busy lives dictate, but the night sky is filled with colour. Readers in light polluted parts of the county might be surprised at this, used as they are to seeing only the brighter stars as white points of light. In reality, though, stars come in a plethora of colours, some of which are obvious to the naked eye, others requiring the use of binoculars or a telescope. A star’s colour stems from a combination of its age, size, surface temperature and composition. Generally speaking, the younger the star the more blue-white it appears, and a good example of stars in this category would be those of the Pleiades star cluster (estimated age is less than 100 million years). Other examples include the stars of Orion’s belt, and the star Rigel at the bottom-right of Orion. Take a look at the upper-left star of Orion, though: Betelgeuse, a red supergiant. Although less than 10 million years old, its orange-red colour is obvious. Then there’s the nearby bright orange Aldebaran, nestled within the Hyades star cluster in Taurus. One of the reddest stars known, and among the brightest of what are known as ‘giant red carbon stars’, is La Superba, in Canes Venatici. Just about visible to the naked eye, from a dark site, its deep red colour is obvious in binoculars. Other deep red carbon stars include the Garnet Star in Cepheus, and Hind’s Crimson Star in Lepus (described by its discoverer as ‘like a drop of blood on a black field’). During the summer months, low to the south in the constellation of Scorpius is the red giant Antares (so red, in fact, that its name derives from the Ancient Greek for ‘rival of Mars’, so similar is it to the red planet). As well as colourful individual stars, there are a great many ‘colourful doubles’, and these truly are an arresting sight. The most famous colourful double has to be Albireo in the constellation of Cygnus. It’s guaranteed to raise a gasp when first seen, the rich golden yellow/sapphire blue pair is simply stunning. Then there’s 145 Canis Majoris, arguably the most colourful double star in the winter sky: bright citrus orange and royal blue. Iota Cancri is the uppermost star of the Cancer constellation, to the right of Leo. Like Albireo, one of the pair is a golden yellow colour, whilst the other is sapphire blue. The West Dorset night sky might not often be lit up with the green and red of the

aurora, but there’s plenty of dazzling colour on show if you look. Scan around the sky with a pair of binoculars and you’ll be amazed at the diversity of star colours. As with faint objects like galaxies, the colours of stars can be washed out by the bright moon, streetlights and other forms of artificial light, so if you want to see some of these wonderful colours, go somewhere dark* … *With input from the National Trust and the Dorset AONB, I’m compiling a map of accessible observing sites in Dorset on my blog.

Albireo

La Superba Canis Majoris

High-flying visitors mean summer’s on its way

Sally Cooke lives in Tolpuddle with her husband, two grown up sons and her spotty rescue dog. Sally will be writing seasonal pieces for The West Dorset Magazine and you can see her work, Sparrows in a Puddle at Instagram.com/ sparrows.puddle.photos

Have you seen a swallow yet this spring? Around the start of April I expect my first sighting of these aerobatic birds with their glossy blue backs, red throats and long tail streamers. Our Dorset swallows have spent the winter 6,000 miles away in South Africa and when we first see them in the spring, they’ll have just finished a journey that took them up through Africa, over the Sahara, through Morocco into Spain, across the Pyrenees and up through France and across the channel. They’ll have spent four to six weeks travelling around 200 miles a day, flying at low altitudes and finding food along the way. Swallows are associated with much legend and folklore. We all know ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ but they are the heralds of spring, representing birth and bringing happiness. If they nest in your barn they will bring good luck, though it is bad luck if they desert! They are considered sacred, as they relieved Jesus’s suffering at his crucifixion by removing the thorns from his crown. They are weather forecasters, ‘if they’re flying high then the weather will be dry’ and if tattooed onto the chest of a sailor symbolise his vast nautical experience. They’re not the only summer migrants arriving in Dorset in April though. The similar looking house martins will be arriving soon too. Dark blue like the swallow, but with an obvious white rump and a shorter forked tail, they will often be seen flying with swallows as both feed on flying insects. The much rarer swifts arrive

by early May, they make a distinctive sickle shape with their wings as they fly and are brown in colour. Swallows will be with us now for the summer, with luck producing two broods in their nests in our garages, stables, sheds and porches. By September they’ll be gathering on the telegraph wires to prepare to head south again. Before migration was understood, their sudden disappearance in the autumn led to the theory that they hibernated in the mud at the bottom of ponds. Samuel Johnson, of the 18th century dictionary, believed this – ‘Swallows do certainly sleep all winter. They conglobulate together by flying round and round and then, all in a heap, throw themselves under water.’ Solar farm support after route change

By Karen Bate

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A planning application for a 40-acre solar farm near Maiden Newton has now secured the backing from the parish council after a new route into the site has been agreed. While Maiden Newton Parish Council had agreed the application ‘in principle’ councillors were concerned with the amount of ‘construction traffic’ on small narrow lanes. However, applicant Environmena ‘has worked very closely with Maiden Newton Parish Council and the local community to finalise a new route into the site and work up a scheme that has the full support of everyone’. Now the parish council has written to the Dorset Council team requesting the case is heard before a planning committee. The plan for the 40-acre 11.8 MW solar installation on two fields at Cruxton Manor Farm, is capable of providing power to over 4,800 homes every year, which in turn will offset 3,000 tonnes of carbon. Mark Harding, Enviromena’ s Europe Development Director said the application should be decided by Dorset Council’s planning committee and not by officials under delegated powers. He said: “We understand the Planning Officer recommends to refuse the scheme – possibly doing so using delegated powers. But this is a significant renewable energy installation signalling the move away from fossil fuels and requires the benefit of due process. “It’s an absolute scandal that it might be decided by an officer under delegated powers. “We have made a significant investment over 12 months to ensure the site is acceptable to the local community and parish council who are all supportive of the application and the jobs it will create.” Dorset Council say the scheme has not been delegated to officers to decide but, at this stage, is going through its “scheme of delegation” which results in the officer’s draft report being considered by the chairman and vice chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee. The relevant ward members then have five working days to respond on whether they consider the application should be considered at committee or dealt with under delegated powers.

The Pagan origins of CofE churches

PAGAN VIEWS

By Jo Belasco

I got side-tracked. The plan was to go for a walk along the South Dorset Coast path at Bincombe. We marched past a church, considering checking it out on our return. A sudden tinkling noise made me stop and turn to see a wind chime dream catcher twirling in a yew tree. There were grazing sheep in the graveyard with shafts of light cascading down on them. I was enchanted and did a U-turn. Bincombe Burial mounds are only a stone’s throw away. This is indeed an area of bronze age ceremonial landscape – a Pagan landscape. Many early churches were built on previously pagan sites. A striking example of this is Knowlton Church in East Dorset, “the landscape itself Christianised as prominent features were rededicated to Christian Saints”. I don’t get caught up in debates over what’s the difference between paganism, wicca or neodruidism etc. I am just a nature loving rambler in search of the sacred and I certainly found it at Holy Trinity Church, Bincombe. The church has 12th century origins and there is no car park, limited onstreet parking and no toilets. I am drawn to old churches partly because of my interest in architecture and partly seeking something sacred –seeking something inherently good. Inside Holy Trinity, I was amazed and delighted to see conkers and shells laid out in a pattern on the font cover. Exploring further I discovered a collection of pebbles and stones displayed around a bowl of flowers, then a medieval holy water stoop. These were often used by priests to do the sign of the cross on

parishioners before any holy ceremony. Arguably, a Catholic church is more sensual than Church of England with its smell of incense, sights of sculpture, sounds of choirs and tasting of communion wine. But this church had long ago become Church of England yet it was elemental! It had been the sound of air beating its wings on the wind chime which had made me stop. The sight of the fire of the sun beams on the sheep, the presence of holy water and the earth gifts of pebble, conker and shell which touched me.

Hillforts no longer at risk after work to restore them

Hillforts at Hod Hill, Pilsdon Pen, Lambert’s Castle and Coney Castle have been removed from the Heritage at Risk register thanks to the National Trust Hillforts and Habitats project. The earthwork structures date back 2,000 years and tell us how and why our ancestors lived in hilltop locations. The success of the project is due to the hard work and commitment of the ‘Hillfort Hero’ volunteers and ranger teams, who have been monitoring surveys for archaeology, undertaking the scrub and rough grassland management and erosion repair works, reversing the damage which had placed the hillforts on the Heritage at Risk register. The National Trust’s project manager Marie McLeish said: “Wessex hillforts give everyone an opportunity to step back in time and imagine the lives and livelihoods of our ancestors. Often standing in prominent isolation in the landscape, you can get a sense of the hillfort’s positional power whilst enjoying

White Sheet HIll at dawn

Picture: NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES JOHN MILLER

panoramic views across the countryside.” Historic England Partnerships team leader John Ette said: “One of the best collaborative projects Historic England and the National Trust have achieved in the south west.” The National Trust has launched the Wessex hillforts digital visitor’s guide which can be found at nationaltrust. org.uk/hambledonhill/projects/wessex-hillforts-a nd-habitats-project It’s not cuckoo spit – it’s nymph camouflage!

FORAGING

JOHN WRIGHT is a naturalist and forager who lives in rural West Dorset. He has written eight books, four of which were for River Cottage. He wrote the award-winning Forager’s Calendar and in 2021 his Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries was published.

It is a dry day. You are walking through your garden or through a field and suddenly feel something cold, something wet, on hand or leg. Looking down, you see a little patch of froth on a herbaceous plant or blade of grass. It is, of course, cuckoo spit. This emanation of bubbles has no connection with cuckoos, save that both arrive in spring. The cuckoo, already a known sinner, was handed the blame. There may, however, be just a little more to it than this. The 6th century Spanish scholar, Isidorus, thought that cuckoos created grasshoppers (not so different from the creatures that cause cuckoo spit) from their saliva. This was as absurd then as it is now, but such flights of imagination continued as far as the 18th century, when barnacle geese (which had never been seen to nest in Europe) were thought to be spontaneously generated from the goose barnacle. The Latin name of the barnacle is Lepas anserifera, which means, ‘limpet that bears geese’. So, if it is not cuckoos, grasshoppers (or, come to that, barnacles) that cause cuckoo spit, what is it? It is the nymph stages of insects known as a spittlebugs or froghoppers, the most common being the common froghopper, Philaenus spumarius. The nymphs are delicate creatures, easily revealed when the froth is gently removed. With eyes widely spaced, they always look affronted, as though you had crept into their bathroom and parted the shower curtain. The bubbles are defensive structures; as the Lady’s Own Paper of 1850 puts it, ‘to cover and protect its wingless infancy’. They also keep the nymphs moist, their ancestors having once lived in the wetter environment of the soil. Like aphids, they feed by tapping into the thin, sugary sap of their host plant. Excess fluid (of which there will be a great deal) is passed to the lower gut where a cocktail of chemicals is added. Some of these impart a bitter flavour to the fluid to deter predation and the other main additives are stearic and palmitic acids, the components of soap! With its bottom in the air, the mixture is expelled from its rear end. This runs down the underside of the nymph’s abdomen through a cavity made by moveable plates which act as bellows. It is these that blow the bubbles that are subsequently wriggled into place to hide the shy nymph.