The West Dorset Magazine, Edition 26, March 2023

By Miranda Robertson

The news that The West Dorset Magazine had won the overall Bridport Business of the Year (as well as New Business of the Year) came as a bolt from the blue for its founders, Karen Bate and I. We were overwhelmed, particularly as it came as we marked a year in print, and on the back of the national Political Cartoon of the Year award runner’s up trophy –can you believe we beat Private Eye, The Spectator, The Times et al?

This trio of awards, together with an increasing level of support from advertisers and readers’ generous donations, makes us feel we made the right decision in launching a new print product a year ago, when many are in decline.

It’s been a tough but fun first year. It’s the first business Karen and I have ever run and it’s an expensive old business, printing 25,000 copies of a

96-page news magazine. But advertisers realise that – as all copies vamoose pretty sharpish – we provide great value for money, and our revenue is steadily rising.

We produce our multi-awardwinning monthly magazine on a shoestring, with family members supporting us (most of the ads are sold by my 78year-old dad, Bob Holman). We are rare – a hyperlocal free news magazine with all our advertising rates and info on our website. We are transparent. If you want to know almost anything about us, head to westdorsetmag.co.uk – or better still, give us a call on 01305 566336.

Meanwhile, if you feel moved to help us with the costs of production while we grow the advertising we welcome your donations: Bird Media Ltd, sort code 40 19 21, acc 01604236. We appreciate every penny – your support means the world to us.

Goater Reporter dan@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Miranda Robertson Editor miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Karen Bate News Editor karen@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Nick Horton Chief Sub nickH@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Stuart Wickham Sports editor stuart@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Bob Holman Advertising sales bobdiholman@btinternet.com

Thank you so much

Twitchers flocked to a field on the edge of Dorchester, enthralled by the rare sight of a Ross Gull.

Simon Craft captured this lovely photo of the ultrarare bird at the water meadows between Dorchester and Charminster.

Ross gulls breed in the high Arctic, in the northern-most parts of North America and north east Siberia, and are seen less frequently in north west Europe.

In December 2021 two Ross Gulls were spotted in Belgium and in 2016 there were sightings in Cornwall and Ireland.

They are named after British explorer James Clark Ross.

Road safety fears at new homes site

Bridport’s Advearse pressure group fears there will be a ‘serious accident’ at the Miles Cross junction as work continues on the Foundry Lea housing development. The group claims there could be as many 60 ‘heavily laden’ HGV movements there per day, claiming drivers are often ‘confused’ about rights of way.

An Advearse spokesman told The West Dorset Magazine: “The Miles Cross junction at Bridport has a long history of accidents and near misses. “Advearse welcomes the decision to improve the junction but is very concerned that there is a possibility that 50 or 60 heavily laden HGVs per day will be negotiating the junction before the roundabout is completed. “Add to that the construction vehicles coming on site that could mean 200 to 300 journeys every day. If some of these vehicles are attempting the manoeuvre coming from the east and turning right the risks of a serious accident will be very high. “Those who use the

junction regularly know that drivers are often confused about which direction has right of way. “The dangers apply equally to busy holiday times and the quiet times when vehicles speed down from Chideock.

“We know that most local people are not aware of what is planned. We believe that commercial profit for the builders is being put ahead of public safety.

“Our primary request is that the roundabout be finished before the construction work starts. If that request goes unheeded we request that west bound construction traffic should not be allowed to turn right off the A35 into West Road.”

Rebecca Edmond, National Highways south west head of planning and development, said: “Our primary consideration is the continued safe operation of the strategic road network, and in view of the plans for development alongside the A35 we’re working closely with Dorset Council and developers to ensure the safety of all road users, both during and after construction.”

New £2m discharge lounge

Dorset County Hospital (DCH) has secured £2millon to help free up hospital beds by creating a new, larger discharge lounge facility. DCH submitted a bid to NHS England after the Government announced an additional £50million in

capital funding to expand hospital discharge lounges and ambulance hubs. The funding will be used to install a single-storey modular building that will be pre-made using modern methods of construction and then assembled on site.

Oldest Channel swimmers stage coup

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Six septuagenarian Channel swimmers frustrated by a governing body’s refusal to ratify their world record-breaking swim have helped stage a coup – to boot out several members of the body’s committee at its AGM.

The One Foot in the Wave II team, which has four members from Dorset, were all in their 70s when they swam to France in September, hoping to clinch the record for the oldest relay team ever to swim the Channel, with an average age of 75 years and 187 days.

One of the team, Robert Lloyd-Evans, is now 80. Despite their advancing years the team had almost decided to do the swim all over again, after the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CF&PF) turned their swim down – saying they had broken the rules during a changeover. The team maintain they did not, and say they adhered to the rules during the feat. They used a pilot and observer accredited by the federation, who both congratulated them when they reached France. However the federation’s committee narrowly voted not to ratify the swim. They refused to clarify what rule had been broken, and did not respond to requests from the regional and national media for comment. The silver lining to all this was people were so outraged on the team's behalf they swelled the fundraising for Alzheimer’s to more than £10,000.

The swimmers, including Bob Holman of Affpuddle, now 78, Linda Ashmore from Weymouth, 75, Bob Roberts from Weymouth, 74, Kevin Murphy from Dover, 73, and Parviz Habibi from Surbiton, 70, appealed, but the committee turned them down. They believe a personality clash within the committee was a major factor in the decision not to ratify the swim.

Two related members of the committee put their own candidate up for the secretary's post against Kevin at the AGM, plus a third family member for another post... and the team felt enough was enough. They travelled to Dover en masse to support their own candidates for three committee posts. The chairman has now been replaced, three more of the team’s candidates were also voted in, and Kevin held his secretary role, leaving the way clear for the team to again push for ratification.

Bob Holman said: “Normally they have

about 20-30 people at their AGM, but there were around 60 this year. The atmosphere was electric. They thought we were going to roll over and accept their decision. But they now know they can't have it all their own way.” The issue has revolved around the oldest swimmer Robert Lloyd-Evans, then 79, becoming disorientated and swimming away from the boat just as he was due to

come out of the water for the next swimmer to go in. Getting his attention was difficult, but he was back on the boat within four minutes. The CS&PF rules state that the outgoing swimmer must leave the water within five minutes. The rules also state that each swimmer should swim for 60 minutes which Robert did, plus an extra four minutes. The rules don’t say each swimmer must swim for 60 minutes precisely and there is no clarification if a swimmer swims more than 60 minutes. The team hope to have these rules made much clearer, with a clause in there allowing for safety concerns. However they will have to wait until the issue is cascaded to members.

ASHORE: The swimmers in France

Whasson? (and where’s it to?)

Take the bait for fascinating talk on fishing community

Oral history writer and poet Sarah Acton will be talking about the traditions of fishing communities along Chesil Beach on Wednesday, March 22 at 2pm at the Salthouse in West Bay. Sarah’s recently published book Seining Along Chesil remembers the communities involved locally for generations in seine fishing for mackerel and sprats. Tickets £2 online or in person from Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

This is the first event of West Bay

Discovery Centre’s 2023 programme entitled Beneath the Waves. From late March the Discovery Centre’s seasonal exhibition will feature the history of commercial fishing in Lyme Bay. It explores how more than 200sqkm of Lyme Bay has become a Marine Protected Area where protection from bottom

La nd a t Athelhamp ton Road

Following the allocaon of land at Athelhampton Road in the Puddletown Neighbourhood Plan, Wya Homes in conjuncon with the landowner are pleased to present their emerging ideas for the site.

Thursday, Mar 9

West Dorset Ramblers will enjoy a 5.5-mile pub walk from The Wise Man, West Stafford at 10am. Contact Cynthia 01300 320346 ramblers.org.uk

Clocktower Music is hosting classical piano and sitar maestros Andrew Goldberg and Ricky Romain. Tickets from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901.

Members £2.50, Membership £5 per year. For further details contact Chris on 07914 079067.

The Making of Bridport – An Illustrated Talk by Tim Connor will be held at Literary & Scientific Institute - LSi Bridport at 7pm. Join the Bridport Area Development Trust and architectural historian Tim Connor for an evening of historical insight into the making of Bridport.

Please visit our public exhibition between 3pm 7 7pm on the 2 22nd March 2023 at Puddletown Village Hall, DT2 8RX hps://athelhamptonroad.clplanning.co.uk

We understand the exhibion might not prove convenient for everyone. Please follow the below link for further informaon and an opportunity to give feedback.

Your feedback will influence the form and content of the planning applicaon.

Bridge evenings held at St Andrews Church Hall, Preston every Thursday at 6.45pm for 7pm. £3. Competitive bridge, around 24 boards and finish around 10.15pm. For players with no partner and wish to take up the game, there is a host player. Covid decimated this very active club, which is just beginning to pick itself up, but they need more players.

Chard History Group will hear a talk on the paintings of William Hogarth, by Richard Kay. All dates are on the second Thursday at the Phoenix Chard at 7.30pm. Visitors £3.50,

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Tickets £5, available from Bridport Tourist Information Centre. Find out more at lsibridport.co.uk

Comediennes Janey Godley and Helen Lederer will make guest appearances at Dorset’s first women’s health symposium at Lighthouse Poole.

Helen Lederer, who has long had a keen interest in promoting and supporting women in the health arena will be launching the day’s event asking: “Why do we need to talk about women’s health?”

Marianne Storey, chair of Women’s Action Network Dorset, said: “With the publication of the Women’s Health Strategy last year, there

trawling has helped regenerate a stunning marine environment.

has never been a more pertinent time to hear women’s voices or to share and learn about where Dorset is at in supporting women with their health.”

The strategy sets out a 10-year plan to improve health outcomes for women, looking specifically at how women’s voices are heard.

Janey Godley herself has been undergoing her own treatment for ovarian cancer and she knows first-hand the importance of speaking up about women’s health.

“Ovarian cancer has been a rollercoaster of emotions; I’m more determined than ever to live life to the full and to stick two fingers up to the stigma of cancer and everything that goes with it…I’m delighted to be sharing my story at this event in the middle of my I’m Not Dead Yet tour. We need to talk about this kind of stuff. Cancer can jog on as far as I’m concerned.” Book at eventbrite.co.uk

Friday, Mar 10

The Friends of Greenhill Gardens (greenhillgardens.co.uk, 01305 768446) are holding a Teddy Bears Picnic Quiz at 7.30pm at Preston Village Hall. Tickets £12 including Picnic Box Supper.

A five foot teddy bear will be auctioned off.

Easy subject and picture rounds and a joker card to double your points. Teams of up to six. Tickets from Jane Chandler janechandler123@hotmail.com 01305 775829.

The Loyal Hand in Hand Lodge of Oddfellows is holding a Friday Coffee Morning at Crossways Village Hall between 10.30am and noon. All welcome.

A book sale is being held at Beaminster Museum between 10am and 1pm.

To donate a book or two visit on Friday morning or phone 01308 863912 for collection. Opening for 2023 season on April 7, for more details visit beaminstermuseum.co.uk

A whist drive is held every Saturday, 7.30pm, at Holy Trinity Church Hall, Lysander Road, Yeovil, BA20 2BU. Just turn up, or call Nigel on 01935 862325 for more details.

Prize bingo at Maiden Newton Village Hall. Doors open at 2pm. Eyes down at 2.30pm.

The Dorset Wrecks are performing Sea songs & Shanties at St Nicholas Church in Broadwey at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm). Tickets £8 (cash only please), proceeds split between The Fisherman’s Mission & St. Nicholas Church Repair Fund. Cash bar.To book in advance contact Susana on 07944 617553 or susanamalik@ yahoo.com

Repair Cafe Weymouth will be held 10.30am-12.30pm at Top Club Littlemoor, Louviers Road, DT3 6AY. Bring your broken items be repaired by volunteers. We don’t charge; we just ask for donations. As the April event would fall on Easter Saturday, it has been cancelled.

Dorchester Science Festival kicks off today. Build a library reading rocket

Whasson? (and where’s it to?)

Guitar builders’ love of old tools leads to new auctions

Guitar makers in Piddlehinton decided they love old tools so much and feel so heartbroken when they are unused they want to devote entire auctions to them – and the next is on Friday, March 17

VintageToolAuctions.com was born out of a guitar builder’s love of hand tools, and a need to supply his apprentices with them. Shop manager Sam Faloon said: “Tools are often

passed down the generations, somehow seeming to take on a hint of the personality and character of the creators who

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3 FEBRUARY TO 5 NOVEMBER 2023

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Please visit our website for performers, venues, dates and how to book. Online booking - https://tickets.concertsinthewest.org/ concertsinthewest@gmail.com - CATHERINE MADDOCKS DIRECTOR www.concertsinthewest.org

use it. If you have a favourite hand plane, chisel, penknife or even dibber you will know the magic. You can feel the marks of how the handle has been held in a certain way, bringing the blade to bear ‘just so’ and thus informing how future generations use the tool.

“All too often what could be a multi-generational inspiration ends up in a skip to be melted into some knick knack or

Mar 11 continued

from ‘space junk’. Fun craft and story session for children and families. 11am. There’s a talk from the UK Space Agency at 2pm – Come along and learn all about the UKs first orbital launch attempt, the UK space agency and much more!

Booking for both the above is essential via Eventbrite

From 11am-1pm and from 2pm-4pm there’s cool kitchen science experiments with Professor Big Bonce. Come and meet a real scientist! Admittance to the Family Science Day this year is by ticket only. Tickets are FREE from the Dorset Museum website. Due to high demand for this event we sincerely ask that if you reserve a place but then are unable to go, that you cancel it to make the place available.

Sunday, Mar 12

The Critter Clan presents their all-new talk, Plagues, Pests & Parasites! With sessions from

single use travesty. The sheer abundance of good tools needing time and love inspired us to start a specialist vintage tool auction house.”

See page 15 for details.

11am-3pm. Imagine watching Horrible Histories but with some of nature’s weirdest creatures and discover their impact on us as humans, be it useful or indeed a little bit gruesome!

Visitors will be able to get up close and personal with some amazing creatures from all over the world. Including medical marvels, perilous pests and infesting parasites normally reserved for TV programmes. Tickets are free, but booking is essential, available from the Dorset Museum website.

Dorset Ramblers: Stourpaine & Hod Hill. Seven-mile morning walk. Details: Davebass54@hotmail.com or Facebook: Dorset Ramblers.

Star Wars - The Audiovisual Experience will be held at Tom Browns Pub, Dorchester at 4pm. Join them for an experimental 70s cinema experience featuring Vanilla Radio creating a new improvised soundtrack, grindhouse style cinema adverts and trailers. Free entry.

Whasson? (and where’s it to?)

Monday, Mar 13

Detox your Menopause: a talk at Aquae Sulis Therapy Centre, Dorchester Are you suffering from menopausal symptoms and don't know what to do?

Toxicity might be the true cause of your problems. Join professional Holistic Therapist Martina Weidner as she explores the menopause – toxin link and how to free yourself from it. Booking essential at Eventbrite.

Dorchester Science Festival continues with a talk on Will an AI win the Chemistry Nobel Prize?

In this talk Prof Jeremy Frey will illustrate how computers are an essential part of modern chemistry and highlight the growing role of artificial intelligence. Tickets are free but essential. Collect from the Thomas Hardye School reception, (max 4 per person).

The Glasgow Boys & Girls – a three-week art history course, starts today 2pm-3.30pm, in Bridport, (March 13, 20, 27) Also available on line via Zoom on Fridays 2pm. Fee £33, venue the United Church Hall on East Street Drop in lectures are £13. Fee £30 on Zoom.

The Glasgow Boys were a group of young artists that represented the beginnings of modernism in Scottish painting. In the early 1880s, artists were united by their disillusionment with traditional academic painting, with its focus on historical subjects. Tutor is Pam Simpson MA, Art and Design Historian. Email chris.pam simpson@btinternet.com

Tuesday, Mar 14

Radipole & Southill

Horticultural Society will be holding its next meeting at the Southill Community Centre at 7.30pm when Kevin Pope from the Animal and Plant Health Agency will be talking about his role as a seasonal bee inspector (SBI) for the Dorset area. Amongst other things, the role of an SBI covers assessing

the health and well-being of bee colonies, investigating diseases and spreading best practice. Come along and find out how this most important of pollinating insects can be helped to survive and thrive. The event is open to members and non-members. Information on 01305 788939.

Dorchester Science Festival continues with Rhymetime RockSTARS – space themed Rhymetime session for babies and young toddlers at Dorchester Library at 10.30am. Best for ages 0-18 months. Booking essential at Eventbrite.

Mark Chutter will talk on ‘This is the meaning of what Satan showed me in the vision’: Women and Witchcraft in The Withered Arm and Lolly Willowes. He will consider how women and witchcraft are presented differently by Hardy and LGBTQ+ communist Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Tickets £6 from the Shire Hall Museum.

Wednesday, Mar 15

A Poetry Open Mic will be held at The Occasional Bookshop 16 Durngate Street, Dorchester 6pm-8pm (Doors open 5.30pm). Bring your own or other people’s poems to read or just come and listen. Free copies of The Occasional Poetry Magazine will be available. Drinks in interval. All welcome.

Thursday, Mar 16

Sherborne Historical Society will hear from Dr Susan Greaney on Where History

Meets Legend: research and presentation at Tintagel Castle, at 8pm, Preceded by the AGM at 7.45pm, at Digby Hall, Hound Street. Members free, visitors £5

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

Continued next page

Thatched, Grade II-listed 16th century freehouse at the heart of the historic village of Yetminster. Acclaimed Sunday roasts.

Classics fun run. Classic car and motorcycle-friendly.

Large, floodlit asphalt surfaced rear car park with CCTV. Car wash facilities.

Dorchester TRINITY Club

Bingo Weds, Sat, Sun

Pool, darts & skittles

Weddings & events a year to join! £5

dorchtrinityclub@gmail.com

01305 262671

MOONFLEET 2000 INDOOR BOWLS CLUB

The Marsh Sports Ground Knightsdale Road Weymouth DT4 0HU

Saturday, April 22, 10am-2pm

Come and try indoor bowls

Fully qualified coaches

FREE PARKING, SHOES AND BOWLS

No need to book

If you need any more information please ring 01305 759106

Mar 16 continued

Vinyl Van in Brewery Square, Dorchester, will celebrate The Joy of Decks from 7.30pm until 10.30pm. Find your inner DJ, bring three tunes and take over the decks at the monthly social – always a friendly crowd and a small bar is available. No charge, just bring a smile

Friday, Mar 17

Maiden Newton Art Group present an illustrated Art Lecture by Pam Simpson, ‘The Dutch Golden Age’ at 7pm in the Maiden Newton Village Hall. Tickets £7 including refreshments.

The Quiz Night being run by Crossways Pantomimers to raise funds for their next production that was scheduled for March 3 has been moved to Friday, March 17. A Quiz Challenge with Rod Brewer at Crossways Village Hall. To start at 7.30pm.

Teams of four. £20 per team including a ploughman’s style supper. Bring your own beverages. Call Andrew or Mary on 01305 8753125 or email crosswaysquiznight@gmail.com

Retro Aerobics will be occurring at 7pm for Red Nose Day at Blast Off PT Fitness and Mindset Coaching in North Square, Dorchester. Dust off your leg warmers, dig out your fancy dress and dial the cheese-level up to 11

Art exhibition

How do we define ‘Home’?

Is it a physical place, the people we share a space with, or is it more about a feeling, a memory or a sense of belonging? This mixedmedia exhibition will explore personal responses to these questions, and more. artwey.co.uk/whatson April 1-8

for this special retro aerobics workout.

Entry via donation to Comic Relief.

Saturday, Mar 18

Abbotsbury Swannery reopens to the public, and it is FREE for mums all weekend. The swannery is home to the only colony of mute swans in the world. Feeding the herds by hand is a special part of any visit to the Swannery. The herd of 600 swans are fed at midday and 4pm. Included also is the swan maze, pedal go-karts, wild meadow walk, coffee shop and gift shop. Parking is free. Tickets on the door or at abbotsburyswannery.co.uk

The Originals band will be playing hits from the 60s 70s 80s, at Wyke Working Men’s Club, Portland Road, Weymouth.

Padraig Lawlor and ‘Henry Marten’s Ghost’ will be playing at Tolpuddle Village Hall. Doors open 7pm, music 8pm-11pm. An evening of traditional Irish music from Padraig Lawlor and his Band. A traditional Pop-up Irish Ba will be available. Tickets at wegottickets.com /event/563096. All proceeds to the village hall.

Dorchester Science Festival continues with Take Me to the River. Work with scientists and artists in the field at Cape Farewell’s HQ and studios on the Sydling Water at 11am to investigate and learn about freshwater habitats and their biodiversity. Experience life underwater ‘listening’ to lakes,

ponds, and streams through hydrophones. Wellingtons (and waterproof clothing if raining) needed.

Tickets are free, but booking is essential – email enquiries@capefarewell.com

Oddments will perform The Road to the Cross at Thornford Primary School, Boot Lane at 4pm. This contemporary style show tells the story from Palm Sunday through to Pentecost, following the story of Jesus and his disciples as they embark on a journey together through the highs and the lows. The show will make you laugh, cry, and reflect whilst performing a powerful and passionate story of the message of God’s love to humanity.

Tickets £12 in advance from your church or info@oddmentstheatre.co.uk or £14 at the door. Proceeds in support of St. Michael’s Church, Beer Hackett, Fabric Maintenance Project.

A Spring Equinox Silent Disco will be held 7.30pm-12.30am at Grow Slow Nursery & The Pack Horse Café in West Bay Fields. Eclectic mix of groovy dance tunes, hot food from the Pack Horse Cafe and a fully stocked bar onsite. Dress code is flower power. Held outside in our quirky gardens, sheltered by our big barn roof so dress up warm. Refundable deposit of £10 cash for headphones on the night.

Dorchester Science Festival continues with The Discovery Lab – a spaceship, and home to travelling aliens on an Earth exploration mission. Improvised theatre meets interactive science for 6+ humans by award-winning theatre company Brave Bold Drama. 11.30am.

Tickets are free but limited, collect in person from the Brewery Square Concierge Office (opposite Dorchester South train station).

Sunday,

A Steam & Waterwheel Open Day will be held at Sherborne Steam & Waterwheel Centre (DT9 3RX) from 11.30am3.30pm.

The volunteer-run site will have

Whasson? (and where’s it to?)

waterwheel and steam engines in operation, with audio-visual presentations, displays of machinery and many other items of local and historic interest. Recent restorations. Tea room and picnic tables. Toilet. Free parking on adjacent Oborne Road. Wheelchair access to most areas.

Dorset Ramblers will be in the Sherborne area for a sevenmile fig. of eight walk. Details: davebass54@hotmail.com or Facebook: Dorset Ramblers.

Sherborne Folk Band will host a workshop at Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9 3NL

1.30pm-4.30pm, led by Julia Catovsky or a guest musician, who will teach tunes and harmonies by ear. The workshops are suitable for all levels and acoustic instruments. Sheet music and audio supplied in advance. Admission: £15 on the door, or cheaper when paid in advance at sherbornefolk band. org Email info@ sherbornefolkband.org or call Julia: 07527 508 277

Alive & Drawing, a unique take on the traditional lifedrawing class, will be presented by Dorchester Arts at 2pm today and on Sunday, April 23. £15/£10 U18s and concessions. Alive & Drawing events feature varied and sometimes surprising set-ups, using props, music, lights, costumes, movement, narrative, masks and more to inspire you and awaken the artist’s sense of adventure. Suitable for all abilities and any age over 10yrs. Beginners very welcome! Materials provided: charcoal, pencils, rubbers, fixative, ink, pastels, easels and drawing boards. Paper is available at cost price, sold in A1 sheets.

A Spring Equinox Meditation will be held from noon-1.15pm at Knowlton Church and Earthworks (Cranborne BH21 5AE).

Online advanced booking only so please book your car parking space asap as it’s limited to 180 cars. Pack your car full of beautiful souls.

Book parking and hot food at

newbarnfarmdorset.co.uk

There will be three meditations all lasting about 15 mins. Free event with heartfelt donations gratefully received. Parking is £7.50 per car (Please note, non-refundable).

Monday, Mar 20

Menopause – Mind, Emotion and Identity: a talk at Aquae Sulis Therapy Centre, Dorchester. Part of the Better Menopause collection. Join experienced counsellor Reva Craft in this circle style talk about the mental and emotional challenges of menopause.

Tickets at Eventbrite

Thursday, Mar 23

A clothes swap in aid of the Prout Bridge Project will be held at 6pm at White Lion Broadwindsor.

This is a clothes swap – if you have good quality clothing and shoes you would like to move on for a good cause, then start looking them out. £5 per person – maximum of 20 items per person. Money raised from the event, which will also include a raffle, will go to the Prout Bridge Project in Beaminster, which supports young people in the town and surrounding area.

Friday, Mar 24

Parnham Voices are celebrating 20 years of song and returning to St Mary’s Church in Thorncombe where they performed their first

Continued next page

BRIDPORT ART SOCIETY EASTER EXHIBITION AND SALE

Friday 7th -Monday 10th April, 10am- 5pm

The Salt House, West Bay. DT6 4HB

The Perfect Gift for all Lovers of Dorset

DOWNSTREAM DORSET, River Tales and Local History

by Mary van Coller

282 pages full of snippets, facts, place names and colour photographs

Available for £19.95 +p&p online at www.downstreamdorset.co.uk

www.countrybooks.biz

Supporting the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance service

Published by Spiral Publishing Ltd & Country Books

Whasson? (and where’s it to?)

concert. Tickets are available at £10 from Thorncombe Village Shop or ring 01460 220593.

West Dorset Ramblers will meet at Coneys Castle at 10am, 7.5 miles, Contact Heather 07798 732252.

Saturday, Mar 25

The Encore Singers are performing a Spring Concert at the United Church, South Street, Dorchester DT1 1BY at 7.30pm in support of cancer charity C’Siders

The Singers will perform music from the shows and other easy listening pieces. Free admission, light refreshments.

Dorchester Repair Café will be held at Bradford Peverell Village Hall, 10am-noon.

Jumble sale at Martinstown Village Hall DT2 9JU 1pm-3pm in aid of Winterbourne Abbas Church

A touch of Klass at youth concert

Doc Martin star Martin Clunes will be a key component at a young pianists’ concert including a performance by rising star Ava Klass, daughter of Hear’Say singer Myleene Klass.

Dorset Chamber Orchestra’s Music for Youth Concert will take place at St Mary’s Church, Dorchester from 4pm to 5pm on Saturday,

Youth band The Phoenix and other local young performers will be showcasing their talent while raising funds for The Prout Bridge Project 6pm-10.30pm at Beaminster Town Hall, (DT8 3EF), £3 on the door. Refreshments, raffle, tombola.

Weymouth Choral Society will

March 18. A chamber spokesperson said: “The concert is a fun introduction to all the instruments of the orchestra, and Martin always brings a great sense

present Music of Majesty featuring a performance of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and selected pieces with a royal or English connection at 7.30pm in St Paul’s Church. With guest musicians and four vocal soloists adding to the choral items with solo features, they promise a royal banquet of music. Tickets are £12

SEPARATE TOGETHER

WHAT IS SEPARATE TOGETHER?

of fun to the occasion.

“The young piano soloists are Ava Klass, the daughter of Myleene Klass, and Mia Wepener, who both currently study at the Royal Academy of Music, plus talented local young clarinettist Mia Wright.” Tickets are £13 for adults and £1 for 18s and under and available at dorset chamberorchestra.org

for adults, with under 16s free from Ticketsource or Weymouth Pavilion.

Sunday, Mar 26

Dorset Ramblers will walk Kingston / Swyre Head (Purbeck) in a 9.5-mile fig. of 8.

Nantes Solicitors are pleased to offer clients our ‘Separate Together’ pathway which allows one Solicitor to work with, and advise, couples jointly through their separation or divorce.

‘Separate Together’ aims to reduce unnecessary conflict when couples are resolving financial and children issues. Your Solicitor will provide joint legal advice to you both to enable you to make informed decisions together, and reach a solution. Where applicable, your Solicitor will complete the divorce application for you, and prepare the Financial Remedy Order which records any financial agreement you have reached (or a Parenting Agreement/ Separation Agreement)

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Bridport Vintage Market will be held 10am-4pm (DT6 3RR) Find an eclectic range of antiques, collectables, clothing and retro pieces! Most of the tenants on the estate open on the day too.

Monday, Mar 27

Menopause and Metabolism: a talk at Aquae Sulis Therapy Centre, Dorchester, from 6pm7.30pm. Part of the Better Menopause collection. Join experienced sports therapist Rebecca to explore the link between menopause, shape change and weight gain and what you can do about it.

Tickets at eventbrite

Tuesday, Mar 28

There’s a Folk Night at The Drax Arms Bere Regis (BH20 7HH). Enda McCabe, Sophie Wright and Confluence – Free.

Illustrious illustrator is celebrated

Shire Hall Museum in Dorchester will host an exhibition celebrating the work of one of Britain’s best known children’s author-illustrators, Judith Kerr, from March 16 to May 20.

The Tiger Who Came to

Bridport & District u3a’s monthly talk is Desert Island Antiques by Paul Atterbury –2pm in the Bridport United Church Hall in East Street. The writer, lecturer, curator and broadcaster will tell the story of his life through eight objects he has found on his travels. Free to members and £2 nonmembers. bridportu3a.org.uk

Wednesday, Mar 29

Tea will fill the exhibition room at Shire Hall Museum, commemorating the centenary of Judith

West Dorset Ramblers, Rodwell & Castle Cove Beach, Weymouth, Time 10am, 7.5 miles, Contact Ian 07826 150114.

Thursday, Mar 30

Call My Bluff is at Thorncombe Village Hall at 7pm.

Exeter Auctioneers Bearnes,

Kerr’s birth and celebrating her incredible contribution to children’s literature. Alongside facsimiles of original artwork, notes and sketches, the exhibition will also offer families the chance to step into Sophie’s kitchen to have tea with a life-size tiger.

Hampton And Littlewood are offering an evening of entertainment, with valuation advice or sale advice thrown in. Tickets are £10 to include a glass of wine and canapés. Call 01460 30312 to reserve tickets.

In aid of Forde Abbey Carriage Driving RDA.

Continued next page

Sherborne Digby Hall

Monthly Market offers antiques, arts, crafts, food & more. Cafe, free entry. Parking and toilets. First Saturday of every month, 10am-3pm, March to December. New Digby Hall, next to the library (DT9 3AA).

The Friends of Weymouth Library (FOWL) talk at 10.30am will be by Graham Perry on the History of Parks and Gardens in Melcombe Regis, stretching from the Alexandra Gardens to Lodmoor. Tickets from the library at £2 for members and £3 for nonmembers. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

Could Have Fooled Me XI is an art exhibition at Upwey Old School Village Hall from noon today until 7pm on

Sunday, April 2.

This is an All Fools Day creative exhibition of contemporary art with the theme of The Evils of Plastic. Everyone is welcome to submit their own work, but they must also write a statement explaining their motivation and conceptual intent. There are no prizes, except praise from viewers, via Post-It notes.

Easter Messy Church will be held from 3.30pm-5.30pm at Dorchester Baptist Church. Free family fun includes games, crafts, stories and food.

Aimed at families with children aged 0-10 years. Everyone is welcome.

A Curry and Games Night will be held from 7.30pmmidnight at Grow Slow Nursery & The Pack Horse Café, Broomhill Farm, Bridport. Book on 07789 676967 or

info@growslow.co.uk

A talk on Children as Villains and Victims in the 19th Century will be held at 2pm at Dorchester’s Shire Hall Museum.

At the beginning of the 19th century the justice system made little distinction between adult and child criminals.

Children as young as seven appeared before the same courts as adults, were subject to the same punishments, and shared the same prisons. As the century moved on reformers pressed for a change in attitude, to one where the child was seen as vulnerable, and imprisonment as an opportunity to educate and not just punish. Contact the museum to book.

George’s Church Hall, High Street, Fordington, DT1 1LB. There are classes for horticulture, cookery and photography and for all classes there are no entry fees (and no prize money). For a schedule and entry form please contact the secretary on 01305 268523, entry forms must be received by April 2 Staging of entries will be between 6.30 and 7.30pm, followed by the judging. Free entry for members and exhibitors, visitors 50p on the door after 7.30pm. (Please note that viewing of exhibits is prohibited until the judging is complete.) There will also be a draw, with tea/coffee and biscuits also available. All welcome.

The Dorchester and District Gardening Club’s will hold its Spring Show at St

Redlands handover now completed

Dorset Council has handed the keys to Weymouth’s Redlands leisure facility to charity Active Dorset. Renamed the Redlands Leisure and Community Park, Active Dorset is introducing a new webbased booking system, opening a community cafe, putting up new signage and is working on roof repairs. Future plans for the site include a new catering facility and café in the function room, creating an indoor soft play area for children, new lighting and flooring upgrades in the main sports hall, potential development of the current football pitches and the introduction of a dog walking area. The moves come after Weymouth College handed back the site lease to

Dorset Council in 2021. Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for culture, communities and customer services Laura Beddow said: “I’m delighted to see such a valued asset placed in Active Dorset’s safe hands.

“I feel their plans balance the needs of current users

and the local community with the financial realities of operating such a large facility.

“Now we enter a new chapter of Redlands’ ongoing story, where current users and Weymouth residents will need to work with Active Dorset to ensure the

facility reaches its full potential, especially regarding the indoor facilities.

“The future of Redlands depends on people using it, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the local community embraces this new way of working.”

Active Dorset’s chief executive Martin Kimberley said: “I’d like to thank the members of the public who fought to keep the centre open, and we are already seeing positive signs of more users which is key to making Redlands thrive.

“We now need help to reach more people who will benefit from using the facilities.We want to hear from people who may want to join or start their own clubs and activities here.”

NEW ERA: Cllr Laura Beddow and Martin Kimberley with volunteers at Redlands Community Cafe

Why LPAs are essential

What are Lasting Powers of Attorney and why do I need one?

Fossil hunter in giant clam claim

Patience paid off for fossil hunter Richard Edmonds, who had to wait five years to get his hands on this Jurassic era giant clam.

Richard said he first identified this pinna –pen or shell style fossil –three metres off the end of the East Cliff sea wall at Lyme Regis along with several other giant clams.

Richard, who volunteers at Charmouth Heritage Centre, said: “The trouble is all of these shells are very easily damaged as soon as they become exposed to the sea, but we can only find them once they are exposed.

“I first noticed there was ‘a big one’ out there about five years ago, but only through broken and fragmentary pieces and

then, gradually, through smaller specimens that were successfully found and cleaned.

“After the very rough weather we’ve had, a great deal of rock had fallen off the cliff and I was wondering if I would ever find it when I did – and not just one, but three.

“All are broken to varying degrees and two have been repaired, but this is such a rare piece, it was worth doing. And the hunt is not over as I think there is an even bigger one out there with more decoration. I’ve only seen bits, but I have seen enough for another fiveyear hunt.”

The fossil was prepared for display by Alex Moore and repair colour matching was done by Tracey Barclay of The Old Forge, Charmouth.

Like Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are an essential part of estate planning. Why? While wills only come into effect once a person has died, LPAs are effective if someone is still alive but no longer able to function normally. LPAs allow you to nominate a trusted person called an attorney. They can make decisions on your behalf if you are no longer able to do so.

An LPA gives the attorney the authority to act on your behalf. Both financially and with matters pertaining to your health and care. It goes without saying that attorneys must be people you trust. But what happens if

someone doesn’t have an LPA? If you lose mental capacity a bank would freeze all accounts –including any in joint names.

Even family members would not be able to access them at first.

Obtaining access to the accounts requires a long, drawn-out application to the Court of Protection, and this is a far more expensive process than getting an LPA in the first place.

There are two types of LPA document – one that covers financial matters and the other health. You should get both types of LPA drawn up as soon as possible, well in advance of when – or if –they might be needed. Book an appointment with Oakwood Wills by calling 07832 331594.

PRIZED: Fossil hunter Richard Edmonds, centre, with Tracey Barclay and Alex Moore

A battle for The Bottle as revamp work starts

A much missed village pub which has sparked concern among the community after being left to rot has now been sold – and work to revamp it is full-steam ahead for reopening.

The Bottle Inn in Marshwood has looked in such a state for so long locals had all but despaired it would ever reopen.

But veteran pub saviours Tessa and Julian Blundy have now secured the building, and now have an army of electricians, plumbers, carpenters and builders toiling away on the place.

They said: “We completed the purchase on February 10 and we are now embarking on the challenge of putting the building to rights.

“Everything has suffered damage, from roofs, windows and walls to electrics, plumbing and drainage.

m friendly

MONDAY: 7pm

CROSSWAYS

Crossways Youth & Community

Centre, Old Farm Way DT2

8TU

Julie 07871 821928

TUESDAY: 5.30pm & 7.30pm

BRIDPORT

St Mary's Church Hall, South Street DT6 3NW.

Sue 07542 649812

TUESDAY: 7pm

DORCHESTER

The Old Salvation Army Hall, Durngate Street DT1 1NA

“One of the first tasks is to clear the substantial amount of rubbish from inside and outside of the pub.”

Julian said: “There’s loads of wiring and plumbing being ripped out – a lot of people here doing great things. The building has major problems evident, but that’s just a nuisance – we went into this with our eyes wide open. I like to think that in three or four months we might be able to open in a very limited way. We are both familiar with the area and realise the pub is really important.”

The project is going to take time –as it’s a listed building nearly every cough and splutter needs approval. But the couple are enjoying the challenge.

Julian said: “Loads of tradespeople have come and helped us.”

Contact your local Slimming World Consultant and join a friendly and super-supportive group today!

(google The Pointe)

Tracie 07827 710552

TUESDAY: 5.30pm & 7pm

WEDNESDAY: 9am &10.30am

WAREHAM

Masonic Hall, Howards Lane

BH20 4HU

Jackie 07715 438810

WEDNESDAY: 5.30pm & 7.30pm

FRIDAY: 9.30am & 11.30am

WOOL

The D'Urbeville Centre, Colliers Lane BH20 6DL

Jane 07887 866730

WEDNESDAY: 9.30 & 11.30am

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St Mary’s Church Hall South St

Natalie 01308 426521

THURSDAY: 9.30am

LYME REGIS

Woodmead Halls, Hill Road

DT7 3PG.

Sue 07542 649812

THURSDAY: 7pm

PUDDLETOWN

Puddletown Village Hall, High Street DT2 8FZ

Call/text Julie 07871 821928

THURSDAY: 9.30 & 11.30am

BRIDPORT

Bridport Christian Fellowship

Hall (East st car park, Long stay)

Natalie 01308 426521

THURSDAY: 5.30 & 7.30pm

BRIDPORT

United Church Hall in East St (side entrance)

Natalie 01308 426521

FRIDAY 9.30am & 11.30am

SATURDAY: 9.30am

NEW CONSULTANT

DORCHESTER

The Old Salvation Army Hall, Durngate Street DT1 1NA (google The Pointe)

Sam 07814 619200

Charity bid to ease mental health crisis

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A group of therapists are aiming to tackle a crisis in mental health provision by establishing a charity offering faster and more affordable help for all ages – and they need one more trustee to be able to do it.

Ian Smith, 54, has gathered the therapists together in Poundbury under the Wellbeing Practice, realising that particularly since the pandemic children and adults are struggling to access counselling and other talking therapies. It’s widely acknowledged that our mental health has taken a hit from the lockdowns. There is also a growth in diagnoses for spectrum disorders in all

ages. It’s a perfect storm of trouble brewing – unless people get the help they need, and fast.

Sadly NHS waiting lists for counselling are long, with people waiting up to 18 months for an appointment. Private counselling can be expensive and can also be

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a minefield as people try to find the right therapist for them.

Ian wants to tackle these issues, and offer appointments within ten days, at his premises where the cereal factory once was, just down the road from the Queen Mother’s statue.

County Hospital to help with the fallout of the pandemic on NHS staff. But with life returning to somewhere near normal, that contract is ending. However Ian knows the problems caused by covid are not even close to ending. “There’s quite a scary level of demand,” he said.

The range of therapists he’s gathered include specialists in spectrum disorders, post-natal and birth trauma, obsessive compulsive disorder and gender issues, as well as anxiety and depression. Help will be offered with nutrition, sleep and social integration too.

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He also wants to establish a charity so that he can access grant funding to offer help in circumstances where people cannot afford private therapy. He said: “We have a solicitor waiting to establish the charity and we have two trustees, we just need a third. “I wouldn’t ever turn anyone away who didn’t have the money for therapy, and this is a way we can see of helping as many people as possible.”

Ian was hired by Dorset

Tria Stebbing is a parenting specialist, with a lot of experience with kids on the spectrum. She said: “We run a range of workshops on setting boundaries for children and managing anger.

“Children are diagnosed with ADHD and sensory processing issues and then their mothers are told to just get on with it. There’s no support past that diagnosis.” n To apply to be the third trustee, or to find out more about the Wellbeing Practice go to anxietyassist.co.uk or email hello@wellbeing practice.co.uk or call 01305 236285.

£4.5m for household support scheme

Dorset Council will be awarded over £4.5million to extend its Household Support Scheme for eligible households until March 31, 2024.

West Dorset MP Chris Loder has welcomed the news, adding: “I am

pleased to see the government fully investing in the wellbeing of rural communities who remain in need of assistance in difficult economic circumstances.”

Visit dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/ household-support-fund

CRISIS ACTION: Ian Smith and Tria Stebbing at the Wellbeing Practice in Poundbury

New roof for gym after £100k raised

By Stuart Wickham

Piddlehinton Gym Charity chairman Paul Hayes has thanked the community after £100,000 was raised to replace the roof in just five months. He said: “Following a major donation from Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Trust (DORE), who own Bourne Park Solar, and also Prototype Electronics agreeing to be a sponsor, we have now achieved our £100,000 target to reroof the gym.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their support, it really shows the power of the community in protecting important rural assets. In particular, I’d like to recognise Adam White, Mike Healey, Chris Ebdon and Kenn Duffield without whom this challenging milestone would not have been achieved.” The money was raised with support from the public, a

grant, and local businesses, including support from Jade Aden, Conduit Mead and Piddle Valley Parish Council. Paul said: “We’ve been accepted for a £20,000 grant from Dorset Council’s Capital Leverage Fund, and we received donations from Dorset Drama and found an additional corporate sponsor in Wessex Internet. Dorset Council has also suggested passing ownership of the gym property to the charity, supported by councillor Jill Haynes, which will open up

further grants. This includes the government’s Community Ownership Fund, suggested by Chris Loder MP.”

Danielle Strothers, head of asset management at DORE Plc, said: “We are delighted to support the Piddlehinton Gym Charity. This continues DORE’s efforts to support local communities. We are continuously looking for new ways of supporting local businesses, communities and environments surrounding our renewable energy projects.” The gym was built on requisitioned land in 1941 as part of the war effort, and was home to battalions of US troops, who were frequently entertained by celebrities of the day, including band-leader Glenn Miller and world champion boxer, Joe Louis. Around 240 people currently use the facility each week,

PROPERTIES WANTED

which can accommodate a wide range of activities in the 32m x 12m main hall. The gym also has an exercise area with multi-gym, exercise bike and electronic treadmill, and a club room with table tennis, kitchen, and changing rooms. Paul said: “We still have room for others and always happy to hear from anybody who might want to use the gym, regularly or for one-off special events. “It was such a daunting target at the outset and it’s absolutely fantastic that we can now look forward to getting the work done in July.

“We would like to thank everybody that has got us to this stage, the local community, clubs and sponsors have really come together to help us, and it’s been so heart-warming to see everybody rallying around. We are so grateful.”

NET WORTH: The gym is used by hundreds of people

They’re a smash hut: Why so many

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Ahhh, living in the wild… with just cornflowers wafting in the breeze, sheep gently grazing… and a rolltop bath. These are not just shepherds’ huts – these are Plankbridge shepherds’ huts – the original, and arguably the best. Just over 20 years ago Richard Lee, now 52, built his first shepherd’s hut in his garden, aiming to create a lovely home on wheels. He found he liked creating them so much that after a few years he gave up the furniture making and his other offerings and turned his hand exclusively to making high-end huts. In 2011, shepherds’ huts shot into the mainstream after Richard won silver at Chelsea Flower Show with a mini-hut in an artisan garden. Plenty of firms have since followed suit, with the huts going from an essential shelter to protect shepherds from the elements while minding their flock in the 19th century, to a status symbol coveted by many. They have ovens, sometimes solar panels (and occasionally, baths).

Once, Richard Lee would have to explain what a shepherd’s hut was. Now, he has 37 full-time members of staff busy fulfilling orders over thousands of square feet on a farm in the Piddle Valley. Plankbridge remains a family firm, with Richard’s wife Jane as co-director and daughter Hannah, 21, doing the social media. Staff seem to love working here – they are able to bring their dogs in and each of them is cracking on purposefully and cheerily as I wander around.

A careful businessman, it was only when the family simply couldn’t accommodate all their work at the family home Richard moved the business to larger premises. Staff had been making their lunches in the family kitchen and parking their cars outside – they could only work on two huts at a time and orders were growing fast.

In 2010 they moved into their new premises, which allowed them to accommodate a forge for the various bespoke artisan metalwork in the huts, plus a paint workshop, an oiling room and an upstairs office.

The pandemic forced

production to stop for weeks. However it also created a thirst for home offices, so when staff were allowed back to work the orders streamed in.

He said: “The original shepherds’ huts were built in the 1840s and 50s to provide shelter for shepherds so they didn’t have to bring all the sheep back to the farm. They were very simple, with a stout floor of thick wood bound with iron, a simple bed, a stove and maybe a small cupboard.

“We have blueprints for two of those from the old Lott and Walne Foundry in Dorchester (next to the former Exhibition

pub on London Road). “They were meant to be as light as possible because they were often horse-drawn. “We used to restore old shepherds’ huts, but we don’t now.”

All the huts are bespoke, with a range of different features and sizes. They use oak, as it’s hardwearing and sustainable.

The wood is weathered before being oiled once the grain opens up. The largest hut they produce is 26ft long – the maximum size Plankbridge can accommodate. The firm has made all the huts for the celebrated The Pig hotel chain, and I spotted a rolltop bath being installed in their

HARD AT WORK: Workshop coordinator Nicola Crowney and production designer Mark Jones, centre, Mike Crankshaw and right, Rosie Noorlander

THE WAY WE WERE: Left, Richard and Hannah in one of their first huts, centre, the 1921 Bournemouth tram Richard uses as his office and right, how it looked when in use

are flocking to snap up mini-homes

latest hut – some change from the simple furnishings of the original huts. The interiors are breathtakingly beautiful – a miniature dream home.

One hut was being created for a daughter to live in her parents’ garden in Cornwall. The accommodation may be bijou, but it’s so well

appointed you can imagine being very contented in the space.

Creating mini-homes has certainly made Richard

contented. He is happy with his lot, and his plans for the future only involve building on what they have.

“We can tackle anything,” he says. “It’s exciting. We will continue to grow and build a team around us who love what they do.”

n 01300 348414

enquiries@plankbridge.com

plankbridge.com

JUST THE JOB: Charlie Waygood working on the hut for The Pig, inset, Simon Cruttenden and inset above, Richard Lee

Potential, independence & life skills

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Incredible work is being carried out in Moreton to equip young people with special educational needs (SEN) for work and independent living. Employ My Ability

welcomed its first students in 2015, after taking over the former village tearooms and walled garden. The facilities have since gone from a rather wild set of gardens to a lovely café surrounded by cultivated gardens with sculptures and a children’s play area, some animals and reptiles and a garden centre.

Up to 50 young people aged 16 to 25 with a range of SEN are here – working in the café learning how to deal with customers, money and more, working in the gardens and learning life skills alongside more traditional English and maths along the way. The aim is to help the students – who come from as far away as north of Salisbury – be able to live independently and enter employment.

“Some of the students arrive not being able to speak to people,” said marketing executive KelsiDean Buck.

“Through their work here, and on external work placements, they learn so many things, such as speaking to customers, handling money and much more.

“It’s a unique place.” The students also gain qualifications here. Kelsi said: “We don’t shout about the work we do enough –so much so visitors are often unaware it’s an

educational setting. We like the students’ work and progress to speak for itself and they are as visible as anybody else on the staff.” Students work alongside paid staff in the gardens and café, which is open 9am-4pm seven days a week. Some also do paid work here in the holidays.

The Walled Garden is now open all year round, with just a suggested donation of £3 for adults to enter the five-acre site. Even in

winter the gardens, overseen by head gardener Martin Mellersh, are lovely – though in summer the colour bursts forth. The French head chef at the gardens’ Dovecote Café presides over a lovely menu for breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas.

Kelsi said: “Keeping the café open in winter is incredibly expensive, but keeping the whole site open throughout the year benefits the students. There’s more

for them to do.”

Students learn animal care, horticulture, retail and more. Crucial life skills, including how to use banks and CV writing, are also part of life here.

Kelsi said: “We are always looking for students to connect with employers in the local area. We help them gain the skills and confidence to get work and live independently. Some come here so lacking in confidence.”

By the end many students are even driving, as well as living independently and in employment. It can be a spectacular turnaround in fortunes for the young people in this scheme. “We try to be authentic,” Kelsi said. “It’s a unique opportunity we have here.”

A few years ago Employ My Ability took over a second site in Gillingham –Thorngrove Garden Centre. The garden centre had opened in 1967 and the

ACE OF SPADES: The garden centre, gardener Mark Hardiman, student Ashley Hadley and, below, some of the sculptures and the picnic area at Moreton

all encouraged to grow at gardens

charity Scope ran it to enable disabled adults to work under supervision. Now Employ My Ability aims to build the site up to the stage The Walled Garden is at now. It already has a café, offering lovely food seven days a week, and the centre offers delivery for plants and even hires out plants for special occasions such as weddings. There are currently 14 students here.

In Moreton, they welcome guest speakers who offer the students a wide range of experiences and skills – for example, a new mum visited recently with her baby, as many students had never been around babies before.

With so much going on, it’s no wonder the students’ lives are being transformed. Student Ashley Hadley, 20, from Swanage, now has ambitions to work in the kitchens at Weymouth’s Westfield Arts College. He

said: “I enjoy working in the garden and in the café.” The balance is struck between maintaining the café and gardens as commercially viable concerns and an educational establishment, which means

there are teams of staff working in the café and gardens, who receive training in how to support the SEN students here.

Kelsi said: “I don’t think there’s anything like this anywhere else. It’s pretty special.

“Maybe we need to shout about it more.”

n The Walled Garden is open 9am-4pm seven days a week, and holds a number of special events. There’s a dog show being held here on May 29, with lots of fun classes.To learn more, pop in or go to: walledgardenmoreton.co.uk thorngrovegardencentre.co. uk employmyability.org.uk

WHAT’S ON THE MENU: Students and staff at the cafe

Beaminster set to be a 20mph zone

Beaminster Town Council is calling for the entire town to be made a 20mph zone.

Chairman Craig Monks says more than 70 per cent of people in an online survey are calling for lower speeds.

Mr Monks told West Dorset Magazine: “The fact is Beaminster has grown in size and we’re expecting new flats and housing, but what hasn’t improved or grown is the infrastructure of the town.

“Beaminster is a typical West Dorset town that lacks usable pavements space and in the

Superb trio

The Delphine Trio will perform at St Mary’s Church in Beaminster on Friday, April 21 at 3pm promoted by the Friends of Beaminster Festival.

The Delphine Trio brings together three passionate young musicians from opposite ends of the globe, Australian clarinetist, Magdalenna Krstevska, Dutch cellist Jobine Siekman and pianist Roelof Temmingh, from South Africa. Founded in 2020 at

Bridport book

width of its roads. This includes outside our secondary school, which has no pavements and is a national speed limit road.”

Mr Monks said speed cameras have shown “everyone’s going over the speed limit” in the town, and that this could be particularly dangerous in areas such as Parnham House and Tunnel Road.

He said: “If we apply for this 20mph limit it would apply to everywhere within the town’s borders. There doesn’t seem to be much call for anywhere in

the town to be 30mph. “The other 30 per cent are calling for no changes to the existing 20mph zones. No one’s calling for speed limits to go up to 30mph anywhere.”

Mr Monks says lower speed limits will help reduce pollution. He also says he understands many residents in Sherborne, Bridport and Lyme Regis are also calling for more 20mph zones to be extended. The town council is due to begin drafting a formal application to submit to Dorset Council this week.

Masters’ degrees at RCM, each was also awarded an RCM Junior Fellowship – a rare combination. The Beaminster concert programme includes the Beethoven Trio, arrangement from Septet in E flat major Op 20, Zemlinsky Clarinet Trio in D minor Op.3 and the Scherzo from the Clarinet Trio by Delanoff.

A new book about Bridport’s history has just been published. It describes the work of the fraternities (or guilds) which played an important part in life during the later Middle Ages. Few records survive, but documents in the Bridport Borough Archives throw rare light on their activities. The fraternities raised money for the local churches, and put on social events for their members, provided welfare for members who were sick and unable to work, and arranged for a suitable funeral when they died. The surviving membership lists show there were members with Bridport surnames still familiar today. The original documents, held at Dorset History Centre, were written in Latin and old English, and difficult to decipher, so have been transcribed.

the Royal College of Music, the trio showcases a combination of individual instrumental talent and a passion for diverse repertoire. Having each completed

Tickets £12 are available from Yarn Barton Centre, Beaminster 01308 862715, The Bookshop, Bridport 01308 422964 or on the door with cash or card.

Portland Shed is up and running

The Portland Shed is now fully up and running – and people are urged to make full use of the facilities and support it with donations. A spokesman said: “The workshop is well equipped with probably every tool that anyone will need for their project and plenty of help if needed. So pop in and bring a friend or two and let’s grow the workshop together.”

The shed, in Chiswell, offers a place for anyone to go and make and repair items.

The workshop now has a room for sanding with

extraction, bench space has been made more accessible and there is more space. Now the project needs to increase revenue, as rent and running costs are significantly higher than the money raised in session fees.

A number of ideas have been put forward, such as commissions to make bespoke items and a ‘friends’ scheme where people donate a small amount each month. There will also be workshops.

The spokesman added: “We need to spread awareness about the workshop and you

can help with telling your friends and family about the workshop and what we can offer from a simple repair of a piece of furniture to a bespoke item such as a garden bench or a bookcase and more.”

They added: “The shed is run by a committed team of volunteers and every penny that comes in goes on the workshop costs – there’s no wage paid to anyone.”

The shed is open 9am-1pm Monday to Friday. Find it on Facebook, or call 07736 204451 or email enquiries@portlandshed.org.uk

Records of Bridport Fraternities 1271-1530 includes a brief history of medieval Bridport, with a map for easy reference. It is available from The Book Shop in South Street, Bridport.

Beach awarded

Weymouth beach has been declared the second best beach in the UK and the 14th best in Europe in TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards.

Pub crawl for book

Members of the West Dorset branch of Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) caught buses to Lyme Regis and visited the Rock Point Inn, the Royal Standard, the Harbour Inn, the Cobb Arms, the Nag’s Head, the Volunteer Inn, the Royal Lion, the Lyme Regis Brewery Tap and the Pilot Boat. They sampled draught beers from each pub and submitted scores to HQ to assist them in producing a new edition of their Good Beer Guide.

Be a friend of St Mary’s and join a

A group who raised half a million pounds in just five years to restore their church are looking for people to join them.

The Friends of St Mary’s Church Beaminster have a thriving committee – but a couple of the volunteers want to step down this year, so they are looking for a treasurer and a secretary in particular to take over.

Current treasurer Gill Sansom is stepping down after eight years, having stepped in ‘temporarily’. “It’s not onerous,” she said.

Anyone who joins will join a committed band of volunteers.

In the autumn of 1999

Reverend Timothy Biles approached 12 parishioners to form The Friends – principally to raise the £500,000 needed to fund a major restoration of the late medieval church.

An appeal committee was formed in February 2000 with the task of raising £500,000 over the next ten years. Essential work was required to the stonework, the lead roof, the electrical

system and a new heating unit among many things. A lift was also to be installed, to ferry parishioners up from the street below.

Potential donors and

charitable trusts and organisations were approached and a series of fundraising events were held.

In 2003 Prince Edward visited and was shown the

renovation work, which was well in progress.

Committee member Peter Brook said: “He was most charming and very impressed with the energy and enthusiasm from the

Early medieval church has been rebuilt several times

A Norman church once stood on the site of St Mary’s, just off The Square in Church Street.

The early medieval church was rebuilt several times, with the striking west tower – a 100ft Gothic beauty – added around 1500. Carvings on it show the town was involved in making sackcloth and rope from locally-grown hemp and flax.

The tower roof corbels include an eagle, a phoenix, an angel, fox and

goose, fox and snake, and a pelican. There are more carved beasts decorating the pinnacles. Parts of the building date from the 13th century, however the Purbeck marble font is 12th century and there were additions to the building in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th centuries. The roof corbels were carved by the same team of masons who created the corbels for the Palace of Westminster in London.

The Britain Express website says the font ‘was removed from the church during the Victorian restoration. It was later discovered gathering dust in a stone mason’s yard and brought back into the church.’

A large memorial to George Strode of Parnham, who died in 1753, stands to one side. Strode carved the monuments to William Shakespeare and author John Dryden in Westminster Abbey.

COME AND JOIN US: The current committe at the Friends of St Mary’s in Beaminster and, below, some the church tapestries and, right, the monument to George Strode

Beaminster residents.”

By 2005 the committee had reached their target –in half the time.

The Friends have since gathered some 80 members, who each contribute a small amount towards the upkeep of the building, and many of them are on the committee.

Would you like to join

That’s your lot: Fairey Band concerts are over

Tony and Margaret Greenham are calling time on their annual Fairey Band concerts after first holding one in 1979. The couple have run 43 fundraising concerts over the years, raising thousands of pounds for a range of charities including Cancer Research UK, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, Weldmar and Beaminster Church.

The couple, now both 87, told The West Dorset Magazine they hope everyone who heard the band enjoyed their music and thanked their many sponsors and supporters over the years, adding: “We will miss you.”

The last Fairey Band

concert will take place on March 26 at St Mary’s Church, Beaminster at 2.30pm.

Tickets are £12.50 from Symonds and Sampson, Beaminster Church Office and Yarn Barton Centre or by calling 01308 862493.

The Friends? Could you help on the committee?

Peter said: “We are still very active but are in need of a few more volunteers.

“This is not an onerous task, only a few meetings each year and assistance with some of our fundraising social events.”

Email peterbrook@ btinternet.com to get involved.

THRIVING CHURCH: St Mary’s in Beaminster and, below, the visit of Prince Edward in 2003

THANKS: Brian Taylor presents Margaret and Tony’s cup at a Beaminster Concert

Ex-Wessex three together at KeeP106

Three former Wessex FM presenters have reunited at Dorchester’s local radio station KeeP106. Former local radio presenter Dave Goulden is returning to the airwaves after a three-year gap. Dave, who presented on Wessex FM before it was sold and rebranded to Greatest Hits, will present his own show every Thursday from 8pm. The show promises two hours of music from the last five decades, local gig information and comment on local stories. Dave said: “Local radio is in my blood, as is Dorset, so I wasn’t ever going to be that far away for the next chapter in my radio journey.”

Another former Wessex FM presenter has moved from evenings to weekdays. Kieran Williams has been with KeeP106 since its launch and has been the popular presenter of the 10pm show LateNight Love. His move to

10am is part of a refresh for the station, which has a new sound during the day and specialist programmes each evening from 6pm. Kieran, the station’s programme director, said: “KeeP106 offers a local alternative to the national

radio stations with music from the 1970s to today. It is great to have David Goulden with us – he brings a wealth of experience to the team.” The radio station now boasts three former Wessex FM presenters with former Wessex FM MD Steve Bulley also part of the lineup. Steve, who is a director of KeeP106, is heard weekdays from 1pm and Sundays from 10am-1pm. KeeP106 won the licence to broadcast to the Dorchester area five years ago and is run entirely by volunteers. It offers a unique selection of specialist music shows evenings from 6pm. n Details can be found at keep106.com

REUNITED: Top left, Kieran Williams, bottom left Steve Bulley, right Dave Goulden at KeeP106

Hub to tackle food and climate issues

A new charity is planning to address food poverty, security, and sustainability in the face of the pressing cost-of-living crisis, public health concerns, and the climate emergency. Bridport Food Matters (BFM) brought together food-related stakeholders from the area to discuss a new community food hub, to bring together a number of existing community food initiatives and some new ventures, in one central highstreet space. Ideas include a People’s Supermarket, a physically, financially, and socially accessible shop for healthy food, to include low-waste refills (a transition of the Waste Not Want Not shop in South Street). A Community Café would be used as a space for family activities and social cohesion, cooking classes,

workshops, training, and other small-scale community events. And there will be a garden to grow food for the café and supermarket, and to use for outside cooking demos.

BFM trustee Candida Dunford Wood said: “We hope it will be a welcoming, inclusive, creative and social space.” More than 45 people from community groups and businesses, such as the town’s free-food offers, farmers,

growers, producers, retailers and schools discussed the plans over a bowl of soup. They hope local growers could supply the hub, and that small parcels of land could be made available to grow food. Candida added: “There are many people and groups doing wonderful things around food, and if we work together we can be greater than the sum of our parts.” While they search for

premises, the hub will be based in Waste Not Want Not. Town councillor Sarah Carney said: “During the pandemic, we showed what can be done when we work together. There are too many families struggling to access healthy food on less-than-subsistence incomes in our town. Local housing is not affordable for keyworkers, such as our medical and care staff, teachers and agricultural workers, and we need to come together to look after each other, our children, and our planet.”

The hub will be open to all. It will be run democratically by the community for the community, with a vision to help build resilience and the local economy.

To find out more go to bridportfoodmatters.net

Villagers urged to pour funds into pub

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Villagers who pledged hundreds of thousands of pounds within a month to rescue their pub are now being asked to put their money where their mouth is after an offer was accepted to buy the building.

The historic village of Tolpuddle, which each year welcomes tens of thousands of guests to celebrate the Tolpuddle Martyrs in the form of a march of union members and supporters and a festival, has been without a pub for a few years. Covid and other factors affected plans to reopen the pub, which has been very successful in the past and benefits from the tourist trade, with people coming from all over the world to see where six men met to discuss unfair wages all those years ago.

Now the village is excited to reopen their pub, The Martyrs Inn, after campaigner Barrie Lovelock spearheaded a campaign to raise the necessary funds to buy it,

a share. An offer for £390,000 has now been accepted and the sale will soon be completed – in April work will begin on refurbishing the inn, making it the kind of traditional venue Barrie, now managing director of the pub’s owners TMI (Tolpuddle) Ltd, and his co-directors feel the community needs. The price paid is for the freehold, with no restrictive covenants, giving the team the best chance to return some profits for those investors.

Heritage volunteers appeal

Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre (CHCC) is calling out for new volunteers with bright ideas and skills to help the centre grow. The centre aims to help people learn about geology, fossils, landforms, tides, marine life and safety on the beach.

A centre spokesperson said: “To keep the centre thriving and updated we have a small team of volunteers who work on

the information and sales desk, meet and greet visitors, assist on fossil and seashore safari walks for schools and the public. They also assist with backroom tasks, such as digital features, art work and photography, to help the managers keep the centre welcoming. For more information email info@charmouth.org visit charmouth.org or call 01279 560772.

Directors have been appointed – the landlord, Rob Heathcote and Matt Swift (both major pledgers

without whose contributions none of this would be going ahead, and with business experience), Margaret Clark (Walton) (ex chairman of the Plunkett Foundation and Hastoe Housing Association and Bev Clayton, who used to own and run Morton’s Hotel in Corfe Castle.

Barrie said: “Our overall aim will be to create a welcoming country inn in looks and atmosphere, serving good ales and wines and honest, quality pub food, all at reasonable cost.”

A grand opening is planned for late May or early June at the latest.

INN WITH A SHOUT: The Martyrs Inn at Tolpuddle and, inset, Barrie Lovelock

A lifetime in the print: How one boy’s

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A farmer’s boy who became fascinated by printing after being given his first John Bull printing set dismayed his family when he left agriculture to chase his dreams.

Now that boy is pushing 90, and his granddaughters are busy printing all kinds of materials in the print business he established all those years ago.

John Creed first became excited by print in the 1940s when given a little printing set, where you could line up little metal letters in a row, press them against the ink pad and print official-looking materials.

Many of us remember that frustrating and absorbing toy – far fewer were inspired to establish a printing business because of it.

As a teenager he enjoyed printing lessons at Bridport Grammar School and was given a little Adana Press, on which he produced stationery and cards for family and friends in the evenings, after finishing the milking.

He married Audrey and decided to go into printing full time –raising eyebrows among his family. However hard work and innovation quickly paid off and by 1957 business was brisk.

John installed new equipment in an

outhouse on New House farm in Broadoak. The machines ran on petrol –

there was no electricity in the area until the 1960s. As business started booming, John and Audrey moved to a former carpenter’s premises in Broadoak, just down the road. He loved to engineer solutions, and built a ‘jogger’ to jostle the paper into position. Their daughters helped out from an early age, composing type, stapling draw tickets, tidying the works. Their husbands later joined the business. John’s passion for print

never abated and he set about investing in all the new technology – adopting computerised systems in 1973, then desktop publishing in the 90s. By 2013, Marylin and her husband Harry owned Creeds, and moved the business to Gore Cross Business Park on the edge of Bridport, retaining the older equipment beside the newer machines so they could tackle any print job, from a business card to a book to a banner.

PRESS GANG: An older picture of the team at Creeds and, below, a John Bull Printing Outfit

PRINCE OF PRINTS: John Creed, left, and above, the staff at Creeds today and right, an Adana press

obsession led to a successful business

contacts look no further. Creeds do a roaring trade in self-published books, too – so many writers having chosen arty Bridport as their home. Prices are kept as keen as possible, and they are used by many local magazines for their high quality.

handle all of it, from tickets and signs to wedding invitations and orders of service for funerals. They are event printing specialists.

Marylin said: “When I went to school the teachers were puzzled when I started writing at the righthand side of the page and working backwards as we did when setting type on the composing stick.”

Now John’s granddaughters Rachel Claiden and twins, Cath Poole and Laura Carstairs, work at Creeds. Despite the business being sold in 2015, to Sherborneborn Tristan Phillips, it remains very much a family business.

These days they produce an astonishing array of products, from magazines and books to leaflets, posters, brochures and business cards.

There’s gold foil, raised

logos and lettering and more on the luxury end – if you need to impress your

Manager Simon Craig said: “People often come to us having tried to save money by ordering print online and then being disappointed by the quality. We’re still a family firm at heart and we look after our customers, sitting down with them and discussing what they want – they can feel the different grades of paper and see what we’ve produced for others.” While some things, such as calendars and cards have dwindled in popularity – “Grandad sometimes rather shamefacedly sends ecards,” grins Cath – other types of printing have grown. And Creeds can

They have also embraced sustainability, using ecofriendly papers and inks –then of course, saving many miles of planet-chomping diesel by producing and delivering locally.

“We are looking at ways to produce carbon-neutral print,” said Simon. “And we do most things inhouse, cutting down on the mileage.”

At the Bridport Business Awards last month, Creeds were given the Excellence in Customer Service Award, having impressed judges with their attention to detail and customer care.

n Creeds welcome any job, big or small. For a quote and more info go to creedsuk.com or call 01308 423411 or email office@creedsuk.com

ON THE MOVE: Shifting some of the presses back in 2013 and, below, a team back in the 1970s with one of the priniting machines

Bishop re-opens refurbished church

By Philippa Walker, Holy Trinity Church warden

It was truly wonderful to combine the grand reopening of our church with a visit from the Right Reverend Stephen Lake the Bishop of Salisbury. What an amazing coincidence that both should come together at exactly the right time. The scaffolding and building work has been on-going at Holy Trinity Church for well over a year, affecting churchgoers, the Weymouth community and visitors to our beautiful town, because of the prominent

position the Holy Trinity holds as the harbour church of the town. Our Parochial Church Council and Church Wardens worked hard to get the work started and building contractors David R Whites’ Robert and Russell worked even harder to get the work done and the church

WELCOME: The Right Rev Stephen Lake at Holy Trinity Church in Weymouth

returned to its former glory.

When we heard that the Bishop of Salisbury was to take a Sunday service for us, we were honoured, and it was all hands on deck to offer him the welcome we all wanted to give.

Our thanks to the cleaning and catering team from David Whites, for pulling

out all the stops ahead of his visit.

The Bishop arrived on a glorious sunny day and recalled earlier visits to the church, most notably that his training essays for ordination were marked by Reverend Richard Franklin, who was vicar of Holy Trinity between 1994 and 2016. Come and join us for Said Eucharist at 8am or Sung Eucharist at 10am every Sunday.

The Bovington Military Wives Choir will be joining the Holy Trinity Primary School Choir on Friday, April 28 at 7.30pm. Tickets will be on sale soon.

THE CROWN INN, PUNCKNOWLE

Thatched pub, log burners, dart board, pub games, Palmers ales.

SAT, MARCH 18 TH AND 25 TH : Bingo

THURS, MARCH 9: Quiz night

Lyn, Paul and the team welcome you to this traditional thatched village pub in the heart of Puncknowle. Open 7 days a week from 12noon, food served daily. Sunday roasts 125pm, bookings advised. Dogs are welcome.

A Chickerell firm has proved it’s on the right path after beating 1,000 other companies to scoop South England Prestige Awards’ Home Improvement Service of the year. If that was not enough, Dorset Showhomes Ltd –which specialises in resinbound driveways, patios, pathways and pool surrounds – also won The Resin Mill Installer Spotlight Award for February 2023.

Marketing surveyor Victoria Williams said: “We were absolutely overwhelmed, delighted and very proud to have won the Prestige Award last year, then to take first place again for 2023. “What makes this particularly incredible is the fact we are a single product company yet have

DELIGHTED: Victoria Williams of Dorset Showhomes and, above, an example of the firm’s work

Double success for homes improvers

taken the award over companies offering multiple home improvement options such as windows, doors, conservatories and the like. Over 1,000 companies were nominated, and we are blown away to have landed the award.”

Shop marks 10th year

Broadwindsor’s community shop marked its 10th birthday with a beautiful sunshine cake, a raffle with great prizes from suppliers and village businesses, and a children’s poster competition.

“It is thanks to all of you here that we have a thriving shop; our managers, our staff, our volunteers and above all our customers, without you there is no shop!” said chairman Andrew Hookings before handing over to Fraser Hughes, the community shop’s original chairman. Fraser said: “There is a big difference in setting up a shop and running it. We were incredibly lucky in getting Sue Williams as our first manager as she knew all the ropes. We recruited young Jane Sloman as her assistant and we’re delighted Jane is now our manager! We also want to extend our thanks to

Kevin, Steve and Mike who managed the shop over the years. The shop has been lucky to have had such goodwill. Over the years we have had experts volunteering as trustees, and our wonderful volunteers and staff. A special thank you to Robin and Carol who have often filled in at the last minute, or at unsocial hours”

The shop is now in the process of buying the premises.

Dorset Showhomes only lays resin, making them specialists in the surfacing, which is weed-resistant, fade-resistant and porous, meaning you don’t have to have planning permission for it. The firm offers a tenyear guarantee on their work.

Resin surfacing is experiencing a boom in popularity, and the firm has installed nearly 6,000 driveways, patios and paths in Dorset and the surrounding counties in the last six years.

Victoria added: “We class ourselves as specialists when it comes to laying resin, because that’s the only thing we do. We are masters in our craft.”

The company also like to support local charities, donating thousands over the years, to charities such as The Lantern Trust, Motor Neurone Disease Association and a local pre-school needing new decking, among others. n To book a survey contact Victoria on 01305 590009 or 07955 007 752, or email victoria@dorsetshow homes.com

Christian soldiers onwards with trek

Charity fundraiser Christian Lewis has completed the Dorset leg of a trek around the UK coastline with his family.

As former paratrooper Christian finished the county coast hike with his partner Kate Barron, nine-month-old son Magnus and dog Jet, he learned his book Finding Hildasay had entered the Sunday Times’ top ten bestselling hardback list. Chris wrote the book with pen and paper by torchlight on the walk. Describing himself as suffering from anxiety and depression, Christian set out on his epic trek in August 2017 with a few days’ supplies, £10, a tent with a hole in it, sleeping bag,

small gas stove and a phone his mum bought him to take photos. During his gruelling trek, Christian has broken his ankle and had to drag himself to a road to get help, broken a tooth and extracted it himself, and completed the Three Peaks challenge as well as living on the uninhabited island of Hildasay in the Shetlands during the Covid lockdown. His sister created a Facebook page for him to post his progress photos and updates which now has 115,000 followers.

While passing though south Dorset, Christian and his family stayed in accommodation organised by members of the Weymouth and Portland Veterans Hub community café in Portland Road, Weymouth.

Christian’s walk is due to end around June in Swansea and has already raised £279,000 for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.

n To support Christian visit the ‘Chris Walks UK Coastline’ page at justgiving.com

TOP TEAM: Weymouth & Portland Veterans Hub crew with Chris & Kate Picture: JANICE MEAD

Cash raised in memory of founder

West Dorset Vintage Tractor and Stationary Engine Club presented

£2,611.66 to Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance in memory of one of its founding members.

Les House died unexpectedly at home in May 2020, during the first lockdown.

The money was raised at a Tractor Trundle and a ploughing match. Covid restrictions at the time of Les’s funeral only allowed ten people to attend and more than 100 family and friends gathered for a memorial

at Manor Farm in Godmanstone, with some 55 pre-1990 tractors on the trundle and a huge raffle, with over 80 prizes spread out on a 14ft trailer.

Les was a national ploughing judge, and held his own ploughing match

each autumn with friend, Peter Symonds. “I met Les over 25 years ago at the Steam Fair and became firm friends, going to rallies and ploughing matches,” said Peter, “and we started our own ploughing match in Chideock 22 years ago.”

Celebrate women

Dorchester Arts is celebrating Women’s History Month with Nothing on Earth on Friday, March 24, portraying incredible stories of women through the ages. Women who flew Spitfires, crossed continents in pursuit of Chairman Mao, parachuted out of rickety hot air balloons, and shouted ‘No Surrender’ into the mouths of the guns. This is a time-travelling, funny and moving show using stories of Watford adventurer Violet Cressy Fisher Marcks (1895-1970), Potters Bar Edwardian balloonist Elizabeth ‘Dolly’ Shepherd (1886-1983), and Knebworth Suffragette Constance Lytton (1869- 1923). All ticket holders are also invited for a free singing workshop to introduce you to the work on Thursday, March 23 at 5.30pm. Full details at dorchesterarts.org.uk

From left, WDVTSEC members, Eric Biss, Peter Symonds, Adam Biss, Susan Dredge from Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance, Michael Symonds and Simon Mills

Historic almshouses planning a new

A reluctance to embrace community living and the spiralling costs of maintaining a Grade I listed building has forced trustees of historic almshouses in Sherborne to change the way they operate. St Johns’ House in Half Moon Street has offered lowcost communal living for 575 years. But lately the trustees have struggled to find people willing to live there –particularly since covid. The accommodation first opened in 1448. For nearly six centuries it’s provided shelter for retired people in its 19 rooms. The en-suite rooms are provided unfurnished, so residents can bring their own home comforts, and homecooked meals are provided. It’s not a care home, so people must be able to live independently – though cleaning, ironing and gardening are taken care of. But now trustees have decided to consult the public in a bid to modernise the charity.

They said: “We can assure the community that during our consultation so far, we have looked very carefully at the individual needs of our remaining six residents and those who are capable of independent living have been offered self-contained accommodation in the Almshouse’s annex.

“Unfortunately, those that have greater care needs and are unable to live independently are being asked to move to more suitable accommodation.

“They will be given every assistance to find a safe and appropriate new home in keeping with both their needs and our charitable aims.

“Sadly, we will need to make redundancies, which will affect 18 part-time and two

full-time roles, as we no longer require these to look after our two remaining residents. We will continue to employ a small team to take us forward on our journey.

“We will be very sad to lose incredibly loyal, caring and supportive staff, some of whom have been with us for many years. Support will be offered to help these highly capable and dedicated team members find new jobs in the community. Several local employers have already

expressed an interest in employing our staff. Those moving on will do so by June 30, as we feel this is an appropriate length of time for them to help residents to be settled elsewhere. Our timetable now is driven purely to ensure the safety of our residents.”

They added: “The charity is now looking to enter into a community engagement phase. We would like anyone interested in finding out more to come along to our

engagement events and to sign up for our online news noticeboard via our website stjohnshouse.org

“Anyone who isn’t internetenabled will be able to see printed copies on the actual Almshouse’s noticeboard in the cloisters.”

The original almshouse of S. John The Baptist and S. John

The Evangelist is the best surviving example of a medieval almshouse in Wessex. Its Foundation Deed is dated January 10 1437 and

TOUGH TIMES: The almshouses today and, below, in Victorian times and, right, the Trendle Street entrance

future after six centuries of shelter

passers-by. The finials to the posts are a Bishop’s mitre, the badge of the almshouse. Through the Victorian gateway, noting the symbols of a lamb and flag for St John the Baptist and an eagle for St John the Evangelist, the present front door can be found tucked into a corner of the cloister.

A brass plate declares ‘For the House’. Above the Chapel a bell rings to mark the various events in the life of this ancient community.

provided for ‘Twelve pore feeble and ympotent old men and four old women’ to be cared for by a housewife whose duty was to ‘feeche in and dyght to the victaill wash wrying make beddys and al other things do’.

The Licence of King Henry VI to found the almshouse is dated July 11, 1437. The building was completed in 1448 and consisted of a chapel (1442) and a hall with dormitories above. A fine doorway with niches and

statues of the two Saint Johns provided the main entrance from Trendle Street.

Important to the street scene here are the Victorian iron posts and rails lining the kerb. Here the Almsmen would lean, smoke a pipe and chat to

St Johns’ House and the original almshouse buildings are governed, to this day, by the Master and Brethren who continue a body established in 1437.

n To learn more go to stjohnshouse.org or call 01935 813245.

OUR HOUSE: Residents at St John’s House in Sherborne in 1893

07914

Lib Dems select candidate

West Dorset Liberal Democrats have selected Bridport resident Edward Morello to stand as their parliamentary candidate in the next General Election.

Mr Morello, who secured 8.5 per cent of the 2019 election vote, said: “I am extremely grateful to the members for once again putting their faith in me, and hugely honoured by the opportunity to fight for a better future for the residents of West Dorset.

“Rural communities like ours have been especially hard hit by the policies of successive Conservative governments, especially our farms and rural businesses.

“After 13 years of taking us for granted the Conservatives can no longer pretend to be the party of rural Britain. West

Dorset deserves representatives that will protect our countryside and coast, our rivers and our farms, our way of life. The Liberal Democrats will champion our rural heartland, create job opportunities, provide proper funding for local services, protect our NHS, and clean up our rivers and beaches.“

He added: “For far too long

we have been burdened by a Conservative-run Council, a Conservative MP, and a Conservative Government in Westminster. The answer to the problems we face in West Dorset is not more Conservative mismanagement. In May next year we will have local elections and sometime soon a General Election. “Only the Liberal Democrats can win in West Dorset and so I appeal to everyone, of every political persuasion, to vote for change and to vote Liberal Democrat.”

Edward works in renewable energy, and lives in Bridport with his wife, five-year-old son, and rescue dog Reggie. The next General Election must be held before January 24, 2025.

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ELECTION: Edward Morello

Get on board for a literary celebration of the county’s picturesque coastline.

Bridport writing group Story Traders has launched a new anthology called A Jurassic Omnibus inspired by the scenic route of the X53 bus from Portland to Lyme Regis. It is the group’s second anthology, which they are publishing to raise money for Bridport’s Burrough Harmony Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing as well as the Fortuneswell Cancer Trust.

The illustrated collection of short fiction and poetry evokes a motley crew of characters and settings –take a cold dip with wild swimmers, hear the song of the mermen, eavesdrop on Slow Mary as she says her pagan prayers on Colmers Hill, or peer over Turner’s shoulder as he sketches sailors at work. Story

Traders, established 12 years ago, meets twice a month to compare notes on ongoing writing projects. A spokesperson for the group said: “Story Traders planned this second anthology for 2020 to mark the tenth anniversary

A novel approach to X53 bus ride is just the ticket

initially over email with Zoom discussions and only a few face-to-face meetings but the resulting stories are timeless and the poetry priceless.”

Their first anthology, Narrative Threads, was published in 2015 as a celebration of ropemaking in Bridport.

of their founding but covid lockdown brought a slowdown in production. Offerings had to be shared

A Jurassic Omnibus by Story Traders, published by Wessex Media, is available at many local outlets including Little

Toller Bookshop, Beaminster; Redlands Yard Craft Centre, Broadwindsor; Wild Chesil Centre, Portland; in Bridport, Grove’s Garden Centre, Wild and Homeless Books, The Book Shop, Tourist Information Centre; Charmouth Heritage Centre; Symondsbury Sou Sou West Gallery; Lyme Regis Malthouse Gallery; Burton Bradstock Othona Centre.

County approves budget of £348m for financial year

Dorset Council’s budget of £348m for 2023-24 has been approved. Councillors agreed the budget, which aims to maintain frontline services, without the need for cuts.

The council provides around 450 different services to just under 380,000 residents. Despite high inflation and the growing need for social care the authority’s portion of the council tax will increase by just under 2% and the adult social care precept by 2% – £1.40 extra per week

for a Band D property.

Cllr Gary Suttle, portfolio holder for finance, commercial and capital strategy, said: “Our overriding aim has been to protect the essential frontline council services on which local residents and businesses rely.

“The proposals do include a council tax increase; however, we have kept to it to the minimum possible despite the current high level of inflation. And we continue to provide a range of support for those residents hardest

hit by the cost of living.

“Since becoming a unitary council in 2019, we have made efficiency savings of £76 million.

“This money has been reinvested to protect frontline services, including funding the growing need for adult social care with our ageing population.

“However, we continue to lobby Government for fairer funding for Dorset so that we can reduce the burden on local taxpayers in future.”

REQUEST STOP: Story Traders writing group’s anthology is inspired by the X53 route

Home truths: Author’s book reveals

By Miranda Robertson miranda@westdorsetmag.co.uk

An author from Portesham has charted the history of Chickerell’s Grade II listed Montevideo House – now The Queen Charlotte Care Home.

Chris Miller has been intrigued by the grand home, built some time between 1804 and 1811, since he was a child. He says in his foreword: “Entering the house for the first time, perhaps as an eight-year-old or younger, it was the interior that made a deeper or lasting impression on me. It seemed huge, with so many rooms, each serving a different purpose: a vast kitchen with an enormous table at its centre, a billiards room, a drawing room with a large marble fire surround and tapestries and oil paintings on the walls, the library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on either side of another marble fireplace.

“But what really engaged my curiosity was the row of bells, with labels below,

by which a servant could be summoned to a particular room.”

Chris’s fascination with the stately home deepened and when the country locked down during the first wave of covid he decided to use the time to research its history. He hit ancestry.com and newspaper archives in a

bid to uncover who built it and why it was called Montevideo House. He discovered, by studying other stately homes in West Dorset, that Montevideo House was built by Joseph Horsford, a wealthy Weymouth solicitor.

“He was prone to shady dealings during

parliamentary elections,” said Chris.

Then in 1832 wealthy London silversmith John Bridge bought the property for his son and then a nephew to live there. The nephew’s diary provided rich pickings for details in the book, entitled The Intriguing History of a Gentleman’s Residence in Dorset, priced £6.95 from Waterstones (Dorchester and Bridport), the Bookshop in South Street, Bridport, Books Afloat in Park Street, Weymouth and Cherries Café in Abbotsbury.

This nephew (Thomas Bridge) was part of an armed band of local gentry, who faced down a group of ‘Captain Swing’ rioters in 1830.

John Bridge gave another nephew (Robert Bridge) a farm and land in Broadwey, near Weymouth. Around 1850, he chose to name this land ‘Lorton’ (after Lorton Hall in Cumberland – the ancestral home of his second wife). The area is still known as Lorton

CPRE’s fears for ‘abandoned’ listed building

The Sherborne branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has said it is “deeply concerned at the parlous state” of Newell House, a Grade II listed building at the junction of the A30 and Marston Road.

The CPRE says the western side of the house is thought to date back to the 17th century and the house was listed as far back as

1950 but has now deteriorated and is on the At Risk register.

Alongside the house is a listed barn that dates back to the early to mid-16th

century.

Sherborne CPRE chairman

Sir Christopher Coville said: “Despite approaches to Dorset Council at the highest levels, it is clear that our county representatives are either powerless or disinclined to take any positive action to preserve our precious heritage buildings.

“We find it disappointing that a house listed 72 years

ago by an official government agency is then effectively abandoned by local authorities when it deteriorates. It is sadly ironic that as Sherborne House is being transformed into a remarkable asset for the town centre, another even older much-loved building has been allowed to become derelict. “Something must be done before it is too late.”

HISTORIC: Montevideo House at Chickerell and, inset left, author Chris Miller

CONCERNS: Newell House

hidden history of Montevideo House

today. Montevideo House once housed a very impressive collection of old masters, including Rembrandt, van Dyke, and Poussin. It later passed into the ownership of Nelson Richardson and his wife Helen, nee Rogers. The Rogers family’s wealth came from a tin-plate business in South Wales. Helen’s brother, John Henry Rogers is an interesting character. After leaving Rugby School, he introduced rugby football to his hometown of Llanelli from where it spread to the whole of Wales. He was also a woodcarver: some of his work can still be found in Chickerell Church.

Chris suspects the architect of Montevideo House could have been James Hamilton, who also designed the edifice on which the statue of King George III has stood for nearly 200 years. But frustratingly, he has been

unable to prove this. Chris has been able to follow the various owners’ families’ lives all over south and west Dorset, filling in much detail about their lives. The result is a fascinating series of snapshots of people connected with Montevideo House over more than 200 years.

n To order the book online, go to dorsetbooks.com/ productcategory/local-interest and go to page 4.

On your bike to help out

Dorset Council is looking for volunteers who may be able to offer a couple of hours a week, as part of a new inclusive cycling initiative in Weymouth. The inclusive cycling course will be on offer at the park and ride from spring this year, in partnership with national inclusive cycling charity, Wheels 4 All and is open to residents of Weymouth

who may have accessibility needs or want to build up their bicycle confidence. Volunteers are needed to help get the cycles ready for participants and would suit someone with a keen interest in cycling.

If you think you would enjoy being part of a volunteering team please call 01425 480811 or email healthandactivity@dorset council.gov.uk

A WEALTH OF HISTORY: A portrait of silversmith John Bridge by artist John Jackson, Montedeo House today as the Queen Charlotte Nursing Home and, right, the coachouse and stables

Pools winners make a splash at awards

Dorchester-based Cresta Leisure made a splash at the national British Pool & Hot Tub Awards hosted by SPATA (Swimming Pool and Allied Trade Association) after winning a septet of gold and silver standards.

The family-run, multi award-winning company was recognised in the starstudded ceremony, hosted by the BSPF (British Swimming Pool Federation) at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the West Midlands during SPATEX, the UK’s only dedicated international pool, spa and wellness show. And Cresta Leisure returned to Dorchester with:

n Commercial Pool of the Year (Gold standard)

n Residential Outdoor Liner Pools £75,000 and Over (Gold standard and silver standard)

n Residential Outdoor Liner Pools under £75,000 (Silver standard and silver standard)

n Residential Indoor Freeboard Pools under £150,000 (Silver standard)

n Refurbishment Pool of the Year (Silver standard)

n Wellness (Silver standard)

Chris Davies Simon Bareham from Cresta Leisure said:

“Established in 1986, Cresta Leisure is a familyrun firm with a wealth of experience and expertise.

“We pride ourselves as a multi-award-winning

company that puts our heart into every project. We are tremendously proud to be recognised again this year with these national awards from SPATA.”

“It is also fantastic that Chris has been recognised for his dedication with the Pool Star of the Year Award.

“Since joining the company 18 months ago, he has been a self-starter, keen to learn on the job and get training at various opportunities. He has become an integral part of Cresta, and we celebrate his achievements.”

proud. Pool Star of the Year is an award I will cherish.”

The annual British Pool & Hot Tub Awards showcases companies striving for the best, working to trade association standards and an industry-recognised code of ethics, distinguishing themselves as high-calibre professionals within their field, and helping to raise standards for the industry. These awards not only recognise companies for their superior work, celebrating both the technical and aesthetic aspects, but they also create an inspirational gallery of award-winning projects for consumers to view, in the knowledge that as trade association members, every company is expected to work to British and European standards, and to trade ethically.

Phil Oldershaw hosted the night, and this year’s awards were presented by BSPF President Pete Grinnall, SPATA Chairman Ben Studdy and the BISHTA Chairman Dorian Davies.

(

Chris said: “It is great to be recognised with this national industry award from SPATA, and to be nominated by Simon makes me enormously

The special guest of honour was Keri-Anne Payne, a South Africanborn British swimmer specialising in marathon open water swimming and long-distance freestyle swimming in the pool. She is a two-time 10-kilometre open water world champion and an Olympic silver medallist.

n Take a step closer to finding your dream pool by visiting cresta-leisure.co.uk or call 01305 259253.

n Paul Kite Award for Pool Star of the Year (Winner) –

WINNERS: The team at Cresta Leisure show off their awards and, below, some of their pool installations

The navy commander nominated for

Via the neutral organisation of the Red Cross, the captain of the German heavy cruiser KM Hipper recommended Lt Cdr Gerard Broadmead Roope, who is honoured on Weymouth seafront’s war memorial, as being worthy of the highest military award.

Somerset-born Gerard Roope served as a naval cadet in 1920 and rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant in the preSecond World War Navy. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he was based at Harwich with the first destroyer flotilla in command of the destroyer HMS Glowworm. He was living with his wife, son, and daughter, who was born while he was living in Weymouth.

Some of HMS Glowworm’s company also came from Weymouth and Portland, among them the Harris twins from Wyke Regis and a Petty Officer Townsley from Portland.

In a congenial act by Lt Cdr Roope, he drove the trio to Harwich in Essex after one weekend’s leave.

By April 1940, Hitler’s troops had invaded Norway. At the same time, Great Britain also mounted a force to prevent Norway being

To convey these troops, a large operation was to be undertaken.

The naval forces

involved were the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, also the battlecruiser HMS Renown and her destroyer escorts, one of which was HMS Glowworm.

On April 7, HMS Glowworm lost a seaman overboard, through the rough, windswept North Sea. Signalling the flagship HMS Renown, Roope asked by signal lamp if he could detach from the group, to search for this missing member of the ship’s company.

After permission was given, a sweep was made of the area where the sailor had disappeared overboard,

apparently to no avail.

Early the next morning, as HMS Glowworm, aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, and other vessels arrived at the Norwegian coast, another destroyer came into view. After challenging it with the code of the day (NNJ) the unknown ship replied with a signal saying she was Swedish, but a signalman aboard the Glowworm had suspicions, which he raised with Lt Cdr Roope.

The suspicions must have been given credence because the Glowworm opened fire on the lead ship, scoring a hit on what turned out to be the KM Bernd Von Arnim, loaded with invasion troops.

Another German destroyer, the KM Paul Jakobi, appeared and Glowworm’s fight against the odds had begun.

The German vessels turned tail and ran into a rain squall, leading Lt Cdr Roope to guess they were trying to lead him into their main force.

Roope gave chase in an attempt to discover the enemy fleet’s size and position and report it to the Admiralty.

After emerging on the other side of the squall, the

Grant of £400 available to help with your energy bills

Households who do not have a direct relationship with an energy supplier can apply for £400 from the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS Alternative Funding).

The EBSS Alternative Funding is available for residents living in park

homes, houseboats or off the electricity grid or who pay for their energy through a landlord, housing manager or site owner. Applications can be made through an online form on the government website. Once approved, the funds will be distributed by Dorset Council.

Search for ‘Apply for energy bill support if you do not get it automatically’ into the gov.uk webpage.

The scheme closes on May 31, 2023. Call 0808 175 3287or visit dorsetcouncil. gov.uk/w/cost-ofliving-help

It may seem impossible that a Nazi ship captain would have recommended an Allied officer for the Victoria Cross, but this did occur during the Second World War. ALVIN HOPPER explains...

SEA BATTLE: An oil painting by Ivan Berryman of HMS Glowworm ramming KM Hipper. The painting used to hang in Vosper-Thornicroft's Shipbuilders Office at Hebberd-onTyne. Inset below: Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope

VC by Nazi captain who sunk his ship

one German gunner at his post and puncturing two fresh water tanks. After ramming the Hipper, the Glowworm was able to pull clear and, under heavy fire, launch a final salvo against the enemy vessel. By this point the Glowworm was starting to sink – her bow wrecked, a major fire amidships and all steam pressure lost.

Roope gave the order to abandon ship and was last seen standing on the vessel’s keel talking to Petty Officer Townsend about them not playing cricket together any more before opening the ship’s sea cocks to speed up her sinking. The KM Hipper’s Captain Helmuth Heye stopped his vessel to rescue survivors from the Glowworm. Roope was not among them but Petty Officer Townsley and one of the Harris twins were and they spent the rest of the war in a prisoner camp.

Glowworm saw the silhouette of the 10,000 ton warship, the KM Hipper – a heavy cruiser with eight 8” guns and twelve 4” guns, vastly outmatching the Glowworm.

Roope ordered his crew to

make smoke so an enemy sighting signal could be sent and fired two torpedoes at the Hipper.

HMS Glowworm was struck several times by 8” and 4” projectiles and Roope gave the order: ‘Stand by to ram’.

Using the smoke as cover, the Glowworm made a final charge, all guns firing and sirens wailing. The Hipper was struck amidships, tearing away 100ft of armour plating on the starboard side, killing

After the war, Townsley became a postmaster on Portland. Through the Red Cross, Captain Heye sent a letter to the Royal Naval Admiralty recommending Roope for a Victoria Cross, stating that he saw him as a very brave man.

In July 1945, a posthumous VC was issued to Lt Cdr Roope’s widow.

Ten new changing places to be installed at public loos

Ten new ‘changing places’ for people who need extra support and equipment when using public toilets will be installed throughout Dorset. The county council secured a total of £654,250 to provide the facilities, with £454,250 of that cash coming from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing

and Communities. The new changing places will be installed at the West Bay All Inclusive Play Area and at Bridport bus station and visiting coach park, in partnership with Bridport Town Council, and at West Bay Holiday Park, in partnership with Park Dean resorts. The new facilities will also be installed

at Castle View at Corfe Castle, in partnership with the National Trust, and at Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park at Organford, as well as at North Beach Car Park in Swanage, in partnership with Swanage Town Council, and at Knoll Beach Car Park in Studland, in partnership with the National Trust.

IN MEMORIAM: The inscription on the war memorial in Weymouth, the Glowroom ramming the Hipper and, below, Commander Roope’s plaque at St Petrox Church in Dartmouth and his VC

Health group up and walking for twenty years

Bridport’s Health Walks scheme has marked its 20th anniversary. Run by volunteers and managed by Dorset Council, the gentle walks help townsfolk socialise and stay active.

The free walks take place every Wednesday, starting from the United Church on East Street at 9.45am and take up to 40 minutes. People can also join walks of up to 60 minutes on the first Thursday of every month, meeting at The Cowshed at the allotments next to the medical centre (plot 17) at 10.30am. Cllr Laura Beddow, Dorset Council’s Portfolio

Holder for Culture, Customer and Community Services, said: “Health Walks take place all across Dorset and benefit so many of our residents. “They’re the perfect way to get more active and

meet new people whilst exploring the beautiful parks, greenspaces, towns and villages our county has to offer.

“Thank you to the trained volunteers at Bridport who have kept this group

going for over two decades. These dedicated individuals not only lead the walks, but also check out new routes, offer a friendly ear, and make sure no one is left behind.”

Post-apocalyptic Harry still writing

Rounding off a trilogy of post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, Weymouth based author Harry Walton has published his new book Sky Master

Inspired by authors such as Hugh Howey, David Gemmell and Raymond E Feist, Harry’s novel explores a bleak South West in the near future after a devastating plague has wiped out more than 99 per cent of the population. The survivors that are left have to deal with threats caused by dwindling resources, dangerous, escaped zoo animals and each other.

A journalist for more then 40 years, Harry said he began writing the first book in the series, The Rusting Shires, while he was a “bit bored” at home during Christmas 2019.

“The biggest way that

covid affected me was I got on with writing this book,” Harry said. “It was that period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve been thinking about writing a book for over 20 years now, what if I just sit down and put a few thoughts into a document?’

“I knew what I wanted to write but I never sat down

and put it all together. I wrote one page of initial ideas, which turned into three pages quickly and it all grew from there. It’s fatal to just sit down and start writing, you need bit of a framework so don’t get ahead of yourself.”

Harry, 68, says he still has another eight or so books he wishes to write including a trilogy about an

archaeologist with a shady past working in Egypt and another book about aliens visiting Earth to give humanity a warning. “Some of these books will take longer to write than others,” Harry added. “I will have to do a lot of research for the book set in Egypt but that will mean I’m jumping back and forth between modern day and Egypt several thousand years ago.”

When he’s not slogging away at a keyboard in his home, Harry volunteers at the Nothe Fort as an archivist. He is currently cataloguing reports about troop movements and naval and aerial engagements in and around the Weymouth area during the Second World War Two. Harry’s books are available in paperback and ebook format on Amazon.

THESE BOOTS: Bridport Health Walks out for another stroll around the town

TRILOGY: Harry Walton with his latest novel Sky Master

£2m fund to support with cost-of-living crisis

Dorset Council has created a new £2million fund to support vulnerable and disabled people and those living in low-income households. Cabinet members voted unanimously in favour of using cash from the council’s reserves to support those ‘hardest hit by the cost of living’ by making their homes more energy

efficient. The funding will also go into providing off-grid energy vouchers to households that are not connected to national oil and gas systems and supermarket vouchers for residents in ‘the greatest need’. Further support will also go to Dorset’s network of social supermarkets, community fridges and

food banks plus additional pre-school hours programmes for three to fouryear-olds, enabling more parents to work.

Council leader Spencer Flower said: “High prices continue to put pressure on household finances and I am acutely aware of the need to support our most vulnerable residents.”

Local Plan’s consultation published

Dorset Council has finally published a report on public comments from the consultation on the draft Local Plan – but you should carve out a few hours if you want to read it all.

The consultation, held in early 2021, sparked more than 50,000 comments –more than all of the most recent former district and borough local plan consultations combined. One of the most contentious proposals is for a 4,000-home garden community on land north of Dorchester. Thousands of comments poured in about the ‘Norchester’ plan and a campaign group, Save the Area North of Dorchester (STAND) was formed to fight it.

STAND says publication

of the report was long overdue. Spokesman

Nigel Kay said: “This hotly-contested proposal attracted so many comments that it gets its own chapter in the report and it runs to 85 pages.

“When you dig below the surface, people are worried sick about the impact of the development on the environment and

the county town. The same issues rear their head time and time again: water quality, affordable housing, traffic, health services and schools.”

Cllr David Walsh, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “Officers have given time to every comment that was received during the consultation. We have been given specific details that will help us formulate the plan. We are grateful for everyone who has commented, there are many genuine issues which will be considered going forward.”

The summary can be viewed at dorsetcouncil. gov.uk/planningbuildings-land

The Local Plan will outline the strategy for growth, new homes and

infrastructure in Dorset for the next 16 years.

STAND is organising a public meeting at Dorchester Town Hall on Saturday, March 25 at 2.30pm. Speakers from Dorchester Town Council and Wessex Water will be among the contributors. Also taking part in the meeting is Dr Quintin Bradley, Senior Lecturer in Planning and Housing at Leeds Beckett University, who is the author of a new book entitled Property, Planning and Protest. The front cover of the book features a picture of STAND’s Skimmity Ride protest in Dorchester last year.

Dr Bradley said: “It is time that we took seriously the opposition to more urban sprawl in the Dorset countryside.”

Famed music photographer’s limited editions on sale

Clocktower Music on Bridport’s St Michael’s Trading Estate is offering Adrian Boot’s photos.

Adrian, who now lives in Bridport, started as a music photographer in the early 70s. He moved with his wife to Jamaica to teach physics and was captivated by the vibrant music scene there. He began taking photographs of the local

musicians including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the Rolling Stones, who were recording an album there. He met Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and a big supporter of reggae music. He worked as photographer for Island Records, at Elvis Presley’s Graceland’s visitor centre photographing the archives, was lead

photographer on Live Aid, Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 and Roger Waters’ The Wall in Berlin. Adrian has also freelanced for NME, The Times, The Guardian, and The Face. He was staff photographer for The Melody Maker in the mid-1970s just in time for the punk explosion. Adrian’s work has taken him all over the world, from being

tour photographer for the Grateful Dead in Egypt to working for the British Council in Iraq and Jordan.

Adrian’s work is in galleries in Japan, Los Angeles, New York and Clocktower in Bridport, from where the sales in January and February have been donated to Bridport’s Community 2020 Skate and Ride indoor skateboard park.

MAKING A STAND: The Skimmity Ride protest

Another chance to voice views on democracy

Voters in and around Weymouth have been given a second chance to have their say on how parish level democracy works.

Dorset Council is running a second public consultation to ‘ensure Weymouth and the surrounding parishes in the Vale of Allen Grouped

Parish Council continue to reflect the communities they represent’. The council is asking for feedback on the ‘most suitable’ ways of representing people, taking into account the size, population and boundaries of that community and the interests of its residents.

The consultation runs until April 17. To share your view visit dorset council.gov.uk/communitygovernance-review-weymouth-and-va le-of-allen. Paper copies of the questionnaire are available at libraries in Weymouth and Chickerell or on 01305 251010.

Join fight on poverty

Village’s second defib

Maiden Newton’s Community Land Trust has installed a defibrillator at the village hall – the community’s second device with the existing one at the Spar. The defibrillator has been leased from Dorset

Ambulance Service. The chairman of the Upper Frome Valley Land Trust David Charman said: “Our directors are delighted to have the opportunity to fund and install this lifesaving device.”

Dorchester Poverty Action is looking for a volunteer bookkeeper. This charity helps those in financial need with a referral from a professional and living in postcodes DT1 and DT2. The bookkeeper would work with the treasurer to set up BACs payments promptly for grant allocation and maintain financial records. Good IT skills, especially knowledge of spreadsheets, is essential. Approximately 0-3 hours per week, depending on number of grants and up

to four hours per month on accounts. This is an ideal opportunity to make a real difference in your local community, learn new skills and improve your CV. The job pack can be downloaded from the website dorchesterpovertyaction. org.uk

The closing date is April 22, with interviews on Thursday, April 27. Contact info@ dorchesterpovertyaction. org.uk with your name and number and a trustee will get back to you.

Villagers lose battle for right of way

Villagers in Melbury

Osmond have lost their battle to have a tract of land on Ilchester Estate declared a public right of way.

Following a site visit, a Planning Inspectorate officer decided not to confirm an order opening the land between a Higher Holt Farm pathway and a Fuzzy Grounds bridleway to the public.

In his report, the officer wrote the order could only be given if the applicants could prove 20 years’ use

of the route by the public ‘without interruption’. Referring to oral evidence given by villagers, the inspector wrote: “Viewed collectively, it is apparent from the evidence that the order route was not well used during the first half of the relevant period…(the) level of use is not, in my opinion, sufficient to bring the use of the order route to an alert landowner.”

The officer wrote that the land was used as footpath more extensively after 1992. But he added: “I am

not persuaded that even this level of use was in practice sufficient to alert the landowner to the use of the order route.

“The consistent evidence of the objector’s witnesses is that they rarely, if ever, saw people using the order route. That evidence was not seriously challenged by the applicant.”

The report stated the level of use was ‘not sufficient to bring to the attention of the landowner that the way was being used as if it were a public right of way’.

The officer said the applicants offered no documentary evidence in support of their case but noted that the landowner had put up signs informing people the land was private.

It was also noted in the report that the landowner had erected Dorset gates and electric fencing to deter people from using the land as a right of way and had issued laminated cards to estate staff offering guidance on how to deal with trespassers.

LIFESAVER: Village First Responder Graham Paget and Cherrie Dyke, the village hall chairman

PAGAN VIEWS

by JO BELASCO

There is a beautiful threehare roof boss in Corfe Mullen church. Fascinated, I started researching what the symbol meant. My head was spinning from all the different theories – tinners, masons, witches, moons and shaman. I ate, slept and walked hares for a few days trying to find an origin that sat well with me. I woke in the night with a possible answer: humour me...

A long time ago in Corfe Mullen the lord of the manor was getting married. To honour the occasion a competition arose to create the best new roof boss which would decorate the local church for the prestigious wedding. Whoever won would be rewarded with ten gold sovereigns and a permanent position as head stonemason for the Lord of Corfe Mullen.

Rivalry was fierce and ideas guarded even between brothers such as George and Wendel. George had long been jealous of his brother Wendel’s imagination but had noticed Wendel’s sight was failing. That day

I’m having a good hare day

George was very frustrated as he couldnt even think of a design to start working on and he noticed that Wendel’s work area was littered with beautiful possibilities.

“We all know you’re going blind,” George blurted.

It was like a stab in the back to Wendel, who had noticed his vision failing but did not realise others knew as well.

George was unable to stop himself: “Mum and dad know but we’re not

allowed to say anything but you just can’t carry on being a mason – you’ll have to be a beggar or something.”

This was too much for Wendel, who ran out of the workshop and up to the heathland. He ran until his legs gave out and collapsed sobbing in the long grass until he cried himself asleep.

Waking, he found himself on a hillock looking down on a typical March scene. The hares were boxing each other and chasing each other round in circles. Undetected, he delighted in

their antics as they were unusually close to him and he had a prime view from above even if his eyes were failing and blurred from tears and sleep.

Three chased round in ever decreasing circles and it seemed to Wendel that at times they magically shared three ears between them but still all had two.

Immediately, Wendel knew what his design for the competion would be, which of course he won and even though his sight did wane his mind’s eye and skilled hands more than made up for his sight loss.

HARE TODAY: What’s that coming over the hill and, below, looking across Chesil Beach towards Wyke Regis. Inset, the three-hare roof boss

BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO BA

Hons History of Architecture and Design

Time and tide wait for no man – unless, that is, you go to Weymouth beach. Ninety-nine percent of beaches have a low tide followed by a high tide but Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour is that one per cent – it has double lows! To a beachcomber this is nothing less than a miracle – twice the time to search the terrain without a rising tide to drive you back. To a sailor it’s more something to be suffered. The phenomenon of double lows is more noticeable around the time of a full or new moon when spring tides occur. I only know such things because my husband of 26 years (Steve Belasco) taught me when he first nurtured hopes that I would become his first mate as well as wife. I managed to get my day skipper certificate, we sailed back and forth to France a few times but, oh well, I am just a terra

The highs and lows of tides

firma kind of gal, plus of course that minor matter of children. Ours just never took to sailing or motor boating or indeed beach combing but it was not for the want of trying. When our firstborn was excluded from the local primary school aged nine, the beach seemed the natural space to replace the classroom. Biology became rock pooling, English lit was covered with Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner read at Moonfleet, maths was plotting a boat course, PE

was the easiest: swimming, beach cricket and later kayaking. Ah yes, I know I am making it sound idyllic – it wasn’t, however, it was much better than school for him at the time. And like the best of classrooms there was always something new to stimulate a curious mind. My favourite walks are down from the hills to the beach as I have drawn here with me and Steve doing our own thing but within waving distance and always with stories to

tell each other at the end of the day. And so often we are at right angles to each other, my view out to sea from Hive beach and his from our boat Dumpling looking back to Burton Bradstock. Whether you want to beachcomb or mess about on boats it’s worth being aware of our special double lows in the Weymouth area. You can get yearly tide time tables which chart each day’s low and high tides from chandlers or fishing shops or see them online.

Vegetable-dodgers have no need to be afraid: This

The very best wild green vegetable (with stinging nettles a close second) is sea beet, Beta vulgaris maritima. With the inexplicable exception of my discovery of a small population on wasteland in Dagenham, it is only found within earshot of the sea. It is certainly common along the Dorset coast, and I have collected small amounts for tea a hundred times on family outings. It can grow among the pebbles of the upper shore, at the base of cliffs,

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.

alongside coastal paths, among boulders and even growing out of cracks in the promenade. Sea beet is a relative of spinach, and looks just like it, excepting that its harsh, drying habitat has required its leaves to be thick, shiny and succulent. It is a perennial plant, and it is possible to find

some to eat all year round. However, before the flowering spikes appear spring is best, the leaves disappearing to provide energy for the flowers. Once it has set seed, the leaves return as a clustered, basal rosette. Even then, the huge genetic variety found in this plant will mean that some will flower earlier

HIVE OF ACTIVITY: Hive Beach at Burton Bradstock Picture: STEVE BELASCO

Sally Cooke lives in Tolpuddle with her husband, two grown-up sons and spotty rescue dog. She loves to photograph and write about the everyday wildlife she sees in her garden and on her daily dog walks. You can follow Sally on Instagram at Sparrows in a Puddle or contact her with your wildlife observations at sally@westdorsetmag.co.uk

On a freezing cold March day in the early 1990s I remember carefully planting two long rows of broad bean seeds on our newly rented allotment. My father-in-law had given us a brown paper bag of dried out beans with instructions to get them in early. We had recently moved into our first house together, a tiny starter home with just room outside for a shed and a patio, and small borders that I enthusiastically filled with flowers. But when we saw that just around the corner were some vacant allotments we decided to try growing vegetables too. We were the youngest people at the allotments by about 50 years and the old men would lean on their forks and look at us as if we were a complete novelty, and possibly a bit mad. They were used to spraying the weeds, fertilising the plants and then zapping any bugs that tried to eat the veg before they got to them. We had to explain to them

Perfect pollinators

several times that we weren’t going to use chemicals on our plot. In those pre-internet days we just looked to one bible for advice, Geoff Hamilton’s Successful Organic Gardening, it’s still on our bookshelf.

The broad beans came up, pigeons and mice ate some of them, but the majority grew well and walking home from the allotment on a summer’s evening with fresh beans for our tea was a truly wonderful feeling and I was hooked for life.

Thirty years on, it’s March again, and I’m poring over

garden centre displays of seed packets and the photos of garden utopia in seed catalogues. Geoff Hamilton was quoted as saying that a seed seller’s stock trade wasn’t seeds at all, it was optimism and as the warmth of the longer days lures me out into the garden, this certainly is the time of year when anything seems possible.

We no longer have an allotment and my veggies now grow alongside the flowers and wildlife in the garden. Broad beans and many other vegetables rely

on insects for pollination and I deliberately grow flowers nearby to encourage them in. Bees and butterflies are excellent pollinators but specifically encouraging hoverflies to the garden too has another benefit. Hoverfly larvae are voracious predators, feasting on aphids, so are very welcome in my garden. As hoverflies do not have a long ‘tongue’, they love open flowers with lots of easily available pollen. It’s important to realise that not all flowers are created equal when it comes to attracting pollinators. Some popular bedding flowers such as busy lizzies, pansies, begonias and petunias contain virtually nothing for the bees. When, like me, you’re optimistically planning for your perfect garden this spring, look out for the RHS Plants for Pollinators label when buying your seeds and you can grow beautiful flowers and do your bit to help the bees.

relative of spinach is one that’s really hard to beet

or later than most of it companions, and it is a poor foraging day when none can be found in edible condition. Pick healthy, un-nibbled leaves well away from the attention of our canine friends, pinching them off at the leaf base. It matters not at all what size they are as the texture and flavour is the same whether they are the size of a sheet of A5 or a postage stamp. The mention of ‘spinach’ may have discouraged

some of the vegetable-dodgers among you, but I promise that sea beet has a sweeter flavour and, perhaps best of all, does not disintegrate into a soggy, green puree like its cousin. I do, however, recommend that you cook sea beet as it is slightly bitter when raw. Incidentally, the long, white root is edible, if poor and, obviously, requires uprooting, which is illegal without permission from the

landowner. We have much to thank sea beet for as its genetic variability has allowed selection to produce many of our staple crops. Perpetual spinach is the nearest to ancestral sea beet, but there is also Swiss chard, fodder beet and sugar beet. The intense colours of Swiss chard can be seen in some wild sea beet individuals and, (appallingly), also in that root-vegetable from hell, beetroot.

BUZZING: A bumble bee investigates a broad bean plant

Walking through the ruins of history

The viewing area above the Isle of Portland’s Penn’s Weare offers a view that is hard to beat. East, the view is across Weymouth Bay to Purbeck, Worbarrow Tout and St Aldhelm’s Head. South, and you trace the rocky east coast of the island, the undercliff with its many paths, and the dip around into Freshwater Bay, frequently softened by sunlight through spindrift, thrown up by the constant collision between rocks and water. Then, though not so far distant, the Bill of Portland and our iconic lighthouse that has shone out over 117 years to tell passing mariners: ‘We are here!’

The path down to the viewing area is a delight too. Starting at the wonderful museum at the bottom of Wakeham, the lane in front of the museum takes you by a wide path under Penn’s arch by ancient Rufus Castle, the first building known to have been built from Portland stone, and onto the viewing area. Below you will see Church Ope Cove, with its beach huts nestled against the undercliff, a scene you’d expect to find much further west on this coast.

The path down is stepped

but steep, but on the right halfway down there’s another path, a rocky ascent between ancient stone walls that brings you to the ruins of St Andrews, Portland’s first parish church. Originally a Saxon chapel that was replaced in the twelfth century and later significantly altered, it was in the 1600s that two landslips brought the building to a point beyond repair. A new church was built, St George’s at Reforne, and old St Andrew’s was largely demolished leaving the romantic ruin we see today. But even now it is under threat. During lockdown it was found that people had removed stones from the wall to build a campfire, splitting some of the stone. Some pieces of carved masonry had been removed altogether and, to make matters worse, the retaining wall built after the last landslip had started to give,

threatening the whole site. Concerned that the ruins could be irretrievably damaged, a local group, the Portland Buildings Preservation Trust, called a meeting with Portland Museum, a neighbouring private landowner and the Penn Castle Estate, whose properties border the site. With Historic England, who responded magnificently with detailed surveys, archival studies, and reports to establish ownership, a plan was made to stabilise and conserve the ruins, both as an historic structure and a reserve for wildlife.

Chris Holleyoak, managing director at Penn Castle Estates, said, “Penn Castle Estate values Portland's heritage and we’re glad to be working with Portland Museum, Portland Buildings Preservation Trust and Historic England to conserve and maintain St Andrew’s for residents and visitors, both now and in

the future. We have been working with the museum developing a Church Ope Cove trail that is very much valued by our guests and other visitors as they discover Church Ope Cove and its abundant history.”

I’m happy to report that this work has now begun. St Andrews, along with Rufus Castle and the two windmills nearby are the only remaining medieval buildings on the island, so their importance cannot be underestimated. The ruins are still accessible and it is a lovely spring walk from the viewing area to the ruins then, through the arch up through Penn Castle woods to the road.

It is steep and uneven, so you do need to be surefooted and reasonably fit. If you’re feeling more adventurous, a path behind the beach huts at Church Ope takes you on a stunning walk along the undercliff and, with just a short road section at Cheyne Weares, a beautiful cliff walk all the way to the Bill.

Refreshments can be found at Penn Castle’s Hayloft Café or in cafés and pubs at the top of Wakeham in Easton and at the Lobster Pot at the Bill.

KIM BERLIN – A newcomer to the Rock

ENTRANCE TO HISTORY: Penn’s arch at Rufus Castle

Worrying is really not worth worrying about

By The Rev DEB SMITH Rector of Bridport

We are told do not worry… How many times have you been told that in your life? Sometimes it feels like all it takes to start worrying is for someone to tell you not to! Many of us make a bit of a habit of it and are semi-professional worriers, fretting about all manner of things.

There’s a beautiful passage in Matthew’s gospel in which Jesus tells those around him not to worry by pointing out the undeniable beauty of the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, the way the glory of the God’s creation is constant and true, even in the face of our worries. He tells them not to worry about what they will eat or drink or what they will wear.

In some places – like in

Services

Monday to Saturday at 8.30am, Morning Prayer - The Sepulchre Chapel

Every Monday at 9am, Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Tuesday at 12noon, Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Wednesday at 10.30am, Holy Communion with Homily –The Lady Chapel

Every Thursday at 12noon, BCP Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

Every Friday at 9am, Ecumenical Holy Communion - The Lady Chapel

The first Friday of the month at 9am, Requiem Holy Communion - The Sepulchre Chapel -

Syria and Turkey today, in Ukraine, there are many who this day do worry about what they will eat, what they will drink, what they will wear… This is another level of worry. We’ve all been reading, watching and listening to the news.

I heard the brilliant reporter Lyse Doucet describing the joy of a new-born baby girl rescued from the rubble – still with umbilical cord attached –tempered by the knowledge that her mum, dad, brothers and sisters all perished. And of the relief offered to those doing the gruelling, heart-breaking work of looking for survivors in the rubble heaps by volunteers bringing hot soup. Such an ordinary everyday kindness which can make all the difference. Even in the terror and loss of places of great suffering,

Every Saturday at 9am, Holy Communion - The Sepulchre Chapel

Sunday, March 12

Sherborne Abbey: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am parish

Eucharist, 6pm Choral Evensong

Martin of Tours, Lillington: 10am

Holy Communion

James the Great, Longburton: 10am Family Communion

St Paul’s at The Gryphon: 10.30am Holy Communion

St Mary Magdalene, Castleton: 11.15am Holy Communion

Sunday, March 19

Sherborne Abbey: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am Parish

Eucharist, 6pm Choral Evensong

St James the Great, Longburton: 10am Family Communion

Martin of Tours, Lillington

10am Morning Service

people often are filled with hope. When kindness and courage are seen, when weary people have the strength to carry on, to care, to share the little they have, to be lights in the darkness, Worry is of course relative. Our lives are less precarious, but we too face loss, uncertainty, and sadness. And we too can raise our eyes and find hope, even when worries surround us. So let me share this lovely poem by the wonderful Mary Oliver and her message of encouragement in our worrying days, a reminder of Jesus’ words to let go of our worries long enough to see the hope around us, wherever it is.

I Worried Mary

Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers

St Paul’s at The Gryphon: 10am

All Age Worship

St Mary Magdalene, Castleton: 11.15am Mattins

Burton Bradstock: 8am Holy Communion, 9.30am Café Church

Shipton Gorge: 11am Mothering

Sunday Service

Swyre: 11am Morning Worship

Puncknowle: 11am All Age Holy Communion

Litton Cheney: 9.30am Morning Prayer

Long Bredy: 9.30am Morning Worship

Sunday, March 26 8am Holy Communion 9.30am Parish Eucharist

6pm Choral Evensong

St James the Great, Longburton: 10am Said Holy Communion

Martin of Tours, Lillington: 10am Morning Service

St Paul’s at The Gryphon: 10.30am

flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless. Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia? Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.

Morning Worship

St Mary Magdalene, Castleton: 11.15am Mattins

St Saviours, Dottery: 9.30am Holy Communion

St John the Baptist, Symondsbury: 11am Benefice Eucharist

St Michael & All Angels, Askerswell: 6.30pm Evensong

St Mary Magdalene, North Poorton: 6.30pm Evensong

Sunday, April 2

St Mary the Virgin, Powerstock: 9.30am Celtic Worship

St Mary Magdalene, Loders: 11am Benefice Eucharist

Burton Bradstock: 11am Holy Communion

Shipton Gorge: 11am Holy Communion

Swyre: 9.30am Breakfast Church

Litton Cheney: 9.30am Holy Communion

Littlebredy: 11am Morning Prayer

Sherborne Abbey Weekday Services

Vittles (food & drink)

It is sometimes a bit of a faff cooking different meals for an individual in your family that has a different diet, whether this is by choice or by design. Looking at our locality, how easy is it to cater for the vegetarian in our family?

Vegetarianism isn’t a new trend; it’s been with us for decades and perhaps it’s time our locality addresses this trend with quality food choices. It’s not just a load of vegetables, if available. Our supermarkets have a huge array of vegan and vegetarian food; producers have certainly become inventive. However, prices and quality are questionable. Plant-based foods are laboratory created, mass produced and an additive overload. There is a dark side to many of these meat substitute foods grown from fungi it is a mycoprotein. Highly processed, it needs ‘fertiliser’ to grow a specific sugar that the mycoprotein feeds on, causing high

Trying to fill the gap in the market

emissions. nvironmentally friendly, I think not. Diets have unintentional consequences. We demand and expect uninterrupted accessibility to fresh vegetables, so we are not happy to be greeted by empty supermarket shelves. We are dependent on imports from warmer climes and that comes at an environmental cost through air transportation. We need to consider locally

produced fruit and vegetables and become more dependent on produce that is seasonal, were we not fed the line that after Brexit we would become a self-sufficient island, or was that another spin?

So, on a whim, I decided to source some vegetarian fast nosh in Bridport. My first destination was Kernow Pantry which was closed. I was looking for the most

imaginative and enjoyable vegetarian pasty.

So, I ventured into West Bay, visiting the Cornish Bakery. The place was buzzing and full of walkers, some clutching hot water bottles. Yes, I did do a double take. Three choices of vegetarian pasties looked tasty enough but with predictable and lacklustre fillings.

Washingpool Farm had one choice: a small homity pie, but at nearly £3 this pie was a little hard to swallow.

Rise Bakery rose to the challenge with four choices of vegetarian pies. I bought a feta and vegetable pasty and a barley and mushroom roll.

Bridport was once described in the tabloids as a town with a bohemian edge. It needs to embrace that reputation and cater more for those vegetarian souls.

A cheese and onion pasty is not inspiring. What about some vibrant street food? Plenty of empty shops to fill...

Mum’s Kitchen... with Diana Holman

Date, Olive Oil and Fennel Cake

This unusual recipe make a moist and delicious cake. You will need a 23cm round cake tin.

Ingredients:

Serves 8-12

250g white self raising flour

100g light soft brown sugar

150g golden caster sugar

2.5ml baking powder

20ml fennel seeds, crushed and toasted

200g soft, sweet dates, ready stoned

300 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus a bit to grease tin

Grated zest and juice of 2 oranges

3 large eggs

60ml runny honey

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan oven Place flour, sugars, baking powder and 10ml of the fennel seeds in a bowl. Combine dates, 250ml olive oil and orange juice in a processor until you have a smooth, fine mixture.

Add eggs and orange zest and whizz again. Fold the puree and the dry ingredients together.

Karen Broad lives in Burton Bradstock, with her husband and two mad dogs. She ran The Mousetrap in Dorchester, has lived in France and loves discovering new food producers.

KEEPING IT LOCAL: A vegetarian pasty

Vittles (food & drink)

Lizzie Crow – AKA Lizzie Baking Bird – is a self taught baker, who has a stall outside The Old Ship Inn in Upwey each Saturday. See her scrumptious eats at lizziebakingbird.co.uk or find lizzibakingbird on Instagram.

Marzipan & booze: What’s not to like?

A good Simnel cake is a far cry from the heavier, darker Christmas cake. I think that this recipe suits the time of year better. I love marzipan and this is a great way to use up any you have left.

I soak the fruit in a lighter booze; lime and orange zest add citrus flavours. But you can use whatever dried fruit or alcohol you have knocking about following Christmas. This year my Simnel cakes have a mix of glacé cherries, stem ginger, sultanas, raisins, currants, cranberries, dates, apricots and the last of the Grand Marnier.

Makes 12 mini cakes

300g dried fruit

150ml alcohol, plus 2-4 tbsp alcohol extra for the batter

500g marzipan

175g butter

175g light brown sugar

4 medium free range eggs

225g self raising flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons mixed spice

Finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lime

2 tbsp marmalade

The night before making the cake, soak your dried fruit in the alcohol. About 30 minutes before making the cake, cut 250g

Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition. You may need to add a tablespoon of the flour if the mixture begins to curdle.

Tip the rest of the flour, plus the baking powder and mixed spice into the bowl and mix gently. Add the

oven for around 30 minutes. They will be ready when they are springy to the touch. Leave in the tins for approximately 15 minutes before turning them out and leaving them to cool completely.

Use the remaining marzipan to finish the cakes. Roll out about two thirds and cut into discs with a glass or cookie cutter the same size as the cakes. I heat the marmalade and use it to paint the tops of the cake, then press a circle onto each one. I never can resist adding one of the disciples (ie: a marzipan ball). These cakes will keep for weeks in an

Grease and line your cake tin, spoon in and spread the mixture.

Place the cake in the centre of the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand. Warm the remaining olive oil with the honey. Prick the surface of the cake all over and spoon over the honey and oil, allowing it to seep in. Sprinkle with the remaining fennel seeds and allow the cake to cool.

Vittles (food & drink)

Local food and drink honours for local people

South and West Dorset businesses scooped a series of gongs at the second Love Local Trust Local Awards held at Kingston Maurward College.

More than 100 people attended the awards, held to celebrate the best food and drink and farming initiatives in the county.

Little Waddon Vineyard, near Portesham, was named winner of the Dorset Drinks category, while Steeptonbill Farm Shop in Milton Abbas won best farm shop, with Bridport’s Washingpool Farm as runner-up.

Restaurant Les Enfants Terribles, on Weymouth’s Custom House Quay,

won the hospitality award. Eweleaze Dairy at Martinstown came runner up in the cheese category. Awards founder Barbara Cossins, of the farming family at Rawston Farm in the Tarrant Valley, welcomed scores of producers from small startup businesses in their early infancy to those more established.

A very welcome return, by George

John Clements is a chef working and living for the last ten years in Bridport after being born in London and living in Devon, New York and Arizona.

FOOD REVIEW:

The George Hotel, Briport

Full disclosure… I have fond memories of The George Hotel in Bridport. Fish finger sandwiches on a Saturday lunchtime after shopping at the market, an unscheduled juicy steak and a glass of Malbec on a Thursday evening when we just couldn’t be bothered to cook that night and the ghost of Keith Floyd too…I believe he borrowed the open kitchen here for a piece in his first TV series, Floyd on Fish, back in 1985.

Bucky Doo and Bridport have missed The George over the last few years as it sat empty and asleep. I have missed The George too and I have to confess to being predisposed to liking it.

First step, booking: Called to book a table on a Tuesday night. Was informed that they are currently only doing evening meals on Friday and Saturday but this will be expanded later this year.

Oh well, booked for Tuesday lunch.

Interior lighting is brighter than The George used to be. Fresh flowers on the dining tables. Menu is compact but there’s

something there for everyone. We chose focaccia as a starter, which came with butter and oil with balsamic, which was good but no crunchy crust.

The portions here are generous. Other starters included soup, warm beetroot salad, pheasant salad and fennel seed cured salmon.

For mains we chose The George Burger served in a brioche bun with French

fries and the pan fried chicken breast risotto. Both were cooked perfectly. We could have chosen tempura of haddock, Dorset braised beef, roasted celeriac or pasta of the day. Too full for pudding but plenty of choices there too. Front of house service from Rosie was exceptional.

It’s good that The George is back and in safe hands. I think Keith would approve.

GOOD CHOICES: The George Burger in a brioche bun and, right, chicken breast risotto

The Beaminster Festival has a proud tradition of supporting many young stars from the BBC Young Musician competition including Alison Balsom, Nicola Benedetti, Martin James Bartlett, Jess Gillam and Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Few who saw the final of the BBC Young Musician 2022 could fail to have been moved and highly impressed by the performance of Ethan Loch playing the piano. Having won the Keyboard Category, Ethan went on to secure a place in the Grand Final where he performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. Ethan was born in 2004 and diagnosed completely blind since birth. As a toddler, he would explore the piano for hours imitating his first inspiration: Rowlf, the piano-playing dog from the Muppet Show and his other inspiration, the DVD Horowitz in Vienna, was played relentlessly. His formal piano lessons began at age four with his mother, and he now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Ethan was the focus of a BBC radio documentary Batman and Ethan which explored the freedom a blind child can

BLIND BRILLIANCE: Pianist Ethan Loch and, inset below, violinist Braimah KannehMason

Amazing musicians Ethan & Braimah starring at festival

experience through working with the talented teacher of the blind Daniel Kish, using echo-location. Ethan has perfect pitch and can even tell the pitch of a washing machine or your voice.

The organisers are thrilled to welcome Ethan to the Beaminster Festival and he will be playing Bach’s Partita No.1 in B Flat; 2 Preludes by Debussy and Chopin’s Piano Sonata No.3 in B Minor. His recital will be on

Wednesday, June 28 at 11.30am, tickets £12

The festival is in its 26th year and there will be a feast of theatre, music, art and literature between June 11 and July 2. Tickets for the general public will be on sale from April 13 and avialable at beaminsterfestival.com

Braimah Kanneh-Mason, elder brother of Sheku (who played the cello at Harry and Meghan’s wedding), will be opening the series of fantastic concerts at the 2023 Beaminster Festival on Sunday, June 25 at 7.30pm.

Braimah on violin, together with Junyan Chen on piano, will perform an imaginative programme including music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, full of melody and virtuosity.

The famous KannehMason family, with seven gifted musical children, are currently featured on Classic FM on Sundays at 9pm. Across six weeks, the family – mum Kadiatu, dad Stuart, Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu –will share their favourite classical music and the pieces which have inspired them throughout their lives, both as a family and individually, and reveal their best-loved performances.

It’s Braimah’s turn to shine on March 12 and the programme may feature him playing the beautiful Schindler’s List. Catch it also at beaminsterfestival. com

At long last! Curtain set to rise on a

By Ruth Hayes

There are only a few weeks to go until the curtain rises on the largest dramatic production to hit Dorchester in nine years. Spinning the Moon is the town’s record-breaking seventh community play (no other town worldwide has staged as many) following the hugely successful Drummer Hodge, which was performed in 2014. What makes this play even more special for everyone involved is that it was due to be performed in 2020, but was brought to a grinding halt three weeks before opening night by the first coronavirus lockdown.

Spinning the Moon, which opens on Tuesday, April 4, is set around Wolfeton House near Dorchester at the end of the Wars of the Roses. Battle-scarred Lord Trenchard returns home, only to find that his lands have been mismanaged by his steward and the family faces ruin.

The steps taken to save the family finances affect everyone who lives on their land and as the play unfolds we see fortunes rise and fall as local society implodes.

Add into the mix some less than brotherly monks from Abbotsbury, along with a bunch of

looking to improve their position by fair means or foul, a devious servant and a completely unexpected visitation from far-flung places and you have an utterly captivating play that blends history with fiction and tells its tale of poignancy and drama with power and humour.

Spinning the Moon has a cast of more than 90 actors of all ages, some veteran performers from the first community play

Entertaining Strangers, performed in 1985, and some who haven’t performed since their schooldays in the dim and

distant past.

It is written by Stephanie Dale, who also wrote Dorchester’s fifth community play A Time to Keep, and directed by Peter Leslie Wild, who also directs The Archers and the Chester Mystery Plays. Peter is assisted by Penny Levick, who specialises in community theatre.

Playwright Stephanie said: “When we were shut down by the first lockdown we were all devastated and didn’t dare hope we would ever get the play to the stage but now, seeing it come together week by

magnificent seventh community play

tools’, but now I can’t describe how brilliant the atmosphere is.

“A lot of hard work has gone into getting us this far and we can’t thank everyone enough, especially all the local firms and supporters who have given us such wonderful support, financially and in other ways.

“Now all we need is an audience!

“So please, buy your tickets and come and see this amazing show we have created.”

Spinning the Moon is at Thomas Hardye Theatre, Queens Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2ET.

Tuesday-Thursday April 4-6 at 7.30pm, Saturday April 8 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm and Monday to Saturday April 10-15 at 7.30pm.

week as rehearsals progress is the best feeling in the world.

“Everyone is determined that this play will be worth the wait.”

Peter added: “We have a massive cast and my job is to make sure everyone feels included and a part of the production, even when they’re not actively saying their lines or involved in the action.

“This is an incredible bunch of people to work with. It is a full-on rehearsal schedule and there is no let-up but everyone puts their heart and soul into every minute

and works so hard, I am so impressed.”

He added: “Staging something this size is like making a huge painting with lots of tiny details, and it’s only when you look at the whole that you see something really quite amazing.”

A key part of Spinning the Moon is the music, whether it’s a roistering harvest home or a solemn Palm Sunday hymn.

The team of music makers are led by well-known local actor and musician Tim Laycock, assisted by Alastair Simpson.

Spinning the Moon would

not have happened at all if not for the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes to secure funds, make sure safeguarding protocols are in place and keep momentum going during the lockdown lull. This has all been done by a hardworking team of volunteer board members of Dorchester Community Play Association, led by Rowan Seymour.

She said: “I can’t believe we are actually here, that the play is going to happen.

“Three years ago we were in despair when covid hit and we had to ‘down

Tickets are £16 plus concessions and family rates available from Dorchester Arts in High East Street, Dorchester. Call 01305 266926 or visit dorchesterarts. org.uk

This is a promenade performance, and audience tickets are standing only. If you have specific accessibility requirements (such as mobility, audio or visual needs), please contact Dorchester Arts in advance and they will endeavour to accommodate you.

SPINNING A TALE: The cast of Spinning The Moon and, from left, Tim Laycock and the musicians, director Peter Leslie Wild, the landless and, right, making a figurehead

Take a literary tour around the globe

Take a literary trip around the world at the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival from April 14 to 16.

Curated by Rory MacLean, the festival begins on Friday 14 with a talk by John Gimlette entitled The Gardens of Mars, an enticing journey to the fantastical landscapes, beguiling creatures and isolated tribes of tropical Madagascar, from 5pm to 6pm.

This will be followed by Sophy Roberts discussing The Lost Pianos of Siberia, an inspirational and heartbreaking illustrated journey across one of the most remote wildernesses in the world, from 7pm to 8pm.

On Saturday 15, Philip Marsden will deliver The Summer Isles, the story of a single-handed sail voyage along the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, from 11.30am to 12.30pm.

There will be tea with the authors from 12.30pm to 2pm followed by Anthony Sattin discussing Nomads, The Wanderers that Shaped our World from 2pm to 3pm. From 3.30pm to 4.30pm Justin Marozzi will talk about The Arab Conquests and from 5pm to 6pm Sara Wheeler will give a talk called Glowing Still, stories of remarkable travels

from pole to pole via Zanzibar. The day will round out with Colin Thubron talking about The Amur River from 7pm to 8pm.

On Sunday, April 16 famed Dorsetbased explorer

John Blashford-Snell, inset, will discuss his book From Utmost East to Utmost West from 11.30am to 12.30pm followed by another tea with the authors event from 12.30pm to 2pm.

Festival curator Rory MacLean will be joined by Demi Anter to talk

about Bowie in Berlin from 2pm to 3pm with Fergal Keane rounding out the festival with The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Tickets are available at sherbornetravelwriting festival.com and from Winstone’s Book Shop.

OUR STORIES: Anthony Sattin and Nomads: The Wanderers that Shaped our World Justin Marozzi and The Arab Conquests and Sarah Wheeler and Glowing Still

READ ALL ABOUT US: John Gimlette and The Gardens of Mars, Sophy Roberts and The Lost Pianos of Siberia and Phillip Marsden and The Summer Isles

Dad and son’s double act all set to do battle

Internationally acclaimed Bash Street Theatre combines live music, physical comedy and circus skills to tell a story as old as time in their brand-new show The Battling Butler. Juggling babies, toddlers on stilts and teaching young Joey to ride his first unicycle are all part of everyday life for single dad Joe Butler in this poignant, family love story involving the everchanging relationship of a father-and-son double act. Using a unique blend of physical theatre, circus skills, original songs and live music, The Battling Butlers is a study of role reversal and the inevitability of change, as

the old order makes way for the new.

Based in Penzance in Cornwall, Bash Street Theatre has built an international reputation over the last 30 years, performing silent-comedy, street theatre shows throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. Their latest show is a real family

affair, performed by father and son Simon Pullum and Loki Pickering, and featuring original live music from multiinstrumentalist and composer Julian Gaskell. This March the company head back to Dorset for three performances with Artsreach, the county’s rural arts charity.

Artsreach assistant director Yvonne Gallimore said: “Bash Street have been touring to Dorset for many years, and audiences fondly remember shows such as The Lion Tamer and The Strongman

n Catch The Battling Butlers at Yetminster Jubilee Hall (01935 873546) on Friday, March 24 at 7.30pm and at Child Okeford village hall (01258 861621) on Saturday, March 25 at 7.30pm. The show will also visit Portland Royal Manor Theatre (03336 663366) on Sunday, March 26 at 7.30pm. Further information and tickets are available online at artsreach.co.uk

Soup-erman ready to bowl you over

Prepare to be bowled over by the talent of nonagenarian Colin Anderson – aka the Poundbury Potter – at a forthcoming fundraiser.

Dorchester Arts is ‘soup-er’ grateful to Mr Anderson for handcrafting more than 50 soup bowls to be used at an event called What the Dickens! on Friday, March 10 at Dorchester Corn Exchange.

Dorchester Arts’ fundraising manager Jacky Thorne said: “Our fundraising evening in March celebrates all things Dickensian, and as part of this ‘evening with a twist’ we want to serve our guests delicious soup.

“Colin, who is a great

supporter of ours, offered to personally create all the bowls we needed, with the twist being that guests can make a donation and keep their bowls at the end of the evening – a unique way

to raise funds for Dorchester Arts’ community work in the town.”

Having retired from a long career in the wine trade, Colin took up pottery after

his 90th birthday and now exhibits and sells his work across the county, including at Dorchester’s Sculpture by the Lakes, working from his garage in Poundbury.

What the Dickens! An Evening With a Twist will feature Dickensian-themed performances, including readings from Dorchester Art’s patron Dame Harriet Walter and her husband Guy Paul, plus performances by the Encore Singers and magician The Great Baldini.

n Full details are available at dorchesterarts.org.uk/ 2022/12/06/fri-10-marchwhat-the-dickensfundraiser

FAMILY AFFAIR: Simon Pullum and Loki Pickering are The Battling Butlers

POTTER’S WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Colin Anderson the Poundbury Potter

Rachael and Corvus at St Mary’s

World-class violinist Rachael Podger will perform alongside the Corvus Consort in Dorchester this April.

Rachel was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015 and won the Gramophone Artist of the Year 2018 award. She will be joined by the Corvus Consort,

Maddy’s

A musical celebration of the lives and culture of everyday folk is coming to Dorset next month.

As part of a nationwide tour, Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band will perform their new show Chapel and Tavern on Monday, April 17 at Bridport Arts Centre. A band spokesperson said the first half of the concert – the chapel – will feature the ‘vigorous and enthusiastic’ music of the church gallery bands from an ‘era when hymn writers happily took their inspiration from theatre music and popular song’. After the interval, the show moves to the tavern for ‘rousing performances of

described by critics as “one of the most innovative and adventurous vocal ensembles presently performing”, singing Bach’s choral work. The performance, funded by Duke’s Auctioneers, takes place at St Mary’s Church, Dorchester on Thursday, April 20. For tickets and information visit dorchesterarts.org.uk

on the road with a carnival

early Methodists and the village bands fondly remembered by Thomas Hardy’.

catches, ballads, theatre songs and dance tunes’. Both halves of the show are designed to take the audience back to the

‘chaotic London of Hogarth’s Gin Lane and the riotous world of Swift, Smollett and Thackeray, the enthusiastic singing of

“I love working with the band,” Maddy said. “It’s just so different and they’re so off the wall. Coming from a folk background I can relate to a lot of their dances and early music, but anything less like serious academic concerts when we tour you can’t imagine.

“When we go out at Christmas, it’s all streamers, balloons and lunacy.”

CHORAL CONCERT: Violinist Rachael Podger, inset, and above, the Corvus Consort

THE MADDY CROWD: Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band will be at Bridport Arts Centre in April

The story of a young woman adapting to sight loss and physical disability, Rose is a powerful new work by writer Christine Diment that plays Lighthouse Poole on Thursday, March 30 as part of a tour of the South West. Written in collaboration with Lyme Regis artist Kitty Waldron, the play is intensely personal.

“Kitty wanted to tell her story through a third party,” explains Christine. “Through the writing process, which during covid lockdowns was all online of course, we created this character Rose who finds love with a young man called Matt who exists on the fringes of society. He has tattoos and piercings and a Mohican haircut that might repel people, but of course Rose doesn’t see that. She just loves the person.”

Christine has also been working with a group of mainly first-time performers from Dorset Blind Association’s Poole group – who meet informally every week at Lighthouse – as they prepare to share their work in a special performance for family and friends at Lighthouse.

She said: “Because the play focuses on blindness and disability, I was put in touch with Moira Kopanycia-Reynolds from Dorset Blind Association who supports the Poole group. I was keen to run some writing and acting workshops with this group. “The response was excellent. We’ve found many of the themes we

Powerful drama focusing on sight loss and disability

uncovered in Rose –school, love, vulnerability, fragility – are echoed in the stories that have emerged from the group.”

The workshops run by Christine with Anna Takashima and Charmaine K Parkin (director of Rose) will result in Blind Date, a revue-style show of music, drama and spoken word performances on Tuesday, March 28 in the Sherling

Studio at Lighthouse. Christine added: “Another member of the group, Jackie Bacon, plays the piano and she’ll accompany a monologue that has been written about a special day out in which they met Russell Watson at a concert.

“Then there’s Justin Sellick, who plays mandolin and does a humorous impersonation of

a philosopher, and there’s a lovely piece about the power of love – the idea that love helps them through this difficult change in their life.

“Despite the difficulties experienced by those in the group, there is a huge range of talent and creative ideas coming forward and it is so inspiring to work together.

“It wasn’t what we set out to do, but it seems we are creating a legacy for Rose.” Sam Baker, Dorset Blind Association’ Community Relations Officer, said: “Dorset Blind Association is thrilled to be working with Christine and Lighthouse on this project. “Our members enjoy the process immensely. Drama therapy is a valuable and unique way of processing problems and emotions, and has produced some marvellous work.”

Rose, directed by Charmaine K Parkin with Anna Scutt as Rose and Jake Baker as Matt, will be on at the Sherling Studio at Lighthouse on March 30 at 8pm.

Blind Date, the Dorset Blind Association Showcase, will be on at the Sherling Studio on March 28.

n If you would like to support Dorset Blind Association by volunteering or in support of their services, then please contact Sam Baker at sam@dorsetblind.org.uk or call 01202 712865. n dorsetblind.org.uk

n Tickets and info: 01202 280000 lighthousepoole.co.uk

POWERFUL DRAMA: A scene from Rose and, below, writer Christine Diment and Justin Sellick on mandolin

Culture

Get on board for a voyage through traditional and contemporary music with the band Coracle this month.

After recording their debut album Murmuration last autumn, Coracle will give two concerts as part of the Artsreach spring performance programme. Coracle bring together the talents, imagination and creativity of three artists with vastly different backgrounds, who have come together through their love of traditional music cut through with experimentation, boldness, humour and risk.

Accordion player and teacher Paul Hutchinson is a BBC Folk Award Best Live Artist nominee with Belshazzar’s Feast. His previous collaborations with Hoover the Dog, Pagoda Project and The Maniacs produced albums and performances that drew five-star reviews.

Dorset’s Karen Wimhurst is a clarinet player influenced by traditional, jazz and

Coracle the oracle of folk

contemporary classical music. She’s a widely commissioned composer of chamber works; music theatre; theatre and largescale collaborative productions ranging from the Grimethorpe Brass Band to The Welsh National Opera and the Allegri Quartet.

Anna Tam was shortlisted as Fatea’s 2021 Instrumentalist of the

Year, blending nyckelharpa, viola da gamba, hurdy gurdy and cello with her crystal-clear vocal. From a background in classical music and a spell as a Mediaeval Baebe, her debut folk album Anchoress brought widespread acclaim. Expect ethereal to turn gutsy, passion to be tempered by humour and a tide of improvisation

which means every Coracle concert is unique. Hear Coracle perform live at village halls in Milborne St Andrew (01258 839060) on Saturday, March 18 at 7.30pm and Burton Bradstock (01308 897421) on Sunday, March 19 at 7.30pm. Further information and tickets are also available online at artsreach.co.uk

Yabba Dabba Doo check out Neil’s Cartoon Jazz

Celebrating the launch of their fourth album Cartoon Jazz, The Neil Maya Quartet will return to Dorset for three performances next month. Described as one of the South West’s most exciting and talented groups, the band offer the best jazz from the cartoons, injecting a bit of Yabba Dabba Doo into your favourite looney tunes – performing music

from Frozen to The Flintstones; Top Cat to Toy Story and The Simpsons to Sesame Street.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to hear the jazz version of the Spiderman theme tune, When You Wish Upon A Star, The Pink Panther, The Flintstones, Some Day My Prince Will Come, Alice In Wonderland, Sesame Street, You’ve Got A Friend in Me, Let It Go or Give A

Little Whistle why not give this show a go?

Join The Neil Maya Quartet at village halls in Studland (01929 450587) on Thursday, March 23 at 7.30pm: at Marnhull (01258 820458) on Friday, March 24 at 7.30pm: and at Winterborne Stickland (01258 880920) on Saturday, March 25 at 7.30pm.

n artsreach.co.uk

DOUBLE DATE: Coracle are at Milborne St Andrew and Burton Bradstock

Sax ace Tom returns home for gig

A musician from West Dorset who has been recording with Emilé Sandé as well as modelling for Ralph Lauren is returning home for a special gig.

Tom Waters, 22, attended Broadmayne and Puddletown schools while living in Owermoigne and in the holidays he toured with his parents Ben and Ruth and sister Molly alongside huge stars, including Charlie Watts, Jools Holland, Ronnie Wood and other well-known blues and jazz musicians. Ben and Ruth now travel from their home in Sherborne to see their son play as often as they can. Aged five, Tom travelled to Edinburgh to see his dad play with Rocket 88. Tom heard Willie Garnett and Don Weller play here for the first time. They were two of the UK’s finest sax players. This initial spark made Tom fall in love with the music, and shortly after, he got his first sax and started sitting in on his dad’s gigs. Charlie Watts was so impressed he used to let young Tom do a few tunes with the band despite his tender age. In 2013 Charlie invited Tom and his dad to Hyde Park to see the Rolling Stones. Secretly he had organised Tom a saxophone lesson with Bobby Keys and Tim Ries. Right at the end of the lesson, they presented Tom with a brand new

sax to help him on his way to being a professional musician. This incredibly kind act spurred Tom onto another level.

Tom left school aged 13 to go on tour with his father, being taught by his mum while doing 900 shows worldwide over three years.

During these three years, Tom also got to play with second-line bands from New Orleans (Southern Komfort Brass Band), Chart Topping Pop Bands from Canada (Broken Social Scene) and the great Keito Saito in

Japan. At 16, Tom was offered a place at the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians in London.

It was here he would meet his good friend Jack Thomas who now plays the drums in the Electric People. Over their sixyear friendship, they have played in many different bands together. They found they loved the same style of music and played for hundreds of hours together. This shows in the rock-steady performances and their almost telepathic thought processes, leading to

some inspirational improvisation. Later they would go to The Royal Academy of Music Together and develop their music further. This special bond comes across in the music. Living in London during uni Tom played nearly every night, a regular at Ronnie Scott’s, The 606 and countless other clubs. Ben said: “Being on tour regularly from a young age led him to meet all sorts of musicians around the country, including the prestigious Marcus Praestgard-Stevens at Coolham, a modern wonder of the world. “How can any 18-yearold play the guitar that well? He is a virtuoso, and Tom is delighted to have him in the band. “It also led to him meeting the last piece of the Jigsaw, the great Artie Zeitz, Playing the Hammond like he has six hands. He plays righthand solos and left-hand pads and then plays the bass (remember, there is no bass player in this band) with his feet. This is almost a lost art, and when Artie has two Leslie speakers on the stage and a Hammond organ, it is one of the biggest sounds around.”

n Tom Waters Electric People will play at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday, April 28 at 8pm. To book tickets (£22) go to tomwaters.co.uk

HOMECOMING GIG: Tom Waters and, inset, with Ronnie Wood and, below, with the late Jeff Beck

Cultural chaos promised in exhibition

By Nick Horton nickh@westdorsetmag.co.uk

A former derelict engineering factory in the back streets of Weymouth is the unlikely setting for a four-day subversive art event, featuring painting, sculptures, installations, live music and an absolute shedload of cultural chaos. Revolting Artists takes place over the Easter weekend of April 7-10 at St Nic’s Gallery in St Nicholas Street, Weymouth.

The gallery has hosted various events over the past couple of years but this is its most ambitious and most diverse with some 70 artists exhibiting and a host of street painters, graffiti artists, performance poets, musicians, DJs and photographers involved. It’s been a real labour of love for BOD, the

As BOD tells me: “I came down to Weymouth from the East Midlands around four years ago and was keen to get involved in the local arts scene.

“But it soon became apparent that there wasn’t one. I was tired of seeing paintings of boats, the sea (‘What do you expect to see out of a Weymouth guest house window?’ to paraphrase Basil Fawlty…)

“I’ve always been into subversive art and as no one else was doing it down here, I

ORIGINAL ARTISTS: Work by Hats Richardson, left, and Peter Sheridan, above. Below: Benjamin Irritant

of 70 artists’ subversive creations

thought I might as well. I was approached by St Nic’s Gallery boss Chris Wells, who asked if I’d like to stage an exhibition of my work but I felt I really didn’t have enough to warrant a whole show. “So I contacted some of the artists I follow on Instagram and quite frankly, I was overwhelmed.

“We had around 120 artists interested in getting involved but we’ve managed to dwindle it down to around a more manageable 70.

“It’s the first subversive arts event the town has

seen and so far all the costs incurred have been met out of my own pocket.

“It’s a showcase which could hopefully lead to funding for future events.

“What started as a DIY event has grown into something huge but a DIY attitude will only get you so far.

“We need to cover some upfront costs and, ironically, the theme of the event is Greed.

“So in the words of Live Aid’s Bob Geldof: ‘Give us your f****** money!’”

You can make a donation at crowdfunder.co.uk/ p/revolting-artists

BOD added: “We’re protesting about Greed, we’re frustrated by Greed and we really want to get up the noses of the people we’re targeting.”

Among the plethora of artists taking part are My Dog Sighs, Mr Eggs, Sock Oven, Oneslutriot, Isa Spits, Hats Richardson, Haus of Lucy, Benjamin Irritant, Profanity Spoons (Didn’t they do a session for John Peel in 1981?)

Joe Razz, Si Jubb, Joe Coleman and Foka Wolf. Musicians and DJs doing a turn over the Easter weekend include Du Kane, Mike Dennis, Pete

Treglown and many more to be announced. And finally, Bod tells me: “This will be where some of the most influential artists of our time will get together and f*** about. “And can you use the word ‘plethora’ in your article please? It means a lot.”

n Revolting Artists, St Nic’s Gallery, 11 St Nicholas Street, Weymouth DT4 8AA.

From April 7-10, 2023. Easter weekend.

n revolting-artists.com

n crowdfunder.co.uk/ p/revolting-artists

MAKING HEADLINES; Some of BOD’s work around Weymouth and, below, from left, pieces by Isa Spits, Colin Merrin and, right, Wefail

Expectations are great for Dame Harriet’s show

International theatre and TV star Dame Harriet Walter is to perform at Dorchester Arts on Friday, March 10.

Dame Harriet, who is a patron of Dorchester Arts, will appear at What the Dickens! – a fundraising evening celebrating all things Dickensian.

Dame Harriet is known for her many film and TV appearances including Killing Eve, Ted Lasso, The Crown and Belgravia She will be performing extracts from Dickens’ novels, along with her husband, actor Guy Paul. The evening also includes performances by fantastic

Formidable! Fifi and her accordion’s French fancies

Take a tour through more than 100 years of French musical history with artists Fifi La Mer and Oliver Wilby next month.

Presented by Artsreach, this acclaimed show features the dulcet tones of chanteuse Fifi on accordion, and the talents of Oliver on clarinet, members of the saxophone family and accordion. Together the pair will take audiences on a journey through a century of French music, from Offenbach and Gainsbourg to Michel Legrand and Edith Piaf, sharing tales of the mystery, romance and heartache that we so often associate with Paris, alongside a repertoire of musical gems.

Fifi La Mer was born in Paris and, when not touring with this popular show, performs with her band ‘Oh la la!’, who have played to sell out venues including The Elgar room

at the Royal Albert Hall, and and the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Jazz musician Oliver Wilby regularly tours with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and the Ray Gelato Giants amongst others.

Expect a toe-tapping tribute to French music

01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com

from this entertaining duo as they play Cranborne Cecil Memorial Hall (07770 227095) at 7.30pm on Friday, March 10; at Powerstock Hut (01308 485730) at 7.30pm on Saturday, March 11; and at Piddletrenthide Memorial Hall (07786 880676) at 3pm on Sunday, March 12. Further information and tickets are also available online at artsreach.co.uk

magician The Great Baldini, as well as local choir the Encore Singers. With a light Dickensian supper served, this will be a very enjoyable evening in support of Dorchester Arts and its community work. n Tickets and more information at dorchesterarts.org.uk

Historic setting for exhibition

Enjoy an exhibition of West Dorset artists’ work hosted in a 17th century building next month. Bridport Art Society’s Easter exhibition will take place at the Salt House in West Bay from 10am to 5pm from Friday, April 7 to Monday 10.

A society spokesperson said: “The preserved stone interior provides a well-lit spacious setting for members’ hung work. As well as attracting a local audience, the exhibition attracts visitors who are in the bay over the holiday weekend.”

n For more details visit bridportart.com

DICKENS: Harriet Walter

WORTH ITS SALT: Bridport Arts Society exhibition

VIVE LA FRANCE: Fifi La Mer and Oliver Wilby

Don’t be such a $*$*!**, it’s The Swearing Jar

Mind your Ps and Qs when award-winning Canadian play The Swearing Jar heads to Dorset for two dates in March.

Kate Hewlett’s romantic comedy won Best of the Fringe at the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival on its première and was named Outstanding New Play at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival.

A film adaptation of the

play was released last year. This spring, New Perspectives artistic director Angharad Jones directs the UK premiere of this award-winning play, and audiences in Dorset have two opportunities to catch it on tour as it heads to the county with Artsreach, Dorset’s touring arts charity.

Finding one true soulmate is fortunate but finding two makes life complicated.

Husband and wife Simon and Carey look like the perfect couple. He has some news to share, but she gets in first with a jarthe swearing has to stop if they are having a baby! When Carey enlists the help of a new musician friend to throw a birthday concert for her husband we discover life-changing secrets of their past. This bittersweet comedy offers audiences a warm

embrace, full of heartbreak, humour and songs.

n Catch The Swearing Jar in village halls at Sydling St Nicholas (01300 341777) on Friday, March 10 at 7.30pm and Sturminster Marshall (07903 057427) on Saturday, March 11 at 7.30pm. Suitable for audiences aged 15+, further information and tickets are available online at artsreach.co.uk

Oscar winner to curate screen fest

Two-time Oscar-winning writer and director

Christopher Hampton has been named as curator of Bridport’s From Page to Screen festival. The writer of Dangerous Liaisons and the film adaptation of Atonement will choose the films, invite special guests and take part in a Q&A session with broadcaster Francine Stock during the festival from April 26 to 30 at Bridport Arts Centre.

Christopher said:

“Adapting for the screen, whether it be a novel, a stage play, a biography, a historical event or a newspaper article, presents its own particular problems, perhaps more technical, but in no way less intricate than writing an original screenplay.

“I’ve spent decades ruminating on these issues, without necessarily having reached any firm conclusions, though I do by now, I suppose, have a few tentative suggestions. I’m delighted at the opportunity

to visit Bridport to be able to kick some of these suggestions around.”

Christopher’s latest screenplay, The Son, is cowritten with Florian Zeller and stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby. It was released in the US last November and is now in UK cinemas. The Son is a companion piece to The Father, also co-

written with Florian Zeller, and won Christopher his second Oscar and Sir Anthony Hopkins a best actor Oscar.

Broadcaster Francine Stock will host a Q&A with Christopher discussing his six decade career of adaptations across cinema and the stage. It includes Oscar wins for The Father in 2021 and Dangerous

Liaisons in 1988, both for best adapted screenplay. He won the Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Carrington starring Emma Thompson in 1995. He was also Bafta nominated for his screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, which won best film in 2007.

Christopher is the youngest writer to have a play in the West End with his original work When Did You Last See My Mother. It was written and performed in 1966 whilst he was still studying at Oxford University.

Christopher was born in Faial, Azores.

During the Suez Crisis in 1956 the family fled Egypt. He read German and French at New College, Oxford, graduating with a starred First Class Degree in 1968.

n For more information about the Page to Screen Festival visit bridportarts.com

MOVIE LEGEND: Christopher Hampton will curate this year’s From Page to Screen festival in Bridport

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Joys of spring are just around corner

mower and sharpen the blades before we start, as a sharp blade makes a much neater job of cutting the grass.

planting for healing.

With the lovely dry spell we have just had, it has been a delight to be able to get on in the community garden at The Potting Shed. We have been able to dig over and weed some of the beds. The pathway edging has now been put in, and the path completed. The grass is beginning to grow so we will need to start mowing soon. This has reminded me that I need to get on and service the

The snowdrops are out in force in the hedgerows around the villages and look lovely, they are the first sign of spring, and the crocuses are up in the gardens as well.

The energies from the snowdrop bring hope and joy into your being, as with the ever-returning renewal of spring, they remind us after the cold winter that spring is on its way and the hopes of returning life to the garden are once more upon us.

The crocus, although very short-lived when in bloom,

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reminds us of the wonders of nature as they break through the soil and flower again, their energies help us with positivity, giving us an inner knowing, re-enforcing the cycle of life that occurs in the natural world, this brings us closer to our own spirituality.

The daffodils are budding up and will be in full bloom shortly, along with narcissus.

The daffodil is well suited to the healing garden, especially for people with terminal illness or vulnerable people. The lifting of your own energies

by this plant helps you to combat low self-esteem and self-doubt. Because the users of this type of garden will be questioning themselves: Why me? Why now? What have I done to deserve this? Whilst the plant cannot answer these questions, its energies will

make you feel better about yourself, allowing you to find the answers required within your own psyche. The narcissus energies again aid in increasing our positivity, as in the spring our own feelings become more noticeable as we emerge from the cold, dark nights of winter and the depressing feelings we have endured through this period of time.

The wonders of the natural world and mother nature are a joy to behold and the pleasure I get from working within the countryside and gardens is very uplifting.

With the modern world around you bringing in all the stress and anguish, that rising costs and the negative press produce. Everything just seems to be piling up. The joy of working in the garden just melts the stress away and reminds me that actually life is good. We all just need to take the time, even if it is only a few minutes, to enjoy the pleasures of the natural world around us. You will be surprised at the amount of healing and de-stressing you will get from just those few moments of time. It will be time well spent.

By IAN BAIRD

I like the way you work it, no diggity

About now, you may begin to notice blearyeyed creatures emerge from the darkness and begin snuffling around the gardens again, slowly at first but with increasing vigour as the daylight lengthens – yes, gardeners are awaking from their deep winter siesta… Some are young and sprightly and you catch just a flash of them as they dart amongst the bushes but the older ones, perhaps moving more slowly, have great purpose and experience in their deliberations and they actively look for ways to reduce the labour and still grow successfully, whether flowers or vegetables are their quarry.

No-dig gardening is one such tactic, currently gaining ground (sorry…), taking a huge amount of work out of establishing and maintaining both gardens and allotments. The guru of this approach is a fine gentleman called Charles Dowding, author of several books on the topic and his YouTube channel alone has over 599,000 subscribers. What’s more, he lives just over the border from us in

South Somerset, which is awfully handy as he does courses.

The main advantages of no-dig are that it is massively time and labour saving. Gardeners are traditionally indoctrinated from the get-go that you have to dig out weeds and dig over your land. Not so, says Charles and, in my experience, he’s absolutely right.

Five years ago I took on a fairly large and weedy council allotment. I dug and I dug and I dug and still the weeds kept coming, years of cast seed being exposed by my efforts and endlessly springing to life, crowding out my precious veggies. And then one of my nocturnal peripatations on

the internet brought forth no-dig, the clouds cleared, sun shone, birds sang, and allotmenting has never been the same since! It’s a subject that can arouse deep emotions. I have been scoffed at, but that doesn’t matter because I grow beautiful vegetables for my family and that’s what matters. So how does it work? It works on the premise that there is no need to dig over ground which destroys soil structure and brings dormant weed seeds near to the surface, encouraging germination – and more weeds. With no-dig you start with a blanket layer that excludes light, commonly wet cardboard. This kills the weeds as they have light

excluded from them and they cannot photosynthesise, so they rot down into the soil, enriching it. On top of the cardboard you need to apply at least 100mm (4”) of compost. And that’s it. You can plant straight into it – no digging, no weeding.

My own beds are ‘lasagne’ beds, layers of different organic materials. Typically, as I live on the coast, I use cardboard/seaweed/ compost which I apply during the winter, allowing it to mellow and rot down over the cold months so they’re all ready for me in the spring. Inland, cardboard/manure/ compost will be fine or just cardboard/compost, just so long as you have that crucial 100mm depth. It really has taken so much of the work out of it for me, allowing me to get on with the joyful tasks of growing and eating.

BAG IT UP: No-dig gardening is massively timeand labour-saving

The WDM is an antidote to the blues

For a few days recently, I had been feeling quite low for all sorts of reasons, then this morning I picked up your magazine and read it thoroughly. After I had finished, I felt refreshed and uplifted as so many of your stories had a good feel factor. I am therefore recommending your magazine as an antidote to mental health issues!

Thank you so much – long may you continue.

Hilary Charlesworth

Minterne Magna

I look forward to reading each new issue of your excellent magazine, but have become increasingly disappointed with the Letters pages.

I found many of the letters published recently to be far too long and rambling to be interesting e.g. a diatribe two and a half columns long (from a London resident) in Edition 25. I suggest you impose a limit of day 250 words and include more letters on matters of local interest – oh yes, and none from ‘Anon’.

Gordon Ratcliffe, Chetnole

I wanted you to know how pleased everyone here is with your article about Tolpuddle Old Chapel. It is the most accurate and well put together piece ever written about the building and our work of saving it.

Andrew McCarthy Chair, TOCT

Pulpit Rock stands in a trance

Betwixt old England and yon France

While all about the waves do dance

As tides retreat and then

advance.

When was it last the Pa’son stood

Upon this Rock in gown and hood

A’tellin’ fo’k just what they should Do if they wanted to be good?

What Portland child has never dared

To scale this Rock, however scared

Wi’ knuckles white an’ teeth abared

For graze of tumble quite prepared?

If you should go to Portland Bill,

Just see if Pulpit Rock stands still

And, even better if you will, Use it to play at Jack and Jill!

Chris Slade, Maiden Newton

Solar panels installed on three of Weymouth Town Council buildings have prevented 150.3 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2 )being produced by the burning of fossil fuels. (West Dorset Mag, Feb 2023) CO2 is essential for the growth and health of all green plants including food, plants, and trees. Plant life has therefore been deprived of 150.3kg of a vital nutrient.

I do not agree with the political consensus that a ‘Climate Emergency’ exists. The climate has varied over eons of time due mainly to sunspot, but also to volcanic and meteorite activities. In Roman times grapes were grown as far north as Hadrian’s Wall. During the Medieval Warm Period the Vikings were

practising agriculture in Greenland. During the Little Ice Age ‘Ice Fairs were held regularly on the frozen River Thames in London.

Carbon dioxide is not the cause of climate variations. Ice-core data demonstrates delays between CO2 rise and temperature rise, and that from one age to another, the CO2 rise follows the temperature rise. The idea of man-made climate change is central to Agenda 21/ Agenda 30, which is being run through the United Nations, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Central Banking System for total control of the world.

Robert Theobald Weymouth

It is pleasing to see that the local Conservative MP has been talking about lower bus fares and indeed the reduction in a single fare from Broadmayne to Dorchester is a step in the right direction if we are to tackle climate change. However, I personally remain deeply disappointed by our MP’s disregard for the environment and the threat of Climate Change. He supports the digging of a new coal field in Cumbria despite its impure coal being unsuitable for steel smelting; he also backs the opening of new oilfields in the North Sea despite the threat to our planet from the huge amounts of carbon that will be released. He also voted to allow water companies to continue dumping raw sewage in rivers.

Personally, I feel let down by this disregard for the future of our planet.

Joe Brake,

Broadmayne

Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk

Constituency

issues

with West Dorset MP Chris Loder

Regrettable my input necessary at Kitt Hill

Since I spoke out last week about the situation in Kitt Hill, the feedback I have received has been significant – most of it positive, from people relieved to see work is now underway to finally sort out the closure and for the full, frank appraisal of what has been happening. It is regrettable the situation became such my help and intervention was necessary for the situation to be sorted, but with this having now come to a head, we are now seeing the first progress since I prompted the narrowing of the scaffolding and partial reopening early last year. I was shocked that the Lib Dem councillor for Sherborne West lives in Exmouth and has done for some time.

On Tuesday last week, I

Politics

attended the Westminster Hall debate on South West Water. It was welcome scrutiny. The pressure we have been applying to water companies through the work carried out in the Environment Act is paying off. We are seeing water companies across England committing to monitoring their outflow sites, providing transparency in a way that has not been done before, and promising to cut the number of spillages of wastewater in storm surges. The lights on the old ‘Mitsubishi Roundabout’ on the A35 in Bridport which have not been working for some time and have presented a hazard. I have been putting pressure on National Highways and the energy firm

and I am pleased this issue has now been resolved.

I met NFU farmers from West Dorset in Sherborne. It was very helpful hear a range of issues like mental health in the industry, national food security, energy provision and conservation efforts.

I spoke with town councils to discuss some of the key issues affecting them. Now that Dorset has been successful in attracting around £6 million through the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund, much of the funding has yet to be allocated. We also discussed the news of the new bus recovery scheme and extension to the £2 bus fare cap which I know will be of major assistance to so many in West Dorset reliant on our rural

bus services, and the £4.8 million extension to Dorset’s household support scheme now supporting eligible households into next year. Finally, more good news on the Heart of Wessex Line. I went to see the works on the track to fully replace 60-yearold rails on Monday morning after much campaigning to get this line up to an acceptable standard and better frequency of train service for local people.

GWR have now fully overhauled Yetminster Station and are intending to boost the number of car parking spaces for rail users. This comes as part of a full replacement of track bed along the line, intending to further improve service times and passenger experience.

It’s lovely here, but you can help me make it even better

Hello! Have we met before?

If not, let me introduce myself: my name is Edward Morello and I am your Liberal Democrat candidate for Parliament in West Dorset. I had the huge honour of being the candidate in 2019 and I am delighted to have been chosen to be the candidate again.

It’s been a rocky few years, to say the least. We’ve left the EU and are still working out how to trade with our neighbours. We’ve struggled through a global pandemic long predicted but ill prepared for. Household energy costs have skyrocketed due to global events and the refusal to limit

By EDWARD MORELLO West Dorset LibDems

profiteering by energy providers. Wages have stagnated for 15 years. Failure to manage inflation has created a cost-of-living crisis. Sewage is being pumped into our rivers and onto our beaches at an unprecedented rate. And last time I checked we’ve four Prime Minister in four years. It would be easy to be disheartened, and I know many are. But in many respects we are also extremely fortunate. We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. We are blessed with an unrivalled

rural heartland and a stunning coastline. Our towns and villages have a sense of community long since lost in other parts of the country. Our farmers and rural businesses are keeping alive traditions that go back generations, and our beaches are a mecca for holidaymakers from all around the UK and abroad. Despite everything else going on the UK and the world when I’m out campaigning everyone I speak to, whether they’ve lived in West Dorset for one year or since birth, says: “I love it here!” I know we all want things to improve, and I believe change is possible. Next year we will have local

elections for Dorset Council and the Liberal Democrats will be laying out our vision for what a Lib Dem-run council will do for residents; how we will improve NHS and care services, SEND provision, support for farmers and rural businesses, and clean up our rivers and beaches.

Before January 2025 we will also have a General Election and until then I’ll be out and about all over West Dorset listening to residents about what can be done to improve things. I’ll be knocking on your door soon, but if you’d like to speak sooner please email me at edward.morello@westdorset-libdems.org.uk

Be more ambitious with investment for future

It’s time for Dorset Council to become more ambitious in terms of what it delivers and the revenue it raises. As Clare Sutton, the leader of the Green Party group of councillors on the council, pointed out in her recent budget speech, when the council was formed in 2019 councillors were told that its immediate ambition was to be ‘safe and legal’. “That limited ambition”, she said, “seemed reasonable in those early days.”

Taking into account a range of budgetary pressures, particularly in Adult Social Care and the inflation crisis, this year’s planned increase in gross expenditure of 8.5% represents another safe and legal budget – a budget that enables us to

By KELVIN CLAYTON West Dorset Green Party

simply carry on doing what we’ve done this past year, with no cuts to essential or frontline services, and to develop a contingency fund that mitigates the risk of inflation. However, whilst the Green councillors on Dorset Council supported this ‘safe and legal budget’ we are quickly coming to the opinion that such a budget reflects a lack of ambition. In particular there are three areas, in addition to the continued development of our Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy, where we think the council should seriously consider developing the service it provides to the

residents of Dorset, three areas where we believe it should start to become much more ambitious indeed. One area is housing. As I argued in my previous column, there is a growing recognition across the political spectrum that we need to do much more to support the housing needs of our young people and essential workers. The council needs to seriously consider building and managing its own housing stock. Second, we need to reverse the ongoing decline of public transport, especially in rural areas. We need to improve the mobility of our young people, if for no other reason than to increase their range of post16 education and training

options; we need to support our hard-up families and elderly residents with their travel needs; and we need to make it easier for us all to leave our cars at home. Third, we should start to become much more ambitious in the support we give to our struggling youth clubs. Until the old Dorset County Council decided to stop funding them, these clubs were part of our core service. Whist Dorset Council does have a Youth Fund to provide limited support, it is nowhere near enough, and has this year’s freezing of the fund at £100k represents a net cut in support. We need to start rebuilding our youth services. We need to invest in our young people – they are our future.

Obstacle to affordable homes may soon disappear

What has eutrophication got to do with affordable housing, you might well ask. Or for that matter, what is eutrophication anyway? If you haven’t come across the term before, it refers to the process by which a body of water becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. This speeds up the growth of certain plants and algae, with a detrimental effect on other wildlife. It has become a problem in many parts of the world, in freshwater habitats, estuaries and coastal waters, and was first identified on the south coast of England around ten years ago. Poole Harbour is regarded as especially vulnerable. The connection with housing

By CLAUDIA SORIN West Dorset Labour Party

is this. In 2018, Natural England advised that in a number of areas including the Poole Harbour catchment area, covering a large part of West Dorset, new housing development could only be permitted if it would not increase nitrate and phosphate pollution. In March 2022 the advice was extended and tightened. Plans had to demonstrate that development would cause no overall increase in nutrient pollution in perpetuity; as a result, an estimated 100,000 new homes across the country were put on hold –amongst them the proposal by the Dorchester Area

Community Land Trust to provide 15 flats at social rents for young working people. No one would doubt the need to tackle the worsening degradation of our natural environment and wildlife habitats, but this problem has arisen from the government’s slowness in tackling the combination of outdated (some would say) farming practices and water companies’ failure to invest in waste water treatment. While agriculture accounts for 74% of nitrogen pollution in the Poole Harbour catchment, according to Natural England only improvements in waste water treatment works can deliver the required reduction in phosphorus emissions. The government is finally taking

action over this.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will require water companies to meet required standards for phosphorus and nitrogen discharges from specified treatment works, and make them liable for any damage resulting from failure to comply. Once the Bill is enacted, probably in April, Natural England says it will no longer be necessary for new developments in this catchment to demonstrate phosphorus neutrality. While the position for nitrogen pollution remains slightly more complicated, we can hope that the latest obstacle to Dorset Council’s approval of the Community Land Trust’s affordable housing scheme will soon disappear.

Arrow words Wordsearch

2

Crossword

3

6 Sweetheart (4)

7 Inadormantstate (6)

13 Usedagain (8)

14 Wholenumbers (8)

15 Accusation (6)

17 Freshest (6) 18 Removingwaterfrom (6)

20 Dancer’sdress (4)

22 Rowing-boatessentials (4)

For the solutions turn to page 92

THIS IS THE PAGE TO ADVERTISE ON!

Advertise on the page most likely to be left open on the coffee table

Cryptic Crossword

Place 1 to 9 once each into every black-bordered 3×3 area as well as each of the 54 rows indicated by the coloured lines. Rows don’t cross the thick black lines.

Brain chain (Hard version)

86

-50%+37-2×2+76

Killer Sudoku

Pro:

Place 1 to 9 once each into every row, column and bold-lined 3×3 box. No digit may be repeated in any dashed-line cage, and each dashed-line cage must result in the given value when the stated operation is applied between all of the digits in that cage. For subtraction and division operations, start with the highest number in the cage and then subtract or divide by the other numbers in that cage.

RESULT

Can you solve these brain chains entirely in your head? Start with the bold value on the left of a chain, then follow the arrows and apply each operation in turn. Write the result in the box.

Across

1 Puddleclosetospadeininclinedposition (5)

4 Endlessplaceforentertainment?Itgets roundaboutway (7)

9 Takefourfordisciplining?Havefitof anxiety (5,3)

10 Apologeticexpressioninconfinedplacesfirst off (4)

11 Leavestrandedskippersurroundedby crew (6)

12 Soundofirritationaboutnewoutbursts (5)

13 Lookoversmallcontainer (4)

15 Almosttrendy?I’msurprised! (3)

16 Standforthoseondeparture? (4)

17 Hero’stimeinpartforSwissdish (5)

19 Moreinnocentdancinginrave (6)

21 FirstofcrownsonheadforVikingleader (4)

22 Favouredcostforhavingcontrol (2,6)

23 Aclosefriendwithmoneymakingsimilar term? (7)

24 Largely,harshcut (5)

2 Immatureanimalheldbyirregularvagrant (5)

3 Toploanarrangedforfightingunit (7)

5 Jointogetherpossiblynicercontent (12)

6 Funnytypeismiserableinconfinesof canteen (5)

7 Declarationbyonethat’spastitin deadlock (7)

8 USstateignoringcutinakeywaylosingall capacityforlinkage? (12)

14 Long-standingeleganceaboutqueennumber recalled (7)

16 Bandofpeopleorderedtocarry equipment (7)

18 FightinSomersettown (3-2)

20 Standardachievementoncourse? (5)

Freelance copywriter ANDREW KNOWLES wants to see Dorset’s smaller businesses grow and thrive. His own business grew out of his career as an accountant, consultant and trainer. Now based in Wyke Regis, he’s been freelance for nearly 15 years, including work with Dorset Growth Hub, helping to support and train hundreds of small business owners.

Be brave and believe in yourself

You’re not good enough There’s no vaccine, no antidote and no way of avoiding it. You’ll be infected with imposter syndrome within moments of setting up your own business. Imposter syndrome is the feeling that you don’t deserve the respect, trust or money that comes your way because of what you do.

It’s the little voice that whispers “You’re not good enough,” usually at inappropriate moments. It often strikes as I’m about to email my first invoice to a new client: “You’re not good enough to charge that much money.” Imposter syndrome can cripple your confidence because if you don’t believe in yourself, why

should anyone else?

When it strikes, you’re in good company. Tom Hanks, Lady Gaga and Serena Williams have all described feeling inadequate. “When are they going to discover that I am, in fact, a fraud and take everything away from me?” asked Hanks in an interview.

Stock up on positive feedback

One of the best cures for imposter syndrome is listening to the good things your customers say about you.

Whenever someone gives you positive feedback, make a note of it. Create a document that lists all your positive reviews, all the generous thank-yous in emails and private

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messages, and any other kind words you receive. Make this list your defence against imposter syndrome. Print it out and put it over your desk or in your work space. Use it to arm yourself, daily, against the worm of negativity that threatens to undermine what you’re building. The statements from people who appreciate what you do are way more powerful than

negative thoughts.

Don’t be isolated by doubt

They are in a different league to me. Or so I think.

But when you mix with others like yourself –owners of small businesses – you find that you’re not so different. You have similar fears, problems and experiences. Your skills, that you consider inadequate, are envied by some of your peers. Don’t let imposter syndrome keep you locked up. I’m a big advocate of talking to your customers, to your competitors and to other business owners. Sharing thoughts, ideas and points of view helps confirm that you’re not so very different from others who do what you do.

Take care who you listen to.

Leave a message: )

Improve reliability & production. Reduce energy waste & boost your bottom line rpeme.co.uk

Imposter syndrome can stop you talking to the people who can help you – your peers. I’m a copywriter, and sometimes the last people I want to talk to are other copywriters. Why? Because it will take just seconds for them to spot that I’m not really one of them.

Accept wisdom and experience when it’s offered, but ignore irrational negativity, including imposter syndrome. When you run a small business, or aspire to run one, you’re taking a bold step. You’re putting yourself in control of your time in order to do something you love, or to earn an income, and probably both. I celebrate that boldness – well done to you!

A BIG WORRY: Tom Hanks

We’re winners and we mean business

Bird Media, publishers of The West Dorset Magazine, have been named not only New Business of the Year at the Bridport Business Awards, but Overall Business of the Year!

We are incredibly grateful for this boost to our spirits.

Thanks to Marketing West Events for organising these awards, which started four years ago in Bridport – now awards ceremonies are held all over the county. Here are all the winners –see the photographs and watch the video (ignore the editor’s Morcambe and Wise dance, please!) at bridportbusiness awards.co.uk

ALL THE WINNERS

Arts and crafts: Aperture Photographics

Independent business: Bridport PC Repairs Green/Eco business: West Bay Discovery Centre

New business: West Dorset Magazine Customer Service: Creeds

Young entrepreneur: Rich Harvey Family business: Heavers of Bridport Cafe, pub, dining: Mercato Italiano Best place to work:

Art Unlimited

Health and fitness: Hurt Locker

Retail business: Smith and Smith

Overall business: West Dorset Magazine

Raise a glass to independent wine retailers’ prize

Family-run shop Vineyards of Sherborne toasted its own success after being named Independent Wine Retailer of the Year at the Drinks Retailing Awards. Hannah Wilkins and her business partner and wife Sadie attended a glitzy awards ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London where they won big against strong competition.

On receiving the award, Hannah Wilkins said: “It feels absolutely surreal to think that our little wine

shop in rural Dorset has been recognised at such a level. I started Vineyards in 2005, when I was just 24, and I’ve been in the trade 25 years, yet I can honestly say that that this is a career high.

“I love great wine, I want everyone to enjoy quality wine, I’m passionate about being independent – and to get this award in 2023, all these years later, with such fantastic national competitors, reassures me

that we’re obviously doing something right. I’m not sure when it’s going to start to sink in though –Sherborne is definitely on the wine map now.” Based in The Old Yarn Mills, Hannah says Vineyards offers a “small, trusted team of wine experts who offer an extensive portfolio, excellent personalised service, and a real community hub, where locals regularly enjoy tasting evenings and workshops”.

CONGRATULATIONS: Winners at the Bridport Business Awards show off their awards

CHEERS: Hannah and Sadie receive their award

Health & Wellbeing

Coffee ritual will leave you full of beans

Lucinda Ackland runs classes from her home in Burton Bradstock and in local venues teaching people about finding joy in nature and self-healing, starting often with the gut or our thoughts. She teaches people a Lensomy (sanskrit unconditional love) lifestyle and making it simple and affordable. She will be providing recipes for our readers every month. n lensomylifestyle.com

Living a Lensomy lifestyle, which means living a life you love and are grateful for, is the magical ingredient to good health, wealth and happiness. For many a moment of joy involves coffee. However like the old saying, “what’s your poison?” coffee can often be just that! Caffeine, pesticides, Mycotoxins, heavy metals, refined sugar, saturated fats etc. are all a concoction straight from hell. Yet it’s not always the ingredients but the energy involved in the digestion process that is often the culprit. If we limit triggers by investing in the best quality and we brew from scratch in a peaceful environment, our morning coffee becomes a cup of peace, a joyful ritual where we can connect to self, find stillness and breathe.

I use Mycotoxin free brands, (thanks to a student who enlightened me, we are always learning from each other) which I can process.

Ritual

1. Buy beans if at all possible and invest in a grinder so you can have fresh coffee every day and take time to connect to the smell, as this alerts all of your senses. Stale or old beans are more difficult to process. Your body starts digestion through sight, sound, smell and touch even before taste.

2. Always use filtered water (especially waters full of lime) even if you are using a kettle. I love the sight of my two-cup Moka pot on the hob with the sound of it plop plopping filling me with hope. Choose a suitable vessel for your

brew and make sure it’s a favourite that sits comfortably in your hands so the warmth can be felt like a good morning hug.

3. Pour the brewed hot liquid into your mug at the suitable strength (maybe work up to a 2 shot espresso if you are sensitive to caffeine) and then add cold milk to the brim. Organic full fat unhomogenised or raw is best. If you are vegan try Barista strength organic oat milk.

4. Pour your mug contents into a milk saucepan and add 1/8th tsp of ghee (clarified butter) and 1 tsp of un-refined sugar such as

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Jaggery. Put on to the stove over a high heat and bring to the boil.

The Magical Formula

As you bring to the boil stir in the Lensomy love with a wooden spoon clockwise so you are creating a positive vibration. This is your time to be meditative and set your intention for the day but also to find the stillness and again activate all of the senses to aid digestion. So how do we process all of the goodness for your teeth, bones, hair and nails but avoid all of the mucusbuilding saturated fats? Adding ghee (to break down the bad fats) and the sweetness of jaggery (unrefined sugar with many health benefits) will aid digestion, and help us process the caffeine without the jitters and any other negative side effects. By bringing the milky coffee to a boil (let it rise to a bubbly crescendo) then removing from heat and letting it calm down before sending it back for more (repeat this process in total 3 times!) will break down the lactose of the full fat milk.

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to learn more about a happy healthy digestion, balanced weight and joyful living that is affordable .

lensomy3@gmail.com

07815 834861

lensomylifestyle.com

Reflexology is amazing at providing support for stress, digestive complaints and hormone balancing.

Walking West Dorset

Because of the current shortage of daylight this is a shorter walk than usual, about three-and-a-half miles. The terrain is mostly flat with gentle slopes at Winfrith Heath. Park at the roadside near the church, which is open and inviting to visitors but not very exciting inside. There is only one stained glass window which is a century old. Cross the road and join a footpath signed to the village centre, following the River Win. When you get to a T junction, turn left and walk westward for about 100 yards until you reach another path signposted to Winfrith Heath heading north. When you pass

a house it heads north east across a field to a gate onto the main road just to the left of the first/ last houses of the village. Cross the road and head north along a bridleway. Look out for a flock of black, longnecked sheep, alpacas I guess.

with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade

After half a mile the bridleway goes through a gate and enters the Winfrith Heath Nature Reserve. If you decide to scale the knoll on your right to see the view, watch where you’re putting your feet as there are dozens of badger

setts. Back in my working days I once phoned the office whilst chest deep in a badger sett as the ground had collapsed beneath me! The view is good from the top. Return to the bridleway and continue north for about a furlong to where the path turns right and crosses the heath to join a road which leads you uphill, over a cattle grid to join another road at Blacknoll. This takes you downhill to the main road opposite the Red Lion. Pass the pub and head down the village street back to your car.

Something’s afoot in world of podiatry

A paramedic from Dorchester is offering foot care for people who are housebound.

Janet Ogden has served on the frontline for Dorset South West Ambulance Service for 17 years and has been a paramedic for the last ten.

Now qualified as a Foot Health Practitioner, Janet is visiting people who live in Dorchester and the surrounding villages to look after their feet.

Spotting a gap in this area of healthcare, Janet qualified as a Foot Health Practitioner and launched Oggy’s Footcare on February 1, to provide this necessary and often overlooked service to people in their own homes.

Janet said: “There is a real need for foot care. GPs are

no longer routinely referring patients to NHS podiatrists, which is leaving many people, particularly those who are housebound to suffer foot problems. As we age, if we are poorly or have certain health conditions, the ability to provide our own foot care becomes more difficult.

“Foot health is vital as it can prevent infections which can

become serious, and even seemingly minor things like not having your toenails cut can lead to ulcers and mobility problems.”

Janet said: “I will come to visit you in your home and look after your feet if you find it difficult to do this yourself. I am more than happy to come along just for a toenail trim and a quick chat, or I can help with

those painful feet conditions such as corns and calluses with gentle treatments and if necessary, make a referral to other health care professionals.”

On the first appointment, clients can expect a neurovascular check and diabetic foot check and people who have Multiple Sclerosis can have their first session free of charge.

Janet added: “I think it is important for those who are caring for people who are housebound, even if it just doing a bit of shopping or returning library books, to gently ask them about their feet and if they need a bit of TLC.”

Janet can be contacted at Oggy’s Footcare on 07824 486356 or by email at oggysfootcare@gmail.com

Extended family home

Village is hidden gem

By Darcy Gresham

“How do you like living in a holiday destination?”

This four double bedroom Edwardian semi-detached home in Fordington has been extended, yet still has a generous town garden and off-road parking, It has a large garage/workshop with mains wiring and an EV charging point.

Accommodation is flexible, presently laid out with a large en-suite bedroom on the ground floor and a further 3 double bedrooms upstairs, a modern

family bathroom and a useful attic store room, complete with Velux window and lighting. The light and airy kitchen dining space offers ample space to entertain, with French doors opening into a lower courtyard, with the main garden elevated in a sunny position behind the garage, lawned and stocked with fruit bushes.

£375,000 Freehold. Viewing by appointment only.

Connells 01305 266755

Having boomeranged back to Dorset many times after university, working in London and overseas, there is no better place to live. When people ask where I’ll be going for my holiday this year, I just smile and say I’ll be exploring breathtaking coastlines, taking countryside walks, exploring ancient archaeological sites and being tempted by delightful tea rooms. Basically, I’ll be day tripping from home!

One of my favourite haunts is the picturesque village of Fontmell Magna. Being in the heart of the beautiful Blackmore Vale, close to Cranborne Chase and the fabulous Springhead Trust, all a short drive to Blandford and Shaftesbury, it’s the perfect

place to pause for a ramblers’ breakfast and a warm welcome from Rick at at the Village Shop Tea Room, who has been keeping this hidden gem and heart of the village pumping for 10 years this month! What will we do when he retires, as he plans to do soon?

The village recently got a little bigger with a charming new road, lined with 30 traditionally built new homes, whose purchasers will enjoy a warm reception from the parish council, who thoughtfully organise welcome packs for all new residents. When such cherished land is built on, it takes a special developer to get it right, and Pennyfarthing Homes have done just that with their top notch nod to the vernacular. See below for details.

It’s Ken at the double for C’Siders

Ken Willis was a double winner as C’Siders’ 12week table tennis coaching program reached a conclusion at Wyke Regis, winning the singles competition and pairing up with Les Board to triumph in the doubles tournament. The competition was the finale of a coaching program which began in October, organised by talented local coach Mick Hogan and volunteer helper Ron Nash.

Funding for the program was secured from Sport England and the organisers were delighted with the level of enjoyment and improvement seen.

Mick said: “We had some great feedback from the people on the program, telling us what they’d gained from it.

“One person told us that it had rekindled their love for table tennis after 55 years, while another said they definitely had more energy and confidence and had laughed a lot along the way.

“Everybody improved enormously over the course of the program.

“Who knows what the next step might be for these players?

“We hope some could join a local league or perhaps challenge the Living Tree

Cancer Support Group. Watch this space!”

C’Siders started in 2016 with the aim of providing support for people in Weymouth and Portland who are affected by cancer, whether they are a patient, carer or friend. The group holds regular meetings at Moonfleet Bowls Club, which usually feature a guest speaker and cover a variety of topics.

Table tennis sessions are one of a number of activities open to members, including weekly exercise classes at Osprey Leisure Centre, two member’s meetings each month, subsidised therapeutic reflexology and complementary therapy.

The group would love to welcome new players to their ongoing table tennis sessions, which run weekly on Monday

afternoons between 2pm and 4pm at the Wyke Regis Community Hall. Cost is just £2 per session for attendees.

Please contact the group for more information via info@csiders.org or call

Can you feed the Zebras?

Sherborne Town football club are looking for somebody to run their match day catering facility.

The role will involve cooking basic food to feed players, match officials and supporters. You will be serving hungry Zebras from the club's tea bar at half-time.

Ideally this would be a voluntary position, however the club are happy to hear from commercial organisations who may wish to be considered.

Some experience required.

All enquiries to john.bowers@mjbowers.co.uk

TOP FORM: Ken Willis, right, with coach Mick Hogan, left, and chairman Pete Meacham, centre.

Above: With Les Board

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Moonfleet 86 Arun 56

Moonfleet 2000 Ladies have reached the final of the national Vivienne Trophy after an outstanding victory over Arun Ladies from Bognor Regis.

Four rinks of Triples teams along with over 30 supporters, many sporting green wigs representating club colours, travelled to Banister Park in Eastleigh, to play the semi-final of this national competition. The 18-end contest, with all four games playing simultaneously, proved to be an amazing experience for both players and spectators alike.

Moonfleet’s four teams comprised of Val Griffen, Judy Why and skip Jill Gwilliam; Karen Hofen, Kath Desmond and skip Margaret Crawford; Chris Rod, Di Edwards with skip Anne Chislett; and finally Mairi Mathie, Val Spicer and their skip Carole Venton.

After five ends, the Gwilliam and Crawford rinks were evenly matched, while the Chislett trio had pulled ahead 8-1, however alarmingly the Arun Ladies had accelerated

Improving Bees pick up points on the road

Green for go as Ladies line up Lincoln in final

seat and after adding 17 more shots overall to just two from Arun over the final ends, finished with an impressive 86-56 victory.

away to a 12-0 lead against the Venton triple. Five ends later, the Moonfleet ladies trailed by only 2 shots overall at 38-40, as the Gwilliam team nudged ahead and the Chislett triple stormed ahead 16-5.

With the Venton trio now on the board, there was a surge in determination and, with the help of some very vocal support, they were only two shots

behind their rivals by end 15.

With all rinks adding to their scores at this point, the overall total was now 69-54 in Moonfleet’s favour.

From that moment onwards there was no stopping the Weymouth ladies as the cheers from the supporters and quality of play all round increased. Moonfleet were now firmly in the driving

It was a remarkable team effort with everyone holding their nerve. The Chislett trio totally outplayed their opponents finishing with a crushing 33-7 score while the Venton team overcame their earlier struggles to steal victory on the final end.

The ladies are now looking forward to a trip to the national finals day in Nottingham, with their final against Lincoln to be held on Thursday, April 6.

The Bees continued their fine form under the

stewardship of Chris Herbst, earning seven points and three clean sheets in a week to see them climb to 12th in the table. Herbst’s charges followed up a comfortable home victory against Holsworthy with four

points on the road against mid-table opposition in Cullompton Rangers and Torridgeside. Sol Ayunga, pictured, was a match-winning substitute in the midweek fixture away at Cullompton Rangers, scoring a brace of goals

HERE WIG-O: The Moonfleet 200 Ladies team and, below, some of their supporters wearing their green wigs

West Bay Sea Angling Club’s annual presentation night took place at the Jurassic Fun Centre with chairman Rod Barr handing out 49 trophies to winners across various categories.

In the junior category, Mason Price and Lidy Carter were big winners, scooping eight trophies between them.

Mason was the overall winner of the Saturday Junior competitions winning the Saturday Cup, he also won the Hils trophy for the heaviest fish caught in the Saturday juniors’ matches with his thick-lipped mullet.

Lidy Carter was the top junior lady, winning the Ladies’ Junior Trophy and also bagging the Fred Bowditch Memorial Trophy, the Lambert Trophy and the coveted Forward Trophy, which is presented to the most promising junior. The Jurassic League winner was Ross Bourne, with Mason the runner-up. Lidy also triumphed in the Junior Species League, winning with 39pts, while Paul House was the overall winner in the Handicap Species League with 84pts from a handicap of +09. Paul also

Club anglers land big haul of prizes

landed the trophy for the main Species League with a total of 75 points. The top boat anglers of 2022 were Gerry Reed and Graham Stephenson with four trophies apiece. Gerry won the Angler Trophy, Boat Champions Shield, Bridport News Cup and the Symes Cup. Graham won the Boat Festival Cup, Conger Trophy

having replaced Tom Richardson on the hour mark. Ayunga’s first came after 75 minutes, the striker applying a tidy finish to Sam Handyside’s excellent through-ball, and he then rounded off a fine team move ten minutes later following good work from Handyside and Will Gape to make sure of the points.

The win against Holsworthy never looked in doubt, although the Bees

(boat), Conservation Trophy (Boat) and the Tia Maria Specimen Trophy. The top shore anglers of 2022 were Ian Draper and Steve Harwood, who also collected four trophies each. Ian was presented with the Ball Cup, Conservation Cup (Shore), Peter Payne Memorial Trophy and the Specimen Trophy. Steve was

found the visiting ‘keeper in fine form and were guilty of some wayward finishing.

Ayunga scored the Bees’ first on the half hour mark, and despite a dominant performance, they had to wait until second-half stoppage time to make the game safe, Robin Jones firing home from close range from Tom Richardson’s centre. Although Bridport lacked a cutting

presented with the Alan Moulding Memorial Trophy, The Andy Neal Roving Challenge Trophy, The Committee Cup and the Kingfisher Cup. Top juniors in the main presentation were Mason Price and Aaron Chambers with four trophies apiece. Mason was presented with the Junior Shore Festival Cup, the Frank Jackson Memorial Trophy, The Lyme Bay Marine Mullet Trophy and the Woolwich Cup.

Aaron won the Eric Hamblett Memorial Trophy, The Jake Neal Roving challenge Trophy, Junior Cup (Shore) and the Junior Species Trophy. Top senior lady for 2022 was Frances Kitchin, who won the Ladies Shore Cup for the fifth year running. The coveted Clubman Shield was awarded to Steve Fowles, testament to his support of club activities throughout the year, including Saturday juniors, shore matches, boat matches and social events. The finale of the evening was the presentation of the President’s Cup, which was awarded to Ben Carter for his outstanding efforts in developing the club’s juniors.

edge in a scrappy game against Torridgeside, Herbst will be delighted with his team’s continued good form and solid defensive record.

n The Bees return to St Mary’s Field as they host Teignmouth AFC on Saturday, March 11, with high-flying Okehampton Argyle the visitors on Saturday, March 18.

PRIZE GUY: Ben Carter receives the prestigious President’s Cup from club chairman Rod Barr Picture: EMILY CARTER

By Stuart Wickham stuart@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Dorchester Cricket Club have announced the appointment of Ross Baker as their new head coach. Ross takes over the role from Sean Fitzgerald, who has moved on after ten years with Dorchester to focus on his commitments as a community coach with Somerset County Cricket. Incoming coach Ross will balance his responsibilities as all-rounder and chairman at Beaminster, while taking charge of coaching

Dorchester’s three senior teams and supporting the development of the club’s ladies and junior sections. Dorchester chairman Mark Derrien said: “Dorchester are thrilled to appoint Ross Baker to take over from Sean Fitzgerald as head coach. Fitz, who has been head coach for the past ten seasons, has stood down due to work commitments with Somerset. “Ross met with senior player James Dunham and I and we were both hugely impressed with his vision for both the adult members and the youth section. Ross has the task of organising adults’ nets and making our best players better, whilst being inclusive to less experienced players

Ross steps up to head coach post

and developing the everexpanding youth section.”

Ross said: “It’s a great challenge for me and it’s come at a really good time.

“I really enjoy coaching and it’s a great opportunity.

“I do a lot of schools coaching, which has dropped off a little, so have a bit of extra time to dedicate to Dorchester and I’m really looking forward to working with the players there.”

Ross will continue to play for Beaminster, where he has been a driving force on and off the pitch for many years and does not see any potential for divided loyalty. Ross said: “There certainly won’t be any

conflict of interests to worry about in the short term. Dorchester Firsts will be competing in the Premier Division with the Second team aiming to be competitive in Division Three. Beaminster First XI will be looking to consolidate in Division One, so none of these teams will be playing each other.”

One key aim of Ross’s appointment is to wrest the Premier title back in 2023. Having won three consecutive titles, the Firsts finished in third behind Poole and Wimborne in a tight title race, and Ross is hopeful of bringing it back to West Dorset. He said: “It has to be

the aim. They were just pipped at the post last year and will want to get the trophy back this season. It’s looking really strong for West Dorset with a lot of representation in the top two divisions and it would be great to reclaim the crown for the West.

“I will be organising and structuring the training nights, so that the pressure isn’t all on the skippers. As well as leading the training for the senior men’s teams, I’ll be involved with some of the youngsters and the ladies teams too. I just want to help out as much as I can, and take some of the pressure off the captains and coaches.

“With the ladies, they have a good core of players and really enjoy it. We’d like to get more fixtures and grow. “They’re doing really well and it’s my job to help improve their skills.”

Ross added: “I certainly don’t feel ready to hang up my boots just yet and am looking forward to playing back in Division One this year. I’ll take it year by year but as long as my body feels up to it, I’ll want to carry on playing.

“When the world’s current best bowler (Jimmy Anderson) is a 40 year-old, age really is just a number.”

More sides sign up for county town’s T20 league

By Robin Potter

The Dorchester and District T20 Cricket League have now finalised the set-up for the 2023 competitions. Dorchester Casuals and Plush have added sides so there will be 20 teams across three divisions.

Casuals are expected to be strong contenders to stop Puddletown achieving a hat-trick of league titles and repeating last year’s cup and league double.

Hazelbury Bryan, Cattistock and Symene, Martinstown, Charlton Down and St Georges are also likely to feature strongly.

Frampton and Bere Regis will be keen to consolidate their promotion to Division 2, with Abbotsbury, Cerne Valley, Dewlish, Plush and Puddletown Seconds in opposition. New Look/ASM and Puddletown RFC, along with the second or third strings from Plush, Charlton Down,

Casuals and Plush will be aiming for promotion from Division 3, while showing how clubs are keen to support cricketers of all abilities. Fixtures run from the last week in April through to the end of July, with some rearrangements undoubtedly spilling over into August unless the weather is kind as last year’s. All matches will start at 6.30pm and full details can be found on the league’s Play-Cricket site.

CHANGING PLACES: Dorchester’s new head coach Ross Baker and, right, outgoing coach Sean Fitzgerald

By Stuart Wickham stuart@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Beaminster First XI captain Chris Park has been talking to the West Dorset Magazine, to reflect on his championship-winning start as skipper, preparations for the coming season, the trouble with cricketing neighbours and, of course, his new nickname.

Former Dorset county player Chris – now affectionately known as “Jim” since my blooper in getting his name wrong last summer – is excited about what 2023 has in store and is not underestimating the challenge as his charges seek to adapt to a higher standard.

“You can call me Jim, everybody does now! The team have been having lots of fun with it on WhatsApp and it’s really stuck. I’m not worried about it, we love the banter and it’s been very good for team spirit. I imagine they’ll be a few opposition players calling me that too as we get into the season.”

Beaminster won a closely-fought battle for the Division Two title in 2022, edging out Chalke Valley in a nail-biting finale to win the championship by just two points.

Jim said: “There is part of me that thinks I should retire after last year. Quit while I’m ahead! We didn’t really expect to get promoted last season, let alone be the champions. Chalke Valley had a very strong side but we won

Beaminster are up to the challenge, says skipper ‘Jim’

some really tight games, including the game against them. They were probably much stronger than us on paper, but I think it was our team spirit and togetherness saw us through.

over 450 runs and we had four bowlers take 20-plus wickets so it was a real team effort. Everybody stood up and gave us a performance at one time or another and that carried us through.”

and it really helps for the future.

“Our ultimate aim is to get to the Premier Division, but if we can consolidate next season, that would be great. The young blood that we’ve got coming through could really help us with that goal in mind, particularly when they progress and mature as players.”

The Second XI will be plying their trade in the Somerset league, largely owing to the challenges of travelling to fixtures. Jim explains: “With home games at Verwood, there is lots of travel and they are young players without too many drivers in the team and playing in Somerset makes it a lot easier. We are always happy for volunteer drivers, it really helps us out.”

“We have some really committed players and knowing that the same nine or ten players are likely to be starting every game gives us a real sense of stability and unity. Five of our top order scored

Jim does not underestimate the challenge ahead as the team look to consolidate in the coming season. He said: “I feel positive that we’ll be able to hold our own in Division One, we have a good squad and are a united group. Although the core of the team should be the same throughout the season, barring injury, we’ve got our Second XI running well now too, so we know that we can call upon those players if need be and they’ll be matchready. Of course, some of them are young but it’s great experience if they do get the chance to step up

Beaminster will shortly start preparations for the season. Jim said: “Nets started on February 23 at Colfox School in Bridport and will continue on Thurdsay evenings indoors for a few more weeks, then we hope the weather will be okay for outdoor practice.

“We had a good influx of new players last year, with five or six new faces, and only lost a couple due to moving away or work. We’d love the same this year and are always open to anybody coming along, any age, gender or ability, we’ll guarantee them a great Beaminster welcome. n Net practice sessions continue indoors at the Sir John Colfox Academy, weekly on Thursdays at 7pm. £3 per person.

CHAMPAGNE MOMENT: Beaminster celebrate winning the Division II title last year and, inset, Chris ‘Jim’ Park

It’s all set to go on new tennis ladder

The Jurassic Singles Tennis Ladder will begin its sixth year in early April and is currently open to new participants.

The popular competition has gone from strength to strength, with over 40 competitors playing more than 350 matches last summer and with prize money paid to those finishing in the top four. Last year’s ladder was won by Kaiese Brown, who beat John Samuelson 6-4 6-2 in

Puzzle solutions

the final. Matches are played within a seven-mile radius of Dorchester, with games regularly played at tennis clubs, local village courts and the town parks, including the Borough Gardens in Dorchester. The competition is again being organised by Weymouth tennis club coach Clive Stow and Matt Barrett.

Clive said: ”One of the best ways tennis players can

improve their game is by competing on the ladder, and the informal structure where players can contact each other and play up to four

GAME ON: Last year's runner-up John Samuelson and Ladder winner Kaiese Brown

places above or below makes it easy to organise. The entry fee of £10 remains the same as last year.” Any questions please contact Clive on 07484 186761 or jurassictennis ladder@gmail.com More details can be found on the ladder website jurassictennisladder. wordpress.com

From pages 80-81

Brain chain (Hard)

Cryptic Crossword

Amazing grazing in wildflower plots

Writing for local publications has its benefits, and we are currently reaping the rewards in our own village deep in the Lydden Vale. I put out a plea for some small grazing plots and the village has come up trumps.

Spoilt now for wildflower meadow grazing, we have scattered plots containing sheep who are clearly enjoying helping out by eating the grass. Why graze wildflower meadows?

In my ignorance I thought that they would be a liability, eating the wrong things, but it seems I was wrong. Grazing improves the sward structure, they open up gaps and holes with their hooves and remove any excess vegetation.

New growth will be able to establish itself in the holes that they leave, although we need to take care that they are not there for too long as their feet can equally do a lot of damage, by compacting the ground and churning it up.

The sheep will naturally

spread manure, no need for any fertiliser there as they are busy putting those nutrients back into the soil, and they will eat everything, right down to the brambles.

Our sheep love wild garlic and at early springtime smell of the stuff, we believe that by rolling in it they are defending themselves against bites from midges – who said sheep are stupid? Grazing wildflower meadows does produce sustainable, ecofocused, responsiblyraised lamb, they too are calm, well fed and happy sheep and I get my mindfulness moment watching them graze such beautiful places. Fortunately wildflower meadows are on the increase – 97% have been lost since the Second World War, they are a haven for bees and an important addition to farming.

Alex the scan man has been to visit the flock to see how well the paddock

party with Humphrey the ram went. Clearly a good time was had by all as the older ewes have all scanned for twins. Which makes life a lot easier for us, Zwartbles are good mums, but do only have two sides to drink from, so hopefully we will have no issues with rejected lambs this year. Knowing what the ewes are having helps us to bring in a feeding regime that will benefit both them and the unborn lambs. More vitamins and minerals are provided by special lick buckets and feeding enough to maintain the ewes and keep them healthy. Twin lamb disease can pull a ewe down very quickly, if she isn’t getting enough to maintain her pregnancy, she will divert all of her energy to the unborn lambs and allow herself to almost slip into the equivalent of a diabetic coma, so nutrition and enough of it is key during the next few weeks.

As there are a lot of pregnant sheep in the fields currently, it is a good time to mention sheep that are cast – lying on its back with its legs in the air. At this time of year they are weighed down with pregnancy or full fleeces, and for whatever reason they lie down and cannot get back up. Gasses build up in their abdomen and they can die in a matter of hours. Walk over quietly to it and roll it over, once it is the right way up it should run back to the rest of the flock. It should make a full recovery. As a smallholder myself I would be eternally grateful to anyone that saved one of my sheep, just watch out for the back legs – they can give an unsuspecting person a fair whack. Being sheep, who are programmed to want to die, once it has trotted off, it will probably do it again, or at very least stick its head through the stock fence.

Mud-phobic Tria Stebbing lives on the outskirts of Sherborne. She keeps sheep, is working on her first book, and works in a village school.

ON THE RISE: Wildflower meadows are increasing and a haven for bees and other wildlife

Taking the worry out of dog worrying for sheep

By CHARLOTTE DEBBAUT Veterinary surgeon at Synergy Farm Health

Dog worrying is unfortunately a year-round problem for those looking after sheep flocks. Incidents result in losses not only due to the actual physical attack, but also due to stress experienced by the sheep when chased. This time of year, the effects are even more profound, with worrying stress causing pregnant ewes to abort and freshly lambed ewes to mis-mother or abandon their lambs.

Damage to fencing by fleeing sheep is another potential cost. Importantly, seeing the effects of worrying can have a profound effect on the farmer’s mental health. The NSA’s annual sheep worrying survey 2022 reported that most respondents feel problems have increased since the covid pandemic, with the majority experiencing multiple attacks per year. What can you do to reduce the risk of worrying taking

Protect your guns with specialist will

By Lisa Pharaoh of Pharaoh Law

In the UK, firearms are subject to strict regulation under the Firearms Act 1968. This legislation sets out the legal requirements for ownership and possession of firearms and outlines the penalties for non-compliance. It is essential to understand that firearms are not considered ordinary possessions, and the law treats them differently. If you own firearms in the United Kingdom, it is crucial to make provisions for them in your will, failure to do so can cause significant problems for your loved ones after you are gone.

To avoid these issues, we recommend ensuring

that you have:

• A will containing relevant and effective clauses

• An Executor’s Pack

We can review your existing will, prepare new wills and Executor’s Packs. We can act as your sole or joint executor to carry out your wishes to ensure the safety and care of your firearms.

Lisa, our Director and Solicitor advised the Police for over a decade and can advise on matters where you believe you have experienced poor conduct from the police. We advise upon all matters concerning Firearm and Shotgun Certificates. Should your licence be revoked or your application be refused then you must act quickly. We can assist.

place?

Check to see if your fencing is secure and effective. If possible, avoid grazing pregnant ewes and ewes with young lambs at foot in fields frequented by dog walkers. Provide appropriate, hard-wearing signage to make dog owners aware of the presence of sheep and lambs. Informative (rather than deterring) signage can be very effective, since many dog owners are not aware a loose dog, even if

not attacking, can still cause the sheep distress. Some good signage is available through the NSA. Finally, report worrying events to local authorities. According to NSA’s survey 81% of respondents reported one, several or all worrying events, which is an increase on the previous year. However, only 36% reported every incident. It is important to continue reporting, so the authorities are aware of the scale of the problem. It is worth bearing in mind the NSA Legal helpline offers members 30 minutes of free advice on legal topics, including sheep worrying.