Down to earth

BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO

BA Hons History of

Architecture and Design In theory Church Ope Cove on Portland should be a treasure trove for beachcombers. The density of historical buildings including a15th century castle and a 13th century church perched above the beach suggest goodies. The cove itself was a wellknown smuggling spot and there have been many a ship wreck in the infamous tidal races. While I did spot cute lizards on the long walk down to the cove I did not see a glint of sea-glass or quartz anywhere. The pebbles are more boulder-like on the beach, where years of quarrying work have replaced the once apparently sandy beach with chunks of stone. Possibly, as with West Bay, the treasure is buried too deep for us to get our hands on. To double-check it was not just me, I viewed many YouTube videos of metal detecting and beachcombing at Church Ope Cove online. This search only confirmed my suspicion – there is not much there. However, during the same search I stumbled upon another claim to fame for Church Ope cove – it is the first noted place where the Vikings invaded in England. Visions of finding battle-dropped Norse runes, Plantagenet coins and Tudor buttons all in one gorgeous day flashed through my mind. I could almost hear the pirate ghost of the Flying Dutchman from Sponge Bob Square pants laughing at my daft expectations. At the top of the walk down to the cove sits Portland Museum. Next visit I will start my search with a thorough local knowledge data grab from here. Until then I was guided by the geologist Ian West’s fabulous websites: wessexcoastgeology.soton. ac.uk/Portland-IsleGeological. He had me at ‘Celestite’ – what a beautiful name for a mineral. I suspect if Ian West was taking the same path I did he would be able to detect a spectrum of gems which I do not notice. He speaks of Portland Alabaster and black magnetite pebbles and I can only dream of developing the knowledge to be able to spot them! It’s enough for me that they are there. It ignites the fire in the rock hound that I am. Ian also mentions trace fossils at the cove and reminds us that it is a Site of Special Interest, so no hammers allowed. Although I did not spot any fossils at Church Ope, on another visit to Portland climbing up from First Beach I took this photo of a fossil found climbing up from First Beach.

STONE ME: A fossil found climbing up from First Beach on Portland

Church Ope Cove with stone boulders and beach huts, part of the ruins of old St Andrew’s Chruch and, right, the path down to Church Ope Cove Where there’s Ope, there’s a lot of history to discover

Earth-loving poets are being called to add their voice to a wall of words for the West Dorset Friends of The Earth’s Great Big Green Week. The group is hosting a week of events to highlight the climate emergency, including an opening event with stalls, refreshments, picnicking and music on Saturday, September 24 from 10.30am-3pm at the Millennium Green. The theme for the week focuses on local acts of restoration: for our land, our rivers, our seas and how these actions can serve to restore our own hope, energy and perspective. Many of the events are still being planned, but events from Bridport Tree Planting, Bridport Town Council, Bike through Town, visit a beaver’s lair, a refreshing swim in the sea on the closing weekend are on the calendar and more will be added in the next couple of weeks. One event starts now. The group is asking people to write a poem, share your favourite quote, or draw a cartoon. Scott Morrison of West Dorset Friends of the Earth, said: “Tell us your hopes, your worries, your anger or determination. “They will be displayed at the opening gathering on a wall of words and randomly about town. “Join in, we are all in this ride together.” Entries should be emailed to jenny@thehacketts.uk

DOWN TO EARTH: Looking after our land is just one of the many topics during West Dorset Friends of the Earth’s Great Big Green Week

Do the write thing to help the Great Big Green Week

or handed in at the tourist information centre. Entries can be handwritten, typed, signed or anonymous. n Go to westdorsetfriends oftheearth.org.uk for more information

The Friends of the Earth has a number of ongoing projects on the go. Here are a couple of them: n In autumn 2019 Bridport Tree Planting partnered up with WD FoE to plant trees in the area. Their aim is to encourage and help people plant trees: to reinvigorate our climate and wildlife. The group can provide trees at low cost or no cost in small numbers to the community of and around Bridport, provide help with planting and procurement, and give advice. They are cooperating with other planting groups, nurseries and tree management experts, and have a community nursery for saplings at Riverside Gardens. Anyone with small trees to donate? Or with spaces for planting? Contact Joe on joe@thehacketts.uk

n Plastic Free Bridport is a campaign to rid Bridport of as much single-use plastic as possible. Run by Surfers Against Sewage, it provides a set of instructions for a town to attain plastic free status. In August Bridport achieved this, having recruited 18 businesses to join in and 32 community allies. The group’s 18 Business Champions have removed at least three different plastic items from their normal practice. Together with our allies they help raise awareness of the massive environmental and health problems emanating from plastic pollution. Their next scheduled event is our autumn Street to Sea litter clean on Sunday, October 16, which will clean the streets of Bridport, the riversides of the Brit and the beaches of West Bay. If you want to sign up get in touch with Mayor at ianbark@icloud.com

Hell of a village with Beelze-Bubb

PAGAN VIEWS by JO BELASCO

About five years ago we were house hunting around the Evershot area. Melbury Bubb is not really a village you can find yourself in by accident, but we were nosing around the area and couldn’t resist checking out this funny sounding place. The T-junction where you turn into the cul-de-sac of Melbury Bubb is named Hell Corner, as you can see from the photo. The house on the corner has a large sign with Hell House on it. I was trying to explain to our sons that the hell in the name was probably more to do with hel from the Greek word Helios, meaning sun. Trying to counter their excited imaginations with images of the sun rising and the rays lighting up the pathway. No, they preferred scaring each other with lurid stories of gateways into hell fire in darkest West Dorset. The die was cast. What we may have found quaint was now a bit spooky. There was no obvious place to park and not a soul about. It is a beautifully well-kept village with some gorgeous trees and architecture. The church has a fortresslike wall around it with tall gates which block your view. Looking beyond the church are the Dorset Downs crested with woodlands. Inside the church my favourite find was the wonderfully sculpted Anglo-Saxon font. A menagerie of animals including a stag, a bird, a dolphin, a horse and a dog decorated the surface. The information sheets told us that this object had once been a column which had been hollowed out to create a font. While I could entertain the idea that early Anglo Saxons (or more likely in my mind Pagan Celts) were reluctant to stop dancing round the column-cumtotem pole and sit quietly in the church, I could not quite believe that a column would have been hollowed out to make a font? I thought it more likely that the Pagans were resisting the pull of the church so the vicar ordered the already hollowed out totem/column on the hill top to be rolled down and into the church. Just to make the whole scene a little odder the carving on the font is upside down. So, did they do this on purpose for practical reasons? Or was it done in the same vein as that Hammer Horror staple – the upside down cross?

A GOOD SIGN: A fingerpost from a recent visit and, right, the downs above Melbury Bubb

YOU’RE WELCOME: The House at Hell Corner at Melbury Bubb

FONT-ASTIC: The magnificient font at St Mary’s and, right, the animals on the font

The West Dorset Magazine, September 9, 2022 41 Down to earth Record numbers of hummingbird hawkmoths

Sally Cooke lives in Tolpuddle with her husband, two grown up sons and her spotty rescue dog. You can follow Sally on Instagram at Sparrows in a Puddle

There’s a particular garden visitor that I’m always thrilled to see. My mum has phoned me in excitement when she’s seen one, friends have shared little clips of video on social media and my cousin even planted up a flowerbed specially to attract them. The hummingbird hawkmoth looks and behaves so like a tiny hummingbird that the RSPB has a special page devoted to them on their website, calling them one of the most remarkable cases of mistaken identity in the animal world. Hummingbird hawkmoths are chunky, day-flying moths with brown spotted abdomens and bright orange hindwings. They are summer visitors to Dorset, migrating up from southern Europe. The long spell of warm southerly winds this summer has meant that record numbers of this amazing moth have visited our gardens. The British Trust for Ornithology (another organisation more associated with birds) has recorded a four-fold increase in garden sightings compared to a typical summer. In my garden, the hawkmoths are most attracted to red valerian, a flower species introduced in the 1600s and now naturalised in the UK, often seen growing out of walls or bits of broken pavement. Its tubular flowers are rich in nectar and the moth hovers as it uses its long proboscis (tongue) to extract it, looking just like a hummingbird as it does so. The moth beats its wings so fast (80 beats per second) as it flits between the flowers that it creates an audible hum. Hummingbirds and hummingbird hawkmoths are examples of a phenomenon called convergent evolution. Although unrelated species, when faced with the usual challenges of finding enough to eat and living long enough to reproduce, over time Nature has come to the same solution, creating near identical looks and behaviour. It’s been wonderful to see so many hummingbird hawkmoths in the garden this year and with our climate changing, the number that breed and overwinter here is likely to increase. We can help moths, and butterflies and bees too, by growing nectar-rich plants in our gardens but also by not tidying up too much. I try and resist the urge to cut back the garden too much at the end of the summer. By leaving some fallen leaves and old stems, I can provide some places where moths and other beneficial insects can safely hide away over the winter.

Berry good way to wake up, if you don’t mind acid

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.

Foragers are notorious for keeping their foraging spots to themselves, telling only blood descendants. So, do not expect me to give much away here. However, I am prepared to say that there are several populations of Sea Buckthorn in Dorset, some highly conspicuous, some not. Certainly, there is enough for me, but only if you take it easy if you find some. Until fairly recently it was confined to the east coast of Britain, but its usefulness in stabilising sand dunes has encouraged authorities to plant it around many more coasts, and highway authorities have adopted it as a vigorous and colourful tree to plant on roadsides. The tree is really a shrub, about the size of an elder, with small, grey/green leaves and (the big giveaway) thousands of brilliant orange berries that form dense clumps along the many branches from late July until November. The berries are almost unpickable because they burst with the slightest squeeze, so it is much easier to cut away entire clumps using secateurs, trim them, then put them in the freezer for 24 hours. Place these in a big bin liner while still frozen and bounce the bag of berries on the floor to detach them. With some thought, it is easy enough to separate the berries from everything else. Wash them, then gently cook them with a little water in a pan until they all burst. Sieve out the tiny pips, pushing the juice and pulp through. Having done all of this, you will have something that looks like orange juice. The flavour is not entirely unlike it either, except that it tastes as though half a bottle of sulphuric acid has been added. In fact, it contains large quantities of malic acid, the acid found in apples. I love the neat juice and will cheerfully drink a large shot first thing in the morning as a bump-start to day – adding sugar just draws attention to the acidity. Why drink it? Well, Sea Buckthorn is high in vitamin C, A, K and E, plus an ironmonger’s shop of minerals, plus essential oils and numerous complex organic compounds normally found in the expensive form of capsules. If you find the raw juice too much of a deterrent it can be made to taste more acceptably pleasant, as in a sweet Sea Buckthorn jelly, or, best of all, Sea Buck’s Fizz. Cheers!