Marshwood+ April 2021

A Passion for Mary Anning Page 10

The positive role of music in mental health Page 36

The Power to Make Change Page 43

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© John Read Photograph by Robin Mills

The best from West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon

No. 265 April 2021

COVER STORY Robin Mills met John Read at Penfold’s Corner, Winterbourne Abbas

© John Read Photograph by Robin Mills

’I

was born in Wells, in Somerset. I went to a family party recently and met a lot of my cousins, and it seems like we were all born at the same nursing home there. My mother and father rented a farm at a place called Farncombe, near Shepton Mallet. Mother drove a Ford tractor, went ploughing, and other tractor work, while Dad did the dairy. That would be around 1947. The owner of the farm decided to sell up, so we had to leave. My uncle also farmed near there at a place called Chesterblade, so we moved there to live.

It was the middle of nowhere, and Uncle only switched on the electric to milk the cows, although he did put it on so we could watch the Cup Final. I think my dad was involved in cheese making at one time.

The first school I went to was a convent in Shepton Mallet. That was because someone in the village took his daughter there in the mornings, so I could get a lift, and mum would pick us up in the afternoon. I went to various schools after that, then Dad got a job on a farm at Trent, near Sherborne, and I went to St Aldhelms, which is now the Gryphon School in Sherborne. After the farm at Trent, Dad got a job on a farm at Forston, near Godmanstone, in about 1960. We left there and moved into Dorchester just as I was Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 3

John Read

© John Read Photograph by Robin Mills

leaving school.

I’ve got 2 brothers and a sister. My older brother David looked after us quite a bit. I can remember him taking me to the Motor Show at Earls Court in a Mini, when they first came out in 1959. He did well at school, and went to Hull University.

He worked at Sheffield University, later lecturing in biology all over the world. His speciality was trees—I used to call him the tree doctor—he’s now Professor Sir David J Read FRS. My first job after school was at Lee 4 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Motors in Dorchester in 1962. We serviced Vauxhall, Bedford, Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles. If you go into Iceland car park in Trinity Street, there’s a wall down one side—that’s where our benches were. That was a 5 year apprenticeship, including day-release at college. I was one of 6 apprentices to start that year, and in due course it was suggested to me I should start working on lorries, with a first class man called Graham Hansford, from Charminster. He taught me the job, as well as being a brilliant man to work with.

Later on, work moved down to London Road, where the Shell Garage is now. One day I was changing the engine in a police bus from Chantmarle, when I became unable to move. I managed to push the tools into a heap with my feet, but had to go to hospital, where I was told my spine had collapsed. I was in Portland hospital for weeks, where they took bone from my hips, and fused the spine with it. I was also told I’d never do any heavy work again. I was in my early twenties. I went back to work in the stores at Lee Motors, then

applied for a job as service reception engineer for the workshop in London Road.

Eventually they started me on trial; I put a lot into it, and it worked out well for me.

Lee Motors briefly became Rob Walkers—he was a racing driver, and we had an open day with Lamborghinis and Ferraris on show, but we weren’t allowed to drive them. That didn’t last long, and Caffyns took over, although they didn’t want to be involved with lorries. Graham Hansford said to me, “we need to find a good boss”, so in 1973 we engineered a meeting with Brian Cook, who was the transport manager for Dorchester Transport. We were always doing work for them at Lee Motors, so we asked Brian to ask the owner of Dorchester Transport, Mr Perry, if he could take us on. Of course, everyone wanted Graham to fix their trucks, so he was glad to. At the time, they had just bought their first Volvo truck, which was in a different league to the ERF’s and AEC’s that we were used to; it was said there was no chance of nodding off to sleep in an ERF, it was so noisy and uncomfortable. In its heyday Dorchester Transport ran 35 trucks, and became a Volvo dealership; Volvo trucks became massively popular at that time. I also worked for Lee Lines Commercial, part of Dorchester Transport, on the recovery vehicle. I went all over the place towing broken down trucks, winching them out when they got stuck, and recovering them after accidents. I’ve got albums of photographs I took at the time which make an interesting record—in fact I was known a bit for taking a good photo.

I got to know my father-in-law John Penfold through fixing his lorries. He was hauling hay and straw, he had lorries with a platform over the cab roof for the job. One thing always seemed to lead to another with John. My boss told me Pop (as we called him) had asked for me to come out and have a look at his car one day, which smelt of petrol. When

repair broken ones for reuse.

My younger son Richard joined the Navy at 18, then he had the option of leaving at 25 or stay on till he was 40, so he decided to come out and be a pallet man. He’s been brilliant, and held the business together. My older son Chris is an electrician, a very good one; he can fix anything.

On May Bank Holiday in 2005 I had a bad car accident. My wife and I, and Pop, were on the coast road at Burton Bradstock when we were involved in a head on collision with a car which had veered across the road into us. I was air lifted to Southampton hospital with a broken neck. Sadly Pop passed away 3 days later. It was a very sad time for all of us, but we pulled © John Read Photograph by Robin Mills together and got through it.

Things that happen here, I’d got under the car to remove the tank on this corner on the main which was leaking, he said, “while you’re road, are unbelievable. I remember one under there you can stick these on”, a night a well-dressed young girl knocked pair of track rod ends. He got me to help on the door at about 1.00am, and asked out loading hay and straw on his lorry where the nearest train station was. I in the evenings, then I began to notice said, “Dorchester, but there won’t be any his daughter Mandy, and that’s how we trains at this time of night. Where are you got together; we got married, and I got trying to get to?” “Boscombe”, she said. involved in the business. Pop also did “My boyfriend and I had an argument fertiliser sacks, collecting the empty and he threw me out of the car”. So Pop ones from farms (when they were 50kg said to me, “Get dressed, I wouldn’t want bags) and reselling them as rubble sacks my daughter walking the roads this time for builders. They were fetched back of night, we’re going to Boscombe.” So here to the yard, flattened and rolled up we took her home. I often help people into packs of 50. A lorry load was 40 out who have broken down. A chap was to 50,000 sacks, and I’d take them up to here with a puncture on his nice new London, Cardiff, Bristol, West Bromwich, BMW the other day, no spare wheel of all over the country. Then 1 tonne bulk course these days, had to get recovered bags came in, and that killed the trade. back to Shaftesbury. We gave them tea We started with the pallets because I and biscuits while they waited. Accidents, noticed at work there was a stack of them there have been loads over the years. in the yard getting in the way. Someone “Accident at Penfold’s Corner” is often at West Bay had asked John if he knew the announcement on the road reports. where he could get some so we supplied The pallets make it a bit of a landmark, them, and John began finding out where everyone knows where it is. we could get hold of pallets and who I’m retired now; I enjoy watching the might be in the market for some, and it pallets come and go, and I look after our went from there. We began supplying 2 German Shepherd dogs. I keep an eye Norman Good and Sons, and learned out for anyone breaking down; I offer to from them what was needed. We also help if I can.

’

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UP FRONT Applying critical thinking to digital sources isn’t always a high priority. We swipe left and right, scroll up and down and glean information from headlines, images and videos as quickly as we can—moving on in case there is something we might miss. The inevitable result is information consumed without much focus. Determining what is real and unreal, true or untrue is distracting. And since most social media is designed to keep us interacting with it by supplying either entertainment or subjects we have trained it to feed us, accuracy is often traded for entertainment or validation. So, with social media now a popular source of world news, and with audiovisual platforms becoming more prone to sophisticated manipulation, it’s no surprise that researchers are trying out tools to help younger users determine the reliability of what they are viewing. Thomas Nygren, from Uppsala University in Sweden, has helped develop a simple tool to train younger internet users to fact check online posts. The online tool at newsevaluator. com isn’t exactly complicated. It offers some practical tips such as doing reverse image searches and not always choosing the search result at the top of the hit page. For most people, this may seem obvious, but Nygren’s tool is aimed at a very young generation. It hopes to make them more critically aware in the digital world. Whilst it makes sense to ensure children are aware of the fact that not everything online is true, the generations that have grown up with social media are pretty savvy and more likely to be led astray by their elders.

Perhaps the market for Nygren’s tool should be for people that ought to know better. In the meantime, those of us old enough to know that ‘traditional’ news sources were no angels either, tend to settle for tried and tested ways of determining what is and isn’t real. For example, did you know that according to Humphrey Walwyn’s Laterally Speaking column this month, a firm in Honiton has been knitting thousands of woollen mittens to give to van delivery workers to keep their hands warm during deliveries? You could fact check that on the internet or you could take note of Humphrey’s own news evaluator statement that his findings are not necessarily ‘real’.

Fergus Byrne

Published Monthly and distributed by Marshwood Vale Ltd Lower Atrim, Bridport Dorset DT6 5PX For all Enquiries Tel: 01308 423031 info@marshwoodvale. com

THIS MONTH

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Cover Story By Robin Mills A Passion for Mary Anning By Ines Cavill Event News and Courses News & Views Laterally Speaking By Humphrey Walwyn Otters Return By Connie Doxat Donyatt Pottery by Seth Dellow King Billy By Cecil Amor

26 26 28 30

House & Garden Vegetables in April By Ashley Wheeler April in the Garden By Russell Jordan Property Round Up By Helen Fisher

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34 35

Food & Dining Spinach Soup with Hot Smoked Salmon and Horseradish Crème fraîche By Lesley Waters Lobster, Asparagus and Bacon Salad By Mark Hix Crab Pot Fantasy By Nick Fisher

36 36 40 42 44 45

46 48

Arts & Entertainment Vocal Magic By Fergus Byrne Galleries Young Lit Fix By Antonia Squire The Lit Fix By Sophy Roberts Screen Time By Nic Jeune Health & Beauty Services & Classified “If the human brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn’t.”

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Editorial Director Fergus Byrne

Contributors

Deputy Editor

Cecil Amor Ines Cavill Seth Dellow Connie Doxat Helen Fisher Nick Fisher Richard Gahagan Mark Hix

Victoria Byrne

Design

Fergus Byrne

Advertising

Fergus Byrne info@marshwoodvale.com

Nic Jeune Russell Jordan Robin Mills Sophy Roberts Antonia Squire Humphrey Walwyn Lesley Waters Ashley Wheeler

The views expressed in The Marshwood Vale Magazine and People Magazines are not necessarily those of the editorial team. Unless otherwise stated, Copyright of the entire magazine contents is strictly reserved on behalf of the Marshwood Vale Magazine and the authors.

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of dates, event information and advertisements, events may be cancelled or event dates may be subject to alteration. Neither Marshwood Vale Ltd nor People Magazines Ltd can accept any responsibility for the accuracy of any information or claims made by advertisers included within this publication.

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Trades descriptions act 1968. It is a criminal offence for anyone in the course of a trade or business to falsely describe goods they are offering. The Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. The legislation requires that items offered for sale by private vendors must be ‘as described’. Failure to observe this requirement may allow the purchaser to sue for damages.

Road Traffic Act. It is a criminal offence for anyone to sell a motor vehicle for use on the highway which is unroadworthy.

Cornwall and Devon Councils share £600K cash boost to plant trees in the heart of communities in the south west

T

housands of new trees are to be planted across the south west thanks to a cash boost from the Woodland Trust.

Both Devon and Cornwall councils will benefit from the charity’s Emergency Tree Fund that aims to make up for a current lack of investment to help cash strapped local authorities break through barriers to get more trees and woods in the ground, giving more local communities the green spaces on their doorsteps that are desperately needed, and which have shown to be so important for people during the current pandemic.

Devon County Council, which will receive £297,349, is working towards a net zero carbon emissions target.

Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “The Emergency Tree Fund will help us to kick-start a new ‘Trees for Devon’ initiative, through which we hope to work closely with key partners and with Parish and Town Councils in increasing tree cover across the county. This work will start immediately by providing free tree packs to 40 individuals who have offered land for the planting of a network of copse and tree clumps over the next few weeks.”

Graham Burton, Outreach Manager from the Woodland Trust said: “The drive and enthusiasm from both Devon and Cornwall councils to take action for woods and trees

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is to be commended. This funding will support them in progressing further and faster in delivering their plans for woods and trees, for wildlife, people and the climate.”

In 2019 Cornwall Council declared a Climate Emergency and set out its ambition to become Carbon Neutral by 2030. It has already launched its Forest for Cornwall and the new fund will further help with its aim to create 8,000 hectares of woodland over the coming years.

In total, £2.9 million will going to councils across the UK. It is a key part of the charity’s recently announced ambitious aim to plant 50 million trees by 2025.

John Tucker, the Woodland Trust’s Director of Woodland Outreach at the Trust said: “This funding to councils has the power to inspire a new generation in tree planting and galvanise the need to treasure trees in our neighbourhoods. What the country’s fight against COVID-19 has shown is how communities have come together in a time of crisis. As the pandemic hopefully abates, getting outside and planting trees will be a way for this spirit to be harnessed once again in a different but a very important way—to tackle climate change.”

To achieve its 50 million trees goal the Trust is aiming to create new woods as well as work with the likes of landowners, the Government, businesses and the public. Its Emergency Tree Fund may be expanded should this prove a success. Find out more here: woodlandtrust.org.uk

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A Passion for Mary Anning

The extraordinary fossil finder rarely travelled beyond West Dorset but she could drop through stone and time to trace the outlines of another Earth before our one. Now Lyme Regis is set to give its heroine a statue and in Ammonite filmmaker Francis Lee has imagined for Mary Anning a love to equal her scientific fervour.

O

n a recent Instagram post by @lymeregisfossils there’s a quick film of a hand reaching into a rock pool to extract what looks like an ancient, deeply rusted, bolt. To be told it’s an ichthyosaur vertebrae gives a taste of the thrill of revelation that fired Mary Anning two centuries ago as she discovered—and then correctly identified—the crudely categorised ‘curiosities’ that studded her native Lyme Bay beaches and cliffs; ‘Devil’s Fingers’ were belemnites, ‘Snakestones’ were ammonites.

I was shown this by my son during another session of online-learning that had gone off target but still hit the spot.

Palaeontology is proving to be the passionate preoccupation that provides escape from the boredom and isolation of lockdown life. Did I know that Anning’s first major find, the ichthyosaur, looked nothing like the hard, old ‘shrink-wrapped’ depictions of it as a giant marine lizard because now they’ve found fossil impressions of soft tissue so delicate they show they had dorsal fins and gave birth to live young? Did I? No I didn’t! I didn’t even know it wasn’t actually a dinosaur... ‘Mum, they were more closely related to lizards and snakes but they were alive at the same time as dinosaurs’.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the first scientific identification as an extinct reptile of Anning’s other crucial find, the plesiosaur, though we can’t know if it was based on one of her discoveries as the credit goes to the fossil’s buyer Colonel Thomas Birch. But she does retain acknowledgement for the 1823 discovery and documentation of the first complete plesiosaur skeleton. The intricate annotated diagram of her Early Jurassic treasure is also the most stunning demonstration of her self-taught skills as a scientist. How much she would have loved to see the 2011 fossil find of a pregnant plesiosaur that shows it carries one large foetus and was likely to have cared for that precious progeny like

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a whale does for its young. In her time, these ancient giants were depicted by artists like John Martin and Henry De La Beche as fearsome swamp dragons. At the Great Exhibtion’s Crystal Palace Park they even took the sharp toe bone of a megalosaurus and put it on the end of their model’s nose to make it look more monstrous. Mary’s precious plesiosaur was imagined rowing itself like a freakish prehistoric boat using its fins like oars.

Francis Lee does his imagining in a remote shack in his native Yorkshire where he’s free to create his intensely personal films. He first encountered Anning when he was trying to buy a fossil for his then-boyfriend, and it is that break-up and the possibility of being open to love again that emotionally animates Ammonite. As Lee told Alex Bilmes in an interview for Esquire, he developed a deep respect for Anning, ‘Mary felt like a figure from history who had been ignored, who had no voice and had been passed over, because she was working class and a woman.’ Poor, uneducated, female and young, Mary Anning is now an intersectional feminist icon and elicits devotion on all these counts. The founder of the successful £100,000 Crowdfunding campaign ‘Mary Anning Rocks’ Evie Swire was just 11 years old when she started her appeal, the same age as Mary when her father died and she had to sell fossils to support her family. May 21 next year (Anning’s 223rd birthday) is pencilled for the unveiling of sculptor Denise Dutton’s dynamic Mary setting out to the coastline with basket, tools and her dog Tray.

We know that Tray died on one of these expeditions in a mudslide in 1833 from a letter to her close friend Charlotte Murchison, a fellow fossil-hunter whose lobbying led to the opening of King’s College London’s geology lectures to women.

Lee’s focus in Ammonite is a fictional later meeting between

the two women in the last chapter of Anning’s life. It is the mid 1840s, her greatest finds are in the Natural History Museum (but few attributed to her), the high fashion for fossils is over and in a couple of years she will die of breast cancer aged 47. She lives alone with her mother (played by Lee’s most regular actor, Gemma Jones) and is withdrawn after an unhappy love affair with an older woman (Fiona Shaw’s Elizabeth Philpot). Gentleman geologist Roderick Murchison asks if his young wife Charlotte can be left in Mary’s care, saying she has ‘mild melancholia’. She has lost a child.

Like Lee’s first feature, God’s Own Country, it’s a story about a life-altering gay relationship for a working-class protaganist engaged in hard work in a wild outdoors (Lee likes his mud and stone!). His characters are revealed and changed by what they do with their physical selves more than by what they say, the best of filmmaking that does show not tell.

He told Alex Bilmes ‘I never thought I’d make a period film, they’re always so lush and bright and middle class. Everything looks gorgeous and everyone’s really clean.’

Ammonite is a visceral depiction of Anning; having a pee on the pebbles, picking out fossils with her bare hands or gruffly telling her posh young charge, ‘There looks to be fuck-all wrong with you to me’.

Lee returned from London to Yorkshire to pursue his life-long passion for film after a failed acting career that left him broke and sofa-surfing for years before he took work in a Vauxhall reclamation yard. He struggled with depression, and despite being brutally bullied in his teens there was a pull back to the terrain of his youth, ‘I couldn’t get any of it out of my bones—very specifically these hills and this landscape and this light.’ Lee is a romantic, and like his story-telling neighbours the Brontës this suffuses the people he creates and their potent sense of place. In God’s Own Country the lovers break away from the farm graft to climb a peak that reveals the astoundingly beautiful land that’s always been stretching out around them.

Lee was in his late 40s when he got the BFI funding to make God’s Own Country, produced below the usual industry radar and on another Yorkshire hillside. When it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2017 it was hailed as the debut of a new independent film talent. Josh O’Connor is now the star of The Crown as Prince Charles, but then he was unknown too, playing Johnny Saxby, the miserable young farmer who blunts himself with binge-drinking and casual sex. O’Connor is devoted to working with Lee and was so committed to the project he ended up on a hospital drip after losing too much weight for the role. He told Bilmes ‘Francis [Lee] knows exactly what he wants.... and there’s no embarrassment, he creates an environment where I can be fully immersed. That’s a rare thing.’ Josh and co-star Alec Secăreaunu spent weeks before shooting started working on a farm lambing and dry-stone walling.

Brave and without vanity, Kate Winslet has long done whatever it takes to bring a character to life, from developing hypothermia in the infamous Titanic water tank to recently learning to freedive for Avatar 2—holding her breath underwater for 7 minutes 14 seconds and breaking Tom Cruise’s film record. In preparation for playing Anning, she lived alone in a small wooden house on the Lyme coast, candle-lit drawing and writing at night, fossiling by day in heavy old boots and using traditional tools. She polished one of her finds as a present for co-star Saoirse Ronan. By the time filming started Lee didn’t recognise the scruffy, shuffling figure

hanging at the edge of set as the star he affectionately calls ‘Winslet’, and leading film criticism site RogerEbert.com loves the result of this creative collaboration, ‘Lee trusts his lead performer to convey an incredible amount without dialogue.

And that trust pays off in one of the best performances of Kate Winslet’s career’.

Ammonite has been received with critical acclaim but also controversy. Devising romantic chapters for historical figures draws little period drama policing when the scenarios are heterosexual—see Shakespeare in Love with Gwyneth Paltrow, or recently out of it in the novel Hamnet—and Lee used Twitter to give a robust response to his critics, ‘After seeing queer history be routinely “straightened” throughout culture, and given an historical figure where there is no evidence whatsoever of a heterosexual relationship, is it not permissible to view that person within another context?

Particularly a woman whose work and life were subjected to the worst aspects of patriarchy, class discrimination and gender imbalance?’ Kate Winslet describes the Ammonite experience as transformative for herself as a film actor, telling Eva Wiseman in The Observer, ‘I realised how film has forever objectified women—we do it like we’re breathing. The sense of equality working on this was so remarkable’. And she expressed anger at the press emphasis on sex scenes as a source of titillation, ‘rather than the content of the scene itself. It really pisses me off actually. What I love about how Francis [Lee] chose to tell the story of Mary Anning, and her connection with Charlotte, is that he did it without hesitation. The relationship is part of the story. It’s nothing to do with fear or secrecy. It’s about two people who fall in love.’

RogerEbert.com defines the film as storytelling beyond the biopic, ‘With Ammonite Lee is reaching for something deeper than a history lesson. It’s a story of connection, how we can all be changed by someone we meet’. Lee simply says his films are about love and acceptance. Worthy prizes for him and his muse. By Ines Cavill

Ammonite is one of the films being shown at this year’s From Page To Screen Film Festival. Film listings over page. The event is being streamed online. Details of how to purchase tickets from https://www.frompagetoscreen.info/.

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April

EVENT NEWS AND COURSES April 1

Chard Camera Club AGM. The Chard Camera Club will be holding their AGM on 1st April at 7:30pm via Zoom when the new program of speakers and competitions will be announced.

Most of these events will be held via Zoom until the present restrictions on gatherings are lifted. Anyone interested in joining the club should contact the secretary via the link: secretary@ chardcameraclub.org.uk

April 4

Relaxing soundbaths via Zoom 2PM Sundays in April (4th, 11th, 18th, 25th). Please email to say you’d like to join in on a particular week, I’ll then email the link at 1.55-do reply promptly then as I can’t admit people once I’ve actually started playing! I’d recommend using decent quality external speakers or headphones (obviously) as the sound quality of the internal speakers in modern devices aren’t going to give any quality reproduction. £10-via Paypal or email for bacs details. email ahiahel@live.com ffi www.centreforpuresound.org

April 6

Bridport and District u3a presents Ashley Jones from the Fraud Prevention Office who will deliver a talk on Zoom at 2 pm. For information visit www.bridportu3a.org.uk, or email membership@bridportu3a.org.uk

April 10

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 7 mile walk from Colyton. For further information please ring 01308 898484 or 01308 863340.

Martock Farmers Market 10-1 in the Co-Op shopping precinct off North Street, Martock, TA12 6DH. ‘Painting the Devon Violet’ an online painting workshop on Zoom. 10am – 1pm. Cost £15 Enjoy learning how to draw and paint the Devon Violet in watercolour with step by step instructions. To book a place please visit the What’s On section of our website: www.axminsterheritage.org. For more info and a materials list contact gina.youens@btinternet.com West Dorset Group of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society, Zoom meeting. Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard will be talking about ‘The Digby Girls: Jane and Pamela, their scandalous lives’. The meeting starts at 2.00 and the meeting opens at 1.30. All are welcome, you don’t have to be a member, donations welcome. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com

April 12

Art History on line on Zoom, ‘German Expressionist painting and other expressionist art of the early twentieth century’.

2pm, hour and half lecture content, break in the middle, 6 wk course, fee £51. Contact Pam Simpson MA via email: chris. pamsimpson@btinternet.com. Pam is Associate Lecturer at London College of Fashion & Bath Spa University.

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April 13

Bridport History Society, Zoom meeting. Helen Doble will be talking about ‘Loders Court Estate 1799 - 1916: Victorian Life in a Dorset Village’. The meeting starts at 2.30 and the meeting opens from 2.00. All are welcome, you don’t have to be a member, donations are welcome. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com

April 15

Shute Festival online: Caroline Eden on Red Sands, Reportage and Recipes Through Central Asia from Hinterland to Heartland.

Registration free via www.shutefest.org.uk

April 16

Art History on line on Zoom, ‘German Expressionist painting and other expressionist art of the early twentieth century’. 2pm, hour and half lecture content, break in the middle, 6 wk course, fee £51. Contact Pam Simpson MA via email: chris.pamsimpson@ btinternet.com. Pam is Associate Lecturer at London College of Fashion & Bath Spa University.

April 17

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 8 mile walk from Eype. For further information please ring 01308 898484 or 01308 863340.

April 18

NGS. Garden Open, Broomhill, Rampisham DT2 0PU. 2-5pm, Teas and plants. Pre Booking available through ngs.org.uk

April 19

Severalls Jubilee Bowls Club in Crewkerne is starting coaching in a Covid safe environment for anyone who would like to learn to play outdoor bowls. All ages are most welcome and bowls, safe coaching and refreshments are all provided free of charge.

Please wear flat soled footwear to protect our green. For more information please phone Geoff Kerr on 01308 867221 or 07849 600366 or email geoffkerr47@btinternet.com

April 21

Kate Whitaker on the Building with Sarsen stones in southern England. 7.30 pm. Recent research on the movement of the stones form Wales to Stonehenge make this topical! It’s frre, please email secretary@svbrg.org.uk for the Zoom link or go to the mailing list on www.svbrg.org.uk and plonk yourself on.

April 22

Shute Festival online: Hugo Rittson-Thomas and Sir Ghillean Prance in conversation on Biodiversity and Wildflower Meadows.

Registration free via www.shutefest.org.uk The Mauritanian 7.30 - 9.30 pm. Based on the memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, screenplay by M.B. Traven and Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvai, directed by Kevin Macdonald. The powerful true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s impassioned fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned for years without charge in Guantánamo Bay. From Page to Screen Bridport’s Film Festival online screening. Limited

EVENTS IN MAY

Live or Online send your May event details to info@marshwoodvale.com by April 14th. tickets available via the website https://www.frompagetoscreen. info/. With a very special Q&A after the film hosted by Edith Bowman, with the director Kevin Macdonald and Mohamedou Ould Slahi who the film is based on.

April 23

The Father 7.30 - 9.30 pm. Based on the play by Florian Zeller, screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, directed

by Florian Zeller. Heart-breaking and uncompromisingly poignant -- a movie that nestles in the truth of our own lives. From Page to Screen Bridport’s Film Festival online screening. Limited tickets available via the website https://www.frompagetoscreen.info/.

Beats 10.30 pm. Two best friends in a small Scottish town in the summer of ‘94 who head out for one last night together before life takes them in different directions. From Page to Screen Bridport’s Film Festival online screening. Limited tickets available via the website https://www.frompagetoscreen.info/.

April 24

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 7.5 mile walk from Stonebarrow. For further information please ring 01308 898484 or 01308 863340.

Oliver Sacks - His own Life 5 - 6 pm. In part, based on the writings of Oliver Sacks; directed by Ric Burns. Oliver Sacks, one of the most influential popular neuroscientists of modern times, often used stories to illustrate and unpick aspects of the human condition. From Page to Screen Bridport’s Film Festival online screening. Limited tickets available via the website https://www. frompagetoscreen.info/.

Ammonite 7.30 - 9.30 pm. (See previous page). From Page to Screen Bridport’s Film Festival online screening. Limited tickets available via the website https://www.frompagetoscreen.info/.

April 27

Bridport and District u3a presents a talk by Kay Townsend at 2pm, ‘Life behind the sideshows’ about the freak shows, Wall of Death and the Flea Circus of the 50s and 60s, online via Zoom.

Bridport and District u3a is an organisation for people who want to undertake learning for its own sake, with like minded people, in a social setting. Please visit our website for specific details and contact information. www.bridportu3a.org.uk, or email membership@bridportu3a.org.uk Martock History Group has a Zoom by Peter Daniels on Waste Management - ‘What a Load of Rubbish’. 7.30 pm. The history of solid wastes management. It’s free (the talk, not the waste), please email fergus.dowding@btinternet.com if you’re not on our mailing list for the Zoom link. Members of our group will get the link sent automatically nearer the time.

April 29

Shute Festival online: Jenny Stern and Emmanuel Bach in concert on violin and piano. Register free via www.shutefest.org.uk

The Arts Society Neroche South Somerset After 47 years supporting and promoting interest in the Decorative Arts, the Society will sadly, by the time you read this, have closed. A local distribution of remaining funds to promote The Arts has been agreed. Details of other groups of The Arts Society can be found at www.theartssociety.org

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News&Views

EXETER Controlled explosion

Hundreds of people were evacuated from properties in Exeter after a 2,200lb German bomb was discovered in an allotment. Many properties needed to be accessed for damage after a controlled explosion was carried out to make the World War Two bomb safe. A structural engineer said that many doors and windows of nearby houses had been blown through by the blast. People living within 100m of the area had to stay in temporary accommodation according to police. The bomb had been found by builders on land next to the University of Exeter’s Streatham campus and about 1,400 students were among those evacuated. Exeter was heavily bombed in what is knows as the Baedecker Raids of 1942.

EAST DEVON Unlicensed breeders

East Devon District Council (EDDC) has recently had a flurry of enquiries regarding the buying and selling of puppies as well as complaints of alleged unlicensed breeders during lockdown. The authority has been contacted by residents from across the district, including from areas such as Exmouth, Exton, and Newton Poppleford and Whimple as well as further afield. The council advises residents to be careful when buying a puppy. Government advice has confirmed that travelling to view a dog is not essential travel and all viewings should be by video. EDDC is also currently continuing enquiries in a number of areas across their district.

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BRIDPORT Film highlights dangers

In his role as High Sheriff of Dorset, George Streatfeild has had a short film produced to highlight the dangers of county lines drug gangs to young people in Dorset. The film brings home the scale of the problem in Dorset and aims to educate and improve general awareness as well as the need for everyone to become more vigilant. In particular it hopes to encourage young people to think about the society in which they are growing up and to stimulate discussion and awareness of the many issues facing young people including: bullying, grooming, sexual exploitation, exclusion from school and drug and alcohol abuse. The film can be viewed at www.highsheriffdorset.co.uk

EAST COKER Tributes paid to Trevor Peacock

Yeovil Town football club led tributes to Vicar of Dibley star Trevor Peacock after the actor’s death at the age of 89. A resident of East Coker for many years Mr Peacock was a great supporter of his local team The Glovers and was regularly seen at home games at Huish Park. A statement on the clubs website said: “A valued member of the Glovers fan base, Trevor warmed the hearts of everybody he crossed paths with. We would like to extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.” Trevor, who passed away following a dementia related illness, played Jim Trott in the much-loved sitcom.

WEYMOUTH Council planting trees for kids

Weymouth Town Council is working to create a new copse area in Westham. It will be a special area recognising the young children in our communities who started school in 2020. The Town Council’s Parks and Open Spaces team have planted 520 saplings in total, one for each child who started school in Weymouth during the pandemic. The team will also be installing log seats to create a ‘sitting circle’. Local families are encouraged to use and enjoy the area in line with the current national restrictions and the council will invite local schools for visits when possible. It’s hoped local schools can help with planting bulbs and making bird feeders in the area too.

What’s Been Happening?

Laterally Speaking by Humphrey Walwyn

“What’s Been Happening?”

Not that much apparently. Since we’ve all been shut down in isolation for the best part of a year, not many of us seem to know much about what’s been happening locally. Major national and international news stories continue to grab the headlines be it Boris or Biden or global climate change, but I’ll bet you don’t even know one tenth about what’s going on just down the road. It seems we’d rather explore the surface of Mars than our own backyard and we know more about the Royal Family than we almost know about our own.

As we gradually climb out of lockdown, we’re discovering some incredible things achieved locally. As regular readers know, not all of these are necessarily real—particularly as this month starts with the first of April…

Relationship Lessons: Naturally one of the first things you’re going to do after lockdown is go out for a drink with your mates. But take care! This involves meeting with real people who may be suffering from coughs and colds and some of whom may not even be wearing a mask! Yes, this is so shocking that an enterprising Taunton couple have set up an online school in regaining human relationships since many people may be too frightened to walk about in public.

In the safety of your own home, you can learn how to say ‘Hello’ to perfect strangers once again without covering your face. Relearn the essential human act of shaking hands without immediately reaching for the bottle of sanitising gel.

Their advice is to take it gradually: start with mild distancing and then progress to closer conversation. You can practice meeting a friend three feet away with both of you sitting on the same public park bench. More advanced courses involve a higher level of skill and tactful neighbourliness including ‘How to Hug in Safety’ and ‘The Do’s and Don’ts of Holding Hands in Public’.

Sports Training: With the return of crowds to sporting events, the players on the pitch will require extra coaching.

Exeter University is offering a degree course in Emotional Interaction Management (EIM) to help sportsmen and women deal with real people shouting encouragement and advice from the stands. Although some of this vocal support may be loud and often rather rude, the course will help players to cope with the volume and stress without responding in an aggressive manner. If successful, the same course will be adapted for use by horses which need to stay focussed on the need for speed when being heckled by enthusiastic punters at race tracks.

Translation Services: A Truro professor has spent a whole year translating various manuals for radios, TVs and popular electronic devices into English. Most instruction booklets feature about 100 pages of instructions in various languages as well as bad English gibberish. They also contain many factual inaccuracies such as ‘After open the power,

Things to make during Lockdown: a rocket to Mars made out of toilet rolls

please do place radio in the correct bath water.’ He advises that this may be unsafe, as also is the instruction to ‘Replace both batteries at the same time as your hair’. Since his work has been much in demand, he has agreed next to translate the government four-step roadmap out of Covid into Cornish.

Breeding Pets: Since so many people apparently want to adopt dogs and cats at the moment, it’s difficult to find any pets for sale costing less than several thousands of pounds. A Dorchester couple have embarked on a plan to breed other—and more reasonably priced—pet animals including Mongolian gerbils, house spiders and stick insects.

Apparently, woodlice are both cheap and popular as pets although they’re not overly affectionate and don’t like being cuddled because they can easily get squashed.

Personal Achievements: Inspired by the wonderful efforts of Captain Tom Moore, various individuals throughout the Southwest have also been busy raising loads of money for charity. These include a Bridport man who spent the last year making a one tenth life-size model of the RMS Titanic in his garage out of discarded plastic packaging.

Aiming to launch his model at the West Bay slipway, he was disappointed to learn that the vessel couldn’t be put to sea because he would be effectively dumping unwanted plastic waste into the ocean. The matter became irrelevant when he realised his model was too big to fit through his garage door.

A firm in Honiton has been knitting thousands of woollen mittens to give to van delivery workers to keep their hands warm during supermarket and Amazon deliveries. Since each pair of gloves comes individually wrapped in its own cardboard box for hygiene safety, police have been called to remove the huge mountain of cardboard which is currently parked outside Tesco in Sidmouth Road.

A Yeovil couple have bravely announced they intend to break the Guinness World Record for TV viewing for charity. They aim to watch every single TV show and film now streaming on the BBC and Netflix. It’s been calculated they will have to stay glued to their TV and their sofa until the year 2199—not including repeats.

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Up close and personal with barn owl live stream

Barn owl in flight by Don Sutherland

SOMERSET Wildlife Trust are now live-streaming video directly from a barn owl box in the Blackdown Hills, where barn owl couple, Finn and Orla have set up home for the second year.

The barn owl couple successfully fledged three chicks last year, and the Trust is keeping its fingers crossed that the pair will be parents again—this time the experience being shared and enjoyed by people that can now tune in on the Trust’s website.

The live-stream is the Trust’s first since 2014, when their barn owl couple, Boris and Brenda, became instant internet sensations, attracting over a million and a half visits from people all over the world who tuned in to see seven eggs hatch—an unusually large brood.

The live-stream, funded by the Heritage Emergency Fund and installed by Wildlife Windows, will provide high quality video and sound from the new box, providing viewers with clear and unique view of barn owl family life inside the box for the next six months.

Kirby Everett, Head of Communications comments, ‘We are absolutely delighted to have a live barn owl feed up and running this year. Lockdowns have brought many people across the country closer to nature, and made our lives all the richer for it. You can’t get much closer than a live feed, so we hope people will really enjoy following the couple’s journey to parenthood and learning about the behaviour of these stunning birds.

Sharing their world from within our homes will bring nature to many people who are still unable to get the outdoor nature experiences they previously so enjoyed.’

Kirby hopes the live feed will inspire everyone to find ways to help nature where they live. The Wildlife Trust will be providing lots of ideas on the live-feed’s web page.

The live-feed is available at www.somersetwildlife.org/ swtbarnowls At home with Finn and Orla

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Charity offers 30 retail jobs under Kickstart programme LOCAL children’s hospice charity, Julia’s House, is taking part in the Government’s Kickstart employment scheme, to help young people at risk of long term unemployment gain valuable skills. They are recruiting for 30 vacancies in their high street shops across Dorset and Wiltshire as well as other areas of Julia’s House Retail, where the Kickstart placements will join a training programme to help them gain experience and knowledge in different aspects of the charity retail sector. The shops will re-open on Monday 12 April.

‘The local community gives us such great support, it’s nice to be able to give something back,’ says Tracy Stanley, Julia’s House Retail Manager. ‘We’re really pleased to be able to offer placements to local young people and are looking forward to helping them get on their feet by providing retail training that we hope will prove valuable to them in their future careers.

We know employment is challenging for young people at the moment and it’s been a difficult time for them, so we really wanted to contribute something that would make a difference locally.

You never know, we could discover our Julia’s House shop managers of the future!’

As part of the Kickstart scheme, Julia’s House is offering 30 six month placements for young people on Universal Credit aged between 16 and 24. Applicants will be required to work 25 hours a week on a rota basis and regular weekend working will be expected. Salaries will be paid by the Government and Julia’s House will be providing the training and experience.

Starting 2021 in lockdown heralded another

Tracy Stanley, Julia’s House Retail Manager

challenging year ahead for the charity. Its shops lose £150,000 a month while they’re closed and fundraising will take some months to return to normal as social distancing restrictions are slowly lifted by the Government. Tracy adds: ‘We’ve had amazing support from the local community over the last few months and we really need this to continue. As we all come out of lockdown, the critical needs of the seriously ill children we support don’t change. We want to be right by their side providing a lifeline of care, now and in the future.’

The vacancies are only eligible to young people aged 16-24 currently claiming Universal Credit and will be advertised through local job centres. If you think you are eligible and would like more information on how to apply, please contact Tracy Stanley (tracy.stanley@ juliashouse.org/ 07867801898) or Erin Hobbs (erin.hobbs@juliashouse.org/07384817041

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How the return of an iconic riverside creature could signify real hope for the future of our waterways. By Connie Doxat

T

o the untrained eye, the sight of a riverbank elicits little excitement and most of us would walk past its pockmarked sludgy shores and knotty tangles of roots with little intrigue. To an ecologist, on the other hand, these overlooked stretches of land are fascinating biological canvases which can act as windows into understanding the steady return of one of our most iconic wild creatures: the otter.

Responsible for inspiring heroic characters like Tarka (who has been in continuous print since his debut in 1928) and eponymising one of our local brews (Otter Ale), it’s fair to say these stout, silken creatures have long captured our imagination. There are several reasons why

otters have earnt such a beloved reputation over the years, one of which is their curious appearance. Furnished with a thick, rudder-like tail and a set of fantastical webbedfeet, otters exhibit an enchanting exoticism that’s rare in these pleasant lands. Luring us in further is their allusive nature; otter’s prefer to hunt under the protective anonymity of dusk and are able to seamlessly slip into the waters below at any moment, meaning they seldom cross paths with mankind. Behind all the mystique, however, the otter has an important story to tell, and one which is allegorical to the troubles faced by much of our wildlife over the past century.

Initially the otter’s misfortune came during the 17th

century, when millions of acres of earth were ploughed and vast forests felled to help feed the hungry mouths of Britain’s expanding population. A second challenge came at the turn of the 20th century with the popularisation of otter hunting, a brutal practice that prompted the steady culling of many wild otters across the country.

It was not until the advent of organochlorides in the 1950s, however, that the otter’s experience reached its true nadir. By 1955 three revolutionary chemicals, dieldrin, aldrin and heptachlor, became readily available in farming and industry and promised to cure a variety of issues from corn-rot to unwelcome wool parasites.

Amidst the frenzied drive for productivity the ecological

impacts of these new ‘wonder-treatments’ was little discussed. Unfortunately, the effects were catastrophic; insect populations were the first hit, in-turn prompting a dramatic drop in the numbers of other small invertebrates and fish. The otter—usually placed comfortably at the top of the food chain—was inevitably hit too by this domino decline, and it wasn’t long until the once cherished furry creatures were left to go hungry. One survey conducted by the Environment Agency between 1977-79 found evidence of otter habitation at a mere 6% of sites known to house the species two decades earlier, indicating the total ecological collapse underway within our river systems.

Photograph courtesy Devon Wildlife Trust

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Various pollutants used during this period were also thought to have directly harmed the health of otters, and studies reveal their potential damage to the otters reproductive system and eyesight. The greatest tragedy of this ecocide was its invisible nature and it wasn’t until the carcasses of larger emaciated mammals like otters began appearing along riversides that the sheer level of destruction was recognised—unfortunately much of the damage had been done. The rivers that were once bursting arteries of life had soon become bleak channels of poison cutting across our countryside.

Despite their turbulent history, the story of the otter, isn’t all negative and slowly but surely they are showing signs of repopulating our river banks once more. Rather amazingly, the species has clawed its way back from teetering on the edge of extinction and now shows signs of activity in all 27 counties in England. The rivers in and around the Marshwood Vale are also enjoying this heart-warming return and recent sightings indicate otters are present along various stretches and tributaries of the Asker, Char, Brit and Axe. The promise of restoring healthy otter numbers back to our rivers has only been possible, however, with a great deal of patience and perseverance. Although the most harmful pollutants were banned back in 1984, their sheer potency means it took decades for some rivers to run clear and invite the surrounding wildlife back—and many still haven’t. The work of dedicated conservationists has also been instrumental in allowing life to return to our waterways. The Axe Vale Rivers

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Association (or AVRA for short), has been working tirelessly with local farmers, fishermen and landowners to try to restore the health of the various waters emptying into the River Axe. AVRA’s mission is to tackle the endemic issue of water pollution from the bottom-up, hoping to create several wildlife sanctuaries at sites along the Axe’s smaller tributaries, such as Seaborough Brook and the River Synderford, and hopes to exemplify how river management should occur across the area as a whole. The focus of AVRA’s work lies beneath the surface of these bubbling brooks and within an initiative to repopulate the native Sea Trout to healthy numbers (despite their misleading name, Sea Trout undertake a remarkable journey upstream during the winter to spawn in various lofty brooks).

The rivers in and around the Marshwood Vale are also enjoying this heart-warming return The beating heart of AVRA’s project lies under a rather unassuming corrugated shelter—which resembles somewhat of a mad (but brilliant) scientist’s shed— straddling a pristine stream in the Axe Valley. Here AVRA’s knowledgeable volunteers provide continual care for some 40,000 resident Sea Trout fry which squirm around enthusiastically in various incubation tanks. The process is remarkably scientific; the water must maintain a refreshing 8.5 degrees and the tanks regularly cleaned to

River Axe at Forde Bridge cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Derek Harper - geograph.org.uk/p/6255456

mimic the conditions of the babbling brook they would naturally develop in. After several months of careful nurturing the fry are then released along carefully chosen stretches of streams, with the hope to rejuvenate both their population, and in-turn the populations of numerous species like the otter and kingfisher who enjoy them as food.

Alongside this, the charity is also undertaking work to inspire a younger generation of mindful conservationists, and involves several local schools within the hatchery project in the hope that our children can learn from the mistakes of our past.

Of course, in an ideal world, organisations like AVRA shouldn’t need to exist, however, without the more positive intervention of man to help restore the balance in our rivers, there is little hope that creatures like the otter would ever recover.

Although it’s looking up, the future of the otter remains precarious and they face ongoing challenges of urban development and various other pollutants—notably the overuse of slurry within the dairy industry. However, with the help of community action, conscientious farming methods and a heightened sensitivity towards our wildlife, perhaps we can all hope for a time when catching a joyous glimpse of an otter isn’t limited to TV screens and zoo enclosures.

For more information on the Axe Vale Rivers Association, visit avra.org.uk

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Donyatt

By Seth Dellow

I

f you have ever travelled along the snaking lanes that connect the two villages of Donyatt and Horton, you will be forgiven for not noticing anything other than agricultural land and a peppering of dwellings. Admittedly, there are also several extensive renovations taking place in the area, making good use of derelict outbuildings. However, enquire into the surroundings and you will discover an almost forgotten history. The two tarmacked routes that lead to the area (known as Witney Bottom) are accessed from both Pottery Road and Crock Street. Furthermore, for the eagle-eyed observer, there exists a thatched, circular clay puddling house situated behind a property undergoing a muchneeded facelift. If the linkage is not yet obvious, then what is underneath your feet, tyres, or hoofs will reveal all. For centuries, this area was of geological importance, providing a consecutive community of artisanal potters with Liassic clay.

Donyatt potteries had existed on the land since the 12th century, producing an extensive and eclectic mix of carefully handcrafted items. It is believed that the land was home to nineteen pottery sites spread across seven fields.

Operating throughout multiple epochs, the wares became a microcosmic reflection of society. One such example, which survives to this day and can be viewed at the Museum of Somerset, in Taunton, is a plate designed in the potters’ distinctive sgraffito style. It celebrated the remarkable birth of the Isle Brewers’ Siamese twins of 1680, who, by contrast in pamphlets, were branded as a ‘monstrosity’ and viewed with superstition. The twins, named Priscilla and Aquila, are depicted in the central well of the plate, accompanied by a magisterial crown and floral decorations.

Nevertheless, the majority of Donyatt’s wares were not commemorative. Instead, they were designed for regular usage for all echelons of society. The list was endless: chimney pots, smoking pipes, candlesticks, flowerpots, jugs, roof tiles, chamber pots and bottles. The pieces that still exist today provide an insightful indication of what local life was like at the time—fuddling cups are a quirky reflection of this. These delightful artefacts, consisting of three to six interlaced cups, would once have been the allurement of the alehouses. For the frequenting drinker of cider, the challenge would be to guzzle the contents of each cup without any spillage.

Much of the ochre-terracotta coloured, glazed goods were destined for the local markets that took place in relatively larger towns of the countryside. Unsurprisingly, Taunton was a major destination, of which Donyatt potteries satisfied 95% of the ceramic requirements during the early modern period. According to reports, other markets took place further afield in Cerne Abbas, Ilchester and Axbridge. However, by the 17th and 18th centuries, national changes began to disseminate to rural villages. Incremental industrialising processes yielded an advantage for Donyatt.

With the advent of exportation methods that spanned a

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much larger distance than managed by the humble horse and cart, Donyatt’s treasured goods could now be sold from Bristol, Southampton, London and Ireland. The Thirteen Colonies became an international marketplace, with pieces still in existence today in Virginia and Maryland.

While industrialisation was a benefit to exportation, it proved a hindrance to Donyatt’s longevity. In the 18th Century, ceramic goods sent to Taunton had fallen dramatically to 30%. Furthermore, as was experienced across Europe, urbanisation displaced agrarian workers from the countryside. The opportunity for better living conditions, employment stability and improved public health limited the appeal of the increasingly remote conditions of Donyatt.

Artisanal pottery was also stifled from the operations of larger, commercial businesses. The advanced firing of clay with coal proved more efficient, unlike Donyatt’s usage of wood. Additionally, potters were likely to be farmers and any craftmanship was to be part-time. The irregularity of production and trade was sure to have a long-term impact.

By the 20th Century, the potters’ conservative style continued to be propagated within the small nature of the business from generation to generation. To achieve this, a degree of formality ensued with the employment of young apprentices, who were contracted for eight years to acquire the specialist knowledge which had been practised at Donyatt for centuries. A typical working week would involve eleven-hour days Monday to Thursday, six hours on a Friday and a weekend day responsibility, all for eight shillings per week. Among the last recorded occupants of Donyatt potteries is the Arlidge family, who were resident during the 1930s. Alongside creating ceramic wares, William Arlidge, an established potter at Donyatt, ran a shop in Taunton’s East Reach.

Although success ebbed and flowed, the traumatic years of 1939-1945 proved unviable for Donyatt potteries, and by 1942, it ceased to exist. Many of the former potters returned to work on farmland, such as local lad Charles Anning. Yet, memories of the potteries remained evocative. Anning, of nearby Horton, gave an interview in the late 20th Century, describing how at the age of fourteen he began working for the potteries, was trained on a potter’s wheel, dug for the infamous Liassic clay and produced wares from moulds.

Donyatt potteries are puzzling; it experienced a lengthy history, but an almost instantaneous disappearance.

Excavations in the 1970s proved fruitful in confirming the existence of the community and the unearthing of multiple fragments of pottery. Today, while the people and buildings are no longer present, pieces of whole pottery still are and provide a lasting trace back to this enigmatic enterprise.

With many thanks to Jim Sainsbury from the Heritage of the Ile Trust for the photographs, and to the writers of ‘The Story of Donyatt and Millennium Celebrations’ book for a useful reference guide.

Pottery

Above: a plate celebrating the Isle Brewers’ Siamese twins of 1680 and William Arlidge’s pottery from the 1930s.

Below: The fuddling cups ‘allurement of the alehouses’.

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King Billy

By Cecil Amor

I

have recently realised the coincidences of the two invasions of our south-west coast. No doubt real historians will be aware of it, but my school history seemed to jump from Good Queen Beth to the Growth of the Labour Party. The latter being helped by the teacher at least pretending to be an arch Tory, which made the class rebellious and study Labour assiduously, which produced credits in our School Certificates.

The first of the coincidences was the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 which I wrote about in the Marshwood magazine last October, with the “Glorious Rebellion” of William of Orange in 1688. They both sailed from Holland. Monmouth, who was the illegitimate son of King Charles II, landed at Lyme Regis and his rebellion ended with his and many other executions. He was trying to depose King James II who had been crowned in 1685, as it was feared he might make the country catholic. But William of Orange sent some British regiments who were in Dutch service to help King James quell Monmouth’s Rebellion, although this may not have been necessary. Britain and Holland were both fighting France at that time and we noted the other month that Lt Col Dawson-Damer of Winterbourne Came was Quarter Master General to the Prince of Orange at Waterloo.

King James’ children, Anne and her sister Mary were both brought up as Protestants by their mother, Anne Hyde. When Anne died, James converted to Catholicism and married Mary Beatrice, the catholic daughter of the Duchess of Modena in 1673. A male heir, James Edward

Stuart was announced in 1688 which caused many to fear that England might revert to Catholicism.

William of Orange, a protestant, had married his cousin, Mary, the second daughter of King James, so both Monmouth and William had a relationship to the English royal family. William was invited by several English politicians in June 1688 to come and perhaps depose James. There were seven politicians, “The Immortal Seven”, signatories to the invitation, including Lord Lumley, who had been involved in the capture of Monmouth, and Admiral Edward Russell.

William landed in the West Country, another coincidence, at Brixham, in Devon on 5th November 1688 from his ship The Brill. There was a considerable difference between the two invasions, in that William was much better supported with 250 large ships and 60 fishing boats, together with several thousand troops, both cavalry and foot soldiers.

William advanced to Sherborne Castle and was welcomed by John Digby, Earl of Bristol. William’s wife, Mary, was a close friend of the earl’s sister, Lady Anne Digby. William then issued a proclamation that he was a liberator, not a conqueror. The army of James II was on Salisbury Plain under the command of Lord John Churchill who, with protestant officers, announced that the army would support William. As a result, King James fled to France in December.

Cecil Cullingford, in a History of Dorset, writes that Thomas Erle Drax erected a tablet in 1780 over an icehouse in Charborough Park which is inscribed “Under

this roof in the year 1686 a set of patriotic gentlemen of this neighbourhood concerted the great plan of THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION with the immortal King William, to whom we owe our deliverance from Popery and Slavery....”.

William did not wish to become regent or that Mary should reign alone and she agreed. So in February 1689, a Convention Parliament offered them the crown as joint monarchs. The Scottish Parliament also agreed and they were crowned in April. A Declaration of Rights settled any succession in favour of Mary’s children, then Anne and her children, followed by then any children of William by a later marriage, thus showing careful thought to the future.

William became an assertive monarch and would not show favour to either parliamentary party. He was frequently out of the country, pursuing military conflicts, which required Parliament to provide adequate funds.

This caused continual conflict, as they did not wish to allow him to gain the upper hand and lose their present parliamentary freedom.

In 1690 King James, with French assistance, landed in Ireland and summoned the Jacobite Parliament. He still had a large following in Ireland, mainly catholic in the south. But William III’s army managed to cross the river Boyne near Drogheda, outflanking James’s Jacobite army and crushingly defeating them in what is known as the Battle of the Boyne. King James fled back to France, and Waterford and Dublin shortly capitulated. Limerick was more difficult to defeat, but by the end of 1691, all of southern Ireland was conquered by William’s army led by John Churchill, later to become Duke of Marlborough.

The Battle of the Boyne is often said to have crushed the hopes of Irish Catholics and King William was blamed for the horror and bloodshed. It is still celebrated, or scorned, on 12th July and has created problems between the catholic and protestant people of Northern Ireland.

I remember discussing years ago our involvement with

Ireland with an Irish friend in the Royal Air Force and he referred to “King Bully, so it was”. I cannot recall whether he was from “Nor’ren Ireland” or the south, or if he meant “King Billy” and had confused me with his Irish accent.

Queen Mary died of smallpox in 1694. Her husband, King William died in March 1702 after a fall from his horse, when it stumbled on a mole-hill at Hampton Court. This resulted in the Jacobite toast to “the little gentleman in black velvet”. William and Mary had no children.

Anne, the second daughter of James II, had been brought up a protestant. She married Prince George of Denmark in 1683, but their children died young.

She was friendly with Sarah and John Churchill and was influenced by them. Anne agreed to the Act of Settlement in 1701 to ensure a protestant succession and on William’s death, she became Queen in 1702. Prince George did not share the throne and died in 1708. Anne apparently took considerable interest in parliamentary affairs. Anne died in 1714, with no heir. As a result of the Act of Settlement of 1701, the Electors of Hanover were the nearest protestants to succeed to the British throne, so George Ludwig of Hanover became George I of Britain, heralding a succession of Georgian kings.

An elderly man said “And Queen Anne is dead”, to two of us young boys, after we had made an obvious comment. I have not heard this phrase since, but I believe it used to be common.

I consider this is sufficient history, at least for this month!

Bridport History Society will have a Zoom meeting on Tuesday 13th April at 2.30, opening at 2 pm, about “Loders Court Estate 1799 - 1916: Victorian Life in a Dorset Village” by Helen Doble. For details contact Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard on 01308 425170 or email jferentzi@ aol.com.

Cecil Amor, Hon President, Bridport History Society.

Prince of Orange Landing at Torbay engraving by William Miller (1852)

House&Garden

Vegetables in April

By Ashley Wheeler

F

or us, April is the real start to planting up the garden. We have already planted a few beds of early crops in March—turnips, kale, salads, radish and other quick crops, but it’s April when the garden starts to really fill up. The propagating space (a dedicated polytunnel) that we have fills up rapidly through March, and we stand crops out on a hardening off area to make more space in the tunnel for starting off the crops. We have heat benches to begin the propagation and once germinated, the seed trays are put onto cold benches and covered with fleece at night if it gets cold.

It is all down to what the weather is like as to how stressful April is as a vegetable grower on heavy soil. We have thousands of plants to get in the ground, and need to wait for the ground to dry up a bit before getting them in. We aim to prepare beds for the earliest crops in the autumn so that they are ready to go without any need for cultivation in the Spring. Our normal method of preparing the beds is to sow green manures—usually phacelia and cereal rye in September, then mowing them down and killing off with black silage plastic in late January. By the end of March the beds are usually ready to take the plastic off, rake out, maybe broadfork (a broadfork is a wide, long tined fork that is useful to alleviate any compaction caused by the winter rains) and then plant. We always cover our spring plantings with fleece until early-mid May to help protect the plants from the cold and the winds. They settle in quickly and get growing under the fleece really well, just pushing it up as they grow. By preparing the ground in autumn, it takes out some of the stress associated with getting the beds planted up in April, they are pretty much ready to plant up straight away, so time can be spent on planting, the first hoeings, keeping up with seed sowing and then preparing the other beds for later crops.

It is worth thinking about trying to get in quick crops such as radish, salads, turnips, spinach before some of the later planted crops like courgettes, squash, sweetcorn and the like, which are not really worth planting until mid May when the risk of frost has pretty much gone (they can be planted earlier under fleece, but if its a cold spring they may just sit there looking miserable).

Make sure to step back and appreciate the joy of Spring during April—it is all too easy to get caught up in the panic of getting all the sowing done and garden prepared and planted up without fully appreciating everything that Spring has to offer.

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It is worth thinking about trying to get in quick crops such as radish

WHAT TO SOW THIS MONTH: turnips, chard, spinach, salad leaves—chervil, buckshorn plantain, lettuce, burnet, peashoots, anise hyssop, kales, mustards, agretti, sorell, summer purslane & goosefoot (end of month). Radish, turnips, french beans, fennel, courgettes (end of month), spring onions, cucumbers, dill, coriander, peas and mangetout. We sow all of these into trays in the propagating tunnel to be planted out in April mostly, apart from radish and carrots which are sown direct in the soil.

WHAT TO PLANT THIS MONTH: OUTSIDE: salads—mustards, rockets etc., lettuce, peas, broad beans, potatoes, early kale, turnips INSIDE: If you sowed any early salad crops for a polytunnel or glasshouse they can go in at the beginning of March. Also successions of peas and spring onions will continue to be planted.

OTHER IMPORTANT TASKS THIS MONTH: If the weather dries, continue preparing beds for the spring by mulching with compost. Keep on top of the seed sowing, but don’t sow too much of anything—think about sowing successionally rather than doing one big sowing in early Spring. Things that are perfectly suited to successions include all salad leaves, spring onions, peas, beans, beetroot, chard, kale, carrots, fennel, radish and annual herbs.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 29

April in the Garden

By Russell Jordan

S

pring is well underway this month. The cumulative effect of the lengthening days, with the sun’s energy warming up northern latitudes, means that a slip back towards wintry conditions becomes less and less likely. April is infamous for ‘showers’, not blizzards!

Vigorous growth is appearing all over the place as plants step up a gear in response to the increasing warmth and light. Spring bulbs, early perennials, shrubs and trees all provide specimens that bloom this month so the garden really is joyous during spells of spring sunshine. If your garden is lacking in flower power now then the easiest way to remedy this, for future seasons, is to place an order, in the autumn, for spring-flowering bulbs—it’s hard to beat tulips for blooming beauty in April and into May. You may have read, in the news, that there are plans afoot to plant groves of blossom trees in UK cities in an effort to emulate the Japanese ‘Hanami’ concept. This is an annual celebration of the arrival of spring, most famously marked by mass visitations to long-established avenues of flowering cherries. Although slightly tarnished, in our judgemental society, by a reputation for being somewhat ‘suburban’, the addition of a flowering cherry to your garden is certainly a good place to start if you are considering planting a tree this year.

There is a cherry-like look about the flowers of Amelanchier lamarckii, the Juneberry or Snowy Mespilus, although daintier and borne on a tree which is more shrub-like, often with no obvious single trunk, than the definitely tree-shaped flowering cherry. The advantage of the Amelanchier is that it can be trimmed to keep it within bounds, even in the smallest garden, and can even be planted as a hedge if desired. I’m always slightly puzzled why the Juneberry isn’t in every single garden?

At ground level you can’t beat the tapestry effect of the spring flowering, mostly woodland derived, carpeting perennials. I used to work in a garden where there were mirror-image borders, bounded by knee-high box hedges, which were designed to be viewed from the overlooking, upper, windows of the house. Spring beauties such as primulas, pulmonarias, dicentras, Lathyrus vernus and brunneras were woven together, pierced by spring-flowering bulbs, in a perennial carpet that evolved subtly year on year.

30 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Now that active growth is underway it’s a good idea to feed the soil with a general application of fertiliser, my standard ‘go to’ is ‘F,B and B’ (fish, blood and bone), in any areas which didn’t get fed when mulched. Spring bulbs will be especially thankful for a nitrogenous boost, while they are in growth, because without it there is a danger that they will fail to flower again next year. Tulips are often one season wonders at the best of times, they are definitely more ‘highly strung’ than species like Narcissus or Crocus, but I still persevere with feeding them in an attempt to get decent blooms for more than just their initial season.

Lawns have come in for a bit of cheap, point scoring, news coverage recently. Whenever I hear pundits suggesting that domestic lawns should be cut less or ‘sections’ turned into wildflower meadows, it reminds me of the, alleged, quote attributed to Gertrude Jekyll that: “any garden, no matter how small, has room for a quarter of an acre of hazel nuts”—or some such guff.

A lawn is a design element used as a foil to planted areas in more formal parts of the garden. If you only have a small garden there is an argument to do without the lawn altogether, replacing it with paved or gravelled paths perhaps, but turning it into a meadow is simply not practical where the grass has to be walked on in order to access the rest of the plot. If you have large garden, an impossibility in today’s world of houses built on smaller and smaller parcels of land, then setting aside a section that is left longer, or treated as a faux meadow, is a choice you can make.

Far better for commentators to campaign to preserve and increase the acreage of ‘real’ wildflower meadows than to make domestic gardeners feel guilty for having a patch of well maintained lawn at home.

I remember filming once with an expert, in Lymington I think, who was an advocate of wildlife gardening but made the very sensible observation that our indigenous insects do not care where their nectar comes from, be it a cultivated bloom or its wild relative. They do, of course, need the correct food plants to feed their larval stage, or to provide shelter for overwintering, but this is where hedges, field margins and native woodland come in. Not many gardens are big enough to allow properly ‘wild’ areas to persist on a permanent basis.

Returning to tasks at hand; before herbaceous growth gets too advanced it’s a good idea to insert some support to those that are prone to collapsing as the summer progresses.

Pea-sticks are the traditional medium for providing the supportive framework and for good reason. They are a wholly naturally occurring product and have the advantage of looking attractive, if woven in sympathetically, even before the perennial plants grow up through them.

Once the main stem of the hazel bough has been pushed into the soil, the side stems and twiggy stalks can be bent and arched into place to form a girdle around the wayward perennial. The flexible stems and twigs have bobbly buds along their lengths which enable the twigs to be woven around each other, with the bobbles interlocking, so that the hazel cradle becomes quite a rigid, yet largely invisible, structure. Canes, string and the like cannot perform this disappearing trick no matter how hard you try. Those ghastly, fake green, interlocking wire stakes are even worse when it comes to “ars est celare artem” and all that.

Before signing off I should remind you that although frosts are still possible at this time of year, thankfully getting rarer, it’s important to start ‘waking up’ any tender perennials that have been overwintering in frost-free conditions and which need to be planted out once all risk of frost has gone. The same is true of things like cannas and dahlias which were dug up last autumn, stored in the greenhouse or wherever, but which benefit from fresh potting up and gently watering, under cover, if you have not done so already. They really benefit from getting a bit of a head start before getting shoved back outside—in a post-lockdown world we hope!!!

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 31

PROPERTY ROUND-UP

The Spring Collection

By Helen Fisher

AXMINSTER £850,000

A recently refurbished family home with 4 bedrooms and a selfcontained 2 bedroom apartment. Originally a substantial coach house, tucked away near the heart of the town. Open plan bespoke kitchen with direct access to the walled garden. Superb games room with wood burning stove plus a studio/office space above. Private parking.

Jackson-Stops Tel: 01308 423133

AXMINSTER £625,000

WEYCROFT £499,995

A beautiful, historic half medieval Grade II* listed manor with many fascinating features inc: inglenook fireplace, galleried landing and panelled walls. Now offering spacious family living with 3 bedrooms. With 2 walled courtyard gardens and large period barn with vaulted ceiling. Plus garage and parking.

Gordon & Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

BOTHENHAMPTON £1,100,000

A superb 1930s 4 bedroom family home with versatile accommodation. Featuring 7 outbuildings inc: hot tub room, caravan and summer house.

Wonderful gardens with far reaching countryside views. Large garage and parking.

A fascinating Grade II listed 4 bedroomed house dating back to the 17th Century. Now completely modernised, this former village bakery still retains many period and characterful features. With superb south-facing grounds and gardens & beautiful views across the hills. Garage, workshop and ample parking.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000

CHARMOUTH £400,000

BRIDPORT £335,000

Stags Honiton Tel: 01404 45885

An 18th Century cottage with 3 bedrooms, within walking distance to the village centre. Many characterful features inc: exposed timber ceilings, large bay windows, thatched roof and open fireplaces. Large paved terrace for outside dining with steps to the garden featuring an impressive Cabbage Palm and garden shed.

Symonds and Sampson Bridport Tel: 01308 422092 32 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

A terraced cottage conversion, beautifully presented and recently renovated. With 2 double bedrooms, double glazed windows and large open-plan kitchen/dining room featuring a balcony overlooking the river. With terraced courtyard garden and wooden shed plus parking.

Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

Popular activities venue launches appeal

S

t Mary’s Church House Hall in Bridport, a popular location for clubs, events and community activities over many years is launching an appeal for funds to continue.

Following a 70% drop in hire income and 40% drop in reserves during 2020 and probably facing a similar loss for 2021, the volunteers helping to run the hall on a charitable basis have decided a fund-raising appeal is necessary.

The hall, which is situated next to St Mary’s on South Street, Bridport, was founded under a deed of trust in 1918 and it is normally a thriving busy hall; regular activities include yoga, slimming, bingo, music, dance, antiques fairs etc. but Covid has meant that the building had to close for a total of 235 days of 2020. It is closed now and will only be able to open for very limited activities on April 12th.

Although the building Church House is owned by Magna Housing Association, the hall itself is now leased to a registered charity (St Mary’s Church House Hall Trust, no 1184940) and is run by a Management Committee of volunteer representatives from regular and previous users. The Trustees are responsible for all internal upkeep of the hall, and even when it is closed it still has unavoidable costs including insurance, utilities, with the cleaning, maintenance and repair associated with an old building. All income derives from hiring out the hall, so no hire means no monies coming in.

A Crowdfunding appeal has therefore been launched by the committee with a target to raise £10,000 to cover existing and predicted losses during 2020/21. Chairman of the committee, Monty Crook, who also has been actively seeking additional

St Mary’s Church House Hall in Bridport

funds from a wide range of local and national sources, has said that it is such a significant building which has been at the heart of the town and its community for over 100 years, now with all modern facilities, and is so appreciated by all its regular users, that it needs to be kept as a viable concern to be available for many years to come.

If you would like to donate, the Crowdfunder link is www. crowdfunder.co.uk/saving-st-marys-church-house-hall. For further information, please contact Monty on 01308 423 442, montycrook@rocketmail.com, or write to School End, 14 Thread Mill Lane, Pymore, Bridport, DT6 5QT.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 33

Food&Dining

SPINACH SOUP WITH HOT SMOKED SALMON AND HORSERADISH CRÈME FRAÎCHE INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• • • •

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions, cover and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened. Add the garlic and potatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes.

2. Add the stock to the pan, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the spinach, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook for a minute until the spinach has wilted.

3. Remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool a little, then blend the soup until smooth. Return to a clean pan and stir in the cream. Re-heat and check the seasoning.

4. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/ Gas 5. Place the salmon pieces on a baking tray and warm through in a preheated oven.

5. Meanwhile, mix together the crème fraîche and horseradish, season to taste.

6. To serve, divide the salmon between 6 warm, shallow serving bowls. Arrange a spoon of crème fraîche in each bowl and take to the table. Take the soup to the table and ladle around the salmon.

• •

LESLEY WATERS

• • • •

30ml/2tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 potatoes, peeled, halved and cut into thin slices (approx 225g/8oz prepared weight) 1 litre/ 1 ¾ pints vegetable stock 235g tender spinach leaves, washed nutmeg, generous grating salt and freshly ground black pepper 45ml/3tbsp double cream 6 x 55g-85g (2-3oz) pieces of hot smoked, cured salmon

To serve • 200ml tub crème fraîche • 2-3 tsp horseradish • Serves 6

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Vegan Pasty from Devon AS well as bringing back their popular Ploughman’s Pasty, Ottery St Mary based ‘Chunk of Devon’ is now producing a brand new Vegan Ploughman’s Pasty.

Simon BryonEdmond, head hunk at Chunk, explains: ‘We have been creating award-winning pies and pasties for nearly 15 years, driven by the irresistible flavour combinations. With the picnic season upon us and the promise of a staycation summer ahead, we were inspired to combine two classic English dishes to create our delectable new Ploughman’s Pasty range.’

The Ploughman’s Pasty is a shortcrust pastry case packed full of all the key ingredients of a traditional ploughman’s lunch including ham, chunks of cheddar, apple and a tangy dollop of the nation’s favourite, Branston pickle.

The Vegan Ploughman’s Pasty packs the same punch with a vegan puff pastry encasing fake bacon, vegan cheeze and apple enhanced by Branston’s famous pickle. Both pasties are guaranteed to be the star of any picnic this summer, come rain or shine.

The new Ploughman’s Pasty range will be available from 28th March from local stockists and for nationwide delivery from chunkofdevon. co.uk.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 35

LOBSTER, ASPARAGUS AND BACON SALAD The first of the season UK asparagus is upon us and the fishermen have just started potting for lobster and crab although the landings are slim. 120 pots and 12 lobsters was my first purchase which is a lot of work and barely enough to cover the fuel so expect high prices right now but we are supporting local fishermen and you can get a second meal by using the shells for a bisque or broth. I’ve been smoking some of John Summers (Felicity’s brother) bacon recently so I thought I’d pop a bit of that in to complete a delicious spring salad.

MARK HIX

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• 2x500-600g lobsters, cooked • 200-250g Dalwood farm asparagus (asparagoose) with woody ends removed • 1tbs vegetable or corn oil • 150-160g whole piece of smoked streaky bacon, cut into rough 1 cm cubes or use pre diced bacon or pancetta • A couple handfuls of small tasty salad leaves and herbs (land cress, purslane, pea shoots, chives, chervil, flat parsley etc or some wild leaves like pennywort) • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Pull the tail away from the head of the lobster and carefully remove the shell, leaving the flesh intact. Pull away the small pincer which removes the inner claw bone then crack the claws with the back of a heavy knife or rolling pin and remove the claw meat, keeping it whole if possible and crack and remove meat from the smaller joints of the claw. Cut the body in half lengthways then cut each half into three.

2. Cook the asparagus in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes until tender and depending on the thickness then drain and cut.

3. Meanwhile heat the vegetable oil in a non stick frying pan and cook the bacon on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until crisp then drain on some kitchen paper.

4. Whisk all of the ingredients for the dressing together and season to taste.

5. To serve arrange the salad leaves, lobster, asparagus and bacon on serving plates, season lightly then spoon over the dressing.

For the dressing • 1tbs cider or good quality white wine vinegar • 1 tsp Tewksbury or Dijon mustard • 2 tbs rapeseed oil • 2 tbs groundnut or corn oil Serves 4 36 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Crab Pot Fantasy

By Nick Fisher

E

veryone has a guilty secret. Hidden. Stashed away in some dark corner of their lives. A thing that would make them blush if it was discovered. I don’t mean a huge, black, scary secret, like having your ex-wife buried under the patio. Or half the Brinks Mat bullion hidden in your allotment shed. No, something which is an indulgence.

A selfish, often senseless, piece of fantasy which serves little or no purpose, other than to warm a guilty little cockle deep within your own conscience.

It may be an indulgence you can’t explain; like having to wear silk fishnet stockings under your boiler suit when you go to work. Or one you think you can; like only ever buying organic milk, because you truly believe it’s better for you and the environment.

My guilty secret, when I lived in east London, was a crab pot. A brand new, top of the range, full size, last-you-alifetime, crab pot. Bought over the phone from Gundry Marine in Dorset, and delivered by van courier to my door in Bow. The nearest working crab pot to my London home, one which was actually engaged in the process of trapping crustacea for the purpose of cooking and eating, must have been at least 50 or 60 miles away in the mouth of the Thames estuary.

I had no boat to go out to sea. No pot buoys, lead-lined rope, no bait bands, no bait. In short, no reason whatsoever to buy and own a crab pot. I had nowhere to use it and nowhere to put it. Except in my cellar. Where I would visit it.

Touch it. Admire it. Rest my feet on it, while I smoked rollups and tied pike traces, in readiness for my next fresh water fishing trip. Even the opportunity to go sea fishing, let alone crab potting, was rare in east London. But still, I loved my crab pot. Adored it even.

I would study the way it had been made. I loved the fact that used tyres had been cut into strips and used as a spiraltwisted protection for the base of the metal frame. I loved the way it used half a bungee strap as a catch mechanism for closing the pot’s parlour door; a quick and easy opening through which to pour your catch onto the boat deck for sorting.

But there was no deck. There was no catch. There was just me, sitting ten feet beneath street level in central London in the dead of night, sucking on fags, dreaming of a life that was a very long way from the one that I was living.

‘Why on earth have you got that?’ said my wife when I first ripped off the packing straps and stickers. ‘Where are you going to put it? What are you doing with it?’ I had no answers. Not real ones. I mumbled something about needing it for Screaming Reels or Dirty Tackle, one of the fishing shows I used to present, but I was lying. There was no plan.

It was her shock at me importing this huge piece of metal, rubber and nylon in our comparatively small, urban house, that momentarily woke me from my daydream. ‘Where are you going to put it?’ she kept asking, over and over again,

dragging me nearer and nearer to the realisation that I’d done something indulgent, nonsensical and stupid.

Quickly I staggered down the cellar steps to my tacklejumbled, subterranean lair, where I licked my wounds of embarrassment. She was right. What was I doing with a brand new, large size, parlour construction crab pot in my central London cellar? I thought about the moment I’d bought it over the phone, from the manufacturers in Bridport, inspired by a tiny hand-drawn diagram in their Ropes, Buoys, Nets and Fishing Equipment catalogue.

My hands shook when I called up to order one, I was so excited, guilty, confused. I know it’s insane to let a crab pot get to you so much, but it wasn’t really about the pot. I guess it was some fish-deprived voice inside my head shouting out for attention. ‘You want this pot delivered where?’ asked the man in Gundry’s, like I’d just given my address as somewhere on Uranus.

‘...dragging me nearer and nearer to the realisation that I’d done something indulgent, nonsensical and stupid.’

The pot didn’t remain alone in my inner city cellar, soon it was joined by a variety of equally out-of-place items, including a log burner (which could never be plumbed in to a smokeless zone), two fyke nets for eel fishing in an estuary or lake, an ancient, but still functioning, seagull outboard engine, and forty foot of galvanised anchor chain, attached to a thirty pound rust encrusted mud anchor.

Some of these things I had to sneak through the house and down the cellar steps, to avoid, not the wrath of my wife, but the reason. ‘Why have you bought that?’ she’d ask with a perfect sense of reason. And truly, honestly, most of the time I had no answer.

Now, many years later, I look out of my office window, down to the courtyard area in front of our Dorset home, not five miles away from where that first pot was made and despatched. Clustered together outside my window today, are four crab pots, and three prawn pots. They’re waiting to have new wharps attached, to then be loaded into my truck, driven down to the harbour and loaded on to my boat.

Just the sight of those black squat pots and their unfeasibly bright orange buoys brings a thrill to my soul.

There is something just so exciting about their potential, so right about their centuries-evolved design, and so full of promise about the season ahead.

And, odd though it seems, I don’t think I’d be able to go crab-potting for real now, with so much excitement and enthusiasm, if I hadn’t spent so much time deep in that London cellar, potting in my head.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 37

Arts&Entertainment

Vocal magic

Arts and entertainment is a difficult industry during a pandemic, especially when dealing with mental health issues. Musician Daniel Sumbler talked to Fergus Byrne about the challenges he has faced and the benefits that music has brought into his life.

I

n a BBC TV interview a few years ago, Axminster based singer-songwriter, Danny Sumbler, pointed out that ‘suppression isn’t a healthy thing.’ He was referring not only to his own experiences growing up with Tourette’s but also to his aunt Lillian whom he never knew because at the age of six she was taken away to a mental institution. His father never saw his sister again and remembers watching her at the window as she was taken away and put into a black Morris Minor. Speaking to me last week about social interventions related to mental illness Daniel said: ‘The terribly sad thing is, not only would it have been a treatable thing now—as it is highly likely it was a form of Tourette’s or Asperger’s—but she stayed there for the rest of her days, then died there alone.’

A part of Daniel deeply understands and grieves for the loss of the positive effects Lillian could have brought to the lives of those around her. ‘That could have been me if I were a child back then’ he says. ‘My dad’s family were coerced and pressured into feeling shame, even guilt at the way she was looked upon.’ Daniel says they should have been able to feel proud of her, to see the positives that little Lillian might have offered. ‘So it is all of our responsibility to learn about these things and make happy little Lillians for the future.’

38 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

‘when you are lost in something so magical, you begin to see your true self ’

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Seeing the positive sides of mental adversities is something that Daniel feels strongly about. In a recent song Here come the Tourettians—a heart-wrenching ode to living life beyond the pale of society’s so-called norms of behaviour—he sings of people’s perceptions, combining the sense of humour that is a necessary tool for survival with the reality of his own turmoil: ‘you’re wondering if we’re from outer space’ he sings and ‘you ask me why I do such things, but all I know myself is it makes me cry’.

With a voice that Johnny Cash’s producer described as ‘vocal magic’ Daniel’s music brings light into areas that he knows can be completely misunderstood. ‘Tourette’s didn’t really come into our stratosphere with any kind of understanding until the 80s’ he says ‘and even that was very much focused on the extreme shouting side of it—coprolalia and copropraxia, which actually only around ten per cent of Tourettians have.’ Daniel does get some verbal symptoms, but not all. ‘I have found my own way to overcome and deal with every symptom through channelling it through my creative work mostly, or weaving my tics etcetera into the everyday things I do.’ He describes that thing that most of us have done at some point in our lives when we suffered from a fear of looking foolish. ‘You know like when you are running for a bus and you fall over—so you do a forward roll at the end to make it look like you did it on purpose? Ta,da!’

However, the consequent effort of containing something that one has little control of is draining. ‘Suppressing tics all day long though can be exhausting’ says Daniel ‘as can suppressing saying certain things I know I shouldn’t— but believe me, you don’t need Tourette’s to feel that way. When I do get home and am alone however, I can sometimes look like Fred Astaire on LSD—as it all has to come out at some point. Not such a pretty sight, yet I am sure it is amusing. I must video it one day.’

Growing up with Tourette’s or any other mental adversity presents challenges that are individual to each person and the environment in which they live. Daniel was completely unaware that he was any different from any of the other kids growing up until it was pointed out to him.

‘I thought the rituals I performed before sleeping—OCD that is, not Satanic (though I did look like I was possessed whilst twitching some days)—the stepping on preferred paving stones, the vocal tics etcetera, I thought were things everybody did, as I knew no different.’

He remembers being hyperactive as a child and recalls surprising his mother one day after she had taken him out of school to help him with his reading. ‘Sitting opposite me one day, she was reading the newspaper which was open on the table in front of us and I began to read out the words to her. Not only upside down but back to front too of course. She simply took off her glasses, put them down on the table and said something like, “Dan, why didn’t you tell me you could read that well?” I honestly didn’t think it was that important. I had other “Tourettian” things on my mind.’

He also remembers how other symptoms began to

40 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

appear: licking his lips constantly in a pattern and for a certain amount of times until it made them so sore it was almost unbearable. ‘I looked like I had more lipstick on than Bet Lynch—and that’s not a good look for a 7-yearold boy.’ Then there were the tics and twitches: ‘those beloved involuntary movements that made me a one-man sideshow with many faces.’ He describes it as ‘my own little gurning championship in one.’

‘When I do get home and am alone however, I can sometimes look like Fred Astaire on LSD’ As is often the case with mental health issues, outward symptoms can distract from or even mask what is going on inside. Daniel explained some of the problems that aren’t immediately apparent: ‘When I was 5 or 6, I would say to my mum, “I feel like crying but I can’t.” Now I know in hindsight these were early signs of a deep sadness I couldn’t exorcise through crying—which later spiralled into depression. Depression is like that; there is no release. It is like being poisoned and it is the worst and most debilitating associative disorder of Tourette’s for me.

With most mental health conditions you get associative disorders—or the full package as I like to call it.’

Even in his early youth, Art was a place he could live where he could be free of much of his turmoil. With signature humour, he calls it ‘my solace and my expression all in one—a bit like one big satisfying twitch.’ Daniel’s mother drew and painted and when he picked up a pencil or paintbrush he was transported to that zone that became his meditation. ‘Music was the same’ he says.

‘My parents had a large record collection in the home, so it consequently became my first love; another escape and another paradox, being it gave me a way to live in the world presently without the agony.’ He refers to the process as a prime example of a contradiction becoming complementary—a marriage of dark and light. ‘It’s like when people ask me what I seek through my music and art; well I am not seeking anything. I am simply surrendering to getting lost—for when you are lost in something so magical, you begin to see your true self, ironically.’

From a musical perspective, the result of that surrender has unearthed a unique talent. Born and raised in Brighton, Daniel knew from his early teens that he would follow a musician’s path. But as any musician will tell you, that can be a path of many twists and turns, and very deep potholes. He played in different bands, gigged extensively and even generated interest from a major record label. He

also became aware of how easy it was to fall into habits that might suit an itinerant lifestyle. ‘I was in the thick of it’ he says. ‘The vulnerability and anonymity of city life to a newcomer can be thrilling and fascinating—and it is at times—but for me, it was enough after a while. The adventure had pretty much worn off by the time I hit my thirties. The doorbell ringing at 10 am—me peering out of the window after a heavy one; seeing one or two blurry figures waving bottles of wine at me. I needed to move for preservation purposes.’

Much to the consternation of many around him, he turned down the suggestion of getting involved in a TV talent project, believing that easy-fix fame is never what it looks like from the outside. ‘It was quite interesting though, the reactions other people gave me—who I thought understood me to a degree. Some were almost abusive that I’d turned this chance for fame down for apparently nothing—yet I had preserved my integrity.

I had put my work above five minutes of fame; that would have then been dished up ten years later on an episode of Loose Women, if you’re lucky. Jeez. I’d rather play the spoons. Fame is usually temporary, though I am certainly not knocking it; it can be a wonderful platform for many reasons—but it always depends on how you are represented. The arts however are eternal, as is time, and

one bad and easy choice can taint something truly beautiful for a very long time. Any genuine artist will know this.

Have the patience until it feels right.’

Today, like most musicians Daniel is waiting for the opportunity to play live again. He is currently writing a book about Tourette’s and mental health in general and has completed an album of new songs ready to take to the studio. The slow end to lockdown gives hope to many people in the world of arts and entertainment and Daniel is ready for new management, new direction and new horizons.

‘I am on a journey’ he says ‘not a mission. Mental health conditions, in fact, any state of being out of the norm, can induce wonderful art; just as wonderful art and creativity— creating it yourself or experiencing another’s—can induce healing for any mental health conditions that turn into mental health problems. There is a big difference between the two and society needs to learn this. All people have them in one form or another. They don’t always need a label. In fact, we call some of the most dangerous people on this planet sane... think about that one.’

For more information about Daniel Sumbler or to buy his music visit www.danielsumbler.com.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 41

April GALLERIES

April 12 - May 3

Spring into Art. Grasping the first opportunity to showcase their Associate members’ work, Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery will be exhibiting original and innovative work to uplift all our spirits.

Creating inspiring work during stressful and isolated restrictions, the members of Lyme Bay Arts CIC have focused on hope, reconnecting with the outside world, and renewed social interaction. The exhibition will start online in early April and will then open in the gallery (where the latest Covid-19 precautions are in place) as soon as conditions allow. Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery & Shop, Symondsbury Estate, Dorset DT6 6HG. 01308 301326 www.sousouwest.co.uk.

April 12 - May 4

New Ground – An Exhibition of New Paintings by Julie Oldfield.

The Malthouse, Town Mill Galleries, Lyme Regis.

Until April 17

Charlie Baird - Unlocked and William Crozier (1930-2011) - Printing with Colour. All the work can be seen on the gallery website. The Art Stable, Kelly Ross Fine Art, Child Okeford, Blandford, Dorset DT11 8HB. Tel: 01258 863866. https://www. theartstable.co.uk/

April 17 - 30

Essential Mike Bernard RI - The Artist’s Eye. 10am – 5.30pm Daily Distinguished artist and member of The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Mike Bernard RI will be exhibiting a range of new mixed media paintings at Marine House at Beer.

Showcasing over forty new works, this forthcoming exhibition will highlight Mike’s natural talent for capturing composition and perspective, and his astute artist eye which has gained him internationally notoriety. Marine House at Beer, Fore Street, Beer Nr Seaton, Devon, EX 12 3EF. 01297 625257, info@ marinehouseatbeer.co.uk, www.marinehouseatbeer.co.uk

42 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Until April 25

British Studio Ceramic online exhibition of a collection of senior twentieth century ceramicists curated by Paul Greenhalgh, Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. This exhibition highlights Magdalene Odundo, Alison Britton, Carol McNicoll, Martin Smith & Stephen Dixon, the leading lights of a new wave in ceramics that emerged from the Royal College of Art in the 1970s. Creative freedom and an anything goes attitude defined this time at the Royal College and an influential group of students radically challenged and deconstructed notions of ceramics and particularly functional pottery. They led a revival of ceramics in the UK and continue to shape the scene today as leading figures in British ceramics. Messums Wiltshire, Place Farm, Court St, Tisbury, SP3 6LW. + 44 (0)1747 445042. www.messumswiltshire. com

Until May 8

Dorset & Wiltshire Stories. David Inshaw Prints and Drawings, Petter Southall, Furniture, Adela Powell, Ceramics. Sladers Yard Gallery and Café Sladers, West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL. Exhibition can be viewed online. https:// sladersyard.wordpress.com/in-the-minds-eye/ In Pursuit of Spring. Black Swan Arts have joined forces with Somerset Art Works for their first exhibition since last year’s coronavirus lockdown. ‘In Pursuit of Spring’ has been inspired by poet Edward Thomas’ account of his journey by bicycle between London and Somerset to meet the arrival of spring in 1913.

Around 50 Somerset Art Works members have created artwork to illustrate the Somerset leg of Thomas’ journey. As well as the physical exhibition, Black Swan Arts will host a carefully curated online exhibition, including short films about selected artists. If coronavirus rules allow, there will also be a series of art workshops – details to be announced. All the work will be for sale. Visit website for opening details. https://www.blackswanarts.org.uk/ Black Swan Arts, 2 Bridge Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB.

Town Mill in Lyme Regis amongst Galleries to reopen

Copper painting in progress 40x160cm by Julie Oldfield

THE Town Mill Lyme Regis is one of many galleries preparing to reopen on the 12th April. This unique visitor attraction with its operational Mill Water Wheel, Art Galleries and Artisans has been busy behind the scenes preparing for the Government’s reopening date.

Volunteers will be back milling flour and opening the doors for flour purchases. Visitors will be able to see the water wheel turning and interact with millers from a safe distance -learning about the history of the mill in the town.

Both Art Galleries will reopen their doors. Malthouse Gallery will be hosting an exhibition by artist Julie Oldfield, an established local artist who has also shown at the annual open exhibitions of the Bath Society of Artists (2019), the Royal Society of Marine Artists (2017) and for four consecutive years with the Society of Women Artists (2017-20) at the Mall Galleries, London.

Just a few minutes’ walk from the seafront and high street, The Town Mill is Dorset’s ‘Small Visitor Attraction of the Year’.

Please visit the website for opening hours. www.townmill.org.uk

Until June 6

Henry Taylor (online until further notice). Henry Taylor culls his cultural landscape at a vigorous pace, creating a language entirely his own from both historic and immediate imagery, disparate material and memory. Through a process he describes as ‘hunting and gathering,’ Taylor transports us into imagined realities that interrogate the breadth of the human condition, social movements and political structures. For his inaugural exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, the American artist will take over all five galleries in Somerset to present a major body of sculptural work and paintings. In preparation for the exhibition, Taylor extended and unraveled his studio practice within the galleries at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, followed by an artist residency at Hauser & Wirth Somerset this winter—energetically building, stacking and affixing a vast array of objects and collected materials together to create a holistic record of his everyday experiences and the materials that define them. With a guiding sense of human connection, Taylor will build a multifaceted narrative for the exhibition that unites live sitters, changing environments and art historical predecessors from Louise Nevelson to Philip Guston. Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL. https://www.hauserwirth.com/

GALLERIES IN MAY

Live or Online send your April gallery details to info@marshwoodvale.com by April 14th.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 43

APRIL YOUNG LIT FIX PICTURE BOOK REVIEW Nature Trail: By Benjamin Zephaniah and Illustrated by Nila Aye Published by Orchard Books, an Imprint of Hachette Children’s Group, RRP £12.99, Ages 3+

At the bottom of my garden, there’s a hedgehog and a frog, and a lot of creepy-crawlies living underneath a log. . .

So begins the a simply delightful nature trail for any child with access to green spaces, be they gardens, parks or out in the countryside. Lift a leaf to find bugs, look to the trees to see the birds, find a pond to spot a frog, or tadpoles.

Zephaniah’s lilting poetry is easy and enjoyable to read aloud (always a must) and paired with Aye’s vibrant illustrations (which creatures can *you* see?). This is a wonderful book to share with the little ones in your life. As we head into spring this would make a gorgeous Easter gift and a wonderful addition to the bookshelves of any family.

MIDDLE GRADE REVIEW City of Rust by Gemma Fowler Published by Chicken House, RRP £6.99, Ages 8+ Set in a futuristic landscape where all our natural resources have been consumed and the inhabitants of Earth are now living off junk found both on and off planet this is a fabulously original sci-fi adventure.

Railey is a drone pilot, raised and trained by her grandmother to win the biggest drone race on Earth – the reward being elevation to the glass city high above Boxville, the city made from stacked, rusting shipping containers.

But Railey has a secret and lives in fear of being discovered.

Railey is a cheat, she doesn’t pilot the drone herself, her pilot is a bio-robotic and sentient gecko by the name of Atti. Atti and Railey have been in partnership for so long it’s almost as though they can sense each other’s thoughts and movements.

When Railey is caught out she and Atti flee skywards to hide out among the Junkers, people banished generations

ago for polluting the stratosphere with Junk and forced to mine the rubbish orbiting the Earth. Thinking she’ll be safe, she soon discovers a much larger plot that only she and Atti, with the help of some new friends, can disrupt to save the Earth below.

With echoes of Star Wars, Wall-E and Ready Player One this is wholly original and a rollicking good read. I loved it.

TEEN REVIEW The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne

by Jonathan Stroud Published by Walker Books, RRP £7.99, Ages 12+ In the Wild West (of England) Scarlett McCain travels between fortified towns, robbing banks, defending herself from monstrous, mutated wildlife and generally shooting to kill anyone who gets in her way. It’s not an easy life in a broken land of seven kingdoms and terrifying wilds beyond the towns, but she prefers it to the strictures placed on her by town life. Of course, the fact that she’s Wanted in most towns for her crimes, and set to hang if caught makes the wandering a little easier.

When she escapes from Cheltenham in the kingdom of Wessex she happens upon an overturned bus and decides to investigate (or at least see if there is anything left on board worth salvaging). She’s just about to set on her way when she hears a noise and finds a supremely irritating and oblivious boy, around her own age, by the name of Arthur Browne who insists on tagging along.

Scarlett is alarmed that the Cheltenham Militia are following her through the wilds, far beyond the safety of their own lands. Confused as to why she can’t shake them she slowly comes to realise that perhaps it’s not her they’re following. Her new companion is keeping secrets and now they are both on the run.

Another futuristic adventure where Britain is broken by a series of catastrophes and the surviving populations try to do just that: survive. But as the wildlife mutate, so too have humans and it’s hard to tell which are most dangerous. The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne is an imaginative, funny and thrilling tale by the author of the bestselling Bartimaeus and Lockwood & Co series.

All reviews by Antonia Squire at The Bookshop on South Street, Bridport 10% off RRP of these books for Marshwood Vale Readers at The Bookshop, 14 South Street, Bridport

44 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

The Power to Make a Difference

I

n a foreword to Hendrikus van Hensbergen’s How You Can Save the Planet, Robert Macfarlane, bestselling author of The Lost Words, points out how easy it is to despair at the state of our environment.

From melting ice caps to deforestation; rising temperatures to out of control pollution and biodiversity problems to bullying corporations, we have no shortage of issues to deal with. So becoming overwhelmed is common—most especially for those inheriting the planet’s problems.

However, like many people who pick up and read How You Can Save the Planet, Macfarlane makes the point that this book inspires us not to despair. ‘Patiently, carefully, practically, beginning locally and scaling up to a planetary level, it shows how anyone can make a difference’ he says.

And he is so right. Hendrikus van Hensbergen has produced what many people will see as an essential guide that will empower and inspire young environmental activists.

Founder and CEO of a grassroots youth environmental charity, Action for Conservation, Hendrikus van Hensbergen has written the ultimate call to action for young people.

The book combines step-by-step actions for making change and inspiring stories of children who stood up and said “no more”, this book will break down exactly what you need to do to make a difference. From building a green wall or setting

How You Can Save the Planet was published by Puffin in March 2021

Hendrikus van Hensbergen Photograh by Robin Mills

up a swap shop, to using your voice as a powerful tool, you can make real change.

Intruducing a selection of stories from young people who have become involved in caring for their planet, the book, highlights 34 different ‘Actions’ from designing and making clothing from recycled materials to simply identifying and recording wildlife in your area.

It is choc full of tips, tricks and guidance of ways to help make the planet a safer and better place. Resources, budgeting, fundraising, team building and even how to contact the media are items covered for the budding conservationist.

Wildlife and science TV presenter Kate Humble highlighted the format: ‘What’s so clever about this book is that it manages to combine being practical and informative with great story telling. It’s enlightening, inspiring and empowering—a book for anyone of any age. I’m going to give it to everyone I know!’

Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project ‘This wonderful book is a mixture of a manifesto and an operations manual for how to make Natural History. Every young person in the country should be given this book: it is life affirming and brilliantly practical. It is a roadmap for protecting the fragile planet on which we live.”

How You Can Save the Planet is published by Puffin paperback in March 2021, £7.99.

ISBN: 978-0-241-45304-9

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 45

The Lit Fix

Marshwood Vale based author, Sophy Roberts, gives us her slim pickings for April

O

ver the last few weeks I’ve been immersed in some family archives for a potential new book idea.

Whenever that gets boring (family history often does), I’ve ended up spending time in other people’s memoirs instead—stories which have something important to say beyond the individual experience. These are my three favourites, not just because of the narratives they tell, but because of the sheer pleasure of their words. In my opinion, all three authors—with one of them, Horatio Clare, a familiar face at Bridport Literary Festival—are among the standout prose stylists of our time.

Hisham Matar’s Pulitzer-prize winning The Return is one of the most powerful memoirs I’ve read, about his father, a Libyan dissident, who suffered at the hands of Colonel Qaddafi’s murderous regime. Jaballa Matar was kidnapped from Cairo in 1990 and delivered back to Libya; he never reappeared. In painfully articulate prose, Matar follows the ‘few scattered grains of hope’ that he will find his father’s whereabouts. Along the way, he lays bare the realities of growing up the son of a political exile—the lonely days at an English boarding school where he couldn’t use his real name, the dislocation of not quite belonging in either Libya, London or New York, and the ‘perpetual strain’ of a ‘missing pillar’ in his family.

Working through the grief of family illness and death, The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit blends memoir, myth and fairytale to consider the art of storytelling. She reflects on how

the imagination—as stimulated by reading and art—can give you a sense of place in the world. Other peoples’ narratives, she writes, whether real or fiction, can remind us that there is a ‘vast expanse of the world that is not about you’. Solnit reminds the reader that ‘we are all the heroes of our own stories’: as such, we each have the power to make choices that shape our own narrative the way we want it to read. If you haven’t read any Solnit before, this book is where to start.

Horatio Clare’s Running for the Hills is a page-turning, lyrical record of his childhood spent on an isolated sheep farm in the Welsh mountains. He articulates the raw experience of growing up as the child of separated parents and how painful it can be to watch adults’ dreams fall apart. But there is also warmth and humour, in the near-feral, irrepressible spirit of the adventures had by a young Clare and his brother, and the portrait of his mother, who can take on anything, from snowbound winters to fights with local farmers. It’s a moving introduction to Clare’s work, which has even more impact if you read it in conjunction with his latest book, just published in March. Heavy Light charts Clare’s recent experience of ‘madness’, as he is committed to a psychiatric ward after suffering mania and psychosis. It’s edgy, uncomfortable and compelling but ultimately hopeful: ‘Who says we cannot get better?’ he asks, ‘There must be a thousand paths to recovery’.

Buy any of the books above at Archway Bookshop in Axminster in April and receive a 10% discount when you mention Marshwood Vale Magazine. archwaybookshop.co.uk.

Sophy Roberts is a freelance journalist who writes about travel and culture. She writes regularly for FT Weekend, among others. Her first book, The Lost Pianos of Siberia—one of The Sunday Times top five non-fiction books for summer 2020—is now available in paperback.

46 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Screen Time with Nic Jeune

Dominic West and David Oyelowo in Les Miserables

DISNEY PLUS Nomadland (2020).

This is the only streaming platform in UK and then there will be a cinema release once cinemas reopen in May. The wonderful Francis McDormand a winner of two Oscars for Three Billboards and Fargo plays Fern in this adaptation of the novel by Jessica Bruder and directed by Chloe Zhao In the U.K., Nomadland won best independent international film at the British Independent Film Awards, and at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, it won film of the year, while Frances McDormand was named actress of the year, and writer-director Zhao won screenwriter of the year.

The film featured in every major category in the BAFTA longlist and is frontrunner in The Bafta nominations for 2021.

“Sublime” Entertainment weekly. “I love everything about it.”

Roger Ebert.com AMAZON PRIME Les Miserables ( 2019).

This powerful French film is set in Montfermeil which is famous as the location of Thénardiers’ inn in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Montfermeil has made the headlines due to troubles in its social estate called “les Bosquets”. Ladj Ly the writer and director grew up there and his film is the French nomination for Oscar for best foreign language film.

“Ly’s film is executed with enormous confidence and energy, building up to an apocalyptic ending that delivers on a gradual build-up of nervous tension.” Screen Daily. Jonathan Rommney.

The Lighthouse ( 2019) Stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe and is set entirely on a remote lighthouse. “Very few films can make you scared and excited at the same time. Just like the lighthouse beam, this is dazzling and dangerous.” The Guardian Peter Bradshaw.

BBC IPLAYER The Ipcress File (1965) “Len Deighton took the Ian Fleming spy formula and grafted on the anti-authority attitude, first person narration and wisecracking dialogue of the 1930s and ‘40s hardboiled detective novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.” BFI Screen Online. “Michael Caine, Zulu under his belt and Alfie ahead, is the cheeky working class but aspirational bright spark hero par excellence, captured at the exact moment he became a star.” Empire.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) “Director George A Romero redefined the meaning of horror for fear-sated audiences in the 1960s with this seminal classic.” Radio Times. “The original and the best.” Empire.

NETFLIX Thunder Force (2021) “Thunder Force’s Cast Includes Oscar Darlings, Comedians, And Marvel Movie Actors In addition to Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy (for Bridesmaids) and Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer (for The Help) as the leads, the cast of Thunder Force incorporates a number of versatile and familiar talents.

Since the film is a comedy, we can be thankful to see Jason Bateman as a man with crab-like attributes and, also being a superhero flick, it is cool to see Ant Man’s Bobby Cannavale and Guardians of The Galaxy Pom Klementieff abandon their more heroic MCU reputations to play villains this time.”

Cinema Blend For information on this year’s From Fage To Screen Bridport Film Festival see page 12

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 47

Health&Beauty Survey for your views on electric cars and bikes in South Somerset

Join the UK cycling challenge for Diabetes

LOCAL residents, businesses and community organisations are being asked via a short online survey for their views on establishing a community-led electric car club for South Somerset.

The survey is being promoted by South Somerset District Council and would give affordable access to electric cars for everyone whilst also supporting the shift to zero carbon transport.

Since the announcement of the Government’s 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, interest in electric cars has surged. However, they remain too expensive for many people and many households cannot charge a car at home.

An electric car club would address these challenges by locating cars across the district, bookable from as little as half an hour for one all-inclusive price.

This would give members access to electric cars without having to own one.

Furthermore, by switching to using an electric car club and getting rid of an occasionally used personal vehicle, members could save money whilst also helping reduce the area’s congestion, parking and pollution problems.

The survey also asks if respondents would be interested in an electric bike share scheme. Because they are electrically assisted, the bikes are a great alternative to the car for many shorter trips including commuting, everyday errands and leisure trips.

Councillor Sarah Dyke, SSDC portfolio holder for Environment, said: ‘Our commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 remains our priority and we’re determined to keep pushing to meet the key milestones set out in our environment delivery plan. We are already successfully delivering an electric scooter hire trial scheme in Yeovil and will soon extend this to Crewkerne and Chard, so this electric vehicle hire scheme is a natural next step to provide ecofriendly transport choices for our communities. We hope the residents of South Somerset will take part in this survey to allow us to gauge interest and demand.

Sharing is a great way to reduce consumption, over production and saves money as well as carbon and other emissions impacting on our environmental wellbeing.’

The survey is available at https://bit.ly/SSomerset and is open until 30 April 2021. The results of the survey will not only help establish the viability of the project but will also be shared with SSDC to assist their planning.

The survey is being run in partnership with Co Cars car club, a social enterprise that has an established network of low and zero emission cars across the South West. Co-Cars company also runs the Co Bikes electric bike sharing scheme.

Mark Hodgson, Managing Director of Co Cars, said: ‘Over the last 12 months, we have seen a huge surge of interest in our shared, electric cars and bikes from communities across the region.

We’re really excited to see if we can bring them to South Somerset as they would give people access to the latest technology at an affordable price, helping them save money and hassle when compared to owning a car.’

For more information, visit www.co-cars.co.uk and www.cobikes.co.uk.

PEOPLE can use pedal power to raise vital funds for Diabetes UK this spring by taking part in a cycling challenge.

The UK Wide Cycle Ride runs throughout April and is a perfect opportunity to take your fitness up a gear while raising money for diabetes research along the way.

Challengers can pick from one of five virtual distances, ranging from 120 miles for beginners through to 950 miles for more experienced cyclists, and they have the entire month to clock up the mileage. The aim is to challenge yourself—at your own pace—and pedal towards a stronger, healthier you.

You can cycle the miles however you wish over the 30 days of April, by embracing the outdoors, staying home and using an exercise bike, or a mix of the two.

There are five ‘coast to coast’ distances to choose from: Route 1: 120 miles, the equivalent of Dundee to Fort William Route 2: 180 miles, Swansea to Bangor Route 3: 220 miles, Margate to Weston-SuperMare Route 4: 500 miles, North Coast route Route 5: 950 miles, Land’s End to John O’Groats Those taking part will get their own fundraising profile page and can join a Facebook group where event ambassadors and challengers discuss their progress and share tips. There are fundraising incentives, with anyone raising £35 or more receiving a medal.

Diabetes UK-branded neck warmers and cycling jerseys will go to anyone raising £250 and £500 respectively.

To register for the UK Wide Cycle Ride, visit cycle.diabetes.org.uk. There is no registration fee and no minimum sponsorship. Please always adhere to the coronavirus restrictions in your area while taking part.

48 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 49

Services&Classified LAND WANTED

FOR SALE Electric bike 36V Kalkhoff Sahel Impulse Compact white.

Excellent condition. £550 ono Tel. 01460 74572 The Countryman. A set of the lovely little green, ‘The Countryman’, magazine from 1970 to 2020 carefully boxed Open to offers in excess of £25.

Can deliver. 01297 34958 Greenhouse heaters Two copper/brass paraffin greenhouse heaters and one Eltex double heater £10 each or £25 for the three. 01297 34958 1950’s Large model yacht £25. BT Answer/ fax machine £20. Modern Swedish spun aluminium rise and fall lampshade £30. Model Loco’s Wills ‘00’ kits etc £30/ £55 each. Vintage model loco Trix A2, green cover. New boxed £90. 01305 834554.

7 Hornby Thomson teak coaches £60. Vintage Loco Standard Trix Class S, £65 (boxed). Victorian glass tulip vase 800mm h x 950. £15. Boxed new double inner tent for caravan awning, built in ground sheet. £35. Under awning new boxed groundsheet 8ft x 4ft £25. 01305 834554.

21 piece fine bone china tea set, Royal Imperial white with blue flowers and leaves £15. As new.

01308 458533.

2 good quality Wall Mirrors - 1 with solid light oak frame, 14” x 30” £10, and 1 with pine frame 44” x 30” £15. Tel: 01395 487554 3 rail black BR Hornby Doublo NZ 0-6.2 tank 69597 £60. 3 rail 1960’s Hornby Doublo A4 Silver link 4.6.2/ tender £85. 2 rail 1960’s Hornby Doublo

NZ 0.6.2 Tank black 69597. £55.2 Rail Hornby A3 4.6.2 green BR 60112 ‘St Simon’ £45. 2 Rail Hornby Fonier LMS 6 tank £45. 2 rail Hornby Brittania 60006 ‘Robert Burns’ £45. 01305 834554.

New, white wash-basin/ pedestal £40. exact size/ photo can be supplied.

Tel. 01305267465 or 07398 760637 Dorchester.

Beekeeping equipment Wax/honey separating tank £20, large Honey settling tank £40, heated uncapping tray £20. All stainless steel. Please call 07479474392.

Farmhouse pine table 5ftx4ft and 4 chairs in very good condition. Bee waxed finished. £360 ono. Large antique pine dresser 6ft wide, 6ft 6ft tall. 2 lower cupboards and drawers. Upper dresser with shelves. Ripe for renovation £500 ono.

Antique pine washstand marble and tiled £40.

Items to be collected.

07810 837345 Antique pitch pine library steps in amazing condition for the vintage.

Extra long platform top.

No paint or other marks but would benefit from being waxed or oiled to bring out the colour of the pitch pine. 17.5” at the widest point 54” to the top of the steps.

Photos and full details 0146055105 £45 Antique Victorian Cast Iron Garden Chairs in a set of 4. Good patina.

Pics available. £280 Tel: 07484689302 Vintage catalogues, Goodwood Revival 2009 Festival, £10 each. Men’s golf clubs + bag £35.

Ladies gold clubs + bag £35. Wilson/ Prolite (worth £180) 428 regular

50 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

Maxx golf driver £120.

1947 vintage improved stamp album with stamps from WWI £60. Official Sailing programme of 2021 Olympics £12. 01305 834554.

Vintage industrial storage bin which is very well made and strong with wooden top rails and riveted corners. Many uses as clean inside and has grab handles for easy moving. A piece of industrial chic. 20” wide 41 long and 34 high. Does not have a lid £45 Photos available 01460 55105 Kilkenny Living open fire surround and hardwood mantlepiece.

Mantlepiece and supports are in top quality solid oak, fire surround is cast iron with tiled inserts. 1210mm h x 1370 max w. £350.

Axminster 07842 872838 Honda GD410 9HP Diesel Engine. Good working order. Hand Pull Start. Double Belt Pulley.

Final drive can be used with various equipment, pressure washers.

Generator, Compressors. £150 Mobile 07834 550899 East lambrook 01460 242071 MF35 Fergusson Rear Trailer Hitch. Bolts onto rear axel with adjustable tie bars onto Hydraulic 3 point Hitch. Used without Tee Bar. Will fit T20/ MF35 etc £100. Mobile 07834 550899 East Lambrook 01460 242071 Gents lightweight cycle, Orbea Aqua, 54cm aluminium frame, carbon forks; 700x35c wheels; Shimano Tiagra and 105 gears; blue and white; immaculate condition. £250. 01305 871863 Efco Chain Saw, 14” bar, with brand new chain. £75. Tel: 01395 487554

“Next” Cushions, various sizes and colours with co-ordinated Throws in vgc. From £5. Tel: 01395 487554 Antique mahogany Station type Wall Clock in working order £125.

Tel 01395 487554.

Antique Cantonese large ceramic Charger £150.

Tel: 01395 487554 Antique large Turkish Copper Ewer £80. Tel: 01395 487554 Temporary Spare-Wheel for Volvo, (Continental Tyre), all Brand-new; Unused, with tools, all encased in Volvo anchorage: £80 ono (cost £190) Tel: 01297 598326 2 x 4 seat sofa covers, new boxed, grey, 2300mm, cost £80 each, sell £40 each. Hornby 00 Loco’s from £30. Hornby Doublo (1960’s) 3 rail model locos from £50.

H/D 3 rail track points £3 each. Rails £25. Box 25 items. 01305 834554.

Hornby Doublo 3 rail coaches £15 each, Model railway magazines from 1937/ 19660’s, 30+ £25. Loco stock books + photo albums 1947 01968 £45. H/D girder 00 bridge (metal) £45. 01305 834554.

Boys bike 5/6 age blue/ yellow 18” wheels £15.

3 Hornby 2 rail SR 3 Hornby Green coaches £36. 1960’s Hornby Doublo 3 rail Mint boxed 4.6.2 Duchess of Montrose BR green £120.

1960’s 3 rail Hornby Doublo BR black 2-6.4 tank. £75. Hornby Doublo wagons 3 rail £15 each. 01305 834 554.

30 + Assorted vintage tools - large & small handsaw, spanners, greaser; hacksaw, hammer etc £8. Fence Spike - 4”

Wanted to buy, field, half acre upwards. Not best land, to grow few trees for environment.

Can decide immediately! Trees I have ready, urgently need space to grow.

Tel:- 07508 106910 Apr 21

CURTAINS Little Curtains.

Handmade Curtains, Blinds and Cushions.

Contact 07443 516141 or 01308 485325

Apr 21

RESTORATION FURNITURE. Antique Restoration and Bespoke Furniture.

Furniture large and small carefully restored and new commissions undertaken. City and Guilds qualified.

Experienced local family firm. Phil Meadley 01297 560335 jun 21

To advertise on these pages email info@marshwoodvale.com

SURFACE PREPARATION

Alberny Restoration In-house blast cleaning for home and garden furniture, doors and gates. Agricultural/ construction machinery and tooling. Vehicles, parts and trailers etc. 01460 73038, email allan@alberny. co.uk, FB Alberny Sandblasting

ELECTRICAL

WANTED

CHIMNEY SWEEP

Vintage & antique textiles, linens, costume buttons etc. always sought by Caroline Bushell. Tel. 01404 45901.

Apr 21

Secondhand tools wanted. All trades.

Users & Antiques.

G & E C Dawson.

01297 23826. www. secondhandtools.co.uk.

Oct 20

Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975

Mar 21

Wanted: Old tractors and vehicles. Running, non running. Good price paid. 01308 482320 07971 866364

Dec 21

FOR SALE x 4” x 36 (total) “ length Travis Perkins new. Spike is 32” long £8. Catnic Lintel 2100mm x 180mm x 260mm - unused - left over from project. £20.

Tel. 01300 320059.

Folding 1930’s Kodac camera £50. Box Browning 1930’s Kodac camera £50. Rolling chassis + parts Flying Scotsman Live steam 2.5inch. £120 M/S Vintage 1926 Bing Live steam 4.4.0 Loco working sprit fired £250.

Girls bike 5/7 years, 6 gears 24”, £15. 01305 834554.

Picture - limited edition signed print.

David Shepherd.” Rhino Beware”. Framed. £150.

01297 442991 Lead Model of Concubine coach/ horses from China in presentation case. £120.

Hornby mini scale electric 00 gauge scot car

set £50. (2 cars) Graham Farish boxed set 3 rail’00’ 1948 goods set £50.

01305 834554.

Clockwork Hornby ‘0’ gauge tank loco’s 1949 vintage £35 each. Coach £12, Truck £15. Track £20 pack. Watertank platform crossing wagon bodies £25. Boxed Airfix 46103 Royal Scots Fusilier £45. 01305 834 554.

White flexible table lamp £25. Mono ski £25.

Yester Year boxed model cars/ trucks, Corgi, Lledo Cotswold etc £3-£7. Hornby Winston Churchill model Loco 2 rail 4-6-2/ tender £35.

01305 834554.

Plastic model 00 gauge Bricworks German 1960’s. £40. 2 pewter goblets £15. 1930 vintage ink drawing kit in box with velvet lining £35. Red rug 2000 x 1800 £30. 01305 834554.

Tent - two man. VGC. £20. 01297 442991 Art easels, books and canvases plus lots more.

01297 20620. 30+ Corgi mini-cars trucks etc.

1960’s vintage £40ono.

30+ Corgi matchbox cars/ trucks 1950/1960 vintage £35. Pictionary game boxed £12.

Charades game boxed £12. 01305 834554.

Trivial Pursuits Genus and Globetrotter boxed games £15 each. 1974 Hotspur book for boys £10. 1968 Eagle album £15. 1979 Action man album £12. 1960’s Endevour VII model yacht £20. 01305 834554.

Cooker with ceramic hob, vgc, £35.

Reciprocating saw battery blades £25.

Sentry box shed 68x 26”w £20. Metal fence panels 4ft x 2ft, in inch squares, £2.50 each.

Metal fencing arches

DISTRIBUTION

FOR SALE 6ft £5 each. Painter’s Flatford steps as new. £15. 07940 279684.

Professional metal detector, super condition with headphones and batteries and instructions, all in excellent working order. £400. 07594 687485 anytime.

Window cleaners 8ft aluminium ladder £65.00.

Allen walkover 18 inch lawn sprayer with 5 litres of moss treatment. £85.00. Can supply photos for the above.

01298 22603.

Eight sided Teak garden table 4ft x 4ft with parasol £200. In good condition. 01308 425070

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 51

FREE ADS for items under £1,000 This FREE ADS FORM is for articles for sale, where the sale price is under £1000 (Private advertisers only — no trade, motor, animals, firearms etc). Just fill in the form and send it to the Marshwood Vale Magazine, Lower Atrim, Bridport, Dorset DT6 5PX or email the text to info@marshwoodvale.com.

Unfortunately due to space constraints there is no guarantee of insertion of free advertising. We reserve the right to withhold advertisements. For guaranteed classified advertising please use ‘Classified Ads’ form

Name ............................................................. Telephone number .................................

Address ................................................................................................................................

Town .......................................... County....................... Postcode ..................................

Monthly Quiz –

Win a book from Little Toller Books

Send in your answer on a postcard, along with your name and address to: Hargreaves Quiz, Marshwood Vale Magazine, Lower Atrim, Bridport, Dorset DT6 5PX. Study the clues contained in the rhyme and look carefully at the signposts to work out which town or village in South Somerset, West Dorset or East Devon is indicated. The first correct answer drawn out of a hat will win a book from local publisher Little Toller Books.

There is no cash equivalent and no correspondence will be entered into.

Last month’s answer was Odcombe. The winner was Mr Piers-Taylor from Bridport.

52 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 Tel. 01308 423031

BUSINESS NEWS

Map to help aquaculture investors THE Dorset and East Devon Coast has been mapped as part of a project aiming to help develop sustainable aquaculture across the region while recognising existing marine activity such as military exercise areas and under water hazards such as shipwrecks.

A recent report, detailing these findings, provides valuable insight into how the UK can take further steps to increase sustainable aquaculture production while managing the needs of multiple marine users. The report aims to support the aquaculture industry through its review of potential sites within the inshore waters, out to 6 nautical miles, along this stretch of coast.

The project, funded through the Dorset and East Devon Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) and match funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with support from The Fishmongers’ Company, was carried out by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) in Weymouth, provides potential aquaculture businesses with locations which might be suitable for development without introducing additional pressures on other marine users.

The map lets potential investors zoom in on specific areas and see which species are most suited to grow there. Martin Sutcliffe, Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Officer for Dorset Coast Forum said, ‘Aquaculture in England is going to look very different to the Scottish industry, which focuses on salmon. England’s coastline isn’t really suitable for large cages of fish, but it is suited to the growing of shellfish and seaweed on long lines, as shown in Lyme Bay which already has a large mussel farm offshore, producing rope grown mussels.’

There is a facility on the aquaculture website for users to give feedback online so that the resource may be refined and updated in the future.

To see the map visit https://www.dorsetaquaculture.co.uk/map/

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine April 2021 53