Marshwood+ Mid-Month Special June 2020

Marshwood+ June 2020 Mid-Month Special Issue

The best from West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon

No. 253-2 April 2020

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UP FRONT Most people, especially in the hospitality industry are aware of the devastation COVID-19 has caused to the local economy. Figures from Visit England show that the South West gets a higher percentage of tourist income than any other part of the country, so it’s fair to say that tourism represents a large proportion of local income. So it was interesting to read how the mayor of one town wrote to holiday property owners recently to assure them that visitors will be welcome again when government advice allows them to visit. But when that time comes we may need to come up with some creative ideas to get people to come back. Perhaps we could take inspiration from Visit Finland who recently ran a campaign to ‘Rent a (virtual) Finn’. Voted the world’s happiest nation for the third year in a row, their tourist team launched a streaming service to invite people to ‘learn happiness skills from the happiest people in the world’.

The series focused on five different offers in the sessions called ‘Eat with a Finn’, ‘Relax with a Finn’, ‘Be active with a Finn’, ‘Spend time with a Finn’ and ‘Be happy with a Finn’. A virtual happiness guide, specializing in each topic, introduced each session. If nothing else the idea alone is amusing. Could we do something similar? Perhaps we could launch a local competition to find our happiest people with a range of different areas of expertise. There must be lots of happy people around that tourists might like to spend time with. The first hurdle is how to present the offer. Is it Be happy with a Westcountryer? Be happy with a South Westerner, a Jurassicker, a Zummerzetter? a fossil? Hmmm needs work doesn’t it.

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

Editorial Director Fergus Byrne

Deputy Editor Victoria Byrne

Design

Fergus Byrne

Advertising

Fergus Byrne info@marshwoodvale.com

THIS MONTH Jojn us in a better normal

We always knew there was room for change. Now we know it can be done. We’d love to hear from you about what is happening in your community and the positive changes that can come from adversity. We’d also like to know what you’d like to see in your community magazine and hear your ideas. Email us at: info@marshwoodvale.com

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Jyoti Fernandez By Robin Mills Bill Crumblehome By Robin Mills Hugh Makins By Peter Park Phillis Curwood By Ron Frampton Notices from Local Groups News & Views Black Lives Matter in Bridport

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House & Garden Vegetables tips from Kew Garden By Helena Dove Property Round Up By Helen Fisher

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Food & Dining Supplying Flour By Maurice Liddiard Project Food By Kerry Morgan Harissa and Lemon-Baked Fish and Root Veg with Couscous By Jo Pratt Aubergine and Quinoa ‘Meatballs’ with Tomato Sauce By Jo Pratt

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Arts & Entertainment The Power of Poetry By Ellie Sturrock Galleries

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Health & Beauty Services & Classified

“Whatever happens to you, it will have previously happened to everyone you know, only more so.”

Like us on Facebook

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Contributors Helena Dove Helen Fisher Ron Frampton Richard Gahagan

Maurice Liddiard Robin Mills Kerry Morgan Peter Park

Twitter @marshwoodvale

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.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES A Look back at some of the people we have featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine

‘M

y life started in Iowa, in the MidWest of the USA. My mother was Italian-American: her family had once been homestead farmers in Iowa, and my Dad was Indian, from a village in Goa. He was the first in his family to get an “education”, immigrating as an engineer to the US for a better life, maybe a bit of the American dream. Later we moved to Louisiana in the South, bible-belt country, where he spent years working on inventions to help the rural poor. My background’s not really a rural one: you could say more of an activist one.

My mother was blind, and quite early on she decided that wasn’t going to stop her from leading a normal life. She not only raised five of us kids, but also set up a civil rights movement for blind people in the United States. I remember my parents, as a mixed race couple, during my growing up years in Louisiana where there were quite a lot of racial problems, battling for justice in everything they did. My mother was into things like natural childbirth, and chose home births when at the time they were illegal in Louisiana. A burning cross was placed in our backyard once, the local Klan getting upset about us having a home birth to prove it was possible. She didn’t let that, or anything, stop her. I think it was from working alongside my mother I learned that if there’s something you really believe in, and you’re prepared to work for it, you can make things happen. My mother’s campaign had 20,000 members, and became the National Federation for the Blind.

I went to college in Atlanta, Georgia, and studied international development. I had been in the debate team in high school, coming first in the national championship, which brought me a college scholarship.

This was a great opportunity to break out of the small town setting I’d been brought up in, because by now I really felt I wanted to achieve something in the world. I was in Atlanta for about 3 years, but began to

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feel the university was quite conservative in their teaching. The problem with international development, in the way it was taught, was that it seemed to be always about applying the “American path” to developing countries, which I thought was inappropriate. So, I dropped out of college, and began to talk to my father a lot about India: about the village where his family had come from and what their lives were like, and I realized how much he struggled with the consumerism of American culture and missed village life. I felt I needed to find out about Indian life, my father’s background: I didn’t even speak any of their language.

I travelled in India for about a year. The thing that really changed my life was visiting the Narmada Valley, in Gujarat, where there was a hydro-electric dam being built. There was a movement against the project and the environmental destruction it would create, led by activists who were followers of Gandhi’s philosophy. Involved in that movement I felt more passionate, more at home than ever before: I was 20 years old, I was working with people involved in non-violent direct action, who had their own ideas about development, which meant supporting local farmers and communities.

My Indian friends persuaded me that if I wanted to make a difference, I needed credentials, so I went back to university to finish my course. After qualifying, I managed to get a job with President Carter, at the Carter Centre for International Development, in the Latin American section. That was an interesting job, but they were trying to set up trade agreements which would have been detrimental to small farmers. They sent me down to Mexico, where I was able to help set up some cooperatives to help them continue with their traditional Mayan methods of agriculture, but also export just enough to give them money to live on.

Jyoti Fernandez

Photograph Robin Mills

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

It was there that I also discovered how much I loved farming. I’d been doing that for about a year, when I met my husband David. It was at a party in Atlanta: we were across a crowded room, one of those beautiful moments where I fell in love at first sight. He’s British, visiting his brother who lived in Atlanta, and being such a practical man he just swept in and sorted me out. I was living in a yellow school bus at the time, freezing half to death, and right away he put in my wood-stove, and made my life more comfortable.

It wasn’t long before I was pregnant with my first daughter, and we decided that we didn’t want to bring up a child in the city. We both wanted to live on the land: so we moved to a site near Glastonbury, in a beautiful woodland setting, living in a bender where our first child was born. We spent three years there: then we got a truck and lived in that for the next year, working on lots of different organic farms, travelling also to France and Spain. Our second daughter was born in the truck when we were working on a farm in Wales. Later, we moved to an organic farming community in Somerset called Tinker’s Bubble. We were there 5 years, and it was everything we had been looking for while we had been travelling.

We had our own bit of land, and there was a great community with down-to-earth people, trying to make a living from land-based enterprises which didn’t use any fossil fuels.

It was there that David taught himself to make green-wood furniture, and I learned things like growing vegetables and salad crops, milking cows and making cheese. It was also there that our 3rd and 4th daughters were born, the midwife having to battle her way up the hill to the little round-house we’d built for ourselves. It was an idyllic place for

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young children to grown up in, and we still feel part of that “family”.

We had been feeling that we needed a bit more land, to make our enterprise a bit more of a commercial proposition. So when we found our 43 acres here at Wootton Fitzpaine, which was for sale at auction, we had no money at all, with just 2 weeks to raise it! Our bank was really supportive, and had faith in how our plan for life on the land was sound. So the day before the auction, they gave us the go-ahead: just before the bidding started, David bit into a piece of bread which, strangely, contained a five-penny piece. “I’m going to buy this farm with all I have in my pocket”, he said, which is this five-penny piece”. To our great joy, our bid was successful. We built our homes here, with our friends Kerry and Olly, who share the farm with us, then started with our poly-tunnels, and vegetable crops. Later we added livestock, producing everything organically and selling mostly through market stalls. The whole enterprise is “off the grid”, meaning we have no need of mains services: we produce our own electricity from wind turbines.

Alongside my work as an organic farmer and a mother, I spend a lot of time campaigning for small farmers and their rights worldwide.

In this country that means helping people through the planning system to enable them to live and work on the land. I try to share our own experience of getting permission to build our house to, hopefully, inspire others to do the same. Our own planning struggle was quite a stressful time, but we felt we had a right to live here, to be independent of the state in both housing and income. It can be hard work, but every single day, we enjoy moments of pure joy, affirmations of our way of life.

’

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FROM THE ARCHIVES A Look back at some of the people we have featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine

‘I

started pottery when I was at Weymouth Grammar School. My big brother was at the same school, and he had fun with clay sculpting: he’d made pots with figures crawling out of them and I persuaded the teacher, Peter Goodson, to let me go to after-school sessions. I potted for relaxation during A-levels, teaching myself how to throw on the wheel and producing vases which were ideal for my mother’s flower arranging – nice and heavy with interesting glazes! My mother is quite artistic, she paints, and my grandfather was a plumber, a lead worker, very good with his hands: he could turn a sheet of lead into a ball, just by tapping it around, so I might have inherited some of his skills.

I was brought up in Weymouth, born into a fourth-generation family building business with a most inappropriate name! I went into it as a young man and worked there for twenty-odd years.

Diane, my wife and I moved to Upwey, buying Mr Lovering’s house in Elwell Street, which had been a butcher’s business. We converted the stores into a pottery studio and I spent my spare time messing about with clay, between bringing up two daughters and sailing.

My early work wasn’t that good technically, and I remember taking my pots to the Dorset Arts and Crafts show in Blandford, where the judges said I should maybe use a bit less clay and a bit more thought! I’m actually green colour-blind, which can be quite an interesting challenge: to my eyes a brown pot’s as good as anything!

Perhaps I’m not obvious material as an artist: but an engineering approach is useful. I think of myself as more of an artisan craftsman, or that’s what I’m working towards.

I started appearing at the Old School Village Hall, as a potter and also in the village pantomimes, which were splendidly stupid, but great fun. I am currently the chairman of the trustees that manage the hall. The Upwey Potters was established in the hall with locals

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Fil and Maggie Cooke, also involving Anne Ashmore, Pat March, Jane Taylor and Paul Sutton. We inspire and help each other to improve our work and learn off each other, trade together and run classes and workshops.

We also encourage other creative people through classes and the village hall has built up a reputation as a venue for art and craft exhibitions and workshops.

We helped start the Dorset Pottery Group, with Alan Ashpool, famous for the annual October exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre and also the Millennium Ammonite in the rear yard there.

I became involved with managing the Dorset Art Weeks, promoting artists across Dorset who opened their studios. Through that I met many artistic people who have inspired me and delighted many others.

After stopping the day job, I really wanted to try and make some sort of a living from selling and teaching pottery, as well as having a complete change to my way of life. My wife was working as a special needs teacher, which helped with our income.

I started researching different ways of firing.

I visited the Museum in Dorchester to look at the Iron Age Black Burnished wares. That got me into experimental archaeology, working with Peter Woodward at the museum with Kate Verkooijen and his volunteers, investigating and replicating ancient pottery.

I got involved with the Time Team dig at Friar Waddon in the late nineties. They asked us local potters to find suitable clay and timber fuel for their mediaeval expert to recreate pottery and I helped him build a kiln.

Then I worked with archaeologists at Bestwall Quarry near Wareham ahead of the gravel extraction. The Romans had taken over an Iron Age site, industrialised it, and were producing millions of black burnished ware pots per year near Poole harbour, with good clay, coppiced woodland and a handy port. Pottery from there has been found over a huge area, as far away as

Bill Crumblehome

Photograph Robin Mills

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Hadrian’s Wall and northern France. I’d liken it to what Woolworths would have sold, or maybe Pyrex, basic but useful. It’s identifiable by its black shiny colour, with latticed decoration.

The surface was burnished with a pebble, while drying, to make it shiny and harder.

We rebuilt a couple of the kilns at the Bestwall quarry and produced some pottery to demonstrate and investigate their methods.

Nowadays I’m using my involvement with archaeology as my inspiration. This has led to my running workshops on these ancient methods: we’re continually trying to understand how the work was made. The pots from Bestwall were incredibly black in colour: they were not fired like that, because the kilns weren’t black inside, so my theory is that they were blackened afterwards in a charcoal clamp, the charcoal being needed for metal working.

Sometimes I’ll fire my own pots in a bonfire to get similar effects.

I was involved with an exhibition at the Dorset County Museum called Artyfacts, in which artists produced work in response to some of the items on display there. I was trying to make Bronze Age urns and beakers with wonderful shapes, decorated with zig-zags using a comb.

I make versions using modern materials and glazes. I love those shapes and decorations and they’re great to drink out of !

Normally I’d make that kind of thing on a wheel, but of course you can’t do that if you’re trying to be authentic. So I’ve taught myself to do it joining three or four rings of clay together, and I’m getting quite quick at it now.

I think it was the Victorians who coined the phrase “Beaker Folk” for the people from that era, and I’ve borrowed the phrase for my website www.beakerfolk.co.uk, where I show this type of work, with other people doing similar activities.

Archaeologists and I learn from each other: when they see me actually making something, the whole process behind an artefact becomes an illustrated reality. But so much of early material culture is lost, the things made of wood and leather and other organic materials

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are completely gone. Kate and I have become involved with the Age of Bronze, which is a living history group that stages re-enactments – I have appeared near Stonehenge and at English Heritage’s Festival of History, resplendent in homemade costume and shoes!

My latest venture goes under the snappy title of “the Ancient Wessex Development Group”, which is an attempt to bring together people who work in the heritage industry, mainly with tourists, to collaborate with artists, makers and designers and see what potential there is for all of us to benefit. We’ve been talking to, for instance, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team with their South Dorset Ridgeway Project. They’re organising guided tours in the Maiden Castle area, where you might come across me making pots at the end of May. There’ll also be an event at Corfe Castle in late July and early August, with people making artefacts of ancient times and artists painting landscapes inspired by history. Then we are setting up at Maiden Castle in mid September.

I now run a business, Alacrify, undertaking website design and consultancy. I work with Jon Sloper: I do the business side of it, and some of the less complicated things. Jon does all the clever programming; I think his flair for design comes from his background as an artist. It is all about using modern tools to communicate and provide information.

I get so much from working with groups, combining different talents, where the whole of something is greater than the sum of its parts.

That was why I got involved with Dorset Art Weeks, bringing people together to produce such a successful project which has grown and grown. It was genuinely inspiring to be part of, especially helping artists to actually make a living from what they create: it’s difficult enough to produce the work, but then you have to be skilled enough to actually sell it. This part of the world has huge resources in the number of creative people who are living and working here: we need to make everyone much more aware of that phenomenon, for the benefit of the whole community.

’

Click to View - Alleyne Dance came to Drimpton in November 2019 as part of the NRTF Rural Touring Dance initiative with their performance of ‘A Night’s Game’. They have released a series of ‘workout’ videos online on their Youtube channel, which you can follow along from the comfort of home (or watch with a cup of tea if you prefer!)

Artsreach Digital Diary ARTSREACH is Dorset’s charity bringing high quality performances of live theatre, music, dance and family shows to the heart of rural communities The Artsreach staff team and Board of Trustees continue to monitor the situation relating to the Coronavirus pandemic, listening to Government and Public Health advice and planning accordingly. The impact on this pandemic on our country is still unfolding but in the meantime, until the charity is able to present a live performance programme once more, the Artsreach team continue to work remotely and are exploring how best to support their artists and communities in the future.

In the meantime they have launched a Digital Diary to help readers feel culturally connected and in touch with many of their much-loved touring performers.

Artsreach hopes to get back to what it does best very soon, bringing a new and exciting programme of performances to Dorset’s rural communities. Until then please enjoy the wealth of wonderful performances available online. For more information about Artsreach visit https://artsreach.co.uk.

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Have a clear-out to help Age UK HAVE you had a clear-out at home during lockdown? Age UK North, South & West Dorset (NSWD) is open at Rowan Cottage in Dorchester to take your items off your hands.

Age UK NSWD is asking for donations of clean undamaged clothing, Bric a Brac, books and DVDs to restock its charity shops in Dorset.

The Charity aims to re-open its newly relocated retail premises in St. Mary Street, Weymouth by the middle of June, followed by its existing shops in Bridport and Dorchester.

Operations Manager, Sarah Frigot said: ‘We are excited to be re-opening our shops, especially our new store opposite Marks & Spencer in Weymouth.

‘We need good quality donations to raise money for our vital work supporting older people. I am sure lots of people have had a good clear-out during the lockdown, and we would be thrilled to turn unwanted items into new funds.

‘We aim to open the shops as soon as we possibly can, closely following Government guidelines to ensure a safe shopping experience for our customers, staff and volunteers.’

Age UK NSWD head office at Rowan Cottage in Dorchester, will be open to safely receive your items on Tuesday 9 and Friday 12 June from 10am to 2pm on both days.

Please note that they are unable to accept electrical items, underwear and nightwear. They are also unable to accept donations at their stores until they reopen.

Bring your donations to: Age UK North, South & West Dorset, Rowan Cottage, 4 Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1PW. Tel 01305 269444.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES A Look back at some of the people we have featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine

‘I

have lived and worked as a member of the Monkton Wylde Community since 2004. We each have special responsibilities because of our individual skills: mine is building maintenance, farming, gardening, but we all contribute to the daily chores. This morning I cut some hay using a scythe – nothing much changes here. This afternoon I’m on wash-up duties. We also have a volunteer coming this afternoon. I’m a ‘linker’ for her – I get the room ready, do the sheets, and welcome her.

The Monkton Wylde community grew out of the co-educational boarding school started in 1940 by Eleanor Urban, and her husband, Carl, a geography teacher. Carl, a German, was placed under ‘house arrest’ du­ring the war, and had restrictions – he wasn’t even allowed his maps. The school catered for sixty children, some offspring of the rich and famous who sought a more peaceful education for their children. Larry Adler’s daughter, George Melly’s sons, some of the Gielguds, and nieces of Sammy Davis Jr were all taught here. With the closure of the school in 1980, some teachers stayed on to start weekend and summer schools for children; soon adults became interested in the ethos of Monkton Wylde.

I was born in 1930 in Bruton, Somerset. My parents were academics and strongly against war, influenced by their experiences during the First World War. My father was Frederick Kirkwood Makins, MA, a botanist specializing in plant and tree identification. His books included The Identification of Trees and Shrubs and A Concise Flora, intended for schools. He did not rely on other sources: his objective was primary research, beautifully illustrated with his own drawings, and often used as a resource by others. He was a scientist and Fellow of the Linnaean Society: one of the original conservationists.

Before the Second World War my father promoted The League of Nations, and gave lectures aimed to move people away from going to war. He had received some education in

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the Black Forest in Germany while studying forestry and knew not all Germans were bad.

With the start of war father was seconded to do Forestry Work.

My mother was Ethel Knight, and her father was the first headmaster of Sexey’s School in Bruton. The politician Henry Hobhouse, who drafted the 1902 Education Act, inspired the school. He founded it as a Trade School, funded by a charity. It became a boys’ grammar and, later, a state school. A qualified teacher, my mother had educated us at home for a while, but I started at Mrs Eyles school when I was six, and later went to Sexey’s School when it was just boys.

Father, being in India on important government work in the timber industry, escaped military service. Mother in England knew some boys killed in the first war – school kids from her father’s school – and was devastated. She supported Votes for Women, and regarded herself a Suffragist: non-violent, and not part of the extreme element of the Suffragette movement, while sharing its main objectives.

Mother was also against alcohol, though my father and grandfather both drank a little. She had seen too many men make over-time money in the factories, spend it in the pub, and then be too ill to work: it was a significant social problem. The government and railway industry supported the ‘corrugated iron hut’ non-conformist churches, which provided activities to keep people occupied and away from the pubs.

After failing my medical for National Service at 18, I started to look for a practical training – a reaction against academic parents I think.

I’d always wanted to know about farming. This was the time that horses were being replaced by tractors. From 1949 I worked in the assembly line at David Brown Tractors at Meltham.

I was an engineering apprentice, passing through all the departments, and, later, I did a two-year Diploma in mechanical and electrical engineering. I then went to Hill Sawtel who had a blacksmith’s shop in Yeovil, till I was

Hugh Makins

Photograph Peter Park

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

offered a job at Braddicks (now Vincents) in Gillingham, where I worked for six years as a mechanical engineer on a variety of machinery including International tractor engines, and Field Marshalls, with their cartridge fired engines.

My next move was to a 500 acre Essex farm as a fitter and welder: a progressive, American style enterprise, with bulk milk tanks. I welded, made trailers, and became involved in building work. The big house belonged to Mr John Mackie, who had farms in different parts of the country. Mr Mackie stood for Enfield North as an MP for Labour in 1959, and became Undersecretary for State for Agriculture under Wilson. We had to fit speakers to his Morris Minor Traveller for electioneering – the Bentley did not give the right image! He instigated a farm shop by the gate to gain local favour.

Now 29, I wondered what I was doing with my life. I had never cared for the strong class structure of those days, which I felt cut me off from working people. I saw a newspaper article about the Albermarle Report on ‘Youth of the Nation’: a five-year plan for youth centres and training colleges. There were opportunities for those with life-experience rather than academic qualifications.

I’d had interests outside my work: organised bell-ringing trips round the country staying in youth hostals, and I’d written an article for the YHA magazine. I gained a place on a

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two-year diploma course at West Hill College in Sellyoak.

After a stay in Gillingham, where I was a Youth Leader, building a Youth Centre out of a reconstructed army hut with ten Open Borstal boys, I ended up in Shropshire. It was 1973 and I had become a member of SUBUD, an association of men and women from all religions and backgrounds who unite to follow a spiritual path together.

I have been on some thirty peace camps.

In the end, my interest in working with people, dislike of the class structure, and a need for company, brought me to Monkton Wylde.

This is where my life has led me, and here the philosophy suits me. Communities like this give an important message: living and working together as equals we aim to achieve peace, understanding and harmony internationally. We have people from all over the world. We must put across this non-violent approach! Monkton Wylde is a holistic education centre, where people can rethink how they live their lives. Nara is three and I am 77. We don’t each live in our little compartment, of different generations and classes.

What a relief !

Nowadays, our message of non-violence, communication and resolving conflicts is as necessary as ever. These are troubled times and we need the strength of these principles to provide a solid foundation for the peaceful, secure and sustainable future we all long for.

’

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FROM THE ARCHIVES A Look back at some of the people we have featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine

‘I

was born Phyllis Pratt, on 19 June 1918, on the Lord and Lady Ducie’s Estate, Gloucestershire: the first of two children born on the same day – two years apart. My father was game-keeper. I went to the village school: about ninety-percent of the children were from the estate workers families. It was a happy childhood. I passed the eleven-plus to take up grammar school, but my father said: ‘No. She’s not going to be able to cycle twelve miles through the Cotswold Hills.’ It would have been different had I been a boy.

I left school in 1933 but went back for a year because I could not get any work. It was the time of the Great Depression – many businessmen committed suicide. My aunt was cook for a titled family who had lost their money. When she had to give up the job to go back to her cottage, I took over from her. I received no salary, but the family paid for me to go to a college in Bath. I was only fifteen then, hard-working, and I had an aptitude for cooking.

While living in Bath, I had my eighteenth birthday and got engaged to John, my future husband. His family was in Southampton.

John asked my father if I could go down there to work. My father said: ‘Yes, but she must be taken care of.’ I left Bath and got a live-in job, as cook, with Dr and Mrs Stewart at White Lodge, Southampton. The doctor insisted that we sit each day for one hour on the veranda, which was covered in a beautiful wisteria. Fresh airintake. The family was very advanced for their time; not like the Victorians. We could have our boyfriends visit us, and we were allowed to go out. One had to be careful of the young gentlemen though.

Every six weeks John came home for ten days; he was in the Merchant Navy. The Union Castle Line ran a ship every Friday from Southampton to Cape Town, and then it travelled up the coast up to Durban. When John’s ship came back to Southampton, I saw barefooted children outside the dock gates. On September 30th 1938,

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Prime Minister Chamberlain came back from Germany with a new peace accord. But war was coming. John was due to sail, and I went back to work. I was going up the drive to where we lived when John unexpectedly came back. He said: ‘We can’t sail, they’re doing something with the ships. If there’s a war, I’ll have to go; I would like to marry you – now.’ John was twenty-three; I was twenty. My parents said: ‘Yes’. We married on December 17th 1938 and moved to the edge of the New Forest, into a three-bed-roomed house. John’s mother and his two younger siblings came with us. Eight weeks later, I became pregnant with Jeanne Lucy. She now runs Lucy’s Tea Room at Oat Hill Farm, near Clapton, Somerset.

On September 3rd 1939, at 12 noon, in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Chamberlain stated: ‘This country is at war with Germany.’ When the news came through, John put his arms round me and said: ‘I’m afraid, my dear, our life is going to change.’ We had heard that the liners were being converted to war-time ships. We had been married for eight months and life had just started to get exciting when John left for the war, in September 1939. I did not see him again for almost five years.

The war took the best years of my life. Aged twenty-two, in 1940, when I was living opposite an army camp, I had my first experience of bombs and gunfire. I did not know what it was.

A soldier standing nearby shoved me to the ground. The tracer bullets from the German aircraft went through the nappies on the line. I had to use a shelter at the top of the road, until I got one of my own in our garden. I slept there every night with my mother-in-law, and Jeannie.

The baby was zipped into a special zip-bag, which I wore during the raids.

We were living opposite the Testwood Lane Camp when Dunkirk happened. Soldiers came over and asked for any spare clothes and blankets. Every available floating object was mobilised to pick up our men: they had nothing – some came naked with only blankets. I gave

Phyllis Curwood

Photograph Ron Frampton

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

all my husband’s clothing. At the time, my eighteen-year-old sister-in-law was dating a German spy, unbeknown to us, of course. A man from the Ministry came to see us, and the handsome young man disappeared. John was in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps with Montgomery and the Eighth Army, and went right through to the Lüneburg Heath. He was with the RAOC until the war ended. John was given a four day leave after almost five years in the army. He had to go back to Germany to help clean up the terrible concentration camps – but this was finally done by the Germans.

John came back. He was demobbed with just a suit and his army underwear.

Towards the end of the war, I had moved and taken a big house sharing with three friends. My friends didn’t know John. My daughter, Jeannie, had been naughty and sent to bed. All of a sudden John was at the door. I didn’t know he was coming home. One of my friends, Kitty, wouldn’t let him in. Jeannie was dressed quickly, and when confronted with her dad, said: ‘I know you – you are in one of the photographs in our bedroom.’ John rejoined the Merchant Navy as a First Class Steward with the Union Castle Line. He stayed in that employment until I was expecting our fourth child, Sally, in 1955 – our Autumn Crocus.

We had lost our house due to various circumstances and could not afford another one. I suggested we get a job together, with accommodation. We saw an advert in The Times – Mr and Mrs Cullen, grocers to the Queen, near Beaminster, were looking for a cook and chauffer. We got the job. I was the cook and John was chauffeur, waiter and occasional gardener. We were in service there,

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at Blackdown, for over twenty years. While Jeannie was at Grammar School in Lyme Regis, she occasionally cleaned a room for Lady Pinney at Racedown House. She was paid six pence a time. Thomas Hardy visited Lady Pinney at Racedown House, in the 1920s, towards the end of his life. Lady Pinney was a remarkable person, and would come over to talk to me regularly. It was the end of the domestic service era when we finished at Blackdown, so we had to look for new work.

For six years John and I worked at factories in Crewkerne. We were now in our mid-sixties and homeless. I saw an advert in The Lady, for a cook at Wynford Eagle, West Dorset.

I was then 64 and John was 67. I phoned and spoke to Lord Wynford. We visited the house, and met the Eighth Baron and Lady Wynford. He and John talked about the war – and liked each other. They showed us the beautiful annex, which would become our home. The work was easy. The gardens were delightful and John and I were happy. As staff was limited, few, or no dinner parties at all were held – to Lady Wynford’s dismay. John offered, because he liked it, to wait at table.

Lord Wynford went to Yeovil and came back with a pile of white coats and bow ties. Now there was no stopping them. We worked there for seven years, and became special friends, and eventually addressed each other by our first names. When our daughter Sally and sonin-law decided it was time for us to retire, they helped us buy a house in Chard. Eventually, John and I will be leaving from Charmouth by boat, going to sea together – I have got his ashes.

’

Zooming in to Reg at The David Hall

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sing Zoom computer technology, Petherton Arts Trust will stream a concert by local Folk singer/songwriter Reg Meuross to at least 90 households on Sunday 21st June.

Ordinarily, the event would take place in South Petherton at The David Hall—which is owned and run by Petherton Arts Trust (PAT). However, the venue is closed due to the corona virus so PAT has decided to offer entertainment via Zoom for the very first time.

Called Songs for a Somerset Solstice, the event will start at 4pm and run for two hours, with an interval for a tea break or glass of wine. The cost will be £10 per place—or more if households wish to make donations—and tickets can be booked via The David Hall website: www.thedavidhall.org.uk The income from ticket sales will be split between Mr. Meuross and The David Hall.

‘At the moment, musicians and venues are losing major income avenues, so both are having to think outside the box in relation to arranging events and fundraising,’ explained Emma Westerman, Administrator at The David Hall. ‘Reg is a huge supporter of our venue so he was the first person we thought to contact about this idea. This on-line event allows us to interact with our loyal audience members while The David Hall cannot be used and trying something new in this way might also inform us as to how we could operate in the future, she added.

Participants will need to download Zoom onto their computers and on the morning of 21st June, a Zoom link and password will be sent to all appropriate email addresses. PAT will close

Reg Meuross by Rachel Snowdon

applications either when 90 places have been sold, or at 12noon on the day.

Reg Meuross was on tour when the pandemic hit the UK, so was forced to come off the road and has been running a pre-recorded online Reg’s Sunday Best Lockdown Jukebox on Facebook every Sunday, from his home in Crewkerne. This Zoom event will be his first live streamed solo gig. Reg has been on the music scene since the 1980s and is considered to be a true troubadour. Winner of many plaudits, his most recent was Soloist of the Year at the Folking.com Awards 2019.

Reg released a new single, Shine On, on 1st May, described by the press as “a beacon of hope in troubled times”.

‘Sunday 21st June not only marks the Somerset solstice but is also Father’s Day and World Music Day, so very appropriate timing for our first event on Zoom,’ said Emma Westerman.

Reg himself commented: ‘I’m very happy to be putting on this collaborative event with The David Hall, my local and one of my favourite venues.

Small, independent venues have played a huge part in the development of British music over recent decades, offering a platform for emerging and well-known artists and for local talent as well as international tours. Their future is precarious and we need them to survive. I look forward to seeing everyone on 21st June.’

The David Hall has joined the national fundraising campaign, Save our Venues, run by the Music Venues Trust, and this Zoom event with Reg Meuross supports the cause by raising the profile of live music.

LOCAL EVENTS

FOLLOWING Government advice, gatherings have now all been cancelled.

The following notices from just a few of the local groups whose events have been promoted within these pages over many years, confirm positions taken by these organisations.

We will keep you up to date on any other information in future issues.

The Living Tree

The Living Tree cancer support group. Friday 26 June 2-4pm. Zoom get-together. This is our virtual Tea & Chat drop-in. We will start with Tripudio, a gentle movement session.

The meeting will also include a surprise art session with Libby or Chris. Details of what you will need to bring to the zoom meeting will be given when we send you the meeting link.

Feel free to continue with drawings of items from your store cupboards which we can show on the 26th, or any other creative item/writing you have produced during lockdown, whatever has inspired you!

Please let us know if you would like to join the next session by emailing us at thelivingtreedorset@gmail. com and we will email you the link and password to enable you to participate. For those of you who are new to Zoom you need to download Zoom at https:// zoom.us and follow the instructions.

Honiton Walking Club

The current walk programme is suspended but check out the Honiton Walking Club website for details of local walks! https://sites.google.com/site/ honitonwalkingclub/home/honiton-local-walks!

Bridport History Society

Bridport History Society at present no meetings planned. A newsletter is being sent out with a quiz and local news to keep members updated. If you would like to receive a copy of the newsletter let Jane know on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com. We are also offering some zoom sessions. More on that later. The planned ‘Open Day’ 19 September, for the Society, has

24 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

been postponed until spring of 2021.

The West Dorset Group

The West Dorset Group of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society, no meetings planned at present.

We are looking into offering some talks via zoom so members and visitors can take part. More on that later.

If you would like info. contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com

Dillington House

Dillington House, Ilminster, is also looking into offering sessions via zoom. Local historian, Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard is offering some courses. For more info. look at www.dillington.com

Centre for Pure Sound

While for the time being it is still not possible to run actual group events or face-to-face 121s…I am now able to offer the following: Sunday 2PM group soundbath on Zoom: please email to say you’d like to join in any particular week and I’ll send a link. ahiahel@live.com Thursday 6.30 PM group toning on Zoom: our basic Angels of Sound toning practice, email to say you’d like the link to join. If you haven’t done this practice before you’ll need the 121 tutorial-see our website homepage. ahiahel@live.com www.centreforpuresound.org

The Arts Society Neroche South Somerset

The Committee has met (via Zoom) and agreed provisionally, but optimistically, that the first meeting

of the 2020 – 2021 season will take place on Monday, 7th December, with a welcome drink and the AGM, followed by refreshments and socialising. We look forward to welcoming visitors again when lectures hopefully start in January.

Bridport Local food group

Although the Bridport Food Festival will not be happening next week, we are busy putting together Bridport Food Festival in Lockdown!

From Monday we will be showcasing some of the food & drink businesses that usually exhibit at the Festival, we will have some cooking and how to make demonstrations and recipes, some foodie activities for young people to do, a food quiz for you to do at home with your family and friends, a seafood supper for you to enjoy at home plus more.

We will be sharing here on our website and also on social media. Please check the website www.bridportfoodfestival.co.uk regularly. If you have any questions please email festival@ bridportfoodfestival.co.uk

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Artsreach

Our wonderful Dorset charity, Artsreach, is 30 this year. ‘It’ is very much two splendid women who work extremely hard, at a job they love. Yvonne, I think, has been there from the start, and Kerry for more years than you would think, as she looks very young. There is also a new recruit, Nicole. Sadly, these Covid times have meant that their life is very different, just as it has for everyone else. Yvonne and Kerry take it in turns to be furloughed for a month at a time, and Nicole is working extremely part-time.

Nevertheless, they are still doing a lot to help community spirit thrive in Dorset. Do visit their website www.artsreach.co.uk, which they are continually updating with lovely things to do and see, including the National Theatre’s and Shakespeare’s Globe Live streaming.

They are in very close touch (virtually) with a large number of artists, both solo and companies, of various kinds, as well as with bodies like the Arts Council, the National Rural Touring Forum, Action With Communities in Rural England and Dorset Community Action. They are doing a lot of hard thinking about possibilities for when this situation gradually eases.

Thanks to them, many village halls have been alerted to the Retail and Hospitality Grant of £10,000 available from Dorset County Council. Now, they are asking

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for contributions to a project called ‘Tales from the village’, a series of articles about our rural Dorset villages: their past, their present, and their future. They are looking for photos (old and new) of your village, its people, buildings and history. They want to hear fun facts, tall tales, folklore, points of historical interest, and true stories of your village and community. If you’d like to be involved with this project, please send relevant photos of your village/village hall with any accompanying stories or text to nicole@artsreach.co.uk along with your name, the name of your village and any other details you’d like mentioned in the article by 30 June 2020. Alternatively, send an email to the address above expressing your interest and Nicole will be in touch to hear your stories.

Sarah Ryan, Artsreach volunteer promoter in Milborne St Andrew

Ilminster Arts Centre

Some difficult decisions are having to be taken at Ilminster Arts Centre with regard to its future.

With the fixed costs of managing the impressive building and the loss of revenue with closed doors, they have had to make all paid staff redundant.

The Arts Centre hope to open up again soon with the required social distancing and run initially by volunteers. The cafe, gallery and craft shop will be operational together with some workshops to bring in vital revenue to this essential community facility right in the heart of Ilminster. They will be looking for some new trustees, some additional volunteers and new ideas. If you would like to get involved please get in touch on info@themeetinghouse.org. uk Ilminster Arts Centre still has a huge amount of potential having become a destination for exciting and changing art exhibitions, a great cup of coffee, good local craft shop, well supported and varied workshops plus some seriously good music.

News&Views

LYME REGIS Holidaymakers will be welcome

A letter from the Mayor of Lyme Regis to owners of holiday lets and second homes pointed out that they will be welcome back to the town, but only when coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Councillor Brian Larcombe MBE decided to send out the letters after holiday properties and owners became the target of abuse and vandalism.

Interviewed on BBC Radio Solent he pointed out that holiday lets are valued in the town.

AXMINSTER Farewell to Douglas Hull

Following social distancing guidelines many residents of Axminster came out to pay their respects at the funeral of three times Mayor of the town, Douglas Hull, recently. Described as ‘Mr Axminster’ Douglas was a much loved councillor who had served the town in many capacities. His final farewell included a poignant final stop outside the Guildhall.

LYME REGIS Another venture for Mark

Lyme Regis restaurateur, Mark Hix, set up shop outside Felicity’s Farm Shop in Morcombelake recently to offer fresh fish to customers. One of the victims of the coronavirus pandemic HIX Restaurants went into adminsitration in April and thus both HIX Oyster & Fish House and HIX Townhouse in Lyme Regis closed.

Mark has some ideas in the pipeline for the future but in the meantime wants to do something to support local fishermen and producers.

LONGBURTON Cider farm fire

A fire at the Twisted Cider brewery on Bradford Lane in Longburton, Sherborne is said to have destroyed up to 5,000 litres of cider as well as barns and a belt press. The BBC News website reported ‘the blaze was caused by an electrical fault.’ Twisted Cider director Ben Weller has said the business will bounce back and has already started to replenish stocks. The shop will be open soon in temporary accommodation on the site.

WEYMOUTH Safety for seals warning

The ‘Seal Watching Code of Conduct’ was highlighted by Wyke Coastguard recently after a seal was see on Greenhill beach in Weymouth. The code suggests being at least 100 metres away and preferably out of sight.

Wyke Coastguard CRT said: ‘Unfortunately, members of the public were far too close. One family within touching distance.

Please observe the guidelines, it’s their home too.’

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Black Lives Matter

THREE PROTESTS IN BRIDPORT With a keen eye on social distance, residents of Bridport demonstrated social conscience with three protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

28 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

N

ot a town to shy away from issues of global importance, Bridport residents came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in three separate demonstrations in June.

The protests began with a ‘Taking A Knee’ event in Bucky Doo Square where participants went down on bended knee for a period of 8 minutes and 46 seconds. This is the reported length of time it took for George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to die while a policeman knelt on his neck.

Organiser Irena Campion explained the reason’s behind the event: ‘The intention of our ‘Taking A Knee’ protest was to join the international demonstration of outrage at the killing by police of George Floyd, and to show solidarity with the struggle for equality and rights for people of colour throughout the world. Many of us were taken aback while thinking of George’s suffering during those 8 minutes and 46 seconds—if you time this you may be also. His death graphically showed us racism in America, but many are upset about the level of racism and prejudice here too, and about how this is reflected in our own government and institutions.’

This event was followed by a separate procession to Colmers Hill outside Bridport on the day of Floyd’s funeral. The procession was led and organised by local residents and civil rights lawyers Clive Stafford Smith and Emily Bolton. They, along with other volunteers had made a forty-foot Black Lives Matter banner which they draped across Colmer’s Hill before kneeling in silence in respect for the death of George Floyd. The banner could be seen from the centre of Bridport.

On Saturday, June 13th, three young residents arranged a peaceful protest in Mountfield which was attended and supported by a sizable crowd of local people. The event, in solidarity with international tributes to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations was advertised as a socially distanced, peaceful protest and that is what it was.

Introduced by Bethan Baldry, the event featured short talks by Matilda Best, Karam Singh Hayre, Esmeralda Voegele-Downing and Corey Vaughan as well as a talk and poetry from Louisa Adjoa Parker.

Each voice was heard with respect and appreciation by an audience of mixed race and age, the commonality being a wish to show solidarity with the need to end systemic racism across the world.

Matilda Best, a white girl in a mixed-race family told the story of how, as a six-year-old out walking with her black grandfather in London, a woman had stopped them to ask if she was OK. She recalled her anger at the hurt this caused her grandfather.

Corey Vaughan, who had only made himself known to the organisers shortly before the event began, spoke about a time in his early school days when a teacher made him stand on a chair and told the other children to bid for him.

Before reading a selection of her poems, Louisa Adjoa Parker explained that she hadn’t been surprised by the death of George Floyd. In fact one of her poems, It Ends Like This, was written about the death of New York resident Eric Garner, a black man who had died in shockingly similar circumstances in July 2014.

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‘Racism is everywhere’ she said and pointed out that the current wave of worldwide outrage and unanimity made her feel that ‘for the first time, white people have appeared to notice racism.’ She highlighted Government statistics which show that, outside of major cities, Dorset has one of the highest rates of stop and search of black people in the country.

A resident of Dorset for more than twenty-five years, Louisa’s poem, Velvet Dresses, spoke of the deep impact the county had on her and her dream to make it home. ... to sink into Dorset like a warm rock-pool, with fingers stretched out towards the sun, to walk her beaches, green-velvet fields with pride, say I live here, I belong here, she’s mine.

She finished her reading with a new powerful poem specially written during the current appetite for change. It ends with these poignant lines. ... To dismantle old structures, to tear them apart Make way for the new, create space in your heart The change that’s long been coming, is finally here It should fill you with hope, not fill you with fear Let us rise up like birds, let us soar through the sky Let us breathe, let us live, let us hold our heads high Let us walk proud, and belong to this land Walk with me friends, allies, come take my hand.

Bridport’s event made its point with dignity and respect, both for those that attended, as well as for those it wished to represent.

Photographs by Ismay Byrne

‘Walk around the World’ for Julia’s House

A

team of carers, nurses and support staff from Julia’s House, the children’s hospice charity have set themselves a lockdown fundraising challenge to collectively walk, run or cycle 24,000 miles—a distance equivalent to travelling around the world.

It will certainly take them more than 80 days, as each staff member uses their daily exercise time to log their miles in an effort to jointly raise £50,000 which will help enable the charity to continue its vital work caring for local children with lifelimiting and life-threatening conditions in Dorset and Wiltshire.

Gemma Linford works as a carer for Julia’s House and is co-ordinating the challenge on behalf of the hospice teams in Corfe Mullen and Devizes. Gemma says: “Staff wanted to do something to help the charity during this difficult lockdown period. COVID-19 has had a big impact on Julia’s House, not just in terms of a loss of income due to the fundraising events we have had to cancel and the shops we have had to close, but also in the ways we are able to provide care to the families we support.”

And it’s not just hospice staff who are taking part in the challenge—actor Nigel Havers and long distance runner Liz Yelling, both patrons of Julia’s House, are contributing their daily mileage to the

total. At present the combined Global Challenge team across Dorset and Wiltshire has travelled 8,252 miles, all the way to the Indonesian island of Sumba, and is now heading towards its next big destination—Australia.

Julia’s House nurses and carers are continuing, under strict infection control procedures, to visit vulnerable children in their homes across Dorset and Wiltshire, responding to families’ changing needs on a daily basis. The care and support they provide at this time not only offers vital reassurance and advice to anxious parents, but crucially, is easing the burden on an overstretched NHS by enabling these children to stay at home.

The charity receives just 5% funding from the government in Dorset, and relies almost entirely on public fundraising, donations and Gifts in Wills to continue its support of local families. Julia’s House has welcomed Government support to help compensate for its significant fall in income, but not knowing how long this support will continue nor how long the country will be in lockdown, the charity’s situation is challenging at a time when its care is such a lifeline for local children and families.

To donate to the Julia’s House Global Challenge visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gemma-linford2

Vegetable tips from Kew Gardens

By Helena Dove

The Kew Gardener’s Guide to Growing Vegetables by Helena Dove published by Frances Lincoln (rrp £12.99) Illustrations © the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 34 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

Discover Farming THE Melplash Agricultural Society has announced the launch of Discover Farming at home.

With the Society’s Discover Farming Classroom at Washingpool Farm closed and unlikely to open soon, the team are keen to continue to inspire and educate children about food, farming and the countryside.

As well as keeping a list on their website of the excellent free online learning resources available for children, parents and teachers, they are producing a series of Discover Farming home learning activities. The first is about Sheep and starts with the birth of a baby lamb!

Each learning module has been compiled by the Discover Farming Education Co-ordinator, Katie Vining, and is suitable for Primary School aged children.

Marcus Beresford, Society Director and Discover Farming Programme Chairman said: “All of us in the Melplash Agricultural Society believe passionately that one of our most important tasks is to educate our local young people about food, farming and the environment and to inspire some of the most talented to take up careers in agriculture. Although children cannot come to the Discover Farming Classroom currently due to lockdown, we can still go to them and are pleased to be able to offer free online learning activities that they can do at home with their parents or at school with their teachers”.

Visit www.discoverfarming.co.uk to learn more.

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PROPERTY ROUND-UP

Country Hideaways

By Helen Fisher

LYDMARSH £795,000

A detached 17th Century family home in an idyllic, private location. Presented to a very high standard with an open-plan family kitchen/dining area opening out to the garden. With oak flooring, wood-burning stove and large cellar.

Gardens and grounds featuring a meadow, specimen trees, veg bed and fruit cage. Double garage and outbuildings. All set in approx 4 acres.

Jackson-Stops Tel: 01308 423133

MEMBURY £475,000

A fascinating Grade II listed house with numerous outbuildings and a self-contained annexe. Dating back to 1540 with many characterful features: large Inglenook fireplace with original bread oven, flagstone floors and decorative tiled flooring. Generous, mature gardens with veg plot. Ample parking.

Gordon and Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

PILSDON £850,000

A marvellous rural home, surrounded by countryside and far reaching views. Dating back to 1870 with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

Offering a spacious indoor/outdoor lifestyle with all the modern family conveniences. All set in just under an acre with 2 outbuildings. Ample parking and large garage.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000 36 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

BROADOAK £300,000

A charming 2 bedroom detached house in a peaceful rural setting, yet only 3 miles from Bridport. Many character features inc: exposed beams, muntin windows and wooden floors and open fireplace. Excellent decorative order throughout. Generous, private gardens with far reaching views towards Colmers Hill. Ample off-road parking.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 480092

TOLLER WHELME £900,000

Built in 1974 to a traditional farmhouse design. Bright and spacious throughout. Kitchen/dining room with Aga and bespoke hand-made kitchen. Generous, triple aspect sitting room with fireplace and wood burning stove.

Numerous purpose built farm buildings, formal gardens and large, picturesque lake. All set in approx 55 acres.

Jackson-Stops Tel: 01308 423133

LONG BREDY £675,000

An immaculately presented 4 bedroom family home with spacious, well-proportioned living areas throughout. Set in a rural location yet within easy reach of all the village amenities. Good sized, fully enclosed garden. Double garage with power and workshop space.

Goadsby Tel: 01308 420000

WESTCOUNTRY HOMES

Broadoak, Bridport

CLICK TO VIEW

BROADOAK ÂŁ300,000

A charming 2 bedroom detached house in a peaceful rural setting, yet only 3 miles from Bridport.

Generous, private gardens with far reaching views towards Colmers Hill. Ample off-road parking.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 480092

Kilmington, Axminster

CLICK TO VIEW

KILMINGTON Offers in excess of ÂŁ400,000

Set in the heart of the village and charming community, this character, accessible home benefits from a high degree of privacy within part walled grounds. No onward chain. 3 Bedrooms. Large sitting room. Kitchen/ breakfast room. Dining Room & Study/utility. South facing garden. Garage/ workshop & Parking Stags Tel: 01404 45885 Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 37

Food&Dining

Supplying Flour

in times of need

Maurice Liddiard recalls how the Town Mill in Lyme Regis helped feed residents during another ‘plague’.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder painting ‘The Triumph of Death’ depicting the results of a pandemic

“AN awful disease, originating in China, has swept across the world to England, seriously affecting the population.

The people of Lyme Regis are in desperate need of flour and the recently restored Town Mill has risen to the challenge”.

Sound familiar? Yes, this is all happening now but this note is about the remarkably similar events that took place in Lyme over 650 years ago!

The 1330s and 40s were very difficult times for people living along the South Coast of England.

King Edward III, desperately needed funds to continue fighting for lands in France. Despite him being declared King of France, the French continually raided along the coast of England, burning and ransacking towns such as Dover, Southampton and Portsmouth, leaving the population frightened and desperate for food. To compound the king’s military problems, the Scots were fighting for independence, requiring large sections of the English army to be directed north.

In 1338, to fund these wars, taxes were once again demanded and, in an attempt to meet their obligations and to provide desperately needed food, the people of Lyme applied for permission to build a new corn mill on the site where a previous one lay derelict. In 1340 a King’s Decree was issued, though this was not signed by the king himself as he was busy fighting the Hundred Years War against the French. We don’t know exactly when the new mill came into operation but it cannot have been more than just a few months before the people of the town were engulfed in a world catastrophe.

In China in 1346 the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history arose. It was known

as The Plague (later called the Black Death). A version of bubonic plague, it was transmitted by fleas on rats and infected people who then travelled along the Spice Route by camel and also on cargo ships to the Mediterranean countries.

Recent research suggests that human fleas were mainly responsible for the transmission. In June 1348 it arrived in England carried by French fishermen to the village of Melcombe Regis, now Weymouth. By the end of 1349 it had killed between 40% and 60% of the entire English population.

We have no details of life in Lyme Regis at that time but the new mill must have been a mainstay even though harvesting wheat was a significant problem due to the serious shortage of farm workers.

By no means as serious, this new Corvid 19 “plague” is history repeating itself and, once again, the Town Mill has risen to the challenge.

Wheat and spelt continue to be milled and flour sold once a week outside the mill under social distancing conditions, as well as daily in the Lyme Butchers.

In these strange times, The Town Mill is also acting as a hub for the Lyme Bay Fishing Company offering its fresh catch of lobster, crab, scallops and fish while the Courtyard Café is selling bread, and The Millside restaurant nearby is doing a greengrocer offering. The Lyme Bay Brewery is actively producing and distributing its popular beers. So, all these centuries later and in these difficult circumstances, once again The Town Mill, with its courtyard businesses, continues to serve the local community.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 39

Win a BBQ Box from Coombe Farm Organic Click on the image to find out the answer. Then simply email the answer to info@ marshwoodvale. com for a chance to win with Coombe Farm Organic.

F

eel like some delicious and local organic flavour on your BBQ? Enter our competition to win a prize from Coombe Farm Organic. Enjoy a read of the June Marshwood online at our website and send us an email with the name of the person quoted here. Then you’ll be in with a chance to win! Hint* there’s a clue in the image.

40 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 41

Project

FOOD

Kerry Morgan explains how an army of volunteers helped with a food delivery service for vulnerable people in Axminster, Seaton, Colyton, Lyme Regis, Charmouth and the surrounding villages

P

roject Food (a small charity previously known as HALFF) has been looking after disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our local community for nearly 15 years, helping them to eat good food and enjoy good physical and mental health. Our work includes teaching people how to cook and eat healthily, as well as selling our healthy ‘Real Meals’ and fresh fruit and vegetables and local produce from our shop on South Street in Axminster.

When the Covid-19 crisis hit, and lockdown started, we had to adapt quickly to ensure that we continued to reach the people who had come to rely on us.

We were particularly worried about the people who had been told to shield themselves. We knew that some would have no family members living nearby to do their weekly shop for them, and others would not be able to shop online. One man got in touch from Australia, deeply concerned about his elderly mother who lives alone in a very rural spot. She didn’t know where she was going to get any food from and had started to ration herself. We also suspected that many others would slip through the net for government food packages.

So we quickly rallied an army of volunteers and started a food delivery service to Axminster, Seaton, Colyton, Lyme Regis, Charmouth and the surrounding villages, sending out more than 50 deliveries a week. We allowed people to call us and talk to us to order rather than having to order on a website or an app. We also started to work alongside River Cottage and The Monmouth Pantry, providing regular cooked meals to struggling families, and provided free emergency supplies to those in the most need.

Our service has proved to be invaluable, particularly to those who live alone in remote villages. The weekly call to place their order with us can be one of the few conversations they have.

As lockdown begins to ease, we are still adapting our support. Many of our beneficiaries have underlying health conditions and are still too anxious to venture out. Several have told us that they will continue to isolate until they feel completely reassured that it is safe—which may not be the case for some time to

42 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

come—and our delivery service will continue to support them for as long as they need it.

In the new era of social distancing, we are exploring how we can move beyond the basic supply of healthy food and get back to helping people improve their food skills and knowledge. This has become even more urgent as susceptibility to complications arising from Covid-19 seems to be associated with obesity and other diet related health conditions. We can’t offer face-to-face cooking sessions and demonstrations any more, but we can move our classes on line—and in the last two weeks we have been running several of our groups via Zoom, not only demos, but also one to one hands on cook along sessions. This means that people can continue to learn how to cook healthy nutritious meals, as well as see friendly faces and have a catch-up—all of which are really important for their wellbeing. One of our participants commented “I thoroughly look forward to these sessions. They break up the very long weeks and allow me to see my friends from the group. It would otherwise be such a long time before we could see each other again”.

As a charity, the lockdown has given us a new insight into ways of connecting with the people who we used to find difficult to reach—particularly those who could not leave the house because of caring responsibilities or a disability. Ironically our online lockdown session for carers, held during Carers Week in June, attracted at least as many participants as would have attended in person—and, in a post-Covid world, online sessions for carers will continue to be an invaluable tool.

As a team, we are learning to work remotely and to use technology to diversify the services we offer. It has been a fast learning curve for us all, and we are all doing things that we didn’t know were possible. We will keep reaching out to new groups of people, and keep adapting our work to help them to improve their health through better food. Although we may never be able to go back to the way we did things before, we are very excited about where ‘life after lockdown’ will take Project Food. If you could help, we’d love to hear from you: e-mail kerry@project-food.org.uk or go to www.project-food.org.uk

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 43

Guest Recipe

JO PRATT A TV cook, food stylist and author of seven books including The Flexible Vegetarian, Jo Pratt is a regular contributor to various magazines and publications. She’s former food editor for both Elle and Glamour magazines and was named one of Waterstones ‘Writers of the Future’.

When she’s not writing, you’ll find Jo presenting recipes online, on TV, on stage performing live cookery demonstrations or hosting cookery classes and workshops.

Jo has worked with Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Marcus Waring and many high-profile chefs and global food brands. She is executive chef of award winning-restaurant The Gorgeous Kitchen and her most recent project is The Cookbook Festival, which she founded and co-chairs.

HARISSA AND LEMON-BAKED FISH AND ROOT VEG WITH COUSCOUS INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

1. Mix together the olive oil, 2. tablespoons of harissa paste, the garlic and half of the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Use half of the mixture to coat the fish, and set aside to marinate.

3. Toss the carrots and onions in the remaining harissa mixture and transfer to a roasting tray. Roast for 15 minutes, stirring and turning halfway through.

4. Stir the radishes into the roasting tray and roast for a further 10 minutes.

5. Place the marinated fish fillets on top of the roast veggies and cook for 15 minutes, until they are cooked through.

6. Remove the roasting tray from the oven.

Place the fish and roasted veg on a separate platter and keep them warm.

7. Add the couscous to the roasting tray, stirring to coat in the harissa baking juices.

8. Pour over the very hot stock, briefly stir, then cover with foil. Leave for 5 minutes.

9. Run a fork through the couscous, and lightly mix in the roasted veg and remaining lemon juice. Scatter over the almonds and mint.

10. Serve with the fish, some extra harissa drizzled over and a spoon of Greek yoghurt each.

3 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp harissa paste 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed juice of 1 lemon 4 thick fish fillets 500g/1 lb 2 oz Chantenay carrots 2 red onions, cut into wedges 200g/7 oz radishes 225g/8 oz couscous 375ml/13 fl oz/12⁄3 cups very hot vegetable stock 40g/1. oz toasted flaked almonds handful of mint leaves flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt, to serve Serves 4

The Flexible Pescatarian by Jo Pratt, £20 White Lion Publishing and The Flexible Vegetarian, £20 Frances Lincoln.

Photography for both by Susan Bell

Flexible Alternative Large field or portobello mushrooms are superb alternatives to fish fillets. Coat in the harissa marinade and add to the roasting tray when you stir in the radishes, giving the mushrooms 25 minutes of cooking time

44 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

AUBERGINE AND QUINOA ‘MEATBALLS’ WITH TOMATO SAUCE These look and (almost) taste like traditional meatballs – they will surprise anyone who eats them when they realise they are completely meat free. I like to serve these with a homemade tomato pasta sauce, plenty of spaghetti and shavings of parmesan, but they also work as a canapé (skewered with a cocktail stick and with a tomato sauce to dip into), or wrapped in flatbread with salad and garlic mayo.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• • • • •

1. To cook the quinoa, heat a medium saucepan over a high heat.

2. Add the quinoa and shake around in the pan for about 30 seconds to start to toast it.

3. Pour in 250ml/9 fl oz/1 cup of water and allow to boil for 1 minute.

4. Reduce the heat to low. Cover with a lid and leave to cook for 10 minutes.

5. After this time, turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes before taking off the lid and running a fork through the quinoa to separate the grains.

6. Heat a glug of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.

7. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes until it is starting to soften but not colour.

8. Add the garlic and aubergine. Sauté for about 10–12 minutes until the aubergine is completely softened.

9. Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl and leave to cool for about 10 minutes.

10. Put the aubergine and onion mixture, quinoa, breadcrumbs, parmesan, olives, egg, chia seeds and basil into a food processor. Season with salt and pepper, then pulse until the mixture holds together.

11. Firmly shape into golf ball-sized balls,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

100g/3½ oz quinoa olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 2 medium–large aubergines (eggplants) (approx. 650g/1 lb 7 oz), chopped into small dice (approx. 5mm/¼ inch) 75g/2½ oz breadcrumbs 50g/1¾ oz parmesan cheese or vegetarian equivalent, plus extra to serve 50g/1¾ oz pitted black olives, finely chopped 1 egg, lightly beaten 4 tbsp chia seeds small handful basil leaves cooked spaghetti or other pasta, to serve flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper For the sauce 2 x 400g/14 oz tins chopped tomatoes 185ml/6 fl oz/¾ cup red wine 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp balsamic vinegar 1 tsp caster (superfine) sugar Serves 4

Flexible Alternative The aubergine can be swapped for 500g/1 lb 2 oz minced beef, chicken, pork or lamb.

Sauté the onion and leave to cool before mixing with the raw mince and remaining meatball ingredients. Roll into balls and chill as above. Fry the meatballs as above on a medium heat for 12–15 minutes, turning as they become golden and cooked through.

Pour over the sauce, heat through and serve with spaghetti

making approximately 30 in total. Sit on a parchment or cling film lined tray or plate and chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.

12. To make the sauce, put all of the ingredients in a saucepan, season and bring to a simmer.

13. Cook over a low heat for 20–30 minutes until the tomatoes have thickened (the time will depend on the brand of tomatoes as some are thicker than others to start with).

14. Heat a glug of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan.

15. Add the ‘meatballs’ and cook over a medium–high heat, gently turning/ rolling frequently, until lightly golden. You may need to do a couple of batches depending on the size of your pan.

16. Gently stir in the tomato sauce, spoon over cooked spaghetti and scatter with parmesan.

The Flexible Vegetarian by Jo Pratt, £20 White Lion Publishing and The Flexible Pescatarian, £20 Frances Lincoln.

Photography for both by Susan Bell

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 45

Arts&Entertainment

The Power of Poetry

Ellie Sturrock, a mindfulness specialist at Steps to Well Being, a short term intervention psychological therapies service, knows the value of poetry in times of difficulty.

L

ockdown! The suddenness of it all!

Change, restriction, fear, panic about food, elders, money and then immediately on reading Brother Hendrick’s poem (opposite) I felt a wave of reassurance and a warmth in recognition and appreciation of the human ability to meet today’s unprecedented difficulties caused by Covid 19. The words and sentiments come back to me time and time again as yet another change is announced on our unlimited media. Further restrictions in movement or death tolls crept up, new symptoms noted, friends affected and work rethinks the service yet another time.

As an NHS psychotherapist it has been clear to me that the power of poetry is an engaging opportunity to offer therapy through words to so many. Since training to become a mindfulness teacher I have offered many mindfulness courses

‘Poetry is an empathy machine’ Roger Robinson. T.S Eliot Prizewinner, 2019 46 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

Lockdown

Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard), Ireland March 13th, 2020 Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood So that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way All over the world people are waking up to a new reality To how big we really are.

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic The birds are singing again The sky is clearing, Spring is coming, And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 47

locally. These eight session programmes suit large numbers of people referring themselves into our psychological therapies service and especially appeals to those with long-term conditions, such as untreatable pain or tiredness, musculoskeletal problems.

Poetry is a fundamental aspect of mindfulness programmes. The piece of writing most commonly associated with the approach offered by mindfulness is Rumi’s The Guest House. This poem offers a new way of relating to normal, although perhaps unwelcome, experiences. As with all best loved poems it has a universality that is helpful immediately. How incredible that a poem from a different part of the world, Persia/Iran, and a different era in time, the 13th Century, speaks so volubly to so many today; holding the perceived difficulties of depression, meanness and sorrow as things to be welcomed. So different from our normal reactions to avoid, problem solve or wish away.

When reading a poem in each class, I notice that people often sit with their eyes closed, nobody talks too soon after the ending, the words hang and settle in. I am often asked who wrote it and which book is it in? One woman came over week after week took down the details of the poem and at about session five told me that her daughter, who had always been shy, struggled socially at school and had become severely anorexic was enjoying them week by week as well. The now adult daughter was currently at an

48 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

in-patient ward in London. Her mother had told her about the course and each week read her the poem we had shared. She had found support, inspiration, healing or benefit from these and read them to fellow patients. Before the end of our course she had set up a small reading group on the ward. Patients in her group looked out other poems and wrote their own, shared them when they met. Her mother said it was inconceivable that she would have done such a thing in the past.

Poems by Mary Oliver are also frequently used and loved by many mindfulness teachers. This is more than poignant once we know of her own unhappiness and the emotional repercussions caused by sexual abuse she suffered from her own father. It offers participants the possibility of achievement, in spite of their own traumatic events. Her poem Wild Geese provides people an ability to accept the natural feelings that come with low mood, guilt, stress or shame whilst being tender to themselves.

At the same time as running MBSR courses I was suffering a severe bout of writers cramp and gave up my own poetry writing, enjoying instead finding more poems written by ‘proper’ writers which suited the individual needs of participants eg Chemotherapy by Julia Darling, who offers the use of her work to be a healer. See her book The Poetry Cure.

With increasing numbers of people with acute and long term conditions her work speaks kindly and appreciably.

The Guest House

by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honourably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Chemotherapy

by Julia Darling

I did not imagine being bald at forty four. I didn’t have a plan.

Perhaps a scar or two from growing old, hot flushes. I’d sit fluttering a fan.

But I am bald, and hardly ever walk by day, I’m the invalid of these rooms, stirring soups, awake in the half dark, not answering the phone when it rings.

I never thought that life could get this small, that I would care so much about a cup, the taste of tea, the texture of a shawl, and whether or not I should get up.

I’m not unhappy. I have learnt to drift and sip. The smallest things are gifts.

Steps to WellBeing, NHS, psychological therapies service is open for business, treating anxiety and depression for adults of all ages with all therapies now offered via phone or digitally. Its OK, poetry is an empathy machine and cuts through the bandwidth.

Do contact us for yourself or another if you have symptoms of the above, we have a special interest in reaching out to the lonely, isolated and those with long term conditions at these weird times.

See website to refer yourself online (www.steps2wellbeing.co.uk) or call 0300 790 6828.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 49

Virtual Gallery Goes Live A Free worldwide platform for Artists, Makers and Galleries THE first installment of The Marshwood Vale Magazine’s Virtual Art Gallery has been launched with the production of an eBook and a website www. marshwoodgallery.com.

Produced as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual gallery is an initiative launched within days of lockdown to give artists, makers and galleries the opportunity to show their work to visitors who, for the moment, can’t come to visit them in their studios and galleries.

The eBook showcases artists work with links to video and websites to allow people to browse and learn more about the work that they may like to buy. The accompanying website offers an additional route to participating artists and can be accessed by tablet or mobile phone as well as laptop or desktop computer.

The initiative is free for artists, makers and galleries to join and visitors are encouraged to make contact direct with participants to learn more about them in order to purchase work or arrange special viewings.

For more information about the Marshwood Virtual Gallery email info@marshwoodvale.com.

50 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

www.marshwoodgallery.com CLICK TO CONNECT

By Desktop, Tablet or Phone

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 51

GALLERIES

June

New Gallery’s hope IN less than a year, Lyme Bay Arts CIC successfully created and developed two new venues, The Gallery and The Space on the popular Symondsbury Estate, Bridport, as showcases for the work of well over 150 participants from the Southwest’s arts community.

Unfortunately due to Covid-19, The Gallery and The Space had to close in mid-March. However the company directors and all those involved in this creative enterprise want to send a huge thank you to the National Lottery and its players who have made it possible for Lyme Bay Arts to receive funding from the Arts Council’s Emergency Response Fund and to Dorset County Council for its small business grant. This financial assistance will be used to help cover fixed costs during the months of lockdown while there have been no income streams and make possible the re-opening of the galleries, which would otherwise have been extremely difficult. In the meantime the directors will be exploring online services and other new avenues.

52 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

Health&Beauty

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 53

Services&Classified RENTAL WANTED

WANTED TO RENT granny flat or small cottage.

Telephone 01297 33428

PROOFREADING Proofreading, editing, transcription, secretarial for writers and businesses.

Excellent references.

Penny Dunscombe Apr 20 07825339289.

RESTORATION Furniture restoration.

Antiques large and small carefully restored. City and Guilds qualified, ten years experience in local family firm. Phil Meadley 01297 560335

May 20

TO LET Room to let. Own bathroom, non smoker quiet location, nr. Seaton.

Tel; 0790 959 5245

CURTAINS Little Curtains.

Handmade Curtains, Blinds and Cushions.

Contact 07443 516141 or 01308 485325 Apr 21

Monthly Quiz –

FOR SALE of the uprights which can be seen in the photo.

Pulls along and steers easily. Great garden feature, prop or shop display. 41” long 20 wide.Photos available Hardwood plant £270 01460 55105 display stand, possibly mahogany, custom made A very large industrial storage bin, very well and unique. A heavy made and strong with and sturdy piece of wooden top rails and furniture for inside or out. It is solid hardwood riveted corners. Many uses as clean inside and which will last many years unlike other cheap has grab handles for easy moving. A piece softwood versions. of industrial chic. 20” Overall height 66.5”, wide 41 long and 34 depth of bottom shelf high. Enquire about local 17” and widest point delivery Photo available 19.5”. Enquire about £50 0146055105 local delivery. £90 Photos available 01460 Sheet metal Guillotine Bench mounted, Hand 55105 lever 4half inch blade Vintage French dog East lambrook. £25 cart. A really pretty french made wooden dog 01460 242071 Mob. 07834 550899 cart in good condition, Massey Ferguson just a small piece of Hydraulic Lift (3 point wood broken from one Sofabed. Single. Grey leather. DFS, as new, 145 x 100 folded. £350 Photos available 07837452637

Linkage) Original Trailer Hitch used with Tee Bar East lambrook. £160 01460 242071 Mob. 07834 550899 Finger cutter Bar Blades & Rivots 22 New (McConnel 7 BT/BS) 8 Used good cond.

East lambrook. £15 01560 242071 Mob. 07834 550899 Jersey stamp booklets and prestige stamp books (1969-2010). All in mints condition, in album.

Real price approximately £380 - £285 Ono. Jersey definitive stamps (1969-2007) all in mint condition. Also jersey postage dues all in mint condition in album (1969-1982) to include all bulletins with inserts.

Real price approximately £360 - £265 Ono 01305 820878

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 Tatworth. The winner was Mr Walcott from Brigewater

54 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 Tel. 01308 423031

ELECTRICAL

WANTED Beehive national brood supers wanted. Tel. 07715 557556 Vinyl Records Wanted All types and styles considered. Excellent prices paid. Please Phone Roy 07429 102645 Clocktowermusic.co.uk Bridport

May 20

Wanted: AERO seed fiddle please contact richard.toft@btinternet. com, 01308 424103 or 07740 985906

Postage stamps. Private collector requires 19th and early 20th century British. Payment to you or donation to your nominated charity. 01460 240630.

Old sewing machines, typewriters, gramophones, phonographs, records, music boxes, radios.

0777 410 3139. www. thetalkingmachine.co.uk

May 20

Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975 Jul 20

To advertise on these pages telephone 01308 423031

Wanted to buy - field, or part field and part woodland, any size, to about 5 acres. Not top grade grass. Private, local resident wants to ‘do their bit’ for the environment. Anything considered. Please help.

07508 106910 May 20 Vintage & antique textiles, linens, costume buttons etc. always sought by Caroline Bushell. Tel. 01404 45901.

Jun 20

CHIMNEY SWEEP

Secondhand tools wanted. All trades. Users & Antiques. G & E C Dawson. 01297 23826. www.secondhandtools. co.uk.

Oct 20

FREE ADS for items under £1,000 Classified advertising in The Marshwood Vale Magazine is normally 95 pence+VAT per word in a box. 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 to info@marshwoodvale.com. (Please do not send in all capital letters).

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 ..................................

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine June Mid-Month Special 2020 55