Marshwood+ November 2019

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Magazine West Dorset East Devon South Somerset

Marshwood +

MORE OF the best from in and around the Vale

No. 248 NOVEMBER 2019

© Philiy Page Photograph by Robin Mills

COVER STORY Robin Mills met Philiy Page in Bridport, West Dorset ‘I was born in Redhill, Surrey, near where we lived in a University studying photography. It was really good village called Dormansland. My father left us when I but in common with many creative courses taught very was four, when my brother was still a babe in arms. My little about the business skills you needed to actually Mum was Catholic, and was thrown out of the church make a living. At my final meeting I was told I was the because of the divorce. From that age my brother and most likely to succeed, as I understood how business I didn’t see my father. worked. Years of watching my Grandmother, Mum, My mother’s family history was complex. She was Ron, and all of my siblings create their own work had a war baby, born at the end of WW2; her mother obviously rubbed off on me. enjoyed a party, and her father, we think, was an AmeriThen Howard, from Sheffield, sent me a cutting, can air force pilot from Boston. My Grandma then which said the BBC were making a programme he married an Irish Catholic from County Cork called thought might interest me. We both applied, and I was Jack when my mum was about three, my mother never sent as their photographer. The programme was called knowing that Jack was not her real father until she Castaway 2000. At Christmas time 1999, thirty-six of us was dying. Grandma’s family were proper EastEnders, including eight children, were driven in a coach through who worked in a tobacco factory in Clerkenwell, but blizzards to begin a year of living in an experimental she didn’t enjoy that life, and fought hard to change community on the Hebridean island of Taransay. Castit. Her father was forward thinking, ensuring that all away was a life-changing, career-changing experience, his daughters had a good education, which enabled launching mine, and Ben Fogle’s careers. I’m still in © Philly Page Photograph by Robin Mills touch with the Castaways today. my Grandma to train to become a sugar sculptor, and end up making cakes for the Royal Family. Because I moved straight to London from the isolated life on she eventually enjoyed a completely different life from her brothers and Taransay, which felt a bit like time-travel. That experience had me shootsisters, she fought to enable my mum to better hers. ing for publications like Marie-Claire and the Guardian. I was determined After the divorce Mum’s understanding boss let her continue working to make it as a photographer, but it was tough and competitive. I waited in a bookshop taking me with her. She then worked at the GLC under tables at night to make ends meet, then I read about a post-grad course Ken Livingston; I remember licking endless envelopes and stamps in the in photojournalism at what was the London College of Printing, and evenings for her. Eventually Mum ended up selling scripts for the BBC, applied at the last minute. At the end of year show all the top newspaper and language teaching in the holidays. We had several foreign students live editors turned up, and we all got work. I then worked as a photojournalwith us. Through a charity called Gingerbread, mum met a new man, Ron. ist for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, and others, but with the pressure He encouraged her to set up her own business as a literary agent. of constantly hustling for work, I found myself burned out. I had friends Ron had three children of his own, and was from the East End too. He who as war correspondents lived crazy lives in incredibly dangerous situhad been in the Merchant Navy, drove a Hackney cab, and then bought ations, one of whom, Tim Hetherington, was sadly killed. I found myself a double glazing business in the ‘80s, which made him a millionaire. Our at a crossroads, where I could either go off and do that kind of work, fortunes changed dramatically, but on their honeymoon Mum found a or change direction completely. I decided to retrain at Goldsmiths, as a breast lump, and within a year and a half she was dead. Before her death, secondary teacher. I taught in some difficult South-East London schools, Ron adopted us, to get parental rights, and I remember going to court where the poor kids faced so many challenges all they really wanted was aged eight, having to explain what I thought was happening. When Mum breakfast and a sleep rather than learning. died he pretty much had a breakdown. Aged ten I was getting us up in the When I got together with my future husband Paul, who lived in Dorset mornings, him to work, us to school, and doing the washing and ironing. I at the time, I decided to move to Beaminster from London. It was a took over Mum’s role until Ron hired an American nanny to look after us. shock, and I left to travel around the world alone for seven months. On After the death of my Mum, Ron decided he wanted a new life and sold that trip I decided to go back to media as the school situation was dire. everything, including my Mum’s house. He moved to Tenerife, and my Returning to Bridport, I got a paid internship with a TV company in Bath, brother and I were sent to boarding school. He was keen for us to make and re-trained as a camerawoman and programme developer. Then I our own way in the world and never gave us pocket money or hand outs. was put in touch with Eric Harwood who ran a TV production company My boarding school was a stage school. Thandie Newton was my in London and lived in Charmouth. I worked with him for three years, prefect. I’d already done lots of performances as a youngster, but had I filming Julia Bradbury’s walking programmes. I was offered work on Ben known I was going to be sent away, I would have done a rubbish audition! Wheatley’s second feature film Kill List, and worked in films for the next I got in and was there from the age of 11 until 15, at which time my stepseven years, ending up as his production manager. I also worked on Far dad met another woman, Carole, and remarried. She was from Sheffield, From the Madding Crowd, filmed here in Dorset. and they decided to relocate there from Tenerife, including me. I didn’t After that film, I was approached by the British Council and asked if I even know where Sheffield was. They pulled me out of school in the would train creative start-ups internationally, due to my side work at Unimiddle of my GCSE’s, and off we went to Sheffield. versities. Feature films were an 18-hour, six days a week job and I didn’t I attended a girls’ high school where they put me back a year initially. want to burn out again. I had had a wide range of freelance experiences, Then Ron and Carole wanted to go back to Tenerife because of the and, going right back to childhood, my family were serial entrepreneurs. I recession. I refused to go, determined to finish my GCSE’s. I stayed used all of that as inspiration to train creatives globally, helping put their with a girl from school from 16 to17, and eventually went to live with ideas into business practice. my English teacher’s friend, Howard, in a warm and vibrant household.

Time and time again I would find that the women in the groups lacked My first boyfriend Liam’s parents pretty much adopted me. They were the confidence needed to succeed. To fill that gap in 2014 I started left-wing, cultured people, a complete contrast to Ron’s conservative East Creative Women International, connecting the women I had trained in End background. Liam’s father started teaching me photography; I loved those international groups through a social network. Two years ago I it and took night classes completing an A level photography in a year getwas invited to become a Fellow of the RSA for the work that I do with ting a grade A. I took art classes too and met Karen from San Francisco, Creative Women International, and I also worked as a Fellow of Entrebecoming became great friends with her and other artists. San Francisco preneurship for the University of Bristol. I reduced my work when I had became my second home, and I would visit twice a year. my son Huxley, and I’m now delivering training programmes, and host a Although I was getting some work published, photography wasn’t mak- weekly podcast encouraging women to start their own businesses. Often ing me a living, but my American friends persuaded me it was possible to what holds people back is lack of confidence, which is a large part of the earn good money as a creative. I got serious and went to Manchester Met subject of my book The Business of Creativity, published this year.’

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MV UP FRONT Many years ago, whilst living in Seattle, I joined a boat trip around Lake Washington. A vast lake with a channel out to sea and the San Juan Islands beyond, it also hosted the home of Microsoft boss Bill Gates. Inevitably, the tour highlighted Bill’s house on the water’s edge. The guide excitedly related the story of how guests to Bill’s house were introduced to a piece of technology that would ensure that lights; heating and music in their rooms were programmed to their taste. I never visited the house so wasn’t able to verify the story. However, the anecdote came to mind many times over the following twenty years as I tracked news about smart homes and the devices that were designed to make our lives easier. A few years ago I purchased an ‘Alexa’ device and amused friends with requests for music, the weather or answers to historical questions. Guests joined in too and enjoyed hearing answers to their requests through the speaker, (men, for some reason, seemed to enjoy asking ridiculous questions that they knew couldn’t be answered). However, despite our enjoyment of the ease with which we were able to listen to music or the radio, we soon agreed that there was something slightly uncomfortable about having a microphone listening to every conversation in the room. So it wasn’t long before we unplugged ‘Alexa’ and banished her to a drawer where she still lives. Considering it had been a few years earlier that a tech friend had confided in me that it was possible to hack into a mobile phone and listen to conversations in the room around where it was placed, I should have realised ‘Alexa’ would have the same ability. But now that Google boss, Rick Osterloh, has suggested that we should alert visitors if we have a smart listening devise fitted in our homes, I’m glad ‘that woman’ (as ‘Alexa’ was referred to when we didn’t want her to answer), has been unplugged. Of course, the problem doesn’t necessarily go away. Most smartphones these days are capable of listening to vocal commands.

But there are beneficial uses of ‘snooping’ technology, not least the recent discovery of a cancer tumour by a tourist visiting the thermal imaging room at a tourist spot in Edinburgh. Although that particular camera wasn’t purposely set up for cancer screening, there are a range of screening techniques currently being investigated that include a nasal swab, a breathalyser that can detect hallmarks of stomach or oesophageal cancer, and lavatories that test urine for signs of bowel cancer. Who wouldn’t applaud early detection advances, but a smart toilet? Will we be advised to warn guests about the loo?

Published Monthly and distributed by Marshwood Vale Ltd Lower Atrim, Bridport Dorset DT6 5PX The Marshwood Vale Magazine is printed using wood from sustainable forestry

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Dancing

for the Community

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Anna Golding went from being a landscape architect to a community dance teacher. Margery Hookings meets her to find out more. Photographs by Pete Millson

T

he joy of dance is everywhere.Whether you’re glued to Strictly, learning to tango at your local community centre or just throwing shapes on the dance floor to a bit of soul, the feeling that dance gives you is empowering, infectious and takes you to a place outside the run-of-the-mil norm.

It’s never been more popular.

Dance is artistic expression, a release valve, and as good as any sport to keep you fit. And most of all, it’s fun.

I have to confess I once tried an adult ballet class as a precursor to writing about it.

A group of my friends loved it, still love it, but I couldn’t take to it, largely because ballet was so alien to me. I grew up thinking only posh girls did ballet and just didn’t get it. And I still don’t.

Dancing around the kitchen to the latest tunes on BBC 6 Music, though, or to 1970s disco and funk, well, that’s another matter.

It’s a bit like stream of consciousness writing.

You just do what comes naturally, instinctively. There are no rules.

So I have to admit to being a little hesitant about meeting Anna Golding, a dancer and choreographer from Bridport who is involved in a number of groups locally.

I was put on to her by a mutual acquaintance, Tessa Slimon, who is a member of her Over 50s dance class in Charmouth.

‘You really ought to do a piece on her for the Marshwood Vale Magazine. She’s really good. It’s such a lovely class.’

I wasn’t able to attend a class but arranged to meet Anna for coffee in Gelateria Beppino in Bridport. I knew Anna Golding’s name from her choreography of Flea!, the weird, wacky and brilliant piece of community musical theatre performed at the Electric Palace in Bridport in 2017. It was written by awardwinning composer Andrew Dickson and directed by the Lyric’s Nikki McCretton from an original idea by Sally Vaughan.

Arriving at the café, I felt rather embarrassed when I realised I’d turned up with only about 60p in cash. Anyone who’s bought a coffee lately will tell you that’s not even enough to buy the milk.

But Anna instantly put me at ease by diving for her purse straight away. It was ridiculous, really. Why would I have been nervous? I was the one interviewing her. (Maybe it’s because there are too many people on the local arts scene who can be sniffy and aloof from ordinary people and real life. That’s why I like Colmer’s Hill artist Marion Taylor, because she’s not like that. But that’s another story.)

Straight away, I liked Anna Golding. Here was a woman with no airs or graces, no self-importance, whose two great loves are dance and people.

Working in the community through dance, with all sorts of people, is what Anna excels at. Our mutual acquaintance, Tessa, says: ‘She is a very inspiring dance teacher and always encourages her pupils.

‘Anna’s dance class helps me physically and mentally—the dance sequences we learn exercise my memory and coordination. We are able to use our imagination sometimes and create dances pieces ourselves.

‘The music which Anna chooses is very eclectic and varied. And she is incredibly sensitive to everyone’s different needs in the class.’

Tessa asked a few friends what words they would use to describe their dance class: laughter, fun, friendship, creativity, expression. Of Anna, they said: welcoming, encouraging, mindful of older dancers who are less flexible and, lastly, a beautiful dancer.

Anna spent her early life in Durham with a father who was a playwright and a mother who was a painter and community activist. She left to study landscape architecture in Leeds in the late eighties and,

‘I first came to Dorset when I was 14 and was reading Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd at school,’ she says. ‘We were staying near Coryates, not far from the house that features in the Julie Christie film. I came to Bridport a couple of times and loved it.

‘My husband Spike’s family lived in Southbourne so we used to come to Dorset a lot. We went camping in the Purbecks and started to explore West Dorset.’

After moving to Bridport, Anna worked for Take Art in Somerset for six years on various dance and health projects across the county, developing a particular interest in the mature dancer and in inclusive dance.

Since 2010, she has worked as an independent dance artist more locally establishing projects such as Grace + Growl, No Limits Bridport, The Shoe Chorus and, most recently, Fingerprint Dance, a community interest company building on these existing projects and developing new dance opportunities for all ages and abilities in West Dorset.

In 2011, Anna worked with Activate Performing Arts on a Cultural Olympiad project called A Dance A Day which offered dance opportunities to people over 50 in Dorset. She worked with a group at

‘...empowering, infectious and takes you to a place outside the run-of-the-mill norm’ after a period working for the council in Huddersfield followed by a short life in Greece teaching English as a foreign language, decided that she needed to find a new path.

‘I had always loved theatre and dance but up until this point hadn’t pursued them seriously, having been encouraged to follow a more secure path, but now it felt like the time had come to jump into the unknown,’ she says.

While deciding, Anna enjoyed the vibrant jazz scene of Leeds and got to know dancers there who were studying nearby at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

‘I was persuaded to audition and was thrilled to be offered a supported place to train professionally,’ she said.

What was it about dance that excited her?

‘A button switched on in my head and my whole body came alive with the music, pushing my body to fly and fall in ways I had never thought possible. Almost by chance I had found something which felt completely natural, a passion which has stayed with me since then.’

From Leeds, Anna moved to London where she worked in a variety of fields including as a dancer and a teacher, arts journalist and museum educator, all of which ran alongside a new life raising her own family.

In 2005, she moved from London to Dorset where her family settled into a new rhythm in Bridport.

The Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis to create a piece of contemporary dance which was performed on Weymouth Esplanade as part of the opening celebrations for the Olympic Games in 2012.

After this project, the group were keen to continue dancing with Anna and have been doing so ever since. They are now based in Charmouth Village Hall. The classes are a mixture of contemporary and creative dance, are open to all adults with or without dance experience and take place on Thursday mornings in term time.

What is it about dance that brings people together? Why does dance work so well for community projects?

Ann says: ‘We move for pleasure, often in response to rhythm, way before we can crawl or walk.

‘Small children, so at ease in their bodies, physically respond to the world around them by exploring human contact, gravity, their environment, something which they share with dancers the world over.

‘Over time, the instinct to move to a stimulus, normally music, can be dulled down by the pressures of modern life and the joy of dancing becomes confined to kitchen dance floors on a Friday night. What a community dance class offers is very simple, the chance to come back to this way of connecting body and mind, enjoy a freedom in movement with each other—and have fun while you’re doing it!’

• For more details about Anna’s classes, call her on 07958045672 or email her at goldinganna@gmail.com

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Coast &Countryside Events TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER La Baracca presents: Upside Down.

11am and 1.30pm. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall. org.uk 01460 240 340.

Axminster Heritage Ltd 7th Annual General Meeting 6.30pm The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, EX13 5AH. Merriott Gardening Club - 7pm - Hawk & Owl Trust Birds of Prey - Tithe Barn, Merriott - 01460 72298 Theatre Fideri Fidera - Ogg n Ugg n Dogg 10am, in the Village Hall, the Causeway, Milborne St Andrew, DT11 0JX Tickets £6, £5 u18s, £20 fam. Post show: arts & crafts workshop available for ages 4+. 40 minutes, places limited. £3 each.

WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER Coffee Morning. 10am-12noon. Free Entry. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240 340.

East Devon Ramblers moderate 6.5 mile circular walk from Broadwindsor. 10.00 start. Dogs on short leads. 01460 220636 West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Hardy’s Monument, Circular. 10.00am. 7.0 miles/11.3 km. No dogs. Please call 01300 341664

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER Halloween at Yeovil Railway 10.30am – 4pm Yeovil Railway Centre, Yeovil Junction 01935 410420 www.yeovilrailway. freeservers.com.

Charity Christmas Card Sale 10am - 1pm. Admission free. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Drinks in the Clink: Spells in the Cells.

7pm. Booking is essential and tickets are £30 each. Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum, High West Street, Dorchester.

For more information visit shirehalldorset. org or call 01305 261849.

Stepping into Nature Roots of Religion. Meet at the Discovery Centre at 10.40am. A leisurely themed walk around West Bay. Further details 01308 427288 info@westbaydiscoverycentre.org Monmouth Club Lunch 12.30pm. The Monmouth Club of Lyme Regis meets at a local hotel. The Club is open to retired or semi-retired professional gentlemen.

Members enjoy a 2 course lunch and convivial conversation with no after lunch speaker. For further information contact Dr Charles Wright on 01297 443258.

Short Mat Bowls 7.00pm Beaminster Public Hall Geoff Neal 01308 538971

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Julia Bradbury’s Weymouth to Portland.

10.00am. 8.5 miles/13.7 km. No dogs.

Please call 01308 459159 7.30pm: Annual General Meeting of Clapton & Wayford Village Hall; followed by cheese & wine. All welcome; information from Mary (01460 74849).

THU 31 OCT – MON 4 NOV Yeovil Literary Festival For full details, visit www.yeovilliteraryfestival.co.uk.

FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER Concerts in the West presents the Consome Quartet. String quartet playing a programme of Mozart, Schubert, and Mendelssohn. For full details see www. concertsinthewest.org. 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org. uk.

Work of the Woodland Trust and Ash Die-back, 7:30pm – 9pm, Dorset Wildlife Trust talk by Rosie Walker volunteer speaker for the Woodland Trust, Bridport United Church Hall, East Street, Bridport, DT6 3LJ, www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk The Living Tree, cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Mel Parsons from Matts Respite Retreats – talking

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Coast &Countryside Events about how and why she set this up and how you can apply to stay at the lovely caravan in Weymouth. 3.15 Worry-busting with Louise Wender. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends’ Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 07341 916 976. www. thelivingtree.org.uk The Pull of the Tide, 7.30 pm, A New Show by Harbour Voices featuring traditional shanties and songs of the sea, The Marine Theatre Lyme Regis, tickets from marinetheatre.com and Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre Disco!, 8.30pm, Dance hits from the 70s to the 2000s Charity Fundraising Event, Kennaway House Sidmouth EX10 8NG, mail@kennawayhouse.org.uk 01395 515551 Fish & Chip Friday. Battered Cod with chips, mushy peas & tartar sauce followed by a fruity dessert served at lunchtime.

Booking Essential. The Henhayes Centre, Crewkerne, TA18 8DA. Contact 01460 74340 Somerset-based Wassail Theatre Company and Richard Crowe present: Over the Wall Picking Apples. 7.30pm. Join Richard on his emotional roller-coaster as he squares up to the frightening, the furious and the funny sides of mad. The

David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £10 from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Dracula Spectacula, 7pm, A family friendly show with a sizzling score and hilarious script. Presented by the youth of Honiton Community Theatre Co. The Beehive, Honiton, www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box Office 01404 384050 Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society meeting at Holy Trinity Church, Lysander Road, BA20 2BU at 7.30pm have an interesting talk ‘The Roman Conquest of the South West’ (economy, landscape, way of life etc. And the reorganisation of the South West from military to civil). Speaker – Derek Gore.

Guests £2 at the Door. Contact 01935 477174. www.yalhs.org.uk SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER Fireworks at Forde 5pm - 8pm, Forde Abbey House and Gardens. Set against the historical backdrop of Forde Abbey, watch a spectacular firework display light up the night sky. www.fordeabbey.co.uk Tel: 01460 220231.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 8 mile walk from Upwey Radipole, Rodwell, Nothe Fort 10.30am start. Bring

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picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898484/01308 863340 Family Storytime with The Flying Monkeys. 11am. Stories told not showed for 3-8 year olds and their carers. Bridport Literary & Scientific Institute www. lsibridport.co.uk Bridport Ceilidhs. 7.30 - 11.00 pm.

English ceilidh with the Chris Toyne Big Band and Gill Spence calling. All dances will be walked and talked through and called throughout. All welcome, no partner or previous experience required.

Bring & Share supper, no bar but the Woodman Inn is just opposite. Entry £9 on the door, £8 in advance from The Music Shop, South Street, or book by phone or email. Church House Hall, South Street, DT6 3NW. Contact Monty on 01308 423 442, monty3dayslate AT yahoo. co.uk. see bridportceilidhs.wordpress.com Quiz & Supper Evening 7pm: at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall. All welcome; come in a team or join one on the night – prizes for winning team.

Licensed Bar & Raffle. £10 includes a delicious hot supper; all proceeds to village hall development. To assist with catering, please book in advance on 01460 75380.

Coast &Countryside Events The Tuckers Jazz Club Tina May & The Craig Milverton Trio. The Tuckers Arms, Dalwood, Near Axminster, EX13 7EG (just north of the A35 between Axminster & Honiton) Tickets £10 Info at www. dalwoodvillage.co.uk 01404 831 280 or 07999 553477 “Tina May is considered to be one of the finest Jazz Vocalists the UK has ever produced”That great rarity – a singer who enhances a song” She will be accompanied by Craig Milverton on keyboard, Ashley John Long – bass and Coach York – drums Craft Fair – A ‘Support The Hall’ Event.

9.30am - 12.30pm at The David Hall, South Petherton. Enjoy a relaxing morning wandering around the delightful stalls of our craft producers. Free Entry. Stall Holders: £14 per table - to book, please call the Box Office on 01460 240340.

Reg Meuross. 8pm. Reg accompanies himself masterfully on guitar and captivates audiences with his beautiful tenor voice.

The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £15 Full, £14 Concessions, from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Dracula Spectacula, 2pm & 7pm A family friendly show with a sizzling score and hilarious script. Presented by the youth

3 - 9 NOVEMBER Bridport Literary Festival. The 15th Bridport Literary Festival is jam packed with 42 events to appeal to booklovers of all tastes. For more information visit www. bridlit.com.

The Exiled Collector, a talk by Anna Sebba. 1pm. William Bankes was a 19th century collector of ancient Egyptian artefacts and Spanish paintings intended for his ancestral home, Kingston Lacy.

He was forced into exile in Italy to escape prosecution, yet continued to collect for a house he no long lived in nor owned. The house has been restored by the National Trust – can William himself be restored in this talk? Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum, High West Street, Dorchester.

For more information visit shirehalldorset. org or call 01305 261849.

SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER Christmas Craft fair 10.30am-4pm At Gorwell Farm Barn, Gorwell, Abbotsbury DT3 4JX Refreshments available Free parking Admission £1 adults Children free Sponsored by Domvs estate agents Seaton Dance Club, 7-9 pm. Ballroom, Latin and Jive with lots of help for beginners - we’re a friendly bunch! (No formal lessons and no sequence). £4 per person (All profits support The Gateway Theatre). Bar open. More male dancers please! The Gateway Theatre, Seaton Town Hall, Fore Street EX12 2LD. Contact Jackie: 01297 23953 or 01297 625699.

MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER Axminster Carnival Bingo Eyes down 8pm Axminster Guildhall.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall, tea or coffee included. 7.3010.00 p.m. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461 or just come along. Cost £1.50 www. chardscottishdancing.org Scottish Dancing Beginners’ Course in Chardstock 6.15 – 9.00 p.m. No need to come with a partner but bring light shoes. Why not try Scottish Dancing with

of Honiton Community Theatre Co. The Beehive, Honiton, ww.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box Office 01404 384050 Be Calm Be Happy meditation course, at Quaker Meeting House, Bridport. !0.30am-4.00pm. run by Plum Village UK. Contact: David Will 0795 095 9572

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LOOKING TO INCLUDE AN EVENT? Charity and fund-raising entries in Coast & Countryside Events are free of charge. Please check times with organisers or venues.

Please send details (Date, event name, time, short description, location and contact details ) by email to: info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month.

this friendly club. £1.50 per evening. For more information contact David Acland on 01460 65981 or email aclandfamily@ btinternet.com or visit www. chardscottishdancing.org or just turn up at Chardstock Community Hall EX13 7BJ Art and Design History, 2pm-3.30pm, 6 wks, fee £60 Venue: ‘White Room’, early -mid 19th century painting and design, tutor, Pam Simpson MA, Chapel in the Garden, East St, Bridport, contact Pam Simpson by email chris.pamsimpson@ btinternet.com or tel 01300 321715 Inspired by Archives with Stepping into Nature, 10:30 – 12:00, Explore the nature in the Dorset History Centres archives using photos, art, recordings and maps to unlock the stories past, present and future, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester, DT1 1RP, Maria 01305 221618 or maria. gayton@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk, www. stepin2nature.org Bridport Folk Dance Club, at 7.30-9.30 pm in the WI Hall, North Street, Bridport DT6 3JQ. Enjoy folk dancing mainly in the English tradition from Playford-style to modern-day compositions at Bridport’s long-established weekly club, with club

callers and recorded music. All welcome, no partner or previous experience required.

Admission £3 for members, £4 visitors (membership available). Taster sessions available at no cost. Contact Sue on 01308 458 165. Also on 11th, 18th and with live music on 25th with Chris Toyne with Ruth Thompson calling.

Christmas bingo at the Village Hall (TA18 8NA). Doors open 6.45p.m. for 7.30 start). Lots of great prizes/hampers/ vouchers; good raffle, name the cuddly toy, tombola, light refreshments. Raising funds for St Leonard’s Church, Misterton. Enq: 01460 74808/cewalker@hotmail.co.uk.

Magnificent Mosaics – Windows into the Colourful Roman World, 7.15 p.m. Arts Society Lecture by Christopher Bradley, Frogmary Green Conference Centre, TA13 5AE. Call Maralyn 01460 241143 TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Puddletown Forest 10:00 - 8 miles/12.9 km - No dogs. Please call 01300 320084 WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER Bridport Camera Club. ‘Movement’,

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a presentation by Maria Falconer FRPS. Inspiring images and talk drawing on her long experience as a professional specialising in dance photography.

Bridport Town Hall DT6 3HA. info@ bridportcameraclub.co.uk. 01935 892353 Free Benefits surgeries. 9.30am and 12pm at Age UK Dorchester shop in Bridport, 16 West Street, Bridport, DT6 3QP. Free benefits advice for people aged over 50 – come along and find out what you may be entitled to claim. To make an appointment please contact Age UK Dorchester on 01305 269444.

Axminster Historical Society Talk: ‘Not One of Us’ Todd Gray tells of the individuals singled out in Exeter and treated as “different” Some were celebrated, others derided, banished or executed. Crowds, mobs, governments, churches and vested interests all picked on individuals considered problematic, inconvenient, belligerent, awkward or illustrious. 7:30pm All Welcome, Membership £10 Non Members £2 The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, EX13 5AH

Friends of Sidmouth Town Band Coffee Concert. Coffee: 10.30am Concert: 11.00am - midday. Chamber Choir, Instrumentalists & Singers from St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Lympstone. The Music Room, Sidholme Hotel, Sidmouth, EX10 8UJ. valhowels@uwclub.net 01297 599255 THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER Axminster Country Market Thursdays 8.30am -12noon, Masonic Hall, South Street, Axminster. Come and meet the producers! Cakes, savouries, crafts, cut flowers, plants, free-range eggs, fruit & veg - all seasonal, produced in or near Axminster. Reduce your carbon footprint, with food you can trust. Tea & coffee available too, come and say hello.

Talk: ‘Sir Norman Lockyer and his Observatories’ by David Strange from the Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth.

David reviews the Observatory’s fascinating history. 2.30pm Entry is £2 for Friends of Lyme Regis Museum & £3 for nonmembers. The talk is being organised by the Friends of Lyme Regis Museum. For further information please contact David Cox on 01297 443156. Woodmead Hall, Lyme Regis.

Chard History Group Phil Nichols will talk about the lives of dozen Chard Photographers. His talk is entitled “Secure

the shadow; Somerset photographers 18391939.” Although some of these were fullphotographers, for others it was a sideline, such as Chard’s best known resident of the 19th Century, John Stringfellow. The talk will be illustrated with a view of events in and aroud the town, as well as studio portraits. The talk will also include images from the excellent collection in Chard Museum. At the Phoenix Hotel, Fore Street, Chard in the Ball Room upstairs.

Refreshments available. New members and Guests welcome. Members £2 Guests £3 For information 01460 66165 Community Coffee Morning, 10.45 - 11.45am, St.Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington, Bridport, All welcome, Free Parking.

Chard Camera Club The club will be meeting at the usual time of 7.30 pm at the Baptist Church Hall Holyrood Street Chard.

The evening will consist of a print image competition on the subjects of Landscape, Portrait and an open subject the judge for the evening being Mr David Snowdon.

Further details can be obtained by viewing the club’s website www.chardcameraclub. org.uk or by contacting Mrs Joyce Partridge the members secretary on 01460 66885 or by going to their link on Facebook Wellbeing Walk at Radipole Lakes with Stepping into Nature, 11-12, Enjoy a gentle

45 minute to 1 hour walk at Radipole Nature Reserve. A chance to relax, chat, see (And hear!) some fabulous wildlife. Contact RSPB Radipole Lakes, Weymouth on 01305 778313. www.stepin2nature.org Lyme Voices Community Choir. 19.30 to 21.15. Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear.

Everyone welcome. Baptist Church (pine hall round the back), Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Phone 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice.net “My life in Watercress”, 2.30pm, Morcombelake Gardening Club - A talk about watercress production, JH Hall, Morcombelake, J Coates 01297 678303 Axminster - £1 Clothing Sale Everything £1 only - Good quality items for men, women and children being sold on Market Day in the Church Rooms on the Minster Green. 3 hours only from 9am - 12pm. A Fundraising Sale for Axminster Musical Theatre who are performing the musical comedy ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ 17th-23rd November. www.axmt.co.uk Charity Fashion Show, 7.30pm, Sidmouth Hospiscare and Chapter Clothing Show join forces to present a showcase of the new season trends from our local boutique, Kennaway House Sidmouth EX10 8NG, mail@kennawayhouse.org.uk 01395 515551 Tatworth Wives Group will hold their Annual Meeting, to be followed by

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 17

Coast &Countryside Events entertainment from singer Pamela Everet, at 2.00pm in St John`s church rooms, Tatworth West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Symondsbury Circular. No dogs. Please call 01308 424512 Tatworth Flower club 2pm demonstration, Jacalyn Arscott, Gold cup winner at Chelsea, ‘the wonders of winter, Tatworth Memorial hall TA20 2QW Julie Kettle 01297 33924 FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER The Pedigree Jazz Band Craig Milverton and his Legacy Band. A tribute to the trad jazz popular in the 1950s and 60s. 8pm.

Tickets £16 (£31 with pre-show supper at 7pm, must be pre-booked). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Fun Quiz Night, doors open 6.30pm quiz starts 7.00pm, Teams up to 6 at £5 a head includes tea and biscuits, interval raffle and Chinese bingo, St. Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington, Bridport.

The Living Tree, cancer self-help group.

12.45 Mindfulness and Compassion with Sue Howse. 2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Christine Laws talking about feet and peripheral neuropathy and also bringing

creams for us to try. 3.30pm Rising Voices with Jane Silver Corren. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends’ Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 07341 916 976. www.thelivingtree.org.uk Food on Friday 12 noon:, at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall - two course lunch, roll & butter + unlimited tea/coffee, £5.

Special diets can usually be catered for if requested in advance. Disabled facilities, ample parking, lovely view. Open to all ages; very friendly atmosphere, newcomers really welcomed, but please book places in advance by phoning June (01460 77057) or Jackie (01460 72324), who will also provide more information if required.

Concert of Choral & Instrumental Music at 7.30pm by The madrigal Society & Musicians of Sherborne Girls in St Mary’s Church,Beaminster.Tickets Adults(children & students £1) from The Yarn Barton Centre Fleet Street Beaminster Tel 01308 862715 or on the door.

FRI 8 – SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER The History Hut open at Low Ham. Free admission. Displays of local history, (kerrincook@hotmail.co.uk)

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SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER A Space for Living Spirituality at The Quaker Meeting House, 95, South Street, Bridport. DT6 3NZ. Series 8 “Care of our Souls, Care of our Planet” Connecting personal transformation with sustainability of life on earth. Event 3: 10am – 4pm. “Bridging the Inner and Outer Landscapes” led by Satish Kumar. Spaces limited so booking is required Donations £10-£40 per day: bring-and-share lunch.

Contact: Janet Lake: iona.lake@aol.co.uk.

Beer Wurlitzer Theatre Organ Show with Richard Monks at the Congregational Church, Fore Street, Beer, 2pm - 4.30pm, £7 at the door, children free, visit beerwurlitzer.org.ik or phone 01297 24892.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 6 mile walk from Askerswell Spyway, Eggardon Hill, Stancombe Farm, Nallers Farm 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898484/01308 863340 Living Spirituality Event “Bridging the Inner and Outer Landscapes” led by Satish Kumar 10.00 m- 4.00 Quaker Meeting House 95 South Street Bridport iona.lake@aol.co.uk Chekhov and Cheese; an evening of comedy and refreshment 7:30pm Bothenhampton Village Hall Tickets £10

available from Goadsby, 2 South Street, Bridport.

Autumn Bazaar in South Perrott (on A356) Village Hall at 2:30 pm. Stalls, gifts, brica-brac, toys, books, new-to-you, tombola, teas and raffle. Admission 20p. Proceeds to St Mary’s Church and South Perrott Village Hall. Enquiries: 01935 891234 or 01935 891224 Martock Farmers Market, over 16 stalls selling thoughtful food magnificently fit for purpose 10-1 in Co-Op precinct, off North Street. 01935 822202 for details.Heating, cooking and lighting in the medieval home, a symposium, key speaker Nick Griffiths, with short talks on the decreasing cost of light, taper burns and an early painted fireplace lintel. Also a free piece of our 40th birthday cake, this event organised by the Somerset Vernacular Group. Saturday 23 November 2-4.30 pm at Tintinhull Village Hall, £5 in advance, £8 on door. 01935 822202.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 19

LOOKING TO INCLUDE AN EVENT? Charity and fund-raising entries in Coast & Countryside Events are free of charge. Please check times with organisers or venues.

Please send details (Date, event name, time, short description, location and contact details ) by email to: info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month.

Jumble Sale - Pre-loved - good as new - bric a brac 2pm. Uplyme Village Hall In aid of Lyme Regis Gig Club Contact : 07584 178977 Skerryvore – A ‘Chance to Dance’ Event.

8pm. Skerryvore create a unique fusion of Folk, Trad, Rock and Americana. At The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £20 Full, £19 Concessions, from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Loders Village Hall, West Dorset Group of the SDFHS meeting. Parish Registers: a social history, Ted Udall will talk about the importance of Parish Records when looking at family and local history. Members £1.50, visitors £3.00, all welcome. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com ‘Second Saturday’ Village Coffee Break in the unique Village Hall, from 10.30 to 12 noon Long Bredy -DT2 9HP. There will be a warm welcome with a log fire, lots of homemade cakes, biscuits and savouries, a raffle and Bring and Buy stall, all in aid of Marie Curie Nurses.

The Beehive Craft Fair, 10am – 3pm A pre-Christmas craft fair in the heart of East Devon. With 50 stalls of crafts from across the south-west, particularly from our local area -artwork, photography, greetings cards, jewellery, textiles, pottery, glassware, chocolate and other foodstuffs. The Beehive cafe will be open all day providing delicious refreshments. Free entry The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050 Katy Hurt & Band: The Revved Up Tour (+support Roseanna Ball), 8pm Katy is one of the most exciting prospects of the burgeoning British country scene. With her influences ranging from Johnny Cash to John Mayer and appearing with her band this will be a night to remember. £10 in advance, £12 on the door The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER Crystal and Tibetan Bowl Soundbath 7pm – 8.30pm Dorchester YMCA, Sawmills Lane, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2RZ £15/13 concs Experience a magical performance of therapeutic Pure Sound by musician Dean Carter using singing bowls plus sacred vocal overtoning which promotes a deeply relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit. Your ‘participation’ involves simply lying down and enjoying/ absorbing the sounds. (You may sit if preferred.) Booking in advance and further details www.centreforpuresound. org ahiahel@live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

No Seaton Dance Club! We’re stepping aside for the Youth Theatre’s production of The Sound of Music. We’ll be dancing as normal next week! Gateway box office 01297 625699 Gonzo Moose Theatre company present their anarchic comedy for all ages-‘Once Upon a Time…The Misadventures of the Brothers Grimm’ at 4pm. This Villages in Action event is at Stockland Village hall ,EX149EF.Tickets: Adult £10,Child £8,Family £30.book with Wendy.

01404881207.

MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER Yeovil Probus Club 1.30pm AGM. The Yeovil Court Hotel, New Members always most welcome, please contact the Hon. Secretary on 01935 414765 for further details.

Let’s Cover Some Ground. 7-9pm.

Participatory drawing workshop with Jo Burlington. Bridport Literary & Scientific Institute www.lsibridport.co.uk £8 Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall, tea or coffee included 7.30 pm – 10.00 p.m. No partner required.

Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461; or just come along. Cost £1.50 www. chardscottishdancing.org Scottish Dancing Beginners’ Course in Chardstock 6.15 – 9.00 p.m. No need to come with a partner but bring light shoes. Why not try Scottish Dancing with this friendly club. £1.50 per evening. For more information contact David Acland on 01460 65981 or email aclandfamily@btinternet.com or visit www. chardscottishdancing.org or just turn up at Chardstock Community Hall EX13 7BJ Scottish Country dancing Monday 11th , 18th, 25th November. 7.30 to 9.30 pm . learn steps, formations and dances in a relaxed and fun setting. Ashill village hall nr Ilminster TA19 9LX. Contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@ gmail.com Woodland Wellbeing Walk with Stepping into Nature, 10.30 -11:30, Explore the seasonal changes taking place in a woodland nature reserve on regular 50 minute strolls on all weather terrain.

Hardys Birthplace, Thorncombe Woods, Dorchester. Contact Claire to book your place: 01305 251228 or C.Platten@ dorsetcouncil.gov.uk. www.stepin2nature. org Lipreading & Managing Hearing Loss Honiton Methodist Church 10am - 12noon. Learn how to manage your hearing loss using lipreading and coping strategies, while building confidence in a supportive environment. First session free. Small, friendly group. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Contact Ruth for further

20 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

details ruth@bizleyart.com 07855 340517 or just come along on the day. Also on 18th and 25th.

TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER Arts society Honiton ‘Landscape Photography’ - Charlie Waite. Exploring the making of images and how we perceive them. Charlie is one of the world’s leading landscape photographers and he has lectured widely for 25 years. He has been awarded prestigious Fellowships by the British Institute of Professional Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society. He was invited by the Royal Academy to exhibit in 2015’s summer exhibition. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton, EX14 1LZ at 2pm.

The Ile Valley Flower Club Open Evening To be held at “The Warehouse Theatre” Ilminster The ever popular Coral Gardiner from Tunely ,Bath will demonstrate a “ Country Christmas” Prompt start 7.30pm doors open 6.30pm Tickets are £10 with Coffee/ Tea on entrance Available from Harrimans in Ilminster or 01460 75025/77233/67149/67325 Lipreading & Managing Hearing Loss Bridport Hospital 2-4pm. Learn how to manage your hearing loss using lipreading and coping strategies, while building confidence in a supportive environment.

First session free. Small, friendly group.

Tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Contact Ruth for further details ruth@bizleyart. com 07855 340517 or just come along on the day. Also on 19th and 26th.

Time for Tea and a Talk Graham Barton ‘Auctions Speak Louder than Words’ Graham is one of the most experienced auctioneers in the country and is instantly recognisable from his many appearances on BBC1’s ‘Homes under the Hammer’.

He talks about his life as a West Country auctioneer. £3 Tea & cake served. Call 01404 831207 to book or visit www. axminsterheritage.org 2:00pm at Axminster Heritage, The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH Bridport History Society, United Church Hall, East St, Bridport, 2.30. 4.30. Carlos Guarita will present his new publication ‘Where the Dipping is: The Dorset Photographs of Joseph Robert Potts, followed by the book launch with drinks and nibbles. The book will be on sale for £15, an ideal Christmas present.

Members £1 and visitors £4, all welcome.

Membership up for renewal and will run through to Dec. 2020. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Beaminster hills and farms. No dogs. Please call 01308 862981

WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER Bridport Camera Club. Club Competition - Landscape: Malcolm McNaughton will judge the many interpretations of the theme.

Bridport Town Hall DT6 3HA. info@ bridportcameraclub.co.uk. 01935 892353.

Axe Valley Centre National Trust, Talk, History of the Corporation of Trinity House Part 2 by Alan Nicholas, Colyford Memorial Hall 2.30pm. Tel. 01297631801.

Moreton History Walk with stepping into Nature, 10.30 – 12:00, Explore the history of a place using historic photographs to look at the past and find out what has, and has not changed over the past century. Booking essential. Contact Steph on 01305 224788 or stepin2nature@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk. www. stepin2nature.org Folk Café at The Beehive, 8pm Come along to sing or listen in the Beehive bar with our lovely folkie host, Sue King.

Free entry. The Beehive, Honiton. www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER Chard Royal Naval Association Their bi monthly Official meeting will be held at 7.30pm for 8 pm in the Chard Rugby football club Essex close Chard. Anyone wishing to make enquiries of the club can do so by visiting on the night or contacting the club secretary Mr Gary Pennells on 01460 77978 were they would be made most welcome and accepted or by visiting their link on facebook under Chard Royal Naval Association.

The Dynamic Coast – A talk by Worldrenowned Geomorphologist Professor Denys Brunsden will give a fascinating insight into the ever-changing coast between West Bay and Eype. 7:30pm West Bay Discovery Centre. Advance booking recommended tickets £5 are available from West Bay Discovery Centre or Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

Further details 01308 427288 manager@ westbaydiscovercentre.org.uk Lyme Voices Community Choir. 19.30 to 21.15. Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear.

Everyone welcome. Baptist Church (pine hall round the back), Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Phone 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice.net NCI Lyme Bay (National Coastwatch Institution) Fundraising Coffee Morning, serving coffee, cakes and bacon butties plus a raffle; also cakes to buy to take away.

Burton Bradstock Village Hall, 10:00- 13:00.

Call Judy on 07786 354403. Charity No. 1159975 An Evening with Dorset Rock Choir 8pm Over 260 choir members from Dorchester Poole and Weymouth. Entertainment guaranteed. Weymouth Pavillion. Box office 01305 783225 www.weymouthpavillion.com Seavington Gardening Club Welcome Alan Power- Head Gardener at Stourhead.

His talk will be ‘ My Journey Through Great Gardens ‘ at 7.30 pm Meeting held in Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 21

Coast &Countryside Events Seavington Millennium Hall . Enquiries to Karen Day 01460 249728.

Crewkerne Gardening Club is holding the A.G.M. at 7.30pm in the Henhayes Centre. This will be followed by a talk on “The Design & Construction of the Millenium Glasshouse at R.H.S. Wisley”

by John Colton. Refreshments and a warm welcome await! Visitors -£2.50. Come and enjoy an evening with us! Contact Rosemary Prince – 01460 74290.

A Rose Grower’s Guide to healthy roses old and new. 7pm. A talk by Stuart Pocock, Proprietor of Pococks Roses and Cornish Rose Company, admission £3. Plant Heritage Dorset, The Dorford Centre, Bridport Road, Dorchester DT1 1RR. Contact Mrs Alex Brenton (Plant Heritage Dorset) on 01929 459496 or by email at alexandrob.ab@googlemail.com.

THU 14 - TUE 19 NOVEMBER Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society is holding a free exhibition ‘Celebrating 90 Years’. 11-3.30pm.

Courtyard Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. More information at www.ulrhs.wordpress.com FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER Concerts in the West presents the Ruisi Quartet. String quartet playing a programme of Britten, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. For full details see www. concertsinthewest.org. 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org. uk.

The Living Tree, cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Activity to be advised. Therapy session - Peter Cove offering Swedish Massage for hands & feet (please check beforehand if you have Lymphoedema or lymph nodes removed).

Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends’ Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 07341 916 976. www.thelivingtree.org.uk Chef ’s Special Lunch. Roast Pork followed by Pear & Cinnamon Sponge.

Booking Essential. The Henhayes Centre, Crewkerne, TA18 8DA. Contact 01460 74340 Poets and Pints Night at 7.30pm. The Hip Yak Poetry Shack will perform; plus, email livtorc@yahoo.com if you would like a slot in the Dead Poet’s Slam. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £9 from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Waytown Wander and Pub Lunch. No dogs. Please call 01308 424668 Hefted, 7.30pm Inspired by conversations and interviews with people across Devon, this new play by David Lane explores the connection we have to our land, the pull of our past and what it means for our future.

Leaping through landscapes and racing through eras from 1475 to 2075, this play will take you on a journey through North Devon. Adult £9, U16 £7 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 Bridport Embroidery Group making embroidered Christmas cushions with Rachel Hewitt. Use colourful fabric scraps and embroider seasonal messages on these lovely festive decorations. New members and guests welcome, Bridport Embroiderers meet monthly, at St Swithuns Church, Bridport, from 10.00 – 3.30. For further details, or to join/book, phone 01308 456168 or email cherry. bonhamlovett@btinternet.com.

SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER Jurassic Art and Craft Fayre at Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre. DT6 6LL Opportunity to buy unique Christmas gifts by local artists and makers - glass, ceramics, wood, jewellery, paintings, knitted and stitched gifts. Christmas craft activity for children. Free entrance. 01297 560772 Church of St Peter and St Paul South Petherton. at 7.30pm Under their Musical Director, Tim Donaldson and orchestra leader Rosie Moorsom they will be performing Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicholas, Bach Cantata 140 “Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme”, Purcell - Incidental music from Abdelazer, and Handel Let the bright Seraphim. Tickets cost £13 in advance, and £15 on the door.

They may be obtained from Harriman’s Ilminster, Barrons Chard, Phoenix Books, Crewkerne, by telephoning 01458 259079 or via the website southsomersetchoralsociety.org.uk Concert by the Axminster & District Choral Society at the Minster, Axminster 7.30 pm.. Puccini: Messa di Gloria.

Elgar: Psalm 29. 90 strong choir with professional orchestra and soloists.

Conducted by Judy Martin. Tickets £15.00 & £12.00 from Archway Books, Church St, Axminster or phone 01404 881 838.

Crystal and Tibetan Bowl Soundbath 2pm -4pm Bridport Unitarians, 49 East St, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JX £12 Experience a magical performance of therapeutic Pure Sound by musician Dean Carter using singing bowls plus sacred vocal overtoning which promotes a deeply relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit. Your ‘participation’ involves simply lying down and enjoying/absorbing the sounds. (You may sit if preferred.)

Booking in advance and further details www.centreforpuresound.org ahiahel@ live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

Big Breakfast 9 – 11.30 am: at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall - full English breakfast (£6.50), including fruit juice +

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unlimited toast & coffee/tea, in a friendly atmosphere with a lovely view. Disabled facilities, ample parking; all welcome.

Further information/booking from Adrienne (01460 75313) or Julia (01460 72769) Barn Dance Bar, Live Music, FootStomping Fun, Bring and Share Fingerfood supper. £5 per person Whitchurch Canonicorum Village Hall. 7 for 7.30 pm Ivy club sale 2pm bric a brac tombola raffle cakes plus lots more maiden newton village hall contact Diane 07833995274 Martyn Joseph. 8pm. Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind-blowing artist: one man and a guitar creates a far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £18 Full, £17 Concessions, from www.thedavidhall. org.uk or 01460 240 340.

WEA Talk “Darwin & Fitzroy” Two extraordinary lives linked by a single voyage on HMS Beagle. Hardington Village Hall, BA22 9PQ. £15 Tel:- 0300 303 3464 or register on line at wea.org.uk West Dorset Mencap Afternoon Tea, 3-5pm, Raffle, crafts, book stall and Bothenhampton Knit & Natter. All proceeds to West Dorset Mencap. Contact secretary@westdorsetmencap.org.uk Strawbs Acoustic – 50th Anniversary Tour, 7.45pm A special anniversary acoustic tour by progressive folk-rock band The Strawbs to celebrate 50 years of music making. £16 in adv, £18 on the door (seated) The Beehive, Honiton. www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 Race Night 6pm – midnight First race 6.30pm with great buffet dinner in between races Hinton St George Villlage Hall Tickets available from OurShop, High Street, Hinton St George @ £15 Mandeville Anne Scolding- Perrett (Clarinet) and Clare Sydenham (Piano) will be performing another of their memorable recitals with the title, ‘War and Peace’- A Clarinet and Piano recital featuring rousing recruitment marches from Russia, heartfelt melodies of mourning from Hungary, fast and “Friss” dances from Romania and piano solos by Janacek and Martinu.at 3pm at The Salt House, West Bay Tickets are £9 (under 16’s free) including tea and biscuits available from Clare Sydenham email clare. sydpiano@gmail.com or on the door.

SAT 16 – SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER Shute Barton open weekend Discover a house packed with fascinating characters and one of the largest fireplaces in England. Take a guided tour and learn about the fascinating history of Shute.

Tours last approximately 45 minutes, start at 10.30am and depart every 15 minutes throughout the day until 3.45pm. Tours cost £6/adult, £3/child. Free admission for National Trust members. Please note

only cash accepted as there are no card facilities.

SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason 7pm Dorchester Corn Exchange. In a rare opportunity to see two of the brightest young stars on the classical scene, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister Isata will be on stage for a programme of pieces for cello and piano. Tickets are £26 full price or £24 for Members of Dorchester Arts, under-18s or those on low income and are available from the Dorchester Arts box office on 01305 266926, in person at the Corn Exchange (weekdays 10am - 4pm) or via www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Eype Makers Market at Highlands Eype DT6 6AR Selected magical mix of talented Makers. Shop local this Xmas. 10-4. Free entry and parking. Refreshments available.

Organ Concert, 3.00pm, Celebrating the recent restoration of St.Swithun’s Organ, led

by Dr. Richard Godfrey, Salisbury Diocesan Organ Advisor, St. Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington, Bridport Yoga Workshop 10.30 - 3.30 A day to enjoy some yoga, pranayama & meditation at Sydling St Nicholas Village Hall with professional teacher Angela Renton B.W.Y. Call 0777 365 1530 booking essential.

The Exiled Collector, a talk by Anna Sebba. 1pm. William Bankes was a 19th century collector of ancient Egyptian artefacts and Spanish paintings intended for his ancestral home, Kingston Lacy.

He was forced into exile in Italy to escape prosecution, yet continued to collect for a house he no long lived in nor owned. The house has been restored by the National Trust – can William himself be restored in this talk? Shire Hall Historic Courthouse

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Looking Ahead Sunday 1 December

Santa Special at Yeovil Railway 10.30am – 4pm (check times and details on website) Yeovil Railway Centre, Yeovil Junction 01935 410420 www.yeovilrailway.freeservers.com.

Museum, High West Street, Dorchester.

For more information visit shirehalldorset. org or call 01305 261849. (Please note: this event has changed from 3 November due to unforeseen circumstances) BalletBoyz Dance Workshop & Film Screening. Join us for a selection of BalletBoyz’ best short dance films at 3pm.

Plus, an hour-and-a-half Dance Workshop for 16 to 25-year-olds at 1pm. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: Dance Workshop £5, Films £5 or £8 for both from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240.

Seaton Dance Club, 7-9 pm. Ballroom, Latin and Jive with lots of help for beginners - we’re a friendly bunch! (No formal lessons and no sequence). £4 per person (All profits support The Gateway Theatre). Bar open. More male dancers please! The Gateway Theatre, Seaton Town Hall, Fore Street EX12 2LD. Contact Jackie: 01297 23953 or Gateway box office 01297 625699 BSO Brass Quintet. 11.15.am. A concert of arrangements for Brass Quintet from Bach and Tallis to the American Song Book and Jazz. Dillington House, Ilminster. Contact and Bookings 01460258613 Bridport cohousing - an affordable choice for local people, 2 - 5pm, information about affordable rents and shared ownership opportunities within this pioneering local housing project, free but ticketed via eventbrite, Bridport town hall, info@bridportcohousing.org.uk Indoor Boot Sale at Axminster Town Football Club, EX13 5HN. 1pm-4pm. Free

Tuesday 2 December

Christmas Bingo at the Village Hall (TA18 8NA). Doors open 6.45p.m. for 7.30 start). Raising funds for Misterton W.I. Enq. 01460 74808/ cewalker@hotmail.co.uk.

entry, refreshments available. Also 1st and 15th December.

MONDAY 18 NOVEMBER Axminster Carnival Bingo Eyes down 8pm Axminster Guildhall.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall, tea or coffee included. 7.30 – 10.00 p.m. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461.

Or just come along. Cost £1.50 www. chardscottishdancing.org Scottish Dancing Beginners’ Course in Chardstock 6.15 – 9.00 pm. No need to come with a partner but bring light shoes. Why not try Scottish Dancing with this friendly club. £1.50 per evening. For more information contact David Acland on 01460 65981 or email aclandfamily@btinternet.com or visit www. chardscottishdancing.org or just turn up at Chardstock Community Hall EX13 7BJ Musbury Garden Club a talk by Will Livingstone on ‘The organic kitchen garden’ - how to make a productive garden that is beautiful and functional. Will spent ten years at River Cottage HQ, five of them as Head Gardener, and now has his own consultancy business. Doors to Musbury Village Hall, EX13 8AJ open for refreshments at 7p.m. before the talk at 7.30p.m. Members: £1.50. Non-members very welcome: £2.50.

Inspired by Archives with Stepping into Nature, 10:30 – 12:00, Explore the nature in the Dorset History Centres archives using photos, art, recordings and maps to

Thursday 4 December

Versus Arthritis Christmas Fair/ Coffee Morning, 10.30 – 1 pm, Stalls, Produce, Raffle. Sweetbriar Farm, Uploders DT6 4NY

unlock the stories past, present and future, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester, DT1 1RP, Maria 01305 221618, maria.gayton@ dorsetcouncil.gov.uk, www.stepin2nature. org Hawkchurch History Society Colin Pady will be talking about the history of Colyton (described as “the most rebellious town in Devon”) and the Feoffees. A short AGM will precede this talk. Hawkchurch Village Hall 7pm for 7.30pm start.

Refreshments available. £5 non-members.

Chard, Ilminster & District U3A Open meeting at 2.00 pm with a talk about the “Mission Aviation Fellowship”. Marion Field will talk about WWll pilots who had a vision for how aviation could be used to spread the Christian faith. Admission free to members and retired visitors. The Guildhall, Fore Street, Chard. Further information 01460 68629 or our website https://u3asites.org.uk/chardilminster TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER Talk by Indi Heath on Greenpeace, 7.30pm, the Friends of St Andrew’s present an illustrated talk by a leading activist on Greenpeace’s environmental and peace promotion work - currently more topical than ever, tickets £5 & £4 (FoStA members) under 18s free, St Andrew’s Church Colyton, 01297 552057 www. colyton.co.uk Beaminster Museum Winter Talk, 2.30 pm. Bruce Upton will give a talk on the Monmouth Rebellion - a dreadful lost cause. From its start in 1685 to its crushing defeat and Judge Jeffries’ sadistic retaliation. Beaminster Museum, Whitcombe Road, DT8 3NB. Info@ beaminstermuseum.co.uk West Dorset Ramblers Walk, around Eggardon Hill and Powerstock. No dogs.

Please call 01308423346 WED 20 – SAT 23 NOVEMBER Axminster Musical Theatre’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Evening performances begin at 7.30 p.m. and there is a 2.30 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are available from The Archway Bookshop (01297 33595), or from www.axmt.co.uk/ book-online WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER Bridport Probus Club (Ladies Lunch) For Whom the Bell Tolls – Paul Atterbury.

Meet at the Eype’s Mouth Hotel at 12noon on the third Wednesday of each month

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Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 25

Coast &Countryside Events for lunch, followed by a talk. For more information contact Graham Pitts on 01297 561569.

Thorncombe Rail Activities Club will host a talk and slide presentation given

by Gareth Richards entitled “The Seaton Tramway” The meeting is at Thorncombe Village Hall, TA20 4NE and starts at 7.30pm. Non Members are welcome, there are refreshments, a raffle and the parking is free. Contact Richard Holt, Chairman Tel. 01460 30428 or Google TRAC “traclubsite” for information.

Dorset Wildlife Trust Sherborne Group, 7.30pm, talk by Warren Bicheno from ‘Surfers against Sewage’, Digby Memorial Church Hall, Digby Road, Sherborne, DT9 3NL, cost £2.50. Mary Howes 01935 872742 Colyton & District Garden Society Talk ‘Shady Ladies and Sunseekers’ by Mary Benger, Burrow Farm Gardens.

Colyford Memorial Hall at 7.30pm.

Members free, guests £3. For information, Sue Price: 01297 552362.

Chardstock Gardening Club 7.30pm.

‘Bulbs - Selection & Planting’ - talk by Micky Little of Avon Bulbs. Bulbs for sale.

Chardstock Community Hall, Westcombes, EX13 7BJ. Everyone welcome. Visitors £3 on the door; tea/coffee and biscuits included. Enquiries: 01460 221619.

Honiton U3A November meeting at The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton - 1.30pm for a 2.00pm start. A talk by Philip Holt entitled ‘Keep Calm - I’m an Air Traffic Controller’. Philip has been an Air Traffic Controller for over 30 years and his knowledge, secrets and passion are all evident in this witty presentation.

Members free /Visitors - £2.00 donation . More details: 01404 598008 or on our Website: https://u3asites.org.uk/honiton West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Winyards Gap Inn. No dogs. Please call 01308 459282 Devonshire Association Meeting, 2.30pm, a talk by Peter Dare Master Stonemason entitled From Beer to Brisbane and Back. At the Pavilion, Peace Memorial Playing Fields, Coly Road, Colyton EX24 5PU. Entrance: Donation £1 (DA Members), £3 (Non Members).

For more details visit devonassoc.org.uk/ events/category/branch-events/axevalleybranch-events/ THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER Bridport & District Gardening Club Images of Dartmoor, speaker Tony Burges. 7.30pm in the Women’s Institute Hall, North Street, Bridport. The meetings are also open to non-members (£2 entrance fee).

Thorncombe Gardening Club meets at 7.30pm in Thorncombe Village Hall. The speaker is Mickey Little “Castle Drogo”.

Visitors welcome - £4 at the door. We are a very active group and also run day

trips and outings for our members during the year. New members will be made very welcome and Subscription is only £10 per year. For further information please contact Mary Morris 01460 30938.

Showcase: Winter Impromptu! Tickets available from www.octagon-theatre.co.uk For more information about these and other YCAA events, reading groups and competitions, see www.yeovilarts.co.uk or visit our Facebook and Twitter pages. Bar available and nibbles provided at events. www.yeovilarts.co.uk.

Chard Camera Club The club will be holding a DPI competition on the subjects of Creative,Back Alleys and an open subject.The competition will be judged by Mr Gordon Aspland. Further enquiries can be obtained fom the clubs membership secretary Mrs Joyce Partridge on 01460 66885.

Wellbeing Walk at Radipole Lakes with Stepping into Nature, 11-12, Enjoy a gentle 45 minute to 1 hour walk at Radipole Nature Reserve. A chance to relax, chat, see (And hear!) some fabulous wildlife.

Contact RSPB Radipole Lakes, Weymouth on 01305 778313. www.stepin2nature.org Lyme Voices Community Choir. 19.30 to 21.15. Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear.

Everyone welcome. Baptist Church (pine hall round the back), Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Phone 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice.net “Art & the Train” a talk by Paul Atterbury. at 2.30 pm St Aldhelm’s Church Centre, Spa Road, Weymouth, DT3 5EW. NTSDA members £3 Non-members £4 inc. tea/biscuits. No need to book. www. southdorsetnt.org.uk Sharon Stone will talk about and demonstrate “African Drumming” to Tatworth W.I. at 7.30pm in Tatworth Memorial Hall. Visitors always welcome.

The Arts Society West Dorset. ‘Slade Painters in Edwardian Dorset’. Bridport Town Hall 2.30. Details: 01308 485487.

Charmouth Gardeners. Marion Dale will talk about ‘Wicked Plants’, plants that can irritate, intoxicate or even kill you! Charmouth Village Hall, talk at 2.30, refreshments from 2.00pm. Non members very welcome.

FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER Victorian Evening Enjoy a mince pie and mulled wine at the Arts Centre after Ilminster’s big Christmas lights switch on.

The Gallery and Crafts Shop will be open for Christmas shoppers too. 6pm. Free entry. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org. uk.

The Living Tree, cancer self-help group.

12.45 Mindfulness and Compassion with Sue Howse. 2pm Tripudio. Christmas crafts and tree decorations. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends’

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Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 07341 916 976. www. thelivingtree.org.uk Comedy: Tom Glover - A Glover Not a Fighter, 8pm Best New Show nominee Leicester Comedy Festival 2019. Horror movies. Lactose intolerance. Bike rides.

Tom Glover is a comic not afraid to tackle the big issues. This is the debut show from a snowflake son of an alpha male trying to do right in a world that is wrong. £10 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050 SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 6.5 mile walk from Beaminster Foxholes Plantation, Broadwindsor, Chart Knolle, Gerrards Hill 10.30am start. Bring picnic.

No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898484/01308 863340 Chideock WI Christmas Fayre. WI cakes and produce, locally made crafts, jewellery, raffle and much more….. Come for lunch – soup and roll, tea and cakes. 12 noon to 3.00 pm. Chideock Village Hall. Details: Mary 01297 489452.

Wonder filled Christmas Fayre, 12.00 - 2.30 pm, St.Swithun’s Church Hall, all welcome free entry and parking Come And Sing Faure rehearse 2pm free concert at 6pm St Barts church Crewkerne contact Ian Tribe on iantribe@gmail.com or 01460271440 Christmas Fayre at Misterton W.I. Hall (TA18 8LX). Christmas gifts for all the family, tombola, raffle, home bake, lunches, coffee and cake and all the usual trimmings. Free entry. Look forward to seeing you there. Enq. 01460 74808/ cewalker@hotmail.co.uk.

The Tuckers Jazz Club Annika Skoogh’s Tribute to Anita O’Day The Tuckers Arms, Dalwood, Near Axminster, EX13 7EG (just north of the A35 between Axminster & Honiton) Tickets £10 Info. at www. dalwoodvillage.co.uk 01404 831 280 or 07999 553477 Annika has put together a fine band with some of the best musicians in the S.West to authentically reproduce Anita O’Day recordings. They focus on songs from Anita’s collaboration with The Oscar Peterson Quartet ‘The band features vocalist Annika with the UK’s best Oscar Peterson interpreter – pianist Craig Milverton, Mike Eaves – guitar, Jim Rintoul – bass & Coach York – drums The Little Unsaid + support from Mitchell and Vincent. 8pm. The Little Unsaid have spent the last year touring Europe, leaving audiences emotionally rapt with their live show. Mitchell and Vincent’s fiddle and guitar playing has been described

by Acoustic magazine as “Stunning”. The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £16 Full, £15 Concessions, from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Cardiac Risk in the Young Fundraiser 9-30am - 3pm Wide range of

Gifts,cards,preserves,cakes etc. Chaffcombe Village Hall TA20 4BH Information 0146061996.

Egyptian Society Taunton (in conjunction with Taunton Literary Festival) “Sethy I, King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife”.

Speaker: Prof Aidan Dodson. The lecture will take place at 2.00pm at St James’ Church, St James Street, Taunton, TA1 1JS. This is ticket only event – see website http://egyptiansoctaunton.wixsite.com/ home SAT 23 AND SUN 24 NOVEMBER Lucie Milner Original Artwork & Decorative Pieces. Exhibition/Sale of Work. Unique Gifts for Christmas! The Reading Room, Burton Bradstock. 10am 4pm SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER Volunteer Day – Hedgelaying 10am – 4pm Free. Looking to find a way to meet new people and to help care for the environment? Join our volunteer group and master the traditional craft of hedgelaying.

Hedgelaying has long been used to lengthen the life of trees, encourage new growth and thicken the hedge to encourage a greater range of wildlife. This is a practical session based on our working organic farm and education centre where we encourage wildlife and nature to thrive. The day

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Coast &Countryside Events includes light refreshments and a simple lunch. Free of charge to willing volunteers.

Suitable for adults only. Please wear suitable outdoor clothing and footwear.

This session is weather dependent.

Magdalen Farm Booking essential – visit www.magdalenfarm.org.uk/events, or for more information please email julia@ magdalenfarm.org.uk.

Crystal and Tibetan Bowl Soundbath 2pm-4pm Oborne Village Hall, Oborne, nr. Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4LA £12 Experience a magical performance of therapeutic Pure Sound by musician Dean Carter using singing bowls plus sacred vocal overtoning which promotes a deeply relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit.

Your ‘participation’ involves simply lying down and enjoying/absorbing the sounds.

Booking in advance and further details www.centreforpuresound.org ahiahel@ live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

Occasional Singers Advent Concert, 3pm to include Bruckner motets, St Marys Church, Dorchester DT1 2HJ. Free admittance, retiring collection in aid of Citizen’s Advice.

The David Hall Christmas Tea Party.

2pm - 4pm. Celebrate the start of the Christmas Season at The David Hall in South Petherton. Plus, join the countdown for the South Petherton Christmas Lights Switch-on. Free Entry. The David Hall, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240 340.

Seaton Dance Club, 7-9 pm. Ballroom, Latin and Jive with lots of help for beginners - we’re a friendly bunch! (No formal lessons and no sequence). £4 per person (All profits support The Gateway Theatre). Bar open. More male dancers please! The Gateway Theatre, Seaton Town Hall, Fore Street EX12 2LD. Contact Jackie: 01297 23953 or Gateway box office 01297 625699 Bridport Chamber Orchestra Autumn Concert, 3 pm. Music by JS Bach, Rossini, Samuel Barber, Frank Bridge and Percy Grainger, followed by teas. Tickets £10 on the door. St Swithun’s Church, Bridport.

Further information: 01935 824786.

MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER Axminster Carnival Bingo Eyes down 8pm Axminster Guildhall.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall, tea or coffee included. 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm. No partner required.

Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461; or just come along. Cost £1.50 www. chardscottishdancing.org Scottish Dancing Beginners’ Course in Chardstock 6.15 – 9.00 pm. No

need to come with a partner but bring light shoes. Why not try Scottish Dancing with this friendly club. £1.50 per evening. For more information contact David Acland on 01460 65981 or email aclandfamily@btinternet.com or visit www. chardscottishdancing.org or just turn up at Chardstock Community Hall EX13 7BJ TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER U3A Monthly Talk The U3A (University of the Third Age) offers a wide variety of general interest groups for retired, and semi retired people in Bridport and the surrounding areas. 2pm in Bridport United Church Hall in East Street. The cost to non members for each talk is £2. Further Information can be found at www.u3asites. org.uk/bridport. Ian Williamson speaks about ‘Trekking in Machu Picchu’.

Dorset Grasslands, 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Dorset Wildlife Trust and Lyme Regis Society talk by Jim White on types, location and management, Woodmead Halls, Hill Road, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PG, www. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Woodland Wellbeing Walk with Stepping into Nature, 13.30 -14:30, Explore the seasonal changes taking place in a woodland nature reserve on regular 50 minute strolls on all weather terrain.

Hardys Birthplace, Thorncombe Woods, Dorchester. Contact Claire to book your place: 01305 251228 or C.Platten@ dorsetcouncil.gov.uk. www.stepin2nature. org Picket Lane Nursery, 7.30pm, ‘The White Garden’ Tithe Barn Merriott.

Contact 01460-72298 Merriott Gardening Club Ted Udall on ‘slavery to poorhouse’.

People who heard Ted talk on parish registers will know he has a deep understanding of history from the perspective of ordinary folk.In Martock Primary School Hall, Elmleigh Road. Tea from 7 pm, talk 7,30 pm, free to members, £3 to non members.

WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER Uplyme and Lyme Regis Horticultural Society 7.30pm Uplyme Village Hall AGM followed by Talk ‘Natural Gardening’ by Brian Tomsett – the history and application of “no-dig” and other non-traditional cultivation techniques for flowers, fruit and vegetables.

Colyton Parish History Society Start 7.30pm Entrance fees £2 for members, £4 for non-members - meetings open to all.

Colyton Town Hall. Coleridge Evening by Coleridge Society, Ottery St Mary.

Monochrome Skills Session. Processing demonstration and group critique with a local monochrome group, led by Alison Webber. Bridport Town Hall DT6 3AH. info@bridportcameraclub.co.uk 01935 892353.

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Chard Camera Club The club will be away from their base this evening when they visit Colyford photographic club in Colyford meeting at 7.30 pm for their inter club competition.More information on both clubs can be found on their links on facebook under the club’s names. Enquiries of Chard club can be made via their website www.chardcameraclub.org.uk or by ringing the membership secretary Mrs Joyce Partridge on 01460 66885.

Coffee Morning from 10am-12noon.

Free Entry. At The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall. org.uk 01460 240 340.

Coleridge Evening by Coleridge Society, Ottery St Mary An entertaining evening with costumed performances.

Colyton Town Hall, 7.30pm £2 Members, £4 non-Members to include refreshments All welcome THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER Appreciation Redefined. 7.30pm. A talk

by TEDx Speaker Raj Adgopul. Bridport Literary & Scientific Institute www. lsibridport.co.uk £12 (fundraiser) Chard Ladies’ Evening Guild will welcome Tony Cooper to its meeting.

Tony spent many years in the police force, many of them in London, and will no doubt have a fund of interesting stories to tell. Visitors and new members will be most welcome to join us at The Crowshute Centre at 6.45. There is ample parking space in the adjacent free car park.

Refreshments available during the meeting.

Lyme Voices Community Choir. 19.30 to 21.15. Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear.

Everyone welcome. Baptist Church (pine hall round the back), Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Phone 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice.net Wreath Making Workshop ‘English Hedgerow’ wreaths using seasonal British Foliage with berries, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and more. Ticket includes tea/coffee and biscuits, all materials to take your wreath home, and a 2 course lunch with a glass of Prosecco. 10:30am – 14:00pm in the Poulett Chapel at the Alexandra Hotel, tickets are £67. To book phone 01279 442010. Alexandra Hotel and Restaurant, Pound Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3HZ Monmouth Club lunch 12.30pm. The Monmouth Club of Lyme Regis meets at a local hotel. The Club is open to retired or semi-retired professional gentlemen and is ideal for those who have recently moved to the Lyme Regis area. Members enjoy a 2 course lunch and convivial conversation with no after lunch speaker. For further information contact Dr Charles Wright on 01297 443258.

FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER Ant Law + Al Swainger’s Biosphosmus quartet A melodic

soundscape of Latin, fusion and ambience - inspired by Chick Corea and played by award-winning jazz musicians 8pm.

Tickets £16 (£31 with pre-show supper at 7pm, must be pre-booked). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

“Sun, Sea and Sooties” 7.30pm Roger Dickey has been conducting seabird surveys on Ascension Island for 26 years and will talk about the place, the wildlife, and his survey work. Initially run as scientific expeditions while in the Army, the visits have more recently been in support of HM and Ascension Island Government and the urgent need for a Marine Protected Area around this British Overseas Territory. Sales table, refreshments. Admission by donation SWT Ilminster/Chard group Adult members £2.50, non-members £3.50, no charge for children. Parish Hall, North Street, Ilminster TA19 0DG roadside parking or town car parks. Enquiries: Valerie 01460 234551 The Living Tree, cancer self-help group.

2.00pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Activity – art with Libby. Therapy with Anne Escott offering foot massage. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends’ Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 07341 916 976. www. thelivingtree.org.uk Sidmouth Arboretum Celebration of Trees, 7.00pm, Talks, quiz, songs, stalls, snacks and bar Free Entry, Kennaway House Sidmouth EX10 8NG, info@ sidmoutharboretum.org.uk Drinks in the Clink: Piratical Rum Night. 7pm. Discover your inner pirate at a rum-fuelled night at Shire Hall! Your host is David, Grey Bear Bar Co.’s Master

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More Grist for the Mill

By Cecil Amor

I

n October we looked at the rivers of Dorset, now let us look at some of the mills using the river water for hundreds of years. By the time of the Domesday Book there were many mills throughout the country, generally grinding corn, the grist, into flour. At that time there were 372 mills recorded in Dorset and this number increased over the years, but the number reduced to about 130 some 20 years ago, with only about 9 in satisfactory order and only one being commercial.

In the Industrial Revolution many flour mills were converted into mills to produce cloth from wool. Many were Fulling Mills used to manipulate the cloth in a bath of Fuller’s Earth, producing a heavier fabric.

Others were used to spin flax for sailcloth.

Watermills were used for power for many years, until steam engines arrived and then electrical power took over.

Lyme Regis and Uplyme together are believed to have had a total of 7 mills at one time. One was recorded in the Domesday Book and another was built in about 1340.

Lyme Regis Town Mill was owned by a miller until the Borough took it over. A Town Mill Trust recently took over and it has been renovated and once more grinds corn, since around the year 2000, partly for the heritage and tourist industry.

Sylvia Creed in Dorset’s Western Vale tells us that before 1860 the Moore family commenced milling and baking at Stoke Mill in Whitchurch Canonicorum, not with local wheat but bought from Bridport merchants.

They ceased milling about 80 years ago and the water wheel was sold for scrap and the mill became a farm house. However the Moore family has continued baking biscuits in Morcombelake and Bradpole. At Charmouth the Old Mill was still working to produce flour by Henry Smith, the miller at the time of Jane Austen’s visit, c.1803.

On the River Axe, Mosterton Mill was working until at least 1880. Beaminster had several mills on the various streams rising north of the town. Marie Eedle in a History of Beaminster writes that the Bishop of Salisbury held Beaminster at Domesday, including a mill and two sub-tenants each having a mill. There were still three corn mills in the later medieval period, one at Hams, another off East Street and Beaminster Mill. Buckham Mill was occupied by Charles Podger in the late 1600s, probably supplied by the River Axe. Another at the top of Fleet Street formerly owned by Henry Willmott was taken over by the Read family in 1806.

An anomaly occurred in 1868 when Whatley Mill which had been producing sail-cloth, twine and thread was converted to flour milling. As a rule flour came first. The Wheadon family were wool-staplers and cloth-makers in East Street up to 1811 and Thomas Hine a broadcloth maker at Fore Place, The Square in 1807. In 1830 three mills on the Brit in Beaminster were used to spin flax for sail-cloth yarn. By 1842 Eedle says the cloth industry was virtually over in Beaminster.

Two of the Beaminster mills were used for paper making in the18th century, one at Fleet Street and the other referred to as in East Street was probably near Prout Bridge.

In 1851 Robert Bugler commenced making agricultural equipment using a sawmill on the Brit in North Street. Parnham had an ancient grist mill on the Brit.

Stoke Abbott had a mill, strangely called “Horsemill”, possibly supplied by Stoke Water.

Clenham Mill at Netherbury was working until at least 1880 according to Eedle. Carrying on down the Brit we find Slape Mill.

South and East we come to Mangerton Mill on the Mangerton River both grinding grist and working on flax. Nearby is Milton Mill.

On the Asker we find Loders which formerly had two mills, one for corn and the Old Mill in New Street Lane was a bolling mill for hemp.

Bridport vies with Beaminster for its complexity. Near Happy Island on the Asker was a Tucking Mill used to “full” cloth but it ceased to operate in the 1840s and now little is left. The Simene was formerly known as the Mill Stream and possibly supplied the foundry on West Road. In Allington can be found North Mills with the former Allington Corn Mills on the Brit converted to flax spinning in 1806 and upstream can be found Pymore Mill for corn and bolling, converted to flax spinning about the same time. In West Street next to The Court is West Mill, on the Brit. It was very early and in the 1860s was used for grist and bolling. Its wheel was removed in favour of a Water turbine in 1886.

The mill has since been converted to an attractive residence. Along East Street, just over the roundabout towards Dorchester can be seen a Mill House and an Old Mill House, on the north side. However East Mill, on the Asker producing flour in 1902 is now hardly evident. To the south is Folly Mill Lane on which stood Folly Mill, earlier known as Killings Mill, for grist until conversion in the late 1800s.

There is said to have been a Walditch

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Mill, or Asker Mill opposite East Mill, behind the present garage and workshops on the Walditch Stream which was used for flax spinning. Half way down South Street a small road leads east to South Mill. Further south behind Palmers Brewery is a large water wheel which has supplied the brewery with pumped spring water. Finally between there and West Bay once stood Port Mill, for hemp bolling using cam driven hammers, but now only a few foundation stones survive.

Most water wheels in Bridport were made in the town.

Going east to Burton Bradstock Richard Roberts erected a mill in 1778 for spinning wool on the site of an older mill. In the early 1880s a second mill was built in Grove Road for flax working.

Further east and north we find Toller Porcorum (a reference to the pigs which once lived there) which had Old/Toller Mill for grist and corn until c.1900 on the River Hooke, leading to the River Frome. Going south to Abbotsbury we find the Old Mill with three millers in the 1901 census.

Early water wheels were undershot, the water running under the wheel. The breastshot wheel has water meeting the wheel halfway down and the overshot where the water feeds over the top. The best millstones were French burrstones but millstone grit has been used for animal feed.

Thomas Hardy in The Trumpet Major describes life in a mill, with the gentle noise of the wheels and cogs, sometimes all night and the mist of superfine flour pervading the whole building.

There is an old song about a mill and stream, my wife reminded me, probably from Old Time Music Halls, sung by a sweet soprano or an alcohol infused tenor which is: “There’s an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean, Where we used to sit and dream, Nellie Dean, And the waters as they flow, Seem to murmur sweet and low, You are my heart’s desire, I love you Nellie Dean”.

Thanks are due to Bridport Museum Service and several members of Bridport History Society for help with information used.

Bridport History Society meets on Tuesday 12th November at 2.30 pm in the Main Hall Bridport United Church when we are pleased to welcome Carlos Guarita to tell us about “Potts, another Bridport photographer”. All welcome, visitors fee £3 Cecil Amor, Hon President, Bridport History Society.

LOOKING TO INCLUDE AN EVENT? Charity and fund-raising entries in Coast & Countryside Events are free of charge. Please check times with organisers or venues.

Please send details (Date, event name, time, short description, location and contact details ) by email to: info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month.

Mixologist. He will take you on a trip to the Caribbean, with the origins of rum and the triangular trade, look at naval connection, of course, piracy! Includes a drink on arrival followed by two cocktails and two rum samples, and a selection of nibbles. Tickets are £25 per person and booking is essential. For more information visit shirehalldorset.org or call 01305 261849.

Acoustic Night from 7.30pm – 11pm.

All styles and forms of performance welcome – not just music. If you wish to perform please email at folk@chriswatts. org. At The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240 340.

West Dorset Ramblers Walk, Frampton circular. No dogs. Please call 01300 320346.

Holy Moly and The Crackers, 8pm A perfect collision of rowdy tunes, pumping danceability and compelling storytelling, Holy Moly & the Crackers provide riotous party, hilarious and thrilling, and are sure to entertain! £10 in advance, £12 on the door The Beehive, Honiton. www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 Celebration of Trees 6.30pm-8.30pm Sidmouth Arboretum – songs, wood crafts, stalls, short talks, refreshments, bar. Mingle with experts, browse the stalls, enjoy! Kennaway House EX10 8NG Contact info@sidmoutharboretum. org.uk

Christmas.

Christmas Fayre. 10am -12noon at Uplyme Village Hall. Stalls, refreshments, grand raffle with over £500 worth of prizes. Followed by Duck Race at 12noon. £100 for first duck home plus many more prizes. To book a stall or enquiries ph. 07590495909.

The Brunswick Singers in Harmony 2.30pm followed by refreshments. Free with retiring collection in aid os St. John’s Church funds. This year is the 200th anniversary of queen Victoria’s birth and this will be reflected in the programme in addition to the choir’’s usual folk songs.

Queen Victoria and Albert both enjoyed singing and were extremely supportive of the Romantic English composers such as Sterndale Bennett. Henry Bishop, John Hatton and Joseph Barnby, whose Lullaby ‘Sweet and Low’ became a firm favourite!

The Brunswick Singers in Harmony Choir are a cheerful friendly group whose aim is to focus on mainly traditional and modern folksongs and from all eras and various countries, in harmony, often without accompaniment. Concerts have raised over £4000 for Charites and the group has also played at various churches / venues for their own funds. At St.

John’s Church, Tatworth TA20 2SH. Contact Jan Knott 01460 220499 Henhayes Big Breakfast/Brunch. Full breakfast menu available with vegetarian and vegan options. The Henhayes Centre, Crewkerne, TA18 8DA. Contact 01460 74340.

Merry Hell - A ‘Chance to Dance’ Event. 8pm. Multi-award-winning eight-piece band Merry Hell offer joyful, uplifting Folk-Rock. At The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £18 Full, £17 Concessions, from www. thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Stockland Christmas Market. Victory Hall. 10 - 12 noon. Festive crafts, local Food Producers. Bookings contact. 01404 881535.

SAT 30 NOV - SUN 22 DECEMBER Christmas Afternoon Tea. All afternoon. Treat yourself to a Christmas Afternoon in Shire Hall café, in the lead up to Christmas. Includes a glass of fizz, finger sandwiches, scones, an assortment of Christmas-inspired cakes and pastries, finished off by a personal dessert.

Afternoon teas cost £12.50 per person and booking is essential, please visit shirehalldorset.org or call 01305 261849.

SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 5.5 mile walk from Powerstock West Milton Holloways and Hidden Valleys 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898484/01308 863340 Cwmbach Male Choir; 7:30 pm;: The Choir’s repertoire is varied ranging from operatic choruses, spirituals, folk music and popular ballads. The Choir maintains tradition of male singing by including many great operatic airs; Martock Church; Church Street; Martock TA12 6JL; Admission: £10 or £ 9 at 01935 829576; Contact number: 01935 829576; Website: www.martockonline.co.uk/events Pop Up Vintage Popping up again in the Courtyard Gallery at the Town Mill in Lyme Regis. We are open from Saturday 30th November to Thursday 2nd January, excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day, from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Pop Up Vintage spends the year sourcing, cleaning, mending and up-cycling so that you don’t have to! We have toys, books, textiles, homeware and much more for a beautiful and totally sustainable

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Everyman STEPHEN K AMOS IS

N

ot a man to needlessly set about causing divisions in his audience, the very funny Stephen K Amos has always been an everyman comedian. Fitting then, that his brand spanking new UK tour should be called Everyman. But in his typically open and non-polemical style, he wants to you to do the thinking yourselves on the title.

“You can take it in a variety of ways: is it every man for himself, as it appears to be around the world at the moment? Or is it that we should reconsider the fact that the whole of humanity will only survive and progress if every man pulls together? It really does depend on your point of view. I’m not a preachy sort of comic, I prefer to leave things up in the air and for the audience to make their own decisions.”

On an annual basis, Stephen takes a sparkling new show out to the nation, and each time fresh social and political challenges are there to be faced. This time around, Everyman may well be performed in a country which is now no longer part of the EU. “What I’m trying to be more prepared for is how the audience will react because I did a show on the night of the Brexit vote, and that was the weirdest crowd I’d had for many years: there was a huge division in the room and people were in shock. The only other gig I could equate that to was one in East Anglia where there was a funny mood in the audience, and after about seven minutes I just said ‘hey guys, there’s about 800 of us in here: what’s happened?’ Someone shouted out ‘they’ve closed the car park and we had to walk for ten minutes!’ So they just sat there in a grumpy mood, and that was the exact same thing that happened on the night of Brexit.”

Stephen insists that he won’t cover Brexit if he finds he has nothing new to say about it, but he does have some broad areas he will definitely be confronting in Everyman.

“I’m tackling things as simple as how we face our own mortality as we get older, and looking at things you can do to improve yourself when you’re trying to find answers to questions.”

This desire for answers has been partly sparked by a TV show he appeared on earlier in 2019. BBC’s Pilgrimage featured a number of celebrities (including Dana, Lesley Joseph and Les Dennis) who embarked on a journey (both physical and spiritual) to Rome. As an atheist and gay man, Stephen was initially taken aback when the group was offered a private audience with the Pope as part of their adventure.

32 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

“Never in my wildest dreams, at the dizziest heights of stand-up comedy when you’re meeting very famous people and on bills with Rihanna or Madonna, never did I think I’d be sitting down for a half-hour private audience with the Pope. Particularly for a man with no religious leanings; it was so surreal. I was very apprehensive because I said I would only be part of it if I could ask some questions; I didn’t want to be sitting there being talked at and not have the opportunity to address issues. I had a weight on my shoulders that if I didn’t do this, that I would be doing a disservice to a whole community of people. They did say it might spark an international incident depending on the question, but I said bring it on.”

The pontiff ’s response to Stephen’s question about not feeling accepted as a gay man by religion and religious groups surprised him by being so open and generous.

“I said to a friend there beforehand that I was 100% prepared to walk out, not flounce which may have been great for TV, but just get up and leave if he had given me a stock response. But I was blindsided by how candid he was. He wasn’t that explicit in what he said but it was enough to make me realise that, you know what, you’re one of the good ‘uns.”

His experience during Pilgrimage left him altered and has bolstered one of the longstanding ideas he’s had for his own comedy. “I’ve always wanted to have people in the audience who don’t share the same views as me whether politically, socio-economically, and racially, and to see if we can have a common ground for laughing together. I don’t want to be that kind of comic who gets a big round of applause and everyone goes ‘yeah, I agree!’.

I want you to laugh and to be blindsided in the way that the Pope blindsided me. I want you to be surprised, not to feel like you’re at a rally with like-minded people.”

Stephen is happy to be back on the road and delighted with the show he has put together. “The structure is in place, and I’m very fond and pleased with it. I think there’s a maturity to the show; I’ve got peace with myself in terms of not having to show off. It’s a departure for me.” But one thing that won’t be different is Stephen K Amos’ ability to make audiences laugh, wherever they are around the country. Especially if the venue car park is fully operational.

Interview by Brian Donaldson

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Courses&Workshops FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER Textures of the Sea Experiment with woolviscose felt to create interesting textures similar to those found in nature. Use hand or machine sewing. With Paula Simpson. 10am-1pm. £15.

Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org.uk.

SAT 1 & SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER ‘Mixed media and Creative Watercolour Christmas Cards’ at The School of Art and Wellbeing. This is a 2 day courses with Tutor Louise Banks. Please look on the website for the course details www.artandwellbeing.net or phone 01404 45699.

SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER Craft Workshop ‘Paint a Medieval Illuminated Letter’ Suitable for beginners.£16 Illuminated letters are beautiful miniature works of art used by calligraphers for 2000 years. Materials can be purchased from the tutor at a small cost.

Tutor: Gina Youens. 10am - 12:30 For details or to book phone Jane 01404 831207, or visit www.axminsterheritage.org Axminster Heritage, The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Silver Street, Axminster EX13 5AH Craft Workshop ‘Creative Machine Patchwork’ Using a selection of fabrics and ribbons, (bring your own or supplied for a small cost) create a piece of patchwork for a table runner, cushion, Christmas stocking. Bring a sewing machine and basic tools £16 Tutor: Jan Dimond. 1:005:00pm To book phone Jane 01404 831207, or visit www.axminsterheritage.org Axminster Heritage, The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Silver Street, Axminster EX13 5AH Natural Herbal Products Workshop Taught

by Dee Dade. Arrive at 9.45am for morning tea. The course will start at 10.00am and finish at approx. 4pm. £80 inc all refreshments and lunch. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684. Visit www.kingcombe.org to book online.

Combe St Nicholas Art Group ,held in the village hall contact iandavidwhitehead3@gmail. com MON 4 TO MON 25 NOVEMBER Scottish Dancing for Beginners Chard Scottish Country Dancing Club is offering a course on Monday evenings covering the steps and formations used in Scottish Country Dancing. Time 6.15 – 9.00 p.m. No need to come with a partner but bring light shoes.

Why not try Scottish Dancing with this friendly club. Free for first evening thereafter £1.50 per evening. For more information contact David on 01460 65981 or email aclandfamily@btinernet.com or visit www. chardscottishdancing.org, or just turn up at Chardstock Community Hall EX13 7BJ TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER Willow Workshop Hares £75 Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre, Dorset jojo. sadler@hotmail.co.uk josadlerforgednwillow. bigcartel.com 07531417209.

WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER An Introduction to Portraits Learn how to capture a likeness and hone your observational skills. Suitable for those with some prior experience. Tutor Juliet Farnese. Wednesdays 2pm - 4pm. £66 for 6 workshops. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East St, Ilminster TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. Until 11 December.

Porcelain Christmas Decorations workshop £20 10.30 to noon Explore textures and create three decorations which will be kiln fired.

Martinstown Village store and café to book please email creativeclayforall@yahoo.co.uk THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER From Wolf Hall to Poldark: Historical Dance Class meets 19.30-21.30, St George’s Church Dorchester DT1 1LB. Taught by friendly specialist. No experience or partner needed. Wear light loose clothes & flexible footwear. £6.00 per stand-alone session, just turn up (every first Thursday, check before first time). Info Ann Hinchliffe 01935 472771 thedancingmaster@outlook.com FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER Beginners’ Sewing Machine Workshop Get to know your sewing machine; learn about threading, stitches and basic maintenance. With Paula Simpson. Fridays 10am - 1pm. £15 per session. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East St, Ilminster TA19 0AN. 01460 54973.

Coptic bookbinding workshop with artisan bookmaker David Squirrell, £45, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www. thelmahulbert.com

By The Loom - Axminster Heritage Spinning and Weaving Group. Come along and learn new skills or use old ones with a friendly and supportive group. £3 Everyone welcome; beginners and the more experienced. 10.30 – 3.00 pmMore info or to book: 01404 831207 or visit www.axminsterheritage.org 10.30 – 3.00 pm at Dalwood Pavilion EX13 7EU Willow Stick Platters Design and make your own willow stick platter or Catalonian tension tray. This is a perfect course for those starting out with willow work or for those with some experience wishing to learn a new technique. Taught by Windrush Willow. Arrive at 9.45am for morning tea. The course will start at 10.00am and finish at 4pm. £89 inc all refreshments and lunch.The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684. Visit www.kingcombe.org to book online.

Dillington House, Ilminster, Dating Old Family Photos with Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard.

It will be a practical session with lots of hints and tips on dating the photos, bring along your own. Cost £56 includes tea and coffee, three course lunch and afternoon tea. For more information and to register contact Dillington House on 01460 258613 email: dillington@ somerset.gov.uk www.dillington.com

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SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER Family Clay Christmas decoration workshop £12 10.30 – Noon Martinstown Village Store and café to book please email creativeclayforall@yahoo.co.uk Rope Weave Round Baskets Design and make your own rope weave round basket. This is a perfect course for those starting out with willow work or for those with some experience wishing to learn a new technique. Taught

by Windrush Willow. Arrive at 9.15am for morning tea. The course will start at 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm. £89 inc all refreshments and lunch. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684. Visit www.kingcombe.org to book online.

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER Family clay Christmas decoration workshop £12 10 – 12 Noon Drop in session at Puddletown community café at Puddletown Village Hall Decorations will be fired and returned to the next café session on 1st December http://www.creativeclayforall.co.uk Willow Balls and Hearts Design and make your own willow weave balls and hearts to decorate your home with. Taught by Windrush Willow. Arrive at 9.45am for morning tea.

The course will start at 10.00am and finish at 4pm. £89 inc all refreshments and lunch.

The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684. Visit www. kingcombe.org to book online.

From Wolf Hall to Poldark: Historical Dance Class meets 13.30-16.00, Royal British Legion Hall, Victoria Grove, Bridport DT6 3AD. Taught by friendly specialist. No experience or partner needed. Wear light loose clothes & flexible footwear. £6.00 per stand-alone session, just turn up (every second Sunday, check before first time). Info Ann Hinchliffe 01935 472771 thedancingmaster@outlook.com MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER Porcelain paper clay hand building session £26 10 – 1 pm Dorset’s Crafty Barn, Milton Abbas As part of the regular pottery class you have the opportunity to explore a unique type of clay ideal to make jewellery and decorations.

To book please email creativeclayforall@yahoo. co.uk WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER Upholstery Class in Dalwood Village Hall with tutor John Cooper. 9.30am to 3.30pm, £15 per day. As places are limited, please book in advance by phone on 01404 831207.

THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER Book Binding Workshop, 9:30am – 4:30pm, Make a book in a day. Artisan book-binder, David Squirrell, will explain the medieval technique of German Longstitch and show you how to make an exquisite hard-backed book Cost: £90.00 includes all materials, morning coffee, lunch with wine and afternoon tea , Furleigh Wine Estate 01308 488991 www. furleighestate.co.uk

SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER Making Shadow Boxes Create a fascinating work of art in which you can display keepsakes, found objects or your own art work. With Claire Jeanes. 10am - 1pm. £16 (plus £2 for materials). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Adult workshop-create a lino printed tote bag, £45, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www.thelmahulbert.com

SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER Nuno felting workshop, create a nuno felted scarf, belt or headband, £20, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www.thelmahulbert.com

SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER Bookbinding at ink & page 29a West Allington, Bridport DT6 5BJ. Books for Gifting. Simple five hole sewn books using prints and fine papers. 11am- 4pm £85 contact kim&inkandpage.co.uk Tel: 07425163459.

Dances With Shakespeare: Historical Dance Class meets 13.30-16.00, Barrington Village Hall TA19 0JE. nfo Ann Hinchliffe 01935 472771 thedancingmaster@outlook. com

WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER Upholstery Class in Dalwood Village Hall with tutor John Cooper. 9.30am to 3.30pm, £15 per day. As places are limited, please book in advance by phone on 01404 831207.

THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER Bread Making for Beginners 10am – 3pm £95. Learn how to make bread with Daniel De Beers. Magdalen Farm Maximum 6 people – Booking essential – visit www.magdalenfarm.org.uk/events, or for more information please email lisa@ magdalenfarm.org.uk.

TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER Willow Workshop Christmas Swags £45 Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre, Dorset jojo.sadler@hotmail. co.uk josadlerforgednwillow.bigcartel.com 07531417209.

THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER From Wolf Hall to Poldark: Historical Dance Class meets 19.30-21.00, Castle Cary Market House BA7 7AH Taught by friendly specialist. No experience or partner needed.

Wear light loose clothes & flexible footwear. £6.00 per stand-alone session, just turn up (every fourth Thursday, check before first time). Info Ann Hinchliffe 01935 472771 thedancingmaster@outlook.com FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER Moonstruck Hare Create a winter landscape, using natural fabrics which will be embellished with textured hand stitching.

With Paula Simpson. 10am-4pm. £30.

Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East St, Ilminster TA19 0AN. 01460 54973.

By The Loom - Axminster Heritage Spinning and Weaving Group. £3 Everyone welcome; beginners and the more experienced. 10.30 – 3.00 pm More info or to book: 01404 831207 or visit www. axminsterheritage.org The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Axminster Heritage, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER ‘Make a festive swag and Victorian fruits for Christmas’ £16 Tutor: Gina Youens.

10:00 am - 12:30 The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Silver Street, Axminster EX13 5AH To book and for details please phone Jane on 01404 831207 Christmas Cards, Gift Tags or Pictures in Cut Paper Collage Taught by Penny Brown. Arrive at 9.45am for morning tea.

Start at 10am finish at 4pm with afternoon tea. £80 inc all refreshments and lunch. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684. Visit www. kingcombe.org to book online.

SAT 30 NOV & SUN 1 DECEMBER Colour Mixing Course at The School of Art and Wellbeing - This is a 2 day course with Tutor Mary Ann Mackenzie. A 2 day intensive course. Please look on the website for the course details www.artandwellbeing. net or phone 01404 45699.

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News &Views

AXMINSTER

CREWKERNE

ASKERSWELL

The town has celebrated the 20th anniversary of its link with Douvres la Delivrande in Normandy, the Midweek Herald reports.

Activities organised by their hosts included a trip to Monet’s garden, followed by lunch at Giverny. In the evening they were treated to a meal which had been cooked and prepared by their French hosts, accompanied by music from a local orchestra. Caroline Hillyard, chairman of Axminster Twinning Association, presented a photograph of Axminster to Frederic Perrelle president of Douvres la Delivrande Twinning Association, which will take pride of place in the marie (town hall).

A painting given in return of two Douvres landmarks will be put on show in Axminster.

To find out more about the association phone Caroline Hillyard on 01297 34497.

Plans for a major new housing development on the edge of the town have been rejected by councillors. The Chard & Ilminster News reports that residents applauded when the decision was made.

James Tizzard of Land Value Alliances LLP applied to build 150 homes between Kithill and the railway line, at the southern edge of the town. South Somerset District Council’s area west committee said it would create a ‘death trap’ on the busy Cathole Bridge Road.

The council’s regulation committee upheld the decision. Councillor Nick Colbert described the decision as a ‘no brainer’ and said: “We’re seeing developments passed all over the place that shouldn’t be—which wouldn’t be happening if we had a five-year land supply and a sensible housing target.”

Four-year-old Kaitlyn Wright has been praised for making a 999 call while her mum was having a seizure, the Bridport News reports. The child told emergency dispatcher Jess Hodkinson what was wrong with her mother, Charlene, and stayed on the line until paramedics arrived. Charlene has fibromyalgia, which causes her to have up to 40 seizures a week. When her daughter was three, Charlene bought her a pink Disney phone and taught her their address and how to call 999. Kaitlyn was a finalist in the Young Hero award at a ceremony in London which recognised NHS workers, volunteers and others who have gone beyond the call of duty to care for patients. Jess, who nominated the little girl, said: “Kaitlyn was very brave and informative.”

Town celebrates 20 years of twinning

Applause as development is rejected

DEVON

Drone racing may improve library use According to the BBC News website, the county’s libraries could soon be hosting drone racing as part of plans to buck the trend in declining usage. Library usage in Devon fell by 6% in 2018, compared with the previous 12 months. But the number of events and activities taking place rose by 14%. Alex Kittow, Libraries Unlimited’s new chief executive, said he plans to reverse the decline in visiting, floating ideas around children’s parties, personal shopping experiences, and even drone racing as potential future activities. He was speaking at Devon County Council Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee meeting. Plans to introduce virtual reality were among other exciting developments in the next 12 months.

But he warned: “The short message to people, though, is use it or lose it.”

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Child’s call helps save mum’s life

DORCHESTER

Problem in recruiting nurses

Figures show that hundreds of vacancies for nurses and midwives were posted by Dorset County Hospital last year, according to the Dorset Echo. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says a rise in advertised posts across England is being fuelled by EU workers returning home and the Government’s failure to train enough nurses. The Echo cites NHS Digital data showing that the equivalent of at least 401 full-time nursing and midwifery jobs were advertised by the Dorset County Hospital NHS Trust between July 2018 and June this year, making up 43 per cent of the roles posted by the trust. RCN England director Patricia Marquis said the problem was partly being driven by ‘great EU nurses’ going home or choosing to go elsewhere in the first place.

American Imports Laterally Speaking by Humphrey Walwyn

A

s the UK slowly wriggles away from Europe, it’s time to consider new trading opportunities as we turn and look westwards across the Atlantic. Last month I wrote about some nice European things that we’ll be leaving behind, so this month I’m writing about a few of the positive benefits in having the USA as a potential trading partner. Please note, this does not include unwelcome items such as chlorinated chicken, forcefed religion or yet more American TV (we get quite enough of that already). And you’ll be relieved to know I’m not suggesting we import any member of the Trump family!

Having lived in Los Angeles for seven years before I moved to Dorset, here’s my top ten list of things the USA does particularly well.

1) Fridges & Ice: American kitchens tend to be larger (they’ve got more space than we have), so their fridges are massively wonderful. Everything goes in them—including stuff that doesn’t really need to be there at all such as jam (sorry jelly), pet food, eggs, milk and bread, medicines and mouthwash and plasters, plus half a ton of yoghurts and ten school lunches.

Many Americans think they must always be ready for Armageddon, so their fridges are packed with every consumable item and quite a few non-consumables such as batteries. Yes, batteries in a fridge—don’t ask me why. And most of them also have ice machines. Just insert your glass and plop, plop, thump—it’s full of ice cubes. Heaven! Yes, you can get US style fridges in the UK but you need a second mortgage to buy them. I’m not sure all this power consumption is actually better (and it’s certainly not better for the environment) but it’s definitely bigger. That’s America for you—it’s just bigger. But not necessarily better...

2) Longer shopping hours: In the UK, the shopping world (except for supermarkets) comes to a stop at about 6pm. In the States I could buy a shirt or a car and have my teeth fixed up to about 9pm. Of course, in Las Vegas everything’s open 24/7, but that’s because nobody has time to sleep.

3) Soft drinks: Why is it that in a British pub, a diet coke costs virtually the same

are at 3am on channel something or other when I am asleep. Probably the best thing about sporting USA are college sports. The city comes to a standstill when Oregon plays Ohio State—fan mania and hysteria but at a grassroots level! In the UK, college sport means the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race (daftly elitist) or University Challenge on TV and, no matter what you may say, a college quiz is not as exciting as a 40 yard touch-down!

7) Pickup trucks: So useful—just a covered cab and an open space behind to carry everything.

Put anything in it—your furniture, a couple of trees, dogs, comfy chair, grandparents, whatever… a bit like an American fridge.

8) Mountains in general: Ben Nevis is just over four thousand measly feet high. This is merely a gentle hill compared to the USA which has nearly 200 mountains at Everything about America is BIG over 12,000 feet. It might be difficult to import them directly as they as a glass of wine or a beer? In the USA, wouldn’t fit easily onto a pick-up truck soft drinks are always roughly half the cost but I told you earlier that American things of their alcoholic equivalent which reflects tend to be bigger than ours. the true price if you buy them in a shop.

9) Genuine friendliness towards And in so many restaurants, you get free complete strangers: Hard to beat. Over refills too! And then there’s root beer and here we tend to wait until we’ve been ofgrape soda—great fizzy drinks that are so ficially introduced or at least shaken hands. common in the USA but so hard to find In the USA, generous hospitality is a nice over here… habit. Perhaps we could import it to here.

4) Hot dogs: We used to have these in 10) Cheap gasoline: Yes, UK petrol is the UK, but they seem to have vanished. I nearly double the money. But UK walkers really love a genuine wiener hot dog with and bicyclists beware. There’s almost no bright green relish in a long bun. Curprovision for cycle lanes in most American rently I put a Tesco frankfurter into a roll cities and when I lived in L.A., we had but it’s not the same. Perhaps I’ll be able few pavements (sorry sidewalks). Walking to import them direct from the USA in a is something you do to take exercise like post-Brexit world… at the gym. Going for a walk gets funny 5) Good Mexican food: I know, I looks. You are not expected to go anyknow… we’ve got Wahaca and other where unless you go by car. chains like Chiquito which are certainly

better than what we used to get in the UK. And there are other negatives I wouldn’t But where can you find essential Mexican want to import like American chocolate goodies like frijoles charros or hot tama(much too sickly sweet), the lack of bookles? And I’m not talking ‘Taco Bell’ here… shops (Americans don’t read as much as 6) American Sports: I love my UK we do) plus wide spread obesity (although footie and cricket and rugby, but Amerithe UK is catching up fast). And there’s can Football and Baseball are pretty cool nothing like the NHS over there – I’d have too. And Ice Hockey is amazing on TV to take out a bank loan to get US health (that’s if you can follow it because the insurance now. Yes, there are some things little black puck thing whizzes by so fast). we wouldn’t want to get from the USA. The only bits I can occasionally catch here Getting shot is another…

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Adventure for your Feet

C

ulm Valley Publishing Walking Guides offer a selection of circular routes that take walkers through the poetically lovely landscapes of the West Country. The books are renowned for their clearly-described directions and each walk also includes recommended refreshment stops, historical and wildlife notes plus all the information necessary for walkers to have a good day out. The series includes: A Dozen Dramatic Walks in Dorset: Circular walks through the county’s most stunning scenery, encompassing glorious coastline, historic hill forts and idyllic villages. It is a guide aimed at those seeking thirstquenching views and a great day out in the fresh air. The drama is in the scenery, so the walks are not necessarily strenuous. The book will also appeal to photographers and bird watchers, who will find plenty

Local churches for your wedding THESE days there are many different places where it is legally possible to get married but the magnificent and historic churches in this area continue to prove the choice of many couples when they are planning their wedding ceremony.

In many cases people simply want to get married in their own local church. But it can often be possible to marry in a different church, such as one that has a special significance for the couple because of family or other connections.

One of the most popular is St Michael’s Church in Lyme Regis, the only Grade 1 listed building in the town with an impressive tower, currently being restored, and sited only a short distance from the seafront.

Just along the coast is St Andrew’s Church, which is a major feature of the main street in the delightful village of Charmouth and Uplyme is served by the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Both these churches also make wonderful venues for a wedding.

Few can rival what is offered at St Candida and Holy Cross at Whitchurch Canonicorum, a church often known as the Cathedral of the Vale. Or a couple could choose to get married among the tranquil surroundings of St Andrew’s Church at Monkton Wyld, which has one of the most fantastic spires in West Dorset. And in the tiny hamlet of Catherston Leweston there is St Mary’s Church widely regarded as a “little gem.”

To get married in church means so much more than legally tying the knot. There are many features of a church wedding that do not exist anywhere else.

For many, the most important, is that it will add a spiritual dimension blessed by God to their marriage. The meaningful contemporary wording of the ceremony underpins the loving commitment expressed and witnessed on the day. The beauty and atmosphere of a church full of family and friends is an unforgettable experience for many couples.

There is also the opportunity to personalise the service so it is even more memorable.

Anyone planning a wedding is most welcome to contact the church administrator at Lyme Regis, Mrs Margaret Trafford, at the parish office on 01297-443763. She will be happy to provide advice and support in planning your wedding service. For more information on these churches, please see the website : www.goldencapteamofchurches.org.uk 38 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

of interest throughout the walks. (RRP: £6.99; ISBN: 9781907942044) Circular Walks in East Devon: Fifteen routes through the pastoral countryside of this hidden corner of Devon and along the Jurassic Coast. Much of inland East Devon is crisscrossed by lesserknown and ancient rights of way; this book explores some of the secretive and unspoilt places of the region. (RRP: £6.99; ISBN: 9781907942082) A Dozen Dramatic Walks in Somerset: Circular walks through Somerset’s amazing and dramatic landscapes It is a guide aimed at those who seek a sense of achievement at the end of a day’s walking. The drama is in the scenery, so the walks are not necessarily strenuous. (RRP: £6.99; ISBN: 9781907942020)

Somerset school wins Pre-Prep of the Year at the Independent Schools Awards

PUPILS and staff at Perrott Hill Prep School near Crewkerne are celebrating after being crowned Pre-Prep of the Year at the Independent Schools of the Year awards in London earlier this month. Praised by judges for their range of innovative activities, underpinned by community and partnership work, Perrott Hill beat off stiff competition from schools across the UK. “We are thrilled to have received this award and are delighted with the glowing feedback from the judges,” says Headmaster Alex McCullough. “From our youngest children in Nursery right up to the top of the school, the staff here work tirelessly to provide pupils with the very best educational experience there is to offer. This accolade reflects that hard work and the dedication of our staff, the children and the entire Perrott Hill community.

We are extremely proud to be flying the flag for the South West and for small, country prep schools everywhere.”

As well as winning Pre-Prep of the Year, the school also celebrated being the only prep school in the country selected as a finalist for the Brand Communication award, adding to an impressive year of success. In May, Perrott Hill was shortlisted for the Boarding Innovation Award at the Boarding Schools’ Association Awards while in March, the school was singled out as the best prep in the country for extra-curricular in The Week’s Independent Schools Guide.

Speaking from the awards ceremony, David Moncrieff, Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board at Independent School Parent magazine who run the awards, said: “These awards were designed with the student experience at their heart and to provide schools with a platform to showcase their stories of innovation and success. The judges had a tough job on their hands picking the winners from the shortlisted entries, but the schools we have seen tonight were hugely deserving.”

Awards for Shire Hall T

he Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum Team were ‘over the moon’ to win two awards at the prestigious Dorset Tourism Awards.

Dorchester’s newest museum, on High West Street, scooped the Gold and Silver awards at the Dorset Tourism Awards last night. There were cheers as they won Gold in the Small Visitor Attraction of the Year and a Silver in the Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Award category. This year, the Dorset Tourism Awards were held at the Tank Museum.

Director of Shire Hall, Anna Bright, said that since opening, the museum has aimed to be inclusive for all, so to win Gold in Small Visitor Attraction of the Year and a Silver award for Accessible and Inclusive Tourism was very special. She said: “We’re delighted, we have always aimed to make Shire Hall a place where everyone can come, learn and enjoy, no matter their age or ability, so to win these awards is incredibly important and special to us. We’d like to thank all the team, staff, volunteers and supporters for their help, dedication and enthusiasm for the Museum—you really make it the amazing place it is!”

Since it opened in May 2018, the Museum has championed social justice, hosting ground-breaking exhibitions on subjects like the Civil Rights Movement in the UK and US and its current exhibition, which is on tour from the British Museum, Desire, Love, Identity: Exploring LGBTQ histories. Far from a stuffy museum, the courthouse is a thriving community hub, hosting spooky Halloween events for families this half term, drinks tasting events throughout the autumn and film nights for Christmas.

For more information about forthcoming events visit shirehalldorset.org.

New Hardy Players support hospital’s Kingfisher Ward

T

he New Hardy Players recently staged a production of Far from the Madding Crowd as a fundraiser for Dorset County Hospital.

Each year The Players raise money for local charities and this year the Directors, Howard Payton and his wife Alison Payton, had a very special reason for wanting to donate to a local worthy cause. In 2018, just after her third birthday, their granddaughter Mathilda fell very ill and after many tests at Great Ormond Street Hospital was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, which was affecting the bone of her skull.

Mathilda spent a year undergoing chemotherapy and having frequent stays at GOSH and Whipps Cross Hospital in London. She was extremely poorly during this time and the strain on her parents and family was severe. The care and support she and the whole family received from the NHS was outstanding and Mathilda is now on the road to a good recovery.

After Mathilda completing her chemotherapy treatment last October her mother Jenny raised money for the wards in which she’d been treated.

This year, following six sell-out performances of Far from the Madding Crowd, Howard and Alison have chosen to donate £1,000 to the Kingfisher Ward at Dorset County Hospital after liaising with the matron, Anna Ekerold.

Howard said, “We felt it was extremely important to support our local NHS services who work so hard and with such dedication for our local community.”

Anna said, “We were surprised and delighted with the donation and have suggested the money is used to buy ‘put-you-up’ beds for parents who need to stay overnight on the ward with their children.”

Simon Pearson, Head of Fundraising at Dorset County Hospital Charity said, “We are very grateful to The New Hardy Players for their continued support and know that the money raised will be put to good use on Kingfisher Ward.

With the help of donations like this we can continue to support projects that make a huge difference to our patients and the people who care for them.”

For more information about the work of Dorset County Hospital Charity please email charity@dchft.nhs.uk or phone 01305 253215.

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Weymouth Lawyer publishes first novel

WEYMOUTH local Iain Campbell has published what is described as an exciting and riveting legal crime thriller.

Entitled The Lawyers the story follows two lawyers from different backgrounds who find that their worlds unexpectedly collide.

The book explores the work of two different types of lawyers. One is less scrupulous than the other and develops a ‘Get ‘em off ’ theory so that he will do anything to get his client off whatever he or she is accused of.

The other lawyer is also a Territorial Special Air Service Sergeant. He is tasked to rescue an important British scientist from a violent African Coup. The scientist has invented a defence against the sun’s Solar flares, vital to the world’s safety. The unscrupulous Lawyer also finds himself in a dangerous situation in Africa and needs rescuing too.

The SAS lawyer however is convicted of rape on incontrovertible DNA evidence. The conviction is a devastating blow to the SAS lawyer and his large Bournemouth practice. He needs a new female legal team to try and get the conviction quashed and seek out the real culprit.

During the writing process Iain Campbell said he was interested in exploring whether a conviction based on a DNA result could be overturned. ‘Normally’ he explained, ‘such a result is over 99% correct and in criminal cases will almost always result in a conviction. I did a lot of research to see if there was a way of legitimately challenging such a finding.’

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Iain believes that having a main character as a lawyer who is also a Special Service Soldier in the Territorial Army is unique in fiction. ‘The combination enabled me to consider whether there would be any conflict in the two roles’ he said. ‘I was also in the Territorial Army for a while although never in the Special Forces. But I did a fair bit of crawling around in some most unpleasant places!’

Over the years he has read a lot of legal thrillers and cites American John Grisham as a favourite. ‘He has a very easy and compelling style to his writing. Still to this day I can vividly remember reading his second book The Firm which was published in 1991. It’s centred on a sole American lawyer battling against the corrupt legal firm he worked for and the consequences to career.’

Iain started writing The Lawyers about seven years ago.

It took about three years in part-time writing, then another four years trying to get it published. ‘Finding an agent or a publisher is so, so difficult’ said Iain. ‘I had scores of “no” emails but just kept plugging away until I got the “yes” I wanted. I remember reading stories about many famous books that were rejected by publishing houses ... but perseverance is the answer.’

The book has been dedicated to his three children Anna, James and Beth and his three young grandchildren.

Published by Austin Macauley Publishers The Lawyers is available to order through Amazon Books and also bookshops including through Waterstones and Foyles.

A Look Back at NOVEMBER in the Marshwood Vale Magazine

2004 & 2009 I

t’s so easy to become hopelessly engrossed when delving through these back issues to highlight some of what we’ve written about over the past nearly twenty years.

One of the great honours that has come my way over the years is the opportunity to bring the stories of people’s lives to a wider audience.

It is often humbling. Fifteen years ago Janet Carmichael met Railway Chaplain, Maxine Morgan in Axminster. We heard how Maxine’s grandmother had died giving birth to Maxine’s mother, and how her mother, later suffering from Alzheimer’s, could no longer tell Maxine details of her forebears. These moments are not without humour though. She remembers how her mother when first seeing her preach in a pulpit shouted ‘Come down out of the pulpit, you naughty girl’.

Anyone who has experienced the pain of seeing a loved one living with Alzheimer’s will know how harrowing yet powerfully poignant those lighter moments are.

In the same issue, Ron Frampton offered readers a little insight into the beautiful Chanters House in Ottery St Mary which at that time still had a Coleridge living in it. And Dianne Dowling photographed the artist Ricky Romain who was launching an exhibition exploring themes

of statelessness, asylum and diaspora.

Ten years ago, in 2009, we featured pub landlady Carole Nevitt.

Despite being the older of the two in her family Carole remembered how her brother was far more important to his father’s business so she went her own way, describing her early marriage as ‘impetuous’.

She remembered how it wasn’t possible to rent a flat as an unmarried couple because you couldn’t have two names on the lease.

We also learned a little about the life of 100-year-old Evelyn Farmer from Winsham who was photographed by Robin Mills.

Robin also wrote about the local cider culture while Katherine Locke talked to Fay Weldon.

There is a wealth of history and some fascinating insight into life around us in these old issues of the Marshwood Vale Magazine. Read on and enjoy.

As we continue to look back we invite readers to update us on any of the items featured in this section of Marshwood+. Please email us at info@marshwoodvale.com.

Fergus Byrne

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FR

MARSHWOOD VALE For West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon

EE

THE

MAGAZINE November 2004-Issue 68

Mila Oshin, photograph by Anna Milner

Arts & Entertainment Food & Dining Gardening Interiors Health & Environment

To advertise in this magazine call 01308 423031 or Email: sales@marshwoodvale.com 42 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Outposts in the community Where to get your Marshwood Vale Magazine

Cover story

OUTPOSTS is a regular feature where we highlight some of the many outlets that carry your community magazine. Copies are available along the coast from Sidmouth in East Devon to Portland in West Dorset and in towns and villages from Ottery St. Mary to Yeovil. To stock the Magazine telephone 01308 423031.

Mila Oshin, photograph by Anna Milner

Lyme Bay Pets, Lyme Regis, photograph by Belinda Silcox

Maddy Taylor and her small army of helpers, including, Brandy (pictured), Parsley the guinea pig and Woody the rabbit, offer a warm welcome to customers at Lyme Bay Pets. Maddy has owned the shop since December last year, and with her wealth of knowledge runs a friendly and well stocked shop. Although space is a problem she offers a wide variety of specialist stock including natural pet foods with no additives and provides an ordering service for any item not held in stock, with free local delivery too! She also runs a small animal pet sitting service. The shop in Drakes Way off Broad Street in Lyme Regis is open Monday to Saturday 9.30 - 5pm and 10 - 4pm on Saturday. Tel. 01297 443512.

MILA Oshin, Dutch by birth, is a relative newcomer to the West Country. She and her husband, Kris Jager, recently moved here in fulfilment of the musician’s dream that had attracted them both independently to London nearly a decade ago. “London is interesting for its creative opportunities and the number of like minded people it offers, but it’s so expensive and you have to work so hard just to live that you don’t have time to make the most of them.”

In 2003 Mila and Kris’s band, Drunk with Joy, received the offer of recording an album in Exeter, following the success of their first single. It was not hard for them to agree that their opportunities lay outside London. “Circumstances came together to allow us to move west. Music is what we both love and what we came to

England to do. Kris, who is half German and half Welsh, also had a grandmother in Exmoor, so he was already interested in this area. In London I had started setting up my own artistic development agency, and with email and the internet I felt I would be able to continue that work from the West Country. We love it here, people are so much more friendly, and now I freelance only two days a week, with the rest of my time free for music.”

As well as continuing her work in London, Mila is also beginning to promote local ventures. Two of her current projects include the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, and (not surprisingly since they work so strongly together) a forthcoming photographic exhibition by husband Kris Jager. The exhibition is on at the Boston Tea Party café, Honiton, throughout November.

Lawsons, Axminster, photograph by Belinda Silcox

Lawsons is a traditional hardware shop in the centre of the bustling market town of Axminster. The large shop is packed with every household item one can imagine, including paint, pet products, kitchen items and cookware. They also offer a paint mixing and key cutting service. Lawsons is owned and run by Stuart Lawson and four full time members of staff, who are all well trained and happy to offer professional advice. There is ample parking for customers and a free local delivery service. Lawsons is open from 9-5pm Monday - Saturday or order online at www.lawsonshardware.com. Any enquiries please call 01297 35267 or email sales@lawsonshardware.com.

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Historic impressions The Chanters House

The Chanters House, Devon

FOR most of us the addition of an extension at the back of our home might take the form of a conservatory, a garage or even a bedroom. In the case of The Chanters House in Ottery St Mary, the architect William Butterfield added a mere sixty odd rooms to the small house that was originally the home of the chief chanter at the nearby Abbey.

The core of the house dates back to the 1340s and has borne witness to many of the events that helped shape history. One famous room in the house is the Great Convention Room where, in 1645, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas Farifax signed the Treaty of the West shortly after the Civil War Battle of Naseby.

It wasn’t until the Victorian era however that the house’s fortunes and size changed quite dramatically. William Butterfield, at the time the favoured architect of Queen Victoria, from his work on Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, was commissioned to expand the house by the new

owner John Duke Coleridge, the first Lord Coleridge. An MP for Exeter, Coleridge was appointed to the post of Lord Chief Justice in the cabinet of William Gladstone and in 1874 was created Baron Coleridge of Ottery St Mary.

The Lord Chief Justice expanded the house to 68 rooms adding a library which housed the judges’ 18,000 books. The library itself must be one of the most magnificent in England. It is one hundred feet long, forty feet wide and has a ceiling rising at least forty feet above. Four bays lined with bookshelves jutt into the room on either side, they are lined with leather bound volumes in series. The ornately carved woodwork only recently identified as of Dutch origin, anchor the room to a timeless solidity.

Many of the fine paintings hanging on the walls were painted by the wife of John Duke Coleridge, Jane Fortescue Seymour, whom he married in 1846. Daughter of the Rev. George Seymour of Freshwater, she

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was an artist of real genius, and her portrait of Cardinal Newman was said by some to be better than the one by Millais.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among other great poems, wrote The Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. He, along with many other artists and philosophers, has contributed greatly to the house’s history. The house contains two particularly striking pictures of The Ancient Mariner.

It also contains historical items of various Coleridges who played their part in history by partaking in the Peninsular wars, the battle of Trafalgar, Waterloo etc.

Today the Chanters House is surrounded by 250 acres of unspoilt parkland and still lived in by a Coleridge. Group guided tours, offering a fascinating insight into the life and times of the house, are available. For more information telephone 01404 812725.

Images of everyday life Compiled by Ron Frampton

Maxine Morgan, photograph by Janet Carmichael

FOR this issue of Images of everyday life, Janet Carmichael met Railway Chaplain, Maxine Morgan at Axminster. This is Maxine’s story: “My father started to train as a dentist but, after the war, found he could no longer cope with working in confined spaces. He gave up his training and went to Crewe, in Cheshire, to find work and this is where he met my mother. Mum’s family had left their Shropshire farm so that my grandfather could work in Crewe Railway Works - a real community in those days. My parents settled in a railway cottage and I had two older sisters and a twin brother. Our small terrace cottage had no inside toilet and the bath was a tin one, kept in the garden. We had no airing cupboard and my mother would warm our vests in the kitchen range oven. For us children, ‘pobs’, bread and milk with sugar, was a treat.

It is sad that I can no longer ask my mother, who is 85 and has Alzheimer’s disease, to fill in details of our family history. For a long time I didn’t know my grandmother’s name or that she had died giving birth to mum. When I discovered this it seemed to explain why, in photographs, my mother always looked rather sad. I have never seen a photograph of my grandmother and don’t even know where she was buried; the whole thing must have been too painful for the family to talk about.

My maternal grandfather married again - I remember Nanny Watty, as we called

her, as being quite fierce. She had a habit of wedging a naughty child behind her as she sat well back in her chair.

My paternal grandpa, an Irish dentist, died in a fire. His widow also remarried and lived near us but in quite a posh way in a big house, with a dual staircase. We could see all their farmland from her windows and she would ride through the woods to collect the tenants’ rents.

After I left school I wanted to study commercial art but when I met my husband, Graham, I was seamstressing. I had gone to a friend’s house for help with fused lights.

Graham, on his way home from engineering college, was visiting them and he came back and fixed the fuse wire. We arranged to meet again. Later, we married and settled in Derby and, for me, marriage and children are one of the most precious and rewarding things in life.

We were brought up to be church-going, though I think my mother saw the church more as a community than as a place for spiritual experience and we drifted away.

My older sister once dragged us to the local congregational church after hearing Billy Graham preach but I remember my mother singing, as she reddened our front doorstep, ‘binga banga bonga, we don’t want to join the Conga’. Although my three children were all christened we probably only went to church twice a year and it was my husband Graham who, feeling that he had been given more in life than he had returned,

first made a new relationship with God. My conversion, in 1990, was a real ‘road to Damascus’ experience. I remember the time and place vividly.

It was three years before I received permission to train as a Methodist preacher. I then began a three year study of theology based on a multi-denominational approach.

The first time my mother, already a bit confused by the Alzheimer’s, saw me preach she said ‘Come down out of the pulpit, you naughty girl’. It was funny, but sad really.

But I knew that I had found my vocation and, later, when I saw the words ‘Railway Mission’ on a calendar things fell into place.

The Railway Mission was founded in 1881 and, over the past three years, has also included chaplaincy to the British Transport Police. When I lived in Crewe I had not known much about the Mission and its work of going out to the people rather than waiting for them to come to church. But now I have been appointed as the chaplain for Exeter, Plymouth and east to Salisbury.

Axminster is my home station and I feel totally supported by the welcoming staff; a great group. Since the fragmentation of the railways, five companies now operate in my area and I have yet to get into all the nooks and crannies of my patch - but that will come, God willing!”

Next month Ron will be meeting someone in Dorset.

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Ricky Romain RICKEY Romain’s latest work explores themes of statelessness, asylum and diaspora. Themes that could be influenced as much by his Jewish ancestry as by his feelings as an artist - living on the edge of and sometimes staring into the abyss of society. His art today, as always, wears it’s influences on its sleeve. A strong sense of George Rouault seeps from the canvas as Rickey’s interest in spirituality pays tribute to 20th century religious art.

A book published by Pagoda entitled The Bible and 20th century Art, highlights one of Ricky’s paintings from 1985 alongside works by Rouault as well as Dali, Chagall, Magritte and Picasso.

In fact it was seeing a small Picasso panel in the Museum of Modern Art in New York that first prompted him to paint. “It was as if a light was suddenly switched on” he says. “As I looked at the painting I couldn’t help thinking ‘this is why I’ve been so disturbed’. So I began to paint.”

The sight of Picasso’s Guernica in the same building sealed the revelation.

He says: “I completely understood inside. It was like a set of dominos falling in a row - a time of complete stillness, like meeting an old friend.” He went out and bought a sketchbook and consumed the art of his new influences; Pollock, Chagall and Picasso as well as many Jewish painters.

Ricky came to live in Thorncombe in Somerset and with the support of his father began the process of becoming a self-taught artist. His early rebellion against his Jewishness brushed aside, he explored the art of his ancestry and a style quickly emerged. His first solo exhibition

Ricky Romain, photograph by Dianne Dowling.

Pages from sketchbook (right).

was in Dorchester in 1977 and many group and solo exhibitions followed.

In 1990 one of his paintings was used to illustrate the Channel 4 documentary A Sense of Belonging. This examined Jewish identity and, with others, looked at the artist’s own spiritual journey through Judaism.

In 2000 he produced the excellent ‘Year of the Artist’ calender with a range of workshops culminating in an exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter the following year. He has been artist in residence in the Burton Art Gallery and Museum in Bideford and more recently in schools in Exeter and Lyme Regis.

Today the fearful, nameless faces that peer from his paintings, tug desperately at the subconscious, clawing at a suppressed recognition of injustice. This is work that, though both spiritual and political, is grounded in humanity. The huddled groups often bound together in a hopeless search for someone to hold out a hand and lead them home.

In November Ricky Romain will exhibit at the new White Space Gallery in Axminster. The one room space, in a courtyard surrounded by the studios of four artists, offers a stark contrast to Ricky’s work. On it’s opening night it offered glimpses of the warmth and community so lacking in the lives of his subjects.

An artist’s initiative, the gallery is also shared by Heather Fallows and Simon Cook as well as potter Frank Martin.

Ricky’s solo exhibition will run from Monday 8th to Saturday 20th November. The gallery is in Potters Yard in West Street, Axminster.

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Marshwood The

Vale Magazine

November 2009 Issue 128

FREE

Carole Nevitt, photograph by Robin Mills

For West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon thebestfrominandaroundthevalethebestfrominandaroundthevale

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CAROLE Nevitt has lived in Bridport since she moved to the town in the early 1970s. A hairdresser by trade, Carole and her late husband, Mike, went on to run a successful restaurant business in Beaminster in the 1980s. This is her story, as told to Maddie Grigg.

‘I grew up in south London in the post war years, with rationing, bomb sites and Teddy Boys. My dad was a fishmonger and when I was 10 years old I used to help him with his market stall. It was totally illegal. I used to go in on Saturday mornings and serve fish, weigh up frozen peas in little paper bags and tear up newspapers. I grew up with the work ethic – if you didn’t work you went hungry – which is something I’ve always been quite proud of.

My grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Poland so I always felt I was a bit different because I think I was the only one in my junior school that had grandparents that didn’t speak English very well. In retrospect, I rather enjoyed that but at the time I just thought it was quite funny because they just seemed to shout a lot to make themselves understood. Like my dad, they were hard workers and working has always been important to me. Imagine how they’d feel knowing our cousin is now The Lord Mayor of London, Ian Luder.

I was only the girl in my school to pass the 11+. It wasn’t until I was studying with the Open University and doing an education course that I saw it in black and white that during the era of the 50s and 60s, education authorities would fix the mark so that boys would pass with a lower mark to get a place. It made it all the more remarkable that I was the token girl. I loved it. It was an all girls grammar school and at the time I wanted to be an academic. I enjoyed the whole thing of education but when I became 14 I just hated it, I couldn’t wait to leave. There was a lot of opposition from my parents and teachers.

But I just worked it out in my head that I could leave at 15 if I took up an apprenticeship. So I went to a salon in Knightsbridge where I trained to be a hairdresser. I shampooed all day long, learnt everything then about sex and the very wealthy. Fifteen was quite young to go straight into London but it was a great three years. By the end of it, my parents had moved out of south London and went upmarket and had their own fish shops. By the time I was 17, it was too far out of London for me so I was wilful enough to leave home. My dad wouldn’t let me stay out to parties, he was very strict, quite rightly when you think of the dangers.

I was the older of two children. Because my dad was Jewish, my brother was the important one and automatically went into the business.

But I was doing all right, I was ambitious. I met my first husband then and it was all part of the leaving home process, it was very impetuous.

You couldn’t rent a flat together in those days because you weren’t allowed to have two different names on your tenancy. So you had to get married. It was an escape route and not uncommon for women of my era because there were so many doors closed to you. We rented a little flat in Hammersmith but if I wanted anything on credit for the home, I couldn’t buy it without

Cover Story Maddie Grigg met Carole Nevitt in Bridport my husband’s signature, even though I had my own income. I remember thinking that was terribly wrong.

You couldn’t have any form of birth control unless you had evidence you were getting married. When I was doing my apprenticeship, abortions were almost a daily occurrence. They cost twenty five quid, which was a lot of money, and we used to have whip-rounds to help people out. We would take it in turns to go on the bus and keep them company. It’s terrible to think that backstreet abortions using a bit of water and a syringe and carbolic soap were the only answer.

I knew I wanted to have my own little hairdressing business. Between us, my husband and I saved up a thousand pounds. When my daughter Joanne was six months old I bought a hairdressing salon in Surrey. I loved that and took my daughter with me to work every day. She spent the first three years of her life amongst perm lotions, ammonia, hair all over the floor and she ate loads of it. I used to put her in her baby bouncer in the shop window overlooking the high street. She used to bounce and wave to the traffic.

My marriage broke down and then I met Mike who was a brilliant chef. We moved to Dorset to make a new start and I bought a salon in South Street, Bridport opposite the car park.

I really wondered what I was doing here. It was weird, Surrey was upmarket and smart but false.

The first night Mike gave me a fiver and said ‘go and get a bottle of wine and we’ll have a drink indoors’. South Street had all those pubs then from the Greyhound down to the Five Bells. I went in to about four pubs and ended up at The Volunteer, which was opposite the salon. I remember seeing men drinking pints of cloudy cider and gobbing into the fireplace. Dot Brown was behind the bar and she gave me half a grimy bottle of gin from a cupboard under the stairs and I bought some Palmers tonics. It was brilliant, the best gin I’d ever had.

I loved the salon but after a couple of years Mike needed to cook again so he teamed up with Hamish Maxwell and they started a little firm called Westcountry Kitchen. The business started after all the landladies who used to come into the salon on Fridays found out he was a chef. They asked if he could cook them something for their menus. He started making fresh dishes in our little kitchen that they could heat up. It just got busier and busier. Hamish and Mike got together and rented a unit near Heavers. We were a busy couple and we went through the three-day week, random power cuts and appalling financial times. Inflation was at something like 25 per cent and interest rates

were 10 per cent. Businesses in the main streets were dropping like nine-pins. We survived but only just. I was always scared of being poor.

If you didn’t work you didn’t earn any money.

In the late 1970s we bought a little cottage in North Allington that had been renovated by Colin Crosby. By that time I was getting tired of hairdressing and fancied running a pub. We thought it was a good way of working and living together. We had our interview with Palmers and took over the Greyhound at Beaminster. I loved the licensees’ life but my daughter didn’t like it so much. She later told me she smelt like an ashtray for most of those four years we were running it. We did really well and got into the Michelin Guide. Lots of fun people came in including Anthony Blunt, Chris Chattaway, Robin Day and John Hurt.

We did not know it then but my husband had a congenital heart condition. He wasn’t very well and we were so busy with food he wanted a restaurant.

So we borrowed heavily and in 1982 left the pub and moved into Hogshill Street where we opened Nevitt’s Eating House.

The week before we were due to open Mike had a massive heart attack. There we were with an unopened restaurant fully booked for Christmas and New Year with not a penny coming in. He was only about 43, which is terribly young. But he was strong enough to fight back and we opened up in the New Year but very slowly. We eventually built up to five nights a week but it was curtailed.

If it had been now, his life would have been saved with the advancements that have been made in medicine. In the late 1980s he said he couldn’t do it any more. I was anxious knowing he was just one heartbeat away from another heart attack. Fortunately, we sold just before the market crashed so we actually made money on the freehold. We came to live back in our cottage in about 1988 and he had three great years, not going to work. He used to paint up in the attic and cook. When he died in 1991 that was like the end of a whole era, we’d been married about 18 years. With my first husband I made a lovely daughter but he was a bit of a lad. With my second husband I just forged my way business-wise, we were a good team. And then I met Dave and that’s just fun, going travelling together and socialising – avoiding stress and hard work. Mike died when he was 50, my daughter’s dad died at 50 and I had this horrible feeling they didn’t go beyond 50 so I watched Dave like a hawk.

Before my dad died he signed a property over to me and I converted it into flats, which I call working from home. In 2000 I saw an advert for a technology course with the Open University. In 2007 I gained a BSc degree.

I have never had so much fun than working in online tutor groups. I loved it, building up web pages with people I’d never met. I thought it was wonderful, being able to study without leaving the house.

It gave me more confidence and I used study to escape from things. I’ve met lots of wonderful people with whom I’m still in contact.”

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The view from the country Life during World War Two by Derek Stevens AS the invasion forces established themselves within the Normandy countryside news of their successes began to be officially released to the press back home. “West Country Men in Normandy Devons Were the Liberators of Honfleur” ran the headline in the local press. The airborne contingent of the Devonshire regiment had played a major role in the earliest hours of D-Day, capturing the port of Ouisterham and moving up the river Orme capturing the now historic Pegasus bridge along the way.

Familiar Axe valley names were mentioned in the report, Strawbridge, Sweetland, Enticott, Mathews, and Spurway among them. One Axminster name, Richard Wraxall, had already parachuted in on D-Day minus 6 with a special forces pathfinding contingent to make covert preparations for the main airborne attack. His younger brother, Horace, sat next to me at Mrs Ethelstone’s school in Uplyme.

Advancing along the valley of the river Seine the Devonshire Tommies covered 60 miles in eight days. “Although troop carrying lorries were not available to assist them with keeping up with the speedily retreating German Army they clambered on their air-dropped jeeps towing trailers and antitank guns and sped along the Normandy roads. Others rode along on folding bicycles and scooters. Some requisitioned abandoned German vehicles, and during one phase of the chase the Devons liberated a large town travelling to it on a fire engine and a taxi seized from the previous town.”

It was all good stuff for consumption on the home front, positive news bringing hope of a speedy victory. The reports did not, however, impart much of the true horrors of war which our troops were witnessing and from which the bulk of the Norman population were suffering. The German army might have been speedily retreating along the Seine Valley but they were proving an immovable problem in the city of Caen. General Montgomery had anticipated an early capture of the city following the landings on D-Day. After six weeks the Germans were still strategically placed on high ground to the south enabling them to shell the centre of the city with accuracy. On July 18th 2,100 aircraft of the RAF and USAAF began carpet bombing the southern parts of the already ruined and dead city. Eight thousand tons of bombs were dropped.

“The Canadian and British forces have

been received in Caen without enthusiasm,” recorded a Benedictine nun. “The residents have been too shaken by the memory of days of agony and mourning which we have experienced, and by all the civilian dead, and by all the grief. There was not on this day the joy that we might have if these ‘friends’ had saved the women, the children, the old people. There has been too much suffering.”

...unmoved by the surrounding carnage, three small girls wandered in their Sunday clothes The RAF Typhoon fighter-bombers, which so excited me as we saw them wreaking extreme havoc along French roads and railways on newsreels in the cinema, were exacting murderous carnage with their rockets and cannon shell. Thousands of Germans had been entrapped within an area about the town of Falaise. A Captain of the 4th Armoured Brigade recorded, “We travelled along one road and actually our vehicles travelled over the top of many hundreds of crushed German bodies and dead horses.

Their bodies were running over with maggots and flies. The road was about a mile and a half long and never before had I smelt anything like it.”

Observing a similar scene of carnage a Lieutenant recorded “Our Typhoons and guns had wrought havoc along the road which led through the smashed village.

Stiffened corpses lay in the roadside fields.

Dead horses and cows cluttered up the farmyards. Down the road, unmoved by the surrounding carnage, three small girls wandered in their Sunday clothes. I thought of my own little girl at home and thanked God she had been spared this sight and experience.”

The stick-in flags of the British and Canadian forces began to move again on the map of France which headmaster, Charlie Freeman, had stuck on the classroom wall.

Other parts of the wall were covered with posters warning us all not to play around with strange objects we might find. With the countryside being used as a vast mock battleground during those years horrifying incidents resulted from children playing about with carelessly left ordnance or entering prohibited coastal strips which had been mined.

Two evacuees living in Seaton exploring nearby clifftops picked up an object which

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exploded. Seriously injured, one was rushed to hospital in Exeter. In west Dorset three small boys found an object sticking out of the ground in an open space. The little lads pulled, tugged, hammered and dug at it before it exploded killing the three of them.

Four secondary schoolboys, all evacuees, climbed through some barbed wire onto a prohibited area near the seashore. One picked up an object and threw it against a wall. It exploded and the lad received serious injuries resulting in the loss of his right arm and his right eye. On the outskirts of Taunton a father walked in from the garden to listen to the six o’clock news leaving three children, the youngest of eight, playing with a friend. There was an explosion, he rushed back out to find three of the children dead and the other dying. On the way to hospital with his dying son the father asked “What happened Freddy?” Freddie replied “George kicked something daddy”.

Two army officers of a searchlight battery risked their lives when a young boy was found lying injured in a minefield. Lashing a ladder to the front of the scoop of a mechanical digger both were lifted out over the minefield to a safe concrete platform.

The boy was still beyond and the ladder was laid out towards him. The boy was still out of reach but Captain Patterson, of the Royal Army medical Corps, managed to retrieve him and made it back to the digger bucket which swung them all back to safe ground.

One reported incident of the time, however, did have a strong element of comedy about it. Under the heading “Cycled with bomb on his back” the report ran: A Boy Scout found a bomb in a field, wrapped it in his rucksack and cycled to the police station with it slung over his back.

“Please,” he said, “I think I’ve found a bomb.”

“Where is it?” he was asked.

“Here.” said the boy. He undid his rucksack, placed it on the table and out came the bomb. The girl in the office gave a loud shriek and let out a yell for the inspector as she fled out of the building. The bomb disposal squad was sent for and the panic subsided.

The sequel to this incident was that the Scout County Commissioner has issued a new instruction. “Good turns of this nature should be discouraged. All Scouts should know that the proper procedure is to take the police to the dangerous object and not the dangerous object to the police.”

Lasting Impressions Evelyn Farmer

Evelyn Farmer, story and photograph by Robin Mills

ON 13th November 2009 Evelyn Farmer, who still lives a largely independent life in Winsham, Somerset, celebrates her 100th birthday. The village church bells will ring on the day, and a party will be held at which Evelyn will be surrounded by her family, which since 28th September spans 5 generations, with the birth of her first great, great grandchild. The rest of the family consists of 6 daughters, 2 sons, 21 grandchildren, and 36 great grandchildren. Another great, great grandchild is on the way.

Evelyn was born in Norton-sub-Hamdon on 13th November 1909 to Martha and George Lawrence, the fourth of seven children. As a young man George was quite an adventurer, and left England in his teens to become a trapper in Newfoundland. He lived as a real backwoodsman, trapping wolves, and selling their pelts at the local trading post, using his team of six husky dogs and a boat as transport.

George returned to England in 1900 to marry Martha, working as a stone sawyer at Ham Hill.

In 1909 Evelyn was born, and went to the village school in Norton, which she remembers as a good school with a good teacher, which she left at the age of 13.

In those days, after school there was lit-

tle prospect of work for girls, only “service”.

Evelyn’s independent character was ill-suited to the work: she describes it “as a form of torture, all that bowing and scraping to another person”.

She was given her notice by her last employer for spending one summer evening, at the age of 16, chatting to her first boyfriend outside. So she fetched her bike and cycled in to Yeovil, to Woolworths, and asked for a job. She remembers how she loved that job, working in the shop for about ten years. The wages were £1.1s.4d. per week, and Evelyn’s talent for arranging the goods attractively on the counters led to her becoming head window dresser. Working in shops like Woolworths was one of the very few openings for girls in those days, other than the glove factories in Yeovil: Evelyn’s mother and sisters did gloving work from home. But for Evelyn, the shop work brought friendship and independence: she felt she had her own life.

Like many young people in those days, Evelyn belonged to a cycling club, exploring the countryside of Somerset along roads much less threatened by motor vehicles than today.

Through the cycling club she met Donald Sugg, a cabinet maker from Yeovil, with whom she fell in love, and eventually married. Donald had

suffered from polio as a baby, which left him without much use of one of his legs. Evelyn says he stubbornly refused to wear any sort of aid to help him walk: he even adapted his bicycle so that they were able to go on many long rides and camping trips together. Donald was clever and good with his hands, working for Pithers, a furniture shop in Yeovil, later setting up on his own.

Evelyn and Donald had eight surviving children: six girls and two boys, one son dying of whooping cough. Today, one daughter lives in Cardiff, but the majority of the family are close by in Somerset or Devon. Evelyn describes Somerset as a lovely place: she’d never want to live anywhere else, especially the villages.

“Villages, they make lives”, she says, as centres of community and family, within which it seems easier to learn values such as politeness, manners and respect.

Today, Evelyn lives in her own bungalow, with help from a carer and her devoted family.

It’s inadequate to describe her life as having been a full one: a conversation with Evelyn leaves you in no doubt of her wisdom and wit.

For many years she’s written poems, many of which she can recite faultlessly from memory.

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Phoenix Rising

Breaking Bread with Aidan Chapman Cheese, Sage and Red Onion Spelt Scones After my recent flirtation with french baking this recipe brings us back home!

This simple but effective recipe has gone down a storm at the bakery, the smell of them coming out of the oven brings a hoard of hungry folk drooling to the door. Once eaten you to will be smitten with the slightly sausage flavour of these little delights.

What you need: 680g of white spelt flour 112g of unsalted butter 2 tsp of baking powder 1 small red onion chopped finely 10g of dried sage 1 egg 60g grated cheddar 550 ml of milk For the topping: 1 egg for glaze, 60g grated cheddar 10g of dried sage This recipe will give you 12 nice sized scones: – Place flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl and mix together.

– Dice up the butter and add to flour. Mix this together crumbling the butter and flour until you have a fine mix.

– Add the cheese and sage.

– Make a well in the centre of the mix and add the egg and milk.

– Gently bring together making sure you don’t over mix.

– Turn out on to a floured surface and pat down the mix so it is a even ¼ of an inch thick.

– With a 4 inch round fluted cutter cut out the scones and place onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

– Whisk up the egg for a glaze and brush over the tops of the scones, brush each one twice.

– Push the cheese evenly into the top of each scone.

– Sprinkle the sage into the centre of each scone.

– Turn your oven on to 220c or gas mark 7 – Leave the scone’s to stand for 30mins, this gives the baking powder time to start working.

– Place in the oven and bake for 20mins turning once.

– Take out of the oven and enjoy!

These scones are fantastic eaten on there own, but why not try them as a side dish to a lovely home made soup.

If you have trouble finding the white spelt flour, plain flour works just as well or pop along to the bakery and buy some from us.

Phoenix Bakery – 6/7 Coburg Place Weymouth.

01305 767894.

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Lasting Impressions Cider in West Dorset

Photograph by Robin Mills

IT’S a sad fact that there are aspects of work in the countryside that seem to be gone for good, and those of us that make our living from the land are the poorer in spirit as a result.

Dorset dialect poet William Barnes (18011886) describes lunch-time at haymaking: “An’ wi their vittles in their laps An’ in their tinnen cups their draps O’ cider sweet, or frothen eäle Their tongues do run wi’ joke an’ teäle.”

Working together in a gang of men, women and children in the fields was doubtless tough at times, but there must have been lots of fun too, and drinking cider quenched thirst, eased aching muscles, and lifted spirits. About 4 pints a day was said to be normal consumption for a farm worker, and 8 pints a day during haymaking: the physical nature of the work ensured the alcohol was soon sweated away.

According to Kelly’s Directory the population of Powerstock alone was 1090 in 1848.

Consider how many folk, maybe 80% of working age in those days, worked on the land, and how the farmers paid a proportion of their workers’ wages in cider, and you have one reason why there were, in the 1890s, some 129 acres of orchard growing in the mile or so between West Milton and Nettlecombe; although through the ages cider was enjoyed

by everyone from Royalty to farm labourers. This time must have been the hey-day of cider-making: farms throughout England (as far North as apples would grow) would have made their own cider. The simple principles of cidermaking haven’t changed in 1000 years: cider apples are crushed, or ‘scratted’, then pressed, and the juice is fermented in wooden barrels.

Everything about the process, from the blossoming orchards to the red-ripe fruit gathered ready for crushing, to the smell of the juice flowing from the press, is as much a delight to the senses as the drinking of good cider.

The decline in production started with a law: the introduction of the 1887 Truck Act, which made the practice of paying part of an employee’s wages in kind, i.e. cider, illegal.

Add to that the modernisation of farming methods, becoming more specialised, the steady depopulation of villages as a result of metalled roads and the motor car allowing the working population to find better wages in towns, and farmers soon found cider-making no longer worth their while. The practice became the preserve of commercial operations, which required cider apples suited to their purposes, and led to the near disappearance of many local varieties.

Commercial cider-making didn’t happen in Dorset in the same way as Somerset or Hereford

for example, with even small-scale farm-gate sales dwindling almost to non-existence.

During the last ten years, there has been a reversal of what might have been another sad story of fading rural tradition. This has come from another tradition of the countryside (fervently upheld in West Dorset), which is a determination to preserve the best of the past: it is also to ‘have no truck’ with the mass-produced, the homogenised, the product with no local identity.

There is now a growing interest in local ‘artisan’ cider, led to no small extent by cider clubs such as Powerstock and Nettlecombe, which have brought community involvement in the identification and preservation of ancient apple trees, replanting of orchards, and cider production for the pure enjoyment of their members.

For villages without a pub, shop or even a church to focus the community, the cider club is a great way to help bring people together with a common interest. West Milton is fortunate to still have some old, real bitter-sweet apple trees, which are ideal for producing full-flavoured cider. Following research, none of these trees seem to exist anywhere else locally, which indicates that whoever planted them, maybe 80-100 years ago, was dedicated to getting the very best flavoured cider possible. Cider makers in West Dorset are reviving that quest. Story by Robin Mills

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&

Arts

Entertainment

Words of Wisdom

Fay Weldon, photograph by Dianne Dowling

Fay Weldon has been called a national treasure and described as the brightest star in the league table of British women novelists.

She talked to Katherine Locke about the nuts and bolts of writing.

FAY Weldon has found an unusual way to relax. A prolific author (she has just published her twenty-ninth novel), she needs help to switch off her lively mind occasionally.

“When you work it out” she says, “it’s only a novel every fifteen months.” For most of us that would be an incredible achievement, but for Fay it’s all in a day’s work.

“What else am I going to do?”, she says, “the children have left home, there are twenty-four hours in a day and only seven are spent sleeping.” Yes, but didn’t she write when her four children were small as well? “Oh yes, I had to be quite disciplined. I got up early, didn’t drink too much and didn’t go to too many parties.” If something is worth doing, she feels, it is worth doing well and worth making sacrifices for.

Fay Weldon has a distinct style. Often focussing on subtle cultural shifts, she uses story to demonstrate theories about the changing world we live in. But, what comes first, the story or the theory? “Very often the theoretical idea will come before the story,” she says. “For example, She May Not Leave, a novel about an au pair usurping

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the mistress of the house, was based on a conversation about the morality of employing others.” Fay is known for her ability to explore cultural paradox within her novels.

That is, examining something that appears contradictory but holds within it a central, lasting truth. Her latest book touches on issues around assumptions. “We often assume that if we do the right thing everything will be alright – it never is” she laughs.

Her recent work, Chalcot Crescent, is yet another direction for Fay. Set in the near future, the novel has an unashamedly Sci-Fi leaning. Did she enjoy writing it?

“Very much so,” she says “it was good to try something different.” Set in a future where Britain is broken and the economic climate has crashed so far food and electricity are rationed, the novel, like many of her others, starts with a grain of truth and develops into a fabulous fictional story. This time the truth germ is about what might have happened if Fay’s mother hadn’t miscarried when Fay was two and how life might have been had she grown up with a younger sister.

Does such a productive author ever get writer’s block? “There are days when nothing happens” she says, “like a strange mist descending in your head, but I’ve learnt not to panic and ride it out.” One of the advantages of being such a seasoned writer is that she is able to let it go and do something else when the words won’t come. “Often it is a physical reason why writing becomes hard, like getting a cold and I have learnt to recognise that it is not the end of the world if you have an off day.”

She is a professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University and is clearly enjoying it. She takes pleasure in the opportunity to “save the young some time” and has realised something about the subtlety of her craft. “It’s all about perfecting the detail, about understanding the difference something as small as word

feeling that they need to stick absolutely to the original idea and are unable to let the writing take them in an unexpected direction.” She believes that writing needs a basic energy to drive it on. “There is the fiddly bit between delivery and publication where there are rewrites and edits, but there should be an initial exhilaration in the writing.”

In 2006, Fay Weldon became patron of the prestigious Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition, so her advice will be welcome to the thousands of people who enter every year. She deplores lazy writing and especially the crime of using too many adjectives. “Her glossy red hair tumbled attractively over her smooth white shoulders’, will not do,” she says “You haven’t thought it through and thrown opportunity away.”

slavishly following a set plot pattern, does not a novel make order can make. It is a visual thing as much as meaning,” she says. She is aware how very tough it is for beginner writers, “but you have to keep going, keep a sense of direction until it becomes second nature, like driving a car.”

It is hard work, she admits. “Writing is all about tiny choices – which word goes where, which character comes in at what point etc. It is like a giant puzzle that needs to fit together.” However she is also a firm believer in the ‘magic’ of the novel – the moment when it takes on a life of its own and becomes something else. “There is a lot of advice out there about how to write, particularly focussing on plot structure, but slavishly following a set plot pattern, does not a novel make.”

She is vocal on this point and how a ‘join the dots’ style of writing has resulted in the essential dullness of the modern novel. “It is worth remembering that the word novel means new, unexpected, diverting and fresh and that is what is important when it comes to writing. Just filling in the gaps becomes a simulacrum of a novel because it is coming from the wrong place.”

She cites an example of when she worked in advertising (her department was famously accredited with the ‘Go To Work on an Egg’ slogan); they worked out a formula for the perfect advert – how many times the product is mentioned, at what point in the ad etc. “It never worked” she says “the market is much more elusive than that.”

She also feels that publishers’ insistence on a full synopsis can be stifling to a writer. “Obviously publishing is a business and it needs to be sure of what it is selling” she says, “but it often results in writers

But, if you are still waiting to hear what it is that Fay does to relax, you are going to be surprised. When her busy brain needs to take a break she plays computer games. Which are her favourite? “Oh, the old ones are best” she says, “I love The Sims and Empire Building – the ones where you can create an alternative world.

I also play Caesar 3 and Civilisation 2.” Who knew?

Chalcot Crescent is published by Atlantic Books ISBN-10: 1848872682. ISBN-13: 978-1848872684

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House&Garden

Performing Arts Fund managed by Dorset Community Foundation disperses over £66,000 in support THE Dorset Performing Arts Fund established by local philanthropist Alasdair Warren has distributed the first grants to six performing arts projects across Dorset. The fund, managed by Dorset Community Foundation, was set up recently to fund the delivery of performing art projects across the Dorset County area.

The “Apollo-One Giant Leap” project carried out by Dorchester Arts received £15,000 towards their outdoor performance event at Maumbury Rings, Dorchester. The event brought together hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds to a multi-media, participatory celebration which encouraged greater community cohesion through common experience involving local schools, a local composer and community choirs.

Another funded project was Friends of the Lyric Theatre CIC, which received a grant to help support the planning for

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a community puppet show, to be held in Bridport. A series of workshops and master classes will be led by professional artists, and the resulting performance will involve community participants of all ages and abilities. The project aims to bring the community together, developing new performing arts skills whilst also promoting inclusivity, diversity and new friendships.

Alasdair explained: “I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to support so many performing arts projects across Dorset.

Working with the Foundation and the expert grants panel, we’ve focussed on projects which enrich community life, reach inclusive audiences, support original and collaborative work, and celebrate emerging local talent. As a next step, the Fund will also provide support to individual performing artists.”

Applicants are invited via solicitation only process. For more details please visit www.dorsetcommunityfoundation.org.

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Vegetables in November By Ashley Wheeler

N

ovember is a time to start taking stock of the year gone by and think about how to make changes to the year ahead. It is also a time when the majority of crops have been harvested, and most winter storage crops have been brought in to keep us going through to spring. One of the best crops to store over winter are drying beans. There is a huge diversity of beans that can be grown to dry, many of which are dual purpose, so can be eaten fresh or dried. One of our favourites to grow is the Gigantes bean which grows and looks much like a runner bean, but the beans within the pod bulk up and resemble butter beans. They come from the mountainous regions of Northern Greece and so grow well The almighty Gigantes bean in our cool damp climate! In terms of growing, treat them just the same as runner beans—sowing at the end of April inside and planting out mid May, or sowing direct outdoors around mid-late May. The plants can be grown up wigwams or strings, spaced around 30cm away from each other.

The other perhaps more familiar drying bean to try if you haven’t tried growing them before is the borlotti bean. We grow the variety Lamon which seems to be particularly productive. We grow them in a similar way to the Gigantes, but space them a little closer at around 20cm apart. Other interesting varieties to try include Bridgwater, Pea beans and Bird’s egg No. 3. Good places to buy bean seed are from Real Seeds and check out the huge variety from Beans & Herbs.

The nicest way to eat many of these drying beans is to get them when they are semi-dry (when the beans inside have swelled up and the pods start to change colour a little). Eating them this way means they are lovely and creamy.

If you are drying them, leave them on the plants for as long as possible before the weather turns too wet and miserable, then harvest them and bring them inside to a warm dry place to dry further. If the pods are fairly wet when harvested it is usually best to pod them as soon as possible and dry them out of the pods. To use them through the winter just soak the beans overnight and then boil for 30-40 minutes until tender, or add to stews. If you are growing the drying beans from the french bean family (Phaseolus) they can also be resown the following year and come true to type, which is an added bonus. This will even work if you grow a few varieties nearby to one another. This won’t work if you try to save Gigantes beans and you have runner beans growing nearby as they cross pollinate, so you may come out with something unexpected if you try sowing them, but could be worth a try still if it’s just for yourself!

WHAT TO SOW THIS MONTH: Not a lot! We have made all of our sowings by now, and will start tentatively with a few sowings again in January, but nothing else before then.

WHAT TO PLANT THIS MONTH: OUTSIDE: Garlic (if not planted already) INSIDE: peashoots, sugarsnap and early pea varieties, spring onions, broad beans, garlic (for extra early garlic) OTHER IMPORTANT TASKS THIS MONTH: If the weather dries, continue preparing beds for the winter by mulching with compost. Don’t be tempted to tidy up too much, as old crops and flowers act as a habitat for many beneficial insects. Start going through your winter job list - whether its cleaning glasshouses or polytunnels, tidying up your propagating area, cleaning and oiling your tools or even looking through seed catalogues for a bit of inspiration for next year!

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Artwork celebrates Reedbeds and Waterways

A

Barn Owl in Flight by Jackie Curtis

n exhibition of artworks celebrating the landscapes and wildlife of the Somerset Levels is opening at Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury from 16 November to 18 January.

The exhibition, Reedbeds and Waterways, brings together artworks by the printmaker Jackie Curtis. Jackie works from her Somerset studio but can often be found walking on the Levels, sketch book and camera in hand, looking for ideas to use in her printmaking. Reedbeds and Waterways will showcase the different printmaking techniques used by the artist.

The South West Heritage Trust is an independent charity committed to protecting and celebrating Somerset and Devon’s rich heritage. As well as the widely-praised Museum of Somerset and the redeveloped Somerset Rural Life Museum, in Glastonbury, the Trust manages state-of-the-art facilities in Taunton and Exeter to care for the extraordinary archive collections of the two counties. The Trust also provides essential advice about the historic environment and manages historic sites.

To celebrate the exhibition opening Jackie will be in the gallery on 16 November to answer questions about her practice. On 7 December she will be running familyfriendly drop-in printmaking sessions. In the new year (18 January) there will also be a monoprinting workshop for adults.

All artworks in the exhibition will be available for sale in the museum shop. For more information visit srlm.org.uk.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 59

November in the Garden

By Russell Jordan

N

ovember is one of those months when gardening activity is largely dictated by the whims of the weather and, of all the months, November is perhaps the most variable. In a ‘normal’ year it is the final chance for those activities which depend on the last vestiges of warmth and active root growth—such as moving trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and the like. It is also the first chance to start those tasks which rely on the lack of plant growth and the onset of winter dormancy; pruning of roses, planting bare root stock, digging fallow soil.

Rose pruning is something which, as far as I am concerned, can wait a while longer as roses will only just be ‘slowing down’ and there is the whole winter still ahead of us. On tall specimens, especially those in exposed positions, it is a good idea to reduce the growth by about half to lessen the likelihood of ‘wind rock’ in autumnal gales. They can get their full prune towards the end of winter.

A mild November will allow the herbaceous perennials to gently collapse and die down with fitful flowering, from the stalwart late summer bloomers, continuing right up to the first frosts. A more severe month, with hard frosts, will finish off the borders practically overnight and then you may have to act swiftly to deal with dubiously hardy plants, such as dahlias and cannas, if you have them in your garden.

It’s always been traditional to wait until dahlia foliage is blackened by frost before lifting and storing the tubers in a frost-free place until next spring. The hassle of having to perform this operation, not to mention the need to find somewhere to store them (centrally heated houses are not conducive to successful overwintering), must have played a part in their fall from popularity in the first place. They are so ubiquitous these days that I wonder how many are kept from year to year, as they were in the past, and how many are simply purchased anew each spring and treated as disposable?

60 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

If left in situ they may survive in a mild winter but, especially in this wetter part of the country, they are apt to rot even if they survive the cold. The other problem with leaving them in garden soil is that they are bedevilled by those little black slugs which live under the soil surface; ‘Keeled Slugs’, I seem to remember from my old ‘Pest and Disease’ lectures! They gnaw away at the tubers in the damp soil and then nibble off every shoot just as they begin to grow again in the spring. Even a heavy mulching, which guards against a degree of frost, is no protection against soil borne pests and diseases.

Other tender plants should be under cover with some frost protection by now. There are many borderline hardy salvias to choose from which respond really well to being lifted and brought under cover until the spring. I have a really ancient specimen of ‘Amistad’ which suffers the indignity of being chopped back, dug up and re potted each autumn but which bounces back every spring to make an even bigger plant than the previous year.

Just keeping them dry and under glass is enough for many of the woodier specimens but supplementary heating is advisable for any really tender ones.

If you can run power to your greenhouse then a simple electric greenhouse heater, with a ‘frost-guard’ setting, should protect your plants even when temperatures remain low for a prolonged period. Paraffin heaters are a bit more temperamental and they have the side effect of producing water vapour plus carbon dioxide which can be a problem in a confined space.

Back outside; now’s the time to plant tulips if you’ve been holding off, quite sensibly, to reduce the threat of ‘tulip fire’ (a nasty disease which is less prevalent in tulips planted late—after all the other spring flowering bulbs). I don’t find that many of the ‘fancy’ tulip varieties are reliably perennial. Planting them as deep as possible certainly helps, some of this may be due to the fact that shallow plantings are prone to predation by rodents, but

if you want guaranteed displays then planting fresh, new, stock each year is recommended.

Having said that, I often find that the old ‘Darwin’ type hybrids, generally in rather brash red and yellow hues, form permanent populations in many established gardens—whether you want them to or not.

Now that herbaceous plants are dying down and deciduous trees / shrubs are dropping their leaves, it is the evergreens which come into their own. Evergreen specimens are often referred to as the ‘bones’ of the garden, on which the summer ‘flesh’ is draped. As such they should not dominate but work best as structural elements or as solid backdrops.

Box edging, topiary balls and clipped yew hedges are standard, classic, examples of evergreens being used to anchor the more transient garden constituents. Without evergreens the garden would be a pretty desolate place from this month right up until growth starts again in the spring—still a long way off.

Another major, evergreen, component of the garden which acts as a calming foil, to the more flamboyant performers, is the lawn.

Fallen leaves are best raked up whenever weather conditions allow, a leaf blower makes this task easier if you have lots of trees, or acres of lawn. If the leaves are not too thick or wet, and the grass is still growing, then using a lawnmower, assuming it has a collection box, to pick them up kills two birds with one stone.

Leaves have less nitrogen in them to speed up decomposition, compared to green material, so composting them separately is advisable if you have the room to make dedicated ‘leaf-mould bins’. I tend to sprinkle a little ‘fish, blood and bone’ fertiliser onto each new layer in order to give the agents of decomposition a little helping hand—it can’t do any harm.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 61

PROPERTY ROUND-UP

Prime Period Properties

By Helen Fisher

HOLDITCH £645,000

A beautiful 17th Century Grade II listed detached family home.

Extensively renovated and refurbished plus a recent new thatched roof.

Many character features plus a lovely, detached garden studio/annex. Very private, south-facing half acre garden with patio area. Double garage and ample parking.

Gordon and Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

AXMINSTER £900,000

The principle part of a Victorian mansion house built mid 1860’s.

Recently renovated, blending period grandeur with modern convenience. With 3 generous bedrooms and attic space plus a 2 storey coach house. Set in over 2 acres of secluded gardens inc: sun terrace, 2 water features and produce garden. Ample parking.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000

CHARMOUTH £495,000

A Grade II listed detached cottage set in the grounds of an elegant Georgian house. All recently refurbished, with 3 spacious bedrooms, new stylish kitchen and classical bathroom. Private garden and parking. Wonderful country views and only a mile from the beach.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 422092 62 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

BRIDPORT £339.950

A Grade II listed terraced town cottage spread over 3 floors. Many characterful features inc: inglenook fireplace, wooden floorboards and doors. Mainly double glazed with a recently renovated modern bathroom. Sunny landscaped garden with cherry and apple trees and views to distant hills Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

POYNTINGTON £1,750,000

A classic, four square, Grade II listed rectory build in 1837.

Beautifully presented will all windows recently restored. With 5 bedrooms, kitchen with 4 oven Aga and a suite of 3 cellars.

In a very private and elevated setting, central within 2 acres of garden. Summer house, coach house, double garage and 4 acre paddock.

Knight Frank Tel: 01935 812236

DORCHESTER £575,000

A very handsome late Victorian family home with generously proportioned rooms and many typical features of the era inc: a working cast-iron fireplace. Spread over 3 floors, with 5 bedrooms. Private south-facing walled garden with mature trees and shrubs. Set in a very desirable, convenient location. Residence parking.

Jackson-Stops Tel:01308 423133

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 63

Lobster Potting

By Nick Fisher

B

eing present at the birth of your first-born child, is a life-changing experience. Watching the fuzzy head of your Number One Son, emerging from the furry front-bottom of you nearest and dearest, is an astonishing thing to observe.

But, dramatic though it is, I have to say, it pales into insignificance, compared to the electric-thrill of hefting your very first lobster out of your very own pot.

Lobster and crab potting has always fascinated me. I don’t know why exactly. Yet, I’ve longed for years to have my own boat and pots. Maybe it’s because I spent some of my teenage years living in Cromer, where I watched the crab boats scuff up onto the shingle beach, to then be hauled from the breach busting surf, by big old rusty tractors, driven by gnarled old men in tattered oilskins.

I’d watch the baskets of crabs being lugged off the boat and stacked onto a pick-up truck and disappear up the slipway. Only to reappear a day later, dressed and mouth-ready, on marble slabs outside crabber’s cottages.

I learnt about the dry-land stuff early on. The dressing and eating. The wet stuff; what happened at sea, was something that remained a mystery until many years later, when I blagged a trip on Cromer’s busiest crab boats to make a radio show for the BBC. It was on this trip that I learnt some of the basics and also sucked up a few professional tips.

So, when I moved to Dorset and went halfshares on a boat with my mate Hugh, potting was always top of my list of things to try.

I was pretty scared before I started doing it. Unsure. Ignorant of the rights and wrongs of what to do. Did I need a license? What sort of pots did I need? Where should I drop them? Loaded with what bait? And how would I know no one would steal or tamper

with my gear? Was there designated areas for specific crabbers? Would I inadvertently poach on someone else’s patch? Would the crab mafia order a hit on me?

‘Parlour pots is what you want’ said Rod Barr at Coastal Fishing Supplies, before he went on to answer all my other questions and encourage me to go forth and forage with a free conscience. A parlour pot with forty foot of rope, a fluorescent orange buoy and a length of lead line to make the top section of the rope submerge, and a natty swivel thing, back then came to around £40.

For bait I used ballan wrasse chopped in half, or a pouting slipped whole under the thick rubber bait band which encircled the mouth of the pot. The parlour pot is simple but ingenious affair. The lobster or crab swims into the pot through the opening, has a feed, then starts to look around for a means of escape. He climbs up a short ramp that looks like it’s heading in the right direction and then falls off the end of it into the parlour. The parlour’s a spooky sort of room with nylon mesh wall paper and no way out except through the front door, which is only ever open on board the boat.

I chugged out with my two new pots that sat on the deck of my boat sticking out like a pair of claw-hammered thumbs. Yelling out to everyone who saw me ‘Oi, this bloke’s a total novice. Never done it before. Hasn’t got a clue’ The only clue I did have came from Rob. ‘Just bung ‘em down around Pollock Stone’ he said. ‘Head straight out of the harbour and bear slightly right. Stop when you come to a load of pot buoys’.

I did. I did exactly what he suggested and sank my pots on the edge of a gathering of gaily coloured pot buoys and flags.

Twenty four hours later, I hauled my pots.

Feeling as excited and giddy as a goat on a sherry binge.

On dry land, a crab pot is as cumbersome and heavy object. In the sea it becomes much more manageable. The first few tugs on the rope take up the slack and dislodge the pot from the sea bed. This is the hard work. Once it’s afloat the pot comes up easily and only feels its true weight again when it’s resting against the side of the boat waiting to be hauled on-board. Strangely enough, the heaviest heave of all, the one that transfers the pot from sea to deck, is the easiest, because at this moment your excitement levels are fit to burst.

The thrill of first seeing what’s inside your pot is awesome. The antici-

pation and expectation sends tingles down my spine even now. The first sight of a few unidentifiable claws sticking through the nylon mesh fuels the sensation of surprise.

My first pot contained four large brown crabs, three spider crabs and a handful of velvet crabs. My second pot had a chattering of crabs, but centre stage, under the spotlight looking fierce and snappy was my first lobster. It was wonderful. It was like losing my virginity all over again. Only this was less embarrassing, less messy and much, much more longer lasting.

As time went on through the back end of this season I finessed my lobster potting technique. I moved my pots to shallower water near the cliffs, where lobsters were more numerous and brown crabs were almost non-existent. I changed my baits too.

The Cromer professionals had taught me that lobsters love stinky baits. They are more easily seduced by rank pungent parcels of mackerel guts and heads than they are by nice fresh killed fish.

Whereas prawns on the other hand don’t like stinky bait. You can catch prawns in a lobster pot though, if you line it with 10mm mesh (another tip from Rob). But, if you fish stinky bait for the lobsters you run the risk of scaring away potential prawn catches.

Then of course if you just use gorgeous fresh baits you run the risk of not attracting the attention of the gorgeous lobsters. It’s a gamble. It’s a tease. Who ever said fishing wasn’t rocket science?

I managed to catch quite a lot of lobsters through the early autumn. Me and Helen ate lobsters once or twice a week for a few weeks. Delicious. Fresh and firm. And the whole potting process was so satisfying.

Bringing home such treasures and having a really bonafide excuse to be out on the sea every day, or every other day at least.

It made me constantly aware of tides and weather. I got obsessed about only taking biggish lobsters and letting all the small or marginal ones go. I marvelled at the other things that found their way into the pots, three bearded rockling, weaver fish, pout, poor cod, strap conger eels, dog fish and even a huge snapping bull huss that flattened all the other occupants.

The joy of potting is like any sort of trapping. You set out your best effort and wait to see if any critter buys it. The only thing better than catching a lobster is eating a lobster.

But then, the only thing better than eating a lobster is eating a crab. Lobsters may cost more, look more impressive and command far greater kudos. But lovely as they are, a crab is sweeter.

Food&Dining

BAKED WHOLE PUMPKIN Nothing conjures up the golden month of autumn quite like brightly coloured orange pumpkins. This is great served on the side with the Sunday roast.

LESLEY WATERS

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• 1 pumpkin about 13cms in diameter • 55g (2oz) butter, softened • Freshly grated nutmeg • Salt & freshly ground black pepper • Large sprig fresh rosemary

1.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/ 180C/ 375F.

2.

Cut a lid from the stalk end of the pumpkin and pull out the fibre and seeds.

3.

Spread the softened butter inside the pumpkin and season really well with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Place the rosemary sprig inside and replace the lid.

4.

Place the pumpkin on a large ovenproof dish and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the inside flesh is soft.

5.

Serve the pumpkin whole allowing each person to scoop out their own portion.

Serves 2 - 3

66 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

November 2019 Food Markets Please check dates and times with venues or organisers

Sat 2nd

Fri 8th Sat 9th

Thur 14th Fri 15th Sat 16th Thur 21st Sat 23rd Thur 28th

Poundbury, Queen Mother Square - 9am - 1pm Shaftesbury, Town Hall - 9am - 1pm Blandford, Blandford Forum - 9am - 1pm Bridport, Arts Centre, South St - 9am - 1pm Martock, Moorlands Shopping - 10am - 1pm Yarcombe, Village Hall - 10am - 12noon Purbeck, Commercial Road, Swanage - 9am - 1pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street - 9am - 1pm Sherborne, Cheap St - 9am - 1pm Wimborne, Market Square - 9am - 1pm Crewkerne, The Henhayes Centre - 9am - 1pm Honiton, St Paul’s Church, High St - 8.30am - 1pm Dorchester South, High Street - 9am - 4pm Barrington, Village Hall, 10am - 12noon Yeovil, Middle Street - 9am - 2pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street - 9am - 1pm Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 67

HOUSE DRESSING I’ve been growing lots of different leaves in my Dorset garden through the summer, including some members of the chicory family like radicchio and New Zealand spinach which are still thriving in the slightly chillier conditions and have great flavours for autumnal salads, just when you may think salads are off the menu at home.

I also like to make my own vinegar from potentially wasted wine, I hate throwing away things and you can make really tasty vinegar with leftover wine dregs and starting the process off with a little organic or natural vinegar in a large Kilner jar, preferably with a tap on. I always use Julian Temperley’s cider vinegar or an organic one as a starter then just tip in left over white or red wine and even cider and after a couple months just simply siphon it off into bottles and leave a few centimeters of vinegar at the bottom of the jar including the natural mother or Scoby that forms naturally in the vinegar which looks like a piece of weird rubber. You then just start again and Neighbors and friends love being gifted a bottle.

Your vinegar will take on different natural flavours which you can match with olive, rapeseed or walnut oils or whatever you fancy with a touch of mustard if you wish. I love giving home-made vinegar away as gifts with neat little labels and getting people into the whole recycling food waste thing because wine down the drain is pointless.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• 1 tbsp home made vinegar

1.

Put all the ingredients into a clean bottle or jar

• 2 tsp Tewksbury or Dijon mustard

2.

Give them a good shake and leave to infuse overnight at room temperature

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled • 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

MARK HIX

• 3 tbsp vegetable or corn oil • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

HIX Oyster and Fish House is Mark’s local restaurant that overlooks the harbour in Lyme Regis and boasts the most stunning panoramic views across the Jurassic coast - this is easily one of the most picturesque spots to enjoy British fish seafood.

To book please call 01297 446 910 68 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Chris is Cooking tonight New chefs at the Alexandra and Gidleigh Park

Chris Chatfield at the Alexandra Hotel in Lyme Regis

Chris Chatfield at The Alexandra Hotel

THE Alexandra Hotel in Lyme Regis has announced the appointment of new Head Chef Chris Chatfield. Chris is passionate about the West Country, and has worked at some of the best establishments across the South West, such as The Horn of Plenty (4 Star 3 Rosette), Islington Country House Hotel (3 Star, 2AA Rosette) and Langdon Court Hotel (4 Star, 2 Rosette).

Chris Eden at Gidleigh Park

The only Cornish born chef to have won a Michelin star in his home county, Chris Eden moved to Gidleigh Park at the start of September, after 12 illustrious years at Driftwood. Having spent most of his career in the south west, Chris has also spent time in London at The Lanesborough, The Orrery and The Square.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 69

Guest Recipe

Compiled by VANESSA OWEN In December 1992 Nessie Owen (née Cumberlege) dislocated and fractured her back in a skiing accident in the French Alps.

During her long period in hospital she developed the idea of ‘Cook to INSPIRE’ putting together recipes from her many friends and contacts in the culinary world.

She was well supported with recipes from her own impressive list of contacts and wider support including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Diana, Dame Darcey Bussell, Lord Attenborough and even Marco Pierre White and Sting! Such was the success of the book that earlier this year, Nessie worked tirelessly with her small team of helpers to produce ‘Cook to INSPIRE Again’, a new collection of recipes in an easy to follow format beautifully illustrated

by Dorset artist Helen Lloyd-Elliott.

COOK TO INSPIRE AGAIN available to buy at Piers Pisani’s Antiques Shop in Cheap Street, Sherborne and Cattistock Village Shop. Alternatively, please telephone 01722 336262 Extension 2465 to order a copy at £7.50 + £1.50 p & p.

There is a book launch and signing at INSPIRE’s Autumn Supper & Wine Tasting on Thursday 14th November 2019 at Salisbury Guildhall at 7:00 pm. Tickets at £37.50 per person include a three course supper by Emma Harrison Catering with all wines provided by Charles Steevenson of Steevenson Wines of Tavistock included. Tickets are available at events@inspire-foundation.org. uk or telephone 01722 336262 Extension 2465.

ROAST CHICKEN WITH CLEMENTINES AND PERNOD My absolute favourite chicken recipe!

Andrea Neville-Rolfe, Milliner, Dorset

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• • • • • • • • •

1.

• • • • •

6 tbsp Ouzo or Pernod 4 tbsp olive oil 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 tbsp grainy mustard 3 tbsp light brown sugar 2½ tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 2 medium fennel bulbs, cut lengthwise and then into quarters 1.3 kg (3 lb) free-range chicken divided into 8 pieces or chicken thighs with skin on 4 clementines, unpeeled, sliced horizontally into ½ cm slices (400g in total) 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 2½ tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed Flat leaf parsley, to garnish

2.

3.

Serves 4

4.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together Pernod or Ouzo, oil, orange and lemon juices, mustard, brown sugar and salt. Season with pepper. Add fennel, chicken, clementine slices, thyme and crushed fennel seeds. Turn several times to coat. If time allows marinate chicken for several hours or preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Transfer all ingredients, including marinade, to a large roasting pan.

Chicken should be skin side up. Roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, 35 - 45 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Lift chicken, fennel and clementines on to a serving plate. Cover and keep warm. Pour cooking liquid into a small saucepan. Place over medium-high heat, bring to the boil, then simmer until sauce is reduced and you are left with about 80 ml. You can degrease by using a spoon to remove some of the fat from top of the sauce.

Pour heated sauce over chicken.

Garnish with parsley and serve.

PEOPLE IN FOOD & DRINK

Kate Robertson - photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

KATE ROBERTSON From gluten free organic flour to beetroot and parsnip crisps, ginger biological washing up liquid to organic olive oil, chocolate and salted vanoffee cashews to recycled loo roll, bamboo tooth brushes to chia seeds, Kate Robertson of The Green Weigh sells it all. Neatly stowed away on shelves from floor to ceiling Gertie, The Green Weigh’s van stocks an impressive array of organic, biological, sustainable and vegan products, which customers can come to purchase at the various locations she stops at during the week. Set up by Kate, alongside her fellow directors Alex Green and Libby Rogers, together they have created Dorset’s first mobile zero waste shop.

They describe themselves as “a group of mums on a mission to help reduce plastic pollution”. Kate and Ally were at Baby Yoga together in Bridport, where they discussed a zero waste shop Alex had seen on holiday in Totnes. Realising there was nothing like that locally, Kate encouraged Alex to start planning their own shop, with Libby also being brought on board. Every Wednesday after school the mums with their children would gather at Kate’s house developing their business plan. And after an extremely successful crowdfunding campaign, backed by local businesses, they were able to launch in 2017.

The Green Weigh project takes up most of Kate’s time.

When she’s not planning or working on the back end of things she is busy being a mum to three girls. Growing up in Redcar near Middlesbrough, Kate married her teenage sweetheart and juggled moving to the Isle of Wight whilst pregnant, giving birth early, just three days after arriving.

Her now ex-husband is a musician and composer, which complimented Kate’s artistic talents. She studied Photography and Video at Lincoln University, then later whilst the family were living in Buckfastleigh she snuck in an Integrated Crafts Degree with travelling around Europe, performing Neuro Operas. Still carrying out freelance video commissions, her CV boasts being shortlisted at the Saint-Petersburg International Film Festival and winning film for Best Artistic Merit at Plymouth Film Festival, amongst other awards.

Now living in Bridport, Kate enjoys working the odd shift at The Red Brick café. She squeezes every moment of time out of her day, spending evenings at her computer typing out neurospecialist transcripts. Trying to make a difference, she is certainly making a positive impact with The Green Weigh.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 71

Arts &Entertainment

Who's joining the

list of Winners?

A

fter more than ten years of putting on the Marshwood Arts Awards exhibition we’ve seen a lot of exciting work shown in the biannual show at Bridport Arts Centre.

This year over thirty artists and makers will join the selectors in a mixed selling exhibition from November 9th to December 7th.

Featuring Painting & Drawing, Sculpture, Photography & Digital Media and Applied Arts, the Marshwood Arts Awards and John Hubbard Prize is now an established and respected initiative that receives entries from as far afield as Australia, USA and Asia.

This year, as well as entries from all over the UK, submissions were also received from Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

The entries were presented to the selectors anonymously, and though never easy, this year the task of choosing exhibitors was a challenge relished by all the selectors.

Each selector has chosen their top three artists or makers and this year they have also selected ‘Highly Commended’ entries.

Choosing in the Applied Arts sector Kate Malone was enthusiastic about the high quality of the overall entry. ‘Every single one of the entries had something that was exciting and interesting’ she said.

She described the array of submissions as including: ‘traditional craft, emotional expression, art into interior design, beautiful restrained intelligence, fun and energetic assemblages and expression of wondrous technical skills.’

Painting & Drawing selector Dave White was impressed with the diversity of the entry whilst Brian Griffin pointed to the ‘high quality’ of all the entries and said that despite having to choose individual photographers for this exhibition they were ‘all winners’.

So who will join the growing list of those that have exhibited in the Marshwood Arts Awards exhibitions? And who will receive the Collector’s Prizes from Jasper Conran and Sibyl King from the Fine Foundation?

The category winners and the recipient of this year’s £500 John Hubbard Prize will be announced publicly on Saturday November 9th. For a full list of those exhibiting, visit Marshwood+ our expanded digital magazine at www. marshwoodvale.com.

Arts Awards tribute to Ron Frampton

I

t would be hard to overestimate the importance or the influence of the late Ron Frampton on recording the history and the culture of the West Country. Long time readers of this magazine will remember his powerful portraits of local people, as well as the books he published. They featured the stories and the photographs he painstakingly produced with a passion for recording lifestyles and characters, the like of which he believed would never be seen again.

Talking about his love of the local landscape and environment Ron once explained that he felt some of the West Country characters living in the area ‘could be from a Hardy novel.’

He believed that, ‘The importance of docu-

menting rural communities as they change through the decades cannot be overestimated.’

At this year’s Marshwood Arts Awards exhibition, we will be paying tribute to Ron by showing a selection of photographs compiled

by Margaret Wall and colleagues from The Frampton Archive Group. The Frampton Archive is made up from Ron’s personal archive containing his own work from over the past 50 years, together with selected work from the photographers who have studied under his tutorship at Dillington House since 1985.

Some of the original photographs from his Marshwood Vale Magazine articles will be on display at Bridport Arts Centre from November 9th to December 7th.

74 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 75

Museums&Galleries 4 – 30 NOVEMBER Lines That Are Already There. Daily 9am-4pm. An Exhibition by artist Jo Burlington. Bridport Literary & Scientific Institute www.lsibridport.co.uk. FREE/ Donation UNTIL 5 NOVEMBER Birds without borders explores the incredible feats of migration some birds must achieve in order to survive and breed. A playful mix of art, science and social history reveals why some migrant birds such as the swallow and cuckoo have found a place in our hearts, art and culture, both here and in their winter homes abroad. RAMM Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter.

UNTIL 6 NOVEMBER Ana Bianchi, Emma Dunbar, Fiona Millais The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street, Sherborne, DT9 3LN. 01935 815261.

Watercolour Magic Lyme Bay Arts will be showcasing the popular medium of watercolour in recent work created by members and guest artists. The Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. Open daily 10.30-4.30. Free admission and parking. www.lymebayarts.co.uk 9 – 27 NOVEMBER Autumn Open, 10.30-4.30, This seasonal exhibition organised by Lyme Bay Arts will celebrate autumn with stunning 2D and 3D artwork by local artists and craft makers, created by established names as well as by those whose work will be new to The Gallery’s many visitors. The Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. www.lymebayarts.co.uk 9 NOVEMBER - 7 DECEMBER The Marshwood Arts Awards and John Hubbard Prize. Biannual mixed exhibition selected by Kate Malone, Dave White, Tania Kovats, John Makepeace

and Brian Griffin. Over 30 artists and makers work on display at the Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR. www. marshwoodawards.com 9 NOVEMBER - 21 DECEMBER Catching the Light Jenny Pocley exhibits with Amy Albright, Suchi Chldambaram, Paul Denham, Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf VPSWA, Martin Goold PS, Jeanette Hayes PPS, Robert Hewer and Leanne Stephens. Artwave West, Morcombelake, DT6 6DY 01297 489746 www.artwavewest.com Present Makers 2019, Annual Christmas craft and design selling exhibition, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www.thelmahulbert.com UNTIL 10 NOVEMBER Marzia Colonna including over 40 recent collages of all different sizes, with bronze sculpture, framed drawings and giclée prints, this is an exhibition to appeal to everyone. Petter Southall furniture. Sladers Yard Gallery and Café Sladers, West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL +44 (0)1308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard. co.uk UNTIL 16 NOVEMBER William Wright From The Studio, Thursday - Saturday, 10am - 3pm, Quiet, distilled paintings, drawings and prints.

The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset DT11 8HB. 01258 866. theartstable.co.uk 16 - 22 NOVEMBER Watercolour and Ceramics Exhibition 10am-4.30pm, A father and daughter show a collection of work inspired by coast and countryside, Kennaway House Sidmouth EX10 8NG, emma. macfadyen@btinternet.com

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16 NOVEMBER - 12 JANUARY Radiance, Fred Cumming RA, Michael Fairclough, Rachel Fenner, Jeremy Gardiner, David Inshaw, Alfred Stcokham, Petter Southall furniture, Franny Owen Ceramics, Lynn Strover Jewellery.

Sladers Yard, West Bay, DT6 4EL. www. sladersyard.co.uk 16 NOVEMBER - 18 JANUARY Reedbeds and Waterways, brings together artworks by the printmaker Jackie Curtis. It will showcase the different printmaking techniques used by the artist.

To celebrate the exhibition opening Jackie will be in the gallery on 16 November to answer questions about her practice. On 7 December Jackie will be running familyfriendly drop-in printmaking sessions. In the new year (18 January) there will also be a monoprinting workshop for adults.

Somerset Rural Life Museum, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8DB. srlm.org.uk.

UNTIL 17 NOVEMBER Desire, love, identity: exploring LGBTQ histories A British Museum touring exhibition. Same-sex love and desire and gender diversity are an integral part of human experience. Based upon Professor Richard Parkinson’s award-winning book ‘A Little Gay History’ this British Museum touring exhibition offers glimpses into LGBTQ experience throughout history using the British Museum’s collection. Shire Hall, Dorchester. For more information visit shirehalldorset.org or call 01305 261849.

UNTIL 23 NOVEMBER Neroche Artists Paintings, sculpture and prints by a group of artists who live and work in the Blackdown Hills.

Free. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster.

TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

23 - 30 NOVEMBER Landscapes and Seascapes of Cornwall and Britain, 10am-4.30pm, Cornish artist Stewart Kent presents a new collection of paintings in oil, watercolour and mixed media, Kennaway House Sidmouth EX10 8NG, stewartkent@btinternet.com 25 NOVEMBER - 21 DECEMBER Christmas Collection A smorgasbord of seasonal gift ideas from local artisans - everything from jewellery to ceramics, textiles to toys. Free. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

UNTIL 30 NOVEMBER Pedestrian Paintings, etchings, frescoes and drawings showcasing a two-year collaborative urban outlings project

by Fiona Bradford and Nikki Taylor.

Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA11JL. 01823 283244.

Arts University Bournemouth Across AUB Campus Galleries, Library, South House, University House, CRAB Drawing Studio Courtyard. “A series of Immersive Art Installations and Experiences” Lead Curator - Violet M. McClean Curator - William Hernandez Abreu Assistant Curator - Millie Lake Exhibition Designed by Rasa Vaineikyte and Thaires Vicentini

art historian and Artistic Director of the RA; Adelaide Damoah, painter and performance artist; John Talbot, art collector and Mark Hudson, awardwinning art writer and critic for The Telegraph. Further selectors include RWA Academicians Malcolm Ashman, Dallas Collins, Toni Davey, Stewart Geddes and Leslie Glenn Damhus. This year, for the first time, the galleries will be opening late for a special Halloween After Hours event, where you can explore the 167 Annual Open by torchlight! RWA, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1PX. rwa.org. uk.

UNTIL 5 JAN 2020 David Smith. Field Work Debut solo show conceived as four chapters of work spanning over three decades (from 1933 to 1964) that aim to demonstrate Smith’s diverse visual language and multifaceted creative process. Curated by the artist’s daughters Rebecca and Candida Smith.

Hauser & Wirth, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL Bharti Kher A Wonderful Anarchy. New work following her 2017 three-month residency. Her first solo exhibition at

Hauser & Wirth Somerset and marks a return to the most elemental themes within her practice. Kher, who works across a multitude of forms, will present a body of sculpture, installation, and paintings. In the process of transforming found objects, and continually experimenting with materials, she layers references: to the mythological and scientific, secular and ritualistic, physical and psychological. At the centre of all works is the abstraction of shape and confluence of time in a provocative meeting of materials. Hauser & Wirth, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL UNTIL MARCH 2020 Roots of Religion in West Bay November opening - Saturday and Sunday 11am - 4pm. This year marks the anniversary of the opening of the Methodist Chapel (170 years ago) and St John’s Church (80 years ago). Explore the history of these two churches and the stories of those associated with them at West Bay Discovery Centre. Admission free, donations welcomed. Further details www.westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk/

UNTIL 1 DECEMBER The RWA’s renowned Annual Open Exhibition returns for its 167th year with a stunning variety of work from emerging and established artists. This year’s Annual Open will include work by invited artists Adelaide Damoah and Ryan Mosley as well as the RWA’s own Academicians.

A selection panel assesses every entry and last year 634 works by 413 artists made it into the final exhibition. This year’s selectors include Tim Marlow,

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Earth Tones in Lyme Regis T

his venture sees two artists, sculptor Martin Staniforth and artist Lisa Parkyn respond to nature through their range of media— including clay, acrylic, bronze, oil and charcoal.

Martin Staniforth focuses on emergence, regeneration and natural progression, drawing influences from nature and mankind’s experience of nature.

Artist Lisa Parkyn paints the untamed landscapes surrounding her: the wilds of Dartmoor, the energetic rivers and the crumbling Jurassic cliffs, reminiscent of the Kalahari sands from her African childhood.

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Earth Tones is at The Malthouse Gallery in Lyme Regis 1st - 17th November 10.45 am - 4 30 pm. www.townmill.org.uk

Peter Randell-Page is Guest Artist at SWAc Open Exhibition

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he guest artist at this year’s SWAc Open Exhibition is Royal Academician Peter Randall-Page. Peter gained an international reputation through his sculpture, drawings and prints. Exhibiting a painted bronze sculpture: Theme and Variation 1, Peter will also be showing 2D prints and sponsoring one of the prizes at the Open exhibition, Exeter Castle.

The exhibition will be at Exeter Castle, Exeter EX4 3PU, running from 12 - 23 November The gallery space will be open from 10.00 to 4:30 daily.

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Amanda

POPHAM AT THE STEAM GALLERY IN BEER

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Amanda Popham Solo Show November 2nd - 15th

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nspiration, imagination, creativity, mood, wit, poignancy, thoughtfulness, fun. All these words spring to mind when viewing the artworks of award winning and internationally renowned potter Amanda Popham. Back for her 16th year of exhibiting at Steam Gallery, Amanda will be showcasing over 60 new works from 2nd – 15th November 2019.

As a highly regarded British earthenware sculptor and long-standing member of the Devon Guild of Craftsman, Amanda Popham’s extensive reputation has been established since being exhibited at Liberty’s in the 80s and 90s. Inspired by medieval allegories and symbolism, her sculptural works reflect a range of human emotions including pensive, reflective, joyful, optimistic, doleful, or amusing characteristics. With a highly original style, her unique, imaginative, hand built earthenware figures exude a natural spontaneity, and her instantly recognisable idiosyncratic and fantastic pieces have an ever-widening circle of private collectors from across the world.

Don’t miss the launch day on Saturday 2nd November from 11 am. Everyone is welcome to attend this special event where champagne and canapes will be served, but more importantly Amanda Popham will be present. Simply contact the gallery on 01297 625144 for an invite.

Most pieces will be available to view online, however nothing can surpass the impact and sheer joy of seeing the entire exhibition which will be open daily from 10 am – 5 pm.

Located in Beer on the World Heritage Jurassic Coast and finalist in the Channel 4 series British Village of the Year, Marine House at Beer started over 20 years ago with Steam Gallery opening four years later. Owners Mike and Rosemary Lambert both wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of business in London. Art collectors themselves, Rosemary and Mike were inspired to follow their passion and keen sense for spotting artistic talent. They have gone on to establish two of the best known and longstanding contemporary art galleries outside of London.

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AROUND the

Galleries & Studios

William Wright at The Art Stable The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset DT11 8HB until November 16th. www.theartstable.co.uk

Roots of Religion in West Bay. Until March 2020. West Bay Discovery Centre Chapel on the Beach, West Bay DT6 4EN 01308 427288 www.westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk

The Epic travels of Nick Jubber

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pic stories are like wild beasts—beautiful and powerful. But if they are mishandled, they can really bite.

Across Europe, stories are being retold and retooled, ancient stories that speak to us about some of the trickiest issues we face in our world today.

Travelling between Turkey and Iceland, in the slipstream of six of our most iconic epic stories, writer Nick Jubber met Basque activists demonstrating at the site of an eight century battle, Serbian folk-singers who’d recited epic songs in the trenches of the Bosnian War, German playwrights re imagining Hitler’s favourite epic as a paean for tolerance and Syrian refugees responding to the themes of the Odyssey.

Jubber, who will be speaking at Bridport Literary Festival on Monday 4 November, says: ‘Epic stories can help us to contextualise our most extreme experiences, and they are particularly strong on themes like grief and the aftermath of war. But they are also vulnerable to political exploitation.

‘In the course of my journey, I met with storytellers and artists as well as political activists, war veterans and refugees. In Greece, I attended an open mic reading of the Odyssey led by a renowned lyre-player.

‘Members of the public took turns to read passages from Homer’s epic, and afterwards discussed what it meant for them. “We see this as our story,” one of them told me, “All our troubles in Greece today, all the things we are suffering.” “It is not from that time only”, another insisted, “but every time… It gives you hope.”

In the Pyrenees, Jubber met Basque demonstrators who gathered on the hilltop where their ancestors slew the epic hero Roland, the greatest of Charlemagne’s mighty paladins, the first and only war the Basque people have ever won.

‘At a time when history is being marshalled by politicians—from the Vox Party in Spain using the narrative of the Reconquista to the Alternativ für Deutschland in Germany citing the myth of the Nibelungen, from the exploitation of Anglo-Saxon identity by Nigel Farage and his followers to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s exploitation of nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire—it is all the more important that we understand the truth behind these myths,’ Jubber says.

‘Travelling around the continent, I studied these stories and sought out their historical underpinnings. It led me to some surprising adventures— from losing my luggage at the mouth of the Greek underworld to wading across frozen Icelandic rivers, from sheltering from a thunderstorm at the palace of Odysseus to drinking rakija with Serbian war veterans under portraits of political bogeymen like Vladimir Putin and Slobodan Milosevic.

‘It also showed me a version of Europe that is very different from the one peddled by so many populist leaders: where stories overlap and intersect, eluding simplistic definitions, reminding us how widely they have travelled, and illustrating the tangled roots on which our identities are built.

‘The old English epic, Beowulf, illustrates this point: a story composed in England, but set mostly in Denmark, with a hero from what is now Sweden, which was claimed on its rediscovery in the eighteenth century by Germany.

‘Beowulf is a brawny hero, but he’s also a diplomat, engaging in the network of alliances that underpinned early medieval European society. In dramatising the importance of alliances, along with the inter connectedness of European storytelling, these stories remind us of our deeplyrooted connections with our European neighbours—a lesson we need to heed, now more than ever.’ · Award-winning travel writer Nick Jubber will be talking about Epic Continent: Adventures in the Great Story of Europe at The Bull Ballroom on Monday 4 November at 11.30am.

Tickets are £10 and can be obtained from Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901 or from bridlit.com

Lines that are already there. Drawings by Jo Burlington. 4th to 30th November.

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PREVIEW On Stage - In and Around the Vale Politics is for kids DORCHESTER

HOW Does This Politics Thing Work? is a show for children who think (like the rest of us) that politics is boring, complicated—and for adults. Find out why politics does matter at Dorchester Arts on Saturday 2nd November at 2.30pm.

Politics is super important and can be made really fun, if you know how. Luckily Tatton Spiller (Simple Politics) and Tiernan Douieb (Comedy Club 4 Kids, CBBC’s The Slammer) know exactly how and in their 60-minute show, How Does This Politics Thing Work, they will show you how to make sense of it all.

Belle Marshall, Dorchester Youth Council chairman, says: “A show that helps young people become interested in politics and is fun at the same time is a great thing.”

You might not be able to vote yet—but you do have opinions. You know the world you want to see. You know what’s right and what’s wrong. Also, you want to have fun.

Comedy Club 4 Kids specialises in making children laugh and Simple Politics aims to help them understand how politics works in a clear, informative and fun way. They have teamed up for a show that keeps you entertained, engaged and informed so you can also shout at the telly along with your parents during Question Time!

The Alzheimer’s Whodunnit CHARMOUTH AND VILLAGES

COMEDIAN, poet and psychiatric nurse Rob Gee comes to Dorset with Artsreach for a short tour with his show Forget Me Not—The Alzheimer’s Whodunnit, at Milborne St Andrew village hall, on Friday 29th November, Nether Compton on Saturday 30th, and Charmouth‘s St Andrew’s Community Hall on Sunday 1st December (at 3pm).

to complex geometry, looking like the interlocking parts of a machine with bending, folding steps as intricate as origami.

Nobody Likes a Pixelated Squid is an urban hiphop duet, inspired by the fluid movements of various land and sea creatures.

Fusing music and movement, the dancers invent a geometry of contemporary dance that they call ‘conceptual hiphop’ or ‘deconstructed street dance’.

Choreographers Emmanuelle and Elon have worked together since 2005, forming Tentacle Tribe in 2012 after their first performance for Cirque Du Soleil in Quebec City.

Scottish folk trio CERNE ABBAS Forget Me Not—Rob Gee image by Nick Rawle

Jim’s wife, a patient on a dementia ward, has died from what appears to be natural causes. Jim is a retired police detective and he smells a rat. He’s determined to solve one last murder. The problem is he also has dementia. It’s a case worthy of the greatest detective mind. But his will have to do.

By turns hilarious and thought-provoking, this one-man, comedy-poetry-theatre show has a lot to say about how we treat and perceive people with dementia.

Hiphop geometry MARTINSTOWN

HIPHOP troupe Tentacle Tribe, based in Montreal, Canada, make their Artsreach debut at Martinstown village hall on Sunday 10th November with a double bill, Origami Mami and Nobody Likes a Pixelated Squid.

In Origami Mami, three female dancers perform a routine that unfolds from simple

ALBA Scots Folk Band of 2017 and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winners, the Scottish trio Talisk comes to Cerne Abbas village hall on Thursday 14th November.

Mohsen Amini, Hayley Keenan and Graeme Armstrong seamlessly meld concertina, fiddle and guitar to produce a multi-layered, enthralling sound that has effortlessly captivated audiences from the USA to Australia, and throughout the UK. Appearances at world-leading festivals including the Cambridge Folk Festival, WOMAD and Celtic Connections have gathered a loyal following, while the world’s folk and world music media have also lauded the trio.

A five star review in Songlines for their second album, Beyond, in October 2018, praised Talisk as “incredibly infectious and endearing… fresh, invigorating, accomplished and playfully frisky.”

Once upon a time ...

STOCKLAND

THE Brothers Grimm are ... well, pretty

Scoundrels in Axminster AXMINSTER Musical Theatre brings stylish musical comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to Axminster Guildhall this autumn, under the guidance of director Nick Lawrence, musical director Joseph Binmore and choreographer Rachel Worsley.

With sassy music by David Yazbek and a quick-fire script from Jeffrey Lane, the show breathes new life into the original 1988 film, a tale of competing con artists in the south of France that starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin.

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features as André, and Silvey Webber appears as naive victim Claire Colgate. In addition, a strong ensemble cast adds full-on vocals and fancy footwork to the whole mix of farce, intrigue and lunacy.

It’s wet and cold outside, the nights are drawing in, so don’t miss out on this trip to the Mediterranean, courtesy of Axminster Musical Theatre.

Axminster Musical Theatre’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels runs from 20 until 23 November. Evening performances begin at 7.30 p.m. and there is a 2.30 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are available from The Archway Bookshop (01297 33595), or from www.axmt.co.uk/book-online.

PREVIEW grim really. But when Bristol’s anarchic clowning company Gonzo Moose takes on the masters of German storytelling, the results are hilarious, as the audience will discover at Stockland village hall, near Honiton, on Sunday 10th November.

Once Upon a Time…The Misadventures of the Brothers Grimm is a show for all the family, beginning at 4pm, part of the autumn Villages in Action rural touring programme.

Founded in 2000, by Mark Dawson and Paschale Straiton, Gonzo Moose has forged a unique brand of comedy theatre blending visual comedy, dramatic storytelling and physical theatre. Dawson and Straiton delight in spoofing genres, mashing up traditional tales and generally being silly.

• There is another event raising funds for Stockland village hall on Saturday 2nd November, 8pm until late, when funky 10-piece Area 52 plays for the Halloween Ball.There will be a cash prize for the spookiest costume!

Thinking Drinkers BRIDPORT

THE Thinking Drinkers return to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 23rd November with their new show, Heroes Of Hooch, a hilarious and intoxicating look at history’s greatest drinkers.

Enjoy five free drinks as the awardwinning experts reveal how alcohol has inspired pioneering explorers, politicians and painters in equal measure, from Plato and Picasso, to Nelson, Napoleon and Norm from Cheers.

There is more comedy, this time with morning, from Mitch Benn, who comes to the arts centre on 30th November with a show promising one broken world and ten funny songs to fix it.

Join Mitch, the “country’s leading musical satirist” (The Times) as, with six string in hand and a head full of silly rhymes, he identifies the problems and proposes (semi-serious) solutions.

Flemish folk SYDLING ST NICHOLAS

FLEMISH folk band Trio Dhoore comes to Sydling St Nicholas village hall on Sunday 3rd November, as part of a short tour with Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring charity.

The band of musical brothers from Flanders, play “rooted folk music,” breathing life, freedom and energy into a repertoire of traditional Flemish tunes and their own material. They create a soundscape where folky grooves, melancholy melodies and intuitive interplay combine to unique effect.

Koen (electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy), Hartwin (diatonic accordion) and Ward

Once upon a time in Stockland

(acoustic guitar/mandolin) have honed their pure acoustic sound and refreshing arrangements, with performances at venues and festivals across Europe, and the release of four acclaimed albums to date.

Dances of freedom DRIMPTON

THE two athletic dancers who perform as Alleyne Dance come to Drimpton village hall on Thursday 14th November with A Night’s Game, a piece of dance theatre inspired by true life events.

How does it feel to have your freedom taken from you? Would you spend every waking hour longing to be free again? Or would you fight against it?

A Night’s Game reflects the turmoil and strife when faced with the prospect of incarceration. The stories which have inspired this powerful and dynamic performance include escapes from the infamous Alcatraz prison.

Alleyne Dance combines athletic strength with grace and beauty to create a dark, atmospheric and abstract show that is as thrilling as it is powerful.

Chieftains to create an intensely moving concert experience ranging from classical to gypsy jazz to folk.

Hailed as a modern “improvising Paganini”, Kliphuis has an inclusive approach to music that unites audiences and is influencing a new generation of string players.

Concerts in the West (x2) TOURING

LOVERS of chamber music have a double dose of delight with two Concerts in the West visits in November—the Consone Quartet from Wednesday 31st October to 2nd November, and the Ruisi Quartet with a one-off concert at Ilminster on 15th November.

The Consone Quartet, Agata Daraskaite, violin, Magdalena Loth-Hill, violin, Elitsa

Back to Bach YETMINSTER & PORTESHAM

AWARD-winning Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis, a legend in the gypsy world, brings his trio to Dorset for a short Artsreach tour, including Yetminster’s Jubilee Hall on Friday 8th and Portesham village hall on Sunday 10th, all at 7.30pm.

In this new show, Brandenburg!, Kliphuis, with Nigel Clark (guitar) and Roy Percy (bass), re-defines the music of JS Bach, Django and the

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PREVIEW

Fighting for freedom with Alleyne Dance, coming to Drimpton village hall

Bogdanova, viola, and George Ross, cello, was formed at the Royal College of Music.

Their awards and accolades include the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize. two prizes at the 2015 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition and selection as BBC New Generation Artists and Concordia Foundation Artists.

They focus on the classical and early romantic repertoire, playing on period instruments. They recently made an acclaimed debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as performances at King’s Place, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Cheltenham, Lammermuir, Buxton and King’s Lynn Festivals. Their debut CD, featuring music

by Haydn and Mendelssohn, was released on the Ambronay Label in October 2018.

The Consone Quartet begins the tour on Thursday 31st October at 7.30pm. at the CICCIC Creative Innovation Centre, Paul Street, Taunton. On Friday 1st November there is a coffee concert at Bridport Arts Centre at 11am, and an evening recital at Ilminster Arts Centre at the Meeting House at 7.30pm. The final event is at Crewkerne Dance House, in North Street, at 7.30pm.

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PREVIEW the 2019 Concerts in the West season at Ilminster, playing Britten’s Three Divertimenti, Haydn’s String Quartet No 2 in B minor, Op 64, and Mendelssohn String Quartet No 2 in A minor, Op 13.

Founded in 2013 by British/Sicilian brothers Alessandro and Max, the Ruisi Quartet is already recognised as one of the UK’s leading string quartets of its generation, performing regularly throughout the UK and Europe.

The quartet is committed to ongoing studies with leading musicians/conductors, such as cellist/conductor David Watkin (through the Aldeburgh Chamber Music Residency), and with Thomas Adés (IMS Prussia Cove masterclasses).

Founder and director of Concerts in the West, Catherine Maddocks, said: “Max Ruisi stepped in at the last minute to help us in 2018 and proved a tremendous success with audiences, so we are delighted that he is bringing the Ruisi Quartet this year.”

A monstrous life on stage BRIDPORT AND DORCHESTER

MARY Shelley’s Frankenstein, first published more than 200 years ago, continues to appeal and fascinate us and remains acutely relevant today, as a new show demonstrates at Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 2nd

New music for Nosferatu LYME REGIS

Nosferatu in Lyme Regis November and Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday 3rd.

The Monster and Mary Shelley, created by Scottish company The Occasion, draws its inspiration not only from the novel but from Shelley’s own remarkable life, creating a journey through the mind of one of literature’s most influential imaginations.

Incorporating elements of music hall, melodrama, horror and teenage rebellion with a contemporary cinematic score, the play is an atmospheric, moving, and at times darkly comic exploration of the gothic girl who electrified the world.

Throughout her life, Mary Shelley was at the forefront of social change in a turbulent world. Her exploration of fear, in the form of Frankenstein’s Monster, spawned a whole genre of fiction and continues to hold a massive relevance in the present day.

ONE of the masterpieces of the silent era, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror will be screened at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Hallowe’en, 31st October, with the Arranz Ensemble playing a newly composed score.

First released in 1922 and based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu is one of the all-time film classics.. Its significance was recognised after it was released in America in 1929. Made in Germany in 1921 and directed by FW Murnau, it stars Max Schreck as one of the timeless icons of cinema—Nosferatu—a figure endlessly revisited in popular culture, from Herzog’s remake to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Arranz Ensemble, playing oboe, bassoon, sax, accordion, piano, percussion and electronica, uses modern atmospheric techniques, classical music, jazz and melodrama to create a sound-world that enhances the brooding and emotional qualities of the film.

The evening begins with the ensemble accompanying some of the silent films of Georges Méliès, known as the Magician of Cinema, who created fabulous underwater kingdoms, fiery hellish caves and silly kitchens.

The Monster and Mary Shelly in Bridport on November 2nd and Dorchester November 3rd Photograph by Marc Marnie

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Christmas Beauties

with Beasties and Garden Fairies

Snow White and friends gather in Yeovil

Beauty, Beast and Marzipan EXETER

STEVE Bennett consolidates his welcome return to Exeter’s Northcott Theatre this Christmas, playing our heroine’s father M. Marzipan in a new version of Beauty and the Beast.

On stage at the university campus from Saturday 30th November to Sunday 5th January, the show is written and directed by the theatre’s artistic and executive director Daniel Buckroyd, who promises a Northcott panto that’s bigger and better than ever!

When Belle, the most beautiful girl in Paris, bumps into Prince Valentin in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, love is definitely in the air. Well, that’s until an evil enchant­ress turns up and everything suddenly gets a bit hairy ... really hairy!

Join Belle’s sister Soufflé, her father M. Marzipan and Dame Betty Bonbon as they team up to free Belle from the clutches of the Beast and save the family business. Will good triumph over evil? Will Betty finally

find the sugar daddy she’s been waiting for?

Will love find a way to reunite Belle and her missing prince?

Find out at the Northcott.

This is the perfect way to introduce children to the excitement of live theatre, telling a story of magic and hope and full of comedy and romance.

Cinderella PLYMOUTH

Mirror Mirror YEOVIL

PANTOMIME maestro Brian Conley plays his signature role of Buttons in the Plymouth Theatre Royal production of Cinderella, from 20th December to 18th January.

Known as the fairy godmother of all pantomimes, Cinderella is the story of a kind girl with two step-sisters from hell.

When her widowed father takes up with a new wife, the “girls” come too. It’s not for nothing they are known as the Ugly Sisters, and their faces are fair by comparison with their behaviour to the unfortunate Cinders.

But her goodness shines through, and when she helps a poor old lady in the forest, little does she know that she has found her salvation and that all her dreams will come true.

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YEOVIL Octagon’s pantomime this Christmas is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, running from 6th December to 5th January.

Written by Paul Hendy and Mirror, Mirror on the wall, what’s the greatest pantomime of them all?

Don’t miss our spectacular, fun-packed, family pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!

Once again, the show will be written by Paul Hendy and produced by Evolution, the same team that brought you the smash hit show, Aladdin.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs promises to be exceptional entertainment with strong casting, stunning costumes and scenery and a genuinely funny script.

Shane Richie is Dik Whittington in Bridtol Book now for the funniest and most spectacular show of the year!

Cinderella WEYMOUTH

The world’s’ favourite pantomime, Cinderella, is also at Weymouth Pavilion, from 14th December to 4th January.

Starring Lexi Pilgrim in the title role, with Luke Attwood and Bran-don Nicholson as her ugly step sisters and Yvonne Patterson as their mother, Gwynfryn West as her devoted friend Buttons and Lee Redwood as her Fairy Godmother, this is a traditional pantomime for

Beauty and the Beast BATH

Bath’s favourite comic, Jon Monie, turns his versatile hand to writing this year, providing a new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast for the Theatre Royal from 12th December to 12th January.

He plays Louis La Plonk, joining Nick Wilton as Polly La Plonk, Wendi Peter as Fairy Bon Bon and Shaun Dalton as the Beast, with Blare Maynard as Belle—the beauty of the title.

Beanstalk POOLE

Poole’s Lighthouse welcomes Peter Duncan back for the pantomime this year, playing his first dame role in Jack and the Beanstalk.

He leads a cast including former Sugarbabe Amelle Berrabah and Connor Byrne from Tracy Beaker.

Giant Blunderbore is in a terrible rage, threatening to eat any villager who won’t pay their rent. Poor Dame Trott has to sell her precious cow Buttercup and sends her son Jack to market to get the best price he can. Jack is in love with Jill, the Squire’s daughter and is easily fooled by the Giant’s henchman Fleshcreepy, who cons him to part up with Buttercup in exchange for a bag of beans.

Will Jack save the village from the human-chomping ogre? Only the magic Garden Fairy knows that.

Christmas Shows BRISTOL

The Tobacco Factory in Southville always takes and alternative look at the traditional Christmas entertainment, and this year the story is Snow White, set in a wild and windswept land, far, far away.

Snow falls on a castle nestled among the trees where a cruel Queen is assured by her magic mirror that her beauty surpasses all others. Until one day when the mirror proclaims that Snow White, the Queen’s stepdaughter, is the fairest in the land. Fleeing the Queen’s rage, Snow White runs deeper into the forest where she finds refuge with a motley crew of characters that accept her as one of their own and show her a different way to live.

Shane Richie, Jennie Dale and Peter Piper star in the Bristol Hippodrome production of Dick Whittington, on stage from Saturday 7th December to Sunday 5th January.

Watch as our hero heads for London to seek his fortune, gets a job with Alderman Fitzwarren, falls for his daughter, and then has to rely on his clever cat to help him rid the capital of its infestation of rats.

So successful was the 2018-19 production of A Christmas Carol at Bristol Old Vic that it’s back this time by popular demand, from 28th November to 12th January.

Lee Lyford directs Tom Morris’s exciting adaptation of the Dickens’ classic, with Gwyneth Herbert in charge of the music.

GP-W

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The Forgotten Story of ‘the Cripple Suffragette’ Dorchester Corn Exchange - Wednesday 6 November

A

n original play tells the widely forgotten true story of May Billinghurst, known as ‘the Cripple Suffragette’, who played a key role in the women’s rights movement at Dorchester Arts on Wednesday 6 November at 8pm.

May Billinghurst was a women’s rights activist who suffered from polio as a child, which left her unable to walk without the aid of crutches or a modified tricycle. The play uses extracts from real letters exchanged between May Billinghurst, her family, Emmeline Pankhurst and other suffragettes, as well as courtroom transcripts from her trial.

Dorchester Arts Artistic Director Mark Tattersall commented “As well as telling the story of women’s suffrage from Billinghurst’s overlooked point of view, the one-woman show also explores the repression of LGBTQI individuals and the restricted lives of those with disabilities in the early 20th century. Today, in a society where many still fight for their voices to be heard, Kemp poses the question - how far have we really come in 100 years?”

The show will be followed by a question and answer session with writer, actor and activist Phoebe Kemp. The performance will be fully accessible with integrated audio description and touch tours.

Tickets are £13 full price or £11 for Members of Dorchester Arts, under-18s or those on low income and are available from the Dorchester Arts box office on 01305 266926, in person at the Corn Exchange (weekdays 10am - 4pm) or via www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

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PERFORMANCE MONDAY 28 OCTOBER BATH, Theatre Royal, A Taste of Honey with Jodie Prenger, to Sat, Wed/Sat mats.

BRISTOL, Old Vic, Cyrano, to 16 Nov. Tobacco Factory, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in Much Ado About Nothing, to 9 Nov. BROADMAYNE, Village Hall, Theatre Fideri Fidera in Ogg n Ugg n Dogg, 3pm.

AR PURBECK, Purbeck Film Festival, Rex Cinema and various venues, to 2 Nov. TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Focus.

TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER BRISTOL, St George’s, Gilbert O’Sullivan, 7.30.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, The Lady Vanishes, to Sat, 7.30, Wed/Sat mats 2.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Centre Stage in Oklahoma!, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Gaugin, Exhibition on Screen from National Gallery, 3pm, PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Drum Studio, Chris Thorpe in Status, solo play with music, to Sat. SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth Musical Theatre and Sidmouth Musical Comedy Society in Scrooge - the Musical, to Sat, 7.30, Sat/Sun mats 2.30.

SOUTHAMPTON, Mayflower, Les Miserables, to 23 Nov. SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, La Baracca in Upside Down, none verbal show fro 2 to 5 year olds, 11am and 1.30pm. TA TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Ballet Cymru in Romeo and Juliet, and Wed. WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Paddleboat in Clare Hollingworth and the Scoop of the Century, 2pm.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Jimeoin, Ramble On, comedy, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Ocean Room, Only Fools and Boycie with John Challis, 7.30.

HONITON, Beehive, Show of Hands, Now we are Four, with Miranda Sykes and Cormac Byrne, 7.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Archipelago, trio from Tyneside, 8.

WEYMOUTH, St Mary’s Church, Weymouth Lunchtime Chamber Concerts, Neil Aston, clarinet, Duncan Honeybourne, piano, Stanford and Lovreglio, 1pm.

Pavilion, Weymouth Drama Club in Murdered to Death, to Fri, 7.30.

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Frankenweenie, children’s Hallowe’en film, 11am: Rocky Horror Picture Show, 7.30.

Electric Palace, Northern Ballet in Dracula, satellite screening, 7.15.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Nosferatu,

1922 Murnau version, with new score played by Arranz Ensemble, 8pm.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Alien, Hallowe’en Special, 7.30.

Creative Innovation Centre, Concerts in the West, Consone Quartet, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Literary Festival, to 4 Nov. FRIDAY 1 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Consone Quartet, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, 11am: Ye Vagabonds, Irish folk, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Simon and Garfunkel Through the Years, 8.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, ABS Theatre in Adam Barnard’s Buckets, 7.30.

HONITON, Beehive, Honiton Community Theatre in The Dracula Spectacular, to Sat, 7pm, Sat mat 2pm. lLMINSTER, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Consone Quartet, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, 7.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Harbour Voices, shanty choir, The Pull of the Tide, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Wassail Theatre in Over the Wall Picking Apples, 7.30.

SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Monster and Mary Shelley, play, with Catherine Gillard, 7.30.

BRIANTSPUDDLE, Village Hall, Screen Bites - The Second Slice, Romantics Anonymous.

CREDITON, Arts Centre, Bagas Degol, The Winding World, words, poetry, songs and music, 7pm. ViA CREWKERNE, Dance House, Concerts in the West, Consone Quartet, Boccherini, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, How Does This Politics Thing Work, Then?, with Tatton Spiller and Tiernan Douieb, comedy, 2.30.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Al Murray, Landlord of Hope and Glory, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Reg Meuross, singer songwriter, 8pm.

STOCKLAND, Village Hall, Area 52, funk band Hallowe’en Ball, 8.

PLYMOUTH, Guildhall, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, cond Marta Gardolinska, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, violin, Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky violin concerto, Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Legends of American Country.

SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Catherine Gillard in The Monster and Mary Shelley, 7pm.

EXETER, University Great Hall, Russell Kane, the Fast and the Curious, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Legends of American Country.

SYDLING ST NICHOLAS, Village Hall, Trio Dhoore, Flemish folk, 7.30. AR WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Festival of Remembrance, 6.30.

YEOVIL, Westlands, Mark “Billy” Billingham, talk, 7.30.

MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Living Spit and Kate Dimbleby in Odyssey, and Tues, 7.30.

Corn Exchange, Mark Billingham, 7.30.

TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER BATH, Theatre Royal, Calendar Girls - the Musical, to Sat, 7.30, Wed/Thurs/Sat mats 2.30.

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Briport Film Society, Border, 7.45.

PLYMOUTH, Pavilions, Tim Minchin, and Wed. Theatre Royal, Drum Studio, Breach Theatre in It’s True, It’s True, It’s True, to Sat. POOLE, Lighthouse, James Wilton Dance in The Storm, 7.45.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Craig Ogden, guitar, Bach, Scarlatti, Rodrigo, Albeniz, Torroba and Sor, 7.30.

WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Elvis Unleashed, outtakes and unseen footage from 1968 Comeback Special, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Wyldwood Arts in May, story of suffragette May Billinghurst, 8pm.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Rachel Rooney, poetry, 10.30am.

Corn Exchange, The Top Dog Film Festival, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Russian State Ballet and Opera in The Nutcracker, 7.30.

THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER BATH, Forum, Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, with Ruby Turner, Eddi Reader, Pauline Black and Arthur “gaps” Hendrickson.

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Leonardo’s Full Story, exhibitions on screen, 7.30.

Electric Palace, Hansard, live from the National Theatre, 7pm.

EXETER, University Great Hall, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, cond Marta Gardolinska, Leonard Elschenbroich, cello, Caledonian Grandeur, Smetana, Dvorak cello concerto, Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony, 7.30.

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PERFORMANCE Cygnet Theatre, Cygnet co in 1819- John Keats’ Year of Wonders, part of Exeter Literary Festival, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 3pm.

Corn Exchange, Graeme Swann and Henry Blofeld, Dancing Down the Wicket, 7.30.

Barnfield Theatre, Devon Opera in The Barber of Seville, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Simply reRed. HONITON, Beehive, Hansard, live from National Theatre, 7pm.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Hansard, live from National Theatre, 7pm.

SEATON, Gateway, Hansard, live from National Theatre, 7pm.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, James Phelan, Trickster, comedy.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Russian State Ballet and Opera in Don Quixote, 7.30.

Westlands, Stewart Francis, Into the Punset, comedy, 8.

FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Absolutely Elton, Not the Yellow Brick Road tour, 7.30.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Islands in the Stream, music of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, 7.30.

Powderham Castle, Apollo 5, acappella from Renaissance to jazz and pop, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Blackmore Theatre, Exmouth Players in 1960s - The Musical, and Sat, 7.30.

Pavilion, The Drifters.

ILMINSTER, Warehouse, Opera Sulis gala concert, 7.30.

Arts Centre, Pedigree Jazz Band and Craig Milverton and his Legacy Band, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Jazz Jurassica, The Tom Seals Band, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Eban Brown, from the Stylistics.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Beyond the Barricade, 7.30 Westlands, Monsters of Rock, 8pm to 1am.

YETMINSTER, Jubilee Hall, Tim Kliphuis Trio, Brandenberg, jazz, 7.30. AR SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Madame Butterfly live from Metropolital Opera, 5.55.

CHETNOLE, Village Hall, Paddleboat Theatre in Clare Hollingworth and the Scoop of the Century, 10am. AR DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, The Undercover Hippy, singer, songwriter, poet etc, 8.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Austentatious, an improvised Jane Austen novel, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Rock’n’Roll Paradise.

HONITON, Beehive, Katy Hurt, the Revved Up tour, country and Americana, 8pm.

ILMINSTER, Warehouse, Comedy Club with Roger Monkhouse, Suzy Bennett and David Arnold, 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, New Jersey Boys, O What a Night, 7.30.

Parish Church, Jonathan Radford, saxophone, Christine Zerafa, piano, Milhaud, Faure, de Falla, 3pm.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Skerryvore, contemporary folk, 8pm.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Platinum Little Stars.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Mark Watson, The Infinite Show, comedy, 8.

Westlands, Show of Hands with Miranda Skyes and Cormack Byrne, folk, 7.30.

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, The Wit and Songs of Noel Coward, with Peter Gill, 3pm.

EXETER, St Nicholas Priory, Alex Poulton, baritone, Schubert Der Winterreise, 6pm.

Corn Exchange, Sounds of the Supremes, 7.30.

MARTINSTOWN, Village Hall, Tentacle Tribe in Origami Mami and Nobody Like a Pixilated Squid, dance, 7.30. AR PORTESHAM, Village Hall, Tim Kliphuis Trio, Brandenberg, jazz, 7.30. AR STOCKLAND, Hall, Gonzo Moose in Once Upon a Time, 4pm. ViA WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Simon and Garfunkel Story.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, 7.30.

MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER YEOVIL, Octagon, Classic Thriller Theatre in The Lady Vanishes, to Sat, 7.30.

Swan Theatre, Regeneration, to Sat TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, 42nd Street - the Musical, recorded from Drury Lane, 7pm.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, English Touring Opera, Mozart, The Seraglio, and Sat 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Jonathan Goodwin and Suzy Celensu in The Talking Dead, the stories of Lizzie Bordon and Dr Henry Howard Holmes, 7.30.

SEATON, Gateway, 2nd Street - the Musical, recorded from Drury Lane, 7pm.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Ed Gamble, Blizzard, comedy.

Tacchi-Morris, Heathfield Community School Launch Pad Festival, Rags’n’Riches, money orientated songs from musicals, and Wed, 7pm.

YEOVIL, Westlands, Neil Oliver, The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, 7.30.

WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER BATH, Theatre Royal, Helen George in My Cousin Rachel, to 23 Nov, evenings and various matinees.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Oyster Band and June Tabor, 8.

WEYMOUTH, St Mary’s Church, Weymouth Lunchtime Chamber Concerts, Joseph Spooner, cello, Duncan Honeybourne, piano, Greville Cooke, EJ Moeran, 1pm.

THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER BRISTOL, St George’s, Barb Jungr, Bob, Brel and Me, 6.30 talk, concert 8pm.

CERNE ABBAS, Village Hall, Talisk, Scottish contemporary folk, 7.30. AR DRIMPTON, Village Hall, Alleyne Dance in A Night’s Game, 7.30. AR EXETER, Northcott Theatre, English Touring Opera, Kurt Weill, The Silver Lake (der silbersee), and Fri, 7.30.

Corn Exchange, Andy Parsons, Healing the Nation, comedy.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, The Carpenters Experience, 8pm.

PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Drum Studio, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to 30 Nov. TAUNTON, Tacchi-Morris, Papa Tango, rehearsed readings of new plays by south western writers.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Dorset Rock Choir.

YEOVIL, Westlands, Russell Kane, The Fast and Curious, comedy, 7.30.

FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Martyn Joseph, singer songwriter, 8pm.

BRISTOL, St George’s, Making Tracks, world music, 7.30.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Elkie Brooks, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, And Finally … Phil Collins.

HONITON, Beehive, Multi-Story Theatre in Hefted, new play about Devon by David Lane, 7.30. ViA ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Ruisi Quartet, Britten, Haydn, Mendelssohn, 7.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, The Blues Band, SOLD OUT SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Ballet Theatre UK in The Wizard of Oz, and Sat, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Hip Yack Poetry Shack, poets and pints, 7.30.

TALATON, Parish Hall, The Black Feathers, folk, roots and Americana, 7.30.

ViA WEST STAFFORD, Village Hall, Little Earthquake in I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost, 7.30. AR YEOVIL, Westlands, The Power Ballad Show, 7.30.

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Playing Jackson JACKSON Live in Concert, presented by Sweeney Entertainments, brings the hugely talented ‘CJ’ to theatres across the UK, recreating the Michael Jackson experience with his stunning rendition of all his favourite songs.

Michael Jackson is not only remembered as one of the most influential artists of all time, but many of today’s artists have been inspired by his iconic style. His career spanned nearly five decades of music, and he was continually at the forefront of popular music.

CJ is one of the most experienced, dedicated and well-respected Michael Jackson Tribute artists in the world today, and he perfectly captures the electrifying energy of Michael’s live performances with 100% Live Vocals. He’s got the look, the moonwalk and the voice!

CJ said “No show can ever compare to seeing the man himself live but Michael Jackson fans who have seen our show have commented that it’s the closest thing to seeing MJ live. This makes me very happy, proud and honoured to give fans a taste of what it was like to see Michael Jackson in action.”

Jackson Live in Concert brings together superb musicians and dancers, fabulous costumes, and of course all the signature dance moves associated so fondly with the undisputed King of Pop. Packed with authentic touches and flair, Jackson Live in Concert authentically captures the essence and magic of Michael Jackson live on stage.

Bridport Arts Centre - Saturday 7th December 7.30pm Tickets: £24.50 (including £1 commission) Box Office: 01308 424 204 Online: www.bridport-arts.com

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PERFORMANCE SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Stephen K Amos, comedy, 8.

Electric Palace, Count Arthur Strong, Is there Anybody Out There?, comedy, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Russian National Ballet in Swan Lake, 7.30.

HONITON, Beehive, Strawbs Acoustic, 50th anniversary tour, 7.45.

ILMINSTER, Warehouse Theatre, Cinema at the Warehouse, The Divine Order, 7.45.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, LR Comedy Club, with Stephen Carlin, Tom Glover, Josh Pugh and James Cook, 8pm.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Martyn Joseph, singer songwriter, 8pm.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Clare Teal and her Trio.

Tacchi-Morris, ABBA - the Story, 7.30.

WEST KNIGHTON, St Peter’s Church, Methera, English traditional folk, 7.30.

AR WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Big Girls Don’t Cry. SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Le Corsaire, live by satellite from the Bolshoi Ballet, 3pm.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason,T cello and piano, U DO Beethoven, Lutoslawski, Barber, SOL Rachmaninov.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Count Arthur Strong, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Stevie Wonderful, tribute.

ILMINSTER, Dillington House, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, coffee concert, Tallis and Bach to folk and jazz, 10.45am.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, BalletBoyz, dance workshop 1pm, film screening, 3pm.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Angelos Epithemiou, comedy.

YEOVIL, Westlands, Ben Fogle, Tales from the Wilderness, 7.30.

MONDAY 18 NOVEMBER PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, to Sat. TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER BOURNEMOUTH, Pavilion, OMD. BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Briport Film Society, The Third Wife (Vietnam), 7.45.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, James Wilton Dance in The Storm, 7.30.

WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Mike Denham’s Speakeasy with trumpeter Ben Cummings, 8pm.

St Mary’s Church, Rosanna Rolton, harp,

CPE Bach, Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy, de Falla, Berio etc, 6.30.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, The Horn Section, music and comedy, and Thurs, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Comedy Club.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, James Pellow Summer Productions in Ayckbourn’s Seasons Greetings, to 30 Nov (not Sun), 7.30.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Count Arthur Strong, Is There Anybody Out There? comedy.

Tacchi-Morris, @2K in Humbug: A Radio Play, to Sat, 7.30, Sat/Sun mats 2.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Yeovil Youth Theatre in Chicago - high school edition, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Depeche Mode: Spirits int he Forest, documentary footage and filmed gig, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Dorchester Piano Quartet, Faure and Taneyev, free, 11.30am.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Live at Exeter Comedy Club with Reginald D Hunter, Lou Sanders, Fin Taylor and Kiri Pritchard McLean, 8pm.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, The Fab Beatles.

HONITON, Beehive, 42nd Street, from Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The WOW Show, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Bob Dylan Story, 7.30.

COMBE ST NICHOLAS, Village Hall, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, folk, 7.30. TA DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, A and E Theatre in Enter the Dragons, comic play about getting old, 8pm.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Thank You for the Music, ABBA tribute, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, ELO - again.

HALSTOCK, Village Hall, Pentabus in The Tale of Little Bevan, 7.30. AR HONITON, Beehive, Tom Glover, A Glover not a Fighter, comedy, 8.

SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER BRIANTSPUDDLE, Village Hall, Pentabus in The Tale of Little Bevan, 7.30. AR BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Thinking Drinkers in Heroes of Hooch, comedy, 7.30.

Electric Palace, Abominable, film, 11am: Singin’ in the Rain, 1952 film, 7.30.

BUCKLAND NEWTON, Village Hall, She’Koyokh, klezmer band, workshop 4pm, concert 7.30. AR BURTON BRADSTOCK, Village Hall, Two Destination Language in Fallen

Fruit, physical theatre, 7.30. AR DORCHESTER, St Mary’s Church, Dorset Chamber Orchestra, cond Walter Brewster, Dominic Doutney, piano, Beethoven Coriolan, Emperor Concerto, Symphony No 6, 7.30.

EXETER, University Great Hall, Love Actually, film, with live orchestra, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Gimme ABBA. LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, John Illsley, bassist with Dire Straits, The Life and Times of Dire Straits, 8pm.

NEWTON ST CYRES, Parish Hall, Paddleboat in Clare Hollingworth and the Scoop of the Century, storytelling and song, 3pm. ViA PLYMOUTH, Pavilions, The Australian Pink Floyd Show.

SEATON, Gateway, Riviera Dogs (Back to the Eighties), 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Parish Church, ISCA Ensemble, dir Roger Hendy, Robert Millington, organ, Saint Saens Organ Symphony, etc, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, The Little Unsaid, folk, rock, jazz etc, 8pm.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Seven Drunken Nights, Dubliners tribute, 2pm and 7.30pm.

WEST BAY, Sladers Yard, Alan Barnes, saxophone and clarinet, David Newton, piano, Ian Smith, trumpet, Ashley John Long, bass, 8.

SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Philip Glass’s Akhanaten, encore screening from the Metropolitan Opera.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Arts, Javier Jarquin in Card Ninja, dance and card stunts, 2pm.

EXETER, University Great Hall, Josh Widdicombe, Bit much…., 8.

Phoenix, Hugh Cornwell, Monster.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, ISQ, contemporary jazz quartet, workshop 5pm, concert “Requiem for the Faithful”, 8pm.

PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, That’ll Be the Day Christmas Show.

MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER YEOVIL, Westlands, John Robins, Hot Shame, comedy, 7.30.

TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER BATH, Theatre Royal, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, to Sun, Wed/Thurs/Sat/Sun mats.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Supreme Queen, 7.30.

PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Nativity the Musical, to Sat. YEOVIL, Westland, Gordon Buchanan, wildlife photographer, Animal Families and Me, 7.30.

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Undercover Hippy R

in

Dorchester

enowned for the electric atmosphere of their live shows, Billy Rowan, aka The Undercover Hippy, comes to Dorchester Corn Exchange on Saturday 9 November at 8pm.

Definitely not your average singer songwriter, Billy and his band have been described by Tom Robinson (BBC6Music) as being “like the love-child of Steel Pulse, Kate Tempest and The Sleaford Mods”, his music brings together powerful messages, infectious reggae rhythms, and the lyrical delivery of a skilled mc.

Billy and his band have performed at some of the UK’s best festivals, including Glastonbury, Boomtown Fair, Shambala, Green Man, The Secret Garden Party, Ireland’s Electric Picnic, and many more. As the music clocks up over 3 million streams on Spotify, the band have been clocking up motorway miles, touring relentlessly, with over 80 shows and festival appearances across the UK and Europe each year.

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Dorchester Arts Artistic Director Mark Tattersall said “they combine intelligent, provocative lyrics with dangerously catchy hooks and a feel good groove, this is music for the thinking person to shake their arse to.

Think Natty meets Eminem…on a protest march…at the Edinburgh Fringe.”

Highlights have included headlining alongside The Cat Empire, Grandmaster Flash and The Skints at Eden Festival in Scotland, playing to 1000’s of festival goers at Buskers Bern in Austria, and making a much anticipated debut appearance to a 2000 strong crowd at Boomtown Fair near Winchester.

Tickets are £14 full price or £12 for Members of Dorchester Arts, under-18s or those on low income and are available from the Dorchester Arts box office on 01305 266926, in person at the Corn Exchange (weekdays 10am - 4pm) or via www.dorchesterarts. org.uk.

On Screen - In and Around the Vale MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER Wild Rose (15) tells the complicated story of Rose-Lynn, a woman on a quest to become a country music star, while also grappling with the responsibilities of being recently released from prison and a young mother of two children. Odcombe Movie Nights. Doors open 7:30pm for 8:00pm start. Screening at Odcombe Village Hall.

Tickets £5 in advance on 07934 737104, or £6 on the door.

TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER Border Doors open 7pm for 7:45 film.

Bridport Film Society, Bridport Arts Centre (Members and guests only; Text only to 07770 261348 guests@bridportfilmsociety. co.uk) WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER Late Night (15) starring Emma Thompson & Mindy Kaling. Thompson is a whirlwind in her role as the Miranda Priestly-boss, clearly relishing a rare opportunity to play a comic co-lead, firing off one-liners with great exuberance, and her skills as a dramatic actor are effortlessly employed in the final act. Moviola screening at Kilmington Village Hall, doors and bar open 6.45pm with the show starting at 7:15 pm. Tickets £5 in advance: 01297 639758 leave contact info to receive acknowledgement. £5.50 at the door. See village web for email contact & film review https://www.kilmingtonvillage.com/otherorganisations.html. On the 4th December “Yesterday” THURSDAY 7 NOVEMBER Wajib (15). Presented by Clapton & Wayford Film Society. 7:00 pm doors for 7:30 pm start. This Palestinian comedydrama unfolds over the course of a winter’s day in Nazareth as a father (Abu) and son hand deliver wedding invitations for the forthcoming nuptials of Abu’s daughter.

Clapton & Wayford Village Hall. Guest tickets £4. Contact: mickpwilson53@ btinternet.com, or ring Mick on 01460 74849 or Di on 01460 30508.

NT Live: Hansard (15), 7pm Simon Godwin (Antony & Cleopatra) directs Simon Woods’ witty and devastating portrait of the governing class. Lindsay Duncan and Alex Jennings, both two-time Olivier Award winners, return to the NT stage to play the ‘happy’ couple. Adult £15.30 / Student £12.30 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER Rocket man Cinechard at Chard Guildhall.

7pm for 7.30pm. The story of Elton John.

Tickets from Eleos, Barron’s & the PO. Fisherman’s Friends. 8pm. Ten fishermen from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of sea shanties.

Starring Tuppence Middleton, James Purefoy, Daniel Mays. Petherton Picture Show. At The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £5 from www. thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

Wild Rose, Milborne Movies 7.00 for 7.30pm, tickets £3.50 at the door, the village hall, Milborne St Andrew, DT11 0JB Judy (12A), 7.30pm, Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) arrives in London to perform in a sell-out run at The Talk of the Town. Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80 Family of four £22 The Beehive, Honiton. www. beehivehoniton.co.uk 01404 384050 MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER Fisherman’s Friends in the Public Hall in Beaminster. 7.30pm. Based on a true story - this is about a group of Cornish Fishermen who are signed up by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties. Tickets are £5 if booked or £5.50 on the door. Ring Elaine on 01308 861746 WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER Lady and the Tramp 1.45pm, Walt Disney’s classic 1955 animation, Evergreens Cinema, Age UK Dorchester, 4 Prince of Wales Road DT11PW. Admission £2, phone Lucy on 01305 269444 or aukdmemories@outlook.com.

FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER The French Lieutenant’s Woman (15) Odcombe Classic Movie. Doors open 2:00pm for 2:30pm start. Screening at Odcombe Village Hall. Tickets £3 in advance on 07934 737104, or on the door.

SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER All is True (12A). 7.30pm (Doors 7pm).

Shakespeare faces disaster when his renowned Globe Theatre burns to the ground. Devastated, he returns to Stratford, where he must come to terms with a troubled past and a neglected family. With Kenneth Brannagh, Judy Dench & Ian McKellen. Venue: Halstock Village Hall.

Tickets: £6 from Halstock Shop or on the door Contact: 01935 892485 TUESDAY 19 NOVEMBER The Third Wife Doors open 7pm for 7:45 film. Bridport Film Society, Bridport Arts Centre (Members and guests only; Text only to 07770 261348 guests@ bridportfilmsociety.co.uk)

THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 42nd Street (12A), 7.30pm, Filmed live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and starring Bonnie Langford as Dorothy Brock. Pure musical magic! Adults £12.80, Students £10.30 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER The Front Runner with Hugh Jackman, T &F Movies will show the political drama in Tatworth Memorial Hall at 7.30pm.

The doors open at 7.00pm and the entry charge is £4.50.

Vita & Virginia. 8pm. The fascinating true story about the love affair between socialite and popular author Vita SackvilleWest and literary icon Virginia Woolf.

Starring Gemma Arterton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isabella Rossellini. Petherton Picture Show at The David Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. Tickets: £5 from www.thedavidhall.org.uk or 01460 240 340.

The Lavender Hill Mob (U), 2pm A dementia-friendly screening. Madcap Ealing Comedy from 1951 which has Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway and Sid James in a story about some stolen gold and many miniature copies of the Eiffel Tower. Nostalgic Cinema. £3.80 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050 THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER NT Live: Present Laughter (12A), 7pm Andrew Scott (Fleabag) stars in Noël Coward’s provocative comedy Present Laughter. Recorded at The Old Vic, Present Laughter is a reflection on fame, desire and loneliness. Adult £15.30, Student £12.30 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050 FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER ‘Forget Me Not - the Alzheimer’s Whodunnit’, 7.00 for 7.30pm, an Artsreach event “silly, entertaining and eye-opening, this is terrific theatre” Vancouver Sun, at the village hall, Milborne St Andrew, DT11 0JB; 01258 839230 SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER The Goldfinch (15), 7.30pm Based on the novel by Donna Tartt and starring Nicole Kidman. A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy Upper East Side family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80 The Beehive, Honiton. www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 99

Health&Beauty

Time to Make a Difference AGE UK Dorchester has need of volunteers to join its Reach Out service to provide company and social support for older people. Volunteers are currently needed in the Bridport and Marshwood areas.

If you are finding it difficult to get out of the house to meet people and make new friends, the Reach Out service aims to give older people a

Museums

helping hand to do just that.

Volunteers can accompany older people to groups and clubs until they feel confident enough to attend on their own. Alternatively, if someone just wants some company they can receive a visit from a volunteer for coffee and a chat.

If you are a good listener, have some spare time to give and would like to make a

Please telephone or check website for directions and opening hours Bridge Street, Lyme Regis.

01297 443370.

ALLHALLOWS MUSEUM

CHIDEOCK MUSEUM

High Street, Honiton.

01404 44966.

Church of Our Lady, North Road, Chideock. 01308 488348.

www.honitonmuseum.co.uk

www.chideockmartyrschurch.org.uk

AXMINSTER HERITAGE

COLYTON HERITAGE CENTRE

Barrack Road, Weymouth.

01305 766626.

Silver Street, Axminster.

01297 639884.

Market Place, Colyton

www.fortressweymouth.co.uk

www.colytonheritagecentre.org

PORTLAND MUSEUM

www.axminsterheritage.org

CREWKERNE & DISTRICT

BEAMINSTER MUSEUM

The Heritage Centre, Market Square, Crewkerne. 01460 77079.

217 Wakeham Portland.

01305 821804.

Whitcombe Road, Beaminster.

01308 863623.

www.crewkernemuseum.co.uk

www.beaminstermuseum.wordpress.com

DORSET COUNTY

BLANDFORD MUSEUM

High West Street, Dorchester.

01305 262735. (Closed)

Bere’s Yard, Blandford Forum.

01258 450388. www.blandfordtownmuseum.org

BRIDPORT MUSEUM

South Street, Bridport.

01308 422116. www.bridportmuseum.co.uk

CASTLETON WATERWHEEL

Oborne Road, Sherborne. www.castletonwaterwheelmuseum.org.uk

CHARD MUSEUM

Godworthy House, High Street, Chard. 01460 65091. www.chardmuseum.co.uk.

difference to the life of an isolated older person, Age UK Dorchester would like to hear from you.

Volunteers visit initially for a cup of tea and a chat, and talk about the sorts of things people are interested in, or would like to try.

They can help older people find out about activities, groups and clubs in their area, and go along with them in everyday situations until they feel confident enough to do things by themselves.

Volunteers play a vital role in providing a much needed service to older people in the community and enable them to stay connected to the world around them. The service aims to help tackle social isolation, or for those who need it, just a friendly phone call.

For more information about the Reach Out service and volunteering, please contact Lisa Holmes on 01305 269444 or email lholmes@ ageukdorchester.org.uk

www.dorsetcountymuseum.org

EXMOUTH MUSEUM

Sheppards Row, Exmouth.

07768 184127.

FAIRLYNCH MUSEUM

27 Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton.

01395 442666.

GROVE PRISON MUSEUM

Governors Gardens, The Grove, Portland. 01305 715726.

ILCHESTER COMMUNITY

High Street, Ilchester.

01935 841247.

LYME REGIS MUSEUM

100 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

NOTHE FORT

SIDMOUTH MUSEUM

Hope Cottage, Church Street, Sidmouth. 01395 516139.

THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, ELMFIELD HOUSE

Dowell Street, Honiton.

01404 45006.

THE MILITARY MUSEUM OF DEVON AND DORSET

ROYAL ALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM Bridport Road, Dorchester.

01305 264066. & ART GALLERY

Queen St, Exeter, EX4 3RX. 01392 665858.

SEATON JURASSIC

The Underfleet, Seaton 01297 300390 https://seatonjurassic.org/

SEATON MUSEUM

Town Hall, Fore Street, Seaton.

01297 21660.

SHERBORNE MUSEUM

Church Lane, Sherborne.

01935 812252. www.sherbornemuseum.co.uk

SHIRE HALL MUSEUM

High West Street, Dorchester.

01305 261849 www.shirehalldorset.org

www.keepmilitarymuseum.org

TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS MUSEUM

Tolpuddle, nr Dorchester.

01305 848237.

TUDOR HOUSE

3 Trinity Street, Weymouth.

01305 779711 or 812341. www.weymouthcivicsociety.org

WATER SUPPLY MUSEUM

Sutton Poyntz Pumping Station, Sutton Poyntz, Weymouth.

01305 832634 www.wessexwessex.co.uk

WEYMOUTH MUSEUM

Brewers Quay Hope Square, Weymouth. 01305 457982 www.weymouthmuseum.org.uk

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 101

Massage School filling NHS gap MASSAGE training company director Emma Gilmore is poised for a major expansion which will double capacity to meet growing demand, which, she believes, could be due to a reduction in funding for NHS services.

Exeter-based School of Bodywork is moving premises to provide more permanent space which will double capacity to accommodate the number of students wanting to train.

Emma, 50, who founded the school 10 years ago, believes the increased interest may be due to a lack of NHS funding and waiting lists for massage therapies. She explained: ‘There has been a huge surge in the use of complementary health in recent years. With the lack of funding for the NHS, people are taking their health into their own hands and seeking help from complementary therapists. With our fastpaced lives and increased stress levels, people are looking to massage therapists for help to alleviate stress.’

But it isn’t just the releif of stress that massage therapy can help with. ‘Clients are also seeking help with injuries either sustained through participating in sports or through poor posture, often as a result of many hours at a computer.’ said Emma. ‘Therapists trained in advanced techniques, deep tissue or remedial massage would be well placed to help with these musculoskeletal issues. Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost due to work-related ill health, 15.4 million and 6.6 million respectively. Complementary and alternative medicine has grown rapidly over the last two decades and is now used by around six million people a year.’

Emma points out that ‘Britons now spend £130m a year on complementary treatments.’

Her new space at Exeter Community Centre, St David’s Hill, is a beautiful light-filled room with a wooden parquet floor. It is twice the size of her current training room which will mean she can teach far more students, and in larger groups, with the help of teaching assistants, providing greater support for individual trainees. The new location will also have access to a kitchen and a break out area.

As well as providing a way of expanding the school, the

102 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

centre is a community hub for both residents and organisations.

From the end of September, School of Bodywork will operate in the Haldon Room which is on the ground floor, easily accessible to less able-bodied students. The school also runs clinic days for students to practise their skills on members of the public.

At the new premises, less able-bodied clients will be able to attend the clinic days as the current home is up three flights of stairs. The centre also has full time reception cover.

Emma added: ‘The idea of being in a community centre is that we are more accessible to the community, there is a great atmosphere and a hub of activity of like-minded people.’

School of Bodywork was set up by Emma 10 years ago and has grown from just one course in the first year with six students to more than 120 students in the last academic year. The school offers a huge variety of courses, from an initial qualifying massage diploma, to advanced diplomas in remedial massage and myofascial release.

Last year saw a waiting list for some of the more specialist courses including Spine Sacrum and Coccyx, Cranial and Intra-oral work, Scar Tissue Release for abdominal adhesion’s, Advanced Myofascial Release, TMJ release, or Massage for those with additional needs.

Emma became a massage therapist 25 years ago, firstly learning rhythmical massage and working with adults with additional needs and their carers. She went on to study Swedish massage, sports massage, prance massage, scar tissue release as well as Myofacsial release both in the UK and US. Emma explained: ‘I combine my in-depth knowledge of human anatomy, my understanding of the delicacy of the human condition as well as my passion for bodywork in my teaching. When I first studied all those years ago, I was truly blown away by the power of informed touch, and the immediate benefits, it is this that led me to share my knowledge with others and 10 years down the line, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share my skills and knowledge with others. This is a profession that is so rewarding as well as so varied.’

For more information visit ww.schoolofbodywork.com

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 103

Services&Classified

SITUATIONS VACANT

SITUATIONS VACANT

For even MORE Marshwood visit Marshwood+ at www.marshwoodvale.com

Monthly Quiz –

Win a book from Little Toller Books

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

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

Last month’s answer was Charminster. The winner was Mr Cull from Dorchester.

104 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

SITUATIONS VACANT

CHRISTMAS FAIR

Part-time front of house person required for our lovely little restaurant in West bay. Hours can be flexible to suit, ideally Wednesday - Saturday 5pm-10pm. Excellent rates of pay & tips.

Contact Claire - claire@ sausageandpear.co.uk or call 079084252341

Christmas Fair on Sunday 8th December 1pm to 4pm at Axminster Town Football Club, EX13 5HN for all your Christmas shopping needs. As well as this, visit Father Christmas in his magical grotto for £5. Tickets need to be bought in advance from Acorn gift shop in Axminster, cash only.

Business Opportunity.

Ideally a couple to take over the tenancy on a local tea room. Lots of scope for the business to grow for the right people.

From March 2020. Phone Debbie 07854 024358 Gentleman with severe learning disability living at home requires personal assistant to support him with personal care and help to access the community. 20 hours per week. Flexible. Some weekends. Phone 01297 489361

RESTORATION

Indoor boot sale at Axminster Town Football Club, EX13 5HN. 17th November, 1st and 15th December. 1pm-4pm.

Free entry, refreshments available.

Furniture restoration.

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

ANNEXE TO LET Self contained one bed annexe available until end April. Ideal for single person. In the country 3 miles from Bridport. £500.00 pcm. 07977 907533

TUTOR WANTED

Piano, violin, theory tuition at your home.

Highly qualified teacher.

20 years experience.

Adults and children welcome. Beginners to advanced. Dr Thomas Gold 07917 835781 Feb 20

Tutor wanted for bagpipe and/or ukulele beginner 07917 597075

Nov 19

PROPERTY FOR SALE

STUDIO WANTED Studio Space Wanted Responsible male and female artists require, light, warm space to work, Bridport area. 07784 942979

jan 20

UPHOLSTERY Naomi Eden, photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

Traditional upholstery 30 years experience.

Contact Diana Marsh, Bridport 01308 459061 dianaupholstery@gmail. com for free estimate

NAOMI EDEN

CURTAINS Little Curtains.

Handmade Curtains, Blinds and Cushions.

Contact 07443 516141 or 01308485325

Mar 20

REPAIR WANTED Who can repair my bird mobile made of wood and fishing line 01305 267857

WANTED Motorcycle projects wanted, any age, make, condition,non runners, incomplete, anything considered, local enthusiast, 07752 075002

Dec 19

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

Feb 20

Jurassic Coast. For Sale a lovely 2/3 bedroomed Residential Park home on generous plot for permanent or holiday living. Peace, tranquility and beautiful views in abundance - £235,000.

Tel. 01305 246338. Mo. 07730377541

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

Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975

To advertise on these pages telephone 01308 423031

Jan 20

PEOPLE AT WORK

Alberny Restoration In-house blast cleaning for home and garden furniture, doors and gates.

Agricultural/construction machinery and tooling.

Vehicles, parts and trailers etc. 01460 73038, email allan@alberny.co.uk, FB Alberny Sandblasting

INDOOR BOOT SALE

MUSIC

RGT/LCM Examiner offers Electric and Acoustic Guitar Tuition.

Beginners to Advanced.

All Grades. charliemason3@btinternet. com Tel:07759603912 01297678691

SURFACE PREPARATION

Vintage & antique textiles, linens, costume buttons etc. always sought

by Caroline Bushell. Tel. 01404 45901.

Dec 19

Old Oxford Allen Scythe.

Any condition. 01460 74886

The handsome seasonal window displays are often what first draws in passing customers to Collate, an independent shop that sits proudly on Trinity Square in Axminster. Naomi Eden carefully selects a range of new, vintage and second hand homewares as well as art, craft and sometimes the odd antique, which she displays beautifully on the shop floor. Opened in late May 2018, friends and family had encouraged Naomi to do her own special thing, after years of figuring out what she wanted to do while working for others.

Loving the shop’s location, Naomi was over the moon when she discovered the original black and white chequered floor underneath the old layers of carpet.

It is now proudly polished and sets off Naomi’s wares elegantly. She tries to source handmade craft items solely from Dorset and Devon and is particular as to which artists are on display. She has a relationship with every supplier and is proud to be showcasing hand-made local items. Naomi also trawls around local antique auctions and flea markets looking for the perfect pieces to bring back to their original splendour. The stock in the shop is a mix of old and new, artfully put together so perusers imagine the items were always made to sit together.

Naomi feels lucky to be a shopkeeper and part of Axminster’s unique and ever growing independent shop scene—something she is passionate about.

As Naomi says, “The shop is an extension of me, I really care about it. When I lock the door at the end of the day I don’t mentally walk away. The shop is my life.

It’s hard work, but I love it, so I don’t mind”. Opening up at 10am and then locking up between 4pm and 5pm Naomi’s first priority is to take her dogs out when she closes up shop. With three spaniels, one of which is Hatty, who sits under the counter and is very much a part of the shop’s furniture, Naomi loves taking the dogs out for walks at the beginning and end of the day. She lives in Lyme Regis and enjoys strolling along Monmouth Beach and up through Langmoor. And as Naomi’s mum’s artist studio is above the shop, if for any reason she needs to pop out, she has the perfect stand in. A perfect set up, in more ways than one.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 105

FOR SALE Panasonic stereo system model SA-PM9. Combined CD + cassette tape player. All in VGC. Had little use. £25 Tel: 01460 242644

Double Bed 4’6”. Divan base on beech legs. Good clean condition from smoke & pet free home. Only used as occasional guest

ELECTRICAL

CLAIRVOYANT

PERSONAL

STORAGE

106 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

bed. Base halves for easy removal. £75. Tel: 01460 242644 Ercol Dining Table Circular and extendable dining table in great condition 166 cm long 115 cm wide Folds to 115 cm diameter £70 or near offer 01297 444698 Woodburning stove; 5kw Hamlet Multifuel Stove top or rear outlet W397xH522xD388. Good condition. Little used plus two 3ft flu pipes. £199.

Ring 01308 485362 Chubb key safe with a floor bolt. 20.5” high, 18” wide/deep. Vgc £150 buyer to collect Beaminster.

01308 868424 Stuban ( like Lego) “Town Construction” kits M38-B0551 & M38-B0552.

Suitable for 6+ yrs. One never opened the other never completed, all still boxed as new put away and forgotten, £35 the pair.

07966 902804 Eddingtons Beech Wood Trolley, reasonable condition, dimensions , 46 inch wide, 35 high, 24 inch back to front. Photo can be supplied. Seller could help but buyer to collect, Is heavy!!. £100 ovno, Tel 07398760637, Dorchester.

Vermont bottle green gas stove used in kitchen £85.00. 0129722603

FOR SALE Photos of all items, please Brakes and XTR Gears, contact 01460 55105 Rock Shox Duke XC Front Knitting Machine. ‘Bond’ forks, Price £325, 01460 Seasoned hardwood logs machine for chunky knits 221759 £115 per truck load 07465 from the 1980s. Still in Garden planters 2 round 1 423133 Ercol ‘Gela’ 2 seater Dec 19 good condition with box square £15.00. 01297 22603 Sofa G Plan cream Sofa. Only 1 year old, and instructions. £75.

15 piece Poole Pottery Pond; dark green, round leather, electric recliners light brown weave.

01297 678217 coffee set sky blue/dove fibreglass pond in VGC. as new £250. About £1000 Comes with 2 accent Specialised Stumpjumper grey. No chips or 5ft in diameter by 2ft deep in shops. Seaton 01297 cushions. £600. 07905 Mountain Bike, 19inch cracks. £35.00 ono. in the centre with ledges for 20505 553681 Frame, Shimano Disk Please ring 01404 42081. plants. £165 or very near offer. 01460 242254 anyone who loves Lyme CHIMNEY SWEEP SADDLE 18” plus bridal, Edwardian armchair.

Regis or as a wedding tack box on wheels (good Sprung seat and back. present. £50.00 each condition) £600 – 01460 Covered in dark pinky or £200 for all 5. Please 249618. red fabric with small contact 07484178726 cream design. Very good Set Top Box Digital Stream Proxxon model makers DHR8203U Twin HD Tuner condition. £30. Near milling machine 240 volts Honiton 01404 871602 Terrestial Recorder with inc. cutting tool, vice, Vintage wooden step Remote Freeview + HD, turntable, with manual. ladders. 4 available at 320GB HDD & 3 x USB. £495 vgc 01308 422514 various heights from Good Working Condition Silver matt framed wall 114cms to 181cms. From pictures Measurements - 13 £25 01297 551105 £20 each. Large round 18th/19th century inches by 9 inches metal planters. A pair Georgian Tea Caddy Individual pen and ink Rosewood/Mahogany £45 of huge metal pedestal sketches of well known planters 41cm across 82 01297 551105 scenes of Lyme Regis, Arabia of Finland Ruska high. Real statement pieces.

Dorset. Artist - Hilary £40 each or £75 for the 1970s Stoneware Coffee Hayden circa 1985 pair Terracotta and glazed Set 6 Cups & Saucers with Drawings of the Guildhall, matching Coffee Pot & Lid plant pots, both vintage and Umbrella Cottage, The recent. All in very good Excellent Condition £50 Cobb, Broad Street and condition. From £10 for 10 Marine Parade Suitable for 01297 551105 Hay small bales made June 2019. Delivery possible £3 per bale 07977 246780

THUKA HIT 8 Highsleeper Bed. £200.

(01297) 489321

LOGS

FREE ADS for items under £1,000 Classified advertising in The Marshwood Vale Magazine is normally 85 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

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Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine November 2019 107