Marshwood+ May 2022

Ariel Lanyi drops into Sidmouth Page 48

Dorset’s big Open Studios event is back Page 38

Ben Poole in South Petherton Page 34

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© Val Crabb Photograph by Robin Mills

The best from West Dorset, South Somerset and East Devon No. 278 May 2022

COVER STORY Robin Mills met Val Crabb in Bridport

© Val Crabb Photograph by Robin Mills

’M

other and Father lived on a farm at Holloways Farm, Halstock, and I was born nearby in Frampton. Both my Father and Grandfather worked on the same farm, although the thing I always remember is my Grandfather with the Shire horses. He used to put me up on them when he was walking them back to the farm. I was only about 3 years old, but then I can remember turning hay with the horses aged 10. Health and Safety didn’t come into it then. And when I left school at 14 the domestic science teacher said, “Valerie, you should be a cook, you’re born to it”. I said, “Oh yeah”, and I would walk across the fields from Corscombe to West Chelborough because Mr Brook, he still had Shire horses there. I worked for him for about 3 years, then I was working for the Hon. Mrs Beauville at Princes Place, near Melbury Bubb. That was with hunters, so it was only winter time, and the summers I worked at Osmington Mills.

Christmas Eve 1962, I was working with horses again on Exmoor, where they filmed Lorna Doone. I’d been home, and was trying to get back to Exmoor, and we got stuck in the snow. It was the beginning of the bad winter. They sent a Landrover out and pulled us out. I only worked there a year, and then I was mainly working as a cook in care homes, Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 3

Val Crabb

which I loved. About 1975 I got a job on Lundy Island, catering at the small hotel that’s there. It’s a lovely place.

The visitors all came for the seabirds and seals, and in those days it was all year round, and quite primitive. It was then I had my son, Tony.

My Auntie, back in the ‘30s, married a man called Jimmy Doyle, and they took over the Quiet Woman at Halstock. I think the time I spent in that pub really shaped me, and it’s fair to say I’ve always wanted a pub with a piano. Even when I was quite young, I’d go in there just for the piano music. In fact I was in there whenever I could, mainly for the sing-songs round the piano, and that’s why I’ve always loved piano music, especially that boogie-woogie, and ragtime. My Auntie and Uncle had the pub 20 years, from 1939 to 1959, and I remember people coming to the Quiet Woman just for the music, even busloads up from Weymouth at the weekend. This was before pubs had bands playing, before rock and roll took off really, but there were local dances and the like.

Another uncle had the bakery in Halstock. He’d gone there to work after he left school, then went away to war, and went back there after, buying the bakery in the ‘50s sometime. That’s gone now, and both pubs that were in Halstock are gone too.

Some years after I finished the job at Lundy Island, I started working for the police. I cooked at the police training centre at Chantmarle for 20 years. It’s a beautiful place. The name comes from the old French, meaning “the Song of the Blackbird”. There were swimming pools, and tennis courts, it would have made a lovely holiday camp. There were about 150 police students, all male originally, and then they built facilities for women. The last 3 years I was there, I was working over 80 hours a week because in the evenings I ran the bar there for the students. My day job was with the Home Office, but the food at the bar was mine, only simple fare, but I made a lot of money doing that. And I was preparing the food in the cellar, something else Health and Safety didn’t know about, but nobody died as a result. I made a lot of friends there over the years, and they invited myself and my son to a Pass-Out lunch and ball which was lovely. I’m still in touch with some

4 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

of them.

After Chantmarle, I worked at a private school at Chilton Cantelo. They were lovely people, and I worked there 3 years, cooking. For my 40th birthday I wanted a band, and my friend Eva Harvey put me in touch with some friends of hers, who turned out to be called Diz and the Doormen. I’d been trying to book a jazz band, so I didn’t know what they were going to be like, but I’d booked the hall at Evershot, done the bread and cheese, and they played just brilliantly, went down a storm.

That’s how Eva and I started, putting on all these bands at Evershot, Eype’s Mouth Hotel, and the Bell Inn at Ash. There are still great bands playing at Evershot after all these years. Diz and the Doormen played for my 80th too.

I’d been looking for a pub to buy all the time I was at Chantmarle, and at Chilton Cantelo. In 1996, I saw the Hope and Anchor advertised in a magazine, so I phoned up about it. I loved Bridport, I’d been coming here for years with the Harveys. The agents told me it had gone, but a little while later it was back on the market. When we looked round, one of the things that sold it to me was the most beautiful fireplace upstairs in the Assembly Rooms. It’s still there. Anyway, in the end I made an offer of £50,000 for it, which was accepted, probably because it was the Friday afternoon and they wanted a deal before the weekend. I was 56, and my dream of having a pub with a piano had come true. Soon after that I bought the cottage next to the pub for £20,000.

There were darts teams at the pub, and regulars who had been going in there for years already, and still are. It was a free house, so I could buy beer anywhere, which helped, and the cider, which I’m very fond of myself.

This part of the world we’ve got all these wonderful ciders, and you still get people want Blackthorn. I’d only put food on for darts nights, but on New Year’s Eve I’d lay on some food. Some of the pubs were charging people to go in on New Year’s Eve, and I think that’s so wrong. To be honest though, I’d done enough cooking.

It was the live music which drew in a lot of custom; the clientele were a really mixed bunch of people as a result, and somehow that really helped. We had bikers, holiday makers, builders, all sorts, and mostly everyone

© Val Crabb Photograph by Robin Mills

got on. Although, any publican says they’ve never had any trouble’s not telling the truth. I used to get them to help shift some barrels if it looked like trouble was brewing, and that generally worked. We had some lovely bands from all over the place; a band from New Mexico, I’m still getting Christmas cards from them, as well as the many more local musicians. And because I love piano, Ben Waters would play. I first saw him when he was about 14; he asked Diz if he could play at one of his gigs, and Diz said, “Feel free”. Then he said, “Why don’t you sing?”, and Ben said “I can’t”. So Diz says “well, neither can I, but I still make a living from it”.

About the same time as selling the pub I bought a bit of land, only two and a half acres, at Corscombe. I don’t really know what made me do it. But I’ve got some solar panels there, and I’m having a small wind turbine put there. I’ve got two sheep, which the vet asked me if he

could put there about 10 years ago, and we’ve got one goat left out there. We go every day—it’s pretty rough land, it’s rather wet, but it’s my bit of Dorset.

I’ve known Vern for years, from pubs around Yeovil, and then we re-met at the Bell Inn at Ash. We share a love of music, although he’s more into jazz, and he’s the one who knows all the details, like who recorded what with who else, and when. But he’s been very supportive. And my son, Tony, he’s got his own place here in Bridport; he’s brilliant with computers and is studying hard to qualify for a job in that world. He’s my best friend, and gets me out of a lot of trouble. He’s had a lot to put up with, what with me working all over the place over the years, but I’m very proud of him.

I also owe a lot to all the Bridport people I’ve made friends with over the years, and I’d like to say thanks to them.

’

6 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 7

UP FRONT This month marks twenty years since we first promoted Dorset Art Weeks, an event that has since grown enormously in both breadth and reputation. In our May issue in 2002, we previewed a selection of the many artists that opened their studios during that event and it’s been fascinating to look back at the names of those that participated. Many are still opening their doors to the public this May and there are also plenty of new artists showing their work. In the same issue, we also advertised a comprehensive list of events around the area. Musicians as diverse as Bob Dylan, Demis Roussos, and Paul Young were playing in Bournemouth. David Soul was in Bath; comedian Freddie Starr was in Weymouth and magician Paul Daniels was entertaining an audience in Lyme Regis. We promoted ceilidhs, plant sales, walks, and fetes, as well as talks, recitals, craft fairs, and street fairs. At around the same time as we were promoting Dorset Art Weeks, a young British guitarist named Ben Poole had just learned how to play Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile.

As a budding guitar player, it was to change his life and set him on the road to becoming one of Britain’s foremost blues guitarists. This month we caught up with him before the start of a schedule that takes him to The David Hall in South Petherton—after which he goes chasing across continents to play for fans in places as diverse as Lithuania and America. These events are all healthy signs of a restart for an industry that was decimated by a pandemic; an event that not only stopped live performance but for many creatives interrupted a flow of inspiration and motivation for their craft. Reading Val Crabb’s cover story is also a reminder of the importance the creative industry has had in brightening up life for so many people over so many years. Along with Eva Harvey, Val played a huge part in giving musicians an opportunity to reach and entertain audiences.

From her dreams of having a pub with a piano— before the music industry ever reached today’s enormous audiences—to bringing bands from around the world to her own pub, Val’s story helps set some background for the many of us now enjoying so many live events around the area.

Fergus Byrne

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

THIS MONTH

3 10 18 19 22

Cover Story By Robin Mills Event News and Courses News & Views The Fuller’s Teasel By Seth Dellow Diana Trenchard By Cecil Amor

24 24 26 28

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

30 30 32

33

Food & Dining Asparagus Seven ways By Lesley Waters Hot Smoked Salmon, pickled cucumber and horseradish sauce By Mark Hix Mayfly on the Piddle By Nick Fisher

34 Arts & Entertainment 34 In Between the Notes By Fergus Byrne 36 Sou’ Sou’ West Gallery 38 Dorset Art Weeks 41 Galleries 45 Preview By Gay Pirrie Weir 46 Young Lit Fix By Antonia Squire 48 Screen Time By Nic Jeune

49 Health & Beauty 50 Services & Classified “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool Mum.”

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Editorial Director Fergus Byrne

Contributors

Deputy Editor

Cecil Amor Seth Dellow Helen Fisher Nick Fisher Richard Gahagan Mark Hix

Victoria Byrne

Design

People Magazines Ltd

Advertising

Fergus Byrne info@marshwoodvale.com

8 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Nic Jeune Russell Jordan Robin Mills Gay Pirrie Weir Antonia Squire Lesley Waters Ashley Wheeler

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

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

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

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

May

EVENTS AND COURSES 27 April

‘The Pilgrim Fathers’ by Mrs Carrie Southwell of the Mayflower Society, USA. John Addie will talk about life on board and present his scale model of the Mayflower. Sarah Charman will talk about ‘New World Adventurers’ before the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers. Colyton Town Hall, 7.30pm. £4 non-members, £2 members includes refreshments. For more info email: secretary@ colytonhistory.org West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 8 mile circular walk from Worth Matravers covering both coast and country. Contact 01305 262681.

In Conversation with Alice Temperley 7pm. £65 The Fox Inn, Corscombe. An evening ‘In Conversation With’ journalist and author Dylan Jones OBE and Fashion Designer Alice Temperley MBE. Booking at https://thefoxinncorscombe.co.uk.

Carnival Bingo Monthly Bingo run by the Axminster Carnival Committee. 20:00 – 22:00. Axminster Guildhall. www.axminsterguildhall.co.uk.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society Talk ‘Head Gardeners’ by award-winning writer Ambra Edwards. 7.30pm, Uplyme Village Hall. Refreshments from 7pm. Members free; guests £3.

28 April

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 8 mile walk along the Railway Line Path from Powerstock. Contact 07826 150114.

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 petelinnett2@hotmail.com.

Nostalgic Cinema: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (U) 2pm.

Dementia-friendly with subtitles. The Beehive Honiton www. beehivehoniton.co.uk 01404 384050.

29 April

Meet the Artist, Alan Cotton MBE in conversation with television and radio presenter Judi Spiers. 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Kennaway House, 01395 515551, www. kennawayhouse.org.uk.

30 April

The Occasional Singers: Baroque Masterworks 7.30 St Mary’s Church in Dorchester (DT1 2HL) The Occasional Singers present a concert of short Baroque masterworks for voices, oboe and strings. Entrance is Free. There will be a retiring collection for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 6 mile walk from Wynford Eagle. For further information please ring 01308 898484 or 01308 863340.

Craft@Kennaway Fair 10.00am-4pm, indoor & outdoor fair with local, handmade crafts and food stands, Kennaway House, 01395 515551, www.kennawayhouse.org.uk.

Cinechard at the Guildhall Encanto free to all at 3.30pm (doors at 3pm) as part of the Culturally Chard Spring Festival. This showing will be first come, first served. Please feel free to dress up 10 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

and singalong to your heart’s content!

Bridport Film Festival special festival family event, 1940s soundtrack choice of Pinocchio with puppet making workshop afterwards with Holly Miller. 2 pm Lyric Theatre, Bridport.

1 May

East Devon ramblers. 8 mile moderate walk. Sidbury. Tel: 01395-567450.

Community Plant Day, 10-4pm at Umborne Bridge Studio, Colyton. Plant identification and swapping day at the studio.

See www.annabrewster.com/plant-day-2022 or facebook @ umbornebridgestudio for more information. Free to attend. For art and nature journaling workshops in May and June please check website/facebook.

2 May

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Scottish Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall 7.30 - 10.00 p.m. Tea and coffee provided but please bring your own mug. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981. Cost £2 www.chardscottishdancing.org.

3 May

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 8.5 mile walk through Hawkchurch and Holditch areas. Contact 01460 62060.

Scottish Country dancing every Tuesday at Ashill Village hall TA19 9LX from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. Why not come and join us?

All welcome including beginners and you don’t need a partner.

For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

4 May

Landscape in oils demonstration by professional artist Laurence Belbin 1.30pm to 4.30pm. Summer lodge, Evershot Dorset DT2 0JR. Friends of the Yeatman Hospital. Tickets at £25 each will include a Dorset cream tea and are obtainable from admin@ friendsoftheyeatman.org.uk. Early booking is advisable.

East Devon ramblers 11 mile moderate walk. Abbotsbury. Tel: 01395-516897.

Duplicate Bridge every Wednesday at St Swithun’s Hall, Bridport from 7 to 10 pm with tea/coffee break. Good standard bridge at EBU affiliated Bridport Bridge Club. Visitors welcome. For more information contact Roy on 01308 425298 or website www. bridgewebs.com. Also 11, 18 and 25 May. Scottish country dancing at 7.30 in SalwayAsh Village Hall, Salwayash, Bridport, DT6 5HX. All welcome, no partner required but please wear soft shoes. First evening free, thereafter £2.00 which includes tea/coffee, cake & squash. Contact Malcolm on 07790 323343. Check out www.bridportscottishdancers.org.uk.

5 May

East Devon ramblers 5 mile leisurely walk. Newton Pop. Tel: 01395-567450.

Colyton Town History Walks at 2 pm Colyton Dolphin Street Car Park. Guided walk lasting approximately one hour. Cost £4 adults, children under 16 free. Group bookings by arrangement phone Jane Dauncey 01297 552514 or Pam McCleneghan 01297 33406. Also 12, 19 and 26 May.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 11

May

EVENTS AND COURSES Dorchester Art Club is is a friendly, sociable club which meets from 2 – 4 pm most Thursday afternoons throughout the year at St. George’s Church Hall, High Street, Fordington, Dorchester.

There is a small charge to include refreshments. Free parking. New members are always welcome. For details see the Club website or phone 01305 264568.

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 9.5 mile walk around the eastern end of the Jubilee Trail. Contact 07826 150114.

Community Coffee Morning, St. Swithun’s Church, Allington, Bridport, 1st Thursday every month 10.45 - 11.45am. Fresh Coffee and Cake All welcome.

6 May

Duplicate Bridge on Fridays at St Swithun’s Hall, Bridport from 2 to 5 pm with tea/coffee break. Relaxed bridge session at Bridport Bridge Club. Visitors welcome. For more information contact Roy on 01308 425298 or website www.bridgewebs.com.

Also 13 and 27 May. Skedaddle take their inspiration from the New Orleans jazz bands of old, the legendary exponents of Gypsy Jazz and the lively sounds of Klezmer and Eastern European music. 8pm Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, DT6 3NR Tickets £14/£12 concs/£5 students. bridport-arts.com 01308 427183.

12 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

The Stanchester Quire and invited friends, are performing a Concert for Ukraine in South Petherton Parish Church, TA13, at 7pm. Admission is by donations of £5 or more and all of the proceeds will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee. For further details please either email stanchesterquire1@gmail or phone Phil on 07778 119663.”

7 May

Making your garden more climate resilient Half day workshop with Sally Morgan (editor of Organic Farming Magazine, owner of a 100 acre organic farm & contributor to several smallholder & gardening magazines). To be held in Winsham £25 per person & booking is essential. There may be a few places left so if you are interested please call Debbie 01460 432815.

Unicef Fun Run & Fete St Mary’s Field Bridport 2-4pm.

Axminster Repair Cafe in Axminster Guildhall 10am to 1pm. We offer free repairs on broken household items as well as teas, coffees & cakes. We can be contacted on this address: axerepaircafe@gmail.com or more info at: facebook.com/ axminsterrepair.

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

8 May

Honiton Pottery Collectors’ Society Meeting 11am View a lovely variety of hand painted Honiton pottery and bring your pots to show our experts. At The Heathfield Inn Function Room, Walnut Road, Honiton EX14 2UG Visitors welcome for all or part of the day, refreshments available - entry £2. See website: www.hpcsoc.com or Facebook Group Page.

East Devon ramblers 11 mile strenuous walk. Exmoor. Tel: 07870-804711.

Divine Union Soundbath 2pm-4pm Bridport Unitarians 49 East St., Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JX £15 bookings only 01935 389655 or email ahiahel@live.com Plant Sale outside West Bay Discovery Centre 10:30am12:00pm. Fill up empty spaces in your pots and borders with plants suitable for coastal conditions. All proceeds to running costs of West Bay Discovery Centre. Further details http://www. westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk/

9 May

West Dorset Flower Club are having a demonstration by Angie Blackwell entitled “Spring into Summer”. This will take place at 2.30 pm at the WI Hall in North Street, Bridport. Visitors £5.

Further details from the secretary 01308 456339.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Scottish Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall 7.30 - 10.00 p.m. Tea and coffee provided but please bring your own mug. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981. Cost £2 www. chardscottishdancing.org.

Hawkchurch Film Nights, in association with Devon Moviola, proudly presents ‘West Side Story’ (Cert. 12, 156 mins). New regular start time 7.00pm (doors 6.30pm) at Hawkchurch Village Hall, EX13 5XD. Reservations £5 from csma95@gmail.com or 01297 678176, (socially-distanced seating available if booked in advance) or pay at the door. Refreshments available.

Bridport Bereavement Support Group Peer Support Group 4.00 – 5.30. The Assembly Rooms, Gundry Lane, Bridport, DT6 3RL. Call 01308 428943 for further details.

British Pop Art course on Mondays face to face in Bridport, 2pm, 6wks, fee £60, venue United Hall, East Street. Tutor is Pam Simpson MA, Associate Lecturer London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. To book contact Pam via email, chris. pamsimpson@btinternet.com. This course also runs on Fridays on line via Zoom, if you miss a Monday you can catch up. *In the 4th wk of the course, due to the Spring Bank Holiday and the Queens Platinum Jubilee, we will have a weeks break in the course.

Dorchester Townswomen’s Guild meeting 2 p.m. A talk, by David Bailey, winner of 2011 Welsh Wildlife Photographic Award entitled ‘Wildlife Wanderings’. Dorchester Community Church, Liscombe Street, Poundbury DT1 3DF. Visitors welcome for £2.50. Any enquiries 01305 832857.

10 May

West Dorset Ramblers Leisurely 4.4 miles around Charmouth and Wootton Fitzpaine. Contact 01308 538101.

Scottish Country dancing every Tuesday at Ashill Village hall TA19 9LX from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. Why not come and join us?

All welcome including beginners and you don’t need a partner.

For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

EVENTS IN JUNE

Live or Online send your event details to info@marshwoodvale.com TH

BY MAY 13

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 13

May

EVENTS AND COURSES 11 May

East Devon ramblers 9 mile moderate walk. Drewsteignton. Tel: 07812-433184.

Scottish country dancing at 7.30 in Church House, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NN. All welcome, no partner required but please wear soft shoes. Informal social dancing with basic instruction.

First evening free, thereafter £2.00 which includes tea/coffee, biscuits & squash. Contact Malcolm on 07790 323343. Check out www.bridportscottishdancers.org.uk.

“BELFAST” (12) Kilmington Community Cinema (KCC) will be screening at the Village Hall (EX13 7RF). Doors open 6.45 film starts 7.15. Matinee on Thursday 12th afternoon doors open 2pm film starts 2.15 advance booking required for this matinee very limited seating, and cream teas (£3) available if booked with the ticket reservation. Tickets can be pre-booked by email: wattsjohn307@gmail.com or Tel: 01297 639758 see www. kilmingtonvillage.com/other-organisations.html.

12 May

The Lyme Regis Society invite you to their Annual Coffee Morning at The Alexandra Hotel 11.30 am to 1pm in the Dining Room Pound St, Lyme Regis DT7 3HZ. Entrance by Donation. Check website for further information: https://www. lymeregissociety.org.uk.

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 15 or 10-12 mile scenic circular walk from Beaminster. Contact 01308 281110 or 07715 760884.

West Dorset Ramblers Leisurely 4 miles on western side of Eype. Contact 0129 7489567.

Seaton Garden Club Outing to The Bishop’s Palace and Gardens, Wells, Somerset, visitors welcome, if spare places are available please telephone for further information.

01297 792710.

Chard Royal Naval Association. The Chard branch of the Royal Naval Association will be resuming their monthly meetings at the Chard Rugby Football Club, Essex close, Chard after an absence of 2 years. They meet at 7.30 pm for a start at 8 pm on the second Thursday of each month. Further details advice can be obtained from the branch chairman Paula on 07929291401.

Late Renaissance Art & Mannerist /Baroque Art, evening course at 6.30pm, on line via Zoom, 6 wks, fee £55. Tutor is Pam Simpson MA, Associate Lecturer London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. Pam sends an invite out to each lecture and you just click on it and she admits you to the lecture. *In the 4th wk of the course due to the Spring Bank Holiday and the Queens Platinum Jubilee, we will have a weeks break in the course. To book contact Pam via email, chris.pamsimpson@btinternet.com

13 May

East Devon ramblers 5.5 mile leisurely walk. Tipton St John. Tel: 01392-214430.

Cinechard at Holyrood Academy at 7.30pm (doors at 7pm).

‘Belfast’. Tickets are from all the usual places, Eleos, the PO and Barrons, as well as online at ticketsource/ cinechard (for a small booking fee). £5 and £2.50 in advance, £6 and £3 on the door.

Lots of free car parking.

14 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

On line British Pop Art course, 2pm, 6wks, fee £55, on line via Zoom. Tutor is Pam Simpson MA, Associate Lecturer London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. Pam sends an invite out to each lecture and you just click on it and she admits you to the lecture. *In the 4th wk of the course, due to the Spring Bank Holiday and the Queens Platinum Jubilee, we will have a weeks break in the course. To book contact Pam via email, chris. pamsimpson@btinternet.com.

Kilmington Garden Club 7.30pm. Design your dream garden by Marion Dale. Kilmington village hall. Whitford Road, EX13 7RF Non members £3.

Lyme Regis u3a 11am Marshwood Vale the making of a landscape: Bob Machin Woodmead Hall, Lyme Regis. In this presentation, Bob will summarise the main findings of his book on the Vale, published last autumn. For details, please see www. lymeregisu3a.org. Non-members welcome for a donation of £2.

Death on the Nile at 7.30pm Village Hall, The Causeway, Milborne St Andrew DT11 0JX. Doors and bar open 7.00. Tickets cost £5, which includes a drink or an ice-cream.

14 May

The South Perrott May Country Fair A family orientated event running from 2.00 till 9.00 featuring live music (local musicians) from 4.00 onwards and throughout the day. Food stalls, craft stalls, exhibitions, a beer tent and new café will be open serving teas, coffee, cakes and snacks. Entry is free to all.

Yarcombe Village Market 10am -12 noon. Fantastic local produce; Eggs, Cakes, plants, Jams, pickles, woodwork, Metal work, Pottery, also bric a brac and homeware. Yarcombe Village Hall EX14 9BN. enquiries 07858625421.

Table Top Sale 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. in Beaminster Public Hall, DT8 3EF. Proceeds to Ukraine Relief. Come and join us as a Stallholder. Book a Table - £10 in cash - at Yarn Barton Community Centre, Beaminster DT8 3EF. For further information phone 01308 862367 or 01308 861615.

Plant Sale The Jubilee (village) Hall, Winsham. Doors open at 10.30am and there will be the usual array of veg, annuals a few perennials & shrubs and even the odd garden accessory.

Bridport Choral Society presents Summer is a-coming in, a selection of choral music, from the 11th century to the present day, including anthems, folk music, popular songs and excerpts from Requiem (Fauré) Musical Director James Crawshaw.

Accompanist Peter Parshall. 7.30 p.m., Bridport United Church.

Tickets available from Bridport Music Centre, Smith & Smith or on the door.

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

14 - 15 May

Kilmington (Shute Road) Gardens EX13 7ST in East Devon near Axminster - Opening three gardens for the NGS 1.305.00pm. Further details: https://ngs.org.uk/view-garden/26002

15 May

Salway Ash Cream Teas Plant Stall and Raffle. Proceeds to Holy

Trinity Church Salway Ash. 2-5 pm Strongate Farm DT6 5JD. East Devon ramblers 7.5 mile moderate walk. Sidmouth. Tel: 07884-232855.

From Street to Sea Bridport Mass Litter Pick covering Bridport and West Bay’s streets, rivers, green spaces, and beaches.

There are various location meeting points - turn up at Morrisons (small car park), or Co -op in Bridport or meet outside Watch House Cafe West Bay from 10am- 12 noon. More details Bridport Litter Free Steet Champions email bridportlfs@icloud.com.

Organ recital by Sam Bristow Lyme Regis Parish Church (St Michael the Archangel) at 3pm. Free entry with a retiring collection. Organised by the South Wessex Organ Society.

16 May

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Scottish Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall 7.30 - 10.00 p.m. Tea and coffee provided but please bring your own mug. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981 Cost £2 www.chardscottishdancing.org.

17 May

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 7.5 miles including Beaminster and Mapperton areas. Contact 07891 087195.

Scottish Country dancing every Tuesday at Ashill Village hall TA19 9LX from 7.30 to 9.30 pm . Why not come and join us ?.

All welcome including beginners and you don’t need a partner.

For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

Barrington and District Gardening Society presents Neil Ross giving a talk entitled “the X Factor “10 tips to give your garden the WOW factor. Visitors welcome, cost £2 to include refreshments.

18 May

Tel:01395-512973.

Community Coffee Morning including croissants & bacon rolls, 10.30am – noon, at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall. More details from Julia (01460 72769) Scottish country dancing at 7.30 in Church House, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NN. All welcome, no partner required but please wear soft shoes. Informal social dancing with basic instruction.

First evening free, thereafter £2.00 which includes tea/coffee, biscuits & squash. Contact Malcolm on 07790 323343. Check out www.bridportscottishdancers.org.uk.

19 May

Bridport & District Gardening club monthly meeting is at the W I Hall North Street Bridport. Martin Young will speak on Gardening on Clay and Gardening in Shady Spaces. He is a horticultural speaker based in Weymouth and was formally in the R A F. He is a keen plantsman and has an interest in butterflies, moths and the plants which attract them. The meeting is open to non-members for a small fee of £2.00. More information on www. bridportgardeningclub.co.uk.

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 8 miles through Hardy country.

Contact 01300 348867.

Arts Society West Dorset: British Travellers in Mexico: Lost Cities and surreal worlds. Speaker: Chloe Sayer. 2.30pm Bridport Town Hall. Visitors welcome-£7.50.

A walk into the Jurassic Past Discover the creatures of the area’s Jurassic past with a guided walk along the beach with Geologist Robert Chandler. 2 pm. Part of West Bay Discovery Centre’s Buried in Time programme. Bookable only or by visiting the Centre further details www.westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk/

East Devon ramblers 9 mile moderate walk. Selworthy.

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19 - 20 May

Quirky Quilters Exhibition 19 May 10:00 – 6:30. 20 May 10:00 – 4:30. Long Sutton Golf Club, Long Load, Langport TA10 9JU £3.00 (Children Free). Tel: 01458 241017. An exhibition of traditional and contemporary quilts, plus a great selection of traders offering fabric, thread, fibres, templates and quilting accessories. Easy parking. Supporting Mind in Somerset.

20 May

Versus arthritis - West Dorset Mike Denham presents ‘Journey through the jazz age’. Music and stories. Loders Village Hall DT6 3SA 6.30 for 7 pm Tickets in Advance to include Supper – £20 from: 01308 863690 and 01308 425965.

Meet Picasso’s Muse, the artist Lydia Corbett who inspired the ‘Sylvette’ series. 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Kennaway House, 01395 515551, www.kennawayhouse.org.uk.

East Devon ramblers 5.5 miile moderate walk. Beer. Tel: 0129724312.

Burton Bradstock Festival of Music and Art 2022 Spring Concert at 7pm in St Mary’s Church. Anna Hashimoto (clarinet), David Juritz (violin) and David Gordon (piano) play music by César Franck, Darius Milhaud, Peter Hope, Gabriel Pierné, and Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Tickets £12/£8/£6 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901.

Magellan Circumnavigation Bob Whitley and Lee MacKenzie will perform their acclaimed musical story. The show tells of love divided by the greatest voyage of exploration the world has ever seen. Martinstown Village Hall 7:30 pm. Tickets 01305 887938.

20 - 21 May

Exhibition of Paintings Maiden Newton Village Hall Friday 5pm—9pm and Saturday 10am—4pm. Free entrance. Raffle and Refreshments.

21 May

Car Boot and Plant Sale, 10.00am - 1.00pm, St. Swithun’s Church, Allington, Bridport, plus Clothes, Bric a Brac, Tombola, Refreshments, Music, Free admission, Sellers £10 per car, Charity Stalls Free, Book in advance tel: 07887483228.

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

Grand Plant Sale arranged by SWT Ilminster/Chard group 9.00am-noon. Fund-raising event for Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Wide variety of plants as well as cakes and preserves are on sale.

Please donate good quality, labelled plants, cakes and preserves.

Offers of help appreciated. Enquiries Valerie 01460 234 551.

Market Hall, East St. Ilminster ST362 146. Road-side parking, town car parks.

21 - 22 May

Shakti Mantra Yoga Angels of Sound Module 2 10am-5pm Oborne Village Hall, Oborne, DT9 4LA £70 bookings only 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com

22 May

East Devon ramblers 8 mile leisurely walk. Exmoor. Tel 01404549390.

The Axe Vale Orchestra, conductor Arturo Serna, leader Jane Bultz, in association with Colyton’s Chamber of Feoffees, will present an afternoon concert to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at 3.00pm at Colyton Town Hall. Refreshments will be served. Tickets, at £10, students free, are available from The Little Shop, Colyton, Owl and Pyramid Bookshop, Seaton and Archway Bookshop, Axminster or on the door. www.axevaleorchestra.co.uk.

16 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Open Gardens Southleigh, near Colyton from 12.00 til 5 pm.

Six varied country gardens opening plus teas in village hall, with beautiful views overlooking church. £5 pp for all the gardens in aid of church and hall. Parking and tickets at hall, EX24 6JB. No dogs please. Queries 01404 871233 or 871358.

23 May

Menopause Hub Peer support group for people at all stages of menopause. Talk all things menopause in a safe and relaxed environment 6.30 – 8.30. The Hub, Church St, Lyme Regis, DT7 3BS. Call 01308 428943 for further details.

West Dorset Ramblers Leisurely 5 miles including Walditch and Bothen Hill. Contact 01308 459875 or 07952 517764.

24 May

Scottish Country dancing every Tuesday at Ashill Village hall TA19 9LX from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. Why not come and join us?

All welcome including beginners and you don’t need a partner.

For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

Bridport & District U3A present a talk by Mrs Deb Fullbrook, her husband Keith and hearing dog Elmo about the role of hearing dogs and how they can help a deaf person. Bridport United Reform Church Hall at 2pm Free to members and there is a £2 charge for non-members. Further information at bridportu3a. org.uk Turn Lyme Green Talk “Thriving Local Ecologies & Ethical Food” (Free) Two speakers will discuss the impacts of farming practices on our wildlife and how to support thriving local ecologies and ethical, grass roots food production. Speakers are Laura Williams from Bulstone Springs Farm plus Paul Butter from Axe Vale & District Conservation Society. 7pm at the Driftwood Cafe, Baptist Church, Lyme regis, DT7 3NY. www.turnlymegreen. co.uk or 10297 446066.

25 May

Local author Caroline Repton comes to Bridport Library at 2pm to talk about her new book Lotus-Eating Days. The book chronicles the lives of her parents, an unlikely match between a middle-class Englishman and the daughter of Chinese immigrants in colonial Singapore. Caroline will also discuss the process of writing and the challenges of getting published. Please book your free ticket on Eventbrite or on 01308 422778.

East Devon ramblers 8 mile moderate walk. Abbotsbury. Tel: 01297-552313.

West Dorset Ramblers Moderate 8.5 miles circular walk from Cerne Abbas. Contact 01300 320346.

Scottish country dancing at 7.30 in Church House, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NN. All welcome, no partner required but please wear soft shoes. Informal social dancing with basic instruction.

First evening free, thereafter £2.00 which includes tea/coffee, biscuits & squash. Contact Malcolm on 07790 323343. Check out www.bridportscottishdancers.org.uk.

27 May

East Devon ramblers 6 mile moderate walk. Sidbury. Tel: 07772069940.

West Side Story The new version of the film will be shown by T & F Movies in Tatworth Memorial Hall. Doors open at 7.00pm and the film will start at 7.30 pm. There will be the usual bar and raffle and the entry charge is £5.

Severalls Jubilee Bowls Club, Crewkerne Open Day 10am - 4pm Would you like to try a new sport? Come along to our Open Day for a ree taster session. Bowls provided but please wear flat soled footwear ie no heels. Contact Geoff on 01308 867221/07849

600366 or email geoffkerr47@btinternet.com.

28 May

Bridport Big Band presented by Bridport Rotary Club celebrating Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, United Church, Bridport, 7.30pm.Tickets £12 from Bridport TIC & Members, in aid of Rotary charities. Contact 01297 489567.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 6.5 mile walk from Netherbury. For further information please ring 01308 898484 or 01308 863340.

Annual Plant and Garden Sale, Colyton & District Garden Society, returns after two years. Please come and support us.

Colyton Town Hall – 9.30am to 12.30pm. Entry £1 to include tea/coffee. If you have any plants, garden tools or equipment to donate, please bring to the Hall between 6 and 7pm on Friday 27 May. Cakes also welcome, please bring on the morning.

28 May - 12 June

Pirate themed fun and activities at West Bay Discovery Centre.

Drop in. No need to book. Open daily (excluding Mondays) between 11am – 4pm. Admission free, donations welcomed.

Further details www.westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk/

29 May

East Devon ramblers 7 milie leisurely walk. Ottery St Mary. Tel: 01395-513974.

Divine Union Soundbath 2pm-4pm Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA £15 bookings only 01935 389655 or email ahiahel@live.com

31 May

Scottish Country dancing every Tuesday at Ashill Village hall TA19 9LX from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. All welcome including beginners and you don’t need a partner. Contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

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News&Views

CHARD New town centre signage

As part of the town centre improvements currently being undertaken in Chard town centre the Town Council is working closely with South Somerset District Council to provide new signage and fingerposts to help signpost people to the various locations within the town centre. The new signage will be installed along High Street, Fore Street, Holyrood Street, Boden Street, the Eastern Gateway and the main car parks.

The signage is intended to help make it easier for both residents and visitors to find their way around the town on foot and access the many attractions within the town including the new Leisure Centre, Chard Museum and the Guildhall.

LYME REGIS Cobb repairs

Dorset Council is seeking approval for funding to undertake repair and reinforcement works on the Cobb in Lyme Regis. It said ‘Recent investigations have revealed significant signs of sea-floor erosion, which is slowly destabilising the structure. Walking surfaces on the Cobb are generally poor, restricting access for the less-abled, and the landing quay is not currently fit-for-purpose.’ Repairs would be part of the Lyme Regis Environmental Improvements Scheme which will provide coastal protection to 37 properties as well as maintain the recreational and heritage value of Lyme Bay, and continued operation of Lyme Regis Harbour.

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CREWKERNE Auctionet acquires Lawrences

Lawrences Auctioneers in Crewkerne, a long-established firm with a dedicated team of specialists whose expertise covers almost 300 years in the industry, has been acquired by Auctionet. ‘The acquisition of Lawrences Auctioneers, one of the UK’s most prominent and well-known auction houses, is an exciting milestone for both Auctionet and Lawrences Auctioneers’ said Niklas Söderholm, co-founder and CEO of the Swedish owners. Helen Carless who led a management buyout of the firm in 1992, said it was a dream partnership for the company. She will continue as Chairman and Managing Director with the current Board of Directors also remaining in place.

DORSET Call from special advisors

A free training programme has been launched to recruit an army of special advisors who can help Dorset’s digitally excluded residents get online. Open to any organisation in Dorset which works directly with residents, the new programme will train people who can champion online services to their users and customers. Called the ‘Embedded Digital Champion’ programme, the Dorset Council-run course aims to train 1,000 of the county’s frontline workers by 2023. Organisations across Dorset are being encouraged to find out how this course can help their staff and volunteers to become digital champions. To find out more email edc@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

PORTLAND Museum free to islanders

Thanks to a grant from Portland Town Council residents of the island will be able to visit Portland Museum free of charge after it reopened in April.

Tucked away in a beautiful corner of the island in two seventeenth century cottages, a stone’s throw from Rufus Castle and the stunning Church Ope Cove, the museum will be open Wednesday to Sunday until July when it will revert to seven day opening again for the summer season. Hours are 10:30 – 16:00 with last entrance at 15:30.

The Fuller’s Teasel

By Seth Dellow

T

he sight of a wild teasel (Dipsacus fullonum, also called D. sylvestris) that grows typically on the verge of a road is unlikely to excite one’s interest. Aside from its beige colouring, its defensive, prickly exterior, and being the favourite foodstuff of the European goldfinch, there is little else of note. By comparison, its cultivated counterpart, the true ‘Fuller’s Teasel’ (Dipsacus sativus), played an integral role in the British woollen industry and continued to be commercially farmed in South Somerset until the 1970s. The Fuller’s teasel was used in the processing of woollen cloth; the densely compacted heads with hook-like bracts assisted in the process of napping - also referred to as raising. At this stage, about a dozen or more teasels would be inserted into a handheld frame which would brush the cloth to tease out the loose fibres in a process known as ‘raising the nap’. Still, there exists a degree of muddle and confusion around the Fuller’s teasel, for its name - Fuller’s - remains a misnomer. The process of fulling, in which the natural oils of the wool would be cleansed, dirt removed, and the cloth felted, occurred before the napping stage. Additionally, the West Country name for a fuller was a tucker, and the spelling of teasel can be interchanged with teazle or teazel.

Producing cloth originally began as a cottage industry. In the rolling countryside of Wiltshire, the Cotswolds, Somerset, and Devon, small-scale spinning and weaving occurred, often alongside the day-to-day farming of sheep. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, industrialisation and commercialisation of the cloth trade revolutionised the landscape. River towns such as Frome and Tiverton constructed fulling mills and factories for spinning and weaving, while ports including Lyme

Wild teasel left, Fuller’s teasel on the right Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 19

Regis and Exeter profited from woollen exports.

Clothiers and craftspeople proliferated as the mills displaced and attracted rural talent. Gradually, the mills and workshops overtook the cottage industry.

Importantly, a constant feature throughout these systemic changes remained the Fuller’s teasel. This is evident with the Incorporation of Weavers, Fullers and Shearmen. Based at Tuckers Hall in Exeter, this historic guild was granted a Royal Charter by King James I in 1620 to effectively regulate the region’s woollen cloth trade. Its ornate wooden interior still carries traces of the Fuller’s teasel; intricate representations adorn the oak panelling and guild’s coat of arms. One can imagine a once-bustling Tuckers Hall as tradespeople congregated to discuss matters concerning their daily business.

At one time many fields north of Ilminster towards Fivehead and Curry Rivel and east towards Beercrocombe, Curry Mallet and the Blackdown Hills were known for cultivating the Fuller’s teasel.

Countless fields would have been dedicated to the biennial crop, with hundreds of six- and seven-foottall plants swaying in the wind, yielding thousands of teasel heads for the cloth trade. This would also have been the case in certain pockets of East Anglia. Nevertheless, the cultivation process was time-consuming and arduous. The seed was sown in around May and the young plants would be transplanted into a freshly ploughed field around six Tucker’s Hall in Exeter where intricate representations adorn the oak panelling

20 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

months later to flower and produce the teasel heads in the following summer. It would require regular hoeing and maintenance. Harvesting the teasel heads also required specialist equipment, including a small crescent-shaped knife created by the local blacksmith that would be tied to a leather gauntlet. An experienced cutter could harvest up to 10,000 teasel heads a day, which were then dried and stored as bundles. In the more recent past, the main intended destination for Somerset’s Fuller’s teasels was the northern manufacturing county of Yorkshire.

In the early 1970s, amateur historian R. A. McMillan travelled from Yorkshire to document the continued production of the Fuller’s teasel in Somerset. His findings remained unpublished until the release of his book in 2012, titled Teazles and Teazle Men. Based near Ashill, the Brunt family were the last known commercial farmers of the Fuller’s teasel in the area. Admittedly, by the 1970s, the commercial viability of teasel farming had reduced; rather than dedicate acres to the Fuller’s teasel, it was grown in odd patches of land alongside larger areas for grain and livestock. Furthermore, in World War Two, the family also sold some of the collected seed as food for birds. McMillan’s monochrome photographs capture the family at work during this late stage of teasel cultivation and harvesting.

Demand for the teasels eventually declined once new industrial processes replaced the teasel’s sensitive hook-like bracts with manufactured steel alternatives.

These contemporary alternatives are not as effective as they can cause tears in the cloth, but they are more time-efficient. For specialist undertakings, such as the production of emerald billiard cloth and the Pope’s vestments, the Fuller’s teasel still prevails as the best tool for the job. These teasels tend to be imported from abroad as opposed to grown in Britain.

Therefore, as the farming of the Fuller’s teasel practically evaporated, so too did any trace from the landscape and the local consciousness. Fortunately, with McMillan’s book and the continued operation of Tuckers Hall, detailed information exists to reveal the small but important, local role individuals and the Fuller’s teasel played in Britain’s woollen industry.

My many thanks to Paul Pickering for imparting just one part of his extensive local knowledge and for lending me a copy of Teazles and Teazle Men.

Based near Ashill, the Brunt family were the last known commercial farmers of the Fuller’s teasel in the area.

Photographs courtesy R. A. McMillan.

Diana Trenchard

By Cecil Amor

I

n the winter we lost Diana Trenchard, well known in local and family history, and the author of the book Women of Dorset.

Diana was born in Shrewsbury in 1939 and studied Physiology at Bristol University and was captain of the woman’s fencing team. In the 1960s she joined a medical research team at Fulham Hospital. She was appointed to Midhurst Medical Research Institute in the 1970s as the only woman of five senior scientists. She did not refer to herself as “Dr”.

On moving to Dorset she became very involved with its history, the area and its people. She lived in Beaminster and for a time ran a bookshop in Crewkerne. When she commenced Women of Dorset her research mind was apparent as she left no stone unturned, and acknowledged in particular the Dorset County Museum and the Dorset County Record Office, as well as many individuals.

Diana joined two friends in Bridport researching family and local history and they formed the “West Dorset Research Centre” in Bridport. The then editor of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society magazine, Colin Dean, referred to them as “The Three Degrees”, a well known group of female singers, of the time. The local three were involved in many historical exhibitions in Bridport Town Hall. I was a little involved with these ventures and was pleased to welcome Diana as a popular speaker on several occasions at Bridport History Society.

Diana also joined volunteers at Beaminster Museum and later became a member of the Trustees of Beaminster Museum.

We shall all miss her in local history and family history circles. I thought you might be interested in two stories from Diana’s book Women of Dorset. I thank Celia Martin, another of the “Three Degrees”, for help with details of Diana’s life.

The first story selected is of Lady Charlotte Guest, born in 1812, the only daughter of the ninth Earl of Lindsay. Two of her brothers had a private tutor and from him she learned French, Italian and four other languages and he encouraged her music on piano and harp. She also had outdoor activities, including riding, hunting and shooting.

She visited London, aged 21, and met Benjamin Disraeli, but declined his offer of marriage. Disraeli introduced her to Josiah John Guest a man of 48, a business man “in trade” and so then looked down on by the upper classes, but she married him. His grandfather had established an iron works in Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, which prospered, so that John Guest was a rich man and had become M.P. for Merthyr Tidfil.

In 1838, aged 28, Charlotte was presented at Court and by the end of the year John Guest was created a Baronet, and Sir John could take his place in Society. At this time they were living in Wales, near the iron works and Lady Charlotte commenced learning the Welsh language, so that she could talk to their employees. She became so proficient that she

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went on to translate ancient stories, known as The Mabinogion, into English, published between 1838 and 1846.

In 1845 the Guests visited Canford, an estate of 13,000 acres reaching the sea at Canford Cliffs, between Poole and Bournemouth, which they purchased for £335,000. They had five boys and five girls and her eldest son, Ivor, was only 17 when his father died and about to go up to Cambridge University. Lady Charlotte found a tutor for Ivor, to prepare him for Cambridge, a 27 year-old Fellow of Trinity College, named Charles Schreiber. Shortly after, Schreiber became seriously ill and Charlotte nursed him but found that she was in love with him, which was reciprocated. Her family were opposed to the romance but they married in 1855, when Lady Charlotte was 43 and Schreiber was 29.

Charles Schreiber died in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1884, during a trip expected to improve his health. Lady Charlotte died in Canford in 1895, aged 83 and was buried in the parish church, after a long and busy life.

In contrast, Diana also tells the stories of several poor women of Dorset. I have chosen one, Martha Brown, which the reader may have come across, as I believe it was featured on the BBC in recent years. However, it typifies the stories of poor women of the time, many of whom ended up as criminals.

Martha Brown and her husband John lived in Birdsmoorgate in West Dorset in 1856. It was generally acknowledged that John Brown regularly visited the local alehouse in the evenings and then visited a local woman, Mary Davis, and on returning home would often abuse his wife.

On 6 July 1856 John Brown, a carter, was found dead, with severe head injuries and covered with blood. His wife, Martha, said his injuries were caused by being kicked by his horse, but then said he had fallen down stairs. Martha, 20 years older than John, having been widowed, was charged with his murder. Her defence made a very poor case and the death sentence was pronounced.

Martha Brown was visited frequently by both her own vicar and the prison chaplain and on the day before her execution she made her confession. Elizabeth Martha Brown stated that her husband ‘John Anthony Brown came home on Sunday 6th July at 2 o’clock, in liquor, and was sick. He had no hat and I asked him what he had done with it. He abused me and said “What is that to you? Damn you!” He asked for some cold tea. I said I had none, but would make some. He answered “Drink it yourself, and be damned”.

I then said “What makes you so cross? Have you been to Mary Davis’s?” He then kicked out the bottom of the chair on which I had been sitting, and we continued quarrelling until 3 o’clock, when he struck me a severe blow on the side of the head. He then reached from the mantelpiece a heavy whip with a plaited head and struck me across the shoulders three times and I screamed each time. I said “If you strike me again I will cry Murder.” He said “If you do I will knock

your brains through the window, and I hope I shall find you dead in the morning.” He then kicked me on my left side, which was very painful. He stooped down to unlace his boots and I seized a hatchet, which I had been using to break up the coal for the fire and struck him several times on the head. He fell to the fireplace and did not speak or move. “I had never struck him before despite his treatment, but when he struck me so hard this time, I was almost out of my mind and hardly knew what I was doing.’

After this confession, one has much sympathy for Martha, but murder was murder and the Law said she must hang. The hanging was witnessed by Thomas Hardy, as a young boy and it made a great impression on him. He learned that most people thought that Mary Davis should have been hung instead and she had to be prevented from going to the hanging for fear of a lynch mob.

So ended the story of Martha Brown and her husband and also this selection from Women of Dorset (Famous and Forgotten Women from the Dark Ages to the Present Day).

The next meeting of Bridport History Society will be Thursday (note change of day) 12th May at 2 for 2.30 pm. in the United Church Main Hall, East Street, Bridport, when Dr Tim Connor will talk about “Mapperton – a local Dorset Parish”. Copies of his book will be available.

Cecil Amor, Hon President, Bridport History Society

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House&Garden

Vegetables in May

By Ashley Wheeler

M

ay can be one of the best months as a vegetable grower, but it can also be pretty stressful and frustrating depending on the weather. We have had a pretty good spring so far—with the dry weather in April that allowed us to get a lot of the early plantings in the ground and also to prepare the ground of our new field which we will be planting mainly autumn crops in.

It is the time of year when we are starting to harvest the earliest of this year’s crops, and some of the overwintered crops like sugarsnap peas and spring onions too. We also still have plenty of planting to be done—with the more tender outdoor crops such as courgettes and squash, and also all of the summer polytunnel crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and beans. The cucumbers and beans usually get planted in April for us, and then the peppers and tomatoes we like to get in by the first week in May ideally.

We have in the past tried to keep most crops pretty weed free, and although this can be beneficial, especially during the crops’ early stages, it can also mean that there are fewer plants photosynthesising. In a healthy system, and in much of nature we see soil covered, with many plants photosynthesising and releasing carbohydrates and compounds through their roots (called exudates), which nourish the microbial life in the soil.

In turn, this microbial life thrives, and when the microbes die or are eaten by predators they then get broken down into plant available nutrients, which a plant can then take up through its root system. So, in essence, the more plants there are covering the soil, the healthier the soil life and the more nutrients there are available to plants.

We, as gardeners and growers have become so accustomed to thinking that we must eradicate all plants other than the crop that we are trying to grow, and although this can be important early on in a crop’s life cycle, they often benefit from having more plants growing around them because of what these other plants can offer. This year, we are changing some of our growing systems to try to incorporate this idea more into how we grow veg. For example, we will be sowing some of the pathways with yellow trefoil and other low growing plants that can be managed fairly easily. We will also be intercropping more with lots of edible flowers like cornflowers, calendula, dill, and other plants like linseed, buckwheat, poached egg plant and much more. We started trying this last autumn—broadcasting over August and September planted crops with oats, phacelia, buckwheat and linseed and it worked really well.

We like to always try new techniques and constantly question the way that we grow vegetables so that we can not only produce great quality produce but also build soil health and in turn build a more resilient growing system, where crops will be able to defend themselves better from pests and diseases. It is always worth questioning some of the habitual vegetable growing techniques, and trying new and different techniques keeps it interesting and challenging.

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The chicory was all oversown with a mix of oats, linseed, buckwheat and phacelia which kept the soil covered all winter and maintained a healthy soil

WHAT TO SOW THIS MONTH: kale, forced chicory, carrots, beetroot, chard, successions of lettuce and other salad leaves (not mustards and rocket—these will bolt too quickly now and get flea beetle), autumn cabbage, successions of basil, dill and coriander, early chicory—palla rossa and treviso types, cucumbers (for second succession), french and runner beans, courgettes, squash and sweetcorn if not already sown.

WHAT TO PLANT THIS MONTH: OUTSIDE: salads, spring onions, beetroot, chard, shallots and onions from seed, courgettes, squash, corn, kale, last direct sown radish early in the month, french and runner beans INSIDE: If not already done—tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, chillies, indoor french beans, basil OTHER IMPORTANT TASKS THIS MONTH: Keep on top of the seed sowing, but don’t sow too much of anything—think about sowing successionally. Keep on top of hoeing and weeding—ideally hoe when the weeds are just starting to come up on a dry, sunny, breezy day.

For more information about our veg bag delivery scheme go to trillfarmgarden.co.uk/boxscheme.html

Bridport provides home to some of the UK’s most threatened birds BRIDPORT and the West Bay area are an important home to some of the UK’s rarest and most threatened birds according to the first ever survey of the town’s breeding bird populations.

National rarities such as the Peregrine Falcon, the tiny Firecrest and the Hobby, a falcon that is a summer visitor to the UK, were all recorded in Yellowhammer by Tom Brereton the immediate area. And some of the UK’s most threatened species that appear on the Government’s ‘Red List’ including the Nightingale, Swift and farmland species Yellowhammer, were recorded.

The survey, carried out last year by the newly formed Bridport Bird Club, is one of the most comprehensive reports every carried out on the breeding birds of an entire town and bordering countryside in the UK. Surveyors walked more than 2,000 miles over a 70-day period across the area’s streets, parks, gardens, golf courses, farmland, cliffs and campsites.

Bridport resident, Dr Tom Brereton, Research Director for conservation charity Marinelife, and Head of Ecology at Mapperton Estate lead the survey for the Bridport Bird Club. He explained: ‘Traditionally, birder’s living in Bridport used to leave the area to go birdwatching elsewhere. But the Covid-19 lockdown meant many local birders had to stay and explore what was on their doorstep and what we found has been a real surprise.’

Sir Philip Colfox, owner of the Symondsbury Estate and Founding Trustee of the charity West Dorset Wilding said ‘This report is as illuminating as it is detailed. For farmers and landowners deciding how and where to implement crucial measures for wildlife, the level of information in the Bridport Breeding Bird Survey is invaluable.’

To download a copy of the report and for more details about Bridport Bird Club go to https://bridportbirdclub.blogspot.com.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 25

May in the Garden

By Russell Jordan

A

s far as I can tell, at the time of writing, we seem to have had a pretty ‘bright’ start to the growing season, with greater than average levels of sunshine and dry weather during March and April. Of course, every year is different but growth does appear to be somewhat ahead of schedule right now. May may be the first month when things really heat up but, equally, if it turns unseasonally cold and wet it can wreak real havoc to all the plants which have produced lots of delicate new growth and burgeoning buds.

The bright weather during April was accompanied, naturally, by overnight frosts which would have wiped out any tender plants which had been, inadvisedly, planted out too early. This month, however, they should be safer but, as ever, keep a weather eye open and be ready to cover them in a duvet of horticultural fleece if unseasonally cold nights are forecast.

For the same reason, any dahlia tubers which were potted up last month are probably best kept in pots, for now, and grown on a little longer, under protected conditions, until there is no chance that they will succumb to drops in overnight temperature. From mid-month onwards it should be safe to plant them out into the cutting garden, container displays and your flower beds.

The process of taking tender plants outside during warm, daytime temperatures and then returning them to a greenhouse, or cold frame, to avoid dangerously cold overnight temperatures, is known as ‘hardening off ’. It’s a bit of a faff, especially if you have dozens of dubiously hardy plants waiting to be planted out, but it’s important for a whole load of plants which brighten up the summer garden.

For example, many of the salvia tribe are too dodgy to be planted outside year-round, generally succumbing to winter cold / wet even in relatively sheltered conditions, so keeping large specimens in pots is a good insurance policy. I find this especially useful for varieties of salvia from the species such as Salvia leucantha, S. confertiflora and S. guaranitica. They reach

26 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

an impressively large size, forming woody bases, if kept protected from winter rotting and can be ‘stooled’, at the end of each growing season, to keep them ‘manageable’ in large pots for overwintering.

Shrubs which flowered early in the spring can be pruned, for shape and vigour, now that their flowers have faded, using the ‘one in three’ method. The ‘one in three’ refers to the ideal where you identify the oldest, most senile, one third of the stems and remove them right down to the base.

You will remember, many moons ago, that I suggested that a tiny folding, Japanese pruning saw, fitting comfortably into the palm of your hand, was a favourite gift for gardeners— now’s the time that it comes into its own!

You’ll need a tiny saw in order to get right down into the base of an old shrub, where loppers are simply too bulky to do a proper job of cleanly excising old, thick, woody stems. Secateurs are generally not strong enough to cut through this kind of material and you may even damage the blades, or your hands, if you try forcing them beyond their capabilities. If you prune out the oldest stems, shrubs never get the chance to become elderly and are comprised of one, two and three year old wood to provide the best balance between vigour and flowering potential.

Pruned shrubs, like all plants which are attempting to make new growth, will benefit from an application of a good general fertiliser; ‘fish, blood and bone’ remains my ‘go to’ favourite but other, balanced, formulations are available. All this new growth will, in the case of herbaceous perennials, need supporting if you haven’t done so already.

Insert pea-sticks around floppy herbaceous plants early in the month because the longer you leave it the more difficult it is to weave the supports in without damaging the soft, new, shoots.

Following on from where I left off last month; pests will be on an exponential increase so looking out for them, before they reach damaging levels, is the name of the game.

Resorting to chemical control is generally frowned upon, naturally, so manually removing pests is the best way to keep

them in check until their natural pest controlling predators can take over the job. Some pests, like aphids, can be blasted off their host plants, often roses, with well aimed jets of water but this cannot really be done on very soft foliage or on a whole garden scale.

As things warm up ponds and water gardens can be spruced up by removing overgrown aquatic plants and reestablishing the balance between the amount of plant cover and the area of open water. Ideally there should be at least two thirds open surface, even more for larger bodies of water, to maintain pond health. I find that this is hard to achieve in smaller ponds especially where ‘duckweed’ has taken over.

I have no magic solution to duckweed; skimming as much as possible off, using a fine mesh fishing net, is all I ever do, to little effect, but this is not really feasible for large ponds.

Deep pools, where the water nutrient levels are less likely to promote duckweed growth, are less likely to succumb to it.

Garden ponds are generally not deep enough to prevent big variations in water temperature and nutrient levels, which makes keeping the water clear of excessive weed growth or filamentous algae particularly difficult. When removing unwanted pond plants, or accumulated detritus, remember that this should not be dumped in the wild, especially not into wet areas, because a lot of non-native pond plants are designated ‘invasive species’ and must not be introduced into UK countryside. Composting within your garden, if you have room, should be safe, other wise it will need to be bagged up and taken, as ‘green waste’, to your local recycling centre / amenity dump.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 27

PROPERTY ROUND-UP

Often Sought, Seldom Found

By Helen Fisher

WOOTON FITZPAINE £1,100,000

A detached 4 bedroom house, a short drive to Bridport, Lyme Regis and the coast. Spacious, vaulted hallway, classic handmade kitchen and double glazed throughout. Gated driveway, workshop plus garden room with power and timber stable block. Fabulous views towards the sea from 2 paddocks with mature hedging. All set in approx 6.5 acres.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 422092

BENVILLE PRICE ON APPLICATION

Two neighbouring properties, offering 270 acres of land along with a farmhouse and a range of traditional and modern farm buildings, now in need of renovation. The farm is siutated at the end of a long drive, in the much desired West Dorset countryside. First time on the market for over 100 years. Offered as a whole or in 3 lots.

Greenslade Taylor Hunt Tel: 01305 268786

COLYTON £375,000

CATTISTOCK £950,000

Charming semi-detached cottage in town centre. Grade II listed with two double bedrooms, study area, large bathroom and spacious recently re-fitted kitchen. Period features inc: flagstone floor, inglenook fireplace, window seats and exposed beams. Pretty, private rear courtyard garden and brick hobby room.

Gordon & Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

An early Georgian Grade II listed former farmhouse with 5 bedrooms. Set in the centre of the village, yet down a peaceful lane. Many period features inc: flagstone floors, sash windows, picture rails, exposed timbers and fireplaces plus kitchen with Aga. French windows leading to the walled rear garden with raised veg beds. Single garage plus ample private parking.

Knight Frank Tel: 01935 808243

BRIDPORT £680,000

BURTON BRADSTOCK £650,000

A spacious, unlisted period home with 4 bedrooms. Duel aspect kitchen/dining room, sitting room with oak flooring and beautiful inglenook fireplace with original bread oven. Private gardens to the rear and side, set over several levels and gardened entirely organically for over 30 years. With veg plot, fruit bushes and small orchard. Large shed and decking area.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000

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A substantial 4 bedroom detached chalet bungalow on a generous end of cul-de-sac site within walking distance of the sea and coast. Built in the 1960s and now first time on the market for 35 years. Conservatory with west-facing sunsets. Delightful gardens, double garage and ample parking.

Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

Larger than Life IT is usually a cliche, but “larger than life” really does describe Brian Blessed, who makes his debut in Bridport, at the town’s beautiful Art Deco venue, the Electric Palace, on Wednesday 18th May. Actor, writer and presenter Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, he is also an avid explorer and climber and the show, An Evening with Brian Blessed, will combine anecdotes from his acting career with tales of adventuring.

With a career spanning more than 50 years, there is no shortage of material. On screen, he has appeared in everything from Doctor Who to Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare films. On stage his credits range from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

And his trademark booming voice has also featured on everything from Peppa Pig character Grampy Rabbit to a voice download on TomTom’s sat nav system.

He is an avid climber and will be talking about his Everest climb without oxygen; his expedition to the jungles of Venezuela during which he survived a plane crash; his trek to the North Pole (he is the oldest man to go to the Pole on foot) and his many hours of space training in Russia.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 29

Food&Dining

ASPARAGUS SEVEN WAYS high heat for 2 minutes then cover with a lid and cook for a further 4-7 minutes until tender.

Alternatively after 2-3 minutes you can transfer the pan to a hot oven.

LESLEY WATERS Steaming Asparagus Using two hands, bend the bottom half of each stalk and the tougher base end will naturally snap off between your hands. Use the upper stalk and tips for steaming and reserve the tougher ends for later. Place the asparagus in a steamer or colander over a pan of gently boiling water, cover with a lid and steam for approx. 5 minutes or until the stalks are tender. Thinner stalks will obviously take less time than thicker.

Pan-Frying Asparagus Prepare your asparagus as for steaming, then transfer to a bowl and toss with a little virgin olive oil (approx. 1 tablespoon per 450g Asparagus). Preheat a heavy-based frying or griddle pan until hot and add the oiled asparagus. Cook over a medium30 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Asparagus with Lemon Mayo In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons greek yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon juice and some freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with hot, steamed asparagus.

Asparagus Soldiers with Soft-Boiled Eggs Place 4 medium eggs in a medium pan of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove the eggs, place each in an eggcup and slice the tops open. Season your steamed asparagus with a little melted butter, salt & pepper and serve at once with soft-boiled eggs, dipping the soft, green tips into the runny yellow yolks.

Asparagus with Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Serves 4 as a starter Pan fry the asparagus as above, season and transfer to a warmed serving plate. Add 225g of cherry tomatoes to the hot pan and cook for 1-2 minutes until starting to soften. Spoon onto the asparagus and drizzle with a

little balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Crumble 110g Woolsery Fiesta Goats Cheese over the top and serve.

Asparagus with Air-Cured Ham and Parmesan Wrap each asparagus stalk in a piece of air-cured ham and place in a pre-heated heavy-based frying pan. Cook as above and transfer to a hot serving plate.

Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, shavings of parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

Asparagus with Sage, Lemon & Parmesan Risotto Serves 4 Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan. Add 1 finely chopped onion and gently fry for 10 minutes until softened. Stir in 350g risotto rice, a large curl of lemon zest and a handful of roughly chopped sage leaves and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in 300mls hot chicken stock and simmer until absorbed. Gradually add approx. 900mls more stock, a ladleful at a time. Stirring frequently and allowing each ladle to be absorbed before adding the next. Meanwhile pan-fry 450g asparagus. Season the cooked rice with 25g butter, 55g grated parmesan cheese, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Serve at once, topped with the cooked asparagus.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 31

HOT SMOKED SALMON, PICKLED CUCUMBER AND HORSERADISH SALAD I’m still smoking lots of salmon at home for the Oyster and Fish House and the Fox and occasionally I do a batch of hot smoked salmon or Braden rost as they call it in Scotland, which I’m sure must have been a normal smoke that went wrong, but I love it whatever happened. You can serve hot smoked salmon as a starter or main or even as spring canapés on toast or a rye cracker with horseradish.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• •

1. Slice the cucumber as thinly as possible and mix with the cider vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

2. Leave for 30-40 minutes then drain, reserving the pickling liquid.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.

4. Heat the salmon for about ten minutes in the oven, meanwhile whisk all of the ingredients together for the dressing.

5. Break the salmon into pieces then arrange on serving plates with the leaves and cucumber and spoon over the dressing.

• • •

MARK HIX

•

• • •

300-400g hot smoked salmon 1/4 cucumber, halved lengthways and the seeds scooped out 100 ml cider vinegar 1tsp caster sugar Salt and freshly ground black pepper A handful of small salad leaves, washed and dried For the dressing 1 tbls of the cucumber pickling liquid 1/2 tbls Tracklements strong horseradish cream 3 tbls rapeseed oil Serves 4 as a starter

32 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Mayfly on the Piddle

By Nick Fisher

F

or someone who spends a lot of time writing about fishing, I actually have a very low tolerance of fishing journalism. Don’t like it. Don’t read it. Sometimes, one of those how-to-make-a-hair-rig-out-of-a-dead-cat features can be useful. But only to skim through and pick out the hard info and ignore the waffle in between.

And, worst of all I hate those fishing features, which attempt simply to reaffirm the fishing’s-about-more-than-just-catchingfish ethos. We all know about the pleasures of seeing kingfishers flitting like electric blue F16s, between woeful, weeping willows.

We all know the joy of seeing an otter/water vole/buzzard/ mink/badger, or whatever, going about its daily chores, unaware of being observed.

So, when I sat down this morning, pen in hand, mug of tea wearing a brown ring on yesterday’s unopened post, to write about my day fishing on the River Piddle in South Dorset, I was determined not to trot out a load of leafy prose, about how wonderful the countryside is, while playing down the fact that I only caught one wee wild brown trout all day. But of course, I failed.

My mate Duncan is an anaesthetist (you don’t want to even guess how many times I tried spelling that). When you spend your working life putting people to sleep, you need a hobby. And a chatty one at that. When you’re famous for making people snore, you kinda need a pleasure activity, with a bit more, well activity.

The thing I love about fishing with someone you don’t know very well is at least there’s plenty of moments to talk. There’s the journey to the river. And, in our case a quick walk along the beat’s length to check out pools, glides and riffles. We didn’t manage to walk it all. We were too itchy to get started.

To begin with we both went our separate ways. It’s nice fishing together, but it’s always better to have a spell on your own at first. That way you can hook a few low-lying branches, wrap your leader round a barbed wire strand, and fish some truly obscene flies, without too much risk of embarrassment.

Once the first flush of water-flogging is out of your system, and your nervous enthusiasm is in check, then it’s time to get back together. To compare tactics, to sketch out a day plan and to smoke.

I’m such a terrible nicotine addict, it’s pathetic. And when I meet fellow addicts who are professional medical personnel, I stupidly use this as some sort of insane license to smoke. Like telling myself... well, Duncan’s an anaesthetist. Duncan does operations. Duncan knows all about bodies and stuff.... and Duncan smokes. Like, how dumb is that?

Anyway, the Piddle is an exceptional and very natural chalk stream with little or no artificial stocking and a good array of fly life. Me, much as I try, I’m no entomologist. I can recognise a damsel fly, an olive, a sedge and a mayfly. And that’s the total sum of my fly-spotting knowledge.

Today was a mayfly day. Big fat fluffy mayflies. Unmistakable.

The Piddle is an exceptionally lucky river too, in that the mayfly hatch starts early and ends late.

Mayfly season is traditionally known as ‘Duffers’ fortnight’ because the hatch only lasts a couple of weeks. And mayfly are perfect for ham fisted old duffers, because the imitative mayfly

pattern is big and bold. It’s easy to tie on. Nothing too taxing for ancient eyes. And it’s easy to see on the water. When you cast your fly onto a glide, you can see it clearly, and judge the strike, even if your eyes are crusty with cataracts and your head befuddled by port.

It’s not just the flies and the fishermen that make Duffers Fortnight an easy affair, it’s the behaviour of the fish too.

Remember, these trout have been hungry for months. The weather’s just beginning to warm up and now the biggest meals of the year are wriggling out from the depths. Great fat plates of pastie and chips are floating past starving mouths, and so they snatch at them like there’s no tomorrow.

The flies are fat. The fish are thin. And everything’s going gangbusters. How could I possibly fail? Well, of course, I did.

Not entirely. I landed a tidgy one and raised a few more. Duncan though, had two cracking fish. The larger a good pound and three quarters, must’ve been stocked somewhere else and then escaped to this stretch.

The Piddle, flows down through the village of Puddletown, where the residents agreed, in 1929, to change its name from Piddletown at the request of the Post Office. It’s a river with history. It once formed a barrier against the Viking invasion, and in the 9th century was a stronghold of Alfred the Great. Then, in the early 1990s the Game Conservancy Trust found it to be suffering very badly from bank erosion due to over grazing of cattle, which triggered one of the most successful chalk stream restoration projects.

Yet, for all its perfection and prettiness, the Piddle where we fished, holds a dark secret. At the top of our beat, we came to a manky eerie pool, just downstream and round the corner from a noisy road bridge. Just the sort of place you want to avoid when you’re having a purist upstream dry fly day.

But as we stood sneering at this pool, a flotilla of Mother’s Pride white bread chunks, came sailing downstream. Presumably, because someone out of sight, round the corner, at the bridge, was feeding ducks.

The fish, some shockingly big ones too, gave up any pretence of mayfly feeding and went straight on the white bread attack.

Big dark trout mouths, far bigger than we’d seen rise to a fly, suddenly appeared from the murky root-addled pools, to swipe at a chunk of processed white bread.

Goes to show, that even fancy wild brown trout are eminently corruptible. If they’ve had a taste of white trash fast food whipping past on the current, it doesn’t matter how purist your approach, they’ll still take a gobful of sarnie over a Dorset mayfly any day.

Kinda makes you wonder what we’re doing to this world, doesn’t it?

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 33

Arts&Entertainment

Ben Poole

In Between the Notes

Lauded by stars like Gary Moore and Jeff Beck, Ben Poole has been called one of the UK’s most promising and impressive blues rock artists He talked to Fergus Byrne about where he is today.

L

ong described as one the most exciting young rock, blues and soul artists to come out of the UK for a long time, Ben Poole is remembered locally for playing a storming concert at the David Hall in South Petherton the last time he visited in March 2020. However, Ben has another reason for remembering that last visit. It was one of his last gigs before a lockdown that spelt misery for both musicians and music lovers for the best part of two years. ‘I remember people talking about it and thinking “nah it’ll be fine”’ he says, recalling the publicity about Covid coming to the UK. But of course it wasn’t fine, and within a few days his whole lifestyle and living disappeared.

Like many other musicians he realised how much his life depended on being on the road and how much he missed it.

‘When you’ve lost everything that you’ve built up over the years, when you’ve lost a hundred, hundred and fifty gigs a year or whatever you’re doing, you realise how much you miss it.’

It’s probably fair to say that many aspiring musicians as well as seasoned semi-professionals fell by the wayside without work during those two years. Some focused on different career paths while others sat tight, but watched their moment and perhaps their motivation slip away. It was carnage for an industry that thrives on human contact. But for those that survived and remained committed to their work, the excitement of getting back in front of a crowd is slowly returning.

Ben is delighted that he can now get back on the road and is looking forward to touring in the UK, Canada, USA, Romania, Lithuania, and all over Europe this year. ‘It’s going to be fun to get back out there—doing the festivals again especially’ he says. However, one place his hard work had built up a huge fan base will have to wait. He was scheduled to play a five city tour in Russia in March but for obvious reasons that was cancelled.

34 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

A consummate touring musician with a natural warmth and interest in his fans, Ben has made friends all over the world and even has a WhatsApp group of musicians from big stadium bands in Russia that he keeps in touch with. ‘It’s just really sad for everyone involved’ he says. ‘All my friends are obviously embarrassed, and angry as well. I’m hopeful that things can get resolved soon because I’d love to go out there again.’ He says he is very aware that many ordinary people in Russia don’t want what is going on.

That world seems a long way from when he first learned how to play Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile. That changed his life.

It was about twenty years ago, and although he had owned a guitar since he was nine years old, he credits a really good guitar teacher with getting him to play it. ‘I got a guitar teacher that was really cool and kind of inspiring’ he says. ‘That made all the difference.’ His father was a professional musician and Ben remembers that although there was a piano and a ukulele and guitars around the house he only ever gravitated towards the guitar. ‘So I can’t play the piano to save my life, unfortunately’ he laughs. ‘I wish I’d been less OCD when it came to that. I was so OCD, it was like guitar, guitar, guitar. I’m going to concentrate on that rather than try my hand at a few different things.’ He remembers that particular teacher showing him things that were ‘exciting and cool’. At the time it was Metallica, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix or Guns and Roses that he found exciting. ‘That made me want to sit down and play’ he recalls.

He played his first live gig at about 15. With perhaps a tinge of embarrassment he explains that he was in a metal band then.

‘I guess when you’re in school at that age you kind of fall into liking what all your friends are into. It takes a while to work out what you really like.’

Photograph Roiman Papazyan

However he knew that his guitar was his future, so when the drummer in his first three-piece band elected to go to the British and Irish Modern Music (BIMM) Institute in Brighton, Ben decided to ditch his thoughts of doing a History degree and focus on his music. ‘At that point I was watching Stevie Ray Vaughan Live at the Mocambo and making a career out of it seemed like a long shot, but I thought I might as well try’ he says. BIMM may not have rocketed him to fame but it certainly helped cement his love for his genre as well as give him a new home. He stayed in Brighton and from there began working on the old school way of building a fan base—solid gigging, touring and a lot of hard work.

His talent was spotted by great players such as Jeff Beck who he played with and the late Gary Moore who gave him one of his favourite pieces of advice. He told him to allow a song or solo to breathe, to think of what happens between the notes and that the space in a song or guitar solo is as important as the notes played. Playing on stage with Jeff Beck at age 21, Beck initiated a round of applause after Ben played a solo. Ben recalls it as one of the coolest moments of his life.

Looking at his career since then it’s fascinating to watch Ben’s rendition of Hey Joe at the Bluesmoose Fest in Groesbeek, Netherlands in April 2012. Now the most viewed video from the Bluesmoose Festival it shows a spikey haired young boy in a grey singlet and pink sunglasses pulling off one of the great covers of a Hendrix classic. He plays it on a telecaster that looks like it could end up one day looking as used as Rory Gallagher’s famous Fender Stratocaster—a guitar once described as ‘like a diary of the journey his music had taken him on’. Ben’s guitar could probably tell a few stories too.

Ten years on, and although it hasn’t lost any of that raw

energy, Ben describes how his music has developed. ‘Since then maybe I’ve got a bit more confidence, coolness and a bit less nervous energy.’ He is definitely more soulful and agrees he is a more mature guitar player as well as singer. ‘These days there’s a lot more influences’ he says citing people like Paolo Nutini and James Morrison. ‘Sometimes a bit more funky and a bit more soulful in the songs. Just covering a bit more of a broad spectrum. These days I’m a little bit more complex than that.’

The same can be said for his songwriting. He says you have to swallow your pride when writing songs. ‘You’ve just got to be honest and wear your heart on your sleeve a little bit and drop the ego’ he says. ‘As musicians we try to put on a little bit, especially on stage and in social media and stuff. You just have to be a bit more vulnerable when it comes to songwriting. Be honest. People can see through it when it’s bullshit.’

Listening to Ben’s music, from his first album Live at the Albert Hall to his most recent acoustic work with Guy Smeets, it’s easy to be tempted to wonder whether he might one day cross over to a more commercial sound. There is little doubt that he has the talent and ability to reach a wider audience, perhaps in the same way that Eric Clapton refined his sound without ever leaving his roots. Would he try to be more commercial? ‘Not intentionally’ he says. ‘Whenever you try and force yourself into a certain scene, try to write more poppy songs—I’ve found that doesn’t work for me. I just have to be honest with myself and write what I want to write. Most of the good solid fan base that I’ve got sticks with me. Trying to sit down and write something that is not being honest, not being me—I’ve always found doesn’t come across as very authentic.’

Ben Poole is at The David Hall on May 7. www.thedavidhall.com

Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery & Shop

A Creative Force to be Reckoned with

W

hen Lyme Bay Arts opened their flagship exhibition space, Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery on Bridport’s attractive Symondsbury Estate in 2019, nobody could have predicted that just a few short months later, they would be forced to close their doors amid the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers, support from the local artistic community, and Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund, the Community Interest Company were able to get back on their feet, and then climb. Now a year on from reopening Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery’s doors after the national lockdowns, Lyme Bay Arts can once more focus not just on survival, but on their key objective: making art accessible to everyone, every day.

With a broad exhibition programme that changes every three weeks, plus an outreach venue at Lyme Regis Museum, there is something to offer for all tastes. The gallery’s offering during 2022 includes varied shows, including mixed opens, printmaking, political commentary, sculpture, abstraction, landscapes, installation art, photography and digital art.

haven of handmade, unique, creative products; from glass art, ceramics, textiles, jewellery and woodwork, to the thoughtfully selected range of high-quality artist’s materials. After months spent online shopping or only able to venture out for essentials, customers have responded positively to browsing the carefully sought out collections in the shop. SSW Shop is also home to a more intimate gallery space, ideal for the smaller shows that change every two weeks (and will act as venue 216 during Dorset Arts Weeks).

The SSW Shop Gallery space

Sou’-Sou’-West Gallery, Symondsbury

Once the main gallery was open to visitors again, the organisation turned its attention to transforming what was once the Symondsbury village grocery into a contemporary art retail space. Supported by online shop www.sousouwest. co.uk, the bricks and mortar store is a showcase for the work of over 70 regional designer makers. The SSW Shop is a

36 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Inside SSW Gallery Shop

At the helm is Creative Director Phillip Clayton, a fine artist, former lecturer and Head of Art. Impressively, he curates up to 40 shows a year across the two Symondsbury spaces, to achieve their diverse ever-changing exhibition programme. He says: ‘There is a wealth of creative talent in this region. We even named the gallery to reflect this, evoking the raw energy of a powerful wind moving in from the South-southwest, shattering traditional preconceptions of what to expect of a west country gallery. We have two outstanding spaces that can hold their own alongside many city galleries, but we are very approachable, providing a platform for emerging artists as well showing the work of more established practitioners.’

Something the team behind Lyme Bay Arts is most proud of post-lockdown, is having been able to bring back creative events safely. There’s a strong commitment to engaging visitors with interactive demonstrations, workshops, talks and providing artistic opportunities for children and minority groups. In as many ways as they can, they are proving that art is truly for everyone. Their recent ‘CREATE’ weekend was a huge success, with 40 local schoolchildren in attendance: making paper, printmaking, painting a mural and developing their drawing skills. The event included those same opportunities for adults over the weekend, with woodturning demonstrations and mosaic making to participate in too. Painters were invited to work ‘en plein air’ in the grounds of the Symondsbury Estate, and like many artists before them, took the opportunity to capture the always-inspiring Colmer’s Hill, and share their resulting work with each other that evening.

‘CREATE’ was an opportunity for local schoolchildren to paint and exhibit in a gallery setting.

Instead, they are building a broad network of like-minded people who are interested in the organisation’s work as a community interest company, and who have a passion for making or appreciating the visual arts. This is helping them to continue to create opportunities for artists and makers, to realise their ambitious programme of exhibitions and events, and to occasionally take calculated risks to attract non-traditional arts audiences. By ensuring their stability and accessibility continues long into the future to benefit our local community, Friends of Lyme Bay Arts are helping Sou’-Sou’West Gallery & Shop to remain a place that inspires others; where a wide range of art is shown, created and discussed.

To discover more about becoming a Friend, or any aspect of Lyme Bay Arts’ work, please visit www.sousouwest.co.uk

‘Colmer’s Hill’ en plein air, by Carolyn King

Formerly a members-led organisation, Lyme Bay Arts recently changed how it operates, to become more sustainable and inclusive. Finding they were being approached by artists and art lovers from all over Devon, Somerset and Dorset, as well as from further afield, they agreed it was no longer practical to run a limited membership if they were to adapt and evolve.

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DORSET ART WEEKS Returns for 2022 — May 14 - 29

Former Marshwood Arts Award winner Isla Chaney is participating in DAW

H

ow the landscape changes. Twenty years ago, when we published our first Dorset Art Weeks feature none of us knew how enormous the event would become. Nor could we have dreamed that one year it would be cancelled for fear of visitors and artists infecting each other with something other than an appreciation of art. As a direct response to the cancellation of the 2020 event we set up a free website and eBook to direct art lovers to the studios of some of those that were unable to welcome visitors.

The eBook can be seen at the following link: https://bit. ly/37l5EsK But now we are focused on 2022 and visitors to this year’s Dorset Art Weeks (14- 29 May) can look forward to re-discovering an exciting variety of artist studios and exhibitions in unique locations and beautiful settings, and finding out what the county’s creatives have been up to during such an extraordinary time. There’s a huge amount to see this

38 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Victoria Jardine will be opening her studio for DAW

year with over 250 venues taking part, and more ways than ever to engage with the event, including open studios, public art trails and group shows from a vibrant community of artists, galleries and public spaces.

A new Art Weeks Directory will be distributed to libraries, galleries, museums and other cultural centres across Wessex.

It features venue details, six regional maps and all of the information needed for audiences to plan their venue visits, create an art trail and discover more about the county’s artists, curators and galleries, including special exhibitions and activities which will feature in this year’s event.

Artist and venue information can also be found on the Dorset Art Weeks website where audiences can browse full details to help plan venue visits and days out. The Dorset Art Weeks App allows visitors to create a list of favourite venues, curate their own art trails and view venue details on a mobile phone, and is available for iPhone and Android.

Hugh Dunford Wood opening for DAW Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 39

DORSET ART WEEKS Returns for 2022 — May 14 - 29

Delphine Jones opening for DAW

From individual studios to galleries, workshops to collectives, pop-ups to projects, the event caters for all tastes and interests in the visual arts, covering a wide variety of art forms; ceramics, jewellery, film, installation, painting, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, woodwork and more. It's a great opportunity to see artists’ ideas at their source, as well as ambitious group shows, and to appreciate the breadth and depth of creative talent in the county.

As artists celebrate the distinctiveness of their local areas and the places which inspire their work, Dorset Art Weeks provides a unique way to make the most of Dorset's stunning countryside and coast and what it has to offer, and to discover the unexpected. Look out for the Dorset Art Weeks signs popping up across the county and pointing towards a great day out. With so much to see and do, it's the perfect blend of art, food and travel, with some venues offering refreshments, along with headline sponsor Hall & Woodhouse offering warm hospitality at their stunning pubs around the county.

All venues will continue to take measures to ensure continued safety at this time. After a challenging couple of years, artists will look forward to welcoming audiences and sharing their work with you this May. Visit dorsetartweeks.co.uk for more.

40 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

May

GALLERIES

30 April - 8 May

Card, Chalk & Clay An exhibition of work by three artists working in three very different mediums: Jenny Penney, Caroline Ireland and Naya Downes. Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm; Sunday 10am – 4.30pm. Eype Church Centre for the Arts, Mount Lane, Eype, nr Bridport, DT6 6AR. Free admission. www.eypechurcharts.co.uk.

1 - 13 May

Kit Glaisyer: Cinematic Landscape Paintings is an evolving exhibition of West Country landscapes with a range of works on show in the gallery and in his studio upstairs. Open Weds & Sat from 10-4pm or by appointment. Bridport Contemporary Gallery, 11 Downes Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JR. 07983 465789 www. bridportcontemporary.com @bridportcontemporary.

1 - 28 May

Debbie Lush is guest artist at Unique Framecraft. Open daily from 8am - 4pm at Unit’s 4 - 5 Millwey Rise Workshops, Second Avenue, Axminster EX13 5HH. Tel. 01297 631614 or 07801 260259.

Until 2 May

Ida Applebroog. Right Up To Now. Over the past six decades Ida Applebroog has navigated an in-depth inquiry into the polemics of human relations, dissecting and reassembling the world around her spanning diverse mediums and modes of display. Now in her 90s, this comprehensive survey speaks to her radical introspection as a woman and an artist, presenting life as it is and the repetitive patterns of our existence. Tue – Sun, 10 am – 4 pm. Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL.

6 - 12 May

A Glimpse of Glimmers Bethany Ellen Walker Open daily from 10am - 6pm. The Malthouse Gallery, The Town Mill, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PU. www.bewstudios.com. info@bewstudios.com

Until 8 May

Cliffland Vanessa Gardiner A solo show of recent paintings and drawings. All Vanessa’s paintings are presented beautifully framed

with white box frames. She works in acrylic on board or plywood.

Furniture by Petter Southall. Sladers Yard Gallery and Café Sladers, West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL +44 (0)1308 459511.

‘Enclosure Acts’: Sarah Jane Ross Sou’-Sou’-West Arts Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. Open daily 10:30-4:30.

Free admission & parking. Contact 01308 301326 www.sousouwest. co.uk. Sarah Jane Ross explores access to green spaces and the carving up of our landscape.

8 May - June 26

FOUND Form, Texture, Improvisation A Conversation with the Land in ceramic, plaster, textiles, found objects, print and drawings.

Dave King, Jenny Graham, Jacy Wall. Shippon Gallery, Hook Farm, Chardstock EX13 7DD. Every Saturday 11am - 4pm. Other times by arrangement. alisonoldhamart@googlemail.com. 01460 220021 Directions on website: theshippongallery.com.

13 - 20 May

Jacqueline Art 2022 Solo Exhibition “Beyond the Storm”, 10.00am-4pm, Jacqueline is back with an exhibition reflecting the tumultuous last years, her latest works are full of vibrancy and hope for the future. Something to suit all tastes and budgets. Free Entry.

Kennaway House, 01395 515551, www.kennawayhouse.org.uk.

13 - 31 May

Giles Penny The Art of Being. Penny’s focus of expression is the human form, which acts as a vehicle to explore the interaction between physical and abstract worlds and often portrays an innocent humorous quality. The nature of his figures remains eternally elusive.

His paintings are instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with his sculpture. Tuesday – Saturday. The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LN. 01935 815261. www.jerramgallery.com.

Until 14 May

Nick Goss, Mud Angels Imagined floods and submerged landscapes form the catalyst for Goss’ new series of paintings and works on paper, which encapsulate the impermanence of our surroundings. Curated by Melissa Blanchflower (Serpentine.)Open

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May

GALLERIES

Wednesday – Saturday, 10-5. Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www.thelmahulbert.com.

14 - 15 May

A Sense of Abstraction An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by artists Eva and Marko Humphrey-Lahti exploring their artistic reactions to nature, dreams, light and colour. Long Ash, White Sheet Hill, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3SF 11.00 - 16.00 or by appointment.

Info@humphrey-lahti-art.com or call 07973 319 223.

14 - 19 May

Light and Colour A varied exhibition of mixed media art by budding and aspiring local artists keen to exhibit for the first time under the guidance of Trudi Ochiltree, art class teacher. Malthouse Gallery, Town Mill, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PU. Open daily from 11 4pm. Olivia Chuter Oliviachuter78@gmail.com.

14 - 29 May

Radical Romantics an exhibition of works by a selection of West Country artists inspired by Nature and the Sublime will be showing during Dorset Art Weeks (14-29 May) including Kit Glaisyer, Ruth Piper, James Ursell, Helen Jones, Daniel Bendel, and Grace Crabtree. During Dorset Art Weeks the gallery will open from Weds to Sun, 10am-5pm. Bridport Contemporary Gallery, 11 Downes Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JR. 07983 465789 www. bridportcontemporary.com @bridportcontemporary.

14 May - 2 July

Janette Kerr recent paintings A thousand kilometres between from Shetland to Skagaströnd in the Ground Floor Gallery, Sladers Yard. Janette Kerr’s energetic paintings of sea, wind, and light express what is felt as much as seen. Gabriele Koch makes ceramics of exceptional poise and presence. Petter Southall’s superb furniture designs and craftsmanship. Our pick of new work by Dorset artists to celebrate the summer. Gabriele Koch ceramics, Petter Southall furniture. Sladers Yard Contemporary Art, Craft and Furniture Gallery, West Bay Bridport Dorset DT6 4EL Open Wednesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm Entry: free Phone: 01308 459511 www. sladersyard.co.uk.

Until 20 May

Jeannette Hayes PPPS Solo Exhibition Alive with dynamic expressive energy, Jeannette’s landscapes resonate with a liberated optimistic creativity. Works are constructed out of lines and blocks of evocative colour; abstract activity is finely balanced with landscape reference. Artwave West, Morcombelake, Dorset DT6 6DY Open Wednesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm Contact 01297 489746 www. artwavewest.com.

Until 22 May

7th Annual Printmakers Open Emerging and well-established printmakers from across the south west exploring new exciting methods, processes or subject matter, as well as using the more traditional methods, such as etchings, woodcuts, linocuts, collographs, carborundorum, dry points, mokuhanga, monoprints, lithographs, and more. Sou’-Sou’-West Arts Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. Open daily 10:30-4:30. Free admission & parking. Contact 01308 301326 www.sousouwest.co.uk.

42 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

28 - 29 May

A Sense of Abstraction An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by artists Eva and Marko Humphrey-Lahti exploring their artistic reactions to nature, dreams, light and colour. Long Ash, White Sheet Hill, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3SF 11.00 - 16.00 or by appointment.

Info@humphrey-lahti-art.com or call 07973 319 223

28 May – 23 July

FRESH! Devon Artist Network FRESH! brings together new works by leading artists and creatives from Devon Artist Network.

Featuring work selected from an open call including painting, sculpture, pottery, glass work, textile and markmaking. Open Wednesday – Saturday, 10-5. Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX, 01404 45006 www.thelmahulbert.com

Until 12 June

Waterline 2022 Contemporary abstract photographs by Lois Wakeman and Tricia Scott of weathered and textured boat hulls.

Rotunda Gallery, Lyme Regis Museum, Bridge Street, Lyme Regis DT7 3QA, Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm, www. lymeregismuseum.co.uk.

Until 16 June

Mixed Spring Exhibition of Gallery and Guest Artists. Returning to normality we hope with an exhibition featuring all our gallery artists including sculptors Johannes von Stumm and Sarah Moore, ceramicist Alison Wear and many paintings and prints from Phillippa Headley, Kim Pragnell, Colin Moore, Ruth Ander, to name but a few.

Visitors also welcome outside normal hours by prior appointment.

Tincleton Gallery, The Old School House, Tincleton, nr Dorchester, DT2 8QR. Opening / performance times: Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon from 10:00 – 16:00. Tel. 01305 848 909. www.tincletongallery.com.

Until 25 June

In Xanadu: Coleridge and the West Country An exhibition in partnership with the British Library to showcase the earliest manuscript of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s extraordinary poem Kubla Khan. The exhibition celebrates the manuscript’s return to the county where it was written. It will tell the story of Coleridge’s time spent living in and near the Quantock Hills, his relationship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and the legacy of his writing.

10.00 am – 5.00 pm Tue – Sat (some Sunday opening) The Museum of Somerset, Taunton Castle, Castle Green, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 4AA Museumofsomerset.org.uk See website for booking information.

Until 26 June

Ray Balkwill’s The River’s Voice is a celebratory exhibition of painting the Exe Estuary for over four decades. The Cafe at RAMM, Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RX. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Closed Mondays and Bank Holidays. Admission free and all work is for sale. rammuseum.org.uk. raybalkwill.co.uk.

28 May - 12 June

Reflections of Venice Robert Crisp The result of Robert’s five years of study, experimenting with different surfaces, grounds and mediums to capture the atmosphere of Venice in a visually

recognisable way, but in an abstract style. Sou’Sou’-West Arts Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. Open daily 10:30-4:30.

Free admission & parking. Contact 01308 301326 www.sousouwest.co.uk.

Until 29 May

Living Landscapes Antonia Phillips Paintings exploring Antonia’s enjoyment of working within the landscape, from journeys near and far. Celebrating our amazing British countryside, unique National Parks & glorious Scottish Highlands. Sou’-Sou’-West Arts Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Bridport DT6 6HG. Open daily 10:30-4:30. Free admission & parking. Contact 01308 301326 www. sousouwest.co.uk.

Until 31 October

‘Buried in Time’ at West Bay Discovery Centre. Open daily 11 am - 4 pm excluding Mondays. Admission free, donations welcomed. There will be various walks, talks and events associated with this exhibition during this period. Further details. http://www. westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk/

GALLERIES IN JUNE Live or Online send your gallery details to info@marshwoodvale.com

BY MAY 13TH

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Exploring new skills FOUND features artists Jenny Graham, Jacy Wall and Dave King. Working with printmaking, drawing, ceramics, plaster, textiles and sculpture, they all respond to their environments in unexpected ways. The artists have taken risks with their main skills and explored new ones, each making work that provokes new perceptions. The ground is the starting point for Jenny and Jacy’s work: mud, stone, shadows, neglected woodlands, the casual archaeology of found objects.

Little cup of finds by Jacy Wall Dave will show previously unseen ceramics; he turns to fired clay for its plasticity and directness, extending interests in architectural metaphor and reverie that inform his better known mixed media sculptures.

Jenny is known for distinctive landscape paintings found in many galleries in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Over the years she has also been involved in experimental works, most recently The Archaeology of Destruction, at the Eastville Project in Yeovil with composer Stephen Ives. Jacy is an abstract artist, principally a tapestry weaver, known also for printmaking, and recently for sculptural ceramics.

Her work was represented at the London Art Fair in 2020, and the Crafts Council Collect Fair London in 2021 and 2022.

Dave has a long career as an abstract sculptor across a range of materials and forms from small studio works to sizeable commissions. In 2021, for Wells Art Contemporary, he made a dramatic 10 metre high installation for the cathedral south transept.

The Shippon Gallery, Hook Farm, Chardstock, Axminster, Devon EX13 7DD. Open every Saturday, and welcome at other times by arrangement.

A Glimpse of Glimmers

Her, 2022, Metal and Glass, 37 x 28x 40cm

by Bethany Ellen Walker

A Glimpse of Glimmers is a debut solo show by sculptor Bethany Ellen Walker, conceived out of her studio in Lyme Regis.

The exhibition features a whole host of new sculptural works—a visual response of Bethany’s reflection on the last few years.

The title of the exhibition refers to the brief beautiful moments which are presented in everyday life, these moments are captured and entwined with personal narrative in the work.

Bethany welds and kiln forms her pieces to fruition, forever pushing these processes to the limit. There is significant technical skill required to combine these materials successfully.

Bethany’s work is inherently linked to her heritage, the landscape of the Black Country and its two key industries of metal and glass are embodied throughout her sculptures.

Her practice is a continuous exploration and experimentation with the materiality of these two materials.

Born in the West Midlands, UK, Bethany Ellen Walker graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2020 with an MA in Ceramics and Glass. She received First Class Honours for a BA in Contemporary Crafts from Falmouth University in 2014, where she specialised in metal and glass.

A Glimpse of Glimmers is at The Malthouse Gallery, Lyme Regis from 6 - 12 May. Open daily from 10am - 6pm.

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May

PREVIEW

Grace Petrie comes to Dorchester in May

Protest songs

DORCHESTER GRACE Petrie, a self-described protest singer, brings her brand of angry and informed music to Dorchester’s Corn Exchange on Friday 13th May. Grace has performed widely across the alternative, folk, political and comedy scenes, supported comedian Hannah Gadsby, toured with comedy phenomenon The Guilty Feminist, has done a prestigious live session on the BBC Radio 2 Jo Whiley Show. She reached the top 40 in the UK album charts in autumn 2021 with her album Connectivity.

She will be accompanied on stage by long-time music collaborator, singer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Moss.

There is more music with a folk-roots background from the Gigspanner Big Band on Saturday 14th, also at the Corn Exchange.

Violin-viola-piano trio

TOURING THE May tour for Concerts in the West brings a brilliant trio, all soloists in their own right, to Bridport Arts Centre and Ilminster Arts Centre on Friday 6th, and the Dance House at Crewkerne on Saturday 7th.

Thom, Upshaw and Strong are prize-winning violinist Eloisa-Fleur Thom, the American violist Stephen Upshaw and pianist Sam Armstrong.

Highlights of Thom’s career to date include playing Bach’s Concerto in D minor for two violins with Maxim Vengerov, chamber music with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood (LCO soloists), and appearing as soloist at the 2019 BBC Proms for Arvo Pärt’s Fratres with 12 ensemble.

Upshaw made his concerto debut at just 17, since when he has won several competitions and played in festivals around the world including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, IMS Prussia Cove, Lucerne, Brighton, Huddersfield and more. He plays a 1715 Daniel Parker school viola made available to him by Nigel Brown and the Stradivari Trust.

Hailed as “a major new talent” by International Piano after his Wigmore Hall recital debut, Sam Armstrong brings deeply-felt interpretation to the solo, chamber music and vocal repertoire. He has appeared in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall New York, Seoul Arts Center, Singapore Esplanade and the Royal Festival Hall.

The programme at Ilminster and Crewkerne, where the concerts begin at 7.30pm, will be Mozart’s Violin Sonata No 21 in E minor and work by Bach, Debussy, Berg, Finnis and Schumann. At Bridport, where the usual coffee concert is at 11.30am, the programme will be works by Mozart, Berg, Debussy and Ysaÿe.

Further concert details can be found on the individual tour pages which can be reached via www. concertsinthewest.org

Cupid’s Revenge

TOURING CONTEMPORARY dance theatre company New Art Club investigate the idea of love in a new comedy dance, Cupid’s Revenge, coming to Swanage and Sturminster Newton with Artsreach in May. The show looks at love in a disposable world, in a world where love is used to sell us everything from plug-in cars to yoghurt… where did real love go?

Cupid’s Revenge is a joyful, physical and verbal outburst against the forces that masquerade as love. And it asks, what is love? Is it the mythical love that drives the creation of the universe and everything in it, romantic love; love between friends; love between you and the people you love. Sad, funny and reflective, it is not a story but it holds lots of stories inside it. In that way it is like you. It has a flickering heart that has crashed to earth.

Catch New Art Club with Artsreach at the Mowlem Theatre, Swanage, on Friday 13th May, and the Exchange at Sturminster Newton on Saturday 14th; both performances are at 7.30pm.

Folk Fest is back

SOUTH PETHERTON GOOD news for local folk fans—after a two-year Coviddriven absence, Petherton Folk Fest is back this year with a packed programme of dance and music planned for Saturday 18th June.

This is a totally free event, with events all round the attractive old town. Folk musicians will perform in

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 45

Screen Time with Nic Jeune

Top Six at the Flicks Electric Palace The Outfit “At the centre of this clever pinwheel of a story—Moore co-wrote the script with Johnathan McClain—is Rylance, whose economy of motion and emotion is a marvel.” Time.

Stephanie Zacharek.

This Much I know to Be True “This Much I Know to Be True mostly offers the simple pleasures of good song writing, performed by charismatic singers, captured elegantly onscreen.” Indiewire. Ben Croll.

Cineworld Weymouth Downton Abbey A New Era The Downton Abbey sequel follows Julian Fellowes’ 2019 film and six seasons on BBC. “We’re trying to mark the change—the fact that Crawleys of Downton are nearly in the 1930s, which is merely the beginning of the modern world,” Julian Fellowes.

Odeon Dorchester Top Gun Maverick The long-awaited sequel to Top Gun “If you ever want to watch the precise moment where Tom Cruise became Tom Cruise, you watch Top Gun.” The Guardian Stuart Heritage.

Amazon Prime Paris 13th District “A silky, soulful black-and-white tapestry of single millennials seeking connection.” Variety. Peter Debruge.

BBC iPlayer County Lines “A desperate teenager is drawn into a perilous criminal network in an affecting drama that reflects a reallife scandal.” The Guardian. Peter Bradshaw

46 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

Petherton’s Market Square, the David Hall, Brewer’s Arms, Blake Hall and in St Peter and St Paul’s Church and grounds. There will also be stalls and other attractions in and around Market Square.

The day will start at 9.45am with a parade by Morris dancers into the Square, where there will be music and dancing all day until 6.30pm.

Anquebus, a local contemporary Folk trio, will launch events on the stage in the Square and the duo, Mitchell & Vincent, are scheduled to begin the day-long entertainment in the David Hall. The popular Dambuskers are also booked (again!) and will end the day with a gig in The Brewers Arms at 9pm.

There will be plenty of attractions for children—including Punch & Judy in the church grounds and entertainment by Tor Theatre and The Bearkat Collective in The Blake Hall. And for adults there will be Morris dancing workshops.

The day will also feature some of South Petherton’s traditional events, such as The Ceremony of the Glove and Clipping the Church.

Full details of the programme can be found on the website: www. pethertonfolkfest.org.uk

Show of Hands

HONITON PHIL Beer and Steve Knightley, the phenomenally popular West Country folk duo, are back on tour in May and June, with dates at Honiton, Exeter and Abbotsbury, supported by their special guests, the Madrid-based Irish American roots quartet, Track Dogs.

The two bands will be at Honiton’s Beehive Centre on 4th May for the first of Track Dogs are on a spring tour with Show of Hands, the local Dog Show Sessions coming to Honiton Beehive. which combine the energetic traditions of the musicians.

What you get is six voices, with fiddle, cajon, trumpet, banjo, guitars, bass and mandolin, playing sun-soaked Latin rhythms with a West Country heartbeat and you have an unmissable collaboration between The local gigs continue on 11th May at Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre, 1st June at Exeter Cathedral, and 2nd July in Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens.

Virgin territory

LYME REGIS WE can’t get enough of the Tudors, can we? If you have been seduced by improbably glamorous casting for the appalling Henry VIII and endless costume dramas wafting through Montacute House and gardens, you are probably ready for the next reincarnation—Living Spit do Elizabeth I. The daftly talented duo from North Somerset, Stu McLoughlin and Howard Coggins, bring their own unique take on the first Elizabeth, Virgin On The Ridiculous, to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Wednesday 25th May. With live original music, silly songs, smutty shenanigans, perfunctory props, and hysterically historical horseplay, Living Spit promise another poorly researched lesson in Tudor history that you’ll never forget.

1558. England. A country divided by religion and politics, teetering on the brink of civil war. The hopes of the nation lie with one woman.

2020. England. A country divided by those who enjoy plays featuring men in dresses and those who don’t. The hopes of the nation lie with two WestCountry actors.

Yes, that’s right. By popular demand (and the fact that they can’t be bothered

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The Young Lit Fix All That’s Left In The World Erik J. Brown Cover art

by Luke Martin Recommended for Ages12+ RRP £7.99 Reviewed by Nicky Mathewson ANDREW is walking through the woods, on his way through Pennsylvania USA, trying to reach Alexandria, Virginia.

He has a message to deliver to a family there, assuming they survived the bug that is. The bug—the superflu that wiped out most of the population including Andrew’s family and everyone he knows.

He’s alone with barely any food left, but he must reach the people in Alexandria.

He needs to explain why their parents are dead.

Jamie is in his cabin, in Pennsylvania.

He has the perfect set-up: solar panels for electricity, vegetables growing in the garden, running water from the well, plenty of medical supplies. His mum was a doctor and is the only thing missing from his perfect set-up. She caught the flu and now Jamie is alone with his rifle that he can’t bring himself to use.

After an unfortunate encounter with a bear trap in the woods Andrew is badly hurt and hopes that whoever lives in the cabin, if anyone, can help him fix his leg up, or else he could just shelter for the night, until the pain eases.

Jamie is counting his rations in the lonely silence of the cabin when he hears a noise outside. He hasn’t been outside for a couple of weeks and is terrified.

There’s a thump and a grunt so he knows there’s definitely someone out there.

Andrew finds himself looking down the barrel of Jamie’s gun. Terrified, exhausted and in excruciating pain, he half wishes this boy would pull the trigger.

Erik J.Brown wrote this book because he wanted to see more queer representation in post-apocolyptic books and I’m so glad he did. Erik has written a superb novel with a tender love story sandwiched between tension and disaster.

It’s wonderful and uplifting and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more!

10% off for Marshwood Vale readers at The Bookshop on South Street, Bridport.

01308 422964 www.dorsetbooks.com 48 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

to write a new show) Elizabeth’s back! The third of Living Spit’s (un)Holy Trinity of hilarious heritage historiographies is go as Howard and Stu attempt to tell the story of the greatest monarch that ever lived—Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen.

Folk legend in concert

BRIDPORT MARTIN Carthy is coming to Bridport Arts Centre on Wednesday 25th May. For more than 50 years he has been one of folk music’s greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures.

His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only from within the folk scene, but also far beyond it.

Trailblazing musical partnerships with, among others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his award-winning wife (the late great Norma Waterson) and daughter Eliza Carthy have resulted in more than 40 albums. Martin has also recorded 10 solo albums, most recently, Waiting for Angels.

He’s a ballad singer, a ground-breaking acoustic and electric-guitarist and an authoritative interpreter of newly composed material. He always prefers to follow his boundless musical curiosity rather than cash in on his unrivalled position.

Perhaps most significant are his settings of traditional songs with guitar, which have influenced a generation of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Leeds prize-winner recital SIDMOUTH ISRAELI pianist Ariel Lanyi, the third prizewinner at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, is coming to Sidmouth parish church on Saturday 28th May, for a recital for Sidmouth Music, rescheduled from February.

Lanyi, the Roslyn Lyons Bronze Medal at Leeds last year, is playing a programme of Schumann, including Kinderszenen, Albeniz’ Iberia Book III, and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier piano sonata No 29.

Last Tango in Whitby

SIDMOUTH THE spring production by Sidmouth Amateur Dramatic Society will be Last Tango in Whitby, running from 10th to 14th May at 7.45pm at Sidmouth’s Manor Pavilion theatre. The play is the first production in the society’s centenary year.

The 1990 play is by Mike Harding, the multi-talented author, comedian, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and broadcaster. Last Tango in Whitby has something for everyone—singing, dancing, a lot of laughter and a touching drama.

Pat, recently widowed, joins this year’s coach trip to Whitby—it is tinged with sadness but she is determined to enjoy herself. Phil and Edna provide entertainment with old-time dancing etc. Phil too is trying to enjoy himself despite being trapped in a dead marriage and during their first dance together he and Pat feel the unexpected spark of mutual attraction.

GPW

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Gents Falcon Explorer bicycle, 50 cm frame, serviced, with manual and lock. £40.00 Ring Tony 01460 65144.

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Minster Stone Fireplace/ Hearth No 5404. 98cm x 137cm. Good condition £250 ono. Can e mail photo. Telephone 01297 552714 or 07786 787392.

CareCo PedalPro 40 x 40cm, folds flat, weight

24lbs, use while seated to improve circulation in legs, as new, £20. 07581 749564 (Dorchester).

61 boxed diecast Lledo Days Gone, Corgi, Matchbox & Promotional model vehicles, plus Lledo 15 Model Display Cabinet.

Vgc. £75. Photos available.

01308 423177.

Exceptional Wall Mirror, size: 47ins x 54ins in a pine frame and with a boarded and jointed back. Would enhance any space. £175.

Tel: 01395 487554 Lovely Art Deco style quality Table Lamp with a coloured capiz shell shade in excellent condition, size: 22ins high x 13ins wide. £75. Tel: 01395 487554 Vintage Fisher Price Play Family School House Set with Clock and bell, complete with all accessories including play people, desks, chairs, magnetic letters and numbers, chalk board etc, playground equipment including roundabout, swings, slide, etc, plus also a nursery set with push chair, high chair, play pen, rocking horse, etc. Hours of fun. VGC. £50. Tel: 01395 487554 Toyota Aygo Spare Wheel. Full size 16ins Tyre and wheel, new and unused, £75. 01404 881289 Stockland.

Vintage Kitchen Scales 7 brass Imperial weights

50 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

£130ono. Copper and brass bed wasme pan wooden handle £75ono. 01308 459940.

“Next” bedroom cushions, various colours and all in excellent condition, £3.00 each.

Good quality Chenille Throw, double 150cm x 212cm, in excellent condition, £10. Tel: 01395 487554 Large old Chinese Cantonese Charger, £175.

Tel: 01395 487554 Large old Turkish Copper goose neck Ewer, £80. Tel: 01395 487554.

New, unused 3 foot adjustable electric bed including luxury mattress.

2 part bases for no-tool assembly. Head and foot lift and lower control with handset. Length 6 foot 6 inches. 28 stone weight limit. Phone 01935 824029 Canon Powershot A85 Digital Camera. 4.0, pixel CCD, high quality 3 x optical loom lens.

Complete with user guide, interface cable IFC-400 PCU, 2 compact flash cards, Canon FC-32MH & Fuji film 128MB. In original presentation box. £45. Phone 01935 824029.

For sale mower, strimmer and chainsaw. Wife says I have too many broken toys so I’m having a clear out.

All are occasional starters so all will need some work to get them going. I have

RESTORATION a Hayterette mower, great for rough cutting £30, a Mculloch Mac 335 chainsaw £10 and a Homelite ST385 strimmer £5. Call 07479 474392 leave a message and I will return the call.

Adult Raleigh bicycles for sale. Gent’s in good condition. 15-speed, 26” wheels. Red. £80 ono. Ladies’ in excellent condition. 18 speed. 28” wheels. Purple. £120 ono.

Photos available.

Thorncombe area. Tel: 07775 515249 or 07789 657679.

Mantis Cultivator little used £115. Electric post hole borer £75. Chain Saw budget price brand new unwanted gift £30. 01308 427349 (Bridport).

Magimix Ice Cream Maker 1.5ltr, unwanted gift. £25.00. 01308 425816 or 07875 763304.

Safe under floor cylinder size approx 12 “ x 8”. From Secure Safe Co, Coventry.

Good condition, 2 keys, £100. 01297 489280.

100+ Rosemary roof tiles £20ono. 01460 61863.

Motorcycle Jacket Oxford Hardy wax waterproof removable liner. Size L 42” brand new never been worn. Cost £190, will take £130ono. 01297 489611.

24V Rechargeable Lawn Mower with instruction manual hardly used £20, 01308 456887.

FURNITURE. Antique Restoration and Bespoke Furniture.

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

Experienced local family firm. Phil Meadley 01297 560335

June 22

PEST CONTROL Three Counties Pest Control. Friendly, professional service.

Pest problems? Call us on 07484 677457 www.3cpestcontrol.co.uk Apr 22

STALLHOLDERS Stallholders wanted.

Halstock Fete are inviting stallholders and other interested parties to book their pitches for Saturday 3rd September 2022.

For details contact Peter 01935 891822.

FOR SALE Golf clubs Wilson Sword + 6 woods, 2 putters 4 dox balls + bag + trolly, £60.

01308 425497.

Milling and Drilling machine Proxxon BEW BFB2000 Model, little used

ELECTRICAL

WANTED

CHIMNEY SWEEP

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

Apr 22

Secondhand tools. All trades and crafts. Old and modern. G & E C Dawson. 01297 23826. www.secondhandtools. co.uk.

Aug 22

Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975

Apr 22

Wanted: Old tractors and vehicles. Running, non running. Good price paid. 01308 482320 07971 866364 Dec 22

Coins wanted. Part or full collections purchased for cash.

Please phone John on 01460 62109

Apr 22

Too much clutter in your Loft, shed, Garage, barn. I buy job-lots of vintage items.

07875677897

July 22

FOR SALE vgc 20cm base all tools + clamps, inc £365. 01308 422514. Bridport.

16 course hammer, Dulcimmar, beechwood construction, handmade by Roger Frood, Glastonbury.

Excellent condition, with super strong shoulder bag, zip pockets, ideal for Folkies. £800ono Bargain.

07591 058862.

Babydan fire guard with gate plus 2 extensions and wall fittings, total length 430cm x 75cm height, hardly used, cost £130, perfect condition, still boxed, £50. 01308 482497.

FOR SALE White hand basin and stand £10. Free standing dressing table blue + white with mirror and stool £10.

Thermal picnic hamper brand new never been used £15. Gold carnival 26pc princess punch set in box £15. 01297 678536 Cuisin Art ‘Grind and Brew Plus’ 4-12 cup coffee machine, unique features include insular carafe keeping coffee hot and fresh for hours, and strength control, brand new. £130. (Web SP £170+pp) 01460 220266.

Raleigh Bicycles Ladies’ excellent condition 18-speed, 28” wheels, £120ono. Men’s good condition 15-speed, 26” wheels £80ono.

Thorncombe area. 07775 515249 or 7789 657679.

Photos available.

Buttermilk velour reclining armchair manual operation, unmarked £40.

07593 179826.

Large dog cage with two doors and removable tray, silver, very good condition, 81cm long, 57cm wide, 64cm high. £25. 01460 220116.

Large dog crate never used, £50ono. Chard 01460 62158.

Glass cabinet 2 foot high, 4 foot 6 inches long, 15 inches depth, ideal for ornaments etc. £20ono.

07889 019587.

Fishing rod glass-fibre with boat rod, spinning reel, carry bag, v good condition, ££40. Shooting stick seat, alloy + leather, excellent condition, £45.

Bosch wood planer electric, good £40. 01297 680560.

Devon.

Kitchen table, wood frame white top, 3’x2’ £20. Electric car polisher.

As new, boxed. £25.

Two Polaroid cameras, good condition, £10 +£30. Classic Car Weekly magazines, 30 off back copies 15p each. 01297 680560 Devon.

Vintage Ercol easychair, low armchair Yorkshire design, circa 1960s new webbing recovered as new. £500ono. Matching footstool £250ono. Also Windsor carver chair £150oo. G-Pan Teak cabinet £50. More details.

01297 443930.

Old Oak cabinet 1930s barley twist legs w 35” x H 30” x D 18”. Formally held Gramophone £45. Lloyd Loom bedside cabinet £25.

Lloyd loom Ottoman £25.

Vintage enamel bread bins 1 white 1 cream £10 each.

Compost bin £10. 01297 443930.

5 Red Traffic cones unused £25. SDS Electric drill I case, used once £40. Echo petrol cow

DISTRIBUTION

FOR SALE horn strimmer, ex cond SRM33OES. £200. 01460 78714.

Collection of Early Chumps, Captain Magnet, Greyfriars Holiday Annuals and other boy’s books.

Offers invited for the lot.

01460 68047.

Mountfield SP425 petrol mower, 135cc Honda engine £45. Wormery

£10. Tennis racquet £10.

Squash racket £10. Word of Colour emulsion paint unused 2.5 litre. Ice pink, Skye blue, £10 each. 01297 443930.

Gul Gents wet suit boots, size 10, exc cond, side zip, neoprene £5. Gents guoyancy aid OL Gul brand, exc. cond. £10.

07593 179826.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 51

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

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

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

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

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

Monthly Quiz –

Win a book from Little Toller Books

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

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

Last month’s answer was Upton. The winner was Elaine Cull from Dorchester

52 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 Tel. 01308 423031

BUSINESS NEWS

Startup School for ‘Olderpreneurs’ FIFTY, sixty and seventy-somethings in Dorset are being invited to join a free online school for ‘olderpreneurs’ seeking to set up in business postCovid.

The Startup School for Seniors, which kicks off on 6th May, is the brainchild of entrepreneur Suzanne Noble, 60, who came up with the idea of the free, eight-week course as a result of successive lockdowns causing large rises in unemployment for over-50s. There are 30 free places up for grabs in Dorset.

According to the latest Office for National Statistics labour market data, there are now 550k fewer people aged over 50 who work than before the pandemic began—the most significant fall over two years in at least 30 years.

Also, many older people who were put on furlough or made redundant in the pandemic opted not to return to work afterwards. One in five people over 50 are self-employed, more than any other age group.

Suzanne says that while the pandemic affected the younger generation and over-50s the worst, it’s the older generation who will struggle to pick themselves up in the aftermath. With that in mind, she has secured funding to bring the Startup School for Seniors to Dorset.

The online course comprises over 25 hours of video lessons from Suzanne and co-founder Mark Elliott, 57, plus a weekly exploration and collaboration call designed to encourage participants to articulate their business ideas in a safe and welcoming space. By the end of the course, participants will have improved their digital skills via Zoom, and many will have produced a short-form video to showcase their business.

Suzanne advises people to take stock of what they enjoy doing, especially around what’s known as soft skills such as creative thinking, adaptability, communication, curiosity and how they can use these to their advantage.

Startup School for Seniors is free to anyone in Dorset aged 50+ who is either currently unemployed, has recently been made redundant or is economically inactive. For more information, people should register at startupschoolforseniors.com and complete the application form.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2022 53