The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019

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Magazine West Dorset East Devon South Somerset

Marshwood THE

The best from in and around the Vale

No. 240

MARCH 2019

© Jane Corry Photograph by Julia Mear

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COVER STORY Julia Mear met Jane Corry at her home in Sidmouth ‘I was an only child until I was seven when my sister came along. I read a lot and enjoyed my own company. I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember and still have scraps of paper on which I’d written little stories in rounded childish writing. My parents didn’t have much money but they loved books. They would read to me every night and I am sure this made a big difference. My mother was a nurse and later an educational welfare officer. My father trained as a draughtsman with De Havilland during the war and then worked in engineering. Our parents worked very hard to give us a good education. My sister and I got places at a well-known London girls’ school called North London Collegiate where the fees were set according to parental income. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to go there.

We lived with my grandmother until I was 12 in the suburbs of Harrow. Then we moved to a house around the corner but I still saw her every day. She was a great influence on me. We weren’t allowed to call her granny because it made her feel too old. So, she was ‘Doris’. If I had a teenage argument with my parents, Doris was the first person I went to.

I think children can benefit greatly from living with grandparents. I feel so lucky that my only surviving grandparent was so close.

Our parents expected us to have high flying careers. I was hopeless at maths and science. I never considered myself to be bright as the only thing I could do was write stories! I remember going to a careers convention and saying that I wanted to be an author but was advised to do something ‘safer’ like teaching. I walked home in tears. The irony is that later in my life, I did start teaching (in creative writing) and loved it.

I went on to read English at Reading. I was then accepted as a trainee journalist on the Thomson Graduate Scheme. I spent six months in Cardiff where I had my first piece printed in the Western Morning News. It was a review of an art exhibition and I will never forget the excitement of seeing someone on the train to Penarth reading my piece! Then I worked in London on a trade fashion magazine called Drapers Record. Every week, I had to ring round all the big shops and find out what was selling well to write about current trends. I also interviewed fashion celebrities like Zandra Rhodes as well as Gertrude and David Shilling the hat designers. We had a cupboard of clothes left over from photo-shoots and were allowed to borrow them!

But I wanted to write about ordinary life and not just fashion. So I became features editor at Parents magazine (even though I didn’t have children at that point) and then Woman’s Own. One day, my editor sent me to interview a young actress. ‘She’s going to be really famous,’ he told me.

I called for her at her London flat and we went out for lunch together.

We got on very well and had lots of giggles together. The following month, her new film opened which also starred Michael Caine. Her name was Julie Walters...

Soon afterwards, I had a miscarriage which was deeply distressing.

When I got pregnant again, my doctor advised me to have bed rest. So, I handed in my notice at Woman’s Own. After my son William was born, I picked up the phone and spoke to the then features editor on The Sunday Times. I asked why there weren’t any articles on miscarriage and she commissioned me to write one. This led to a long career of writing features about family matters besides two more babies. I worked from home which involved a lot of juggling. When William was small, I took him with me to interview Pam Ayres because I had no one to leave him with. Pam was very understanding and we stayed in touch for several years.

I married young at 22 and have three wonderful children as a result, William, now 35, is a qualified lawyer but gave it up to write novels. He’s teaching English in Spain at the moment in order to support himself in the meantime. It can take time to get published. The writing gene does

seem to run in the family. My youngest son, Giles is a journalist. He writes a music playlist for the i newspaper and also presents and produces on Soho Radio in London. My daughter Lucy is a teacher and very creative.

In 2005 my marriage ended. At the same time, my regular page for a woman’s magazine finished and I needed to find regular income. By chance, I spotted a newspaper ad that said ‘Wanted! Writer in residence for a high-security prison’. It was nearby on the borders of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. I knew of the prison but never expected to go there. I almost didn’t apply because I was scared! But the salary was the exact amount—down to a penny—which I needed, on top of my maintenance, to pay my mortgage. At the interview, I had to meet the ‘residents’ to see how I would © Jane Corry Photograph by Julia Mear react. A big beefy man came up to me with tattoos down his arms and missing front teeth asking what I was doing there. I nervously explained that I was being interviewed as a writer in residence. ‘Hah!,’ he scoffed. ‘I can’t even read let alone write home to the kids.’ Suddenly a light came on in my head. I suggested he could speak it out loud and I’d write it down for him. I was offered the job. Over the next three years, I spent two days a week helping men of varying abilities to write life stories, poems, letters, short stories and even novels. Little did I know this experience was going to change my life and also inspire me to write four novels.

I didn’t have an officer with me when I ran workshops or gave one to one feed-back on men’s writing. But I only felt unsafe on two occasions. The first was when a prisoner spat at me. (He later apologised.)

And the second was when another ‘stalked’ me in the prison. It’s not considered good manners to ask what people did in prison and usually it’s best not to know because it can change your attitude. But I couldn’t resist looking up his crime on Google. After that, I made sure I was never alone again in his presence. It always took me a while to ‘settle down’ again after my two days a week at the prison. I would also constantly warn my children and their friends against taking drugs or drinking too much because many of ‘my men’ had committed terrible crimes as a result. Besides working at the prison, I also taught at Oxford University. On some days, I went straight from one to the other.

I can honestly say that certain prisoners showed just as much talent as the students!

By then, I’d also been published as a romance author. But my prison experience made my writing grow increasingly darker! I began writing a novel about a woman lawyer who, like me, had never been inside jail before. She takes on a murderer’s appeal case and cannot help falling into a relationship with him. I called it My Husband’s Wife and it became a Penguin best-seller in 2016. Since then, Penguin has published Blood Sisters and The Dead Ex which also got into the top ten. My fourth novel I Looked Away comes out this summer.

After my second year at the prison, a friend (Shaun Corry) whom I’d known all my life asked me to marry him. I’d always been drawn to live by the sea. My father’s father had been a sailor and when we came down here, I just fell in love with Sidmouth. But I’d just accepted a contract for a third year at the prison and didn’t want to let them down. A prison officer happened to live in Devon too so I commuted every week in his van.

I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world. I became a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter University where I helped students with the structure of their writing. I also helped to fund Sidmouth Literary Festival four years ago. The sea really inspires me and I swim for eight months of the year. I am also fortunate because my daughter and her husband have moved here too. I look after my grandchildren (aged one and three) for two days a week while they work. I consider myself very blessed.’

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MV UP FRONT I’m sure I’m not the only person who, contemplating possible technological advances twenty or thirty years ago thought, ‘yes that might happen, but not in my lifetime.’ How wrong we were. It’s a misjudgement that I’ve learned to be aware of when looking at scenarios that today might seem outlandish. When the philosopher, Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Homo Deus, touched on the potential for biological inequality due to medical advances switching from healing the sick to upgrading the healthy, I thought, ‘yes, but not in my lifetime.’ His theory is that methods used to repair medical or even cognitive problems could easily be used to enhance people who don’t have a problem but would like to improve perhaps their memory, brain power, fitness or physical strength. He suggested that initially, the research, development and implementation would be expensive, and therefore only available to the wealthy. But that this could potentially create a super race whose ability to take advantage of these advances meant that they would always be a step ahead, and consequently unstoppable. In many ways, it’s an old cyborg science fiction story, but one that is now being taken seriously. This week’s news stories included one about a lady undergoing gene therapy treatment to halt a common form of blindness. Another highlighted an International Association of Athletics Federations ruling that a female athlete should take medication to lower her testosterone level or be forced to compete with men: while another story, from Pablo Uchoa at the BBC World Service, asked whether we should be worried about hackers taking control of brain implants.

He pointed out that advances in neurotechnology mean that brain implants are being investigated for treating depression, dementia, Tourette’s syndrome and other psychiatric conditions, possibly even memory loss. Laurie Pycroft, a researcher with the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford, commented that she wouldn’t be surprised if there was a memory implant available within the next ten years. The timeframe for these human enhancement technologies is no longer measured in decades and centuries, so much so that the current debate is not if or when things might happen, it’s how can we deal with the ethical questions of human enhancement, and how can we stop them being manipulated by those with the power to do so? It’s tempting to say that those are questions that won’t be resolved in my lifetime.

Published Monthly and distributed by Marshwood Vale Ltd Lower Atrim, Bridport Dorset DT6 5PX The Marshwood Vale Magazine is printed using wood from sustainable forestry For all Enquiries Tel: 01308 423031 info@marshwoodvale.com

This Month 3 6 8 32 34 38 39

Cover Story By Julia Mear Change is Coming Whether they Like it or Not By Philip Strange Coast & Countryside Events Into the Wide Blue Yonder By Margery Hookings Courses and Workshops News & Views Laterally Speaking By Humphrey Walwyn

40 42 44 46 48 50

House & Garden Beside the Seaside By Cecil Amor Vegetables in March By Fergus Dowding March in the Garden By Russell Jordan Property Round Up By Helen Fisher The Book of Eels By Nick Fisher

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54 56 57

58 58 62

Food & Dining Pappardelle with Rose Harissa, Black Olives and Capers

By Yotem Ottolenghi Spaghetti with Clams By Lesley Waters Game Mulligatawny By Mark Hix People in Food By Catherine Taylor

70 72 73

Health & Beauty Services & Classified People at Work By Catherine Taylor

Arts & Entertainment Augmented Reality at Shire Hall By Fergus Byrne Museums and Galleries, Performance, Preview and Film

“The speed of time is one second per second.”

Fergus Byrne

Like us on Facebook and watch out for the next Marshwood Face

Editorial Director

Contributors

Fergus Byrne

Deputy Editor Victoria Byrne

Design

Fergus Byrne Emily Secrett-Hill

Advertising

Sue Norris sue@marshwoodvale.com

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Cecil Amor Fergus Dowding Helen Fisher Nick Fisher Richard Gahagan Margery Hookings Mark Hix Russell Jordan

For local events follow us on Twitter @marshwoodvale

Julia Mear Yotam Ottolenghi Gay Pirrie-Weir Philip Strange Catherine Taylor Humphrey Walwyn Lesley Waters

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.

Change is Coming Whether They Like it or Not

by Philip Strange Blizzards, strong winds, drifting snow, bitter cold – that was the story in early March last year when the “Beast from the East” collided with storm Emma bringing extreme weather and disruption to life across large parts of the UK. Towards the end of June, by contrast, the sun began to shine and daytime temperatures climbed into the thirties and stayed that way across much of the country until August.

Elsewhere across the globe, reports came in of flooding, wildfires, severe tropical storms and unusually high and low temperatures. Many of these weather extremes can be attributed to climate change and there is considerable concern that the planet is heading for climate catastrophe. David Attenborough expressed this fear at a climate change conference in Poland: “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

In the UK, it was the long, hot summer, the joint hottest on record, that made people think most about a changing climate. The weather here is, of course, notoriously fickle and some will remember

The pictures show temperatures across the world in June 1976 and in June 2018, compared to the average across the period 1951-1980. Red means higher, blue means lower.

Kindly supplied by Simon Lee who generated the images from NASA/GISS data.

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that in 1976, we experienced a similar long, hot, dry summer, so how can we disentangle normal weather variation from climate change?

One way of looking at this was shown by Simon Lee, a PhD student at the University of Reading, who shared graphs on Twitter of the global temperature anomalies in June 1976 and in June 2018 (see pictures). These show that in 1976 the UK was one of a few unusually hot spots in an otherwise cooler than average world whereas in 2018 much of the world, including the UK, was hotter than the average. The 2018 picture shows climate change in action: the planet is warmer making heatwaves more likely.

Careful measurements of the average surface temperature of the planet show that it is currently about 1°C hotter than in pre-industrial times. This may not seem very much but it is enough to disturb the complex systems that create our weather. As a result, heatwaves may be more frequent. in summer and, in winter, polar air may be directed southwards bringing abnormal, freezing temperatures. Also, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture so that rain and snow may be more severe. Climate breakdown might be an apt description of these changes.

This global heating is a result of human activity. The emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas, oil and petrol, traps heat in the atmosphere so the temperature of the world increases. We have known this for some time and we have also known that the solution is to reduce carbon emissions. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have, however, continued to climb because no government has had the will to introduce the extreme lifestyle changes required to curb emissions.

Some governments, including our own, have even encouraged the continuing extraction of fossil fuels.

It is, therefore, significant that in October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report containing a dire warning: we must make urgent and unprecedented changes to the way we live if we are to limit heating to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. To achieve this target, we must reduce net global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and to zero by 2050 – fossil fuel use must be drastically reduced by the middle of the 21st century but we must start the reduction now. Should we fail to achieve this 1.5oC target, the risks of drought, flooding, extreme heat, poverty and displace-

ment of people leading to wars will increase significantly. The world will no longer be the place we know and love and parts of it will become uninhabitable for humans and the rest of nature.

How do we achieve this reduction in carbon emissions? Voluntary measures such as suggesting people fly or drive less will not work.

The only way this reduction can be achieved is through coordinated government action based on recommendations made in the IPCC report. These include the planting of more forests and the chemical capture of carbon dioxide to reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide. There must also be a drastic shift in energy production and in transport away from fossil fuels and this can be driven in part by investment and subsidies directed towards clean technologies. A carbon tax can also help drive this shift but the tax will need to be high enough to force change, for example by taxing energy companies who burn fossil fuels so that they invest in cleaner technologies.

In the short term, costs to consumers may rise, so politicians would need to keep the public on side, for example, through tax incentives.

If we grasp the opportunity, the scale of change may have the unexpected bonus of allowing us to design more sustainable and equitable societies.

The IPCC report set out very clearly the changes required to avoid damaging global climate change so there was great anticipation when the UN Climate Change Conference convened in Katowice in Poland just before Christmas. Astonishingly, given the gravity of the situation, the 200 countries represented there failed to agree new ambitious targets for greater reductions in carbon emissions. Four countries (USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait) would not even sign a document welcoming the IPCC report; these countries are of course all oil producers.

It was at this conference that David Attenborough issued his warning about the collapse of civilisations but there was another hugely impressive intervention. This came from 15-year old activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden. She had already achieved some notoriety through her weekly climate strikes where she missed one day of school to protest about climate change. Her actions have stimulated many thousands of young people around the world to do likewise.

Thunberg also spoke in London at the launch of the new grass-roots movement, Extinction Rebellion, which intends to use peaceful pro-

test to force governments to protect the climate. These new trends offer some hope for the future since it is the young of today that will bear the climate of tomorrow.

Here is part of Greta Thunberg’s speech given at the Katowice conference: “For 25 years countless people have come to the UN climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So, I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future, I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.”

“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with. We have to make our voices heard.”

Philip Strange is Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Reading. He writes about science and about nature with a particular focus on how science fits in to society. His work may be read at http://philipstrange. wordpress.com/

Heavy snow falling in early March while a great tit continues to feed.

Below: Golden countryside in Dorset during the long hot summer of 2018

Coast &Countryside Events WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY East Devon Ramblers moderate 10.5 mile circular walk from Newton St Cyres. 10am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

01395 567987.

West Dorset Ramblers 10 miles Charminster Downs and Valleys. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01300 320084.

Coffee Morning 10am - 12noon. Free Entry. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5AA 01460 240340 www.thedavidhall.org.uk.

Honiton U3A meeting with speaker Dr. John Somers - and his talk is entitled ‘Paraffin Lamps & Jigsaw Puzzles. The Beehive Centre, Dowell St., Honiton Doors open 1.30pm for a 2pm start. Members Free and Visitors welcome (suggested donation of £2) Further information: 01404 598008 Website: http://u3asites.org.uk/honiton.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society 7.30pm Talk ‘The Otters Return to Southern Britain’ by Graham Roberts.

Uplyme Village Hall, Lyme Road, Uplyme, Lyme Regis, DT7 3UY https://ulrhs. wordpress.com/.

Bridport Camera Club Talk by Janet Haines - Creative Photography. 7.30pm Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3HA. New members always welcome. All enquiries call the Club Secretary on 07737 405474 or email secretary@bridportcameraclub.co.uk.

Colyton Parish History Society Start 7.30pm Entrance fees £2 for members, £4 for non-members - meetings open to everyone, Colyford Memorial Hall. Sir Thomas Gates - New World Adventurer.

From Humble Colyford to Governor of Virgini by John Dover.

Wilde Wednesdays: Lady Windermere’s Fan Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www. marinetheatre.com.

THURSDAY 28 FEBRUARY Benefit Advice Session… an initiative

by Dorset Welfare Benefits Partnership.

Dorchester, Sessions will operate on the fourth Thursday in each month, 9am - 12.30pm at Age UK Dorchester. To make an appointment, please contact Age UK Dorchester on 01305 269444 or at Rowan Cottage, 4 Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester DT1 1PW www.ageuk.org.uk/ dorchester.

Food for Thought - Nature’s Pharmacy 7pm - 8pm a talk by registered Nutritional Therapist Helen Ross at the Literary and Scientific Institute Bridport. Tickets £5 includes healthy nibbles, available from the LSi Alembic Canteen or Eventbrite.

Chard Ladies’ Evening Guild A new era begins. With a new venue for meetings, and new dates and times for each. From now meeting on the fourth Thursday of each month at the Crowshute Centre (parking in

the adjacent public carpark) and the doors will be open at 6.45 ready for the meetings to begin at 7pm. Welcoming old or new members and visitors to join in. A lively and friendly group.

Thomas Hardye School Musical Showcases 1pm (doors 12.30pm) Free (Donations welcome) Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org. uk. Also Wednesday 27 March.

Fleetwood Bac Endorsed by Mick Fleetwood, this celebration of the seventies super group is the only one to replicate the ‘Rumours’ line-up. £16.50 early bird / £19 standard / £21 on the door 10% off Theatre Friends Bar opens 7pm, starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www. marinetheatre.com.

FRIDAY 1 MARCH Coach Trip to House of Marbles & Trago Mills Enjoy a relaxed day out at this working glass and games factory set in a historic pottery and then browse thousands of discount home & garden products at the Southwest’s original discount warehouse.

An Axminster Heritage Event. Pick-ups in Axminster and Chard. £12.00 with discount for Children. Info and to book call 01404 831207.

Chess Club Every Saturday 10am – 12noon free. Meet in thespacious indoor Courtyard, there will be introductory tuition for new players and competitors for those who know what they’re doing! http://www.lsibridport.co.uk/chess-club-onsaturdays-2/ LSi Bridport, 51 East Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3JX. Cooking Made Easy –Exmouth Bidmead Community Centre 11am – 1pm Health and Local Food for Families (HALFF) Tel: 01297 631782 / www.halff.org.uk.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Speaker Sue Howse will be Exploring Mindfulness and Self Compassion. 3.15pm-4.00pm Therapy session – Worry Busting with Louise Wender. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society meeting at Holy Trinity Church, Lysander Road, BA20 2BU at 7.30pm have an interesting talk ‘Walter Bagehot – Langport’s Unknown Celebrity’. The life and works of the oft-quoted and influential Victorian writer and economist. Speaker – Barry Winetrobe. Guests £2 at the Door.

Contact 01935 477174. www.yalhs.org.uk.

The Savannah Jazz Band Tip top, toe tapping trad jazz from a longstanding group – back at IAC by popular demand. At 8pm.

Tickets £16 (£31 with pre-show supper at 7pm – must be pre-booked). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street,

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

The Power of the Drum & Voice at Axmouth Village Hall from 7.30pm 9.30pm. A fun interactive evening of discovering rhythms with drums, percussion and voice. Come, play and celebrate the joy of drumming and singing with others.

No experience required just the desire to have fun. The evening will be led by Sue Althorpe of Seaton’s ‘Drum for Fun’ and Tina Bridgeman who is an experienced musician and singing teacher. Please let Christina Bows know if you can come on 01297 23822 and bring drums if you can. Light refreshments will be available.

Donations to the Spiral thespiralcentre. wordpress.com.

The Savannah Jazz Band Tip top, toe tapping trad jazz from a longstanding group – back at IAC by popular demand. At 8pm.

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

Clare Muireann Murphy: Others from the Other Side presented by Artemis Storytelling 7.30pm Cygnet Theatre, Exeter www.cygnettheatre.co.uk. The Irish landscape is full of stories peopled by shape-shifters and once-god-fairies who move seamlessly between our own and a decidedly other world. The fabulous storyteller, Clare Muireann Murphy, acts as an intermediary between these two worlds, with stories of the other people, changelings, stolen children, strange marriages, theft, deception and wild curses.

Tickets: £10 12+.

Creation event at Purzebrook Chapel, Axminster. 7pm. Speakers from Creation Ministries International. Refreshments. All welcome, No charge. Queries: 0774390311 or 01297 33042.

Bampfylde Lecture 2019 Death, Diamonds & Demons: The Secret History of Hestercombe House 7.30pm - 9pm.

From medieval origins to its Edwardian heyday, the history of Hestercombe House is long and colourful with more than a skeleton or two lurking in its creaking cupboards. In this year’s Bampfylde Lecture, Chief Executive of the Hestercombe Gardens Trust, Philip White, will share with you some of the tales from its lively past. From ghostly apparitions to hidden diamonds, you will hear previously untold stories from different chapters of the mansion’s history. Make an evening of it and enjoy a two course supper in Hestercombe House before the lecture. Supper served from 5.30pm, lecture begins at 7.30pm.

Supper and lecture: £29.95 Lecture only: £10. The Bampfylde Lecture is held annually to coincide with the birthday of

Coast &Countryside Coplestone Warre Bampfylde who designed the Landscape Garden at Hestercombe.

Ticket Office on 01823 413923.

Hestercombe Gardens, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton,SomersetTA2 8LG 01823 413923 https://www.hestercombe.com.

Kimmeridge Museum - a Dream Fulfilled Dorset Wildlife Trust. An illustrated talk by Steve Etches, expert fossil collector and the inspiration behind the Museum of Jurassic Marine Life at Kimmeridge. Starts 7.30pm at the Bridport United Church Hall, East Street, Bridport, DT6 3LJ. Suggested donation of £2.00 (£3 for non-members). www.dorsetwildlifetrust. org.uk.

Richard Digance – The Platinum Tour 7.30pm £15.50 advance, £17 on the door (seated). Comedy songwriter Richard doing what he loves best - telling stories, playing the guitar & singing songs. Eric Sedge supports. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Hal Cruttenden: Chubster 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £19 / £17 members & concessions Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

This hilarious show not only touches on

his usual moans about being a middle-aged, middle-class father of fat-shaming teenagers but also introduces us to new problems like his struggles with IQ tests, political zealots and the trauma of supporting the England rugby team.

Intronauts 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SATURDAY 2 MARCH AVDCS walk 9.30am – 3.30pm 7 miles.

Lyme Regis to Axmouth on the Coast Path.

With Roger Critchard. Meet at Holmbush Car Park, Lyme Regis (SY336920). Contact Roger on 01460 220756 to arrange return transport. You must wear walking boots and be physically fit. Bring a picnic.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 8 mile walk from Kingcombe Meadows.

Jubilee Trail passing through Powerstock Common. 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898002.

Dorset Countryside Volunteers are cutting scrub at Hardown Hill (near Morcombelake West Dorset) in order to maintain heathland for the National Trust.

They welcome new people interested in helping look after this special site. For details see www.dcv.org.uk, email DCVpublicity@ gmail.com, or text or message 07923 498760

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for them to contact you. Also 3 March.

Willow plant supports 10am - 4pm, Reed Base at Seaton Wetlands. Make a sweet pea support and a grow through in a day. £45 per person, booking required. Find out more at wildeastdevon.co.uk. Contact Wild East Devon at: wild@eastdevon.gov.uk, 01395517557.

Colyford Memorial Hall Jumble Sale 2pm - 4pm. 30p entry, free car park, disabled facilities, toilets and refreshments.

The organisers can collect items of clothing, bric-a-brac, china, glass, furniture, small electrical items, books, garden equipment.

Please ring: 07594864872 or 01297 551288.

Or bring along your items to the hall (on A3052) on Saturday 2nd March from 8.30 am.

Fight or Flight doors 5pm- 10pm at The Beehive, Honiton, Ex141LZ. A charity white collar boxing event in aid of ‘See the Future’. Tickets £25.VIP seats £45 (limited) To book contact Paul Quick-07511 800303.

At The Ebenezer Martin Rowson : The History of Satire – the last 3,000 years Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

The Ebenezer in The Seed Factory, Aller, Somerset TA10 0QN. To RSVP, please email ebenezer@ebenezerpresents.com.

Bridport Ceilidhs at 7.30pm - 11pm in

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

Email: info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month.

St Mary’s Church House Hall, South Street, Bridport, feature a great band back again, “Oxford Nags”, with Jane Thomas calling.

All are welcome regardless of experience for a fun evening of dance with Bring & Share supper. No bar, but the Woodman Inn is just opposite. Tickets £9 on the door, cheaper at £8 if bought in advance at The Music Shop or booked on 01308 423 442 / monty3dayslate AT yahoo.co.uk. See http:// www.bridportceilidhs.wordpress.com.

Rob Newman’s Total Eclipse of Descartes Based on the hit BBC Radio 4 series, this whirlwind tour of philosophy explores 3000 years of good and bad ideas from Pythagoras to driverless cars, by way of levitating Buddhist monks, Pavlov’s dogs, Jean-Paul Sartre’s mum, T. Rex, and Morrissey. In a world gone crazy, can philosophy help? Ages 14 and over £14 advance / £16.50 on the door 10% off Theatre Friends Bar opens 6.30pm, starts 7.30pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www. marinetheatre.com.

Dirty Words 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SATURDAY 2 – SUNDAY 10 MARCH Crocus Week Forde Abbey House and Garden. Crocus Week, when these jewellike flowers will carpet the lawns, although many bulbs will have been in bloom since mid-February. The Plant and Gardening Fair takes place on Sunday 3rd March, within Crocus Week, so what better reasons are there for visiting Forde Abbey at this delightful time of year. www.fordeabbey. co.uk.

SUNDAY 3 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 9.5 mile circular walk from Hennock St Marys. 10am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

01395 567987.

Plant and Gardening Fair 10am - 4pm. £3 Forde Abbey House and Garden. Packed with inspiration and ideas for the Spring garden, Forde Abbey’s Plant and Gardening Fair is always held on the first Sunday in March, making it one of the earliest plant fairs in the South West. Over thirty stalls selling plants and gardening sundries from 10am - 4pm. All the stallholders are happy to chat about their plants and stock, and to offer expertise and share their enthusiasm, so do come along to see what you can add to your own garden or just admire the beautiful plants on show. www.fordeabbey. co.uk.

The Exeter Singers 3.30pm - 4.30pm Musical Director : Tony Yates Free entry.

Sidholme Music Room, Elysian Fields, Sidmouth. EX10 8UJ. Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath 7pm - 8.30pm. Dorchester YMCA, Sawmills Lane, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2RZ. Experience a magical

performance of Pure Sound by musician Dean Carter using singing bowls plus sacred vocal overtoning which promotes a deeply relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit.

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

(You may sit if preferred.) £12, Booking in advance and further details www. centreforpuresound.org ahiahel@live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

John Peel’s Shed 7.30pm In 2002, John Osborne won a competition on John Peel’s Radio 1 show. His prize was a box of records that took eight years to listen to.

This show is an ode to music and radio, and features a selection of records previously owned by the late John Peel. Many are very rare recordings by obscure bands and this is a unique opportunity for any Peel fans. A version of the show was recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre, and broadcast on Radio 4. Shipton Gorge Village Hall Tickets: £8, £6 (u18s), £25 (fam 4 – max 2 adults) from Kate 01308 897407 or kateshiptonvh@gmail.com or online from Artsreach www.artsreach.co.uk.

Edgelarks 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £15 / £13 members & concessions / £5 Livefor£5 Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

BBC Folk Award winning duo Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are a leading force of roots and acoustic music. On this special album-preview tour they will be showcasing new songs in an upbeat celebration, an incitement to hope.

MET Opera: La Fille Du Regiment 6.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridportarts.com.

MONDAY 4 MARCH Friendly Badminton Group Every Monday 10am at Charmouth St Andrews Community Hall. Call Monique 07709022299 or drop in.

Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support free drop-in session in support of local people living through cancer. Come along for a supportive chat, meet the team and hear about activities and therapies available.

2pm – 4pm Lyme Regis Football Club.

ASD and Social Anxiety Group 6.30pm – 8pm Bridport Children’s Centre, Skilling Hill Road, Bridport. A support group for young people 11-18 years and the parents of kids of all ages who struggle like this.

Young people will get advice and support.

Parents get separate support. For enquiries call Karen 07974 826891. Also 11, 18, 25 March.

The Arts Society Neroche South Somerset 7.15pm at Frogmary Green Conference Centre, South Petherton.

Picasso in Britain: Art, Politics and Outcry

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by Kate Aspinall. Visitors £5.

Axminster Carnival Bingo Eyes down 8pm Axminster Guildhall.

MET Opera: La Fille Du Regiment Screened from New York Encore Screening.

Duration: 155 minutes including interval. £5 under 18s / £15 Adult advance or on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends Bar opens 4.55pm, starts 5.55pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre. com.

Scottish Country dancing every Monday 7.30pm - 9.30pm at Ashill village hall Nr Ilminster TA19 9LX. Learn steps, formations and dances – led by fully qualified teacher. Come along for fun, fitness and friendship. For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing at Chardstock Village Hall, tea or coffee included.7.30 – 10.00. No partner required. Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461, or just come along. Cost £1.50. www. chardscottishdancing.org. Also 11, 18, 25 March.

Bridport Folk Dance Club meets at 7.30pm - 9.30pm in the WI Hall, North Street, Bridport DT6 3JQ. Enjoy folk dancing mainly in the English tradition from Playford-style to modern-day compositions at Bridport’s long-established weekly club, with club callers and recorded music. All welcome, no partner or previous experience required. Admission £3 for members, £4 visitors (membership available). Taster sessions available at no cost. Contact Mecki on 01308 423 442. Also on 11, 18, and (live music on) 25 March.

Tudors and Historical Fashion 7pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts. com.

TUESDAY 5 MARCH West Dorset Ramblers 8.5 miles.

Bulbarrow Hill and Milton Abbas. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic, no dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01308 867359.

Seaton Beer and District Branch RNLI AGM 7.30pm in the Function Room, Dolphin Hotel, Beer. EX12 3EQ. Meeting includes a guest speaker from Exmouth Lifeboat Station, raffle and refreshments.

Additional Volunteers needed and welcome to join our fundraising team and Volunteer at our Shop at Jubilee Gardens.

The Life And Death of a Love Affair; An illustrated talk on the poetry of Sylvia Path and Ted Hughes. A Talk With Nims Gribler.7pm. free. An introductory talk on the poetry of one of the most famous couples in literature. LSi Bridport, 51 East Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3JX. WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH AVDCS Work party 10am – 4pm

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Coast &Countryside Undercliff. Pinhay. Laurel clearance. Meet at the first fork in the Pinhay driveway (SY316914). Bring a picnic.

Benefit Advice Session Bridport an initiative by Dorset Welfare Benefits Partnership. 9.30am – 12noon at Age UK Dorchester shop in Bridport, 16 West Street, Bridport, DT6 3QP2846. To make an appointment, please contact our Bridport shop on 01308 424859.

East Devon Ramblers strenuous 10 mile circular walk from Manaton. 10am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01395 516897.

Cooking Made Easy – Axminster Masonic Hall – Axminster 10.30am – 1pm Health and Local Food for Families (HALFF) Tel: 01297 631782 / www.halff. org.uk.

Museum of Fashion – Royal Women 11am Bridport Arts Centre www.bridportarts.com.

Bridport Scottish Dancers at Salwayash Village Hall. Evening of social dancing 7.30pm – 10pm. Cost £2 including tea or coffee and cake. Contact Caroline 01308 538141 or Ann 01308 422927.

Ilminster W.I. 7.30pm a talk by The Samaritans .Their trained Volunteers offer anonymous contact, day and night for those in distress ,the lonely, the grieving, the desperate. Their work is needed in every community. The W.I. meet on the 1st Monday of each month at the Minster Rooms adjacent to the Minster. Guests, visitors,& the curious & those seeking friendship are most warmly welcomed.

Devon Migration to London An Axminster History Society Talk. Dr Bruce Coleman, Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter discusses the scale and patterns of migration from Devon to metropolitan London as shown in Census returns from 1851 onwards. The conclusions raise questions about not only Devon’s society and economy in the period but also how far we should see local history as simply local. All welcome, £2 guests. 7.30pm at The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. Three Men in a Boat Kick in the Head Written by Jerome K. Jerome Adapted for the stage and directed by Simon Downing.

Join Jerome as he recounts the hilarious story of his boating holiday along the magnificent River Thames with his two companions and Montmorency the dog.

Come and join in the fun as Giles Shenton expertly takes the helm and pilots you through the ridiculous tale of men behaving badly while messing about in boats! Tickets: £12.50. Cygnet Theatre, Exeter www. cygnettheatre.co.uk.

Gittisham Folk Dance Club at 8pm - 10.15pm in Gittisham Village Hall, Gittisham EX14 3AF. A friendly club with

live music and guest caller every week - this week featuring Fresh Aire with Aileen Wills calling. Membership available, with entry at £4.00; visitors £4.50, includes light refreshments. All welcome, no partner or previous experience required. Contact Steve on 07793 124 229 or secretary Rosie, secretarygittishamfolkdance@gmail.com.

See https://gittishamfolkdanceclub.org. Also 13, 20, 27 March.

The London Cut 7pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

WED 6 – THURSDAY 7 MARCH The Isle of Brimsker : Frozen Light Wednesday 11am and 2.30pm Thursday 11am and 1.30pm. For booking and more information call Dorchester Arts on 01305 266926 or email enquiries@dorchesterarts. org.uk. Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. A new multi-sensory story from Frozen Light, specialists in making theatre for audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities.

THURSDAY 7 MARCH A new WI for Axminster? Please come to an open meeting at 2.15pm - 4.15pm in the Bradshaw Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Silver Street (also 22 March at 10.15am) to talk about forming a daytime WI (morning or afternoon) in Axminster.

The Women’s Institute has so much more to offer than jam and Jerusalem – do come along and be surprised. For more information contact jenny.roberts@ devonwi.org.uk - 07890 146148.

WDHS Retirement Fellowship 2pm in the Boys Brigade Hall, Sawmills Lane, Dorchester DT1 2RZ for their Annual General Meeting. New members welcome.

Tatworth Flower Club Flower arranging Demonstration at Tatworth Memorial Hall Ta20 2qw. Still Modern by Philippa Louden.

Home made cakes etc Doors open 1.30pm all welcome Visitors £6 Further details 01297 33924.

Friends of Lyme Regis Museum Talk ‘The Relevance of the Amazon Rainforest to Climate Change and Species Survival’ by Sir Ghillean Prance, FRS. Our speaker is a distinguished botanist, an expert on the Amazon rainforest and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2.30pm at Woodmead Hall, Lyme Regis. Entry is £2 for Friends of Lyme Regis Museum & £3 for non-members. For further information please contact David Cox on 01297 443156.

Beaminster Short Mat Bowls Club meet every Thursday In the Public Hall, Beaminster at 7pm. Also 14, 21 & 28.

Chard History Group in the Ballroom at The Phoenix Hotel in Fore Street, Chard at 7.30pm. John Malcolm is going to set a difficult Quiz about The Town

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and surrounding villages. For example “Who was hanged on May 20th1878” and “What? or Where was the Royal Residence in a village near to Chard?” Refreshments are available downstairs in the Bar. New members and guests are welcome. Member £2 and Guests £3. For information call 01460 66165.

Wessex Big Band Concert The 24-strong Wessex Big Band, started back in 1976, is led by professional musician Paul Chousmer.

Admission: £9 or £ 8 at 01935 829576 Martock Church. www.martockonline. co.uk/events.

Chard Camera Club meeting in the Baptist Church hall, Holyrood Street at 7.30pm for their AGM. where they will be electing members for the various roles that are on offer and that make the running of the club a success that it is. www.chardcameraclub. org.uk Contact members secretary Mrs Joyce Partridge on 01460 66885. Anyone wishing to join the club should attend where they will be able to see those members that attend and the members giving their all to make thins run as smooth as they do. All would be made most welcome.

Broadwey, Upwey and District Horticultural Society from Weymouth.

7.30pm at St Nicholas and St Laurence Primary School, Dorchester Road, Weymouth, Dorset. DT3 5NQ www.budhs. org.uk. Vegetables to grow for the coming season Speaker, Peter Read.

Lyme Voices Community Choir Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear. Everyone welcome.

Free taster session. 7.30pm - 9.15pm at the Baptist Church (Pine Hall round the back), Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Visit www-pete-linnett.co.uk, phone 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice. net. Also on 14, 21, 28 March.

Steve Knightley: Roadworks 7.30pm £18 (seated). Best known for his work with the hugely popular acoustic roots group Show of Hands, Knightley invites you on a musical journey. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

FRIDAY 8 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 5 mile circular walk from Aylesbeare. 10am start.

Dogs on short leads. 01395 578699.

West Dorset Ramblers 9 miles. Cerne Valley and Minterne Valley. Starts at 10am.

Bring picnic, no dogs. All welcome. Please call 01300 320084.

U3A Heritage Coast Lyme Regis The Lighthouses of Devon and Dorset A talk by Alan Nichols, a retired Lighthouse engineer with 40 years experience, part history, part information, part stories. Coffee served from 10am to 10.45am talk at 11am until 12noon.Woodmead Hall, Hill Road, Lyme Regis DT7 3PG. Free for members, nonmembers suggested £2 donation. To join

U3A, see website www.lymeregisu3a.org or telephone 01297 444566.

Food on Friday 12noon at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall - two course lunch, roll & butter + unlimited tea/coffee, £4.50.

Special diets can usually be catered for if requested in advance. Open to all ages; very friendly atmosphere, newcomers really welcomed, but please book places in advance by phoning June 01460 77057 or Jackie 01460 72324.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Speaker Holly Miller – Create your very own Rod puppet using newspaper, masking tape, paints and fabrics.

It could be a person, animal or a monster let your imagination run wild! 2.30-4pm Therapy session – Peter Cove offering Swedish Massage for hands & feet (please check beforehand if you have Lymphoedema or lymph nodes removed). Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Her Story Wren Music 7.30pm ‘Thread the Needle, Prove the Point’ Marilyn Tucker, Sarah Owen and Amy Wilson (of Wren Music) return to The Cygnet Theatre for their fourth annual celebration for International Women’s Day. In 2019, the professional singers and community choir will share the unsung stories of women’s lives by exploring fabrics, with traditional songs of wool, lace and linen and contemporary works on factory life and community banners. Tickets: £10.

Cygnet Theatre, Exeter www.cygnettheatre. co.uk.

In Loyal Company by David William Bryan 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £13 / £11 members & concessions. Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts. org.uk. Fresh from a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018, In Loyal Company tells the incredible true story of missing World War II soldier and prisoner of war Arthur Robinson, written and performed by his great-nephew, David William Bryan.

Moscow Drug Club An intoxicating and darkly comic musical experience – a heady fix of Weimar Berlin cabaret, Hot Club de France, gypsy jazz and Nuevo Tango. At 8pm. Tickets £16 (£31 with pre-show supper at 7pm – must be pre-booked). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

The FB Pocket Orchestra 8pm Blues, Ragtime, Hot Jazz, Songs and Dances from long ago. Working backwards from the 1930s, the FB Pocket Orchestra explores repertoire that formed the embryo of what is now known as popular music. The aims of the orchestra are to present a contemporary slant on popular acoustic music from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Tickets: £13 Full. £12 Concessions. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

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

Email: info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month.

Kilmington Garden Club Gardening in dry and drought conditions by Martin Young. Gardening became a challenge in last years long and hot summer. Martin’s talk will guide us through the best ways to overcome the difficulties with dry and drought conditions and still have a beautiful garden. Kilmington Garden Club, Whitford Road, Kilmington EX13 7RF. 7.30pm Non members welcome £3.

Jazz concert with Mike Denham and ‘Spats’ Langham at Cheap Street Church, Sherborne, 7.30 pm. In aid of the Friends of the Rendezvous. Tickets £12, including interval refreshments, from Sherborne TIC 01935 815341 and on the door.

Henry V (1989) (PG) 7pm Join the Arts Centre to celebrate the work of two marvels; Philip Sutton RA & William Shakespeare. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts.com.

FRIDAY 8 – SATURDAY 9 MARCH Our Time is Now presented by Bridport Youth Dance and Bridport Boys Dance (a production by Nikki Northover). Friday at 7.30pm, Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm at Bridport’s Electric Palace Over ninety dancers will take you through the creation of the world to the present day. To the breathtaking beauty of our world and the magnificence of nature to the chaos of war, displacement and the many ecological disasters taking place today. Adult tickets : £10.50, Child/students £9.50. Ticket booking line: 01308 424901 ( Bridport TIC) Tickets in person from Bridport TIC or the Electric palace Tickets online at: www. electricpalace.org.uk Tel: 01308 428354 www.bridportyouthdance.org.uk.

SATURDAY 9 MARCH Martock Farmers Market 10am – 1pm in the shopping precinct. Stock up for Easter from our 17 stalls selling ‘Slow Food’ including Whitelake Cheese, Duncan’s cauliflower, Eggardon black pudding, Bower Bakery’s walnut loaf, Barry’s bangers, Giles coffee, David’s honey, Gina’s cakes, Brenda’s marmalade, Cigdem’s baclava and more. In the Moorlands Shopping Precinct, North Street, Martock. 17 stalls. 01935 822202 for a table.

Dorset Countryside Volunteers will be cutting gorse at Loscombe (West Dorset) in order to maintain wildflower rich meadowland for Dorset Wildlife Trust. The Trust welcome new people interested in helping look after this special site. For details see www.dcv.org.uk, email DCVpublicity@ gmail.com, or text or message 07923 498760 for them to contact you. Also 10 March.

A Space for Living Spirituality 10am – 4pm at the Quaker Meeting House, South Street Bridport DT6 3NZ. Series 7 ‘Spirituality and Healing’ event 1 ‘On

Forgiveness’ led by Janet Lake Donations £10 - £40 Bring and share lunch.

Information and booking; Janet Lake on iona.lake@aol.co.uk.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 6.5 mile walk from Came Wood. Ridgeway, Viking Mass Grave, Came Wood. 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01308 898002.

Long Bredy Village Coffee Break and Frugal Lunch There will be a ‘Second Saturday Coffee Break’ between 10. 30am and 2pm in the village hall. Coffee and biscuits/cakes/scones will be available all the time, with home - made soups, breads and cheeses available from 12.30 pm onwards. Pop in for a coffee, buy a cake or savoury to take home or come for lunch and a chat. There will be no charge but donations will go to Gully’s Place.

What’s that bird? 11am - 1pm. Whatever your experience, come along and learn more about the birds found at Seaton Wetlands with an experienced volunteer guide. A free event, no booking required. Find out more at wildeastdevon.co.uk. Contact Wild East Devon at: wild@eastdevon.gov.uk, 01395517557.

Tom Thumb 11am presented by Lyngo Theatre. For ages 3 plus. Petherton Arts Trust welcomes Lyngo Theatre to The David Hall with their magical recreation of Tom Thumb. This imaginative and extremely creative show will thoroughly entertain little ones and their families.

Performed entirely on and under a kitchen table, this classic story is brought to life in a playful and fascinating show full of Lyngo’s magic with feathery spinning birds, a flying house and a portable forest. Tickets: £9 Full. £8 Under 12s. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

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

Clapton & Wayford Village Hall Jumble Sale 2pm, with tombola & refreshments. Contributions most welcome & can be left at the hall from 10am – 12noon. Information from Jackie 01460 72324.

Egyptian Society Taunton “Egyptian Visitors’ Graffiti”. Speaker: Dr Hana Navratilova. The lecture will take place at 2pm and will be held in conjunction with the Devon Archaeological Society, Dix’s Field, Exeter, EX1 1QA. http:// egyptiansoctaunton.wixsite.com/home.

Blackmore Vale and Yeovil NT Association AGM 2.30pm at the Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne. After tea and cake there will be a talk by Keri Phillips, General Manager, South Somerset Portfolio

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of National Trust properties, and Damian Mitchell, Head Gardener, Lytes Cary Manor: Behind the scenes in South Somerset. www.

BVYNTassoc.wordpress.com.

Dorset Chamber Orchestra St Mary’s Church Dorchester. DT1 2HL 4pm Music for Youth concert with Martin Clunes (duration approx. 1 hour). Tickets £12 (18 and under £1) available on-line and from Harmony Music, 3-4 The Forum Centre, Trinity Street, Dorchester, DT1 1TT 01305 260360. http://dorsetchamberorchestra.org.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Launch Event at Bridport Town Hall organised by Transition Town Bridport at 7.30pm. Free admission, all welcome. Come and join us to find out how we can eat food that doesn’t cost the Earth. Talk by Dan Powell from LandBase, Green Storytelling by Martin Maudsley and local group presentations.

Further details www.transitiontownbridport. co.uk.

Amy Mayes Band Amy sings regularly with blues musician Ben Waters. She recently performed at his Chuck Berry concert at Ronnie Scott’s, being joined on stage by Ronnie Wood and Johnny Depp. Expect classic soul and blues, alongside original numbers. £8 in advance / £10 on the door Bar opens 7pm, starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

The Unravelling Wilburys 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £15 / £13 members & concessions Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. A celebration of the music of The Traveling Wilburys and their rock icon members Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and George Harrison. Country/rock music at its very best, served up with a good helping of humour throughout.

Great British Sewing Bee Q&A with Contestants 7pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SUNDAY 10 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 9 mile circular walk from West Hill. 10am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01404 812678.

Martock Litter Pick The Martock Community Group will again have a litter picking morning, meeting in the Rec car park at 10am. If the risk assessment, speeding car drivers and our insurance policy will let them, they will clear the Stoke Road. While the urban areas of Martock are picked regularly by Parish Council staff, quite a few other roads are picked by thoughtful residents –thanks go out to them. If you see anyone dropping litter, please make it your job to report it. All ages welcome, some of the Youth Club will be there. For more info, contact Fergus Dowding on 822202.

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Sherborne Steam & Waterwheel Centre - Open Day From 11.30am - 3.30pm.

Waterwheel and steam engines running.

Audio Visual displays. Many items of local and historic interest. Tea Room. Picnic Area. Toilet. Oborne Road DT9 3RX. Free parking on road. Entry by donation. SSWC. co.uk.

The Big Picture Sale 12noon - 4.30pm Free. Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. If you love art, pictures and images of all kinds come and immerse yourself in an afternoon devoted to the visual arts. As well as a sale of donated pictures of all shapes, sizes, types and tastes, there will be a gallery of affordable local artists, talks and practical advice from experts. And cake. You can donate pictures, of any size or type to us at Dorchester Corn Exchange at any time during office hours in the lead-up to the event; or if you would like to explore selling your own art then please do get in touch.

Supported by Gallery on the Square.

Crystal & Tibetan Singing Bowl Sound Bath 2pm – 3.30pm Experience a magical performance of Pure Sound by musician Dean Carter using singing bowls plus sacred vocal overtoning which promotes a deeply relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit.

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

To reserve a place email Dean Carter on ahiahel@live.com, telephone 01935 389655 or visit www.centreforpuresound. org. Payment required on the day. Tickets: £12 Full. No concessions. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

The Sunday Sessions This is a post-roast music session in the lovely bar overlooking the Cobb. It is hosted by Street & Matthews, with other guests, and a selection of local drinks. Free entry, no tickets Bar opens and starts 3pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

The St. David’s Singer Sunday 3.30pm 4.30pm Musical Director : Mark Perry Free entry. Sidholme Music Room, Elysian Fields, Sidmouth. EX10 8UJ. Ninebarrow Milborne St Andrew Artsreach performance. Award-winning Dorset folk duo. Doors and bar open 7pm for 7.30pm. Tickets cost £10; £6 for Under18s and £25 for a family (maximum 2 adults and 2 under 18s). You can get them from 01258 839230 or the Londis shop, or www. artsreach.co.uk. Milbourne St Andrew.

MONDAY 11 MARCH Wills Surgery Do you need to make or change a Will or Power of Attorney? Every few months Age UK Dorchester has a by appointment surgery where individuals can come and ask an expert questions about wills, powers of attorney and other legal aspects of your home and finances. This is

a free one-to-one surgery given by Robert Bracher, Wills and Probate Consultant at Berensens, solicitors, Chard. 9.30am 11.30am at Age UK Dorchester shop, 16 West Street, Bridport, DT6 3QP. To make an appointment, please telephone 01305 269444.

Lipreading & Managing Hearing Loss Honiton Methodist Church 10am - 12noon.

Learn how to manage your hearing loss by using lipreading and coping strategies, while building confidence in a supportive environment. First session free. Small, friendly group. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Contact Ruth for further details ruth@bizleyart.com 01297 442239 or just come along on the day. Also on 18 and 25.

Yeovil Probus Club from 1.30pm Modern Gliding at The Yeovil Court Hotel. New Members always most welcome, please contact the Hon. Secretary on 01935 414765 for further details.

Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support free drop-in session in support of local people living through cancer. Come along for a supportive chat, meet the team and hear about activities and therapies available.

2pm – 4pm Axminster Hospital Scott Rowe room.

West Dorset Flower Club meet on the second Monday of every month at the WI Hall in North Street, Bridport. The meeting starts at 2.30pm when Angie Blackwell will be presenting her demonstration entitled “Spring into Easter”. New members and visitors are very welcome. For further details please contact the secretary on 01308 456339.

Biodanza @ Othona Express, Connect, Relax! Dance like no one’s watching, no steps to learn, no partner needed, uplifting music + holistic health benefits. All ages 19 to 90. Teacher: Julia Hope-Brightwell. 2nd + 4th Mondays. 7.15pm for 7.30pm. Cost £8-£10. Othona Community, Coast Road, Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN. Contact Robin 01308 897 130 / biodanza-bridport.co.uk.

Radipole & Southill Horticultural Society The society will be holding its next meeting at the Southill Community Centre at 7.30pm. The subject for the evening is “The National Gardens Scheme – Old & New”, presented by Alison Wright and Di Reeds, representing the Dorset branch of this wonderful charity. The meeting is open to members and non-members and refreshments will be available. Further information can be obtained on 01305 788939.

TUESDAY 12 MARCH Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society Outing departing from Uplyme Village Hall (UVH) 9.15am NT Saltram House, Plympton. George II era mansion (most impressive country house in Devon) Magnificently decorated, Chinese wallpaper, Joshua Reynolds paintings etc. The garden, at its best in Spring with narcissi and other

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spring bulbs, features some lovely trees including a fine Lime avenue, 18c Orangery and octagonal folly. Cafes and shop. Cost NT members £14 Non NT £21. Please ring Annie Kobus 01297 443346 to book.

West Dorset Ramblers 8 miles. North of Smallridge. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic, no dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898484.

Benefit Advice Session Portland - Easton an initiative with Island Community Action and Dorset Welfare Benefits Partnership.

10am - 12.15pm at Island Community Action, and will be by appointment only.

To make an appointment, please contact Island Community Action on 01305 823789 or at Unit 13, Easton Shopping Centre, Easton, Portland DT5 1EB islandcommunityaction@btconnect.com.

Volunteering at Magdalen Farm Help them renovate an outdoor stage for children’s activities. 10am – 4pm Lunch, tools and all training provided. To book your volunteer place please email julia@ magdalenfarm.org.uk for details. The Magdalen Environmental Trust, Magdalen Farm, Winsham TA20 4PA. http:// magdalenfarm.org.uk.

Lipreading & Managing Hearing Loss Bridport Community Hospital 2pm - 4pm.

Learn how to manage your hearing loss by using lipreading and coping strategies, while building confidence in a supportive environment. First session free. Small, friendly group. Tea, coffee and biscuits provided. Contact Ruth for further details ruth@bizleyart.com 01297 442239 or just come along on the day. Also on 19 and 26.

Honiton Decorative & Fine Arts Society Turner vs Constable: The Great British Paint-Off - Nicola Moorby. 2pm The Beehive. www.honiton-dfas.org.uk.

Sidmouth Charity Tea Dances Ballroom, Latin and Sequence dancing with a warm, friendly welcome. £4 each, including Tea, coffee and biscuits at 2.30pm at St Francis Hall, Woolbrook, EX10 9XH Further information from 01395 579856 or 577122.

Time for Tea and a Talk A Peep into the new Axminster Heritage Centre by Nigel Sadler (Heritage Centre Manager) £3 Your chance for a ‘sneak preview’ Prior to the official opening on April 6th Tea & cake served. 01404 831207 to book.

2pm - 3.30pm at The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. Axe Vale Stamp Club Auction 7.30pm for 8pm at the Bradshaw Rooms, Silver Street, Axminster EX13 5AH. A contact telephone number would be 01297 552482.

Ile Valley Flower Club Sally Taylor from Yate will demonstrate at 7.30pm. Broadway Village Hall, Ilminster. Titled ‘Sally Forth Again’ Plenty of parking, Visitors welcome £6 entrance.

National Trust South Dorset Association at 2.30pm “The Portland Spies” by Rod Harris, OBE St Aldhelm’s Church Centre, Spa Road, Weymouth, DT3 5EW. Members

NTSDA £3 Non-members NTSDA £4 inc. tea/biscuits Contact : 01305 782003 www.southdorsetnt.org.uk.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Green Quiz Join Transition Town Bridport for a funfilled evening at the Ropemakers, 36 West Street, Bridport, starting at 8pm. More details www.transitiontownbridport.co.uk.

Turn Lyme Green Bring your ecological ideas and inspirations for the year ahead.

Come and be part of our future together.

All welcome at the Royal Lion Hotel Lyme Regis 7.15pm for 7.30pm. Enquiries Jo Smith Oliver 07525005430.

Chideock Society Fun ‘Photo’ Quiz As you walk around your village how observant are you? Do you know the names of the cottages, recognise distinguishing features of village properties, do you see little details from ‘times gone by’, do you remember certain events or places of interest? If so, please come along to the Village Hall at 7.15pm (for 7.30pm start) and see how many questions you can get right! All the answers are ‘what you see around you’ as you stroll around Chideock so keep your eyes peeled for those little unusual things, historic buildings, names, lanes, and objects.

Take ‘just a little more notice’ of those everyday monuments that form part of our lives. Questions will relate to different photographs displayed on the large screen

and some questions can even give you lots more points. Play as a Team (up to four) or Play on your own. Great Prizes. Have a browse through ‘A Wander Through Chideock’ as that may give you a few clues. Please bring your own pens. Free to members or only £1 per person for visitors.

Tea, Coffee & Biscuits £1.

Orlando 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH East Devon Ramblers leisurely 8 mile circular walk from Seaton Down Hill.

10.30am start and bring picnic. Assistance dogs only. 01395 513974.

Axe Valley Centre National Trust Talk on The Birds of the River Axe by Ian Waite. Colyford Memorial Hall 2.30pm.

Non-members welcome £2 including refreshments. Further information Membership Secretary 01297 631801.

Bridport Scottish Dancers at Church House, South Street, Bridport. 7.30pm – 10pm Classes with instruction and social dancing. 7pm – 8.30pm extra instruction for new dancers. Come and have fun – no partner required. Cost £2 including tea, coffee or squash and biscuits. Contact Ann 01308 422927 or Caroline 01308 538141.

Also on 20 and 27 March.

Bridport Camera Club Talk by John &

Di Tilsley – Cold Places. John and Di love to get really cold on their holidays, but the evocative images they create are a far cry from holiday snaps. 7.30pm Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3HA. New members always welcome. All enquiries call the Club Secretary on 07737 405474 or email secretary@bridportcameraclub.co.uk.

Loders Local History Group Black Soldiers in the World Wars and children of black GIs stationed in Dorset during WW2.

Talk by John (Sooty) Stockley Loders Village Hall 7.30pm. £3 per head. All Welcome.

Refreshments.

The Beehive Folk Café 8pm Free. Come to sing or listen in the Beehive bar with host, Sue King. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

THURSDAY 14 MARCH Benefit Advice Session Weymouth an initiative by Dorset Welfare Benefits Partnership. 9.30am - 11.30am at Weymouth Community Safety Centre (new fire station), Radipole Lane, Weymouth, DT4 0QF, by appointment only. To make an appointment, please contact Age UK Dorchester on 01305 269444. www.ageuk. org.uk/dorchester.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Visit to Piddlehinton Anaerobic Digester at

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1.30pm free guided tour behind the scenes.

There is a limit on numbers so entrance will only be available with tickets booked in advance through Bridport Transition Town.

Further details www.transitiontownbridport. co.uk.

Seaton Garden Club Meeting in the Masonic Hall, Queen Street, Seaton at 2.30pm - Talk by Dr Gavin Haig entitled “The Trials and Tribulations of being a Surgeon” Visitors welcome - Cost £2 to include refreshments. For further information contact: 01297 24049.

Farnham Maltings - Title & Deed Artsreach at Drimpton Village Hall. 7.30pm.

Expect a beautiful and poetic evening of story-telling. Suitable 14+ Tickets from Francesca Hurrell on 01308 867617.or www. artsreach.co.uk .£9, £6 u18s, £25 family. www.farnhammaltings.com.

Seavington Gardening Club 6.30pm A.G.M. Followed by a talk on ‘ Companion Planting ‘ by The Gold Club. Plants for sale. The meeting will be held in Seavington Millennium Hall. Visitors welcome £2 at the door. Enquiries to K. Day 01460 249728.

Chard Royal Naval Association bi monthly meeting in the Chard Rugby Football Club, Essex Close at 7.30pm. Any person wanting to make enquiries should call in on the evening where they would be made most welcome or can contact the branch secretary Mr Gary Pennells on 01460 77978 or by visiting the National website www.royal-naval-association.co.uk.

Chard Camera Club annual Horseshoe inter club competition, which they are this year hosting, in the Kilmington Village Hall, Kilmington at 7.30pm. Five local camera clubs will be fighting it out for the coveted Horse shoe trophy currently held by the hosts Chard. Further details/ information can be obtained from the clubs website www.chardcameraclub.org.uk or by contacting Mrs Joyce Partridge members secretary on 01460 929041.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Film: The worm is turning. United Church East Street, starting at 7.30pm. Transition Town Bridport invite you to this award-winning documentary that connects the dots on global food issues, from the World Trade Organization to earthworms in the soil, to how the organic movement came about.

Tickets can be purchased in advance from Bridport Tourist Information, South Street or on the night if still available. Doors open 7pm. Tickets £5. More details www. transitiontownbridport.co.uk.

THURSDAY 14 – FRIDAY 15 MARCH CHAOS by Laura Lomas presented by DYT Senior Company as part of National Theatre Connections 2019 7.30pm (doors & bar 7pm) £7.50 / £4 under 18s. Special school rates by agreement contact finance@ dorchesterarts.org.uk for more details.

Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926

www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. National Theatre Connections is one of the largest celebrations of youth theatre. In 2019, National Theatre Connections is working with over 300 youth theatres and schools from all over the UK and Ireland to stage ten newly commissioned plays by some of the best contemporary playwrights. DYT will transfer their production to The Drum at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in May. FRIDAY 15 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 6 mile circular walk from Trinity Hill. 10am start.

Dogs on short leads. 01297 552860.

West Dorset Ramblers 11 miles. Hardy’s Monument. Starts at 10am Bring picnic, no dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 459282.

Special Lunch at Henhayes Centre Crewkerne. Roast Lamb followed by Jum Jum cake. All start with a choice of 3 fruit juices and finish with tea/coffee and chocolates. Vegetarian options are available.

Booking is essential £8. (£9 for non members) Bar opens at 12noon. Lunch is served at 12.30pm. Tel 01460 74340 henhayescentre@btconnect.com.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Speaker: Arra Lindemann, poet official, an afternoon of poems and poetry with Arra plus getting to create your own to share with friends and loved ones. 2.30pm - 4pm Therapy session - Peter Cove offering Swedish Massage for hands & feet (please check beforehand if you have Lymphoedema or lymph nodes removed). Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. A Knight’s Tale The Life and times of Sir John Denebaud (1376-1429) The Continuing Story. An illustrated talk by Charles Bird, St George’s Church, Hinton St George 6pm. Tickets £5 from Our Shop, £5.50 at the door.

At The Ebenezer Professor Jeremy Black : The Worlds of James Bond Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The Ebenezer in The Seed Factory, Aller, Somerset TA10 0QN. To RSVP, please email ebenezer@ ebenezerpresents.com.

Russian Showcase 7.30pm. A showcase of Russian heritage and culture inspired by some of the country’s leading composers.

Tickets: £13.50 (£11.50 Concessions) Cygnet Theatre, Exeter www.cygnettheatre. co.uk.

Sam Kelly’s Station House £8 advance / £10 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 7pm, Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre. com.

Sara Deborah Struntz-Timossi presented

by Concerts in the West. Violin (Sara Deborah), cello (Lucy Scotchmer), theorbo (Johan Lofving). For full programme information see: www.concertsinthewest. org. At 7.30pm. Tickets £15. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street,

20 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

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

40 Years of Kate Bush the kick inside Cloudbusting 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SATURDAY 16 MARCH Bridport Green Fortnight: Green Day in Bucky Doo Square from 9am - 12.30pm.

Find out how we can all work towards a more sustainable lifestyle choosing food that doesn’t cost the Earth. There will be stalls and information from other local groups and The Dorset Waste Partnership Roadshow all of whom will be inspiring us to do more. More details www. transitiontownbridport.co.uk.

AVDCS Work Party 10am – 4pm Colyton Community Woodland General management. Meet at site car park, Hillhead (SY245934) Bring a picnic.

Portland Permaculture Fayre 10am - 4pm, at St Georges Centre, Reforne, Easton, Portland DT5 2AN. Exhibitors, talks, cafe, raffle and an opportunity to see how Permaculture - caring for the earth, people and future - is being explored on Portland. Further information is available from Sian at sian.sacredshores@gmail.com.

Table Top Sale Musbury Village Hall 10am - 1pm - Good variety of stalls old and new items including cakes, books and lots more.

Refreshments with bacon buttys. Proceeds to St Michael’s Church. Enquiries 01297 552440/552711.

Sidmouth Daffodil Day 10am - 3pm.

A free community event to celebrate the million daffodils that have been planted around the Sid Valley. A plant fair, walks to the Daffodil sites, Daffodil Art Exhibition, children’s Daffodil art competition, talk

by John Amand from Jacque Amand International on ‘Unusual bulbs and how they get to your garden’, Scarecrow competition, Sid Vale Folk singers, Daffodil Gifts, & refreshments. Kennaway House, Sidmouth, Devon, EX10 8NG 01395515551 www.sidmouthdaffodilsociety. org.uk.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 7.5 mile walk from Sidbury. Harcombe Hill Plantation, Sweetcombe Farms. 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01308 898002.

Rescheduled Annual Potato Day 10.30am - 2.30pm. Drimpton Village Hall, Chard Rd, Drimpton, Dorset DT8 3RF. An opportunity to learn more about the humble potato. Pennards Plants support us in organising this annual event. A wide variety of different potatoes will be available as well as expert advice on how, where and when to plant them. However, it’s not just about Potatoes -- soft fruit vegetable seed , onion sets and many other plants are available to purchase. We also have excellent food available, potato printing for children and a Potato growing competition. Fun for all ages.

Broadwey, Upwey and District Horticultural Society Spring Show 2pm at Memorial Hall, Broadwey www.budhs.org.uk.

The Black Ven Spoken Word and Acoustic Music open mic nights at the Galley Cafe in Lyme Regis. Get warm and cozy on the third Saturday of the month. All welcome. Bring your ears and your songs, ballads, poems, story and acoustic music for a warm welcome and friendly reception.

Sign up 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start £2 entry one and all. With Keian’s delicious homemade cakes, hot drinks and full bar available. blackvenpress@gmail.com.

Haydn Creation The Lord Mayor’s Concert.

The Exeter Philharmonic Choir and The London Mozart Players, directed by Howard Ionascu, at 7.30pm in Exeter Cathedral.

Tickets: £28, £22, £14 online at www.exephil. org.uk by telephone from EPC tickets 01392 278168 at the box office Exeter Visitor Information Centre and Tickets, Dix’s Field 01392 665885.

South Somerset Choral Society’s spring concert will take place at 7.30pm in St. Mary’s church, Chard. Under their conductor Tim Donaldson and orchestra leader Jane Margeson, they will be performing “Elijah”

by Mendelssohn. Tickets cost £13 in advance and£15 on the door. They can be obtained from Barron’s Chard, Harriman’s Ilminster, Phoenix Books Crewkerne, by ringing 01458 259079, or via the website southsomersetchoralsocity.org.uk.

Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman The Dartmoor-based husband and wife have twice won the ‘Best Duo’ award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Consistently delivering assured, distinctive performances, they mix traditional song arrangements with their self-penned material. £14.50 advance / £17 on the door, 10% off for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 7pm , Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre. com.

Kitty Macfarlane with support from Jack Cookson 8pm Kitty Macfarlane is a Somerset-based singer and songwriter.

Her lyrics combine honest snapshots of everyday humanity with the bigger questions that have connected minds and voices for centuries, driven by her own fingerpicked guitar. She is supported by Plymouth-based vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jack Cookson, who combines dry and visceral word-play with intricate finger-style guitar arrangements.

Tickets: £14 Full. £13 Concessions.

The David Hall, South Petherton www. thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

The Phil Beer Band 8pm £21 (seated).

Performing a unique blend of folk and roll trawled from Phil’s treasure trove of traditional tunes and American country rock. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton

EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

The Country Team a drama written by Andrew Rutherford and directed by John Haylock. Desperate dilemmas face United States diplomats in the midst of a South American military junta. Bridport Arts Centre, 7.30pm. 01308 424204.

The Country Team 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SUNDAY 17 MARCH Bridport Best Breakfast 9am - 12noon St Mary’s Church Hall, South Street, Bridport

by Bridport Local Food Group promoting local producers and suppliers. Tickets: Adults in advance £6 from the TIC or at the door £7 children 10 years and under £3 in advance from the TIC or £4 at the door.

Any profits raised will go towards funding the Bridport Food Festival 2019 and local food projects.

East Devon Ramblers leisurely 8 mile circular walk from Four Firs Cross. 10am start and bring picnic. Assistance dogs only.

01395 278943.

Steam Train Day 10.30am – 4pm Yeovil Railway Centre, Yeovil Junction. First Steam Train Day of the new season. 01935 410420 for recorded information, or www. yeovilrailway.freeservers.com.

22 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Sidmouth Charity Tea Dances Ballroom, Latin and Sequence dancing with a warm, friendly welcome. £4 each, including Tea, coffee and biscuits at 2.30pm at Stowford Centre, EX10 9YL (opp Waitrose) Further information from 01395 579856 or 577122.

An Afternoon with James Pellow 3.30pm - 4.30pm John Griswold at the piano Tickets £10 from Paragon Bookshop Sidmouth 01395 514516 or Sidholme Reception 01395 515104 Sidholme Music Room, Elysian Fields, Sidmouth. EX10 8UJ. MONDAY 18 MARCH Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support free drop-in session in support of local people living through cancer. Come along for a supportive chat, meet the team and hear about activities and therapies available.

2pm – 4pm Lyme Regis Football Club.

Chard & Ilminster District U3A A Talk “ Something for Nodding” Eight Essentials for any Auctioneer by Richard Kay. Richard is a regular lecturer, devising talks for study days at Lawrences on themes as varied as Mona Lisa and Minimalism and also speaking to local art groups, Somerset County Museum, NADFAS and Sothebys Institute of Art among many others. He was a regular contributor to Antique Collecting magazine for over 20

years. All U3A members, and retired visitors are invited to join in, all will be warmly welcomed. Admission is free with tea and biscuits provided. A chance to find out what the U3A is all about. 2pm at The Guildhall, 14 Fore St, Chard TA20 1PH. More info Tel 01460 68629 Website https://u3asites.org. uk/chardilminster/home Email: lewbat@ uwclub.net.

The Hidden Needs Trust Charity Concert 7.30pm Octagon Theatre, Yeovil. Featuring Just Take That, Take That Tribute Band, who have featured on BBC with Graham Norton, will take you on a journey of Take That’s, Gary Barlow’s and Robbie Williams’ biggest hits spanning 30 years. The concert will raise money for Special Educational Needs Children in Dorset and Somerset. Tickets £20 purchased from the Octagon Theatre Box Office.

Beaminster WI at 7.30pm at Beaminster Public Hall. Colin Varndell will speak about the “Hedgehog Predicament”. This is an Open Meeting. Guests are welcome to attend two meetings per year without charge.

Musbury Garden Club 7.30pm, Musbury Village Hall. Musbury Garden Club’s March talk tackles a question that many gardeners have asked - ‘Why did it die?’. Neil Lovesey looks at what plants need to thrive, how to spot plants in trouble and how you can correct problems simply. Neil has always been interested in gardening and 15 years ago started up Picket Lane Nursery, a family run business that propagates all the hardy perennials and shrubs that it sells. 7.30pm, with refreshments served from 7pm. All welcome. Non-members £2.50.

TUESDAY 19 MARCH Winter Talks at Beaminster Museum Chris Copson (The Keep Military Museum). Setting the scene for the invasion of Normandy.

The talks take place at Beaminster Museum, Whitcombe Road DT8 3NB at 2.30pm Entrance £3.

The Lyme Regis Society Talk “Georgian Society in Bath and Lyme Regis” Amy Frost, Senior Curator, Bath Preservation Trust.

Taking the waters, sitting for a portrait and promenading were all part of the daily routine when the elite of Georgian society visited Spa resorts such as Lyme Regis or Bath. This talk will look at what drew people to a spa, the rules that they had to follow once there, and the reality behind the image of polite society 2.30pm - 4pm at Woodmead Halls, Hill Road, Lyme Regis. DT7 3PG. All Welcome.

Members Free. Visitors £3.00. Including Refreshments. www.lymeregissociety.org.uk.

Erja Lyytinen 8pm Electric Palace, Bridport www.electricpalace.org.uk.

WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 8 mile circular walk from Langdon Hill. 10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

07940 572330.

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Coast &Countryside West Dorset Ramblers 5.5 miles. Back lanes of Eype & Seatown. Starts at 10am.

Bring picnic, dogs optional. All welcome.

Please call 01297 489567.

Bridport Probus Club Transport By Kay Townsend at the Eype’s Mouth Hotel at 12noon on the third Wednesday of each month for lunch, followed by a talk. For more information contact Graham Pitts on 01297 561569.

Inner Wheel Club of Crewkerne meet for a fun and friendship lunch at Haselbury Mill TA18 7NY on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 12noon for 12.30pm. One of the largest service organisations for women in the world, offering membership to women over the age of 18 who enjoy fun and friendship and being involved in ‘making a difference’. Interesting speakers booked.

Prospective new members are welcome to visit, advance booking required. Contact innerwheel@uwclub.net or 01460 63856.

Devonshire Association, Axe Valley Branch At 2pm prompt, Branch AGM followed at 2.30pm with an illustrated talk

by Richard Edmonds “The Great Bindon Landslide; new mapping and modelling that may explain how it happened” At the Pavillion, Peace Memorial Playing Fields, Coly Road, Colyton EX24 5PU. Entrance donation £1 for DA members and £3 for non-members. Contact: Brian Denham 01297551529 or brian_denham@talktalk. net.

The Arts Society West Dorset Pierre Bonnard: Painting with Light. Speaker: Julian Halsby. The Seaside Boarding House, Burton Bradstock at 2.30pm. For details contact 01308 485487.

Thorncombe Rail Activities Club will host a talk and slide presentation given by Amyus Crump entitled “Peter Grey – The West Country Part 2”. The meeting is at Thorncombe Village Hall, TA20 4NE and starts at 7.30pm. Non Members are welcome, there are refreshments, a raffle and the parking is free. Contact Richard Holt, Chairman Tel. 01460 30428 or Google TRAC “traclubsite” for information.

Sherborne Group of the Dorset Wildlife Trust in Digby Memorial Church Hall, Digby Road, Sherborne at 7.30pm, talk entitled ‘The Treasures of Dorset’ by Christopher Legrand. Cost £2.50.

Bridport Camera Club Club night - members bring in their favourite photography books for group discussion.

7.30pm Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3HA. New members always welcome.

All enquiries call the Club Secretary on 07737 405474 or email secretary@ bridportcameraclub.co.uk.

Dorset County Museum Music Society Concert Petrof Piano Trio. St Mary’s Church Edward Road Dorchester 7.30pm.

Tickets Dorchester Arts Box Office: 01305 266926 Tourist Information Centre: 01305 267992.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Food that doesn’t cost the Earth 7pm for 7.30pm start, Bridport Town Hall. A thoughtprovoking evening our discussion panel will include local food producers including Tamarisk Farm and a representative from Lyme Bay Fisheries & Conservation Reserve. Admission free, donations welcome More details www.transitiontownbridport. co.uk.

Chardstock Gardening Club 7.30pm.

‘UK Subtropical Gardening’ - talk by Ben Candlin. The history of this garden style from its Victorian origins to the present day, and how to create a subtropical or exotic effect using hardy plants. Chardstock Community Hall, Westcombes, EX13 7BJ. Everyone welcome. No need to book.

Visitors £3; tea/coffee and biscuits included.

Enquiries: 01460 221619.

Flash Fiction Story Slam 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

THURSDAY 21 MARCH Community Coffee Morning 10am – 12noon in Clapton & Wayford Village Hall.

Raffle, and a cake stall/’bring & buy’ with home-made items, produce etc. Croissants & bacon rolls will also be served. Do come and join us, for an opportunity to meet friends & neighbours - or get to know new people. Local or not, you can be sure of a warm welcome in Clapton. More details from Julia 01460 72769.

Dorchester Piano Quartet 11.30am Free (donations welcome) Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts. org.uk. Beethoven - variations for cello and piano on a theme from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute Strauss - Piano Quartet in C minor Op. 13. This popular quartet joins Dorchester Arts in 2019 with a programme of Beethoven and Strauss.

Living Tree @ The Bull Hotel 7pm – 9pm Colin Bentley, Artist in Residence for the Jurassic Coast, talking on the subject art as therapy. The Ostler Room, Bull Hotel, East Street, Bridport. Refreshments provided, drinks etc available from main bar, relaxed evening, friends & family welcome.

Tel 07341 916 976. www.thelivingtree.org.uk.

Tatworth WI “Butterflies and Moths” is the title of the talk to be given by Simon Phelps, conservation officer for “All the Moor Butterflies” project of the Somerset & Bristol branch of “Butterflies Conservation”, in Tatworth Memorial Hall at 7.30pm.

South Somerset RSPB Group ‘Birds and Other Wildlife of Bulgaria’ An illustrated talk by David Smallshire 7.30pm The Millennium Hall, Seavington St Mary.

Entry: Group members £3, non-group members £4, under 18’s free (tea/coffee & biscuits included) – wheelchair access. Nonmembers very welcome. For further details contact: Denise Chamings (group leader)

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on 01460240740 www.rspb.org.uk/groups/ southsomerset.

An Evening with Furniture Designer extraordinaire John Makepeace 7.30pm Yeovil Community Arts Association Tickets available from www.octagon-theatre.co.uk For more information about these and other YCAA events, reading groups and competitions, see www.yeovilarts.co.uk. Bar available and nibbles provided at events.

Crewkerne Gardening Club welcomes you to a very special event, a talk by the celebrated gardener Charles Dowding, on his method of “No Dig, More Harvests, Fewer Weeds”. It will take place at the Henhayes Centre at 7.30pm. Tickets for visitors cost £7.50 to include a glass of wine or juice, available now from the venue.

Pete Firman 8pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

FRIDAY 22 MARCH East Devon Ramblers leisurely 4.5 mile circular walk from Hawkchurch. 10am start.

Dogs on short leads. 01404 861527.

West Dorset Ramblers 8 miles. Deepest Dorset. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic, no dogs. All welcome. Please call 01300 320346.

A new WI for Axminster? Please come to an open meeting at 10.15am - 12.15pm in the Bradshaw Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Silver Street (also 7 March at 2.15pm) to talk about forming a daytime WI (morning or afternoon) in Axminster.

The Women’s Institute has so much more to offer than jam and Jerusalem – do come along and be surprised. For more information contact jenny.roberts@ devonwi.org.uk - 07890 146148.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

1pm Singing with Jane. 2pm Tripudio.

2.15pm Speaker Pauline Wickens BFRP, will introduce us to the Bach Flower Remedies, a simple system of self-healing, focusing on the individual’s personality and emotions, and which seeks to reveal our innate emotional wisdom by gently restoring balance, harmony and well-being”. 2.30pm - 4pm Therapy- Anne Escott offering Foot Massage. Plus Peter Cove offering Swedish Massage for hands & feet (please check beforehand if you have Lymphoedema or lymph nodes removed). Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Bridport Green Fortnight: Visit to Piddlehinton Anaerobic Digester at 1.30pm free guided tour behind the scenes.

There is a limit on numbers so entrance will only be available with tickets booked in advance through Bridport Transition Town.

Further details www.transitiontownbridport. co.uk.

A Charity Fun Pig Racing Evening in aid of the RABI - Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution organised by Frogmary Green Farm and Crewkerne

Young Farmers. 7pm - first race 7.30pm Entry £5 includes a Bangers and Mash Supper. Live Pigs will not be raced! Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm.co.uk.

Poetry and Music Poets Fiona Moore and Pam Zinnemann-Hope with Stephen Kenyon on guitar. 8pm. Environmental poet Fiona Moore, whose remarkable first collection has been shortlist for the TS Eliot prize, will read her work with Pam Hope and classical guitarist Stephen Kenyon. Tickets: £12 or £30 with dinner from 6.30pm available from Café Sladers, Sladers Yard, West Bay t: 01308 459511. Please see sladersyard.co.uk for more information.

The South When pop act The Beautiful South split in 2007, some members felt like carrying on. Embarking on this new journey The South continues performing their classics, such as Perfect 10, Rotterdam, Don’t Marry Her, and A Little Time - the number one single. All are performed again live in 2019, which marks thirty years in the business. £22 early bird / £25 advance / £28 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 7pm, Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

Handbags and Glad Rags A ‘Support The David Hall’ Event at 7pm. Come and grab a bargain - bags and bling, scarves and sequins.

A great opportunity to refresh your wardrobe with lots of glamorous accessories. Free Entry. The David Hall, South Petherton www. thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

Somerset Wildlife Trust Ilminster/Chard group at the Parish Hall, North Street, Ilminster TA19 0DG. 7.30pm. No need to book. Entrance by donation £2.50 members, £3.50 non-members, no charge for children.

Refreshments available. Sales table. Parking at roadside, town or Tesco car-parks. Enquiries: Valerie 01460 234551. Otter: coming to a river near you. Stephen Powles will present an introduction to otters: their biology, population crash/recovery and field signs. He will also introduce us to Hammer Scar, the female otter with whom he spent many hours (as featured on TV).

South Wessex Organ Society St Michael’s Church, Lyme Regis, 7.30pm. Alex and Alison Davies present a programme of music for organ and saxophone. Tickets £10 on the door. www.sworgansociety.org.

Life at ‘The Spectator’ and Other Adventures a talk by Martin Vander Weyer, Business Editor at ‘’The Spectator’. 7pm for 7.30pm at the Brownsword Hall, Pummery Square, Poundbury DT1 3GW. Tickets £6 in advance from Poundbury Garden Centre; £8 on the night. For more information, check the website: brownswordevents.org.uk.

Bridport Green Fortnight: Finale of Bridport Green Fortnight with songs from Gail McGarva and Penny Dunscombe, and poetry from stand up poet Rob Casey. Join us for a wonder filled evening of songs and poetry. Bridport Town Hall at 7.30pm.

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Tickets available from Bridport Tourist Information, South Street or on the night if still available Tickets £5.More details www. transitiontownbridport.co.uk.

Nick Wyke & Becki Driscoll 7.30pm The Chapel in the Garden, 49 East Street, Bridport, DT6 3JX. Tickets: £8 in advance / £10 on the door www.wegottickets.com/ englishfiddle. Join the duo for an acoustic concert in the beautiful setting of Bridport’s Chapel in the Garden.

Duncan Anselm Quintet Accessible, straight-ahead jazz - a bit of Blue Note, a bit of the Great American songbook and some original compositions. At 8pm. Tickets £14 (£29 with pre-show supper at 7pm – must be pre-booked). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse. org.uk.

Lovely Girls 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SATURDAY 23 MARCH Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 8.5 mile walk from Wareham. Mouths of Piddle and Frome, Ferncroft Farm. 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01308 898002.

Young People’s Music Festival 2.30pm Hamdon Community Arts Project, North Street, Stoke Sub Hamdon ( former URC building ). Admission free, donations to the Arts Project invited. Come and listen to young people showcasing their musical ability in concert. Awards given to everybody taking part. Refreshments. Raffle.

For more information contact Alan on 01935 579730.

Stockland Jumble Sale 2pm. Victory Hall, Bric a Brac, Books, Good Jumble. Free Parking. Refreshments Information contact, 01410 881535.

National Trust South Dorset Association at 6.30pm “Supper Evening with Quiz” St Aldhelm’s Church Centre, Spa Road, Weymouth, DT3 5EW. Members NTSDA £10.50 Non-members £11.50 (Booking Essential) Contact: geoffwrench@lineone. net / 01300 321601 www.southdorsetnt. org.uk.

Clare Teal and her Trio: Swing’s The Thing 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £23 / £21 members & concessions Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www. dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Lyme Regis Comedy Club with Glenn Moore joined by three other comedians on the bill. £8 advance / £10 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends Bar opens 7pm, Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

Organ Concert by Jonathan Delbridge in South Petherton Parish Church, 7.30 pm.

Live video screening will allow the audience to see, as well as hear, Jonathan play a varied programme including jazz and popular pieces. Tickets, £7.50 from N&D News

South Petherton, or at the door. Licensed bar. Enquiries 01460 249288.

Stoke sub Hamdon Band concert in the Church at 7.30pm. This talented and highly acclaimed Band return to entertain with a varied programme of music. Advance Ticket £7 from Norton Community Shop (on the Door £8). Wine Bar. Part of The 2019 Norton Festival Season of Music. For further information visit www. nortonfestival.org.

Poems, a Plate and a Play-Hard Shoulder Beer Arts Group presents an evening of entertainment at the Mariners Hall, Fore Street Beer EX12 3JH, at 7pm. Poems-with-stories and supper are followed by a performed reading of a one act comedy play “Hard Shoulder” by local playwright Rowland Molony. Tickets, £10 may be obtained at Beer Village Store, Fore Street, Beer EX12 3JA Tel. No. 01297 21782. Enquiries to BeerArtsGroup@gmail. com.

Tankus the Henge 8pmA ’Chance to Dance’ Event. Tickets: £18 Full. £17 Concessions. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

The Tuckers Jazz Club 8pm Alan Barnes, Julian Marc Stringle & The Craig Milverton Trio. The Tuckers Arms, Dalwood, Near Axminster, EX13 7EG (just north of the A35 between Axminster & Honiton) Tickets £10 www.dalwoodvillage.co.uk 01404 831 280.

John Kirkpatrick 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

SUNDAY 24 MARCH East Devon Ramblers leisurely 8 mile circular walk from Galmpton. 10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

01392 214430.

Jazz in the Bar: Terry Quinney Plays Stan Getz £8 advance / £12 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends Bar opens 7pm, Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

The Cottage Garden Society Dorset Group 2pm Puddletown Village Hall, High Street, Puddletown DT2 8RX. Dorset based natural history and garden photographer Colin Varndell will talk about and share his evocative images of animals, birds, insects, wild flowers and landscapes. Raffle and refreshments. Members Free, guests £5 at the door. Enquiries Jenny Daultry 01747 851300.

Nick Cope 2.30pm (doors 2pm) £9 / £7 / £28 family ticket (max. 2 adults) Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. Nick Cope’s family performances are legendary: with songs about head lice, dogs eating soap and dragons called Keith.

Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath 2pm - 4pm Stour Row Village Hall, Stour Row, nr. Shaftesbury, Dorset

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SP7 0QG. £12, Booking in advance and further details www.centreforpuresound. org ahiahel@live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

Nana’s Sri Lankan Feast - Fundraiser for Arc 5.30pm – 9.30pm Guildhall Axminster. Amazing Food, Live Music, Raffle and Auction Tickets £25. From Allendale Dry Cleaners, Little Bits of Lovely & The West Country Higgler. Axminster Enquiries Nana 07984005672.

Acoustic Night 7.30pm – 10.30pm. All styles and forms of performance welcome – not just music. If you wish to perform please drop us an email at folk@chriswatts. org to secure a slot. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

MONDAY 25 MARCH AVDCS Bird Watch 10am – 2pm Bird Watch, Dartmoor, (Steps Bridge).

Meet at car park on right-hand side past bridge (SX803883). Inform Fran Sinclair (07804835905) if attending. Bring a picnic.

West Dorset Ramblers 7miles. Bridport Trail. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic, no dogs.

All welcome. Please call 01308 422514.

Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support free drop-in session in support of local people living through cancer. Come along for a supportive chat, meet the team and hear about activities and therapies available.

2pm – 4pm Axminster Hospital Scott Rowe room.

Black Venn Poetry Editing Group Last Monday of the Month. £6 per session.

Editing seminars open to anyone looking to develop individual poems and participate in high level critiquing as a group. www. lsibridport.co.uk/black-ven-poetry-editinggroup/ LSi Bridport,51 East Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3JX. Biodanza @ Othona Express, Connect, Relax! Dance like no one’s watching, no steps to learn, no partner needed, uplifting music + holistic health benefits. All ages 19 to 90. Teacher: Julia Hope-Brightwell. 2nd + 4th Mondays. 7.15pm for 7.30pm. Cost £8-£10. Othona Community, Coast Road, Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN. Contact Robin 01308 897 130 / biodanza-bridport.co.uk.

Axminster Carnival Bingo Eyes down 8pm Axminster Guildhall.

Easter Bingo at Misterton Village Hall (TA18 8NA) - doors open 6.45pm, eyes down 7.30pm. Good prizes - hampers, Easter egs, etc. Raffle, tombola and light refreshments. Enq. 01460 74808.

Bridport Folk Dance Club meets at 7.30pm - 9.30pm in the WI Hall, North Street, Bridport DT6 3JQ. All welcome, no partner or previous experience required.

Admission £3 for members, £4 visitors (membership available) Taster sessions available at no cost. Contact Mecki on 01308 423 442.

TUESDAY 26 MARCH Volunteering at Magdalen Farm Come join in as the farm get going for the growing session. Seed sowing, potting on and other horticultural tasks. 10am – 4pm Lunch, tools and all training provided. To book your volunteer place please email julia@ magdalenfarm.org.uk for details. The Magdalen Environmental Trust, Magdalen Farm, Winsham TA20 4PA. http:// magdalenfarm.org.uk.

U3A Monthly Talk The U3A (University of the Third Age) offers a wide variety of general interest groups for retired, and semi retired people in Bridport and the surrounding areas. 2pm in Bridport United Church Hall in East Street. The cost to non members for each talk is £2. Further Information can be found at www.u3asites. org.uk/bridport. ‘The Age of Pyramids’, a talk on the World’s first pyramid; the step pyramid at Saqqara.

Sidmouth Charity Tea Dances Ballroom, Latin and Sequence dancing with a warm, friendly welcome. £4 each, including Tea, coffee and biscuits at 2.30pm at All Saints Hall, Sidmouth EX10 8ES. Further information from 01395 579856 or 577122.

Northern Harmony Concert and Workshop 6.30pm – 7.30pm Workshop 8pm Concert (doors 7.30pm) Workshop tickets £9 / £7 members & concessions Concert Tickets £13 / £11 members & concessions Combined £19 / £15 members & concessions. St Peter’s Church, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. These 14 brilliant young singers return with another thrilling mix of world harmony traditions including South African songs and dances, traditional polyphony from Georgia, Corsica and the Balkans, American shape-note singing and quartet gospel, as well as renaissance motets. Based in Vermont, they are renowed for their remarkable command of the different singing styles and vocal timbres of these varied traditions.

Dorset Industrial Archaeology Society “Coldharbour Woollen Mill” is the subject of Martin Halse’s lecture to the Society. Meetings start at 7.30 pm in the Dorset Room, Colliton House, Colliton Park, Dorchester (opposite County Hall). Non-members welcome (small donation suggested). Further details from: 01305 871863.

Martock History Group Kate Lunch, a lively artistic character, Wessex born and bread, renowned Mummer and Wassailer, had interesting experiences meeting farming characters while gathering material for her latest book, called….”Farm”. Hopefully she will tell all. Martock Primary School Hall, Elmleigh Road. Tea from 7pm, talk 7.30pm, £2 admission.

Merriott Gardening Club ‘Trekking the Himalayas through a Nurseryman’s Eyes’ a presentation by Clive Groves of Groves Nurseries, Bridport. Please meet at the Tithe Barn by 7.30pm - refreshments and raffle -

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Looking Ahead Monday 1 April

ASD and Social Anxiety Group 6.30pm – 8pm Bridport Children’s Centre, Skilling Hill Road. Support group for young people 11-18 years and parents. Call Karen 07974 826891.

everyone welcome - non-members £2 at the door. For more information please contact 01460 72298.

WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH AVDCS Walk 10am – 12.30pm Holyford Woods. With Mike Lock. For spring flowers and early migrant birds. Meet at Seaton Tower lay-by. SY233914. No dogs please.

East Devon Ramblers moderate 10.5 mile circular walk from Corfe. 10am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01823 421038.

West Dorset Ramblers 7 miles. Melbury Meander. Starts at 10am. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 423346.

Coffee Morning 10am - 12noon. Free Entry. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

Maiden Newton Art Group 1.30pm – 4.30pm. As one of our Spring workshops, this weekly Wednesday afternoon group are holding an Open Workshop/Lecture

by Pamela Simpson MA on ‘Considering Landscape and Still Life Painting’, a comparative study exploring the very different and wide ranging approaches taken by artists. Pam teaches at Bath Spa and for University of the Arts, London College of Fashion. She is an expert and entertaining lecturer with an infectious love and knowledge of her subject. Her talks are always a revelation and you are welcome to join us at Maiden Newton Village Hall DT2 0AE. Non Members £5 to include tea and homemade cakes at the interval.

Colyton Parish History Society East Devon Floods Remembered 2pm – 7.30pm.

Colyton Town Hall, Come along and share your memories. 3.30pm a Short guided walk of Colyton flood sites. An extensive exhibition by The Environment Agency Free Admission – All Welcome. Meeting at 7.30pm Start 7.30pm except where noted.

Entrance fees £2 for members, £4 for nonmembers - meetings open to everyone.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society 7.30pm Uplyme Village Hall.

‘Designing a Border’ – a Planting Workshop with Garden Designer Sally Leaney. Sally won best in show for her garden at Taunton Flower Show last year. She will run a designing/planting workshop where we will discuss planting schedules, growing conditions, planting numbers etc and ‘have a go’ yourself at planning a border. Please bring a favourite reference book to use.

Bridport Camera Club Talk by Rod Fry – Contemporary Photography & Photo

Wednesday 3 April

Story of Axminster Heritage Centre and preview of new gallery. All welcome, £2 guests. 7.30pm Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, EX13 5AH.

Books. 7.30pm Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3HA. New members always welcome.

All enquiries call the Club Secretary on 07737 405474 or email secretary@ bridportcameraclub.co.uk.

An Ideal Husband Recorded at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End, this is the return of Oscar Wilde’s hugely popular masterpiece. It stars Olivier Awardnominated Frances Barber (Silk), and Susan Hampshire (Forsyte Saga, Monarch of the Glen). Encore Screening £5 under 18s advance or on the door, £11 advance / £14 on the door, 10% off for Theatre Friends Bar opens 6pm, starts 7pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com .

Easter Bingo with Cash House Prizes at North Perrott Cricket Club. Doors open at 7pm with Eyes Down at 7.30pm. Licensed Bar Open. The Pavilion, Willis Lane, TA18 8SN. www.npcc.co.uk.

Play - To Win The Day7.30pm. This acclaimed folk-drama, by Dorset-based group Time & Tide, uses historical record combined with folk music of the time and area to create a song cycle of the Tolpuddle women. Follow in the footsteps of the families of the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’, whose lives were changed forever when their menfolk – husbands, fathers and sons – became ‘marked men’. Accompany these women on their journey, as they face prejudice against their class, religion and gender. Shire Hall, Dorchester For more information visit shirehalldorset.org.uk or call 01305 261849.

WED 27 MARCH – 6 APRIL The Merry Wives of Windsor Cygnet Company William Shakespeare’s epic and delightful comedy is a rollicking tale of marriage, fidelity, trickery and love.

The puffed up and degenerate Sir John Falstaff, a Knight of the Garter, is seized with the outrageous idea that to seduce two of Windsor’s wealthy merry wives will prove his virility and give him access to their money, but with female cunning and a devilish plot involving their husbands, Falstaff is repeatedly tricked by the women.

Tickets: £12 (£8 Under 18/NUS/Students) Cygnet Theatre, Exeter www.cygnettheatre. co.uk. 27, 28, 29, 30 March, 3, 4, 5, 6 April 7.30pm, 30 March and 6 April 2.30pm.

THURSDAY 28 MARCH Benefit Advice Session Dorchester an initiative by Dorset Welfare Benefits Partnership.9am - 12.30pm at Age UK

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Sunday 7 April

Bridport Chamber Orchestra Spring Concert 3pm St Swithun’s Church, Bridport. Tickets £10 Bridport Music Centre and on the door. Price includes afternoon teas. Free entry for students.

Dorchester. To make an appointment, please contact Age UK Dorchester on 01305 269444 or at Rowan Cottage, 4 Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester DT1 1PW www.ageuk.org.uk/dorchester.

Chard Ladies’ Evening Guild AGM at their new venue at the Crowshute Centre.

New members and visitors are very welcome to join us at 6.45pm and there is convenient parking in the adjoining public car park.

Illustrated talk at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall 7.30pm local author Anne Mosscrop will recreate her recent adventure: ‘An Innocent Abroad (in Iceland)’, complete with humorous anecdotes. All welcome; £5 includes cheese & wine. For further information phone Mary 01460 74849.

The Mixdown 2.0 presented by Tenacity.

7.30pm The Bay Theatre, Weymouth College. A mixture of drum ‘n’ bass, EDM, hard dance, house and jump up from D.Wilson, Harry B, DJ Ren!, DJ Bilbo and DJ Brad. Also live music by Weymouth College Music Students. Doors open 7pm start time 7.30pm, £5 / £3.50 on the door or reserve in advance on 01305 208702 (24hrs). Info 01305 208827 rodney_ teague@weymouth.ac.uk.

FRIDAY 29 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 6 mile circular walk from Sidmouth. 10am start.

Assistance dogs only. 01395 519828.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

2pm Tripudio. 2.15pm Activity - Art with Libby. 2.30pm - 4pm – therapy session Peter Cove offering Swedish Massage for hands & feet (please check beforehand if you have Lymphoedema or lymph nodes removed). Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. At The Ebenezer Stephen Moss : The Language of Birds Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The Ebenezer in The Seed Factory, Aller, Somerset TA10 0QN. To RSVP, please email ebenezer@ ebenezerpresents.com.

Isla by Spanish circus company, D’Click European circus theatre at its very best 7.30pm. Isla (Spanish for Island) tells the story of three shipwrecked characters who find themselves alone and dependent upon each other. Doors open at 6.30pm at Norton Sub Hamdon Village Hall, New Road, TA14 6SF. Tickets from Norton Sub Hamdon Village Shop or from John Bailey 01935 881227 or from www.takeart.org.

Pop Club Birthday Bash 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £5Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org.uk. Pop Club is celebrating its 18th birthday and you are invited! Inspired by shows such as Later with Jools Holland and Top Of The Pops, the young people of Pop Club have curated an evening of musical entertainment featuring multiple stages filled with music of many genres and styles, such as pop, rock, folk, soul and more.

Pete Oxley & Nick Meier Exemplary jazz and world music from two world-class guitarists, with Raph Mizraki on acoustic and electric basses and Paul Cavaciuti on drums. At 8pm. Tickets £16 (£31 with preshow supper at 7pm – must be pre-booked).

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

SAT 30 – SUNDAY 31 MARCH Mother’s day treats at Seaton Wetlands 10am - 4pm, Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands. Visit Seaton Wetlands during Mother’s day weekend and enjoy a delicious cream tea from the Discovery Hut. Suggested donation £3 per cream tea (cash only), no booking required. Find out more at wildeastdevon.co.uk. Contact Wild East Devon at: wild@eastdevon.gov.uk, 01395517557.

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SATURDAY 30 MARCH Big Breakfast 9am – 11.30am at Clapton & Wayford Village Hall - full English breakfast £6.50, including fruit juice + unlimited toast & coffee/ tea, in a friendly atmosphere with a lovely view. Disabled facilities, ample parking; all welcome. Further information/booking from Adrienne (01460 75313).

Breakfast / Brunch at Henhayes Centre Crewkerne. Great value at £4.50 (Egg, sausage, bacon, tomato or beans, toast tea or coffee) Extras available @ 50p each Vegetarian breakfast is available. Served from 10am - 12noon (last orders 11.30am) No need to book for more info tel:01460 74340.

Bridport & West Dorset Rambling Club 8 mile walk from Thorncombe Wood. Puddletown Forest, Waterston Ridge, Stinsford. 10.30am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01308 898002.

Bridport and District Gardening Club 2019 Spring Show in the United Church Hall, East Street, Bridport. The closing date for entries is 27th March from members or nonmembers, schedules are available on line from www.bridportgardeningclub. co.uk or from Ann Brown on 01308 424055. The show opens at 12noon until 3pm and entry is free. Teas and light refreshments are available and there will be a plant stall from 9am.

Sid Valley Horticultural Society Coffee Morning Sidford Social Hall, Byes Lane, Sidford Sidmouth EX10 9QX 10am – 12noon Entry £1.

Lyme Folk Fundraiser National and local acts perform at this concert, which secures funds for the town’s popular folk festival that takes place every year in September - its headline concerts are here at the Marine. Please check the website for the line-up. £15 advance / £17 on the door, 10% off

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for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 7pm., Starts 8pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre.com.

Cantamus 7pm at Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton DT6 4BH. “Hope, Faith and Love”- inspiring seasonal music by an accomplished choir. Works by Gibbons, Byrd, Brahms, Pergolesi and Stravinsky among others. Tickets on the door £10. Refreshments available. www. cantamus-dorset.org.

Casson and Friends: Choreocracy 7.30pm at Yeovil College Main Hall.

Tickets: £10 Full. No concessions.

The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240 340.

Jazz Alan Barnes (sax and clarinet), Ian Smith (trumpet), David Newton (piano) from 8pm. Multi-awardwinning jazz musicians relax and entertain us. Expect flawless jazz with plenty of anecdotes and laughter with delicious dinner before from 6.30pm.

Tickets: £18 or £36 with dinner available from Café Sladers, Sladers Yard, West Bay t: 01308 459511.

Please see sladersyard.co.uk for more information.

Flanders and Swann: At the drop of (another) Hippopotamus 8pm (doors & bar 7.30pm) £17 / £15 members & concessions Dorchester Arts, The Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www. dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Mediterranean Evening Fundraiser Enjoy a delicious Mediterranean themed supper, live entertainment and help support the Arts Centre at the same time! A fun and friendly fundraiser. 7.30pm. Tickets £22 (must be booked in advance). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org.uk.

SUNDAY 31 MARCH East Devon Ramblers moderate 8.5 circular walk from Cothelstone Hill. 10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01395 512973.

Mother’s Day afternoon tea For one day only, treat your mum to an afternoon tea at Shire Hall, Dorchester. Afternoon cream teas are just £15 each and are very popular, so please book in advance via 01305 261849.

Angels of Sound Voice Playshop 10am - 12.30pm Toning the chakras, Vocal Overtoning, Find your Soul Note (Key Tone) to work meaningfully with the notes of your key. (Chakra Tones CDs available in every key. Followed by Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath 2pm – 4pm. Oborne Village Hall, Oborne, nr. Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4LA. £12, Booking in advance and further details www.centreforpuresound.org ahiahel@ live.com 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you.

Free Fun Family Friendly Scottish Ceilidh Organised by the Somerset Branch of the RSCDS 2.30pm - 4.30pm. Caryford Community Hall, Muggs Lane, Ansford, Castle Cary South Somerset, BA7 7JJ. Hot and cold drinks will be provided foc. All dances will be called, dancing to CD’s.

Wear some tartan if you wish. For more information contact Anita on 01460 929383 or anitaandjim22@gmail.com.

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into the wide

BLUE YONDER Margery Hookings meets young Bridport man Luke Shirley who leads horse trekking tours of Mongolia

A

lust for life and a quest for adventure have led a young Dorset man to set up an exciting new business.

Luke Shirley, 23, is one of the people behind Wide Stride Expeditions, a company specialising in horse trekking tours of Mongolia, that vast country where the word wilderness seems almost an understatement.

‘I’d travelled to 20-plus different countries before visiting Mongolia. Each country had its own experience, but Mongolia blew me away. Nowhere else did I have such an immense feeling of freedom and adventure,” he says.

Luke moved to Bridport as a teenager with his mother, paddle boarder Sally Newman, who was featured in the Marshwood Vale Magazine three years ago. His early years were spent on the Somerset Levels.

‘I was constantly exploring and building dens,’ Luke recalls. ‘I had about four or five dens within 100m of our house right on the levels.’

His memories of Dorset include horse riding with his brother and mother at Golden Cap, an activity he loved.

After leaving The Sir John Colfox School, Bridport, Luke went to Exeter University to study sports science. Considering a military career, he joined the Army Officer training corps and completed his basic training. But the Army life was not for Luke.

‘I learnt a lot of new skills and picked up a few qualifications, but the military wasn’t my true calling,’ he says.

So he went travelling after finishing his studies.

‘I did what came naturally to me, I see how far I can get. I motorbiked the length of Vietnam and then ended up leading a group doing something similar in Laos. I climbed volcanoes in Indonesia and took people on overnight treks in China. I realised everywhere I went I wanted to share my love of adventure with others. I had always dreamt of a life of adventure.’

In the autumn of 2017, Luke went to Mongolia where he met Munkh-Od, an experienced tour guide who had lived and studied in the US and he taught himself English.

Says Luke: ‘He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and is such a hard worker—the man doesn’t stop. He cooks, he drives, he guides and he will still sit around the fire with you into the early hours for a chat. If I’m honest, it’s worth going to Mongolia just to meet him.

‘Mongolia is the land of the horse and blue sky. Because of this, it’s the perfect country for horse trekking. Combine the fact that it’s the least densely populated country in the world and the 18th biggest and you have a lot of untouched wilderness

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to explore.

‘I knew this was a place I wanted to come back to, so when I meet Munkh-Od, who wanted to work for himself and share my enthusiasm for meeting new people and the great outdoors, I knew we would be friends.’

Munkh-Od had been guiding tours in Mongolia for more than five years.

‘He was an outstanding guide, but he wasn’t free to reach his full potential working for other tour operators,’ says Luke.

‘We both wanted to show the world the majesty of Mongolia and share our love of adventure. So we started Wild Stride and ran our first tour in June 2018.

‘Now we are planning on running seven horse trekking tours, a winter ice festival and dog sledding tour in March this year.’

The aim is to run sustainable tours that show off Mongolia’s potential for adventures in a way that supports the local people and environment.

A third of Mongolia’s three million population is still nomadic, a lifestyle so unique in our modern world. Many of the team lead typical nomadic lives for most of the year.

Luke says that climate change and global industrialisation is making life harder for Mongolian herders to survive.

‘Fortunately tourism is having a really positive impact,’ he says.

‘Many of the people who make up Wild Stride are local to Khovsgol province and we don’t want their way of life to disappear.

Some of the skills and knowledge these people possess has been passed down over thousands of generations.

‘By running horse trekking tours in Khovsgol and visiting the Tsaatan people, we provide a way for the younger generations to continue to practice traditional skills and also earn an income that is unfortunately becoming essential to nomadic survival.’

The mantra for Wide Stride is ‘take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints and kill nothing but time.’

‘We take all of our rubbish with us, none of the wildlife is harmed and we respect the local people’s way of life,’ Luke says.

‘Our tours are designed to help people

get in touch with nature, which is why we do our best to run low impact tourism that supports the local wildlife and people. Mongolia is changing but by inviting tourism to experience some of its most beautiful wilderness, we hope to preserve as much as we can.’

The horses roam free for most of the year and can end up getting quite fat on Khovsgol’s bountiful pastures. According to Luke, the exercise on the treks is good for them and keeps them fit and healthy.

‘The reindeer also have it pretty good.

The Tsaatan show immense respect to their reindeer, protecting and nurturing their herds. The Nomadic people show an incredible amount of respect to their animals and are extremely forward-thinking in the way they manage the local wildlife.’

Trekkers camp out in tents at night.

‘The camping in Mongolia tends to be quite easy due to the fact it very rarely rains,’ Luke says. ‘Day time temperatures also average around 24°C in the summer. However, the nights are cold.

‘Mongolia is a country on the up and rated as one of the top ten hottest destinations of 2018 by multiple travel magazines and commentators. It’s a destination people don’t really know about yet, a place where you are free to feel wild and a country your friends will definitely want to hear about when you get back.

‘There is nowhere else you can get such an intense feeling of freedom. It’s just you and nature. The riding experience is amazing, with a hugely diverse range of landscapes to explore.’

For more information visit www.wildstride.org

Courses&Workshops FRIDAY 1 MARCH Family History ‘Shadow of the Workhouse’: the new Poor Law. One day special, Marsh Barn Farm, Burton Rd. Bridport, 10am – 4pm, cost £30. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com.

Thai Cookery Demonstration with Pheeraya (Nid) Hill. 7pm - 9pm Frogmary Green Farm Cookery School, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm.co.uk.

SATURDAY 2 MARCH Be Calm Be Happy meditation course at Quaker Meeting House, Bridport.

10.30am - 4pm. Run by Plum Village UK. Contact: David Will 0795 095 9572. Also 16 and 23 March.

Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. Moon Gazing Hare £75pp 9.30am – 4.30pm jojo.sadler@hotmail.co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

Fabric Beads Transform your stash of fabric, ribbon, silk threads and beads into a variety of different styles of fabric beads, which can be used as jewellery or embellishments for other projects.

Tutor: Claire Jeanes. 10am - 2pm. £20.

For materials list and to book call 01460 54973. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster.

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

Be Calm Be Happy meditation course 10.30am - 4pm. Run by Plum village UK, in Bridport. Contact: David Will 0795 095 9572. Also 16 and 23 March.

SATURDAY 2 – MONDAY 4 MARCH How to be a Successful Smallholder Led by Ruth Kirby. Arrive at 9.45am Saturday for tea/coffee. The course will start at 10am. The course will end with lunch at 1pm on Monday. Residential £303 pp, Non-res £219 pp. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. 01300 320684. Visit www. kingcombe.org to book online.

SUNDAY 3 MARCH Family History Beginners course. Two day course, March Barn Farm, Burton Rd. Bridport, 10am – 4pm, cost £60. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com. Also 17 March.

WED 6 – FRIDAY 8 MARCH Nature Drawing using Dry Media Explore drawing techniques of natural history illustration, using graphite pencil and other dry media such as waxy

sketching, oil-based charcoal pencils and graphite powder. Led by Sarah Morrish. The course will start at 1pm on Wednesday with lunch and finish at 4pm on Friday with afternoon tea. Residential £304 pp, Non-res £219 pp. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. 01300 320684. Visit www. kingcombe.org to book online.

FRIDAY 8 MARCH By the Loom - A Fun Craft Day Axminster Heritage hands-on spinning and weaving group, everyone welcome, beginners and the more experienced.

10.30 – 3.00 pm £3 More info: 01404 831207 or to book. An Axminster Heritage Craft Day at Dalwood Pavilion EX13 7EU. Driftwood Heart Workshop 9.30am – 12.30pm. Half day workshop in our delightful studio in Loders, Bridport. £35 includes all materials and refreshments.

More info: Boarsbarrow.com. info@ boarsbarrow.com or call 07771 588 999 to reserve your place.

SATURDAY 9 MARCH Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. March Deer £75pp 9.30am – 4.30pm jojo.sadler@ hotmail.co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

Art Course In Dalwood week 1 of a six week beginners Introduction to mixed media art. From 11am - 4pm,tea /coffee included, £35 per session (fortnightly dates ) For details phone 01404881312/07788757611.

Modern Caligraphy with Tutor Gina Youens. Beginners welcome or those with some experience. £16 to include materials.

10am – 12noon. To book call 01404.

831207 The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. Digital Photography Processing Digital Images on your Computer or Smartphone An Axminster Heritage hands-on course suitable for beginners. Bring your cameras & connection cables, laptops & tablet devices. Everyone welcome 2pm – 4pm £15 Advance booking only call 01404 831207 The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. Paint a Mandala 2pm – 5pm £12.50 Leader: Gillian Beckman-Findlay. Come and learn how to paint a mandala. You don’t need to be able to draw to do this craft. You just need to be able to ‘dot’!

Full instruction will be given. The group

34 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

will all work together concentrating on one stage at a time. All materials will be provided. Suitable for children from ages 8 upwards and of course all adults.

Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www.coastalcraftcollective.co.uk.

SATURDAY 9 – SUNDAY 10 MARCH Creative Watercolour Tutor Louise Banks Cost - £185 Lunch and materials included. Looking at artists such as Paul Klee the class will be using a limited pallet of primary colours and broad brushes to build up abstract compositions. Exploring hues that offer most transparency, build up layers using the wet on dry technique, creating delicate overlapping shapes and exciting new colour mixes. Using a playful approach to watercolour you will gain an understanding of the unique qualities of different colour pigments and learn about staining, transparency and opacity. By the end of the weekend you will have filled a sketchbook with colour tests and ideas and produced some finished main abstract works on large sheets of watercolour paper. Art and Wellbeing 01404 45699 www.artandwellbeing.net Cuckoo Down Lane, Honiton, Devon. EX14 9TT. Early Spring Hedgerows in Pen and Wash The hedgerows around Kingcombe are fascinating at any time of year. In early Spring they provide inspiration and subject matter to illustrate in pen and ink and watercolour wash. All levels of experience are welcome, and our small class size will ensure individual tuition.

Led by Sarah Morrish. The course will start at 10am on Saturday and finish at 4pm on Sunday with afternoon tea.

Residential £241 pp, Non-res £198 pp. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, DT20EQ. T: 01300 320684.

Visit www.kingcombe.org to book online.

WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH Glass Painting 3pm – 5pm £18 Leader: Gillian Beckman-Findlay. Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www. coastalcraftcollective.co.uk.

Upholstery Class with John Cooper.

9.30am - 3.30pm in Dalwood Village Hall, £15 per day. As places are limited, please book in advance by phone on 01404 831207. Also 27 March.

THURSDAY 14 MARCH Upcycling Coastal Candle Jars 6.30pm – 8.30pm £12.50 Leader: Linda Doughty.

Decorating glass jars with beach finds and other recycled or reused items. Then put

salt in the base of the jar which sparkles in the light of the candle and add some sea glass and / or shells and a smokeless, white, Votive candle. All materials are provided, but if you have any jars you want to use or items you want to decorate them with, please bring them with you.

Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www.coastalcraftcollective.co.uk.

FRIDAY 15 MARCH Felt Making Discover the tactile art of felting by making felt scarves, bags, slippers - or whatever takes your fancy! Beginners to advanced welcome.

10am - 3pm. £25 per monthly session (excluding materials). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

SATURDAY 16 MARCH Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. Flying Owls £65pp 9.30am – 4.30pm (check times) jojo.sadler@hotmail.co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Workshop 3 10am - 1pm ( Break includedcomplimentary pastries and coffee provided) The Showroom - Country Seats, Unit E, The Old Laundry Trading Estate, Bridport, DT6 3BD.Cost - £60 per person. Places are limited, so be sure not to miss out! To confirm your place please call 01308 427968 or email info@ countryseats.co.uk.

Tree Grafting Day Tutor Terry Ayres Cost - £100 Lunch and materials included. Terry has been gardening really for all his life but started at Dulford Nurseries aged 16. His knowledge is deep and wide but his speciality is in trees and shrubs. You will go home with at least 3 trees that you have grafted and potted up! On this grafting day you will learn: knife control, choosing root stock and why, grafting and tying, potting up, which fruit trees for what purpose – espaliers, stepover, cordon and half standards.

Art and Wellbeing 01404 45699 www. artandwellbeing.net Cuckoo Down Lane, Honiton, Devon. EX14 9TT. Making a Small Hand Tied Posy and a Posy in a Sugar Bowl 10.30am - 12noon. Cost £12 ( a list of suggested flowers will be given) At Axminster Heritage Centre Silver St Axminster EX13 5AH Contact : gina.youens@btinternet.com.

Or call 07703246 481.

Driftwood Easter Trees 1.30pm – 4pm, £23 Leader: Alison Bowskill.

Have fun creating your own tree that you can decorate for Easter. Wear clothing that can get messy although there are protective aprons if they are needed. The price includes materials, coffee, tea and biscuits. Alison Bowskill is a popular art and craft teacher with

extensive experience of helping people develop their craft skills. Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www. coastalcraftcollective.co.uk. Also 27 March 9.30am – 12noon.

Dancing Daffodils 10am - 1pm £22.

With spring just around the corner, this floral design inspires and creates happiness. Come and learn how to make your daffodils look as though they are still growing. A trendy flower arrangement perfect for your home - or to give as a very special Easter gift. Workshops taught by award-winning Somerset tutor Jackie Nicholls from Ashville Design. Combe St Nicholas Village Hall near Chard, TA20 3NY. For details of this and upcoming workshops visit www.ashvilledesign.co.uk or call Jackie on 01460 67795 or 07906 259 683.

“The Tudors – Henry and Elizabeth” WEA Coker Branch, half day course Hardington Village Hall, BA22 9PQ, 10am - 1pm. £14. To register ref:C3530178 wea.org.uk or tel:-0300 303 3464. New members always welcome.

Local contact:- 01935 863954.

SUNDAY 17 MARCH Artisan Soft Cheese Making Course Learn the skills to make lovely soft cheeses including Mozzarella, Halloumi, Mascarpone and Butter at home in your own kitchen 9.45am - 2.30pm Includes Lunch. Frogmary Green Cookery School, South Petherton, 01460 249758 www. frogmarygreenfarm.co.uk.

TUESDAY 19 MARCH The Life And Death of a Love Affair A course in the poetry of Sylvia Path and Ted Hughes. 7pm - 9pm. A Six Week Course with Nims Gribler £60. An in depth exploration of the work of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. LSi Bridport, 51 East Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3JX. WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH Sausage Making Course 7.30pm - 9pm Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton, 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm. co.uk.

Traditional Icelandic Harmony Singing with Bara Grimsdottir & Chris Foster. Both fine singers in their own right, Bara and Chris perform and teach traditional Icelandic harmony singing.

Their 2018 Sidmouth Festival workshop was one of the week’s highlights drawing over 100 participants. For more information google funi-iceland.com.

The King William (function room) Barn Street, Crewkerne TA18 8BP. 7pm for 7.30pm. Tickets £10 (£8 in advance) 07877206124 for tickets and more information.

FRIDAY 22 MARCH Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. Large Wall

Hearts £55pp 10am-1pm jojo.sadler@ hotmail.co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

By the Loom A Fun Craft Day Axminster Heritage hands-on spinning and weaving group. Everyone welcome beginners and the more experienced.

10.30am – 3pm £3 More info or to book: 01404 831207. An Axminster Heritage Craft Day at The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. Slow Stitch Develop your creative skills through the simple and mindful process of creating designs on fabric with stitch.

Bring your own hand sewing kit. With Paula Simpson. 10am-12.30pm (and 1.30-4pm if morning session full). £15 (excluding materials). Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

SATURDAY 23 MARCH Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. Large Dragon £75pp 9.30am – 4.30pm jojo.sadler@ hotmail.co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

Spring in the Garden Tutor Kate Tuke Cost - £85 Lunch and materials included.

As the garden really starts to come to life in early spring, there is so much that can be done to enhance your garden.

This will be a full day exploring many of the jobs that can be done now and over the next few months to ensure that all aspects of the garden perform as well as possible. The day will start with coffee and a chat about exactly what the day will hold, as this will be somewhat weather dependent. After coffee the class will walk around the glorious gardens of Cuckoo Down House and look at the many jobs that can still be done, from lawn care to tree planting, pruning to border work.

If the weather is kind the group will get into one of the flower beds to really see what is going on. During the morning you will be shown how to identify when a herbaceous perennial plant needs to be divided and demonstrate how this is best done. Art and Wellbeing 01404 45699 www.artandwellbeing.net Cuckoo Down Lane, Honiton, Devon. EX14 9TT. SAT 23 – SUNDAY 24 MARCH Angels of Sound Weekend Voice Playshop and Pure Sound Therapy Practitioner Course Cycle 2, Module 1: 10am -5pm Sat, 10am - 12.30pm Sun. www.centreforpuresound.org ahiahel@ live.com Stour Row Village Hall, Stour Row, nr. Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 0QG. SUNDAY 24 MARCH Introduction to Pyrography 10.30am – 1pm £17 Leader: Gillian BeckmanFindlay. Pyrography - “the art of designing with fire” which involves using a heated implement to burn designs

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 35

on natural materials such as wood and leather. Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www.coastalcraftcollective. co.uk.

TUESDAY 26 MARCH Northern Harmony Concert and Workshop 6.30pm – 7.30pm Workshop 8pm Concert (doors 7.30pm) Workshop tickets £9 / £7 members & concessions Concert Tickets £13 / £11 members & concessions Combined £19 / £15 members & concessions. St Peter’s Church, High East Street, DT1 1HF 01305 266926 www.dorchesterarts.org. uk. These 14 brilliant young singers return with another thrilling mix of world harmony traditions including South African songs and dances, traditional polyphony from Georgia, Corsica and the Balkans, American shape-note singing and quartet gospel, as well as renaissance motets.

Learning Embroidery Stitches 2pm – 5pm £15 Leader: Gillian BeckmanFindlay. Come and learn 10 embroidery stitches in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.

Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www.coastalcraftcollective.co.uk.

WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH Introduction to Wet Felting 4pm - 7pm £25 Leader: Gillian Beckman-Findlay.

Coastal Craft Collective, 10 Marine Place, Seaton, Devon EX12 2QL 01297 691362 www.coastalcraftcollective.co.uk.

THURSDAY 28 MARCH Fabric Scraps Wreath A wonderful way to use up fabric scraps by creating a wreath. This will look absolutely lovely anywhere in the home. Just select appropriate colours and patterns to suit the person, place or occasion.Tutor: Claire Jeanes. 2-4pm. £12. For materials list and to book call 01460 54973. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

FRIDAY 29 MARCH Inspirational Landscapes Create a small wall hanging of your chosen land or seascape, or garden, using textiles, handstitching and free machine embroidery. With Paula Simpson. 10am 4pm. £30 (+ small charge for materials).

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

36 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

SATURDAY 30 MARCH Amazing Easter Baking Day with Jane Smith. 10am - 2pm Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm.co.uk.

Jo Sadler Willow Workshop at Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre. Deer £75pp 9.30am – 4.30pm jojo.sadler@hotmail. co.uk 07531417209 Booking essential.

SUNDAY 31 MARCH Art for Change Tutor Peter Coates Cost - £98 Lunch and materials included.

This interactive workshop uses picture making, brief talks, group discussions and personal quiet time to help you achieve the changes you want. You don’t have to have any artistic experience and all materials are provided. All you need to bring is an open mind and a readiness to feel different about yourself and your life.

Why use art in the workshop? Creating pictures is a proven, highly effective way of identifying, stimulating and achieving life changes. It helps you see things with fresh eyes; a bit like taking the blinkers off. I have used picture making countless times as a driver for change and it works.

Art and Wellbeing 01404 45699 www. artandwellbeing.net Cuckoo Down Lane, Honiton, Devon. EX14 9TT.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 37

News &Views

EAST DEVON

CHARD

SOMERSET

The district council has decided that developers of new homes will be charged £80 for each set of recycling and waste containers. At the moment, the council provides all new properties with containers free of charge.

But with 750 to 900 new homes each year in East Devon, the cost is escalating. Councillors were told by John Golding, strategic lead for housing, health & environment, that the council spends around £112,000 on supplying containers each year. Charging developers of new-build homes would bring in about £40,000 a year, he said. Householders will also be charged if they have to replace their grey wheelie bins. Residents will have to pay £30 for a replacement, although replacements will be provided free if their bin is stolen, or damaged by the council’s contractors.

People living at Cuttiford’s Door say plans for hundreds of new homes and a football stadium are unnecessary and unacceptable.

Mactaggart and Mickel want to build 295 homes, along with a new football ground for Chard FC and two other football pitches.

A further 40 homes are planned by Barratt Homes for a field south of the first site, and north of Morangis Way and Redstart Road.

But residents say there are a raft of strong planning reasons for the applications to be rejected. The Cuttiford’s Door Residents Association say the proposed development was specifically excluded from the Local Plan adopted in 2016 and the subsequent 2018 public consultation for revising the Chard Local Plan. They fear the hamlet will lose its identity and become part of the town.

Work is due to start this month on a £19.2 million scheme to upgrade the busy M5 Junction 25 roundabout near Taunton. Alan Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd has been appointed to carry out the work, which is likely to take two years.

The junction is currently congested during peak hours, with queues forming along the A358 in both directions. The work will involve traffic signals, enlarging the roundabout, widening the eastern exit, creating a new roundabout to the proposed Nexus 25 employment site, and pedestrian and cycling facilities. Somerset County Council will be holding public drop-in events for people to view the plans. The scheme is being paid for by the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal Fund, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Highways England, the county and developer contributions.

Developers to pay for waste bins

Call for homes plan to be rejected

LYME REGIS

Film stars lined up for biopic Locations in Lyme Regis are set to be used this month for a new film about fossil hunter Mary Anning. Actresses Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are starring in Ammonite, which is reported to be about a fictitious relationship between the famous fossil hunter and a woman. The film is written and directed by Francis Lee, who made the 2017 film, God’s Own Country, which is about a gay relationship between a Yorkshire farmer and a Romanian migrant worker. The film is being made by Ammonite Fossil Films and involves See-Saw Films, the British Film Institute and BBC Films. Eight days of filming are due to take place below Bell Cliff, on Monmouth Beach, the harbour and Cobb. The set includes the building of a two-storey fake Georgian house outside the Seasalt shop.

38 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Roundabout upgrade to ease traffic

DORCHESTER

Record profits for beer festival

Dorchester Beerex raised record profits of £15,000. The festival was organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and Casterbridge Rotary Club last month. It was not affected by overnight snow, with customers packing the Corn Exchange over four sessions. A selection of 80 beers and 21 ciders were available.

Around 1,400 people attended the event, which was sponsored by Palmers Brewery of Bridport.

The main beneficiary will be the Fortuneswell Cancer Trust and the money will help train specialist nurses in one-to-one care. Another £2,000 was made on a raffle in aid of Dorchester Youth and Community Centre. CAMRA member and Beerex committee chairman Dave Harris was thrilled with how much money was raised and thanked all the sponsors and people who attended the annual event.

Human Beings Not Required Laterally Speaking by Humphrey Walwyn

A

s the song originally gave us about flowers—where have all the people gone?

I used to enjoy chatting with Chris— the guy at the local bank—whenever I wandered in to cash a cheque. However, now he’s gone and been replaced by a squat grey machine with a screen that apparently does the same job. It may read a cheque (not very well) but the machine has absolutely no sense of humour and doesn’t respond whenever I tease it about Chelsea FC losing again. Chris also used to dispense so called racing tips to me, so I suppose I’ve saved myself some cash because his tips invariably lost. I gather that not only Chris but now the whole branch of the bank will be moving in a few months as part of a ‘central cost saving exercise’. This means that in future I will have to drive an extra 25 miles whenever I want to cash my measly little cheque for five quid—money that will be lost in my extra mileage and fuel costs.

And what about the ‘staff savings and job cuts’ at the supermarket when I am confronted by a self-checkout machine?

Obviously, it means less people are employed because the machines are doing their jobs, but I miss not being able to have a real human being to talk to. I like the little friendly questions and answers at the check-out such as “…it’s raining—it looks like a busy day for you” or “… only just clocked on”. Yes, I know these are meaningless little snippets of polite conversation, but at least I know I am dealing with real people. If you tried to converse like that with a machine, all you’d get would be “Please place your items on the weighing scale” which doesn’t do much to encourage social banter. Yes, I know I could go through a manned service point and put all my stuff on the moving belt, but have you seen the queues? The reason there are less customers in the selfcheckout stations is that we don’t like using them and we’d prefer dealing with a real person. Machines are OK for a few small items—toothpaste, milk, newspaper etc— but have you seriously tried to do a major week’s shop with loads of bottles and washing up liquid and bread and fruit and stuff ? Unless it’s just me and I’m being cack-handed, my machine can’t read the bar code or it’s wrongly read the same item twice (so annoying) and the entry needs to be cancelled. You then have to wait for a

Unexpected machine in the human area human assistant which rather defeats the whole aim of staff saving. And then— worst of all—comes the all too loud “Unexpected item in the bagging area”. I try to hide. I feel I’m a criminal and need to be arrested! It’s so embarrassing and it’s totally the machine’s fault. I often swear at it in return but the resulting conversation is entirely one-sided. And which bit is the bagging area anyway? And why is my bag of leeks so unexpected?

Another thing about the voice on selfservice machines… she sounds exactly like my dentist, so for me it’s quite un-nerving.

Perhaps she really is my dentist. It’s neutral but there’s a hint of steel about it, as in “…now this won’t take long, but I’m afraid it’s going to hurt a bit.”

Why can’t she be more human, more individual and less “supersmarm”? Personally, I’d prefer comments like “Please insert your store card” to sound deep and romantic like a sort of sexy Fenella Fielding.

You should be able to choose your type of voice before you start. Customers could select from James Mason, Sharon Stone or Morgan Freeman to offer advice on the bagging area situation.

This is all a part of an ever-increasing trend: to save money by cutting out people and replacing them with machines. By far the most worrying example of this trend is driverless cars. According to the Government, self-driving cars will be on our roads by 2021. But why? Nobody asked me. And

nobody’s asked you or anyone else either.

It’s apparently just going to happen. The Government says: ‘We’ve already got driverless vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers, so why not cars?’ But they’re missing the point. Unlike hoovering the sitting room or mowing the lawn which are considered chores, I actually enjoy driving. And so do millions of other people. In the USA they’ve tried it out and they’ve discovered that while machines are predictable, humans are unpredictable and behave illogically. No machine will be able to anticipate that the silly driver in front is going to suddenly pull out and turn right without rhyme or reason.

It takes another human being driver to always prepare for the unexpected and take avoiding action. 73% of Americans in a recent survey said they would be too fearful to ride in a fully automated vehicle. They’re right to be scared…

Welcome to ‘Humphrey’s Law of Forward Invention’ which states that technology will always advance at its own reckless pace unless stopped by human beings. The reason that we’re going to have driverless cars is because technology says it’s possible—not because we want it or even need it. After driverless cars, what next? I’ll tell you. It’ll be driverless airplanes. Oh, really?

Apparently, that’s already happening…

Perhaps we’ll be able to remove the driverless plane crash from the airport bagging area before it’s too late, but I rather doubt it.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 39

House&Garden

Robbie at the Marine LYME Regis’ Marine Theatre hosts a special one-off concert on Saturday 9th March with blues singer Amy Mayes and world-renowned session guitarist Robbie McIntosh.

Amy Mayes sings regularly with Dorset boogie woogie pianist and blues musician Ben Waters. She recently performed at his Chuck Berry concert at Soho’s legendary Ronnie Scott’s, where they were joined on stage by Ronnie Wood and Johnny Depp.

Robbie McIntosh has played with a staggering lineup of singers and musicians, including Tom Jones, Norah Jones, and John Mayer, but most famously as Paul McCartney’s guitarist. Expect classic soul and blues, alongside original numbers.

40 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 41

Beside the Sea

By Cecil Amor

‘Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside’ steamer Victoria at West Bay loading and unloading passengers with This was a popular song between the Wars in music halls. It went on her bow run up to East Beach via a rather flimsy looking plank to repeat “I do like to be beside the Sea” and then “I do like to stroll gangplank and hand rail. First the steamer would drop an anchor upon the Prom, Prom, Prom, where the brass bands play Tiddly Om astern and then gently nose into the beach for about an hour ashore.

Pom Pom, Tiddly Om Pom Pom, Tiddly Om Pom Pom.” The Victoria was operated by the Bournemouth, Swanage & Poole Many people at the time this song was popular only saw the sea Shipping Co. in the Edwardian era before the First World War and once a year, and then for a day trip, if at all. So they looked forward called at Lyme Regis, Sidmouth, Torquay and Dartmouth. There were to the trip through the winter and subsequent months, thinking of circular evening trips to Weymouth, returning by train. John Sales the sun and freedom. My village choir had an annual outing to the in A Bridport Camera writes that it called every alternate Thursday seaside, on a Saturday, which probably meant the men lost a half through the summer, with sixpenny trips round the bay. Other paddle day’s pay. We went on a “charabanc” which was not very comfortsteamers were the Alexandria and the Monarch calling into West Bay able and of course the first venue was the sand, to build castles. Then less frequently. lunch included sandwiches, which always seemed gritty with sand!

Some years ago Bridport History Society had a talk from Roger Perhaps I had dropped mine. Later we would have a “stroll upon the Whyte about Lyme Bay paddle steamers. Captain Joseph Cosens had prom” or maybe along the pier. This was always a thrill, to look down set up a company in 1848 to service warships at Portland and provide and see the waves below, or dream we were on the deck of a ship. ferries and harbour construction. By 1900 Cosens and Co. had eight Occasionally we might see a paddle steamer passing off shore, a most or nine paddle steamers in their Buff Funnel Fleet, one of which the unusual sight for “land lubbers” like us. On the shore line we might Premier lasted ninety years. A number of ships became mine sweepfind some sea weed, which was carried home to hang up in the hope ers during the First World War and one The Duke of Devonshire was that it would forecast the weather, before we had television reporters purchased by Cosens in 1938, and renamed Consul became the last to advise us. And of course there was always a Punch and Judy show addition to the fleet. She was modernised and used into the 1960s. and ice cream sellers. There were shops selling postcards to send to There were regular trips from piers at Bournemouth and Swanage relatives with the familiar message “Wish you were Here”. Later I was to the Isle of Wight and across the Channel to Cherbourg. Victoria, to discover that some cards were not what my parents would wish Alexandria and the Monarch were all regulars between the South Coast to send or receive, as they carried a slightly naughty message. In later resorts. Lulworth Cove was a popular destination, landing passengers years a friend used to collect these and sometimes send a choice one over the bow onto the beach, more sheltered than some further west. to me.

World War II again took Nowadays we only see padthe ships for minesweepdle steamers once or twice a ing and anti-aircraft vessels year when the Waverley, the and despite refitting, trade largest ocean going paddle did not return to pre-war steamer still in existence, levels. Holidays abroad and built on the Clyde in 1946, increasing car ownership makes its way down from its reduced the appeal of a trip home port near Glasgow. It on an ageing paddle steamer. is interesting to see it, with its The Majestic had been sunk two funnels. On board one on war service. Cosens purPaddle Steamer Waverley. can go down stairs to see the For South Coast sailings visit www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk chased the Duchess of Norfolk engine room, with massive in 1937 and renamed her the connecting rods which operate the twin paddles for propulsion. Some Embassy. She became very popular but had to go to the breakers yard people say “I am going to see the engines” as a euphanism for visitin 1966. The Consul made her final journey in 1968 to a sailing school ing the Public Bar nearby. The top section of the paddles are housed on the River Dart. Paddle steamers took trade from local boatmen at in semi-circular covers for safety and to avoid splashing the decks.

Torquay and Lyme Regis and when difficulty occurred in using piers The paddles are mounted either side of the hull and can operate and arguments about damage, the boatmen refused to ferry passenseparately and reverse, for steering or reversing. The Waverley can now gers to the steamers moored offshore. The paddle steamers paid no dock alongside the main pier at West Bay. The Waverley was bought harbour dues if they moored offshore, unlike the local boatmen. for £1 from the breakers yard by the Paddle Steamer Preservation The local newspaper Bridport News of 30th July 1937 advertised Society. If not the Waverley, one may see its sister ship the Balmoral trips from West Bay by the steamer Victoria at 12 noon to Lyme Regis which is smaller and is screw driven, perhaps not as interesting as a with an hour at Lyme returning at 4.10 pm fare 2 shillings. Also a paddle steamer. circular trip to Weymouth 5.15 pm, up by steamer, home by rail. An Some years ago we went on board one of these ships in a trip from hour at Weymouth and return by 9 pm train to Bridport Station, for a West Bay around the Isle of Wight and back to Poole, where we had fare of 3 shillings. to come “down to earth” and board a coach to transport us back Now we no longer have regular paddle steamers or a railway station home. Unfortunately the weather was poor, initially very windy, so at Bridport. However we can look forward to summer and trips to that it was difficult to hear the running commentary describing the the sea, and paddle our feet, like our predecessors between the wars. onshore sights. Then approaching the island, rain started and we were However we still have a Bridport History Society meeting on confined to the cabin to peer from rain spotted windows. Perhaps we Tuesday 12th March at 2.30 pm when Prof. Karen Hunt will talk shall be luckier on another occasion. about women and food on the Bridport home front, 1914 - 1919, The In days gone by, paddle steamers were much more common Kitchen is the key to Victory. All welcome, visitors entrance fee £3. around our coast, but smaller than the Waverley. Paul Atterbury in his book Just a line from West Bay has two postcards showing the paddle Cecil Amor, Hon President, Bridport History Society.

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Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 43

Vegetables in March

By Fergus Dowding

I

t takes unbearably long for the soil to warm up in the Spring, but as the Equinox looms there is often a warm spell when you can risk an early sowing of some outdoor seeds. With all small seeds, warmth is key for germination, sowing early is a risky business.

Carrot germination is the supreme challenge. We discussed last month the idea of sowing indoors in pots, gel or damp paper towels. You then transplant into the growing bed the moment you see any sign of life—before the roots are more than a nanometre long. This is not an option for my sausage-fingered self, we sow outdoors in damp soil warmed by a layer of fleece.

Large seeds such as peas, broad beans and well chatted early potatoes do well from a March sowing. With all soil sown crops, growth is stronger and faster under fleece. You may have to put some netting over the fleece to keep birds and badgers at bay, jackdaws like fleece for their nests. We start peas and beans in seed trays indoors to get around the mouse problem. And do you like what mechanics and gardeners wear? Overall.

Cheap seeds!

This year we have bought nearly all our seed online from Premier Seeds in Salisbury. The seed packets are mostly 69 or 99p and no postage, and you get masses of seeds. They say they were fed up with the price of seeds and thought they should be cheaper. Suits me! They buy bulk seed from big companies and trial them in their Salisbury garden—which is just what the likes of Kings and Suttons do.

Surviving the 8 month long English winter is a good time to reflect on what you want to plant this year. These January King were sown on 21 June and grown under veggiemesh. They were well watered in, but no water after that, somehow getting their roots down in the heat. Other brassica to sow are sprouts, spring cauliflower, purple sprouting and curly kale, keeping pigeons off is a trial (mesh, fleece or netting). To avoid getting sick of cabbage, we are also lifting carrots, parsnip, celeriac, beetroot, leeks, swede and turnips to give us a wide choice.

44 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

On the left the St Victor leeks have a pretty purple tinge to their leaves. These were some small leeks left over and dibbed between sweetcorn in late June. Although well watered in, they looked like they would die, but really got growing in the autumn when the sweetcorn was harvested. They, and Bandit on the right, are late varieties and will grow bigger into March and April.

Farmers asked to bid for flood work FARMERS across Somerset are being invited to bid in the UK’s first countywide auction for works to help stop flooding. The auction will be run online from February 26 - March 12 using a new Environment Agency web app, which can be found at www.nfmauction.org.uk.

The website offers Somerset farmers a unique combination of possibilities. First, to select for themselves different natural flood management (NFM) activities. Second, to pick out parts of their land where they believe those activities will produce the best flood prevention results for them and for local communities. Third, to bid for funding for those activities.

As the main purpose of NFM activities in Somerset is to slow the flow of water down through the higher parts of river catchments, the web app will not allow farmers to place bids for land in low-lying Internal Drainage Board areas, but the auction otherwise covers the length and breadth of Somerset.

After the auction closes, bids will be checked by the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SW (FWAG SW). Grants from Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) will then be given to the best, most competitively-priced ideas.

Cllr John Osman, SRA Chairman, said: “This is still a very new system, but all the signs are that it has many strengths.

It cuts out paperwork. It saves time and money. It draws on farmers’ unrivalled knowledge of their own land. It’s easy to use—and it gets results. Last summer, as a trial of the web app, there was a much smaller auction in the catchments of the River Tone and River Parrett in Somerset and the SRA gave out 22 grants to winning bids.”

Grants are being offered for five different natural flood management measures: maize management, grassland subsoiling, hedge planting, soil bunds, and leaky dams. All help to slow the flow of water, while delivering other benefits.

Grassland subsoiling, for example, aerates the ground so that more rainwater can filter in; it also improves the soil.

Since the devastating flooding of the Somerset Levels in 2013-14, hundreds of natural flood management initiatives have been carried out across Somerset, as part of the county’s pioneering Hills to Levels project and overarching 20 Year Flood Action Plan. Hills to Levels has so far won two national awards, and this new auction shows Somerset continuing to lead the UK with fresh ideas for tackling local flooding hotspots.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 45

March in the Garden

By Russell Jordan

I

remember how much snow and low temperatures we were still enduring at this stage last year. As I write, we are enjoying a, jetstream powered, unseasonably mild spell. It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security so, although comparatively warm days should be on the increase this month, it’s always worth remembering that we are not ‘out of the woods’ yet.

In fact, March is the last month that the traditional ‘winter tasks’ need to be completed. I often don’t tackle rose pruning until now because I’m always more afraid of promoting early bud break, whenever a mild spell follows a good pruning, than the risk of removing a few already growing shoots by leaving it until the end of winter.

If a severe frost kills all the breaking buds, on roses that have already been shortened by the maximum amount, then pruning them back even further, to remove the blackened shoots, will inevitably leave them pruned back more than you originally intended.

Having said that, most gardeners are too afraid to commit to a really hard prune so a further shortening may actually do a power of good. As long as the rose is still vigorous, a good rose fertiliser and organic mulch applied now helps maintain vigour, then the chances are it will bounce back from a hard prune to flower better than it ever did before.

Roses are, when all is said and done, just a special type of shrub and there are other shrubs in the garden which benefit from a really hard prune right now. Shrubs grown for their winter stems should be stooled (cut almost to the ground) now and given a feed with something like ‘fish, blood and bone’ to encourage strong new growth, in the summer, which will provide the brightest colour next winter.

If you have really thick, tangled, shrubs, of any persuasion, then getting in now and removing the oldest stems, in their entirety, will cheer them up no end. Airy shrubs with good space between the branches are healthier and more graceful than dumpy, congested, old lumps. Take a look at what you’ve got and remove anything that you can easily identify as being dead, weedy or overgrown. The

46 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

worst you can do is to lose a season’s flowering, or weed out an ornamental plant which has become rampant, but neither of those is disastrous.

If the mild weather has initiated lawn growth, average temperatures above about 7°C will suffice, then it might even be necessary to cut the lawn this month, on a high blade setting, if it’s dry enough to undertake without damaging the ground. I always try to cut the meadow grass short this month, in many years it’s just too wet to get the topper onto it, because it helps to maintain the diversity of the sward and prevents the coarser grass species from taking over.

Shortening the meadow grass now allows more light to reach the soil surface, promoting the germination of annual meadow species which need to get established before the perennial components shade them out. ‘Yellow Rattle’ is the most important annual that needs to gain a foothold in newly created meadows. It is semi-parasitic on grass species which would otherwise prove too vigorous in an establishing meadow, especially one that is not on an impoverished soil. By keeping the more bullying grass species under control, the rattle allows the finer species to compete on a more level playing field—hence leading to a greater plant diversity and that’s the name of the game when it comes to supporting the largest number of other wildlife.

It’s still too early for direct sowing, outdoors, but there’s plenty of perennials, annuals and half-hardy bedding plants that can be started off now on windowsills or in the greenhouse (as long as it can be kept frost-free). In an unheated greenhouse it’s worth experimenting with heated propagators because then it’s possible to supply gentle heat for germination even if it’s uneconomical to heat the whole space. By the time the seedlings are large enough to prick out the season will have advanced by a few weeks and the unheated greenhouse will be warm enough to sustain them.

Raising plants from seed can be a little hit or miss. One sure way to propagate extra plants, which is almost foolproof, is to dig up large clumps of herbaceous perennials, before their growth is too

far advanced, and then divide them into smaller ‘offsets’. Species such as perennial geraniums are easy to tease apart with ‘back-to-back’ forks or simply by brute strength. Perennials which form woody bases, I find phlox fall into this category, may need to be chopped into smaller pieces with a spade. Really congested, or tough, specimens may be sawn into submission with an old woodworking saw kept specially for the purpose.

Plant a few of the newly divided portions back where the original clump was growing, incorporating organic matter and some ‘fish, blood and bone’ fertiliser into the planting hole, and pot up the rest of the divisions using new compost. If you have other spaces in the garden, which require new plants, then the divisions can be planted directly, improving the soil as before, which will save on pots and aftercare.

Always water in new plants, with a can of water, in order to settle the soil around their roots and ensure that they do not dry out—rain alone is seldom enough during establishment.

Of course plant lifting, dividing and replanting all depend on decent weather conditions, mild and dry being preferable, so, at this point, I shall hope and pray that winter does not linger too long and that March yields plenty of days which veer more towards ‘balmy’ than ‘arctic’!

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 47

PROPERTY ROUND-UP

Spring Fever - Homes to get Excited About

By Helen Fisher

AMMERHAM £1.1M

A flexible and spacious barn conversion with a contemporary feel while retaining its original character. With 4 bedrooms, bespoke solid oak kitchen and gym. An impressive riverside setting with woodland, trout lakes, veg garden and orchard. Spectacular views and approx 11 acres.

Jackson-Stops Tel: 01308 423133

SEATON £148,500

A spacious first floor, 2 bedroom flat in need of modernisation set in a unique Grade II listed building with lovely sea views to Beer Head. Kitchen with small private terrace. Nicely decorated communal front entrance with stairs and lift to the upper floors.

Gordon and Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

LYME REGIS £725,000

An impressive, individual detached house designed to take full advantage of wonderful coastal views. With 4 bedrooms, sitting room and open plan kitchen/diner, all with patio doors to a spacious balcony. Large, well stocked, rear garden with double garage and parking.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000 48 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

WHITCHURCH CANONICORUM £500,000

A pretty 3/4 bedroom cottage enjoyed by the current owners since it was new in 1999. Many characterful features inc: flag stone flooring, open fireplace and kitchen with a vaulted ceiling. A beautiful garden with mature woodland and stream. Garages and parking.

Goadsby Tel: 01308 420000

LITTON CHENEY £2.050M

A Grade II* listed 7 bedroom farmhouse plus a 4 bedroom listed dairy house with a vast range of traditional and modern farm buildings. A working dairy farm until 1997, the main house dates to 1700. Set within 68 acres of arable, pasture and woodland. Available as a whole or 2 lots.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01297 33122

BRIDPORT £215,000

An extensively refurbished Grade II listed cottage with 2 bedrooms and countryside views. Character features inc: wood panelling, exposed beams and multi-fuel burner. Terraced rear garden with dining area and chalet.

Easy walk into town and free-for-all parking.

Kennedys Tel: 01308 427329

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 49

The Book of Eels

By Nick Fisher

O

f all the fish in all the world, none is so marvellous and mysterious as the common eel. Part of the marvel and mystery of the common eel, is increased by the fact that the eel is so common. It’s all around us. There’s probably not a single person in Britain at this moment who is more than a mile away from an eel. Yet still we know so little about it.

What it is. Where it goes. How it gets there.

What it does when it gets there. And how it comes back. All these things are still partially cloaked in a shroud of mystery. There is a book—fabulous, deep, layered and exhaustively researched book, The Book of Eels by Tom Fort, that attempts to give us a peek behind the cloak, by gathering together a vast array of writings and scientific studies.

In my blissful state of ignorance I thought I knew a thing or two about eels. This book opened my eyes to exactly how little I truly understood. Tom’s book leaps backwards and forwards in time, quoting ancient manuscripts and up-to-the-moment scientific data. To paint a picture of the fact and fiction of this fish.

From Mrs Beeton to Pliny the Elder, and from Jeremy Paxman to Sigmund Freud, all aspects of the eel’s ancestry and its relationship to man are investigated.

A few short years ago Mark Kurlansky, an American author, wrote a brilliant book called Cod: The Fish That Changed The World. In many ways this was a ground breaking and mould making masterpiece that invented a new genre of non-fiction—books about fish or commodities that shaped society because of the places that men were forced to go in their pursuit.

Eels is such a book. A study of man’s knowledge and ignorance of the eel. His obsessive quest to learn more, as well as his quest for its capture. The way we have treated, caught, cooked and studied the eel over centuries, is all brilliantly conveyed in Fort’s exceedingly readable prose and his myriad quotations.

Things I never knew leaped out from practically every page. Here is just a smattering of the tiny pearls that made me sit up and gawk with wonderment: The ancient Egyptians placed eels on a par with the Gods. They raised them in aquariums where priests were charged with feeding them cheese and entrails.

An American anthropologist discovered a well-established eel cult in the Phillipines in the 1920s. They kept sacred eels in pools, who were fed on rice and sweet potatoes by devotees, who sang them songs of praise all day long.

Six thousand eels were served at various feasts marking the triumphs of Julius Caesar.

Today in Japan it is estimated that over 100,000 tons of eels are consumed annually.

A figure which is at least ten times greater that all of the other eel eating countries added together.

A female eel can carry anything between two and twenty million eggs.

In 1951, a wooden eel harpoon was discovered in Toome, an eel fishing town to the north west of Belfast. Carbon dating found the harpoon to have been made in 5725BC. Eel were regularly used in mediaeval times as currency. Tithes and charters all over the land insisted on men paying their dues in writhing eel flesh.

Historically eels had several uses in the Fenlands of East Anglia. Its skin made hinges for doors, membranes are used for filtering liquids, and flexures for flails. Men and women made garters of eel skin to ward off the crippling ague.

An eel can survive long periods of time out of water because it’s skin is able, when moist, to absorb up to 90 % of its oxygen requirement. This also plays a part in permitting it to pass from freshwater into saltwater.

It was believed that drinking wine in which particles of eel skin had been submerged, was a cure to turn a drunkard into a teetotaller, and it would facilitate the repositioning of the vagina!

DNA research suggest that eels evolved between 60 and a 100 million years ago.

Baby eels were thought to have been born out of horses’ tail hairs that had fallen into a stream. Or that they hatched out of the legs of certain beetles.

Mature eels are rarely caught at sea because once they have started on their migratory spawning journey they don’t eat. So they aren’t caught by bait and their shape means they can easily escape from deep sea trawl nets.

50 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

One of the biggest threats to returning runs of baby eels entering rivers, is adult eels. Cannibalism is rife amongst the eel population.

There is a parasitic mematode called anquillicola crassus which destroys the fish’s swim bladder and is on the increase, advancing from both sides of the Atlantic.

Eels also suffer from a herpes-like virus.

Every eel fancier knows that adult eels swim all the way to the Sargasso Sea in order to spawn. But did you know that once the eel progeny have been born, not only do the adults simply fall to the sea bed to die, it takes the children two and a half to three years to break free of the circular currents of the Sargasso and reach home waters?

This book will answer so many eel questions that you’ve been mulling over for years, plus it will alert you to a brand new mine of eel info.

Fort is busy unearthing and clarifying mysteries, yet at the same time keen to keep the allure of the unknown. One of his many sources in the book quotes a Danish famous saying that sums it all up: ‘What we know is wonderful. What we understand is wonderful. But most wonderful of all is what we do not understand.’

Personally, I learnt so much from this book, that it has easily gained a permanent place on my fish-reference bookshelf. And believe me this is a small and select shelf. Too many fishing books are too basic and narrow minded for my taste. This one rocks.

One famous writer of fishing books was Richard Walker, the much-celebrated father of modern carp angling. Walker was an intelligent man. Almost clinical in his engineering-inspired approach to fishing. Surprisingly, Walker it turns out didn’t have much respect for eels.

Or that much correct knowledge. He accuses eels quite wrongly of eating live ducklings, moorhens and even cygnets in his book Stillwater Angling of 1953. Fort quotes this account of how Walker felt an eel should be dealt with, if any angler is unlucky enough to heft one on the bank: ‘You have to assault the eel... the best plan is to go for brute bald-headed, armed with a newspaper, a stick and a stout knife.

First, try to get the eel to roll itself up in the newspaper, this is your chance to get it a blow with the stick, either on its nose or about three inches from its tail. You can stick the knife through it just in front of the pectoral fins, aiming to sever its vertebrae; this kills it. Since eels are so inimical to every other kind of fish, and even to wildfowl, it is probably best to kill every one caught.’

Which indeed all just goes to show that eels can bring out the best and worst in any man.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 51

Guest Recipe

YOTAM OTTOLENGHI Yotam Ottolenghi is a cookery writer and chef-patron of the Ottolenghi delis, NOPI restaurant and ROVI. He writes a weekly column in The Guardian’s Feast Magazine and a monthly column in The New York Times and has published six bestselling cookbooks: Plenty and Plenty More (his collection of vegetarian recipes); Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem co-authored with Sami Tamimi; and NOPI: The Cookbook with Ramael Scully. Sweet, with Helen Goh, is his baking and desserts cookbook. Yotam has made two ‘Mediterranean Feasts’ series for More 4, along with a BBC 4 documentary, ‘Jerusalem on a Plate’.

PAPPARDELLE WITH ROSE HARISSA, BLACK OLIVES AND CAPERS Pappare means ‘to gobble up’, in Italian, which is the destiny of this dish. I like it spicy, but the quantity of harissa can easily be reduced. Make the sauce three days ahead if you like and keep in the fridge until needed.

www.Ottolenghi.co.uk @Ottolenghi

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• 2 tbsp olive oil • 1 large onion, thinly sliced (220g) • 3 tbsp rose harissa (or 50% more or less, depending on variety • 400g cherry tomatoes, halved • 55g pitted Kalamata olives, torn in half • 20g baby capers • 500g dried pappardelle pasta (or another wide, flat pasta) • 15g parsley, roughly chopped • 120g Greek-style yoghurt • salt

1. Put the oil into a large sauté pan, for which you have a lid, and place on a medium high heat. Once hot, add the onion and fry for 8 minutes, stirring every once in a while, until soft and caramelised. Add the harissa, tomatoes, olives, capers and ½ teaspoon of salt and continue to fry for 3–4 minutes, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes start to break down. Add 200ml of water and stir through. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid of the sauce and continue to cook for 4–5 minutes, until the sauce is thick and rich.

Stir in 10g of the parsley and set aside.

Serves 4

2. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with plenty of salted water and place on a high heat.

Once boiling, add the pappardelle and cook according to the packet instructions, until al dente. Drain well.

Extracted from Ottolenghi Simple

by Yotam Ottolenghi, Tara Wigley and Esme Howarth (Ebury Press, £25) Photography by Jonathan Lovekin

3. Return the pasta to the pot along with the harissa sauce and a teaspoon of salt. Mix together well, then divide between four shallow bowls. Serve hot, with a spoonful of yoghurt and a final sprinkle of parsley.

Food&Dining New hub kitchen a boost for school meals THE incredible work that school meals provider and social enterprise, Local Food Links (LFL), has done, was highlighted recently when they were nominated as a South West Area Finalist in the Federation for Small Businesses’ Scale Up Awards.

The organisation has recently opened a new hub kitchen in Weymouth and has been supplying 15 additional schools from September 2018, taking the total number

of schools it works with up to 50. LFL predicts that it will serve 1,534,000 meals in the 2018-19 academic year, an increase of 500,000 meals.

Local Food Links is an independent caterer and a notfor-profit social enterprise that supplies 3,700 meals a day to 50 schools in Dorset, Somerset and Devon.

78% of ingredients are purchased from Dorset suppliers, 95% from South West suppliers.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 53

SPAGHETTI WITH CLAMS Clams are often described as having a real taste of the sea and are stunning in this dish, but it will also work well with mussels. Both will make a special, simple supper.

INGREDIENTS

LESLEY WATERS

• 36 small clams (manilla or palourde) • 450g dried spaghetti or linguini • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 2 cloves garlic, crushed • 150mls white wine • 40g butter • 1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped • Salt & freshly ground black pepper Serves 4

54 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

DIRECTIONS 1.

Scrub and wash the clams well. Discard any that are cracked or remain open when tapped.

2.

Cook the spaghetti or linguini in a pan of boiling water, as directed on the packet.

3.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the crushed garlic and cook gently for 20 seconds. Add the clams and white wine and cover. Simmer for 4-5 minutes until the clams have opened.

4.

Strain the clams, discard any that have not opened, and reserve the cooking liquid. Return this liquid to the pan. Place the pan over a high heat and boil until the liquid has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, chopped parsley and clams and season.

5.

Drain the spaghetti and toss it briefly but thoroughly with the clam sauce. Serve at once.

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

Sat 2nd Fri 8th Sat 9th

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

Poundbury, Queen Mother Square - 9am - 1pm Shaftesbury, Town Hall - 9am - 1pm Blandford, Blandford Forum - 9am - 1pm Bridport, Arts Centre, South St - 9am - 1pm Martock, Moorlands Shopping - 10am - 1pm Yarcombe, Village Hall - 10am - 12noon Purbeck, Commercial Road, Swanage - 9am - 1pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street - 9am - 1pm Sherborne, Cheap St - 9am - 1pm Wimborne, Market Square - 9am - 1pm Crewkerne, The Henhayes Centre - 9am - 1pm Honiton, St Paul’s Church, High St - 8.30am - 1pm Dorchester South, High Street - 9am - 4pm Barrington, Village Hall, 10am - 12noon Yeovil, Middle Street - 9am - 2pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street - 9am - 1pm Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 55

GAME MULLIGATAWNY The other weekend using up some of the last of the season’s pheasant, I utilised the thighs from the previous shoot as the base of my mulligatawny and used a little soup pulse mix along with some root vegetables. This was a much cleaner version than is traditionally served and everyone’s reaction when I poured it at our shoot for elevenses, was ‘I’ve never tasted mulligatawny like this before’.

INGREDIENTS

MARK HIX

• 1 tbs ghee or butter • 4 pheasant or chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut into rough 1/2 cm chunks • 1medium onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed • 1tbs finely grated root ginger • 1-2 medium chilis, finely chopped • 1tsp cumin seeds • 1/2 tsp ground cumin • 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds • 1tsp black mustard seeds • The black seeds from 10-12 cardamom pods • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric • 20 or so curry leaves • 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper • 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into rough 1 cm dice • 1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into rough 1 cm dice • 30g mixed soup pulses, soaked overnight in cold water • 1/2 tbls tomato purée • 1.5 ltr chicken stock • Salt to taste • 2-3 tbs chopped coriander

1.

Heat the ghee in heavy based saucepan and gently cook the pheasant, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and all of the spices over a low heat with a lid on for 4-5 minutes, stirring every so often. Add the tomato purée and stock, bring to the boil and add the drained pulses, carrot and parsnip, season with a little salt and simmer gently for an hour or until the pulses are tender.

2.

To serve, re season if necessary and stir in the coriander.

Serves 4-6 HIX Oyster and Fish House is Mark’s local restaurant that overlooks the harbour in Lyme Regis and boasts the most stunning panoramic views across the Jurassic coast—this is easily one of the most picturesque spots to enjoy British fish seafood.

To book please call 01297 446 910.

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Spice up your outdoor cooking Now you can attend their one day course in Lyme Regis to learn how to build your own beautiful tandoor oven for your garden too.

Course tutor Kate Edwards has built award-winning cob houses, studios, sculptures and bread ovens and now she’s perfected the art of sculpting an authentic, giant, earthen tandoor. Kate explains “Your finished tandoor is also a beautiful sculptural feature for your garden. And everyone is drawn to it at a party—keeping warm by the tandoor fire whilst inhaling the spices and baking dough.”

Professional chef Charlotte Eve has spent months perfecting her naan bread Learn how to build a tandoor oven in Lyme Regis recipe and cooking in giant tandoors, using Professional cob and cob-bale builders recipes and advice she’s collected from Charlotte Eve and Kate Edwards are taking friends and relatives across India. She’s the nation’s love of outdoor cooking up a determined everyone enjoys the ultimate notch with the launch their tandoor oven authentic lunch when they come on the building workshop outside Lyme Regis. course. Charlotte shares, “this course isn’t Charlotte and Kate founded www. just about building a tandoor. It’s about eatcobcoourses.com 15 years ago and have ing as well and relaxing in an idyllic location already taught thousands of people how beside the Jurassic coast. Whether you are to build their own wood-fired pizza ovens passionate about outdoor cooking or you using the traditional method of cob fancy a unique hands on and delicious day building. Charlotte explains “Its basically out this course is designed for anyone who sculpting your oven using clay and sand— loves eating!” it’s cheaper than bricks, more sculptural and For more information contact Charlotte cooks more authentic wood-fired bread Eve at charlotteevemusic@hotmail.co.uk or and pizza. The original tandoors were also phone 07766 220526. And find out more at made of the same material.” www.cobcourses.com

PEOPLE IN FOOD

Richard Balson - photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

RICHARD BALSON FROM waking in his bed as a child and hearing the thump thump on the butcher’s block in the shop below to wielding the meat cleaver himself, Richard Balson knew from a young age he would follow his father and grandfather before him and become a butcher. Famously this family butcher, R J Balson and Son in Bridport, has appeared on all manner of media due to their accolade of being Britain’s Oldest Family Business—503 years of trading and counting. But this wasn’t what concerned Richard as he raced through the shop and out to school as a young man. Then, it was sports and carpentry which garnered his interest.

Open at 7am ready for the early customers, of which there are a surprising amount, Richard runs the shop with his French brother-in-law and ex-chef Rudi Boulay. A great supporter of local suppliers, Richard is proud that his local meat can be sourced from field to fork. Richard also specialises in making his own sausages, 20 varieties, many award-winning, and still makes his own faggots. Supplying local restaurants, pubs and hotels, Richard and his team, made up of family members, are a main stop for locals on their shopping round. Friendly, cheeky and all smiles, the shop is often full of chatter as customers share stories and banter with Richard and Rudi. They are proud of their traditional butchers’ premises and the family thrive through hard work and the loyal custom of Bridport’s residents.

When not at the shop, Richard spends time at home with his wife Allison, up the road in Symondsbury. Together they helped build the house they live in, making a building pair to be reckoned with. Richard’s continued love of carpentry and can-do attitude meant he demolished the previous building with his bare hands and a Land Rover.

And Allison’s love of power tools continues to come in handy. Organiser of the Symondsbury Fete, Richard loves car boot sales as well as antique and second-hand shops. He is also a keen participant at Beaminster Walking Football; is a member of his local skittles team; part of the Symondsbury Mummers and plays the occasional game of golf. But what really makes Richard most happy is getting out into the garden with his grandchildren, seeing what the vegetable patch has produced for them all, and sitting around a table together to enjoy the results.

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Arts &Entertainment

AUGMENTED REALITY

at Shire Hall Artist Jason Wilsher-Mills talks to Fergus Byrne about his upcoming exhibition in Dorchester

AS a youngster, Jason Wilsher-Mills was a keen rugby league player. So keen, and also so talented, that he had scouts from some of the big league clubs taking an interest in his future. Little did any of them imagine that that future would go in a completely different direction. Captain of his team, already over five foot tall and broad-shouldered, Jason contracted chicken pox at 11 years of age. It developed into chronic Polyneuropathy and left him paralysed from the neck down. ‘I didn’t grow much after that’ quips Jason, ‘but I would probably have been well over six foot.’

He was in hospital for over a year, and while doctors came and went, suggesting polio and various other possible diagnoses for his condition, there was never a definitive conclusion. ‘Even the Polyneuropathy is like the nearest thing they could get to’ he explains. From 11 to 16 he was in full-time care, reliant on his parents for everything. The rest of his life was a slow battle to recover what movement he could and claw back as much use of his limbs as possible. ‘But I recovered’ he says. ‘I say “recovered” in inverted commas because I never really recovered. The fact that I’m using a wheelchair now tells its own story really.’

The process took him on a career path he hadn’t imagined initially. In March he will be unveiling an exhibition of his new augmented reality artwork, bringing the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to life like never before. The exhibition is the next step in a career as an artist that has seen him exhibit with Grayson Perry at the V&A; show art in the Tate Modern; create a banner for display in the Houses of Parliament and have work commissioned to exhibit at the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Something he described as ‘like being asked to play for England!’

This year he has also been shortlisted for Unlimited Art Funding; an initiative that supports disabled artists who are in mid-career, to help them get to the next level.

‘Fingers crossed I might be creating permanent art for

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Jason Wilsher-Mills’ artwork for George Loveless, the leader of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

Finsbury Park, the National Children’s Museum and many other places that will all connect using technology. I’m also doing work commissioned for the International Freedom Festival,’ says Jason.

The Shire Hall exhibition came about because of a chance meeting with members of the Shire Hall project at the unveiling of his banner created for the Disability Discrimination Act at the Houses of Parliament. He will be using augmented reality technology to superimpose computer-generated films, images and interactive components on what someone is seeing in the real world. This could be by using a tablet or mobile phone to view the original artwork and then ‘seeing’ the augmented part as 3D on the screen. The exhibition, called Tolpuddle Martyrs Remixed: Six Dorset men who changed the world, is something that Jason is very excited about. It is the initial step in an augmented reality project that he plans to develop further in the coming years. ‘It’s absolute cutting-edge technology’, says Jason. ‘There’s no other museum that’s using that technology.’

The technological advance is a long way from his initial sketches while recovering from his illness. One of eight children, Jason came from a very working-class background, but he was encouraged by his parents to draw. When he became disabled, the doctors suggested he probably wouldn’t live beyond seventeen. ‘I’m fifty next week!’ he laughs. But his parents were very supportive of his doing what he wanted to do. ‘I went on to University and was really quite passionate about art.’ After graduating, he took up teaching, unsure about whether he should paint. He explained: ‘I definitely wasn’t ready to do what I do now when I was in my twenties. I felt I had to do other things like teaching. I taught art in a prison for many years. Art has always been there, but it’s having the courage to make the step.’

About ten years ago he was in a slump, feeling he couldn’t

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achieve anything when one of his friends told him he should paint his way out of it and suggested using an iPad. This was something Jason had never heard of. ‘And literally within three months of getting one, I had work on show in San Francisco. That quick it was bonkers.’ He explained that he felt he had to mature a bit before taking the step to being a professional artist. ‘But I worked really hard, and I’m really ambitious in what I do, and it’s sort of paid off.’

He sees a strong relationship between his work on the Tolpuddle Martyrs and his background. ‘I’m a northerner from Wakefield in Yorkshire’ he says. ‘My Dad was a coal miner, and I have really vivid memories of the miner’s strike. I grew up seeing lots of trade union banners. We were brought up going to coal miner’s galas. It was a really important part of our lives, but we didn’t know that it was to do with being socialist or left wing. It was just part of our lives.’

He can remember arguing with his Dad about the miner’s strike.

‘Like all teenager’s I thought I knew better’ he says. He saw ‘highly edited’ pictures on television of violent protest and asked his Dad why they were fighting. “Well, they’re fighting for their jobs lad”, replied his father. Later in life, he did work for the coal miner’s industry and remembers meeting people that had been on the front lines of the miner’s strike. He met people who recalled being bundled into the back of a police van only to find that underneath the police uniform many of them had army uniforms on. ‘One guy recognised his own Sergeant from when he’d been in the army.’ The sergeant warned the man that as he had signed the Official Secrets Act, he mustn’t tell anyone.

Jason points out that his upbringing, surrounded by the area and people where the trade union movement started, informed his own political beliefs. Although he understands that the men that went on to become known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs had their

own brotherhood based on their religious beliefs, he could see the injustice of them being punished for considering forming a trade union. ‘With my own political beliefs and being a disabled artist in contemporary times, I use my voice to campaign and describe and deal with what it is to be a disabled person. I kind of felt there was an affinity there.’

He came to Dorset last year to spend a few weeks doing workshops in schools and talking about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. ‘It was amazing how many kids had family members that were connected in some way to the story.’ He carried on gathering information and putting together ideas for the commission, which required an individual piece about each martyr, or “Dorsetshire labourer” as they are called. ‘Which is quite an important definition’ he explains, ‘because, at the end of the day, they were just ordinary men who were caught up in an extraordinary story. First and foremost they were passionate about their beliefs. They actually built the chapel in Tolpuddle, and they were committed Methodists. The work I wanted to do was about that and returning them to the land and showing how important the church and Dorset was to them. It was also about how important they were as individuals. Because it’s almost as if the Tolpuddle Martyrs have become a mythology, so the work is trying to get back to the real men and the families. They were all passionate about their families, and that’s what kept them going.’

His plans for the future include taking the idea of people like the martyrs and bringing it into the discussion about disability. ‘In terms of disability we’re not that different to those guys meeting round the tree’ he says. ‘It’s an understanding that it’s a real fight. I think George Loveless—one of the martyrs—he was an ordinary guy, he was a passionate speaker and was very charismatic. I’ve tried

to make him look like an old-time prophet from the Old Testament. Almost like Charlton Heston with the crazy hair, coming down from the mountain, inspiring these men to do something that would transform their lives. They were ordinary guys that had to do something because they were left with no choice. I can recognise that in my own situation.’

There is a strong thread running through the work that Jason Wilsher-Mills pursues. He takes the battle forward for those with any kind of disability and shows a vital awareness of injustice, especially for those that have to rely on the state to help them survive. ‘I have a friend who is an ex-Paralympian’ he says. ‘She’s never walked. She never will walk. She’s been in a wheelchair all her life but had her disability benefits taken away because the doctor didn’t give a detailed enough explanation of her condition.’

He points out that it’s hard enough for people with autistic disorders, mental health issues or ‘invisible illnesses’ to get help.

‘Although you’d think that if you had a leg missing or were using a wheelchair, they’d figure out there was a problem.’

He also works with adults with learning disabilities. ‘It’s about telling their stories and using the tools that I have to do that.’ One of his current projects is producing a sculpture at the University of Hull which is all about the disabled people in Hull, ‘the communities, the hidden stories and quiet voices—and giving them a platform to express themselves—it needs doing as well.’

Jason Wilsher-Mills’ exhibition Tolpuddle Martyrs Remixed: Six Dorset men who changed the world will be open to the public at the Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum in Dorchester from March 19th to June 14th.

For more information visit shirehalldorset.org.

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Museums&Galleries 1 MARCH – 26 MAY Ten Views of Golden Cap Lyme Regis Museum plays host to a solo exhibition by local textile artist and painter Vivienne Graham. This enchanting showcase consists of different images in textile of Dorset’s best-known coastal cliff—the tallest in Southern England. Each work will be accompanied by a written description explaining how that image was conceived and developed. Lyme Regis Museum, Bridge Street, Lyme Regis DT7 3QA. Check Museum website for opening times and admission prices: www.lymeregismuseum. co.uk.

UNTIL 2 MARCH Christopher Riisager : Recent Paintings The Art Stable, Child Okeford Blandford, Dorset DT11 8HB 01258 863866. www.theartstable.co.uk.

2 – 20 MARCH Robert Jennison This solo exhibition is a retrospective of current and past artwork by Robert Jennison. The Malthouse Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. Free admission. www.townmillarts.co.uk.

Malcolm Asman, Sarah Spackman The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon St., Sherborne DT9 3LN 01935 815261 www.jerramgallery. com 2 MARCH – 1 MAY Philip Sutton: My Shakespeare Bridport Arts Centre’s Honorary Patron, Philip Sutton (RA), returns with an exhibition of his works on Shakespeare. Philip Sutton has been a strong supporter of the Globe Theatre which was established through his friendship with the architect Theo Crosby and the American actor Sam Wanamaker. Sam spent many years in the 50s trying to get the Globe Theatre off the ground, which Philip supported by producing posters becoming a friend of the project. To accompany the work there will be films, workshops and events happening in and around Bridport

with a Shakespearean influence. Bridport Arts Centre www.bridport-arts.com.

UNTIL 5 MARCH Rich Aaron Ward: Recent Paintings and Drawings Shaftesbury Arts Centre, Bell Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP78AR www.shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk, www. richaaronward.co.uk.

9 – 30 MARCH Making Dorset at Furleigh Estate An exhibition of design and fine craft by 25 of Dorset’s leading makers. Ceramics, glass, metal, wood, textiles, jewellery, paper and print. Making Dorset is a long term initiative of Dorset Visual Arts. Monday - Saturday 11am - 5pm Furleigh Estate, Salways Ash, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 5JF www.makingdorset.org.

9 MARCH – 2 APRIL Contemporary Crafts Dynamic selling exhibition showcasing some of the best contemporary craft from UK based craftmakers. After the success of previous years’ Contemporary Crafts exhibitions, Town Mill Arts will once again showcase local designermakers, giving both established and emerging artists an opportunity to show their work within the setting of our Courtyard Gallery.

Unique examples of ceramics, glass, wood, metal, textiles and lighting will be on display at a range of prices to suit everyone. The Courtyard Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. Free admission. www. townmillarts.co.uk.

9 MARCH – 28 APRIL Material: Textile Messums Wiltshire present their inaugural Material: Textile exhibition, featuring clothes from 8th century Peru to 21st century Denmark as well as prints, rugs, tapestries and embroideries made by some of the greatest names in Western art. Messums Wiltshire, Place Farm, Court St, Tisbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire. SP3 6LW 01747 445042 www.messumswiltshire.com.

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UNTIL 10 MARCH Tidal: new paintings by Anthony Garratt Wood carvings by David West, furniture by Petter Southall at Sladers Yard, Contemporary Art, Furniture and Craft Gallery, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL Tel: 01308 459511 sladersyard.co.uk for more information.

16 MARCH - 6 APRIL George Young The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Blandford, Dorset DT11 8HB 01258 863866. www.theartstable.co.uk.

16 MARCH - 6 MAY The Great Heath: recent paintings by Brian Graham opens at Sladers Yard, Contemporary Art, Furniture and Craft Gallery, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL A magnificent new collection of work by this eminent artist exploring the great heath of imagination, literature and music, where personalities are stripped down and passions played out. Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native is set on Egdon Heath, a semi-fictional wild heathland dotted with tumuli parts of which still remain between Dorchester, Wimborne and Poole.After Gustav Holst to walked with Hardy on the heath, the composer wrote Egdon Heath: A Homage to Thomas Hardy, the piece he considered his most perfectly realised composition. Artist Brian Graham grew up overlooking the heath. His childhood games on the Bronze Age barrows have inspired a lifelong fascination with archaeology which he explores in paintings that hover between abstract and the figurative. Now in his seventies, he revisits these atmospheric places in many layered textured paintings.

01308 459511 sladersyard.co.uk for more information.

16 MARCH – 2 JUNE RWA Sculpture Open Exhibition With Invited Artist Brazilian sculptor, painter and printmaker Ana Maria Pacheco. Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Clifton

Bristol BS8 1PX 0117 973 5129 www.rwa. org.uk.

Gaudier-Brzeska: Disputing the Earth Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Clifton Bristol BS8 1PX 0117 973 5129 www.rwa.org.uk.

16 MARCH – 29 JUNE A Life in Colour: The Art of Doris Hatt In association with The Court Gallery. Gallery Tours will take place 2pm to 2.30pmon 28 March, 27 April, 24 May, 26 June (£3 suggested donation). The Museum of Somerset, Taunton TA1 4AA. Exhibition Charge: Pay what you think www. museumofsomerset.org.uk.

18 MARCH – 6 APRIL Reflections Painting, sculpture and photography that dazzles with reflected light – from water, materials, the land and sky. Group exhibition.. Free. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Terry Ward Oil paintings of the British coast and countryside by well-known West Country artist Terry Ward. In the Cafe Gallery. Free. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse. org.uk.

experience the Martyrs’ story like you’ve never seen it before. Shire Hall, Dorchester.

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

21 MARCH-3 APRIL Four Metals Well-known Uplyme-based artist Julie Oldfield returns to the Town Mill galleries to exhibit some of her latest innovative work. She paints dramatic and stunning sky and land scapes using mixed media on canvas or metal sheets - typically copper, brass, aluminum and even stainless steel. She will be giving a talk at the gallery at 6pm on Saturday 23 March. The Malthouse Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. Free admission. www. townmillarts.co.uk.

UNTIL 22 MARCH Ghostly White Curated by Wayne Martin. The Library, AUB. Arts University Bournemouth www.aub.ac.uk.

30 MARCH – 12 APRIL Anita Klein: Days Like These Personal insights from Anita Klein: Britain’s most prominent artist and printmaker. Painter and printmaker Anita Klein, is set to delight art lovers across the South West with a

collection of new works in her solo show at Marine House at Beer. www. marinehouseatbeer.co.uk Marine House at Beer Gallery, Fore Street Beer Nr Seaton Devon, EX12 3EF Telephone: 01297 625257.

David Cooke :Strength, Character, Beauty The Natural World through the eyes of artist David Cooke. West Yorkshire based David Cooke is one of the UK’s leading professional wildlife artists. He works across mediums including clay, bronze, bronze resin, and mixed media. Often sculpting reptiles and birds, his exceptional talent has resulted in numerous high-profiled commissions, including artworks for Chelsea Flower Show, London Zoo, and the Olympic Park for London 2012. www.marinehouseatbeer.co.uk Marine House at Beer Gallery, Fore Street Beer Nr Seaton Devon, EX12 3EF Telephone: 01297 625257.

UNTIL 10 APRIL A Royal Affair Curated by Jennifer Ridge.

Display in University House, AUB. Arts University Bournemouth www.aub.ac.uk.

19 MARCH – 14 JUNE Tolpuddle Martyrs Remixed Experience the Tolpuddle Martyrs story like never before – via augmented reality! Acclaimed artist Jason Wilsher-Mills interviewed descendants of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to create a new artwork for Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum in Dorchester. The exhibition will feature the six Dorset farm labourers brought to life through augmented reality.

Jason’s previous work with young disabled people, Brave Boy Billy, was displayed at the Tate Modern. Everything within the specially created artwork will have a meaning and visitors will see the story come to life and float in front of their eyes! So, come and

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PERFORMANCE TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Exhibition on Screen, Young Picasso, 7.30.

POOLE, Lighthouse, Middle Ground in The Verdict, to Sat, 7.45, Wed/Sat mats 2.30.

WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY EXETER, Corn Exchange, Mark Thomas, Check Up Our NHS at 70, comedy, 8.

SHERBORNE, Abbey, organ recital with Harold Jackson, 1pm, FREE. WEYMOUTH, College Bay Theatre, Owdyado Theatre in Twisted Tales, three dark comedies, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Dvorak in America with the Zemlinksy String Quartet, Mozart, Dvorak, Smetana, 7.30.

THURSDAY 28 FEBRUARY LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Fleetwood Bac, tribute, 8pm.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Coldplace, tribute.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Goldhawks perform Quadrophenia Live.

Westlands, Laughing Boy Comedy Club.

FRIDAY 1 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Green Ginger in Intronauts, 7.30.

BRISTOL, Old Vic, Richard III with Tom Mothersdale, to 9 March and 2 to 13 April.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Hal Cruttenden in Chubster, comedy, 8.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, Artemis Storytelling, Clare Muireann Murphy with Others from the Other Side, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, The Wall of Floyd.

HALSTOCK, Village Hall, Holy Moly and the Crackers, 7.30. AR HONITON, Beehive, Richard Digance, 7.30.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Savannah Jazz Band, trad, 8.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Spencer J and the Copy Cat Crickets, I Can’t Believe It’s not Buddy, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Bootleg Blues Brothers.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Jive Talkin’ BeeGees.

SATURDAY 2 MARCH BRIANTSPUDDLE, Village Hall, Kokoro Ensemble, A Night in Vienna, Shoenberg, Berg, Webern, 7.30. AR BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Cheap Date Dance Co in Dirty Words, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Dirty Dusting, play, with Chrissy Rock, Leah Bell, etc.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Rob Newman’s Total Eclipse of Descartes, 7.30.

NEWTON St CYRES, Parish Hall, Cornwall’s Native Poet, film about Charles Causley with folk singer Jim Causely and film maker Jane Darke, 7.30. ViA SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Moonstone Theatre in Dead on Arrival, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Little Mix Experience.

Westlands, Ben Portsmouth - The King is Back, 8.

SUNDAY 3 MARCH DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Edgelarks, folk, 8.

EXETER, Corn Exchange, Hall Cruttenden, Chubster, comedy, 8.

SHIPTON GORGE, Village Hall, John Osborne in John Peel’s Shed, 7.30. AR WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Comedy with John Robins.

MONDAY 4 MARCH BATH, Theatre Royal, Rebus: Long Shadows, with Charles Lawson, Cathy Tyson and John Stahl, to Sat. BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Tudors and Historical Fashion, illustrated talk by Curtis, 7.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, La Fille du Regiment, recorded from the Metropolitan Opera, 5.55.

TUESDAY 5 MARCH EXETER, Northcott, Out of Joint in Rita Sue and Bob Too, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Kick in the Head Theatre in Three Men in a Boat, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Seth Lakeman, 7.30.

WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Museum of Fashion - Royal Women, with talk by Elly Summers, 11am: James Sherwood, The London Cut, talk about men’s fashion, 7.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Frozen Light in The Isle of Brimsker, multi sensory story for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, and Thurs, 11am and 2.30pm.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, Kick in the Head Theatre in Three Men in a Boat, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Gael Force, Irish dance.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Giovanni Pernice, Dance is Life.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, Wren Music in Her Story, International Women’s Day celebration, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Carpenters Gold.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Moscow Drug Club, cabaret jazz, 8.

MINEHEAD, Butlins, The Great British Alternative Music Festival, with Skids, Peter Hook and the Light, The Undertones, Blockhead, Big Country and From the Jam, to Sun. PLYMOUTH, Junction, Wille and the Bandits.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, The FB Pocket Orchestra, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Lionel Richie Songbook.

SATURDAY 9 MARCH CLAYHIDON, Parish Hall, Anonymous Is A Woman in It Is Now, play set on 30th July 1966, 7.30. ViA DORCHESTER, St Mary’s Church, Music for Youth, Martin Clunes and Dorchester Chamber Orchestra, cond Walter Brewster, Elise Griffin, violin, Tchaikovsky, Dukas, 4pm.

Corn Exchange, The Unravelling Wilburys, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, 80s Mania.

LITTON CHENEY, Village Hall, BSO Flute, Viola and Harp Trio, 7.30. AR LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Amy Mayes Band, jazz and blues, 8.

MELBURY OSMOND, Village Hall, Ninebarrow, folk, 7.30. AR SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Woodbury Dance Studio in Pineapple Poll, and Sun, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Lyngo Theatre in Tom Thumb, 2pm.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Swansea City Opera in Cosi fan Tutte.

THURSDAY 7 MARCH EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Giovanni Pernice, dance.

HONITON, Beehive, Steve Knightley, Roadworks, 7.30.

PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Drum Studio, God of Chaos, to 23 March.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, A Gala Spectacular with the New Jersey Boys, The Knicker Lady, Peter Gill etc, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Richard Alston Dance Alston, Martin Lawrance, Jason Ridgway.

SUNDAY 10 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Coco before Chanel, film, 11am: Love, Cecil, film about Cecil Beaton, 2pm.: Yves Saint Laurent, biopic, 7pm.

EXETER, Northcott, Up Close Theatre in Jeeves and Wooster, Perfect Nonsense, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Oh What a Feeling, the music of Lionel Richie and the Commodores.

ILMINSTER, Dillington House, Endellion Quartet, Haydn, Beethoven, 2.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Sunday Sessions with Street and Matthews, local musicians, 3pm.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Rumours of Fleetwood Mac.

FRIDAY 8 MARCH DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, David William Bryan in his play In Loyal Company, 8pm.

MONDAY 11 MARCH PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Club Tropicana, to Sat. YEOVIL, Swan Theatre, Who’s Afraid of

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PERFORMANCE Virginia Woolf? to Sat, 7.30 (early time).

TUESDAY 12 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Rebecca Vaughan in Virginia Woolf ’s Orlando.

BRISTOL, Hippodrome, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, to Sat, 7.30, Wed/Sat mats 2.30.

EXETER, Northcott, Richard Alston Dance in triple bill, and Wed, 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Neil Sands Co in Sentimental Journey, 2pm.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Steve Steinman’s Vampires Rock.

WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH EXETER, Corn Exchange, Lee Ridley, The Lost Voice Guy, comedy, 7.30.

HONITON, Beehive, Folk Cafe, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Manfreds, with Paul Jones.

THURSDAY 14 MARCH BARNSTAPLE, Queens Theatre, Collabro.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Youth Theatre Senior Co in Laura Lomas’s Chaos, National Theatre Connections, and Fri, 7.30.

DRIMPTON, Village Hall, Farnham Maltings in Title and Deed, 7.30. AR EXETER, Northcott, Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love, 7.30.

University Great Hall, Williams v Zimmer, BSO, cond Pete Harrison, music from the movies, 7.30 TINTINHULL, Village Hall, Somerset Opera in The Mikado, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Manfreds.

FRIDAY 15 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Sara Deborah Timossi, violin, Lucy Scotchmer, cello, Johan Lofving, theorbo, Biber, Guiliani, Tartini, Paganini, etc, 11am: Cloudbusting, 40 years of Kate Bush: Jazz Cafe, The Oxley Meier Guitar Project, 8.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Sara Deborah Timossi, violin, Lucy Scotchmer, cello, Johan Lofving, theorbo, Biber, Guiliani, Tartini, Paganini, etc, 7.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Sam Kelly’s Station House, blues, 8.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Crocodile Rock.

SATURDAY 16 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Country Team, play, 7.30.

CURRY MALLET AND BEERCROCOMBE, Village Hall, Will Finn and Rosie Calvert, Beneath This Place tour, folk singer-songwriters from Newcastle, 8. TA EXETER, Cathedral, Exeter Philharmonic Choir, London Mozart Players, Haydn’s Creation, 7.30.

Northcott, Dinosaur World Live, and Sun, day times.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Hits of Motown with Roy Hemmings.

HONITON, Beehive, Phil Beer Band, folk, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, folk, 8.

OSMINGTON, Village Hall, Miranda Sykes.

SIDMOUTH, Parish Church, Isca Ensemble with James Gilbert, piano, Spring concert, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Kitty Macfarlane, Somerset singer and songwriter, 8.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Beatlemania.

YEOVIL, Westlands, Back to the 80s, 8pm to 1am.

SUNDAY 17 MARCH BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, The Sleeping Beauty from the Bolshoi by satellite, 3pm.

BUCKLAND NEWTON, Village Hall, Alec Dankworth’s World Spirit, jazz, 7.30.

AR MONDAY 18 MARCH BATH, Theatre Royal, David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, to Sat. EXMOUTH, 10 Bicton Street, Exmouth Players in The Vicar of Dibley, to Sun, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Just Tribute, to Take That, in aid of Hidden Needs Trust, 7.30.

TUESDAY 19 MARCH BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Erja Lyytinen, Finnish singer songwriter and slide guitarist, 8pm.

BRISTOL, Old Vic, Touching the Void, back by popular demand, to 23 March.

EXETER, Northcott, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Flash Fiction Story Slam, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, St Mary’s Church, Dorset County Museum Music Society, Petrof Piano Trio, Janacek, Rachmaninov, Dvorak.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Tom Jones and the Shadow of the Sixties.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Spring Forward Dance Festival, 7. TA THURSDAY 21 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Pete Firman, comedy, 8.

Electric Palace, Mark Steele, Every Little Thing’s Gonna be All Right,comedy, 8.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Dorchester Piano Quartet, Beethoven and Richard Strauss, 1pm.

SEATON, Gateway, Castalian Quartet, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Syd Lawrence Orchestra.

College Bay Theatre, Spitz and Co in Les

Gloriables, 7.30.

FRIDAY 22 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Hiccup Project, comedy dance, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Our Trace.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Duncan Alselm, sax, and his Quintet, jazz, 8.

Warehouse Theatre, Somerset Opera, The Mikado, 7.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, The South, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Christians.

YETMINSTER, Village Hall, The Mela Guitar Quartet, 7.30. AR SATURDAY 23 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, John Kirkpatrick, folk, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Clare Teal and her Trio, Swing’s the Thing, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Music Hall Tavern.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Comedy Club with Glenn Moore, 8.

MARTINSTOWN, Village Hall, Last Chance Saloon in The Curse of the Mummy and Sherlock Holmes and the Blue Carbuncle, physical comedy, 7.30. AR SEATON, Gateway, The Absolute Bowie Show, 50 years of Bowie, 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Parish Church, The Dante String Quartet, Haydn, Howells, Beethoven, 7.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Tankus the Henge, A Chance to Dance, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Ballet Theatre UK in Swan Lake, 7.30.

SUNDAY 24 MARCH BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, BSO Strings, cond Marta Gardolinska, Grieg, Barber, Holst, Dvorak, 3pm.

Electric Palace, The Great Escape, 1963 film with Dan Snow, gala screening by satellite from Hammersmith Apollo, 6pm.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Nick Cope, songs for children, 2.30.

EXETER, Northcott, Rachel Parris, It’s Fun to Pretend, comedy, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Bobby Socks and Blue Jeans.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Terry Quinney plays Stan Getz, jazz, 8.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Sooty Show, 11am and 2.30pm.

MONDAY 25 MARCH SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, East Devon Dance Academy, triple fantasy, showcase with more than 500 students, to 6 April.

TUESDAY 26 MARCH DORCHESTER, St Peter’s Church, Northern Harmony, workshop 6.30, concert 8pm.

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PREVIEW On Stage - In and Around the Vale New Andrew Rutherford play BRIDPORT

Glenn Moore comes to Lyme Regis in March

Glenn Moore comedy LYME REGIS

MOCK The Week star Glenn Moore, whose Glengarry Glen Glenn was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, headlines the comedy club line-up at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis on Saturday 23rd March Known for his inventive jokes, Glenn Moore has supported Tiff Stevenson, Josie Long and Alun Cochrane and has appeared on Mock The Week. He was a finalist in the 2011 Chortle Student Comedian of the Year Award whilst studying English Literature at the University of Sheffield, where he created the sketch comedy duo Thunderbards with Matt Stevens.

He is joined by resident compere Tom Glover, Jess Fostekew and Louis Burgess, a semi finalist in the BBC New Comedy Award.

THE Country Team, at Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 16th March, is a new play by Andrew Rutherford, set in South America during the mid-1970s, when the imperative for the US State Department under Henry Kissinger was to bolster military dictatorships across the region, with a calculated disregard for human rights.

James Auden, a one-time member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, plays Arlan Pederson Hoff, the recently appointed US Ambassador who confronts his senior career diplomats, the “country team”, as they turn a blind eye to the killing machine unleashed beyond their fortified embassy.

Conflicts within the embassy erupt with the appearance of a Manhattan marketing consultant contracted to give the military regime a benign make-over, and by a visiting American scholar exploring the tense relationship between followers of Liberation Theology and the Catholic Church. Dark events bring members of the country team head-to-head with the junta’s murderous agenda and with each other.

The Country Team is directed by John Haylock and is the fourth play by Bridport-based Andrew Rutherford.

Clare Teal and her trio DORCHESTER

ONE of Britain’s great jazz vocalists, Clare Teal, brings her trio to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 23rd March for a celebration of the golden age of song.

The singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter leads her outstanding musicians in an upbeat and uplifting new show, featuring standards from the grand masters of the Great American Song Book and witty urbane song stylists of the 1950s and 60s, including Cy Coleman,

Carolyn Leigh and Dave Brubeck. There’s always a nod to more contemporary writers and originals too.

With fabulous arrangements interspersed with warm and witty storytelling, you’re guaranteed a night to remember. the concert starts at 8pm.

Ragtime to Rhapsody SOUTH PETHERTON

SOUTH Petherton’s David Hall has a busy month, with a gig by the delightful FB Pocket Orchestra, playing blues, ragtime and hot jazz on Friday 8th March via a glad rags fundraising event to a screening of the awardwinning Queen movie, Bohemian Rhapsody on Friday 29th.

The repertoire of the FB Pocket Orchestra starts in the 1930s and works backwards, exploring the early days of what would become “popular music”—essentially they offer a contemporary acoustic slant on the music that our grandparents and even greatgrandparents enjoyed, right back to the last years of the Victorian era. It’s stylish, tuneful and very entertaining.

On Saturday 9th, the David Hall hosts Lyngo Theatre with a charming show for children aged three and over, Tom Thumb. Performed entirely on and under a kitchen table, the classic story is brought to playful life with feathery spinning birds, a flying house and a portable forest.

On Sunday 10th there is an afternoon session with musician Dean Carter who uses Tibetan singing bowls and sacred vocal overtoning to promote a relaxing and healing state to rebalance and re-energise your body, mind and spirit.

Somerset’s rising folk star Kitty Macfarlane comes to South Petherton on Saturday 16th March. Kitty’s songs combine honest snapshots of everyday humanity with the

DORSET FOLK ON TOUR DORSET’s BBC Folk Award nominees Ninebarrow have a busy few weeks, with the launch of their book of “musical walks” and accompanying video, nationwide tour, and three dates in their home county with Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring charity, from 8th to 10th March.

Former teacher Jon Whitley and former GP Jay LaBouchardiere combine beautiful vocal harmonies and haunting melodies to create original songs that are inspired by and rooted in the landscape and history of the British Isles in general and Dorset in particular.

Ninebarrow’s Dorset is a book of ten walks in the landscape that inspired ten of their songs, and the accompanying video, Hwome, features their setting of the William Barnes poem, Comen Hwome.

The Artsreach dates for the duo are at Hinton Martel (01258 840066) on 8th March, Melbury Osmond (01935 83453) on 9th March and Milborne St Andrew (01258 839230) on 10th March. All the concerts start at 7.30pm. For more information visit www.artsreach.co.uk or www.ninebarrow.co.uk 66 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

PREVIEW bigger questions that have connected minds and voices for centuries, driven by her own fingerpicked guitar.

Handbags and Glad Rags, on Friday 22nd is a chance to grab a bargain—bags and bling, scarves and sequins—and support the David Hall.

There’s a welcome return to South Petherton for Tankus the Henge on Saturday 23rd.

This band, now established festival favourites and great live performers, play an eclectic funk-fuelled repertoire that ranges from New Orleans-inspired swing to heavy rock riffs.

The month ends with a Petherton Picture Show screening on Friday 29th of Bohemian Rhapsody, with BAFTA Best Actor Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury.

Impressions of Spring IBBERTON & LITTON CHENEY

A TRIO of wind and string players from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra are giving two concerts celebrating spring at Ibberton on Friday 8th March and Litton Cheney on Saturday 9th.

The concerts, part of the ongoing collaboration between the BSO and Dorset’s rural touring charity Artsreach, follow successful Dorset concerts earlier in the winter with the BSO’s new Resound ensemble and the Kokoro contemporary music group.

Artsreach co-director Kerry Bartlett says: “To have the opportunity to work alongside this internationally acclaimed orchestra and present ensemble recitals in some of our most rural villages is a real pleasure, and something our volunteers and audiences just love.”

Musicians Barbara Brown (flute), Judith Preston (viola) and Eluned Pierce (harp) present an evening of exquisite music celebrating spring, by Debussy, Faure, Handel and Arnold Bax. Lisa Tregale, the head of BSO Participate, says: “Touring to rural venues is an extremely important part of the BSO’s output, as we are dedicated to reaching as many people as possible and ensuring that all of our audiences are able to access great music.”

Both concerts begin at 7.30pm. For more details visit www.artsreach.co.uk

The lovely Hiccup girls BRIDPORT

THE Hiccup Project—otherwise known as Chess and Christina—comes to Bridport Arts Centre on 22nd March at 7.30pm with their new show, Lovely Girls.

The “lovely Hiccup girls” (as they are usually called) are a comedic dance-theatre company. After diving into the world of romance and heartbreak in their multi-award winning May-We-Go-Round?, Cristina and Chess explore what it means to be a young woman in the new show.

As little women, and through their teen

years, they were fed fairy tales, stories and images full of the idealized woman; beautiful, sweet, passive, lovely. Now, they are 27. They are feminists. They’ve read lots of books, had tons of conversations, and are feeling empowered. Yet they still find themselves on Google asking; “If I feel good when an attractive man compliments me, am I still a feminist?”

Chess and Cristina open up the confusing pot of contradictions, clichés and expectations, that face women today; have lots of sex and be sexy, but not too much; strive for a good career, but make time for everyone else; have curves, but don’t be fat; be assertive, but not bossy…

Lovely Girls meanders through real women’s stories using The Hiccup Project’s blend of dance, theatre and comedy. It is an insight, a celebration and an ode to being a woman in the 21st century.

Springhead, Fontmell Magna on 21st March, with Artsreach.

There is a singing workshop from 4-6pm, followed by the concert at 7.30pm at the village’s St Andrew’s Church.

Over the weekend 22nd to 24th March, Northern Harmony will lead a residential singing weekend at Magdalen Farm at Winsham, and there is a second Artsreach date, on the Friday evening, 23rd, at 8pm at Wootton Fitzpaine Village Hall.

On Tuesday 26th, the choir will give a workshop at St Peter’s Church, Dorchester, at 6.30pm, followed by a concert at 8pm.

Northern Harmony is a choir of 14 young singers, with a repertoire that includes a wide mix of world harmony traditions including South African songs and dances, traditional polyphony from Georgia, Corsica and the Balkans, American shape-note singing and quartet gospel, as well as renaissance motets.

John Kirkpatrick BRIDPORT

Hippopotamus alert!

DORCHESTER

JOHN Kirkpatrick, one of the most respected and prolific figures on the English folk scene, comes to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 23rd March at 7.30pm.

John regularly performs solo, in duos, acoustic groups and electric bands, and has an enviable reputation as an instrumental virtuoso (melodeon, Anglo concertina and button accordion), as well as a leading interpreter of English folk music.

He has been a member of the Albion Country Band, Magic Lantern, The Richard Thompson Band, Umps and Dumps, Steeleye Span, Brass Monkey, Trans-Europe Diatonique, and Band of Hope, as well as numerous ceilidh bands.

A story of survival DORCHESTER

IN Loyal Company, at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Friday 8th March, is the incredible true story of missing World War II soldier and prisoner of war Arthur Robinson, written and performed by his great-nephew, David William Bryan.

The story starts in May 1941. Hitler’s bombs rain on Liverpool. Local packer Arthur Robinson joins up becoming a private in the 18th Reconnaissance Division.

Deployed to Singapore, his ship is destroyed by Japanese dive bombers on arrival.

Arthur is declared missing. This extraordinary true story of survival is a tour-de-force war epic which was a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and has been selling out all over the country.

Northern Harmony TOURING

THE Vermont-based Northern Harmony choir makes its annual visit to the West Country, starting with a concert and workshop at

COMEDIAN Tim Fitzhigham and multitalented musician Duncan Walsh Atkins bring their point perfect re-creation of the great Flanders and Swann to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 30th March.

At The Drop of (Another) Hippopotamus finds the brilliant duo, beards duly starched and dinner jackets neatly trimmed, ready to delve into more of the laugh-out-loud musical wit and wisdom of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.

Whether you are a lifelong fan, and maybe old enough to have seen them on stage or television, or a new convert, you will be delighted by the skill and style with which Tim and Duncan breathe new life into some of the classics—The Hippopotamus Song (Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud), The Gnu, The Gas Man Cometh—plus a few less familiar gems along the way!

Questions of gender BRIDPORT

AT a time when gender issues are big news, the new play by Dyad Productions is the ultimate sex-change story, Orlando, a reworking of the myth of the immortal poet, on stage at Bridport Arts Centre on Tuesday 12th March.

Based on the 1928 satirical novel, a version of the myth as re-envisioned by Virginia Woolf, the play features performer Rebecca Vaughan as the boy-girl who explores his/her identity through the centuries.

Written and directed by Elton Townend Jones, it is the often funny story of an independent person whose gender cannot be pinned down, whose spirit cannot be caged, and whose irreverent, romantic adventures across 400 years of history provide a lifeaffirming, magic-realist exploration of human identity, personal, sexual and national.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 67

On Screen - In and Around the Vale FRIDAY 1 MARCH The Little Stranger presented by Petherton Picture Show 8pm. Tickets: £5.

No concessions. The David Hall, South Petherton www.thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

SUNDAY 3 MARCH The Bromley Boys (PG)11am. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

MONDAY 4 MARCH King of Thieves (15) Odcombe Movie Night 8pm Village Hall doors open at 7.30pm Tickets: £5 in advance, £6 on door Phone: 07934 737104 for tickets.

TUESDAY 5 MARCH The Rider (15) Doors open 7pm for 7.45pm film. Bridport Film Society, Bridort Arts Centre – for more information on how to join and book tickets go to www. bridportfilmsociety.co.uk. Members and guests only. Enrollment can be made by application form obtained from the Art Centre, The Bookshop and other venues.

WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH The Children Act (12a) Moviola screening at Kilmington Village Hall, doors and bar open 6.45pm with the show starting at 7.15pm. Tickets £5 in advance: 01297 639758 leave contact info to receive acknowledgement. £5.50 at the door.

See village web for email contact & film review www.kilmingtonvillage.com/otherorganisations.html.

THURSDAY 7 MARCH Hunt for the Wilderpeople Pre-booked guest tickets are £4 per film. For more information, to join or to pre-book, please email mickpwilson53@btinternet.com or ring Mick Wilson on 01460 74849 or Di Crawley on 01460 30508.

Alexander McQueen (15) 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

FRIDAY 8 MARCH Hotel Salvation (2016) (PG) FilmCrew – Crewkerne Community Cinema at Wadham School and starts at 7.30pm. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are £6 for visitors. Membership is £25 a year for 9 films.

The Favourite (15) 7.30pm Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Henry V (1989) (PG) 7pm Join the Arts Centre to celebrate the work of two marvels; Philip Sutton RA & William Shakespeare.

Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www. bridport-arts.com.

Christopher Robin presented by CineChard 7pm for 7.30pm at The Guildhall, Tickets are £5 and £2.50 from Eleos, Barron’s and the PO, or £6 and £3 on the door, or from ticketsource/ cinechard. Refreshments and popcorn available.

SATURDAY 9 MARCH King of Thieves (PG) presented by Hinton St. George ‘Flix in the Stix’ n the Hinton Village Hall at 7.30pm. Tickets £5 in advance

from the Village Shop and Dorothy’s Tea Room, or £5.50p on the door. Doors open 7pm. To reserve Tickets please contact Bob Kefford on 01460 72563.

Spider-man: Into the spider-verse (PG) 7.30pm Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80, Family £22.

The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

SUNDAY 10 MARCH Coco Before Chanel (12A) 11am. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

Love, Cecil (12A) 2pm. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts. com.

Yves Saint Laurent (15) 7pm. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts. com.

MONDAY 11 MARCH A Star is Born presented by Moviola in the Beaminster Public Hall. 7.30pm (doors open 7pm) Tickets at Yarn Barton 01308 862715 Or ring Elaine on 01308 861746 £5 (in advance) £5.50 (on door).

First Man Screened by Beer Film Society at Steamers Restaurant, Beer. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Members £4 and guests £5. All welcome. Bar, coffee, ice cream and raffle available on the night.

TUESDAY 12 MARCH Blade Runner (15) £5 advance / £6.50 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 6.30pm, Starts 7.30pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre. com.

WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH On the Moonlight Bay at Evergreens Cinema presented by Age UK. 1.45pm, at Age UK Dorchester’s centre at 4 Prince of Wales Road, Dorchester DT11PW. Admission £2 to include tea and biscuits, ice creams will also be available. For more information please telephone Lucy on 01305 269444.

THURSDAY 14 MARCH A Star is Born 11am and 7.30pm. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

FRIDAY 15 MARCH First Man 8pm presented by Petherton Picture Show. Tickets: £5. No concessions.

The David Hall, South Petherton www. thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240340.

Colette (15) 7.30pm Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80.

The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Mamma Mia! Here we go again shown

by Milborne Movies at 7.30pm; doors and bar open 7pm. Tickets at the door, £3.50.

Milborne St Andrew.

SATURDAY 16 MARCH The Wife (15) Halstock Village Hall. All tickets £6 from Halstock Shop or on the door. Licenced Bar opens at 7pm for 7.30pm start.

SUNDAY 17 MARCH Hokusai - British Museum 2pm. Bridport

68 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

Leave No Trace (PG) 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

TUESDAY 19 MARCH Summer 1993 (12A) Doors open 7pm for 7.45pm film. Bridport Film Society, Bridort Arts Centre – for more information on how to join and book tickets go to www. bridportfilmsociety.co.uk. Members and guests only. Enrollment can be made by application form obtained from the Art Centre, The Bookshop and other venues.

AGM follows the film.

THURSDAY 21 MARCH The Wife (15) 11am Directed by: Björn Runge, This 11am screening comes with a free hot drink and a pastry. Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts. com.

FRIDAY 22 MARCH Stan and Ollie (PG) 7.30pm £6.80/£5.80 Family of four £22. The untold story of the world’s greatest comedy act. An absolute delight. Brilliant impersonations by Steve Coogan & John C Reilly. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

A Star Is Born (Cert. 15) will be shown by T & F Movies in Tatworth Memorial Hall at 8pm. The doors open at 7.15pm and there will be the usual raffle and refreshments.

SATURDAY 23 MARCH Mary Queen of Scots (15) 7.30pm Adult £6.80, U16 £5.80. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

SUNDAY 24 MARCH The House With the Clock on the Walls (PG) 2pm Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts.com.

Widows (15) 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts.com.

MONDAY 25 MARCH Nine to Five Movies on Mondays (2018) Tickets £5 More info or to book: 01404 831207 Doors open 1.30pm for 2pm The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Thomas Whitty House, Silver Street, Axminster, Devon, EX13 5AH. TUESDAY 26 MARCH Sullican’s Travels (PG) £5 advance / £6.50 on the door 10% off for Theatre Friends, Bar opens 6.30pm., Starts 7.30pm. Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis www.marinetheatre. com.

Anonymous 7.30pm (12) Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridport-arts. com.

THURSDAY 28 MARCH Stan and Ollie (PG) 97 mins Wootton Film Club Doors open 7pm, Film begins at 7.30pm, tickets £5, available on the door.

Stan and Ollie 11am & 7.30pm Bridport Arts Centre 01308 427183 www.bridportarts.com.

PREVIEW Penguin Cafe Orchestra LYME REGIS

PENGUIN Cafe Orchestra, now run by Arthur Jeffes, the son of the late Simon Jeffes, brings its unique sounds and line-up to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 29th March.

Signed to Brian Eno’s record label, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra found fame in the 1980s and 90s with pieces such as Telephone and Rubber Band, Music For a Found Harmonium, and Air A Danser.

The band, which defies categorisation, taking in elements of modern classical, minimalism, folk, and world music, was founded by Simon Jeffes, who died in 1997.

It was relaunched by his son Arthur who brought together a group of musicians from Suede, Gorillaz, and Razorlight to perform his father’s legacy alongside new, genre-defying music, with the philosophy of the orchestra always in his mind.

Arthur’s influences include elements of African, Venezuelan, Brazilian, bluegrass, classical, avant-garde and minimalist music, using a wide range of instruments including strings, pianos, harmoniums, slide guitars, cuatros, kalimbas and experimental sound loops.

Museums ALLHALLOWS MUSEUM

High Street, Honiton.

01404 44966. www.honitonmuseum.co.uk

AXMINSTER HERITAGE

Quartet opens season DORCHESTER

Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman

Roberts and Lakeman LYME REGIS

DARTMOOR based folk duo, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, come to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Saturday 16th March as part of the tour promoting their new album.

The husband and wife duo have twice won the Best Duo title at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (2013 and 16). For more than two decades, they have followed a bold and innovative path, mixing traditional song arrangements with self-penned material ranging from bitter to sweet, wry to sad, political to passive.

Personae is an eclectic emotional journey, with ten tracks of traditional ballads alongside their own songs.

Title and Deed DRIMPTON

FARNHAM Maltings, the theatre company that has delighted audiences in Dorset and Somerset with original plays including The Iranian Feast and Brilliance, is back on the road with a new play, Title and Deed, coming to

Please telephone for opening hours www.chardmuseum.co.uk.

CHIDEOCK MUSEUM

Church of Our Lady, North Road, Chideock. 01308 488348. www.chideockmartyrschurch.org.uk

Silver Street, Axminster.

01297 639884.

COLYTON HERITAGE CENTRE

www.axminsterheritage.org

Market Place, Colyton

BEAMINSTER MUSEUM

DORCHESTER Piano Quartet will play their first concert of 2019 at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Thursday 21st March at 11.30am.

The popular chamber group have a delightful programme to start the new season, including Beethoven’s Variations for cello and piano on a theme from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and the piano quartet in C minor

by Richard Strauss.

Beethoven’s cello variations are wonderfully inventive—from a lyrical slow movement to a toe-tapping finale.

Richard Strauss was to go on to write the great tone poems, such as Don Juan, but this piano quartet, the work of a 19 year-old, shows how the young composer relished writing dramatic and expressive music, full of rich colours.

www.colytonheritagecentre.org

MUSEUM High Street, Ilchester

(at the side of the Town Hall).

01935 841247.

LYME REGIS MUSEUM

Bridge Street, Lyme Regis.

01297 443370.

NOTHE FORT

The Keep, Bridport Road, Dorchester. 01305 264066.

www.fortressweymouth.co.uk.

www.beaminstermuseum.

The Heritage Centre, Market Square, Crewkerne. 01460 77079.

217 Wakeham Portland.

01305 821804.

www.crewkernemuseum.co.uk

ROYAL ALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

Bere’s Yard, Blandford Forum.

01258 450388. www.blandfordtownmuseum.org

BRIDPORT MUSEUM

South Street, Bridport.

01308 422116.

DORSET COUNTY

High West Street, Dorchester.

01305 262735. (Closed) www.dorsetcountymuseum.org.

EXMOUTH MUSEUM

www.bridportmuseum.co.uk.

Sheppards Row, off Exeter Road, Exmouth. 07768 184127.

CASTLETON WATERWHEEL MUSEUM

FAIRLYNCH ARTS CENTRE AND MUSEUM

Oborne Road, Sherborne.

27 Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton.

01395 442666.

www.castletonwaterwheelmuseum. org.uk

CHARD MUSEUM

Godworthy House, High Street, Chard. 01460 65091.

GROVE PRISON MUSEUM

Governors Gardens, The Grove, Portland. 01305 715726.

ILCHESTER COMMUNITY

Dowell Street, Honiton.

01404 45006.

THE MILITARY MUSEUM OF DEVON AND DORSET

CREWKERNE & DISTRICT MUSEUM

BLANDFORD MUSEUM

THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, ELMFIELD HOUSE

Barrack Road, Weymouth.

01305 766626.

Whitcombe Road, Beaminster.

01308 863623. wordpress.com

SIDMOUTH MUSEUM

Hope Cottage, Church Street, Sidmouth. 01395 516139.

PORTLAND MUSEUM

Queen St, Exeter, EX4 3RX. 01392 665858.

SEATON MUSEUM

www.keepmilitarymuseum.org.

TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS MUSEUM

Tolpuddle, nr Dorchester.

01305 848237.

TUDOR HOUSE

3 Trinity Street, Weymouth.

01305 779711 or 812341.

Top Floor, Seaton Town Hall, Fore Street, Seaton. 01297 21660.

www.weymouthcivicsociety.org.

SHERBORNE MUSEUM

Abbey gatehouse, Church Lane, Sherborne. 01935 812252.

Sutton Poyntz Pumping Station, Sutton Poyntz, Weymouth.

01305 832634

www.sherbornemuseum.co.uk.

www.wessexwessex.co.uk.

SHIRE HALL MUSEUM

WATER SUPPLY MUSEUM

WEYMOUTH MUSEUM

High West Street, Dorchester.

01305 261849

Brewers Quay Hope Square, Weymouth. 01305 457982

www.shirehalldorset.org

www.weymouthmuseum.org.uk

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 69

Health&Beauty

PREVIEW Drimpton village hall on Thursday 14th March.

The play, by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Will Eno, is a haunting, funny, quietly moving examination of what it is to search for ‘home’—that singular place in the world where we can feel complete.

A stranger gathers the audience together to sort through his surprising experience of that search and shares his story, comparing the odd traditions in his country of birth with the realities of life here.

Title and Deed is also at Stoke St Mary village hall on Friday 15th March with Somerset’s Take Art rural touring organisation.

Sara Deborah and friends TOURING

A BAROQUE violinist whose playing has been compared to the “instrumental voice of an angel,” is the leader of a trio playing a series of Concerts in the West from 14th to 16th March.

Sara Deborah and friends begin the series at Wellhayes Vineyard at Clayhanger, Devon, on Thursday 14th, followed by a coffee concert at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 15th, an evening concert at Ilminster Arts Centre, and a concert on Saturday at the Creative Innovation Centre at Taunton.

As well as running her own annual Spirit of Music Festival in Hampshire, Sara Deborah regularly works with early music groups including Florilegium, La Serenissima, The Sixteen, Dunedin Concert, Brandenburg Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her many awards include the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2017 Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Competition in Rovereto, Italy.

Catherine Maddocks, director of Concerts in the West, said: “Sara returns to Concerts in the West this season having performed for us in 2009 and 2012, so she is already a firm favourite with our audiences. For those who don’t know Sara Deborah, she is a wonderfully versatile award winning musician and violinist. The combination of Sara with Lucy Scotchmer and Johan Löfving, is a tremendously exciting prospect—they are each supremely talented young musicians in their own right.”

Their programme for the series includes Biber’s Sonata No 1 in A,

Baroque virtuosi Sara Deborah and Friends Boismoitier’s Trio Sonata, Abel’s Trio Sonata, Tartini’s Sonata “Didone Abbandonata”, Kapsberger’s Canario for solo theorbo, the Porro/Mozart Grand Trio and Giuliani’s Serenade in A major.

Lord High Executioner TOURING

SOMERSET Opera has chosen Gilbert and Sullivan’s ever popular opera The Mikado for its spring 2019 tour, starting at Tintinhull on 14th March.

Full of memorable tunes, it tells the complicated tale of the runaway son and heir to the throne of Japan, working as a music teacher in a distant city, and what happens when his father the Mikado comes to find him. Throw in pompous civic dignitaries, delectable young ladies, a cowardly braggart and, of course, a lovelorn hero. According to WS Gilbert, the story was never about Japan but about the failings of the British government!

The Somerset production is directed by Hilary Marshall and Catherine Payne, with musical direction by Sam Baker. John Broad plays The Mikado, with his wife Ros as the fearsome and uncompromising Katisha. Jay Quick is the wandering minstrel hero Nanki-Poo, with Dennis Carter is KoKo and Harold Mead the Pooh-Bah, Keith Scarrott his sidekick Pish-Tush.

The three little girls from school are played by Hannah Deasey, Torie Meredith and Amy Down.

Performances are at Tintinhull Village Hall on Thursday 14th March, Ilminster Ware­house Theatre on Friday 22nd and Milverton Victoria Rooms on Saturday 30th March, starting at 7.30. The tour ends with a matinee performance, with tea, starting at 2.30 at King’s College Theatre in Taunton.

For more details visit the website, www.somersetopera.org.uk

70 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

GP-W

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 71

Services&Classified SITUATIONS VACANT

SURFACE PREPARATION

LODGER

Alberny Restoration In-house blast cleaning for home and garden furniture, doors and gates.

Agricultural/construction machinery and tooling.

Vehicles, parts and trailers etc. 01460 73038, email allan@alberny.co.uk, FB Alberny Sandblasting

Lodger required £115 per week incl. quiet location edge of Seaton large room with own bathroom Tel: Sue 01297 598 673

RESTORATION Furniture restoration.

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

Apr 19

DECORATING Quality decorator.

General maintenance.

Over 40 years experience.

Fast friendly service.

Phone Gary 07719 477828

Female Photographic Figure/Life Models required. No Experience needed. Over 18 £75/ Hour. Contact Andy at figure.art@aol.com or text 07423 - 498847

MUSIC

Land Wanted, for family to plant Trees. 4-6 acres, unwanted scrub / unproductive land with access. Please contact Roy 07989608843.

Apr 19

PICTURE FRAMING

Piano, violin, theory tuition at your home.

Highly qualified teacher.

20 years experience.

Adults and children welcome. Beginners to advanced. Dr Thomas Gold 07917 835781 Aug 19

Professional Picture Framing Small jewellery repairs Firebird Studio 19C South Street Bridport Contact 1308 422758

To advertise on these pages telephone 01308 423031

Mar 19

Monthly Quiz –

FOR SALE

LAND WANTED

RGT/LCM Examiner offers Electric and Acoustic Guitar Tuition.

Beginners to Advanced.

All Grades. charliemason3@btinternet. com Tel:07759 603912 01297 678691

Stacking plastic chairs. 30 Gopak Excellent condition.

Suit village hall or similar. £6 each. Buyer collects 01460 220339 Hand Made Soft Leather Moccasin shoe 9.5 Dark Maroon Made in Italy. Cost £90 worn once Will accept £30. Tel: 07484689302 Antique Gramophone cabinet. Can also be used as a drinks cabinet Superb piece of Furniture £145. Tel: 07484689302 Ride on Mower Bolens LTX 16hp hydrostatic ride on mower. Excellent V twin briggs engine, starts easily and smooth. Comes with deck, collecting shute

and grass boxes. However although the deck pan is sound, one of the stanchions which spin the blades has a crack and will need to be replaced. No headlight and the usual crack in the bonnet, Otherwise its all in reasonably good condition.

So can either be used as a powerful garden tractor or repaired to cut grass. £330 ono please call 074495 82364.

Trollie Suitcases, two Revalation Suitcases with lock and key, excellent condition, H 29, inch X width X 18, inch depth X 11, inch £10 each, £15 for two. Phone 01308 422997

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 Hewood. The winner was Tom Brown from Bothenhampton.

72 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

FOR SALE

WANTED Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975 Apr 19 Secondhand tools wanted. All trades. Users & Antiques. G & E C Dawson. 01297 23826. www.secondhandtools. co.uk.

Feb 19

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

bowls (1 chipped), 1x16” oval platter, 1 vegetable tureen with lid, 1 vegetable bowl, 1 sauce boat and stand fixed, all in good condition. £40 Phone 01297 560580 Can send photo by e-mail.

Ornate Dutch ‘Atlas’ wall clock. Wood case and heavy brass weights. Needs new winding chain but otherwise in working order. £50 ono.

01460 241297 Catnic steel T lintel CG50/125/1200 as new. £40. Also further steel T lintel 169x24x12 £30. 01460 241297 Carved dark wood traditional spinning chair in excellent condition. Cost around £160 new. In v.g. cond. Nice decorative item. £80. 01460 241297

PERSONAL

Vintage & antique textiles, linens, costume buttons etc. always sought

by Caroline Bushell. Tel. 01404 45901.

Jun 19

Charles Chesshire, photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

Secondhand books wanted - Hardback, non fiction. All subjects considered. Must be in good condition. Tel. Jane 07885 625373. janethubron@gmail.com

FOR SALE 2 single flocked air beds, zip together to make double, battery pump, repair kit.

Hardly used £10.00 ovno Silver line rechargeable screwdriver with accessories.

Brand new unwanted gift. £5.00 Trident thermostatic mono bloc chrome on brass bath tap as new £10.00 Tel: 01460 63866 / 07968 053268 (chard area) Roof Rack and Bike Carriers/Lockable. Thule 167 Assembly kit for load carrier, Thule Load Carriers for cars without gutters with Thule 4 x Locks and keys, Thule 477 Short Roof Rack Adaptor(Brand new in box), Thule 566 2 x Bike Carriers with Thule 2 x Locks and keys. Used but good condition. £100. Phone 01297 560580. Can send photo by e-mail China (dinner service or display) Narumi NAR39 Blue/Green & Tan Edge, Floral, Cream (31 pieces): 6x61/4” plate,5x71/2” plates, 5x51/2” fruit saucer, 6x101/2” plates, 5x81/2”

PEOPLE AT WORK

CHARLES CHESSHIRE

ELECTRICAL

BUILD

A garden designer, nurseryman and writer, there isn’t much that Charles Chesshire does not know about plants. And he loves to talk about them. Anyone visiting his haven of a nursery, Charles Chesshire Plants & Gardens, situated by the old sheepwash in Symondsbury, can experience his vast knowledge and enthusiasm for plants.

Stocking rare and special plants, Charles specialises in but is by no means limited to; Peonies, Clematis, Maples, Hydrangeas and Perennials. Any plant a customer might require which is not in stock is meticulously sourced, and if required, discussed according to habitat and situation.

Growing up on the Welsh Borders, Charles jokes that he has “Camellias in the family”, as his ancestors travelled to China to collect plants, resulting in a Camellia named after them. His career to date is a kaleidoscope of interesting, fabulous and most renowned gardens. He has designed gardens and landscaped for Sheiks’ Palaces in Saudi Arabia, for Billy Joel in Manhattan, various rooftops and terraces across New York, is restoring the Rhododendron garden in Lydney Park and designed Morton Hall gardens, Inkberrow. He has written books, in particular on Clematis and Japanese Gardens and provides consultancy where and when needed. But right now, he has settled in Symondsbury, to be able to just “breathe” plants.

Charles’s main aim for his clients, whether they are a grand estate or someone with a postage stamp back yard, is for them to love and enjoy their garden. He can foresee as soon as he walks into a garden what it could look like, and works with the clients’ wishes and needs to provide them with anything from a hand-sketched drawing to full design and implementation.

On holiday he eschews swimming pools, preferring to trek to wild places to see the plants he admires so much in their natural habitat. Currently researching a book set in China, Charles spends a lot of his time in the evenings reading. Cooking most nights, he puts what he has learnt from his travels into good practice in the pan. Feeling like he belongs here in “Herefordshire-On-Sea”, as he calls the Marshwood Vale area, Charles is making a new pot-shaped niche for himself in Dorset.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 73

FOR SALE Double glazed French windows. Diamond leaded.

In good order. Only removed due to house extension.

Overall dimensions incl frame 77’’ H x 54’’ W.

Offers. Also available, matching 3 section window 130w x100h with one pane broken. 01460 241297.

S. steel roll front LH draining sink cw waste fitting

CHIMNEY SWEEP

STORAGE

74 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 Tel. 01308 423031

+ plug. 1000mm x 500mm in excellent condition. £10.

01460 241297 2 matching pairs Next interlined curtains. Rust/ beige check with ring tops. 66”w x 90” drop (168x229cm) As new. £40.

01460 241297.

Four solid pine kitchen chairs. Would make good upcycling project £40. Also vintage pine kitchen table with fold down flap and draw. Sits four comfortably. £60. 01460 241297 Canadian canoe 16ft plywood stitch and glue construction. Needs some restoration so only £75.

Photos available. 01308 425413 Amazon Echo. New unopened in original packaging. Unwanted gift. £40. 01308 425413 Old Charm occasional table. 43in by 19in, 17in high. Excellent condition. £20 Sidmouth 01395 516435 Ercol Buffet Sideboard 331. Solid dark wood, 4 cupboards, 2 drawers. Width 48in Height 49in Depth 18in. A useful and durable piece of furniture. Excellent condition. £120 Sidmouth 01395 516435 Nicola Werner Pottery Traditional Devon style jug (Large) beautiful delicate berry and leaf pattern.

Approx 7 1/4” tall - 5” at the base - 4” at the top excellent condition. £35 photos can be emailed Tel 01404 41245

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine March 2019 75