Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017

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Magazine West Dorset East Devon South Somerset

Marshwood THE

The best from in and around the Vale

No. 218

MAY 2017

© Emily Bolton Photograph by Robin Mills

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Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 3

MV UP FRONT For a very brief moment the words ‘snap election’ seemed to take over from ‘fake news’ as the most common phrase across all media last week. It didn’t last long though, and with so many other words, phrases and terms vying for top position in the weeks coming up to the election on June 8, it’ll be up to the bookies to come up with a favourite. ‘Health care’ will be popular. ‘British people’ should be too and no doubt ‘strong leadership’ will get a fair airing also.

Words like ‘economy’, ‘polls’ and ‘debate’ will soon feel very overused and ‘expert opinion’ will form the basis of comments in news reports from Washington to Agrabah. But what will the non-voting and the newly voting youth like to hear as politicians try to battle with news delivered through social media? A bit of Googling brings up a huge range of vocabulary that was popular last year. ‘Sharenting’—the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children, was popular. As was ‘FOMO’—fear of missing out, and its much healthier opposite, ‘JOMO’—joy of missing out, which was described as the pleasure gained from enjoying one’s current activities without worrying that other people are having more fun. Then there was ‘adulting’—the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks—like voting perhaps?

So this year the month of May is destined be punctuated with sound bites, memes, clever political headlines and words all designed to get attention, whilst many of us will strain to hear or read the words that politicians actually aren’t saying. Long before the announcement of the June election one witty blogger suggested a few words and phrases that might be popular in 2017. ‘Fascism’ and ‘Trumpism’ were two and ‘Phews’, which is a more trendy way of saying ‘fake news’ by throwing in a ‘ph’, was another. But one phrase that really stood out was ‘Post-politics’, which was described as ‘getting on with one’s life while ignoring politicians as much as possible’. It will be interesting to see if, on the back of the turmoil created by last year’s UK vote, the turnout for this election will be at the level predicted and whether there will be any clarity on what people are actually voting for. The one certainty is that by the end of it all we are likely to be ‘knackerpooped’.

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 10 36 40 41

Cover Story By Robin Mills Seafront Gardens in Lyme Regis by Philip Strange A Man Ahead of his Time by Margery Hookings Coast & Countryside Events Courses and Workshops News & Views Laterally Speaking by Humphrey Walwyn

42 48 50 52 54 56

House & Garden Vegetables in May By Fergus Dowding May in the Garden By Russell Jordan All the World’s a Stage By Cecil Amor Property Round Up By Helen Fisher Piscatorial Parenting By Nick Fisher

57 58 60

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Food & Dining Soufflé Omelette with Blue Vinny By Lesley Waters Asparagus Soldiers with soft-boiled Egg Hollandaise

By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Nettle Soup with Snails By Mark Hix People in Food By Catherine Taylor

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Arts & Entertainment BAC going Forward By Fergus Byrne Museums and Galleries, Performance, Preview and Film A Conversation with: Philip Sutton By Jaz Allen-Sutton

77 79 81

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

“Politics is the art of taking votes from the poor and money from the rich under the pretext of protecting each from the other.”

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

Advertising

Sue Norris sue@marshwoodvale.com

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Cecil Amor Ismay Byrne Fergus Dowding Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall Helen Fisher Nick Fisher Richard Gahagan Margery Hookings

For local events follow us on Twitter @marshwoodvale

Mark Hix Russell Jordan Robin Mills Gay Pirrie-Weir Philip Strange Jaz Allen-Sutton 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.

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t n o s r f n Sea Gardein e Regis m The

Ly

A special place, by Philip Strange

Mature trees, richly planted borders, gently curving paths, a place to look and a space to think—the Seafront Gardens in Lyme Regis provide both an oasis of calm for humans and a safe haven for wildlife.

Not only that, some of the town’s best views may be savoured from this green space. Looking ahead, the Cobb can be seen stretching its protective, rocky arm around the harbour whereas, across Lyme Bay, the west Dorset coast rises and falls like a gigantic wave sweeping eastwards over Stonebarrow and Golden Cap reaching, on a clear day, that louring sea monster that is the Isle of Portland.

History of the Seafront Gardens Just over a century ago, the Langmoor Gardens were opened to the public on the slopes above Marine Parade in Lyme Regis. The land was bought through a bequest to the town from Joseph Moly of Langmoor Manor, Charmouth and the gardens were named in honour of the donation. The slopes were known to be unstable and concrete buttresses had been built to prevent movement. Despite this, there were periodic slippages of mud on to Marine Parade and throughout the 20th century the Gardens continued to move causing distortion to paths and eventually rendering the lower part of the gardens unusable. In 1962, land to the west of these gardens suffered a catastrophic landslip following a misguided attempt at development and several houses were destroyed. This land was eventually taken over by the town becoming the Lister Gardens, named after Lord Lister of Lyme Regis, pioneer of antiseptic surgery.

The Langmoor and Lister Gardens now form one large continuous public space above Marine Parade.

Rebuilding the Seafront Gardens The Lyme Regis Environmental Improvements carried out early in the 21st century provided an opportunity to deal with the unstable geology of the Gardens. Between 2005 and 2007, major civil engineering works were carried out to stabilise the Langmoor and Lister Gardens which were completely remodelled. The new design included many planted areas and grassy spaces, gently curving paths that seem to reflect the convexity of the Cobb, and a woodland boardwalk with outstanding views across the harbour and bay. Facilities for mini-golf, putting and table tennis were also built.

Supporting wildlife was deemed important so before work started, bat nesting sites were sealed to prevent them returning, 2000 slowworms were caught and rehoused and a 15cm barrier erected to prevent others entering. The gardens were replanted with salt tolerant, subtropical and rare plants as well as native species, taking account of the needs of bats, birds and insects. Now, a decade later, the Gardens have a mature look and nesting boxes for birds and

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bats are flourishing. Visitors love the open space and the new design was recognised with an important national award.

The Seafront Gardens in winter Mid-winter is typically a low time when weather is poor, plants are dormant and wildlife scarce but when I visited the Gardens in December and January I found surprising activity. Flowering cherry trees at the rear of the Gardens were covered in frothy pink flowers and close by, two fragrant shrubs were also showing well: winter honeysuckle with its white trumpet flowers filled with yellow-tipped stamens; sweet box, covered with tiny white starburst flowers, dark green fleshy leaves and shiny black berries. As I was admiring the flowers, several bumblebees flew past, stopping briefly to feed from the cherry blossom.

On the terraced borders above Marine Parade, extensive banks of rosemary were covered in mauvish-purple flowers. These were proving very popular with bumblebees and even in mid-winter, I saw queens and workers forag-

Buff-tailed bumblebee on rosemary, the west Dorset coast viewed from the woodland boardwalk and winter honeysuckle.

Photographs by Philip Strange

ing busily, collecting sugary nectar and proteinrich pollen from the flowers. The queens were large and furry with two prominent buff/ yellow stripes and a grey or pale brown tail, the workers similar but smaller and more brightly coloured. These are buff-tailed bumblebees and their relationship with the flowers is far from one-sided. The flowers consist of two petals enclosing pollen-loaded anthers that beckon seductively at passing insects. The lower petals contain darker markings highly visible to bees helping to draw them in. Each bee that feeds collects additionally a dusting of pollen from the overhanging anthers which they transfer to the next flower they visit ensuring cross fertilisation.

But shouldn’t bumblebees be hibernating at this time of year? That’s what all the books say, but the presence of worker bumblebees collecting pollen suggests that somewhere in the Gardens or nearby there are active nests.

Winter active colonies of buff-tailed bumblebees have also been described in South Devon and in Cornwall as well as other locations in the

southern half of the UK. It isn’t clear why this is happening but perhaps these bees are taking advantage of the British penchant for planting winter-flowering plants and shrubs. The Langmoor and Lister Gardens with their huge banks of flowering rosemary provide this winter forage for the west Dorset bumblebees.

Support your local bumblebees and they will support you Although buff-tailed bumblebees seem to be doing well in west Dorset, many other species of bumblebee in the UK have declined over the past 50 years. This is bad news because these insects are important pollinators of fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. The decline is largely a result of the agricultural intensification that has changed the look of our countryside leading to the loss of bee habitat, loss of wild flower forage and the use of pesticides.

We can’t reverse this intensification, but we can all help bumblebees by planting flowers in our gardens and by never using insecticides. It’s important to choose a range of flowers that provide food for bees throughout the season:

the University of Sussex has a useful guide to bee-friendly flowers (www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/ goulsonlab/resources/flowers). If we provide flowers, the bumblebees and other kinds of bee will return the compliment, visiting our gardens, pollinating our fruits and vegetables and improving their quantity and quality.

When I returned to the Gardens in early April, I found the rosemary still flowering profusely, showing what an important source of insect food it is. Other plants were also starting to contribute to the forage, and spring insect species were emerging such as the beautiful early bumblebee and red-tailed bumblebee.

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/

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 7

A Man Ahead of his Time Margery Hookings visits Chard Museum to find out more about James Gillingham, surgical mechanist and manufacturer of artificial limbs. He was a contemporary and fellow townsman of aviation pioneer John Stringfellow in Chard during the 19th century.

Both were ahead of their time in their thinking and technology.

I

’m at Chard Museum, surrounded by artificial limbs, glass eyes and various pieces of equipment.

It’s an incredible collection. Even more impressive is the fact that the reason all this is here, out in a large outbuilding at the rear of the premises, along with farm implements, a funeral bier and a display of wedding dresses through the ages, is because of a man called James Gillingham.

He was a pioneer in the making of artificial limbs and surgical implements and was born in Chard in 1838. By the end of the century, the lives of thousands of people had been transformed because of Gillingham’s work. And, after the horror of two world wars in the 20th century, his family business helped even more people get back onto an even keel.

Vince Lean and artificial eyes

Gillingham was a contemporary of another Chard resident, John Stringfellow, who invented powered flight. Gillingham admired the inventor greatly. Both of them were way ahead of their time. Each one is the subject of large, permanent exhibitions at one of the most interesting local museums I’ve ever visited.

Museum chairman Vince Lean takes up the story: “In the mid-1800s, James Gillingham was a boot manufacturer. This was not the same as a cobbler—he was an artisan workman and he used the methodology for bending leather in his work of making artificial limbs. ”Just imagine this man—he had no medical training but to his credit, he persevered and probably came in for a fair bit of criticism from the medical profession. In Victorian times, a lot of people were born deformed or had accidents at work. Whilst Gillingham didn’t do things for free, he had a series of charges so people could pay so much a month, so he was something of a philanthropist. He was helping anyone who needed his assistance.”

This classic Victorian entrepreneur not only found his niche, he carried on developing his products to continually improve people’s lot. He kept copious records featuring ‘before and after’ photographs of his patients, many of which form part of the museum’s display. “He had a fantastic, lateral mind,” Mr Lean says.

James Gillingham died in 1924 and the firm closed in the late 1950s.

Gillingham’s father, David, was born in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, and was sent to London at the age of 12 to learn the trade of cordwainer. When he came back, he lived with his uncle, William Gillingham, who lived in Thorncombe, before marrying Mary Stoodley in 1835. By then, he was running a successful shoe and boot business, The Golden Boot, where he employed workmen in his shop at the bottom of Chard High Street.

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David’s son, James, joined the family business and went to London at the age of 21 as an ‘improver’ with one of the best bootmakers in the city. He was fascinated by shops displaying surgical appliances.

When he returned, he was asked by a local doctor to make a moulded, leather splint for a patient with hip disease. He went on to make a spine support for his sister, Susan, who had injured her back in a fall.

But it was following the wedding of The Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra in 1863 that James Gillingham went on to make his mark on the world. Chard, like the rest of the country, celebrated the event with great gusto, including a spectacular fireworks display organised by Gillingham.

Earlier, the day had been marred by a terrible accident in which William Singleton, a gamekeeper who worked for Lord Bridport of Cricket St Thomas, lost an arm. He was loading a cannon when it was fired prematurely. He had to have his arm amputated at the shoulder by Dr N Spicer, the same man who had asked Gillingham to make him the leather splint for a patient.

Two years after losing his arm, Singleton went into The Golden Boot and told Gillingham that, despite Lord Bridport sending him ‘to all the best people’ in London, nothing could be done for him. Gillingham made Singleton take off his coat and shirt there and then and vowed to make him an arm without charge.

The new limb and how it was fitted was a huge success and Gillingham’s fame spread far and wide. His advice on prostheses and operations was sought out by the medical profession, who visited him at his premises at Prospect House in Combe Street. In 1866 he set up J Gillingham & Son with his son, Sidney. By the end of the century, they had treated more than 7,000 patients.

He made mechanisms for dealing with curvature of the spine, paralysed limbs and fractures and dislocations as well as knee caps and artificial eyes. The firm was so

successful, it was appointed principal fitter to the Admiralty and opened a branch in Plymouth.

In World War One, demand for artificial limbs rose rapidly. Chard Hospital was the only Voluntary Aid Detachment institution allowed to admit and fit patients for lost limbs, which was directly attributable to the Gillinghams.

James Gillingham was a town councillor, a campaigner for temperance and a strong supporter of charitable causes. His inventions included a lifejacket, a range of heaters, an anti-pick pocket device, a barbed wire cutter and a tool to stop the operator’s hands going near the revolving blades in powered chaffcutters, having seen so many farmworkers lose their fingers.

He also made a lifeboat which he had fitted with rescue apparatus following a double tragedy at Chard Reservoir.

A book by Derek Warren entitled James Gillingham, Surgical Mechanist & Manufacturer of Artificial Limbs goes into detail about many of the people whose lives were transformed by Gillingham’s skill.

During the bitter January of 1881, Sidney Bishop was walking from Bristol to his home in Bridport. At Misterton, he found an open shed where he stood all night. On numbed legs, he walked through deep snow. By the time he got to Bridport, it was found that both his legs were severely frostbitten, as were the tips of several fingers. Both his legs had to be amputated below the knee.

The people of Bridport subscribed to buy him a pair of legs and Gillingham’s advice was sought. The patient later wrote to Gillingham to thank him for his new legs, telling him that he was able to walk to the harbour and back, with a stick in one hand and a basket in the other. Some months later, he walked back to Bristol, averaging 14 miles a day.

Gillingham was touched by the gratitude of working people. Alfred Woodbury, a farm labourer from near Bridgwater, sent him a letter in 1880: “I should be able to scarce do anything without it [an arm]. I can shear 37 sheep a day, for which I get 9s. I can reap the corn with a machine, thatch and rick, pitch hay and corn. I pitched a load of corn from two until six o’clock, 40 stiches on each load, my master gave me 4s for my day’s work. I cannot be too thankful.”

The letter is one of many Gillingham received from ordinary people whose lives he changed.

Writes Derek Warren: “The hands he made, with wooden, articulating fingers— mainly for cosmetic purposes—were of exquisite craftsmanship, and even if they were of little practical use, restored the sense of normality to the user, especially women, and gave back their looks as Jane French of North Petherton, wrote in 1880: ‘I can now go to church on Sundays and hold my books without covering my arm as before.’.”

Vince lean with one of Gillingham’s scrap books and the Chard lifeboat with James Gillingham and son Sidney

As well as a huge range of artificial limbs Gillingham’s inventions included a lifejacket, a range of heaters, an anti-pick pocket device, a barbed wire cutter and a tool to stop the operator’s hands going near the revolving blades in powered chaffcutters

For those not in genteel occupations, Gillingham created various attachments for arms, such as hooks, rings, knives and forks, spring clips and even knitting and crochet needles.

Gillingham was a man of principle and, for the first 20 years, did not charge anyone, however wealthy, for consultations or fitting, only for the instrument or limb itself.

He continued to give the poor special treatment, allowing them to pay in instalments.

One of his most famous patients was Chang Wood Gow (Chang the Giant) who was 8ft tall and suffered from curvature of the spine. Outside Chang’s own family—he had a brother of 9ft who was a general in the Chinese army and a sister of 8ft 6ins— he was the tallest person in the world. He toured Europe, appearing before all the crowned heads, including Queen Victoria.

Chard Museum is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm and on Saturday from 10am to 1pm.

Group visits are also welcome by prior arrangement.

Email info@chardmuseum.co.uk or telephone 01460 65091. For more information, visit www. chardmuseum.co.uk

James Gillingham, Surgical Mechanist & Manufacturer of Artificial Limbs

by Derek Warren was published by the Somerset Industrial Archaelogical Society in 2001.

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Coast &Countryside Tuesday 25 April West Dorset Ramblers 8 mile walk between the Axe and the Coly. 10am start.

Bring picnic. Dogs optional. All welcome.

Please call 01308 898484.

Colyton & Colyford Probus Club meets at the Swallows Eaves Hotel, Colyford at 12noon for lunch after which Paddy Magrane will speak about ‘The Crime Thriller & psychotherapy’. David Evans: 01297 553007.

Lyme Regis Society AGM at 2.30pm, and Keith Shaw is giving a talk about ‘The Warings and South Cliff’. All Welcome.

Free for Members of Lyme Regis Society, U3A and Friends of the Museum. Visitors £3.

Dorset Industrial Archaeology Society “Thomas Telford” is the subject of Peter Brown’s lecture to the Society. Meetings commence at 7.30pm in the Dorset Room, Colliton House, Colliton Park, Dorchester (opposite County Hall). Non-members welcome (small donation suggested).

Further details from 01305 785968 or 871863.

Wednesday 26 April Mosterton Ramblers invite you to join their morning walk (approx 3hrs) in the

Waytown area, followed by a pub lunch.

Meet at Orchard Way 9.30am, transport available. Details Chris on 01460 76405.

Coffee Morning 10am - 12noon. Free Entry. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www. thedavidhall.org.uk 01460 240 340 or boxoffice@thedavidhall.org.uk.

Seaton and District Probus Club Talk by David Duke on legal tips for the retired.

10am at Seaton Methodist Church, small hall. The club is open to retired and semi-retired men over 55. New members/ prospective members welcome. Please contact Stephen Lord on 01297 21872 for more information.

Colyton & Colyford Probus Club meets at 10am at Colyton Grammar School, courtesy of Headteacher Mr N Harris, for a visit to the School. David Evans: 01297 553007.

Hazel Williams & Dave Greenshields 10.30am well-known Musicians/Singers on the Dorset Folk Scene perform at St Peter’s Church, Dalwood, EX13 7EA (just north of the A35 between Axminster and Honiton). One of the monthly half hour Coffee Concerts to raise money for Local Charity. Free entry and coffee & biscuits. Retiring collection for Shelter

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Box. 01404 831280 www.dalwoodvillage. co.uk.

Young Musicians From Blundells School, Tiverton 7.30 - 8.30pm. Director of Music - Dr. Oliver Newman. Sidholme Music Room.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society 7.30pm Talk ‘What to do with an overgrown garden’. Secretary, Rose Mock on 01297 34733, email: rosemary.mock@ btinternet.com. https://ulrhs.wordpress. com.

Ebeneza Presents Susan Elderkin ~ The Books that Made Us.Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm start. At The Ebenezer, in The Seed Factory, Aller, Somerset TA10 0QN. RSVP, ebenezer@ebenezerpresents. com. Please Note: Bookings by email, not by phone, so please do not call bookings unless you really need to talk to the organisers on the day of the talk, ie to make a late cancellation or booking.

Ebenezer’s phone number: 07879 206 543.

Bridport Camera Club Talk by Penny & Spike Piddock: Muck to Magic Underwater photography & cultural beliefs in the Philippines and Indonesia. 7.30pm Chancery House, Bridport, DT6 3JT. New members are always welcome. For further information please phone the Club

Secretary on 01308 482658.

South Petherton Local History Group Roman life around South Petherton is thrillingly be brought to life for the local history group by Roman re-enactor and archaeologist, John Smith. Methodist church hall, 7.30pm. Visitors welcome £3.

RSC Live: Julius Caesar Bridport Electric Palace, Doors 6pm / starts 7pm, £11 (£10.50 + 50p bf) adv / £12 door. www.electricpalace.org.uk. Also at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed bar and refreshments. Doors open 6.30pm. Tickets £12.50 in advance (£15 on day) from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm.

Thursday 27 April Axminster Country Market 8.30am-12noon, Masonic Hall, South St. Home-made & homegrown cakes, savouries, preserves, seasonal fruit & vegetables, flowers, eggs, plants, crafts and cards. Orders taken, meet the makers!

Refreshments, free entry.

South Somerset Ramblers 10am 5 miles Half Moon PH Horsington BA8 0EF GR701238 Three Towers Walk Stowell, Templecombe Meal Deal agreed. Roger and Janet 01963 34965.

West Bay Guided Walk led by Elizabeth Gale. ‘Bridport Harbour through 1000 years’ meet public car park opposite Haddon House Hotel 10am. Approx 2 hours, level walking. £4 each in aid of Rotary chairities enquiries 01308 459039.

Art Group An informal untutored group for artists in all media, from oils to acrylics. All abilities welcome. Bring your own materials. Thursdays 2pm - 4pm. £7 per session. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www. themeetinghouse.org.uk.

One World Forum Talk on ‘The Church and Human Rights,’ given by Nicholas Holtam Bishop of Salisbury. St J,ohn’s Catholic Church Shortmoor Beaminster, at 7.30pm. Visitors £4. including Refreshments Enquiries to Peter Glanville 01308 458283.

Lyme Voices Community Choir 7.30pm – 9.15pm at the Baptist Church middle hall, Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Sing for fun. Learn by ear. Everyone welcome. Contact Pete Linnett 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice. net.

Heritage of the Ile Trust Annual Meeting at The Shrubbery Hotel Ilminster at 7.30pm. After the short AGM there will be a slide show presentation and talk

by Robin Gilbert from the South West Airfields Trust which will include when and why Merrifield Aerodrome was built and how important it was in WW2.

A further slideshow and display of

old photographs will continue during the Buffet. The cost is £10pp which includes the optional buffet (£8) and annual membership of £2. For further details please contact Rowland Garland on 0146052673 or Allan White on 0146053928.

Friday 28 April RSPB Guided Walk - The Voices of Spring 8am – 10am. Listen to an amazing array of birds as they greet the new day at Knoll Gardens, Wimborne, before the gardens open to the general public. 8am – 10am £4 Book online or call 01202 873931. www.knollgardens.co.uk.

West Dorset Ramblers 9 mile Long Bredy, Little Bredy, White Hill Barn and Jubilee Trail walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome. Please call 01300 320346.

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

2pm Lyall Griffiths, smoothies as therapy.

Massage with Amanda. Drop in any time between 2pm - 4.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 01308 427851. www. thelivingtree.org.uk.

Guitarist Justin Daish music is like Hank Marvin, and 60’s style music extremely versatile Guitarist. Concert only £10 including supper £18. Curry followed by fruit salad Bar opens at 6pm Supper at 6.30pm Concert starts at 7.45pm. Tickets from Henhayes Centre Crewkerne 01460 74340 henhayescentre@btconnect.com.

Somerset Wildlife Trust AGM and Talk Speaker & subject to be decided.

Somerset Wildlife Trust at Parish Hall, North St. Ilminster TA19 0DG, starting at 7.30pm. Adult members £2, non-members £3, no charge for children. Refreshments available. Enquiries 01460 234551.

Alan Barnes and Julian Stringle Classic jazz tunes from top saxophonist Alan Barnes and renowned clarinettist Julian Stringle. Expect some thrilling musical duelling! At 8pm. Tickets: £18 (£32 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.

Skimmity Hitchers – Fuelled By Cider 8pm Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £11/9 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Somerset Wildlife Trust 7.30pm 9.30pm. ‘A year in the life of the RSPCA Wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre at West Hatch’. Refreshments available. Parish Hall, North St, Ilminster TA19 0DG. Enquiries 01460 234551.

Pom Pom Ceilidh in Crewkerne with the fabulous ‘Banter’ 7.30pm. Maiden Beech Academy, Lyme Road, Crewkerne.TA18 8HG Tickets £10. Family ticket £25 (2

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adults, 2children under 16) available from the TIC Crewkerne Town Hall or www. wegottickets.com/creativecrewkerne.

Licensed bar. Cash only. This event is being organised by ‘Creative Crewkerne’ to celebrate the second year of decorating the town with pom-poms. crewkernepompom@gmail.com or tel 07877206124 Twitter:@C_Crewkerne.

A Flea in your Ear UkuleleOpera Curtain Raiser for ‘FLEA!’ Bridport Electric Palace, Doors 6pm / starts 7pm £5.50 (£5 + 50p bf) adv / £7 door www. electricpalace.org.uk. A flea circus, a talk on fleas by an expert and followed by a specially -elected film, prior to the ‘FLEA!’ community production by UkuleleOpera from 23-27 May, written by Mike Leigh’s award-winning composer Andrew Dickson. Follow the Fleas!

The Beach Boys Story Fan of the Beach Boys? Then you will love this band! Ride the wave of adrenaline and nostalgia that will sweep you from surf to sun and from hit to hit. 7.30pm Tickets: £16. Bridport Arts Centre DT6 3NR 01308 424204 www.bridport-arts.com.

Mesadorm presented by Undercurrent Sessions at Eype Centre for the Arts, 7.30pm Tickets £10 www. brownpapertickets.com/profile/2582077 or tel: 07807305881 (Eve) 07981415265.

Fri 28 – Sat 29 April Stars of the West End brings songs of the Great Musicals to St Michael and All Angels, Haselbury Plucknett TA18 7RE, 7pm. Tickets from haselbury-churchconcerts@outlook.com or 01460 74857.

Fri 28 – Sun 30 April Lyme Regis Fossil Festival Activities are held 10am-5pm, providing plenty of opportunities to learn and have fun.

Saturday 29 April Lym Valley Croquet Club monthly taster session at 3pm. A chance to try your hand at this fascinating game. Free session, all equipment provided. Call David BrookeSmith on 07909 111512 to chat and arrange. The club is beside the Uplyme Cricket Ground.

Breakfast 10am - 12noon still only £4 for egg, sausage, bacon, tomato or beans, toast, tea/coffee extras available @50p each at Henhayes Centre Crewkerne 01460 74340.

Local Crafts & Collectables Fair 10.30am - 3pm. Held ‘by kind permission’ at the Baptist Church Hall, Silver Street, Lyme Regis. Free admission and well behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Supporting F.O.R.C.E. a local Cancer Charity in Exeter. For more details, please ring 01297 445232.

Meet local cancer support group Brownsword Hall, Pummery Square, Poundbury, DT1 2GW Drop in between 11am - 3pm. If you are being treated for cancer, recovering from cancer or caring for someone with cancer please come and have a chat over a cup of tea and find out about local support groups.

Richard at dlhaulers@outlook.com.

Cape Farewell - Artists’ Talk with Nessie Reid. Join with Artists Nessie Reid as she will give more insight into her Bristol based project ‘The Milking Parlour’. This Talk is part of a series of events to support Cape Farewell Exhibition. Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. 2pm, Free. No need to Book.

Open, Tues-Sat: 10am-4pm.01308 424204. www.bridport-arts.com.

Concert by the Axminster and District Choral Society at the Minster, Axminster 7.30pm. John Rutter’s Gloria & Joseph Jongen’s Mass, Opus 130, performed by 80 strong choir with organ and brass. Conducted by Judy Martin & Peter Parshall. Tickets £15 & £12 from Archway Books, Church St, Axminster, members of the choir or phone 01404 881 838. www.axminsterchoral.co.uk/.

Seckou Keita at 8pm. Tickets: £16 Full. £15 Concessions. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org. uk 01460 240 340 or boxoffice@ thedavidhall.org.uk.

Yeovil Concert Band 7.30pm Martock Parish Church. Directed by Band Sergeant Tom Griffin, Royal Marines, who is Instructor of the HMS Heron Volunteer Band at Yeovilton. Playing film music by John Williams & Ennio Morricone, popular marches, classical items and tunes from “The Jersey Boys”. Tickets £8 on the door or £7 from 01935 822706 or by email from hckmlewis@talktalk.net. Ample nearby parking, disabled access and toilet, wine and fruit juices available.

The Phil Beer Band + Support: The Hawthornes 8pm Tickets: £19 (seated).

Phil is one half of top acoustic/roots duo Show Of Hands. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

DJ Dr Funk’s Bank Holiday Boogie Funk & Soul, Bridport Electric Palace, Doors 7pm / starts 8pm £5.50 (£5 + 50p bf) adv / £7 door www.electricpalace. org.uk.

Kagemusha Taiko: Pulse & Roll 7.30pm Tickets: £12/£10. Bridport Arts Centre DT6 3NR 01308 424204 www. bridport-arts.com.

Riviera Dogs playing live at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed Bar. Doors

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Coast &Countryside open 7.30pm. Tickets £13 in advance or £16 on the door, available from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm.

Sat 29 – Sun 30 April Sitting Spiritually Open Garden Weekend 10am - 5pm both days, Free entry & parking. Bramble Hayes, Yawl Hill Lane, Uplyme, Dorset DT7 3RP T: 01297 443084.

Sat 29 – Mon 1 May The Cerne Giant Festival – Celebrating Humanity in the Landscape. Events organised include: ‘Skyscape and Landscape’ talk and telescope demo, Storytelling farm walk ‘Every Field has a Story’ with cream teas, NatureCraft for Children, a Barn Dance in Cerne church

by Tatterdemalion (with bar, 7pm Sunday 30th April), readings of Barnes and Hardy, and a Butterflies and Flowers walk. As usual the Wessex Morris will be greeting the 1st May sunrise on The Trendle from 5am (with Cerne Abbas Brewery and their ale), and will perform in the village centre afterwards. Some events must be booked – check website or Facebook page for details. http://cernevalley.co.uk/ event/cerne-giant-festival/ or Cerne Giant Festival (Facebook).

Sunday 30 April South Somerset Ramblers 10am B 11 miles Picnic. Meet at Shatcome Lane Eggardon Hill. GR SY550948.

Via Eggardon Hill, Powerstock, South Porton, Powerstock Common. Tony W. 07749931443.

Dorset Knob Throwing Festival 10 years of Throwing Knobs! 10am – 4pm.

To celebrate the 10th birthday the Dorset Knob Throwing festival is on the move, same event, same ethos, just a new more practical venue at Kingston Maurward in Dorchester. www.dorsetknobthrowing. com.

Dorset Countryside Volunteers Dry Stone Walling at Swyre in West Dorset.

Come along to learn or practice this traditional skill. For details see www.dcv. org.uk, email DCVpublicity@gmail.com, or text or message 07923-498760 for them to contact you.

Sid Vale Folk 3.30pm - 4.30pm. Sidholme Music Room. Leader Shirley Stevens Traditional and contemporary music Singers and Instrumentalists.

Monday 1 May Wyld Morris dancing in the dawn of summer on Stonebarrow Hill, Charmouth

in the National Trust car park at 5.30am.

After, at the Five Bells, Whitchurch Canonicorum for breakfast about 7am.

Please call the pub if you wish to come for breakfast. Also, dancing out and about in West Bay in the afternoon. Call for details 01297 489546.

Weekly Meditation Group 20 Minutes of Silence. Newcomers or experienced meditators welcomed. Open to everyone regardless of prior experience, faith or beliefs. Mornings – 8.10am Mon. Wed. Fri. Evening Wed. 7pm. St. Mary’s Church Ilminster.

Charmouth Vintage Fair Easter Monday Community Hall 10am - 4pm. All Day Catering Enquiries: Tel: 01297 560634.

Orchid Discovery Walk at 10am or 2pm, on the Golden Cap Estate. Meet at Stonebarrow shop, DT6 6RA. A chance to discover the beautiful orchids on the Golden Cap Estate and learn how we care for them. Help our volunteer ecologist John Newbould to survey orchids on this guided walk from Stonebarrow. Free event, booking essential. 01297 489481. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/golden-cap.

Holyford Woods Bluebell Day 11am – 4pm. Free Shuttle bus from Colyford Memorial car park starting 10.45am.

Last bus returns 4.15pm. Refreshments available through the day—Information stalls, plant stall, raffle. Guided walks through the Woods. Come and enjoy one of East Devon’s hidden Nature reserves at Bluebell time. For further information contact 01297552316.

Marine Giants Talk and Shark Eggcase Hunt 11am – 12.30pm. Learn about the whales, sharks, dolphins and huge jellyfish that we have in Dorset. Meet at the Chesil Beach Centre, Portland Road, Portland, DT3 9XE. Pay and Display Car Park. Adults £3 Children £2, must be accompanied. No Booking required.

Contact 01305 206191, chesilbeach@ dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk. For more Weymouth and Portland events follow us on Twitter @DWTWeyPort.

May Day Celebration at Combe Farm, Axmouth EX12 4AU from 2pm - 5pm.

Dance round the Maypole with live music, sing in the Spring, walk the Spiral amid the apple blossom, enjoy Children’s storytelling & face painting, visit our Community Woodland Orchard, explore the library in the Sanctuary, buy some second-hand books, receive some healing and of course enjoy our wonderful teas, cakes and the famous nettle scones. Entrance £1, children free.

Contact Christina Bows on 01297 23822 / thespiralcentre.wordpress.com.

Scottish Dancing in Chardstock Evening of Social Dancing with instruction with a break for tea and coffee. 7.30pm - 10pm at

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the Village Hall. No partner required. Cost £1.50. Contact David on 01460 65981; Ann on 01308 422927; or Andrew on 01297 33461, or just come along. www. chardscottishdancing.org. Mondays in May, 1st, 8th (includes AGM). 15th, End of Season Party, bring a plate of food to share.

Tuesday 2 May Meditation group at Black Dog Tea Room Uplyme every Tuesday night 7.30pm - 9pm run by Sonia £5 per person meditation has many benefits stress relief, helps you sleep and many other things contact Sonia at Sonia@blackdogtearoom. co.uk.

Old Lyme Ghost Tours 7.30pm from Lyme Regis Museum Square (opp.

Guildhall) this and every Tues and Thurs in May. An entertaining jaunt through the dark alleys of Lyme’s past, suitable for all ages. Lasts 1 hour. Adults £8 children £4, ghosts free. www.ghostwalkslyme.org.uk 01297442140.

National Trust South Dorset Association The Masterpieces of Kingston Lacy Talk

by John Hallett, room guide at Kingston Lacy. St Aldhelm’s Centre, Spa Road, Weymouth, DT3 5EW at 2.30pm. £3 members, £4 guests inc. tea/biscuits.

01300 321601 geoffwrench@lineone.net.

Wednesday 3 May East Devon Ramblers moderate 10 miles circular walk from Wellington. 10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

07754 543244.

Coffee Morning at Misterton W.I. Hall, Middle Street - all welcome. Just an opportunity to get together for a social chat over tea/coffee and biscuits/cake.

Donation of £1 to cover costs; raffle and sales table (subject to availability), Enq. 01460 74808.

Somerset Wildlife Trust Chaffcombe Coffee morning & Bluebell walk Refreshments are served in Chaffcombe Village Hall ST354 102 from 10.30 12noon. Good access, parking at hall or Church car park. At 11.30, Valerie & John Godsmark will lead walk to Park Wood Ancient Woodland Private Nature reserve/LWS to look at Bluebells & spring flowers. Uneven ground, some steep slopes, can be wet, suitable footwear essential. No dogs. Donations to SWT. Enquiries: 01460 234551.

Lyme History Walks 11am from the Marine Theatre, this and every Wed and Sat in May. Lasts 1+1/2 hours. Cost: £8 children half www.lymehistorywalks.com 01297443140.

Indoor Short Mat Bowls Every Wednesday 7.30pm – 9.45pm. Woodmead

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Coast &Countryside Hall, Lyme Regis, Dorset. Tea Biscuits half time. Cost £1.60p more information 01297 22488, lift available.

Folk Dancing in Honiton at Gittisham Folk Dance Club’s regular ‘first Wednesday’ dance night, 8pm - 10.15pm, in the Mackarness Hall, High Street, EX14 1PG. All levels of experience welcome and beginners especially; no partner required. With live music and light refreshments. £3. https:// gittishamfolkdanceclub.org, 01404 813 129, secretarygittishamfolkdance@gmail. com.

Colyton, Colyford & District Memory Café 2pm - 4pm in St John Hall, King St, Colyton. A time of friendship and support to those experiencing memory problems, enhanced with social activities and refreshments. Ring Sue on 01297 599477 for more information.

Meditation and Speaker: Rev. Nigel Done 7pm St. Mary’s Church, Ilminster.

My recent Journey to India: Places of spiritual enlightenment, unique wildlife and the beauty that is Kerala. Visual presentation including personal paintings, photographs, and sketches. Refreshments provided.

Axminster Historical Society 7.30pm Devon Place Names - An Illustrated Talk by Robert Hesketh. Every place name has a story to tell, usually going back over a thousand years to the Saxon settlement. They reveal a great deal about our ancestors, the languages they spoke, their names and the lives they led. Robert a freelance writer and photographer has published over 40 Devon, Dorset and Somerset titles. The Bradshaw Meeting Room, Axminster Heritage Centre, Silver St. Axminster, EX!£ 5AH All Welcome.

Burton 8pm Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £12/10 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts.org. uk. Burton vividly presents the life of the great Welsh actor in his own words, from humble beginnings to Hollywood megastardom.

Thursday 4 May Music At The Minster Clive Smith & his Jazz Quartet A swinging opening to the season. 12.30pm – 1pm. axminsterconcerts@gmail.com or 01297 32927. The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster.

Walking discovery of Colyton Every Thursday until 28 September. Walks start from the car park in Dolphin Street at 2pm. £3 per person, U16 free 01297 552514 / 01297 33406.

WDHS Retirement Fellowship 2pm in the Boys Brigade Hall, Sawmills Lane, Dorchester DT1 2RZ when Peter Hammond gives a water colour

demonstration. New members welcome.

Contact 01305 261676 or 785546 for further information.

Old Lyme Ghost Tours 7.30pm from Lyme Regis Museum Square (opp.

Guildhall) this and every Tues and Thurs in May. An entertaining jaunt through the dark alleys of Lyme’s past, suitable for all ages. Lasts 1 hour. Adults £8 children £4, ghosts free. www.ghostwalkslyme.org.uk 01297442140.

Chard Camera Club Tuition evening on Portraiture for members not fully up on portraiture in a hope to help them improve their knowledge of the subject.

Broadwey, Upwey & District Horticultural Society ‘Hanging baskets’, a talk by Jan Willment.

St. Nicholas Primary School, Dorchester Road, Broadwey, Weymouth starting at 7.30pm. Details on 01305 813853 or website.

Lyme Voices Community Choir 7.30pm – 9.15pm at the Baptist Church middle hall, Silver St., Lyme Regis, DT7 3NY. Sing for fun. Learn tunes by ear. Everyone welcome. Contact Pete Linnett 01297 445078 or email petelinnett@naturalvoice. net. Also 11, 18, 26 May. The Maxwell String Quartet play Bartok, Britten and Ravel 7.30pm. Hinton St George, St George’s Church.

Tatworth Wives Group present in Tatworth Church Room at 7.30pm, an Evening of Guitar Music with Saffron Summerfield, in aid of S. W. Children`s Hospice. Everyone Welcome.

Shappi Khorsandi - ‘Oh My Country!’

From Morris Dancing to Morrissey 8pm (age guidance 16+). Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £15/13 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

NT: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (12A as live) (encore) Bridport Electric Palace Doors 6pm / starts 7pm £11 (£10.50 + 50p bf) adv / £12 door www.electricpalace.org.uk.

how to make “Knitted Knockers” with Rosie from Bridport Yarn. Drop in any time between 2pm - 4.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 01308 427851. www. thelivingtree.org.uk.

Country Dancing every Friday afternoon 2pm – 4pm Masonic Hall, South Street, Axminster. Tea Biscuits, half time cost £2 more information 01297 34326.

Wedding fair at St Bartholomew’s Church Crewkerne 6pm - 9pm.

Lyme Bay Photographic Club Lyme 1200 / Dave King / Victor Ludorum / Wallis Competitions; 19th AGM / End of season awards / Social . Woodmead Halls, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PG starting at 7.30pm. www.lymebayphotographicclub.org.

Sidford Canasta Group meets at Sidford Methodist Church, EX10 9RL every Friday at 7.30pm; free parking is available behind Spar. Further details from 01395 579856.

Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society have a Short AGM followed by a Victorian Slide Show given by Humphrey Hamlin. Starts at 7.30pm at the Holy Trinity Church & Community Centre, Lysander Road, Yeovil, BA20 2BU. Non Members - Free Entrance.

Concert by the Gloucester Police Male Voice Choir 7.30pm St Peter’s Dorchester.

Tickets £5. For more details please contact Marj Snape 01305 259261, marjsnape@ tiscali.co.uk.

Noasis Bridport Electric Palace www. electricpalace.org.uk Doors 7pm / starts 8pm £12 (£11.50 + 50p bf) adv / £14 door.

Friday 5 May Morning Chorus Breakfast 5.30am 8.30am. Join Edward Jackson for a guided bird walk followed by a hearty breakfast.

For more information and to book go to www.kingcombe.org. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, Dorchester, DT2 0EQ. Contact 01300 320684.

West Dorset Ramblers 8 mile Donkey Sanctuary and Weston Beach walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01297 631130.

East Devon Ramblers leisurely 5 miles circular work from Columbjohn. 10am start. No dogs. 01392 759332.

Lions Charity Book Stall The Square Seaton 10am – 2pm 01297 21572.

The Living Tree, cancer self-help group 2pm Tripudio with Elizabeth, 2.15pm

Saturday 6 May Dunkeswell Bowls Club annual Open Day For those who play bowls or have never tried bowls all welcome. 2pm - 4pm with a cuppa for all and best thing of all its free. On the same day a Charity Breakfast to raise funds for a new bowls carpet which will be needed in a few years time. Breakfast starts at 9am 11am. We will have a choice of small to large breakfasts also bacon butties.

(Prices not yet decided). We are on Culm Way, Dunkeswell EX14 4JB. Further info from Sylvia on 01404 891040 or mygnomeland@hotmail.com.

Barrington & District Gardening Club Plant Sale 10am – 12noon. Barrington Village Hall. 01460 54691 – Robin.

Local Crafts & Collectables Fair

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Fri 5 – Sat 6 May The Festival of Imagination Science & Arts Festival Workshops, Talks, Displays and exhibition, this year with the theme of “Time”. See website for details. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

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Axmouth Village Hall 10am 2.30pm. Stalls include - Sea Shore Art, Cards & Pictures, Knitted Toys, Handmade Art Glass, Local Landscape Pictures, Collectables & Jewellery (repairs a& restringing).

Light Refreshments Available coffees/teas - cakes - light lunches & cream teas. Free Admission.

Supporting F.O.R.C.E. a local Cancer Charity in Exeter. For more details, please contact 01297 445232.

Axminster Arts Society A workshop on Watercolours and Rivers by Rob Dudley at All Saints Village Hall 10am – 4pm. Booking via www.axminsterartsociety.

St John’s Church Plant Sale at Tatworth Memorial Hall, Kents Road, Tatworth TA20 2QA at 10.30am - 12.30pm. Refreshments will be available during the sale, including bacon butties, filled rolls, toasted tea cakes etc. Food Stall - Sale of cakes, preserves, jars, packets & tins etc. Tombola; Raffle; Pre loved clothes for sale ; Win a Bird Table. Contact Gloria Swain 01460 221032 for more information.

Martock and District Gardening Society Annual Plant Sale at Martock Parish Hall from 10.30am - 12noon. Free entry. Refreshments available.

Axminster Wood Turners meet at Woodbury Community Hall at 10am. Hosting Chris Foweraker an Exmoor turner. Free tea and coffee throughout. For non members there is a charge at the door of £5 which is refundable if you join the club. For further info ring the Chairman Barrie Golding on 01884841162 or visit axminsterwoodturners.com to find out more.

Lyme History Walks 11am from

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the Marine Theatre, this and every Wed and Sat in May. Experienced Tour Guide Chris Lovejoy, supporting Lyme Regis Museum Mary Anning extension. Lasts 1+1/2 hours. Cost: £8 children half www.lymehistorywalks.com 01297443140.

Walk Seaton Labyrinth on World Labyrinth Day at 12.30pm at Cliff Field Gardens, Seaton EX12 2PH. Take steps for peace and be part of a global walk to ‘Walk as One at 1” in the afternoon, joining others around the world to create a wave of peaceful energy washing across the time zones. Contact Christina Bows on 01297 23822 for further information or visit thespiralcentre. wordpress.com.

Fun Dog Show by One plus One Carnival club at Donyatt Bowling club (TA19 0RG) from 2.30pm. 10 fun classes to enter at £1 per class, plus best in show. Rosettes and Treats to be won! All well behaved owners and their dogs welcome.

The Element in the room A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie presented by Tangram Theatre Company. 7pm Adult £8, Student/ U16 £6, Family of four £25 Suitable for 8+ years. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Murder Mystery - “Lights, Camera, Murder” An evening of mystery and suspense. A chance to enjoy homemade Drimpton food and solve a murder. 7pm At Drimpton Village Hall, Chard Road, DT8 3RF. The evening includes a meal, served at your table, canapés served upon arrival (after all, you

are studio guests). Tickets are available at £10. Enquiries through the box office 01308 868843, or via email drimptonboxoffice@gmail.com. There is also a licensed bar available to keep you refreshed as you track down the murderer(s).

Ninebarrow at 8pm. Tickets: £14.

Full. £13 Concessions. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall. org.uk.

Russell Kane ‘Right Man, Wrong Age’ Bridport Electric Palace www. electricpalace.org.uk Doors 7pm / starts 8pm £18 (£17 + £1 bf) adv / £20 door.

Sunday 7 May East Devon Ramblers moderate 9 miles circular walk from Branscombe.

10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01395 514886 South Somerset Ramblers 13 mile walk via East Chinnock & Drayton.

Meet at Merriott Church at 10.30am.

Bring picnic. Assistance dogs only. All welcome. Contact Carl 01460 30163.

Honiton & Crown Dorset Art Potteries new DVD Premiere Members and visitors very welcome.

The DVD describes the history of Honiton and Crown Dorset Art Potteries. Visitors are welcome to attend all or part of the day. Doors open 10.40am - see displays, archive material, buying and selling. Bring pots to show the experts? 11.10am Welcome : Talk about Linda Marks who worked at Honiton Pottery 1930s-1961: Extract from the new DVD. Tea/coffee available. Bring sandwiches for lunch or go out to eat. For more information visit Facebook page or website at www. hpcsoc.com or contact hpcsoc@hotmail. co.uk.

Ancient tree hunt Woodend Medieval Deer Park 2pm – 4pm. Learn to record ancient trees with Jill Butler, from the Woodland Trust. Please bring flexible tape measure, and if you have them a GPS, Smartphone or Tablet. Parking Shute village, Haddon Road, EX13 7QR SY 252 975. Meet village noticeboard at start of Shute Barton end of Haddon Road Free. No booking required. Legacy to Landscape project. legacytolandscape@gmail.com; 01404 310012.

Kokoro 2.30pm, pre-concert talk at 1.45pm. Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £14/12/5 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts. org.uk.

Nikki Loy (singer songwriter) + support In2 the Blue. 7.30pm £7 in advance, £10 on the door. Smoky, sensuous and soulful. Nikki is currently on a 32 date Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 19

Coast &Countryside UK tour supporting Sam Bailey. Her new album ‘Pivotal’ was released in Nov 2016.

The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Monday 8 May Lipreading and Managing Hearing Loss Try a free session at Honiton Methodist Church 10am - 12noon. Find out how lipreading can help you to hear more and pick up some tips to help you cope with your hearing loss. 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.

The Probus Club of Yeovil meets at The Yeovil Court Hotel every second Monday of the month at 12noon for social interaction, a healthy luncheon and an interesting talk. New members are always made very welcome. Please contact Geoff Byham, Secretary, 01935 881422 or geoff @byhamgm.plus.com. Speaker Subject “The Phelips of Montacute.

The Memory Cafe in Axminster is reopening for anyone worried about their memory, worried about someone else’s memory or affected by dementia.

The group meets every 2nd Monday, 2pm – 4pm at Pippins Centre, Lyme Rd, Axminster EX13 5AZ. Plenty of car spaces, and wheelchair access. Enquiries to Maggie Stead, 01297 678458 or Shiobham Pickering, Community Matron 01297 630427 Or e mail shiobhan. pickering@nhs.net.

Radipole & South Horticultural Society (Weymouth) Southill Community at 7.30pm. Speaker Nick Cox from the National Trust’s Killerton Estate in Devon presents “Killerton Gardens”. Everyone is welcome. Further information is available on 01305 788939.

Bridport Folk Dance Club meets at 7.30pm - 9.30pm in the WI Hall, North Street, Bridport. No partner or previous experience required. Membership available giving admission at £2.50, otherwise £3.

Contact Jane on 01308 898 002 or Monty on 01308 423 442. Also on 15 and 22.

Biodanza @ Othona Express, Connect, Relax! Dance like no one’s watching, no steps to learn, no partner needed, uplifting world music and holistic health benefits.

For all ages from 19 to 90. 7.15pm for 7.30pm. Join with teacher Julia HopeBrightwell (Jewell). Cost £8 (Cons avail).

Othona Community, Coast Road, Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN. Contact Robin 01308 897 130 / biodanza-bridport.co.uk.

Also 22.

Tuesday 9 May Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural

Society Outing NT Dunster Castle nr Minehead. Coach leaves Uplyme VH at 9.15am. Cost NT members £10 Non NT £20. Please ring Gill Williams 01297 444927 to book. Visitors are welcome for an extra charge of £3.

West Dorset Ramblers 8.5 mile linear walk from Portland then Weymouth by bus for Rodwell Trail, Causeway and Easton. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs.

All welcome. Please call 01308 897702.

Colyton & Colyford Probus Club meets at the Swallows Eaves Hotel, Colyford at 10am for coffee after which Peter Scott, Magistrate, will speak about the ‘Magistracy’. New members welcome: David Evans: 01297 553007.

Hilfield Monthly Lunch Club Hilfield Friary hosts a for older adults between 12noon - 2.30pm (eating at approximately 1pm) A donation of at least £3.50 would be welcomed. Come for lunch, a cuppa and meet new people. The Society of St Francis The Friary, Hilfield Dorchester Dorset, DT2 7BE Contact Suzi on 01300 341741 www.hilfieldfriary.org.uk, hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk.

Bridport History Society 2.30pm at United Church Hall, East St, Bridport.

Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard will be talking about aspects of Bridport history from 1760 – 1930. Members £1, visitors £2.50, all welcome. For more info contact Jane on 01308 4257610 or email: jferentzi@ aol.com.

Broadwindsor Jammers Guitar Club Comrades Hall in Broadwindsor, 2pm - 5pm. Playing popular songs from the 40’s - 70’s using song sheets with chords.

All levels of ability are most welcome. For further information contact Geoff Kerr on 01308 867221.

Martock and District Gardening Society talk by Sally Nex on Year Round Vegetable Growing at Martock School at 7pm for 7.30pm. Visitors welcome £2 including tea or coffee and biscuits.

Ile Valley Flower Club Open Night at The Warehouse Theatre Ilminster.7pm for 7.30pm start doors open 6.30pm.

Demonstrating will be the very popular Angela Turner presenting “Singalonga”.

Tickets available from Harrimans in Ilminster or by phoning 01460 75025/67325.All Welcome.

Wednesday 10 May U3A Heritage Coast Lyme Regis Harrods in Edwardian Times Illustrated talk by Yvonne Bell, having spent many happy hours in the Harrods’ Archives.

Early catalogues and much more provide a fascinating insight into the shopping habits of the comfortably-off around 100

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years ago, and much wry humour when viewed from a modern perspective. Coffee served from 10am - 10.45am followed by talk at 11am - 12noon. Woodmead Halls, Hill Road, Lyme Regis DT7 3PG. Free for members, non-members £2 donation suggested. To join U3A, see website www. lymeregisu3a.org or telephone 01297 444566.

Hilfield Monthly Craft Day These craft days are held from 10am - 4pm. This is a chance to finish long-forgotten projects or begin new ones. The Craft Room at Hilfield is newly refurbished and is crammed to the rafters with a myriad of different crafts. If you are able to, please bring £5 which will go towards setting up women’s sewing workshops in refugee camps to enable women to support their families.The Society of St Francis The Friary, Hilfield Dorchester Dorset, DT2 7BE Contact Suzi on 01300 341741 www.hilfieldfriary.org.uk, hilfieldssf@ franciscans.org.uk.

Loders Local History Group Peter Stanier is an acknowledged expert on limekilns in Dorset and the west country.

7.30pm, Loders Village Hall, £2 includes refreshments – All welcome. Summer Project – Our Wells.

Wyld Morris dancing at the George in Chiddeock from 7.30pm.

The Beehive Folk Café 8pm - 10.30pm Free. With host Sue King- everyone welcome to come along to perform or have a drink and listen to some very talented local musicians. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Tel. 01404 384050.

Bridport Story Traders “Roped In Yarns from Bridport’s Past”. Local creative writing group have been inspired by Bridport Museum’s archived photographs to write and perform tales based on the town’s rope industry. Images from 1880 1950 set the scene for the story telling. All characters in this performance are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Free entry, The Stable, (behind the Bull Hotel), 34 East Street, Bridport, DT6 3LF, 7.30pm 9.10pm.

Thursday 11 May West Dorset Ramblers 7 mile Eype Down, Thorncombe Beacon and West Bay walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs.

All welcome. Please call 01308 456191.

Probus Dorchester Lunch meeting at 12noon in The Gamekeeper, Charminster, Dorchester DT2 9QZ. New members always welcome. Tony Curtis 01305 751236.

Cape Farewell - Farmer’s Question Time Informal panel discussion with Artist Nessie Reid chairing the event and

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Coast &Countryside a selection of farmers who were involved in the Cape Farewell project - 7pm, £5. Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, TuesSat: 10am – 4pm. 01308 424204. www. bridport-arts.com.

Music At The Minster Martha Evans viola Karin Hendrickson piano 12.30pm – 1pm. axminsterconcerts@gmail.com or 01297 32927. The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster.

Chard Royal Naval Association Bimonthly official meeting at the Chard Rugby Football club at 7.30pm.

Sherborne and District Gardeners’ Association Annual General Meeting plus talk by Dinah Lindon-Critchley Blooming Plants Nursery, Flowers For Cutting, 7.30pm. Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne. £2 for visitors.

The YCAA presents: Nick Fisher author of Pot Luck. The Johnson Studio, in the Octagon Theatre at 7.30pm Tickets from Box office - £6. Nick is a TV scriptwriter, a renowned fisherman, co-author of the River Cottage Book of Fish. This debut novel Pot Luck is a tale of greed and crime set against the backdrop of Weymouth’s crab fishing industry. What made him write this dark page-turner?

Friday 12 May The Living Tree, cancer self-help group 2pm Katy Ashman of Musica again, by popular request. Drop in any time between 2pm - 4.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 01308 427851. www. thelivingtree.org.uk.

The Distinctiveness of Devon An illustrated talk to be presented by Dr Todd Gray MBE (Devon Historian and President of the Devonshire Association) at 7.30pm in Seaton Town Hall. All welcome, donation at door (DA Members £1 non-members £2). Organised by the Devonshire Association (Axe Valley Branch), contact the Chairman, Dr David Westlake (01297 678529) for more information.

Kilmington Garden Club Dramatic, but low maintenance gardening, by Gardeners World Gardener of the Decade winner, Kath Crouch. Delivered in the usual light hearted and informative way. Kilmington village hall, Whitford Road Kilmington EX13 7RF 7.30pm Non members welcome £2.

Chard History Group “Bondage: The Experience of C17th and C18th Somerset Emigrants”. 7.30pm at Manor Court

22 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Primary School. Refreshment available.

New members and guests welcome.

Members £2. Guests £3. FREE parking in School Yard. For information 01460 66165.

EZIO 8pm. Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £12/10 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Friday 12 – Sunday 14 May Yarcombe’s Got Talent Yarcombe Parish Church Open 10.30am - 5pm. Saturday Evening Concert 7.30pm. Sunday Songs of Praise 7pm. Many Varied Talents, Children’s activity and Pottery (including Have a Go). Refreshments. Entry Free.

Donations to the Devon Air Ambulance Trust. Email jeanmaryrich@gmail.com.

Saturday 13 May Bird ringing demonstration Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands 9am. A rare chance to see birds up close as they are ringed by the Axe Estuary Ringing Group for surveying and monitoring. This event is highly weather dependant. No booking required, free, Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands, Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557,

countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society Spring Plant Sale & Coffee morning 9.30am - 11.30am Uplyme Village Hall. Donations please of plants and produce (cakes, jam, veg. etc) Entry £1. Contact 01297 444962 for details.

Plant Sale in South Petherton Parish Church. 10am - 12noon. Refreshments.

Martock Farmers Market 10am – 1pm in the shopping precinct, North Street. 16+ stalls. Asparagus at last! Are you a closet cook? If so, it’s time to ‘come out’! Ring Fergus on 01935 822202 for a table.

East Devon Ramblers leisurely 6.3 miles circular walk from Sidbury. 10am start.

Dogs on short leads 01395 567450.

Somerset Day Craft Fair Victoria Hall, Market Square, Crewkerne. 10am – 2pm.

For information on the Somerset Day Craft Fair, please contact Laura Gowers at the Town Council on 01460 74001 or e-mail deputyclerk@crewkerne-tc.gov.uk.

Devon Orchid Society 42nd Annual Orchid Show 10.30am - 4pm Public Hall, Station Road, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6RG. £3. Accompanied children Free.

Exotic Orchid Displays, Orchid Growing Advice and Potting Demos. Plants for Sale. Free Car Parking Nearby.

Seavington Gardening Club Plant Sale at the Millennium Hall 10am – 12noon Flower and vegetable plants for sale come early to avoid disappointment. For further information please contact Karen Day - tel. 01460 249728.

The Wounded Healer led by Janet lake as event 3 of 4 on ‘Healing and Spirituality’ at ‘A Space for Living Spirituality’ Bridport Quaker Meeting House 10am 4pm. Donation £5 - £30. Bring-and-share lunch. For information and booking, email Janet Lake on iona.lake@aol.co.uk.

Sherborne and District Gardeners’ Association Plant Sale 10am. Parsons Yard, Cheap Street, Sherborne.

Local Crafts & Collectables Fair 10.30am - 3pm. To be held ‘by kind permission’ at the Baptist Church Hall, Silver Street, Lyme Regis. Stalls include - Collectables, Jams & Chutneys, Jewellery (repairs & restringing), Art Glass and Knitted Toys. Free admission.

Well behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Supporting F.O.R.C.E. our local Cancer Charity in Exeter. For more details, please ring 01297 445232.

Broadwey, Upwey & District Horticultural Society Plant Sale Memorial Hall, Victoria Avenue, Upwey,

Weymouth starting at 2pm. Details on 01305 813853 or website.

Beer Wurlitzer Theatre Organ Show a double bill with Damon Willetts and Dorian Collins at the Congregational Church, Fore Street, Beer, 2pm, admittance £7 on the door, children free, includes interval refreshments. Everyone welcome, for further info visit www. beerwurlitzer.org.uk or phone 01297 24892.

Garden & Food Festival 10am-4pm Colyton Grammar School, Colyford, EX24 6HN. Free entry. Local artisan food producers. Craft stalls. Extensive outdoor plant stalls. BBQ, Homemade cakes Live music. Children’s area. Tombola/ Raffle. Second hand book stall Plant and Garden Sale Dalwood Jubilee Field 2pm - 4pm Jubilee Field fundraiser.

Contact Shelagh Beak on 01404 881760.

Or e-mail shelagh.beak@gmail.com.

West Dorset Group, SDFHS meeting Loders Village Hall, 2pm. Society member Paul Radford will talk about ‘The Channel Islands: A 19th Century Escape from the West Country’. Members £1.50, visitors £3, all welcome. For more information contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 23

Wayford Woods Guided Walk led

by Andrew Hutchings followed by cream tea in St Michael and All Angels Church, Wayford. Meet in the Woods car park, 2pm. £5, for information call 01460 279696.

Bridport Choral Society Bushes & Briars. Choral works inspired by traditional music from the British Isles and America, with guest artists. The Bridport Café Quartet, Bridport United Church 7.30pm. Tickets (including refreshment) £8, U16 £4. Available from Bridport Music or on the door.

Jonathan Delbribge playing an exciting programme of organ music ranging from Bach to Fats Waller at St Martins Church West Coker at 7.30pm.

Tickets £8 in advance £10 on the door to include a glass of wine from West Coker Post Office or book tickets from Sue 01935862172.

Martin Simpson at 8pm. Tickets: £18 Full. £17 Concessions. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall. org.uk.

Acoustic Music Concert Watkins & Swarbrick Band. Burton Bradstock Village Hall, Church Street, Burton Bradstock, DT6 4QS. 8pm (doors and bar 7.30pm). Pay what you like at the end of the show, but book seats in advance. Seat reservations essential from the box office 01305 837299 or emailing: songsfromthehalls234@gmail. com.

Sat 13 May - Sun 14 May Far From The Madding Crowd Hotbuckle Productions Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2.30pm. Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £12/10/5 Box office: 01305 266926, www. dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Sunday 14 May Bridport’s Ropewalk Fair on the Millennium Green from 11am 4pm. Packed full of fun net-themed games and activities. All Season of Heritage events are listed on Bridport Museum’s Facebook page and a printed programme is available from Bridport TIC or the Local History Centre in Gundry Lane. The Season of Heritage team are also looking for volunteers to help steward at the puppet parade and Ropewalk Fair. Give Emily a call on 01308 458703 or email curator@ bridportmuseum.co.uk.

Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath £12, Booking in advance www.centreforpuresound.

24 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

org or Call Dean on 01935 389655.

Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you. 2pm - 4pm Ninesprings Natural Health Centre, 70 Hendford, Yeovil Somerset BA20 1UR. Plants & Teas 2pm - 5pm Lindisfarne Powerstock DT6 3TE. Plants for sale for Parkinson’sUK and Teas in the Garden for The Red Cross Support at Home Service operating from Dorchester County Hospital. No Dogs.

Plant Sale at St Nicholas’ Church Combe Raleigh, Nr Honiton, EX14 4TG, 2.30pm - 5pm. An opportunity to stock up your garden and enjoy tea/coffee and cake. Proceeds in aid of the Bell Fund. For info phone 01404 43929 or 01404 43166.

Pet Blessing Service at Misterton Recreation Ground/Village Hall (TA18 8NA) at 2.30pm. Jonathan Morris, Associate Vicar of Misterton, is presiding at the event. Enquiries Carol Walker 01460 74808.

Cream Tea in the Sports and Social Club, Offwell Nr. Honiton, 3pm lots of lovely home made scones and cakes, lovely afternoon out for everyone.

Proceeds to the new Childrens Play Ground, charity no. 300915.

The Quangle Wangle Choir hosted

by The Friends of St Nicholas - St Nicholas Church, Abbotsbury. Tickets available from the box office Tel 01305 871532 or from the door on the day.

Der Rosankavalier from Met Opera at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed Bar and Refreshments. Doors open 2.30pm.

Tickets £15 (£17.50 on day) from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

Lyme Bay Chorale’s Spring Concert 4pm, St Michael’s Paris Church, Lyme Regis. Tickets £15 on the door, £13 in advance from Lyme Regis Tourist Information, Penny Black’s Tea Room and from choir members. Under 19s free, ticket includes a delicious post concert buffet. The concert’s centrepiece is the intensely moving Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Britten’s startling Worship the Lamb and Stanford’s rousing Lo I raise up. Guest conductor is Peter Parshall with the choir’s musical director Alex Davies on Organ. www. lymebaychorale.co.uk.

Axminster Musical Theatre are holding auditions for their November production of South Pacific. These will take place in The Masonic Lodge, South Street, Axminster EX13 5AD at 3 pm.

Further details from the website axmt. co.uk or Rose Harvey 07967 205302.

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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.

Monday 15 May Coffee Morning at Smith & Smith, 8 West Street, Bridport, in aid of Dorset County Hospital’s Cancer Appeal. The appeal will provide a new cancer and haematology outpatients at Dorchester, as an alternative for patients who currently have to travel further afield. Lots of coffee, cake and a raffle, 10am – 12noon. More details from Sue 01308 422172.

Lipreading and Managing Hearing Loss Try a free session at Honiton Methodist Church 10am - 12noon. Find out how lipreading can help you to hear more and pick up some tips to help you cope with your hearing loss. 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.

A bat trail walk from Beer to Branscombe, Beer Head 10.30am – 12.30pm. Join the Devon Bat Project and the Countryside team for a walk along the coastline looking at bat habitats. Booking required, £3 per person, Beer Head car park, Common Hill, Beer, EX12 3AQ wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Axminster Carnival Bingo Axminster Guildhall, doors open 7pm eyes down 8pm.

Musbury Garden Club talk 7.30pm at Musbury Village Hall. Jenny Short, local garden designer, gives an illustrated talk all about ponds. She covers bog gardens, self-contained water features, formal and natural wildlife ponds. Refreshments from 7pm. All welcome. £2.50 non-members.

Hawkchurch History Society Bill Horner, Devon’s County Archivist, talks about World War 2 Devon’s coastal defences including the Axe Valley section of the Taunton Stop Line. Hawkchurch Village Hall, 7pm for 7.30pm. Nonmembers welcome - £5 inc Refreshments.

Wyld Morris dancing at the White Lion, Broadwindsor from 7.30pm with friends, Treacle Eater Clog and Enigma Morris.

Tuesday 16 May West Dorset Ramblers 8 mile Thorncombe, Hewood, Forde Abbey, Ammerham and Winsham walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01308 424714.

Botanical Stroll £4 for refreshments.

Discover Trill’s natural habitats and the plants that grow there – in the marshes, the flower-rich meadows, and patches of limestone grassland along the old railway.

Trill Farm, Pudleylake Rd, Axminster EX13 8TU Phone: 01297 631113, www. trillfarm.co.uk.

Wild Flower Walk down Wayford hedgerows led by Val Watson, followed by cream tea in St Michael and All angels Church, Wayford. Meet at the Church, 2pm. £5, for information call 01460 279696.

Chideock Talk and Ploughman’s Godzone – a celebration of the landscape of New Zealand through Science, Art & Literature by Prof. Denys Brunsden; to raise funds for Chideock Village Hall new kitchen. 7pm for 7.30pm. £8 including a ploughman’s and a free glass of wine.

Tickets available from Janet Carey 01297 489782.

Tues 16 – Fri 19 May The Titfield Thunderbolt by Philip Goulding presented by South Petherton Combined Arts Drama Group at 7.30pm.

Suitable for children 10 years and over.

Tickets: £8 Full. £4 Under 16s. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall. org.uk.

Wednesday 17 May East Devon Ramblers moderate 10 miles circular walk from Shipley Bridge.

10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads. 01297 23424.

Bridport Probus Club meets at 12noon in the Eype’s Mouth Hotel for lunch at 1pm. This is followed by a talk by Bonny Sartin – Up in Arms. Potential new members welcome. Please call Graham Pitts on 01297561569.

Honiton U3A speaker from the European Parliament Information Office UK giving up to date information on the ‘United Kingdom and the EU’ – a subject that is of great interest at the moment and a meeting which will no doubt produce many questions. The Beehive Centre, Dowell St., Honiton, doors open 1.30pm for 2pm start. Members Free and Visitors welcome (suggested donation of £2).

Further information: 01404 598008, http:// u3asites.org.uk/honiton.

Axminster Arts Society A Demonstration of Palette Knife work by Stephen Foster in The United reformed Church Hall, Chard Street Axminster 2.30pm - 4.30pm. www. axminsterartsociety.

Thorncombe Rail Activities Club will host a talk and slide presentation given by Ian Bennett entitled ‘Smaller Railways of Britain’. 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 “traclubsite” for information.

26 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Arts @ St Bart’s St Bartholomew’s Church, Crewkerne. Steve Knightley, “The Landlocked Tour”. Steve Knightley is the songwriting force behind Show of Hands, widely acclaimed as the finest acoustic roots duo in England. Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm; Tickets £18 available from Crewkerne Town Hall or geraldine@ clotworthy.co.uk.

WDDFAS Coachwork Design in 18th & 19th Centuries: Speaker: Clive BarhamCarter. Highlands End Leisure Centre, Eype at 2.30pm. For details contact 01297 443615.

Wed 17 – Thurs 18 May Frozen Light Wednesday 11am & 1.30pm & Thursday 10.30pm. Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, Box office: 01305 266926.

Wed 17 – Fri 19 May Walking in West Dorset Discover and learn about the ancient hills and vales of west Dorset on this guided walking event.

For more information and to book go to www.kingcombe.org. The Kingcombe Centre, Lower Kingcombe, Dorchester, DT2 0EQ. Contact 01300 320684. Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Thursday 18 May Music At The Minster Fumi Otsuki violin Alessandro Viale piano The amazing worlds of MacMillan & Finzi.

12.30pm – 1pm. axminsterconcerts@ gmail.com or 01297 32927. The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster.

Dalwood Jubilee Field Fundraiser Plant and Garden Sale 2pm - 5pm Jubilee Field. Please contact Shelagh Beak on 01404 881760 for further information.

Friends of Weymouth Library (FOWL) AGM 2.30pm. Also Talk from Anne Cleveland on her experiences as a singer with Carl Rosa and Sadlers Wells opera company.

Chard Camera Club meeting in the Baptist Church Hall at 7.30pm.

Bridport & District Gardening Club Gardening in Containers & Baskets – Alan Leaman. 7.30pm Women’s Institute Hall, North Street, Bridport, DT6 3JQ. Peter Gough peter.gough182@btinternet.com, 01308 459469 / 07535 816299.

Tatworth W.I hold their Annual Meeting in Tatworth Memorial Hall at 7.30pm.

The Somerset Denman Ambassador, Carol Smith talks about the W.I. College.

South Somerset RSPB Group ‘The Secret Life of the Tawny Owl’ Narrated

by Chris Packham. Showing by kind permission of the producer Dave Culley. Also annual bring and buy Plant Sale.7.30pm The Millennium Hall,

Seavington St Mary Entry: Group members £2.50, non-group members £3.50, under 18’s free (tea/coffee & biscuits included) – wheelchair access. Non-members very welcome.

For further details contact: Denise Chamings (group leader) on 01460240740 www.rspb.org.uk/ groups/southsomerset.

One World Forum Strode Room Church Street. 7.30pm ‘Thomas Hardy a ‘One World Writer’.

Speaker Peter Mann Past member of the Thomas Hardy Council and past guide to Max Gate. Visitors £4. including refreshments.

Fri 18 - Sat 20 May Inspiring Women Colyton WI 90 Exhibition 10.30am - 4pm St Andrew’s Church Colyton.

Admission Free. An exhibition of flowers, artefacts and photographs highlighting the inspirational women of the last nine decades. Come and add your favourite to the Roll of Honour. Refreshments will be available in the Sunday School during the exhibition. Enjoy a walk

round our lovely town and why not leave your car in Seaton and come up by tram, taking in the beautiful Axe estuary with its amazing wealth of birdlife.

Friday 19 May West Dorset Ramblers 8 mile Mapperton and Loscombe Valley walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. Dogs optional. All welcome. Please call 01308 863565.

Special Artists Talk Event with Jennie Dutton. Join Jennie Dutton during Dementia Awareness Week as she offers more insight into her work and the motives behind it. 4pm, Free. Cafe/Foyer Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, Tues-Sat: 10-4. Free admission. 01308 424204. www.bridport-arts.com.

East Devon Ramblers leisurely 5 miles circular walk from Hawkchurch. 10am start. Dogs on short leads. 01404 861527.

The Living Tree, cancer self-help group 1pm Rising Voices with Jane, 2pm Tripudio with Elizabeth, 2.15pm Fiona Pearson, British

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 27

Coast &Countryside Red Cross Support at Home Service pre and post-chemo. Drop in any time between 2pm and 4.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 01308 427851. www. thelivingtree.org.uk.

Henhayes Centre Crewkerne Monthly special 3 course lunch, Roast Gammon followed by Lemon Ginger Crunch. £8 incl tea/coffee and choccies 12.30pm, booking essential 01460 74340.

Fri 19 – Sat 20 May A Night at The Musicals 7.30pm £10. Join the award-winning Honiton Community Theatre Company for a staged concert of songs from your favourite West End and Broadway shows. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Saturday 20 May Antiques, collectables and decorative Fair at Guildhall Axminster Devon EX13 5NX 10am - 3.30pm. Small furniture, Textiles, China, Glass, Silver, Jewellery, Books, Pictures etc. Enquiries: Meadow Fairs 01297 24446 or 07977 591 736 Table Top Sale at Whitelackington Village Hall, 10am - 1pm. Entry is free and we have 19 stalls selling new and used items.

All proceeds to the hall restoration fund.

Local Crafts and Collectables Fair 10.30am - 3pm. To be held ‘by kind permission’ at the Baptist Church Hall, Silver Street, Lyme Regis. Stalls include - Jams & Chutneys, Hand-made Art Glass, Beach Art, Jewellery (restringing) and Collectables. Free Admission.

Well behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Supporting F.O.R.C.E. our local Cancer Charity in Exeter. For details, please ring 01297 445232.

Grand Plant Sale 9am - 12noon. Fundraising event. Wide variety of plants as well as cakes and preserves are on sale.

Please donate good quality, labelled plants, cakes and preserves. Offers of help appreciated. Market Hall, Ilminster ST362 146 Road-side parking, town car parks Enquiries Valerie 01460 234 551.

Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Seasonal Sessions for Older Girls Age: 10-16 years with Mickey Bonome

Take time to Relax, Find Inner Calm by Reconnecting with the Outdoors. Make new friends, learn new skills, foraging, make natural products, explore, create keepsakes & land art with natural organic materials. Campfire cooking, Seasonal Celebration, Folklore, stories of our native plants and wildlife, natural dyeing, felting and willow working. Also 24 June and 15 July. Limemead Farm. Time: 11am 4pm. Cost: £20 per session or ££60 for block booking 4 sessions. http://www. coreprojects.org.uk. This group is part funded by Somerset County Council, Short Breaks Team.

Friends of Weymouth Library (FOWL) 10.30am. Talk from ex Weymouth librarian Bob Sharpe on Crime Writing. £2 for members, £3 non members.

Sacred and Profane Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and works by Monteverdi and others presented by Seaton Choral Society.

Nicola Wilkes (soprano) Leslie Baker (tenor) and David Fouracre (baritone) with instrumentalists and children from local schools directed by Ian Crew. 7.30pm at The Gateway, Fore Street, Seaton. Tickets £10 (under 18s free) from The Gateway 01297 625699.

The Tuckers Jazz Club The Martin Dale Quartet, Martin Dale (sax) Gavin Martin (piano) Kevin Sanders (bass) and Dennis Harris (drums). 8pm at The Tuckers Arms, Dalwood, Near Axminster, EX13 7EG. Parking in the Village Hall Car Park. £10 advance or at the door. www. dalwoodvillage.co.uk 01404 831280.

The Jo Burt Experience: Nuts in May Tour at 8pm. Ticket: £16. No concessions.

The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall. org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@ thedavidhall.org.uk.

Sat 20 – Sun 21 May Spring Tide Food Festival 10am – 4pm Hive Beach, Burton Bradstock. £2 per person including NT members. Under 12’s are free. Sample and buy the best food, drink and craft from a wide range of local producers at this coastal festival. www. nationaltrust.org.uk/burton-bradstock.

Sunday 21 May East Devon Ramblers moderate 9.5 miles circular walk from Knapp Copse. 10.30am

start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

01395 514886.

Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath £12, Booking in advance www.centreforpuresound.org or Call Dean on 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you. 2pm - 4pm Bridport Unitarians, 49 East St, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JX. Cream Tea Uploders Methodist Chapel, 3pm – 5pm. Come along for a yummy cream tea.

Axminster Axe Vale Orchestra Concert at 3.30pm in The Minster, performing Mozart Piano Concerto no 25 (Simon Watterton- piano) & Beethoven Symphony no 7. Conductor will be Arturo Serna.

Tickets £10 includes tea & cakes, available Archway Bookshop 01297 33595.

Monday 22 May Lipreading and Managing Hearing Loss Try a free session at Honiton Methodist Church 10am - 12noon. Find out how lipreading can help you to hear more and pick up some tips to help you cope with your hearing loss. 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.

Axminster Carnival Bingo Axminster Guildhall, doors open 7pm eyes down 8pm.

Tuesday 23 May West Dorset Ramblers 5 mile pub walk through the apple orchards around East Lambrook. Please call 01460 77135 by Sun 21 May to book pub lunch. 10am start. Bring snack. No dogs. All welcome.

Colyton & Colyford Probus Club Members and their guests meet at the Swallows Eaves Hotel, Colyford at 12noon for 12.30pm for their Annual Guests’ Lunch.

Evening Beaver Watching At Escot Park, Ottery St Mary 8pm – 10pm. This evening is led by Mish Kennaway from Escot Park. Contact Mary Howes on 01935 872742 if you wish to book. Cost will be £6 approx. Numbers are limited. Please wear non rustling clothing, no bright or fluorescent colours. Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Looking ahead Thurs 1 June

Symondsbury Estate Summer Fair 10am-4pm at Symondsbury Estate. Donkey rides, live music, food, drink & crafts. Manor Yard, Symondsbury, Dorset DT6 6HG.

28 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Sat 3 June

Chedington Open Gardens & Studios 11am – 6pm Admission £5. Refreshments available in the Village Hall and Chedington Court Great Hall. 13 gardens open.

Sat 3 June

Bradpole Village Fete 2pm in Norman’s Orchard, and via Middle Street to Holy Trinity Church.

Organised by The Friends of Holy Trinity Church, Bradpole.

Tue 23 – Sat 27 May UkuleleOpera presents ‘FLEA’! Bridport Electric Palace Matinee Performance and Relaxed Matinee on Tues, Weds & Sat Doors 12 midday / starts 1pm. Thursday – Saturday Doors 6.30pm – starts 7.30pm. A spectacular community theatre production being staged in Bridport. www. electricpalace.org.uk.

(Charge for card payment).

I Am Beast - Sparkle and Dark Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £12/10/5 Box office: 01305 266926, www. dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Thursday 25 May What’s that bird? Tower Hide at Seaton Wetlands 11am - 1pm. Hone your bird ID with an experienced volunteer guide.

Telescopes and binoculars available to borrow. No booking required, free, Tower Hide at Seaton Wetlands, Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Music At The Minster Colyton Grammar School Senior Choir Directed

by David House. 12.30pm – 1pm. axminsterconcerts@gmail.com or 01297 32927. The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster.

Canoe safari, Seaton Wetlands 6pm – 8.30pm. Guided trip down the river Axe. No experience necessary, must be 8+ and able to swim 25m. Riverside hot drink provided. Booking required, £26 adults, £16 under 16’s, Seaton Wetlands car park, Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon. co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@ eastdevon.gov.uk.

advertorial

Wednesday 24 May Bird ringing demonstration Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands 9am. This event is highly weather dependant. No booking required, free, Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands, Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Talent For Textiles Fine & Antique Textiles 10am – 5pm, Deans Court, Wimborne, BH21 1QF Café £5 entry www.talentfortextiles.com.

Martock History Group 6pm. David Ledger, Tower Captain at All Saints, takes a tour up to the bell tower and roof of All Saints, Martock. Only 10 people at a time can go on the roof. In addition, for insurance reasons, those on the tour must be of sound constitution, a responsible adult, and well shod! But this is all

well worth it, the views are fabulous. £3 admission or a year’s sub for £10. fergus. dowding@btinternet.com or 01935 822202 for more details.

South Petherton Local History Group “The Battle of the Buses in South Somerset” - the struggle which began in the 1920s to develop bus services in South Somerset - will be recalled by local historian Leon Ford. Members should take their seats at 7.30pm. Tickets for guests £3.

Uplyme & Lyme Regis Horticultural Society Talk 7.30pm Talk ‘Searching in the dark: unravelling the mysteries of the South West’s rare bats’ by Fiona Matthews, Chair of the Mammal Society. Uplyme Village Hall. Visitors are welcome, at a charge of £3. Contact Secretary, Rose Mock, 01297 34733, rosemary.mock@btinternet.com.

Wyld Morris dancing at the Three Horseshoes, Burton Bradstock from 7.30pm.

RSC Live screening of Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra (12A) at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed bar and refreshments. Doors open 6.30pm. Tickets £12.50 in advance (£15 on day) from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm.

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Cape Farewell - ‘A Field of Wheat’ Talk Discussion & Communal Meal.

Talk & discussion hosted by Laura Williams with artists Anne-Marie Culhane & Ruth Leve about the project. Followed by a communal, homemade meal with bread made from wheat from the project. 6pm, £5. Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, Tues-Sat: 10am – 4pm. 01308 424204. www.bridport-arts.com.

Phil Beer Band Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £20/18 Box office: 01305 266926, www. dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Friday 26 May West Dorset Ramblers 10 mile Pilsdon Pen, Bettiscombe and Synderford walk. 10am start. Bring picnic. No dogs. All welcome.

Please call 01300 320168.

East Devon Ramblers leisurely 5 miles circular walk from Kentisbeare. 10am start. Dogs on short leads. 01392 873881.

Come for Coffee £1 for a cafetiere of coffee, also teas, home made biscuits and cakes, and occasional stalls. 10am – 12noon in Parish Hall, Church Street.

The Living Tree, cancer selfhelp group 2pm Art with Libby + Libby’s cousin Paul Whymant cycling 1000 miles to celebrate his “all clear” from cancer and raise money for Macmillan. Drop in any time between 2pm - 4.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, 95 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ. Tel 01308 427851. www.thelivingtree.org.uk.

John Doyle (Top Irish guitarist singer songwriter) 7.30pm £10 in advance, £13 on the door. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton. co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Matt Forde: New Date 8pm Corn Exchange, High East Street, DT1 1HF, £15/13 / 5 Box office: 01305 266926, www.dorchesterarts.org.uk.

Saturday 27 May Crewkerne Gardening Plant Sale in Falkland Square from 8.30am 12noon. Good quality plants at fair prices. Come and support us and bag a bargain or donate some plants.

Colyton & District Garden Society Annual Plant Sale at Colyton Town Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm.

Please bring any donations of plants, produce, cakes and gardening items to the Hall on 26 May 6pm - 7pm.

Henhayes Centre Crewkerne Big

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Breakfast 10am - 12noon. Egg/ sausage/bacon/beans or tomato/toast, tea or coffee. All for just £4 extra items 50p, booking not necessary.

01460 74340 for more info.

Lym Valley Croquet Club taster session at 10am. A chance to try your hand at this fascinating game.

Free session, all equipment provided.

Call David Brooke-Smith on 07909 111512 to chat and arrange. The club is beside the Uplyme Cricket Ground.

Local Crafts and Collectables Fair 10.30am - 3pm. To be held ‘by kind permission’ at the Baptist Church Hall, Silver Street, Lyme Regis.

Stalls include - Crafted Painted Glass, Cards, Jewellery (repairs & restringing) and Collectables. Free Admission. Well behaved dogs on leads welcome. Supporting F.O.R.C.E. our local Cancer Charity in Exeter. For more details, please ring 01297 445232.

Dorset Wildlife Trust – West Dorset Group & Dorset Flora Group Walk Starting at 10am. A walk with Jim White at Cogden Beach – for the fine coastal and shingle flora behind Chesil Bank.

Meet in the NT car park, OS map ref. SY 502 885, off B3157 east of Burton Bradstock. Booking essential: please telephone Jim White, 01929 481 535. Donation of £2 to Dorset Flora welcomed.

Home & Garden store Open Day 10am - 5pm at Symondsbury Estate Manor Yard, Symondsbury, Dorset DT6 6HG. Meadow in Midsummer walk, Bolshayne 2pm – 4pm. Enjoy orchids and other early summer flowers on a walk in a glorious hay meadow with botanists Phil Wilson and Marian Reed. Bolshayne Farm, Southleigh Road, near Colyton, EX24 6RX SY 221 937. Free No booking required.

Legacy to Landscape project. legacytolandscape@gmail.com 01404 310012.

Dorset Wildlife Trust – West Dorset Group & Dorset Flora Group Walk Starting at 2.30 pm. A walk with Jim White at Brackett’s Coppice – for flower-rich grasslands/ valley woodland of the DWT reserve near Corscombe. OS map ref. ST 514 074, off narrow Ryewater Lane.

Booking essential: please telephone Jim White, 01929 481 535. Parking very limited, please arrange to car share. Donation of £2 to Dorset Flora welcomed.

The Gatsby Gang + BBQ 3pm-5pm, The Pilot Boat Inn,

Bridge Street. Tickets: £10 (music only) BBQ Available from 3pm.

Detroit Soul Collective at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed bar and refreshments.

Doors open 7.30pm. Tickets £13 in advance (£16 on day) from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

The Phil Beer Band – A Chance to Dance Event at 8pm. Ticket: £19. No concessions. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall.org.uk.

Sat 27 May – Sun 4 June Dorset Wildflower Week 5pm, A week of walks exploring the wonderful wild flowers of Dorset. look online at derc.org. uk/local/dfg.htm. Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Sat 27 – Mon 29 May Flower Festival 10.30am – 5pm at Chaffcombe Church, near Chard. ‘Music with Flowers’ also Village activities. All welcome 01460 65909 / 01460 65883.

Flower Festival St Michael and All Angels Church, Wayford. Church open

all day. Saturday 27 May Cream teas and cake stall, 2pm - 5pm. Sunday 28 May, celebration service, 10am followed by coffee. Donations in aid of church funds.

Further information call 01460 279696.

Spring Family Camp £310 family ticket (two adults/two children). Nature connection camps for families of all ages. Forage, play games, light fires, star gaze, meet the wildlife, wander, create and dream. Trill Farm, Pudleylake Rd, Axminster EX13 8TU Phone: 01297 631113, www.trillfarm.co.uk.

River Cottage Spring Food Fair Come along to a weekend of cookery demos, hands-on cooking masterclasses and great food. There will be plenty of entertainment for the kids with donkey rides, bubble workshops, falconry displays and more.

Tickets £17.50 and under 16s are free.

For more details and to book see www. rivercottage.net or call Tamsyn in the Events Team on 01297 630302.

Sunday 28 May East Devon Ramblers moderate 11 miles circular walk from Beaminster. 10.30am start and bring picnic. Dogs on short leads.

01308 456463.

Brit Valley Rotary Club Companion

Dog Show at the Melplash Showground, West Bay Road, Bridport, starting 12noon.

Judging starts at 1pm. Refreshments, both hot and cold, available. Entry fee is £4 per adult, children U16 free. For further details 01308 423318.

The Sound Of Blue Note Brunch 10am - 11.30am, By the Bay Restaurant, Marine Parade. Tickets: £15 including breakfast.

Jazz On The Beach 12pm - 5pm, Marine Shelters, Lyme Regis, Free. Donations welcome.

Crystal and Tibetan Singing Bowl Soundbath £12, Booking in advance www.centreforpuresound.org or Call Dean on 01935 389655. Bring something comfortable to lie on and wrap around you. 2pm - 4pm Oborne Village Hall, Oborne, nr. Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4LA. Swing Unlimited All Stars Big Band 4.30pm - 5.45pm, Marine Theatre, Church Street. Tickets: £12 (all seated). 8pm 10.30pm, Marine Theatre, Church Street, Lyme Regis.

Acoustic Night 7.30pm – 10.30pm. All styles and forms of performance welcome.

To perform please send an email at folk@ chriswatts.org to secure a slot. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA.

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Monday 29 May Charmouth Vintage Fair Community Hall 10am - 4pm Enquiries: Tel: 01297560634. Next Date: Sunday 30 July.

Burton Bradstock Village Fayre Rectory Gardens, Church Street, Burton Bradstock, DT6 4QD from 2pm - 4.40pm. Entry costs £1 for adults, children under 12 free and parking nearby is free.

Stockland Fair Fun for all ages in Stockland Village EX14 9EF. 6 miles from Chard, Honiton and Axminster.

Starts 1.30pm.

Blues on the Beach From 12-bar blues to funky chops, soul-based rhythms to blues rock. 4pm - 7pm, Pilot Boat Inn, Bridge Street, Lyme Regis. Free.

Slinky Machine’s Jazz Guestival Jazz fusion maestros, Slinky Machine, host a roster of special guests and friends in a three-hour finale of jazz, blues and funk. Join them for their signature blend of jazz fusion covers and original material in this festival after party.

Tickets from www.wegottickets.com/ LymeRegisJazzBluesWeekend or Tourist Information Centre (01297 442138). Booking fees apply.

Tuesday 30 May Holiday Clubs Age: Tuesdays 5-7 yrs and 7-14 yrs. Educators/ Facilitators: Alasdair Green & Mickey Bonome.

An educational, creative and fun programme of activity incorporating forest school, natural craft, animal care and learning how to support our environment for the future. Limemead Farm 10am - 3pm. Cost: £25 per day. www.coreprojects.org.uk.

Merriott Gardening Club A talk with slides by Neil Lovesey of Picket Lane Nursery, South Perrott, on the history/future of the cottage garden.

There are also be plants for sale from Neil’s Nursery. Meet at the Tithe Barn, Church Street, Merriott (car park attached) at 7.30pm. All welcome – refreshments and raffle. Non-members £2.

Wednesday 31 May Fun in the stream, Honiton Bottom 10am - 12noon. Join the Education rangers for a morning of splashing about in the stream. Go stream dipping, build a mini-raft and construct a dam.

Wear shoes and clothing suitable for getting wet, wellies recommended.

Booking required, £4 per child, Honiton Bottom, Battishorne Way, EX14 2XD wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Coffee Morning 10am - 12noon. Free

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Entry. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall.org.uk.

Plant and cake sale, Seaton Wetlands 11am - 3pm. No dogs. No booking required, donations for plants and cakes, Discovery Hut at Seaton Wetlands, Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon.co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk.

Landscape Detectives, Colyton 2pm – 4.30pm. Gate leaning amble to see clues that reveal the history of the Shute estate landscape in Colyton Parish with local historian Colin Pady. Hillhead picnic site, Colyton, SY 244 934 Free. No booking required. Legacy to Landscape project. legacytolandscape@gmail.com; 01404 310012.

Fun Quiz Night at the Pilot Boat Inn, Lyme Regis. The quiz will start at 7.30pm. There’s a maximum team size of 6. No need to book, you pay on the door - £2.50 per person. Food & drink available from the bar. The quiz is being run as a fund-raiser by the Friends of Lyme Regis Museum. For further information please contact Valerie Hayward 07926 969 831.

Wed 31 May – Thur 1 June Second-hand Book Sale Marine Parade Shelters, Lyme Regis. Second-hand books will be on sale from 11am. For further information please contact Valerie Hayward 07926 969 831.

Cape Farewell - Children’s Activities, Ages 6-12. Join Bridport Arts Centre.

Gallery activities for young people that are linked to the current exhibition Cape Farewell! 2pm - 4pm, £4. Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, Tues-Sat: 10am – 4pm. 01308 424204. www.bridport-arts. com.

Wed 31 May – Sat 3 June The Royal Bath and West Show Shepton Mallet 9am – 6pm.

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Courses&Workshops Tuesday 25 April Cooking for One Demo with HALFF 11am - 1pm (Health and Local Food for Families) Free healthy cooking demonstrations giving hints and ideas for cooking for one and covering nutritional advice for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and modified diets (eg puree/fork mashable). At the United Reformed Church, Cross Street, Seaton EX12 2LH. No need to book, just turn up, it’s free. Call Laura on 01297 631782 or email laura@halff.org.uk.

Wednesday 26 April Adventures in Crochet – Bunting Explore the exciting craft of crochet, learn basic stitches, traditional designs and complete short projects. With tutor Lynne Raddall. For more details contact Lynne: lynneyraddall@yahoo.co.uk. 10am - 1pm. £22 per session (excluding materials).

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

The Living Tree cancer self-help group.

Creative writing and book making workshop with Kim & David from Squirrel Press at Watercleaves. To book please ring Jo on 01308 427851. www. thelivingtree.org.uk.

Thursday 27 April Life Drawing Thursday evenings 7pm – 9.30pm at the Chapel in the Garden, Bridport. Starting on 27 April for 10 weeks. Drop in for one session or come for all. Phone Tara for more information on 07505 268797.

Art Classes Thursday daytime 9.30am – 12.30pm, at the Scout Hut on St Swithins Rd, Bridport. Starting 27 April for 10 weeks. Drop in for one session or come for all. Phone Tara on 07505 268 797 for more information.

Thursday 27 April – 8 June Oil Painting Discover the rich medium of oil painting with tutor Belinda Ireland. Beginners welcome as well as those wanting to expand existing skills.

Learn the basic elements of painting, colour mixing, composition and values.

Thursdays 1.30pm - 4.30pm. £60 for six weeks. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster.

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

Friday 28 April Sketchbook bookbinding workshop at Leafwork , Whitchurch Canonicorum 10.30am - 4pm. Sew and bind this A4 sketchbook in a day. It’s robust enough to take out and about, attractive enough to give as a gift and easy to make again at home. Opens completely flat. £45, materials included. To book or for more details please contact nesta@leafwork. co.uk or phone 01297 489976. Beginners welcome.

Rag Rugs Come and make beautiful rag rugs from recycled materials. Be warned - it’s addictive! 11am-1pm. £10 per monthly session. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. 01460 54973. www.themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Art Group An informal untutored group for artists in all media, from oils to acrylics. All abilities welcome. Bring your own materials. Thursdays 2pm - 4pm. £7 per session. Ilminster Arts Centre, The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster.

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

Saturday 29 April Planning and Planting a Fruit Orchard The course is led by fruit tree specialist Tom Nancarrow from Pip & Stone Fruit Tree Services and Adam’s Apples. For those looking to plant a small family orchard or maybe a community orchard in the local town? Also possibly for those with greater ambitions of starting a new juice and cider enterprise? This one-day course puts participants on the right path to planting an orchard of healthy and productive fruit trees suitable for their location and needs. Predominantly classroom-based learning with slides and discussion, with some practical sessions for tree planting and formative pruning. £80 for the day including lunch.

LandBase, Monkton Wyld Court, nr.

Charmouth, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 6DQ, 01297 560342, courses@landbase.org.uk.

Drawing natural, found objects from the Dorset Landscape Art workshop at Artwave West – £60. Artwave West, Morcombelake, Dorset, DT6 6DY 01297 489746 www.artwavewest.com.

Willow crafts: the cheese tray, stick platter and simple round basket, Reed Base at Seaton Wetlands 10am - 4pm.

Make a choice at time of booking. Make a basket in a day, includes all materials and expert tuition. Must be 16+ with good strong hands. Booking required, £40 per person, Reed Base, Seaton Wetlands,

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Colyford Road, EX12 2SP wildeastdevon. co.uk, 01395 517557, countryside@ eastdevon.gov.uk.

Monday 1 – Friday 5 May 5-day Stone Carving workshop for all abilities with Ian Ward. 10.30am – 4.30pm, £195 including Bath Stone.

Bring a packed lunch, ring 01963 370219, ann.guggleton@gmail.com. Guggleton Farm Arts Project, Station Road, Stalbridge, Dorset, DT10 2RQ, www. guggleton.co.uk.

Wednesday 3 May Free Tennis Coaching Tennis Coaching for Juniors and Adults on Wednesday evenings at Misterton Tennis Club.

The first 2 sessions are free, all players whatever ability are welcome to the Club at the Recreation Ground Misterton. The courses are run by LTA Accredited Coach John Barrington. More details contact Chris Ellis 01460 74368.

Saturday 6 May Upholstery Workshop in Dalwood.

All abilities 10am - 4pm. Tools and refreshments provided. For details phone 01404 881312 email martin@ bramblemead-upholstery.co.uk.

Sunday 7 May Artisan Soft Cheese Making Features Halloumi, Mascarpone, Mozzarella and Butter. This course gives you the skills to make these lovely soft cheeses in your kitchen at home. 9.45am - 2.30pm.

Includes a nice lunch and a glass of wine.

Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm. co.uk.

Thursday 11 May Pick Up Sew Up workshop Half day workshop learning the easiest ways to sew your knitting seams, joining smoothly, evenly and quickly and how to complete your knitted garments with perfectly picked-up neck edges and button bands that don’t pucker, gape or sag with tutor, Rowan Design Consultant, Avril Best. 1pm - 4pm, The Sewing Corner, 26 Silver Street, Ilminster, TA19 0DR. Bookings/information: 01460 259989 or 07581221228. Cost: £30pp.

Friday 12 May Cicchetti - Italian Tapas Course and Demonstration with Masterchef finalist

Angel Langford. 7pm - 9pm, includes lots of lovely tastings and a glass of wine. Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm. co.uk.

Make Your Own Bunting 2pm 4pm. With fabrics provided £35, with own fabrics, £25 at studio.

Contact Lucy on 0777 1588999 or info@boarsbarrow.com. www. boarsbarrow.com. Boarsbarrow Design Workshops, Boarsbarrow Studio, The Barn House, Loders, Bridport, DT6 3SA. 01308 485035/456958.

Saturday 13 May Upholstery Workshop in Dalwood.10am - 4pm.Learn traditional skills using finest materials. Bring small item of your choice. Small group maximum 5 students. Refreshments provided.

For more info. contact Martin on 01404 881312or email martin@ bramblemead-upholstery.co.uk.

Sunday 14 May Artisan Bread Making Course 9.45am - 3pm Includes a nice lunch and a glass of wine. Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton 01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm. co.uk.

Sun 14 – Mon 15 May Management of the Small Farm/ Holding 10am - 4pm. Course leaders are Dan Powell, an Organic Land Manager and Harry Boglione of Haye Farm, Devon. This is a two day course designed for those who are interested in running a small farm or holding. £130 for the two day course (including lunch). £175 for the two day course with accommodation at Monkton Wyld Court (including lunch and dinner on the first day, and breakfast and lunch on the second day). ​ LandBase, Monkton Wyld Court, nr.

Charmouth, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 6DQ, 01297 560342, courses@ landbase.org.uk.

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Courses&Workshops Tuesday 16 May Cooking for One Demo with HALFF 11am – 12.30pm. (Health and Local Food for Families). Free healthy cooking demonstrations. At the United Reformed Church, Chard Road, Axminster. No need to book, just turn up, it’s free. Call Hannah on 01297 631782 for more information or email hannah@halff.org. uk.

Wednesday 17 May Dementia Awareness Week - Dementia Friend Training Join us for this one hour long informal session during Dementia Awareness Week to learn more about Dementia and the small steps you can take to help those with Dementia and their families. 11am & 2pm. Free.

Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, TuesSat: 10-4.01308 424204. www.bridportarts.com.

Thursday 18 May Learn to Cook Healthily with HALFF 11am - 1pm. (Health and Local Food for Families). Join for a Free hands-on course of six sessions. At the Masonic Hall, South Street, Axminster. To book a place, or for more information, call Ros on 01297 631782 or email admin@halff. org.uk.

Wed 17 – Thurs 18 May Drawing the Horse from Life with Michelle McCullagh. Two days, 10.30am

– 4.30pm. Guggleton Farm Arts Project, Station Road, Stalbridge, Dorset, DT10 2RQ. 01963 370219 ann.guggleton@ gmail.com, www.guggleton.co.uk.

Thursday 18 May Applique Course Learn how to applique (stitch fabric onto fabric to create a picture) and create your own favourite picture or your own house as an applique piece. All materials, lunch and refreshments provided. 9.30am - 3pm, £85 at the Barn House Studio, Loders, DT6 3SA. Contact Lucy on 07771 588999 or email info@boarsbarrow.com.

Saturday 20 May Design it! Make it! - in Patchwork Be taught how to sew an easy patchwork design for making into a bag or cushion by tutor Paula Simpson. The Sewing Corner, 26 Silver Street, Illminster TA19 0DR. 10am – 4pm, £30pp. Bookings/ information: paula@milkhill.co.uk or Mobile: 07533 084703.

Seichim Reiki healing level one 10am - 4pm, £55. Seichim healing originates from Egypt and is also known as the Goddess Energy. A manual and Cert will be presented on the day to successful students. Please contact Margaret Marciniak to book your place or to find out more on 07951402717 or 01297 32095.

Sat 20 – Sun 21 May Herbal Medicine £295 residential /

£395 residential. Identify and forage for seasonal herbs, understand their medicinal properties and uses, and learn to create a range of preparations for health and well-being. Trill Farm, Pudleylake Rd, Axminster EX13 8TU Phone: 01297 631113, www.trillfarm.co.uk.

Thursday 25 May Beginners bookbinding course at Leafwork, Whitchurch Canonicorum 1.30pm - 4.30pm. A short course (4 sessions). Making a range of items introducing participants to tools, techniques and materials in a friendly workshop setting. £130, includes all materials. Contact nesta@leafwork.co.uk or phone 01297 489976.

Friday 26 May More Artisan Soft Cheese Making Features Camembert, Feta, Ricotta and much more. This course will give you the skills to make these lovely soft cheeses in your kitchen at home. 9.45am - 2.30pm.

Includes a nice lunch and a glass of wine.

Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton.

01460 249758 www.frogmarygreenfarm. co.uk.

Saturday 27 May Upholstery Workshop in Dalwood.10am - 4pm. Learn traditional skills using finest materials. Bring small item of your choice. Small group maximum 5 students.

Refreshments provided. For more info. contact Martin on 01404 881312or email martin@bramblemead-upholstery.co.uk.

Comic Alternative to Electioneering Shappi Khorsandi at Dorchester Arts COMEDIAN and author Shappi Khorsandi is celebrating the 40th anniversary of arriving in Britain with Oh My Country!, a love letter to her adopted country, which comes to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on 4th May. She reclaims patriotism and what it means to be British, “from Morris Dancing to Morrissey” and she warns: “Please don’t come if you’re a skinhead (though naturally bald folk are welcome).”

Shappi Khorsandi is also the best selling author of A Beginners Guide to Acting English; her debut novel, Nina is not OK, was published by Ebury last year.

She was recently elected president of the British Humanist Society.

Growing up with Russell Kane RUSSELL Kane is the right man but the wrong age—or is that the right age and the wrong man. Either way this talented comedian wants you to believe that he may be growing up, when he brings his latest show to Bridport’s Electric Palace on Saturday 6th May. Are you 16-years-old, yet feel 21?

Are you 40, but tragically faking 25?

Or maybe you’re full-on 80 years, with the heart of three oxen and the sex drive of a bonobo chimp. Don’t worry: this is normal. No one is ever the ‘right’ age—it is the beauty and the curse of being a real person.

Russell’s new show, Right Man, Wrong Age, follows his success at comedy festivals including Edinburgh Fringe and

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television appearances on BBC3’s Live At The Electric, BBC1’s Live At The Apollo, BBC3’s Unzipped, ITV2’s Celebrity Juice and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

Now! Matt Forde at Dorchester HOW do you feel about the EU referendum? Comedian Matt Forde comes to Dorchester on 26th May with a new show that looks at the topic from every direction, celebrating why it’s great/awful that we’re in/out of the EU/UK/NATO/whatever the hell happens next.

The sharp-witted star of Have I Got News For You (BBC One), Mock the Week (BBC Two) and Question Time (BBC One), will be on stage at the Corn Exchange at 8pm.

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News &Views BRIDPORT

ILMINSTER

CREWKERNE

Businesses in Bridport are warning that proposals to pedestrianise South Street will ruin them. Their comments came at Bridport Chamber of Trade’s monthly meeting, at which members voted unanimously against a trial closure. Bridport Town Council is carrying out a consultation this month before potentially closing South Street to traffic next year. Traders say drivers like to be able to drop off and pick up in South Street and point to the fact that trade goes down when South Street is closed to traffic for events. The Chamber is also against a proposed one-way system for the town centre. Town clerk Bob Gillis said there were strong views in favour of closure as well as against. Dorset County Council would have to approve any changes.

A man who suffered a life-changing brain injury in a car crash on the A303 in April last year has thanked the public for raising more than £10,000 to help him get treatment. Teacher Will Mieville-Hawkins, of Station Road, received life-saving treatment from the NHS but his psychology therapy has come to an end.

The crash left Will unable to walk and use one of his arms. He says he has been overwhelmed by the support from people, many of whom are strangers, such as Bonnie Bow-Thompson of Bradford on Tone. She ran the Taunton Half-Marathon in April and raised more than £500 to help Will pay for his latest treatment.

You can follow Will’s progress on his blog at mybraininjuryrecoveryblog.wordpress.com.

The town’s railway station now has sheltered seating outside, thanks to money from South West Trains and Waitrose. After surveying members, the Friends of Crewkerne Railway Station discovered that most felt a new seat and shelter were needed at the front of the station for people waiting for a taxi or a lift, especially in bad weather.

Funds for the new addition came from the local branch of Waitrose, which allocates £1,000 a month to local charities and community groups through customer votes, and South West Trains, which matched the money raised by the supermarket and helped with installation. The sheltered seating area was officially launched by members of the Friends and store manager Matt Foxwell, who cut the ribbon.

Traders say no to street closure

Crash victim thanks supporters

SEATON

More affordable homes for town Planning permission has been granted for 36 new homes in Seaton, at Rowan Drive on the northern edge of the town. Nine of them will be ‘affordable’. The Baker Estates development will comprise a range of houses, bungalows and chalet bungalows, from two to four bedrooms and one-bedroom flats. The developers says the properties will be built using a subtle red brick with timber cladding, and some render panelling. Ian Baker, managing director, said every member of his team lived in Devon and were ‘passionate about delivering outstanding homes in the communities that we know and love.’

“Where possible, we’ll also be using local sub-contractors and suppliers, which will be a boost to the local economy,” he added.

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Sheltered seating at train station

PORTLAND

Cruise berth extension opened

Some of the world’s biggest cruise liners will be able to dock at Portland after the opening of an extension of the main cruise berth. South Dorset MP Richard Drax formally cut the ribbon with Portland Port chairman Christopher Langham. The new facility, at the outer coaling pier, can accommodate vessels of up to 340 metres in length. Mr Langham said the project was a long-term investment which would give the area a substantial economic boost. He added that cruise ships were getting bigger and bigger and if Portland Port did not grow, it would be left behind. Already, 24 ships were booked in, carrying 36,000 customers who will spend an estimated £1.5 million in the area. The design involved building two large structures 100m apart and linked by walkways.

Countryside Notes (Revised for 2017) Laterally Speaking by Humphrey Walwyn

AND so, welcome to the merry month of May—a month of increasing daylight hours, more sunny days and even more traffic on the A35 and the A303. It’s also a month boasting not just one but two Bank Holidays, so it’s the perfect time for all city dwellers to visit the South West and the glories of the English countryside in Spring.

You will probably notice a few changes since you were last here. For example, one or two rural tea shops have actually started to sell real Cappuccino and the occasional Americano coffee so you’ll feel completely normal and hyper even in the middle of an area so remote as the Marshwood Vale. Please note however that we draw the line at ‘Decaf Skinny Latte’, because that’s not real coffee but only a sort of mild flavoured skimmed milk drink. We Country folk don’t do mild very well. We do real coffee with real caffeine here. Sorry ‘bout that.

Your journey here will also be different. Even when you’re stuck in a traffic jam you can continue to stay in touch by texting each other on your smart phones.

And now it’s even more fun to text your family members travelling in the same car as you are! No need to waste valuable energy by opening your mouths and speaking. Just use Facebook or other Apps to send a text to the kids in the back seat (provided you’re not doing the driving of course). Kids are probably more likely to respond if you communicate digitally. Analogue conversation is SO yesterday! Incidentally, AWTY is SMS shorthand for ‘Are We There Yet’.

And then there’s the wonderful view.

You might occasionally look out the window at the beautiful rolling hills and green fields of Devon or Dorset but I agree that the attraction of ‘Super Mario Run’ on Android is hard to beat. If you want, you can completely ignore the real world, keep your head firmly down and keep playing ‘Pokémon Go’ all the way through the Blackdown Hills as you crawl southwards on the A30. Don’t tell anyone, but there’s a Pikachu hiding beside the Ladies’ Loo in Honiton. Useful knowledge to win the

game or if you want to stop for a ‘comfort break’. I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you miss one ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. You can always tell yourself that if you’ve seen one AONB, you’ve seen them all...

And when you do get to where you’re going, you can unpack your tent and have a lovely time. You might remember camping in the old days as being a losing struggle against damp, freezing rain, buzzy flies and nasty country smells of cow poo, but don’t worry—that’s all changed. We have brought the countryside up to date and can now supply you with air conditioned yurts, all natural hot and cold water pavilions and imitation log cabins made of 100% recycled genuine plastic wood. Camping is Glamping and is so modern and full of comfortable luxuries that you’d never believe you had left your warm urban home! For a small extra fee, we can even supply you with pictures of neighbouring town houses or play you piped sound effects of street noises and car horns so you can really feel completely at home. Here’s an amazing country file fact for you which many of you may find hard to believe: some of us actually live here in the countryside all the year round!

Yes, really!!

The countryside itself has also changed over the years. You remember the lovely sounds of morning bird song with black-

birds and larks and warblers warblering all over the place? Well, they’re still there but they’re now increasingly drowned out by the reassuring sound of a high pitched mechanical whine as a passing drone soars majestically overhead. Smile—you’re on camera. How exciting! And speaking of cameras, the countryside is the best place ever for ‘Selfies’. Try standing on top of Eggardon Hill or Pilsdon Pen without falling off. Your friends back home will be totally freaked if you take a Selfie of yourself standing in front of a large brown and white animal with four legs and horns.

It’s called a cow. Don’t get too close. And the smaller white and woolly animals are called sheep.

And look at the new beautiful black flowers growing on the branches of trees.

They look just like small plastic bags, don’t they! That’s because they ARE small plastic bags and they’re full of doggy doo.

Nobody knows why they’re there. This is a relatively new natural phenomenon.

People may clear up after their little doggies and say ‘look at me—aren’t I good!’ but then they don’t know what to do with the bags so they hide them in trees or on top of walls or beside gateposts. If you see any bags in trees, it’s OK to remove them.

You could even take them home to the city as souvenirs of the West Country. It’s probably not a good idea to open them up till you get home.

With a Real Map it was easy to get lost, but it’s even easier now with a Sat Nav

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House&Garden Hardy Classic takes to the Stage in Dorchester

DORCHESTER Corn Exchange is an appropriate setting for a performance of Far From The Madding Crowd, a stage adaptation of one of Thomas Hardy’s best loved novels, on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th May. As three very different suitors compete for her heart, the spirited, independent Bathsheba Everdene must choose between them. Will she choose to marry for passion, for obligation or for true love and companionship? Or

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will she value her independence and not marry at all?

Celebrating their tenth anniversary, Hotbuckle Theatre Company brings Hardy’s romance to life with live music and their trademark ensemble style. This latest production follows on from acclaimed tours of Emma, Persuasion and David Copperfield.

There are performances at 8pm both evenings and a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.

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Netherbury’s date for garden lovers

No shortage of beautiful gardens at Netherbury

EVERY year the beginning of June brings the villagers of Netherbury together to participate in a very special garden event—the Gardens Open Weekend. Mary Poole, a past resident of Netherbury, started Gardens Open Weekend in 1963 to aid the church and today the organizers still aim to raise money for the church but also support a range of village groups and charities that vary from year to year.

Netherbury is a beautiful Dorset village with an amazing variety of gardens to view. As a visitor to the village you could walk around admiring the historic church and houses but never see the secret colourful gardens that hide behind the walls and gates. They range from large to small, old to new and grand to informal, all with an individual charm. Some have reached dizzy heights with the accolade of being featured in glossy magazines, others have views to die for and all are havens for their garden loving owners. Many happy hours; admittedly sometimes back breaking, are spent preparing the gardens for visitors to enjoy but by the opening lunchtime the owners can hopefully stand up, feel proud of their achievements and look forward to the pleasure of sharing their passion for gardening with others. As you explore the open gardens you could find an immaculate Mr McGregor style vegetable plot, amble down a path to a distant shady seat, admire the diversity of planting in a themed colour room, stimulate your senses surrounded by a knot of herbs or count the fish in a reflective pond.

Whatever the weather the show must go on. Come rain or shine you’ll be greeted with a warm smile; and a question and answer session can always be conducted under the protection of a shared umbrella!

If it’s hot, there is plenty of shade under the trees. If it’s cool, it’s perfect weather for walking round the village and if it rains ... well, gardens need water, and any-

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way, there is always next year.

The village prides itself on the quality of the homemade lunches served in the village hall. Tea and cakes are available in a number of locations to refresh visitors and local wines and cider can be found at the old Star Inn. Over the weekend the catering volunteers can prepare and serve over 200 delicious lunches and with over 50 cakes on offer you’re bound to find something to tempt you.

Besides the gardens there will be a variety of stalls selling plants, many of which are grown in the village, a tombola and some amazing restored railway carriages to admire.

Many visitors return year after year, some to gather new ideas and inspiration, others to enjoy the tranquillity and well being gardens offer.

This year the gardens are open on the weekend of June 10th and 11th, 1.00 – 5.00pm To date ten gardens will be open this year (three of which open for the National Gardens Scheme) and at £7.00 a ticket, valid for both days, accompanied children under 13 free and easy parking, it’s a must date for your diaries.

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Jazz and Blues

The Jive Aces

LYME Regis Jazz and Blues Weekend, 26th to 28th May, brings some of the country’s most exciting bands and performers to the Marine Theatre.

The opening night gig, from 8pm, features The Jive Aces and Amy Baker.

The six-piece band has an international reputation for high energy performances guaranteed to get you on your feet—or dancing in your seat!

On Saturday 27th, the star is Britain’s R&B queen Ruby Turner, best known for her work with the Jools Holland R&B Orchestra. One of the best female singers in Britain today, Ruby combines the vocal power of Janis Joplin with the gospel soul of Aretha Franklin.

On Sunday afternoon at 4.30pm, the Swing Unlimited All Stars Big Band brings the music of Count Basie bang

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in Lyme Regis

Ruby Turner

up to date in The Count Basie Project, featuring old favourites and new arrangements and originals never performed before.

The festival ends with one of the country’s most exciting blues bands, the Cornish-based Wille and The Bandits, on stage from 8pm. This three piece combo fuses the spirit of Jimi Hendrix with the Delta blues, mixing slide guitar, gritty vocals and pulsating beats to create an exhilarating British blues sound.

Willie and The Bandits

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Vegetables in May

By Fergus Dowding

O

h joy! Dancing around the Maypole at last! And the added happiness of transplanting our high summer fruiting crops—tomatoes, french and runner beans—and courgettes. The courgette is a beautiful plant, a dramatic size and shape with exotic leaves adding drama to the summer garden.

Sowing the courgette seed on its side helps avoid the seed rotting. Its top edge should be one seed’s width below the soil surface, as with most seeds.

This is best done indoors for extra night-time warmth, and try to avoid planting outdoors before mid to late May. Often the slug gets the blame for killing your little plant, but it is usually because it is too cold, the plant is weak and susceptible. As always, fleece will help.

They are a greedy crop, needing at least a square yard each, lots of organic matter, and plenty of soil moisture. Pile lots of compost over the soil around the plant as a moisture mulch. The first fruit never grow large, so pick them small.

So long as they have plenty of moisture, food and warmth, they’ll do well. If growing in a pot, put plenty of seaweed feed in your water to keep them fruiting By August they sense the end of the year coming, and their leaves naturally begin to die back to let the sun in to ripen the fruits below. They get mildew and cause gardeners distress, but it’s quite natural, although keeping the soil well watered will help.

Defender and Black Beauty seem to be the best all round varieties, and keep fruiting into the autumn. The courgette is technically a Summer Squash, and you may like to play with the many exotic and novel varieties on offer. Every year we resolve to pick the fruits young, as they are definitely sweetest, but the plant’s own resolve to grow a huge marrow without you spotting it nearly always succeeds! And did you know there are only three types of people? Those who can count and those who can’t.

What to sow in May: Virtually all summer crops can be sown this month, although it is risky to plant out heat lovers like French and runner beans until late in the month.

Also winter cabbage, purple sprouting and second crops of lettuce and beetroot.

We were given this plant of variety Dundoo a few years ago. It sent its fruits upward which made it easier to spot, but did not have staying power and gave up fruiting by early autumn

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May in the Garden

By Russell Jordan

W

ith April, so far, having been peculiarly dry and bright, I am loathed to second guess how May will behave. Apparently, we’ve just had the driest winter for many years so, if this month proves hotter and drier than normal, it begins to store up problems if the lack of soil moisture becomes a limiting factor on plant growth. It may not be good for our, ‘post-Broadchurch’, tourist industry but I’m hoping for a good spell of rain to redress the balance (sorry).

With clear skies, bringing sun by day, there is always the danger that the night time temperature may drop low enough to produce a ground frost. With that caveat, in the relatively mild southwest, it should soon be safe to plant out tender bedding plants, having grown them to a suitable size under the protection of glass. Keep a ‘duvet’ of horticultural fleece to hand just in case overnight temperatures take a tumble.

If you buy your bedding plants, or tender perennials, from a garden centre then it’s always a good idea to acclimatise them first, by bringing them in at night before final planting out, as the chances are they will have come straight from a nursery’s heated glasshouse, via the garden centre. The shock of a cold night, in the cold ground, will stress them even if it doesn’t completely kill them.

I’ve been experimenting a bit with overwintering ‘one hit’ bedding plants. Last year I grew a white Antirrhinum (‘Snapdragon’) from seed and it produced good, almost woody, plants by the time the summer bedding displays were dismantled in the autumn. I had noticed previously that Snapdragons often survive the winter, albeit somewhat weakened, so it was logical to pot up the best mature specimens and keep them in a cold frame over winter. These plants are currently already trying to flower and will be weeks ahead of any raised anew from seed.

Success all round I’d say.

The Cleome, ‘Spider Flowers’, that I grew last year proved to be really good gap-fillers, in the main border, so I’ve sown more but shall deploy them earlier this time as they spent too long suffering, in tiny pots, last year because I didn’t entirely know what to do with them! In fact, this annoyingly dry April has reminded me just how time-consuming it is to keep plants, in pots, wellwatered if Dame Mother Nature isn’t doing her job by providing natural overhead irrigation.

The garden I work in is blessed with an ample quantity of garden taps and hose-reels, so there is no part that cannot be

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reached if watering becomes a necessity. When I used to ‘Design and Maintain’ London gardens, straight after leaving Uni, the first thing we always did, with a new client, was to ensure they got a plumber to install an outside tap, if there wasn’t one already. There is absolutely no point in spending hundreds of pounds on lovely new plants if they end up dying because watering becomes too much of a chore.

It goes without saying that, where at all possible, you should be collecting and storing rainwater, there are loads of products available for this, rather than using good, clean, mains water on plants that, frankly, don’t appreciate the effort that has gone into making drinking water safe for we delicate humans. Also, most of the fancy orchids, along with other exotic plants sold as houseplants, are poisoned by the water that comes out of our taps.

The reason for this was explained to me recently, by an impressive young plant expert from nearby Chideock. Even though I remember it was due to microscopic pores getting clogged, by the stuff in tap water, the precise mechanism of damage went a little over my head. It’s been a long time since I sat in a lecture room learning about active and passive solute movement on a plant cell level!

Back to the macro level; shrubs which flowered in the spring should be pruned this month, now that their flowers have faded.

Employ the ‘one in three’ method; prune out the oldest wood / flowered stems so that established shrubs never get the chance to become senile. This maintains the best balance between vigour, flowering capability and youth. Good, old-fashioned, ‘Woolworths shrubs’ (weigela, deutzia, philadelphus etc.) soon become dull great lumps if not kept invigorated by this routine maintenance.

It’s a good maxim to remember, while gardening, that a vigorous plant is a plant more fit and able to fight off pests and diseases. This is why you do all the boring stuff like feeding, weeding, mulching and watering. If the soil is kept healthy then it follows that the plants that rely on it, for their every need, will grow better if that soil is improved and nurtured on a continuous basis.

Again, in a similar vein, I feel that I should mount a campaign against soil compaction...

I really do think the most gardens suffer much more than we realise simply because the soil has had all the life squeezed out of it. Spiking and gently lifting the soil, to a fork’s depth, gets air back into the upper root zone and allows water, plus surface applied nutrients, to enter the soil structure.

I was always taught, as a volunteer in National Trust gardens, to keep a border fork handy at all times and to ‘lift out’ EVERY footprint made when walking on cultivated ground. I still endeavour to do this, or at least make a mental note that, having stepped into a border, I must return and aerate the areas that I’ve stepped on.

It’s just ‘good horticultural practice’.

As it warms up, ponds and water gardens can be tidied by removing overgrown aquatic plants and reestablishing the balance between the amount of plant cover and the area of open water. Vigorous water plants, irises, reeds, rushes and the like, may need to be decimated, every now and again, to keep them in check. Do not dump these in the wild, where they may become a pest of natural water courses, but chop them up and compost them.

My own, ‘tiny but deep’ (i.e.not child friendly), formal pond has matured nicely to the point where there’s been a frenzy of newt activity going on in recent weeks. I love all the indigenous aquatic life, but it does take a toll on my ‘White Cloud Mountain Minnow’ fry.

The minnow population is self-sustaining, in a good year, but new adults must be added, in high summer, if not enough fry survive to maturity. Bigger fish, like the ubiquitous goldfish, would survive without needing to be replenished but they would wipe out the smaller aquatic life. ‘WCMMs’ ensure midge larvae can’t get established but at the expense that they themselves get predated by dragonfly larvae, et al, if not the newts.

It’s all part of ‘life’s rich tapestry’ I guess.

May is the month that the garden tapestry gets rich and saturated. If you are not privileged enough to have your own pleasure ground, it’s a good time to get hold of the ‘Yellow Book’ (‘National Garden Scheme’ guide to garden openings) and plan to visit gardens open for charity over the summer. You get all the loveliness of a well-tended garden… with none of the back-breaking work ;-)

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All the World’s a Stage

By Cecil Amor “AND all the men and women merely players” said William Shakespeare in As You Like It. Most of us like to go to the theatre from time to time and we have several well established venues in this area. Bridport has the Electric Palace, the Arts Centre and The Lyric.

Various church halls and village halls also host performances. This was not always so and outside the town strolling players may have performed in the open air, on village greens.

In the 18th and 19th century troupes of performers would visit Bridport from time to time setting up in fields or rented halls, like the Drill Hall. The Salisbury Company of Players travelled to Dorchester in 1792 and happened to stop in Bridport. One of their actors, Henry Lee and his wife left the company and set up their own company based in Barnstaple. They had a son, Henry Fitzherbert Lee who eventually changed his name to Herbert Lee, to avoid confusion. The touring company under Henry Lee came to Bridport again and his son, Herbert Lee married a Bridport girl, Charlotte Balston in the parish church on 3rd February 1823 according to Victor J. Adams in the Dorset Year Book. In 1826 Henry Lee built a theatre in Bridport, near the Bull Inn, partly in a wheelwright’s yard, in Chancery Lane which he named “The New Theatre (Drury Lane) Bridport”. The site of the theatre is now “Bartholomew Hall”. The theatre opened in December 1826 and a report stated that “it was crowded to excess by all the fashion of the town” for a production of Richard III in January. However the theatre then closed on 23rd February 1827 as the company went to Taunton for a season.

They returned to Bridport in1831 and 1834 for six to eight weeks. Herbert Lee is believed to have taken over the Bridport theatre from his father in 1828.

The New Theatre (Drury Lane) was very small. Its total size was only 48ft. long by 21ft wide and 14ft high, which included a stage, dressing rooms, boxes, a pit, gallery and stage and audience door. The outside was of weatherboard with some good low stone walls.

Heating and lighting were very basic and Lee’s Stage Manager described it as “the most wretched hole imaginable”.

A plan of Henry Lee’s theatre appeared in Nine Years of an Actor’s Life, by Robert Dyer, 1833. I am indebted to Ron Bishop and the late John Jaggard,

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Bridport History Society members, for the details of the theatre. The ticket prices were 3s. in a box, 2s. for a seat on a bench in the pit and 1s. in the gallery. London prices were double these.

Usually there were three performances per week with the programme consisting of two parts, beginning with a serious play and after the intermission, a farce or comic songs.

Lee also opened a theatre in Dorchester in 1828, where his company had previously played from 1791 and a renowned actor of the time, Edmund Kean had perhaps been “discovered”. The journal of Mary Frampton for 1814 includes a letter from Mr Wollaston writing “How happy the people of Dorchester may be....having had an opportunity of seeing the great Mr Kean”. This was after he became well known. Did he play earlier in Bridport? A plaque on the side of the Dorchester cafe “The Horse with the Red Umbrella” on High West Street states “Dorchester Theatre 1828 - 1843, Proprieter Charles Curme.

George Curme Mayor 1845, 1886 - 87”.

(Plaque noted by Bill Holden, Bridport History Society). In 1830 Henry Lee wrote of the theatre near the Antelope Inn Yard on the Trinity Street site, bearing a resemblance to the old theatre in Orchard Street, Bath. He believed this was where Kean played before his engagement in Drury Lane. Kean was also ordered to appear in Windsor Castle by George III. Florence Hardy wrote in 1930 that Kean had stayed with his wife and child at an inn called “The Little Jockey” on Glyde Path Hill.

The child died there and was buried in Trinity Churchyard on 24th November 1813, the headstone reading “Howard, son of Edmund and Mary Kean”.

Thomas Hardy was also interested in Kean and wrote in his Facts Notebook that he believed he had succeeded in finding where Kean had played “Octavian”, having met a Henry Davis who had been born in a house adjacent to the theatre.

Returning to Bridport, in 1835 Lee handed over management of his troupe to one of its members, Edward Dean Davis. Davis converted premises opposite Wykes Court House (now a car park) into a larger and improved theatre in 1836, installing gas lighting in 1843.

Prices were reduced to 2s. in a box, 1s. in the pit and gallery 6d. Unfortunately

the new building, mainly wooden, was burnt to the ground and following this tragedy the company did not return to Bridport.

In 1834 Bridport Town Hall had been used as an occasional theatre, as a playbill in Dorset History Centre describes.

That “celebrated juvenile actor, Master B. Grossmith, but 7 years old” appeared in Travellers’ Trials and “Number Nipp, or the spirit of the Katskill Mountains”.

Then with his brother he performed The Two Barbers. Boxes were 3s., the Pit 2s. with the gallery for servants and working persons at 1s. “Carriages to be ordered at half past ten”. How times change!

Bridport History Society meets on Tuesday 9th May at 2.30 pm in the Main Hall, Bridport United Church, East Street when Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard will discuss “Bridport 1700 - 1930”. All welcome, visitors fee £ 2-50.

Cecil Amor, Hon. President Bridport History Society.

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PROPERTY ROUND-UP

New to the market for the new season

By Helen Fisher

ILMINSTER £825,000

DRIMPTON £775,000

Knight Frank Tel: 01935 804634

Humberts Tel: 01308 422215

An imaginative multi-level barn conversion created in 1996 by conjoining 2 period barns. With 4 bedrooms, the living space has been designed to take advantage of the south facing setting. Views over the gardens and grounds, down to Dowlish Brook plus an established orchard. Ample parking.

TRINITY HILL £550,000

Situated in a peaceful location approached through woodlands via a long, private tree lined drive is this large, characterful 3 bedroom home. Beautifully presented throughout with a galleried landing and an impressive 31ft sitting room. Large south facing gardens, 2 garages and parking.

Gordon and Rumsby Tel: 01297 553768

CHARMOUTH £635,000

With some of the most outstanding views to Lyme Bay and east to Portland Bill from this 4 bedroom family home. With a triple aspect sitting room featuring a large wood burning stove. Gardens and grounds with fruit trees, greenhouse and deck area overlooking a wildlife pond plus 3 useful outbuildings.

Symonds and Sampson Tel: 01308 422092 54 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

A comfortable and well presented Grade II listed former farmhouse with 6 bedrooms. With many popular period features inc: high ceilings, window shutters, fireplaces and flagstone floors. Secluded garden with views over the Axe Valley. Workshop and ample parking. All set in about 4 acres.

MONKWOOD £750,000

A charming former farmhouse with 4 bedrooms. Many characterful features inc: exposed beams, stone fireplace plus log burner and spacious conservatory. Plus separate, detached holiday cottage and outbuildings. Gardens and grounds with stocked lake with fishing license. Set in 17 acres.

Stags Tel: 01308 428000

PRESTON £500,000

A striking detached home, refurbished to very high specifications. Spacious living throughout with 4 bedrooms. Double patio doors onto an elevated sun terrace. Stunning views towards the sea and Portland. Rear garden and private parking. No onward chain.

Goadsby Tel: 01305 832021

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Piscatorial Parenting

By Nick Fisher

I

n the old days, dads were blokes. Just blokes. They did blokethings. When their kids were born, they smoked cigars and drank whisky down the pub. They worked all week and brought home small brown envelopes containing wages. They went to football on Saturdays and fell asleep in front of the telly on Sunday afternoons.

They kept their off-spring at arm’s length. And their missus in the dark. Then came Feminism. Equality. Parity in the workplace. And of course, ‘parenting’. Back in the old days, dads were just dads. Now, they’re ‘parents’. And they have a role to play. They don’t get to just be strong, silent, impenetrable figures with a tobacco pouch and too much facial hair.

‘I’m worried I’m not doing enough with them’ said my Londonbased mate Michael, with a familiar whine. He’s worried about the way he’s parenting his two boys. ‘We don’t get out enough together.

Into the country or anything. Don’t do enough guy-stuff. Like fishing.’

Too many city dads only practise pocket-parenting. They dig deep in an attempt to buy their way out of time-eating responsibilities and into the affections of their boys. Computer games, bedroom-based portable TV sets and mobile phones are the currency they use to curry favour.

Time is what kids want most. Time with their dads to have adventures. Now, spending a day on a spine-bucking boat in the chilly west winds of the Bristol Channel, with a bunch of hairy-arsed blokes, trying to feed sea bass with purple snapping rag worms, may not be every young boy’s idea of an adventure. But many years ago my eldest Rory, soon to celebrate his eighth birthday, jumped at my offer like a Jack Russell snapping at a chocolate Hob Nob. ‘I’d love to’ he answered when I asked him if he’d like to come along. ‘Can I bring my penknife?’ When his younger brother Rex was told he couldn’t come too, because he was too small, his reaction was as energetic as his brother’s. Only, his was a reaction of outrage, injustice...rejection. ‘Why can’t I come?’ he asked, with a face like a mime-artist who’d just been slapped with a fillet of haddock. ‘You’re too small’ I explained. ‘When you’re eight, you can come too’.

The prospect of waiting three years, in order to be allowed to skewer a rag worm with a size three hook and drink hot sweet tea from a mug, while watching your rod tip for nobbly bites, seemed too severe. So, he broke into big fat splashy tears. I promised him a night out lamping for rabbits instead. Some consolation. But my wife Helen assured me that dealing with a little disappointment and learning he couldn’t do everything his big brother did would be good for him.

So, we went out of Minehead on the north Devon coast aboard Dave Robert’s boat Aly Cat. Dave’s got two young daughters of his own, so it’s a child-friendly boat, with a competent patient skipper in charge.

We drift-fished across stony ground, bumping leads on the sea bed, somewhere off the Welsh coast. Within an hour, Rory had caught a five and a half pound bass. A beast of a fish. The biggest bass of the

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day. Bigger in fact than any bass I’ve caught this year... or any year, come to that.

Later in the day, when we fished at anchor in a sheltered bay off the windswept Welsh coast, he then caught the biggest skate of the day.

And, given the choice of taking it home to impress and feed his mum with fat juicy caper-dripping baked skate wings, or let it go. He chose the latter option. He didn’t need a prize to heft home. He was happy just with the memory and a snap. God, I often wish I was as mature as my eight year old son!

Maybe the fish doesn’t matter. As adults we assume that the joy of a day’s fishing, the adventure, is the reward. The catch. The thing with fins. I asked Rory later what he liked best about the whole day out. He hesitated, deep in thought, replaying the highlights. Then he answered ‘Using the smart rod.’ You see, Dave had lent him his best fishing rod for the day. A gleaming gold affair, made by Penn with a matching gold multiplier reel. It was a fabulous bit of kit.

‘What about the bass?’ I asked. ‘I liked the sausage too’ he answered, ignoring my fish-obsessed line of questioning. Dave has the habit of cooking up hot pork sausages on the boat’s grill pan in the middle of the day. And serving them up between slices of thick white bread. ‘Yeah, I really liked the sausage’ smiled Rory.

So, does that mean I could simply have taken him on any old boat, anywhere? Stuck a fancy rod in his mitt and a hot banger bap in his gob and he’d have been happy?

Or, would I have been better off sticking him in front of a Disney video with a family-sized bag of Cheesy Wotsits.

Would this have been just as effective? Just as good ‘parenting’?

Doing the right thing as a dad is a confusing business. You do what you think is right, but the reaction isn’t always what you’d expect.

I remember going on boat trips with my dad, when I was eight. We went cod and mackerel fishing from Largs in Scotland. Oddly enough, I don’t remember the fish we caught. Not that we ever caught that many. But I do remember the excitement of being along on the trip.

I remember the thrill of being with grown-ups for a day. I was the only child aboard those boats and somehow that was a special thrill.

Being out of my element. Existing in an adult world. Enjoying the rare pleasure of being amongst men.

As a child you rarely spend time with adults who are not your parents, unaccompanied by other kids. When you’re with you parents, it’s easy to behave like a child. It’s expected of you, even when you’re the older brother. Yet being amongst men brings out a more mature nature.

You feel somehow duty-bound to act big, or else you let yourself down.

Maybe what we achieve when we take our kids along to do the things we love, like shooting and fishing, is not so much introduce them to the raw and wonderful world of nature, but instead introduce them to a part of themselves they otherwise never get to see.

I don’t know if taking my boys along to fish and shoot, makes me a good dad. But I’m sure it makes them better boys.

Food&Dining Celebrating Food by the Sea FOOD fans may want to check out the Spring Tide Food Festival at Hive Beach, Burton Bradstock, DT6 4RF on Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 May, 10am – 4pm. Enjoy some of the best local food, drink, art and entertainment available on this outstanding coastline. Free parking for National Trust members. Admission £2 including National Trust members.

Under 12’s are free. For more information see www.nationaltrust.org.uk/burton-bradstock

May 2017 Food Markets Please check dates and times with venues or organisers

Sat 6th Thur 11th Fri 12th Sat 13th

Thur 18th Fri 19th Sat 20th Thur 25th Sat 27th

Poundbury, Queen Mother Square, 9am - 1pm Shaftesbury, Town Hall, 9am - 1pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street, 9am - 1pm Blandford, Blandford Forum, 9am - 1pm Bridport, Bridport Arts Centre, 9am - 1pm Martock, Moorlands Precinct, 10am - 1pm Yarcombe, Village Hall - 10am - 12noon Purbeck, Commercial Rd, Swanage, 10am - 1pm Honiton, St Paul’s Church, High St, 8.30am - 1pm Sherborne, Cheap St, 9am - 1pm Seaton, Town Hall, 9am - 1pm Wimborne, Market Square, 9am - 1pm Crewkerne, The Henhayes Centre, 9am - 1pm Wareham, Town Hall, East Street, 9am - 1pm Dorchester South, High Street, 9am - 4pm Barrington, Village Hall, 10am - 12noon Yeovil, Middle Street, 9am - 2pm

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 57

SOUFFLÉ OMELETTE WITH BLUE VINNY INGREDIENTS

▪ 15g butter + extra for cooking ▪ 15g plain flour ▪ 100ml milk ▪ 1 bay leaf ▪ grating of nutmeg ▪ 2 free-range eggs, separated ▪ 30g Blue Vinny, crumbled

LESLEY WATERS

Serves 1-2

DIRECTIONS 1

Place butter in pan and heat until melted, add flour and cook for 1 minute.

2

Add milk, bay leaf and stir well, cook for 3 minutes. Season with nutmeg salt and pepper.

3

Remove pan from heat and beat in egg yolks.

4

Whisk egg whites until just stiff. Beat in a spoonful of the egg white to loosen the mixture and fold the rest into yolk mixture.

5

Place a small frying pan over a medium heat, add a small knob of butter.

6

Add the egg mixture and cook for 1minute until firm and lightly golden on the bottom side. Scatter over the Blue Vinny and place in the oven for 1-2 minutes until puffed, golden and just set.

7

Remove the pan from the oven and score the omelette in half then flip over.

8

Serve the omelette on a serving plate with the watercress candied walnut salad and asparagus. Serve straight away.

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Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 59

ASPARAGUS SOLDIERS WITH SOFT-BOILED EGG HOLLANDAISE This is a quick and rather nifty way to enjoy the combination of tender, fresh asparagus and a buttery, eggy sauce without any of the work that a proper hollandaise requires. And it’s an awful lot of fun to eat. As with all asparagus recipes, get the very freshest spears you can.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

▪ About 20 asparagus spears ▪ 2 large eggs, at room temperature ▪ A knob of unsalted butter ▪ A little cider vinegar ▪ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1

Prepare the asparagus by snapping off any woody ends (the spears will break naturally where they are tender). You could steam the asparagus spears above the boiling eggs – if very freshly cut, they will take about the same amount of time. Otherwise, simmer or steam the asparagus separately until tender but not too floppy – 8 minutes at the most for the thickest stems.

Time them so they are ready just ahead of the eggs.

Serves 2

2

Meanwhile, bring another pan of water to the boil. Carefully lower in the eggs and simmer for about 4 minutes, (the yolk must be quite runny or the hollandaise effect will be hard to achieve). Drain the asparagus well as soon as it is cooked and divide the spears between 2 warm plates. Transfer the eggs to egg cups and put them on the plates with the asparagus.

3

To eat, crack the egg and take off enough of the top to expose the runny yolk. Drop a nut of butter, a few drops of cider vinegar and some salt and pepper into the yolk, stir with a bit of asparagus, dip and eat. You can add a little more butter, vinegar and seasoning as you go. Some brown bread and butter won’t go amiss.

HUGH FEARNLEY WHITTINGSTALL

This recipe features in “River Cottage Every Day”, published by Bloomsbury, and available from rivercottage.net. Photography © Simon Wheeler Enjoy a taste of River Cottage at our Food Fair over the weekend of 27-29 May. We’ll have cookery demos, hands-on cooking masterclasses and great food. There will be plenty of entertainment for the kids with donkey rides, bubble workshops, falconry displays and more. Tickets are £17.50 and under 16s are free. For more details and to book see www.rivercottage.net or call Tamsyn in our Events Team on 01297 630302.

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Spring Fair at River Cottage THE much anticipated River Cottage Spring Food Fair will be held outside Axminster over the late May Bank Holiday on 27, 28, 29. It is a real treat for the senses and a must-visit for foodies and gardeners. It’s also a chance to get the family down to River Cottage, to explore the farm nestled in gorgeous East Devon and to indulge in the sights, sounds and tastes of spring in the heart of the Devon countryside.

The Fair is packed full of activities and family fun— from chef demos, artisan food stalls, kids’ workshops, talks and live music to garden and foraging tours from River Cottage foraging guru John Wright.

River Cottage has confirmed an exciting line-up of chefs for demonstrations, tips and talks. Taking to the Main Stage are Gill Meller, Matthew Fort, Signe Johansen, Tom Hunt, Mark Hix, Louise Gray, Naomi Devlin and Rachel De Thample to name a few.

Organic kitchen gardener, chef and writer, Stephanie Hafferty will speak on the Garden Stage with Charles Dowding, market gardener, author, teacher and ‘no dig’ advocate alongside River Cottage’s head Gardener Will Livingstone and many other garden experts. Talks hosted on the Garden Stage will cover all aspects of organic, sustainable and unique horticultural methods including; seed-saving, biodynamics, market gardening, no dig, soil and compost and much more.

For more information and to book tickets, visit the website: www.rivercottage. net/springfoodfair. River Cottage is running a free park and ride service to and from the Fair or add to the experience with VIP parking onsite available for just £5 per car.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 61

NETTLE SOUP WITH SNAILS Nettles are plentiful and free so a perfect flavouring for a soup at this time of year. Snails and nettles are a perfect marriage, although if you are a bit squeamish about snails you could leave them out. There are a few online companies that sell freshly cooked snails, which are far superior to the canned ones. www.dorsetsnails.co.uk are my personal favorite.

MARK HIX

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

▪ 1 large or 2 small leeks, roughly chopped and washed well ▪ 60g butter ▪ 40g flour ▪ 1.5 litres vegetable stock ▪ A couple handfuls of young nettle tops, any Woody stalks removed and washed ▪ Salt and freshly ground black pepper ▪ A handful of green garlic shoots or wild garlic leaves to finish ▪ 2tbsp double cream to finish (optional) ▪ 12 cooked snails Serves 4

1

Heat the butter in a pan and gently cook the leeks for 4-5 minutes with a lid on, stirring every so often. Stir in the flour then gradually add the stock, bring to the boil, season and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Add the nettles and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.

2

Blend in a liquidiser until smooth then re-season and adjust the consistency with a little water or more stock if necessary. Add the snails and cream (if you wish) and serve.

3

If you’re not eating the soup immediately, cool it down over a bowl of iced water so that it keeps its green colour.

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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PEOPLE IN FOOD

Katy Howell, photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

KATY HOWELL “I love the mornings when I wake up and go downstairs before the kids are awake, knowing I have 400 brownies to make that day”, says Katy Howell, creator, cook and owner of Bayside Bakery. That’s pretty much every morning for Katy now, as her brownie business is a brilliant success, ensuring she is busier and busier. Winning a Gold Award at Taste of the West, only one month in to starting the business, Katy’s brownies are claimed, by those in the know, to be the ‘best in the Western World’.

Katy has created a brownie niche for herself, supplying cafes in and around Bridport, as well as operating a stall in Bridport Market and Bridport Food Market. Sending brownies by post in beautiful gift boxes, Katy also creates stunning decorated brownie towers for weddings and parties. She bakes from her home kitchen in Loders. Since starting the business a couple of years ago, her husband Andy has had to extend the kitchen, installing an extra oven, just to keep up. As Andy is a handyman by trade, Katy admits he’s a useful husband to have around.

Previously, Katy worked for 12 years as a nurse in Intensive Care. She trained, worked and lived in Hampshire, alongside Andy, who also used to be a nurse. After a camping trip with friends at Highlands End, they made a life-changing decision over dinner one night; deciding they wanted to live near Bridport and have their children; Rosie and William attend a local village school. On a subsequent trip, they found Loders and knew it was the village for them. The family relocated and haven’t looked back. “I do constantly feel lucky and still pinch myself how lucky I am”, Katy smiles, while leaning over her mixing bowl, with Nina Simone’s Feeling Good triumphantly playing through the speakers.

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Arts &Entertainment

BAC

forward going

Laura Cockett talks to Fergus Byrne about Bridport Arts Centre

I

t’s fair to say that the first few months in a new job can be a challenge. There are new people to meet, new processes to learn, new procedures, new structures and a new environment to deal with, and on top of that there is often an information overload that can overwhelm even the most confident new employee.

But for Laura Cockett, Director of Bridport Arts Centre, the hidden challenges she faced when first arriving to take over the running of one of the finest community arts resources in the South West, left her feeling a little like a sparrow trying to get through a glass window. Enthusiastic plans that she had worked on whilst preparing for her move from Liverpool were met with a barrier that most people were simply not aware of.

Arriving at the end of 2014 she discovered that Bridport Arts Centre was in one of the worst financial positions in its long history and all of Laura’s hopes for new programmes, new initiatives and new energy had to go on hold. Things had reached a tipping point.

With the quiet professionalism that she exhibited throughout those turbulent times she explained what happened next. ‘When I arrived I found out quite early on that the Arts Centre was in some serious financial difficulty’ she explained. ‘I suppose the first six or seven months was very much about a sort of race against time to arrest its declining financial fortunes.’ The situation was so bad that, at Trustee level, discussions were about the risk of insolvency. ‘It was really serious’ she admits.

She embarked on a series of fairly drastic and imaginative cost-cutting exercises as well as a programme of research to see how the Arts Centre could operate sustainably. The job left little room for any rosetinted hope of a local arts centre muddling through. The only way to progress was to take tough decisions and scramble to find funding. And that also meant getting the message out that Bridport Arts Centre is a charity and like every other local charity it needed local support. ‘We seemed to have

64 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

stopped saying that’ said Laura. Despite a general perception to the contrary, only 16 – 17% of the money needed to operate Bridport Arts Centre comes from public funding. The rest is raised from ticket sales, private donations, membership and funding initiatives.

She and the Trustees realised that capital development, always a subject under discussion, was now very necessary. However, like in any business, raising capital takes time and immense perseverance. But thanks to a concerted effort, Laura and her team managed to secure a capital development grant that was topped up by donations from the local community.

From then on everybody involved in Bridport Arts Centre found themselves on a rollercoaster, one that often seemed to be on an endless loop. Ensconced in a Portacabin on the forecourt of the old Wesleyan Chapel the team worked on their programmes, sold tickets and carried on the day to day work and the forward planning necessary to run the Arts Centre. At the same time they were dealing with both the inevitable fallout from tough decisions and the unavoidable problems associated with any capital project—not least the difficulties associated with one where the time scale was determined by the threat that funding could be withdrawn if the job didn’t progress in time.

Describing it as ‘a really ambitious capital development project’, Laura points out that the current improvements are just one stage in the evolution of the building. ‘We are stewards of this community resource’ she said. ‘I won’t be here forever. The Trustees won’t all be here forever. We are doing our best in the time that we are here to preserve and strengthen the Arts Centre so that it can really go on and thrive, and we need to work with our community to do that. It was a very mad time but we’re really grateful for all the support from the community. And

the thing that I think touched us the most was that we raised over £40,000 in donations from local people, which shows how much they care about this venue and how much they believed in what we were doing.’

Now, two and a half years later, Laura feels that she can begin to advance the plans she had before she took the job. ‘It’s as if I’m back to my first day’ she says. ‘Now I’m really able to start focussing on the things that I want to see us doing.’ She has set up an ambitious programme of initiatives that have young people, those with young families, and the local community in general, at their heart. She is very excited about the ‘Backstage Pass’ youth membership scheme, which is free for young people, aged 14 to 25 to join. Through this initiative they can come to a selection of live events in each season for £5 and all films for £3. They also receive a copy of the Arts Centre’s brochure in the post. ‘It’s fantastic to see these young people arriving, clutching their yellow Backstage card and getting their £5 ticket’ she says. The system also has the advantage of helping the Arts Centre to reach the families and friends of those people who may not otherwise have thought to come.

Always concerned about the lack of provision for young people, especially in provincial towns, Laura is keen to expand on another programme run by the Arts Centre.

‘We’ve got a youth theatre which we’ve been running for years, which is now fully subscribed’ she explains. ‘But we’re starting to operate a waiting list and we’re considering whether or not we ought to be running two groups as it’s increasingly popular—because there’s such limited provision for young people.’ In the future she also hopes to start a young producer’s programme which will be promoted through the Backstage Pass membership, as well as through the youth theatre and local schools. The plan is to get a small group of young people together, who will be supported to work with the Arts Centre over a period of time, at least a year. They will meet regularly to create events themselves.

‘It’s a proper development opportunity’ she says, ‘where we will then talk to them about the kind of events that they want to put on. We have secured some funding so that the group of young producers will be given the building and a sum of money for a weekend, for three days, Friday to Sunday, to do what they want, for their peers. And then there is a longer term aim to run a young curators programme.’

As we live in a world where it is increasingly difficult to reach out to young people who are bombarded with digital input on an hourly basis, Laura is keen to ensure that these new initiatives are seen as something enabling and not just a token effort to fulfil a funding criteria. In January she set up a consultation event inviting young people to come along, and not just listen

Photographs

by Ismay Byrne

to what the Arts Centre were proposing, but to ask them what they really wanted.

She felt the feedback was fantastic, partly because, as she explained ‘We were really honest with them.’ She was clear with them about the limitations. ‘A lot of what I think goes on between young people and organisations and institutions where they live, is that there’s a tendency on one hand to decide what they want and need; and at the other extreme, I think to over promise, and that’s equally bad. What we did is we said, “We need to be really clear about and manage our expectations and your expectations, and let’s just be really frank”, and I think they really appreciated that.’

This effort to inject new energy and opportunity into Bridport Arts Centre doesn’t end with local youth. Laura and her team are working hard to develop the programme in order to make it easier for people to choose what they are interested in, but also to reach out particularly to even younger children and families. ‘We are a multi-arts venue in a small town that is trying to do something for everybody in the community’ she said, ‘and actually the challenge with that is it can make it seem unclear about what we do.’ Because venues like the Arts Centre need long lead-in times to produce programmes, it may not become apparent until 2018 but there are plans to include more shows, more workshops and new themes as well as subtle shifts in what’s on offer, both musically and through other arts projects.

She explained however that, as a venue, Bridport Arts Centre won’t be standing still. ‘We don’t always want to play safe.

We want to be able to take artistic risks and we want to invite our audiences to take risks in what they come and see, to try something new or try something they’re not sure they would like.’ Laura wants to see Bridport Arts Centre as a thriving venue ‘that takes a holistic approach to the way that it delivers work.’

Along with the professionalism that has helped weather the storm of the last couple of years, Laura also has high ambitions and a contagious zeal for the future of the Arts Centre. She hopes to continue to develop the building so that they can attract the very best work in visual arts and in performance. ‘We want to be a venue of national, and even, dare I say it, international reputation’ she says.

And as she says, there is no standing still. A recent successful application to the Arts Council to help the team become better at fund raising means that every time someone makes a gift to the organisation, the arts council will match that money pound for pound for three years.

It is clear that every penny raised makes an enormous difference and with the right support there is little doubt that Bridport Arts Centre has a bright future.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 65

Museums&Galleries 29 April - 27 May George Young: Recent Paintings The Art Stable is delighted to be presenting a fourth solo exhibition by the artist George Young. In his new show, a series of paintings featuring people, places or objects with which he has great familiarity, the artist wants to pinpoint the essence of his subject. In these bold, hard hitting works he seeks the third dimension, he captures presence and personality.

This is a new departure for Young whose earliest paintings were marked by a hazy, other-worldliness, the paintings sometimes left unfinished to create a sense of detachment, a fleeting moment. George Young grew up in Durweston, Dorset and now lives in Brixton. Since his MA at the Royal College of Art, Young has showed in London, New York, Los Angeles, Brussels and Stockholm as well as three previous solo exhibitions at the Art Stable. The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Blandford, Dorset, DT11 8HB, 01258 863866.

Until 5 May Major Show of Paintings by Michael Morgan RI (1928 - 2014). Over 40 works spanning the years 1998 – 2012. Also introducing paintings by Grandson Ben Morgan. Contact the gallery for a free 40-page catalogue.

The paintings are also on the web site and are for sale. Marine House at Beer, Fore Street, Beer, Devon EX12 3EF www.marinehouseatbeer. co.uk info@marinehouseatbeer.co.uk Telephone 01297 625257.

5 – 29 May Art in Motion: Seven Sportscars That Shaped The Future. The art and beauty of automotive design, combined with the enduring genius of innovative engineering, will be celebrated at Messums Wiltshire throughout the month of May. Messums Wiltshire, Place Farm, Court St, Tisbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP3 6LW. Email: info@messumswiltshire.com. Tel: 01747 445042 Until 6 May Russell Coulson Exhibition at St Andrew’s Church, Charmouth. Russell is a local artist who has had a varied career in advertising and design. He has worked as a designer/illustrator for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar and also for Disney and Warner Bros. Russell has drawn and painted all his life and his love of line and colour sets him alight and informs every aspect of his exciting and diverse work. Go to see this multi-talented Charmouth artist who is in residence, painting and available to discuss his work, every day from 9am - 1pm. Friday 28 April – Preview from 6pm – 9pm. Licensed bar. Saturday 29 April – Art and cake 9am - 1pm. This event is organised by Changing Spaces@St. Andrews as part of a programme to use the church to benefit the village.

6 – 20 May I Was Always For Boats: David Brayne RWS White Space Art are delighted to host a one man exhibition one of the region’s finest contemporary artists. 12noon – 4pm White Space Art, 72 Fore Street,

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Totnes, Devon TQ9 5RU www. whitespaceart.com.

6 May – 24 June Blooming Marvellous Knitters and crocheters aged 2 – 99 have created a life-size knitted garden, which comes to Thelma Hulbert Gallery (THG), Honiton this May as part of a national tour. Over 5,000 people with a wide range of abilities created the garden, including families, knitting groups, schools, Brownies and those with visual impairments and learning disabilities. As the garden tours the U.K., local people at each exhibition venue add further knitted or crocheted pieces so it continues to grow and flourish like a real garden. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

Free admission, donations welcome.

Thelma Hulbert Gallery (THG), Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LX www.thelmahulbert.com 01404 45006.

Until 7 May Oliver Warman Exhibition at the Axminster Arts Café. His working life was spent in the army and he painted (always in oil colours) all over the world. He showed in the Royal Academy for ten years and now teaches a small band of students locally, whilst continuing with his work lecturing at Oxford and London universities on War 1869 onwards and the Holocaust. Arts Café, Old Courthouse, Axminster EX13 5AQ. 01297 631455. Opening hours: MonSat: 9am – 4pm, Sunday 10am – 2pm.

Elisabeth Frink: Transformation Hauser & Wirth Somerset presents a major solo exhibition of sculpture by

the late Elisabeth Frink. Hauser & Wirth Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL. Email: somerset@ hauserwirth.com Tel: 01749 814 060 Djordje Ozbolt: Brave New World Hauser & Wirth, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL. Email: somerset@hauserwirth.com Tel: 01749 814 060 7 – 21 May Robert Organ The Malthouse Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. 10.30am - 4.30pm. Free admission. www.townmillarts.co.uk. An exhibition of work by acclaimed English painter Robert Organ, curated by Deborah Wood of The Art Room. With careers in painting and architecture, Robert gave up designing buildings and turned his attention to painting full-time. In 1978 he became artist in residence at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, which holds a number of his paintings in their permanent collection. At 84, Robert is still painting, continuing his

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 67

life-long pursuit of painting subjects that interest him, particularly people, human expression and behaviour. He is one of the few artists working today who have the skills to transfer these nuances into paint. He is also a master of the still life. In this exhibition we see Robert’s love of nature, superbly rendered new paintings of golden carp, verdant gardens and his beloved French landscape.

co.uk. An exhibition of paintings and photographs that celebrate the Town Mill, mills and milling in general and engineers and engineering in particular.

Until 10 May Glazed Sky-Traced Earth The Courtyard Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. 10.30am - 4.30pm. Free admission. www.townmillarts.co.uk. New work

by Lyme Regis-based painter Jools Woodhouse and potter Ali Herbert.

The two-week exhibition is a culmination of their recent individual discoveries of new styles, colour, form and influences that have come from living close to the sea.

13 – 21 May Time & Tide An exhibition of paintings, prints & jewellery by four local Dorset & Somerset artists - Liz Bath, Anne-Louise Bellis, Catrina Bruce, Mags Maxwell. Bringing together painting, printmaking and jewellery by four artists from Dorset and Somerset, all of whom are influenced by the rich and beautiful, vivid and varied local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. This show is a celebration of living and creating in the country, set at a new rural arts venue, itself in the heart of the countryside. At The Old Cow Shed Studio, Manor Farm, Glanvilles Wootton, Nr. Sherborne, DT9 5PZ.

11 – 24 May Millfest Open The Courtyard Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. 10.30am-4.30pm.

Free admission. www.townmillarts.

13 - 27 May An Exhibition of Fine Paintings of the Horse and Landscapes by Michelle McCullagh 11am – 5pm (Sunday 14 & 21 by appointment).

Works for sale, Entry free, family friendly. Guggleton Farm Arts Project, Station Road, Stalbridge, Dorset, DT10 2RQ. 01963 370219 ann.guggleton@gmail.com, www. guggleton.co.uk.

13 – 31 May New Work: Ann Armitage & Elsa Taylor Still life and landscape by two distinguished artists, who show a different approach to the subject making for a colourful, rich and varied experience. There are around 40 paintings in the show with prices ranging from £750 to £3,800. Ann Armitage moved from London down to Cornwall near Land’s End 10 years ago and took up painting full-time.

The visual and tactile act of painting is in direct response to her environment and she spends a lot of time simply arranging a still life. Lately, she has introduced more colour into her work and is now making more of an impression of the flower rather than being botanically correct. The paint is applied with palette knives and cloth in layers which is later scratched into to reveal glimpses of the under

Museums

Please telephone for opening hours Chard. 01460 65091.

Portland. 01305 715726.

High Street, Honiton.

01404 44966.

www.chardmuseum.co.uk.

ILCHESTER COMMUNITY MUSEUM High Street, Ilchester

www.honitonmuseum.co.uk

Church of Our Lady, North Road, Chideock. 01308 488348.

ALLHALLOWS MUSEUM

AXMINSTER HERITAGE

Silver Street, Axminster.

01297 639884. www.axminsterheritage.org

BEAMINSTER MUSEUM

Whitcombe Road, Beaminster.

01308 863623. www.beaminstermuseum. wordpress.com

BLANDFORD MUSEUM

CHIDEOCK MUSEUM

www.chideockmartyrschurch.org.uk

COLYTON HERITAGE CENTRE

Market Place, Colyton www.colytonheritagecentre.org

CREWKERNE & DISTRICT MUSEUM

The Heritage Centre, Market Square, Crewkerne. 01460 77079.

Bere’s Yard, Blandford Forum. 01258 www.crewkernemuseum.co.uk 450388.

DORSET COUNTY www.blandfordtownmuseum.org High West Street, Dorchester.

BRIDPORT MUSEUM 01305 262735.

South Street, Bridport. www.dorsetcountymuseum.org.

01308 422116.

EXMOUTH MUSEUM www.bridportmuseum.co.uk.

Sheppards Row, off Exeter Road, CASTLETON Exmouth. 07768 184127.

WATERWHEEL MUSEUM

Oborne Road, Sherborne. www.castletonwaterwheelmuseum. org.uk

CHARD MUSEUM

Godworthy House, High Street,

FAIRLYNCH ARTS CENTRE AND MUSEUM

27 Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton.

01395 442666.

GROVE PRISON MUSEUM

Governors Gardens, The Grove,

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(at the side of the Town Hall).

01935 841247.

LYME REGIS MUSEUM

Bridge Street, Lyme Regis.

01297 443370.

NOTHE FORT

Barrack Road, Weymouth. 01305 766626. www.fortressweymouth.co.uk.

PORTLAND MUSEUM

Hope Cottage, Church Street, Sidmouth. 01395 516139.

THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, ELMFIELD HOUSE

Dowell Street, Honiton.

01404 45006.

THE MILITARY MUSEUM OF DEVON AND DORSET

The Keep, Bridport Road, Dorchester. 01305 264066. www.keepmilitarymuseum.org.

TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS MUSEUM

217 Wakeham Portland. 01305 821804.

Tolpuddle, nr Dorchester.

01305 848237.

ROYAL ALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

3 Trinity Street, Weymouth. 01305 779711 or 812341.

Queen St, Exeter, EX4 3RX. 01392 665858.

SEATON MUSEUM

Top Floor, Seaton Town Hall, Fore Street, Seaton. 01297 21660.

SHERBORNE MUSEUM

Abbey gatehouse, Church Lane, Sherborne. 01935 812252. www.sherbornemuseum.co.uk.

SIDMOUTH MUSEUM

TUDOR HOUSE

www.weymouthcivicsociety.org.

WATER SUPPLY MUSEUM

Sutton Poyntz Pumping Station, Sutton Poyntz, Weymouth.

01305 832634 www.wessexwessex.co.uk.

WEYMOUTH MUSEUM

Brewers Quay Hope Square, Weymouth. 01305 457982 www.weymouthmuseum.org.uk

WOULD YOU LIKE TO INCLUDE YOUR GALLERY?

To include your gallery in these listings, please send details to info@marshwoodvale.com before the 10th of the month

colour. Elsa Taylor’s studio is in an old smithy on the side of the Cotswolds. Elsa’s landscapes are fairly abstract although retaining a figurative approach, working initially from nature the image evolves as she completes the painting in her studio.

Colour is very important and she spends a long time mixing the palette so all the colours are in harmony. The image has to be something that moves her in the beginning, maybe how the light falls on a single flower or maybe a building, such as a barn, appears on the landscape, resulting in something a little more mysterious. Gallery hours: Monday-Saturday, 9.30am-5pm, The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LN. 01935 815261, info@ jerramgallery.com, www. jerramgallery.com.

19 – 27 May Prep HE Summer Show The Preparation for Higher Education Summer Show celebrates the achievements of the university’s Foundation Diploma students, providing an exciting platform for them to showcase their final project to work to the public. The Preparation for Higher Education Show is the first part of the Summer Shows. AUB Campus, Arts University Bournemouth, Poole, Dorset. 01202 363272, www.aub.ac.uk/gallery.

20 May – 4 June Open For Art Weymouth, Portland, Dorchester. An Open Studios event run by ARTWEY in galleries, cafes, offices, libraries, town halls and artists own homes

or studios throughout the three towns above, brochures available in various venues and more details at www.artwey.co.uk.

20 May – 10 June Brutal Solitude As part of Open for Art b-side presents work by Bridport based photographer Brendan Buesnel. A visual observation of the stark yet meditative landscape, seascape and architecture of Portland, Dorset. Selected from a collection of photographs, taken by the artist for the b-side festival.

There is an understated tension in many of Brendan’s works people, buildings and natural landscapes are often on the cusp of change: the almost, about to, the moments of transition that take the viewer from one place or time to another, never settled or complacent, inviting us to share in the thoughtfulness of the moment. www. buesnelphotography.com 12noon - 5pm, Outpost, 77, Fortuneswell, Portland, DT5 1LY. Open Tues – Saturday.

26 May – 7 June Divine Essence The Courtyard Gallery, The Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. 10.30am - 4.30pm. Free admission. www.townmillarts. co.uk. Eclectic artist Liz Shewan continues to explore her experiences with nature in this year’s solo exhibition. Her connection with and love of all things spiritual and folklore mean her work is full of spiritual essence all with the aim to ‘Inspire your Heart’.

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The Marshwood ARTS AWARDS

David Parker - Conjugation, Steel, 4000 x 4000 x 600 mm

WITH the 2017 Marshwood Arts Awards now launched, we look at what some of those that won through to the 2015 exhibition have been doing.

Since the 2015 Awards, sculpture winner David Parker has been elected to the Royal British Society of Sculptors and has also been involved with the Lyme Regis Sculpture Trail with work on public display at Langmoor and Lister gardens.

Characterized by a preoccupation with structural patterns, both natural and man-made David is fascinated by the dynamics of combining geometric and organic forms, working in sheet metals and cast resin to create often elaborate linear symmetries.

David’s choice of materials includes steel, fiberglass/plastic/resin and metal.

Using lines and curves to build geometric forms and sequences David explains, “I am interested in the object as a whole, with a distinct identity, but also in the relationship of one object to another and the binary conditions reflected in my own physical and conscious makeup.”

The Marshwood Arts Awards 2017 are divided into four categories: Painting & Drawing to be chosen by Tom Hammick; Photography to be chosen by Matilda Temperley; Sculpture to be chosen by David Worthington and Applied Arts to be chosen by John Makepeace OBE and Harriet Wallace-Jones. For information on how to enter the 2017 Marshwood Arts Awards visit www.marshwoodawards.com 70 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Until 27 May Jennie Dutton: The Dementia Darnings The Dementia Darnings, takes a selection of photos of the artist’s mother who had dementia and reproduced them as large scale portraits in wool and thread.

Bridport Arts Centre, DT6 3NR 01308 424204 www.bridportarts.com.

Presence Amy Albright, Paul Denham, Martin Goold, Susan Laughton and Chris Taylor.

Artwave West, Morecombelake, Dorset DT6 6DY 01297 489746 ww.artwavewest.com.

27 May – 7 June Lyme Regis Art Society’s Annual Summer Exhibition held at The Malt House (Town Mill) open daily 10am - 5pm.

The work of over 20 artists is on view. Enquiries 01297 445464.

Running since the 1960s, the Society holds an annual show of members’ work every summer that attracts over 100 works of art and offers all members a chance to display and sell their work and the public an opportunity to explore what can be achieved with a variety of media.

27 May – 10 September Rashid Johnson: Stranger Hauser & Wirth. Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL. Email: somerset@ hauserwirth.com Tel: 01749 814 060 Until 3 June Cape Farewell Allsop Gallery, Bridport Arts Centre DT6 3NR 01308 424204 www.bridport-arts. com. For the last three years The Arts Development Company and Cape Farewell have been running residencies for artists to work with farmers to examine our relationship with food, farming and the wider environment.

Until 18 June The Poetry of Philip Sutton RA paintings, works on paper and new work. Sladers Yard West Bay Road, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL. Tel. 01308 459511.

Until 22 June 40 Years of Twinning Beaminster Museum - celebrating the anniversary of the link between Beaminster and St James in France. Opening times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Bank holidays 10.30am 4pm. Sundays 2pm - 4.30pm. For more details see website www. beaminstermuseum.wordpress. com. Tel: 01308 863623 (answerphone message).

Until 14 September What is Textiles? Curated by Charlotte Hunt and Gemma Summerell. A collaborative exhibition by BA (Hons) Textiles, AUB staff and Alumni. This exhibition highlights the role of textiles within the design world and demonstrates the breadth of practical processes used within the textiles industry today.

Library Wall, Arts University Bournemouth, Wallisdown, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5HH, 01202 363272, www.aub.ac.uk/gallery.

Until 29 September Sam Scales WestBeach, Pier Approach, Bournemouth.

TheGallery, AUB is working with WestBeach on it’s OffSite Arts Programme, featuring the work of Sam Scales, BA (Hons) Illustration, 2016 Alumnus. Sam’s practice has been influenced by his work with local craft and tradesmen. 01202 363272, www.aub.ac.uk/gallery.

Until 29 October Wood You Know Beaminster Museum - exploring the local history of woodlands, wood and woodworkers. Opening times: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Bank holidays 10.30am 4pm. Sundays 2pm - 4.30pm. For more details see website www. beaminstermuseum.wordpress. com. Telephone number 01308 863623.

A CONVERSATION WITH: Philip Sutton, My Grandfather

By Jaz Allen-Sutton (@jazallensutton) ALONG Barrack Street in Bridport, a colony of seagulls swooped down to the entrance of the Tiger Inn where half a dozen men were noisily discussing that afternoon’s match. My grandfather must have been momentarily lost in the crowd because I only caught sight of him when the sea of white rugby shirts cleared. On the way towards East Street, he was hunched over his walking stick and dressed in a blue puffa jacket and bobble hat. Dark brooding clouds had been hovering over us all afternoon, and, as if to clarify that this was a day to spend indoors, a volley of wind caught my cheeks and nose.

“Philip,” I said. “Your Shostakovich CDs have arrived. Come back to my place, and I’ll give them to you.”

“Oh, hello. Brilliant. It’s that Fifth symphony that I wanted to hear again—mesmerising.”

He started making the sound of a bass drum with his tongue and lips. Especially on market day, the spectacle of a man in his late eighties blowing raspberries in plain view was hard to bear.

“How’s Heather?” I asked when the performance finished.

“Not so good.”

Phil’s demeanour changed. He bowed his head and slowly cleared his throat.

“And how are you?”

“It’s difficult to see her so ill. But I know that art is my relief.”

In the sitting room of my house I knelt down on the carpet and arranged some logs in the fireplace. Out through the window, rain was falling.

“We just missed the storm,” I said.

“Splendid bad weather as Van Gogh would say.”

Philip sat down on the chez long.

“It must be strange to be separated from your wife after all these years, but Heather’s better off at the home.”

“Nothing can prepare you for it. But I have my friends here and the nature. I was just going to the grocer’s in fact. I wanted to do a sketch of some lemons.”

“Lemons, you know, they make me think of the painter Euan Uglow.”

Philip’s eyes brightened.

“Well there you go. There’s a funny story about Euan. He took so long to paint still lives that his subjects kept rotting, and then he could never find the right apple or lemon to replace the one that had gone bad. So he was always frustrated. He’d spend hours at the grocer’s examining each piece of fruit. ‘No, not that one. No, not that one’.”

“Nothing’s uniform in nature. Everything’s special. Isn’t that why it’s paradise?” I asked.

“Nature’s peaceful if you really focus on it. Luckily, all the hours I’ve spent drawing trees, have made me observant,” Philip replied.

A warm feeling of appreciation came over me. I paused in my preparations for the fire; my grandfather had taught me so much.

“Being an artist is hard work,” I said.

Philip Sutton by María Nova Lopez

“It isn’t work,” Philip countered. “I’m playing when I’m painting.

You should be playing when you write.”

The fire from the log burning stove purred. The hard grey and black of smoke and soot jostled with golden flames that threw elaborate patterns on to the glass door. I let my eyes linger there for a while.

“When I’m nervous about something I paint and it all disappears,” Philip said. “It’s a wonderful thing to have. When I see a bunch of apples hanging from the tree. In that minute, with a pencil in my hand, I’m absorbed. There’s nothing of me. The chair’s empty. All my worries and prejudices—gone. Isn’t it like that when you write?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I have a very strong sense of coming out of my body when I write poetry. It can be disturbing. I’m trying really hard at the minute to write poems that won’t aggravate my frustrations. Reading those ancient Chinese and Japanese poets that you introduced me to helps. I want to be able to master simplicity.

Surely, if everybody had more of a chance to experience the act of artistic creation, the world would be a wiser place.”

“Who knows? Maybe people find satisfaction in other things, like buying yacht shoes at Clarks or betting on the pools.”

“It’s not the same though is it?”

“We don’t know that. We don’t know anything really.”

He had taken on an air of mischief. His lips curled up at the edges, and he pulled at his beard with his thumb and index finger. I knew the expression well. Part playful, part serious, it spoke of his enduring curiosity. Even at eighty-eight, and with his wife so ill, Philip could still find intervals of happiness.

“You better not go out until the rain stops,” I said. “And before I forget your parcel is just over there. It looks like it’s come from Luxembourg.”

The Poetry of Philip Sutton RA Paintings and works on paper at Sladers Yard Gallery, West Bay, DT6 4EL Saturday 22 April - Sunday 18 June 2017 Philip Sutton RA Talk and Q&A - Friday 5 May 6.30pm Tickets: £10 or £25 with buffet dinner to follow. Tel: 01308 459511 to book

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PERFORMANCE Tuesday 25 April

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Some People v Reginald D Hunter, comedy, 8.

Wednesday 26 April

BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Julius Caesar, live by satellite from RSC, 7.

SEATON, Gateway, Julius Caesar, live by satellite from RSC, 7.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Chris Ramsey, comedy, 7.30.

Thursday 27 April

SEATON, Gateway, Ruth Molins, flute, and Sally Jenkins, harp, Alwyn, Ravi Shankar, Faure, 7.45.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Sam Bailey, Sing My Heart Out, 7.30.

Friday 28 April

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Beach Boys Story, 7.30.

Electric Palace, A Flea in Your Ear, preview event for Ukulele Opera Flea, 7.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Skimmity Hitchers, folk, 8.

HONITON, The Beehive, Somewhere in Time, film, 2pm: Denial, film, 7.30.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Alan Barnes, saxophone, Julian Stringle, clarinet, with Craig Milverton Trio, jazz, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Parson Paschall’s Tale, costumed show with historian David Sebborn, Monmouth community play event, 6pm.

Fossil Festival, to Sunday, www. fossilfestival.co.uk SHERBORNE, Sherborne Abbey Festival, to Tues.

YEOVIL, Octagon, UK Pink Floyd Experience, 7.30.

Saturday 29 April

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Kagemusha Taiko, 7.30.

Electric Palace, DJ Dr Funk’s Bank Holiday Boogie Funk and Soul. 8.

HONITON, The Beehive, Phil Beer Band, 8.

PORTESHAM, Village Hall, Max Calaf Seve in Anyday, Spanish circus and mime, 7. AR SEATON, Gateway, Riviera Dogs, music from 80s and 90s, 7.30.

SHERBORNE, Abbey (SAF) SIDMOUTH, Parish Church, Sidmouth Choral Society, Mozart Coronation Mass, Karl Jenkins’ Stabat Mater, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Sekou Keita, kora and djembe from Senegal, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Black Dyke Band, 7.30.

Sunday 30 April

BRISTOL, Tobacco Factory, Kate Dimbleby, Songbirds, 4 and 7.30.

SHERBORNE, Abbey, SAF, WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Frank Sinatra Story, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Ballet Theatre UK in Alice in Wonderland, 2.30.

Monday 1 May

SHERBORNE, Abbey, SAF,

Tuesday 2 May

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, La Strada, new musical inspired by Fellini’s film, to Sat, 7.30, Wed/Sat mats 2.30.

Barnfield Theatre, Exeter College in Kindertransport, 7.45.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, The Furies, 7.30.

SHERBORNE, Abbey, SAF

Wednesday 3 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Comedy Cafe with Laura Lexx, 8.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Vox Fortura, classical crossover,7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Fureys, 7.30.

Thursday 4 May

BOURNEMOUTH, BIC, Bob Dylan.

BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, recorded by satellite from the Old Vic, 7pm.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Shappi Khorsandi, Oh My Country, comedy, 8.

EXETER, Cathedral, BSO, cond James Gaffigan, Alexandra Soumm, violin, Debussy, Lalo, Rimsky-Korasakov, 7.30.

HINTON ST GEORGE, St George’s Church, H St G Festival, Concerts in the West, Maxwell String Quartet, Ravel, Britten, Barton, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, All Star Stand Up Tour with Jared Christmas, Stewart Francis, Justin Moorhouse and Jim Tavare, 7.30.

Friday 5 May

BATH, Chapel Arts, Ben Waters, 8.

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Maxwell String Quartet, Ravel, Britten, Barton, 11am: Jazz Cafe with Dakhla Brass, 8.

Electric Palace, Noasis, tribute, 8.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, Pilot’s Thumb.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Natalie Lowe and Ian Waite, Strictly Come Dancing alumni, 7.30.

HONITON, The Beehive, Festival of Imagination, and Sat, science festival.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Concerts in the West, Maxwell String Quartet, Ravel, Britten, Barton, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Ayesha

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Hazarika, State of the Nation, comedy, 8.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Giles Shenton in Old Herbaceous, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Sam Bailey, Sing My Heart Out, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Blake, Songs from Stage and Screen, 7.30.

Saturday 6 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Gazebo Theatre in Sorry! No Coloureds, No Irish, No Dogs. 7.30.

Electric Palace, Russell Kane, Right Man Wrong Age. HONITON, The Beehive, Tangram Theatre in The Element in the Room: A Radio-Active Musical Comedy about the death and life of Marie Curie, 7.

EXETER, Cygnet Theatre, Green Rock River Band, Americana and folk, 7.30.

EXMOUTH, Holy Trinity Church, Exmouth Choral Society, Handel, Parry, Vivaldi, 7.30.

Pavilion, The Sherry Babys, 7.30.

SHUTE, St Michael’s Church, Concerts in the West, Maxwell String Quartet, Ravel, Britten, Barton, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Ninebarrow, folk, 8.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, Shappi Khorsandi, comedy, 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe, from Strictly Come Dancing, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Thank ABBA for the Music, 7.30.

Sunday 7 May

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Kokoro contemporary music ensemble, Milhaud, Part, Shostakovich, 2.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe from Strictly Come Dancing, 8.

Monday 8 May

BRISTOL, Colston Hall, JE, Monteverdi Choir and EBS, L’incoronazione di Poppea SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth Amateur Dramatic Society and Sidmouth Town Band in Brassed Off, to Sat, 7.30.

Tuesday 9 May

BOURNEMOUTH, Pavilion, Al Stewart.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in Othello, to Sat, 7.30, Sat mat 2.30.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, LR Musical Society in Thoroughly Modern Millie, to Sat, 7.30.

PLYMOUTH, Theatre Royal, Lyric, Sunny Afternoon, to Sat. YEOVIL, Octagon, London Classic Theatre in Hysteria, with Summer

PERFORMANCE Strallen, and Wed, 7.30.

Wednesday 10 May

BRISTOL, Colston Hall, Paul Rodgers celebrates the music of Free.

Thursday 11 May

BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Obsession, satellite screening from Barbican with Jude Law, 7.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Simon and Garfunkel Story, 7.30.

Friday 12 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, The Noise Next Door in Uproar, comedy, 7.30.

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Ezio, Latin American-inspired original songs, 8.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, Flying Folk, with Jemima Farey, Kitty Macfarlane, Greg Hancock and Pete Aves, 8.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Hawkwind, 7.30.

Saturday 13 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Calan, Welsh folk, 8.

BUDLEIGH SALTERTON, St Peter’s Church, Choral Day to celebrate Monteverdi’s 450th birthday with Nigel Perrin, 9.45am to 6pm.

DORCHESTER, St Mary’s Church, Dorset Chamber Orchestra, cond Walter Brewster, Alexandra Whittingham, guitar, Sibelius, Castelnuevo-Tedesco, Dvorak, 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Parish Church, Isca Ensemble with Andreas Boyde, piano, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Martin Simpson.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Stars from The Commitments, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Some Guys have all the Luck, Rod Stewart tribute, 7.30.

Rosenkavalier, by satellite from the Metropolitan Opera, 5.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Neil Sands, Musical Memories, 2pm.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, PAT in The Titchfield Thunderbolt, to Fri, 7.30.

Wednesday 17 May

BROADOAK, Village Hall, Living Spit in Tortoise vs Hare, 7.30. AR LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Juno Theatre, female playwriting scratch night, 7.30.

Thursday 18 May

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Anita Harris, 7.30.

HALSTOCK, Village Hall, Living Spit in Tortoise vs Hare, 7.30. AR WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Elvis Years, 7.30.

Friday 19 May

BATH, Festival, to 28 May. BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Story Cafe with Martin Shaw, Making Room for the Serpent, 7.30: Elizabeth Hornby, composer and pianist , and The Secret Garden, concert for release of album, 7.30.

ILMINSTER, Arts Centre, John Hallan, clarinet/saxophone with the Remi Harris Trio, jazz, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Sounds of the 60s with The Zoots.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Lee Nelson, Serious Joker, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Kate Rusby, 7.30.

Saturday 20 May

Sunday 14 May

ILMINSTER, Dillington House, Simon Crawford-Phillips and Philip Moore, piano duo, Stravinsky, 2.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, James Acaster, comedy, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, The Searchers, 7.30.

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Sparkle and Dark in I Am Beast, 8.

EXMOUTH, Pavilion, Pascha Kovalev, Let’s Dance the Night Away, 7.30.

SHERBORNE, Abbey, Cambridge Renaissance Voices and Concordia, Music for Voices and Viols, from Dowland to Purcell, 7.30.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, The Rivertones, barbershop, 7.45.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, The Jo Burt Experience, songs, stories and guitar,

Monday 15 May

Sunday 21 May

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Sisata in Othello, 1.30 and 7.30.

WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, Neil Sands, music and memories, 2pm.

YEOVIL, Swan Theatre, Private Lives, to Sat 7.45.

Tuesday 16 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Der

BRISTOL, Colston Hall, The Cranberries.

Tuesday 23 May

BRIDPORT, Electric Palace, Ukulele Opera’s Flea, community musical theatre, to Sat, various times.

EXETER, Northcott Theatre, English Touring Opera in Tosca, and Fri and Sat, 7.30.

Wednesday 24 May

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, Paines Plough in Every Brilliant Thing, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Ballet Central, works by Matthew Bourne, Liam Scarlett, Jenna Lee, Christopher Bruce and Michael Pink, 7.30.

Thursday 25 May

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Phil Beer Band, 8.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Classical Concert Series, Endellion Quartet, Guy Johnston, cello, Brahms, Schubert, 7.30.

Friday 26 May

DORCHESTER, Corn Exchange, Matt Forde, comedy, 8.

EXETER, Barnfield Theatre, Nick Revell, comedy club, 8.

ILMINSTER, Warehouse, IES in The Odd Couple, to Sat, 7.30.

Arts Centre, Simon Spillett, tenor sax, Henry Lowther, trumpet and the Dave Newton Trio, jazz, 8.

LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre, LR Jazz and Blue Weekend with Ruby Turner, Swing Unlimited Allstars Big Band, Wille and the Bandits, etc, to Mon. WEYMOUTH, Pavilion, The Simon and Garfunkel Story, 7.30.

YEOVIL, Octagon, Pasha Kovalev, dance, 7.30.

Westlands, Nathan Carter, 7.30.

Saturday 27 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Comedy Club for Kids, 2pm.

SEATON, Gateway, Detroit Soul Collective, 7.30.

SOUTH PETHERTON, David Hall, Phil Beer Band, 8.

Sunday 28 May

BRIDPORT, Arts Centre, Wessex Military Band, 3pm.

SIDMOUTH, Manor Pavilion, Bookends, Simon and Garfunkel tribute.

BRISTOL, Colston Hall, JE, Monteverdi Choir and EBS, L’Orfeo PORTESHAM, Village Hall, The Foghorn Stringband, old time American roots, 7.30. AR

Monday 22 May

Monday 29 May

BATH, Theatre Royal, Roy Hudd and Nichola McAuliffe in Waiting for God, to Sat, Wed/Sat mats.

TAUNTON, Brewhouse, The Three Half Pints in The Three Musketeers, 1.30.

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PREVIEW On Stage - In and Around the Vale Laura Lexx BRIDPORT

LAURA Lexx, rising star of the comedy scene who has been dubbed the “next generation Lucy Porter,” comes to the comedy cafe at Bridport Arts Centre on 3rd May at 8pm.

One of the most exciting new comedians working today, she combines delightful middle class charm with a scathing wit, receiving national media attention last year for a clip of her dealing with a sexist heckler.

Laura’s second solo show, Tyrannosaurus Lexx, played to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016, seeing her nominated for the prestigious Amused Moose award.

As well as being a talented comic Laura is also a playwright, novelist and regular contributor to Standard Issue and Glamour magazines.

State of the Nation LYME REGIS

FORMER political adviser to several Labour luminaries, Ayesha Hazarika has returned to stand-up comedy and brings her show, State of the Nation, to the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on 5th May. Born to Indian parents in Lanarkshire, Ayesha started her career in comedy, playing clubs across the country. Then she took what she thought was a natural diversion into the Labour Party as a special adviser working for Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband.

Since leaving front line politics she has become a sought after commentator

Ayesha Hazarika comes to The Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis in May

writing for the FT, Guardian, Evening Standard, New Statesman and Grazia.

And she has returned to her stand-up roots. Her one-woman show Tales from the Pink Bus was a sell-out hit at the 2016 Edinburgh festival and she’s in demand on TV and radio, recently starring as a guest on Matt Forde’s Unspun for Dave. Other credits include regular appearances on Good Morning Britain (ITV), Sky Papers (Sky News), The Andrew Marr Show (BBC1), Newsnight (BBC2), The Agenda (ITV) and The Today Programme (BBC Radio4).

In State of the Nation, Ayesha lifts the lid on politics, power and how we lost the plot, as she reveals what life’s really like behind the scenes at Westminster with brutal honesty and humour and asks what’s next for British politics.

Foghorn String Band VILLAGES

FANS of American old-time stringband music have a rare chance to hear some masters of this foot-tapping genre when the Foghorn Stringband come to Dorset for two dates at the end of May with Artsreach at Corfe Castle village hall on Saturday 27th and Portesham hall on Sunday 28th, both at 7.30pm.

The Foghorn Stringband is described as the present day shining gold standard for this musical style—with eight albums and over a decade of touring under their belts, they demonstrate that American roots music is a constant source of inspiration.

The quartet is four musicians, who are also historians—Caleb Klauder (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Reeb Willms (vocals, guitar), Nadine Landry (vocals,

FLEA jumps into the Electric Palace Ukulele Opera will perform FLEA! at the Electric Palace from 23rd to 27th May, with the leading role taken by Hester Goodman, one of the virtuoso players of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. The show has been written by composer Andrew Dickson, whose prolific career included winning the European Composer Award for Mike Leigh’s 1988 film High Hopes. Despite its UkuleleOpera title, the show will “not be at all grand,” says Andrew.

“The term UkuleleOpera I like because it’s paradoxical—‘opera’ being big and ‘ukulele’ being small. And my main justification for doing it is 74 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

fun.” It is directed by dancer and theatre maker Niki McCretton, with a cast of more than 100 local people—actors, singers, dancers, musicians (and dogs). Hester Goodman from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain will play the lead role of Madame Celine, the devious and exotic ringmistress of a flea circus where ukuleles form the main musical backdrop and storyline. The Electric Palace’s art deco auditorium will be transformed into a circus ring for the production, with seating for 300 people at each of the six performances. For more information go to ukuleleopera.org.uk

upright bass) and Stephen ‘Sammy’ Lind (vocals, fiddle, banjo).

From their origins in Portland Oregon’s vibrant underground roots music scene, Foghorn have spread the old-time string band gospel all over the world. Along the way they’ve brought in influences and inspirations from many travels and latenight jam sessions.

Old-time square dance tunes rub shoulders with Cajun waltzes, vintage honky-tonk songs and pre bluegrass picking, creating a bubbling and intoxicating musical brew. The Artsreach dates are the only West Country concerts by this unmissable band.

Kokora DORCHESTER

THE BSO’s new music ensemble, Kokoro, comes to Dorchester Corn Exchange on 7th May at 2.30pm, with a programme of 20th century masterworks.

The Dorchester Arts visit follows a memorable performance in 2016, which featured Messiaen’s Quartet for the End Of Time.

The May concert will feature the premiere of a new work by Hywel Davies, inspired by the county of Dorset.

The programme will also include Milhaud’s Trio, Arvo Part’s Mozart’s Adagio and Fratres, and the Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2.

Living Spit’s big race VILLAGES

NOW established as one of the favourite theatre groups on the West Country touring scene, Living Spit—Stuart Mcloughlin and Howard Coggins—will be back in Dorset in May for an Artsreach tour of their new show, Tortoise vs Hare.

The race is set, the heat is on… join Living Spit at the starting blocks for another adrenaline-fuelled theatrical lap!

Barry Hare, Wrington running champ. fit, popular and, above all, fast. Toby ‘Tortoise’ Gollop, eater of doughnuts.

Look up ‘relaxed’ in the dictionary and you’ll see his picture. Two very different men. One running club, and the race to end all races.

Told entirely in rhyme and song, this promises to be an epic tale of romance, redemption and rural running rivalry that you’ll never forget.

Following their previous hugely popular summer tours of One Man & His Cow and The Fabulous Bacon Boys, early booking is advised for Living

Stuart McLoughlin and Howard Coggins in Tortoise vs Hare in May

Spit’s latest madcap creation!

The tortoise will be chasing the hare around Dorset from 16th to 19th May, stopping at Winfrith Newburgh village hall on Tuesday 16th, Broadoak village hall on Wednesday 17th, and Halstock on Thursday 18th.

Comedy and Trampolining TOURING

GAZEBO Theatre brings one of its most powerful plays to Bridport Arts Centre on 6th May with Sorry! No Coloureds, No Irish, No Dogs, exploring racism and migration, in response to events taking place across the UK and internationally.

Two strangers find themselves in a room of suitcases, books and stories which take them on a journey of discovery, reflection and tragedy, and bring the events of hundreds of years gone before bang up to date.

Scenes and characters in the play include Mary Seacole, Walter Tull, Black Panther - Obi Egbuna, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, and William, who sailed aboard the SS Empire Windrush.

Sorry! No Coloureds, No Irish, No Dogs is written and directed by Pamela Cole-Hudson, with actors Tonia DaleyCampbell and Oraine Johnson.

Composer’s Album Live BRIDPORT

BRIDPORT composer Elizabeth Hornby comes to the town’s arts centre on 19th

May with the Secret Garden collective of local musicians, to celebrate her third and newly released album.

Hornby is an intuitive pianist, who has put this bouquet of musicians together for an evening concert of music from the recording, which explores an inner emotional landscape with evocative cinematic sounds.

The music also includes influences from nature and reflections on personally experiencing the refugee crisis, spirituality and finding love.

I Am Beast BRIDPORT

SPARKLE and Dark theatre company comes to Bridport Arts Centre on 20th May and Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on 24th May with I Am Beast, a dark drama using puppetry and music to explore the power of grief and childish imagination.

After the death of her mother, Ellie escapes into her own fantasy world of comic book superheroes and bewitching strangers, recreating herself as the ultimate vigilante.

Running through dark alleys past sinister villains, she meets the wild and mysterious Beast and together they seek revenge. But as the walls of her new world begin to crumble, Ellie must finally face the truth behind her fantasies.

GPW

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 75

On Screen - In and Around the Vale SATURDAY 29 APRIL Arrival Oscar-nominated screening of Denis Villeneuve’s novel. Martock Film Nights. 7pm for 7.30pm in Martock Parish Hall. Drinks and snack bar. £5.50 or £5 in advance 01935 826457.

WEDNESDAY 3 MAY A Street Cat Named Bob Film of James Bowen’s international best-selling book.

Screening at Kilmington Village Hall, doors and bar open 6.45pm with the show starting at 7.15pm. Tickets £5 in advance or £5.50 at the door. See village web for pre-booking & film information: www.Kilmingtonvillage.com/moviola. htm or Tel: 01297 32335.

FRIDAY 5 MAY Interstellar (12A) 7.30pm Tickets £4.

Cooper is a pilot-turned-farmer who’s recruited for an intergalactic mission to find humanity a new home. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

FRIDAY 12 MAY Petherton Picture Show at 8pm. For details, please visit www.thedavidhall. org.uk or www.pethertonpictureshow. com or call 01460 240 340.

Moonlight (15) 7.30pm Tickets Adult £6.50, U16 £5.50. Oscar Winner for Best Picture. A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood of a young black man growing up in a rough neighbourhood of Miami. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

The Lego Batman Film (U).

CineChard, The Guildhall Chard. The 2nd Friday of every month; 7pm (doors at 6.30pm) Tickets available in advance from Eleos, Barron’s and the Post Office for £5 for adults and £2.50 for children, or £6 and £3 on the night. Refreshments available.

SATURDAY 13 MAY A United Kingdom (12A) Hinton St. George ‘Flix in the Stix’ in 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. To reserve Tickets please contact Bob Kefford on 01460 72563. The film of a true love story from 1947 when the King of Botswana, whilst studying law in London, met Ruth Williams, a British office worker. They appeared a perfect match but their proposed marriage was challenged not only by their families but by the British and South African governments. South Africa had recently introduced the policy of apartheid and

found the notion of a biracial couple ruling a neighbouring country intolerable. Political and diplomatic tensions followed with diamonds thrown into the mix too. Will love conquer all?

Collateral Beauty (12A) Will Smith, Edward Norton and Kiera Knightley star, with Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet.

Picnic Film Night at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed bar. Doors open 6.30pm and you can bring food for your table. If you simply want to watch the film it starts at 7.30pm. Tickets £5 from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

The Time of Their Lives (12A) 7.30pm Tickets Adult £6.50, U16 £5.50 Family of four £20. A feel-good character-driven comedy starring Dame Joan Collins, Pauline Collins, and Italian heartthrob Franco Nero. Former Hollywood siren Helen flees a retirement home & sets off on a road trip. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

SUNDAY 14 MAY Comrades by Bill Douglas – Cape Farwell. The last film made by Douglas in which the inspiring story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is told.7.30pm, £6/£5/£4/£3. Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NR. Open, Tues-Sat: 10-4. 01308 424204. www.bridport-arts.com.

FRIDAY 19 MAY The King and I Presented by Moviola in the Beaminster Public Hall. For Dementia Awareness Week, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner.

Come and enjoy the 1956 Rodgers & Hammerstein classic. 6pm (doors open 5.30pm). Tickets at Yarn Barton 01308 862715, Weekdays 9.30am - 12.30pm & Saturdays 9.30am - 1pm. Or ring Elaine on 01308 861746.

La La Land (12A) at The Gateway, Seaton. Licensed bar. Doors open 6.30pm and you can bring food for your table. If you simply want to watch the film it starts at 7.30pm. Tickets £5 from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

MONDAY 22 MAY Lion screened by Beer Film Society.

Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm screening. Bar, raffle and ice cream. Members £3.50; Non members £5. All welcome.

THURSDAY 25 MAY Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie (PG) Classic Cinema in the Afternoon at The Gateway, Seaton. Tippi Hedren and

76 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Sean Connery star. Doors open 1.30pm.

Tickets £4 inc. tea/coffee from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

FRIDAY 26 MAY Mary Poppins (U) 2pm £3.50. 1964 Film Musical starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. A dementia friendly screening for all. Come along and enjoy this classic treat. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www.beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

Members’ Choice This film, the last of the season, will be chosen at the April show by members of FilmCrew. AGM (with complimentary drinks) will take place after the film. The Crewkerne and District Community Cinema, Wadham School, Mount Pleasant, Crewkerne TA18 7NT. Admission begins and refreshments from 7pm; films start at 7.30pm. www.crekernefilm.wordpress. com. Admission for the year - £25.

Membership call Joan Clemow 01935 822656 or otherwise Rick Canning 01460 271215.

Lion (PG) at The Gateway, Seaton.

Licensed bar. Doors open 6.30pm and you can bring food for your table. If you simply want to watch the film it starts at 7.30pm. Tickets £5 from The Gateway Box Office 01297 625699, open Mon-Fri 10am – 4pm, Sat 10am – 1pm. (Charge for card payment).

Petherton Picture Show at 8pm. For details, please visit www.thedavidhall. org.uk or www.pethertonpictureshow. com or call 01460 240 340. The David Hall, Roundwell Street, South Petherton, TA13 5AA. www.thedavidhall.org.uk, 01460 240340, boxoffice@thedavidhall. org.uk.

Lion (Cert PG) shown by T & F Movies in Tatworth Memorial Hall at 8pm.

Doors open at 7.15pm Entry is £4.

SATURDAY 27 MAY Beauty and The Beast (PG) 5pm & 7.30pm Tickets Adult £6.50, U16 £5.50 Family of four £20. Belle (Emma Watson) is forced to live with a Beast (Dan Stevens) in this live-action retelling of the 1991 blockbuster. The Beehive, Dowell Street, Honiton EX14 1LZ www. beehivehoniton.co.uk Box office 01404 384050.

TUESDAY 30 MAY The Light Between Oceans (2016, 12A) Axminster Heritage Centre. Film starts at 2pm, doors open at 1.30pm.

Tickets £4 plus refreshments, advance booking on 01404 831207.

Health&Beauty

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 77

Keep reading with the HLS IF you, or somebody you know or care for, cannot get to your local library, the Home Library Service (HLS) can provide a regular supply of books for you to enjoy at home. The HLS in Dorset is a countywide partnership between the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) and the County Council and is provided free of charge to you from local libraries.

Readers wishing to join the HLS in the Bridport Library area will be visited at home by a local RVS volunteer coordinator to discuss and agree the number and types of books or talking books you would like. You can change your preferences at any time.

Maria Jacobson, Dorset HLS Service Manager: Tel: 01305 236666 or email: maria.jacobson@ royalvoluntaryservice.org. uk or leave your address and telephone number at Bridport Library for the HLS Local Coordinator to contact you Tel: 01308 422778.

78 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

Services&Classified PROOFREADING

DOG TRAINING

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

Excellent references.

Penny Dunscombe 07825339289.

All About The Dog West Dorset - positive dog and puppy training with Jane Mallett, member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers UK. Classes and one-to-one instruction for training and for fun. Fully insured. AATDWD01@ gmail.com 07948 664155 allaboutthedogwestdorset .co.uk and facebook.

May 17

GARDEN HELP Mandy Cave garden maintenance. If you need help please ring 01460 221319. MJ. 07855 250382 mandy_cave@ btinternet.com May 17

SAXOPHONE Play the saxophone!

Advice on instruments.

Tuition from experienced musician 07879 615159.

SITUATIONS VACANT

SEWING Curtains, Blinds and Cushions. Please contact 07443516141 for details.

May 17

Sewing & tailoring alterations and repairs: collection & delivery within 15 miles Sherborne.

01963 23129

May17

HOUSESITTING

RESTORATION Furniture Restoration.

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

Jun 17

July help. Practical couple with well-behaved dog can animal/garden sit in exchange for accomodation. Experience with horses, sheep, chickens. References available. 07773 687991.

Jun 17

Full-time Cafe Manager & Part-time Waiting/ Serving Staff required at Kingcombe Tearoom near Toller Porcorum. Full-time hours preferably 8am4.30pm including most weekends. Various other shifts including cafe work or serving meals to up to 15 residential guests. For further details call Kate 07971 589333 or email kingcombetearoom@ yahoo.com

Retired couple in glorious part of West Dorset seek the service of a housekeeper with all round skills and a caring disposition, from July 31st.

Occupation of immaculate 1 bedroom cottage with own garden suitable for up to two offered in exchange.

Successful candidate will be a driver, a dog-lover and possess good sense of humour. Please call 01935 891444.

style, 5ft tall turned and flutted solid wood, round base, ivory finish VGC £55 01297 442627 Weather Station Oregon Scientific WMR86 Complete home weather station cost £109 unused brand new in box. £85.00 01297 442627 DAKS top quality gents overcoat tailered by Simpson of Piccadilly. Very heavy wool tweed. Label says R 38 but it ‘drowns’ me and I am a R40 so I guess its 42 upwards, Also long, 48” colar to hem. £30. 01300 341637 Quantity of china cake stands for sale job lot or singly two and three tiers, all sort of colours and designs, also vintage, prices £5, £10,& £15.00 ideal for weddings, parties, cafes, many uses. Well worth a look, Nr. Honiton, please phone 01404 831527.

Allen Walkover lawn sprayer for getting rid of

moss, and weeds £65.00. O n o 01297 22603.

Yew Furniture. Down sized need the space!

Dresser, Wine Cooler, Hi Fi Cabinet, two Occasional Tables one with Drawers in good condition. £200.

01308 868584 or johnstaff@ btinternet.com for photos.

Vintage bongo drums 2 large one small set very collectable £120 the lot 01305 871136 Electric sports bike.G Tech eBike power assist .

As new, sadly little used due to knee problem.

Complete with accessories £800. (New £995).

Near Crewkerne 01460 242254.

Rollei vintage slide projector complete with instructions and 6 circular slide carriers. £30. 01297 553577.

Camera Tripod Velbon SE4 Aluminium, tilt head, extendable to 116cm. £20, telephone 01935 863954

FOR SALE Hebridean Ewes for sale.

Rare breed Hebridean ewes available, various ages. Ideal starter flock for small-holder or just for keeping the grass down. This is a very hardy, self-sufficient and handsome breed which requires very little intervention and care.

Call 01300 321536 for further details.”

Gill wet-suits short arm long leg ladies size 16 mens medium £ 20 each,musto channel jacket waterproof breathable mens medium red/grey £ 60,musto BR1 race salopettes mens medium red/grey £40,musto breathable waterproof trousers large black £ 25, Columbia waterproof breathable jacket mens large red/grey £ 25. 01305 751 731 Dorchester.

Leather Sofas x 2 Dark brown 2 seaters. Have been well looked after and in good condition. £80 each.

Crewkerne 01460 76380.

Dining Room Suite. Table 1.5mt longx1mt wide, extending to 2.10 max Gettisburg Buffet and Wall Unit. Six chairs. Medium wood colour with quarter pattern grain. Exc. condition £300 ovno. Can deliver locally. Tel: 01460 63623 LEC Elan Freezer 3.4 cu.ft.

£20. Handicare Gemino 20 four wheel Rollator with basket, seat and back support £35. Telephone 01308 424353.

Blue, transportable folding massage couch.

Adjustable back rest and face aperture. £25. Tel. 01297 445332/07929523550.

Thule 780 Pacific top box. Grey and black.

196x78x45cm Excellent condition £110 Tel 01460 68761 Text 07980 508093 Designer Italian bed covered in cream leather, matching bedside cupboards.

Low height 20cm from ground. 5’ king size no mattress, overall length 230 cm. Could deliver for small additional cost.

Photos available via email. £100 phone 01460 242071 mobile 07834 550899 East Lambrook AVO Meter model 9 Mk4 In original leather case, operating instructions and leads. In good order. £30 phone 01460 242071 mobile 07834 550899 East Lambrook Conservatory Swivel Rocker Chair. Sturdy, Strong with full cushioning.

Excellent condition. Original cost over £350. Accept £100 ONO Phone 01297 489563

Four 1000 Piece Puzzles Farm Scene, Swedish Rural Scene, Continental Farm Scene and River Wey - Surrey. Immaculate condition. All complete. £10, but would consider selling separate at £3 each.

Telephone 01308 424797 Unwanted Christmas Gift Ladies Burgundy Fluffy Cardigan Size 10. £5.

Ladies Cream Roll Neck Top. Small 8. £3.

Men’s Cord Trousers 2 pairs Brown 38 waist 29 leg, £4 each. Tel. 01308 427478.

Roger black exercise bike used once £ 50 01308 42704 ercol extending dinning table 4 chairs 2 carvers v g c £350 01308 427047 Two Habitat beech bentwood dining chairs £10 each, Magimix le duo vegetable and fruit juice extractor £30. photos available tel: 01308 428247 Historic American serving bowls £30 the pair.

Framington Massachusetts Teachers College small plate £10. Ironstone 40 piece dinner and tea service £85.

01297 33745 Pilot headset Avcom TA200 cost £122 as new condition with carry bag £70.00 01297 442627 Standard lamp French

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 79

FREE ADS for items under £1,000

CLEANERS WANTED

Classified advertising in The Marshwood Vale Magazine is normally 65 pence+VAT per word in a box. This FREE ADS FORM is for articles for sale, where the sale price is under £1000 (Private advertisers only — no trade, motor, animals, firearms etc). Just fill in the form and send it to the Marshwood Vale Magazine, Lower Atrim, Bridport, Dorset DT6 5PX. or email to info@marshwoodvale.com. (Please do not send in capital letters).

Unfortunately due to space constraints there is no guarantee of insertion of free advertising.

We reserve the right to withhold advertisements.

FOR GUARANTEED CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING PLEASE USE ‘CLASSIFIED ADS’FORM

FOR SALE

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

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

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

Monthly Quiz –

Panasonic camcorder.

Good condition but about 10 years old and uses “micro tapes”. Any offers considered 01297 553577.

Toddler bed in excellent condition pine headboard and footboard. Two mattresses used three times £30. Telephone 01460 239228 Vintage 1960’s G-plan sofa and arm chair. Reupholstered with a fire label.

Good condition, no marks or damage. Extremely comfortable. £300 For details & photo’s tel 01935 863954 Tents x two, 2 person ridge tents, approx 6’x4’ Built in ground sheet. Good condition £10 each, ono.

Dingy Anchor 1.5kg suitable for small boat or dingy. £10 Oars for small boat or inflatable £10 ono

Tel 01935 863954 White Slipper Bath with legs 150 x72cm; £95, Chrome & White Burlington BathTaps with shower attachment: £30, White Wash Handbasin 70 x 48.5cm with Burlington Mixer Tap: £50 Tel: 01308 863657 Roof tiles clay – reclaimed Somerset double roman in re-useable condition, 220 available. £200. Tel 01300 321299.

Steel Scaffold Ladder 25ft in very good condition - £50.

Tel.01300 321299 Gas Hob – Four ring Diplomat stainless steel mains gas in unmarked condition £25. Tel 01300 321299 Victorian Pine Church Pews – 10ft long and in original condition, can be

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 Thornford. The winner was A P Ponchaud from Bristol.

80 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

FOR SALE delivered. Two available £95 each. Tel.01300 321299 Bath Panel white plastic for standard bath, new and still in packing/protective film£15. Tel 01300 321299 Beko under work surface fridge, small freezer compartment, two shelves and salad drawer, clean and in good condition. £20.

Tel 01300 321299 Stylish contemporary conservatory furniture. 2 seater couch, 2 armchairs, and footstool. Colonial red, beige, grey upholstery. As new. £250. 01308 867669.

Pine shelf unit for DVDs and CDs etc. Tall and slim with adjustable shelves. H118cm, W28cm, D19cm. VGC. £8 ono. Tel: 01305 778026 Cargo net for boot of car.

Ford code 3M5J-R46046-A. Previously used on a 2006 Ford CMAX. £5. Tel: 01305 778026 Tomy Baby Monitor Walkabout Classic Advance.

Portable Parent and Baby unit. Sound sensitive light display, controlled night light. VGC. £5. Tel: 01305 778026 Man’s coat - real leather black jacket. Size medium.

Inside and outside pockets.

Zip fastening. Excellent codition, as new. £20 ono.

Tel: 01305 778026 Historic American serving bowls £30 the pair.

Framington Massachusetts Teachers College small plate £10. Ironstone 40 piece dinner and tea service £85.

01297 33745 Kenwood Range Cooker.

Nearly new (5 months old) stainless steel all gas range.

Full width gas oven, 5 gas rings including large wok ring. Change of kitchen reason for sale. Only £350.00 Collect Colyton EX24.

07528 071359.

Sofa DFS 3 seater, neutral beige, very comfortable and good condition. £99 Viera TV and glass corner stand £19. 01297-553064/07770 722099 Noritake Blue Hills China (60 pieces): 5 teacups, 6 tea saucers, 6x61/4” plates, 9x63/8” bowls, milk jug,1x51/2” fruit saucer, sugar bowl(lidded), 1 coffee pot (no lid), 5x61/2” eared bowls, 13x101/2” plates, 6x71/2” bowls, 2x14” oval platters, 1 vegetable tureen with lid, 1 sauce boat and stand fixed, salt (3 holes) and pepper (7 holes) all in good condition. £100 Phone 01297 560580 Gate Victorian heavy

pedestrian 35” width and 41” height with additional decorative finish on top.

01297-553064/07770 722099 Sundial on pedestal. £50.00 01297 444437 Desk Fan. £5.00. 01297 444437 T.V. Bracket with shelf.

Small £7.00. 01297 444437 Yamaha Kill Cord. £5.00.

01297 444437 Decorative china rise and fall ceiling lamp. £10.00.

01297 444437 Black Marble Floor Tiles.

12 inches square. Suit small bathroom - 30 available but still in stock to buy more if needed. £1.50 each. 01297 444437 Cast stone Birdbath.

Decorative. £50.00 01297 444437 Cast stone Owl.

PEOPLE AT WORK £5.00. 01297 444437 Shower by Aqualisa with all fittings. Thermostatic mixer type. Perfect working order and condition. £47.00.

01297 444437 Ceiling spotlight in brushed aluminium. Has 3 adjustable spots in a circular fitting. £7.50. 01297 444437 Dimplex compressor dehumidifier fte 10 forte 10 litre £50, 01308422997 Red belling stand alone cooker self cleaning double oven ceramic hob 3 hi-lite & 1 halogen zone £75. 01460 61078 Bosch Cordless Screwdriver £10. Hotpoint handmixer new £10. Parkside paint sprayer new £10. Black & Deck Hedge trimmer £10 07920 844379.

ELECTRICAL Selwyn Holmes, photograph and words by Catherine Taylor

SELWYN HOLMES

BUILD

AERIALS

Some people’s stories are destined to be entwined.

Selwyn Holmes’s ship, carrying him as a two year old, with his sister and his mother from Canada, docked in the UK only days apart from Danielle’s, which brought her as a child from abroad with her family. The pair attended Kingston School of Art in 1972, where their paths crossed, and stories interlinked. Since putting down roots in the family home in Dorset, the married artists founded Dansel Gallery in Abbotsbury in 1979; celebrating contemporary handmade work in wood.

Originally, the gallery showcased produce from the couple’s workshop in Eype. However, it has grown over the years with some 200 artists now displaying their work, all made from wood. Selwyn has recently moved away from designing practical products and specialises in Spirit Plaques inspired by North American Native Art, evoking visits made back to his birthplace over the years.

This Canadian-Dorset artist feels most at home in the wooden cabin he built, set next to a bubbling stream, nestled among the woodland the couple planted 25 years ago, at the bottom of the garden. Selwyn loves his trees and cares for them year-round. Planting new woodland, coppicing where necessary, using the material for his sculptures and heating the house, this is where Selwyn spends most of his time.

So taken is Selwyn with trees, he and Danielle named their children after the Lime Tree, a favourite in their woodland; Linden for their son and Tilia for their daughter. School governor and Parish Councillor for Symondsbury since 1989, Selwyn is currently combining his skills and interest in history by voluntarily replacing, one-by-one, the dilapidated finger posts in the Parish. Diligently faithful to the original, each one is researched, made from Dorset Oak and replicated in the Dorset Style. A dedication to the much-loved area he lives in and the material he nurtures.

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 81

WANTED

SURFACE PREPARATION

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

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

Vintage & antique textiles, linens, costume buttons etc. always sought

by Caroline Bushell. Tel. 01404 45901.

Dave buys all types of tools 01935 428975.

Mar 17

Jul 17

Vintage enamel advertising and transport motoring related signage.

Good prices paid. Call 07967 055487 May 17 To advertise here telephone 01308 423031

Jul 17

All items 100 years old. Furniture, clocks, barometers, pictures, silver, gold, pocket watches. Any condition over 50 years. Experience in antiques 01308 281012.

Records wanted by enthusiastic collector. Best prices. Please telephone 01305 266174.

Apr 17

FOR SALE B & Q Borneo rattan effect large plastic storage box £35.

Ring 01308 423722 Invisible Dog Fencing Original version. Local supplier with advice and spares. Complete with 300 metres wire, 2 collar sensors, transmitter, battery,transformer. We have down sized, no longer required. £35 01308 485687 19th Century Victorian School Desk, a rare find with turned legs even more rare in mahogany. Perhaps a public school or made for a child being taught at home A drawer to one side which runs the full width of the desk. A most unusual piece with good patina. 71cm

wide, 48 deep and 88 high.

Photos available £155 01460 55105 Beautiful solid light wood fire surround and matching curved over mantel mirror with carved acorn detail to both. The surround is 140cm wide, 118 high. The mirror is 127 wide and 102 high. Both are in very good condition. Please feel free to view without obligation to appreciate the quality of these pieces. Mirror sold separately £110 surround £100 or £180 for both.

Photos available 01460 55105 Willis and Gambier Chest of Drawers.Very solid and heavy hardwood in good

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

FOR SALE condition with perfectly sliding graduated drawers.

90cm wide, 47 deep and 78 high. Photos available. 01460 55105 Beautiful boots handmade in Tibet size 6 £60 never worn. Leather sandals with toe thong and jewelled size 5 £20 never worn. Indian beaded waistcoat size 12-14 never worn £20. Brown leather trousers size 10, £25.

Original leather clugs and wood size 5 £15. Lovely white shoes 50’s style brand new £15. Black sheep coat, very warm, size 10-12 £50.

Original 60s trousers size 12-14 buyer collects 01308 863454.

48 unused cardboard boxes excellent condition flatpack.

Box size 8”x6”x4” £20 01297 442864.

M&S Gents suit light fawn 46 chest ex cond £40. Also gray thin stripe ex cond £45 46 chest perfect for weddings 01935 421919.

Single bed 3’6” good condition. Suitable for child or spare room £25 01404 851267.

Walther Sport Air pistol CO2 Model CP88 + extras £60 01308 456830.

STORAGE

82 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 Tel. 01308 423031

FOR SALE Mens brown Redwing boots made USA size 8 £20 ono 01308 456830.

Settee, chair, both new £200. Bedroom furniture, sideboard, table, all good.

Bereavement sale. In Bridport 01308 459554.

Two 19” screen computer monitors one brand new still in box £15 & £25. Electric garden vac/blower £15 01297 560365.

Two matching cottage style arm chairs, colour light green mixture. Excellent condition £30 ono telephone 01297 552497 Musbury.

Sutcliffe TV Cabinet teak V G Con glass door & shelf £45. Sutcliffe bureau perfect condition teak £85. Space needed reason for sale 01395 516832.

Cones Dorset Wool 10 cream 2 pine 1 navy £35 07773106187.

Celebrity Woburn two seater sofa and compact manual recliner chair (colour gold) £150 ono 01404758554.

Ercol old colonial rocking chair with original covers £20 07983 164325 (Sidmouth).

Salmen tool box plus some wood workers tools H29.5” W21.5” D8” £40 01308 425878.

Mobile Etching press with inks paper and some plates £350 01308 897214.

Curtains Swaffal fabric floral pattern complete with pelmets & tie backs window 1 D65” W44”, window 2 D56” W86” exc Condition £65 ono 01308 459940.

Golf set + bag + trolly. 7 irons, 2 drivers wedge & putter. Hardly used £45.

Dexter golf shoes size 10 £10 01308 459940.

Chrome crosswater basin, click-clack waste (slotted) BSW0103C brand new/ unused £20 01308 897121.

Flogas room heater nearly new £30. Workshop dust extractor very good condition £20. Telephone 01297 445295 Lyme Regis.

Bass amp. Watson XB30 30 Watt cabinet size 21”x16”x10” VGC £45 tel 01305 262430.

Due to house sale – Brazilian Mahogany four poster bed (6’x8” 5’.2”) Drapes matching linen mattress (all pristine) available £850 01308 488959.

Retro teak wall unit. 3 sections each 2’9” can be used separately or one long unit 8’3” incorporating 9 drawers, shelving – 1 display cabinet, 1 cupboard £50.

3 drawer desk £20. Office chair, adjustable lumbar support/height £50. Pine breakfast table L4’ W2’4” H3’1” with 4 pine/rush stools £70. Nest of tables £30. Ashford Elizabeth 2 spinning wheel, extra spools, Lazy Kate etc £350 tel 01308 488959.

Conservatory furniture metal frames 2 seater couch matching 2 armchairs and footstool conlonial red, beige, grey upholstery as new £250 01308 867669.

Pine table 5’x3’ good condition buyer collects £75 01308 424406.

Sony Bravia TV 40” excellent condition £60 ono also Brasher leather walking boots size 12 £20 Good condition 01404 41717.

Mobile phones in original boxes with chargers etc Nokia 206 (Orange) £9.99, Samsung M150 (tesco) £7.99, Samsung GT (Organge) £3.99 excellent condition, unused 07958065186.

Darley Therapy couch back rest, face cradle, extensions, bolster cushion, covers, carry case, brand new condition £150 01935 873032.

Two hand-painted wall plaques by Musterschutz – depicting old tavern scenes in relief 32cm/13” diameter £50 Pair 01935 873032.

Icering fridge with ice box fits under work top as new £40 ono telephone 01308 863737 evenings.

Mobility scooter £250, Holistic Saddles £300, Equisage massage system £200, Magnetic Rug for

horses £15, 07887 958920.

White kitchen units / dishwasher over & hob VGC ready early May £275 ono.

Back Gammon game £5 01395 515253.

Relyon sofabed VGC cream removable washable covers converts double bed 210cm long, 90cm width, 70cm high 01297 631365 £100 ono (Axminster).

Nearly new conservatory suite cost £750 accept £225, Bamboo glass table £20, computer desk £10, bi-fold door £15 01297 624377.

Digital TV setbox top £5.

Light-box (for tracing) £10 01308 422486.

Neff electric oven and gas hob very good condition (could separate) £75 07790 086669.

XP Metal detector gold mas power handbook etc VGC £325 01297 552477.

Special table lamp designed around a vintage shell petrol can professionally tested with certificate £75 01460 64607.

Action wheelchair 2000 LT self propelled or manual availability lots of extras VGC £50 ono 01305 261688 mobile: 07787 186052.

Collins and Hayes three seater setee and one armchair bottle green moderate condition £75 also collection glassware 01935 872421.

Deer antlers: Red deer stag, 12 points and fallow buck, £50 each, photos available tel 01308 423177.

Stationary engine 1919 Petter Victory 5H.P. good working order plus extras £800 ovno 07790 715477.

Road-Pro caravan satellite kit comprising 40mm dish, signal finder, suction pad, tripod and 2x10mtr lengths COAX. Ideal for use in UK and N. Europe. Ill health forces sale £70 ono Tel Seaton 01297 20151.

Touring in Spain this year?

I have a new lightweight 6kg Butane gas cylinder full and sealed. It is hired from

Repsol. 30 euros refund on return (Documentation available). Also included are the correct adapters for the bottle and the van. UK inlet point. £50 the lot. For more info please ring Seaton 01297 20151.

Three Seater Settee for sale, good clean condition. Very easily cleaned £50 01460 52371.

CHIMNEY SWEEP

Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine May 2017 83