Broad Sheep December 2020/January 2021 by Broadsheep

BROAD sheep

december 2020 / january 2021

A SPECIAL ONLINE EDITION

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CHAIR REPAIRS: seats rushed & recaned. Paul Richards, 01544 209140. Email - paulrichardsft@gmail.com PRESTEIGNE POP CHOIR Every Thursday. Contact John Hymas for details: 07969 440183, john@johnhymas.com GARDEN MAINTENANCE JOBS Including Small Tree removal, Hedge Cutting, Lawn Mowing, Weeding, Fence Painting, Shed Felting and Basic Garden Repairs. Call Brian on 07722 233417. RETIRED PROFESSIONAL PAINTER AVAILABLE for local work. References available. £75.00 per day. Try me. Roy 01547 520164. WYNNES OF DINMORE COUNTRYSTORE Tea room, Poultry, Pygmy Goats, Supplies & Housing. Tuesday Saturday 9am-4.30pm. Wynnes.co.uk 01568 797314. BEEKEEPING COURSES FOR BEGINNERS Interested in keeping bees in 2020? Our weekend ‘Bee Ready’ course will prepare you with essential information and allow you to develop confidence before you get your own hive of bees. 2020 dates - May 2nd/3rd and June 6th/7th - now open for bookings. For further details phone 01886 884752/07813 276308 or email woodruffbank@btinternet.com. PIANO TUNER AND TECHNICIAN Based in Llanidloes, serving Mid-Wales. Contact Matt 01686 412753 or 07843 440789 or email vicky@mousematt.net BLACKSMITHING EVENING CLASSES MORNING CLASSES AND SHORT COURSES at Bluefoot Forge. For details, phone 01544 267810. info@wherethelightgetsin.co.uk or visit www.wherethelightgetsin.co.uk

WANTED URGENTLY VINTAGE CLOTHING for male/ female, plus accessories including jewellery, shoes, etc. Also wanted: quality curtains, lace and textiles, even damaged. Plus designer clothing including male/female... tweeds, evening dresses etc. Also unusual items including fans etc. Please telephone: Annie 07798 632247. Teagowns and Textiles. annies.30@hotmail.com VIOLIN/VIOLA LESSONS All styles, all ages, beginners to advanced. Help with composition, theory, aural training. Accompaniment also offered. Ring Tony on 01544 321925 or visit his website: http://camelmusic.co.uk for a CV and more information. ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS FROM ONLY 50P PER WEEK 1000 direct unique hits per month, top of the page on Google when you type in Presteigne, all administrative work done by volunteers, project is not for profit. SUPPORT YOUR TOWN WEBSITE. Very cheap rates: 50p per week, or full page £1 per week. For more information go to www.presteigne.org.uk, email jtennanteyles@gmail.com or telephone James Tennant-Eyles on 01544 267363. VIOLIN & VIOLA LESSONS given by experienced professional in Presteigne. All abilities and styles taught. John Hymas 07969 440183. A STITCH IN TIME Careful repairs & creative alterations to well-loved clothes. Vintage a speciality. Anne 01544 267997. HAYSTACKS MUSIC, Backfold, Hay-on-Wye, HR3 5EQ. Tel: 07527 298199. Hay’s Headline Making Independent Music Shop - only a one minute walk from the main car park. Hay’s destination shop packed with pre-loved machine cleaned and new vinyl records, CDs, Books and more.

VIOLIN/VIOLA AND HARP LESSONS Beginner to advanced. All ages taught by a Royal Academy of Music graduate. Email nickyviola24@gmail.com

HANCOCK & MONKS MUSIC, 6 Broad Street, Hay-on-Wye. Tel: 01591 610555. Specialists in recorded and printed Classical Music for over 40 years. Huge stock of secondhand CDs, sheet music, scores and books on music. Open daily 10.30am - 4.30pm. Online catalogue at www.hancockandmonksmusic.co.uk FRUIT TREE PRUNING From one branch to an entire orchard. Tel: 01544 260656. CATERING CROCKERY, CUTLERY AND GLASSWARE FOR HIRE. Up to 100 settings. Contact Ruth on 01544 350559 or 07870 752325. P/T OR OCCASIONAL WORK WANTED Cheerful, fit, educated, mature woman seeks employment. Clean driving licence, DBS checked. Anything considered from office/business support to house sitting including driving, gardening and dog walking. Phone Katy 01547 520328.

JAZZ PIANO TUITION A specially created course for beginners through to intermediate level students. Also coaching for Associated Board jazz exams. Presteigne/Knighton, but happy to travel. Simon Deeley, 07890 303681. simon.deeley@aol.com

‘The Long Acre’ is set on a hill farm. It’s a contemporary love story, complicated and torn apart by the age-old battle for land.

Details: www.long-acre-rfrancis.com https://rachelzzzyx.wixsite.com/website or email rachelzzzyx@gmail.com

architecture

Nasty Blot on the Landscape S

O what else will the much-heralded NMITE (New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering, pronounced ‘Enn-Might’) be bringing to Hereford next September, apart from a thousand unkempt students and a clumsy acronym? Pride of place must go to the slab-like accommodation block which now overpowers the city’s listed railway station, built on the site of the much-lamented family-run Rockfield DIY store. Pete Seger’s melancholy ‘Little Boxes’ comes to mind. Bricklayers have been employed to painstakingly mask its internal structure of discarded shipping containers, while carpenters have been busily creating a fake slate-clad roofline (a last-minute suggestion from the planners). Is there anything nice that can be said about this monstrous blot on the landscape? It is almost as depressing as its near-neighbour, the new HMC, described by Indie election candidate Amanda Martin as looking more like a warehouse than a medical centre. Amanda, I think that is complimentary. I’d rank it as looking like a giant Lego building. In nearby Widemarsh Street, the new uni’s administration has been handed the handsome Boys High School building, which marks the junction with Blackfriars Street, facing the remains of the 13th century Dominican monastery. The Edwardian corner block is currently undergoing its second major makeover in less than a decade, having previously been home to the disastrously short-lived Robert Owen Academy. The 11th-hour rescue of the former Working Boys Home in Bath Street was a close-run thing. Having

The former Working Boys Home situated in Bath Street, Hereford, prior to conversion

The Hive, Worcester

seen service as the city’s official Registry Office, it very nearly became yet another HC-operated city car park. Due for completion in 2021 by West Midlands social housing group Connexus, the conversion of the 1875 buildings will provide 47 privately rented and 28 affordable housing units. Mercifully, the idea of grafting an ugly modern slab block on the back has been dropped in favour of more modest twoand three-storey wings. Last autumn, the Victorian Society’s new Director Joe O’Donnell suggested that proposed changes to the planning system may mitigate against the reuse of unlisted local historic buildings in the future – a fate which Bath Street’s Working Boys Home narrowly escaped. It seems NMITE has no plans at present to build a new library, which means that the city’s meagre facilities in Broad Street will be stretched to the limit. If only the county would aspire to create something as wonderful as Worcester’s Hive which was, after all, a town-and-gown co-production. Since its completion in 2012 it has picked up no less than 10 architectural and environmental awards and in its first year had very nearly one million visits. On a brighter note, the dear old Booth Hall is finally undergoing a major restoration, following the disastrous fire of 2010. Local architects Hook Mason have obtained listed building consent to convert this former Mercers Guildhall into six apartments. Pevsner’s Buildings of England dates its stunning hammerbeam roof as c1400. The transformation should make a worthy neighbour to the adjoining Alban House development (also by Hook Mason) and the apartments in the former Conservative Club opposite. Nick Jones

Broad Sheep would like to thank all the contributors over the last 12 months. In particular, Hugh Colvin, Nick Jones, Roger Kite, Sam Llewellyn, Pete Mustill, Julian O’Halloran, Mr Pernickety and Mark Williams. Thanks also to all advertisers, subscribers and readers for your support, particularly through this difficult year. Although there will be no printed editions of Broad Sheep at present, hopefully it will be up and running again soon. The Broad Sheep office may close over Christmas and New Year, but I will deal with any enquiries on my return. Clare Edwards, Broad Sheep The Lodge Westhide Hereford HR1 3RQ 01432 850444 info@broadsheep.com www.broadsheep.com Broad Sheep

mark’s mutterings

offered a smile and a cheery word when I delivered Broad Sheep in its erstwhile and much-loved printed form every month. The irony of bumbling Boris Johnson’s recent claim that all British homes would served by electricity from offshore windfarms by 2030 should not be lost here, and I personally strongly favour offshore energy production which does not feature in the latest NDF draft.

AN ILL WIND

Hand-in-glove with politicians, big business threatens to blot our landscape Mark Williams

HOSE of us who live in the more rural parts of the Marches can take for granted the natural beauty that surrounds us, whether it the Wye Valley, the Long Mynd, the upper reaches of the Severn, the Brecon Beacons or, in my specific case, the Radnor Forest. But in recent years many of us have been roused from our lazy idyll as agricultural industrialisation in the form of giant, water-polluting poultry units, vast estates of ‘executive homes’ or huge retail parks nibble away at our green and pleasant land with little opposition, apart from what I will uncharitably call – because I actually heard a county councilor refer to them as such – the usual suspects. Well now I find myself becoming one of those suspects because my beloved Radnor Forest is under threat from industrial scale windfarm development which will blight the landscape I and my neighbours have assumed would always be inviolate... because it always has been. And as we who protested again the single wind turbine that scars the Llandegley Valley on the A44 en route to Llandod (and incidentally ruined the nesting grounds of thousands of starlings) well know, the Welsh Government are willing to cave in to well-funded lobbyists and ignore both their very own and local council planning officers who rejected it.

Local landowners in and around the Forest have been bribed financially by an Edinburgh-based company, Grayling Capital, to support a plan for another outfit, Njord Energy, to build 20–30 massive turbines across an area which includes the Radnor Forest and Aberedw which is outside those areas currently designated for wind farm development – which already include some 20% of rural Wales – and the Welsh Government has just published a re-draft of its National Development Framework (NDF) which doesn’t explicitly offer any protection. I want to avoid, as is so easily done, over-complicating the situation but will just say that Grayling have claimed that the boundaries are “fluid” and their involvement with a firm of lobbyists in Cardiff, Positif Politics who were evidently behind the Senedd’s abrupt about-turn on the Llandegley site does not bode well This is the same Welsh government that has trumpeted the health benefits – physical and mental – of public access to open spaces during lockdown, as evidenced by the ever-increasing numbers of visitors to the Radnor Forest with its inherent tranquility, vast plant, animal and bird life, SSSIs, stunning views and trails. And we should not ignore the benefits of all this to tourism and the small businesses and jobs that depend on it, many of whom

Unless we act now, this wonderful view may become a thing of the past

As things stands, a re-draft of the NDF is being considered by the Senedd until November 29th and I would urge anyone who cares what the Radnor hills will, quite literally look like in decades to come, usual suspect or not, to contact their local and national Welsh political representatives to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, and on a far larger scale than at Llandegley. In reference to the section of Renewable Energy which is being specifically considered by the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, and you should ideally make some or all of the following point, but crucially in your own words: • This landscape with its abundance of wildlife and indeed SSSIs attracts visitors which the local economy depends on, e.g. B&Bs, shops, eateries and pubs, with more and more walkers, cyclists, equestrians, trail riders etc. using the network of Public Rights of Way and Open Access Land. • There’s a huge contradiction between promoting public health and well-being and encouraging neoindustrial development of much-loved and well-used, beautiful, upland areas. With wider travel now severely restricted, these spaces are more vital than ever, which huge increase in Radnor Forest visitor numbers confirms. Many enterprises focusing on providing therapeutic respite care for people suffering from stress-related illness are also making good use of open spaces and woodlands

And here’s a list of appropriate recipients: Powys CC Principal Planning Officer: tamsin.law@powys.gov.uk Kirsty Williams AM: kirsty.williams@assembly.wales Julie James, Minister for Housing and Local Government: Julie.James@senedd.wales

Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee (CCERA) members: Chair: Mike Hedges AM Welsh Labour: Mike.Hedges@senedd.wales Andrew RT Davies AM Welsh Conservatives: AndrewRT.Davies@senedd.wales Llyr Gruffydd AM Plaid Cymru: Llyr.Gruffydd@senedd.wales Neil Hamilton AM UKIP Wales: Neil.Hamilton@senedd.wales Jenny Rathbone AM Welsh Labour: Jenny.Rathbone@senedd.wales Joyce Watson AM Welsh Labour: Joyce.Watson@senedd.wales Further information about the proposal can be found on the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales’ website at www.cprw.org.uk/news-and-events and about the Radnor Forest in general on a new, dedicated ‘friends of’ site at www.radnorfforest.co.uk. Moreover this blog by Azra Dale explains the situation in greater and murky detail: https://steemit.com/wales/@ azra/fron-goch-wind-farm-or-radnor-fforest-wales Photo courtesy of Alex Ramsay: www.alexramsayphotography.net

• Taking up my earlier point, the Welsh Government’s own, originally much trumpeted Marine Plan seems to’ve been quietly forgotten, so how should we interpret the UK Government’s recent commitment to developing offshore wind energy generation in relation to Wales? In the current NDF there is no discussion of the relative targets of on-shore and off-shore wind energy generation!

YOGA IN PRESTEIGNE Group classes and individual tuition in Stapleton Moving consciously with the breath

Marie Hudson 01544 260352 www.theyogapractice.org.uk

art

Art @ the Lodging 28th-29th Nov, 4-6th December The Judge’s Lodging, Presteigne LD8 2AD

Gillian Tennant-Eyles

RESTEIGNE’S awarding winning museum The Judge’s Lodging is throwing open it’s doors to artists and visitors alike in a grand exhibition and sale held over all three storeys of this unique and historic building. Twenty five artists working in a wide range of media will fill the rooms along with pottery, leatherwork, basketry, photography, prints and more. Like many sectors of society, the arts have been hugely affected by the Covid pandemic, but the Judge’s Lodging Museum in Presteigne is doing it’s bit for artists by hosting this brand new event called Art@TheLodging - a celebration of art and heritage as we emerge from the recent national lockdowns. The Judge’s Lodging, in case you have never visited it, is a unique experience – a moment in time captured within an imposing Victorian courtroom setting. Visitors will be able to wander through the building and not only take in the authentic Victorian interiors, but also see an imaginative display of modern artists’ and makers’ work, in bedrooms and bathrooms, in the magnificent courtroom and below stairs in the kitchen, servant’s hall and cellars. The show will be open to the public (entrance £3) 28-29 November and 4-6 December 10.30am - 5pm – the first weekend being aimed at visitors from the Welsh side of the border and the second weekend (once the English lockdown has been lifted) open to all. The Judge’s Lodging has been safely open to visitors this autumn and is ready to welcome evryone and only asks that visitors follow the current museum guidelines. Richard Studer

This is an ideal time to not only visit The Judge’s Lodging with it’s gas lit corridors and roaring fires, but also to buy a few original presents in time for Christmas. The show is in aid of the museum and has been organised by Richard Studer (who is also taking part in the exhibition). Richard is perhaps better known as the Artistic Director of Mid Wales Opera but is currently putting his very visual skills to full use in this very unusual event. So make the time to see what will undoubtedly be a fascinating collaboration between the museum and artists from the Welsh Borders, and a bright spot in what has been a fairly gloomy year all round. This is a mustsee for 2020! www.judgeslodging.org.uk Ruth Kirkby

sam’s page

Mucky Brown Riding Hood In a slimy hole in a Radnorshire wood lived a girl called Mucky Brown Riding Hood One day, little Hood said to her Mam ‘It’s the birthday of our lovely Gran I’ll nip across the forest and give her a peep in her cottage hard by the compost heap.’ So she packs up a basket of filth and mud and tops it with a garnish of lukewarm blood and into the wood she merrily sprints (smelling bad enough to make a polecat wince). Meanwhile, relaxing in a deep dark den Mr Wolf is digesting a stolen hen. But a hen’s quite small. He wants more. Very well; off he prowls. Good gracious! What’s that smell? Wolf peers round a bush. To his great surprise there’s Riding Hood, in a cloud of flies and he hears her sing ‘o man o man she’ll be chuffed with her filthbasket, will our Gran!’ ‘O ho,’ said the Wolf, ‘I know where she’s headin’’ so he runs to Gran’s house, and manages to geddin and Gran’s too old to cut and run so the Wolf takes a gulp, and she’s down in one. Meanwhile little Hood is coming down the lane (the smell she gives off causes actual pain) and she bangs on the door as loud as sin and the Wolf says (falsetto), ‘Come on in!’ So in Hood pops, and sticks her head into Granny’s room, and there’s Gran in bed (or so she thinks; but in actual fact it’s the nasty old Wolf, in gran’s shawl and hat).

‘Poo wee,’ says Granny/Wolf. ‘What’s that smell?’ ‘It’s only my aroma that you love so well’ says Hood. ‘Is there something wrong with your eyes?’ ‘It’s the smell,’ said the Wolf. ‘They’re big cos I’m surprised.’ ‘At what?’ says Hood. ‘Are you saying I reek? You horrible pointyfaced old antique!’ ‘Well sorry,’ says the Wolf, ‘Let me hold you close (though I must at the same time hold my nose).’ ‘I think not,’ said Hood. ‘Let me keep this brief. I refuse to come anywhere near your teeth. Now open your present, Granny dear for I suddenly wish to be far from here.’ Then the Wolf leaped out and swallowed Hood down and (just when she thought she would certainly drown in the smelly belly) gave a shriek of pain and sicked Mucky Riding Hood up again. Then the Wolf ran away, leaving Hood in a state. She said, ‘Having Gran eaten is a thing I hate. But what is that bad yet familar smell? and she saw that the Wolf had sicked up Gran as well! So any time you feel like a wash because your Mum says so, or because you’re posh remember Mucky Brown Riding Hood, and her Gran. Being filthy can save your life. It can. The author of Rude Rhymes from Mid-Wales, the non-existent book from which this is extracted, is Hilda Parkin.

AARDVARK BOOKS & CAFE Website: www.aardvark-books.com

50,000+ titles; North Herefordshire’s largest indie bookseller; We buy books Specialist in art, design, photography, history, gardening

Also open our superb CAFÉ!

The Bookery, Manor Farm, Brampton Bryan, Bucknell, SY7 0DH Off A4113 Knighton Road. Tel: 01547 530744 aardvaark@btconnect.com www.aardvark-books.com Bookshop open to visitors Tues-Sun, 10am-4pm

The Hope is a medieval house in the Welsh Marches surrounded by several acres of vegetation. This is the second collection of funny, erudite, deeply unconventional essays based on its garden, which Sam Llewellyn has made with the hindrance (frequent) and help (occasional) of an itinerant Duchess.

Aardvark Books & Cafe will re-open following National Lockdown on the 2nd December. Until then, we are available for orders by phone, email or on our website.

‘It’s hard to be funny about gardening, but Sam Llewellyn manages it in Digging Deeper with the Duchess’. The Oldie ‘Funny, scabrous, phantasmagoric - not to mention surprisingly useful plants-wise. The perfect gift for a green-fingered loved one.’ The Tatler ‘ To be honest, I didn’t really understand what was going on – who the Duchess is, when this is happening, if it’s even real or not – but I didn’t really care. I read it twice.’ Someone at the American Horticultural Society

Happy Christmas & Merry New Year!

www.diggingwiththeduchess.co.uk

film Love In The Time of Corona A

S England settles into its second (but not quite) full lockdown, my adopted home country of Wales endures a so-called ‘firebreak’ which will shortly turn into more-or-less more of the same and the world braces itself for no end to the pandemic anytime soon, these are not happy times for those of us who love cinema. So once again I’m obliged to delve into the world of digital streaming and recommend at least three movies to while away the long evenings. Most diverting if not exactly spiritually uplifting of all is BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (Amazon Prime) the follow-up to writer and eponymous star Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 outing which was a huge international hit. The new film’s full title adds the words ‘Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ which gives a clue to what passes for its plot, namely the so-called Kazak journalist returning to America to make a state-sponsored documentary in a country amidst an unprecedented pandemic and a bad-tempered run-up to a presidential election. Again written by Cohen and his regular sidekick, Anthony Hines, he’s directed by Jason Wolinor rather than Larry Charles who helmed both the first BORAT and also Cohen’s THE DICTATOR, and although Wolinor is used to the faster moving format of American T.V. soaps, if anything the pace of SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM is slightly less frenetic. This may be the consequence of having hadto shoot much of it during the actual pandemic when the logistics Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm

Eternal Beauty Shirley

Yet another dysfunctional heroine is the subject of ETERNAL BEAUTY (Curzon Home Cinema) which marks the directorial debut of actor and screenwriter Craig Roberts who you may remembered playing Sally Hawkins’ son in the 2010 indie hit, SUBMARINE, and here casts her as Jane, a paranoid schizophrenic, awkwardly interacting

with her family and friends. Both films were shot in South Wales which cinematographer Kit Fraser infuses with a beguiling, almost Wes Anderson-like palette and a roster of familiar British thesps – e.g. Penelope Wilton, Alice Lowe, David Thewlis, Billie Piper – inhabit with enthusiastic authenticity. Hawkins’ Jane is a waif-like figure clad in almost comically outsize clothes who views the world variously with both humorous whimsy and as an ominous threat but has an underlying canniness which moves up several gears when she decides to stop taking the medication that had hitherto kept her instincts under some sort of control. If that sounds like an unpromising premise for a comedy-drama with more than a hint of romance, think again and take a look for you’ll be both surprised and highly entertained. Mark Williams

GEORGINA FRANKLIN must’ve been hugely problematic but the result is nevertheless hilarious. Most notably set-ups when, in character, Cohen cringingly interviews such real-life politicians as Rudy Guiliani and Mike Pence and fawns before beloved thesps such as Tom Hanks whilst offering a chimpanzee as a gift from Kazakhstan to esteemed president ‘McDonald Trump’ and his 15 year-old daughter and avid Melania fan (Maria Bakalova) as a child-bride to, well almost anyone, and participating in a Ku Klux Klan event and Republican debutante ball. Unmissable. A very different fictional character – in several senses – features as SHIRLEY (Curzon Home Cinema) starring the increasingly versatile Elizabeth Moss (MAD MEN, THE HANDMAID’S TALE) as fêted, real-life horror novelist Shirley Jackson who whilst working on her latest masterpiece is beset by distractions which gradually unhinge her. Director Josephine Decker brings her experience as a documentarian (FLAMES, BI THE WAY) to its narrative style as Shirley works away in the Vermont homestead she shares with Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg, MISS SLOANE, ARRIVAL), her manipulative and philandering academic husband who, whilst attempting to dampen his wife’s emotional outbursts, invites a young newlywed couple (Logan Lerman, Odessa Young) to share their home. The strategy backfires big time, not least because the suddenly pregnant younger woman is saphically attracted to the writer, and her husband is Stanley’s force-fed literary protégée. The consequences are as dramatic as anything the real and late Ms Jackson ever penned and Moss is absolutely terrific in the title role.

Jewellery Individual Contemporary Design Commissions undertaken

The Forum, 18 Market Square, Tenbury Wells, Worcs. WR15 8EA

Please see website for studio opening times.

www.georginafranklin.co.uk

Phone 01584 810085

Specialising in the conservationrestoration of works of art on paper and oil paintings. Unit 9, Lower Buckton Barns, between Leintwardine and Brampton Bryan, SY7 0JU.

Please call or email Louise Vaile for appointments and further information.

T: 07780 616067 E: info@ogilvievaile.com W: ogilvievaile.com

Stuart Morris HND Garden Maintenance Services

Over 20 years experience, Covid safe, providing all equipment

♠ All aspects of garden maintenance ♠ Hedge and shrub cutting ♠ Tree surgery ♠ Full public liability

♠ Mowing ♠ Borders ♠ Turfing Mobile: 07828 995237

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ACE

OF SPADES

Email: smorrisaos@gmail.com

Stuck for a present for Christmas or Birthday? Why not buy a subscription for BROAD Sheep? Only £25 for the whole year (includes p&p) Just post a cheque, payable to ‘Broad Sheep’ together with the name and address you want it sent to. (The year will start when Broad Sheep is printing issues again) Broad Sheep The Lodge Westhide Hereford, HR1 3RQ

Trevor Davies Music

For all your musical needs 87 Etnam Street, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 8AE tel: 01568 613611

We stock Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP, Fernandez, Epiphone, Indie, Aria, Ovation, Adamas, Martin, Taylor, Yamaha, Crafter, Burns, Washburn, Jackson, AER, Marshall, Hartke, Carlsbro, Laney, Zoom, Digitech, Tama, Casio. Plus many other brands. Approximately 500 guitars in stock and Brass, Woodwind, Drums, Keyboards, accessories and thousands of music books and sheet music.

Langstaffe Violins John Langstaffe

Maker & Restorer of Violins, Violas & Cellos

Repairs, Fitting Up, Tonal Adjustments Bow Repairs etc

PEMBRIDGE M: 07901 064875

www.langstaffe-violins.co.uk

food page EVENTS Every Saturday LUDLOW COUNTRY MARKET 9am-12pm at The Womens Centre, Ludlow. Local produce, handicrafts, plants & veg, cut flowers, cards. First Saturday of every month (except August) FARMER’S MARKET Produce, craft, gifts, kitchen cafe open. Eaton Bishop Village Hall, 10am-12pm. First Saturday of every month PRESTEIGNE LOCAL FOOD MARKET Memorial Hall Presteigne, 9am-1pm. The best collection of artisan food producers in the area. 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month KNIGHTON COMMUNITY MARKET Knighton Community Centre, 9.30am-12.30pm, 07751 221487. Third Saturday of every month PRODUCE MARKET Hightown Community Rooms, Vicarage Rd. Clun, 10.00am - 12.00pm. 01588 641180. Third Saturday of every month FARMER’S MARKET Bishop’s Castle Town Hall, 9am-1pm, 01588 630023. First Thursday EVENING FARMER’S MARKET The Barn, Ledbury, HR8 1EA, 6-8pm. www.ledburyfoodgroup.org Every Thursday MONTGOMERY TOWN MARKET Regular stalls on the lower floor. First Thurs of the month, using both floors with community cafe. Open 9am-3pm, www.montgomery-wales.co.uk/market 07790 100462. Every Thursday HAY MARKET DAY Local produce, meat and fish, hot food, artisan bread, cakes, crafts, vintage, plants. Memorial Square and Clock Tower, Hay-on-Wye, 9am-2.30pm, www.haymarkets.co.uk Every 2nd & 4th Thursday LUDLOW LOCAL PRODUCE MARKET Castle Square, 9am-2pm, 01584 872043. Every Friday KINGTON PRODUCE/CRAFTS MARKET Market Hall, Kington, 9am-1pm, 07867 483135.

BROAD sheep

Why not advertise your eating establishment?

IT’S ONLY £40 FOR THE WHOLE YEAR Just post the wording you require (around 40 words) together with a cheque payable to ‘Broad Sheep’ and post to: Broad Sheep, The Lodge Westhide, Hereford HR1 3RQ Further enquries, call 01432 850444

AARDVARK BOOKS LTD, THE BOOKERY, MANOR FARM, BRAMPTON BRYAN, BUCKNELL 01547 530888 Cafe serving refreshments, cakes etc. Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-5pm. BLEDDFA CENTRE READING ROOM CAFE 01547 550377 11am – 5pm every Saturday and Sunday (as well as Friday and Mondays on Bank Holiday). Teas, coffees, cake and soup. www.bleddfacentre.org 01547 550377 hello@bleddfacentre.org THE GREEN BEAN CAFE, WEOBLEY 01544 318865 Good, locally sourced, homemade food. Soups, all day light lunches, cakes and scones. Set in the heart of Weobley. Free wifi. Tues-Fri 9.30am-4.30pm, Sat 9.30am-4pm. With The Green Bean Shop/Deli under the same roof. THE HEREFORDSHIRE GOLF CLUB, WORMSLEY, HR4 8LY Open daily for food and beverage also a Sunday Carvery 12.30pm-3pm every week, one course £10.95 two courses, £14.95. We can also cater for your private event, price includes free room hire. Call our Catering Team on 01432 830219, option 3. THE ORGASMIC CIDER COMPANY, GREAT PARTON, EARDISLEY, HEREFORDSHIRE, HR3 6NX 01544 327244 or 07773 037448 Craft cider and perry off licence and gift shop with local products. Open Friday and Saturday 12 to 5pm. Group tours available. THE WORKHOUSE CAFE, INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, PRESTEIGNE 01544 267864 Cafe, gallery, light lunches, good coffee, homemade cakes. Mon - Sat 10am - 4pm. RHOS MARKET GARDEN, KNIGHTON 01547 528315 Growers & providers of organic veg, fruit & flowers. Eco cleaning products & refills. Large range of groceries & whole foods. The Old Garage Shop, Knighton. Tues-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-3pm. Free parking, opposite Old Library. Friday Morning Market stall in Presteigne. Local deliveries of veg. boxes. info@rhosorganic.co.uk www.rhosorganic.co.uk RUTH WATSON RESTAURANTEUR AND PRIVATE COOK. Bespoke Food for all Occasions. Parties, special occasions, holiday home catering, pop-up food. Friendly personal service. Ring or email: 01544 350559/ 07870 752325. ruthwatsonfood@gmail.com

Trevor Davies Music

For all your musical needs 87 Etnam Street, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 8AE tel: 01568 613611

band directory ADD A BAND - Real instrument backing to your own music. Perfect for singer songwriters etc. Studio near Newtown. www.addaband.co.uk, 07515 401635. ANIMAL Solo entertainer, piano/vocals, harmonica, mixed music. Also session player on drums. Experienced TV, theatre, cruises, holiday parks, radio, concerts, Britain’s Got Talent 2012. Backed Stella Parton, Tommy Cash, Screaming Lord Sutch, Dr Feelgood, Wishbone Ash, Ruby Murry. To book please phone Paul 0751 484 7966. APPLEBY STONE Live acoustic duo/trio, guitar, flute, saxophones, voices, double bass, jazz, folk, R&B, pop, many originals, perfect for private and public events. applebystone.com 07979 542 449. BANDAMANIA Community band playing wild and wonderful traditional music. Perfect for ceilidhs, parties and all sorts of local events. Sue Harris 01547 550158 sumarieharris@btinternet.com BEST FOOT CEILIDH BAND The hottest dance band on the borders + caller. Available for weddings, barn dances and parties. Contact: 07969 440183 or john@johnhymas. com BIG MAGIC DANCE BAND 10-piece jive/R & R group. ‘Does what it says on the tin!’ Parties/festivals/happenings/weddings etc. Call Eddy on 01691 648729 or 07796 148448. Web: eddygartry.com Email: w.gartry@hotmail. com Management also for The Werewolves of Powys and Blues State UK

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Band Directory ONLY £40 FOR THE WHOLE YEAR Just post the details of your band (around 40 words) with a cheque for £40 payable to Broad Sheep and post to: The Lodge, Westhide, Hereford, HR1 3RQ

Just call Clare on 01432 850444 or email: info@broadsheep.com DON’T FORGET... if you have any gigs in the area, email/phone by the 15th of the preceding month for FREE LISTINGS.

THE CHICAGO SWING KATZ - New Orleans Blues to Chicago Swing. 6/7 Piece band playing foot-tapping, fun music that will make you feel happy. Weddings, Birthdays, Corporate events, Festivals, even funerals - but book well in advance for those! Traditional Jazz Trios, Quartets also available. Come and hear the band every 2nd Sunday of the Month at the Wild Pig, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury, SY3 9JT. Email: chicagoswingkatz@aol.com, www.thechicagoswingkatz.com Jeff: 07831 - 383636 CHRISIE J LOCAL VOCALIST! I sing Jazz. Soul, Musical Theatre, Pop and Rock. For more information or to make a booking email chrisiej20@gmail.com or phone 07968 893719. Have a look at my social media for performance videos and more information. Also looking for a band so get in touch if interested. THE DRAGON BIG BAND - 14 musicians playing Basie, Ellington, and exclusive arrangements. Jazz to Swing to Latin. Trumpets, trombones, saxes, bass, guitar, keyboard, drums. Come and listen every Wednesday, 8.00 - 10.30, The Horse & Jockey, Churchstoke, Powys, SY15 6AE, 01588 - 620060. Comfortable venue, bar, food (book), large car park, fun and with free admission. Band Enquiries: Mike 01686 – 668675 KERI HOFFMAN Keri Hoffman is an energetic yet classy performer. Keri is a well-known name and firm favourite within the industry. Dynamic and versatile her extensive repertoire means she is perfect for any occasion, from small laid back intimate settings, to those high octane concerts of festival proportions. Follow Keri on facebook - @vocalsbykeri. Contact via www.kerihoffmanvocalist.co.uk Keri.hoffman@hotmail.com HOT CLIMATE Ultimate party band, best 6-piece line up ever. For top musical entertainment at your party/ wedding/festival or corporate function. Book now! New footage on www.hotclimate.co.uk. Contact Charlie 01568 613895 or mobile 07702 528088 anytime! LITTLE RUMBA This is a band that will entertain and delight any audience that has its wits about it and has an ear for beautiful melodies infectious beats and songs that tell stories. From Winchcombe Live “Absolutely fantastic evening from you guys tonight. We had so many positive comments from the audience; very gratifying! Great musical talent, great humour, variety, and warmth of performance.” Contact Jacqui Savage 07966 943314 Email – jaxbass.xs@btinternet.com http://www.littlerumba.com THE LUDLOW JAZZ COLLECTIVE Local Quartet/Quintet with singer if required, playing smooth sounds of well-known standards, Latin and blues. Available for all types of events and celebrations. Contact Paul Brooks 07980 822014. pppbrooks@gmail. com MAMMAFUNK are a 6-piece funk and soul band available for parties, weddings, corporate and charity events. Covering classic and modern hits we are also available to offer a bespoke set list for any specific song requests you may have. www.mammafunk.com Call 078144 86028 / 079693 27030.

MELOMANICS A wacky, Shropshire-based Duo with an amazingly dynamic sound, playing their eclectic and cosmopolitan repertoire with engaging humour and infectious energy (sustainable). Far more than just great music. And stilts if appropriate. Find out how much fun a ceilidh can be with Tim calling and playing. Ideal for parties, weddings, fund-raising events, festivals, shows, pubs, restaurants, etc. Scottish, Irish and French-themed specialities (Timoléon pour vos soirées francaises). For more info call Tim on 01743 719438, or Rich on 01743 718612. Email: tim@melomanics.co.uk Website: www.melomanics.co.uk

other bands, but which everyone will know. Of course, we do some of the more usual songs as well! www.singledoutband.com email: info@singledoutband. com Phone 07518 291 676.

THE RAGTIME JUG ORCHESTRA A roots string-band (duo) recreating the sounds of the early 20th century America, playing a good-time mix of blues, skiffle and Americana music. We like to get audiences involved! Available for festival, events, parties, folk clubs, pubs and bars; performance presentations and workshops for all occasions too. Web: www.ragtimejug.co.uk Contact: John; 01594 861151. Email: info@ragtimejug.co.uk Facebook.com: ragtime jug orchestra.

SLIPPERY SLOPE Silly, melancholy and beautiful music played on accordion, fiddle, guitar and steel pan. From ska to klezmer via a Parisian cafe and a Russian vodka bar. For more info please call Jo or Ben on 01981 510136 see www.slipperyslope.org.uk or email slipperyslope@hotmail.com

REVEREND FERRIDAY Upbeat One Man Blues Band. Playing driving slide guitar with rockabilly flair, seasoned with a touch of Americana, a mix of stomping originals and traditional classics. Available for all occasions, large or small. Contact the Reverend: 01584 711700 - 07766 185451 - revferriday@gmail.com - www.revferriday.com RHYTHM THIEVES Funky, folky and fun. Firm favourites at festivals, pubs, parties and events around the Midlands and beyond, Rhythm Thieves are a lively must-see band who deliver an unforgettable and highly entertaining night out. “Full of fire and enthusiasm” Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2 “Great, super, lovely - our resident band” Genevieve Tudor. BBC Radio Midlands Folk Show. “If they don’t make you smile, you’re probably dead.” Wheaton Aston Folk Festival Tel: 01568 770 134, e-mail rhythmthieves@hotmail.com THE ROTUNDAS are a pair of jolly chaps who sing and play contemporary versions of industrial and social folk songs from Birmingham and the Black Country. Listen on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/therotundas and contact us at our Facebook page @TheRotundas or email therotundasband@gmail.com SHRED BELLY Ludlow/Shropshire based acoustic duo, playing covers of popular ‘Dad’s Rock’ songs from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and more. Full band can also be available. All bookings and enquiries please contact: Kevin on 07873 426205 or Paul on 07957 247851. SILVER BRANCH (Ceilidh and Concert Band). CEILIDH BAND with caller. Available for weddings/ birthday parties/fund raisers, etc. For photos/videos please see our Facebook page. For further enquiries, ring David on 01981 540832 or Anna on 07980 961187. SILVER BRANCH (UN-CALLED FOR) - Five piece cutting edge instrumental Folk Band. Concerts/gigs. SIMON THE PIPER Highland Piper with 20 years experience. Available for all occasions - weddings, funerals, Burn’s Night, Hogmanay, festivals, processions etc. Based in Hereford. Call 07791 045831 or facebook. com/simonthepiper Email simonthepiper@hotmail.com SINGLED OUT Experienced, 3-piece band covering the best pop and rock music from the 50’s to the current era. We focus on great tunes that don’t usually get played by

SIR DANCELOT 4/5 piece ceilidh/twmpath band. Far and away the best exponents of traditional dance music of the British Isles and beyond for miles around and leagues beneath. Concertina, mandolin, fiddles, whistles, cittern, jews harp... Available for weddings, parties and public events. For information and bookings, contact: Cornelius 01686 411147 corns@mousemusic. co.uk or Peter 07561 820509. www.sirdancelot.co.uk

STONED CHERRIES Are: Dave Evans, guitar, mandolin, vocals; Roger Pugh, guitar, mandola, vocals; Aly May, whistles, vocals and Matt Donaldson, bass, percussion and vocals. A dynamic folk / rock fusion of original, traditional and modern songs and tunes. Roger 01885 483425 / 07779 694615 / pugh@live.co.uk or Dave 01886 822132 / 07817 220016 / dgand2@btinternet.com www.dgand2.wix.com/ thestonedcherries THE SULTANA BROTHERS Fine R&B from one of the best bands around! The ultimate hip swingin’, foot tappin’ party band - guaranteed to help you dance the night away. For bookings/enquiries contact Phil 07791 129391 or Adam 07855 037092. Website www.thesultanabrothers.vpweb.co.uk or find us on Facebook.com/thesultanabros THE VILLAGE QUIRE spine-tingling harmonies sung with all the emotional clout, subtlety of expression and love of life that you get when voices are raised together in song. Sensational vocals mingled with enthralling stories. Various shows to book, including ‘Songs for Silas’ melting harmonies and tall tales inspired by H. E. Bates’ evergreen My Uncle Silas. “... Absolutely delighted that you have chosen to weave your magical sound around that old rogue, Silas.” Victoria Wicks (Skins, Shadowlands and H. E. Bates’ grand-daughter). For bookings / further info ring 01497 847676 www.villagequire.org.uk / www.songsforsilas.org.uk VINTAGE JAZZ REVIVAL Ludlow-based, 6-piece, New Orleans/Trad band. Comprising trumpet, sax, trombone, banjo, tuba and drums, playing and singing popular foot-tapping songs mostly from the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. Available for all functions. See us every Tuesday at the Rose and Crown in Ludlow. Tel: Rob 01584 318088, email: vintagejazzrevival@gmail. com website: www.vintagejazzrevival.co.uk WHISKEY RIVER is a 5/6 piece electric Americana band that play swamp blues, Cajun, Zydeco and good country music to set the dance floor rocking. To suit smaller venues and smaller budgets, pruned down acoustic versions of the band are available as “The Whiskey River Quartet”, “The Whiskey River Trio” or as a Duo [“The Whiskey River Boys”]. Laissez les bon temps rouler!! Contact Martin, phone: 07846 669890, 01432 342018. Email: martin@whiskeyriver.co.uk. Website: www.whiskeyriver.co.uk

philosophy

‘Round the year from Stonewall Hill. A journey in time and space’ by painters Mary Rennell and Richard Gilbert and photographer Brian Griffiths.

A Very Weighty Matter T

HE woman directly ahead of me in the queue was obese. Exceptionally obese. She was waiting for her coffee to arrive. Immediately behind me were a young couple. The man was playing with his phone while his partner tried to decide which type of cake to choose. She opted for the Victoria sponge, as yet complete but already divided into six portions. It looked delicious. She took a slice. The portions, to say the least, were generous in the extreme. She would probably need to eat nothing else until the next day. The young man finally noticed what she had selected and clearly taken aback by the proportions of the slice, shouted the unfortunate words: “Ye gods, look at the size of that”. Immediately the mood in the café changed. What had been a relaxed and convivial atmosphere suddenly became tense, nervous, brittle. [It reminded me of a similar mood-change encountered years ago on a return flight to Birmingham, when the pilot announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, in a few moments I shall try to land”. The man sitting next to me suggested that perhaps the pilot had been absent from the flying school on the afternoon they covered landing. But I digress. Back to the café.] Of course I was in prime position to have ringside view of this homely little episode, being close to all the main characters. In fact, too darn close for comfort, inescapably wedged between the enormous and now fuming overweight woman and the weedy-looking young man. But on the plus side it did give your Philosopher-inResidence the chance to observe at first-hand the subject of this rambling piece: embarrassment. So what happened next? Well, everything and nothing. Everyone involved – the woman, the young couple, the waitress, me and other customers in the café – was in the grip of acute embarrassment, but at a loss to say or do anything to put matters right.

Time to Prune your Apples & Pears From one branch to an entire orchard

Tel: 01544 260656 24

26th June 2021 to 21st August 2021

Part of the dilemma was that the obese lady could not be sure that the man had been making an oblique reference to her at all. And as for him, whatever had been his intention, he was only too aware of having caused great upset, and, as far as I could tell, genuinely wished to apologize. But it was impossible: he was unable to find any way to do this, short of stating the obvious – ‘Madam, I was referring to the huge slice of Victoria sponge and not to the fact that you are clinically obese’. So nobody spoke. Not a word. Paralyzed by embarrassment. I used to attend the monthly postgraduate seminars in the university where I was researching. The seminars had been running for years and were by now quite a prestigious affair, usually attracting top-rate speakers in the fields of philosophy and theology. The speaker would deliver a paper, followed by discussion. Often the speakers were visiting professors and nearly always well worth hearing. But on one occasion the speaker was incoherent, badly prepared and, worst of all, boring. A regular member of the seminar was a distinguished humanist and a fine scholar. He was also notoriously sarcastic and capable of making comments acidic enough to curdle milk. His presence always added a certain frisson of excitement to the proceedings and it’s likely that some people came to the seminars mainly to relish those moment and to enjoy the ensuing embarrassment. On this particular occasion he was late in arriving. The speaker had been droning on for about ten minutes, although it seemed much longer, when Dr S. finally put in an appearance. The lecture, which lasted an hour, was numbingly dull and pointless. At long last it was time for questions and discussion. Dr S. was the first to speak. We all knew that in some form or other he was about to lob a hand-grenade into the arena. Which he did: “I’m so sorry to have arrived late and missed what must clearly have been the interesting part of your lecture”. For Dr S. embarrassment seemed an unknown concept. Such incidents as these raise one or two important questions. The young man in the café was clearly capable of experiencing embarrassment, whereas Dr S. had never heard of it. As for giant supermarkets, politicians and industrial behemoths – they seem able to commit all manner of jiggery-pokery – financial, fiscal and moral, without the slightest whiff of embarrassment. And as for banks, well, words fail me. So dear reader, is the human race losing its capacity to experience embarrassment? And if it is, so what? Perhaps Thomas Hobbes hit the nail on the head when he described human life as a ‘warre of alle against alle’? Please, let’s hope he was wrong. Philosopher-in-Residence

Featuring ‘Round the Year from Stonewall Hill’

Mary Rennell (detail)

(Also known as ‘Four Seasons on the Welsh Border’) by Mary Rennell (1901 to 1981). Twelve drawings in Chinese ink on rice paper (each 153 x 69 cm). All produced over a year from November 1967 to October 1968 from the back seat of her Mini. Exhibited in 1970 at The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, which then purchased the 12 panels. Now after 50 years they are emerging from storage to make their long overdue debut in the county of their creation.

The exhibition includes contemporary responses to Stonewall Hill and to Mary Rennell’s depictions of it by two Herefordshire residents: painter Richard Gilbert and photographer Brian Griffiths. Both have produced bold detailed works over a year from extensive walks immersing themselves in, and exploring the wider region that is ‘Stonewall Hill.’

Brian Griffiths

“4 Seasons, 3 Artists, 2 Countries, 1 Hill” Also on display will be twelve pictures by twelve different artists from the Museum’s permanent collection. These will offer a diverse range of images, styles and genres as an alternative journey through the calendar year. Artists include Diana Cumming, Mary Fedden, Brian Hatton, John Scarlett Davis and John Ward. Richard Gilbert

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, Broad Street, Hereford HR4 9AU 01432 383383 Entrance free. Access by stairs or lift. Before visiting please check the latest opening arrangements on the Herefordshire Council web site: www.herefordshire.gov.uk www.richardgilbert.co.uk www.brianonwoodside.co.uk

theatre Courtyard Transformation Complete T

HE Courtyard’s capital expansion project Transform The Yard has been officially handed over from construction company C J Bayliss.

The project includes a redesign of The Courtyard’s front of house area, making the Box Office more accessible and part of a new retail space. The shop will eventually sell locally-made arts and crafts. The Café Bar area and first floor dining space have been significantly extended and an outside terrace created. The most notable change is a large two-storey multi-purpose room. This versatile space will be used as an additional performance space, as well as for conferences, meetings, workshops and more. The Courtyard received initial funding for the expansion works from Arts Council England in 2018. Since, they have also secured funding from Garfield Weston Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Bernard Sunley Foundation, Brailsford Trust, Sylvia Waddilove Foundation and The Eveson Charitable Trust, as well as vital public support, to ensure the project was a success. Ian Archer, Chief Executive & Artistic Director at The Courtyard, said: “In a year with very few positives, we are delighted and proud to announce that the building work for Transform The Yard is now complete. The improvements to our venue will provide an exciting new dining experience and enable us to build on our work with local artists. It will allow us to further expand our education and outreach programme and work with partner organisations by bringing ideas, creative drive and exciting new programmes to our audiences. The development of The Courtyard offers us sustainability and resilience and allows us to be more

innovative, which will also benefit audiences, residents, community groups, schools, resident and visiting artists, and conference delegates. We couldn’t have done this without everyone who supported our ‘Transform The Yard’ fundraising campaign. A huge thank you for enabling us to bring an exciting new look Courtyard to the people of Herefordshire.” We couldn’t have done this without everyone who supported our ‘Transform The Yard’ fundraising campaign. A huge thank you for enabling us to bring an exciting new look Courtyard to the people of Herefordshire.” Although the structural build is complete, The Courtyard are still working hard to fit out of the new spaces ahead of reopening, which will hopefully be February 2021 subject to government advice. The Arts Centre has been closed since March 2020 due to the ongoing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. For more information about Transform The Yard or to make a donation visit courtyard.org.uk/transformtheyard.

grass roots Polluted Seas - The Bathing Beaches where Swimming is Banned! I

N view of the dire state of most of Britain’s rivers, which I addressed in Broad Sheep last month, I thought it might be fun to plunge into the bracing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Surely the sea should be much cleaner! I do this for a few days in September each year, with friends and family. The trip to Cornwall can be hot and tiring, so let’s take an hour out along the way and have a dip at a beach in Somerset or North Devon? Helpfully, an Environment Agency website includes a big map of England, its coastline festooned with blue symbols, marking bathing beaches en route. How about Weston-super-Mare, with its upmarket Latinate name? I guess it goes back to the days of the regency dandy, Beau Brummel? Sounds nice, but how is the water quality? The EA map shows what looks like a NO ENTRY sign. Whoops! Maybe not today. The water quality at the Uphill Slipway beach at Weston is listed as poor, based on samples tested each year from 2016 through to 2019. The state of the water in the 2020 holiday season is not yet posted. So how about Burnham-on-Sea? Oh dear! Here things are, if anything, worse. There is “permanent advice against bathing”. That sounds rather final. Indeed, Burnham is no longer designated a bathing place at all, after the water quality was classified as poor over five successive years. How about a quick stop in Devon then? Ilfracombe? I‘ve definitely heard of it. But no luck here either. Ilfracombe Wildersmouth has also been struck off the list of bathing waters. And, if Wildersmouth is getting a pasting, I am not really sanguine about trying out its neighbours. The south west is not the only region with beaches that have been blacklisted. Going in the diametric opposite direction, you hit the northeast. But here on the map there are more of those alarming NO ENTRY signs. One of these is Tynemouth Cullercoats. Not so long ago, in 2016, it was doing OK. Its water got two stars and was said by the agency to be good! The next year it got a rather grudging sufficient. But in 2018 and 2019 its water was poor. No mention yet of 2020. And there are some red flags, health-wise, in eastern and southern England as well. (Wales comes out much better, Broad Sheep readers will be pleased to know!)

Luckily for would-be swimmers, detailed research on our beaches is done by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), a campaign group who have been active for a few decades. Their information seems more up-to-date than that of official sources. In fact, SAS published a new report on sea-water quality this autumn. Their analysis was fronted up by a man with the grand title of UN Patron of The

Bathers at Burnham-on-Sea in earlier years – before the bathing ban

Oceans! I didn’t know the name Lewis Pugh at once. But I had certainly heard of his swimming feats. This guy is no armchair environmentalist. He has swum in the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. But, he says modestly, he has “only swum down four rivers”, two of them in Britain. He notes that on each occasion he became “violently sick due to pollution.” Surfers Against Sewage report that, in the year from October 2019, UK water companies issued nearly 3000 notices recording the dumping in the sea of toxic discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows. In the past, media reports have suggested that, among water companies in England and Wales, the worst performer of all has been Southern Water. Indeed, Surfers Against Sewage condemns Southern Water for having “a notorious record for continuous poor performance, deceit and lack of transparency.” Blimey! To me that sounds like an NGO going just a bit over the top! But no, it turns out that the company has been punished severely by the courts after admitting a string of offences. Indeed, in 2019, it was fined a jawdropping £126 million for repeated sewage spills since 2010 and for deliberately misreporting its performance. This year Surfers Against Sewage charted the data issued by 8 major water companies in England and Wales. They were amazed to find that, at first, Southern Water came out best of all! So has Southern Water dramatically turned over a new leaf? Sadly no, it has not. When SAS probed further, it turned out that the information had simply been hidden. The company confessed to failing to publish any notifications at all about the discharges it had made from combined sewer overflows. Southern Water said, limply, “notifications should have been sent, but frustratingly they weren’t.” The campaign group was told that this was caused by “technological issues”. So, although there are still scores of good clean bathing places in the UK, to swimmers and paddlers who have not checked the status of their target beach, I regret to say, “If in doubt, don’t go in the water!”

Julian O’Halloran

complementary therapies Disclaimer. We would like to emphasise that these listings relate to COMPLEMENTARY medicine practitioners. Broad Sheep does not endorse any of the practitioners or healing methods listed. We provide no recommendation and take no responsibility for their content.

A is for ACUPUNCTURE & HOLISTIC THERAPIES Joanna Bruce RGN, B.Ac, MBAcC - clinics in Leominster and Kingsland. Treating pain and long term health conditions effectively since 1983. Tel: 01568 709142 or text 07984 460969. Free initial phone consultation jo.bruce@talk21.com ACUPUNCTURE. Sandy Sandaver Lic Ac MBAcC. I practice an integrated style of acupuncture using 5 element and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and am a member of the British Acupuncture Council. I also carry out home visits. Hay Acupuncture Clinic, Rose Cottage, Cusop Dingle, Hay-On-Wye 01497 821625/07980 596218 sandysandaver@onetel.com or www.hayacupunctureclinic.co.uk ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, TRAUMA, LOW SELF WORTH and emotional difficulties - our innovative approach is being used with private and NHS clients with great success. Clients attend an average of 4 sessions to achieve a substantial, some say transformative, effect on their well being. You can check out the testimonials and book a one to one session on our website www. peaceofmindnow.co.uk or get in touch for more information Mike Buckley 07931 986168 mcmbuckley@gmail.com AROMATHERAPY massage and facials - Bach Remedies - Herbalism - Reiki. For comprehensive, holistic treatment: Roz Myers Brown, Dip. Ar. IPTI, MIPTI. Kington clinic. 07967 137208, roz.brown@btinternet.com

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Complementary Therapies ONLY £40 FOR THE WHOLE YEAR Just post the details of your therapy (around 40 words) with a cheque for £40 payable to Broad Sheep and post to: The Lodge, Westhide, Hereford, HR1 3RQ

You can amend the wording anytime during the year, just call Clare on 01432 850444 or email: info@broadsheep.com

BOWEN TECHNIQUE Bowen is a holistic, non invasive therapy consisting of gentle moves over soft tissue and muscles, interspersed with periods of rest. Suitable for adults and children. Working from clinics in Bishop’s Castle and Church Stretton. Home visits available. Contact ROB ROWE MBTPA tel: 01588 630648, email rob@robrowe.co.uk or learn more at www.bowentherapy. org.uk BESPOKE MASSAGE THERAPY BY CHERYL LILWALL MTI. Sensitive communication through the medium of touch. For physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Clinic held at the Integrative Health Clinic, Holland House, 70 Belmont Road, Hereford. Tel: 07487 738089. www.herefordbespokemassagetherapy.co.uk CHARTERED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPIST with over 25 years professional NHS experience, providing psychological help to adults. Please see website for details: www.drmatthewfaull.co.uk. I am highly trained and experienced in using evidence–based psychotherapies to relieve distress and help you achieve your life goals, and offer sessions in Ludlow and Leintwardine. I also offer supervision to mental health professionals. Please contact me by email: mfaull@btinternet.com, to arrange a free initial phone conversation to consider your needs. Registered with British Psychological Society, British Psychoanalytic Council, Health Professions Council. CLAIRE KERBY COUNSELLING (Post grad dip Counselling, MBACP). Having someone to talk to outside your normal circle of friends / family can really help to gain a new clarity and sense of perspective. I would love it if you would call me, in confidence, with no judgement on 07971 816541, or email me at Claire.kerby@btinternet. com. COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY (CBT), COUNSELLING AND COUPLE COUNSELLING Hello! CBT can work well for depression, anxiety, panic, OCD, anger, phobias, self-harm, eating disorders, low selfesteem and more. I also offer counselling for most issues, including sexuality, bereavement and past sexual abuse. Couple counselling is available and counselling for those who have problems concerning self-esteem, relationships or lack of them. Contact Gail Venables MBACP (Accred) on 07484 766371 or www.cbtgail.co.uk for sessions in Leominster and New Radnor COUNSELLING, HEALING, MEDIUMSHIP. Spiritual Medium & Author Jenny Martin, offers one to one tuition or personal counselling/healing in Mid Wales. Over 20 years experience. Jenny’s spiritual development manual and her biography are both available via www.jennymartinmedium.com or contact jenny@ jennymartinmedium.com for more information. CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY with Jess Pailthorpe RCST. Safe, effective, light-touch treatments to help you heal & repair. Muscle/joint problems, stress, anxiety, fatigue, trauma….Clinics in Leominster Osteopaths and Kingsland. Phone for info: 07981 866 667 / www.touchtreetherapy.co.uk

DEEPLY RELAXING Craniosacral Therapy can increase your well-being by releasing emotional and physical tensions. Given a safe space and correct focus, your body knows the way. I am an accredited practitioner, qualified since 2004, based in Shrewsbury, Crickhowell and Mid Wales. Email: cheryljonestherapy@gmail.com Mobile: 07476 012299. EMOTIONAL THERAPY: Anne Cummings FETC (Adv Dip), MNCS (Accred) offers this safe, effective therapy to help adults and children heal their emotional and spiritual wounds and fulfil their personal potential. If you have difficulty relating to others, or have troublesome emotions call Anne on 01547 530977. Specialist knowledge and experience of working with panic attacks, anger, stress, bullying, low self-esteem, bereavement/loss, anxiety and depression. Centres in Powys/south Shropshire. Ffi including workshops and talks. www.thewritetofeel.com. EQUINE FACILITATED LEARNING. Personal growth for individuals and groups through powerful yet gentle interactions with horses, with seasoned Eponaquest facilitator Angela Dunning. EFL sessions involve spending time outdoors with these beautiful sentient beings, where you will be guided to deepen your connection to yourself and your body; build true confidence; reconnect to your Soul’s purpose and bring greater authenticity to your life. No horse experienced required. Shropshire/Herefordshire/ Borders. Contact me on: 01588 630061/07583 726207; angela@equinereflections.co.uk; or visit www.thehorsestruth.co.uk

LEOMINSTER NATURAL HEALTH CENTRE Chiropractic, Herbal Medicine, Kinesiology, Cranial Sacral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Reflexology, Emmet technique. Remedial and Holistic Massage. Counselling inc: Couples and Family, Cognitive Behaviour and NLP Stress Management, Child Birth Issues, Psychotherapy. Telephone 01568 616411 email infoleominstercommunitycentre@gmail.com Or visit Leominster Community Centre, School Road HR6 8NJ (behind Bridge Street car park). MASSAGE THERAPY WITH MARIAN HARDIMAN (MTI, CNHC, MLDUK). Remedial, Sports, Holistic, Indian Head Massage. Organic Facial and Manual Lymph Drainage. Clinic in Presteigne (The Retreat), Presteigne, LD8 2UF. Contact: marian@silvanmassage.com, www. silvanmassage.com, 07816 981454. NO HANDS® MASSAGE works on every level: physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual. It’s deep, transforming touch with no pain. Come and train with Wendy Mills, Master Therapist and Instructor. Clinic and Courses held in Sutton St Nicholas, Hereford. 07858137889; millsw1@tiscali.co.uk; www.wendymills.co.uk MINDFULNESS Alithea Waterfield MBCT teacher offering Mindful Walks in Nature, 8-week Mindfulness courses and Mindfulness Guided Meditations. Committed to helping you reconnect with a more authentic and compassionate self and develop skills to manage life’s challenges resourcefully, skillfully and creatively. 07899 361316 alitheawaterfield@gmail.com

HEALINGS, INSIGHT READINGS, PERSONAL GROWTH COACHING, ANIMAL COMMUNICATION Healings, insights into life path and situations, space and guidance to explore and help re-align with our inner truth. Also offer help understanding our animals’ behaviour and needs. Enquiries: Kohra 01544 262 110, kohra@gmx.co.uk

OSTEOPATH. Mr R A Hughes D.O. Registered Osteopath and Sports Therapist. Fully qualified and registered since 1995. Established in Presteigne for over 20 years. Sciatica, Arthritis, Trapped Nerves, Back, Neck and Shoulder Pain. Headaches, Sports Injuries. 07961 352056, rahughesosteo@gmail.com The Retreat, Presteigne – free car parking.

HEREFORD HOMEOPATH Juliet Ablett RHom, MARH, MNCHM. Experienced practitioner works with you as an individual, listening without judgement; working with whatever symptoms or issues you have. Natural, effective treatment suitable for all ages. I am very happy to chat with you on the phone about what treatment you are looking for before you commit to an appointment. Weekly clinics in Kentchurch, Hereford and Monmouth. Juliet Ablett www.julietablett.co.uk julietablett@rocketmail. com 01981 241456

PHYSIOTHERAPY, CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY, REFLEXOLOGY & YOGA with Hermione Evans, Chartered Physiotherapist at Radnor Physiotherapy. For all back and neck pain, headaches, sports injuries, RSI, stress related illness and more. To discuss your needs or to make an appointment, please phone 01544 350691 or email contact@radnorphysiotherapy.co.uk or view www.radnorphysiotherapy.co.uk

HOLISTIC MASSAGE THERAPY: Meg Lawrence MTI. A listening and sensitive therapy, treating the whole person. For relief from aches and pains, easing of occupational and postural tensions, providing relaxation and calm in peaceful surroundings, 20 minutes from Presteigne, Hayon-Wye and Kington. Email meg@radnorshire.com; phone or text 07910892172 HOMOEOPATHY Sandy Underhill RSHom. I have worked for 20 years treating individuals for many complaints, whether psychological, mental, emotional or physical. Homoeopathy is about bringing wellness to ones being by triggering the bodies natural system of healing. It is suitable for all ages. Clinics are held at Rock Park Complimentary Health Centre, Llandrindod Wells, Powys and Kington, Herefordshire. 01597 851021. MASSAGE, COACHING, YOGA, DECLUTTERING with Wellbeing Therapist Sophie Atkinson, Orleton SY8 Individual powerful sessions to help you create the space you need for the life you want. Web: www.sophieatkinson. co.uk 07930 353 118 Email: sophie@healing-energy.net

SOUND HEALING TRAINING AND WORKSHOP RETREATS We run the 5 part Sound Therapy training programme for the College of Sound Healing as weekend retreats in the beautiful setting of Primrose Haven with lovely gardens and sacred spaces. Also Seasonal Sounds Days and weekend retreats: Sound Healing and Nature; Magical Resonance of Celtic Sounds and Sound and gardening for the soul. Retreat stays in our cosy Shepherd Huts. Occasional evening sound and Gong meditations. Please contact Paul Benham, paul@primrosehavenretreats.co.uk and www.primrosehavenretreats.co.uk. 01497 847299. SPIRITUAL HEALER Naturally gifted in releasing emotional grief in present and past lives. 29 years professional experience with physical and mental health. Private healing sessions and talks given. Gillian Williamson, MNFSH. Field House, Kinnerton. 01547 560874.