Bridport Times August 2018

AUGUST 2018 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

DOUBLE VISION with Cass Titcombe & Louise Chidgey

bridporttimes.co.uk

WELCOME I thought I’d write this in the shade of a tree with the squeaking of life all about me A moment of peace, of creative release and space for my thoughts to run free The to-ing and fro-ing, the cooing and crowing draw my eye, then beckon my mind These bees on the breeze put my body at ease and plead “Leave all this toil behind” So at this I let go, for I am overthrown by the stream, the sky and its choir And despite what’s required, I let nature conspire to lead me to something far higher Have a wonderful month.

Glen Cheyne, Editor glen@homegrown-media.co.uk @bridporttimes @bridport_times

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne

Martin Ballam Xtreme Falconry xtremefalconry.co.uk

Design Andy Gerrard @round_studio

Simon Barber Evolver @SimonEvolver @simonpaulbarber evolver.org.uk

Sub editors Jay Armstrong @jayarmstrong_ Elaine Taylor Photography Katharine Davies @Katharine_KDP Feature writer Jo Denbury @jo_denbury Editorial assistant Paul Newman @paulnewmanart Print Pureprint Distribution Available throughout Bridport and surrounding villages.

Please see bridporttimes.co.uk for stockists.

Homegrown Media Ltd 81 Cheap Street Sherborne Dorset DT9 3BA 01935 315556 @bridporttimes glen@homegrown-media.co.uk paul@homegrown-media.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk Bridport Times is printed on Edixion Offset, an FSCÂŽ and EU Ecolabel certified paper. It goes without saying that once thoroughly well read, this magazine is easily recycled and we actively encourage you to do so.

Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, neither Bridport Times nor its editorial contributors can accept, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party to loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause.

Bridport Times does not officially endorse any advertising material included within this publication.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without prior permission from Bridport Times.

4 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Alice Blogg @alice_blogg aliceblogg.co.uk Molly Bruce @mollyellenbruce mollybruce.co.uk Caroline Butler BSc (Hons) MNIMH herbalcaroline.co.uk Tamsin Chandler The Alembic Canteen thealembic.co.uk Fraser Christian Coastal Survival School @CoastalSurvival coastalsurvival.com Alice Chutter @bridportyogawithalice Kelvin Clayton @kelvinclaytongp greenthoughts.me philosophyinpubs.co.uk Megan Dunford @BridportArts bridport-arts.com May Franklin-Davis Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife @dorsetwildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Kit Glaisyer @kitglaisyer @kitglaisyer kitglaisyer.com George Gotts George Gotts Counselling georgegottscounselling.co.uk Charlie Groves Groves Nurseries @GrovesNurseries @grovesnurseries grovesnurseries.co.uk

Emily Hicks Bridport Museum @BridportMuseum bridportmuseum.co.uk Tamara Jones Loving Healthy @lovinghealthy_ @lovinghealthy_ lovinghealthy.co.uk Sandy Kirkby b-side festival @bsidefest @bsidefestival b-side.org.uk Gill Meller @GillMeller @Gill.Meller gillmeller.com Angie Porter Electric Palace electricpalace.org.uk Anna Powell Sladers Yard @SladersYard @sladersyard sladersyard.wordpress.com Ellen Simon Tamarisk Farm @ tamarisk_farm tamariskfarm.co.uk Charlie Soole The Club House West Bexington @TheClubHouse217 @theclubhouse2017 theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk Antonia Squire The Bookshop @bookshopbridprt @thebookshopbridport dorsetbooks.com Emma Tabor & Paul Newman @paulnewmanart @paulnewmanartist paulnewmanartist.com Cass Titcombe Brassica Restaurant @brassica_food @brassicarestaurant_mercantile brassicarestaurant.co.uk Chris Tripp Dorset Diggers Community Archaeology Group dorsetdiggers.btck.co.uk

48 6 What’s On 18 Arts & Culture 34 History 36 Wild Dorset 40 Outdoors

AUGUST 2018 48 C ASS TITCOMBE & LOUISE CHIDGEY 58 Food & Drink 66 Body & Mind 76 Profile- Robert Mühl

80 Interiors 84 Gardening 87 Philosophy 89 Literature 90 Crossword

bridporttimes.co.uk | 5

WHAT'S ON Listings

Every Wednesday 10am-12pm

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Art Class

Sunday 5th

Every Monday 7.30pm-9.30pm

Unitarian Church, East St.

Powder Run

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beyondevents.org.uk

£10 per session. 01308 424980

Bridport fun run involving paints

dancing with recorded music. 01308 423442

Every fourth Wednesday 7.30pm

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Philosophy in Pubs

Sunday 5th 12pm-11pm

Every Monday 7.30pm-9pm

George Hotel, South Street.

West Bay Day

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displays, exhibitions, games, stalls

Bridport Folk Dance Club WI Hall, North Street, DT6 3JQ. Folk

Read Kevin Clayton’s article on page 87

West Bay. Live music, duck race,

67 South Street. £5, all welcome

Every third Friday 10.30am-3.30pm

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Bridport Embroiderers

& refreshments westbay.org.uk

Every Tuesday 10am–1pm

St Swithens Church hall. 01308 456168

Sunday 5th doors 6pm, film 7pm

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Film: The Producers (PG)

Town Mill Arts, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU.

Wednesday 1st 11am

Electric Palace, DT6 3NY. £5 adv &

07812 856823 trudiochiltree.co.uk

The Lyric Theatre, DT6 3LX. Dangerous

Every Tuesday & Thursday 10.30am

stuntman. £8 adults, C £6 child. 01308

Monday 6th - Friday 10th

Bridport Campfire Women’s Coaching Group

Art Class £15 per session, first session half price.

Dangerous Dave by Noisy Oyster

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Dave is a more ‘daft’ than ‘dangerous’

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on door. 50th anniversary screening. electricpalace.org.uk 01308 424901

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424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

10.30am-4.30pm

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Summer Dance Scene

Starts from CAB 45 South Street.

Thursday 2nd 10am-2pm

Steps Studio, Crepe Farm Business Park

leaders. All welcome, free. 01305 252222

The Lyric Theatre, DT6 3LX. Ages 8-108,

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01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Walking the Way to Health in Bridport 30mins walks, with trained health walk

Puppet Workshop

sarahdavies@dorset.gov.uk

dress for mess & bring a packed lunch. £22

Every Tuesday until September/

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& The Bull Hotel. 13+ at intermediate/

advanced level. £25 per day conc £22.50. £95 week conc £90. 07765 971357 bridportyouthdance.org.uk

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October 6.15pm-8.15pm

Friday 3rd 9.30am-4pm

Tuesdays 7th, 14th, 21st,

The Heritage Coast Canoe Club

A Year of Preserving

28th 10am-11.30am

Watersports’ Centre, Fisherman’s Green,

Old Dairy Kitchen, EX13 8TU.

Bridport Summer Yoga

session (max. 2) westbaykayak.co.uk

vinegar. £110 pp, lunch inc. Tickets:

A different teacher each week, all levels

West Bay. 12+ years. £10 per taster email heritagecoast.cc@gmail.com

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Course focuses on using oil, smoke &

The Ballroom, The Bull Hotel, DT6 3LF.

olddairykitchen.co.uk/a-year-of-preserving/

welcome. Info: 01308 485544. £7 per

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session. facebook.com/Corrieyoga

Every Tuesday 7.15pm

Saturday 4th 2pm-5pm

Uplyme Morris Rehearsals

Loders Fete

Tuesday 7th 10am-2pm

The Bottle Inn, Marshwood. Contact

Loders Court, Loders, DT6 3RZ.

Puppet Workshop

or The Squire on 07917 748087

fun. £1.50 (children under 12 free)

Ages 8-108, dress for mess & bring

Uplyme Morris on Facebook

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Host of stalls & attractions for family

The Lyric Theatre, DT6 3LX.

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a packed lunch. £22 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Second Tuesday

Saturday 4th

every month 7.15pm

doors 6.30pm, film 7.30pm

Bridport Sugarcraft Club

Film: On Chesil Beach (15)

Wednesday 8th time TBC

Ivy House, Grove Nurseries, West Bay

Electric Palace, DT6 3NY. £4.50 adv

Talk by leading civil rights

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available. electricpalace.org.uk 01308 424901

Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum,

Road, DT6 4AB. £4.50, first visit free

6 | Bridport Times | August 2018

& on door. Signed copies of the book

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lawyer Clive Stafford Smith

A WA R D - W I N N I N G F A S H I O N B O U T I Q U E S E T I N T H E T R A N Q U I L , C O U N T R Y S I D E S U R R O U N D I N G S O F M A N O R YA R D O N S Y M O N D S B U R Y E S TA T E

SANDWICH . ROBELL . OUT OF XILE . MYRINE . RALSTON C OT TO N B R OT H E R S . B A R I LO C H E . E L S E W H E R E . YAV I SOAKED IN LUXURY . ONELIFE . LUELLA . ENVY

Summer Opening Times Mon-Sat 10.30 - 5.00pm Sun 11.00 - 4.00pm F R E E PA R K I N G

M a n o r Ya r d . S y m o n d s b u r y .

Bridport. DT6 6HG Te l : 0 1 3 0 8 4 2 6 5 1 7 w w w.c o l m e r s h i l l .c o m

WHAT'S ON High W St, Dorchester DT1 1UY. Info:

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A Midsummers Night’s Dream

shirehalldorset.org or 01305 261849

Sunday 12th 11am-3pm

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Have a Go Kayaking

Chapel in the Garden. Open air. Email

Thursday 9th 10am-2pm

Fisherman’s Green, West Bay.

Puppet Workshop The Lyric Theatre, DT6 3LX.

On the hour, £5.

reservations - limited seats, pay what you

can. bridportshakespearecompany@gmail.com ____________________________

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Saturday 18th 11am

Ages 8-108, dress for mess & bring

Monday 13th 2pm-3.30pm

coffee+JAZZ

a packed lunch. £22 01308 424901

Guided Rockpool Rambles

Mood Indigo trio

bridportandwestbay.co.uk

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Kimmeridge Bay. £3 adult & £2 child.

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St Mary’s Parish Church, South Street.

Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th

Tuesday 14th

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& Tuesday 14th 11am-5pm

10.30am-12pm (2-4yr olds)

Saturday 18th 7pm

Harcombe House

1.30pm-3.30pm (4-7yr olds)

Bridport Carnival

NGS Open Garden

Oops Wow! I Am The Art

Pitman’s Lane, Morcombelake DT6

The Lyric Theatre, DT6 3LX.

Procession, live music in South Street

£5 admission, children free.

£10 child/£8 sibling. 01308 424901

6EB. 3/4 acre garden. Home-made teas.

01297 489229 jdmc49.wixsite.com

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Geometric drama & dance workshop. bridportandwestbay.co.uk

For the Roof Appeal, 01308 422373

& family disco in The Conservative

Club, North Street. Fun fair in West Street car park

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Saturday 18th doors 7.30pm

Saturday 11th - Sunday 19th

Wednesday 15th 9.45am-4pm

Undercurrent Sessions

Burton Bradstock Festival

Archaelogy of West Dorset

presents Gris-de-Lin

of Music & Art

Kingcombe Centre nr Toller Pocorum

Eype Centre for the Arts. £10 advance

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BearCat Cafe in Bridport (£5 kids),

St Mary’s Church & Village Hall.

Music for all tastes & celebration of

Talk by Chris Tripp dorsetwildlifetrust.org

the best of local art. 01308 897203

Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th

tickets from Brown Paper Tickets or £12 on door

burtonbradstockfestival.com

The Bridport Pantomime

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Players presents ‘Showtime’

Sunday 19th 2.30pm

Sunday 12th 10.30am start

Salwayash Village Hall. Tickets £5 from

(picnic welcome from 1pm)

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Carpet World, West Street or on the door

Mapperton Musical

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Shakespeare - Hamlet

West Bay Esplanade, DT6 4EN. Entry

Thursday 16th - Saturday 18th 7pm

£15/£12 (conc.) events@mapperton.com

16). 01308 459942 bridport-runners.co.uk

Company presents

(8.45am-10am registration) Jurassic Coast Run £23/half (min age 17), £18/10k (min age

8 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Bridport Shakespeare

01308 862645 or on the door

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THURSDAY 23rd AUGUST WEST BAY, BRIDPORT DT6 4EG

the best of agriculture by the sea FREE BUS - FREE PARKING + PARK & RIDE

CHILDREN Go FREE!!

www.melplashshow.co.uk On the day: £16 - Advance tickets: £14 online and from local outlets

R J Balson & Son, Bridport - Felicity’s Farm Shop, Morcombelake - Footeprints, Bridport - Spar, West Bay Road - Highlands End Holiday Park, Eype - Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, Burton Bradstock - Golden Cap Holiday Park, Seatown - Gorseland Caravan Park, West Bexington - Girling & Bowditch Veterinary Surgery, Beaminster - Axminster, Bridport, Dorchester & Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centres - Beaminster Yarn Barton and Crewkerne Local Information Centre

A SPACE for LIVING SPIRITUALITY

What’s Your Story?

Therapeutic Writing Workshops

Led by experienced BACP registered counsellor, professional writer and senior script reader

Whether your goal is to relieve stress or create a work of fiction, why not have a go in a nonjudgemental group for all levels.

Share as much or as little as you wish.

6 week initial course. £7 per session Thursdays 1-2pm starting 13th September Bothenhampton Village Hall To register your interest or for more info contact George on 07747 142088 or georgegottscounselling.co.uk

An evening with

IAN BOTHAM & GEOFF MILLER

Saturday September 15th TICKETS FROM £50

1/2 price for under 16’s

MEET & GREET £75

Grab your chance to meet the legend.

Photo, signature and meet opportunity VIP / Corporate tables available - ask for details Memorabilia Auction Evenings MC - Mr. Paul Booth Two course meal included in the ticket price followed by Ian & Geoff’s after dinner speech TICKET BOX OFFICE

01935 483430

George Albert Hotel Wardon Hill, Evershot, Nr. Dorchester, Dorset DT2 9PW Tel: 01935 483430 www.gahotel.co.uk 10 | Bridport Times | August 2018

at The Quaker Meeting House 95, South Street, Bridport, Dorset. DT6 3NZ.

SERIES 6 “THE MYSTIC WAY” Event 1: Saturday, September 8th. 10.00 - 4.00.

“The Wisdom Tradition and Centering Prayer” led by Janet Lake Exploring the wisdom tradition and a practice of intentional silence to deepen our receptivity to inner transformation.

Event 2: Saturday, October 13th. 10.00 - 4.00.

“Sacred Dance, Sacred Sound” led by Ana Costa and John Hofton Come and join us for a day of joyous celebration and meditation through sound.

Event 3: Saturday, November 10th. 10.00 - 4.00.

“Path of Heart, Path of Mind, Entering Saint Teresa’s Interior Castle” led by Sue Howse Using this image as a guide for the interior spiritual journey.

Event 4: Saturday, December 8th. 10.00 - 4.00.

“Saint John of the Cross” led by Richard Sloan ‘A God who longs to meet us’ Space is limited so booking is required.

Donations £10-£40 per day: bring-and-share lunch.

Contact Janet Lake: iona.lake@aol.co.uk for more information and bookings.

AUGUST 2018 Sunday 19th 9pm

Guided Rockpool Rambles

Club 2018 Late Summer Show

from Bucky-Doo Square

Kimmeridge Bay. £3 adult & £2 child.

United Church Hall, East Street.

Bridport to West Bay. Dancing, live

Thursday 30th 6pm for 6.30pm

or 01308 424055.

Fireworks 10:30pm

Greenham Common

Tuesday 21st - Saturday 25th

High W St, Dorchester DT1 1UY. Tickets

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Bridport Torchlight Procession

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Info: bridportgardeningclub.co.uk

music, beach bonfire on East Beach.

Justice Cafe: Surveying

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Shire Hall Historic Courthouse Museum,

Fairs and markets

£5. Info: shirehalldorset.org or 01305 261849.

Every Wednesday & Saturday

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Weekly Market

Electric Palace, DT6 3NY. Evening-doors

Thursday 30th

South, West & East Street

matinee doors 1pm, starts 2pm, £12.50. electricpalace.org.uk 01308 424901

on door. electricpalace.org.uk 01308 424901

9am–1pm, Bridport Arts Centre

Wednesday 22nd 2.30pm-4.30pm

Friday 31st 9.30am-4pm

Every Saturday

‘The Journey Towards Abstraction’

Cooking from the Garden

Country Market

Uplyme Church. Presentation by art

Old Dairy Kitchen, EX13 8TU.

9am–12pm, WI Hall, North Street

of Tearfund. Info: sheila.lyme@gmail.com

Garden. £105 pp, lunch & takeaway veg

Every Sunday

cooking-from-the-garden/

10am-5pm, Customs House, West Bay

Melplash Agricultural Show

Friday 31st doors 5pm, film 6pm

Last Sunday of every month

A true celebration of rural life & a

Film: Incredibles 2 (PG)

Bridport Vintage Market

treat for all the family! 01308 423337 melplashshow.co.uk

Electric Palace, DT6 3NY. £4.50 adv &

10am-4pm, St Michael’s Trading Estate,

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on door. electricpalace.org.uk 01308 424901 ____________________________

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Bridport Musical Theatre Company - Footloose the Musical

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6.30pm, starts 7.30pm, £15. Saturday

doors 6.30pm, film 7.30pm Film: The Bookshop (PG)

Second Saturday of the month

Tickets from Bridport TIC only

Electric Palace, DT6 3NY. £4.50 adv &

Farmers’ Market

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historian, Pamela Simpson. £10 - in aid 01297 445464

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Vegetarian cooking from the Trill Farm

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bag inc. Tickets: olddairykitchen.co.uk/

Local Produce Market

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DT6 3RR

Sunday 26th 10am-4pm

Friday 31st -

Saturday 25th 9am-3pm

Tamarisk Farm Open Day

Sunday 2nd September

Bridport Town Hall Craft Fair

tamariskfarm.co.uk

Lyme Folk Weekend 2018

Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF

Sunday 26th 2pm

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Lyme Regis. lymefolk.com

Free entry, variety of stalls. 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

RNLI Fun Day

Lyme Regis Museum

West Bay. Children’s games, stalls,

Summer Holiday Events

Saturday 25th 10am-2.30pm

cream teas & more.

10am-4pm except where stated

Bridport Vegan Market

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All events are included in museum

admission price, info: lymeregismuseum.

Bridport Youth & Community Centre,

co.uk/events

bridportvegan

Flower & Dog Show Whitchurch Canonicorum Village Hall DT6 6RF. Entertainment & classic

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vehicles, adults £1.50 - under 16 free

Planning ahead

07929 475120

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Saturday 1st September 12pm

Tuesday 28th 2.30pm-4pm

Bridport and District Gardening

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DT6 3RL. Free entry. facebook:

____________________________ To include your event in our FREE

listings please email details (in approx

20 words) by the 1st of each preceding

month to gemma@homegrown-media.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 11

08-16 SEPTEMBER PORTLAND, DORSET B-SIDE.ORG.UK

Outdoor Theatre

Maumbury Rings Much Ado About Nothing Rain or Shine Theatre Thursday 9 August One of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies, set against the backdrop of the end of The Great War.

Rustle Paddleboat Theatre Company Thursday 23 August Join us for an interactive family adventure jam-packed with puppets, song and outdoor surprises.

12 | Bridport Times | August 2018

PREVIEW In association with

Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf, ‘Risen from the Foam’ (Oil, ink and acrylic on canvas, 153cm x 112cm, 2017)

Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf: Dreams, Promise and The Divine Until Friday 10th August Artwave West, Morcombelake, DT6 6DY. Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm 01297 489746 artwavewest.com Inspired by the female archetype, from saints to voodoo spirits

experiences, making them visible and thereby legitimising

the Divine is a creative exploration into the many forms these

familiar, despite being so far removed from contemporary

it means to be a woman. ‘Traditional’ feminine traits, such as

surround me. The culminating series was born from a playful

do icy determination, power, cunning and everything in between.

goddesses and symbols were incorporated and reimagined

to the goddesses of the Greek Pantheon, Dreams, Promise and

archetypes take. They offer a plethora of possibilities of what

kindness, passivity and a desire to nurture do of course feature, as Says Rebecca, ‘Since childhood I’ve drawn mythological

female characters. These have evolved and fed directly into

the themes I work on in my current painting practice, which is primarily concerned with female identity, desire and

mortality. The starting point for this body of work was an

interest in how female spirits and goddesses could serve as a

way of externalising and giving character to many women’s

them. These spirits, goddesses, and archetypes felt very

life, and seemed to be reflected in the many women who

interpretation of these ideas in which archetypal characters,

with images of my contemporaries. At this very pivotal point

where women’s rights, equality and gender are at the forefront

of global attention, this series of paintings offers a playful and

contemporary take on female archetypes and invites us to

question how they continue to shape our view of womanhood.’ evolver.org.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 13

What’s On

MELPLASH AGRICULTURAL SHOW

A true celebration of rural life and a treat for all the family!

Thursday 23rd August, 8am–6pm

F

or over 170 years the Melplash Agricultural Show has been the showcase for farming in the area.

While the exact details are uncertain, the origins of the Melplash Agricultural Society and the show can be traced to 20th October 1846, the day that Melplash Village church was consecrated. The church had been built by Mr James Bandinell of Melplash Court, a wellknown benefactor, and a new parish was carved out of the parish of Netherbury. On the same day, a ploughing match was held to resolve a dispute between two farmers as to whose ploughman was the better, with each staking £5 on the outcome - a not inconsiderable sum in those days. In the celebrations that followed, the assembled farmers and landowners agreed to form the Melplash Agricultural Society and hold a ploughing competition open to all comers on 20th October 1847. So began the association between the village of Melplash, the church, the society, the ploughing match and the show.

Today, the aim of the society (registered charity number 1130201) is to promote and improve agriculture 14 | Bridport Times | August 2018

and horticulture in West Dorset for the public benefit.

The Melplash Show brings together the very best of West Dorset, with animals, food, fun and entertainment. It is held annually at the West Bay Show Ground on the last Thursday before the August Bank Holiday and is recognised as one of the best one-day shows in the South West, attracting on average over 20,000 visitors.

Agriculture is still very much at the show’s heart, with an extensive range of competitive events for local farmers to showcase what they do in the numerous cattle, sheep, pigs and farm produce classes. For equine lovers there is an outstanding selection of horse and pony classes and in the home produce, handicraft, horticultural, floral art, bees and woodcraft sections there are classes to suit all interests and ages. For the aspiring chef there are numerous cookery competitions to enter, including the new burger competition which is to be sponsored and judged by the team from Swim, Lyme Regis's newest café bar. Schedules are available to view on the website. Entries close on 13th August.

Thursday 23rd August – Show Day

Gates open at 8am and close at 6pm and visitors of all ages are guaranteed a full day’s entertainment!

In the Toolstation Main Ring there will be The Cavalry of Heroes. Marking the 100-year anniversary of World War One, they will be performing a special show remembering the role that the horses and soldiers played in The Great War. Other main ring attractions throughout the day will include heavy horse classes, horse jumping, the parade of hounds and beagles, the grand parade of winning animals and the presentations of the top prizes.

In the Kitson and Trotman countryside area there will be falconry, ferret and terrier racing, ducks and rural crafts; the Porter Dodson Food Hall will be bursting with local foodie treats; local chefs will be cooking up a storm in the cookery theatre, including Alan Fryer from The George, Bridport and Philip Frampton from Frampton’s Butchers who will be showing how to prepare and cook cuts of meat.

For the younger generation there is a packed programme.

In the Discover Farming marquee children can milk a cow, hold baby chicks, grind wheat and make pancakes; the new Explore Farming tent is full of activities: put on a virtual reality (VR) headset to experience being on a tractor, combine harvester or in a milking parlour; fly a drone simulator; build a mini steel-framed barn; or look down a microscope at creatures that devastate our crops or harm our animals. Tractor Ted is also visiting for the first time.

There will also be over 350 exhibitors and trade stands offering a wide range of products and produce from locally produced food and crafts to tractors… and plenty in between.

Tickets: All children 16 years and under go free. Adult tickets are £16 on the day and £14 in advance. Advance tickets can be bought online or from local venues.

Transport: A free bus will operate throughout the day from Lyme Regis stopping at Charmouth, Chideock and Bridport; there will be a free park-and-ride operating off the Symondsbury to Bridport road (B3162) and off the Burton Bradstock to Bridport road (B3157); there will be free parking off the A35.

Other Dates for your Diary FREE Hedge Laying Training Day – Sunday 16th September at Bradpole. Telephone 01308 423337 or email office@melplashshow.co.uk to book.

Annual Hedge Laying and Ploughing Match – Sunday 30th September on land off the A356, near Corscombe, DT8 3SQ by kind permission of Mr & Mrs Oliver Hemsley of Urless Farm. Everyone welcome. melplashshow.co.uk @TheMelplashShow @melplashshow @TheMelplashAgriculturalSociety bridporttimes.co.uk | 15

What’s On

Image: Rob Reeks

BRIDPORT HAT FESTIVAL

P

Saturday, September 1st

lanning for the ninth Bridport Hat Festival is well under way, with ‘Haturday’ this year set for Saturday 1st September. Once again, the good folk of Bridport will don their exotic, bizarre or just plain crazy hats. Crowd-pleasing elements set to return include the Mass Hatted Photoshoot at 1pm in Bucky Doo Square followed by the public ‘fun’ hat competitions, the much-loved Best Hatted Dog Competition from 11am on Millennium Green, and of course festival favourite Hank Wangford’s regular Lost Cowboys concert (this year on Saturday night at the Arts Centre) – but a few twists to the usual format are on the cards.

The ‘most elegant’ fun competition categories are being expanded and moved to Millennium Green, under the auspices of sponsor (and HatFest founder) Roger Snook, for some special ‘sophisticated’ treatment, while his traditional morning talk is being taken over by hat shop staffer and well-known local lady about town Sue ‘Darling’ Outhwaite. The afternoon talk, ‘Uneasy Heads’, given by Professor Clair Hughes, is on royal hats. Clair will also be signing her latest book, Hats, which will be on sale. Back at the green in the afternoon, and with the youngest festival-goers particularly in mind, there will be a Mad Hatters’ Tea Party set in a gazebo.

16 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Locals and visitors alike will be able to enjoy Haturday’s live music both outdoors and in, food and drink, trade stands, and the by-now-expected huge amounts of hatty mayhem, while Tuesday’s Ropemakers hat-themed quiz and Thursday’s riotous hat auction with MC/auctioneer Jim Rowe are also due for repeat performances.

If anyone wishes to donate surplus (but still sound) hats to the auction, the Hat Amnesty is forthwith declared, with the collection point at Snook’s hat shop in West Street. The Hat Festival is a fun event that seems to put a smile on everyone’s face. The event is paid for by donations from local businesses with profits raised from both the auction and the rest of the festival going to head-related charities including Brain Tumour Research and the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust.

As ever, we hope the townsfolk of Bridport will not only turn up hatted on the day but also give some active support in the organisation as well. If anyone can lend some time (or even some skills) in the run-up or on the day to help make the festival happen, the committee would be very pleased to hear from you. Either call 01308 250350 or email general@bridporthatfest.org.

West Bay 306, 2018, 25x55cm, oil on canvas bridporthatfest.org

A THOUSAND IDEAS, ONE AMAZING ISLAND B-SIDE FESTIVAL, 8th - 16th September

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f you love new experiences, exploring beautiful a football pitch cheered on by the roar of 5000 ghostly landscape and unique work created by artists from supporters where there now stand only terraces of trees. across the globe, then please make your way to Enjoy the magic of bronze casting as artists Katie Portland this September. b-side festival takes place Surridge and Stephen Coles join forces to construct a from 8th to 16th September 2018 - nine days of art site-specific bronze foundry revisiting ancient techniques. that shines the spotlight on the rugged isle’s intriguing This stack furnace will travel around Portland, casting history, geology and landscape. Essentially Portland overheard conversations and stories in bronze. becomes a free, open-air gallery, with some of its most St George’s Church, a magnificent 18th century historic and intriguing places becoming part of unique building, will host large-scale photographs by Iranian artworks that you will not see anywhere else. artist Farhad Berahman. Farhad’s Iranian mobile peep box This year we take you on a journey around Portland, made a brief appearance at Bridport Market in 2017 and guided by artists and giving you special access to secret this year he returns to b-side with his self-built Afghan places and forgotten sites.

Camera Box, capturing b-side is known for working the portraits of Portland with artists to make art residents at special places. that responds to the unique Farhad will also be touring landscape of Portland and Portland over the festival offers a rich and varied period taking portraits of programme of events for visitors; perhaps you will be you to enjoy, either just his next subject? watching or joining in.

Portland is full of Challenging the pressing intrigue – the history of issue of air pollution, quarrying and military use Israeli artist Leni Dothan have not only left a physical will create Portland’s imprint on the land but Pollution Rehab Centre, Image: Artist Alistair Gentry. Photo by Paul Box have fed many myths. a site-specific project Artist Alistair Gentry where Portland will be transformed into a rehab centre and The Portland Office for Imaginary History return for air-polluted sculptures made in London. as a mobile unit for both festival weekends, leading In typically quirky b-side style, Joe Borez will create expeditions into the territory of the Tophillians and The Portland Lookalike Agency as a response to the Underhillians to view non-existent sites of real interest perceived idea that celebrity status is a short-cut to such as the giant emperor’s head, the O-Void, and prosperity. His fictional agency will provide celebrity Freemasons’ Tower! lookalikes drawn from the real residents of Portland.

Feedback from last year included, “Brilliant festival, Bridport-based artist Thomas Hughes has created an brought the island alive!” and “Superb locations – immersive experience for passengers on a trip with ‘Fly excellent festival; turns your brain inside out!” – so

By Night’ airways around a ‘hitherto unexplored parallel don’t miss this exceptional event. Details on our unreality version of Portland’. website, or follow us on social media.

If you have ever craved the opportunity of scoring a goal for England and the adulation of the crowd then b-side.org.uk artist Laura Hopes’ sound installation is for you. The @bsidefest dramatic Portland Stadium Bowl will be reanimated @bsidefestival over the Festival, giving visitors the sensation of being on @bsidefest bridporttimes.co.uk | 17

Arts & Culture

PHILIP SUTTON AT 90

Megan Dunford, Exhibitions & Participations Officer, Bridport Arts Centre

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egan Dunford talks to Philip Sutton RA ahead of his exhibition marking his 90th birthday at Bridport Art Centre’s Allsop Gallery.

As I arrive, I can already see through the mottled glass bright shards of painted canvas adorning the walls.

Philip opens the door and I am greeted warmly with a handshake and welcomed into his studio. I already know that whatever question I can think of, Philip will have heard it before but still he humours me. I am not sure if it’s his nature or his experience but he considers each question carefully and thoroughly, as though being asked it for the first time.

I start with a question about the title of the show, Philip Sutton at 90, an impressive number especially when you consider that he is now, perhaps, as prolific as he has ever been. But he humbly dismisses it: PS - Age doesn’t really tick over with me, if you ask most people what age they are they say they are younger than what’s in their head.

18 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Philip was born in Dorset and moved back here a few years ago after living in Fiji, London and Wales. He now resides in the west of the county. Knowing that he has travelled extensively, I ask him if location influences his work.

PS - I went to the Pacific, to Fiji, and what I realised when I was there, was that I had taken myself there. I wasn’t somewhere else, it was as if I was in London. It was a revelation - there I was in the tropics with my family, I mean it was wonderful, a magical place. But I was the same, I wasn’t magical. It’s the same in Dorset, Dorset’s an amazing place, but you’re the same person.

MD - Do you find it interesting being in Dorset?

PS - Well I find life interesting, wherever I am.

MD - Would you say that is your main reason for painting, an interest, a curiosity?

PS - I think it’s more to find out who you are.

MD - What made you think about being an artist; obviously it was in you from an early age?

PS - Well no it wasn’t, it was all fortuitous. I was in

“Anything’s possible with the eye” the RAF but I wasn’t in the war, I was too young.

At the time the Labour government said you could automatically go to college, just like that. So I applied to go to the Arts School, three years free, plus five pounds a week. Before that I was at school until I was 14, then I worked for three years and then I was in the RAF for three years. I was always getting told what to do… so when I went to The Slade, I thought it was paradise.

MD - Freedom, I bet you didn’t know yourself !

PS - It was wonderful. I discovered I liked drawing and painting and I never looked back. It was a wonderful experience.

Never looking back seems to be one of Philip’s best traits and, like his life, he approaches his work in the same manner:

PS - I do whatever is of the moment, and whatever was yesterday was different.

MD - When I approach a painting, there is normally something in my head that I perhaps start with, but trying to paint from your head just doesn’t work.

PS - That’s exactly right, no it never works…

MD - So you just have to do it really, discover while you are painting.

PS - Yes, but that’s very difficult.

MD - So how do you get past that stage, to make yourself continue working?

PS - Well it’s nothing like any of that really. It’s like a plant growing, or us being here, it’s terribly ordinary really.

MD - I think that’s an interesting way to look at it, to approach it.

PS - It’s all part of the same thing. You have to avoid making it special because then you get self-conscious.

MD - That’s a difficult thing to get your head around.

PS - Yes, it is because it takes a lot of training, it’s not something you can do easily.

MD - You seem to be able to paint what’s in front of you, without prejudice or bias.

PS - It’s a question of observation; of seeing something, of observing something, whether it’s a boat or a face. It’s very difficult because you are prejudiced.

It’s all a question of studying how much you are seeing, any other concept of it is alien (to you). It’s only what the eye sees, but of course what the eye sees is not what the brain thinks it sees. The brain knows things, the brain is clever, it’s our identity, it’s you, it’s me, what we think we like. I have a drawing in my kitchen, done by a little girl. She’s six, she’s done a big head with two dots, a line for body and little feet - it’s a lovely drawing. It’s not what we think of as a person, but it’s what she sees. She told me that she would like to draw like me and I said, ‘No, you mustn’t draw like me, you must draw like you’ - and that’s what she did and that’s why it’s good.

‘Philip Sutton at 90’ opens at Bridport Art Centre on Saturday 11th August. You can also see an impressive selection of Philip's Charcoals at The Literary & Scientific Institute, East Street. Both Exhibitions are open until Sat 6th October.

Join us for a special film screening introduced by Philip Sutton on Thursday 13 September, 7.30pm, £6, Bridport Arts Centre. bridport-arts.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 19

Arts & Culture

20 | Bridport Times | August 2018

THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING Anna Powell, Director of Sladers Yard Gallery in conversation with Jack Doherty Photography Rebecca Peters

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Arts & Culture

22 | Bridport Times | August 2018

"It reminds you to be open, to allow experiences to happen rather than trying or forcing anything onto the material."

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ne of the most exciting moments in the gallery is unpacking work with its maker. Jack Doherty and his wife, Sarah, bring numerous boxes in and up the narrow stairs at Sladers Yard. The pots we unpack are masterpieces of lightness, softly shaped with pale smoky markings mixed with turquoise.

Jack has just taken them out of the kiln. ‘Firing is a big event for me,’ he says. ‘The pots go in absolutely white.

I spray a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and water into the kiln, sometimes directly onto the work or into the spaces between. The sodium vapour moves through the kiln touching the pots creating colour and texture. I sometimes can’t see what I have done.’ Pottery is one of the oldest forms of alchemy. The wet cold slap of clay, in this case porcelain, thrown on the wheel, dried, shaped and covered in a slip, meets the ferocious transforming heat of the kiln and something magical happens.

Jack Doherty has stripped his practice down to one clay, one colouring mineral - copper - and one firing with soda. With time, as his work has become more refined and simpler, it has gained an otherworldly ethereal quality.

How has he come to the point of making such work?

‘I have worked in porcelain for a long time,’ he says.

‘It has a capricious and unsettling ability to crack at any moment. In the West porcelain is known as translucent but I love the brightness of the clay. You can be very

pure and precise but also you can do bold and chunky.’

Born to a family of North Antrim fishermen, he grew up in close-knit family spaces. To him, pots speak of home, place and security, close to the sea. ‘I think of the kiln as a harbour where pots are grouped and fired together, like a community of people. Bernard Leach commented on the figurative human forms we have always given pots, recognised in the words belly, neck and lip.’ The word vessel also brings to mind boats and introduces the idea of transport, transport beyond the ordinary. Jack’s studio in the Cornish harbour of Mousehole is a bright airy space looking out to sea.

In these pots he seems to have caught the essence of sunlight and sparkling water, the vital elements for life.

Jack went to art school in Belfast as a painter. During his foundation year he ‘found’ ceramics with intense excitement. A great conflict ensued about which path to follow was resolved by a visit to the studio of Lucy Rie and Hans Coper. The purity and precision of their work together with the bright colours they used, have been an inspiration to him. ‘I have always made conical shapes, always been interested in stripping forms down.’ I realise that he has even stripped his life down and begun again, often with great difficulty, several times.

After five years as an experimental ceramicist playing with forms, exploring processes and trying to bridporttimes.co.uk | 23

Arts & Culture

make everything simple, practical and satisfying - at the Kilkenny Design Workshops, then an industrial design studio, he returned home to Northern Ireland and established a home and pottery in a derelict farmhouse.

However, by the time he was married with two small children, he found he had to come to England to sell his work. So he and his family started again in Herefordshire.

Jack’s book Porcelain was published by A&C Black in 2002. He has exhibited extensively throughout the UK and internationally. His work is in many public collections. He has also done a great deal to promote and raise the profile of contemporary ceramics through the Craft Potters Association of Great Britain, which he chaired, along with Ceramic Art London show, and Ceramic Review magazine where he was guest editor.

In 2008, Jack was offered the opportunity to be the first Lead Potter and Creative Director of the refurbished Leach Pottery in St Ives. Established in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada, it is widely recognised as the birthplace of British Studio Pottery and one of the most celebrated potteries in the world.

Doherty’s children were grown up and his marriage was over but it was, nonetheless, a great wrench to relocate once again. He arrived at a pristine studio with no equipment; everything was empty. He had to design the kilns, establish the production studio and design a 24 | Bridport Times | August 2018

domestic range of tableware for the trainees to make.

‘There was space to think. I was determined not to produce pastiche Bernard Leach pottery. Leach made pots that “show the nature of the day”. Pieces for today need to be contemporary, sophisticated, not rustic.’ These ideas also fed into his own work.

Since 2013, travel and residencies in Japan, China and Taiwan have followed his time at the Leach pottery.

There he encountered the Zen monastic approach of potter Yoshihiko Yoshida, who is said to 'pare everything down to pure warmth and joy.’ ‘It reminds you to be open, to allow experiences to happen rather than trying or forcing anything onto the material.’

‘I am interested in the very old prehistoric pots, beaker pots, pots that were practical but also spiritual,’ Jack says.

‘They refer to a life beyond the real one. It’s a question of touching people now in that same way. These pots change with the light. I want them to say a lot concisely, using as few notes as possible, opening a door and leaving it open for people to go where they will with it.’

‘Still Light’, an exhibition of Jack Doherty porcelain, Alex Lowery paintings and Petter Southall furniture, is at Sladers Yard until 16th September. sladersyard.co.uk

Arts & Culture

CHAOS AND ORDER

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Kit Glaisyer, Artist

s many of you are by now aware, on Saturday 7th July, a fire devastated several artists’ studios at St Michael’s Studios in Bridport. This has been a huge shock both to myself and to everyone on the estate. However, we have been overwhelmed by the love and support shown to us by the whole town and we are determined that the spirit and vibrancy of our artistic community will continue to thrive.

Bridport Open Studios 2018 will run from 8th to 16th September, and, in celebration of our beloved artistic heritage, we intend to make this year's 20th Anniversary event an even bigger success. (bridportopenstudios.co.uk) Before the fire took place, I talked with a couple of regular participants in Bridport Open Studios, two very different artists who are based at St Michael's Studios (stmichaelsartists.com). It is quietly heartening to hear the passion and conviction with which abstract artist David Smith and landscape painter Marion Taylor each approach their art.

David Smith burst dramatically onto our art scene in 2015 with his exhibition #Letter365 at Bridport Arts Centre. It was a hugely ambitious, year-long project, in which he created an artwork every day for a year, sealed each in an envelope and sent it to the gallery before midnight that day. In the exhibition, the displayed envelopes were only opened - and the artwork revealed - as and when they were sold. Thus, the work continued to evolve over the weeks of the exhibition. To this sense of delayed gratification, David added a further element of performance, insisting that any unsold work would be destroyed! Eventually, 75% of the exhibition sold… and the remaining 80 pieces were torn up by the artist and his gallery visitors.

David makes art that is abstract, often minimalist and repetitive in form, exploring the patterns and processes of nature, especially the interplay between chaos and order, intellect and emotion. He explains that his aim is, ‘to gently challenge the viewer’s perceptions, to prompt us to question what it is we really see - or don’t see - when we look at the world around us or peer at an artwork. I am increasingly interested in what is unseen, hidden, erased or yet to be revealed.’

David continued to explore similar ideas but on a far larger scale for his show Black Squares, Black Lines & Black Magic at Black Swan Arts, Frome later that year. Black lines had been a defining feature of much of his work for some years, and he then began to explore the constraints of black squares, a fascination resulting from a series of coincidences, conversations and revelations that ranged from alchemy to Twitter via Malevich and Bob Law. The focus of David’s work has now returned to his love of the natural environment, specifically the British coast. He says, ‘my “Erasure and Redaction” works are related more to the landscape and I am fascinated by the way that traces of history and events are never completely eradicated: barely perceptible traces of every action remain like DNA signatures capable of being read by those with the knowledge and technology; traces that forever influence the present, whether we know it or not.’ (davidsmithartist.net) > 26 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Image: Pete MIllson

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Image: Pete MIllson

Marion Taylor was born in Goathurst, Somerset, moving to East Lulworth in Dorset when she was four. Her childhood was spent roaming along the lanes and through the woods, exploring Kimmeridge Bay, Tyneham and the ruins of Lulworth Castle. From an early age, she began sketching plants, village cottages and the landscape.

Her father, a pig farmer, poet and dreamer, passed on a love of countryside and nature and taught her the Latin names of wild flowers and snippets of folklore.

Marion’s love of drawing was further nurtured at Beaminster Comprehensive by the art teacher John Miles, the renowned photographer. He introduced her to moss-covered wood, fungi and trailing ivy and encouraged her to really look at and to feel what she was drawing. She was also lucky to have the esteemed artist Ian Breakwell for a tutor while studying at Somerset College of Art, and she acknowledges, ‘my three years in the Textile Department gave me a terrific grounding and a love of colour, attention to detail, pattern and design.’

Marion then began work as a colourist, hand-tinting antique and reproduction maps and prints, whilst at the same time working in the library which was then housed in the Literary and Scientific Institute. Whilst employed at Bridport Museum she was involved with cataloguing 28 | Bridport Times | August 2018

the museum’s fine art collection. She also worked as a freelance illustrator and writer for the Dorset Magazine and Dorset Life, and wrote and illustrated a regular article on walks, plants and folklore for the Wessex Journal.

Colmer’s Hill has always been an important element in Marion’s life, an anchor, a welcome home, and a subject for many of her paintings. She keeps a scrapbook of writing, images, and paintings of the hill, including pieces

by Paul Nash, Julian Bailey and Fred Cuming, which became the basis for her book, Colmer’s Hill - One Artist’s Obsession, published in 2013. Marion also featured in the television programme Walks with a View where she is filmed sitting on the hill and chatting with Julia Bradbury.

Marion’s love of the natural world and the changing seasons, and her passion for writers Thomas Hardy and Mary Webb alongside music from Bach and Leonard Cohen, have helped her develop as an artist: ‘Every painting has to be nurtured and caressed until it’s ‘just so,’ I always know when a painting is complete, it seems to settle down on the canvas, making a ‘whole,’ nothing jarring, colours working or sometimes reacting together - but in a pleasing way.’ (dorsetpaintings.co.uk) Kitglaisyer.com

EDITION FOUR A D O R S E T- B A S E D P U B L I S H E R O F N AT U R E W R I T I N G

Contributors include Jackie Morris, Alex Preston, Neil Gower, Catherine Hyde, Helen Scales and Whitney Brown.

AVAILABLE ONLINE OR LOCALLY AT ‘THE BOOK SHOP’, BRIDPORT

EL EMENTU MJ O U R NAL .CO M

Jeremy Norton BESPOKE KITCHENS AND FURNITURE BRIDPORT

jeremynorton.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 29

Arts & Culture

PLANTANUS HISPANICA Alice Blogg

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ave you ever stopped and looked closely at the trees that line our streets here in Bridport?

They range from cherry, lime and birch to the almighty London plane which stands strong to the front of the tourist information centre. The London plane was planted extensively in Britain’s streets, parks and roadsides; today it is the most common species in London, constituting more than half of the city’s trees.

It thrived, unlike other trees in developed areas, because of its ability to withstand the common urban perils of pollution, compacted and drought-prone soils, restrictions to roots, and vicious pruning and pollarding regimes.

Pollarding is a method of pruning that keeps trees and shrubs smaller than they would be if left to grow naturally. It is normally started when a tree or shrub reaches a certain height, and annual pollarding will restrict the plant to that height. Trees are pollarded to stop them outgrowing their allotted space. Take a look at the nobbly ends of the London plane in the town centre which is regularly pollarded, helping to reduce the shade cover over Buckydoo Square. Many species besides the London plane can be pollarded, for example ash, common lime, elm, elder, eucalyptus, mulberry and oak.

Plane species in towns and cities, like the one in Bridport, tend to be managed under arboriculture principles rather than silvicultural ones, focusing on single trees with a view to stature and health rather than plantations with timber-producing potential. It is lovely to see that our tree is cared for and pollarded annually, giving it a beautiful shape and presence in the middle of our thriving community. A tall, standing, living, everchanging sculpture that everyone can enjoy every day.

In the timber trade we refer to London plane wood as lace wood. It is highly decorative and exquisite in figure and medullary rays if quarter sawn from roundwood to planks. A hidden beauty, it is known to be structurally weak, non-durable and plain in its 30 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Image: Katharine Davies

appearance if through and through cut from log. I have worked with lace wood and am always amazed by its beauty and the ever-changing grain on different pieces. Did you know that if you steam bend it, it turns a vinaceous red.

It is good to know some trees will thrive despite climate change. However, although the London plane may like climate warming, it is deeply concerning how many diseases are affecting the species. We can only hope horticulturists are encouraged to undertake

breeding work to strengthen genetic diversity within the species. London plane was used for packing crates during the Second World War on ships ferrying goods between Italy and the US. This unfortunately introduced an aggressive fungal pathogen canker strain to Europe, which enters existing wounds and is fatal to the tree. It has yet to reach us in Britain. The London plane is not a native species so unfortunately it does not support much associated biodiversity, however it does provide shelter for urban wildlife.

As my business grows I thirst for more knowledge.

Working from tree to piece allows me to gain more knowledge on the provenance of species and the places from where I am sourcing wood. It’s the same as knowing where your eggs come from and how the hens have been looked after. When you look at trees and the different species in our town and neighbouring countryside, what do you think? aliceblogg.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 31

Arts & Culture

A FOCUS ON LIFE

JILL KENNINGTON Angie Porter

32 | Bridport Times | August 2018

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ne of the things I love most about living in Bridport is the amazing people you meet when you are out and about. Sitting at a cafe alone one day I met Jill. Recognising a fellow creative, we talked about everything and anything but especially about photography.

She clearly had a passion for it and she lit up when talking about getting “away somewhere” with her camera.

Her landscapes are still and almost Zen. Growing up in the Lincolnshire countryside, Jill liked nothing better than to be alone with nature. Her absorption in it has allowed her to create works of art which go far beyond the term ‘landscape.’ Her photographs capture what it means to occupy the landscape as a human being, what’s fascinating to not only our human eye but also our souls.

Picking up the camera at 40, Jill immediately felt the spark that had been missing in her life, which at the time was rather domestic. She went on a holiday to the Outer Hebrides and on the spur of the moment bought a Nikon FM2 before she left. She shot a lot of photographs during her visit and fell in love with photography.

Jill has an obvious talent for creating an impressive photo. Beautifully composed and, in the case of her portraits, full of empathy and feeling. She has photographed an impressive collection of famous people including Andy Warhol, Omar Sharif, Jean Muir, Ray Davies, Mary Quant, David Lean, Sir Terence Conran, and many more. She has also worked with

some of photography’s biggest stars including David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Helmut Newton. A large collection of Jill’s photographs is held at the National Portrait Gallery in London. One could certainly say she has achieved success. But Jill Kennington still has much more to show and her unhurried meditations are a quiet reminder of the majesty of nature.

This is a huge contrast to the life that Jill was immersed in 45 years ago. Before her photographic career Jill achieved global success in the 1960’s as a top model and actress. Having starred in fashion shows in London, Geneva and Paris, she travelled the world, working with international photographers for prestigious magazines and newspapers such as Vogue, Elle and The Sunday Times. Jill also appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 cult classic, Blow-Up. There are still some effects of the former career.

The day before I met Jill she was at the V&A, meeting curators about Mary Quant with whom she worked in the ‘60s. Whilst it will be a massively popular exhibition about the fashion revolution in 1960’s London, Jill is most excited about the conversation she had about her photographic landscapes. In the busyness of modern life they seem a lifeline to the natural world, about which I hope Jill has plenty more to say. jillkennington.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 33

History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

NET BRAIDERS BY FRA NEWBERY (1855-1946) Emily Hicks, Director

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his painting is one of the treasures of Bridport Museum’s collection. It’s a very attractive work, with harmonious colours and a sense of tranquility and ease created by the use of light. My personal interest is 19th Century painting, particularly that of the Pre-Raphaelites. Newbery was born just after the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood started up and I’ve always thought that he must have been influenced either directly or indirectly by them. Like them, he often painted working people and, also like them, he loved intense colour.

The painting depicts a cottage interior with three generations of one family braiding nets. ‘Outworkers’ in the town’s netting industry were almost always ladies, working from home, usually to supplement the main household income. On the right-hand side, holding the twine, is a ‘Bridport Cross’. The older girl supports the net, which is hooked onto the front door, while the younger girl helps her grandmother to load the braiding needle. The needles came in different sizes – we have hundreds of them in our collection. It is likely they are making fishing net or garden net. Displayed in the Museum is an outworkers ledger from around the time this work was painted. Each page is dedicated to a different woman and describes what she was making and how much twine she used.

This is perhaps a somewhat idealised view of the net industry. The sun shining in through the cottage door and the evocative Dorset bonnets create rather an idyllic scene; the reality was probably somewhat different.

Wages for outworkers were low and braiding very fine and intricate nets without electric lighting must have 34 | Bridport Times | August 2018

strained their eyes and made their hands very sore.

Francis Henry (Fra) Newbery was born in Devon in 1855 but came to live in Bridport when he was three years old. He attended Bridport General School where the headmaster encouraged and supported his wish to study art seriously.

He later studied at the Bridport School of Art on the third floor of the Literary and Scientific Institute, now refurbished as the LSi. He taught art here after he qualified, later moving to London. He became Director of the Glasgow School of Art in 1885 and did much to promote of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School.

Newbery retired to Corfe Castle in 1921 but never forgot Bridport. He redesigned the interior of Bridport Town Hall and painted a series of pictures which hang there. He also painted the murals which include the famous Spirit of Bridport.

Throughout his life Newbery’s driving force was, ‘to make art more readily available to a wider public, attempting to relate it to their daily lives and to celebrate the traditions of the specific localities in which the works are sited’.

The painting is on permanent display in the Museum.

You can discover this and more of our collection on the Art UK website: artuk.org/discover/artworks.

Bridport Museum’s current exhibition, Home Front, Home, celebrates the lives of women networkers during the First World War. bridportmuseum.co.uk @bridportmuseum facebook.com/BridportMuseum

C R A F T C E N T R E A N D R E S TA U R A N T

Saturday 25th August A day to celebrate at The Craft Centre! Our Craft Units will be holding demonstrations throughout the day.

We will be having a BBQ and live music from 4pm with a bouncy castle and kids activities.

Saturday 29th September Three course seafood supper with local gin tasting with Lloyd Brown from The Grey Bear Bar Company.

The evening starts at 7pm. Advance bookings only.

Saturday 27th October Classic cocktail masterclass and tasting by Lloyd Brown from The Grey Bear Bar Company with canapes and nibbles. Advance booking only.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O R T O M A K E A BOOKING, TELEPHONE: 01308 868362

O P E N D A I LY F R O M 1 0 A M - 5 P M • B R O A D W I N D S O R , D O R S E T, D T 8 3 P X

Wild Dorset

THE ROCKPOOL WAY OF LIFE

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May Franklin-Davis, Dorset Wildlife Trust

ockpooling is perfect on summer days. When the tide goes out, get close to fascinating creatures in the glistening depths of a rockpool.

Memories of days perched on rocks, hoping for glimpses of fish and crabs, are likely to be familiar to many of us. Have you ever wondered about the names and characteristics of those creatures we came across?

Rockpools are intriguing microcosms of life under the waves and filled with a wealth of marine life, some of which are not easy to see. The common prawn darts around so quickly while scavenging for its next meal that you might easily miss it. The shore clingfish stays near the edge of rockpools, cleverly camouflaged into its surroundings. The blenny fish is a little more curious than most of its neighbours; a gentle disruption of the water’s surface may entice a blenny to swim out from under a rock to investigate. With changing tides and variation in water temperature and oxygen levels, you have to be tough to survive. The beadlet anemone survives by retracting its tentacles at low tide and storing water to stop it drying out before the tide returns.

A vast array of marine life lives within shells. One rockpool can contain many species, such as the dog whelk, purple topshell and flat winkle, all of which come in varying shapes, sizes and have different favourite foods. The 36 | Bridport Times | August 2018

shells of dog whelks make them look similar to snails. Their diet revolves mainly around barnacles and mussels. Flat winkles have more rounded shells, usually in a warm yellow or sunset orange colour, and prefer to feast on algae.

Be sure not to disturb the wildlife and to replace any rocks you move. Always be aware of your safety. Watch the tides and, if you are going rockpooling, go on a calm day when the waves are small. Follow the Seaside Code to get the best rockpooling experience - details can be found on Dorset Wildlife Trust’s website.

• Guided rockpool rambles in Kimmeridge Bay during August: Monday 13th 2pm-3.30pm & Tuesday 28th 2.30pm–4pm. £3 per adult and £2 per child.

• Pop into the Fine Foundation Wild Seas Centre in Kimmeridge Bay which has interactive displays, aquaria and rockpooling information.

• Download your rockpool species guides at dorsetwildllifetrust.org.uk/kimmeridge.

• Using hooks, mistreating crabs and littering while crabbing is a serious problem but can be avoided with Dorset Wildlife Trust’s 5 key guidelines, available at dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/ecocrabbing. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

Wild Summer How will you go wild this summer? www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/events

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST Photos © Vicky Ashby, Katharine Davies, Laura McLellan & Matthew Roberts.

Wild Dorset

A NECESSARY OBSESSION Ellen Simon, Tamarisk Farm

T

he weather is a British obsession. ‘Oh isn’t this rain terrible?’ ‘It’s so cold!’ ‘Could you believe the wind this morning? Blew my washing all over the garden.’ Even more than that, though, it is a farmer’s obsession.

For winter crops we want late summer rain to allow early cultivation after harvest, and dry to kill the weeds before we sow seeds; we don’t want saturated or cold soil over the winter but we do want some sharp cold to kill some of the bugs. We want a warm moist early season to get a good leafy growth on the wheat, then dry and breezy air to allow our grain to finish maturing and harvest well, followed by rain to soften the stubble fields again. When hay-making, we want a stretch of sun to ensure that it is a high-quality product, then we want rain to help the grass grow. For out-wintered cattle and sheep we want dry conditions in winter and spring; in the summer we want it cool and breezy with enough rain to keep the grass growing. For leafy vegetables we want plenty of rain in measured doses throughout the spring and summer and for winter leaves, no frost. For tomatoes we want early warmth and a fair bit of sun in early summer. For hot peppers we want lots of hot sun.

We’re quite demanding, always watching the weather forecast, yet the weather we want often sneaks up the valley next door – we see it and think it is coming and then it slips away.

Much of what we want is at direct odds with other aspects of our mixed farm. Because of this, however, it is fairly rare that there is no silver lining to the cloud. On a rainy day my mind may be full of the hay or harvest in desperate need of sun and a drying breeze. Then I meet Rosie or Rebecca with their minds on vegetables and a smile on their wet faces, and they say, ‘lovely rain, isn’t it?’

And I can agree with them, and am reminded that the grass will grow better for the sheep and cattle.

As I write it’s been dry and hot for weeks. So far we are feeling it most in the vegetable gardens as seedlings struggle, lettuces get a blue tinge and then bolt, even 38 | Bridport Times | August 2018

established cucumbers and courgettes are losing a few fruit. We can see the future impact too; the wheat and rye started to flower early so they will make less grain.

We see it in the weeds going to seed quickly in the fields and gardens. We’ll have more weed seeds in the garden soil next year and for years to come. On the arable ground, I’ve been out with the tractor whenever I can, cutting the docks back to keep them from seeding but they’ve ripened quicker than I could stop them.

I recall the drought of 1976, watching the stock moving from one field of dry brown grass to the next, eating the dry stems, picking the flowers off creeping thistle, eating good green blackthorn and hawthorn and bramble from the hedges and deep-rooted grasses from the old established parts of the pastures. If the rain really does not come this summer we may need to feed hay. The farm is better set up for drought now than we were then. We have a much higher proportion of long-established native pastures, more hedges, trees and scrub. Our leys are full of deep-rooted herbs. Our garden soil is better.

Looking for the silver lining which comes with the

drought cloud is easy. We made hay with no concern about whether it would be dry. There was no tension if our little baler broke down and no fear that it would be a problem if the contractor with the big baler arrived late. If we are still in this dry weather at corn harvest, we won’t have the worries we have become accustomed to in the many recent wet summers. If we are lucky we will drive cheerfully out into hard, bone-dry fields with the combine and grain trailer. We will tell ourselves the horror stories from former years of the combine almost getting stuck in a wet patch, only escaping by some nifty reversing downhill, of dropping the trailer axle-deep in mud, saved with help from our neighbour with his bigger machinery, and grain already chitted as we brought it in.

We believe we are seeing new patterns of weather caused by climate change. It is not yet possible to predict what will happen and it may never be. Certainly the weather I knew here as a child and which then seemed stable is not what we have now. There seem to be more extremes. Mixed farming spreads the risks with weather.

Organic farming has advantages too. Our soil is resilient,

buffered by humus and living things, and organic farms regularly outperform others during droughts for this reason. Our diverse, flower-filled pastures tolerate both wet and dry conditions better than modern monoculture rye-grass pastures as do our herbal leys, pioneered by organic farmers in the early 20th century. Our trees and shrubs add an extra dimension. Open-pollinated and heritage vegetable and cereal varieties have greater genetic variation, giving more chance of matching the weather conditions.

We are looking at more we might do to increase the resilience of the farm in the face of climate change and, at the most basic, we think resilience lies in trees, humus and the greatest possible variety in all respects.

But whatever the weather brings, you can be sure that neither you nor farmers will ever be quite satisfied. But that’s okay; it’s our mutual obsession.

Tamarisk Farm Open Day, Sunday 26th August, 10am-4pm (see listings) tamariskfarm.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 39

Outdoors

SELF-PRESERVATION

I

Fraser Christian, Coastal Survival School

f we look at the common condiments on our dining room table, or in any average kitchen cupboard, we are looking at the tools for preserving and keeping food. Now associated with taste and flavour, they are an unconscious throw-back to our ancestors’ way of preserving a good forage, harvest or glut from a prosperous catch. Salt, pepper, sugar, oils, vinegars, herbs and spices were used for their preserving qualities and as aids to digestion, not for taste. Think about it: smoking food was a native way of preserving it, although it is now largely regarded as a luxury item.

We reminisce subconsciously for the taste our ancestors would have taken as a matter of course!

My first understanding of the subject was in a sleep-deprived state as a teenage catering student.

During one of my nutrition lessons, my ears pricked up in what I can only describe as an epiphany moment when the teacher said, ‘Sage is in stuffing as it complements the digesting of fatty meats via an enzyme it helps develop.’ It suddenly became apparent we have it all backwards!

We always say ‘fresh is best’ but wild food is around only for short periods of time, each with varying windows of opportunity for collection. To extend its period of use, preserving is essential. Recently I talked about foraging for wild plants and seashore treats - staple foods of our ancestors along with fish and game. Having a range of ways to extend our wild larder is both rewarding and delicious.

Before refrigeration salt was valued as white gold and even used as a form of currency, giving rise to such sayings as ‘worth its salt.’ Its value to us may be that it causes osmosis, drawing out the water in the flesh; if we also remember that smoke won’t pass through water, it becomes clear how useful salt could be.

A few easy ways to preserve your wild harvest include pickling vegetables and flowers, and dehydrating seaweeds which works well as they easily rehydrate when required. Shellfish needs a quick cook, usually poaching or blanching, in salted water that matches the sea’s salinity. A tablespoon of sea salt per pint of water is about right, ensuring the fresh water doesn’t enter the flesh and dilute the flavours. Pickling again is a popular method for preserving shellfish and the little jars of cockles at the seaside are a reminder of this proven method.

If you are thinking of heading to the coast this summer and fancy catching some of the infamous Chesil beach mackerel, you’ll most likely experience feast or famine. When they’re in, as we say, you can easily ‘fill your boots!’ Your catch will taste even better if you smoke it yourself.

A simple and easy way to smoke fish is in a cardboard box with the bottom cut out over a small tray of smouldering wood chips or the smouldering remains of a camp fire. Poke a few sticks through the top of the box and drape perfect fillets of fresh, lightly salted fish over them. With the lid of the box closed you have a portable smokehouse (obviously best done outside).

As I write this, sitting looking on the sun-kissed shores of south west Scotland after just completing a 5-day complete coastal hunter-gatherer course, I’m blessed with a bag of smoked fish, the surplus from our week’s catch. Students learned the art of coastal foraging and fishing using a multitude of methods. Luckily the fishing gods were on our side and the weather was fair.

Preserving everything off-grid in a field was an essential skill.

As the summer shoals of mackerel (hopefully) approach, I’m off to catch and cook them on the beach, using just sticks and stones... coastalsurvival.com

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Outdoors

FALCONRY

TERMINOLOGY AND HISTORY

F

Martin Ballam, Xtreme Falconry

or this month, here is something a little different: an explanation of the origins of falconry, when it came to the British Isles and the terminology used. Some of these expressions are frequently spoken by many of us in everyday language and conversations without our being aware of their 42 | Bridport Times | August 2018

origins in falconry. Many of you will have seen the demonstrations performed by us here at Xtreme Falconry and will already be aware of the segments which explain the true art of falconry, its historical background and the brilliant phrases associated with this most ancient of field sports.

References to falconry date back thousands of years. The forerunners stem from ancient Persia, Korea and Japan.

Quite how falconry spread to Europe is not definitively known but the most well-known early reference is in the Book of St Albans, written in 1486. From this the famous list of mediaeval society ranks and their use of birds was written and the standings were as follows: Emperor – Eagle King - Gyr falcon Prince/Duke/Earl - Peregrine Baron - Buzzard or harrier Knight - Saker falcon Squire - Lanner falcon Lady - Merlin Yeoman - Goshawk Priest - Sparrowhawk Holy Water Clerk - Male sparrowhawk Servant or Knave - Kestrel

There are many reports of the different punishments meted out for the crime of holding a bird above your social ranking or harming these most respected raptors, though some are too gruesome to write down!

The sport of falconry was practised between the 6th and 17th centuries, with the upper classes and royalty being the main practitioners. One of our most famous kings, Henry VIII, was a huge falconry advocate.

Edward III supposedly took 30 falconers with him when invading France.

Edward I received 11 gyr falcons from the King of Norway in 1276 as a peace offering; in fact the gyr falcon (especially the pure white gyr) was the most prized falcon, demanding the highest monies. It still commands that position today. During the Crusades, the famous leader Saladin supposedly sent his envoys with food for the hawks that accompanied the opposing armies.

So why did falconry die out in the 17th-18th centuries? Quite simply, it was the shotgun. Falconry was expensive and time-consuming. With changes in habitat, farming practices and deforestation, and a new conflict between falconry birds catching quarry and people easily shooting their game, this old traditional sport withered. Only a few die-hard falconers remained and the British Falconers Club was formed in 1927.

However, the terminology remained and here are a few phrases we use in everyday language originate from falconry: • Rouse or Rowse - from this we get the phrase, ‘rowse

(rouse) yourself ’ i.e. get a move on. A falcon will generally rowse itself before flight, that is raising and re-aligning its feathers with a vigorous shake.

• Hoodwink - placing a hood on a raptor to keep it calm.

The bird was said to be ‘hoodwinked’ into thinking it was dark, therefore remaining steady and relaxed.

• Feather in his cap - sometimes attributed to a hunter placing feathers from caught game in his hat, it is also believed to be the same for a falcon who has achieved a great flight and caught game. A feather was removed and sewn into the hood of the falcon.

• Branching out - a young raptor that leaves the nest before it is ready for full flight and independence will perch on branches around the nest area and is called a brancher.

• Cadge a lift - a term which some but not everyone has heard of, ‘I’m going to cadge a lift off someone.’ The cadge is a perch for carrying falcons. It can be oval, square or rectangular and is around 12-15 inches high.

Hooded (hoodwinked) falcons are tethered closely on this portable perch and carried by the ‘cadger’.

• Old codger - generally only the elderly and most experienced falconer was to carry the cadge… Cadger eventually transposed into ‘codger’.

• Fed up - we use this as a term of boredom, annoyance etc., but it actually describes a hawk or falcon that is fully fed and therefore unwilling to fly so it is ‘fed up’.

• Old hag - from the term ‘haggard’ to describe a wild caught adult bird which is maybe thin and bedraggled after its lengthy migration.

• Under the thumb - while holding a raptor, the leather jess (strap) on each of the legs is placed under the thumb of the gloved hand, therefore being under control.

• Wrapped around your little finger - the leash attached to the trained hawk must not hang down when held on the gloved hand. Looping it around the bottom finger aids securing the bird for further safe control.

• Boozing - if the hawk/falcon needs hydration it will ‘bowse’ or ‘bouse’ (a bowser is a water carrier). This is the bird drinking a lot and it was therefore labelled a boozer.

There are quite a few more so maybe I will leave you with ‘bated breath’ but obviously I don’t want you to be at ‘the end of your tether’ about it! Come and see one of our shows or do an experience day with us to learn more about a tradition that is never touched upon in our learning throughout our school years. Falconry is an art, a sport, a tradition so let’s keep it alive! xtremefalconry.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 43

Outdoors

THE GREY MARE AND HER COLTS Chris Tripp BA(Hons) MA, Field and Community Archaeologist

W

alking the hills and valleys of the rolling landscape of Dorset it is hard to imagine that it would have been covered by woodland several thousand years ago. The Dorset Ridgeway would have provided a natural causeway for our ancestors, facilitating communication and trade during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age. During this period many large monuments were built, including causeway enclosures, cursus monuments, henges, bank barrows and long barrows.

Around forty long barrows, used for collective burial, have been recorded in Dorset. Many are rectangular, some trapezoidal, and they were constructed by digging two side ditches and heaping up the dirt to make the mound. Before that a wooden mortuary house was constructed in which the bodies were deposited; later this would be made of stone. It is possible that the bodies were first excarnated, left to the open air to rot and be partially eaten by animals and birds.

On the high ground above Abbotsbury sits The Grey Mare and Her Colts, built around 3000BC. The views of the sea are wonderful along the path and after a short detour over stiles the impressive facade of upright stones comes into sight. The chamber, at the south east end, forms a box covered by a now slipped capstone; a large standing stone, weighing many tons, seals the front of the chamber.

The people who built long barrows were the first farmers and makers of pottery in our country. They herded their animals and sowed their crops, built large houses with wattle and daub, and created leaf-shaped arrows and polished axe heads of great beauty. They may have been newcomers who brought in new ideas and mixed with the indigenous people, creating a new society and a new way of burying their dead.

The Grey Mare is grey today but she may once have been brightly painted, just like our mediaeval churches once were, for many tombs are carved with zigzags, meanders, spirals and circles. It is known that certain 44 | Bridport Times | August 2018

drugs cause the mind to see certain designs, which may then have been carved and painted on the tombs. It may be that the ancestors were taken out of the tomb regularly, to take part in community rituals, with drums, smoking fires from feasting, booming horns, dancers and cries of incantation. Only much later was the tomb sealed and the earth mound set up over the chamber and the revered ancestors set to rest for eternity.

The only time archaeologists are allowed to excavate bodies is in advance of development; one time, at a site in London, I helped to dig around 13,000 mediaeval graves. I knew each had once been a living person, however my job was to clear them from the path of destruction and the routine of it dulls the empathy.

Not so with the neonates. Dreams of living babies under pavement slabs, that I had to save, haunted me. It is probable that our distant ancestors had a closer, more physical relationship with their dead than we do today.

Why go to such trouble to create a large, long, mound of earth in that particular shape? It’s what humans do; that shape means something. If future archaeologists dig up a church without knowing its function, what would they think that cross-shaped building was built for?

Mounds that have been excavated show that many have a ‘spine’ of hurdles running down the middle, with ‘ribs’ coming off it. Is this to aid the construction in some way? Or are they constructing an abstract symbol of the body of an earth mother in which the dead are

deposited and returned?

The crescent-shaped stone facade may indicate that it was used as a ‘stage’ for the rituals and festivals described. The shape may also mirror the shape of bull’s horns, some of which are found in the ditches of these mounds. Many ancient cultures across Europe have venerated the bull.

People still walk along the Ridgeway today, as people did thousands of years ago. If you walk there, you are treading in the footsteps of many others before you, past and present.

6 week ‘Facial Reconstruction & Archaeology’ course – tripp.chris60@gmail.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 45

Outdoors

On Foot

NIGHT WALK ON EGGARDON HILL Emma Tabor and Paul Newman Distance: 2½ miles Time: Approx 1½ hours Park: Limited parking on roadside near the summit of Eggardon Hill (Roman Road and King’s Lane).

Walk Features: An area rich in prehistoric earthworks including barrows and a nearby burial chamber as well as mediaeval strip lynchets and the dramatic banks and ditches of Eggardon Hillfort. Some steep sections are rewarded with incredible views across West Dorset and Lyme Bay towards Dartmoor and back towards the Isle of Wight in the east. There is also tranquility and an abundance of wildflowers inside the southern part of the hillfort which is owned by the National Trust.

Refreshments: The Marquis of Lorne, Nettlecombe.

46 | Bridport Times | August 2018

E

ach month we devise a walk for you to try with your family and friends (including four-legged members) pointing out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual and sometimes the unfamiliar. For August, we take a night-time ramble on the slopes of Eggardon Hill under a full moon, inspired by tales of smuggling and with the chance to see glow-worms. The walk can be enjoyed at any time but at dusk you can still appreciate the wonderful panorama across the Marshwood Vale and explore the drama and enormity of Eggardon’s defences. Needless to say, care should be taken, especially on the banks and ditches of the hillfort and, if walking late, don’t forget a torch. A detailed Ordnance Survey map is also handy to help identify the many prehistoric remains surrounding this area.

Directions

Start: SY 547944 The walk starts at the road junction nearest the triangulation point at the top of Eggardon Hill.

1 From the start, cross the Askerswell road and follow the road to Powerstock. After 200 metres, take the bridleway to your left, through a small metal gate. Head across the field to the far right-hand corner nearest the hillfort. Pass through a small gate onto a track and turn right. After a few yards you’ll come to a five-bar gate. You can take a detour to the right here and explore the centre of the hillfort, which is divided by a boundary as one part belongs to the National Trust and the other half is privately owned. Aerial photos have revealed the shape of an octagonal structure inside the hillfort, believed to be the outline of a coppice planted by the smuggler Isaac Gulliver, and used as a marker for ships out in the channel. There are excellent views west towards the summits of Pilsdon Pen and Lewesdon Hill and you will also be able to see the ‘Bell Stone’ outcrop at the western end of Eggardon. Inside the fort is also a good spot for glow-worms, adonis blue butterflies and spotted orchids in summer.

2 Returning to the five-bar gate, head down around the outer edge of the hillfort keeping the fence to your left and the hillfort to your right. After a few minutes, the track rises slightly, then drops to bear left and meet a small gate into a field. Go through this and follow a slightly sunken footpath down the right-hand side of a field bordered by a hedge and trees. After a short while, this emerges onto a track.

Keep walking downhill and, after another short distance, the track reaches North Eggardon Farm.

"Inside the fort is also a good spot for glow-worms, adonis blue butterflies and spotted orchids in summer."

3 Turn left at the farm buildings and follow the drive which bends right and then left, away from the farm and towards a dwelling on the left. Pass in front of this, on a grassy path, to a five-bar gate. Look out for the large sarsen stones in front and to the side of the house, which are sandstone deposits from the Ice Age. Go through the gate into a field. Bear slight right across this, which is boggy in places, following the telegraph poles to the far corner and go through a gate into a short, wooded section. The path here can be very muddy. Emerge into the corner of a field, which is boggy. Cross this and head downhill to the right to go through a gate. Keeping woods on your left and a stream on your right, the path turns left and then downhill towards a pond on the left. Go through a gate and head uphill where the path meets a driveway. Pass through another gate and turn left into a gateway for South Eggardon Farm. After a few metres the footpath leaves the driveway on the right and goes through a five-bar gate into a field.

4 The path crosses the field, less distinct at first, to then follow the contours of the hill above, beneath a line of trees and with the farm down to your left.

In 150 metres, the path turns right in front of a gate and deer fence and heads steeply uphill. Keep the fence on your left; the path then turns left where the fence meets the tree line. Go through the gate here, again following the path along the contours of the hill. The path ascends gradually, with increasingly better views across West Dorset and to Eggardon.

Keep the line of trees on your left, which then turns into a small wood which you pass through. Climb more steeply as the path heads for the corner of the field near the top of the hill, to meet the road. Cross the stile, turn left onto the road and head back to where you parked your car.

If you finish your walk in time to make the pub, the road from Eggardon to Nettlecombe travels along the outer rampart of the hillfort for a spectacular drive. bridporttimes.co.uk | 47

CASS TITCOMBE & LOUISE CHIDGEY Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

H

ow do you describe the duo behind Beaminster’s Brassica Restaurant and Mercantile? Cass Titcombe is the chef and Louise Chidgey the merchant. Cass will begin a sentence; Louise will finish it. Cass grew up in a self-sufficient family living on a smallholding in Wales and began cooking at the age of six; Louise grew up in London. He likes aioli, she likes Hellman’s. Despite the differences, the alchemy has worked and, in the last four years, Brassica has helped put Beaminster on the burgeoning foodie map of West Dorset.

The restaurant has a comfortable intimate feel, cosy in winter, with its roaring fire, and bright in summer, sun pouring in through the windows. Louise’s interiors store, Brassica Mercantile, has recently expanded into new premises across the road where they sell a growing range of foodstuffs and stock an eclectic mix of furnishings and design goodies that will give any home an instant pick-me-up. >

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On the day we meet, they are at home in Mapperton, just up the road from Beaminster. When the business began, home was Evershot but the long evening commute in winter fog left them desperate for a place closer to work. Happily, it’s a bright summer’s day when we meet at their house and while Cass is busy in the kitchen it gives me a moment to appreciate their home.

Colour is the word of the day. In another life Louise worked as a senior buyer for Terence Conran at his eponymous London store and also as a global trend forecaster in home design. Her sense of colour and palette gives each room in their home such an instant, welcoming feel that I find myself mentally taking notes to try it in my own home.

Their kitchen has pink walls, wooden worktops and a white painted floor. The porch is papered in a print from House of Hackney while in their sitting room a palette of pinks, blues and greens runs against neutral walls. ‘Emerald green is my colour of the moment,’ says Louise, patting her recently covered Conran sofa that was a ‘find’ on Ebay.

Her mantra for putting together a room is that, ‘colour changes everything’. As does lighting. ‘Our signature style is to string lights in different ways,’ she explains - a look that is particularly prevalent in the restaurant. Her tip for giving a kitchen an instant facelift is to change the handles, paint the units and change the

worktops. Louise still consults as an interior designer for clients who would like a room refreshed or want help with mood boards for a redecoration project. She is also starting courses at Mercantile this autumn, the first one on botanical scents with Rachel Boardman from Wilder Botanics with others in the pipeline.

While we’ve been chatting, Cass has moved from prepping in the kitchen to cooking on the barbeque outside. ‘I never boil or steam vegetables,’ he says, ‘they’re always roasted or grilled.’ We watch a wire basket of fresh peas in their pods roast on the fire, looking a lot like a Dorset ‘take’ on edamame beans. Next on the grill are the spring onions and asparagus. While they cook we nibble on crudités of tiny young carrots and radishes and talk about provenance and the bounty of good food that can be found in Dorset. For Cass, the sourcing of the produce is everything. ‘85% of the produce I use comes from within ten miles of the restaurant,’ he explains. ‘It’s only the oil, chocolate and charcuterie that comes from further afield.’

Their vegetables mostly come from Southern Organics and the Little Veg Shop in Beaminster supplied by a farm near Merriott. ‘There’s a community of young, ethical food producers down here, many of them members of the Landworker’s Alliance, which was part of the attraction of moving here in the first place,’ says Cass as he removes the roasted veg from the pot-belly barbeque and places a Dover Sole onto the heat. ‘And also the fish,’ he adds. > bridporttimes.co.uk | 51

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‘We moved here because Cass wanted to fish,’ continues Louise. Much of the fish that Cass buys for the restaurant comes from Davy’s Locker in West Bay. ‘I buy a lot of cuttlefish,’ he says, ‘it’s fantastic. You can cook it slowly and mince it up to make a bolognaise of sorts.’ It’s Cass’s creativity with ingredients that has long been his calling card and helped make his name.

While in London Cass was sous-chef at Daphne’s and co-founded Canteen, where he was tasked with creating concepts for new foodie ventures. Here in Dorset, his inventiveness with local produce has caught people’s imagination as well as the praise of critics. Sitting in their garden atop one of the highest hills in the county as we enjoy a view that reaches across the valley towards the sea, it’s clear that they’re glad to have made the move.

‘We followed our hearts,’ adds Louise. ‘As a family we wanted to give Jesse, our son a healthy outdoor childhood. We also wanted to open a good, neighbourhood restaurant using the finest quality local produce and create an intimate friendly space where you could feel comfortable whatever the occasion.’ Once a year Louise gives the restaurant’s interior an overhaul.

‘At the moment it’s quite pink and we’ve hung plates on the wall,’ she says, ‘but next year it will be different.’

The Dover sole we’re eating is fluffy and fresh with a side of dressed chickpeas which are the size of prize marbles but melt-in-your-mouth tender. It’s a treat and I’m glad to learn that they’re also available in Mercantile.

Talk turns to plans for the future and Cass jumps on the opportunity to share his ideas. ‘We’re going to increase our food range and expand our authentic alternative foods to include Italian and Brindisa specialist supplies for the serious cook.’ He then outlines their plan to sell ownrecipe soups and pasta sauces, meals in pots, jams, fresh daily focaccia and cakes. If this isn’t enough, they will also be selling Wobbly Cottage’s sourdough and Swedish Rye bread. It all sounds idyllic but one gets the feeling that behind the scenes there’s a lot of hard work going on.

As we clear the dishes back to the kitchen we stop for a moment to admire the emerald green sofa that takes pride of place by the French windows. ‘I had to get it recovered,’ says Louise, ‘Jesse and his mates used it as a trampoline and broke the springs.’

‘Not anymore! Now it’s out to the garden for trampolining, even in snow,’ adds Cass. ‘Now I use the sofa for sleeping.’ And with everything that they’ve been doing I can see why. brassicarestaurant.co.uk 54 | Bridport Times | August 2018

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tamara@lovinghealthy.co.uk www.lovinghealthy.co.uk 56 | Bridport Times | August 2018

SUMMER DINING at AA Rosette awarded restaurant by the sea, as recently seen on ITVʼs ʻThis Morningʼ with Phil Vickery

Join us for weekly lunches and barbecue evenings throughout August. With the freshest ingredients from the Farm, garden, hedgerows and shoreline, our menus are inspired by this glorious summer.

Farm Lunches on Wednesdays & Saturdays at 1pm Barbecue Evenings on Thursdays at 6:30pm £15 for adults, £10 for kids. Booking is required.

www.olddairykitchen.co.uk 07999 923089 | chris@olddairykitchen.co.uk Trill Farm, Musbury, Axminster EX13 8TU

NEW FOR SUMMER! CLUB HOUSE AFTERNOON TEAS TUESDAY - FRIDAY | 3 - 5PM | UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY

www.theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk bookings@theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk | 01308 898302

THE CLUB HOUSE | WEST BEXINGTON | DT2 9DG

Meet + Eat @ ALEMBIC Canteen Lovely food + drink, freshly made Open Monday to Friday 08.30-17.00 Breakfast from 08:30- 11:30, Lunch from 12.00-15:00 Open Saturday 09.00-16.00 All-day-brunch 09-00-15.00

thealembic.co.uk e: hello@thealembic.co.uk t: 01308 480 462 51 East Street Bridport Dorset DT6 3JX @AlembicCanteen @thealembic Alembic Canteen The Alembic Canteen is wholly owned by local charity Bridport Area Development Trust, an organisation run by volunteer trustees. Any profits are passed to the Trust to be used for the upkeep of the LSi and other charitable Trust projects in the Bridport area.

bridporttimes.co.uk | 57

LOBSTER WITH BÉARNAISE MAYONNAISE Gill Meller, River Cottage

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obster is a sweet, meaty, succulent crustacean – a real treat, though arguably no more delicious than less expensive crab. In the Southwest, the best time to eat it is from early summer into autumn, when it is landed sustainably by inshore potters who catch it within 6 miles of the coast. Only mature lobsters may be landed; other fish or young lobsters in the pot are released alive. They cannot land ‘berried’ (egg-carrying) females.

Fishermen who catch lobsters in nets cannot be so selective. Nevertheless, even with potting, lobsters can be 58 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Photography © Simon Wheeler.

Food & Drink

overfished. This is currently the case in many parts of the British Isles, and Mediterranean and Scandinavian stocks are depleted. Broadly speaking, pot-caught lobsters from the Southwest or the Channel Islands are the best choice.

Lobsters can grow up to a metre in total length, but a smaller specimen is always preferable on the plate.

Lobsters weighing 800g–1.5kg are best: sweet and tender.

There’s nothing sweet and tender about the lobster’s nature, however. They attack like prize fighters with their big claws, which is why lobster ranching is more difficult

and less developed than other forms of shellfish farming – and why a lobster’s pincers are held closed with rubber bands when the creatures are put in a vivarium.

Avoiding those claws is one of the challenges you will face should you decide to fish for a few lobsters yourself, using a pot (or creel). If you have a boat it’s straightforward. Lobster pots should be baited with fish scraps – the stinkier, the better. Drop your pots (which must have floating markers, of course) over rocky ground, in water 10 metres deep or more. You could also walk and then wade out as far as you can at low tide to place and collect your pots, however most lobsters will be a bit further out than this. It’s essential to collect your catch at the next low tide, too, so they don’t die. You must observe the minimum landing size for lobster and return egg-carrying females, or lobsters with a v-notch cut in their tail (a conservation measure that identifies breeding females). You should also check local bylaws regarding permits and regulations for lobster potting.

Generally speaking, the less you do to the sweet, pearly flesh of a lobster, the more impressive it will be.

But anointing your freshly cooked crustacean with a little homemade mayonnaise laced with fresh herbs is one of the best treatments imaginable – simple, luxurious and somehow the epitome of summer.

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Ingredients

Serves 4 2 live lobsters (800g–1kg each) For the mayonnaise: 25g unsalted butter 1 shallot or small onion, finely diced 2 tbsp medium white wine 1 tbsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar 2 medium egg yolks 1 heaped tsp english mustard 200ml light olive oil or 150ml sunflower oil 50ml extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil Juice of ½ lemon 2 tbsp chopped tarragon Sea salt and black pepper Method

1 Put your lobster in the freezer for about an hour before cooking to sedate them.

2 For the béarnaise, melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat. Add the shallot or onion and cook gently for 8–10 minutes to soften without colouring.

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Turn up the heat a little and add the wine and vinegar.

Simmer until reduced to a scant 2 tsp liquid. Let cool.

Put the egg yolks, mustard, a pinch of salt, the shallot and its liquor into a blender and blitz for 25–30 seconds. Then, with the motor running on the lowest speed, slowly trickle in the oil, so that it forms an emulsion with the egg yolks, stopping frequently to scrape down the sides. Alternatively, you can whisk the oil into the egg yolks gradually by hand.

When you’ve added all the oil and have a thick, glossy mayonnaise, add the lemon juice and chopped tarragon. Blitz briefly to combine, then taste and adjust the seasoning as required. If the mayonnaise is a little thick, stir in 1–2 tsp warm water. Refrigerate while you boil the lobster.

Drop the insensate crustaceans into a large pan of well-salted boiling water and cook for 10 minutes for a 500g lobster, 15 minutes for one weighing 750g, and allow an extra 5 minutes for each 500g after that. Remove them from the pan and leave to cool for 15–20 minutes.

Put one lobster on a board with the head towards you. With the tip of a sharp, heavy knife on the cross on the lobster’s head, press down firmly, cutting through the head towards you. Turn the lobster round so the tail is now facing you. Carefully cut from the split in the head down through to the tip of the tail in one firm motion. Keep the blade central so you end up with two even halves. Repeat with the second lobster. Remove the gills and sand sac from behind the lobster’s mouth and the intestinal tract that runs the length of the tail.

Serve the warm lobster with the mayonnaise, bread and a salad dressed with lemon and olive oil.

This recipe features in River Cottage A to Z, published

by Bloomsbury, and available from rivercottage.net Why not try a “Summer Lunch” or “Summer Nights” dining experience at River Cottage? You’ll enjoy the freshest summer produce, freshly picked from the garden, and there will be plenty of time to take a stroll and explore the farm too.

Bridport Times reader offer: Get £10 off a Summer Lunch or £15 off Summer Nights when you quote BTDINE. Offer is valid on dates until 30/08/18. For more details and to book see the website or call Amy in the Events Team on 01297 630302. rivercottage.net bridporttimes.co.uk | 59

Food & Drink

TRIO OF SUMMER BARBECUE DELIGHTS Cass Titcombe, Brassica Restaurant

60 | Bridport Times | August 2018

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s we have now been blessed with what seems like endless weeks of glorious weather, it is an ideal time to cook many of your meals outside.

Nothing beats the flavour of cooking over wood or charcoal, along with the immense pleasure of preparing, cooking and eating outside.

Kettle or drum BBQs are good for day-to-day homecooking as they enable you to cover the cooker and slow down the cooking process, giving a smokier depth to larger whole vegetables and pieces of meat. You can also build your own fire pit or BBQ easily at home or, if you are on the beach, a bag of charcoal along with some driftwood makes for a perfect outdoor grill. All you need is a rack or a basket to cook the food over. Do not use any lighting fluids or instant charcoal as this is soaked in fuel and will definitely ruin the flavour of your food. We use charcoal from Ben Short, a charcoal-maker based near Eggardon Hill.

There are so many more things to cook than sausages and burgers, vegetables being a favourite of ours at home.

Smaller green vegetables benefit from a quicker cooking but larger ones such as squashes, celeriac, potatoes and parsnips need a longer slower cook. Whole fish work really well and you can buy a basket that is perfect for fish as it prevents them from sticking to the grill.

The recipes below are just a few suggestions and you can try different vegetables or swap the sauces.

The romesco is great with lots of grilled foods such as chicken or oily fish.

Whole Grilled Spring Onions with Romesco

20 spring onions Sea salt Black pepper 50g almonds or hazelnuts 2 cloves garlic 150g roasted red peppers (buy tinned or jarred) 75ml olive oil plus extra to drizzle 1 tbsp sherry vinegar 1 Toast almonds and peel garlic. Place all but the spring onions in a food processor and blend for a few minutes, then add the olive oil and whizz up for another minute. Check salt and pepper and store in fridge until needed. This lasts for up to a week but remove from the fridge at least an hour before serving.

2 Trim roots of spring onions but otherwise leave

whole, grill dry over a hot grill for a few minutes on each side; you want these to be charred. Dress with olive oil and lots of flaked sea salt.

Peas with Sea Salt and Olive Oil

This is more of a suggestion than a recipe, you will need very fresh peas in the pod ideally picked straight from the garden or from your local greengrocer or farm shop. You will need a wire basket (I use an old basket from a small chip fryer as it has a small mesh and is made from metal but a wire colander would also work). Place the peas in the basket and put in the hottest part of the fire and toss every minute or 2. They should be charred on the outside. Remove from the fire and dress with liberal amounts of olive oil and sea salt. NB: Don’t eat the pods, only the peas inside them!

Young Carrots and Runner Beans with Chilli Aioli

1 bunch small carrots 250g runner beans 100ml olive oil 1 organic egg plus 1 yolk 2 cloves garlic peeled 2-3 pickled green chillies ½ lemon Salt 1 tsp english mustard 200ml sunflower oil 1 Place garlic, lemon juice and zest, chillies, mustard and salt in a food processor, blend for a few minutes, slowly trickle in oil until thick and emulsified.

2 Wash and scrub carrots leaving the tops on; trim ends of beans.

3 Lightly brush with oil and grill for a few minutes on each side until starting to char. Remove and dress with olive oil and sea salt, serve with the aioli.

Ready-meals and sauces cooked by Cass in the restaurant are available to buy in our shop Tuesday-Saturday, as are the sherry vinegar, peppers, pickled chillies, sea salt and oil used in these recipes. brassicarestaurant.co.uk brassicamercantile.co.uk Insta: @brassicarestaurant_mercantile

bridporttimes.co.uk | 61

Food & Drink

COURGETTE, BROAD BEAN AND WHITE LAKE GOAT’S CURD SALAD Charlie Soole, The Club House, West Bexington

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ver the past year and a half we have been working hard at building a kitchen garden to bring you the freshest produce. It is now bringing forth its delicious bounty. Courgettes are just one of the delicious vegetables that we are bringing to the table. Tamarisk Farm, our friends from up the hill in West Bexington, are producing some amazing broad beans and their sweetness complements the courgettes so well.

White Lake are a small cheese producer in Somerset and produce some amazing, goats’, sheep and cows’ milk cheeses. Here I have used their goat’s curd as it is terrifically creamy and has a delicious tang to it. If ever you get a chance to sample any of White Lake’s cheeses do so; you will not be disappointed.

Ingredients

Serves 4 4 medium courgettes (green and yellow) 300g podded broad beans 100g goat’s curd A few sprigs of mint 100ml extra virgin rapeseed oil or olive oil 10ml cider vinegar Juice of 1 lemon Salt and pepper

Method

1 If you have found some whole, fresh broad beans you will need to take the beans out of the pods and place into salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and cool them down immediately in an ice bath or under cold running water. Once they are cool, peel off the outer layer of the bean so you are left with the green bean itself. If you can’t find fresh broad beans frozen will do just as well.

2 Next make the dressing by whisking together the cider vinegar, extra virgin rapeseed oil and lemon juice.

Add a pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper.

3 Slice the courgettes lengthways on a mandolin or with a sharp knife. If you can’t find yellow courgettes just use green. Chop the mint leaves. Place the slices of courgette, the broad beans and mint in a mixing bowl. Add half of the dressing, a pinch of salt and some black pepper. Stir and leave to one side to marinate for a few minutes.

4 Take the goat’s curd and, if it is a bit thick, add a little cream to lighten it slightly. Season with a pinch of salt and some black pepper.

5 Take a large serving plate and pile up the courgette and broad bean mix. Place dollops of the goat’s curd around and over the courgettes. If you have a few pea shoots or some other leaf then you can garnish the salad with these. Drizzle a little more dressing over the top and serve.

This salad would go really well with a lovely piece of fish grilled on the barbecue. If you can find some sea bass or even some mackerel you will have a spectacular meal.

All of us here at the Clubhouse hope you are having a fantastic summer. theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk

62 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Image: Charlotte Green bridporttimes.co.uk | 63

Food & Drink

"rich with heritage, but above all creative"

64 | Bridport Times | August 2018

THE ALEMBIC

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Tamsin Chandler, Manager

uilt in 1832, the historically significant and fully restored Literary and Scientific Institute (LSi) is located in the centre of Bridport. At its heart is the Alembic Canteen, where I took on the challenging but rewarding role of Manager a few weeks prior to its official launch at the end of April. Since then, many have asked, ‘But what is an alembic?’ An alembic is a still, historically used for alchemical purposes. Considering the transformation that has taken place at the LSi, the name certainly fits.

The Alembic has now settled into what feels like its correct footing - and that primarily means food! A local focus permeates all we do, in keeping with the original vision of the restoration. Having worked as a local food advocate in Bridport for much of the past six years, being tasked to guide the Canteen’s menus and list of suppliers is a joy. Anyone familiar with Bridport is well aware of the exceptional quality of foods produced, grown and farmed locally so, naturally, our suppliers are as local as possible. Indeed, it would be shameful not to utilise and enjoy the bounty on our doorstep.

All cakes, sweets and biscuits are made fresh, inhouse. We offer healthy options such as toasted banana bread, date-sweetened Bliss Balls and seeded Brekkie Bars, along with a varied stream of sinful cakes and biscuits which often includes gluten-free and dairyfree options. We want the freshness and quality of the ingredients to shine, with generous portions of simple, healthy modern dishes. No fuss – just delicious food in a friendly, stylish environment.

The Alembic is housed in a beautiful, spacious room with soaring ceilings and enormous Georgian windows which usher in an abundance of natural light. You can sense that patrons love sitting in the space, with the Canteen already welcoming back many regulars. Several of the original features are present, but the overall feel is modern with clean lines, a sedate but warm palette, touches of stainless steel and original wood flooring. There’s a bustling and breezy feel, but it’s also serene - chattering voices and the chink of cups on saucers safe within solid, old walls. It’s a happy place to be, a lovely place to meet and eat.

The Canteen is also available to hire for events and special occasions, which includes the courtyard and access to the toilets. Workshops, AGMs, a wedding reception and pilates classes have already been held here. The hope is to inspire people to aspire, create and experiment. Local

people with great ideas are welcome to get in touch to see how we can help make their ideas come to life. We’ll be holding our own events, too, in the near future.

The lower levels of the LSI building are open to the public, with full disabled access. Almost every day, local folk with long memories wander in with wide eyes and sentimental smiles, usually recalling one of the building’s past manifestations as Bridport’s public library. After a few minutes of recalibrating past with present, visitors politely ask if they might see the rest of the building.

‘Of course!’ is our response, and we show them towards the atrium courtyard. Things have changed! Visitors are inevitably surprised and impressed when they see the bridge extending across to the Work Hub, where it’s possible to rent desk space and enjoy access to superfast broadband, peace and quiet and great coffee. Downstairs are two rooms fully equipped with technology and able to accommodate meetings for groups of up to thirty people.

The LSi offers a workspace for start-ups, small businesses and freelancers and provides space for lectures, workshops, adult training or whatever else might be required. The Alembic Canteen works in tandem with the LSi Centre, catering for workshops, meetings and events, whilst offering discounts on food and drink to hub users and the building’s permanent tenants, Crowdfunder UK. Bridport businesses are also offered special rates for takeaway morning coffees and pastries, plus other discounts.

I believe it is essential that this landmark building remains useful to the community it serves. Supporting local businesses - food producers, trades, professions, organisations and, particularly, community groups and charities - is central to the LSi’s and Alembic Canteen’s planning and purpose going forward. I have written previously how the LSi’s reincarnation was aiming to be “rich with heritage but, above all, creative - with a focus on modern life and with eyes to the future.” Looking around the building now, I’m happy to report that objective has been achieved. All of us at the LSi hope the community of Bridport agrees.

The Alembic is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5pm, offering breakfast and lunch menus. On Saturdays, between 9am and 3pm, it serves a popular all-day-brunch. thealembic.co.uk email: hello@thealembic.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 65

Body & Mind

HEALTHY EATING FOR KIDS

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Tamara Jones, Nutritional Therapist and Founder, Loving Healthy

ealthy eating can help children avoid certain health problems such as obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. It can stabilise their energy and sharpen their minds. A healthy diet can also have a positive effect on a child’s sense of mental and emotional wellbeing, helping to prevent conditions such as depression and anxiety. Healthy eating habits are more likely to stay with you if you learn them as a child. That’s why it’s important that you teach your children good habits as soon as you can. Below are some tips for developing positive eating habits Start with breakfast

Starting the day with a healthy breakfast is crucial to functioning well. This should include complex 66 | Bridport Times | August 2018

carbohydrates and protein, which provide slowrelease energy and control blood sugar, supporting concentration levels, energy levels and mood.

Try one of these for a healthy breakfast: • porridge or muesli • greek yogurt and blueberries • peanut butter on wholegrain toast • hardboiled eggs on wholegrain toast or sourdough • almond butter on sliced apples Try and follow the theme of complex carbohydrates with protein throughout the day, both for lunch and snacks – this means choosing wholegrain versions for sandwiches, wraps or pasta and adding a protein filling such as tuna, cheese, chicken, hummus, nut butter or eggs. For snacks

How to help children eat more fruit and vegetables

The most common issue I hear in clinic is ‘my child doesn’t like vegetables’ so here are my top tips: • Keep offering new foods, again and again: it is quite common for a child to be suspicious of a new food. Children may need to try new fruits and vegetables up to 10 times before they accept them.

Stay patient and keep offering them. It can also help if you prepare and serve them in different and creative ways.

• Studies also show that children are influenced by seeing their parents, carers and peers eating and enjoying the same foods. So get your own dinner plate in order and tuck into the foods you want your children to eat too.

• Use non-food rewards. Offering pudding as a reward for eating their greens reinforces your child’s idea that vegetables are unpleasant rather than enjoyable.

Try offering non-food rewards for good eating and good behaviour. Star charts and stickers can motivate children.

• Try and get your children involved in the shopping or food preparation. You can ask them to pick out their favourite fruit and vegetable or help with simple food preparation tasks such as washing the fruits and vegetables. Engaging your child in such activities is also a good opportunity for your child to learn more about food.

Why is it important that my child gets the daily

you could add vegetables to smoothies or a handful of nuts or some oatcakes. Incorporate vegetables for lunch and evening meals but also consider them as snacks – red pepper, cucumber, celery and carrot are perfect for this.

Try to avoid processed and sugary foods

Processed foods tend to be low in essential nutrients and high in hidden additives, preservatives, sugars and trans fats, which the body struggles to break down effectively. Foods high in sugar can suppress the immune system, as well cause spikes in energy and affect behaviour. Once you start analysing the ingredients of popular children’s foods and drinks, it’s frightening to see how much sugar is in them.

Soft drinks, cereals and sauces are some of the worst offenders. For example, a 30g bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes contains 11g of sugar. That equates to nearly 3tsp of sugar just in your child’s breakfast cereal.

recommended servings of vegetables and fruits?

Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre, and provide many benefits: • They promote good health and protect against disease, both now and in the future.

• They ensure the child’s healthy growth and development.

• They strengthen a child’s immune system and help fight illnesses.

• The high-fibre content can aid in the proper function of the digestive system and prevent constipation.

Tamara is running a Children’s Nutrition Workshop on the 22nd September. The workshop will show clearly how to provide your children with the best possible nutrition to help them to grow up healthy and happy. Details on website.

Early bird tickets available. lovinghealthy.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 67

Body & Mind

A NEW LEAF George Gotts, Counsellor

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riting therapy is simple. All you need is a pen and a blank page. Throw the rules out of the window. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar, just write. For me writing has always been a calming activity which has helped me to make meaning and resolve issues.

There is now a growing body of research showing its benefits: from lowering blood pressure to increasing immunity; from alleviating anxiety and depression to helping to process trauma. What the studies show is that it is a very effective tool for health and wellbeing. It’s also virtually free, accessible to everyone and without any sideeffects. You can choose your words and the page will be there for you any time of the day and night, however you wish to use it. Sharing writing in a supportive group can be very empowering but it’s also yours to take away and burn if that is what you want. They are your words.

Group Works

Writing alone is therapeutic but when we come together with a common purpose it can help to give us energy and motivation for positive change. A group also challenges the common problems for writers of distraction and procrastination. With a pen and paper rather than a laptop there’s no temptation to click away to another thought.

Here we work together in time we’ve mutually set aside.

Letting Go

We need to trick the conscious mind into having time off from worrying and thinking, particularly negative thoughts such as, ‘I’m not good or clever enough.’ Once we get beyond this our true story can reach the paper.

This can come through playful exercises using objects or images to inspire, finding new ways to enjoy getting to know ourselves. We are all able to write what we need under the right conditions.

68 | Bridport Times | August 2018

"We need to trick the conscious mind into having time off from worrying and thinking, particularly negative thoughts"

Confidentiality

Though I work as a facilitator rather than a therapist, some of the skills of the counselling room apply here such as group confidentiality, safe and clear boundaries, and perhaps an observation of themes which emerge.

It is such an exciting process to witness people coming together to share their words and feelings, to make new connections with each other and with themselves.

Morning Notes - exercise

Devised by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. Don’t think, just write. Follow these steps: 1 Start writing first thing in the morning. ‘Before your ego’s defences are in place,’ suggests Cameron.

2 Write by hand. This engages the brain in a way that is different from writing on the laptop and there are no distractions.

3 Write 3 sides of A4 - this is important. On a day when you struggle for words you may find you start with mundane observations. When you get beyond this, usually by the second page, revelations can arise.

At the end of the third page you must stop abruptly.

This is to avoid self-indulgence.

George Gotts works in Bridport as a counsellor in private practice. Her therapeutic writing course begins in September. georgegottscounselling.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 69

Body & Mind

FREELANCE STATE OF MIND Alice Chutter

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hen you work for yourself, often at home, it is all too easy to simply launch straight into the emails and the ‘to do’ list without taking time to consider how you want to move through your day. Though it makes sense to get your work done as quickly as possible so you can have some free time later, it doesn’t entirely work like that and the way that we begin things really does matter.

When I chat to other freelancers, small business owners and entrepreneurial friends, I find we are all in the same boat. We share ambitions to keep focused, 70 | Bridport Times | August 2018

creative, productive and healthy, and we remind ourselves why we love the freedom of a freelance life.

I’m a part-time arts producer, dedicated yoga practitioner and full-time mother. I have, however, fallen into the state of being too busy to look after myself properly on many occasions. At one point in my career I remember preparing for a mid-morning Skype meeting and realising that I was still wearing my pyjamas. My mind was buzzing and unfocused from too many cups of coffee. I felt like everything was starting to fall apart and it was overwhelming. The plates weren’t spinning, they

with my heart, and clarify my mind before I get into the responsibilities of my day and my interactions with others. I will weave other practices into my day if time allows, but I don’t leave my morning practice to chance.

Having this short and sweet set of non-negotiable morning rituals has really helped me to ground myself over the last few years in which my work has primarily been done at home. It is the most important sadhana of my day and, if I don’t do this morning practice, I really notice a dive in my productivity or a rise in my stress levels.

Small rituals to try and weave into your day

were falling, rapidly.

I therefore developed a set of non-negotiable morning practices that I always do on my freelance days to help me remember what is most important to me and to set a clear energy for the day. They are neither long nor involved and can be done on even the busiest of days.

My non-negotiable morning practice includes 1020 minutes of conscious movement and breath work, followed by 5 minutes of stillness and meditation.

These practices help me to land in my body, align

• Before you start your working day, commit to a practice of 15-30 minutes of conscious movement and breath work (this could be yoga, running, swimming, walking or meditation).

• Follow this with a few minutes of still meditation to ground and align yourself. Clear your mind before you get stuck into your day.

• Throughout the day, every time you go to the bathroom or make a cup of tea, stretch your spine out in a box pose. Stand with both feet about a leg-length away from the kitchen counter and lean forwards holding onto the counter with flat palms. This helps to relieve any lower back pain, opens your lungs and alleviates tension in the neck and shoulders.

• If working from home is challenging and distracting you, then alternate it with a change of space – try renting a hot-desk space, co-working with other freelancers or find a welcoming café with wifi.

• Set an alarm on your phone and introduce a four o’clock (typical slump time) habit. When I used to hot-desk at the Crowdfunder office we started a ‘four o’clock plank’, holding a plank position for 2 minutes every day at 4pm. If nothing else it made us laugh and stopped us from looking at computer screens for a few minutes.

• Go easy on yourself. If you are a freelancer, remember that even in a more conventional workplace environment there are less productive days - the printer breaks or a meeting you don’t find that engaging overruns by hours. Although your distractions might be different as a freelancer, don’t forget to accept that some things are a natural part of the process and trust that those less productive hours will be followed by some intense bursts of creativity later on. alicechutter.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 71

Body & Mind

ELDER

NATURE’S MEDICINE CHEST Caroline Butler BSc (Hons) MNIMH, Medical Herbalist

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he elder tree grows like a weed, springing up and spreading across waste ground, filling in gaps in hedges, even growing out of cracks in brickwork. It has a sprawling shape and the leaves have a strong, not particularly pleasant smell, but this untidy and sometimes unwanted tree is beautiful in the eyes of herbalists. Its flowers, berries, leaves and bark can all be used as medicine. There is a lot of folklore about elder, involving fairies, the ancient god Pan and the ‘Elder Mother’. It was considered unlucky to cut down an elder tree, though one growing near your house would give you protection from evil. I remember being warned never to burn wood from the elder tree because the Elder Witch would come and burn down my house! The message of all these stories is that elder is an important plant, deserving of respect.

It’s one of the few wild plants that I see nonherbalists gathering. In June, when the sweet scented, creamy white flower heads are ready, people collect them to make elderflower cordial. The best time to pick the flowers is in the morning, after the dew has dried. Pick flowers from a sunny spot, as plants in the shade will have created slightly different chemical constituents and won’t make such a nice cordial. You can smell the difference: just give the flowers a sniff and if they’re sweet, they’re the ones you want.

Around August, any elderflowers that weren’t harvested will have turned to bunches of shiny black berries with a rich purple juice. I use these either to make a tincture - a concentrated extract made using alcohol and water – or a syrup (see the January edition of the Bridport Times for a recipe). This is delicious, good for dosing children or anyone reluctant to take their medicine. Elderberries are anti-viral, so can be used for colds and influenza, and they also ease coughs and some kinds of rheumatic pain. I might add the tincture to an immune-boosting mix for someone suffering from repeated respiratory infections or make the syrup with other herbs and spices to ease coughs, such as cinnamon 72 | Bridport Times | August 2018

and cloves. Pure elderberry juice simmered with sugar until it has thickened to the consistency of honey makes a ‘Rob’, an old remedy similar to the syrup but which keeps longer and is more potent.

The flowers have a related but slightly different effect, and I tend to use them mostly in teas. Elderflower tea is great during fevers as, drunk hot, it will induce sweating and allow the body to cool down. It’s also anti-inflammatory, reducing swelling in the nasal passages and drying up catarrh. This makes it very useful for colds, as well as hayfever or any other condition involving a runny or blocked nose. Cold elderflower tea

can be used as a wash for sore or irritated eyes, and also to soothe sunburn. In the past elderflower water was highly prized for keeping skin white and freckle-free, and the flowers were used in cosmetic creams and ointments for chapped hands, burns and scalds.

The inner bark and root were used as purgatives and emetics, in times when drastic measures were sometimes necessary, though this use has fallen out of favour! The leaves can be used as an insect repellent or to make a healing ointment for bruises, sprains and chilblains, either on their own or combined with other herbs such as plantain. To make a simple ointment, put a few

handfuls of fresh elder leaves in a heatproof bowl in a water bath (or in a double boiler if you have one), pour over enough cooking oil to cover the leaves, and then heat gently for 2 hours. The oil should be very green.

Allow it to cool and then strain out the leaves. To make a stronger ointment you can then repeat this using fresh leaves but the same oil. Then, add beeswax to the oil at a ratio of 10 parts oil to 1 part beeswax. Gently heat until the wax has melted and pour into ointment jars while it’s still hot, before it thickens. herbalcaroline.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 73

Your project managed from concept to completion Design, Manufacture and Fit Building Works, Electrics and Plumbing 9 The Square, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3AW 01308 861121 • kitchens@chrischapmanltd.co.uk For opening times visit: www.chrischapmanltd.co.uk Find us on houzz.co.uk 74 | Bridport Times | August 2018

Chris Chapman

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ROBERT MÜHL OCEAN BATHROOMS Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

O

cean Bathrooms is awash with new products and the choice for those looking to update their bathroom is overwhelming. Thankfully help is at hand in the form of Robert Mühl and his family, who have built up a business over the last 25 years and who can carefully guide you through the whole process.

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Robert’s passion is bathrooms - but it’s not just him. This is a family business. His son, Joe, is regarded as one of the leading bathroom designers in the UK and has been featured in various publications. His second son, Alex, handles the logistics side of the business, creating a seamless link between design and

installation. Sharon, Robert’s wife, is the Financial Director but also keeps a check on new products and advises on practicality (‘wall-hung loos are definitely the best option for whoever wields the mop as there will be no nasty corners to collect dust’).

Ocean has also opened a showroom in the Design Centre, Islington. In fact, there is very little that Robert doesn’t know about bathrooms. He began this business with a £2,000 loan and an awful lot of energy and guts. Twenty-five years later it’s still going strong.

‘I just decided that I didn’t want to carry on working for someone else on a fixed wage,’ he explains, ‘I wanted to do something for myself.’

So where does this energy come from? ‘My father,’ explains Robert. ‘My dad was born in Hungary but left to escape the Russians. In 1948 he and his best friend came over to England by boat. Initially the two of them had wanted to make their way to America but the crossing had been so bad that when they got to England they decided to stay. They were given two options: either go to the north to work in the mines or stay in the south and become agricultural workers.

They ended up living in a Nissen Hut in Burton Bradstock and then moved to Bridport, where my dad met my mum.

‘My mum was from East Germany but she didn’t want to stay there when the Berlin Wall went up so she escaped through the wall one night,’ he continues.

‘She got to West Germany and then made her way to England where she had a cousin who was living in Bridport.’ The rest, as they say is history: his parents met, married, and had five children of which Robert is one. But the guts and determination that enabled his parents able to make and survive these moves must be something that runs in the genes.

‘I had three job offers when I began this business,’ says Robert. ‘I could have stepped out at any time but I wanted to work for myself, even though this sometimes involved working seven days a week. I wanted to provide a genuine product, which is why I work with companies that make products that have longevity and a full customer service. Customer support issues disappear when you provide the right product.’

Their advice comes in person or can be online through a 3-D design package. However, you shouldn’t even think about the bathroom until you’ve sorted out your water pressure, and if you want tips on that then Robert is your man. They have a pump system installed at the showroom and, after visiting,

you’ll be armed with enough knowledge to cut through the swathe of unvented cylinder and combiboilers comparisons that plumbers will launch upon you. Ocean has a fully functioning showroom where you can test out the pumps, baths and showers (and thankfully you won’t need a wetsuit!).

If you have ever had to clean the bathroom tiles you will know about grouting and what a pain in the butt it is when it comes to keeping it clean. The solution is to use large tiles because they equal less grout and handily marble is very much in fashion right now. Thankfully at Ocean Bathrooms there is a whole room dedicated to tiles and it stocks a variation of marble that doesn’t weigh a ton.

As for my own bathroom renovation, I am still at the dithering stage and haven’t got my water pressure sorted out. However, after 30 minutes with Robert, I felt ready to face a plumber with some knowledge of what he might be talking about. Then there is the actual ‘sanitaryware’ - surely there should be a better word for it? - basically, the bathroom suite. Now admittedly there are some bargains to be had online.

I once ordered one that way but the bath had a hole in it, albeit near the top, which I only discovered after the tub had been fitted. It resulted in all my baths being on the shallow side and I vowed never again to buy online. However, leaving that aside, what I have discovered is that at Ocean Bathrooms, it’s all about the quality of the glazing. The glaze is what keeps your bathroom suite shiny and new so, if you don’t want that ‘stained’ effect too early in your new bathroom’s life, it’s best to invest in a quality product.

Robert is also currently the President of Bridport’s Chamber of Commerce. His tenure has meant a lot to him and he was particularly passionate about keeping South Street open for the benefit of local businesses.

‘To me, our most important role is to be a voice for the businesses of Bridport, to put our views across to the council and to find a way to work together for the good of Bridport.’ With that and the Ocean Bathroom business expanding, it sounds like Bridport is on to a good thing.

Ocean Bathrooms will be at the Melplash Show on August 23rd with live water demonstrations in the Hansgrohe Water Wagon. oceanbathrooms.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 77

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Interiors

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TAKING THE INSIDE OUT

A

Molly Bruce, Interior Designer

ugust - the height of summer. School’s out, the tourists arrive in Bridport and we give ourselves permission to slow down just a bit, to slack off the housework and make the most of the English summer before it slips away from us.

There are so many beautiful places nearby that even a day trip around the corner can feel like a holiday.

But what about those days when the roads are choked with traffic and your favourite destinations burst at the seams with holiday makers; when all you crave is some time outside in peace and quiet? Consider creating an ‘outdoor room’ - your very own haven to escape into.

We all need fresh air and a little nature every day, whatever the weather. Getting outside is increasingly important, not least due to the amount of time we spend indoors, often staring at screens. Remembering to relax, to slow down and breathe deeply, reduces stress levels, allowing ourselves time to remember what is important in life. If you have a yard or garden you can retreat to, make the most of it - lavish some tender loving care on an area and make it special for the sake of your health and wellbeing. If you don’t trust yourself to do it alone, invite friends and family over to help, giving you a deadline to adhere to.

How can you make your patch stand out? Consider things you wouldn’t normally think of having outside.

By challenging ingrained tradition, you can transform an environment from plain to stunning. Look to other cultures for inspiration, blending English style with an eclectic bohemian twist. Think about your favourite places and how you can add the essence of them to your own space.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a day joining forces with Zanna Hoskins of Champernhayes Flowers. We wanted to experiment with my oftenneglected garden and have fun styling the yard, accentuating the natural beauty of its old brick and crumbling stone. We added furniture, candles and solar lighting, and Zanna’s beautiful collection of British flowers complemented the wild foxgloves and roses.

Ultimately, we celebrated our accomplishments with a tea party for our families. I thoroughly recommend embarking on such a positive adventure.

Outdoor accessories are available everywhere, from furniture and cooking equipment to sun shades, solar powered lighting and lanterns. You can even buy outdoor

waterproof and mould-resistant fabric, allowing more freedom to add comfort to your garden without worrying about unreliable weather. Make your garden an extension of your home by blurring the boundaries and taking the inside out. Admittedly there will be certain things you will have to bring in on miserable days but taking time to add the unusual will make your place unique. Think outside the box: avoid the chain stores and go to the local market or the charity and independent shops to find that special something that only you will possess. My favourites are a vintage sun-lounger, a collection of rugs and cushions and an old, battered, green camping table, all things that have been around for a while.

If you create a covered area, you can really go to town.

Consider hanging pictures, mirrors or a collection of coloured lampshades with lights in them. You could restore an old armchair with outdoor fabric, mix patterns, texture and colour. Have fun with your ideas without restricting them. If you have a boring wall space, hang fabric over it, decorate it with flowers or even paint a mural. Alternatively, give the children a box full of chalks and let them take over. This is what makes the difference - an outdoor space that catches the eye and invites people in.

If your garden is tiny or you have no time at all, a jug loaded with locally sourced flowers works well sat on an outside table come rain or shine, alongside a chair with your favourite cushion - anything that gives you pleasure.

Blend items among the flowers and greenery and invite nature back in. Birds will enjoy nest boxes, baths and feeders, and the flora will attract bees and butterflies.

After all this creativity, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the restorative power of your comfy, new outdoor space.

By entertaining all possibilities, the ideas will start rolling in as you become increasingly in tune with your surroundings. Once you get your eye in there will be no stopping you, and everything you need will be right at home in your backyard. Except for the screens, abandoned by the back door. Happy summer!

Photography - Matt Hayden Styling - Molly Bruce and Zanna Hoskins

champernhayesflowersfoliage.co.uk mollybruce.co.uk Instagram @mollybruceinteriordesign bridporttimes.co.uk | 81

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Gardening

EXTENDING SUMMER FLOWERING INTO AUTUMN

I

Charlie Groves, Groves Nurseries

find there’s always another job to do in the garden - unfortunately some never quite get done! If, like me, you have a demanding job, a family and other hobbies then you’ll know that feeling of ‘something has to give’. One of the jobs nearing the top of my long ‘to do’ list that I really would love to complete is planting up my borders with plants that will extend the summer season into autumn, adding another wave of colour.

I’ve started, but it needs a bit more work. It’s a bit like plumbers never having time to fix their own leaking taps or builders never finishing their own extensions!

There’s no excuse, so this year I’ll really try but if, yet again, I don’t succeed I’ll feel so much better for having shared my tips on how to extend the season in your garden by planting late-flowering specimens for much-needed colour at the back end of summer. One job I have done and can give myself a pat on the back for is deadheading, I’m a demon at it, and it’s a simple way to extend the flowering life of your summer plants.

Another of my ‘to do’ ideas, looking more into winter, is to have an array of plants that have attractive seed heads and winter structure, which can seem so impressive with a dusting of snow or a heavy frost. That one may have to wait a bit longer so, in the meantime, here are my tips to extend your summer garden into autumn.

Deadheading: you can manipulate some plants to flower longer by cutting the dead flower heads off.

Annuals flower all summer so they can produce seed for future generations but if you remove the fading heads they can’t produce seeds, so they deliver more flowers in an attempt to create seed. It works well with summer bedding and perennials such as calendula, cosmos, petunias and sweet peas. Roses too will flower well into the frosts if you keep deadheading all summer. In fact, it’s a trick you can use on most flowering plants except those that produce attractive seed heads that you want to enjoy or that the birds will benefit from, such as sunflowers.

Late-flowering plants: there are a lot of plants that

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flower well into autumn until the first frosts. Aster, rudbeckia, echinacea, helenium and michaelmas daisies have lots of beautiful and bright flowers and are also popular with pollinators and hence are well worth planting. Dahlias are a must to extend the season as there is such a fantastic variety and a vast range of colours, something for every taste. Sedums are another excellent autumn choice as the heads are a magnet for bees and butterflies and a vital source of nectar as temperature starts to drop. Another winner that will give a stunning display in September and October is the exotic looking nerine, grown for its showy, long-lasting autumn blooms in shades of pink, red and white. To perform to its best, it must have a sunny, well-drained border, however it will also do well in pots if placed in a bright spot.

Cutting back: cut back plants such as atrantias, brunnera, pulmonaria and hardy geraniums to remove mildewed or straggly growth. This will encourage fresh new foliage and perhaps even a late flush of flowers if you treat them to a liquid feed and water well afterwards.

Containers: towards the end of summer your pelargoniums, fuchsias and petunias will be packed solid with roots so will need more feeding, watering and deadheading to look good. Be ruthless with any that are past their best and replant with some of the late flowering suggestions above, particularly dahlias. They look great in pots so, if you only have a small garden, a couple of containers on the patio filled with dahlias will add a vibrant splash of colour.

Finally, there are so many plants with fabulous seed heads that can add great beauty to the autumn and winter garden that I’d really like to cover this more, however I don’t have the time today - so sorry, it’s going to have to stay on the ‘to do’ list for another time! grovesnurseries.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 85

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Philosophy

CRITICAL THINKING

W

Kelvin Clayton

hat’s your response when you hear or read the word, ‘philosophy’? Do you automatically think of obscure academic courses at dusty old universities where students study impenetrable books that have no relevance to the ‘real’ world? Do you perhaps think of wise words that invite a few moments of quiet reflection, or a carefully written phrase that, with patience, reveals something important about life? Or maybe you recoil in fear at the memory of a course in Formal Logic, an endless stream of symbols whose meaning you’ve long forgotten, even if you had a grasp on them in the first place?

For many of the philosophers of ancient Greece, philosophy was much more significant than this – it was a way of life. The word ‘philosophy’ literally means ‘love of wisdom’ and, for them, the achievement of wisdom required a certain comprehensive approach to life. Wisdom was a state of perfect peace of mind, a remedy for all the worry, anguish and misery brought about by the human condition. It could not be a part-time activity because it required total commitment. Whilst it is very difficult for us ‘moderns’ to appreciate what this meant for the ‘ancients,’ this was the theme of the June meeting of Bridport’s Philosophy in Pubs group.

There are, however, problems with such an approach to philosophy. Most of the ancient philosophers adopted a dualistic approach to their understanding of the human condition. This understanding involved the mind or intellect (the essence or soul of a human being) being rooted in a higher, transcendent world while trapped in the physical world of the senses. All the different schools of philosophy had their own approach to this ‘problem,’ which involved finding a way to either ignore the world of the senses, or to adjust their reaction to it such that it had no or little effect on them.

This could be viewed as a cop-out, a complete failure of responsibility to face up to the world we live in and engage with the problems we encounter. There was, however, one of the ancients from whom we can take some inspiration. Socrates confessed to knowing nothing himself and spent much of his time challenging those who did claim to have certain knowledge. Through careful questioning he exposed their true ignorance and, in so doing, earned himself the nickname, ‘the gadfly.’ For me, this is the real value in philosophy. The ability to develop a critical attitude, to challenge received opinion – to become a gadfly!

Philosophy in Pubs is a grass-roots community organisation promoting and practising community philosophy in the UK. Discussions take place regularly in venues around the country. Anyone can attend and anyone can propose a topic for discussion. The Bridport group meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month in The George Hotel, South Street at 7.30pm. Attending the discussion is free and there is no need for any background knowledge of philosophy. All that’s required is an open mind and a desire to examine issues more closely than usual. For further details, email Kelvin Clayton at kelvin.clayton@icloud.com

bridporttimes.co.uk | 87

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Literature

Children’s Book Review

Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St John (PanMacmillan, 2018) £6.99. Recommended for ages 8+ Bridport Times Reader Offer price of £5.99

K

at is alone at home late one evening while her mother, a hard-working vet, is finishing a late shift at the surgery. Just as she is drifting off to sleep she hears a noise and goes downstairs to greet her mum, only to be confronted by a burglar. Through a series of accidents, she manages to chase off the intruder just as her mum really does arrive home. No harm done, but both Kat and her mum are a little shaken and so decide to look for a new place to live, away from London.

As luck would have it, there is an opening for a qualified vet in a lovely village on the Jurassic Coast, where the surgery is attached to the cottage. Kat won’t need to stay home alone anymore as her mum will be working right there, except when her mum’s off on house visits or helping out at the animal rescue centre nearby.

Kat is thrilled with her new life in the idyllic Bluebell Bay and is excited to explore opportunities as a local pet sitter and dog walker for a bit of pocket money.

She loves walking the dog of the nice old lady but really doesn’t care for her son, who seems a bit dodgy to Kat. She’s also delighted to pet-sit a parrot for a local artist where she will have access to his hilltop mansion for the few days he will be away.

But as Kat starts to get to know the locals, and

becomes familiar with the neighbouring military base, she begins to realise that things are not all they seem. Fortunately for her she is hired to exercise the rather excitable horse of a girl her age named Harper Lamb. Harper has broken her ankle and is housebound, much to her irritation and frustration.

It is this new friendship between the girls that is the beginning of The Wolfe and Lamb Detective Agency.

The only thing is though, can they survive their first investigation as others have been killed? And who is that strange man who seems to be following Kat? And where did that wild cat come from? And will the local police constable ever believe two girls?

This adventure is so much fun, with the added bonus of being set just down the coast. It’s fantastic - and I might have stayed up past my bedtime to finish it!

Not only that, it’s also the Independent Booksellers Children’s Book of the Season for this summer.

Lauren St John will be speaking at The Bridport Literary Festival on Saturday 10th November. Tickets on sale at the TIC from 8th August. dorsetbooks.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 89

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