Bridport Times October 2018

OCTOBER 2018 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

IN THE THICK OF IT

at home with Ben Pentreath and Charlie McCormick

bridporttimes.co.uk

WELCOME

I

write this in the rush and push of the autumn winds. Watching as stoic trees are bullied into handing over their pocket money and the forest floors fill with gold. Despite being a fully grown man of relatively able mind I cannot help but collect conkers on my way to and from the office each day. One such morning, I pass through a throng of immaculately suited schoolboys, all purposeful stride, youth and promise. In the fading echo of blakeys and bluster I become suddenly and acutely aware of myself. Short trousers and backpack, proudly clutching my conker, I am greeted by the familiar sense of a nagging existential crisis.

And so to October. Mind Fest returns with 5 days of events and workshops across town, including a performance from boundary shifting rapper/poet Dizraeli. Also in town are Turin Brakes, bringing their Invisible Storm tour to the Electric Palace on the 7th. We meet Tanya BruceLockhart in the run up to next month’s Bridport Literary Festival and artists Camilla Nock and Julian Bailey ahead of their forthcoming exhibitions. Kit Glaisyer introduces us to some of the many faces at St Michaels, Amanda Wallwork shares her beautifully illustrated maps, Emily Hicks explains the relevance of a tiger, Neville Copperthwaite speaks his mind and herbalist Caroline Butler gets to the root of the matter. Katharine and Jo meanwhile visit the thrumming, colourful home and garden of Ben Pentreath and Charlie McCormick. If only our pages were scratch and sniff.

Have a wonderful month.

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

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne

Miranda Alexander Bridport Literary Festival @BridLitFestival bridlit.com

Design Andy Gerrard @round_studio

Martin Ballam Xtreme Falconry xtremefalconry.co.uk

Sub editors Jay Armstrong @jayarmstrong_ Elaine Taylor

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

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.

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 | October 2018

Alice Blogg @alice_blogg aliceblogg.co.uk Caroline Butler BSc (Hons) MNIMH herbalcaroline.co.uk Fraser Christian Coastal Survival School @CoastalSurvival coastalsurvival.com Kelvin Clayton @kelvinclaytongp greenthoughts.me philosophyinpubs.co.uk Neville Copperthwaite n.copperthwaite@gmail.com May Franklin-Davis Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife @dorsetwildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Curtis Fulcher Bridport Arts Centre @BridportArts bridportarts bridport-arts.com Kit Glaisyer @kitglaisyer @kitglaisyer kitglaisyer.com Charlie Groves Groves Nurseries @GrovesNurseries @grovesnurseries grovesnurseries.co.uk Susanne Harding Screen Bites @screenbites2 screenbites.co.uk Emily Hicks Bridport Museum @BridportMuseum bridportmuseum.co.uk

Tamara Jones Loving Healthy @lovinghealthy_ @lovinghealthy_ lovinghealthy.co.uk Gill Meller @GillMeller @Gill.Meller gillmeller.com Anne Morrison The Bookshop @bookshopbridprt @thebookshopbridport dorsetbooks.com Amy Mowlam Porter Dodson @porter_dodson porterdodson.co.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 @theclubhouse2017 @TheClubHouse217 theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk 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 Amanda Wallwork amandawallwork.com Nadiya Wynn Yoga with Nadiya @yogawithnadiya yogawithnadiya.co.uk

46

OCTOBER 2018

6 What’s On

44 Archaeology

74 Home

14 Arts and Culture

46 Ben Pentreath and Charlie McCormick

78 Gardening

26 History 28 Wild Dorset 34 Outdoors

56 Food & Drink 66 Body and Mind

82 Philosophy 85 Literature 86 Crossword

bridporttimes.co.uk | 5

WHAT'S ON Listings

Art Class

____________________________

Unitarian Church, East St. £10 per

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm Bridport Folk Dance Club

____________________________ Wednesdays 7pm-10pm

01308 423442

Church House, South Street. Instruction

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm

538141 bridportscottishdancers.org.uk

Folk dancing with recorded music

Bridport Scottish Dancers

____________________________

and social dancing. Enquiries: 01308

No auditions, just an enthusiasm

____________________________

session. 01308 424980

WI Hall, North Street, DT6 3JQ.

Bridport Choral Society

bridportandwestbay.co.uk

____________________________ Every 4th Wednesday 7.30pm

Friday 5th 7.30pm

for singing required!

Philosophy in Pubs

Rapper, Poet and Musician Dizraeli

bridportchoral.wordpress.com/Facebook

____________________________

George Hotel, South Street. Read Kevin

Bridport Youth and Community Centre,

Mondays 7.30pm-9pm

Clayton’s monthly article on page 82

____________________________

424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

DT6 3RL. Tickets Bridport TIC 01308

Bridport Campfire -

1st Thursday every month

Women’s Coaching Group

10.45am-11.45am

Friday 5th - Saturday 10th

67 South Street. £5, all welcome

Community Coffee Morning

Bridport Mind Fest 2018

Tuesdays 10am-1pm

St. Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington.

Free coffee, cakes and parking

Supporting and celebrating mental

____________________________

workshops, art events. bridportmindfest.org

____________________________ Art Class Town Mill Arts, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU.

3rd Friday every month

____________________________

wellbeing. 5 celebrity events, 30

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£15 per session, first session half price.

10.30am-3.30pm

Friday 5th 7.30pm-9pm

07812 856823 trudiochiltree.co.uk

Bridport Embroiderers

Illustrated DWT Talk -

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Lorton Meadows and Chesil Beach

Tuesdays and Thursdays 10.30am

St Swithens Church hall. 01308 456168

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Walking the Way to

Monday 1st – Tuesday 30th

Health in Bridport

10am-4pm

56a South St. By Vicky Ashby

Starts from CAB 45 South Street.

Art Exhibition -

Saturday 6th 11am

30min walks, with trained health

Kingcombe Through The Year

Mood Indigo -

walk leaders. Free. 01305 252222

Coffee, Cake and Jazz

sarahdavies@dorset.gov.uk

The Kingcombe Centre, Toller Porcorum,

____________________________

DT2 0EQ. By Antonia Phillips and Elizabeth Sayers. Free entry. 01300

St Swithun’s Church Allington,

320684 kingcombe.org

DT6 5DU. In aid of the St Michael’s Fire Fund. Free parking.

Tuesdays 7.15pm Uplyme Morris Rehearsals

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Bridport United Church Hall,

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The Bottle Inn, Marshwood. No

Wednesday 3rd 8pm

Saturday 6th 2pm

experience required, give it a go!

Over The Wall Picking Apples

Walk and Talk

Contact Uplyme Morris on Facebook or The Squire on 07917 748087

The Lyric Theatre, Bridport. £12/£10

Tamarisk Farm, tamariskfarm.co.uk

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service user concession 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Saturday 6th 3pm

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Live Music - We Shall Overcome

Bridport Sugarcraft Club

Friday 5th 7.30pm

Ivy House, Grove Nurseries, West Bay

Talk by Advice Columnist

The Ropemakers, Bridport, DT6 3QP.

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Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF.

2nd Tuesday every month 7.15pm

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

Bel Mooney

Wednesdays 10am-12pm

Tickets Bridport TIC 01308 424901

6 | Bridport Times | October 2018

____________________________

In aid of Cupboard Love Food Bank.

Free 01308 421255

____________________________ Saturday 6th

The Fourteenth

BRIDPORT

Literary Festival 2018

Sunday 4th – Sunday 11th November

Speakers include: Antony Beevor Mark Cocker Tim Dee Patrick Gale Bryony Gordon Nick Hewer Mick Herron Robin Knox-Johnston Prue Leith

Tickets available from Box Office: Bridport Tourist Centre, The Town Hall, South Street, Bridport, DT6 3LF Tel: 01308 424901 and online at www.bridlit.com Follow us on Facebook & Twitter for latest updates @BridLitFestival

WHAT'S ON Poonamalee Productions/ Dorchester Arts - A Pure Woman Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis.

With Julian Halsby. Members only.

Dorchester Yoga and Therapy

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soul workshop with kinesiology,

susan.dymock@btinternet.com

marinetheatre.com 01297 442138

Rooms, DT1 1TU. Mind, body and aromatherapy, meditation and yoga.

Tickets £80 (incl. lunch) available from

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thrivehealthwellness.co.uk/events

Saturday 6th 7.30pm BBC Doctor Dr Jonty

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Heaversedge in Conversation

Saturday 13th 2pm

Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF

Somerset and Dorset Family

Tickets Bridport TIC 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

History Society presents: Keep Museum - The Dorset

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Wednesday 10th and

Regiment in 1918

Saturday 6th 7.30pm-11pm

Thursday 11th 8pm

Bridport Ceilidhs

One-man Show - Mr and

Loders Village Hall, Loders, DT6 3SA.

Church House Hall, South Street,

Mrs Clark Present F.E.A.R

423442 bridportceilidhs.wordpress.com

01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Sunday 14th 2pm-4pm

With Chris Copson. Members £1.50, visitors £3, inc. afternoon tea

DT6 3NW. Featuring ‘E.C.D.B.’ 01308

The Lyric Theatre, Bridport. £12/£5 12-18.

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Crystal and Tibetan Singing

Thursday 11th 10am-1pm

Bowl Soundbath

Workshop - Mr and Mrs Clark

The Unitarian Chapel in the Garden,

Present How To Start Devising The Process The Lyric Theatre, Bridport. Tickets £20 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

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49 East Street, DT6 3JX. With musician Dean Carter. £12. 01935 289655

ahiahel@live.com centreforpuresound.org

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Sunday 14th 7.30pm-9.30pm

Thursday 11th 1.30pm

English Historical Dancing

Sunday 7th 8pm

Beginners Solo Charleston

Turin Brakes + Support

3 Week Course

Royal British Legion Hall, Victoria

Electric Palace, 35 South Street,

Bradpole Village Hall, DT6 3JA. £17 per

electricpalace.org.uk turinbrakes.com

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Bridport DT6 3NY Tickets £20

course. dynamic-dance.uk/charleston-courses

Grove, DT6 3AD. Loose clothes and flexible footwear advised. £6 01935

472771 thedancingmaster@outlook.com

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Saturday 13th

Friday 19th 7.30pm

Mondays 8th and 22nd 7.30pm

Bridport Community

BSO Resonate Strings -

Biodanza @ Othona -

Orchard Apple Day

Autumn Serenade

Express, Connect, Relax!

Off South St. Entertainment, apple juice,

St Andrew’s Church, Charmouth. 07967

Blogg's 'Rhythms of Nature' article on page 24)

____________________________

Othona Community, Coast Road,

Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN. No dance partner needed. Teacher: Julia Hope-

cider and Mummers Play. (Read Alice

759135. £10, £6 u18s. artsreach.co.uk

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Saturday 20th - Wednesday 31st

Brightwell. £8-£10. Info: 01308 897130

Saturday 13th 10am-4pm

10am-4pm daily

biodanza-bridport.co.uk

Sacred Dance, Sacred Sound

Halloween Half Term

____________________________ Friday 9th

Bridport Meeting House, 95 South St. Celebration and meditation through

Forde Abbey House and Gardens,

sound. iona.lake@aol.co.uk

hands-on Halloween craft

Study Day - British and American Artists in Venice

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Chard, TA20 4LU. Pumpkin rolling plus ____________________________

1815 to the Present

Saturday 13th 10.30am-4.30pm

Saturday 20th 3pm

Mosterton Village Hall, DT8 3HG.

Nourish Self-Care Workshop

Piano, Clarinet and Cello Recital

8 | Bridport Times | October 2018

OCTOBER 2018 St. Mary’s Church, Beaminster. £12 Bridport Music

Talk by Grahame Meaden for Golden

South, West and East Street

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Second Saturday of the month

Beginners Modern Jive

Monday 29th 7.30pm (beginners)

Farmers’ Market

Chideock Village Hall, DT6 6JW.

and 8.45pm (intermediate)

9am–1pm, Bridport Arts Centre

dynamic-dance.uk/modern-jive-courses Saturday 27th 3pm

£36 per course. dynamic-dance.uk/

WI Hall, North Street

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Every Sunday, 10am-5pm

St Mary’s Church Beaminster. Tickets

Tuesday 30th 2pm-4.30pm

Local Produce Market

£12.50. 01308 862493. Proceeds to Cancer

Mosterton Art Group

Research UK and St Mary’s Church

Demonstration on Mixed Media

Customs House, West Bay

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Last Sunday of every month,

Saturday 27th 7.30pm

Mosterton Village Hall, DT8 3HG.

With Trudi Day. £3 members, £4 visitors.

10am-4pm

susan.dymock@btinternet.com

Bridport Vintage Market

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St Michael’s Trading Estate, DT6 3RR

Filming, Funding and the Future

Every Wednesday and Saturday

from Yarn Barton, Beaminster or

Bridport United Church Hall, East Street.

Weekly Market

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Cap Association. £3 01308 863577

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Monday 22nd 7.30pm

Free trial drop-in session. Info:

Beginners/Intermediates Modern Jive 6 Week Courses

Every Saturday, 9am–12pm

____________________________

Chideock Village Hall, DT6 6JW.

Country Market

modern-jive-courses

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The Fairey Band 40th Anniversary Concert

‘Parnham Voices’ Concert Lux et Tenebrae Sydling St Nicholas. Tickets £8 inc.

glass of wine. Info: 01300 341593 or

Planning ahead

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________ Saturday 20th 9am-3pm

angela.shaw10@btinternet.com

____________________________

Bridport Town Hall Craft Fair

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Saturday 3rd November

Monday 29th 10am-12pm

5.30pm-9pm

Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF. Free

Indian Head Massage -

Fireworks at Forde

6 Week Course

Forde Abbey House and Gardens,

Bridport venue. Tutor Karen Wright.

Booking: wrightmail2@aol.com 07974 826891

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

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Chard, TA20 4LU. Firework display with entertainment and guest performers

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Monday 29th 2.30pm

Fairs and markets

Montacute House:

____________________________

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 | 9

PREVIEW In association with

RIDICULUSMUS: ‘GIVE ME YOUR LOVE’ Friday 12th October Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR. 8pm. £13/£11. 01308 424204 bridport-arts.com

Theatre legends Jon Haynes and David Woods of Ridiculusmus are back with a funny, fragile and profound fable based on groundbreaking medical research and real-life war testimonies. Ex-soldier and budding rock star Zach has withdrawn into a cardboard box in a kitchen in west Wales. His friend Leuan arrives offering recovery - in the form of a capsule containing MDMA, with which he claims to have successfully

treated his own post-traumatic stress. Zach and Leuan swing between dreamboat heroism and woozy enlightenment via an exchange on patriotism, conflict and supermarket shopping. evolver.org.uk

10 | Bridport Times | October 2018

THE DIAMOND FAMILY ARCHIVE SATURDAY 10TH NOVEMBER Doors 7pm Start 8pm

“Mesmerising, melancholic psychedelic soundscapes” Suggested donation £7. Profits to Sherborne Food Bank CHURCH STUDIO HAYDON DORSET DT9 5JB

A series of talks, live performances and screenings + food and drink of an interesting ilk In association with

What's On

BRIDPORT LITERARY FESTIVAL Sunday 4th - Sunday 11th November Miranda Alexander

T

he phenomenon of the literary festival is a relatively new one. Until the 1980s, public enjoyment of literature was mostly confined to the back-rooms of dingy bars in Soho. Since then, however, the idea has grown exponentially and there is hardly a town in Britain that does not have its own ‘Lit Fest’. From the vast and corporate to the tiny and niche, they appear, like mushrooms, overnight.

Bridport Literary Festival, launched in 2005, has its own special atmosphere and character. Reflecting the town’s distinctly arty, bohemian and laid-back vibe, it caters for a diverse audience with diverse tastes.

12 | Bridport Times | October 2018

Image: Millie Pilkington

‘It provides,’ says director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart, ‘an eclectic cast of writers talking on a myriad of subjects.’

BridLit as it is now affectionately known, was spawned fourteen years ago from the Bridport Prize - an internationally distinguished creative writing competition, founded in 1973 as a fund-raising scheme for the then new Bridport Art Centre. Tanya, recently arrived from London and somewhat ‘becalmed’ in a sleepy corner of West Dorset, got together with a group of friends to decide how best to banish the ‘blues’ of November. The festival took shape with a programme of literary events for all those who read books and

love literature, and it is now an independent registered charity and a not-for-profit organisation.

Tanya has been at the helm since its inception.

Her formidable and considerable talent in steering the good ship BridLit is evidenced in the fact that the festival grows in popularity every year, and many events are sold out within days of the brochure appearing.

Having previously worked as an arts producer with ITV with polymaths such as Humphrey Burton and Melvyn Bragg, she is ideally suited to the task. ‘I have no talent for gardening or playing bridge, so putting together a festival seemed something I could do’ she says. ‘November is a gloomy month with not much happening. The festival attracts visitors to the town from across the county and much further afield at a particularly fallow time when tourism is limited and the local economy needs a boost.’

So what is the secret of a good festival, and how is it achieved? Tanya explains, ‘Every year I trawl through the publishers’ lists, phone my contacts and scout around to see what new talent is on the horizon. Putting together a successful festival is like getting the ingredients for a special cake. Proportions are vital. It’s great to have a cherry on the top - a high-profile writer - but you need all the other, less lauded ingredients which are just as important to make it rise. It’s got a bit more challenging in recent years because there are so many festivals competing for authors, who consequently get exhausted from pounding the country on book tours demanded by their publishers. What makes Bridport different, I hope and believe, is that we really try to look after our writers.

We cosset them, make them feel that their journey has been worthwhile and that they are valued and respected.

Many of them stay with friends and supporters of the festival or at one of the excellent local hotels such as The Bull - so often the centre of our activities.'

What about the logistics? It can’t be easy financially.

Tanya agrees, ‘Every year the costs of running a festival increase - printing, venue hire, technicians, website builders and so on. We don’t have any public funding and, apart from substantial sponsorship of two local businesses, Kitson & Trotman solicitors and Waterstones the booksellers plus our three stalwart advertisers, Specsavers, Jackson Stops and Dukes, our costs are mainly covered by substantial donations from our generous and enthusiastic friends and associates, who are happy to underwrite individual events. This generosity enables us to keep the ticket prices reasonable which is essential.’

There has been a bit of a furore in the press recently

about the question of payment to authors for appearing at festivals. This was sparked in part by Philip Pullman’s resignation as patron of the Oxford Literary Festival over lack of financial reparation for authors. How does Tanya feel about this? ‘I have always been mindful that, in the past, writers have been exploited in having to give talks about their work for free, even though they were promoting and selling their books. We are adamant about paying a reasonable fee as well as covering all travel and accommodation expenses. Writers don’t make a lot of money, unless they are J. K. Rowling, and we want them to feel we respect them for the time and effort they make on our behalf.’

Deirdre Coates, Chairman of the Trustees and Friends of BridLit, says, ‘Tanya combines a creative flare with a capacity for hard work and an attention to detail which allows her to put together an eclectic programme of events and then co-ordinate it so it works like a well-oiled machine. Although Tanya is very much a one-man band when it comes to the planning and organisation, she has a small army of helpers and volunteers who come together each year to ensure the festival works like clockwork.’

The fact that literary festivals are flourishing in the digital age is something to be celebrated. Publishers and booksellers may worry but, in this new media world, the opportunity to hear writers speak, to meet and question them, to have your physical book signed, restores a solid connection between the creator of the work of literature and its reader.

Although it may seem surprising, even paradoxical, that the two essentially solitary pursuits of reading and writing should come together in the communal and social activity of a literary festival, it makes a lot of sense in a town like Bridport, whose sense of its own identity and outgoing nature invites cooperation. For lovers of literature, the chance to have face-to-face contact with authors is marvellous. And the writers seem to love it too. As Tanya says, ‘Ultimately, a good literary festival is about connection, community and the sharing of ideas.’

Bridport is in for a treat.

The 2018 Bridport Literary Festival runs from 4th-11th November. Events take place all around the town: The Electric Palace, The Bull Hotel, The Literary and Scientific Institute, Soulshine, Sladers Yard at West Bay and The Tithe Barn Symondsbury. Box Office: The Tourist Information Centre, Bridport 01308 424901. bridlit.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 13

Arts & Culture

CAMILLA NOCK

Curtis Fulcher, Director, Bridport Arts Centre

14 | Bridport Times | October 2018

B

ridport Arts Centre pays tribute to the centenary of the end of World War I this October and November with Camilla Nock’s re-imagining of shadows cast on what came to be known as ‘The Great War’. The Dead Scribble on Walls is a work which explores the connection to a legacy of grief. The paintings use an explorative practice to examine the melancholic shadow cast by events during the war. A major pre-occupation was a consideration of how historical past and the physical present might co-exist and co-join in a single site on a canvas.

Camilla says, ‘Throughout my research I referenced writers and composers to provide me with a theoretical framework. I became immersed in the poetry of the First World War, in particular the two border poets Ivor Gurney and Wilfred Owen. Part of my desire to understand the First World War was because of strong family links and the bitter shards left in us today.

I wished to explore secondary grief and inherited loss as legitimate subjects for art-making. I conceived the paintings as testifying to experience of suffering and sacrifice – to provide a space of immersion in which the dead might be listened to and mourned.

My studio is located in the Blackdown Hills of East Devon, next to the Neroche Forest. Here I can sense the presence of both World Wars. Their imprint formed resonances that are both powerful and inescapable.’

The exhibition shown at the Arts Centre follows Camilla’s doctoral research, ‘Reanimating the wound: Dermatilliomanic Practice and the First World War’.

As part of the exhibition there will be a chance to bring your stories about the war to a Question and Answer session with the artist and the Director of the Arts Centre, Curtis Fulcher, on Saturday 10th November at 11am.

Camilla Nock’s exhibition, The Dead Scribble on Walls, can be seen at the Bridport Arts Centre from Saturday 13th October to Saturday 17th November. Two other war-themed shows will take place during November as part of the Bridport Literary Festival. Light to the Darkness, a variety show of music and readings from the period, is on Sunday 4th November. On Thursday 8th November a spoken word event entitled When Tommy Came Marching Home will take place with Margie Barbour and Debra Bates. bridport-arts.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 15

Arts & Culture

LIVING COLOUR Anna Powell, Director, Sladers Yard Gallery and CafĂŠ

16 | Bridport Times | October 2018

A

fter this summer of summers, many of us are bottling fruits and making jam to carry the profusion in our hedgerows and gardens forward into the dark days of winter. For artist Julian Bailey it is the summer itself he is bottling in his vibrant paintings of the Dorset coast.

Mention his name and people who know his work will smile and visibly relax. Julian’s paintings convey joie de vivre – the joy of being alive – and they do it in a way that looks spontaneous and effortless. Of course, if it was easy, we would all be doing it. Anyone who makes things will know it is hardest of all to make things look simple.

Julian’s life is most people’s dream. He lives with his wife, Sophie, in a truly beautiful house outside Dorchester. All summer he has been getting up early and going down to Lulworth to draw, walk and have a quick swim before coming home to paint all day in his

studio. ‘I feel so lucky to be here in this great landscape for such a fantastic summer,’ he says, and that feeling of gratefulness comes across in his new paintings.

Julian’s four children are all away from home now. In the kitchen where he brews coffee, the kelim-covered cushions on the pews around the table are orderly. All is quiet but one can imagine the long-limbed young people who fill Julian’s paintings laughing and talking here. It is a turning point in anyone’s life when the discipline of being a school parent comes to an end.

Figures within a landscape are very often the subject of Julian’s paintings. With a couple of brushstrokes he is able to convey a person’s posture and attitude. Always, up until now, his work has been about capturing one particular moment when all the moving parts were just right. In the new paintings his figures are still, watching as time rushes past, accepting, even relishing change.

In the most recent work, an abstract sense of shape >

Canoeist off Lulworth bridporttimes.co.uk | 17

Corfu Port from the Old Town

has almost gained the upper hand over the figurative description within the paintings. ‘I have become more conscious of the shapes interlocking as a joy in themselves,’ he says. The bravery to push this further, in paintings such as Summer Sailing, Dorset Coast and Classics Event, Fowey, is giving his work a new edge of exciting quality. In the glorious Canoeist off Lulworth, reflections of the cliffs and clouds mix with currents in the rushing water dissolving form into light. The bright yellow canoe echoes the shapes of the waves and reflections, while the cliffs are depicted in a patchwork of white and coloured blocks.

A major painting from two or three years ago, Bats Head in High Seas, shows the beginnings of the new way of painting. The white cliffs Julian loves so much are depicted in strong verticals rearing up out of the froth, while a dark grey and deep blue sea surges round the headland. The force of the wind and water is conveyed by powerful brushstrokes. ‘You can’t describe it. You have to embody it,’ Julian exclaims. The whole painting is cut across horizontally by a shadow that leads on from the deep grey horizon, gradually lightening to white and sharp green on the left-hand side. The tension between rock and sea gives a great 18 | Bridport Times | October 2018

sense of drama. Shafts of light and bright colour pierce the clouds. The headlands throw deep blue shadows.

Vulnerable dog walkers under the cliffs seem oblivious to the forces at work all around them.

There’s no room for error in these paintings where every brushstroke counts and every colour is distinct and clean. ‘I try to use good colour,’ Julian explains. ‘To keep it electric, keep it looking sharp, the marks have to be succinct and that takes practice. It is like gymnastics. It takes a lot of practice to land with style and precision.

Everything is about the quality of the mark.’

It strikes me, as I sit back with my coffee and watch the light stream down onto bright geraniums bursting out of the terracotta pots in the loggia behind Julian’s studio, that while this all looks so natural it actually takes constant energy and a great courage to move forward and embrace each bright new moment as it comes.

Currents: Ways of Seeing Water – an exhibition of new paintings by Julian Bailey, Luke Elwes, Vanessa Gardiner and Janette Kerr with furniture by Petter Southall is at Sladers Yard until 11th November. sladersyard.co.uk

V I S I T | S TAY | E AT | S H O P | E N J O Y

Welcome to Symondsbury Estate set in the beautiful Dorset countryside just a stone’s throw from the Jurassic Coast, with fabulous walks, bike trails and award winning produce. Enjoy lunch at our kitchen, visit one of our seasonal events or browse our home, garden and gift shops and more at Manor Yard...

Symondsbury Estate Christmas Market Saturday 1 December

SY MO N DSBURY E S TAT E

+44 (0)1308 424116 www.symondsburyestate.co.uk The Estate Office Manor Yard, Bridport, Dorset DT6 6HG

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20 | Bridport Times | October 2018 HARDY MONUMENT

Linton

Hill

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alking - it always starts with walking… My practice as an artist is all about landscape, but not the aesthetic. I take a deeper view, wanting to really understand the landscape in both time and place and walking is fundamental to this. In the same way as when I am painting, walking takes me back in time, immersing me in physical and imagined aspects of the past and present.

I was recently commissioned by the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to create ‘interpretation’ for a series of walks as part of the South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership Project. The walk routes had been devised to encourage people to explore the Ridgeway landscape. This is an extraordinary area of Dorset with a diversity of habitats, and rivals the Stonehenge area for the number and range of prehistoric sites.

My approach was to produce a series of maps; this might appear obvious but these were maps with a difference, maps that not only aided navigation but

told stories of the prehistoric past and geological ‘deep time’. I wanted to convey what was below the ground and the impact that the rocks have in determining our landscape, highlighting how the unseen geology beneath our feet dictates or influences the landscape we see today. Landforms, soil, plants, wildlife and early human intervention all relate to the rocks below the surface which themselves formed from the landscapes millions of years ago. Ancient settlements were established close to water and food sources. Stone circles and chambered tombs are all near to easily available Sarsen stones.

Bronze Age round barrows, of which there were once thousands across the high chalk downlands, particularly on the highly visible crest of the ridge, line the route of the ancient ridgeway track. Two thousand years ago, when all these stone circles, henges, barrows and hillforts were still intact, this must have been an extraordinary sight – especially when gleaming white before their turf covering, like some form of vast sculpture park. > bridporttimes.co.uk | 21

Image: Brendan Buesnel

As with all my work, it is as much about what is left out as to what is included. By eliminating certain information other information comes to the fore. The maps show the geology, prehistoric sites, field boundaries and field names. They are annotated with snippets of interesting facts, such as where you can see an ironstone exposure, a limestone drystone wall, an ancient boundary or the best place to see butterflies. An accompanying Field Guide introduces this remarkable landscape and highlights some of the things to look out for.

The research for the project was a huge undertaking, both intensive and fascinating. I talked to archaeologists, geologists and residents as I needed to understand processes before I could write about them. A key starting point for the maps was a painting, which served to create a colour code for the stratigraphy of the rocks of the ridgeway. This became the foundation for the painting of the base maps, each one based on accurate Ordnance Survey and British Geological Survey data. It was important to me that these were not just illustrated 22 | Bridport Times | October 2018

sketch maps. The final design of the maps and Field Guide was a collaboration with graphic designer Simon Barber, who I knew would understand the retro look and feel I was after, reminiscent of old OS maps.

The project has enabled me to incorporate a longterm interest in maps, walking, routes, trackways, archaeology and geology, bringing together ideas of the physical experience of landscape and the presence of the past, with notions of rocks as vast data stores. I hope it intrigues and encourages people to explore the South Dorset Ridgeway.

The Field Guide and six maps covering walks across the South Dorset Ridgeway area from Abbotsbury Castle hillfort to White Horse Hill are available free from Tourist Information Centres and other local outlets or via the Dorset AONB website. dorsetaonb.org.uk amandawallwork.com

C R E AT I V E W R I T I N G C O U R S E S

STEVE ROSE STAINED GLASS Commissions and Restoration 07963 996683 St Michaels Trading Estate, Bridport steverosestainedglass.co.uk

Contemporary Interiors in Wood 5 rooms full of unique wood work from over 200 craftsmen working in the UK.

I n t r o d u c t i o n To T h e C r a f t O f Wr i t i n g 13-14 October 2018, Bruton, Somerset

Ranging from kitchenware to one-off jewellery boxes and furniture.

Fu l l d e t a i l s a n d b o o k i n g o n l i n e

Coffee shop and small children’s play area.

w w w. e l e m e n t u m j o u r n a l . c o m

Rodden Row, Abbotsbury, DT3 4JL www.danselgallery.co.uk

01305 871515 Open 10am – 5.30pm everyday

Christmas Party Tribute Nights COME AND JOIN US FOR A FANTASTIC NIGHT OUT Dinner, Disco and Entertainment £45 per person

10% discount on parties of 10 or more when booked and paid for by 20th November

Why not stay the night and enjoy our spa facilities? Room & breakfast £85 per room

FREDDIE MERCURY Friday 14th December

BLUES BROTHERS Friday 21st December

DAVID BOWIE

Saturday 15th December

DIANA ROSS

Saturday 22nd December

George Albert Hotel Wardon Hill, Evershot, Nr. Dorchester, Dorset DT2 9PW Tel: 01935 483430 • www.gahotel.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 23

Images: Pete Millson

Arts & Culture

Sally Davies

Isla Chaney

Rob Morgan

Steve Rose

NEW ST MICHAELS

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Kit Glaisyer

s you may be aware, on 7th July there was a devastating fire at St Michael’s Studios on the St Michael’s Trading Estate in which fifteen artists lost their studios. The top floor studios of Paul Blow, Suzanna Hubbard, Russ Snedker, Peggy Cozzi, Alastair Crawford and Andrew Leppard were totally destroyed. On the floor below, although spare from the flames, the studios suffered extensive water and structural damage. This included my studio, as well as David Brooke & Caroline Ireland, Brian Johnston and Marion Irons. In the adjacent Studio 6, artists Marion Taylor, Charlotte Miller, Anna Sullock and John Boyd have had to move out for safety reasons.

Several businesses also had to relocate. Stir to Action now have offices at Bridport United Church, Vintage Cornucopia has a new shop on East Street and Bridport Upholstery are now based near the Red Brick Café.

Bridport Banners are still looking for new premises, as is Karl Dixon Stone Mason. Of course, most of the businesses on the estate have been affected in one way or another because of the disruption, but happily things are now returning to normal. The remaining artist studios 24 | Bridport Times | October 2018

have now reopened, including a cluster close to the river.

Sally Davies & Elizabeth Sporne are once again working on the top floor in their Studio in the Attic. Sally creates art works exclusively using her own photographs, which she manipulates digitally, sometimes adding paint or other media, to evoke her love of nature, flowers and the great outdoors. Elizabeth paints in bold acrylic on canvas, creating strong portraits that capture both likeness and character, many of familiar local faces. Next door you’ll find Jemma Thompson, a popular local artist, gilder and sign-writer with prominent pieces on display at Frampton’s Butchers and the Chapel in the Garden. She also gilded the weather vane on Bridport Town Hall and painted the golden sign for the Bull Hotel.

Across the hall is Vanessa Cooper who creates bold, expressive and imaginative paintings based around nature and family life, with a rich vein of humour and warmth running throughout. Also on the top floor, David Smith makes abstract work, often minimalist and repetitive, exploring the patterns and processes of nature and our landscape, which gently challenge the viewer’s perceptions when we look at the world around us or peer at an artwork.

Jennie Hanrahan

Fiona Neylan

Elizabeth Sporne

Jenny Penney

On the first floor, Squirrel Bindery & Press are passionate about paper and print, with letterpress cards and posters, block prints and beautiful books bound by hand: ‘We cut blocks to make prints inspired by our local landscape, setting type to write words to resonate on special days or introduce you to the next opportunity.’ Next door, Steve Rose creates stained glass pieces. His work mixes colour and texture in mainly abstract leaded panels, with commissions and restoration work undertaken.

On the ground floor you’ll find newly arrived ceramicist Franny Owen, alongside interiors and furniture at Salvage Style. Next door, Clocktower Music sell preowned hi-fi, vinyl, and vintage radios.

Across the street, above the Alleyways mix of vintage shops, you’ll find Fiona Neylan in the Gallery at Studios 48. She designs, makes and sources hats, headwear and accessories for both every day and special occasions. Using traditional blocking techniques, she shapes her hats and decorates them individually with a range of materials and designs using silk, velvet, felt, straw, feathers, beads and more. She shares her studio with Jenny Penney, who explores a unique interpretative medium to produce her Dorset landscapes which include many well-known and some lesser known areas of our stunning heritage coastline.

Next door in the Green Shack, Jennie Hanrahan

creates sculptural pieces which are fire-smoked in a pit using ancient techniques. She is currently working on a range of brightly decorated tableware. She also teaches ceramics and runs classes locally all year. Then, on the other side of the building in Foundry Yard, you’ll find painter Rob Morgan, who creates large, expressive oil paintings, and sculptor Isla Chaney who makes intriguing contemporary sculptures that are thought-provoking and deliberately ambiguous, and which range in scale from intimate domestic objects to large outdoor installations.

Other businesses on the estate include Crafty & Co. who machine custom designs in wood, Wessex Wines, DC Woodwork, the ever-popular Red Brick Café, the Old Albion, Champernhayes Flowers and Foliage, Snips Hairdressers, Discount Furniture Warehouse, Burwoods Domestic Appliances, Ocean Bathrooms, Innovate - who do custom automotive work - and The Auction House.

So, despite the fire, Bridport’s Art and Vintage Quarter continues to thrive, a true testament to the passion and resilience of our community. And while the future is less clear for those of us who must find new work spaces, we hope that this time of change is also one of opportunity. If you would like to help support us, please visit Stmichaelsartists.com. kitglaisyer.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 25

History

THE BRIDPORT TIGER Emily Hicks, Director, Bridport Museum

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hy is there a tiger in Bridport Museum?’ ‘What does a tiger have to do with Bridport?’ I have often heard people ask these questions and it makes me wonder why people ask this specifically of the tiger. Why not the stuffed squirrel in the next case? Perhaps it’s because people are surprised to see such a large animal in a local history museum. Many museums, however, have natural history collections: in nearby Exeter, for example, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum houses ‘Gerald the Giraffe’, alongside an elephant and a tiger. In some museums their taxidermy even operates their Twitter feeds! Perhaps it is because in 2018 we feel uneasy about the ethics of killing and preparing animals as status symbols?

When we were planning the new displays for the redeveloped museum, there was never any question as to whether we would display our tiger or not. He’s been here for many years; lots of locals remember visiting 26 | Bridport Times | October 2018

him as a child. He’s one of those museum artefacts that seems to have acquired significance purely through being here and he’s become a kind of mascot. Placing him in a prominent position also gave us the opportunity to talk about the history of the museum itself and its collections. I had long been keen to reveal more about the collections that are in storage: how we collect things, how we care for them, and what some of the constraints on collecting are. We have around 20,000 items in storage, with only about 5% on permanent display. As we acquire more, it gets harder and harder to provide adequate conditions and management for them.

So, why do we have a tiger at all? When the museum was founded in the 1930s, there was no such thing as a Collecting Policy, hence many things were taken in with little consideration as to their significance or relationship to the town. According to some old notebooks, the tiger had been donated by 1951 by the Mr Gundry who lived

Image: Katharine Davies

at the Hyde in Walditch. It doesn’t give any indication of why he chose to give it to the town.

Strangely enough, we have lately discovered that the tiger does have some historical significance. When cleaning him for display we found a label which indicated that he was prepared by Rowland Ward (18481912), a very popular 19th Century taxidermist. He had a shop in Piccadilly called ‘The Jungle’, which became a social institution for sporting enthusiasts.

Even if our tiger technically had no ‘historical’ significance, I would still keep him on display. I really like the fact that taxidermy is controversial.

As a Curator, I don’t think I have the authority to consciously ‘edit’ and ‘sanitise’ history to only show the nice, clean and ‘safe’ bits. Not only that, but we miss the opportunity for debate. Within the first few weeks of being open last year I heard a great conversation between a young boy and his father: ‘Dad, why is

that tiger here?’ ‘Well, just because people did things in the past, doesn’t mean we would necessarily do the same thing nowadays.’ Perfect: yes, we should consider and challenge the past to help inform the kind of future that we want to create for ourselves.

Bridport Museum Trust is a registered charity, which runs an Accredited Museum and a Local History Centre in the centre of Bridport. Entry to the Museum is free. The Local History Centre provides resources for local and family history research. To find out more about Bridport Museum’s collections or to become a volunteer, visit their website. Much of their photographic and fine art archive is available online at flickr.com/photos/61486724@N00/ bridportmuseum.co.uk @bridportmuseum facebook.com/BridportMuseum bridporttimes.co.uk | 27

Wild Dorset

AUTUMN’S ARRIVAL May Franklin-Davis, Dorset Wildlife Trust Departing summer hath assumed An aspect tenderly illumed, The gentlest look of spring; That calls from yonder leafy shade Unfaded, yet prepared to fade, A timely carolling.

September, William Wordsworth

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las, summer’s end is fully here. The daylight hours having shortened to match the dark and we are waking up to a slight chill in the air.

Autumn should not, however, be solely thought of as a gloomy time. Yes, we may be delving into our cupboards for thick knits and winter coats but nature is having its one last show of colour before winter sets in. Vibrant reds, oranges and yellows are replacing the greenery of our countryside’s landscape as the trees begin the dormancy phase of their yearly cycle.

Behind this beautiful and rather dramatic display of colours lies a mechanism for survival. Reduced light levels are the trigger for trees to close down the production of food and reduce the chlorophyll in their leaves. The flat large leaves of deciduous trees such as birch, oak, elm and beech have a much greater surface area than those of tough evergreens or the waxy needles of conifers, and are too vulnerable to try and maintain against the colder elements.

As the temperature drops and sunlight levels decrease, the trees will start to seek nutrients from their leaves. The extraction of chlorophyll, the biomolecule that gives leaves their green hue and plays a vital role in photosynthesis, is the first stage in the shut-down process. This abstraction is what produces the warm shades of oranges and reds synonymous with autumn.

The next stage is called ‘abscission’ and occurs once all 28 | Bridport Times | October 2018

the available nutrition has been absorbed from the leaves and they fall to the ground, creating colourful carpets throughout our woodlands. When the leaf stalks break away from the twigs, the exposed joint is sealed over by cells called the abscission layer.

If you want to embrace the wonder of autumn and all its fruitfulness there are a number of Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserves right on your doorstep: Powerstock Common in west Dorset, and Holway Woods, near Sherborne.

AUTUMN FACTS • The removal of chlorophyll exposes pigments called xanthophylls and carotenoids which create the yellows, oranges and browns in leaves.

• Anthocyanin pigments, on the other hand, make reds and purples.

• The most colourful shows of autumn leaves occur when we have cold nights, dry weather and sunny days.

• The word autumn became part of the English language in the 18th century and comes from the French word, ‘automne’ and ultimately the Latin autumnus.

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

Wild Shopping Choose a gift for a nature lover in your life.

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DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST

Wild Dorset

HARDY COUNTRY Ellen Simon, Tamarisk Farm

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hen we took on the conservation grazing land at Cogden in 1995 we changed our herd of mixed cattle with its wonderful array of colours and shapes to mahogany coloured, deep-bodied, pedigree Red Ruby Devons. These hardy animals (also called North Devons) are particularly known for living outside all year round on the wild coast and moors of North Devon and Somerset but they have also been local to this part of Dorset in the past. An old neighbour working on a farm in Swyre was excited when he first saw our new cattle. He told us his father had Rubies as the milk herd on his farm in the 1940s and ‘50s when they were a good dualpurpose breed thriving on rough pasture and used for both milk and meat. Further back in time, Rubies were also draught animals; now they are primarily used for excellent, traditional beef.

30 | Bridport Times | October 2018

We bought our first cows from Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel and from the North of Dartmoor, so they came ready to manage the rigours of their new coastal home. They are small, sure-footed animals, calm and friendly. A farmer came to look at some heifers a while ago; his South Devon farm, like ours, hosts the SouthWest coast path. With his unfenced cliff-top footpaths it was important to him that the cows didn’t get into a flap when disturbed. He bought some on the spot!

We like to have the cows close to hand when they are calving for easy supervision, hence most calves are born before Easter while the cows are still indoors. We also want them to go out as soon as possible so that the cows can make milk from the nutritious spring grass. To have all the births within this short time the bull joins the cows in early May and leaves in August. For several years our bull has gone to Park Farm, at River Cottage,

after he has finished his year’s work with our cows with so many visitors, they need a quiet addition to their herd. Bulls who routinely go to other farms to serve new cows are familiar with being loaded into the trailer and go in cheerfully! When he comes home, there are young steers to keep him company until the time comes for him to re-join his ladies. As we breed our own replacements we cannot keep a bull for all his life or he would breed with his daughters. Our last bull, Kingcup, went to a farm on the Mendips in 2017 and we now have a young charmer from Oxfordshire called Prince.

We use the word fertility in all sorts of contexts and at different levels. We talk about fertile minds and ideas, about fertile ground. We talk of rich soils and rich environments as being fertile. Whether used literally or as a metaphor, fertility is a key concept.

On the farm we talk very directly about animal fertility, about our stock’s ability to conceive and carry young. In October, we look particularly at the fertility of the cows.

We work in Mile End, the top field at Cogden, where we have a temporary cattle-yard with one of the best views in the county. It’s level land but with the slope falling to the Chesil and the sweep of the Jurassic coast in both directions; we can see Portland Bill and, on a clear day, Start Point from probably the windiest place on the farm! On a good day, we are working with buzzards and occasionally a peregrine flying below us on the ridge-lift, with the sea bright beneath us and the scent of sweet grass wafting up from the pasture on the gentle breeze. On a bad day, we are sodden by the salt-laden rain driving into us carried by an Atlantic gale. Either way, each cow needs to go through the race for the vet. This is substantial work but it causes us less stress than the uncertainty of whether or not each cow is pregnant.

We note which cow is being checked and pause while we wait for the verdict: ‘6 weeks’, ‘three months’, ‘well in’ - each being a statement of how far the cow is into her pregnancy. Sometimes, though, comes the word, ‘empty’.

We do not have a ‘one miss and you’re out’ policy but, nonetheless, it can be a life-or-death moment for a cow when the vet says ‘empty’. Each time we have to decide how we will respond. Why might she not be pregnant?

Did she fail to conceive or has she been pregnant but lost the calf ? One question is whether this cow has Neospora? Those of you who walk the footpaths will have seen notices which draw your attention to this disease. Caused by a protozoan, it cycles between cattle and dogs. It is undetectable in dogs but their faeces left on the pasture contaminates the grass. A cow eating it and getting infected in early pregnancy will generally abort her calf and may never carry a full pregnancy again. Some will manage most pregnancies in future but from then on her daughters will carry the disease, and hence cannot be used for breeding. So the vet takes a blood sample and we wait to hear from the laboratory before we decide her fate.

The end of the year is a time to look to the start of the year. The cycle is continuous and while we make decisions about the cows in the autumn we are seeing in our mind’s eye next year’s new calves as they go out with their mothers in the spring to discover a whole new world in which to run and play and skip. tamariskfarm.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 31

Wild Dorset

RESERVE JUDGEMENT

Image: Katharine Davies

Neville Copperthwaite, Marine Consultant and Project Co-ordinator

32 | Bridport Times | October 2018

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few years ago the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published a report which said, ‘Populations of marine wildlife have plummeted by half on average over the last 40 years due to habitat loss, over-fishing, rising sea temperatures and ocean acidity.’ Half of our marine wildlife lost in 40 years!

Now excuse me for sounding controversial but it struck me that all the main marine conservation bodies became established around 40 or 50 years ago – these include WWF, Greenpeace and the Marine Conservation Society – so one could argue that we have lost 50% of our marine wildlife on their watch. Of course, I am not suggesting that this is the fault of the conservation groups, I am simply pointing out that the current approach to marine conservation is clearly not working on a global scale.

Unfortunately, the marine conservation movement has, over the years, become elitist and has led to an ‘us and them’ situation between the conservation bodies and people who make a living from the sea. I’d go further than that and say the marine conservation movement as we know it has evolved to be largely devoid of any compassion for humans because, traditionally, the focus has been on the protection of marine flora and fauna; people were not considered as part of the marine ecosystem and from that base hypothesis it was a short and easy step to the demonisation of fishermen as pillagers of the sea. Perversely, that focus of solely protecting marine flora and fauna without taking the needs of people into account was the beginning of the end for any meaningful co-operation in achieving what all sides want - clean, healthy and productive seas.

People became entrenched, allowing the ‘us and them’ culture to flourish.

And here’s the thing about the current conservation divide: if you say to a fisherman, ‘I am a conservationist,’ by implication you are saying he is not a conservationist.

This disempowers the fisherman and, prior to any subsequent conversation, the first barrier between you has been erected and the seeds of resentment sown.

So what to do? Well, the users of the sea have to be integrated into its management in a more meaningful way and this is why. Our global population is currently around 7 billion and this is predicted to increase to 10 billion by 2050. And we all have to eat! This will increasingly put more pressure on the sea; the more

people there are, the more land will be needed to be developed for housing etc., resulting in less land to be farmed. This isn’t just conjecture or an if-or-when prediction, it’s happening right now. It is inevitable that people – particularly people in poorer countries – will have to exploit the sea more, not less. Indeed, 16% of the global population already rely on protein from the sea. This is a huge number. And for people in those countries, the efficient management of their sea is far more important to them than it is in developed countries and can have far more serious and costly consequences if sustainability is not achieved through cooperation from all sides.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, at last there are examples of a change of approach from some fishermen and conservation groups. Right here on our doorstep the 59 fishermen who work out of Beer, Axmouth, Lyme Regis and West Bay have teamed up with conservationists to form the Lyme Bay Fisheries and Conservation Reserve; this is a voluntary venture and fishermen help maintain the reserve by fishing sustainably. This is a refreshing collaboration which bodes well for the future but a voluntary reserve will not address the bigger problems that face our marine resources; this is merely tinkering around the edges, a drop in the ocean, if you’ll excuse the pun.

However, if the reserve was viewed as a work in progress with the end goal being the establishment of Britain’s first Marine National Park, run much on the same lines as a terrestrial national park such as, say, Dartmoor, then a more meaningful, structured method of care would ensue. For instance, a Lyme Bay National Marine Park Governing Body, funded by Central Government, would include on its Board those that live, work and have an interest in the area and would be woven into the structure of our society. This would give ownership to those people in a meaningful way and, at a stroke, reintroduce compassion into the conservation of our seas.

My view is that, globally, marine conservation does not have a long-term future if we continue to approach marine issues as we have done in the past. If pursued, perhaps the idea of a Lyme Bay National Marine Park might just be the spark that is needed to bring people closer together to achieve sustainability in our seas. n.copperthwaite@gmail.com

bridporttimes.co.uk | 33

Arts Outdoors & Culture

RHYTHMS OF NATURE

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Alice Blogg

have fond memories of my childhood and growing up with my two brothers in Dorset. My mother taught us one really important rule which now, in my 30s, I understand: follow the seasons, the rhythm of nature, appreciate the one you’re in, reap its rewards and always look forward to change on the horizon.

In the summer months I am mostly found either in my garden eating fresh produce, half out of the wideopen doors of my studio, or in the sea. Autumn means peering out of the window, dewy morning walks with fresh air and dark evenings next to the fire eating harvest produce. Autumn brings many delights: apple harvest, walnuts dropping from majestic trees, pumpkins and squashes from the garden. ‘… graft, set, plant, and nourish up trees in every corner of your ground; the labour is small, the cost is nothing, the commodity is great; yourselves shall have plenty, the poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessity, and God shall reward your good minds and diligence.’ ( John Evelyn) Have you ever stood in an orchard and taken it in?

Such magical places, changing with the seasons, present in all seasons. They are full of apples right now and bursting ready for harvest. Did you know that if you cut an apple through the middle vertically it gives you a heart shape at the core, but if you cut it horizontally it gives you a star shape?

Apple wood is a welcome by-product, a gift at the end of the life of a tree. Apple trees seldom grow tall before branching, and they often lean and twist so straight lengths of timber without defects are rare. It needs to be dried slowly to avoid splits and contours but it’s very stable when dry, beautiful blush pink in colour and a dream to work with - one of my favourites.

Working with the rhythms of nature is Bridport Community Orchard. We often meander through the orchard on evening strolls, watch the trees blossom and the fruits grow; they’re laden with apples now, such an exciting time of year for the trees. The Community 34 | Bridport Times | October 2018

Image: Katharine Davies

Orchard is located on two sites - St Mary’s Church Field off South Street and Jubilee Green off Park Road in West Allington. The project consists of over 60 fruit trees, the majority of which are apple, however there are also pears, gages and others, grown in a range of tree ’styles’ including standard, espalier, and cordon. The group’s guiding principle is to manage the entire area as a model of a sustainable open space that maximises the benefits for people and wildlife.

I’m a beginner on apples but learning fast. One wise and friendly man let me taste his apples last year,

helping me to understand and taste the differences. One, the Ashmeads Kernel, was exceptional and I planted a tree straightaway in my garden - no apples yet but I’m looking forward to some next year. An old English dessert apple dating back to the 1700s, Ashmeads Kernel is arguably the best-tasting traditional variety.

Its flavour is complex with sweet pear drop and sharp citrus undertones. It is a firm apple with slight russetting, excellent for eating, juicing and cider-making. It has good disease resistance making it great for organic growing and its attractive blossom makes a pretty display in the spring.

Bridport is a strong community that gives us freedom and space, space in which people can be present in every season and come together to share that season’s produce.

We are lucky to be a part of this: present in autumn and looking forward to winter.

Come along to Bridport Community Orchard at St Mary’s Church Field for Apple Day 2018 on Saturday 13th October between 11am and 3pm. aliceblogg.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 35

Outdoors

GOING SOLO Martin Ballam, Xtreme Falconry

Image: Dick Moon

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ometimes a species of bird just grabs you full on, heart and soul. So many of us have a favourite bird - one that jogs a memory, reminds us of something or is just a particular species that makes us smile due 36 | Bridport Times | October 2018

to its character or simple beauty. I personally find it extremely difficult to choose a favourite. I am asked countless times each year at the many shows I attend with my birds, ‘What’s your favourite?’

It’s a question that’s easy to answer from a sentimental point of view: ‘Mabel’ my 19-year-old Harris hawk, ‘Winnie’ and ‘Kojak’ my two bald eagles and, of course, the magnificent ‘Talisman’ my bateleur eagle who is 49 years old! Then there are the ones that have sadly passed on: ’Cromarty’ my brilliant European eagle owl, ’Bluey’ the white bellied sea eagle and the amazing ‘Crystal’, simply the best peregrine falcon I have ever flown. All of these lived to ages twice the length of their average wild lifespan.

However, the show must go on and I have birds in my collection and on the flying team which are already holding the status of being ‘a bit special’. One of those birds is Solo, the milky eagle owl. The milky is a truly magnificent species. Going also by the name of the Verreaux’s or giant eagle owl, it is the largest of the African species of owl and a devastatingly efficient silent hunter of the African night sky. It’s prey list has one of the highest numbers and it is capable of catching around 100 different species including roosting game birds, mammals such as hyrax, rabbit, hare, elephant shrews, meerkat and mongoose, and reptiles such as snakes and monitor lizards. Other birds of prey are also on the menu, tawny eagles for example. Commanding the status of a true apex predator, it most certainly is top of the food chain in its natural habitat of the African bush and savannah.

The milky eagle owl is doing well in the wild.

Classified as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN, it is however not particularly common in captivity and, from the outset of building our collection for the upcoming Dorset Falconry Park currently being constructed here at Xtreme Falconry, the chance of owning a breeding pair was very slim. Around 9 years ago, however, I was given the opportunity to acquire a young pair from a private collection in Wales, an offer to which I could only say yes.

Milky eagle owls are difficult to breed, the main problem being the age at which they mature and settle enough to happily reproduce. Other eagle owl species can easily be bred from 3-4 years of age but not the milky. Speaking to others including some very close falconry friends, it appeared it would take some 9-10 years before our young pair would reproduce, so we had a long way to go.

2017 was an exciting year. The pair were making deep booming hoots leading up to the breeding season and the classic pink eyelids of this huge owl were certainly in full colour. Things were looking good as the aggression

from the pair and the defensive ‘clacking’ of the beak (a threat!) were increasing day by day until finally the female remained in the box. She had laid. I decided to leave the one egg with her for 10 days (another rarity in eagle owls, one egg from the milkies but 3-4 from other eagle owl species) and then remove the egg for artificial incubation. This meant the parents would produce a second clutch of one egg 28 days later, which they did with success. However, the first egg had to be monitored in our care and after a total incubation of 35 days a new life was hatched. We as a family watched and videoed the moment Solo was free from the egg - how amazing for my children to witness such an occasion! It was the 1st June 2017.

Solo was basically like two pieces of cotton wool stuck together. After a few hours of drying in the brooder he took his first feed and away we went. These babies eat lots and grow fast! The intention all along was to keep Solo for our educational demonstrations so hand-rearing and social imprinting was crucial. We can make the individual completely unafraid of strange environments by rearing them in a busy household, taking them for walks in the Moses basket, and even taking them to be named! So where do we get the names? This one was done for us.

Steve Harris, breakfast presenter on BBC Radio Solent called me in for my third interview with him.’Are you bringing a bird?’ he asked. ‘Of course,’ was my reply and I said I would bring an un-named, 4-week-old baby owl. Steve decided to let the listeners come up with ideas live on air. Thank goodness a lovely lady suggested Solo as it was a single egg and we were on radio Solent… perfect!

Solo is now on our show team and I have been astonished with his confidence and flying ability. I have never had an owl command so much attention and so many questions from the people that see him. He is a very active bird with huge shiny black eyes and the most stunning smoky grey plumage. He calls continuously and bobs his head, his body swinging as though he is dancing from side to side. The photo is from the Axe Vale show this year as he takes off from his perch. He has performed at all our shows - you may have seen him already at the West Bay Vintage Rally, Symondsbury, Purbeck Rally or Axe Vale. If not, then you will be able to see him at the new centre where he will be a star attraction. You won’t, however, love him more than I do! xtremefalconry.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 37

Outdoors

MERRY BERRIES Fraser Christian, Coastal Survival School

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any of our native wild plants and berries can be made into a range of preserves and also into enjoyable home-made tipples such as cordials, beers and wines.

Of all the wild berries available, the elderberry is by far my favourite and is always among my preserves going into winter. Not only is the elderberry, in my opinion, one of the richest and most seductive of flavours, with a deeply comforting and familiar taste, it has been held in the highest regard over time for its powerful antioxidant properties, being rich in vitamins and a known remedy for the prevention and relief of coughs, colds and flu.

So highly regarded was this tree and its flowers and berries, that it is shrouded in myth and folklore. Tales tell of it formerly being against the law for folk to pick or cut any part. The tree itself, or rather the wood from it when burnt, leaves a sticky, flammable tar on the walls or lining of chimneys and flue pipes. Once accumulated, this can catch fire, which gave rise to the folklore that, ‘if you burn elder, a witch will sit on your chimney’ as people believed that was the cause of the chimney fire.

Before we start to forage for elderberry, positive identification is essential (if you’re unsure, our courses can help). The fruit will ripen at different times on good, well-established elder trees or hedges, depending on their situation (shaded, full sun, south- or north-facing etc.). This year after the heatwave, ripening started early in some patches of full sun but, if you hunt around, the fruit should be found ripening right up to the first frost in slightly more shaded areas.

You should be OK foraging carefully, ensuring you don’t damage the tree or snap off the branches, but if possible seek the landowner’s permission first – although many a good berry can be found along established public footpaths.

As foraging for berries goes, picking elderberries is fairly easy work; a mass of small fruits all cling to one large, umbrella-like skeleton. Hold the branch with one hand and gently snap off the bunch with your other hand.

Keep hold of the branch and take the rest of the bunches one by one, carefully letting go if you bend the branch too much towards you. Always leave one third of the fruits for other animals and so that more trees can grow. A bucket or close-woven basket will be needed to carry your harvest fruits to avoid turning hands and pockets purple.

To remove the berries, take a whole bunch of berries and gently rub them in cupped hands. The ripened ones will fall easily into your cooking pan or pot, the green, unripe ones should stay on the stem and can be scattered back or composted.

With a pan full of ripe berries the options are vast, but for me it’s cordial and wine I plan to make.

Elderberry Honey Cordial

Take 8 cups of berries and place in a pan. Add spring water to just cover the berries, bring to the boil slowly and simmer very gently for approximately 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for another 5 minutes before adding 500g of local honey. Stir the honey through the liquid then, while still warm, pour straightaway through a sieve into clean glass jars or bottles with sealed lids. Unlike using sugar, the honey should inhibit mould growth but, if you have a cold larder or fridge, keep it well sealed and stored there. When you want to use it, just dilute with water to taste making a delicious, natural, sugar-free cordial. Alternatively, use it like syrup, in cakes, on pancakes or over ice cream. Yum! Elderberry Mead

This magical elixir and medicinal drop is one drink I crave year after year, over all others! Again, it’s just a simple mix of fruit, water, honey and a touch of yeast.

Take approximately 2 litres of ripe berries and pour into a large pan. Add approximately 4 litres of spring water or filtered dechlorinated water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, before adding honey - 1 kilo for a “dry” taste, 1.5 kilos for a “medium taste” or 2 kilos for a “sweet taste”. Stir in well and cover with a lid or clean cloth.

Leave to steep for 24 hours before straining through a sieve or straining bag into a 5-litre demijohn fermenting bottle or, as I prefer to use, an upcycled, large, plastic spring water bottle. Add 1 level teaspoon of dried yeast (I use bread yeast). Put an air lock brewing separator on the demijohn or fold a piece of kitchen towel twice and pop it under the lid of the spring water bottle as a crude air filter. Place in a cool room or shed with a stable temperature and check it every few days. After approximately 6 weeks, once all signs of fermenting have passed (no more little bubbles rising), syphon or pour carefully into clean bottles or sealable jars.

In all my years of home brewing, I’ve yet to see a brew go bad - unless it was once in a pre-used demijohn that had not been cleaned well. Hence, I now go for the spring water bottle option. Once empty, cut off the bottoms and use them for garden cloches. Happy foraging and brewing – and please drink responsibly! coastalsurvival.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 39

Outdoors

40 | Bridport Times | October 2018

On Foot

KIMBERLINS AND SLINGERS – PART II Emma Tabor and Paul Newman

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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 September and October, we’ve taken a walk around the Isle of Portland and continue this month with the second part of the walk from Portland Bill back to Ferrybridge, along the eastern side of the Isle.

1 Heading away from Portland Bill, you will begin to pass through a series of quarried ledges with derricks which were used to load the quarried stone onto waiting barges. Portland stone has been used in buildings around the world including the United Nations Building in New York and the Tower of London. Here, the path weaves along the coast, past the Old Lower Lighthouse which is now home to Portland Bird Observatory, through different quarried areas, passing huts which become less frequent as you leave the Bill behind. After a short while, if you look to your left along the road, there is a long, low, shed-like building. This protects Culverwell Mesolithic site, which is approximately 8000 years old: it consists of a large floor of limestone slabs on top of a shell midden.

2 Keep walking through the quarried areas hugging the coastline, as you gradually start to climb. There are a couple of dead-ends and sharp drops into quarried pits. Keep close to the coast as you walk through the quarries - do not follow the path inland until you reach Freshwater Bay. There are a couple of paths that lead away from the coast before this point but ignore them. As the path climbs a bit more, turn away from the coast to eventually emerge on the road; cross this, turn right and follow the footpath for 600 yards.

After Cheyne Weare car park, you will see a signpost directing the coast path back towards the sea. Cross back over the road, heading downhill as the footpath bridporttimes.co.uk | 41

zig-zags before bearing left to follow the coast again.

You will catch glimpses of Church Ope Cove with Rufus Castle perched above it. Descend a series of steps, through trees and scrub, down to the cove.

3 On reaching Church Ope Cove, you will discover a wonderfully secluded beach, a real find with huts clustered around and clinging to the tricky topography. Some of the huts have pebble gardens, like a scaled-down version of a castle keep with its outer bailey. The beach is a fine spot for a picnic.

Leave the cove via ascending steps and look out for signs to St Andrew’s churchyard. This is another detour worth taking to explore the romantic ruins of the church with its headstones inscribed with skull and crossbones. From here, return to the footpath and continue climbing to reach the impressivelysited Rufus Castle.

4 Turn right by the castle and continue upwards and along the coast path which soon reaches another junction; keep right. After a short while the coast path switches up to a higher section running along the high ground but you can now take the route of the Weymouth to Easton railway which follows the base of sheer cliffs popular with rock climbers. Follow the line of the railway for just under a mile until you 42 | Bridport Times | October 2018

reach a sign on your left taking you away from the coast again. The path then zig-zags uphill to regain the high ground and rejoin the coast path, emerging at the memorial obelisk outside the Young Offenders Institute. There are views from this path across to a huge wall surrounding a rifle range. At the top, turn right and skirt around the perimeter fencing, which bears left and then right to emerge onto common ground. Here you will notice an engine shed once used to house the locomotive for the incline railway, which transported the stone used to build the harbour breakwater. Follow the coast path to the left, and then right to pass the High Angle Battery - again, this is worth a short detour. In a short while you will reach The Verne Citadel, which is now used as a prison.

This impressive Victorian fort is surrounded by a huge moat and earthworks and, from the outside, retains a similar presence and enigma in the landscape to that of its Iron Age counterparts.

5 At the bridge to the south entrance, follow the road left (away) from the entrance, which then turns right and downhill. At a bend, go straight onto a path to follow the outer defences of The Verne. This bears slight left, with excellent views across Fortuneswell - you will finally get the feeling that you are completing your circuit of the Isle! The path hugs the outside of the moat and bears right to eventually go through a small underpass and, after a few yards, you will find yourself at the top of the path which was once the Merchants Railway and which heads straight downhill. You pass next to housing and, at the bottom of the incline, go through another underpass and turn left into the road.

6 At the Castletown roundabout keep left along Castle Road and then turn right down Liberty Road passing Portland Castle, one of Henry VIII’s coastal chain of defences. Keep following signs for the coast path round to the right. Soon you will see a more modern item of military building: two unused sections of the famous Mulberry Harbour which were built as portable harbours for the D-Day landings. Pass through the marina and keep on the coast path which then follows the road to eventually reach the roundabout on the A354 which you passed earlier.

Turn right here to retrace the path along the old railway line back to the Ferrybridge car park. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk southwestcoastpath.com

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Archaeology

HOMES UNDER THE ROMANS Chris Tripp BA(Hons) MA, Field and Community Archaeologist

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n AD42 the Emperor Claudius sent Generals Aulus Plautius and Vespasian (later Emperor) with four legions of around 45,000 men to subdue the Celtic Britons. The Legio II Augusta had the job of subjugating the south west, landing at Poole Harbour and meeting up with other legions invading from the Old Sarum direction. Thus began nearly four hundred years of occupation.

The Romans brought with them Mediterranean architecture and town planning. In the countryside they built villas, which simply means ‘farm’ in Latin, and these became the centres of rural industry and agriculture. In short order, these became the estates of the Romanised British elite.

Most were one storey in height with timbers sitting on solid stone foundations and with a clay tiled roof.

Those with money would have had painted plaster walls, under-floor heating and mosaic floors, possibly with the added luxury of a separate bath house.

Archaeologists have excavated many villas in Dorset, although the one at Frampton was unearthed in 1796 by soldiers digging next to the river and another at Hinton St Mary by the owner digging a hole for a washing line! Coincidentally, both had mosaics of the Chi-Rho symbol (a reverse ‘P’ superimposed on an ‘X’), Greek for CHI= ch and RHO= r, short for Christ, which is one of the earliest forms of christogram, indicating that they were built in the 4th century when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. At Hinton the Chi-Rho symbol also has an early portrait of Christ, looking very Greek, with a ‘pudding-basin’ haircut and a clean shave.

This late date fits with what evidence we have of most Dorset mosaics being from the 3rd century onwards, although there was a school of mosaic-making in Dorchester with a style of its own from the 1st century.

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As well as common themes, much like ordering from a carpet catalogue, mosaics would have been made to order, for instance the two unique mosaics in the Dorchester Town House. It is possible that these were made by local artisans being creative and making their own designs.

When I was working in the City of London, one of the sites I helped to excavate produced a sturdily made, wood-lined and very deep Roman-era well. It took some weeks to reach the bottom and what we found was truly astonishing. A large copper cauldron had been fitted to act as a sump so that the silt could be extricated more easily. In and around this cauldron were large lumps of metal and wooden blocks. We had found a water-lifting

The Hinton St. George Mosaic ©Trustees of the British Museum

machine. The wooden blocks were rectangular with slots, so that the water could be caught on the way up and deposited at the top of a wheel and into a channel to be diverted away. They were attached to each other by the metal bars, which acted as a chain, and the whole thing was set in motion by wheels and wooden cogs driven by animals or slaves at ground level. At Tarrant Hinton the same blocks were excavated at its villa site and when I saw them illustrated I knew exactly what they were used for!

At Tarrant Hinton not only do we have this rare surviving example of Roman technical engineering, we also know the name of a person who lived there, for on a stone was inscribed: ‘Cupidus died in his 39th year in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus on 26th August’

[AD258]. Cupidus was still young by 21st century standards and we can only wonder how he came to die at that age, not that it would have been a rare occurrence in that era.

When visiting these conserved sites that have been made available to the public, one can marvel at the mosaics, columns and central-heating systems that humanity would not see again until the 20th century. One can imagine Cupidus eating in the Roman reclined position, walking the corridors into mosaic floored rooms and working on the accounts of his estate. Did he have children and did the rooms ring with their shouts and screams? dorsetdiggers.blogspot.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 45

CHARLIE McCORMICK AND BEN PENTREATH Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

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he squeak of the garden gate announces my arrival at the home of Charlie McCormick and Ben Pentreath. Somewhere in the house there’s a piano being played and its notes drift out across the quiet valley. The resident dogs have heard the gate and Mavis (the Labrador) and Sibyl (a corgi named after Sibyl Colefax, the decorator) come bounding up the steps to greet me. The music stops. Ben and Charlie come to the door and invite me into the kitchen.

The walls are painted in a bright yellow gloss and there’s a long kitchen table with a wonderful assortment of china that is today’s “finds”. It’s Saturday morning and they’re both back from a trip to Bridport’s vintage market. ‘We try to go every Saturday when we’re here,’ says Charlie. ‘We get there at 8.20am, visit the market and then head for our favourite table at Soulshine Café for breakfast at 9.00am.’ The kitchen is filled with the most delicious aroma of cinnamon buns and the coffee is warming on the Aga. Unfortunately, at that moment we realise Mavis has made a run for it and has escaped through the creaky gate to the neighbour’s house in the hope of scoffing the cat food. Ben rushes off in hot pursuit. >

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In his absence I take in the kitchen. Charlie is clearly an avid collector; almost every surface is covered with and every cupboard full of an eclectic range of tableware.

‘I collect royal commemorative mugs and loving cups,’ he tells me. On Ben’s return, with Mavis in tow on a lead, Ben mentions the moment when he opened one of the cupboards and was almost flattened by a deluge of Victorian china. ‘That was it,’ he recalls, ‘I took it all out and it is now on the dining room table’ - a room one suspects is used less frequently in its new role.

The couple share a zeal more for beauty than order.

Their house, built in the 1820s and once the parsonage, has the faded air of a grand old lady with very civilised ways. There’s a chintz-covered sofa in the kitchen, tea is poured from a silver-plated Georgian teapot, there are rugs on the floor over bare boards, the ceilings are lofty and the grand piano takes pride of place in the drawing room. I also suspect that the sash windows rattle in winter. It feels like a house that is filled with what they love, which in turn makes it all the more homely.

Ben is one half of the London interiors store Pentreath & Hall and also runs an architectural and

design studio - responsible for many of the most recent buildings in Poundbury. He grew up in Dorset and, coincidentally, his best friend lived in this house in the 1980s. When he heard the Parsonage was available to rent, he couldn’t wait to see it after all these years’ Ben recalls, ‘but it was the garden that was nearly my undoing’ he says. ‘Luckily I met Charlie.’

Charlie grew up on a farm in New Zealand. He spent a lot of time with his grandparents and gives them the credit for his green fingers. ‘I’ve never had formal training,’ he says, ‘I’ve just made it up as I go.’ ‘Best way,’ adds Ben. Charlie’s vegetable garden is astounding, even though he dismisses it as, ‘a bit of everything, just a bit of fun’. It’s show season and Charlie is just back from scooping up awards at the Melplash and Dorchester Shows. On the way to the garden we nearly trip over a winning marrow that is unlike anything I have ever seen.

It’s a whopper; it must be a metre long and weigh more than a large toddler.

What Charlie is really known for are his dahlias. This is a garden that is shadowed by the nearby church and just a little wild around the edges but the beds of dahlias > bridporttimes.co.uk | 49

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sit up and sing with the wildest of variety and colour.

‘They’re probably my thing,’ says Charlie of the sheer glory of the abundant beds. ‘They’re just so cheerful, they go on and on and they’re mad, which I love.’ The dahlias have won him over 80,000 followers on Instagram and he is part of a new generation of gardeners who are getting back to having their hands in the earth and shunning the ordered look of more recent garden design.

Clearly he is doing something right because, later this year, Charlie will be travelling to Connecticut to join Frances Palmer – an American potter, gardener and doyenne of dahlias – for a teaching workshop and next year he hopes to hold dahlia workshops at his and Ben’s home. ‘I think I might run courses on growing cut flowers and maybe a composting course,’ he says (keep an eye on that Instagram feed for details).

As we wind our way back through the vegetable patch, where dense beds of runner beans and cavolo nero harbour lumbering giant pumpkins, I am reminded of something that the ground-breaking florist Constance Spry once said: ‘Flowers break down barriers and make for friendliness. There is a creative urge that is strong in all of us. It doesn’t need to be trained, it can be given a free rein and be explorative, with passion.’ We amble on dreamily through the garden, its soil thick with life and air heavy with the scent of sweetpeas.

We’re upstairs now and in Charlie’s flower room.

In front of us is a dresser filled with the white vases of the aforementioned Constance Spry (who died in 1960) designed for Fulham Pottery, a company she created to produce her own containers. Charlie is a dedicated collector of these vases and has several of the unglazed versions that were purposefully left bare so that they could be painted to fit a particular room’s colour scheme.

Another of Charlie’s interests is the collecting of pressed seaweeds and he has a bountiful number of albums filled with 19th century pressings of original flora. He has converted some of these beautiful delicate pressings into prints which he sells, although it’s clear to me from the way he handles them that they are more of a passion than an enterprise. ‘Everyone collects something,’ he says with a smile. Some of us are just better at it. mccormick.london mccormickcharlie benpentreath.com benpentreath bridporttimes.co.uk | 53

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Food & Drink

SCREEN BITES SECOND SLICE

Wednesday 3rd – Saturday 20th October

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Susanne Harding

his year we are celebrating 14 years of Screen Bites, the food film festival held in Dorset in October each year. Not heard of it? Let me explain.

The idea of a food film festival came into existence to celebrate the host of new and established food producers here in Dorset, the question at the time being, ‘How do we encourage people in Dorset to buy their provisions from those making it on their doorstep?’ Add to that, ‘How about making it fun?’ Then came the inspiration: to combine food and film and thus was ‘Screen Bites’ born. The festival is one of only a few food film festivals held around the world and the only one held currently in the UK. The original team retired after their wonderful ‘Bakers Dozen’ festival last year and, not wishing such a good idea go to waste, a new team have taken up the challenge to continue this year with ‘Screen Bites – Second Slice’.

This year’s festival runs from 3rd–20th October in village halls throughout Dorset, with doors opening at 7pm.

Each evening starts with a small farmers’ market featuring food producers who make everything from beef, bread, cheese and chocolate to jams, chutneys and cider. They offer tastings as well as the opportunity to buy their wares, ideal for stocking up the larder with good quality staples or buying delightful goodies to give as presents to friends and relatives. Everything is delicious and made locally.

The Screen Bites Bar serves locally-brewed cider and beers, wine from vines grown on Dorset hillsides and nonalcoholic favourites made from apples, pears and foraging trips. Sometimes we have a talk given by a Dorset foodie or a demonstration using local ingredients, or maybe the WI might be serving tea and cakes… At its heart, it’s all about food and the people who make it for us.

After an hour or so of perusing the stalls, tasting and sampling the bar, we show the film. This could be a documentary, a drama or a comedy but is always a good story with food in it somewhere! The films have been chosen to suit all tastes. This year’s selection includes A Walk in the Clouds starring Keanu Reeves, Dinner at the Ritz, a 1937 British black and white mystery romance, starring Annabella and David Niven, the ever-delightful Paddington 2 (not just for children) and A Hundred-Foot Journey with Helen 56 | Bridport Times | October 2018

Mirren. The Purbeck Film Festival joins Screen Bites at Moreton in the screening of Wes Anderson’s iconic The Grand Budapest Hotel. Full details of dates, venues, films and online booking can be found on the Screen Bites website.

The evening at Ashmore on Wednesday 3rd October will be different. Does anyone remember the Galloping Gourmet? Well, we have the ‘Galloping Maestro’. Ian Bloomfield is an opera singer as well as an excellent chef.

He will be combining his talents by telling the story of opera and singing the occasional aria while, at the same time, cooking a huge paella! The audience will have the joy of eating the paella and a dessert!

If you have attended Screen Bites in the past, you will remember the wonderful films by author, photographer and director Robert Golden. His films, known as the Savouring Series, are an observation of how the landscape, flora and fauna of the area creates a particular diet and culture. Robert developed this series with extensive travels across Europe and beyond, each time finding the same theme. He has witnessed, and recorded in film, the disappearance of centuries-old farming and cooking traditions in favour of the blandness that we now find in a world of globalisation and modernism.

Savouring West Dorset was shown at last year’s festival and sparked discussions about recording how the lives and methods of the cheese makers, brewers, fishermen, farmers and food producers in the original film have changed over the last sixteen years. Have old techniques been replaced by new ideas or has there been a revival of old techniques and values?

Screen Bites believes there is a revival. There is a celebration of food and a greater awareness of how it is made: without cruelty, responsibly, and while creating a living for local people. The festival hopes to help with the funding of Robert’s new film and, in a small, fun way, to help in the promotion of honest food, and bringing local food to local people. screenbites.co.uk @screenbitessecondslice @screenbites2

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Food & Drink

SAUCISSONS SEC

Gill Meller, River Cottage 58 | Bridport Times | October 2018

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ometimes the simplest meals are the best, for instance slices of saucisson, a little soft cheese, some good red wine and fresh bread. For me, this kind of food is pure pleasure – it is what it is and it takes as long as it takes. There is no pretension in slow food like this. This air-dried sausage is made traditionally and allowed to mature over several weeks. Its rounded flavour and more-ish quality come from the gentle fermentation that takes place as it cures and dries.

Ingredients Makes about 10 large saucissons secs

2.5kg lean pork from the shoulder 500g back fat, cut into 3–5mm dice 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated 1 tbsp black peppercorns, lightly cracked 1 tbsp toasted fennel seeds, crushed A glass of red wine Method

1 Pass the pork through the coarse plate of a mincer (7–8mm), catching the minced meat in a large mixing bowl. Add the fat, garlic, pepper, fennel, wine and salt. Mix well, cover and refrigerate overnight.

2 The following day, take the chilled mixture and load up the barrel of a sausage filler, fitted with the larger nozzle.

Crank the handle so the mixture is forced to the tip of the nozzle: this will expel any air trapped inside.

3 Slide a length of beef runner on to the nozzle. Use a piece of butcher’s string about 25cm long to tie the loose end of the casing with a tight granny knot. Make the knot in the centre of the length of string and about 3cm from the end of the casing. Flip this 3cm end over and secure it again, this time with a double granny knot. Fill the casing with the pork mixture to create a saucisson somewhere between 20cm and 30cm long.

4 Use a second piece of string to tie off the end – a single granny knot will do. Then cut the casing 3cm above this point. You can then fold over this end and secure with a double granny knot.

5 Repeat this process until you have used up all the mixture.

6 Use a fine needle to prick any air pockets that you see in the saucissons, then put a loop in one set of strings so you can hang each one up.

7 Find a place to hang your saucissons. They want to be kept out of the rain and away from direct sunlight. A porch or lean-to is a good place – or maybe a small meat safe hung outside in a tree. I find we get really great results when we hang our saucissons in the stone shed in the walled garden at

River Cottage. It has no glass in the south-facing window so there is a good flow of air – this really helps them dry. There is a door that keeps the cats out and it’s cool on warmer days.

8 I hang the saucissons on nails that have been tapped into a roof joist. I don’t let them touch each other as they age or they won’t dry evenly. If the weather is dry, cold and windy, your saucissons can be ready to eat in just a few weeks, however when the weather is damp, dank and still, they don’t dry as well. It’s simply to do with the humidity in the air.

9 Check over the saucissons every few days. Look for that classic white bloom or mould typical of aged saucisson and salami. This is a good mould and one you should encourage. If you hang a shop-bought salami next to your saucissons as they dry, the bloom will spread.

10 I like to eat my saucissons secs when they still have a little give to them, and in normal conditions this could be after about 4 weeks. However, if you leave them hanging they will continue to dry, and the longer you leave them, the harder they will get. Use your thumb and forefinger to give them a squeeze.

If your fingers leave an indent they might need a bit more hanging. When you’re happy with them, take them down, wrap them in greaseproof paper and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat, peel off the membrane and slice into thin rounds.

11 If, for some reason, you have let your saucissons get overly hard you can use them to cook with instead of slicing them as you would a younger sausage.

This recipe features in River Cottage Handbook No. 14, Pigs and Pork, written by Gill Meller, published

by Bloomsbury, and available from rivercottage.net.

Photography © Gavin Kingcome If you’d like to make the most of the autumn bounty, why not join River Cottage foraging guru, John Wright, for one of his mushroom forays? You’ll learn how to identify and collect mushrooms responsibly in the beautiful Devon/ Dorset countryside and then return to River Cottage for cookery demos and a forager’s supper.

Bridport Times reader offer: Get £20 off any Mushroom Foraging date when you quote BTFORAGE20. Offer valid on dates until 28/10/18. For more details and to book see our website or call Amy in our Events Team on 01297 630302. rivercottage.net bridporttimes.co.uk | 59

Food & Drink

COD FILLET

WITH POACHED OYSTERS, BRAISED GARDEN LEEKS AND CHIVE BEURRE BLANC

H

Charlie Soole, The Club House, West Bexington

ere on Chesil Beach we are lucky to have access to some great oysters being grown not too far up the coast. Portland Pearls, as the name suggests, are grown near Portland and have a delightful briny and slightly sweet flavour. Oysters don’t have to be eaten in their raw natural state, if you don’t think you could stomach that. Here, we poach them, however you can also poach and set in jelly or batter and deep fry. These ways are sometimes a bit easier for people to start eating oysters. Many are pleasantly surprised after eating their first fried oyster.

During the wonderfully hot summer we have just had, here at The Clubhouse we have been growing a few different vegetables to showcase on the menu. It has been quite arduous at times with the really hot weather but most of what we planted survived onto the plates in the restaurant. Now that we have had some rain and it is a little cooler, our leeks should be ready.

The braising of the leeks brings out their natural sweetness and complements the slight saltiness of the cod and oysters. If you don’t think you could eat oysters or simply can’t find them, you could steam open some mussels instead.

Ingredients

Serves 4 4 x 200g cod fillets 12 oysters shucked with the liquor retained 3 medium-sized leeks 300ml white wine 1 bay leaf A few sprigs of thyme 1 banana shallot, finely diced 200ml double cream 200g diced cold butter Half a bunch of chives, finely chopped Salt and pepper

60 | Bridport Times | October 2018

Method

1 Trim the leeks of the thick green ends and the roots. Take the white ends and cut to 10cm lengths and then cut in half lengthways. Pour 100ml of the white wine and 100ml of water into a heavybottomed saucepan, add the bay leaf, thyme and the leeks, cover with a lid and place on a medium heat.

Braise for 10 minutes or until you can push a knife through the leeks with not too much pressure. Keep warm to the side.

2 To make the beurre blanc, pour the rest of the wine, a couple of tablespoons of the oyster liquor and the shallot into another saucepan and reduce until half the liquid is left. Strain out the shallot and add the double cream. Reduce until half again. Over a low heat whisk in the butter, a piece or two at a time.

This will emulsify and thicken the sauce. Keep the sauce warm until ready to use.

3 Season the cod fillets with salt and pepper and place skin-side down in a hot, oiled frying pan. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until the skin is well browned, turn the fillets over and finish off in a hot oven set at 180°C for 7 minutes.

4 While the cod fillets are cooking, bring the beurre blanc up to temperature but do not boil as the sauce will split. Add the oysters to the sauce and gently poach them. Stir in the chives right at the end when the oysters are done. Season with salt and pepper to taste and you can also add a small squeeze of lemon juice to really liven things up.

5 Lay a few leeks on a plate, place the cod fillet on top and arrange 3 oysters each around the fish.

Generously pour the sauce around and enjoy a lovely, warming autumn dish. theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk

Image: Kirstin Reynolds bridporttimes.co.uk | 61

Food & Drink

ROASTED SQUASH WITH BORLOTTI BEANS, PORCINI & CAVOLO NERO Image: Louise Chidgey

Cass Titcombe, Brassica Restaurant

62 | Bridport Times | October 2018

I

can honestly say autumn is my favourite time of year – the ingredients available allow you to cook and ultimately eat some great dishes. Autumn is bountiful; the amazing squashes and wild mushrooms also herald the start of the game season. Look out for partridges, mallards, pheasant and venison that will be featuring heavily on our menus.

This year has been a generous year for porcini (also known as ceps in French, or penny bun) - they are the absolute king of all wild mushrooms. If you are lucky enough to find them in abundance and pick some, any excess can be dried and used throughout the winter, adding deep, rich and savoury notes to your cooking.

We buy them from a very trustworthy local forager who, unfortunately for me, keeps his locations a closely guarded secret.

There are a great variety of squashes being grown in our surrounding area by many of the market gardeners and the uchiki kuri is one of the early ones. It has a great texture but is not too sweet and is perfect for roasting in this dish. Cavolo nero or black kale is an Italian variety of kale which is one of the brassicas that we always strive to feature on our menus.

This dish calls for a good home-made chicken stock that can be made with a chicken carcass after you have roasted it and then frozen until required. You could alternatively use a commercial vegetable stock powder such as the swiss Marigold brand; this would make the dish vegan.

Ingredients

2 x small squash such as uchiki kuri 4 cloves garlic 1 leek 1 onion 1 stick celery 100g dried borlotti beans 6 sage leaves small bundle of thyme leaves 1 litre chicken stock 10g dried porcini 250g fresh porcini (you could substitute field mushrooms) 250g cavolo nero olive oil 1 lemon salt and fresh ground black pepper

Method

1 If using dried beans, soak overnight in cold water with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. You could alternatively use canned beans. Cover soaked beans with cold water and bring to the boil, simmer for 20 minutes then drain water and discard.

2 Cut leeks and celery into dice and wash well in water. Chop onion. Heat up a good splash of olive oil in a pan and add the onions, celery and leek, stir and reduce heat. Sweat for at least 10 minutes, stirring to prevent browning.

3 Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and the soaked dried beans along with the stock, chopped sage leaves, dried porcini and the thyme bundle. Do not add salt at this stage! Cover with a lid and simmer for 1-2 hours until the beans are tender, adding more liquid if necessary. Once cooked, keep warm. You could prepare this step in advance and store in the fridge.

4 Peel the squash, cut in half, discard the seeds and trim the stalk end to make it flat. Puree 2 cloves of garlic with 75ml olive oil and the zest of half a lemon. Place the squash in a roasting tray and divide the oil between the 4 open halves, season well with salt and pepper, loosely cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until they are just tender. Remove and squeeze over the remaining half a lemon. Keep warm.

5 Gently wipe the outsides of the mushrooms with a clean damp J-cloth and trim any dirt off the roots. Cut into thick slices.

6 Remove stalks from the cavolo nero and wash well in cold water then shred.

7 Heat up a griddle pan or large frying pan big enough to fry the mushrooms in one layer. Season with black pepper and drizzle with olive oil and carefully add the mushrooms to the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until lightly browned.

8 Warm the beans, add the cavolo nero and cook for 2 minutes.

9 Serve the roasted squash with beans and mushrooms over the top. @brassica_food @brassicarestaurant_mercantile

bridporttimes.co.uk | 63

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Body & Mind

Image: Lara Thorpe

ENDOMETRIOSIS

WHAT TO EAT AND WHAT TO AVOID Tamara Jones, Nutritional Therapist and Founder, Loving Healthy

I

did not realise I had endometriosis until I was 32 years old and had been trying for some time to become pregnant. I was heartbroken to hear that I would struggle to have children. Luckily, I had studied endometriosis in depth at University so I decided to take my health into my own hands and use diet and lifestyle 66 | Bridport Times | October 2018

changes to improve my condition. Six months later I discovered I was pregnant with our first child, a girl, who was followed a couple of years later by a boy.

In my early 20s I had suffered from severe period pains, bloating, lack of energy, and often felt dizzy and faint. My first visit to a doctor about these symptoms

was at the age of 26 - the diagnosis was IBS and I was prescribed antibiotics. I see a lot of women with endometriosis in my clinic, although many are unaware they have it when they first come and see me. They usually come for help with boosting their fertility as they are experiencing problems falling pregnant.

According to Endometriosis UK, it takes an average of 7.5 years to get a diagnosis from the onset of symptoms as it is a very complex condition which is often missed for years. It is thought to affect as many as 1 in 10 women worldwide.

Nowadays my endometriosis is manageable, with months going by where my pain is minimal if present at all. I have had no dizzy spells, my energy has improved remarkably and I continue to eat responsibly and take care of myself.

What is Endometriosis?

Endometriosis occurs when the lining of the womb (the endometrium) becomes displaced and grows on other organs outside the womb (most commonly the ovaries and fallopian tubes). Every month, the tissues in the womb thicken and, if there is no pregnancy, they break down and leave the body as blood. Endometrial tissue that is growing elsewhere in your body goes through the same process but, because there is no way for the blood to escape, it becomes trapped causing pain, inflammation, cysts and scar tissue.

Symptoms of endometriosis include: Painful, heavy or irregular periods Pain during or after sex Pain on ovulation Painful bowel movements Gastrointestinal problems including diarrhoea, constipation and bloating Back pain Fatigue and low mood Infertility Endometriosis Diet

An anti-inflammatory diet helps reduce the pain associated with endometriosis whilst also supporting the immune system and promoting hormonal balance. The following should be included in your diet.

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) A good balance of healthy fats is essential for most people, but particularly for endometriosis sufferers, as

EFAs can aid hormone balance and reduce inflammation which helps to relieve endometriosis symptoms. Look to include foods rich in essential fatty acids such as oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies), as well as nuts and seeds.

Fibre Fibre is important as it helps to expel unwanted substances from the body, particularly excess hormones (oestrogen) in the case of endometriosis. Fibre can also help to stabilise your blood sugar levels and can help to reduce inflammation.

Beneficial bacteria Beneficial gut bacteria can reduce the production of beta-glucuronidase, an enzyme that remakes oestrogen in the gut and can contribute to its dominance.

Incorporate natural, organic yoghurt into your daily diet either on its own or use it to make dressings and sauces.

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut or kefir are also excellent sources of beneficial bacteria.

Fruit and vegetables Aim for a rainbow every day – a variety of coloured fruit and vegetables. They supply fibre and antioxidants for a healthy immune system. Key vegetables are kale, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potato, cabbage, beetroot. They can be steamed, slow roasted, made into soups or put in warm salads. Spices such as ginger, turmeric, rosemary and sage are rich in antioxidants too so cook with these as much as you can.

Filling your plate with a combination of these foods ensures that your diet is packed with essential nutrients.

It’s also important to minimise foods that can increase levels of inflammation and worsen symptoms of endometriosis. These are: • sugar • caffeine • red meat • alcohol • refined carbohydrates • dairy foods • gluten-containing products.

There is no cure for endometriosis, however, making dietary changes is a complementary approach that may help some women manage their symptoms.

Lovinghealthy.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 67

Body & Mind

RESTORATIVE YOGA

REST YOUR BODY, CLEAR YOUR MIND AND RESTORE YOUR ENERGY Nadiya Wynn ‘The time to relax is when you don’t have time.’ Sydney J. Harris

A

s we move fully into autumn it’s important to take time out to nurture and nourish ourselves.

This is a time to slow down, to reflect and to build reserves for the winter months ahead. A Restorative Yoga practice which consists mainly of gentle, floorbased, supported postures offers just this: space, time and support to consciously rest and recharge. This is deep, conscious rest that helps to rebalance and release tension, allowing energy to flow more readily throughout the body, increasing a sense of wellbeing and rejuvenation.

This nourishing practice uses a variety of yoga props to fully support the body so that it can gently relax 68 | Bridport Times | October 2018

without overly ‘stretching’. When the body is placed in a neutral and harmonious position, our sympathetic nervous system and the flight or fight response shifts to the parasympathetic nervous system and the relaxation and digestion response. This is both calming and restorative for our mind and body, allowing essential rest and repair to take place. These longer-held supported postures create space for a deeper experience of the pose and the breath. We all tend to hold tension in the body and this needs to be regularly cleared out. Restorative Yoga is an ideal way to do this. By taking time out from our busy schedules to enjoy some breathing space, we

can start to unwind and release tension, encouraging our natural rhythm to reset.

I’ve been practising Restorative Yoga regularly since 2010. It’s my go-to practice for when I need to recharge and boost my physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. It’s been a life saver! It’s immensely therapeutic: it eases anxiety, depression and insomnia, helps with fatigue, soothes the nervous system, relaxes muscles, slows the heart rate down, decreases blood pressure, helps your digestive system to function fully, balances hormones, increases immune function and recharges your soul.

Most of all it develops awareness, encouraging a more mindful approach to daily life and learning to live in the present moment. We often have much stress in our lives, created by our view of time – yet we only ever have the time of the moment.

Many of us find slowing down and stopping difficult for various reasons, but if we don’t learn to listen to our body and practise self-care then our physical and mental health and wellbeing eventually suffer. It’s so important that we appreciate and honour ourselves as human beings and not as human doings. To honour oneself is to love oneself and this takes practice! How many times per week do you plug your phone in to recharge?! Most likely every day or a few times per week. And how many times during the week or month do you take quality time out to recharge your mind, body and soul?

I’m passionate about Restorative Yoga and have been sharing a Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra Sunday session monthly since 2013. This popular session offers two hours of deep relaxation and spirit-nourishing yoga, leaving you refreshed and rejuvenated for the rest of the weekend and the week ahead. These group sessions provide a warm and cosy space for you to take some time out from daily life to relax and replenish.

Warming the body with breath awareness and a gentle yoga flow, we follow this by moving slowly through restorative postures to nourish the mind and body, preparing for the meditative Yoga Nidra practice at the end. The guided Yoga Nidra (also known as yogic sleep or sleep with awareness) encourages a deeper state of relaxation and awareness of self. By withdrawing from the distractions of the mind, our focus starts to turn inwards, the idea being that you’re no longer distracted by your environment or thoughts. This enables the mind to fully relax, encouraging complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. Sessions close with herbal teas and homemade chocolate truffles.

This practice is a great complement to a more active yoga practice, sports or other activities. It is ideal for those managing aches and pains or recovering from illness but who still want to practice yoga.

Remember to slow down this autumn, reduce the ‘firefighting’ and prioritise relaxation and rest time; your self will thank you for it!

Nadiya is a certified Restorative Yoga teacher and yoga therapist living and working in Bridport. yogawithnadiya.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 69

Body & Mind

AUTUMN ROOTS

Caroline Butler BSc (Hons) MNIMH, Medical Herbalist

A

s summer growth dies back, now is the time to harvest the roots of plants where energy has been stored ready for winter. We’re used to crops of root vegetables such as carrots and beetroot but, as well as being a source of food, some plant roots make very useful medicine. From the satisfyingly large tap root of burdock to the fiddly roots and rhizomes of valerian, there are many herbs that need to be collected in the autumn rather than in the vigorous growing months.

Dandelion and burdock is a classic combination, once used to make a popular sweet drink. Traditionally they were used as ‘blood purifiers’ or ‘depuratives’. What they both do is help our bodies remove metabolic waste more efficiently, dandelion mainly through its action on the liver and gall bladder, burdock at a cellular level. The positive effects of this enhanced elimination can be noticed in many areas but particularly in skin conditions such as acne. Burdock is a large biennial and the root is best harvested before it sends up a flowering stem in its second year of growth, whereas dandelions can be used young or old. Dig up the roots and, after washing, peel off the root bark and slice up the inner part to be used fresh or dried for storage. The simplest way to take this as medicine is to simmer 1-2 tablespoons of root in approximately 500ml of water for 20 minutes to make a decoction. Strain this and drink it throughout the day, hot or cold.

Marshmallow is another herb associated with a sweet treat, the original marshmallows. It is an incredibly soothing plant: the leaves, flowers and root can all be used to ease dry irritable coughs, sore throats, and inflammation in the digestive and urinary tracts. The root is used mostly for the digestive system – it forms a protective layer over inflamed areas and acts as a prebiotic, feeding the beneficial gut flora. This is thought to be due to its very high content of mucilage, which is better extracted in cold water than hot. To make a cold marshmallow decoction, leave the chopped root in water overnight and in the morning you’ll have a sweetish,

70 | Bridport Times | October 2018

wonderfully soothing drink. I also use the powder of dried marshmallow root, either in capsules, or mixed to a paste with water. This can be swallowed to ease irritation or inflammation in the digestive system or used externally as a poultice on sore skin.

Elecampane root is an old cough remedy. Due to its essential oil content it has a strong smell which reminds me of churches and old wood. When someone with a lung weakness gets a cough, I put elecampane in their mix to prevent a chest infection developing or to fight off one that’s already taken hold. It can be used for asthma and chronic bronchitis and, in the past, it was also used for tuberculosis. Elecampane is also a digestive tonic, stimulating appetite and digestion and warming the stomach. It’s a big, bold plant with a large root which used to be candied and sold as sweets. The taste can be a bit strong until you get used to it – combining it with cinnamon and elderberries or liquorice makes a potent and tasty brew.

Valerian is a perennial herb that dies back in winter.

In autumn an established plant can be divided, either to propagate more plants or to harvest some of its roots. These need to be thoroughly washed and can then be tinctured, by macerating in alcohol for several weeks, or dried. Few people really enjoy valerian tea, as the chemicals in it change as it dries and produce an unpleasant smell. I find a tincture made from the fresh roots is much more palatable, though the dried root can be heated in milk and then used to make hot chocolate which disguises the taste and can be given to children who need calming down. Valerian is all about calming – it can be used for insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, intestinal cramps, anything where tension is part of the problem.

Enjoy the changing of the seasons and go and dig up some medicine! herbalcaroline.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 71

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SAFETY NETS

A

Amy Mowlam, Legal Advisor, Porter Dodson

dam and Sarah are buying a house together. They have each been in relationships before.

Sarah has a lovely daughter, Poppy, who has just turned 4. They might get married but they haven’t given it that much thought and they would like to have a good holiday first. Adam has promised Poppy she can have a big trampoline in the garden.

Adam and Sarah instruct their solicitor to do the conveyancing. They will be buying with the aid of a sizeable mortgage. They are at the bottom of a long chain but, with pushy progress, regular updates and plain English reporting, they are in good hands.

The couple are given advice about ownership of their new property. This is really important to them. In fact, it is important to everyone who is buying a property. Sometimes it can be looked at as just a tick box in the transfer form before the all-exciting moving day, however it is so much more than that and has long-term repercussions. For that reason it deserves a separate, face-toface meeting with the solicitor at the earliest opportunity. Sometimes it requires each party to get separate advice. It really is that important.

Adam and Sarah are advised that there are two types of ownership. Ignoring their peculiar titles joint tenants and tenants-in-common - it boils down to this: you can own a property in equal shares or unequal shares. If you own in equal shares, you can each state that your share is to automatically pass to the other owner on your death. Adam and Sarah are serious enough about each other to want to grow old together but they are also realistic enough to know that this might not be the case.

Stuff happens. Adam is making a greater initial contribution to the house than Sarah and Sarah would want her share, if she died, to go to Poppy. Sarah earns more than Adam and so will probably make a greater contribution to the mortgage repayments, although this may not always be the case.

Adam and Sarah might have a child together which may mean that Sarah takes a career break, during which time Adam will be the greater contributor to the monthly mortgage repayments.

Adam and Sarah are relieved to know that a separate document can cover these points.

Hopefully the document will never need to come into play because Adam and Sarah will live happily ever after. However, if they did separate and the house was sold, the document would set out fairly what each is to get. The alternative to getting a document like this is that a dispute can arise and result in expensive litigation. Some unmarried couples think that the law can step in and decide what would be a fair split based on who has contributed what throughout the relationship.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way: whatever is ticked in that box in the transfer form is what each party ends up with.

So, Adam and Sarah have a document drawn up which sets out how, on an eventual sale of the property, their percentage shares in the net proceeds of sale are calculated with reference to their respective initial contributions to the purchase price, their contributions to the mortgage repayments, and their contributions to improvements to the property.

Fast-forward a couple of months and Adam and Sarah are settling into their new home. Poppy has her trampoline and Adam has installed a decent surround safety net. A bit like Adam and Sarah’s co-ownership document. There if they ever need it. porterdodson.co.uk

74 | Bridport Times | October 2018

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Gardening

100 DAYS OF COLOUR Charlie Groves, Groves Nurseries

T

here are particular facts, bits of trivia, that just stick in your mind. For me, one of these fascinating facts is that back in the 1600s a single tulip bulb was worth more than gold - hard to believe nowadays when we sell some packets of 10 for just £2.99!

Tulip mania took hold during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century when the country had a phenomenal rise in prosperity; the tulip bulb became a hot commodity, selling for more than ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. Introduced from Turkey, the flowers were exotic, bright and quite unlike any other plant in Europe at that time. They became a coveted luxury item that could earn merchants vast sums of money. At the peak of this mania, a single rare bulb sold for a sum that was enough to purchase one of the grandest homes on the most fashionable canal in Amsterdam! The trading bubble eventually burst in 1637 but, as Holland is still the home of the tulip, we probably have a lot to thank those early traders for.

Are tulips my favourite spring bulb? No, there are too many others to choose from, however they do offer the most variety in colour and size, and they’re certainly up there among my favourites along with crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, hyacinths, muscari, scilla and bluebells. To create a long and beautiful display I’d suggest planting lots of these popular favourites plus alliums, fritillaria, anemone, camassia, winter aconites and lily of the valley.

If you want to make it easy, use the carefully selected bulb collections such as bulbs for containers, mixed ones that give guaranteed colour over 3 months, ones to attract bees or scented collections. I’ve a few tips to share so you get the most out of your bulbs - the first one being squeeze a few more in every year if you can!

The best time to plant is September/October before any winter freeze, although tulips are quite happy to be planted up to the end of November or December.

Generally, bulbs should be planted two to three times their own depth and around two bulb-widths apart, 78 | Bridport Times | October 2018

although they can be closer in pots. Choose bulbs that are plump and firm and, as most hardy bulbs originate from the Mediterranean, good drainage and a sunny spot help with growth.

Planting bulbs in your herbaceous border will help to fill in gaps and provide colour and interest before perennials and shrubs begin to grow in early spring.

Plant daffodils, winter aconites, tulips and fritillaria for outstanding colour. Many are ideal for brightening up the base of trees before they come into full leaf.

The soil beneath trees is moist and light, offering the perfect growing conditions for scilla, anemones, erythroniums and crocuses.

Bulbs such as dwarf daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops and winter aconites can transform a dull-looking lawn into a beautiful display of colour; throw them in the air

Muscari armeniacum Armenian grape hyacinth

and plant them where they land for a natural look.

Try layering bulbs by planting tulips below early flowering crocuses, hyacinths or daffodils to extend flowering in pots or borders. Bulbs also do really well in containers - use bubble wrap to protect the pot if heavy frosts are forecast and feed them in early spring. Lift the bulbs and replant if you’re using the container for summer bedding or they’ll rot.

Although spring bulbs are very easy to grow, we’ve a few housekeeping notes to get the best out of them: • To encourage bulbs to flower well, apply generalpurpose fertiliser such as Growmore in early spring.

• Leave bulb foliage to die down for a minimum of six weeks after flowering before cutting it back.

• Some tulip varieties don’t re-flower the following year unless lifted. Allow the foliage to die down, then

carefully lift and clean the bulbs and store in a dry place until replanting.

• Bulbs naturalised in lawn areas can struggle with competition from the grass. They will benefit from an application of fertiliser in late winter when their roots are active but the grass isn’t growing.

It’s easy to get 100 days of glorious colour from January to May if you plan well; look at flowering dates on packets plus we’ve a guide on our website. Buying bulbs is a very cost-effective way of getting colour year after year, and they flower at a time when the garden really needs brightening up after a long drab winter. They’re winners in my garden, always giving a fantastic show. grovesnurseries.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 79

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80 | Bridport Times | October 2018

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Philosophy

CAUSE AND EFFECT

T

Kelvin Clayton

his year has seen the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People’s Act which gave some women the right to vote for the first time. Bridport’s Philosophy in Pubs group marked the occasion at its August meeting by discussing the different tactics used by the two groups involved in bringing about this momentous change.

The smaller of these groups, with only about 2,000 members, were the Suffragettes. They advocated the use of militant tactics, civil disobedience and direct action, famously demanding ‘action not words.’ They were more than happy to break the law in order to bring public attention to their cause. The much larger group, however, with about 50,000 members, were the Suffragists, whose aim was to bring about women’s suffrage only through peaceful and legal means.

Making such a comparison raises two particular questions: What is the most effective way of achieving social or political change? How far can the end, no matter how well-deserved, justify the means? The suffrage example may be an historic one but the dilemma is as fresh as ever. Many current political activists view our collective stampede towards the cliff edge of irreversible climate change as one demanding the strongest possible direct action. But can such action, any action, be justified? How far should activists go?

Perhaps this means/ends binary opposition is too simplistic. The question that intrigues me most about the Women’s Suffrage movement is not so much the relevant merits of the tactics used by the two campaign groups but how the people who opposed this movement justified their opposition to it. How could they not see the injustices involved?

One possible way into this problem is through what the sociologist Anthony Giddens terms ‘ontological security’, the “confidence or trust that the natural and social worlds are as they appear to be, including the basic existential parameters of self and social identity.” We have an innate need for order and meaning and, if that order is challenged in any way, that challenge can cut to the very core of who we are and bring about severe anxiety. To protect our take on the world, and by extension ourselves, we find arguments to defend our world view.

The real dilemma, then, is how to facilitate a re-organisation of our social world and its relationship with the natural world in such a way that our social identity, and our sense of self, is enhanced rather than threatened. But the question can remain: What if the imperative for change is too pressing? What if we simply don’t have the time for such niceties?

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 third 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. Email for further details. kelvin.clayton@icloud.com

82 | Bridport Times | October 2018

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Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Anne Morrison, The Bookshop

Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver £20.00 (Faber and Faber 2018) Bridport Times Reader Price of £17.50 from The Bookshop

F

or the human animal, a shelter is understood as a place of refuge, safety, asylum. It represents a secure state of being. To live sheltered is to live with a sense of wellbeing and support, and to be without shelter is a sort of freefall.

Unsheltered is Kingsolver’s take on the human experience.

The narrative takes place in two time periods interconnected in a wellconstructed historical weave which holds the novel together despite the diverse voices.

The common thread is our mammalian fear of lacking shelter, be it material or emotional. Kingsolver describes how, in looking for security, ‘We need some liar who’s good at distracting us from the truth.’ In Unsheltered this desire is relevant to both moments in history on which she has focussed, and ever-present. As the main character’s daughter declares, ‘We just keep shoring up our bankruptcy (economic, environmental and moral) with the only tools we know. Making up more and more complicated stories about how we haven’t failed…’

On the one hand, two contemporaries involved in scientific exploration in the mid-19th century Darwinian era find shelter in each other amidst the mould-breaking scientific discoveries of their time shelter in the form of an inner strength, respect and affection derived from mutual understanding, education and aspirations. Fighting to retain his teaching career and job in natural sciences, Thatcher Greenwood tries his utmost to open the minds not only of his pupils but also his educational peers and the citizens of his town to scientific ways of viewing the creation of life. He wants to shift thinking away from the safety of the exclusively God-centred doctrine of the origins of life and the world. He fails and his audience ‘...huddle in their artifice of safety…’ refusing to leave their own shelter and too fearful to countenance scientific theory.

Parallel to this storyline a 21st century family struggles

to maintain a sense of safety, shelter and security in their own way. Faced with family loss, a house that is collapsing around them and two faltering careers, Willa Knox and her romantic idealist husband Iano flounder towards a method of survival. The materialist race for ever more wealth, consumerism and the rabblerousing rhetoric of right-wing thinking which values profit over everything, sees the family in danger of becoming rudderless and ultimately disintegrating. In this society of material capitalism, Willa’s fear is the notion of being unsheltered by home, relationship and income.

Kingsolver does not, however, allow for complete despair. She takes a step back and views these lives from a distance. Touching on the realism in personal relationships known to all of us, she takes heart in describing what it means to be human. Willa watches her small grandson learning to walk and describes how he, ‘…would stagger, then grow competent, and then forget the difficulty altogether while thinking of other things, and that was survival.’

She uses her descriptions of the natural world, landscape, creatures and humans to reassure both protagonists and readers. In an aptly prescient way given the state of our currently troubled planet, she counters anxieties about lack of certainty with a quote from her 19th century female scientist Mary Treat, ‘Without shelter we stand in daylight.’

Kingsolver’s writing has a light touch and it is often tempting to read her rather quickly. I recommend slowing down and paying attention to the detail and standing in the daylight. It’s worth it.

Unsheltered releases on 18th October. Pre-order your copy at The Bookshop, South Street, Bridport dorsetbooks.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 85

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