Bridport Times June 2019

J UNE 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

A LIFE OF WONDER with scientist James Lovelock

bridporttimes.co.uk

WELCOME

62

years ago a maverick scientist named James Lovelock invented a tiny instrument called the Electron Capture Detector. It was capable of detecting unimaginably small traces of chemical compounds in the Earth’s atmosphere and awakened the scientific fraternity to the alarming spread of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). James’ ground-breaking work measuring pollutants led him to the idea of the Earth being a self-regulating system — the Gaia theory.

His books on the subject have informed and inspired environmental discussion and activism across generations. Now, at the age of 100, James has produced another book, a compelling new theory about what comes next. Katharine and Jo spend an unforgettable morning with James and his wife, Sandy, at their home overlooking Chesil Beach — sharing tea and biscuits and hearing the fascinating story of one of the most influential thinkers of our time.

Have a wonderful month.

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

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard @round_studio Sub editors Jay Armstrong @jayarmstrong_ Elaine Taylor Photography Katharine Davies @Katharine_KDP Feature writer Jo Denbury @jo_denbury Editorial assistant Paul Newman @paulnewmanart Print Pureprint Distribution Available throughout Bridport and surrounding villages.

Please see bridporttimes.co.uk for stockists.

2 Bretts Yard Abbey Corner Sherborne Dorset DT9 3NL 01935 315556 @bridporttimes glen@homegrown-media.co.uk paul@homegrown-media.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk Bridport Times is printed on 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 | June 2019

Simon Barber Evolver @SimonEvolver @simonpaulbarber evolver.org.uk Joya Berrow and Lucy Jane @therightoroamfilms therighttoroam.com Alice Blogg @alice_blogg @alice_blogg aliceblogg.co.uk Molly Bruce @mollybruceinteriors mollybruce.co.uk

Anne Morrison The Bookshop @bookshopbridprt @thebookshopbridport dorsetbooks.com Suzy Newton Partners in Design @InteriorsDorset partners-in-design.co.uk Brian Parker Bridport Museum @BridportMuseum bridportmuseum.co.uk

Caroline Butler BSc (Hons) MNIMH herbalcaroline.co.uk

Anna Powell Sladers Yard @SladersYard @sladersyard sladersyard.wordpress.com

Kelvin Clayton @kelvinclaytongp greenthoughts.me philosophyinpubs.co.uk

Leila Simon Tamarisk Farm @ tamarisk_farm tamariskfarm.co.uk

Kathy Dare Bridport Food Festival bridportfoodfestival.co.uk

Steven Spurrier Bride Valley Vineyard @BrideValleyWine @bridevalleywine bridevalleyvineyard.com

Jane Fox Yoga Space @yogaspacebridport yogaspacebridport.com 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 Little Toller Books @LittleToller @littletollerdorset littletoller.co.uk Will Livingstone @willgrow willgrow.co.uk Gill Meller @GillMeller @Gill.Meller gillmeller.com

Emma Tabor & Paul Newman @paulnewmanart @paulnewmanartist paulnewmanartist.com Mary Tassell Cass Titcombe Brassica Restaurant @brassica_food @brassicarestaurant_mercantile brassicarestaurant.co.uk Chris Tripp Dorset Diggers Community Archaeology Group dorsetdiggers.btck.co.uk Caitlin Warren The Club House West Bexington @TheClubHouse217 @theclubhouse2017 theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk Karen Watts Porter Dodson porterdodson.co.uk Sally Welbourn Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife @dorsetwildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

48

JUNE 2019

6 What’s On

48 JAMES LOVELOCK

88 Community

20 Arts and Culture

58 Food and Drink

90 Philosophy

32 History

68 Body and Mind

91 Literature

34 Wild Dorset

64 Interiors

94 Crossword

40 Outdoors

80 Gardening

44 Archaeology

86 Legal bridporttimes.co.uk | 5

Just when you thought the RS range couldn’t get any sportier.

Introducing the Audi RS3 and TTRS Sport Editions.

RS3 Audi Sport Edition •

19" alloys

•

RS Sport exhaust system

•

Black styling pack

•

Black door mirrors

•

Super sport seats

•

Carbon inlays

•

Panoramic glass sunroof

Find out more: call 01935 574981 or visit yeovilaudi.co.uk Official WLTP fuel consumption figures for the Audi RS3 & TTRS range in mpg (l/100km) from: Combined: 33.2 (8.5) – 35.3 (8.0). NEDC equivalent CO2 emissions: 195 – 181g/km. Figures shown are for comparability purposes; only compare fuel consumption and CO2 figures with other vehicles tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real-life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including the accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load. There is a new test used for fuel consumption and CO2 figures (known as WLTP). The CO2 figures shown however, are based on a calculation designed to be equivalent to the outgoing (NEDC) test cycle and will be used to calculate vehicle tax on first registration. For more information, please see audi.co.uk/wltp. Data correct at 27 March 2019. Figures quoted are for a range of configurations and are subject to change due to ongoing approvals/changes. Please consult us for further information. Cars shown features optional equipment. Images for illustrative purposes only.

TTRS Audi Sport Edition •

20" 7-spoke rotor alloys

•

RS Sport exhaust system

•

Black styling pack

•

Black door mirrors

•

Carbon inlays

Mead Ave

Yeovil Audi

Yeovil Audi. Look No Further.

n Way Stourto

Av e M ea d

Lu ft on W ay

e Western Av

Houndstone Business Park

Houndstone Retail Park

on Rd 01935 574981 Prest8RT Luft Yeovil Audi Houndstone Business Park, Mead Avenue, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 yeovilaudi.co.uk o n Way

ASDA



WHAT'S ON Listings

Tuesdays 6pm-8pm

____________________________

Heritage Coast Canoe Club

Mondays 10am-12.15pm

Westbay Watersports Centre,

Watercolour Painting for Beginners

Soulshine Cafe, 76 South St. Bookings 07425 969079 themonmouthtable.co.uk

____________________________

Fisherman's Green, West Bay. Age 12+

Every 1st Thursday

westbaykayak.co.uk 01308 862055

10.45am-11.45am

____________________________

Free Community Coffee Morning

marion@taylormade.demon.co.uk

Tuesdays 7.15pm

____________________________

Uplyme Morris Rehearsals

St. Swithun's Church Hall, Allington

Mondays (term-time) 6.30pm-8pm

The Bottle Inn, Marshwood.

Every 3rd Friday 10.30am-3.30pm

____________________________

St Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington

LSI, East St. 07881 805510

Bridport ASD & Social Anxiety

____________________________

Facebook: Uplyme Morris 07917 748087

Bridport Embroiderers

Bridport Children's Centre.

Tuesdays 7.30pm-9pm

01308 456168

Support Group For teens, parents & carers

Bridport Sangha

____________________________

Meditation Evenings

Every Saturday 10am-12pm

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm

Quaker Meeting House, South St.

FREE Chess Club

____________________________

lsibridport.co.uk/chess-club-on-saturdays-2/

Bridport Dance Club

____________________________

07950 959572

LSi Bridport, 51 East St.

Folk dancing with recorded music

Every 2nd Tuesday 7.15pm

____________________________

____________________________

WI Hall, North St, DT6 3JQ.

(live music on 30th). 01308 423442

Bridport Sugarcraft Club

Friday 19th April 23rd June 11am-4pm

Mondays 7.30pm-9pm

Ivy House, Grove Nurseries, West Bay Road, DT6 4AB

Warm Beer & Cabbages

____________________________

Women’s Coaching Group

Every 2nd Tuesday 7pm-9pm

West Bay Discovery Centre, DT6 4EN.

67 South St

Co-operation Bridport

Exhibition of American GIs. Free 01308

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm

eventbrite.co.uk

Saturday 1st 7pm

____________________________

Baboo Gelato &

bridportchoral.wordpress.com/Facebook

Wednesday or Thursday

Cocktails Masterclass

____________________________

9.30am-12.30pm (term-time)

Mondays 10th & 24th 7.30pm

Painting & Drawing Art Classes

Ivy House Restaurant, Groves

Biodanza @ Othona

Mangerton Mill Artist Studio.

Bridport Campfire -

____________________________ Bridport Choral Society

Othona Community, Coast Road, Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN.

Free. 07974 888895 cooperationbridport.

07505 268797

____________________________

427288 westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk

____________________________

Nurseries. Lloyd Brown matches

cocktails to ice-cream. £25 01308 807053 grovesnurseries.co.uk

____________________________

01308 897130 biodanza-bridport.co.uk

Wednesdays 7pm-10pm

Saturday 1st - Saturday 29th

____________________________

Bridport Scottish Dancers

Exhibition - Ella Squirrell –

Tuesdays 10am-1pm

Church House, South St.01308 538141

To Belong or Not to Belong?

____________________________

lsibridport.co.uk

Art Class

bridportscottishdancers.org.uk

LSi Bridport, 51 East St. Free.

07812 856823 trudiochiltree.co.uk

Every 4th Wednesday 7.30pm

____________________________

____________________________

Philosophy in Pubs

Saturday 1st 7.30pm-11pm

Tuesdays & Thursdays 10.30am

George Hotel, South St. Read Kelvin

Bridport Ceilidhs - "Fresh Aire"

____________________________

423 442 bridportceilidhs.wordpress.com

Town Mill Arts, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU.

Walking the Way to

Clayton’s monthly article on page 90

Church House Hall, South St. 01308

Starts from CAB 45 South St

Every Thursday 6.30pm

____________________________

The Monmouth Table -

Wednesday 5th –

____________________________

Fish Tapas

Thursday 6th 9.30am-4.30pm

Health in Bridport 01305 252222 sarahdavies@dorset.gov.uk

8 | Bridport Times | June 2019

JUNE 2019 Sweet Chestnut Bark Baskets

Saturday 8th

Sunday 9th 7.30pm

Trill Farm, Musbury EX13 8TU.

Flying Owl Willow Workshop

The Library of Lost Memories

trillfarm.co.uk 01297 631113

____________________________

Studi0ne Broadwindsor Craft

The Lyric Theatre, Barrack St. Tickets

Wednesday 5th 7.30pm

Centre. £75. Booking essential

josadlerforgednwillow.bigcartel.com

bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Talk on the Folk Music Revival Since 1963

jojo.sadler@hotmail.co.uk 07531 417209

from Bridport TIC 01308 424901

____________________________

____________________________

Monday 10th - Sunday 16th

Bridport Town Hall. In aid of Bridport

Saturday 8th 6.30pm

(children’s workshop 15th)

Millennium Green. £5 (members £4.50).

Philippa Mo, Solo Violin

British Flowers Week

01308 425037

____________________________

Sladers Yard, West Bay. £15/£33

West Chelborough, DT2 0PY.

Thursday 6th 10.45am-11.45am

with dinner. 01308 459511 sladersyard.wordpress.com

cutflowersbykate.co.uk

Coffee Morning

____________________________

Pick your own flowers, 07788 217521 ____________________________

St Swithun's Church, Bridport.

Saturday 8th &

Tuesday 11th 7.45pm

Free. 01308 426459

Sunday 9th 9am-5pm

Living Spit’s Living Quiz

____________________________

West Dorset Vintage

Thursday 6th 7.30pm

Tractor & Engine Rally

Charmouth Village Hall.

Sunset Cafe Stompers Band

Melplash Showground, DT6 4EG.

Village Hall, Melbury Osmond,

DT2 0LU. £12, 01935 83265/83745

07918 961095 wdvtsec.com/rally

Suitable 12+. 07967 759135 £12 artsreach.co.uk livingspit.co.uk

____________________________

____________________________

Wednesday 12th 7.30pm

gollygobble@btinternet.com

Saturday 8th &

Ella Squirrel Talk -

____________________________

Sunday 9th 1pm-5pm

To Belong Or Not To Belong?

Friday 7th (6pm-9pm) &

Cattistock Open Gardens

Saturday 8th (10am–4pm)

& Open Farm Sunday

Bridport Literary & Scientific Institute,

Maiden Newton

DT2 0JG. Free parking. £5

Art & Craft Exhibition

East St. 01308 424901 lsibridport.co.uk

____________________________

cathy.phil@hotmail.co.uk

Thursdays 13th June -

____________________________

18th July 1pm-2pm

____________________________

Saturday 8th &

Therapeutic Writing Course

Saturday 8th 9am-5pm

Sunday 9th 1pm-5pm

On Heated Emotions

Sponsored Musicathon

Netherbury Open Gardens

Bridport United Church. For Richard

DT6 5LS. £7.50, u.13s free - valid both

Bothenhampton Village Hall.

Chemotherapy Appeal. Free entry,

____________________________

Village Hall DT2 0AE

Ely Trust for Young Musicians & DCH

days. Proceeds to charity.

£42. 07747 142088 or

george@georgegottscounselling.co.uk

____________________________

refreshments. 01308 456297

Sunday 9th -

Friday 14th & Saturday 15th 11am-

____________________________

Saturday 15th 9.30am-5pm

5pm, Sunday 16th 11am-4pm

Saturday 8th 9.30am-4.30pm

Bridport Food Festival

David Smith - ‘Black Is

Do It Yourself

Asker Meadows, Bridport. £3.50

Not The Only Colour’

U16s free bridportfoodfestival.co.uk

Michael's Trading Estate. Free. 07778

Trill Farm, Musbury EX13 8TU. £85

incl. lunch trillfarm.co.uk 01297 631113

____________________________

(advance tickets from Bridport TIC £3)

Studio 7B, Riverside Studios, Unit 10 St

____________________________

981510 davidsmithartist.net/

Saturday 8th 10am-4pm

Sunday 9th 10.30am-12:30pm

Living Spirituality Event Healing

DWT Tamarisk Farm’s

Friday 14th (6.30pm-11pm) —

Dreams - A Pilgrimage

Wild Flower Walk at Cogden

Saturday 15th (11am-11pm)

Quaker Meeting House 95 South St.

Meet at NT Cogden car park.

Beer Festival

____________________________

____________________________

Tickets from TIC & on door

iona.lake@aol.co.uk

Bookings 01308 897781

____________________________

Askers Meadow, Bridport.

bridporttimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON (See page 92)

Trill Farm, Musbury EX13 8TU.

Family Fun Day

Wednesday 19th 11am-1pm

____________________________

St Mary's School, Beaminster

Bridport Multi-Cultural Meet-Ups

Tuesday 25th 2pm Miranda Pender presents:

Sunday 16th 11am-4.30pm

The Salt House, West Bay. Meet other residents from diverse backgrounds.

‘How I Overcame a Life-

01202 392954 jane.jones@dorsetrec.org.uk

Threatening Illness to Reinvent

____________________________

Myself as a Singer/Songwriter’

Trading Estate, DT6 3RR. £65

Thursday 20th 7pm-9pm

Bridport United Church Hall, East St.

____________________________ Saturday 15th 11am-3pm

____________________________ Block Printing Workshop Squirrell Press, Studio 13, St. Michael's

____________________________

From £35 trillfarm.co.uk 01297 631113

kim@inkandpage.co.uk

First Of The Summer Tasting -

____________________________

Ned Llewellyn

Sunday 16th 2pm-4pm

Seaside Boarding House, Burton

Tuesday 25th 7pm

mark@morrishandbanham.com

Matching: From Spain

Crystal & Singing

u3asites.org.uk/bridport

____________________________

Bradstock. £20, 01308 897205

An Evening of Food-Music

____________________________

to Argentina

01935 389655 centreforpuresound.org

Thursday 20th 7.30pm

____________________________

Bridport & District Gardening

The Ollerod, 3 Prout Hill, Beaminster.

Sunday 16th 3pm

Club - Trekking the Himalayas,

Bridport Chamber

Through a Nurseryman's Eyes

Orchestra Summer Concert

WI Hall, North St. £2

Bowl Soundbath The Chapel in the Garden, East St.

St Swithun's Church. Tickets £10 on

the door. Arturo Serna plays Schumann

____________________________

bridportgardeningclub.co.uk

____________________________

Cello Concerto.

Saturday 22nd &

____________________________

Sunday 23rd 2pm-6pm

Monday 17th 3.30pm

West Milton Open Gardens

Talk: The Queen & I

Delicious teas, plant stall. £5 adults,

Symondsbury Tithe Barn,

£60. theollerod.co.uk

free parking aajanewhite@gmail.com

Wednesday 26th 7pm

____________________________

Documentary & Q&A - Artifishal

01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd

____________________________

25th Anniversary Axe Vale Show

Electric Palace, 35 South St.Tickets £5.

Tuesday 18th - Wednesday 19th

Just outside Axminster. axevaleshow.com

Symondsbury.£15 from Bridport TIC

Garden & Allotment Competition

____________________________

01308 424901 electricpalace.org.uk

patagonia.com/artifishal (See page 38)

____________________________

Melplash Church. Entry forms

Sunday 23rd 6pm

Wednesday 26th 7pm-9pm

from Melplash Agricultural Society

Traditional Choral Evensong

Book Launch -

Offices by 12th. Free 01308 423337

with the Whitchurch

Who Owns England?

melplashshow.co.uk

Occasional Choir

____________________________

United Church, East St. £6.50

Tuesday 18th 7pm (talk 7.30pm)

Whitchurch Canonicorum Church

____________________________

from Bridport TIC 01308 424901 bridportandwestbay.co.uk

Other Side: Paul Kingsnorth in

Monday 24th 10am-11.30am

Conversation with Charles Foster

Dorset Poetry Walks

Thursday 27th 10am

Church Studio, Haydon, DT9 5JB.

Bridport Community Orchard.

Discover the Treasures of the

poetry, Paul Kingsnorth, will be discussing

blackvenpress@gmail.com

West Bay Discovery Centre.

Monday 24th 10am-4.30pm

westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk

Acclaimed writer of fiction, non fiction and his new book Savage Gods. Bar and

refreshments available. Tickets £10 from otherside-paulkingsnorth.eventbrite.co.uk 10 | Bridport Times | June 2019

____________________________

Free but booking essential via Eventbrite

Seashore: Stepping into Nature

____________________________

Booking required. 01308 427288

Soil Health for Growers

____________________________

THE DORSET OPERA

MMXIX

Country House opera with internationally-renowned soloists, a full orchestra and a chorus of 70 Marquee bar | Posh Picnics | Formal Dining Giuseppe Verdi

NABUCCO

23, 27 July at 19:00 | Matinée 25 July at 14:00 Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Gaetano Donizetti

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

24, 25 July at 19:00 | Matinée 27 July at 14:00 Sung in Italian with English surtitles

OPERA GALA CONCERT Friday 26 July at 19:00

Box Office: 01202 499199 Online Booking: dorsetopera.com The Coade Theatre Bryanston Blandford Forum

WHAT'S ON Thursday 27th 7.30pm

Gospel Singing Workshop

Country Market

Recital & Talk -

St Marys Church Hall, Bridport.

WI Hall, North St

franrois@hotmail.com

Every Sunday, 10am-5pm

400 Years of the Guitar LSI 51 East St. £10 from LSI canteen,

Bridport TIC, Eventbrite lsibridport.co.uk ____________________________

Bookings 01297 445078

____________________________

____________________________ Local Produce Market Customs House, West Bay

Saturday 29th 10.30am–12.30pm

Planning ahead

DWT Down Farm

____________________________

Every last Sunday, 10am-4pm

at Sixpenny Handley

Friday 5th July 6.30pm

Bridport Vintage Market

Meet at farm, SP5 5RY. Field walk

Supporting Versus

St Michael’s Trading Estate, DT6 3RR

Bookings 01308 422538

Loders Church. Piano, organ,

Saturday 8th 10am-2.30pm

Saturday 29th 2pm-3.30pm

raffle, £15. 01308 863690

Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF.

& Jenny Saville

Saturday 6th –

____________________________

Uplyme Village Hall, DT7 3UY.

Sunday 7th July 9.30am-5pm

Saturday 15th 9am-2pm

£10. Bookings 01300 321715

Floristry for Events & Spaces

Bridport Artisan Market

chris.pamsimpson@btinternet.com

____________________________

Trill Farm, Musbury EX13 8TU. £295

Bridport Arts Centre. Local arts, crafts

Saturday 29th 7.30pm

incl. lunch. trillfarm.co.uk 01297 631113

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

& visit to archaeological museum.

Arthritis Concert

____________________________

mezzo-soprano. Refreshments,

Bridport Vegan Market

____________________________

bridportveganmarket.co.uk

Lecture: Paula Rego

Jazz in Powerstock Church Alyn Shipton Trio

Fairs and markets

£10 including light refreshments.

____________________________

Tickets 485457 or on the door

Every Wednesday & Saturday

____________________________

Weekly Market

Sunday 30th 10.30am-4pm

South, West & East St

A Cappella Workshop

____________________________

& produce.

Saturday 22nd 9am-3pm Arts & Craft Fair Bridport Town Hall, DT6 3LF. Free. 01308 424901

____________________________

____________________________

To include your event in our FREE

St Mary's Church Hall, South St.

Every 2nd Saturday 9am–1pm

listings please email details – date/

£25 early-bird / £30 door. 01297 445078

Farmers’ Market

time/title/venue/description/price/

tonybackhouse.com

contact (in approx 20 words) – by

____________________________

Bridport Arts Centre

____________________________

the 1st of each preceding month to

Sunday 30th 10.30am-4pm

Every Saturday, 9am–12pm

gemma@homegrown-media.co.uk

12 | Bridport Times | June 2019

june 22nd - 30th

Sat 22 June 5-9pm Sun 23 June 2.30pm Sun 23 June 7.30pm Mon 24 June 11.30am Mon 24 June 2.30pm Mon 24 June 5.30pm Mon 24 June 8.30pm Tues 25 June 11.30am Tues 25 June 2.30pm Tues 25 June 7.30pm Wed 26 June 11.30am Wed 26 June 2.30pm Wed 26 June 7.30pm Thur 27 June 11.30am Thur 27 June 2.30pm Thur 27 June 7.30pm Fri 28 June 11.30am Fri 28 June 7.00pm Fri 28 June 9.30pm Sat 29 June 8.00pm Sun 30 June 11.00am Sun 30 June 12-5pm Sun 30 June 7.30pm Sun 7 July 2.30pm Tue 9 July 6.30pm Visual Arts Exhibition Sat 22 - Sun 30 June

Party in the Park As You Like It - Rain or Shine Eric Lu - Piano Recital Emmanuel Bach - Violin Recital A.N.Wilson - Albert Choral Evensong -Salisbury Cathedral Choir Tom Glover’s Comedy Club Hugh Morris - Organ Recital Minette Walters -The Turn of Midnight Cosi fan Tutte - Rose Opera Lauren Zhang - Piano Recital Victoria Hislop -Those who are loved Emma Johnson -Clarinet Goes to Town Duo Dorado - Baroque Extravaganza Dr Sam Willis & Prof. James Daybell - Histories of the Unexpected Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski - Songs of Love and Loss Ferio - Saxophone Quartet Marmen -String Quartet No Strings Assaxed - Marmen & Ferio Late Night Ben Waters Band -Boogie Woogie / Blues Festival Morning Service Family BBQ and Picnic - Arcadia Jazz, Phoenix Band, Family Entertainment 12 ensemble -President’s Concert Vintage Tea Dance -Glenn Bayliss Love’s Labour’s Lost -Castle Theatre Durham

For full event listings and online tickets visit www.beaminsterfestival.com or call 01308 862943 Box Office: Yarn Barton, Beaminster DT8 3DR, 01308 862943 open from 14th May 2019

PREVIEW In association with

Black Squares 365: 019

DAVID SMITH: BLACK IS NOT THE ONLY COLOUR In recent years, David Smith has successfully completed

#BlackSquares365 pieces along with a range of recent drawings

half way through a third. This latest serial art project is

feature of his work for some time.

two every-day-for-a-year art projects and is now roughly #BlackSquares365, which involves him creating an 8 inch

related to the Black Squares theme which has been a recurrent

____________________________________________

square artwork from scratch each day for a year. Smith is calling

Friday 14th - Sunday 16th June

part of a larger artwork, the project, which no one person can

David Smith: Black is Not the Only Colour

being a democratic antidote to ‘big art’ with each day’s offering

St Michael’s Trading Estate, Bridport, DT6 3RR.

it ‘distributed art’: many people will own a piece, but each is

(Friday and Saturday 11am - 5pm, Sunday 11am - 4pm)

ever own, and nobody can ever see in its entirety. It is aimed at

Studio 7B, Second Floor, Riverside Studios, Unit 10,

for sale at only £40, putting it within the budget of most people.

07778 981510 davidsmithartist.net

Until now it has only been possible to see and buy work from the project on Smith’s Twitter and Instagram feeds but for 3

days in June he is opening up his studio to present any unsold 14 | Bridport Times | June 2019

____________________________________________

evolver.org.uk

D I S C O V E R | E AT | S H O P | S T AY | C E L E B R AT E

Welcome to Symondsbury Estate, set in the beautiful Dorset countryside just a stone’s throw from the Jurassic Coast. Join us for lunch. Browse our home, garden and gift shops.

Explore our fabulous walks and bike trails. Relax and unwind in our holiday accommodation.

Celebrate your wedding day … … isn’t it time you discovered Symondsbury Estate?

DIARY DATES Open Farm Sunday, 9th June Colmers Hill Run, 7th July

SY M O N D SBURY E S TAT E

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

What's On

16 | Bridport Times | June 2019

A WEEK-LONG CELEBRATION OF LOCAL FOOD AND DRINK 9th – 15th June 2019 June 9th - 15th 2019

Kathy Dare

T

he Bridport Food Festival is a community event that everyone looks forward to. Run by the volunteer Bridport Local Food Group, the festival enables locals and visitors to the town to find out more about the excellent produce that is available on the doorstep and to try new foods and venues that they may not have considered before. It is the time when local food and drink producers, farmers, restaurants, cafés, pubs and retailers come together to showcase what they do.

Learn, Taste, Try, Embrace

Throughout the week some of the best producers and suppliers in the area will share what they do by hosting events, tours, tastings, and cookery and cocktail masterclasses. Washingpool Farm, The Ivy House Kitchen, Furleigh Estate, Palmers Brewery, The Ropemakers, The Taj Mahal, Leakers Bakery, Frampton’s Butchers and Dark Bear are just some of the venues taking part. The Arts Centre will welcome Jay Raynor, award-winning writer and broadcaster, on the last day of the festival. Many local restaurants, cafés, pubs and bars will be demonstrating their commitment to using local produce by offering special menus or menu items as part of the Food Festival Taste Trail taking place from 1st to 15th June.

Baking has become a popular pastime and this year the festival has several different baking competitions to find the best local amateur bakers. Entry will be free.

There will be categories and classes for all ages and cash prizes to be won - details on the festival website.

The Finale! Food and Beer Festival – 15th June at Asker Meadows

At the showcase event on Saturday 15th June visitors will be able to tuck into food and drink from over 60 independent local food and drink producers, caterers and suppliers, all from within a 20-mile radius of Bridport, including from three new start-up businesses based in Bridport who have been awarded the Bridport Local Food Group Bursary – Yumptious, Curious Kombucha and Dorset Donut Co. There will be a wide variety of different foods on offer with scones and cream, cakes and sandwiches all sourced from local suppliers in the festival tea tent. The Bridport

Round Table’s Beer Festival will have over 80 different ales and ciders to sample and several local chefs will be demonstrating their skills in the cookery theatre.

Accessible to Everyone

This is a festival for the whole family to enjoy, particularly the younger generation. One of the main ambitions of the festival is to get young people thinking and learning about food: where it comes from and how to prepare and enjoy eating it. There will be free hands-on activities throughout the day in the children’s marquee (this year with an Italian theme), at the Discover Farming tent and in the Teen Zone. Booking is not necessary. Dorset Forest School will be running one-hour supervised sessions to teach youngsters over 10 years of age the forest skill of lighting and cooking on an open fire.

Places on this will be limited so it is advisable to book in advance at the Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

Friday 7th June. St Mary’s School Edible Garden Fete, Skilling Hill, DT6 5LA. 3.15pm-5.15pm

Prior to the main event, St Mary’s fete has the theme ‘Little Italy’, which will be continued in the children’s marquee at the Food and Beer Festival. Admission is free and events include: • Pizza-making using the cobb oven • Mud kitchen (open to children for ‘explore’ play) • Demonstration of how to make pesto using basil from the garden • Plant stall • Gnocchi stall - children can roll their own gnocchi, cook them in water and serve with Neapolitan sauce • Homemade lemonade • Hoopla game with prizes (called Volanti in Italy) Entrance to the festival is £3.50 for adults (advance tickets £3 from the Bridport Tourist Information Centre) and free for youngsters 16 years and under. For the full programme as well as details on the Showcase event please visit the website or follow Bridport Food Festival on social media. bridportfoodfestival.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 17

What's On

JUNE IS BUSTIN’ OUT ALL OVER Curtis Fulcher, Director, Bridport Arts Centre

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une is packed with wonderful films at Bridport Arts Centre. To kick-start the month we have The Old Man and the Gun, starring Robert Redford in an adaptation of a true-life story of Forrest Tucker and his escape from prison in the 1970s. Redford is one of the classic actors of the screen along with Clint Eastwood who stars and directs in another June movie, Mule, the story of a 90-year-old horticulturist and Korean War veteran who becomes a drug mule for a Mexican cartel.

As part of the Bridport Food Festival we will be celebrating the joys of food and drink with the film Babette’s Feast, a drama set in 19th century Denmark and centred around a lavish banquet.

18 | Bridport Times | June 2019

One of the highlights of the months is Wild Rose, which has had great critical acclaim and stars a host of brilliant British actors including Julie Walters. The story concerns a girl who is bursting with talent, charisma and cheek. Fresh out of prison and reunited with her son and daughter, all she wants is to get out of Glasgow and make it as a country singer.

Some of the most successful films programmed at the Arts Centre are the breakfast movies which are screened at 11am with a free hot drink and pastry. June’s films include All is True, starring Judi Dench, and All about Eve, the classic version starring Bette Davis.

For a full list of films, dates and times, visit bridport-arts.com

P R I C E M AT C H G U A R A N T E E D | I N T E R E S T F R E E C R E D I T | B I G G E S T S E L E C T I O N O N V I S P R I N G B E D S

And So To Bed Bridport Pymore Mills, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 5PJ Tel: 01308 426 972

Arts & Culture

JEREMY GARDINER Anna Powell, Director, Sladers Yard Gallery & Cafe

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n his first Dorset exhibition since 2012, Jeremy Gardiner joins Sladers Yard with an all-singing, alldancing exhibition of 36 new works on paper and 9 works on panel, all relating to the Dorset coast from Lyme Regis to Old Harry Rocks.

When you look at Jeremy Gardiner’s paintings, your eyes explore a rich range of information. The works are ‘reliefs’ - Jeremy cuts into the surface or builds it out to make it three dimensional. The surfaces themselves are various, with areas of thinly-washed translucent watercolour, opaque slabs of paint and areas of textured, stained or painted jesmonite, a very hard sculptor’s filler. Layers of colour have been worked back as if eroded. Superimposed over this, scored lines link the various narratives while telling a different story - or perhaps the same story in a different way - referencing precise topographic information or contour lines like underground river routes.

Jeremy is interested in all the ways we gather information about places. Old guide books, photographs, fossils, generations of Ordnance Survey maps, modern technological mapping devices, satellite data, geological maps showing the different rock strata under the ground, all feed into 20 | Bridport Times | June 2019

his mind as he stands out on a cliff edge painting the coastline that many of us know so well. ‘I am naturally drawn to precarious places on the coast,’ he comments. The excitement of the dizzying cliffs, wide vistas and dramatic gorges comes across in these paintings as a real love of this landscape.

After Newcastle University and the Royal College of Art, Jeremy travelled abroad and spent 15 years teaching in major art schools in the US: two years in Boston, eight years in New York City and five in Miami. All the time he carried on with his own painting. Looking at examples of his early work in the Lund Humphries monograph Unfolding Landscape, we agree that his artistic language was there from the start.

He and his two brothers were sent to school in England while his parents lived abroad; they spent many of their holidays with their grandmother in Swanage where they were free to explore and put down roots. To his early recollections of Swanage, Jeremy brings an awareness of its geological history and the effects of the forces of nature over that landscape for hundreds of millions of years.

The whole of this ancient coastline, built up from the bodies of billions of living creatures, fascinates him. One of the works on panel in the exhibition,

Eype Mouth III bridporttimes.co.uk | 21

Arts & Culture

August Evening, Lyme Regis 3rd painting

August Evening, Lyme Regis 1st painting 22 | Bridport Times | June 2019

East Cliff from West Bay III

Durdle Door with Ammonite, includes the cast of a fossil from the area.

‘I am trying to distill composite views,’ Jeremy says. Just as your mind holds many different viewpoints at once, his paintings are built up over many visits. The colour of the sky, the texture of lichen on a rock, the eroding effects of waves, all these are embodied in the material of the painting.

Many of the paintings have unsettling floating passages of paint which flow and swirl like colour in glass. ‘I like the idea of a fluid dimension,’ he says, and I think of the primeval seas where those living creatures swam. ‘Stuck out on a rock you do become one with the moment.’

In his studio, neatly ordered and stacked away, are the paintings for a new touring show next year.

On the shelves, numbered plastic pots contain the paints mixed for each painting, to which Jeremy will return many times over a number of months with long periods of curing and contemplation in between. For Sladers Yard, where he shows with the Japanese potter Akiko Hirai, he has painted a vertical painting from each of 20 favourite places on the coast, calling them the 20 Stations of the Dorset Coast with a nod to Hiroshige. His hand-painted, three-dimensional LiDAR map of the coast, also on display at Sladers Yard, will show where each position is. Groups of smaller paintings and some magnificent works on panel make up the show.

‘The painting process is similar to the effects of weathering on the geological terrain,’ he explains, showing how he fuses the paper together so that he can carve into it. Even the paper is made of cotton rag from recycled clothes. As opposed to his works on panel where he stays with a composite plan from the start, his works on paper are improvisations on a theme, like jazz music, returning to the same places over time, always finding something new to focus on. ‘Memory plays a strong part. It’s a reason not to live in Dorset but to let it live in my mind. You go back and find that you yourself have changed. It’s all part of the journey.’ We look quietly at these vivid, mesmerising pictures. ‘My paintings invite people to reflect on our transient relationship with the material world.’ sladersyard.co.uk

____________________________________________ Thursday 20th June, 6.30pm A Talk with Jeremy Gardiner ____________________________________________ Until Sunday 30th June Jeremy Gardiner works on paper: Lyme Regis to Old Harry Rocks Akiko Hirai ceramics and Petter Southall furniture. Sladers Yard Gallery and Café, West Bay Road, West Bay, Bridport, DT6 4EL

____________________________________________ bridporttimes.co.uk | 23

Arts & Culture

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his month I met up with my colleagues Natasha Lummes and Suzy Moger to start the ball rolling for the annual Bridport & West Dorset Open Studios event, which will take place for nine days from 7th to 15th September.

BOS (as it’s known) was started by artist Caroline Ireland in 1999 and a wonderful assortment of supporters have helped it to grow over the years. It’s very much a team effort, relying on the help of a group of administrators, several designers, photographers and numerous volunteers.

We also appreciate the backing of the many local businesses who advertise with us, several of whom also print our guides, arrows and promotional materials.

Painter John Hubbard (1931-2017) was our muchloved BOS Patron for many years. He won the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1996 and was an abstract impressionist painter who lived and worked in West Dorset for more than 50 years. johnhubbard.com Painter Philip Sutton RA kindly became our Patron in 2018. Now based in West Bay, Philip studied under William Coldstream at the Slade School of Fine Art and has exhibited at The Royal Academy and The Tate, as well as in Paris, Sydney, and Chicago. philipsuttonra.com Natasha Lummes has been our Event Co-ordinator since 2016 and is a Textile Design graduate based in Dorchester. She is also the Arts Manager with Arts in Hospitals at Dorset County Hospital, which is home to the largest public art collection in the county. It features works by internationally-renowned artists such as Magnum Photographer Martin Parr and several Bridport artists including John Hubbard, Alex Lowery and photographer George Wright. dchft.nhs.uk/about/arts We’re delighted that painter Suzy Moger will be helping with BOS for a second year. She has a background in the museums and heritage sector, and has been painting and running her own business from her studio in the Bride Valley for 6 years, giving her an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of being an artist in a rural setting. Her work is in collections in Europe, the USA and Australia. suzymoger.com Kate Gowrie has been a vital part of the BOS team since 2014. She manages our guide layout and is a freelance graphic designer who has worked in magazine and contract publishing in London, producing magazines for Barclays, The British Council and British Gas. Now > 24 | Bridport Times | June 2019

BRIDPORT OPEN STUDIOS PAST AND PRESENT Kit Glaisyer, Artist

Image: Pete Millson bridporttimes.co.uk | 25

Arts & Culture

John Rabbetts, Mart Tebbs, John Charlesworth, Kit Glaisyer, Greta Berlin, Antony Dover, Linzi Light, Wendy Poole, Wendy Hermelin, John Stevens, Paul Blow, David Brooke and Jill George. Image: George Wright, St Michael's Trading Estate 2006

living in West Dorset, she works from home, designing books, logos and brochures. kate.gowrie@gmail.com Graphic Designer Ian Escott ‘retired’ to Toller Porcorum after working in London for over 50 years. He has designed our maps for a number of years and does a great job providing easy-to-read directions to the dozens of venues in our guides. ian.escott@icloud.com Paul Blow is a renowned Bridport-based illustrator who helps with our guide cover and adverts. He has worked for numerous clients including The Guardian, New Scientist, and The Wall Street Journal, and his bold conceptual style, with touches of humour, always helps to raise the profile of our event. paulblow.com In 2018 Bridport-based portrait photographer Pete Millson visited the studios of over sixty participating artists to create a wonderful series of artist portraits. He has contributed to newspapers, magazines, record and book covers around the world for almost thirty years and has six of his portraits in the National Portrait Gallery. petemillsonphotographer.uk Artist Paul Newman was our event-co-ordinator in 2016. He is now the event co-ordinator for Somerset Art Works and also the editorial assistant for the Bridport Times. paulnewmanartist.com Illustrator Nicole Burt was our event-co-ordinator in 2015, while Megan Dunford helped run Bridport Open Studios in 2014 before going on to be the Exhibitions Officer at Bridport Arts Centre. She is currently travelling and teaching abroad. megandunford.com Symondsbury-based photographer Brendan Buesnel has photographed many of our artists in 26 | Bridport Times | June 2019

previous years. He gained his Associateship with the Royal Photographic Society in 2010 and qualified with distinctions in professional and applied photography. bbuesnel.wordpress.com Bridport-based photographer George Wright has published several books including Vanishing Dorset and Some People I’ve Met. I started working with him in 2006 to document our art community and in 2010 we published the book Portrait of the Artist - 25 Bridport Painters & Sculptors. George is a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in the Observer, Independent, and Sunday Times magazines. He has a number of pictures in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery and has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. georgewrightphotography.co.uk BOS Founder Caroline Ireland is now a full-time artist. stmichaelsartists.com/#/caroline-ireland. Other Directors of BOS have included Cece Mills, Louise Wender and Jackie Rabbetts. Artist Philomena Harmsworth from Stoke Abbott, took over as Director in 2010 and was my co-director in 2011 before moving to East Sussex where she continues her prolific output of paintings, sculptures, ceramics and books. philomenaharmsworthart.co.uk We’re very keen to continue to build our creative team so, if you’re interested in a career in arts administration, do drop us an email with your CV to bridportopen@gmail.com.

Bridportopenstudios.co.uk Kitglaisyer.com

Elementum Gallery South St, Sherborne A N I L L U S T R AT E D J O U R N A L O F N AT U R E W R I T I N G

is an and absolutely extraordinary Art,‘Itcraft writing from text: nature a book, not a journal, really.’ Robert Macfarlane

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Get in touch to find out more post@trillfarm.co.uk 01297 631113 trillfarm.co.uk Trill Farm, Axminster, Devon, EX13 8TU bridporttimes.co.uk | 27

Arts & Culture

MATERIAL MATTERS Alice Blogg

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’ve recently been listening to the podcasts of writer and critic Grant Gibson. ‘Material Matters’ features in-depth interviews with a variety of designers, makers and artists about their relationship with particular materials or techniques. It has made me question not the material of objects designed and made by my business but the material of those I buy and consume. I have also questioned what they are created for, by whom and the longevity of the piece.

David Attenborough’s TV programme Blue Planet 28 | Bridport Times | June 2019

has raised awareness about the harmful use of plastic and the crisis it is causing, forcing us to question what we are buying. Looking on the positive side, companies are becoming aware of the problem and changing their production methods. It’s going to take time; we are surrounded by plastic, however there are ingenious and interesting product materials that already exist and new ones are being invented.

Everyone loves Lego and it’s good to see them starting to change the material they use. Lego is set to

Shutterstock

launch a range of botanical elements made from a plant-based plastic in a bid to reduce its plastic waste.

The soft, durable and flexible polyethylene plastic, made using ethanol produced from sugar cane, is being used to produce the brand’s leaf, bush and treeshaped elements. Take a look at the advert for it; they are clearly moving with the times, not against them.

While the plant-shaped pieces only account for a small percentage of Lego’s output, the company’s ultimate goal is to produce all of its bricks using the bioplastic

by 2030. Its first set of sugar cane elements appeared on shelves late last year.

It’s not just large companies trying to change the way they affect our planet; small independent makers are also trying out new things. ‘Morning Ritual’ is a series of biodegradable containers made of coffee grounds and newspaper waste. Inspired by Paola Sakr’s childhood memories of watching her father sip on Arabic coffee while reading the newspaper, this product draws our attention to the fact that we generate waste from the moment our day begins. After coffee grounds are collected from local coffee shops, they are mixed with newspaper pulp and a natural binding agent. The mixture is delicately moulded by hand and the final colour and scent of each item are the result of the various types of coffee used. ‘Morning Ritual’ makes us think about the waste we produce, how it can be used and what beautiful and useful objects we can make from it - experimentation into new ways of consuming and creating.

Valentina Carretta is the designer behind the Egg of Columbus lights which are made from moistureresistant recycled paper – the kind used for egg boxes.

Sold by Italian brand Seletti and in production since 2013, the lamps comprise a frilly cardboard lampshade, ceramic lamp holder and fabric cord. The collection comprises three pieces shaped by the inspiration of waves and the pleats of vintage lamps found in the houses of previous generations. The substance of the object is distinctively raw, rough and unusual in this context, made from a pressed cardboard fibre typically used in the packaging industry. The material has been de-contextualised and enriched by an authentic aesthetic and decorative value, embodying the object with the attributes of lightness, robustness and a clear ecosustainable value.

Hopefully this makes you think about where things come from, how we use them and the materials in your life. This quote by Sebastian Cox, a fellow woodworker and environmentalist based in London, defiantly sums up my love for the wood I use in my business and why I continue to use it.

‘If you were going to invent the perfect material of the future, you would want something strong and light and renewable that could be made anywhere on the planet. If you were being really ambitious, you might even ask it to absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. It sounds like a tall order, but it already exists – it’s wood’ aliceblogg.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 29

HUTS TO HUNKER DOWN IN plankbridge.com 01300 348414

Black Is Not The Only Colour Studio Exhibition 14, 15 & 16 June 2019 #BlackSquares365 & other Black Squares work

DAVID SMITH 07778 981510 | art@davidsmithartist.net ig: david_smith_artist | tw: @DavidSmithArt | w: davidsmithartist.net Studio 7B, Second Floor, Riverside Studios Unit 10 St Michael's Trading Estate, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3RR 30 | Bridport Times | June 2019

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Illustration: Marion Taylor

History

MOUNTFIELD HOUSE Brian Parker, Research Volunteer, Bridport Museum

M

ountfield House is the iconic building which stands above Millennium Green and is the location of the offices of Bridport Town Council. The site of Mountfield formed part of the estate of William Downe, a textile merchant. In 1786 he purchased land stretching north from Rax Lane to Coneygar Hill. In 1789 he built Downe Hall, followed

by Mountfield House in about 1812. He also built Grove House which was in existence by 1823, although the exact date of its construction is not known. Downe was also a wharfinger (a wharf-keeper) and he owned two at East Smithfield: the Dung Wharf and Downes Wharf. The wharves became the preferred landing place for ships exporting goods from Bridport.

It was Downe’s intention that the various houses which he built should be occupied by members of his extended family. In his will he bequeathed Mountfield House to his daughter, Elizabeth Atkins. On his death in 1810 he appeared to be a successful merchant but his executor, Joseph Gundry, discovered that Downe’s liabilities exceeded the value of his assets. Downe’s main source of income was from the warehouses, however the business had been adversely affected by the Napoleonic Wars early in the century. In the course of the administration of the estate the Court of Chancery declared that the estate was insolvent and ordered that it be administered for the benefit of the creditors. There followed years of litigation leading to a sale of the assets by auction in 1823.

The purchaser was Henry Templer who, according to one source, was a lawyer practicing in Exeter. His career had started with the East India Company’s Maritime 32 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Service and he had acquired several ships, the source of his considerable wealth. The property remained in the ownership of the Templer family throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, during which period it was occupied by various family members who carried out improvements to the building including refacing and enlarging it.

The property was sold in 1915 to Lonsdale Holden and the Holden family owned the property until 1953 when Andrew Holden sold it by public auction. In the auction particulars the property was described as a, ‘charming, detached residence with two acres of sheltered gardens, tennis court and two glasshouses and containing seven principal bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms.’ This description indicates that the buildings were still a private residence.

In 1927 the property was shown in the deeds to be owned by Mrs Ellen Holden who was a County Magistrate. Presumably she lived there with her family.

During the Second World War Mountfield was occupied by troops, including American soldiers, and nurses. By the late 1940’s it was the Grove School for Girls. The school was still in occupation at the time of the auction.

In 1954 the property was sold again, this time to the Bridport Rural District Council, for £6000. The sale included the two acres referred to in the auction particulars which comprised the gardens to the east, south and west of the house. The land to the west stretched to North Street, including the site of the magistrates’ court (now demolished). None of the land to the north was included; this land was retained at the time of the sale in 1823 as part of the estate of Downe Hall.

The Rural District Council occupied the building until the local government reorganisation in 1974 which resulted in the dissolution of the Rural District Council and the transfer of its responsibilities to the Dorset District Council. The Council did not make full use of the building and by 1997 it was half empty and only partly in use. The District Council considered vacating the building which had become too expensive to run and inefficient to operate. Newly-built premises would be more appropriate and offer a better service to the public.

An option of selling the building arose but discussions then took place with the Bridport Town Council. The idea of the two councils sharing the same building was appealing - it was believed that it would promote more co-operation between the two bodies. Hence the Town Council purchased the building. There were however insufficient funds to buy the surrounding gardens; these were acquired by a new trust set up specifically for that purpose and also to buy the land to the north of Mountfield. That, however, is another story.

The various services which the Town Council was providing at its premises in South Street, together with its tenants, were transferred to Mountfield. The District Council remained in occupation of part of the building as tenant of the Town Council to enable it to continue providing its services. Since 2000 the building has been shared by the two councils and other organisations.

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

Wild Dorset

THE UNDERWATER WORLD Sally Welbourn, Dorset Wildlife Trust

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hether you’re one minute away from the beach or one hour, for many of us, living so close to the beach is one of the best things about living in Dorset. Already this year, our marine conservation team has been finding exciting and unusual things washed up on our beaches at low tide. The ‘furrowed crab’ was a great find, it being the first recording of this species for Kimmeridge. This crab is also a ‘climate change indicator species’ as we’re seeing them spread further north, in line with our seas warming up. Other seashore species which have been spreading eastwards into Dorset include the ‘toothed topshells’. These sea snails are common further west but numbers have increased from none at all in the early 2000s and they are now a common find at Kimmeridge.

The small cushion starfish has also become common at Kimmeridge since the first sighting in 2014, and the exotic-looking anemone shrimp that lives within the stinging tentacles of the snakelocks anemone has also increased in number in recent years.

This year, World Oceans Day is celebrating our oceans, encouraging everyone to get out and explore their nearest coastlines. You could take part in a 2-minute beach clean, try some rockpooling, or even see what rainbow-coloured wonders lie in the gardens beneath the seas with DWT’s snorkel trail at 34 | Bridport Times | June 2019

© Chris Roberts

Kimmeridge. You could take a special Fleet Explorer Cruise boat trip on 8th June, exploring the marine life living in the Fleet Lagoon at Chesil or join us for a dolphin watch from the cliff tops at Kimmeridge.

See website for details.

Top three things to look for this summer on the coast: 1 Seahorses: There have been an unusual number of seahorses washed up on beaches this year. This could be a good indicator that we have a healthy population in Dorset. Let us know if you find one!

2 Cushion starfish: The cushion starfish glides along on its myriad tiny tube-feet, as if sliding on ice. This small relative of starfish feeds by everting part of its stomach through its mouth to digest dead and decaying animals and seaweed.

3 Flat periwinkle: Look for the flat periwinkle in seaweedy pools. They range in colour from sunshine yellow through burnt orange to chocolate brown and are easy to spot amongst the sea wrack fronds they graze on. The yellow shells are particularly easy to spot, looking like discarded sweetcorn kernels! dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

Visit

Kingcombe Meadows

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST

A place to learn, eat, relax and stay in west Dorset.

Enjoy being with nature: www.kingcombe.org Photos © Tony Bates MBE, Katharine Davies, Mark Heighes & Nicola Hawkins

Wild Dorset

SHEARING

WOOLLY JUMPERS FROM WOOLLY GRAZERS Leila Simon, Tamarisk Farm

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heep grow wool. It is perhaps the feature which defines them most for people who are not part of the farming world. We need to shear them every year, taking off their wool and leaving them cool and comfortable for the summer, and making flystrike much less likely. Wool is also a valuable product: once vital to the English economy it was eclipsed first by cotton and then by artificial fibres. More recently, society is beginning to see its value again, using it not only as an eco-friendly alternative to polyester and nylon clothing, to start reducing the pollution of the oceans, but also as a replacement for glass fibre and plastic bubble-wrap. It is used in a wide variety of forms from building insulation to packaging: we send our meat boxes out packed in wool and we have our own wool spun as knitting yarn (see Bridport Times September 2018).

We shear at the beginning of summer; if we do it too early the fleece might have grown back enough to be a problem in an Indian summer, if too late they suffer in the heat of the first part of the summer and might not have grown wool to protect them from early autumn winds. The timing of shearing is determined by the stage in the life-cycle of the sheep: shearing heavily 36 | Bridport Times | June 2019

pregnant sheep, though possible, is very heavy work for the shearers and seems hard on the ewes, already bulky and uncomfortable. Surprisingly, we have been assured that shearing in late pregnancy is not likely to make lambing more difficult or dangerous but it still doesn’t appeal to us. Like so many farm tasks, the detailed timing of shearing is determined by the weather; you can’t shear wet sheep or pack fleeces away when wet as it would spoil in storage. You cannot turn sheep, shorn almost to nudity, out into the teeth of an easterly wind.

What is more significant for us, as we lamb quite late in the spring, is that it is not good to shear too soon after lambing. The ewes may be more tricky to shear soon after lambing and the lambs cannot be separated from their mothers for most of the day until they have grown up a bit. Even then, the ewes and lambs spend a lot of the day calling for each other and we arrange little gaps in the gates so that the lambs can creep through to find their mothers – if they can work out where they are in the busy movement of animals and people.

On the appointed day, expecting the shearers to arrive at half past seven to start at eight, we bring the sheep into the yard early. If the weather is not to be trusted,

the first batch are put under cover the night before. We separate the different breeds and colours into small pens and mark any essential information through the wool.

The shearers arrive with their specialised trailer, wellmaintained shearing gear and with musculature honed by their work. Between us, we manoeuvre the trailer into position to fit with our hurdled enclosures for the sheep and hook up the electric shearing units. When everything is ready, they don traditional sheepskin shoes and some of them put on back protectors; these people may be strong but it’s hard work leaning over 60kg of ewe all day, every day for the shearing season.

It is our job to keep their trailer-pen full of sheep through the day, moving them in batch by batch so every shearer can collect a sheep immediately as and when one is needed. The actual shearing process is undignified for the ewe: she is put onto her haunches as the shearer starts to work then skilfully moved and turned so that all the wool can be reached. Though ewes need to be turned upside down in the process, the shearers are good; they know how to hold and move them in ways which are minimally stressful and don’t hurt. If the ewe relaxes, and most of them do, the fleece

is taken off in one piece very neatly and quickly. The final stroke clears the last bit of wool from her rump. The ewe is released and she skedaddles away looking long-limbed and naked. The shearer kicks the fleece off the shearing platform onto our tarpaulin, reaches for another ewe, and is off again.

In the time they take to shear a sheep, we have to tidy and put away the fleece from the last one. We gather the fleece in our arms and throw it up in the air so that it falls to the tarpaulin, spread out and with the outside facing up. Crawling on hands and knees, we roughly pull off claggy bits of wool, fragments of straw from their bedding and any leaves, seeds and twigs they have brought in from the fields. Dirty and fragmented wool goes into a dumpy bag and is later composted, full of goodness for the soil in the vegetable gardens. We make sure the fleece is tidy, then fold the soft belly wool into the middle along the line of the spine and roll it up from the tail to the neck, making a neat parcel with the bright shorn ends of the cut wool on the outside. Each soft bundle is then placed in large green sacks slung on racks to keep them open. We pack the bags tightly and, when each one is full, we label it carefully and stitch it closed.

As farmers, we usually have control of our own time. We are busy every day but we determine the details of what we do and when we do it and we pause when we want to. When we are shearing, we hand control to the team who come. We cannot down tools unless they do so first: the time of any tea-break is set by the shearers. We work to serve them in the noise of the motors, the buzz of the shears, the driving music which keeps up the shearers’ pace and the shrill complaints of the lambs calling for their mothers and the ewes answering. The relief from the noise when they call for a break and turn off their machines is great but, when we sit down and pour the tea, we still have the sheep baa-ing in the background.

When all are shorn and the shearers leave, we have to get the sheep back to pasture, tidy up and make sure the wool sacks are stowed safely under cover. A final tradition on the farm is a shared late supper, taken with cider we’ve made from our apples. It’s been a long day: one of our many harvests without which my year would feel incomplete.

You can join Tamarisk Farm for a Wildflower Walk on Sunday 9th June, 10.30am. Meet at Cogden car park. tamariskfarm.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 37

Wild Dorset

ARTIFISHAL

Joya Berrow & Lucy Jane, The Right To Roam

The road to extinction is paved with good intentions

W

e are living in an age where we are oversaturated with hyperbolic political, environmental and economic catastrophe stories. These narratives have a huge impact on our mental state, in many different ways, often unconsciously. Keeping up with the state of the world, what’s happening and why, can be a great weight on us as we try to digest the information we are being fed.

There is a sure lack of positive news, with inspiring stories rarely given space to surface, but we need to be exposed to the work of role models and trailblazers, to give us daily empowerment and strength. Seeing how others have had a positive impact plays an important role in raising our awareness of the most important issues to follow and act on.

There are many ways of countering the negative effects of mainstream media, by bringing current affairs into a space we feel capable of approaching with perspective. Collective discussions, with a participatory community where voices, ideas and emotions can be laid out, barriers broken, in spaces where people can be vulnerable, with the hope to lead to progression. This not only brings people together in many ways but also creates a discussion and sharing of knowledge that help us to understand the world around us, via our own interpretation.

As filmmakers we have seen the huge impact that films can have to create social change. Film as a medium can be a fantastic tool, when it’s presented thoughtfully, it has the potential to change minds and behaviour. When space is created to view a film and invite discussion, magical progress can happen that leaves the audience empowered and inspired. However, there is always a balance, it is important to choose the film carefully as there are many environmental pieces which portray an overwhelming amount of issues and topics. These leave us with no tangible concepts of change in our own daily

38 | Bridport Times | June 2019

lives and can leave the viewer feeling bewildered and helpless, which is incredibly counterproductive to uniting strong environmental movements.

As a community living in close proximity to the ocean, relying on it for its resources but also refreshing perspectives, we would like to share with you a film that highlights the disastrous global impact of fish farms and hatcheries on our environment. Artifishal – screening at The Electric Palace on Wednesday 26th June – focuses on the farms of Canada and the USA, but these issues are found closer to home too in Norway, Scotland and arriving in abundance in Ireland and Iceland. Artifishal is about people, rivers, and the fight for the future of wild fish and the environment that supports them. It explores wild salmon’s slide towards extinction, the global economic and ecological impact of the salmon farming industry and our continued loss of faith in nature.

Have you ever stood in front of a supermarket fish counter and weighed-up which fish you should buy? Do you find yourself paralysed by the moral complexities of buying and eating fish? Is farmed salmon a good thing or a bad thing? Does eating a farmed fish save a wild one? Or does buying it actually contribute to the demise of all wild salmon? Following the film, local writer and fisherman Nick Fisher will chair a Q&A with local experts, where we intend to examine and discuss the pros and cons of aquaculture and strive towards a more thoughtful approach to future fish consumption. therighttoroam.com patagonia.com/artifishal

____________________________________________ Wednesday 26th June, 7pm ARTIFISHAL + Q&A Electric Palace, 35 South St, Bridport DT6 3NY Tickets £5. 01308 424 901 electricpalace.org.uk

____________________________________________

All images: Ben Moon bridporttimes.co.uk | 39

Outdoors

40 | Bridport Times | June 2019

On Foot

CHAMPERNHAYES Emma Tabor and Paul Newman Distance: 2 3/4 miles Time: Approx. 1 1/2 hours Park: Car park to the east of Champernhayes Lane, near Wootton Hill. The starting point is where ‘Forest Walks’ are marked on Ordnance Survey Explorer 116.

Walk Features: An easy walk around the woodlands of Champernhayes. Most of the walk stays in or alongside the woods and is relatively level, apart from a short downhill section where you leave the woods to pass through Spence Farm, and a steady uphill section back towards Champernhayes Lane. The wood has a mixture of beech, oak and conifer and there are some good views across to nearby Coney’s Castle and the coast towards Charmouth, as well as the surrounding hills and valleys which encircle this area.

Refreshments: There are plenty of eateries and pubs to choose from in Lyme Regis >

bridporttimes.co.uk | 41

E

ach month we devise a walk for you to try with your family and friends (including four-legged members) pointing out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual and sometimes the unfamiliar.

For June, we celebrate 100 years since the founding of the Forestry Commission by following a relaxing route around Forestry Commission land at Champernhayes wood, near Monkton Wyld. In September 1919 the Forestry Commission was founded to restore the nation’s 42 | Bridport Times | June 2019

woods and forests following the First World War, and the passing of the Forestry Act. Directions

Start: SY 355 969 1 From the car park, follow the sign to Fishpond Bottom 1 Âź, heading up a track. The track curves to the left and soon drops down towards a larger track cutting through the woods. Turn left onto this then almost immediately right onto a smaller track. After

100 yards, you soon reach a fence straight ahead of you - here, turn right, through the beech bank you have been following, onto the lower path which forms the boundary of the wood. There is open pasture now on your left. Ignore any paths or tracks to your right and carry along the wood boundary footpath. In 350 yards, just before the path becomes narrower, a track leads up to the right, before you reach the returning edge of the wood. Take the right fork here, up through the wood, with the wood boundary to your left. Keeping a raised beech bank to your left in sight, you soon come to a crossroads of paths and tracks with a cottage visible to your left.

2 Take the track out of the woods, down the hill, to soon pass a house on your left. There are good views from here towards Charmouth and the sea. The track bends left and you soon reach Spence Farm and then Wodetone Vineyard. Here, take the footpath right, opposite the farmhouse, through tall metal gates, with vines on your left and a corrugated metal farm building on your right. Do not follow the inviting track around the top edge of the vineyard; instead, look out for a footpath sign on a tall metal gate just past the building on your right, which is not that easy

to see. Go through the gate into a pony paddock.

Walk along keeping the metal fence on your left.

As the field opens out, walk diagonally across into the far corner; there may be electric fencing in this field. At the far corner, cross over a rather overgrown wooden stile and fence to emerge into an orchard and campsite. Keep along the left hand side of the field until you pass through the entrance to the campsite and some buildings onto a road.

3 Turn right onto the road and walk along for approximately 200 yards, then turn left off the road, up a wider track, signed to Marsh Farm. Keep along this track and after a short while you will pass Marsh Farm and lots of farm buildings on your left.

Soon after Marsh Farm, the track becomes more grassy and you leave the edge of the wood. After the track meanders for 150 yards, it turns right, back up towards the wood, along a field boundary. Keep going straight up, eventually meeting a track through the woods. You join the track by going slight left to carry on until you meet the road, by a Forestry Commission entrance sign for Champernhayes.

Turn sharp right onto the road, and head back towards the car park where you started. bridporttimes.co.uk | 43

Archaeology

Oliver Childs/iStock

44 | Bridport Times | June 2019

REMEMBERING THE PEOPLE OF THE PAST Chris Tripp, BA(Hons) MA, Field and Community Archaeologist

T

he tendency to dispose ceremonially of the dead is very human. All cultures have had a need to deposit grave goods in burials to show the status of the deceased. These are universal acts of individual and community commemoration.

Around 26,000 years ago a 25-year-old male was interred in a cave on the south coast of the Gower Peninsula, sprinkled with red ochre and laid alongside mammoth bones, ivory rods and snail shells. Burial at this time is characterised by single or multiple cave burials. After the last Ice Age, hunter-gatherer burials are characterised by a shift from single or small groups to larger cemeteries in the open, with the use of red ochre, shells, teeth, tools and food.

Agricultural communities built large monuments in the landscape to house a collective of individuals. In a previous article I wrote about The Grey Mare & Her Colts here in Dorset, with other examples in the southwest including West Kennet and Weyland’s Smithy.

They represent a link between the communities, the ancestral dead and the land they occupied, being placed close to settled areas in dominant positions.

With the coming of metal the main type of burial consisted of individual interment, firstly crouched inhumation and later cremation burials richly endowed with grave goods, including unchanging and eternal gold. Dorset is rich in surviving round barrows where individuals still rest crouched as if asleep, or as ashes in a pot. This may suggest a continuing change in emphasis towards the individual with burials of wealthy individuals and children of apparently hereditary status, although their grave goods were presumably supplied by grieving parents and may suggest their status rather than that of the dead. There may also be a move towards concern with family and personal history rather than the supernatural power of the ancestors.

At the time when iron is first being used burials are rarely found, perhaps because of cremation and scattering of the ashes or burial in pits as well as under existing barrows. Crouched inhumations in stone cists

seem to have been the prevalent rite in the south-west peninsula and Wales. Most famously, the Arras culture of Yorkshire consists of large cemeteries with graves under mounds surrounded by rectangular ditched enclosures. The culture is an elite burial tradition involving the interment of a two-wheeled vehicle with the body. Other types of burial in this period include bog bodies such as Lindow Man, an example of the ritual deposition of bodies in water. Before the Roman invasion, burial was with sumptuous grave goods, where men usually have swords, shields and sometimes spears and women have mirrors, bronze bowls or beads.

When the Romans arrive, burial practices are characterised by cremation in the early period, with a return to large inhumation cemeteries later on. When digging at Spitalfields in London, I witnessed the excavation of the ‘Roman Princess’. She lay in a lead coffin encased in a stone sarcophagus with the remains of a pillow of leaves under her head. Glass phials of long-gone creams lay beside her and thin threads of gold were the only clue to the rich gown she wore in death.

With the establishment of the Germanic kingdoms burial rituals included both large cremation and inhumation cemeteries, generally with copious grave goods at the beginning but with fewer artefacts by the end of the pagan period. At Rochford in Kent I worked on a richly-endowed cemetery of this period in which one female had been buried with a small copper tube with a chain attached to the lid (for needles?) and keys hanging from a chatelaine.

Even in modern times status is important. At Taunton I helped to dig a 19th century graveyard threatened by the building of a new cricket grandstand.

The grave I worked on was the only one to have copper handles and a plaque, which informed me that I was digging the gentleman up on the very same date that he had been interred! His false teeth were set in a gold plate, one of only a handful ever found. blogspot/archstory

bridporttimes.co.uk | 45

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JAMES LOVELOCK Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

T

wo things strike me when I first meet Jim and Sandy Lovelock on the steps of their house in Abbotsbury: first, how spritely they are and second the colour of Sandy’s fitted pullover, which is a stunning green. I start to make a mental note to find out the magic formula that keeps them so youthful but soon I am overwhelmed by their welcoming smiles and sense of energy and wonderment at the world. ‘Just listen to the birds,’ says Sandy as the larks trill their song high above our heads. We all take a deep breath of sea air before heading inside. In their sitting room Jim takes his favourite chair and Sandy kindly offers tea.

So where do you begin with somebody whose life has spanned the last century? Jim turns 100 years old this July and to mark the occasion he has written a new book to expand on his discovery of the Gaia theory. He is an inventor, engineer and chemist who has contributed greatly to science throughout his lifetime. At times he has been controversial but his ebullient sense of humour and excitement has carried him through. So how did this wonderful couple end up in Abbotsbury?

‘Basically, we came to Bridport on our feet,’ says Jim. The couple had walked through Abbotsbury while walking the southwest coastal path 15 years ago (are you doing the maths? He was 85) and they instantly fell for the village and the walks that surround it. Seven years ago they moved here from Devon. ‘It was really for Sandy,’ says Jim, ‘she loves the coast whereas I am happy with the countryside.’ >

48 | Bridport Times | June 2019

bridporttimes.co.uk | 49

50 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Five years have passed since Jim made it to the top of the hills above Abbotsbury but he still walks every day.

‘I am getting a bit old for long walks - we used to walk from here up over the top to Abbotsbury and back,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t do it now but still manage to walk along the coast and up to the farm which is 500 feet above sea level, then round and back – not bad for my age!'

Wandering through the countryside is what Jim remembers most about his first five formative years. He was the product of his father’s second marriage and his mother was a suffragist wanting her own life, so Jim’s early years were spent living with his grandmother. ‘We lived in Letchworth Garden City and I can remember wandering the Letchworth Common every day. My grandmother was pretty busy and I was just left on my own; it didn’t bother me in the least. I could just go and wander all over the Common.’

Jim says he came from ‘hunting and gathering’ stock on his father’s side. ‘My father had had quite a rough time. My grandfather had died at 50 – I think his liver gave out – and he left my grandmother with 14 children and no income support or the like. You either got yourself a job or went to the workhouse in those days, which no one wanted to do.

So the Lovelock family lived by hunting and gathering.

‘He knew all sorts of things about tracking and rabbiting. We used to go for walks together on Sundays and I learned more about ecology from him than I learned at any other time. He knew all the nests, the animals and the like. My love for the countryside began there.’

While an early childhood spent wandering the countryside sowed the seeds for inquiry, his passion for science began with a present. ‘When I was about four years old my Dad gave me a wooden box for Christmas (we didn’t have cardboard in those days) and in it was all sorts of bits and pieces such as light bulbs, batteries, compass etc – nothing expensive but it was the best present ever because my aunts usually gave me socks.

I dashed around asking people things like, ‘Why do you need wires to send electricity when you send gas or water along pipes? Why do you need two wires?’ Nobody knew so I had to find out for myself. Of course, we didn’t have electricity, only the rich had that.’

The box unlocked a lust for knowledge which, as fate had it, would take another twist. In 1926 the whole family moved to Brixton in London. ‘My father had been slightly mad and bought an art shop,’ explains Jim. ‘One of the things we could do on Sundays was get the tram to Victoria Station and walk up to South bridporttimes.co.uk | 51

Kensington to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum.

My father was a lovely man. He was aware that I was quite bored with art so when we’d go to South Kensington he’d say, ‘Go over there to the Science Museum – you’ll find that much more interesting’. I learned an amazing lot of science and engineering there.

‘This comes into my thoughts even nowadays. There was a man called Newcomen, a blacksmith, who lived in Dartmouth, across the bay from here, who invented the first steam engine that worked and was profitable. I was fascinated with the models that they had in the Science Museum. That’s what started it all for me.’

It was around that time that Jim first visited Dorset.

‘I came when I was six years old with my parents,’ he remembers. ‘We stayed in Swanage and visited Chapman’s Pool and Kimmeridge. There were little buses that took you on trips to these places. Those wonderful fossils in Kimmeridge beat the ones at Charmouth every time. That was just the start.’

Jim hated school - ‘You were caned,’ he says bluntly but he managed to get a scholarship to a Grammar school.

He was, however, expected to earn his keep. ‘My parent’s shop went bust and they couldn’t afford to send me to university because in those days, if you were working class, 52 | Bridport Times | June 2019

you had to go to work to help support the family enterprise.

So, at 17, I took a job with a firm of consultants who solved problems for the photographic industry. I worked on anything from lenses to different colour dyes. It was fascinating stuff and I learned a lot more science there than any university could teach me. I had to use my wits.’

The firm also turned out to be supportive of their employees and paid for Jim to attend evening classes at Birkbeck College in London. Fate intervened and the Second World War started but, in his undeniably upbeat way, Jim saw it as a bit of luck. ‘Birkbeck closed because of the bombing but I was lucky enough to get a place at Manchester University to study chemistry between 1939 and 1941.’ ‘He did his degree in 18 months,’ says Sandy, who is a historian. ‘It was a lovely atmosphere during the war,’ says Jim. ‘Even during the worst bombing, no-one took any notice; they just got on with their work and the day.’

During the war, Dorset beckoned. Jim had managed to secure a job with the Medical Research Council (MCR). ‘I clearly remember the director saying to me, ‘My boy, you’re not going to do any science here while there is a war on. It’s ad-hoc problems that must be solved yesterday. After the war we’ll get on to the real science.’ At first Jim had been a conscientious objector but changed his mind when the

Nazi atrocities became known. He tried to join up but was told his medical research was too valuable.

It was the ad hoc problems that brought Jim to Dorset. ‘It was a sort of experimental area down here,’ he says. ‘There were all sorts of strange projects going on: the bouncing bomb and loads of other stuff. We even set fire to the sea in Studland. That was one of Churchill’s ideas; he thought that if we did it, it would frighten the Germans away but of course it was impractical. We said it was pointless and dragged a wooden rowing boat through the flames to show that it was almost untouched.

‘All kinds of things like that were going on; I got trips on motor torpedo boats that were going out from Weymouth testing various things on them. It opened my mind to the whole area of science, from medicine and biology at the medical institute to physics and flames down here. It was a pretty good, long teaching period.’

After the war Jim remained with the research unit then, in 1959, the Americans came knocking. ‘I was working with the MRC on the preservation of blood and the problem of it going off very quickly. My colleagues found that if you add glycerol to blood you could freeze it at minus 40 but the biologists weren’t very good at the chemistry side of things. The wide range of science I had done made it possible for me to work on the freeze preservation. The Americans got very excited and flew me over to Washington in a DC4 - we refueled in the Azores - and I gave a talk on blood freezing. They invited me to stay and gave me a Rockefeller scholarship to Harvard for a year. I didn’t like it there at all.’ He would have preferred to have studied at a university in the south where, as he says, ‘the people are much friendlier’.

It’s clear when you talk to Jim that he is a bit of a rebel: not in a negative sense but he doesn’t follow the crowd. School was a trial for him as he has a natural dislike for authority. It was inevitable that more than once his boss would have to tell him to back off from tinkering with other scientists’ experiments. Then Jim came up with an invention that would change our knowledge of the planet and how it works. ‘The Electron Capture Detector (1957) is actually a quantum device,’ says Jim, ‘but I didn’t know it at the time. If you are an inventor, you make things without knowing how they will work even though you know instinctively that they will.’

This device is so sensitive that if you were to open a new, unused spray can and let it evaporate here in Dorset, in eight days the device would be able to pick up the chlorofluorocarbon gases in Japan. In two weeks, it would detect those gases anywhere in the world. What

this device ultimately did was assist in the discovery of the persistence of greenhouse gases, the depletion of the ozone layer and possible hypotheses about the biological control of the earth’s climate. ‘At the time my children called it ‘gas pornography,’ smiles Jim. Jim’s invention was interesting enough for NASA to write to him in 1961. One morning as Jim was going through his post, he opened a letter from Abe Silberstein, Director of Space Flight Operation at NASA. As Jim puts it, ‘They had been sending quite small rockets into space that couldn’t carry the weight of a radio transmitter so they were very pleased with my little gadget because it required very little room or power.' They reckoned that, if Jim was able to invent this tiny, light as a feather Electron Capture Detector, he would be able to help them discover if there was life on Mars. ‘It was unbelievable; quite extraordinary,’ says Jim of the time.

‘I didn’t know what NASA was and they asked if I would participate as an explorer in their lunar and Martian explorations - I still have the letter from Mr Silberstein. It was the first connection to the space programme for Britain by a long, long measure,’ Jim adds. Unfortunately, however, Jim’s first wife was diagnosed with MS and they were unable to go.

The call of the west country was growing louder and they bought a house in Bowerchalke, Wiltshire. Jim was doing experiments at home and working at the Common Cold Unit near Salisbury. Despite the setback, NASA’s interest had got him thinking.

‘They thought Mars was a desert and so deduced that if they went to the Mojave Desert in California to do experiments it would be the same. That is rubbish,’ he explains. ‘So I started formulating. But I was called in by my boss and told to stop upsetting the biologists. He made it very clear I might lose my job if I didn’t. But then he asked, “How would you detect life on Mars?” So I told him.

‘It all set me thinking about how the earth works. Bill Golding (the author William Golding) was a friend and I used to discuss it with him. He said if you are going to come up with a big theory like that you had better give it a proper name. I asked what he would suggest and he suggested Gaia. So that was it, the Gaia theory. It is an analysis of how the energy of sunlight is taken by the earth and converted to low entropy things - like us. Life.’

Of course, there is a lot more to it than that and a wealth of books, talks, essays, and discussions exist for those interested to learn more. The impact of Jim’s theory has been wide-reaching and is particularly topical now with > bridporttimes.co.uk | 53

54 | Bridport Times | June 2019

all that is happening in climate change.

In 2006, in his book The Revenge of Gaia, Jim warned of the likelihood of global warming as the greenhouse gases rise with the damage done to rainforests and the reduction of the planet’s biodiversity. He predicted that there would be an increase in storms and the kind of the flooding that we are beginning to see. So does he think we are too late to save the planet?

‘No, but we have to pull our finger out,’ he says. ‘Humans will disappear because we evolve all the time and, if you look at a longer time interval then, yes, we will change and disappear.’ But the planet, he believes, can be saved. ‘The only way to do it is to use nuclear power. Everybody is so frightened of nuclear they won’t use it. Actually, I think it is pure propaganda from the big oil and coal companies who are absolutely mortally scared that their profits are going to go zooming down into the ground.’ He can point to several countries, France for instance, where nuclear power has been used for decades without any injury or illness.

It is an opinion that both he and Sandy firmly hold.

This year his new book will continue the story. ‘The present head of NASA is suggesting the biggest job we have, or they have, is to protect the Earth,’ says Jim, ‘to shoot down asteroids, that are on course for our planet

because if there is one as big as the one that took out the dinosaurs that would be the end of us.’

So what brought this man who has seen so much to reside close to Bridport? ‘My working life led me to this region purely by accident,’ he says ‘But I am impressed with Bridport – always have been. It’s an unusual, selfdetermining town. It survives through changing times and adapts – a microcosm of the Gaia theory. I feel at home here.’

We’ve been chatting for several hours and our photographer Katharine is keen to take Jim outside for the final portraits. Jim tells me my questioning isn’t quite as bad as the CIA, which I take as a compliment. It’s time to head off and I wish him well. Then I remember my first thought: how do you live to be 100? ‘Walk up hills and don’t eat your greens,’ he retorts. So that’s the secret, kids. We head outside, wave goodbye and listen to the larks as we take our separate ways. What a life. What a joy. Until the next time.

Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence by Jim Lovelock (Penguin) £14.99, is published on 4th July and available to pre-order now from The Bookshop, South Street, Bridport. bridporttimes.co.uk | 55

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Food & Drink

HOMEMADE BEEF BURGERS WITH BACON AND CHEESE Gill Meller, River Cottage

B

eef burgers are easy to make and always taste so much better than anything you can buy. These burgers are made with skirt steak, a flavoursome open-grained cut. I like to mince the steak with some beef fat or suet to give it extra moisture and a richer, beefier flavour. A crank-handled mincer works well – you see them at car boot sales all the time. If you don’t have a mincer, ask the butcher to mince the mix for you or chop the meat and fat in a food processor.

Get the fire really hot so that the bars of the grill char the burgers. This gives them character; it also helps to cook them fast and keeps them juicy. I serve them in buns with streaky bacon and Cheddar – the perfect partners in crime.

Ingredients Makes 4

400g skirt steak 100g fresh beef suet or beef fat 1 tbsp chopped thyme 1 heaped tsp fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper To assemble

8 rashers of streaky bacon About 150g good Cheddar Pickled cucumbers or gherkins 4 soft burger buns, lightly toasted Method

1 Mince the skirt steak and fat or suet together (see above), place in a large bowl and season with the thyme, salt and plenty of pepper. Use clean hands to mix the meat and seasonings thoroughly and bind

58 | Bridport Times | June 2019

the mixture together.

2 Divide the seasoned beef into 4 portions and shape into burgers, each about 125g and no thicker than 2cm.

3 Slice the cheese and pickled cucumbers thinly.

4 When everything is ready, get your fire going you want a deep bed of really hot embers. Set a grill over the fire.

5 Once everything is glowing super-hot and you can hover your hand above the grill for 1 second at most, lay the burgers carefully on the grill. They should start to sizzle and smoke immediately.

6 Cook for 2–3 minutes on each side. I like to serve the burgers just under medium but they can be left on a minute or two longer if you prefer. You need a searing heat to ensure the burgers take on lots of colour and stay juicy.

7 A minute or so after turning the burgers, add the bacon to the grill (at this point you should be able to hover your hand above the grill for a maximum of 4 seconds). Cook until crisp on both sides.

8 When the burgers are almost done, lay the cheese slices on top and let them melt (move the bacon to one side if it’s done).

9 Pop the burgers into the soft buns with the bacon rashers and pickled cucumbers and serve.

Outdoor Cooking by Gill Meller (Bloomsbury Publishing, £15.29) is out now. rivercottage.net

Image: Gavin Kingcome bridporttimes.co.uk | 59

Food & Drink

60 | Bridport Times | June 2019

SEASONAL COCKTAILS

THE WEST BEXINGTON BREEZE Caitlin Warren, The Club House, West Bexington

Caitlin, a native of Durban, South Africa, has joined the Club House team as their new Head Bartender/Mixologist. She has a passion for creating unique flavour combinations and producing stylish, enjoyable drinks which mirror the abundance of the seasons.

E

lderflower is synonymous with English summertime; its beautiful, delicate white flowers abound in late May and early June and bring colour and fragrance to West Bexington’s hedgerows. At the Club House we strive to showcase the best and most beautiful seasonal produce that nature offers us.

Elderflowers have long been revered for their medicinal benefits as well as being a subtle and refreshing flavour in teas and cordials. A West Bexington Breeze cocktail is the perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon on our beachfront decking.

Ingredients

25ml Doorly’s 3-year-old white rum 25ml Tosolini limoncello liqueur 25ml Briottet elderflower liqueur 25ml fresh lemon juice 1 dessert spoon of Granny Gothard’s elderflower sorbet 50ml Bradley’s elderflower pressé Method

1 Place sorbet into the bottom of a Boston cocktail shaker, add rum, limoncello, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice to the shaker and stir until sorbet is dissolved.

2 Add fresh, large ice cubes to the shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds.

3 Double strain the mixture into a tumbler filled with ice cubes.

4 Top up with elderflower pressé.

5 Garnish with elderflowers, violas and fresh lemon.

Then, sit back, relax and enjoy the breeze. theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 61

Food & Drink

LABNE WITH ROASTED CARROTS, RADISHES AND MINT

L

Cass Titcombe, Brassica Restaurant

abne is a very popular Middle Eastern staple, simply made from strained yoghurt which is salted and left to drain - ideally overnight for a thick texture or longer as it gets firmer over time.

I prefer to make it plain and serve with the other flavours as toppings or accompaniments. It’s a perfect foil for something a bit spicier such as pickled chillies which give it some heat. You could of course omit these or swap for mild pickled peppers.

It really needs some sort of bread to scoop it up with and the crunchiness of pane carasau, a traditional flatbread from Sardinia, is ideal. It is thin and crisp, usually in the form of a dish half a metre wide. It is made by taking baked flat bread and separating it into two sheets which are baked again. Alternatively, you could cut flat bread or pitta bread into strips and toast in the oven until crunchy.

June really sees the start of the small, local, organic vegetables that are perfect for this dish. Don’t stick to the recipe exactly as they can be swapped for other things such as raw baby peas, cucumbers, or red onions.

Just try and make sure you have a good contrast and balance of roasted, sweet and crunchy pickled.

Ingredients

500g Greek yoghurt full fat 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (7g) 1 bunch small carrots 2 bunches radishes 50g hot pickled guindillas 100ml cider vinegar 40g sugar ½ teaspoon mustard seeds ½ teaspoon cumin seeds mint leaves olive oil 2 garlic cloves pane carasau or flat bread 62 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Method

1 To make the labne: mix the greek yoghurt with the salt and then tip into a clean muslin or a jelly bag.

Hang over a bowl and leave in a cool place overnight.

The next day you should be left with a bowl of thin liquid and the labne in the bag. Remove this and store in the fridge until needed (it will last in the fridge easily for 3 days). Don’t throw away the liquid as this can be used for soda bread or pancakes.

2 Trim most of the leaves from the carrots and scrub well; do the same with the radishes.

3 Place the vinegar, sugar and mustard seeds in a small saucepan with 100ml water and bring to the boil.

Allow to cool. Quarter the radishes and sprinkle with a little sea salt then toss them in the pickle liquid and put to one side for a minimum of 2 hours.

These can also be made the same time as the labne and left overnight.

4 Halve the carrots lengthways, place on a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with the cumin seeds and bashed garlic cloves, and roast in a very hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and season.

5 To serve: spread the labne out on a large flat plate and top with the roasted carrots, radishes, chopped pickled guindillas and chopped mint leaves. Finish with a few generous glugs of really good olive oil. Serve the pane carasau or grilled flat breads on the side.

You can find pane carasau and the pickled chillies in our shop, Brassica Mercantile, in Beaminster. @brassica_food @brassicarestaurant_mercantile bridporttimes.co.uk | 63

Food & Drink

Image: Brancott Estate

NEW ZEALAND AND LOIRE VALLEY SAUVIGNON BLANCS COMPARED

I

Steven Spurrier, Consultant Editor, Decanter Magazine and Co-Owner, Bride Valley Vineyard

n anticipation of Sauvignon Blanc Day, which fell on 3rd May, Wines of New Zealand and Loire Valley Wines teamed up in mid-April under the banner of, ‘A Celebration of Sauvignon Blanc from opposite sides of the world’. Presented by Dr Jamie Goode, an expert of vines and climate conditions, and Rebecca Gibb MW, whose book The Wines of New Zealand (Infinite Ideas, 2018) is the definitive book on the subject, wines were served blind in six pairs. Both countries came out with honours.

The background is a series of contrasts: The Loire Valley is on 47.3 degrees north latitudinal range and Marlborough in New Zealand is on 41.5 degrees south.

Sauvignon Blanc in the Loire was first mentioned by Rabelais in 1534 while the first recorded planting in Marlborough dates back only to 1975. Of the 30,000 hectares of the grape in France, 10,000 are in the Loire and of the 38,000 hectares of vines in New Zealand, 24,000 are Sauvignon Blanc of which 90% is exported.

The Loire is a cool climate region with more light than sunshine while Marlborough’s bright sunshine is tempered by the vineyards being near the ocean.

Both have around 750ml of rainfall a year but while Marlborough may irrigate, the Loire Valley may not.

64 | Bridport Times | June 2019

New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc hit our shelves in the late 1980s when consumers, thanks to Australia and to a lesser extent California and Chile, were buying wines on the name of the grape rather than the region. It wasn’t at all obvious that the benchmark Sauvignons from the Loire – Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume – were 100% from this grape, as French law forbade it being on the label.

Thus it was that the New World Sauvignons, led by New Zealand, took over from the Loire classics, who have now regained recognition, proving that competition is good for everyone.

The wines were served blind and, after each pair, a show of hands was called for to see who had placed which wine in which country; I only got the 5th pair wrong. Jamie Goode pointed out that Sauvignon Blanc is a rare varietal where a bit of unripeness/ greenness works well, something inconceivable for red varietals. In the early days the Marlborough wines were highly aromatic and almost aggressively crisp on the finish but, as the vines have aged, they have become better balanced, showing vineyard and not just grape characteristics. Here are the wines with my brief notes and marks out of 20 (17/20 or 90/100 gets a Silver at the Decanter World Wine Awards).

Image: Pierre Mérat

First Pair – Great Value Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough £12 Silver pale, floral, white summer fruits, refreshing acidity, well-made wine 16.75 Sauvignon Blanc 2018 Domaine de la Renaudie Touraine £12.50 Fresh pale yellow, riper fruit and more vineyard expression, good length and balance 17 Second Pair – Award-Winning Cause & Effect Barrel Fermented 2017 Marlborough £17.99 Fine lemon/yellow, ripe but still tight, florality coming through, good, needs time 17.25 Cuvee Exceptionelle 2017 Domaine Benjamin Delobel Touraine N/A UK Fine lemon/yellow, yellow summer fruits, some oak, smooth and ripe, good future 17.5 Third Pair – Pioneer Reuilly AOC Les Fossiles 2018 Denis Jamain £14.99 Lemon-pale, floral, marked Sauvignon nose, crisp but some greenness on the palate 16.75 Brancott Estate Chosen Rows 2010 Marlborough £40 Lemon-pale, broad-flavoured summer fruits, some oak, good vineyard expression, a touch green with a good future 17.25 (the group applauded the freshness for a 2010) Fourth Pair – Pure Terroir Clos Henri Sauvignon 2016 Marlborough £20

Mid-yellow, floral, fine purity of expression, more varietal than vineyard, good wine 17.25 Sancerre AOC Cotes des Monts Damnes 2017 £26.50 Pale yellow, light summer fruits, good depth and followthrough, good future 17.5 (it should be noted that Monsieur Henri Bourgeois of Sancerre also owns Clos Henri) Fifth Pair – Innovation Sauvignon Blanc 2018 Domaine Joel Delaunay Touraine £11.99 Silver pale, white flowers, florality stays on the palate, elegantly lifted fruit finish 17.5 Greywacke Wild Sauvignon 2016 Marlborough £27.99 Fine lemon/yellow, broad yellow fruits, oak evident, rich flavours balanced by natural acidity, a classy wine, good now and for the future 17.75 (The Greywacke Estate is owned by Kevin Judd, winemaker of over 20 years for Cloudy Bay, the iconic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - his wines are always outstanding) Sixth Pair – Off the Beaten Track Sauvignon Vieilles Vignes 2017 Domaine du Pre Baron Touraine £13.49 Pale gold, oak evident, ripe and smooth, mature, more vineyard than varietal 17.25 Te Mata Estate Cape Crest 2018 Hawke’s Bay £19.99 Fine lemon/yellow, floral nose shows both grape and terroir great purity 17.5 bridporttimes.co.uk | 65

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Body & Mind

MANTRAS Jane Fox, Yogaspace

‘When you are a light to yourself you are a light to the world.’ (Krishnamurti)

L

ooking after oneself is tough. In our busy lives it’s not easy to find time for regular yoga practice and other nourishing things that help keep us balanced, whole and growing. With work, travel, family life and other responsibilities, caring for ourselves can often fall to the bottom of the to-do list.

Over the past couple of years, I have been making 68 | Bridport Times | June 2019

a commitment to move myself up the list, however uncomfortable that feels. My foundation is ‘keep it simple’ so I’m not adding to my to-do list. The results always amaze me. I am more grounded, present, calm and happy. Then, after a while, I gradually slide back down the list, patience disappears, and I remember, ‘Ouch! Forgot myself today.’

Mantra

Recently I have been finding a mantra very helpful.

Traditionally it is believed a mantra is a Sanskrit word or group of words that, by repeating, begins to alter and deepen consciousness. I have been stretching the traditional mantra usage to incorporate slogans to help with my self-care and keep me focused on what matters most. My current mantra, from the Ram Dass Foundation, is, ‘Love, Serve, Remember’. It came up in my email subject with the Foundation’s newsletter and stuck with me.

Ram Dass, or Richard Alpert as he was then, was a prominent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer who, in the 1960s along with Dr. Timothy Leary, was exploring human consciousness. Due to their methods being highly controversial, they were dismissed from Harvard, and moved from being academics to being counter-culture icons. For Ram Dass this exploration led him to meet his Guru Neem Karoli Baba and was the beginning of decades of spiritual seeking. He has shared his own journey with such generosity, giving millions the gift of expanding beyond a limited perspective.

Going about my day, ‘Love, Serve, Remember’ will suddenly pop into my head if I am going too fast or anxious about something. I have made up my own attachments to these words: • Love reminds me to love myself first so I can properly love others and life.

• Serve reminds me to surrender, drop my shoulders, breathe deeply and be grateful, knowing what is mine to hold and what is not.

• Remember reminds me to go back to the beginning and repeat.

Make up your own or use traditional Indian mantras and see if it helps to bring you back and keep you in the present.

Praise me!

In parenting classes we are told to praise our children and, likewise, in training classes to praise our pets. We also need to learn to acknowledge and praise ourselves!

In a talk on trust, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda asks, ‘How would it affect your state if, each time you came through on a promise or duty or performed some beneficial action, you took the time to acknowledge yourself ?’

Doing this practice, my confidence grows and so does my self-worth and self-trust. I am creating my own marble jar. The marble jar, if you are not familiar with it, is a way of explaining to children about building trust.

"I have been making a commitment to move myself up the list," Trust is built slowly, one marble at a time. Each time a friend does something kind or thoughtful, a marble or handful of marbles go into the jar and the friends you really trust have very full marble jars. The marbles can also be taken away.

Being thoughtful and both kind and loving to ourselves we build our own trust and consequently our self-love, confidence and self-worth. We value ourselves for who we are, not what we do. I become a friend to myself when I acknowledge that getting to the mat is an achievement and thanking myself for that gift. And I can hear Gurumayi almost laughing saying, ‘Take a moment and thank yourself!’

Remembering

Take time to remember why we are doing our Asana yoga practice. We are not here to achieve a certain pose or beat our personal best. We move to be able to sit still.

‘Active asana practice and seated meditation are a natural pair. Cultivating movement without cultivating stillness is incomplete.’ ( Jason Crandell) In the morning on the mat, when my body is stiff and my mind wanders, I remind myself I am moving my body to open it up as I breathe and dissolve the layers that are clogging up my view. New day; new glasses.

The world is as you see it.

However, the mind is, However, your heart is, However, your attitude is, That’s how you see the world.

Therefore, wear good glasses with the right prescription.

(Swami Muktananda) Janie teaches a weekly Vinyasa Yoga class on Fridays at 9.15am The Bull Hotel, Bridport. Details on the website. yogaspacebridport.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 69

Body & Mind

HERBAL TREATMENT FOR HAY FEVER Caroline Butler BSc, (Hons) MNIMH, Medical Herbalist

H

ay fever, or to give it its more official name of seasonal allergic rhinitis, makes a lot of people miserable for a significant portion of the spring and summer. Caused by an immune response to inhaled allergens, the symptoms of a runny or blocked nose, sneezing, itchy eyes and a sore throat can be anything from mildly annoying to really debilitating.

Luckily, herbs are here to help!

Ideally, herbal treatment for hay fever should start six 70 | Bridport Times | June 2019

weeks before your symptoms normally start. This gets your body into good shape before the allergens appear and prevents your body going into the hypersensitive immune response at the first exposure to pollen. However, even if you start late, herbs can alleviate the symptoms, though they may be needed in larger amounts.

Hay fever is caused by the release of histamine from mast cells in the sensitive mucous membranes. These immune cells are found in areas of the body where the

Chamille White/Shutterstock

internal and external environments meet; they are found in the lining of the gut, where what we ingest from the outside world meets our inner environment, and in the lining of the respiratory system, where inhaled air passes through our nose or mouth to our lungs. The purpose of this is to protect us against pathogens, as the presence of immune cells in these tissues can screen for dangerous bacteria and initiate an immune response against them. With allergies, the breakdown of mast

cells is triggered by non-pathogenic material, e.g., pollen, resulting in the release of a range of substances, including histamine, that promote inflammation and attract other immune cells to the area. This creates the swelling, redness and itching we associate with hay fever.

Herbs can help in a number of ways. Anti-catarrhal herbs such as elderflower, plantain and ground ivy dry up excessive mucous and relieve nasal congestion. They also tone the membranes, improving their integrity, which makes it harder for the allergens to reach the mast cells that are deeper in the tissue.

These herbs can be combined with anti-allergy herbs. Nettles are commonly eaten or drunk as a tea, especially in spring, because of their high vitamin and mineral content. They have an astringent, drying effect and are also anti-allergic, reducing inflammation and modulating the immune response. Echinacea can also be helpful as an immune-modulating herb.

All of these herbs can be drunk as a tea, either on their own or together. A nice combination is elderflower, plantain and nettle: put a teaspoon of each in a small teapot filled with hot water and leave to infuse for ten minutes. This can be drunk freely throughout the day.

Eyebright is great in this combination too, or on its own. A tiny, pretty little plant with minuscule white flowers streaked with purple and yellow, it makes a surprisingly dark brew. Its astringent, anti-catarrhal and anti-inflammatory actions are all helpful for hay fever and, as the name suggests, it soothes sore, itchy eyes. It can be used as a wash or in an eye bath, as well as taken internally. Another simple remedy for inflamed eyes is to apply moistened chamomile teabags.

Other herbs can be added in depending on which symptoms are worst. If a sore throat is a problem, add sage. If hay fever causes wheezing, add thyme. If your nose is really blocked, add a decongestant like yarrow.

Herbal medicine is great for being adapted to each individual person.

For severe symptoms, herbalists can use ephedra.

This is a restricted herb, only available to professional herbalists as it contains the strong alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. These are used in a pure form within the pharmaceutical industry but in the herb are present in smaller amounts and have a gentler effect.

Ephedra is very useful in allergic conditions like asthma, hay fever, sinusitis and urticaria, and can bring almost instant relief. herbalcaroline.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 71

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Interiors

LLOYD LOOM HITS THE 21ST CENTURY

L

Suzy Newton, Partners in Design

loyd Loom originated in 1917 during the First World War. Entrepreneur Marshall Burns Lloyd found himself confronted with a severe drop in the supply of rattan as a result of the war so, in order to be able to keep producing his ever-popular baby carriages and strollers, he invented a technique in which paper is twisted around a metal wire and then machine woven into large sheets of woven paper thread.

When putting this new material to use in his production of baby carriages he discovered that not only was it much stronger than rattan but also it was much softer and thus more comfortable. He called his invention the ‘Lloyd Loom Technique’.

In 1922 Marshall Burns Lloyd sold the UK patent to William Lusty. Lusty developed a line of typically English furniture that soon became all the rage in the UK and the rest of Europe. In the 1930s, at the height of his company’s success, Lusty’s Lloyd Loom furniture could be found in hotels, restaurants and tea rooms as well as on cruise ships and ocean-going liners. It had become a household name.

Sadly, it all came to an abrupt end in 1940 when the production plant was hit by an air raid. Although this saw the end of the first large-scale manufacturing of Lloyd Loom furniture, the Lloyd Loom product never lost its appeal and a couple of companies carried on with the manufacturing process.

It was in 1992 that the Belgium-based company 74 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Vincent Sheppard breathed new life into the technique and developed a fantastic modern furniture collection.

By setting up a private production facility, Vincent Sheppard eventually became one of the very few vertically-integrated Lloyd Loom manufacturers, controlling the whole operation from the paper twisting and weaving through to upholstery.

In 2006 they added to the collection with a new outdoor furniture range. By constantly challenging themselves and their design aesthetics, Vincent Sheppard present young, contemporary furniture collections that fulfil all modern needs. Combining a clear focus on quality and comfort with craftsmanship and the age-old technique, they translate these ingredients into qualitative, durable and appealing designs with a modern twist.

From baby carriages to luxury beds and minimalist sofas, Vincent Sheppard have taken the hundredyear-old process and, by adding new materials such as beech, teakwood, steel and aluminium, they have brought the concept bang up to date. They have established a worldwide reputation for exceptional seating comfort, quality, style and durability. In addition, the company is committed to raising ecological standards and improving living standards in the countries in which it operates. partners-in-design.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 75

Interiors

SAY IT WITH FABRIC

P

Molly Bruce, Interior Designer

lanning and executing a refurbishment in your home can be hard work. Once the painting and DIY is done and the furniture is in place it is tempting to breathe a sigh of relief, wash out your paint brush and call it a day. However, this often means that those essential finishing touches never get, well, finished.

In order to complete an interior design, it needs styling, adding layers to a space to transform it from a house into a home. Whether it’s pictures on the walls, house plants or your favourite knick-knacks, the styling is as important as paint colour and furniture. When you get to this stage, the fun really begins; if while adding those finishing touches to your home you are not sure where to start, think fabric.

Fabric is a great way to introduce different patterns and texture to a room, bringing comfort with its tactile quality. It can lift a space in numerous ways, so don’t just stop at curtains and cushions: imagine a fluffy rug on the floor providing warmth and comfort underfoot, a beautifully patterned headboard in the bedroom or a newly upholstered reading chair. If you want to push the boundaries further, cover a screen or some wardrobe doors, or hang your favourite piece on the wall like you would a painting. Wallpaper originally derived from the more elaborate decorations of textiles such as silk embroidered chinoiserie and woven tapestries. It is said that, during his reign, Henry VIII had as many as two thousand tapestries hanging in various palaces; if it’s good enough for Henry, it’s good enough for us. Take a look at the room you want to perfect and think outside the box. If you don’t already have a hoard of fabric waiting to be used, go hunting for that special piece to provide your ‘wow’ factor.

I like to collect pieces on my travels and some of the treasures in my own home are those I stumble on in vintage shops, normally when I am shopping for someone else! I know if I resist, I often regret it later, so snap up those one-off pieces when you have the chance. In my constant crusade to reduce, reuse, 76 | Bridport Times | June 2019

and recycle where I can, one of the shops I frequent is Salvage Style. Recently opened in Bridport’s South Street, owner Tracy Caden McArthy has a treasure trove of fabric to drool over. ‘Salvage Style’ is a phrase coined by Vogue during the ‘60s, referring to the art of customising and upcycling old fabric following the make-do-and-mend attitude of WWII. Tracy began her career at The London College of Furniture, studying interiors and upholstery and enjoying unlimited access to the V&A’s archives. After running an interiors shop in Islington, she relocated to Bridport in 2009, opening a shop in St. Michaels trading estate selling fabric and unusual, one-off pieces of furniture. Since expanding the business, Tracy’s aim is to inspire all who walk through the door with the large and varied selection on display.

In her own inimitable style, she describes her approach to design as a ‘colour-driven explosion, accidentally curated, with a love for fabric that doesn’t compromise on quality or creativity.’

Choosing fabric is a lot less overwhelming than designing a room from scratch; if a client is struggling to decide colour combinations for their home, I often suggest looking in their wardrobe. The shade and materials we gravitate towards with our clothing will be pleasant to our eye in any space. The interiors and fashion industries’ roots have always been intertwined so, if you need inspiration, look at your favourite dress or tie and invest in a copy of Vogue as well as interiors magazines. Fabric evokes emotion when your eyes rest upon the design and your hands feel the texture; you either like it, or you don’t. You can choose similar colours

to match a room or add contrast by selecting a piece from the opposite end of the colour spectrum. If you purchase the fabric first, use it as a tool to influence your interior design.

The possibilities are endless and once you have dipped your toe in the water it is hard to look back. The most common comment I hear in a textile emporium, always uttered with disappointed resignation is, ‘I can’t allow myself to buy anymore until I’ve made use of the huge amount I already have!’ But if you are already drowning in fabric, surely there’s room for just one more orphaned remnant? mollybruce.co.uk @mollybruceinteriors @furniturefabricfunk bridporttimes.co.uk | 77

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Gardening

CULINARY HERBS Will Livingstone, WillGrow

H

erbs are the catalyst for delicious food. They freshen up heavy winter dishes and enhance delicate summer flavour, and with very little effort they can transform something ordinary into something really special. Fortunately, most are easy to grow, responding well to a wide range of growing conditions. Everybody has the space to grow at least a little of their own food and herbs are the best place to start.

Culinary herbs are usually divided into two categories - soft herbs and woody herbs. Soft herbs are normally grown as annuals and are sown and harvested in the same year. Woody herbs are perennial and need to be maintained accordingly. There are plenty of good reasons to grow both types. Be creative with variety; there is a huge array of colour, fragrance and flavour waiting to be unleashed into your culinary repertoire.

Most herbs are tolerant of most conditions, so don’t feel limited by what space/soil you have. The general rule is that fertile, free-draining soil will set you in good stead, however thyme prefers it dry while mint prefers 80 | Bridport Times | June 2019

it wet, but both will produce well regardless. Herbs with shallow, fibrous roots can also be successfully grown in pots and will grow well without full sun.

Good garden centres or specialist nurseries will have herbs for sale in pots but most (especially soft herbs) are easily grown from seed and this is the most economical way to produce herbs all year round. Avoid buying the supermarket potted herbs as, put simply, they are a waste of money if you intend to keep them beyond one picking. They are sold as a sustainable way of growing herbs but most facilitate the waste of a plastic pot and not much else. Seed is cheap, so sow basil, parsley, coriander, chervil and fennel in succession throughout the year instead. The plants you sow and grow yourself will be better suited to growing in your garden than those grown under strict conditions for supermarkets.

Growing herbs as companion plants has many benefits. Thyme, for instance, is a fantastic pollinator once it has flowered, so including a few plants in the nooks and crannies of the garden will help encourage

beneficial insects. Nasturtiums are a fantastic addition to any herb garden. With delicious leaves, flowers and pods, they should be grown as a crop as well as a useful companion plant. Different varieties have different growing habits - some climb and sprawl, which offers a cascade effect over the edge of a raised bed or rambling up a wall or fence, and some grow more like a bush, which I use as a standalone plant in a bee border. The flavour, being very closely related, is much like watercress and adds a fiery kick to salads. In the latter part of the season, harvest the nasturtium pods, brine then pickle them to preserve a remarkably similar flavour to that of true capers. They are easy to weed out and self-sow with gusto, so you will likely only need to purchase seed once.

Coriander is the herb that people struggle with – ‘it always bolts!’ Avoid growing coriander in the hottest months of the summer; sown in the early spring or autumn undercover will mean it crops during the cooler months and will help reduce bolting. However, letting coriander run to seed can give tasty rewards - the flowers and seeds, green or dried, are delicious in the kitchen. Coriander overwinters well in a polytunnel or greenhouse too.

Perennial herbs are simple to grow but easy to mismanage. In the first few years of planting, pick sparingly, as herbs such as rosemary, sage and tarragon

need some time to get established and suffer if heavily picked. If your herb plant is looking tired or overworked, you can cut it back hard which can rejuvenate new growth. If that fails, don’t be afraid to cut your losses and start again with a new specimen. Perennial herbs appreciate a mulch in the winter months to replenish nutrients and suppress weeds.

Some interesting herbs to try: • Anise hyssop - a hardy perennial with a sweet, minty aniseed flavour; a good substitute for tarragon and goes well with seafood.

• Summer savory - a hardy annual, peppery and aromatic; use like thyme.

• Lemon verbena - a half-hardy perennial with very fragrant lemon sherbet aroma; great in tea or infused in a stock syrup to be used in ice cream or sorbets.

• Angelica - a hardy biennial with juniper-like flavour; candy the stems to accompany cooked fruit.

• Sweet cicely - a hardy perennial with delicate aniseed flavour; it’s rather like chervil, with beautiful flowers.

• Perilla - a half-hardy annual with stunning, purple, jagged leaves, sweetly pungent with a mild cumin flavour; grow for a splash of colour in the herb garden. willgrow.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 81

Gardening

GET YOUR GARDEN BUZZING

T

Charlie Groves, Groves Nurseries

here’s no better sound than a garden alive with the industrious buzz of bees. We gardeners owe a lot to nature’s little helpers; without them we wouldn’t be able to grow many of the fruits and vegetables we take for granted. By helping the hardworking bees and butterflies we’re helping wildlife and ourselves. I love to see them flying about pollinating in both my garden at home and the nursery, so I’m really pleased that this month we will be welcoming Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) to Groves in Bridport as part of their ‘Get Dorset Buzzing’ initiative. They’ll be with us on Saturday 22nd June so come along to meet their team and find out more about helping not just pollinators but wildlife generally in your gardens.

The ‘Get Dorset Buzzing’ project is being led by DWT’s President, Dr George McGavin, who you may also know as the One Show bug expert, and it’s all about getting the county’s gardeners to take the pledge to help pollinators in their own gardens. George commented with great enthusiasm, ‘We can bring the bees back – we can make Dorset buzz again, and it will be a great example to everybody else on how to do it right.’

I totally agree and would like to encourage all local gardeners to sign up if they haven’t done so already and come along on 22nd June to find out more.

I’m very enthusiastic about helping the wildlife in my garden and I’ve a few handy tips to make your garden irresistible to nectar-loving pollinators. First, you need to have something on the menu for them throughout the seasons, so your choice of plants really is essential to pay dividends for them and for you. Plant the rights things and they’ll be in your garden all year round.

What’s the difference between bees and butterflies pollinating our plants? The main difference is that bees tend to pollinate, and brilliantly, in smaller areas while butterflies travel longer distances and so pollinate in a larger area. Again, plant the right things you’ll be helping not just your garden but your neighbour’s as well.

These are my top choices of plants they’ll love. As many 82 | Bridport Times | June 2019

pollinator-friendly flowers prefer a sunny or partially sunny location, pick your site well and, if space allows, try to grow plants in blocks or swathes to maximise their beneficial impact for the bees and butterflies.

Spring Plants: Primroses, Grape Hyacinths, Sweet Rocket, Aubretia, Winter-flowering Heathers, Crocus, Apple or Crab Apple trees.

Summer Plants: Buddleia, Verbena Bonariensis, Lavender, Red Valerian, Hebe, Monarda Autumn Plants: Echinacea, Hyssop, Ice Plant, Rudbeckia, Asters, Abelia, Honeysuckle Winter Plants: Evergreen clematis, Lungwort, Oregon Grape, Strawberry Tree, Willow, Winter Aconites.

I also think we have a responsibility to give a helping hand to the other wildlife that visits our

Luca Rossatti/Shutterstock

gardens. There are an estimated 16 million gardens in the UK and together they form a vast potential refuge for species that are declining. These simple actions can help: • Feed the birds and install a bird box • Leave sections of your lawn long for insects that will be a good source of food for birds • Grow climbers: ivy, roses and clematis are suitable for wildlife food and habitats • Build a bug hotel - leave piles of rocks, twigs and rotting wood in your garden to create shelter for all sorts of significant insects, such as beetles and spiders • Build a simple pond - a source of water for insects and birds • Have a compost heap - a habitat for worms, woodlice

and many other insects, as well as frogs and slow worms • Leave gaps at the bottom of fences to allow wildlife such as hedgehogs and frogs to move through from plot to plot • Learn to relax about weeds - plants such as nettles, daisies and buttercups are essential sources of food for many insects, including butterflies and moths.

More and more we are being urged to help declining wildlife – you may think ‘Why bother in my small garden?’ but, if we all pull together and make efforts, then, like George McGavin, I believe that we really can make a difference for the generations to come. grovesnurseries.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 83

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84 | Bridport Times | June 2019

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Legal

DIY DIVORCE

IS IT WORTH THE RISK? Karen Watts, Solicitor, Porter Dodson

Y

our marriage has broken down. You’re already going through an incredibly emotional and difficult time. With divorce rates increasing each year and the enticement of cheap, online do-it-yourself divorce services, you may be contemplating taking the DIY route. But is it really worth the risk?

In spite of what is claimed, a ‘quickie divorce’ is not possible. There is a strict Court timetable. Once you have received your Decree Nisi there is a time period of 6 weeks and 1 day before you can apply for your Decree Absolute. This timetable cannot be altered by choosing a DIY divorce. The timescale is also dependent on the demands of the Court and how quickly they can turn papers around.

The claim that an online divorce is cheaper than paying for lawyers can also be appealing but it is misleading. The advertised price may not mention the Court fee of £550, payable when the application for divorce is sent to the Court. The only reason a DIY divorce is cheaper is because you will not be paying legal fees. However, there is a reason why legal fees are payable – we are the experts and we know what we are doing.

In England and Wales, it’s not obligatory to instruct a lawyer to get a divorce. Although it may appear easy enough to fill out the divorce forms, if there are errors they will be returned by the Court. This will cause delay and may require amendment, incurring a further fee. There are also financial implications if the forms are not completed correctly. A common assumption is, ‘Now I’m divorced my spouse cannot make a claim against my finances’. This is not strictly true but this will not be explained within the DIY process.

The effect of becoming divorced is that you are no longer a spouse. Should your ex-spouse predecease you, you will lose the benefit of inheriting from your ex-spouse’s will/their estate and any pension entitlement. Although mechanically the divorce may be straightforward, the related finances are complex. Pensions can be a major asset and often are overlooked in divorce. The division of pensions is complicated and expert advice is needed in order to consider all the options. Do you really want to be divorced not having given thought as to your entitlement to your spouse’s pension, which can be a very valuable asset? In contrast, do you really want your spouse claiming against your pension in the future?

Being divorced will not necessarily prevent future claims, whether that is in 1 years’ or 10 years’ time!

Unlike other civil proceedings, there is no time limit for making a financial claim in divorce proceedings.

You may feel that you and your spouse have no assets and therefore no order is needed. However, it is impossible to know what the future holds, and whether you may acquire assets in the future.

Whilst a DIY divorce may appear attractive because it’s quicker and cheaper on the face of it, it’s worth remembering that you get what you pay for. Legal advice can help with all these aspects that are overlooked by the appealing DIY divorce adverts, helping you avoid any potential pitfalls now or in the future. porterdodson.co.uk

86 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Expert advice – from our family to yours

When it comes to protecting your interests and those of your loved ones, we can help: • Divorce • Financial settlement • Prenuptial agreements Talk to Karen Watts karen.watts@porterdodson.co.uk

21 South Street, Bridport T: 01308 555630 E: info@porterdodson.co.uk

www.porterdodson.co.uk

Community

THE CHERRY PLUM

M

Mary Tassell

any residents of Bridport and West Bay will be aware of the council’s works to widen the footpath which leads from Burton Road down to West Bay in order to extend a current cycle route.

Those of us who use this path regularly have been watching progress with interest. This footpath, very overgrown in places, has represented a fantastic ‘green corridor’ used by many species of animals, and pleasingly screened off from surrounding houses. Walking, jogging, running, cycling or strolling, it has been a pleasurable pathway and, in autumn, local people have often used it extensively to forage for blackberries, sloes, damsons, bullace and hawthorn berries. Blackberrypicking remains one of the few connections to wild foraging still practised by many people in our busy 21st century. Many of us are hoping that the sturdy blackberry will return undeterred to enrich our lives again. We hope also to welcome back wild marjoram, burdock, lady’s bedstraw and stitchwort, to name but a few.

Change is unavoidable and, in this case, the drive to encourage people to use bikes instead of cars is a good one. The one massive sadness that this change has brought, however, has been the cutting down of a magnificent cherry plum tree. The cherry plum had been in flower for a few weeks and had delighted many people with its lush, snowy white flowers.

In the four years that I have been resident here I have benefitted from free cherry plums every autumn; sour but bursting with anti-oxidants and general goodness.

The flowers in spring are an absolute joy; this February was particularly spectacular.

I was therefore something approaching heartbroken this morning to see the sad stump of such a generous and well-loved tree, cut off whilst still in full flower.

The trunk of the tree was up against a fence and did not appear to be an obvious potential obstruction to any future passing cyclists; plenty of space for all. Passing walkers, however, have very much enjoyed the presence of this tree on many levels.

I spoke to one local resident who regularly cared for the tree, clearing it of ivy, and keeping it healthy. Our connection with trees goes deep.

This is not intended to be a rant, rather it is a lament of sorts. The severe curtailment of a precious green corridor, a piece of the wild, has been a matter of reluctant acceptance. The losing of this gorgeous tree is something more. Was it really necessary? We, the locals, have lost a bit of beauty from our lives.

88 | Bridport Times | June 2019

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FRIDAY 6th DECEMBER

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Dance the night away to all the great sounds from the Motown & Soul classics.

7pm for 7.45pm sit down | Carriages at midnight

7pm for 7.45pm sit down | Carriages at midnight

FRIDAY 20th DECEMBER

Its a Disco Inferno night with all the classic dance tracks that made the 70’s great.

7pm for 7.45pm sit down | Carriages at midnight

SATURDAY 21st DECEMBER

Get ready for an unforgettable evening celebrating the global superstar that is George Michael. You’ll be getting up (to get down) to all your best-loved songs 7pm for 7.45pm sit down | Carriages at midnight

STAY THE NIGHT? £85 B&B per room George Albert Hotel Wardon Hill, Evershot, Nr. Dorchester, Dorset DT2 9PW Tel: 01935 483430 • www.gahotel.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 89

Philosophy

COGNITIVE BIAS

T

Kelvin Clayton

he question asked at this month’s meeting of the Bridport Philosophy in Pubs group was, “Is cognitive bias avoidable?” We like to believe that the brain (particularly our own) is rational and totally capable of processing and interpreting the information it receives, providing us with an accurate understanding of our world. And, up to a point, it is but, because it is not totally up to the job of grasping the full complexity of this world, it has evolved a number of ways to simplify the information it receives. In evolutionary terms this is not a problem, providing it is correct, or nearly correct, most of the time. Occasionally, however, it trips us up and, the more complex our lives become, the more prone we are to error and the greater the implications of that error.

One of the many forms this bias takes is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Because we struggle to cope with complexity and uncertainty, we have evolved the tendency to over-estimate our own ability to understand, and so have become over-confident in our own ideas and beliefs. The paradox here is that experts, despite their recent ‘dismissal’ by certain politicians, tend to be the ones who know just how much they don’t know. This was neatly summed up by the philosopher Bertrand Russell when he commented, ‘The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are so certain of themselves, yet wiser people so full of doubts.’

Another bias that affects us all is confirmation bias. This describes our tendency to look for ways to justify or reinforce our existing beliefs. We all have a strong tendency to buy and read the newspaper that we believe is talking to ‘people like us’ - in other words, the newspaper that confirms rather than challenges our existing world view. We also seek out and socially mix with ‘like-minded’ people. We appear to be primed to seek out and agree with people who think like us and avoid and dismiss those who do not.

The question is, are these (and many other) biases avoidable? Are they a problem? If they are, how much of a problem are they? And what can we do about it? Well, I don’t think that they can be avoided, not totally, and, as the world, particularly the social world, becomes more and more complex, we need to recognise the problems they can cause. One response would be to adopt elements of ‘the scientific method’. Since Sir Karl Popper, scientists have sought to actively falsify our current understanding of the world rather than confirm it, to seek evidence of error rather that evidence of correctness. Perhaps we should all consider following suit.

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

90 | Bridport Times | June 2019

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Anne Morrison, The Bookshop

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

by Elif Shafak (Penguin, June 2019) £14.99 Bridport Times Reader Price of £12.99 available at The Bookshop, South Street

H

arper Lee once said, ‘You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family…’ This book is about friendships.

Born in a provincial town and facing an unwanted arranged marriage, our protagonist, Leila, flees her family and home, rejecting the traditions, expectations, abuses, limitations and cruelties, and heads for far away Istanbul. Probably based on the reality of Shafak’s own experience, we are given a taste of the historical traditionalism of Turkish social customs, the hierarchical, fixed nature and rigidity of rules, the notions of family honour, and the all-important shame that is supposed to accompany the breaking of these codes. This tale, however, in which these customs and expectations continue to hold sway, is a contemporary one, taking place at the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

Istanbul is an exciting destination to run away to, having much to offer both positive and negative. Shafak describes evocatively the landscape and geography of the city, its cultural balancing act between the East and the West, its colours, its smells, its poverty and its richness. She creates an imaginative and even fantastical reality where history inserts itself politically and socially: student protests, police brutality and the residual bad taste left by the Armenian ethnic cleansing and genocide. A huge metropolis and hive of activity, Istanbul almost becomes a character in its own right and, for Leila, a kind of friend. And although Istanbul is at times cruel and unforgiving, Leila herself feels that, ‘This city always surprised her; moments of innocence were hidden in its darkest corners, moments so elusive

that by the time she realised how pure they were, they would be gone’.

Structurally, Shafak uses a conceit, namely the 10 minutes and 38 seconds she maintains it takes for a human brain to shut down completely at death, to tell these stories. Divided into segments of time, for instance 1 minute, 2 minutes, 9 minutes, 38 seconds, the narrative gradually allows us to meet Leila (who is actually dying) and her family of five friends, chosen and collected throughout her life. Though we know of her death from the start, the novel is full of life and energy.

Leila’s story is filled with stories.

Each segment of time passing - memories of chocolate bonbons, the taste of homemade strawberry cake, the smell of cardamom or a wood-burning stove – evokes a friend and their accompanying story. The intertwined lives of the friends raise issues present in contemporary Turkey, such as the status of women in society and the narrow confines of marriage, the rejection of that restrictiveness which can draw a woman into prostitution and a sort of independence, trans-gender discrimination, child abuse within families, and social judgements regarding physical difference and disability.

Despite the toughness of Leila’s life, its challenges, hurdles and sadnesses, this is a heart-warming, kind book.

Her struggle against society’s limitations and restrictions is ultimately made easier, happier and more fulfilling with the love and support of her chosen friends - surely an optimistic, inspirational approach to being alive. dorsetbooks.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 91

Literature

AN EXTRACT FROM SAVAGE GODS

I

By Paul Kingsnorth (Little Toller Books, 2019), £14

had a plan. The plan was to settle, to have some land, to root myself and my family. To escape from the city, to escape from the traps. To grow our own food, educate our own kids, draw our own water, plant our own fuel. To be closer to nature and further from the Machine. To be freer, to be more in control. To escape and, at the same time, to belong. To learn things I didn’t know anything about but wanted to, because I felt they’d make me a better, rounded adult person: planting trees, keeping hens, managing woodland, carpentry, wiring, building, all the small skills required to run a few acres of land and to be part of it. On top of that, to bring up our young children at home. And on top of that, to write books: truer books than I had ever written before. To write something great,

92 | Bridport Times | June 2019

something real, something so intense that nobody could read it without dimming the lights first.

It’s good to be ambitious. Or is it? I don’t even know any more.

We – my wife, myself, our two young children – moved to this small townland in Ireland when I was forty-one years old. Our house is on a small rise, on good sandy loam, a few miles from the River Shannon, which divides the east of this island from the west. We are in the west of the country, just, which means we are in the Romantic bit. The house is a little two-bedroom concrete cottage – can you have a concrete cottage? – built – poured – in the 1950s, to replace an older stone-and-thatch affair. The history of Ireland is a history of people escaping just as soon as they could from the tiny, picturesque, damp, cramped, whitewash-and-thatch cottages which people from the rest of the world still associate with Ireland.

Our house is small and a bit damp. It is not surrounded by breathtaking mountain scenery or sweeping white beaches, because we could never afford to live anywhere like that. It is quite an ordinary little place – modest compared to many new rural homes – which suits me somehow, because I feel I am quite an ordinary person, and I could never live in a big house.

The land around it is gentle: crooked fields, still owned by small farmers, home to beef cows, a few sheep, the odd goat and occasionally a strip of wheat or barley. The fields are divided by hedges of thorn, elder, oak, ash, sycamore, lime, under which streams run and past which old lanes wind. It is a pleasant, unspectacular, nooky, modest sort of landscape. It is my home, though I am still a stranger in it.

We moved here from a small Cumbrian market town where we had lived for five years, though I’m not from there either. Where am I from? I was born in Worcester, lived in Malvern until I was two or three – I don’t remember it – then moved to the suburbs of northwest London, near to where both my parents had grown up. When I was eleven we moved to High Wycombe, an ugly town in Buckinghamshire which had been an attractive town in Buckinghamshire before the 1960s got hold of it. Then we moved to a small village near Bath, in the West Country, the kind of village with no farmers left in it. When I was eighteen I went to university in Oxford.

Then I moved to London. Then back to Oxford. Then to Cumbria. Now to Ireland. Meanwhile, my parents had moved to Surrey, then to Cyprus where my nan, a Greek Cypriot from Famagusta, had met my granddad in the war. When my dad died in Cyprus, my mum moved back to England: to Yorkshire, then to Cheshire. My two brothers are currently in Reading and Warrington. We’re not done yet. See how we run.

My wife, Jyoti, had it different. She was born in Darlington, but from a young age she lived in Leamington Spa, in the same 1930s semi where her mum still lives. Her mum is a Punjabi Sikh, as were her late father and gran. The family moved from India to Britain in the late 1960s, invited by the government to plug the gaps in the British labour market; a fair exchange for a few centuries of colonialism. We occupied your country – now come and drive our buses! Jyoti’s family moved across half a world, but now they’re more settled than I am. She still has a family home. I wish I had a family home. I can remember when I had one. I couldn’t wait to get away.

Savage Gods will be available from your local bookshop or online from littletollerbooks.co.uk.

Paul Kingsnorth is visiting Dorset this summer and will be in conversation with Charles Foster (author of Being a Beast) at Haydon Church Studio on 18th June. For tickets and further information visit otherside-paulkingsnorth.eventbrite.co.uk littletollerbooks.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 93

Pete Millson | photographer Editorial Portraits Local Arts & Business Projects Cover Artwork

CLOCKTOWER MUSIC Records of all Types and Styles Bought and Sold Open Wednesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm

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MAY SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Doubtful (4) 3. Relating to love (8) 9. Water-bearing rock (7) 10. Feign (3,2) 11. Show-off (5) 12. Not as big (7) 13. Circles a planet (6) 15. Protects (6) 17. Furry nocturnal carnivorous mammal (7) 18. Arm joint (5) 20. With a forward motion (5) 21. Metal similar to platinum (7) 22. Gives a right to (8) 23. Average value (4) 94 | Bridport Times | June 2019

DOWN 1. Not suitable (13) 2. Smoke pipes (5) 4. Surge forwards (6) 5. Using letters and numbers (12) 6. Nominal (7) 7. US female politician (13) 8. Malice ___ : intention to harm (12) 14. Withdraw from a commitment (4,3) 16. Provoke (6) 19. Sandy fawn colour (5)

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