Bridport Times October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

POP STARS

with Carlotta Paolieri and Annie Coplestone of The Monmouth Table

bridporttimes.co.uk

WELCOME

I

t’s hard to think autumnal thoughts writing barefoot with the sun in your eyes. The shorter days and silent skies offer a comforting reminder and our woodlands, with a collective sigh, release their grip.

The nightshift of hedgehogs, toads, bugs and bats busy themselves behind our sleeping backs, leaving little to no clue of their nocturnal endeavours.

Those among us seeking solace in the small hours are rewarded by the dulcet calls of owls — hidden feathered sentinels in search of a mate.

And so to October. Brian Parker recalls a riot, Colin Varndell considers the wood mouse, Gill Meller, Andy Briggs and Charlie Soole take care of dinner, while Steven Spurrier nips to Chianti for the wine. Elsewhere, Margery Hookings previews the 15th Bridport Literary Festival, Kelvin Clayton challenges our perception of beauty and Alexandra Harris checks her calendar. Jo and Katharine, meanwhile, spend a joyful evening in the company of Carlotta Paolieri and Annie Coplestone, the effervescent duo behind Bridport’s exciting new pop-up restaurant – The Monmouth Table.

Have a great 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.

1 Bretts Yard Digby Road 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 | October 2019

Simon Barber Evolver @SimonEvolver @evolvermagazine evolver.org.uk Andy Briggs Co-Founder and Executive Chef, Rise and Swim @risecafebar @swimlyme risecafebar.co.uk weswim.co.uk Molly Bruce @mollybruceinteriors mollybruce.co.uk David Burnett The Dovecote Press dovecotepress.com Kelvin Clayton @kelvinclaytongp greenthoughts.me philosophyinpubs.co.uk Alison Ferris Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre @CharmouthHCC charmouth.org/chcc/ Jane Fox Yoga Space @yogaspacebridport yogaspacebridport.com Kit Glaisyer @kitglaisyer @kitglaisyer kitglaisyer.com Charlie Groves Groves Nurseries @GrovesNurseries @grovesnurseries grovesnurseries.co.uk Margery Hookings Bridport Literary Festival bridlit.com Annabelle Hunt Bridport Timber and Flooring @BridportTimber @annabellehuntcolourconsultant bridporttimber.co.uk Little Toller Books @LittleToller @littletollerdorset littletoller.co.uk Will Livingstone @willgrow willgrow.co.uk

Gill Meller @GillMeller @Gill.Meller gillmeller.com Amy Mowlam Porter Dodson @porter_dodson porterdodson.co.uk Brian Parker Bridport Museum @BridportMuseum bridportmuseum.co.uk Anna Powell Sladers Yard @SladersYard @sladersyard sladersyard.wordpress.com Ellen Simon Tamarisk Farm @ tamarisk_farm tamariskfarm.co.uk Charlie Soole The Club House West Bexington @TheClubHouse217 @theclubhouse2017 theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk Steven Spurrier Bride Valley Vineyard @BrideValleyWine @bridevalleywine bridevalleyvineyard.com Antonia Squire The Bookshop @bookshopbridprt @thebookshopbridport dorsetbooks.com Emma Tabor & Paul Newman @paulnewmanart @paulnewmanartist paulnewmanartist.com Holly Tolman Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife @dorsetwildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Chris Tripp Dorset Diggers Community Archaeology Group dorsetdiggers.btck.co.uk Colin Varndell Colin Varndell Natural History Photography colinvarndell.co.uk

46

OCTOBER 2019

8 What’s On

46 THE MONMOUTH TABLE

80 Legal

16 Arts and Culture

58 Food and Drink

84 Philosophy

26 History

68 Body and Mind

85 Literature

30 Wild Dorset

68 Interiors

90 Crossword

38 Outdoors

72 Gardening

42 Archaeology

76 Interiors

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WHAT'S ON Listings

____________________________

Wednesdays 2pm-4pm

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Tuesdays 10am-11.30am

(term-time)

Mondays 10am-12pm

Bridport Summer Yoga

Maiden Newton Art Group

Watercolour Painting

Ballroom, The Bull Hotel.

Maiden Newton Village Hall, DT2 0AE

corrievanrijn@aol.com

____________________________

for Beginners LSi, 51 East St. 07881 805510

marion@taylormade.demon.co.uk

£7. Mixed ability. 01308 485544

01300 321405

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Wednesdays 7pm-10pm

____________________________

Tuesdays & Thursdays 10.30am

Bridport Scottish Dancers

Mondays (term-time)

Walking the Way

6.30pm-8pm

to Health in Bridport

Church House, South St.

Bridport ASD & Social Anxiety

Starts from CAB 45 South St.

Support Group

01308 538141 bridportscottishdancers.org.uk ____________________________

01305 252222 sarahdavies@dorset.gov.uk

Every 4th Wednesday 7.30pm

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Philosophy in Pubs

parents & carers

Tuesdays 6pm-8pm

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Heritage Coast Canoe Club

George Hotel, South St. Read Kelvin

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm

Westbay Watersports Centre,

Bridport Children’s Centre. For teens,

Bridport Dance Club

Clayton’s monthly article on page 84

____________________________

Fisherman’s Green. Age 12+

Thursdays 6.30pm

01308 862055 westbaykayak.co.uk

Pop-up Restaurant -

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The Monmouth Table (fish tapas)

01308 423442

Tuesdays 7.15pm

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Uplyme Morris Rehearsals

Soulshine Cafe, 76 South St

Mondays 7.30pm-9pm

The Bottle Inn, Marshwood.

WI Hall, North St, DT6 3JQ.

Folk dancing with recorded music.

Bridport Campfire Women’s Coaching Group

07917 748087 Facebook: Uplyme Morris

Bookings 07425 969079 themonmouthtable.co.uk

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____________________________

Every 1st Thursday

67 South St

Tuesdays 7.30pm-9pm

10.45am-11.45am

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Bridport Sangha

Free Community Coffee Morning

Mondays 7.30pm-9.30pm

Meditation Evenings

Bridport Choral Society

Quaker Meeting House, South St.

St. Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington.

bridportchoral.wordpress.com/Facebook

____________________________

07950 959572

01308 420943

____________________________

____________________________

Fridays 10am-11am

Mondays 14th & 28th 7.15pm

Every 2nd Tuesday 7pm-9pm

German Language Classes

Biodanza @ Othona

Co-operation Bridport

Othona Community, Coast Rd,

Free. 07974 888895

LSi, 51 East St. Free/donation

01308 897130 biodanza-bridport.co.uk

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Every 3rd Friday 10.30am-3.30pm

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Every 2nd Tuesday 7.15pm

Bridport Embroiderers

Mondays 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th

Bridport Sugarcraft Club

7.30pm-9.30pm

Ivy House, Grove Nurseries,

St Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington

Burton Bradstock DT6 4RN. £8-10.

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

cooperationbridport.eventbrite.co.uk

West Bay Road, DT6 4AB

lsibridport.co.uk

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01308 456168

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Saturdays 10am-12pm

01308 423442

Wednesday or Thursday 9.30am-

Chess Club

____________________________

12.30pm (term-time)

Tuesdays 10am-1pm

Painting & Drawing Art Classes

LSi, 51 East St. Free/donation

Art Class

Mangerton Mill Artist Studio.

Town Mill Arts, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU. 07812 856823 trudiochiltree.co.uk

8 | Bridport Times | October 2019

07505 268797

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lsibridport.co.uk/chess-club-on-saturdays-2/ ____________________________ Tuesday 1st 9.30am-1pm Willow Workshop: Veg Trug

OCTOBER 2019 Studi0ne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre

DT6 3LI. Impact of microplastics on

Saturday 5th 7.30pm

jojo.sadler@hotmail.co.uk

marine invertebrates. Non-members: £3

Bridport Folk Dance Club

____________________________

Centennial Dance

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Friday 4th – Saturday 19th

Wednesday 2nd 6pm-7.30pm

10.30am-4.30pm

St Mary’s Church House Hall.

People First Dorset:

Stephen Collins: Drawn to Paint

Work & Volunteering

Malt House Gallery, Town Mill,

Tuesday 8th 9.30am-4.30pm

stevewooth@gmail.com

StudiOne, Broadwindsor Craft Centre

____________________________

Friday 4th 7pm –

Thursday 3rd 7pm

Sunday 6th midnight

jojo.sadler@hotmail.co.uk

Talk by Kate Adie CBE

Boogie Fest Dorset Music Festival

Tuesday 8th 7.30pm

Bridport Town Hall DT6 3LF.

Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, DT6 4PT

Demonstration: Fresh

duo. £10 with wine & cheese. Tickets

____________________________

Ivy House, Grove Nurseries, DT6 4BA.

£55. Booking essential. 07531 417209

Ropemakers, 36 West St, DT6 3QP.

Help & support for the learning disabled 01305 257600

Bring & share supper. 01308 423442

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Lyme Regis. 07713 877939

Willow Workshop: Flying Owl

____________________________

£75. Booking essential. 07531 417209

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01308 897317

Flower Cake Posies

from Goadsby‘s

Saturday 5th 10.30am-4.30pm

____________________________

Stone Carving for Beginners

01308 422654 grovesnurseries.co.uk

Friday 4th 5pm-8.30pm

Sculpture by the Lakes, DT2 8QU. £100

Wednesday 9th 7.30pm

Entertainment from ‘Mood Indigo‘ jazz

Wedding Open Evening

____________________________

07720 637808 sculpturebythelakes.co.uk

A Year in the Life of Bridport

____________________________

Community Orchard

symondsburyestate.co.uk

Saturday 5th 11am-12pm

____________________________

Family story time with The

LSi, 51 East St. Free/donation

Friday 4th 7.30pm

Flying Monkeys

The Orange Circus Band

LSi, 51 East St. Free/donation

Friday 11th 7.30pm-9.30pm

Tithe Barn, Symondsbury Estate.

lsibridport.co.uk

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lsibridport.co.uk

‘Forget-me-not:

____________________________

The Alzheimer Whodunnit‘

artsreach.co.uk

Saturday 5th & 19th 10.30am-4pm

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Be Calm Be Happy

Sir John Colfox Academy, DT6 3DT.

Friday 4th 7.30pm-9pm

Meditation Course

DWT talk: Plastics,

Quaker Meeting House. David Will,

Saturday 12th 10am-4pm

____________________________

the Natural World through

Bruton Bradstock Village Hall. £10.

U18s £6. Family £25. 01308 897421

Plankton & Poo Bridport United Church Hall, East St,

07950 959572

£10/£7 bridportmindfest.org

____________________________ Connecting our Souls &

Thinking of letting your holiday home?

We know that your holiday home is just that – a home.

That’s why our local team is dedicated to managing your property with the same care and attention you would. With tailored services to suit your needs, you can be as involved as you like, so why not get in touch today?

01929 448 708 enquiries@dorsethideaways.co.uk dorsethideaways.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON Poetry & Story

Thursday 17th 7pm-9pm

Quaker Meeting House, 95 South St

Fortified Wines

____________________________

Seaside Boarding House, Burton

Wednesday 23rd –

mark@morrishandbanham.com

Hallowe’en Half-term

Off South St. paularthurandgill@gmail.com

Thursday 17th 7.30pm

____________________________

Talk: The LSi in Bridport

Pumpkin rolling & ghoulish delights.

Saturday 12th 2pm-3.30pm

LSi, 51 East St. Free/donation.

United Church Hall, East St. u3asites.org.uk/bridport

Iona.lake@aol.co.uk

Masterclass Tasting

Saturday 12th 11am-3pm

Bradstock. £20. 01305 261480

Wednesday 30th 12pm

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Forde Abbey, Chard, TA20 4LU.

Bridport Community Orchard Apple Day

Jumble Sale

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01460 220231 fordeabbey.co.uk

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lsibridport.co.uk

Wednesday 23rd 10.30am–4.30pm

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Garden Design:

50p to include refreshments. Free

Friday 18th 7pm

Small Gardens & Spaces

parking. 01308 420943

Fun Quiz

____________________________

Sculpture by the Lakes, DT2 8QU

Saturday 12th 3pm-6pm

Whitchurch Canonicorum Village Hall

01297 489795 michaelwest@ryallfarm.com

St Swithun’s Church Hall, Allington.

Youth Empowerment Day

____________________________

£100. 07720 637808

sculpturebythelakes.co.uk

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Creativity Workshops &

Friday 18th 7pm

Wednesday 23rd 7.30pm

Evening Concert

An evening with the

Uplyme & Lyme Regis

Bridport Youth & Community

Bridport Prize Judges

Horticultural Society

Centre, Gundry Lane, DT6 3RL.

Autumn Harvest Show

bridportmindfest.org

Bridport Arts Centre. £6/£5.

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01308 424204 bridport-arts.com

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Uplyme Village Hall. Bring & share

Saturday 12th 7.30pm

Friday 18th - Sunday 20th

supper. ulrhs.wordpress.com

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Magellan Circumnavigation: We

West Bay Onion Festival

Thursday 24th 10.40am

Sail to Prove the Earth is Round

Breton market & entertainment. Free.

Walk: Stepping into Nature

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Roots of Religion

U18s £5. Family £22. 01308 897407

Saturday 19th 3pm

Meet at Discovery Centre, West Bay.

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St Mary’s Church Beaminster. £12.50.

Shipton Gorge Village Hall. £8. artsreach.co.uk

The Fairey Band in Concert

Sunday 13th 10.15am

01308 863493 tonyandmarg@aol,com

Dorset Ramblers Walk to

Free/donations. 01308 427288

info@westbaydiscoverycentre.org

____________________________

____________________________

Thursday 24th -

Bowleaze Cove

Sunday 20th 10am-5pm

Saturday 26th 7.30pm

Meet at Church Lane, Osmington

Bookbinding: German Longstitch

Bridport Shakespeare Company:

dorsetramblers.co.uk

Measure for Measure

____________________________

Ink & Page, 29a West Allington, DT6 5BJ

Monday 14th 7.30pm

£120. 07425 163459 kim&inkandpage.co.uk ____________________________

Chapel in the Garden, Bridport

Beaminster Moviola: Rocketman

Sunday 20th 4pm

£5.50. 01308 424901

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Beaminster Public Hall

Little Bulb Theatre –

Thursday 24th 8pm

£5. 01308 861746

Mountain Music

Red Cape Theatre:

____________________________

Thunder Road

Wednesday 16th 9.30am-12.30pm

Broadwindsor Comrades Hall. £10. U18s £6. 01308 867252 artsreach.co.uk

____________________________

St Andrew’s Community Hall,

Barn House Studio, Loders DT6 3SA

Tuesday 22nd 2pm

Charmouth. £9. U18s £6.

07967 759135 artsreach.co.uk

____________________________

Foraging for Wild Food

Star Driftwood Class £35. lucychant.co.uk boarsboarrow.com

10 | Bridport Times | October 2019

U3A Talk: Food for Free,

____________________________ Saturday 26th 4pm-5pm

B R O M P TO N CANED BED

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

andsotobed.co.uk | 01308 426 972 And So To Bed Bridport Pymore Mills, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 5PJ

WHAT'S ON South African Singing

01308 863577

Plant-based Cooking Workshop

Powerstock Hut. £6. 01308 485474

Tuesday 29th 4pm-6pm

lunch & recipes. Limited spaces.

____________________________

Tithe Barn, Symondsbury Estate. Music,

& Dancing Workshop

____________________________

artsreach.co.uk

Kids Hallowe’en Disco

Saturday 26th 5.30pm

refreshment, activities. £3 per child,

Yellow Gorse, 25 East St. £35 includes 07704 093016

____________________________

adults free. symondsburyestate.co.uk

Fairs and markets

____________________________

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westbay.org.uk/bonfire

Thursday 31st 10am

Every Wednesday & Saturday

____________________________

The Roots of Religion

Weekly Market

Saturday 26th 7pm

in West Bay

Oktoberfest with

Methodist Church West Bay. Free.

South, West & East St

Bonfire on the Beach West Bay. Fireworks 8pm. Free.

Sherbavarian Stompers Village Hall, Evershot. Children: free.

Adults: £10 includes food (bring own utensils). 07867 536754

____________________________

Booking required. 01308 427288

Second Saturday of the month,

____________________________

Farmers’ Market

info@westbaydiscoverycentre.org.uk

9am–1pm Bridport Arts Centre

____________________________

Planning ahead

Saturday 26th 7.30pm

____________________________

Every Saturday, 9am–12pm

Kure Kure/Faraway

Saturday 2nd November

Country Market

Powerstock Hut. £9. U18s £6. Family £25.

10.30am-4pm

WI Hall, North Street

____________________________

01308 485474 artsreach.co.uk

Be Calm Be Happy

____________________________

Meditation Course

Last Sunday of every month,

Sunday 27th 6pm

Quaker Meeting House.

10am-4pm

____________________________

St Michael’s Trading Estate, DT6 3RR

Traditional Choral Evensong with

____________________________

David Will, 07950 959572

Bridport Vintage Market

Whitchurch Canonicorum Church.

Saturday 2nd November

____________________________

Whitchurch Occasional Choir 01297 489795 michaelwest@ryallfarm.com

5pm-8pm

Saturday 19th 9am-3pm

____________________________

Fireworks at Forde

Arts & Craft Fair

Monday 28th 2.30pm

Forde Abbey, Chard. 01460 220231

Town Hall, DT6 3LF

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Talk: The Treasures of Dorset United Church Hall, East St. Presented

by Golden Cap Ass’n (West Dorset).

Non-members: £5. Includes refreshments

12 | Bridport Times | October 2019

fordeabbey.co.uk

Free. 0108 44901

Friday 8th November 9.30am-1.30pm

listings@homegrown-media.co.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 1940s Charity Dinner Dance, Friday 8th November Christmas Market, Sunday 1st December

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

PREVIEW In association with

The Mapping of Memory No.12

ANNIE WARD: ‘RECENT WORK’ Since moving to Dorset in 2006, artist Annie Ward has been

Traditional approaches to perspective have been disregarded

varied history as the impetus for her paintings - the most recent

symbols and contour lines have become distorted or

increasingly drawn to the local landscape with its rich and

series of which will be the focus of her first exhibition at The Gallery, Symondsbury.

‘It’s wonderful,’ Annie says, ‘to be able to show my latest

paintings for the first time in this exciting new gallery right in the heart of the landscape which inspired it.’ She goes on to

while key features such as field margins, pathways, map simplified, sometimes closing in on a tiny detail while

playing with scale. The resultant images are constructed

abstracts through which I’m gradually developing a personal language of signs and symbols.’

explain her working methods and how her style has developed.

evolver.org.uk

based on my own drawings of Dorset field margins which

____________________________________________

‘My work is now shifting towards abstraction, but it is

annieward.com

I interweave with details gleaned from historic maps and

Saturday 12th–Wednesday 23rd October,

constantly revising shapes and lines, but allowing the final

Annie Ward: Recent Work

interplay between planned intention and spontaneity, the

near Bridport, DT6 6HG. 01308 301326, lymebayarts.co.uk

contemporary satellite photographs. I’m working intuitively,

10.30am-4.30pm

painting to bear the scars of its evolution. There is always

The Gallery, Symondsbury Estate, Symondsbury,

deliberate and the accidental, when creating such work.

____________________________________________

14 | Bridport Times | October 2019

NEVER MISS A COPY

If you enjoy reading the Bridport and Sherborne Times but live outside our free distribution areas you can now receive your very own copy by post 12 editions delivered to your door for just £30.00 To subscribe, please call 01935 315556 or email subscriptions@homegrown-media.co.uk

ANA BIANCHI EMMA DUNBAR FIONA MILLAIS 19th October – 6th November

Fiona Millais

Friday Flowers

Ana Bianchi

Landscape with Lake

www.jerramgallery.com THE JERRAM GALLERY Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LN 01935 815261 info@jerramgallery.com Tuesday – Saturday bridporttimes.co.uk | 15

Arts & Culture

Images: Angus Piggott

CAFÉ LIFE

Anna Powell, Sladers Yard Gallery and Café Sladers

A

fter we opened Sladers Yard back in 2006, once the mad rush to clean up and restore this beautiful Georgian warehouse was over, and all the details of hanging our first-ever Sladers Yard exhibition were more or less ironed out, my husband, Petter Southall, went back to making furniture in his workshop and I found myself alone starting a new life in this extraordinary space.

We opened in August and all through that first winter I was alone here. Visitors came and went.

Wonderful conversations were had with artists and art-lovers. My education in art continues every day.

It was a joy from the start; however, nothing is colder than working on a computer in an old, stone, maritime warehouse. I piled on the layers and did star jumps to keep warm when no-one was looking.

In March 2007, we put in the little kitchen with seating in the central foyer and in the yard. Joy Reeves, who now runs the gallery on Sundays, agreed to come 16 | Bridport Times | October 2019

and open the café, making delicious soups, salads and sandwiches and very good coffee. Joy had run a hotel.

She knew everybody and, having worked in a pre-school, she knew everybody’s children too.

The café brought life to Sladers Yard. Gradually we worked out how to warm the building up, in parts, and we took on the first of a cheerful stream of young helpers. We didn’t have a dishwashing machine. On busy days the washing-up would not fit in the kitchen and would continue long into the afternoon, accompanied with lots of chatter and laughing.

After Joy, three very talented artists spent time cooking and running the café but, in 2009, they all needed to get back to their real work. With some trepidation I put an ad in the Western Gazette for a Creative Cook and Café Manager. It was one of the lucky days of my life when Jacqueline Spendlow applied for the job. Jackie and her husband had run a really busy pub at Shepton Beauchamp in Somerset. Before that >

bridporttimes.co.uk | 17

Arts & Culture

18 | Bridport Times | October 2019

she had worked for Mars in the Middle East. Nothing is too much of a challenge for Jackie and whatever she does, she makes it fun.

She packed me off to get my alcohol licence and decided that buying in cakes was a non-starter. Having not made a cake for years, overnight she became a legendary baker. People come from all over the country for her polenta cakes and her cream teas with homemade scones. With her knowledge of Middle Eastern cookery and ability to make everything delicious, we decided to offer Moorish and Mediterranean cuisine with plenty of seafood and vegetarian dishes. Sam and Sam Clark’s book Moro was the initial inspiration and later, at Joy’s suggestion, we added Yotam Ottolenghi’s ideas. Sam Clark did come to lunch some time back and he was very complimentary but so far Yotam has yet to visit.

From the simple, very fresh and generous crab sandwich to aromatic lamb tagine and luxurious aubergine baba ganoush, Jackie makes the dishes her own and our team learn to make the Café Sladers recipe.

My daughter Eliza was just 5 when we opened the Cafe.

She is now 17 and about to finish school. She and her friends have become very efficient waitresses and bakers in the Café. The many irresistible vegan dishes and cakes

are mostly thanks to them.

With the alcohol licence came the possibility of evening events. It started with David Inshaw’s famous Cricket Game paintings where his team play brilliantly at Little Bredy. It is a team of gifted writers, poets and jazz musicians, including Ian Smith, the trumpeter, who agreed to bring a jazz band when David Inshaw showed here the second time. I did not know that he would bring Alan Barnes and David Newton, two of the finest jazz musicians in the country. We gave them dinner, they loved the venue and a winning formula emerged. They are playing again this November with Ashley Long on bass in what we now call Sladers Jazz Club.

As I write this, all the Sladers team are downstairs preparing for a big dinner dance. Joy’s daughter Kate, from Rambling Rose florist in Beaminster, is bringing in buckets of flowers. Petter is using the old wooden hoist in the attic to lift the furniture up from the downstairs gallery. Tonight, we will all be serving tables and working behind the bar. Tomorrow we get it all back in position for Sunday lunch and a good day in the gallery.

Hard work but really good fun! sladersyard.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 19

Arts & Culture

Image: Pete Millson

ELLIE PRESTON CHAOS AND CONTROL

I

Kit Glaisyer, Artist

t’s been a year of change and renewal for me.

Following the loss of my old studio in the fire at St Michael’s Studios last summer, I then stayed in Bradpole for six months with a makeshift studio in my house. However, things didn’t feel settled so I began to look for somewhere in Bridport, ideally where I could both live, work and exhibit. Happily, I quickly found the perfect place and so, earlier this year, I moved into a spacious Georgian townhouse at 11 Downes Street, in the centre of town.

It’s funny how things evolve. I moved to Bridport from London in 1998, living as part of the artists community in Symondsury that had been running for fifteen years. When that closed in 1999, I had to look for a new studio and found an old ropemaking warehouse on the St Michael’s Trading Estate that would serve as my studio for the next nineteen years. It was exciting to be involved in the transformation of the old estate into the popular Art & Vintage Quarter and to help raise 20 | Bridport Times | October 2019

the profile of the growing community of artists at St Michael’s Studios.

It was very traumatic when we lost half of the studio last year but I’ve now realised that it was probably time for a change. I care deeply about Bridport’s artistic community, which is why I put so much of my energy into St Michael’s Studios and directing Bridport Open Studios for so many years, however it also distracted me from creating my own work and exploring my personal projects. I’m now in a space where I can focus purely on what interests me and immerse myself in my painting, along with having a great gallery space where I can show both my own paintings as well as a selection of other artists whose work I admire.

Starting over the summer, I curated a group exhibition, ‘Bridport Artists inspired by Turner’, in conjunction with an exhibition of a JMW Turner watercolour of West Bay at Bridport Museum, and this was followed by a solo exhibition of my own work for >

Simon, oil on board bridporttimes.co.uk | 21

Arts & Culture

The Blue Road, oil on board

Bridport Open Studios in September. This month I’ll be opening my gallery to the public to show an exhibition of small abstract paintings by Bridport-based artist Ellie Preston.

Ellie Preston is a London-born artist who studied at Chelsea University, where she was a Brenda Landon Portrait Prize Winner in 2013 and, more recently, she was a participant on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the year. Now based in Bridport, she is both an innovative abstract painter and an accomplished and in-demand figurative painter, with several portrait commissions on the go. Her portraits can each take up to a year to create, working with tiny brushes for up to seven hours a day, five days a week. It’s an intensive process that has been evolving over the years, in a style that has echoes of 22 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Stanley Spencer and early Lucien Freud.

Her abstract painting series started as a complementary practice alongside her figurative work, allowing her to focus her energies in a more direct expression than she finds in portraiture, disentangled from any figurative imagery. Her abstract philosophy was further invigorated a couple of years back when she took a studio alongside the celebrated abstract painter, Jon Adam, in West Bay. Jon takes great delight in the raw marks he makes on canvas, built up with layers of pure, hand-made oil paints and this has, in part, inspired Ellie to relish in every detail of the surface of her paintings.

For this past year, Ellie has been working on a series of small, intense abstract paintings and it’s this series that I’ll be showing throughout October. Ellie usually

Yellow Dinghy, oil on board

begins her abstract paintings with a deliberately random, roughed-in under-painting which eventually evolves into a composition that is (deceptively) simple, balanced and calm. Her process of creating these paintings is essentially a personal voyage of discovery with many adventures in a journey towards an unknown destination, where every layer is carefully considered and every stroke matters. With each step of progress, there is another of loss, as she must often paint over earlier layers as she pursues new inspirations. Nerve-wracking as it sounds, this process has made her more decisive and confident and she hopes viewers will appreciate the depth and breadth of the work, giving themselves time to glimpse the details through the layers.

Ellie deliberately and patiently constructs every part

of her paintings. Indeed, her intense abstract works are a deliberate attempt to create order from chaos and to assert control over confusion. In so doing, she creates paintings that are both powerful and delicate – embodying a satisfying balance of familiarity and surprise. bridportcontemporary.com jon-adam.co.uk Kitglaisyer.com

____________________________________________ Every Wednesday and Saturday throughout October, 11am-3pm Ellie Preston – Small Abstracts 11 Downes Street, Bridport DT6 3JR

____________________________________________ bridporttimes.co.uk | 23

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29a West Allington Bridport DT6 5BJ www.inkandpage.co.uk

24 | Bridport Times | October 2019

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History

LOST DORSET

MELPLASH Thomas Cozens outside his carriage and wagon building yard in 1895

T

homas died in 1913 and is buried in the village. The business had been founded by John Trevett of Netherbury, a carpenter and wheelwright, whose son Robert, ‘by strict attention to the business and carrying it on in temperance principles’ (to quote from his memoir), expanded it to include wagon building and steam machinery, with ten employees. But there was a price to be paid. ‘My father, being a most energetic and highly-strung nervous man, overworked himself and broke down with a severe attack of “Monomania”,’ wrote his son Isaac, who sold the business to Thomas Cozens in 1892.

A carrier’s cart is on the right and a Dorset wagon the left. Dorset wagons were of two types: a panel-sided

26 | Bridport Times | October 2019

bow-shaped wagon once found on the chalk downland, and the more common box wagon such as in the photograph. They were usually painted yellow or blue, with red undersides. Note the elaborately decorated, boarded tailboard giving the name of the builder and his address. Dorset wagons were low and wide, and easily manageable on a hill, hence their popularity spread throughout much of central southern England.

Lost Dorset: The Villages & Countryside 1880-1920, by David Burnett, is a large format paperback, price £12, and is widely available throughout Dorset or direct from the publishers. dovecotepress.com

HUTS TO HUNKER DOWN IN plankbridge.com 01300 348414

As Kingfishers Catch Fire Paintings and sketches by artist and illustrator, Neil Gower

Sat 21st Sep – Sat 12th Oct Elementum Gallery, Sherborne

Neil Gower is best known for his book cover designs, notably Bill Bryson’s entire backlist. Neil draws and paints by hand in a variety of styles and media, often combining word and image. He lives in Lewes at the heart of the South Downs and runs on chalk.

01935 813776

elementumgallery.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 27

History

THE BRIDPORT BREAD RIOTS OF 1816 Brian Parker, Volunteer, Bridport Museum

F

BRPMG 6652 in our collection is a breadknife. As far as we know this knife is modern and bears little significance to Bridport’s history. It’s one of the more random items that ended up in our collection for no apparent reason some time ago. However, objects can often lead us to thinking about other things, and there was a point in Bridport’s history when bread was the source of disquiet and unrest.

Emily Hicks, Director

ood banks are now an established feature of our society. They are the current manifestation of the tension between that sector of society that has the resources to lead a satisfactory and meaningful life and that whose income and resources are insufficient to provide the basic essentials. Today those who rely on food banks no doubt queue politely. Two hundred years ago the scenario was somewhat different. There were no food banks in the current sense. The church, various charities and the poor law partially plugged the gap but for the most part the vast population went hungry. The situation was particularly serious for staple foods such as wheat and barley - not only for the labourer but also for the artisans and industrial workers.

The end of the Napoleonic Wars saw the return of peace to the country. England had prospered economically during the 18th century and this trend had continued during the wars from 1793 to 1815. Both manufacturing and agriculture grew and agricultural prices increased substantially. Nevertheless, there was a shortage of food, particularly corn.

Although wages for the working classes increased during the 18th century, such increases were insufficient to keep pace with the rising cost of food, particularly during the 1790s. Several bad harvests occurred. In 1816 (noted as the year without ‘summer’) the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia caused famine worldwide and a reduction in crop yields. Wheat, which had cost 48 shillings a quarter in 1760, had reached a record 113 shillings in 1800. Between 1790 and 1795 the cost of living doubled and by 1800 had doubled again.

Inflation, greater demand and wartime conditions also contributed. Although the enclosure of the commons and wastes provided more land for the growing of food 28 | Bridport Times | October 2019

for the agricultural population, the loss of the commons reduced the ability of individuals to grow food and to keep livestock. Strict enforcement of the poaching laws also denied the rural poor of a source of food.

The high cost of food, particularly corn, was caused partly by the corn laws. Since the second half of the 16th century the State had interfered with the price of corn, passing laws to prevent speculation in corn. In the first half of the 17th century it introduced import and export controls on the food. The controls were imposed for the benefit of the landowners and farmers to ensure that prices were maintained at a high level. In 1773 a law was passed which prescribed that the import of foreign corn was to be prohibited until the price reached 48 shillings a bushel. This price was not reached thus preserving the import ban until 1815 when foreign grain flooded in from the continent and America. The result was the inundation of the market and the financial ruin of the landowners and farmers. (to be continued) 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 BridportMuseum

Sign up to our Get Dorset Buzzing campaign and join our buzzing community to help pollinators in your garden.

Sign up for your FREE pack today: wtru.st/gdb4

Photos Š Tony Bates MBE, Katharine Davies, Ken Dolbear MBE & Paul Williams.

Wild Dorset

AUTUMN ARRIVALS Holly Toman, Volunteer, Dorset Wildlife Trust

M

igration is a form of adaptation, vital to survival, as the changing seasons vary the climate. As autumn approaches, we will start to see migrant birds returning to the UK, completing a journey of thousands of miles. What may look like chaos to us as we witness flocks of birds pass above is actually part of a planned and calculated flight, unique to a species. Some will take a direct route whereas others may prefer to follow a coastal course.

In the south of the UK, we are lucky to be winter hosts to members of the thrush family such as fieldfares and redwings - two migrant birds that resemble each other. Fieldfares are large and yellow-breasted whereas redwings can be identified by distinctive bursts of orangey-red under their wings.

Returning to nest in Iceland and Scandinavia around the end of March, these birds take this time to indulge in our berry-laden hedgerows, parks and woodlands. Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve, with its abundance of thick hedgerows, offers an excellent opportunity to see these migrating birds. Fieldfares are sociable birds and can be seen in flocks of over 200.

Increasing numbers of migrating birds are being spotted in our gardens.

A combination of freezing conditions and the dramatic decrease of insect populations forces these birds to take refuge, so don’t forget to top up your bird feeders or provide mealworms, cheese and suet to help keep feathered visitors energised this autumn and winter. Also look out for geese and wading birds that will arrive in September and October in their hundreds and thousands. Dark-bellied Brent geese flock to southern shores in early October. The Chesil Beach Centre, overlooking the Fleet Lagoon, is a great place to see these birds in action.

In Poole Harbour, Holes Bay is the estuary (tidal mouth) of several rivers and is therefore another perfect place to look out for migrating birds. Some fantastic flocks can be seen there late in the afternoon. Coastal areas make excellent vantage points for keen bird watchers, or even if you’re just starting out.

Tips for watching migrating birds: 1 2 3 4

Check tide times and take precautions with appropriate clothing.

Time your visits: geese are mostly likely to be seen at sunrise and sunset.

Keep a record of birds arriving and departing over the season.

Don’t forget to pack your binoculars!

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk 30 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Carolus Aves/iStock

Fieldfare bridporttimes.co.uk | 31

Wild Dorset

FLOTSAMETRICS, BEACH CLEANING AND COMBING Alison Ferris, Deputy Senior Warden, Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre

I

n September the Heritage Centre once again participated in the Great British Beach Clean, on behalf of the Marine Conservation Society. This is an annual event, as is the Great Dorset Beach Clean in April run by Litter Free Coast & Sea. On both events we record the type of rubbish collected for each organisation to use; this not only gives us a general idea of the main problems but can go towards advising local councils, government and also the makers of products on how we may be able to combat the problems.

There can be a fun side to the rubbish we collect too; a book I read a few years ago changed the way I looked at the beach cleans and what we were collecting at the Heritage Centre. Flotsametrics and the Floating World by Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano, is the story of one man’s journey tracking rubbish all over the world. Curtis is an oceanographer based in the U.S.A. and, thanks to his work, we now understand the complexities of ocean gyres around the world. In May 1990 a freighter lost twenty-one steel containers at sea.

Four broke open, sending over 61,000 Nike trainers off around the world. Curtis investigated, and today continues to investigate all manner of things that have since been spilled. Clubs and markets have been set up whereby people can swap the treasures they have found by beach-combing, including matching up pairs of Nike trainers from all over the world!

Interestingly, Curtis’ book mentions that on certain beaches around the world only shoes for left feet would wash up while other beaches would see only shoes for right feet. Similar reports came in when there was a spill of hockey gloves: left-handed gloves seemed to drift in a different direction from right-handed ones. If you think of the fingers of the glove acting as a sail you might see why this is possible. A few years ago, Litter Free Coast 32 | Bridport Times | October 2019

& Sea asked us to look out for HP inkjet cartridges after a spill. We did indeed record a few washing up on Charmouth Beach but I was still intrigued as to whether Charmouth could be a left- or right-handed beach in terms of the shoes and gloves that wash up.

Starting in January 2017 I recorded every shoe and glove that I found on the beach. I also asked the local community in Charmouth to collect these items and to bring them into the centre. I sent an email to Curtis telling him what we were doing and he suggested that, to get an accurate idea, we would need to find 100 shoes and gloves a month! Unfortunately, our sample size is too small; we seem to find the majority after bad weather and the last few years haven’t been particularly stormy. I have seen a pattern of when the

Bririemoments/iStock

shoes and gloves are washing in on the strandline and it is generally during spring tides. We have even had a Nike trainer wash up on Charmouth beach.

A lot of early oceanic work in tracking currents was to use messages in bottles. Messages in bottles go back to ancient travellers. Although we all think of the traditional glass bottle with a handwritten note, more modern flotation devices are generally used now to track currents. Today though, messages in bottles are a global phenomenon and three years ago I found a message in a bottle washed up on Charmouth beach near the river. The message had come from Somerset, rather than from some far distant land, but it still tells us that local currents had brought it all the way around the southwest coast to Dorset.

In 1992 a container of 28,000 bathtub toys spilled into the sea. They have been washing up all over the world to this day. Some of the toys have even travelled 34,000 miles (enough to circle the earth one and a half times). Two years ago while on Charmouth beach, I found a yellow duck in the strandline. I got very excited as it looked very sea-worn. I sent photos to Curtis but he confirmed it wasn’t one of the ducks from the spill.

It does however take pride of place on my bookshelf, having no doubt travelled from some distant land.

So next time you are walking on the beach or joining a beach clean, keep a look out. You never quite know what you might find. I also recommend a read of the book. charmouth.org bridporttimes.co.uk | 33

Wild Dorset

Image: Colin Varndell 34 | Bridport Times | October 2019

THE WOOD MOUSE Colin Varndell, Photographer

Y

ou could be forgiven for thinking that the wild mouse you see around Bridport is the house mouse, but that would not be correct. House mice may be present around the town but they have been diligently persecuted and virtually banished from urban habitats. These days, house mice are more likely to be found around farmsteads in the open countryside.

The mouse you are most likely to encounter here is the native wood mouse. Wood mice are not gregarious and live mainly solitary lives. Although characteristic of woodland habitats, the wood mouse (otherwise known as the long-tailed field mouse) has learned to colonise farmland, hedgerows, gardens and human dwellings.

It is a highly adaptable and opportunistic animal, and will readily enter buildings in search of food and shelter.

In winter, wood mice become temporarily gregarious and sometimes nest in groups for warmth, in order to increase their chances of survival.

Wood mice have chestnut-coloured coats, which become lighter and sandy with age. They can be distinguished from house mice by their significantly larger ears, bulging eyes and white or off-white belly, chin and feet (house mice are chestnut all over in summer and grey in winter, lacking the paler underparts at all times). It is a small animal with an average weight of around 20 grams as an adult.

The wood mouse is strictly nocturnal in its habits and is rarely seen in daytime. In the wild, these agile animals live in complex underground burrows which they tunnel in the earth beneath leaf litter or in hedgerow banks. The untidy nest is usually made with well-weathered leaves and is a loose construction.

Their diet consists of mainly seeds, nuts, fruit, fungi and small invertebrates. Their favourite foods are tree seeds, especially oak, beech, ash, lime, hawthorn and sycamore. When tree seeds are plentiful on the ground, wood mice carry them off for storage. If food is readily available, wood mice can continue to breed well into the winter months.

More usually, the breeding season is from February to October, when females become highly territorial.

A female in season may mate with several different males, scientifically referred to as ‘scramble competition’ resulting in multiple paternity litters. Gestation is three weeks and the average litter size is five. Females usually have up to six litters per year, more if food is available and winter weather is mild. Young wood mice reach sexual maturity at two months, so young of the year are capable of breeding. Males are solitary animals and are not territorial but do occupy home ranges. The male home range is twice that of a female in summer and 50% larger than the female home range in winter, the reason being that males are bigger than females and therefore require more resources. Also, during the summer months, males range further in search of sexually receptive females.

Wood mice have many predators including both tawny and barn owl, fox, weasel, stoat, adder and, of course, the domestic cat. If life is not curtailed by predation, wood mice have a maximum life expectancy of around 20 months.

They are habitual food storers. A friend of mine once told me that he had a plastic bucket in his shed. One day he noticed a small hole, about the size of a two-pence piece, just below the lid. Upon lifting the lid, he found the bucket over half full with acorns!

Research published by BMC Ecology April 2003 found that wood mice use visually conspicuous objects as way-marks to assist their spatial orientation. It was found that this method of way-marking served as an aid to spatial navigation during exploration. This groundbreaking research was conducted jointly by Pavel Stopka, Charles University of Prague and Dr. David McDonald, University of Oxford.

The Mammal Society guide to the population and conservation status of Britain’s mammals published in 2018 estimated the population of wood mice to be around forty-million as opposed to some five million house mice, making the wood mouse the commonest British wild mammal. colinvarndell.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 35

Wild Dorset

AN APPLE A DAY Ellen Simon, Tamarisk Farm

W

hen we first came here in 1960, my father planted trees into a windswept landscape.

He planted them to protect the gardens from wind and salt spray. In the places which would in the future be sheltered he then put apple trees. As the years went by, they became productive and, for as long as I can remember, we have had as many apples as we can eat from the end of July through to at least February.

My parents never planned these to be grown for sale.

Their first interest when they started growing fruit and vegetables was making sure that they could feed their family on good fresh food. Before we were told to eat ‘five a day’ we knew ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ As each of the six children in the family in turn became old enough to eat apples, he or she routinely had one at bedtime. For much of the year, we ate several at other times of the day as well, either found beneath the trees or picked from them, or taken from store through 36 | Bridport Times | October 2019

the late autumn and winter.

The sequence of apples we eat starts with a variety called Beauty of Bath. We used to go to Sidmouth Folk Week for a day at the very end of July and we always took a basket of them. They are now redolent of the pleasure of being on the Georgian sea-front listening to buskers. With climate change, they are coming earlier and this year I ate my first one quite early in June and was able to take a basketful to the Millennium Garden for our own Bridport Folk Festival. The next to ripen are Katy, bigger apples, more modern, fresh and crispy but without the subtle flavour, then Lady Sudely and soon the very best of the earlies, Ellison’s Orange, with its light texture, rich wine flavour and juice on your fingers.

And so it goes on, through Pitmaston Pineapple to the start of the Russets. I feel like writing a list of the names and qualities of the apples we eat though the season.

For each of the really familiar ones, I can tell its

Image: Katharine Davies

identity from the feel of the skin, its shape, the tenderness of the flesh, how juicy it is, by which diseases and pests it is prone to and, most of all, by the flavour. Not many years ago, I realised that getting the greatest pleasure out of apples is a learned skill. People who have only eaten a few commercial varieties can’t always tell different types apart. I offered someone a bit of one of my favourites, expecting a response which fitted the great pleasure it gave me. The response did not come. It was not because the apple didn’t taste good, it was because it was less sweet than she was accustomed to and the rich but subtle flavour I love did not make it through my friend’s expectations; she only noticed the tartness.

We now have apples in the Labour-in-Vain Orchard as well as at home. Regular readers and friends will know that we took on the tenancy of our neighbouring National Trust farm 20-odd years ago.

One of the pleasures it has given us is rebuilding its ancient orchard. I knew there was one there, lost behind some sallow scrub near the old farm mill-pond because, as a child, one day I’d peeped through blackthorn and brambles and seen the red and yellow of hidden fruit.

I cannot now remember how I came to be there and I fear it must have been illicit. I remembered this when we started there and was pleased to find that the tenants who had come in after my childhood neighbours left had done some work on it. The orchard was clear enough to get into it without fighting through the brambles I had seen years before. These farmers were immensely busy people, with a mixed farm and a sheep pregnancyscanning business as well, but still they managed to clear, plant bulbs and put in a couple of new trees there and they must have used it from time to time for grazing small numbers of sheep. We found a couple of pear trees, some old cider apples, a good early eater and an excellent keeping cooker. With help from the Defra Countryside Stewardship Scheme, we got the old trees pruned and planted more, extending the orchard into the corner of the next field. We chose to put in a big range of different dessert apples, all keepers chosen for their flavour, and a few damsons, pears and quinces. The emphasis was on food to use through the winter rather than fruit to pick and eat in passing, which is how we use much of the fruit on the original market garden.

By the nature of things, trees grow and we now have some large apple trees bearing well. As my parents half a century ago, so our main interest now is in supplying ourselves and the people around us with good food. We do not have enough to sell quantities of apples and we do not manage them for productivity. We are not trying to sell them, however in August this year I started to put out one or two varieties in our Friday morning shop for the few people who are interested in building up their apple-recognition muscles and I hope I can continue it through to March. Unfortunately, we do not have all the names of the ones my parents planted and we don’t have the names of the old ones in the Labourin-Vain orchard. I mean to get to one of the local apple days such as the one at Melplash or Grove’s Nursery to ask experts for help in recognising our unknowns.

Sadly, the farm tends to take precedence and they fall at a busy time, with cultivation and drilling to be done.

This year I hope we’ll make it and come home with the definitive list! tamariskfarm.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 37

Outdoors

38 | Bridport Times | October 2019

On Foot

SHUTE Emma Tabor and Paul Newman Distance: 2¼ miles Time: Approx. 1½ hours Park: National Trust/Landmark Trust car park behind the gatehouse to Shute House Walk Features: This is an easy walk in the gently rolling landscape of East Devon, firstly across open farmland and then through the woodland which covers Shute Hill. There is a steady climb up Shute Hill and a small descent towards the end of the walk. The middle section takes you through the grounds of Shute House and past the house itself; please observe any privacy notices. There is a magnificent turkey oak in the grounds of Shute House and good views towards Axmouth Harbour from Haddon Corner. St Michael’s church is also worth a visit.

Refreshments: Various pubs and cafes in Colyton >

bridporttimes.co.uk | 39

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 October we venture into East Devon with a route which starts from the imposing gatehouse at Shute Barton, managed by the Landmark Trust, before exploring the surrounding area and then returning through the woods covering Shute Hill. Medieval Shute Barton is owned by the National Trust and is only open on certain weekends throughout the year - for the remainder of 2019 these are 19th & 20th October and 16th & 17th November.

The house has one of the largest fireplaces in the UK. Built by the Bonneville family, Shute Barton passed on to Thomas Grey when he married Cecily Bonneville. The Greys were forced to sell the Shute estate to the Pole family due to loss of reputation when they attempted to gain the throne of England through Lady Jane Grey.

40 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Directions

Start: SY 252 974 1 Park in the small car park behind the gatehouse entrance to Shute Barton. Please note this only has space for a few vehicles. Walk down the track and at the end, on the main road to Colyton, turn immediately left up towards Woodend Farm, with Boarscroft on your right. With the bungalow on your right, you will soon come to a five-bar gate and a public footpath sign also on your right. Go through this into a field, keeping along the left-hand-side hedge until you come to a large metal gate with farm buildings ahead. Once through the gate, and in a few yards up the track, look for a small metal gate to your right into another field - please note there is a lack of visible footpath signs at this point. Through the gate, head diagonally up to the corner of this field, aiming for a telegraph pole. Here, go through an improvised gate into another field and now to the right of the farm buildings. Head across this field, just the right of a large oak tree, to another small gate and then

into another field. Head downhill across this field and to your left, looking for a pair of metal kissing gates which cross the track leading down from the farm buildings. Go through these, crossing the track, and head diagonally across the field, crossing a small wooden footbridge and going towards a stile at the edge of a copse.

2 Cross the stile and walk up the side of the copse, keeping this on your right; you soon come to a gravel drive. Turn left and then almost immediately right towards Shute House. Walk past the front of the house, keeping on the drive and then leave the house behind you on the right, passing through a wooden gate. After 150 yards you will reach the turkey oak.

Keep on the drive, gently climbing until you meet the road at Haddon Corner. There are good views from this part of the walk towards the coast and Axmouth Harbour.

3 At Haddon Corner, head diagonally across the junction; the road soon bends sharp left and after 150 yards you will see a private path on

your left with permissible public access through Shute Woods. Take this path and keep to the right, climbing, roughly parallel with the road you have just left. As you get to the top of Shute Hill, keep straight ahead for 500 yards until you emerge on the far side of the woods, picking up the flinty track that is Ashes Road. You may need to go slightly right to access Ashes Road, which is bordered by a large bank, near the public footpath.

4 Head left along Ashes Road with the bank and the boundary to Shute Woods on your left; do not go back into the woods. You will soon have good views across the surrounding countryside towards Colyton. Keep on Ashes Road until it turns into a tarmac drive. The track continues to descend and, after 300 yards, you will drop back into Shute and see the gatehouse. nationaltrust.org.uk/shute-barton landmarktrust.org.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 41

Archaeology

DORSET IN THE NEW STONE AGE Chris Tripp BA (Hons), MA, Community and Field Archaeologist

S

ince leaving Africa, human beings had been living, thriving and spreading around the globe by adapting to all the environments they encountered.

In the Neolithic, people began to fundamentally change environments for their own ends, with the introduction of farming and herding on a large scale, the making of functional and beautiful pottery for the first time, as well as the creation of monuments in the landscape.

It is a matter of wonder that we can walk our lanes and fields and still see for ourselves what they laboured to build with tools and muscles. Among the earliest works are causewayed enclosures, created by digging a series of ‘sausage-shaped’ pits in multiple rough circles, one of which, situated on Maiden Castle, was found by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s. What they were used for is uncertain, with one theory suggesting a demarcated meeting place for trade and ritual. They may 42 | Bridport Times | October 2019

have been used for excarnation (laying out a body to rot), linking them to earthen long barrows where the bones would be taken for internment in wooden ‘houses’ before finally being buried under a long mound of earth. Many of these barrows can still be seen at Bothenhampton, Thickthorn Down and Longbury.

The ‘house of the dead’ answer does not fit another type of earth mound, Bank Barrows, which are bigger but contain no bodies at one end; they are just earth. From only a handful of these in the UK we have three, at Martin’s Down, Broadmayne and Maiden Castle. It is doubtful if we will ever truly know what they were built for but they may have been boundary markers (why not just build a fence?) or perhaps used as pointers on the distant horizon to mark the setting of star constellations on the horizon at certain times of the year. Other monuments may have been used to mark the sun and moon movements, so why not the stars too?

The Hell Stone, Portesham Hill

Panglossian/Shutterstock

A cursus is a long strip of land delineated by a ditch and bank. The Dorset Cursus is the longest in Britain, running from Thickthorn Down to Bokerley Down, and is 10.2 kilometres or 6.3 miles, being an average 80m wide. It would have consisted of a flat-bottomed, one-metre-deep ditch and revetted outer bank and was constructed in two phases, with the second phase extending to the north east.

The ditch is dug, as with causewayed enclosures, like a string of ‘sausages’. It would have taken an estimated half a million work hours to construct. Many burial mounds are associated with the monument. Geophysics has found a mortuary enclosure 100m x 25m at the north east end of the cursus, at Bottlebrush Down ridge, where observers could watch the midwinter sunset directly behind the silhouetted long barrow on Gussage Hill.

So, is a cursus an avenue of the dead?

Henge monuments also delineate land by ditch

and bank, but in this case in a round or oval shape.

They can be small, like at Wyke Down which is only 12m in diameter, or huge, like at Mount Pleasant near Dorchester, which is 370m E-W by 340m N-S. Maumbury Rings henge ditch was actually a series of 11m-deep pits, some with chalk cups in them and one with a chalk phallus. This space is still being used today.

As at Stonehenge, they may have been used for marking the midwinter sunset and midsummer sunrise.

Were the farmers newcomers from across from the continent or hunter-gatherers adapting to new ideas brought in by trade? That is a question that archaeologists continue to debate but, whatever the answer, the people of Dorset were settling down and leaving an indelible mark on the landscape we love today.

Archstory bridporttimes.co.uk | 43

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THE MONMOUTH TABLE Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

I

t was a balmy, early summer’s evening in Lyme Regis when my family and I first discovered The Monmouth Table. A long dip in the sea had given us an appetite and we emerged hungry from the cooling waves. I craved fish but couldn’t think where to go.

We didn’t have a booking and didn’t fancy fish and chips.

We’d also missed Wet Fish Shop, which would have been our usual stop, but then I remembered a card I had picked up earlier and called the number. A cheerful Italian voice answered and soon we were perched in the corner of The Pop-Up Kitchen at the top of Broad Street, fellow hungry diners at our elbows.

Last month Carlotta Paolieri and Annie Coplestone celebrated The Monmouth Table’s first anniversary as a Lyme Regis pop-up. They have also recently opened in Bridport too, taking over at Soulshine on Thursday evenings. It was an idea that came about during the summer of 2018. Carlotta and Annie would hang out at Monmouth Beach, the pebbly one where no one goes.

Carlotta’s boyfriend, Hugo, would occasionally stride off into the sea for a bit of spearfishing and return with seabass that they’d barbecue there and then. They’d invite a few friends and have a good time. Then they thought, Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to run a pop-up restaurant? They had a go, staging one at the Powerboat Club, then Annie heard about The Pop-Up Kitchen and booked it for the Friday and Saturday. They were up and running. Easy. >

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Although of course it never really is. Digging a little deeper, I quickly discover that this was no flash in the pan. They have both earned their stripes in the restaurant business and have worked hard to arrive at this point. Theirs is a shared ethos and vision that goes back a long way.

Rather than ‘farm to plate’, theirs is ‘sea to plate’.

The revolving menu of small, tapas-style dishes is centred around fish and local vegetables. Almost everything is local, bar the odd lemon - which is hard to grow around here - and the olive oil. Diners with food allergies can rest easy in Carlotta and Annie’s company - they know exactly what has gone into each dish. The menu is a joy to behold and informed strictly by the day’s availability. Don’t be surprised if a wellywearing fisherman walks into the restaurant during the evening carrying scallops or a turbot under his arm.

‘Paolo the scallop man’ is known to arrive bearing the day’s bounty. Paolo’s offerings see the chalkboard menu wiped clean and where one fish runs out, another appears, literally carried fresh from his boat.

Annie grew up in Lyme Regis and attended Colyton Grammar. Her A-levels didn’t go as planned (a blessing it transpires) and she ended up waitressing at River Cottage.

From there, she went to study at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland. She then returned to work as a home economist on the River Cottage TV show for a year before an opportunity came up to cook for Angela Hartnett. ‘I was 20 and went up to London to meet Angela. I was looking for a job and she was looking for someone to work the breakfast shift,’ explains Annie. ‘She was very honest.

She said, “You’ll never see daylight and you’ll be working with 20 b*****ds.”.’ Annie laughs. ‘I was 20, naive and said, “OK.” My parents thought I was insane when I told them I’d be getting up every day at 5.30am but I didn’t think about it; I just thought – this is my chance.’

Annie lasted six months in the job but has only good things to say about the experience. ‘Angela is amazing, so professional and so supportive of women in the kitchen. When I left, she asked, “What do you want to do and how can I help you?” She was super supportive. I had the least-respected job - the runt of the kitchen - but what I learned there was speed.

Everything cooks in a couple of minutes and I would do 90 cover breakfasts in a shift. No mess allowed!’ She laughs, ‘And the language was interesting.’

Following a few weeks away in Italy, Annie had another lucky break. It was a chance conversation but she had earned her luck. ‘I was cooking at a private

party when I had a conversation with Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall. We got chatting and he asked what I wanted to do next and I said my dream would be to work either at The River Cafe or St John’s (both top-oftheir-league London restaurants). Hugh kindly put in a word for me at The River Café. That was my foot in the door, although I had to do a three-day trial to get the job, which I did. A dream come true!’

After another 18 months the itch to move on led Annie to Barcelona, where she lived for three years before returning to London to work at Moro (a Michelin plateaccredited, North African/Iberian-inspired restaurant).

After a while, Annie longed to get back to her roots, to the town where it all began, and to the sea. ‘I knew I wanted to work for myself,’ she explains. While she considered how, she took a job with Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis, where she met Carlotta.

Carlotta had come to Lyme Regis with her partner, Hugo, who was studying at the Lyme Regis Boatbuilding Academy. Carlotta was looking for work.

She had already done a stint in London, beginning at the breathtakingly beautiful Sketch restaurant before working her way up through the hospitality business to management level. After a year in Australia, Carlotta returned to London and began working in landscaping ‘to build muscles’. She laughs but does love to be out in the elements. ‘Walking is free,’ she explains.

Carlotta grew up in a town outside Florence where, in true Mediterranean style, conversation and food are the fabric of life. ‘At Christmas, the whole family spends days grating parmesan,’ she says. It’s this energy that she brings to the front-of-house at The Monmouth Table.

She knows how to ensure everyone has a good time.

‘Food is central to my life,’ she adds. ‘As an Italian, it’s easy to go into hospitality because you know the food.

In Italy everybody cooks at home, aunties and grandmas all together, living around food.’

When she’s not working at The Monmouth Table, Carlotta helps with the summer harvests at the local vegetable farms. ‘The second-grade stuff is wonky but tastes just as good,’ she says. ‘When you are actually picking you see the beauty of the vegetables and feel their texture.’ This purity of produce is important to them both. They make a point of buying direct from local producers such as Trill Farm Garden, Tamarisk, Mercato Italiano and Haye Farm in Musbury, as Carlotta says, ‘It is important to keep the produce close to home. They’ve helped us so much and now we can help them.’ By buying direct they help those who look > bridporttimes.co.uk | 49

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after the land. ‘Although it is like a form of drug dealing,’ laughs Annie. ‘For example, there will have been no peppers and then suddenly you’ll get a text saying there are 10 peppers available. Suddenly, there is a panic because everyone wants those 10 peppers.’

Between the squeals of laughter and wonky vegetables there are serious moments. ‘I have no idea what I am cooking until about 4pm on the day when the produce arrives,’ explains Annie. ‘This is good because it makes you inventive. It’s impossible, for instance, to find aubergines locally so I make baba ganoush using courgettes instead. Also, if you are eating seasonally, you won’t have had that flavour all year, so it’s particularly welcome,’ adds Carlotta.

‘Growing vegetables takes so much love and care, we want to share it,’ says Annie. ‘It is the same with the fish,’ Carlotta adds, and Annie takes up the theme. ‘The thing with fish is that it is incredibly weather-dependent. For example, scallop divers cannot see in rough weather.’

Carlotta adds, ‘People forget this. If the weather is bad,

like the storms we had last August, you don’t necessarily get what you want and creativity becomes more important.’ ‘You just have to be more inventive,’ says Annie. ‘Problems force you to come up with something you wouldn’t have thought of.’

An ever-changing menu of enticing new flavours, inspired largely by the Italian and Spanish coast, using the freshest of simple ingredients, makes for an irresistible outing. This is certainly happy food. It’s about sharing, connecting and spending time. I listened recently to an interview with Alice Waters about the formative years of her iconic restaurant, Chez Panisse, in 1970’s Berkeley, California – a place that began the farm-to-plate movement. It’s exciting to think that The Monmouth Table may be the rumbling of a similar groundswell. It’s early days, but the talented and energetic double act of Carlotta and Annie are on to something very special indeed. themonmouthtable.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 55

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Food & Drink

PUFFBALL WITH BACON, PARSLEY AND GARLIC Gill Meller, River Cottage

I

n early autumn, keep your eyes open for giant puffballs, best picked when young and firm, and no bigger than 25cm (10in) or so in diameter. A puffball of this size will feed at least four people, so should you stumble across a few it’s unlikely you’ll need to pick them all. They’re not difficult to spot – they stand out like bright, white footballs amid the green of the grass. I’ve always been really fond of this unusual fungus.

As children we used to jump on the older, wrinkled ones, which would explode in a magical puff of spores. Good times. For cooking, I treat them simply, peeling away the thin skin, cutting them into thick slices, then frying them in butter. Sometimes, I dip the rounds in beaten egg and porridge oats to give a wonderful, crisp coating.

Here, I’m cooking the puffball in the same way I would a steak – on a griddle pan, with good bacon and some garlic and parsley. The perfect forager’s breakfast.

Ingredients Serves 2

2 large, thick slices of puffball 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 4 thick rashers streaky bacon 2–4 garlic cloves, bashed 3 or 4 thyme sprigs 1 knob of butter 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped salt and freshly ground black pepper

58 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Method

1 Heat a large, heavy-based, ridged griddle pan over a high heat. While it’s getting hot, peel or cut the outer skin from the puffball slices – the skin is very thin but can be a little tough to eat. Brush the puffball slices with the olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.

2 When the griddle pan is hot, place the prepared puffball slices in the pan. Add the bacon, the bashed garlic cloves and the thyme sprigs, and griddle for 3–4 minutes until the undersides of the puffball slices have taken on some charring from the ridges of the grill pan. Flip the slices of puffball and cook for a further 3–4 minutes to char the other side.

Turn the bacon 3 or 4 times throughout the cooking until it is cooked through and nicely crisped.

3 Take the pan off the heat and add the butter and chopped parsley. Turn the bacon and puffball through the butter as it melts. Divide the puffball and bacon slices equally between two plates and serve straight away.

From Gather by Gill Meller (Quadrille, £25) rivercottage.net Always refer to a reliable field guide when picking wild mushrooms.

Image: Andrew Montgomery bridporttimes.co.uk | 59

Food & Drink

Image: Matt Austin

JAPANESE PAN-FRIED MISO HAKE, BUCKWHEAT, MUSHROOM, KOLHRABI AND KALE RISOTTO

I

Andy Briggs, Co-Founder and Executive Chef, Rise and Swim

love October — the busy summer season is a distant memory, the roads are quieter, the beaches are full of walkers, dogs and their owners, the sun still shines but there’s a chill in the air, especially in the evenings.

This dish is hearty and autumnal, the seasonal vegetables and the truffle oil working brilliantly with the Japanese influences. I love working with what the sea has to offer and we’re very lucky on the Jurassic coast to have amazing fish on our doorstep — or should I say beachside!

Ingredients Serves 2

2 x 120-140g portions hake, descaled, skin on 60g brown miso paste (you can substitute with white or red miso paste) Olive oil for brushing 60 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Risotto

90g buckwheat (soba grains) 40g salted butter 2 cloves of garlic sliced 80g sliced shitake mushroom (chestnut mushrooms are good too) 80g blanched curly kale 80g kolhrabi (½ cm diced, pan fried in butter until golden brown) 50ml cooking sake 50ml mirin 50m dark soy 120ml dashi stock (this can be bought at most supermarkets nowadays; a good fish stock will work too) 10g cornflour mixed to a thin paste with water

To finish

Chopped chives Drizzle of truffle oil Method

1 Rub the miso over the hake and marinate for at least 6 hours in the fridge.

2 Place the soba (buckwheat) grains in a saucepan with cold water to cover. Season with salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for 8-10 mins until tender.

Drain and allow to cool.

3 Add 30g of the butter to a pan and melt. Add the sliced garlic and gently fry on a medium heat for 1-2 mins; do not allow to burn. Add the mushrooms and sautĂŠ on medium-high heat until golden. Add the cooked soba grains, sake, mirin, soy sauce and stock. Set to one side.

4 Remove the hake from the marinade and lightly brush both sides with olive oil.

5 Place the hake skin side down in a medium-hot pan, fry until skin is golden brown and crispy. Flip the fish over and cook for a further 2-3 mins. Remove from heat and allow to rest in a warm place.

6 Finish the risotto by bringing it to a simmer then add the cornflour, stirring constantly until it starts to thicken. Add the butter, kale and kohlrobi. Adjust seasoning, add the chives and a drizzle of truffle oil.

Adjust consistency if required.

7 Serve in shallow bowls and place the cooked hake skin side up on top of the risotto. risecafebar.co.uk weswim.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 61

Food & Drink

MONKFISH, CHORIZO, BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND HARICOT BEAN STEW Charlie Soole, The Club House, West Bexington

A

s we enter the cold months of winter a good, hearty stew is always welcome. Monkfish is a great fish to use in this recipe as it won’t fall apart during the cooking process. If you can’t find monkfish, you can use cod or a similar fish but don’t pan-fry beforehand. Just add it to the stew and don’t stir too much.

Ingredients Serves 4

400g monkfish tail, filleted and cubed 150g chorizo, cubed 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and deseeded 1 tin of haricot beans, drained 2 banana shallots, diced 4 cloves of garlic, chopped 200ml white wine 1 tin good quality chopped tomatoes 300ml good quality fish stock ½ bunch of thyme, picked 2 bay leaves 1 bunch of parsley, chopped Extra-virgin rapeseed oil Method

1 Slice the butternut squash lengthways about 2cm in width. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a griddle or frying pan until it is hot. Add some extra-virgin rapeseed oil and cook the butternut squash until it caramelises. Once it is caramelised, transfer to a

62 | Bridport Times | October 2019

2

3

4

5

baking tray and place in an oven set at 180°C for 15 minutes. Once the squash is cooked through, transfer half to a food processor and blend until smooth. Cut the rest into 4cm chunks and set aside.

Heat a heavy bottomed saucepan over a high heat and add some extra-virgin rapeseed oil. Season the monkfish with salt and pepper and add to the pan.

Once the monkfish is browned, remove from the pan and keep on a warm plate.

Reduce the heat to medium, add some more rapeseed oil and place the chorizo in the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes until the fat begins to run and then add the shallots. After a few minutes add the chopped garlic. After another minute or so add the white wine, thyme and bay leaves.

Once the wine has reduced by half, add the fish stock, chopped tomatoes, blended squash and haricot beans. Place a lid on the pan and simmer. After half an hour, place the monkfish and chopped squash into the sauce and bring back to a simmer for a further 20 minutes. If the sauce is a bit watery continue to simmer until you have a thicker consistency.

When you are ready to serve, add the chopped parsley and season with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

I hope you enjoy this warming, late-autumn dish. I love it with a fresh sourdough loaf and a good glass of red wine. theclubhousewestbexington.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 63

Food & Drink

WINE AND ART IN CHIANTI Steven Spurrier, Consultant Editor, Decanter Magazine and Co-Owner, Bride Valley Vineyard

Nittardi's Leon Femfert and one the vineyard's Kluas Zylla designed cellar tanks

64 | Bridport Times | October 2019

P

eter Femfert, the German owner, along with his Venetian wife Stefania, of Fattoria Nittardi, is an artist. He would not think so, for his main profession consists of running Die Galerie, Frankfurt’s leading art gallery specialising in modern painting and sculpture, hence he might say that he works with artists, represents them, befriends and understands them, but is not one himself.

Yet at Nittardi, the historic estate that he bought in 1983 thinking that he was merely assuring himself and Stefania of a home for the holidays, he has created a true work of art.

Fattoria Nittardi, an estate producing wine and olive oil north of Castellina in Chianti in the heart of Tuscany, nearer to Siena than to Florence, has a history of almost 1,000 years. In the 12th century the fortified tower that dominated its surroundings was known as ‘Nectar Dei’, which presumes a wine production of some quality. In the early 16th century the spacious estate was the property of Michelangelo Buonarroti, who assigned to Lionardo, the son of his elder brother, the role of manager. There is a letter from Michelangelo to his nephew requesting that he send a few ‘fiaschi’ of the Nittardi wine to Rome as a present for Pope Julius II, under whose benevolence he was creating the masterpiece that is the Sistine Chapel. History repeated itself half a millennium later, when Peter Femfert donated the first few bottles of his new estate in Tuscany’s Maremma – labelled Nectar Dei – to Pope Benedict XVI, who accepted the gift with joy, sending a hand-written card of thanks.

Following the purchase of Nittardi in 1983, with a vineyard reduced to 4.5 hectares and barrels of the 1981 and 1982 in the vaulted cellars, Peter Femfert used his love of art and deep friendship with the artists Die Galerie represented, to differentiate the wines of his estate from other Chianti Classicos. Having an artist design a wine label was not new, for Baron Philippe de Rothschild had inaugurated this at Mouton-Rothschild in 1923, and these labels, created by many of the world’s most famous artists, have run in unbroken succession since 1946. The 2005 Mouton label carries a watercolour by no less a person than Prince Charles.

The 2005 Nittardi label, the 25th, carries a design by Yoko Ono. Yet Peter Femfert went further than the Rothschilds: he asked for a design not only for the label but also for the wrapping paper that sheathes each bottle. The fortunate recipient of a bottle from the single vineyard Casanuova di Nittardi thus has two, not one, visual expressions, which is typical of Peter’s playfulness and generosity.

In little more than two decades the Nittardi vineyards have been expanded to 12 hectares surrounded by woodland. The estate is a bucolic art gallery, with sculptures

large and small surprising the visitor along the winding garden walks, creating an excitement that enhances, rather than interferes with, the sense of peace that even the shortest visit to Nittardi affords. More recently, a five-year search with his oenological consultant, the renowned Carlo Ferrini, for perfect land in the Maremma, ended with bare land on the raw hills between Scansano and Montiano, overlooking Monte Argentario over two hours’ drive to the south-west. With only the second vintage, Nectar Dei 2004 was placed first, the only wine to receive 5 stars, at a tasting of 186 wines from the Maremma at Decanter Magazine.

I write this in a spirit of total admiration for Peter Femfert. Few people, as outsiders and in the space or a quarter of a century, could have created such a paradise as is Nittardi, an all-encompassing delight for the senses and for the soul. Even fewer have won the countless awards that hang in the Tasting Room. Yet, in the faintest possible manner, I can claim a connection to the dream that he and Stefania have realised. In his early teens, Peter was sent to live with his aunt outside what used to be a very prosperous little town called Belper in Derbyshire. The prosperity was due to my great-grandfather, George Herbert Strutt, whose cotton-spinning factories, long since disappeared when Peter arrived in the 1960s, brought employment and wealth to the town. George Herbert Strutt was a philanthropist who founded a school in Belper which Peter attended for one year and which exists to this day. There cannot be many of my illustrious ancestor’s pupils who own an internationally-known art gallery and who have created two beautiful wine-producing estates in Tuscany.

This connection allows my family to visit Nittardi with a sense of covert complicity that adds something private and personal to our joint passion for wines and art.

Nittardi produces three Chianti Classico DOCGs and three wines from the Maremma. Morrish & Banham in Dorchester stock the following: • Ben IGT Maremma 2018, a lovely fresh white from the Vermentino grape £17.99 • Ad Astra IGT Maremma 2016, a fine blend of Sangiovese, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot £21.99 • Bel Canto 2015 Chianti Classico, lifted and elegant £22.99 • Casanuova di Nittardi 2016, richer and more complex with artist label £27.99 The original work for the 2013 label by Alain Clement hangs in the Wine & Art Room at Bride Valley Vineyards, Litton Cheney. bridevalleyvineyard.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 65

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66 | Bridport Times | October 2019

WE’RE GETTING FESTIVE SHOP WITH US Our Christmas Room opens on Tuesday, 1 October Explore a world of festive wonder, gifts & decor. Pick up some unique Christmas ideas to make this season extra-special.

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Body & Mind

DEDICATION TO THE PATH Jane Fox, Yogaspace Bridport

T

rain, plane, ferry and many hours in the car this summer brought my attention to the effect travelling has on my equilibrium. I’m not a natural traveller and find the whole process uncomfortable, however, paradoxically, due to a curious nature I love it too. Whilst preparing for my travels, I saw how packing up, organising and then the actual travelling deeply affected my state.

As I reached for my yoga books and into myself to find yoga techniques to quieten the white noise of travel anxiety, I thought about the ancient Indian Sadhus. These Holy Men who have been around for some 2,000 years, take vows of chastity and poverty, renounce all worldly possessions and attachments and have only a begging bowl for food and a wrap or loin cloth; they travel around 68 | Bridport Times | October 2019

India totally dependent on the charity of others.

They give up all security: their families, friends, homes and all monies/material possessions. In other words, they do everything within their power to invite vulnerability.

To live year after year in this state is incomprehensibly brave and opens them to opportunities to burn through layers of the human condition and so, I understand, to come closer to self-realisation or enlightenment.

Obviously, I’m not about to do that! But travelling helps me stay open to the new and unknown. The veils that have shielded and protected us in the past may now be unproductive, even destructive, and although they feel safe and familiar, they often block empathy, connection and love to self and consequently to others. How easy it is to get caught up in the dramas of these veils and get lost in their

a truly shining light: Maty Ezraty died whilst teaching in Japan at only 55 years old. She was an incredible teacher and founded Yogaworks in LA with her partner ‘in business and love’ Chuck Miller. Together they helped bring yoga to thousands of students, opening the teachings/practice up beyond the elite in 1990s and, with their teacher training programme, launched teachers and opened many studios throughout the USA. She was tiny but fiercely kind and generous, utterly dedicated and courageously honest in an industry that needed her huge heart, strength and softness.

We come back to the faithful yoga slogan: ‘Soft and Strong’.

Soft in our bodies as the breath flows, shifts tensions and holdings.

Soft in our hearts that are open and listening and receptive.

Soft in our kindness and love as we relate to ourselves and others.

Strong in our courage to stay open to vulnerability.

Strong in knowing that turning back again and again into ourselves is the only way to turn, even when it feels agonisingly hard.

Strong in our one-pointed focus on the love that exists in each of us.

Strong in our dedication to the path of yoga.

As Hafiz says: ‘Now is the time for the world to know, That every thought and action is sacred.’

ImagesofIndia/Shutterstock

labyrinths. Yoga is remembering. We practise to untangle the knots and remind ourselves of our true nature.

‘Keep in mind that, when you practice yoga, you’re not practising to improve yourself. You are perfect. The practice is there to help you know that.’ (Maty Ezraty) Travelling shakes us up, exposing us to new places, people, rhythms, experiences and feelings. On returning home, it feels like I’ve been in a snow-globe; as the snowflakes begin to settle, each one gives me something on its way down to the globe floor. They are little gifts. Small explorations work just as well as more adventurous travels. It’s more about taking ourselves beyond our comfort zone and listening to what happens there.

This summer the international yoga community lost

At a time of unprecedented change and chaos we have to stay focused on what really matters. We have what it takes to be focused and positive in a world that needs us more than ever.

‘Just as in the upper spaces clouds appear and vanish, in the space of the heart endless feelings and thoughts rise and set. Why should you attach any special importance to them?

Ignore the clouds and look for the sun in their midst. As you concentrate on the light, your mind will also become peaceful.’

(Swami Muktananda) Now is the time.

Softer and Stronger together!

Janie teaches Open level flow yoga on Fridays at 9.15am at The Bull Hotel, Bridport matyezraty.com yogaspacebridport.com bridporttimes.co.uk | 69

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Gardening

CATCH A BREATH Will Livingstone, WillGrow

O

ctober provides some breathing space.

Everything slows down, giving you more time to get autumn tasks done. As the leaves start to turn on the trees, the vegetables react in a similar way. Leafy crops start to yellow at the base, soft-fruit bushes start to drop leaves and plants that store energy over winter retreat, throwing top growth energy down into their roots or tubers. It is this action that puts the sweetness into parsnips, causes the swelling of Jerusalem artichokes and produces some of the energy for the following year’s growth. Clearing up fallen leaves and removing any yellow or dead material will keep the garden looking sharp, whilst removing potential habitat for grey moulds and slugs and snails.

Now is the time to sow winter broad beans.

Aquadulce is a safe, over-wintering variety of broad bean, and is hardy enough to survive most frosts. Sow outside, direct into fertile, free-draining soil – keep an eye on the seedbed, as mice can see your seeds as a sneaky autumn snack. Fleecing the newly sown seedbed can keep you safe from uninvited nibbling until germination. You will get an early crop of beans in spring that will finish just as the new season beans begin. It is important not to sow your beans too early. If you sow earlier than October, the seedlings can get too big, increasing the risk of getting damaged in the first frosts. Sowing broad beans for over-wintering can also reduce the risk of getting a dreaded blackfly attack the following spring.

Mid-autumn is also the time to plant garlic.

Although I often advise home-growers to grow high value crops and leave the cheaper selection to the farm shop (like maincrop potatoes and carrots), I would never dissuade anyone from growing their own garlic.

Once dried, you’ll be well stocked and your recipes will surely benefit. I always save garlic from the previous year, selecting the best specimens for replanting (if you can keep cook’s hands off them!) It’s important to store garlic heads in a cool dark place so as to halt growth until planting. Simply split the head of garlic into cloves, leaving the papery skins on, and push into

72 | Bridport Times | October 2019

the soil of a prepared seedbed, allowing approximately 20cm between cloves and 30cm between rows. I would advise submerging completely, leaving none of the clove above the soil surface as birds can come along and pull them all out again… very annoying! Your garlic should put on a couple of inches of growth before the end of the year, stopping once the really cold weather comes; as I understand it, the frost encourages the head to split and is important to the formation of great garlic. This early start will give you garlic to harvest in June the following year.

Plant up your greenhouse with winter leaves, greens and herbs. You’ll be providing the kitchen with greenery all throughout the coming months and will thank yourself later. I would advise spacing the seedlings further apart, reducing the risk of grey mould and mildew, which can be a problem in damp conditions.

Coriander, chervil and parsley are a good winter choice as they refuse to bolt with the colder weather, and they liven up rich winter dishes. The growth is obviously slower in the winter, so picking using a cut-and-comeagain method is essential to prolonging the life of winter crops. Chard overwinters really well inside and out but it is important to sow it in early autumn using the latent heat of the summer to get it started.

With the first frost comes the big reveal, as the leaves wither back to expose the contrasting colours of our squash crop. Versatile in the kitchen and with a long shelf life, squash is my favourite autumn crop, and with little care needed over the summer, the benefit far outweighs the effort. Try Uchiki Kuri, an amazing onion squash. They are relatively small which is good for the domestic grower and have thin skins and lots of bright orange flesh. For a large interesting squash try Marina di Chioggia or The Old Man squash, so named because of its very knobbly skin. There is a huge variety available, and with squash, pumpkins and gourds to choose from, the shapes, flavours and colours will sweeten the transition between falling leaves and frozen ground. willgrow.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 73

Gardening

THE ADVANTAGES OF AUTUMN Charlie Groves, Groves Nurseries

I

t’s probably just a sign of getting older but the problem with working in retail, particularly garden retail, is that the year goes by too quickly.

You are always working (or at least trying to work) a season or two ahead and, before you know it, it’s October and you’re setting up your Christmas shop all over again! You would think that all this forward thinking would make you more organised and that your garden would be amazing. However, at least in 74 | Bridport Times | October 2019

my case, it doesn’t and it isn’t!

I think I get a bit blind to it all and my brain separates out my garden retailing knowledge from my own actual garden. I know for example that right now I should be planting some overwintering broad beans such as Aquadulce claudia so that I get an early crop that avoids the black fly… but I still haven’t done it. I should buy some bulbs to put in pots for some lovely spring colour on my patio next year… but I still haven’t done it.

Barmalini/Shutterstock

To be fair I don’t think it’s just me. If you’re not careful, autumn can be a bit of a forgotten time in the garden. Nowadays spring is the key month for selling plants; the winter is long and the first warmth of sunshine gets everyone excited and out in the garden.

However, ask any old-school gardener and they will tell you autumn is the most important season for planting: work done at this time of year will give you

a great head start in the spring. Most know that now is the time to plant bulbs including daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and alliums amongst many others but it’s also a great time to plant many other perennials. The ground is often much warmer now than in March or April and can have a higher water content than in May or June.

The sun is there but is less strong than in late spring; in fact, the growing conditions can be just right, meaning the plants are under much less stress than they would be from spring and certainly summer planting.

For a plant, spring is all about getting their top growth ready for the warm, sunny months ahead. They concentrate their effort into leaf growth to maximise their food production. They also focus on producing lots of lovely flowers for the pollinating insects that are all coming to life after the winter just gone.

During the autumn however it’s all happening underground. The plant is preparing to go dormant for the cold winter ahead. The tops are allowed to wither away (which is one reason fungal diseases can become more prevalent) and the roots take priority. The focus shifts to putting down a good root system to anchor the plant securely and provide somewhere to store the sugars and nutrients produced during the summer.

As gardeners we can take advantage of this extra effort plants put into autumnal root growth. By putting our plants in during the autumn months, a good root system can be established so they can then put all their efforts into creating that fantastic top growth in the spring - which is what we are really all after.

The range of plants that can go in at this time of year might be a bit smaller but there are still many to choose from. Trees, shrubs and roses will all benefit from being planted right now along with a surprisingly large range of herbaceous perennials. In the vegetable garden garlic takes ages to grow properly and always benefits from getting some really cold weather, so get that in before the winter takes hold along with the broad beans I mentioned earlier.

Just a couple of little things… to get the real benefits from any autumn planting you want to have at least 4 weeks of growth before the first frost. Also, frozen or waterlogged ground is no good at all.

Now if I can just convert some of that forwardplanning into action in my own garden in the same way as the plants do, I might be able to get some great results next year. grovesnurseries.co.uk bridporttimes.co.uk | 75

Interiors

Farrow & Ball, Dutch Orange 76 | Bridport Times | October 2019

COLOUR BY NATURE

Annabelle Hunt, Colour Consultant, Bridport Timber and Framing

H

eld within the collection of the Natural History Museum’s library is a rare and comprehensive colour guide which hovers somewhere between art and science. First published in 1814, the small book called Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours presented a whole new vocabulary for describing the natural world.

In the pre-photographic age visual details had to be captured using the written word and scientists could not afford any ambiguity in their descriptions. Invaluable to both naturalists and anthropologists for over two hundred years, Werner’s Nomenclature was an indispensable tool during Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle.

What the book is remarkable for is its lovely descriptions of where each tone can be found in nature.

Illustrated only by a small swatch, each handwritten entry is accompanied by an evocative name such as ‘Arterial Blood Red’ and ‘Velvet Black’, an identifying number and a reference to a specific animal, mineral and vegetable. Precise and poetic, Werner’s original descriptions of colours are very beautiful.

In an exciting collaboration with the Natural History Museum, and drawing inspiration from Werner’s Nomenclature of Colour, Farrow & Ball (F&B) has created a brand-new palette of 16 colours. Colour

by Nature is an extension to the 132 colours on the current Farrow & Ball colour card and includes vibrant and jewel-like oranges and reds, on-trend natural and opulent greens and blues, and a range of soft neutrals.

Even though some of the brighter, jewel-bright shades are not normally associated with F&B, this exciting new palette really demonstrates the variety of genuine and authentic colours found in nature. As always with F&B, there is a perfect complimentary neutral for each colour and beautiful colour schemes can be created in combination with the wider range of existing shades on the standard colour card.

For a scheme which has its roots firmly in the past but is incredibly fashionable try Duck Green, Orange Coloured White and Deep Reddish Brown. These earthy colours would be perfect to create a welcoming hall with

Duck Green on the walls, Orange Coloured White on the ceiling and Deep Reddish Brown on the woodwork to create a below stairs feel so often seen in the cottages of Spitalfields.

Soft Skimmed Milk walls are the perfect backdrop in any living room but the addition of Dutch Orange and Verdi Green on doors or window reveals will transform it into a dynamic space perfect for young families.

Create a lively combination with Emerald Green, Ultra Marine Blue and Lake Red. Ultra Marine Blue walls will never overpower and are a great foil for the two brighter colours which can be used on furniture or even just on a stripe around the room or over the ceiling.

The fabulously glamorous combination of Scotch Blue, Crimson Red and Sap Green will create a rich atmosphere in any room but would particularly suit a dining room. Indulgent Scotch Blue walls and woodwork could be teamed with an equally alluring Crimson Red ceiling, while Sap Green would be the perfect addition on furniture.

Perfect for a light-filled modern kitchen, Snow White on both walls and ceiling will create a bright room which can be tempered with Ash Grey units and an Imperial Purple island to ground the room and add an extra dimension to make you smile.

The combination of Broccoli Brown, Sap Green and Duck Green takes its inspiration straight from nature and would be well suited to any garden room or on garden furniture. The three earthy colours can be combined in any way for the ‘mismatched’ look which ultimately creates a relaxed atmosphere.

If you’re feeling inspired to fill your home with beautiful colours of nature, pop into Bridport Timber for a chat, browse the new colours in large format swatches and pick up your new Colour by Nature colour card.

Werner’s charming and fascinating little book is still in print and available from all good booksellers, giving us a polychromatic peek into history. bridporttimber.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 77

Interiors

AUTUMN IN STYLE

A

Molly Bruce, Interior Designer

utumn is in full swing, and those of us reluctant to accept the departing summer during September can no longer ignore the increasingly crisp mornings and the golden tones of nature all around: leaves fall from the trees, backlit by the dappled sunlight of late afternoons.

I find this time of year both scary and exciting. Saying goodbye to one season, especially the summer, is never easy but welcoming another with all it evokes is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. The tricky transition is behind us and now is the time to turn our attention indoors, reluctantly packing away the beach bag, hoovering up the sand and hanging up our flip-flops. Let the nesting begin.

The great outdoors is never far away; those autumnal walks, apple harvesting and invigorating visits to storm-swept beaches all provide perfect opportunities to gather dried foliage and other treasures to decorate our homes. Added to your existing collections, you can create little shrines of memories from past adventures in nature as you while away the colder months getting reacquainted with your burrows.

Dried flowers are a fantastic way to style your home, not only creating great impact but lasting for years; even when purchased rather than foraged, they provide good value for money. There are numerous varieties to choose from these days; we have come a long way from the displays of the 1970s! I encourage you to err on the wild side, source the unusual from your garden or when out walking and grab whatever catches your eye. There are no rules - don’t let trends dictate your choice; it’s your house. Admittedly some things will dry better than others, either retaining colour or taking on a more neutral shade, so it really comes down to personal taste. In October you can pick flowers, grasses and seed pods straight off the plant, already dried. Certain varieties require different drying techniques and I have learnt over the years through trial and error - Google is fantastic for researching a specific specimen!

When it comes to styling, be bold. Don’t limit your displays to eye level and flat surfaces.

As these flowers require no watering they are perfect for draping over the tops of mirrors and picture frames to draw the eye up, or down if you stand them in a vessel on the floor.

Have fun experimenting with scale, creating visual contrast by pairing opposites. Place rough with smooth, light with dark, small against big, horizontal to vertical - the list goes on. Play around, trusting your instincts until it feels just right, decorating nooks and crannies to await discovery by curious eyes.

When evening comes, pay homage to past seasons while embracing the new. With our visual memories displayed around us, we can enjoy autumnal aromas such as woodsmoke mixed with baked apple and cinnamon drifting from the oven: the scent, sights and tastes of past and present. mollybruce.co.uk @mollybruceinteriors

78 | Bridport Times | October 2019

bridporttimes.co.uk | 79

Legal

TIME FOR A NEW START

Y

Amy Mowlam, Porter Dodson Solicitors

ou’ve accepted an offer on your home and you’ve seen your dream property on Right Move.

It’s all coming together with a second viewing booked for this Saturday! You are already mentally picking out curtain material and paint colours.

However, there is a lot of work to be done before you visit your local decorating store to pick up tins of paint. The role of the conveyancer is to make sure that you are fully informed regarding the property and feel confident in signing the paperwork and handing over your deposit.

Once the conveyancer has received your instructions, the land registry title plan will be sent to you for review and to confirm that the boundaries are accurate. It is crucial that the plan details the full extent of the property you are intending to buy. The legal enquiries on the land registry title will be raised with the seller’s solicitors, for example, checking all the relevant rights of access are included and that there are no onerous obligations you have to comply with.

The supplementary information provided by the seller will then be reviewed and any additional enquiries on the documents supplied raised. This could be concerning the energy performance certificate, the relevant planning permissions, septic tank or drainage, Japanese knotweed, tree preservation orders and even what, if any, items are or are not included with the purchase! Searches on the property will be ordered, including the local authority and water search.

If the property is leasehold there are additional forms and information to check, such as ground rent and service charge payments per year and the lease provisions.

This is a collaborative process and you should expect a report on each step of the way so that any issues can be dealt with as they arise. Your role is key - feeding back to the conveyancer from your practical inspections of the property as well as providing updates on your mortgage application and a copy of your survey.

With regard to your sale, this largely mirrors the process from the other side of the fence in that the conveyancer will be answering the buyer’s solicitor’s questions and supplying them with as much information as possible for their clients.

Not at that stage yet but considering it?

If you are thinking of putting your property on the market, it is really useful to chat to a conveyancer at the initial stage, as being prepared can ensure the process runs smoothly. They should be happy to review the deeds you have and work through any potential concerns with you in advance so that when you do secure a buyer, all you will need to worry about is choosing the all-important paint colours for your new home! porterdodson.co.uk

80 | Bridport Times | October 2019

We’re all about ensuring you feel right at home

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Bridport town centre – Interest sought

Philosophy

BEAUTY

W

Kelvin Clayton, Philosophy in Pubs

hen you talk about something beautiful, say a West Dorset sunset, the face of your newborn grandson, or a piece of music that has just moved you to tears, have you ever stopped to consider where that particular quality that provides the beauty comes from? Is it, for example, an objective quality that is, in some way, an intrinsic part of your object of contemplation? Or does that quality reside in you as a subjective response to the object? And whether objective or subjective, what is it that makes certain faces, sunsets and pieces of music beautiful, yet others not? These were the questions considered in August, when the Bridport Philosophy in Pubs group met to discuss ‘beauty’.

For most of human history beauty has been considered an objective quality. Plato considered that Beauty existed as a perfect Form or Idea in a universal realm to which we had no direct access, but of which all beautiful things were, to some degree, a reflection. However, to my thinking, Aristotle, who was far more ‘down to earth’, provided the template for the more conventional objective take on beauty by talking about it in terms of order, symmetry and definiteness, concepts that were absorbed into the central idea of the Italian Renaissance as beauty consisting of perfect proportion.

However, by the 18th century, a completely different view emerged. The British philosopher David Hume wrote that, ‘Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.’ So for Hume beauty is totally subjective. His near contemporary, Immanuel Kant, by agreeing that each of us is certain about what we consider to be beautiful, even if it doesn’t agree with another person’s perception, also supported a subjective element to beauty. However, Kant also pointed out that we are more than happy to argue the case for our perception of beauty over that of the other person (think of two art critics disputing the merits of a certain modern work of art) and that this also suggested the existence of a more objective concept of beauty.

Personally I like Kant’s take on this. For me there is a lot of commonality regarding the beauty of faces, landscapes and certain works of art, and this suggests a degree of objectivity. But this agreement is never universal, and if one person is insistent that the piece of music they have just listened to was the most beautiful thing that they have ever heard, whilst I was totally unmoved, who am I to say that their response is wrong? But there is still another dimension to this. To what extent does our changing culture, and particularly our changing sense of fashion, influence our perception of beauty? Over the centuries different body shapes, as portrayed in art, have been regarded as beautiful. From where do these changes arise? It’s at this point that a political dimension to beauty knocks on the door. I’ll open it another time.

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

84 | Bridport Times | October 2019

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Antonia Squire, The Bookshop

A Girl Called Justice by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Publishing, 2019) £6.99 Bridport Times reader price of £5.99 at The Bookshop, South Street

I

usually try to choose a book that releases within a couple of weeks of when the Bridport Times publishes. For this October edition it would generally be a book available at the end of September or the beginning of October. Not this time though; this book was published in May and I missed it.

In July I was invited to a publisher ‘do’ in Dorchester and A Girl Called Justice was one of the books they were showcasing. I liked the cover (shh, don’t judge) so I picked it up for a closer look and asked if I could take it with me. It was the only copy they had but they were happy to let me have it, and I am so pleased they did.

I tend to be a little wary when authors who are known for their adult fiction decide to try their hand at writing for children as they often talk down to their audience and, let’s be honest, no one likes being patronised. Not Elly Griffiths though, she absolutely nailed it! This book is brilliant.

Justice Jones (mum, sadly deceased, was a mystery writer and dad, QC, a defence lawyer – hence the name) is just beginning her first term at Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk. She arrives at the imposing and isolated school in a taxi (Dad, QC, was busy, but not neglectful, with a very important case) and is altogether certain that something must be amiss. Justice is not altogether wrong.

What with missing maids, suspicious teachers and a snowstorm on the way which is sure to cut them off from all contact, Justice knows that solving the mysteries (real or imagined) must be up to her.

And then the first person turns up dead.

Think Malory Towers meets Agatha Christie and you will have the perfect mystery (recommended for ages 9+) in the shape of A Girl Called Justice. dorsetbooks.com

bridporttimes.co.uk | 85

Literature

BRIDLIT 2019

A FEAST FOR THE EYES AND EARS

B

Margery Hookings

ridport Literary Festival comes to town in November and it’s bigger and better than ever.

The 15th annual festival, which takes place between Sunday 3rd and Saturday 9th November, is truly a feast for lovers of reading and writing in all genres. A dazzling array of speakers has been lined up for this annual event including Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, bestselling author and screenwriter David Nicholls and Boris Johnson’s old boss, Max Hastings, who’ll be giving an illustrated talk on Chastise, The Dambusters Story 1943.

Hastings, who edited The Daily Telegraph and employed Boris Johnson as a journalist, grew up embracing the Dambusters story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, who was just 24 when he led the raid. He vividly describes the evolution of Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb – tested off the Chesil Beach – and the squadron that broke the dams, as well as giving a harrowing portrayal of all those swept away by the devastating torrents.

The narrative is a dramatic retake of familiar history 86 | Bridport Times | October 2019

and £2 of the £15 ticket price goes to the Bridport Read Easy charity. Trained volunteers give free, private coaching to adults who struggle to read, using a structured course imaginatively tailored to each learner.

As a self-funding affiliate of the national organisation, the Bridport branch has to raise all its own money.

Christian Tyler, a member of the Read Easy management committee and a big supporter of BridLit, says, ‘Imagine what life would be like without the joy of reading. Our course not only remedies that, it improves self-confidence, family life, social life and prospects of employment.’ Festival-goers not attending Max Hastings’ talk but who would like to donate can make cheques payable to ‘Read Easy Bridport’ and send to them to Christian Tyler at Old Vicarage, Burstock, Beaminster DT8 3LJ. Festival director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart says, ‘There’s something for everyone this year. We’re looking forward to a brilliant festival.’ The diverse line-up of speakers in the star-studded programme include the new Poet Laureate Simon Armitage (3rd Nov, Electric Palace),

novelists Melvyn Bragg (8th Nov, Electric Palace), Sadie Jones (7th Nov, LSi), Deborah Moggach (8th Nov, Electric Palace), David Nicholls (9th Nov, Electric Palace) and Booker longlisted author Max Porter (5th Nov, Bull Ballroom). Alongside Max Hastings are two other non-fiction historians, Tom Holland (8th Nov, Electric Palace) and Tim Bouverie (3th Nov, Electric Palace). Also appearing are award-winning journalists Lindsey Hilsum (9th Nov, Electric Palace), Steve Richards (9th Nov, Electric Palace) and Channel Four News’s Matt Frei, who is guest speaker at the George Millar Literary Dinner on 7th November at the Tithe Barn, Symondsbury, which has already sold out.

Local authors Rosanna Ley, Gail Aldwin and Maria Donovan will lead a discussion on Spirit of Place (3rd Nov, Bridport Library), Dr Celia Brayfield will lead a lifewriting masterclass (7th Nov, LSi) as well as talk about her latest book, Rebel Writers (6th Nov, Bull Ballroom), which has been published to much critical acclaim.

Edith Nesbitt’s life was much more complicated than her books, The Railway Children and Five Children and It, as revealed by Eleanor Fitzsimons (5th Nov, Bull Ballroom) in The Life and Loves of E Nesbitt.

Legendary broadcaster Henry Blofield, whose voice and trademark charming style is synonymous with BBC Radio 4 and 5’s Test Match Specials, will be revealing

My A-Z of Cricket (5th Nov, Electric Palace). He’ll be explaining puzzling cricket terminology and telling his favourite anecdotes.

Nature lovers are in for a treat with an illustrated talk by Peter Marren on Emperors, Admirals & Chimney Sweeps, the Naming of Butterflies and Moths (5th Nov, Bull Ballroom), while Stephen Moss will be giving the Kenneth Allsop Memorial Talk (7th Nov, Bull Ballroom) about his fascinating book, Mrs Moreau’s Warbler, How Birds Got Their Names.

Isabella Tree (9th Nov, Electric Palace) tells the story of the ‘Knepp Experiment’, a pioneering re-wilding project in West Sussex using free-roaming grazing animals for wildlife. Part enthralling memoir, part fascinating account of the ecology of the countryside, her book, Wilding, is considered to be one of the landmark ecological books of the decade. bridlit.com

____________________________________________ Sunday 3rd - Saturday 9th November Bridport Literary Festival Venues in and around the town. Tickets from Bridport

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____________________________________________ bridporttimes.co.uk | 87

Literature

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TIME AND PLACE: NOTES ON THE ART OF CALENDARS

By Alexandra Harris, published 24th October 2019, (Little Toller Books) £12

1600 BC The Nebra sky disk features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos yet known from anywhere in the world

88 | Bridport Times | October 2019

‘C

alendar’ is a remarkably stretchy word if it can be applied to a notched post, a psalter and a stained glass window – to name only a few examples from the profusion of forms that calendars have taken, from giant earthworks and systematically planted flower beds, blooms coming day by day, to candles burnt down a fraction at a time and clock-faces on which the months are hours in miniature. Today, the calendar format that comes first to mind may well be the month-to-view wall chart with its shiny picture above and gridded dates below. When we look at the year on one of these calendars, we see the months in succession, one at a time, each a space to be annotated with our significant dates. Time passes sequentially in the pages of the wall calendar: we turn over the leaves from front to back and arrive at the end. But a year is a circle as well as a line; it repeats even while it progresses. There are calendar formats that allow us to visualise more clearly the circular qualities of the year, formats that represent the cycle of the seasons and answer to our sense of Christmas ‘coming round again’.

In medieval almanacs the year was often represented on a dial, with the months arranged around the edge, each with its corresponding zodiac sign, December leading into January as easily as June into July. When the year is represented as a wheel in a printed book it gains a top and a bottom – usually summer at the top and winter below, corresponding to our sense of the year’s high and low points, which are in turn logically derived from the height of the sun in the sky. In the painted tower at Longthorpe, a thirteenth-century house near Peterborough, the months climb the side of an arch towards a summer apex and descend to winter on the other side, mirroring the stages of life, ‘The Seven Ages of Man’, which grow up the side of an arch on the adjacent wall, pause at a triumphant maturity, and descend again towards old age.

What if the circle is replaced by a square? The Norman font at Burnham Deepdale is carved with the labours of the months on three sides and four bold trees on the fourth, perhaps so that the font could be stood close to a wall without losing a quarter of the year. With four months to a side, the turning-points of the year must fall between April and May, August and September. It’s true to experience that there are corners in the year, though the corners are not always the same from one year to the next. It may be the weather that designates the turning of a corner into Spring, or the sudden drawing out of days (which is not a steady process but occurs in sudden jumps towards the equinox), or the hinges may articulate the join between school terms or periods of work. Square, rectangular and polygonal calendars represent the year not as a steady curve but as a phenomenon with critical junctures and new directions.

Though most calendars take the form of books, pictures, and objects, the year can be represented in an almost limitless number of physical forms. A whole building, for example, might become a calendar, with its walls, wings and windows counting out the units of time. For a period in the early seventeenth-century it looked as if ‘calendar houses’ might become a distinct architectural genre; the idea certainly answered to the Elizabethan and Jacobean fascination with closely measured temporality and with ingeniously mimetic art forms that might embody their subject in their shape.

Numbers were aesthetically and philosophically meaningful, whether the numbered steps of a dance (demonstrating in miniature the great dance of the heavens) or the numbered stanzas of a poem counting out the hours of a day. To design an entire building around the numbers of the calendar was more than a fancy. These were nature’s numbers – 7 days, 12 months, 12 signs of the zodiac, 365 days – and they must express nature’s harmonious proportions. When Thomas Sackville remodelled and dramatically extended the old medieval house at Knole in Kent, he made it a calendar house on an extraordinary scale, with 365 rooms, 52 staircases and 7 courtyards – or so the legend has run for centuries. ‘I do not know that anyone has ever troubled to verify it’, wrote Vita Sackville-West. littletoller.co.uk

bridporttimes.co.uk | 89

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