Sherborne Times October 2017

OCTOBER 2017 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

BOARD AND LOGGING with Will & Charlie Miller of Timber Millers

sherbornetimes.co.uk

WELCOME

T

he air crispens, harvest is past and the remaining few swallows hand in their keys. October may bring with it the sense of an ending, but in certain corners of Sherborne we’re just getting started.

The fourteen pages of this month’s What’s On section are a veritable scrum of shows, fairs, talks, performances, workshops and fixtures. Among these we see the welcome return of our annual Film and Literary Festivals and the third in our own series of Other Side events – a collaborative project with local artists Denman&Gould and arts and culture guide Evolver.

In the first of a new monthly series, children’s author and illustrator Paul Stickland documents his family's fascinating journey from allotment hobbyists to full-blown flower farmers. Jo Denbury and Katharine Davies meanwhile visit Will and Charlie Miller of Timber Millers, a place where the end really is just the beginning.

Have a wonderful month.

Glen Cheyne, Editor editor@sherbornetimes.co.uk @sherbornetimes

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard Sub-editor Julia Chadwick Photography Katharine Davies Feature writer Jo Denbury Editorial assistant Helen Brown Print Pureprint Distribution team David Elsmore Christine Knott Sarah Morgan Alfie Neville-Jones Maggie Pelly Claire Pilley Geoff Wood Contact 01935 814803 07957 496193 @sherbornetimes editor@sherbornetimes.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk PO Box 9170 Sherborne DT9 9DW Sherborne Times is printed on Edixion Offset, an FSC® 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 Sherborne 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. Sherborne 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 Sherborne Times.

Additional photography: contributor's own, Shutterstock and iStock 4 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Sarah Attwood Thrive Health and Wellness @thrivehw thrivehealthwellness.co.uk

Paul Gammage & Anita Light EweMove Sherborne @ewemoveyeovil ewemove.com

Simon Barber Evolver Magazine @SimonEvolver evolver.org.uk

Rachel Graham Leigh Art Show leighvillage.org.uk/artshow

Simon Barker MRICS Knight Frank @kfsherborne knightfrank.co.uk Laurence Belbin laurencebelbin.com Rebecca Beresford Mogers Drewett Solicitors @mogersdrewett md-solicitors.co.uk Lucy Beney MA The London Road Clinic @56londonroad 56londonroad.co.uk Heidi Berry Sherborne Preparatory School @Sherborneprep sherborneprep.org David Birley Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum @SherborneMuseum sherbornemuseum.co.uk Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers @CharterhouseAV charterhouse-auction.com John Buckley Sherborne International Film Festival @SHIFFSherborne shiff.org.uk Mike Burks The Gardens Group @TheGardensGroup thegardeneronline.co.uk Michelle and Rob Comins Comins Tea House @cominsteahouse cominstea.com Gillian M Constable DWT Sherborne Group @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

Peter Henshaw & Mike Riley Riley’s Cycles @rileyscycles rileyscycles.co.uk @DCNSherborne dcn.org.uk Sarah Hitch The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms @SanctuaryDorset thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk Nicky King The Eastbury Hotel & The Three Wishes @eastbury_hotel theeastburyhotel.co.uk thethreewishes.co.uk Samantha Kirk Oxley Sports Centre @OxleySports oxleysc.com Colin Lambert colinlambert.co.uk Roy Leask Sherborne Scribblers Loretta Lupi-Lawrence The Sherborne Rooms thesherbornerooms.com Sasha Matkevich The Green Restaurant @greensherborne greenrestaurant.co.uk Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Partnership @swanhousevet newtonclarkevet.com Kitty Oakshott Upstairs Downstairs Interiors @updowninteriors updowninteriors.co.uk Lindsay Punch Lindsay Punch Styling @stylistmum lindsaypunchstyling.co.uk

Lloyd Davies

Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom Glencairn House Clinic glencairnhouse.co.uk doctortwrobinson.com

Jenny Dickinson Dear to Me Studio, Fine Stationery @DearToMeStudio deartome.co.uk

Paul Stickland Black Shed Flowers @NaughtyDinosaur blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk

Jimmy Flynn Milborne Port Computers @MPortComputers computing-mp.co.uk

Nick Stokes The Bed Specialist @BedSpecialists thebedspecialist.co.uk

Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.)

CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS Fort Financial Planning ffp.org.uk

Val Stones @valstones bakerval.com

David Copp

Jean Fox, John Gaye & Mark Greenstock Sherborne Literary Society @SherborneLitSoc sherborneliterarysociety.com May Franklin-Davis Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

Eleanor Wilson Garden Angels @GardenAngels_ sherbornegardenangels.co.uk Wayne Winstone Winstone’s Books @winstonebooks winstonebooks.co.uk Rev. Dr. Rich Wyld Sherborne Abbey @SherborneAbbey sherborneabbey.com

68 8

What’s On

OCTOBER 2017 56 Antiques

112 Finance

22 Shopping Guide

61 Gardening

116 Tech

26 Wild Dorset

68 TIMBER MILLERS

118 Folk Tales

26 Wild Dorset

74 Food & Drink

120 Short Story

32 Family

84 Animal Care

121 Literature

34 Unearthed

86 On Foot

124 Directory

44 Art

88 Cycling

128 Crossword

48 History

90 Body & Mind

129 Pause for Thought

50 Interiors

106 Property

130 Councillor David Birley

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 5

Experience the Audi Sport range, all with high performance brakes, at Yeovil Audi.

Yeovil Audi. Look No Further.

Yeovil Audi Houndstone Business Park, Mead Avenue, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 8RT 01935 574981 yeovilaudi.co.uk  

WHAT'S ON Listings

The Long Weekend:

I think, therefore I am?

____________________________

Life in the English Country

First Thursday

House between the Wars

Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. Talk by Jon

of each month 9.30am

Digby Hall, Hound St. Talk by Adrian

New Networking Group Outside Olivers coffee shop. Want to

meet other small business owners and

Tinniswood OBE. In Aid of Friends of Holnest Church. Tickets £5 from

Riding. Tickets £5 from the Parish

Office, Abbey Close. 01935 816779 insight.sherborneabbey.com

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Sherborne TIC

Monday 9th 9.30am-3.30pm

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West Country Embroiderers

Sherborne or quieter areas of the town

Friday 6th 7pm for 7.30pm

Sherborne & District

to walk and talk. It’s free, we just ask that

Sherborne Douzelage fund-raising

you bring the desire to move your business

talk - “No More Champagne” (talk

Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne.

forward as well as helping others to do

about Churchill’s money)

the same. Visit @yourtimelifecoaching or

yourtimecoaching.com for more information

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road,

Sherborne. Tickets £10, available from

entrepreneurs? We use the footpaths around

Monday 2nd 7.30pm

Winstone’s Bookshop or TIC

Meetings with optional workshops, £15 booked in advance on 2nd Monday of

each month, new members welcomed.

Details Ann 01963 34696

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Tuesday 10th 8pm

Dogwood’s Production

Saturday 7th 2.30pm

Sherborne Historical Soc.:

of ‘No Finer Life’

In One Lifetime: Rapidity & Change

Storms, War & Shipwrecks -

Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. A new play

in 19th Century New Zealand

Treasures from Sicilian Seas

from Radio 4’s ‘The Archers’ writer,

Graham Harvey, with music composed

Digby Hall, Hound St. Blackmore Vale

Digby Hall, Hound St. Talk on Roman

by Alistair Collingwood. Tickets £12 inc.

& Yeovil National Trust Association talk

by Peter Tait (ex-Headmaster, Sherborne

Prof. Roberts. SHS members: free. Non-

glass of wine and after-show talk with

the author. Tickets from Sherborne TIC

or peter.neal21@outlook.com. Sponsored by

The Sherborne & District Society CPRE

Preparatory School). New members

welcome. £3/£5 (inc tea & biscuits).

____________________________ Sunday 8th 2.30pm-4pm Sherborne Town Band:

Macmillan Coffee Morning

Music In The Park

The Slipped Stitch, The Julian, Cheap St.

Pageant Gardens. Bring your

email info@theslippedstitch.co.uk or online

concert of light entertainment music

theslippedstitch.co.uk

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members: £5. sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

01935 425383. bvyntassoc.wordpress.com

Tuesday 3rd 10am-1pm

For more information call 01935 508249,

finds from Mediterranean shipwrecks, by

family, bring a picnic and enjoy a sherbornetownband.co.uk

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Wednesday 4th 2pm & 8pm

Until Sunday 8th October

Wednesday 11th - Sunday 15th

The Arts Society Sherborne - The

Somerset Art Weeks Festival,

Sherborne Literary Festival

Extraordinary Life of Misia Sert

2017 - ‘Prospect’

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Julian

With exciting new commissions,

Various locations around Sherborne.

to Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard

Somerset Art Weeks Festival 2017

Halsby examines the life of this muse and Vuillard; concert pianist, fashion

icon and patron of the Ballet Russes. theartssocietysherborne.org.uk

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group shows and education projects, features inspiring exhibitions, events

and workshops in 120 locations across Somerset. somersetartworks.org.uk

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Thursday 5th 8pm

Monday 9th 7.30pm

(doors open 7.15pm)

Insight Lecture:

8 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Featuring a wide range of speakers

inc. Joshua Levine, Simon Weston,

Roger McGough, Rosamund Young, Natalie Haynes, Rory Stewart,

Jeremy Greenstock, Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Gulwali Passarlay, and

more! Tickets from Sherborne TIC. sherborneliterarysociety.com/festival

OCTOBER 2017 breast cancer. Tickets from Sherborne TIC

Evening #3 Award-winning author

What is Putin up to today?

Friday 13th

Slessor Club, Long St. With guest

Free Facial Friday

travel writing and his UK best sellers

members welcome, for more information

Free skin consultation followed by a

Wednesday 11th 10.15am Probus - The Cold War- Déjà vu?

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speaker Sir Christopher Coville. New

The Sherborne Rooms, 56 Cheap St.

01935 851641 or david@covert-house.net

mini facial using Neal’s Yard Remedies

____________________________ Wednesday 11th 7.30pm Sherborne Flicks:

products. 30 minute appointment.

Booking essential. 07545 328447

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The Sense of an Ending (15)

Friday 13th - Sunday 15th

Memorial Hall, Digby Road,

Bruton Decorative Antiques Fair

receives a mysterious legacy from the

11am – 5pm. An exciting blend of

Sherborne. Drama - Jim Broadbent

Friday 2pm – 5pm, Saturday and Sunday

mother of his university girlfriend.

C18th – C20th decorative antique and

Tickets £6 from Sherborne TIC. sherborneartslink.org.uk

____________________________ Thursday 12th 2.30pm Sherborne District Gardeners’ Assoc. meeting & talk - Berries, Bark & Evergreens for Winter Colour

Rory MacLean will be talking about “Stalin’s Nose” and “Under the

Dragon” as well as “Berlin: Imagine

a City”, a Washington Post Book of the Year. Church Studio, Haydon,

Sherborne, DT9 5JB. Wild drinks

and cocktails from Into the Gathering Dusk + tea tastings, dumplings and bakes with Comins Tea. Suggested

donation £7. Proceeds to Sherborne Food Bank

vintage trouve for home and garden,

French & Swedish painted furniture,

architectural reclamation, CMid design, primitive country furniture, dazzling

vintage designer handbags and jewellery. brutondecorativeantiquesfair.co.uk haynesmotormuseum.com

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Saturday 14th 6.45pm

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Talk by Jenny

Saturday 14th 2.30pm

14th Fosters and Digby’s School

Short on Berried Treasure. 01935 389375

(doors open 2pm)

25th Anniversary Dinner

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The Gerald Pitman Lecture

Thursday 12th 7.30pm

Roman Catholic Church Hall, Westbury,

Sherborne Golf Club. It is not necessary to

Tindal Recital Series: Huw Davies Jazz Trio Tindal Recital Hall, Sherborne School. £10. 01935 812249

____________________________ Thursday 12th 7pm RBL Charity Concert

Sherborne. Robert Nantes, Postgraduate

Researcher at the University of Exeter, on John Slade of Sherborne, Maltster and

Bankrupt: a tale of financial ruin in early nineteenth-century Dorset. Tickets £5,

students £2. Tea & cake will be available.

be a member of either of the Old School

Associations - the dinner welcomes anyone associated in any way with the 2 schools over the years and partners are welcome too. For ticket details, email Dr Ian

Maun wordsmith@eclipse.co.uk or phone Philip Dolbear on 01935 873497

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Sherborne Abbey. Featuring young

Sunday 15th 11am-4pm

Presented by the Royal British Legion

Waterwheel Centre Open Day

Alliance Foundation. Tickets £20-£30

extensive collection of Victorian engineering,

musicians from seven Dorset schools.

Sherborne Steam and

in partnership with the Countryside

Oborne Road, Sherborne DT9 3RX. An

available from Sherborne TIC.

inc. the 26ft diameter waterwheel built in 1869. 01935 816324 sswc.co.uk

____________________________ Thursday 12th 7pm

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Dorset Schools Charity Concert

Saturday 14th 6pm-10pm

Sunday 15th 7.30pm

Raising much needed funds for Dorset

Other Side - A series of

James Hickman & Dan Cassidy

free talks, lectures, live

Recovery for women recovering from

performances and screenings

Yetminster Jubilee Hall. British and

Royal British Legion and Casting for

American folk, bursting with humour, sherbornetimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON

Children

In association with sherborneparents.com. Please share your recommendations and contacts via facebook.com/Sherborne-Parents or email mail@sherborneparents.com

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Sundays 11am to 1pm

Thursdays 10am

Tuesday 24th 10am-12pm &

Art Club@Thornford

Playsongs

1.30pm-3.30pm

No 1 Wheelwright Studios,

Sherborne Youth Centre on Tinney’s

ArtsLink Arts Buffet

youngsters with a passion for art

along, dance along! We are a fun and

sessions where families can be creative

Thornford DT9 6QE. Aimed at

who want to improve their drawing and painting. Fun and informal. 8 years and upwards welcome. All

materials provided. £15 for 1 hour or £30 for 2 hours. Call 07742 888302, email alicockrean@gmail.com or visit

Lane. Come along, sing along, drum

Digby Hall, Hound St. Free art and craft

friendly group of parents, carers, babies

together. For accompanied children under

and toddlers in the Sherborne area. £2

per session. Payment can be weekly but please do book a place as spaces are

limited. Contact cscavallaro@hotmail.com

12. No need to book, just come along.

Donations welcome. 01935 815899 sherborneartslink.org.uk

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or 07732 388 555

Friday 27th 2-4pm

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Going Batty for Halloween

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Saturdays 10.30am-12pm &

Tuesdays 2pm-2.45pm

Sundays 12.15pm-2pm

Sherborne Museum. The lovely people

Wheels on the Bus

Float session

Sherborne Childrens’ Centre. Open

Oxley Sports Centre. Fun family time

a sing-song and to meet other families

to check times before going. 01935

alicockrean.co.uk for more info.

session up to age of 5. Come along for in your area

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with floats available. Please call centre 818270 or 818277

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Free family event but donations welcome ____________________________

Somerset & Dorset Family History

Photographic Project Open Day

Monday 16th early-late

Society, The Parade. Local residents are

____________________________ Saturday 21st -

10 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

fascinating and vulnerable little creatures.

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fun fair on the Terraces.

by Dan Cassidy’s virtuosic fiddling,

Halloween and learn more about these

Saturday 21st

Sherborne. Annual fair and weekend

and lively English wit are complemented

chilled-out bats to help us celebrate

£5 u18s. 01935 873719 artsreach.co.uk

Throughout the central streets of

Hickman’s emotive vocals, driving guitar

Rehabilitation are back with their

bone-dry irony and American drawl. £10,

Pack Monday Fair

heartbreak and excitement. James

from East Dorset Bat Rescue and

invited to bring photographs in to the

Family History Centre so that they can

be scanned and the data inputted by our

team. For more details see sdfhs.org/sdfhsprojects/ 01935 389611

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Sunday 22nd 10am - 5pm

Tuesday 24th 11am-2pm

Leigh Art Show

Mad Victorian Science

Free exhibition of work from professional

Sherborne Museum. Mad Victorian

on the Sunday. Refreshments available.

with his potions and poisons and

and amateur artists. Children's workshop leighartshow.co.uk (See page 20)

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Scientist Gordon Le Pard is back

peculiar facts. He is willing to share lots of sinister ideas and revolting

OCTOBER 2017 stories with you. Free family event

Friday 27th 7.30pm

____________________________

but donations welcome.

Sunset Cafe Stompers

Thursday evenings 7.30pm-9.30pm

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Jazz Concert with singer

Art Club@Thornford for Adults

Tuesday 24th 8pm

Hamish Maxwell

Sherborne Historical Society Talk:

Cheap Street Church. Tickets £10

No 1 Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

General Sir Richard McCreery: the Last Great Cavalryman Digby Hall, Hound Street. Dick

McCreery, who had a close association with Sherborne throughout his life,

(including interval refreshments)

available from Sherborne TIC and on

the door. Proceeds in aid of the Friends of the Rendezvous.

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DT9 6QE. Tutored art with Ali

Cockrean. Suitable for all abilities,

including beginners. Pay as you go, £10

per session (tuition only) or £15 (materials included). Limited places. Please call

07742 888302, email alicockrean@gmail.

was one of the great British soldiers

Sunday 29th 2pm

com or visit alicockrean.co.uk for more info.

SHS members: free. Non-members: £5.

Sherborne TIC. Blue Badge Guided

The Slipped Stitch

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was there! £5

To book call 01935 508249, email

of World War II. By Richard Mead.

Off The Beaten Track Again

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

Walk. See the history you didn’t know

The Julian, Cheap St, Sherborne.

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info@theslippedstitch.co.uk or online

Wednesday 25th 10.15am Probus - Comedy

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theslippedstitch.co.uk

Slessor Club, Long St. With guest

Workshops and Classes

members welcome, for more information

____________________________

Crochet a hot water bottle cosy

01935 851641 or david@covert-house.net

Saturday 7th 9.30am-4pm

Every Tuesday &

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Look Good, Feel Good -

Thursday 10am-12pm

Wednesday 25th 7.30pm

Style Masterclass

Knit and Natter

Science Café: The Origins of the

The Eastbury Hotel, Sherborne. A full

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Includes lunch & refreshments, a personal

(weekly except 2nd November)

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Tinney’s Lane Youth Centre, Sherborne.

in the 20th Century speaker Grahame Williams. New

First Supermassive Black Holes Raleigh Hall, Digby Rd. Dr Daniel

Whalen, Senior Lecturer, Institute of

Cosmology and Gravitation, Portsmouth University. sherborne.scafe@gmail.com

style guide & goodie bag £79 pp

ArtsLink Parkinson’s Dance

Thursday 19th 7.30pm-10pm

A fun, supportive and therapeutic

Colour Analysis Class

best colours. £45 per person, email info@ lindsaypunchstyling.co.uk to book

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Film Festival Powell Theatre, Abbey Road. Tickets from Sherborne TIC shiff.org.uk See our preview on page 18.

Tuesday 17th 6.30pm

Thursdays 2.30pm-4pm

versatile wardrobe by discovering your

Sherborne International

Needle felted sheep

day to help you look & feel fantastic.

Sherborne venue. Learn how to build a

Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th

Saturday 7th 10am

class with movement specifically

designed for those experiencing the

symptoms of Parkinson’s. 01935 815899. sherborneartslink.org.uk

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Sunday 22nd 1.30pm-4.30pm

Fairs and Markets

Sherborne Folk Band workshop

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Memorial Hall, Digby Rd,

Thursdays and Saturdays

by ear, experiment with chords and

The Parade

all instruments. £10 in advance/£12

Thursday mornings 9.00am-11.15am

workshops. To join: laurelswiftfolk@gmail.

Church Hall, Digby Road

Sherborne. Learn to play folk tunes

Pannier Market

arrangements. Suitable for all levels and

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on the door/£25 for 3 consecutive

Country Market

com or Julia: 01935 817905

____________________________ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 11

WHAT'S ON Every third Friday in

Sport

each month 9am-1pm

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Farmers’ Market

Every Wednesday 6pm

Cheap Street

Digby Etape Cycling Club Ride

Corsham v Sherborne (A) Friday 20th

Every third Saturday 9.30am-4pm

From Riley’s Cycles. 20-30 miles,

average 12-15mph. Drop bar road bike

Sherborne v Yeovil (H)

recommended. Facebook: Digby Etape

Saturday 28th

Sherborne Cycling Club or text Mike

Blandford v Sherborne (A)

07443 490442

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Sherborne Town FC

and December), 9am-4pm

Every Tuesday and Thursday

Saturday Antiques & Flea Market

7.30pm–8.30pm

1st IV. Toolstation Western League

Church Hall, Digby Road

Mixed Touch Rugby

Saturday 14th 10am-4pm

Ottery Lane. DT9 6EE. Novices very

Sherborne v Corsham (H)

sessions free. Visit sherbornetouch.org or

Bristol Telephones v

____________________________ Bookfair Church Hall, Digby Road

____________________________ Every fourth Saturday (exc. April

____________________________ PBFA Book Fair Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. Entry £1.

01258 471249 pbfa.org

____________________________

Sherborne School Floodlit Astroturf,

Gainsborough Park, The Terrace Playing Fields. pitchero.com/clubs/sherbornerfc Saturday 7th

Premier Division. Raleigh Grove, The

Terrace Playing Fields. sherbornetownfc.com Saturday 7th

welcome. £2 per session, first four

Saturday 21st

call Jimmy on 07887 800803

Sherborne (A)

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Saturday 28th

Sherborne RFC

Sherborne v Westbury Utd (H)

1st IV. Southern Counties South Division.

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DAYS OUT & HOLIDAYS with TAYLORS COACH TRAVEL Day Trips

Holidays

____________________________

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Autumn Mystery Drive & Lunch

Tinsel & Turkey - Isle of Wight

Sunday 15th October

11th - 15th December

Adults £37.00, Club £35.00

5 Days , £375.00

Richmond, London -

Christmas Carols

The Poppy Factory

at the Royal Albert Hall

Monday 23rd October

16th - 17th December

Adults £21.00, Club £19.00

2 Days, £199.00

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Exmoor Drive & Lunch Sunday 12th November

2018 Day Trips & Excursions

Adults £29.00, Club £27.00

brochure available. To join

____________________________

our mailing list for our 2018

Winter Wonderland - Hyde Park

brochure call the office now!

Sunday 26th November

01935 423177

Adults £21.00, Club £19.00

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12 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

www.taylorscoachtravel.co.uk

Award winning author and travel writer

SATURDAY 14TH OCTOBER 6PM -10PM CHURCH STUDIO HAYDON DORSET DT9 5JB Rory will be talking about travel writing and his UK best sellers “Stalin’s Nose” and “Under the Dragon” as well as “Berlin: Imagine a City”, a Washington Post Book of the Year.

Tastings, dumplings, samosas and bakes from COMINS TEA

Wild drinks and cocktails from INTO THE GATHERING DUSK

Suggested donation £7

A series of free talks, lectures, live performances and screenings in support of

Bowie and Maclean, Berlin 1977

RORY MACLEAN

PREVIEW In association with

THE WESSEX ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE

Turning Air Blue 1 (Oil and pigment on canvas, 2017) © Rita Ackermann, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Rita Ackermann: Turning Air Blue 30th September-1st January Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton BA10 0NL.

10am-5pm from March-October, 10am-4pm from November-February. 01749 814060 / hauserwirthsomerset.com Featuring all-new work by Hungarian-born, New York-based artist Rita Ackermann, this exhibition takes its

name from a brand new series of paintings ‘Turning Air Blue’ – loose abstractions, in which the outlines of the female form are recalled. A muted palette of pastel pinks and blues lend the works an ephemeral appearance.

Lines of spray paint and patches of colour on the surface challenge depth of space and crack open the underlying systems Ackermann has created within each painting. evolver.org.uk

14 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

SARA HUDSTON

Writer, Guardian Country Diarist and freelance editor for Little Toller Books

SATURDAY 11TH NOVEMBER 6PM -10PM CHURCH STUDIO HAYDON DORSET DT9 5JB “The wild is in us and we are in the wild.”

Sarah joins us to talk about unearthing stories buried in the landscape.

Traditional English folk songs from DOMINIE HOOPER & NICK HART

Tastings, dumplings, samosas and bakes from COMINS TEA

Wild drinks and cocktails from INTO THE GATHERING DUSK

Suggested donation £7

A series of free talks, lectures, live performances and screenings in support of

BRUTON DECORATIVE ANTIQUES FAIR 13-15 OCTOBER 2017 Trade preview 13 October 11am-2pm

The Haynes International, Motor Museum BA22 7LH T: 01278 784912 | brutondecorativeantiquesfair.co.uk

Your link to art and culture

Art which entertains, inspires and supports Films shown monthly Arts education programme Targeted wellbeing sessions Community events Activities for children, families and young people

Book now for Autumn workshops, lectures, films and free events www.sherborneartslink.org.uk 01935 815899

Sherborne ArtsLink Ltd. Co no. 2471382.

Charity no. 1007680 16 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

A family event open to all.

Come and enjoy our bonfire, with a spectacular fireworks display provided by Imperial Lotus Limited.

Thursday 2nd November To book please visit www.leweston.co.uk/event

Gates open from 6pm, Fireworks 7pm Food, refreshments and a sweet stall!

Admission prices: Adults £5, children £3

Lee Pashley does 70’s and 80’s Saturday November 25th

Come and join us for a fantastic night out

£35 per person

Price includes Dinner & Disco The fun starts at 7.30pm for 8.00pm Pre-booking essential Why not stay the night?

B&B £80.00 per room George Albert Hotel Wardon Hill, Evershot, Nr. Dorchester, Dorset DT2 9PW Tel: 01935 483430 www.gahotel.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 17

2017 SHERBORNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW 26th-29th OCTOBER John Buckley

T

he ninth annual Sherborne International Film Festival will take place in the Powell Theatre, Abbey Road, and will feature ten award-winning foreign films. The nine that are in a foreign language have English sub-titles. Tickets for all films are £6 and a ticket for the first night reception plus the film is £10.

A season ticket for the Festival is £40. All are available from the Tourist Information Centre on Digby Road.

Thursday 26th October

The festival opens with a first-night reception at Vida Comida at 6.15pm, followed at 7.30pm by The Salesman (Iran), which won the 2017 Oscar for best foreign-language film. A couple are forced to flee their crumbling apartment complex and move to a new home, where a shocking and violent incident throws their life into turmoil.

Friday 27th October

The 2pm screening on Friday is Tanna. Filmed on the Polynesian island of Vanuatu and based on true events, it is an exotic story of forbidden love, offering a lyrical blend of earthly reasoning with spiritual forces.

Shot against the majestic backdrop of Ethiopia’s southern mountains, the second film of the day is Lamb. A young Ethiopian boy is sent to live among distant relatives after his mother’s death. When his uncle decides the boy’s beloved sheep must be sacrificed for the next religious feast, he will do anything to save the animal.

A Separation, the final film of the day, is a multiaward-winning and critically acclaimed Iranian drama.

It features a married couple faced with a difficult decision – either to improve the life of their child by moving to another country, or stay in Iran and look after a parent with Alzheimer’s disease.

Saturday 28th October

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is the early-afternoon film.

Defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside with a new foster family. When 18 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

tragedy strikes, threatening to ship Ricky to another home, he and his foster uncle go on the run. A national manhunt and a rollercoaster of adventures ensue.

Frantz follows, set in the aftermath of WWI. A young German, who grieves the death of her fiancé in France, meets a mysterious Frenchman, who visits the fiancé’s grave to lay flowers. A complex relationship develops.

The evening film is Neruda. An inspector hunts down a Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, who became a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the communist party. The film is a cat-and-mouse game between the two, leading them from the streets of Santiago to the snowy mountains of the Andes.

Sunday 29th October

Sunday opens with The Crow’s Egg, a delightful comedy from India. Two carefree slum boys are consumed by their desire to taste a pizza, when a pizza parlour opens on their old playground. Realising that a pizza costs more than their family’s monthly income, they plan ways to earn more money and inadvertently set in motion an adventure involving the entire city.

Second film of the day is Julieta. Directed by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, it is described by one critic as “a sumptuous and heartbreaking study of the viral nature of guilt, the mystery of memory and the often unendurable power of love.”

The final film is the Oscar-nominated Palestinian film Omar. Set in the occupied territories, it tells the story of Omar, a charismatic Palestinian baker who routinely climbs over the separation wall to meet up with his girl, Nadja. By night he is either a freedom fighter or a terrorist – you decide.

The Sherborne International Film Festival is organised by the Rotary Club of Sherborne Castles and is sponsored by 4 Shires Asset Management, for the benefit of the local community and in aid of two Rotary International charities. shiff.org.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 19

Julian, Fleet Air Arm (retired) James Meiklejohn

THE LEIGH ART SHOW Rachel Graham

T

he artistic talent in this part of Dorset is delightful in its depth and variety. One of its best showcases, the biennial Leigh Art Show, returns to the Leigh Village Hall this October. This well-attended show has a wide range of exhibits, from both professional and amateur artists and all items will be offered for sale. Exhibited works include that of glass artist Andrew Denham, potter Plaxy Arthur and seascape artist Kim Pragnell, who won the ‘best picture’ in show by popular vote in 2015.

Well-known portrait artist, James Meiklejohn, will be offering on-the-spot pastel portraits over both days (Cost £20, allow 30 minutes. Advance booking required). Experienced art teacher Katy Cox-Lane will be running the very popular Children’s Workshop on Sunday morning from 10am-12pm. (Age 5+, £5 per 20 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

child. Please book in advance to avoid disappointment on 01935 873269). Katy will supply all materials and will be encouraging children to take inspiration from the exhibition.

The opening reception with wine and nibbles is from 6pm-8pm on Friday 20th October and is open to all (£5 per head). A representative from Artslink, the show’s chosen charity, will be at the opening event and on hand to discuss the charity’s work in Sherborne and its surroundings.

The free exhibition is open Saturday and Sunday 21st-22nd October from 10am-5pm at Leigh Village Hall. Simple lunches and teas will be available and fresh ground coffee served all day leighartshow.co.uk

ARTISAN R

O U

T E

by cli ve w e bbe r

ALPACA - PIM A COT TON - SI LK

Ope n Day E v e n t I n S he r b or ne We would like to welcome you to our Autumn season

Artisan Route Open Day Event at Digby Hall at Hound

Street, Sherborne.

This special event will be held on Saturday 7 October

from 10 AM – 4 PM.

There is plenty of parking at the Digby Hall car park.

We will be featuring our brand new Autumn Collection

of Alpaca Knitwear, ʻPerfect Fitʼ Pima Cotton Tops, and

Silk Scarves – All by Artisan Route.

Paulina – Stunning floral intarsia jacket. Handmade in 100% Peruvian Superfine Alpaca.

Tania – V neck jacket. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Worn with Handwoven Silk Scarf.

Daniela – Links knit tunic. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Worn with Handwoven Silk Scarf.

Brushstrokes – Intarsia jacket.

Handmade in 100% Superfine Alpaca.

Ivana – Layering vest. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Worn with Handwoven Silk Scarf.

Paula – ʻPerfect Fitʼ Peruvian Pima Cotton Roll Neck top.

Available in 8 colours

This is a young company and brand name, but please

remember that Clive Webber has had connections for

close to 20 years in Sherborne and really knows how to

produce top quality designs in Alpaca, Pima Cotton and

Silk.

The beauty of the Open Day is that it provides the

opportunity for Artisan Route to show our products in

reality, giving customers the chance to see, touch, and try garments.

Personal service and attention is the focal point of our

small business.

Our very good friend Mel Chambers will be with us to

help and assist.

We are sure that you all know how to reach Digby Hall, but just in case, the postcode is DT9 3AA.

Please feel free to bring family and friends along !

Check out our collection of Alpaca Knitwear, Pima Cotton Tops and Handwoven Silk Scarves in advance at

w w w. a r t i s a n ro u t e . c o . u k or phone for a brochure. T : 01896 823 765 ( Monday - Friday 10.00 - 18.00)

Shopping Guide

Blazer, £145, White Stuff

Knit, £47.50, White Stuff

Rucksack, £79.95, White Stuff

IN BETWEEN DAYS Jenny Dickinson, Dear To Me Studio

Whether you're holding out for the last gasp of sunshine or pining for long dark nights, the shopkeepers of Cheap Street have you covered. deartomestudio.com 22 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

T-shirt, £25, Fat Face

Kimono, £115, Melbury Gallery Dress, £55, Mistral Belt, £25, Fat Face

Child’s rucksack, £25, Fat Face Clutch, £41, The Circus

Boots, £110, White Feather

Nail varnish, £19, lip gloss, £23, The Circus sherbornetimes.co.uk | 23

“the seasons, they are a-changing”... shops in Sherborne & Dorchester

CLOTHES

JEWELLERY SCARVES

GIFTS

p e o p l e w i l l s t a r e m a k e i t w o r t h t h e i r w h i l e

B O U T I Q U E

OPEN 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM, 33 CHEAP STREET, SHERBORNE DT9 3PU PHONE 01935 816551 24 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

HOME

Warehouse Shop Open This Autumn 9am to 5pm, Mon-Fri Ample Free Parking

Find Us At...

Unit A2 South Western Business Park Sherborne, DT9 3PS

Visit Us...

Browse and order from our outstanding selection of fun and unique gifts.

Click & Collect...

Order online at www.ThePresentFinder.co.uk & collect from our warehouse.

(Through Station Car Park)

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 25

Wild Dorset

Image: Š Paul Williams 26 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

AUTUMNAL REDS May Franklin-Davis

I

f you go down to Brownsea Island today, you will almost certainly spot a flash of red fur in amongst the foliage, perhaps even a busy red tail flicking along a branch. Then, if you are lucky, a curious little nose and set of paws might appear out of the undergrowth on the hunt for food. These all belong to the red squirrel, a native species for which the island – situated in Poole Harbour in Dorset – and certain other areas across the UK, has been their refuge. Until recently, the populations of these popular furry creatures had declined severely, to the point of the species being marked as endangered. This was the result of several factors, but especially competition for food and territory with the non-native grey squirrels, which were introduced to the UK during the 1940s. Other factors included losses of habitat through deforestation and a susceptibility to certain diseases. However, conservation efforts across the UK have succeeded in helping them come back from the brink, strengthening the few populations found in Dorset, certain parts of Wales, Lancashire and localities across Scotland. Still a rare and protected species, their numbers have grown steadily over the last few decades and are now estimated to number around 161,000.

Red squirrels are smaller than their grey relatives; they also develop large tufts of fur on the tips of their ears during the winter, which the greys do not have. They live in many types of woodland but prefer pine forests, as it is easier for them to find food. Their reproductive cycle allows females to have two litters a year, with the most common litter size being around two or three. Take the opportunity this October to encounter this charming creature on its island home!

If you would like to visit the Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserve on Brownsea Island (owned by the National Trust), boat services run daily from Poole Quay and Sandbanks every half-hour between 10am and 5pm. These operate until the 30th October 2017 and will resume in spring 2018.

RED SQUIRREL FACTS: • The young are known as kittens and are entirely reliant on their mother until they reach ten weeks old • Red squirrels do not hibernate and can be seen scurrying around all year • Their diet consists mainly of tree seeds and they typically strip conifer cones to get the seeds inside, but they also like fungi, berries and young plant shoots • You can adopt a red squirrel with Dorset Wildlife Trust at dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildadoptions

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 27

Wild Dorset

SHERBORNE DWT

T

his month's meeting of the Sherborne DWT Group (7.30pm Wednesday October 18th, Digby Memorial Hall) covers a topic we have not explored previously. Michael Brown, founder of Brown & Forrest smokery will speak about ‘The History and Mystery of Eels’.

As a child, the long blackish eels were studied quickly as they wriggled in that metal tank at the fishmonger’s.

Then, when 15 and on an exchange visit to Amsterdam, I was not appreciative of the special dinner of smoked eels. I am not sure I have eaten them since. I wonder if there will be any samples at our meeting.

Eels are born in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic and, when three years old, on a spring tide at full moon, they arrive in British rivers, particularly the Severn. At this stage, when small, they are known as glass eels and they are very valuable, particularly in the Far East, to the extent that special patrols monitor the rivers to stop their poaching. In March, Customs at Heathrow caught someone attempting to smuggle 600,000 glass eels with a street value of £1.2m.

The migration south of our summer visitors has been in full swing for many weeks. Portland Observatory’s website mentioned on 25th July another small flurry of early departing migrants. On the wonderful August bank-holiday Monday, over 1,000 yellow wagtails were 28 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Image: Gillian M. Constable

Gillian M. Constable, Dorset Wildlife Trust Sherborne Group Committee

counted there and the observatory commented that, following the relentless decline of the species, they never imagined seeing such numbers again.

In early summer a very excited friend phoned me to say she had a yellow wagtail in her Milborne Port garden and could not believe how beautiful it was.

A sighting like this is one of the pleasures of garden observing. We visited the DWT quarries on Portland a few days after the flood of yellow wagtails and only saw a wheatear. A check of the observatory’s records indicated that migrating wheatears were in the majority that day. We were fortunate and saw a very smart adonis blue butterfly. It was possibly one of the last of 2017, since so many of the blue butterflies we saw that day were very worn.

A recent report by The Wildlife Trusts on nature, health and wild wellbeing states that building nature into your everyday life can improve your mental and physical health. I know how a wander with nature is far preferable to any busy high street or noisy crowded event. Surprisingly, Twitter is believed to be getting more young people out indulging in the ‘uncool’ hobby of birdwatching. The use of Twitter, it seems, has opened up the hobby to a new generation. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

ARE YOUR RETIREMENT PLANS ON COURSE? Contact us for a pension review.

PETER HARDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT Principal Partner Practice of St. James’s PlaceWealth Management

40 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JG Tel: 01747 855554 9 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PU Tel: 01935 315315

www.peterhardingwm.co.uk

The Partner Practice represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the Group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the Group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives. Peter Harding Wealth Management is a trading name of The Peter Harding Practice Ltd.

Wild Dorset

Spiders Lloyd Davies

S

piders, along with black cats, rats and bats, have long been considered witches’ companions. A spider seen at Hallowe’en was thought to be the soul of a lost loved one and, if a spider dropped into a candle flame at this time, a witch would visit soon. This time of year is certainly when many of the Dorset spiders get to full size. Here are a few special ones.

Spitting spider Scytodes thoracica

Another house spider in the Sherborne area, this one has an unusual appearance, with a domed cephalothorax (the head end) used to squirt venomous gum in a zigzag from its fangs. It can do this from a distance of more than 1cm. It then approaches its immobilised prey to bite them and feed.

Cave spider Meta menardi

A good one for Hallowe’en, this large, dark, photophobic spider likes to live in total darkness in caves, cellars and in crypts. It creates a large orb web but also drops onto prey, dangling from a silken thread. Like many of the spiders listed here, the females protect an egg case with many eggs. With this spider, the case hangs by a thread from the ceiling. When the young hatch they are attracted to the light – unlike their mother – and release a silk thread, so they are dispersed by the wind.

30 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Wasp spider Argiope bruennichi

This striking spider was first recorded in the UK in 1922, when it was establishing a foothold on the south coast of Dorset. It has spread north as a result of climate change.

They live in uncut grassland and make spiral orb webs with a vertical zigzag through the middle. They prey mainly on grasshoppers and crickets.

Flower spider Misumena vatia

The large female flower spider sits in flowers and waits for insects to land. She then quickly bites and immobilise them. In this way flower spiders are able to catch hoverflies and even large bumblebees. The females can be yellow or white and may have red spots. They are able to slowly change between these colours to suit the flower they are in.

Nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis

These free-living spiders do not use a web for catching prey, but hunt on the ground and low foliage. When it’s time to mate, the male arrives with the gift of a silk-wrapped insect, the bigger the better. The female produces a large egg sac, which she carries around under her body. Later she attaches the sac to a leaf about a foot off the ground and spins a nursery web around it, resembling a tent with folded leaves. She opens the case to release the spiderlings into the tent and sits on guard outside until they disperse.

Noble false widow Steatoda nobilis

These were first reported in the UK near Torquay in 1879, having been imported with food from the Canary Islands. They have established themselves in Dorset houses and outbuildings and are a common sight in the Sherborne area. Their large size and black widow-like appearance have lead to some excitement in the press, not helped by the fact that they can inflict a bite similar to a wasp sting. But bites to humans are rare, as they are nocturnal and live in untidy webs with a tubular retreat.

Raft spider Dolomedes fimbriatus

One of the largest spiders in the UK, they hunt over the surface of wet moss and pools. They sit on vegetation with their forelegs touching the water, sensing movement and preying on insects that fall in and also on tadpoles and small fish, which they pull out of the water to eat. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 31

H A Z L E G ROV E

Open Mornings 7, 10 and 14 October at 11am

As your child takes their first steps in one of the biggest adventures in their life, they deserve the very best start. Hazlegrove children are happy children.

Please call Sarah-Jane on 01963 442606 to arrange a visit.

Good foundations are everything...

32 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

For more information or to arrange a visit contact The Registrar, Aurora Mercer 01935 810911

A co-educational day and boarding school from 2-13 To arrange a guided tour or for more information, please get in touch. ‘‘It is possible to go and do anything after coming here.’’

TATLER SCHOOLS GUIDE 2018

Minibus routes available

t. 01747 857914 | www.portregis.com | e. admissions@portregis.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33

UNEARTHED ANNABEL HARRIS, AGED 17 Sherborne Girls

C

ongratulations to Annabel, a sixth-form student at Sherborne Girls who competed for the World Karate Society (WKS) England squad at an International against Ireland in Dublin over the summer holidays. Annabel, who won gold in kumite and silver in kata, has been unbeaten in kumite for over five years!

Annabel started karate aged 12 whilst at Sherborne Preparatory School, as part of the Shindo Wadokai Karate Association. By the age of 13, she was working her way through the rankings and had also started coaching within the club. In February 2016, Annabel competed at the WKS European Championship. It was here, having won a gold, silver and two bronze medals, that Annabel qualified for the WKS England squad.

As part of the WKS squad, Annabel flew to Germany to compete at the World Martial Arts Games and became a two-times World Champion, a bronze medallist and a Grand Champion across her disciplines. She puts her achievement down to a combination of dedication and hard work, along with regular training including sessions in Essex – all this during her GCSE year!

As well as her success in competitions, Annabel’s highlight this year was achieving her highest-ranking belt, the 1st Dan Black Belt, which she achieved after two days of competing on top of a cliff in Swanage in February! sherborne.com shindowadokai.co.uk

KATHARINE DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY Portrait, lifestyle, PR and editorial commissions 07808 400083 info@katharinedaviesphotography.co.uk www.katharinedaviesphotography.co.uk

34 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

R

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Thornford Primary School

Open Morning Friday 3rd November, 9.15am – 12.00pm

For more information or to arrange a private visit please contact the Headteacher, Mrs Neela Brooking on 01935 872706 or email office@thornford.dorset.sch.uk Ofsted “Outstanding”, SIAMS “Outstanding” School Games Gold Award Boot Lane, Thornford, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 6QY www.thornford.dorset.sch.uk

ART @ THORNFORD Tutored art with Ali Cockrean 1 Wheelwright Studios, Thornford, DT9 6QE Thursday Evenings 7.30pm to 9.30pm Suitable for all ages and abilities, including beginners Sunday Art Club for Children 11am – 1pm Suitable for youngsters with a passion for art 8 years and over Contact Ali for full details: Please call 07742 888302 or email alicockrean@gmail.com www.alicockrean.co.uk

OPEN DAY - Friday 6th October Nursery Prep and Senior School 1.30pm Sixth Form 6.00pm A vibrant and dynamic mix of boys and girls on a beautiful parkland site A Levels 2017: 71% A* - B GCSE 2017: 81% A* to B (or equivalent) Full, weekly and flexi boarding for girls from age 7 Local transport available for day pupils For more info or to register your attendance contact us: admissions@leweston.dorset.sch.uk call 01963 211010 www.leweston.co.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 35

Family

A JOINED-UP APPROACH

Heidi Berry, Head of Pre-Prep, Sherborne Preparatory School

36 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

B

“

ut I don’t want to do handwriting,” is a familiar comment in any primary school classroom – and at Sherborne Prep we are constantly striving for new ways to overcome any difficulties in learning, through research and training. Our school-wide handwriting scheme was doing well for most, and very well for some, but we still had children for whom handwriting was a stressful and unrewarding experience.

Handwriting is not natural or pre-programmed. It is, in fact, the most complicated motor skill that children learn. There is ample research showing that teaching cursive writing from the start is the best way to go, so we looked for a scheme to match this, which would engage and enthuse young children. I was keen to find something that would make learning fun – something we pride ourselves on across the curriculum.

At a recent conference I was introduced to the Hemisphere ‘Think Write’ handwriting scheme, which was written by Shelley Birkett-Eyles, herself a parent at Sherborne School. I discovered that this scheme – which is based on the cognition which takes place, enabling the body and brain to learn the letter shapes – is so much more than a method for handwriting. Shelley is an occupational therapist and wrote the programme to support her work with children who had been referred to her. She then realised there was a wider need to address handwriting in schools from the bottom up, and things grew from there. The programme is interactive, fun and dynamic, enabling children to learn through purposeful play and games. Research has shown consistent improvement in handwriting for boys and girls across the target age range of 3-7. We have now run the scheme in our Pre-Prep for a year and the transformation in attitudes and output is impressive, to say the least.

We all know that children like rules. They claim not to, and teenagers are programmed to fight against them, but children actually thrive best when they work within sensible parameters. It is also well-known that the first pattern one’s brain learns embeds deeply and changing it is difficult, so it is logical to teach the handwriting pattern that is ultimately desired from the very start, rather than learning to print letters then later switch to cursive writing. The ‘old’ way requires children to learn to write twice!

Some may ask why handwriting is important to teach anymore, when most of the children we are presently teaching could be working with voice recognition and other computer aids in their adult lives. However, like reading, it is still an important part of our society. One might even argue that in today’s computer world a handwritten card, letter or note is treasured even more by the recipient, while a handwritten covering letter with a job application often speaks volumes to a prospective employer. Our children need to embrace technology and they also need to be able to read and write fluently.

A child should take great pride in their work. They should aspire to be proud of the content and it is so much better if they can also be proud of its appearance too. We are thrilled to have pupils who now positively look forward to writing. In fact, handwriting lessons are now close to the top of the popularity list. Long may it last! sherborneprep.org

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 37

Family

Children’s Book Review

Wayne Winstone, Winstone’s Books, Independent Bookshop of the Year 2016

The Worm and the Bird, by Coralie Pickford-Smith (Particular Books) £14.99. Suitable for all ages Exclusive Sherborne Times reader offer of £13.99 from Winstone’s Books

T

he Fox and The Star, Coralie Bickford-Smith’s first book, enjoyed phenomenal success when it was first released in 2015. A tale of love, loss and selfdiscovery, it was aimed at children, though its themes and BickfordSmith’s exquisite illustrations also made it an appealing title for adults. The book went on to receive numerous accolades, including Time Out’s 100 Children’s Books of All Time.

The follow-up, The Worm and The Bird, is another beautifully designed work. This seemingly simple tale addresses themes of life and death and the importance of living in the moment.

Digging through the ground day in and day out, Worm dreams of a better life. Despite having endless paths of dirt to plough, other burrowing creatures to befriend and underground treasures to discover, Worm wants more – more space to be alone. Too busy to see the world around it, pushing everything aside, Worm learns a hard lesson in appreciating what you have and where you are.

The author explores themes of hope, curiosity and the circle of life.

Taking inspiration from Seneca’s essay ‘On the Shortness of Life’ – which reads, “But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present and fear the future” – and drawing from the simple wisdom of the natural world, Bickford-Smith reminds readers about the importance of slowing down and engaging in the life around us.

Printed in Italy, with a foilstamped cloth cover, sewn binding, metallic inks, and high-quality paper, Bickford-Smith’s new illustrated book is for all ages of readers of fables and fairy tales, from gardeners to bird-watchers to design lovers – and for those seeking mindfulness.

This is a truly stunningly beautifully illustrated book by an award-winning author and illustrator, one that children will cherish into adulthood. winstonebooks.co.uk

Children’s Event

Curator, writer and TV Historian Lucy Worsley talks Queen Victoria Saturday 11th November 2pm, Cheap Street Church Tickets £5 available in store See winstonebooks.co.uk for more details

'Independent Bookseller of the Year 2016’ 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PX www.winstonebooks.co.uk Tel: 01935 816 128

COLOURING PAGE

40 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Soft Toys, Wooden Toys, Baby and Toddler Bikes Tel: 01460 241800

www.beehivetoyfactory.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 41

suzynewtonltd Suzy Newton Furniture & Accessories T: 01258 818180 E: creative@suzynewton.com Dutch Barn, Stoke Wake, Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 0HE www.suzynewton.com

Working from our workshop in the beautiful Dorset countryside we offer bespoke sewing services and professional interiors advice.

Bursting at the seams with sample books from luxury fabric houses we welcome all enquiries.

• • • •

Luxury made to measure curtains and Roman blinds Bespoke soft furnishings Tailor made quilts, runners and throws in contemporary patchworks One off fabulous furniture finds in the showroom

Art

With my trusty box easel and a car full of painting stuff, I set off to the Somerset coast.

I had the best part of a week painting and drawing and returned with a body of work. I know the area reasonably well, so could get stuck in almost straightaway. My first stop was atop West Quantoxhead, looking towards Exmoor. A good car park and good weather. I tried to travel light, as I needed to go for a bit of a trek before getting to the rough area I’d earmarked on a previous visit. That said, I wanted to make sure I had enough in the way of canvases and boards to avoid having to return to the car. I set up and stood looking for about half an hour before I picked up my brushes. It is so easy to rush in and think you have either the best spot, or that you know exactly what you are looking at. A little time thinking about it generally pays off, but don’t drag it out too long or you can lose those first feelings that made you stop and select that particular view point.

I wanted to heighten the colours and also simplify the shapes, but still retain the feeling of the place.

This week was all about experimenting and just having a ‘play’.

The next few days were a little wet so I worked inside from drawings, just splashing colour around, which helped me loosen up.

I wanted to paint on Kilve Beach and the next reasonable day I did just that. Even though it was grey and overcast at times, I was very pleased with the work I’d done and spent most of the day there.

The hardest part was lugging all my kit over the stones.

I worked on three oils and a few watercolours plus half a dozen sketches over two days. I was fully immersed and loved every minute. Again, I was quite a way from the car so getting the wet work back had to be considered. I have a carrying case I once made that takes boards up to 16”x12”, but if I want to paint anything larger it has to be the last one of the day so that it can remain on the outside of the easel.

I particularly liked the blue in the stones and enjoyed using the warm colours of the cliff alongside them. However, I wanted to keep the drawing lines visible in the painting so it was a conscious decision not to overwork anything.

Because of the location I had very few interruptions and the ones I did have were pleasant; a couple of veterinary students on placement from the USA. They liked what they saw and we had a good chat.

I have, on my return to the studio, worked on more oils and watercolours of the same subject whilst the feeling was still fresh in my mind. All in all, a good trip. laurencebelbin.com

44 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 45

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46 | Sherborne Times | October 2017mm.indd 1 Blandford Magazine Advert 106 mm high x 161.5

visit our showroom: Timber Windows of Blandford 1 Sunrise Business Park, Higher Shaftesbury Road, Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 8ST Tel: 01258 483535

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History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

STAINED WALL HANGING C.1700-1710 Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

U

p in the Marsden gallery, the Museum displays a particularly charming example of a stained linen wall hanging.

This textile fragment is 133.5cm long and approximately 57cm high, consisting of two strips of linen stitched together vertically.

Discovered in 1967 under 14 layers of wallpaper during renovations at Donore, a house built in Long Street c.1700, it was kindly donated to us by the Digby Estates. Stained hangings were ubiquitous in early modern Britain; textiles were decorated by stains and dyes so that the weave remained visible, in order to deliberately resemble dyed-in-the-wool tapestry. Surviving examples, however, are extraordinarily rare and only a few are known to exist in situ. Ours, no longer in context, is part of a long history of arboreal scenes, where foliage forms the background to an equestrian figure hunting with hounds – comparable with other hangings found, for example, at Yarde in Devon. The overall consistency between Donore and Yarde seems to indicate a common source, but where leaves at Yarde are often arranged to look like scales, those at Donore are represented by crescent shapes rendered informally in lamp black. Both can be dated to the first decade of the 18th century.

The first strip shows a rider on the left looking towards the far right, wearing a blue coat and black broadbrimmed hat. His left hand is raised pointing upward, perhaps urging on his dogs; the other grips the pommel of the saddle. He is seated on a chestnut horse wearing a red harness, which extends a foreleg as if springing forward. Horse and rider are emerging from dark green wavy-lobed foliage, while two large, veined leaves sprout 48 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

from behind the neck of the horse and a huge plant with four or five leaves arranged in a basal rosette hangs above its head.

The second strip shows a small house with an ashlar exterior, two arched windows and a thatched roof with a central red brick chimney. It is surrounded by wavilinear shrubs with crescent-shaped leaves. Two hounds bound energetically in the foreground, tongues red and lolling.

These linen canvases were known as ‘hurds’ or ‘brown osnaburgs’. Mass-produced and sold by chapmen, they were prepared using a size of rabbit skin. All colours and stains used were water-based, so the canvas was first sealed with gum arabic and the image produced with it laid flat on the floor to minimise running. Staining, which once had its own guild, declined owing to the use of wall panelling and the growing popularity of oil painting; but although it was lower down the artistic hierarchy, the artefacts were never low-status or cheap.

Stained hangings were more affordable, however, and not simply the prerogative of the affluent. They were portable and so more economical for the less well-off and were both functional and decorative. In future, we hope to reframe our hanging under non-reflective glass, so its autumnal colours and quirky perspectives can be even more appreciated.

Museum opening times: October - December, Tues-Sat 10.30am-4.30pm February - March, Tues and Thurs 10.30am-12.30pm Admission free sherbornemuseum.co.uk

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Interiors

WONDERWALL

Kitty Oakshott, Upstairs Downstairs Interiors

H

ave no fear, we’re not going to bombard you with a wordy article about old-fashioned, chintzy floral wallpapers. Let me tell you – wallpapers are back, with more variety and choice than ever before.

Updated florals, leafy tropical prints, cute metallic stars, classic stripes, Indian prints, hot-air balloons and blue china plates are just some of wallpapers I have seen recently and absolutely loved.

Whatever theme and colours you have chosen for 52 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

your room, there is a wallpaper that will work for you.

Wallpapers are a wonderful way to inject colour and pattern into a room. Either go small with a feature wall and paint the other walls in a toning colour, or be bold and wallpaper the whole room.

Most wallpapers have suggested co-ordinating fabrics too which, made into a few simple scatter cushions or even curtains, can really complete the look. Alternatively, try picking out a key colour within the wallpaper and

JOHN MADDISON 28th October – 15th November

Pictures by the Fireplace

Oil

At Kelmscott

Oil

All images: Mind The Gap

matching to that through key elements in the room – such as cushions, a rug or even some wall art. Or why not frame some of the wallpaper to reflect the design on an opposite wall?

My tip: make sure you calculate exactly what you need and always order a little extra… as wallpaper leftovers make brilliant lampshades! updowninteriors.co.uk

www.jerramgallery.com THE JERRAM GALLERY Half Moon Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3LN 01935 815261 info@jerramgallery.com Tuesday – Saturday sherbornetimes.co.uk | 53

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Antiques

RESTORE OR CONSERVE?

A

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

s an 18-year-old, I spent a summer working for Humberts in Sherborne. I say working – I really do not remember doing much apart from driving around at warp speed in the manager’s car, putting up the occasional ‘For Sale’ board.

Although this was very much before Phil and Kirstie were on the telly, it was all about location, location, location for the properties.

As location, location, location is important to the housing market, it has no relevance to my auction world. What is important to my world is condition, condition, condition.

Condition can be everything to a buyer. Personally, I like my items to be in market-fresh condition. I’m not really fussed about chairs with broken legs or the odd chip on a pottery vase. Being honest, most things I own tend to be auction rejects.

However, many people do not share my taste. They like their items to be in a pristine showroom condition – no chips or cracks here. No, this is not tolerated and any item not in tip-top condition is straight off to the restorer’s.

Perhaps I am still attempting to rebel against my family. We lived in newish houses and Dad always had a newish car, without too many of the bells and whistles that might go wrong. I think he simply didn’t trust anything old or not newish, as it could need expensive repairs. So yes, I live in an old and draughty house and drive around in a car that is full of driver aids, such as self-parking. It is also totally beyond me to attempt any sort of repair on this car when it goes wrong.

I am therefore pro-conservation, rather than pro-restoration.

56 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Seeing all the weird and wonderful lots that come into our salerooms, I am often tempted by something unusual. Although I do not have a motorcycle licence, I was tempted by a 1926 New Hudson 350cc Practical Sports motorcycle in our September classic motorcycle auction. It has not been on the road for the past 50 years or more, but appeared at auction with a charming old and oily patina, which you could never replicate.

With an estimate of £2,000, many other people evidently agreed with me, as bidding quickly rose to £4,000. Hopefully the new owner will conserve the bike, keeping it in its oily-rag condition.

Despite the fact I like my classic motors oily, I can appreciate them in tip-top condition. Mrs B has been on at me for many years about VW camper vans. I’m more the kind of chap who likes a hotel room with an en-suite, but I agree there is an attraction to these VWs – and we have one coming up in our 5th November classic car auction. It comes to auction in a better-thannew condition, having undergone a total nut-and-bolt restoration programme. It’s a 1969 bay window camper and the kitchen even has a microwave, all very 21st century. There is a high-quality stereo fitted, so you can listen to The Beach Boys and pretend it’s 1969 all over again; it is easy to see where the £25,000 restoration money has been spent.

So if you are looking for a fully restored VW camper van and are not put off by the £22,000 auction estimate – which I have advised Mrs B she is put off by! – pop over to our classic car auction on Sunday 5th November. charterhouse-auction.com

1969 VW Campervan

1926 New Hudson 350cc Practical Sports sherbornetimes.co.uk | 57

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CHARTERHOUSE A u c t i o n e e r s & Va l u e r s

The Earl of Lonsdale by Basil Nightingale, 1899 ÂŁ1,000-2,000

We are now accepting entries for our forthcoming auctions: Pictures, Sporting Items & Beswick Thursday 19th & Friday 20th October

Classic & Vintage Cars Sunday 5th November

Classic & Vintage Motorcycles Sunday 4th February

Contact Richard Bromell for advice or Justine Jackson to arrange a home visit The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne DT9 3BS | 01935 812277 | www.charterhouse-auction.com

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Spring Flowering Bulbs Daffodils, Narcissi, Tulips, Crocus, Hyacinth and more.

Why not tuck some bulbs amongst bedding plants for that burst of colour in the darker months of the year.

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Open Monday-Saturday 9.00am-6.00pm & Sunday 10.00am-4.30pm (tills open at 10.30am) Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR 60 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Gardening

SUMMER SUCCESS AND FAILURES Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

A

s well as enjoying the autumn in its full glory, it’s also a wonderful time of year to look back on the successes and failures of the summer. Luckily, the list of disappointments is fairly small this year and there are a good number of interesting plus points.

This summer was spent encouraging children to get involved in gardening activities and planting up many sample pots to demonstrate what could be grown.

Instead of getting rid of these samples, I took them home to see what the outcome would be. I was delighted with the mixed salad leaves, which was a selection from Thompson & Morgan called ‘Salad Leaves Speedy Mix’. They are a cut-and-come-again style, so that when they are harvested – in other words, trimmed with sharp scissors – new growth begins from the base, giving a potential series of harvesting opportunities. My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed the range of colours and textures in the selection, which was bursting with a peppery taste, and managed to get three or four cuts before it all got too woody, making them excellent value.

At the same time, we planted some mini carrots (a variety called parmex) again in pots, which have lasted right up until the end of the summer. In fact, I’m still pulling them up now. Each carrot is a perfect mouthful, almost an ‘amuse-bouche’, and are so sweet and crisp, we tend to eat them raw and straight from the pot, only swirling off some of the compost.

Inspired by James Wong, we grew physalis, or cape gooseberry – although not the variety that he recommends from his Sutton’s collection, but Thompson & Morgan’s golden berry pineapple. They were still very productive and we struggled to eat them all. If you can’t picture their appearance, they are like a mini yellow tomato in ‘paper’ cases and were once a very popular fruit used in desserts, although they are currently a little out of fashion. They’re beautiful plants and we’ll plant more next year for sure, although I’ve abandoned the pot and already noticed them re-shooting from the base, so they may get a reprieve.

After talking chillies at a garden club, the demonstration plants remained in my van for a few days.

So to rescue them, I potted them up and continued to grow them in the greenhouse. I’m not a fan of eating chillies, though I like them ornamentally. Being on my own one weekend, I thought I’d try one in a pan of mixed grill and roasted vegetables – but the problem was that I had no idea how powerful the variety was and no real clue about how many slices I would need. I learnt my lesson, as the Michael Caine line, “only supposed to blow the bloody doors off ” came to mind! I will now use the remaining fruits sparingly.

I had mixed success from potatoes in pots, with the first batch of charlotte being excellent in terms of yield, quality and flavour. A second batch of unknown variety, again from a demonstration, were disappointing but I put this down to them being allowed to dry out at some stage.

Growing potatoes in pots is a favourite at most garden club competitions. With the inevitable bending of rules from time to time, many clubs now insist the harvesting takes place at the show to avoid tampering.

However, I came across a very friendly and eminently respectable garden club chairman in Yorkshire, who told me of his enhancement of the pot size by using roofing felt to extend the pot, allowing for more compost. The idea is that the felt is removed before the pot heads to the flower show. I have yet to hear whether the scam worked or indeed if he has been discovered and, in disgrace, removed from his chairmanship and perhaps the club itself.

We also trialled a range of courgettes, marrows, squashes and gourds, planting them in the bed outside our old greenhouse in the garden. While away in the summer, the golden one ball variety found its way into the greenhouse and has grown some 25 feet, blocking the way to the bed our dog has in there. The dog is most disgruntled, but the plant is quite magnificent. thegardeneronline.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61

Gardening

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

Eleanor Wilson, Garden Designer, in association with Garden Angels

his summer I was lucky enough to spend some time in the beautiful city of Copenhagen.

Although British, my guide had spent most of his adult life in Denmark and is very much a convert to the Danish way of life. As we have a shared interest, we spent much time discussing various forms of design.

The Danes tend to favour a form of Scandi minimalist chic and seem knowledgeable about product designers, architects and design in general in a way that I don’t think we are in the UK. Designers are very much household names in Denmark; much is known and understood about their designs. Kay Bojesen designed many classic objects, including the famous wooden monkeys, Arne Jacobsen is well-remembered for his contribution to architecture and his beautifully designed chairs, while Bjarke Ingels is a renowned for his architecture. Then there is Ole Kirk Christiansen’s ‘Lego’, whose latest sets – I was delighted to discover – are architectural buildings from around the world and include the Arc de Triomphe and Big Ben. The visit to the Lego Store was purely for research 62 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

purposes you understand…

It’s not difficult to see why many of these Danish designs have become iconic purely through aesthetics, but it’s more than beautiful Scandi design – it’s design mixed with the same smooth efficiency credited to their near neighbours the Germans; it’s the discovery that their designs often have a multi-functional aspect; and it’s their consideration of environmental issues.

Walking north along the port of Copenhagen from the statue of the Little Mermaid offers an impressive view. Massive cruise ships dock, huge cranes stand ready to unload goods and one of the three colossal worldwide UNICEF Supply Division centres can be seen on the horizon. In the other direction, in between the Royal Yacht bobbing gently on the water and the impressively designed Opera House, I spotted an unusual angular-shaped building. This turned out to be the city waste incinerator. The output of the incineration is electricity for 50,000 homes and heated water for 120,000. Obviously, it’s also a ski slope and incorporates a number of hiking trails – why wouldn’t it?! Here then,

the Bjarke Ingels Group has produced a design that has a defined functional purpose, is environmentally considered, includes an element of the whimsical and looks stunning.

Ingels is also the architect responsible for the celebrated ‘Bjerget’ building in Copenhagen. This is a complex of terraced residential flats with car parking underneath. The units are all south-facing so as to make maximum use of the short daylight hours in the long Danish winter months and they all incorporate private courtyard gardens. Deep planting troughs at the end of each courtyard ensure privacy for the residents of the apartment below. You have to see the design to understand just how clever it is.

All of this got me thinking about how well we utilise space in our own British gardens, especially when it is at a premium. Once you know the tricks of the trade, it’s relatively easy to make a small space look bigger. One can play with perspective, make clever use of receding colours, ‘borrow’ a view, incorporate horizontal lines, use mirrors to bounce the light back into the space, keep material selection to a minimum and add lighting. These can fool the eye into believing the space is bigger than it actually is. But what of multi-functional use?

In the UK it is becoming more popular to grow plants vertically on ‘green walls’ and use tiered staging in order that all surfaces are well-utilised. Green walls work well as long as the right plants are selected, the correct growing medium is incorporated and the watering system is inbuilt and reliable. They can transform a barren surface into a lush, tropical paradise and help create a microclimate.

Seating with inbuilt storage is becoming much more common and, if a budget can stretch to it, made-tomeasure garden furniture makes maximum use of the given space, while incorporating storage. Raised garden beds can be designed to make them easier to tend and can incorporate seating. Children’s sandpit and play areas can be covered over at the end of the day so as to hide the mess and provide a larger entertaining area in the evening. Waste and recycling bins can be encased in a purpose-built mini-shed, which hides the bins from view but whose roof can be used to grow plants. These ‘living roofs’ have a number of functions – they add additional growing space, attract wildlife, soak up rainwater, look attractive and, if used on an inhabited space, can insulate the structure.

Bicycles can be stored vertically on ingeniously designed hanging bike racks. Rather than being hidden

away, tools can be displayed artistically on hooks on a wall as a form of tool control design statement. This particularly appeals to my yin and yang, satisfying both my need for beauty and my tidy, organised mind, honed by the many generations of engineers in my family.

Less common, as more space and planning is required, is the incorporation of rainwater storage tanks and water filtering ponds. Filtering ponds use plants and a slow flow to filter the water. These systems can reduce local flooding, minimise the reliance on grey water processing, encourage wildlife and can look incredibly beautiful. Hydroponics, which is essentially growing plants in a water system that holds the nutrients for plant growth, is becoming popular as a home hobby, as well as being used on a large scale to feed populations where growing medium is at a premium. Aquaponics, which was developed in Australia and uses the waste from fish in the water as the nutrients on which to feed the plants, is an extremely effective use of resources and fascinating to see in action. For anyone interested in having a go at hydroponics or aquaponics at home, Jane at Fat Fish Aquatics within Castle Gardens in Sherborne is very approachable and extremely knowledgeable on the subject.

If space permits, composting your garden waste is much more environmentally friendly than relying on the local council collection and the result feeds your garden.

A well-constructed garden compost can become too hot to touch. Indeed, police helicopters using infrared cameras have been known to mistake the heat rising from compost as the heat signature of a person. The resulting heat can be harnessed, but often isn’t in this country – even when it is being produced on an industrial scale.

On a residential scale, a hot compost can be built onto the brick wall that backs onto a greenhouse, so that the warmth from the compost can heat the greenhouse.

Some of the more amusing multi-functional designs I have seen include a Swiss chalet rabbit hutch, built into the unused space below some raised decking, and a very posh shed sporting an especially commissioned stained-glass window, solar panels and a cat flap for much-cossetted pets. Apparently, they appreciate good design too!

There are so many ingenious multi-functional ways to use space in a small garden, perhaps we should take a leaf out of the Danish book and start thinking outside the box. sherbornegardenangels.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 63

Gardening

THE PLOT HATCHES Paul Stickland, Black Shed Flowers

Paul and Helen Stickland are on a transformative and colourful journey. With the help of their young daughter Tabitha, they have taken stewardship of an exceptionally fertile plot of land and created something remarkable. In this new series of articles, over the coming months and changing seasons, Paul will be sharing some of the many tales and tribulations of his family’s new life as flower farmers

E

arlier this morning, as the sun rose through the mists over Blackmarsh Farm, I was standing chest-deep in a field of exquisite colour, picking armfuls of dahlias, pinching myself yet again at what an extraordinary year 2017 has been for the Stickland family!

Last autumn, our three allotments had been ablaze with colour from a few-dozen dahlias. Our friends and family were loving their gorgeous blooms and it was a great joy to share them. An idea was germinating – that of a small, cut-flower farm, supplying the very best seasonal, fresh and vibrant cut flowers to the local community. To create a garden where you could wander through rows of ravishing colour, choose your favourite flowers fresh from the field, see them actually growing and have them made into bouquets or posies full of freshness and life, within minutes of cutting. The complete antithesis of supermarket flowers and their rigid uniformity, disappointing vase life, unsustainable air miles and dubious provenance.

We’ve all seen and enjoyed the renaissance of excellent local food and drink. Perhaps it was time for local flowers to join this burgeoning movement? We’d been watching the rise of small flower farms in both the UK and the US with growing interest. Instagram was full of examples of small growers providing topquality blooms to delighted customers and florists alike, delighted to see how they were able to provide something a world away from the commoditised flowers on our high streets.

I am an author and illustrator of children’s picture and pop-up books. I travel all over the UK and abroad, 64 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

teaching creativity to children in colourful, pop-up workshops. My wife, Helen, is a bookseller working at Winstone’s in Sherborne and also a talented musician and songwriter with the band Design. It was at one of her gigs in Eype Church last summer that things really took off !

Our eight-year-old daughter Tabitha is a brilliant young gardener and she and I created a special installation of 70 single-stem dahlias to complement the magical musical event. I put just one photo on Instagram and the phone started to ring – florists asking if we had any spare blooms, friends asking if we could decorate their parties… We were being stopped in the street as we delivered our flowers to the bookshop – “Where can we buy these?”

It was difficult to ignore this interest, so we started to plan. We’d need an acre or two close to Sherborne, a sheltered site with fantastic soil, easy access, good parking and an entrepreneurial partner who would understand our exciting idea. Within days we found all of these!

Our friends, Peter and Amanda Hunt, who run the very wonderful Toy Barn at Blackmarsh Farm, as well as a thriving dairy farm, immediately appreciated our idea of a flower farm serving the local community, as a unique destination and something completely new. They saw it as a fitting complement to their existing business.

Pete and I went to dig a hole in the field he had in mind.

Deep, rich, stone-free soil, unploughed in decades and home to generations of the family’s dairy herd. We were over the moon – the perfect site and perfect partners!

So Black Shed Flowers was born. As 2017 started, the planning began in earnest. Seed and dahlia

catalogues were scoured, endless lists drawn up, fellow flower farmers consulted, layouts and drawings appeared.

My studio was turned into a propagation room, thousands of seedlings were grown. Hundreds of dahlia tubers arrived and on 1st May we stood in awe and some trepidation in the middle of our suddenly vast plot! The hard work was about to begin.

We always had a vision of our flower farm as a unique and beautiful destination. Somewhere you could bring your mum for a special birthday treat, a place for children’s flower parties, a location to sit quietly

amongst thousands of exquisite flowers, ready to choose something really extraordinary for that special occasion.

With the huge support of Pete and Amanda, Helen, Tabitha and I, now joined by our amazing Workaway volunteer, Alice, have done it! We’ve been overwhelmed and delighted by the interest and support of the local community. It’s been an incredibly busy summer and I am pleased to report that we are still surrounded by thousands of flowers. blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 65

FENCING | GARDEN DESIGN | LANDSCAPING | TIMBER STRUCTURES | LAWNS | PAVING

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66 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

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DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF BEAUTIFUL FINE BESPOKE JOINERY SINCE 1897

TIMBER MILLERS Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

W

ood, for many, is the fifth element. It exists in our souls, in our nature and in our culture. To enter into a wood is to enter into another world, a world in which we ourselves can be transformed. Shakespeare often used a greenwood as a backdrop before which his characters grow and learn.

Merlin sends King Arthur as a boy into a wood to fend for himself in The Sword in the Stone. Far beyond the realm of fiction and legend, man has worked with wood since time began.

Will Miller is one such man, who has turned his hand to wood to become a Dorset ‘sawyer’. His story began with elm trees, the ‘ulmus’ species. These big, tall, strong trees have always been tinged with melancholy.

Their vast branches have a tendency to drop without warning and they traditionally produced the wood in which human remains were laid to rest. >

68 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 69

70 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

It was in the 1970s that Dutch elm disease – which had already carried so many of these trees away – struck again. Will grew up on a farm in Devon, but it was at this time that his father turned his hand to running a mobile saw mill, as a way to manage the elms that needed to be felled. He watched from afar as his father worked the wood, little knowing that in the future he, Will, would be doing the same.

In 2009 Will inherited the mill and, although he was in full-time employment as a mechanical engineer and had three young children to absorb his time, he began to work as a part-time sawyer. In 2015, he progressed to a full-time career in the art of woodwork.

“I moved from one ‘not so happy’ week to a ‘happy’ week,” he says, explaining why he knew at once that he had made the right decision. Nowadays the work is not limited to elms. “It is such a privilege to be the first person to see inside a tree. It can look like firewood from the outside, but when I open it, it gives me a buzz,” he explains.

When they decided to go full-time, it was a joint decision between Will and his wife Charlie. “We had a long conversation over a glass of wine or two,” says Will.

“But what was important to us was that, if we were to do it seriously, there would be no waste from the milling of the trees.” So it was that Timber Millers was born, primarily out of a deep respect for the trees.

Charlie had studied photography and, after three children, was keen to get back to something creative.

So she developed a range of chopping boards, spoons and butter and cheese knives from the offcuts. Burrs, in which the grain of a tree has grown in an unusual pattern, are like the secret ‘pearls’ of an ancient tree. So when such precious pieces appear, Charlie makes a point of saving them for her beautiful boards.

Clearly hours of work go into the making of these cheese and serving boards, as they are silken to touch. “I spend about six hours on every board,” Charlie tells me.

“I want to make each one a piece of art.” Their luxurious finish is the result not only sanding, but also of oiling and, finally, a silken wax from the bees they keep in their local woods.

“Walnut is my favourite wood, because of its grain and colour,” Charlie enthuses. “But the satisfaction is starting out with something raw and ending up with something I am really proud of. In fact, I put so much time into each board that I become protective of it and don’t want to sell it,” she laughs.

‘Headquarters’ is a cosy wooden cabin that has been > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 71

72 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

ingeniously built inside a hangar barn, although Will is often out with his ‘travelling’ mill. Recently they have had a call about an ancient walnut tree that has gone over in the gales, while another customer has asked for his apple trees to be milled, so that he can use the wood for boards and possibly a bench. The couple only works with fallen trees. They are a sad sight for anyone, but as far as Timber Millers are concerned, every fallen tree has an afterlife. It makes me think of a quotation from Virginia Woolf, which says, “There are a million, patient watchful lives for a tree, in bedrooms, in dining rooms, where men and women sit after tea. It is full of peaceful, happy thoughts, this tree.”

When the best pieces have been saved by Charlie to adorn our tables, Will turns his hand to cladding for houses. It is increasingly in demand, as people begin to realise its eco and thermal benefits. “Larch, douglas fir, western red cedar and oak are the most popular,” says Will. He happily cuts it according to requirements, whether that’s bark-on, feather-board, tapered or

tongue-and-groove, but it is all dependent on what is available, as he likes to use locally sourced wood. They are also beginning to geo-tag the wood, a service that will name the tree and source.

Starting their own business while having a young family has been a leap of faith for Will and Charlie – but they were determined to create a better worklife balance. “I enjoyed growing up on a farm,” says Will, “and I wanted to give my children some of the same experience. ‘Frog Eyes’, the old tractor, was a 14th birthday present from my dad and now our own children can come up here and play on him too, when they’re not off in the woods nearby.” Will pauses briefly, "Dad would be so proud to see what we are doing here,” he adds.

Timber Millers provide seasoned firewood logs in a mixture of hard and softwoods with free local delivery. timbermillers.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 73

COFFEE BREAK Kafe Fontana 82 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3BJ @kafefontana kafefontana 01935 812180 kafefontana.co.uk Old School Gallery Boyle’s Old School, High Street, Yetminster, DT9 6LF @yetminstergalle 01935 872761 yetminstergallery.co.uk Oliver’s Coffee House 19 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3PU @OliversSherbs Olivers-Coffee-House 01935 815005 oliverscoffeehouse.co.uk The Three Wishes 78 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3BJ 01935 817777 thethreewishes.co.uk

74 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

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Telephone: 01963 33177 kimbersfarmshop.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 75

Food & Drink

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

PLUM AND CINNAMON CAKE

Y

ou can make this cake at any time of year with plums that are in the shops, but I love to make it with victoria plums from my own tree in the garden. The plums need to be ripe, so that they will be sweet and juicy. The base cake is a simple victoria sponge, 76 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

so you can serve it with afternoon tea or warm with clotted cream or custard as a pudding. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before starting. bakerval.com

You will need

An 8-inch (20cm) springform baking tin, lined with parchment Recipe

200g eggs, weighed out of their shells 200g caster sugar 200g soft margarine 200g self-raising flour 6g baking powder 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tbsp whole milk 1lb (around 450g) ripe plums 2 tbsp demerara sugar Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180C, gas 4.

2 This is a simple all-in-one recipe, but put the ingredients in the mixing bowl in the order I have listed them. Weigh the eggs into a mixing bowl, adding the sugar next as it will start to dissolve a little in the eggs. Place the soft margarine into the bowl in small pieces, then sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the egg mixture. Finally, add the milk.

3 If you are using a hand mixer, begin slowly until all the ingredients are combined, then leave to stand for a moment whilst you cut up the plums. Letting the sponge mixture stand for a little while allows the sugar to dissolve in the mixture, giving a lighter textured sponge.

4 To cut up the plums, run a sharp knife around each one lengthways. If they are nice and ripe you should be able to twist the fruit and it will come apart, making it easy to release the stone. Plums discolour easily, so put them flesh-down on a board whilst you finish making the sponge.

5 Continue to beat the mixture for 2 mins on high.

Spoon into the baking tin and then arrange the plums on top of the sponge. I usually start by placing them around the edges first and then work my way into the middle, with the flesh down.

6 Finally, scatter the Demerara sugar evenly over the mixture, place the cake tin on the middle shelf and bake for 38 mins. The sponge is baked when a skewer comes out clean. This isn’t a cake you can listen to, as the juice in the plums continues to bubble. It could take up to 50 mins to cook, but keep checking every 5 mins if you find it needs a little more time.

7 When baked, take the cake out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. It can be released whilst warm and served as a pudding, or you can leave it until it has cooled enough to lift from the base of the tin.

Variation

At this time of year I have ripe figs in my garden and instead of using plums, I will use those. The cinnamon works well with both types of fruit. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 77

Food & Drink

78 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

KHARCHO

Georgian beef stew Sasha Matkevich, Head Chef and Owner, The Green with Jack Smith, Apprentice Chef This is real comfort food, originating from the Caucasus mountains.

Ingredients

1kg beef shin, cut into chunks 6 banana shallots, roughly chopped 1 bunch chopped freshcoriander 150g walnuts, shelled and skinned ½ tsp chilli flakes 2 tsp ground fenugreek 1 tsp groundcorianderseeds 1 tsp ground cumin seeds 1½tbsptomato paste ½ tsp ground black pepper 3 large cloves garlic, crushed 100g risotto rice Sea salt Zest ½ lemon Pepper Method

1 Slowly,at a low heat, cook the beef in a large pan with enough water just to cover it. Cook until the meat is tender and ready to fall apart.

2 Meanwhile place the shallots, walnuts, chilli flakes, fenugreek, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, tomato paste, sea salt and black pepperin a food processor and liquidise until it forms a smooth paste.

3 In a small saucepan, cookthetomato paste mixture with a little fat from the beef stock for approximately10 mins,on a very low heat.If it becomes toodry, add more beef stock.

4 Remove the meat from the stock and pull it off the bone. Skim off the impurities and fat left over from the stock and increase the heat, add rice and cook for 15 mins.

5 Reduce the heat and add pulled meat, walnut and tomato paste, garlic, lemon zest and coriander leaves.

6 Season to taste and cookfor further 4 mins. greenrestaurant.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 79

Food & Drink

OOLONG

A

Michelle and Rob Comins, Comins Tea

s the months get cooler, we inevitably find our bodies and minds seeking different nourishment.

At this time we often see people moving from green teas towards oolong on our menu, so we thought this would be the perfect time to ex-plore this diverse and less well-known category of tea in more detail.

Like white, green and black teas, oolong tea is the product of the camellia sinensis plant. The defining characteris-tic of oolong tea is that it is made up of leaves that are partially oxidised.

There are a few theories in the origin of the name ‘oolong’. The first is that it comes from the part of the Wuyi Moun-tains where it was originally made.

Another theory is that it was named after the man who discovered oolong tea by accident – after a day spent picking tea, he was distracted by a deer and by the time he returned, the tea had started to oxidise. However, the most likely theory is that the shape of the processed leaf – often dark and long – led to the name 'wulong cha’, literally ‘black dragon tea'.

Variation

Oxidation in oolong tea can range from around 10% up to 90%, depending on the production method. Oxidation starts when the tea leaf is picked and this can then either be stopped, sped up, or controlled and then stopped. The more oxidised a leaf, the darker its colour. The control of the oxidation is key to the final result – this variation gives the wide diversity of flavours possible from oolongs, from sweet and fruity to woody and strong.

Another key factor in flavour variation is the style or shape. There are 'balled' (or 'semi balled') oolongs, where the leaves are tightly wound into small, bead-like shapes. The second is the ‘ribbon-style' oolongs that are rolled into long curled leaves. Further to this, the time of picking is also important, since quality varies with the season. Spring and autumn teas are higher-quality than summer tea. Leaves picked during early spring are generally considered to have the highest quality.

Finally, location matters. Key growing areas for oolong teas are Anxi, Wuyi, Fujian and Chao Zhou in Chi-na. In Taiwan they are Wenshan, Alishan, Lishan.

All of these areas vary in soil type, rock type, aspect and such things as altitude. These varying conditions create a 80 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

wide range of flavour profiles in the oolong class.

Processing

Oolong tea is made from more mature leaves, consisting of one bud with three or four leaves. They are picked when the buds at the top of bushes mature to half the size of a fully grown leaf.

After picking, the fresh leaves are transferred to large split bamboo baskets for withering, in order to reduce the mois-ture content in the leaves and allow the flavour compounds to develop. The next step in the process is bruising, which is vital in order to develop the quality and taste of the tea. The bruising breaks the cell walls of the plants, allowing oxy-gen to mix with the components and enzymes in the leaf, speeding up oxidation. Depending on the desired results, a variety of methods are used to bruise the leaves – including light turning, shaking, tumbling or rolling. These are repeated many times with ‘rests' in between, until the right level of oxidation is achieved.

Next the leaves are heated, in order to stop the oxidation, after which they are rolled into the right shape. Depending on the varieties, oolong tea can either be long and curly, semi-rounded or fully rounded.

Finally the leaves are baked to completely remove moisture and stabilise their chemical profile. Baking programmes can last up to 12 hours and add to the flavour and depth of the finished tea. Traditional ovens are made from bamboo boxes set over charcoal fires.

Brewing

Traditionally oolong teas are brewed using the gongfu ceremony. This consists of a small ‘yixing' clay teapot, a vessel to pour the tea into and sipping cups to savour the tea from. However, on Michelle’s trips to China the tea growers have also used gaiwan, a lidded Chinese tea bowl, and sipping cups. As always at Comins, we provide brewing in-structions on all of our packaging, as well as guidelines on the number of infusions – since with oolong tea you infuse the tea multiple times, going on a journey as you do. So grab a seat, take some time and see where the tea takes you! cominstea.com

Mr Wu with his beautiful Rock Teas

Traditional oven being used by Mr Wu on Michelle’s trip to Wuyi in 2015.

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 81

Food & Drink

SOUTH AFRICAN WINE David Copp

82 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

S

outh Africa is often classed as a New World wine producer, but in fact it is one of the older wineproducing regions outside Europe. It was first developed 350 years ago, thanks to the Dutch East India Company’s requirement to refuel its ships. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, maritime vessels had to go round the Cape of Good Hope to reach the source of spices in India and Asia.

It was a long and perilous voyage and ships needed a safe haven en route to take on fresh food and water.

Near the Cape, explorers discovered a bay with a natural harbour, sheltered from the prevailing winds. They turned it into a settlement, planting food crops and vines to supply their ships and help ward off scurvy among sailors on their long voyage east.

When Simon van der Stel took over as Governor of the new colony in 1679, he extended plantings inland and his name was given to the new town of Stellenbosch, which became the centre of South African wine production. The Dutch, at that time the world’s leading trading nation, not only produced wine for the health of their sailors, but also to trade. Cape wines enjoyed considerable success before vine disease blighted the industry, the Boer War disrupted trade and apartheid led to South Africa’s political isolation until 1994.

During this period, wine production was controlled by a huge co-operative known as KWV. However, soon after the abolition of apartheid it was broken up and replaced by private companies owned by South Africans such as the Rupert family and the late Graham Beck, who invested in modern technology and brought in young winemakers trained in Europe, Australia and California.

Wine exports soared, thanks to the well-made modern wines and favourable currency exchange rates. South Africa proved she has the soils, climate and cultivars to become one of the world’s very top producers. Warmth and sunlight are essential for growing healthy grapes and, in South Africa, they benefit from the influence of three oceans. Most wine atlases refer to the influence of the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, but the Antarctic brings in cooler air at night, helping to enhance natural fruit flavours.

South Africa is essentially a white wine producer.

Chenin blanc and colombard dominate white plantings, backed by sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. Cabernet sauvignon and merlot dominate red varieties, but syrah and grenache have shown a positive liking for the warmer conditions inland, as has cinsault, which has been crossed with pinot noir to form pinotage – South

Africa’s very own cultivar.

Since the early 1990s, the South Africans have imported the best clones of the varieties they find most suitable in their soils. They have also sought advice and help from world-class vintners such as the late Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux, Pierre Lurton from Cheval Blanc, Michel Rolland, and the Rothschilds. Promising new regions such as Walker Bay and Swartland have been developed, resulting in more sophisticated and more interesting world-class wines.

Any survey of the best wine-growing regions must start with Constantia, nestling in the hills at the back of Table Mountain. I think of it as sauvignon blanc territory, but Klein Constantia also produces a great sweet late-harvest wine from muscat, which competes with tokay.

Stellenbosch, with its light, fertile soils on the valley floor, gets some remarkable results from chenin blanc.

Ken Forrester’s FMC chenin blanc, an off-dry style, is already world-class. Stellenbosch also produces some very fine bordeaux-style reds. Meerlust, Rustenburg and Vergelegen can make sensational cabernet sauvignon.

Paarl is another significant producing region, formerly the headquarters of the mighty KWV – which did many very good things, but became too big and was prone to discouraging investment in new ideas.

There is a tendency to overlook South African chardonnays, but their better wines compare with the best of France, California and Australia. Tim Hamilton Russell, a former J. Walter Thompson advertising agency director with a holiday home near Hemel en Aarde, wanted to see if he could grow chardonnay and pinot noir in his back garden, so to speak. His hunch paid off. The chardonnay, with great intensity of flavour, was a stunning success, and pinot noir was also successful when the original Swiss clones were replaced with carefully selected Burgundian ones.

Soon after the Hamilton Russell start-up, his young winemaker Peter Finlayson won a study trip to Burgundy. On his return he determined to start his own company, with the support of Paul Bouchard, and ever since there has been an influx of new investors producing exceptional wines. At the same time the Rhone varieties syrah and grenache have done well in Swartland, while chenin and sauvignon blanc have made their mark in world terms. South Africa has come a long way over the last 25 years and, given stable political and economic circumstances, will surely earn a place alongside the world’s very best wine producers. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

Animal Care

AUTUMN MENU

Mark Newton-Clarke, MA VetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

I

t’s that time of year again, which comes so quickly that we are always surprised – yet we know the next three months will pass even faster. Hopefully there are a few good days left to walk the dog and, with the countryside opening up after harvest, it’s a safer place. I refer to the dangers of ripe corn fields that shed ears and seeds as excited dogs run through, inhaling them as they fall. This is a disaster, as the corn can be inhaled into the deeper parts of the lung, making them very difficult to retrieve. Funnily enough, springer spaniels represent by far the majority of cases – but, of course, any breed that runs full-tilt with mouth open is at risk.

Many of us have fruit trees in the garden. I am showing my age by referring to Aesop’s Fables, stories I grew up with – now available online, I am glad to say. Anyway, The Fox and the Grapes fable is relevant here, as many dogs will take fruit from low-hanging branches. Some will scavenge plums or apples that have fallen, exposing them to the dangers of wasps and slugs (stings and lungworm, respectively). A dozen 84 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

plums (plus stones) for a 20kg dog is like an adult human consuming three times that amount. The result is not going to be good! Strangely, we do not recognise the same toxic effect in fresh plums compared to the dried fruit (prunes), along with sultanas and raisins.

Fresh plums and apples in excess can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, which is unpleasant and may need symptomatic treatment – antiemetic, gastro-protectant, occasionally rehydration. However, it is the stones, seeds and leaves that contain cyanide, albeit in small quantities. For the poison to be released, the plum stones need to be crushed and the leaves chewed. Unlikely, but not impossible.

In general, if you suspect your dog has eaten anything even potentially toxic, the sooner we can make the patient sick, the lower the risk. Toxicity apart, peach, nectarine and plum stones can cause intestinal obstruction in smaller breeds. As these do not show up on x-rays, they can be hard to diagnose and often an exploratory surgery is needed. Dogs are at high risk

of intestinal obstruction due to their eating habits, but only occasionally vomit if the offending article is still in the stomach. It is only when the foreign body leaves the stomach and blocks the small intestine that really persistent vomiting begins and, with it, a very poorly animal. Medicine never being straightforward, other conditions such as gastro-enteritis, pancreatitis, peritonitis and hepatitis can mimic foreign bodies, so the decision to operate can be a tricky one. There is a saying that we should find nothing in a few cases, as this ensures we do not miss a single real foreign body.

Dramatic though an exploratory surgery may seem, dogs and cats recover much faster than humans – as anyone who has had their dog or cat spayed recently will affirm.

Let’s go back to autumn. Fungi are sprouting up and, as we all realise, not all of them are edible. Well, to be accurate, they can all be eaten – it’s what happens afterwards that’s important. We see fungal and yeast infections quite frequently, but mushroom poisoning in my experience is quite rare. The mushroom that causes

the most fatalities in both dogs and humans is amanita, of which there are several species. The classic appearance is a red cap with white spots, although there are amanita species that have a shaggy white cap. Unfortunately, no amount of staring at mushroom identification books can give a 100% reliable answer so, to be on the safe side, consult your vet for advice any time you think your dog has eaten a mushroom – one not bought from the shop – and take in a sample of the fungus if possible. A urine sample is also useful, as fungal toxins are found in urine. Some mycotoxins take 10-12 hours to exert an effect, but don’t wait until signs such as vomiting, abdominal pain and disorientation become obvious, as by then it’s too late to stop the toxin. Despite our gardens and hedges being full of potentially toxic plants, most poisoning in dogs is caused by rat and slug bait. In cats, anti-freeze is at the top of the list, so dispose of any spare or waste fluid carefully. newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

On Foot

DUNCLIFFE WOOD

S

Nicky King, The Eastbury Hotel and The Three Wishes

ome time ago I wrote about walking in Duncliffe Wood in East Stour near Shaftesbury, which is one of The Woodland Trusts woods. Known locally for its spectacular bluebells in the spring, it was the perfect place to take Otto during the recent heatwave. Affording shelter all the way through the woods, it provided respite from the powerful sun. Duncliffe Wood is described as ‘a large (93ha) woodland, which stretches over the double summits of Duncliffe Hill like a saddle as they rise out of Blackmoor Vale.’ Consequently it made for some difficult and challenging walking, but being dry underfoot was a delightful way to spend a couple of hours in the cool.

A designated Site of Nature Conservation Interest, the wood has a rich mix of woodland species, including a scattering of small-leaved lime coppice stools, which are reported to be the oldest living things in Dorset. Whilst 86 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

it is described as having fine views from the summit across the Dorset Downs and Bulbarrow Hill and, north, to King Alfred’s Tower at Stourhead in Wiltshire, the trees were so full of leaf it was a little difficult to find spots were the view wasn’t interrupted. This was the case even when we reached an area that we felt was sure to be the highest point in the woods.

To top it all, we only met one other couple walking their two dogs, but otherwise felt that we had the whole wood all to ourselves – quite a treat! Sadly it was too late to grab tea and cake at the Udder Farm Shop on our way home, so we promised to make a day of it next time.

Saying that, it’s unlikely to be in 28° heat next time and the cascading rain we all experienced last Sunday, which put paid to any adventures, is far more probable! theeastburyhotel.co.uk thethreewishes.co.uk

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www.newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 87

Cycling

GROWTH MARKET

I

Peter Henshaw, Dorset Cyclists’ Network & Mike Riley, Riley’s Cycles

have few regrets in life so far (all right, more than a few) but one was that I never bought a Kirk Precision when I had the chance. It was one of the weirdest-looking bicycles I'd ever seen, with a cast magnesium frame instead of the usual tubular steel. This was supposedly lighter than steel, more eco-friendly to make and better all round. Best of all, in 1991 you could buy one from a Sherborne bike shop. But for some reason I never did, going for a bog-standard Raleigh mountain bike from Halfords instead.

Most bicycles – about 95% of them, at the last count – are made out of steel, for the very good reason that it's stiff, strong, easy to process and above all cheap. But it's not the only material that works – in fact, there are lots of them, each with their own adherents and ardent defenders. Some argue that carbon fibre is the ultimate for strength and lightness, others swear by aluminium alloy or titanium. A friend of mine once had a lovely hobby souping up Brompton folding bikes, lightening them with various parts (and even one whole frame) made of titanium. Or there was the Swedish Itera from 1981, a bicycle made from – and I'm not making this up – injection-moulded plastic. It was Ikea on two wheels; and it didn't last long.

Like all these things it can get a bit tribal, which inevitably led to a bit of steel backlash from the traditionalists. I remember being at a cycling conference once when the speaker roared, “and what's wrong with steel, eh? Good old steel!” He was met with thunderous applause and it was like a scene in revolutionary France or Russia, with monarchists shouting their allegiance to the one true king. I must be one of them, because every bike in our garage is made of steel.

But there is another material, not metal, that makes a good bicycle. It's cheap, readily available in many parts of the world and has a very small carbon footprint. Not only that but it's sustainable, with new supplies growing all the time. It's bamboo. And like Mr Kirk's magnesium dream, you can buy one from a Sherborne cycle shop.

There's actually nothing new about bamboo bikes 88 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

– the Bamboo Cycle Co was offering one back in 1898, but in 2017 Riley’s Cycles will happily sell you a brand-new machine, fitted out to your specification.

The company behind it is Booomers, based in Ghana, which set up shop in 2009 with the aim of building bamboo bike frames, complete bikes and some lateral thinking accessories. My favourite is the Smartphone stand made out of… a piece of bamboo.

Anyway, it's anything but a gimmick. Booomers' frame has passed ISO tests in Germany, Australia and Taiwan and weighs less than three kilos, about the

same as a lightweight steel frame. The trick in making it, according to the Ghanaians, is to use the right sort of bamboo – the thin-walled variety can crack – and carefully dry it out, using smoke to do the job and get rid of any insects that might be lurking inside.

Once the tubes are dry and insect-free, they are lashed together with hemp fibre and the whole lot is coated in waterproof resin.

Booomer do a city bike, mountain bike or road bike, or a bare frame which can take derailleur or hub gears plus standard 700c wheels. You still need to use metal

rear dropouts, which keep the rear wheel in place, and front forks – because bamboo can't do everything.

As for cost, the bare frame comes in at $388 plus $85 shipping, so say £370. Steer clear of expensive components and you could have a complete and very distinctive bamboo bike on the road for less than £1,000.

Just one question – if you left it out in the rain, would it take root? dcn.org.uk rileyscycles.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

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Body & Mind

SEEING RED

Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms

A

lthough incurable, much can be done to treat and ease the angry and inflamed symptoms of rosacea. The condition usually develops between the ages of 35-60 and is commonly found on the face, but can also affect the scalp, neck and chest as well.

Rosacea typically manifests as a butterfly-shaped redness in the central area of the face, including the cheeks and nose. It is characterised by flare-ups and remissions. Over time, this redness can become more persistently visible and broken blood vessels can become more apparent. If left untreated, pustules and large inflamed nodules can result and, at this point, it is often misdiagnosed as acne.

There are four different subtypes of rosacea, each with its own symptoms – from flushing redness caused by a trigger, pustules and persistent redness and skin thickening, through to ocular rosacea which affects the eyes. A further permanent condition that can result from untreated rosacea is rhinophyma. Continual inflammation of the nose over a number of years causes the oil glands to swell, which makes the nasal tissue become enlarged and look lumpy.

Described as a bacterial skin condition, rosecea’s root cause still remains unclear. Some researchers believe it’s about genetics, while others think that it could be about an individual’s autoimmune systems or hormonal changes in the body.

If you suspect that you may be suffering from rosacea, a visit to the doctor can help to eliminate other potential causes. They may also suggest a course of antibiotics to help reduce chronically inflamed skin if appropriate.

92 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

While it can be hard to treat, there are methods available to soothe and calm rosacea’s effects. A thorough skin analysis and in-depth consultation can be performed by a skin therapist to understand what lifestyle the client has and what triggers the condition.

This is necessary in order to understand whether or not the client suffers from rosacea or other conditions like dermatitis, temporary skin inflammation because of a reaction to something, or acne.

There are triggers that can increase skin flare-ups such as alcohol, dairy products, spicy foods, heat, strenuous exercise, stress and UV light, so keep a skin diary to monitor skin responses. Other factors that exacerbate rosacea include over-exfoliating, showering with hot water, cleansing with water where minerals unbalance the skin’s pH, plus lack of skin protection from harsh winds and central heating.

If caught at the early stage of mild flushing and blushing, there is a great deal that can be done to control the condition to prevent it from progressing onto a more persistent stage. Adapting your skincare regimen is one of the quickest and easiest ways to relieve common symptoms.

Acclimatise your skin slowly by adding a new product every five days to minimise reactions, then record your skin’s response. Use products to reduce the visible capillary redness with anti-inflammatory ingredients such as argan and hemp oils, thyme and ylang ylang. Restrengthen the weakened capillaries with vitamins K and C and protect with a good-quality chemical-free SPF cream. thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk

GHOSTLY MASKS AND SPOOKY PARTIES

Loretta Lupi-Lawrence, The Sherborne Rooms

I

t’s October, the month of cosy knits, darker, earlier evenings, the crackle of fires in the hearth, hearty food and Halloween. It’s time to carve up some pumpkins, spray on fake cobwebs and hang rubber bats from our ceilings!

Last year our twins were just two years old, with no capacity to understand or celebrate Halloween. This October and a whole year older, they are already excited.

We do love Halloween in this family, so they are already hyped about dressing up, trick or treating (mainly the sweets that could be on offer) and staying up a little later than normal! Dressing up in the full garb means face masks as well as a good costume and, with my aversion to non-organic ingredients, I am delighted that Neal’s Yard Remedies have no less than six masks I can use on the children (and us) without giving our skin cause for breakouts or allergic reactions!

I adore the Frankincense Firming Mask as it lifts, refines and tones my skin all in one hit. However, this mask is transparent, so no good for effective scarycostume make-up! The same reasoning is applied to my hero product, Wild Rose Beauty Balm and the Baby Balm. Both the Rose Antioxidant Mask – which simulates collagen and brightens the complexion – and the Palmarosa Purifying Facial Mask have exfoliating properties in them. This means – and, knowing my children as I do – they will rub it off, as it may lie a bit heavier on their skin.

This leaves the White Tea Facial Mask, which gives a wonderful blend of antibacterial ingredients,

antioxidants, while also strengthening collagen.

(Not that the twins need any strengthening of collagen… Oh to be in three-year-old skin again!) This mask does sit lightly on the skin and appears to be offwhite in colour – perfect for looking spooky and undead!

My little skeleton and mini ghost will love how this looks and I will love that it’s not a face paint.

My mask-based parties this month are some of my favourite gatherings of the year, complete with punch made with our elderberry syrup and prosecco, sweet healthy treats and some apple bobbing, before we take the masks off and move onto creams and lotions!

To complement this month, our Calendula Cleanser – made with Marigold, otherwise known as calendula, the birth flower of this month – is the product I will be using to take off any masks and chocolate residue. Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, this will relieve skin from anything that could be irritating it. Does it calm down a couple of hyper children that may have consumed too much sugar, I wonder?

“Lock your windows, bolt the doors, Monster season is here once more!” Rusty Fischer Want to book a spooky, fun-filled party or come to a Free Facial Friday? The latter this month is on 13th October. Booking essential thesherbornerooms.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 93

Body & Mind

WHAT TO WEAR Lindsay Punch, Stylist

W

hen it comes to autumn, I am not a fan of sweater weather. However I do get excited about curating autumn wardrobes – funky boots, cosy knits and tailored coats are the epitome of effortless style. But before you dive into getting your autumn wardrobe, I wanted to write about finding your own signature style. When you know what you feel and look the best in, it is easier to focus on what you should spend your money on when overwhelmed by the endless rails of trends.

Defining your signature style doesn’t mean you have to keep it forever. Style is ever-changing and you will find it will evolve season to season. At the beginning of the summer I promised myself I would evolve my own style, move away from my monochrome ways and wear more colour. The best way to introduce more colour to your outfits is by choosing a colour palette. This way, your wardrobe becomes more versatile and your pieces can be easily mixed and matched, as the colours complement each other. Aside from the monochromatic black, white and grey, the colours I love from my ‘Seasonal Cool & Bright’ or ‘winter’ palette are pastel pinks, cool blues, burgundy – and I plan to go BIG on red for the autumn. As Audrey Hepburn said, “There is a shade of red for every woman.”

With red a big trend this season, I find myself spoilt for choice on the high street. The brighter turquoises, purples, greens and hot pinks from my ‘Winter’ colour palette don’t excite me as much. These colours complement my natural colouring perfectly, but they are just not me. I recognise this, so now exclude them on any shopping trips – whereas I would have wasted money on them before.

The beauty of my job is that I can still be creative with these colours, as my clients love them! Equally, I always offer the advice that if you love a colour and it is 94 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

not in your seasonal colour palette, wear it anyway.

It is how you feel in a colour that is most important.

When it comes to comfort and practicality I feel most confident when I am wearing trousers. The last ten outfit post photos of my Instagram feed (@StylistMum) only feature one skirt. A trouser seems to fit more with my own classic style, but if you feel a little more romantic a skirt might be your staple for your bottom half. I opt for high-waisted wide-leg trousers when I am working, as I feel elegant and confident with the fluidity of the fabric and flattering shape. I usually pair a simple blouse, fitted shirt or sweater with my trousers. When tucking in a top to a high-waisted trouser you’ll define a waist and elongate your legs, which is a bonus! If you want to take your outfit from plain to noteworthy, adding a statement necklace, sleeve or shoe will do the trick.

Statement pieces define your personal style. They give an identity to your personal brand. If you feel uncomfortable with anything heavy around your neck, statement earrings or layered bracelets will add some oomph. As for shoes, a pointed or almond-toe court shoe or boot is an essential outfit-finisher for me. I always find myself gravitating towards pointed shoes, as the look is classic, clean and chic. If you have more of a natural or sporty style personality, then stick to a round toe. After all, comfort is key.

When you are looking at purchasing from the new season collections, copying trends is not always stylish, particularly if they are not flattering for you, your lifestyle or personality. As Coco Chanel said, “Fashion changes, style endures.”

For information on Lindsay Punch’s styling sessions and events, please visit lindsaypunchstyling.co.uk/events/ or facebook.com/lindsaypunchstyling

Abbey Brides Breakfast Club

Saturday 7th October

Beautiful bridal gowns & dream dresses 81 Cheap Street, Sherborne Contact Alison 01935 321375 | 07890 708552 abbey.brides@virgin.net www.abbeybrides.co.uk @AbbeyBrides

Mini mani or mini pedi + Taster Indian head massage or taster reflexology with Primrose’s Kitchen organic, gluten-free cereal and smoothie, tea and coffee.

Meet with new or ‘old’ friends!

Booking essential. @ The Farm West Down Farm, Corton Denham, Sherborne, DorsetDT9 4LG www.anotherlittleworld.co.uk 01935 350008 / 07729 384241

"Leave the house confident in the colours and shapes that make you, you"

Helping you to move on with your life following divorce, separation or loss of a partner through bereavement.

One-to-one personal coaching designed specifically for you.

For further info or to book your initial free consultation contact Debbie Wesley on 07712 068334 or e-mail fromus2me@btinternet.com www.fromus2me.com

Colour Analysis, Shape & Style, Consultations, Wardrobe Re-styling, Personal Shopping, Online Shopping, Mens Styling, Bridal Packages, New Mum Styling, Colour & Style Parties, Skincare & Makeup Advice, Gift Vouchers Available 07969 557004 INFO@LINDSAYPUNCHSTYLING.CO.UK WWW.LINDSAYPUNCHSTYLING.CO.UK sherbornetimes.co.uk | 95

Body & Mind

WALKING IT

Samantha Kirk, Centre Manager, Oxley Sports Centre

W

e are all aware of the wonderful benefits of walking. The NHS recommends that we all have about two and a half hours of exercise per week to be healthy and most of us get a lot of this from walking. During the summer months this is easy to do, taking the form of a walk around the block for approximately 20 minutes per day, or a ramble through a field laden with flowers. (Intermittent cartwheels will give you a higher exercise hit.) But when the weather turns and we begin to shrug on the winter woollies, it becomes harder to achieve.

And it’s not only the exercise we miss when we come inside, but the social aspect. A walk in the summer is often with friends or your dogs and there is often the reward of tea and cake at the end.

One way to achieve your exercise quota is to buy a pedometer and watch your steps for a while. You’ll be amazed at how rewarding and satisfying it is to see your step count increase from a few simple changes in lifestyle and there are plenty of opportunities to do this – from taking the stairs in shops and offices rather than the lift and walking to work if you can.

There is, however, another way to keep walking during the cooler months. There is increasing interest in what are termed 'walking sports', sports that are played at a slower rate to enable people of all ages and fitness levels to access them happily and healthily. These sports are a great way to keep active during winter and are 96 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

low-impact and gentle whilst still raising your heart rate enough to count towards your exercise quota per week.

Most activities will last for an hour to an hour and a half, meaning just one class per week could benefit you greatly in keeping you active and those joints flexible.

There’s also a social aspect to take into account – and there’s nothing like a goal to bring people together, followed by a celebratory tea and cake afterwards.

Netball England are keen to promote Walking Netball for its many health benefits. It’s also fantastic for those who want to get back into sport after a period of inactivity or sports injury - it’s perfect for new mothers and older adults, but is available to all abilities and all ages.

If you’ve never played it before, then now’s your chance. Research shows that learning new skills helps our minds stay healthy too and can help to ward off dementia for older players, so it’s win-win.

I have heard that it’s quite hard not to run when the game gets going and spirits lift and it takes quite a lot to keep one foot on the ground, which is one of the rules – but that’s the joy of it. Just wanting to run is a delight and perhaps gives us back a little of that precious zest for life that those summer meadows bring.

If you fancy trying out Walking Netball there is a session on a Monday morning at Oxley SC. For more information, try englandnetball.co.uk/my-game. oxleysc.com

FROM ONLY £149 OCTOBER SPECIAL OFFER Buy three treatments and get one FREE

Call now with discount code:AW310

Tel: 01963 220937

THERAPY ROOMS & OFFICE SPACE Our therapy rooms hold a diverse clinic of practitioners each running their own practice.

We use and sell Neal’s Yard Remedies products within our therapies. Pop into the shop to order your bathroom essentials or book a free one to one skin consultation & mini facial. Parties & workshops available.

We have rooms ready to be rented for either long or short terms or meetings. Quiet space with heating, desks, seating and wifi. www.evolution-aesthetics.co.uk West Down Business Centre, West Down Farm,Corton Denham, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 4LG

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Pop in for more information or call

01935 507290

email sherbornerooms@gmail.com or visit www.sherbornerooms.com

56 Cheap St, Sherborne DT9 3BJ

Dont be

scared

they’ll love it!

HALF TERM ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS 23rd October – 27th October 9am – 5pm • 8 – 14 years 01935 818270 www.oxleysc.com

Bradford Road, Sherborne DT9 3DA

OPENING HOURS: Monday: 8.30am ~ 5pm Tuesday: 8.30am ~ 5pm Wednesday: 8.30am ~ 5pm Thursday: 8.30am ~ 5pm Friday: 8.30am ~ 5pm Saturday: 7.30am ~ 4pm Walk in, relax. No appointment necessary

56 Cheap St, Sherborne DT9 3BJ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 97

Body & Mind

BENEFITS OF A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

Y

Nick Stokes, The Bed Specialist

ou can’t beat a good night’s sleep – it leaves you feeling fit, thinking sharp and happy and is vital to our health and wellbeing!

The foundation of good sleep is a comfortable bed and the right mattress.

It can be the difference between a restorative night’s sleep and poorquality sleep that results in tiredness and fatigue.

Research shows that sleeping on an uncomfortable bed could rob you of up to an hour’s sleep – yet the deterioration may be so gradual and invisible that many people fail to make the connection between an uncomfortable bed and poor sleep.

The benefits of good sleep should never be underestimated and getting a proper rest on a regular basis isn’t just a good idea, it’s an essential one.

Sleep also helps reduce stress, improve your memory, lower blood pressure and reduce chances of diabetes!

If your body doesn’t get enough sleep, it can react by producing an elevated level of stress hormones, which is a natural result of today’s faster-paced lifestyles. Deep and regular sleep can help prevent this.

Ever noticed that when you’re really tired it’s harder to remember things? Your brain is telling you that it’s not getting enough sleep. When you sleep well, your body may be resting but your brain is busy organising and storing memories. So getting more quality sleep will help you remember and process things better.

Higher blood pressure increases your chances of heart attacks and strokes, but again, getting plenty of restful sleep encourages a constant state of relaxation that can help reduce blood pressure and generally keep it under control.

Some research studies have shown that not getting enough sleep may lead to type-2 diabetes by affecting how your body processes glucose. It’s not conclusive by any means, but it’s yet another indication of how 98 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

important the benefits of sleep can be.

Along with a great night’s sleep, grabbing a quick nap in the daytime can contribute towards making your brain more effective and productive.

You won’t necessarily be answering all the questions on University Challenge, but you may well feel sharper, more attentive and focused throughout the day.

Here’s a few helpful things to consider:

• Have you had your mattress more than eight years?

• Do you wake up with stiffness or aches and pains?

• Are you sleeping as well as you did a year ago?

• Have you had a better night’s sleep in a bed other than yours?

• Does your mattress show signs of visible wear and tear, such as sagging or lumpiness?

There are literally thousands of beds from which to choose and there’s no such thing as the perfect type of bed for a particular condition or situation, such as one ideal bed for a back-pain sufferer. The Bed Specialist in Yeovil, with over 50 years of experience as a family business, will arm you with lots of information to make the process simpler, but only you can make the final, important decision. So take your time and make it wisely.

The Bed Specialist in Yeovil are holding a special Craftsman Day and Sale Event on Friday 27th October. Learn about the world-renowned Vispring beds and see the bed pictured above constructed live in store. You will have the opportunity to have a go yourself and to talk to the experts. A competition to win a £4,000 Vispring divan bed is also being held throughout October. Call in to the shop for more details. thebedspecialist.co.uk

Kinesiology Digestion, energy & sleep | Skin eczema & acne Food intolerance testing | Baby & Children’s clinic Nutritional support & supplements | Health talks & workshops

Thrive Health and Wellness, Sherborne Sarah Attwood Cert. ASK 07708 926000 www.thrivehealthwellness.co.uk sarah@thrivehealthwellness.co.uk

LONDON ROAD CLINIC Health Clinic • Acupuncture • Osteopathy • Counselling • Physiotherapy • EMDR Therapy • Shiatsu

• Podiatry and Chiropody • Manual Lymphatic Drainage • Soft Tissue Therapy, Sports & Remedial Massage Therapy • Hopi Ear Candle Therapy

Tel: 01963 251860

www.56londonroad.co.uk Email: info@56londonroad.co.uk 56 London Road, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5DW Free Parking and Wheelchair access sherbornetimes.co.uk | 99

Body & Mind

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Sarah Attwood, Cert. ASK Kinesiologist, Thrive Health and Wellness

S

o the new term has started. Whether it’s their first day of school or the first day in a new class, the shift change for children will feel huge. New form teachers, new subject material, increased homework and – especially for those in the exam years – the weight of expectation can lie heavy.

How are they coping with the change? Children go through just as many emotions as us but sometimes can’t express themselves – either because they don’t yet have the vocabulary to express themselves or have slipped into the monosyllabic teen world. Whatever their age, communication can be complex.

It is normal for children to feel worried or anxious from time to time, particularly around a period of change.

However, when this anxiety starts to interfere with their school, home and social life, it can be confusing to find a way through. Seeking professional help could help tackle it swiftly before it becomes a more serious issue.

• Every day, ask for one good situation and one your child would like to have done differently. This helps identify an emotion and move forward.

• Try Bach flower remedies – Larch for confidence, Mimulus for fears and Pine for those who blame themselves.

• If tummy upsets are becoming a frequent occurrence, try to identify and remove the cause for a couple of weeks.

Wheat and dairy are often the main protagonists. For example, swap bread and pasta for wheat-free versions, or substitute cows’ milk with soya. Monitoring the effects for a week or two can help indicate if these foods are triggers.

Is your child…

• Having problems concentrating at school?

• Having temper tantrums and behavioural problems?

• Experiencing digestive discomfort or developing fussy food habits?

• Having trouble dealing with day-to-day life?

• Crying more frequently than usual?

• Having trouble sleeping at night or, with younger children, wetting the bed at night?

CROSS CRAWL Gently march on the spot, touching right hand to left knee, left hand to right knee. You can add a positive affirmation, such as, “My best is always good enough”.

LAZY EIGHTS Draw a figure of eight, keeping your head still and just allowing your eyes to follow it. You can hold your hand up and draw in the air, or trace it on paper. You can see a video demonstrating the Brain Gym techniques on my website under ‘Children’s Clinic’.

You can help yourself and your children by considering some of the following.

There is no one-size-fits-all, but I hope the above gives you an idea of ways you can support your children.

Emotional support:

Sarah is running a Digestive Health Workshop on Saturday 21st October 10.30am - 12.30pm. Tickets are £30 and available through thrivehealthwellness.co.uk

• Pin a chart on the fridge covering angry, sad, frustrated, silly, happy and ask your child to indicate how they are feeling.

100 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Brain gym activities:

These are fun exercises to help release stress and enhance learning and development. They work by improving the left- and right-brain crossover and get the two hemispheres to synchronise.

TUNING INTO TEENS Lucy Beney MA, Counsellor, 56 London Road Clinic

T

he teenage years are notorious for a breakdown in communication between parents and children. Seemingly overnight, happy and chatty children can stew in silence, throw tantrums, snap sarcastically or appear unwilling to engage with family life at all. So often, an angry or irritable teenager results in an even angrier and more irritable parent – but it doesn’t have to be like that.

Research from Bath Spa University has found that one of the most successful ways to improve behaviour and relationships is to improve young people’s social and emotional skills. Antisocial behaviour can be a tool for maintaining distance from parents and others who ‘don’t understand’, as teenagers undergo a powerful metamorphosis to become young adults – with all the hopes, fears, dreams and insecurities that involves.

Developing your own emotional intelligence and helping your teenager through emotion coaching can make a significant difference to the life of the whole family.

Being emotionally intelligent means that you are able and willing to to look below the surface, at what is actually going on in your son or daughter’s life, and to identify and understand both your own emotions and theirs. In other words – exactly what you are both feeling and why.

There are five basic steps involved in developing emotional intelligence. The first is to tune into your teenager’s emotional state with real interest and empathy – and recognise your own. Connect with them, making time to give them your undivided attention. Then we must accept and listen to what they are saying, without being dismissive. Reflect on what is happening with them and finally, once the emotional crisis has passed, look with them at the options they have to resolve the issues they may face – but don’t do it for them. Real connection and authentic communication are everything.

Emotional intelligence helps to build a level of insight when solving problems and offers strategies for managing the appropriate expression of strong feelings.

Teenagers can also be helped this way in coping with peer pressure and conflict, building emotional resilience and learning to trust their instincts in unfamiliar situations. As a parent, being able to give a measured response – perhaps when you are feeling rejected or overwhelmed by your child’s behaviour – defuses the situation and helps you both to build a stronger and more satisfying relationship.

Teenagers still need parenting, but during the teenage years it is time for parents to move from the role of ‘manager’ in their child’s life, to that of ‘consultant’. That way, you can avoid some of the conflicts that come with loss of power, or the bewilderment of disconnection.

Young people still need your active involvement in their lives – and they need you to model the emotional intelligence and self-awareness that will strengthen and prepare them for adult life.

Lucy a qualified facilitator for the University of Melbourne’s ‘Tuning into Teens’ parenting programme. She is currently working towards an advanced diploma in integrative counselling and is in placement with EHCAP at London Road Clinic. She is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Bath Spa University and EHCAP, a social enterprise, have been commissioned by Public Health Somerset to provide Mindful Emotion Coaching Training to people working with children and young people in Somerset.

56londonroad.co.uk ehcap.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Body & Mind

MENOPAUSAL FLUSHES AND SWEATS TREATMENT AND PREVENTION Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom, GP and Complementary Practitioner, Glencairn House

T

he menopause is a natural phase in a woman’s life, when fertility draws to a close due to the depletion of the female hormones. As this happens, a number of symptoms are experienced.

The most troublesome are hot flushes and night sweats, which can last for five to ten years. They may occur hourly, both day and night, and they can be embarrassing, especially with facial blushing. Interrupted sleep results in daytime tiredness, poor concentration and mood changes such as irritability and weepiness.

Conventional treatment is by taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). This is a perfectly safe treatment, but many women prefer to deal with their sweats and flushes naturally. Some women are not able to have HRT due to cardiovascular disease, or previous breast or gynaecological cancer. HRT is no longer prescribed indefinitely and, unfortunately, in some women flushes and sweats return upon HRT discontinuation. For these reasons, women often look for alternative ways to eradicate their sweats and flushes.

Dietary measures can help reduce menopausal flushing, as oestrogen-like plant hormones called phytoestrogens are found in many plants. They are much weaker than human oestrogen but still provide a natural boost, as demonstrated by scientifically based studies.

Two classes of food, namely isoflavones – in soybeans and soy products such as tofu, chickpeas and red clover – and lignans – in flaxseeds, cereals and dark green vegetables – should be included in the diet to reduce flushing.

Herbal preparations have also been used for menopausal flushes with mixed success. Black cohosh, sage leaf extract and agnus castus are all herbs that

102 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

can be sourced from the pharmacy and health-food stores. Before taking any supplements, check with the pharmacist to rule out any adverse effects or interactions with conventional medication that you may have been prescribed. Experiment with each in turn over a six- to eight-week period; if there is no benefit, proceed to another herbal medicine.

Homeopathic medicine is another treatment that frequently relieves menopausal flushes and night sweats.

Belladonna, sulphur, lachesis, sepia and pulsatilla are often successful. These can also be obtained from pharmacies and health-food shops at low potency. However, advice from a homeopath is preferable in order to be prescribed the most appropriate medicine according to the symptoms, as well as the overall profile of the person.

Lifestyle tips can be very helpful. Studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise, and caffeine and alcohol reduction reduce flushes. Smoking reduces oestrogen levels and brings about earlier menopause. Yoga and tai chi have been shown to reduce flushing, while therapies such as reflexology and acupuncture have also all been shown to have some benefits in menopause treatment.

To sum up, management of menopausal symptoms is best through combining a number of strategies – regular aerobic exercise, plant-oestrogen food built into your diet a few times a week and treatment with herbal black cohosh or homeopathy. Following this advice will hopefully reduce or eliminate your hot flushes and sweats, restore your energy and give you a good night’s sleep. doctortwrobinson.com glencairnhouse.co.uk

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Brister&Son Independent Family Funeral Directors

When your family suffers the loss of a loved one, we are here to support, guide and reassure you – every step of the way Call Daniel on 01935 812647 100 Lenthay Road, Sherborne DT9 6AG Email: daniel@wsbrister.com www.wsbrister.com

A J Wakely& Sons Independent Family Funeral Directors and Monumental Masons - 24 Hour Service -

www.ajwakely.com

16 Newland, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3JQ Tel: 01935 816817 Please contact Clive Wakely or a member of the dedicated team for any advice or guidance 104 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

The Old Vicarage Leigh, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 6HL

01935 873033

care@tovic.com

We are delighted to announce that following our recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission we have been awarded a rating of Outstanding. This means we are in the top 1% of care homes in England.

The Old Vicarage CQC overall rating

28 January 2016

Set in its own secluded, beautifully landscaped gardens, woodland and meadow, and with stunning views overlooking the Dorset countryside, it’s hard to resist the charms of the Old Vicarage. As soon as you step through the front door of this charming country house, you’ll discover an oasis of comfort, warmth, calm and relaxation.

Our highly trained staff ensure that everything - from the mouth-watering food and drink and the stylishly cosy bedrooms to the wide range of activities - will make the Old Vicarage truly a home from home. We have been recognised by the Cinnamon Trust as being one of the best pet friendly care homes in the country.

To arrange a visit please call on 01935 873033 or email care@tovic.com

Property

THE LURE OF THE SEA

T

Simon Barker MRICS, Partner, Knight Frank

he UK is home to a variety of waterfront locations that appeals to a diverse collection of buyers, but waterfront living often comes at a premium.

Whether it is a country house by the river, a one-bedroom flat by the sea or a cottage by a loch, a clear premium is paid by buyers for homes in close proximity to water.

“For a number of purchasers it’s the ultimate lifestyle choice,” says Christopher Bailey, Knight Frank’s Head of National Waterfront. “Waterfront property is very niche and very desirable, often in a market of its own, and that helps to underpin values.”

Indeed, according to the latest Prime Waterfront Index, compiled by valuations from our experts across the country, prices for prime waterfront properties are as much as 81% higher than comparable inland properties.

The index measures the potential value uplift for prime homes on the water’s edge, or within close proximity to water, compared with similar properties located further inland.

Not all prime waterfront properties are equal, of course, and a closer look at the data reveals that the premium varies by location.

The South West offers the most added value at up to 105%. The region is home to some of the country’s most expensive waterfront properties with Sandbanks, Rock, St Mawes and Salcombe some of the prime hotspots.

The Dorset coast is comprised of the stunning World Heritage-designated Jurassic coastline, with the principal areas of Lyme Regis, Bridport and West Bay, Weymouth and Portland, Lulworth and Kimmeridge, Swanage and Studland and the more cosmopolitan areas of Sandbanks, Poole and Bournemouth. All these locations offer their own specific beauty and charm to 106 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

different buyers in the market.

“The most significant proportion of West Country buyers are looking to move out of London and the Home Counties bordering the M25,” Christopher adds.

“Interestingly, there is also significant interest in luxury waterfront properties from the Midlands, stretching down to the Bristol area. Many of our clients who are selling their homes, particularly in the South Hams, live in the Midlands and come down for the weekends and holidays.”

“The diverse nature of waterfront property across the UK attracts a real melting pot of buyers from all walks and at all stages of life, whether they be upsizers, downsizers or simply those looking for a lifestyle change.

International buyers also form a small, but important, part of the market.”

And the appeal really is global. Our web-search data shows that individuals from all over the world searched for prime waterfront property in the UK last year, led by potential buyers in the US, Germany, France and Spain.

A weaker pound following the EU Referendum has also benefitted non-sterling denominated purchasers, with our figures showing a notable increase in the volume of expats buying waterfront property in 2016/17 compared with the previous year.

“In most cases the view is more important to buyers than the property itself – you can alter the property, but you can’t alter the outlook. The most important aspect to understand from a buyer’s perspective is the lifestyle they are looking for and how that can be matched to the property they will buy.” knightfrank.co.uk/sherborne

Connecting People and Property Perfectly.

Our local experience, combined with our global network, means that you can rely on Knight Frank Sherborne to get you moving. If you’d like to know what your property could be worth, please contact us.

Luke Pender-Cudlip Office Head, Sherborne 01935 810 062 luke.pender-cudlip@knightfrank.com

Simon Barker Partner, Sherborne 01935 810 064 simon.barker@knightfrank.com

James McKillop Partner, Country Department 020 7861 1528 james.mckillop@knightfrank.com

Visit our unique, digital property tool at mypropertygenius.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/Sherborne @KF_SouthWest

Independent Letting Agent representing town and country property throughout Somerset and Dorset 5 Tilton Court, Digby Road, Sherborne DT9 3NL T: 01935 816209 E: info@stockwoodlettings.co.uk

Lettings & Property Management

West Chelborough, Nr Evershot Imposing period farmhouse in rural setting. Large kitchen with Aga, utility room, dining room with fire, study, cloakroom, sitting room with inglenook fireplace, drawing room with inglenook.

To the first floor are five good sized bedrooms and three bathrooms. To the second floor are two attic bedrooms.

Outside are extensive gardens, ample parking and many outbuildings. Available for up to twelve months. Please contact our Sherborne office to discuss further.

Alweston

ÂŁ895pcm

Pretty cottage in rural setting, sitting room with open fire, garden room, three bedrooms, gardens, parking

www.stockwoodlettings.co.uk

Evershot

ÂŁ850pcm

Refurbished cottage, open plan kitchen/living room with open fire, well presented, three bedrooms, shower room, enclosed garden

Live for today and plan for the future

Sherborne Office

01935 817903 James Mobile

07824 389750 Lucinda Mobile

James Oliver DipPFS CeMAP Independent Financial Advisor Pensions and Retirement Planning • Investments • Inheritance Tax Planning • Mortgage and Equity Release • Life Assurance and Protection

james.oliver@ssfs.co.uk

07791 094 551 www.ssfs.co.uk

Lucinda Warren CeMAP BSc (Hons) Independent Mortgage Advisor Mortgage • Life Assurance and Protection • Buy to Let Mortgage

lucinda@ssfs.co.uk

Strategic Solutions is a trading style of Strategic Solutions Financial Services which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, number 525733. Principals: Kevin Forbes: Jefferson Fawcett: Giles Wellington: Allan Cruse.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE

Property

Y

HELP! HOW DO I EVICT MY TENANTS? Paul Gammage & Anita Light, Ewemove Sherborne

ou may have heard all sorts of horror stories about evictions. Although it’s not an overnight process, provided you comply with the rules, it should be reasonably straightforward.

Of course, prevention is better than cure, so it pays to ensure that your tenants have been robustly vetted and all paperwork is up to date and reviewed in line with current legislation.

I want my property back when the current tenancy agreement comes to an end

To effect this, a Section 21 notice will need to be issued.

If the tenancy started after April 2007, you can only use a Section 21 notice if you put the tenant’s deposit in a deposit protection scheme. Using this procedure, you cannot evict until any fixed-term tenancy has ended and you must give two months’ notice, which may be tied into the end of the tenancy period.

The notice must be in writing and specify the date of repossession. If the tenant doesn’t move out, you’ll have to go to court to seek a possession order. If your tenants don’t leave by the date set in the Section 21 notice, you can then use the accelerated possession service – but only if you are not claiming rent arrears. If you are, you’ll have to apply for a standard possession order.

My tenants have breached the terms of the tenancy and I want my property back

The Section 8 notice requires you to give your tenant between two weeks and two months’ notice, depending on what terms of the tenancy they have broken. The section 8 notice must be properly completed with the terms you allege have been broken. This situation normally applies where the tenant hasn’t paid the rent, is late paying the rent or has sub-let the property in breach of the tenancy.

If the reason is rent arrears, the notice can only be issued after a certain amount of rent is unpaid.

Serving notice

Whichever notice is served, it is essential the tenant is given the correct paperwork in the correct time frame. This is known as service and, again, strict rules apply about how and when you can serve your tenant with the papers and what you have to give them. If you are in any doubt, check 110 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

with a professional or risk your application being dismissed.

You will then need to complete a proof of service document (certificate of service). There are some exceptions to the above, check with a professional if in doubt.

What happens next?

Once you have issued and served the correct notice, the court will fix a hearing date for a judge to decide what should happen. Both you and the tenant may have to file a statement of evidence for this and you or your representative will probably need to attend. Check with the court. It’s important to bear in mind that your case will be dismissed if you haven’t followed the correct procedure.

What can the judge do?

The judge may make an order for possession requiring your tenant to leave by a set date, usually 14 or 28 days after the court hearing. If they don’t leave by that date, you will need to apply to the court for a ‘warrant for possession’ and an eviction notice will be sent by the court to your tenants.

If your tenants still don’t leave your property, you’ll need to arrange for a court bailiff to evict them.

The judge may make a suspended order for possession, allowing your tenants to stay provided they comply with some set conditions i.e. pay the rent. If they don’t comply, you will have to return to court. The judge may also order your tenants to make payments to you.

This may be in combination with a possession order and could include rent arrears or legal costs.

A word of caution

It is a crime to harass or try to force your tenants to leave your property without following the correct procedure. Not only do you risk your application for eviction being dismissed by the court, but your tenants may even be able to claim damages from you.

As you can see, evicting tenants is a potentially complex area. The above is only a rough guide and should not be treated as legal advice. I would always recommend you get professional advice and/or assistance before you try to evict your tenant. ewemove.com/sherborne

How Our Customers Felt After Choosing EweMove

All of these reviews came from the independent customer review website www.trustpilot.com

A Really Good Customer Journey Total Transparency and Honesty Anita & Paul run an estate agents like none you will have ever experienced before and believe me I have tried quite a few over the years! There’s total transparency & honesty at all times combined with expert communication – I knew what was going on every single day, not when someone decided I needed a weekly update. I had more viewings in 6 weeks than I had in the previous 6 months but from people who actually were interested in my property.

Save your time, hassle and money and go to the best in the area – that’s exactly what I will be doing next time!

Julie Warren Portman Court, East Chinnock

I used Paul and Anita from Ewe Move Yeovil after a rather unfruitful attempt via the traditional estate agent route.

From the point of initial meeting it was clear to see the professionalism of Paul and Anita. After just two days they had over twenty interested parties and viewings started on the Monday after I signed the paperwork on Saturday, yes they moved quick. Every day I had reports as to what was happening and within the first week we had three positive offers on the table. Completion was swift. From a vendors point of view the whole experience was very satisfying, attention to detail, information on progress, communication, a really good customer journey was had.

Mark Parsons, Lower Chilton, Chilton Cantelo

Estate Agents of the 21st Century Selling is a stressfull time. On this occasion however, I was lucky to discover EweMove who took the stress out of it by providing a brilliant service.

They were constantly in contact and kept us up to date with everything. They are professional in what they do, yet put me at ease so I felt confident to ask them anything. Other more traditional agents are either unavailable or slow to respond. The photos, description & presentation of our house for sale have been superb. This has been a significant factor in securing us a buyer within hours of being marketed. I can’t recommend Paul & Anita highly enough Paul Slator, Shelley Close, Yeovil

Sherborne’s Most Trusted Estate Agent Based On Hundreds of Independent Customer Reviews on We know choosing the best estate agent can be difficult.

One of the things our customers said which helped them decide was hearing real life stories from existing customers.

Anita Light & Paul Gammage, Branch Directors Call: 01935 350 350 Visit: www.EweMove.com/Sherborne

Finance

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF INVESTING

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Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.) CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS, Certified and Chartered Financial Planner, Fort Financial Planning

ver the last few months I have tried to explain the concept of real financial planning. Real financial planning is an ongoing process, which helps you to identify the life that you wish to live and to make sure that your money will enable you to do so without worry. I have endeavoured to explain that some people already have enough and others might have enough at some point in the future, while some will never have enough if they always spend too much. If there is a risk of running out of money in the future, there are only three steps that can be taken to solve the problem. Firstly by earning more – either by changing jobs or working to an older age – secondly, by spending less and thirdly, by obtaining a better return on investments. In many cases, of course, the solution will be a combination of all three.

The investment industry in the UK is a very successful marketing machine. During an era of a declining print industry, it is remarkable to see how much the financial sections of newspapers have expanded by. The reason for this success is, of course, because people do take note of advertising.

Unlike FFP, the majority of the industry focuses on what sells and not on what works.

Unfortunately, very few investors know how to build an investment portfolio that will withstand the rigours of time and deliver the return that they need.

This is my favourite quotation from the world’s most successful investor, Warren Buffett. “To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework.”

By utilising The Jars Strategy™ and The Investment Advantage™ FFP is able to create portfolios that enable investors to obtain the return that they need while, at the same time, not worrying unduly about the variations in returns. Investors are able to take the long-term view, confident that any fluctuations are manageable.

By listening to years of Nobel prize-winning academic research, FFP is able to build internationally diversified portfolios, with predictable long-term returns. We like to call the process ‘the art and science of investing’.

One of the benefits of real financial planning is to be able to identify the rate of return that will be required to enable people to live the life they want to live.

Risk and return are related – they have to be, because no one in their right mind would take extra risk if there wasn’t at least the prospect of a better return. Real financial planning enables you to choose how much risk you wish to carry. Even if you are comfortable with high risk, it might be more reassuring to take less risk with your investments, especially if you don’t need the extra returns.

Do you know what rate of return you need to live the life you want? ffp.org.uk

112 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Your Life, Your Money, Your Future Trusted, professional, fee based advice We live in a complex world. At FFP we aim to remove complexity, replacing it with simplicity and clarity so that our clients can enjoy their lives without worry

FFP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Telephone: 01935 813322 Email: info@ffp.org.uk Website: www.ffp.org.uk

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 113

TRUSTS EXPLAINED

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Rebecca Beresford, Partner, Mogers Drewett Trust Team

hen discussing wills people will often be anxious about the idea of trusts, fearing they will be expensive and complicated.

In a straightforward situation there may be no need to have a trust. However, there are some situations where they can be helpful and even vital in ensuring that what you want to happen after your death can happen – and a trust can provide that framework. It is essential that any trusts are drafted properly, so you need good specialist advice when considering one.

Trusts have endured for nearly a thousand years as they offer both flexibility and certainty in equal measure. Simply put, a trust is a legal relationship created either during a lifetime, or under a will on the event of death, when assets are placed under the control of trustees for the benefit of beneficiaries. There are many different types of trust that can be created under a will and many purposes for which they can be used.

For people with substantial farming or business interests, the use of a trust to capture the relief on the first death is helpful. Quite often the survivor might sell up the farm or business and the relief will be lost. However, by capturing it in a trust on the first death, the relief can be preserved and can ensure those funds are available to benefit the surviving spouse – and not be taxed on the second death.

A life interest trust may help to protect assets in the case of a second marriage. If your spouse remarries, the trust assets are protected for the benefit of your beneficiaries and will not pass to the new spouse or their family. This form of trust may also help to protect assets against nursing home fees. If your spouse becomes resident in a nursing home after your death, then the trust assets will be excluded from any financial assessment.

A discretionary trust is the most flexible type of trust. The trustees can benefit any of the beneficiaries of a discretionary Trust at ‘their discretion’. The trustees are guided (but not bound by) a letter of wishes that you leave. No beneficiary has a right to benefit, only a hope of doing so.

This type of trust can be useful where there are beneficiaries for whom you wish to provide, but where it may not be sensible for them to receive the assets outright – because they have financial difficulties, for example, or where they lack the capacity to manage the funds for themselves, or could be vulnerable to influence from others. Your trustees can provide for one or more of your beneficiaries as, when, and if they choose to do so. This means that your trustees will have the power to react and take account of the position at your death. As no beneficiary has a right to benefit, assets held in a discretionary trust will not affect means-tested benefits, but your trustees could still provide for that beneficiary. mogersdrewett.com

114 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

REBECCA IS ALWAYS ON POINT WHEN IT COMES TO ADVISING HER CLIENTS. Rebecca Beresford, one of our partners at Mogers Drewett, specialises in estate planning and protection, complex wills, trusts and inheritance tax issues.

Like fencing, Rebecca’s role requires finesse, focus and more than a little dedication. It’s this that makes her a trusted advisor to generations of clients. En garde!

Tech

T

he old Data Protection Act (1998) was designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in paper filing systems by companies or organisations. You had the right to see what information was held, request that it be corrected if wrong, require it not to be used for direct marketing and require that it not be used in any way that may cause distress. However, things have moved on since then and the recent data breaches by the NHS, TalkTalk and Yahoo, to name but three, have pointed to a tightening of the regulations.

The GDPR will introduce several key changes, which UK organisations will need to comply with by May 2018. Headlining among these new elements are: • Mandatory appointment of data protection officers for large firms • Mandatory breach notification within 72 hours of an incident • Fines of €20m or 4% annual global turnover – whichever is higher (I wish!)

• Right to be forgotten • Right to data portability • Data protection by design and by default As an individual, you’ll probably be most interested that the companies that hold your data are doing so responsibly and for all the right reasons. To be fair, most are! Take John Lewis as an example. It’s just not in their best interest to mess with our personal data or to ignore their responsibilities; it would be catastrophic to their business. Sadly, many small businesses are not yet up-tospeed on what is going to be needed. I regularly receive marketing emails from small companies who give me no ‘opt-out’ and I continue to get them month in, month out with no way of stopping them. Those of you who get my monthly epistle by email will notice that there is always an opt-out (unsubscribe) option at the bottom.

GDPR applies to the data controller (organisation) 116 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

and to the processors (service providers) that the organisation uses and they should concern themselves with the following in order to be compliant by May 2018: • Conduct a data audit to find out what data they hold and how they are using it • Classify data according to sensitivity and their organisation’s risk appetite • Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technologies to prevent accidental and deliberate data leaks • Staff awareness and user education training programs to focus on data protection • Regular testing to check the resilience of systems to attack • Develop an incident response plan to ensure you can report within 72 hours So what do you, humble reader, need to be worried about in your simple life? Not much really, as most of the regulations do not apply to domestic use like your email address book or the phone numbers stored on your mobile. However, there are things that you can do that will help…

• Don’t send group emails that leave visible all the names and addresses of each recipient • Keep your phone locked with a pin or fingerprint so that if you lose it, nobody can access the data • Be bold with the marketeers and tell them to stop sending your unwanted emails • Don’t give away personal information easily; always ask yourself why someone wants it first • If you’re worried, ask what information a company holds about you As always, if you need any help, you know where to come!

Coming up next month… Internet of things computing-mp.co.uk

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FOLK TALES with Colin Lambert

BILL BROWN

Mistletoe, Cancer and Contour Lines

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ancer’s a funny subject. It’s not funny-haha, just funny-odd. Daniel Craig stood under the mistletoe when kissing Rachel Weisz in the Queens Arms, Corton Denham. Contour lines show the gradient of the land. Please be patient, all will become clear.

Yeovil Hospital is a short drive from Staffords Green, but the journey lasted forever as, in late July, I drove my love, Sheila, for her colonoscopy. She chose hippy crack (gas and air) above Propofol (killed Michael Jackson) for pain relief and watched the whole show on the bedside monitor. Cancer comes in many forms. My dad, sister, son and…

I took Sheila to her surgery in early August. The colorectal team were magnificent; everyone made us feel special, from the surgeons to the volunteers running the shop where a copy of The Sherborne Country Way by Bill Brown caught my eye.

William Brown was born in Suffolk in 1930. Aged seven, he heard screaming from a Mr Squirrel next door and was scared. His mum said, “He’s just dying of cancer.” Bill was an only child, whose dad ran the village shop. Asthma was a constant companion until a school trip to Switzerland changed his life. He could breathe at last; fresh mountain air filled his lungs. He also fell in love with contour lines. Joined the Austrian Alpine Club, with cross-country skiing in Finland and holidays in mountain huts. Aged 21, he qualified as a geography teacher with a job in Woking. Bill organised field trips to the mountains and the contour lines got closer. He found a passion for photography, making slideshows with the students to present at open days.

Back in Woking he organised a 27-mile marathon walk for YHA members. Three other teachers started, but only one finished – Julie, the domestic science teacher. Some 57 years later, she hands she me chocolate 118 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

fingers and a cuppa.

They married, moved to Guilford; Julie quit teaching to raise two children and build a self-sufficient garden to feed her family. She loved it and, in their 50s, they purchased a livery yard with 13 acres of land, cows, chickens and the like. A weekly barter with neighbours filled the gaps.

“Off-grid – wow, one of my ambitions,” I say.

Bill retired at 55 to fully embrace his new lifestyle and mountain huts in Austria were put on hold. In Bill’s words, “a farm is a prison in the country” – their idyllic ‘good life’ and self-sufficient dream became more like a 24/7 job maintaining their growing flock of plants and animals. Bill needed contour lines, not age lines, so they retired to Milborne Port to explore the Somerset and Dorset hills.

I excuse myself to visit their loo. You may recall I pee a lot (see ST with Dr Charlie Middle, November 2016).

Well, Bill also peed a lot – his Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) shot up from the normal, under five for a post55-year-old, to 45. Must get mine checked again.

Yeovil Hospital delivered those fateful words: “William Brown, you have cancer.” In Bill’s case, prostate; in Sheila’s, colon; my sister’s, breast; my son’s, chest; and my Dad’s, bladder. Not wishing to be left out, Julie offers me another biscuit. We discuss stools, Bisto gravy and the chemo that followed her six-hour operation once her own bowel cancer had spread to the liver. She’s now signed off and in the clear. Phew!

Bill’s love of contour lines meant he needed hills and valleys, so he designed a book containing nine fabulous walks from Longburton to Bradford Abbas, Trent, Sandford Orcas, and Staffords Green, to name but a few.

Friends and family helped to complete it as he has, he says, become “a bit slow between the fences”.

Indebted, as are many of us, to the superb work of the

Macmillan Cancer Unit at Yeovil Hospital, Bill donates all the profits from his book to them.

“It goes past my house,” I mention. He smiles and says, “Yes, close to the Queens Arms, where James Bond had his fling one Christmas.”

“Under the mistletoe, no less,” I say.

“Mistletoe and cancer, what’s that all about? I read somewhere it’s being used instead of chemotherapy?”

“Well, in the 1920s Rudolf Steiner (see my David Evans article, ST December 2016) developed many ideas about the medicinal value of plants. He suggested that particular plant species could be linked to specific ailments. He identified mistletoe as a species that could help with cancer treatment and his teachings and suggestions for mistletoe treatments have been substantially developed in Europe, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Bristol, London and Aberdeen provide services here, although NHS places

are limited.”

“Well, I never,” Bill replies. “Plants are truly amazing.” Julie nods in agreement.

I shake Bill’s hand, hug and kiss Julie and am a little shocked when a white box called Alexa bids me farewell.

Not sure how ‘off-grid’ she is, but what a great idea for old folk – and she doesn’t need feeding.

Thank you to Bill and Julie for sharing their folk tales with me. Unlike my sister, they didn’t ignore the signs!

Bill’s PSA is down almost to zero and Sheila – who has been told she needs chemo – is either out on sections of Bill’s walks or researching mistletoe as an alternative to chemotherapy. Watch this space.

The Sherborne Country Way is available from Sherborne Tourist Office, Abbey Bookshop, Winstone’s Bookshop and Yeovil Hospital’s bookshop for £2.95, with at least £1 being donated to the hospital’s cancer unit sherbornetimes.co.uk | 119

Short Story This month the Scribblers set themselves the challenge of writing a short story that must contain the following words – ‘belief ’, ‘petrified’, ‘pyjamas’, ‘hope’, ‘fragmentation’, ‘happy’, ‘parrot’, ‘carnation’, ‘awesome’ and ‘malevolent’. The Scribblers’ offerings are always entertaining and it pains me having to choose just one from the selection of stories submitted by the group each month. But choose we must…

PIECES OF EIGHT Roy Leask, Sherborne Scribblers

More in hope than belief that time could be turned back, Reverend Howard, stood petrified in his pyjamas, staring dumbfounded. Happy, the parrot, brandishing a pink carnation in his beak, cast an eye over the fragmentation of what had been an awesome and priceless Ming vase.

“Bits and pieces, bits and pieces, bits and pieces,” Happy chanted repeatedly, while just managing to keep hold of the wilting carnation. Goading the Reverend further, the parrot cocked its head from side to side, surveying the extent of the carnage it had created.

“Pieces of eight… sixteen… thirty two… sixty four… and counting.”

Happy chortled.

The Reverend grimaced, feeling that he would be entirely justified in breaking the fifth commandment – but knowing full well that he was partly to blame. The Bishop had been very clear in his instructions about housesitting his pets whilst he was away for a few days. Before driving off, the Bishop’s final words had been, “Under no circumstances let Happy out of his cage. He can be very persuasive.”

Not so much persuasive but deceptive, thought the Reverend. Awoken by a screeching alarm call, he had dashed downstairs and into the drawing room, determined to shut off the piercing shrieking that seemed to emanate from Happy’s cage. Whipping off the night cover, the Reverend was aghast at seeing Happy lying inert at the bottom of the cage. Fearing the worst, he unlatched the cage door. At the sound of the metal catch, Happy’s malevolent eye opened. Before the Reverend could whisper, “Mother of God,” Happy was up, out and away in a flurry of feathers, before perching on then crapping all over the pelmet above the bay window.

“You little ****,” screamed the Reverend, descriptively.

“You little ****,” mimicked Happy, casually vacating his bowels further.

Besides his passion for antique oriental china, the Bishop was also a keen salmon fisher. On arrival at the Bishop’s residence, Reverend Howard had noted the large salmon gye net propped up in a corner of the vestibule. The perfect tool, the Reverend now surmised, for recapturing a parrot.

Still in his pyjamas and wielding a fully deployed salmon net, the Reverend closed the drawing room door emphatically and took up a central position, ready to intercept any fly-past. Happy didn’t disappoint. Beginning with, “Who’s a pretty fisherman, then?” Happy swooped down low across the room, avoiding the flailing net, before soaring up to perch on a high wall bracket.

Though missing the bird, the Reverend’s desperate lunge manage to envelope more or less all of the dozen carnations carefully displayed in the Bishop’s precious Ming vase, bringing the whole lot crashing to the floor. At that point, the sound of Happy’s taunting was less intimidating to Reverend Howard than the crunch of car tyres on gravel, announcing the Bishop’s return. Inevitably, Happy had the last word.

“Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?”

120 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Jean Fox, Sherborne Literary Society

Lucy Worsley, Jane Austen at Home – A Biography (Hodder & Stoughton) 387pp £9.99 Exclusive Sherborne Times Reader price of £8.99 from Winstone’s Books

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t is with some trepidation that one recommends yet another biography of Jane Austen, but on the 200th anniversary of her death, historian Lucy Worsley has given us a chance to view her from a very different perspective – that of ‘the home’. Her exploration of the details of Austen’s home life enriches our understanding of the novels. We can see where Austen draws on her own experience, and appreciate more fully the emotions and anxieties which lie beneath the surface.

From the letters that survive (many were destroyed by the family) she gives a fascinating account of the day-to-day life of this unmarried, genteel woman living in the Georgian era, whose novels centre on the intimate world of women and their social circle.

While sons were expected to run the family estate, join the forces or enter the church, daughters’ only hopes lay in marriage. Marriage ensured a home, status, but also the possibility of death in childbirth. Two of her sisters-in-law died thus. Austen’s heroines’ quest for self-determination permeates her novels and reflects the life she herself led. Reading, music, writing letters, remaking clothes, needlework, amateur dramatics, visits to friends and family, as well as household duties, show a busy life. Her visits to Oxford, Bath and Lyme Regis all appear in her novels. Emotions are difficult to gauge but Worsley shows us a little more of her inner life. We read of her deep friendship with her sister Cassandra, reflected in Pride and Prejudice with Jane and Elizabeth. There was a need

to meet a possible future husband through dances and visits. She fell in love with handsome, hardworking Tom Lefroy but his family crushed any chance of such a disadvantageous marriage.

She accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Withers but declined the following day, in the same way her heroine’s marriage proposal and rejection are echoed in Mansfield Park with Fanny Price and Henry Crawford.

Family finances and the pressures of money were always a concern, and money was talked about and comparisons made in all Austen’s novels. Austen was always dependent on her father, brothers and small inheritances, for money, until the successful publishing of her novels. The pressure of money even led to the giving away of children. Her brother Edward was adopted at sixteen by the wealthy but childless Knight family. Fanny Price, too, in Mansfield Park is given away to relatives.

Austen’s novels seldom mention events outside their immediate setting and the Napoleonic Wars through which she lived seem strangely absent. She was, however, well aware of the outside world. Her two brothers Henry and Francis were both sailors; Cassandra’s fiancé died of yellow fever in the Caribbean, and relatives traded in India.

Worsley shows how, in the end, after many moves, Austen achieved a measure of independence. She closes with the stoic dignity of Austen’s last illness in the company of her beloved sister Cassandra.

This is an accessible but scholarly work, and I can thoroughly recommend it. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 121

Literature

SHERBORNE LITERARY FESTIVAL PREVIEW Mark Greenstock, Sherborne Literary Society

Natalie Haynes, The Children of Jocasta (Mantle 2017) 336pp hardback £16.99 Exclusive Sherborne Times Reader price of £8.99 from Winstone’s Books

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atalie Haynes has carved out a multi-media career for herself on stage, radio and television and in journalism, promoting literature in general and, as her show title put it, ‘Standing up for the Classics’ in particular. She has appeared on the Edinburgh Fringe and other festivals as a stand-up comedian, and has been a panellist on Wordaholics, Quote … Unquote and The Book Quiz, a reviewer on Front Row and a judge for the Booker Prize for which she claims to have read 151 books.

She regularly writes for The Times and The Independent, and has appeared on BBC One’s Question Time. Predictably, she occasionally turns her hand to writing her own books – but Haynes is never predictable. Her first adult novel was The Furies (or The Amber Fury) (2014), receiving critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Before that there was The Ancient Guide to Modern Life (2010) and a prizewinning children’s book The Great Escape (2007). Now, hot off the press in 2017, comes a second novel, The Children of Jocasta. Here she offers a fresh look at the ancient Greek myth, set in plague-ridden Thebes, of Oedipus, who was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. But this is no mere retelling in modern guise like Donna Tartt’s Secret History.

It is a complete reimagining of the old story, taking the viewpoint of the two women ( Jocasta and her daughter Ismene) who are given the least to say in the traditional versions, yet whose feelings and experiences are as visceral 122 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

as any of the ‘main’ characters.

From the start we are taken into the world of gods, temples, palaces, city walls and squares, sunshine and stifling heat, that was archaic Greece; such is the power of Haynes’ imagination that despite (or perhaps because of ) the relentless shifting between two time-frames, that far-distant world becomes our conceptual environment. Many of the elements of the original story are thrown into the air and come down in a different configuration, which may leave traditional text-based classicists feeling less than happy. Even the Sphinx turns into a gang of brigands operating in the mountains. But as the author asks in her teasing Afterword, was there ever an ‘original story’? She cheerfully confesses, with reference to Jocasta’s two sons Polynices and Eteocles, that she has ‘played extremely fast and loose with their story.’ It doesn’t seem to matter, though. In the tradition of Mary Renault, there are atmospheric descriptions, blistering emotions, gripping action and sudden violence – but Haynes is less roseate-hued than Renault, and in keeping with modern fiction, darker and less comfortable. It’s a rattling good read, and rather than the single climactic explosion as in the Oedipus Rex, there are many twists and turns before the deceptively quiet ending.

Natalie Haynes will be appearing at the Sherborne Literary Festival on Saturday 14th October at 7pm.

AUTHOR PROFILES John Gaye Sherborne Literary Society

Rory MacLean

ROGER McGOUGH + LiTTLe MACHiNe

Our very own locally based travel writer has an impressive backlist of books to his name and is considered by those who enjoy their travel literature to be one of our leading living authors in that genre.

His travels have included motoring through eastern Europe in a Trabant with a pig named Winston, sailing across the Atlantic in search of a promised land, meeting Aung San Suu Kyi and riding shotgun with a Burmese hill-tribe warlord, catching the Magic Bus from Istanbul to Kathmandu along the hippie trail and, not least, meeting the remarkable people who imagined Berlin.

Throughout all his books, he manages to capture the character of both the place and the people.

Recently he has teamed up with one of our leading travel photographers, Nick Danziger, and their very latest book, In North Korea: Lives and Lies in the State of Truth, could not be more topical in its subject matter. Supported by some really stunning images from Nick, Rory has found a diverse range of Koreans to interview and on whom to focus his characteristic insightful writing.

This year Roger McGough, together with the band LiTTLe MACHiNe, will provide the grand finale to the Literary Festival.

Hilarious and surreal, McGough is a poet of many voices. Menace and melancholy there may be, but with plenty of McGough’s characteristic wit and wordplay too.

His latest book It Never Rains is a collection of new verses with drawings by the author. President of The Poetry Society, he has been honoured with a CBE for services to literature and Freedom of the City of Liverpool. He presents ‘Poetry Please’ on BBC R4.

Formed in 2009 LiTTLe MACHiNe are the musicians, composers, and writers Walter Wray, Steve Halliwell and Chris Hardy. Drawing on three thousand years of poetry – Sappho, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Byron, Eliot, Larkin and many more – they set classic poems to music and perform them with energy, passion and humour. Music that moves the feet for words that move the soul!

“Rory MacLean is more than a gifted writer. He is a man whose artistry is underpinned by a powerful moral sensibility.” – Fergal Keane

“It’s a long time since I heard something so exciting, a wonderful way of delivering poetry. The most brilliant music and poetry band in the world.” Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate

Rory will speak at the Sherborne Literary Festival at 11am on Thursday 12th October. The subject of his talk has changed from its original billing due to the imminent publication of In North Korea: Lives and Lies in the State of Truth and its current topical interest.

Roger McGough and LiTTLe MACHiNe will perform at the Literary Festival on Sunday 15th Oct at 7pm.

For a full line-up of events and to book tickets, go to sherborneliterarysociety.com/festival or contact the Tourist Information Centre on Digby Road

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126 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

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PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

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Revd. Dr. Rich Wyld, Curate, Sherborne Abbey

on’t worry if you’ve never seen it, but I’ve recently been re-watching episodes of The West Wing, an American TV series about a fictional US President and the staff of the White House. In one particular episode, the President is struggling in various ways and meets with a wise therapist, who listens carefully to what he has to say. The President is a good character but can be a little irritable and, in this conversation, makes quite a bit of the fact that he is President of the United States. In response his therapist says that he’s very happy to meet with him, but follows it by stating that he’ll be “the only person in the whole world, other than your family, who doesn’t care that you’re the President”.

That might sound a little confrontational, but I think his point was that, whereas nearly everyone else would be in awe of the office and probably treat the President differently because of his position, the therapist would treat him as he would anyone else – as a human person.

Of course there are times when it’s important to respect a person’s role or position and we are all shaped by the roles that we take on. But it strikes me also that it is possible to treat people differently according to who we think they are, what they do, or how we might choose to categorise them. The danger of that might be that we curtail the amount of attention we give to each person’s individuality, but also that we restrict them by burdening them with our own expectations of how they ought to be.

I’ve recently been reading the Gospel according to Matthew and in chapters eight and nine there are a series of short encounters between Jesus and a whole range of very different people – men and women, young and old, tax collectors, sick people and powerful leaders. Each encounter is different, but if you look closely there are lots of little word associations that link the stories together. For example, Jesus tells two of the people to ‘take heart’, but for different reasons. As this tapestry of words is built into a longer narrative, what we begin to see is that Jesus gives the same respect and dignity to everyone with whom he spends time and, because of that, he responds to them differently according to their needs.

He doesn’t treat people according to their categories. As Howard Thurman once observed, even the enemy – a Roman Centurion – is lifted out of the enemy status and is met as a fellow human person.

As we go about our daily lives it’s easy to see other people simply as examples of this or that category and thereby miss out on their unique personhood. When we look and listen again, allowing the person to be who they are, we are given the precious gift of meeting that person’s own true nature – a gift that only they can offer us.

We wish Rich the best of luck at his new post in Portsmouth.

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 129

OUT AND ABOUT

David Birley, Sherborne Town Councillor

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utumn is my – and I suspect many other people’s – favourite season. There is such a variety of shades and colours and perhaps no one has bettered Keats’s description of it being a ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.

One of the joys of living in Dorset is the countryside around us. We are fortunate to have so much woodland, which makes for such varied scenery. Then of course there are the hedgerows, which can yield a rich harvest of blackberries and sloes. How pleasant on a cold, frosty winter’s day to enjoy a glass of sloe gin and remember those sunny autumn days.

Living on a relatively small island has meant that we have had to make the most use of the land our farmers and landowners have sculpted over the centuries. In recent years there have been some aberrations when hedgerows have been ripped out to create prairie-type fields. But by and large, much of the layout of the countryside has not, thank goodness, changed too much.

How different is this to most of Europe. Agriculture plays an important part in the French economy, but much of France consists of large, featureless fields with no defining borders. It may be profitable, but as a spectacle it is frankly boring. In Italy, the glorious renaissance towns are surrounded by arid land which is aptly described as burnt sienna. Umbria, with its rolling wooded hills, is known as the green heart of Italy – but even here some of the land is only poor grazing at best, while south of Naples was described by an Italian cabinet minister as a desert.

130 | Sherborne Times | October 2017

We are also very fortunate to have so many keen gardeners and garden lovers. How lucky we are to have the incomparable Stourhead so close at hand. Spending a leisurely day there, it is easy to see why it is one of the National Trust’s most popular attractions.

Even closer at hand, we have the lovely castle grounds and our own public spaces, Paddock and Pageant Gardens, which are so well tended by our council. I was delighted that last year we won the regional heat of the RHS Britain in Bloom campaign. Residents of Sherborne and our surrounding area also open up their gardens for charity. I always look forward to seeing the latest edition of the National Garden Scheme – or ‘yellow book’ – in the spring, seeing what new entries there are and if there have been any changes to any of my favourite gardens.

I am glad to see that in Sherborne, we are also encouraging a new generation of young gardeners.

Earlier this year I went to Pageant Gardens to see the start of the County Primary project. The pupils have taken over two flower beds, which they have helped design and have planted, and will be helping to look after them. I am sure we would all like to congratulate the school on this imaginative project and thank Mike and Louise Burks of The Castle Gardens Group for kindly donating plants, as well as their time and advice.

At the end of this month we will be looking forward to the Christmas season and, of course, our Festive Shopping Day. So many of the shops do great window displays and I hope this year we will see even more Christmas trees lit up above them.

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