Sherborne Times February 2019

FEBRUARY 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

TIMEKEEPING with author, futurist and fossil collector, Wolfgang Grulke

sherbornetimes.co.uk

WELCOME

T

he seasons work to their own deadlines and it’s not for me to wish away winter but the birds and buds are raising my hopes. Mornings are greeted by tentative peeps and cheeps, the advance guard of snowdrops and daffodils show their heads and the bravest of blossoms poke a perfectly pink toe into the unknown.

And so to February. Richard Bromell takes us for a spin, Mike Burks shares some relationship advice, Julian Halsby discusses Bonnard and Val Stones bakes a batch of Rocky Road guaranteed to thwart any New Year diet. Katharine and Jo spend time in the fascinating company of Wolfgang Grulke at his mind-boggling private fossil museum. Wolfgang has built a successful career helping global corporations prepare for the future and navigate their own version of the unknown. Meanwhile, at home, he has been quietly exploring 500 million years of evolutionary history and the untold stories of the creatures that lived. Such an unfathomable period of time puts the budding of a snowdrop into perspective but at the same time somehow makes it all the more magnificent.

Have a wonderful month.

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

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard @round_studio Sub editors Jay Armstrong @jayarmstrong_ Elaine Taylor Photography Katharine Davies @Katharine_KDP Feature writer Jo Denbury @jo_denbury Editorial assistant Helen Brown Illustrations Elizabeth Watson @DandybirdDesign Print Pureprint Distribution team David Elsmore David and Susan Joby Christine Knott Viki Mee Sarah Morgan Mary and Roger Napper Alfie Neville-Jones Mark and Miranda Pender Claire Pilley

2 Bretts Yard Abbey Corner Sherborne Dorset DT9 3NL 01935 315556 @sherbornetimes info@homegrown-media.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk

Lucy Allen Sherborne Preparatory School @Sherborneprep Sherborneprep.org Simon Barber Evolver Magazine @SimonEvolver evolver.org.uk Laurence Belbin laurencebelbin.com Bill Bennette Sherborne Scribblers David Birley davidpfbirley@hotmail.co.uk Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum @SherborneMuseum sherbornemuseum.co.uk Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers @CharterhouseAV charterhouse-auction.com James Budden @JamesBuddenArt jamesbudden.co.uk Mike Burks The Gardens Group @TheGardensGroup thegardeneronline.co.uk Cindy Chant Sherborne Walks @sherbornewalks sherbornewalks.co.uk Gillian M Constable DWT Sherborne Group @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk David Copp Rebecca de Pelet Sherborne School @SherborneSchool sherborne.org

Andy Hastie Cinematheque cinematheque.org.uk Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom The London Road Clinic @56londonroad 56londonroad.co.uk Sarah Hitch The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms @SanctuaryDorset thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk James Hull The Rusty Pig Company @TheRustyPigCompany therustypigcompany.co.uk Colin Lambert colinlambert.co.uk Lucy Lewis Dorset Mind @DorsetMind dorsetmind.uk Sasha Matkevich The Green Restaurant @greensherborne greenrestaurant.co.uk Peter Neal Sherborne & District Society CPRE @DorsetCPRE dorset-cpre.org.uk Millie Neville-Jones Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Partnership @swanhousevet newtonclarkevet.com Kitty Oakshott Upstairs Downstairs Interiors @updowninteriors updowninteriors.co.uk Simon Partridge SPFit @spfitsherborne spfit-sherborne.co.uk

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

Mike Riley Riley’s Cycles @rileyscycles rileyscycles.co.uk

Barbara Elsmore Somerset & Dorset Family History Society @TheSDFHS sdfhs.org

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

Jimmy Flynn Milborne Port Computers @MPortComputers computing-mp.co.uk Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.)

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

Paul Stickland Black Shed Flowers @NaughtyDinosaur blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk Val Stones @valstones bakerval.com

Sherborne Times is printed on 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.

Margaret Goddard Mogers Drewett Solicitors @mogersdrewett md-solicitors.co.uk

Reverend Jono Tregale St Paul’s Church @StPaulsSherb stpauls-sherborne.org.uk

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.

Mark Greenstock Sherborne Literary Society @SherborneLitSoc sherborneliterarysociety.com

John Walsh Friars Moor Vets friarsmoorvets.co.uk

4 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Julian Halsby MA (Cantab), FRSA, RBA julianhalsby.com Craig Hardaker Communifit communifit.co.uk

Sally Welbourn Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Wayne Winstone Winstone’s Books @winstonebooks winstonebooks.co.uk

64 8

What’s On

FEBRUARY 2019 64 WOLFGANG GRULKE

116 Folk Tales

18 Shopping Guide

72 Food & Drink

118 Community

20 Wild Dorset

82 Animal Care

121 Out and About

24 Family

88 Cycling

122 Short Story

36 Art

90 Body & Mind

124 Literature

40 History

104 Property & Legal

125 Crossword

46 Antiques

110 Finance

126 Pause for Thought

50 Interiors

112 Tech

56 Gardening

114 Directory

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 5

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FEBRUARY 2019 Listings

or 01935 816321

Sherborne Literary Society -

____________________________

Words with Wine -

Mondays 2pm-3.30pm

Fridays 2pm from Waitrose

Lulu Taylor (Kirsty Crawford)

‘Feel Better with a Book’ group

Sherborne Health Walks

Sherborne Library, Hound St.

Free, friendly walk around Sherborne.

Raleigh Hall, Digby Rd. £5 (inc. canapés

friendly group. Free. 01935 812683

____________________________

____________________________

Shared reading aloud with a small &

07825 691508

& a glass of wine) from Winstone’s or on the door

____________________________

____________________________

Friday 1st 11.30am

Saturday 9th 9am-12pm

Last Monday of month 5pm-6pm

Weldmar’s Snowdrop

Charity Coffee,

Bookchat

Services of Remembrance

Tea & Bacon Sandwiches

Sherborne Library, Hound St.

Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred

Cheap Street Church. In aid of

____________________________

Hosted by Sherborne Churches Together.

Children’s Lifeline. £3.50

A lively book discussion group

Heart & Saint Aldhelm, Westbury.

01305 215305, weld-hospice.org.uk/

Sherborne & Yeovil Chernobyl

____________________________

snowdrops sherbornesnowdrop@gmail.com

Saturday 9th 2pm

____________________________

Friends of The Rendezvous -

Saturday 2nd 7.30pm

Charity Whist Drive

1st & 3rd Tuesday of

BSO Resound - Reimagining the

every month 6pm-8pm

Classics

Cheap Street Methodist Church Hall.

Dorset Mind -

Sandford Orcas Village Hall.

Sherborne Wellbeing Group Costa Coffee, Cheap Street.

01963 220208. £10, £6 u18s, £25 fam

Tickets (£10) from 01935 815816, vicki@addey.co.uk or TIC

____________________________

bsolive.com artsreach.co.uk

Saturday 9th 2.30pm

____________________________

Blackmore Vale & Yeovil

support-groups/

Sunday 3rd

NT Association presents

____________________________

Blackmore Vale Lions 1/2

Capability Brown

First Thursday of

Marathon & Relay Race

each month 9.30am

Bishop’s Caundle Recreation Field.

Digby Hall, Hound St, DT9 3AA.

dorsetmind.uk/services-courses/west-dorset-

Netwalking From Sherborne Barbers, Cheap St. Free

Info: 0845 8337423

____________________________

Talk by David Copp. £3, guests £5.

01935 425383 bvyntassoc.wordpress.com

____________________________

walk & talk with other small business

Wednesday 6th 3pm & 6.45pm

Saturday 9th 2.30pm–4.30pm

owners & entrepreneurs. FB: Netwalk

The Art of the River:

Art History Talk: Renaissance

Sherborne Instagram: yourtimecoaching

Through Artists’ Eyes

Women Artists

Twitter @yt_coaching

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound Street Alexandra

Raleigh Hall. By Joanna Cobb.

Thursdays (not 21st)

Epps explores the ways in which the

River Thames has inspired artists. £7

sherborneartslink.org.uk

Local Vocals - Acapella Choir Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. No

for non-members. 01935 474626,

Tickets £8, TIC 01935 815341 ____________________________

theartssocietysherborne.org.uk

Sunday 10th 2pm

____________________________

Valentine’s Walk with Walter

whatfish.plus.com

Thursday 7th 8pm

____________________________

Talk: William Sleeman

Meet outside Castleton Church. Guided

First Thursday of each

& the East India Company

month 2pm-3.30pm

Digby Hall, Hound Street,

musical knowledge required. lesley@

“My Time” Carers’ Support Group The Shielings, The Avenue, DT9 3AJ. Advice, coffee & chat. 01935 601499

walk with Blue Badge Cindy Chant, learn more about this great man! £8

____________________________

DT9 3AA. Non-members: £5.

Monday 11th 9.30am-3.30pm

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

West Country Embroiderers -

____________________________

Widen Your Horizons -

Friday 8th 7.30pm

Free Machine Embroidery sherbornetimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON

Please share your recommendations and contacts via FaceBook @sherborneparents _________________________ Tuesdays 9.30am

Digby Hall, Hound Street.

____________________________

Info: Ann 01963 34696

Saturday 16th 9am-11am

____________________________

Folke Church’s Big

Monday 11th 7.30pm

Butty Breakfast

(doors & bar 7pm)

Alweston Village Hall. Cards, preserves,

MOVIOLA: A Star is Born (15) Leigh Village Hall, DT9 6HL. £6 on the

cakes & children’s activity table

____________________________

door. Interval ice creams. leighvillage.org.

Sunday 17th 3pm

____________________________

St Pauls School Hall, Shepton Mallet

uk/whats-on/events-list/ 01935 873269

“The Galanthophiles”

Monday 11th 7pm

BA4 5LA. Lecture & book-signing

From Power to Prison to Peace Yetminster Jubilee Hall, Church

Street, Yetminster, DT9 6LQ. Talk

by J. Harmer & J. Kilpatrick, £8

sheptonsnowdropfestival.org.uk

____________________________

by Jonathan Aitken. Free with

Tuesday 19th 3pm

refreshments. 01935 872414

Theatre Fideri Fidera - Oskar’s

____________________________

Amazing Adventure

Nether Compton Village Hall

Wednesday 13th 7.30pm

_________________________

Sherborne ArtsLink Flicks –

Sandford Orcas Village Hall. Suitable

Wednesdays 9.30am

Leave No Trace (PG)

Squats&Tots

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road.

Nether Compton Baby & Toddler Group

2+ 01963 220163. £6, £5 u18s, £20 fam theatre-fideri-fidera.com artsreach.co.uk

____________________________

Tickets £6 from TIC, pre-film supper

Wednesday 20th 2.30pm

sherborneartslink.org.uk

Barnes & his Poetry’

10.30am-12pm

Thursday 14th 2pm

Sticky Church

Sherborne Museum Talk -

Brian Caddy. £4, to include refreshments.

Cheap Street Church Hall. Free

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Fires

Wednesday 20th 7.30pm

group for playgroup & primary

& Fire-fighting in Sherborne”

Sherborne Group of the Dorset

age children, 01963 251747

Wildlife Trust - Farming &

_________________________

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. By

Wildlife - Compatible or Not?

Saturday 9th 10am-4pm

George Tatham. Non-members £5. Tea & cake provided.

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road. £2.50

Baby & Toddler Event

Thursday 14th 2.30pm

01935 872742 pollyhowes@gmail.com

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall. Sale

Sherborne & District Gardeners’

Thursday 21st 10am–12pm

tables, information from local

Association In-House Quiz

ArtsLink’s Arts Buffet

baby businesses, demonstrations throughout, refreshments

Digby Hall, Hound St, DT9 3AA.

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Free art &

_________________________

Info: 01935 389375

____________________________

12. No need to book. 01935 815899

Mums Fitness Class Leigh Village Hall

_________________________ 1st Saturday of the month

Doodletots Bumps,

£12 (please book). 01935 815341

Sherborne W.I - ‘Life of William

____________________________

Catholic Church Hall, Westbury. Talk by ____________________________

craft for accompanied children under sherborneartslink.org.uk

February half term (date tbc)

Friday 15th 7.30pm

((BOUNCE)) Bambino Class

Charlie Parker Tribute

For ages 3-10 years. £5 per child.

Evening with the Freddie

Thursday 21st 11am-2pm

Bounce Sherborne FB page or

Graham Jazz Quartet

Finds & Archaeology

bouncefitbody.com Adult classes

Activity Day for Kids

also available which kids can attend.

Sherborne School. Tickets inc. 3 course

_________________________

dinner £22.50, tickets@sherborne.org 01935 812249

Liaison Officer, Ciorstaidh Trevarthen.

10 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

____________________________

Sherborne Museum. With County Finds

JANUARY 2019 Free, donations welcome.

3rd Sunday of the month 9am-11am

Wednesdays 12pm-1pm

____________________________

Sunday Morning Hatha Yoga

Lunchtime Hatha Yoga

Thursday 21st 8pm

3 Primes, 6 Trent Court, Trent.

Upstairs Digby Memorial Hall. All levels

for beginners. £10 booking essential.

hello@yogasherborne.co.uk or 07817 624081

Talk: ‘The Bird in the Cage’ Sir Walter Raleigh & Henry, Prince of Wales Non-members: £5.

Followed by tea & advice. Suitable

hello@yogasherborne.co.uk 07817 624081 Mondays 9.30am-10.30am

____________________________

Dynamic Yoga Flow

Thursday 21st

Chetnole Village Hall. 07983 100445

Oborne. With BBC Folk Awards

justbyoga@outlook.com

____________________________

Winners Phillip Henry & Hannah

Mondays-Thursdays

tiscali.co.uk or 07866 933736

Venues - Sherborne, Milborne Port,

Sunday 24th 10am-4pm

emmareesyoga.com

Martin. £14 from kandjperryman@

Yoga with Emma

____________________________

Thornford. emmayogateacher@gmail.com

10am-12.30pm Angels

____________________________

____________________________

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

Folk Gig - Edgelarks

& abilities welcome. £5. No need to book.

____________________________

of Sound Voice Playshop

Mondays 10.30am-12pm

Thursdays 2.30pm-4pm

2pm-4pm Divine Union

Yoga with Gemma

ArtsLink Parkinson’s Dance

Soundbath

Longburton Village Hall. 07812 593314

Tinney’s Lane Youth Centre, Sherborne.

____________________________

who live with Parkinson’s. Free -

Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA. £12 per session 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com

or gemski81@hotmail.com

centreforpuresound.org

Mondays 6.30pm-7.30pm

____________________________

Yoga & Kunda Dance

Wednesday 27th 7.30pm

Yetminster Sports Club. 07983 100445

Dance class & social time for people donations welcome. 01935 815899 sherborneartslink.org.uk

____________________________

justbyoga@outlook.com

Thursdays 7pm-9.30pm

____________________________

Art Club@Thornford for Adults

The Colour of Memory

Tuesdays 10am–12pm

Digby Hall, Hound Street. Proceeds to

ArtsLink Fizz! Art for Memory

No 1 Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

Sherborne sherborneartslink.org.uk

Village Hall. Free art class for people

Illustrated Lecture by Julian Halsby: Pierre Bonnard –

Sherborne ArtsLink & The Arts Society

The Camelot Room, Milborne Port

Tickets £9 from TIC 01935 815341

with early stage memory loss. 01935

DT9 6QE. £15 per session (tuition only) or £20 (materials inc). 07742 888302,

alicockrean@gmail.com or alicockrean.co.uk

____________________________

815899 sherborneartslink.org.uk

The Slipped Stitch Workshops

Science Café Talk:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays

Waterfalls & Warplanes

Watercolour Classes

theslippedstitch.co.uk

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd.

Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

sherborne.scafe@gmail.com

____________________________

____________________________ Wednesday 27th 7.30pm

History of cataract & treatment.

____________________________

Workshops & classes ____________________________

____________________________

Info: 07742 888302 alicockrean.co.uk Wednesdays 9.30am-10.30am & 10.45am-11.45am Gentle Yoga Flow

West Down Farm, Corton Denham

07983 100445 justbyoga@outlook.com

____________________________

1 Cheap Street. 01935 508249, Saturday 2nd 10am-4pm Turkish Drop Spindle Spinning

Saturday 9th 10am-12pm Sock Club!

Saturday 9th 10am-4pm Hand Embroidery for Beginners

Saturday 16th 2pm-4pm Social Saturday - Dream Catchers

Thursday 28th 6.30pm-8.30pm Entarlac Tunisian Crochet

____________________________ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 11

WHAT'S ON Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th

Thursdays & Saturdays

10am–4pm

Pannier Market

Sherborne Town FC

ArtsLink Workshop Pastel

The Parade

First XI Toolstation Western League

Keith Stott

Thursdays 9am-11.30am

Digby Hall, Hound Street. £89/£80

Country Market

5NS sherbornetownfc.com. 3pm start

815899 sherborneartslink.org.uk

Painting Weekend with

____________________________

____________________________

Division 1. Terrace Playing Fields, DT9

for Friends of ArtsLink. Book 01935

Church Hall, Digby Road

Saturday 2nd

____________________________

Devizes (H)

____________________________

Every third Friday 9am-1pm

Saturday 9th

Tuesday 12th

Farmers’ Market

Welton Rovers (A)

Bitesized Workshops for

Cheap Street

Saturday 16th

____________________________

Bishop Sutton (H)

Balsam Centre, Wincanton. Vision,

Every fourth Saturday, 9am-4pm

Saturday 23rd

goals, time, mindset. £15 per session,

Saturday Antiques & Flea Market

Devizes (A)

booking essential hello@yourtimecoaching

____________________________

____________________________

Church Hall, Digby Rd

____________________________

Saturday 16th or

Saturday 9th 10am-4pm

Sunday 17th 1pm-2pm

Sherborne Fleamarket

Mossy Hanging

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9

Small Business Owners

Snowdrop Workshop Market Place & Town Centre, Shepton Mallet. sheptonsnowdropfestival.org.uk

3NL. Antiques, crafts & collectors market.

Free. West Country Fairs 01749 677049

____________________________

____________________________

Saturday 16th 8.30am (trade)

Sunday 17th 1.30pm-4.30pm

9.30am (public) until 4pm

Sherborne Folk Band Workshop

Chasty Cottage Antiques

Sherborne RFC

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9

& Collectables Fair

First XV Southern Counties South.

instruments. info@sherbornefolkband.org

Entrance £1, 01963 370986

3NL. Suitable for all levels & all acoustic

Digby Hall, Hound St.

07527 508277 sherbornefolkband.org

____________________________

____________________________

The Terrace Playing Fields, DT9 5NS. sherbornerfc.rfu.club. 2.30pm start Saturday 9th

Friday 22nd 7pm

Sport

Sherborne Literary Society

____________________________

Saturday 16th

presents Matthew Sturgis -

Sundays 9am

Walcot (H)

Oscar Wilde

Digby Etape Cycling Club Ride

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall. Tickets £10

From Riley’s Cycles. 20-30 miles,

sherborneliterarysociety.com

bike recommended. FB Digby Etape

To include your event in our FREE

from Winstone’s, TIC & online

average 12-15 mph. Drop bar road

Thatcham (A)

Sherborne Cycling Club or 07443 490442

listings please email details – date/

____________________________

time/title/venue/description/price/

Bears & Hares Workshop

Tuesdays & Thursdays

contact (in approx 20 words) – by

Just Bears, Cheap St. £65 inc. all

7.30pm–8.30pm

the 5th of each preceding month to

Mixed Touch Rugby

gemma@homegrown-media.co.uk

____________________________

Sherborne School floodlit astroturf,

____________________________ Saturday 23rd 10am-4pm

materials, drinks & snacks. justbears.co.uk

Fairs & markets ____________________________ 12 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Ottery Lane DT9 6EE. Novices very

Due to the volume of events received

free. sherbornetouch.org 07887 800803

acknowledge or include them all.

welcome. £2 per session, first four sessions

we are regrettably unable to

ON FILM

‘L

Andy Hastie, Cinematheque

ovely film, a good choice.’ ‘Thank you Cinematheque, I haven’t enjoyed a film so much in ages.’ ‘Haven’t laughed so much all year. Thank you.’ ‘I laughed my chaussettes off !’ ‘Love your choice of films. We learn so much at Cinematheque!’

Not my words of course, rather a selection of written audience reactions to films shown earlier this season at Cinematheque.

Recently we were set a challenge. One of our long-time members requested a classic western for our programme, a genre we haven’t visited for at least twenty years. After much deliberation we came up with a gem: Sam Peckinpah’s second film, made in 1962, Ride the High Country. Ageing actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea are two exlawmen, literally brought out of retirement (this was just about the last film for them both), hired to transport gold from a remote mining camp to the nearest town’s bank.

The presence of these two weathered and graceful old men is surprisingly affecting, as Peckinpah handles direction and dialogue with intelligent nostalgia for the Western myth. This is turn of the century California however, with cars and uniformed lawmen beginning to appear as the passing of the old order, represented by the Scott and McCrea characters, inevitably arrives. The film, a charming mix of lively fun and occasional menace, is a tale of redemption and, as such, a view of America.

Come along as a guest and be surprised by this thoughtful and enjoyable film, showing on 20th March at the Swan Theatre, Yeovil. All details are on our website.

A reminder of our programme for this month: The Red Turtle on 6th February, and Faces, Places on the 20th. Hope to see you at The Swan. cinematheque.org.uk swan-theatre.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 13

PREVIEW In association with

Matilda Temperley: ‘A View From The Hill’ Until Saturday 1st June Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury BA6 8DB. srlm.org.uk Documentary and fashion photographer Matilda Temperley is turning her camera

towards home for a new commission to discover and document today’s Somerset. In this personal reflection Matilda will explore the people and places of her beloved

native county. Matilda has received this exciting new commission from the South

West Heritage Trust at Somerset Rural Life Museum, in Glastonbury, close to where

Matilda grew up and now lives. To coincide with the exhibition Matilda is publishing

a book of the photographs and stories behind the images. matildatemperley.com

evolver.org.uk

14 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

ARTIST AT WORK No. 4: Schubert’s 3rd Symphony, James Budden, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 50cm

I

n 2018 I was artist in residence for the 19th Sherborne Abbey Festival. This painting was ‘performed’ on the Saturday evening from the organ loft of the Abbey. Those in the audience who could see me in my little pool of light said it looked like I was conducting, a bit like an eccentric at the Last Night of the Proms.

The music was Schubert's Symphony No.3, an exuberant and lively piece, played with matching zeal by the Iuventus chamber orchestra. This was the finale of the evening. It was also my last chance to paint something.

I’d been wandering between events and rehearsals, producing seven drawings and pastels through the course of the day. I didn’t make it into the Abbey until the interval. I hauled the travel easel and canvas up the little spiral staircase, sat down, and closed my eyes.

Having worked as both a musician and a portrait artist, and being in the habit of carrying a sketchbook, drawing musicians is a familiar habit. A more elusive task is depicting the music itself. Although they share many elements such as harmony, contrast, rhythm and form, the images of art and the sounds of music are very different languages.

Thinking and planning doesn’t help. Forget rules and techniques. The only thing to do is listen, feel and react.

Nested in the vaulting of the Abbey, my synapses seemed to be realigned by the music. I got up and, as the conductor lifted his baton, I picked up my brush.

James Budden will be returning as artist in residence for this year’s Sherborne Abbey Festival. ‘Schubert’s 3rd Symphony’ is available for purchase, price £650 jamesbudden.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 15

FEBRUARY 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

HERE FOR GOOD

with Helen & David Aupperlee of Broadoak Coffee

bridporttimes.co.uk

OUT NOW

Available across Bridport and beyond Read online at bridporttimes.co.uk 16 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

L I F E S T Y 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

Brighter Bolder

and more

BEAUTIFUL than ever!

Come by and join us on 9th Feb to celebrate our new look!!!

Sherborne O1935 814O27

Dorchester O13O5 265223 sherbornetimes.co.uk | 17

Shopping Guide

Cake stand, £24.95 D'Urberville Homemade scones, from selection at Sanctuary Coffee House

Eden Mill Love Gin £28.95 Vineyard’s

Stripe and Stare knickers, £15 Circus

LOVED UP

Jenny Dickinson, Dear to Me Studio Find the perfect gift for the one you love this Valentine's with a little help from Sherborne’s independents. deartomestudio.com 18 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Je t’aime romper, £24 Miffy Rabbit, £17.95 both Circus

Fish bowl necklace, £20 Hello Silly

Hair clips £5 Ginger and Pickle

High school sweater, £39.99 Hello Silly

Oil painting, £60 Artichoke

Lavender heart, £20 Circus

Fix Up men’s baseball shirt, £24.95 The Sherborne Barber sherbornetimes.co.uk | 19

Wild Dorset

SPECIES OF THE MONTH Sally Welbourn, Dorset Wildlife Trust Communications Officer

C

an you remember the last time you saw a hedgehog? Or a robin? Have you seen them in the past but perhaps not recently? These are the kinds of questions that we at Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) need the answers to. And we’d like your help.

In 2015, DWT started a citizen science project, ‘Species of the Month’, asking the public to let us know when they had seen a certain species for each month of the year. Since then, not only have thousands of records flown in but also your anecdotes about wildlife experiences, with many of you sharing your delight from a regular or occasional wildlife visitor in your local patch or garden.

Recording and looking for both rare and common wildlife allows conservationists to monitor peaks and declines in wildlife populations. Something that’s abundant now might not be in 5 years’ time and these records could help identify trends to understand why this has happened. Wildlife doesn’t recognise boundaries – it goes anywhere there is habitat and food, so recording what’s in your garden or local green spaces is just as important as conservation teams recording which species are on nature reserves.

So, this year, can you ‘look out’ for wildlife? Past species we’ve been interested in finding out more about included the easily identifiable robin, brimstone, house sparrow 20 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

and hedgehog. If it’s something a little rarer, we’ll give you all the information you need to be able to identify it.

For February, we’re looking for records of Europe’s smallest bird, the Goldcrest. In March we’ll be looking for the bee-fly pollinator, to kick start our Get Dorset Buzzing campaign which we’ll tell you more about next month!

Visit our website to record your sightings and don’t forget to sign up to the e-newsletter so you can take part every month.

FACTS ABOUT GOLDCRESTS: • The male has a bright orange stripe on its head, edged with black, while the female has a yellow one.

• The goldcrest’s diet commonly consists of spiders, moth eggs and small insects.

• Many goldcrests migrate to Britain from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia to avoid the extremely cold winters.

• Weighing only 6g on average, the goldcrest is Europe’s smallest bird.

• They are widespread in the UK and can be found in woodland, towns and gardens.

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife

Go Wild Dorset’s places and wildlife need you. Join us today. www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST Photo © Katharine Davies

HUTS TO HUNKER DOWN IN plankbridge.com 01300 348414

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 21

Wild Dorset

PJ photography/Shutterstock

SHERBORNE DWT

S

Gillian M. Constable, Dorset Wildlife Trust Sherborne Group Committee Member

herborne DWT group’s February meeting is on Wednesday 20th in the Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road. Non-members are most welcome.

Doors open at 7.00pm, in time for conversation and, for a small contribution, a drink, with the talk starting at 7.30pm. Our speaker is Alex Butler from the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West and his talk is entitled, Farming and Wildlife – Compatible or Not? Alex works from the Dorchester office and is a farm conservation advisor, spending a substantial amount of time helping farming clients apply for the Countryside Stewardship scheme. He will talk about how the two might be successfully combined or not, with reference to particular wildlife species and habitats, the importance of farmland, and how much farmland conservation is incentivised and funded. By the time of our talk we might know what is happening with respect to our relationship with mainland Europe and the implications for farming.

For us, the Christmas to New Year period is a time spent looking to see which of our wildflowers are 22 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

currently in bloom. The one I like to see most is the winter heliotrope as it has a beautiful perfume. This year it has been in full flower during the period. I cannot remember seeing it so far forward locally in the last 20 years; usually the flowering spikes are still well hidden amongst the leaves in late December.

Last month I mentioned Marren’s book, Chasing the Ghost. The species he wrote most about, including a history of sightings, was the ghost orchid which defeated him. Another book published last year was Jon Dunn’s Orchid Summer in which he records his endeavours to see all of Britain’s orchids in one year.

He also failed to locate the ghost. It has not been seen in Britain since 2009. Some 25 years back we saw a ghost orchid (also a mummy bear and two cubs) on the southern edge of the Fagaras Mountains of Romania.

The nearest species to the ghost, in that it also lacks chlorophyll, to be found in Dorset is the bird’s nest orchid, see above. We located it on a DWT reserve. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

THE SEARCH FOR INCOME

Many of us invest to generate an income.

But in a world of lower investment returns, how do you create the right long-term plan that balances your income needs with the risks you are prepared to take?

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.

For more information about investing for income, contact:

PETER HARDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT Principal Partner Practice of St. James’s Place Wealth Management Email: peterhardingwm@sjpp.co.uk Web: www.peterhardingwm.co.uk 40 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8JG 9 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3PU

Tel: 01747 855554 Tel: 01935 315315

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 title ‘Partner Practice’ is the marketing term used to describe St. James’s Place representatives.

Peter Harding Wealth Management is a trading name of Peter Harding Practice Ltd. H2SJP25277 03/17

@elizabethwatsonillustrations 24 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Pre-Prep

Snapshot TUESDAY 5TH MARCH 2019

Morning

09.30am – 11.00am A fantastic opportunity for families to see a ‘snapshot’ of a school day in action.

Join a group tour of the Pre-Prep & Prep department and informal Q&A session.

For information & bookings please contact, Charlotte Carty

01935 810911 or admissions@sherborneprep.org

www.sherborneprep.org

A N I L L U S T R AT E D JOURNAL OF N AT U R E W R I T I N G

‘It’s as beautiful an object as anything on the market... a labour of love, and lovely in itself.

Sam Leith Literary Editor, The Spectator

AVAILABLE FROM WINSTONE’S BOOKS OR ORDER ONLINE

EL EMENTU MJ O U R NAL .CO M sherbornetimes.co.uk | 25

UNEARTHED Alex Jones, Aged 12 Sherborne Prep

E

ven as a toddler, banging wooden spoons and shaking the maracas, Alex’s enjoyment of percussion was clear to see. With music in the family, (Alex’s Dad is a trumpet teacher) it was perhaps inevitable that Alex would be musical; however, he has carved his own niche and has developed a huge talent for drumming. With support from his parents, hard work and determination, he has become an exceptional drummer for his age. Alex has already sped through the grades, achieving a distinction at Grade 7 and currently working towards his Grade 8. However, Alex only got his own drum kit just two days before this interview. To begin with, the only way Alex could practice his drumming at home was to cut out circles of paper, label them and tap each one according to the musical piece. What incredible initiative and dedication this shows.

When asked what he enjoys most about drumming, Alex replies, ‘I love the challenge.’ With that mindset, Alex is sure to go a long way in life and has already been auditioning for the West End School of Rock. ‘Alex has the skills and amazing talent to aim for the lights of London!’ says Yvonne Fawbert, Director of Music at Sherborne Prep. ‘He is at his happiest when he is playing the drums and it is wonderful to see him developing into a mature and expressive musician.’ Intelligent and determined, Alex recognises that he must also extend his ambitions beyond the world of music and, when asked about his future, Alex confidently states he has his sights set on becoming a heart surgeon, prompting his parents to aptly nickname him ‘The Drumming Heart Surgeon’! After meeting Alex, we can see this nickname could well become the reality. sherborneprep.org

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

26 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Family

Children’s Book Review Wayne Winstone, Winstone’s Books

The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay (Pan Macmillan, 2018), Age 9+, RRP £6.99 Sherborne Times Reader Price of £5.99 from Winstone’s Books

‘The best children’s book I’ve read this year.’ Katherine Rundell, Author

H

ilary McKay’s latest novel, The Skylarks’ War, deservedly won the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2018. This is a highly readable, beautifully imagined story of a girl coming of age during the devastation of World War I. Clarry’s mother has died in childbirth and she and her older brother are largely ignored by their grief-stricken, single-parent father. They find solace in spending their summers in glorious freedom in Cornwall at their grandparents’ house, where wonderfully charismatic and free-spirited cousin Rupert rules the roost. But when the First World War breaks out, family

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

and friendships are wrenched apart and the Skylark summers seem a thing of the distant past.

Hilary McKay has a wonderful gift for writing. Her characters are fully rounded, developed people you want to stay with long after the last page is turned. Clarry reads like a warm, self-sacrificing young woman, Rupert is exactly the heroic soldier she would fall for, and Clarry’s brother Peter is a complicated, sensitive sort – he heart-wrenchingly jumps from a moving train to avoid boarding school and damages his leg, with only the reader fully aware of the consequences of his actions, knowing that war will erupt a few years later. winstonebooks.co.uk

Discover the 2018 award-winning Hilary McKay

Family

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE LEARNING TO DRIVE

I

Millie Neville-Jones

n order to ‘survive’ my gap year, gain my independence and be able to get out of my village to reach civilisation, I had to learn to drive.

Little did I know that learning to drive would be much more of a long haul than I had at first anticipated. In Years 12 and 13, driving was the ‘craze’. Most days you would hear these questions: ‘Are you learning to drive?’ ‘Who are you learning with?’ and, of course, ‘How much do your driving lessons cost?’ When I heard that one boy had passed in 2 months, had already got a car, i.e. freedom, I thought to myself, ‘Well, this should be easy!’ They do say ignorance is bliss!

As friends began learning to drive, my competitive nature reared its head and I booked my own lessons with an instructor. The lessons themselves were quite the experience - stalling at every possible moment, remembering (or not) to look in the blind spots before doing pretty much anything, learning the dreaded parallel park. Numerous times the instructor had to grab the wheel as I was blissfully unaware that I was merging into a lane I had not indicated for (I am sure this is not just me). Everyone would come back from lessons with stories; some were funny and with others, well, I decided I wouldn’t be getting in their car anytime soon!

When you have had a certain number of lessons, you are advised to insure a car at home.

This is much easier said than done. It means driving with one of your parents in the car - I am sure if you have learnt/are learning you can relate to this. I have memories of my parents putting their foot out as if to brake (whilst sitting in the passenger seat with no brake pedal!), saying many times, ‘Millie you’re VERY close to those parked cars’, and trying their hardest to stay calm as I stalled 5 times in front of a queue of traffic at the traffic lights.

Over the course of a few (or many) months, my friends began to pass. We all had big plans: we could go to places… outside Dorset! What people fail to tell you about is petrol money.

Sometimes, if you wanted a lift, you had to pay up. Over Christmas one year, we had all planned to go out for a nice meal and thought Dorchester was a good place to head to. However, we were going to be charged £5 each for the journeys. Safe to say it caused dispute and instead, we got a lift with our parents into Yeovil - sad but true and there was no petrol money involved.

Luck was on my side and I passed my driving test first time. If you are starting to learn, I hope this sheds some light onto what is one of the most eventful, fun and invaluable experiences you will have. Oh, and if you’d like a lift… petrol money?

28 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

The Joinery Works, Alweston Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5HS Tel: 01963 23219 Fax: 01963 23053 Email: info@fcuffandsons.co.uk

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DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF BEAUTIFUL FINE BESPOKE JOINERY SINCE 1897

Family

TIME TO WONDER Lucy Allen, Head of DT, Sherborne Prep School

Space Cadets Are you a space cadet? Interested in finding out more about what’s going on in space? Where is Elon Musk’s Tesla now? What is happening on the ISS? What rocket launches are taking place? Open to all.

T

his ‘advert’ for Space Cadets was placed on the list of available activities for the pupils of Sherborne Prep to choose from, as part of the school’s Saturday morning activities programme. Free from the constraints of a curriculum, we would be able to explore the solar system and beyond. Who would sign up? Where would we go?

30 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

From a young age, children show a fascination in the world around them. Their ability to wonder and ask questions, to which we don’t always have the answers, is magical. As children get older, this wonder can be overtaken by their desire for knowledge and facts. I wonder if this is simply a natural development or a product of school lives experienced with testing and assessment, reinforcing learning as the acquisition of knowledge. Is there time left to value and sustain children’s curiosity? And adults? Do we still have time to wonder?

Technology is changing the world at an incredible speed. The need to encourage more of our children to

Image: Katharine Davies

"Children will absolutely need to be curious, be able to solve problems and have a willingness to go into the unknown"

consider careers in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) is evident. National initiatives to tackle this shortage provide resources, activities, challenges and competitions to supplement the teaching of these subjects in schools – to whet children’s appetites, deliver exciting and memorable lessons and learning opportunities. In 2016/17, the school took part in the Tim Peake Primary Project, with an expert Space Ambassador delivering workshops linking science to all aspects of space and life as an astronaut, in addition to all teachers planning space-themed lessons. But the media and parents also have a role to play in how such subjects and careers are viewed. Children will absolutely need to be curious, be able to solve problems and have a willingness to go into the unknown for such careers.

So what did the ‘Space Cadets’ explore? The Parker Solar Probe on its mission to ‘touch the Sun’, the science behind a successful landing on Mars, and catching up with Voyager 1 and 2, now outside the heliosphere, with their gold discs and 1970s technology.

At the start of a video we found this quote from James Irwin, an Apollo 15 astronaut: “As we got farther and farther away, the Earth diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine....

Seeing this has to change a man.”

This view of our planet surrounded by space, captured by the Apollo missions, became a symbol for the environmental movement, depicting Earth's frailty and vulnerability. Reproduced so widely since then, this ‘Blue Marble’ photograph may have lost this original impact but the video went on to show a scale model of the solar system being laid out in the desert “with Earth the size of a marble, you need 7 miles of empty space …”

Could we create our own scale model? In Sherborne?

Virtually… We centred our solar system around the Abbey, plotting out the orbits from there. The inner planets, represented by 3 small beads and the marble, occupy all the space between the Yeatman and Pageant Gardens, Jupiter the largest planet, then Saturn, (a ballcock float) would be found out beyond The Gryphon School, Uranus then finally Neptune, little bigger than a golf ball, would be orbitting beyond Milborne Port.

And what about the Sun? At the centre of it all, the Sun would be a 1.5m balloon on the top of the Abbey.

We are on a marble floating in the middle of nothing.

It’s staggering and surely must make us all wonder? sherborneprep.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 31

Family

KIND WORDS

Rebecca de Pelet, Head of English, Sherborne School

F

ebruary is not my favourite month. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that my eldest child was born in February, it would definitely be my least favourite month; festive cheer has died and the joys of Spring are far away. What is left is a long, sludgy stretch of time, with weather my mother describes as like being trapped under a grey blanket. And not in a good way.

After feeding my infant daughter during those cold February nights, I would often lie awake reading, in case she stirred. In that state of first-time maternal anxiety, I craved the stories from my childhood that evoked kindly worlds of warmth. A favourite was The Wind in the Willows. Despite being more like Toad myself, I have always enjoyed Mole and his frenzied joy at the whiff, first of adventure and then later, of the home he hasn’t visited for too long. Whilst the pages of my old copy kept falling out and the print was really small (did people have better eyesight in the ‘70s?), the tale soothed my fears for my tiny, sleeping companion.

Thinking again this February about other books which make me feel better, I have come up with the following:

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith I don’t remember how I came to this novel, but it has never left me. Its opening line, “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink”, launches the reader into a world of a financially-impoverished but artistically-rich family, living by candlelight in a crumbling pile. There is a writer who cannot write, his wife who dances naked in the rain and his two daughters, the narrator and her beautiful sister who is desperate to escape privations of their home. The novel’s setting is exquisitely evoked and the family’s progress towards the magic of Midsummer’s Eve is utterly absorbing. The arrival of a pair of exotic, American brothers acts as an unexpected catalyst to the family’s and the choices the sisters must make feel important even now. I recently gave a copy as a christening gift, with strict instructions for it to stay wrapped until the recipient’s 13th birthday when they 32 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

will be ripe for its teaching. Ignore the novel’s frequent mis-shelving in the children’s section: this is a novel for us all.

Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim I found this novel in a charity shop having been drawn to its beautiful cover. I was emerging from depression and this book became part of my recovery, with its evocation of the Italian countryside which heals the characters’ hurts, in ways which evoke Adrienne Rich’s poem where moonlight soaks through cracks… as if to make amends. There is ironic humour of a delicious kind here, but it is the power of the setting which wins the reader over; indeed colour and scent and an abundance in nature threaten to overwhelm the plot. It has since become a book I give to friends who are grieving

Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

or struggling to believe that a tired marriage can be brought back to life or who simply need hope.

Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels I first read this novel a long time ago and now the specifics of the plot elude me. What has remained is the exquisite tenderness of its prose, so close to poetry that the boundary is blurred. Jakob, a seven-year-old Jewish child in Poland has survived by hiding in the wild until he is found after the war by Athos, a Greek archaeologist. The novel is a triumph of the writer’s craft, with switches in perspective and time bringing depth. Nothing is there for show however and the text enacts a belief in the importance of establishing the narratives of our personal and national lives. The telling of such truths remains a vital human act; and

for real stories of hope springing from horror, try local author Rory Maclean’s Beneath the Carob Trees; the Lost Lives of Cyprus.

Last weekend, I came across a review of the recent biography of Kenneth Grahame and was sad to learn of the misery of much of his life. However, I learned that he found solace in writing The Wind in the Willows and for that I am glad, and grateful. Stay hopeful, however dark it seems this February.

For more examples of bibliotherapy, get hold of the excellent ‘The Novel Cure: an A to Z of Literary Remedies’ by Susan Elderkin and Ella Berthoud (a recommendation from The Sherborne Literary Society). sherborne.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33

Advertisement

DOCTOR’S REFERRAL BOOSTS NEW-BUILD SALES AT DREAM DORSET LOCATION

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Art

OFF THE EASEL Laurence Belbin, Artist

For this, my first article of 2019, I am referring back to a demonstration I did towards the end of last year at The Old School Gallery in Yetminster.

A

s the majority of my work is produced outside in front of my subject, I find demonstrations quite taxing - I refrain from using the word stressful as I don’t find them that bad. The main difficulty is recreating the atmosphere of the subject in one’s head before beginning to paint.

I arrive in good time and set up my easel and other equipment so that everything is to hand as and when I need it. As people arrive and settle down, moving chairs around to get a good view, I am found in my own little bubble, standing back from my blank canvas staring at the ‘nothingness’ of it and trying to conjure up the required image using sketches and my memory. I need this little bit of time. It sounds as though I don’t prepare beforehand but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

For this demonstration, ‘Painting the Jurassic

36 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Coast’, I made several trips to the area and not only sketched but painted too. I had the material but what I didn’t have was the wind in my face, the moving cloud shadows and everything else one gets from being out there, doing it for real.

When I can see the marks on the canvas before I’ve even picked up a brush, I feel I am ready to begin.

Waiting for the chatter to die down I’m eager to start while I have the feeling in me.

With a loaded brush I begin to rough out the main compositional lines. Slowly at first then more confidently, I swing from one side to the other working on the whole, making marks - some small, others sweeping. I ‘scribble and scuff ’, slowly establishing blocks of colour and tone. At this stage it’s all still fluid. I’m just getting the feel of the place again, bringing back what I felt during my research.

Within a short time I have set the location, the rough time of day, all my major shadows and tonal values. This is how I work outside so that, should the weather force me to pack up, I have enough to work on back in the studio.

Now I flit from sky to sea to land and back again, bringing it all up together, adjusting colours and tones and restating lines as needed along the way. The initial lines and blocks that everyone could relate to begin to alter and merge, perhaps a difficult time of the evening.

There is a stage when it looks a complete mess and anyone who isn’t a painter could easily think, ‘he’s lost the plot.’

As the evening progresses the silence behind me can be nerve-racking! Is it because what they see has left them wondering what on earth they have come for? Or, is it because I have their full attention and the picture has suddenly come alive, emerged from that

nothingness? Slowly, with my back still to the big silence, I ask how it is looking from back there. I then turn and stride to the back of the room and view it myself, really hoping it’s working. The sense of well-being I get as I receive a general murmur of approval is like sipping a fine single malt whisky! I work on it a little more but am very aware of not fiddling. I decide to stop.

A demo is usually only a couple of hours or so and, as I am answering questions and giving a kind of commentary throughout, it is inevitable that some areas will need working on later. Very rarely are major changes required but I am prepared to make them if needed.

It was a good evening and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I’ve still a little more to do on what you see here. laurencebelbin.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 37

Art

Pierre Bonnard, Coffee (Le Café) 1915, Oil on Canvas 730mm x 1064 mm. Tate

PIERRE BONNARD – THE COLOUR OF MEMORY TATE MODERN, 23RD JANUARY TO 6TH MAY

P

Julian Halsby

ierre Bonnard is one of the most misunderstood artists of the 20th century. To many he was simply a late Impressionist and not an innovator.

Roger Fry did not include Bonnard in his major Post-Impressionist exhibitions at the Grafton Gallery in London in 1910-12 as he did not consider him an original spirit, while Picasso accused him of indecision: ‘When Bonnard paints a sky he first paints it blue, more or less the way it looks. Then he looks a little longer and sees some mauve in it, so he adds a touch or two of mauve, just to hedge. Then he decides that maybe it’s a little pink too, so there’s no reason not to add some pink.

The result is a potpourri of indecision.’

Even today many people see his work as ‘charming’ late Impressionism, and indeed his wonderfully colourful paintings of the South of France radiate heat and pleasure.

Behind this superficial beauty, however, lies a highly complex and often introverted artist for whom both life and art presented many challenges. As Bonnard once noted in his diary, ‘He who sings is not always happy’.

38 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Born in 1867, Bonnard studied at the Académie Julian in Paris where he met the young artists who were working with Gauguin in Pont Aven. Bonnard was captivated by the idea of flat perspective and overall decorative composition and eagerly joined the group of progressive young painters called The Nabis.

He found success with his decorative views of Parisian life and had his first one-man show with Durand-Ruel at the age of 29. He also forged his lifelong friendship with the painter Édouard Vuillard.

Moving away from Paris, he bought a house near Giverny in 1912 and began painting views of the Seine in a broadly Impressionist manner. However, a visit to St Tropez to see Paul Signac enthused him for the light and colour of the south of France and in 1926 he bought a modest house above Cannes where he lived until his death.

Bonnard met Marthe Boursin, a shop assistant, in 1893 and she became his model, muse and eventually, in 1925, his wife. Insecure, jealous and obsessed with

Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath (Nu dans le Bain) 1936-8, Oil on canvas 930mm x 1470 mm. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/Roger-Viollet

washing, Marthe made life difficult for Bonnard, who could not in fact live without her. He painted her time and time again: in the bathroom, often in the bath; at the breakfast table; reading or sewing. He often includes bits of himself - a leg, a foot, a hand - in these pictures.

The very modest interiors of his house above Cannes, in particular the bathroom, are transformed into a palace of glowing colours. Beneath this seemingly ordered life ran deeper passions. In 1920 he attempted to break away from Marthe, conducting an affair with a young student, Renee Monchaty. When he finally decided to return to Marthe, ‘Chaty’ shot herself.

Many of Bonnard’s pictures display multiple viewpoints rather than traditional perspective. He makes the difference between a superficial view and what actually exists. ‘I want to show the difference between what one sees on first entering a room, what the eye takes in at one glance. One sees everything, and at the same time nothing.’ He often places the subjects of his paintings around the edges of the picture leaving a void in the middle such that the real subject of the picture is space rather than physical objects.

Picasso noticed the way in which Bonnard plays with colour, retouching, modulating and revising – very different from Picasso’s bold slabs of colour. Hesitancy is at the centre of Bonnard’s work; you can feel him slowly drawing a picture to its conclusion. He painted

directly onto unstretched canvas fixed to a wall, so that he could cut out areas and rework. Collectors who lent their Bonnards to his major exhibitions would often find them reworked on their return! He made indecision part of his art, avoiding self-confident assertion and superficial observation. Yet, despite this indecision and informal brushwork, Bonnard could work on a monumental scale as well as on small canvases.

Maybe one of the signs of a really great artist is one who continues to develop throughout his life, as did, for example, Monet and Titian. Bonnard falls into this category as his work continues to develop, his later work becoming an inspiration for several abstract painters.

His contemporary Maurice Denis wrote, ‘One never grows tired of seeing paintings by Bonnard. Nor does one ever grow tired of discussing them. He charms, he disconcerts, he scandalises. Sometimes his painting gives itself up unreservedly to our pleasure; sometimes it clams up and resists public interpretation; it is sometimes naïve, sometimes complex, sometimes argumentative.'

To coincide with the major Bonnard exhibition at Tate Modern (23rd January to 6th May 2019), Julian Halsby is giving a lecture, 'Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory', on Wednesday 27th February at 7.30pm in the Digby Hall.

The lecture is sponsored by The Art Society Sherborne and Sherborne Artslink. Tickets £9 from Sherborne Tourist Office. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 39

History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

THE BOTANICAL ART COLLECTION

I

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

n common with many enterprising women of the Victorian/Edwardian era whose achievements have been subject to a combination of neglect and dismissal, the life and work of botanical artist Diana Ruth Wilson (1886-1969) has been sadly overlooked. Until recently, a collection of 200 of her watercolours of West Dorset flora, of which this pleasing arrangement of winter twigs is part, had remained a ‘hidden gem’ at Sherborne Museum, where scant information had been discovered about the paintings’ provenance or significance. The curator’s research in the last few years, however, has revealed a fascinating story that highlights Diana’s rightful place in the history of botanical art.

Diana was born in 1886, daughter of Thomas Ward Wilson, a schoolmaster at the King’s School, and his Canadian wife Augusta Louisa Jervis, at The Green, formerly The Angel Inn. She and her siblings learned to ride, swim, ski, skate and sail, were educated locally and played a prominent part in the town’s life. In particular, Diana was influenced by her father’s love of natural history and the beauty of the local landscape, later writing letters describing how she, ‘walked and rode a pony through all that lovely countryside’. Encouraged by Miss Moore, deputy headmistress at Sherborne Girls’ and a family friend, Littleton Powys, at the age of 16 she started an astonishing series of botanical watercolours.

Although she had little formal training, the paintings are notable for their naturalistic colour, sensitivity to detail and their lively placement on the page. Unusually for expectations of women’s art at the time, Diana went beyond the merely aesthetic and aimed for a direct experience of nature, working confidently in the open air without the initial use of pencil and unafraid of showing withering, decay or insect damage, or indeed the reproductive parts of plants, something that still offended contemporary moral sensibilities. She would often paint both the flowering and fruiting form of the plant, recording common and Latin names as well as the date and location, and many drawings were accompanied by floral dissections.

The collection spans the years 1902-1914 and includes 17 orchid species then found in the locality of Sherborne. Diana continued the series when her family relocated to Uploders House near Bridport after her father retired. The collection is significant because it provides a valuable environmental record of West Dorset flora at the turn of the twentieth century before intensive agricultural practices, particularly during WWII, caused many of these wild flowers to become rare, or even extinct.

In 1914 Diana married a biology lecturer and botanist, Philip Furley Fyson, and travelled with him to Madras (Chennai) where he held a teaching position at the Presidency College. Despite illness and five pregnancies, she produced over half the drawings for a seminal text: the first comprehensive illustrated flora of the southern Indian hill-stations and the surrounding shola forests of the Nilgiri and Palni Hills. The Fysons are still respected there for their pioneering work, their forward-looking ideas on conservation and their studies of biodiversity in the field, opening up the way for scientific exploration of the Western Ghats.

The Museum is currently on winter opening times, Tuesday & Thursday 10.30am – 12.30pm. Admission is free but donations are welcomed. sherbornemuseum.co.uk

40 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 41

History

FAMILY HISTORY AND BEYOND

T

Barbara Elsmore, Somerset and Dorset Family History Society

he Somerset and Dorset Family History Society was based in Sherborne for around twenty years until, at the end of 2017 and in order to secure smaller, more efficient premises for our research facilities and library, we hopped across the border into our sister county. We are now based at Broadway House, Peter Street, Yeovil. Although the society has extensive records for Somerset and Dorset, information and knowledge can be shared when researching past family members who may have lived in other parts of the country or even left these shores altogether.

Not wishing to sever ties with all the friends we have made in Sherborne over the years, and also hoping to make new ones, we are maintaining a continuing presence here via a series of talks to be held in the Raleigh Hall on Saturdays at 2.30pm. The topics will be related to local or family history, with a special emphasis on people’s lives. If you are interested in your own family history or just local history, we hope you will join us at one or more of these events.

Our talks cover a variety of topics: Roger Marsh tells stories of the establishment and running of the early railways in the area; Robin Ansell shares his extensive knowledge of the history of photography and also the American Civil War; and Barry Brock expands on how to research the history of your house and also the history of pubs and brewing in Sherborne.

Researching your own personal family history can become an all-absorbing interest. You start with yourself and work backwards in time with what you know, what other family members can tell you and then what you can find out through research, and you begin to create your own family tree. Many people find this process so fascinating that they continue to record accurately more and more past family members until they build a large and usually complex family tree. Others find that pausing and examining more closely the lives of former members is equally rewarding as this is where a true picture of your own family history can be revealed. Where did they live? What did they do? How did the social situation of the time affect their lives? Perhaps joining a local Family History Society where you meet with others doing the same sort of research may be of benefit to you? You may have begun a tree in the past and become stuck at a certain point and given up the search - maybe others could help you get going again. We will not have all the answers but perhaps suggestions can be made and solutions found by putting our heads together.

For more information including opening hours at Broadway House and further information on the Sherborne talks please visit our website. sdfhs.org

42 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

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History

LOST ROADS & TRACKS Part III

H

Cindy Chant, Sherborne Blue Badge Guide

aving set the scene with my preambles on old roads, it’s now time for some detail of the roads in and out of Sherborne. I want to devote this month to that very ancient route from London through to Exeter, concentrating on the section relevant to us here in Sherborne: the part from Shaftesbury to Sherborne and Yeovil (or Ivel as it was then known).

There is no firm evidence of an old route before 1300 - no Roman track has been listed between Salisbury and the Fosse Way which might have been the route through to Roman Ilchester. When it became the route through to Exeter can only be guessed. I have consulted two very old maps: Gough, 1360 and Ogilby 44 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

1675. Ogilby produced a map showing the ancient route from Salisbury through Shaftesbury, Sherborne, (Yeovil was not yet a town of sufficient importance to be on the main route) Chard and Exeter, then following the coastline through to Plymouth and Penzance. It became recognised as one of the chief routes from London to the West and is known to us all nowadays as the A30.

Several writers from those early days have described what they saw, or what they suffered, whilst travelling around the country. Conditions then could not have been greatly different from what they had been in Saxon times.

Daniel Defoe, in writing of his experiences, describes Shaftesbury as, ‘a sorry town, on a high hill, quite

destitute of water, which is brought to the town on horses or donkeys from the foot of the hill’. The town was a huge centre of pilgrimage to the tomb of the murdered Saxon King, Edward the Martyr. Numerous excavations have taken place in Shaftesbury and, in the 1930’s, a lead coffin containing what may have been his bones was found.

These are now resting in a shrine in a Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Brookwood in Surrey. So here is the clue that the line of the road westwards to Sherborne existed in Saxon times. In road history, the road from Shaftesbury to Yeovil via Sherborne is very interesting.

Shaftesbury and Sherborne form a pair and have a status all of their own, as both towns were large religious centres. Shaftesbury, being a major mediaeval town, has more roads leading out of it than any other town in Dorset. It is probably true to say that there is nowhere else in the country where the Dissolution of the Monasteries hurt as much and, as a consequence, Shaftesbury fell from being one of the richest religious centres in the land (due to the enormous Nunnery there, to which pilgrims came from all over Christendom) to the status of an impoverished market town. It was kept alive only by its geographical location on that great ancient western route, which then gave it back its importance as a ‘Post Town’ in the coaching days that were soon to follow. This change of fortune must have been felt equally by all the roads that served the town, although even today there is no direct route from Shaftesbury to Dorchester, Dorset’s county town.

In Ogilby’s day the road between Shaftesbury and Sherborne was the subject of one of the earliest Acts of Parliament concerned with the ‘Betterment of Roads’. A stone-paved stretch of 12 miles known as the Sherborne Causeway was constructed, sometimes known now as Five Bridges. Ogilby’s map shows the main road to the south of Shaftesbury would have been from the Grosvenor Hotel, still in situ, down the very steep Tout Hill, around Castle Hill, and along south of Duncliffe Hill. The map also shows that the Sherborne Causeway is used but the link from Shaftesbury going across to the Causeway came later.

Gough’s map shows the road going south of East Stour by the old river crossing at Stour Provost Mill.

It continued and entered Stalbridge near to the church, continuing west (to what became the park), by what is now a path, to a point on the Copse House Farm road.

From Copse House Farm the line has now disappeared, but it is indicated clearly enough by a series of footpaths.

Some of these follow a parish boundary, going straight

through Purse Caundle to the top of Hanover Hill where various tracks through the woods lead down to Goathill, from which point the road would have continued into Sherborne by Pinford Lane. Pinford Lane is still recognised as the old London road from Sherborne.

Pinford Lane runs north of the Castle and is where, in the late 1500’s, Walter Ralegh had his ‘electric light bulb’ experience, falling in love or lust with the Old Castle which at the time was a magnificent building still in use by the bishops for ceremonial duties. Ralegh fell from his horse in his excitement and his older stepbrother, Adrian Gilbert, stopped to pick him up. Being a man who dabbled in the occult, Adrian assured Walter that falling into the Sherborne mud meant possession, not misfortune! How right he was: Ralegh eventually became the owner of the castle.

Another road on Ogilby’s map shows that from the Causeway it is all very much as it is today but with two noticeable deviations. Just before Milborne Port, Ogilby’s road takes a more northerly course. From Toomer Hill at Henstridge the road takes a right turn and follows the track to Gospel Ash Farm. It then goes down to where Venn House is now, through the village, turning left where Crackmoor Garage currently is and picking up Pinford Lane and so into Sherborne at Castleton.

On turning right at Crackmore and up to Gainsborough, the road takes a left down the hill into Oborne. Crackmore as we know it today and the nasty bends did not exist then. That was a later Victorian addition. Oborne was a much larger settlement with many tracks, one of those being the Underdown Path, which came out at Blackmarsh Farm then followed through to Castleton. Here it branched: one path continued along Newland and St Swithins (as it was sometimes known), up to ‘La Grene’ and on to the west while the other went from Castleton around to the south towards Dorchester. This road followed the present drive over Denny Bridge, around the east side of the New Castle stables, up the slope and past Home Farm before swinging south again up Gainsborough Hill, then past the Bishops Gallows to cross the present Bishops Caundle road (A3030). More on this fascinating road in a future edition when I will give details of the Sherborne to Dorchester road.

Next month I will discuss ‘La Grene’ and the road running west to Yeovil and beyond. sherbornewalks.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 45

Antiques

1936 Austin 10-4 Colwyn cabriolet £9,000-£11,000

TORTOISE OR THE HARE?

A

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

esop’s fable of the hare and the tortoise is one that most people know. The super-fast hare ridicules the terribly slow tortoise. In a race between the two of them, the hare sprints away from the tortoise. The hare is so confident of winning he stops to take a break and, when he awakens, is horrified to see the tortoise has slowly, but surely, crawled past him to win the race.

On paper, the race between the two should have been simple, rather like the two cars we have going under the hammer on Sunday 10th February. One car is a tortoise and the other a hare. In the same way that the hare and the tortoise are similar – they are both animals with a body, brain and legs – the two cars are also similar – they both have an engine, two doors and four wheels. That, however, is where the similarities stop. One car is a blue 1936 Austin 10-4 Colwyn cabriolet, and the other is a yellow 2013 Ultima GTR. The Austin Colwyn cabriolet is a rare little car. It oozes pre-war charm and, when new, was described by a motoring journalist from The Times as having a ‘30-35mph effortless cruising rate with hitting over 50mph needing distance and persuasion.’ The car evokes a simpler way of life and less hectic period in time, taking it out for a Sunday drive and a picnic on long hot summer days.

And then there is the Ultima GTR. Yes, you might take it out for a Sunday drive, taking care to avoid potholes and sleeping policemen traffic calming measures as the car is so low, but there might not be a picnic involved. You are probably more likely to drive it to a race track for a good thrashing.

46 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

2013 Ultima GTR £50,000-£55,000

The Austin, with its 1,125cc 4-cylinder engine, was never going to win any speed trials. The Ultima, on the other hand, with its 5,000cc V8 engine, purchased directly from Mercedes-Benz, is set up purely for speed - just like the hare in the tale. This GTR was constructed over a number of years by its owner who is a retired engineering lecturer. With distinctive gullwing doors fitted to its aerodynamic body, it is suspected to have a top speed of nearly four times the Austin, at about 200mph, and a 0-60mph time estimated to be just a couple of seconds - something which the Austin was not designed to do or was ever able to achieve! However, just like the tortoise winning the race against the hare, I think the Austin also beats the Ultima as the car to go in my garage.

Since the Ultima GTR was completed in 2013, it has been driven an average of just 66 miles a year. In comparison, the Austin 10-4 Colwyn cabriolet has covered a more respectable mileage of over 91,000 over the past 83 years, giving it an average of over 1,000 miles annually.

So, the slower Austin might not be able to pull the skin off a rice pudding but, on smiles per miles and family fun, it gets my vote. It might get Mrs B’s vote too as it is estimated to sell for £9,000£11,000 against the Ultima GTR which is estimated at £50,000-£55,000 (about two thirds of its build cost) when they both go under the hammer at our classic and vintage car auction this month. charterhouse-auction.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 47

CHARTERHOUSE Au ctioneers & Valu ers We are now accepting entries for our forthcoming auctions: Classic & Vintage Cars Sunday 10th February Silver, Jewellery, Watches & Wine Thursday 14th February Selection of wine in our February two day auction

Antiques & Interiors Friday 15th February Coins, Medals, Stamps & Models Friday 15th March

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

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Interiors

IKAT

Osborne & Little

I

kat, (pronounced ‘ee-cat’) comes from the Malaysian word ‘mengikat’ which means to ‘tie or bind’. Ikat is really popular today, and works wonderfully in both modern and traditional interiors, helping to give a bohemian, eclectic feel.

This ancient art of weaving is believed to have been developed simultaneously and independently in different parts of the world, ranging from South East Asia to South America and the Middle East. The tradition is to dye the threads before they are woven. Once the yarns have been dyed and dried, the weaver lines them up on a loom to form the pattern. The design then takes shape as it is woven into the cloth. This process is incredibly complex and intricate, and a good ikat pattern really is a piece of art.

As a result, within the cultures that produced them, ikats were expensive and considered status symbols owing to the immense skill and time involved in producing them.

Today we refer to ikat in a general way, to describe not only the actual technique but any pattern that resembles the original ikat woven style. Many fabric companies have adapted this style but in a printed 52 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Kitty Oakshott, Upstairs Downstairs Interiors

format to make them more affordable. Today, the patterns are fresh and bold, fashionable and modern but with an ancient feel.

Ikats are a great way to add a bit of fun to any room and, as they are often bright and colourful, just a statement chair, a lampshade or some cushions is all it takes to update the room. Old ikat saris look beautiful made into pleated lampshades. If you are feeling bolder, how about a headboard to really make a feature of this design? Ikats are particularly mesmerising as they have a blurred effect, so keep the rest of the room calm and subtle such that the ikat jumps out and provides that little extra magic to a scheme.

Ikats are instantly recognisable; they also look great as wall hangings, made into bed covers, or as wallpaper!

Why not use it as a statement in the downstairs loo or hallway? Watch out though, as ikats can become addictive - once you start using it in your home, you might get carried away! updowninteriors.co.uk

Images: Colefax & Fowler sherbornetimes.co.uk | 53

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Gardening

SENDING THE RIGHT MESSAGE Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

Zamurovic Photography/Shutterstock

58 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

O

n a chilly wet day, it’s difficult to think of February as being the month of love, but of course Valentine’s Day is right in the middle of the month. It’s very important to think carefully about what gift should be given - and to whom. For example, I have always seen chocolates as a very obvious and clumsy Valentine’s gift, whereas the giving of a plant offers a more sophisticated message.

Some new varieties give a fairly obvious message. Begonia Million Kisses, a beautiful floriferous hanging basket or tub plant, gives a big clue to one’s intentions. Skimmia Obsession too, with its flowers through the winter and early spring scent plus red berries, is also bound to get the message home!

Much subtler are the meanings that Victorians gave to individual plants, some of which date much further back into pagan times. With careful planning and selection these can be used to get exactly the right message across - but get it wrong and someone may get completely the wrong impression!

To give someone a gardenia with its beautiful scented white flowers and glossy foliage would be sending the message, ‘You’re lovely’ and it’s also associated with secret love. The gift of a honeysuckle, which should have a place in any garden, would suggest a generous and devoted affection, whereas more care should be taken (or perhaps not!) with giving the herb coriander as it represents lust!

Care must also be taken in the inclusive modern world: lemon-scented verbena is thought to attract the opposite sex, the herbaceous plant liatris (deerstongue) helps finding a partner of the same sex, while bay leaves attract just about anyone from the sound of it!

Ginger could be a useful gift if the object of your desire is a bit slow off the mark as it will gee up a reluctant lover. Lavender is used to sort out marital rifts, whilst the presentation of cleome or spiderflower would be an invitation to the recipient to elope! Some of these might need to be rubbed on or sprinkled whilst other links are merely connotations. I will leave it up to you to decide what needs to be done with each, though I cannot be held responsible for misuse or accidents!

Roses are the universal flowers conveying love but each colour signifies a different type of love. A classic red rose would be a fairly straightforward declaration whereas a white bloom is a bit more secretive or innocent. A thornless rose means that it was love at first sight but, to give such a rose, one would need to know that the Valentine had the space in which to put it. They are okay in a bed but better against the wall – the thornless rose that is - as most are climbers. Not to be confused with this is the Christmas rose (helleborus niger) which represents anxiety and asks for such anxiety to be eased or even tranquillised. To be honest I would suggest counselling if the relationship has reached this stage!

Of course, one might need to be safe and so an orchid, gift-wrapped free of charge and delivered on the right day, will convey the message that your feelings for your love are because of their pure and delicate beauty, and convey it at an affordable price.

As love is such a complex issue, another idea would be not to just rely on one plant but to put together a collection of plants, a whole border perhaps, which would show the depth and range of your feelings. We do have a free border planning service that may be of help to you but no guarantee of success can be given. The plants however would be guaranteed for two years!

So, choose carefully because it’s clear that plants are the best Valentine’s present and will convey exactly the right message – subject of course to your Valentine understanding that meaning! All I can do to help is suggest that you pick some clover at the same time!

thegardeneronline.co.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 59

Gardening

DIARY OF A FIRST-TIME FLOWER FARMER

WEDDINGS... AND VOLES! Paul Stickland, Black Shed Flowers

J

anuary allowed us to catch up on the maintenance tasks we didn’t have time to finish last year. We planted the last of the tulips and irises in all colours, some subtle fritillaries and a great deal of Pampas grass which, believe it or not, is hugely in demand. We were able to clear all the beds of last year’s dead foliage and prepare for the season. We try to leave the seed heads for as long as possible to allow the birds to feed on the bounty and to provide some shelter for the overwintering insect population, however we don’t want to provide too much shelter for the slug population; it’s a delicate balance.

Once we had removed the foliage, it revealed countless vole holes. They really are the most industrious creatures and they definitely work as a team. There is an entire subterranean tunnel network under our gardens which sometimes gives way, leaving surprisingly large holes in our carefully tended grass paths. There is little we can do about these creatures, although we aim to place owl boxes in the neighbouring barns and to provide perches for them to view, and hopefully pursue, their potential suppers. Herons regularly patrol the neighbouring fields; we’re told that they’re after mice and voles but we rarely see them in the gardens themselves.

Perhaps we need to create some ponds to lure them in. I love watching these primaeval birds stalking their way across the land. When the ground is wet, their huge feet get covered in mud and they look most comical, as if they were wearing rather too large wellies!

The new year had barely started before the first of the wedding enquiries began to come in. Weddings are a huge part of our business and are something we love doing: from simple buckets of flowers for the DIY bride to the full monty, they’re always a pleasure. Our field provided the flowers for over a hundred weddings last year. It is a joy to work so closely with some fantastic wedding florists, not only for their professionalism - you can‘t mess around if you’re doing 50 weddings a year - but also for their willingness to be tempted with something a bit special, some new rare species, or that extra special finishing touch. These amazing, hardworking florists usually order their flowers through Instagram, sending enquiries via private messages to which we can easily respond with photos of our current blooms, quantities 60 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

and prices. It’s delightfully simple. All our florists love to collect their flowers so that they can see what else we’re growing. They usually leave with many more buckets of flowers; seeing them all growing in the field is just too tempting! We love seeing what they choose, fascinated to see their artistic skills when deciding on colours, shapes and forms to complete their compositions. Most will later post their creations on Instagram and it’s a special delight to see how they’ve used our flowers.

As well as providing flowers for florists, we also provided the flowers for nearly 40 happy couples last year. DIY wedding flowers are very popular. Whilst everyone wants beautiful flowers to celebrate their happy day, not everyone can afford a full floral wedding service, so putting the flowers together for your own wedding is very popular and we aim to make that a simple and very pleasurable experience, filling buckets full of perfectly prepared flowers and foliage ready to be collected and arranged. After an initial enquiry, we encourage our brides- and grooms-to-be, families and friends to visit the flower field so that we can discuss the possibilities and choose their flowers from those actually growing in the field. This is a joyful and exciting experience and our couples invariably say what a wonderful part of the whole wedding it is. We work out how many decorations they need and ask whether they want us to create their bouquets, posies and buttonholes, or if they want to be brave and do this themselves. Whilst it’s great fun to do the table decorations, most don’t want to create their own bridal bouquet and we’re very happy to step in and do the honours. Over the last few seasons, we have developed our very own Black Shed style and we love it when a bride comes in having seen our previous creations in real life or on Instagram. After one Saturday wedding last July, we had two couples turn up at the farm the next day asking if we would do their wedding flowers. Word-of-mouth is always the best form of recommendation but what better way to see what we do than by attending a friend’s wedding and being surrounded by our fresh British flowers? blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk instagram.com/paulstickland_

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61

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WOLFGANG GRULKE Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

A

fter driving down a series of tiny lanes with automated gates, I find myself having to reverse in a tight turning circle. I notice a black Labrador and fellow hound bounding up behind the car and, for fear of bumping into the dogs, I decide to park where I am. As I climb out I’m greeted with a flurry of eager paws. Their owner arrives with equal exuberance and I’m soon shaking hands with Wolfgang Grulke, who then leads the way, dogs in tow, into his own private museum, housed in a beautifully constructed gallery.

I say ‘museum’ but really this must be one of the most remarkable collections of fossils ever assembled. When Wolfgang flicks the lights on it’s hard to know where to look first. Backlit glass cabinets filled with coiled cephalopods are ranged against a wall while glass vitrines holding the eggs of ostriches and raptors balance on crowded desks. There is a large ammonite among many smaller ones, not to mention several nautiluses, a narwhal tusk and, on another wall, a huge fossil of an ichthyosaur.

And that’s just on first glance. >

64 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

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66 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

‘What I love best is the story,’ Wolfgang explains. ‘There is one behind every fossil and that is what fascinates me.’ We turn our attention towards the ichthyosaur on the wall. ‘Do you see its jaw?’ asks Wolfgang. ‘It’s very broken and bashed-in. I wonder how it got like that? I think maybe it was chasing squid and hit a rock.

Swimming among squid is like swimming through minestrone; it wouldn’t have been able to see so perhaps it swam into a wall of rock and literally dropped to the bottom of the sea, dead.’ He goes on to explain how a dead animal such as this would usually have been scavenged but this one wasn’t. The ichthyosaur must have sunk immediately, been covered by sediment and become perfectly preserved.

Wolfgang began his lifelong love of fossils as a child. He was born in Germany and his family moved to South Africa when he was eight; it was while roaming the beaches there that Wolfgang began to collect shells. As he grew older, he took up scuba diving, continuing to collect shells - a hobby which would eventually lead to a fascination with fossils.

‘My parents were poor,’ he explains, ‘and the only way I could get a funded university place was to study quantum physics, which I did but only for a year because I hated it.’ Wolfgang became a DJ for a while and then,

in the 1970s, he found a job at IBM - a job that took him all over the world. Whenever he could, he would scuba dive. ‘That is when my interest in shells really developed into fossils,’ he adds with a smile.

In the 1990s he left IBM and became known through his work as one of the world’s top futurists. He published several books on the subject and toured the world advising large corporations on how to prepare for the future. ‘Most business people have no concept of the future. They plan for two to four years ahead and no further, which is nothing. Talk to them about the past and they look flummoxed.’ Wolfgang would give a talk on “Business Lessons from Dinosaurs” which, like some large corporations today, were the largest predators. ‘Dinosaurs were slow to react and we know what happened to them!’ The talks were both popular and successful, and once again Wolfgang was able to tour the world and fund his other passion. This time, however, he was self-employed and could decide when to take a break to go off scuba-diving or hunting for fossils. As he says, ‘Work allowed me to do something that I wanted to do.’

‘Like everybody,’ he begins, ‘I started with no knowledge of fossils and I learned by touching, feeling and doing. It was with academics that I learned the most. > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 67

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I would carry their bags and watch what they were doing, and they would explain it to me. Collecting has always been about looking, learning and linking things together.

Once you understand the stories you remember them.’

‘Most people become interested in fossils because they pick something up,’ he continues, ‘and they say, ‘What is this? How old is it and why is it here?’ That’s wonderful, particularly when it’s children as sometimes it stays with them for life. Curiosity is a wonderful thing and it’s this that draws me to fossils. I can’t understand other people’s lack of curiosity - I always want to know more. Every fossil is just a rock unless there is a story behind it. How they are linked together really fascinates me.’

Wolfgang has ended up in Dorset by happy coincidence. He was a visitor to the Alexandra Hotel in Lyme Regis and one year his wife suggested that they look for a house in England. That was 14 years ago. They visited a few houses but it soon became evident that the first one they visited, the one close to Sherborne where they are now, was going to be home. ‘When I told my friends in Charmouth I was moving to Sherborne they all said, “Gee Sherborne – that’s full of fossils”,’ he adds.

‘But that was just luck; 10% of the collection is from around here, the rest is from all over the world.’

His long journey of learning has included being thrown out of many academic offices for asking stupid questions but Wolfgang tells me that this is how he learns best. ‘I was never good at an academic way of learning; I learn better by doing things. I learned how to prepare fossils, which was incredible as I learned about the stone, the animals and the rock they occur in.’

Wolfgang says of his collection that it is ‘one of the best in the world.’ David Attenborough is a friend and regular visitor as well as a fellow avid collector. But Wolfgang tells me that he has a new problem. ‘It’s a big collection already

but I have found nothing new in the last six months, and that is really terrible. It’s the problem of decreasing returns – the more you collect, the more knowledge you have, and the less likely you’ll find something new.’ So what next?

‘Well, David (Attenborough) told me, “Once you start writing books about your collection (Wolfgang is on his third book), you are about to get rid of it.”

For a man who is so passionate about his work and research, this strikes me as a devastating blow. However, Wolfgang is clearly a man who wants to share his collection and feels that an ‘official’ museum would be the proper place for it. One could question whether the acquiring of the artefacts is more important than the knowledge but Wolfgang quickly allays my fears, ‘The chase is exciting but it’s the learning that I love.’

When I ask Wolfgang how any novice collector should go about starting their own collection, his answer is succinct. ‘Begin with something local. For example, here in Sherborne the rocks are all 170-180 million years old and were once under the sea. Get to know about cephalopods. Read, watch television or YouTube, find out as much as you can.’ Wolfgang is one of a kind.

His passion for knowledge knows no bounds. If you are a parent of a child who truly wants to know more about fossils, and I whisper this, he does open his collection for private visits provided that you make a donation to the local church fund. My tip is to visit while you can then just watch your child’s eyes light up.

Nautilus: Beautiful Survivor, 500 Million Years of Evolutionary History by Wolfgang Grulke (RRP £38) is available by order from Winstone’s Bookshop at a Sherborne Times reader price of £37. wolfganggrulke.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 71

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Please email or phone us with your individual requirements. info@therustypigcompany.co.uk Tel. 07802 443905 The Rusty Pig Company, Sandford Orcas, Sherborne See more at www.therustypigcompany.co.uk 72 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

SMALL PLATES TO SHARE 3 plates for ÂŁ10

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The Eastbury Hotel and Seasons 2 AA Rosette Restaurant are family owned by the de Savary family Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 3BY: Tel: 01935 813131: www.theeastburyhotel.co.uk

Food and Drink

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

ROCKY ROAD

Image: Katharine Davies

W

hen we had fund-raising events at the school where I was Headteacher, my kind parents would bring in their delicious home-bakes. One that was always popular was Rocky Road and, over the years, I have developed the recipe so it can be either simple or luxurious.

This recipe is the basic one but it can be made special with a few additional ingredients. Instead of using all digestive biscuits, crush up left-over gingerbread and

74 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

add a pinch of ground ginger. Replace all or some of the marshmallows with chopped up chocolates or Turkish delight, or whatever you have lurking in the sweetie box/ cupboard.

For the topping, add anything you like (although coffee creams/strawberry creams are just a bit too much!)

Makes approximately 12-16 pieces depending on how large or small you wish the pieces to be.

What you will need

A baking tray 30cm x 23cm x 4cm deep you could use two brownie tins instead A microwaveable bowl A large bowl A large plastic bag and a heavy rolling pin Ingredients

230g golden syrup 250g unsalted butter chopped into cubes, plus extra for greasing the baking trays 380g chocolate - at least 35% - chocolate chips are best as they melt more easily 2 x 500g packets of chocolate biscuits, milk or plain, or simple digestive biscuits 100g mini marshmallows Topping

50g plain chocolate 50g M&Ms If you wish to make them a little differently you could use instead of the two packets of biscuits: 1 x 500g packet digestive biscuits plus 1 packet custard creams and 2 packets of Oreo cookies You might also wish to replace some of the marshmallows with M&Ms, raisins, chocolate chips, cherries or whatever you wish.

Method

1 Place golden syrup, butter and chocolate into a microwaveable bowl.

2 Put the bowl in the microwave and set on low heat, microwave for 1 minute, stir and repeat twice more or until the ingredients have melted and combined.

3 Meanwhile place the biscuits in a large plastic bag and seal. Use the rolling pin to crush the biscuits, leaving some larger pieces. If you are using cream biscuits they will stick a little bit but you can scrape the cream into the mixture, it will be fine.

4 Pour the crushed biscuits into the large bowl.

5 Add the golden syrup mixture and stir in well until all combined.

6 Add the marshmallows and stir in well.

7 Grease the baking tray and pour in the biscuit mixture. Use a palette knife to level off the mixture.

8 Sprinkle on the M&Ms and press them into the biscuit mixture.

9 Leave to set.

10 Place the plain chocolate in a small bowl and microwave on medium heat for 2 bursts of 1 minute each.

11 Before all the chocolate is melted, remove from the microwave and stir until the chocolate is melted. It’s not exactly tempering the chocolate but it does give it a shine.

12 Using a disposable piping bag with the end snipped off, drizzle chocolate over the top of the rocky roads.

13 Allow to set hard before cutting into squares or rectangles.

Store in an airtight box. They will keep well for 3 weeks or you can freeze them for up to 6 weeks. You might think these are a bit indulgent but if you bag or box these up for friends you won’t be eating them all yourself ! bakerval.com Val's recipe book - Val Stones: The Cake Whisperer is available now from bakerval.com @valcake.walks sherbornetimes.co.uk | 75

Food and Drink

WINTER ON THE PIG FARM James Hull, The Rusty Pig Company

R

ecently, I lost my wellies. One foot got stuck in the mud, so I pulled and pulled. My foot came out, my sock fell off, I fell over and the other boot came off, all the while 40 squealing pigs trying to eat me – at least that’s what it felt like. I was so cross, my cold leggings sticking to my legs and mud everywhere.

I had to pull really hard with both hands to get each boot out of the mud, and then threw them out of the paddock before putting them back on over very muddy feet. Cold, wet December mud between your toes is not a pleasant feeling. Charlotte, to give her her due, managed not to laugh, which must have been hard given what she had just witnessed. Anyone watching from the sidelines would have thought I’d finally lost it!

We got through the wet spell and, at the time of writing, we are enjoying a particularly benign spell of dry, calm weather. The farmer in me knows it won’t last; the optimist in me hopes it will. It’s incredible the impact the weather has on an outdoor pig farm - or should that read farmer? We have weaned 40 piglets over the Christmas period, all ear-tagged for traceability and males castrated. This is necessary because, as they are slow-grown, they are mature before they are bacon. I didn’t used to do it and we had some very dodgy scenes in the pig field.

After many sad glances and much cajoling, Charlotte has at last got her wish to have some pigs of her own to look after. She has taken three tiny ones that were being left behind by the rest of their group and brought them down to the farm where they have their own house, deep straw, ad-lib food and lots of attention. They will grow fast and soon catch up their brothers and sisters. She has named them Lotty, Potty and Dotty. She is, however, forbidden to put pictures of them on Instagram; they are not up to our usual standard, looking much more like pot-bellied pigs at the moment.

We have been building a new garden at the farm.

Gardening is a passion for both of us and I have finally 76 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

"After many sad glances and much cajoling, Charlotte has at last got her wish to have some pigs of her own"

Mavermick/iStock

finished the drainage and reshaping work, which has taken every spare minute for months. We are going to grow lavender, a plant we both love and enjoy, and hope it will add to our business in the future. My first entrepreneurial foray was growing sweet-peas and selling them to our local florist at the age of 10. This I used to do in absolute secrecy away from my school friends as gardening was certainly not cool and thought of as almost a bit weird when I was young. Thank goodness things have changed and it is now enjoyed and appreciated by so many. I am looking forward to

summer evenings on my hands and knees weeding between our new plants, a great antidote to the stresses of this modern world we have created for ourselves.

We still have a lot to do - fences and hedges to plant, paths to build - but soon spring will be here and things will move very quickly. Already the evenings are lengthening from their all-time low in December.

Hopes of better times ahead are just around the corner.

I can’t wait! therustrypigcompany.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 77

Food & Drink

NEW ZEALAND David Copp

 Travellight/Shutterstock

I

t is difficult to hide my admiration of New Zealand and its wines. Most probably my good feeling stems from New Zealand’s green and pleasant land - a reminder of what our own country looked like before the Industrial Revolution - and its purposeful, modest, self-disciplined people, represented in such truly great sporting heroes as Ed Hillary, Glenn Turner, John Walker, Richie McCaw and its world class yachtsmen.

And also in its winemakers such as Kevin Judd, Michael Brajkovich, John Buck and Blair Walter, all of whom have added considerably to the expression of some of the world's best known wine varieties.

It is hard to believe that for the first thirty years of my career in the wine trade there were no New Zealand wines to speak of in England. Things changed in 1983 78 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

when David Hohnen, an award-winning winemaker from Margaret River in Western Australia, tasted some sauvignon blanc made in Marlborough, New Zealand and was so excited by the fresh expression of the variety made famous in the Loire Valley of France, that he established a winery there. He hired Kevin Judd, a graduate of Roseworthy Agricultural College in Adelaide, as his winemaker, and appointed to Richard Smart, a fellow Australian viticulturalist, to consult on canopy management and other means of extracting full fruitiness and freshness from the grape.

Hohnen initiated Cloudy Bay in 1986 and the world-wide acclaim for his wine launched total wine export activity that is on schedule to contribute around $NZ 2 billion to the New Zealand economy in 2020,

and almost three times as much from wine tourism.

Why have New Zealand wines been so readily accepted throughout the world? I think it is because their producers have been wise enough to take advantage of the advances in soil science to select clones that match New Zealand's soils and microclimates.

They have also benefitted from the introduction of temperature-controlled fermentation which has allowed expression of fruit flavour and freshness.

David Hohnen is a quiet, modest man, not given to boasting about his considerable achievements, but his judgment in choosing the Waipara valley for sauvignon blanc, selecting Kevin Judd as his winemaker, and in choosing Cloudy Bay (first so-called by Captain James Cook) was spot on.

Richard Smart succinctly summed up his achievement: ‘Right variety, right clone, right place, right time.’ Hohnen and Judd's commitment to flavour intensity and terroir expression produced aromatic, dry and fruity wines quite different from other Marlborough sauvignon blancs, which one of my colleagues described as 'taking a bungee jump into a gooseberry bush.

Hohnen must have considerably augmented airline tickets sales to European winemakers. Champagne Veuve Cliquot, excited by the potential for producing classy sparkling wines, were first off the mark and provided start-up capital. They eventually took over the company which was later acquired by LVMH, the world’s leading luxury goods company. Cloudy Bay continues to make a range of very fine wines while both Hohnen (in Australia) and Judd at Greywacke (pronounced ‘graywacky’) in Marlborough, New Zealand are very much in business doing what they most like to do - making very distinctive wines of their own.

Kevin Judd's wines are a revelation. His sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir under the Greywacke label are sensational. The key is the selection of grapes from low yielding vines produced by trusted growers he knows so well. Careful and immensely professional winemaking does the rest. Judd is master at his craft.

New Zealand produces world class chardonnay, excellent bottle-fermented sparkling wines, perfumed gerwurztraminer, two excellent but very distinctive styles of pinot noir and some delightful cabernet/merlot blends that have been compared with very good claret.

The main reason for the excellence of so many New Zealand wines is the long dry autumns which allow grapes to ripen slowly, increasing subtlety of aroma and

depth of fruit flavour. Growers avoid areas which suffer from random or heavy rainfall, or which are prone to frost: they prefer the well-drained sites down the east coast sites of both islands: Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Martinborough in North Island and Marlborough, Canterbury and central Otago in South Island.

New Zealand growers were quick to understand the importance of trellising systems and canopy management that ‘let the sunlight into the vine’. However, it is the unremitting hard work and ceaseless search for improvement that established leading winemakers such as Kumeu Valley, Villa Maria, Ata Ranji, Felton Road and Te Mata as world-class producers.

My brief round-up of the most promising regions I start in Auckland with the Brajkovich family from Croatia who have consistently worked hard to develop their sophisticated range of Kumeu Valley chardonnay wines. Hawkes Bay also produces rich, slowly evolving chardonnay and top-flight cabernet sauvignon-merlot blends in the Bordeaux style with deliciously fresh fruit, such as Te Mata Coleraine.

Near Martinborough, pinot noir has taken well to Wairapa’s free-draining soils and yields consistently deeply scented and richly flavoured wines. Personally, I prefer the Martinborough pinots to those of central Otago because I was brought up in Burgundy. However, I have never been known to refuse the sheer delight of Nigel Greening’s Felton Road wines.

Greening’s is a remarkable story. A shaggy-haired rock guitarist who developed a successful design and marketing company, he had long been a pinot noir fanatic. During a stay in New Zealand on a major business project, he bought a small winery in Otago before returning to England. When he heard that his neighbour had decided to sell up, he immediately flew to New Zealand to purchase Felton Road.

New Zealand’s South Island benefits from ‘a hole in the ozone layer’ which encourages solar radiation, helping grapes to ripen in the world's most southerly red grape vineyards that I know of, resulting in a wonderful fresh and joyful pinot noir. It may lack some of the subtlety of great Burgundian and Martinborough pinots but it makes up for it with a truly joyful wine for those who really love the variety.

New Zealand has worked hard for its success and shown a great aptitude for producing sophisticated and stylish wines way above the average. Take a closer look when you next call on your preferred wine merchant. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 79

Food and Drink

UZBEK PLOV

T

raditionally made with lamb or beef, this is my vegan version, inspired by true street food.

Serves 6

Ingredients

60g dried apricots, chopped 60g raisins 12g currants, chopped 12g barberries, chopped 200g cold-pressed rapeseed oil 2 medium onions, julienned 400g carrots, diced 3 large cloves of garlic 400g long grain brown rice, washed & drained 850g vegetable stock 0.5g saffron 1 small red chilli 1 tspn ground coriander ½ tspn ground cumin ½ tspn ground turmeric Cornish sea salt 2 medium red peppers, diced 500g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled & diced 500g cauliflower florets 6 baby leeks 1 tbsp rosemary leaves, chopped 60g flaked almonds, toasted

Method

1 Soak the apricots, raisins, currants and barberries in cold water for at least half an hour, strain and keep aside.

2 In a large saucepan bring the vegetable stock to a boil, season with sea salt and cook the diced Jerusalem artichoke and cauliflower florets for four minutes. Set aside.

3 Put 150ml of rapeseed oil into a large, cast-iron, heavybased pan, bring it to smoking point and add the onions. Fry until just cooked then add the diced carrots and cook for three minutes. Add two crushed cloves of garlic and the ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric and saffron. Stir well and add the rice.

4 Continue stirring for four minutes. Add the stock and the dried fruit.

5 On a high heat, bring the rice to the boil, season with sea salt to taste, drop in the whole chilli, cover pan with a lid or tin foil and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

6 In a large frying pan, sautĂŠ the artichokes, cauliflower, baby leeks and red peppers with remaining rapeseed oil, rosemary, sea salt and plenty of black pepper. Once slightly caramelised, add the garlic to the frying pan and finish cooking in the oven at 180 degrees for 8 minutes.

7 Divide the plov between six large bowls or plates, decorate with roasted vegetables and the toasted flaked almonds. greenrestaurant.co.uk

80 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Image: Clint Randall

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Telephone: 01963 33177 kimbersfarmshop.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 81

Animal Care

PET TRAVEL POST-BREXIT

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

T

he infamous words ‘Brexit means Brexit’ have been ringing in our ears for some time now and, although most of us are tired of the rhetoric, the reality of the situation is only just beginning to emerge. For pet owners wishing to take their dog, cat or even ferret (!) to the EU after 29th March, there will be changes to the current system unless an agreement is made to maintain the status quo. With so many other issues under discussion, I cannot help but feel that pet travel is likely to be way down the priority list.

When I first qualified, taking a dog or cat abroad was a complicated process. Rabies vaccine had to be ordered individually from a government-controlled supply, with all the associated paperwork. A lengthy export health certificate had to be completed that differed between countries and additional import permits had to be obtained.

Microchips were a thing of the future in those days and so identification was an issue. All this was swept away (at least for countries included in the Pet Travel Scheme) when pet passports became available and hence, recently, taking a pet to Europe has meant simply a microchip and a rabies vaccine, and off you go 21 days later.

Since this open-border scheme started, we vets have seen a rise in exotic diseases coming over from mainland Europe, brought by dogs holidaying in the sun. Some are easily preventable, others not, but at Swan House we always try to give owners advice on the commonest diseases found on the continent and how best to avoid them. In the main, though, the scheme has worked pretty well but the ease with which borders are crossed seems dependent on the mood of the customs official on duty. ‘Twas ever thus.

82 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

So, back to Brexit. We don’t know for certain what’s going to happen so pet owners should plan for the worst-case scenario, as this offers the most reliable way of ensuring your pet can travel to the EU after Brexit. The very worst thing that could happen, and we can do nothing to plan ahead for that, would be the cancellation of the Pet Passport Scheme and a return to the archaic system of my early professional days.

Let’s skip over that possibility and get pragmatic.

The clearest way to give our current advice is as a bulleted list so here is a summary of the advice we are currently given. However, it is subject to change and nothing is guaranteed. It’s dry but Brexit bureaucracy leaves little room for humour, unless it’s black.

1 Read the information on the gov.uk website entitled Taking your pet abroad if there’s no Brexit deal. In summary, this publication describes the

Dora Zett/Shutterstock

2 3

4

5

possible conditions that will come into effect after the UK leaves the EU on 29th March.

The essential elements of the new requirements include the need for a blood test and a health certificate.

All pets will need current rabies vaccination and an identifiable microchip, recorded on a valid pet passport (as now).

For pets that have not been blood-tested in the past, we recommend a repeat rabies vaccine 30 days before the blood test in order to maximise the chances of passing the test (which measures antibodies to rabies). We recommend this as the blood test is expensive and a failed test will mean another rabies vaccine and another test. N.B. A few animals will fail the test due to genetic factors.

Travel to the EU can take place 3 months after a SUCCESSFUL blood test.

6 A health certificate must be issued by an official veterinarian (OV) not more than 10 days prior to travel. This must be repeated for each visit to the EU. To be clear, a health certificate is a piece of paper signed by an ‘official veterinarian’ (most of us at Newton-Clarke are ‘official veterinarians’) that says your pet is fit to travel, has an identifiable microchip, has been vaccinated against rabies, has passed a rabies blood test, and is not displaying signs of an infectious disease. This certificate is not currently needed for travel to EU countries in the Pet Travel Scheme.

If I hear of any further developments, I will post it on our Facebook page and website. If any of you have any other knowledge, please get in touch! newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

Animal Care

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FARM VET John Walsh, Friars Moor Vets

A

s well as our day-to-day help with larger commercial farms, we also spend a lot of time visiting and advising people with smallholdings.

These intrepid people are often fulfilling a long-held dream of moving to the countryside. They buy a house with land which leads to them buying their own farm animals either as pets, eco-friendly lawnmowers or for 84 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

small-scale food production. This can range from a few backyard chickens to small herds of beef cattle. All come with their own husbandry needs and often the best place to come for guidance and support on these matters is the local vets. At the vets, as well as looking after their sick animals, we also provide advice on all topics from worming to breeding. We hold regular smallholder

Pete Gallop/Shutterstock

"The neatly manicured lawns looked like the Somme"

meetings on a variety of topics to help improve people’s knowledge of their own particular breeds.

Writing this article brought back amusing memories of a visit I made as a newly qualified vet. One summer’s day a call came into the practice for me to go and castrate two pet kunekune pigs. This is a native breed of pig from New Zealand whose name comes from the Maori word for ‘fat and round’. I arrived at the address and made my way up a very grand, tree-lined driveway to a very grand house which, I later found out, was owned by the local lord and lady. The house had beautiful gardens with neatly manicured lawns and lovingly tended herbaceous borders. I wasn’t sure where to park my car and couldn’t see any suitable accommodation for two pigs. I rang the doorbell and was greeted by the lady of the house who led me through to the kitchen. The two piglets were contentedly snuggled-up on a dog’s bed by the Aga and I was informed they were going to be house pigs! They had been bought by the lord and lady’s children as a present for their golden wedding anniversary, having been informed by the person who sold them that they would not dig up the lawns or grow to be very big. The piglets were about twelve weeks old and were in the middle of being house-trained. Luckily their son was at home to help hold each one for their sedative and anaesthetic injections. Despite being sedated and fully desensitised, pigs often screech very loudly no matter what you do to them; today was no different! Both castrations went well even if my hearing has never been quite the same since.

I was called back to see the pigs a few months later.

The neatly manicured lawns looked like the Somme battlefield and the couple wanted advice on how to stop their pigs from rooting. The pigs had a nice new house in the garden as they were getting too big for the kitchen and were bringing in mud from their gardening activities. The only thing we could do was to give them a nose-ring each in the attempt to stop them digging up their lawns. This involved more screeching but both pigs duly received their new jewellery nose pieces. I was pleased to hear a month later that they had ceased their gardening activities, were still living in their new house in the garden and were growing well.

If you are thinking of getting some farm animals or already have some and would like advice on the best way to look after them, or would like to join our smallholder groups, please contact us. We are always happy to help. frairsmoorvets.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

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Pet, Equine & Farm Animals

• Operating theatres • Digital x-ray • Nurse clinics • Separate dog and cat wards • Laboratory Kingston House Veterinary Clinic Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3DB

Grove Dene Veterinary Clinic The Forum, Abbey Manor Park, Yeovil, Somerset BA21 3TL

Tel: 01935 813288 (24 hours) Email: sherborne@kingstonvets.co.uk

Tel: 01935 421177 (24 hours) Email: yeovil@kingstonvets.co.uk

Mon-Fri 9.00-10.30, 16.30-18.00 Sat 9.00-10.30

Mon-Fri 8.30-12.00, 14.00-18.30 Sat 9.00-12.00

kingstonvets.co.uk

Free registration appointment for new clients when accompanied by this advertisement 86 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Veterinary services for livestock & pets in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire We now have a new collection point for livestock medicines and supplies at Pearce Seeds, Rosedown Farm, Sherborne.

Please call the office on 01258 472314 for all enquiries

www.friarsmoorvets.co.uk

• Luxury grooming facilities • Heated kennels • CRB checked and fully insured • Doggy first aid (accredited CPD)

• City & Guilds Level 3 qualified in dog grooming & dog behaviour • Day packages available • Dental hygiene and teeth cleaning • Puppy health checks

Available Monday-Friday 8-6pm Contact Sue 07920 044 930 sue@countrystyledoggrooming.co.uk www.countrystyledoggrooming.co.uk

The Pet Experience Training & Behaviour LTD 2018 Award Winners of best Dog Training & Behaviour Service in Dorset & Somerset New classes start on Saturday 23rd February

Sherborne Surgery Swan House Lower Acreman Street 01935 816228

Yeovil Surgery 142 Preston Road 01935 474415

www.newtonclarkevet.com

Sarah Easterbrook CoPAS GoDT, IACP Member Fully qualified dog trainer & behaviourist with over 20 years experience Phone now on: 07769 705807 Or email: sarah@thepetexperience.co.uk www.the-pet-experience.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 87

Cycling

WEIGHT WEENIES

D

Mike Riley, Rileys Cycles

arren and I have an ongoing challenge where we try to guess the weight of the bike. We can usually guess within a few hundred grammes, however the most recent challenge Darren won hands down and guessed exactly.

A long-term project has been rebuilding a steel racing bike with modern components. I always incorporate learning opportunities in projects to gain the most value

88 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

and expand our skills. This project had three learning points: 1. To test methods for removing a stuck bottom bracket from a fragile frame; 2. To try out a new paint system; 3. To see how light we can make a classic steel racing bike in comparison to carbon fibre bikes.

When steel was the main material for bike-building, British Reynolds tubing was used to build worldbeating bikes; they still produce some of the most

advanced cycle tubing available. 531 was most popular but 753 was lightest and this exotic, delicate tubing was only available to approved frame-makers who built world-beating bikes for professional teams and cycling cognoscenti. When I found a Ribble 753 project on eBay I took a punt. Terry Dolan made some of these frames originally and I assumed he had retired, but I speculatively emailed Dolan Bicycles to ask if they could burn out the rusted-in bottom bracket without damaging the frame. I was delighted when Terry himself called me and undertook the work successfully. For learning point 2, I cleaned up the frame, experimenting with different paint removal methods and used the ‘Spray.bike’ paint system in the ‘team colours’ of Sherborne Cycling Club. For learning point 3, I scoured used component sources including bike jumbles and online adverts and assembled components over a 12-month period.

The weight of the bike, was bang on 8.5kg (see image). On our blog you can see we compared the weights of a carbon bike costing around £2,000 and a similar style aluminium-framed bike. The ‘team’ bike is about the same as the carbon example, so the test was a success, showing a steel bike can be as light as a production carbon bike.

Where is most benefit achieved?

Wheels? Frame? Rider?

One opinion I frequently hear is that many amateur riders could shed a few kg for no cost by dieting whereas saving 100 grammes off a bike can cost getting on for £1 per gramme. This is a great example of the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule. So, if I can shave 1kg off a bike, the first 800g costs 20% of our budget because it is easiest, but the last 200g costs the remaining 80%.

Manufacturers build bikes to meet a price point and there are two approaches. A decent brand such as Merida start with a good frame, adding less expensive components on lower-end models. Riders can upgrade parts as they wear out and the bike will be as good as a more expensive model. Other brands offer what appears to be a more attractive bike with higher specification components but the frame is inferior and based on a generic, older design. The truth of the matter is, you get what you pay for. The frame ultimately decides a bike’s capability. Bikes made with cheaper frames, known as open mould, have their place but it helps to understand where your hard-earned cash is targeted when making an expensive purchase and looking for a competitive edge.

So where did I invest to save weight on the Ribble?

First, I found alloy Duraace wheels and shod them with lightweight Hutchinson tyres and latex tubes, then added a carbon seat post, handlebars and saddle, a carbon chainset and Time pedals. The final choice was a SRAM Red groupset and Duraace titanium cassette, about the lightest transmission available. This may seem profligate, but all items were used and bought at bike jumbles or surplus from pro riders who were upgrading, and I reconditioned them. I also had a dry November and lost a couple of kg from my waistline.

A cyclist’s adage says that, in order to go faster, you should, ‘ride up grades, not ride upgrades’, meaning time spent climbing hills will achieve more benefit than spending money and time changing parts. Sherborne Cycling Club run two indoor cycling sessions a week for members and I can assure you instructor Andy puts us through our paces including simulated gradients. The most zealous weight savers are hill-climb competitors; their bikes are stripped of every gramme possible, bar tape is discarded, seat posts and handle bars cut down, even saddle covering is removed.

Psychological benefit or facts and physics?

Another project to test the hype rife in the cycle industry was to build a set of carbon wheels. Darren and I had many discussions trying to justify a cost difference of around £500 to save 250g on a wheel set.

Eventually I decided our wheel builder, Paul, would learn how to work with the latest wheel technology and I would achieve real-world experience to serve and advise customers better. Paul carefully assembled a dream set of wheels for my best bike at similar cost to a production set but hand-built to my custom design. Another learning point was ticked off by fitting tubeless tyres and when I rode the bike with the new wheels it was transformed. There may be a tendency to justify this kind of expense with a sort of emperor’s new clothes mindset but I found real performance gains and greater comfort and even tested their durability riding cross-country at night in the New Forest by accident.

Weight saving is not always the most important factor for a bike and on a touring bike strength is essential, however even tourists succumb to weight weaning, sometimes cutting down their toothbrush handles for example! rileyscycles.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

@elizabethwatsonillustrations 90 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

GET CONNECTED with EVOKE

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Body and Mind

IN GOOD HANDS Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms

Fotyma/Shutterstock

W

hen the weather takes a turn for the worse and temperatures take a sharp icy dip, our facial skin health can suffer. However, the most obvious impact is on our hands and nails.

Winter affects our hands and nails due to continually changing temperatures, with cold, wet and windy

92 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

weather outside contrasted by drying central heating indoors. The drop in outdoor temperature can strip vital oils from the skin and turning up the central heating often results in moisture loss. Our hands and nails are one of the most exposed areas of our body and will therefore be the first to show the signs of winter damage.

This can lead to a whole range of uncomfortable issues. The skin’s natural moisture and oils are drawn out, resulting in dry, itchy and tight skin. In particular, the backs of our hands may become very dry and even chapped. Remnants of summer sun exposure may also cause the hands to look dry and dehydrated, with pigmentation possibly visible too.

Poor circulation in the cold weather also leads to slower cell renewal, hence skin looks dryer and duller.

To help stimulate circulation and to remove dull and dead skin, hand exfoliation can be really helpful, creating a new, softer and smoother surface on which to apply oils and creams. This will increase the absorption and therefore the effectiveness of these products. Ingredients that are particularly effective in combating skin dryness are shea butter, cocoa butter and manuka honey. The application of heat will further increase the product effectiveness. Wearing cotton gloves or even freezer bags on your hands after application traps in the heat and the product for a DIY moisture surge. Avoid heated treatments if wearing gel polish and make sure any creams applied do not contain lanolin as both will lift the gel and cause it to peel away.

Alongside our skin, nails can also become dry, brittle and prone to breakages and peeling. Nail growth also slows due to a drop in Vitamin D-giving sunlight, but it can be re-stimulated with heat and massage. Putting moisture back in at the root is essential so massage in oil below the cuticle and around the sides of the nail. Cuticle oils rich in argan oil, jojoba oil and grapeseed oil are particularly nourishing and easily utilised by your nails.

Prescriptive base coats can be applied to help protect the nail plate itself and target your specific nail condition. Calcium-loaded base coats will help thicken the nail and improve strength while oil-enriched base coats will support peeling nails.

Healing ingredients such as echinacea will also help damaged nails.

Although a conditioning professional manicure treatment is a great way to get your hands and nails back into shape in the colder months, continued homecare is also important. Daily home application of hand cream and cuticle oil is a must to keep up with the harsh daily exposure and to sustain good skin and nail health.

Providing facial aesthetics in our beautiful CQC approved clinic • WRINKLE RELAXING • DERMAL FILLERS • EXCESSIVE SWEATING TREATMENT Call us for your free consultation Find us on

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thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 93

Body & Mind

BROGA

Simon Partridge BSc (Sports Science), Personal Trainer SPFit Fizkes/Shutterstock

N

early 4 years ago, after exercising for over 35 years and working as a freelance personal trainer for 15 years, I suffered serious back problems (a MRI scan showed 3 prolapsed discs in my lower lumbar spine). I was also becoming less flexible, with more and more niggles and stiffness, no matter what stretching I did. Something had to change if I was to reverse this process so I started to research yoga. I was amazed to discover how many different forms of yoga there are and all the different benefits they bring for both the body and mind. After much deliberation, I enrolled on a residential ‘Broga’ course at Wellington School in Sandhurst, Berkshire. Broga was the idea of an American celebrity personal trainer based in London, Matt Miller.

At this point, I had no intention of teaching, I just wanted to practice yoga to improve myself. Nearly, 4 years on I am totally addicted to yoga. I now teach Broga, resulting in the amazing bonus that many of my clients who would also never previously have considered yoga are now enjoying its benefits and are addicted too.

All forms of yoga are good, benefitting different people in different ways. However, Broga differs from other forms of yoga in three key ways. Firstly, it’s a workout, with a massive strength and fitness element to it. This means when you go to a class, you don’t feel as though you have missed out on one of the more traditional workouts you may do each week. What you will get are the added benefits of improved flexibility and balance.

Secondly, we try and cater for all levels of experience.

We assume you know nothing, however the classes are challenging for experienced ‘yogis’. We had 3 94 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

yoga teachers join us in 2018 (many thanks to Emma, Georgina and Helen who have been a pleasure to work with) but the majority of participants have never been to a yoga class. Just like a training programme, Broga lets you build up and progress. One of our key goals is to have everybody in the class working really hard to the best of their ability.

Thirdly, we try and foster a real team environment.

We use 4 different workouts each month focusing on a specific body part (legs, upper body, back and a fastbased whole-body workout called the ‘sizzle’) within a whole body approach. Participants know what they are going to focus on when the class starts and everybody supports each other’s progress each week. We see all different sorts of progression which is truly rewarding.

Will 2019 be different and better for you? People can be really fixed in their mindset and this is not a traditional yoga ideal. An open mind wins over a closed mind every time. Try one of the many forms of yoga now available. In Sherborne we are fortunate to have many different classes to choose from, taught by lots of amazing instructors. So, whether you are new to yoga or an experienced yogi, try something new and start experiencing the benefits. Good luck!

SPFit has a variety of training options designed for all abilities from 1:1 coaching, a Running Club to small group training that includes power yoga (Broga), outdoor bootcamps, weight lifting and crossfit-type classes. spfit-sherborne.co.uk

LONDON ROAD CLINIC Pippa and Louise are both registered nurses and independent prescribers, providing bespoke anti-wrinkle treatments for ladies and gentlemen, in a tranquil setting within the Beauty Barn, Trent, Sherborne For your free consultation please contact us Louise 07757 706 602 Pippa 07748 171 017 www.purestaesthetics.com

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

Indulge yourself AT THE GEORGE ALBERT HOTEL & SPA

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Body & Mind

HOMEOPATHY Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom, 56 London Road Clinic

H

omeopathy is the longest established complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Europe, having been developed in the 18th century by German physician, Samuel Hahnemann. It is based upon the primary law, like cures like. A simple example is the use of a remedy made from a poison, in much diluted form, to treat food poisoning for a quick recovery - something I find myself helping my dog with, as she loves to eat farm slurry! She comes home utterly miserable and unable to do anything other than curl up in her basket, refusing food or comfort. A single dose of homeopathic Arsenicum sorts her out in 20-30 minutes.

A homeopathic remedy creates a similar, but not the same, ‘picture’ of the existing dis-ease. This enables the body to activate its defences against both the remedy dis-ease and the actual dis-ease, in a way not dissimilar to how vaccinations or allergy shots are used.

Homeopathy came to prominence in a time of epidemics such as scarlet fever, typhus, pneumonia and cholera, which conventional medicine of the time had little success in controlling. Homeopathy proved itself to be successful and still does. There are homeopaths working all over the world, successfully using homeopathy to fight such epidemics and more. In Europe and the Americas, the ‘Spanish Flu’, 1918-1919, was probably the last great pandemic that we suffered. Records show that, ‘while the mortality rate of people treated with traditional medicine and drugs was 30 percent, those treated by homeopathic physicians had a mortality rate of 1.05 percent.’ [cdc.gov] The greatest arguments in homeopathy seem to occur over the amount of dilution homeopathic remedies go through. I will not go into the arguments here; let it be said that in July 2018 London’s Royal Society of Medicine hosted an international seminar where two Nobel Prize-winning scientists and other well-respected researchers [from various fields of science] presented ‘compelling evidence that medicinal agents not only persist in water but retain therapeutic effects in these Nanodoses.’ [thesciencetheevidence.co.uk] Arguments aside, because of its gentle effectiveness, homeopathy does not have the side-effects of many modern medicines. Apart from its use as a standalone treatment, it can often be used, safely, alongside other forms of treatment, medical, surgical and psychological. Children respond very well to homeopathy, particularly babies and very small children, negating arguments that it is merely a placebo. This is often where people first become aware of its effectiveness.

I liked the comment of a homeopathic vet about the placebo effect, ‘… I can just see the herd of cows in the corner of the field saying to each other, oh goody no more mastitis for us, as I stand over their water butt…’.

Homeopathy is the second most used medicine in the World [WHO]. Countries such as Switzerland, India, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and many others use homeopathy within their health systems. There are over 200,000 registered homeopathic doctors across the world. In the UK an estimated 6 million people use homeopathy. It is a gentle and effective healer that millions across the globe use and find effective.

56londonroad.co.uk

96 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

While being ideal for long-term residential needs, the home also maintains a respite service and offers day care to the surrounding communities.

Carers are committed to understanding personal needs and adhering to a tailored approach.

A number of activities are organised to support personal interests and physical health, and residents have access to information technology while enjoying home-cooked meals.

The Old Vicarage Care Home has won over 30 national and regional awards over the last few years for their commitment to care of the elderly to back-up their reputation as one of the leading care homes in Dorset.

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The Old Vicarage, Leigh, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 6HL Tel: 01935 873033 Visit our website for a full map to the home

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Body & Mind

FOOD AND MOOD Lucy Lewis, Dorset Mind

E

ating well can increase positive feelings, energy and mood and lead to clearer thinking. Knowing what foods you should and shouldn’t be eating can be really confusing, especially when it seems like the advice changes regularly. Evidence also suggests that, as well as affecting our physical health, what we eat may also affect the way we feel. Many people are malnourished due to the low nutritional content in much of our food. Not getting enough nutrition can cause us to feel lethargic and gain weight, which in turn can lead to depressed mood and self-esteem issues.

Here’s how to improve your diet and your mental wellbeing: Eat regularly

How regularly do you eat? Eating irregularly can cause your blood sugar to drop, which can make you tired, irritable and depressed. Eating regularly will keep your sugar level steady. Choose foods that release energy slowly, such as protein, nuts, seeds and whole-grains.

Avoid foods that rapidly alter your blood sugar level, such as sugary and alcoholic products.

TIP: Remember to eat breakfast and have smaller portions frequently throughout the day.

Stay hydrated

Not drinking enough causes difficulties with concentrating, thinking clearly, mood swings, responses and energy levels, and even causes headaches and constipation. The body is approximately 75% water and we need to replenish it regularly, especially when it’s hot or when you’ve been active.

TIP: You need at least 2 litres of water each day to stay hydrated.

Manage caffeine

Consuming caffeine can negatively affect our mood.

It’s a stimulant that encourages the brain to downregulate. When your brain receives an artificial supply of a neurotransmitter, such as adrenaline from caffeine, it 98 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

reduces the natural levels of these neurotransmitters.

It’s a vicious cycle; after the brain reduces the natural levels, it causes the individual to crave more caffeine to replenish what the brain is missing. Caffeine is in tea, coffee, chocolate, cola and energy drinks, and can cause you to feel depressed or anxious and experience disturbed sleep and withdrawal symptoms.

TIP: Try to reduce your caffeine intake and feel an improvement in your wellbeing.

Vitamins, minerals and fibre

A balance of nutrients is needed to keep the brain healthy and maintain your mental wellbeing. At least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day will provide a healthy balance as they contain much of the minerals, vitamins and fibre you need to stay healthy. A diet low in fruit and vegetables can contribute to mental health problems. The Health Study for England (2014) found

higher levels of mental wellbeing in those who ate more fruit and vegetables.

TIP: Eat a variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables to get a good range of nutrients.

Fats

The brain is approximately 60% fat and needs fatty oils to keep it working well. 20% of the fat in the brain is made from the essential fatty acids omega 3 and 6. They are ‘essential’ because the body can’t make them, so they must come from food. Fatty acids should be consumed in equal amounts, as uneven amounts can cause depression and memory issues.

TIP: Try to avoid ‘trans fats’ or ‘partially hydrogenated oils’ that can be found in food such as cakes and biscuits, as these will not contribute to your wellbeing. Good fats can be found in oily fish, nuts, olive oil, seeds and eggs.

Summary

You can improve your mental wellbeing by making changes in your diet. Eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, drink lots of water, reduce sugar and caffeine, and eat the right fats and protein. You can make this easier by pre-preparing meals, cooking with friends and keeping a food diary.

It might not be easy to implement change initially but, if you persevere, you should experience better mental wellbeing. Don’t forget, some foods are dangerous to eat if you’re taking certain medication, so always check with your GP before trying something new.

To find out more about Dorset Mind and what they do locally to raise awareness, challenge stigma and promote recovery, visit their website. dorsetmind.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 99

Body & Mind

GOAL SETTING

Image: Stuart Brill

Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit

F

ebruary can be a tough month for many of us.

The motivation we had and the promises we made at the start of January can fade, and we may need that extra kick to reignite our enthusiasm. What better way to do this than by setting some fitness goals?

I know some of you would have set yourself a New Year’s resolution regarding your health and fitness. I also know that some of you may have given up already! But why is this? Maybe it’s time for a new way of thinking.

No matter how big or small your goal – whether it’s losing four pounds or forty, walking a mile or completing your first Ironman – making change requires both planning and SMART goal-setting.

100 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

1 Specific. Your goal should be clear and easy to understand. A common goal of ‘to get fit’ is too general. There are so many ways to get fit. How do you want to do it? Is it losing weight? Starting exercising? Stopping smoking? Break it down into specific components and it will be easier to manage and sustain.

2 Measurable. A goal to lose weight is not specific enough. How will you track your progress and how will you know when you have reached your goal?

Making your goal measurable means deciding the final number and working out both how, and how often, you are going to measure improvement

towards reaching it.

3 Attainable. Before you decide the number, you have to know how high or low you want to go.

It’s good to aim high but don’t be too extreme or ambitious as it can be demotivating if the goal becomes unattainable. Similarly, a goal that is too easy is not very motivating. Only you know your limits. Let’s take the goal of losing weight. Research suggests that a 5-10% weight loss is attainable for most overweight people. A measurable, attainable goal could be, ‘I will lose 7% of my body weight.’

4 Relevant. Set goals that are important to where you are in your life right now. Don’t set a goal that someone else is pressuring you to attain – that isn’t very motivating! Examine our suggested goals listed below. Does one seem relevant to you? If so, consider it further. If, for example, you aren’t concerned about losing weight, or this is not a good time in your life to focus on that, choose something that will motivate you.

5 Time-bound. You will need to include an end point. Knowing that you have a deadline motivates you to get started and to keep going.

Since healthy weight loss is about one to two pounds per week, set your deadline accordingly.

For our example we can work towards a timescale of three months, ‘I will lose 7% of my body weight in three months.’ At that point a new SMART target can be created.

Once you have created your SMART target, you will then need to create some action-oriented procedures so that you have a ‘game plan’. Here are a few examples: • I will walk five days every week for 30 minutes each time.

• I will drink water instead of juice every day this week.

• I will take a healthy lunch to work instead of eating out four days this week.

Becoming a better version of you starts by being SMART! Invest in your health. Be proactive, not reactive, as a healthier you is a happier you.

Communifit has a wide range of services available and can help you set up a SMART goal, or provide health and fitness advice. See website for contact details. communifit.co.uk

Easily affordable, accessible exercise classes in Sherborne, Yeovil, East Coker and Yetminster.

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Sherborne Terrace Playing Fields SUNDAY 17TH FEBRUARY Registration 8.00am Official warm up 8.25am. Start 8.30am

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Why not make it more fun and wear as much red as you can!

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Body & Mind

FEELING SAD

A

Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom GP & Complementary Practitioner

s the winter drags on, the dark, damp and cold can begin to get us down. As a result, many people notice a change in mood; others become mildly depressed. This is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Part of the reason for SAD is a chemical called melatonin that is released within the brain during darkness and which has a sedating effect. Shorter days mean more melatonin, hence more sedating and mood-altering effects that can lead to depression or SAD. Many people dread the winter months for this reason.

There are several measures that can help and should certainly be tried to improve quality of life during the ‘dark’ months. As SAD is due to lack of light, it would seem logical to top up with UV by using a light box.

Studies have shown that 20-30 minutes daily in front of a light box reduces the incidence of SAD in 75% of patients. They are available online and cost about £30.

Dietary components also have an influence on mood changes in SAD. Studies have shown vitamins B and D, the mineral selenium, and omega-3 fish oils to be beneficial in SAD and depression. A sufficient intake of these can be gained from a mixed balanced diet containing nuts, grains, broad-leaf vegetables (for the vitamin B and selenium), oily fish (salmon and mackerel) and flax seeds for omega. Vitamin D is made in the skin by the action of sunlight; the lack of light during the winter months leads to reduced natural vitamin D production. It is sensible therefore to take vitamin D as a supplement, either alone or as part of a multi-mineral/multi-vitamin tablet.

I never miss a chance to recommend exercise! Yes, this too has been shown to raise mood and reduce depression.

102 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

I tell my patients that exercise is the most natural and least harmful antidepressant I know! Part of this is the endorphin ‘natural high’ effect but also exercise outside exposes you to sunlight – the very thing that underpins SAD. Exercising with a friend or at a club also introduces a social element which is a natural tonic for SAD. Trials have shown the herbal preparation St John’s Wort to be effective in mild to moderate depression, either alone or in combination with a light box (don’t forget to check it doesn’t clash with medicines from your GP). Homeopathic medicines are also effective through the holistic approach; the ‘whole person’ is taken into consideration in order to arrive at a prescription individualised to the patient.

If you do not seem to be responding to these simple measures and you or your family suspect a deeper depression, please seek advice from your GP. You can be assessed for the severity of the condition and may be offered a short course of a SSRI antidepressants to be taken during the winter months. Talking therapies and counselling, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, are also extremely helpful to reverse and extinguish those negative thought patterns.

To sum up: if you are one of the many SAD people who dread the ‘dark’ months, act now to help yourself.

A daily dose from a light box, a mixed balanced diet and regular exercise is the way to go. St Johns’ Wort can also help. If things seem particularly bleak, please talk matters over with your GP. Hopefully what I have advised will make your winter less sad/SAD! doctorTWRobinson.com GlencairnHouse.co.uk

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

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Private Chapels of Rest Website www.ajwakely.com

Independent Family Directors and Monumental Mason 33 SparrowFuneral Road, Yeovil BA21 4BT Tel: 01935 479913 16 Newland, Sherborne, DorsetService DT9 3JQ -Tel: 01935 816817 - 24 Hour Please contact Clive Wakely, or a member of our dedicated team for any advice or guidance.

Private Chapels of Rest

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 103

Hazelbury Bryan Lettings & Property Management

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

www.stockwoodlettings.co.uk

104 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Semi detached family home overlooking countryside.

Sitting/dining room, three bedrooms, modern bathroom, detached garage, driveway parking, enclosed garden, double glazing and oil central heating.

ÂŁ820pcm

Rimpton Recently extended cottage in lovely village. Sitting/ dining room with French doors to garden, fitted kitchen with appliances, two double bedrooms with fitted storage, low maintenance garden and parking for two cars, central heating and double glazing

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Legal

THINKING OF MOVING IN 2019?

Margaret Goddard, Chartered Legal Executive Residential Property, Mogers Drewett

I

t’s always an exciting prospect when you contemplate making a move, especially if you’ve fallen in love with a place, but buying and selling property can be tricky. So, what can you do to maximise your chances of a smooth and hassle-free sale? There is no magic wand but there are several areas where, in my experience, preparing in advance can really pay off.

Are you selling a house or a flat?

Is your current property freehold or leasehold? If you have a lease (i.e. you are selling a flat) check how long the lease has left to run. If it is close to or less than 80 years you should consider extending the lease to maximise the value of the property. This will involve an additional process with your landlord and some cost but it is likely to be an investment worth making.

Where did I put...?

Now is the time to collate all the information you have stored because ‘it might be useful one day’ and that the buyer might want to see: records for alterations you have made, e.g. planning permission and building regulations certificates for extensions or loft conversions; any warranties for windows, damp proofing, the boiler and heating systems. If you don’t have these, the quicker you let your solicitors know the 106 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

better. They can then work on finding a solution so that your buyer does not lose momentum.

The right estate agent

Choosing the right estate agent can make all the difference. Do your research and compare carefully when making your decision. How many similar properties in your area have they sold? How will they sell what is special about your property? Do they have a strong online presence? Are their fees fair and transparent?

The right solicitor

Of course I would say this – but the right solicitor is also essential! This will be the closest relationship you have during the process, so were they recommended? Are they approachable? Do they communicate in a way that works for you and does the chemistry feel right? There is an advantage if they are local; knowledge of the area and an existing relationship with the agents and other professionals involved will be invaluable. It also tends to be an advantage practically as you may need to sign or drop off documents and life will be much easier if they are nearby!

There is a lot to think about – but a good solicitor will help you through it! mogersdrewett.com

1

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Finance

HERD MENTALITY

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

A

fter a decade of almost uninterrupted stock market growth throughout the world, 2018 saw significant declines in most markets. This volatility has continued in the first week of 2019.

Indeed, in its annual report issued in January, the World Bank is forecasting a significant slowdown in the world’s economy. Faced with this scenario, how should a prudent investor react?

Behavioural scientists tell us that humans are not very good decision-makers and I wish to concentrate on one of these ‘frailties’.

Human beings are very social animals. We like to feel part of a community and we fear being alone or missing out. Hence, we tend to pay close attention to what others are doing and often like to mimic their actions. Behavioural scientists refer to this tendency as herd behaviour or herd mentality. Simply put, rather than making decisions for ourselves, we will look around and try to find somebody who appears to know what they’re doing and we’ll follow them. Herd behaviour is very common among investors.

The financial markets are intrinsically risky but we take comfort from copying what others are doing, particularly people who are like us. Unfortunately, because we, as humans, are such poor decision-makers, following other people is rarely a recipe for success. We have to step away from the herd. Try to find a way of looking in the other direction. Be the contrarian. Be the person who’s willing to swim upstream. Another reason why herding is so prevalent is that it seems intuitively right. It can even feel foolhardy not to follow the crowd.

The trouble with herd mentality when investing is that the herd is following the herd. So, when a stock market boom begins and people start getting in on the trend, and more and more people get excited about that trend, the herd is travelling in one direction. Then, as soon as that direction tips and the bubble pops, the herd leaves. If we follow the herd, then we’re always behind. We’re always going to be buying high and selling low. It’s particularly in the run-up to, and the aftermath of, market bubbles that herding behaviour tends to manifest itself.

Herding was also greatly in evidence in 2009 after global markets had fallen sharply as a result of the financial crisis. If there was ever a time to get into the markets, it was then. And yet, every morning the newspapers contained scare stories about how, ‘It’s all going to get worse’. This, of course, made everyone else scared. So no-one was acting, no-one was getting involved.

There were a few people who bought shares at that point but most people — even the ones who thought, ‘This has got to be a great time to invest’ — said, ‘I’ll just wait a little.’ And they did, and then they waited a little longer and a little longer. So then, when every rational, dispassionate rule of investing said, ‘This is the time to put your wealth to work,’ very few people did.

Herding, in short, is part of our make-up. Resisting the temptation to join the stampede takes discipline and self-control but, if we can resist, we’ll be far more likely to achieve our long-term investment goals. Stick to your financial plan. ffp.org.uk

110 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 111

Tech

FAKE EMAIL? HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE Jimmy Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

I

did say that this month I’d be discussing Tomorrow’s World Today, however I’ve been sidetracked by an explosion of email and website frauds that I thought would be more relevant to discuss. Email fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or the damaging of an individual through sending fraudulent and misleading emails. The purpose is usually to get you to send money or to give enough personal details for the sender to be able to defraud you.

Fake emails often (but not always) display some of the following characteristics: • The sender’s email address doesn’t tally with the trusted organisation’s website address.

• The email is sent from a completely different address or a free webmail address (gmail.com, outlook.com, hotmail.com).

• The email does not use your proper name but uses a non-specific greeting such as, ‘Dear customer’.

• A sense of urgency, e.g., threatening that, unless you act immediately, your account may be closed, or threatening to send revealing pictures to your friends and family.

• A prominent website link. These can be forged or seem very similar to the proper address but even a single character’s difference means a different website (barlcays.co.uk, nawtest.com) • A request for personal information such as user-name, password or bank details.

• Spelling and grammatical errors. This is very common. They may also contain phrases that an English speaker would never use.

• The entire text of the email is contained within an image rather than the usual text format.

• The image contains an embedded hyperlink to a bogus site.

• A begging email purporting to be from somebody you know.

• It is from a company that you weren’t expecting to get an email from.

I regularly get asked if I think an email is fake. I recently 112 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

received a call from someone who had received an email saying that their PayPal account had been hacked. I asked if they even had a PayPal account, and they said, ‘No’! I then asked them how they thought that their non-existent account could have been hacked… and the penny dropped!

If you receive a scam email: • Delete the email immediately.

• Do not click on any links in the scam email.

• Do not reply to the email or contact the sender in any way.

• If you have clicked on a link in the email, do not supply any information on the website that may open.

Just close your browser and restart your computer.

• Do not open any attachments that arrive with the email.

• If you think you may have compromised the safety of your bank details and/or have lost money due to fraudulent misuse of your cards, you should immediately contact your bank.

Sometimes, following a link in an email takes you to a fake website that tells you that your computer has been infected and asks you to call the number on the screen. No matter how dire the consequences might seem, DON’T CALL THE NUMBER! Without even trying to close the browser, just shut your computer down and start again. 99% of the time you’ll be back to normal and you can go back to your emails and delete the offending item.

As always, if in doubt or if you need help, you know where to come!

Next month: IT recycling and upcycling computing-mp.co.uk On Sunday 17th March 2019, Jimmy will be running the Bath Half Marathon in aid of The Bath Rugby Foundation.

This worthy cause uses the teambuilding and family ethos of the game, to help under-performing children achieve their potential. If you feel able to contribute, you can do so here uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JimmyFlynn. Thank you!

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114 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

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Unit 14, 0ld Yarn Mills, Sherborne Dorset DT9 3RQ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 115

FOLK TALES with Colin Lambert

DEAN CARTER

CENTRE FOR PURE SOUND

3

0th December, our wedding anniversary. We bundle blankets, a duvet and water bottles into the Saab and drive to Oborne village hall. Sheila tells me we are having a ‘soundbath’.

We take our place on the floor. The room is warm and almost full of like-minded bathers. Dean looks regal in his white robes surrounded by crystal and bronze bowls.

Sheila and I snuggle under the duvet. Dean explains that the soundbath vibrates the water in our body and that it’s a deeply relaxing experience, releasing toxins.

‘Hippy-dippy mumbo-jumbo,’ methinks.

But then he fills a bronze (Tibetan) fountain bowl with water and runs his wand around the rim. The water starts to dance and leap out of the bowl.

‘Wow, must be magic!’

A few days later when meeting Dean for this interview, I’m greeted with a B Flat crystal bowl sound emanating from the speakers, incense gently filling the room.

Born in Yeovil, Dean has younger twin sisters. As the family grew, they moved to South Petherton.

‘Musical family?’ I enquire.

‘Music everywhere. My dad loved jazz. Granny played piano at pub singalongs. My energies went into reading, writing and music. Yeovil College for A Levels then Oxford University to study English. I now speak it like a native! After a PGCE in Cambridge I realised classroom teaching wasn’t for me and my music needed to express itself. I moved to North London. I taught part-time but mainly I was writing, gigging and recording my own music and, through the 1990’s, released two solo albums and two with my band. Very intense years, including touring Europe. My biggest gig ever was at Glastonbury in 1992.’

‘All parties have to end,’ I remark.

‘In my late 20s my energy disappeared. Five years later I was diagnosed with ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as it’s now called. Doctors weren’t interested.

A friend suggested fresh country air so I arrived nearly back where I started from... Sherborne. The ME years, housebound, were awful. One day I got out a Tibetan 116 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

bowl I’d bought years before (strangely enough in South Petherton!). I just ‘donged’ it and, like the mist over a river, I felt my spirits rising. I used my bowl every day and my energy levels rose. So I studied sacred sound.’

‘Sacred sound? What’s that?’

‘Sound healing is one of the oldest and most natural forms of healing known to man. The sound waves from the instruments entrain the brain to move into the deeper Alpha, Theta and Delta brain-wave frequencies, inducing a deep meditative and peaceful state. As human beings, we comprise mainly liquid; these vibrations penetrate deeply into our bodies, moving through our tissues and organs. The sound resonates directly into our cellular memory, releasing blockages and creating a profound sense of peace and relaxation.’

‘Dean, from what I’m hearing, you cured your Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with your own sound healing?’

‘Yes, that chance purchase in South Petherton has truly transformed my life.’

‘Wow! And for breakfast?’

‘Boiled egg and pitta bread.’

‘You’re now called The Centre for Pure Sound.

Tell me more.’

‘That’s our website and business name. The soundbaths now feature 26 Tibetan and crystal singing bowls and my vocal overtoning - all Pure Sound healing instruments/techniques. We run voice (toning and overtoning) workshops, plus I give one-on-one treatments here in my studio. We have branched further afield and have a Sound Healing course planned for the Spring, as well as the release of the new soundbath CD. I’m writing a book on healing sound which I hope to complete this year. So Colin, did you find my workshop relaxing?’

Relax I did. The normal clutter that fills my mind was literally drowned out by the resonating bowls. I became lighter, so much so that I thought I was on a lilo with the sea gently rippling beneath me. I drifted away, not sleeping as I occasionally heard snoring. Over an hour later (seemed like 5 minutes) we were brought gently

Image: Katharine Davies

back to wakefulness and told to drink plenty of water to flush out the released toxins. I felt amazing and had a wonderful start to my wedding anniversary.

As we left the village hall, I met a very upright, elderly gentleman, Simon. He whispered in my ear, ‘I was dragged here last year by my daughter Amanda, she’s an astrologist. I thought it was hippy-dippy mumbo-jumbo, but now I just love it.’

Well I think that says it all! Thank you, Dean, for sharing your life’s journey with Folk Tales.

Dean runs his Soundbaths on the last Sunday of every month, with his February event on Sunday 24th.

Book via ahiahel@live.com or centreforpuresound.org. colinlambert.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 117

Community

THE PADDOCK PROJECT A RENAISSANCE FOR SHERBORNE

I

Julian Halsby

n 2011 Dorset County Council gifted a plot of land behind Paddock Gardens to Sherborne with the express condition that an arts centre be built. For some years we had been discussing the possibility of creating an arts centre in Sherborne House but it was simply not feasible to adapt this Grade 1 listed building.

The process of raising funds started but, after several years of hard work, we were getting nowhere and the project seemed doomed. However, a benefactor emerged and offered the Trustees, under the expert guidance of Sir Robert Fry, a sum which would finance a superb new art gallery and arts centre of international quality. This was indeed like manna from heaven.

An online petition gathered 1200 local signatures from schools, businesses, artists, craftsmen and art lovers in and around Sherborne, demonstrating the enormous popular support, indeed enthusiasm, for the project. This 118 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

was followed by a public meeting in a packed Digby Hall where some 300 people voted for the project, with fewer than 10 objectors.

Yet, despite this overwhelming public support for the project, there is a handful of people who are trying to stop it happening. The local CPRE have thrown up all sorts of spurious objections. They say that the rarely frequented Paddock Garden will be ruined. On the contrary, the project will enhance the garden and make it a real destination, which currently it is not. They dislike the idea of a modern building near Sherborne House, yet we all know how well the old and new can work together. Take, for example, the modernist extension to Bath’s Holburne Museum, controversial at the time but greatly admired today. They argue that there will be problems with parking despite the fact that Arup Partners carried out a survey which showed that

there is sufficient parking in Sherborne most of the time and indicated potential new spaces. They also ignore a detailed business plan drawn up with AEA Consultants which illustrates the economic viability of the project.

There is proven evidence that art centres revitalise the economy of towns. Locally Bruton and Tisbury have benefitted and nationally Margate and Merseyside have seen huge benefits from the establishment of art galleries. It is for this reason that many businesses in Sherborne are keen supporters of this project. In addition to being a community hub with activities for all ages, the new centre will house a restaurant and 120-seat auditorium/cinema which will enhance Sherborne’s evening economy and cultural life. Sherborne needs an economic boost and I believe that the Paddock Project will create a true renaissance for Sherborne.

The aim of the objectors is not to improve the project – it is to stop it. They want to preserve Sherborne in aspic. Be under no illusions: Sherborne House cannot ever become a gallery of international importance, it is unsuited and protected. Nor can the plans for the new building be relocated to some other site. If we fail to

grasp this wonderful and unrepeatable opportunity, we will be betraying Sherborne and its future generations.

AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW Peter Neal, President & John Newman, Chairman, CPRE Sherborne and District Society

T

he long-mooted Paddock Project, which has been simmering for several years, has now come to the boil with the submission of the scheme to West Dorset District Council (WDDC).

Although the Sherborne Times has expressed support for the arts centre proposal, we would like, on behalf of the CPRE Sherborne and District Society, to suggest that the scheme is by no means as perfect as has been portrayed, and that it has its serious critics as well as its enthusiastic supporters in the town.

While there very probably are few residents who are actively against the idea of an arts centre as such, there are key aspects of the current proposal that, in our view, > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 119

Community

simply don’t and can’t work. Let’s start with the design.

This shows the new building not only squeezed up against the northern boundary of the site but actually encroaching on the much-loved Paddock Garden, effectively hijacking the southern part of it. Equally odd is the fact that the scheme envisages lorries delivering large art objects to the new gallery by driving into the garden, which may affect the garden’s users.

The new building will be on a direct axis with Sherborne House, a Grade I-listed Georgian mansion which is actually the town’s most important secular historic building after Sherborne New Castle. The Sherborne and District Society has urged that Sherborne House and its garden would be a much better location for an arts centre but there is inexplicable resistance to this. One submission to WDDC suggested that it would be better to tarmac the Sherborne House garden and use it for parking for the Paddock building.

Which brings us to the serious and practical problem of parking. Anyone who drives into the centre of Sherborne to do their shopping will know that parking places are often in short supply, especially on Saturdays, and it is WDDC policy that any new developments in town centres must provide their own parking. The 120 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Paddock Project not only does not include any parking, it actually entails subtracting spaces from the existing public parking. If we then consider the visitor projections of up to 75,000 per annum, it is clear that the new building would greatly exacerbate the parking problem, to the extent that gridlock would threaten at peak times.

We also question whether the visitor projections are realistic. There would be no resident art collection to encourage visitors, just the occasional imported show.

So where will all those thousands of visitors come from, and why? And if they don’t materialise, where does the income stream come from to finance the running of the building? Anyone seriously interested in the arts nationally will know that recent history is littered with examples of glossy, Lottery-funded, new arts buildings that folded after the first few years because visitor numbers were grossly exaggerated and the business plan was flawed.

So no, this project is not uncontroversial and it is not universally and uncritically welcomed by the people of Sherborne. We are talking about the future of one of England’s most attractive small historic towns, and we have to get it right. dorset-cpre.org.uk

OUT AND ABOUT

I

David Birley

t was great to see so many people in our lovely town just after Christmas and in early January, and all the shops I spoke to reported strong sales. We need to be attracting lots of people all the time if our town is to survive and prosper in this age of out-of-town supermarkets and online shopping. While I appreciate there are cost savings when shopping this way, I personally prefer to see what I am buying and make sure, if it is clothes for example, that things are the right size and colour. I was also delighted to see that one of the former Almondbury shops has a new owner and I wish them well.

The careers event at the Gryphon last month was a great success. We all know how difficult it is for the young to get jobs these days and I think it is particularly beneficial for pupils to have an informal talk to potential employers on their home ground. There was a wide range of stands, from national concerns to local businesses and it was good to see some are offering apprenticeships. A university education is a fine thing but is not necessarily the best course of action for everyone. In my opinion there is little value to be had by going to a university that is not well regarded and getting a poor degree in a subject that has little relevance to the career market. Indeed, the only thing that is certain is that you will be saddled with student loan debt. With an apprenticeship you will end up with a skill you can take anywhere in the world. I am particularly proud that when I was Mayor, some local businesses and I held an event at the Gryphon aimed at school leavers and those seeking work experience and that this has now grown into a fully-fledged career event, attracting not only an increasing number of employers but also pupils from many other schools in our area.

We are very fortunate to have our own community radio station, Abbey 104, which can be listened to both on air and online and hence attracts listeners from far and wide. It is manned entirely by voluntary presenters and technicians. It covers a wide range of musical styles and there are also talk shows. Just Google Abbey 104 and you can see a complete set of all the programmes and presenters. I am lucky to have a spot on Thursdays playing ‘50s and ‘60s records, which is exactly what I was doing fifty years ago when I ran a disco! You can also email the station so the next time you or a friend have a birthday, or you would like to hear a particular record, just email your request to studio@abbey104.com.

Finally, while Christmas is a time for giving to friends and family there are many good causes which need our support throughout the year especially in this time of so many official funding cutbacks so please don‘t forget to use your token in Waitrose's community support chests and spare a thought when you see someone with a charity collecting box.

abbey104.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 121

Short Story

HIGH TEA

W

Bill Bennette, Sherborne Scribblers

e often referred to my mother, amongst ourselves only, as an ostrich. When anything troubled her, she would bury her head in the sand and say nothing. She would whisper to us, ‘Best not to say a word and it will just go away. If you say too much or anything at all, it will make matters worse.’ In later years, I always viewed this as rather pathetic. I would urge her to say something in her defence when someone had made a snide, albeit trivial, remark which, I could see from the expression of defeat on her face, really upset her. She would often tell me or my sisters off for speaking out of turn. ‘One day that tongue of yours will get you into trouble,’ she would say, an expression my elder sister frequently mimicked behind her back.

Every Saturday afternoon, we made our regular visit to mother’s Auntie Florrie, as she called her, for tea. We would take a freshly baked cake in a large tin which I had to carry very carefully, keeping it upright to stop the icing getting damaged. It was the same scenario every time. Mother rang the doorbell and my two sisters, Patricia and Joan, and I would say in unison as the door was opened, ‘Good afternoon Great Aunt Florence.’ She always smiled sweetly as she hugged us. The ceremony was always the same.

122 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

One day, the day of Auntie’s birthday, there were many cards on the sideboard and lots of flowers everywhere. The dining table was laid for tea with glass jugs of fruit squash for us children and a silver teapot and a fancy sugar bowl with tongs for the grown-ups. There was buttered bread with apricot jam for us and fancy finger sandwiches for the others. Mother’s cake was always put on a glass stand in centre position on the cloth-covered table. We were forbidden to take a slice of cake as we had been told that it was for poor Auntie Florrie, who had fallen on hard times when her husband, Uncle Alf, had died suddenly, and who had told mother that she had been left with very little.

We had arrived at a full house. The vicar, Reverend Troughton, was there with Mrs Troughton and two old maids who were Auntie’s neighbours. We had been told they were sisters, although they looked very different from each other. One was tall and quite dark and Italian-looking, with very short hair and no makeup whatsoever, whilst the other one was short and fat with curly ginger hair and bright red lipstick on her lips. It was a very jolly gathering and the vicar was on good form as he related a recent marriage in the church and recounted the wedding tea, which had been held in the church hall afterwards. ‘It was not as lovely as today. There were too many people and lots of children, so the noise was thunderous. They had Mrs Blenkinsop playing the piano, which was beautiful, but we could hardly hear her. I expect it was all down to the champagne they had been imbibing before we arrived.’ He then noticed, with some dismay, a tray of champagne glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket at the end of the table.

Mrs Troughton started giggling as Auntie grinned broadly.

That afternoon, mother had made a particularly nice chocolate cake, and when auntie saw me staring at it and drooling she asked me if I would like a piece. I promptly said, ‘No thank you. I am full of bread and butter.’ She persisted, ‘Sweet child, you never want any of your mother’s delicious cake, not even when it is this heavenly chocolate sponge.’

My reply shocked the room and I suddenly realised that I was in big trouble. ‘Mother said we must never eat the cake she brings to you because you are as poor as a church mouse and baking you a cake is the least she can do.’ Mother went bright red and then narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at me as she shook her head. Mrs Troughton saved the day when, looking at mother, she said, ‘We live in the rectory and are also very poor mice my dear, so please feel free to bake us a lovely cake sometimes!’

Everyone burst out laughing whilst I wished I had kept my mouth shut.

Illiustration: Jomar Aplaon/Shutterstock

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 123

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Mark Greenstock, Sherborne Literary Society

Mythos by Stephen Fry (Penguin Books, 2018) RRP: £8.99 paperback Sherborne Times Reader Price of £7.99 from Winstone’s Books

M

ythos has been a steady occupant of the bestseller lists for the past year. Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

As an erstwhile classics teacher and classroom pedant, I approached it with all my antennae bristling.

These stories have been told and retold, dramatised from the first Greek tragedies onwards, dredged for every possible psychological interpretation, catalogued in Robert Graves’ Greek Myths (1955) and revisited by Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. Will Stephen Fry resist the temptation to trivialise them with his own inimitable brand of quirkiness and ebullience?

I have to report that I was completely won over.

Fry transits between the ancient and the modern age with effortless abandon, for instance when he suggests that the names of Actaeon’s 36 hounds as given by Ovid would serve very well as online passwords. There are highly entertaining conversational fragments and throwaway remarks, all contributing to the playful as well as the serious sides of the book. On Kronos and Rhea: ‘It was quite natural that she had been a little upset by his consumption of their six children, but she surely understood that he had no choice.’ There are also telling analyses of the nature of Greek myth: ‘What

we really discern is the deceptive, ambiguous and giddy riddle of violence, passion, poetry and symbolism that lies at the heart of Greek myth and refuses to be solved.’

So how do we actually read this book? It is, on the whole, not suitable for bedtime reading to young children (though I suppose no more violent than some nursery rhymes). There is an excellent index which allows one to use it as a reference book. Probably the best way is to take it as it comes, chapter by chapter, story by story.

There are 34 colour plates, making it even more of a bargain. There are footnotes on every page, in very small print and sometimes irritating (e.g. an excursus on the figure twelve on p67), but usually enabling Fry’s erudition to reveal itself without compromising the flow of the story.

Fry claims personally to have consulted the oracle at Delphi, which may be a flight of imagination too far.

Perhaps, though, the priestess suggested that he should also write a second divinely inspired volume called Heroes – which came out a month ago. I can’t wait to get settled into it, if it’s as good as this one. sherborneliterarysociety.com

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JANUARY SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Make less hard (6) 4. One who judges a literary work (6) 9. Living in water (7) 10. Domain (7) 11. Teacher (5) 12. Mary-Kate and Ashley _____ : actresses (5) 14. Certain to fail (2-3) 15. Capital of Vietnam (5) 17. English singer-songwriter (5) 18. Cut very short (7) 20. Welcomed (7) 21. Silly tricks (6) 22. Forgive (6)

DOWN 1. Song sung by sailors (6) 2. Number of days in a fortnight (8) 3. Consumer of food (5) 5. Gathering of old friends (7) 6. Dull heavy sound (4) 7. Widespread (6) 8. Admit to be true (11) 13. Chosen (8) 14. Quibble (7) 15. Involuntary spasm (6) 16. Involving direct confrontation (4-2) 17. Sporting stadium (5) 19. Killer whale (4) sherbornetimes.co.uk | 125

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

I

Reverend Jono Tregale, St Paul’s Church

felt a bit like Father Christmas back in December. It wasn’t the beard and the belly (I have neither) but the opportunity I had to deliver special Christmas food boxes to local families on behalf of the Sherborne Food Bank. To see the joy and appreciation on people’s faces was wonderful. Every year the food bank receives generous donations of mince pies, chocolates, biscuits and other Christmas fare, and a dedicated team of volunteers make up additional gift boxes for about thirty families who have needed the food bank’s help in the recent months. The food bank has seen a significant rise in demand for its help over the past year – up 30% on the previous year (which itself was 30% up on the year before). This is staggering, and the food bank has needed to rely heavily on grants they’ve managed to secure in order to cover the shortfall in donated foods. The food bank – and all those they help – is grateful to the generous people of our community who donate food items in the collecting boxes in our three supermarkets, and to those who instead donate cash.

The agencies that refer to the food bank indicate that demand will continue to be at a high level well into 2019 – and remember no-one refers themselves; every referral is made by a health, social, educational or advocacy agency that is able to assess the need of their clients. With such demand, the food bank is hoping that the generosity so evident at Christmas will not subside.

Christmas is indeed so often a time of generosity. Perhaps we think of others more than we do at other times. Celebrating our own blessings causes us to reflect on the needs of those whose challenges are greater than ours. And we give in response. ‘Peace on earth and goodwill to all people,’ as we hear in the Christmas-time bible readings and sing in some of our favourite carols, helps us to look beyond ourselves.

It is, however, all too easy to let it fade by the time we reach the early months of the New Year – the credit card bill arrives or perhaps we simply forget as the busy-ness of life takes over – but the needs of others continue unabated or even increase as decisions are faced between feeding a family or heating a home.

The well-known RSPCA slogan, ‘Dogs are for life, not just for Christmas’ could be extended to ‘Christmas is for life, not just for Christmas.’ And I don’t mean in a sentimental ‘I wish it could be Christmas everyday’ sense. The message of Christmas is one of God giving of himself to a world in desperate need of peace, of hope, of forgiveness. And if our response to God’s gift of Jesus to us is to live in the spirit of ‘Peace on earth and good will to all people’ let that be all year, every day, and not at Christmas alone. Let’s continue with what perhaps we began at Christmas – generosity towards those in need. sherbornefoodbank.org stpauls-sherborne.org.uk

126 | Sherborne Times | January 2019

Focus without distraction Endless opportunities

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