Sherborne Times April 2019

APR IL 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

CRACKED IT with Alasdair Garnsworthy of The Chocolate Society

sherbornetimes.co.uk

WELCOME

W

hen Alasdair Garnsworthy acquired an ailing chocolate business in 2010 he knew nothing about chocolate. He trained with the best and applied himself wholeheartedly to learning the fine art of the chocolatier. With Alasdair’s creative eye and tenacious insistence on quality, The Chocolate Society has been resurrected, winning international acclaim and an enviable list of high-profile clients along the way. Katharine and Jo head to Higher Holton and find Alasdair in the kitchen, up to his hairnet in Easter eggs.

Elsewhere on our pages, we encourage pollinators with the help of Mike Burks and the Dorset Wildlife Trust, Rebecca de Pelet muses on Fitzgerald and memories of spring, Richard Bromell ponders a teapot and we welcome Matt Street of The Eastbury’s Seasons Restaurant with a new bi-monthly recipe series. We’re also very excited to be giving away 10 chocolate bunnies to our younger readers, courtesy of The Chocolate Society. Find out more on page 16.

Have a great 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

Simon Barber Evolver Magazine @SimonEvolver evolver.org.uk

James Hull The Rusty Pig Company @TheRustyPigCompany therustypigcompany.co.uk

Laurence Belbin laurencebelbin.com

Colin Lambert colinlambert.co.uk

David Birley davidpfbirley@hotmail.co.uk

Lucy Lewis Dorset Mind @DorsetMind dorsetmind.uk

Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum @SherborneMuseum sherbornemuseum.co.uk Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers @CharterhouseAV charterhouse-auction.com Mike Burks The Gardens Group @TheGardensGroup thegardensgroup.co.uk Cindy Chant Sherborne Walks @sherbornewalks sherbornewalks.co.uk Frank Collins Mogers Drewett Solicitors @mogersdrewett md-solicitors.co.uk Gillian M Constable DWT Sherborne Group @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk David Copp Rebecca de Pelet Sherborne School @SherborneSchool sherborne.org Matthew Denney PhD, MRICS Lawrences Auctioneers @LFA_Crewkerne lawrences.co.uk Jenny Dickinson Dear to Me Studio, Fine Stationery @DearToMeStudio deartome.co.uk Canon Robert Draper Sacred Heart and St Aldhelm Church sherbornecatholicchurch.org.uk

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

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.

4 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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 Sophia Gallia Jan Garner Sherborne Scribblers Andy Hastie Cinematheque cinematheque.org.uk Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons) Communifit @communifit communifit.co.uk Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom The London Road Clinic @56londonroad 56londonroad.co.uk Sarah Hitch The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms @SanctuaryDorset thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk

Tracey Lindsay taichianlemons.com David Marl dmarl.co.uk Sasha Matkevich The Green Restaurant @greensherborne greenrestaurant.co.uk Millie Neville-Jones Suzy Newton Partners in Design partners-in-design.co.uk Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Partnership @swanhousevet newtonclarkevet.com Kitty Oakshott Upstairs Downstairs Interiors @updowninteriors updowninteriors.co.uk Jan Pain Sherborne Literary Society @SherborneLitSoc sherborneliterarysociety.com Simon Partridge SPFit @spfitsherborne spfit-sherborne.co.uk Alastair Poulain Sherborne Preparatory School @Sherborneprep sherborneprep.org Mike Riley Riley’s Cycles @rileyscycles rileyscycles.co.uk Dr Tim Robinson MB BS MSc MRCGP DRCOG MFHom Glencairn House Clinic glencairnhouse.co.uk doctortwrobinson.com Paul Stickland Black Shed Flowers @NaughtyDinosaur blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk Val Stones @valstones bakerval.com Matthew Street Seasons Restaurant at The Eastbury @eastbury_hotel theeastburyhotel.co.uk Hannah Taylor Yeovil Spartans ydsc.co.uk/Water-Polo-Yeovil-Spartans John Walsh Friars Moor Vets friarsmoorvets.co.uk Sally Welbourn Dorset Wildlife Trust @DorsetWildlife dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk Wayne Winstone Winstone’s Books @winstonebooks winstonebooks.co.uk

72 8

What’s On

APRIL 2019 66 Gardening

126 Directory

16 Competition

72 THE CHOCOLATE SOCIETY

128 Folk Tales

24 Shopping Guide

80 Food & Drink

130 Out and About

28 Wild Dorset

90 Animal Care

132 Short Story

32 Family

98 Cycling

134 Literature

44 Art

100 Body & Mind

137 Crossword

48 History

116 Property & Legal

138 Pause for Thought

54 Antiques

122 Finance

56 Interiors

124 Tech

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 5

That’s not even the half of it.

Our most advanced model ever.

The all-new fully electric Audi e-tron arrives at Yeovil Audi this April.

• Single charge range of up to 240 miles • Fast charge from empty to 80% in 30 mins Official WLTP fuel consumption figures for the Audi e-tron range in mpg (l/100km) from: Combined N/A. NEDC equivalent CO2 emissions: N/A. These figures were obtained after the battery had been fully charged. The Audi e-tron is a battery electric vehicle requiring mains electricity for charging. There is a new test for fuel consumption, CO2 and electric range figures (known as WLTP). The electric range shown was achieved using the new test procedure. Figures shown are for comparability purposes. Only compare fuel consumption, CO2 and electric range figures with other vehicles tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend on a number of factors including the starting charge of the battery, accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load.

Image is for illustration purposes only and may not reflect UK specification.

Mead Ave

Yeovil Audi e Western Av

Houndstone Business Park

Yeovil Audi. Look No Further.

Lu ft on W ay

M ea d

yeovilaudi.co.uk or call 01935 574981.

n Way Stourto

Av e

Book a test drive from April 2019 at

Houndstone Retail Park

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

ASDA



@elizabethwatsonillustrations

Listings

Wellbeing Group

____________________________

____________________________

Costa Coffee, Cheap Street. dorsetmind.uk/

Wednesday 3rd 3pm & 7pm

services-courses/west-dorset-support-groups/

Getting Under Their Skins:

____________________________

Finding Character & Story

Sherborne Library, Hound St. Shared

First Thursday

in Renaissance Art

reading aloud with a small & friendly

of each month 9.30am

group. Free. 01935 812683

Netwalking

Digby Hall, Hound Street. A talk with

____________________________ Last Monday of month 5pm-6pm

From Sherborne Barbers, Cheap St. Free walk & talk with other small business

Mondays 2pm-3.30pm ‘Feel Better with a Book’ group

Sarah Dunant. £7 for non-members.

01935 474626, theartssocietysherborne.org.uk ____________________________

owners & entrepreneurs. FB: Netwalk

Thursday 4th

Twitter @yt_coaching

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd.

Tuesdays & Thursdays 10.30am

First Thursday of each month

Explore Historic Sherborne

2pm-3.30pm

lesley@whatfish.plus.com

Walks with Blue Badge Guide Cindy.

“My Time” Carers’ Support Group

Friday 5th 7pm

Meet at Sherborne TIC, Digby Road,

Sherborne Literary Society

Walks last 1.5 to 2 hours. £8pp.

The Shielings, The Avenue, DT9 3AJ.

‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree

cindyatsherbornewalks@gmail.com

Advice, coffee & chat. 01935 601499 or 01935 816321

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall. £10 (£9 for

____________________________

Fridays 2pm from Waitrose

members) from Winstone’s, TIC & online

____________________________

1st & 3rd Tuesday

Sherborne Health Walks

Friday 5th (eyes down 7pm)

of every month 6pm-8pm

Free, friendly walk around Sherborne.

Bradford Abbas Pre-School Bingo

Bookchat Sherborne Library, Hound St.

A lively book discussion group

____________________________

(read Cindy's regular on p50)

Dorset Mind - Sherborne 8 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Sherborne Instagram: yourtimecoaching

Local Vocals - Acapella Choir

____________________________

No musical knowledge required.

07825 691508

____________________________

Village Hall

APRIL 2019 studydays@theartssocietysherborne.org.uk

Wednesday 17th 7.30pm

____________________________

DWT - Get Dorset Buzzing

Sherborne Waterwheel Open Day

Friday 12th April -

Audio visual presentations. Entry by

Friday 3rd May 9.30am-5pm

Digby Memorial Church Hall,

Sherborne Steam

____________________________ Sunday 7th 11.30am-3.30pm

Digby Rd. 01935 872742

donation. sswc.co.uk Facebook:

(Tuesday to Saturday) Exhibition of New Work - Kate

Thursday 18th

____________________________

Lynch & James Meiklejohn

April Asian Art Auction

Monday 8th 9.30am-3.30pm

The Jerram Gallery, Half Moon St.

Charterhouse, Long Street,

____________________________

____________________________

West Country Embroiderers Beach Hut Bag

01935 815261

____________________________

DT9 3BS. 01935 812277

Digby Hall, Hound Street.

Friday 12th 6.30pm

Saturday 20th 10.30am-12.30pm

Info: Ann 01963 34696

Harriet Sandys Talks -

Oxfam Coffee Morning

____________________________

‘Silk Road Journey’

Monday 8th 7.30pm

Cerne Abbas Village Hall. Tickets 07812

Raleigh Hall, Digby Rd

MOVIOLA: Stan & Ollie (PG) Leigh Village Hall, DT9 6HL. £6 on the

543017, raising money for Barnardo’s

Raising money for Oxfam

____________________________

____________________________

Monday 22nd 2pm-3.30pm

door. Interval ice creams. leighvillage.org.

Sunday 14th 8am registration

Explore Sherborne

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

Sherborne Easter Bunny 5km

____________________________

Run

Sherborne Abbey Green, DT9 3LQ

Wednesday 10th

From the Terraces, DT9 5NS. Sign up in

Sherborne ArtsLink Flicks – The Wife

advance communifit.co.uk

____________________________

With Blue Badge Guide Cindy

Chant. £8. Booking not needed.

cindyatsherbornewalks@gmail.com

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd. £6

Tuesday 16th 11am-2pm

Wednesday 24th 7.30pm

from Sherborne TIC, pre-film supper

Sherborne Museum:

Science Café: Propelling

£12 (please book). 01935 815341.

Those Glorious Georgians

Ourselves to a Low Carbon Future

sherborneartslink.org.uk

____________________________

Free, donations welcomed

____________________________

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd.

Thursday 11th 10am-3pm

Wednesday 17th 2.30pm

____________________________

Sherborne Arts Society Study

W.I. AGM & Resolutions Debate

Wednesday 24th -

Day - Dutch Painting in the

Catholic Church Hall, Westbury.

Saturday 27th 7.30pm

competition, visitors £4

Cole Porter’s ‘Anything Goes’

Golden Age 1600-1689 Digby Hall, Hound St. £30. 01935 812350 jenny.newman@zen.co.uk

sherborne.scafe@gmail.com

Quiz, raffle & Easter floral decoration

Milborne Port Opera presents

____________________________

Milborne Port Village Hall, Springfield

Manhattan Car Hire

A i r p o r t Tr a n s f e r s & Executive Chauffeur Ser vice

Manhattan Car Hire Chauffeur service is a family run Airport Transfer & Taxi business based in Yeovil.

We specialise in Airport Transfers.

Seaport Transfers, Weddings and Luxury Executive Travel for many businesses throughout the South West.

01935 422485 / 07522 830641 manhattancarhire@gmail.com www.manhattancarhire.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 9

WHAT'S ON Road, DT9 5RE. Tickets £12: Wayne’s

by 19/4 07761 982256 1stssg.gsl@gmail.com

ArtsLink Fizz! Art for Memory

____________________________

Saturday 27th 7.30pm

Thursday 25th 7pm

Yeovil Concert Band

DT9 3AA. Free art class for people with

Sherborne Floral

Martock Church. £9 01935

Butchers, Milborne Port, mpopera.co.uk

Group Demonstration Inspirations for Spring Catholic Church Hall, DT9 3EL. 01935 813316

____________________________

829576 martockonline.co.uk/events yeovilconcertband.com/

____________________________

Wingfield Room, Digby Hall, Sherborne early stage memory loss. 01935 815899 sherborneartslink.org.uk

____________________________ Tuesdays & Wednesdays Watercolour Classes Wheelwright Studios, Thornford

____________________________

Planning ahead

Friday 26th 2pm–3pm

____________________________

A Guided Armchair Walk Around

Thursday 2nd May

Thursdays 2.30pm-4pm

Sherborne with Cindy Chant

Small Business Event - Speakers,

ArtsLink Parkinson’s Dance

Sherborne Library

Networking & Support

Tinney’s Lane Youth Centre, Sherborne

Friday 26th 7pm

Centre. hello@yourtimecoaching

____________________________ Barn Dance

Tinney’s Lane Youth & Community ____________________________

Info: 07742 888302 alicockrean.co.uk

____________________________

Dance class & social time for people who live with Parkinson’s. Free -

donations welcome. 01935 815899

Thornford Village Hall, Pound Rd.

Thursday 2nd May 6pm

sherborneartslink.org.uk

BearCatCollective.co.uk CeilidhsComet.co.uk

Vineyards, Digby Road. Be More Pirate

Thursdays 7pm-9.30pm

Friday 26th 7pm

judith@blueskyuk.com

No 1 Wheelwright Studios,

Café Orchestra

Friday 3rd - Tuesday 7th

Evershot Village Hall.

Sherborne Abbey Festival

(tuition only) or £20 (materials inc).

____________________________

returns for its 20th season. 30 events,

Tickets £9/£3 on door or from

Sherborne Business Book Group

____________________________

by Sam Conniff Allende. Booking:

Art Club@Thornford for Adults

____________________________

Thornford DT9 6QE. £15 per session

Jazz with Budapest

____________________________

07742 888302, alicockrean@gmail.com

Tickets £8, 01935 83784

The annual award-winning festival

or alicockrean.co.uk

Friday 26th 7pm

nearly 70% free entry. Info and tickets

Fridays

____________________________

Wheelwright Studios, Thornford. Info:

____________________________

from TIC or sherborneabbeyfestival.org

Acrylic Classes

Church Studio, Haydon, DT9 5JB.

Sunday 6th May 8am

07742 888302 alicockrean.co.uk

acclaimed singer-songwriters UK tour.

Village Hall

(performance 8pm) Other Side Presents: Diane Cluck An intimate excursion on this critically

Alweston Car Boot Sale

Advance tickets £8-£10 from otherside-

____________________________

dianecluck.eventbrite.co.uk

____________________________ Saturday 27th 2.30pm–4.30pm ArtsLink Art Talk: Stained Glass

Workshops & classes

Revealed by Kate Doig

____________________________

Raleigh Hall, Sherborne. £8 Sherborne

Tuesdays 9.30am-10.30am

____________________________

____________________________ Sunday 7th 1.30pm-4.30pm Sherborne Folk Band Workshop Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9 3NL. Suitable for all levels

& all acoustic instruments. info@

sherbornefolkband.org 07527 508277 sherbornefolkband.org

____________________________

TIC 01935 815341 sherborneartslink.org.uk

Nordic Walking

Sunday 28th 10am-4pm 10am-12.30pm Angels

Saturday 27th 7pm

Starting from Milborne Port Village Hall Car Park. Booking essential

of Sound Voice Playshop

07779 620843 landwalks@gmail.com

2pm-4pm Crystal &

____________________________

Tibetan Bowl Soundbath

Tuesdays 10am–12pm

Oborne Village Hall DT9 4LA £12 per

Fundraiser Quiz Night Scout Hut, Blackberry Lane, DT9 4DE.

£5 to inc ploughman’s, BYO drinks. Book 10 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

3rd ~ 7th May 2019

Celebrating Cel lebra e ting our

20t 20th h SEASON

FEATURED EVENTS FRIDAY 3RD MAY Nicola Benedetti CBE

MONDAY 6TH MAY Organ Recital: James O'Donnell

SATURDAY 4TH MAY Tenebrae: England's Finest

MONDAY 6TH MAY

SUNDAY 5TH MAY Let There Be Love

MONDAY 6TH MAY Fantasia

MONDAY 6TH MAY The Pity of War

TUESDAY 7TH MAY Alexander Armstrong

Sherborne Abbey Festival Orchestra

20th Century English Choral Music

Claire Martin OBE and Ray Gelato 'Godfather of Swing'

Narrator, Petroc Trelawny

(Westminster Abbey)

With bass David Soar as Elijah

Disney's classical music animation for children, with Moviola (U Certification)

and his band

PLUS MUCH MORE...

In all there are 30 concerts and events including children's workshops and pop-up performances Up to 70% of events are FREE ENTRY For more details and to book tickets visit Sherborne TIC or online at: www.sherborneabbeyfestival.org Sherborne Abbey Festival is run on behalf of Sherborne Abbey PCC: Registered Charity No.1130082, to support its charitable activities in the field of music.

WHAT'S ON session. 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com

____________________________

Thursdays 9am-11.30am

Mondays & Wednesdays

Country Market

____________________________

Just Breathe Yoga

Church Hall, Digby Road

centreforpuresound.org

Classes in Yetminster, Chetnole &

Yoga

____________________________

Corton Denham. 07983 100445

Every third Friday 9am-1pm

____________________________

Cheap Street

justbyoga@outlook.com

Farmers’ Market

Hatha Yoga

Tuesday evenings

____________________________

Sherborne venues. hello@yogasherborne.

& Friday mornings

Saturday 6th & 20th 8.30am

co.uk FB @yogasherborne

Iyengar Yoga

(trade) 9.30am (public) until 4pm

____________________________

Chasty Cottage Antiques &

Mondays-Thursdays

Digby Church Hall, Digby Rd.

With experienced teacher Anna Finch.

Collectables Fair

01935 389357

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound St. Entrance ÂŁ1, 01963 370986

____________________________ Sundays

Yoga with Emma Venues - Sherborne, Milborne Port,

Thornford. emmayogateacher@gmail.com

____________________________

emmareesyoga.com

Fairs & markets

____________________________

____________________________

Sherborne Fleamarket

Mondays 10.30am-12pm

Thursdays & Saturdays

Yoga with Gemma

Pannier Market

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd.

Longburton Village Hall. 07812 593314

The parade

or gemski81@hotmail.com

Saturday 6th 10am-4pm

Antiques, crafts & collectors market.

____________________________

Free. West Country Fairs 01749 677049

____________________________

the toy barn's fabulous fancy dress

easter egg hunt good friday 19th april Entry CHOCOlATE EAsTEr Egg UNlIMITED PlAY ON OUr ClIMBINg FrAMEs, includes: sWINgs, TrAMPOlINEs & WENDY HOUsEs Refreshments & snacks will be available all day.

Pre-book ticket(s) now at toy-barn.co.uk

The

Toy Barn

Sherborne

12 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

tickets & info: toy-barn.co.uk ( 01935 815040 blackmarsh farm, sherborne dt9 4Jx

APRIL 2019

____________________________ 1st Tuesday (IVF) & 3rd Tuesday Please share your recommendations and contacts via FaceBook @sherborneparents

(adoption) 7pm-8.30pm

____________________________

IVF & Adoption Workshops

Monday 8th - Friday 12th Holiday Club

____________________________

Sherborne Barber. Info: @3Primes

____________________________

Every Tuesday during

Fridays 9.30am-11am

term-time 9.30am

(Friday 5th Easter Picnic

aged 4-6, 7-9 & 10-13. gosherborne.com

Nether Compton

& Hunt on Village Green)

Monday 8th 10.30-11am

Baby & Toddler Group

Bishops Caundle Toddler Group

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue

Village Hall. 2nd April Easter egg hunt.

All Saints School, Bishops Caundle

- Road Safety Talk & Activities

Every Tuesday 10am-11.30am

1st Saturday of the month

Sherborne Breastfeeding Group

10.30am-12pm

For children aged 4 – 11

Tinneys Lane

Sticky Church

Thursday 11th & 18th 10:30am–11:30am

1st Tuesday of the month 1

Cheap Street Church Hall. Free group for playgroup & primary age children,

Children’s Easter Activities

01963 251747

____________________________

Sherborne Library. Free.

Doodles Play Cafe, 1 Abbey Rd,

Sunday 7th 1pm-3pm

Suitable for all ages.

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________ 0am-12.30pm Sherborne Sling Clinic

____________________________

Sherborne Prep School. For children

____________________________

Sherborne Library. Free.

____________________________

DT9 3LE. Booking essential.

Child & Baby First Aid Class

Friday 19th

@babywearingsouthwest or

Fancy Dress Easter Egg Hunt

kizzy@babywearingsouthwest.co.uk

Digby Memorial Church Hall, Digby

____________________________

Rd. £20pp dorset.minifirstaid.co.uk

____________________________

The Toy Barn toy-barn.co.uk

____________________________

Ottery Lane DT9 6EE. Novices very

____________________________

free. sherbornetouch.org 07887 800803

First XV Southern Counties South.

Sherborne Town FC

sherbornerfc.rfu.club. 3pm start.

Sunday 22nd 8am Alweston Car Boot Sale Village Hall

____________________________

Sport ____________________________

welcome. £2 per session, first four sessions

Sherborne RFC

____________________________

The Terrace Playing Fields, DT9 5NS.

First XI Toolstation Western League

Saturday 6th

Division 1. Terrace Playing Fields, DT9

Dorchester (H)

5NS. sherbornetownfc.com. 3pm start

Saturday 13th

Saturday 6th

Frome (A)

Digby Etape Cycling Club Rides

Portishead (A)

____________________________

Average 12mph for 60 minutes.

Saturday 13th

To include your event in our FREE

Drop bar road bike recommended.

Bishops Lydeard (A)

listings please email details (in

SherborneCyclingClub

Good Friday 19th

approx 20 words) – by the 5th of

____________________________

Wincanton (H)

each preceding month to gemma@

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Easter Monday 22nd

homegrown-media.co.uk

7.30pm–8.30pm

Wells (H)

Due to the volume of events received

Mixed Touch Rugby

Saturday 27th

we are regrettably unable to

Sherborne School floodlit astroturf,

Keynsham (A)

acknowledge or include them all.

Sundays 9am (from Abbey gates) & Wednesdays 6pm (from Riley’s)

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 13

PREVIEW In association with

GARY COOK: TREE.LIFE As part of his solo exhibition ‘Tree.Life’ from 3rd - 9th April in

Cook says “The thought of the events these trees have stood

the Shaftesbury Arts Centre Gallery, Gary Cook is producing a

through is incredible and to contextualise this I include within

of atmospheric ancient oak trees. “My theme is the urgent need

that particular acorn germinated.”

series of 35 large-scale paintings in charcoal, ink and watercolour to celebrate the trees and their ecology and to highlight the

the painting a timeline of the human history recorded since Sadly, only 10% of England is covered by woodland,

importance of protecting this icon of our countryside. The oak is

compared with a European average of 37%. As a small

one of the few they can identify correctly. No tree is held in greater

buying a painting will also receive a UK-grown oak from The

probably the first tree that most people in Britain would name and affection. Yet, shamefully, ancient oaks are under threat from

development and disease, just 2% of our ancient woodlands that once blanketed the country remain. Each tree is so important

and yet barely any oak have been planted in the past 100 years.”

The painter says “With a 10-metre trunk, it amazed me to

encouragement to increase our tree coverage, every person

Woodland Trust to plant. Not only is tree growing a small step

in tackling climate change, but old oaks are havens for wildlife.

More than 2,200 other species from bats to beetles, and

mammals to lichens are dependent in some way on the tree.

____________________________________________

think that the Silton Oak, near Gillingham, sprouted around

Wednesday 3rd - Tuesday 9th April, 10am - 6pm

when the Battle of Hastings raged in 1066. It was a stately

Shaftesbury Arts Centre, 13 Bell Street, Shaftesbury SP7 8AR

Catherine of Aragon. Its 800th anniversary would have been

____________________________________________

1019, that means it would have been about fifty years old

Gary Cook: Tree.Life

half century when Henry VIII began his marrying spree with

01747 854321 shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk cookthepainter.com

just before the first railway service steamed into action.”

14 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

evolver.org.uk

ARTIST AT WORK No. 6: David Marl, Three Ways of Being, Acrylic on Board, 12.5 x 17.5cm

‘D

o you, sir, paint in fear & trembling?’ William Blake asked the question and I’m not sure how I would answer, but painting is something that matters to me, something important.

I work on a small scale, my paintings are usually 12.5 x 17.5cm. I love the sense of the world being reduced, of being condensed, into this tiny space.

I trained at Kingston Art School and The Royal College, not as a painter but as a stained-glass artist. This training probably influences the way that I use colour and put a picture together. The content of most of my paintings is influenced by the English visionary tradition - artists such as Blake and Palmer - and I combine

painting with work as an associate priest in the Church of England.

My work was shown in Truro Cathedral two years ago and there is an exhibition planned for Worcester Cathedral this summer.

I suppose, as with most artists, my work is an acquired taste but I hope they give pleasure and, more than that, that they speak of a world that is deeper and richer than the secular world in which we live day by day.

Three Ways of Being is available for purchase, price £500 dmarl.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 15

WIN 1 OF 10 CHOCOLATE BUNNIES Hidden among the pages of this month’s Sherborne Times are 10 delicious Easter eggs. Find them all for your chance to win your very own chocolate bunny from The Chocolate Society

Email your answers to helen@homegrown-media.co.uk Strictly no grown-ups (you can buy your own).

Terms & Conditions: Correct answers require the page number of each hidden Easter egg. Entrants must be UK residents, aged 12 years or under. No purchase is necessary. One entry allowed per person. There are ten prizes to be won. All prizes are non-refundable, non-transferable and non-exchangeable and there is no cash alternative offered. The prize will be sent via recorded delivery to the address supplied within two weeks of notification. The promoter is Homegrown Media Ltd, 1 Brett’s Yard, Digby Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NL. Closing date: Friday 12th April 2019. Ten names will be drawn from a hat on Monday 15th April 2019.

Image: Katharine Davies 16 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

DIANE CLUCK Friday 26th April

doors 7pm, performance 8pm Advance tickets £8 - £10 (+ booking fee) from www.otherside-dianecluck.eventbrite.co.uk “She made me rethink my singing instincts. Diane is not just an amazing and interesting singer, she’s a philosopher.”

Sharon Van Etten “I grew up on 60s music, but my first contemporary music love was Diane Cluck.” Laura Marling

“She is likely one of the most refined and elegant songwriters in all of neo-folkdom.

A brilliant idiosyncratic guitarist, a witty and wise lyricist, an imaginative melody writer with a powerful voice; her dark and introspective tunes are utterly captivating. Watch her spellbind the room.” Village Voice, NYC

“When Diane sings, I am lost in a realm of infinite possibilities. She breaks me down, she gives me chills, she makes me cry–this is when I love music.” Bianca Casady (CocoRosie) “She takes the voice to the brink of a new and beautiful language.” Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear)

CHURCH STUDIO HAYDON DORSET DT9 5JB

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

Film

ON FILM

Andy Hastie, Cinematheque

T

here is much excitement over the new projector in place at The Swan Theatre, as Cinematheque is now able to offer the best of world cinema, at the highest quality, in a glorious venue. What more could one wish for?

With reference to quality, our May presentation will be from a director who can justifiably be included in a list of the all-time greats. Asghar Farhadi picks up international film awards for fun; his last film, The Salesman, which we have shown, won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2017. Farhadi, an Iranian, refused to attend the ceremony to collect his award following Donald Trump’s executive order banning Iranians from entering the USA. The film, however, was shown for free in Trafalgar Square on Oscar night, with Farhadi addressing the crowd via a video link from Iran.

His latest film, Everybody Knows, showing on 29th May, is a Spanish thriller starring three of the finest actors in the Spanish-speaking world. Penelope Cruz plays Laura, returning to her childhood village from Argentina with teenage daughter and small son in tow, to attend a family wedding. Also there is Paco ( Javier Bardem), a local winemaker with whom Laura once had a fling. The morning after the wedding, Laura’s daughter is discovered missing, feared kidnapped. Laura’s husband, 18 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Everybody Knows (2018)

Alejandro, played by the fabulous Ricardo Darin, flies in, as a thriller of whodunit guessing games unravels.

An engrossing picture of tangled relationships is woven for us to pick through, showing more than once how good intentions so often fail, producing the opposite of their desired outcome. Come along to see three acclaimed actors at the top of their game spark off one another in this exhilarating, intricate thriller from a master filmmaker.

Don’t forget the two films we are showing this April: Western on the 3rd and In Between on the 17th. All details are on the website. Both not to be missed. We’d love to see you at The Swan.

____________________________________________ Wednesday 3rd April, 7.30pm Western (2017) Wednesday 17th April, 7.30pm In Between (2016) Wednesday 29th May, 7.30pm Everybody Knows (2018) Yeovil Cinemateque, The Swan Theatre, 138 Park Street, Yeovil BA20 1QT

____________________________________________

cinematheque.org.uk swan-theatre.co.uk

APR IL 2019 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

THE BANK MANAGER

with Swanherd, Steve Groves

bridporttimes.co.uk

OUT NOW

Available across Bridport and beyond Read online at bridporttimes.co.uk

Image: Dan Patrick Hipkin

SHERBORNE ABBEY FESTIVAL PREVIEW Friday 3rd - Tuesday 7th May

I

n separate concerts, Sherborne Abbey Festival welcomes two world-class vocalists and musicians: Alexander Armstrong and Ray Gelato. Each with their own inimitable styles and fascinating journeys into the world of musical performance, these are two performers not to miss.

ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG

Presenter, actor, quiz show host (of Pointless fame), singer, adventurer and comedian, Alexander Armstrong has many strings to his entertainment bow. Fresh from reaching new heights in aid of Comic Relief, with a challenging but successful 19,000ft climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, he will be holding centre-stage at Sherborne Abbey for one of the Festival’s headline performances on Tuesday 7th May at 7.30pm.

20 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Born in Rothbury, Northumberland, Alexander is a trained classical baritone, having been a chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge. Music has always been a huge love of his and he presents a weekend radio show for Classic FM. In 2015 he joined forces with the stars of the Warner Music Group, working on a medley of classical songs for his debut solo vocal album, A Year of Songs. It reached number six on the UK Albums Chart in its first week and topped the UK Classical Charts, the first time a comedian/actor has reached number one in those charts.

He also starred as Max Detweiler in an ITV special The Sound of Music Live in the same year.

He returned to the studio in 2016 and the more ambitious Upon a Different Shore saw him delivering classical and show pieces alongside contemporary

pop numbers in his classical baritone style. His next record, In a Winter Light, appeared a year later and was a Christmas album that featured traditional hymns alongside covers of Nina Simone and Bing Crosby classics, as well as two of his own compositions.

Alexander and his band will perform an eclectic programme ranging from A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square and You Make Me Feel So Young to Lullaby of Birdland, Girls Just Want To Have Fun and many more.

____________________________________________ Tuesday 7th May, 7.30pm Alexander Armstrong and his band Sherborne Abbey. Tickets: £45, £35, £15

____________________________________________ RAY GELATO

Ray Gelato, known as the UK’s ‘Godfather of Swing’, started playing tenor sax in 1979 and was credited for helping kick off the swing revival in the early 1980s.

Initially playing along to his dad’s old rock’n’roll records, he soon taught himself solos by such greats as Bill Haley’s sax player, Rudolph Pompilli. Before long he was playing the rock’n’roll and blues circuits while also studying music at the City Lit College in London and being privately tutored by one of the UK’s greatest sax players, Pat Crumly.

Ray’s interest in music quickly developed into studying jazz greats such as Ben Webster, Lester Young and many more. He numbers Illinois Jacquet, Gene Ammons and Coleman Hawkins amongst his strongest influences. He was part of the vibrant London club scene of the 1980s, fronting a highly successful band, The Chevalier Brothers; it was in this band that he developed his distinctive, Louis Prima-influenced vocal style that audiences still love today.

Together with his acclaimed band, The Giants, Ray has been a favourite at the world-famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London for nearly two decades – one of the club’s longest residencies. Personal career highlights include playing Umbria Jazz in Italy, The Montreal Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Blue Note NY, The Lincoln Center NY and at Sir Paul McCartney’s wedding. He has also opened for Robbie Williams at The Royal Albert Hall and performed on two occasions for HM The Queen.

In a recent collaboration with English jazz singer Claire Martin OBE, Ray produced a show called ‘Let There Be Love’ which showcases at the Festival on Sunday 5th May (Sherborne Boys Big School Room, 7.45pm). These two great friends will be joined on-stage

by a stellar group of musicians representing the cream of British jazz talent - the evening promises to be an irresistible romp through the romantic classics of the great American songbook. Expect interpretations of timeless favourite songs such as Gershwin’s Embraceable You, Nat King Cole hits Let There Be Love and When I Fall in Love, alongside Dean Martin’s That’s Amore.

‘Gelato’s dapper mixture of swing and Louis Prima jumping jive remains as invigorating as ever.’ (The Times)

____________________________________________ Sunday 5th May, 7.45pm Ray Gelato and Clare Martin OBE: Let There Be Love Big School Room, Sherborne. Tickets: (Shared) Tables £25 per person | Stalls & Balcony Seats £18

____________________________________________

For more information on the Festival’s programme of 30 events, with around seventy percent free entry, visit the website or call into Sherborne Tourist Information Office. sherborneabbeyfestival.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 21

'Independent Bookseller of the Year 2016’

Talk and Signing with BBC Songs of Praise Presenter Pam Rhodes Saturday 25th May, 7pm The Butterfly House, Castle Gardens Tickets £5, available in store 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PX www.winstonebooks.co.uk Tel: 01935 816 128 Arundells hlf pg ls 2019 195x133.qxp_Layout 1 11/02/2019 09:40 Page 1

Arundells

A Prime Minister’s House

The former home of Sir Edward Heath: Prime Minister, Sailor, Musician

Certificate of Excellence 2018

House, Garden & Art Collection Open - from 23rd March to 5th November, Saturday to Tuesday - Explore at your leisure, Wednesdays - Guided tours

Exhibitions and special events throughout the season The Cathedral Close, Salisbury Wiltshire. Tel: 01722 326546 22 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

www.arundells.org

Ali Cockrean & Martin Thompson Wheelwright Studios, Thornford DT9 6QE at

Painting & Drawing Courses & Workshops

Booking Now! For The Summer Term

t.07742 888302 e.alicockrean@gmail.com w.alicockrean.co.uk

E

Elementum A N I L L U S T R AT E D J O U R N A L O F N AT U R E W R I T I N G

A new gallery in Sherborne

Original Works Fine Art Prints Books & Journals Cards & Gifts Courses & Events

May 2019

at

The Larmer Tree Gardens Tollard Royal, nr Salisbury SP5 5PY Over 40 artisan and brocante stalls with delicious food and workshops Entry £5 | Children free Sorry no dogs (except guide dogs)

‘It is an absolutely extraordinary text: a book, not a journal, really.’

Robert Macfarlane

www.elementumjour nal.com elementumgallery.co.uk

@thedorsetbrocante www.vintagebrocante.co.uk

Sunday 5th May & Monday 6th May 10am - 4pm sherbornetimes.co.uk | 23

Shopping Guide

Necklace, Circus £64

Necklace, Melbury Gallery £22

Toucan necklace, Upstairs Downstairs £32

Triangle necklace, Upstairs Downstairs £31

Silver bracelet, Hi Ho £55

Pearls, Perri Ashby £60-£80

PRETTY LITTLE THINGS Jenny Dickinson, Dear to Me Studio The shops of Sherborne are abound with unique and beautiful jewellery.

Here is just a glimpse of some of the gorgeous items out there.

24 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Flamingo pom pom hair clips, Circus £7.50

Necklace, Melbury Gallery £18

Ring, Circus, £200

Earrings, Perri Ashby £35

Mermaid necklace, Circus £9

Bracelet, White Feather £20

Earrings, Melbury Gallery £165 sherbornetimes.co.uk | 25

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

Stunning . . .

&

at

Clothes Home Jewellery Gifts . . .

Dorchester

& many more

O13O5 265223

26 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Sherborne

O1935 814O27

ARTI SA N R

O

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E

by c l iv e w e bbe r

ALPACA - PIM A COT TON - SI LK

Open Day E vent – Digby Hall Saturday 13th April We would like to welcome you to our Spring season

Artisan Route Open Day Event at Digby Hall at Hound Street, Sherborne.

This special event will be held on Saturday 13th April from 10:30 AM – 4 PM. There is plenty of parking at the Digby Hall car park.

We will be featuring our brand new Spring Collection of Alpaca Knitwear, ‘Perfect Fit’ Pima Cotton Tops, and Silk Scarves – All by Artisan Route.

Eva – Smart scoop top interwoven with four Spring colours. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Valeria – Stylish V neck jacket with standup collar. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Angela – Perfectly tailored ‘princess line’ links knit jacket. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Olivia – Effortless and relaxed long links knit jacket. Knitted in 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca.

Patricia – ‘Perfect Fit’ Peruvian Pima Cotton long sleeved Crew.

Available in 12 colours.

Pilar – ‘Perfect Fit’ Peruvian Pima Cotton short sleeved Scoop.

Available in 12 colours.

This is a young company and brand name, but please remember that Clive Webber has had connections for close to 20 years in Sherborne and really knows how to produce top quality designs in Alpaca, Pima Cotton and Silk.

The beauty of the Open Day is that it provides the opportunity for Artisan Route to show our products in reality, giving customers the chance to see, touch, and try garments.

Personal service and attention is the focal point of our small business.

Our very good friend Mel Chambers will be with us to help and assist.

We are sure that you all know how to reach Digby Hall, but just in case, the postcode is DT9 3AA. Please feel free to bring family and friends along !

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

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

Wild Dorset

ALL AFLUTTER Sally Welbourn, Dorset Wildlife Trust

Massimiliano Paolino/Shutterstock

A

s spring gets underway, Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) is asking everyone in Dorset to do at least one thing to help declining pollinators in their gardens as part of its new Get Dorset Buzzing campaign. Bees are probably the first thing you think of when you hear the word ‘pollinators’, but there are many other species of wildlife which also carry out the all-important process of pollination, including beetles, moths, hoverflies and butterflies.

This time of year, besides the emergence of bees, you’ll also start seeing butterflies flying around between flowers and brightening up our gardens and landscapes.

DWT’s regular ‘species of the month’ for April is the brimstone butterfly – one of the earliest appearing.

Unlike many butterflies, brimstone’s hibernate through cold weather in adult form. They may be seen flying on warm days throughout the year, although they are most common in the spring. It’s a distinctive butterfly which is easy to spot – it’s fairly large and pale yellow in colour, with leaf-shaped ‘veiny’ wings. They’re also excellent pollinators as they use their especially-long ‘proboscis’ (nose) to consume nectar from flowers that are beyond the reach of many other butterflies.

If you’d like to see brimstone butterflies in your garden, there’s plenty you can do. Planting buckthorn 28 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

is a great place to start, as that’s what the brimstone larvae eat. One of the biggest challenges for pollinators is finding habitat, so planting ivy and allowing it to climb around trees or structures will give them a safe area to hibernate. As with all pollinators, they need lots of nectar-rich plants – why not create a border in your garden? If you sign up to the Get Dorset Buzzing campaign on our website, DWT will send you some pollinator-friendly wildflower seeds so you can get started on welcoming pollinators into your garden.

Facts: • The males have a slightly brighter, yellow tone, whereas the females are a paler green tone. Both have a small orange-brown spot on each wing.

• The brimstone is named after an archaic word for sulphur.

• When picked up, the brimstone becomes stiff and hides its legs from view in order to increase its leaf-like appearance and decrease its chances of being recognised.

• Brimstone’s are most attracted to purple flowers.

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

HUTS TO HUNKER DOWN IN plankbridge.com 01300 348414

Get Dorset Buzzing

Join our buzzing community by helping pollinators in your garden.

Sign up for your FREE pack today: wtru.st/gdb3

Photos © Cat Bolado, Ken Dolbear, MBE, Tony Bates MBE & Katharine Davies.

SHERBORNE TIMES ADVERT half page April 2019.indd 1

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 2914:30 06/03/2019

Wild Dorset

Image: Cat Bolado

SHERBORNE DWT

P

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

ollinators are declining nationally and we all want to help. Gardens can provide valuable habitats but everyone can do something practical, even if it is just a window box. Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) is launching a major campaign to get at least 1,000 people in Dorset to do one new thing for pollinators in their gardens. Imogen Davenport, Director of Conservation for DWT, has been organising the campaign.

On Wednesday 17th April, at Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, you will be able to discover how you can help pollinators and other wildlife in your garden.

The doors open at 7pm, with time for a drink and conversation, before the meeting starts at 7.30pm. Nonmembers of DWT are most welcome. John Gaye, the Sherborne group chairman, will give a brief annual report and this will be followed by Imogen speaking about why action is needed and how everyone can help with simple actions in their gardens, actions which will support lots of other wildlife as well as pollinators. The title of her talk, and of the campaign, is Get Dorset Buzzing and she will be encouraging us all to do our bit in the garden for wildlife.

30 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

For many years DWT has run a Wildlife Friendly Garden Competition, see details on the website.

However, if you don’t feel ready to enter a competition, then you can apply for a Get Dorset Buzzing Wildlife Friendly Garden Plaque. There is a set of 13 wildlifefriendly features and if you have six or more you could qualify for a plaque and certificate. Additionally, the Wildlife Trusts and RHS have set up ‘Wild about Gardens’ to encourage and celebrate wildlife gardening and it is easy to sign up for their monthly newsletter.

In 2016 I read a paper in British Wildlife about an amazing project started in 2000 to stop conventional farming on a large estate in West Sussex and allow it, in a controlled manner, to go wild. Now there is an excellent book about the project, Wildings, and its author, Isabella Tree, will be speaking at the Sherborne Literary Society meeting on 5th April. Anyone with a love of natural history will be delighted to discover how successful the project has been. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

PUTTING FAMILY FIRST Whether you’re looking to help younger family members onto the housing ladder, contribute to a grandchild’s education or wedding, or help an older relative with later life planning, St. James’s Place Wealth Management has designed a range of family-oriented products and services that enable the generations to support each other and work collaboratively.

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

36 Haven Road, Canford Cliffs, Dorset BH13 7LP Tel: 01202 830730 40 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JG Tel: 01747 855554 9 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PU Tel: 01935 315315 Email: peterhardingwm@sjpp.co.uk Web: www.peterhardingwm.co.uk The Partner Practice is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the title ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives. Peter Harding Wealth Management is a trading name of Peter Harding Practice Ltd.

@elizabethwatsonillustrations

encouraging

happy,

enthusiastic and

independent children

For more information or to arrange a visit please contact the Registrar, Charlotte Carty

01935 810911 or registrar@sherborneprep.org Acreman Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NY

www.sherborneprep.org 32 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Catholic Boarding & Day school for girls aged 9-18

Open Morning: 3rd May 2019 New Sherborne Minibus Route available from September 2019

www.stmshaftesbury.uk

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FO

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O

O

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TH N

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Thornford Primary School

Reception places available for September 2019 For more information or to arrange a private visit please contact the Headteacher, Mrs Neela Brooking on 01935 872706 or email office@thornford.dorset.sch.uk

Do you have a spare room in your home?

Are you caring, nurturing and supportive?

Become a Host Family for an international pupil at a local boarding school Attractive daily rates Occasional weekend and half terms only Contact Imogen to find out more on imogen@pippasguardians.co.uk or call 01684 252757

Ofsted “Outstanding”, SIAMS “Outstanding” School Games Gold Award Boot Lane, Thornford, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 6QY www.thornford.dorset.sch.uk

www.pippasguardians.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33

UNEARTHED Hector Fiennes, Aged 18 Sherborne School

P

rofessor Stephen Darlington, for 33 years the organist and tutor in Music at Christ Church, Oxford, visited Sherborne at the beginning of this month to adjudicate a Sherborne School music competition for pianists, organists and singers. There were numerous entrants, many of whom have music scholarships, and four of whom already hold performance diplomas (ATCL and LTCL) from Trinity College, London.

After performances in all three disciplines, and having won the organ class outright, Hector Fiennes was declared by Stephen Darlington to be the overall winner of the Halliday Music Competition 2019.

Hector is a true musical enthusiast. Early days as a chorister in the Abbey set the scene and, on arriving at Sherborne School in September 2014, he took up the piano and the organ, and realised that playing and singing are key strengths which bring him great joy. Hector is also a talented composer and has many compositions to his name already: two will be entered as A level music submissions this summer.

Known for his philanthropic, kind, thoughtful and generous nature, Hector will this summer attend the inaugural Sherborne Choral Course, led by Director of Music James Henderson.

This involves a day’s intensive choral coaching with two very well-known choral composers — John Rutter OBE and Bob Chilcott. Daily services in the Abbey and in the School Chapel will enable Hector and fellow participants from all over the UK to grow their love and enthusiasm for liturgical music. sherborne.org

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

34 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Family

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

Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, retold and illustrated by Sabina Radeva (Puffin, 2019) RRP £12.99 Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £11.99 from Winstone’s Books

O

n The Origin of Species has been the definitive explanation of the theory of evolution since it was first published in 1859.

Now molecular biologist and illustrator Sabina Radeva unites her two passions to create a 64page retelling of this seminal text. This accessible work brings evolution to the younger generation through stylish illustrations and a simple, easy-to-understand text. Pulling together Darwin’s observations from his travels around the world and his groundbreaking – and controversial – explanation of how species form, develop and change over hundreds of thousands of years, On The Origin of Species is as relevant and important now as it ever was.

Sabina Radeva is a graphic designer and illustrator

based in London. In 2008 she graduated from the Molecular Biology MSc programmes at Max Planck Institute, Germany. In 2009 she left science for a creative career, and has since studied as an illustrator.

Her retelling of On the Origin of Species was an immediate sensation around the world when launched on Kickstarter - and it is now her first published book!

“A very important project, most beautifully realised. Sabina Radeva’s thoughtful text and gorgeous pictures together tell the story of On The Origin of Species, and of Evolution itself, with clarity, humour and great charm.” - Emma Darwin sabinaradeva.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 35

Family

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE COUNTRY LIVING

W

Millie Neville-Jones

hen you ask young people about Sherborne there is bound to be a mixed response. For those of us who have lived in the town, it is home; we have grown up here and we have many fond memories. There are also many young people who have recently moved to Sherborne and a lot of them say it is like nowhere else. There is a huge sense of community spirit, which they haven’t experienced where they previously lived, and also the town is surrounded by gorgeous countryside. Whilst we all have a good word to say about Sherborne, my friends and I recently had a conversation about what we would add to, keep in or change about Sherborne high street.

We agreed we would keep all the independent coffee shops - lots of happy memories have been made in them. Furthermore, all the charity shops - many bargains have been found in those. The gorgeous boutique clothes shops are there to stay - mostly for browsing but also for the great inspiration they offer. There was definitely a common theme; we decided we would keep of all the indie shops as they offer a real variation among the chain stores. And, of course, we would keep all the pubs!

When it came to what we would add, we found ourselves remembering the shops that had sadly closed down. We all miss the chocolate shop and the New Look store - for young people the clothes and accessories were much more affordable. We all agreed we would love a return of those shops. One of my friends quite rightly pointed out that the town could do more to be eco-friendly. Thus, we would add an eco-friendlier mindset onto the town, cut down on plastic use and make it compulsory for coffee shops to use biodegradable straws and take-away cups.

Leading on to what we would change, well, largely we want to change the affordability of the town, especially for young people. We feel that, whilst the shops sell great quality items, the prices can be a little too much. Which is why the charity shops are loved by young people and why New Look would be welcomed back. Plus, there really is not anywhere for younger boys to shop for their clothes. My brother has to order online or travel to towns such as Frome which has great shops for men’s clothes.

I then asked my friends, if they could have anything in Sherborne, what would they choose.

There were requests for a cinema, a record shop and even a nightclub. We’re not sure how well that would go down in Sherborne… maybe one day!

36 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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

www.fcuffandsons.co.uk

DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF BEAUTIFUL FINE BESPOKE JOINERY SINCE 1897

Family

RESILIENCE

Alastair Poulain, Year 7 Form Tutor, Sherborne Prep School

A

s I sat in the Rose and Crown, Bradford Abbas, nursing a second beer, I watched my young son career through the bar and I mused. We live in a wonderful world.

Not only that, but we few, we happy few, live in Sherborne: God’s pocket. We are in a (strong and) stable society, respect the rule of law, have trust (despite the media) in our institutions, enjoy freedom of opinion, worship and sexuality and, for the most part, live tranquil and steady lives. As a nation, we promote liberty, community, family life and share a moral code.

We are (comparatively) affluent. Our health, as a nation, continues to improve.

Children too, have never had it so good. Central heating, cheap food and clothing, ubiquitous and easily accessible entertainment couple up with an ever more child-centric society. Children are seen and heard, marketed to, focused on and indulged.

However, for all the positives, my cup is one or two drops short of the full meniscus. As well as never having it so good, they have never had it so easy, and easy is not necessarily good at all.

‘Easy’ offers the ability to drink a litre of fizzy drink every day. ‘Easy’ means being driven everywhere, rather than taking the bus, cycling or walking. ‘Easy’ gives the child an iPad when bored or Google when stumped for a fact. ‘Easy’ gives the child the option to give up on difficult things, to say no or to behave badly with impunity. ‘Easy’ offers virtual adventure or sport, rather than real adventure and sport. ‘Easy’ offers social media, rather than socialising. It is all easier, in that it takes less physical and mental effort, but it misses one vital life skill and that is resilience.

Resilience – the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. For some children - the musicians, the sports people among others - resilience is part and parcel of their daily work, adopted and grown without thought. For the great majority, it is fast disappearing.

The snowflake generation? It is the environment they 38 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

have grown up in – no one is born a snowflake.

For the first time, schools are having to teach resilience explicitly. Children must be taught about failure - that they will not always win every race or match nor pass every test. That they may be good at some things but not everything. That no means no. That not every whim is indulged. As a teacher at Sherborne Prep, this explicit teaching is one taken up with relish, but absolutely with the parents too. A

delicate balance must be struck – promoting drive for and rewarding success while actively teaching how to cope with failure: meeting triumph and disaster just the same.

If it is not done – and all evidence points to it not having been done for a generation – then we are left with emotionally brittle young adults and the corresponding issues that brings. It is vital to instil it into children early. Fail, fail often, do not fear failure while striving for victory, but – and this is the important

bit – learn how to bounce back and keep trying. The more you do it, the earlier you do it, the stronger, the tougher, the more resilient you become.

My son fell over, bumped his knee and looked up, intent on parental cosseting. I continued to sup from my pint, happy in the knowledge that I was already doing my bit for the next generation. sherborneprep.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 39

Family

THE CRUELEST MONTH Rebecca de Pelet, Head of English, Sherborne School

F

or me, this month is forever Chaucer’s since his pilgrims turn to thoughts of Canterbury, ‘Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote…’

But I’ve already written about him, so Fitzgerald it is.

Despite Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, being set in the summer, when Daisy arrives at the narrator’s home (for what she thinks is an innocent tea but is, in fact, a staged reunion with her former lover, the eponymous Gatsby) it has been raining hard.

She emerges from ‘Under the dripping bare lilac-trees’ wearing ‘a three-cornered lavender hat’ and ‘A damp streak of hair lay like a dash of blue paint across her 40 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

cheek’. This trio of colours from the same palette mark Daisy out as the dreamy fantasy of Gatsby’s memory. The whole description smacks of Spring and it has always struck me as oddly out of place in a North American summertime. Perhaps it’s because Daisy herself is out of place. After all, it’s impossible for her to stand up under the weight of Gatsby’s expectations of her. Or, perhaps, it’s got more to do with Fitzgerald’s admiration of that other poet inspired by April: T. S. Eliot.

Eliot’s treatment of April, in his landmark poem, The Waste Land, deviates from Chaucer’s whilst being eternally linked to it. For him, April is: ‘…the cruelest month, breeding

Speak and my eyes failed…’

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.’

There is that colour again - lilac - and the same toxic, intoxicating mix of ‘Memory and desire’ which can be found in Gatsby’s feelings for Daisy. Eliot goes on in the same poem to introduce us to a voice who remembers that: ‘They called me the hyacinth girl.

- Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not

And there is that colour again - this time hyacinth and it’s been raining.

So, is Gatsby’s Daisy his own version of Eliot’s hyacinth girl? A girl that mixes the palette of purple with rain and dreams? (I’ve suddenly realised that Prince may have got in on this act too.) Of course, Fitzgerald knew Eliot’s poem well and there is no doubt that he was paying homage to the latter’s work. The admiration seems to have been mutual. On New Year’s Eve in 1925, Eliot sat down to write to Fitzgerald to thank him for sending him a copy of his novel. According to Eliot, Fitzgerald had signed the copy with ‘a charming and overpowering inscription’ (Fitzgerald was rather gushy according to Hemingway) but of more importance to Eliot was that the novel had ‘interested and excited me more than any new novel I have seen, either English or American, for a number of years.’ Wow. When I offer such musings in lessons, most boys invariably enquire whether the writers in question ‘really meant to do that’. The tone accompanying the question is always rather withering, as if I am frankly insane to make such obviously spurious connections between writers, let alone to suggest that writers actually make conscious decisions about the words they use. For many of the boys I teach, the world of literature is a bit of mystery. Often happier learning facts, it all feels rather an effort to piece together meanings (yes, there might be more than one of them) from patterns of words. Hector, from Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys, can help them here. He describes the moment when ‘you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours’.

We had a lilac tree in front of my childhood home (the Ribena tree my brother and I called it) and we were told the story of my father arriving at my birth holding hyacinths. Strangely enough my husband brought hyacinths to the birth of one of our children and my father-in-law tells of watching the young woman who would become his wife climb the stairs with violets in her hair. The same palette, the same mix of memory and desire. Oh, and by the way, The Great Gatsby was published in April… spooky. sherborne.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 41

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Art

I

can’t believe it’s April already. We’ve had a great year for snowdrops and the daffodils have been good too. Out and about the signs of spring are making their appearance. I stopped one sunny afternoon to watch some new-born lambs and decided to do a little drawing with the odd colour wash.

These lambs were a week or so old, maybe a little older. They were having a good time racing around the field in their little gangs, butting each other and staking their claim to a certain mound in the field. Drawing such lively creatures is quite a challenge as they rarely stop.

The thing to do is draw many and, after a while, one can get the main shapes and attitudes quite quickly. From there you can make the odd adjustment for individuals and slightly different poses.

Working this way, it doesn’t take long to almost fill a sketch book. It’s like most things: if you get to know your subject you can see it more clearly and get the essence of whatever you are drawing.

The fact that they are moving should not be a problem; it should help in getting the character.

It’s movement that brings things to life. If you draw a living thing from a photo it can easily look ‘stuffed’. It’s not so easy to make it look as if it could run away!

One ends up with many ‘unfinished’ studies but these are the ones that get you to the three or four that work just right. The little collection I have here, lifted from my sketch book, I feel work reasonably well. They look young and innocent, all legs! The way they spring about gives the impression that they are not yet familiar with their limbs. Compare them to the ewes which again were moving about but not so energetically. Their character is different. They were more aware of what was going on around them and alert to danger. They have a weary look, the hardships of motherhood! After a while the lambs tired and curled up in a warm sunny spot. The ewes found shade under the hawthorn.

On a few of the drawings I decided to add a watercolour wash. The green of the grass brought out the creaminess of the lambs although, in some cases, they seemed quite yellow. It also defined their shape rather well.

It was an enjoyable afternoon, drawing, watching and listening, with no interruptions. The sound of songbirds in the hedgerows, the drum of a woodpecker and, up high, the distinct sound of a soaring buzzard. What more could you wish for? laurencebelbin.com

44 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 45

Art

MOUSEMAN

Matthew Denney PhD, MRICS, Senior Valuer, Lawrences Auctioneers

S

tylish oak furniture with a solidity and strength of design and obvious hand-made construction with a small mouse carved to a leg or side rail will be familiar to all those of us who follow the antiques programmes on the television. ‘Mouseman’, as he is usually known, or Robert Thompson as he is more accurately known, is almost unique amongst arts and crafts furniture-makers in having established a workshop that went on to thrive and which still flourishes today, making furniture with an international reputation for the best in traditional design, materials and craftsmanship.

Two nearly identical chairs, sold in January’s Fine Art sale in January, display all the features that we love to see from ‘Mouseman furniture’, not least really well carved 46 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

mice which act as a signature and mark of authenticity.

These chairs, a design known as ‘Monks’ chairs, are unusually early examples, displaying design details that were not seen on more recent examples. These chairs display all the desires, influences and creativity that led to their creation at the end of the 1920s or early 1930s and they offer an excellent opportunity to look a little closer at the history of this pioneering workshop.

Robert Thompson was born in 1876; his father was the village joiner, wheelwright and occasional carpenter.

Living in Kilburn amongst the North Yorkshire Moors would have provided a firm grounding in tradition, tools, craftsmanship and, no-doubt, the need to be able turn his hand to whatever the local community required. Largely

unchanged since pre-industrial times, the role of the village workshop required a variety of skills and aptitude as it could be a barn or hay wagon requiring repair one day, a repair to a chair or wagon wheel the next.

Robert’s father died in 1895 leaving the nineteenyear-old Robert to run the workshop where he developed his skills and began to favour the crafts of carving and stonemasonry. The traditional work of former generations appealed more than the fine work of the cabinetmakers. Robert admired the elaborate carving on Ripon cathedral, the solid oak-boarded chests from the 17th century and the traditional sturdy furniture made by carpenters and joiners. It was the vernacular furniture of the 17th century combined with the

theories of the arts and crafts movement that informed his approach to design and it is as part of this tradition of furniture-making that his furniture is best understood.

The teachings of the arts and crafts movement were based on ideas first put forward by the likes of John Ruskin and William Morris during the second half of the nineteenth century. They saw industrialisation as a bad thing: to make a man stand and work at a machine rather than allow him to express himself through handwork was to dehumanise him, turning him into a part of that machine rather than allowing him the self-respect of proper work. To this end they demanded honesty in all things: in timber, which should be used in the solid rather than as a thin veneer; in joints which should be clearly expressed; and in the design which should stem from the construction with any decoration being subservient to that construction. The factories were the enemy of the craftsman’s soul and their impoverished products would never be a joy to own.

Consequently, in these chairs we have English oak, properly and slowly seasoned, used in the solid and worked with traditional hand tools. The construction is clearly expressed with pegged mortice and tenon joints, the structure of the design is immediately apparent and there is an undulation to flat surfaces which reflects the work of a man rather than a machine. The chair will have been made from start to finish by one man; there is no mass-production or hiding of substandard materials, no unnecessary carving.

They are the work of a skilled craftsman using tradition and an adherence to these values as his guidance.

These ‘Monks chairs’ are to a design that was first made in 1919 for Father Paul Neville, headmaster at Ampleforth college, one of the most important early patrons for Robert Thompson. They are almost certainly from the early 1930s as they have the extra detailing of carving to either side of the curved backs: a male and female head on one and a fish and flower on the other, details that are reminiscent of ecclesiastical misericords or corbels. They also have finely carved Yorkshire Roses to the side panels. And a mouse. Why? The story is that, whilst working on a church screen in 1919, Thompson’s workmate remarked that they were ‘poor as church mice’ and he spontaneously carved a mouse on the screen. This fabled mouse has apparently never been found but the mice came to represent ‘industry in quiet places’ and has featured on everything the workshop has ever made and is now a highly valued registered trademark. lawrences.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 47

History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

THE HUMMINGBIRD FAN Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

W

hile inventorising some of our textile accessories, I came across this striking brisé fan with black silk ribbon threaded through its ebony monture supporting an astonishing array of black ostrich feathers dyed scarlet at the tips. It has a metal loop handle with a black velvet bow attached and a white cord tied to a small pencil (for marking dance cards) with an ivory top and which is stamped Phillipson & Golder, Chester. It is 32cm long when closed; fully opened its span is 38cm. On opening the fan, I was both intrigued and repelled to find what appears to be the skin and plumage of a purple-throated hummingbird pursuing a small moth constructed from pieces of its feathers.

The French word for a hummingbird is colibri which is also slang for a frivolous person so it once seemed especially fitting for use as a fashion emblem. Known as ‘flying gems’ in England, this was a clear reference to their monetary value as well as their beauty. The birds’ iridescent feathers, heads, skins and entire bodies were frequently incorporated into hats and fans to feed a Victorian obsession with the tiny creatures.

This deftly illustrates the complex relationship between fashion and nature and is reflective of a period when the natural world was plundered to supply consumers’ unquenchable appetite for animal products – between 1800 and 1850 the UK annual ivory imports increased from 119 tonnes to 458 tonnes and in 1878 the UK alone imported over 30 tonnes of tortoiseshell, equivalent to 17000 Hawksbill sea turtles.

Mary Eliza Haweis (1848-1898) the celebrated London artist, author and Chaucerian scholar, confronted the fashion industry head-on. A supporter of women’s rights and animal welfare (and incidentally a campaigner for the Sunday opening of museums), she publicised the 48 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

wholesale destruction of over 30 million birds that adorned hats, muffs, fans and screens. In 1887 she wrote a condemnatory article Smashed Birds which opened with the sentence, ‘A corpse is never a really pleasant ornament’. Haweis implored women not to make of themselves ‘mere walking Death’s-heads’; she felt that the ‘poor spatchcocked creatures’ seemed to cry out in torture and that their abuse contravened the canons of good taste. The indignation aroused in certain influential circles led to the founding of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in England in 1889 and pressure was put on the royal family such that Queen Alexandra agreed to ban ladies of the court from wearing osprey feathers. This led to a ban on many other endangered species from being exploited, although milliners managed to contravene these laws by using feathers from farmed ostriches, pheasants and cockerels instead.

Unfortunately, this episode in fashion history not only harmed bird populations but has left a toxic legacy in museum collections worldwide. These historic artefacts may still be harmful to humans today as taxidermists used arsenical soap to ‘cure’ or ‘mummify’ bird skins because it preserved animal tissue almost indefinitely, and therefore the fan requires specialised conservation conditions and a caution regarding handling. Nowadays, museums observe strict ethical codes incorporated into their collection development policies and address illicit trafficking as part of their education programmes.

Sherborne Museum opens fully for the summer season on 16th April with a free family event, ‘Those Glorious Georgians’ from 11am – 2pm sherbornemuseum.co.uk

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History

The New Inn, Greenhill, Sherborne (1818). © The Trustees of the British Museum

LOST ROADS AND TRACKS Part V: La Grene

L

Cindy Chant, Sherborne Blue Badge Guide

ast month, I promised that we would return to ‘La Grene’, known to us nowadays as ‘The Green’.

This important area of Sherborne is where the old ancient route to the west passes through the town.

On the north side of ‘La Grene’ just before the descent down Greenhill begins, Abbot Ransom built his large new inn, ‘La Newe Inn’, to relieve the monks from the ever-increasing burden of offering hospitality to travellers. Sherborne Monastery was, by then, on a popular pilgrimage route and it had become necessary to offer accommodation to the extra visitors. The New Inn was built in 1483, and was in constant use until 1840 when, sadly in my opinion, it was pulled down by the Victorians. The so-called ‘Georgian’ houses were built on its site in 1843.

50 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Abbot Peter Ramsom was a local man, born in the nearby village of Rampisham in 1475. He died early in 1504, aged just 29. He was a great builder. Not only did he construct the New Inn and the Nave and Bow Chapel of the Abbey Church, he also most likely built Ransom House and Prior House too. Both of these houses still stand on the north side of The Green today.

In 1527, another Abbot, Abbot Meare, rented a small piece of land in front of the New Inn for the erection of a sign, so there was probably a sign in position when he then visited in 1540 and noticed and mentioned the Inn in his writings. William Lewes was described as the innkeeper; he was also the warden of All Hallows, the Parish Church of the town, until the monks left the Abbey in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries.

In 1545, the New Inn was sold along with other Sherborne property that had all once belonged to the Abbey. Then, for about 250 years, the New Inn remained quiet and peaceful – nothing is known of it during this time. It came to life again at the beginning of the 19th century when it was sold once more to a John Woolcott of London and ‘Exeter Waggon Properties’.

John Woolcott’s wagons were like the haulage firms of today and were on the road as early as 1793, before the days of the stage coaches. There are several paintings and engravings of the New Inn, as it was, in about 1820. A truly remarkable and lovely old building.

Now let us return to the old road and its route through to Bradford Abbas, Clifton Maybank and to the Somerset border. Clifton Maybank was a largish village in the 15th century but today it has almost disappeared. In fact, it has become one of the many Dorset ‘lost villages’. In its glory days the large mansion was owned and lived in by the great Horsey family. John Horsey had purchased the Abbey from the Crown for the use and pleasure of the town folk.

Clifton Maybank House was dismantled in 1786 and all that remains now is a very much altered corner of the old mansion. In 1906, this was all converted into modern apartments. Clifton Maybank’s large medieval church was also completely dismantled too.

However, there is still a remarkable series of roads and tracks from Bradford Abbas, from Over Compton and from Trent through to the Somerset border. There are also many other tracks coming from the south of Sherborne, Cole’s Lane in Yetminster and Clifton Farm to Clifton Maybank. Then the railway came through in 1848 and the complicated layout of the railway at Yeovil Junction now makes identification of any ancient tracks hopeless.

Around 1840 the road from the county boundary at Yeovil bridge became part of the Shaftesbury and Sherborne Trust, and plans were made to turnpike a road from Stoford to Clifton Maybank. However, this never happened (more about turnpikes in a future article).

So that great route advancing to the west continued through East and West Coker and onto Crewkerne, but no further. In my remit here, I am only concentrating on our Dorset/Sherborne area but it would be fascinating to explore more.

Next month I will look into the road north of The Green – that which we now call the Bristol Road. sherbornewalks.co.uk

Free home visits specialist Neil Grenyer will be in the sherborne area on Thursday 25th April to value your antiques

trAveL iN stYLe BAG YoUrseLF AN oriGiNAL LoUis vUittoN to Be sold Friday 17th may in our Collectors & sporting Auction

to make an appointment please contact: ( 01460 73041  neil.grenyer@lawrences.co.uk Complete house Contents & Attic Clearances Arranged Professional Probate valuations

L AWRENCES AUCTIONEERS

lawrences.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 51

CHARTERHOUSE Au ctioneers & Valu ers We are now accepting entries for our forthcoming auctions: Classic & Vintage Cars Wednesday 10th April Sporting Items, Pictures & Books Thursday 17th April Asian Art, Antiques & Interiors Friday 18th April Silver, Jewellery & Watches Thursday 17th May Beswick, Wine, Port & Whisky Friday 18th May

Three Tibetan Buddhas sold for ÂŁ9,800

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

Crafting quality timber buildings and gates since 1912 Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7LH Tel: (01963) 440414 | Email: info@sparkford.com | @sparkfordtimber | www.sparkford.com 52 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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Antiques

IT’S A TEAPOT, ISN’T IT? Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

A

lthough I am not a betting man, if you are reading this then there is a pretty high chance you watch and enjoy the Antiques Roadshow on a Sunday night. Sadly, Mrs B does not allow me to watch this bit of quintessential British TV as I am prone to rant on about what is said. Nothing unusual about this really. I sometimes think if you ask two valuers to look at the same item you will get three different answers.

Although I have not (yet) been asked to assist with the Antiques Roadshow, I have had the pleasure of appearing on numerous other antiques-related programmes. Back in the mid-1990s, I visited BBC Pebble Mill for filming on a few rounds of Going, Going, Gone (with Michael Parkinson, who was a great chap, and Anne Robinson). More recently, I have made the occasional appearance on Cash in the Attic, Flog it! Dickinson’s Real Deal and Antiques Road Trip. There are also a couple of others which are too bad to mention and one which I declined to return on.

It would be nice to think, if you watch some of these programmes, that you have picked up a few snippets of information. Looking at the photograph of the pot, you might think it is a silver or silver-plated tea or coffee pot. Sadly, you are incorrect. Dating to the early to mid-19th century, it has all the look of a tea or coffee pot, however it was designed to carry a different kind of liquid.

The pot comes to our May auction of silver, jewellery and watches from a client in Buckinghamshire. We have sold items for the family before; we often travel further than Yeovil and Wincanton! The vendor’s grandfather was Arthur Liberty, founder of the London shop, Liberty’s and I wonder whether this unusual (and rare) little pot came into the family from this great shopkeeper.

Measuring 14.5cm high, it is silver-plated. With a double ‘C’ scroll handle and rim with a gadroon border, it has a very specific use and is known as an Argyll (or Argyle). It was named after the 5th Duke of Argyll in the mid-18th century. The Duke and his wife lived in a rather chilly Scottish castle and disliked the fact that their gravy arrived at the dinner table cold during the winter. To prevent their gravy being cold, the Argyll was born.

To keep the gravy warm, the Argyll has a twin wall. Our Argyll has a screw-in stopper (you can see it between the top of the handle and the cover finial) which you remove to fill inside the twin wall with hot water. You then pour the (already hot) gravy into the pot though the cover, et voila, 5 minutes later when the gravy arrives at the dinner table of your Scottish castle, you can have hot gravy during the cold winter months!

I guess the Argyll never really took off as they rarely come up for auction, either in silver or silver plate. This one, with its interesting family provenance, is estimated at a modest £100.

So, if you correctly identified the pot as an Argyll, well done – top of the class! charterhouse-auction.com

54 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 55

@elizabethwatsonillustrations 56 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Showrooms: 4 Cheap Street Sherborne DT9 3PX Tel: 01935 508 100

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With a reputation built on innovative design, high quality workmanship and reliability, we are happy to visit you to discuss your ideas and how we can help you achieve your goals.

Why not have a look at what our clients say about us on our website: www. partners-in-design.co.uk

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Interiors

DON’T MOVE, IMPROVE Suzy Newton, Partners in Design

We refurbished the entrance hall by building out to create an extended side entrance with vestibule, oak flooring, new decor and lighting.

58 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

This top floor room had cramped storage under the eaves and fitting in a bed was problematical because of the restricted headroom. Our solution was to build out from the wall to increase head room, add storage and refurbish the space.

H

ere at Partners in Design we are increasingly finding that we are being approached by clients looking to refurbish or extend their property.

UK property has long been regarded as one of the most stable assets in the world and the British property market has weathered bigger storms than Brexit. With the political uncertainty and stretched affordability, many property owners are choosing not to move but instead to improve, renovate or extend their homes.

Moving could potentially cost up to £30,000 or more, money that could be better spent improving the value of your home and unlocking the potential in your current property. The number of homeowners choosing to stay put and invest in their existing property has soared over the past five years. With smart planning, good professional advice and a bit of creativity you could be building upwards and outwards or even down into cellars.

Converting the loft space is one way of adding value.

A typical loft conversion costs around £500-600/m compared with around twice this for an extension, always providing that the conversion adds more than it takes away - room has to be made for a full staircase!

Once finished, the extra light and views that a loft offers are a bonus. You may also be able to improve your home’s overall insulation while you are at it.

Whilst most plots have more space at the back, there is sometimes room to add additional space to the front

by creating a porch. Narrow entrances can get cluttered with coats and shoes. A porch can add a dedicated storage space, improve security and prevent heat loss.

Before adding new space, it might be worth considering how you can remodel and improve the use of the existing space, perhaps combining a dining room and kitchen to create a multi-functional living space.

Fewer, larger rooms with clear sight-lines will make a house appear more spacious, especially if the flooring and wall finishes continue throughout. If you have an additional room at the back of your property with a low ceiling and sloping roof, a clever way to create the feeling of space is to remove the ceiling and benefit from the additional height up to the roof. A Velux window would be put in the roof to create more light.

Add more storage space. Make use of every bit of spare space you can find and build shelves or fit doors to create cupboards. Storage is a real selling point. With careful styling and decluttering, you’re not only adding value to your property but also making it feel more spacious.

Ultimately adding value should be the driving factor.

There are certain key areas to improve which invariably will see a return on your investment - cleverly designed storage, opened-up ground-floor living, refurbished kitchens and bathrooms. So don’t move, improve. partners-in-design.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 59

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Interiors

Ian Mankin

EARN YOUR STRIPES

S

Kitty Oakshott, Upstairs, Downstairs

tripes have had a hard time in history. In medieval times, striped clothing was only worn by prisoners, madmen, clowns or prostitutes. With stripes associated with social deviance, they also were adopted by those wanting to push the boundaries and became a symbol of rebellion and liberation. Stripes then became associated with marine pursuits and sailing. When Coco Chanel brought navy and white stripes into her designs at the beginning of the 20th century, stripes were firmly back in fashion.

Ticking stripes are a favourite of mine. They are clean, simple and smart, with a nostalgic air. Ticking stripes feature a central broad stripe with a thin stripe either side, usually in the same colour. This gives the illusion of a wider stripe without it being too bold.

Originally used to cover mattresses, they gained popularity as an interior trend when American designer, Sister Parish, mixed chintz with ticking in fashionable 1940s sitting rooms.

Use ticking on blinds or curtains to offset a chair or sofa covered in a bold fabric. Ticking stripes often come in soft colours and a pastel palette can work in any 62 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

interior. Ticking also works really well on upholstery.

Re-cover a sofa in a classic ticking, and jazz it up with cushions in more fun designs in complementing colours.

Ticking stripes also look lovely on bed valances. Pick a patterned fabric for the bedroom curtains and use a matching coloured ticking for a valance to bring the whole room together.

Stripes often conjure up a nautical feel and can be used really effectively in coastal-style interiors. Combine a seaside fabric design with a blue stripe for a fun but smart look. Use shades of red or warmer neutral colours to give a more homely, cosy feel.

Striped wallpaper is another way to bring this design into your home. It can be smart and sophisticated or used in a multitude of rainbow colours for a more lighthearted look. Stripes can also be used horizontally rather than vertically for a modern take on the design.

Stripes are a classic design and have the ability to endure changing trends. Remember, the time is always ripe for a stripe! updowninteriors.co.uk

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Gardening

POSITIVE ACTION

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

T

here is a huge amount of pressure on us all to be more environmentally aware. Since the excellent Blue Planet programme this time last year, the plastic issue has been a hot topic, and rightfully so. A complete move away from plastic, however, isn’t the answer, according to a number of environmentalists and thinkers on the subject including Guy SinghWatson from Riverford Organics. He believes that a fixation on plastics could divert us from the real problem, that being the use of fossil fuels. In more recent weeks a study has shown that we need to be much more careful about our use of water as it’s a resource that is finite and there just won’t be enough to go around if we carry on using it with the current degree of abandon.

The constant bombardment is felt to be necessary because the dangers of climate change are now so close and are showing up more and more frequently. Take, for example, the recent devastation in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. However, there is a danger that people will feel harangued and chastised no matter how hard they try; this could result in them believing that the problem is so great that nothing they do will make a difference.

Here at the Gardens Group we have a dilemma because, although we are simply trying to promote environmentally sound gardening practices, there is a danger that people will feel they are being told off. We realised this perhaps 10 years ago and, in an attempt to change our stance, we decided to get positive with the message through linking up with Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) and its Wildlife Gardening Competition. I know that it was 10 years ago because this year we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the competition with a special awards ceremony on Thursday 25th July with guest speaker, Dr George Mc Gavin.

The support of wildlife-friendly gardening allowed us to promote green techniques in a positive way whilst supporting an excellent organisation at the same time.

This year, for its tenth anniversary, DWT is launching a new campaign called ‘Get Dorset Buzzing’ which again we are proud to be sponsoring.

The campaign aims to promote the role of pollinators 68 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Image: Katharine Davies

in the environment, not just in agriculture and horticulture but also in the production of seeds and fruit in the wild as a food source for wildlife. Dorset Wildlife Trust is hoping to get over 1,000 gardens in the area working on supporting pollinating insects, which will represent a huge acreage across the region.

It’s easy to imagine how this could be achieved in large gardens but it is also possible in the smallest patch and even on a patio or a balcony. Such a campaign has an

underlying subliminal message that each person’s efforts will be contributing to a much bigger thrust. Every patch of garden is another piece in the quilt.

Support and information is available through signing up to the project on DWT’s website or visiting one of the visitor centres. Each month participants will receive information by email tailored to their own level of enthusiasm and expertise. There will also be new and exciting monthly themes with guidance on how these

might be applied to your own garden, and there will also be a roadshow touring the county.

What I like about this initiative is that there are no downsides to getting involved; it’s a really positive action that can only be enjoyable, benefitting us all and the environment for years to come. dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/gdb-signup thegardeneronline.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 69

Gardening

DIARY OF A FIRST-TIME FLOWER FARMER Paul Stickland, Black Shed Flowers

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e’re really feeling the spring surge of growth here at Black Shed. Both Helen and I are so lucky to be able to pursue our passion for British flowers and to be so fully immersed in all the seasonal changes of the flower farming year. It’s a wonderful life and we are particularly delighted to be able to share it with our 9-year-old daughter, Tabitha, 70 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

who, even at this young age, has a knowledge of plant families, botany and nomenclature that I did not acquire until I was a decade older. Being able to observe growth and nature at close quarters is such a privilege but one that is denied to so many children in this modern world.

This is a tragedy, as our lives entirely depend on the top few inches of soil. We neglect this at our peril.

The nurturing of this essential and precious resource is probably the most important thing that any child could learn. Yet where does this feature on the school curriculum? Grammar is all very well but without the understanding of nature and the ability to comprehend the link between the soil and our reliance on it, we’re pretty much doomed. You can’t eat past participles.

The lack of practical subjects in schools really worries me. As many of you will know, with my children’s author and illustrator hat on, I’ve spent the last twenty-five years travelling the world visiting schools, working with children of all ages and abilities. Whilst there is some excellent work going on, the belief that academic subjects are the be-all and end-all of education is profoundly short-sighted. Not only does it alienate many children for whom academia is simply inappropriate but also it squeezes out subjects which are proven to have very positive, indeed life-changing effects, on children - subjects such as art, design, music, cookery and, my pet love, gardening, which is particularly important for those with special needs, for whom school can be a very challenging environment. Last year we welcomed the SEN children from Sherborne Primary School and they were a complete joy. Freed from the noise and constraints of the classroom, they simply shone in our field. Watching the joy on their faces as they helped us with our tasks was priceless.

We welcome anyone who wants to help out or just enjoy a few hours immersed in the nature and wildlife of the farm. We’ve come up on the radar of the tutors at Kingston Maurward and are delighted to welcome trainee florists and horticulturists who are seeking practical, hands-on experience. If you want to be a florist, what better way to learn the ways of your plant material than to get involved in its production?

There are some truly fantastic opportunities and jobs in horticulture and floristry but unless our children are exposed to this life-affirming and ecologically-enhancing world, how will they know what they’re missing?

So, what’s been going on at the farm? We’ve certainly had some very challenging weather in March. Trying to keep our small polytunnel and low ‘caterpillar’ tunnels on the ground has been hard; the storms have been really difficult. We rely on these tunnels to protect our seedlings and to bring on our ranunculus and anemones.

Back at home, our grow-room is churning out a hugely diverse selection of seedlings; every available horizontal surface is covered with them. Here’s to some more clement weather as spring gathers pace. Our new acre’s beds are pretty much in place and ready to leap into production. At times it difficult to believe that, in just a few weeks’ time, our somewhat soggy plot will be bursting with colour! blackshedflowers.blogspot.co.uk instagram.com/paulstickland_ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 71

THE CHOCOLATE SOCIETY Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

S

omething is stirring in the hamlet of Higher Holton. Just across the border, near Wincanton, Alasdair Garnsworthy and his team are hard at work in their kitchen-come-lab-come-workshop conjuring fantastical towers of chocolate eggs. The Chocolate Society is attracting hungry stares and eager orders from the likes of Babington House, Claridge’s and The Langham. Since November 2017 however, with the opening of their on-site factory shop, locals in the know have also been getting in on the act. >

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74 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Alasdair entered the world of confectionery in 2010.

Following a degree in Economics and Management at Cardiff University he spent time in London and New York working in IT, but it was his entrepreneurial spirit that drew him into the chocolate business. ‘My brother’s an accountant,’ he explains, ‘and we used to run a business together selling domain names until one day he rang me and mentioned that there was a chocolate company for sale. It seemed like a no-brainer!’

‘While in New York I had become very interested in coffee and with the whole ‘coffee movement’, and I could see that artisan chocolate might go the same way,’ he explains. ‘At first, I had no knowledge of chocolate at all,’ he adds. ‘Initially, I tried out some recipes in my mum’s kitchen and I think one of the first experiments I did was to add water when I heated the chocolate. You can imagine the mess I made!’ he laughs.

From these inauspicious beginnings, Alasdair has successfully rebuilt the business under the umbrella of The Chocolate Society. Appreciating the need to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in, Alasdair trained with the luxury French chocolate producer Valrhona and studied the fine art of the chocolatier.

Alasdair’s creativity inspires his team to explore unique flavour combinations and designs. Currently in production are a painterly display of Pollock-esque Easter Eggs, each one encased in a shell wildly decorated in coloured cocoa butter. This imaginative approach and evident perfectionism have earned Alasdair a haul of British and international chocolate awards.

From caramel and lime ganache to coconut praline, Alasdair is very conscious of the flavours being pure.

He insists on using fresh cream, real herbs, spices and extracts from fruit or plants rather than confected essences. One of his current favourites is basil and yuzu, a rare fruit from Japan with a ‘floral’ note that flavourwise sits somewhere between a mandarin and a lime.

The Chocolate Society ‘Box of the Month’, produced in limited edition runs of 250, provides Alasdair and his chocolatiers an opportunity to explore these new creations and share them with customers.

To properly ‘taste’ chocolate is an art in itself. I learn that you should place it in the centre of your tongue and let it dissolve so that you can pick out the nuances of the cocoa bean’s origins – don’t bite into the chocolate, rather allow yourself to be seduced. While my palate strives to articulate such colourful subtleties, > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 75

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78 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

I am momentarily distracted by a procession of golden honeycomb chunks trundling through a cascade of liquid blonde chocolate. Made in small batches and of course with real honey, these joyful-looking lumps are destined for Easter eggs and bags of bitesize nuggets under the cutely named sister brand ‘Hokey Pokey’.

As a nation we have long been partial to chocolate.

The Spanish conquistadors brought chocolate to Europe in the sixteenth century, mixing it with honey, cinnamon and vanilla to counteract the cacao’s natural bitterness. It became highly fashionable and was widely believed to be an aphrodisiac, although at the time it was still a drink.

The first chocolate bar was made by Joseph Fry in 1847 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Chocolate as a drink is something that has been bothering Alasdair for a while. ‘I’ve never found the perfect hot chocolate,’ he says. ‘I don’t mean the instant powdered stuff but the one made with pure chocolate in a café. There’s always chocolate left around the cup or in the bottom which hasn’t dissolved and is essentially wasted,’ he explains. ‘That is something I’m working on,

with an exciting product launching later this year.’

Alasdair was humbled by a trip to Belize last autumn where he visited a cocoa plantation. ‘Growing the cocoa bean is such a painstaking process that takes time and dedication. Each cocoa pod is only picked from the bush when it is deemed ready and that can vary on each plant,’ he explains. ‘Because the pods are chosen one by one, no machinery can be used which makes it incredibly labour-intensive. It made me realise the great journey each cocoa bean takes in order to become chocolate.’

Alasdair grew up in Somerset, so when he acquired the business and returned to the West Country he felt he had come full circle. ‘I realise now how lucky I was to grow up around here,’ he says. When he’s not making chocolate, Alasdair is out cycling or walking his dog around Alfred’s Tower, although for the time being, with one of the busiest periods of the chocolate calendar upon us, Wincanton’s very own Willy Wonka is likely to have his hands full. chocolate.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 79

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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 80 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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

Food and Drink

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

INDIVIDUAL ELDERFLOWER AND LEMON EASTER CAKES

Image: Katharine Davies

I

n my recipe book there is a rather substantial, three-tier celebration cake flavoured with elderflower cordial or elderflower liqueur and lemon curd. The flavours are perfect for spring and summer so I thought it would be good to develop a recipe for Easter afternoon teas in the form of miniature individual cakes.

It’s a quick and easy recipe as it’s an all-in-one method and if, like me, you are time short these cakes can be made and decorated within 90 minutes. I use a free-standing food mixer but a hand-held electric mixer will do the job just as well.

You can use a good quality lemon curd or you can make and use your own, I use Delia Smith’s recipe which 82 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

can be made in a double boiler or in the microwave.

You will need half a jar of lemon curd to layer the cakes.

This cake can be made gluten-free by replacing the flour with Dove’s Farm gluten-free self-raising flour and Dr Oetkers baking powder which is glutenfree. I have made this recipe gluten-free many times and it’s delicious.

What you will need

A rectangular, shallow baking tray A 5cm round scone cutter Large disposable icing bag fitted with a size 2 nozzle (flower nozzle) You may like to invest in a 12 hole, loose-bottom cake tin

Ingredients

200g eggs, lightly beaten 200g caster sugar 175g soft margarine 25g softened unsalted butter 200g self-raising flour 4g baking powder 1-2 tablespoons whole milk 1 teaspoon lemon extract Zest of an unwaxed lemon For the Chantilly cream

300ml double cream 1 tablespoon dried milk powder 2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar 1-3 tablespoons of elderflower cordial or elderflower liqueur 3 tablespoons lemon curd For the lemon drizzle

Juice and zest of two unwaxed lemons 75g caster sugar To decorate

12 small candy-coated Easter eggs (Cadbury’s mini eggs or mini M&M eggs are lovely pale spring colours) 6-8 primrose flowers and/or violas, both of which are edible.

Method

1 Set the oven to 160oC fan, 180-190oC, 350-375oF, gas 4-5.

2 Grease and line the base of the baking tin.

3 Sift the flour and baking powder.

4 Weigh the eggs and place in a bowl. Add the sugar, fats, flour and other ingredients. Beat for one minute then allow to rest for one minute; this allows the sugar time to dissolve. Continue to beat for 2 minutes. Pour into the prepared tin.

5 Bake in the oven for 25 minutes before checking.

This is where my ‘listening to cakes’ comes in handy; cakes love to be listened to, they have so much to say! If they are too noisy then put them back in the oven for another two minutes.

6 While the cake is baking, prepare the lemon drizzle.

Place the lemon and sugar in a pan over a gentle heat, allow the sugar to dissolve and then bring to the boil. Let the pan simmer until the syrup is reduced by half, then take off the heat and put aside until the cake comes out of the oven.

7 Place the cake on a cooling rack and, whilst warm,

brush the top with the lemon drizzle. Allow to cool completely.

8 Make the Chantilly cream (if you can, it’s good to chill the bowl and beaters for a few minutes before making it). Put the cream, dried milk and icing sugar in the chilled bowl and allow to stand for 2 minutes to allow the powders to dissolve.

9 Beat the cream until it forms soft peaks and then gradually continue to beat on medium whilst steadily adding the cordial or liqueur until the cream forms slightly stiff peaks.

10 Fold in the lemon curd, check the taste, adding a little more curd if required.

11 Place in the fridge until needed.

12 Tip the cake slab onto a work surface and, using the cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. This should be about 12-14, sufficient to make 6-7 cakes. Don’t waste the left-over pieces; place them in a freezer box and freeze for later (useful for a trifle or making truffles).

This step can be skipped if you have used the 12 hole loose-bottom cake tin.

13 Half-fill the piping bag with cream and pipe a swirl of cream onto a round of cake, place a teaspoon of lemon curd in the centre of the piped cream, then place a second round on the top to create a mini cake.

14 Pipe a swirl of cream on the top of the cake and decorate with an egg or two and a flower.

15 Repeat until all the cakes are decorated.

Place in a cool place before serving.

Val's recipe book - Val Stones: The Cake Whisperer is available now from bakerval.com bakerval.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

Food and Drink

I

ended last month’s Our wedding day article by saying dawned with a forecast we were, ‘getting of rain but instead married next week’. we were blessed Well, next week has with bright winter now become last week sunshine, a beautiful and, hence, here we are day and not a drop of married. England and rain. An early morning Sweden joined together, pig feeding trip no Brexit for us! That revealed a handmade will be my only mention sign fixed to our gate of politics, despite there congratulating us being so much more both (thank you Pete James Hull, The Rusty Pig Company to say.

Hodder and family)!

For me the wedding It was beautiful and plans only started the week before, Charlotte having made Charlotte cry at 6.30 in the morning! been mainly in charge. It was then that I suddenly Then it was off to the ceremony with a gleaming car realised our wedding day was creeping up fast. A new suit full of Swedes (I have never said that before). The legalities was bought on a rare, for me, off-farm trip to Bath. New done with, we set off for Summer Lodge at Evershot where leather boots were re-heeled with rubber over the top of we had the most fantastic lunch to celebrate. Then it was the beautiful but lethal leather. back to the farm for the afternoon pig feeding round The week before the wedding the weather was not the most romantic part of the day! Overalls back on terrible. The pig field went from near summer conditions for 30 minutes of quick feeding but luckily everything back to winter in a matter of days and the Thursday and everyone was behaving and in order. before the big day we had to do a whole lot of pig We stayed at The Kings Arms at Charlton moving. This meant using the Land Rover with cattle Horethorne where we were treated to a lovely stay and box to move pigs around from one paddock to another, great food, so a big thank you to both Summer Lodge making room for the next group to farrow. As I write and The Kings Arms for making our day so special. The this, we have one about to farrow any moment. We service in both was faultless. completed the moving but the Land Rover didn’t fare And now it’s back down to earth. It’s the day after so well - as we slipped and slithered along, weaving the wedding as I write this. The wind is howling here at from side to side, the mud piled up until it was dripping the farm and my new roller shutter door has just blown from every available surface. This was to be the wedding in and shredded itself. Some things don’t change; the transport for all the Swedish contingent so a valet was unexpected always rears its head. One thing has changed called for. Anyone who knows me knows that a clean though: we are now the Hull-Christianssons!! car is not high on my list of priorities but this was one occasion that definitely warranted it. therustrypigcompany.co.uk

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM

84 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Image: Clint Randall

C

ORGANIC SPELT, MOREL MUSHROOMS AND WILD GARLIC RISOTTO

Sasha Matkevich, Head Chef and Jack Smith, Junior Sous Chef, The Green

ombined aromas from wild garlic and fried morels make this spelt dish probably my favourite ‘risotto’.

Ingredients

400g nibbed organic spelt 2 large onions (finely diced) 80g unsalted butter 50g parmesan juice of 1 lemon 150g wild garlic leaves (washed) 200g fresh morels (cleaned) 1ltr vegetable stock 100ml white wine 20ml olive oil 1 tspn thyme leaves 1 tspn chopped parsley Dorset sea salt black pepper

Method

1 Put a large, heavy-based saucepan on a medium heat and add chopped onions and half of the butter.

Cook gently until the butter in the pan melts and the onions become soft and translucent.

2 Add white wine and spelt. Stirring continually, cook until all the wine has evaporated and the spelt develops a nutty aroma.

3 Gradually add vegetable stock 200ml at a time until the spelt is cooked. This could take up to 24 minutes and may not require all the stock at this stage.

4 Put a large frying pan on a high heat. Add olive oil and, when it reaches smoking point, add mushrooms and fry until just golden but still tender.

5 Lower the heat and add thyme, parsley, salt, pepper and remaining butter. Cook for approximately two minutes until the butter melts. Add mushrooms to risotto, stir it in and return spelt to a medium heat.

6 Stirring continually, add wild garlic and remaining vegetable stock along with grated parmesan and lemon juice. Continue cooking until the wild garlic is wilted and risotto consistency is achieved.

7 Season with Dorset sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve immediately. greenrestaurant.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

Food and Drink

GOAT'S CHEESE AND ROSEMARY CHEESECAKE, COPPA CRISP, HONEYCOMB AND HAZELNUT Matthew Street, Executive Chef, Seasons Restaurant at The Eastbury

Image: Guy Harrop

Ingredients

For the cheesecake base: 25g toasted hazelnuts 200g rosemary water biscuits 110g melted butter A pinch of salt For the topping: 250g goat’s cheese 100g soft cream cheese 150ml double cream 1 sheet of bronze leaf gelatin Sprig of rosemary To garnish: Honeycomb pieces (or honey) 1-2 slices of air-dried/coppa ham 25g toasted hazelnuts, crushed Method

1 Toast all the hazelnuts (50g) 2 Bake the air-dried ham in the oven for ten minutes at 160oC/gas mark 3, or until crispy.

For the base: 3 Blitz the butter, water biscuits, 25g of toasted hazelnuts, plus a pinch of salt, in a food processor until the mixture forms a crumb-like consistency.

4 Transfer the mixture into a lined, six-inch square tray (cling film works best), pat the base flat and even, then put in the fridge to chill.

For the topping: 5 Mix the goat’s cheese (warmed to room temperature) with the soft cheese.

6 Warm the cream, adding the sprig of rosemary.

7 Soften the gelatin leaf in cold water.

8 Remove the rosemary sprig from the cream and add the softened gelatin.

9 Combine both the cheese and cream mixtures together to form a smooth texture, pour onto the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for four hours.

To serve, cut into portions and decorate with the garnish.

This recipe features in A Taste of the West Country 2018 (We Make Magazines), £17.99 tasteofthewest.co.uk theeastburyhotel.co.uk

86 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 87

Food and Drink

LANGUEDOC ROUSILLON David Copp

L

anguedoc Roussillon is the vast wine-growing region north of the Pyrenees that sweeps along the Mediterranean coast from the Spanish frontier to Nîmes.

Until 1659 it was Catalan country but for the last 250 years it has provided France with her first fruits each season. Of its grape varieties, I immediately think of grenache, the most widely planted red grape in Spain. Until the turn of the millennium grenache was generally considered less refined than the classical grapes of Bordeaux and Burgundy but it now produces some of the world’s finest aged red grenache wines in Australia. However, carignan, cinsault, mourvedre and syrah also work very well alone and add style and body to blends.

When I first entered the wine trade in the 1950s, this region of France was one of the main sources of 88 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

inexpensive red wine offered on the bistrot tables of the French capital, in the days when a half litre en carafe was automatically served with your entrecôte-frites.

Since then, new money and fresh talent have turned the reputation of the region’s wines upside down and I highly recommend you have a good look at the wines for yourselves. There is definitely a case for having a chat with your wine merchant about where to start if you haven’t already done so, because there are so many subregions and a complete range of styles from dry whites, semi-sweet and sparkling to a wide choice of juicy reds.

The attraction of the region is its diversity different terroirs, different varieties, different wine styles - and also its most precious heritage, a very good source of old vine plantings. There is a truly amazing range of soil types: clay, marl, limestone, schist and sandstone, home to a wide range of both red and

Evgeny Shmulev/Shutterstock

white wine varieties. From a climatic point of view, I give you one statistic: 300 days of sunshine every year.

The region is also blessed with what I call healthy winds: they blow away the diseases that most northerly vineyards have to endure and they encourage organic and biodynamic farming.

At first the region’s winemakers were sceptical about biodynamic farming. ‘A lot of cost for marginal gain,’ summed up their attitude. But those that did invest are now very satisfied with the benefits: their soils are healthier and more balanced and, because they are better balanced, they are happier and produce more healthy fruit, an important factor in a market becoming increasingly competitive (China is now the world’s sixth largest wine producer).

The range of soils is helpful: clay gives higher yields while schist, less good on yield, gives more distinctive

flavours. Limestone is good for the whites and not least for the surprisingly delicate and delightful Cremant de Limoux, made from a blend of chardonnay, chenin blanc and pinot noir.

If you like reds, Corbieres, Minervois and Pic St Loup produce some of the most distinctive wines but watch out for the new-wave cabernet sauvignon and merlot wines being produced by a new spread of exciting and ambitious producers. The cooler zones produce excellent reds, mostly from syrah but with some grenache and mourvedre, and whites from marsanne and roussane. Banyuls makes an extraordinary vin doux naturel with a strong plum and raisin flavour.

There are some really nice surprises in Languedoc Roussillon for those who have not yet investigated the region. I shall be disappointed if you don’t find something to tickle your fancy. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

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

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

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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

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Free registration appointment for new clients when accompanied by this advertisement 90 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

• 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 6th April Dog walking available in Sherborne and the surrounding villages £10 an hour. Call to arrange.

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

Sherborne Surgery Swan House Lower Acreman Street 01935 816228

Yeovil Surgery 142 Preston Road 01935 474415

www.newtonclarkevet.com

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 91

Animal Care

NIGHT SHIFT

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

A

s many of you will know, vets offer an emergency service at nights and weekends for those injuries and diseases that need urgent treatment. Sometimes advice and reassurance is all that is required but the majority of cases that are brought to our attention need to be seen for a proper assessment.

There are a few things that seem to happen almost exclusively at night, with caesarean sections, road traffic accidents and bloated dogs to name but three. Happily, dogs and cats are quite good at giving birth (with the exception of a few tricky breeds) as the size of the individual foetus is relatively small so its entrance into 92 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

this world isn’t too difficult. Contrast this to humans, horses and cows where a slight increase in birth size can cause a big problem. I’m quite glad my children are grown up and I don’t attend large animals anymore!

The reason why cats are prone to injury at night is probably due to their excellent night vision. Too excellent really, as modern car headlights can dazzle at distance and disorientate our feline pets leaving them vulnerable to collisions and potential disaster. My advice to all pet owners is to keep animals indoors at night, even though this goes against the natural instinct of many cats. For dog owners in a rural environment, its

Mookmixsth/Shutterstock

essential, even more so around lambing time. Sheep worrying is on the increase, despite all the warnings given by farmers and the RSPCA. A dramatic and life-threatening disorder of mainly deep-chested dogs is bloat or gastric dilation and volvulus (GDV). And it always seems to happen in the middle of the night. There is plenty we don’t know about this condition; in the past it was associated with feeding before exercise but this factor has since been discounted. For some reason, the dog’s stomach fills with air and then twists on its axis, shutting off any chance of allowing the air to escape.

As the spleen is attached to the stomach, it can become involved in the twisted tissues to wreak havoc with internal blood flow. This is acutely life-threatening and, even with prompt and intensive care, GDV has at least a 50% mortality rate.

Luckily, we see this horrible condition relatively rarely but it just so happens that one of my own dogs developed it (our dear departed Coco Bean) right in front of me over the course of a few minutes. Although non-productive attempts to vomit is one of the classic symptoms (along with a distended stomach which gets as tight as a drum), Bean behaved like a horse with colic, pawing the ground and rolling around. I watched horrified as her stomach swelled rapidly and her level of distress increased. Recognising the signs, Bean was immediately given massive volumes of intravenous fluids and an emergency operation to de-twist the stomach and relieve all the pressure on her internal organs. True to form, Bean survived and the next day was beating on the door with her tail, expecting to be fed.

As I’ve mentioned, not all cases have such a successful outcome and the biggest factor in success or failure lies in how fast treatment is available. So, any suspicion of a swollen tummy with vomiting and/or colic means don’t hesitate to call, day or night.

In the next couple of months, Matt and I will be doing a few twists and turns of our own… hopefully nothing to do with our intestines although there may be a few butterflies! Matt is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in July for the Lewis Moody cancer charity and I am walking the Wainwright Way, to raise funds for Maggie’s Centres, in April with a friend and colleague, Graham, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer a year ago. However, a novel radiotherapy treatment has put Graham into remission and, true to his character, he is spending his time helping others. We hope to raise some sponsorship for the 192-mile, coast-to-coast walk through Cumbria and over the North York moors to Robin Hood’s Bay, which will challenge us both. If anybody would like to sponsor either Matt’s African safari or my Northern march, links can be found on our website to the JustGiving pages. Many thanks for any contribution, no matter how small.

So, if you see Matt or me walking everywhere with rucksacks, you’ll know why. Finally, I would like to wish Happy Easter to everyone from all the staff at Swan House and Preston Road. newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 93

Animal Care

Talitha IT/Shutterstock

94 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

A DANGEROUS BUSINESS John Walsh, Friars Moor Vets

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eing a large animal vet or farmer can be a dangerous business. Farming has one of the poorest safety records for work-related accidents. Whilst farms are getting bigger, the number of people working on them is not increasing at the same rate. This often means farmers are under increasing time pressures, work long hours, become tired and this, when mixed with unpredictable animals and high-powered machinery, can lead to accidents. Farmers are often working by themselves, so if accidents do happen there might not be anyone around to help. In fact, a Defra report has shown that the agricultural industry accounts for 1.8% of the workforce in Great Britain but accounts for nearly 20% of workplace fatalities.

Luckily, I have never experienced a severe accident on a farm but there have, however, been many near misses and I often hear of farmers or colleagues becoming injured. Over my career I have had several accidents including being crushed and kicked, having hands trapped, and receiving numerous cuts and abrasions. This, however, is all part of the job and most farm vets will recount similar stories. Experience, being able to understand animal behaviour and having safe-handling facilities helps to reduce the risk of these accidents.

One of my very near misses occurred whilst TB-testing at a buffalo farm. Buffalo originated from Asia and were thought to have been introduced to Italy by the Romans. The breed is now called the Italian Mediterranean buffalo and they are kept for their milk, from which the famous mozzarella cheese is made, and for their lean meat. They tend to be stubborn animals and their very large horns make them difficult to handle - if they don’t want to do something, they won’t!

There are now quite a few herds in the UK, with the animals having been originally imported from Italy.

On this particular day, we were slowly carrying out the TB test, getting the individual animals into the crush to be tested and then released. The buffaloes that had already been tested were standing in the yard munching away at their feed. Suddenly, I heard a noise coming from my right and turned to see their largest bull galloping towards me with his head down. I had no choice but to run as fast as I could towards the perimeter fence of the yard. I just managed to scale the two-metre-high fence made from motorway barriers when the bull crashed headlong into the fence just beneath me. For some reason he had taken a real dislike to me! I could only get back in the yard once the farmer had put the bull back in its pen. This could have been a different story if I had slipped or not ran as fast and shows how easily accidents can happen.

The next year I returned to do the annual test again and they still had the same bull. I was more wary of the bull this time but he still remembered me from the previous year and tried to chase me again. Buffaloes, like elephants, obviously never forget!

One charity that is helping to make farms a safer place is the Yellow Wellies Farm Safety Foundation. Their aim is to prepare the next generation of farmers to be responsible, confident and safe farmers of the future. They are striving to find ways to stop farmers having life-changing accidents or dying at work. They are tackling this problem via farmer engagement, education, communication and via research to make farms safer places to work. Please check out their website and stay safe on the farm! yellowwellies.org friarsmoorvets.co.uk/ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 95

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Images are for illustrative purposes only.

Cycling

THE BRITS

I

Mike Riley, Riley’s Cycles

’ve just received the Veteran Cycling Club magazine, News and Views. The bicycles featured range from the 1890s to the 1990s. Generally vintage bikes are identified as ‘black bikes’ or ‘lightweights’. Black bikes tend to be utility type bikes and lightweights are more sporting models. We had a fair selection of black bikes at Riley’s but most have now gone to be film stars.

Roger, the chap who supplies most of the bicycles for British films and television programmes such as Call the Midwife, was asked to supply forty black bikes for a scene in the new Mamma Mia film, and he collected 13 bikes from me last year. I sat expectantly with Mrs Riley to watch the film, carefully watching the opening sequence to see if I could spot a distinctive bike such 98 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

as the Humber bifurcated fork model we supplied to Roger. I was a little disappointed that the sequence was over in a moment and the bike left on screen at the end was a poorly assembled example using plain replacement modern components instead of the attractively crafted chain-set that would have been fitted on a bike of that era. We enjoyed the rest of the film by the way, as Abba music is uplifting.

The early British cycle industry comprised small manufacturers and the bikes were relatively expensive so could not be afforded by the masses. Cycling thrived between the First and Second World Wars because it was a healthy outdoor activity and the bike could also be used for transport. During the Second World War

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many bicycle factories were turned over to making munitions. After 1945 bicycle manufacturers returned to their trade. I am currently restoring a 1947 Raleigh Lenton model which the owner wishes to ride home to Switzerland. Until people could afford cars, the bicycle was the primary form of private transport and so the industry thrived. Not only did British manufacturers supply the home market but they also exported parts to Commonwealth countries and around the world. In the late 1950s the bicycle industry contracted and large companies such as Raleigh bought up smaller brands like Hercules and Rudge, while other brands closed down.

Bringing us up to the current day, the British bicycle industry is very different. Many of the old brand names still exist and may have a UK headquarters, for example Dawes in Nottingham. However, brands now tend to be aggregated under an umbrella company owned by European or Asian firms who make the bicycles abroad

and import them for distribution in the UK. There are a few established names still making bikes in Britain, such as Pashley, Brompton and Moulton. There is a bicycle show in Bristol called Bespoked, which I enjoy attending, at which the best of the UK bike builders exhibit their work alongside international builders. These are small-scale makers of premium bicycles who keep the skills of bicycle-building alive and also innovate. I am looking forward to taking delivery of a Reilly Cycle works frame this year from Brighton. The south-east is also home to Enigma bikes, Hunt wheels and DCR wheels. More locally, Sven Cycles are based in Weymouth, Curtis in Frome and Temple in Bristol. There are UK-owned brands importing bikes in volume, such as Whyte and Orro, recently joined by the exciting Factor brand, but these still use frames and components made in foreign factories.

I am often asked by customers if they can buy a British-made bicycle, but they soon realise that the products available are niche and expensive and the value for money of foreign imported bicycles is compelling.

For example, the Merida brand we stock started life when the founder told Raleigh he could make their bikes with better quality and cheaper to supply the US market. They cloned the old UK Raleigh factory in Taiwan and the layout followed the same floor plan but each stage was optimised to use machines where possible, for example lacing wheel spokes, so the human operator just did the final adjusting. Merida is now the second largest maker of bikes in the world.

Although I started talking about vintage bikes, let me come up to the present day. One of Sherborne cycle club’s riders, Adam Anstey, has secured a place in the Ride Across America (RAAM), an ultra-endurance race from West Coast to East Coast covering over 3000 miles in under nine days. It is described as the toughest bike race on the planet. He is raising funds for a charity called Tusk and has asked us to supply a bike using as many British parts as we can. We will be building a lightweight, carbon fibre, aerodynamic bike with electronic gear shifting and hydraulic disc brakes. Frame sets from Dolan Cycles or Tifosi are being considered and the wheels will be Hunt brand. Please look out for events to raise funds for Adam’s chosen charity. The event also attracts huge media coverage each year and provides excellent value for corporate sponsors. Please contact Adam for more details. adamanstey@googlemail.com rileyscycles.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 99

@elizabethwatsonillustrations

Salon on the Green is a new luxury and environmentally friendly KEVIN.MURPHY session salon. The vision of the salon was lovingly created by owners Helen O’Sullivan and Nicola Pickett. Helen and Nicola both have a wealth of knowledge within the industry and a strong long standing working relationship.

Helen O’Sullivan & Nicola Pickett

K.M Session Salon

Located in Yeovil high street where previously The Hair Shop by Cyril Gallie was located for some 35 years, Helen and Nicola have completely rebranded the salon. The Salon on the Green is proudly a KEVIN.MURPHY session salon, all products used are both paraben free and cruelty free with KEVIN.MURPHY also being PETA approved. Not only are the products luxurious but KEVIN.MURPHY as a company also help remove tonnes of plastic waste from the ocean each year for their packaging making it all 100% ocean recycled plastic. Helen, Nicola & the team invite you to the salon, they look forward to seeing you.

KEVIN.MURPHY Book online: www.salononthegreen.co.uk | 1 St Johns House, Church Street, Yeovil, BA20 1HE | Tel: 01935 477838

100 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Body and Mind

BODY LANGUAGE Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms

G-Stockstudio/Shutterstock

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hilst we may confess to lavishing attention on our face both morning and night, what can be said for the skin on the rest of our body? Surely our shoulders right down to our knees and toes (as the song goes!) require the same amount of devoted consideration? After all, dull, dry and dehydrated skin isn’t just confined to above the neck.

Whilst facial moisturisers are sure to appear in a beauty cabinet, body moisturisers are often notably absent.

It’s probably the most skipped step of a beauty routine, however applying a body moisturiser every day is a quick way to keep skin looking smooth and feeling hydrated and firm. It’s all too easy to say you are too busy or decide it doesn’t matter because, unlike moisturising your face, nobody will notice anyway! The reality is we need moisturising from our head to our toes, to keep every inch of skin looking younger and feeling in tip-top condition. Initially it might seem like a chore to do after every bath or shower but it only takes a couple of minutes and you will quickly see a difference. Body moisturisers are just as important as facial moisturisers as they provide the same benefits: hydration, firming, softening, smoothing etc. They also help protect the skin from the abrasion of clothes.

During the day, body moisturisers will protect the skin from environmental damage such as pollution, UV rays, heating and air conditioning. At night they provide your skin with the nourishment it needs to help repair, regenerate and hydrate during sleep.

Skin problems such as itching, tightness, ingrown hairs or rough skin could be resolved with the simple step of moisturising. Hydrated skin looks firmer and smoother and the massaging motion, along with the right product, can also help with the appearance of cellulite and stretch marks.

There are a range of textures to choose from – some will prefer the luxurious feel of rich body butters whereas others may prefer a quickly absorbed gel or lotion. Some great ingredients for drier skin to lap up include shea butter, argan oil and rosehip oil. Cocoa butter is another popular ingredient because it is softening and many enjoy its scent. Aloe Vera is soothing to irritated or sensitive skins. Active firming ingredients to look out for are Matrixyl and Argatensyl and micro-algaes as they tighten the epidermis and strengthen connective skin tissues.

Keeping skin hydrated is essential for healthy, glowing skin; particularly when it comes to self-tanning.

You will get a much better result and a more natural wear-off if you regularly moisturise, paying particular attention to typically drier areas of the body such as elbows, knees and shins. Dry, cracked skin can look scaly and a tan can look patchy, so moisturising is really important to get the most from your tan.

Ensure body moisturisers become part of your routine and the visible results will speak for themselves in time for summer! thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Body and Mind

WHO’S LOOKING AFTER THE MENTAL HEALTH OF OUR EMERGENCY SERVICES?

‘B

Lucy Lewis, Dorset Mind

lue Light’ staff, or ‘Team 999’, refers to anyone who works in emergency services, whether that’s as a 999 call-handler or with the Fire Department, Ambulance Services, Search and Rescue or Police. Mind have independently researched this group as part of measuring their Blue Light support programme. As a result, service personnel have been identified as a high-risk category for mental ill-health. Mind’s statistics (2017) also reveal that 87.57% of Blue Light personnel have experienced stress, low mood and poor mental health, with 1 in 4 having contemplated suicide. Furthermore, Blue 102 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Light staff are twice as likely to attribute the primary cause of their mental health problems to work issues.

The leading causes of diminished Blue Light mental health are exposure to traumatic incidents (42%), long hours (45%), organisational upheaval (52%), pressure from management (55%) and excessive workload (56%).

Mind’s research also found that new recruits find their job more difficult than they anticipated, feeling unprepared to deal with their first difficult situation.

To improve the mental wellbeing of our vital emergency services staff, services, training and support

Image: Mind

"For people in roles that are perceived to be invincible, there is a stigma about asking for help"

need to be provided at all levels and a positive and open mental health culture needs to be encouraged. It is possible to improve the emotional resilience of personnel by teaching them healthy ways to cope with trauma and stay well, at any career stage. New recruits are calling for all Blue Light staff across England and Wales to receive compulsory mental health training. Recruits who received the mental health training early in their career reported an increase in knowledge about protecting their mental health and were more comfortable with asking for help.

Furthermore, Blue Light staff who participated in the Mind Blue Light Resilience Course showed significant improvements in mental health awareness and increased confidence with managing their mental health.

Additionally, line managers reported more confidence in supporting staff responding to difficult situations.

However, there is still work to be done to remove barriers to care. For example, due to stretched resources, staff are not always available for mental health and wellbeing training. Blue Light staff need to be able to access services at all career stages. Furthermore, supervisors don’t always have time to support staff wellbeing, however this should be made an essential part of a manager’s everyday role. And this doesn’t take into account the stigma of asking for help by people in roles that are perceived to be invincible, when we know the truth is not quite so.

In summary, services, training and materials need to be appropriately timed and targeted, i.e. call handlers need training specific to their work pressures and shouldn’t be afraid to reach out for help.

Blue Light workers are hugely important and, for our community’s safety, we all need this workforce to be as healthy and effective as possible. Mental health issues are the leading cause of illness absence UK-wide (Centre for Mental Health, 2017). Improving Blue Light mental health care will result in less time off work, meaning more staff are available to help in an emergency and, possibly, more lives saved.

Dorset Mind has recently launched their Mind Blue Light support programme, offering counselling and fortnightly Wellbeing Groups for Blue Light Service Personnel across Dorset (Gillingham, Poole and Weymouth initially). These services are for all ambulance, fire, police and search and rescue personnel and their volunteers. To self-refer for these services, visit our website and search ‘Mind Blue Light’ for more information. dorsetmind.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 103

Body & Mind

LittleBee80/iStock

104 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

WORLD TAI CHI DAY SATURDAY 27th APRIL

S

Tracey Lindsay, Tai Chi Instructor

aturday 27th April marks World Tai Chi Day where over 80 countries around the world will celebrate Tai chi by performing in their local parks at 10am local time. This year you will find my dedicated students and me celebrating in Pageant Gardens, Sherborne.

Tai chi is becoming increasingly popular in the west and, although it originated in China as a martial art, it is now practiced by millions of people because of its many health benefits. Many studies have been carried out researching its health benefits and, according to The Harvard Medical School, Tai chi can help reduce stress, improve posture, build strength, increase flexibility and improve balance.

The slow rhythmic movements open up the flow of energies in the meridians which the ancient Chinese discovered run from the tips of our fingers, deep into the inner organs and to the tips of our toes. These are the meridians on which the points used in acupuncture or shiatsu are located. The gentle, flowing movements are sometimes called ‘meditation in motion’, but they may as well be called ‘medication in motion’. There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice has value in treating or preventing many health problems, both physical and mental.

Within the movements there is a profound system of understanding between the energies of the body, mind and spirit. The form you see is skilfully designed to take you into a deeper experience of harmony. Tai chi teaches you how to move your body in a relaxed calm manner enabling you to develop a softness on the outside with strength and clarity on the inside. Tai chi forms and principles contain discipline, healing and meditation which, in turn, can have a powerful effect on the way that you live your life.

Many conditions that would be restricted in most exercises can be improved by practising Tai chi. Health is much more than the absence of illness. It is a positive, harmonious state of vitality, a state of integration, a wholeness of oneself and in the world around us. Tai chi teaches you to take health into your own hands, by breaking the habit of negative thinking which distracts

and fuels the machinations of the mind, generating more unnecessary stress. Creation is vital for realising individual health and development. In practising Tai chi, you can start creating a wholesome outlook to assure tireless energy, an interest in living and keeping old age at bay. This is encouraging since we live in a (Western) world which conditions us to believe that, at 60, we are old and worthless to society and that poor health is something to expect later in life. The principles of Tai chi refute this and believe that we all have the right and means to maintain good health as we grow old. It is one of the best practices for long-term health, wellbeing and longevity; it will improve one’s immune system, digestive system, heart rate and circulation; it will increase one’s vitality, mobility, flexibility and enhance correct posture.

The hectic pace of modern living, which often means no time for exercise, leaves us tired and exhausted. The quiet, gentle nature of Tai chi helps to overcome stress and its related problems. Tai chi will aid relaxation and calm the mind; it teaches patience and will improve one’s confidence and problems with established selfimage, as well as mental concentration.

The best thing about Tai chi is that it is a noncompetitive practice which requires no special clothing or equipment and you don’t have to be in tip top condition to start!

Tai chi is best learnt from an experienced practitioner.

A good teacher will help you grasp the foundations and your body will then begin to remember the movements.

It is important to remember that modern culture influences our desire for instant gratification; many students want to learn everything quickly and expect to get the hang of it straight away. Initially it takes discipline to practice but later, as you begin to see how you are benefiting from Tai chi, enjoyment will make you want to train. One thing is for sure, if you have patience and allow time for practice, Tai chi simply lives with you. It is in you and, once you are aware of it, it won’t leave you. taichiandlemons.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 105

Body & Mind

WATER POLO COMES TO SHERBORNE Hannah Taylor, Yeovil Spartans

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eovil Spartans water polo club started up in April last year and has been going from strength to strength, with players’ ages ranging from 5 to 71 years old! If you go along to the Oxley swimming pool in Sherborne on a Sunday evening you can see them in action – or better still, have a go!

The mini-polo players play a beginner’s version of water polo with a smaller ball. The rules of mini-polo are more relaxed: you can play in shallow water and stand up. Sessions involve learning the FUNdamentals of the sport through play. They might play ‘Stuck in the mud’ as a warm-up and always finish with a mini-game.

The under-16s, those who are more confident in the water, train in deep water, learning the basics of the sport from movement, shooting and passing to more complex skills and technique.

Five Yeovil Spartans youngsters were selected to play for Somerset in the 12 and Under and 14 and Under teams in November. They did the county proud!

The juniors (5-16yrs) train from 4.30pm-5.15pm and the adults, both men and women, train from 5pm-6pm. Alan, who joined in September, says, ‘It’s a great family club where we can all play at the same time.’

There are 13 players in a team although only seven, including the goalie, play at any one time.

The other six are having a well-earned rest! Players can only use one hand and are not allowed to touch the bottom - most have a sneaky rest when the ref is not looking! A match is divided into four quarters of eight minutes actual play.

At advanced levels, water polo is fast and furious. It’s a demanding sport that requires strong swimming skills, match awareness and good hand-eye co-ordination. The sport combines speed and strength, as well as teamwork and a high level of fitness. One outfield player can cover up to two miles in one game alone! The fitness benefits are huge. It’s a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout but in water. Being a non-load-bearing sport, many muscle groups are exercised.

While a few sports claim to be the ‘sport of kings’, water polo officially has the royal seal of approval. The Duke of Cambridge himself is a fan of the sport and played at university and at national level for Scotland. It’s a sport with such a reputation that everyone should at least give it a try - to find out for real.

Yeovil Spartans is a friendly, inclusive club who are keen to introduce the game to a wide audience.They have recently received funding from Swim England to encourage youngsters into the sport so session costs are subsidised at the moment. If you love the water and fancy trying a new sport, whatever your age or gender, please contact Hannah Taylor on 07866 804443 or yeovilspartans@gmail.com. yeovilspartans

106 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Roberto Zilli/Shutterstock

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 107

Body & Mind

CAN BROGA HELP ME RUN? Simon Partridge BSc (Sports Science), Personal Trainer SPFit

Fizkes/Shutterstock

S

o far this year I’ve written about both the benefits of running and of Broga (a type of yoga). Thinking about April’s article, my mind wandered to last month's Sherborne 10k race and the weather forecast threatening the delights of storm Freya. Suddenly, inspiration struck! Why not write about the amazing benefits that yoga can bring to runners?

We have a flourishing running club with 50 members, however I face a constant battle to get them to stretch after our training sessions. How many people go to the gym but don’t know how to stretch effectively?

Knowledge is motivational and empowering so I’ll look at running specifically for the purposes of this article, however the benefits of yoga will cross over into other sports and everyday life.

A simple yoga routine loosens tight spots, strengthens weak spots and makes you a better, less injury-prone runner. I am 49 and have had more injuries than I care to remember. I started running probably before I was 10 but I didn’t start yoga until I was 45 and now my yoga and running are intertwined. There are no 108 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

prizes for guessing which I am best at or which is my weakness and it has taken all these years to realise which one I need to concentrate on. Yoga benefits the runner’s body (improved flexibility, range of motion, muscular strength) and mind (more focus, less stress), helping to improve performance and reduce injury. Yoga is also the perfect recovery activity for runners. It relieves soreness in hard-working muscles and restores range of motion so you can perform better the next time you train.

There are numerous yoga moves which could be recommended following a run or on a rest day (or both) but, if you are new to yoga and have been running with tight muscles for a long time, be careful. Ease into each position, never push to the point of pain. Leave your ego outside! As you continue to practice, you will notice improvement in your running and on your yoga mat.

My favourite pose, the one which was the lightning bolt that struck me and the moment I knew yoga was for me, is Downward Dog. Benefits of Downward Dog: Stretches hamstrings, calves, and foot arches; strengthens shoulders. In

Providing facial aesthetics in our beautiful CQC approved clinic • WRINKLE RELAXING • DERMAL FILLERS • EXCESSIVE SWEATING TREATMENT Call us for your free consultation Tel: 01935 817950 Email: info@sherborneaesthetics.com Find us on

Wessex House Dental Practice Westbury, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3EH

fact, I love the feeling it gives me by stretching the whole of my posterior chain rather than ‘traditional’ fitness industry stretches which only stretch individual muscles.

Begin on your hands and knees. Align wrists under shoulders and knees under hips. Spread fingers and press into palms. Tuck toes and lift knees off the floor. Gently try to straighten legs and raise hips into an inverted V. Breathe deeply for 10 breaths. As your muscles relax, try to straighten legs more and sink heels toward the mat. I cannot stress how important using your breath to relax into the stretch is. This takes practice.

Why not use yoga to improve your running and, if you don’t run, just enjoy the amazing benefits it will give you? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced yogi, keep practicing and you will be amazed at the progress you can achieve.

See you on the mat very soon. Good luck. spfit-sherborne.co.uk

Health Clinic • Acupuncture • Osteopathy • Counselling • Physiotherapy • EMDR Therapy • Shiatsu • Podiatry and Chiropody • Soft Tissue Therapy, Sports

& Remedial Massage Therapy

• Manual Lymphatic Drainage

LONDON ROAD CLINIC • Hopi Ear Candle Therapy • Bowen • Homeopathy • Light Touch Spinal • Facial Energy Release • Swedish Massage • Indian Head Massage • Pregnancy Massage • Nutrition

Tel: 01963 251860

www.56londonroad.co.uk Email: info@56londonroad.co.uk 56 London Road, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5DW Free Parking and Wheelchair access sherbornetimes.co.uk | 109

Body & Mind

FEAR OF FALLING

Image: Stuart Brill

Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit

W

hen goal-setting with my clients, there is always one objective that needs careful consideration: how to reduce the risk of falling. Fear of falling can be a huge concern and individuals may lack the confidence to leave the comfort of their own home. If this a concern for you, then don’t worry - you are not alone as this is a very common problem. One practical way to reduce your fear is to follow these seven steps.

Make a plan for getting help if you should fall

Having an action plan is reassuring. Knowing what to do if you were to fall will ease your mind, giving you more confidence. Of course, everything possible should be done to prevent falling, but having an action plan should it happen is essential. Where is the nearest chair? Can I keep a phone on me at all times? Who can I phone if needed?

Answer the questions before they need answering.

Identify why you are falling and take action to reduce the risk

Is there a common trait as to why you are falling and 110 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

can something be done about it? Is there a particular location, such as an awkward step, or a particular object, such as a low chair? Do you fall at a particular time of the day, early mornings or late nights? This might dictate when to avoid exercise. Maybe there is a certain movement pattern such as turning around or standing too quickly. Identification is key and, if there is a common trait, small changes could reduce the risk of falling. With my clients, hand-rails, a change of shoe style, strengthening exercises and visualisation techniques have all been proven to reduce the risk of falling.

Talk to someone about your fears and anxiety

It is all too easy not to discuss fears and anxieties, keeping them locked up inside. Talking to others may help you to overcome these fears. Friends and family can offer you some great advice, and may even offer to help you further with your anxiety by going out with you regularly or taking you to exercise classes.

Set small, achievable goals to help you feel more confident

If you read February’s article, you will know all about goal setting using SMART targets: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound.

For example, you shouldn’t go from nothing to everything. If you don’t leave the house regularly, can you walk to the back garden safely? If you are walking into town, can you plan a route that takes you via places to stop and rest if needed? Breaking up a long-term goal into smaller goals is a safe and sensible approach to goal-setting.

Challenge any negative thoughts

A common negative thought could be, ‘I won’t leave the house as I am likely to fall’ or, ‘If I don’t stand, I can’t fall.’ Challenging these negative thoughts by adopting a positive mindset will help eradicate negativity. Those who believe are those who achieve!

Practice relaxation techniques

It is quite common to be seated for long periods of time because of a fear of falling. If you don’t stand, you can’t fall, however, if you don’t stand, how do you improve? Improving a positive mindset and alleviating anxiety, potential stress and worry is important, and relaxation techniques can help. Closing your eyes and taking yourself mentally to a happy place, or using breathing techniques can help to relax the mind.

Looking at a picture frame, inhaling when looking up the frame and exhaling when looking down the frame, is a simple, yet effective method that can be used to improve breathing whilst relaxing the mind.

Keep active

For effective balance and functional independence, we need to be strong and mobile. Not moving due to a fear of falling won’t assist with this! Chairbased exercises are a really effective method to increase strength and mobility in a safe position.

Standing exercises can be used to improve both strength and mobility whilst getting used again to body weight distribution.

Communifit offers classes for all ages and abilities, and has two classes that can help to reduce fear of falling and improve balance. communifit.co.uk

Exercise classes in Sherborne, Yeovil, East Coker and Yetminster.

EASILY AFFORDABLE, EASILY ACCESSIBLE 1 hour classes £5, 45 minute classes £4 - all PAYG

Chair Yoga

All the benefits of traditional yoga, but without the need to get up and down from the floor!

Tuesday 13.30-14.30, West End Hall, Sherborne

Sit and Strengthen

A chair-based exercise class aiming to increase your strength, flexibility, joint mobility and balance - all while having fun!

Monday 11.00-12.00, Jubilee Hall, Yetminster Tuesday, 13.00-14.00, Village Hall, Bradford Abbas Wednesday 14.15-15.00, West End Hall, Sherborne Friday 12.30-13.15,Tinneys Lane Community Centre, Sherborne

Stand and Strengthen

The same objectives as Sit and Strengthen, but you are standing! Targets all the major muscle groups.

Wednesday 15.15-16.00, West End Hall, Sherborne Friday 13.30-14.15, Tinneys Lane Community Centre, Sherborne

Don’t Lose it, Move it!

An active circuit-based class improving muscle strength, aerobic fitness and core stability. Be proactive, not reactive, towards your health and fitness!

Wednesday 16.15-17.00, West End Hall, Sherborne Friday 14.30-15.00, Tinneys Lane Community Centre, Sherborne

Body Bootcamp

Squat. Press. Lift. Your cardiovascular and muscular fitness will be challenged in this class! A variety of exercises and format each week to keep the body guessing.

Thursday 6-7pm, West End Hall, Sherborne

The Communifit Sherborne 5km Series

Our monthly 5km events are open to all ages and abilities, beginners are especially welcome and there are no time limits to worry about. Join us and see your 5km time improve over the year. We have fabulous medals for each event and great support. Sign up and see all event details via communifit.co.uk Pay as you go

@communifit

Booking not required. For more information call 07791 308 773 or email info@communifit.co.uk communifit

communi_fit

communifit.co.uk

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 111

Body & Mind

FACIAL ENERGY RELEASE

S

Joanna Hazelton MARH RHom, 56 London Road Clinic

ome people have confused Facial Energy Release (FER) with a beautician’s ‘facial’. FER is, however, a face, scalp, neck and shoulder ‘therapy’, working, much like Bowen and Myofascial Release, on releasing and stimulating the connective tissue and muscles. Because facial tissue is so delicate, the work is extremely gentle and has been named, ‘Angel’s Touch’, ‘The Fingertip Facelift’ and ‘Rejuvanessence’ (all trade names).

This ‘therapy’ grew out of the work of a Bodyworker, Stanley Rosenberg. He was renowned for his work with performance artists, actors, dancers and musicians, all people who used their bodies in different ways to express emotion, to move audiences. They came to Rosenberg to release the physical tensions holding them back from peak performance. He came to realise that the face also required releasing if fluid movement and expression was to be achieved. A Swedish colleague, Margareta Loughran, further developed and refined this facial release and launched Rejuvanessence as a standalone therapy.

The face is our primary organ of emotional expression. Every trauma or stress sets itself in our facial muscles. Thinking about negative experiences of the past or imagining their recurrence re-stimulates the same muscular patterns. Even the act of repressing emotions leaves a trace in the tissue tension, a stiffening, ‘setting’ muscle expression. Often, we are unaware of expressions, being habitual or spontaneous: raised eyebrows, furrowed brows, quirky smile, etc. It is common for all of us to develop laughter-lines as the face ages but we are more likely to develop lines because of stressors such as worry, anger, guilt, grief.

FER as a ‘therapy’ helps to release these tensions in the face, freeing the muscles and the connective tissue to improve skin texture and muscle tone, leaving a relaxed, uplifted expression.

Lines, sagging and wrinkles diminish and the face becomes more flexible, responsive and youthful in appearance, with clearer, brighter skin through improved circulation and lymph drainage.

We each have a set of 91 muscles that hold up the head and neck and create every facial expression. FER works to release the connective tissue surrounding each muscle group and then to stimulate each of the major muscle groups. The muscles become more elastic and toned and it is also an opportunity to release old emotional patterns. It is not unlike the improvement in one’s body after exercise. When working out, the body ‘firms up’. As one stretches out at the end of an exercise session, so the body releases held tensions. The same principle applies to the face.

FER encourages a very deep state of relaxation; the effect will be felt throughout the body.

The combination of releasing tightened muscles and stresses held in the connective tissue, plus the stimulation of specific acupuncture points and meridian channels, allows blocked energy to be released throughout the body. Through a series of treatments, the body is encouraged to detoxify and rebalance, physically and emotionally. The unique quality of FER is the lasting effect in the connective tissue which softens the skin, restores mobility to one’s expression and improves the complexion. hazeltontherapies.com 56londonroad.co.uk

112 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Brister&Son Independent Family Funeral Directors

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

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

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

Website.www.ajwakely.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 113

Body & Mind

SHINGLES

PREVENTION AND TREATMENT

S

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

hingles is an exquisitely painful, blistering skin rash overlying a nerve anywhere on the body surface. It is the virus - also known as varicella or herpes zoster - that is normally dormant in an individual nerve but which becomes active and erupts along the line of that specific nerve.

Shingles is common – about 1 person in 4 will get it in their lifetime.

Shingles may erupt if there is reduced immunity due to stress, another illness or old age (it is more common in the over-50s) but often no cause is identified. The rash only ever occurs on one side of the body and appears as a red band of small chicken pox blisters anywhere from head to toe. It can affect the face, forehead and around the eye. It is burning hot and extremely sensitive to touch. It takes about 2 weeks for the rash to clear and the blisters to scab over. When the scabs have formed it is no longer infectious. Shingles is only infectious to people who have not had chicken pox; you cannot catch shingles if you have had chicken pox. If you have not had chicken pox and are in contact with someone with shingles you may develop chicken pox, not shingles – I hope that is not too confusing!

Conventional treatment for shingles is an anti-viral drug called Aciclovir prescribed by your GP. The sooner this is started the better, to limit the extent and severity of the rash but also to minimise the chance of developing the main complication of shingles, namely post-herpetic neuralgia. This is a persistent, severe, knife-like pain that can last for 3-6 months but sometimes years after the rash has cleared. It is treated with neuralgia-killing medication such as Amitriptyline, Gabapentin or Pregabalin. Studies have shown that a TENS machine can also be effective.

Prevention against shingles is achieved through immunisation. This is now offered on the NHS by your GP. Although it is not guaranteed protection, it is effective in reducing the chance of developing shingles in about 40% of patients who have been immunised. If shingles does develop, the symptom severity is greatly reduced, and the incidence of neuralgia pain drops by 67%. Each injection costs the NHS £99 – the health service obviously considers this to be a worthwhile spend.

Complementary treatment for shingles is with homeopathy; Rhus Tox derived from Poison Ivy is the main medicine, particularly if the rash makes the patient very restless. Ranunculus Bulbosus, from the buttercup, is also effective if the rash occurs on the chest and the pain is shooting in nature. These are remedies that I have found effective in dampening down the pain of post-herpetic neuralgia when the conventional medicines listed above have failed. Herbal cream called Capsaicin, made from chilli pepper bought from health food stores, can also help relieve post-herpetic neuralgia. doctorTWRobinson.com GlencairnHouse.co.uk

114 | Sherborne Times | April 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.

At The Old Vicarage we offer...

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

 HealthcareHomes

www.healthcarehomes.co.uk

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Palliative Care Day Care Respite Care Convalescent Care Own GP if required Own Furniture if required Pets by arrangement Near Public Transport Stairlift Minibus or other transport Wheelchair access Gardens for residents Phone Point in own room/Mobile Television point in own room Residents Internet Access

Together we respect, with compassion we care, through

commitment we achieve

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

116 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Well converted barn in rural location

Versatile accommodation and easy to manage outside area. Entrance hall, large open plan living/dining/kitchen with modern floor and wall units, French windows to terrace, second reception room/ground floor bedroom with adjoining bathroom, main bedroom with country views and adjoining shower room, second double bedroom with adjoining shower room, enclosed small paved and shingle terrace with parking for several cars, fully doubleglazed with modern and efficient central heating. ÂŁ1075 pcm

HUMBERTS LIVING

A NEW PERSPECTIVE A REFRESHING APPROACH A WHOLE NEW OUTLOOK Humberts have changed the way we work, to the way you live.

From our new Dorset Hub, we have pooled all our finest talents and redefined the role of your typical property agent, to give you unrivaled expertise alongside a true full service team. We don’t just focus on the buy and sell, we are committed to your entire property journey from everyday maintenance, to building you that dream extension, we will take care of all your property needs.

Sales & Lettings | Residential & Commercial | Humberts Living Full Service Contact your local Dorset team if you want to work with an agent that offers you more Sales: 01305 238970 | Lettings: 01935 315376 | Commercial: 01935 552 121 | dorset@humberts.com

humberts.com MOVING YOU SINCE 1842

Springtime in Sherborne Spring is the ideal time to think about new beginnings.

Whether that’s selling or letting your home, Symonds & Sampson are perfectly placed in Sherborne to help manage your move.

Drop in and see us or call 01935 814488.

symondsandsampson.co.uk

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Tel: 01963 23291 / 03333 701568 Email: contact@renewableforce.co.uk Website: www.renewableforce.co.uk 118 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Legal

ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES Frank Collins, Partner at Mogers Drewett

T

o put it simply, boundaries separate your land and property from that of your neighbour’s, determining who owns what. A boundary feature can be a fence, wall, hedge, ditch, piece of wire, or sometimes just the edge of a driveway. You can get an idea of where the boundaries are by looking at the title plan (held by the Land Registry) but most title plans don’t show exact boundaries, as the information is based on large-scale Ordnance Survey mapping and does not show all of the details evident on the ground, such as hedges, ditches, paths or the slope of the ground. The deeds also don’t usually outline boundary responsibilities – it’s common for people to believe they are responsible for the left-hand boundary, but there is actually no legal basis for this.

this stage whether any boundaries have been moved or if there is, or has ever been, any sort of boundary dispute.

If a discrepancy arises between where the paperwork says the boundaries are and where the boundaries appear to be, a solicitor can investigate this. Sometimes agreements have occurred over the years which haven’t been documented but are well-established - for example, a property or land owner might have been looking after a plot of land adjoining their property that no-one else wanted and has moved a fence to incorporate the land into theirs. In a case such as this, it would be vital to take steps to have this change recognised in law or to take out an insurance policy to protect against the risk of the land being taken away at a future point by the true owner.

At the beginning

So, what happens when there is a dispute over a boundary line or if you want to change an existing boundary? Most issues can be resolved by talking the matter through with your neighbour, either directly or with the help and advice of a solicitor and getting the agreed change recorded at the Land Registry. If a dispute continues, it is ultimately a court that makes decisions, so it is recommended that you seek expert legal support.

When you buy a new property or area of land, a solicitor will ascertain where the boundaries are and what responsibilities, if any, are outlined in the deeds.

Checking whether the ownership joins up to the public road or other land you own is vital. They will also ask the seller to complete a property information form, which details their understanding of where the boundaries are whether they are owned outright or shared with someone else and who has assumed responsibility for their maintenance and repair. It is also important to find out at 120 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Changing boundaries

mogersdrewett.com

Straight to the point legal advice

A law firm without the baffling jargon Sherborne | Bath | Wells | Frome mogersdrewett.com | 01935 813 691

Finance

KEY QUESTIONS FOR LONG TERM INVESTORS (PART II) Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.) CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS, Certified and Chartered Financial Planner, Fort Financial Planning Do I have to outsmart the market to be a successful investor?

Financial markets have rewarded long-term investors. People expect a positive return on the capital they invest and, historically, the equity and bond markets have provided growth of wealth that has more than offset inflation. Instead of fighting markets, let them work for you.

Growth of the Pound 1956-2017 (compounded annually)

Is there a better way to build a portfolio?

Academic research has identified these equity and fixed income dimensions, which point to differences in expected returns among securities. Instead of attempting to outguess market prices, investors can pursue higher expected returns by structuring their portfolio around these dimensions.

Dimensions of Expected Returns

Is international investing for me?

Diversification helps reduce risks that have no expected return but diversifying only within your home market may not be enough. Instead, global diversification can broaden your investment opportunity set.

By holding a globally diversified portfolio, investors are well positioned to seek returns wherever they occur.

This article has been reproduced, with permission, from Dimensional Fund Advisors. ffp.org.uk 122 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

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

FFP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

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

AHEAD IN THE CLOUD Our real-time cloud accounting solutions present you with a full picture of your financial position 24/7, allowing you to proactively plan and respond ahead of tax deadlines.

For a fresh take on your accounts, speak to Hunts

T: 01935 815008 E: info@huntsaccountants.co.uk W: huntsaccountants.co.uk @Hunts_Sherborne The Old Pump House, Oborne Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3RX

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 123

Tech

B

loatware has two specific meanings. Firstly, it is software that has unnecessary features which use large amounts of your computer’s resources, making it so unwieldy that its functionality is drowned out by them. Secondly, it is a slang term for the numerous programs that are pre-installed on new PCs, many of which are limited trial versions designed to entice new users to buy or subscribe.

Although they are not alone, HP, Acer and Toshiba are three manufacturers that are just loaded! Does anybody know what Toshiba Reeltime is; or HP Jumpstart; or Acer Grid Vista? Probably not! Manufacturers usually get paid by the software companies to install these programs, as well as trial versions of internet security products such as Norton and McAfee. If you use the program, you have to subscribe and the vendor gets a kick-back. Further insult is added when manufacturers add their own ‘utilities’ that add little to the end-user’s experience. If you load a clean version of Windows, it doesn’t come with all this clutter and the computer works so much better without it.

So what can you do? Simply put, you can pretty much uninstall all of it using the control panel, programs and features section. If a program has the manufacturer’s name against it and it doesn’t say ‘driver’, then get rid of it. What’s the worst that can happen? If you find you do 124 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

need it, just go to their website and download it again.

Windows 10 will usually recover from a removed driver automatically so don’t worry too much about getting it wrong. Many uninstall programs ask you to restart your computer or laptop afterwards but you can ignore this if you are removing lots of programs - just restart your PC when you’re finished.

Some bloatware is now embedded within Windows as an App: No problem, just right-click on the app and choose Uninstall from the menu. I hate to think how many hours I’ve spent removing clutter from new and used computers, however it’s always satisfying as the computer performs so much better without it. Lastly, don’t be tempted to download free internet ‘clean-up’ utilities, or buy them from your anti-virus company, as they just clutter up your computer even more and do little to really make things better.

I am delighted to say that our standard service includes de-cluttering and all new computers get the treatment before delivery but, as always, if in doubt or if you need help, you know where to come.

Coming up next month: DIY websites computing-mp.co.uk

J. Biskup

Property Maintenance Ltd

TO-DO LIST ✓ Kitchen & bathroom installation ✓ Tiling ✓ Flooring ✓ Wallpaper removal ✓ Painting and decorating ✓ Plastering

✓ Wall repairs ✓ Roof repairs ✓ Loft insulation ✓ Carpentry ✓ Window renovation ✓ PVC guttering and facia boards

BEST PRICES ON THE MARKET FREE QUOTATIONS SHERBORNE Tel: 01935 815712 • Mobile: 07912 145988 Email: jm.biskup@gmail.com www.jbiskup.com

yoga with emma Classes in Sherborne, Thornford and Milborne Port For details please visit emmareesyoga.com dorsetyogawithemma emmayogateacher@gmail.com

Garden Design T 01305 751230 M 07808 471937 E sarah@sarahtalbotgardendesign.co.uk W sarahtalbotgardendesign.co.uk ENGLISH GARDENING SCHOOL, CHELSEA

Beginners Italian Course in Sherborne Fun 8-week course starting Tuesday 21st May at 2pm 1.5 hours per week, ÂŁ15 per lesson Learn all you need to travel, eat and chat!

DAVE THURGOOD Painting & Decorating interior and exterior

07792 391368

Group and individual French tuition also available

NO VAT

Amanda Donnelly 07739 972538 languagetutor19@gmail.com

www.sherbornedecorators.com michellethurgood@sky.com

126 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

SHERBORNE & DISTRICT FENCING & GATE Co. •Domestic fencing specialist •Over 30 years experience •Free quotations •10 Year Guarantee •No VAT

01935 330095

Competitively Priced, High Quality Carpets, Vinyls, Woods & Rugs SHERBORNE SHOWROOM NOW OPEN Unit 16, Old Yarn Mills, Westbury, Sherborne, DT9 3RQ A family run business established in 1998, we promise a highly professional level of service Tel: 07733 101064 or 01935 817885 www.lsflooring.co.uk

Wayne Timmins Painter and Decorator • • • • •

Interior & Exterior Fully Qualified 20 Years Experience Wallpapering & Lining Residential & Commercial

01935 872007 / 07715 867145 waynesbusiness@aol.com

Suppliers and Manufacturers of quality Signage, Graphics and Embroidered Workwear

T: 01935 816767

info@swsigns-sherborne.co.uk www.swsigns-sherborne.co.uk

Unit 14, 0ld Yarn Mills, Sherborne Dorset DT9 3RQ

Covering South Somerset & North Dorset Small Business Support

Networks & Cabling

New PCs & Laptops

Wireless Networks

Repairs & Upgrades

Broadband Setup

Virus Removal

Disaster Recovery

The Weighbridge • High Street • Milborne Port • DT9 5DG www.mpfix.co.uk

01963 250788

Yenstone Walling Ltd Dry Stone Walling and Landscaping All types of stone walling undertaken Free No Obligation Quote

Steve Devoto

Patrick Houchen DSWA member CIS registered

01963 371123 07791 588141 www.yenstonewalling.co.uk

M: 07551 306827 E: help@thelocalboilercompany.com www.thelocalboilercompany.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 127

FOLK TALES with Colin Lambert

LEE DEACON

C

NORTH WOOTTON ORGANIC DAIRY FARM

hildbirth has no concept of time. It’s 4.30am, the delivery room is busy, waters break and contractions begin. I feel her pain, push and breathe with her until two hooves appear, then a slimy torso followed by a head, then stillness. I freeze.

Lee was born in Somerton, dad a carpenter, mum a chef. Younger sister followed. School in Langport and Street. City & Guilds in Agriculture, Engineering and Advanced Welding, all before his teens were out.

He developed a passion for clay-pigeon shooting and motorbikes. He spent the next ten years on a mixed-use farm applying his college skills to the real world.

His 20s were party time, clubbing in Frankfurt on a £10 return ticket, driving to Budapest with mates for a ‘road trip’, as you do. On his return he met Tina and, thirteen years later, she hands me a cuppa and a homemade chocolate brownie.

Love often brings change; Lee left the farm and took a job repairing quad bikes and family life began. Lee’s farming skills were missed and Lee missed farming.

Headhunted no less, in 2006, Lee and a heavily pregnant Tina joined the team at North Wootton Organic Farm.

‘Organic?’

‘Yes, we manage over 350 dairy cows producing organic milk for the market. It’s a 24-hour job.’

‘What makes it organic?’

‘It’s a bit chicken and egg. We collect the cow slurry, store it in a lagoon and spray it onto the pasture. No pesticides or other fertiliser.’

‘I get it: the cows have a totally organic diet and therefore produce organic fertiliser. But the cows (means they have had calves) and the heifers (yet to have calves) need to meet a bull at some point surely?’

‘We use artificial insemination to start with and our 128 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

resident bull to literally ‘sniff ’ out any still ovulating.

It’s a wait of 9 months and we block-calf for ten weeks in the spring.’

‘Tell me more about the team and how it all works?’

‘Happily, my 4.30am days are few and far between although I’m on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for holidays. We’re flat out for the next few weeks so it’ll be Terry and Louis on the early shift to greet you.’

‘Clay pigeon shooting sounds interesting?’

Lee explains he holds a Section 1 firearms licence; his hobby is competition shooting in Bridport and Shepton Mallet. Enough said. We take a short walk to the farm, passing Dave, the arable manager and Ian, the dietitian, to be greeted by Jamie, only 19 but 14 months into training under Lee. The nursery is full with one-week old heifers feeding from a row of artificial teats.

Back to my 4.30am start. The calf lying motionless

Image: Katharine Davies

awakens, tries to stand, the mother licking her pride and joy. Just amazing but…

No time for gazing. Abbey 104 radio is pumping music from speakers next door. The milking parlour is about to open and 240 guests wait patiently outside. Lee asks the cows to form an orderly queue and enter 24 at a time. Remarkably the cows, no longer heifers, comply.

Cake provided, they eat to the beat. Meanwhile, Terry and Louis scramble about in the parlour, spraying iodine as a post-dip, connecting milk clusters and the rest.

‘And for breakfast, Lee?’ ‘Bowl of Shreddies and milk.’

‘Fresh, raw milk by any chance?’

‘Sometimes. It’s great. I’ve only had two days off work sick in eleven years.’

‘Where next for the heifers?’ I enquire.

‘The calves spend roughly twelve weeks switching from milk to grass, less time if the weather’s good. I pull a circular milk bar trailer, they follow me thinking I’m

their mum! Fifteen months later, pregnant, the cycle starts again.’

‘OK Lee, I think I have it. Heifer born, 15 months in the fields eating organic grass, after which they have a baby at 24 months and then donate their milk to those big tanks.’

‘Not quite Colin. The milk leaves the cow at 38°C; it goes through chillers and arrives in those stainless-steel bulk tanks at 4°C. When they’re full, the milk is pumped directly to a tanker. It’s then pasteurised and tested before hitting the supermarkets.’

A massive thank you to Terry and Louis for welcoming me at 4.30am, Jamie for our chats and Tina for the yummy brownie and, of course, Lee for sharing his Folk Tales and providing such a wonderful close-up of life on the farm.

Have a great April. colinlambert.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 129

OUT AND ABOUT

‘C

David Birley

ount your blessings’ is an instruction given to children and adults when life does not work out quite how they want it to. In Sherborne it is the opposite; we count our blessings because we have so much to be grateful for.

Take the recent cold snap in February. The media were full of disaster stories and photographs of the chaos the snow brought. However, there were no problems in Sherborne. This was due to the excellent work of our town council team. We are extremely fortunate to have Trevor Savage as our town clerk - he organises everything so well - and also Paul Newman, the grounds and property manager who looks after the outdoors team.

You can never be bored in Sherborne, there is always so much going on. There are music, film and literary festivals which attract audiences from far and wide. Our U3A fair in September showcases the many and varied activities and interests that you can take part in. Whatever your interest, you are sure to meet like-minded friends.

We are also lucky to live in such an attractive town.

Our abbey and castles are justly world famous. Our shops and houses are the envy of many a similar-sized town and are beautifully kept by their owners. The Sherborne in Bloom team do a great job enhancing our streets and public places. The hanging baskets in Cheap Street are a joy to see in summer; at Christmas, the illuminated trees above the shops add to the festive spirit.

Also, of course, there are the people. Sherborne people are so friendly and helpful. It is a very welcoming community and, whether you are a complete newcomer or a retiree returning to your roots, you are quickly made

130 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

to feel at home.

Pageant Garden is a lovely spot to go for a quiet walk at any time or to enjoy the sun in the summer. I am delighted to learn that the bandstand, such a fine example of Edwardian grandeur, is going to be restored. Another feature to enjoy is the garden created by Sherborne Primary pupils with the help of Castle Gardens.

Both our primary schools give our children an excellent start in education and have dedicated and innovative heads and staff. It has been my privilege to visit them on several occasions. I have been Father Christmas at the Abbey Primary’s Christmas Fair for a few years now, something I particularly enjoy. It is lovely to see the children’s surprise and excitement when they come into my grotto and meet the elves (who I named Elf and Safety!). When I have asked them what presents they are hoping to get and if they have been good, I also often ask if their parents have been good and are going to get presents which gets some amusing answers.

In the summer I have been out with Ian Bartle, the head of Sherborne Primary, and his pupils and helpers when they do their ‘random acts of kindness’ in Cheap Street. This is when pupils give flowers, which have been donated by our supermarkets, and cakes made by parents to passers-by. I think this is a lovely idea.

I also go to both primary schools and ask them to design posters to promote our Summer Festival that they can then put up in their windows at home to advertise the event. The standard is very high and the best are given book tokens. Their choirs are a big attraction at our Summer Festival and I look forward to seeing them again next year.

New town centre office/studios available in Sherborne

Short Story

A MISUNDERSTANDING

B

Jan Garner, Sherborne Scribblers

rian’s hands shook as he put the last of his things in his over-night bag.

He was dreading today.

‘Your breakfast is on the table.’ His wife called out from the bottom of the stairs as a mouth-watering smell of bacon wafted up to the landing. ‘Hurry up, before it gets cold.’

‘Ok, I’m coming.’

‘Crikey!’ He said a few minutes later as he came into the kitchen and looked at the overloaded plate. ’What’s this? The last supper.’

‘Don’t be silly, I just thought you’d need something decent inside you this morning, I doubt you’ll get a fry-up at the hospital.’

‘Probably not,’ he said, squeezing tomato ketchup all over the bacon and eggs.

‘Have you packed everything?’ she said as she poured the tea.

‘Yes, I don’t need much for a couple of days. I thought I’d take that new Jeffrey Archer book with me.’

‘Good idea, it’ll take your mind off the op,’ she said as Brian tucked into his food. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I know how anxious you are, not surprising after what happened to your mum.’

‘No, I'll be fine.’

‘But you are worried about it, aren’t you?’

‘Not really,’ he lied, ‘anyway I don’t have a choice. It’s got to be done.’

‘You should have gone to the doctor’s when I told you to before it got this bad.

I just pray that you’ll be fit in time for the competition. It’s only a couple of months away and we haven’t mastered the rumba yet.’

‘Stop panicking,’ he said, wiping his last slice of bread across the remains on the plate. ‘Doctor Barton reckons I’ll only be out of action for a little while. By the time we’ve had a few weeks’ practise, we’ll be the South West’s answer to Fred and Ginger,’ he joked.

‘Well, I hope you’re right,’ she said. The presenter on Radio Four announced the nine o’clock news.

‘Come on,’ she said as Brian swallowed the last of his tea, ‘look at the time,

132 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

you’re running late as usual.’

‘Quit fussing, I’ve got plenty of time.’

She raised her eyebrows, ‘knowing you, you’ll be late for your own funeral.’

‘Very funny,’ he said as he stood up and put his arms around her. ‘Right, I’m going, give me a kiss and wish me luck.’

Forty minutes later Brian was on his way to the ward on the fourth floor.

‘This is your bed,’ the young nurse said. ‘Please get undressed and put your things in the locker. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’ He did as he was told and for the first time since he was a small boy, donned a pair of pyjamas. He glanced around at the old men in the ward.

‘Morning,’ he called across to the few who weren’t snoozing. A couple acknowledged his greeting and then disappeared behind their newspapers.

‘The doctor is on his rounds,’ the nurse informed him when she returned to take his blood pressure, ‘but it’ll be a while before he gets to you.’

‘I’m not going anywhere nurse,’ he smiled and opened his book.

The general comings and goings on the ward distracted him and he soon abandoned his reading. It was just after lunch and his nerves were beginning to get the better of him when the consultant finally arrived.

‘Good afternoon.’ The man said as he pulled the curtains around the bed.

I’m Mr Watts; I am standing in for Doctor Barton today.’

‘Oh, ok.’

Brian sat quietly as the doctor opened the folder in his hand and studied the notes.

‘I have the results of your recent blood tests and scans and I’m afraid to say that it’s not good news.’

‘What do you mean? Not good news,’ Brian said.

‘Unfortunately, there is no easy way to say this, but your condition is inoperable.

Sadly, all we can do now is keep you out of pain and make you as comfortable as possible for the time you have left.’

Brian’s face drained of colour. ‘And how long is that?’ he whispered.

‘A month, maybe less. I really am very sorry,’ he said as he returned the notes to the folder and slipped out through the curtains.

‘Sister, he called as he passed the nurse’s station, please give Mr Collins in bed six a cup of tea. He’s had a nasty shock.’

‘Mr Collins is in bed seven Sir, bed six is the in-growing toenail.

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 133

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Sophia Gallia

Wilding by Isabella Tree (Picador, 2018) RRP £20 Hardback Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £19 from Winstone’s Books

W

hat happens when humans stop managing an area of farmland? This question is answered in Wilding, which recounts an experiment to ‘re-wild’ a farm in Sussex owned by Charlie Burrell, the husband of the book’s author, Isabella Tree.

Knepp Estate is situated between Gatwick Airport and the south coast of England. It runs to around 3,500 acres, in three blocks divided by roads. Knepp’s soil is damp, heavy Wealden clay. Such land is not easy to farm: crops do not grow well or uniformly, so inputs are high and field operations expensive. Little fields, surrounded by miles of internal fencing are worth the effort when crop prices are high but, since the 1980s when overproduction of wheat and other crops were subsidised, the value of wheat in the absence of tonnage subsidy has plummeted. Input costs have rocketed and, as with many farms, profits have shrunk at Knepp. Forcing the land 134 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

to produce ever higher yields also wrecked the soil. It couldn’t go on and the family faced difficult decisions.

Tree describes how opportunity and funding enabled the Burrells to reinstate Repton Park, a historic parkland within the estate’s middle block, to its former glory by sowing grass and bringing in fallow deer to graze and roam free. This area had been ploughed up in the Second World War as part of the Dig for Victory campaign and its restoration allowed the Burrells to work with the land rather than against it. In the process it, ‘launched [them] into the living landscapes of the past’.

With inspiration from wilding projects around the world, particularly Holland, Tree says, ‘We were poised on the threshold of a new way of thinking about our land...’ Then a ‘shot in the arm’ came from Europe with the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy which allowed farmers to take land out of production but still

be paid. Now the Burrells could create something wilder and more sustaining through the remaining estate. Tree recounts how the family took intervention away, bravely sat on their hands and, against all human instinct to meddle, watched as weeds sprung up in arable fields, brambles took hold and tree saplings grew in thickets.

They held their nerves as Knepp became messier, growing the things the land grew well: brambles, scrubby grass, ‘weeds’ and trees, particularly oaks.

A small river runs through the farm, providing much needed water. This had been straightened and constrained in the past but the family opened up the banks and allowed the water to choose its own course, providing a variety of new habitats.

Changes happened quickly in this highly dynamic system.

Once funding had been secured, the Burrells were able to ringfence the final southern block, which enabled them to bring in a bigger range of animals, choosing proxies to the species that would have roamed the area before farming began: Tamworth pigs (for wild boar); longhorn cows (aurochs); Exmoor ponies (tarpan); red, roe and fallow deer (elk). With the removal of all internal fences, these grazing, browsing and rootling species could roam free, shaping the habitats and ultimately converting the low-grade energy from Knepp’s plants into high-quality meat protein.

At the start of the experiment, Knepp was a place supporting a very linear food chain thus: man eats beast (or dairy product from beast), which eats crop; or man eats crop. In such a system, there is little room for any other wildlife. The result so far (the experiment isn’t finished yet) is a complex food web in a wood-pasture system with habitats supporting a vastly increased variety of life. Tree describes Knepp’s newly enriched diversity: there are 161 bird species and it is a regional hotspot for many species scarce elsewhere, including 13 on the IUCN Red List and 19 on the Amber List.

It also has 13 out of the 17 UK bat species, and 60 invertebrates of conservation importance including the UK’s largest breeding population of the rare purple

emperor butterfly, 62 species of bee and 30 of wasp.

Knepp has been singled out as ‘an outstanding example of landscape-scale restoration in recovering nature’.

In Knepp’s new food web, man takes the role of apex predator. This doesn’t mean that visitors are expected to return to the Stone Age by donning loincloths and taking up spears to hunt the ‘aurochs’ and ‘boar’! However, they are encouraged to enjoy Longhorn steaks, Tamworth sausages and veni-burgers and all the good protein that these pasture-fed grazers provide. Without a market for ponies born at Knepp, Tree explains that they had to intervene to castrate the stallions, and also that it would be helpful to overcome the taboos of human consumption of horsemeat which, as she says, would be: ‘a top-quality, traceable, conservation-grade British horsemeat for the table… that we might again have a breeding herd of Exmoors at Knepp’.

Managing the environment, whether through farming or anything else, is jaw-droppingly complex. But moral rights and wrongs for us human consumers are frequently put in black and white - with an increasing ‘one size, fits all’ subtext. Wilding goes some way in providing a blueprint – in the words of Chris Packham – of ‘how to fix our broken land’, and it challenges one’s perceptions of what ‘appropriate’ land use is. That alone is exhilarating.

Wilding provides clarity as to how our lifestyle choices might successfully reduce man’s ecological footprint, and it may not be in the way current popular thinking would have us believe. The Knepp project is nothing short of inspirational.

This review was first published online by Elementum Journal. elementumjournal.com Isabella Tree will the telling the Knepp story at the Digby Memorial Hall in Sherborne on 5th April. Tickets available from Eventbrite. eventbrite.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 135

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Jan Pain, Sherborne Literary Society

In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum (Chatto & Windus, 2018). RRP: £20 hardback Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £19.00 from Winstone’s Bookshop

A

t the 2010 annual service held in St. Bride’s Church to commemorate journalists killed on assignments, Marie Colvin, war correspondent for The Times, delivering the address, stated, ‘We always have to ask ourselves was the level of risk worth the story? What is bravery, what is bravado?’

In Colvin’s case, these questions are answered by her friend and fellow journalist, Lindsey Hilsum, exploring the career and complexities of this courageous woman in a well-observed biography. From her American Catholic childhood on Long Island, her many love affairs, hard-drinking, chain-smoking and endless partying, Hilsum describes Colvin’s inspiring life spanning the major conflicts of our time: Israel and Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, East Timor, Chechnya, Sri Lanka (where she was hit by a grenade and lost the sight in her left eye, thereafter wearing her trademark eye-patch), each with its own humanitarian tragedy graphically described.

Colvin became known for her unique style as she focused on the civilian victims of war. In 2001 she wrote, ‘It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars.’

Her dogged determination led to meetings with Col. Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat, two unlikely friendships.

She felt that by getting close to the displaced, wounded and starving populations she encountered and filing a different type of report from that of the logistics of war, she would alert her readership to real suffering. She 136 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

contemplated what kind of service war correspondents perform and what ethical codes they should follow. Expected by her editor to come up with sensational headlines, hers was a difficult task.

Despite her frenzied and often exciting work in war zones, she was unfulfilled in her private life. Twice married and divorced, she took a stream of unsatisfactory lovers. There is a sadness in her story long before her untimely death. She relied on her many female friends as sounding boards for the horrors she had witnessed, as well as in her many disastrous personal relationships.

By the year 2000 she had been acknowledged with three prestigious journalistic awards and, in 2010, was the recipient of the Martha Gellhorn prize. She was diagnosed with PTSD before her second time in Homs, Syria, in 2012, her final assignment. Although called back by her bosses, she was determined to finish her story of the civilian suffering in the seemingly neverending conflict. But by the 21st century, journalists such as Colvin were exposed to great danger, as use of mobile phones and the internet could be tracked by modern technology and their whereabouts exposed. Trapped with other journalists, this time death was inevitable as a rocket screamed through the house from which she was about to flee. Although paying the final price, she had weighed up the level of risk and decided it was worth it, echoing her speech two years previously. Colvin’s bravery manifests itself in this, her final act, and could never be misinterpreted as bravado. sherborneliterarysociety.com

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MARCH SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Give up one's rights (4) 3. Well-rounded (8) 9. Soft-bodied invertebrate (7) 10. Ellipses (5) 11. Prediction or expectation (12) 13. Pour from one container to another (6) 15. Relating to stars (6) 17. Intolerable (12) 20. Very large (5) 21. Smoothing clothes (7) 22. Sorriest (anag) (8) 23. Eager (4)

DOWN 1. Soldier (8) 2. Glazed earthenware (5) 4. Consider to be true (6) 5. Gradual reduction in value (12) 6. Strident noise (7) 7. Stage of twilight (4) 8. Part of the mind (12) 12. Substance causing a reaction (8) 14. Where you watch films (7) 16. Sheep known for its wool (6) 18. Illegal payment (5) 19. Slightly open (4) sherbornetimes.co.uk | 137

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

D

Canon Robert Draper, The Sacred Heart and Saint Aldhelm

oesn’t it make a difference once the sun gets up a bit earlier and sets a bit later, and the daffodils come out, and the trees starts to look like something might be happening, and the birds start being noisy? I find myself becoming more alert; I notice things more - like the frogspawn and tadpoles in the pond in Pageant Gardens - and I seem to have more energy and interest. The warmer temperature is welcome but it is the longer days that really count – and people have always thought that.

I find it interesting that, in English, we use the word ‘Lent’ for this time of the year. Unlike other European languages, it’s doesn’t have a specifically religious origin - it’s a word that is rooted in the verb ‘to lengthen’. Nice to know it’s not just me who thinks that its worth registering the longer days! The longer days enable us to notice things more - what is going on around us in nature and creation. We seem to become more aware. Nature wakes up after the winter recess and I seem to wake up to the world around me too. That idea of becoming more aware is true too of the idea of Lent as a season of the Christian church. Lent can be associated simply with ‘giving up’ things, a sort of negative approach, but it is primarily about becoming more conscious of all that is around us, especially others. It’s so easy to fix our attention solely on ourselves and our issues but that is neither healthy nor wise.

So Lent can be seen as a gift to help us become more aware. In that sense we can see that if someone decides to give up chocolates or to go on a fast for a bit, it’s not to lose weight (though you might). It’s about being aware that many people in the world are hungry, and to try and identify with them. If someone gives Lenten Alms, it isn’t just to soothe their conscience; it is to acknowledge that all people are our responsibility and have a right to the good things in the world. If someone chooses to spend time with readings from the Bible, or in prayer alone or with others, it is to help them to recognise that there are greater values and a greater reality to life than simply themselves and their immediate issues.

Like the longer days, Lent is there to enable us to be more aware, more conscious of what is truly important; and it is an invitation to do something about that. Ultimately, of course, Lent is about Easter. It carries with it the promise of life and the hope that is offered in the risen Christ – and that promise and hope is, at the end of the day (literally) what we all need to be aware of. sherbornecommunitychurch.org.uk

138 | Sherborne Times | April 2019

Focus without distraction Endless opportunities

Separate yet together

01935 810403 admissions@sherborne.org sherborne.org

01935 818224 registrar@sherborne.com sherborne.com

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