INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day – first formally observed in 1911 – to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while raising awareness about equality. To mark this important event we are saluting the many talented and inspiring women of our town. Here, we meet just a few and learn who, in turn, inspired them.

Nicki Edwards ‘It’s been a bonkers year; an absolute roller-coaster,’ says Nicki Edwards, headteacher of The Gryphon School. ‘Luckily, we have an amazing team.’ In ‘normal’ times she is responsible for approximately 2,000 people on and off site. ‘The Gryphon School is ingrained in me,’ she adds, ‘I joined in 2002 and my children came here; it’s in my blood.’ >

Dr Sally Dangerfield

‘I grew up in Sturminster and went to Imperial College, London, to study biology. I had a place to work on the eradication of malaria after graduation, but every Wednesday I did volunteer work at Pimlico School and loved the buzz of being there, so instead I did a teacher training course at Oxford.’

‘What I love most about being the head at The Gryphon is that no two days are the same, although, admittedly, through the pandemic this has been entirely off the scale. As a scientist, I like to solve problems and have felt able to rise to the occasion. This year has required an unprecedented rapidity of response: heads are told something by the government at 4pm on a Friday for implementation the following week. We are given courses in crisis management, but you’d never think of a crisis that lasts two years.’

Nicki admits she couldn’t do it without her fantastic staff and the support of the town. ‘There is a sense of community here that is second to none,’ she says. ‘All sorts of support happens when you need it. There has been Sherborne Viral Kindness, the Rotary raising funds for lap-tops for children, Sherborne Abbey’s ‘Faith in Action’ sponsoring a youth worker and the Town Council helping to provide us with a roadcrossing by the school.’

‘My inspiration? My grandmother, Lilian Vining, who lived in Holwell. She was a farmer’s wife, had 12 children and lived to be 99. She was an indomitable character and taught me that if you want something, you go out and get it. She taught me the importance of having a ‘quiet’ strength, of knowing what’s right and setting a standard for how you live your life. I come from a long line of determined women who know what they want and get it.’

That explains how Nicki sets out her goals for The Gryphon: ‘I ask myself what is this school about? And try not to be swayed by pleasing external agencies, but to make it the best school for the town. To do that you have got to have an inner strength, which for me, is also supported by my Christian faith.'

Dr Sally Dangerfield Doctor Sally Dangerfield is a GP at The Grove Medical Practice and has worked in Sherborne since 2015; prior to that and after graduating from Birmingham Medical School, she had spent 18 years in the British Army as a Medical Officer. Her tours of duty included a lot of traveling: ‘I was with the peacekeeping force in Kosovo and Sierra Leone among many other places,’ she says, ‘I have supported a field hospital in Iraq as we trained the Iraqi Forces and also developed an operating theatre complex in a 25-bed tented hospital in Bosnia in what was a clothing factory.’ On talking to her about her time with the Army, it’s clear she enjoyed it – even the moments when she was the only woman and would therefore require separate ‘facilities’. ‘I miss the dark humour of the Army,’ she says, ‘but there were times, when as one of a few women, it was very challenging.’

Sally met her husband at Sandhurst, and they did a tour of duty in Iraq together. She left the Army in 2006 and later came to settle in Dorset in 2008. She wears the Military Veterans Badge and is a key lead in making the practice a Military Veterans Championing Practice. ‘Sometimes it can be very difficult for soldiers who have come out of service,’ says Sally, ‘and there can be mental health issues. I want military veterans to be able to come here to be helped because I know something of what they have been through.’

Sally’s inspiration is another doctor and the first female doctor in the UK – confusingly named Dr James Barry. It’s a remarkable and controversial story but her sex was not discovered until her death. Dr James Barry was a woman ahead of her time, born Margret Bulkley in 1789 – she dressed as a man to study medicine at Edinburgh and then joined the Army and became a military surgeon. As Sally says, ‘She had to disguise herself as a man to follow her dreams, becoming the 2nd highest ranking Medical Officer in the British Army. She did a great deal to help reform cleanliness and hygiene in field hospitals and performed one of the first successful caesarians where both the mother and the baby lived. I often think of her.’

Laura Harper Laura Harper is head of girl’s sport at Sherborne Prep and also the youngest ever woman to play cricket as part of England’s Women’s Cricket Team. ‘I started at eight,’ she says, ‘and found a women’s county team at 13.’ She then joined the England squad at 14 and straight after completing her GCSEs made her debut for England. ‘Basically, it was a boy’s game when I started but in reality, that helped my game. I never really knew I was any good until my English teacher, Mr Pierce – who gave up his free time to take cricket nets on Saturday – said to me, come and have a go. I owe a lot of my success to him; he was one in a million. And also, to my mother who gave up her time to drive me to practices and matches when I was a kid.’ >

Sadie Wilkins

Laura grew up in Cornwall, but they didn’t have a women’s team, so she joined Somerset which meant a home game was in Bath and away matches could be as far as Kent. ‘It meant I would get up at 5am and sleep in the car, while my mother drove me to matches or practices.’ Laura’s 26 caps for England gave her a chance to travel the world, ‘but,’ she explains, ‘it’s the support from my mum, who gave up her life for it, that is massive.’

When I ask who her female role-model would be she says: ‘It has to be Charlotte Edwards; she was my inspiration when I was 17. She had played in boys’ teams and went straight into the England squad, and I wanted to follow her. In the end, I played with her, and against her, in club cricket.’

Hannah and Sadie Wilkins Hannah and Sadie Wilkins own Sherborne’s indie wine shop, Vineyards, and with the help of their allfemale team have landed a spot in Harper’s Top 50 wine merchants as highest new entry for 2020. Let’s face it, there’s been a lot of gender-stereotyping in the wine industry over the years. Sixteen years ago, when Hannah started Vineyards, it was still very much a male-dominated industry, but now it is estimated that women buy 80% of the wine sold in the UK and there is a growing number of female winemakers.

‘Take Marinette Garnier, for example,’ says Sadie. ‘She is one of the youngest female winemakers to be taken on by a Burgundy house and is currently at the helm of Maison Jaffelin – where she’s changing the face of the industry.’

‘The key thing is that the industry has gone through waves of change and if people enjoy wine, they want to buy wine,’ adds Hannah. ‘But it is our duty, as women, to highlight wine made by women and up the representation,’ says Sadie. This month, as part of IWD, they will be doing just that by running a series of ‘masterclasses’ by award-winning female winemakers from across the globe on Instagram Live.

‘The reality is it’s nice to work with inclusive people,’ says Hannah. ‘Inequality is still there,’ says Sadie, ‘and we wish we didn’t have to single out wines based on the gender of the winemaker behind them to highlight the success, but representation leads to change, and change is the future.’

And who is their inspiration? ‘Mine would be [the sailor] Ellen MacArthur,’ says Hannah. ‘I remember reading her book and thinking how amazing it is that a young woman can circumnavigate the world on her own. >

Jules Bradburn

It certainly made me think you really should chase your dreams and if you put your mind to it, you can achieve them. Opening a business in a very male-dominated arena at the age of 24 was certainly an achievement.’

‘Mine would be Emilia Bassano,’ says Sadie. ‘She was the original trailblazer; no one had heard of her, yet she was the first published female poet in England. Many believe she was Shakespeare’s ‘dark lady’. Another who went against the grain to be heard by concealing her gender.

Jules Bradburn By trade, Jules Bradburn is a solicitor and when not delivering lectures on the legal intricacies of forensic archaeology, she is sitting on tribunals as part of her new judicial post. Her background is in local government administrative law, which came in handy when faced with a pandemic and the need to corral a community into positive action. ‘It was at the start of the first lockdown when Hannah Wilkins, Jane Wood, and I said, how can we make sure people are looked after in this town? The answer was Sherborne Viral Kindness. It has spiralled into a huge thing,’ explains Jules, ‘with over 500 volunteers on our books, who do all sorts of things from shopping to delivering pharmaceuticals. During the first lockdown we provided over 100 free meals a day.’

‘Sherborne is a very affluent town,’ says Jules, ‘but there are a large number of families who struggle enormously. I also volunteer for the Fabulous Foundation, which we formed in 2015, to run the Camelot Challenge. It raises money to ensure U25s get to attend things such as school trips, extra lessons, clubs and the Duke of Edinburgh Award.’

If that’s not enough, she also helps organise the Sherborne Literary Festival. ‘We’re really hoping we can do something this year,’ she says. Although, at the moment, they can’t confirm.

So, where does this energy come from? ‘My inspiration is my grandmother,’ says Jules. ‘Her name was Katharine Bestwick; she died when my Dad was a teenager, so I never met her, but the stories remain. She ran businesses in the North East, including amusement arcades, and held the family together whilst her husband was a career Army Officer,’ explains Jules. ‘In the 1950s, she became the Mayoress of Redcar. She had grit and determination and it was women like her who did the groundwork for us [women] today.’

Eleanor Goulding Eleanor Goulding is one half of Denman+Gould, a multi-discipline art and design studio working out of the former St Catherine’s Church in Haydon. Over the last few years, they have participated in Dorset Art Weeks and hosted film screenings, talks and live music. Two years ago, Eleanor organised a family screening of Moomins on the Riviera for the town and has also curated FILMDorset: a site-specific film programme, currently on pause until lockdown lifts for good.

Denman+Gould has spread its wings of late and, increasingly, Eleanor and her partner Russell Denman have become involved in larger projects. Recently, they completed a series of Wildlife Pods: a public art project that provided pods for wildlife on a wildflower bank that has been planted at Winterbourne Abbas. The pods were carved from English oak and use an abstracted design based on Eleanor’s drawings of seed heads.

Another recently completed project is Courtyard Constellation: a public art space for student accommodation at Cumberland Place in Southampton. The cast installation is based on an 11-star grid; the palette inspired by old hand-painted British survey maps. Both projects have taken Denman+Gould in new directions which Eleanor hopes to build on.

‘We are super busy and it’s all happening at once,’ says Eleanor, ‘but we are very thankful. When we did the first DAWS it was a very hand-to-mouth existence, so it’s nice to get public-funded projects.’

She cites her friends as her inspiration but currently one in particular: Melody Razak, who worked as pastry chef by day and wrote her debut novel Moth in her spare moments. ‘Melody’s self-discipline is what I admire the most,’ says Eleanor, ‘making sure that she writes every day and having moved from a cake shop baker to a full-time writer, which is such a hard thing to do.’ As a busy working mother Eleanor knows a thing or two about that.

There are countless women in Sherborne doing incredible things. The majority of our town’s businesses are in fact run by women and new ventures are emerging each month. Its testament to our safe and inclusive community that so many aspiring women chose to call Sherborne home. Long may that last. And here’s to our daughters, lighting the way ahead…

internationalwomensday.com #IWD2021

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THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

CARROT AND PINEAPPLE WITH MERINGUE KISSES MOTHER’S DAY CAKE

Acake that is so moist, with the help of juicy carrots and pineapple, it is irresistible. I made this cake for my granddaughter’s birthday and I think that this is an easy one for children to help with as a surprise for mums on Mother’s Day. There’s lots the children can do – weighing out, chopping and grating. This recipe makes 16 pieces.

You might wish to leave the nuts out of the cake and replace with the same amount of grated carrot.

If you wish to lower the calories, you might like to halve the amount of cream cheese topping, and leave out the meringue kisses, and replace with fresh berries.

Meringue Kisses Tip – these can be made first, as they can be kept in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks.

90g egg white, at room temperature 2g cream of tarter 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 -3 drops of yellow gel food colouring

Time preparation 15 minutes Baking 1 hour

What you will need Two flat baking sheets (it helps not to have a lip on baking sheets - lined with either baking parchment or silicon liners). I have bought two silicon sheets that are already marked with circles that are the right size for piping macarons, but they work perfectly for meringues and nests too.

A mixing bowl.

Large piping bag (you can use a disposable one) fitted with a JEM 1G star nozzle or 8-point star nozzle.

A stand mixer with whisk attachment saves a lot of your time and effort, or an electric hand-mixer.

Method Preheat the oven to 100C fan assisted, 100C, 200F, gas mark ¼ 1 Line two baking sheets with either the baking parchment or silicon sheets. 2 Place the egg whites with the cream of tartar into a mixing bowl and whisk on medium, until the mixture reaches ‘soft peak’ stage. Add the vanilla extract and then turn back on to beat on high. 3 Gradually add a teaspoon of the caster sugar to the egg white, a little at a time, allowing a few seconds between each spoonful. Continue whipping until the whites are shiny and hold stiff peaks. Tip – take a little mixture between your finger and thumb - it should feel smooth. If it feels gritty, beat the mixture a little more to make sure all the sugar has dissolved. 4 Place the nozzle in the bag and stand the prepared piping bag inside a large jug (a pint beer glass will do but improvise). Place the meringue in the bag and fasten the end with a clip or a peg. 5 Holding the piping bag vertically, start at the middle of a circle on your baking sheet and squeeze the bag steadily slightly up and down to create a kiss about 3cm high. When you reach this point, lift the piping bag a little higher and lift off. 6 Repeat this until you have used up the mixture. 7 Place in the oven and they are ready when you lift a meringue and it comes away from the parchment cleanly, with no sticking. 8 Place on a cooling rack and when cold store in an airtight container.

Cake 450g soft light brown sugar 375ml sunflower oil 380g grated carrot 5 large eggs (320g out of their shells) 225g self-raising flour 185g pecans (optional)

120g sultanas 100g finely chopped tinned pineapple - reserve the juice for the topping syrup 14g ground mixed spice 2g ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla extract A pinch of fine sea salt Grated zest of one unwaxed orange - save the juice for the syrup

Orange and pineapple syrup Juice of one whole orange 4 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice 40g caster sugar

Cream cheese frosting 600g icing sugar 200g unsalted butter 100g full-fat cream cheese Finely grated zest and juice of an unwaxed orange 1 teaspoon orange extract

What you will need A mixer (a stand mixer if you have one, or an electric hand mixer if not. If you haven’t either of these then use muscle power and beat the mixture with a balloon whisk).

A round 20cm diameter deep baking tin (lined and greased) - a clip release tin would be best.

Method Pre heat the oven to 160ºC fan, 180ºC, Gas Mark 4 1 Place the sugar and oil in the stand mixer bowl, or your chosen mixing method, and mix well until all combined and smooth. 2 Whilst the sugar and oil are combining, break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Add the eggs slowly to the sugar mixture and beat until smooth. 3 Sift the flour, spices, salt and fold into the oil mixture with a metal tablespoon. 4 Then, fold in the grated carrot, pineapple, pecans, orange zest, orange extract, vanilla extract and sultanas. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and tap the tin on the work surface to level off. 5 Place in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 1 and a half hours. Tip – check the cake after an hour and 15 minutes by gently tapping the cake tin. If the centre wobbles, the cake will need at least another 15 minutes. The cake should be golden and firm to touch; a skewer should come out cleanly, if inserted in the middle of the cake. If you lift the cake to your ear, it should hardly be making a sound - no crackling from any mixture still cooking inside the cake.

Orange and pineapple syrup 1 Place the orange, pineapple juice and sugar into a small pan; swirl the pan over the heat to help dissolve the sugar and bring to a steady boil. 2 Reduce the heat and simmer, until the syrup is reduced by one-third – this should take about 5 minutes. 3 When baked, remove the cake from the oven and brush with the warm syrup. Place the tin on a cooling rack and leave in the tin to go completely cold.

Buttercream frosting 1 Place the butter and cream cheese in a bowl and beat until combined. 2 Add the orange zest, juice and orange extract. 3 Add the icing sugar - a dessert spoon at a time – until all combined. Beat for 8-10 minutes until light and fluffy.

To decorate the cake Spread the frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate the top with the meringue kisses or fresh berries and, if you wish, you can add a few primrose flowers if available.

DARK CHOCOLATE CLAFOUTIS

WITH GRIOTTINE CHERRIES & DORSET SEA BUCKTHORN Sasha Matkevich and Jack Smith, The Green

This is our take on a classic French dessert. The better the chocolate you use, the tastier the result. At the restaurant we use Valrhona, available from The Chocolate Society in Bruton via their website chocolate.co.uk.

Ingredients Serves 6 135g egg whites 85g sugar 4 egg yolks 100g unsalted butter 1 single espresso 1 tbsp cocoa powder 62g plain flour 200g 70% cocoa chocolate 50g sea buckthorn 50g Griottine cherries

Method 1 In a large bowl or mixer, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Once achieved, continue mixing, while adding a tablespoon of sugar at a time, until all the sugar has been incorporated. 2 Place a bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt the chocolate and butter until smooth. Add the espresso, add the egg yolks, and sift in the flour and cocoa powder. 3 Fold the egg whites into the chocolate carefully, until the mixture resembles a loose cake batter. 4 Pipe, or pour, the mixture evenly into 6 ramekins and add 6 Griottine cherries into each clafoutis.

Cook in an oven at 180˚C for 7-8 minutes. Once cooked, add a teaspoon of sea buckthorn berries on top of each and serve immediately with an ice cream of your choice.

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM

James Hull, The Story Pig

At the time of writing, we are in the grip of a freezing spell of weather. The ground, which for the last few months has been deluged with relentless rain and is full of tracks from where we have driven through the mud, has changed overnight: now, frozen solid, the deep ruts are perilous to cross! Driving round the pig fields now takes me back to being a child. Remember those gaudy plastic toy cars outside supermarkets that we begged our parents to let us sit in and drive? They used to buck and dive crazily for five minutes at a time… well, that’s what it’s like at the moment! The mud, temporarily suspended in time, with dust blowing around our yard, is something we haven’t seen for a long while. The pigs have lost a bit of their enthusiasm for being fed; they are not keen on walking over bumpy frozen ground and pick their way delicately to the feed troughs. We are taking water to them, as all the water troughs are frozen solid. Although, they don’t drink much when it’s this cold.

A month ago, I wrote about our newest piglets arriving… well, all six sows gave birth over the following couple of days. We had 60 new piglets born! For several days, they stayed in their new beds - all separate groups from each other – but then, at about a week old, the mixing began. Until now, four weeks on, we have an unruly mob of four-week-old piglets charging round the place. They have grown incredibly well; their devoted mothers producing lots of milk to turn them into little barrels of muscle. They are already starting to steal their mothers’ food and begin the transition to solid food. It always amazes me how fast they grow at this stage.

Whilst I write this, the radio is on in the background: BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today gently wafting over me; they are talking about Covid and how its impact on the pig supply chain means pigs are staying on farms longer and getting too big for the supermarkets packaging and shelving. That… right there… is what’s wrong with our world! When an animal is raised, and the only thought is how it will fit on a shelf, surely something has gone seriously wrong. Where the pig, the farmer, and the farm fit in to this system – I am not sure. But I am sure it’s not for us at The Story Pig.

We know every pig we grow; every sausage is handmade by me; every joint is lovingly packed by Charlotte. They are all different and we celebrate that – some chops are bigger – that’s because the pig they came from was bigger. If we are going to eat meat, then I believe we should cherish it and value the animal it came from, not grow it to a certain size in order to fit on a shelf. So, come to us where our meat is real, and our chops are different sizes! Every Saturday 10am2pm, Charlotte will welcome you to our safe pop-up shop packed full of Tamworth pork of all shapes.

IN THE CAN

David Copp

In the Spring of 1964, as the newly appointed southern area sales representative for Bouchard Aine - one of the leading Burgundy houses - I was asked to assess the market for canned Beaujolais in the UK.

Our supplier Faye had done considerable homework and overcome all the problems of pricing wine putting a ‘young red’ into a tin. Supermarkets were generally unlicensed, so wine was mainly sold through wine merchants and retail chains such as Victoria Wine, plus hotels and restaurant chains.

The trade was very traditional and was generally slow to adopt new technology. I did not expect interest beyond curiosity from our established

Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock

customers but had a lucky breakthrough. One of my friends was a wine enthusiast and had a small but smart motorboat on the Thames. As others walked the tow paths, he sped down to keep dates at places like Richmond and Hampton Court.

‘Just what I need for my picnics,’ he said. The long and the short of it was the next Saturday we piled 20 boxes of 24 cans of Beaujolais onto his boat and set off to sell them to other boat owners. We departed at about ten o’clock and by midday had completely sold out. Novelty, convenience and weight were the decisive factors.

On Monday morning, I parked my car on Earls Court Road and sold another 20 cartons to small, downstairs restaurants whose main customers were courting couples. They sold wine by the carafe, so the can did not appear on the table. The attraction was taking up less storage space and ease of handling.

Once people realised that the wine was good, canned wine was embraced as a convenience product. Hobbyists and small, crowded restaurants embraced it. Young people liked the novelty of it. Furthermore, it was less formal and less stuffy than drawing a cork. Sales began to take off when wine enthusiasts realised they could make a contribution to saving the planet.

Canned wine led to the introduction of other energy-saving packaging.

Looking at alternatives to glass makes absolute sense. Before I go any further, I am quite convinced that glass will remain the material of choice for fine winemakers whose wines merit long ageing. I recently enjoyed a bottle of Vosne-Romanée 1953 from the Dr Barolet collection which was in perfect condition.

But fine wines aged for a long period make up less than 5% of world consumption. Most wine produced is consumed within a year or two of its making. It does not need glass. If you like to serve wine from glass, as I do, use a decanter!

What I like best about canned wines is their convenience and informality. As a wine writer, I get invited to taste new wines. But members of the public at large have to pay for their samples! Smaller quantities in a can are a good way to taste new or different wines, particularly white, rosé and sparkling wines, as well as lighter red wines such as Beaujolais.

Bath Canned Wine Company is an enterprising new company specialises in sourcing wines that have been made to be canned. The company delights in discovering individual wines that are relatively unknown. It sources single vintage and single varietal wines and also has a stock of exceptional limited editions.

But all good wine retailers now offer canned wines and I expect sales to leap ahead as more people get to know about them.

For the record, I pour canned wine into a glass because I think it tastes better. It may not taste better, but I think it does!

If you have not already done so, take the plunge and try a canned wine, and something you have never had before.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Small But Perfectly Formed Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 250ml can, £3.75 Vineyards Small But Perfectly Formed is a project created by Bibendum with the aim of creating great tasting wine in a small, convenient and sustainable package. This wine has the typical deep, dark violet colour of an Argentine Malbec. The nose offers intense aromas of black stone fruit interwoven with notes of chocolate and sweet spice. The balanced acidity leads into a long, velvety finish.

Small But Perfectly Formed Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand 250ml can, £3.75 Vineyards This bright, refreshing Sauvignon Blanc has aromas and flavours of apples, pears and gooseberries; exactly what you expect from a NZ Savvy B. It’s produced by an extremely reputable winery and you are getting a lot of bang for your buck tucked inside this little can! Trust us…

On the topic of canned wine, we also wanted to share the news that we are in the process of purchasing our own canning machine which will allow us to expand our virtual wine tastings and customers will be able to sample several wines in one sitting in a more economical fashion. We can’t wait!

vineyardsofsherborne.co.uk