Sherborne Times May 2022

MAY 2022 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

NEW DIRECTION

with Deanne Tremlett of Guggleton Farm Arts

sherbornetimes.co.uk

W

WELCOME

e all started out as artists. Before we were able to walk, talk or read, we could create. Creativity pours through children.

A bath can quickly become a shark-infested ocean. A simple bedsheet is only ever one prop away from a den or a mountainous landscape for marauding invaders. A box is never just a box, and a blank page – the boundless promise of a blank page – is never blank for long.

Somewhere along the way however, the lights start to dim. We join the queue and are taught to earn a living. Our ‘work’, as it then becomes known, is deemed ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and the merits of creativity are thrown into question.

There are of course the champions; mentors who encourage and inspire the young to remain ever-playful and to hold on to that sense of wonder.

For the rest of us, we might find our way back – once the fuss and bother of adulthood has passed. Thank goodness then for Guggleton – a space where we can all, young and old alike, play.

Have a great month.

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

CONTRIBUTORS Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum

Rachel Goodfellow Rotary Club of Sherborne Castles

Liv Bowditch The Gryphon School

Julian Halsby The Arts Society Sherborne

Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers

Craig Hardaker Communifit

Mike Burks The Gardens Group

Dawn Hart YogaSherborne

David Burnett The Dovecote Press

Andy Hastie Yeovil Cinematheque

Social media Jenny Dickinson

Jenny Campbell Sherborne Scribblers

Illustrations Elizabeth Watson

Mike Hewitson MPharm FFRPS FRSPH MRPharmS The Abbey Pharmacy

Paula Carnell

Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard Photography Katharine Davies Feature writer Jo Denbury Editorial assistant Helen Brown

Print Stephens & George Distribution team Barbara and David Elsmore The Jackson Family David and Susan Joby Mary and Roger Napper Mark and Miranda Pender Claire Pilley Joyce Sturgess Ionas Tsetikas Paul Whybrew

1 Bretts Yard Digby Road 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.

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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 | May 2022

Cindy Chant Michela Chiappa Dan Chiappa-Patching Sherborne Prep School Jess Chiplen The Royal Bath and West of England Society

James Hull The Story Pig Lucy Lewis Dorset Mind Peter Littlewood BA (Hons), FRSA, Cert Mgmt (Open) Young People’s Trust for the Environment Chris Loder MP

Benjamin Clark Weller Twisted Cider

Paul Maskell The Beat and Track

Mollie Clothier Sherborne Girls

Sasha Matkevich The Green Restaurant

David Copp

Gillian Nash

Rosie Cunningham

Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Partnership

Jemma Dempsey Jo Denbury James Flynn Milborne Port Computers

Nin Rawlings The Homemover Specialist Zoe Sheffield Sherborne School

Mat Follas Bramble Restaurant

Val Stones

Simon Ford

Emma Tabor & Paul Newman

Andrew Fort B.A. (Econ.)

CFPcm Chartered MCSI APFS Fort Financial Planning

Peter Tait Sherborne Literary Society

Mark Greenstock

Simon Walker and Rebecca Silcock Mogers Drewett Solicitors

Jenny Gibson MRCVS Kingston Veterinary Group

Neil Walker Sherborne Community Land Trust

Nico and Chrystall Goodden

Julia Witherspoon Julia Nutrition

80 6

Art & Culture

MAY 2022 74 Gardening

132 Finance

18 What’s On

80 Guggleton Farm Arts

134 Tech

24 Community

88 Dorset Art Weeks Directory

138 Short Story

34 Family

92 Food & Drink

142 Literature

52 Science & Nature

104 Animal Care

144 Crossword

62 On Foot

112 Body & Mind

146 Pause for Thought

66 History

126 Home

72 Antiques

130 Legal

We are looking to expand our portfolio

With a local and enthusiastic team, Dorset Hideaways are well placed to make the process of sharing your holiday home easy and enjoyable.

We are dedicated to managing your property with the same care and attention you would and with tailored services to suit your needs, you can be involved as much or as little as you like.

01929 448 708 newowners@dorsethideaways.co.uk dorsethideaways.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 5

Art & Culture

ARTIST AT WORK

No. 42 Jo Denbury, Hawk I, 29cm H, Bronze Resin, £550

M

y earliest memories are working with clay in Mike Geary’s studio and long days roaming the Dorset countryside with nature as my friend. I intended to go to art school, but work intervened. Instead, I became absorbed by theatre and joined the RSC at the age of 22. The film and TV industry followed with Working Title films in the early 90s. By then I had begun to write more seriously and joined Elle Decoration and then the Telegraph Magazine as associate editor. Much of my work involved championing designers and giving them a platform to express their work but deep down I knew my own work was beckoning.

When I returned to Dorset I rediscovered my own practice. I work from a live subject, to interpret what I see through my hands into the clay. I never try to mirror nature – instead, I attempt to create what it leaves me with. It’s the same with my paintings. I 6 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me which become transformed. In all my work it’s the story that interests me the most. @jodenbury_art Jo’s work will be on show alongside photographic work by Graham Booth as part of Dorset Art Weeks (venue 23). ___________________________________________ 14th - 29th May Dorset Art Weeks Venue 23 – Graham Booth and Jo Denbury Yew Tree Barn, Yew Tree House, Hermitage Lane, Hermitage, DT2 7BB. Painting, photography and sculpture. Wednesday Friday 12am-5pm, weekends 10am-5pm

Graham: 07798 525013, Jo: 07968 949155 yewtreeart.co.uk dorsetartweeks.co.uk

___________________________________________

A story of

courage

Write your story at Sherborne Girls

To find out more, please contact admissions@sherborne.com

Girls 11-18 • Boarding and day

01935 818224 • sherborne.com

Art & Culture

ON FILM Andy Hastie, Yeovil Cinematheque

I Never Cry (2020)

O

ne of the many positives from watching foreign language films is that occasionally one can see issues which impact us in this country from the other side, and the next film showing at Cinematheque is a perfect example of this. On 4th May we screen I Never Cry (2020) from up and coming Polish director Piotr Domalewski.

Polish cinema, although often less commercially accessible than films from other European countries, has a fascinating recent history. Post World War 2, the communist government built a national cinema, training hundreds of new directors, and financed their film-making. This Polish Film School Movement gave rise to world-renowned works (all highly recommended) from directors such as Krzysztof Kieslowski, Dekalog (1989), Three Colours Trilogy (1993/4), The Double Life of Veronique (1991), Andrzej Wajda Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Katyn (2007), both seen at Cinematheque, and more recently Pawel Pawlikowski. We have shown his 3 latest films, awardladen all, My Summer of Love (2004), Ida (2013), and Cold War (2018) to much acclaim and praise.

I Never Cry set in modern day Poland, follows the story of 17-year-old Ola, who on learning that her father has died in a work-related accident at a container port in Dublin, travels to Ireland on her own to bring his body back home. Being the only one in her remaining family who speaks English, she sets off on her lone odyssey determined also to find where the money is that her father had promised her for a car.

The left-behind family experience of an East 8 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

European emigrant is cleverly highlighted, as the children of an economic migrant – the Euro-orphans – have been deprived of close contact with their father working abroad.

Given the subject matter, this isn’t a melancholic film at all. Ola, wonderfully portrayed by newcomer Zofia Stafiej, is a spiky, rebellious teenager on the trip of her lifetime into the unknown. From being completely self-centred, in Ireland she experiences a different world, meeting people who will change her approach to life. As she negotiates the bureaucracy of repatriating her father’s body, an awareness of her previous resentment towards her father is challenged, by realising the sacrifices he has made for his family back home.

I Never Cry has many funny and surprising moments along the way, and Ola’s ultimately satisfying coming-of-age is framed in a realistic look at the often unsafe conditions of Polish workers abroad. This is a refreshingly poignant view of a young woman behaving badly whilst remaining sympathetic, a real gem.

Interested? Come as a guest or take out a membership for the rest of the season. We’d love to see you. cinematheque.org.uk swan-theatre.co.uk ___________________________________________ Wednesday 4th May 7.30pm I Never Cry (2020) 15 Yeovil Cinematheque, Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil BA20 1QT. Members £1, guests £5

___________________________________________

SUNDAY 29TH MAY 2022

Sherborne Castle Country Fair & Rare Breeds Show

Organised and run by volunteers to raise funds for West Country Children’s Charities

TICKETS & INFORMATION www.sherbornecountryfair.com

ADULT £12.50 CHILD £4 FAMILY £30 ADVANCE TICKETS 10% DISCOUNT

Art & Culture

CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT Rosie Cunningham

C

elebrity theatre appearances have been a lot in the news recently, with a large amount of disparaging comments.

I have just seen Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse with Kit Harington and The Human Voice at the Harold Pinter Theatre with Ruth Wilson, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed both plays. The roles were difficult.

The modern setting of Henry V, with an overly busy stage direction and superb but distracting scenery, made it much harder to be heard to cut through the hubbub and Harington did extremely well. His speeches were thought-provoking and rousing, and the transition from his younger, debauched persona, into an upstanding and meaningful king, was credible. This role proved that Harington has more depth to him than he has previously been credited for. The Human Voice was a monologue, via a heart-breaking one-sided telephone conversation, with a former lover who had just moved out of their shared hi-rise apartment in New York.

Wilson was magnificent as a brittle, seductive, half-mad woman who slowly descends into the pit of despair.

The stage set was a large window through which the audience saw Wilson bouncing off the walls and pacing before finally opening the window and leaping off the windowsill. Both plays were edgy and enjoyable in their own way, and so much more than the celebrity lead, so do go and see what interests you and possibly only read the reviews afterwards! I have only ever walked out of one show halfway through and that was Grayson Perry at The London Palladium – I just wasn’t in the mood.

I caught the young writer, Samuel Bailey, being interviewed on the radio about his new play coming to the Bristol Old Vic and, on a whim, bought tickets for my eighteen-year-old daughter and myself. Sorry, You’re Not a Winner is a story about two best friends from Worcester, one of whom goes to prison on leaving school and the other gets a place at Oxford University.

10 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Image: Helen Murray

Ultimately, Fletch, who stayed at home and still gets in trouble with the police, is happy with a girlfriend, a baby on the way and a variety of dead-end jobs.

Liam, however, struggles to translate the rules and etiquette of Oxford and then doesn’t fit in at home either when he returns for a visit. The theatre was packed, the language was loud, confrontational, and crude at times, but Bailey got it all so right. The play is now touring and hopefully will get the recognition

Jodie Comer in rehearsals for Prima Facie with Justin Martin, Jane Moriarty Jasmin Hay and Maddie Siddi.

it deserves. Do look out for Samuel Bailey and the two young actors, Kyle Rowe and Eddie-Joe Robinson, who were magnificent.

Prima Facie, translated as ‘on the first impression’, is at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 18th June 2022, and stars Jodie Comer as a brilliant young barrister who is at the top of her game, intent on winning, whatever the odds. I loved Killing Eve, so I am expecting great things when I go in May.

Finally, I went to the fabulous Stonehenge exhibition, on at the British Museum until 17th July 2022, and I would really recommend it if you found yourself with a couple of hours to spare in London. There are many new treasures that have been unearthed recently, not only at Stonehenge but other sites such as Avebury. haroldpintertheatre.co.uk/shows/prima-facie britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/world-stonehenge sherbornetimes.co.uk | 11

THE DORSET OPERA

MMXXII

The home of Country House opera in South West England featuring renowned soloists and full orchestra

Marquee bar | Picnics | Formal Dining Giacomo Puccini

MANON LESCAUT 25, 28, 30 July at 19:00 | Matinée 27 July at 14:00 Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

THE MAGIC FLUTE 26, 27, 29 July at 19:00 | Matinée 30 July at 14:00 Sung in English with surtitles

Coade Theatre, Bryanston, Blandford Forum

Box Office: dorsetopera.com 07570 366 186

Art & Culture

THE ARTS SOCIETY SHERBORNE Julian Halsby

T

he Arts Society Sherborne is a well established and much-appreciated organisation that started its life as a NADFAS group in the 1980s. Its aim is to bring the arts to the people of Sherborne and its surrounding villages and it does this by staging monthly lectures at the Digby Hall. It belongs to a nationwide society which provides a list of accredited lecturers and much backup support, which ensures that all the lectures are of the highest quality.

There is much more to The Arts Society Sherborne than just the monthly lectures. Several times a year study days are arranged when a lecturer presents an art historical subject in-depth with three lectures punctuated by coffee breaks and a catered lunch. These days are both instructive and sociable. Indeed sociability is at the centre of the Society. Before each lecture, members gather for coffee and tea, in the summer a lunch party for members is held at Leweston School, at Christmas, a special dinner is arranged at The Grange at Oborne, there is a members’ party in the Digby Hall after the December lecture and there are regular parties for new members.

We also arrange one-day coach visits to places of interest 14 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

in this country as well as trips abroad. Sadly these trips have been curtailed by Covid but will be reinstated when possible. Destinations abroad have included Madrid, Berlin, Copenhagen and Jerusalem. So joining the Arts Society is about making new friends and contacts as much as about indulging your interest in the arts.

Indulging is the right word, because every month (apart from August and January) members are treated to a lecture on a wide variety of topics in the world of art. Naturally, there are many lectures on painters and art movements, but also on the history of music, design, furniture, jewellery and even magic. Lectures are held on the first Wednesday of the month at 3pm and repeated at 7pm.

This month, lecturer, writer and documentary-maker, Antony Penrose, discusses The Road is Wider than Long – a love poem created as a photo book of a journey through the Balkans in 1938 by the lecturer’s parents – Roland Penrose, a surrealist artist and the American photographer, Lee Miller.

In June, we are visited by Professor of Architectural Theory, Colin Davies, who will give a lecture based on

GILES PENNY THE ART OF BEING 13th – 31st May, 2022

Parpala/iStock

WAVING MAN

BRONZE

MAN WITH TROUSERS

BRONZE

his 2017 book A New History of Modern Architecture.

Major themes in 20th and 21st-century architecture, such as the rise of Modernism, the Postmodernist reaction, the survival of Classicism, and the effects of digital culture on the architecture of the new century, are introduced and explained in jargon-free terms.

The aim is to foster a fuller understanding of modern architecture and thereby encourage the enjoyment of its rich variety. Further details of these and future lectures can be found on our website. theartssocietysherborne.org ____________________________________________ Wednesday 4th May 3pm and 7pm The Road is Wider than Long – Speaker: Antony Penrose Wednesday 1st June 3pm and 7pm Modern Architecture – Speaker: Colin Davies Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne All welcome. Non-members £7

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

___________________________________________ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 15

Art & Culture

COUNTER CULTURE Paul Maskell, The Beat and Track

No.9 My Bloody Valentine: Revolution at their Own Pace

M

eeting in Dublin during early 1978, Kevin Shields and Colm O’Ciosoig had an instant affinity with music and each other and formed a punk band called The Complex. Dabbling with Ramones and Sex Pistols covers and later postpunk, the band failed to gain a major popularity, unable to secure gigs with more than a hundred people present.

A change of direction and personnel was decided upon, as was a change of name. The band were to be called My Bloody Valentine.

The band went through some line-up changes but later in March of 1984 the band recorded their first demo on tape and used this to secure a deal with Tycoon records. This was to be the beginning of much upheaval but this would ultimately result in the formation of the solid MBV line up and the invention of a new genre in guitar-based music.

On advice from their peers in the music business the band relocated to the Netherlands and later West Berlin where they recorded their debut mini album This is Your My Bloody Valentine. The album was released to a lukewarm reception and the band decided to return to the UK to re-evaluate, choosing relocation to London in 1985.

Over the next two years the band recorded two EPs, the second of which managed to make a minor 16 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

dent in the Indie charts and get them some much needed recognition. Then came two personnel changes that would ultimately solidify the band’s sound and propel them into the sights of the Indie music press and beyond. Enter bass player Debbie Googe from Yeovil and, later, Billinda Butcher from London. Googe brought a raucous playing style to the MBV sound while Butcher added ethereal vocals and additional guitar. Kevin Shields shared vocal duties and honed his guitar style which became a style full of texture, tremolo techniques and ‘glide guitar’ work. The genre of ‘Shoegaze’ was born and a new movement was spawned.

Signed to Lazy Records, the band went on to release a single Strawberry Wine and a mini-album Ecstasy.

Both were underfunded and under-promoted and received only minor acclaim. Enter the god-like Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records. He witnessed the band perform in Canterbury and instantly invited them to record an EP, likening their style to that of Husker Du. In August 1988 the band released the EP You Made Me Realise. The EP debuted at number two in the Indie charts and was laden with the now trademark guitar sound and ethereal vocals. On the back of the EP’s success the band went on to record their first fulllength album Isn’t Anything released in November 1988 which went to number one in the UK Indie charts. This

resulted in an explosion of ‘Shoegaze’ bands all working to the template created by Shields and his crew.

Any band’s second album is often deemed to be the ‘difficult second’. This was by no means any different for My Bloody Valentine. The album was initially planned to be recorded over five consecutive days. The album took so long to record that McGee insisted that the band release two EPs in the meantime to maintain interest and momentum. Ultimately the band took 21 months to record the album and spent over £250,000 doing so. They relocated to no fewer than nineteen different studios using numerous engineers and producers. The resulting album, Loveless was met with huge acclaim and praise although it didn’t replicate the chart position of their debut, peaking at number 24 in the Indie charts. To this end the band were dropped from Creation as McGee could no longer cope with Shield’s approach to recording and its crippling budget.

In 1992 the band were signed to Island Records and built their own home studio in south London. The studio experienced a large number of technical issues and, coupled with Shield suffering with writer’s block, the band only managed to record two songs over the next five years, both cover songs for tribute/charity albums. During 1995 Googe and O’Ciosoig left the band leaving only Shields and Butcher to attempt to record the third My Bloody Valentine album. After little progress Butcher left the band in 1997 leaving Shields to contemplate his future. It’s rumoured that the band had compiled over sixty hours of music that were ultimately shelved.

No releases and no gigs for the following ten years but Shields managed to keep a foot in the music business by becoming a touring member of Primal Scream and collaborating with several bands including Dinosaur Jr. A reunion was much rumoured during

EM_ST.qxp_Layout 1 19/04/2022 12:58 Page 1

2007 and in November 2007 and June 2008 the band played two reunion gigs, their first all together for sixteen years. They subsequently embarked on a world tour and performed to sell-out crowds at numerous festivals. Crowds that had one thing on their minds… third album?

Not until 27th January 2013 did Kevin Shields announce the release of the third My Bloody Valentine album mbv. During a small gig, Shields announced that a new album ‘might be out in two or three days.’

11.58pm on 2nd February 2013 – I was sitting in my bedroom in front of my computer trying to process an order for the much anticipated new album by My Bloody Valentine. The website ground to a halt as likeminded fans struggled to ensure that they got copies of the first full-length album released by the band since 1991’s Loveless. I was lucky. My download dropped immediately, the 180g vinyl and cd package arrived on 22nd February and I was not disappointed. Neither were the rest of the shoegaze fraternity who were now hungry for more. Dreamy vocals, sweeping, tremolo guitars with infectious beats. The shoegaze revolution continues! The band went on to tour worldwide and tentatively talked of a further release that year and a follow-up album during 2018!

May 2022 – the band are signed to Domino, their back catalogue has been re-issued and the band are said to be working on both a song-orientated album and a more experimental album in tandem. Will these see the light of day? There’s an army of shoegaze fans that still wait with baited breath for that announcement and the ensuing excitement that new material from My Bloody Valentine will create. I am still one of them, such is the power of their music and their integrity. thebeatandtrack.co.uk

THE FREE WESSEX ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE

EVOLVER MAGAZINE

Pick up your copy at arts venues, galleries, museums, art shops, cafés, libraries and tourist information centres (etc) throughout Dorset, Somerset, East Devon, West Wiltshire, Bristol and Bath Or subscribe online at: evolver.org.uk Instagram: evolvermagazine

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 17

WHAT'S ON ____________________________

Yeovil Cinematheque –

Tuesdays 10am-11am

I Never Cry (2020) 15

and 6pm-7pm

Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil

The Heart of Yoga Classes 7 Sheeplands Lane, Sherborne

BA20 1QT. Members £1, guests £5.

Digby Road. Tickets from Winstone’s

Bookshop and sherborneliterarysociety.com/ events. Members £9, non-members £10.

____________________________

cinematheque.org.uk

Saturday 14th

(see preview page 8)

Sherborne & District Gardeners’

details. aristos.org.uk

____________________________

Association Morning Plant Sale

____________________________

Friday 6th 7.30pm

Wednesdays 10-11am

Tango Calor

Parsons Yard, Cheap Street. All are

Tai Chi for Wellbeing

Charlton Horethorne Village Hall

Contact aristos.tropos@gmail.com for

7 Sheeplands Lane, Sherborne

Contact aristos.tropos@gmail.com for details. aristos.org.uk

____________________________

Internationally acclaimed authentic

welcome! Information from Richard Newcombe 01935 389375.

____________________________

tango trio with Indira Roman from

Havana and bandoneon (Argentine

concertina) player Mirek Salmon, £10.

01935 814199 jb@classicmedia.co.uk or takeart.org

____________________________ Saturday 7th 10am-4pm Plant Fair & Open Garden Yarlington House, Yarlington BA9 8DY Tea, coffee and cake. Plant raffle. Free parking. £5 (under 16s free) – cash if possible. 01963 440344

Saturday 14th - Sunday 29th

____________________________

Dorset Art Weeks

Venues across town. Sherborne’s annual,

Thursday 12th 7.30pm

Venues across the county. For details visit

for 2022. Tickets: 0333 666 3366 and

Association Meeting

____________________________

by Angie Blackwell of Cottage Flowers.

Until Friday 6th Sherborne Abbey Festival week-long celebration of music returns

Sherborne & District Gardeners’

via sherborneabbeyfestival.org

A short AGM will be followed by a talk

Wednesday 4th 3pm and 7pm

Non-members £2. Information from

Sunday 15th

____________________________

Cheap St, Half Moon St, Digby Road

The Arts Society Sherborne: The Road is Wider than Long –

Richard Newcombe 01935 389375.

dorsetartweeks.co.uk, pick up a copy of

the DAW Directory, or download the app (see pages 88-90 for local directory)

____________________________ The Sherborne Market and Pageant Gardens. Local producers,

Antony Penrose Digby Hall, Hound Street.

suppliers, amazing food and crafts

All welcome. Non-members £7

thesherbornemarket.com

(See article page 14)

____________________________

____________________________

Wednesday 18th 7.30pm Sunset Café Stompers with Julia Titus Blues and Gospel Singer Friday 13th 7pm Sherborne Literary Society Talk with Author Saul David

Wednesday 4th 7.30pm 18 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Cheap St Church. Live jazz in aid of The Rendezvous. Bookings by email

only raymondwood1949@gmail.com

____________________________

– SBS Silent Warriors: The

Saturday 21st 9.30am-4pm

Authorised Wartime History

Quarterly Bookfair

Digby Memorial Church Hall,

The Digby Memorial Church Hall,

MAY 2022 Digby Road. A variety of sellers offering

and repairers needed. Contact

maps, postcards, and other ephemera,

repaircafesherborne (last repair 12.15pm)

a wide range of second-hand books, at competitive prices. Free entry.

repaircafesherborne@gmail.com or

@

____________________________

colinbakerbooks@btinternet.com

Saturday 21st 10.30am-12pm

____________________________

Plant Sale

Saturday 21st -

St James Church, Longburton DT9 5PG

Sunday 22nd 10am-5pm Shakti Mantra Yoga Angels of Sound (Module 2) Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA.

Plant stalls, cake stall, raffle and

refreshments. Free admission. In aid of

Saturday 21st 11am-5pm

only 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com

Digby Hall, Hound Street

Saturday 21st 10am-1pm

tarot and stalls selling everything from

Mind Body Spirit Fayre

____________________________

Treatments and therapies, psychics,

Bring household items to be repaired and avoid landfill. Volunteers

tunes and harmonies by ear. All levels

and all acoustic instruments. Notation and audio supplied. £10 on the door.

Tickets are cheaper in advance via the website sherbornefolkband.org info@

sherbornefolkband.org 07527 508277

____________________________

____________________________

Western Labial Style. £70. Bookings

Cheap Street Church Hall, Sherborne

DT9 3NL. Julia Catovsky will teach

Longburton Garden Club funds.

The art of overtone singing using

Repair Cafe

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road,

jewellery to macrame. Entry £1.

____________________________

Tuesday 24th 7pm

Sunday 22nd 1.30pm-4.30pm

Sherborne Literary Society

Sherborne Folk Band Workshop

Talk with Author Toby Harnden

Friday Lunchtime Recitals Cheap Street Church 1.45pm May 6th Pianists

May 27th Woodwind

May 13th Brass

June 10th The Choral Scholars

May 20th Strings

FREE ADMISSION ALL WELCOME sherbornetimes.co.uk | 19

WHAT'S ON - First Casualty: The Untold Story of the Battle that Began the War in Afghanistan The Powell Theatre, Abbey Road.

Tickets available from Winstone’s

Bookshop and sherborneliterarysociety.com/

Vicar’s Son, Pete Robson Blues,

Child £4, family £30, advance tickets

Smith. Local ciders, ales and picnic

sherbornecountryfair.com

The Ducks, Tony & Una and Conor hampers. Tickets from

10% discount. Tickets and information ____________________________

millfarmdorset.com/events/folkfestival

Sunday 29th 2pm-4pm

____________________________

Divine Union Soundbath

events. Members £9, non-members £10.

Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA

Crystal and Tibetan singing bowl

____________________________

soundbath. £15. Bookings only. 01935 389655 or email ahiahel@live.com

____________________________ Tuesday 31st Single Owner Collection of Classic Twin Shock Trials Motorcycles Saturday 28th 12pm-11pm

Sunday 29th

Mill Farm Folk Festival

Sherborne Castle Country

Mill Farm, Bradford Abbas, DT9 6RE

Fair & Rare Breeds Show

Live music from Harbottle and Jonas,

Sherborne Castle, New Road.

Charterhouse Auctioneers, Long Street 01935 812277 charterhouse-auction.com

____________________________ listings@homegrown-media.co.uk

Dorchester Corn Exchange Sunday 22 May, 7pm BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist Sean Shibe shows his mastery of ancient and modern guitar works, with compositions separated by centuries, but brilliantly chosen to complement one another.

Anonymous: Scottish Lute Manuscripts Bach: Suite in E Minor, BWV 996 Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint Julia Wolfe: LAD

Box Office: 01305 266926 dorchesterarts.org.uk

“Shibe’s music-making is masterful, beautiful and convincing in every way” The Times

Dorchester Corn Exchange High East Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1HF

Dorchesterarts

20 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Register Charity No: 1015546

ENTERTAINMENT • FOOD & DRINK • COUNTRYSIDE

2nd, 3rd & 4th June, 2022

A Great Day Out Kaleb Cooper

Thursday, 2nd June

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! VISIT www.bathandwest.com/tickets Group & advance ticket discounts available. Each advance adult ticket includes free entry for two children aged between 5-15 years old.

Dean Edwards Friday, 3rd June

FUN OF THE FAIR

Jess Chiplen, Deputy Head of Shows, The Royal Bath & West of England Society

M

odern theme parks, where thrill-seekers can experience a rush of adrenalin on evermore terrifying feats of engineering, have been popular for many years. But there is an enduring fondness for vintage fairgrounds, those travelling shows which roll into town once a year for a few days, before magically packing up and disappearing again.

Did you ever look at those colourful vehicles, and wonder how it all began?

The roots of the fairground can be traced back to the 12th Century, where the Bartholemew Fair of 1133 featured entertainment in the form of dancing and music. The ‘Funfair’ as we know it really began in the 18th and 19th centuries when it became a place of entertainment, and early fairs also featured travelling menageries. Although you will not see these now, you might still be lucky enough to win a goldfish!

Funfairs changed dramatically in the 1860s and 1870s as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Rides were transformed from small, simple hand-turned machines into large complex equipment, requiring major sources of power to run them. Steam-powered 22 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

carousels featuring ‘galloping horses’ appeared, with the design remaining a recognised feature of the travelling fairground to this day. At the same time, the introduction of mechanical organs meant loud music could be added to the spectacle.

As the Industrial Revolution increased road and rail networks, travelling became much easier. The growth of densely populated towns and cities, with new factories full of staff with wages to spend, created plenty of destinations for the travelling fair to visit.

The populations of these towns could not help but be impressed by the spectacle rolling by, towed by the powerful and elaborately decorated showman’s engines.

When we think of a funfair, images of iconic rides spring to mind such as carousels, big wheels, and swings, and each of these have their own fascinating histories. Although it would be understandable to assume that the swings and roundabouts seen in many travelling funfairs today are also products of the Industrial Revolution, they in fact pre-date it. Swings have been in existence ever since man attached a plank of wood to a tree by means of a rope, and over time

these have evolved in fairgrounds, from the mechanical rides featuring a number of swings together to the multi-passenger boat. Early passenger boats had to be pushed to make them swing, but over time they became self-propelled with the riders pulling on ropes passing through an overhead pulley.

From the 1880s steam swings were constructed along similar lines to conventional swingboats, with the pulley given a short burst of momentum when passengers pulled on the rope. Making the most of the public’s interest in ocean travel, huge boats were introduced and named after famous ships of the day.

This was a thrilling ride, and modern variations on it can still be seen today at theme parks, where they are often painted as pirate ships.

Like the swing, roundabouts have a long history.

Early horse roundabouts at showgrounds were known as ‘Dobbies’ or ‘Dobby sets’, and were propelled manually by the operator or pulled by ponies. Steam power replaced this from the mid-19th century, with the first one recorded at Aylesham Fair in Kent in about 1865. It is thought that this was the inspiration for an engineer called Frederick Savage, who began to create similar machines at his agricultural engineering works with items such as bicycles, boats, model horses, and model cockerels attached to the platform. In later years he developed his ideas to include ‘Tunnel Railways’ on which a train pulled carriages around a circular track, with a tunnel partway round.

A vintage fairground wouldn’t be complete without a Big Wheel, and of course the ‘London Eye’ is in effect a very large Big Wheel. Small versions of the Big Wheel were known as ‘Overboats’, and a painting of Bartholomew fair from as early as the 1700s shows a 4-car overboat. But the Big Wheel story really begins in the 1890s, with the first one

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created for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair by George Washington Gale Ferris. Over the following five years British engineer Walter B. Bassett built four large wheels which were located at London’s Earls Court, Blackpool, Paris and Vienna (which is still operating today). American engineer William Sullivan designed the first portable wheel in 1900, and five years later the Eli Bridge company, which he headed, began mass production. By the 1940s, Big Wheels were a regular feature at fairs in the UK. Today, inspired by the London Eye, Big Wheels can be seen in many large towns and cities such as Scarborough and Blackpool. Newcastle will have its own Big Wheel, called the ‘Whey Aye Wheel’, which is due to open in 2024. This iconic ride is an ideal way to get a bird’s eye view of your surroundings – just don’t look down!

As we move into spring and summer you are sure to find a vintage funfair, featuring the types of rides we have described, coming to a town near you. From the Royal Bath & West Show in June, to Bath’s Victoria Park in August, and Bridgwater in September, prepare for a fun-packed day filled with entertainment from a bygone age. bathandwest.com ___________________________________________ Thursday 2nd - Saturday 4th June 9am-5pm Royal Bath & West Show 2022 Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset,

BA4 6QN. The Royal celebration of great British entertainment, food & drink and countryside returns! Group and advance

ticket discounts available. Each advance adult ticket includes free entry for two children aged between 5-15 years old. bathandwest.com/tickets

___________________________________________

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Look out for our DIRECTORY + APP + WEBSITE

14 – 29 MAY 2022

dorsetartweeks.co.uk DORSET VISUAL ARTS sherbornetimes.co.uk | 23

Community

MARKET KNOWLEDGE Benjamin Clark Weller, Twisted Cider

Welcome to The Sherborne Market!

What brings you here?

The proximity of the market is a big seller and the pitch location we have in Pageant Gardens is great to interact with customers especially when the sun is shining. Jules Bradburn and co. have done a splendid job growing the market into a must-see attraction which has a vibe I’ve not experienced at other markets.

Where have you travelled from?

A stone’s throw away (if you’re a giant), 3 miles south of Sherborne in Longburton, where the apples are grown, the cider is produced and the cows are fed.

Tell us about what you’re selling.

We bring eight different ciders on market day, four of which are traditional farmhouse ciders, one which has been given some bubbles and the last three some playful ingredients to add a twist.

Where and when did it all begin?

In the summer of ’69 or was it 2010? The adventure began in 2010 and our apple trees started growing some fruit for us to experiment with. Our first batch of cider 24 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

was 300 litres and we now average at 30,000 litres.

What do you enjoy most about selling at markets?

The instant reaction of ‘OMG’ when a customer tries one of the ciders, followed by the smile that accompanies it. For The Sherborne Market specifically, I get to see those customers who aren’t frequent visitors to us in Longburton which allows me to have a good catch-up.

If you get the chance, which fellow stallholders here at Sherborne would you like to visit?

I’m a keen visitor to all food stallholders on rotation so I like to visit The Big Munch Mac & Cheese, The Thai Hut, Pizza Man, Crab Linguine, A Taste of Mexico, The Story Pig, and the Japanese food stall. I normally get a coffee in the morning too.

Where can people find you on market day?

You can find us in Pageant Gardens near the entrance closest to Sainsbury’s either in our mobile trailer or, fingers crossed, our new Cider Bus. twistedcider.co.uk

Hand picked & selected artisan market featuring local producers, suppliers, amazing food, arts and crafts.

2022 dates

May 15th June 19th July 17th Aug 21st Sept 18th

Oct 9th Nov 20th Dec 18th Flying the flag for local

Community

FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE Neil Walker, Communications Officer, Sherborne Community Land Trust

T

here is something new happening in Sherborne. A new organisation has been created, whose aim is to fundamentally change the housing market for those who find it hard to either rent or buy a home.

The problem is that rent and prices are just too high for so many local people that they cannot afford to live in the place where they grew up.

‘The cheapest house you can buy around here starts at about £250,000,’ says John Jackson, a retired 26 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Government official.

‘That means that even if you can save the minimum 5% deposit, you need a combined income of more than £52,000, even allowing for the most generous mortgage terms. It is just not possible on the wages which many people earn.’

Jackson is one of a small group that was so bothered by this that they decided something had to be done. And so the four - Taff Martin, Juliet Pentolfe, John Jackson and Vaughan Matthews -

began sounding out other organisations in the town to see if they would support a new initiative called a ‘Community Land Trust’.

The idea quickly gathered momentum and at a packed Digby Hall last November, hundreds of Sherborne residents listened to the new proposals and raised their hands in unanimous support. Now the CLT has legal recognition and a website.

So what is a Community Land Trust? Basically, it is a democratic not-for-private-profit organisation

that owns and develops land for the benefit of the community. CLTs are springing up all over the country and there are already several in Dorset and Somerset.

‘What we want to do,’ says Jackson, ‘is be able to sell or rent to local people at a price that is lower than market value. The CLT decides what that affordable price will be.

We aim to be selling homes at about £150,000, but will maintain a forever interest in the property. That means that its value will go up along with all other properties, but when it is sold it is bought back within the CLT system so that others can benefit long into the future.’

Since the Digby Hall vote in November a number of new people have been drafted in to set up finances for the CLT, offer expertise on how to build affordable homes, and make sure that the governance is correct.

All of this is being done under the watchful eye of Alison Ward, the community-led housing adviser for Middlemarch, an Exeter-based body whose job is to help organisations like Sherborne CLT get going.

‘We have been very lucky so far,’ says Juliet Pentolfe, who is also a Town Councillor and set to be Sherborne’s next Mayor. ‘The expertise of our volunteer committee has been phenomenal and we have already received a number of grants of money from various groups in the town to help with our setting-up costs.

‘But this isn’t going to be easy,’ she adds. ‘Although there are grants we can apply for from both central and local government, getting hold of the land is going to be tricky. Basically, I think we will be looking to buy any small piece of ground or brownfield site. Or, of course, land can be donated.

‘We know it won’t be quick, and at the moment we don’t know exactly how much demand there is.’

The CLT has been told by Dorset Council that there are 200 people known to them who need affordable accommodation.

‘We think there are probably more than that,’ says John Jackson. ‘So we are going to hold a survey later this year to see if we can establish how much demand we are talking about and to listen to the views of local people.’

A second meeting will also happen in the summer when people will be invited to become members of the CLT by buying a share, which will entitle them to vote at the annual meeting.

Says Jackson, ‘We are not going to solve this housing problem overnight. But you have to start somewhere and we are making great progress.’ sherborneclt.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 27

Community

CLUBBING TOGETHER

Rachel Goodfellow, President and Secretary, the Rotary Club of Sherborne Castles

I

t has been a challenging couple of years for us all, but we have been busy behind the scenes ensuring that all our fundraising events and activities (which support those both in the local community and internationally), were ready to go again the moment restrictions were lifted.

During lockdown, we were able to provide funds so that all students at Sherborne Primary School, who previously could not access a laptop due to financial reasons, received one. This was a fantastic project and made the sudden essential home-learning far more open to all.

Our club has several new initiatives to not only drive the club forward successfully, but to also ensure Rotary is far more transparent in what we do. This includes a very exciting development, as we are looking to launch a satellite club which will work under our own club umbrella but which will attract new members from those less represented in the community; young professionals, community interested organisations, schools, Rotary programmed alumni, former club members, friends, and family. There will be within this satellite club a different variety of vocations and 28 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

interests, bringing along new skills and knowledge.

We, like all in our community and beyond, have been aghast by the crisis going on in Ukraine. EVAG, our Emergency Voluntary Action Group, has already sent a shipment out from a Notaro warehouse near Bridgwater thanks to the collective fast response from all of our Rotary clubs in our district, District 1200.

Our club is still collecting for further shipments going out in early May, and for refugees coming to the UK. Please feel free to drop goods, particularly torches, batteries, boots, and first aid kits at my home, Halfway House Farm, DT9 4PX. Support for Ukraine is going to be needed for many months, and possibly years to come as people eventually return to their homeland.

Early in April, our members and Friends of Rotary were out in the town with collection buckets, raising over £1000, and all clubs across the district are putting on a HUGE variety of events to raise further funds.

This coming year is already full of events and activities for our club. Thanks to The Sherborne Market we have a monthly stand and fun activities for families. Last month we had a raffle of beautiful

hampers and coming soon we’ll have a Teddy Bear Zip Wire and Virtual Balloon Race, with all proceeds going to local charitable causes. Rotary is also a signpost for other events going on during the market days, so do come and find us in Pageant Gardens, near the train station entrance, if you have any questions.

Check thesherbornemarket.com for the market dates.

The Classics and Supercars event at Sherborne Castle on 17th July is a fantastic family day out; this year kindly sponsored by Atkins Ferries Wealth Management and organised jointly by The Lions, Round Table, and Rotary Clubs. There is something for every age group and suitable for those with mobility aids. The funds raised support local charities. For full information and tickets please go to classic-supercars.co.uk Through our own charity, The Rotary Foundation, Rotary has been proactive in the eradication of polio, and as of 23rd March 2022 there is just 1 case in Afghanistan; no others worldwide.

The Rotary Foundation, which enables Rotarians around the world to make a difference to people’s lives, gives district or global grants.

An annual scheme has seen 4 more students from the Gryphon School accessing RYLA (Rotary Young Leadership Award). This benefits all taking part by building confidence, external friendships, social skills, and leadership skills.

Another annual event is our giving out Olympic Bursaries to two students from the schools in our town who have shown commitment and promise in sport.

Our international link with Malawi can now resume after what seems like years! Already, bridges, school buildings and a library have been built, and furniture and fittings are in situ. Rotary has sent out the funds for books, and we now await the final Malawi Covid restrictions to be lifted so that these can be bought and got to the school. Our club has also sponsored a muchneeded cow in Africa.

Rotary is a fantastic way to support those in our local community and internationally, and we would welcome you to come on board either as a member or as a Friend of Rotary. Please get in touch to find out more! rcsc.org.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 29

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30 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

SHERBORNE

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations 2 N D - 4 TH JU NE 2 0 2 2

Abbey Service

Beacon Lighting

FRIDAY 3 RD JUNE

T HU R S D AY 2 N D JU N E

Time : 3.00pm Sherborne Abbey

Time : 9.45pm The Terraces The Sherborne Beacon will be lit in the evening, along with 1500 other beacons across the country.

Civic Service for the Platinum Jubilee.

Jubilee Street Market SAT U RD AY 4 T H JUNE

Time: 10am - 4pm Cheap Street, Digby Road Street Fair | Street Entertainment | Food and Drink

PA RTY IN THE PARK Time: 2pm - 10pm Pageant Gardens Live Music | Food and Drink

SPO N SO RED BY W IT H

Fi n d o u t m ore w w w. s h e r b o r n e - t c . g o v. u k

© Sherborne Chamber 2022 | Designed by Hi Top Design

w w w. s h e r b o r n e c h a m b e r. c o . u k

abbey104.com

Community

OUR MAN IN WESTMINSTER Chris Loder, MP for West Dorset

I

n October 2013, the then Police Commissioner sent a letter to all Councillors to say, basically, that Sherborne Police Station was going to be closed.

The police enquiry desk would be closed too. I was the District Councillor for the villages to the south of Sherborne at the time and it was a lesson to me that no matter what the pressures, if you don’t keep banging the drum and championing the cause for what you value, you will lose it.

Our police here in Dorset do a good job. However, in rural West Dorset, I often feel that I am battling for focus and resources and attention, whether with local police priorities or with the Home Office.

There are 41 constabularies in England. We are 40 out of 41 for funding – there are several reasons 32 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

for that. Over the years, we have managed well, we have targeted the areas needed and the police force has been responsive. In recent times, the benchmark has changed. Drug crime has gone through the roof, including the ‘county-lines’ drug gangs. I was really shocked when I had to help a family here in Sherborne who had been a victim of ‘cuckooing’ – that is where a drug gang preys on a vulnerable person or family, takes over their house, threatens them with all sorts of harm and uses their house as a base for drug dealing – and this is just one example of serious crime that we see happening here.

In wider West Dorset, we have drug dealers who pull up alongside children’s playgrounds and dish out cannabis, and maybe other substances that look

like candy – you seriously wouldn’t believe it. You would not have to go far to find groups of young people gathering to exchange it and this sort of thing is often referred to – as part of the very broad classification – as anti-social behaviour.

The Dorset Rural Crime team is just three people in size for a significant geographical area. I have been making the case for this group to at least double and I have, for most of my time in Parliament, been making the case for better resources to be made available for Dorset Police. I have been taking every opportunity to raise these issues in the House of Commons, including the need for the police funding formula to be reviewed to ensure we have our fairer share, to which the policing minister has now agreed.

One area of particular importance to Dorset is rural crime and the detrimental effect that this has on our environment, the countryside and the agricultural community. Not only are there crimes, such as farm vehicle theft, animal theft, animal worrying, and wildlife crime which are unique to rural areas, crimes that occur in urban areas often present very differently in a rural setting.

You may have read a month or two ago, that there was controversy relating to my views on a bird of prey found dead in North Dorset. If the police are presented with two situations, one of which is a rare bird – where they are of the view that no crime has been committed – and another, such as a drug-related incident, or farm animals being mauled to death by dogs, my view is that the police’s priority should be the latter cases.

But what we have seen since is a good example of how some organisations and some people who have a difference of opinion are resorting to uninformed, vociferous and alienating attacks simply because they disagree with a point of view, and no more so than on social media.

In my case, for example, I think sea eagles are better placed elsewhere in the UK than in West Dorset. I think that because I’m worried about the other wildlife - hares, other birds on which eagles will prey as well as livestock, young lambs particularly.

I have substantiated that with other reports, and the experience in Norwich which meant the whole scheme was cancelled because of these concerns in the autumn last year, as well as press coverage from Scottish experiences of sea eagles, but the uninformed attacks on social media have been immense.

Now I know that, in my job, I have to expect some political turbulence. But this sort of bullying and intimidation is also prevalent toward our young people and children via social media and it is also a concern.

It is, in my opinion, a major factor of mental health problems for children, often who are harassed by bullies on their phones all hours of the day.

It is time we got a grip with these things. That is why I continue to make the case for more rural police officers, the correct priorities, and I am also closely following the Online Safety Bill which has recently been brought to Parliament to address these difficult online issues and to safeguard children and vulnerable people from these horrible attacks. chrisloder.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33

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‘the best of the best in the UK for sport’ The Week, 2022

www.sherborneprep.org 34 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Follow our story

Summer Holiday Camps Open to all 5-14 year olds From £45 per day *Discounts Available

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Our Tamworth pigs are bred for quality and flavour. They are outdoor-reared and home-butchered to the highest welfare standards here at our farm in Sandford Orcas, just outside Sherborne.

Sausages, joints, bacon and burgers available to buy online for home delivery, click-and-collect or direct from the farm every weekend.

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Enjoy our beautiful views, lavender field, garden and animals together with our homemade cakes, warming drinks, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and much more!

Please contact James and Charlotte Tel 07802 443905 | info@thestorypig.co.uk The Story Pig, Lavender Keepers, Great Pitt Lane, Sandford Orcas, Sherborne DT9 4FG See more at www.thestorypig.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 35

UNEARTHED Jonas Guthrie, aged 12 Leweston School

J

onas has been a student at Leweston since he was in Nursery and as a result, has been one of the pioneers of boys’ sport at a school that until recently was all-girls.

He has represented the school in a variety of sports including cross country, hockey and rugby, competing at the National Cross Country Championships this March. His real passion, however, is football, with the ambition to play professionally in the Premier League.

Jonas currently plays for Shaftesbury Town Football Club REDS, a Division One, Dorset Youth Football League team. He has recently been signed by Yeovil Town’s Junior Player League and also plays for Champion Sports Academy, where he plays up a year in the U14 team. Director of Champion Football, Daniel Neville, describes Jonas as ‘blessed’ with agility, balance, coordination and speed.

Jonas has recently been invited to trial with Exeter Football Club and in addition to this, has been selected to play for the Independent Schools Football Association (ISFA). The ISFA is affiliated with The Football Association and is recognised by The FA as the body responsible for the development of the game in the independent sector and has developed players who have gone on to play for Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Bayern Munich. Last month, Jonas played as part of the team representing the South West Region at the ISFA U13 Regional Representative Festival scoring all of the team’s goals on the first day.

This is a fantastic achievement as over 800 players competed to gain a place. There were nine regions playing at the Festival and at the end of the event 50 boys were selected to participate in the ISFA National U14 programme next season, Jonas being one of them.

Very excitingly, at the time of writing, Jonas is in Barcelona to play for Champion Academy’s U14 team in an international tournament. leweston.co.uk

KATHARINE DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY

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

36 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Children’s Book Review Freya Dencher, aged 10, Leweston Prep

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman, (Simon & Schuster Children’s) £12.99 (hardcover)

Sherborne Times reader offer price of £10.99 from Winstone’s Books

S

kandar and the Unicorn Thief is a fiction book for kids, written by A. Steadman. It is about a boy called Skandar whose number one dream is to become a legendary unicorn rider on the island of unicorns. When his sister fails her own chance, all the pressure is on him to become a unicorn rider. When it gets to the unicorn rider exam day things get a little out of control with the weaver (the baddie!) stealing the most powerful unicorn. However, somehow Skandar

Celebrating 10 Years as Sherborne’s Independent Bookseller 2012-2022 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PX www.winstonebooks.co.uk Tel: 01935 816 128

manages to get to the island but not how he expected! Finally, as soon as he thinks things are behind him, his unicorn is born.

Will his unicorn just bring death and more problems? Or will it help him fight evil? I especially loved Skandar’s unicorn – Scoundrel’s Luck and it was a fantastic story. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves magic and is between the age of 8 and 12. This book is magical, exciting (very!) and tense and I would give it 10/10.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS!

Family

HELP US, TO HELP YOU Liv Bowditch, aged 16, The Gryphon School

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s I get older, there is a phrase that resonates more and more – ‘It takes a village’. Perhaps it’s because as I grow, I see more, I understand more and find myself more grateful to those who volunteer their time to make the towns we live in, the special places that they are.

I started the Duke of Edinburgh Award in 2019 at The Gryphon School, under the brilliant leadership of Mr Cooke - a teacher who volunteers his time to guide us, keep us on track and ensure no man gets left behind, and to whom so many are grateful. For anyone who doesn’t know what the award involves, there are four different sections that you must complete: Skills (such as sewing), Physical Skills (such as tennis), Expedition and Volunteering. Out of all of those sections, what I never anticipated was for volunteering to have the largest impact on who I am today and who I want to be.

38 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

My journey started in the months before I started DofE. My stepmum spent 2017 to 2019 in and out of hospital due to ill health. I’d visit her every day after school and she would always tell me that hearing about my day was the highlight of her day – that it kept her focused on the good things in life rather than whatever was written on the medical charts. As Dad and I would leave the hospital, arm in arm, I’d notice all the patients who didn’t have visitors, day after day. So, when it came to choosing an area to volunteer in for DofE, I knew what I wanted to do.

The charity I chose to volunteer for was ‘From Me To You Letters’. Started by the inspirational Alison Hitchcock, volunteers write (donate) letters to an anonymous ‘friend’. The recipients are all battling cancer and are in desperate need of a friendly ‘hello’ to lift their spirits and tackle the social isolation that comes

with cancer. What do you write? Anything! Anecdotes, recipes, jokes, secrets, film recommendations, or you can even doodle! Once I started, I didn’t want to stop.

In fact, when Covid-19 entered stage right in 2020, one of the first things I worried about was the social isolation of the vulnerable in Sherborne. So, armed with notecards, a pen, and some dodgy watercolour skills, I started to write to residential homes. At Christmas, I did the same again. Why? Why not! For is there anything nicer than knowing that you’re thought about?

All I needed to volunteer was my time.

For me, volunteering came naturally. No, I’m not holier than thou, certainly not – it’s just that the trials and tribulations of life happened to hand me a cause to support and From Me to You Letters allowed me to volunteer in a way that fitted around my life as a busy student. For many, even knowing where to start is the hardest part. If you can believe it, in 2022, even if you have every intention to do good, there’s very little information online to point you in the right direction.

I was born in 2005 – a Gen Z child. Yes, we are an insular generation - most commonly found with our heads down, staring at a screen, with noise-cancelling headphones in our ears to block out the world. We’re also a misunderstood group; what we often lack in social skills, we more than make up for with our high levels of social consciousness and empathy…you just wouldn’t know it unless you were following us on social media. Many of you will pass us in the street and wish that we would be more active in the community, to love Sherborne as you do. What if I told you that I’ve been part of umpteen conversations where we, the youth, wish to become part of the community…it’s just, we just don’t know how!

I can hear you now, wondering why we teenagers don’t just come forward and get involved if we want to

be part of the community. Now, for anyone who has come into contact with a teenager recently (I include myself ) you’ll understand that common sense and initiative are enigmas to us. However, in our defence, we are merely a product of the world we were born into.

Most of you grew up having to do your homework by actively looking for information in a library book; we have a search engine. Most of you grew up knowing your local shopkeepers by name; we click and collect.

Most of you grew up with one home phone, limited (or no) internet and played games outside to keep you entertained; we’ve got smartphones, streaming services and spent two years indoors due to Covid-19. It’s for reasons such as this, why schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award are more important than ever and why we, the youth of Sherborne, need your help, your direction and mentoring.

As a student at The Gryphon School, whose foundations are set in the importance of community, I can hand on heart say that we would love to hear from you if you need volunteers. Not only will it help you, but it will enrich our lives too, making us well-rounded members of society. After all, look at you, Sherborne! Is there a town that exudes community spirit better than you? I think not. The wonderful Sherborne Community Kitchen volunteers who give their time to fill hungry tummies with nutritious food – thank you. The incredible doctors, nurses, citizens of Sherborne and surrounding villages who gave hours, days, weeks and months of their time to make sure we were vaccinated – thank you. Those kind volunteers at Sherborne Food Bank who keep spirits high and cupboards full – thank you. Thank you for showing us all what community means.

Now, Sherborne - what can we do for you? gryphon.dorset.sch.uk

40 Exhibitors

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Vintage, Artisan & Decorative Antiques Fair with local Foodies

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 39

Family

HOME FRONT Jemma Dempsey

Jesadaphorn/Shutterstock

M

uch of the time I feel as though family life is a bit like being in a circus – if you’re not clowning around and playing the fool in a bid to amuse your kids, you’re trying to master a juggling act to keep all the balls in the air at once. And now, just to spice things up a little more, I’ve decided to have a go at being a trapeze artist and go back to work full time. I’m still not quite sure what prompted this momentary lapse of reason. Sure, the kids don’t need me as much now and while I’d like to think they would never tire of my mum jokes and witty repartee, they can get just about fend for themselves and not kill each other in the process. And now the dog’s gone - sigh - there really is nothing to keep me at home during the day anymore.

If truth be told I’ve been itching to get back to work for ages; I’ve missed the cut and thrust of a newsroom, the buzz of a breaking story and the camaraderie of colleagues. So, when the opportunity to return to the BBC came up, I grabbed it with both hands. I will say this though, for a 50-something woman, going back to work after an extended career break…the application form and interview process was terrifying. And I don’t scare easily, I’ve had cancer.

Perhaps the most worrisome thing after the initial euphoria of receiving the ‘You’ve got the job’ news, was not issues of childcare or coping with the housework or meal prep but the ‘What the hell am I going to wear?’ dilemma. After two children and 11 years out of work, my body shape and wardrobe had somewhat changed. And while there was a heavy working from home component to the job, there would be some trips to the office, especially at the start with training 40 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

and meeting the team. Having just joined a secondhand clothing website, I won’t say which one but it begins with a V, I browsed merrily away and bought some pieces online. Sorted.

The husband was happy for me, though slightly anxious about how the job would impact our mildmannered and relatively relaxed existence. We sat down and came up with ‘a system’ - I would continue to be responsible for meals and washing, he would take charge of housework. Easy. At some point I will let you know how that’s going. The boys are not quite so sure about what ‘mummy going back to work’ really means for them on a practical level yet - I’ve only had to work one weekend so far and no late shifts yet. I think it will most affect them when the holidays come around and I’m not always there to drop everything and say ‘Let’s go to the beach’ or ‘How about a trip to Bristol’. But, if it means we can afford to pay the soon-to-be eyewateringly high electricity bills and that the kids can go on school skiing trips, well, those moments I’m not at home are a price worth paying.

There is one other impact too. This will be my last column for the Sherborne Times. I’ve been writing it for almost two years save for a month or so when I was having my cancer treatment. I’ve absolutely loved doing it, felt it a privilege even, but life inexorably moves on and mine is taking me in a new direction. Thank you to all those people who got in touch when I had cancer, your messages were so much appreciated. Do get in touch if you have a news story you think may be of interest. Once a newshound, always a newshound… jemmadempsey@hotmail.com

Flexible, premium hot-desking in central Sherborne Available to rent by the day, week or month For information, please call 01935 315556 or email info@homegrown-media.co.uk

Family

AT THE TABLE Michela Chiappa

W

hen it comes to our children, our family and their wellbeing, we are constantly hearing the words ‘mental health’, ‘stress’, ‘anxiety’, ‘obesity’ and ‘exhaustion’. We all want to give our children the best foundations in life. In my opinion, these issues can be remedied at the table ‘la tavola’.

Over the past 10 years I have been fortunate enough to have had several cookery TV series on the BBC and C4, written a couple of cookery books and am currently one of the resident chefs on ITV’s ‘This Morning’. I’m a Welsh Italian; my first language is Italian and yet I was born and raised in ‘little Italy’ in the heart of the Welsh Valleys. My uncle, aunt and grandparents lived next door to us through interconnecting doors and my father, who speaks with a broad Welsh accent but is Italian through and through, raised us preaching the importance of ‘la tavola’. He would tell us that the table was sacred – it’s where we eat good food, talk and spend a moment all together. It was like a religion; he didn’t mind what we did in the day but regardless of the circumstances, by 6pm he expected there to be food on the table and his family around it. Growing up we would often beg for permission to miss the odd meal to watch our favourite TV show or go out with friends, but it was non-negotiable.

Fast forward 30 years and with a family of my own, I can certainly vouch that I bend the rules because this ideal seems impossible nowadays. However, I now fully appreciate and understand the importance of what he was talking about and try my hardest to make sure we take time as a family where possible. It shouldn’t matter who your ‘family’ is, or what time dinner is; we don’t live in a world of 2.4 children anymore and a meal doesn’t have to last for hours. But the skills a child learns from sitting with you at the table form the building blocks for their growth and development; the importance of good food, social skills, taking a breath in an already fast paced world, manners and discipline.

What about the food – is that important? Quite simply, yes. However, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

42 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

I could go on about the importance of unprocessed foods but let’s talk basics; food with more than 3-4 ingredients on the label is essentially processed.

The hidden sugars and salts in processed foods are one of the most threatening factors to the health of our population – water retention, food intolerances, tooth decay, obesity, mental health and anxiety can all be linked to processed foods. Trying to eat more unprocessed food is one of the best things you can do for your family. It means you can eat cake, you can eat carbs, you can eat fat – but make the cake yourself, use good quality butter not processed margarine or spray-from-the-can oil. Italians live off pizza, pasta, wine and olive oil but it is homemade pizza and good quality cheese. That does not mean to say I don’t ever buy processed foods – let’s be realistic. I am a mum with 3 young children and sometimes they want fish fingers with chips and ketchup and I am quite happy to admit this. However, try to find a balance between the ‘faster’ foods and those home-cooked ones.

Image: Danielle Wood

If we talk about ‘fast’ foods, we need to address ‘time’ – the final hurdle. We are all time-poor; time is the new currency. The challenge of sitting down together is tricky enough and to have cooked fresh food as well?

How many of you are willing to spend more money to save time? You can see it with the recipe box delivery boom. And why wouldn’t you buy a pack of 10 burgers for £2.99 when making your own costs more, takes time plus you have all the washing up to deal with!? ‘How to make cooking for your family easy’ is exactly why I entered the world of TV and I am hoping that is where I can help. All my recipes have simplicity at their core. I have taken traditional Italian recipes and found ways to simplify them, with less preparation/time but the same results. Use your freezer! Cooking can be made easy – it does require a little more commitment at first, but I can show you a plethora of pasta sauces that can be made quicker than the time it will take you to go to the shops and buy a jar from the shelf. 5-minute pasta sauces are my mantra.

Baby steps though; don’t set yourself an impossible task of trying to do this every day. Even trying to do this once or twice a week is a brilliant step in the right direction. Whilst I might cook on TV and have written the odd cookery book, I am just a parent who cooks, not a chef and I often make mistakes (ask my family about burnt broccoli)! However, I have learnt my skills from being brought up in a household that cooks simple food and spends time together in the kitchen. I get it wrong regularly but have learned when to pull out fresh pesto from the freezer and when to try something new. In the beginning, be kind to yourself; start small in order to make change.

Over the coming months I am going to be sharing tips, hacks and recipes that take minutes to prepare, with minimal washing up, but give your family a tasty, nutritious and unprocessed meal to enjoy together around la tavola.

Buona fortuna and remember you can have your cake and eat it! > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 43

Family

SPEEDY CHEAT'S PIZZA

O

ur Speedy Cheat's Pizza is the perfect snack or meal to quickly throw together in under 5 mins for any hungry child or adult. This is one of our favourite recipes to get the kids involved too and they have so much fun choosing their toppings that they gobble it down.

Prep: 5 mins Cooking: 8 mins Difficulty: Easy Serves: 4 Ingredients

Image: Danielle Wood

2 Slice the bagels in half.

3 Place them on a baking tray, cut side up, and put them under the grill for 5 minutes.

4 Blend the tomatoes with the oregano and a splash of olive oil.

5 Spread a thin layer of the sauce over the toasted bagels.

6 Top with cheese and your toppings of choice.

7 Grill for 2–3 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.

8 Sprinkle the top with a little salt (for toddlers and adults).

To buy: 4 white or wholegrain bagels 100g mozzarella cheese A variety of toppings, e.g. mushrooms, onions, leftover cooked meat

Buon appettito!

Store-cupboard essentials: 1 x 400g tin tomatoes 1 teaspoon dried oregano Salt A little extra virgin olive oil

Baby at the Table: A 3-Step Guide to Weaning the Italian Way (Michael Joseph) £16.99. Sherborne Times reader offer price of £14.99 from Winstone’s Books

Method

1

Heat the grill to 180°C/gas 4.

44 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

@michela.chiappa TheChiappaSisters thechiappas.com

Simply Italian: Cooking at Home with the Chiappa Sisters (Michael Joseph) £22 (hardcover).

Sherborne Times reader offer price of £20 from Winstone’s Books

Sherborne 01935 812 112

Dorchester 01305 250 240 robin-james.co.uk

@robinjamesaveda

Family

VOLUNTEERING FOR EDCLUB Sophie Holcroft, Sherborne Old Girl Mollie Clothier

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ld Girl and former Head of School, Sophie Holcroft, left Sherborne Girls last summer and has since spent a year travelling. Her adventures led her to Kenya where she has recently spent time volunteering in a children’s home and at a school in the Kibagare slum in Nairobi. While there, she took the opportunity to visit the EDCLUB Movement, an initiative she had previously been involved in at Sherborne Girls.

Inspired by a TED talk by Prof. Sugata Mitra, EDCLUB was set up in 2013 by a group of students at Marlborough College to give disadvantaged children in Kenya access to computers and encourage them to learn using the internet. Mentors from over 20 schools have now joined the scheme, including Sherborne Girls, whose involvement is led by Amanda Mackintosh, Head of Outreach and Community Liaison. Amanda explains that girls first raise funds to go towards the cost of the computers and internet access, before taking part in regular mentoring sessions with the children in Kenya via Skype.

46 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Image: Tom Soper

Sophie recalls fondly how the children would remember which computer they were on and sit in the same spot each week. Building a close relationship with a little girl called Lucy, Sophie would prepare informative and interactive maths games for her to do with her siblings each week, for which they would be rewarded with an episode of Tom & Jerry. This was a highlight of their day…and Sophie’s!

On visiting EDCLUB in person, Sophie describes just how amazing it was to be able to see first-hand the building where the children sit each week, as well as learn about their involvement in the design.

She commented, ‘The building looks like two ship containers on different levels and the outside is decorated with flowers which have been painted by the children and other volunteers. Due to its popularity, it has expanded to include an upper-level computer room.

Whilst I was there, children were peering through the gates, wanting to get involved! It has been so popular that they don’t have enough room for all the children, so are looking into expanding further.’

Speaking of the children’s willingness and love for learning, Sophie was moved by their enthusiasm to attend the sessions each week after their school day had finished. Humbled by the children’s excitement and pride when getting an answer right, Sophie says, ‘I loved how the children would want to show off what they had learnt that day and were so excited to do well.

It made me reflect on how privileged I am and made me even more grateful for my education and all the opportunities that I have available to me, living in a more developed country. I was so pleased I was able to visit and see in person the impact of our fundraising and mentoring. I feel honoured to have been part of something so positive.’

Amanda adds, ‘Sherborne Girls joined EDCLUB five years ago, as a student-led initiative, and the mentoring programme has gone from strength to strength. Our girls will be introducing the EDCLUB Movement to another local school very soon, who have a further eight incredible students interested in signing up to the scheme. The mentoring is of benefit

to students on both sides of the world. The Kenyan children improve their knowledge of the world and their English language, enabling them to pursue employment that they could not have ever imagined before, while our pupils improve their communication and leadership skills, develop empathy and understanding of different cultures, while also contributing to their Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.’

An important part of Sherborne Girls’ ethos is to encourage the pupils to have a social conscience and to leave the school as custodians of the future with a sense of responsibility, and to be ‘an influence for good’. This ethos is lived out by the charitable initiatives that take place each term, led by the Charity Prefects, including EDCLUB. The School is delighted to be shortlisted in the 2022 AMCIS Impact Awards for Partnership/ Outreach and BSA Supporting Excellence Awards 2022 for Best Community Work. edclubmovement.org sherborne.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 47

Family

INDEPENDENCE

Dan Chiappa-Patching, Housemaster, Sherborne Prep

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howing our young people the value of independence instils a strong foundation for self-belief and bolsters an attitude that they can achieve anything they put their mind to. Children often seek independence – whether 48 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

through rebellion or request – and the unique nature of a boarding school offers a real taste of this, under a kind and watchful eye. We all want to see this flourish in our children in preparation for adulthood – developing a mature attitude to self-reliance

Image: Katharine Davies

"Developing a mature attitude to freedom early on can lessen the need to take advantage of it at 18."

and freedom early on can lessen the need to take advantage of it at 18.

So how do children learn these routines and hugely valuable life skills? By exposing children to experiences and a variety of learning that includes flexibility and routine instils the benefits of a ‘learning/life’ harmony from an early age.

There are big benefits to our Saturday Sleepovers – particularly in Year 3 and 4 where this may be their first night away from home. We ensure a balance between independence and sleep, ensuring every boarder has what they need to thrive.

Sharing your living and sleeping space with others requires learning, and developing, a very valuable new set of skills. Children here take pride in their surroundings and show great respect for others. The more regularly a child boards the more they learn to integrate these skills naturally and happily in all areas of their life.

We provide an environment that will nurture and let them grow whilst helping them to become more independent and guide them through the practical, instructional skills of self-care, laundry, and cooking.

Can you make your bed, change your bedding, mix a batch of cookies, and use an oven safely?

Stepping outside the comfort zone of home life encourages a new level of confidence which in turn, builds upon well-rounded social skills. The children here learn and live within a diverse mix of likeminded peers who are going through the very same things as them; an international community where they make lifelong friends whilst being encouraged to grow as individuals forming a clear sense of self.

When your child takes their first few steps away from the family home, it feels good to know that your child is safe as you take a backseat. Our boarding is designed to allow for ‘parenting/lifestyle’ flexibility; complimentary care that facilitate early morning swimming, late evening clubs and the simple desire to want to be in the boarding house with friends outside of school lessons.

Dan Chiappa-Patching leads the Prep Boarding House team. He lives on site with his wife and children and is the first point of contact for children and parents who board. sherborneprep.org.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 49

Family

Image: Josie Sturgess-Mills 50 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

TALKING SHOP Agata Trotman

Zoe Sheffield, Sherborne School

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gata Trotman was born in Poland but moved to the United Kingdom almost 14 years ago to work in the busy boutiques of Notting Hill. Finding the South West breathtakingly beautiful, Agata fell in love with the countryside, easy beach access and more rural lifestyle, taking the plunge to move to Somerset 8 years ago.

Starting at Sherborne School as Manager of the School Shop just a few months before the pandemic started, Agata remembers coming to Sherborne for the first time and thinking how gorgeous and characterful the little town was and yet how impressive the School appeared, the history of both almost tangible.

Working in retail most of her life, Agata thought that managing the School Shop would be just another retail job here in Sherborne. She reflects on what a misconception that was! The shop is such a big part of the School community. It is essential for the pupils, staff, and parents – some would say a life-line as parents receive cards home from their boys which are bought just in the nick of time for a birthday, an anniversary… Agata is quick to point out that feedback from pupils and School staff is always welcomed and often seeks out views to ensure that the shop is a ‘one stop place’ for their everyday needs. Agata is always eager to explore opportunities to introduce something new that they might need or simply may just like the option to purchase; new stationery, thermal bottles or new hoodies.

Agata and her dedicated team in the shop kit out hundreds of pupils each year from Sherborne School and Sherborne Prep for the start of term. No mean feat but it is one that Agata cites as the best things about working in the School Shop - getting to know all the new pupils and their families.

The summer is the busiest time of the year as parents frantically seek to buy uniform as late as possible (after summer growth spurts) and whilst most enjoy a slightly less busy time, for Agata and her team it is an exhausting couple of months!

Agata cites organisation as the most important personal quality but is clearly very proud of the wonderful team effort amongst the shop staff who are the best team she’s ever worked with.

The preparation takes months to ensure all deliveries arrive on time, that all is in place and ready to go, to welcome new families to the shop and to kit out the new starters. New pupils can be quite nervous and shy, unsure, and worried, and Agata enjoys being able to put them at ease, explain everything, have a nice chat, and answer any questions they might have. Seeing them make friends, seeing how happy they are at School and how pupils grow and change over the years adds to the sense of purpose and value to Agata, of everything she and her team do. She also draws note to the many pupils who pop in for a chat or some advice upon what might be suitable as a birthday gift and, how quickly it can be sent!

Whilst the purpose of the School Shop is fundamentally for the pupils and parents of the Sherborne Schools, it is also open to the local community and it seems almost anything can be purchased – from pens and pencils to sport equipment and more! If they don’t have something, the staff do their level best to source it, be it dumb-bells or the newest Lamy digital pen (yes, we have it in stock if you would like one)!

So, if you need a funny-shaped eraser, or some lined post-it notes in a multitude of colours pop in and see Agata and her team. The School Shop is located next to Sherborne Sports Centre, opposite The Hub Café. sherborne.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 51

elizabethwatsonillustration.com 52 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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Science & Nature

David Havel/Shutterstock

DRAWN TO THE LIGHT Lime Hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae)

H

Gillian Nash

awk-moths are our largest British moths, some having wingspans of around 100mm.

Eighteen species have been recorded in the UK, half of which are resident and several of those are commonly seen in southern counties – less so further north. The remainder are scarce or rare and most are migrant species, being unable to complete their life cycles in our climate of cool winters. All have powerful flight and those that feed, do so whilst hovering amid night-scented flowers such as nicotiana.

The spectacular Lime Hawk-moth is possibly one of the less often encountered resident species, with clearly distinguishing features making it unlikely to be confused with others in the group. Exquisite shades of olive or deep green and fawn form a banded pattern which serves it well as camouflage amongst dappled foliage or against the trunks of trees where it may sometimes be found in its motionless daytime state. Its usual flight season is April to July. A reddish-brown form with the same 54 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

wing pattern is sometimes seen. The striking larvae sport several diagonal pale yellow stripes along their sides, each with a red dot. A blue and red tail horn adorns the final segment of its body. It is not clear what the purpose of this ‘horn’ is, although thought to serve as a distraction to predators, drawing attention away from the head giving more chance of survival from attack. When fully fed it may be seen on open ground purposefully searching for a suitable place to pupate and once selected, its vivid green colour will change to a dull pink.

Unlike most other Hawk-moth species, the adults are unable to feed – all required nutrients are contained within their bodies on emergence from the overwintered pupa, formed underground near the foodplants on which the larvae fed sometime from July to September. The habitat is varied and it may be seen anywhere the larval foodplants grow, including both rural and urban situations where birch, elm, lime and alder are found.

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Science & Nature

RIVERS

Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser and Gardener

S

herborne gets its name from the old English for ‘clear stream’. The River Yeo, rises near Charlton Horethorne and flows down the delightful meandering valley through Poyntington and Oborne.

It then passes in to Sherborne Castle lake and out through Purlieu Meadows on its way to Yeovil and the Somerset Levels and ultimately the Severn Estuary in Bridgwater Bay. Sadly nowadays, it is unlikely people would describe the river as ‘clear’ and for much of the time it is quite murky with plentiful silt. A few years ago, I helped the Dorset Wildlife Trust with a project called ‘Riverfly’, where I took samples of insect life, which were collected and identified from Purlieu Meadows. Sadly the few species I found, showed it was not in good condition and affected by nutrient enrichment. We do see occasional grey heron, little egret (above) and I once saw a kingfisher there, but ubiquitous mallard ducks are most commonly encountered.

56 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Recently, the Sherborne Science Café hosted a talk by a hydrologist called Dr Paul Webster, who gave a fascinating talk about where our drinking water comes from and flood risk in the local area. I hadn’t realised that there is a plaque in the Abbey from the early 1700s describing a flood which swept through the north door of the Abbey and burst out of the south door, leaving the ancient building under nearly 3ft of water! This water would have come down the Combe Valley, under Newell and through Sherborne Boys School before flooding the lower part of the town.

Nowadays, we are suffering many more extreme weather events due to climate change, whether it is the hottest, driest, wettest or windiest year ever recorded.

Many people will remember the January 2014 flooding on the Somerset Levels, where villages like Muchelney, were cut off for weeks or the increasingly regular floods of houses in Bewdley and Tewkesbury on the River Severn. These events are very sad for those affected, but

Chursina Viktoriia/Shutterstock

have happened for centuries. It is important to look at why flooding seems to be getting worse and not just expect even bigger and more elaborate flood defences to be built.

This brings me back to things we can all do, which can help improve water quality, wildlife and reduce flooding. In Sherborne, we have seen a great deal of development and housing on green field sites, with acres of impermeable roofs, roads and pavements. I also see many people paving over their gardens to create parking areas. All of this prevents rain water percolating through the soil and into the aquifer and instead, causes it to rush across the surface, flooding anything in the way (such as houses in Coldharbour and Newlands).

Our farmland also has an extremely important role to play. Old pastures and rough grassland and woodland do a wonderful job of absorbing water, but we now see the ploughing up of fields next to

rivers and on steep ground to plant arable crops and in particular maize. This ground is often highly compacted and the soil (and any chemicals applied), is washed off into our rivers. When people talk about rivers being ‘silted up’, it is actually valuable top soil which has been washed off surrounding land, damaging fisheries and wildlife and reducing the capacity of our rivers.

In the past, just like on the coast, we have thought we can engineer our way out of flooding and erosion, but we are now realising that it is much better to work with nature. You will hear the words ‘slow the flow’, and this technique is being increasingly used to help reduce flooding downstream. Small woody barriers are created along many smaller tributaries, creating ‘leaky dams’. These reduce peak floods and allow the water to remain on the land and not in people’s houses.

Beavers have been re-introduced to a number or places in Devon, Somerset and more recently Dorset, where they do something similar, with their incredibly sharp teeth. (They are a native herbivorous species to Britain, but were sadly wiped out by the Middle Ages.) Rivers are being allowed to reconnect to flood plains, which naturally hold millions of gallons of water (although we must stop the practise of building on these areas).

My old employer, the National Trust, is taking forward some very beneficial river restoration projects on properties such as Montacute, Lytes Cary and Kingston Lacy and other organisations such as Dorset Wildlife Trust are doing similar.

One of the biggest contributions to improving our rivers and reducing flooding, can be made by landowners (with help from environmental grants). Ploughing of river margins, steep valley sides and floodplains causes significant issues, but fencing off a strip which is allowed to grow long grasses, trees and flowers, helps to reduce sediment and pollution and slows flood water. For householders, try to keep grass and flower beds and resist the urge to pave or concrete it.

My experience in projects I have been involved with on Exmoor and in the Cotswolds, North Devon, Somerset and elsewhere has shown how small interventions and changes to land management can help reduce flooding and bring back some wonderful freshwater wildlife. Remember that even things we do in Sherborne, can help all the way downstream.

It’s time now to go and have a wander down the river and see what wildlife I can find. simonfordgardening.wordpress.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 57

Science & Nature

Image: YHA Conwey

MAKING NEW HOMES FOR NATURE Peter Littlewood, Young Peoples Trust for the Environment

W

ith summer coming on fast, we’re likely to see lots more bugs and insects flying and crawling around for the next few months, in the countryside, our gardens and our homes!

But actually, there are a lot fewer than there used to be. Globally, around 40% of all insects are in decline and a third are endangered. They often get overlooked, because creepy-crawlies aren’t necessarily the most appealing of animals. You see lots of greetings cards with cute puppies, kittens or ducklings on them but not so many that feature spiders or wasps or slugs! But 58 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

more than 95% of all animal species are invertebrates (i.e. not mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians or fish), so they’re enormously important.

Minibeasts are vital to many food webs because they’re the primary food source for many species of birds, amphibians, fish and reptiles. They’re also some of the most important pollinators of crops. And on top of that, many work as ‘nature’s bin men’, breaking down and digesting dead and decaying plant and animal matter and cycling nutrients through our planet’s landbased ecosystems.

Your garden is an amazing place to go on a ‘mini safari’.

Get down close to the ground and you’ll see there’s a whole miniature animal kingdom going on under your feet. You’ll find flying insects, like flies, bees, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, wingless insects like ants (cool fact: there are around 1.6 million ants for every human on earth!); arachnids like spiders and harvestmen; crustaceans (yes, woodlice are in the same animal family as crabs!); myriapods like centipedes and millipedes; annelids like earthworms; and molluscs like slugs and snails.

Getting children interested in the minibeasts they can find in the garden or the countryside is a fantastic way to open their eyes to just how amazing nature is.

And it’s something you can easily do at home, or in a nearby park. Just try turning over a log or rock and see what’s hiding underneath!

One way you could really help, if you have the space in your garden, is to create a bug hotel. It’s easy for your little ones to get involved with the build too. It’s easy to do and requires materials that might otherwise be thrown away. Here’s how:When and Where to Build

A bug hotel can be built at any time of year. The site of your hotel should be level and the ground must be firm. Make sure it is a good distance away from any vegetable beds.

How To Make Your Own Bug Hotel

You need a strong, stable framework, no more than 1 metre high. Old wooden pallets are perfect as they’re sturdy and come with ready-made gaps, but you could improvise by using something as small as an old flower pot or wooden box as your container, depending on what you have available. As long as it’s reasonably weatherproof, it’s fine!

Make sure that you have a ventilation space underneath to stop the bug hotel from soaking up too much moisture from the ground.

If you’re using palettes, you could lay bricks (the ones with holes in them) on the ground as a sturdy base, especially at the corners, leaving spaces in between some of the bricks for ventilation and to provide entrances for animals. Then add 3 or 4 layers of wooden pallets on top of the bricks.

If you don’t have palettes or bricks then, as noted above, an old flower pot or wooden box would be fine.

You could raise it off the ground using a few stones or thick twigs.

Whatever type of framework you’re using, you now need to fill the gaps inside it, making sure you provide lots of different nooks and crannies, crevices, tunnels and cosy beds. Here are some ideas of how natural materials can be used: • Dead wood and loose bark - homes for beetles, centipedes, spiders and woodlice • Hollow bamboo canes, dead hollow stems cut from shrubs and herbaceous plants and drilled logs – provide holes and small tubes for solitary bees • Stones, tiles and old terracotta pots – provide larger holes and the cool, damp conditions preferred by frogs and toads • Dry leaves, sticks and straw - homes for ladybirds, other beetles and bugs • Corrugated cardboard – for lacewings • Pine cones – provide small crevices for minibeasts to hide and nest in • Dry leaves – help mimic a natural forest floor Add a roof to keep your bug house relatively dry. You could use old roof tiles or old planks covered with roofing felt, or even some old plastic sheeting, but make sure it’s weighted down so it doesn’t blow away.

If you can, surround your bug hotel with nectar-rich flowers – essential food for butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects.

Think of a name for your bug hotel and create a sign for it. (This makes no difference to the bugs, but it can be a great source of entertainment for the humans!) ypte.org.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 59

Science & Nature

NATUROPATHIC BEEKEEPING Paula Carnell, Beekeeping Consultant, Writer and Speaker

Image: AKP Branding Stories

I

have been asked a lot recently, ‘what exactly is naturopathic beekeeping?’. As more bees are appearing in our gardens and we think about the summer months, more and more people start pondering about bees, why are they suffering, how do we save them, and should I get a hive? I started sharing my techniques for beekeeping several years ago, and back in 2019, I decided I needed to put my training online, thankfully in time for the massive transference of our lives to ‘online’ in 2020!

Many people imagine beekeeping to be the most natural of hobbies or animal husbandry, pottering on 60 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

sunny days at the end of our gardens or in orchards, dressed in white suit and veil, puffing a smoker and extracting the odd frame of honey now and again.

Unfortunately, this is far from reality for too many beekeepers these days. Two hundred years of ‘advances’ have now made ‘beekeepers the biggest risk to bees’ in the opinion of leading Swiss bee scientist, Professor Peter Neumann.

The varroa mite was a tragic influx of a parasitic mite into the Apis mellifera community, transferred from the Asian honeybee who has had hundreds, if not thousands of years to adapt to it. Millions of bees

in hives were wiped out during the 1990s when it first appeared in Europe and the UK. Quite quickly, chemical treatments were developed and used with gusto, encouraged by the massive ‘mite drop’ noticed by the beekeepers on their observation boards as the drenching chemical treatments forced the mites to fall to their deaths through the open mesh floors.

Some of the ingredients of these treatments are based on natural components, thyme oil, oxalic acid and other essential oils. Like many beekeepers in my early days, although reluctant to use any treatments, I took advice from my mentor and the wider beekeeping community and used thymol, a ‘natural’ treatment.

Like many I imagined it to be a drop of pure thyme essential oil, however, to give you an idea, the chemical formula of thymol is C10H14O, and remembering Jamie Oliver’s message, ‘if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it’ hydroxy isopropyl methylbenzene doesn’t sound like the kind of thing I’d eat.

My curiosity sent me down a rabbit hole of investigations and in particular a wonderful bee biology textbook by Clarence H Collison. His chapter, ‘The impact of pesticides’ was shocking reading as it wasn’t about the pesticides bees were exposed to on agricultural crops, but the ones used inside the hives by beekeepers. Queen failure and infertility in drones were just some of the consequences of using such treatments.

My Bee Team member & octogenarian Joe Bleasdale, has been treatment-free beekeeping since 2000, saying that if the treatment leaves a single live varroa mite, then we’ve now bred a miticide-resistant variant!

Weighing up the pros and cons of treating disease leads me to naturopathic beekeeping. During my recovery from 7 years bed- and wheelchair-bound with Ehlers Danlos syndrome, being a patient of Lucy Jones of Myrobalan Clinic introduced me to herbal medicine and naturopathy. Having successfully helped me to walk again and no longer need a wheelchair, I began my studies with the International Register of Consultant Herbalists (IRCH) and module 2 was ‘Naturopathy’.

I absolutely LOVED this module as it all made perfect sense to me. Many fellow students came from traditional western medicine backgrounds and so struggled to unlearn much of what they’d previously been taught, namely ‘germ theory’.

Naturopathy’s foundations are based on ‘terrain theory’, the belief that we each have within us the potential for health or illness, and it is the combination of the triad of health, chemical, emotional, and

structural. It is also important to understand natures ‘natural force’ or vitality. We have all experienced seeing a lack of life force in flowers dying after being picked, or someone like myself whilst ill. Naturopathy is all about restoring the vital force which is a powerful ingredient in restoring anybody to health. Nature is all about balance, and just as we have witnessed the devastating destruction of Chernobyl restored to a natural wildlife haven after a few short decades, our bodies, and bee’s bodies are the same. The bees need a toxic chemical-free environment, no stress (transportation and interference from beekeepers) and the ability to grow healthy strong larvae with fully formed wings. A safe warm hive with a ‘propolis envelope’ surrounding the colony and a ready supply of nectar and pollen from healthy plants ensures the bees’ ability to heal themselves is literally ‘vital’.

We now have generations of beekeepers tied to the habits of treating their bees with chemicals, and a new generation of people doing the conventional training and questioning its viability and sense. These are the people I help. The thought of interfering in such a wise being’s environment, the hive, feels wrong. We intuitively know that the bees are showing us the error of our ways. Almost by mass suicide, the bees are found dead inside and outside their hives. Annual losses of colonies are expected and a ready supply of replacement queens softens the blow. Naturopathic beekeepers are not experiencing the same losses – their colonies steadily increase year on year, they produce more honey, eat less themselves, surround themselves in propolis and most importantly for the novice beekeeper, they sting less! If we are working in alignment with nature, the bees don’t feel they have to defend their hives. Surely it makes sense that bees shouldn’t have to fight to the death when sharing their honey harvest with their keeper?

Appreciation, understanding and gratitude are the tools of a naturopathic beekeeper. We’re not stupid though, we still wear suits and gloves out of healthy respect for a large group of 50,000 hormonal females that have the vitality to groom themselves of the pesky varroa mite! paulacarnell.com With May being a month of bee swarms and expansion, Paula is running a free online challenge for new and experienced beekeepers who may be interested in becoming part of the new breed of naturopathic beekeepers. Visit courses.paulacarnell.com for details. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61

On Foot

62 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

On Foot

NETHERBURY AND BEAMINSTER Emma Tabor and Paul Newman

Distance: 3 miles Time: Approx. 1 3/4 hours Park: Parking area in front of St Mary’s church, Netherbury.

Walk Features: An gentle walk following the River Brit from Netherbury towards Beaminster and past the grounds of Parnham House. There are some good views across Beaminster and towards Lewesdon Hill and Colmer’s Hill on different points of the walk. It’s also a good opportunity to explore the hills and valleys alongside the Brit. There is just one small steep ascent up to Edmund Coombe Coppice.

Refreshments: If taking the slight detour into Beaminster, there are many cafés, restaurants and pubs to choose from- otherwise bring a picnic! > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 63

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ach month we devise a walk for you to try with your family and friends (including four-legged members) pointing out a few interesting things along the way, be it flora, fauna, architecture, history, the unusual and sometimes the unfamiliar.

For May, we take a relatively easy route along the River Brit, starting from the 15th Century church and grounds of St Mary in Netherbury, a pretty village with some fine buildings which are worth exploring. This is a walk with a secluded feel and is easy to lose yourself in as you savour the surrounding undulations and folds of the Brit valley. The section through Edmund Coombe Coppice is particularly splendid and the higher route on the return opens up with views across the Marshwood Vale.

Directions

Start: SY 470 994 1 From the small parking area in front of the church, follow the high pavement to the right of the church, then turn left just past the war memorial onto a narrow path between hedges. Continue following around the outside of the church and the path soon widens to pass the other side of the churchyard, with headstones stretching down towards the River Brit, which you can now hear as well as catch 64 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

glimpses of. There are gardens to your left, as you pass through trees and you will soon emerge into a field. Keep ahead and along the right hand side of the field. Where the path meets Norton Lane, and just before a Dutch barn, there is a large metal sheep bridge over the river, to your right.

2 Cross this bridge, turn left and head up a sandy track. As the track starts to bend to the left, take a right, along a footpath then go through a wooden gate. Parnham House and its surrounding woodland and grounds is now on your right. Carry on along the edge of the wood for 600 yards and you will soon reach a metal gate leading into a field. Ahead is Edmund Coombe Coppice. Go through the gate and straight across the field, through a gateway with an old kissing gate to your left and then through the next short section of field to arrive at a wooden gate with another kissing gate next to it. From here it is a short walk into Beaminster if you fancy a detour.

3 Otherwise, turn left in front of this gate and walk straight up a short, steep slope, alongside a wooden fence, towards the coppice. Just before the entrance to the coppice is a good spot for a picnic with views across Beaminster and also towards Crab Coppice. Go through a small wooden gate and

head up some steps into the wood. Keep ahead through the coppice, which contains a lovely mix of trees including some wonderful large and unusual coppiced sweet chestnuts. After 400 yards you will reach the other side of the coppice, exiting through posts and a stile into rough pasture. Walk though this and start heading downhill towards a big metal gate at the bottom of the field.

4 Pass through the gate and turn right onto a farm track. Keep on this track for a short while, ignoring a bridleway sign to the right towards Knowle Farm. There are views from here towards the west and Gerrard’s Hill and the Beaminster Union Workhouse. After 600 yards you come to a small wooden gate on your right with a footpath sign, just above and before the section of track you walked up earlier.

5 Turn right and go through this gate into a field.

Make your way diagonally across the middle of the field, down into a corner with a small wooden gate leading into a wooded glen. Follow the footpath and soon you will meet a wooden footbridge on your left, over a stream. Cross this, then over a stile into a field. Turn immediately right into the field, following the stream on your right. After 150 yards, near the end of the field, there is a small metal gate,

with a dented top, on your left. Go through this, crossing a little wooden footbridge over a brook and head up some steps to a metal gate and then into a meadow. Head for a large metal gate, walking parallel to the valley bottom, and go through this into a field and then through another metal gate into another field; you will see a small metal gate in the far right-hand corner of the next field.

6 Immediately after going through this gate, turn sharp left up some steps and then through another small gate, heading steeply uphill now, keeping the hedge on your left. At the top of this field is yet another perfect picnic spot with a large bench and foot rests carved out of a tree trunk. Behind the bench is a large metal gate, to the left of which is a small metal gate. Take the footpath on the other side of this small gate, which now skirts around the left-hand side of a paddock. Passing houses and a yard, the path then bears slightly left and emerges into a field. Walk along the right hand side of the field, for 250 yards, keeping a hedge to your right until you meet a large metal gate, leading onto a road. Turn left here and head back down the road to St Mary’s church and the start. paulnewmanartist.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 65

History

LOST DORSET

NO. 22 POOLE David Burnett, The Dovecote Press

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here is a good chance that one of Sherborne’s dozen or so late 19th century bakers would have been supplied with flour from Belben’s Flour Mill, whose trio of jettied-out upper storeys were a landmark on the Town Quay at Poole, as here in about 1895. Belben’s was one of the first steam-powered mills in the country, with its small fleet of vessels. Once milled and bagged, flour would have reached Sherborne via Stalbridge, the nearest station on the Somerset & Dorset Railway. The postcard reflects Poole’s changing fortunes. The collapse of the wealthy Newfoundland trade left it virtually bankrupt. It was also notoriously corrupt: described by one commentator as ‘nothing but decadence, deterioration and disgust’. The narrow streets behind the Quay were overcrowded slum tenements, prone to disease. The town’s mid-Victorian saviour

66 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

was the meteoric growth of its eastern neighbour, Bournemouth, whose population rose from 695 in 1851 to 78,674 in 1911. Poole’s merchants were quick to reap the benefits, supplying the building materials needed to fuel Bournemouth’s expansion. The bustle returned to the Quay. As well as ships putting to sea with Purbeck clay for the Staffordshire potteries, many more came alongside laden with grain, timber, and coal. dovecotepress.com Lost Dorset: The Towns 1880-1920, the companion volume to Lost Dorset: The Villages and Countryside, is a 220-page large-format hardback, priced £20, and is available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers.

Making Wealth Management Personal

For investment advice you can trust and personal support you can rely on 01935 382620 | enquiries@church-house.co.uk | www.ch-investments.co.uk At Church House Investment Management, we only make recommendations from our range of investment portfolio services and associated accounts. Full details of the nature of our services can be found at www.ch-investments.co.uk/important-information or can be provided on request. Please note the value of investments and the income you could get from them may fall as well as rise and there is no certainty that you will get back the amount of your original investment. You should also be aware that past performance may not be a reliable guide to future performance. Church House Investment Management is a trading name of Church House Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

History

OBJECT OF THE MONTH

THE COMPANY PLAQUE Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

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recent donation of archival material from Tetra Pak CPS brought into sharp relief the success of the global phenomenon that was the Sherborne-based firm Wincanton Engineering, as evidenced by the motif on the company plaque pictured.

The story started in 1882 when Charles and Leonard Gates took over their father’s grocery store in Guildford and famously poured all of its liquor stock into the street. They then turned it into a dairy business, which by the turn of the century had rapidly grown into the West Surrey Central Dairy Company, with creameries located throughout England and Ireland including at Wincanton and Sherborne. The addition of powdered milk products led to the creation of the Cow & Gate Brand in 1908, which later merged with United Dairies to become Unigate. Meanwhile, the transportation of raw milk with a return of sterilised churns in a constant smooth process seven days a week became so crucial to operations that a dedicated distribution subsidiary was launched at Sherborne in 1925: Wincanton Transport and Engineering.

The company maintained that the heart of the business lay in their expertise in producing highquality steel fabrications. As well as their pioneering designs for road tankers for bulk milk haulage at the extensive machining facility in South Street, process and storage vessels for milk and dairy products and cheese manufacturing equipment as well as dairy sundries were supplied.

In March 1955 The Western Gazette reported that Wincanton Transport Co. had created the two largest cheese-making vats ever made in this country, for a factory in Scotland. Made of tinned steel to blueprints obtained from New Zealand, the vats were 43ft x 5ft with a capacity of 2400 gallons and believed to be more than twice the size of anything previously 68 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

used. Logistics proved problematic; a ‘Queen Mary’ articulated trailer had to be deployed and, to prevent traffic congestion, loading operations were undertaken in Culverhayes car park. A party of engineers were afterwards engaged for several hours in welding the legs of the vats to the transporter to ensure safe transit.

The company separated into two branches; the transport side relocating to the former Cow & Gate site in Wincanton. In 1975, a merger occurred between the Engineering branch and DESCO Dairy Supply Ltd, a company which had been instrumental in developing plastic milk crates in the 50s. The Sherborne firm, therefore, continued to meet the needs of the dairy industry under the iconic ‘Flying W’ trademark, employing 150 people from the local area. Rights to the Dynajet range of industrial washing machines were acquired in 1981, allowing diversification into specialist cleaning of metal components for the pharmaceutical, industrial and retail sectors.

In 1997 Wincanton Engineering established a North American market in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the South Street firm expanded to a site at Coldharbour Business Park the following year. By now they had acquired an international reputation with a client base that included Beechams, Cadbury, Castrol, Nestlé, Mars, Pfizer, Unilever and Glaxo. The firm existed under various iterations and was eventually acquired by Tetra Pak CPS Ltd who had invested heavily in the Sherborne site during the recession. With the recent withdrawal of this company from the town, a long and illustrious chapter in Sherborne’s industrial history has come to a close. sherbornemuseum.co.uk Sherborne Museum is open from Tuesday - Saturday 10.30am–4.30pm. Admission is free.

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

History

Image courtesy of Sherborne Museum

SHERBORNE SILK MILLS Part II

Cindy Chant

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uckily in 1887, at roughly the time the mill closed, there was in Sherborne a congregational minister, the Reverend Joseph Ogle. He was making his presence known in the town and had soon doubled his congregation, re-seated the Chapel, built a Manse, and extended the school. He had already formed a partnership with a solicitor, Mr Chandler, and was now going to take over the mills and manage them as a going concern. To help him in this operation, he brought in his brother-in-law from Macclesfield, who apparently had some experience in the silk industry. They decided that the mill, rather than continue as a throwing mill, should weave the pure silk into fabric and Ogle even travelled to Switzerland to learn this process.

Soon the silk business was once again thriving, and it must have been very exciting for Sherborne when Queen Victoria ordered two dresses. Our own Sherborne Museum sometimes has displays covering 70 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

various aspects of the town's silk industry and you can make appointments to view examples of the silk that was produced.

The Rev. Ogle and his partners had not intended anything more than a rescue operation for the mill until it could all be sold as a going concern. This eventually happened in 1907, when it was then bought by A.R. Wright and Co. of Bingley, and it was in their care until 1936 when it was sold again to a Swiss silk weaver, Mr. Spitz. He wanted to avoid paying import duties and so came to set up business, and live in Sherborne, bringing with him various looms and other equipment from Switzerland. But Mr. Spitz very soon got himself into serious financial difficulties, and sadly committed suicide a year later.

So once again the silk mills were on the market and were soon bought by Mr Frederick Marsden, who had been producing rayon fabrics in part of a rented

factory in Coventry. By 1938, the mill was back in full production and financially secure. But the war was looming and now the mill became extra busy weaving silk for parachutes. In 1940/41 Sherborne Mill, amongst other things, was involved with Government work for the admiralty and weaving black silk fabric for making into scarves for our sailors’ uniforms.

However, in 1941, an order was issued that the stocks of real silk in this country could no longer be used for Admiralty scarves. The firms doing this work were informed of the situation and requested to submit samples to the Admiralty, of substitute fabrics made from rayon instead of silk. This of course meant completely redesigning the fabric as regards the warp and weft and types of rayon to be used in each, to emulate a close copy in appearance to the real silk fabric. From 30 samples submitted to the Admiralty, the one chosen was the one submitted by Sherborne Mill. Plastics and fibreglass were becoming the new fashionable material and so it became known as ‘Marsden’s Glass’, and by 1942 Marglass was registered as the trade name. After the war was over, fibreglass became the new material for weaving, and so the future for Sherborne Mill once more, became well established and secure.

Sherborne Mill had been trading under its new name, Marglass, and in 1960 an extension to the ‘finishing factory’ was built with a new weaving shed, enabling more looms to be installed. However, in 1962 the mill was sold again, this time to Courtaulds, another firm who had evolved from silks to fibreglass, and who had large factories in Coventry. They became known as P. D. Interglaze. So now we come to modern times, and in 2013 it was sold again to a Latvian firm and was renamed Valmeira Glass UK Ltd. But its function remains the same.

So let us remember the history and the fact that the land on which the factory now stands is land which originally formed part of the site of John Sharrer’s silk mill! For over 230 years the story of Sherborne’s silk mills is one of huge success, giving employment to Sherborne people, bringing prosperity to the town, and an industry that Sherborne people can be proud of.

Valmeira Glass is still there. John Sharrer’s house has now evolved into the Riverside Nursing Home. Vibrant and enterprising independent businesses have settled into the Old Yarn Mills buildings, where once again the future looks bright, continuing an exciting history for the town.

FREE HOME VISITS Specialist Matthew Denney will be in the Sherborne area on Thursday 26th May to value your objects & antiques

JOHN MCGHIE (1867-1952) SAILING THE TOY BOAT Signed, oil on canvas BOUGHT FOR £5,750

Consigning Now for Our Forthcoming Summer Auctions Silver | Vertu | Jewellery | Watches 19th/20th Century Design | Ceramics Pictures | Furniture | Clocks | Rugs | Militaria Coins | Medals | Collectors | Sporting

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To make an appointment call or email 01460 73041 matthew.denney@lawrences.co.uk Professional Valuations Available for Probate & Insurance. Complete House Contents & Attic Clearances Arranged

lawrences.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 71

Antiques

VISITORS

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

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t has been just over two years since we went into lockdown, not that you need me to remind you.

At least we seem to be returning to a degree of normality. I recently travelled abroad for a couple of days and I even went to a party without feeling too guilty, although I did take a lateral flow test before and after.

Like a lot of people, COVID and lockdown will have a lasting effect on me, but I think the one thing I have missed is having friends visiting, either spontaneously when passing the house or planned for the weekends.

These days, when meeting friends it is usually via a text, phone call, Messenger or WhatsApp message. It has been many years since someone wrote to me asking to stay for a weekend or to arrange popping out for a meal, but back in the 19th century, this is how people communicated.

It was much more formal in the 19th century, and I am not just talking about sitting up straight at the dining table. Guests would arrive at a house to be greeted not by the owner but by the staff and depending on the size of the house depended whether you had a butler or a maid who would answer the door.

On the basis you made it through the door and into the hall you would then generally give them your visiting 72 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

card. Depending on how much money you had would depend on what you carried your visiting cards around in. Visiting cards cases came in all sorts of materials from papier-maché, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl and of course silver, with some fancy and some plain.

In our 5th May specialist silver, jewellery and watch auction, we have a group of early to mid-19th century silver visiting card cases. They have been amassed by a Dorset gent who took up silver collecting when he retired from the police force several years ago.

They provide an insight to the lengths people would go to make an impression when presenting themselves at a house. My personal favourite is a silver doublesided ‘castle top’ visiting card case. Decorated in high relief, one side has a view of Windsor Castle with the opposing side Kenilworth Castle.

Today these are sought after by collectors with an interest in silver, craftsmanship and design. Whilst I have always quite liked the idea of owning a visiting card case, I’m not quite sure it would survive too well knocking around in my briefcase and I’m also not quite sure what some of the houses I visit would make of it either! charterhouse-auction.com

CHARTERHOUSE Auctioneers & Valuers

Forthcoming Auction Programme

Single Owner Collection of Classic Twin Shock Trials Motorcycles 31st May Coins, Medals & Stamps 9th June Model Trains, Cars & Toys 10th June Classic & Vintage Motorcycles 29th June Classic & Vintage Cars 6th July Further entries invited

Military Medal Group in our June Auction

Contact Richard Bromell for advice on single items and complete collections Valuations for Probate and Insurance

The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne DT9 3BS 01935 812277 www.charterhouse-auction.com

Affordable interior fabrics thefabricbarn.co.uk

01935 851025 sherbornetimes.co.uk | 73

elizabethwatsonillustration.com

Planting for colour

With spring in full swing, it’s time to get the garden bursting with colour. Summer bedding plants, such as Begonias, Sweet Peas and Petunias, can add scent and colour to your flower beds and borders, while hanging baskets can bring a whole new level of interest to your garden, however large or small.

You can pick up your seeds, plants and hanging baskets any day of the week: Monday to Saturday: 9am – 6pm Sunday: 10am – 4:30pm

Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR www.thegardensgroup.co.uk

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74 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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Gardening

MAJESTIC BASKETS Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

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he Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations take place in early June and it will be an opportunity to get out the good old red, white and blue in bedding plant colours without feeling that it’s all a bit of a cliché! Red, white and blue were the classic colours of bedding displays in the sixties and seventies. Usually, it was long straight rows of red geraniums or salvias, white alyssum and then blue lobelia Crystal Palace. Those varieties are of course still available, but there are many more to choose from now 76 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

AC Rider/Shutterstock

to create a big splash.

Some bedding plants are still found in borders but usually now its pots and hanging baskets that are used to create the summer splash of colour.

In my opinion, the larger the basket or pot the better (and come on, Her Majesty deserves an impressive display, doesn’t she?) but it’s important to select one that fits the position. The larger the basket, the greater the volume of compost which in turn means a larger number of plants can be supported and successfully grown.

The compost needs to be a good quality potting compost. We also add in slow-release fertiliser which gives a season-long background feed.

The top of the basket or middle of a tub needs a centrepiece, and this could be a compact Century Geranium in the basket or a larger pelargonium in the pot. These are repeat-flowering types and whereas they are available in a range of colours, the reds can be particularly spectacular. To keep them performing just pull off the old flowers’ stalks as they fade. An alternative to the geranium or pelargonium could be the non-stop begonias which come in a wonderful array of colours including powerful reds. There are also trailing varieties which could go on the edges.

The edges can be planted with more trailers, such as trailing (ivy-leaved) geraniums, trailing begonias and trailing fuchsias. The former is available in red and white with fuchsias lacking a true red. Between these select a number of smaller trailers including white bacopa, lobelia and trailing petunias. Trailing blue lobelia would also be good here.

We must remember that it’s a Platinum Jubilee so the silver of helichrysum petiolaris or the smaller leaved microphylla should do the trick as will lotus bertholotii, although, when it flowers later in the season the spectacular orange may spoil your theme! For more flower, look out for the semi-trailing verbena of which there are red, white and blue flowered varieties. A spectacular blue is the Anagallis skylover which has an extraordinary quantity of flower.

This collection of plants will cascade down the side of the basket or pot eventually hiding it almost completely.

To finish off it’s worth planting the space between the centrepiece and the edgers and this could be with bedding begonias in reds and whites, upright lobelia in blue and white, upright verbena and maybe even some violas.

If you have a greenhouse or conservatory, grow the basket or pot inside during May and then, whilst keeping an eye on the forecast, come the end of the month, and definitely in time for the first week of June, it can head out to its final position.

Water every day and really keep the basket or pot soaked, feed weekly with a high potash fertiliser such as Tomorite or seaweed tomato fertiliser and keep nipping off those faded blooms.

God save the Queen!

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We can maintain your garden so that it looks great throughout the year.

We listen to you and work with you to bring your ideas to life.

We offer excellent support, advice and always happy to help.

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thegardensgroup.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 77

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Crafting quality timber buildings and gates since 1912 Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7LH Tel: (01963) 440414 | Email: info@sparkford.com | @sparkfordtimber | www.sparkford.com 78 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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GUGGLETON FARM ARTS Words Jo Denbury Photography Katharine Davies

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tractor, complete with trailer, is wedged firmly on Stalbridge high street leaving me with little choice other than to sit and wait in the ensuing queue of traffic. As I wait, I muse on the fact that while Dorset is still a proud farming county, more and more farmyards are succumbing to disuse and dereliction. I am en route to what was once one such example.

The jam resolved, I continue on my way and with a sigh of relief pull into the yard of Guggleton Farm, now home to Guggleton Farm Arts, or as it’s more fondly known – The Gugg. I am greeted by a motley assortment of buildings. Roguish clumps of wildflowers push through the old stone walls and freshly handpainted signs allude to a buzz of creative industry. >

80 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 81

Isabel de Pelet

Carolyn Finch (L) 82 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Jenni Richards

I am here to meet Deanne Tremlett, The Gugg’s Artistic Director. Some of you might know Deanne from her Sherborne House days, a zealous advocate for the arts with a desire to make them accessible to all. Before she arrives, I take the opportunity to explore and find an oil painting class in full swing and three artists, working under the insignia of ‘Fabula Tres’ hanging their new show. Suddenly, a car swings into the yard and out hops Deanne, followed by Guggleton’s matriarch and founder Isabel de Pelet.

As a practising artist herself Deanne understands the importance of community for artists working in isolated rural areas. In January 2020 The Gugg registered as a Community Interest Company [CIC] and in January 2021 became a certified member of Social Enterprise UK. ‘Isabel and I have always agreed on the benefits of giving people the opportunity to create; if everyone had that opportunity there would be a lot less anxiety and depression. I think this is because we no longer have to problem-solve in the way we used to. I have noticed with my own children that they’re fed a lot of information by the internet but creating is a form of problem-solving.

With my own practice, I know that when I have an idea in my head and have to get it onto the canvas it is

a process of solving a problem. Doing this makes you more resilient, happier and it makes you mindful.’

Recently Deanne initiated a project with the local primary school where the children were given the opportunity to work in the gallery at The Gugg. ‘We gave them a huge sheet of paper and pens, paints, etc and said: “This time you can draw on the walls.”

The children’s eyes lit up,’ explains Deanne with glee.

‘We even had the teachers and parents joining in,’ she laughs. ‘It is just so important that we give these children the opportunity to become artists without them feeling it is something they have to leave behind to pursue a career. I was very lucky because my parents supported me when I wanted to go to art school but that is not always the case,’ she explains.

It isn’t just the children whose creativity is being rekindled. The Gugg runs a number of daytime and evening classes, including oil painting with the artist Carolyn Finch, watercolours with local artist Steve Stott, macrame with crafter Laura Jackson and textiles taught by Jenni Richards who also runs regular ‘stitch and chat’ sessions. ‘Since the CIC was established and the site expanded, so many people have come forward to offer classes,’ Deanne enthuses. ‘The Gugg seems to > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

84 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

'Shedder' David Stubbings sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

attract just the right people at the right time. There is always room for more ideas though!’

The tutors are currently going through the process of acquiring City and Guilds accreditation in order to offer courses for those who might want to pursue these subjects at university level. A new ceramics studio will soon be in operation too, featuring several potter’s wheels, a slab area and kiln, with courses led by Ruth Kirkham. For the musical, music therapist and life coach, Siska Redman runs a regular improv group.

There are expansion plans afoot too, with practising artists in mind. ‘At present, there is a huge lack of studio space in Dorset,’ explains Deanne. ‘We have four studios for artists,’ she continues, ‘but it is our plan to increase that close to 10.’ It was her own search for a studio that brought her back to The Gugg. Deanne studied Fine Art at the Slade School of Art and later a Masters in Research-Based Fine Art Practice at Wimbledon School of Art. Somewhere in between she worked in newspapers and cut her curatorial teeth at The Camden Art Gallery. She first came to The Gugg in 2003 when she met Isabel who offered her a space to show her work. A recurring theme in Deanne’s paintings is the naked human form, often explored with unflinching candour. ‘The WI was very upset,’ says Deanne of her first show, ‘but Isabel stood by me.’ ‘I did,’ smiles Isabel. Watching them together, it’s clear that these two have a deeply rooted working relationship. When Deanne came back in 2018 looking 86 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

for a studio it wasn’t long before Isabel invited her to become The Gugg’s Artistic Director.

At this point in our conversation, Deanne darts off in search of tea and cake. Her mum makes the cakes and she insists we must try some. While she’s gone, Isabel and I chat about how she came to set up Guggleton. ‘I was always making things,’ says Isabel of her childhood. ‘I wanted to go to art school but my parents were not interested and I wasn’t encouraged,’ she recalls. Her ambition was to train as an artist but instead, she studied dress design and dressmaking and pursued this as a career until 1966 when she married Richard de Pelet.

It wasn’t until 1990, with three children about to leave the nest that Isabel decided to explore her artistic leanings. She applied to Yeovil College to take the foundation course but was first required to take A levels. Later, with A levels passed she went on to study Art and Social Context at what is now UWE. ‘I knew if I was going to do a professional job I needed to know more,’ she explains. Isabel discovered that sculpture was her forte but it was during her studying for her degree that the dilapidated farm buildings in Stalbridge came up for sale.‘It was a job lot,’ she says, ‘and I could see it had potential in a big way. The garage spaces were perfect for studios and the council was terribly helpful.’ With a series of grants in hand, Isabel was able to put the buildings to new use and establish a gallery and studio room above the former

cart shed. Guggleton Farm Arts Project was formally opened in December 1995.

‘I have been terribly lucky,’ says Isabel, ‘and with the people I have met.’ She has always maintained that, ‘artists working alongside and within an active Community Arts Programme create a positive way to further mutual understanding and form experiences that will both enrich and stimulate all those who involve themselves.’ While we mull on the importance of art in our lives Deanne returns with the cake – coffee and walnut – it’s delicious.

Now in the later stages of life, Isabel leaves much of the day-to-day running of The Gugg to Deanne but makes a point of coming to many of the events and opening nights. The Gugg is run entirely by volunteers and is very much a collaborative effort. The regular open mic sessions, for example, were suggested by Bakerman Dan who makes the stone-baked sourdough pizzas on Thursday nights and the Moviola film nights. Come the school holidays, it will be time for the summer courses where this year, young ‘Guggleheads’ will be able to try their hand at puppetry. This month is of course Dorset Art Weeks and The Gugg will be playing host to a large number of artists showing their work.

Isabel is particularly keen to mention the Young Artist of the Year prize or ‘YaY’, which she has run for the last 17 years. ‘It is so important to give young artists an opportunity. I didn’t have that chance,’ she says of the event. ‘We also hope to begin artists’ residencies,’ adds

Deanne. ‘It is a great platform for artists to develop their practice and it is a way to bring artists from all over the world into our community. It will encourage the artist to explore and respond to our particular local landscape with the added benefit that it allows the community to create a collection of art.’

While a number of agricultural buildings in the South West have been repurposed as galleries and workshop spaces, what is so striking about Guggleton is its quiet determination to support and nurture artists of all ages and abilities within its local community. The Gugg strives to dispense with pretence and formalities in a welcome effort to make the discovery and wonder of art, in its many forms, available to all. guggletonfarmarts.com ___________________________________________ 14th - 29th May Dorset Art Weeks Venue 48 – Guggleton Farm Arts Station Road, Stalbridge DT10 2RQ

An exhibition of work from many artists and makers

including; Matthew Hayward, Elaine Collett, Jenni Richards, Deanne Tremlett, Carolyn Finch Corlett, Jo Saurin, Sally

Ridout, Frankie Toomey, Alison Underwood, Becky AyersHarris and Barbara Wagner.

11am-5pm (closed Mondays). 01963 363456 guggletonfarmarts.com dorsetartweeks.co.uk

___________________________________________ sherbornetimes.co.uk | 87

SHERBORNE AREA DIRECTORY

David Marl

Venue 1 Merrily Harpur Paintings, printmaking 7 Culver Cottages, Duck Street,

Strangway House, Holywell, Evershot,

Halstock, BA22 9SZ. 10am-5pm

01935 83966 mikejacksonartist.com

01935 872483 jenniferevansart.co.uk

Dorchester, DT2 0LG. 10.30am-5.30pm. ____________________________

(closed 1pm-3pm) and by appointment ____________________________

Cattistock, DT2 0JJ. 10am-5pm.

Venue 5

Venue 8

07799 377661 merrilyharpur.co.uk

Bakers Farmhouse Studio

Yetminster Group of Artists

____________________________

Drawing, furniture, interiors, paintings

Paintings

Venue 2

John Carrick Smith, Katinka Stampa

Ann Boyden, Judith Copp, Jacqueline

Vanessa Bowman Paintings

Orwin, Baffy Turner, Fran Wood

Clough, Di Grattan-Cooper, Bee

Grant Peterkin, Melita Frances Moule,

Wallis Farmhouse, Duck Street,

Bakers Farmhouse, Higher Halstock

11am-5pm (closed Mondays and

07817 429907

Mill House, Back Lane, Chetnole, DT9

vanessabowman.co.uk

Venue 6

____________________________

____________________________

Laura Pentreath

Venue 9

Venue 3

and Polly Pentreath

Plaxypots

Livingwood: Peter Thomas

Paintings, sculpture, stone-carving

Ceramics, pottery

and Trevor Ball

Sydney Farm, Higher Halstock Leigh,

Totnell House South, Leigh, Sherborne,

laurapentreath.co.uk

07740 873687

Cattistock, Dorchester, DT2 0JH. Wednesdays) 07961 555116

Rampisham Village Hall, Rampisham, DT2 0PR. 10am-4pm. 01935 83247

Leigh, Halstock, BA22 9QY. 10am-5pm ____________________________

BA22 9QY. 10am-5pm. 07974 736709

Lucinda Thomson, and others

6PL. 10am-5pm. 01935 872255

DT9 6HT. 10am-5pm (closed Tuesdays)

peterthomaslivingwood.co.uk

____________________________

____________________________

Venue 7

Venue 10

Venue 4

Jennifer Evans

Pearl Gatehouse

Mike Jackson

Paintings, illustration

Drawing, paintings

Paintings

Border Farm, Closworth Road,

Moreys, Melbury Road, Yetminster,

88 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

____________________________

Vanessa Bowman

James Budden

Carla Taylor

DT9 6LX. 10am-5pm (closed 16th-

Mark Pender

01935 873888 pearlgatehouse.com

Mixed media, paintings

Venue 11

Sherborne, DT9 4EY. 11am-6pm

____________________________

18th, 23rd-25th, 29th May)

and Miranda Pender

____________________________

Abbots Fee, Priestlands Lane,

studio paintings, drawings and automata Westbury Hall, Westbury, Sherborne,

DT9 3EN. 10am-5pm. 01935 816618 laurencebelbin.com

07896 354616 mirandapender.com

Venue 18

____________________________

Trouvaille Gallery

High Street, Yetminster, DT9 6LF

Venue 15

Ceramics, pottery, paintings

10am-4.30pm. 01935 872761

Norrie de Montigny

yetminstergallery.co.uk

Ceramic wall pieces

Marianne Louise, Pippa Hill,

____________________________

Beech House, Bristol Road, Sherborne,

Old School Gallery and Café Paintings, photography

Venue 12 Robert Grant Forbes Metalwork, paintings,

DT9 4HP. 10am-5pm (closed Mondays) 01935 389933

____________________________

Lindsay Wilson

Units 2/3, 24c Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3PX. 10am-2.30pm (closed 15th, 18th, 22nd, 29th May). 07779 788465 trouvaillegallery.co.uk

sculpture, stone-carving

Venue 16

____________________________

58 St Catherine’s Crescent, Sherborne,

Victoria Young Jamieson

Venue 19

DT9 6DE 10am-4pm (closed Mondays)

Furniture, interiors, paintings

James Budden Painting

01935 815206

____________________________

Number 11, Old Yarn Mills, Westbury,

93 Cheap Street, Sherborne, DT9 3LS

Venue 13

Sherborne, DT9 3RQ

Thursdays-Saturdays 10am-6pm

07887 538313 jamesbudden.co.uk

David Marl Painting St Probus, Marston Road, Sherborne,

Sundays 11am-4pm (19th-29th May)

11am-5pm (closed Wednesdays)

____________________________

07833 475342 victoriayj.com

Venue 20

____________________________

Anna Stiles and Friends

Wednesdays) 01935 389673

Venue 17

Ceramics, pottery, jewellery,

____________________________

Laurence Belbin

silverwork, paintings

Venue 14

Light, line and colour, plein-air and

Anna Stiles, Jane Franklin, Elly Harvey,

DT9 4BL. 10am-4pm (closed

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

Norrie de Montigny

Stephen Bithell, Carla Taylor, Nikki Squires, Cherry Barlow

Higher Clatcombe Farmhouse,

Clatcombe Lane, Sherborne, DT9 4RN

Hermitage Lane, Hermitage, DT2 7BB

Gaggle of Geese, Buckland Newton,

Weekends 10am-5pm

4pm-10pm, Thursday - Saturday

Wednesday-Friday 12pm-5pm 07798 525013 yewtreeart.co.uk

____________________________

DT2 7BS. Tuesday and Wednesday

11.30am-10pm, Sundays 12pm-8pm 01300 345249 gaggleofgeese.co.uk

10am-5pm. 07742 408528

Venue 24

annastilespottery.com

Robert Woolner

Venue 27

____________________________

Mixed media, paintings

The Studio, Cerne Abbey

Venue 21

Chantry Cottage, Glanvilles Wootton,

Furniture, interiors, paintings, sculpture,

(closed 17th-19th, 23rd-26th May)

The Studio, Abbey Street, Cerne Abbas,

____________________________

____________________________

Elm Yard Gallery Ceramics, pottery, metalwork, paintings.

Elm Yard, Three Elms, North Wootton, Sherborne, DT9 5JW. 10.30am-4pm

____________________________

Sherborne, DT9 5QJ. 11am-5pm

stone-carving

07837 719511 robwoolner.com

DT2 7JQ. 2pm-5pm 01300 341000

(closed Mondays). 07957 562403

Venue 25

Venue 151

dorsetforgeandfabrication.co.uk

Anne-Louise Bellis

Mark Megilley and

____________________________

and Martin Dickson

Pickle and Stitch

Venue 22

Ceramics, paintings

Photography and jewellery

Graham Church

The Old Cow Shed Studio, Manor

Unit 5 Higher Barn, Holt Mill, Melbury

11am-4pm and by appointment

Sunday 12pm-5pm. 07377 262025

Mixed media, paintings, sculpture Providence Place, Holnest Park,

Sherborne, DT9 6HA. 11am-6pm (closed Thursdays). 01963 210579

Farm, Glanvilles Wootton, DT9 5PZ 07970 797748 theoldcowshedstudio.co.uk

Osmond, DT2 0XL. Wednesday-

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

Venue 26

Venue 23

Gallery @ The Gaggle

For details of all participating artists

Graham Booth and Jo Denbury

Drawing, paintings

and venues, pick up a copy of the DAW

Paintings, photography, sculpture

Robyn Carter, Jessamy Keily,

Directory, download the app or visit

Yew Tree Barn, Yew Tree House, 90 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Emma Munday

dorsetartweeks.co.uk

ART, ANTIQUES & 20TH CENTURY DESIGN

Inside No.

No11 Old Yarn Mills Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3RQ

14-29 MAY

VENUE 16

elizabethwatsonillustration.com 92 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

From the moment you enter The Clockspire, you know you’re going to be treated to a memorable experience. Ensconced in a nineteenth-century former schoolhouse, guests step under its carefully restored stone arches and are welcomed into the most spectacular space. Large windows cast dappled light across the original features of the building, while lofted ceilings and statement chandeliers provide a touch of elegance.

Head Chef Luke Sutton and his team showcase modern English dishes inspired by seasonal ingredients, using market-led British produce and vegetables from their nearby plots at Ven House.

Service is first class yet unfussy, and the general vibe is one of great value for money and warm hospitality.

Wander upstairs to the mezzanine level to find a marble-topped bar and velvet-covered stools, where you can sip a cocktail or a chilled glass of champagne.

Our brilliant value set menu offers two courses for just £25 Available Wednesday – Saturday 12 noon – 2:45pm Wednesday – Friday 6:00pm – 6:45pm

Reservations 01963 251458

host@theclockspire.com www.theclockspire.com

The Clockspire Restaurant & Bar

Gainsborough, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5BA @theclockspire

Food and Drink

LIVING THE GOODDEN LIFE Nico and Chrystall Goodden

M

ay is finally upon us and this means the danger of frosts is rapidly decreasing. Give or take a few days we should see our last frost around the 10th of this month and what a relief, for the gardener and for wildlife.

Inevitably a few plants in the garden have suffered from some quite mean April frosts. Some fruit trees with particularly early blossoms are always a tricky affair, many a little too keen to erupt in outstanding beauty, only to get a rather rude frosty reminder that it 94 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

was just a little bit early to show off.

I desperately want my grapevine to do well this year.

All its flowers died from frost last year and we didn’t manage a single fruit!

At last, all tomatoes and chillies can be placed outside and when one lives in a ‘compact’ house while caring for 50+ chillies and tomatoes, it’s good news.

This year we will split them into groups grown in various areas of the garden to run comparisons.

Some will grow against the wind-sheltered south-

facing wall of the house which radiates heat at any sunny opportunity – this is possibly our best spot.

Others will be greenhouse-grown but with special attention given to ventilation as greenhouses can get too hot and too humid which often leads to mildew or moulds and can slow growth rates. Some will end up in full-sun no-dig beds where we get the most sun throughout the day but are quite exposed to the wind and so extra support will be required. The wind may be beneficial though to avoid stagnant air which leads to mildew and other issues.

For four years now we have been growing strawberries with increasing success. We started with six plants which we propagated to fifty in four years. I said it before… I love free plants.

Admittedly we did suffer great setbacks. Gone are the days of growing them directly in beds – they are just too vulnerable to pests (ants, rodents, woodlouse, slugs…) even when growing among straw. Last year we grew them in suspended gutters filled with compost in the greenhouse. This yielded well and stopped pests (you’d have to be Supermouse to fly to these suspended gutters) but proved too demanding to water twice a day and the greenhouse may have gotten a bit too hot.

So this year we started our fifty plants in the greenhouse to give them a head-start and this month as the temperatures rise we will move them outside, each in its individual 2-litre pot on some form of shelving against the house.

Another experiment we are conducting is comparing whether removing early flowers leads to larger plants with more foliage producing far more in the long-run.

I have to admit I far prefer growing fruit over vegetables. I have a sweet tooth and picking ripe fruit you have grown yourself, to be eaten on the spot, is one of the greatest joys in life.

I’m keen to harvest gooseberries which we have so many of and yet the birds always get them first, so this year I have all my gooseberry bushes netted.

Gooseberries remind me of my childhood back in France. Mum grew them and I’d pick the ripest that had warmed up nicely in the sun. They’d burst between my teeth, sunkissed, very sweet yet with a tart edge and simply delicious.

Wildflowers are a passion of ours and link directly with growing food. Since we stopped mowing our lawn, the garden has turned into a beautiful meadow that slow-dances with the wind and where we sow as many wildflowers as possible. This again was a learning curve

"Gooseberries remind me of my childhood back in France. I’d pick the ripest that had warmed up nicely in the sun." but we now have a good technique and luckily many self-seed for the next year.

This attracts not only pollinators who are vital to the production of fruit and veg but also many other beneficial insects including my all-time favourite: The Ladybug.

Ladybug larvae are my little army of volunteer helpers.

I’ll spend hours among the long grasses that they love, collecting them in a jar to then place them strategically in the greenhouse on my chilli plants and tomatoes.

Why? Because they are very hungry for aphids.

Just watching these armoured warriors run like mad, scanning the entire plant looking for food at an incredible speed is very satisfying. If I could give out Employee of the Month awards, the ladybug larvae would get it without a second thought.

We also grow many roots and tubers here. We previously mentioned potatoes – we also have a good few carrot plants. This year we are trialling Resistafly F1 carrots. This is hopefully one that will, as its name suggests, resist the attacks of carrot flies.

One of my latest interests is yacon, this sweet crunchy and juicy South American tuber of the same family as Jerusalem artichoke. People are getting excited about this plant which contains a type of sugar diabetics can enjoy without harm as it doesn’t get processed by the body. I enjoy it greatly either as raw fruit with a dash of lime juice or included in curries where it always retains its crunch (think water chestnut) and soaks-up sauces without imparting too much sweetness to the dish.

May is another busy month but we are now enjoying a daily dose of healthy homegrown veg and will for months to come, hopefully even through the winter if we can get sufficiently organised.

Start growing your own today, even if all you grow is a planter on a balcony – the joyous feeling it gives remains the same.

Nico: @nicholasgoodden Chrystall: @thegooddenlife creativebritishgarden.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 95

Food and Drink

ASPARAGUS WITH POTATO GNOCCHI, CRÈME FRÂICHE AND GARDEN HERBS Sasha Matkevich, The Green Image: Clint Randall

W

e’re lucky to have wonderful local asparagus at this time of year. Served with potato gnocchi it’s a perfect lunch. For best results use a waxy potato.

Ingredients Serves 4

2 bunches of local asparagus 150g crème frâiche 1tbsp chopped basil 1tbsp chopped parsley 1tbsp chopped tarragon 1tbsp chopped chives 200g waxy potatoes 90g plain flour 1 medium egg Pinch of nutmeg Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Method

Stir the chopped herbs into crème frâiche and adjust the seasoning if needed.

2 Boil the potatoes in their skins in plenty of 1

96 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

boiling salted water. Drain and peel.

3 Purée the potatoes through a fine sieve onto a work surface.

4 Add the flour, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix until you have a smooth dough.

5 On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to make long tubes about 1cm in diameter. Cut into 0.5cm lengths.

6 To shape the gnocchi, slide each one down the prongs of a fork. Cover and refrigerate while you cook the asparagus.

7 Snap the asparagus stalks close to the base to remove their woody ends and peel the skin from the bottom third of the stalks.

8 Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil and drop in the asparagus. Bring back to the boil and cook until just tender (1 to 1.5 minutes).

9 Drain the asparagus immediately and place on warm serving plates with the potato gnocchi and a generous scoop of herb crème frâiche. greenrestaurant.co.uk

PAN-FRIED SPRATS WITH AIOLI Mat Follas, Bramble Restaurant

Image: Steve Painter

O

n several occasions last year my foraging groups came across large shoals of sprats on Chesil beach. They were still alive and had beached themselves trying to escape from hungry mackerel. Their loss was a lovely addition to the group lunch. If you aren’t lucky enough to be on the seashore on one of the 4-5 days a year when they leap onto the beach, they are one of the cheaper fish available to buy and remarkably simple to cook. I know eating a whole fish is not for everyone but this is the place to start. A whole sprat is delicious, simply cooked and eaten with a big dollop of garlicky mayonnaise, or to call it its posh name, aioli.

Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Serves: 6 Ingredients

400g fresh whole sprats (no more than 4” in length) 100g plain flour Salt & pepper 150g unsalted butter 100g mayonnaise 2 cloves of garlic (sliced into 3 pieces) Small bunch of salad leaves Method

1

Cover a plate to a thickness of about 3mm of Plain Flour. Generously season with salt and pepper.

2 Lay the sprats on the Flour, turning once so they are evenly coated.

3 In a large flat saucepan, heat with enough butter to cover the base. When the butter is foaming hot, carefully place the garlic in the pan.

4 Cook on a medium heat for 2 minutes until just beginning to brown.

5 Remove the garlic from the pan and with a garlic press, crush the garlic and mix it with the mayonnaise to make the Aioli, using a stick-blender.

6 Place the sprats in the pan. Cook on a medium heat for 2 minutes, then turn the Sprats over, cooking for a further 2 minutes until a golden brown on both sides.

7 Remove the sprats and place them on some kitchen roll to drain any excess oil.

8 Serve on a plate dressed with salad leaves and a generous dollop of Aioli.

Tip: If the butter starts to get too brown or too hot, reduce the heat, then add a little more butter to the pan which will foam and bring down the heat of the pan immediately. bramblerestaurant.com Recipe from Fish by Mat Follas. (Ryland Peters & Small) £14.99 (hardcover). Sherborne Times reader offer price of £12.99 from Winstone’s Books sherbornetimes.co.uk | 97

Food and Drink

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

T

hese biscuits are crisp and crunchy because they are made with caster sugar and the addition of semolina. I love making them because they are so quick – if someone says they are coming over for coffee I can get them in the oven and ready within an hour.

The flavours can be played with and they are ideal for batch-bakes, ready for cake sales – bagged-up they sell like hot cakes. Here I have used semi-dark (54% cocoa solids) chocolate chips.

Time - 15 minutes to make, 30 minutes chilling time, 25-30 minutes baking time

Method

1 2 3 4

5

Ingredients (makes 12)

230g plain flour 100g semolina 230g unsalted butter 100g caster sugar (plus a little extra for dusting) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 125g chocolate chips You can turn these into almond shortbread biscuits by leaving out the vanilla extract and chocolate chips, replacing them with 1 teaspoon almond extract and 50g flaked almonds.

What you will need

30cm x 23cm tray bake tin 8cm plain round pastry cutter Offset spatula (these really do make lifting and spreading so much easier than a flat spatula).

6

7

8

Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan assisted, 170C conventional, gas mark 3.

Lightly grease the baking sheet.

Place the flour and semolina in a bowl and combine, or use a food processor.

Add the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and chocolate chips and rub in by hand with your fingertips until it begins to come together then knead lightly until the mixture forms a ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work top, dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough to the thickness of 1cm, dip the cutter into flour to prevent the cutter from sticking to the dough and cut out 12 rounds.

Put the biscuits on the baking sheet, spacing them out as they spread a little, and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes until firm.

Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (check after 25 minutes) – the shortbread should be lightly golden.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes. While still warm, dust with caster sugar before carefully lifting onto a cooling rack using the offset spatula. Allow the biscuits to cool completely before packing into an airtight container or placing in cellophane bags for sale.

If you don’t wish to bake the biscuits straight away, they can be ‘open frozen’ when you reach number 6. in the recipe and, once frozen, packed in an airtight box.

When required, place on a baking sheet and leave to defrost slightly for 15 minutes before baking. bakerval.com

98 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

BREAKFAST | LUNCH | SUNDAY LUNCH | DINNER ALFRESCO DINING | COCKTAIL BAR | BOUTIQUE SPA LIVE MUSICIAN | AWARD-WINNING GARDEN Winner “Restaurant Category” Taste of the West Awards 2019

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The Eastbury Hotel & Spa, Long Street, Sherborne www.theeastburyhotel.co.uk Tel: 01935 813131 Open to non-residents, 7 days a week Call us or book online

Food and Drink

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM James Hull, The Story Pig

Image: Katharine Davies

T

his month I wanted to write not about the farm, pigs, mud or the seasons, but to write about other people, you.

Charlotte and I had a dream, an idea, a wish to succeed and a lot of perseverance to create something special, but we couldn’t do it on our own. So, just under a year ago we opened our doors, or in our case our tipi front. We were nervous, excited, damn tired and apprehensive – how would we do? And since that day lots of you, our customers, have flocked to see us. All through last summer as we felt our way, as I learnt how 100 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

to make coffees and Charlotte worked out how much baking she had to produce each week, our customers were there – with lovely comments about what we had achieved, how fantastic our garden looked and what an amazing view we are blessed with. They learned about some of Charlotte’s Swedish influences in her baking and showered us with compliments for her quite incredible homemade cakes.

But something I wasn’t really ready for was the fact that so many of you would come every week (and in that I include through the winter) and become

our friends. We have couples who bring their own cushions to put on our metal chairs, and parents who bring their little toddlers whom we have seen start to grow up and learn to walk. Older couples that if we don’t see them for a few weeks we hope they are ok. Couples that let us know they are going away next week so we won’t see them for two weeks. We have ladies that come and sometimes allow their husbands to come with them, but other times they natter with their friends. We have couples who proudly introduce their friends to us,

saying they have brought them especially to show them our special place. We have children that visit on their own and are always well behaved. We have families that walk every week before stopping in for hot chocolate and cake – come rain or shine they arrive. We have sons that bring their mums every week, daughters that do that too. Mums that come after school and give their little ones a Friday treat and of course choose a cake for Daddy. We have had first dates, family reunions and catch-ups. We have little ones making us the most beautiful Christmas decorations for our Christmas tree, toddlers that just love to stare at our tractor, children that quietly come up to the counter to ask a question about the pigs, or ask where Blue is or what the cats are called.

We have customers who fly in just for meat, load up their arms and are off. We have so many of you that we chatted to over the coffee machine, about politics or whatever else is going on in the world or in our lives or theirs. Customers who have made bunting for us for nothing to brighten the tipi, customers who have become volunteer gardeners for us every week, customers who bring us recipes they have tried using our pork, little customers who have made us such lovely cards and posters that they have humbled us and brought tears to our eyes with their kind acts.

Of course, anyone dealing with the public will tell you, not everyone is lovely, but honestly, I can count on one hand the number of difficult and rude customers we have had. I am sure there will be more but once we have processed their visit and put it to one side the rest of our lovely customers take over.

So, really, any small business like ours whether they sell sausages or soap, bicycles or milk relies on their loyal customers to support them. We want to thank all of you for your quite incredible support through our first year, through the cold winter months and now into hopefully a beautiful spring and summer.

Our garden is turning greener in front of our eyes.

We have piglets everywhere down at the farm and we have our two pet lambs Brownie and Socks. The view is constant come rain or shine. We will have much more of Charlotte’s baking and my coffee making and many more chats and laughs. I can’t wait to see you all. Now you just have to read this again and work out if I was writing about you!

See you soon. thestorypig.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Food and Drink

GREAT EUROPEAN WINE FAMILIES David Copp

Iacomino FRiMAGES/Shutterstock

T

here are many truly great European wine families but space limits me to introduce you to just six of them. There is an association known as Primium Familia Vini and Fiona Morrison MW’s superb book about them, if you want to find out more.

I have selected six companies that I know well. The great thing is that they are still wonderful wine families in very good hands. These families have played a vital part in the development of the worldwide wine trade: all 102 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

encouraging rather than hindering the innovative spirit.

I start with Antinori, one of the founder members of the Florentine Winemakers Guild of 1385. Their estates were in Tuscany and Umbria. Every generation since has made substantial quality improvements. More recently, Marquese Pierro Antinori has passed on succession to his three daughters who are making their own mark.

In his heyday, Piero Antinori challenged the Tuscan (Chianti) authorities who wanted to restrict

the production to domestic varieties. Antinori was considerably helped by his uncle exercising his right to grow Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc for his own consumption on a small plot in Bolgheri. Sassicaia, the first of the Super Tuscans as they became known, was an outstanding success as was Tignanello. The Chianti authorities were persuaded that better wines could be made with the addition of carefully selected other varieties. Thus cheerful but rather ordinary Chianti became something rather special when other varieties were added: the wines achieved an elegance and finesse that was widely appreciated.

The story of the Rothschild family is quite well known – bankers, merchants and traders who kept ahead of the game by keeping in constant touch with each other and exchanging reliable information quickly and accurately. In 1853 Baron Nathan Rothschild bought some superb vineyard land at Pauillac in the heart of the Medoc. By 1922 the land had been passed down to 20-year-old Philippe who, in 60 years, turned it into one of the great wine estates of the world. One of his many bright ideas was to commission a leading artist to design his wine label for each vintage, which has not only added interest to his wines but value as well. After his death, Baroness Philippine carried on where he left off before passing ownership on to her children – Camille Sereys de Rothschild and brothers Philippe and Julien. They now also own nearby Châteaux Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac.

I have a close association with the Bouchard family in Beaune: my friends are the sons of the Aine rather than the Pere Michel who founded the company in 1731. Michel Bouchard lived in Swiss border country trading in the finest Flemish cloth. On his buying trips to Flanders, he overnighted in the old walled city of Beaune and developed an appreciation of fine wine.

In due course, he preferred trading in wine rather than cloth. Always interested in trading at the top end of the market, he made it his business to know all the best vineyards in Burgundy. Gradually the company acquired 130 hectares of some of the finest viticultural land in Burgundy, most of it designated Grand Cru or Premier Cru. More recently it was acquired by the old Champagne House Henriot which has spent considerable time and energy maintaining the standards of their prized vineyards.

In 1820 Bouchard acquired the Chateau de Beaune, a former royal fortress with the deepest wine cellars I have seen. The temperature stays the same year-round and on

my visit, I saw bottles of Meursault 1846 and Montrachet 1864 which, I was assured, were very drinkable.

The next great wine family on my list is in Alsace, one of the most famous of the smaller leading French wine regions. Hugel et Fils make beautiful and distinguished wines. I happen to love Gewurztraminer, a north Italian grape which they brought with them when they came to Alsace. It took very easily to Alsatian soils and its benevolent climate for vine growing. The vendange tardive, late-harvest version is a particular delight. If you haven’t already been there, it is close enough for a long weekend break from the south of England. And you can get there via Champagne.

Then comes Andrew James Symington, a Scot who worked with Grahams in London and went to Oporto in 1882. He married a Portuguese girl and started his own business. Five generations later the Symington family have come to dominate the fine port wine business, owning such celebrated brands as Cockburns, Dows, Grahams, Taylors and Warres.

The most impressive part of their story is their commitment to celebrating and preserving the uniqueness of their country and its people. They are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and show their resolve in the way they treat their staff, local people and their customers. Yet they have to fight against the odds. The Duoro is the largest area of mountain vineyard in the world and costs are double that of vineyards on more level ground. Nevertheless, their policy of producing low yields of top quality grapes has helped them retain their position as the most successful company in the Port trade. They are delightful people to deal with. A trip up the Duoro will expose you to the wonders of their craft.

My final choice is Gran Familia Torres, a wonderful example of an old family business ahead of the times.

Miguel Torres was a truly great winemaker who pursued excellence in everything he did. His son now runs the company with his sister, a gifted winemaker.

They show the same flair and passion for their work as their father. Not just making very fine wines but taking care of the environment in the most complete sense of the word. It was an enormous pleasure for me to get to know the family well and I have nothing but admiration for what they have achieved in the years since the Civil War and the Second World War. It is largely thanks to the life-long work of Miguel Torres that Spain, once a back-marker in the European wine trade - is now one of the leaders. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 103

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Animal Care

TREATING INFLAMMATION Mark Newton-Clarke MAVetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

W

ith summer hopefully well on the way, many of us are spending more time being active, either in the garden, walking or doing more strenuous exercise. This is all good for our mental and physical well-being and I’m sure our pets enjoy the benefits of happier owners. As Tracey and I discovered last week, there is a downside to a sudden increase in exertion, when muscular effort one day resulted in significant pain the next (speak for yourself, I hear my wife say!). We walked 20 miles of the Pembrokeshire coast path in 6 hours, a good pace by my standards and even Portia the black Labrador was snoozing by 8pm. She could have had the decency to look a little bit stiff the next day.

The reason I mention this is to follow on from last month when I discussed pain and its control. One of the commonest sources of pain is inflammation and for this reason, we use anti-inflammatory medicines to help 106 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

control it. Acute inflammation is the body’s response to injury and disease and it makes us feel painful and ill, so clinicians obviously have a vested interest in treating it, not forgetting the underlying cause. The mechanism of inflammation is complex and involves chemicals that are released from damaged tissue that in turn stimulate pain receptors and increase blood flow to the affected area. It’s not difficult to imagine why this response has evolved, as the pain discourages further use of the injured part while the increased blood flow starts the healing process but also causes local heat and swelling.

This system works well for relatively minor, acute trauma that affects an isolated part of the body’s tissues and for systemic diseases that are self-limiting, for example, a viral infection. The problems start when the inflammation becomes chronic (i.e. long-standing) or affects an organ trapped inside a rigid container, like the brain and spinal cord. Swelling inside the cranium is

Bridie Murton Photography/Shutterstoc

very serious as the brain is compressed, which it really does not like. Depending on the location and severity of the swelling, symptoms can range from personality and behavioural changes to seizures, coma and acute death. Although much more common in human medicine, we do encounter increased intracranial pressure in dogs and cats, often as a result of trauma or as a congenital defect (hydrocephalus and breedspecific cranial deformities). There is another organ that cannot tolerate inflammation and it’s been a topic of conversation over the last couple of years; the lung. Just a tiny amount of extra fluid in the lung prevents the exchange of oxygen with carbon dioxide and this is how certain viral infections can be fatal (don’t we all know). It’s not the virus per se that’s the problem, it’s the body’s response. Non-steroidal antiinflammatories are not powerful enough for serious cases of lung inflammation which is why the use of a

potent steroid, dexamethasone, is considered.

I mentioned the complexity of inflammation and through the clever techniques developed by molecular biochemists, we now know the sequence of events.

Pivotal to the inflammatory response is a group of fatty molecules called ‘prostaglandins’ (PGs). Named after an exclusively male genital gland (guess which one!) this diverse group of hormones orchestrates inflammatory responses. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (nsaids) like meloxicam (widely used in human and veterinary medicine) reduce the production of PGs and so reduce inflammation and hence pain. But it’s never that easy.

Some PGs are really helpful, maintaining blood flow to many parts of the body, e.g. gut, kidney and many other tissues, and these helpful PGs are affected by nsaids along with the pain-producing PGs. That’s why long-term nsaid use comes with a risk i.e. ulceration of stomach or intestine and reduction in kidney function.

Having said that, these medicines are used safely millions of times a day in both humans and animals and can provide significant pain relief without any problems.

Most of the above applies to acute inflammation but like pain, inflammation can become chronic. The healing process becomes long-standing in an attempt to finish the job but the destructive element of the inflammatory process prevents this. What results depends on the part of the body affected but many of us are familiar with the effects of chronic joint inflammation. Here, joint surfaces are damaged, scar tissue causes permanent thickening and new bone is formed around the joint (osteoarthritis).

This is an area where inflammation meets degeneration, a very unfortunate part of getting older for us and our pets. The point is, chronic inflammation makes the degenerative effects of ageing worse and clinicians should not lose sight of this. So no matter how old your dog or cat is, treating inflammation can be beneficial, not just to reduce pain but also to slow down the effects of the advancing years.

It is with sadness that I report the passing of BJ, our Swan House cat. About a year ago, I wrote about his battle with inflammatory bowel disease that in cats, often affects other essential organs. The steroids we used as treatment finally stopped having their beneficial effects that maintained his quality of life and so, surrounded by the people he liked best, BJ was gently sent on his way. We will all miss him but it was a life lived and his memory will live on. newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 107

Animal Care

WHAT IS IBR?

Jenny Gibson MRCVS, The Kingston Veterinary Group

I

BR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis) is a viral infection caused by bovine herpes virus type 1 (BHV-1). It is a highly contagious disease, that can affect cattle of all ages. It commonly affects the respiratory and reproductive systems. The virus spreads through respiratory secretions and infection occurs via inhalation from close contact of infected animals. IBR can also be spread by semen of infected bulls, often resulting in abortions and foetal deformities. Once they recover from the initial infection, they then develop a latent infection. This means they will always have the virus, however, the virus will lay dormant for the majority of the time but when the animal is under stress, the virus will start multiplying and cause disease again.

In adult cows, infection is associated with a drop in milk yield for a prolonged period of time, reduced 108 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

fertility and abortions. Very occasionally they may show signs of a cough and ocular discharge and on occasion, the disease may be so mild that it may be overlooked.

Calves often have more obvious and severe signs.

The virus causes inflammation of the upper respiratory tract and the end result is often pneumonia. Mild cases present with a cough and conjunctivitis, whereas in more severe cases they may have a fever, depression, inappetence, difficulty breathing and a purulent ocular and nasal discharge. In younger cattle, if treatment is not sought quickly, this virus can then lead to other secondary bacterial and viral infections.

During an outbreak of IBR, the morbidity rate may be as high as 100%, but the mortality rate is generally very low at approximately 2%. It is most often the first few cows to develop the disease that show the most

Anne Greenwood/Shutterstock

severe symptoms. Stressful events such as calving, transportation and housing often trigger activation of the virus. Clinical signs usually become apparent 2-3 weeks following the stressor.

There are two ways in which a diagnosis of IBR in an individual cow can be performed; the first is from a blood sample which can detect latent/pre-exposed infection. The other method of diagnosis is via nasal swabs (similar to the Covid-19 swabs that we perform) which directly detects the virus in active infections. The level of IBR within a herd can be determined through measuring bulk milk antibody titres.

As IBR is a virus, unfortunately, there is no specific treatment. Those with a fever would benefit from antiinflammatories and any animal demonstrating signs of secondary bacterial infection may be dosed with

antibiotics. Nutritional support may be required for calves or those individuals going through a period of inappetence. Isolation of infected animals and vaccines may be used in an outbreak to protect others.

Prevention of IBR infection is mainly achieved via vaccination, however, it does not stop already infected animals from shedding the virus at a later date. The vaccines commonly cover other respiratory diseases at the same time and either come as an intramuscular injection or intranasal vaccines for calves. The timing of vaccination is important to allow full protection.

Further to vaccination, IBR can be prevented from entering the herd through careful biosecurity measures and strict quarantine of purchased stock. kingstonvets.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 109

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Body & Mind

FIT FOR PURPOSE

Mike Hewitson MPharm FFRPS FRSPH IP MRPharmS, Pharmacist, The Abbey Pharmacy

Y

ou may have noticed that the building works at number 85 Cheap Street have now begun.

This is a huge cause of excitement for us, but also for lots of people in the community who are interested in what we are trying to do. For years we have struggled with an old building that was never designed to be a pharmacy, with a step up to the front door preventing access for people with mobility problems, and an internal space that was not really conducive to modern pharmacy practice. The NHS increasingly wants pharmacists to be talking to patients, using our 5 years of medicine-specific training and knowledge to help deal with the challenge of an ageing and ailing population who are living with long-term conditions such as diabetes or respiratory problems for longer. Medicines are the most common healthcare intervention with more than 1.1bn prescriptions written every year. Up to 1 in every 5 hospital admissions are due to a medicine-related problem.

We first started this project in March 2020 when number 85 (formerly Phase Eight) became vacant. At the time Cheap Street was a ghost town with national lockdowns, and it wasn’t clear that anyone would be able to come and talk to us face-to-face, other than to collect prescriptions. But we didn’t really have a choice – the risk of not changing was greater than the risk of doing something different. We have struggled without a decent, accessible consultation room, and 114 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

there is no guarantee that without one we would be here in the future, such is the emphasis on the provision of healthcare services in the NHS pharmacy contract.

We’ve also struggled with managing the workload associated with patients who require Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS in our world, known to the general population as ‘blister packs’, ‘dosettes’, ‘nomads’, ‘trays’…) which require a bespoke container to be produced with all of their tablets in the correct time slots each day to help them to use their medicines as prescribed. Did you know that the World Health Organisation estimates that up to half of all medicines are not taken as prescribed?

Our new premises will enable us to tackle both of these challenges: we will have 5 new consultation rooms, with one fully accessible for patients with limited mobility. This will mean that for the first time in its recent history the pharmacy will be truly open to everyone. As a pharmacist, equality is really important to me – I want The Abbey Pharmacy to be for the whole of the community. Ideally, I would love all of our facilities to be fully accessible, but with old buildings there inevitably has to be a compromise. As with the planners who turned down our 24/7 prescription collection machine on the basis that it did not fit with the look of Sherborne, we have had to compromise in order to do the essential parts of the project. We haven’t given up completely on the prescription collection machine, but we will think

Image: Katharine Davies

again about how we can achieve this.

On the MDS problem, we are going to install a robot that will allow us to fill one pack every 90 seconds, fully automated. This process currently takes a member of staff up to 15 minutes to complete per pack. This will allow us to transform one of the most time-consuming activities that we currently manage into one of the most efficient. It will also be safer as the robot will be able to use its technology to take a picture of every tablet or capsule which goes into every slot in the container – this will allow us to confirm that every pack is correct in the event of a query. This will mean that we will be able to look after more patients at a time when other pharmacies are charging or turning patients away from an equivalent service. We will be providing more information about this service for patients and organisations who could benefit when we have completed our refit.

Back to the refit, the works in number 85 began with ripping out the existing fixtures and fittings to expose the bare shell. This has been like a voyage through shop-fitting strata with successive shop fits layered over each other probably out of fear of what lies behind. The space we have been left with is bigger than we expected – half a metre here and there soon adds up. We have come across some unwelcome news with some massive structural beams defeating some of our plans. We always knew that old buildings would bite

back somewhere, and while inconvenient these haven’t yet proved insurmountable. We keep adapting what we are able to achieve and sometimes this has been a real positive. For example, before we took over the new building the landlords had a mullioned window repaired by a master mason – this window was on the second floor facing Long Street. It wasn’t visible internally as it was only lighting a void space. Now we will be able to enjoy Luke the mason’s craftsmanship in one of the new consultation rooms. We want to add back to the heritage of the buildings to provide a facility with character that isn’t just a box.

We were delighted to see Sherborne listed as one of the best places to live in the UK by The Times newspaper. We were even more delighted to see them specifically mention The Abbey Pharmacy as an asset to the town. We want to see people travelling to The Abbey Pharmacy to access the exciting range of products and services which we are planning on offering. We want this to help support the town’s other businesses and services because we recognise that our town centres are a delicate ecosystem of interrelated businesses. Our building works will be finished by midJune and we hope to invite the whole community to see what we’ve been working on. In the meantime sorry about the dust! theabbeypharmacy.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 115

Body and Mind

HOW TO COMBAT LONELINESS Lucy Lewis, Assistant Psychologist and Dorset Mind Ambassador

M

ental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) runs from Monday 9th – Sunday 15th May. The theme this year is particularly relevant as we emerge from the other side of the pandemic.

Loneliness – something that we all felt to some degree during the lockdowns.

Research by the Mental Health Foundation has revealed the expected; people across the UK became a lot lonelier during the pandemic.

Loneliness is a very important health issue due to its damaging effects on both physical and mental health.

Not only can loneliness contribute to and exacerbate mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, some research also suggests that prolonged loneliness can be as damaging to physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Loneliness is a unique experience. Someone can be lonely due to social isolation, where they do not have much contact with anyone else, such as an older adult with no family. However, it is also possible to feel lonely in a full household of family or a room full of people.

This is because loneliness can also stem from not feeling heard, understood, or cared for by the people around you.

Equally, it is possible for someone to feel very content being alone a lot of the time. Everyone is different and all emotions are valid.

So how do we combat loneliness? One obvious option is to make a concerted effort to meet new people. Although this can be daunting, it is worth giving yourself a little push and giving it a go whilst remembering that you can always leave if you feel overwhelmed. This may be through joining a club or activity - something you’re interested in, where you can meet like-minded people with similar interests.

Alternatively, you can sign up to volunteer for a 116 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

worthy cause (such as Dorset Mind!) where you can meet people with similar passions whilst giving back to the community. Helping others can work to combat loneliness as it can make us feel more connected to society as a whole, which is refreshing in our increasingly individualistic society. Research findings suggest that giving back is one of five proven ways to improve your mental health, meaning the benefits are numerous.

Another strategy would be to appreciate and strengthen your existing social connections.

Sometimes we can be too focused on what we believe are active demonstrations that someone cares (i.e. regular phone calls) but not recognise other gestures,

ZeroThree/shutterstock

such as a friend who is always willing to help with errands when asked. Additionally, sometimes we are reluctant to make the first move, such as initiating plans or reaching out to a family member that you’ve lost touch with. But there is nothing to lose when making an effort to connect with people. Even if it doesn’t work out as you hoped, you can feel comfort in the knowledge that you tried to be there.

It is possible to become better at managing and accepting the experience of loneliness. The first step is to accept the feeling and learn to sit with it, tolerate it, and know that you can survive the feeling without trying to block it out. Try to learn to enjoy your own company by making a bigger effort to do enjoyable

things. Follow a routine of self-care, recreational, and learning activities to keep yourself busy and rediscover the benefits of enjoying your own company.

You can also learn strategies to better manage difficult emotions such as loneliness through various talking therapies and psychological treatments.

But, if your feelings of loneliness are affecting your ability to function in various areas of your life, it is time to seek additional support. Speak to your GP, or in a crisis, call 999 or The Samaritans at 116 123.

For additional resources, 1-2-1 and group support, visit our website. dorsetmind.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 117

Body and Mind NAVIGATING THE MENOPAUSE

DETOX

Julia Witherspoon, Nutritional Therapist

Image: Barbara Leatham

T

he world we live in has never been more toxic and women going through the menopause need to be particularly aware of the toxins in their homes and environment.

In 2012 the WHO reported there may be up to 800 chemicals known, or suspected, to be able to interfere with hormone receptors, hormone synthesis or hormone conversion. Known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), not all have even been tested. Many of them are fat-soluble and stored in our fat cells and brains.

118 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

The reason EDCs can be so damaging is that they are molecularly similar to some hormones and it’s not always easy for our bodies to tell the difference. Over time the bioaccumulative effects could lead to chronic disease.

Xenoestrogens are a sub-category of EDCs, socalled because they can activate oestrogen receptors in the body and either inhibit or stimulate hormone activity. They can disrupt normal signalling mechanisms, leading to malfunctions in other tissues. Menopause is challenging enough, without chemicals getting

involved, accumulating in our bodies and potentially exacerbating symptoms.

So where are all these EDCs? This is not an exhaustive list, but it shows just how much we are all drowning nowadays in a cocktail of chemicals: Plastic (containers/bottles/cling film), tinned foods, till receipts, perfume, cosmetics, toiletries, nail polish, cleaning products, candles made from paraffin wax or with synthetic fragrance, insecticides and pesticides, food and skincare preservatives (of which there are many), medications, antiperspirants, sun-screen, non-stick cookware, stain/water resistant textiles, fire retardants, exhaust fumes, petrol, air fresheners, fabric softeners…

There are literally hundreds more, but you get the picture.

Of course, we can and will never be toxin-free, but switching out some of our chemical-laden cleaning products, toiletries and cosmetics in our homes for more natural alternatives will go a long way to reducing our toxic load. We can also reduce plastic, eat more organic foods, ditch paraffin wax candles and throw out chemical-filled air fresheners. Switching to reed diffusers with essential oils and candles made of soy or beeswax, for example, are easy swaps.

The app ‘Think Dirty’ can show you how clean or not your current products are using a traffic light system.

A great website for natural cosmetics and toiletries is lovelula.com and there are a variety of websites where you can find more natural household products including biggreensmile.com and bowercollective.com. Locally of course, we have Naturalife on Church Lane and Sherborne Market Store on Cheap Street. Yes, you may pay a bit more for these products but surely it’s worth it!

As well as trying to reduce our toxic load, we can also support our liver, the body’s over-burdened primary detoxification system. The liver has to filter everything and anything that is swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin, before either sending it round the body to be utilised (nutrients etc) or eliminated (spent hormones, toxins, medications etc) via the digestive system, lungs, kidneys and skin. If it underperforms or struggles to cope with the onslaught, toxins and waste can get backed up and could end up being reabsorbed into the bloodstream. The liver has around 500 jobs to do in the body, so we need it to be working optimally all the time.

Relating liver health to perimenopause, once oestrogen has been used by the body – whether it be the oestrogen produced endogenously or via HRT

– it needs to be broken down (metabolised) and this happens in the liver. There are several different pathways through which oestrogen is metabolised, via different enzymatic reactions. There is a good/protective pathway and there are not-so-good ones, and one of these not-so-good ones can make oestrogen ‘reactive’. This could be really problematic, health-wise, particularly if a woman has a lot of oestrogen and too much of it is being metabolised this way.

The best foods for liver health are cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, watercress, collard greens, rocket) as these contain compounds that support detoxification and improve the chances of oestrogen being metabolised down the protective pathway. They also contain lots of lovely antioxidants which help fight inflammation in the body. Anyone with a poorly functioning thyroid gland should ensure cruciferous veggies are not eaten raw too often, as they could interfere with thyroid function if not cooked.

Keeping well hydrated (filtered water preferably) is also important for liver health. If it becomes too dehydrated, it becomes less efficient.

Our digestive system plays its own crucial role in detoxification processes. Poor digestion can cause a build-up of toxins and result in systemic problems throughout the body. Metabolised oestrogen can even be reabsorbed and recirculated around the body if gut health is poor, which is far from ideal, particularly for those women who are metabolising too much oestrogen down the reactive pathway above.

Symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, indigestion, heartburn, constipation, diarrhoea, brain fog, low energy and pale skin can all indicate a compromised digestive system and potential increased toxicity in the body.

A lot of these issues can often be resolved by really working on good gut health.

So focus on eating lots of fibre, lots of veggies, healthy fats and good sources of protein as well as pro-and pre-biotic foods. Ditch the simple carbs, sugary foods, biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks, ultra-processed and fast foods. Eating this way will not only provide your body with the necessary nutrients to keep you healthy, but also provide your liver with what it needs to do its very important detoxification work.

Next month: Brain Health julianutrition.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 119

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120 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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Body and Mind

PERMISSION TO RELAX… Dawn Hart, YogaSherborne

Microgen/Shutterstock

A

t the end of each yoga class, we spend around 10 minutes lying on our backs on the floor in Savasana – relaxation pose. You may be surprised to hear I think it is one of the most difficult postures. Not because it is physically challenging but because we are encouraged to be busy, to stay connected so we can achieve more in every moment. Simply stopping and ‘doing nothing’ can feel like a waste of precious time.

122 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

Even our downtime can be full of stimuli; TV, music, reading. These activities help us unwind but we can still find ourselves holding tension physically or mentally afterwards. This underlying tension can have longlasting effects for all of us including; anxiety, high blood pressure, headaches, IBS, insomnia, even drug/alcohol/ tobacco dependency.

Regular, deep relaxation in a peaceful space where we can be fully aware of our breathing and the

sensations in our body has huge benefits. Instead of adrenaline, endorphins flow through the body reducing pain, improving sleep, lowering blood pressure and enhancing the immune system. It can also help us manage emotions more effectively when dealing with life’s challenges. This has a positive effect on the people around us too.

Prepare your space and pick the right time

• It doesn’t have to be for long – start with 5 minutes and build up from there, 20 minutes is a good guide.

• If inside, close the door – put a ‘do not disturb’ sign up if needed.

• Listen to the sounds around you for a moment to get used to your surroundings especially if you are outside.

• Set an alarm (something gentle!) or ask someone to come and get you so you can relax without worrying you will fall asleep. If you need your phone close by switch it to silent.

• Although the aim isn’t to fall asleep you could use this as part of your bedtime routine, helping you experience better quality sleep.

Why do we lay down?

For meditation we are usually sitting to stay in a waking state of consciousness – you are aware of your thoughts but able to let them go without getting caught up in them. We lay down for a relaxation or Nidra so we are able to go beyond that into a deeper healing state, allowing both the body and mind to rest. It is very common to drift off to sleep and that is not a bad thing but with practise, you will be able to stay in the place where your consciousness is still engaged.

You may experience sensations like floating or your body sinking into the floor – experiences may differ depending on how you are feeling that day. Immediately afterwards you are likely to feel sleepy but that soon gives way to a relaxed but energised feeling. You’ve heard of a power nap, this is exactly that – it powers up your body and your mind.

Relaxation pose – Savasana

• Lay down on your back on a soft but supportive surface; carpet, mat, bed, grass.

• To begin with bend your knees so you can draw your lower back gently down.

• Feel your back connecting with the surface below you from the base up to and across the shoulder blades.

There will be natural lifts and curves – don’t force

these out just be aware of them.

• Draw your chin in a little so you feel the neck gently extend.

• If comfortable stretch your legs out now positioning them at least as wide as your hips and let your feet drop out to the sides. This allows the pelvis area to release and relax.

• If this is not comfortable for your lower back you can leave the knees bent or place a rolled-up blanket or cushion under the backs of the knees.

• Place your arms out a little way from your body and turn the palms facing upwards, fingers relaxed. This allows the shoulders to relax and the chest to open helping you breathe more deeply.

• Make sure you are warm – you will cool quickly once resting so a blanket is a good idea.

• Close your eyes.

Find your guide

Find a class or if at home use an audio recording – this will really help to begin with. A nidra usually uses your body as an anchor through your breathing or by scanning up or down focusing on each part of your body. Find a voice that is calming and makes you feel secure. Listen to the recording all the way through before you do your relaxation to make sure you like it.

Not as easy as it sounds

At first, your mind may be really busy. Or you may have restless, fidgety muscles. Do not try to relax. Instead, notice then let go of thoughts, worries and expectations.

Softening and loosening your muscles and thinking of things that encourage peace and contentment will help.

If we try, we set expectations and put the energy into the process rather than the outcome. We risk increasing anxiety and tension which is exactly the opposite result we want.

Relaxation is free. It takes practise but you can’t get it wrong and you don’t need huge changes to your lifestyle to do it. There are no negative side effects or health risks. So if you practise yoga at home don’t be tempted to skip this part after you have done your other postures. If you don’t practise yoga, find other spaces where you can include it in your life. I hope knowing some of the benefits will help you give yourself permission to stop for a moment and relax. @yogasherborne yogasherborne.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 123

Body and Mind

EXERCISE OUTDOORS Image: Stuart Brill

Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit

H

opefully, we can stop being concerned by the dark, cold winter weather because, just like that, it is May! Summer is many people’s favourite time as the prospect appears of dry, warm conditions (well hopefully), lighter nights and better weather to meet friends and family outside. Isn’t it also great to have brighter mornings and evenings which provide even more opportunities for outdoor exercise?

May is a busy month for Communifit this year as we have several outdoor activities – a stand at the excellent Sherborne Market on the 15th, our Camelot Challenge on the 22nd, and we are excited to have entered a team for the Dragon Boat Race at the country fair on the 29th. We are looking forward enormously to all three events.

There is a strong argument to make that we spend far too long indoors. Count the waking hours spent indoors compared to how long you spend outdoors, and the result for many of us will be shockingly uneven.

According to recent research, we spend only 7% of our time in the fresh air. Bearing in mind that here in Sherborne we live in a wonderful rural location, we need to consider getting out more. Perhaps we need more reason and motivation to leave our homes and what better reason than to enjoy the benefits and enjoyment of outside exercise.

Since Covid struck over two years ago the biggest shift in the fitness industry has been towards outdoor activity. Whether this be cycling, open-water swimming, outdoor bootcamps or running, there has 124 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

been a significant surge in participation. No longer is the gym the go-to place for exercise. Although the gym will always have an important role in the fitness world, being outside in all weathers, breathing in fresh air, looking at the wildlife and being able to move around whenever you desire is being viewed by many as a more desirable alternative. It can also be claimed that exercising outside has important mental health benefits, similar to those of enjoying a long walk, or even vigorous gardening. Studies have shown that physical activity outdoors can lower both a person’s blood pressure and heart rate. This therefore can result in exercising outdoors feeling less strenuous than undertaking similar exercises indoors, also ultimately resulting in a performance increase.

Similarly looking at rolling fields, at wildlife and getting fresh air is perhaps much more suitable to some than working in a gym – looking at a wall, tv screens and listening to music. It’s a personal preference of course but exercising outdoors certainly has benefits.

Consider those benefits, and if you feel that the ‘outdoor option’ appeals to you then please take those extra steps outside and increase your enjoyment by harnessing what outdoor exercise has to offer you.

Over the coming months, we will be taking as much of our personal training, exercise classes and of course events outside. Take the opportunity and we hope to welcome you outdoors soon! communifit.co.uk

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126 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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www.thehomemover.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 127

Home

DECLUTTER YOUR LIFE! Nin Rawlings, ffie Homemover Specialist

C

hances are, there is just too much ‘stuff ’ in your house. Just as a crowded, messy environment can affect mood and health, so too does living in a space that is stuffed with things that bring us no joy or serve a practical purpose. You may not even realise it is getting you down. However, with a little knowledge and motivation, you can learn to set the limits that can liberate you from the tyranny of having ‘too much stuff ’ - and you’ll be decluttered in no time.

To begin with, it can be helpful to understand why we have so much clutter in our lives in the first place.

128 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

No two situations are alike, which makes tackling the reasons why we hang on to so much stuff very complicated. In today’s consumer-focused society, we are constantly exposed to advertising messages telling us what we need to have to be healthy, happy and successful. The net result is that we end up buying a large number of things we don’t really need and then feel emotionally paralysed when it comes to deciding what to keep. We feel guilty for wasting money on these items so hold on to them in order to justify our purchase! Then there is the fear of regret. Might we

Damian Lugowski/Shutterstock

throw something away only to wish we hadn’t later?

However, holding onto things by rationalising that they may be useful one day, is a recipe for disaster.

We can also hold onto things based on hope.

We hope to lose weight and fit into those jeans, we hope to find the time to read more books or cook that complicated Thai curry but, if that is leading to cluttered wardrobes, over-crowded bookshelves and jars of spices well past their use-by date, it can feel like an admission of failure and a nagging reminder of all the things we have failed to achieve.

And, of course, we also have items that hold sentimental value for us, and many people can feel a deep sense of loss when faced with the prospect of letting them go.

However, there are ways around dealing with some of these challenges and here are just a few hints and tips on how to go about decluttering your life. The first question to ask yourself is – is there a space that I could declutter quickly that would have a big impact?

‘Start with the sock drawer’ is a great motto to keep in mind. A small, straightforward task rather than ‘I’m going to attack the whole house’ will still yield big results. And it will show you how much you can clear in a short, focused period of time. Tick it off your list and it will motivate you to take on your next task.

The second question to ask yourself is – which spaces in my home seem to collect the most clutter the quickest and which cause me the most stress?

In many houses it can often be the hallway and hall table; a place which the family feels is solely designed to be a dumping zone, and the jumbled piles of stuff never find their way back to where they’re supposed to be.

Another key space is the bedside table. Piles of books serve as a reminder of what you haven’t read. So, if a leaning literary tower of Pisa is threatening to crush you in your sleep, it’s time to act.

The third question to ask yourself is – Can I find a better or more worthy home for these items? It’s fine to be nostalgic, but when it comes to deciding what stays and what goes, it can really help to approach it with a sense of gratitude. Being grateful that you can pass things on to other people or charities who will get great pleasure from them, can alleviate the pain of moving on and clearing out and can be a positive and cathartic experience.

And the golden rule of decluttering?

Once you have decided what to get rid of, beware the common trap of piling up bags of stuff by the front door waiting to go to the local charity or public refuse centre.

Put the bags in the back of your car immediately and drop them off as soon as you can.

The more you practice the art of decluttering, the better you will get at it and the more organised you will become.

Remember: decluttering is the ultimate form of self-care.

Here’s to a happy, clutter-free spring! thehomemover.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 129

Legal

Laura Somoza

Simon Walker

Rebecca Silcock

NO-FAULT DIVORCE Elizabeth Dowler

Victoria Cobham

What is it and Why Does it Matter?

Simon Walker and Rebecca Silcock, Mogers Drewett, Family Team

N

o-fault divorce was introduced in England and Wales on 6th April 2022. The government’s Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 removes the longstanding faultbased facts on which you had to rely upon to end your marriage or civil partnership.

What about the timescales?

What does this mean?

It is advisable to wait until finances are resolved by way of a court order on finances before applying for the Final Order. If both parties don’t agree to wait to apply for a Final Order until finances are resolved, then more court applications for finances will need to be issued to protect the other party.

This is a welcome change as the law was crying out for reform and it will hopefully mean that families can concentrate on resolving issues such as children’s arrangements and finances rather than arguing over who will divorce who and on what grounds.

Under the new law, a statement that the marriage has irretrievably broken down is all that is required without the need to apportion blame to one party.

It will even be possible to make a joint application which will further remove animosity and the race to issue first.

The other main change is that a divorce cannot be defended. While defended divorces were rare it was always possible which increased costs and acrimony.

Under the new law, a defence is not possible. Old terminology of ‘Decree Nisi’ and ‘Decree Absolute’ will be replaced with ‘Conditional Order’ and ‘Final Order’.

130 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

You still have to have been married for at least a year before you can apply for a divorce. There is still a requirement to wait 6 weeks after the Conditional Order before you can apply for the Final Order.

Are there any pitfalls to watch out for?

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Finance

A QUESTION OF TRUST

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

I

n many of my earlier articles I have spoken about ‘real financial planning’, in particular pointing out that most financial advisers do not perform ‘real financial planning’. What I mean by this is that most people have no idea how much money they need for the rest of their life. They often significantly overstate the amount that they need and end up not enjoying their life is much as they might be able to.

A lifetime cash flow model is a projection, until your assumed date of death, designed to show you how much money you need to fund your desired lifestyle for the rest of your life – some people describe it as knowing ‘your number’. While someone adept at building spreadsheets could build their own limited cash flow forecast, ‘real financial planners’ have specialist software which takes into account many factors such as investment returns and varying rates of inflation.

Almost every person that I have met believes that they do not have enough money for the rest of their life. Some are correct, but believe you me, many are not.

Most people fear running out of money, but if it is not a genuine fear there are many opportunities to be had. Obviously, one of the most important opportunities is to be able to fulfil any dreams that they may have. One aspect to consider is whether to make lifetime gifts to younger generations.

Many people are concerned that making gifts will spoil the child. Some people worry that some of their beneficiaries might be irresponsible and worry that you can’t give to one without giving to the other. They also fear losing control for their investments or how the money is used. Many people might also fear the daughter or son-in-law from hell or simply worry about the prospect of a future divorce.

All of these issues can sometimes be solved by use of a trust. In simple terms a trust makes sure that right money or property reaches the right person, at the right time. A trust is a legal entity that is distinct and separate from the people who set it up and the people who will later benefit from it.

One of the main benefits of a trust is to protect assets. It means that money for children can be passed on to them at a point when it is most appropriate.

It means that money can be passed over to them in dribs and drabs, if that is considered appropriate. It means that your son or daughter and grandchildren can be beneficiaries rather than your in-law, protecting money in the event of a divorce.

It also means that you might save inheritance tax. ffp.org.uk

132 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 133

Tech

EMAIL

James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

S

pring is finally here and, as I write, the schools are off for Easter which is historically a slightly quieter period for us but this year there appears to be a sudden burst of people spending money before the end of the tax year. The sleepless nights are less frequent with Lily and batteries are nearly recharged after our Covid and sickness bug session with older brother Harry.

We have been inundated with phone calls over the last month about email passwords, email outages and email hacking.

To set the record straight, every email account has a password. Now in most cases, you don’t need to enter that password every time you open your mail (via a program, app or internet browser) because you have it saved on your device, but you definitely have one.

Whether you know it or not is a different matter. If I had £1 for every time someone said, ‘It could be…’

– well, you know the answer! If you haven’t changed your email password for a while or you know it isn’t particularly strong (i.e. welcome123 as BT used to reset it to this), then it may be worth changing it. When you change your email password you then must update or change that password on every device that you have your emails on like your PC, laptop or mobile. Most of the time you must do this twice – once for receiving and once for sending.

Our email host had a recent email outage. You’ll know this when you have a message asking you to continually enter your username and password, and we quickly realise this when our office phone rings, and 134 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

everyone tells you the same thing! In this situation, with any provider, the best thing you can do is nothing.

Close your email program and wait 15 minutes, open it and try again. Obviously, if you have changed your email password or this hasn’t been resolved in 24 hours, you know who to call.

An issue that is prominent at the moment, although has been around for a while is email hacking. Email’s get hacked or broken into in different ways and one of the hardest things for us is to try and explain or even find out how it happened. Unless you have given someone your password or they’ve guessed it, it’s most likely that the password has been compromised elsewhere or the host’s servers have been hacked. Once compromised the hackers try to get into other services/websites you use or try to use data within your email account against you.

By this I mean finding a recent invoice or bill and editing the bank details to the hackers and resending it to the original recipient hoping they will pay to the new account.

This starts a panic for the person that has been hacked and the company that the original invoice came from. If the money is wrongly paid and unless you have insurance the bank won’t give your money back. Hopefully, with the banks now matching account details it shouldn’t happen as much. Always think about the email that has been sent – if you think it’s a ‘weird’ one, it probably is!

I hope this has been helpful and if in doubt you know where to come. computing-mp.co.uk

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136 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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Short Story

THE LADY MACBETH Jenny Campbell, Sherborne Scribblers

A

s a newly opened restaurant, aiming to pull in the finest of Scottish and international diners, The Lady Macbeth could have been better named. Situated in some gloomy Scottish glen, miles from civilisation, it conjured up dark deeds and three old crones at the entrance, cackling insanely while they stirred some vile concoction of soup. I hadn’t even seen the place, but, in my opinion as a food critic, this one sounded unlikely to survive more than a couple of seasons.

I said as much to my godmother, Aunt Meg, who was raving about the place and had invited me to stay and write about it for ‘that wee paper of yours.’

‘Well, excuse me, Aunt, but the The London Times is hardly that.’

‘Aye, well, Jinty, you know what I mean. But I can tell you that friends in Edinburgh, are already singing its praises and it takes a lot to impress them.’

Given that Aunt Meg loved travelling and always stayed in the best hotels, noted for their fine cuisine, she was no mean critic herself. So, I was intrigued, if not exactly enthusiastic as we set off from her adorable cottage in Argyllshire on an early evening in September. And forget what I said about gloomy, for Glen Cawdor was a stunningly beautiful symphony of autumnal colours, with hills on either side of us that made me want to stop the car, forget about returning to London and spend the rest of the month stretched out on a bed of deep purple heather.

Could The Lady Macbeth restaurant match the scenery, I wondered? If the hotel featuring it – a mini Balmoral castle – was anything to go by, the signs were good. Not too far off the beaten track, I’m glad to say, it was set in magnificent grounds beside a tranquil loch and, thankfully, there were no witches to welcome us. Only Malcolm McThane, the kilted owner, who greeted Aunt Meg by name and personally conducted us to a well-stocked bar containing, behind the brass-railed counter, what looked like every Scottish whisky known to man – or woman.

‘Can we tempt you?’ asked the young American bartender whose smile certainly could have.

‘Maybe a wee Glenmorangie for me,’ said Aunt Meg, while I settled for a dry martini that was as good as any I had ever tasted in New York. Chatting to Duncan, after our host’s departure, we learned that Malcolm had made a mint in Silicon Valley. His late wife had been an actress renowned for her Lady Macbeth, and the restaurant was his tribute to her. We sipped our drinks at tartan-draped windows offering a panoramic view of the loch. The dark blue and green tartan, with white and gold stripes was, according to Aunt Meg, a modern Campbell of Argyll; and along with the Scandinavian ceiling lights they gave a pleasing, contemporary look to the room.

All now depended on the food. Perusing the menu, I was relieved to find that there was not a single haggis, lentil soup nor gammon steak to sully its pages. Instead, there was good Aberdeen Angus beef (including a Carpet-bag Steak Stuffed with Oysters), all kinds of Highland game dishes and from the Argyllshire coast, lobsters, langoustines and scallops, salmon from the river Spey and local loch trout. For American and Canadian visitors tracing their Scottish ancestry, it must have been sheer heaven.

138 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

The bar décor was reflected in the dining room and, again, there was that nod to America in the tartan upholstered, intimate banquettes looking not at all out of place among the more formal tables on which the silver gleamed. The Swedish crystal sparkled and the napery had been starched to within an inch of its damask life. Aunt and I were placed at a table for two, overlooking the loch, where I was torn between the game pie, steak and my favourite Lobster Newburg. However, when in Scotland… so, it was the charcoal-grilled Filet Mignon for me, while Aunt Meg chose Roast Grouse with Bread Sauce. Starters were a little more exotic.

‘Well, Jinty, I can recommend the Fennel and Strathdon (Aberdeen blue cheese) Soup so I am going to have that. What about you?’

‘Mmm … Smoked Trout with Cream and Horseradish or Pheasant Terrine? Oh, the terrine with chestnuts, I think.’

To accompany my steak, I chose a crisp green salad with Roquefort dressing and a baked potato topped with sour cream, chives and crispy bacon pieces; Aunt Meg, meanwhile, savoured the prospect of roast new potatoes, minted peas and Bramley apple red cabbage. Both courses lived up to expectations and the Bearnaise sauce with my steak was made to perfection by Banquo, the chef, or one of his minions.

‘Now, Jinty,’ said Aunt Meg, when it was time for dessert, ‘I want no arguments. You have never been in Scotland for Hogmanay, so I have taken the liberty of asking chef to make us a wee Clootie Dumpling – a rich fruit pudding (steamed in a cloth/clootie) – and brandy sauce.’

‘Although,’ she added, with a certain disappointment, ‘you can have the Iced Cranachan Trifle if you’d prefer.’

The latter, apparently, was a combination of whisky-soaked muesli, honey, cream and raspberry sorbet. But I am a dutiful goddaughter, so it was the dumpling for both of us; and if mine was a sample then I am going to make damned sure that Aunt invites me up for Hogmanay this year.

Did I mention the vino? Well, neither Aunt nor I are wine buffs but we know what we like: Chateau-neuf for me and a Sancerre for Aunty. Later, with her coffee, she went the whole hog and ordered a Lagavulin of which I, our driver for the evening, had a sip and managed not to choke at the cost.

Somehow, I think my editor may decide that he needs to accompany me for New Year.

‘Aye, well … all right,’ as Aunt Meg would say.

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A TALK WITH THE BESTSELLING AND ORWELL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR, TOBY HARNDEN Tuesday 24th May 7pm The Powell Theatre, Abbey Road, Sherborne

Tickets £9 members £10 non-members available via www.sherborneliterarysociety.com/events and Winstone’s Books sherbornetimes.co.uk | 139

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Literature

ROGER MORGAN-GRENVILLE Taking Stock: A Journey Among Cows John Gaye, Sherborne Literary Society

Image: Erin Hopkins 142 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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n 2017 the Sherborne Literary Festival hosted Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows, who proved, for those fortunate few who attended her talk, to be one of the highlights of the festival and the book, by this debut author, went on to be a national best-seller.

On a similar subject but approached from a different angle is Taking Stock. This fascinating book takes a much wider approach and by the last page, the reader has covered the length and breadth of the country and should have a much greater knowledge, not only about cattle but also about farming, animal breeding, the evolution of agriculture and how best to lock up carbon for the benefit of reversing climate change. And as the current debate rages about plant-based diets versus meat-eating you will also get a much more balanced and nuanced insight into the subject.

I live in the heart of the Blackmore Vale, home of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Vale of Little Dairies’ and surrounded by lush grass fields grazed by my neighbour’s cattle. These fields and the local climate are ideal for growing grass and grass cannot be turned into food for humans other than going through the rumen of a grazing animal. These are highly productive fields and so are particularly suitable for dairy cows producing vast quantities of milk for human consumption.

Although they are occasionally enhanced by the use of fertiliser, these fields also benefit from the spreading of animal manures which provide much of what the soil needs for its structure and the grass needs for better growth.

Moving further west into West Dorset or on to either Dartmoor or Exmoor, the conditions change again but are still really only conducive to growing grass and grazing livestock. Without the grazier, the land would revert to scrub and much of the bio-diversity vital for nature would be lost.

What this book so beautifully illustrates is the complexity of managing the land for the benefit of everyone and everything. Current events have highlighted the need for a much greater strategic awareness of our need to be sustainable in producing food for the nation while ensuring that we continue to monitor and control our environmental standards for the benefit of the planet.

But perhaps above all the book highlights the author’s evergrowing respect for cattle and for the individual animals that go into our diet. This is as a result of having taken on a part-time role as a stockman on his friend’s farm in Sussex and his subsequent travels around the country talking to many of the leading breeders of cattle and other stock. It is beautifully written with some very evocative descriptions of the natural world and the ever-changing seasons.

I feel certain that Roger Morgan-Grenville will provide the Literary Society with as fascinating a talk as the one given back in 2017 by Rosamund Young and his book should be on everyone’s reading list for 2022. sherborneliterarysociety.com __________________________________________________________________________ Wednesday 8th June 7pm-9pm Taking Stock: A Journey Among Cows – Talk and Signing with Roger Morgan Grenville The Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, Sherborne DT9 3NL Tickets £9-£10 from sherborneliterarysociety.com/events

__________________________________________________________________________

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 143

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ACROSS 1. Lessened (8) 5. Soothing ointment (4) 9. Device used to connect to the internet (5) 10. Embarrassed (7) 11. European country (5) 12. Become firm (3) 13. Group of shots (5) 15. Hazardous; dangerous (5) 17. Nay (anag) (3) 19. Triangular river mouth (5) 20. Item used by asthma sufferers (7) 21. Debate in a heated manner (5) 22. Midday (4) 23. Country in Africa (8) 144 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Peter Tait, Sherborne Literary Society

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry (Riverrun 2022) £18.99 (hardcover)

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Sherborne Times reader offer price of £16.99 from Winstone’s Books

n recent years, there have been several novels and plays written about Thomas Hardy exploring key moments in his life, including Damien Wilkin’s novel, Max Gate, a whimsical take on the aftermath of the death of Hardy, Christopher Nicholson’s novel Winter set around the infatuation of Hardy with Gertrude Bugler and Peter John Cooper’s She Opened the Door on the furore following the publication of Jude the Obscure.

It is not surprising, however, Elizabeth Lowry was drawn rather to the wonderful elegies of 1912-1913 that Hardy wrote for Emma (‘The Chosen’) following her death in 1912. It was a time of intense turmoil in Hardy’s life in which he was pining for his estranged late wife to the consternation and bewilderment of the next Mrs Hardy, Florence Dugdale, a subject rich in possibilities.

From the outset, however, Lowry is keen to stress that: The Chosen is a fictional, but I hope essentially true, impression of the days following the death of Thomas Hardy’s first wife, Emma in November 1912 and of Hardy’s writing of Tess . . . some twenty years earlier.’

In The Chosen, Lowry tells her story through a creative use of sources, including familiar (and sometimes substantial) quotations and extracts from letters, poems, novels, and diaries that she embeds in her narrative, serving to anchor her fiction to the accepted biographical narrative.

Where Lowry does let her imagination run is in imagining the entries from the diary of Emma entitled ‘What I think of my Husband’. Although the notebooks, the contents of which Florence described as ‘diabolical’,

were destroyed, Lowry imagines them as less hostile, and in a rather unexpected denouement, even placatory. This is the opportunity for Lowry to offer an imagined hypothesis and she does it expertly, linking the diaries to the turmoil that was afflicting Thomas and its resolution.

Of the other characters in the novel, we met a strident and protective sister, Kate, and her older sibling, Mary (whom Lowry boldly states that Hardy loved best of anyone); Emma’s mentally unstable niece, the annoying and cloying Lillian Gifford; and Hardy’s close friend and confidante, Edmund Gosse.

There are a few more imaginative leaps of faith taken: Lowry gives Emma credit for the title and plot of Tess and sees the book’s success as the start of discord between her and Thomas, but overall, her narrative is always credible. Her descriptions of Max Gate, the setting for most of the narrative, and the domestic details she portrays, are superbly rendered.

At the end, Hardy, ridden with guilt and regrets by Emma’s unexpected death, is primed to work through the trauma by writing his wonderful elegies of 1912 - 1913.

Lowry’s writing is beautifully paced and crafted and the book is hugely readable – a tribute to her consummate skill as a writer. Whether the novel is a true impression of what happened may be debatable but it is certainly highly plausible and deserves to be read by anyone interested in Thomas Hardy or in good literature. petertait.org sherborneliterarysociety.com

Talk and Signing with Sophie Irwin Tuesday 17th May

The Butterfly Room, Castle Gardens 6.30pm for 7pm Celebrating 10 Years as Sherborne’s Independent Bookseller 2012-2022 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PX www.winstonebooks.co.uk Tel: 01935 816 128

Join us for a glass of wine to celebrate the launch of ‘A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting’ by local author Sophie Irwin.

A deliciously entertaining and sassy novel about women’s self-advancement in the 19th Century.

Tickets £2 redeemable against the book, available from Winstone’s

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

Mark Greenstock, Former Teacher of Classical History and Languages

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n 416 BC(E) the independent Aegean island of Melos was surrounded by superior Athenian forces and ruthlessly subjugated. This offers a significant parallel with the situation playing itself out between Russia and Ukraine. The Greek historian Thucydides prefaces the fall of the island with a classic piece of political philosophy, the ‘Melian Dialogue’, in which the Athenians argue that since they possess overwhelming force, they have the authority to dictate the course of events, and it would be in the Melians’ best interests to surrender without resistance. The Melians respond to that on the divine level – right is on their side, and on the human level – Sparta is bound to send resources to help them. In the final analysis, despite a few Melian successes, Sparta sent no help, the island was starved into surrender, all males of fighting age were put to death and the women and children sold into slavery. This brutality resonated throughout subsequent Greek history as an extreme example of the evils of imperialism.

Today the Athenians’ line of reasoning would be considered Machiavellian. If I hold overwhelming power, I have a right to conduct national and international policy according to my own interests. Machiavelli’s ‘Prince’ was concerned for stable government rather than the anarchy that had plagued Italy for decades. Thus he states, ‘One may use evil means to a good end, if only one’s ultimate aim is control.’ So what principles lie behind President Putin’s decision to invade the Ukraine? According to a recent article in Europe Now, ‘Putin is the Machiavellian leader par excellence’. Such a personality has three chief traits: ‘Manipulative ability, callousness and indifference to morality.’ ‘Virtue’ is seen as adeptness in achieving your ends. ‘Truth’ is what you want your subjects to believe at any given time. Such a leader may even use religion as a cloak for his realpolitik – witness the close alliance between the President and the Russian Orthodox Church. He may be, or may become, crazed; but his actions pursue the logical end of total control.

The Melian Dialogue is peppered with words like ‘might’, ‘right’, ‘slavery’, ‘freedom’, ‘rule’ and ‘subjects’. These are buzzwords in the New Testament as well. Some have maintained that the Christian God is imperialist and even Machiavellian. But here there are other keywords such as ‘love’, ‘mercy’, ‘grace’ and ‘eternal life’. The festival of Easter has come and gone, and groups will soon be setting out to Oberammergau for the ten-yearly celebration of the famous Passion Play (delayed for two years by the pandemic). We were among those who saw the play in 2010.

The manipulation by the religious leaders, the injustice of the trial proceedings, the fickleness of the crowds, the inhuman tortures meted out to Jesus Christ, his crucifixion and astonishing resurrection, were all vividly portrayed in an unforgettable spectacle involving 2,000 actors.

To argue that Christ’s sacrifice was ordained by a callous and immoral God would appear farfetched. The emphasis was on the freely willed self-offering of a life dedicated to the benefit of mankind, even at the cost of immense personal suffering and misunderstanding. There could be no starker contrast with the principles underlying the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

146 | Sherborne Times | May 2022

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