Sherborne Times May 2023

PICK OF THE CROP

with Nicholas Balfe of Holm, and grower, Katherine Crouch

WELCOME

Ours is an unremarkable garden but were it not for the need to earn a crust I would gladly spend my days watching it grow. The comings and goings of its inhabitants offer intrigue, comedy and plot twist aplenty. The forest bugs in the apple tree, coal tits in the hedgerow and mice under the patio all members of the ensemble cast in an award-worthy drama. I’m grateful to the flowers I’ve planted that have clung to life and am flattered that the robins consider ours a safe neighbourhood to raise a family. I’m humbled by the brimstone butterflies that settle on our lavender and wonder what became of the toad that hibernated in the log pile.

This month, Simon Ford discusses rewilding projects from Oostvaarderplassen to Bere Regis, Wren Franklin travels the length of the country in search of butterflies and Paula Carnell as ever, shares the wisdom of the bees. Mike Burks considers No Mow May (clothing optional) and Jason Anning lays on a spread for the pollinators. I may be a softy idealist but for those of us who care about such things I believe we have an opportunity to make a tangible and positive impact on wildlife from the comfort of our own back yards.

Elsewhere on our pages, Teals take us to the tea-laden slopes of Tregothnan and we reach new levels of the macabre courtesy of our favourite tour guides Cindy Chant and John Drabik. Claire and Katharine meanwhile head across the border to find Nicholas Balfe of restaurant Holm, up to his collar in kalettes.

Have a great month.

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

Editorial and creative direction

Glen Cheyne

Design

Andy Gerrard

Photography

Katharine Davies

Features writer

Claire Bowman

Editorial assistant

Helen Brown

Social media

Jenny Dickinson

Print

Stephens & George

Distribution team

Barbara and David Elsmore

The Jackson Family

David and Susan Joby

Mary and Roger Napper

Hayley Parks

Mark and Miranda Pender

Claire Pilley

Joyce Sturgess

Ionas Tsetikas

Lesley Upham

Paul Whybrew

CONTRIBUTORS

Jason Anning

Queen Thorne Landscapes

Sophie Bateman

The Country Brocante

Bill Bennette

Sherborne Scribblers

Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum

Richard Bromell ASFAV

Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers

Mike Burks The Gardens Group

Paula Carnell

Cindy Chant & John Drabik

Michela Chiappa

Jess Chiplen

Royal Bath and West

Rosie Cunningham

Robert Draper

Sacred Heart and St Aldhelm Church

James Flynn Milborne Port Computers

PO Box 9701

Sherborne

DT9 9EU

07957 496193

@sherbornetimes info@homegrown-media.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk

ISSN 2755-3337

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Simon Ford

Wren Franklin

Craig Hardaker

Communifit

Andy Hastie

Yeovil Cinematheque

Sarah Hitch

The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms and The Margaret Balfour Beauty Centre

Tamsin Holroyd

Sherborne Prep

Richard Hopton

Sherborne Literary Society

Safia Hothi-Bellamy

Pure Punjabi

James Hull

The Story Pig

Lucy Lewis

Dorset Mind

June Lisle

Chris Loader MP

Gemma Loader BVetMed MRCVS

The Kingston Veterinary Group

Patrick Macintosh

Macintosh Antiques

Tom Matkevich

The Green Restaurant

Gillian Nash

Paul Newman & Emma Tabor

Suzy Newton

Newton & Dyl

Mark Newton-Clarke

MA VetMB PhD MRCVS

Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

Kate Norris Mogers Drewett Solicitors

Chris O’Donnell

Sherborne School

Emam Rhys Thomas

Art of Confidence

Sam Ross

Lavender Blue Cakes

Mark Salter CFP

Fort Financial Planning

Steve Shield

Sherborne Town Council

Val Stones

Joanna Weinberg Teals

Image courtesy of Ian Davenport Studio, photography by Todd White

ARTIST AT WORK

No.54 June Lisle, Primavera

50 x 50cm, acrylic on canvas, £650

If my work remains focused on colour, it’s because there seems no other choice for me. This is what

I take the most pleasure in and always have, and it is this delight in colour that I hope to communicate to others. Very often too, I am seeking a balance between abstraction and figuration. Subject matter or inspirational ideas are based on locations; recently my garden or even inside my house. Inspiration can also come from philosophy and history. As Picasso said, ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’

Now aged 95, the physical limitations of the last 12 years keep everything I work on on a small scale. Acrylic and mixed media suit me; and I can combine them with collage, on canvas or paper. I particularly love Braque and Picasso and recently Raoul Dufy. Looking at their

work continues to offer insights and inspiration. Maurice Denis reminds us, ‘We are the inheritors of a visual legacy that cannot be ignored.’ Nevertheless, to me, it is the inner impulse which leads me to work and develop.

junelisle.art lislejune

Tuesday 2nd - Sunday 30th May (Tuesday - Saturday)

Visual Rhythm: An Exhibition by 5 artists from Dorset Visual Arts’ Salon Group

East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Somerset, TA13 5HH

Paintings inspired by the colours in the garden and in the gifts of flowers.

We reach the penultimate film of this season at Cinematheque with another stunning South Korean gem. Park Chan-wook won Best Director Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for his wonderful Decision to Leave (2022), a sublime Hitchcockian thriller which we show on 31st May. Following his excellent, The Handmaiden, also previously seen at Cinematheque, is this seductive, contemporary tale of a policeman getting a little too close to the murder he is trying to solve.

Hae-joon is a happily married detective investigating

ON FILM

Andy Hastie, Yeovil Cinematheque

the mysterious death of a climber when suspicion falls on the man’s entrancing young wife, Seo-rae. Even as her alibi clears her, Hae-joon is unable to end his surveillance. Is this a detective’s intuition or something more? As he digs deeper into the investigation he finds himself immersed in a web of deception and desire for this enigmatic femme fatale. Is she genuine or cleverly manipulating him through one twisting story turn after another? Drawing on such films as The Big Sleep (1946) to Basic Instinct (1992), and Vertigo (1958) to House of Flying Daggers (2004), using such an internationally

7th

‘Sumptuous....an intoxicating spell’

Total Film Magazine

familiar theme helps break down cultural barriers enabling universal appeal.

With two ultra-charismatic leading actors, Park Chan-wook has crafted an ingeniously plotted mesmeric mystery, where quick-fire scenes drive the narrative, but also leave the viewer guessing at the precise meaning and significance of complex images and intricacies of the plot details. This is a visually beautiful intelligent film from a director working at the peak of his powers, and one not to be missed.

‘ ’ The Guardian, ‘Sensational’ The Daily Telegraph, ‘Sumptuous....an intoxicating spell’

Total Film Magazine.

I am off this month to a Cinema for All viewing day in Bath to help select films for our next season. There are a lot of particularly excellent new films being released at the moment so I will report back on what I have seen. If you haven’t tried us already do come as a guest for £5 to see the wonderful Decision to Leave at a great venue. All details are on the website.

cinematheque.org.uk

swan-theatre.co.uk

Wednesday 31st May 7.30pm

Decision to Leave (2022) 15

Cinematheque, Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil BA20 1QT

Members £1, guests £5

CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT

David Hare was castigated recently for opinioning that there were too many musicals dominating London’s West End, to the detriment of the more serious plays, and Derek Jacobi used part of his speech as a 2023 Olivier award winner to suggest that theatre ticket prices had become far too expensive, making the experience out of many people’s financial reach.

I must admit that I love a musical. I bailed out of seeing the nearly four hours, physically and mentally challenging epic, A Little Life, in favour of seeing the wonderful musical, Guys & Dolls, at the Bridge Theatre, but tickets can be expensive particularly if it is a family outing. The energy of this production is reflected by the sheer enjoyment of the cast members, which translates to the audience. This is an immersive production with audience members, who opted for the very reasonably priced standing tickets (£39.50), down on the stage floor where the actors interact closely and involve them in the storyline. The two well-known names, Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit, the shifty hard to pin down Manhattan

wheeler-dealer who is ultimately a lovable rogue, and Marisha Wallace as Miss Adelaide, the star performer at The Hot Box Club and his long-suffering fiancé, were charismatic and played their characters well. However, Andrew Richardson gave an excellent performance as Sky Masterson, a gambler who falls in love with the mission worker, Sarah Brown, played by Celinde Schoenmaker, whose voice was quite enchanting. The stage design is novel as floor levels rise and fall as the various scenes are played out, with minimal props silently sliding into place by a host of floor staff who remain unintrusive throughout. Guys & Dolls is playing until 2nd September and, judging by the breadth of the audience, this is a rip-roaring musical for one and all.

Whilst I didn’t see A Little Life, starring James Norton, at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 18th June and then at the Savoy Theatre until 5th August, my friend who went said, ’it was an incredible evocation of the book, and the cast was outstanding.’ So, if you loved the book, you may enjoy the play but it’s not for the faint-hearted.

Cast of Guys & Dolls at The Bridge Theatre

Rosie Cunningham

I went to the Salisbury Playhouse and saw the most brilliant production of The Beekeeper from Aleppo – the first time this marvellous book has been translated into a play for the stage. Alfred Clay was Nuri and Roxy Faridany, Afra, and the small cast played all the other roles. The stage was imaginatively reinterpreted throughout as a place of despair and, contrastingly, hopeful dreams. The production is touring around the country until July and is well worth a visit.

The Wallace Collection has just opened an exhibition entitled Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney which is described as ‘a treat for art-lovers and dog-lovers alike’, so that should cover most people in our beautiful area of Dorset! On until 15th October, £14 a ticket, members go free.

bridgetheatre.co.uk

haroldpintertheatre.co.uk

thesavoytheatre.com

uktw.co.uk

wallacecollection.org

Image: Manuel Harlan

Mondays & Thursdays 1.30pm-4pm

Sherborne Indoor

Short Mat Bowls

West End Hall, Sherborne 01935 812329. All welcome

Mondays 2pm-5pm & Tuesdays 7pm-10pm

Sherborne Bridge Club

Sherborne FC Clubhouse, Terraces 01963 21063. bridgewebs.com/sherborne

Tuesdays 10am-12pm

Fine Folk Dancing

Charlton Horethorne Village Hall

£2.50 per session. Beginners welcome. 01963 220640.

Every 1st & 3rd Thursday 10am-12:30pm

Castleton Probus Club

The Grange, Oborne, DT9 4LA New members welcome. edwardhiscock6@gmail.com

WHAT'S ON

Every 1st Thursday 9.30am Netwalk for Business

Owners & Entrepreneurs Pageant Gardens. @Netwalksherborne

Thursdays 1.45pm-4.45pm

Rubber Bridge

Sherborne Bowls Clubhouse, Culverhayes car-park 01963 21063. bridgewebs.com/sherborne

Thursdays 7.30pm-9.30pm St Michael’s Scottish Country Dance Club

Davis Hall, West Camel £2. Call Elspeth 07972 125617 stmichaelsscdclub.org

performances. Tickets ticketsource.co.uk/ sherborneabbeyfestival or call 0333 666 3366

Monday 1st 8am-5pm (sellers from 7am)

Alweston Car Boot Sale

Alweston Village Hall, DT9 5HT In aid of Folke Church. Info 01963 23436

Tuesday 2nd - Tuesday 30th 10am-5pm (Tuesday - Saturday) Visual Rhythm Art Exhibition by 5 Dorset Artists

Malthouse Gallery, East Lambrook Manor Gardens. Free entry june.lisle@btinternet.com

Wednesday 3rd 3pm and 7pm Vaux Le Vicomte Fit for a King Digby Hall, Hound Street

Free for members, £7 for non-members theartssocietysherborne.org/

Wednesday 3rd 10.45am for 11am

Thursday 27th April –Thursday 4th May

Sherborne Abbey Festival

Annual, week-long celebration of music, with events in Sherborne Abbey and across town. Free entry to many

Sherborne Probus Club TalkThe Bombay Explosion The Grange, Oborne DT9 4LA probus-sherborne.org.uk

Friday 5th 10am-5pm Flower Festival for the Coronation

St Peters Church, Stourton Caundle

Hawkers Farm, Stour Provost SP8 5LZ Call: 07801 240103 Tickets: £5 Eventbrite hawkersfarm.org/defashion-dorset

Coffee, tea & cake available (donation box in lieu of charge in aid of The Children’s Society)

Friday 5th 7.30pm

Concert - Emma Fisk violin with Mike Denham piano Cheap Street Church, Sherborne. £15. Bookings: raymondwood1949@gmail.com

Saturday 6th 2pm-10pm and Sunday 7th 2pm-10pm

Sherborne Summer Festival and Coronation Weekend Pageant Gardens. Admission free.

Wednesday 10th 6.30pm for 7pm

Sherborne House and the Dickens/Macready Screen Church Hall, Digby Road, Sherborne Tickets £10 from Winstones or on the door. (The Screen is on display 4pm–6.30pm)

Thursday 11th 7.30pm

Sherborne & District Gardeners’ Association - Brief AGM plus Talk ‘Alpines in Troughs’

Digby Hall, Hound Street

All welcome - visitors £2. 01935 389375

Saturday 13th 10.30am-12pm

Plant Sale

WHAT'S ON

St James Church, Longburton, DT9 5PF Plants, cakes, cards, refreshments. Free.

Sunday 14th 1.30pm-4.30pm

Sherborne Folk Band Workshops

Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Road, DT9 3NL. Suitable for all levels. £15 (or cheaper via the website) sherbornefolkband.org info@sherbornefolkband.org 07527 508 277

Tuesday 16th 8pm

Film and Q&A - Restaging the Past: The Story of Historical Pageants

Digby Hall, Hound Street, DT9 3AA Free but booking essential eventbrite.co.uk/e/604829249567 Donations in aid of Sherborne Museum welcome.

Saturday 20th 10am-12.30pm (last repair 12.15pm)

Repair Cafe

Cheap Street Church Hall. Bring household items to be repaired & avoid landfill. repaircafesherborne@gmail.com or @repaircafesherborne

Saturday 20th 11am-5pm

Mind Body Spirit Fayre

Digby Hall Hound St, Sherborne DT9 3AA. Treatments, demonstrations, workshops, mediums, healers, raffle, refreshments, exhibitors selling all things spiritual. £1.

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

Sunday 21st 10am-3pm

The Sherborne Market

Cheap St, Abbey Road, Half Moon St, Digby Road and Pageant Gardens

Local producers, suppliers, food, art and crafts. thesherbornemarket.com

Friday 26th & Saturday 27th 10am-5pm

Defashion Dorset promoting Fibre Growers & Makers

Hawkers Farm, Hawkers Lane, Gillingham, SP8 5LZ

Tickets £5 via eventbrite.com Stalls, talks, workshops & films. hawkersfarm.org

Saturday 27th 2pm-4pm

National Croquet Week Taster New Lane, Charlton Horethorne

All ages welcome. Tea & cakes (donations to British Heart Foundation). charltoncroquetclub.com

Saturday 27th 6.15pm

Talk - HALO - Getting Rid of War Munitions Ukraine and 29 Other Countries

Bishops Caundle Village Hall. Tickets

£15 ticketsource.co.uk/caundle-marsh-pcc 01963 23670

Sunday 28th 2pm-4pm

Singing Bowl Soundbath

Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA £15. Advance bookings 01935 389655 or ahiahel@live.com

Monday 29th 8am-5pm (sellers from 7am)

Alweston Car Boot Sale

Alweston Village Hall, DT9 5HT In aid of Folke Church. Info 01963 23436

Planning ahead

Thursday 1st - Saturday 3rd June

Royal Bath & West Show 2023 Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6QN. Group and advance ticket discounts are available. Each advance adult ticket includes free entry for two children aged between 5-15 years old. bathandwest.com/tickets

Sunday 4th June 6.30pm

Rosa Torr: Rattus Rattus: The Epic Tail of Man vs Rat

The Gaggle of Geese, Buckland Newton. 01300 345249. £5

The Terrace Playing Fields

Men’s 1st XI (1pm KO)

Saturday 6th

Cattistock & Symene (H)

Saturday 13th

Broadstone (A)

Saturday 20th

Poole (H)

Saturday 27th

Christchurch (A)

Wednesday 31st 7.30pm

Yeovil CinemathequeDecision to Leave (2022) 15

Cinematheque, Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil BA20 1QT

Members £1, guests £5 cinematheque.org.uk

Recommended 12+ artsreach.co.uk

Sport

Sherborne Cricket Club

Compton House Cricket Club

Over Compton

Men’s 1st XI (1pm KO)

Saturday 6th

Sturminster & Hinton (H)

Saturday 13th

Shaftesbury (A)

Saturday 20th

Cerne Valley (H)

Saturday 27th

Sherborne 2nd XI (A)

To include your event in our FREE listings please email details – date/ time/title/venue/description/price/ contact (max 20 words) – by the 5th of each preceding month to listings@homegrown-media.co.uk

MARKET KNOWLEDGE SAM ROSS, LAVENDER BLUE CAKES

Welcome to The Sherborne Market!

What brings you here?

Our philosophy is to produce delicious food – the kind that as huge foodies we love to eat ourselves. The Sherborne Market is our opportunity to share our bakes with like-minded people, as well as spread the word about what we at Lavender Blue Bakery do. Oh, and it’s a little retail therapy for us too.

Where have you travelled from?

From just down the road, in Gillingham. The Dorset town has been home to our kitchen for the past 16 years.

Tell us about what you’re selling

We hand make delicious fresh cakes, tray bakes, puddings to share with family and friends, savoury quiches that make wonderful summer suppers and traditional fruitcakes, as well as seasonal treats. Everything from the lemons we squeeze to the fresh pastry we roll is done by hand. We even have the muscles to prove it.

Where and when did it all begin?

Lavender Blue started life in the wee small hours of the morning after a very late supper with friends. In the

cold light of day making cakes didn’t seem like such a bad idea and as with many small food producers, we started baking from home. Over the years our team, kitchen, product offering, and customer base have grown into something we’re jolly proud of.

What do you enjoy most about selling at markets?

It has to be meeting all of our lovely customers. Day to day, we’re in the kitchen baking for our wonderful West Country-based stockists – farm shops, cafes and garden centres to name just a few. Being able to escape from the ovens and chat with the people who get to enjoy our finished products once a month is a breath of fresh air.

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

A stroll around Pageant Gardens in search of something delicious for our lunch is always one of the highlights of our day.

Where can people find you on market day?

On Half Moon Street. Our Lavender Blue purple gazebo can’t be missed!

lavenderbluebakery.co.uk

Hand picked artisan TRADERS

featuring local producers, suppliers, amazing food, arts and crafts.

May 21ST

2023 dates

June 18th

July 16th

Aug 20TH

Sept 17th

Oct 8th

Nov 19th

Dec 17th Flying the flag for local

Respecting the past, embracing the future

In the 231 years since we were established, The Abbey Pharmacy has seen many changes in our society. We continue to evolve and are now, more than ever, committed to meeting the changing needs of our customers.

Our vision for the transformation of The Abbey Pharmacy invests not only in the health of our community but also our high street – we need your support in making this a reality.

To find out more about our exciting plans and to register your support, please visit www.theabbeypharmacytransformation.com

GROW, SENSE, PLAY

Although Sherborne Town Council has been involved in tree planting for some time, since the launch of The Queen’s Green Canopy and the Platinum Jubilee in 2022 we have seen a rise in the number being planted, not only in our town but across the country, which is a good thing for future generations and the planet.

When it was decided that the Sherborne Beacon would be lit at the start of the Jubilee celebrations, the Pageant Master, who was part of the organising of all the beacons being lit across the country, requested that those lighting them also try to plant some trees, specifically seven of them in a circle, with each tree representing a decade in the Queen’s seventy-year reign and to assist with the sustainability of our planet.

After a conversation with a Sherborne Area School Trust (SAST) pupil, who asked if the council could plant trees at her school, we decided the seven trees should be planted at the four Sherborne SAST schools – Sherborne Primary, Sherborne Abbey, Harbour Vale and The Gryphon and three of the nearby village primary schools which included Thornford, Yetminster and Bradford Abbas, thereby making a figurative circle of trees in and around the town.

With the help of the town council’s grounds maintenance team and EuCan’s Adam Gale, the trees have now all been planted at each school, with the pupils

themselves involved in digging the holes and planting.

The Mayor of Sherborne, Cllr Juliet Pentolfe came along to the tree planting and spoke to the young people, headteachers and staff about what each tree represented. She said, ‘It was lovely to see all the children being so enthusiastic and getting stuck in with the digging and planting of the trees and learning how in years to come they could come back to their old school and see how much they have grown.’

His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, Angus Campbell came along to the tree planting at the two Sherborne primary schools. He spoke to the youngsters about his role as the monarch’s representative in Dorset and how The Queen’s Green Canopy has created a living legacy and serves as a lasting tribute to Her Majesty’s extraordinary service to her country and her people.

Each school has also been given a time capsule for the pupils to bury with items inside that when dug up in years to come will give an idea to those that open them of what life was like the year of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

SAST Education Director, Steve Smith, said ‘We are delighted to partner with the town council and provide homes to these beautiful trees which will stand as a reminder of the Queen and her historic reign. Our children are at the heart of the Sherborne community and this seems a fitting way to remember the Jubilee events

Steve Shield PSLCC, Town Clerk, Sherborne Town Council

which we all celebrated, and Her Majesty the Queen. Thank you to the town council for making this possible.’

In Pageant Gardens two trees were planted at the end of March – one to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the other in honour of our new monarch, King Charles III.

The tree for The Queen, a golden beech, was sponsored by the Sherborne & District Gardeners Association. Peter Neal, Chairman and John Pike, Treasurer of the association were amongst those who came along to the planting of the tree in Pageant Gardens.

They said, ‘We planted a cherry tree not too far from here for our Gardeners Association’s Golden Jubilee in 1992 and thought that donating a tree to have planted in Pageant Gardens for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee would be a lovely way to celebrate her reign.’ The tree planted for King Charles III was a purple beech following a request from a resident of the town. Each will have a small plaque installed next to them shortly.

Along with the recent tree planting, Sherborne Town Council has been involved in two additional outdoor space projects. After a consultation in the local area, it was decided that the tired-looking and under-used children’s play area at Granville Way would be redeveloped into a sensory garden, an open and reflective space for everyone to enjoy.

The aim of the sensory garden is to maximise the

impact on the five senses: sight, scent, sound, touch and taste. They can have many uses from educational spaces to teach young people how to connect with nature, to spaces for rest and recuperation. The stimulation provided by a sensory garden can be beneficial to people with mental ill health or those with cognitive impairment. We look forward to the chosen plants growing and filling the space with scent and colour. A suitable sculpture or interactive display will be added shortly to complete the space.

Just a short walk from the sensory garden is the newly renovated Lambsfield Children’s Play Area. The play equipment has been upgraded in this space, along with a newly laid resin-bonded floor, replacement fence and tidied-up surrounding shrub borders.

We hope the trees, sensory garden and play area will be enjoyed by Sherborne residents and visitors over the coming years.

Sherborne Town Council has also recently upgraded the remaining paths at the Quarr Nature Reserve making it more accessible and easier for everyone to get around this site.

OUR MAN IN WESTMINSTER

Chris Loder MP, Member of Parliament for West Dorset

My maternal Grandmother Hilda was a nursing Sister in London during the war, then a Midwife and then District Nurse for Martock where she met my grandfather Edward, a farmer. Getting around with her bicycle day and night, she would tend to those in need when called – scenes that are reminiscent of the BBC series Call the Midwife, albeit in a rural setting.

Call the Midwife, if you’re not familiar, is the story of post-war East London in recovery - and somehow, with the help of Vanessa Redgrave’s wonderful narration – it seems to do that with fervent hope and care at the end of each episode that everything will be that little bit better the next time we watch.

My grandmother’s faith meant a great deal to her - and even though she died when I was a little boy, I knew how much Eastertide meant throughout her life. It was to her an annual reminder of hope bringing about a transition from the darker and more difficult times of Lent to the resurrection and renewal of Easter. From where we have been in troubled times or when wrongs have been done to us, to the hope and forgiveness of Easter where evil is conquered and where goodness triumphs with brighter, calmer, warmer and better times ahead.

As your MP, a lot of people get in touch with me who like to share their opinion - or criticise something that the Government or I are doing or simply ask me to campaign for something. And you will often read about these things in the newspapers where people choose to share them. But you will not often read or hear in the press - those who get in touch with me who are at their wits’ end. Those who have been in the darkest of places whether they be scared or fearful; sometimes individuals who are standing small at the risk of losing everything against powerful corporate organisations or cultures such as councils, insurers, school trusts, dioceses, government, banks – and they do so all on their own because no one else will or can help them; other than their MP.

Over the last six months, I have helped more people in this situation than in my entire period as your MP (3.5 years). Whilst a few might have been a little bothered because they didn’t receive an immediate response to their opinion or campaign, helping constituents in the greatest need must always be my first priority. To those whom I have helped this year in this situation – I hope the renewal, change, replenishment, refreshment and renewal, not just of Easter but of the Coronation of King Charles will bring light and happiness and hope for the weeks and years ahead – because good always prevails – no matter how difficult that journey maybe to get there.

One of the very topical and subjective debates we are having locally at the moment is concerning St

John’s Almshouse next to the Abbey. An institution established in 1437 to help the poorest of local people with a home. I first became aware of this situation from family members of residents some months ago and within a week, I went to meet with the Board of Trustees, otherwise known as the ‘Brethren’. The Almshouse has been losing money for several years –clearly something that is not sustainable. But the real frustration and concern of local people – particularly those who have lived in or around Sherborne for a long time has been the lack of a direction forward and having an idea of the future given that there have been significant redundancies and number of residents leaving. The charitable status means that the trust is self-governing and is not accountable to government or

Parliament as such, although the Charities Commission has an important role to play. If you have questions or strong feelings about this, can I encourage you to share those with the trustees and copy them to me. We absolutely cannot lose this institution from Sherborne. It is a shame that the situation was not addressed earlier given the situation it now finds itself in, but I would like to reassure you that I shall be looking to scrutinise fully the decisions of the trustees concerning the future of this institution. Can I ask that if you have expertise in this field, you please get in touch so we might be able to make some progress in securing this ancient institution of our town.

chrisloder.co.uk

Image Len Copland

Family

Emma Phillipson, aged 17

Sherborne Girls

mma Phillipson is celebrating the wonderful achievement of being selected to join Western Storm for her exceptional talent in women’s cricket. Western Storm is one of eight regional cricket centres across England and Wales covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Wales.

E

Since 2022, when Emma joined Sherborne Girls, participation in cricket has continued to grow, with the school now recognised as one of the top 20 girls’ schools in The Cricketer magazine. Our close relationship with Sherborne School has allowed her to further develop her skills with access to additional resources and facilities. She looks forward to playing cricket with the boys this summer.

As a wicket-keeper and top-order batsman, she was invited to join Western Storm EPP (Emerging Player Programme). This selection means that Emma now sits amongst some of the most talented youth female sportswomen in the UK and will receive world-class training, coaching and match-play opportunities.

Emma is hoping to play for Somerset Women and be promoted to the Western Storm Academy this summer. Upon completing her A Levels, Emma wishes to study Sports Science at university where she will be able to combine academic studies with her passion for cricket.

sherborne.com

Portrait, KATHARINE DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY

07808 400083

info@katharinedaviesphotography.co.uk

26 | Sherborne Times | May 2023

Children’s Book Review

by Felicity, aged 6, Leweston Prep

Grandpa and the Kingfisher by

Anna Wilson, illustrated by Sarah Massini

(Nosy Crow April 2023, £7.99) Sherborne Times reader offer price of £5.99 from Winstone’s Books

Ireally enjoyed reading this book and have read it a few times now! It’s about a boy, his grandpa and his dog sharing memories together as the boy learns about nature.

As they sit by the water together, Grandpa teaches the boy about the kingfisher’s family and the circle of life. He learns how nature, animals and people change with the seasons but life always carries on. The grandpa and the boy create and share memories

as the book goes on.

The author uses descriptive adjectives which make it fun and exciting to read. I like the illustrations, especially the sunset page, it makes me feel calm and warm. It has made me want to spend time in nature and watch wildlife with my family.

I think this is a lovely story to enjoy before bedtime, and would recommend it to children of a similar age to me, and older children too.

GRASSROOTS SPORT FOR THE MIND, BODY AND NATION

Jess Chiplen, Head of Shows, Bath & West

Every weekend, and some evenings, people of all ages pull on their trainers to take part in a sporting activity in their local community. From football to rugby, badminton to swimming, grassroots sport is a popular pastime and one which provides opportunities for people of all backgrounds and abilities.

Grassroots sports and recreation matter for many reasons. In addition to the obvious benefits of exercise, it can help participants to develop new skills for employment, to engage with their local communities, and much more.

Beginning with the most obvious benefit, physical activity, grassroots sport plays a key role in the health of the nation. With an estimated 33% of men and 45% of women not being active enough for good health, physical inactivity is currently the fourth largest cause of disease and disability in the UK and costs an estimated £7.4 billion a year. Over a fifth of children in the UK aged 4-5 are already overweight or obese, and although PE lessons help, more is requiredlearning outdoors offers children the opportunity to be physically active across the curriculum, and can also improve academic attainment.

Image: Andrew Gorman

Being physically active also benefits mental health. Every year, one in four people will experience a mental health problem and evidence shows that exercise can be as effective as anti-depressants for those with mild clinical depression. The charity MIND lists many ways in which being active can help mental health, including aiding better sleep, boosting mood through the release of hormones, assisting with managing stress, boosting confidence, and helping people to connect with others.

Socially, grassroots sport can help improve the prospects for groups who are marginalised, such as those from overseas, as it provides a way for them to integrate into their local communities and improve their language skills.

Another marginalised group, youth offenders, are estimated to cost the economy between £8.5 and £11 billion per year. Grassroots sport and recreation can help to reduce this figure by acting as a diversion, supporting behaviour change, breaking down barriers and teaching new skills, and many sports organisations are contributing to the effort. These include ‘Gloves Up Knives Down’, which uses boxing training to lead young people into a life away from crime, saying ‘We believe that through the discipline of boxing, we can provide young people with the opportunity to channel their energy in frustrations in a more productive and positive way’. A second initiative is ‘StreetGames’, a charity which aims to bridge the sporting inequality gap for young people in low-income communities. One of their areas of work is Community Safety, which aims to connect young people to their communities and provide opportunities to prevent boredom and alienation which can lead to anti-social behaviour. According to Sport England, 40% of grassroots football clubs in England are in the top 20% of most deprived communities.

In the local area the Bath Rugby Foundation, one of the organisations supporting the Royal Bath & West Show’s Sports Village this year, has launched a campaign called ‘Lose The Labels’ which supports vulnerable people in and around Bath. It also supports HITZ, Premiership Rugby’s flagship education and employability programme, which works with over 2,000 young people across England every year.

Closer to home, Shepton Mallet Sports FC has been providing football opportunities for children since 2016. Starting with just one team they now have 17 boys and girls teams, ranging from under 6 to under

16, and coach 290 children. The teams compete in the Somerset Girls Football League and Midsomer Norton Youth Football League, with the younger teams participating in monthly tournaments organised by the Somerset FA. Chairman Daniel Hynds says that whilst the club’s main aims are to provide football for the local children in a safe and fun environment and to develop their skills and understanding of the game, it also teaches them valuable life skills such as teamwork and communication, whilst keeping active outdoors. This in turn allows the children to create friendships throughout football, not just within the club but also amongst the wider football community.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum, it is estimated that approximately 40,000 people take part in Walking Football every week in the UK. There are groups for men in their 50s, over 60s and 70s, and also for women over 40, over 50 and over 60. Walking football offers a multitude of health benefits to older people such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and strokes while improving blood pressure, so the importance of keeping older people active at a grassroots level is clear.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 undid much of the progress which had been made, as the lockdowns of 2020 and early 2021 meant that grassroots sport was paused. Activity rates had increased nationally in the previous three years but the levels began to fall again, with the percentage of active adults reducing from 63.3% in the year to November 2019, to 61.4% to November 2021. The pandemic is now moving into the past but with an ageing population, rising crime, and the UK becoming more ethnically diverse, grassroots sport is more important than ever. Therefore the role of organisations such as the Bath Rugby Foundation and Shepton Mallet FC, and their importance to the nation, cannot be overestimated.

bathandwest.com

Thursday 1st - Saturday 3rd June

Royal Bath & West Show 2023

Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6QN. The royal celebration of great British entertainment, food and drink and countryside returns! Group and advance ticket discounts are available. Each advance adult ticket includes free entry for two children aged between 5-15 years old. bathandwest.com/tickets

8-22

Open Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm (and Sherborne Market Sundays)

Seasons Boutique

36 Cheap Street, Sherborne DT9 3PX

01935 814212

www.seasonsboutique.co.uk

Providing a full fitting and personal shopping service for lingerie, swimwear, nightwear and cruisewear

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ESTABLISHED 1999

17 Cheap Street (situated alongside Waitrose), Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PU

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01935 813812

Image: Katharine Davies

PASSING THE BATON

Tamsin Holroyd, Librarian, Sherborne Prep

Queenie by Jacqueline Wilson, Illustrated by Nick Sharratt (Yearling 2013)

It’s 1953 and Nan and Elsie are desperately saving up, dreaming of going to London on Coronation Day. They have their hearts set on standing close to Westminster Abbey on 2nd June. Their aspiration is to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II and her golden coach the moment they pass by. Sadly these plans, along with their domestic harmony, are scuppered by illness. Both Nan and Elsie have TB and are sent to different hospitals to be cured.

The young Queen’s golden coach becomes one of several clever tropes neatly woven through the novel: ‘Nan had already bought me a little gilt replica with tiny white horses. I’d drive it along the carpet and across the sideboard and up and down the walls, imagining a weeny Queen being tossed about inside, squealing as if she was on a roller coaster.’

Queenie, the eponymous cat, progresses from a comforting presence on Elsie’s hospital bed to a full-blown talking anthropomorphic central character with a mind of her own. Nurse Gabriel, another of Elsie’s champions who gives us hope, is similarly aptly named.

To me, Elsie’s story is a shining tribute to grandmothers – capturing the very essence of pure, unconditional love and understanding, the joyful appreciation that is specific to the liminal meeting place of young and old at the beginning and end of their lives, Nan is as much the story’s heroine as Elsie is. When Nan was nine was she like Elsie? It is Nan’s voice that echoes in Elsie’s last words.

When the doctor says ‘Hello, hello, hello... And who have we here?’ Nurse Patterson tells him, ‘We’ve got Elsie Kettle and she’s a right handful.’ Despite adversity (such as being perennially bullied and perpetually let down by her shockingly self-centred mother) poor little Elsie is no victim. Her irrepressible spirit and vivid imagination create the backbone of this book. Love of story, love for Nan, and a richer than Croesus interior life see her through, making Elsie a resilient, indomitable heroine.

The period is evoked authentically (‘bread and dripping’, ‘cascara and carbolic’, ‘The Dandy and The Eagle’, and ‘Spangles and Fry’s Five Boys Bars’) and we are reminded of the charm of old-fashioned vocabulary in general. ‘Fret’ and ‘weep’ are less alarming, gentler versions of ‘worry’ and ‘cry’.

Although Jacqueline Wilson tells of the grand themes of life, the mood is elevated by her trademark levity of touch. The drama is there but it lies lightly beneath the surface.

Placing King Charles’ Coronation in context, this story about the last Coronation, 70 years ago, is the perfect book to read this month whether you are Elsie’s or Nan’s age.

In the afterword, Elsie writes to us from 2013, the year this book was published, anticipating 6th May 2023 by having the last say ‘I have my own little granddaughter now. I wonder if I’ll ever get to take her to see a King on his Coronation Day?’

And so life comes full circle.

sherborneprep.org

EMBRACING CHANGE

Chris O’Donnell, Head of Business and Economics, Sherborne School

It wasn’t that long ago that a typical Shirburnian would be seen hoisting a large day bag full of bulky folders around town. Teachers would spend hours of their week queuing for a photocopier. The reprographics room rivalled the staff room for a place to catch up on the latest gossip. Boys’ dormitories were full of paper and, as exams approached, A4 lever files coated in dust would be taken off shelves, ‘err ... what did I learn last year?’

The first Covid lockdown forced schools to embrace technology at an unprecedented rate. We’ve found the new technology to dramatically impact the way students share information, revise and receive feedback. Seen a good article in The Economists? Share it on our Yammer page. Not sure how to revise for your exams? Use our digital revision cue cards on your mobile phone - honestly, paper cards are soo pre-Covid! Need feedback on your homework assignment? Watch the video uploaded onto your Teams page by your teacher. Well, boys now carry sleek laptops into lessons –classrooms, devoid of paper, look unusually tidy – and teachers have had to learn a new set of jargon: Teams, Google Classroom, OneNote, Anki? No longer do we hear the excuse ‘the dog ate my homework’ - now it runs, ‘I’ve uploaded it - it can’t have synced yet, sir’. I can remember lecturing students for spending too long in front of screens - now I tell them, ‘Mobiles away and laptops on.’

I thought the impact of Covid would lead to the biggest change in education for a generation - that was, until the launch of the first artificially intelligent (AI) chatbot - CHAT GPT. It is hard to overestimate AI’s potential impact - Bill Gates describes it as, ‘fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor,

the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone.’ Elon Musk labelled it the ‘death of homework.’ As a complete novice – it took me less than five minutes to generate answers of reasonable quality to last year’s essay questions in the Economics exam.

There has long been a debate in Economics about the role of technology and innovation in driving change. It is not hard to think of an industry that has experienced dramatic technology-driven disruption; Woolworths, HMV, Blockbuster Video - The High Street? Yet, education has been comparatively immune. OK, I agree, blackboards turned white,

and emails replaced letters home, but – teaching and learning have remained relatively static – until now. The unprecedented pace of change provides a unique opportunity to transform learning and education –for the better. I agree that many teenagers spend an unhealthy amount of time in front of screens but how can we use technology to improve learning and feedback? How can we encourage students to use their mobile phones as a productivity tool – instead of an endless distraction? How can AI personalise learning so that each student learns optimally? How can we use technology to promote, rather than avoid, critical

thinking? These are difficult questions to answer –maybe we should ask CHAT GPT.

Teaching and learning have changed dramatically and I suspect – the long-term benefits (and costs) have yet to be realised. There will, of course, be those who will argue to maintain a more traditional approach to teaching – a return to textbooks and good old-fashioned chalk ’n’ talk. The lesson from Economics is clear – as the former fans of Blockbuster will attest – those who do not embrace change tend to get left behind.

sherborne.org

Image: Mark Stuart

AT THE TABLE

Michela Chiappa

SALMON AND BROCCOLI PASTA

This recipe is a great one for a mid-week meal on the go. Easy, quick (it can be cooked in under 15mins) and all in one pan so saves on the washing up. I know how important it is to eat fish but I sometimes get stuck in a rut and want something different. This recipe is always a hit as my kids love pasta and I can sneak in veggies and extra nutrients without complaint!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients

350g farfalle or other pasta

2 small heads of broccoli (approx. 150g)

250g cream cheese

zest and juice of 1 large lemon

300g–400g cooked salmon, skinned, boned and flaked salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1 Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil over a high heat.

2 Cook the pasta in the boiling water according to the packet instructions.

3 Cut the broccoli into florets and add to the pasta 2

minutes before the end of the cooking time.

4 Drain the pasta and broccoli and put them to one side, reserving a cup of the pasta water.

5 Place the cream cheese and lemon zest and juice in the same large pan and gently heat through.

6 Add the pasta, broccoli and salmon and coat with the cream sauce. If necessary, add some of the reserved pasta water to make a looser sauce.

7 Remove a portion for baby then season with salt (for toddlers and adults) and pepper.

8 Tip: If your children don’t like seeing the broccoli, add it to the pasta water 5 minutes before the pasta is cooked so that when you stir the sauce in, the broccoli disintegrates and is less visible.

@michela.chiappa

TheChiappaSisters thechiappas.com

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

Simply Italian: Cooking at Home with the Chiappa Sisters (Michael Joseph) £22 (hardcover). Sherborne Times reader offer price of £20 from Winstone’s Books

DRAWN TO THE LIGHT

Elephant Hawk-Moth Deilephila elpenor

Aseries on British moths would not be complete without the inclusion of this large, impressive, yet relatively frequently recorded moth. The Elephant Hawk-Moth is the most common of our nine UK resident hawk-moths, especially in southern counties.

Its name refers to the larvae’s resemblance to an elephant’s trunk. With a tendency to be strongly attracted to light, it may enter our houses through open windows on warm nights in the usual flight season of May to early August. Flight is strong and rapid with robust wings of up to 33mm long in a striking combination of olive green and bright pink – the thorax and abdomen also have a coordinated design of lines and stripes in these colours. The long proboscis enables it to feed on tubular flowers such as honeysuckle and nicotiana, when you may see this species hovering around such plants at dusk.

Its habitats are wide-ranging such as wild undisturbed places, grassland, parks, gardens and heathland –

anywhere its extremely diverse larval food plants may be found. Eggs are laid on many herbaceous plants, both cultivated and wild, with a preference for willowherbs, bedstraws, vines, hedge bindweed, Himalayan and garden balsam to name a few. The resulting small green nightfeeding larvae hide under the leaves during daylight hours. As they progress through growth stages a more pronounced pattern of black dashes appears along the sides of their large bright green bodies. Now unable to hide so easily, when danger threatens the area behind its head is able to expand revealing dark patches mimicking ‘eyes’, giving the impression to predators of a dangerous snake-like creature. It can sometimes be found feeding among garden displays of fuchsias where they may well not be welcome visitors!

Feeding complete during July to September and now brown in colour, the conspicuous larvae may be seen searching for suitable sites to pupate, overwintering just below ground level until the emergence of the adult moth the following late spring or summer.

Gillian Nash

Marek R. Swadzba/Shutterstock

Trees

children of Symondsbury School to commemorate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III

6th May 2023

Welcome to Symondsbury Estate, set in the beautiful Dorset countryside just a stone’s throw from the Jurassic Coast. Join us for lunch. Browse our shops. Visit the gallery. Explore our fabulous walks and bike trails. Relax and unwind in our holiday accommodation. Celebrate your wedding day...

+44 (0)1308 424116 symondsburyestate.co.uk Symondsbury Estate, Bridport, Dorset DT6 6HG

planted by the

RECORDING BUTTERFLIES FROM JOHN O’ GROATS TO LAND’S END

At the end of May, my cousin Fred and I are going to attempt to cycle from John O’ Groats in Scotland to Land’s End in Cornwall; a distance of over 1000 miles. The aim is to raise funds for the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation. This is a charity close to both of our hearts. Its nature reserves and work have inspired and benefited us, the wider community and the landscape as a whole. We are also marking significant birthdays – my 40th and Fred’s 20th. Both of us work in nature conservation – I manage the nature reserve aspect of Ryewater Nursery near Longburton and Fred works more widely across North Dorset as a nature conservation contractor before heading to university in Bangor, North Wales, in September.

Butterfly Conservation is a science-based environmental charity focused on the conservation of butterflies, moths and their habitats. Much of the practical conservation work of the charity is carried out by groups of volunteers organised into local branches. The Dorset Branch is very active and its work reflects the wealth of butterfly and moth species in the county and the rich and varied habitats they use. The Dorset branch is responsible for the management of three nature reserves – Alners Gorse near Hazelbury Bryan, Lankham Bottom above Cattistock (where the rabbit scene was shot in David Attenborough’s recent Wild

Isles programme) and Broadcroft quarry on Portland. It is towards this practical work that all funds we manage to raise will be going – helping to ensure good site management can continue on the Dorset reserves, as well as the many other sites Butterfly Conservation help to manage in the county.

Training began back in the depths of winter with plenty of wet and cold rides, often in the dark. As the days lengthen and the weather improves, our miles in the saddle are increasing. A recent ride took us from Buckland Newton down to Portland Bill and back, using many of the smaller Dorset roads, totalling 68 miles. We will aim to average similar daily mileage on our trip, the difference being that we must do it every day for two weeks!

The bikes we will use are known as gravel or all-road bikes; essentially road bikes but with less aggressive, more upright rider positions and robust builds. With a few small changes, this platform can easily be set up for touring – comfortable saddle, tough tyres, mudguards and pannier bags. These bikes will handle the various surfaces we will encounter, including rural roads, cycle paths, towpaths and maybe the odd bridleway. A support vehicle has been provided by Mann Motorhome Rentals near Blandford Forum and kindly sponsored by Clive Farrell. This will be our accommodation en route and transport to and from the start and finish, as well as

Wren Franklin

a place to fill bellies and fix bikes.

Riding out of winter towards spring, our training rides have returned very few butterfly sightings, but hopefully, the big trip will. We want to see how many butterflies we can record along the way (weather allowing) and will expect to see many of the common spring and early summer butterflies of Britain. These might include Brimstone, Orange Tip, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue. If the weather is favourable by the time we reach Devon and Cornwall perhaps we will record the start of summer species such as wall, Large Skipper, Small Copper and even Painted Ladies as they migrate up from the continent. Will we be able to spot some more unusual species such as a Small Blue or a Marsh Fritillary – will we be able to avoid getting thoroughly distracted in the process?

We will record sightings using a mobile phone app called iRecord Butterflies. This uses the GPS in the mobile phone and satellite imagery to pinpoint where the butterfly was seen and is combined with details such as species and number of individuals seen to create a biological record that can then be verified and included in national data sets. The simple act of recording a butterfly is carried out year-round by people all over the British Isles. These records are the foundation of much of the scientific work of Butterfly Conservation

– charting the fortunes of butterfly species over recent decades in the face of many challenges.

Butterfly Conservation’s general recording scheme is known as Butterflies for the New Millennium and contains over 12 million records including historical records dating back to the 17th century. Analysis of this vast data set shows many species have declined at alarming rates over recent decades. Others are spreading northwards into new areas, probably because of global warming. Since the 1970s, three-quarters of butterfly species have declined in distribution in Britain, and over one-third are listed as threatened on the Red List of British Butterflies.

It could be argued that there has never been a more pressing need to raise awareness of the plight of insect life in the villages, towns and countryside all around us and manage well the remaining areas of good habitat for butterflies and moths.

Please visit and share our fundraising pagegofund.me/e3a1cf45 Consider donating if you can and look out for further updates via the Butterfly Conservation Dorset Branch website, social media and the gofundme page.

dorsetbutterflies.com

@wren_franklin

Grizzled Skipper mating pair Image: Wren Franklin

REWILDING

Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser

Rewilding is a word which can mean different things, depending on whom you are speaking to. It is banded around by the press and politicians, sometimes in a deliberately provocative way, to suggest abandonment, while others see it in a positive light.

Although I remember discussions in the early 1990s when I worked for the National Trust in Cornwall, about something we might now interpret as rewilding, it was not until about 2003 that people started formulating ideas. A Dutch ecologist, called Frans Vera carried out some groundbreaking research at an abandoned 6000-hectare polder called Oostvaarderplassen, near Amsterdam. Large herds of

free-ranging herbivores, including ancient breeds of Heck cattle and Konik ponies as well as red deer and wild boar, were given the freedom to roam and graze. Green bridges, where grass and trees were allowed to grow, were built over a main road and a railway line to allow animals to safely move over extensive areas.

When I visited it with Frans Vera and National Trust Wildlife Advisers, it was a truly inspirational sight, more akin to the Serengeti in Tanzania or the Okavango Delta in Botswana, than lowland Europe. So many other species from spoonbill to white-tailed eagle and greylag geese to penduline tit had become established, where previously there were none. It was hard to believe that 20 years before, this was land

reclaimed from the North Sea that had initially been earmarked for industrial development.

At a similar time, Charlie Burrell and his wife Isabella Tree, owners of the 3,500-acre Knepp Castle Estate, near Horsham in West Sussex, realised that conventional dairy farming on heavy clay was failing and driving them towards bankruptcy. They too had been following what was happening in Holland and made the bold decision to turn their land back to nature. Internal fences were removed and with minimal human intervention, herds of free-ranging animals were allowed to roam across the estate. Hedges were given space to develop and trees to self-seed and the land moved from one which was of very limited economic value as well as to wildlife to something quite incredible. Storks have started breeding for the first time in Britain in 600 years. There is the largest population of spectacular purple emperor butterflies in the UK, along with turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, rare orchids, dragonflies and bats. It has been shown that it is possible to reverse the cataclysmic declines in many species of wildlife, while still producing high-quality food. Oh, and Knepp Castle has moved from being in a financially perilous position, to one which is in a significantly more robust situation. If you haven’t done it, do read Wilding, by Isabella Tree (who grew up just around the corner from Sherborne).

There is now a Dorset Rewilding group, with some exciting projects at beautiful Mapperton House, near Beaminster, Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild Woodberry at Bere Regis, the Symondsbury Estate near Bridport, Slape Manor, Wyke Farm at Chedington and the National Trust’s Bishop’s Down Farm at Kingston Lacy to name a few.

Rewilding is not about the abandonment of land or stopping the production of food. It is about working much more with nature, allowing the soils to restore and stopping the endless cycle of applying fertilisers and pesticides, peddled by multi-national agri-business. It could be called ‘nature-friendly farming or regenerative agriculture’ if you are queasy about saying rewilding.

Although this works best on a large scale, with various habitats becoming joined up, even small areas of gardens or land can create vital ‘stepping stones’ for wildlife and roadside verges, railway cuttings, river corridors and hedges have a critical part to play in reversing the devastating loss of nature.

westdorsetwilding.org

Benny337/Shutterstock

"It has been shown that it is possible to reverse the cataclysmic declines in many species of wildlife, while still producing highquality food."

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PROTECTION RACKET

May is the month of swarms – the hopeful expansion of healthy honeybee colonies.

Many other bee species also make an appearance, emerging from hibernation, or hatching from their cocoons. As the flowers open they call the bees and our gardens are buzzing.

In April, I attended the ‘Learning from the Bees’ conference held at Sheepdrove organic farm in Berkshire. The event was preceded by a tour for some of us around the Blenheim estate with the beekeeper Filipe. A South African with a passion for climbing high up into trees and a natural talent for finding wild honeybee colonies, Blenheim was a perfect place for him to thrive. Four years ago he was approached by the Blenheim estate, as they were inspired by a talk he’d given at Oxford University about conserving wild honeybee species. Given the freedom of the protected and usually off-limits ancient woodland, Filipe found 17 wild colonies of bees living in the cavities of trees. He now has recorded 76. We were taken around to see some of the colonies. Initially, some were easily spotted along the main pathways open to the public. We were shown a wild colony living in the cavity formed by a broken branch. He’d placed some cork around the entrance as an experiment to see if wild bees would

chew the cork in the way managed colonies offered cork do. They don't. Filipe concluded that the cork being heated to 450 degrees during manufacture enables bees to collect the resin to make their propolis. Wild woodland bees have an abundance of tree resins and therefore don’t need the cork ‘supplement’ .

Filipe is someone who constantly asks ‘why?’ –striving for new knowledge and deeper connection with the bees, and the trees they inhabit. He considers the results and behaviours he witnesses – using various scientific methods to measure the bees, from their flight distances, timings, size of the cavity, the colonies inside and their life expectancy. Using state-of-theart cameras, he records behaviours inside the hives, throughout the year, the wax, the propolis and the bees.

Once we were taken off the public paths, we walked into the land of giants – surrounded by oaks, the majority of which were well into their hundredth or even three hundredth year. The first buds were forming on the branches – the under-canopy with flashes of white blackthorn blossom, and the acid green of hawthorn buds, golds and yellows of willow and hazel catkins. The abundance of giant trees almost removed the awe of the true giants – the Queens and King of the Hyde Park woodland. Precisely aged at 1046 years,

Image: Katharine Davies

Paula Carnell, Beekeeping Consultant, Writer and Speaker

the grandest oak stood on a slight mound of moss and humus – vast spreading branches open out into the canopy. We weren’t allowed to touch anything. We’d undergone strict biosecurity to protect these rare examples of nature left to thrive.

Could we really believe that these ancient giants lived without seeing any disease in their lifetime? Would it be realistic to imagine that every year these giants lived, no disease was experienced around them? If other oaks were sick, were these the only oaks that survived? If they lived through sickness and disease, what made them different? Could it be that these woods were so left to their own devices, nature had to protect itself, without the interference of man? Just like the bees?

The 76 colonies show no effects of varroa mite or any other disease. The sheer existence of these bees challenges many conventional beekeepers. It shows that the past 30 years of chemical miticide use was not needed. The wild bees sorted themselves out. Maybe the trees did the same.

I’ve recently been driving through Gloucestershire on several occasions and been quite horrified at the vast quantity of felled trees along the roadsides. Ash dieback has taken its toll, or rather the human response to it has. The current procedure is to fell all ash trees showing any sign of disease. The older trees along the roadsides with the slightest effect of the disease on the canopy have been removed. The fear of sick trees falling on passing traffic is of course legitimate. As I drove past, sometimes slowly due to the tree surgery traffic lights, I could see the stumps of very healthy-looking trees. No signs of rot or decay. Trees reduced from 20-30ft to 1-2ft. A comment I heard from a tree activist protecting ancient trees during the HS2 development in 2020 was that it takes 200 years to replace a 200-year-old tree.

Our decision to remove young, middle and oldaged ash trees has been like culling a vast number of the human population, after as much as a sneeze, just in case they developed the full symptoms of a disease. No room for any of the trees to develop recovery or methods to exist with the disease. There have been rumours of some ash trees not succumbing to ‘die back’, but they’re not making the wider news. Roadsides are marked by the stumps of trees culled. Hedgerows look remarkably neat and tidy to please those eager to ‘smarten’ up our wilder parts of nature.

Meanwhile in Australia, honeybees are being culled due to the outbreak of varroa mite. Despite 30 years of global miticide use, and the evidence that the untreated bees are faring better, able to live alongside varroa, or even overcoming it, the New South Wales government, not happy with euthanising all the managed colonies of honeybees, are now spraying the really toxic fiprinol insecticide across the state, to ensure that no insect will survive for varroa to infest.

If ever there was a time for mankind to step back, it is now, and for those who care about nature, to step forward. There’ll be no swarms of honeybees in New South Wales next spring. Let’s value every single bee we see in our gardens this summer. It only takes one minister to decide the bees are sick and need culling. If we all decide we’re happy to sacrifice our nature, we will never get the chance to witness its true wisdom – millions of years of evolution, overcoming extremes in climate, and disease, only to be slaughtered by the humans placed on earth to protect them. Once again we’re shown how everything is connected and how vital it is that more of mankind realise that we cannot be killing nature without affecting ourselves. paulacarnell.com

Yeovil Audi. Look No Further.

*Range dependent on trim and optional equipment. All vehicles are tested according to WLTP technical procedures. Figures shown are official test values for comparability purposes; only compare fuel consumption, CO2 and electric range figures with other vehicles tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including but not limited to factory fitted options, accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, road and traffic conditions, individual driving styles, vehicle load, vehicle condition, use of systems like climate control (and, for battery electric vehicles, the starting charge, age and conditions of the battery). Figures for battery electric vehicles were obtained after the battery had been fully charged. Battery electric vehicles require mains electricity for charging. Zero emissions while driving. Figures quoted are subject to change due to ongoing approvals/changes and figures may include options not available in the UK. Please consult your local Audi Centre for further information. Data correct in November 2022. ** Timings based on a 10 to 80% charge using an ultra-rapid DC public charge station at the vehicle’s maximum charging capability. Ultra rapid charging stations are still limited in the UK, with numbers planned to increase. Actual charging times will vary depending on various factors, including the selected vehicle (and battery option, if available), the type of charger used, the level of charge in the battery, the age type, condition and temperature of the charger and the battery, the power supply, ambient temperature at the point of use and other environmental factors. Charging times will also be affected by the charging curve (for example, once charging passes 80%, charging will slow to protect the battery's longevity) and will be longer if battery temperature activates safeguarding technology. Terms and conditions apply.

The above performance data relates to the Audi Q8 Sport 55 e-tron quattro.

THE DORSETSHIRE GAP

Emma Tabor and Paul Newman

Distance: 4 miles

Time: Approx. 2/12 hours

Park: By the road at Folly

Walk Features: At the heart of Dorset, a gentle ascent up to the hills encircling Lyscombe Bottom and small climbs on the approaches to The Gap, with a small ascent and descent on the return leg. A fairly easy route rewarded with some of the most expansive and surprising views in Dorset. Muddy in places, exposed on the hills above Lyscombe Farm with shelter in the woods surrounding The Gap.

Refreshments: The Brace of Pheasants, Plush >

Each 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.

The Dorsetshire Gap is one of those places you may have heard of but never visited. Set in the middle of the county, The Gap is an ancient meeting place of five pathways, some sunken, at a fault in the hills which divide the south and the north of the county. The area really does have a sense of ‘somewhere between two places’, literally and mythically, with views across north Dorset to Duncliffe Hill and the Stourhead Estate and Mendips in Somerset, and south across to the Purbeck Ridge, Poole Harbour and even as far round as The

Needles and the Isle of Wight. Visit on a clear day to make the most of these views. Shrouded in woodland and folklore, the surrounding countryside features the twists and turns of contorted geology, yet is also surprisingly open and the views in all directions make this walk a must. For those who make it there, there is a visitor’s book to sign, kept in a box!

The route takes in part of the Wessex Ridgeway, which runs from Ashmore on Cranborne Chase to Lyme Regis and is part of the Great Ridgeway.

Directions

Start: SY 728 032

1 Park beside the road at Folly, near Folly Farm.

2 Take the track by Folly Farm in the direction of

Dorset Gap, 1 mile. After 1/3 mile, take the right fork and soon pass through a large metal gate. The path now heads steadily uphill, you can either walk between the banks of a sunken section or just above it. The views behind you soon open up across Somerset to the north and The Mendips.

3 In 1/4 mile, you will reach a large metal gate at the top of this small spur, which points southwards. Go through the large gate, stopping to admire the views which now open up to the south, then turn sharp left and follow the rim of the horseshoeshaped Lyscombe valley for 1/2 mile. From here it is possible to make out the entire Purbeck Ridge, Old Harry Rocks, Poole Harbour, Brownsea Island, The Needles and the Isle of Wight. Along the ridge, after passing through more gates, you will soon reach a burial mound surrounded by different tree species. Go through a double set of gates, passing through further gates after a few more yards, to reach the far side of the crescent ridge and the valley, and two sets of cross dykes.

4 At the first set of dykes, now turn sharp left, almost back on yourself, along a line of trees, keeping these on your right. In 200 yards, reach a large metal gate – go through this, with the bank of Nettlecombe Tout Hillfort now ahead. There are good views from here across to Bulbarrow Hill. After a few more yards, at a small concrete block structure, turn sharp right and head towards woods, going slightly downhill, and now with Nettlecombe Tout on your left, enter the woods through a large metal gate.

5 Ignore signs to the left for The Gap and continue to head downhill on a track; which becomes sunken between banks and hedgerows. In 400 yards, you will reach a sign for Dorset Gap/Higher Melcombe. Turn sharp left and walk uphill, between even larger

Ford Cottage

banks to reach The Gap,

6 This is a magical spot, secluded and tucked away in the folds and woods of the geological anomaly of this high ground which divides Dorset, north from south. You will see a box at the junction, which contains a book for those who have made it here to sign. Take time to explore and radiate out along the other paths, especially to the east further along the Wessex Ridgeway where there are good views.

7 From the junction, head west for Folly, 1 mile. You now head downhill, still between trees and in spring, banks of wild garlic and bluebells. After 150 yards, reach a large metal gate to then head across a field and a short steep climb up to a gate in a hedge, still near the edge of the wood. Head through this and then across a track through another gate and then down into the next field. After 1/4 mile, reach a small double gate in a hedge, having just passed some old oaks, still skirting the edge of the wood to your left. Go through these gates and then turn left, to walk uphill towards gates which cross a farm track.

8 Go through both gates and cross the track, to head diagonally across the field, keeping away from Springwood farm, to soon head slightly downhill, looking for two more gates which cross another farm track coming from the farm. Go through both gates and follow a hedge downhill, initially, and then leave the hedge to head across to a gate to the right which takes you out of the field and onto the farm track you crossed earlier – out onto the road in front of Armswell Farm.

9 Turn left onto the road at the entrance to Springwood Farm, now behind you, and walk uphill for 1/3 mile and back to the start of the walk at Folly.

With thanks to Emma, Dave and Blue!

PRIDEAUX’S HAT

Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

This rather battered old Panama was once part of Lord Digby’s School uniform belonging to an extraordinary pupil named Rosetta Elizabeth (Betty) Prideaux (19132003). She lived on Marston Road during the 1920s and won a scholarship from Sherborne Preparatory to go to the ‘Big School’ in 1925, where she eventually became Head Girl.

The museum has a few typed pages from Betty describing this idyllic time which are especially evocative, with classmates and teachers vividly remembered. Lord Digby’s was then housed in a Palladian-style building ‘long since razed to the ground’ formerly known as St Swithins Laundry, and Betty describes how it stood ‘four-square in her memory’ and that she could ‘walk about it blindfold’. She wrote of her enormous debt to Littleton Powys, Chair of the Board of Governors, with his brilliant smile and his passion for literature and natural history which particularly inspired her.

Betty was overcome with joy when, after several years of negotiations, the school finalised its move to Sherborne House in 1931. The head teacher Miss Billinger allowed her alone into the beautiful grounds to gather flowers for an arrangement for the Governors: ‘it was like being given the key to The Secret Garden… I registered every tree and shrub’. She recalls how proud they all were of the hall and staircase with their famous murals, and how she so loved the kitchen in the oldest wing, where she learned to poach salmon and make mayonnaise. The ‘lasting influence of schooldays spent in this small historic town’ lingered throughout her long life.

Following the sudden sad death of her mother in February 1935, Betty took to an unusual existence at sea with her father, Captain William Prideaux, who was in the Merchant Service. After almost four years

she had sailed 100,000 miles with him in the tramp steamer Jersey, having signed on as a stewardess. Her wages of a few shillings a month were donated to a seaman’s mission. In 1938, on arrival at Durban from New York with a cargo of coal from Colombo, she was interviewed by Natal Mercury; a report repeated She was described as ‘a girl who has made the sea her home…her whole life is wrapped up in the sea and its traditions. Miss Prideaux does not sleep and eat her time away. She has many interests, and after she has mended the pants and darned the socks for her father and attended to the hundred and one things that a good daughter or stewardess could do for the captain, she gets busy with her hobbies. Miss Prideaux keeps a photographic record of her travels, and at each point, she goes ashore and bargains with stamp collectors.’

‘I love the sea and ships, and the men who sail in them are really gentlemen when one gets to know them,’ Miss Prideaux told her interviewer. ‘The men I have met at sea are most self-respecting, and they display a spirit of fellowship that is not often met with ashore.’ This astonishing chapter of her life eventually came to a close when she married Wilfred Dunell, a GPO wireless operator, in Yeovil in the autumn of 1939. The couple moved to Kent and had two children, Eric and Pamela, and sometime during the 1970s relocated to a small village southwest of Cambridge. Wilfred died in 2002 and Betty followed him the year after. Both are commemorated, with Betty’s parents, in Sherborne Cemetery.

sherbornemuseum.co.uk

Sherborne Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 10.30am–4.30pm. Admission is free, though donations are welcome.

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SHERBORNE'S GRUESOME PAST

Cindy Chant & John Drabik

Hanging was practised in Anglo-Saxon

Britain as early as the fifth century and by the 1700s more than 200 crimes were punishable by death. Physical punishments and public humiliation became social events and were carried out in most towns, often on market days or public holidays, when many of the townsfolk were present. Throughout the country, 7,000 men and women were executed on scaffolds, often watched by excited crowds. For centuries public executions were one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and Sherborne had its fair share. These spectacles attracted eager audiences and people flocked to watch the condemned writhe in agony at the end of a rope. Gallows Plot, which is high above the terraces playing fields on Gainsborough Hill, was where the hangings took place. The macabre ceremonies attracted hundreds of people, as this was one of the main routes into Sherborne. Hawkers joined the throng selling their wares to the spectators, many of whom would have been drunk on cheap gin.

Victims did not die easily, often screaming, urinating and defecating, as they choked and kicked until the end. Some would have jerked helplessly for many minutes, or even hours, slowly strangulating, unless a sympathetic bystander added their weight by grasping and hanging onto the writhing legs. As the hanged man took his last breath many people pressed forward hoping to brush with the body. Thomas Hardy capitalised on this in his story The Withered Arm, where Gertrude, after seeking advice from the Conjurer, was told that her only hope of a cure was to place her disfigured arm on the neck of a newly hanged victim. A common belief was that the hanged man’s hand possessed healing powers. Barren women came in the hope that the ‘magic hand’ of the corpse would make them conceive. Mothers took children to the foot of the gibbet to stroke the hand of the dead man believing this would ensure lifelong good health. Some brought their children to teach them a lesson for life - and flogged them afterwards to ensure the message hit home. Some hangmen even charged people to touch the swaying body and sometimes they severed a hand to sell to the highest bidder in the crowd. The hangman’s rope was also in demand, as many believed that if they owned a piece of the rope they would never be hanged, and placing the rope on their head was thought to cure persistent headaches.

After hanging, the bodies were often left suspended as a warning to others, and the sight of a prominently displayed corpse at a crossroads became commonplace.

Carcasses, silhouetted against the sky, creaking and swinging in the wind, were a disturbing sight for some travellers who would take detours to avoid the lurid spectacle. Sometimes, the sentence involved the prisoner being hung in chains whilst still alive and left to die of thirst or exposure. It was illegal to offer food or water to the condemned man, however some, coming across the poor wretch, might put an end to his misery by running him through with a knife.

During the second half of the 18th century, campaigners successfully pleaded for the ‘drop’, which involved a longer rope resulting in a broken neck and quicker death. By 1868, the Government ordered all hangings to be carried out within the prison walls and so the era of this grotesque public spectacle was over.

But, should you still want a taste of the macabre then visit Bow Arch next to Sherborne Museum. This 15thcentury gateway, which still had its huge oak gate until 1805, gave entrance from the marketplace to the Abbey precincts and was the site of even more hangings.

On 15th September 1685, the marketplace witnessed the hangings of 12 local supporters of the Monmouth Rebellion who were rounded up after the bloody Battle of Sedgemoor and brought to Sherborne for execution. The names of these poor unfortunates are recorded and the method of death was by hanging, drawing and quartering. This grisly practice was the highest punishment for treason until 1870. The prisoner was hanged by the neck and brought to the very brink of death. He would then be cut down and laid on a table where his abdomen was cut open for disembowelling. In the hands of a skilful executioner, he would still be alive as he watched his entrails and genitalia taken from him and burned. Only then would he be allowed to die, as the still-beating heart was carefully extracted from his traumatised body. They were then beheaded and the body butchered into four parts. The resulting five parts were treated with salt and pitch to preserve them and then put on public display in the town, and distributed around the neighbouring villages, as a warning to others. There is a record of a gruesome quarter being displayed in Bishop’s Caundle.

"For centuries public executions were one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and Sherborne had its fair share."

CHANGE OF FOCUS

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

At Charterhouse we have always enjoyed being up-to-date with the latest tech. We were early adopters of live online bidding – happy to use 21st-century technology whilst some firms seemed to be stuck in the 20th century or even earlier!

In the early days of web development and live bidding, I used a digital camera to take images. I liked the speed at which we could send information to the client which was the polar opposite when I started work as an auctioneer in 1985. Back in 1985, if you were interested in bidding on a lot, you could request a photograph. The quickest way for us to send you a photo generally was with a Polaroid camera as opposed to taking images on an SLR 35mm camera and having the roll of film developed and then posted to you via snail-mail.

Moving forward to the very early 2000s and I moved on to a digital camera. I think my first digital camera came with a 1.2mp (megapixel) capacity – untenable by today’s standards. My mobile phone at the time (the legendary Nokia 6310) was only really up to the task of making calls and texting.

Moving forward to the 2020s and I have an Apple Pro phone thingy, which unlike my trusty old Nokia 6310, comes with a 28mp camera. It really is an amazing piece of kit which enables

me to WhatsApp or email images and information to clients instantaneously. No more out-offocus and expensive Polaroid photos or popping down to Boots to get a roll of film developed to be posted and probably arrive through the letter box after the auction has taken place.

Then again, there are plenty of photographers who, whilst they embrace and enjoy digital technology, prefer good old dependable traditional cameras with film. These are generally not your old Kodak box Brownies, which were available to the masses, but often, technical highend cameras such as Leica’s. In our 1st June auction, we will be holding a specialist auction of cameras, photography, and related items.

Already consigned for this sale is a fabulous collection of Leica and other cameras estimated at £7,000-£10,000. Entered into the auction from a collector in Swanage who recently passed away there has already been a lot of interest in his and the other cameras we have at our sale-rooms.

I seem to have amassed over 16,000 images in the cloud and on my phone. Many are of my family, friends, holidays, and animals. Although I do not look at them all of the time, I am quite relieved I have not printed them all off – they would certainly fill a few photo albums, but having handled the Leica collection I am tempted to go back to a traditional camera. Now where to build that dark room..?

ON THE HUNT

SOURCING FURNITURE AND ARTEFACTS FOR THE SHERBORNE

I’ve always been interested in antiques as my great grandfather and great uncle were antique dealers, but I never thought it would be my career. At university, I studied medieval history and afterwards wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do. So, I started working at Phillips auctioneers in London as a porter in their furniture department. After a while, I ended up in Sherborne as they also owned the auction rooms in Long Street. I moved down here as a cataloguer for them in 1984.

After Phillips, I worked for Sotheby’s as their agent down here, until 1990 when I set out on my own. I’ve been trading as Macintosh Antiques ever since. To start with I had a shop in Marlborough and used to sell stuff in London, including at the big shows, which I still attend today. Then, twenty-one years ago, I got my premises in Sherborne. The building was originally the mews to Sherborne House – which is a nice link to the current restoration project and partly why I feel emotionally connected and so proud to be part of the renovation.

In 1850 they separated the buildings, putting the wall around Sherborne House and establishing a literary institute – the first working man’s literary institute outside any industrial city in the British Isles, it was opened by Charles Dickens in 1851.

Patrick Macintosh, Macintosh Antiques

Image: Mollie Cole

My part in this project started a few years ago when I met Michael Cannon, the Founder of the Trust for The Sherborne. He popped into Macintosh Antiques one afternoon and since then, not only have we become friends, but he has tasked me with the important job of furnishing the more formal rooms of the historic house.

I specialise in English country house furniture with a comfortable, relaxed feel, and mirrors. I also do a lot of library furniture and ‘gentleman’s furniture’, too – all of which will be great for next door.

Some areas of The Sherborne call for quite grand, period pieces such as the entrance lobby. I’ve also just bought an amazing 1930s counter which will go in the shop. It has to be restored first, but it’s all brass and glass and will be great for a display.

So far, we’ve bought two club fenders for the large fireplaces, allowing visitors to sit by the fire. I will need four in total, so I’m still very much on the hunt. The whole process is a treasure quest. How it works is that I create a wish list with the client – items they would like to see and which I feel would be good for the rooms – then, it’s a case of finding them. Some of the items still on my list are the remaining club fenders, a nice Georgian over-mantle mirror, and library bookcases or sideboards for practical use in the dining areas.

What’s important when sourcing furniture for a historical building is authenticity first and foremost – it’s got to look good in its setting. But it also has to be practical and hardwearing –it’s going to get a lot of use.

Once the furniture is sourced, we will select and upholster in fabrics that the client and interior designers have helped choose. This all takes time and the restoration must happen first. It should be fairly easy logistically, as we are neighbouring businesses. I plan on popping around to try furniture out in the actual space as we progress.

One of the challenges is time. We may have a wish list, but if we don’t source exactly what we are looking for, we will need to come up with a secondary plan. We might have to compromise a little. We may need to temporarily put something in place and then switch – but hopefully that will not happen. It’s not like ordering a set of modern bistro chairs for a café –you can do that easily because you just order off-spec, and it’s all sorted. This job is difficult as some of the items on the wish list are tricky to find.

Something else on my ‘search list’ is a set of caricatures and prints. I am looking for the sort of Hogarth and Gillray satirical ones – quite savage depictions of regency gentlemen, as well as quirky, fun, engravings like William Pitt carving up the world. They’re not something I deal with normally, so there’s a little bit of pressure, and they are proving to be a tad difficult.

I am feeling confident about the rest of what’s planned. Part of the challenge is buying things blindly. Antique dealers spend a lot of time looking for something specific, and we’re on the road a fair bit. Because I have been doing it for so long, I have a really good network in the trade. People know I’m currently looking for fenders, so I get sent regular tip-offs. I’ll receive condition reports and photographs for items I can’t see in person.

It will all be worth it in the end. This renovation is great for the town. I’ve always thought Sherborne House was a wonderful building and I have worried about what may happen to it. I like the fact that it will be a blend of old and new – the back reminds me of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Having the arts focus will be great for the town. The building has a whole range of different parts to it and opening up the Sir James Thornhill staircase will be so special. I’m really happy to help wherever I can. thesherborne.uk

macintoshantiques.co.uk

Forthcoming Auction Programme

Silver, Jewellery & Watches

Thursday 4th May

Antiques & Interiors

Friday 5th May

Medals, Coins & Stamps

Thursday 1st June

Model Trains, Cars, Dolls & Toys

Friday 2nd June

Classic & Vintage Cars

Thursday 8th June

Classic & Vintage Motorcycles

Thursday 29th June

Further entries invited

Sherborne,

Fax: 01963 23053

Email: info@fcuffandsons.co.uk

www.fcuffandsons.co.uk

DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF BEAUTIFUL FINE BESPOKE JOINERY SINCE 1897

HOLM

Words Claire Bowman

Photography Katharine Davies

Katherine Crouch was eight when she grew her first crop of broad beans. It sparked a lifelong passion for horticulture that now sees the former Chelsea Gold Medal winner and a BBC Gardener of the Year raise 40 kinds of produce on her South Somerset allotment. From pink shallots and runner beans, beetroot to globe artichokes, and every summer berry in between, Katherine grows them all. ‘Apart from cauliflowers and celery,’ she says, Sparky the Jack Russell sniffing companionably by her side. ‘Cauliflowers are fussy beasts and celery needs damp soil rather than our light sandy loam.’ >

Norton Sub Hamdon allotments have been part of village life since 1730, and plot 33, with Ham Hill as its idyllic backdrop, has been Katherine’s happy place for the past four years. A proponent of the eco-friendly ‘nodig’ approach to gardening, you can almost imagine the freshly sown veg beds twitching in readiness. ‘We have a free horse manure delivery every month,’ she says, with a chuckle. In the meantime, Katherine isn’t going to let the small issue of the Hungry Gap – the leanest time in the gardening calendar – interfere with filling a trug with whatever she can find. Sorrel, baby leeks, tangy lamb’s lettuce, she snips away, adding them to a pile destined for one of her favourite clients – the restaurant Holm in the nearby honey-hued village of South Petherton.

‘Let me know what you’d like, Nic. There’s lots of lovage and chervil…’ says Katherine to Holm’s founder and chef-director Nicholas Balfe, who has come up to the allotment to see what might work for the restaurant. ‘What about some kalettes from the cabbage cage?’ she continues, pulling off the curly green and purple leaves, a cross between kale and Brussel sprouts, which have proved a big hit on the menu recently served with salsify and ricotta.

Katherine, a garden designer, is one of a number of

local growers to work with Holm since its launch 18 months ago. ‘A customer asked if I’d been to the new restaurant that had just opened in South Petherton and it gave me an idea. I rocked up one day with a bag of kalettes, and said to Nicholas, “I’ve heard you’re buying local produce. Well, my allotment’s just 3 miles down the road. Is that local enough for you?”’

Indeed it was – although, not long down from London, Nicholas admits it took a bit of time to properly figure out what he had to work with. ‘That’s when you start to appreciate what the local growers, farmers and producers have and also what’s at your fingertips,’ he explains, listing a few of his many West Country suppliers from Pitney Farm and Bagnell Farm to Teals and Game Keeper’s Larder. ‘We were at the coast yesterday, so I just grabbed a handful of alexanders, which taste similar to celery, and I’ve been picking wild garlic at Ham Hill with the children. I’ve also been planting up five raised beds with black kale, red chard, pointed cabbage and cavolo nero, and we’ve got fruit trees and an extensive herb garden on our quarter-acre plot at the back of the restaurant.’

Recently listed number 11 in SquareMeal’s Top 100 UK restaurants 2023, Holm serves up masterful >

ingredient-led dishes led by the seasons and driven by provenance and sustainability. ‘Holm is very much rooted in British produce,’ says Nicholas. ‘The way I cook is basically that if two ingredients are around at the same time, then the chances are the flavours will go together, like blood orange and rhubarb, and elderflower and asparagus. Elderflower is a favourite ingredient; it defines that point in the season for me – it’s something that throws up childhood memories and is quite evocative and nostalgic. I infuse it into vinegar and beurre blanc, which is great with shellfish.’

The rural outpost of the highly regarded restaurants Larry’s and Levan in South London, co-founded with Matt Bushnell and Mark Gurney, Holm represents something of a homecoming for Nicholas, who spent his early years in Yeovil and then Martinstown, before the family moved to Harrogate when he was 11. ‘I’ve always had a strong connection with the South West. My parents separated when I was young, but both have ended up moving back to Weymouth,’ he explains. ‘For me, it’s been an opportunity to reconnect with this part of the world.’

While Nicholas and his wife Natali weren’t actively looking to move to the West Country from their home in Hackney, a chance telephone call from a friend was just the nudge they needed. ‘It was during lockdown and Natali was pregnant with our second child at the time. A mutual friend of the landlord called, saying, “You’re probably not thinking about opening another restaurant elsewhere, but just so you know, there’s an opportunity coming up in an old bank in a place called South Petherton. You need to come and check it out.”

‘We were reviewing our options at the time and looking at ways to have more space and security as a family. We were thinking about where we might move but at the same time we were having quite a nice

lockdown, hanging out in the back garden with the paddling pool.’

Luckily for Somerset, Nicholas did make that viewing. Eighteen months on, the light and airy 34-cover restaurant, with the bank’s original vault as its centrepiece, has taken the West Country food scene by storm, scooping up awards, hosting guest chefs from Gill Meller to Harriet Mansell, and bringing a touch of Somerset-meets-Provence with its courtyard dining terrace. This July Holm will also open a mixed-use community space and seven en-suite bedrooms, three featuring roll-top tubs and one a four-poster bed, which mirror the stripped-back aesthetic of the downstairs restaurant. Each room will be fitted out with artworks curated by the Art Register, blankets by Gather, vases by Pacha Designs and ceramics by Mary Temperley, Michelle Ceramics and a variety of local makers.

And while Nicholas acknowledges that a few eyebrows were raised when they first arrived – ‘There was understandably a bit of a feeling of “What is this restaurant doing in our village?”’ – Holm has been keen to make sure they give back. ‘Whether it’s placing orders with the village veg shop and butcher, working with local growers and farmers or planning a community space where people can come for a midmorning yoga class or to display work by local artists, we have tried hard to work with people locally. We live in the village, so I’ll often go to the pub for a pint, and my kids will go to the village school when they’re older. The longer we’re here, the more interwoven we become within the community. In time we hope to become part of the fabric of the place.’ Something tells me that process is well underway.

holmsomerset.co.uk

Open Monday-Saturday 9.00am-6.00pm, Sunday 10.00am-4.30pm (tills open at 10.30am)

Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR

www.thegardensgroup.co.uk @thegardensgroup

Let it grow

With spring in full swing, we’re spoilt for choice when deciding what to plant in the garden. From herbaceous borders and bedding plants, through to roses, soft fruit and vegetables, there’s more than enough to keep even the most committed gardener on their toes.

As the to-do list grows, let the lawn grow too. By taking part in No Mow May, you can sit back and watch the lawn burst into life with flowering clovers, selfheal and vetches, all providing food sources and habitats for insects, which will benefit the environment as a whole.

01935 814633

castle@thegardensgroup.co.uk

A MONTH ROOTED IN FOLKLORE

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

At the time of writing, it feels like we have had a long, long winter, cold for many weeks and it’s been very wet in March. It feels like we deserve some warmer weather so that we can get on in the garden, but when that comes there will be a temptation to think that we need to pay no heed to the weather from then on. It is, however, a time when we need to pay very close attention to what’s happening. This is proven by the number of bits of gardening folklore on the subject, many of which refer to nudity in the garden!

First up is the saying ‘if you can sit on the ground with your trousers down then it’s safe to sow your seed’, which when reading the line you may be forgiven for thinking it isn’t anything to do with gardening! But I can assure you it is and it refers to it being warm enough to sow crops if the ground is warm enough to sit on… but only with a bare bot!

Another saying refers to ‘the best husbandmen who would have the seedsman of turnips to be naked when he sows them and this which he doth is for himself

and his neighbours’. I guess that the appreciation from the neighbours depends on their personal taste, but the idea again is that if it’s warm enough to be outside and naked then it’s warm enough for seed sowing.

‘A pinch of dust in March is worth a King’s ransom’ refers to it being a huge benefit if there is a dry enough spell in that month to get crops sown – this time without nakedness - and then ‘Ne’er cast a clout until May is out’ suggests not to even think about getting one’s clothes off in the garden at least until June.

This is all because there is still a chance of a frost until the end of May and so gardeners beware of putting tender plants out too early without some form of protection. This protection can come from the use of horticultural fleece, which is a lightweight, breathable material that needs to be draped over plants and will keep them frost-free.

But with an eye on the weather forecast and such protection, when necessary, May is a really great month in the garden with a vast array of plants that can be planted out to give wonderful colour, clouds of scent and a food source for pollinating insects. Such plants can be used in the border or in pots or hanging baskets.

All will need to be watered regularly and not allowed to dry out. Regular feeding too with a flowerpromoting fertiliser will keep them flowering and as the flowers begin to go over, they should be picked off (deadheading) so more will be provided by the plants.

If in pots with peat-free composts, then feed more regularly than you would normally do with peat-based composts. The fertiliser ‘Boost’ has been designed specifically for peat-free composts and will give excellent results.

It’s also a busy time in the fruit and vegetable garden with lots of sowing of seeds and planting of young plants which will romp away given the rising temperatures and the higher light levels.

And then if you’re thinking about the workload that this might create, why not take part in ‘No Mow May’ and so give the lawnmower and yourself a rest? Take time though to watch how your lawn starts to burst into life with flowering clovers, self-heal, bugle and vetches providing wonderful food sources and habitats for insects, so benefitting the environment as a whole.

So, it’s a busy month, but as in the words of the song ‘You don’t have to take your clothes off to have a good time’, which was definitely written about gardening.

thegardensgroup.co.uk

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"If you can sit on the ground with your trousers down then it’s safe to sow your seed"

WILDFLOWER MEADOWS

Jason Anning, Landscape Manager, Queen Thorne Landscapes

Unlike beds and borders, a meadow is an area of permanent grass where, with some care and attention, wildflowers are allowed to blossom and bloom. This might be across a large paddock or green, amongst trees or other shaded areas, along bank-sides, or even in a small, dedicated section of your garden. Wildflower meadows are a stunning addition to any outside space.

Not only are wildflower meadows a beautiful feature, but they are also incredibly important for wildlife. They provide food for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, all working hard to keep our ecosystem thriving. Did you know, just a ¼ of an acre can support as many as 24,000 bees!

It’s simple to convert a grass lawn into a wildflower

meadow. You should first clear the area of existing grass and weeds either with a turf cutter, digging the ground over or using a weed killer to achieve a clear seed bed. Then, dig the ground over, removing large stones and root material before raking to even the surface and leaving a layer of fine tilth. You then have three options when creating your meadow:

The quickest option is to lay wildflower turf – readyprepared slabs of turf that give you a beautiful meadow as it establishes and grows. Simply lay the turf down on the prepared area, ensuring each slab butts up to the next to prevent weeds from breaking through, and press each roll down to ensure contact with the soil. Cut the slabs to size as necessary and then immediately water thoroughly. The least expensive option is to sow a wildflower

meadow seed mix (making sure the ground is completely clear of weeds first, the soil is properly conditioned and prepared, fertiliser is applied and the ground is kept moist). It is important to calculate the amount of seed needed to cover an area as too many seeds will lead to greater competition between seedlings and result in lower diversity.

The final option is using a pre-prepared growing medium. This has the same results as turf with less work than only using seeds. Simply apply the medium on your prepared ground, making sure you cover the entire area. Use a scraper or flat edge of a rake to ensure it is spread evenly before rolling or walking over to press it against the soil surface. Finally, water well, and ensure the area is kept watered until the seedlings have established.

The best times to start a wildflower meadow are in autumn and spring. Spring (or any time after the frosts have stopped) is an excellent time to start as the ground should be easier to prepare and the (hopefully) warmer

weather should encourage growth.

From sowing to blooming it can take anywhere between 54-81 days for the meadow to grow. With a pre-prepared growing medium, you should start to be able to enjoy flowers from about week 15 with different flowers blooming at different points over the summer. For example, if you install your meadow at the start of April, the first blooms should appear by July which will then evolve and continue throughout the summer and possibly into the autumn.

Most meadows should last throughout the summer, with different flowers blooming at different times. The plants then die off once they’ve set seed – which usually happens by September or October. Do not mow your meadow until this has happened.

By not mowing your meadow until after it has dropped its seed, both native annual and perennial species will grow back each year.

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Like so many of us, I have been eagerly awaiting the early days of spring. There is a distinct change in the air, a freshness, a much-needed warmth to the sunshine. The birds have a new urgency to their song as if calling us outside into our gardens. I gladly pull on my boots, take a mug of tea with me and sit in a sunny spot, basking in the fresh morning light. I find joy in surveying the garden, casting my eyes around, making plans, noting all the many tasks I need to attend to. There is much to do but the arrival of spring and the promise of summer fills me with new energy, a sense of purpose and motivation in the pursuit of an idyllic garden.

I love to bring elements of the brocante style into my home and garden and whether you have a large rambling country residence, a small cottage garden or a pocket-sized town courtyard, we can all introduce elements of vintage ‘gardenalia’ or architectural antiques into our outside spaces.

The patina of age can be even more beautiful on timeworn finds that have spent most of their life out of doors, bathed by the rain and faded by the sun in equal measure. These muted tones and textures can introduce a new layer of depth and interest within a garden. The

CREATING A VINTAGE GARDEN

introduction of a French vintage garden table with its decorative metalwork, the peeling paint untouched and unrestored integral to its charm, can elevate a sunny spot, and instantly bring in a sense of character. Similarly a time-worn garden bench can be a real statement piece set amongst delicate climbing roses, the wood adored by seasons of lichen and verdigris giving the impression that it has always been there. Even a small balcony or tiny courtyard can often accommodate a French folding bistro chair with charming chippy paint – a nod to brocante style.

Another way we can foster individuality in our gardens is to introduce a really unusual item such as an antique garden roller with decorative metal work, which when enjoyed simply as a handsome object can cut a dash against a garden wall. Similarly old utilitarian garden tools with their wooden handles smoothed by generations of use can make an attractive collection, especially if displayed on a wall or in a potting shed. I love seeking out treasures that are as useful as they are attractive. They can be sought out at vintage fairs and garden sales but there are also many dealers who specialise in old tools, reconditioning them and ensuring they work as well, if not better,

Sophie Bateman, The Country Brocante

Molly Shannon/Shutterstock

than modern alternatives.

Vintage stepladders, past their safe practical use, can introduce height and structure, as can reclaimed doors and shutters. These work brilliantly to disguise something ordinary or functional and can often be found in wonderful pastel shades which compliment the delicate tones of the surrounding plants.

There are two bread-and-butter ingredients in any charming vintage garden. The first is the humble terracotta pot. I adore these characterful staples, whether large or small, plain or scalloped, planted up with sweet-scented Pelargoniums in an antique plant stand or simply stacked in a sunny corner of a greenhouse. I love them and never tire of adding to my collections. The second must-have is galvanised ware. Whether a pot, planter, bucket or simply a trusty watering can complete with bumps and scratches, they are endlessly useful and wonderfully versatile.

For me, one of the ultimate showstoppers in a vintage-inspired garden would be an original, cast iron Victorian garden cloche, which makes a stunning feature in a small vegetable plot or border full of flowers. These are highly sought-after pieces which can command a high price but can still be a lucky find

and are another example of the perfect combination of form and function. A beautiful piece that affords young seedlings protection from harsh elements in the early part of the year while also providing a charming centrepiece and an interesting talking point.

There are so many ways to bring brocante style into our gardens and spring is the ideal time to start keeping an eye out for those one-off finds. Whether large and dramatic architectural pieces or small, practical and domestic vintage ware, they offer the opportunity to create an outside space that reflects your own style and can be added to over the years. The patina and faded beauty of each treasure tells its own unique story, of which we have now become a part.

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Friday 9th – Saturday 10th June

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Over 100 carefully curated stands of great British brands, antiques, vintage, textiles, plants, food and drink. Visit thecountrybrocante.co.uk for tickets

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A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST

Suzy Newton, Newton & Dyl

When it comes to interiors, clever design ideas and a plan are key to not blowing the budget. Instead of spending money on new items for the home why not try unlocking the interior design in your home and reimagining the pieces that you already own?

You can start small by painting on a pattern. Whether it’s adding a stripe or flower design to your lampshades or updating an old chest of drawers, the simplest splashes of colour and pattern can breathe fresh life into your home. Or if you don’t feel brave enough with a paint brush try a décor transfer – these can be applied to a multitude of surfaces and create an instant transformation to your furniture. Use colour and print within shelves. Applying wallpaper to the back of shelves is a great way to add a

new look for those that don’t feel confident enough to use it over a whole room. I love the old display cabinets that you can buy from the antiques houses – lining the back of these with extravagant wallpaper and then painting a dark colour on the woodwork will instantly create a unique piece!

Reupholstering furniture is a more sustainable way to update your home from replacing the seat pads on dining chairs to recovering an old wingback in a contemporary printed velvet. Allowing you to hold on to that family piece of furniture with so many memories and allowing it to work for you in your space.

Another quick change and an instant room changer is to make your own lampshade. I have so many fabric remnants left over from making curtains and they don’t need to be particularly wide. Wrapped around a

lampshade-making kit they give a lovely flash of colour and another way to introduce a new look. Or if you do have lots of awkwardly shaped fabric remnants you can always design a patchwork soft lampshade and commission a local artisan to make it up for you. Those patchwork remnants also make up wonderfully eclectic bed runners and cushions.

Curtains can be an expensive element of interior design as they can take up a surprisingly large amount of fabric. If you are lucky enough to find a good quality second-hand pair that you love, you could always add a contrasting fabric to the borders to help them fit your windows. Or add some features to plain fabric like a decorative trim down the leading edge. Or swap out the curtains for a roman blind which uses a lot less fabric!

All these details can help your home reflect your personality and turn into your perfect retreat, without blowing the budget!

Suzy_Newton

Tarte Tatin

SEA BASS WITH ST GEORGES MUSHROOMS, POTATO, AND BEURRE NOISETTE

This is a wonderful way to utilise a fantastic seasonal ingredient: St George’s mushrooms. So-named because they typically start to appear during celebrations for the patron saint. They are common in fields and grassland throughout the country to the end of May. However, if unavailable, chestnut mushrooms that can be found at most supermarkets make a great alternative. Sustainably-sourced wild seabass is also now in season and the dish is a great way to showcase both ingredients, served with a simple yet elegant beurre noisette sauce.

Ingrediants Serves 4

4 sea bass fillets, roughly 150g each

300g new potatoes, diced and boiled

250g St George’s mushrooms, medium dice

80g diced pancetta

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 sprigs of thyme

5 tbsp butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

Olive oil

Sea salt, lemon juice and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Method

1 To make the beurre noisette add 4 tbsp of the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter melt and stir frequently until the butter starts to caramelise and smell nutty and fragrant. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice plus salt to taste, and stir well until incorporated. Keep warm.

2 Add olive oil and the pancetta to a large frying pan over medium heat. Stir and cook until crisp, and remove the pancetta.

3 Add the mushrooms, garlic and leaves from the thyme sprigs to the same pan with 1 tbsp of butter. Sauté for around 7 minutes or until golden.

4 Add the potatoes and continue to cook for a further 3 minutes. Return the pancetta to the pan and season to taste with salt and pepper.

5 To cook the fish, add olive oil to a frying pan at medium-high heat. Gently lay the fillets into the pan skin side down, season with salt and pepper and pan fry for around 4 minutes. Flip each fillet and cook for a further 2 minutes, or until just cooked.

6 To plate, simply heap the potatoes and mushrooms neatly on each plate and top with the fish. Finish with the butter sauce.

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TAMARIND

Safia Hothi-Bellamy, Pure Punjabi

Tamarind - or perhaps tamarind paste - is a fruit that you may have noticed on ingredients lists for Asian (or Asian-inspired) recipes. Growing up in my maternal North Indian family, tamarind has featured throughout my childhood. The preparation of this wonderful fruit is often misunderstood, so let’s delve into the finer detail.

Tamarind is a fruit that grows in pods that have a hard, brittle shell. Once this outer shell is broken, the soft fruit can be found inside, along with a fibrous casing (which supports the shape of the soft fruit) and seeds. There are two main varieties of tamarind. The

sweet variety, which is slightly smaller, can be eaten straight from the tree and has a flavour and texture similar to dates.

The second variety of tamarind is slightly larger and has a more ‘sweet/sour’ taste profile – think of the complex ‘tang’ of a good elderflower cordial. It makes the insides of your cheeks tingle. This second variety is what is used in cooking and for making sauces or chutneys as they are called in India. Did you know that the word ‘chutney’ came from India?

The larger tamarind is also slightly more fibrous. When harvested, it is processed in machines that

The manufacture of shop-bought tamarind paste involves diluting and boiling down the beautiful pulp – much like the process of taking freshly squeezed oranges to make ‘juice from concentrate’. Personally, I would never consider buying or using tamarind paste in cooking - it doesn’t do justice to the real thing and the taste doesn’t come close to the beautiful hard-won pulp.

TAMARIND CHICKEN

Our family recipe is typical of most home-style North Indian chicken dishes – full of flavour (no sauce or gravy), using a marinade to draw flavour into the chicken, as well as tenderise before the cooking process. There are many ingredients in this marinade that provide flavour but also heat or warmth (ginger, pepper, cinnamon) so you will also see jaggery (unrefined cane sugar) within the ingredients which provides a sweetness for balance but without the intense taste of refined sugar. This dish is perfect for when entertaining (indoor or outdoor) or for a delicious dinner when you are short on preparation time and want something special without complicated steps.

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1-inch piece of ginger, finely minced

1 green birds eye chilli, finely chopped

1 teaspoon garam masala

(we always use pure punjabi garam masala, of course)

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons fresh tamarind pulp (as previously described)*

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

50g jaggery (or molasses/dark brown sugar)

Juice of ½ a lemon

4 chicken breasts (or paneer as a vegetarian option) (total weight somewhere between 500-600g)

Method

1 Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly, massaging the ingredients together for at least 2 minutes (this pushes the flavour into the chicken and aids the marinating process).

2 Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours but ideally a couple of days (or longer if the ‘use by’ date on the chicken allows for this).

3 Remove the chicken from the fridge 20 minutes before cooking – this allows the raw meat to relax at room temperature, which gives a more tender result once cooked.

4 Grill or barbecue on a medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.

5 Serve hot with either rice or flatbread, a side salad and some yoghurt.

purepunjabi.co.uk

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It features a restaurant, food market, butcher, bakery, cheese counter, bottle shop selling wine local cider, and beer, a gift shop with independent-label gifts and healthy food to go. A healthy kitchen will serve nourishing plates from across the region.

We can’t wait to welcome you, through our doors to sample the local produce and enjoy the orchard.

If you fancy a trip out with a friend or an alternative to shopping in the supermarkets this is a great destination worth exploring. We have also added an Aspiga pop-up for the summer, so come and explore the new store within our store upstairs above gifts.

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When I visit my sister in New York I love to shop in a store called Trader Joes. It is full of the most delightful ingredients and goodies to bring back home. One of my favourites is their Oat Dunkers – a crunchy oat finger biscuit drizzled with white fudge. They are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee and, if you are with a good friend who won’t mind, you can dunk your biscuit to your heart’s content. They are quick and economical to make, sell well at cake and bake sales, make excellent gifts if wrapped in a pretty packet and are my husband’s all-time favourite cookie. If you wish you can make these gluten-free by replacing the self-raising flour with Dove gluten-free flour and gluten-free rolled oats.

Makes 24

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time 15-20 minutes

What you will need

Two baking sheets greased or covered in silicon sheets, a microwavable bowl, a lolly pop stick (popsicle stick) and a large piping bag.

CRUNCHY OAT BLUEBERRY DUNKERS

Ingredients

172g Demerara sugar

172g unsalted butter

172g golden syrup

200g wholegrain spelt flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon

200g porridge oats

100g dried and finely chopped blueberries or cranberries

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

150g white chocolate chips

4 tablespoons caramel drizzle

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 160C fan assisted,170C, 325F, gas mark 3-4 and grease or line the baking sheets.

2 Place the sugar, butter and syrup in a pan and and allow the mixture to melt so that all the ingredients combine. If you wish you can do this in a microwaveable bowl in the microwave on medium

THE CAKE WHISPERER

Val Stones

Image: Katharine Davies

heat for 2-3 bursts of 1 minute. Allow to cool a little.

3 Beat the egg, vanilla and water together.

4 Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a large bowl, add the oats, stir well then stir in the blueberries/cranberries.

5 Make a hollow in the middle of the flour, pour in the cooled melted sugar mixture and add the egg mixture. With a wooden spoon stir well until it comes together. It will be quite soft and needs to cool for 10 minutes then it will be the correct consistency for piping.

6 Place the mixture in a piping bag and cut the end off to give a 1-inch (3cm) wide end. Pipe 24 cookies and tidy up the ends with the lolly pop sticks so they will look neat once baked. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned and soft to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

7 Whilst the cookies are cooling make the chocolate drizzle – place the chocolate in a microwavable bowl and melt on half power for 3 bursts of 1 minute removing and stirring at the end of each minute. When almost all melted add the caramel

drizzle and stir well.

8 Either drizzle the chocolate over the cookies using a fork dipped in the chocolate or place the chocolate in a small icing bag and snip the end off to create a small hole to pipe across the dunkers.

9 When the chocolate has set, pack the dunkers in an airtight container – they will keep for 4 weeks but I doubt they will last that long.

Variations

This recipe is so versatile you may like to use:

100g chopped dried apricots – the soft, semi-dried variety • 100g chopped glacé cherries plus 2 teaspoons almond extract •100g chocolate chips • 50g chocolate chips and 50g chopped nuts of your choice • 100g mini M&Ms plus a few to sprinkle on the top of each cookie

• 100g raisins soaked in the zest and juice of an organic unwaxed orange plus 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Be creative, if you want to try more combinations just have a go!

bakerval.com

CORNISH GOLD

Joanna Weinberg, Teals

Cornwall is famous for many things – of course, for its great golden beaches and craggy, dramatic coastline. For its pasties and cream teas, its romanticised history of smugglers and its indomitably independent spirit. It’s fun for us, at the gateway to the West Country, to be able to showcase some of the best Cornish food and drink projects.

One such project is particularly magical and stems from the county’s plantlife. With its exotic gardens of palm trees, endless hydrangeas and gigantic, echiums, Cornwall’s flora is so noticeably different from that around us that it can feel like the separate country that many Cornish would prefer it to be. Follow the Fal

estuary 6 miles upriver from its mouth in Truro, into the depths of the huge Tregothnan estate and you will find, growing along 100 acres of its banks, perhaps the most unexpected Cornish plant of all – tea.

‘A soggy British summer is perfect for tea growing,’ says Greg Springer, commercial director of Tregathnon tea, cheerfully. Its very specific microclimate created by the 18-metre-deep creek that runs through the tea growing area keeps it both mild in the winter (it never freezes) and cool in the summer (it can be 5 degrees cooler than the nearest town). The climate there is very close to that of Darjeeling. ‘In fact,’ he goes on, ‘we have a longer picking season here – we often flower a couple

of weeks before the tea in Darjeeling.’

I find it easy to forget, when I sit down for one of my 7 daily cuppas (the average number of cups of tea drunk by us Brits) that tea is a plant, not just a drink. It’s closely related to the camellia, the winter flowering, shiny dark-leaved shrub that is the first to flower of the year in many front gardens around the country.

The Tregathnon estate has a long history in rare botanicals. From the days of Captain Cook, who sailed the globe with botanists, recording and bringing back specimens from all over the world, Tregathnon became home to many special plant specimens. When the Royal Gardens in Kew received one, another often went quietly to Tregathnon. Today, still, the estate is famous for its camellias, as well as its collection of rare roses. Some, such as Fortunes Double Yellow, are the only example in the Western hemisphere, along with trees thought to be extinct such as the Wollemi Pine, and some of the largest known rhodedendrons in the world.

To grow tea takes an act of both imagination and stamina. This is the leap that Lord and Lady Falmouth, owners of the estate, made twenty years ago when they were seeking a commercial crop to support the gardens. They risked 100 acres to test whether the climate would succeed with tea in the same way it had with camellias. It took time – a long time – to learn how to do it.

Jonathan Jones OBE, then the estate’s head gardener and now managing director of the tea business, travelled on a Nuffield scholarship around the great tea areas of the world to bring back both knowledge and specimens. And then it was a waiting game. ‘First, there’s the soil preparation, which can be somewhere between 4 and 10 years, depending on the state of the soil,’ says Springer. Most of the area will have been farmed previously for another crop, perhaps with unwanted fertilisers, or overploughed. ‘It must be left fallow for a year, followed by several years of sacrificial crops, such as buckwheat or chamomile, either to harvest, or plough back in, to take care of leeched chemicals from previous land use, or to fix nitrogen back into the soil,’ he continues.

The tea bushes are planted out at 18 months old, when they are still a tiny 12-14 inches tall, in rows, more akin to a vineyard than the traditional, densely packed style we associate with tea growing. The plants are still so delicate at that age, you can easily lose a whole row of them to the weather, or even injudicious weeding or mowing. You then have 6-7 years of biding your time, managing the tea bushes as they slowly group, shaping them to a degree so that they are 3-4 feet tall

and about the same width as a classic box hedge. We are now 8-10 years into their life: this is when you can start to harvest from them. Every year the amount you can harvest grows, taking just the young tips and leaving the maintenance leaves. If you weren’t harvesting, a tea bush would turn into a fully-grown tree, reaching heights of 30-40 feet. ‘The process of tea growing is in many ways more similar to the Japanese art of bonsai than it is to farming. By carefully nipping away at where the tea is growing, you hugely prolong the life of the plant. A single tea bush can, if carefully managed, be economically viable for 500 years,’ says Springer. Since the estate grows to organic standards, the positive environmental impact of this is extraordinary – the soil is undisrupted, the possibility of carbon sequestering is great and no chemicals enter the environment.

After the tea leaves are picked, they are left to wither for a few hours, which allows them to soften. They are then rolled in a big rolling press to break them down and rupture the cell membranes to expose them to the air and enable oxidation. From a flavour and colour perspective, this period is the most important of all. Depending on the weather and season, that part can take anything from a few hours to a few days. It is left until it is ‘just right’ and that is where skill and experience come in. Finally, the leaves are dried with hot air before packing. If sealed correctly, tea will keep for hundreds of years without losing its flavour. The only reason it has a ‘best before’ date is because that’s required by law.

To really taste the tea, try the Single Estate which is 100% derived from Tregothnan. Like Darjeeling, it is delicate, light, and best drunk black - perfect for afternoon tea. ‘For a perfect brew, allow boiled water to cool for a couple of minutes (to 88 degrees to be precise), then infuse it twice. The first short infusion (30-40 seconds) effectively ‘washes’ the tea, with the second longer infusion (3-4 minutes) allowing for a golden colour and truly rounded and unique taste,’ says Springer.

Now, Tregothnan is comfortably the largest tea growing area in Europe and within a couple of years it will be the largest in the West, currently harvesting half to three quarters of a million cups’ worth of pure English tea (two and a half million cups of blended). Once the total area is planted this will scale up to 10 million. Does that sound as miraculous to you as it does to me? Time for a cuppa I think.

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tregothnan.co.uk

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM

As I write it’s nearly mid-April and Easter has just whizzed by. When I say whizzed, for us it did with a build-up of activity that got more frenzied every day as the week drew nearer. We had decided in our wisdom to hold a big Easter event at the farm. Easter coincided with us moving back outside, which in itself is a massive undertaking. This year we had the inside tipi to take down and dismantle (quite easy in our dry and windand rain-free barn) then re-erect that tipi outside and our other new one for all of you to sit in. So on a rainy windy Wednesday that had been pre-arranged and couldn’t be moved. We heaved and pulled – it took us 12 hours to get both tipis up and in place. Charlotte kept us plied with copious amounts of coffee and bacon sandwiches to keep us going and finally by 7.30pm they stood magnificently next to each other. The three of us that had put them up stood back and admired our handiwork. We were knackered and I said goodbye to my friends Len and Josh and thanked them for their unwavering hard work and limped into Charlotte, ready for bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow only to wake at midnight, still so tired but completely wired from the too many coffees!

The next day my back had gone, gone where you ask? Gone bad I say. I saw the future looming as I struggled to get my socks on and searched for my back belt to help me get through the day. For the next week I groaned and

grunted my way around the farm. But moving the tipis was only the beginning. We had set ourselves the task of building a new field kitchen for Charlotte to be able to conjure up cafe lunches and both of us to be able to make and cook our pizzas. Also to build a new wooden floor in our second tipi in a few days ready for our Easter event. These things always seem easily achievable when we decide on them and I am always eternally over-optimistic with what I can achieve in a given time, but somehow with a tremendous amount of hard work and determination, we got there – nearly!

The day of our event dawned, a Saturday, the weather was set fair and the early morning mists soon blew away as I fed the pigs at breakneck speed and Charlotte quietly baked cinnamon buns before our helpers for the day turned up. Once they had all arrived and we had our staff briefing everyone scattered in all directions, carrying, moving, last minute jobs that no one had remembered, moving bins, finding bins, counting change, printing signs and then of course the printer won’t print – you can imagine! Charlotte and I were asked a million questions until our heads were just spinning and you have to say ‘you decide’. And then suddenly, as if by magic, people started to arrive. This year was slightly different in that we had a booking system so we knew roughly how many people might be

James Hull, The Story Pig

Image: Katharine Davies

here on the day which was a great improvement. As I made the first coffees and made eye contact with the two girls to my left, a look that said ‘here we go’, we launched into 4 hours of frenzied coffeemaking and serving Charlotte’s cakes as if they were going out of fashion. Quite incredibly she, with some help from her two helpers Jo and Sian, had baked enough for over 800 people – that’s no mean feat in our present kitchen. As the sun shone down, the people sat around enjoying the live music. They visited the piglets and ate hog roast, drank cider and drank in the view. As children ran around hunting for clues for the Easter egg hunt and had their faces painted

and the parents sat and chatted it suddenly dawned on me that my Swedish wife and I couldn’t have created something more British if we tried – that felt good as our next event will hopefully follow on that theme.

So Easter has passed and before we know it we will be into mid-summer. We must savour every day of spring while we have it and watch the grass grow in front of our eyes, although as I write the rain is lashing down on the windows and the 50-mile-an-hour winds are howling around the walls, but then, what could be more British than that!

thestorypig.co.uk

Corton Denham

Our house faces east and in spring and autumn the sun is perfectly placed in space and time to shine straight through the bedroom window as Tracey and I try to wake up. The effect this has on a snoozy brain is profound, a flood of sensory input as light hits the retina for the first time in hours, sending a tidal wave of signals through the optic nerve, the mid-brain and on to the visual cortex. A connected central activation centre gets a hit and boom! I’m awake. No wonder it takes longer to get going on dark winter mornings. A network of neurological connections links what we see with the motor cortex and parts of the brain that control our emotions and behaviour. That’s why we can evade a fast-moving threat without thinking and get pleasure or pain from what we see. How those of us with eyesight take this amazing sense for granted, only really appreciating it when it’s lost.

So what causes blindness in animals? Dogs and cats differ in some respects although, of course, trauma is common to both. Deeply penetrating wounds and blunt trauma to an eye are quite common in both humans and animals, resulting in different but equally challenging injuries. Puppies have to learn the ‘menace response’ which is a reflex closure of the eyelids to protect the eye from a fast-moving object. As it takes time for this lesson to be learnt, puppies up to 4 or 5 months old are vulnerable to cat-scratch corneal lacerations if the playful attentions of the new addition to the household are not appreciated by the feline incumbent. Thorn injuries in older dogs running through undergrowth can be mistaken for simple conjunctivitis, as both cause a painful, red eye in the early stages. The prognosis for these two conditions is very different, as I am sure most people are aware. There are two aspects to eye trauma, mechanical injury to the sensitive structures of the eye (especially the iris and retina) and infection. Both cause inflammation that can result in fibrin deposition (scar tissue) in the eye, resulting in adhesions that stop the iris moving and possibly glaucoma, which can cause blindness.

Trauma aside, cats and dogs differ in the commonest causes of blindness that affect them although there is considerable overlap. As vision loss can result from disorders of the eyelids and cornea right the way through the optic pathway to the back of the brain, the list of causes is very long! If you can’t open your eyelids, you can’t see even though everything else behind is working fine. This might sound a bit

theoretical but in fact, it’s quite common in breeds with lots of spare facial skin, like the Cocker spaniel. Surprisingly difficult for owners to spot, as when our dogs look up at us, the facial ‘mask’ slips backwards under gravity so all looks normal. But these dogs spend most of their time with their noses on the ground, so the skin falls forward like a curtain, covering the eyes and sometimes causing hair to rub on the corneal surface. A facelift is the treatment of choice, once again proving dogs and humans are not so different.

So anything that stops light from entering the eye and passing through to the retina to be converted into nerve impulses can cause blindness. Also, anything that prevents transmission of these impulses through the optic nerve and brain to the visual cortex, hence the long list of possibilities. In the clinic, cloudiness or pigmentation of the cornea and cataracts (opacity of the lens) are commonly seen (mostly due to trauma, infection and diabetes) but two retinal disorders deserve a special mention. Mostly seen in dogs, retinal degeneration comes in various forms but one, progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is an important cause of inherited blindness in the toy and miniature poodle, the Labrador retriever and the English cocker spaniel. Crossbreeds like the cockapoo and the labradoodle can also be affected along with other breeds. This is why screening of young dogs intended for breeding, with genetic tests and an examination by an ophthalmologist is so important. Only selective breeding will control this disease as PRA is incurable and annoyingly, causes blindness in middle age after litters have already been born.

Retinal detachment is particularly common in older cats with high blood pressure. Think of the retina as wallpaper, loosely stuck down to the back of the eye and only firmly attached in two places. Any fluid that gathers between the wall and the paper will cause detachment; in the living room and in the eye – this is ‘unsightly’ (pun intended!). Caught early, treatment can lower blood pressure and restore the retina to its rightful place and amazingly, vision. We do need to be aware that hypertension in cats can be caused by kidney and thyroid dysfunction and so a blood test is needed along with blood pressure (BP) measurement. In fact, all older cats should have their BP checked regularly, once again proving cats and humans are not so different!

THE INS AND OUTS OF IBR

Gemma Loader BVetMed MRCVS, The Kingston Veterinary Group

IBR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis) is caused by bovine herpes virus 1. It can affect cattle of all ages and is a disease which is highly contagious and infectious. The virus causes inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, often resulting in pneumonia. The virus is shed in secretions from the respiratory tract and infection occurs via inhalation from close contact with infected animals. IBR can also cause infections within the reproductive tracts of both males and females. The virus can be spread by semen of infected bulls often resulting in abortions and foetal deformities.

Following infection cattle then develop a latent infection and despite appearing clinically normal may suffer recrudescence of disease when under stress.

In adult cows, infection is associated with a drop in milk yield for a prolonged period of time, reduced 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.

Younger cattle often have more obvious and severe signs. Mild cases present with a cough and conjunctivitis, whereas in more severe cases cattle may have a high fever, depression, inappetence, coughing and purulent ocular and nasal discharge.

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. 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 often the first few cows to develop the disease with the most severe symptoms.

Diagnosis of IBR in an individual cow can be performed via two methods; blood sampling - which can detect latent/pre-exposed infection or swabs of nasal secretions – which directly detects the virus in active infections.

The level of IBR within a herd can be determined by measuring bulk milk antibody titres.

As IBR is a virus, unfortunately there is no specific treatment. Those with a fever would benefit from anti-inflammatories and any animal

JNix/Shutterstock

demonstrating signs of secondary bacterial infection may be dosed with antibiotics. Once an animal has become infected, it remains infected for life, the infection remains latent in the body and may recur and be shed again at a later date. Vaccines may be used in an outbreak to protect others.

Prevention of IBR infection is mainly achieved via vaccination, however it does not stop infected animals from shedding the virus at a later date. Management procedures can be brought into practice to help avoid the introduction of IBR including careful biosecurity and quarantine of newly purchased stock.

Amethyst and diamond rose gold cluster ring £1050

CHOOSE FROM:

| HALF LEG & BIKINI WAX |

| MINI MANI or MINI PEDI |

|

SELF-TANNING FOR LEGS |

| CHEST WAX or BACK WAX |

| TIRED FEET & LEG MASSAGE |

| CACI MICRODERMABRASION |

| EXPRESS CACI SYNERGY EYE LIFT |

| EYEBROW TINT & EYEBROW SHAPE |

| EYELASH TINT AND EYEBROW TINT |

| UPPER LIP AND EYEBROW WAX |

| 20 MIN BACK, NECK & SHOULDER MASSAGE |

| 30 MIN CLARINS RADIANCE REVIVER FACIAL |

Please check the relevant salon website or price list for usual prices

CHOOSE FROM:

| HALF LEG WAX

| EYEBROW AND LIP WAX

| LEGS AND FEET MASSAGE |

| CHEST WAX or BACK WAX |

| HIGH-CUT BIKINI LINE WAX |

| CACI MICRODERMABRASION |

| EXPRESS MANI or EXPRESS PEDI |

| EYEBROW TINT & EYEBROW SHAPE |

| EYELASH TINT AND EYEBROW TINT |

| EXPRESS CACI SYNERGY EYE LIFT |

| 20 MIN BACK, NECK & SHOULDER MASSAGE |

| 30 MIN DERMALOGICA SKINSOLVER FACIAL |

BODY CONSCIOUS

As the evenings get lighter and the promise of that first dip in the sea draws ever closer, our minds drift to the realisation that it will soon be time to unearth our skin and bodies again.

Encased in our hibernation layers it is all too easy to slacken off the care and commitment we once took when summer’s heatwave was upon us. Male or female – the rough patches, dry patches, dimply bits and white bits all look better with a bit of pre-planning and self-care before the summer strip off and now is the time to make a start.

First out with the old and in with the new with a full body exfoliation to slough off old parched and dull skin cells and encourage new fresh skin to the surface. This instantly smooths the skin, increases the absorption of products applied afterwards and provides a solid base onto which to apply a little self-tan if you are being really serious about this!

Exfoliation can be simply and inexpensively done at home in the shower or bath with a pair of exfoliation gloves, plastic pouffe or loofah with some water and a good foamy shower gel applied. Gentle buffing circular motions taking in almost every inch of your body will reveal softer and brighter skin and only take 5 minutes of your time. You could also use your hands and an exfoliating cream containing natural grit and other supportive ingredients –I would suggest this method if you have a dryer skin type.

Once buffed and silky smooth, hydrate and moisturise that skin with an oil-based body lotion or even oil to give that new fresh skin layer a big drink

of barrier-enhancing nourishment. Allow that to soak in as you give your feet a little more TLC. Use a foot file or pumice to tackle hard pads of skin that have built up on the heels, soles or sides of toes. Gentle filing movements are quick to take effect and after an application of cream and a pair of thick socks, create a feeling like you are walking on air!

Ideally daily body moisturising and weekly body exfoliation in the weeks leading up to summer’s warmth will go a long way to increasing your confidence in the sun. Massage the oils or creams into your skin with gentle kneading and stroking movements up your legs and buttocks towards your torso, up your arms towards your underarms and in a clockwise direction on your tummy to help drain the skin and encourage excess fluid and toxins out of the body. This helps to create a smoother skin surface and body silhouette. There are also many effective body products on the market to help reduce stretch marks and cellulite and to help firm slackened crêpey skin. These need to be applied daily to take effect but are useful support tools.

If you aren’t inspired to do this prep for yourself then visit a beauty salon where a therapist can use professionalgrade products, application methods and advanced technology to accelerate results and give you some relaxing downtime thinking about that break away…

thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk margaretbalfour.co.uk

Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms and The Margaret Balfour Beauty Centre

Yanik Chauvin/Shutterstock

Ihave struggled with anxiety and depression for a decade. Presently, I manage my symptoms with a mixture of anti-depressant medications and coping skills, and while I still have a way to go, I am now genuinely the happiest and healthiest that I have ever been.

This has not happened suddenly, or all at once, but through a cumulative of tiny victories and improvements over years of trying. Or course, as someone working in the mental health field, I’ve had the advantage of being constantly exposed to new coping mechanisms I can try and novel ways to look at my mental health. I am going to cover the key lifestyle

MINDSET AND MENTAL HEALTH

Lucy Lewis, Dorset Mind Ambassador

and mindset changes that I believe had the biggest impact on my mental health recovery.

Prioritising

When I was a child and adolescent, I was extremely focused on my future. To an extent, this can be a good thing; this mindset drove me forward and led me to achieve. However, it also lead me to feel devastated when I was too depressed, anxious, or exhausted to be productive, which was often. To allow for this, I would often work myself too hard, too late at night, on too many projects and goals.

However, I reached a breaking point and made a

conscious decision to prioritise my well-being over all else. If I’m exhausted, I sleep. If I’m anxious, I do something relaxing. If I’m experiencing a low mood, I push myself to do something enjoyable. I realised that there will always be something due, or mounting tasks on my ‘to do’ list, but that I needed to find a way to look after myself within the chaos, rather than trying to control it.

Monitoring

Now, after a few years of carefully formed habits, I regularly check in on myself and my mental health. When I wake up, I’ll consider how tired I am. If I’m very tired, I tell myself that today will be harder and that it is normal to feel more emotional than usual, but that is OK.

Throughout the day, I will keep an eye on how I’m feeling. If I’m beginning to feel anxious or low in mood, I will utilise my coping mechanisms or plan particular activities and attempt to regulate my mood as best I can. I will confess, it is not fool-proof, but I can say with certainty that this shift in mindset has allowed me to look after myself more effectively, and done wonders for my well-being.

Knowing myself

Having spent the majority of my formative years very depressed, I often existed in survival mode and never got to know myself as a person. I lacked the motivation and energy to do anything other than what I had to do and I struggled to enjoy most things. As I have worked on my recovery, I’ve also got to know myself; what I enjoy, what makes me happy, how to give myself the best chance of a good day and a life I’m not trying to avoid. I treat myself almost like a patient under my care and pay attention to anything that can lead to even a slight improvement in mood. As I learn more about myself, the easier it is to regulate my mood. This is a continuous journey throughout my life and I look forward to consistently rediscovering myself.

The road to improved mental health is non-linear, complicated, and personal. I’d advise anyone to keep learning everything they can about mental health, and more importantly, themselves.

dorsetmind.uk

If you are concerned about your mental health, please speak to your GP. In a crisis, call 999, or The Samaritans at 116 123.

ldutko/Shutterstock

"I’ve got to know myself; what I enjoy, what makes me happy, how to give myself the best chance of a good day"

MAKING THE CONNECTION

It appears we are truly neglecting our duty to preserve ourselves from decrepitude. This may be a little dramatic, a catastrophising of the state of affairs, but as a movement professional of some thirtyplus years, as an observer of millennials and Gen Zs in my own family, and as articles that fill newspapers and health journals report, now is the time to move. We are encouraged to change our position from reactive to proactive health care, but the amount of advice and the

best ways to achieve this are vast and overwhelming. So where to begin?

It may help to know that ‘everything is connected to everything’, and once we have an understanding of this premise, nay, reality, we can begin to realise that every action we take towards a single goal of our own maintenance is likely to have multiple positive effects over our whole being. A dose of holistic realism, if you like: addressing all the parts of ourselves

Emma Rhys Thomas, Instructor, Art of Confidence

DisobeyArt/Shutterstock

simultaneously sounds like a big ask, but the reality is that because all our physical and mental systems are interrelated, integrated, and interdependent, relying on our interoceptive barometer, what affects one part will undoubtedly affect others; ‘holistic idealism’.

We might think of ourselves as one big stretchy, human-shaped bag containing all that we are and all that we will become, floating in a mystical elixir, and I mean everything—thoughts, dreams, and experiences as well as the physical material that makes up the body. With all that stuff in the bag, each in its own position relative to everything else, if just one thing were to change, shift, disappear, or, as is our wont, we just keep adding more stuff, then every other relationship of objects within would also be affected. Everything is related. In physiological terms, the stretchy bag with its life elixir might be considered to be the body’s hydrated fascial network. Fascia is everywhere; it surrounds all our muscle fibres, muscle groups, arteries, nerves, and nerves that go through organs, and even more surrounds the organs, everywhere! What affects the fascial system affects everything else.

I am not a ‘master of all’. My expertise is in delivering Pilates exercises incorporating breath control, postural care, and better mechanical function, but over the years of my practice, it has become very evident that mental states, energy levels, and stress reduction are all improved as a result of such undertakings. I believe in the movement of the body to benefit mood, learning, sleep patterns, immune defence, and mental and physical growth, in addition to the more obvious improved and balanced physical ability. But the reverse is also true. How we move is affected by our mood (beliefs and attitude), stress (nervous system and the brain), genetics (muscular-skeletal and somatic types), health, hydration, lifestyle, environment, and so on, meaning everything is truly connected to everything.

The body is required to move and it wants to move. More movement will improve the well-being of all bodily systems to some degree, depending on the choice of activity. There is one caveat (showing yet again how everything is interrelated). Studies show there are few gains unless you like, or come to like, what you are doing. Some consider golf to be a good walk spoiled; boot camp is not for all; and initial benefits are quickly lost if the undertaking is not perceived as fun! There’s a lesson there for all instructors and teachers alike!

Creating the right environment and meeting client expectations matter.

As in many other fitness and wellbeing professions, it is common practice for the Pilates instructor to take comprehensive details of a client’s life and health history. Teachers are there to listen to you and work with your body’s abilities so you can get the absolute most out of a session. You can expect the experienced Pilates teacher to see things that you did not know were there! The past has yet another effect on everything, especially your presenting self: a riding accident, a traumatic loss, a childhood illness, or conversely, winning the school’s rugby cup or sailing around the world. All will affect confidence, self-esteem, and, more importantly from my perspective, how we move.

Deciding to improve how we move is the single goal towards our own maintenance that will affect everything in our being, as anyone who regularly takes any form of exercise or practises mindful movement will attest. Back to being dramatic... even our future may depend on it! Yes, the future is also linked in.

The peak performance of our primary asset in life— the body—is not a permanent state. With precision and directed movement, improvement is nearly always possible, whatever your age and that is why I teach Pilates—the belief in the body. It is a human condition to aspire, and striving is innate. There is no good or bad, right or wrong, and certainly no writing off; just the aim to be a little better than before. As one client so beautifully put it, ‘Not only a lesson in Pilates but a gift of healing as well; how lovely is that.’ However, the betterment does not have to be linked to Pilates; that is my happy place and that of my wonderful clients (and, yes, it is fun!) but, as one homespun studio poster for a future publication which should encourage us all states: Jump. Walk. Run and have fun. Bend, twist, curve, and turn. Freedom of movement is freedom of mind. quantockpilates.com

"Our physical and mental systems are interrelated, integrated, and interdependent"

For many people, full-body stretching is ignored. It can be seen as irrelevant, digging into our valuable ‘workout’ time and can be perceived as tedious and even unnecessary. However, it shouldn’t be missed, is very important, and worth doing daily, even if you aren’t building up to a strenuous workout! Stretching should be performed both before and after exercise. To avoid confusion, in this article we’ll be discussing stretching pre-exercise. There are so many benefits of stretching, let’s cover some of them!

Improved physical performance

Stretching will improve your physical performance. The better you perform, the more you will gain from exercise. This correlation will also most likely make the exercise a more enjoyable experience. Our muscles will lengthen and relax post-stretch, boosting circulation by increasing blood flow around the body. The ability of the muscles to contract will also become more efficient and crucially in turn help us to maximise our performance.

STRETCHING

Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit

Improved mobility and flexibility

Stretching has been shown to help improve the range of motion through joints. Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight.

Reduces the chance of getting injured

As previously stated, stretching helps our muscles become long and flexible. This results in exertion not placing too much force on the muscle itself. Without our muscles being long and flexible, when you call on them for strenuous activity, they are unable to extend as far as required. That puts you at risk of joint pain, strains, and muscular damage.

There are numerous types of stretching and with this, many different examples of suitable exercises. Let’s cover some simple, yet basic stretches that should be suitable for most people if not everyone. Firstly, It is worth noting we should try and stretch when our

Image: Stuart Brill

muscles are warm and there is a good circulation of oxygenated blood around the body. A simple walk or march on the spot is enough to do this.

Hamstrings stretch

If we sit for too long, our hamstrings (muscle of the back of the leg) can become tight. This is also linked to lower back pain. To avoid this, place one leg out straight in front of the other bent leg. With the toes pointing upwards, gently lean forwards, ensuring your body weight bears down onto the hamstrings. Make sure to keep your back straight and lower slowly. This can be performed sitting or standing.

Calf stretch

Tight calf muscles and limited ankle mobility can affect our balance and walking. To alleviate this tightness, place one foot behind the other in a standing position. Keeping the back leg straight and the front leg bent, bring both heels close to the floor. To enhance this stretch you can push against a fixed object. Alternatively, you can sit, straighten a leg and place a belt, elastic or tights around the toes of that leg and bring your toes back in towards you.

Side stretch

There are many stretches that can help with posture, here is just one of them. Seated or standing, place one hand above the shoulder joint towards the ceiling. Keeping your back straight, lean away from the lifted arm. If seated, try and keep your bottom flat on the chair. If standing, keep your feet a shoulder’s width apart.

Stretching has become incredibly advanced with multiple methods employed, using many different forms of apparatus. I personally believe we must keep stretching simple and effective – trying to cover all areas of the body. If you’d like some advice on stretching, or you have mobility issues – we would love to hear from you.

Wishing you a happy and stretchy May!

communifit.co.uk

Communifit run a variety of events throughout the year, many of which support charities local to Sherborne. Visit their website for details of forthcoming events.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LASTING POWERS OF ATTORNEY

Arecent survey of 2,000 UK residents by Which found that while 85% of respondents knew what a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) was, only one in seven people had one in place.

The misconceptions

There are many misconceptions about the use of LPAs but the two most common are that people incorrectly believe they lose access to their financial accounts once the LPA is registered and that an LPA can be created at any time during a person’s lifetime, not realising that it cannot be done once mental capacity has been lost.

There are two different types of LPAs. Under the LPA for Property & Financial Affairs, while you still can make your own decisions, you can ask your attorneys for help with your financial matters, for example, to sign documents for you or go into the bank on your behalf. Your attorneys would only take over if you were ever to lose the ability to make your own decisions about your finances.

Whereas with an LPA for Health & Welfare, your attorneys would only be able to act if you were unable to make health and welfare decisions yourself.

If you lose the mental capacity to make your own decisions without an LPA in place, your loved ones will have to apply for a Deputyship Order at the Court of Protection. It is a significantly more costly and complex

application than making LPAs. The deputy is accountable to the court on an ongoing basis and an annual supervision fee applies. Applying for a Deputyship Order also takes considerably longer than registering an LPA.

The benefits of an LPA

• You can appoint someone you trust. Without an LPA in place, it is left up to the court to approve who should make decisions on your behalf if you lose mental capacity.

• There is access to money when needed. If you are the primary earner and you became incapacitated it is likely that your partner, children, or friends would need urgent access to your bank accounts to ensure essential bills continue to be paid.

• You can leave instructions. If an attorney is presented with a choice, they can follow any instructions you have left in your LPA, which would be legally binding.

• It gives you peace of mind. Think of LPAs as if they were an insurance policy. Once you have made LPAs and the documents have been registered, you can simply file them away and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that if anything should happen, they are in place to make things easier for you and for your loved ones.

mogersdrewett.com

Kate Norris, Paralegal, Mogers Drewett

BUDGETS

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Mark Salter CFP, Chartered FCSI, Fort Financial Planning

The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his spring budget back in March. Dealing with the country’s budget must be an arduous task but an essential one! Much like personal budgeting, you may not want to face it but it’s an important job which will help you to manage your money.

Managing your money well is all about careful planning. It’s easy to let your spending get out of control if you don’t know exactly how much of your money is ‘disposable income’.

One of the reasons why budgeting is important is because it can help you achieve your financial goals. These goals can be anything – you may be budgeting for a special occasion or saving towards a deposit on a home.

And even if you don’t set any financial goals, budgeting is still beneficial. This is because it offers you the opportunity to build up a better understanding of your personal finances. Whatever the purpose of your budget, you’ll always understand how much money you have and how much you can afford to spend, helping you make better financial decisions.

Budgeting is the most effective way to manage your money. And although it may seem daunting initially, it has lots of benefits – regardless of your financial circumstances.

Here are just some of the benefits of budgeting:

Gives you control over your money – knowing that you have a good budget to fall back on each month will give you the confidence and peace of mind of knowing you’re in control of your money. It beats the ‘spend and hope’ approach where you don’t pay attention to your bank balance and hope there is money left in your account when you come to pay.

Helps in achieving your financial goals – as we’ve already mentioned, setting a budget can help you achieve your goals. Although 2023 has started in a continuous state of uncertainty, many of us are still pushing ahead with goal-setting. And whatever your financial goals are, creating a budget will be critical to their success.

Keeps you on top of what you’re spending – you’ll be surprised how much you spend on essential things, like bills, rent/mortgage and food. Most of us will have vastly underestimated our monthly or weekly spending by forgetting how much we spend on other items like TV licenses and commuting. Laying all of your expenses out clearly will help you plan better while identifying areas where you might be able to save some money. Having a budget can help you prepare for other emergency costs, such as needing a new boiler or car tyres. Unlike unprecedented events, you know that it’s very likely you’ll need to pay out for them at some point but you still can’t predict when.

Improving your financial well-being and more – budgeting can improve more than just the health of your finances. It can improve your mental and physical health, too. Money can be the biggest cause of stress among employed adults so we need processes in place to alleviate this stress, and budgeting is a great place to start.

Happy budgeting!

Here we go again – once more unto the breach. There’s no hiding that times are tough but fret not, we’ve been here before and together, we can find ways to protect your finances and look to the future. Let’s hatch a plan.

Ihad a client pop in recently and ask for some advice to ensure they could protect their computer against hardware failure, cyber-attack and theft. In today’s world, cybersecurity has become an essential element of our lives. With an increasing number of cyber threats, it is essential to have a safe PC software setup to protect yourself from cyber-attacks, data breaches, and identity theft. Here are some basic steps you can take to ensure your PC software setup is secure.

Install reliable antivirus software

One of the most important steps in securing your PC is installing reliable antivirus software. A quality antivirus program can help detect and prevent viruses and malware from infecting your computer. Ensure that you keep your antivirus software updated, so it can identify and protect against new and emerging threats.

Use a firewall

Another important step is to enable a firewall. Now in most cases a firewall is provided with your antivirus software, but not always so make sure you check. A firewall blocks unauthorised access to your computer from outside sources, helping to prevent hackers and cybercriminals from accessing your system.

Keep your operating system updated

Keeping your operating system updated is also critical in maintaining a safe PC software setup. Software updates often include critical security patches that can prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities in your system.

Use strong passwords

Using strong passwords is a vital component of keeping your PC secure. Avoid using passwords that are easy to guess, such as ‘password’ or ‘123456’, and use strong

STAYING PROTECTED

THE FUTURE OF MAC COMPUTING

James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

passwords that include a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Consider using a password manager to help generate and store strong passwords for all your accounts.

Use two-factor authentication

This feature is very handy and sometimes a pain when you’re in a hurry to access either a website or computer but well worth it. Two-factor authentication is an added layer of security that requires you to provide two forms of identification to access your account. This feature can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised access to your accounts, even if an attacker has your password.

Avoid suspicious emails and websites

We all get those emails that come through from popular companies or shopping websites but cybercriminals often use emails or websites to distribute malware, spyware, or viruses. To avoid falling victim to these scams, never click on links or download attachments from unknown sources. Always verify the sender of an email or the URL of a website before clicking on any links.

Back up your data

Regularly backing up your data is a crucial step in protecting yourself from data loss due to a cyber-attack or system failure. Ensure you regularly back up your files to an external hard drive or cloud storage service, so you always have access to your data in case of an emergency.

We all live busy lives but keeping your PC secure requires a combination of tools, software and best practices. By following these basic steps, you can significantly enhance your PC’s security and reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and data breaches.

computing-mp.co.uk

REST IN PEACE

Bill Bennette, Sherborne Scribblers

It was a miserable, cold and windy day as Phoebe made her way to Euston station to take a pre-booked high-speed train to Edinburgh to attend her father’s funeral. When she heard the news of his unexpected death, her first thoughts were relief that her painful relationship with him was over.

How well she could remember returning home some ten years earlier to find her mother in a state of shock and red-eyed.

‘What on earth is the matter, Mum? You look terrible. When I left this morning, we were both so excited to be going to the Adelphi tonight to see your friend Flora in The Corn is Green.’

‘It’s that cruel father of yours. He had the cheek to turn up here without warning and announce that he was marrying that tart of a secretary of his and wants an instant, no-fuss divorce. Not that I have any feelings left for that swine, it’s what he spluttered in the process.’

‘Well come on Mum, out with it.’

‘I was told that if I made the slightest objection, he would take you out of his will and serve notice on me to vacate the house for which I paid more than half, during our unhappy marriage. It was also laid down how we would be expected to treat that little madam – to always be friendly and affable.’

All these thoughts and many others raced through Phoebe’s mind as she arrived at Euston early enough to buy a newspaper and coffee before she boarded the train. The service and cremation were at 4.30pm that afternoon and she had timed her trip so that she would have no time to engage in any meaningful conversation with her evil stepmother. Her return trip was at 7.12pm.

It was important that she pay her last respects to her dad, having felt ambivalence towards him most of her life. She had found herself in the middle of terrible arguments, but never took sides. Mother had died only a year previously, so was spared any additional trauma with his passing.

Then Phoebe spotted the departures display.

‘Due to an incident near Birmingham, the 11.47 to Edinburgh has been delayed.’

She raced to the ticket office to make enquiries about other routes she might take to reach Edinburgh in time for the service. There was a huge queue and the many flustered and irate passengers added to the tension. When it eventually became her turn, it was soon clear that there was no way she could make it.

She nervously dialled her stepmother.

‘Hello Mildred, I am so sorry, but I will not make it to the chapel and crematorium by 4.30pm. My train has been badly delayed and I will get there after it is all over.’

‘Oh, don’t bother dear. That dreadful dad of yours didn’t want you to come. On his deathbed when he had been given a short time to live, he was emphatic that I should call you to tell you not to come. He always completely ignored me and was an arrogant pig, so I left it and hoped it would annoy him to see you there if he could. One never knows how much the dead know. To wind him up, I am taking my new bloke to the funeral; serves the selfish so-and-so right.’

‘I am sorry for your loss,’ said Phoebe as she hung up. She wondered how her father’s

relationship with Mildred had turned so sour and if she would receive anything in his will. Not expecting anything herself, she was surprised to be called to a meeting at a lawyer’s office in Gray’s Inn a few days later.

Dressed demurely, on arrival she found herself alone in a large beautifully furnished room. Whoever ‘Edwin Pope’ was, he must have cost Dad a fortune. She did not have long to consider her destiny.

A dashing, tall man entered, introduced himself as Ed Pope and before reading the will in detail told Phoebe, ‘You are a very rich woman.’ In brief, her father had left her everything and a sealed envelope. In a complete state of shock, she opened the letter and almost immediately, felt tears running down her cheeks.

Dearest Phoebe,

You will know that your mother and I never really worked well together, nor as good parents to you. She was always overprotective of you and we both used you as a pawn in our constant fights, whenever we disagreed, which we always did.

My marriage to Mildred was an utter disaster. We should never have met, let alone become married. She tricked me by saying she was pregnant. I tried many times to meet with Mum to see if we could mend our rift, but she wasn’t having any of it. I never stopped loving you and have left you everything I worked for over so many years. Please try and forgive me for the pain I have caused you.

I wish you only joy and happiness.

Much love,

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ACROSS

1. Card game (8)

5. Appendage (4)

9. Flatten on impact (5)

10. Loving deeply (7)

11. Disregarding the rules (5,3,4)

13. Of inferior quality (6)

14. Connective tissue (6)

17. Act of sending a message (12)

20. Cigarette constituent (7)

21. The beginning of an era (5)

22. Utters (4)

23. Common insect (8)

DOWN

1. Burst or break (4)

2. Volcanic crater (7)

3. Branch of astronomy (12)

4. Changes; modifies (6)

6. Nimble (5)

7. Gets brighter (8)

8. Vagrancy (12)

12. Written laws (8)

15. Decline gradually (4-3)

16. Japanese robe (6)

18. Monastery church (5)

19. Dairy product (4)

LITERARY REVIEW

Richard Hopton, Sherborne Literary Society

Homecoming by Kate Morton

(Mantle, £20 hardcover)

Kate Morton’s new novel is a rambling book about a single traumatic, tragic event and its long-running consequences. Set in London and various parts of Australia, the story concerns three generations of the same family: grandmother Nora, mother Polly, and granddaughter Jess, the latter two of whom have been brought up entirely by their mothers, in the complete absence of their fathers.

The starting point of Homecoming - and the core of its story - is the death of Mrs Isabel Turner and her three eldest children in an apparent murder/suicide on Christmas Eve 1959 while picnicking beside a creek near their house in the hills outside Adelaide in South Australia. Her youngest child, Thea, then a newborn baby, had been taken with her siblings to the picnic but went missing.

The three women, Nora, Polly, and Jess, are central to the story but so too are two houses. One of them, Halcyon, is the grand nineteenth-century colonial house in the Georgian style in the Adelaide Hills where the Turner family comes to grief. The other is Darling House, Nora’s family home, another imposing colonialera house, this one on a promontory above Sydney Harbour. Both houses loom large in the novel, forming the backdrop to much of the story.

Homecoming tells the story of Jess’s investigation into her family’s murky past. Jess, unoriginally cast as a journalist, has been living in London for twenty years but returns to Australia in December 2018 when her grandmother Nora becomes seriously ill. Once there, realising that there may be more to her family background than meets the eye, she begins to investigate the tragic events at Halcyon sixty years earlier. Much of the exposition of the story of the Turner family’s demise is achieved using the device of a book within the book As if They Were Asleep, the work of Daniel Miller, an American journalist who reported on the Turner story in 1960.

As Jess probes more deeply into the events of Christmas 1959, all manner of secrets begin to emerge about her family’s past. Indeed, wilful deceit and keeping secrets from each other seem to be family traits. The Turners’ story is also intimately connected to the inhabitants of Tambilla, Halcyon’s local town, who gradually emerge as important actors in the story.

At more than 620 pages, Homecoming is long, however on the whole, it is an absorbing novel about love, family, deceit, and the notion of home.

sherborneliterarysociety.com

Sunday 9th July

Digby Memorial Hall, 6.30pm for 7pm start

Tickets £7, or £20 with a signed copy of the book.

Tickets available online at www.shop.winstonebooks.co.uk

Kate Mosse talks about her latest book, Ghost Ship

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

Robert Draper, Church of Sacred Heart and St Aldhelm

Iam well aware that in the Abbey in Sherborne and in all the churches in the town and the surrounding villages there have been prayers offered for King Charles and his coronation. This coronation is a formal act whereby King Charles is acknowledged as the head of state in this country – and elsewhere. The very fact that perhaps many people will have reservations about this – even strong ones – requires us all to reflect on what this means for us.

I doubt if there has ever been a period when public figures have been so scrutinised by their fellow citizens. The public media has grown exponentially since the last coronation and social media has raised the level of communication of everyone’s – and anyone’s – opinions to an unimaginable height.

So what do we look for in our leaders and those who direct our laws? There is never a shortage of opinion of an individual’s mistakes and foibles, and sometimes of their qualities and successes – much of which is left as assertion and partisan – and most of which is difficult to judge. I suspect none of us has the time to sift through the vast amount of contradictory comment that assails us. But I do think we are beholden to consider what would count as the criteria to judge their stewardship. I suspect we want them to be people of integrity, people of compassion, people of justice, and I would also say, that they are wise.

In the Hebrew scriptures – what we often call the Old Testament – there is an important section of writings called the Wisdom Literature. It is worth thinking about what we mean by wisdom. We live in a society where education is highly praised. We live in a country where we greatly value experts in all fields – as the coronavirus pandemic revealed. But wisdom is not just about being clever and knowledgeable – it is very much a practical quality, something that comes from experience that has been reflected on. It is also something that, in the scriptures, is seen above all as a gift from God. When Solomon is made king after his father, David, he prays not for wealth or long life or victories, but for wisdom to guide his people.

In our culture accountability is regarded as important – those who hold significant roles, are held to be stewards and should be called to account for their stewardship. Their position is entrusted to them for the greater good and for the well-being of the whole of society.

In a democracy that accountability is partly expressed through elections and is seen in following customs and traditions. But in most cultures and for most ages, there is perceived to be a higher order – our idea of right and wrong for example is not simply decided by a vote. That is where the Hebrew idea of wisdom seems so helpful to me, especially the idea that it is a gift from God, and so for me then, I think praying for King Charles – and indeed all our leaders and public figures – is an important obligation on us all.

Green by name and nature