Sherborne Times January 2024

JANUARY 2024 | FREE

A MONTHLY CELEBR ATION OF PEOPLE, PLACE AND PURVEYOR

THE WILD BUNCH with Dorset Wildlife Trust Volunteers

sherbornetimes.co.uk

WELCOME

C

ollective downtime and the cold light of a winter’s day can offer some welcome perspective. Away from our toil and the kerfuffle of Christmas, away from the tormenting hum and heat of gadgetry, we might in the stillness discover what matters.

Our town has quite the year ahead – the grand opening of The Sherborne this spring and the launch of Sherborne’s inaugural Pride event, along with the annual scrum of festivals, fairs and gatherings – but while grateful for having much to look forward to, if January had a pause button I might just press it.

On this month’s pages, we welcome new contributors Andrea Rogers of Sherborne Town Band, Hilary Phillips of Hanford School, Tom Briggs of Sherborne Prep, Sandra Miller of Wholistic Health, Kevin Raguindin of Oxley Sports Centre, David Perham of Muntanya and writer/photographer/filmmaker Lalage Snow. We also take our final walk with Paul Newman and Emma Tabor. Paul, Emma and their dogs have been our guides on 40 fascinating outings over the years and they end their series on a high. Claire and Katharine meanwhile pop down to Bere Regis to meet our friends Dorset Wildlife Trust and join some of their volunteers on a chilly romp through Wild Woodbury, the charity’s flagship rewilding project.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2024.

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

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial and creative direction Glen Cheyne Design Andy Gerrard Photography Katharine Davies Features writer Claire Bowman Editorial assistant Helen Brown

Rebecca Beresford

Rory MacLean

Mogers Drewett Solicitors

Sherborne Travel Writing Festival

Elisabeth Bletsoe

Paul Maskell

Sherborne Museum

The Beat and Track

Tom Briggs

Tom Matkevich

Sherborne Prep

The Green Restaurant

Richard Bromell ASFAV

Sandra Miller BSc,

Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers

MSc, BCNH Dip, FDN-P Wholistic Health

Social media Jenny Dickinson

The Gardens Group

Gillian Nash

Print Stephens & George

Paula Carnell

Paul Newman & Emma Tabor

Distribution team Jan Brickell Barbara and David Elsmore Douglas and Heather Fuller The Jackson Family David and Susan Joby Mary and Roger Napper Jean and John Parker Hayley Parks Mark and Miranda Pender Claire Pilley Caspar Sheffield Joyce Sturgess Ionas Tsetikas Lesley Upham Paul Whybrew

Mike Burks

James Cattigan

Mark Newton-Clarke

Sherborne Sports Centre

MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

Camilla Clutterbuck Jan Pain David Copp

Sherborne Scribblers

Rosie Cunningham

David Perham Muntanya

Barbara Elsmore Hilary Phillips James Flynn Milborne Port Computers Kevin Raguidin Simon Ford

PO Box 9701 Sherborne DT9 9EU 07957 496193 @sherbornetimes info@homegrown-media.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk

Hanford School

Oxley Sports Centre

Annabel Goddard

Robert Randall

Dorset Mind

Sands & Randall

Craig Hardaker

Emma Rhys Thomas

Communifit

Art of Confidence

Andy Hastie

Hazel Roadnight

Yeovil Cinematheque

Winstone’s Bookshop

Sue Hawkett

Andrea Rogers Sherborne Town Band

Sarah Hitch

ISSN 2755-3337

The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms and

Sarah Rudd

The Margaret Balfour Beauty Centre

Sherborne Town Council

Sherborne Times is printed on an FSC® and EU Ecolabel certified paper. It goes without saying that once thoroughly well read, this magazine is easily recycled and we actively encourage you to do so.

James Hull

Mark Salter CFP

The Story Pig

Fort Financial Planning

Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, neither Sherborne Times nor its editorial contributors can accept, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party to loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause.

Sherborne Times does not officially endorse any advertising material included within this publication.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without prior permission from Sherborne Times.

4 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Annabelle Hunt

Lalage Snow

Bridport Timber & Flooring

Sherborne Literary Society

David Kemp

Val Stones

Sherborne Food Bank Dr Antonia Leech MRCVS, BVMSci (Hons), fCMgr, ACMI Kingston Vets

56 6

JANUARY 2024

Art & Culture

52 Antiques

108 Legal

16 What’s On

56 Dorset Wildlife Trust Volunteers

110 Finance

18 Community

64 Gardening

112 Tech

26 Family

68 Home

114 Short Story

37 Science & Nature

72 Food & Drink

118 Literature

44 On Foot

85 Animal Care

120 Crossword

48 History

90 Body & Mind

122 Pause for Thought

OPENING SPRING 2024 Unearth the hidden secrets of Sherborne House, and gain exclusive insight into what lies ahead for its new life as The Sherborne.

thesherborne.uk 488070 Sherborne Times Advert December.indd 1

sherbornetimes.co.uk 5 01/12/2023 |15:28

Art & Culture

ARTIST AT WORK

No. 62 Camilla Clutterbuck, English Bred Horse 62 x 62cm, Watercolour on paper, Framed, £1,200

M

y lifelong love of nature dictates the subjects of my work. For as long as I can remember mammals, birds, insects and flowers have been a fascination to me. Working in watercolour, oil and printmaking, I especially enjoy painting flowers in old pots, either ones I have bought or have inherited over the years. ‘English Bred Horse’ is a jug I found on eBay, attracted to the details of the agricultural equipment and, of course, the horse. Tulips are always a good subject to paint – all the colours and varieties but also how much they move around in the jug.

I am currently working on a series of life-size oil paintings of various birds and mammals using a Renaissance painting technique and a Mezzotint of a life-size barn owl. camillaclutterbuck.co.uk camillaclutterbuck Camilla teaches watercolour workshops at The Newt in Somerset and her studio in Stalbridge.

6 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Yeovil Audi.

Look No Further.

Visit Yeovil Audi today to be first in line for the latest New Year offers, including the 24 REG plate!

Competitive part-exchange valuation for your current vehicle

Part exchange bonus paid for Audi models under 7 years of age

Exclusive offers on New and Approved Used vehicles

Plus check out our Make the Switch offers, designed to help you purchase your first electric vehicle.

For more information, please visit yeovilaudi.co.uk or call us on 01935 574 981 Terms and conditions apply. Offer open to retail customers in UK aged 18+. Offers apply to selected New and Approved Used Audi models. Not available in conjunction with any other offer and may be varied or withdrawn at any time. Part exchange bonus paid for selected Audi models under 7 years of age only. Accurate at time of publication 11/2023. For further details and terms and conditions visit www.yeovilaudi.co.uk.

Yeovil Audi | Mead Avenue, Houndstone Business Park, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 8RT Tel: 01935 574 981 | www.yeovilaudi.co.uk

OCEAN AUTOMOTIVE

Art & Culture

ON FILM

Andy Hastie, Yeovil Cinematheque

H

appy New Year to all. A few weeks ago there was an interesting article in the Observer titled ‘Lost Movies...in search of the best movies we can’t see online’ by Wendy Ide, their film critic. If you have read previous articles here by me you would know this has been my particular bête noire for some time, where numerous films remain unavailable to view on streaming platforms by British audiences. These are not just obscure titles but some high-profile pictures as well.

The reasons why are complex - many older films don’t exist in a digital format or don’t meet the quality standards now required, also it is often unclear who holds the rights to a film so licensing becomes a problem. ‘Bottom-line’ driven streaming sites can reduce residuals owed – fees paid to the film’s creators when it is broadcast – by just dropping them from the catalogues they acquire. Once dropped, these films disappear forever. People may argue that a plethora of streaming sites increases choice but is that choice restricted to just the titles where the sites know they can maximise their return? Having DVD and Blu-ray releases of less commercial films is more essential than ever to maintain the invaluable cultural benefit for anyone interested in international and independent cinema.

Rant over. We have two great titles to start the New Year at Cinematheque. On 10th January we show 1976 8 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

1976 (2022)

(2022) from debut Chilean director and actor Manuela Martelli. Winning the 2022 London Film Festival Best First Feature award, this taut political thriller is set three years after General Pinochet’s military coup overthrew the democratically elected Salvador Allende government. It follows Carmen, a middle-aged, middleclass grandmother who is overseeing the renovation of her family’s summer beach home, when she witnesses a forced ‘disappearance’ outside a shop, as opponents of the junta are being hunted down. Soon after, her family priest quietly asks her to hide and look after a young political activist he is secretly sheltering and thus her, until now, protected lifestyle is forced to confront what is occurring all around her. Carmen’s daily routine becomes governed by a rising sense of fear – is she being followed? – as a climate of uncertainty and paranoia overtakes her life. Aline Kuppenheim is terrific as Carmen in this intelligent portrait of how the pervasive influence of Pinochet’s dictatorship affected everyone in 1970s Chile. ‘Outstanding, engrossing drama-thriller...a terrific debut’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

On 31st January we screen Return to Seoul (2023), the story of Freddie, a young woman given up for adoption at birth by her struggling Korean family, now living in France. Aged 25, she visits Seoul for

Return to Seoul (2023)

the first time to reconnect with her biological parents and the culture she left behind. Reconciliation with her past, however, proves far from straightforward.

This spirited, stimulating film is a refreshingly authentic story of a young woman’s search for identity.

‘Emotional and absorbing’ The Guardian, ‘Electric, powerful, soul-searching’ Little White Lies.

Two stimulating films, two female main protagonists, each taking control of their destiny.

Come to the Swan Theatre as a guest for £5 to see what Cinematheque offers – you won’t be disappointed! All details are on our website below.

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

___________________________________________ Wednesday 10th January 7.30pm 1976 (2022) Wednesday 31st January 7.30pm Return to Seoul (2023) Cinematheque, Swan Theatre, 138 Park St, Yeovil BA20 1QT Members £1, guests £5

___________________________________________

ART COURSES AND WORKSHOPS

ALL LE VEL S OF ABILIT Y - STUDIO BASED admin@southwestartcourses.co.uk

City And Guilds Courses Creative Techniques Interior Design Painting Techniques Creative Sketchbooks Printmaking Techniques

SWAC Courses 10 Week Painting 5 Week Calligraphy 5 Week Painting Art Foundation

Beginner Workshops Calligraphy Acrylic Oil Watercolour Printing & Drawing

South West Art Courses Compton Court Coldharbour Sherborne DT9 4AG 07549357138 / 07917190309 southwestartcourses.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 9

Art & Culture

CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT Rosie Cunningham

Jessica Revell and Kenneth Branagh in King Lear at Wyndham’s Theatre

K

Images: Johan Persson

enneth Branagh directed and took on the titular role of King Lear at Wyndham’s Theatre recently, which ran for 50 performances only due to his other commitments.

This was an unusual production in many ways. Branagh chose to work with a cast of recent RADA graduates to give them the opportunity of acting on a West End stage and to provide a ‘leg up’ to their future careers. The play was only two hours in length and ran without a break, unlike the traditional RSC version which was nearly double the length. The cast number was reduced in size, and many played two roles. Special mention goes to Jessica Revell who played Cordelia and The Fool, which was a masterful piece of pairing given that Cordelia is the only sister to stand up to her father. Apart from Branagh’s cleanly washed bouffant hair and impeccable outfit, for which he was much derided, everyone else was filthy of face and wore well-worn costumes. I really enjoyed this pared-down, fast-paced performance, and, judging by the audience’s reaction, this appealed to a broader, not-so-traditional Shakespearean audience. Ultimately, can any of us, post-Covid, sit through a long play? It was a romp through Shakespeare and a pleasure to witness Branagh doing his finest. The set was magnificent and the costumes suited the mood of the play, both by Emmy-nominated Jon Bausor.

Sometimes a wonderful book should not be translated into a play or a musical, however, The Time Traveller’s Wife is not the case. The book is written by Lauren Gunderson and the music and lyrics are by Joss Stone and Dave Stewart, who need no introduction. Everything is clever about this musical including the scenery and the magic of the disappearing time traveller husband, Henry. The two main leads were excellent with David Hunter as Henry and Joanna Woodward as Clare, but the supporting couple, Tim Mahendran as Gomez and Hiba Elchikhe as Charisse, made important contributions to the storyline and really endeared themselves to the audience. Light and charming, easy to follow with memorable songs and fun for all the family. On at London’s Apollo Theatre until 30th March 2024.

10 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Joanna Woodward (centre) and company in The Time Traveller’s Wife the Musical at the Apollo Theatre

I saw Lyonesse, a play about women who thought that they enjoyed freedom but who were, in fact, all trapped in loveless, thankless relationships. Kristin Scott Thomas ultimately wasn’t up to the comic timing that was demanded of the script and Lily James appeared flat throughout.

The beginning of the play appeared amateurish, although the second half picked up. Overall, quite disappointing for two wonderful female stars but I really felt that it was the script by Penelope Skinner that proved too much of a challenge.

I have always wanted to visit the Gilbert & George Centre to see their work in situ but they are only open from Thursday to Sunday. Finally, on the day which I visited, not only did I view their glorious artworks but, lo and behold, they both wandered in and chatted to everyone in a very low-key, convivial manner. Two of our most beloved living artists. I left in awe. wyndhamstheatre.co.uk theapollotheatre.co.uk gilbertandgeorgecentre.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 11

Art & Culture

COUNTER CULTURE Paul Maskell, The Beat and Track

No. 27 Jonny Trunk: Musical Gatekeeper and Librarian

H

ailing from England’s vibrant capital, Jonny Trunk emerged as a luminary in the music scene, weaving a tale through geography and time. Raised on London’s eclectic melting pot of influences, Trunk’s musical journey mirrors the diversity of his surroundings.

Growing up, Trunk found inspiration in the urban subcultures. From the anarchic energy of punk to the experimental sounds of the ‘80s, his formative years were exploratory and laid the foundation for his later ventures into uncharted territories. A rich amalgamation of cultures provided the fertile soil from which his passion for rare and forgotten music would bloom.

12 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

There are few figures as distinctive and influential as Jonny Trunk. Renowned as a writer, broadcaster and DJ, Trunk has carved a niche for himself with his unique record label, Trunk Records, which stands as a testament to his unwavering commitment to the idiosyncratic.

Trunk Records, established by Jonny in 1995, has become a bastion for music enthusiasts seeking the unconventional and the overlooked. The label has etched its name in the industry not by conforming to mainstream trends but by delving into the rich tapestry of library music and soundtracks —a genre often relegated to the shadows but brimming with creativity and character.

Library music, for the uninitiated, refers to music produced primarily for synchronisation in television, film, radio and other media. It’s an auditory backdrop, designed to enhance visual storytelling without stealing the spotlight. Yet, within this utilitarian purpose lies a treasure trove of compositions that often transcends their original intent.

Trunk Records has brought these hidden gems to light, rescuing them from the dusty archives of forgotten studios. The label’s catalogue serves as a living museum of the eclectic, the bizarre and the beautiful. From quirky instructional records to hauntingly atmospheric soundtracks, each release bears the unmistakable mark of Trunk’s predilection for the unconventional.

One of the label’s notable releases is the soundtrack to The Wicker Man, a cult classic that might have faded into obscurity without Trunk’s dedication. This exemplifies the label’s commitment to preserving and celebrating music that might otherwise be lost to time. The Trunk Records library isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s a sonic pilgrimage through forgotten narratives.

Trunk himself has contributed material that has highlighted the use of and importance of library music.

In 2003, Trunk released his own album The Inside Outside as well as discovered and subsequently reissued lost soundtrack work by 60’s experimental jazz musician Basil Kirchin. He’s released albums reciting fan mail sent to his sister, Eve Vorley, who worked as a glamour model in the 90s and 00s. He shot a subsequently banned music video for Add N to (X) for their single Plug Me In, with an extended version at 45 minutes long! Trunk is also responsible for the shortest single to have charted in the UK top 30 at only 36 seconds long.

What sets Trunk Records apart is not just the music it releases but the stories it tells. Jonny Trunk, a storyteller in his own right, accompanies each release

EM_ST.qxp_Layout 1 23/11/2023 16:00 Page 1

with meticulously researched liner notes. These notes provide historical context, anecdotes and often humorous insights into the creation of the music. It’s a nod to the importance of context, reminding listeners that these compositions are more than just sounds – they’re windows into the past, snapshots of the creative process.

The label’s output extends beyond mere archival preservation. Trunk Records actively collaborates with contemporary artists who share a similar penchant for the offbeat. This fusion of old and new, tradition and innovation, contributes to the label’s dynamic approach.

In a world where the past and present often collide in cacophony, Trunk Records manages to harmonise them in a way that feels both nostalgic and avant-garde.

Jonny Trunk’s journey with Trunk Records mirrors the very essence of the music he champions – unpredictable, unconventional and deeply resonant. It’s a celebration of musical history’s hidden corners.

As Trunk Records marks another year in its storied existence, one can’t help but marvel at the impact it has had on the perception of library music and soundtracks.

In an industry driven by trends, Jonny Trunk stands as a guardian of the obscure, an archivist of curiosities and an unwavering advocate for the belief that every piece of music, no matter how niche, has a story worth telling. thebeatandtrack.co.uk

___________________________________________ Tuesdays 7pm-8pm Under the Radar Abbey 104. The Beat and Track’s Paul Maskell often joins

presenter Matt Ambrose on his weekly radio show, bringing

you the best new sounds from established underground artists and new and rising acts from across the world. Listen live on 104.7FM or online at abbey104.com

___________________________________________

THE FREE WESSEX ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE

EVOLVER MAGAZINE

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

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 13

A L L T R E AT M E N T S

THROUGHOUT

JANUARY

AT B OT H O U R S A LO N S (Have you heard the news about our merger?!)

and a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL ( O F F E R E X C L U D E S T R E AT M E N T C O U R S E S & V O U C H E R P U R C H A S E S , A N D C A N ’ T B E U S E D I N C O N J U N C T I O N W I T H A N OT H E R O F F E R . )

8A CHEAP STREET | 01935 815085

&

N O. 1 S WA N YA R D | 0 1 9 3 5 8 1 6 1 7 7

T H E S A N C T U A RY S H E R B O R N E . C O. U K

WHAT'S ON £5, information jameskrporter@aol.com

Davis Hall, West Camel

Sherborne Library, Hound Street

Every 1st Thursday 9.30am

07972 125617 stmichaelsscdclub.org

nature and the outdoors as inspiration.

Mondays 1.30pm-3.30pm

____________________________

Mondays 11am-12.30pm Nature Writing for Fun

____________________________

£2. New starters very welcome.

Fun creative writing exercises, using

Netwalk for Business Owners & Entrepreneurs

Friday 3.30pm-5pm

____________________________

Pageant Gardens. @Netwalksherborne

Children’s Board Games Club

Craft and Chat Group

Every 2nd & 4th

Sherborne Library, Hound Street

Thursday 10am-12.30pm

Drop-in for children age 5 and over.

____________________________

Sherborne Library, Hound Street

____________________________

Bring along your current project and

Castleton Probus Club

Wednesday 3rd 7.30pm

meet others.

Sunset Cafe Stompers

____________________________

The Grange, Oborne, DT9 4LA

Mondays & Thursdays

New members welcome.

edwardhiscock6@gmail.com

Cheap Street Church. Live jazz. £17.50

____________________________

raymondwood1949@gmail.com In aid of The Rendezvous

1.30pm-4pm Sherborne Indoor

Thursdays 2pm-5pm

Short Mat Bowls

Rubber Bridge

Thursday 4th 8pm

West End Hall, Sherborne

(September-April)

Talk - The Death of Nelson -

01935 812329. All welcome

The Painting by A. W. Devis

____________________________

Sherborne Bowls Clubhouse,

Examined

Mondays 2pm-5pm &

Culverhayes car-park. 01963 210409 bridgewebs.com/sherborne

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound Street

Sherborne Bridge Club

Thursdays 2pm-4pm &

Members free, visitors £5

Sherborne FC Clubhouse

Fridays 11am-1pm

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

____________________________

Tuesdays 7pm-10pm

____________________________

____________________________

01963 210409. bridgewebs.com/sherborne

Digital Champions Sessions

Thursday 11th 2.30pm Sherborne and District

Tuesdays 10am-12pm

Sherborne Library, Hound Street.

Bookable sessions for help with

Gardeners’ Association

basic skills using your own device

Castle Gardens Talk -

or a library computer.

Success With House Plants

sherbornelibrary@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound Street All are

____________________________

Thursdays 7.30pm-9.30pm

welcome. Visitors £3. 01935 389375

____________________________

Every last Wednesday

St Michael’s Scottish

Saturday 13th 7.30pm

Military History Talk via Zoom

Country Dance Club

Bluegrass - Old Baby Mackerel

Fine Folk Dancing Charlton Horethorne Village Hall

£2.50 per session.Beginners welcome.

01963 220640.

7th February 7.45pm Cllr Dr Kelvin Clayton West Dorset Green Party

LEIGH CLIMATE GROUP presents

Leigh Talks!

Climate, Ecology, Biodiversity Absolutely the Key Issues of The Day Leigh Talks! invite you to a series of events where our parliamentary candidates can tell us their, and their party’s, approach on climate change, the ecological challenges and biodiversity loss Leigh Village Hall DT9 6HL Doors open 7.30pm Entrance £2. Bar available

16 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

21st February 7.45pm Edward Morello

West Dorset Liberal Democrat Party

JANUARY 2024 Halstock Village Hall

Buckland Newton Village Hall

artsreach.co.uk

artsreach.co.uk

£12, £5 u18s, £30 family. 01935 891744

£10, £5 u18s, £25 family. 01300 345455

____________________________

____________________________

Dorchester Road, Sherborne Dorset DT9 5NS

Men’s 1st XV (3pm KO)

Sunday 14th 3pm-4pm

Saturday 20th 2.30pm

Saturday 6th

Poetry and Music to

Sherborne Hedgehog

Weymouth & Portland (H)

Celebrate the Natural World -

Group Meeting

a Quaker Response

Butterfly House, Castle Gardens

Saturday 13th

Advice on how to be more hedgehog-

Swanage & Wareham (A)

hedgehogs.sherborne@gmail.com

Saturday 27th

____________________________

Walcot (H)

____________________________

Sunday 21st 1.30pm-4.30pm

____________________________

Wednesday 17th 10am-12pm

Sherborne Folk Band

Sherborne Football Club

Menopause Café

Digby Memorial Hall. Suitable for

The Terrace Playing Fields,

sherbornefolkband.org sherbornefolkband.org

Dorset DT9 5NS

Cheap Street Church, DT9 3BJ

Free admission, refreshments provided.

Donations to Sherborne Foodbank. sherbornequakers@gmail.com

Thyme After Time Café, Spire Hill

Business Park, Stalbridge DT10 2SG Connect with others who are

friendly. Free admission and refreshments.

all levels and all instruments. info@

____________________________

experiencing or have experienced

Thursday 25th 7.30pm

Dorchester Road, Sherborne Men’s 1st XI

(3pm KO unless otherwise stated)

menopause. julia@julianutrition.co.uk

Paul Kerensa: An Evening

____________________________

of (very) Old Radio

Saturday 6th

Thursday 18th 2pm

Nether Compton Village Hall

AFC Portchester (A)

artsreach.co.uk

Saturday 13th

Sherborne Museum Winter Talk - How Trees and Their Wildlife Help Us Understand the Historic

£12, £5 u18s, £30 family. 07866 140288 ____________________________

Landscape

Sunday 28th 2pm-4pm

Digby Memorial Church Hall,

£5, free to museum members. Light

£15 please book in advance

Brockenhurst (H)

Singing Bowl Soundbath

Saturday 20th

Digby Road, DT9 3NL. Admission

Oborne Village Hall, DT9 4LA

Hythe & Dibden (A)

refreshments available.

01935 389655. ahiahel@live.com

Saturday 27th

____________________________ Thursday 18th -

____________________________

Friday 20th 7.30pm

Planning ahead

Pantomime - The Frog Prince

____________________________

Charlton Horethorne Village Hall

Thursday 1st February 8pm

ticketsource.co.uk/chaps-panto

Slavery in Western Mali

Thursday 18th 8pm

Members free, visitors £5

Tickets from the Village Shop or

Talk - Resistance to

____________________________

Digby Hall, Hound Street

Talk - Hardy and his World:

Cowes Sports (H) ____________________________ Sherborne Tennis Club The Terrace Playing Fields,

Dorchester Road, Sherborne Dorset DT9 5NS

Yeovil and District Tennis League Division 1

sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

Sunday 7th 10am

____________________________

Chard (H)

visitors £5. sherbornehistoricalsociety.co.uk

Sport

Sunday 21st 10am

____________________________

____________________________

Bridport (H)

Friday 19th 7.30pm

Sherborne RFC

____________________________

Project Dance - Fragments

The Terrace Playing Fields.

listings@homegrown-media.co.uk

in Letters Digby Hall, Hound Street. Members free,

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 17

Community

ONE STEP CLOSER Robert Randall, Sands & Randall

"We’ve become charmed by the town and can really see what an asset the revival of The Sherborne will be to locals and visitors alike"

18 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

S

ince 2000, with my friend and work partner Ashley Sands, I’ve been taking on commissions that require architectural woodcarving, historic restoration and gilding – producing both reproduction and original pieces for our clients. Having met whilst studying a carving and conservation course at the City & Guilds London Art School and both passionate about the English woodcarving tradition, we started our business together and bring a wide range of skills and experience to the work we carry out – my background originally in cabinetmaking and Ashley having worked for his family firm of mural painters and specialist restoration.

It was through Ashley’s father Spencer that we got The Sherborne project. He was the co-founder of IFACS (International Fine Art Conservation Studios Ltd) in the eighties, who are now at the helm of bringing the Thornhill mural back to its original splendour. Elsa Guerreiro, the lead expert at the heart of the mural restoration, was covered in the June edition of the Sherborne Times.

Our work at The Sherborne is centred around the ‘Thornhill Staircase’ that complements and caresses the mural. This is actually the third Thornhill that we have worked on, having undertaken the beautiful Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and the Moor Park Mansion in Hertfordshire. We work with many private and public bodies, including interior designers, artists, antique dealers, restoration and conservation firms, architects, museums, and Royal palaces – including the National Trust, English Heritage, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Windsor Castle, English Heritage, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, St James’s and Buckingham Palaces to name but a few. The Sherborne is a wonderful building and as the months have progressed, we’ve become charmed by the town and can really see what an asset the revival of this historic listed building will be to locals and visitors alike.

Our journey started in spring 2022 at The Sherborne and we are just about finishing the final touches now. It’s almost hard to recollect what it looked like when we first arrived but it was in a very sorry state. It has been a methodical, step-by-step process, gradually getting better as time passes but for those who have not seen the staircase since we started, it’s going to be quite the transformation. The only frustration with our work is that you never really

understand the extent of what has been undertaken unless you witness the starting point, because everything we painstakingly produce must be seamless.

We have re-veneered the panelling and carefully created detailed lime wood carvings to restore the staircase which had many damaged and missing elements. Fortunately, on this project, we had a completed section to use and replicate as a point of reference, which isn’t always the case. So, having drafted many templates, sketches and drawings, we simply copied for the most part. There are, as always, some areas where there are missing bits and so we had to use our artistic licence and expertise to create something befitting that ties in with the overall aesthetic.

We used the same chisels that would have been used originally, meaning it’s the exact same cut and shape, which is rather pleasing. As the lighting is not great (dark and shadowy) in the staircase area, we worked both on-site and from our workshop in London – over carving large pieces and then cutting down on-site to fit into the gaps, which worked nicely.

A large part of this project has been the panelling in the staircase. The fielded panels were nothing short of rotten, having been damaged some time ago and left to degrade over the years. Each panel was stripped back, sanded down and re-stained. The original oak panels had at some point, we think most likely the mid-18th century, been stained by a darker reddish-brown colour to look more like mahogany which was fashionable at the time. Removing the nasty red dye was quite a task and took some time.

Parts of the wood detailing are taken from the mural – the dogs on the oak veneer and the hand-carved foliage and flowers. We like to use native, indigenous woods and carve with traditional lime wood, to be in keeping with the original. Everything we source is either British oak or European lime wood, which is the traditional choice for wood carving – it’s great to use as it is soft yet crisp to carve, making it perfect for intricate detailing and it does not warp either. Once we down our tools in the coming weeks, we will be proud to have helped The Sherborne take one step closer to its exciting launch next spring. For us, our next stop is St Bart’s Hospital, where in an uncanny twist of events, we’ll be working on an almost identical staircase project but this time it’s a Hogarth and on a larger scale. thesherborne.uk sandsandrandall.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 19

Community

LOCAL FOOD POVERTY

IS THE SOLUTION FIELDING OR BOWLING?

I

David Kemp, Chair of the Trustees, Sherborne Food Bank

f we think about why some people in our community go hungry, an overwhelming conclusion is that it’s a simple matter of home economics. Not having enough money to adequately feed one’s family, with tough decisions to make about heating or eating this winter, is a stark reality for many. You might ask, is this really an issue in the Sherborne area? Well, independent statistics from 2021 demonstrate that 41% of Sherborne residents are on low income – a figure which will undoubtedly have risen during the continuing cost-of-living crisis.

During 2023, delivering to an area of some 78 square miles, we fed over 5000 people, distributing more than 50,000 store cupboard food and essential products; supplemented by fresh fruit, vegetables and bread. Our first and foremost priority is tackling food poverty through emergency food deliveries to clients referred to us. Referrers include agencies such as Citizens Advice, GP surgeries and schools. Secondly, we outreach to local community kitchens, food share projects, social supermarkets, schools and youth groups with funding or food support – working together to ensure nobody goes without.

However, we are not able to tackle the root cause of low income. We must leave that to the Government – the bowlers taking positive action (we hope). We have met with our local MP Chris Loder, to make clear our food poverty challenges in Sherborne. He has listened and is pressing hard in Parliament for a reduction in 20 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

the Council Tax burden for West Dorset – with the aim that every family would have more money for essentials.

So, we find ourselves as the fielders, dealing with the end result of failed policies and unprecedented world events, resulting in economic hardship for so many.

But can we ‘move up the food chain’? Can we get closer to the bowlers? What if we could help our Food Bank community stretch more out of their food budgets?

We are actively looking at hands-on ways to do this, in particular by working with young people who may often be the ones cooking for their families after school.

Offering sessions to cook together and sharing skills to get better value out of limited ingredients, might just enable us to move ‘in field’, closer to the bowlers. If you have any ideas about this, then please do get in touch.

Lastly, we’re ‘bowled over’ by a new partnership with Sherborne Market. We are grateful to founder Jules Bradburn for her support and look forward to meeting you at markets during 2024. If you are thinking of volunteering for the Food Bank, we’re looking for an Events Coordinator, working alongside a great team of volunteers. If you are interested, please drop us a line at foodbankcomms@gmail.com. We are also welcoming Trustee applications – so if you have skills you can offer us, please email me at david.e.kemp@live.com Wishing you a very Happy New Year, with heartfelt thanks for all you do to support Sherborne Food Bank. sherbornefoodbank.org

SHERBORNE

TR AVE L WR ITING FES TIVAL curated by Rory MacLean

5th - 7th April 2024

Tickets on sale - 25th January Tickets and information: www.sherbornetravelwritingfestival.com

Tickets also available at: Winstone’s Bookshop, 8 Cheap Street, Sherborne

Community

Images: Katharine Davies 22 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

UPS, DOWNS AND A NEW GENERATION

C

Andrea Rogers, Sherborne Town Band

an you believe another year has flown by? What a year it was for us! Like all organisations the band has had its highs and lows. We have had to say our last goodbyes to two loved and integral members of the band – our president Stuart Hunter and secretary Jo Derrick. These lovely and dedicated people were part of the fabric of our musical community and were friends and family to all of us – they will be very sadly missed. We have also had constant prayers and positive thoughts for our principal cornet, Ian (Moley) Miles who overcame illness to finally join us at the Remembrance parade at the end of 2023. There wasn’t a dry eye in the band when Ian took his rightful place to play The Last Post and Sunset at the Abbey.

2023 started with the normal post-Christmas tired lips - after the carolling, the Abbey concerts, the Christmas tree festival and the Boxing Day tradition of playing in the Yeatman to the patients and hardworking staff.

The beginning of the year starts with the ‘contest’ piece. ‘Contest?’ I hear you say. ‘Brass bands contest?’

Yes, thousands of bands across the UK (all sectioned like football – youth, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and champion sections) learn and perfect a piece of music – each section is given a different piece. We were in the 1st section in the South West and headed down to Torquay on a rainy day in March to contend. We were down with Moley being ill but had great support from local musician David Bertie, some new members from ‘up north’ and two new American members who just couldn’t comprehend that a couple of adjudicators would sit in a box and listen to around 100 bands. And no, we didn’t know what time the bus would be coming back!

After a good performance but feeling a little flat, we discovered we had been placed 3rd and the points system gave us an invite to the National Finals of Great Britain and promotion to the champion section!

Dave Shead, our enthusiastic conductor, had to work us hard to practise a new piece for the finals and put on concerts over the spring and summer. In September we travelled to Cheltenham to do our best. We were proud of our performance, had amazing feedback from our travelling fan club (my mum) and great remarks

from the adjudicators. We were placed 19th, which of the 100 or so bands in the first section, representing the whole of the UK, is a fantastic achievement, especially against all the odds.

One thing we all noticed was that other bands representing different areas of the UK made our band seem, how do I put this delicately? Um, well … we seemed quite mature which has led us to focus on our youth section. The best thing about brass bands is how accessible and levelling they can be. Male/female and older/younger, it’s all about the talent.

We have a group of budding learners led by Jim Bennett but we would like to expand this section and promote the youth band by offering this for free from January 2024. We have a few instruments available and will seek fundraising, donations and possibly sponsorship opportunities. With the cost of living so high, sadly music lessons can seen as a bit of a luxury and the next generation of brass players will be missed if we don’t help. We hope that by offering free group sessions more children can have the opportunity to experience music, benefiting the children, the schools and the wider community. To sustain this idea we will need the support of Sherborne and the local areas.

Instruments are expensive and maintaining them is a constant task so please look out for future promotions.

We welcome Jonny Andrews as our new president and thank the Sherborne Council for their continued support. We also need to fill some vital sections in the main band so please contact us if you are a highstandard brass player, especially cornet/soprano players or a percussionist who would like to join our hardworking, fun-loving, music-making band.

So, with that said the members of Sherborne Town Band would like to wish Sherborne a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sherborne Town Band youth section enquiries: syb@sherbornetownband.co.uk.

Main band: info@sherbornetownband.co.uk or call Chairman, John Derrick on 01935 873552. sherbornetownband.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 23

Community

SHERBORNE TOWN COUNCIL ENTERS THE AWARDS ARENA

Sarah Rudd, Communications Officer, Sherborne Town Council

A

s a local council, positive impact they have. we like to think Amongst other things we are one of Sherborne Town Council has the organisations at the been recognised as having heart of the Sherborne ‘demonstrated impressive community, helping to give achievements, highlighting a neighbourhoods a voice commitment to community and getting people more engagement, sustainable involved in the decisions practices and collaboration with that affect them. We want local organisations. Sherborne to be able to serve our Town Council has taken community as best we can ambitious steps forward with and one of the ways to be Cllr Margaret Crossman, the Mayor of Sherborne a dedicated focus on green and Steve Shield, Town Clerk able to assess how we are ethics, innovative initiatives doing this is via the Local and improved communication, Council Award Scheme (LCAS). as outlined in its forward plan. They have embraced The LCAS has been designed to celebrate the sustainability, community engagement and growth, successes of the very best local councils and to showcasing a holistic approach to enhancing the quality provide a framework to support all local councils to of life for residents in Sherborne.’ improve and develop to meet their full potential. The While we didn’t win, we are proud that the scheme offers councils the opportunity to show that town and council have been recognised and named they meet the standards set by the sector and put in one of the finalists. We congratulate all the winners place the conditions for continued improvement. We across the various award categories for their are delighted to report that we have recently been fantastic achievements. accredited the Foundation Award for this scheme.

As the award was decided by a public vote, we Running alongside this has been the exciting news would like to thank everyone who voted, shared our that Sherborne Town Council was named one of five social media posts and helped spread the word to finalists in the Council of the Year category of the others. We really appreciate the support. From all the National Association of Local Councils’ (NALC) Star staff and members of Sherborne Town Council we Council Awards 2023. The awards are the only ones in wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

England that recognise local parish and town councils’ contribution to their community and celebrate the sherborne-tc.gov.uk 24 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

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Family

UNEARTHED Alexandre Krnc, Aged 10, Sherborne Prep

A

lexandre is an extremely talented gymnast and tumbler who trains at Poole Gymnastics and Trampolining Club. Born in Provence and having moved back to the UK when he was three, Alexandre joined a recreational gymnastics class before being selected at six years of age for an Artistic Gymnastics Squad; he then started competing. Winning gold at club and regional championships and silver for floor at the South West Championships, last year, Alexandre chose to focus solely on floor and switched to tumbling in which he performs a series of acrobatic skills down a 25-metre (82 ft) long sprung track.

Earlier last month, Alexandre had the opportunity to attend the Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships in Birmingham with his inspiring coach, Michael Barnes and the British Tumbling Team. Both the team and his coach are wonderful role models for Alexandre, showing him their dedication to the sport. Now he is ten, Alexandre will start competing with his Poole GTC tumbling development group – look out for him in the British team in a few years’ time! sherborneprep.org

KATHARINE DAVIES PHOTOGRAPHY

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

26 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

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co-educational | 3 - 13 yrs | day and boarding 01935 8120097 | admissions@sherborneprep.org | www.sherborneprep.org

Children’s Book Review

Family

Hazel Roadnight, Winstones Books

Fold-Out Atlas of The World (Yo-Yo books £12.99) Sherborne Times reader offer price of £10.99 from Winstone's Books

T

his is a brilliant way for young explorers and adventurers to start the year. More interesting than a straightforward atlas, each continent gets a fold-out map surrounded by the flags of the countries.

There are pages of fascinating facts about the people and animals that live in each place and the amazing things you can see there, all accompanied by vibrant illustrations and a quiz for each section.

At the back of the book, there’s a large fold-out map of the world to cut out and put on your wall.

Books for a bright start

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

HANFORD PORRIDGE BREAD A Recipe by Joe Tyrrell, Head Chef at Hanford

One morning the girls didn’t eat all of the bottomless porridge pot that I had made. I hate waste so I was inspired to use the leftovers in a bread – my thinking was that it could be like a mashed potato bread which has a scrumptious softness. The result is now a Hanford staple, served with soup and cheese.

Ingredients

300g Stoate and Sons Maltstar flour 200g Stoate and Sons strong white flour 25g melted butter 250ml warm water 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp Doves Farm quick yeast 1 tsp dark brown sugar 1 cup left-over porridge

Instructions

1. Put all your ingredients into a mixing bowl.

2. Knead for 5 minutes until you have a silky dough.

3. Cover the bowl and let the yeast do its thing for 30 minutes, preferably in a warm part of the house.

4. Now it’s time to shape your loaf. On a floured surface, form your loaf by gathering up of the edges and pulling towards the middle this will create a rounded ball.

5. Transfer onto a lined tray, cover and allow to double in size (this can take from 20-60 mins depending on the temperature).

6. Once the dough has risen, cook it in a preheated oven at 160⁰C for 45 minutes.

OPEN MORNING Saturday 3 February

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Family

Images: Candice Raby

THE SLOW-COOKED CHILDHOOD

I

Hilary Phillips, Head, Hanford School

moved house in August. Three dogs, chickens, a horse, three fairly grown-up children (at the stage where they don’t fully have their own homes so all their stuff is still in the family home) and a husband who frankly could fill a skip with all the things he has never thrown away (only child = plenty of space!). It was a large removal lorry and I still have boxes to unpack. If I am to be brutally honest with myself, some of those boxes are from the last move. I’m the Head of Dorset prep school, Hanford, and we tend to move for the job so you would think that this would make me streamline our belongings but it doesn’t seem to work that way. Every item in our house is like an ingredient in our lives and together these ingredients make up a wonderful recipe of memories.

On the subject of recipes, one thing that did get unpacked fairly quickly was my kitchen box with my favourite casserole pot. I love the creativity of cooking and the element of surprise. The recipe never turns out the same way twice. It’s rather like that here in school.

We are a slow-cooking school and believe in giving the 30 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

children plenty of time to develop their own individual flavour. So much nowadays is about fitting in, getting the ‘likes’ or the followers and not allowing individuality to flourish. It’s quicker and easier if we all do the same but we all know that mass-produced dishes never have the same depth of flavour.

Childhood is a very brief moment for us all and we only get one shot at it. That’s why it’s important to get it right. What children need is time and too often we find that time for them by using shortcuts, usually tech-based. This creates a dependency though and is counterproductive. It’s all very well to shout about Artificial Intelligence but I think our own intelligence must take priority. It’s not true to say that our intelligence is fixed, but it’s only going to grow in the right conditions. Here at school, we take away the phones and iPads are only used in class under supervision in a lesson and, do you know what, nobody misses them! What we hear is not the tapping of keyboards or the silence of a child in an online world. No, what we hear are shrieking

children, lots of laughter, squabbles, occasional tears, the clip-clop of ponies’ hooves, the crunch of gravel as girls run headlong around the site and excited yelps as younger pupils are helped to climb the cedar tree outside my study. Of course, there are fights but without the follow-up of comments or pictures on social media, they are quickly forgotten because the children are encouraged to reflect, to talk over the problems and to empathise with the other person. Each child needs a slightly different recipe and, with our focus on the individual, we can tweak the ingredients as appropriate.

The slow-cooking effect does not only work for the children but it has also worked its magic on the adults around them. We don’t walk around with our phones out and we don’t react like Pavlov’s dogs when the ping of a message is heard. We chat, we look each other in the eyes, we look around us. It’s well worth looking around as our little part of Dorset is so incredibly beautiful, nestled as we are between Hod and Hambledon Hills.

Progress is good of course – change is inevitable and if we don’t change, we risk going backwards but that’s not to say that we should leave everything behind. The best recipes are those that have been handed down through time so let’s learn those lessons and keep what has been

proven to be good. It does take courage to take the tech away. It does take willpower to put your phone or iPad down but if we can’t do it, what chance do our children have? You will be considered the cruel parent, well for a time at least, but when you see you have a child who is confident enough not to be a slave to the reactions of the pressures of social media then it will be worth it.

We aren’t dinosaurs here at Hanford. We educate about and with technology but we make it work for us and stick to our values. We celebrate the important things.

A recent celebration in our Friday chapel service was not about a top score in maths, our sporting prowess or a win in a national show jumping competition. It was a great big well done to a girl who rose to the occasion when one of the school guinea pigs lost its claw. A cold compress with firm pressure was the first response, the first aid box was fetched and a bandage applied. A note was written on the guinea pig daily record to avoid picking up the injured one as she would probably bite (the guinea pig, not the pupil) and then matron was approached to advise how to get bloodstains out of a skirt.

Job done! hanfordschool.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 31

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NURSERY

PREP

SENIOR

SIXTH FORM

Family

JANUARY BLUES Tom Briggs, Year 1 Teacher, Sherborne Prep

S

o, the turkey has been eaten, crackers cracked, wrapping paper recycled and festivities enjoyed with friends and family. Once the clocks go back there is something to look forward to every month – Halloween in October, Bonfire Night in November, and then, of course, the countdown to Christmas followed swiftly by New Year’s Eve. But then… nothing. Just January.

It is always at this time of year that I’m grateful for working with children. They love coming back to school – there are no January Blues for them. They look forward to seeing their friends and sharing their Christmas stories; what they got, who they saw, and, ‘Yes, Father Christmas really did come, and he brought me that toy I really wanted!’ The magic of Christmas 34 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

lasts that little longer in the classroom!

Before Christmas we wrote our letters to ol’ Saint Nick, learned lines and performed to parents in our Pre-Prep Nativity, sang hymns in the Abbey and enjoyed a Christmas feast even Tiny Tim (not presently a pupil!) would have been delighted with. Now, in January, we will write about what a super time we had, write thank you letters and think carefully about what we’d like to achieve during the rest of our time in Year 1 – our own version of New Year’s Resolutions.

It might be trite to say it but no two days are the same when teaching children and never is that more delightful than when returning to work at the start of the new calendar year. They have things to look forward to every week. Playtime? Great! Wet play?! Even better!

Images: Katharine Davies

Forest School? Yes! PE, Music, Computing, Design Technology – the lessons are varied and the children are busy learning new skills alongside their friends. Even lunchtime is a rich experience as they try new foods in the dining room, perfect their table manners and have the odd singsong as birthdays come around.

It leads me to believe that it is not the fact of the end of Christmas that makes one feel blue in January but rather the return to the inevitable 9-5 daily grind, the mundanity of the drudge that people dread and bemoan. Not the lack of events on crisp winter evenings but the lack of variety in the day-to-day.

My advice to those of you experiencing the January Blues is to work out what it is that is really making you blue, for it most certainly can’t be January – that month of excitement for so many little ones and presumably for you when you were young (we all were once!).

Rather than a New Year’s Resolution to eat less cake, exercise more or abstain from things one enjoys, rather look to take something up, start a new hobby

you’ve been mulling over or host dinner parties for friends and make plans to go places at weekends.

We are all very lucky, in my opinion, to be living in Sherborne as the small community we enjoy comes into its own at a time like January. Choirs, clubs, societies and groups are everywhere to be found within our small Dorset town. People are welcoming and opportunities to begin 2024 on the front foot are there to be grasped.

As Paul Coelho (author of the bestselling The Alchemist) puts it, ‘A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something and to know how to demand with all their might that which they desire’.

So, my challenge for you to beat the January Blues is to answer these questions: what makes you happy?

What can you be busy with? And, most perplexing of all, what do you desire and how will you demand it?

Not sure? Ask a child; I know I will be! sherborneprep.org sherbornetimes.co.uk | 35

D I S C O V E R | E AT | S H O P | S TAY | C E L E B R AT E

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Science & Nature

DJTaylor/Shutterstock

DRAWN TO THE LIGHT Red Sword-grass Xylena vetusta Gillian Nash

O

f the many cryptic forms found in the world of moths, the Red Sword-grass is undoubtedly among the most unusual. In its resting pose there is nothing that would give its identity away to any would-be predator – wings in shades of dark, reddish brown and cream tightly wrapped and folded around a long body, all blending perfectly within its chosen hiding place. A black streak on each forewing gives it the common name. If dislodged, falling motionless and heavily to the ground draws little attention, further increasing its survival chances, appearing to be nothing more interesting than a fragment of broken wood.

With some possible migration, although never commonly found, most records are concentrated in the northern and western parts of the country where it inhabits damp marshy areas such as moorland, heaths and wild boggy inaccessible areas. Eggs are laid on a wide variety of plants that grow in such places

where the resulting young can be seen feeding in daylight hours from May to July, prior to forming an underground pupa, with the emergence of the adult moth the following autumn.

A large nocturnal moth with a wingspan of around 60mm, the Red Sword-grass has a main flight season of September to November when it is sometimes seen in rural gardens and parks feeding on autumn flower nectar and over-ripe blackberries. These adults hibernate concealed in carefully selected places such as bark crevices, camouflaged and safe from the effects of severe weather and predation, to emerge again in spring to breed, seeking larval foodplants including Bog Myrtle, Hop, various rushes, sedges and heather.

Few moths fly in January, although overwintering early spring species are occasionally attracted to light, having been awoken from hibernation by unseasonal mild temperatures. sherbornetimes.co.uk | 37

Science & Nature

BACK TO YOUR ROOTS Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser

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anuary is generally a pretty cold and windy month and a time to ‘batten down the hatches’ with a warm drink and sit in front of a roaring fire! Although I must admit that sounds tempting, I soon get bored being inside and instead like to dress up in warm or wet weather gear and get some fresh air. Having a dog, means that you have to brave the weather, regardless.

Sometimes, I make a conscious decision about where I am going to go but more often than not there are a series of local circuits, depending on how much time I have and also how muddy the paths are likely to be. In the autumn, when the leaves are falling, many of us are drawn to the woods and in the summer, perhaps to the coast. In the winter, the lure of a good pub with hearty food may be the trigger!

I am fortunate that my work with the National Trust has taken me all across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to some of the most spectacular places from Cape Cornwall to Lindisfarne and the Giant’s Causeway to the White Cliffs of Dover, with lots of places in between. There are the rugged mountains of the Lake District and Snowdonia, the coast of Cornwall, Devon and Pembrokeshire, the wild moors of Yorkshire, Exmoor and Dartmoor, the flatlands of Norfolk, Suffolk and the Somerset Levels or the rolling Downs of Wiltshire, Sussex and, of course, Dorset.

They are all fantastic and inspiring for someone who loves the countryside and to be honest are hard to beat, even in more exotic places like America, Australia, Asia or Africa. The sheer variety of landscapes, architecture, wildlife and history are incomparable in a country of our size. Of course, there are some areas of the country I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit and personally, I am not so keen on large urban and industrial areas or the intensively farmed Cambridgeshire fens.

It made me think about what it is that draws us to different places. Is it something deep

38 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Matt Gibson/Shutterstock

Colmers Hill, Symondsbury

inside us, that attracts some people to a particular place? Walk along a street and you will often see houses named after (presumably) the owners’ favourite place; Clovelly, Pentire, Richmond, Aldeburgh, Rye, Lynton, Bakewell and Grasmere. Maybe they were where they met their husband/wife, perhaps where they went on holiday as children or perhaps they just thought they looked a nice spot.

Some of my colleagues favour rugged mountains in Wales, some like the bleak moorland of the Pennines, others the expansive skies of the east of England, the vast forests of Northumberland or the coast of Cornwall and Devon. I like all of these places but feel most at home on rolling downland, interspersed with streams and woods and occasional farmsteads.

I have a theory (which may be rubbish) that where we feel most at home, may go back to our roots. Where did our families live? Looking at my family history, there was a very strong link with the weald and downs of West Sussex, where my ancestors were millers, living in a variety of wind and water mills. The countryside was not dissimilar to that of Dorset, with a clay vale, covered in woodland and heath, lots of pretty flint villages, surrounded by the South Downs.

Sherborne is situated quite close to the county boundary with Somerset and Wiltshire, with a variety of landscapes, from the Somerset Levels, Salisbury Plain, the Blackmore Vale and the Mendips, all within easy reach. I do find however that I am drawn to West Dorset, much more than any of the other areas.

Whatever the weather brings in January, put on your boots, a good coat and scarf and breathe in the ozone on a stormy day at Burton Bradstock, brace yourself against a gale on Bulbarrow or maybe trample through the snow at Cerne Abbas.

Happy New Year!

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 39

Science & Nature

DIGITAL DETOX Paula Carnell, Beekeeping Consultant, Writer and Speaker

Food Impressions/Shutterstock

J

anuary often signals the time to detox our bodies from the excesses of the festive season. We’ve become familiar with the understanding that not all the food and drink we consume is beneficial to our health and so a ‘dry January’ or a new diet is commonplace. Have you ever considered a digital detox as part of that January cleanse?

In the heart of the digital age, where wireless connectivity permeates every aspect of our lives, concerns about the potential health impacts of electromagnetic smog have been gaining traction.

The increase of transmitting electrical masts coupled with the growing addiction to mobile and cellular devices, has sparked a wave of investigation into their potential connection to the rising rates of cancer and 40 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

heart disease. As a beekeeper I have also been familiar with tales of bees dying or simply missing from areas, sometimes being connected with the installation of new large telephone and data transmitters. How can bees and humans lead balanced and healthy lives in an environment buzzing with electromagnetic frequencies?

We recently took a holiday with an almost digital detox in the Cape Verde islands. When we first visited the island of Sal in 2014, the only Wi-Fi was available in the hotel reception. It was weak and unreliable and the reception area was often busy with people desperately trying to connect their phones and iPads to the limited supply of Wi-Fi. This year, giant fake palm trees tower above the towns and resorts enabling everyone to have access to

Wi-Fi, wherever they are. Individual routers connect guests to Wi-Fi through their TV sets. We didn’t purchase a data card to have Wi-Fi over the whole island, choosing to check our phones, mainly to upload photos taken during the day, only for brief times at the beginning or end of the day. For me, this was partly a digital detox.

Although I travel a lot for business, holidays are far less frequent and to manage my health it’s important that I can completely break away from the stresses of emails and phone calls. When I’m travelling for work, I aim to be present so my team back at the Hive manage how much communication I receive and have to respond to. The more I learn about bees and hear tales of them disappearing, along with birds and other insects, I realise the importance that we too need to be more aware of the impact of constant exposure to this ‘invisible rainbow’ of electro smog.

Electromagnetic smog, is the collective term for the dense cloud of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by various technological devices. These fields include radio frequency radiation from cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, and transmitting electrical masts, among others.

As our dependence on wireless technology grows, so does our exposure to these fields.

One of the primary concerns raised by scientists and health experts is the potential link between electromagnetic smog and adverse health effects. While the scientific community is still exploring the long-term consequences of prolonged exposure to EMFs, many studies suggest a possible correlation. As we navigate this uncharted territory, it becomes imperative to adopt strategies that allow us to enjoy the benefits of modern technology without compromising our well-being.

Transmitting electrical masts, often towering structures adorned with an array of antennas, even disguised as palm trees, are an integral part of the modern communication infrastructure. These masts facilitate the seamless flow of information that powers our interconnected world. As the ‘internet of things’ grows, we are looking towards a future where all devices in our homes and vehicles are communicating through Wi-Fi to each other, and we’re living in the middle of it, with little or infrequent escape. There are now over 8,800 satellites circulating the earth, helping the transmission from our devices to each other. In October, The Journal Science reviewing filings from the International Telecommunication Union informed us that the number of filings and planned satellites on

31st December 2022 would exceed 1 million satellites in our skies. I have noticed when looking into the night sky from various locations that over the UK the sky is busy with moving satellites, yet in Easter Island in September, I could only see a single satellite every 20 or so minutes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges that electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) can cause symptoms like headaches and sleep disturbances. Many symptoms of over-sensitivity mimic cold and flu as well as nausea.

A study published in the Journal of Behavioural Addictions highlights the parallels between digital addiction and substance abuse, with both activating similar reward pathways in the brain. Our constant use of mobile devices affects our mental health and our overexposure. We can, and should, take steps to resetting the balance for our health and EMF exposure.

The blue light emitted by screens can disrupt circadian rhythms and interfere with quality sleep limiting screen time is essential 2 hours before going to bed. Designate specific areas in your home as EMF-free zones. This can be achieved by turning off Wi-Fi routers and electronic devices when not in use.

You could go a step further and use EMF protection paint on your walls.

Schedule regular digital detox periods to disconnect from the online world. Walk in nature, read a physical book or practice mindfulness to reduce dependency on digital devices. Switch your phone to airplane mode to reduce exposure to radio frequency radiation. This simple step can significantly decrease your overall electromagnetic exposure.

Consider using EMF shielding products, such as cases and fabrics, to minimise direct contact with electromagnetic fields. You could even stop using a mobile phone altogether and return to the wired phones we used to survive using! I use Shungite powder as a form of paint to use on the inside of my beehives. This protects the bees and enables them to rest and sleep when inside their hives.

This January, as long as it remains cold, my bees will be having their own digital detox inside their Shungitelined hives. Their winter cluster in torpor enables them to rest and heal adequately to re-emerge strong for the spring flow. Why don’t we follow the bees’ example this January and see how we feel? paulacarnell.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 41

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On Foot

44 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

On Foot

WESSEX HEIGHTS Emma Tabor & Paul Newman

Distance: 9 miles Time: Approx. 4 1/2 hours Park: Powerstock Common Car Park Walk Features: This route starts with a long but steady climb to the summit of Eggardon Hill, followed by a shorter, steep descent into gently undulating farmland and coppices towards Nettlecombe, and the picturesque village of Powerstock. Both Eggardon and Powerstock make for ideal points to stop on this long walk. The return section follows part of the route of the old Bridport Branch Railway across Powerstock Common, now a Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve rich in biodiversity.

Stout footwear is essential - and a packed lunch, although there are three pubs en route!

Refreshments: The Three Horseshoes, Powerstock, The Spyway Inn, Askerswell, The Marquis of Lorne, Nettlecombe >

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 45

E

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

For our fortieth and final West Dorset Walk, we take in the enigmatic summit of the Iron Age fort of Eggardon Hill, one of the strongholds of the Durotriges tribe and a reputed marker point for the 18th Century smuggler Isaac Gulliver. The route also covers terrain typical of the Marshwood Vale, undulations, secretive copses and remains of rural industry. Powerstock village is particularly picturesque, especially the churchyard.

This wide-ranging walk encompasses a great deal and variety of what makes this area so special to explore, from the glorious views across Lyme Bay and other summits across the Vale, to the intimacy of Powerstock Common. With multiple touchpoints across human history and interference, as well as pockets of remaining wilderness, this walk captures the character of what has inspired writers, artists, ecologists and the many people who have tended the land and still continue to honour traditional ways of working.

Warning - this walk was completed in November 2023 and some sections were incredibly muddy and overgrown, especially the section between Powerstock and Wytherston Farm. The route also had many missing or damaged footpath signs, making navigation challenging. As with all of our walks, please use an OS Explorer map. Our hand-drawn maps are reasonably accurate but are more to illustrate the feature rather than a reliable field guide!

Directions

Start: Powerstock Common car park, SY 546 973

1

Park in the car park at Powerstock Common. Leave the car park, walk back to the road and turn right onto Barrowland Lane.

2 Walk uphill and after 1/2 mile, at a junction, turn 46 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

right to Barrowland Farm. Follow this track to walk through the farmyard then take the track just past the barns. Keep on the track to the right, with a hedge on your left. Walk on until you reach a large metal gate with a blue footpath sign on a post. There are good views to your right across to Lewesdon Hill, Pilsdon Pen, Lambert’s and Coney’s Castles, and Golden Cap. Go through the gate and head diagonally and up across the field, towards the fence to your left. Just before you reach the far hedge, there is a temporary gateway in the fence on the left, with a footpath sign. Go through the gateway and walk across this next field to the top corner where you meet a track into another field. Look for a footpath sign on your left, turn left to go towards a large gate and then turn right back onto the road.

3 Walk along the road for 1/2 mile until you reach the fingerpost sign for Wynford Eagle and Maiden Newton. On your right there is a stile and footpath sign - go over this and walk across the middle of this field to another stile onto King’s Lane. Cross the road and go across this next field, now on the edge of Eggardon Hillfort. You will soon reach another gate and views towards the sea. Go through this gate to take the track which skirts the southern ramparts of the fort. Pass through a larger gate and keep down this track, around the outer edge of the fort. As it drops down, turn sharp left to see a small gate next to a National Trust sign. Go through this gate and down a narrow footpath along a hedgerow at the side of a field. Stay on this for 1/3 mile to reach a tarmac track.

4 Turn left onto the track, past the Old Dairy and follow this track which weaves though a farmyard and then heads down towards North Eggardon Farm. Pass in front of the farm and go through a gate into a field. Head right and down across this field to enter a copse through a small gate. Stay on this path as it skirts South Eggardon Farm; the

path turns to the left and passes a weir and a lake in front of the farm and then head up through another little wooden gate to turn right onto a tarmac drive.

5 Follow the drive for 1/3 mile to reach Spyway Road. Turn right, with the Spyway Inn soon on your left and then in a few more yards, look for a bridleway sign on your right for Powerstock. Take this bridleway, and bear left following the track as it passes under pylons. It soon bends sharp left then right to head up and across two small fields and to the left of Knowle Hill. In a short while you will soon come to the old line of the Bridport Branch Railway.

Cross this and stay on this track which soon bends right and up to the road by Brown’s Farm. Cross the road and go straight on towards Nettlecombe. Walk through the village keeping left until you soon reach the Marquis of Lorne on your right. Immediately after the pub, there is a green path on the right. Take this, through a gateway and down into a field to a small wooden gate at the bottom. Walk along an enclosed path and down to the river. Cross a small wooden footbridge and straight over the next field, through a small metal gate, crossing another small wooden footbridge then head steeply up a lovely narrow footpath towards the road. Turn left to come to the Three Horseshoes Pub and Powerstock.

6 After the pub, and with the church of St Mary the Virgin on your right, take the road signed for Poorton. Walk up the road and after 300 yards look for a footpath sign on your right opposite Oak House. Walk up this footpath to a rusty metal gate to take you into a field and walk slightly left, more steeply, to the top left-hand corner which is overgrown, with a stile. Go over the stile to exit this field. Walk across the middle of this next field and down to the road through an opening.

7 Turn left onto the road then immediately opposite, go through a large gateway. Go left for a few yards then follow the hedge line that leads diagonally away from the road. Walk along the hedge, on your left, to reach the top of the valley which is on your right and then go up, into another field, now keeping the hedge on your right. After 100 yards, in the far corner, there is a footpath sign to lead you out of the field, towards the right.

8 You now turn immediately left, then head steeply down with Ramsden Coppice and a spur ahead of you. This is a lovely secluded valley, with the ridge of Eggardon overlooking the scene. At the bottom, go over a stile, with a pond and stream on your right and walk along the valley floor. After 1/3 mile, look for a wide wooden footbridge on your right before you get to Wytherston Farm. Cross this bridge, then turn left, now with the stream on your left. You will soon come to a stile; cross the stile and go left to pass between beautiful farmhouses. The path forks right in front of a barn, and then right again, down a track and to a large metal gate. Go through the gate, up into the next field, to follow the edge of the wood on your right. Keep the wood on your right and after 300 yards, meet a small gate to leave the field.

Head down some steps and then down to your right to meet the railway line. (The official footpath is directed over the railway bridge but this is unsafe).

9 When you get onto the railway track, turn left to pass back under the bridge, heading along the old line for a mile, following a permissive path back towards your car. Look out for the Ganger’s hut and the brick kiln along this stretch. Powerstock Common is an SSSI and the final section through this important, wonderfully rich, natural treasure is a fitting way to end this series!

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enquiries@chedingtoncompost.co.uk WWW.CHEDINGTONCOMPOST.CO.UK sherbornetimes.co.uk | 47

History

Samuel Newport

Image: The Western Gazette

PAPER TRAIL

A

Barbara Elsmore

couple of faded newspaper cuttings and a photograph have a unique story to tell.

In the North Dorset edition of the Western Gazette on 26th November 1954 under the heading: ‘A Memory of 50 years ago’ there appeared a fine photograph of a bewhiskered newspaper vendor. The text of the article read: ‘Many of the older residents in a wide area of North Dorset and Somerset will remember the late Mr Samuel Newport, of Sherborne, who was a very familiar figure over fifty years ago, with his pannier baskets and a horn he distributed copies of the Western Gazette. The family 48 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

business, continued through Mr George Newport, were distributors of the paper for over 75 years.’ Samuel had a newsagents in Sherborne, just a couple of doors away from The Digby Tap. Next door was Joseph Deacon, basketmaker, and it is very likely that Joseph would have made the panniers in which the newspapers were carried. If you look closely at the photograph of Samuel you can see one basket worn to the front and a second carried on his back.

Samuel’s youngest son Arthur sent a letter to the editor by way of a reply to the article, which appeared the following week, outlining the long distances travelled on foot by his father to deliver this important local weekly newspaper: ‘Friday’s jaunt with full load was Sherborne, Milborne Port, Purse Caundle, Staunton Caundle, Lydlinch, Kings Stag, Hazelbury, Holwell and Alweston. Saturday’s stroll Sherborne, Milborne Port, Charlton Horethorne, Blackford, Compton Pauncefoot, South Cadbury, Sparkford, Queen Camel, Marston Magna and Sandford. At that time nearly every house in the country districts had a Gazette and he handled with the family help 120 dozen weekly copies.’ That’s around 1440 copies.

By using modern-day digital mapping techniques to follow the routes taken by Samuel an accurate tally of his two weekly journeys, leading his horse, amounted to an astonishing 24 miles on the Friday and 20 miles on the Saturday.

A further letter followed a couple of weeks later: ‘How well I recall the familiar figure of Samuel Newport with his horse and pannier baskets hurrying around the factories and streets of Milborne Port delivering our papers - what a character he was! A man of strong principles, exceptional intelligence and a musician of no mean order.’

Samuel was born in 1843 and he died in 1916 at the age of 73. He and his wife Frances had eight children with Beatrice, who became a teacher at Sherborne Council School, marrying one of the sons of Joseph Deacon. It was their daughter Kitty who had held onto the treasured newspaper cuttings and the accompanying photograph of her grandfather.

Many of the villages visited would have their own village correspondent who would assiduously record the varied village events, mentioning as many names as possible. There is no doubt that the Western Gazette, together with the likes of Samuel Newton to deliver the copies, formed a very important link to the wider world for many.

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01963 251458 www.theclockspire.com Gainsborough, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5BA sherbornetimes.co.uk | 49

History OBJECT OF THE MONTH

THE NEWARK SHILLING Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum

T

his unusual silver shilling was issued in a time of duress and known as ‘money of necessity’, minted in Newark-on-Trent in 1646 during its third and final siege (1645-46), the last year of the English Civil War. It has a lozenge-shaped flan on the obverse of which is stamped a Royal Crown with C to its left and R to its right (for Carolus Rex) with the denomination (XII) below in Roman numerals. A beaded border decorates both sides.

On the reverse is a two-line inscription NEWARK/1646. A hole has been pierced above the crown. Normally there would have been the letters OBS (for obsidium, Latin for siege) above the reverse inscription but it is believed these have been worn away through polishing.

Newark was a strategic town due to its two major highways, the Great North Road and the Fosse Way, and was at times occupied by both Royalists and Parliamentarians who vied for control. Initially, its castle was ‘seized’ in late 1642 by the High Sheriff of Nottingham, John Digby, aided by Sir John Henderson, and his Royalist forces. The first siege of 1643 was aborted when Parliamentarian Major-General Thomas Ballard rightly assessed that he had insufficient forces to continue effectively.

In February 1644, Sir John Meldrum led a troop of 6-7000 Parliamentarians to Newark and attacked the town unsuccessfully. He then started to lay formal siegeworks and entrenchments. The attempt was lifted in March by a relief force led by Prince Rupert in a surprise night manoeuvre and the second siege ended in a Royalist victory.

After Scotland defected to the Parliamentarian cause, however, 1600 men marched on Newark from the north to initiate the final siege, while Parliamentarian troops formed a pincer movement from the south. They dug in deep on 26th November 1645 during a period 50 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

when Royalist power in the Midlands was effectively broken and could supply no relieving troops. The defending garrison refused to capitulate and was forced to endure a harsh winter, during which time the Scots tried to dam the river Deven to cut off power to their grain mills. To meet the need for money, the besieged Royalists set up a mint that manufactured these lozenge-shaped coins – half crowns, shillings, ninepences and sixpences.

Officials were sent to requisition silver objects which were then repurposed into monetary units. Nobility and gentry who favoured the Royalist cause were tapped up, as were wardens and fellows of university colleges and mayors and corporations of cities and towns. The silver in the form of flagons, drinking vessels, trenchers and plates was clipped and struck with hastily formed devices although some items were melted down and cast. The original pattern of the host silver can often be detected under the coin’s design.

Dated coins of 1646 are rare as the New Year at that time did not commence until 25th March, therefore the 1646 dated coins could only have been issued between 25th March and 8th May (the date of surrender).

Newark was also struck by typhoid and an episode of plague in which a thousand people died. The city limped along until Charles I was forced to relinquish it as part of his general surrender on 8th May 1646. The coin’s simple yet powerful imagery evokes the suffering under the last siege. Survivors’ accounts document how food was so scarce they were forced to eat horses and dogs. These coins represented such a strong message that many were holed and worn as Royalist badges to show support for Charles I and his heir. sherbornemuseum.co.uk Sherborne Museum is closed throughout January for cleaning and conservation.

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Antiques

A MINOR MIRACLE Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

1966 Morris Minor 1000 52 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

A

s a teenager, I was perhaps not the best-behaved child in my parents’ home. Looking back, I was a spirited youth, which my parents attempted to tame, with varying degrees of success. Needless to say, my ‘rebellious’ days ended when I started work as a young auctioneer and met the future Mrs B who put me on the right road…

That being said, part of me has continued to rebel against my parents, even though both have now died. My father was far from rebellious. He worked for Barclays Bank for some 40 years, with nearly half of that in the Sherborne branch. I guess it is a good thing for a provincial banker not to be rebellious – it might land them in trouble handling money every day!

Working for Barclays, he would invest the bank’s money in his clients, both private and commercial. A good judge of character, he was an old-school banker – one who took the time to talk and listen to his customers. However, at home, he never really took many risks. We lived in modern houses and he drove around in newish cars - yes, bank staff received favoured interest rates back then.

On the other hand, I generally did the opposite. Just about all the houses I have owned have been older/period properties, all needing various degrees of work. With my interest in classic cars, I have owned many classics, all of which also needed various degrees of work.

One such classic I owned was a Morris Minor 1000 saloon. Named William, after the legendary designer William Morris, he was not the most exciting classic I have owned but was full of charm and he generally behaved himself by not breaking down.

The first Morris Minor rolled off the production line in 1948 and the last one in 1971. Hugely popular for decades and hardly a week goes by where I do not see one still on the road today.

Often, I am asked to look at Moggies – saloons, tourers, travellers, pickups and vans - to be sold in our classic car auctions and was recently asked to a Somerset country house to look at a saloon. I was advised it was a project which had not been on the road for many years and as it was in a country house it was suitably stored in the old stables.

To be honest, I half expected to see a rusty wreck but was pleasantly surprised when I walked in through the stable doors. This Moggie has been in the same family ownership for 45 years and despite not having turned a wheel on the road for many years, was remarkably sound.

With a thick layer of dust, dirt and grime, in which children over the years wrote their names, the key was still sitting in the ignition.

With the family moving, this 1966 Morris Minor 1000 is now looking for a new home. Being sold without reserve in our 27th March classic car auction, it will need some work before taking to the road once again. With a couple of months lead in time for the auction this should give me plenty of time to work on Mrs B to see if she would like another Moggie. charterhouse-auction.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 53

Forthcoming Auction Programme

Decorative Arts & Mid-Century Modern 3rd January Pictures, Books & Maps 4th January Antiques & Interiors 5th January Silver, Jewellery & Watches 1st February Classic Motorcycles 7th March Classic Cars 27th March Further entries invited

54 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

1921 Rover Imperial £20,000-25,000

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

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

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

www.fcuffandsons.co.uk

DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF BEAUTIFUL FINE BESPOKE JOINERY SINCE 1897

DORSET WILDLIFE TRUST VOLUNTEERS Words Claire Bowman Photography Katharine Davies

T

hey say a little appreciation goes a long way and, judging by the smiles on the faces of the Dorset Wildlife Trust volunteers who have turned up this cold winter morning for a tour of Wild Woodbury rewilding project in Bere Regis, they could just be right.

Organised as a ‘thank you’ for their hard work and dedication throughout the year, the guided walk has drawn volunteers from across Dorset, from Gillingham to Portland, all curious to see the changes that have taken place since the Dorset Wildlife Trust acquired the intensively farmed land in 2021. The charity’s flagship rewilding project, Wild Woodbury has recorded a huge uplift in biodiversity and wildlife in the past three years, with nightingales, skylarks, lapwings, yellowhammers, grey partridges and marsh tits all moving in. As I pull my wellies from the boot of my car, I’m starting to regret not packing my binoculars. >

56 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Wild Woodbury ranger, Seb Haggett sherbornetimes.co.uk | 57

58 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Bob Shirley

Fortunately, the assembled volunteers are much better prepared. Clutching hiking sticks and rucksacks, and wrapped up against the cold November morning in scarves, gloves and woolly hats, they look like they mean business. Besides, there’s no time to worry about missing kit because, after a brief introduction from Wild Woodbury ranger Seb Haggett, we’re off – striding determinedly past the old barns and outbuildings of Court Farm, which form the entrance to the Wild Woodbury site, and off up a steep path to

the fields beyond.

Keeping an eye out for brambles, I fall into step with Elliot, an Ecology and Wildlife Conservation student at Bournemouth University, who joined the conservation group led by North Dorset warden Ben Atkinson nine months ago and, amongst other projects, has volunteered at Holway Copse near Sandford Orcas.

‘My uni course is great but there’s only so much you can learn in a classroom,’ says the former Gryphon student from Milborne Port. ‘I’m learning so much > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 59

Trainee warden Indie England (L) and assistant warden Emily Macallister (R) 60 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Gary Henshaw

Hazel Goddard and Ros Manning sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61

Karen and Alan Hocking

62 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Elliot Henshaw

from Ben and Indie, his trainee. You’d be surprised just how much you take in when you volunteer – you’re learning from the moment you go outside.’

That willingness to roll up your sleeves – or, in the case of volunteer Sonya, haul on your waders and count invertebrates in a river – is all part and parcel of volunteering for the Dorset Wildlife Trust. ‘There’s always plenty to do,’ she says, explaining how she has been river fly monitoring and carrying out restorative work at Gutchpool Farm, near Gillingham. ‘One of the things we’ve been doing is cutting back blackthorn to get light to the river so that dragonflies and newts can return. And we’ve made leaky dams to create wetland systems, just as they have here at Wild Woodbury.’

Pausing at a gate to admire the view, Seb gives us a potted history of Wild Woodbury, which dates as far back as 1066 and has had four owners over the years, from King John who had a hunting lodge on the land, to the Tuberville family of Thomas Hardy fame. In 2021 it was acquired by the Dorset Wildlife Trust through a philanthropic loan organised by ‘We Have the POWER’ founder Julia Davies – all 420 breathtaking acres of it, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

Rather brilliantly, 40 acres of that land, Seb informs us, have been earmarked for the local community to enjoy, in whatever way they choose. ‘Ninety-three per cent of the UK is privately owned so people have been kept off the land as much as wildlife in a lot of areas, but at Wild Woodbury we’re really looking to giving people a bit of green space back where they have a picnic, play games, go for a walk or just exercise their dog – whatever they want to do. We’re going to be putting several destination points to encourage people back onto the land.’

In addition to that, a food forest of 250 mixed fruit trees, from apples and plums to walnuts and figs, has been planted, with a view to becoming a local sustainable food source when it opens in the spring. The wheels have also been set in motion for what Seb says will in time become a living Oak Henge. ‘We’ve been working with the local primary school who collected 300 acorns with us last autumn and have been growing them up at the school for us,’ explains Seb. ‘We’ll come and plant them out this year in an 80-metre circle. Then over the years some will die, some will get thinned out by successive generations and there’ll be eight veteran oak trees in 800 years. It’s a great project because it demonstrates to the children the longevity of projects like these. When you’re thinking about rewilding, you’re

not thinking five years in the future, you’re thinking hundreds of years in the future.’

The success of these projects relies entirely on the hard work of volunteers – nature lovers young and old, generously committing their time to protecting our environment and its wildlife. From retired head teacher Alan and his wife Karen from Portland who volunteer every week at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s visitor centre at Chesil along with Ros and Hazel who have bonded over a shared love of birds and butterfly-loving plants, they all have their reasons for volunteering for the charity.

For Sherborne resident Neil, who worked for the CPS before moving down from London and has been in Ben Atkinson’s group since 2021, it’s been a chance to meet people of all ages, reconnect with the natural world and learn new skills along the way. ‘Living in London, I barely noticed nature – now I take a much more active interest,’ he says, citing fungi as his latest obsession. ‘When I moved down, I got my first ever garden and put in a pond which is great for wildlife.

Nowadays I avoid chemicals in the garden, don’t mow the lawn as much as I used to and I’ll leave the leaves on the flower beds to mulch down. And while it’s hard work when you’re out gorse-cutting with the volunteers – you need a pair of goggles and a sturdy pair of gloves to make sure you don’t get cut – it’s really rewarding.

I’m learning all the time.’

Pressing on with our walk, we traverse a series of fields dotted with spear thistle the size of dustbin lids before stopping awhile to hear how the land has become increasingly diverse over time. ‘In the first year, speedwells and field pansies carpeted this whole field and there were lots of nitrogen-loving species like nettles and thistles,’ explains Seb, gesturing at the field around him. ‘This year the thistles have had competition – there have been many more poppies, ragwort and docks. And we’ve had meadow browns and painted ladies and lots of wood mice burrowing in the fields. People ask me, “What will it look like in ten years’ time?” and my answer to that is: “We don’t know.

Nature’s dynamic – it’s always in a state of flux.” There’s no defined end result. This is very much an ecosystem in recovery.’ dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk For more information on how you can get involved, visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering sherbornetimes.co.uk | 63

Eco-friendly Gardening Tips for 2024 Try to save more water with water butts and automatic watering systems

Improve your soil by laying mulches and incorporating soil conditioner, which aids drainage, lowers pH and locks in carbon Introduce water stations, nesting boxes and more biodiverse planting to care for wildlife

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

thegardensgroup

Prepare for even more composting, with compost bins, boxes and kitchen caddies You can collect eco-friendly gardening supplies and ask our team for advice 7 days a week.

Crafting quality timber buildings and gates since 1912 Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7LH Tel: (01963) 440414 | Email: info@sparkford.com | @sparkfordtimber | www.sparkford.com 64 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

At Bill Butters Windows Ltd we offer total window, door and conservatory solutions. Based in Sherborne we design, manufacture, supply and install high quality aluminium and uPVC products using market leading suppliers to service both the retail and commercial sectors.

For more information visit our website or come down to the showroom.

Unit 1a > South Western Business Pk > Sherborne > Dorset > DT9 3PS T: 01935 816 168 > sales@billbutterswindows.co.uk > www.billbutterswindows.co.uk

Gardening

THE UNCERTAIN WINTER

O

Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group

ne of the concerns with a changing climate is the detrimental effect of not having a ‘proper’ winter. Many plants growing in our part of the world rely on a period of cold and wait for that to warm up, at which time they know that it should be spring and so can start to wake up. This includes the seeds of several plants, including some Delphinium that are unable to germinate unless they have had a required period of cold. Once the cold is over, the seed is ready to germinate when the temperatures increase in the spring.

In the summer, seeds such as wallflowers and lettuce won’t germinate when the temperature is too high, which is a sensible thing to do, but frustrating for the gardener at the same time.

Other plants including blackcurrants have a cold requirement in order to flower properly in the spring from which, of course, the fruit is borne in the summer.

For many plants the cold is important as it means that they go dormant, hunkering down for the winter months, which makes them less susceptible to the vagaries of those dark months including water-logging.

A plant that hasn’t gone dormant is much more prone to being damaged by this.

The milder conditions have affected the traditional time for crops of ‘bare rooted’ plants such as native hedging which are available as soon as the leaves have fallen. This used to be late October, 10 or 15 years ago but now is never before the end of November. Such plants can be transplanted when they are dormant and because they are field grown they are cheaper to produce than a container plant making them excellent value. The period in which they can be planted has therefore narrowed and the opportunity in which to plant them in terms of avoiding waterlogged or frozen soils is more limited too.

There are also some benefits in pest control with a decent period of cold, with regular frosts killing off some of the population of the insects that feed off the plants 66 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Image Conscious/Shutterstock

we are trying to nurture. With temperatures rising, pests are becoming able to move and establish further north than in the past, which is a further concern.

The most damaging weather though is when it is variable, a bit like we had in the winter of 2022/23.

Temperatures in November were a balmy 15c and then crashed to -10c before rising again to 15c above freezing after Christmas, only to crash again to -10c. This inevitably caused problems for all wildlife but especially plants trying to cope with the rollercoaster temperatures.

However such variability has become the norm and is difficult to plan for. So we need to react and

not live by the old rules of when to carry out gardening tasks but respond more to what’s happening at any one time. Horticultural fleece can be used to protect vulnerable plants by loosely wrapping them in a layer or two. Pots on the patio can be clustered together closer to the house for mutual protection with hessian as useful insulation to keep the pots, and the roots in those pots, safe. In years past I might have said to do this in early December but now it’s a waiting game keeping an eye on the forecast as over-cosseting such plants isn’t good for them either.

Tasks that still can be done no matter what the

weather include mulching the beds and borders and also vegetable plots with bio-degradable material such as your own garden compost, well-rotted farm manure, bio digestates such as Bloomin’ Amazing and also chipped bark. This will keep the soil warm, protect it from torrential rain, and, as it breaks down, will improve the quality of the soil below whilst locking in carbon too.

But, take heart in these short, dark, sometimes miserable days, spring isn’t too far away… but there is no certainty as to when that will be! thegardensgroup.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 67

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Home

PERSONAL SPACE

Annabelle Hunt, Bridport Timber, Colour Consultant

I

n the spirit of the New Year and the opportunities it brings for fresh beginnings, consider injecting an element of risk-taking into your design ventures. While social media serves as an endless source of visual inspiration, it can be somewhat overwhelming and, with the increasing use of artificial intelligence, downright misleading. Rather than blindly following trends or becoming fixated on a specific aesthetic, let your creative instincts lead you. Trust the process, even if it steers you in unexpected directions. The result is likely to be a distinctive and profoundly personal living space.

Contemplating homes that resonate with me, be they historical houses or friends’ homes, there’s a common thread—a sense of lived-in familiarity and ease. Achieving an unpretentious and comfortable ambience in our own homes involves striking a delicate balance between spontaneity and thoughtful consideration. While it might seem that a sophisticated design demands flawless coordination, try to maintain a touch of playfulness. Introduce colour clashes and vary the scale of patterns and furniture to prevent the room from feeling overly contrived.

It is the subtle art of layering that distinguishes a space that appears effortless from one that feels somehow lacking. By layering, I don’t necessarily mean an abundance of cushions and throws but rather the clever blending of stylistic influences, patterns and lighting, bringing a unique individuality to your space. Whether you lean towards maximalism or prefer a more minimalist approach, when selecting items for your space, be open to an eclectic mix—art, antiques, hand-me-down furniture, books and a collection of treasured objects collected over the years. If something doesn’t quite fit in one spot, move it around until it finds its place. The beauty lies in imperfections and the gradual evolution of a space only enhances its authenticity.

As you ponder the possibilities of the new year, let your creative instincts take centre stage. Be willing to take risks, play around with layering and embrace uncoordinated coordination.

Fill your home with your personality and take pleasure in the journey of creating a home that is unmistakably yours. bridporttimber.co.uk

70 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Floor and door in Farrow & Ball Down Pipe No. 26 Modern Eggshell sherbornetimes.co.uk | 71

Brunch, light lunches, coffee, cakes & Pastries Open 9:30am - 4pm Monday - Saturday Sherborne DT9 4JX Call 01935 815040 to book a table or just pop in

EAT, D RINK , A ND EN JOY THE VI E W FROM FIELD TO TABLE A Dorset cafe with a difference, we champion homegrown and celebrate nature. Meet our Tamworth pigs, feast on our artisan pizzas, homemade produce and enjoy our idyllic views.

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72 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

“At Newell French Bistro, we have Paul in the kitchen crafting every dish on our menu from scratch. No fairy tale here, just his genuine love for cooking shining through.

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Food and Drink

GO TO WORK ON AN EGG Sandra Miller BSc, MSc, BCNH Dip, FDN-P, Wholistic Health

‘G

o to work on an egg’ was the phrase that came to my mind when discussing a school morning breakfast with my daughter the other day. Being a baby of the 70s I felt sure YouTube would find me a garish, 70s-style advert which would rekindle faint memories for me, but no. Instead, I discovered that the Egg Marketing Board had used the phrase mostly in the 50s and 60s and promoted the idea of eating eggs for breakfast, with the help of people such as Tony Hancock, in black and white adverts made well before my time. Nevertheless, this phrase was a part of my childhood and had clearly stuck in our collective memory…at least for a time. Apparently, the notion of 74 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

dunking toast soldiers into runny egg yolks may have also come from this influential advertising campaign.

What was prevalent during my childhood was the emergence of conflicting advice about egg consumption.

Concerns regarding the cholesterol content of eggs and the negative impact this might have on heart health saw ‘eggs for breakfast’ pushed aside by warnings against having more than three eggs per week. In more recent years, official recommendations have dropped the threeeggs-a-week idea. However, ‘go to work on an egg’ has not made a comeback, apparently due to concerns that this does not encourage a balanced diet which should include a range of foods.

Robert Brown/iStock

"An egg can leave you feeling noticeably fuller for longer, with more steady energy levels and with no need for a mid-morning snack."

Having delved into this egg-marketing complexity – and the above are just a few highlights – my head was slightly spinning and by now yours might be too! It is clear that cholesterol has been demonised. In truth, our bodies need cholesterol and use it as a component of all cell membranes and a vital precursor to the production of many hormones. Science has now shown us that dietary cholesterol has much less impact on levels of it in the blood than was previously thought. In short, in most circumstances, an egg a day is not likely harmful to health.

But what of the positives? The conversation I had with my daughter was very revealing in that regard.

Compared to her usual breakfast of porridge, an egg left her feeling noticeably fuller for longer, with more steady energy levels and with no need for a mid-morning snack. This is a wonderful example of personalised nutrition and I don’t need to be measuring her blood glucose levels to know that these are really solid indicators of improved blood sugar balance for her. Stabilised blood sugar balances mood and cognitive capacity which seem ideal when facing a day of learning and socialising in school. What really makes my heart sing as a mother as well as a practitioner, is the positive impact I know this will be having on her long-term health. So much chronic disease is encouraged by daily habits of blood sugar dysregulation. Thanks to the protein and fat found in an egg, blood sugar levels rise much less sharply after a meal containing them whilst creating a sense of feeling satisfied by the meal.

Eggs are also a fabulous source of many essential vitamins and minerals. One such nutrient, which has come to the fore in recent years due to the volume of research on it, is vitamin D. Vitamin D has been shown to influence more than 200 genes in various tissues. In between October and March in the UK we know we cannot make enough vitamin D through sunlight on the skin alone as the sunlight is not strong enough.

Now we are in January, we must rely on foods rich in vitamin D and make up any shortfall with supplementation to adequately meet the body’s needs.

Since low vitamin D may play a role in depression, we can tuck into a nourishing eggy breakfast, knowing it may help beat the winter blues. With potential roles in boosting natural immunity, vitamin D is part of our defence against winter bugs too. Here’s to a happy, healthy, egg-fuelled January. wholistichealth.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 75

Food and Drink

CHARRED MACKEREL FILLETS

ON JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE AND RYE BRUSCHETTA WITH KALE CRISPS AND MUSTARD DRESSING Tom Matkevich, The Green Tom and Sasha Matkevich, Eype, Dorset, 2016

A

Image: Katharine Davies

delightful starter or light lunch that balances the richness of the simply cooked mackerel, piquant mustard dressing and natural sweetness of the artichokes. The kale crisps add a satisfying crunch and more depth of flavour. This dish is both delicious and nutritious, with mackerel being high in heart-friendly omega-3 and both rye and Jerusalem artichokes aiding with gut health. With many of us turning a new leaf after over-indulging during the festive season, this is perfect!

Method

Ingredients

3

For the mackerel and bruschetta: 4 slices of good quality rye bread 4 mackerel fillets 400g Jerusalem artichokes Salt, pepper, olive oil

1

2

4

For the kale crisps: 50g curly kale, stalks removed 1 tsp olive oil Salt For the dressing: 1/2 lemon, juiced 10g fresh dill, finely chopped 1 tsp honey 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Salt and black pepper 76 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

5

To make the kale crisps, combine the kale, oil and salt, and massage until the kale is completely coated. Add to a large parchmentlined baking tray and spread into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 150C or until entirely crisp then let cool completely.

For the dressing, combine all the ingredients vigorously in a mixing bowl with a whisk.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To prepare the artichokes, peel and then slice into oval rings roughly 1/4cm thick. Then slice again into a julienne (or matchsticks).

Immediately add to a bowl, combine with salt, pepper and a couple of tablespoons of the dressing then toss until coated.

To cook the mackerel, change the oven setting to the grill on the maximum heat. Season the mackerel with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and place skin-side up on a baking tray. Put under the hot grill for 4-6 minutes or until the skin is slightly charred and the fleshed just cooked through. Meanwhile, toast the rye bread.

To assemble, top each piece of bread with the dressed artichoke, followed by the mackerel fillets on top. Garnish with the crispy kale and a drizzle of the dill and mustard dressing.

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Food and Drink THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

DATE, APPLE, SESAME SEED AND WALNUT SQUARES

I

n January there are always nuts and dates left over so I thought I would start the year with a healthier twist and also use up leftovers. I’ve used Bramley apples as they break down well when cooked and work so well with dates, giving a deliciously moist texture.

The addition of sesame seeds and walnuts adds a nutty flavour. I’ve used rye flour as it is more agreeable for people who are gluten intolerant but gluten-free flour can be used if you prefer.

Serves 9 Time 20 minutes preparation, 30-35 minutes baking time Ingredients

210g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing 150g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped small 150g stoned dates either fresh or dried, chopped 4 tablespoons of water 1 tablespoon date syrup 50g sesame seeds 220g soft brown sugar 225g plain rye flour 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 130g porridge oats 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 50g chopped walnuts plus 3 more to break and scatter for the topping

Method

1

Heat the oven to 170C fan, 190C convection, gas mark 5.

2 Grease an 18cm square tin and line with baking parchment.

3 Place the prepared apples in a pan with the water, allow to simmer until tender and pulpy stirring occasionally to make sure the mixture doesn’t stick and burn.

4 Add the dates, sugar and date syrup, simmer for a further 4 minutes. Take off the heat and with a wooden spoon break the apples and dates down and mix well together, set aside to cool.

5 Gently melt the butter in a pan or for 3 oneminute bursts in a microwavable bowl, on low heat, cover the bowl to prevent the butter ‘spitting’.

6 Add the flour, bicarb, oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon and vanilla extract in a bowl and combine well.

7 Pour the melted butter into the oat mixture until the oats are well coated and the mixture is fully combined.

8 Place half the oat mixture into the baking pan, press down firmly, pour on the apple mixture and spread evenly almost to the edges of the pan, top with the remainder of the oat mixture.

9 Press the mixture firmly and evenly and flatten the top with an offset spatula, scatter the broken walnut pieces on the top.

10 Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and firm, cool in the tin then cut into squares.

11 Store in an airtight container, they will keep for a week and they freeze well for 2 months. bakerval.com

78 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Food and Drink

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

80 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

I

stared over the small, broken, rusty metal gate, gently swinging in mid-air. Below me, a view, new to me met my gaze. I didn’t know it then but that view would become ours – I was looking at the start of a dream, the start of the next chapter in my life.

It was 2015 and I was slowly mending from seven years earlier when unknowingly I had started to get ill. It was the mid-2000s and I was flying high as a property developer in Devon, buying run-down derelict farm barns and converting them into beautiful high-end luxury properties. Stupidly I had believed Gordon Brown when he said, ‘No more boom and bust.’ I was ambitious and younger, full of ideas and energy. The banks were lending aggressively, the property market was booming and I became part of it in a big way... Then came the crash of 2007 – Northern Rock was the first casualty and from there started the downward spiral of the biggest property and financial crash our country has seen.

Unfortunately for me, I was in at the sharp end, had borrowed heavily, at the beginning of a new project and suddenly the rug was pulled. Nothing stacked up any more financially. My bank manager at first went quiet then he became much more interested in my numbers.

As the months progressed he was quietly sidelined and I was dealing with the London bankers, bankers who wanted to, ‘come down and meet.’ Suffice it to say I lost everything, my family, my money, my self-worth and eventually my mind. The full details over a decade later are still too painful to write.

From there I started the slow decline into oblivion.

I didn’t know I was getting poorly – I didn’t see the signs. I didn’t know the signs, no one around me did either. It was a slow burn – it took until 2013 for me to give in and the pain of it all enveloped me in madness. I broke down, properly – I really did. As I cried in front of my doctor, tears unstopping, sobbing in a tidal wave of pain and hopelessness begging him to send me to hospital, to send me away, somewhere, anywhere. He quietly told me I was having a breakdown and that he was going to help. He asked me questions I couldn’t answer without sobbing – the floodgates were open and I couldn’t stop. He gave me tablets and sent me home. I cried for days until the medication kicked in and slowly numbed me into a state where I stabilised slightly.

It takes a long time to recover. I couldn’t talk to anyone for months – I couldn’t talk on the phone or answer the door. I couldn’t sleep then I couldn’t stay

awake. I became paranoid. I still cried but slowly I came out the other side – it took years, probably 3-5 years until I was better. There’s obviously a lot more there but this is the edited version – the one I can bear to write. Sometimes I think you never fully recover. It feels a bit like I have been weakened, more vulnerable, never quite the same as before, but also more open to understanding how others feel, how we are in the middle of a mental health epidemic and how it is everywhere when you scratch the surface and you ask questions and open up to others. If I talk about it now I still feel my voice waver as the memories come flooding back – it was over ten years ago and I lost my forties to it.

Luckily, it didn’t knock the ambition out of me and ten years later, we have built a new future that started at the rickety gate and the view below. I bought that view. It wasn’t easy – in fact, it was nearly impossible, coming back from losing everything is much harder than starting out the first time, but determination drove me on. I was determined to find a way to borrow the money to buy what would become Lavender Keepers.

With the help of a lovely financial broker called Seamus and a lady called Karen who believed in me, I got it. It took months of jumping through hoops until the deal was done.

There was nothing here, no farm, no road, no nothing, just that unwavering view. Slowly I have built our farm, bit by bit, plan by plan, step by slow step, until we have nearly got there, until now, after applying 18 months ago for planning permission to build a farmhouse for us to live in. Finally, last month we got the piece of paper and our permission was granted.

We can build a house on our farm. This is a whole other story which I can write about another time. We have wanted to share this news with our readers for a long time but it takes a while. So, we are back at the beginning, with Seamus – we need to secure the funds to build it. One good thing though, is that I will build it for us and it will be our proper home. So, to all our lovely loyal visitors and friends who have supported us, written letters and asked how it’s coming along, thank you for your support. And if you read this and any of it resonates with you, get help – talking is the best medicine. I always read my articles to Charlotte before I send them in but I can’t read this one out loud. Ten years on it’s still too raw but onwards and upwards! thestorypig.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 81

Food and Drink

GRENACHE David Copp

Tain l'Hermitage, Rhône Valley 82 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Richard Semik/Shutterstock

G

renache is most widely planted around the Mediterranean (notably in southern France and Spain) and increasingly in California and southern Australia. In France, it is often blended with other Mediterranean varieties such as Mourvedre, Syrah and Cinsault to make full-bodied but sophisticated wines with a robust character, well suited to meat stews and other warming red meat dishes.

In southern France, an influx of passionate young winemakers have applied their skills to producing top-quality Grenache wines from the better vineyards first identified by the Romans under Julius Caesar. Their characterful blends are becoming more sophisticated by the decade.

The Rhone Valley, South Australia and California have some very positive advantages: the sun shines about 325 days of the year and the vineyards are often planted on steep hillsides blessed with old rocks, fertile soils and centuries of tradition.

I was absolutely spoiled on my last visit to the Rhone region where I tasted some quite wonderful wines from smaller independent growers such as Charles Melton who have used nature’s blessing to produce distinctive, stylish and truly delightful wines. It is true that these wines are now closer to the £16 per bottle mark than the £6 of yesteryear but when you want something distinctive for a special occasion, they are worth your consideration. You may need help from your wine supplier to identify the best growers of Grenache in Australia, California and South Africa.

In the meantime, Spain offers excellent value Grenache red and rose wines produced in the hills above Barcelona by leading growers such as Miguel Torres. This is yet another sun-blessed region where Grenache flourishes.

At the top level and for special occasions such as Australia Day in January, I can highly recommend Charles Melton’s Nine Popes. This Grenache-based blend hits a lot of high spots and is really worth the money.

Rombeau ‘La Botaniste’ Grenache/Syrah Rose 2022, Roussillon, France – £14.95 Grenache is the bedrock of many great French roses and this one, from the organic Rombeau estate, is a delectable example of a deeper-coloured style that’s packed with flavour. Roses are not just for summer because they’re so versatile with food – try this with Thai takeaway!

Canopy ‘Ganadero’ Tinto 2022, Mentrida, Spain – £15.95 From sustainably farmed, high altitude, ancient vines located high up in the Gredos mountains.

A garnacha packed with dried raspberries, pepper and earth unsurprisingly rather good with beef.

Kiss of Wine ‘Picante’ Garnacha 2021, Valencia, Spain – £4.95 Made lovingly from organic grapes

by Rodolpho and his father Andres, this is a Garnacha Tintorera (aka Alicante Bouschet) which is one of the few red grape varieties to have red flesh.

Consequently this is an inky monster, but served of course in a convenient 250ml can!

Jamie Wynne-Griffiths, The Drinksmith thedrinksmith.co.uk

Corton Denham

Wishing you a Happy New Year We are open 7 days a week www.thequeensarms.com | info@thequeensarms.com | 01963 220317 sherbornetimes.co.uk | 83

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 85

Animal Care

HELP TO HEAL

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

H

ealing is not a word that is used very often in mainstream medicine, although I don’t know why. After all, it’s the goal we all aim for. Seems it’s distinct from ‘recovery’ – that feels more mechanical, a bit like a ‘satisfactory outcome’ while to heal has an emotional element. Some would say spiritual. Possibly that’s why alternative and complementary medicine appears to be more focused on the patient’s mind as well as the body. Now that seems a very human perspective so can it be relevant to animals? I think yes, as animals that are not in pain, have a stress-free, comfortable environment in which to recover – ‘heal’ more quickly. Maybe they put their energies into getting better rather than fretting about their condition, as we humans are prone to.

The most common use of the verb ‘to heal’ in 86 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

veterinary medicine probably relates to a wound of some type, maybe a cut through skin and muscle or a broken bone. Free-ranging dogs are often the victims of injuries caused by barbed wire or a sharp stick and when moving at speed, even blunt objects can inflict serious damage. The loose and relatively elastic skin that covers our pets is a mixed blessing as it moves over the muscle underneath with ease, often allowing a bite to be limited to skin depth, teeth skidding over deeper tissues. The downside is any underlying damage rarely coincides with the skin wound and this hidden damage can be easily overlooked. Unless a significant blood vessel is broken, there may be minimal haemorrhage and with a dark hairy coat, many wounds initially go unnoticed by owners. Some might heal on their own but contamination from the penetrating object and hair

VP Photo Studio/Shutterstock

means an infection often becomes established a day or two later, trapped under the skin by hair matted with blood and serum over the wound.

However, if you do manage to find a fresh wound, provide some pain relief with a licensed product (meloxicam if you have it) and gently bathe it in dilute povidone-iodine solution (water-based so it doesn’t sting) and prevent licking. Do not use TCP or Dettol – they are too irritant for animals’ skin. Keep exposed tissue moist with Savlon and small skindeep, non-infected lacerations might heal by ‘second intention’, which means a scab forms and new skin develops underneath. Eventually, the scab (a BandAid of fibrin) falls off, revealing a layer of fragile and hairless skin that will toughen up with time but may leave a scar. Non-infected wounds also display an

amazing capacity to contract, shrinking the skin deficit so the area to heal is minimised. Lack of pain, minimal swelling, no discharge and a contracting wound are all good signs that healing is on the right track.

It’s a pity that most wounds we see at the surgery are already showing signs of infection, characterised by heat, pain and swelling. Loosely attached skin allows a pocket of pus to collect underneath or it may migrate south under gravity. It’s all too late for topical washes and Savlon – the pus-pocket must be drained, flushed and any dead tissue removed. Traumatised tissue loses its blood supply, dies and becomes a focus for infection.

Removal is a must for optimum healing, using a procedure we call ‘debridement’ and is done under anaesthetic, essential for patient welfare and surgeon’s safety! We don’t really want to test the healing powers of nurses and vets after a good bite from a painful and justifiably cross patient.

The most dramatic example of debridement I saw involved a very fat pet pig called Porter. Poor ‘Porty’ (as he was called by his doting owner) suffered a wound on the back of his neck that became infected and attracted swarms of flies. The resulting ‘fly strike’ was so extensive I sent the pig not to market (heaven forbid) but to surgery. The surgical resident at the time must have removed several kilos of tissue, leaving a scarily impressive wound that I did my best to conceal from the owner. This all necessitated a lengthy stay at the clinic for daily dressing changes, not a process to be rushed, we decided, as the owner brought in a wonderful hamper of food for Porter on a daily basis. We residents dined well for a few weeks, Porter healed nicely and lost a necessary amount of weight. Three out of three!

With all this talk of wounds, infections and healing, you might ask what about antibiotics? Surely we can fix everything by giving these magic bullets? Yes and no. These days we have strict guidelines for giving antibiotics as the medical professions strive to minimise their use, primarily to limit resistance and prolong their effectiveness in both animals and humans. We should remember infected wounds and abscesses were treated successfully before antibiotics were discovered, using the old-fashioned poultice and promoting tissue drainage.

These principles are possibly more important today as bacterial resistance grows, underlining the need to appreciate how our actions influence the environment around us. newtonclarkevet.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 87

Animal Care

LAMBING SEASON SUCCESS Dr Antonia Leech MRCVS BVMSci (Hons) fCMgr, ACMI, Kingston Vets Christian Bullinger/Shutterstock

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or some, the lambing season may have already started, however, most will be preparing for it in the spring. Whether you’ve newly acquired a small flock or have been commercially farming sheep for years, it is always important to refresh your knowledge of the lambing basics in order to have a 88 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

successful season.

As the lambing season approaches, the ewes that are closest to lambing should be sorted out as they will require more attention. This might be putting the ewes into a large pen where there is enough space for them to lamb. It is important not to put the ewes into

lambing pens before they have lambed as they may not have enough room to get the lamb out. Ahead of the season, it is important to increase the level of ewe nutrition six weeks prior to lambing to ensure they have enough energy to support the pregnancy as well as prevent certain issues that come about as a result of lack of nutrition. If you know how many lambs each ewe is predicted to have by scanning then the nutrition needs to be adjusted accordingly.

It is important to vaccinate the ewes ahead of the lambing period to prevent disease. Sheep can be very susceptible to stress and so ensuring these changes are done well before the lambing period will prevent issues arising as a result of this.

Before the season starts you should ensure that you have all the necessary equipment ready and clean for the season. This includes iodine for navel dipping, plastic sleeves and disposable gloves, lubrication, bottle feeders, stomach tubes, lamb milk replacer and colostrum replacer, a heat box or lamp and lambing ropes.

As the due date approaches, this is when you must stay vigilant looking for lambing signs. Ewes will ‘bag up’ i.e. their udder increases in size about 4 weeks prior to lambing, within 24 hours the udder will become firm and teats will become large, swollen and filled with milk. The ewe’s vulva will start stretching out and become red and swollen. Often, a ewe will miss a feeding or separate herself from the flock shortly before labour begins and will start to ‘nest’.

The sheep birthing process can vary in length depending on whether it is the ewe’s first time or if it has previously had lambs. Signs that the sheep is starting lambing are when the ewe begins contractions and starts getting up and down frequently and will often paw the ground. The ewe will lie down and push her nose up in the air – at this point, you should leave her alone and not disturb her but observe quietly. The water bag will appear first, after this the lamb should be born in about 30 mins to 2 hours – depending on the ewe’s prior experience.

A lamb should come out with two front legs and a head and the ewe should do this by herself. If this stage is prolonged and/or you notice something abnormal, for instance, a head and no legs or one leg, it is important to phone your vet for advice as this may require a veterinary visit for assistance. If you are competent at assisting lambing, it is important to always wear gloves and use lots of lubrication.

Once the lamb is out, make sure that its nose and

mouth are free of mucus and fluid and that the lamb is breathing. Sometimes they require stimulation such as rubbing the chest or tickling their nose with some straw. Once the lamb is breathing or if the lamb has been born with no assistance allow the ewe to start licking the lamb and dry it off. If the ewe is due another lamb, this will often come quicker than the first and once you are sure that she has finished then move the ewe and lamb(s) into the lambing pens. The lambing pens should be clean, dry and warm with plenty of bedding and an adequate water supply. Ad lib hay should be available in hay racks throughout the day.

It is important to dip the navel in iodine as this will clean and dry it up to prevent infection – you should do this as soon as possible. Ensure the ewe has enough milk for the number of lambs and that the lambs start suckling as soon as possible, especially within the first 4-6 hours. In the first 24 hours following birth, a lamb should receive 200ml/kg bodyweight in colostrum. This timing is particularly important, as after the first 6 hours of life the lamb’s ability to absorb the antibodies into the bloodstream from the intestines has reduced significantly.

If you have a poorly lamb, of course, it is always important to discuss this with your vet, however, you can take simple steps to support the lamb in the meantime. You should organise an intensive care unit for weak lambs which should be away from the main lambing area, with access to hot water and a power supply. It is important to keep these lambs separated from the healthier flock to prevent the spread of disease and so that you can keep a closer eye on them. This area should be warm – for example by using a heat lamp – however, it is important to ensure that the lamp is not too hot to cause damage to the lambs and that there is a space in the pen where the lamb can move away from the heat if needed. It is important to also keep these lambs hydrated and ensure that they have had enough colostrum within their first 24 hours of life.

This can be done by stripping the colostrum from their mum or by using a colostrum replacer.

These are just some simple steps to ensure a smooth lambing season. Good luck to all and don’t hesitate to contact your vet for assistance during the busy time ahead. kingstonvets.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 89

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Body & Mind

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A FRESH START

Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms and The Margaret Balfour Beauty Centre At the beginning of each year, we’re all taken over by the ‘New Year, New You’ vibe that’s in the air. Whether you decide to cut down on meat, start doing regular exercise or simply refresh your wardrobe, we’re all big fans of New Year’s resolutions. Especially those that don’t require too much effort on our part.

A great area to introduce New Year’s resolutions is your skincare routine because whether you’re stuck in a skincare rut or you’re not seeing results from the products you’re using, the new year is a great opportunity to refresh, restart and rejig your routine. If you’re not sure what your skin goals should be, I can provide you with some ‘skinspiration’.

Focus on hydration - this year, I’m going to continue to tackle my dehydrated skin through a combination of active ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and glycerin, as well as natural ingredients including lactic acid, aloe leaf juice and of course upping my water intake. Dryer

92 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

skin needs the right combination of ingredients to keep it healthy and hydrated requiring extra help every winter.

Bookend your day with skincare - consistency in skincare is key and most products will not give you results overnight. I recommend thinking of your skincare routine as the bookends of your day – how you wake up and how you wind down. This is a great time to check in with your skin and get in tune with what ingredients your skin is asking for that day.

Switch to chemical exfoliation - as I get older, the turnover of my skin cells is slowing down, making my skin look sluggish. Exfoliating twice weekly used to cut it but now I need a little more help. To combat this a chemical exfoliant that works deeper down or a bi-monthly professional chemical peel will be more effective in leaving me with brighter, more youthful-looking skin underneath.

Professional treatments - I’m also noticing that despite leading a healthy life, my face is starting to show signs of ageing (booo!). To fight against this I need advanced support to improve its elasticity and give my jawline more definition. Microcurrent and microneedling will encourage new collagen production and elastin fibre growth, tightening up my skin and giving it a youthful glow.

Body care - we can be so guilty of investing in and taking great care of the skin on our faces but totally ignoring the rest of the skin on our bodies.

Lean in this year to not just a facial skincare routine but a body routine as well.

Be realistic - similar to getting into a workout routine, start slow and build up your routine so that it is something you will actually stick to. If you aren’t the type of person who will do a mask on a Sunday, don’t invest in the mask, or if you aren’t going to use a facial tool in your bathroom then don’t feel pressured to buy one.

I’m often asked, ‘What is the best skincare routine for me?’ and really, no matter what I know, the best routine is the one you will actually do. thesanctuarysherborne.co.uk margaretbalfour.co.uk

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Body & Mind

HOW TO MAKE A POSITIVE CHANGE IN JANUARY Annabel Goddard, Dorset Mind Volunteer

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94 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

A

s we start a new year, our accomplishments of the last 12 months might seem far away. It’s important now more than ever to celebrate our wins, as it seems we’ve all had a lot to battle with, some more so than others. Instead of making unrealistic New Year’s resolutions, we’ll struggle to stick to, it could be more valuable to think about making easier changes by reflecting on the year we’ve had.

If you’re thinking about making positive change in your life in January, don’t try to exceed expectations as you’ll likely end up disappointing yourself. Think about what went well for you this year and what you’d like to see more of, rather than using resolutions as an opportunity to turn your life upside down.

For example, if you aren’t already an avid gym user, it would be unreasonable to demand you go to the gym 5 times a week. Instead, you could make a conscious effort to walk more often, maybe giving yourself a set time in the week to do so. Of course, you could set yourself a challenge to go to the gym regularly but it’s important to be realistic. If you work 9am-5pm or have children, it could be an unreachable task.

It’s also important to consider what you actually want to do. If you’re considering the gym purely to lose weight and you know you won’t enjoy going, you’ll likely struggle to meet that goal. Losing weight seems to be a common theme of New Year’s resolutions – depending on your situation, it might be valuable to reconsider.

Is there an ongoing project you want to dedicate more time to? A recipe you want to try? Instead of focusing on what you want to lose from your life, think about what you can add to enrich your life rather than cause you an added stress factor.

It could even be more beneficial to try to focus on

mindset rather than resolution. If you rush to change multiple areas of your life in a single month, you won’t be able to keep up with yourself.

Instead, you could think about daily affirmations of positivity or just by practising mindfulness. A small change like this can have as much power to improve your mood as a big one. Similarly, setting time aside a week for family or friends could be a more achievable and enjoyable goal.

If you felt accomplished this year and aren’t sure what you have to resolve, you could think about going above and beyond for someone or for a charity. If you want to make a positive new start to the year, you could think about how you might be able to do some fundraising for charity or support a cause you care about. For example, information about Dorset Mind’s upcoming fundraising challenges is available on the website. Fundraising is not only an amazing way to show your support for a charity and help those in need but also can make you feel fulfilled.

Through reflecting on the year, you can pick out places where you’d like to make small, manageable improvements or add something positive to your week.

Everyone is different so try to avoid comparing your January to other people’s. As we move into the new year, we should all be going at our own pace.

Support for you • Visit dorsetmind.uk for local mental health support and ways to keep mentally healthy • Call Samaritans for free 24/7 emotional support on 116 123 • Call Dorset’s mental health helpline Connection for support on NHS 111

YogaSherborne Sherborne, Milborne Port and Trent • Hatha Yoga, outside when possible • Relaxation and guided meditation Contact Dawn for more details 07817 624081 @yogasherborne hello@yogasherborne.co.uk Yoga Alliance qualified teacher sherbornetimes.co.uk | 95

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Body and Mind

HABITS OF A LIFETIME It’s one thing making a resolution, quite another sticking to it. Here James Cattigan of Sherborne Sports Centre and Kevin Raguindin of Oxley Sports Centre offer practical advice to help you start as you mean to go on.

Sturti/iStock

James Cattigan, Manager, Sherborne Sports Centre

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s the calendar flips to a new year, many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea of making resolutions, especially when it comes to our fitness. Year after year, certain fitness-related goals make their way to the top of the list for many of us. The top three of ‘lose weight’, ‘get in shape’, and ‘exercise more’ 98 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

stand tall, promising transformative results. Yet, the reality is that a significant number of these resolutions fall by the wayside.

Statistics reveal a sobering truth – a large percentage of New Year’s resolutions, especially those related to fitness, fail within the first few weeks. The initial burst of enthusiasm gradually gives way to the challenges of maintaining newfound routines and the gym attendance dwindles. According to research, around 80% of

The Big Three Fitness Resolutions

1

Lose Weight: A perennial favourite, shedding excess pounds is a common resolution. The allure of a slimmer, healthier self motivates many to embark on diet plans and exercise regimes.

2 Get in Shape: The desire to sculpt a more toned and fit physique often drives individuals to set goals related to overall fitness. This resolution encompasses strength training, cardiovascular exercise and flexibility improvement.

3 Exercise More: A broad and frequently chosen resolution, committing to regular physical activity appeals to those seeking a sustainable way to enhance their well-being.

The Power of Long-Term Habits

Rather than a fleeting motivation that accompanies the turn of the year, building habits is a more sustainable approach to achieving lasting fitness goals. Habits are ingrained behaviours that become second nature, requiring less conscious effort over time and, put simply, become a part of your everyday.

Build Your Habit, Find Your Fitness

Start Small: Begin with manageable changes that align with your current lifestyle. Whether walking to work or committing to an exercise class with friends; small victories build confidence and create a foundation for more significant shifts.

Be Consistent

resolutions are abandoned by mid-February. This begs the question: Should you bother with New Year resolutions, particularly those centred around fitness?

The answer lies in understanding the psychology of behaviour change and adopting an approach that extends beyond the typical resolution fervour. Instead of fixating on short-lived promises, it might be more effective to cultivate long-term habits that can truly transform your lifestyle and health.

Consistency is key to habit formation. Set realistic goals that you can sustain over the long term and often engaging friends and family in those, can help to keep you on track. Book the time in your diary as a motivator and ask for encouragement from those around you.

Track Your Progress: Monitor your achievements to stay motivated. Whether it’s logging your workouts, noting improvements in strength or keeping a food diary, tracking progress reinforces positive behaviours. You may want to find a running route you can time and try to re-run it a little quicker.

You may want to share your progress with family and friends. External motivation as well as internal motivation will help to keep you on track.

Find Enjoyable Activities

Choose exercises and activities you genuinely enjoy > sherbornetimes.co.uk | 99

Body and Mind

Sherborne Sports Centre

and exercise with people you enjoy socialising with.

When fitness becomes a source of pleasure rather than a chore, you’re more likely to stick with it and there are so many options for fitness available that you may surprise yourself by finding a class or activity you never knew you would like! sherbornesports.co.uk

___________________________________________

Kevin Raguindin, Senior Fitness Instructor, Oxley Sports Centre

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mbarking on a new year fitness regime can sometimes feel overwhelming. Here are my practical tips to help you kick-start your journey and crucially, maintain it throughout the year.

Setting Realistic Goals

Before diving into any fitness regimen, it’s essential to set realistic goals. Start by assessing your current fitness level and identifying areas you want to improve. Set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. For example, 100 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

if your goal is weight loss, aim for a healthy and sustainable amount of weight to lose each week or month. Remember, setting realistic goals will help you stay motivated and prevent burnout.

Create a Plan

Once you’ve set your goals, it’s time to create a plan. Develop a workout routine that suits your lifestyle and preferences. Whether you prefer hitting the gym, joining a fitness class or working out at home, find a routine that you enjoy and can stick to. Incorporate a mix of cardiovascular exercises, strength training and flexibility exercises to ensure overall fitness. Consider consulting a fitness professional to help you create an effective and personalised plan.

Find Accountability

Accountability plays a crucial role in achieving fitness goals. Find a workout buddy or join a fitness community that can provide support, motivation and encouragement. Working out with someone can make exercising more enjoyable and you can hold each other accountable. Consider sharing your

Oxley Sports Centre

progress on social media platforms or using fitnesstracking apps to monitor your achievements and stay accountable to yourself.

Gradual Progression

When starting a new fitness routine, it’s important to embrace gradual progression. Pushing yourself too hard too soon can lead to injuries or burnout.

Increase the intensity, duration or frequency of your workouts gradually over time. Listen to your body and if something feels uncomfortable or painful, adjust accordingly. Remember that consistency is key and small steps towards progress are better than none.

Nutrition and Hydration

A well-rounded fitness journey goes hand in hand with a balanced diet and proper hydration. Fuel your body with nutrient-dense foods that provide the energy needed for workouts and aid in recovery. Opt for whole grains, lean proteins, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats. Additionally, stay hydrated by drinking enough water throughout the day, especially before, during and after workouts.

Celebrate Milestones

As you progress towards your fitness goals, celebrate the milestones along the way. Acknowledge and reward yourself for the hard work and dedication you’ve put into your journey. Treat yourself to something you enjoy, like a massage, new workout clothes or a day off from exercising. Celebrating milestones will help you stay motivated and reinforce positive habits.

Maintain Consistency

Maintaining consistency is vital for long-term success. Make fitness a priority in your daily routine by scheduling workouts in advance and treating them like any other essential appointment. Create a habit loop by consistently practising your fitness routine until it becomes a natural part of your lifestyle.

Remember that even when life gets busy, finding small pockets of time to move your body is better than skipping workouts altogether.

Prioritising your health and wellbeing is an excellent way to start the year. Remember, the journey is just as important as the destination.

oxleysc.com sherbornetimes.co.uk | 101

Body & Mind

LAYER-UP David Perham, Muntanya

T

he weather in the UK changes constantly and when you go higher into the mountains or over terrain like Dartmoor, the expression ‘Four seasons in one day’ is particularly relevant. The days of big, heavy coats are largely gone, replaced by lightweight fabrics like Gore-Tex which are engineered to keep you warm, dry and comfortable. Your choice of clothing and equipment can dictate how pleasurable your day’s walking will be.

The layering system is used to regulate your body temperature by allowing sweat to leave your body while protecting you from the wind and rain. Depending on the weather, you can layer up or down accordingly, wearing different layers that suit the weather at the time. An effective and versatile layering system can also be crucial to your safety, especially where the conditions change quickly.

The first layer is always a technical base layer, also known as a next-to-skin layer, which moves the moisture away from the skin. This is a process known as wicking and helps to keep you dry and comfortable. By allowing this movement of moisture, you don’t overheat when walking and it also stops you feeling chilly when 102 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

you stop for a rest. Base layers come in a variety of styles and weights, including long- and short-sleeved and leggings because your legs get cold too. The Montane Dart Base Layers are made with recycled plastic bottles and are better for the planet. They are fast-drying and made with Polygiene, which controls odour and means you can wear them for longer and wash them less.

The next layer is called the mid-layer. In the warmer months, a base layer may be all you need to keep comfortable but in winter you will need additional warmth. This could come in the form of a lightweight, quick-drying fleece, softshell or a lightweight insulated jacket. Wool is a good choice for a mid-layer as it retains warmth when wet and has natural anti-odour properties. The mid-layer acts similarly to the base layer, managing moisture effectively. Depending on the conditions, a base layer like the Dart with the addition of a mid-layer like the Montane Protium fleece or the Keela Hydron jacket may be all you need with the midlayer becoming the outer layer.

Insulated jackets are a great way of providing warmth while also dissipating heat during periods of high output.

William Perugini/Shutterstock

"By allowing the movement of moisture, you don’t overheat when walking and it also stops you feeling chilly when you stop for a rest."

When selecting which to go for, consider weight and weather conditions. Down provides the highest warmthto-weight value. The packable Montane Anti-Freeze Down Jackets are best suited to cool and dry conditions, have been developed for different activities and store away in a backpack when not needed. Synthetic materials such as Primaloft remain warm when damp and are harder wearing but are less compact and heavier than down. How cold the day is will determine the right insulating layer needed. For colder adventures, a warmer mid-layer will be needed, either in addition to your fleece or acting as a replacement. Ultimately, this insulation works by trapping air between the layers, which in turn keeps you warm.

The outer layer, or ‘shell’, is the protective barrier against the elements, designed to protect from wind, rain or snow. Alongside keeping you dry and protected from the wind, this outer layer needs to be breathable to allow moisture vapour to escape the layering system.

Choosing the best outer layer is dependent on the conditions you are likely to encounter. For wet days with heavy downpours forecast, a durable waterproof jacket is best suited. Rab’s Kangri jacket uses GoreTex to keep you dry and comfortable. Evaluate your environment, expected output level and typical conditions when making your selection.

Your layering system alone is not enough to keep you totally comfortable on the move – your head and hands lose heat so you’ll need a warm hat like a Montane or Rab beanie. Gloves come in a range of thicknesses and materials to keep your hands warm and you can wear a thinner or liner glove under a thicker pair of gloves or mittens.

There is after all, ‘no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing’. muntanya.co.uk

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communifit communifit communi_fit sherbornetimes.co.uk | 103

Body and Mind

A STATE OF WONDER Emma Rhys Thomas, Instructor, Art of Confidence

Gerain0812/Shutterstock

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ike waters that keep on flowing, time will forever move on, singularly minded, without a moment’s thought to those objects, people and places that will be forever changed. Another year has passed and a new one arrived.

With every new year comes hope for new beginnings, betterment, health, wealth and happiness.

One thing is assured, nothing will remain the same.

Change is inevitable. As we flow into every new chapter of our lives, we look to the future. Our body records every bit of usage that comes from living so we might reflect and feel the past. Being in the here and now is our strongest position, particularly if we can reach a Flow state in our endeavours.

Flow state has been an area of research since the 1970s. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi had a fascination with artists immersed in their work. Local artist Fernando Velazquez describes very well what it is to experience such a state in his practice: ‘Flow, when you’re in the studio, is like being able to join the dots; you are on a journey from one place to 104 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

another, with no logical route, more like the unpredictable flight of a butterfly. The mind works differently to the everyday, tuning in effortlessly, joining those markers one after the other. Creating from deep within the back of your mind. It may be challenging but you trust your own technical ability. You have no interest in time – you are in another dimension, an unconscious flight. I absolutely love that. If you are lucky, the journey ends in a beautiful place with a beautiful piece of work, that seemingly painted itself. It doesn’t always happen; our minds are polluted by busy lives. It is so important to get to the studio every day – flow might catch you there in the moment.’

A strong Pilates practice can achieve the same thing (assuming a fairly high level of accomplishment, yes – it’s challenging!). One of the aims of Pilates is flow. Whilst not the same in definition as Flow state, achieving a continuous movement sequence with breathwork playing an integral part, connecting the nervous system, muscular activity and affecting posture, the flow in Pilates can be considered a part of Flow state.

Principals and processes in Pilates are mirrored in the elements psychologists believe are required in a Flow experience.

• To be fully immersed in the experience; forgetting the demands of hunger, tiredness, work and of daily chores.

• A concentrated focus on the present moment; a movement pattern in Pilates requires such. In addition, the initiating of that movement and sequential activation and engagement of muscles are brought into focus to perform that movement well.

• Combining action and awareness; becoming aware of how a movement feels in the body is key for that body to learn good technique which is suited to that body.

• A loss of self-consciousness; what people think and judgments of others, don’t even cross the mind.

• Control; of the space, of the body, of the effort.

• An altered experience of time; a session might fly by, without even noticing.

• Sense of achievement and reward; progress and improvement are easily measured, especially if your starting position has been articulated and your goals have been clearly stated.

• Immediate feedback; the body responds to the activity and sends messages to the brain instantaneously.

• The potential to succeed; a positive view of change with a sense of easement and alleviation, combined with better strength and mobility.

Of course it takes a bit of work – it is supposed to be challenging. Techniques and skills are honed over many weeks but when you’re in that state of Flow, real change happens. A release of feel-good hormones during and immediately afterwards, bring feelings of elation and fulfilment. You walk taller, with more confidence and self-assurance. You feel motivated. Something

worthwhile has been achieved.

Whilst Flow has only been labelled as such since the 1970s, it has always existed. The mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, was likely to be describing Flow state when she, ‘sought the source of the spiritual expression,’ and spoke of how her particular recipe for freedom of movement was not in being, ‘the brain’s mirror.’ She was fascinated by the search for movement outside of the consciousness but yet that which had some order and form to it with some practised skills to direct the body in movement.

A state of Flow is, in Isadora Duncan’s words, ‘the perfect expression of that individual.’ I suspect we discover new things about ourselves when in a state of Flow, discovering what is our nature.

All of the combined elements of Flow can be described as being ‘in the zone’, achievable in many activities. Surely surfers have it when they catch that wave. It exists in group cohesion; musicians in concert or dancers in a company, for example. Flow can be recognised as losing time, excitement in the moment, adrenaline rush, acting out in the unconscious, mastery of performance, stretching ability, freedom from frustration, high level of skill, accomplishment, motivation, a change in mind and body.

Only by being in the moment can change truly happen. You might accept what went before and dream of what is to come, but only in the present can you affect change. I wish you the gentlest of positive change, lost in a state of flow. Happy New Year.

Posture Matters – a new collection of Emma’s essays with accompanying artwork, is available to purchase. Contact quantockpilates@gmail.com for details quantockpilates.com

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Body and Mind

GP EXERCISE REFERRAL SCHEME

Image: Stuart Brill

Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit

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e hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a healthy and happy 2024 as we look forward to a new year.

A new year creates fresh opportunities, including the chance to further progress your health and fitness or alternatively make a fresh start. Either way, let’s seize the opportunity! One possibility available to us is the GP exercise referral scheme. Not many realise this is not only an option but one that can be incredibly beneficial. It was first introduced by the NHS in 2001.

Let’s answer some common questions regarding our GP exercise referral scheme: What is the GP exercise referral scheme?

Prescribing medication is arguably the most common approach adopted by health professionals but exercise referral may provide a viable alternative or a valuable additional way to help improve your condition - one suitable for many individuals.

What conditions are prescribed?

Most people with long-term health conditions can be referred to the GP exercise referral scheme, including those with conditions such as arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity.

106 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Individuals with mental health conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety are often also referred.

What should I expect when I am referred to exercise?

Exercise instructors will receive all relevant background information relating to why you have been referred for exercise. This will help ensure the creation of a safe and targeted programme. The exercise instructor delivering this programme will give you all the support and expertise necessary to ensure the exercise is as beneficial as possible.

How do I get referred?

Your medical professional, normally your GP, will be able to refer you. At your next appointment, it is worth asking if you would gain from being referred for exercise.

We hope the above gives you a clearer understanding of the GP exercise referral scheme and how it may help you. The team of medical professionals here in Sherborne are able to refer exercise and all of our instructors are qualified to receive GP referrals, so do consider this option when addressing any health issues you may have. Let’s make a positive start to 2024. communifit.co.uk

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Legal

A LIFE-CHANGING RESOLUTION Rebecca Beresford, Partner & Head of Department, Private Client, Mogers Drewett Sherborne

A

ccording to recent research* half of the adults in the UK do not have a will. The study, based on a sample of 2,000 adults, also found that a third of those aged 55 and over have yet to make a will.

So, why are so many people avoiding this important piece of life admin?

Perceived Lack of Wealth: Approximately 24% of respondents believed that they didn’t possess enough assets or wealth to warrant making a will. This is often a misconception based on what they believe to be of value and until assessed, may prevent them from identifying their true assets.

Assumption of Automatic Inheritance: Surprisingly, 17% of respondents believed that their loved ones would automatically inherit their wealth without the need for a will. This misconception can lead to unintended consequences and unfortunate, rather painful family disputes.

Procrastination: 15% admitted to believing they had plenty of time to make a will, often postponing it indefinitely. Getting around to it is also admitting that at some point you will not be around to procrastinate any longer – a thought many of us struggle to come to terms with.

Lack of Knowledge: 14% of respondents cited not knowing how to write a will as a reason for not having one.

108 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Considering these findings, it’s important to understand that making a will is far easier than many people think. Regardless of your age or financial status, it’s never too soon to start planning. Wouldn’t now be a good time to take a positive step and get around to making that will?

You can begin by listing your assets and specifying your wishes regarding their distribution. Additionally, leaving a charitable legacy in your will can offer significant tax benefits. Charitable donations are exempt from inheritance tax, reducing the overall value of your estate (subject to taxation). This can also lower the inheritance tax rate on assets passing to non-exempt beneficiaries from 40% to 36%. You can even specify a particular purpose for your charitable legacy, ensuring that your wishes are respected.

Making a will is a crucial step in securing your assets and ensuring your loved ones are taken care of, according to your wishes. Don’t let misconceptions or procrastination hold you back. Start the new year by making a resolution to look after the long-term future of your loved ones. mogersdrewett.com *Survey undertaken by Canada Life April 2023

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Finance

STARTING 2024 ON THE RIGHT FOOT Mark Salter, Certified and Chartered Financial Planner, Fort Financial Planning

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he New Year is a great time to review your financial situation and set goals for the future. Whether you want to save more, pay off debt or invest wisely, here are some tips to help you get started on your financial planning for 2024.

Set your intentions. The first step to financial planning is to identify what you want to achieve and why. Do you want to buy a house, retire early or travel the world? Write down your short-term and long-term goals and prioritise them according to urgency and importance. Then, create a realistic budget that aligns with your goals and tracks your income and expenses.

Pay down debt. High-interest debt, such as credit cards, can eat up a large portion of your income and limit your ability to save and invest. Borrowing costs have increased significantly due to rising interest rates. To reduce your debt burden, pay more than the minimum amount each month, focus on the highest-interest debt first and avoid taking on new debt unless necessary.

Save more. Saving money is essential for building an emergency fund, achieving your goals and preparing for retirement. Even if you don’t have much disposable income, try to save at least a little bit each month. Every pound counts and can grow over time with compound interest. Set up a monthly standing order to your savings account.

Invest wisely. Investing is one of the best ways to grow your wealth and reach your financial goals. However, investing can also be risky and complex so you need to do your research and understand your risk tolerance and time horizon. Costs are also important when it comes to investing as high management fees and transactional costs can eat into your returns. Seek advice from a trusted financial advisor who can offer personalised advice and guidance.

Review your taxes. Taxes can significantly impact your financial situation so you should review your tax situation and plan ahead for the next year. You can take advantage of various tax benefits, such as pension contributions, using ISA allowances and, if you’re married, transferring accounts or assets between you, to help reduce your tax bill.

By following these tips, you can start 2024 on the right foot and make progress towards your financial goals. Remember to revisit your plan regularly and make adjustments as needed. Financial planning is not a one-time event but a continuous process that requires discipline and commitment. ffp.org.uk

110 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

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CRISIS. WHAT CRISIS? 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.

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 111

Tech

EMAIL SCAMS: PART 1 James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

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n today’s digital age, email has become an integral part of our daily communication. However, with the convenience of email comes the risk of falling victim to various online scams. These scams, often disguised as legitimate correspondence, aim to deceive individuals into divulging sensitive information or falling victim to financial fraud.

One of the most widespread types of email scams is phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals impersonate trusted entities, such as banks, social media platforms or online retailers, in an attempt to trick you into revealing personal information like passwords or credit card numbers. Be wary of unexpected emails that urgently request sensitive information and always verify the sender’s authenticity. A way to do this is to hover your cursor over the sender’s name to reveal the full email address and cross-check it with the official contact information of the supposed sender.

One of the big scams that is currently on the increase is phishing emails being sent to you claiming to be from your own email provider, with the threat that they will either close your email account or lock it if you don’t confirm your email address and password via the link they provide. The emails look very convincing so be wary and if in doubt go to your provider’s webmail and log in that way to check. Always check the sender’s email address carefully, especially if the email seems suspicious.

Legitimate organisations use official domain names so be wary of emails from generic or misspelt addresses.

Some email scams involve sending attachments or links that, when opened, download malware onto 112 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

the recipient’s device. This malware can compromise personal information, damage files or even grant remote access to the attacker. Cybercriminals often use these tactics to direct users to fraudulent websites designed to steal login credentials. Before clicking on any link or opening an attachment, ensure you recognise the sender and, if in doubt, contact them directly to confirm the legitimacy of the communication.

Scammers may pose as friends or family members in distress, claiming they urgently need financial assistance or are buying a present for someone. Before responding to such requests, double-check and verify the information through a trusted communication method, like a phone call, to ensure that this is true.

How can we protect ourselves against these scams?

Sadly, I would say, treat every email as a scam and if you weren’t expecting it or if it seems like a scam, it probably is. Check with someone else just to make sure as a second pair of eyes might spot something ‘phishy’.

Making sure you have strong, unique passwords for your online accounts and updating them regularly will of course help and adding an extra layer of security, such as Two-Factor Authentication, can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorised access to your accounts, even if your login credentials are compromised. Two-Factor Authentication is where you either add another email address or a telephone number so that the site you are logging into can send a code that you then need to enter to gain access. computing-mp.co.uk

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Short Story

FIRST FOOTING

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Jan Pain, Sherborne Scribblers

hen Jessie was seven she started a love affair with Scotland. Each summer holiday until her early teens, she stayed with her cousins, Jamie, Hamish and Isla, in beautiful Ballater. The picturesque Victorian town and its surroundings of the magnificent Cairngorms captured her heart. It seemed like another world compared with her home in urban Wimbledon, at best only offering the Common for a breath of fresh air.

There was the added cachet of holidaying in Royal Deeside with Balmoral just down the road and nearby Craithie church where the Queen and her family worshipped. Jessie wished she had known the little town’s station at the Deeside Railway Terminus when it was still functioning and disgorging its royal cargo to a waiting fleet of cars. Sadly, it had come under the Beeching axe in 1966.

Sometimes, she attended the celebrated Braemar Games with her cousins, aunt and uncle. The sound of the pipes thrilled her and the spectacle of the dancing encouraged her to take lessons. It could be said she embraced all things Scottish, with one exception – the haggis!

Mostly, the children spent their time outdoors, fearless in their exploration along the banks of the Dee and the National Park. Occasionally, they were joined by Jamie’s best friend, Fergus McLean, and it was his inclusion Jessie enjoyed the most. She was bowled over by his athleticism and striking dark, good looks. Five years her senior and full of fun, she hung on his every word. Each day, picnics were prepared, whatever the weather, and Jessie used often to hope it would rain so that the gang could take refuge and eat their lunch in a bothy on the fringe of the royal estate. It was there that Fergus began his storytelling, holding his peers in thrall. He enjoyed Jessie’s reaction to his yarns and one day announced that he’d heard she had never sampled haggis.

‘I’ve asked your aunt if we could all have haggis as a treat very soon and meanwhile thought you might enjoy hearing the origin of our national dish!’

He cleared his throat, Jessie sitting at his feet.

‘Once, there were many haggis in the wild,

114 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

descended from the feral variety, formerly domesticated in the Hebrides. These beasts were abandoned at the time of the Highland Clearances and the forced displacement of the local crofters.’

Jessie’s eyes widened.

‘At this point, the haggis faced extinction,’ he continued. ‘They competed with the newly introduced sheep for food. The haggis were unable to sustain themselves if turfed off their terrain of peaty burns and a supply of heather. The poor crofters who attempted to take the haggis with them were devastated when they died, away from their mountainsides.’

At this point, Jessie’s eyes filled with tears but Fergus reassured her of the beasts’ survival on the Isle of Lewis where, on Sundays, the little creatures were involved in The Great Hebridean Haggis Hunt. With a straight face, he declaimed that haggis were trapped in creels and dispatched to local women for skinning, then soaked in brine to tenderise them.

‘Imagine,’ intoned the storyteller, ‘that the discarded skin in days of old used to be made into sporrans!

My great-grandfather’s example is in a glass case in our entrance hall. My father wears it at Hogmanay and on Burns’ Night. Tradition dictates that it passes to the eldest son on attaining his majority. That’s me so at twenty-one, I shall look forward to sporting it!

Now you know the story of the haggis and what a rare delicacy it is, to be presented with ceremony and eaten on special occasions. All that remains is for you, Jessie, to taste this wondrous beastie!’

A few days later, poor Jessie was overcome when Mrs Robertson brought in the acclaimed dish, wrapped in a white damask napkin. Uncle Angus plunged his dirk into the grey, amorphous heap and the contents spilled into the entrée dish. Jessie’s mind raced with the story of the endangered haggis and an unfamiliar meaty smell wafted beneath her nostrils.

‘Dear Aunt,’ she exclaimed, ‘I simply can’t even try a mouthful,’ and with that, she bolted out of the dining room.

By her mid-teens, Jessie’s holidays were taken with her parents, who favoured the Continent, and in her gap year before going up to Cambridge she and a friend

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Transform your garden with a new fence did a round-the-world trip on a shoestring. However, she never forgot Ballater and its environs, those idyllic early holidays and the three cousins with whom she kept in touch.

Out of the blue, when she was nearly 23, she received a phone call from Isla.

‘Jessie, just wondering, would you like to come up for New Year? Mummy’s putting on a dinner and I don’t think you’ve ever celebrated Hogmanay here. It was always the summer hols, wasn’t it?’

Excitedly, Jessie accepted, planning she would buy a long tartan kilt by mail order from The House of Bruar, unearth her dancing pumps and thrill again to the skirl of the pipes.

The atmosphere at the Robertson house brought back many happy memories. To Jessie’s surprise, Mrs Robertson had perfected a modern take on the presentation of the evening’s essential dish. The haggis arrived, plated, in a dainty cylindrical form comprising a colourful layered stack of meat, sandwiched by neeps and topped by delicately browned tatties. On the side was a small jug containing a creamy whisky sauce. Jessie savoured every mouthful. She winked at her cousin.

‘Do you remember, Isla…?’

Towards midnight, there was a thunderous hammering on the door. Mrs Robertson threw it open to reveal the black-haired, handsome Fergus, resplendent in his McLean tartan kilt, first footing. He presented his hostess with a tote bag containing whisky, shortbread and a lump of coal.

‘Bringing you all the luck in the world, Robertsons,’ he exclaimed and then stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Jessie whose heart missed a beat as he warmly embraced her.

‘Hi, Fergus, long time, no see,’ she said, with a twinkle in her eye. ‘I must say you look splendid and very appropriately dressed as a first footer. Funnily enough, I was thinking of you at dinner, as only tonight I’ve developed a fondness for haggis. The wee beasties must still be roaming the Lewis’ mountainside after all these years! Not to put too fine a point on it, there’s just one thing now you’ve turned up – might it be possible for me to take a really close look at your sporran?’

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sherbornetimes.co.uk | 115

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Literature

Image: Nick Danziger

SHERBORNE TRAVEL WRITING FESTIVAL 5TH - 7TH APRIL

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Rory MacLean

pot the odd one out: Sicily, Kerala, China, the Brazilian Amazon, North Korea, Roman Gaul, Nigeria, Burma’s Shan Hills… or the Cotswolds.

In fact, none of these destinations will be out of place in Sherborne on the first weekend in April. Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival will return with a bulging backpack of top international travel writers, photographers and radio and television personalities ready to transport readers, listeners, armchair and intrepid travellers alike towards the four corners of the globe.

To launch the globe-trotting weekend, the explorer and filmmaker Benedict Allen will take to the stage at the Powell Theatre. Benedict - best known for his daring, jaw-dropping, selffilmed BBC programmes – will relive some of the highs and lows of his extraordinary career, whether in the Arctic with his dog team in the worst winter of living memory or last year alone in the Amazon or his touching reunion with the Yaifo, a people who had once shown him a great act of kindness as a young adventurer.

118 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

Although she may not have nearly died nine times (as is said of Benedict), Kassia St Clair will also have her foot on the accelerator. In early 1907, a small ad in a Paris newspaper kickstarted the Peking to Paris automobile race, and Kassia - author of UK top ten The Secret Lives of Colour – will tell the incredible and improbable true story of the crank-started machines that roared and spluttered (and broke down) in deserts, on mountain passes and in the middle of swollen rivers as they raced into a world teetering on the brink of modernity (The Race to the Future was a Radio 4’s Book of the Week).

The weekend’s stellar lineup will include not only writers-who-travel but also travellers who are redefining the world in new ways. In her new book Black Ghosts: A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China, Noo Saro-Wiwa – author of the Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year Looking for Transwonderland – will tell the extraordinary stories of economic migrants in the People’s Republic from a Ghanaian cardiac surgeon to a Nigerian pop star who sings in Mandarin. Art therapist and educator Katie Carr never imagined that her first book would have anything to do with sea kayaking. But when her adventurer brother Toby died in 2022 having sketched out a book, she decided to write it for him, embarking on a year-long journey through loss, frustration and storytelling to create Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast.

I’m especially thrilled that the 89-year-old veteran photographer Don McCullin will join us to speak of his legendarily compassionate work from 1950s London to the Vietnam War, from the Roman ruins of southern Turkey to his beloved Somerset. Other speakers will include the delightful and erudite Bijan Omrani on Caesar’s Footprints - his cultural excursion through ancient France - and Devon-based Davina Quinlivan on the rewards of getting lost. Also, new this year will be the English Counties panel – part of travel publisher Bradt’s 50th anniversary celebrations - with speakers on the Cotswolds, Cornwall and Dorset.

Since last year my own research travels have taken me from Jerusalem to Bhutan via Kerala, Peru and the Great Plains of the United States. My new book will take another year to write stay tuned for its launch at the 2025 festival – but before then I’m delighted to announce that the celebrated photojournalist Nick Danziger has agreed to come to Sherborne. In an extended event, Nick will share his remarkable personal story before he and I talk together about our humanitarian work for the UN, EU and British Council. In Cyprus, Myanmar, North Korea and former Yugoslavia we have aspired to build bridges of understanding through our work – and in one or two places may even have contributed to positive political change.

A surprise guest and special events will further enhance the weekend including Saturday Afternoon Tea with the Authors, catered by Comins Fine Tea Importers of Sturminster Newton and Bath. Charities involved will include Kashfi’s Children which gifts bilingual books to educate young people, aiming to foster tolerance, positive change and hope.

In the coming weeks early bird and the popular Around the World for £80 weekend tickets will be available at Winstone’s Books, through the Sherborne Literary Society and on the revitalised festival website. So please mark the dates in your diary, watch for early announcements and make plans to join us for an unforgettable April weekend of spellbinding stories and bold adventures at the second Sherborne Travel Writing Festival. sherbornetravelwritingfestival.com rorymaclean.com

sherbornetimes.co.uk | 119

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DECEMBER SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Loyal and hard-working (8) 5. Quartzlike gem (4) 9. Type of plastic; record (5) 10. Formal speech (7) 11. Based on untested ideas (12) 13. Repudiate (6) 14. Join together (6) 17. Ate too much (12) 20. Hearing range (7) 21. With speed (5) 22. Become weary (4) 23. Campaigner (8)

120 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

DOWN 1. Rescue (4) 2. Incorporates into (7) 3. Boxing class division (12) 4. Novice (6) 6. Sharp end (5) 7. More solitary (8) 8. Butterfly larvae (12) 12. Language used by an individual (8) 15. Country whose capital is Dublin (7) 16. Newspaper boss (6) 18. Fault (5) 19. Endure; large animal (4)

Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Lalage Snow

Endurance by Levison Wood (Apollo 2022, £25)

F

Sherborne Times reader offer price of £23 from Winstone’s Books

or over a century, Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, lay at the bottom of the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica. Its wreck was discovered in 2022 at the same time as Levison Wood was compiling an anthology of adventure stories.

Wood is no stranger to endurance. A renowned explorer who made his name walking the length of the Nile in 2015, he has clocked up tens of thousands of miles covering hostile terrains around the world. From the Himalayas to the Americas, Arabia to Russia, Wood has cornered the market in long walks and accompanying books.

Endurance is a hefty anthology of travel stories, its 630 pages weighing 1.2 kilograms. Many such books have been published in the last five years alone but Wood’s book is different, interpreting the theme of endurance widely and poignantly. You don’t need to be an Arctic explorer or an expert in the Amazon River to be able to endure stage four cancer or political internment.

This wide interpretation serves the book well. The entries are organised into sub-categories: Against All Odds, Courage Under Fire, Frontiers of Discovery, Pioneers and Mavericks and Pushing the Limits. Of course, there are plenty of entries from the pantheon of traveller writers and adventurers. Not many travel anthologies could avoid including the likes of Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, Robert Falcon Scott and Wilfred Thesiger. We know the broad brush strokes of many of these entries already – Joe Simpson whose climbing partner cut the rope and Sir Francis Drake navigating the great unknown – but the excerpts in Endurance give these stories much deeper context. Jon T. Coleman’s account of

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Hugh Glass (Leonardo di Caprio’s character in The Revenant) was an eye-opener.

But Endurance is not just about people who put themselves in extraordinary situations. It is filled with accounts of those who find themselves caught up in events and circumstances beyond their control: Malala Yousafzai who survived a Taliban attempt on her life; Nelson Mandela languishing in prison; Marie Colvin’s experience of escaping Tamils in Sri Lanka and David Nott’s descriptions of life as a doctor in Syria all make for compelling reading.

Stories like these remind us that acts of heroism, toughness and endurance are not simply the preserve of those who undertake well-funded, large-scale expeditions, have a gift for writing or a talent for publicity. They happen all the time and they often go unremarked and unreported. These stories resonate with many of the extraordinary people I met while covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and Gaza.

In his introduction, Wood says that his aim was to inspire readers to reach for the original texts and delve deeper into what it means to endure. He succeeds.

There is hope within these pages: we have within us an extraordinary capacity to cope. Reading this anthology is an affirmation that the human spirit can and will endure. sherborneliterarysociety.com Lalage Snow is the author of War Gardens: A Journey Through Conflict in Search of Peace and her forthcoming book, My Family and Other Seedlings will be published

by Quercus in May 2024.

Books to change your life

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

Sue Hawkett ‘All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.’ Julian of Norwich

Y

aroslava Tatenko, our Ukrainian guest, often recites this to me when struggling with a particular problem. But will it, from a human perspective? How long Lord, how long must we wait? The Psalmist says ‘that weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning’ – although the morning may take a long time to come!

At the present time, our senses are bombarded with images on TV and social media of such horrific suffering that we are tempted to turn away unable to watch.

Yaroslava copes with daily uncertainty and grief; we try to make sense of what we are reading or watching and so vicariously experience grief. Although we may sense and feel the pain and anguish of our world, we also experience our own losses and grief.

In a moving Sunday Service radio broadcast ‘Postcards from the land of Grief ’, Rev Richard Littledale described the sadness of grief as a ‘Winter for the soul – when leaves and blossom fall from the tree and all that is left is the bare bones of trunk and branches’.

The emotion of loss can feel this way – raw exposure, vulnerability and pain. You may be feeling pain due to the breakdown of family relationships, illness, war, injury, isolation, loneliness, loss of income or employment or the death of a child, parent or grandparent – the feeling is the same. But as Christians, we believe that God never leaves nor forsakes us and gives us strength to work through these times.

If we look further into the ‘land of grief ’ and look more closely at our tree we will see that buds are quietly appearing – the sap is rising and the tree is not dead after all but getting ready to burst into life again, when the time is right.

Coping with loss is unique to each individual – the length not known and the pain keen, but part of grieving is remembering the laughter, the happy, warm memories, the comfort of companionship and love and the recollection of life’s ups and downs.

We have learnt the importance of remembering those whom we have loved, are separated from or have died. The need for people to come together to acknowledge their loss, grief and sadness and to remember in a quiet, safe place has been comforting for many. So that is why we are pleased to hold our annual Snowdrop Service. The service provides an opportunity for people to remember, give thanks and say goodbye, irrespective of what or when their loss was or their beliefs. The service includes readings, music and the option of lighting a candle.

This is an initiative, hosted by Sherborne Churches Together and supported by Yeatman Hospital, Marie Curie, Weldmar Hospice and Cruse. It is open to those of all faiths or none.

These organisations will take part in the service and be available to chat over refreshments following the service. In times of grief, sadness and loneliness it is our God who is the source of love and comfort, who coming into the world as a vulnerable baby, shared our common humanity from cradle to cross. _______________________________________________________________________ Friday 2nd February 11am Sherborne Snowdrop Service Cheap Street Methodist Church

For further details see local social media and posters or contact Sue Hawkett on 07867 538052.

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122 | Sherborne Times | January 2024

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