Ecky thump,’ as my mother-in-law would say, little old Sherborne is full to the rafters with all manner of shenanigans this month.
Wafting idly down Cheap Street today, en route to tap out these words over an iced latte, I’m conscious of a calm before the storm.
We have the Summer Festival at Pageant Gardens on the 6th, with live bands aplenty and all the associated accoutrements. The PA then remains intact for the following day and what will be the cultural equivalent of Sherborne being slapped in the chops with a besequinned salmon to the beat of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive – in a good way.
Our town’s inaugural Pride event will be an emphatic celebration of love and inclusivity – a time to recognise the strength of our community and the importance of belonging. That and an excuse for Janice Robinson to belt out her 90’s Euro-synth anthem Dreamer as the sun goes down over Pageant Gardens – the prospect of which gives me goosebumps.
There’s also the Wick Charity Festival, Sherborne Open Art Exhibition, Ben Waters playing at Round Chimneys Farm, the Classic and Supercars Show, Oborne Fringe, literary events, exhibitions, performances, talks, markets and comedy. Phew. Brownie points for Sherborne’s bid to become Dorset’s 2025 Capital of Culture I hope. You can’t say we’re not trying.
Meanwhile, by happy coincidence, Claire and Katharine go behind the scenes at Macready’s – the restaurant named after one-time tenant of Sherborne House and president of the Sherborne Literary and Scientific Institution, Shakespearean actor William Macready. I would mention that his friend Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor but that would be name-dropping.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Sally Baxter
Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne Museum
Dr Hay-Ming Blunt Winterbourne Hospital
Celia Brayfield
Richard Bromell ASFAV Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers
Mike Burks The Gardens Group
Jenny Campbell Sherborne Scribblers
Paula Carnell
David Copp
Rosie Cunningham
Barbara Elsmore
James Flynn Milborne Port Computers
Simon Ford
Jeremy Gardiner
Annie Gent Sherborne Prep
Craig Hardaker Communifit
Andy Hastie Yeovil Cinematheque
Julie Haylock Sandhurst Garden Design
James Henderson & Ian Liu Sherborne School
Giles Henschel Olives Et Al
Sarah Hitch The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms
Rob Holly Yeovil Round Table
James Hull The Story Pig
Jeremy Isaac
Kate Konrad Cheap Street Church
Lucy Lewis Dorset Mind
Jude Marwa
Paul Maskell The Beat and Track
Tom Matkevich The Green Restaurant
Sandra Miller BSc, MSc, BCNH Dip, FDN-P Wholistic Health
Gillian Nash
Tracy Neal Mogers Drewett Solicitors
Mark Newton-Clarke MA VetMB PhD MRCVS Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons
The Fitness Team Oxley Sports Centre
Mark Pender Sherborne Art Club
Hilary Phillips Hanford School
Emma Rhys Thomas The Art of Confidence
Alec Rich Round Chimneys Farm
Hazel Roadnight Winstones Books
Digby Roles Beer From Round Here
Mark Salter CFP Fort Financial Planning
Anthony Sargent MPhil BVMS MRCVS Kingston Equine Vets
Val Stones
Charlotte Weatherley Sherborne Literary Society
Sadie Wilkins Sherborne Pride
ARTIST AT WORK
in association with
No 68: Jeremy Gardiner, Durdle Door
Acrylic and jesmonite on poplar panel, 120cm x 95cm, £24,000
My landscape paintings are a way of interpreting marks in time and distilling them down to convey a story in symbolic form. For the paintings, I start with slabs of raw poplar panels. Renaissance artists used native poplar wood panels for altarpieces, recognised for their lightness, strength and uniform grain. I choose to use these solid bases in order to cut, scour and sand the surface, adding and subtracting layer upon layer. The deckle edge is cut to reference the slabs of Purbeck limestone seen in quarries that I visit in Dorset. Areas of colour are continuously added, sanded down and over-painted, then drawn on or scratched through to expose the layers beneath, mimicking the action of weather on the landscape and the accretion and erosion of surfaces over time. This process, reminiscent of a geological excavation, combined with the use of colour and texture, reinforces the sense of time and antiquity in the work, offering glimpses of earlier formations and indicating the passage of time.
Thin plywood shapes and forms from topographical drawings are added as a raised relief to the surface. A router is used to engrave images of fossils, geometric shapes, textures and lines from the drawings into the panel’s surface. Paint and cement are then poured and rubbed into the fissures.
My working methods rely heavily on manual woodworking techniques. I use a table saw to cut or ‘rip’ edges, a plane to smooth and remove excess material, lamination (the process of binding together segments of wood using glue and pressure) to build up a relief surface and a hand-held sanding block to wear away selected areas of paint. These are paintings to be looked at but I also want to imbue them with a sense of being tangible, physical objects.
jeremygardiner.co.uk
Saturday 20th July - Sunday 13th October
(Tuesday - Saturday 11am-5pm, Sunday 11am-4pm)
Jeremy Gardiner: Turning the Tide
The Sherborne, Newland, Sherborne DT9 3JG
A new exhibition of Gardiner’s paintings exploring an array of landforms along the South Coast of England. Free entry. thesherborne.uk
The late Brian Phelan and Dorothy Bromiley Phelan (image courtesy of Josh Losey and Kate Phelan)
ON FILM
Andy Hastie, Yeovil Cinematheque
With Cinematheque’s latest season of films finishing last month and our new one not starting until September, this is a good opportunity to mention the funeral I attended at the end of May in Sherborne’s Castleton church. It was a joint service for Brian Phelan and Dorothy Bromiley Phelan, who remarkably died within five days of each other after sixty years of marriage. I knew them both, as many in Sherborne did, and I’m proud to have called Brian my friend. Dorothy and Brian were leading lights in 1950s and 60s British cinema and later both worked in the theatre, with Brian becoming a successful screenwriter.
In the early 1950s, Dorothy was signed to the Rank Organisation as a young starlet, being sent under contract to work for 20th Century Fox in Hollywood alongside two other British actresses, with much fanfare at the time, and appeared in The Girls of Pleasure Island (1953). Alas, her Hollywood career was not to last and she returned to Britain to star in It’s Great to be Young (1956) with John Mills. The film is set in a regional grammar school, with Mills playing an influential, jazzloving music teacher and Dorothy a 26-year-old sixth former! With a screenplay by Ted Willis of Dixon of Dock Green fame and music from Humphrey Lyttelton’s band, this ‘feel-good film with an edge’ was warmly received at the time. Also in 1956, Dorothy met and married American film director Joseph Losey, exiled in Britain from the USA, where he’d been hounded by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Brian was Dublin-born in 1934 and later moved to Canada as an apprentice carpenter. Whilst working on stage sets he developed a passion for theatre and acting, returning to London to appear in three Losey films, where he met Dorothy. He also featured in The Kitchen (1961) from a Terence Rattigan play, HMS Defiant (1962) and Four in the Morning (1965), starring a very young Judi Dench. As his acting work dried up, Brian
turned to screenwriting, winning multiple awards. He also tried his luck in Hollywood but returned to carry on writing up until his death.
To know Brian was such a pleasure. He was extremely generous with his time and had so many friends in and around Sherborne. From his time living in Fulham (In the 1970s, I worked only 100 metres from his house but didn’t know him then. I wish I had.), he was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club and became a great friend of Elizabeth Frink – their two families often holidaying together, with both ending up living in Dorset. He promoted the arts wherever he could, was supportive of young artists locally and was involved with Sherborne House.
Brian was the best raconteur I have known and knew how to tell a story. He’d met so many people in his lifetime and enjoyed relating his encounters. He was a great friend of Donald Sutherland and spent a night with Mia Farrow (not as salacious as it might sound, I promise!) but I’ll finish with one of my favourites. On arriving in Hollywood to start screenwriting, his friend who met him at the airport said they had to pick his daughter up from a children’s party on the way home. They arrived at the house with many parents waiting outside for their own children. Brian soon fell into conversation with a friendly, small, bald man who had heard his accent and started talking of his own ancestors from Ireland. On the eventual drive back home Brian mentioned this man to his friend. ‘Don’t you realise who that was?’ was the reply. ‘That was Gene Kelly!’ Apparently, he never wore his toupée around people he knew. There are so many stories...
Dorothy and Brian were a wonderful couple and devoted to each other, as Jeremy Barker’s excellent eulogy at the funeral confirmed. They will be missed enormously.
cinematheque.org.uk swan-theatre.co.uk
CONFESSIONS OF A THEATRE ADDICT
Rosie Cunningham
Isaw Deep Blue Sea, starring the magnificent Tamsin Greig, at the Theatre Royal Bath and it is very much hoped it will transfer up to the West End. The play was written by Terence Rattigan and tells the story of Hester Collyer who left her marriage to High Court judge, Sir William Collyer, to have an affair with young, former RAF pilot, Freddie Page, who she is completely in ‘lust’ with. Greig follows
an illustrious list of exceptional actresses who have played the role of Hester, including Peggy Ashcroft in the 1952 original play, Vivien Leigh in the 1955 film, Rachel Weisz in the 2011 film remake, and Helen McCrory at The National. Hester’s world is dominated by her desire to be loved by Freddie, a shallow, vain man who exhibits breathtaking selfishness, a total disregard for anyone’s feelings but
Nicholas Farrell and Tamsin Greig in The Deep Blue Sea at the Theatre Royal Bath Image: Manuel Harlan
his own and a refusal to be dragged into emotional commitment. The play takes place over the course of a day and opens with Hester ’s attempted suicide in a squalid flat in Ladbroke Grove after Freddie has left to play golf for the weekend, forgetting her birthday. By the end of the day, she finds the courage to believe that she has a future without Freddie and regains her inner strength and self-respect, helped by the intercession of others. The supporting cast of Oliver Chris as Freddie, Nicholas Farrell as Sir William Collyer, Finbar Lynch as Miller and Felicity Montague as Mrs Elton were excellent and contributed to a mesmerising performance. This story of lust, love and loneliness never gets old. Well, I had to go and see what the hype was all about and saw Tom Holland, of Spider-Man fame, in Romeo & Juliet, directed by Jamie Lloyd. Personally, I hated it. The screeching ear-busting robotic music, the industrialised monochrome setting and costumes, the iron barrier coming down between the actors and the audience and the mumbled monotone delivery of Shakespeare’s beautiful words of love. This was not a love story. There was hardly any interaction between the characters, no fight scenes, no love scenes, no colour at all, but then I looked around at the captivated, young audience and I thought… Possibly Jamie Lloyd has been very clever indeed. These theatregoers were not there for Shakespeare –they were there for Tom Holland and this was a very contemporary love story, of emotionless, businesslike, almost mundane interaction. Love had been deconstructed, like the food trend of apple crumble being served up as a pile of cooked apple alongside a mound of crumble. After the play, Holland emerged from the stage door to the sound of literally hundreds of young fans applauding him and calling out his name in homage. Jamie Lloyd’s play had found its mark, not with traditional theatregoers, but with a new audience. On until 3rd August at The Duke of York’s Theatre.
I attended a lovely performance of Theft by Eric Chappell, writer of Rising Damp, by our very own Amateur Players of Sherborne. For a small theatre, the set packed a huge punch, and I would like to applaud the set designer, John Crabtree, who designs most sets and who recently won the NODA award for Twelfth Night. The regular construction team of Mark Lambert, Adrian Hole and Robert Yeo are not to be forgotten.
MARION THOMSON SOUND OF HARRIS OIL
SARAH SPACKMAN STANDING PEAR OIL
SHERBORNE OPEN ART EXHIBITION 2024
Sherborne has long been a centre for the prodigious artistic talent that exists throughout Dorset and indeed the wider SW area. Our county’s natural beauty has drawn creative people to settle here and continues to do so. Nowhere is this more evident and celebrated than in the annual Sherborne Open Art Exhibition, which will take place in its usual venue, the Digby Hall, Hound Street, from 20th to 28th July. Admission is free and the exhibition is open from 10am to 5pm each day, except for the last day, Sunday 28th when it closes at 1pm.
This unique event has been running for many years, surviving a three-year interlude over the period of the pandemic through the dedication of a small group of determined people and re-establishing itself with a more modern, inclusive approach. It enriches the town’s artistic life, now further enhanced by the opening of The Sherborne, and it is hoped that the value of both of these will be appreciated as Sherborne bids to win the 2025 Dorset County of Culture award.
The word ‘unique’ is not used lightly. The Sherborne Open Art Exhibition is focused on people, inclusivity and the erosion of all barriers to the enjoyment of art. It is open to all artists, professional
and amateur, yet continues to showcase a very high quality of submissions. A primary aim is to encourage, help and advise new entrants and to make it accessible to all. A wide variety of mediums and genres are represented too, making it an exhibition to surprise and engage all art lovers.
The submission process is easy with no daunting online photo submission or pre-selection; the artist can turn up on the Submission Days, the afternoon of 12th July or the morning of 13th, with their entries (although there is a ‘fast-track’ online entry system for those who want to enter early and have a more streamlined hand-in). This process also adds spontaneity but is primarily in place so that all entries go ‘as they are’ before the judges to ensure they see the full picture (if you’ll excuse a weak joke). The judges are an independent panel who are briefed to create a diverse and representative display.
Last year there were 400 works exhibited by 250 artists and we expect to hang about the same number again this year. Footfall has grown impressively with a record approximately 2,500 visitors last year.
This year the exhibition is again organised under the umbrella of Sherborne Arts – a band of volunteers >
Mark Pender, Sherborne Art Club
Images: ArtFo-Tography
consisting of artists, art lovers and supporters who freely give their time to man and assist and have fun doing so! Their dedication and hard work is greatly appreciated. If you would like to be involved in any capacity, large or small, please get in touch via sherborneartexhibition@gmail.com
The exhibition could also not take place without the support of our sponsors. We are pleased to introduce as our main sponsor, Patson Hill Farm Sporting Club, run by Steve and Alex Ferris. Having an interest in art and hearing about the exhibition, they welcomed the opportunity to promote the sporting club in a way that helped secure the future of a valuable local artistic event.
Steve and Alex moved to Patson Hill Farm quite recently and have exciting plans. The sporting club is already proving popular and provides both a magnificent venue for experienced shots and a superb opportunity for beginners to try something new, with realistic simulated shooting using fibre wad cartridges and clays.
In addition, Castle Gardens, Charterhouse Auctioneers, Old Barn Framing Gallery and Mogers Drewett continue as sponsors from previous years and
The Trouvaille Gallery joins us to award the acrylic/ mixed media prize. We are grateful for their generosity and support, with the prize fund for artists now more than £1,200 over a range of categories. And as something new to the role of the main sponsor, and in addition to our usual prizes for artists, Patson Hill Farm Sporting Club will present a ‘Sponsor’s Prize’ this year, chosen by themselves.
If you would like to enter your work, the latest day for submission is 13th July. All information is available on the website below.
We hope that everyone reading this may be inspired to visit the exhibition, whether as an established art lover or as a new experience. Support it, enjoy it and maybe come away with an original artwork to enjoy for years to come.
sherbornearts.org/sherborne-open-art-exhibition
Saturday 20th – Sunday 28th July 10am-5pm (10am-1pm Sunday 28th)
Sherborne Open Art Exhibition
Digby Hall, Hound Street DT9 3AA. Admission free.
President: Sir Mark Elder CH CBE
Finalist in the 2023 International Opera Awards
The home of Country House opera in South West England featuring renowned soloists, a full orchestra and a large chorus of emerging young artists
World Première
An opera in four seasons | Composer: Paul Carr Librettist: Euan Tait (After Thomas Hardy) (Performed by permission of Goodmusic Publishing Ltd) 23, 25 July at 19.00 | 27 July at 14.00
Marking 100 years since the composer’s death…
Giacomo Puccini 22, 24, 27 July at 19.00 | 25 July at 14.00
Opera in Oborne has always gently but surely evolved. From its simple first format of an evening of much-loved arias, through its presentation of abridged versions of Mozart’s favourite operas, to the current full weekend of Verdi’s great masterpiece La Traviata, Oborne has developed. But it has always stuck to its mantra of bringing the highest quality music to our corner of Dorset.
Last year, it took a further step along this path with its first toddle into the wider musical world under the banner of The Oborne Fringe. This year, encouraged by the welcome The Fringe received, we have taken
another stride, presenting a full second weekend of different styles of music. The Fringe will run from Friday 26th July to Tuesday 30th July.
As the headline act, Oborne is excited to welcome Steve Knightley. Steve, a multi-award-winning singersongwriter, occupies a prominent position in the Folk/ Acoustic and Roots music scene. A founding member of the revered Show of Hands, Knightley’s music is intertwined with a profound connection to geography, particularly the West Country. His body of work, with its profound love of English folk music, the songs of Bob Dylan and the poetry of Ted Hughes, showcases
an ability to craft compositions that bridge historical narratives with contemporary themes. Steve will be in Oborne on Monday 29th July.
If you prefer something more ‘quirky’, Mark Harrison is for you. Opening The Fringe, Mark takes elements of roots music, including folk, blues and gospel, to create something new that is very much his own genre. His highly individual music goes down well with audiences of all kinds and takes him to the top venues and festivals in the UK. He has been described on BBC Radio 2 as an artist who ‘makes you think afresh’. Catchy tunes, lyrics that intrigue and striking rhythms make you smile, think and move.
Changing musical flavours, on the Sunday, Caroline Kennedy, supported by Richard Blake on the piano, tells the story of American songwriters, often from emigre backgrounds, in 1920s and 1930s New York, typified by the likes of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin. The story will include their songs, their humour, the lives they led and perhaps some of the prejudices they faced, all told in a strong cabaret style, with, of course, lots of laughs. Oborne church as a speakeasy? But with an alcohol licence of course!
Caroline is currently appearing in the touring version of Sweeny Todd, although you may remember her as Dorset Opera’s Cherubino last year!
Film is again celebrated on the Tuesday evening, this time in silent movie style, with The General by Buster Keaton, accompanied live and impromptu by John Cuthbert. The General is the classic 1926 slapstick Western. It was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. John Cuthbert, as many will know, is the pianist for our operas in Oborne but his talents range across choir master, folk guitarist, harmonium player and now film score maestro.
Music begins in communities and we are delighted to welcome the Sherborne Youth Band, also on Tuesday 30th July. The band gives performance opportunities to youngsters, encouraging teamwork and confidence and inspiring them to keep learning and enjoying their instrument. What better way to spend a summer evening than listening to homegrown musicians – with a refreshing beverage and something from the barbecue?
While The Fringe is new and exciting, opera remains at the core of Oborne’s music. And La Traviata could not be more ‘core’. Verdi, at the peak of his musical and dramatic power, contrasts the outer decadence of Fin de Siècle Paris with the pathos and corruption at its
heart embodied in the beautiful Violetta. The double standards of the age are cruelly exposed – sons may mix with courtesans but daughters must not associate with even a whiff of scandal. Yet, La Traviata is not simply a morality play. At heart, it is a great love story that can only be resolved through self-sacrifice and tragedy, expressed through wonderful music. La Traviata is never to be missed.
By way of an antidote to such heavy emotion, how about some jolly silliness? Our Saturday matinee is Cox and Box created by Arthur - later Sir Arthur – Sullivan as an after-dinner entertainment. Composed some years before he met W S Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan’s piece nonetheless contains many of the elements that made their later operas such huge favourites. There are stereotypical Victorian characters, the affectionate lampooning of a society obsessed with orderliness and routine, and a ‘plot’ worthy of Monty Python. If you need some gentle summer cheer – here it is.
And of course, if all you want to do is laze in a deckchair on a summer Sunday afternoon, then the Opera in the Park is just for you. Bring your picnic, bag your space early, lean back and let all that glorious music wash over you.
Alternatively, it could rain! But we will be here, so if it does pour, bring your brollies and wellies and a very British flask of hot tea. Whatever you do, do come!
In fact, whatever the weather or your taste in music, Oborne’s fortnight of fringe and opera offers something that will delight you. Just browse the website at operainoborne.org and there is sure to be something that will grab your musical tastebuds!
operainoborne.org
Friday 26th - Tuesday 30th July
Oborne Fringe
St Cuthberts Church, Oborne. Folk from Steve Knightley, Blues from Mark Harrison, The American Songbook from Caroline Kennedy, Big Band from Sherborne Youth Band, and Silent Movies, with live pianist, John Cuthbert. Tickets £5-£25 available via operainoborne.org
Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th August
Opera in Oborne
St Cuthberts Church, Oborne. Tragedy from La Traviata, Comedy with Cox and Box and Open Air Opera at Opera in the Park. Tickets £20-£40 available via operainoborne.org
BEDTIME STORIES
When Christina Walkley’s middle son announced his engagement, one of his two brothers was alarmed and demanded, ‘But is there time to make a quilt before the wedding?’
So Christina, a lifelong quilter, set to work handsewing a traditional bridal quilt for her new daughterin-law, planning to take it with her when she visits the bride’s family in China.
Christina has sewn over fifty quilts since she caught
the passion from her grandmother as a teenager and makes them - completely by hand - to mark life milestones for her family and friends. The going-to-uni quilts. The wedding quilts, followed by the baby quilts. And, less joyfully, the I’m-sorry-you’ve-been-floodedout quilt for her sister who lost most of her possessions in recent flooding.
‘I like sewing,’ she admits with a shrug. ‘And I prefer sewing by hand. It is contemplative, which
Celia Brayfield
Christina Walkley
machine sewing isn’t. And you can pick it up and put it down, maybe do 45 minutes every morning before work. One of the things I learned from American patchwork is that if you work in blocks you can work wherever you are. With English patchwork, you start with a motif in the middle and you work outwards so you’re sewing the whole thing and it gets quite big. But with American patchwork you work in blocks and then join them, so you are working on a small piece of sewing that you can easily put in your apron pocket.’
She discovered the wonder of American quilts on a holiday visit to New York State and began, for a mere $100, her personal collection which now comprises quilts from Massachusetts, California and Colorado. It was in America that the quilt traditions of Europe became elevated to a higher level of artistry. Hundreds of block designs were created, with quaint names like Sailboat, Flying Geese, Grandmother’s Fan or Drunkard’s Path.
‘Quilt designs became the hieroglyphs of American women’s lives,’ Christina explains. ‘In a family, a quilt might be made for a wedding or moving house or for a 21st birthday – they called those freedom quilts because at 21 a young man didn’t have to work for his father any more. I work alone but quilts were made collectively too. Women made election quilts to promote particular candidates and in the Civil War both the Yankee and the Confederate side made their own quilts supporting their armies.’
While it is perfectly possible for a newbie quilter to buy a kit of ready-cut pieces for a pre-designed quilt, Christina creates her own designs and chooses every piece of fabric from her own collection. She cuts the pieces by hand, using and re-using paper templates. Her most ambitious project was a millennium challenge set by a quilting magazine to make a Charm Quilt. This design, for which there was a craze in the 1870s, is made with pieces in the same shape but every single one is of a different fabric. She eventually created a quilt of two thousand pieces and used plain white cotton sections to create an airy design around a central square. It deservedly won the Best in Show Prize in the village show.
Needless to say, she does not watch television and only sometimes listens to music on the radio while she’s working. The only screen in her house is used for the family business, Moviola, which she started with her former husband Phill in 2004 and is now run by her son Toby as Programme Director. Moviola is a community
"Quilt designs became the hieroglyphs of American women’s lives. In a family, a quilt might be made for a wedding or moving house or for a 21st birthday"
cinema organisation that screens feature films in small venues all over the UK mainland. Christina formed the habit of taking some quilting with her when she set up a screening and sewing quietly between 7pm when doors were open and 7.30pm when the lights went down.
The technique of patchwork was at first developed to recycle luxury fabrics and then continued by poor people to create warm bedcovers using whatever fabric and insulation was available. Among some American quilts, Christina has found tiny pieces of fabric less than an inch square painstakingly recycled by expert needlework. American frontier women made quilts from grain sacks when that was the only cloth available and the canny wholesalers started printing pretty patterns on their sacks to help their sales.
Not every country in the world has a quilting tradition, as Christina discovered as a child when her mother moved with the family to France and her ‘very bourgeois’ French mother-in-law rejected her quilts in horror, explaining, ‘That makes you look poor!’ Quilting is indeed the art of the poor and an art practised predominantly by women, so for centuries it was dismissed as merely decorative or utilitarian but now it fits perfectly with the modern aesthetics of upcycling, recycling and slow fashion and the rediscovery of vernacular art forms.
moviola.org
Sunday 7th July 2.30pm
Passion and Tradition: The American QuiltA Talk and Exhibition by Christina Walkley Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Yetminster DT9 6LQ
Tickets £6 to include afternoon tea. Available on the door or in advance from Spar or Old School Gallery, Yetminster. In support of the Friends of St Andrew’s Church
O U T D O O R C O N C E R T
U E E N T R I B U T E B A N D
Saturday 10 August
Sherborne Girls School, 7.30pm
O U T D O O R T H E AT R E
Sunday 25 August
4.00pm, gates open at 3.00pm
Sherborne Girls School
COUNTER CULTURE
Paul Maskell, The Beat and Track
No. 31: First Gig: Grills, Booze and Metal!
11th October 1988. A date that will stick in your mind forever. Well this actual date may not but the date of your first-ever gig probably does.
I was 15 years old and after being given a cassette tape with the album Master of Puppets by Metallica recorded on it, my life changed. It was a point in time where the music hit me at precisely the right moment. 15 years old and looking to find both your own identity and a tribe to belong to. I was now, after buying the obligatory t-shirts and black jeans, a metalhead. Music was very tribal when I was a kid and you had to make your stance known early on. Were you a pop kid, a new romantic, a new waver, a goth or a metaller? While growing up through my teens and early twenties I joined many tribes but never grew out of any.
My parents have to take some major kudos for purchasing both the gig ticket and train ticket in order for me and my best mate, Dan, to go. Plus actually be relaxed enough to allow us to go unaccompanied, although we were going to tag along with some sixth formers if we were deemed cool enough. So our tickets arrived through the post. This was proper Willy Wonka territory. Our golden tickets to see our newfound heroes. Metallica - Hammersmith Odeon, 11th October 1988, support from the infamous Danzig! Stage one of our mission was complete, tickets purchased and parents happy.
Stage two was to work out how to get from school in Shaftesbury to the railway station in Gillingham in time to catch the relevant train to get us to London in time. School to the railway station turned out to be easy. A fiver in the right hand of one of the sixth formers who was also going got us a lift and also got
us acceptance to tag along. Now the rather dreaded task of getting out of school early. Do we slope off at lunchtime? Hope not to get caught and risk missing the gig entirely. Or, do we bite the bullet and do the unthinkable and actually ask for permission? It fell to me to approach our form tutor and my chemistry teacher, Mr Smith. Not known for his easygoing manner, this was not going to be easy… or so I thought. When asked about myself and Dan leaving early Mr Smith required, unsurprisingly, slightly more detail. When I explained that it was to go to a gig his demeanour changed entirely. Where was it? Who were we seeing? Who was supporting? Who was going? Did I know that he was a big fan of The Who and had seen them several times back in the day? ‘No problem,’ he said, ‘it was only a general studies class after all.’
Absolute RESULT!
So there we were mid-afternoon on the day itself. Excused from class and frantically changing from uniform into skin-tight black jeans, Ride the Lightning t-shirt and white basketball boots. (Please don’t judge.) We met Rich The Sixth Former in the car park and our adventure began.
As the train pulled away we could barely contain our excitement. We kept checking to make sure that we had our tickets. We discussed the likely set list and whether they’d play our favourite Harvester of Sorrow off the new album ...And Justice for All. We were also intrigued by the support band. This has never left me and to this day I’ve never missed a support act. I’ve seen some great bands in support slots. Some who have gone on to be huge bands in their own right and others who haven’t gone much further but all of them playing for
that chance to connect with more fans and get their music heard. Tonight it was going to be Danzig. Named after the lead singer, Glen Danzig who was previously the founder of American horror punk band the Misfits. We’d heard a bit of the Misfits due to Metallica covering some of their songs, in particular Last Caress and Green Hell. Danzig the band was a very different proposition. Their debut album was more metal than punk, lots of satanic references etc which was perfect for two lads in their mid-teens. Twist of Cain and the classic Mother still being favourites. We were, it was fair to say, buzzing.
The train got into Waterloo on time and we made our way to Hammersmith following our sixth-form guides intently, trying to fit in and be cool. We found ourselves walking through Soho led by a group of 17-year-olds who thought they were men of the world. My naive 15-year-old self thought it odd that the local burger joint would advertise itself with a large neon sign saying Grills, Grills, Grills until I realised that what we were passing was not a fast food establishment but something rather different. Onwards we travelled (thankfully) via tube and foot until we reached the hallowed ground. Our elder comrades thought the done thing would be to get at least a couple of pints in before the gig. This prospect was both terrifying and exciting. My height and general appearance made up for a severe lack of confidence and within a few minutes, Dan and I were supping on a pint of lager each and well and truly part of the gang. The pub, I have no idea which one it was, was rammed full of Metallica fans each brandishing band t-shirts, leather jackets or the patchcovered denim battle jacket that was very popular back then. The occasional nod from another fan admiring your tee or patch-covered jeans confirmed that we were members of the tribe. We had arrived.
Into the venue in time to catch Danzig and we weren’t disappointed. A set of songs from the new album and a couple of Samhain covers made heads bang and fists pump. This was my first experience of seeing a legend live, right in front of me doing what they do. This was insane and the headliners were yet to come!
And here they were. Entering the stage to the sounds of Ennio Morricone in absolute darkness came Lars, Kirk, Jason and James. The opening riff of Blackened exploded through the PA and the crowd went mad – two hours of headbanging, fist-pumping and lyric screaming. The stage set was made up of a 30ft statue of Lady Justice which, to our surprise and astonishment, collapsed partway through the set (intentionally), lights strobing and riffs getting heavier. The band were on fire and played the old favourites For Whom the Bell Tolls, Seek and Destroy and Master of Puppets to name but a few plus a heavy dose of the new album including our new favourite Harvester of Sorrow. About two hours and two encores later, we were making our way outside, grinning from ear to ear. Our initiation into live music was over. We were already planning our next manoeuvre. The world had opened up to us that night. 11th October 1988. All hail Metallica.
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
SHERBORNE SUMMER FESTIVAL
Saturday 6 July
Mondays 1.30pm-3.30pm
Craft and Chat Group
Sherborne Library, Hound Street
Bring along your current project and meet others.
Mondays & Thursdays
1.30pm-4pm
Sherborne Indoor Short Mat Bowls
West End Hall, Sherborne 01935 812329. All welcome
Mondays 2pm-5pm & Tuesdays 7pm-10pm
Sherborne Bridge Club
Sherborne FC Clubhouse, Terrace Playing Fields. 01963 210409 bridgewebs.com/sherborne
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2pm-4pm Croquet Club
Charlton Horethorne Croquet Club. Free taster sessions. charltoncroquetclub. com JillHanson123@Outlook.com
Tuesdays 10am-12pm
Fine Folk Dancing
Charlton Horethorne Village Hall £3 per session. Beginners welcome. 01963 220640.
Every last Wednesday
Military History Talk via Zoom £5, information jameskrporter@aol.com
Every 1st Thursday 9.30am
Netwalk for Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
Pageant Gardens. @Netwalksherborne
Every 1st Thursday 11am-12pm Poetry Writing Group
Sherborne Library, Hound Street. Come along to share your poetry, hear
WHAT'S ON
what others have been working on and have friendly discussions.
Every 2nd & 4th Thursday 10am-12.30pm
Castleton Probus Club
The Grange, Oborne, DT9 4LA New members welcome. edwardhiscock6@gmail.com
Thursdays 2pm-4pm & Fridays 11am-1pm
Digital Champions Sessions
Sherborne Library, Hound Street. Bookable sessions for help with basic skills using your own device or a library computer. sherbornelibrary@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
Thursdays 7.30pm-9.30pm
St Michael’s Scottish Country Dance Club
Davis Hall, West Camel
£2. New starters very welcome. 07972 125617 stmichaelsscdclub.org
Fridays 3.30pm-5pm
Children’s Board Games Club
Sherborne Library, Hound Street Drop-in for children age 5 and over. Play board games, including chess, or bring one of your own.
The Butterfly House, Castle Gardens, New Road, DT9 5NR
Saturday 6th 12pm-10pm
Sherborne Summer Festival
Pageant Gardens. FREE event. Live music from Microlight, Ska-Kives, Simon Chesterfield, The Rum Blossoms, Fisheye, Bad Uncle, Warthog, Whiskey Embers and Elvis 56. Food and drink, stalls
Saturday 6th 4pm
Wick Charity Festival
DT9 4LJ on B3145 (near Charlton Horethorne). £20 (13-18 £10, under 13 free). Eventbrite or 07526 259146 or 07715 988200
Claire Trickey
Saturday 6th 7.30pm
Sherborne Chamber Choir
Serenade to Music
Sherborne Abbey. Tickets £5 to £18 from sherbornechamberchoir.org.uk or 0333 666 3366
Saturday 6th 7pm
Stanchester Quire - Seasonal
Songs from the South West
Poyntington Church, DT9 4LF
In aid of church funds. £10 (including interval drink) from 01963 220 222
Sunday 7th 8am (sellers)
9am (sellers)
Charity Car Boot Sale
The Terraces, DT9 5NS. Raising money for Friends of the Yeatman
Sunday 7th
Sherborne Pride
FREE event. sherbornepride.org
(See page 36)
11.30am
Sherborne Rock Choir
Live Music, Pageant Gardens
10am-11am
Sherborne Bounce
The Conduit
10am-12pm
WHAT'S ON
Just Dance Studios
Outside Waitrose. Contemporary and lyrical dance performances
10am-12pm
Merriott Majorettes
Outside Oliver’s, Cheap Street
Baton twirling performance
11am
The Splinters Ukulele Band
The Conduit
12.15pm-12.30pm
Sherborne Pride Parade
Cheap Street, Half Moon Street, Digby Road, leading into Pageant Gardens
1pm-9pm
PARTY IN THE PARK
Pageant Gardens. A programme of live entertainment throughout the day 1pm
D’Ska Assassins
Live Ska band
1.45pm-2.15pm
Merriott Majorettes
2.15pm
Lip Sync Competition
with Miss Daubs and local drag act friends
3pm
Pride Unplugged
Acoustic sounds from Jaz Miller and The Splinters
3.45pm
Musical Theatre Show Tunes
with local singer Nelle
4.15pm
Cabaret Show
with Aurora Starr, Dave the Bear and Pi the Mime 5pm
Mary Flanagan
Spoken word poet 5pm
Meet and Greet
with Vicki Vivacious
Booking essential 5.15pm
The Beat
Live music with British ska royalty 7.15pm
Vicki Vivacious of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame
8.15pm
A Message from Sherborne Pride Co-Founder Sadie Wilkins with Special Guest
8.30pm
Janice Robinson
Live performance from the internationally acclaimed artist who brought us the 90’s dancefloor anthem Dreamer
Sunday 7th 10am-3pm
Pride Street Market
Digby Road. Artisan trraders and makers selling their wares with love. Join us on the first Wednesday of the month at 3pm and 7pm
3rd July: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham –
A discerning patron with houses renovated by Inigo Jones, with John Tradescant as his garden designer and a fine collection of paintings.
Sunday 7th 1.30pm-4pm
Crochet a Cactus Workshop with The Slipped Stitch Old School Gallery Cafe, Yetminster Book at bookwhen.com/theslippedstitch
Sunday 7th 2.30pm
Passion and Tradition: The American Quilt - A Talk and Exhibition by Christina Walkley Jubilee Hall, Church Street, Yetminster DT9 6LQ . Tickets £6 to include afternoon tea. Available on the door or in advance from Spar or Old School Gallery, Yetminster. In support of the Friends of St Andrew’s Church (see page 20)
Digby Memorial Hall, Digby Rd, DT9 3LN. £16 Please book in advance 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com
Wednesday 10th 7.30pm Live Jazz in Aid of The Rendezvous Cheap Street Church, Sherborne
JULY 2024
DT9 3BJ. John Maddocks (clarinet), Nick Ward (drums) and Mike Denham (piano). Tickets £17.50 from fiona.franklin@therendezvous.org.uk
Thursday 11th 7.30pm
Sherborne and District Gardeners’ Association TalkWild Flower Gardening All are welcome. Visitors £3 01935 389375
Friday 12th - Sunday 14th
Cerne Abbas Music Festival
For details and booking cerneabbasmusicfestival.org.uk
Saturday 13th 8pm
Ben Waters Live with special guests David Graham & The Eskimo Brothers Round Chimneys Farm, Glanvilles Wootton DT9 5QQ. Bar and food from 6pm. Tickets £15 from roundchimneysfarm.co.uk 07450 876969
Wednesday 17th 2.30pm–3.30pm
Sherborne u3a Choir and Madrigal Group Viva la Musica! Cheap Street Church. All welcome.
Saturday 20th –Sunday 28th July 10am-5pm
(10am-1pm Sunday 28th)
Sherborne Open Art Exhibition
Digby Hall, Hound Street DT9 3AA. Admission free (see page 14)
Saturday 20th 10am-12.30pm (last repair 12.15pm)
Repair Cafe
Cheap Street Church Hall, Sherborne Bring household items to be repaired and avoid landfill. Volunteers and repairers needed repaircafesherborne@ gmail.com or @repaircafesherborne
Sunday 21st
Atkins Ferrie Wealth Management Classic and Supercars Show
Sherborne Castle. Tickets available from classic-supercars.co.uk. Early bird tickets (until 19th July) £17. Accompanied children under 16 FREE. Dogs on leads welcome. (see page 32)
Local producers, suppliers, food, art & crafts. thesherbornemarket.com
Sunday 21st 2pm-4pm
Singing Bowl Soundbath
Oborne Village Hall, Oborne, DT9 4LA. £16 Please book in advance 01935 389655 ahiahel@live.com
Monday 22nd - Saturday 27th
Dorset Opera Festival
Coade Theatre, Bryanston School DT11 0PS. Under the Greenwood Tree, Madama Butterfly + 50th Anniversary Gala Concert, Box office: 07570 366186 and 07570 366075 (10am-5pm) boxoffice@dorsetopera.com dorsetopera.com
Wednesday 24th 6.30pm for 7pm
Henry HemmingFour Shots in the Night
The Sherborne, Newland
Author talk and book signing. £10 members, £12 non-members sherborneliterarysociety.com (see page 142)
Friday 26th - Tuesday 30th
Oborne Fringe
St Cuthberts Church, Oborne. Folk from Steve Knightley, Blues from Mark Harrison, The American Songbook from Caroline Kennedy, Big Band from Sherborne Youth Band, and
Silent Movies, with live pianist, John Cuthbert. Tickets £5-£25 available via operainoborne.org (see page 18)
Sunday 28th 1pm-5pm
National Garden SchemeBlack Shed Flower Farm Dodds Cross, Sherborne DT9 4JX £5, children free. ngs.org.uk
Planning ahead
Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th August
Opera in Oborne St Cuthberts Church, Oborne. Tragedy from La Traviata, Comedy with Cox and Box and Open Air Opera at Opera in the Park. Tickets £20-£40 available via operainoborne.org
Saturday 3rd August
Yoga - Gong Bath - Meditation Minterne Gardens
Contact Dawn 07817 624081 hello@yogasherborne.co.uk
Sport
Sherborne Cricket Club
The Terraces, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NS
ART COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
southwestartcourses.co.uk
City And Guilds Courses
Techniques
Design
1st XI. 1pm
Saturday 6th
Dorchester (H)
Saturday 13th
Broadstone (A)
Saturday 20th
Poole (A)
Saturday 27th
Wimborne (H)
Compton House Cricket Club
The Park, Over Compton, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4QU 1st XI. 1pm
Saturday 6th
Beaminster (A)
Saturday 13th
Stalbridge (H)
Saturday 20th
Portland Red TriangleSaturday 1st (H)
Saturday 27th
Poole 2nd XI (A)
listings@homegrown-media.co.uk
ATKINS FERRIE WEALTH MANAGEMENT CLASSIC AND SUPERCAR SHOW 2024
Rob Holly, Yeovil Round Table
If you’ve ever wanted to meet Top Gear’s ‘The Stig’, now is your opportunity – and you can even pit your driving skills against him on a racing simulator! Ben Collins, famous for his stint as the mystery man in white, has been competing in motor racing since 1994 in a long list of categories from Formula 3, GT racing and 24 hours of Le Mans. On Sunday 21st July Ben joins us as our special guest at the return of the Atkins Ferrie Wealth Management Classic and Supercars Show at Sherborne Castle. This year sees over 1,500 cars on display, ranging from timeless veteran vehicles to the latest supercars.
120 years after the meeting of Henry Royce and The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls in 1904, the Sherborne Classic and Supercars Show has the privilege of displaying over 40 models of the prestigious Rolls Royce marque in the beautiful grounds of Sherborne Castle. Sherborne Castle, built by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1594, sits beside a 50-acre lake and 30 acres of gardens designed by Capability Brown and forms a dramatic backdrop to this immensely impressive show. Rory O’Donnell, chairman of the car show, comments: ‘Sherborne Castle could not be better suited to showcase these wonderful cars and this year’s marque
feature, Rolls Royce. We are indebted to the show’s presidents, the Wingfield-Digby family for allowing us to stage this event once again.’
Sherborne Castle has been the home of the Digby family since 1617. Across the lake stands the Old Castle, built by the Normans in the 12th century and falling to Cromwell in 1646 during the Civil War, it remains a noble ruin.
The Skills Village is an ever-popular part of the show and for 2024 will be even bigger. The Village will feature many professionals demonstrating skills such as engine rebuilding, upholstery restoration and car detailing. Elsewhere you will discover trade stands, craft, charity and catering stalls. Food suppliers will be serving gourmet burgers, plant-based options, pizzas, ice cream and more. Visitors are also welcome to bring a picnic. The Classic and Supercars Show is an event with something for everyone, come rain or shine. And importantly, all proceeds are donated to charity.
Volunteers from Round Table, Lions and Rotary form part of the show’s committee which during its 19year history has raised over £340,000 for local charities. This year the proceeds will be shared among 19 beneficiaries including The Yeovil Opportunity Group, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and Mosaic.
classic-supercars.co.uk
For further information, please contact secretary@classic-supercars.co.uk
Sunday 21st July
Atkins Ferrie Wealth Management Classic and Supercars Show
Sherborne Castle. Tickets available from classic-supercars.co.uk Early bird tickets (until 19th July) £17. Accompanied children under 16 FREE. Dogs on leads welcome.
Images: Len Copland
Image: Howard Rapp/Pexels
TO BE PROUD
Sadie Wilkins, Sherborne Pride
Pride is a funny old thing when you think about it. If you look for a dictionary definition, it speaks of deep pleasure and satisfaction in one’s own achievements and such like. If it were a colour, it would surely be gold? A sound? Perhaps a rapturous crowd… What would it taste like? Jelly and ice cream?
The word is so intrinsically linked to the LGBTQIA+ community with such importance but I’ve always personally felt a touch of irony to it – and that’s the exact point. You see, it’s hard to be proud of yourself when you have no self-worth; it’s hard to be proud when the world says, ‘You don’t belong – you’re
different, lesser, strange or wrong for simply being you.’
How do you wear gold, shine in rapturous applause and enjoy scooping up jelly and ice cream when the world feels dark and lonely or your own family has rejected you? How do any marginalised communities or ‘outsiders’ feel free and confident enough to conjure up that warm and fuzzy feeling of pride, when their voice doesn’t matter, they don’t get a seat at the table or they are not welcome?
Well, you find your own community, you build a place where love wins over hate, you truly practise the notion of ‘love thy neighbour’, you surround yourself
The Beat
Janice Robinson
Vicki Vivacious
with good people, you give kindness and receive it twofold, you accept others for who they are and hope the favour will be returned, you share your stories and experiences in a bid to broaden and enlighten minds, and most importantly, you come together.
‘Strength in numbers’, ‘it takes a village’, ‘many hands make light work’, ‘united we stand’ – there are endless phrases and proverbs from across the globe that have stood the test of time, all championing the beauty of coming together. It’s one of the best things about being human.
Why does any of this matter? Well, firstly, because that’s exactly what we’re doing in Sherborne on Sunday 7th July when we make history with the town’s first Pride event – and hopefully the first of many. Secondly, as somebody who is part of the team behind it, a ‘first timer’ too having only attended Prides over the years not built them, we’ve found ourselves being asked here and there, ‘Why do we need Pride events, parades, celebrations and whole months? Nobody cares whether you are gay, straight, bi or whatever anymore? It’s not like years ago…’
As much as I wish it were true, I can say from personal experience that it’s not the case. We need Prides because somewhere today, tonight, this afternoon, maybe sat at a school desk staring out of a window or fretting over what to do at Christmas because family gatherings can be challenging unless you ‘go alone’ or hovering over clicking send for that job application because they’re not sure if the boss ‘likes gays’, someone, somewhere tonight is debating whether waking up tomorrow is worth it because they feel so lonely and so alien in this world. And that is why Prides matter, that is why we are coming together to celebrate difference, that is why we’re putting on a day full of golden glimmers, euphoric parades and yes, there’ll be ice cream!
Aside from the colour, the fun and the noise, it’s allyship, unity, community. We’ve said it before, and we’ll be saying it loudly lots more, ‘Welcome to Sherborne, LOVE LIVES HERE!’. To bring this important project together, we’ve climbed mountains, hustled, negotiated and cold-called to find the kindest souls and most generous hearts to raise a whopping great big rainbow in Sherborne this summer.
When you do stuff like this it reminds you of the best in people. From sponsors flooding into the rescue to incredible acts waiving fees — we’ve seen the community come together and that’s what Pride is all about. Together, we lift each other up. When we see
ourselves in others, we feel like we belong. When we show up, stand side by side and give our presence to others, it makes us feel seen, heard and important. When we have a voice, create a platform, support each other and show love and acceptance, great things can happen and the world we build around ourselves becomes a much brighter place.
In a previous life, I was a teacher, a job which involves a lot of pride – seeing young people develop before your eyes, being part of their achievements and watching them go off into the world – and I can honestly say, having left the profession some time ago, that I thought the days of being surprised and delighted by students I’d taught were well and truly in the past. An unexpected upside to organising Sherborne Pride has been the messages I have received from past local students, some now married with their own children, saying how proud they are that their hometown is getting a Pride and how they didn’t say it at the time, but how important it was for them to see somebody, a teacher no less, out, proud, happily married to another successful businesswoman in town and both ‘doing ok.’
For me, come rain or shine, after the bands stop playing and when the flags are taken down in town on Sunday 7th July, however the day unfolds, the only reason I truly need to feel proud for having shed blood, sweat and tears alongside a cracking team of volunteers, will be those messages and the thought that someone feels more comfortable in their skin through the visibility of others, which is what we’re doing with Sherborne Pride.
I could have used my column this month to rave about the acts, detail the day and hard-sell what’s happening in town but you can find all of that stuff on our fabulous new website.
If you’re reading this and you feel like you are alone, come along on the day if you can – you’ll find a friend and a safe space there. This is Sherborne and love lives here.
sherbornepride.org
@sherbornepride
Sunday 7th July
Sherborne Pride
Parade through town, street market on Digby Road and a jampacked programme of live entertainment in Pageant Gardens. FREE event sponsored by Apex Brewing Co
MARKET KNOWLEDGE
DIGBY ROLES, BEER FROM ROUND HERE
Welcome to The Sherborne Market!
What brings you here?
We’re all about West Country and craft, so Sherborne’s artisan market is an ideal venue for Beer From Round Here. My name fits in well locally too!
Where have you travelled from?
I’m based in Bristol but my parents, who kindly help me on the stall, live in Sherborne.
Tell us about what you’re selling.
We’re a one-stop shop bringing our customers a wide choice of craft beers from small, independent breweries. Most of our brewers are in Bristol, with one in Bath. We also stock cider from two West Country craft cidermakers, a craft gin made for our Bath brewer - using some of their botanicals - and a craft coffee liqueur.
Where and when did it all begin?
Having worked in mainstream booze retail in Bristol, I knew how difficult it was for the small brewers to get their products into high-street stores, meaning beerlovers had a hard time accessing a choice of local craft
brews. I thought that what was needed was a one-stop shop enabling customers to pick their own mix. Beer From Round Here was born online during lockdown and has since expanded into markets and food fests. We’ve also added ‘other booze to choose’!
What do you enjoy most about selling at markets?
It’s always good to chat with other beer enthusiasts and to introduce all our products to new customers. We also enjoy giving advice and helping people make gift selections that they can put in our gift boxes.
If you get the chance, which fellow stallholders here at Sherborne would you like to visit?
Ezpresso Coffee, Lavender Blue Bakery and the cheese Truckle Truck. All quite close to our stall!
Where can people find you on market day?
We’ll be on Half Moon Street, beside the steps up to the Abbey, every month this year.
beerfromroundhere.uk beerfromroundhere
Hand picked & selected artisan market
Hand picked & selected artisan market
Flying the flag for local featuring local producers, suppliers, amazing food, arts and crafts.
Flying the flag for local featuring local producers, suppliers, amazing food, arts and crafts.
Markets held between 10am - 3pm on the dates below.
Markets held between 10am - 3pm on the dates below.
April 21ST May 19th June 16th July 21st Aug 18th Sept 15th Oct 20th Nov 17th Dec 15th
10am - 3pm Oct 20th Nov 17th Dec 15th July 21st Aug 18th Sept 15th
10am - 3pm
Children’s Book Review
Hazel Roadnight, Winstone’s Books
Who Ate Steve? by Susannah Lloyd, illustrated by Kate Hindley (Nosy Crow 2024
£7.99
Sherborne Times reader offer price of £6.99 from Winstone’s Books
This is a clever, fun picture book for under-fives but it will very likely make the grown-ups laugh as well.
Meet Marcel. Marcel is a very dapper bird with a smart scarf and hat. Then there’s Steve, a charming little worm with an equally fetching hat. They are being encouraged to help us learn about the difference between big and small but, let’s just say things don’t go exactly according to plan, what with
Marcel being a hungry bird and Steve being a juicy worm!
It’s a great book for reading aloud, laughing and learning about good behaviour.
The illustrations are beautifully clear with excellent facial expressions and just wait until you meet Felicity on the last page!
shop.winstonebooks.co.uk
Hatty Sedwill
Sherborne Girls, aged 17
Hatty, a dedicated pupil, has made a significant impact through her volunteering efforts over the past year. She has contributed to various charitable initiatives, demonstrating unwavering commitment to the community on a local and global scale.
Supporting Sherborne’s Community Kitchen Christmas dinner in December, Hatty helped feed over 150 elderly and vulnerable individuals. At school, she organised Kenelm Chocolates, with profits donated to the children’s charity Starlight, supported the Sherborne CCF fundraiser and worked alongside Mrs Abbott to raise funds for Kabul Small Animal Rescue.
Some of Hatty's most remarkable work took place in Kenya, where she volunteered at the Angel Kindergarten and the Good Samaritan School, both run by the Lunchbowl Network in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. She engaged children aged two to six in arts and crafts and was inspired by their creativity despite the harsh realities of their lives, including school closures due to local riots.
One of Hatty’s profound experiences was serving at the Saturday Feeding Programme in Kibera, ensuring children received at least one nutritious meal over the weekend. She described these children as the happiest and most grateful people she has ever met and is eager to return next year.
Upon returning home, Hatty shared her experiences at an event in her local village hall raising over £1,600 for the Lunchbowl Network. In addition to her talk, guests were treated to a glass of wine and a bowl of her mum’s homemade chilli, with additional funds raised from crafts made by Kenyan mothers.
Hatty’s experiences have solidified her aspiration to work with children and young people, furthering her passion for helping others. Her journey is testament to the transformative power of volunteering and the impact one individual can make.
Waving the children farewell at the end of the summer term is always bittersweet, especially as the farewell is far more permanent for our wonderful Year 8 pupils who are heading off to pastures new. The adventures they will have, the doors that will open, the disruptors they will be to make this world a better place… the world is their oyster. As we say goodbye, we know that their journeys are only just beginning, and we send them off with pride for the super young people they are but tinged with sadness that we won’t be able to see them daily from September.
Of course, the rest of our special community will return and the cycle repeats itself; the younger children step up to lead, to be brilliant citizens and fill us with pride once more. Each year is unique in a school and always incredibly busy! So, although we have had to say our farewells to children and families who are off to senior schools, rest and rejuvenation are on the horizon before we begin again and this is so important for everyone.
I remember my summers as a child as true halcyon days that went on forever: bare, grubby feet, outdoors from dawn to dusk – oh, to play is such a gift and this is what our young people need today. Sometimes children need to be bored. We can all be guilty of filling our days with activities – ‘What are we doing today?’ is often the mantra of the first week or so of my summer now that I am a parent. The children are frustrated at first with the response of, ‘Nothing – go and play!’ but they soon disappear off (with a backpack full of snacks of course) and go and do exactly that: play, returning full of rosy cheeks, stories to tell of their adventures and creations.
We must instil in our children that to play, to be outside, rain or shine, to be free from the lesson bell (thankfully we got rid of ours here) is vital for their wellbeing. Children are remarkable – they will always be able to find their own fun (and sometimes mischief) if they are given space and time to do this. We should guard against filling every moment with structure, practice and directed play – this does not build creative, problem-solving souls and we truly need this kind of person in our world.
As we send our children off for their summer break, we send this message with them: be free, have fun, try something new, be outside as much as you can, stay away from your screens… This message will also go out to the staff team. The summer gives everyone an opportunity to reset, to be restored, to have space and time to reflect. To down tools for an extended period is vital for us all. After a few weeks of sunshine (hopefully!) we all have the energy and excitement for the coming academic year. It is always so full of promise and adventure – just as our children are.
sherborneprep.org
Image: Katharine Davies
EQUIPPED FOR LIFE
Hilary Phillips, Head, Hanford School
The school holidays are nearly upon us and teachers everywhere are heaving a sigh of relief and looking forward to six to eight weeks of blissful holiday, perhaps travelling the world, sorting out the garden or getting through the reading list. Lucky them! The reality, of course, is rather different. School holidays are, indeed, holiday time for the pupils but for teachers, a more accurate description perhaps is ‘non-contact time’.
Hanford staff in particular have a busy time ahead as we are launching our new enrichment programme in September. We have always offered a wide range of co-curricular activities from drama to dance, cooking to crochet or croquet, bushcraft to badminton – you get the idea. From September we will be offering a new programme which aims to encourage learners
to use their creative skills, be intellectually curious and socially and morally responsible, empowering them all to develop into confident adults. We want to build the girls’ capacity as learners outside the usual classroom activities and teach life skills that benefit them beyond the classroom, allowing them to develop an appreciation for cultural and community issues, teamwork and social responsibility.
Although our pupils are young, aged from 7-13, we don’t think it’s too early to be helping them think about their careers. Gone are the days when you would follow a set path for life. Nowadays, a career path is very different and the young people of today will probably have six or seven different strands to their journey through the world of work. This means that transferable skills are of major importance.
Images: Sophie Lindsay
In shaping our new enrichment programme, we looked at what employers said students lacked when they first entered the world of work. Surprisingly, well, it surprised us, there was a huge concern about the ability to manage your career, your boss and those around you. This was followed by the ability to manage up and negotiate/influence within your chosen job; employers would like students to be a bit more selfaware and to have a bit more emotional intelligence. Also high on the list was the lack of data handling and real-world analytical skills. Finally, employers said they are employing for potential rather than a particular skillset so these factors are directing our thinking about what we offer as an enrichment activity.
Our new enrichment activities will give the girls the chance to focus on the skills they need, based on using the information they learn in the classroom. Practical skills will go hand-in-hand with soft skills and we will make sure that we give the girls the opportunity to steer the direction of these sessions rather than be forced to follow a set curriculum. This greater responsibility increases engagement in the activity, in the classroom
and in learning beyond the classroom. We will mix up the traditional teacher-student style of teaching and give the girls the opportunity to devise and lead sessions based on their interests whilst keeping in mind our aims for enrichment.
Enrichment activities already on the table are an entrepreneur club where the girls will be challenged to find a niche in the market, design a service or product, work out costings and bring their product to the community. You may see us at The Sherborne Market! Another group will be focusing on publishing the school’s weekly newsletter, finding the stories, taking the photos, publishing and distributing the finished document. We will focus on qualifications that the girls can take away from Hanford and continue to use - first aid and pool safety to name but two.
Back to the summer holidays! I hope pupils, teachers and parents have a very happy time. For those of us lucky enough to live in Dorset, we have an embarrassment of riches to explore and enjoy on our doorstep.
hanfordschool.co.uk
A MUSICAL JOURNEY
James Henderson, retiring Director of Music at Sherborne School, recently caught up with Ian Liu, a Year 10 musician, to see where Ian thought that his school musical journey was taking him.
(JH) When did you start playing an instrument?
(IL) In Hong Kong almost all households like their children to learn an instrument and my father wanted me to play the piano from about three-and-a-half-years old when he bought a brand new Yamaha upright piano. I treated playing as a chore and had to be persuaded to practise. My father had not had the opportunity to study the piano when growing up, living in quite poor conditions, and he was the first generation of his family to attend university where he focused on academics.
My father spent hours supervising my practise but I definitely treated it as routine. It all started to make sense when I took up the flute, at age five, because my school (Yingwa School) wanted to encourage people to learn instruments other than the keyboard (which everybody played) so that they could establish wind bands and orchestras. I joined them all on my flute. Then I got my Grade 4 piano around the same time and started moving away from the chore of music-making to the joy of being a musician!
So it was participation in ensembles and taking grades that started you on your musical journey? Being a part of musical ensembles really got me enthused. I remember Mendelssohn’s Gondola Op 30, no 6 as the beginning of my big push towards learning as much new repertoire as possible. When I was ten-years old my father introduced me to the internet and suddenly I was able to look up pieces and composers by myself. I discovered twentieth-century ideas like Impressionism, Expressionism and Atonality, and I found TwoSetViolin on YouTube, a channel where two young Taiwanese violinists talk about their practice regimes and their desire to combine their love of music-making with becoming medics. They introduced me to the entirely new perspective of playing music for an audience rather than for myself.
What made you decide to come to Sherborne School?
I felt that I needed to find somewhere that was going to be supportive of my development as a musician and where I would make lots of friends who were as interested in music as I was. My parents said that I needed to go to the UK and at the time we had family friends living in Exeter. They moved somewhere else later on but my parents thought that it would be helpful for me to go to a boarding school that was within reach of Exeter. I looked at the Sherborne School website and saw all of the music and the YouTube recordings of all of the concerts, and I thought that I would like to give it a go for at least a year. Then when I got here I really liked the atmosphere of the whole place and I realised that I wanted to stay.
There is so much more freedom than in my old school. I am able to practise after lessons pretty much whenever I like and always on a very high-quality piano. It feels like I have completely landed in the right place now. The music teaching is really focused and the staff want us to do well and to really enjoy our performing and singing. I love the lunchtime recitals in Cheap Street Church, the orchestras and the chamber music. Most importantly, I have lots of friends in the Music School with whom I can communicate and talk about music. I feel that I belong here.
What are your next steps before GCSEs next summer?
I have always wanted to do diplomas. People in Hong Kong really rate them; parents compare the stages of their children’s progress through music diplomas as much as through their academic achievements and so I was very keen to achieve mine where I was able to focus on my music almost without interruption. On my flute, I took the ATCL Performance Diploma this year as a checkpoint in musical growth but also I wanted to make my parents happy. I am going to take a diploma on the piano next year, too, before GCSEs.
Do you think that you would like to be a professional musician?
At some point in the future, I would like to go to one of the London conservatoire junior mornings that take place on Saturdays—probably straight after GCSEs. I have already looked at Junior Academy and was asked which instrument I am going to make my first study instrument. I really don’t know. I can take my flute with me wherever I go, whereas I am reliant on other people’s pianos—like all of the famous concert pianists except Glenn Gould (I think he took his own grand piano with him wherever he played.) But, above all, I aspire to be an allround musician. Perhaps, like Bernstein, I will be a conductor, film composer, musicologist and humanitarian. I don’t want to specialise in just one aspect of music. I want to be someone who is entirely passionate about music, no matter what form the music takes. In any case, I am still very much striving to understand the different genres and the ways in which they are composed.
sherborne.org
Saturday 6th - Friday 11th July
A Buzz in the Meadow - An Exhibition of New Paintings by Sam Dodd
The Butterfly House, Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne DT9 5NR
Featuring the wildlife of our meadows, fields, hedgerows and gardens. samdoddart.co.uk Sam Dodd wildlife artist and commissions
Evening Post, Sam Dodd, 76cm x 61cm, acrylic
DISCOVER | EAT | SHOP | STAY | CELEBRATE
Welcome to Symondsbury Estate, set in the beautiful Dorset countryside just a stone’s throw from the Jurassic Coast. Join us for lunch. Browse our shops. Visit the gallery. Explore our fabulous walks and bike trails. Relax and unwind in our holiday accommodation. Celebrate your wedding day...
Upcoming Events & Workshops
Summer of Fun - Saturday 6th July to Sunday 1st September
Willow Chicken Workshop with Jo Sadler - Wednesday 24th July
Forest Bathing - Thursday 25th July
+44 (0)1308 424116 symondsburyestate.co.uk
Symondsbury Estate, Bridport, Dorset DT6 6HG
DRAWN TO THE LIGHT
Green Silver-lines Pseudoips prasinana Britannica
Gillian Nash
Altogether a showy yet beautiful species, the Green Silver-lines is a medium-sized moth with a forewing length of up to 19mm and has a flight season of May to July.
Three diagonal white cross lines interrupt the bright pea-green ground colour of the male’s forewings, the first of which continues across the fluffy green thorax. The female has a generally more silvery appearance whilst the hindwings of both are plain and whitish. Both male and female have orange antennae and pink legs. The wings of the male are lined with pink on the furthermost edge.
At first glance, it could be confused with the larger, closely related, Scarce Silver-lines and as its name suggests is less frequently seen, is also larger and lacks the tentiform resting pose.
Its usual habitat is established woodland with
broadleaved trees such as beech, oak and birch on which the larvae feed from July to September, the wellcamouflaged green body clothed in tiny yellow dots and faint yellow lines throughout the length of its form. When fully fed the pupa is hidden away somewhere on the chosen foodplant either in a bark crevice or the underside of a leaf where it will remain throughout the winter until the emergence of the adult moth the following early summer.
Fairly commonly found and widespread throughout much of mainland Britain, here we have a species that appears to have successfully increased in recent decades. Sometimes attracted to light, we may even be lucky enough to observe this characterful, eye-catching moth in our rural gardens on warm evenings away from its usual habitat.
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Iwas reading an article in the Sherborne Times sister paper, The Times recently, which made me sit back and think. It was berating the conservation bodies for spreading ‘gloom and doom’ about the state of nature in this country and indeed the world. The thrust of the article was that we should be less worried and that human endeavour will find a way to overcome the nature crisis. It also suggested that we can re-create most of the habitats and return most of the species which have been lost.
They used as examples, the return of critically endangered species, such as the sea eagle, the large
blue butterfly, the beaver and the otter. There was talk about how we are increasing tree planting and creating new wildflower meadows and that in China, 10 new National Parks have been designated.
Now, I do agree that it is important not to just focus on losses and declines. After all, we have enough depressing news around the world, that we do not want to make people feel even more down! We have all heard that being amongst nature is phenomenally important for our mental and physical well being and so we don’t want people to worry that the things they love may no longer be there in the future. The Times argues that if
Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser
we do that, our young people will become despondent and may decide there is no point in doing anything.
It made me think of Rachel Carson’s seminal work, The Silent Spring, written in the 1960s to highlight the practices of the agro-chemical industry in wiping out vast quantities of wildlife in the USA and the wider world. Way ahead of her time, she began to ring alarm bells to say that this cannot go on because ultimately it will harm the human race, as well as the animals and insects that we share the world with. Did it work though? I suspect sadly not because big businesses lobbied governments to allow them to keep
producing some of the most toxic substances possible, such as DDT, until eventually it was banned in most of the world (but is worryingly still being produced in India). Only in 2024, the sugar beat industry in Britain asked for consent (and this was given) to keep applying neonicotinoids, despite overwhelming information that these are devastating for bees and most insects.
If Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world (in the bottom 10% of all countries as well as the G7 nations), with on average, only half of its biodiversity left, should we just sit back and not highlight what is happening? We could focus on cute pictures of red squirrels, dolphins, dormice and bluebell woods but are we just masking what is really happening?
I have worked for over 40 years in nature conservation and trained as an ecologist. I have spent my working life advising on ways to look after and enhance wildlife and tried to promote ways of looking after it.
What I am seeing is people trying to come up with ways to continue doing what we all know is damaging but thinking they can offset what they are doing. This might include destroying important habitats but reckoning that if they can plant some trees, this will mitigate it somehow. The government has increasingly seen their agencies and the conservation charities as an impediment to growth, rather than fulfilling a key protective function. As a result, we have seen the dilution of powers for our regulatory authorities and the resultant appalling pollution of our rivers and sea or catastrophic decline in insect life.
Is it the same, felling an ancient woodland and planting some saplings on neighbouring land or ploughing up species-rich downland and throwing down some wildflower seeds on a corn field? It is the same argument as demolishing a Tudor house and replacing it with an ‘executive’ new-build?. (Sherborne Town Council, please take note, when considering felling our 320+ year old lime trees in front of the Abbey and replacing them with a row of new lime saplings!)
On reflection, I think that we need to keep putting out positive nature stories and instil a love for the natural environment but I think we also need to highlight where things are not going well. We need to call out companies and governments that are ‘greenwashing’ but make positive suggestions, suggesting how things can be improved.
Now I am going to go out and look for butterflies and remember how lucky we are to live in Dorset!
Andrii Chagovets/iStock
HOW DO YOUR BRAMBLES GROW?
Paula Carnell, Beekeeping Consultant, Writer and Speaker
Although we’re into July, in the bee world, the ‘June gap’ can stretch too long into the summer. As beekeepers, we become all too aware of what is flowering where and more importantly, when there is nothing flowering that can feed our bees!
Traditionally in England, we would embrace the first catkins of early spring, willow and hazel, followed by blackthorn blossom, and the all-important dandelion flow in April. All being well, as the dandelions turn to clocks, May is blossoming, both the month and the hedgerow! This eases the bee colonies into growth for the summer, enables them to expand by swarming and if the beekeeper’s lucky, provides a surplus of honey to share.
This year there have been even more hurdles for bees
and beekeepers as the weather prevented flowers from blooming and bees from flying to collect any nectar. The prized dandelion honey, if harvested, could leave the bees starving as they are unable to leave the hive or find any more nectar to forage on. I have seen and heard of so many beekeepers across the Northern Hemisphere struggling with what to feed their bees as the weather has prevented a nectar flow.
Sadly, sugar is the ‘go-to’ supplement for feeding bees. I have seen many a beekeeper insist that fellow beekeepers, particularly the new ones, ensure their bees are fed sugar syrup to prevent them from dying of starvation. This makes me uncomfortable as sugar is far from a ‘supplement’ for honeybees to feed on. It
Janis Smits/Shutterstock
is a short-term fix, with consequences that many are not prepared for. I appreciate that we cannot control our weather (although the Met Office are now openly discussing geoengineering reflecting sunlight back into space amongst other methods) and so if we have extended wet weather what are beekeepers meant to do to ensure their bees survive?
Firstly, let me explain that although generally bees cannot fly in the rain, I have witnessed them doing so. They could have been caught out before a rain shower and need to fly back, however, I have seen bees choosing to leave the hive and carry on ‘as normal’ in light rain. Bees, when able, do adapt to weather and climate conditions, as do plants, after all, they have survived some pretty extreme weather changes over the past 150 million years!
What does affect bees is man-made changes. The removal of trees and wildflower meadows has had the most devastating effects which we are now seeing the consequences of. Seventy years ago we had 97% more wildflower meadows than we have currently – this allows for all the wildflower growing initiatives around towns and cities. Wildflowers would start flowering by mid-June, leaving the bees with a couple of weeks in early June with no forage – the ‘June gap’. Lime trees, providing up to 5 acres worth of forage in a single mature tree, would start blooming around midsummer’s day, 21st June and continue until mid-July with various species flowering at different times. Even the lime tree needs particular conditions to bloom. Wet humid stormy summer days are its preferred climate – too hot and dry and no nectar is produced for the shorttongued honey bees. Bumble bees with their longer tongues are able to reach down deep into the nectaries.
Nothing in nature is constant – there will be good and bad years for hawthorn, dandelions, fruit blossom and lime blossom, yet the brambles are every British beekeeper’s saviour! Come rain or shine, from late June until October, brambles can be seen blossoming and busy with bees of all kinds. Despite dandelions and brambles being the beekeeper’s friends and everyone wanting to currently save the bees, why are dandelions plucked from lawns and hedgerows cleared of brambles? Do we really believe that growing a single lavender bush on a manicured short lawn will be sufficient to save the bees?!
Woodlands are known to have ‘mast years’. This is when all the trees in a community produce excessive quantities of nuts and seeds. This in turn feeds all
"Generations of bee wisdom are carried through the hive, knowing the weather patterns and forage availability to ensure survival"
the wildlife around the woodland, enabling breeding, health and growth. After a couple of years of expansion, nature understands a balance is required and so the trees decide that together they won’t produce nuts and seeds, creating a lack of sufficient sustenance to feed the foxes, badgers, deer, squirrels, birds etc. The result of this is death, not of everything, of the weakest, the less prepared. The strong survive and continue to breed, ensuring that in nature, all is well and balanced. After all, they do not depend on a National Health Service or supplies of sugar from humans.
Returning to beekeepers, who aren’t blameless in this situation of starving bees, once we put wild bees into a wooden or plastic hive, we are responsible for them and that due care reaches farther than feeding sugar. Introducing more colonies of bees, each 50,000 mouths strong, will have an impact on the environment they are living in. Sadly it is often the unseen consequences of the other less-noticed bee and insect species that starve and then are lost forever.
Nature is always communicating and humans have turned off the receiver. I realised last year in my own research that when left to nature, colonies of honeybees expand according to Fibonacci’s sequence, the code of nature, the numbers of balance. To increase colonies without consulting nature is going to lead to starvation. Bees won’t move into an area without sufficient forage. Generations of bee wisdom are carried through the hive, knowing the weather patterns and forage availability to ensure survival. If you are having to feed your bees sugar, are you sowing seeds to provide food for them next month and for the years to come? That, in my opinion, is the first step of beekeeping. How are your brambles growing?
Paula and her husband Greg are currently living on Cocos Keeling island in the Indian Ocean filming a bee documentary. To follow their progress visit paulacarnell. com/membership
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Ihave spent my whole life living and working in the countryside, both as a farmer and as a lawyer specialising in agriculture law. I grew up on the family farm in my native New Zealand and was a tenant farmer in Hampshire before moving to Dorset and starting my legal career. So rural matters have always been important to me and I understand the opportunities and challenges that farmers, landowners, rural businesses and communities face.
I’ve also had a lifelong passion for nature and have been saddened by the rapid decline in wildlife over recent decades. The good news is that we can all do our bit to bring wildlife back to our countryside and gardens by creating natural havens where birds, mammals, plants and insects can flourish.
It’s something I’m doing in North Dorset where my husband and I have a smallholding. We have created wildlife corridors there by planting native hedgerows which provide vital shelter and food for birds and mammals that feast on the flowers and berries. I’ve lost count of the number of hedging plants we’ve planted which include hawthorn, blackthorn and dog rose. We’ve also planted more than 100 trees including oak, beech, chestnut, field maple, alder and walnut and plan to plant another 100. Planting trees and letting areas of land regenerate naturally creates vital habitats where wildlife can thrive.
Whether you’re a landowner or the owner of a small garden, there are lots of things you can
Image: Guy Traynor
do to encourage nature. Where there’s a corner of a field that is unproductive, for example, let the hedgerows grow out into that space. Leaving buffer zones around the edges of fields and allowing grass to grow creates natural corridors for small mammals to pass through.
Many farmers and landowners are already doing this and taking advantage of various environmental land management schemes and financial incentives. There are grants available for setting aside part of your land for habitat creation and planting hedgerows.
There are also things you can do at home to make your garden more wildlife-friendly. Letting part of your lawn grow, for example, will attract numerous plant and animal species to your garden. Or you could create a woodpile out of twigs and rotting wood which will provide a home for all sorts of insects. Creating a small pond in your garden or smallholding is another great way to provide wetland habitat for frogs and dragonflies.
I believe we all have a role to play in preserving our wildlife and that agriculture and habitat creation can work hand-in-hand when carefully managed. But signing up for one of the many environmental land management schemes can tie you into long-term agreements which could affect land values and may have tax implications.
So it’s important to read the small print and seek professional advice from your accountant, land agent or solicitor before making a decision.
mogersdrewett.co.uk
SHEAR NUMBERS
Alec Rich, Round Chimneys Farm
By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be in the throes of summer and hopefully, the long and wet start to the year will be a distant memory. I’m writing this as we enter June, sat in a tractor jotting sentences in between collecting silage bales. Multitasking is not something that comes naturally to me but it’s an art that I’m trying to perfect. At the moment it takes the form of trying to work out if a field is dry enough to move cows into, all whilst gearing up to make some silage for winter animal feed and checking about 7 different weather apps to work out when the next batch of rain is coming through!
We are a family-run, predominantly beef farm, with a relatively small flock of 100 Dorset cross Mule sheep, which we lamb in December. At the time of writing this, shearing time is looming. During the early summer months, Rob, our sheep shearer, and his team squeeze us into their hectic schedule, trimming countless ewes and rams around the local area.
In comparison to some sheep farms, we are small fry, with teams of shearers tackling flocks in the thousands. The best shearers can clip off a ewe’s woolly jacket in under a minute, with the record over the course of 8 hours standing at 644 sheep. That’s some going! My shearing prowess extends only to ‘dagging’, which is where we shear around a sheep’s bottom in the spring, aiming to keep them clean before they get the full body treatment. Looking at some of my dodgy trims this year, I’m sure our flock are glad that I leave that bit to the professionals!
The primary reason for shearing our sheep once a year centres around the welfare of the animals, keeping them nice and cool during the summer months. I don’t know about you but I couldn’t think of anything worse than wearing a thick woolly onesie on a 25-degree August afternoon! Perhaps the biggest benefit aside from keeping cool, is minimising the risk of ‘fly strike’. Fly strike happens when flies pitch into the wool of
the sheep, laying their eggs. Once the eggs hatch as maggots, they work their way through the wool, onto and under the sheep’s skin, feeding on the flesh. Once the maggots set in, the affected animal will deteriorate very quickly and if we don’t intervene as early as possible, they’ll die. The flies are particularly attracted to dirty and damp wool so shearing minimises the risk of strike quite significantly. Once shorn we’ll give the ewes a fly treatment on their backs to further reduce the risk of them being hit with the dreaded fly strike. In years gone by, the main purpose of shearing was to sell the fleece, turning a good profit. The wool trade was worth a huge amount of money in the UK with cathedrals, churches, university colleges and whole communities built on the profits from medieval times onwards. For hundreds of years, wool was the backbone of our economy, sought after by cloth makers across Europe. In fact, the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords still sits on the ‘Woolsack’, a
wool-stuffed cushion introduced in the 14th century to reflect the importance of the wool trade in England.
Back in 21st century Dorset, things look slightly different. On the financial side of things, shearing the sheep is a loss-making exercise. To put it in perspective, last year we received £76.65 for the fleeces bought from us by the British Wool Board in 2022 – the board pay us each year for the fleeces sent to them 12 months earlier. The cost of shearing our flock that year came to £207.10. Even more shockingly, during COVID in 2020, when the price of wool was at its worst, the cost of a courier collecting our wool outweighed the money we received for it, making a loss of £2.69 before we even take into account paying the shearers!
Whilst wool is still used widely in clothing, flooring and furnishings, the rise of synthetic materials across all of these areas has dramatically reduced our dependency on wool to create our carpets, curtains and clothes. Selling to the British Wool Board is the most simple option for us currently and it is what we have always done. But it does make me wonder if there would be any demand more locally for such a useful, natural product. If there is anyone out there with any suggestions, do let me know!
On the flip side, the wider picture for our flock is very positive at the moment – the prices of our spring lambs this year have been the best we’ve ever had. Even taking into account inflation and increased input costs, the market has been extremely favourable for us. It’s a nice feeling knowing we’re getting a fair price for the lambs that we put a lot of hard graft and long hours into looking after. It makes all of the days and long, cold nights spent in the lambing shed in December feel worth it!
Anyway, I must get back to it, bravely – we’ve got two fields of hay on the ground and I can see dark clouds in the distance. Time to check on those weather apps and find one which tells me the rain is going to miss us. We’ve had more than enough of that this year!
roundchimneysfarm.co.uk
Saturday 13th July 8pm
Ben Waters Live with special guests David Graham & The Eskimo Brothers
Round Chimneys Farm, Glanvilles Wootton DT9 5QQ Bar and food from 6pm. Tickets £15 from roundchimneysfarm.co.uk 07450 876969
Image: Ed Rich
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THE FAIRY LOAF
Elisabeth Bletsoe, Curator, Sherborne Museum
This small fossil was brought in after the donor made a discovery while digging a pond in his garden on Highmore Road. A sea urchin or echinoid of the Micraster type is a reliable indicator that the rocks in which it was contained were formed in a marine environment. These urchins are frequently found in sediments from the Jurassic or Cretaceous periods. In life it was basically a calcium carbonate shell full of ‘guts and gonads’; when these rotted away in death the fossil itself was formed through the shell being filled with silica that dissolved through the chalky sediment.
Micraster is ‘irregular’ or heart-shaped and as such is distinguished from the ‘regular’ echinoid, which has no front or back but possesses a complex set of jaws on the underside with an anus on the top. Their profiles are circular and they are radially symmetrical. They were able to move in all directions on the surface of the sea floor in search of food and were therefore vulnerable to attack, against which they developed defensive spines. They travelled using hydrostatically operated tube feet which could also grasp food. These were arranged in five distinct vertical bands called ambulacra.
Irregular sea urchins evolved from the regular type during the Jurassic and developed a completely different lifestyle. They burrowed along the sea floor to bulk feed on sediment. The radial symmetry was modified and the ambulacra became sunken ‘petals’ on the apical surface – the distinctive five-rayed pattern confirms the close evolutionary relationship to starfish. The mouth shifted to the front of the animal while the anus moved to the rear so that waste could be left behind. Spines were reduced and the jaws became redundant, while the tube feet were modified into respiratory flanges.
Recent research has revealed an intimate human association with these fossils for almost half a billion
years. In 1887, the skeletons of a woman, who became known as ‘Maud’, and her infant were discovered in a Bronze Age barrow on Dunstable Downs. The most extraordinary aspect of the burial was that they were surrounded by over two hundred fossil sea urchins. Since then, many other similar burials have been found demonstrating that humans and the ‘star-crossed stones’ have been interred together across thousands of miles and thousands of years, from the Neolithic to the twelfth century. Archaeologists have also found carefully crafted flint tools, with Micraster as a centrepiece, fashioned by early hominids. It has been suggested that the cognitive development required to construct such tools shows evidence of abstract thought and the beginnings of an appreciation of aesthetics. The five-pointed star was instinctively felt to be attractive. It is easy to see how these objects began to assume spiritual significance. In Celtic mythology, they were thought to be serpents’ eggs born from the convergence of energies woven by the summer embrace of mating snakes. Their magic was reputed to fluctuate with lunar phases and render the collector invulnerable to poison, toxic vapours and defeat in battle. In India, they are known as ‘the stone of five’, or Khada de Punchu, and retain a deep symbolic resonance. The Danish call them ‘thunderstones’; when positioned on windowsills, they were said to deflect lightning and predict rain. Perhaps this was the intention behind the use of such fossils to decorate the windows of a medieval church in Linkenholt in Hampshire. Across the south of England, they were used as talismans against milk spoilage and in Suffolk, they were known as ‘Fairy Loaves’ and placed in the oven to ensure perfect baking.
Sherborne Museum is open from Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm. Admission is free, although donations are greatly appreciated.
A BRIGHT FUTURE
Barbara Elsmore
In July 2022, I visited Sherborne School Archives to examine a collection of glass plate photographic slides recently discovered in Sherborne Abbey. The Abbey verger had asked the School Archivist to make high-resolution digital images of the slides using a special scanner and she takes up the story: ‘The majority, if not all the photographs, appear to have been taken by the Sherborne photographer Adam Gosney (1844-1921), who apparently picked up photography while working as a house servant at Sherborne School where he took photographs for the boys. By the time of the 1871 census, he had a shop and studio in Long Street (at what is now Dorset Lettings) and in 1873 he opened a shop and studio in Half Moon Street, next to the Plume of Feathers.’
Adam, the son of Thomas and Maria Gosney, was baptised in Sherborne Abbey in June 1844. When he married Harriet Bragg in 1867, he gave his occupation as ‘photographer’ and in 1870 their daughter Kate was born, probably over the shop in Long Street. This lovely photograph looking west along Long Street towards the Abbey, with the photographer’s studio in a prominent position at the front right, would have been taken somewhere between 1870 and 1873. It is a sunny day and Adam has found someone to add human interest to the scene. People are an interesting feature in so many of the older postcards.
Taking a closer look at the window and the man shining the glass, there are framed prints of
photographs by the door and the window is full of additional items for the enhancement of photographs –such as frames, stands and decorative shelves. The man has his sleeves rolled up ready for action. Above the rounded bay window are pots of plants with a window thrown wide to the sunshine. The shop window appears slightly overstuffed so perhaps this is getting towards the time when the move to the larger premises in Half Moon Street would take place.
The 1881 census shows Adam employing three young photographic assistants in Sherborne and by 1895, according to the back of a surviving photograph, he had studios in ‘Sherborne, Yeovil, Dorchester, Crewkerne and Wimborne and other places as advertised’. It is the changing information on the reverse of the photographs that can be so very informative in establishing when they might have been taken.
Many of Adam Gosney’s photographs survive in both public and private collections and I am fortunate to have 25 or so held by my own family.
To me, this is all especially interesting as this information on Adam, Harriet and Kate puts them firmly in my family tree. One of the joys of having an extensive local family tree is that some interesting people can pop up from time to time. Harriet’s younger sister Mary married my great grandfather’s elder brother in Bradford Abbas parish church in May 1861 – a tenuous connection, I know, but a connection nonetheless to this very enterprising man.
Image courtesy of Sherborne School Archives
Forthcoming Auction Programme
Vinyl, Film & Entertainment Memorabilia
3rd July
Mid-Century
4th July
Pictures & Books
4th July
Single Owner Collection
5th July
Antiques & Interiors
5th July
Silver, Jewellery & Watches
1st August
Further entries invited
The Joinery Works, Alweston
Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5HS
Tel: 01963 23219
Fax: 01963 23053
Email: info@fcuffandsons.co.uk
www.fcuffandsons.co.uk
A GREAT EYE
Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers
Having worked as an auctioneer and valuer for the past 39 years there is not much which I have not come across when meeting clients, either in their homes or in our reception at one of our specialist valuation days.
A highlight of my career was seeing an Italian pottery charger hanging on the wall of a Dorset cottage. The lady owner had inherited the charger from her father many years ago. Having known it all her life, she attached little value to the charger. It also had a chip to the rim but I recognised it as an important piece of Renaissance pottery and it was sold at Charterhouse, after much research, for over half a million pounds.
Perhaps one of the more unusual lots I was asked to look at was a collection of airplane sick bags. I politely declined to auction due to their negligible value, much to the disappointment of the owner. This hopefully demonstrates the broad range of items which we are asked to look at and advise on.
Recently we were instructed to carry out a probate valuation for an estate near Shaftesbury. We provide solicitors, other professionals and executors with formal valuations for probate every week from across the West Country and further afield. Some properties are large and some small but there is no correlation between size and value of the estate.
Whilst not a large property, the deceased certainly had a great eye for art and antiques. He had clearly enjoyed collecting over the years, amassing period furniture, Asian art, other ceramics, glass, metalwares, treen, collectors’ items, silver, books, Persian rugs and clocks. Items date from the 18th century onwards but it is a collection of portrait paintings, other pictures and art from the 20th century which impressed me the most.
For many years, portrait paintings have been bought and sold either for their decorative appeal for hotels and pubs or as instant ancestors to hang on the wall in your home. For some people, they cannot understand why you would hang a portrait on your wall of someone you are not related to or even knew. Sometimes, I have been in client homes and have felt the eyes of the portraits following me around the room as I walk about but this is usually by grumpylooking Victorian governesses!
Getting back to the estate and we have now been instructed to auction the contents of the property. We usually enter Asian art into our specialist Asian Art auctions, pictures into picture auctions and so on, but as this house’s contents are so interesting, we have decided to auction all the items in one auction. This is along the lines of a good old country house auction, albeit it is not from a country house and all the items were removed to our Sherborne Salerooms.
The auction will be on Friday 5th July and I cannot wait to get on the rostrum for this sale.
charterhouse-auction.com
From a Shaftesbury deceased estate and being sold in a single owner auction – a portrait of Henrietta Bufford by Augustus John OM RA £15,000-£20,000
MACREADY’S
Words Claire Bowman
Photography Katharine Davies
As the clock ticks down to lunch service and tables begin to fill with hungry diners, there’s a sense of building anticipation in Macready’s restaurant at The Sherborne, Dorset’s new destination for the arts. While the waiting team glides methodically from table to table, folding white linen napkins and laying cutlery, staff behind the Palm Bar check stock levels and polish glassware. With its marble-topped tables, coral banquette seating and flamboyant Adam Ellis Studio wallpaper, it makes a light and airy contrast to the adjoining restaurant space, which has the cosy, intimate feel of member’s club.
Overseeing operations in the kitchen is Head Chef George Marsh, who on the morning of my visit has been busy checking in with local suppliers. Hailed by food critics as one of the UK’s most talented seafood chefs (Fans of the former Riverside restaurant in West Bay will have fond memories of his famous brill with crispy spinach and sorrel sauce), George’s Portland crab linguine and pan-fried hake have been flying off the menu since the restaurant opened in May, along with the spicy steamed mussels and Bagnell Farm burger. With sous-chef Jose Maria Lain Canosa from Bridport’s Electric Pub Company by his side, they make quite the team. >
Barmen Cameron Thrower and Maverick White
Jose Maria Lain Canosa and George Marsh
Terry Hawrylak
‘Our food is not about the micro herbs, it’s about honest cooking and proper big flavours – Modern British with a Mediterranean influence,’ says George, a former head chef at The Fox Inn in Corscombe, Bull Hotel, Cobb Arms in Lyme Regis and the aforementioned Electric Pub Company. ‘We are great believers in seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. The Portland crab we use, for example, is in all the top London restaurants; you’re not going to get any better. Our fish is from Davy’s Locker in Bridport; our scallops are hand-dived by Ali the scallop diver in Lyme Bay; our cheese is from Longman’s; our meat is from Bagnell Farm. Then we have ice cream from Ecco Gelato, wines from Vineyards and The Drinksmith and coffee from a number of nearby roasteries.’
The sweet-toothed amongst us will be pleased to hear that Sherborne’s very own Terry Hawrylak (aka Terry the Baker) is at the helm of cakes and puddings. Previously chief baker and celebration cake maker at The Hub café, where his mince pies and birthday cakes were the stuff of legend, his caramel slices, apricot flapjacks and Viennese fingers, along with a pretty show-stopping peanut butter parfait, are all looking to go the same way. ‘I started off as an apprentice at Fudge’s in Leigh and have never wanted to do anything
different,’ says Terry, presenting a batch of the moistestlooking brownies I’ve ever seen, fresh from the oven. ‘When baking is in your blood, it never leaves you.’
While many will recognise restaurant manager William Scott-Masson from his numerous TV acting roles, his distinguished career in hospitality has included the Beckford and Chickpea groups and launching Ivy restaurants across the country. ‘It is not just the quality of the food and drink that makes Macready’s special but the entire guest experience,’ says William, ’All our staff are empathic, compassionate, open, generous, warm, lovely people,’ he says, adding that the majority, including Imo who is currently on her gap year, are also drawn from local schools. ‘Whether people are coming for a four-course meal in the restaurant, an early evening pizza and a glass of wine on the terrace or a morning cup of coffee, we want our guests to have the very best experience.’
On the subject of coffee (demand has been huge which has taken the team a little by surprise, considering there’s already a plethora of ‘great places to drink coffee in town.’), William explains, ‘We don’t have a café, but, of course, we are delighted to serve coffee. We have been busy hiring baristas so that people can enjoy a coffee in >
Jess Lockyer and William Scott-Masson
Food photography: Tory McTernan
the sunshine in the courtyard or on the terrace, where we now have a hatch and till. On less sunny days they can have a coffee in the Pavilion events space.’
Being open to new things and embracing a challenge seems to be very much part of what makes Macready’s an exciting place to work. ‘We all have been encouraging each other to do the best we can and what is so great is that everybody is so keen to learn,’ says ebullient Assistant Manager Jess, who joined the team in April having previously worked in hospitality while travelling in Australia. ‘It’s been lovely that since we opened there’s been a constant buzz around the space and we’ve been very busy most weekends and lunchtimes. People have been very supportive.’
None of this would have been possible, of course, without the generosity of the late Michael Cannon and his wife Sally. A successful local entrepreneur and a visionary with a passion for the arts, Michael was the driving force behind the renovation of Sherborne House. He sadly died in June last year but it was his great wish that, as well as having ‘luxurious’ loos (the designers have certainly fulfilled the brief and then some), the restaurant would be named after the actor William Macready, who leased the house from 1850-60 and frequently invited his great friends Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray to stay.
‘It is tragic that Michael never got to see Macready’s and this beautiful old, crumbling building completed,’ says William. ‘It was his vision to create a space for the community which he insisted on being free. As a restaurant, we exist in part to cover the overheads of the house and keep it alive but it’s
important that we try to keep the prices sensible. We are making the margins we need to make but we’re not putting anything on top of that because, again, it’s about the community. George has been very careful with his menu: one, to use local suppliers; secondly, to have a really broad range so that there’s something for everyone.’
As midday approaches and head bartender Maverick mixes the first pre-prandial drink of the day, I leave Macready’s and head out to the entrance, past a beautiful bronze sculpture of a dog by Elisabeth Frink which is currently on loan from Arts in Hospital, and through to the gift shop, which celebrates local makers and creators. From Wincanton honey and own-brand organic fudge to Coffee Notes stationery, Richard Bramble pottery and Gather wool blankets, it is clear that a lot of thought has gone into the curation.
It’s the same meticulousness, in fact, that runs through the entire restoration project, from the famous Georgian façade and Baroque Thornhill Mural to the blue horse artwork which diners can now spy on the kitchen wall behind the pass. Painted by former pupils, it’s a gentle reminder of when Sherborne House was once a girls’ grammar school – and a charming backdrop for George and the team as they plate up that famous Portland crab linguine.
thesherborne.uk
Macready’s is open Monday to Saturday 12pm–2.30pm and 6pm–8.30pm. Sunday 12pm–4pm. The bar is open 12pm until close.
Open Monday-Saturday 9.00am-6.00pm, Sunday 10.00am-4.30pm (tills open at 10.30am) Castle Gardens, New Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NR www.thegardensgroup.co.uk @thegardensgroup
GARDENS DESIGNED, BUILT AND MAINTAINED
When you employ Arbour Landscaping you are employing a local, family-run company with over 40 years combined experience.
Our mission is to create breathtaking outdoor environments that harmoniously blend nature’s beauty with personalised design. Through meticulous craftsmanship, sustainable practices and a deep understanding of your vision we strive to exceed expectations and transform ordinary spaces into extraordinary landscapes that inspire and delight.
Whether you need garden design or garden build services, our team is on hand to help. Contact us for a friendly, no-obligation chat about your vision for your outdoor living space.
With warmer weather and many flowers in full bloom, July is a great time to sit back and enjoy your garden.
To keep the colour coming, make sure to water regularly. Collect any rainwater in water butts and consider micro irrigation systems to save time and avoid waste. A layer of mulch in borders can also help the soil retain moisture.
Deadhead regularly and feed your plants with Boost and Seaweed fertilisers. Consider specialist products like Big Tom to get the best out of your tomato crop - it’s great for keeping your hanging baskets and tubs flowering too.
You can pick up your watering equipment, feeds and fertilisers 7 days a week: Monday to Saturday: 9am – 6pm Sunday: 10am – 4:30pm
01935 814633
castle@thegardensgroup.co.uk
Treetop Walkway, Kew Gardens
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE
Mike Burks, Managing Director, The Gardens Group
Recently we attended a university reunion held at Kew Gardens. It was a really enjoyable day with a number of people we hadn’t seen for years as well as friends we have regularly been in touch with. The majority have stayed in horticulture and as well as garden centre operators attending, there were those who run landscaping companies, nurseries, garden designers and cider makers as well as a few who have chosen other careers including social housing. We were hosted at Kew by one of our friends from university who as well as being in a senior role with the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission is also a trustee at Kew. This is a well-deserved appointment and also made for a really interesting tour of Kew although a pub lunch meant that we didn’t get to see everything!
One of the issues that came up was the concerns that the team at Kew have over the long-term viability of the plantings there in light of a changing climate. Of course, they are dedicating a significant amount of time to research the challenges but are particularly worried about the trees growing in the botanical gardens. One headline I’ve seen from Kew is that one in six trees is likely to fail because of the changing climate. Other species may well fill the gap in time but with some of the magnificent specimens at Kew itself, it will mean significant changes to the gardens.
Some of the impacts of a changing climate are difficult to predict. I recall an article written by the excellent Centre for Alternative Technology which speculated about the impact on vegetable crops including a potential significant increase in the yield of some crops such as carrots but also a demise in the fortunes of onions as they bolted (going to flower) too soon in the season. Some of this is happening with onions being trickier to grow now than they once were but I’ve yet to see abnormally huge carrots in the local flower and vegetable shows!
Another friend who runs a large tree nursery in North Yorkshire was remarking on the range of plants that he can now grow that far North that just wasn’t possible when he first arrived 30-odd years ago. Interestingly, he didn’t sound like he thought this was a positive thing.
Other oddities from a changing climate include the double flowering for the last 4 years of magnolias – once in the spring as normal and then secondly in the autumn too in my garden. Wisteria also seem to regularly flower later in the summer as well as in their normal late spring slot.
Animals surely are being affected too and pigeons seem to be particularly troublesome in the garden this year eating things that I haven’t noticed them having an appetite for previously. This included in April and May eating the leaves of cherries perhaps with a mouthful of blackfly with them, and then grasses including Carex which seems very odd. One explanation is that there is a lack of insect larvae and grubs because of the persistent wet weather. It would be great if the pigeons had an appetite for slugs and snails which would solve a number of problems!
At the time of writing, slugs and snails are such a problem that the manufacturers of slug control products have run out. One solution though which is a triple win, is Bloomin’ Amazing, a bi-product of a biogas plant at Poundbury. It ’s a soil improver (capturing carbon and storing water) – it reduces soil erosion, reduces weed growth and deters slugs and snails.
thegardensgroup.co.uk
STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS
Julie Haylock, Sandhurst Garden Design
Following our success at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year, my husband Andrew and I exhibited our showcase garden Stop and Smell the Flowers at last month’s BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC. I'm delighted to say that we were awarded a Silver Merit Medal!
The showcase gardens are judged using the same criteria as the larger show gardens. Their smaller size makes them popular with visitors to the show as they replicate the size of most modern domestic gardens, providing a great source of inspiration and design ideas, with take-home planting combinations to try in their own compact garden setting.
The inspiration for our garden this year was that in a world driven by faceless fast-paced interaction with technology, it is important to find time to escape the digital noise, embrace meaningful connections with family and friends in a garden and enjoy the beauty of nature all around us.
We created a design consisting of two circular areas connected by a winding gravel path flanked on both sides by a soft palette of pink, purple and blue planting, inviting you to slow down and take in the variety of plants and their fragrance. Stepping through the moon gate, your busy life is left behind, freeing
you to sit for a while with a friend and ponder the important things in life.
The planting scheme consists of pollinator-friendly plants, including lavender, monarda, scabious and of course roses with their delicious scent that you cannot help but pause to smell, mixed with other cottage favourites like geranium, achillea, Gaura and Peonies that echo the contours of our design.
The garden has a hornbeam hedge on two sides creating a corner for a small circular seating area, large enough for a colourful bistro table and two chairs, gently shaded by a multi-stem Betula utilis jacquemontii Himalayan birch tree - with the busy world beyond partially screened by a multi-stem Amelanchier lamarckii, supplied for the show by Rainbow Plants Limited.
Sitting centrally in the second circle of gravel and oak setts is a corten steel bowl, surrounded by planting. Cryptic metalwork lettering seemingly floating on the water reveals the word ‘reflect’ on the still water’s surface – a subtle touch that brings a smile to your face.
Exhibiting a show garden is a costly venture and without the generous support of fellow businesses it would have been impossible to create our design. Burgon and Ball, makers of garden tools and
accessories, donated tools to help with the building phase of the garden, including two border spades, a pair of secateurs and a hand trowel.
Locally, Louise and Mike Burks of The Gardens Group have been terrific supporters of our garden design journey since it all began and they supplied a selection of David Austin roses with fabulous scent. Palmers Garden Centre of Yeovil generously sponsored the remainder of the planting, supplied by Dayspring Plant Nursery in Devon.
Allgreen (Masters of Stone) based in Yeovil who, like The Gardens Group, have been great supporters from the beginning, supplied the square oak setts for the circular area on which the water bowl sits. The Metal Workshop of Yeovil created all the metalwork, including the magnificent moon gate that gives the garden the wow factor.
This year is not the first time we have exhibited at BBC Gardeners World Live. Back in 2016, just weeks after I qualified as a garden designer, we created a Beautiful Border entitled Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and were delighted to win a gold medal. It was a surreal experience. One minute I was at Kingston Maurward College on a Garden Design Course and the next I was at the NEC talking to thousands of
people about our border and being interviewed by the presenters of BBC Gardeners World.
For both of us, designing show gardens has become something of an addiction. We have successfully exhibited show gardens at Taunton Flower Show since 2017 and last year entered The Balcony and Container Category at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, specifically for first-time designers to Chelsea – we won a bronze medal with our container garden inspired by the fossil hunter Mary Anning.
Sustainability is a key word and organisers of BBC Gardeners World Live and the RHS are keen for gardens to be designed with this in mind.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show Container Garden, which we designed as an outdoor learning space for primary school children, has been relocated in part to Charmouth Primary School. There are plans already in place to relocate Stop and Smell the Flowers to a local plant nursery where it will serve as a permanent display garden showcasing their plants and offering inspiration to customers. It is hugely rewarding to see our designs take on a new life beyond the show and continue to bring joy for years to come.
sandhurstgardendesign.co.uk
Introducing our new Horrell & Horrell Grazing Tables
As with everything we do at Horrell & Horrell, our grazing tables will centre around seasonal and local produce. But instead of dining in our barn, we deliver them to you.
They make a stunning centre piece for parties, family gatherings, seasonal celebrations, or even just a lavish supper.
How
does it work?
Place your order on our website, we then arrive an hour before you plan to dine and create a magnificent centre piece of local cheeses, cured meats, smoked fish, garden vegetables, fruit, dips, crackers and more, all bejewelled with seasonal flowers and foraged finds. Everything is displayed on a carefully curated collection of oak boards, handmade bowls, vintage vases and jars – just like you find in our barn! We then return to collect everything the following day.
We provide everything you need; including disposable plates and cutlery if required. We will also be offering grazing boxes, perfect for drop-offs, gifting or a picnic – watch this space.
Our Grazing Table diary is now open for the rest of the year, so if you’re planning a celebration, do get in touch!
Jules & Steve x
Micro Dining | Grazing | Luxury Events
horrellandhorrell.co.uk | @horrellandhorrell
CRÈME D’AMANDE AND PLUM TARTS
Tom Matkevich, The Green Restaurant
Simple, seasonal and delicious. Plums are classic summer fruit and pair beautifully with the delicate almond flavour of this dessert. The Victoria and red varieties are our favourites!
Ingredients Serves 6
125g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease moulds
200g caster sugar
125g whole eggs
75g plain flour
125g ground almonds
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 fresh plums, washed
Clotted cream, to serve
Method
1 Preheat an oven to 180C. Grease four rounded tartlet/flan tins with butter, add a ring of baking paper to the bases and grease again with butter.
2 To prepare the plums, slice two even rounds from the sides of each plum. Cut these rounds into small, attractive slices. Remove the remaining flesh from the plums and set aside for the sauce, discarding the stones.
3 To make the plum sauce, add the remaining plum pulp to a saucepan along with 75g of caster sugar and a splash of water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes until broken down and syrupy, stirring frequently. Pass through a sieve, applying pressure with the back of a spoon, to produce a smooth sauce.
4 To make the crème d’amande (batter), cream the butter and 125g of the sugar by hand or with a stand mixer until pale. Next, mix in the eggs and vanilla until homogenous, followed by the almonds. Finally, gently add the flour until just fully combined.
5 Evenly add this mixture to each of the prepared tins and arrange the plum slices on top. Place in the oven for 14-17 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes away clean. Remove and let cool for around 8 minutes before gently removing from the tins.
6 Serve while still warm with a dollop of clotted cream and a drizzle of the plum sauce.
greenrestaurant.co.uk
Viktoriia Lomtieva/Shutterstock
THE CAKE WHISPERER
COCONUT AND LIME CAKE
As a child, every Sunday my mum and I would make a coconut cake. A coconut cake was one of the easiest to make and a family favourite. The cake was part Madeira, part Victoria sponge. As I grew in confidence I put my own twist on the simple coconut cake – I added lemons then limes. Over time the cake was served for special occasions and afternoon tea.
Serves 10-12
Preparation times - 1 hour to pre-soak the coconut in lime juice, 10 minutes to weigh out ingredients and prepare the cakes, 25-35 or a little longer to bake, 15 minutes to decorate.
What you will need - Stand mixer or electric hand mixer, three 6-inch (18cm) loose-bottom tins, a
turntable is useful, cake board a little larger than the cake, an offset palette knife, a cake scraper, a dinner plate for the coconut, cake lifter, a zester preferably a Microplane, potato peeler.
Ingredients
For the cake
2 small limes
50g fine desiccated coconut
175g eggs weighed out of shell, about 3-4 eggs
175g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
50g unsalted butter
150g soft margarine
2 tablespoons coconut milk powder
1 tablespoon whole milk
Val Stones
Image: Katharine Davies
For the filling and topping
200g unsalted butter
50g cream cheese
400g icing sugar
3 tablespoons dried coconut powder
A jar of lime curd
1 lime (use 2 if the limes are small and not very juicy)
200g fine desiccated coconut (have a little more ready if needed)
Method
1 Begin by removing the zest from the limes with a potato peeler and then cut finely and place in a small airtight container for use as decoration later. Juice the limes and place in a jam jar, add the coconut to the juice and shake. Set aside to soak for an hour.
2 Preheat the oven to 160C fan assisted, 180C, 350F, gas mark 4.
3 Place the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar, margarine, butter, sifted flour, baking powder and powdered coconut milk and milk.
4 Beat together starting gradually for a few seconds to combine the mixture well then turn up to beat briskly for a further 1 minute. Whilst beating grease and line the baking pans.
5 Fold in the lime-soaked coconut then divide between the 3 baking tins, place in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 25-35 minutes, check 5 minutes before the end of the baking time. The cakes are baked when lightly golden and if you listen to them they only whisper a crackle not shout.
6 Remove the tins from the oven and place on a cooling rack. With a sharp knife and in one continuous movement loosen the cakes from the side of the tins, leave for two minutes to cool a little before tipping on a cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating.
To make the buttercream
1 Place the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer and beat slowly to begin with.
2 Add the coconut milk powder and then beat on medium-high for 5 minutes until the butter is light and fluffy.
3 Add the juice of a lime and mix in well.
4 Add the icing sugar a dessert spoon at a time and when all incorporated beat for a further 5 minutes.
To assemble the cake
1 Place the cake on a cake turntable.
2 Using a spatula, spread about 3 tablespoons of the buttercream onto the cake and then a tablespoon of lime curd repeat this twice more.
3 Spread buttercream around the sides of the cake and even up using a cake scraper.
4 Gently use the cake lifter to ease up the cake from the turntable, with one hand hold the top of the cake and with the other the base of the cake. Turn the cake, dipping it into the coconut to give the cake an even coconut coating.
5 Place the cake on the serving board then place back onto the turntable, spread the top of the cake with a scant layer of lime curd and then buttercream until evenly covered, scatter with coconut until fully covered.
6 Chill in the fridge for an hour before serving. Just before serving, decorate the top with the reserved lime zest.
7 The cake will last for 3 days in an airtight container.
8 The cake can be open frozen and then placed in a box – it will keep for up to a month but is best eaten fresh.
bakerval.com
FUEL FOR THOUGHT
Sandra Miller BSc, MSc, BCNH Dip, FDN-P, Wholistic Health
Metabolism is how we make energy from food. Having a fast or slow metabolism and the impact this might have on weight are popular terms and ideas. However, metabolism is so much more than this. It is the foundational pathway that underlies pretty much all body function (and also dysfunction) because we use that energy to fuel everything that goes on in the body. Simply put, any underpowered cell or organ cannot do its job. This is
how metabolic dysfunction can show up with such an array of diverse symptoms and chronic diseases.
If we are going to consider metabolism we must look at mitochondria. These are the incredible parts of every cell that are responsible for making ATP which is the basic currency of energy in the body. It’s what our cells exchange for every process they undergo. And the truth is that mitochondria have taken a big hit as a result of our modern lifestyle.
Victoria Novak/Shutterstock
To give an example of all this, if you dived into the research, you’d find it suggests the underlying cause of sinusitis is mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria don’t just make ATP. They are responsible for scanning the environment for signs of physical, chemical or microbial danger. If they find it, they will initiate the cell danger response and healing cannot take place until the response is turned off. In cases of sinusitis, the cells in the nasal sinuses sense an external threat and mount an inflammatory immune response against that threat resulting in the build-up of congestion.
So how can we best create better health? Do we need more mitochondria or do we need our mitochondria to work better? We need more mitochondria, all working better and producing more energy. The body has a number of complex processes it can engage to deliver these goals. These include promoting the recycling of old mitochondria and turning them into new mitochondria, creating brandnew mitochondria and increasing the capacity and efficiency of mitochondria in various ways. Fortunately, there are a number of simple habits that can key into one or more of these processes to enhance metabolism, mitochondrial function and reduce chronic disease. Don’t let clever marketing from companies trying to sell you expensive solutions overcomplicate this. Instead, do the simple things that initiate your body into doing incredibly clever complicated healing stuff for itself!
Our key levers for change are in the areas of food, sleep, movement, toxins, emotional health and our relationship with light and temperature. Three of the most significant lifestyle habits to help us make progress in these areas are diet, exercise and spending time in nature.
Food is the one we have to get right if we are going to have healthy mitochondria, good levels of energy and low risk of chronic disease. Life is a dynamic process of building and breaking down and every day you have the ability to change how you function through what you eat. Food provides the building blocks for life – we are 100% made from food! But food is also information and directs cell signalling. Food doesn’t just feed us, it feeds our microbiome which becomes more molecular information. Food is so very much more than calories. The simplest way to meet all these needs is to eat as much real, unprocessed food, grown in an environment of good soil, as possible. That’s it.
You can further enhance the positive effect of good food with moderate compression of eating time and
"Three of the most significant lifestyle habits to help us make progress are diet, exercise and spending time in nature"
being mindful of when in the day you eat. Our bodies will process food much more efficiently if we eat in meals rather than meals and multiple snacks and if we are not eating all day long and especially not late into the evening. Scientists compared the effects of eating the same meal at 9.30am compared to at 8.30pm and found the glucose response was significantly higher when it was eaten in the later evening.
When it comes to movement, walking is fabulous for getting the glucose present in the bloodstream used up instead of having it destined for storage. Aiming for at least three walks a day is good. However, it is best to think of simply moving more throughout the day. If you sit at a desk most of the day try to take a 2-minute movement break every 30 minutes. Moving after meals is a brilliant habit which will always make the glucose response to that meal much healthier.
We gain different specific mitochondrial benefits from different types of movement. New mitochondria result from endurance exercise. High-intensity exercise enhances mitochondrial efficiency. Resistance training increases mitochondrial numbers. All these types of movement increase antioxidant enzymes to protect mitochondria.
If we combine our movement with being outside we recruit another of the best ways to regulate the cell danger response and promote healing. Research shows that the tracking of the eyes with moving outside is therapeutic and that time spent looking into the distance promotes health. Signs of ADHD, anxiety and depression all reduce after spending time in nature. There is something we likely all recognise about how being outside brings perspective to life if we let it. An appreciation of the interconnectedness of all living things, including ourselves, can speak calm, abundance and hope that many of us (and our mitochondria) so desperately need.
wholistichealth.co.uk
Open lunch and dinner Wednesday to Saturday, and Sunday lunch
Some people, when seeing us pull up and ease ourselves, creaking a little, off our two elderly motorbikes wonder what on earth we are up to. At times, we wonder the same thing. Our 3-month trip to ride across 10 European countries to find out, first-hand from producers, farmers, growers and other folk we both know and don’t know, what is really going on with the changing
weather patterns is unearthing some common themes. 5,000 miles is 8,000 kilometres and there is rarely a day that passes without someone enquiring where we are from and how far have we come. Now in Sicily, the interest is fully on Annie and when she, a little shyly, confesses that, yes, she has ridden all the way from England; yes, she has taken the Long Way Round and
ridden some of the most challenging roads in all of Europe, and no, the man she is with didn’t make her do it, the response is nearly always, ‘Brava! Brava! Brava! Corragiosa!’
Which, in its most simple translation equates to something like:
‘Bloody hell! You are courageous!’
Which, when all is said and done, is very much the truth (it also means, ‘a bit bats’). Occasionally it has an expletive or two added for good measure for this is no casual undertaking which, it seems, is recognised and appreciated in, what we have discovered, is one of the harshest environments in which to forge a life.
The other countries we have travelled across so far were merely the warm-up for Sicily. Over the last 54 days we have ridden through some of the most amazing and description-defying scenery that the words I have can never do justice to and we have been given hospitality from strangers that, it shames me to say, I’d struggle to repay. And all to ask five simple questions:
1 What changes have you seen in the climate in the last 10 years?
2 How has this affected your and your family’s way of life?
3 What effect has this had on your business?
4 What changes have you had to make already and are planning to make in the future?
5 How do you see the future?
The people we asked the questions to could not have been more varied; the French goat farmer who drank our wine and charged us for it the next morning, the waiter in the upmarket winery who turned out to be an olive and mandarin farmer with a masters degree in organic agriculture, the Albanian astrologer who couldn’t reconcile the marriage of a Pisces to an Aries or Apostelos in his mist-shrouded mountain refuge who welcomed us with much needed warmth and sent us on our way with the poem ‘Ithaki ’ by Constantine Cavafy which, in a way, encapsulates our journey. It starts like this:
As you set out for Ithaka,
Hope the voyage is a long one, Full of adventure, full of discovery.
I am no fan of poetry, having had it rammed down my throat as a child, but this is a really, really beautiful piece of writing and, if you are so minded to hear Sean Connery read it to you in full, you can find it on YouTube.
Riding, as we do, from one stop to the next, each twist and bend opening up a new vista and fresh view of the
world we are travelling in and across, we are often lost to our own thoughts about each building experience and what we are learning as we move. Sometimes, at the end of a day; the daily routines of closing one day and preparing for the next, as one must when travelling as we are; we softly chat and mull over the sights, sounds and smells of the miles ridden that day. The way the scenery changes, builds, dips and moulds; the changes in temperature as you ascend around hairpins of switchbacks and crest a view the sight of which is so remarkable that it removes the very air from your lungs and leaves you gulping to refill as you descend around more switch-backing roads towards yet another horizon.
I chat about this to Annie and about how to describe Sicily – particularly the landscape we have been riding across for the last 50 miles or so. Annie says,
‘It’s a bit like the Yorkshire Dales or Lake District,’ which, I must accept, is certainly one way to describe it.
However, for me, it was as if a Primary School teacher had asked a Key Stage 1, Year 2 class of 6 and 7-yearolds to create a fantastical model of a mythical land that couldn’t ever actually really exist. And to do this by covering a large table with those square trays eggs get packed in for caterers and then take a large rubber mallet or two and randomly smash the eggy uppy cuppy bits to leave some smashed and some standing, then cover the whole thing in glue, throw sand over it and sprinkle it with grass cuttings and moss and add some cows, sheep and goats. Preferably with at least some, if not all, placed precipitously and about to fall off a half-smashed eggy uppy cuppy dimple. That is what I saw.
As for the questions. It is a truism that things are changing and no one we have spoken to, casually, on or off the record, differs from this view. The elder generation is cautious in their pessimism but they, almost as one irrespective of country or gender, are uncertain and a little fearful. The youngers? Not so. They see what has been done and what effect it is having and are optimistic about the challenges ahead.
‘What our fathers and grandfathers did? We cannot do. There are new ways and we will find them.’
We have heard words to that effect in every language we have encountered. The voyage to Ithaki will be a long one and the generations that follow have much to discover. For us, the voyage continues and we have stuff yet to learn.
olivesetal.co.uk @olivesetal
A MONTH ON THE FARM
James Hull, The Story Pig
Well, this is a record! It’s 4.15am and I am writing to you. Picture the scene if you will – I’m sitting in the cafe tipi, dressed with a blanket around my shoulders to stave off the early morning chill. It’s actually really light already and the birds are going crazy around me, singing their hearts out. I am looking out onto our garden – it’s in complete shadow. The sun hasn’t peeked up more than to lighten the sky, with the promise of more. The air is still, with a distinct chill, but there is no wind, something we have all been suffering from for weeks now. What a year this has been so far. Summer is here, although it really doesn’t feel like it weather-wise. We are all struggling to shed our winter clothes, coats are ever-present. Ever optimistic, I am still saying it will turn around and we must be soon in for a change... Soon. When Charlotte first arrived on these shores from Sweden we had an amazing summer, a drought actually. All everyone could talk about was how hot and dry it was. Charlotte thought our weather was amazing – I had to break it to her that it was unusual and our more normal weather was changeable at best!
But soon we will be hot I’m sure – we must be in for a faultless harvest time. Why the heck am I up so early, you may ask. Well, I couldn’t sleep. My mind is full, too full of stuff – it’s exciting stuff for me. Firstly, I have to write this then we have so many plans for our garden that I am trying to put into action. It’s been too wet for months to get going but finally, we can. We have a big pond to build and we have lavender plants patiently waiting to be planted in the new areas – realistically this is still a way off. They will have to stay in their pots a while longer as I create their new home ahead of them. Oh, and I have a house to build for us too.
As I look out of the tipi ahead of me, the pig fields are quiet – all still sleeping, snuffling and snoring. They will be piled on top of each other as if they have been tipped in a big heap. I am not sure what time they actually wake up at this time of year but I am guessing another hour or so. By the time I have loaded all my pig food, they will have heard me, sleeping or not. They will be running around screaming their scream, sounding like they haven’t been fed since January. Funny, but as I think of this I realise I hardly notice it when I am feeding – I have done it so many times it feels like I do it on autopilot. It’s peak pig nice times at the moment – the ground is finally dry in most parts and it’s not too hot so they are very happy and growing well. If I have to do pig jobs, the work is easier with no mud to hinder me. Many of them are sleeping outside now, by choice. As I write I have just seen the first pig walk across the field ahead of me. I have been joined in the tipi by our two cats Kit and Lilly (a boy) and Blue our lovely dog that so many of you love too. The cats are sitting on the bench next to me, gently pushing against me. Blue, as many of you will be able to picture, is looking at them from a distance of about six inches, staring intently. They are best friends, all of them, but he does like to round them up if possible – which actually it’s not. Can you imagine being able to round up cats?
The light is getting lighter now and my fingers are cold as hell as I type, but it is good to be up, I love it! We have three new arrivals at the farm – three tiny little mini goats have come to live with us. Oh, they are so cute. They skip and run at full speed around their new home and they run up their big log climbing frame as if they are glued to it. By the time you read this Goat Club will have been born. Who could resist mini goats? They will bring a smile to the dourest of demeanours!
Wow, the sun is peeping over our stunning hills to greet me. It’s 5.15am now. I am going to take some photos before I head to get a coffee and then feed – that’s how my day starts every day. It’s been a treat to sit here and write this morning. I have done it in record time.
And finally, as the DJs say on the radio when they have been on holiday – thanks to Charlotte for sitting in for me last month and writing a beautiful article in a foreign tongue as I lay as ill as I have been for 25 years. Lucky me – I am fully recovered finally. Oh, and I mustn’t forget about our lavender – it’s about to fill our lives with joy and beauty. Now I really must warm up my hands!
SOUTH AFRICA
David Copp
Of all the wine-producing countries I have visited, South Africa has by far the most beautiful vineyards. It is a pure delight to drive through vivid green pastures dotted with the brilliant white facades of 300-year-old Cape Dutch homesteads.
The Cape boasts the oldest geology in the winegrowing world; ancient weathered soils based on granite, sandstone and shale. So it is not surprising that South Africa produces so many outstanding wines as reflected in the increasing number of trophies that its producers carry home from international competitions. If you plan to visit South Africa you will find many superb vineyards not far away from Cape Town in Western Cape Province. White wine grapes tend to thrive in cooler climates but in hot South Africa, they thrive in warm sunshine on the slopes thanks to the Benguela current which brings cooler air up from Antarctica. South Africans are blessed in that they that they get gentle rainfall in winter and lovely warm sunshine in summer. Their grapes ripen wonderfully well.
I come back to the soil because it gives a distinctive character to the wines. It is helpful that the natural vegetation and biodiversity are part of the landscape. The superb soil and weather conditions help attract fresh capital and there are now more than 600 wellestablished wineries producing very polished wines. The most noticeable trend in recent years has been
a preference for white grapes. The soil and climate are ideal for Chenin Blanc. The maritime influence makes a huge difference because it sustains high natural acidity. It is not unusual for South African Chenin Blancs to outperform all others in international competition. They are not only wonderfully clean, crisp and pronouncedly flavoured, they offer excellent value for money.
The same conditions also suit the Chardonnays, particularly when they are aged in cask for a year or so. Colombard, another white grape which appreciates these conditions, is distinctive in style, and also excellent value for money.
During my first visit, I was immensely impressed with the wines of Ken Forrester, one of the first South African vintners to gain an international reputation. He has encouraged other sophisticated growers to make outstanding wines.
I have to confess a personal connection with the Bouchard Finlayson winery. In the 1990s, the South African Peter Finlayson won a wine student scholarship to study in Burgundy. He was shown around by Paul Bouchard (my late friend from Beaune) whose family were one of the first to become established as wine merchants there in 1751.
Back at home, Finlayson found the ideal spot to plant Burgundian clones at Hemel-en-Aarde (Heaven and Earth) and went into partnership with Bouchard.
Andrew Hagen/Shutterstock
I am also a Pinot Noir fan and have tasted some of the very best produced in the world. I have no qualms in suggesting that Peter’s best Pinot wines are up there with them. He is a meticulous winemaker and if you want to give yourself a real treat, look out for his Pinot Noir. Better still go and see his vineyard.
There are so many other truly fine South African wines and the good news is that they are sold at sensible prices. I consider South Africa equal to Chile when it comes to value for money.
What is so pleasing is to find that so many growers are taking the time and trouble at each stage of the winemaking process. Inevitably some plots of land have a touch more class than others but the overall standard of winemaking is very high indeed.
Coming back to Earth from Heaven I press you not to overlook Pinotage, a cross of Pinot Noir with Cinsaut, which produces fresh and characterful wines which some commentators have described as South Africa’s answer to Beaujolais. If you are in discovery mode and have not already done so, I recommend opening a bottle on a warm summer evening.
For far too long, the South African wine industry was blighted by the domestic political situation. Those days seem to be over and there really is a range of characterful world-class wines at all price points waiting to be discovered.
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THE BIG ISSUES
Mark Newton-Clarke MAVetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons
Here we go, then, a general election. All might have been decided by the time you read this edition and we will see how the next government deals with the issues of the day. And there are some big ones; health, housing, education, national security and immigration. I might put animal welfare on the list along with disease surveillance, two areas that need constant effort. At least there has been one very significant development, that of a ban on the export of live animals for fattening or slaughter, which was granted Royal Assent on 20th May. No longer can young animals be subjected to arduous journeys across land and sea to European countries where welfare standards may be inferior to ours. The Bill received cross-party support and managed to get over the line just before the dissolution of Parliament in preparation for the election. Not as though the matter attracted much media interest, a pity as people are increasingly concerned about how their food is produced and how farm animals are treated. Forty years ago, when I was a vet student, Sturminster Newton calf market was the biggest in the UK. Thousands of baby calves were bussed in from all over the country for the Monday auction and then the poor things were loaded up again for another gruelling trip, often abroad. A permanent end to this trade should be celebrated by all of us and hopefully, our European neighbours will follow suit, even though the UK ban on live animal exports was made possible only because of Brexit.
Another issue which has slipped off the media radar is avian influenza or bird ‘flu. This worldwide problem is not being consistently tackled, with some countries using vaccines to protect commercial flocks and others using a mass-cull policy. Calls to develop a vaccine that protects wild birds, which obviously act as the main reservoir for the virus, have been too few and far between. It’s not just a focus on commercial interests that’s slowing down progress, the practicalities of effectively vaccinating millions of wild birds are obviously very challenging. What’s more, influenza viruses all like to mutate like crazy, potentially limiting any vaccine’s effectiveness over time. Research and resources need to be pooled and action taken! How many times have you heard that?
So, there’s good news on the bird ‘flu front…and
bad news! What do you want first? Let’s get the bad news over with; the most pathogenic strain (H5N1) has been found infecting dairy cattle in North America. Infected herds have been identified in many states although the true number of infected animals may well be much higher than currently known.
In cattle, bird ‘flu doesn’t cause the usual symptoms you might expect from an influenza virus – it targets the udder and affects the quality and quantity of milk produced. The milk from dairy cows is obviously destined for human consumption and although bird ‘flu is not well adapted to infect humans, it can clearly jump species barriers. Bird ‘flu cases in other mammals (including humans) have been recorded and thought to be due to ingestion of heavily infected dead birds. How the cows in America got it, we don’t know for sure and we’re not likely to find out any time soon.
In the UK, the State Veterinary Service has the power to investigate animal disease outbreaks (e.g. foot and mouth disease) by entering farms and taking whatever samples are needed, stopping all animal movements and even ordering the slaughter of all livestock animals on the farm. In the USA, the situation is very different and no equivalent powers exist, making any investigation into animal disease much more difficult. At least mandatory testing of dairy cows crossing state lines has now been introduced as a federal order and this will give a better picture of the situation.
So what’s the good news? Well, worldwide surveillance of animal diseases that can potentially infect humans (zoonoses) is much better than before the Covid pandemic and so is vaccine technology. Avian influenza is still very much a bird-adapted virus and current thinking is it will probably stay that way. However, there is no room for complacency and constant vigilance is required, needing a coordinated worldwide effort.
Just another reason to keep diplomatic and academic channels open between countries despite conflicts. Clearly easier said than done and flying pigs might come to mind. Let’s hope not as if avian ‘flu combines with swine ‘flu, we really will need all the international cooperation that can be mustered.
newtonclarkevet.com
EQUINE SARCOIDS
The eminent veterinary surgeon Geoff Lane, who was at Bristol University for many years, once told a client: ‘Madam, they are not warts! They are skin cancers!’ And so, many years later we are still battling with equine sarcoid skin tumours.
Widely misunderstood and underestimated, these tumours come in many forms, can stay latent for years and can also transform into malignant cancers. However, unlike melanomata (usually seen in greys), they do not spread to the internal organs. I am often asked whether they are inherited or if there is a genetic tendency: the answer is yes, very likely so. There is a class of cells called
equine leucocyte antigens (ELAs) and ELA-typing is thought to predict the likelihood of sarcoids appearing.
Sarcoids come in many forms, some looking quite benign, which lulls owners into a false sense of security. Some sarcoids can remain stable for long periods but can also suddenly enlarge without warning. Any trauma to a sarcoid can trigger more aggressive behaviour. Conversely, occasionally sarcoids can regress spontaneously and this means unfortunately that the word on the yard is that they can just go away and thus not to worry about them.
Sarcoids are thought to be caused by infection with
bovine papilloma viruses. The route of transmission is commonly by biting flies, which is why we so often see sarcoids on the inside upper thighs by the big veins and on the face. Other common sites are the sheath, mammary glands and pectorals. However, they can pop up anywhere! In addition, places of old injury, including surgical sites, can have sarcoid virus invasion. The pathologists like to classify them into six categories and this helps with treatment protocols and assessment of degrees of severity: Occult sarcoids – these are flat and like a large ringworm lesion. They can sit there for years and then suddenly erupt
into aggressive growths. Nodular sarcoids – these are round, lumpy nodules under the skin. They can appear singularly or in clusters. They look innocent but they are certainly not. Verrucous sarcoids – these are rough, thickened and wart-like growths. Fibroblastic sarcoids – these are lumpy and ulcerated growths and can resemble ‘proud flesh’. Mixed sarcoids – these are really in transformation from one type to another. Malignant sarcoids – these are the end stage of transformation and this is often when the vet’s opinion is sort!
Treatments for these tumours vary and each vet will have their favourite regime for the different types and sites. I would strongly counsel against benign neglect in the hope that the growth will go away.
Single, pedunculated ones can be ligated quite successfully and cheaply on many occasions. Vets frequently use lamb elastrator rings. Surgical removal by traditional blades with wide margins or alternatively lasers is frequently successful. However, recurrence at the site or the appearance of new lesions months or even years later is all too common. Electrochemotherapy under general anaesthetic has also been used with good levels of success. For sarcoids around the eye, this is often a good option alongside radiotherapy or BCG vaccine injected directly. Cryotherapy using liquid nitrogen is also another treatment option for many sarcoids which can be resorted to with good levels of success.
Topical chemotherapy with Professor Knottenbelt’s cream is widely used nowadays for all types of sarcoids with the exception of periocular ones. Several applications are required necessitating many vet visits, and often the horse requires sedation particularly as the treatment course progresses.
Sarcoids can of course affect the horse’s performance, cause aggravation and distress from flies in summer, rugging problems, infection from ulcerated lesions and occasionally severe debilitation and anaemia. Finally, the effects may be so severe, particularly in a horse with multiple lesions, that the horse has to be euthanased on humane grounds.
The take-home message here is if your horse has any hairless skin lesion appear anywhere on its body, it is best to consult with your vet whether the lesion is in fact a sarcoid and prepare to be proactive in the appropriate treatment of it early before its progression into a more aggressive form of skin tumour cancer.
kingstonvets.co.uk
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SMOOTH MOVE
Sarah Hitch, The Sanctuary Beauty Rooms
Starting the process of removing unwanted body hair with laser hair removal can seem like a big decision but the sooner you get started the sooner you will start seeing amazing results. The evolution of how much body hair we want and where we do or don’t want it, has evolved over time and varies between cultures. If your preference is for smooth legs, hairless armpits or to just avoid that 5 o’clock shadow, it’s smart to investigate laser hair removal whether you are male or female.
Laser hair removal has become a popular alternative to shaving, waxing, plucking, threading and chemical hair removal in the last decade for good reason. It’s a long-term solution that’s more convenient than waxing, safer than chemicals that dissolve hair and less time-consuming than shaving every few days. If you are thinking about getting rid of your unwanted hair permanently, you should definitely get familiar with this treatment. As well as obvious areas such as legs, bikini line, chest and back, it can
also be used to control areas such as mono brows, beard lines, navel hair and many more.
As the name suggests a specially designed laser is used to remove unwanted hair by damaging follicles and disabling them from producing more hair. The laser produces pulsed energy, which is able to target the hair follicle due to its contrasting colour to the surrounding skin. The number of laser hair removal sessions required will depend on the colour and coarseness of your hair, hormonal influences and the area of your body. The average number of sessions that it takes to eliminate the vast majority of unwanted hair is five, each spaced five weeks apart. Unlike shaving or waxing, the probability of irritation at the treatment site is very minimal and using lasers will help prevent ingrown hairs and razor bumps.
The best time to get started with laser is during a stretch of time when you are not planning to actively tan the areas being treated. This is because there needs to be a contrast between the hair colour and skin tone
and a tan will minimise the contrast so the laser struggles to ‘find ’ the hair follicle. You shave the area 24 hrs before then, during treatment, cooling gel is applied to the area and the laser headpiece will be worked over the skin. You will experience warm pinpricks like an elastic band being snapped against your skin. The discomfort is short-lived and minimal and will feel easier with each treatment. After each treatment, the results will get progressively better with the hair thinning and taking longer to re-grow. Laser hair removal is a wise investment in time and money for anyone who seeks a permanent solution for hair removal. An annual maintenance treatment is recommended to deal with any stubborn or newly created hairs but apart from that there is nothing to do but enjoy a new world of smooth!
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Art of Confidence
Movement Practices and Wellness Be your body and mind’s best by attending to posture Pilates on the Reformer Move, and feel better
Beautiful studio location at Unit 3, West Down Farm, Corton Denham, Sherborne DT9 4LG
Contact Emma Rhys Thomas 07928 291192 or email quantockpilates@gmail.com
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As the days grow longer and the temperature rises, the pressure to attain the elusive ‘summer body’ begins to permeate our lives. The concept suggests that our bodies must be sculpted to a specific, often unattainable standard to be deemed acceptable for summer activities. This notion is not only absurd but also detrimental to our mental and physical health.
The idea of a ‘summer body’ is a modern invention, driven by industries that capitalise on our insecurities. From fitness regimes to diet plans, these industries profit enormously by perpetuating the myth that we
need to change our bodies to fit a seasonal mould. This myth implies that our natural bodies, as they are, are not good enough and that only by transforming ourselves can we be truly happy and accepted.
This is not true. All bodies are summer bodies. Your body, exactly as it is now, is perfect for summer. It is ready for the beach, the pool, the park and every summer activity you can imagine. The constant push to alter our bodies with the seasons only reinforces the damaging belief that our worth is tied to our appearance. It also fosters a negative relationship with food, exercise and self-image.
Veronika Zelenina/Shutterstock
"Breaking free from this cycle starts with a shift in perspective. Instead of focusing on changing our bodies, we should focus on loving them"
The pursuit of a ‘summer body’ often leads to extreme and unhealthy behaviours. Crash diets, excessive exercise and the use of harmful supplements can cause more harm than good. These practices can lead to physical issues such as nutrient deficiencies, muscle loss and fatigue, as well as mental health problems including anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia.
The quote, ‘In a society that profits from your selfdoubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act’ encapsulates the essence of this issue. Society wants us to believe that we are not enough as we are. By constantly bombarding us with images of the ‘ideal’ body, they create a sense of inadequacy that can only be remedied by purchasing their products. This cycle of self-doubt and consumption is lucrative for them but harmful to us.
Breaking free from this cycle starts with a shift in perspective. Instead of focusing on changing our bodies, we should focus on loving them. Our bodies are incredible; they allow us to experience life in all its richness. They enable us to breathe, experience life through our senses, dance and embrace our loved ones. Every stretch mark, scar and curve is a testament to the life we have lived and the experiences we have had. By appreciating our bodies for what they can do, rather than how they look, we can cultivate a healthier and more positive self-image. This mindset not only promotes better mental health but also encourages us to treat our bodies with the respect and care they deserve. Eating nourishing foods, engaging in enjoyable physical activities and taking time to rest and recover become acts of self-love rather than punishment.
This summer, let’s reject the toxic notion of the ‘summer body’ and embrace the beauty of our natural forms. Let’s celebrate diversity and recognise that there is no single ideal body type. By doing so, we can create a more inclusive and compassionate society where everyone feels valued and accepted.
Remember, your worth is not defined by your appearance. You are enough, just as you are. Every body is a summer body and every moment is an opportunity to love yourself a little more. In a world that profits from your self-doubt, choosing self-love is indeed a rebellious act and it’s one worth committing to.
If your mental health is affecting your daily functioning, please speak to a GP or visit dorsetmind.uk for resources and signposting. In a crisis, please visit A&E, call 999, or call The Samaritans on 116 123.
BE LIKE THE TREE
Emma Rhys Thomas, Instructor, Art of Confidence
There is much to learn from nature, from the natural world, plant and animal life. We are but a small part, albeit with the greatest impact. As a species we are infinitely curious, seeking to be the best version of ourselves, likely to analyse, research and question how, what and why we and our world have come to be. We seek evidence for all things. So vast and complex is the knowledge and thinking that has gone before, that we look for evidence before ever taking a leap of faith and believing. We have lost confidence in feeling. Some things could be simplified. Looking to nature for clues may help our propensity to overthink before moving, being or believing.
The moving body heals. If a small amount of our attention is directed towards how we move better and ‘listening’ to responses, the resulting greater freedom of movement can be uplifting.
All movement instructors use analogies, useful as a simplification of what is physiologically, biologically and chemically happening throughout the body. They can be
the shorthand to learning and understanding that our brains appreciate. Having an arsenal of different ways to cue is an effective way to get across our teachings to many an individual client. Concerning upright postures and dynamic movements, and for the benefit of both, how we carry ourselves, our attitudes, our daily functioning and workouts in the studio can all be likened to the tree, the growing tree in particular. We should be like the tree.
Perhaps, if asked to be like a tree, a very static, rigid pose might be adopted (the child playing musical statues). Attempting to ‘hold’ or ‘fix’ the body in this way creates tensions which devitalise the body and so fail to attain the desired intent, i.e. to communicate and be ready for action. This rigidity is removed if thinking of the living, growing tree. It is always growing; upwards and downwards, even laterally. It is expanding in all directions, extending from the very tip to thickening and strengthening its branches and trunk, to nurturing itself through a broadening root system below the ground. A constant expansion and extension. The
body’s extremities, namely the hands and the feet in addition to the crown of the head and the tailbone, are important reference points when moving. All six points might be thought of to be constantly expanding away from each other and extending their reach, creating a constantly changing dimension. Just like the tree. The body is now primed for effective movement, waking up the internal network of fascial communication, as evidenced through research…
‘The most effective contraction is made when the muscle concerned is being slightly stretched to begin with. A muscle that is already slightly stretched is, by its nature, already slightly pulling against the stretch, i.e. it is beginning to pull in the direction of its contraction. This slight stretch and the muscle’s reflex reaction to being stretched, take up the slack! Making it lively and ready for work. Then every bit of contraction it can do within itself becomes effective. It is difficult for a very slack muscle to contract itself enough to be ready to achieve anything.’
(Elizabeth Langford, Mind and Muscle)
Just thinking of being like the tree simplifies the science. We can trust the body to self-regulate and the brain learns what it feels like.
The rule of opposites suggests movements in one direction will have a counterbalance and flow of energy in other directions. The space between polarised opposites is not without a sense of movement. Staying connected to what supports the body, specifically the feet in contact with the ground, is a stabilising force provided by contraflow. ‘The tree reaches for the sun and roots itself to earth’. Such movement principles and more are taught in the INSKN method of moving, amongst others.
And then the wind blows! The analogy of the tree withstanding the force of the wind is akin to resistance training in movement. Pilates does this. Working on the large resistance training equipment in Pilates, such as the Stability chair, the Tower and the Reformer, challenges the body to a greater extent. ‘Be like a tree in the wind.’ The branches move. Our limbs move. By simplifying it further, taking the wind in isolation, we might lean into that wind in order to stabilise. By adding more resistance or increasing the pace of long levers of the arms and legs we challenge that stability and through it all, we must find strength to ground ourselves, as the tree must. A straightforward primary stability versus mobility contest – a mindfulness using the vestibular and proprioceptive senses.
The predictable, systematic, biological laws of nature have quickly provided the analogy we can use to better understand how we ourselves move but there is more. With the right environment, all the needs of the tree can be met. Just by looking at the tree, the root system is unfathomable. This can be analogical to looking at each one of us and judging only what lies above the surface. Fat or thin, however, we present, the strength or weakness of our foundations cannot be determined but we will thrive in good environments.
Trust in Mother Nature. Hug trees and magic happens. The happy hormones: endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine flood in – we can read the scientific papers to know this. However, imagining the experience is the analogy that can bring swift benefits and understanding as we pursue not only our movement and fitness goals but also our search for happiness.
Good posture and the moving body, directly relating to our emotional brain, is our confidence and vitality.
quantockpilates.com
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Part VI: Five Months and a Mural
After 5 months as an inpatient, I asked if I could continue my treatment as an outpatient. It wasn’t commonplace to drive yourself on a 2-hour round trip for such gruelling treatment but after 150 nights in a hospital bed, away from my family, I needed to go home.
For the following few months, I lived a relatively normal life again. The sun shone, I walked through fields, sat on the sofa with my kids, ate amazing homecooked food from Emil and saw friends. And as the final stages of my treatment approached, I started counting down the days of this ordeal. My chemotherapy was broken up into blocks. Some came with side effects, some felt like they didn’t even touch the sides. I was warned that the penultimate round was a 6-week block that would be particularly gruelling and it was suggested I might want to consider being an inpatient again. It was a repeat of the very first round I’d had – the one that had absolutely floored me. But I was so sure that this time it would be different. Back then the tumour in my chest was the size of two fists and I was close to dead. I was stronger now. I was used to having chemo. I’d be fine. So, I stuck to my guns and insisted on being an outpatient for the 6 weeks of brutality.
I lasted about 5 days. As warned, it was intensely gruelling and I crumbled. My mouth was so sore I couldn’t swallow, every bone ached so acutely it was painful to move and it was painful to stay still, my teeth hurt, my head banged, my skin was sensitive to the touch, I threw up often, I couldn’t sleep but wired on steroids I couldn’t focus either. I felt like I’d been left behind at a DIY rave long after it had ended. Then my intestines became so inflamed I couldn’t eat more than a mouthful of banana.
I struggled to get up the stairs, to dress myself, even the TV was too intense… try watching The Bear or At Home with the Tyson’s on steroids. More than once my 15-year-old son found me lying on the bathroom floor, unable to get up, and carried me back to bed.
Accepting I wasn’t going to finish as strong as I’d imagined I called ward 9 and after some time in A & E was readmitted to hospital. I spent the next 6 weeks on the maximum dose of painkillers allowed, fighting infections and side effects until I’d bounced back enough to be discharged again.
A week later I started my final 5-day block of treatment as an outpatient. I’d imagined myself skipping into hospital for these, on the most exciting
Tim UR/Shutterstock
countdown ever, knowing I’d almost done it. But I limped across that finish line, more broken than I thought possible. Every one of those last 5 days got harder and harder to get up for. I cried on the way to the ward. And even on the day of my very final treatment, I struggled to make it in.
I sat in the treatment room with Richard, a man in his 70s having his first round of chemo. He was with his wife and I was with Emil. He’d been told his cancer was terminal – his chemo was just going to give him a little more time. As doctors and nurses came in to congratulate me and tell me that in the nicest possible way, they hoped they never saw me again, I was acutely aware of Richard sitting opposite me. I tried to play it all down.
Richard’s wife talked about positive thinking and diet. She pulled out a book called Starving Cancer. It was the same book we’d been given when I was first diagnosed. Richard’s wife talked about people healing themselves by not eating sugar and as she did Richard tucked into an Eccles cake and gave me a little smile. His wife paused and said, ‘Apart from the odd treat of course.’ I recognised the desperation in his wife. Heartbroken and not ready to let go, determined to fight and to believe. And why shouldn’t she? It’s crushing to be told your life partner isn’t going to be with you for much longer. To let go of those plans, the future you’d imagined, to accept that there will be emptiness where once there was life is devastating. ‘We just want you to live as well as you can for as long as you can,’ she added. As painful as it is, acceptance allows the dying to do so peacefully and without guilt that there was more they could have done. With a focus on comfort and care, there is kindness in letting go. And that’s what I saw happening opposite me. It felt poignant to be sharing
my final treatment with Richard.
I suddenly felt sleepy, Richard saw that and gently told his wife to leave the conversation for now. I woke a little later as Richard’s treatment was finishing. He looked over to me and smiled, ‘Onwards and upwards to you.’
‘And all of my best wishes to you.’ I replied. Richard’s humility will stay with me forever. And once he’d gone, I cried for him, for his wife, for everyone I’d met on my journey. I cried for us all…a collective cry.
Then my pump beeped and it was time for me to leave. I said goodbye to the people who had been saving my life for the last 10 months and went home.
Later I spoke to my dear friend Neil about not knowing what to do next with my life. I felt like I had been pulled right back to the start line. He nodded and said, ‘But it’s a lot better than being at the finish line.’ I think about this often. It’s true that my cancer left me stripped of many things. But they were all external entities, things I could get back over time and things that were never really a true measure of who I was. What I gained was a deeper awareness of myself and a second chance at life connected to the inner me. Nearly dying taught me how to live, how to look within for guidance and how to trust in life… on life’s terms, with acceptance and humility for whatever that turns out to be. Of course, I have days when I lose sight of this and I fear for my future or get stressed, overthink and let old habits slip in. But I now know how to manage all of that, with my trusted tool kit and my absolute belief that if life throws me lemons again, the first thing I’ll do is throw them back.
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Exceptional Live-In Care
We are a local care agency, based in North Dorset specialising in providing support for those who need help in order to continue living in their own homes. We provide affordable, tailor-made respite or permanent care, which fully takes into account your needs and wishes. If you’d like to know more about how we can help you or a family member, without any obligation, please call Arabella on:
BENEFITS OF GROUP EXERCISE
Fitness Team, Oxley Sports Centre
Many of us might love the idea of going to the gym and working out for long periods, trying their best to achieve their goals, but how many people have the self-motivation to do this consistently? Group exercise has many benefits to the individual as well as others attending that particular class. You don’t need to think of a workout for yourself, you have already committed by booking on – all you need to do is get here on time…and bring a water bottle!
Motivation
Everyone can always do with a little more motivation, no matter how well you think you do alone. As soon as you step into that class, the adrenaline will kick in and you will feel more determined than ever before. The catchy music, fast-paced movements and inspiring words from the instructor will give you endless amounts of energy. Alternatively, the relaxing, slow pace of yoga and Pilates will help ease the daily stresses. Both will enhance your performance as you put 100% effort into everything you do and workout as efficiently as you can.
Structure
You no longer need to think of a workout by yourself, the instructor has already done the hard part for you. Having a structure in place is essential if you want to see results and reach your goals. Combining group exercise sessions into your weekly routine will help you build strength, lose weight and tone up your body.
Commitment
Similarly to personal training, by booking onto the class you are committing yourself to turning up, especially if you pay as you go and must pay at the time of booking. This will further encourage you to get up, switch off the TV, get out and attend your group exercise class which you are so looking forward to.
Fun
Being in a social environment is why many people prefer group exercise to lone gym sessions. Being surrounded by motivational music, a variety of exercises, fun and exciting equipment and like-minded people makes group exercise so enjoyable. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people with similar interests as you. This will encourage you to try different classes together and may also bring out that competitive side that you never knew you had.
No matter what group exercise session you attend, you will always have support from the instructor as well as fellow participants. Everyone knows what it’s like to walk into a new class for the first time. Instructors are there to guide and assist you throughout your entire session. There are so many classes available locally, from calm and restorative yoga to loud, upbeat studio cycling. Why not find one that suits you and make those ideas a reality!
oxleysc.com
Image: Mollie Clothier
KEEP
IT FUN!
Craig Hardaker BSc (Hons), Communifit
July means one thing… The Communifit Colour Run! A fun and sociable 5km walk, run or roll around the scenic Leweston School grounds with four environmentally friendly powder-paint stations to navigate along the way. Prepare to get colourful! This event epitomises our philosophy – a philosophy based on fun, fitness and a feeling of well-being through
events tailored for all ages and abilities. Very rarely will you enter a sporting event that involves such a wide range of members of the local community – the colour run is that rare event! Fitness doesn’t have to be boring, hard work or dull – our Colour Run is fun, energising and of course - colourful! Here are some other ways of bringing some fun into your weekly fitness routine:
Join a group
We are blessed here in Sherborne to have so many amazing health and fitness providers giving us the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities. Exercising with others can be much more fun than doing it solo. Groups give us a sense of purpose, belonging and community. Forming friendships and training together can create a superb motivational
climate, as well as increasing the fun factor!
Self-discipline (attend regularly!)
Attending a group class regularly means you are more likely to improve your health and well-being. When you start seeing results both physically and psychologically, you will feel more positive and be left wanting more. It is such an amazing feeling knowing your efforts are turning into positive results. This can only be achieved however if you discipline yourself to attend regularly
Listen to music
Playing music is a great motivational tool. Often in our classes, we have members sing, dance and smile to the music we play. This can bring back happy memories and provide us with both a feel-good factor and an extra boost of energy. Music can also be a great distraction to what we are actually doing (i.e. when the going gets tough) and you’ll notice time appears to move more quickly allowing us to achieve more.
Challenge yourself
Setting yourself a personal goal or group challenge helps add that bit of light-hearted competition. This could be running a set distance in the quickest time possible, holding a plank for as long as you can or seeing how fast you can swim a length of the swimming pool. Many people like to sign up for an event that they can then work and build towards. Challenging ourselves can be an enjoyable experience and once completed, incredibly rewarding.
Mix things up
Try something new! As previously mentioned, we have a wide range of fabulous services on offer in Sherborne. Mixing up our routine and trying something new can re-energise our passion and excitement towards health and fitness, whilst making it more fun and enjoyable in the process.
Making exercise fun can only be beneficial in helping us achieve our health and fitness objectives and there are many ways to do it. Exercise shouldn’t be seen as a chore and if we can shift our mindset, exercise can be a really enjoyable experience. Make some slight adjustments to your weekly routine and let’s make exercise fun! See you at the Colour Run! communifit.co.uk
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• Fully trained staff At Evergreens Lodge, we focus on you as an individual to make the transition into the home as easy possible
We are purpose-built residential care home situated in the vibrant market town of Sturminster Newton in North Dorset,
• Day care, respite care and permanent residency are all available
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• Well trained, caring and committed staff
Nazareth Lodge is a privately owned care home for 24 residents where you will find everything you would expect and wish for in a residential home.
Continuous & varied programme of outings and activities
Dr Hay-Ming Blunt, Private GP, Winterbourne Hospital
Knowing what to ask a GP can often be difficult. We know that when something is wrong and you are just looking for some answers, it can be incredibly worrying. I have been a specialist GP for decades and I hope that in sharing some suggestions it will help you and your loved ones get the most out of their GP appointments.
A GP is normally the first doctor you will see with a non-emergency medical problem. This might be anything from a rash on your skin or a niggling pain that just won’t go away. They are highly skilled clinicians with years of experience across a broad range of specialities. Their job is not just to diagnose your problem but to help you get onto the right course of treatment. Many have extensive knowledge in addition to their focus on general medicine. I have training in orthopaedics, gynaecology, rheumatology, emergency medicine and elderly care. This gives us the knowledge and skills to recognise symptoms and conditions in a wider context, guiding you towards a treatment pathway specially designed to meet your needs.
GPs are best placed to assess and investigate a wide range of signs and symptoms, often diagnosing
and managing the majority of patient complaints. Moreover, they can refer you for specialist care should it be required. Whether it’s a test or scan or a follow-up consultation with a specialist consultant, booking to see a GP gives you the peace of mind that your health and well-being are taken care of from the start.
Demand for GP services is still high and the British Medical Association report that 90% of patient contacts are undertaken in a primary care environment. A GP is an integral part of the treatment journey. Making an appointment to see one when you notice an unexplained change in your health can get you on the right track to solving the problem.
So, when you are thinking about going to see your GP what should you do?
My top tips:
1 Start with the most important problem: GPs like me want to know about you and your symptoms. Starting with the main reason you have booked an appointment helps us get a better picture of what might be wrong faster. You may have another problem you wish to discuss but start with the most important.
2 Be as detailed as possible: Knowing how long you have had symptoms or a problem is often one of the best indicators of what might be causing your problem. Before your appointment, try and write down a timeline of when you first noticed something was wrong, what you were doing at the time and any changes in the symptoms. The more we know the more we can rule out!
3 Know your history: Some people have a higher chance of developing conditions or are more susceptible to certain health issues because of their own or family members’ medical history. Being aware of and being able to tell your GP about any heart, joint or cancer issues that run in your family can make a massive difference when getting a diagnosis. It helps us get to the core of your problem quicker.
4 Never be afraid to ask: A GP is not only there to help diagnose your problem. We are there to explain and advise you on the best course of action to resolve your issue. Don’t be afraid to ask us to explain what a certain treatment or condition is. We want you to be equipped with all the facts from
the start. In some cases, small adjustments to the amount of exercise or the food you eat can improve even the most complex of complaints.
5 Don’t be embarrassed: When coming to your appointment, try not to be nervous or embarrassed. We are here to help you understand your symptoms. If it is a sensitive issue that you feel worried about discussing, your GP will be able to guide the conversation with their own questions to make you more comfortable. The best thing to do is be as descriptive as you can about where it is and what you think is wrong. They will not be shocked by anything you tell them – honestly!
Following these steps can help you to get the most out of your appointment. This guidance has come from decades of experience meeting and treating thousands of patients. A GP is not always a onestop shop but we are specialist medical professionals, committed to helping you to get the treatment and answers you need. circlehealthgroup.co.uk/winterbourne
BELINDA ROBERTS RCST
CRANIOSACRAL THERAPIST in Bruton and Pen Selwood 07702 681264 www.belinda-roberts.co.uk
Craniosacral Therapy is a deeply restorative form of treatment for the body, mind and soul. It is a heartcentred holistic approach to healing and suitable for all ages from newborn babies to the elderly.
Sandra Miller BSc, MSc, BCNH Dip, FDN-P Functional Medicine Practitioner
Diet and lifestyle coaching: a powerful path to healing and weight management
Scan to contact me or find out more www.wholistichealth.co.uk
Jules Sanders MCSP HCPC
Physiotherapist
Mobile Physiotherapy care in the comfort of your own home
Chartered Physiotherapist with over 40 years experience working for the NHS as well as private and domiciliary physiotherapy. I specialise in rehabilitation, orthopaedics, mobility issues, home assessment, post-op and post-trauma care etc.
Covering North Dorset and South Somerset regions.
Please call to discuss your needs or to book an appointment T 01963 371163 M 07866 310 045 E julessanders2626@gmail.com
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
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The Old Vicarage offers residential care for both permanent and respite stays. Set in tranquil landscaped gardens with stunning views, our home has a warm and friendly atmosphere. The home has won more than 30 national and regional awards for its exceptional care.
We currently have both permanent and respite vacancies. Call us today to book a viewing and meet our amazing team. Call us on 01935 316800 or visit healthcarehomes.co.uk
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You don’t need to wait for weeks to see your GP. At Winterbourne Hospital, your private GP will take a proactive and complete approach to your health, providing you with quality, ongoing medical care.
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NAVIGATING THE INITIAL CHALLENGES OF FINANCIAL PLANNING
Mark Salter CFP, Chartered FCSI, Fort Financial Planning
Sometimes the hardest part of the financial planning process and becoming financially wellorganised is getting started!
Being financially well-organised is crucial for managing money more effectively. Making smart financial decisions is only possible when all the relevant information is available. However, many people find it challenging to begin this process and therefore end up doing nothing.
’Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing what to do is the worst kind of suffering.’
This speaks to the pain brought on by indecision and not knowing where you stand. When it comes to financial decisions, being in a state of ‘I don’t really know’ is the worst.
In this article, we explore why and how you can overcome these hurdles and prepare yourself to start the financial planning process.
• Lack of enthusiasm – Setting aside time to organise financial documents isn’t exciting and often feels like a chore. Many people put this off and bury their heads in the sand. Acknowledge that the initial effort will pay off in reduced stress and better financial decisions.
• Tracking spending – People will avoid tracking every pound spent, making it hard to create a budget or reach financial goals. They often refuse to even look at
their bank accounts as they don’t want to know what they are spending. Start by recording all expenses – no matter how small. Use apps or spreadsheets to monitor cash flow.
• Living within your means – Creating and sticking to a budget seems daunting. After tracking spending for a few months, make a budget that covers fixed expenses, savings goals and short-term needs. Closely examining your income, expenses, savings and investments and identifying patterns and trends will help you gain a deeper understanding of your financial health.
• Communication – Financial organisation shouldn’t be a solo effort. Regularly communicate with your partners about financial matters. Keep everyone informed and aligned.
While initial steps may seem daunting, remember that financial organisation leads to knowing you’ll be ok – in all circumstances – enabling you to get on with enjoying your lives. A financial planner will always start a relationship with new clients by getting them financially well-organised. Financial planning should make you feel empowered – empowered to make educated decisions, take charge of your life and move forward with confidence.
ffp.org.uk
We live in a complex world. At FFP we aim to remove complexity, replacing it with simplicity and clarity so that our clients can enjoy their lives without worry
Telephone: 01935 813322
Email: info@ffp.org.uk
01935 815 008 | huntsaccountants.co.uk
Storing data on computers efficiently and securely requires a strategic approach to ensure data integrity and accessibility. In today’s digital age, data is invaluable and its loss can be devastating. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand the various storage options and the importance of keeping data in more than one place.
The first line of storage for most computer users is the internal hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD). Hard drives (HDDs) are traditional storage devices known for their large capacity and affordability. They store data on spinning disks and are suitable for storing vast amounts of data, such as photos, videos and documents.
SSDs on the other hand, are faster and more reliable than HDDs. They use flash memory to store data, which allows for quicker read and write speeds. Although they are generally more expensive per gigabyte than HDDs, their performance benefits make them ideal for operating systems, software applications and frequently accessed files.
USB flash drives (or memory sticks) are great for transporting data when you don’t want to carry an HDD around because they are very small and can also carry quite a lot of data these days. We wouldn’t recommend moving data from your device onto a USB flash drive as sometimes these can become corrupt due to the number of times they are plugged and unplugged from devices.
External hard drives are excellent options for secondary storage. These portable devices can be connected to computers via USB, Thunderbolt or other interfaces. They provide a convenient way to back up important files and can be easily transported, offering an additional layer of data protection.
External storage devices come in various sizes and
STORING DATA AND BACKUP
James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers
capacities, allowing users to choose the one that best suits their needs. Regularly backing up data to an external drive ensures that there is a copy available in case the primary storage fails or becomes corrupted.
Cloud storage has become increasingly popular due to its convenience and accessibility. Services like Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive allow users to store their data on remote servers managed by the service and these providers often store data in multiple data centres, ensuring that even if one server fails, your data remains safe. This data can then be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making it ideal for users who need to access their files on multiple devices.
Storing data in more than one place is essential. Implementing a 3-2-1 backup strategy is a widely recommended approach. This strategy involves having three total copies of your data, two of which are stored on different types of media (such as the internal PC hard drive and an external hard drive) and one copy stored offsite, like in the cloud.
By following the 3-2-1 rule, you significantly reduce the risk of data loss due to hardware failure, theft or natural disasters. Regularly scheduled backups ensure that your data is consistently updated.
Choosing the right storage solutions and backup strategies is crucial for protecting your data. Utilising internal and external hard drives or SSDs, along with cloud storage, ensures that your data is accessible and safe. By adhering to a robust backup strategy, such as the 3-2-1 rule, you can safeguard your personal and precious data such as photos, against potential data loss providing peace of mind in an increasingly digital world.
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THE OWL
Jenny Campbell, Sherborne Scribblers
When Marcella Biagoni first saw Den Ugle she was inclined to reject it. The painting had been brought into her London gallery by Rupert Jamieson, a local antiques dealer with whom she occasionally did business.
‘I don’t speak German,’ she said after Rupert had unpacked the picture and propped it up on a small sofa in her office.
‘It’s not German, my darling,’ he said. ‘It’s Norwegian and it means The Owl.’
Marcella moved closer to it, frowning as she studied the admittedly beautiful way in which the artist had captured a garden scene in summer, with a man and two women sitting at a table covered with a blue and white cloth, watching three young children playing on the lawn.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘I’m damned if I can see any owl. Can you?’
Rupert shook his head and laughed. ‘To be honest, I think that’s what intrigued me about this painting when it came up for auction at the Broxley estate in Devon last month. Oh, I do love a good mystery. Don’t you?’
Marcella reached up to remove her glasses from the top of her abundant dark hair, streaked with grey, and put them on in order to peer at a name in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture.
‘And what about this Magnus Olsen? Know anything about him?’
‘Not a bean, darling. I’ve done my research, of course. But nobody at Broxley could tell me as the last member of that family had not long died and there was no record of it in any of the usual places.‘
‘Oh, hang on, Rupert. There’s a date underneath the signature. Not very clear but it looks like 1937.’ She straightened up and replaced the expensive-looking Italian glasses back on her head. ‘Bene, Caro. I trust your instincts. So, shall we say a six-month trial in my gallery on the usual terms? If I manage to sell it, you get forty per cent and if not, the owl flies straight back to you!’
‘Done!’ said Rupert. ‘I trust your instincts even more than mine, Marcella darling.’
‘By the way,’ she called after him at the door, ‘I have a regular client from the Norwegian embassy who may be able to shed more light on the artist and his missing owl.’
He turned and gave her one of his most wicked winks. ‘Hoo-Hoo, darling!’
The Norwegian cultural secretary was delighted to set aside arrangements for a meeting with the British Council in exchange for a short walk to his favourite art gallery and its delightful owner. Moreover, when Marcella showed him the painting his hitherto routine morning suddenly became even more interesting.
‘My dear Marcella, this is extraordinary! I know of Magnus Olsen. In fact, I am sure that my mother had one of his paintings at our house in the country. They were much sought after before the war but tastes in art change over the years as you will know only too well.’
‘As fickle as a Parisian hemline,’ said Marcella. ‘Up one year and down the next!’
‘Exactly so!’ agreed Henrik Sigmundsen with a broad smile. ‘Unfortunately, I seem to recall that Olsen was killed during the German occupation of Norway and I don’t know what happened to his family.’ He paused for a moment. Then, as if deliberately casting aside old memories, said firmly, ‘But I gathered that you are puzzled also by the title of this picture?’
‘So strange, don’t you think?’
‘Perhaps not to a Norwegian. We have this saying: There’s an owl in the swamp when you suspect that there is more going on underneath than appears on the surface. An owl, for example, would never be found near a swamp.’
‘So, could this be the artist telling us that there is more to Den Ugle than what appears at first sight?’
‘I’m sure of it,’ said the cultural secretary.
‘Then I will leave you to examine further while I see to our coffee.’
Usually, while waiting for her return and the tantalising aroma of best Lavazzo espresso, he would wander around the gallery to see if anything in particular caught his eye among the carefully selected and displayed 20th-century paintings by lesserknown artists. But, today, there was only one and it drew him like an artist to his canvas. He turned the picture over, to see if there was anything on the back and was momentarily disappointed to find only a row of six letters which, at first, he presumed to be a catalogue reference: CXU.LFK. Yet, nothing in Den Ugle was as it seemed and, with growing excitement, he began substituting letters backwards then called out, ‘Marcella! Forget the coffee. Pencil and paper, please.’
‘Now, write down the letters I am going to give you.’
Marcella reached for the glasses again and wrote down: ZURICH. ‘But what does it mean? Is that where the people in the picture are?’
‘No, no, my dear Marcella. Almost certainly it is where the bank is situated in which clever Magnus Olsen left his most precious belongings, before the arrival of the Germans in 1940. And 1937, I suspect, is the number of the deposit safe.’
The coffee and Marcella’s delicious Limoncello cake had never tasted better as Henrik made arrangements to speak to a colleague in the Swiss embassy regarding banks in Zurich.
Later, after his departure, she had the very happy task of calling Rupert Jamieson and telling him: ‘Scusa, caro, but I cannot sell your picture!’
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Please phone Mike Hatch on 01935 815806 or email: m.hatch1471@btinternet.com www.sherbornegoodneighbours.org
LITERARY SOCIETY PREVIEW
Jeremy Isaac, Founder of Country & Town House Magazine
FOUR SHOTS IN THE NIGHT
Henry Hemming
Istarted reading Henry Hemming’s excellent new exposé of British agents in Northern Ireland on 5th April 2024, 26 years after the signing of the historic Good Friday agreement. It was also 38 years since I had served as a British Army officer, running operations between the army and the RUC in the Falls Road area of West Belfast, scarcely aware of the undercover operations divulged in this extraordinary book, despite my weekly meetings at RUC Headquarters in Springfield Road. Hemming’s early chapters succinctly cover the
events leading to The Troubles. Northern Ireland went from being one of the safest countries in the world in the 1950s to a place where in the summer of 1969, seven people were killed within two days in Belfast and more than 1,800 families, mostly Catholic, were given just hours to clear out of their homes before they were set alight. With the violence becoming increasingly sectarian, the British Army’s peacekeeping mission in August 1969 soon began to look like a success with local Catholic communities seeing the army as a buffer between them and the RUC. Soldiers were being
fed ‘Ulster frys’, sugar buns and cups of sweet tea by the grateful locals and they were soon patrolling the streets without having to wear helmets or body armour. However, by the end of 1969, a younger and angrier faction called the Provisional IRA (PIRA) splintered away from the original organisation.
The chaos and bloodshed inflicted by PIRA throughout the early 1970s is well documented. Bloody Sunday, on 30th January 1972, acted as a clarion call for IRA recruitment. There had not been more British people killed by their own armed forces since the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819. By the end of 1972 both Catholic and Protestant paramilitary organisations were larger than ever: 501 people were killed that year, including 81 British soldiers. The Army had found itself in a Catch-22; they could only leave Northern Ireland once peace had been restored but for that to happen they themselves needed to leave.
In November 1978, Brigadier James Glover was at the Ministry of Defence as the most senior British officer working on intelligence in Northern Ireland. By then the number of IRA attacks had fallen dramatically: one Northern Ireland Secretary thought that ‘the tide has turned’, while his successor announced that the region was ‘almost permanently free [from] terrorism’. Glover was sure that they were both wrong, certain that the IRA had undergone a silent metamorphosis and that, under leaders such as Martin McGuinness, it was becoming a more disciplined organisation that would be almost impossible to penetrate and was preparing a series of sensational attacks which Glover called ‘spectaculars’.
Glover’s classified report found scant favour with the newly optimistic government but his forecast turned out to be little short of clairvoyant. In November 1978 the IRA detonated bombs in 16 towns across Northern Ireland before moving on to targets in England, murdering the British ambassador to the Hague and his valet, while in the same month, the splinter group INLA killed the Conservative politician Airey Neave. Glover was sent out to Northern Ireland in February 1979 as the new Commander Land Forces to take control of the army’s day-to-day operations with a clear idea of how to solve the conflict. More volunteers with no previous history of violence were joining the paramilitary ranks, which in turn meant that more individuals than ever knew things that could be turned into intelligence and then used to prevent future attacks and save lives. Glover wanted intelligence to become
the priority for security forces in Northern Ireland.
The August bank holiday of 1979 provided the tragic catalyst for Glover to accelerate his plans. The murder of Lord Louis Mountbatten was followed hours later by the Warrenpoint bombs, which killed 18 Parachute Regiment soldiers. These horrific events convinced Margaret Thatcher to commit fully to Glover’s intelligence-gathering plans, resulting in the formation of an elite new agent-running unit called the Force Research Unit (FRU). It was on a wintery day in 1980 that a member of the FRU first approached a nondescript unemployed man walking his dog on the outskirts of Londonderry with the greeting ‘Alright Franko’.
Four Shots in the Night follows Franko Hegarty’s journey from this first incongruous meeting to when he was found six years later by the side of a muddy lane, shot dead, a rope tied around his wrists and masking tape covering his eyes. It exposes how Hegarty became close to Martin McGuinness and was entrusted with covert IRA operations while at the same time providing information to British military intelligence and the role agents played in ending The Troubles. Each undertook the most extraordinary risks to relay critical information to their handlers, knowing that discovery would lead to a visit from the ‘Nutting Squad’ - the IRA’s assassins. Their intelligence handlers in turn had to play ‘God’ every day deciding whether the lives of their agents might be worth sacrificing in order to save countless others. The book questions why McGuinness was never prosecuted for Hegarty’s murder and poses the morally shocking question of whether he had been killed by another undercover agent code-named ‘Stakeknife’ and if so could one of two British agents working inside the IRA have been ordered to kill the other, leading one determined detective to open one of the largest murder investigations in British history.
Wednesday 24th July 6.30pm for 7pm
Henry Hemming - Four Shots in the Night
The Sherborne, Newland, Sherborne DT9 3JG
Author talk and signing. Tickets £10 (members) £12 (nonmembers), available from Winstone’s Books, Cheap Street or sherborneliterarysociety.com
Suppliers of both new and pre-loved vinyl, official t-shirts, merchandise and memorabilia. Come visit and “Try before you buy”.
The Beat & Track, The Old Shambles, South Street, Sherborne, DT9 3LN
The Weighbridge • High Street • Milborne Port • DT9 5DG www.mpfix.co.uk
01963 250788
ACROSS
1. On top of (4)
3. Plausibly (8)
9. Breathed out (7)
10. Sweetener (5)
11. Uncurled (12)
14. Fall behind (3)
16. Second planet from the sun (5)
17. 17th Greek letter (3)
18. Intricate and confusing (12)
21. Bring into a line (5)
22. Pamphlet (7)
23. The bones of the body (8)
24. Moat (anag) (4)
DOWN
1. Household implements (8)
2. Opposite one of two (5)
4. Relieve or free from (3)
5. Exemption from a rule (12)
6. Persistent problem (7)
7. Three feet length (4)
8. Ability to see the future (12)
12. Capital of Vietnam (5)
13. Impetus (8)
15. Igneous rock (7)
19. Small arm of the sea (5)
20. Pub counters (4)
22. Cry of disapproval (3)
JUNE SOLUTIONS
ALITERARY REVIEW
Charlotte Weatherley, Sherborne Literary Society
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal (Pan Macmillan, £18.99 hardcover)
Sherborne Times reader offer price of £16.99 from Winstone’s Books
t the heart of The Burial Plot is the Victorian struggle between its preferred reality and reality itself - the gothic trope of the double, with its two contesting faces. Thus, the Victorian ‘good death’ as epitomised, say, by the exquisite passing of the child Paul Dombey in Dickens’ Dombey and Son (all radiance and peace with the Maker) is, in this novel, London overflowing with its dead, the air ‘clotted’ with their smell, burial grounds foul and packed. So too, in the vulnerability and violence of the handsome and manipulative Craw, in his relationship with the main character, Bonnie Fairchild.
At the start of the story, Craw (Crawford) is managing a series of highly profitable private burial grounds. Craw profits too, conducting sham burial ceremonies and exhumations, ‘the coffins sold for firewood, the corpses thrown into a burying pit’. Crawford, arrogant and ambitious, pursues his racketeering as an assertion of his due; even when he uses Bonnie as a lure to extort money from wealthy men, she senses his motivation is anger at being ‘cut out of things’.
At night, he reads about the new cemeteries of Kensal Green and Highgate but the extent of his ambition only becomes clear when Bonnie is forced to leave London, fearing arrest for murder. Forging her a letter of recommendation as a lady’s maid, Crawford arranges for Bonnie’s removal to Endellion, home of Aubrey Montcrieff.
Endellion, with its extensive grounds, is the focus of Crawford’s attention; here, he says, could be built the greatest cemetery ever known. Fundamental to the
success of the plan is Bonnie herself but, as she will come to know, in ways that place her in great danger.
The action now centres on the household and its occupants, into which Crawford insinuates himself. Still grieving the violent death of Aubrey’s wife Josephine, the family fall quickly for Crawford’s plausible charm. Posing as Bonnie’s brother, he persuades Aubrey that a cemetery at Endellion will remake the family fortune. To Bonnie, Crawford confides other reasons for wanting to establish himself in the house: soon, by birthright, Endellion will be his.
This is gothic melodrama at its best, reminding me of Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian. Here, are all the essentials of gothic fiction: intense emotions, mystery, innocence under siege, violent power struggles; certainly, the paranoia which grew upon this reader over events in the story - did that really happen or did Bonnie just imagine it? - was addictive.
Bonnie Fairchild is a satisfying heroine to guide the reader through the story, although sometimes, I shouted epithets from the sidelines at her. In the continuum of memorable females of the gothic, Bonnie has her place but I wanted more ‘badass’ in her response to the men who would control her.
Strong nerves are needed to withstand the novel’s plot twists - and events at the end of the novel had me reaching for wine - but for readers who like their rollercoasters with drops beyond the vertical, this is a gothic thriller to satisfy.
sherborneliterarysociety.com
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
Kate Konrad, Cheap Street Church
As I write I am sat on Iona, a small island off Mull where St Columba came from Ireland in 563 with twelve friends in a coracle and founded a monastery. And so began Celtic Christianity. Now the island is visited frequently by pilgrims, some to be part of the ecumenical worshipping communities or for bird watching/nature-loving and all soaking up the beauty of the place.
All this got me thinking about holidays. After all isn’t that what the summer is about, taking a break, resting, renewing, kicking back? Some of you reading this are finishing exams and the freedom of no more revision. Teachers and support staff are hanging in there by the skin of their teeth until the end of term. Some of you who are part of the long-hours culture are desperate for a break from the long commute. However, that has been lessened for some in recent years by a commute from bedroom to office via a pile of laundry. Somehow in that though, the ability to separate work and rest at home has been lessened.
It is said that no one on their deathbed wished that they had spent more time at work! And yet those who are long-term unemployed, often sick and unable to work, feel useless and devalued. I recently bought some socks from standoutsocks.co.uk because I was struck by the number of years the founder had been looking for work. As someone with a disability, it seemed his only hope was to be an entrepreneur.
So whilst I write this at the beginning of an election campaign, by the time it is read we will have decided if we want more of the same or change. Many of us crave work-life balance but that involves saying no and finding more space than just our holidays for joy. Stand Out Socks started because a man wanted to see his brother in work. Life is short - what transformational change do you yearn for?
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