The BV magazine, Jan 23

From the heart of the Blackmore Vale

IN THIS ISSUE

Rooftops or on the farms?

Rupert Hardy, chairman of the North Dorset CPRE, takes a long look into the case for solar panels on roofs or in fields – P.6

Lessons in grief

Gordon Fong looks back at a year of loss that left his family stunned – he shares the story on Dorset Mind’s page. P.84

New organiser James Cox tells editor Laura about his plans for the county’s great agricultural country show in 2023. P.11

Happy Farrier

Take a look at the life of Dorset farrier Sam Wilkes and you will believe horseshoes really are lucky. P.20

Insider tips on the 2023 Dorset property market

Prices may be falling and mortgage lenders nervous – but house hunters are still looking to move. Local experts take a look at the Dorset housing market in 2023. P.14

A Dorset motorway?

Could there actually be an economic case for ploughing a motorway through Dorset, asks Andrew Livingston. P.72

Front cover: Stourhead in the frost by Les Adams

“A brilliant celebration of Dorset”

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? When does it stop being appropriate and become just awkwardly late? Well, probably about now, but it’s our first issue of the year and I’ve not seen you yet - so Happy New Year!

We had a wonderfully packed house over Christmas and New Year. It’s astonishing how full it feels when you have four children and they all turn into adult-sized human beans when you’re not looking. Then one gets himself a wife, some of them bring a friend or two over and before you know it you’re making toasted sandwiches for 12 while vociferously defending your position that cheese has no place in a hot tuna sandwich (and yes, in the interests of science I tried it and will now acknowledge that my previous position may have been foolish. I have, in fact, wasted the 20 years since I discovered toasted tuna by not having melted cheese in it).

Thanks to a small ... hiccup ... in editorial organisation (ahem) there’s no Random 19 or Dorset Island Discs in this issue – apologies, I know they’re popular. Instead may I suggest that you spend some time on the solar farm debate with Rupert Hardy, and mosey through some of the columns you might usually flick past (I know, I do it too. But trust me – every single page has earned its place, and is worth a few minutes of your time. Jane’s wildlife column deserves to be read slowly. Charlotte (flowers) always makes me laugh, Andrew (farming) makes me think. Roger Guttridge always has a good story. Tracie and Courtenay manage to combine words and pictures perfectly every month in A Country Living. Readers photos are a joy. I know that everywhere we look right now there seems worry, despair, gloom and uncertainty. And a bill that needs paying. Except here in the BV of course - we always try to leave you feeling a little lighter and perhaps knowing something new. And we’re free, obviously. Meanwhile, we shared a small note on social media which has been popular and I think bears repeating: It’s January. Rest. Get some fresh air. Find a new favourite show (we’d personally recommend Yellowstone if you’ve not seen it yet). Eat some chocolate. Keep cosy. Cook your favourite foods. Get yourself a big bunch of flowers. Plan some adventures. See you in three weeks!

New wildlife reserve for Blandford

Fields and woodland which adjoin Blandford’s Milldown Nature Reserve and the North Dorset Trailway have been bought by Dorset Council to create a new wildlife haven. The 13 acres will extend the Green Flag award-winning site, creating new wildlife corridors to support the survival of one of the rarest bats in Europe, the Greater Horseshoe. The new nature reserve will provide crucial habitat for adults and juvenile bats from the nearby Bryanston Site of Special Scientific Interest roost, whilst also supporting other bat species and a host of other wildlife. The project will see hedgerows restored, a wildflower meadow established and more trees planted.

Cllr Ray Bryan, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for highways, travel and environment, said: ‘This recent land purchase is an excellent opportunity to create much-needed habitat for Dorset’s wildlife.’

The purchase has been made possible through the council’s Habitat Compensation Fund, using money secured through

developer contributions and extra funding for the project from Defra’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme (administered by Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), Blandford Forum Town Council and Dorset Council.

‘Protecting and restoring Dorset’s natural environment is one of the council’s key priorities.’ said

Cllr Bryan, ‘We are determined to work with partners to promote the recovery of nature and tackle the ecological emergency.’

Come and plant a tree

To launch the nature reserve, the council will be holding a volunteer tree and hedge planting event on the weekend of 21st and 22nd January. Members of the public are invited to come along from 10am on either or both days to help with the planting. Volunteers will need to wear stout shoes or boots and bring their own spades! To find the event, follow signs from the Milldown car park (DT11 7FU); council rangers will be on site to guide you.

• Donations of £40 (+vat) for the 70 trees being planted are being taken by Blandford Forum Town Council. Contributions can be made via their online form

A new nature reserve in Blandford will extend the Milldown and create a wildlife reserve for one of Europe’s rarest bats

Rooftop panels versus solar farms

Rupert Hardy, chairman of the North Dorset CPRE, takes a long look into the case for solar panels on roofs or in fields

North Dorset CPRE is well aware of the climate emergency and the severe impact of the Ukraine conflict on energy prices, and it is fully supportive of renewable energy development. The government has prioritised offshore wind power to supply the majority of our renewable energy needs. But what can Dorset do? New offshore wind farms are less likely to be proposed here. The ending of the virtual moratorium on onshore wind farms may result in new planning applications but the main contribution will come from solar in Dorset. To combat climate change, Dorset Council (DC) aims to meet a huge renewable energy target of 3.8TWh/yr by 2050; up from the current generation of 0.5TWh/yr.

Developers will retort that we have plenty of potential sites for solar farms, and that we

should take advantage of the high solar irradiance of the county. However – do not be deceived by the frequently misleading data issued by solar trade associations, whose members are unsurprisingly more concerned with profit than saving the planet.

Profit not planet

This January in North Dorset we expect a hearing into the proposal for a 190-acre solar farm at Pulham/Mappowder. The CPRE has not objected to a number of less damaging solar farms, but we are opposing this one, on grounds of the harm it will do to the setting of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the beautiful countryside for which it is responsible, as well as the adverse impact on amenity and the flooding risk.

Last autumn, a proposal to cover no less than 1,400 acres

of farmland near Chickerell (south west of Dorchester and equivalent to 885 soccer pitches) shocked many on account of its huge scale. It would be built on part of the Dorset AONB, desecrating countryside in the heart of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex, covered with ancient monuments. There will of course be more applications in North Dorset. Is the renewable energy benefit a price worth paying? We would argue that it is not.

Roof not field

Rooftop solar panels could provide the same output, although we are supportive of <5MW community-funded solar farms. If you missed it at the time, please do see our article in the BV last February on “ Why is Dorset So Slow Putting Solar Panels on Roofs ”.

Key factors that should be considered are:

RURAL MATTERS - the monthly column from the CPRE

The solar farm just at the foot of Hambledon Hill, the Iron Age hill fort in North Dorset

On a recent walk near Blandford we couldn’t avoid seeing the large patch of metallic grey in the middle of the view.

• Solar farm inefficiency: They are hugely inefficient compared to offshore wind. Solar’s efficiency rating is 11 per cent, compared with 40 per cent for offshore wind.

• Negative impact: Solar farms are mostly power stations that industrialise the Dorset countryside that is loved by residents and tourists. In particular the AONBs should be protected.

Cumulative impact from several solar parks in close proximity will exacerbate the damage, as can already be seen from Badbury Rings, an Iron Age hill fort.

• Adverse effect on heritage assets and their setting: We have lots of historic churches, houses and ancient monuments which have huge cultural significance for Dorset.

• Loss of good agricultural land and food security: Many solar farms are being built on highgrade productive farmland, such as at Spetisbury, which is unforgiveable at a time when food prices are rocketing. Food security should be paramount. Development should be limited to brownfield sites and poor quality agricultural land. It can be argued that land graded 3b should not be considered as “poor”, as much is productive and often soil here is better able to hold more moisture than higher

grades. This was proved in 2022’s long hot summer. There was talk last summer of the government including 3b in its definition of “Best and Most Versatile” land, but this has recently been quashed by Therese Coffey.

• Wildlife and biodiversity: Developers may suggest token gestures such as sheep grazing, but sheep rarely graze under panels and mostly just on the grass margin. Birds and bat deaths are common as they mistake glass panels for water, while the routes of transiting animals are blocked, forcing them to cross roads.

• Amenity: Most solar farms have footpaths and bridleways crossing them, which are used by residents and visitors to enjoy the countryside.

• Permanent or temporary land use? Most solar farms are leased for 30 or 40 years, with the likelihood of applications to extend. A 40-year period represents two generations relating to a farming tenancy. Land may never revert to agricultural use.

• Tenant farmers ignored: Solar proposal decisions may be taken by landowners, against the wishes of their tenants who actually farm the land.

• Battery storage: Many solar

farms now incorporate this, but lithium-ion batteries present a dangerous fire risk which fire brigades find difficult to deal with.

Strong policies

We would argue that the government needs to have a clearer solar policy, which it does not, compared with development of land for residential purposes. The proliferation of solar applications across the country make it imperative that there is clearer guidance on grounds for refusal or acceptance of applications. We would also like stronger local landscape policies in Dorset Council’s emerging Local Plan. Why do 95 per cent of households and 98 per cent of businesses in Dorset have no rooftop solar?

Opposition to industrial-sized solar farms in the countryside is growing, as demands for food security and nature recovery clash with net zero goals.

Promoting rooftop solar makes much more sense. Dorset CPRE has calculated that by installing solar panels on 64 per cent of currently un-utilised buildings, the maximum government target for 2050 would be reached without building another solar farm (download the report here).

A 40-year solar farm land lease represents two generations of a farming tenancy

Image: Laura Hitchcock

RURAL MATTERS

The figure for Dorset would likely be similar.

New-build solutions

Last February we asked why 95 per cent of households and 98 per cent of businesses in Dorset had no roof-mounted solar panels, as of September 2021. The answer was first a failure by the government and DC (Dorset Council), despite its declared Climate Emergency strategy, to make it mandatory for new housing developments to fit solar panels on every roof. After much badgering it appears DC is finally looking at ways it can impose new conditions on developers. Other local authorities have already done this. Retrofitting older buildings will be expensive, but VAT on domestic solar PV was dropped last April. Another way would be to increase funding of community energy groups, like Purbeck Energy, which facilitates the fitting of solar panels at discounted prices. This would cost much less than direct subsidies to millions of home-owners.

Community Energy Groups

The phasing out of domestic solar panel subsidies in recent years meant that individuals became reluctant installers,

despite the drop in prices of panels, while cash-strapped local authorities have been unable to help. But community energy groups began to spring up with the goal of offering panels at very competitive rates.

It is a growing movement in which energy generation is owned not by large industrial companies but by local communities, with the profits invested back into the community.

However, last year Community Energy England, in advance of the second reading of the Local Electricity Bill, said that Ministers were failing to respond to growing support for community renewable energy, or to properly plan for growth in line with netzero commitments. More than 300 MPs have now committed their support to this Bill, which is designed to ensure that Ofgem creates a Right to Local Supply framework – which would help community energy. The Bill appears to be stuck in some Westminster crevice, and the government seems to have other priorities!

Despite this, in 2021 Sustainable Swanage and community energy

On a family holiday five years ago we couldn’t help but admire the sense of installing solar panels over the French supermarché car park - Ed

Image: Laura Hitchcock

group, Purbeck Energy, launched a project to offer Swanage residents the chance to get solar panels for their properties at competitive rates. They are using a company, IDDEA, which has already installed more than 1,000 panels across southern England. The Swanage mayor, Mike Bonfield, was fully supportive and praised it as a “brilliant scheme”. How about some of our North Dorset towns encouraging the same?

Solar PV on public, industrial and farm buildings

Historically, one of the reasons for slow progress on industrial buildings has been issues of building ownership and leasehold arrangements, as well as roof weight and warranties. High energy prices now mean owners of commercial buildings are looking at rooftop solar wherever they can, especially as installing panels on these properties is so much cheaper than for domestic properties thanks to scale. Progress is now being made to improve the energy efficiency on public buildings in Dorset too, where

Dorset Council is finally looking at imposing new planning conditions on developers

ownership is clearer. The first major push came from DC’s Low Carbon Dorset team, which gave grants of £5m to fund 4.1MW of projects, both public sector and business, thanks initially to the European Regional Development Fund. DC was also given £19m by the government for more renewable projects. This was one of the biggest grant packages given by the government, so well done DC! It paid for panels to go on the roof of Durlston Castle, an arts centre, County Hall in Dorchester and various schools. In North Dorset, Blandford and Gillingham Schools are busy installing panels.

Bridport-based Dorset Community Energy, which facilitates community ownership of renewable energy production, has financed the installation of panels on 12 schools and four community buildings throughout Dorset, such as Blandford Community Hospital. Thanks initially to the Lottery and now 152 local shareholders, it has funded more than 1.5MW of panels. We hope to see more of these community-led projects.

On the farms DC, in its briefing to its Climate and Ecological Emergency Support Group in November, spoke of the progress made on decarbonisation of DC properties, including rooftop solar installation. The council will now be funding directly the Low Carbon Dorset unit, which otherwise was due to close having distributed all the grants given them.

Farmers are fitting panels to their buildings but it is estimated that only a small proportion of farmers so far in Dorset have done so. Weight problems are often quoted as the reason why there is less retro-fitting, but access to the Grid is another. Mole Energy has been busy promoting the fitting of panels

to farm buildings here, but has emphasised the serious Grid capacity issues, which got worse through 2022. The company says the rapid phasing out of domestic subsidies in 2016 meant many solar PV installers had to diversify and the associated tradesmen left the industry, so there may now be too few installers.

Other solutions in Europe

In contrast to the UK’s approach, France has announced plans to fast-track renewable energy by mandating car parks nationwide be covered by solar panels – a popular policy that could generate up to 11GW of power. With good planning and design, 20,000 hectares of car parking space in the UK could potentially yield an additional 8GW of solar capacity alongside tens of thousands of new homes.

The UK already has 14.5GW of solar capacity operational. Meanwhile Germany has focussed on rooftops first, with 80 per cent of its solar power coming from panels that generate little public opposition.

In conclusion

CPRE is calling on the government to adopt a renewables strategy that prioritises rooftops, surface car parks and brownfield sites in a concerted effort to attract wide

public support. Grid capacity issues also need to be resolved. If implemented quickly, the policy could drastically reduce energy bills during the cost-ofliving crisis and speed up the transition to net zero, while leaving as much countryside as possible available for farming and nature restoration. Three urgent national policy changes are needed:

• A national land-use strategy to balance the competing demands for development, energy and infrastructure, food security and nature recovery; planning policy amended so that it actively promotes solar panels on agricultural land avoiding the best and most versatile agricultural.

• Solar panels should be mandatory for all new buildings, and planning permission should be withheld for commercial or public car parking spaces unless they also provide solar energy generation.

• The government needs to give more financial support to community energy. Here in North Dorset we neither want nor need another 1,400 acre Chickerell solar farm to blight our lives and desecrate our countryside!

It is not a price worth paying.

Large solar farm in South Wales

The County Show will be

New organiser James Cox tells editor Laura about his plans for the county’s great agricultural country show in 2023

James Cox will be a familiar name to many in North Dorset, having run the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show for the past four years. He has now taken on a new role as show secretary of the annual two-day Dorset County Show.

‘It’s an exciting opportunity,’ says James, ‘but in a way it feels like coming home. My family farms near Dorchester, it was our local show and I have been involved with it as a volunteer for as long as I can remember.

‘It feels appropriate to be starting the new year with a fresh look at the show – quite simply, we’re going to make it a brilliant showcase for Dorset rural life, both agriculture and countryside.’

The show may have a long history, but James is determined not to let it rest on its reputation; he is already deep in plans for 2023 and has been listening to feedback from last year’s visitors.

‘The big news this year is that we have the world’s biggest monster trucks coming to the main arena on both days of the show. We’re really proud to have secured them.

But just as important as the big attractions are the basics of the show. We’re looking at toilets, car parking, layout. We have introduced a new food and drink area which will be a large (some might say ’gurt big’) comfortable area to get something to eat, where the catering will focus on Dorset food and drink – we want people to be buying burgers from Bridport, not Bookers.

‘We’re introducing a Woodland Area for the first time, where the Dorset Axemen will be demonstrating their forestry skills, along with various carvers and woodworkers showing traditional rural crafts.

‘We’ve also increased the trading area to allow more variety – the artisan crafts will extend outside the marquee this year.

‘Of course, we’re not losing the educational farming demos in the Fabulous Food and Farming Area, and the show wouldn’t even exist without the competitions in livestock, horticulture, equestrian and homecraft. The team never forgets that at its heart it is an agricultural country show – traders and visitors alike come together for a brilliant celebration of Dorset.’

Gate prices will remain the same this year at £23, but the team has introduced new ticketing options which mean greater savings. If you purchase before the of January, the cost is just £15.

Watch the show’s social media for updates!

“a brilliant celebration of Dorset”

Karabits and the BSO – a new chapter

The Ukrainian-born conductor Kirill Karabits will end his tenure as chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in summer 2024, after a remarkable 15-year partnership. But the relationship, which has been so successful, will continue, with Karabits becoming the BSO’s Conductor Laureate and artistic director of the Voices from the East programme. Karabits is the BSO’s second longest-serving chief conductor after its founder, Sir Dan Godfrey. His partnership with the orchestra has seen a wide growth in its repertoire, with cycles of Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev, UK premières of works from CPE Bach to contemporary music from Azerbaijan, and music from eastern Europe and Ukraine through the Voices from the East programme. Under Karabits’ adventurous leadership, the orchestra has commissioned music from composers including Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Anna KorSun and Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Beyond the expected The Voices from the East series of music from the Ukraine and beyond has come to define Karabits’ recent years with the BSO. Through performances – and recordings for the Chandos label – the orchestra’s audiences have been introduced to music from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the Ukraine, by composers including Kara Karayev, Boris Lyatoshynsky, Chary Nurymov and Avet Terterian. Last year, The Times suggested that, thanks to the series, “music lovers in Dorset may now be the most knowledgeable in the western world about the symphonic pieces of eastern Europe and central Asia.”

This spring, the orchestra will record the music of Ukraine-born Fyodor Akimenko for Chandos. Karabits’ other BSO recordings include releases on Decca, Onyx and Naxos, ranging from a complete Prokofiev symphonic cycle to concerto recordings with James Ehnes and Nicola Benedetti, and premiere recordings of Ivan Karabits, Valentin Silvestrov and Rodion Shchedrin.

He says: ‘I have never forgotten my first encounter with the BSO. I immediately felt this was a very special group of musicians, and, artistically, we have continued to grow together over the last 15 years. It feels like a home from home — and never more so than during these last few years, where this community has been of great support. The warmth, friendship and open-minded approach here is very special.’

Dougie Scarfe, the BSO’s chief executive, describes Karabits not only as an outstanding conductor but also as ‘a musical detective unlike any other. His creative influence has defined the modern BSO –his understanding not just of the music, but of that magical relationship between music, musicians and audience.”

The BSO moves to Yeovil

The news follows hard on the heels of an announcement that the BSO will have a new Somerset residency at Yeovil’s Octagon Theatre, when the theatre reopens at the end of 2024, after a £29m transformation, to become a flagship cultural venue for the South West.

Local audiences will have access to more symphonic performances by the BSO as resident orchestra, with its international conductors and soloists, alongside family-friendly BSO On Your Doorstep concerts, workshops and events. Octagon theatre manager, Adam Burgan said: “I am absolutely delighted that we can announce this partnership with the amazing Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. As one of the UK’s best loved orchestras it will be fantastic when they make the Octagon Theatre their new home in Somerset.” Meanwhile the BSO’s relationship with Artsreach, Dorset’s rural touring charity, continues this year with BSO On Your Doorstep concerts at Marnhull village hall on Sunday 12th February at 3pm

The programme will be a Spring Serenade by a flute, harp and cello trio, with music from Bach to Joni Mitchell, plus works by Elgar, Ibert, Schubert and Bizet.

During the past 15 years, Kirill Karabits has built a reputation for exciting and adventurous programmes for the BSO. Fanny

Charles reports

See the portraits and words of people on the COVID front line

Unmasked is a local project that began in the dark days of March 2020 when a new disease called COVID-19 literally stopped the world

Unmasked is a series of portraits by local photographer Andy Scaysbrook which reveal and celebrate the stories and faces on Dorset’s Covid-19 front line. Working with journalist Emma Pittard and graphic designer John Nesbitt, Andy shines a light on many of the men and women behind the masks.

Emma says: ‘We clapped for them every Thursday but didn’t see their faces. At work, their identities were hidden behind masks and gowns and gloves.’

Three previous Unmasked exhibitions won critical acclaim in local and national press, and this fourth show coincides with the launch of a fundraising book which collects a permanent record of what were extraordinary times. Profits go to Dorset NHS charities.

In addition, the book is being held by The British Library to support its NHS Voices of Covid-19 archive, part of the NHS 70th Birthday celebrations. The project was achieved by Andy and Emma during the lockdowns, while respecting all socialdistancing guidelines and without travelling too far from their homes. It grew quickly – from Andy photographing friends who are key workers to being featured

in The Times and The Sunday Times. It was soon necessary to bring in John to prepare the body of work for exhibitions. Their first Unmasked show appeared on the walls of Dorset County Hospital (DCH) in November 2020, with the help of Suzy Rushbrook, Arts in Hospital Manager at DCH, who then organised displays at Durlston Castle in Swanage and the Lighthouse in Poole. Suzy said: ‘Art has an enormous impact on health and wellbeing

and this is something people are becoming increasingly aware of, making collaborative projects like this invaluable.’

The project has proved to be an exercise in wellbeing and a morale booster for staff working all over the Dorset health sector; showing them they are truly appreciated, their stories are being told and we are listening.

Unmasked the exhibition is showing at the Dorset Museum until 8th February.

By Laura Hitchcock

Insider tips on the Dorset property market in 2023

Prices may be falling and mortgage lenders nervous – but house hunters are still looking to move. Local experts take a look at the Dorset housing market in 2023

Mortgage rates have risen to levels that were unimaginable just 12 months ago, a cost-ofliving crisis rages on, and there is a widespread belief that house prices will continue to fall. It’s worth pointing out that mortgage rates have been falling since they peaked in October (though staying much higher than for many years). The top five-year fixes come in just under 4.5 per cent now – compared with 2.5 per cent a year ago. Sellers may have to accept that buyers simply cannot afford to pay 2022 prices for their home in 2023, but the flip side of that is that their own new home should be cheaper, too. Spring is traditionally the best time to sell your house – but if that’s going to be you in 2023, then right now is the time to start thinking about it.

If you’re a seller, then perhaps start considering getting your house on the market to get ahead of the spring competition. But it’s a big decision – and with the economy in turmoil, is now a good time? Is the market even moving at the moment? Or is it still moving too fast?

Fear not – we’ve rounded up some of the most experienced local experts to help with their top insider tips on how to sell or buy a house with as little stress as possible this year …

Tell us about the property market over the last year – are house prices falling in Dorset? Is availability increasing? Is there still a national move to the country?

‘No one could have predicted the exceptional demand for property over the last few years, nor that it would continue long after the last lockdown.’ said James McKillop, head of residential sales at Savills Salisbury. ‘However, it was inevitable that the associated price growth would need to return to a less frenetic pace in the long term and we are starting to see that.

The legacy of the pandemic is buyers driven by lifestyle choices – it now seems to be ingrained in the UK buyer’s psyche. In a recent Savills survey of 1,500 prospective buyers and sellers of prime property, when asked what type of location is most attractive, the majority opted for small towns, villages and countryside over cities and their suburbs.

Sarah Cull, senior associate director at Strutt &

Agents have around twice as many properties available as they did this time last year

Parker Salisbury, added: ‘The property market has certainly been “eventful” over the past year! For the first quarter there was very little stock; this eased and we had another busy and successful summer. The mini-budget brought about uncertainty and a rise in interest rates, which encouraged buyers with good mortgage offers to press on to conclude their purchase and lock in the rate. The end of the year was quieter as per usual.’ ‘The market in the first half of 2022 was the strongest we have ever seen,’ said Harry José, branch manager of Roderick Thomas Castle Cary, agreeing with Sarah and James. ‘Asking prices were at their highest and we were still achieving two to three per cent above those prices on average. Since then we have of course seen a slow down, exacerbated by the autumn Minibudget. Properties are now sticking around for longer, meaning a larger number of properties appear to be on the market at any given time – I’d say that agents on average have around twice as many properties available as they did

this time last year. This isn’t because more properties are coming to the market, it’s because fewer are selling. Due to that slowdown, I am seeing many prices reduce, which of course contributes to an overall fall in house prices. However, buyers are still moving and good properties are still selling at strong prices – we are fortunate enough to sell some lovely houses, many to cash buyers who haven’t been impacted to the same extent by increasing interest rates. Others, especially the first and second-time purchase properties, are being impacted by apprehensive mortgage valuers, even when strong prices are offered by stillconfident buyers.’

Harry José feels we may finally be on the other side of the COVID effect: ‘I strongly feel that we are really just seeing a return to the traditional cyclical nature of the property market which was normal pre-COVID. The spring booms and then the market tails off again in the winter.’

Sarah Cull agrees: ‘We feel that 2023 will bring about a more traditional market where properties take slightly longer to sell, but

What do you see 2023 bringing in terms of the property market?

Houses with a light and airy feel often just click instantly

still change hands. It is widely expected that interest rates will settle in the later spring and the good weather always brings buyers back to the market.’

James McKillop commented on the longer financial view of the market: ‘Savills researchers anticipate slight downward pressure on values in 2023, but less pronounced than in the mainstream markets. There is still strong demand for the right property; the area remains hugely popular and while 2023 activity won’t be as high – or as frenzied – as it has been. We are still seeing the effect of a significant stock shortage. Good homes in good locations will always see strong demand and, if priced correctly, will sell well. Taking a longer view, Savills researchers are forecasting a return to positive growth as early as 2024, with prices over the next five years seeing increases of up to 11.6 per cent.

A presentable but busy family home gets two hours notice of a viewing – what should they do?

Harry continued: ‘As I said, the house doesn’t have to be perfect all the time. House viewers really aren’t expecting daffodils on the window sill and freshly baked bread in the oven. I’d recommend making all the beds, giving the house a quick vacuum and washing up any dishes. Also – another tip from personal experience – make sure you stay out of the bathroom just before!’

Sarah had similar advice: ‘Air the house, light the fire (if it’s cold out), get some flowers on the table, clear the surfaces, make the beds, put the loo seats down and run the vacuum around. ‘Also, if you have dogs, do take them out for a walk during the viewing. We all love our pets, but not everyone sees them as man’s best friend.’ James also said that first impressions count, and that clutter is never good. ‘We would always try and give more than 24 hours’ notice, but it can be difficult in a challenging market, as you don’t want to lose any opportunity to show a good potential buyer around.

‘The key thing is first impressions, so de-clutter, put all the lights on and open the windows; a fresh, light-filled house will always do the trick.

2023 will bring a return to a more traditional market

Buyers are very understanding about family homes, especially if it is a last minute request. Most just appreciate the opportunity to view.’

Sarah recalled one client who carried out their own viewing and they referred to the village as “the village of feuds and floods.”

She said: ’The viewer did not buy and we took over the viewings!’

Harry has seen some things too. ‘We have certainly had some worse than others, but hygiene and cleanliness are vital in all walks of life and house selling is no different. From minor things like not washing up before a viewing to real eye-openers like dog mess in the house, we have seen it all. It doesn’t have to be a show home, but please do make it feel welcoming!’

bookshelf narrowing a hallway, or a sofa that could do with moving by a few degrees.’

James is also keen to work any issues through. ‘If I see something I know is going to be a problem, I will always try and discuss it with the owners and see what options are available. If there are remedial works required, I often think it is better to get them done. But if they are subjective (e.g. a bathroom needs updating), I would say to leave it, as many buyers like the chance to put their own mark on a house and will often change a kitchen or bathroom to suit their style.’

Harry pointed out that this is part of an estate agents’ job: ‘It’s an important but difficult conversation to have and one which requires some diplomacy. I always go ahead and inform the sellers, but open the conversation by asking them if they would like some advice on how best to present the house. The answer will always be yes, and thus you have the platform to go ahead and advise. After all, a seller is using an agent for their professional experience and advice.’

Sarah was comfortable with being truthful: ‘I will always mention it gently and constructively and come up with solutions – hopefully without causing offence! Often it is as simple as a

What unexpected features make a house easier to sell?

James didn’t hesitate: ‘With the cost of living affecting everyone, energy efficient homes are starting to attract premium prices. It doesn’t

Are there any real life ‘do NOT do this’ bloopers you can share?

When you can see a glaring issue which you know may put buyers off, do you tell the vendor?

matter what age of house you have, if the heating system is modern and efficient, ideally with some form of renewable energy, buyers will see a significant upside. It is also the hassle factor of upgrading an older system that many buyers don’t want to face.’

Harry said ‘Houses with a light and airy feel are always easy, but also those that flow well. When a house has simple-to-access rooms and a layout that makes sense, it often just clicks instantly with the buyers.’

Sarah suggested it was simple attraction. ‘I always feel that the basic charm of a house is underestimated. I visited a wonderful house last week, oozing with period features and it had a lovely atmosphere; I am sure that when this comes to the market, buyers will be enchanted by it.

Do you have any tips for those who are finding the market difficult?

Harry suggested staying in touch was the top priority: ‘As much as I’d like for buyers to only be registered with me, I’d recommend they cast their net to all corners of their search area. It is also important to stay in touch with the estate agents, in the same way you expect them to stay in touch with you. You’ll increase the chances of an agent calling you directly before a property hits the shelves.’

James said buyers must keep the bigger picture in mind. ‘Even with a slight nervousness in the market, the best houses will likely have more than one potential buyer. You have to be front of the queue, and that means having your mortgage in place and/ or being chain-free. Otherwise, you will probably have to offer more to be competitive.’

Sarah had some advice for sellers: ‘I’d say “Work with your agent”! Do you need new photographs, or a re-arrangement of the images online? Is the price right, can any additional press exposure be secured, is there anything that can be done to enhance the first impressions? All of these are sensible questions.’

Are there any specifically desirable locations within the area?

James said: ‘Shaftesbury – it has always been a popular spot and any of the villages surrounding it are consistently sought after, particularly those with amenities such as a village shop. Places like Manston and Stour Provost are also popular.’

‘The Chalke Valley is perennially popular,’ Sarah added, ‘as is Tisbury and its surrounding villages. People have always been drawn here for the excellent countryside and coast, the access to London and the West Country, not to mention fantastic schools.’

The happy hippophile

I think I’m in Shillingstone, just outside Blandford, but either the satnav’s misled me or I’m at an American ranch. No matter – always a sucker for cowboy films, arriving at what could be the set of a Western has me swaggering like John Wayne. There are ranch-style corrals with sandy floors and wooden railings. A beautiful stallion is whinnying in the distance. Up on the ‘mountainous’ hillsides (from where my imaginary Magnificent Seven would gallop) are smart log cabins and Pioneers luxury wooden lodges. Even these glamping rentals have names that nod to the wild west – names like Goldpanners, Ranchers and Trappers. It might be freezing outside, but in a cosy barn are sheepskin rugs to keep your knees warm, along with pommel saddles and cowboy hats – and brilliant black and white photographs of rodeo

riders on the walls. Even on a dark and dismal winter’s day, this setting is special. No wonder Dorset farrier Sam Wilkes describes it as his ‘dream place’. Sam, 27, and his wife Yasmin moved to aptly-named ‘Loose Reins’ in 2020. ‘We were looking for land for our ten horses. Coincidentally, I used to bring my sister riding here a long time ago. After seeing it was up for sale, we just knew we had to go for it. We’d wanted to build something just like this and here it was, ready for us to move in.’ Sam runs his farriers business, Purbeck Forge Ltd, while Yasmin, a successful equestrian dressage competitor, uses the former Western-style riding school to teach dressage. Post-COVID, they’re also busy building glamping opportunities – the idyllic lodges are let for most of the year now.

And if that’s not a big enough

Take a look at the life of Dorset farrier Sam Wilkes and you will believe horseshoes really are lucky. Tracie Beardsley reports

With his mobile forge, Sam travels to his clients; horses –from Shires to Shetlands – and occasionally sheep, donkeys, goats and alpacas too!

All images: Courtenay Hitchcock

Sam Wilkes

Sam studied horse anatomy, blacksmithing and farrier skills before securing a five year apprenticeship, achieving his diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (DipWCF).

workload, they’ve chickens, dogs, sheep, goats and 13.5 acres to tend, plus the joys of an 18-month old daughter (who already has two Shetland ponies). Multi-tasking is the answer and Sam’s adept at simultaneously walking the dogs and the Shetlands and pushing Millie in her pram!

Look back at Sam’s childhood and working with horses seems inevitable. His mum ran a riding school in Studland and as a youngster, Sam was hooked on horses. ‘I’d watch the farriers and was fascinated,’ he says. At the age of 18, Sam was studying horse anatomy, blacksmithing and farrier skills at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire. ‘The two disciplines are very different,’ explains Sam. ‘Blacksmiths specialise in metalwork. Farriers specialise in horses, making horseshoes and shoeing horses. A farrier can be a blacksmith but a blacksmith can’t be a farrier.’ Sam was apprenticed to a Winchester farrier, returning to college every six months for his exams. Five years later, he achieved his DipWCF (Diploma of Worshipful Company of Farriers) and became a registered farrier. Now, with his mobile forge, Sam travels to shoe horses –from Shires to Shetlands –and occasionally trims the feet of sheep, donkeys, goats and alpacas too.

He says: ‘The animals are more relaxed if you can shoe them in

their own environment.’

The equipment is high tech but the farrier’s skill has changed little since Roman times. ‘I still use nails mainly but you can glue the shoes on in certain cases. I will use factory-made horseshoes but still make some of my own.’

A boot rack and a stunning garden bench, both made out of spare horseshoes, show Sam’s creative flair. ‘As an apprentice, I used to make horseshoe ornaments and sell them for a bit of money.’

Sam works four days a week as a farrier - it was seven before he bought Loose Reins. ‘I’m looking to the long game, so I want to pace myself. It’s a

very physical job and horses are powerful. I’ve had some scrapes but no serious injuries. Most farriers end up with bad backs because of the bending over. ‘This is more than a job, it’s a passion. My first client was just two years old and had awful feet. She’s now eight and competing. It’s so satisfying watching a young horse grow and know you’ve helped it. ‘Eventually I’d like to work abroad for a farrier charity such as The Flying Anvil. They send farriers to countries such as Ethiopia and India to share horse welfare skills and knowledge.’

It looks like Sam’s lucky horseshoe charm will spread further than Shillingstone.

• Find Sam on Facebook: Sam Wilkes DipWCF

• Sam’s in action at the Spring Countryside Show on 22nd and 23rd April at Turnpike Showground, Motcombe springcountrysideshow/

The farrier’s skill has changed little since Roman times

• See Loose Reins here loosereins.co.uk/

Sam will use factory-made shoes but also still makes some of his own

first client was just two years old and had awful feet. She’s now eight and competing. It’s so satisfying watching a young horse grow and know you’ve helped it.’

‘My

Mud, foals, coats and dreams

It’s been a slog through the worst of the winter at The Glanvilles Stud, but Lucy Procter is excited to see the results of all the hard work starting to shine August disappeared in a swelter of dust, heat and flies. The following months disappeared in a steadily spirit-sapping mixture of storm and freeze, punctuated by the occasional dry hours or days which afforded some blessed relief from the drudgery of constantly being very wet or very cold. Or both.

Back in the summer the horses were having to cope with the extreme heat but come the autumn and it has been the endless rain and consequent mud that has been the challenge. The majority of the broodmares have been stabled at night since November, going out into the allweather sand turnout during the day. A few are going out singly or in pairs into the dryer fields for a couple of hours and some of the youngsters are now in a barn; they won’t go out again until the ground dries up in the spring.

Having grown thick, woolly, grease-filled coats, all the horses have their own natural protection from the elements. However, some of the broodmares are more susceptible to rainscald (constantly wet coats can lead to a skin infection which causes scabs to form in places along the horse’s neck and back), so we do rug any mares we’re concerned about when it’s wet during the day. Others cope just fine and are left unrugged.

Honeysuckle’s yearling niece sired by Nathaniel, foaled 8th April 2022, off to the foal sales end of January. It’s a tough life!

Image: Hollie Rhodes

However, youngstock are left without rugs all the time. Young horses are just like children: they play, they investigate, they chew. Put rugs on them and they might get tangled in each other’s rugs whilst playing. Or they might pull them off each other and, again, get tangled. Or they might just chew them and rip them to shreds! When there’s a storm, it’s actually the wind that makes them feel really cold, so it’s best to let their natural coats protect them from the rain and instead to ensure they are in fields with hedges that can protect them from the worst of the wind.

TGS homebred racehorses

We are currently prepping three of last year’s foals for the Doncaster National Hunt Foal sale at the end of January. Technically they all turned one and became yearlings on the 1st of January, but for the purposes of the January sales ring, they are still referred to as foals. These three have been stabled at night and walked in-hand for half an hour every day on their way to their day turnout field throughout December. We walk them to make sure they are fit enough to cope with the sales, when they will be brought out of their stables and walked in front of prospective purchasers a number of times during the day. It is important that they are fit enough to walk as well for the last viewing of the day as they did for the first. We are also training four homebred young racehorses here at the stud. Two of these are due to go to trainers very soon to do their last few weeks in a licenced yard before they run. Our son Freddie has been busy schooling our Monmartre four-yearold and he is loving his jumping – see video – so we are excited for his hurdling debut in a month or so. The third is a three year old out of Honeysuckle’s sister, sired by Motivator, that we re-backed in early January and is now happily hacking out. She will shortly go to a trainer for a couple of months work before returning here for a break with a view to running next autumn. The fourth we plan to keep training and run her in point-to-points, but she is

Happy mares

Foaling is just around the corner, with the first three mares due in early February. Two of these are ‘bagging up’ already (udders beginning to fill with milk), and we will once again be sitting up watching them on the cameras overnight very soon.

The rest of the mares are happy with glistening coats and fat with foal.

We are looking forward to seeing the foals that last year’s mating plans have produced – it’s the time of year when we can all dream. And it’s the dreams that get us through having to be outside all day in this hideous weather. We all need a dream to get us out of bed in the morning!

a rare sunny day – the happy mares with glistening coats and fat with foal are out in the all-weather sand turnout for a few hours

just coming back into work after an injury and is unlikely to be fit enough to race before April.

On

There have to be some rewards for a winter of slogging through mud

Image: Lucy Procter

Winter is downtime for the eventing yard

work

I’m Eve – I started working for TB Eventing in May 2022. Despite having always worked within the equestrian industry covering different disciplines, I have never been head groom in an eventing yard before, so I am quickly learning the different responsibilities. I am so enjoying discovering the range of skills necessary in both horse and rider to take part competitively across the triathlon of dressage, showjumping and cross-country. It makes for a varied and fascinating skill set and I’ll admit I do love organisation, so I have really enjoyed stepping up to the challenge!

No-plait season

One of the perks of a seasonal eventing cycle is the lack of plaiting over winter! As much as this is one of my favourite things to do, and still necessary for winter dressage competitions, the chilly weather undoubtedly makes it far more difficult with frozen fingers.

Perfect Charlie Toots’ horses enjoyed a holiday at her family home where the grazing (much to the horses’ delight) was well rested and plentiful. The useful downtime at the end of the season then gave us a perfect opportunity to get the stables at Fox-Pitt Eventing emptied, power-washed, disinfected and painted. All the much-needed maintenance work is finished, so they are fresh for the new season.

While the majority of the horses were on holiday it gave us time to concentrate on one of my favourite horses, Charlie, who sadly is being prepared for sale in the spring. He has been competing in dressage and showjumping, winning almost

every time out at Elementary level and he has an incredible technique over a fence. I genuinely wish I could buy him myself – he will make someone the perfect horse. He is utterly beautiful. December saw all the horses coming back into work. A gradual strength and conditioning programme was introduced for each horse to bring it back to full fitness over a period of approximately 12 weeks.

Team TB

Erin, our new member of staff, is getting on really well and fits in brilliantly with the team dynamic. We are also extremely fortunate to have help from Donna Hills, who was Paul

Nicholls’ travelling head groom for 25 years. Personally, I am benefiting hugely from her experience of travelling with horses.

Extra help on the ground gives us more time for more horses. We have consequently been on the search for a couple of fourlegged projects to join the team. After several failed vettings and other frustrations, we hope to be introducing you to two new faces next month.

The season concluded with all of us at TB excitedly watching Kazuma Tomoto compete at the final 5* in Pau, France. Kazuma is stabled next to Toots and it gives the whole team huge inspiration to aim high for the competitive months this year.

Toots Bartlett’s head groom Eve reflects on joining an eventing team and enjoying the quiet season to get ahead on much-needed yard

A frosty morning’s work with beautiful Charlie

Not quite so discontented yet

As Gloucester put it in Richard lll, it does feel rather that ‘now is the winter of our discontent’. The spectre and presence of strikes have once again reared their heads and are having profound, negative effects on many people across the country. The term Winter of Discontent was first used in a UK political context to describe the strikeladen days of 1978/79. I do not believe that those of 2022/23 are anything like as momentous or ‘weather-making’ from a political perspective.

Sticky issues

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of Dorset’s history will know the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The role that Trade Unions play, representing their members, championing workplace safety and rights, is a vital and important one. Prior to their creation, the life of the working man and woman was precarious, subject to the whims of the employer. Huge and beneficial strides have been made from which all of us in work, whether we are members of a Trade Union or not, benefit. Statutory sick pay, paid holiday and the like all came about directly through the lobbying of trade unions.

However, it is the right to withdraw labour below a certain public service level that is the sticky issue. Our police, military and prison officers are unable to strike because to do so would,

among other things, jeopardise public safety.

Should we now be thinking about a similar caveat for other vital public services, for example in the health and transport sectors? I do not have a doctrinal view on this but rather I am committed to public service and people being able to go about their daily business, be educated, commute or receive healthcare irrespective of whether there is an employee/ employer dispute going on.

Monster vs. chocolate

One of the concerns of many strikers is pay. Inflation, as we know, is higher than for very many years (it perhaps looks to have peaked and is now falling) and interest rates are moving upwards – although still historically low – as a way of addressing those upward inflationary pressures. We often talk of inflation without really thinking about its affect. I was asked about this on a recent school visit and provided the following analogy: you have a chocolate bar at playtime, you expect to eat it all and to enjoy it. But! Along comes the Inflation Monster who swallows a great chunk of it. You lose out.

You may then buy a larger chocolate bar but the Monster only comes back to take a slightly bigger chunk. No matter what you do the Monster always wins. The Monster always comes back. He never really goes away.

You only have a chance of

enjoying your chocolate bar if we ‘starve’ and defeat the Monster. We need to starve and cage, rather than feed, the inflation monster. Inflationbusting pay increases do not bust inflation, they feed it, adding fuel and stoking the rates higher. Anyone in current public life knows this is not an easy message to communicate or accept. It is the political economy version of tough love. Unless we beat inflation everything else will be in vain, so that is currently the central and all-focussing task of the Government. It is not easy, but it is necessary.

Get in touch

Throughout this year I will continue my regular Advice Surgeries to provide help and support for those who need it. Please email simon.hoare. mp@parliament.uk to make an appointment.

May I close this first column of the year by wishing everyone across North Dorset a belated but sincere happy, peaceful and safe 2023.

Trade unions are a force for good, says MP Simon Hoare, but the issues get sticky. And dealing with inflation leads to some tough political love

All of us in work, whether we are members of a Trade Union or not, benefit.

Other brands of government are available …

The New Year provides the opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months, and also to look ahead. My personal highlights of 2022 include knocking on doors in the villages around Wem in North Shropshire during our by-election effort. The experience told me that there is always much to play for, whatever the apparent odds. I found a great similarity with the Blackmore Vale. There were strong echoes at the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show in August: a rural community that wants to have the wherewithal to get on and create its own better future and to lose the constraints of a centralising bureaucracy and top-down diktat. The low points of the year were the events that gave us three PMs within a month and a half, ending up with someone with no mandate whatsoever outside the House of Commons. Yes, there is now a sensible, if managerialist, pair at the helm. The besetting sins of managerialism are that you believe you have a right to be in charge, have a right to say what gives and have a tendency to disregard the views of workforce and shareholders alike.

Does the cap fit? Is this sustainable? Is it even democratic? The questions of our age ...

A broken dozen

We are likely to see a continuing focus on inflation which has now probably peaked. Success will be claimed even though prices will remain at their new

higher levels. The underlying reality is that heating our homes has become a luxury, buying a home has become even more of a stretch for the young, travelling to work chews up a greater proportion of our income than ever and a decent diet is beyond the less advantaged. Who would have thought it after 12 years of a Conservative government?

We also have broken systems in health, social care, the railways and the Royal Mail. The issues are not just about pay; they are about long-term viability, about the motivation, energy and productivity of the people involved. Add in the fragmentation of the Union as a result of Brexit and you get a very sorry overall picture of incompetence and failed dogma. Looking ahead, though, a different kind of government is available.

You see it everywhere the Liberal Democrats are at work – an approach based on listening, understanding and caring. On building for the future, harnessing creativity and creating opportunity and fairness for everyone. Both Tory and Labour depend on narrow views and the dividing lines between have and have not, city and countryside, north and south … inevitably, the solutions from either side are demonstrably and palpably polarised.

In the face of global warming we have Putin, Xi, an inward-looking USA and an arms-length EU. It won’t do. Our best chance is to come together and develop a broad, unifying and more effective way ahead for the good of everyone: broadly based and unifying. Unifying, above all.

Mike Chapman for Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale

A very sorry overall picture of incompetence and failed dogma

Are those fresh green shoots of hope?

Generally I consider myself towards the glass-half-full end of the spectrum, but I must admit the events of last year had me beginning to doubt my sanity in seeing any reason for optimism. However, there are some encouraging signs for hope. Perhaps even, dare I say, the metaphorical green shoots of spring?

One is a positive shift in some of the right-leaning media, away from simple outraged condemnation of environmental protests and towards an acceptance that the climate and environmental crisis is real and must be addressed urgently.

In a recent Times column, for example, the writer admits to having fumed at environmental protesters blocking roads and throwing food at artworks, but reflects that he now realises

that they are entirely right to be concerned, and that their cause is actually everybody’s cause. He highlights the gulf between what almost every government agrees needs to happen, and what they are actually doing, our own government included.

Another positive note has been HSBC saying it will stop funding new oil and gas fields, and that it will expect more information from energy clients about their plans to cut carbon emissions.

Hopefully it will not be just another example of corporate greenwashing.

The innate decency of humans

Something that gives me particular cause for hope is the fact that although we humans can be thoughtless, selfish, greedy and sometimes

downright barbaric, we also have a huge capacity for caring and compassion. Where I live in Hazelbury Bryan, the community response during the COVID pandemic focussed on the Red Barn village store, where the proprietors Tara and Darren packed up regular supplies of food and other items for a team of willing volunteers to deliver to residents who were unable to collect for themselves.

Looking forwards

This new year will be what we collectively make of it – we all have a part to play. Let’s look out for those in need, some of whom may face greater challenges than we do, but find it difficult to ask for help. And let’s stay focussed on our capacity to care, both for our fellow humans and the natural world we all share and depend on.

Ken Huggins for the North Dorset Green Party

After 12 years, we’ve all had enough

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Rishi Sunak and Co stood on their doorsteps every Thursday night along with the rest of us, applauding NHS workers for keeping us all safe during the pandemic. But following the largest strike in the history of the NHS in December, with the promise of more to come, the Prime Minister and his cronies are showing their true colours by snubbing and scapegoating the same hardworking people they once cynically lauded as heroes for their own political advantage.

Key workers from the NHS, Royal Mail and the railways are not just

fighting for a pay packet that will put food on the table and pay rising energy bills. They’re also fighting to protect the services they provide and the safety of the people who rely on them.

In the case of NHS workers, it’s the NHS itself that they are fighting for.

The response from the Tories has not been to enter into dialogue with workers and acknowledge their legitimate concerns about the rising cost of living and degradation of services. Instead it has been to try to blame them for an NHS crisis born of 12 years of ideological spending cuts and

their total loss of control over a broken UK economy plagued by inflation.

Fat cats not tired nurses

With the cost of energy bills, the weekly shop, filling up your car, rents and mortgages all going up, the only thing that isn’t is wages. Already-squeezed people are being put under ever more pressure. Meanwhile, big energy predicts £170bn in ‘excess profits’ over the next couple of years, with a further £33bn predicted for City bankers. It doesn’t take Carol Vorderman to work out that it is fat cat profits and not nurses pay that is at the root of our current inflationary woes.

Pat Osborne for North Dorset Labour

With a resolution to paint more in 2023, Edwina Baines starts the New Year’s art column by exploring some local options for anyone with similar plans

My New Year resolutions are generally entirely unachievable, and if I’m honest are usually broken just a few weeks into January. Alongside the usual lose weight / get fit / be happy, I am going to add one more this year –to paint more.

As an amateur artist (or, as a friend labelled me, a ‘dabbler’), I have been attending art classes for more than ten years and I find that there are many benefits. Drawing and painting on your own are fine, but it’s easy to get distracted. An art class is a perfect way to switch off from the world for an hour or two in a sociable atmosphere. Drawing is a powerful tool of

Contact Edwina with art news and events on edwina@theblackmorevale.co.uk

‘It wasn’t until I joined this class that I realised I could paint’

Highland cattle – one of Jake Winkle’s Zoom workshop paintings

Clare Shepherd (left) discussing work with a student. All images - Edwina Baines

communication. It helps build self-understanding and can boost health. Research shows that both physical and mental health improve when people draw for set periods. In a similar way to meditation, blood pressure drops and tension fades away – plus it ignites your creativity. With regular practice, you may find yourself occasionally melting into states of ‘flow’, becoming wholly absorbed. A small, regular pocket of time to temporarily escape the busy world and enter a flow state via drawing may help you in other parts of your life.

But our current focus on productivity, outcomes and ‘talent’ has us thinking about it the wrong way. Too many believe the myth of ‘I can’t draw’, when in fact it’s a skill built through practice. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you progress when taught by an experienced teacher in a group. You will find that you begin to look at famous artists’ work in galleries in a different way and your appreciation and understanding of art improve.

Procrastination is the biggest enemy of the artist, so make your New Year’s resolution to finally start that art project you have been postponing! We are lucky to have a huge range of local teachers providing different ways to immerse yourself, either as a beginner or a more experienced artist.

Local Classes

One experienced teacher, Deborah Chisman, initially trained as a fashion illustrator at Epsom School of Art and Design but has been teaching adult art classes for the past thirty years, running morning and afternoon classes in Durweston and Marnhull. The sessions run throughout the year and a

structured timetable is provided with details of the subject matter and any materials that may be needed.

There is a demonstration at the start of the session and Deborah encourages artists to develop their personal projects as well. Everyone in the class was enthusiastic and appreciative of her approach: ‘She is so encouraging without being patronising.’ ‘Everyone ends up with something slightly different.’ ‘Coming to the class gives me the motivation I need’. ‘My school report for art said “lacks ability” and it wasn’t until I joined this class that I realised I could paint.’

Deborah says: ‘There are so many people who want a structured, taught session. Some people like a project and a handout but those who have been painting for years may go off at a tangent and do something different. What works well in the group is showing our work at the end of the class –other artists’ creations may spark an idea in somebody else.’ facebook.com/deb. artforeveryone

Clare Shepherd studied at The Slade School of Fine Art where she was The Slade Prizewinner for her graduating year and she exhibits regularly. Clare taught

Deborah Chisman (standing) overseeing work at one of her classes.

for the Dorset Adult Education Service and Bath University for many years and now runs courses and classes privately in Blandford and Stourpaine. She said ‘I am very interested in what each student can do and how they find their inner resource. Everything that each person does is valid and everyone goes through their own typical artistic angst! It is part of the artist’s journey – if we were happy with our painting all the time, we might become complacent. The best paintings are ones you have to struggle over; to push yourself. It’s all about good thinking.’

One of her pupils said: ‘Clare is so encouraging that I’m motivated to try even harder and not worry so much about the outcome. The process becomes more important.’ See details of Claire’s classes here.

Zoom workshops

Renowned Blandford artist Jake Winkle runs online watercolour workshops via Zoom. We all became accustomed to Zoom during lockdowns and it means you can watch the demonstration live from the comfort of your own home. Jake gives a full watercolour demonstration and talks students through all the required techniques. including ‘warm up’ painting exercises to prepare for their own painting. He holds around 20 sessions per year, and if you are busy on the day, Jake sends

One of Clare Shepherd’s students at work

Ali Board using the big screen to demonstrate techniques during a workshop

> S h o r t a n d l o n g - t e r m s t o r a g e s o l u t i o n s w h e t h e r y o u a r e m o v i n g h o u s e , r e n o v a t i n g o r j u s t n e e d t o s t o r e y o u r c o l l e c t i o n

> P e r s o n a l i s e d s p a c e t a i l o r e d t o y o u r n e e d s , f r o m g e n e r a l a r t s t o r a g e f o r c r a t e d a r t w o r k t o b e s p o k e a r t r a c k i n g s e r v i c e s i n a c l i m a t e c o n t r o l l e d r o o m a t c o m p e t i t i v e r a t e s

> W e o f f e r a f u l l a r t i n s t a l l a t i o n a n d d e - i n s t a l l a t i o n s e r v i c e f o r g a l l e r i e s a n d p r i v a t e c l i e n t s

> I f y o u a r e a r e s e l l e r o r a r t i s t l o o k i n g f o r o r d e r c o m p l e t i o n s e r v i c e s i n c l u d i n g p a c k i n g a n d s h i p p i n g

F o r f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n i n c l u d i n g c o n s e r v a t i o n , r e s a l e a n d q u o t e p l e a s e c o n t a c t u s : i n f o @ m w a r t s e r v i c e s . c o m

S p e c i a l i s t s i n S t o r a g e , T r a n s p o r t , I n s t a l l a t i o n , C o n s e r v a t i o n a n d R e s a l e

each participant a seven-day link to the recording of the event, which is an ideal way of replaying the workshop and having a go at the painting in your own time. jakewinkle.co.uk/onlinedemonstrations-tutorials

Painting holidays

Author and TV artist Marilyn Allis runs workshops and Zoom classes from her newly refurbished farm studio in Briantspuddle. At time of writing she was about to leave to teach watercolour painting for three months on a cruise ship, travelling to Australia and New Zealand. She said: ‘All artists at one time or another will feel the need for inspiration and motivation and what better way than immersing yourself in a painting break? This is a great way to rejuvenate and develop your art. It’s a really good thing to never be satisfied with your paintings, it spurs you on to be better. If you think your paintings are perfect, you have stopped learning.’ Marilyn’s Art Holidays are run from a Bournemouth hotel with studios overlooking the sea. Participants receive help and guidance from three professional artists, covering different techniques and subject matter. marilynallis.com/welcome/

Workshops

Born and brought up in Dorset, Ali Board had dreams of becoming a dancer but changed course to join the family art materials and framing business. Now married and the proud owner of an expanding menagerie of animals, she spends every day painting, photographing and inventing new creative ideas to pass on to her students around the world. Join one of her workshops and you can spend an entire day working on a project with Ali’s expert tuition and positive guidance. The Stourpaine village hall workshops last approximately six hours, with no more than 14 attendees, meaning there is plenty of time for individual attention. The sessions are aimed at beginners, intermediates, or those who have had a break from painting and want to re-discover their skills. Her step-by-step style of teaching means that everyone can see each process before trying it for themselves. Ali films as she works, and streams the video to a big screen so that students not seated up close can see in the finest detail what is happening as she speaks. She has a relaxed and informal teaching style that the class evidently enjoyed. Ali says ‘my workshops are aimed at encouraging students to find their own way through a painting, making them more selfsufficient artists in the future.’ learningtopaint.co.uk/alison-c-board

Marilyn Allis ready for a Zoom workshop

Jake Winkle during one of his Zoom lessons

Are you ready for Dorset’s first country show of 2023?

With over 10,000 visitors throughout the weekend, the inaugural Spring Countryside Show in 2022 beat everyone’s expectations (you can read the BV’s review of it here).

Organised by the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Agricultural Society, the 2023 event promises even more rural activities and events. Giles Simpson, show chairman, said: ‘The Spring Countryside Show is all about bringing spring in the countryside to life. It’s a deliberately family-friendly event, with a chance to get close to a whole host of animals and learn more about rural ways of life. Being the earliest show in the county, it’s also a great way of celebrating the arrival of spring after a long, drab winter.’

The event will once again showcase a range of traditional rural crafts including wood carving, a farrier, heavy horse logging, gun dog displays and terrier racing plus the dedicated Farmyard Area which is full of animals to meet.

The Sheep Show was the surprise hit of 2022, and by popular demand they will of course be

back. There are rumoured to be promises of a ‘Strictly Come Sheep Dancing’ show – would you give them a 10?

No show is complete without a fun fair, of course, plus working steam engines and classic cars. New for this year is the Funky Festival Area where live music, food stands and a bar will be open right through to 10pm on the Saturday evening.

The Spring Countryside Show is on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd April. Tickets are on sale

now (early bird price is £10 adults, children go free). The organisers are always on the lookout for more exhibitors if you have a craft or tradition you can demonstrate. For details on how to exhibit or to buy your early bird ticket, go to springcountrysideshow.co.uk or telephone 01747 823955.

After the wildly successful launch of the Spring Countryside Show last year, it is back at the Turnpike showground in April

Jonathan Marshall’s 2022 horseback falconry display

The 2022 Spring Countryside Show fairground

The Everlys & Friends SAT 14th JAN

The UK’s No 1 Tribute to The Everly Brothers. Singing all your favourite hits, never losing the heart warming magic Also starring Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis

BACK INTO HELL FRI 27th JAN

Let us take you Back Into Hell, where Rock and Roll dreams come true, with this 2 hour extravaganza celebrating the iconic music of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman.

COLDPLACE FRI 10th FEB

The World’s Leading Tribute to Coldplay is a stunning live concert performance, celebrating the music of one of the most successful bands of all time. The only tribute to have worked for Coldplay, this outstanding band leads you through all your favourite Coldplay hits from the last 20+ years

dS:uK

SAT 25th FEB

DS:UK have become THE Dire Straits tribute act that the fans deserve – delivering the music with an attention to detail that few tribute bands strive for. The ON anoTHEr NIGHT show is DS:UK’s third tour, representing the final era of Dire Straits’ phenomenal career

DANCE COMEDY GALLERY

CAFE

THEATRE MUSIC CINEMA VENUE HIRE

This month’s news from the unofficial capital of the Blackmore Vale...

Wine, weddings and work in Stur

1855 is Stur’s new shopping experience with more than 40 different local artisans selling their wares. The first of our new monthly ‘wine tasting and meet the traders’ event is on 27th January, from late afternoon until 8.00 p.m. Do come and try the delicious hand-picked range of wines from small vineyards with resident experts from Wolf Wines. Don’t be put off by Tim Burr lounging beside the door outside – he’s a local lad and very friendly.

Do the shopping rounds

Nest time you are in Stur, come and see what household treasures you can find at The Emporium – including our fascinating art gallery upstairs, Dapper Chaps men’s clothes and the furniture showroom in the former Barclays Bank. Maybe you still need that new spring outfit at a fraction of the usual cost – come and indulge in the PreLoved Boutique.

Thank you

The team would like to thank all those who supported the two day Christmas event (so long ago in November!). The the sale of all your pre-loved goods in the SturAction shops, plus sponsorship from local businesses, paid for the town’s lovely Christmas tree, for the installation of all the little trees and helped towards the cost of the ice rink. Thank you also to everyone who

The new ‘wine tasting and meet the traders’ event in 1855 is on 27th January, from late afternoon until 8.00p.m

came to enjoy themselves and especially to Father Christmas and his Elves. Hopefully we will do it all again next year – even better!

Dates for the diary:

• Wedding Fair

4th February 10am to 2pm

Sturminster Newton invites couples & families to a unique town event, where they can discover enticing offers for all occasions. Visit wedding and special occasions exhibitors in The Exchange – everything you need to make your event wonderful. Then follow the trail through Sturminster Newton and visit the wedding exhibitions in some of our independent shops on your way to St. Mary’s to view the wedding dress display.

• North Dorset Schools Career Day 9th March, 10am to 6pm

Calling all Dorset employers! Exhibit for free and showcase your key roles, apprenticeships, and career progression. Meet and engage with young people from five schools in years 8 to 11. The twilight session is open to other schools, year groups and parents. The event will be at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton, and you can register as an exhibitor here.

Britain’s most haunted house? Possibly not

As Dorset manor houses go, mid-16th century Sandford Orcas Manor near Sherborne is among the most exquisite in the county. Google it, however, and it’s not its fine Tudor architecture that makes the headlines but its reputation as a haven for ghosts and poltergeists.

Top hit from my search took me to the Haunted Britain and Ireland website, which describes Sandford Orcas as ‘an eerie-looking building, the grey stone walls of which give the appearance of being every inch the haunted house of tradition’.

‘Indeed,’ the site adds, ‘so many ghostly tales swirl around it that many people consider it the most haunted house in England. Intrepid ghosthunters really have their work cut out with the 14 ghosts that are

said to reside there.’

Around 40 years ago, I was privileged to attend committee meetings of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society at Sandford Orcas Manor, whose future owner, Sir Mervyn Medlycott, happened to be our founder and chairman.

A modern history

It was from him that I learned that there was a rather more down-to-Earth story behind the house’s reputation as ‘the most haunted house in Britain’.

The tale dates back to the period from 1965 to 1978, when Mervyn’s uncle Sir Christopher Medlycott, the eighth baronet, leased the house to Colonel and Mrs Francis Claridge. From the start, the Claridges claimed to have heard the

sounds of ‘beautiful music’ from a spinet or harpsichord and the noise of footsteps, voices and moving furniture.

They described various ghostly figures, including one lady in red and another in white, a young woman in black, a farmer in a white smock, a young man looking at a stained-glass window, a screaming sea cadet, an Elizabethan walker ... and a fox terrier!

As time went on, the spooky sightings became ever more bizarre. There was the story of the ghostly priest who tried to smother guests with his cloak. Even more sinister was the tale of a lanky Georgian footman, who had allegedly preyed on serving wenches when alive but in death smelt of decaying flesh and would not appear to any woman who was not a virgin.

To support these stories, Colonel Claridge produced a succession of witnesses and back-up stories. The man in the smock was said

In this month’s Looking Back column, Roger Guttridge questions the spooky stories that have long been associated with Sandford Orcas Manor

... A lanky Georgian footman who had preyed on serving wenches and in death smelt of decaying flesh ...

Sandford Orcas Manor near Sherborne has, since the 1960s, had a reputation as one of the UK’s most haunted buildings

to be the ghost of James Davidge, a tenant farmer, who allegedly hanged himself under the gatehouse arch.

The young screaming sea cadet was said to have been confined to his room for life after killing a fellow cadet while at Dartmouth Naval College.

Former owner Sir Hubert Medlycott was also said to return to haunt his one-time abode.

Paying guests

The Claridges’ claims attracted national headlines, which in turn lured an ever-growing stream of paying visitors to Sandford Orcas. The tenants said they were raising money to build a cancer research laboratory.

The visitors included Britain’s most famous ghost-hunter, Peter Underwood, founder of the Ghost Club, who led a coach party to Dorset in 1975. ‘Colonel Claridge and his wife entertained the party with some fantastic stories,’ Underwood reported.

‘The huge gargoyles on each gable laughed in the moonlight; there was the sound of rattling chains every night; there was a room in which it was impossible to take a photograph; there was a phantom that appeared regularly seven nights running each year; a room that screamed;

a room where “every night a man parades up and down, his footsteps heavy and clear…”’

In his next sentence, Underwood got to the point. ‘Unfortunately,’ he wrote, ‘the ghosts multiplied to such an extent that credulity was stretched beyond breaking point; erroneous dates and “facts” were paraded; dubious photographs were exhibited; publicity was welcomed …’

The Ghost Club’s president was one of a growing army of sceptics, among whom were the Medlycotts themselves.

In 2009, when I interviewed Sir Mervyn for my book Paranormal Dorset, he made it clear he was tired of the whole business and I promised to try and put the record straight. ‘People keep asking if they can hold allnight vigils here but the whole thing was made up,’ the ninth baronet told me.

‘I think some apparitions are genuine and I wrote in my history of the village about the figure of a woman seen at the Mitre Inn. ‘But the stories of the Manor started and finished with the Claridges, and there have been further stories made up by journalists since to keep the ball rolling.

‘Claridge needed to get more visitors to the house and this was a nice, cheap way of doing it.’

Sir Mervyn humorously added that Colonel Claridge, who died more than 30 years ago, was ‘six feet under in the churchyard and hasn’t appeared himself yet’.

Sir Mervyn himself sadly died in 2021, aged 74.

• Roger Guttridge’s book Paranormal Dorset includes a chapter on Sandford Orcas Manor.

Roger welcomes questions and comments - roger.guttridge@btinternet.com

... Sounds of ‘beautiful music’ from a harpsichord and of footsteps, voices and moving furniture ...

Sandford Orcas Manor’s gatehouse, where tenant farmer James Davidge was supposed to have hanged himself

Sandford Orcas Manor as it was in the 60s, the time of Colonel Claridge. Image: Barry Cuff collection.

Granddad George’s Gillingham hotels

A trip to Gillingham for this month’s Then And Now, where Roger Guttridge discovers an Olympic champion’s unlikely connection with North Dorset hostelries

Sports fans in their late 60s or older will remember Mary Rand as one of Britain’s greatest female athletes. But how many know of her connection to a couple of North Dorset hotels? Mary (née Bignal) was born and brought up at Wells, Somerset, won an athletics scholarship to Millfield School and at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics became the first British woman to win Olympic gold in a track and field event. She actually won three medals – gold with a world record in the long jump, silver in the pentathlon and bronze in the 4x100m relay.

The Royal Hotel in Newbury c. 1920. The garden to the left is now part of Bracher Brothers, the funeral directors. Picture from Around Gillingham by David Lloyd

The Royal Hotel in about 1900. Note the two lions on the portico. Picture from the Barry Cuff Collection

Flats now stand on the site of the old Royal Hotel. Picture by Roger Guttridge

Her (admittedly tenuous!) connection with the Blackmore Vale is that her grandfather George Bignal owned two of Gillingham’s leading hotels – the Royal and the South Western. Both hotels were spawned by the coming of the railway, which arrived in 1859.

In fact, the Royal was originally called the Railway Hotel, despite being in the area of Newbury, a tidy stroll from the station.

In 1889, it was owned by Frank Ford, who made a point of stressing that it was ‘within three minutes’ walk of the London & South Western Railway’ (L&SWR).

It was also a posting house and offered billiards and pool. By 1895, it had become the Royal Hotel and George Bignal was the owner.

It did not close until 2005 but was subsequently demolished and the site redeveloped as flats. The developers and local planners deserve credit for making an effort to build the flats in a similar style.

It is a shame they couldn’t find a spot for the two lions that once

graced the portico. Locals will already be familiar with Bignal’s other hotel which was, ironically, barely a stone’s throw from the station, built on land bought from the L&SWR.

The South Western’s prime site made it eminently accessible to train passengers, especially commercial travellers. They were able to hire carriages and traps from the hotel to take them to neighbouring towns and villages.

The South Western also cashed in on its proximity to Gillingham’s market yards.

On market days it would be

crowded with farmers and livestock dealers, who could rely on the hotel staff to look after their horses.

The building to the right in the c. 1900 picture above was the Market Hall, which was also used for public meetings and was the town’s first cinema, the Electric Palace. George Bignal owned the hotel around this time and issued his own public house tokens, a form of inhouse currency.

Unlike the Royal, the South Western is still standing by the station, but has long since been converted to flats.

The South Western Hotel c. 1900. Picture from the Barry Cuff Collection

The South Western survives today as flats. Picture by Roger Guttridge

Postcards from a Dorset Collection

The BV first featured Barry Cuff’s collection in The Gardener with 10,000 postcards in April 2022. In the first of a new series, the local postcard collector – and The BV’s allotment columnist – shares a selection of images from his archive. This month Barry has picked the French photography and publishing firm Levy & Sons LL.

Portland Harbour

French company Levy and Sons first produced postcards for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and by 1901 they were selling postcard views of Paris, Boulogne and other French channel ports. In 1904 the company sent photographers to England, where they photographed views of the South Coast and London. In Dorset they covered Swanage, Corfe Castle, Wareham, Wimborne, Weymouth and Portland. All the cards were numbered, and the postcards were ready for sale in 1905.

This month our submissions pile was the largest - and best - we’ve ever had. We simply couldn’t fit in everyone who deserved to be featured, so we will create a gallery on our Facebook page of the entire shortlist this month – please do go and enjoy them all. We welcome photography submissions from readersthe only rule is that they must have been taken locally in the last month. Our cover shot is usually selected from our submissions pile. If you’d like to join in, please share it in the BV community Facebook Group or simply email it – photos@ theblackmorevale.co.uk.

Trees (Tim Burton edit) Paul Waterkeyn

Frosty waters

Nicky Newman

Shoveler take off Carl Bovis

Snow Hare

Graham Bannister

Frosty robin Tracy Whincup

The old quarry Jeff Laidler

On reflection Jim Gardner

Quarr Ridge Emily Carr

Sunbathing Jay Stonard

Bearded tit Claire Norris

Lesser Redpoll at Duncliffe John Bishop

Kingfisher Danny Howe

I’m a bit partial to a solar eclipse

A belated Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all you avid astronomers out there – and congratulations on another successful full orbit around our Sun!

Did you know, it takes 365 days for our Earth to orbit our Sun (a calendar year), but that a galactic year (the time it takes for our Sun to complete one full orbit around the galactic centre of our Milky Way galaxy) takes 250 million years. This means the last time our solar system was hurtling at 514,000 mph through this exact part of space, the dinosaurs walked the Earth.

I find that mind-blowing!

I had hoped to share this month’s image in the build up to Christmas, but alas, I was only able to capture it a week before Christmas Day. This is the very aptly named NGC 2264 Cone Nebula, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. For the very obvious reason that it looks quite like a Christmas Tree in certain orientations. For this image I chose to deviate from

any standard colour palettes, so please forgive the artistic licence with these green and brown tones. But for the festive season I really wanted to isolate the tree structure from the rest of the nebula. All of the objects within this cluster are located in the Monoceros constellation around 2,300 light years from Earth. Due to its relative proximity and large size, it has been extremely well studied. Astronomer William Herschel discovered the cluster itself in January 1784, and then went on to locate a section of the glowing cloud about two years later at Christmas time.

This image was captured with the Skywatcher 190MN Maksutov Newtonian Telescope and the ZWO asi2600mm Pro Astro camera with narrowband filters. That’s right, folks (look away now, anyone who’s not already in the hobby), I’ve gone mono! Its been quite a learning curve with the very few clear skies we’ve enjoyed since I acquired the camera, but its already producing fantastic results!

The night sky, January 2023 – Rob’s guide for your stargazing this month:

There is only one object that everyone is excited about this month – a brand new comet for us to observe in the night sky for the next few months. There’s talk of it being visible with the naked eye! It might not be quite as spectacular as Comet Neowise back in 2020, but it will pass us by much closer and it will have a tail we can see. Initial observations identified the object as an asteroid but subsequent observations revealed a very condensed coma. This indicated that the object was in fact a comet. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was spotted as a very faint 17.3 magnitude smudge in the constellation of Aquilla. The 1.2m telescope at Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is ordained with the comet’s discovery. What is remarkable about this comet is that it last appeared in our skies 50,000 years ago, when Neanderthals roamed the Earth. If our ancestors did see it, I wonder what they thought it might be – this strange new object above their heads? C/2022 E3 will pass within 26 million miles of Earth on 1st February, at which point it should be visible to the naked eye. Look towards the constellations Draco and Ursa Minor for a faint smudge as it transits across the sky.

No prizes for guessing what I’ll be trying to capture for next month’s edition!

In other planetary news... Orion, one of my favourite constellations, stands out this month as it’s been steadily rising earlier and higher in our night sky throughout December. Orion’s Belt is easy to spot, made up of the bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, which are more than 1,200 light years away. Despite the large distance, these stars appear so bright to us because they outshine our own Sun by 200,000 times. Look carefully below the Belt to spot a faint patch of light representing Orion’s sword. This is the great Orion Nebula, a hugely beautiful structure of incandescent gas, 24 light years in diameter. At the heart of the nebula is a birth-place of new stars, created from a dark cloud of dust and gas. Other spectacular shows in our night sky this month include the planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. If you are keen on spying the planets in our local neighbourhood, take a stroll out at dusk on 23rd January and look low towards the south west to see the thinnest crescent Moon in formation with Venus, the evening star, and fainter Saturn.

On 25th January, Jupiter appears above the crescent Moon, superceded by Mars on the 30th which will lie above the Moon with the star Aldebaran to the left and the beautiful Pleiades (The Seven Sisters) to the lower right.

Some clear skies towards the end of December meant astrophotographer Rob Nolan finally managed to capture a much-wanted Christmas tree

This comet last appeared in our skies 50,000 years ago, when Neanderthals roamed the Earth

Take a Hike: Forgotten lanes between Shaftesbury and Sturminster

Newton | 6.3 miles

Unusually for us this one includes quite a bit of lane walking – but the roads are so quiet it was an enjoyable way to slowly appreciate unexpected corners that we regularly whizz past in the car. The backtracking in the middle is worth it – the obvious alternative path down to Blackven Common would mean walking along the B3091, a very busy narrow road. Instead, explore the quiet lanes and just double back for a short stretch for a far more relaxed circuit. Also be careful as you emerge from the little copse to cross the B3091 for the first time – it’s a surprisingly fast road, and you come out on a bend so it’s very difficult to see traffic approaching. Listen carefully! The Fontmell Magna village website has a fascinating and detailed history of Hartgrove and its residents at the turn of the 20th century, with some early photographs of cottages you will pass on this walk – it is definitely worth a read.

There is parking at St Margaret’s Church (we walked the route a week before Christmas, and the organist was practising carols – sadly I can’t guarantee you a similarly magical start).

We have always created and recently walked the routes we feature (See all previously published routes here), so you know you can trust them. We aim for unpopulated routes with no roads and BIG VIEWS! You can see all our routes (including many which are unpublished in The BV) on Outdoor Active, and all include a downloadable gpx file. All images © Laura Hitchcock

The route explores typical North Dorset farmland, with a view across the Blackmore Vale, ringed by the surrounding hills

We were treated with surprise views across the Blackmore Vale without feeling like we’d done the climb to earn them

The stroll down the lane to Hartgrove

The (frozen!) original mill pond sluice at Hartgrove was a lovely discovery

Oatally delicious breakfasts

It’s that time of year again, when we feel driven to make a healthy new start after an indulgent Christmas break. These two recipes take a handful of simple ingredients to make a delicious breakfast that is still full of flavour.

I often choose to use gluten-free oats and dairy-free milks too, really stripping them back to let the beauty of the fresh (or frozen) fruits shine through. Heather x

Coconut Granola

(makes enough for six to eight breakfasts)

This recipe makes the perfect addition to some yoghurt and fresh fruit. It is simple to make and uses basic ingredients, but packs a flavour punch! You can add to/change the coconut for any nuts of choice and you can easily add any dried fruit once the granola has been baked.

• 450g bag of oats (I use gluten-free but any kind works. Oats that are milled so the flakes are still quite large tend to make better granola than the small flakes).

1. Preheat the oven to about 180 º (gas 6).

• 2 heaped tablespoons (ish) of coconut oil (in its solid state)

• 100g (ish) maple syrup

• 1 bag of desiccated coconut

2. Line a pan with baking parchment. I use a 9” x 13” cake pan which is about 1” deep.

3. Melt the coconut oil so that it is liquid. Add the coconut oil, maple syrup and desiccated coconut to the oats and stir together until well-combined. Use your hands to really make sure the oil and syrup have coated the oats. You can add more oil and/or syrup if you don’t think you have quite enough to coat the whole mixture.

4. Pour into the tray and place in the oven.

5. Check the oats every 10 minutes, stirring thoroughly each time, until the oats have all gone a pale golden colour. It will take around 30 minutes.

6. Leave to cool. If you store in an air-tight container, it should keep for a good couple of weeks.

7. Simply serve the granola scattered on top of yoghurt and your choice of fresh or cooked fruit for a delicious breakfast, snack or dessert.

Heather Brown is on the committee of the Guild of Food Writers; she is a home economist with a passion for Dorset’s brilliant foodie scene, as well as a dab hand at fixing websites, and with a penchant for taking a good foodie photo.

Heather runs Dorset Foodie Feed, championing Dorset’s food and drink businesses, as well as working one-to-one with clients.

All images: Heather Brown

Almond & Cherry Overnight Oats

(makes enough for four)

This recipe is the ultimate one-size fits all. It doesn’t need to be exactly measured; I simply use half as many oats to the amount of milk, but I also use frozen fruits which tend to add some extra liquid as they thaw. Be confident and adjust as you like, playing with the quantities –especially if you prefer a softer finished product (just add more milk). You can also change the fruit to your own favourite, of course, and this recipe works just as well with fresh fruit (just add a little more milk).

I have opted to use almond milk as I think it complements the flavours, but the recipe works just as well with any kind of milk - oat, nut or cow’s! Previously I have also used hazelnut milk, exchanged the cherries for chocolate chips and finished with some Nutella for a rather more indulgent overnight oats!

• 250g rolled oats

• 500ml almond milk

• a couple of handfuls of frozen cherries

• glug of maple syrup to taste

• 1tsp almond extract

• flaked almonds

1. In a large bowl or tupperware tub, add the rolled oats, almond milk, maple syrup, cherries and almond extract. Stir until well combined and all the oats are fully covered with the liquid.

2. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top, cover the mixture with cling film (or a lid) and place in the fridge overnight. Your oats will be ready for your breakfast in the morning. Just take from the fridge and serve (lovers of hot porridge may prefer to heat it gently first, the choice is, again, yours).

Januarychocolate, marmalade ...and kale?

After the holly jolly frolics of December, January can be a welcome respite. Kick back, slow down, and get back to planning those comforting dishes. Whether you’re tightening your purse strings, embracing Veganuary or simply trying to eat more nutritious, seasonal veg this month, there’s plenty of great food and drink to enjoy. Plus, you can dive into new cookery books that Father Christmas might have tucked into your stocking! It’s definitely the time for warming stews and casseroles so make the most of your local butchers and farm shops for locally-reared meats, game, and some delicious deli. If you’re looking to replace red meat with a healthier alternative, try something different this winter; venison is lean, nutritious and currently in season. There’s a couple of cracking venison recipes on Dorset Food & Drink - venison con carne and venison taco bowls.

Seek the colour

With winter in full swing, you might think the season is lacking in colour, but visit your local market or greengrocers, and you’ll be delighted by the array of beautiful winter fruit and veg. From juicy immunity-boosting grapefruit, clementines, pomegranates, English apples and pears, to beautiful green superfood spinach, kale, and cabbage. How could you not be inspired to eat fresh and seasonal?

Our top picks for your January larder: • Washingpool Farm Shop

• Jurassic Coast Farm Shop

• Bridget’s Market, Bridport Talking of a seasonal colour- here’s a winter treat

that’s worth seeking out. Baboo Gelato’s Orange, Lemon, or Blackcurrant sorbet. Sounds bonkers in the middle of winter, but it’s a crowd-pleaser, especially if you need a lift and something vitamin packed fruity to ease a sore throat. The West Bay or Lyme Regis kiosks are a great way to get your hands on these jewel-like scoops of icy loveliness on a brisk day out, but check out the opening times online and for stockists.

Hola! Its Seville Orange time January can only mean marmalade magic! Bittersweet, three fruit, or classic. You’re sure to find a jar of something yummy to spread on your toast! Browse the range of DF&D members’ preserves, honey, and jams. Or have a go at making some yourself!

Sláinte Mhath

Have a great Burns Night if you celebrate - Sláinte Mhath (good health!) Enjoy traditional Burns night tipples from Morrish & Banham.

Hot, hot hot, hot chocolate!

It’s ‘National Hot Chocolate’ day on January 31. Our picks for the divine drink are Chococo’s 72% Ecuador origin Hot Chocolate Flakes Tin and Deluxe Hot Chocolate Callets from Grounded Coffee. Mmmm ...

Here’s to a gurt lush hug in a mug, and a happy, healthy 2023, filled with love, kindness, and all the good vibes.

Warm wishes from all at Dorset Food & Drink

Caz Richards of Dorset Food & Drink rounds up some of her January favourites to brighten up your plates in the glummest month of the year

The White Horse at Hinton St Mary

It’s a Saturday lunchtime, and there’s a cosy atmosphere in the bar at the White Horse in Hinton St Mary, just outside Sturminster Newton. In the adjacent Inglenook Restaurant area, a family is discussing a forthcoming wedding, and the seats are filling up fast in anticipation of good food. The walls are full of old equestrian prints and some eclectic local history about the Pitt Rivers family in the building that dates back to the 1700s. So what’s the story behind the White Horse?

I spoke to Barney Hibbert, the landlord, to find out a bit more about the pub.

How did you get started?

‘I wanted to be closer to family in Dorset (he was based in Wales), and I saw this as an opportunity to be closer to them. In 2021 I came to a

couple of functions here at the Tithe Barn to see how the weddings work and then I moved in May. We opened the White Horse with a soft opening that month and then opened properly from 1st June. I realised the pub had special potential, so I was really attracted to the project.’

Tell me about the team. ‘We employ all local people. There are three in the kitchen and ten front-ofhouse staff from the village. I’m the chef.’ But not just any chef. Among his several awards, Barney won the Welsh Sustainable Restaurant of the Year Award three years running with his Barry restaurant, The Gallery. He also won Best Restaurant at the South Wales

Echo Food and Drink Awards. What about local suppliers?

‘We get our bread from Oxford’s Bakery. The meat comes from a local farm –either Shepherd’s Farm or Primrose Farm. Our Ruby Red beef comes from Somerset. We make our own ice cream.’

And what’s really popular at the moment?

‘Well, we change the menu quite a lot as we use seasonal ingredients. For example, Jerusalem artichokes are in season right now. We have wild mushroom gnocchi and a lot of game at the moment. The orange and almond cake on the menu smells very festive.’ (the Thai green chicken curry was delicious, by the way).

What’s been the biggest challenge?

‘We started from nothing, so we had to build up a trade

A Welsh chef with a passion for brewing beer is building a reputation for his food at the White Horse in Hinton St Mary. Rachael Rowe reports

He won the Welsh Sustainable Restaurant of the Year Award three years in a row

here. But we are gaining momentum. There are not many people in the village itself, so we are aware we need to attract people from further away.’

And what are you most proud of so far?

Barney laughs and says: ‘Sarah! She manages the whole front of house.’ I noticed that Sarah has an incredible way of making everyone welcome. There is even more to be proud of. Barney says: ‘We have our own beers on tap. So our range is a bit different to the usual ones you find in a tied pub. Our beer is from the Well Drawn Brewing Company in Wales, including a Bedwas Bitter. I also own the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, and the beers are on tap. There are other beers as well but we always have something a little different here.’

It transpires that Barney’s list of accolades also include awards for brewing real ale at his two breweries.

What’s next?

‘Firstly, consolidation of the work so far and taking time to review things. We will be having pop-up pizza nights and pub quizzes. We’re also trying to be consistent with the opening times, so people

get used to our hours. And of course, we want to engage more with the local community. We want people to know they can just drop in here for a drink.’

The White Horse at Hinton St Mary is open from Wednesday to Sunday, with opening times displayed on the website. thewhitehorsehinton.co.uk

The Inglenook restaurant at the White Horse

The White Horse has a lovely private dining area

Why not try the one you can’t pronounce?

Happy New Year! I hope you had an enjoyable festive break, and naturally that you enjoyed a glass or two of delicious wine. We certainly made more recommendations for a variety of different foods and occasions throughout December than ever before. In the more than 20 years I’ve been in the wine trade, I have never experienced so much variation in menuplanning for the party season – it was genuinely fun to have a new challenge beyond the traditional Christmas feast. We have had so many letters of thanks to the whole team for their selections, which always makes us happy, and this change in Dorset’s buying habits has really spurred us on for 2023.

Wonderfully eclectic The end of 2022 reassured us that the wine-drinking folk of Dorset are ready for an adventure. We are always asked which area of the wine

producing regions in the world we specialise in and the answer is, quite simply, we don’t. We love wine. We know about wine. We are qualified in wine. We love talking about wine. So an open mind is our policy. Our portfolio has always been eclectic – we have an abundance of classics, but we’re proud to champion the weird and the wonderful too!

As I write this, the team is very busy attending tastings and sampling lots of new products from around the globe.

Those comfortable wines

Producers really have raised the bar and are trying to show an authentic expression of terroir and grape varieties.

I love the fact that we have wines made by really passionate winemakers championing indigenous grapes.

Recently, I was asked to be part of a discussion panel about Portuguese wines, which was open to the wine industry.

One question raised was ‘what is the hardest thing at the moment for Portuguese wines and the industry?’ My response was that most of the native grape varieties are quite hard to pronounce, so we need to break them down phonetically and explain the similarities with other wine grape styles to help customers leave their comfort zone wine choices.

My advice to anyone browsing is to be brave; opt for something a little different, even if you have no idea how to say the name of the grape! It’s the only way to find new taste sensations.

If you fancy trying (well, it is ‘Try–anuary’ after all ..) a Bical, Alfrocheiro or an Encruzado from Portugal, pop in and have a look at our increasing range. Plus, keep your eyes peeled for our popular wine tasting evenings – we have some special guests lined up for 2023.

Cheers! Obrigada! Hannah

This month, expert Hannah Wilkins is ready to move you away from your comfort zone wines and keen to introduce you to exciting new terroir

What a joy to seeing a Dorset Lad go all the way to the finals of Master Chef

Well I don’t know about you but I was so proud of being a Dorset girl, watching a Dorset boy in the finals of Master Chef: The Professionals. In the end, Charlie Jeffreys was a runner up – what a great achievement! Seeing him showcasing wonderful crab and lobster from our shores and so many products from his Dorset upbringing, he was clearly proud of his roots. This was why Love Local Trust Local was founded in 2018 – to help tell the wonderful stories of local businesses, new ones as well as old ones, right here in Dorset. November and December have been busy months for the sponsors and judges, as they have been out visiting the LLTL 2022 awards entries and hearing firsthand the journeys of these businesses.

In it together

At Love Local Trust Local we want to help Dorset businesses promote their produce and support them when needed. It’s very tough at the moment out there in all areas of business, and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to be any easier in 2023.

There are so many wonderful businesses on our doorstep and their stories need to be shared and heard.

Advertising and social media are the answers for businesses to put themselves out there and get themselves known. But it can be hard work and

expensive, especially for the small independent businesses who are trying to make a living. We need a voice to stand up to the big organisations who dictate our prices and make the money whilst our producers struggle to make ends meet. We all need to stick together and feel part of something that we can grow and connect with. No matter where you are, if you need someone to help, we are all part of the ‘love local’ family.

LLTL 2022 awards

On the 9th February our awards ceremony will be held at Kingston Maurward, our very own agricultural college in Dorchester. It’s going to be a night to celebrate our wonderful producers, farmers and fishermen who are working hard, creating and working together to make some of the best produce in England. We look forward to

showcasing our 2022 award winners soon!

On the evening, there will be a dinner followed by the award ceremony. If you would like to come and support our evening or if you would like to get involved and be part of this growing family please contact us on 07831 184920.

Love Dorset

We are so lucky here in Dorset; we have some of the best produce of the country. So let’s all get behind our local businesses that need your support to keep them going, growing and producing for our tables. We should all be buying local where we can –it’s better for our planet, keeps the carbon footprint down and is more sustainable. Love local trust local!

As the Love Local, Trust Local Awards closes, founder Barbara Cossins is excited that the serious business of judging has begun

LLTL judges in action

Devil’s Brook river restoration

Implementing nature-based solutions to reduce the flood risk from surface water and improving water quality and habitat for wildlife are the two main objectives of river restoration work.

Dorset Wildlife Trust’s rivers conservation officer, Stephen Oliver, describes the work involved in the Devil’s Brook project:

‘This exciting partnership project involved two kilometres of river restoration work completed on Devil’s Brook, a 14-kilometre long watercourse rising in the chalk hills near Higher Ansty and flowing south to join the River Piddle near Athelhampton.

Much of the river has, over time, been heavily modified, straightened and over-widened, which has significantly reduced

the habitat quality and biodiversity of the river.’

Fallen trees

Trout Trust, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group Southwest –with the support of Environment Agency and Natural England, has been working with local landowners and managers to

‘A partnership of organisations – including Wessex Water, Wild

This winter, Dorset Wildlife Trust has been deliberately installing dead trees

in a

valley near Ansty,

says

conservation officer Stephen Oliver

The Devil’s Brook river restoration work covers a two-kilometre reach of the river

The Large Woody Debris features under construction in Devils Brook. All images: Stephen Oliver

look at the opportunities to undertake river restoration work.

Trees, whether standing or fallen, provide vital habitat along a watercourse. Unfortunately, modern land management practices mean that fallen trees are often removed. Our Rivers and Wetlands team, with the help of local land managers, trustees and Wessex Water volunteers, have installed 33 Large Woody Debris (LWD) features along a two-kilometre targeted reach to replicate fallen trees. The LWD consists of locally-sourced trees of different shapes that are positioned in the river and pinned in place using chestnut stakes. Fallen trees naturally provide much needed shelter and food for an array of wildlife. But this necessary habitat is often lacking due to our tendency to ‘tidy up’ and remove these features, fearing that they are causing a problem. In fact, nine times out of ten, a fallen tree along a watercourse

causes no hazards and should be left in place to encourage natural processes along our modified rivers and streams.‘

Riffles and scours

‘The LWD features that have been installed will dramatically transform the current uniform habitat (same flow, same depth) in this area – they will physically change water flow and direction. This will allow gravel riffles and scour pools of varying depths to form, increasing the diversity of wildlife that can make its home in and around the river.

‘Dorset Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers working on site were treated to excellent views of kingfishers and dragonflies, who were quick to perch and admire these newly-installed habitat features! Now that the project has been completed, we will be carefully monitoring for changes to the habitat and wildlife abundance in order to see what impact the work has had.’

Find out more about Dorset Wild Rivers: dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/ DorsetWildRivers

The fallen trees were carefully selected and then pinned in place with chestnut stakes

The fallen trees are left and biodiversity will naturally increase as the river’s course becomes less uniform

Hazel catkins are an early source of pollen for bees

Humble catkins

Wildlife writer Jane Adams is trying hard not to be stuck in the January gloom, and instead to look for the signs of new life

It’s a dark, wet, and windy winter day. I sit in my study, sipping a hot mug of tea, listening to the rain clattering on the window. Despite the gloomy weather, I know that just outside, in the hedgerows and woods, new life is stirring. The trouble is, it’s not always easy to see. Last year I tried to go for a halfhour walk every day. But on days like today it usually turns into a quick stomp around the block; head down, collar up, and hands wedged deep into my coat pockets. When I stumble in through the back door and my husband asks if I’ve seen anything on my walk, it’s really no surprise he gets a glare from under my sopping wet fringe. He’s right though – there’s plenty to see if I just look up. January is a time when the stumpy tails of hazel catkins start to lengthen and flower. Each dangling male bloom has around 240 individual flowers, and if you run one through your fingers, it feels like a string of tiny beads. On breezy days, the pepperfine pollen drifts onto neighbouring female flowers, and pollination occurs. Just look further up the same twigs of the dangling clumps of male catkins and you’ll find the delicate, vivid red female blooms

(always above the male flowers to prevent self-pollination).

Though slightly tricky to spot, they’re well worth a look. Later in the year, these little red pollinated flowers will develop into clusters of hazelnuts. The nuts provide food for a myriad of wildlife from the aptly named hazel dormouse to birds such as woodpeckers and nuthatches, who wedge the nuts into tree crevices and use their beaks to crack the hard outer shells to reach the soft, nutritious nuts within. For now, though, the golden catkins cascading from hedgerows onto Dorset’s country lanes are a welcome sight on a cold winter’s day. And if, like me, you’re still stubbornly looking down, try looking under a hazel tree – according to ancient folklore, it’s one of the best places to find a fairy.

Hazel (Corylus avellana)

• Hazel is often coppiced, but when left to grow, trees can reach a height of 12m and live for up to 80 years (if coppiced, hazel can live for several hundred years)

• Hazel was grown in the UK for large-scale nut production until the early 1900s. Cultivated varieties (known as cob nuts) are still grown in Kent, but most of our hazelnuts are now imported.

• As well as its nuts or ‘cobs’, hazel wood can be twisted or knotted, and historically had many uses; thatching spars, net stakes, waterdivining sticks, hurdles and furniture.

• Hazel has a reputation as a magical tree. A hazel rod is supposed to protect against evil spirits, as well as being used as a wand and for water-divining. In some parts of England, hazelnuts were carried as charms and/or held to ward off rheumatism. In Ireland, hazel was known as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’, and in medieval times it was a symbol of fertility.

Each dangling male bloom has around 240 individual flowers

Most people overlook the small red female flowers on the hazel tree Images this page: Jane Adams

Flowery strip in a field of spring barley, hopefully it will be a source of beetle and aphid munchers.

The science of profit

Below left is a screenshot from a clever app which helps us to analyse the outcome of various tramline trials we carried out on the 2022 crops. The yellow/green pattern represents the yield map generated by the combine while harvesting – green is better yield than yellow, with orange and red being progressively worse than yellow. The app – called Climate Fieldview Cab – is from Bayer, one of the big agrichem companies. Love them or hate them, they have the resources to develop clever stuff like this; it’s not always just more chemicals. The app allows you to select any area of the field you like, or individual passes of the combine,

and then tells you the area and yield on that part of the field. So where we have applied a treatment to a particular part of a field – alternate tramlines in this case – we can then measure the effect of the treatment on yield.

The blue pins represent where the tramlines are; I simply walked across the field and added each one in the right place. This helps you to choose the right passes to include in the analysis, and to ignore the ones which run across two treatments.

In this field we were testing a product which is supposed to reduce the amount of nitrogen lost to the atmosphere by converting nitrogen oxide into

plant feed. You can see we found no significant difference in yield between tramline treatments. Elsewhere on the farm we wanted to test our nitrogen fertiliser policy on wheat, so we chose a single tramline in each of four different fields and applied an extra 40kg of nitrogen, then measured the difference using the app. We found that the extra 40kg produced extra yield between five and eight per cent. If you haven’t already dozed off, you may now be asking “so what, it all depends on the value of grain and the cost of the fertiliser” and you would be quite right. It also depends on when you sell the grain and when you

Blandford farmer George Hosford abandons the stats and checks his crystal ball to see if his profit calculations will be accurate this year

buy the fertiliser, and whether you have to borrow the money to do so ... A fair bit of number crunching and crystal ball gazing then needs to happen in order to decide the right approach for next season.

We have already committed to buy next year’s fertiliser, at eye-watering prices. To leave it longer would have been reckless as we might not have been able to secure supply at all. But we are now very dependent on the grain price holding up to make the figures work and for crop growing to remain profitable. The trouble is that over the last six weeks the price of wheat has fallen £50 per ton. That’s making a huge difference to predicted margins, and right now we are not looking so clever (the same as very many other farmers). Anyway, we have the fertiliser in stock and we don’t have to use it all if calculations suggest it won’t pay. We could hold some over for the following year. In any case, we have already had to pay for it a year before we will see any return from selling the grain it generates.

Welcome to the roulette wheel of farming.

The old joke goes “How do you make a million from farming? Start with two million.”

In some sectors, like pigs, poultry and horticulture, that is absolutely the case right now, with energy costs, labour shortage and the intransigence of retailers leading to producers saying “stuff this for a lark, I am not risking another production cycle when the prospects guarantee huge losses”.

They aren’t placing orders for new egg-laying chicks, productive sows are being slaughtered and not replaced, and the horticulture and protected (under glass) sector is reducing output after two years of 30 per cent of unharvested crops, due to lack of labour. The fear is that these producers won’t come back, making the UK ever more dependent on imported food, the opposite of what every food shopper says they want.

The picture on the left illustrates part of the problem. Why does anyone need to import nearidentical overseas products when we produce them here?

Unfriendly destination?

Our production costs are higher even than Europe because of tighter welfare and other regulations and we are now having to pay more for labour thanks to having become an unfriendly destination to foreign workers. So can anyone explain why we need to import Dutch, German or Danish pork loins?

They are all the same price on the shelf. There only seems to be one likely outcome – answers on a postcard please.

And then there are sheep

The above picture shows why we still keep a few sheep. In farming terms they are unproductive, they can denude a landscape with their persistent nibbling, they attract every ailment you can imagine, they get hopelessly stuck on their backs in hot weather, they get stuck in brambles in any weather. Their wool, once the mainstay of our nation’s productive output, and despite its undeniable magical properties, is now a valueless annoyance, and their meat ... well, if you can find any among the bones and fat then you are cleverer than I. However, they do make excellent pets. You can leave them outdoors all year round, they can survive on very little food and don’t drink much water, and you can turn up in the field with a group of tiny schoolchildren and the sheep will gallop towards you in search of titbits.

Once the toast has been distributed most of the sheep wander off, but the best ones remain to entertain the children in the gentlest fashion. The children are mostly fearless, and the sheep reward their bravery with great patience.

A Dorset motorway?

Here’s a horrific notion to get you started for 2023 – should Dorset have a motorway?

Now just hear me out before you smash your phones, tablets and laptops in utter disgust. Growing up in one of the five counties without any stretch of motorway has always been a source of pride for me. But I have been starting to brood on it. And I won’t lie – I am starting to see a few benefits. What if, let’s say, the M3 continued all the way to somewhere like Dorchester? This all started when I saw a few statistics as I rummaged through some government reports. Around 75 per cent of Dorset is used for agriculture, around the national average. However, food production in the county employs fewer than 6,000 people. In 2021 that was less than 10 per cent of the total employed in that sector in the South West. It made me think. We’ve got some amazing food here in Dorset. Could we be doing better at exporting it?

Think about our neighbours in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Their counties are renowned for some amazing agricultural and food products that are sold all over the country – the cheeses, creams, beers and cider that are grown and made there.

Made in Dorset

There are so many amazing foods made in this county, but you don’t really see them further afield. Granted, Clipper Tea is found globally, but the tea isn’t grown in Dorset. Ford Farm’s Coastal Cheddar, Moore’s Biscuits, Capreolus charcuterie and BV Dairy’s creams are a few local products that I can think of that you can find in stores nationally (but of course no one actually knows when they’re buying BV Dairy product from Dorset!).

Admittedly, Cornwall also doesn’t have a motorway and still manages to ship its food and beverages nationally just fine; but they do have the A30 and A38, which both lead straight into the M5. And I don’t mean to break the hearts of big fans of the A35 and the A37 but frankly, they are awful. Especially in the summer. The Romans invaded Maiden Castle and Dorset in 43 AD and occupied the county for more than 300 years. When they left and headed back to Italy all we had to do was tarmac their roads occasionally (and maybe replace the signposts once a century) and we would have been fine!

Only five English counties are entirely without a motorway: Rutland, Suffolk, Norfolk, Dorset and Cornwall

I will admit – before I get chased out of the county by the readership wielding flaming pitchforks – that the A38 from Bridport to Dorchester is stunning on a clear day. But you daren’t overtake anyone on the one stretch of dual carriageway in case a wandering car drifts lanes as the driver looks across Eggardon Hill to the north and the Jurassic coastline to the south. In my head I obviously hate the very idea of a motorway. But I also believe that the rest of the country deserves some of our amazing Dorset produce. If extending the M3 means that Londoners get the experience of the silky smooth taste of Purbeck ice cream then so be it.

I’ll even accept some decent dual carriageways if it means that the north could finally know that a Dorset Knob isn’t just sitting between the legs of the Cerne Giant.

Could there actually be an economic case for ploughing a motorway through Dorset, asks Andrew Livingston

Looking back to move forward

Reflecting on your last growing year should mean a better new season, says flower farmer Charlotte Tombs. Also ... excitement as we start all over again!

New beginnings, new starts, new catalogues, new varieties, new compost, new trays, new gloves, new seed markers, new tools (it’s always their fault) ... they’re all signs of one the things I love most about growing from seed. It’s another chance to try again each year. You can wipe clean all those gardening mishaps and go in with a clean slate; a new approach, a determination to do things better or differently. A bit like Groundhog Day, but with you in control (ish).

I don’t start seed sowing in earnest until February, when the natural light levels improve, but I will sow a few sweetpea seeds somewhere warm this month, and then put them in the greenhouse as soon as they germinate. I might also soak a few anemone or ranunculus corms and claws and get them to sprout, then plant them up and put them in my little zip-up greenhouse next to the back door so I can monitor the new life emerging.

Try those old seeds

I use January as a month to plan and dream ... but, yes, mainly to procrastinate.

Did you know that seed, if stored correctly, only loses 10 per cent of its viability per year? You can do the maths - nine year old seed will have a 10 per cent germination rate! So never give up on an interesting old packet of seeds found in your grandparents drawer; you may just get a successful outcome, even if only partial.

If you can save seed from your own plants, that seed may well grow better for you than purchased seed, as it could have adapted to your soil type and

growing conditions. This is why those self-seeded young plants in your gravel path are often so much healthier than the ones you mollycoddled last year. So check what seeds you have left, pore over those seed catalogues, make a list of everything you want to grow, (also check with a fellow seed geek – you may be able to share or swap seed varieties, or they may have grown it before and it was a waste of space or time). Then, if you are anything like me, you’ll need to cut your list down considerably as you never have as much space as you need for your entire wishlist.

Some gardenkeeping

Use this quiet time to tidy up and organise your seed trays and pots. Use an old brush to clean out all the old soil if they are lying around outside and have been buried under a pile of leaves (like mine). Obviously we were meant to clear up, wash the trays and pots in warm soapy water and put them away for the winter – there may be slugs and snails (or their eggs) hiding, and the last thing you want is a slug

chomping through your newly emerging germinating seeds. I do love the theory, but the practice takes discipline I simply don’t possess. In my defence

I don’t, however, buy new plastic pots; all gardeners have hundreds and they can be reused time and again.

Start journalling

If you haven’t done so, think about keeping a gardening diary, or at least make notes. It really does become a very useful aid and if you have gardening geek tendencies like I do you’ll find it fascinating that last New Year’s Eve the temperature was +14ºC and this new year matched it, but two years ago on New Year’s Eve the temperatures dropped to -3ºC...

I keep a note of when I sowed a seed and when it flowered, but some gardeners go further, recording dates of germination, potting on, planting out, flowering and then when they were ripped up and another flower grown in its place.

The RHS has a great 5 year diary and you can start it at any time in the year.

Charlotte offers workshops throughout the year - please see northcombe.co.uk for further details.

Put in a little winter work now

Gardener Pete Harcom says that January is the perfect time for a little thoughtful planning on how to make the most of your garden this year

The benefits of gardening are well documented nowadays. Stress relief and increased selfesteem are gained from regular gardening sessions, while immunity, heart health and brain health are improved. The risks of stroke or Alzheimer’s are reduced and mental health is significantly boosted. Gardening really is a labour of love that reaps benefits in all areas.

But it can also have an astonishingly positive impact on the environment. A thoughtful gardener can make simple changes which hugely benefit the natural ecosystem.

With that in mind, here are a few ideas for your garden plans in the coming year, along with some general January garden jobs.

Native plants for native wildlife

Consider the wildlife support that native plantings can bring –plants such as pulmonaria, grape hyacinth, Aubretia, primrose, sweet Violet and English bluebell are just some that attract our bees and butterflies. Consider allowing an area of garden to ‘go native’ to attract wildlife – simply let the grass grow, and put up some bird boxes, a hedgehog home or maybe a butterfly house. Do ensure that bird feeders are clean and replenished and water is available, especially in very cold weather.

Don’t bin it!

All decaying leaves should be either cleared up and put on the compost heap or left in a pile somewhere sheltered to provide shelter for hedgehogs and beneficial insects.

While tidying, remember to check that the crowns of herbaceous

January is a good month for some winter pruning

perennials and alpines are not waterlogged under piles of fallen decaying leaves.

A little housekeeping

Winter pruning can still be done on climbing roses, apple and pear trees. Magnolias, Cotinus, Berberis and flowering currants can also be pruned now.

Tall shrub roses will benefit from being reduced in height to reduce wind rock, which can allow water to lie in against the roots.

Clear up the greenhouse, wash all pots and the greenhouse glass (carefully!). Perhaps consider installing automatic vent openers, installing guttering and a water butt to conserve water. Also be sure to cover outside taps with insulation.

Seed time

Now’s the time to order the coveted seeds from the catalogues, but do take a moment to review what worked well in your garden last year (and what didn’t go so well!) and make a new plan of action.

If you order plug plants, ensure they will be hardy, if your greenhouse is not heated or at least insulated.

You can go ahead and sow antirrhinum, Sweet Peas, lobelia, Begonia Semperflorens and geraniums (pelargoniums) now, in gentle heat in the greenhouse or on a windowsill – in a propagator if possible.

New borders

Plan and replant herbaceous borders. Take hardwood cuttings from deciduous shrubs, such as forsythia, willow and viburnum. Peat-free and loam-based composts are readily available and advice can be obtained from garden centre staff.

Consider the soil in your garden –soil testing can help, particularly if you have moved to a new garden or taken on an allotment. Doing a simple test can avoid years of disappointing results!

I find the Mooncity 3-in-1 soil tester is very easy to use.

Again, speak to your local garden centre staff for advice.

The Voice of the Allotment

A look back at a full growing season

At the beginning of December about 30 per cent of our allotment still carried vegetables for winter and spring harvest. The remainder was either growing green manure (15 per cent) or was mulched with manure and homemade compost. With hard frosts forecast we covered the most vulnerable crops with fleece and dug ourselves a good supply of carrots and parsnips. Experience tells us that both are impossible to remove from rock-hard frozen ground!

Under the fleece, the oriental mustards, Chinese cabbage, radicchio, corn salad and winter cress all survived the very low temperatures. However, the celery and some of our caulis did not make it through the 11 days of below zero temperatures. It was not surprising that the celery died as it is not frost hardy (in previous years with little or no frost we have still been harvesting in February). What was strange was the Medallion cauliflower, which was due to be ready in March. At the end of November the plants looked healthy but every one was lost. Something to be researched; we think at the moment that it is boron deficiency combined with the very low temperatures.

A year’s round up

At the end of the year it is always good to look through the allotment diary and see how each vegetable performed through the year:

• Beetroot – we had good yields.

• Brassicas – bad infestations of whitefly, but recovered when the rain started. Main pest was Pigeons. Very few Cabbage White Butterflies.

• Butternut squash – cropped well. Variety was Butterfly.

• Carrots – better establishment than in some years, with excellent yields.

• Celeriac – good yields, survived frost

• Celery – excellent plants but those remaining were lost to frost.

• Courgette – cropped well.

• French and Runner beans – both stopped producing during the worst of the dry weather. Both put on a spurt when the rain came, giving good yields and an extended picking time.

• Leeks – these took well. No Leek Moth!

• Lettuce - did exceptionally well from successional planting from plugs.

• Mangetout peas - good yields from Carouby De Maussane and Purple Magnolia.

• Onions – good establishment from plugs. Very little White Rot. Bulbs were smaller than usual.

• Parsnip - started digging in late November. Excellent roots. The variety was Palace.

• Peas - we suffered with less weevil than previous two years but cropping was shortened by the drought.

• Peppers - both sweet and chilli gave good yields in the greenhouse.

• Potatoes – gave average yields. Our best performing varieties were Picasso, Rooster, Elfe, Sagitta and Charlotte.

• Sweetcorn – slightly below average yields due to the drought.

• Tomatoes - all varieties did exceptionally well in the greenhouse; top varieties for us were Santonio, Limoncito, Akron, Rainbow Mix, Alicante and Crokini.

• Winter salad leaves - loved the Autumn rain and survived the frosts under fleece.

• Winter squash - cropped well, though slightly smaller fruits than previous years. Variety was Crown Prince.

On the whole we were very pleased with the quality and yields of our vegetables, despite a year of unusual weather.

Barry is still harvesting through the winter, despite the heavy frosts in December.

Image: Barry Cuff

The frost took the cauliflower, says Barry Cuff – and now’s the right time to look back and see what grew, what didn’t, and what lessons can be learned

Reflections, and resolutions

As we enter 2023 we’re feeling a little tired from all the Christmas season’s events, but we’re also feeling rejuvenated. December saw our biggest Christmas ever in terms of hosting events for the community, and our continued push to be more than ‘just a garden centre’, striving to become a place where people can make memories. Our wreath workshops were the most attended ever, including the final session which welcomed Gillingham Town Mayor Sharon Cullingford. We received some of the most glowing feedback on the workshops and it really made the team effort feel all the more worthwhile. Some people who attended had never tried these sorts of crafts and they went away with a beautiful creation they were rightly proud of. Making our workshops accessible to people of all levels is so important to us, and we look forward to hosting similar events throughout the coming year.

Father Christmas stopped by for four different weekends in our hand decorated Grotto!

EmployMyAbility (EMA) students and service users were also involved in the dressing of the grotto (including the amazing hand-made snowman!). We welcomed families from the local area and further afield, doing our best to spread Christmas joy, give out gifts, hot chocolate, and be that location for memories that will last longer than a festive season. This was Thorngrove’s first proper attempt at a ‘home grown’ grotto and we hope to go even bigger for next Christmas!

A new experience

The Fairytale Forest experience with Angel Exit Theatre was another of our Christmas offerings, and something new to us which we were excited to try. This free event was attended by over 1,600 people over the few days, and could not have happened without the creative flair from Lynne and Tamsin and everyone involved with Angel Exit, along with the enthusiasm and support from our staff here at Thorngrove and EMA. As with the grotto, students and service users were

a big part of getting things set up and running smoothly – and yet again the finished experience was a testament to the resolve from everyone behind the scenes. We can’t wait to do more like it in the future (you can see EMA student Maddie’s review of the experience in her column on P82)

Come with us!

As we continue to work towards being a community cornerstone, 2023 will mean more events, trying new things, and of course delivering products and experiences that you may not expect. From everyone here at Thorngrove Garden Centre, the retail team, the café, and our Employ My Ability staff, we hope you’ll continue to come along for our journey. Happy New Year!

More than 1,600 people attended the Fairytale Forest experience with Angel Exit Theatre in December

At Thorngrove this year, the team have been building you memories – you just need to come along and make them, says Kelsi-Dean Buck

Letters to the Editor

Want

letters@theblackmorevale.co.uk.

When writing, please include your full name and address; we will not print this, but do require it.

Why do people in Blandford have to drive fast?

Taking a few things to my car on Christmas morning, a car was coming towards me at speed. When I said to the woman who was driving ‘slow down’ I got ‘f**k off!’ back. Charming – and on Christmas morning. There just is no need for either.

Susan Holmes

By email

I thought It appropriate to contact your magazine in the hope that a warning note could be posted. I have just returned from walking along the North Dorset trailway towards Shillingstone station with my five-year-old Cocker Spaniel. From a side footpath a youngish Boxer Dog appeared, stopping some 20 feet from us. A few moments later a pack of five or six dogs, including two aggressive older Boxers, chased out of the same path and went for me initially, barking and salivating, but then attacked my spaniel. The dogs were acting as a pack. The two women who were with the dogs subsequently appeared and while trying to intervene had no impact on stopping the attack. Getting my dog out from under the two larger Boxers, we managed to walk away – we will live to fight another day, but the Spaniel is a bit shaken up.

I did tell the women concerned that the dogs were acting as a pack and should either be muzzled or at least on leads. This was met with a somewhat vacant look.

I am flagging this up not to cause trouble but to alert others. If this were a young child or a family out with their dog or puppy the outcome could be very unpleasant. I understand these women are local so a repeat of this matter is highly likely. Name and address supplied

Do fellow North Dorset residents feel that they receive value for their Council Tax? It recently came to my attention that we have the third highest Council Tax rates in England - but do we get the third best services? I’m failing to see where all the money goes - I would welcome

someone pointing me to the information? Council tax is for our streets, lighting, rubbish, planning, policing etc.

But our streets are constantly being washed into pot holes (or, as in Sturminster Newtons case, falling into the river), there’s very little street lighting except in the towns, and there’s even less police (through no fault of their own).

But we know the government have no wish to lose votes by raising the taxes required to foot the rising social care bill, so they pass it down the line to local councils - and I presume as Dorset has an aging population our social care bill is higher than most?

At least the plentiful new housing developments springing up around the north of the county will be filling up the council tax coffers nicely – have spending budgets increased accordingly?

Robert McKenzie Blandford

I very much enjoy Andrew Livingston’s articles, and the recent A Bugger’s Muddle (BV, Dec 22) was no exception. I had yet to see a lack of eggs in the shops, although I had seen much talk of empty shelves, and I felt perhaps it was another media frenzy over a non-existent issue (apologies BV!). Until I looked a little more closely and realised that the eggs in my trolley were from Italy, just as Andrew Livingston had predicted. Further reading has lead me to understand that it’s not just chicken farmers who are unable to re-invest in the next cycle of egg laying hens, it is happening across a number of food industries where the producers are seeing profits squeezed not only by rising costs but also by increasing supermarket pressures.

At what point can and should the government intervene? I refuse to accept we need a ‘nanny state’ interfering – enterprise should naturally be self-regulating. But what is an industry to do when the playing field is very far from level? How can our producers - held, quite rightly, to the very highest of welfare, traceability and chemical standards –possibly compete with cheap imports from less regulated countries?

Surely if those are the standards we hold ourselves to, any product sold here should maintain the same standards? Not doing so rather makes a mockery of the system – and enforces the fact that only the wealthy can afford to eat well.

If everyone had the same standards, the prices would be the same for all?

Betty Jeans Shaftesbury

(You may find George Hosford’s article in Farming this month even more illuminating Betty - Ed)

I was so surprised when I had a call just before Christmas telling me that I had won the Boxing Day racing prize. On Boxing Day we joined the queue of cars winding slowly through Wincanton to the racecourse. The going was good to soft - and that was just the car park! Thankfully there was a tractor on site to pull out anyone who got stuck. We had a great day, chatting to other racegoers, cheering on the finishers - the noise in the stands when the horses are coming in to the finish is incredible. Thank you for organising the prize, it was a great day out and one we will repeat.

Pam Ferguson

By email

Above is a photo of a recent cheque presentation to the Milton Abbas Surgery. The £2,000 was raised primarily by monthly charity pub quizzes held at The Crown in Winterborne Stickland throughout 2022, the remainder being raised by a local resident who match-funded some quizzes, local donations, and the profits from local Artsreach shows.

The main aim of the fundraising was to allow the Milton Abbas Surgery to buy a second online heart monitor which transfers results directly to the patient’s records, reducing administration work by the practice staff. This equipment is very rare in Dorset, so Milton Abbas are leading the field in detecting and recording heart issues. In the picture are (L to R) Ash Millar (landlady of the The Crown), Dr. Julian Rees (Senior Practice Partner), Sarah Noble (Practice Manager) and Graeme Gale (Quiz Organiser)

Graeme Gale

Milton Abbas

Life’s complicated. Instructing a solicitor shouldn’t be

Because no one can predict the future, we can help you prepare.

When it comes to protecting you and your family, we can help. Whatever you require, we will advise you with clarity and efficiency and offer value for money.

Jigsaw

This month, for your puzzling pleasure, we have... a pile of sticks. They are authentic Dorset ones though! Just click to complete! If you get stuck, there’s an icon at the top of the screen which reveals the completed picture for you to refresh your memory.

Q:

“As the weather has turned colder, I’ve noticed mould and damp in our flat. It’s mainly in our bedroom, including some black mould on the carpet. I’ve been chasing our letting agents, who say they’ll speak to our landlord. I’m really worried about how this might affect our health. Our tenancy agreement isn’t up for eight months. Is there anything else I can do?”

A:“It’s good that you’ve already raised the issue with your letting agency. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to work out the cause of mould or damp, which can make it difficult to establish who is responsible, unless there’s an obvious cause, like a leaking roof. There is information on our website that may help you work out what type of damp you have, who is responsible for fixing the problem and what you can do. Check your tenancy agreement for mentions of repairs and damp, and contact Citizens Advice on anything you’re unsure about. A landlord will have to act in relation to damp if it makes the property unsafe for someone to live in or if it is making the tenant or a member of their family ill.

The landlord will be responsible if the damp is related to property maintenance or to repairs they should have carried out, for example if gutters are broken or pipes are leaking. If the damp has damaged items for which the landlord is responsible for, such

as carpets and window frames, they’ll likely have to cover the cost of repairs.

Making it worse

One of the most common causes of damp is condensation. To prevent this, it’s important to keep homes well-heated and well-ventilated, but for a lot of people this will be trickier to do given the colder weather and higher heating costs. You may be eligible for help to insulate and heat your home, and should visit our website to find out more. We also have advice on things that can make damp worse and may prevent the landlord taking responsibility for repairs. These include

drying clothes on heaters or blocking air vents.

If your landlord is responsible for the damp in your property but doesn’t act, there are steps you can take, such as reporting them to the local authority. If you’re in social housing, you might also be able to use the landlord’s formal complaints procedure. There is more information about this on our website. If it reaches the point where you want to get out of a fixed-term tenancy agreement early, do speak to an adviser first, as there might be better ways to approach the issue. Contact your local Citizens Advice or you can call our Adviceline on 0800 144 8848 for personalised support.”

A local expert from Citizen’s Advice provides timely tips on consumer issues.

This month: what’s to be done about damp in a rented property?

Taking part in the Fairy Tale Forest

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! For this month’s article I’m going to share an event that happened at Thorngrove Garden Centre and how the magical Fairy Tale Forest came to be.

Every Thursday in December both education students and day service users at Thorngrove Garden Centre worked behind the scenes with Angel Exit Theatre, a Dorset-based theatre company that creates interactive events, to make a fairy tale forest come to life. The staff and students enjoyed the music and drama, they loved pretending to be the animals and they also loved learning the songs that were included in the production. The poly-tunnel was decorated with trees and snow and there was a huge gingerbread house where Mary Godmother lived. It gave the children who have visited a magical experience with festive activities that they enjoyed.

The team and I were interviewed by BBC Radio Solent and talked about how Angel Exit Theatre came about and what was my favourite bit about this event (my favourite bit was the workshops we did before the production!).

During the event I spoke to people as they exited, asking questions like “Did they enjoy the Fairy Tale Forest?” “Did they meet

Mary Godmother”? and “What was your favourite bit?”. All the feedback was great!

Everyone really enjoyed the Fairy Tale Forest, and I hope we can do it again next Christmas!

If you are interested in learning more you can visit The Angel Exit website and see lots of photos for this event on the Angel Exit Theatre Facebook page.

Do something amazing for charity –jump out of a plane

Tick off skydiving from your bucket list and jump out of a plane for Dorset Mind!

Working with the experts at Go Skydive in Salisbury there’s an opportunity to fund raise while taking on an amazing challenge. Perhaps nominate someone from the office and make it your official 2023 fundraising project? For the jump itself there are two heights to choose from – the first is 10,000ft which gives you a 30 seconds freefall. If you’re feeling really ambitious then go for the 15,000ft skydive and soak up the 60 seconds of freefall!

To book a place a simple £50 deposit is required – and then your task is to raise the money to reach your fundraising target. To say thanks for your fundraising efforts, Dorset Mind will cover the cost of your jump!

Fundraising targets:

• 10,000ft minimum sponsorship of £500

• 15,000ft minimum sponsorship of £750

To find out more and book your place, visit Dorset Mind’s GoSkyDive page here

Employ My Ability offers vocational training for students with learning disabilities and special educational needs and disabilities. One of their students, Maddie Walters, spent her last term working on her journalism skills with the aim of writing a column for us. - Ed

The team prepped and ready for the show; Maddie is in the centre in the white jumper

Is it time to re examine your power of attorney arrangements?

Mental incapacity can affect any one of us at any time, no matter our age. It could occur through illness, accident, or old age. It could be temporary, or it might be permanent. Everyone should have the opportunity to elect whom they want to look after their affairs if this happens to them, by nominating a power of attorney. Essentially, there are three main types of power of attorney:

• General power of attorney

• Enduring power of attorney

• Lasting power of attorney

This election can now be made by preparing and registering a Lasting power of attorney. However, you may still hold an Enduring power of attorney.

Adam Scott looks at whether now would be a sensible time to review your current enduring

power of attorney and, potentially, change it.

General power of attorney

These can only be used whilst the person who has made the power, the donor, retains mental capacity. General powers of attorney become invalid as soon as the donor loses mental capacity. General powers of attorney are useful for short term specific transactions, such as property transactions, where the donor is overseas.

Enduring power of attorney

It has not been possible to create a new enduring power of attorney (EPA) since 30 September 2007. However, EPAs executed correctly before this date remain valid.

Unlike an LPA, EPAs only provide the attorneys the authority to deal with property and financial matters, not health and welfare. EPAs can be used as soon as they are validly executed. They do not have to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before they are used. However, if the attorneys believe that the donor is losing or has lost mental capacity then there is an obligation on the attorneys to register the EPA with the OPG.

Lasting power of attorney

Donors have been able to create a lasting power of attorney (LPA) since 1 October 2007. LPAs come in two parts; property and financial affairs, which provide the attorneys with the same powers as those under an EPA, and donors can also appoint health and welfare attorneys, which was not possible under an EPA. The health and welfare part of the LPA also enables the donor to elect whether they want

their chosen attorneys to be able to make decisions regarding life sustaining treatment or not. LPAs enable the donor to provide wishes and guidance to their attorneys and they can also restrict the attorneys’ powers if they wish.

Unlike an EPA, before an LPA can be used, it must be registered with the OPG first.

What advantages are there?

If you decide to switch from an EPA to an LPA, there are a number of benefits:

• Replacement attorneys can be appointed

• The range of decisions that the donor can delegate to attorneys are extended

• When acting under an LPA attorneys must have regard to the principle that the person must be able to make decisions for themselves wherever possible and therefore consider whether or not the donor can make a particular decision before making it for them.

Applying for an LPA

Although you can make your LPA yourself, directly with the Office of the Public Guardian, by doing so you may be missing out on important advice that a professional can provide. Unfortunately, it is often the case that when LPAs go wrong, it is too late to change them, resulting in costly applications to the Court to rectify matters. It is much better to get it right at the outset.

If you have any queries regarding LPAs or would like more information, you can contact Adam Scott on adam.scott@trethowans.com or call 01202 338570.

Understanding the lessons from grief

Gordon Fong looks back at a year of loss that left his family stunned –and shares what he has learned about coping when tragedy happens

It’s always good to remember, as we make it through another Christmas season, that the holidays can be a difficult time for many people. The colourful TV adverts and magazine photographs of happy family gatherings may have been the total opposite experience for some people this year. For me, this was the first Christmas without dad, who had recently passed away from a severe bleed on the brain.

Actually, if an author set out to write a story of family tragedy, they would have looked at my last year and paused, thinking ‘this is too much’. Because it wasn’t just my dad.

On the day my dad died, mum came to the hospital and told us her eldest brother had just died earlier that morning.

Two days later, I had to wake my mum to tell her that her eldest sister had just died. Within minutes we were in the car, to go and comfort that family. Just before dad’s funeral, we visited my favourite aunty. I always remember her kind words, and it was pleasing to see her smile and hear her laughter again. However, once home, we heard she had collapsed and been rushed into the critical unit at hospital. We didn’t even have time to go home after dad’s funeral service because we needed to go and say our last goodbyes to aunty, who was waiting to be taken off breathing support. There was to be one more sad event, for one more of my mum’s siblings. The youngest

sister would lose her 12-year-old grandson to a brain tumour just two weeks later.

The whole family was just stunned and numb. Reeling.

Five gone in such a short space of time.

Funerals were interspersed with the weddings that had been planned for so long. I learned a lot from this short period.

Be there

I saw the importance of having others around in numbers, whether visiting the hospital or the bereaved household.

I also saw patients who had no visitors whatsoever; I think that is worse.

Even families dealing with their own grief travelled to support others. Be there if you can – they can always say no. Once dad was in his own side room, the whole family took a turn to watch over him, 24 hours a day. It was an opportunity to say what we needed to say and to help during his times of discomfort.

Don’t be quiet

Remember to talk about those you’ve lost; their good parts AND bad parts. Even joking about them helps keep their memory alive. Those conversations might bring some emotions, but when shared, I found it comforting. Share photographs on social media or in private messages – in their turn they might bring out some unseen ones from others. Enjoy those memories. Try and remember that grief and a strong wave of sadness can catch you at any moment or be prompted by any situation. Something so simple as seeing their favourite drink on a supermarket shelf, as I did, or hearing a place mentioned that was a favourite family holiday destination. Turn it into a positive memory there and then, if you can.

And we all need help sometimes. Reaching out to friends, family and the many support organisations is important.

Gordon Fong is a business owner known for being a champion of Southbourne

The whole family were just stunned and numb

How to do Veganuary the right way

As we’re slightly later this month, I’m hoping to catch you at the stage where you enthusiastically began your ‘veganuary’ month and now the motivation is waning (or you still want to do it but don’t know how to start!).

With a bit of planning, plantbased diets can provide all the right nutrients. I actually used to be vegan myself, and my most creative time in the kitchen still comes from preparing meals that are plant-heavy.

Balancing your plate

A plant-based meal should always consist of a protein, a healthy fat, a carbohydrate and

four to five different types of vegetables of different colours in order to access plenty of fibre and micro-nutrients. This month, try to widen the variety of fruit and veg you eat in a week. A great goal is 30 different types of plants. Go shopping at the end of the day and try some of the veg that supermarkets sell off at half price. Remember, you can count herbs and spices in the 30!

• Protein

Without meat, your protein sources include beans, lentils, tofu, chick peas, peanuts, tempeh, seitan, nut butters, quorn, protein powders such as hemp and

•

pea, plus all the nuts and seeds.

Carbohydrates

You need one portion of these – pick from potatoes, sweet potatoes, whole grains such as rice, wheat, buckwheat, quinoa or oats. All fruit and veg count, and don’t forget these don’t have to be fresh! Frozen, tinned or dried all work.

• Fats

Try using flax (a good source of omega 3) or avocado oils as well as olive oil.

Key nutrients to focus on Deficiencies can be common in vegans who don’t consider their nutrition properly. It is important to take extra care around getting the right amount of protein, iron, zinc, vitamin

Enthusiastically starting veganuary will often start well but swiftly falter on the know-how, says nutritional therapist Karen Geary

Living on vegan sausage rolls for the month is not a healthy diet!

by Karen Geary, Nutritional Therapist DipION, mBANT, CNHC at Amplify

B12, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, calcium, selenium and iodine in the diet.

• Iron - find it in beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, dried apricots, dried figs, molasses, quinoa, kale, spinach, broccoli, cashews, chia, flax, hemp, pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate. Eat vitamin C food, e.g. citrus, leafy greens, etc., to help with iron absorption.

• Calcium - find it in fortified cereals and dairy alternatives, tofu, leafy greens, tahini, dried fruit, nuts

• Omega 3 is in walnuts, flax, chia, hemp, soya beans

• Zinc from nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, quinoa

• Selenium can be obtained from Brazil nuts, sesame seeds, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, chia seeds and brown rice. Selenium is essential for iodine uptake.

• Vitamin B12 is in nutritional yeast, fortified cereals and dairy alternatives.

When to supplement

As a vegan, it can be very difficult to get vitamin D, vitamin B12 and iodine from food sources alone. The quality of sources can be highly variable and/or they are not in the correct form needed to be absorbed in sufficient quantities. Supplements are recommended for vegans (and there are plenty suitable for vegans), but it is better to get tested before supplementing in order that the right amount is taken.

But what do I eat?

Please don’t be a junk food vegan! Living on vegan sausage rolls for the month is not what I would call a healthy diet. I

once counted the number of ingredients in a well known supermarket vegan pizza – there were 98! And the majority of them I didn’t recognise. Get in the kitchen and keep it simple:

Breakfast

• Plain soy or coconut yogurt, some stewed apple, topped with nuts and seeds.

• Or scrambled tofu on toast. Add a bit of turmeric so it looks like eggs and stir fry a few tomatoes and peppers in it, or enjoy with a side of avocado or kimchi.

• Or some simple porridge topped with nut butter, berries, and maybe some molasses for sweetness.

Lunches and dinners

• Minestrone soup is a great option, and you can make a big batch as it will keep in the fridge for days. Sauté onion, carrots and celery in a little oil until soft. Add veg stock, herbs, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of beans (e.g. butter or cannellini) or chickpeas, some shredded cabbage, a small handful of rice and season. Serve when the rice is cooked through.

• Oven traybakes such as sliced sweet potato with cannellini beans cooked in coconut milk spiced up with ginger and chilli, topped with breadcrumbs.

• Curries such as red lentil –we’ve shared this lentil dhal before. It’s a tasty one-pot Indian dhal curry that’s ready in just 25 minutes. With red lentils, coconut milk, and simple spices, it’s a protein-packed, creamy and delicious meal.

• Find more recipes on my Instagram, Facebook, and a free seven-day plan can be downloaded from my website.

New year, same problem

The times are challenging, says Dorset Chamber CEO Ian Girling, but growth and innovation remain critical, as do long term solutions

As we return to work after the Christmas break, I’d like to wish everyone a happy, successful, and prosperous 2023. As we look to the next few months, we know the economic climate will remain challenging but my hope is we start to see improving conditions as we go further into the year.

Energy support

The new deal on energy support offers cold comfort for businesses in Dorset. Although continued assistance and the 12-month duration of the scheme is welcome, the 85 per cent drop in the financial envelope of support will fall short for those who are seriously struggling – and we’re aware that these costs are already significant enough to

cause the closure of businesses. Clearly, the Government must consider the public finances. But the correct level of support must be viewed as an investment in the economy, helping businesses to get the UK back to growth and prosperity in the critical year ahead.

In the short to medium term the Chancellor must be ready to intervene with additional assistance should it be required, and long-term solutions must be considered urgently. This must include reform of the business energy market, including the potential strengthening of Ofgem’s powers, as part of an energy strategy to promote longerterm market stability and ways to allow firms to improve their energy efficiency.

It’s essential that business leaders maintain their focus on growth and innovation and that we push forward with our business plans.

Dorset Chamber will continue to provide support for businesses in the county and support the British Chambers of Commerce in its lobbying of the government. Through our national voice within the British Chambers of Commerce, we will continue to lobby the government on critical issues such as the energy costs. We will continue to do all we can locally not only for our members but for the wider business community.

I wish you all the very best for 2023 – Ian

Local LED firm leads the industry

Fifteen years ago Low Energy Designs were working to convince businesses that LED lighting was viable. Now they work with the biggest global brands

Low Energy Designs, based on the Sunrise Business Park in Blandford, was created from two small R&D companies who, at the time, were developing 5G for mobile phone companies as well as power saving solutions for the United Nations using cutting-edge technology.

Registered in December 2007, Low Energy Designs were the first company in Europe to start manufacturing commercial and industrial LED lighting products. In the early years the team had to work hard just to convince companies to invest in LED – not always easy! They have grown to become an established lighting company and are one of the oldest in the LED lighting industry, with a customer base which includes global brands.

Over the last 15 years they have traded through the 2008 financial crisis, through years of Brexit uncertainty and now a global pandemic, and they credit their flexibility, ingenuity and strong innovation skills that have allowed them to build their reputation.

Alan Parker, CEO, says, ‘We have always been a close-knit team and every member counts towards our success. The team pulls together to resolve any customer request and in doing so we grow as a business. There is a large core of people who have been with us for more than ten years, and that is what makes us such a strong and reliable company. Despite an extremely challenging year for our industry (like everyone!), we are on track to for huge growth into new and exciting areas in 2023.

Light up Oyo, Nigeria

IKEA, Borlange

The Square, Tralee, Ireland

Whittards of Chelsea

P R O D U C T I O N S C H E D U L E :

N e x t P u b l i c a t i o n D a t e :

3 r d F e b r u a r y

S u b m i s s i o n D e a d l i n e : 3 0 t h J a n u a r y

N e x t P u b l i c a t i o n D a t e s : 3 r d M a r c h 7 t h A

p r i l

F u r t h e r f o r w a r d s - p u b l i c a t i o n a l w a y s f i r s t F r i d a y o f t h e m o n t h . C o p y b o o k i n g d e a d l i n e a l w a y s t h e F r i d a y p r i o r t o p u b l i s h i n g

G O T S O M E N E W S ?

G e t i n t o u c h w i t h L a u r a o n e d i t o r @ t h e b l a c k m o r e v a l e . c o . u k

W A N T T O A D V E R T I S E ?

G r e a t n e w s ! I f y o u k n o w w h a t y o u w a n t , t h e n s i m p l y h e a d t o h t t p s : / / w w w t h e b l a c k m o r e v a l e c o u k / a d v e r t i s e / t o b o o k o n l i n e O r g e t i n t o u c h w i t h C o u r t e n a y t o c h a t a b o u t w h a t y o u ' r e l o o k i n g f o r :

a d v e r t i s i n g @ t h e b l a c k m o r e v a l e . c o . u k

A blustery January view from Rawlsbury Camp across the Blackmore Vale

Image: Laura Hitchcock