The BV magazine, July 24

IN THIS ISSUE:

Kingston Maurward shines at its eventing debut, which saw almost 300 competitors, and praise for its beautiful setting, challenging courses, and exceptional organisation | Page 64

From mocking the game to becoming world champion: Alex Kley’s record-breaking achievements| Page 16

by Ian Nelson

Nick Heyward chooses his Dorset Island Discs, and looks back on rough school days, dreaming of stardom, David Bowie living round the corner, naming Haircut 100 ... and the joy of reading in the bath | Page 20

Kate Fry, a local amateur wildlife photographer, receives a letter of praise from Sir David Attenborough after a thrilling chance snake-frog encounter on a school trip to Stour Valley Nature Reserve | Page 4

It’s 30 years since the Church of England allowed women priests, Tracie Beardsley meets the Rev Jane Williams, ‘The Red Post Vicar’ of six Dorset parishes | Page 27

The forgotten art of hedgerow lifecycles - ‘the single most important ecological building blocks we have in the farmed landscape’ | Page 6

Front cover: Peek-a-boo vole

INDEX

We know, it’s a HUGE magazine, and the page order changes month to month. So we make it easy for you – exactly like grabbing the sections you like best from the Sunday papers, just click the number below to jump straight to the section you want. Or you can just go make yourself a mug of tea and start from the beginning...

27 A Country Living – Revd Jane Williams

As I sit writing this, the polling stations are closing, and the country stand (sit? snoozes?) poised, waiting for what I think is an inevitable landslide of a night. Living in Dorset, we enjoy one of the most beautiful and tranquil environments in the country. But hiding behind the idyllic facade of thatched roofs and high hedgerows lies an issue that has been overlooked, avoided and ignored by successive governments.

The rural tax. It’s not a formal levy, but rather a cumulative burden of higher living costs and limited access to essential services in rural areas. It’s always tough to be short of money, but it’s far tougher when you can’t easily access social groups, schools, affordable supermarkets, doctors, or regular public transport. Living in a rural area is significantly more challenging than urban living for those on a low income. Healthcare access is a fundamental right, yet many in our rural communities struggle with long travel times to reach medical appointments. This places a strain on individuals and families and highlights a broader systemic neglect. The scarcity of public transport isn’t any easier to solve, but for those without private vehicles, the lack of reliable transport options can lead to social isolation and severely limited economic opportunities, especially in areas also poorly supplied with fast broadband.

Contact The BV Team: 01258 472572

Editor: Laura Hitchcock

editor@BVmagazine.co.uk

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advertising@BVmagazine.co.uk

Sub-editors:

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Everything else:

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The next government must consider these rural issues. While it is of course necessary to cater to the majority, continually focusing on urban areas leaves rural parts of the country behind. Tailored support for rural economies is an essential step towards creating a more equitable society. Policies should recognise the distinct needs of rural areas and not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. Dorset needs a government that listens to and acts upon the concerns of rural residents. Our rural communities deserve nothing less.

by Laura Hitchcock

Sir David congratulates images of school’s snake v frog drama

Local wildlife photographer is praised by Sir David Attenborough after thrilling snake-frog encounter on school Stour Valley Nature Reserve trip

Kate Fry works at The Epiphany School in Bournemouth. The school takes full advantage of its proximity to the Stour Valley Nature Reserve, and regularly uses the facilities to support and enhance curriculum teaching. Early in June, Year 5 pupils were

studying rivers and the local habitat, and Kate joined the school trip to the reserve to take some photographs for the school’s website.

One of the activities was pond dipping, and while a small group were busy with their nets, they

spotted a grass snake swimming across the pond. Kate, a keen wildlife photographer whose work regularly appears in the BV’s Readers’ Photography pages, kept watching, presuming it was hunting for a meal. She soon noticed a frog appear to rise straight up out of the weeds: ‘I realised that the snake was underneath it, pushing it up out of the water. The snake had one rear frog leg in its jaw. It couldn’t swallow the frog as the leg was jammed in its throat with the other rear leg outside – like putting just one leg in a pair of tight trousers! The snake and frog continued like this for a few minutes until the snake began to pull the frog back under the water. We all watched while there was a bit of thrashing around, then suddenly the frog jumped across the top of the pond and made a speedy

The lucky Year 5s busy pond dipping at Stour Valley Nature Reserve

All images: Kate Fry

getaway into the reeds and vegetation at the side!

‘The snake remained in the centre of the pond, head up and flicking its tongue, trying to find the scent of the frog. It eventually swam to the edge of the pond and away into the reeds. I’m fairly sure that the frog, though it got away from the snake, was mortally wounded – there was a fair bit of damage on its side.’

Kate wasn’t alone in her excitement – it wasn’t just the children lucky enough to be present but also the wildlife reserve’s rangers and staff were thrilled to see it. ‘We all felt that we had seen something really special,’ says Kate. ‘I was so pleased that I was ready and able to capture the moment with my camera.’

Later, the Year 5 pupils wrote to Sir David Attenborough to tell him about their encounter, and enclosed Kate’s photos. The school was stunned to receive a handwritten reply from Sir David himself:

“Dear Year Five, Thank you very much for your letter. I am so glad you find my programmes interesting.

You are very lucky indeed to have witnessed that encounter between a grass snake and a frog. Like you, I would have been relieved to see the frog escape in the end. Mrs Fry’s photographs really are remarkable. Please give her my congratulations. Best wishes to you all.

David Attenborough

‘He seemed genuinely interested,’ says Kate. ‘It felt as though

Britain’s longest snake, grass snakes grow to a metre or more. They are lethal hunters of frogs, toads and other small creatures, and are equally happy on land and in water

he really enjoyed what the pupils had shared. I was also very proud that he said “Mrs Fry’s photographs really are remarkable”. What an accolade from a man who has witnessed so much in the natural world!

‘The pupils and staff are so

grateful to Sir David for taking the time to send a personal reply. Such a gesture is so inspiring for the children.

‘I do enjoy being out in nature and I walk along the Stour with my camera several times a week. Sometimes I get lucky!’

The forgotten art of hedgerow life cycles

With new incentives for sustainable farming, hedgerows are crucial – Andrew Livingston talks to hedge expert John Calder

‘Hedges are the single most important ecological building blocks we have in the farmed landscape, creating corridors for wildlife.’ Those were the words of George Eustice, the former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

When you think of farmland it can be easy to forget the hedge. For the farmer, it is not a commodity (unless you are a particularly keen blackberry picker). But for the wildlife of our countryside, it is a rich haven, a year-round food source and sanctuary for mammals, insects and birds.

‘They are part of the farmed landscape but the part that is not farmed – hedges escape the intensification of farming,’ said John Calder of The Great Big

Dorset Hedge (GBDH), which is trying to restore and extend the hedgerows of Dorset. ‘People think of them as corridors, but that would only be correct if animals only walk, fly or burrow along them. It’s not quite that way. But they are linked, so seeds will travel up and down hedges and certainly bats find a big hedgerow useful to navigate against and fly along.’

Improving the network of hedgerows across Dorset will help ‘support the biodiversity and protect against the effects of climate change’.

The first stage of this mission is being completed by an evergrowing team of volunteers who are out and about in the countryside surveying the hedgerows. Volunteers carry out

one of two different surveys, public or private. The former is carried out along public footpaths – the GBDH team walks a footpath and surveys a hedgerow that may be alongside it.

A private survey is carried out on a farm, when the farmer has invited the team to come and survey the hedges.

Recent alterations to farmers’ government subsidy payments have increased the importance of hedge life to the farmer. The new scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers not for the amount of land they own, but for actions that they take on their farms that will not only improve food production but also grow food more sustainably.

As an experienced enthusiast on hedges, John was invited by DEFRA to join the Hedgerow Practitioners Workgroup during the creation of the SFI scheme.

‘Within the Sustainable Farming Incentive there are 23 actions through which you can acquire funding, but three out of the 23 are hedges.

‘Number one, you need to do an assessment of the condition of your hedges. Number two, you have to manage your hedgerows in a prescribed way that is environmentally friendly. And number three, if you’ve got

in-hedge trees in a frequency of at least one every 100 metres overall, there’s some funding for that.’

So far, around 70 farmers have signed up to the GBDH to survey a significant block of the hedges on their farms. John says; ’The farmers are motivated by the desire to do the right thing,’ says John. ‘But also the necessity of recovering some of that basic payment scheme through the SFI. All our reports are now written with the SFI hedgerow actions in mind.’

What is a healthy hedge?

Typically it will take three volunteers an hour to survey one kilometre of hedge. During that time, they note the species present, the height and depth of the hedge and, most importantly, the lifecycle.

The lifecycle of a hedge is measured by the Adams Hedgerow Management Scale. The scale is named after Nigel Adams, a hedge laying expert, who was part of DEFRA’s Hedgerow Practitioners Workgroup with John. To understand the Adams Code, you need to understand a little about the history of hedgerow maintenance. John explains:

‘If you go back before we invented flails on tractors and chainsaws and all that stuff that makes it easier to slaughter a hedge, you’d have a man walking along the hedge side with a staff hook – a long stem with a hook on the end – and he’d be trimming that hedge, possibly every year. These days, that’s not what happens. You’ve got a flail doing the job, and it’s a very efficient tool.

Every time you lay a hedge you invigorate the root systems to start some new growth – that would be more or less the start of a new cycle of that hedge.

‘So if you go back a few generations they’d be laying hedges every year, but on different parts of the farm. And that means that there are hedges in different stages all over the farm. Turns out that’s what’s ideal for nature.’

When you look at hedges today, they can be placed under four categories of the Adams Code; tightly managed, rejuvenated, well managed and finally running up. A tightly managed hedge would be one that is flailed with a hedge trimmer each year. Eventually, this can cause damage to the hedge to the point it needs rejuvenation.

Rejuvenation can come in the form of hedge laying, planting of new hedges and coppicing (fell a tree at its base to create a stool from which new shoots will grow).

Eventually, a rejuvenated hedge grows into a well-managed hedge, which, if then left unmanaged, will become a hedge which is running up – the best for carbon capture. They are the largest in size, but they will begin to leave gaps in the bottom of the growth, so they eventually need to be rejuvenated again ... and this is the life cycle of the hedge.

That’s now happening a lot in conjunction with rewilding – it’s not good because you end up with a row of trees

‘In the old days, once the hedge was maybe 20 years old it would become a little bit out of control, and then you’d re-lay it.

The answer to a healthy hedge? John says the formula for a healthy hedge is the recognition and combination of each stage of the entire cycle that makes the perfect hedge. These days there are two quite different systems for managing hedges, says John. ‘In one case, it’s coming along with a flail and hitting it back to the same point at the same time every year (tightly managed hedges). Ultimately this will cause

their demise, because it’s just too much pressure on the hedge for it to survive.

‘On the other hand, you might have particularly well-meaning people who think that carbon capture is everything, so in order to mitigate against climate change they decide “why don’t we just let our hedges grow up and up and up and up capturing carbon?”

That’s now happening a lot in conjunction with rewilding, and it’s not all good because you end up with a row of trees – and a row of trees is something that has merit in its own right, but it’s not a hedge. At the bottom of a row of trees you don’t have that important dense cover for wildlife.’

The life cycle of a hedge may seem trivial, but John insists, ‘hedges have enormous importance and are an area where the farmers can make a relatively big impact environmentally, without enormously affecting their financial operations.

‘Alongside rivers, they are the part of the landscape where the farming community can do the most – can really make a positive impact.’

• The Great Big Dorset Hedge is always keen for more volunteers or farm hedges to come and survey. Head to dorsetcan.org to get involved.

A major project is under way at Ibberton to save the parish church from– quite literally –falling off a chalk escarpment

What is the future for North Dorset’s churches?

Rachael Rowe looks at the perilous state of many English churches –especially small village churches - and the struggles to preserve them

More than 3,500 churches in England have closed their doors in the past decade – 900 more are on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, according to the National Churches Trust (NCT). The NCT believes the future of church buildings is the single biggest heritage issue in the United Kingdom today. With declining congregations and buildings becoming harder to maintain, how can churches future-proof themselves?

The pew row

Apart from declining congregations, one of the biggest issues facing churches today is climate change. Ancient guttering, roofs and downpipes are unable to cope with the increase in rainwater. Ageing populations find churches less accessible.

Traditional pews are awkward for people with mobility problems. Many churches do not have loosand provision of them is often cause for debate.

Serveries and loos have been found to increase attendance, as has the use of church buildings as food pantries and other community resources. Communities want the church to be there for traditional hatch, match and dispatch events. But declining attendances make their future more vulnerable.

In 2020, the village of Okeford Fitzpaine shot to international fame when the media descended on the village to report on a story about the church pews being removed. Less reported was how the “Pew Debate” caused deep and significant discord in the village. When work finally started to remove the pews, the wooden floor was found to be so rotten that it could have collapsed at any time – yet another example of how much work is needed for churches to have a sustainable

future. Restoration work is progressing – as is fund-raising for the installation of a loo … The Rev Andrew Gubbinsk, vicar of the Okeford Benefice, says:

Less reported was how the “Pew Debate” caused deep and significant discord in the village

‘Churches need to be thought of less as a building and more as a community space. A building speaks silently as to how it should be used, even before the vicar has opened their mouth. The church’s task is to demonstrate to the wider village that it is vibrant. You are only as good as your latest generation, and the community needs to see the value of supporting the church – not just going to a church service but attending a concert or social event, whether you believe in God or not.’

Trouble on trouble

The Church of the Holy Rood at Shillingstone is undergoing a major restoration project,

run by some committed volunteers. The first phase was to replace the vestry and North Aisle roof which, thanks to tireless campaigning, is looking significantly better. Unfortunately, leaks appeared as the north aisle roof was being repaired.Scaffolding for the current work made the roof easier to examine and its fragility was discovered. Phase two is now under way as a needed campaign to save the chancel begins.

The parochial church council (PCC) aims to raise £110,000 for the repairs. PCC treasurer Anne Powell said: ‘When we saw the collapse of the north aisle roof in November 2022, we were desperately worried by the situation that faced us. But the generosity shown by our community gives me great confidence that we will succeed with this second phase.’

Andrew Gubbins says: ‘What a lot of people don’t realise is that churches receive no government funding or subsidy at all.

‘Everything has to be raised from the local congregation, and the local church has to pay the priest’s salary before any other

work like restoration. That’s why there isn’t a full time priest in rural parishes – communities can’t afford them.

‘So when a major restoration project comes up, funds need to be sourced from other grants and fundraising.’

Dropping off a cliff

Most people who lead a church restoration programmes in the community are unpaid volunteers.

In Ibberton, Annette Newman heads a major project to save the parish church from –quite literally – falling off a chalk escarpment.

If it detaches, it will tumble over a footpath and land in a neighbour’s garden 20 metres below

in the north west corner of the North Aisle have become more marked, with cracks and movement around a window and at the keystone of an arch. The corner appears to be rotating away from the building, which is approximately three metres from the cliff edge. If it detaches, it will tumble over a footpath and land in a neighbour’s garden approximately 20 metres below, clearly making the entire building unstable and unsafe for use.

‘A summer of fundraising is planned in Ibberton to help stabilise the walls of the north aisle of the Grade II* listed St Eustace Parish Church. The 684-year-old church, dedicated to a pagan Roman general who converted to Christianity after he had a vision of the Cross while hunting, looks out over The Blackmore Vale from its perch on a chalk escarpment. Since 1957, signs of failure

In the early 1900s, the community faced a similar situation when three of the four roof sections collapsed (see Roger Guttridge’s Then and Now from 2021 here). At that time £1,500 was raised to save the church – that’s equivalent to £153,000 today!

As local churches are in such a challenging state, is it time to view them as community assets that can be so much more than a religious building?

• You can contribute to Shillingstone’s The Holy Rood Church project here: peoplefundraising.com/ donations/Shillingstonechurch-roof-appeal

• Ibberton’s fundraising events include a summer concert by the North Dorset Singers on Friday 19th July in the church (7pm – free entry with a donation plate). There’s also a Ceilidh with Tim Laycock and Friends on Saturday 27th July – 7pm at Ibberton Village Hall, £10 per person with cash barbecue and bar. For tickets please email alice.church90@gmail.com

As the north aisle roof of the Church of the Holy Rood at Shillingstone was being repaired, significant rain-water was spotted running into the North Wall below, requiring urgent restoration

The magic of Potfest

This month, on the outskirts of Shaftesbury, Turnpike Showground is set to be transformed into a hub of creativity and craftsmanship as it hosts a huge ceramics and artisan pottery market. Taking place from12th to 14th July, the event promises to be a celebration of all things of clay.

A Showcase of Ceramic Excellence

Featuring an impressive line-up of almost 100 ceramic artists from across the UK – and as far afield as Italy – displaying a diverse array of ceramic works, ranging from contemporary pieces to traditional pottery, fine intricate jewellery to large garden sculpture, from domestic ware to be used every day to fine figurative sculpture. Whether you’re an avid collector, a casual admirer or just ceramically curious, this event offers an amazing opportunity to talk to the artists, learn about their creative processes and purchase oneof-a-kind pieces directly from the makers.

Interactive, Hands-On Activities

Potfest South West is not just about observing art, it’s about participating in it. As well as the chance to meet and talk to the artists there will also be the opportunity to glaze your own piece and have it raku fired, there and then! There will also be trade stands for those who are inspired and want to purchase materials and equipment for themselves. Taking part instead of simply browsing always adds an extra layer of enjoyment to an event – Potfest is a memorable day out for visitors of all ages.

Culinary Delights and Live Music

No festival is complete without delicious food and music, of course, and Potfest South West delivers on both fronts. A selection of street food vendors

will be on-site, offering an array of mouthwatering options from gourmet burgers and artisan pizzas to vegan delights and sweet treats.

‘A string quartet will be performing live throughout the event too,’ says Matt Cox, the event organiser.

‘The aim is to enhance the creative atmosphere as visitors explore the exhibits and chat to the artists.

‘We are thrilled to bring Potfest back to the South West after a hiatus of several years. Potfest is such a celebration of both ceramic art and artisan craftsmanship, and we are so excited to showcase the incredible talent of our artists in the beautiful North Dorset countryside. Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a foodie or simply looking for a great day out, Potfest promises something special.

‘We look forward to welcoming everyone to join us for a weekend filled with inspiration, beauty, artistry and creativity.’

Join us at Potfest South West

• July 12th, 13th and 14th

• 10am until 4.30pm

• Turnpike Showground, North Dorset SP7 9PL

• Adults £6, accompanied under 16’s free

• Tickets available online at potfest.co.uk or on the gate each day.

• For more information and to preview the work of all those artists taking part please visit potfest.co.uk

Hastoe Housing Project in Powerstock. Image: Samantha Cook Photography.

Dorset’s affordable housing crisis?

Dorset CPRE conference criticises government targets, calling for 1,300 homes a year and increased investment in social rent to meet local needs

The provision of affordable housing has been a major campaign issue for all political parties. Soaring house prices, the cost-of-living crisis and wages that have failed to rise in line with inflation have exacerbated an already dire situation. In 2021, figures released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities showed that 10,525 households were waiting for an affordable social house here in Dorset – and the true figure is likely to be much higher. At the same time, the average price paid for a first home in Dorset has risen to a staggering £282,000.

Dorset CPRE believes strongly that the delivery of housing that addresses the county’s real needs requires careful consideration. To help fully understand the issues that face Dorset, and investigate potential solutions, Dorset CPRE organised a free online conference on Thursday 20th

June, with presentations from both national and local experts in affordable housing. The conference was chaired by Lord Richard Best – a life peer and cross bencher in the House of Lords, Lord Best has been a prominent national figure in housing and planning-related organisations. The conference was introduced by Dorset CPRE president and former BBC chief news correspondent, Kate Adie.

homes are needed here in Dorset, how many are needed and who will pay for them?

It would take 89 years to build enough homes to clear the social housing waiting list at the current rate

About 90 people attended the conference, including many parish, town and Dorset councillors, as well as housebuilders, landowners and CPRE members.

How many and who’s paying?

Mike Allen from Dorset CPRE set the scene for the conference from a Dorset CPRE perspective. He asked three questions: what

He began by looking at the evidence for how many new homes are really needed in Dorset. The 2021 draft local plan allocated land for new homes in Dorset over the next 17 years, using the Government’s Standard Method (SM) for assessing housing need.

This is a crude formula to identify the minimum number of homes to be planned for, using projected household growth and affordability. This showed a need for 1,900 new homes per annum in Dorset – a 40% increase on current rates. A huge negative response to the draft plan caused DC to pause. People didn’t want the Green Belt encroachment or the scale of greenfield development.

They said the infrastructure wouldn’t cope and they foresaw that the new homes would be unaffordable for locals. DC has delayed the local plan process.

Is planning really the issue?

But does the SM really measure actual housing need in Dorset? Mike explained that in 2021 DC commissioned consultants Iceni to assess local housing need. They found that shrinkage in the natural population is more than offset by net in-migration, mainly of older people, with a growth of about 2,000 people a year.

Incomers bring equity to house purchases, and pay up to 12 times local incomes – because they can. This growth pattern distorts the natural population structure of the county.

Using the Standard Method of calculation, Iceni found that net inward migration would need to double, leading to an even bigger distortion of the age profile, with big knock-on effects on health and care services.

Housing

provider Abri facilitated the £8 million affordable development at Hazelbury Bryan

intended to increase the supply of homes and thus make them more affordable.

Dorset Council receives more than 500 requests for help with housing every month

The consultants concluded, not surprisingly, that it was more likely that the industry would not build so many extra homes because developers wouldn’t find enough extra customers. The Standard Method of calculating housing need is

So is building land in short supply in Dorset? DC tells us that at present there are more than 13,000 plots in Dorset with planning permission –about ten years’ supply of current demand. There is evidently no appetite in the industry for building at a greater rate. Market development is constrained, either by lack of skilled labour or the sales market, but evidently NOT by planning or lack of permissioned land. Adding 40% more is pointless.

Mike Allen concluded that the

idea of increasing house supply to improve affordability is neither proven nor a basis for sound planning in Dorset.

The way forward

Dorset CPRE believes that the way forward is two-fold: First, we should drop the affordability uplift in the Standard Method, resulting in a reduced – but still sufficient – housing target for Dorset of about 1,300 homes per annum. That is consistent with completions in recent years. Pressure on Green Belt, precious green spaces, historic towns and villages – and on roads and services – would be relived greatly, and it would also be more in line with Dorset’s climate emergency policy. Secondly, we should set an ambitious target to build truly

RURAL MATTERS

affordable homes, and should be prepared to subsidise them. Affordability is a problem mainly for those who rent. Dorset Council receives more than 500 requests for help with housing every month. Employers say that the local economy is held back by the lack of truly affordable rented homes. Iceni’s Housing Needs Assessment identified a need for 577 social rent homes per annum. But social rent homes – available at 50 or 60% of market rent – by definition require subsidy. So-called viability calculations, undertaken for the Dorset local plan, suggest that the market can provide about 20% of new homes as social rent. A house target of 1,300 per annum would provide about 260 social rent homes. The rest would need to be subsidised in some other way.

Benefits of social rent

The Centre for Economics and Business Research, working for Shelter and the National Housing Federation, published a report in February 2024 showing the cost-benefit of building 90,000 social rent homes nationally. They calculated that the long-term benefits far outweighed the initial costs, by more than £50bn, suggesting that each new social rent home would generate a long-term economic benefit of £570,000. Subsidising new social rent homes would bring a handsome return for both society and the economy.

The long-term benefits far outweigh the initial costs, suggesting that each new social rent home would generate a longterm economic benefit

of £570,000

Viability data shows there are potential savings to be made in the cost of social rent homes

– as much as half the price of those homes which are built speculatively. The high price of land can be reduced using compulsory purchase, and the high profit that developers expect (to cover their risk) can also be reduced by using a development corporation. Of course, no one thinks today that social rent housing should be concentrated alone in large estates. At scale, the preference is for mixed housing, blending owned and rented, designed to be tenure blind. Clever planning is needed. But small-scale, well-designed developments in urban and rural areas could be mainly

social rent, and will contribute to solving the problem of so many key workers being unable to afford homes in rural areas.

So what IS needed?

Dorset CPRE believes about 1,300 new homes a year would be sensible demographically in Dorset, and would be more sustainable than the Standard Method. Within that, affordability should be addressed directly by a strong target of 577 social rent homes per annum. A third of these might be financed by speculative development sites, but the rest would require extra subsidy. The lack of social rent homes is expensive to society – in Local Housing Allowance, poor health, children’s low educational attainment and more... Investment is worthwhile. The new government needs to invest in social housing.

The CPRE’s 2023 report, Unravelling A Crisis: The State of Rural Affordable Housing in England made some key findings:

• The definition of affordable housing in national planning policy – usually ‘homes let out at 80% or less of market rent’ – does not enable the delivery of genuinely affordable homes. Rural social-rented (usually 50 to 60% of market rent) delivery has plummeted with just 3,282 delivered in 2021/22, while general ‘affordable’ housing delivery had increased, with 25,294 homes delivered. It is more viable for developers to deliver affordable housing rather than the social rent homes that are so desperately needed.

• Rural social housing waiting lists have risen since 2020 in all but two regions in England. It would take 89 years to clear the social housing waiting list under the current build rate.

• Rural homelessness has increased by 20% since 2020/21 and 40% since 2018/19.

• Up to half of all parish councils in rural England are not covered by Section157 regulations, which prevent resale of affordable housing units at market prices or as second homes.

• Rural Exception Site policy is being used to deliver housing in line with locally-assessed need. Such sites are usually located on the edge of existing rural settlements, facilitating the provision of affordable homes for local residents, while ensuring the preservation of the character of the community. However its impact is limited to a relatively few areas of the country and it is not clear whether the mechanism is a particularly effective means of providing social housing.

Developers can negotiate down the proportion of affordable homes delivered due to viability concerns

• The current mechanism for securing affordable housing in new developments is via planning agreements, where developers can negotiate down the proportion of affordable homes delivered due to viability concerns. The proposed infrastructure levy regime may lead to an increase in affordable housing delivery – contribution will be non-negotiable, and should therefore be factored into the cost of the development from the outset

• Changes of use from office space to residential conversions under permitted development rights are delivering limited numbers of affordable homes, or poor quality.

CPRE Recommendations

Following this, CPRE set out the following recommendations:

• Government must redefine the term ‘affordable housing’ so that the costs of new affordable homes are directly linked to average local incomes. Where homes are not linked to average local incomes they should not be classed as affordable, as this obscures the type of housing that is being delivered.

Extend restrictions on the resale of affordable housing, so that they continue to be used by local workers, not as second homes or holiday lets

• Hope Value, which factors in what land could be worth if, hypothetically, planning permission had been granted to build properties, should be reformed to increase the viability of social housing provision and enable Local Authorities (LA) to deliver additional social rented homes.

• National minimum requirements for affordable housing should be increased, with specific targets set for social rented homes. Government should show greater support for rural communities, using neighbourhood plans and rural exception sites to deliver affordable housing on the edge of villages in line with locally assessed need. This includes making grant funding available and aligning planning policy with funding to enable social rented housing to come forward on such sites.

• Both government and local authorities must show greater support for community-led development, where it meets a local need.

• Government should more forcefully advise and support local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate to reject developments that do not live up to the design standards set out in both the National Model Design Code and Guide, and other relevant local design policy and guidance. Introduce a second home and short term lets register, with planning controls to regulate the provision of short term lets and powers to levy extra council tax on second homes.

• Extend restrictions on resale of affordable housing to all parishes with below 3,000 population, as well as larger rural towns where there is particular pressure on the housing stock, so that these houses continue to be used by local workers and not as second homes or holiday lets.

Local author triumphs at glittering UK Sports Book Awards

Sam Peters wins Best Sports Writing Award for his acclaimed book Concussed, an impactful investigation into sports brain injuries

Local author and former journalist Sam Peters has won a prestigious national writing award for his critically acclaimed new book Concussed.

Sam, who lives in Fovant and whose daughter Ella attends Wardour Primary School near Tisbury, won the Best Sports Writing Category at the UK Sports Book Awards held at London’s Kia Oval in June. He received his award on stage at a glittering ceremony, attended by global sporting icons from across the globe, from ITV sports broadcaster Mark Pougatch, who described Concussed as ‘a truly incredible piece of sports writing’.

Sam, 46, has campaigned through his work for improved safety measures in sport for more than two decades, first as a national newspaper journalist and latterly as an author. He has received industry-wide recognition since Concussed was published by Atlantic Books in August 2023.

Even before scooping the Best Sports Writing Award, Concussed had already been shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year as well as being named a Times and Telegraph Book of the Year and a Waterstones Sports Book of the Year. Judges for the William Hill Sports Book Awards recently described Sam’s work exposing the extent of brain injuries in sport as having ‘clear parallels with the way David Walsh (The Sunday Times) took down cyclist Lance Armstrong. The research is excellent and as you’d imagine from someone who writes for a living, the book is highly readable’.

Sam, who moved to Wiltshire in 2017 after resigning as rugby correspondent at the Mail on Sunday – in part to enable him to write more freely about professional sport’s approach to concussion – has previously been shortlisted as sports journalist of the year (UK Press Awards) and investigative journalist of the year at the SJAs. Concussed recounts the many challenges and open hostility Sam faced trying to blow the whistle on professional rugby’s concussion crisis. Winning this latest award means Sam can now

be acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on brain injuries in sport.

‘When I was growing up most of my heroes were either journalists or sports stars – to be recognised for doing good work in sports journalism is a bit of a dream come true,’ Sam says.

‘I could not be happier with the way Concussed has been received. It’s a huge relief to finally be listened to and recognised by people who understand the deep affection I hold not just for sport but for those who play it.’

Concussed is now in the process of being turned into a screenplay, with Sam having only recently completed the first draft of a script with awardwinning screenwriter Nick Boocock.

• Concussed is available from all good bookshops

• Sam doesn’t have a website, but can be contacted for speaking and events on sam@concussed.media

Wessex Internet wins top ‘Oscar’

The firm were named Best Rural Enterprise in the UK at the prestigious Countryside Alliance Awards for outstanding service to rural communities

Wessex Internet has been named the Best Rural Enterprise in the UK at the prestigious Countryside Alliance Awards, held at the House of Lords in London on Tuesday, 25th June. The awards, now in their 17th year and often referred to as ‘the rural Oscars,’ are the most prestigious in the rural industry, recognising businesses that go the extra mile within their communities and which support the rural economy.

Nominated anonymously by its customers, Wessex Internet topped a public vote in the south west region and was then selected by a panel of judges as the overall national winner from thousands of nominees across the UK

Hector Gibson Fleming, CEO of Wessex Internet, was thrilled with the award: ‘I’m absolutely over the moon that we have been recognised as Rural Enterprise Champion. This is a huge testament to the history of the business, the hard work of all of our people and also to staying true to our values. We formed as a small company to help our neighbours and are now serving rural communities across Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.

‘It was particularly heartening for the judges to recognise not only the impact we make

directly on the rural economy as a growing company and local employer, but more widely that the ultrafast broadband we provide enables other rural businesses to thrive and allows people living in the countryside to enjoy a higher quality of life. Whether by enabling remote and hybrid working for professionals, keeping businesses connected to their customers, helping families to keep in touch with loved ones, or simply enabling people to enjoy the range of entertainment and essential services available online, we are determined to bridge the digital divide.’

Where others fear to tread

During the ceremony, the organisers highlighted Wessex

Internet’s dedication: ‘Wessex Internet has developed out of the absolute need to be part of the digital world. They have fought tooth and nail to be an internet provider that meets the needs of those rural communities where the larger providers have failed.’

Sarah Lee, Director of Policy at the Countryside Alliance, added: ‘We are proud to be honouring these exceptional rural businesses, and the people behind them who are passionate about providing quality goods, services and employment to rural communities. Running a business in a rural community isn’t easy, and it’s so important to celebrate the valued role these rural enterprises have in their communities.’

North Dorset businesses were well represented at the House of Lords, with Andrew StevensonHamilton, the proprietor of the Child Okeford Village Shop, also in attendance to receive a Highly Commended National Award for Best Village Hall & Post Office, after topping the south west region.

Sally Somers, head of marketing, and Hector Gibson Fleming, CEO, celebrate outside the House of Lords.

by Laura Hitchcock

Alex, master and champion of the world...

From mocking the game to becoming a world champion: Alex Kley’s record-breaking achievements all started in a Dorset village hall

‘When I was 13, of my friends insisted on playing what I called his Old Man game,’ says Alex Kley. ‘I couldn’t resist making fun of it, but thank goodness he didn’t pay any attention, and just said, “Don’t mock it til you’ve tried it – come and have a go, it’s harder than you think!” Now here I am, a decade later and I’ve been No.1 in the world, and I’m current World Masters champion!’

Alex, now 23, grew up in Child Okeford, and it was in the Okeford Fitzpaine village hall that he first tried his hand at Short Mat Bowls. It’s a relatively new sport which grew out of the more familiar flat green bowls in the 1990s: played over a much shorter length, the pre-marked mat is six feet wide and between 40 and 45 feet long (meaning it’s easily accommodated in any village, school or leisure centre hall).

‘I was just so lucky,’ says Alex. ‘The county manager at the time, Brian Baker, was a member of the Okeford Fitzpaine Short Mat Bowls Club – and he taught me how to play. But so many of the older locals spent time with me, encouraging me and teaching me to be a better person as well as a better player. I’m so grateful to them all.’

By the time he was 14 Alex had been selected to play in the county team, and by 16 he was playing for England in both the Under 21s squad and the main team. By this time Alex had switched clubs from Okeford to Hazelbury Bryan – a tiny Dorset village which secretly housed a world class Short Mat Bowls Club where a lot of the county and England team players were members.

SMPT

Last year, at just 22 years old, Alex broke all records, becoming the first person to hold all major singles title in the same season – the English Open singles champion, also the National singles, British Isles singles and the World Singles champion. ‘I won the National Singles in consecutive years, and then I’ve just won the World Masters Singles back-to-back too. That has never been done before.’

A tactical game

Short Mat Bowls can be played as a singles game, but also as pairs, triples or fours – each with its own tactics and skill.

‘I was selected for the singles game. It’s what I’m best at, although I do enjoy working in a team too,’ says Alex. ‘It’s a very different way of working, sharing and planning tactics with others.’

Alex’s favourite strategy, to which he credits his record-breaking year, has potentially led to a World

Alex playing at the World Championships in Aberdeen 2022/23 season

World Masters singles champion 2022/23

Alex Kley with all the trophies he won in his record-breaking 2022/23 season (almost – he wasn’t allowed to keep the Masters globe!)

Council Bowling Association rule change. At both ends of the mat there is a fender, and one foot in from the fender there is a white line, representing the ditch.

‘My favourite strategy was to put the jack long, and then my first bowl would sit perfectly in the ditch –basically it’s unbeatable at that point. It’s the most difficult shot in the book, so to me, if you have the skill to do it then it’s fair play – that’s what lead to a lot of my success!

‘But this year there’s been a rule change, preventing that from happening with the first bowl –basically making sure your opponent still has a chance.

‘I enjoy switching tactics though, so that my opponents never know what I’m going to do. The tactics and strategies are just as important as the skill with the bowls. I was also captain of the England team last year – that was a big step up, testing my leadership skills. I enjoyed it.’ A couple of years ago Alex moved clubs again, this time to Carey SMBC near Wimborne. ‘It’s more convenient for work, but also I didn’t want to be quite so committed, and Carey were able to be more flexible about just letting me play when I wanted to. It’s easy to let bowls take over and I do have other things I want to do too! There’s only a couple of months a year when we’re not playing. I’ve qualified for the Short Mat Players Tour World

– the top four ranked players over the season from each country are invited to compete – and that’s held in August. But between now and then, I’m taking a rest. I won’t play at all.

‘I’m very lucky to be sponsored by both Wareham Golf Club and Belltops Roofing – without them, I wouldn’t be able to go to these events.’

Interestingly, Alex isn’t the youngest person playing on either his county or national team: ‘My little brother plays for Dorset,’ he says. ‘And there are lots of under 25s on the England team. The older local players love it, they’re excited by the prospect of so much growth in the game. Two years ago we won the Inter County Championship – Dorset was the top county in the country.

My favourite strategy is the most difficult shot in the book – but this year there’s been a rule change preventing it

‘The Dorset team manager is keen on going into schools and getting the kids to have a go – I’ve done a few talks myself, told them my story and encouraged them to have a go while I’ve taught them. Most clubs have an Open Roll Up night, where anyone can go along and give it a try, and experienced players like me will spend an hour teaching the basics. We always need new players’

• If you’re interested in giving bowls a try, contact Dorset County Short Mat Bowling Association to find your nearest club dorsetsmba.co.uk

Cup

When every day is a fantastic day

Nick Heyward looks back on rough school days, dreaming of stardom, David Bowie, naming Haircut 100 ... and the joy of reading in the bath

‘Awkward. Embarrassed most of the time. It was the 70s, and my school was … tough. On my first day I saw somebody knock a kid flying by the tuck shop. He had a kind of rock outfit on, huge platform shoes and a silver jacket, and he had a beard, I think was a sixth former. And he just smacked somebody full in the face. And I just thought, “Oh, dear. This is my place of learning.”’

Nick Heywood – singer, songwriter and Haircut 100 frontman – grew up in South London, and doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t dreaming of appearing on Top of the Pops.

‘We lived in Beckenham. I was told that it was more of an artistic, creative school, but I just remember keeping my head down for most of the first year,

so it didn’t get punched! This was the mid-70s, and everything was in black and white. I mean, there was colour on the TV, but life felt grey and grim with three-dayweeks and politics even worse than it is today.

‘I grew up in a musical family. My father took me to see Count Basie, Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson at Hammersmith Odeon. That was my first concert. I was blessed with music. Dad was a huge jazz fan –also big band music like Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. And then people like Tubby Hayes, solo saxophone players ... we’d always have Dave Brubeck playing in the

I

car. Growing up was switching between that and my brother playing Pink Floyd and David Bowie (the beacon of our area, he also lived in Beckenham at the same time).

My brother was music mad. Pink Floyd to Mark Bolan, everything was in Pete’s bedroom. Mum was into The Carpenters –something was being played non-stop.’

bought my first electric guitar in Woolworths for £15 – it was hardly playable, it sounded awful!

‘I was always interested in song-writing – a schoolfriend of mine, Lawrence, was a jazz drummer, and I used to go round to his house and take my first electric guitar, which I bought in Woolworths for

£15 – it was hardly playable, it sounded awful! But you’ve got to start somewhere. Lawrence and I would pretend we were in a band, and we’d just play and listen to records and we’d mime to Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye. We didn’t have a microphone because we couldn’t afford one. There wasn’t any kind of equipment apart from the guitar and that curly lead going into a Woolworths amplifier. And just dreaming. You’re dreaming that you could one day, possibly, be Queen, or Bolen or David Bowie. You wouldn’t believe how strong a lighthouse beam Bowie was in Beckenham. You know, he made it! He lived right here in Beckenham, but we saw him on the telly. Which made me beleive it was possible for me too. Everything was much more vibrant on the television than it was in real life.

‘I left school with a plan to go to art college, but I didn’t get in. I only got one O level and I would have had to stay on at school. And I thought “I can’t. I cannot stay here another minute.” So I left and got a job on Oxford Street in a commercial art company called the House of Wizard. I was on £15 a week, but I would have paid them to let me work there! They did Coca Cola campaigns and Bovril and I was doing all the things I loved. I used to sit and design posters. That was my passion – designing posters and listening to music. Then I got to combine them, beacuse at House of Wizard, we did record sleeves too. We did the Jam’s In The City ... Uriah Heep … loads of bands.’

Blatant Beavers

But I kept up the music. Les Nemes and I were formidable once we teamed up. I was impatient. We were ambitious. It may have looked like it happened overnight, but we were together playing music a long time. We were in lots of rehearsal studios,

played in many bands, through many cultural niches. We thought we were going to be in a ska band, we were going to be punk, new wave … By the time we were 19 or 20, that’s when it took off.

‘Les, guitarist Graham and I lived in a flat above a flower shop in Gloucester Road, living and breathing the band. We were all single at the time, so we’d socialise and go out together, experiencing the magic of being in a band. We knew people like Spandau Ballet, we were all at the same clubs, trying to cut through.’

Music journalist Adrian Thrills remembers it clearly: ‘Nick walked unannounced into the NME offices in Carnaby Street in March 1981. He charmed his way past reception, thrust a demo tape into my hands and began telling me, a staff writer interested in new bands, about Haircut 100. They played fast, chunky pop, a new kind of jangly, poppy Britfunk.’ Adrian subsequently wrote a full

page piece on Haircut 100 in the NME, and introduced Nick to the editor of The Face, who also ran a piece on the band.

‘NME had such power and influence at the time,’ says Nick. ‘I don’t think we’d have happened without it.’

And how about the Haircut 100 name? Is it true it was just the silliest one Nick could think of?

‘Well, we’d been Quick Cereals, Blatant Beavers, Napkin Man … we tried out a new one each week on our mates. Haircut 100 just seemed the worst! But people would ask why, or laugh or they’d say “great name!”. It caused a reaction.

‘To me it just said pop art – I loved surreal pop art at that time, I loved the lyrics of Talking Heads that just didn’t seem to make sense. Nothing seemed to make sense in pop music lyrics, even David Bowie’s lyrics were nonsense. Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow?

‘I knew from my design days that creativity comes from Nowhere Land – it’s why Haircut 100 stuck.

It just it went down well with our mates and it seemed to fit us as a band.’

The Haircut 100 look was distinctive, a contrast to what else was going on at that time, the band known for wearing thick Argyle jumpers, Nick for a traditional Breton fisherman’s cap which promptly became a fashion trend.

‘Yeah, it was quite eclectic, wasn’t it? And it was all us, we didn’t have stylists. We got our clothes from Kensington Market and experimented with different looks and styles. London in the early 80s was so creative. And fashion, more than ever, was connected to the music. Everybody that had been a young Bowie fan had now grown up, and they were in bands or the fashion industry or something. We knew that how unique you were was how successful you were. It wasn’t about conforming. We’d wear a sou’wester and fisherman’s socks, or full polo gear to the gig one day, because why not? You just tried things out. And when you’re doing it, you realise that fashion comes from everywhere. And it’s all been done before –you’re just taking it and putting it in a different place. I wore the fishing hat because my father used to wear one when we went on holiday. We went to Port Grimaud – it’s now a holiday resort, but then it was just a a

fishing village. And he used to wear that hat to hire this little boat for maybe £1.50 a day. I just remember him wearing that hat. So I wore it, and then you find out that oh, look, John Lennon wore that hat. It’s all been done before. BUT I have yet to find anybody before me who wore fisherman’s waders on Top of the Pops … once, we were on the same show as The Furies, an Irish folk band, and their manager came up to us and said “I’ve been trying to get them to wear Aran jumpers for their whole career and they refuse. Now you’re wearing them, but what have you got to do with folk music?”

This year Haircut 100 played a warm-up gig at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton and then went on to play Glastonbury.

‘Later this year I’m off on solo tour – which is always great, but very different. When Les

and I are together, we just pick up where we left off. And when we’re playing with Blair, suddenly we’re just alive with the power this man from Memphis has got in his pocket. It’s a thing that you only get in a band.

‘When I’m touring on my own, it’s a completely different thing. Even if I play those same songs, it’s different. But I’ll be just cherry picking from the whole catalogue – and when I play them I go into full joy mode. I never forget – this is my dream I’m getting to do.’

A life in music

And so to Nick Heyward’s music choices, in no particular order, along with how and why they have stuck in his life:

Penny Lane

The Beatles

This sums up the Beatles to me, the optimism of the time, Paul McCartney at his best. There’s a lyric in there where it says “Meanwhile, back” at the end of the verse. And it just links up one verse to the next. Every time I hear that, I think it’s one of the cleverest things I’ve heard. Normally there’s some rhyming and then the bit of link and a chorus and this doesn’t, it just links up the verse to the next. It’s like a daisy chain. Everything about it captures that period so beautifully. It’s like pop brass, it just says it’s celebratory, and it captures Liverpool so well.

The instrumentation on it, the baseline, is completely fresh. It’s the same way that you hear something like Gustav Mahler’s Symphony Adagio for Strings, and you think “he captured melancholy”. The Beatles captured the sound of optimism in a single gem of a three minute pop song.

Rocket Man

Elton John

I love and respect the relationship between Elton and Bernie Taupin more and more the older I get. Bernie is a genuine lyricist, he’s up there with the best. And for these two to find each other …

The whole world has benefited from Rocket Man, musically and lyrically. It’s just genius. Decades later, I still listen to it now. The delivery, the vocals, the imagery that comes from the lyrics. I can just put it on, and I’m transported.

It was everybody at the top of their game at that particular time. That recording is like a fine wine – every once in a while you just put it on and you listen, and you go “Oh, yeah, there’s magic in the world all right.”

Life on Mars

David Bowie

There are so many of his songs that I could have picked. But It’s a god-awful small affair, To the girl with the mousy hair … what

a way to start a song! Like, what? That’s the power of a lyricist. It’s not a generic pop song about love. It transports you to another place. Music did that, it took me out of the mundane world and into this other realm. It was amazing. And just a few words would do that. You know, We’re back to Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow again. I mean, you just accepted this as the norm, this is what it was in the 70s. It was a glimpse of the new world that was happening, that you were aspiring to. You believed the next decade was going to be even more vibrant. I had no clue then that I was going to be involved in the next decade at all, but because of Bowie, I dreamed that it might be possible. He was such an inspiration.

And the melody here is so beautiful. Perfectly crafted,

again, by all the people that were at the top of their game at that particular point. The studios were better than they’d ever been, everything that had happened in tape, there were more tracks so they could record more … and they were really good at what they did.

Disco Stomp

Hamilton Bohannan

This is the disco! For me, this was our local town hall, and a hotchpotch of people from different areas – and most of us were wearing bowling shirts. This record is the most vivid memory for me. It made everybody move in unison, and I’ve never heard anything sound that way. I think it still influences guitar players. I was an aspiring rhythm guitar player at that point, and there’s this rhythm guitar part in the song which goes against the beat. I didn’t even know it was a guitar. I just wanted to know what’s doing that rhythm? What’s making everybody in this room dance together, in unison? And this music, it wasn’t like Tiger Feet by Mud, it wasn’t ska… This was a different thing. It was just this rhythm. And it haunted me for years because it fell off the radar, but now we’ve got YouTube and we can find all this stuff. It was played everywhere in ‘76, and then it just seemed to vanish. But that rhythm, there’s just something about it. It wasn’t

a classic melody either, it was just all about the groove.

Down Down Status Quo

Before I was going to that disco, I’d be listening to Quo in my bedroom. I was wearing triple denim, cheesecloth, orange platform shoes. I had fake sheepskin around the collar that I got from the market somewhere. I thought I was great. I looked like a member of Quo! And I would play that Down Down intro ... In fact, when Haircut 100 got back together at the Shepherds Bush Empire, we came on to Down Down. That was a moment, I can tell you. I went from playing to the mirror in my bedroom, imagining being in Status Quo, to being on that enormous stage with our band. And we played that song. Goosebumps.

Again, it’s in the recording – this is the greatest intro to any pop song, ever, I think. I’m really into intros. That’s why I love Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye because the intro instantly makes you want to do something, like when you hear the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody. Just from the first few bars.

Down Down’s drum intro, it’s classic: really simple, but it flops in in such a beautiful way. I love everything about it. I learned to play it and realised how simple it was as well. It’s just a capo on the fretboard and playing

a minor shape. And I thought “wow, all these years of that magic that I wanted to work out. And now it’s on YouTube, and you can learn this stuff.”

Staying Alive

Bee Gees

Well, I think stranded on an island, I would definitely need to stay alive! This is some positive affirmation – I listen to this a lot when I’m flying. When you’re landing or you’re bumping through the clouds, sometimes it’s nice to just have something that’s grounding. It’s a positive thing. I love flying now but I didn’t used to. Music can really help you love something – it’s association, isn’t it? If you experience something positive, and you’re listening to music, then every time you go through a difficult time you play that music, you can get through anything. It’s a healing thing.

I wasn’t listening to this at the time it came out, though. This was just the music that was around. I didn’t buy it. But it has stood the test of time, and I listen to this track more than I do the songs that I did buy back then. Once again, it’s all in how they were recorded, it’s so expertly and beautifully put together. And the genius of the Bee Gees is working with Arif Mardin: going to Miami and making records that sounded so American. I think he’s got the best Anglo/American pop music – you take brilliant writers, and then put them in America with the best funk producer – and suddenly you’ve got all those great songs.

I don’t listen to vinyl – I’ve got vinyl on display, and we’ve got a wonky-looking 60s record player because my wife loves retro stuff. But I love streaming. I love it that I’m listening to all the things that I didn’t get to listen to. I couldn’t afford to buy every 10cc album, but now I can listen to every single one. Every song I could ever wish to hear is there.

Baker Street Gerry Rafferty

It’s so dramatic! I was walking around London delivering parcels, learning to be a commercial artist at House of Wizard. I wasn’t listening to the record because we didn’t have Walkmans then. But you

would take that song with you, wherever you walked, because it was still playing. Everywhere. That intro was everywhere. I would be at work making the tea for 20 people with that song in the backgorund, and then go off and deliver a parcel and there it was again ... I was always walking down Baker Street. That was the soundtrack of the time. But me personally, I was listening to punk. And if someone had said to me then “in three or four years time, your band will have taken off and you’ll be playing in California at a sold out country club. And Gerry Rafferty will be guesting, and he’ll want to play with you…” Never in my wildest dreams. But there we were, playing his song with him. That’s why I feel like saying to anyone “you can make your wildest dreams come true”. Because you really can. I did.

Let Your Yeah Be Yeah

The Pioneers

Another that has stayed with me. Before my family moved to Beckenham, we lived in Brixton. I used to go to Brixton market with my nan and mum, and Trojan Records was huge in Brixton. This song was always playing, and it is my favorite bassline of all time. And the recording – total magic. You couldn’t recreate this, it’s a moment in time. These historic recordings, they will never be created again. The sound of the 70s has this timeless tape, it was just 8-track, 16-track and 24-track. This Pioneers song was probably recorded on 8-track, so the tape is wider and thicker, which gives this thicker, lovely warm fuzzy sound. I used to record in the 90s and I recorded on a 16-track machine for that, because my guitar sounded wider. I’d play my Gretsch through the 16-track machine, and everyone would ask “how do you do that?” It was just through using old tape

recorders. Listen to Let Your Yeah Be Yeah, it’s more bassy than anything you hear now, so warm and round and bassy and I just love it.

Luxury item?

A bathtub! Funnily enough, I don’t listen to music in the bath. I read. It’s like I have to have a bath to read. We’ve just gone the longest we’ve ever gone living somewhere without a bath, and we’ve been going to hotels for a bath sometimes just because I really need to read. There’s something about the focused concentration of being so warm. I mean, I can’t recall my mother’s womb, but I reckon it’s probably pretty close!

A really safe, warm place. I stay in hours. Hours! Everything is wrinkly when I get out, but I can devour a book. One of my favorite memories is reading Charlotte’s Web in the bath. I’d never read it, and it was that magic of being in the story. I was in the bath in Tampa and the sun was shining through the window and it was dark by the time I finished it. It was just magic. What a book, what a story … and what a bath.

So I will need a bath, please. And it should be hooked up to the nearest waterfall, and heated by the sun.

The Book

I just want an empty journal. I have to be able to keep writing. I

never found that Elton John and Bernie Taupin-type of songwriting partnership. So I just have to do whatever comes – sometimes I write the music, then on the way home I’ll find some lyrics. Or sometimes I just come up with the title first, like Blue Hat For A Blue Day and Lemon Fire Brigade, they were titles that I had, and I just had to somehow hope the right song would come along. It’s random and sometimes chaotic.

It’s a bit like cooking, you can invent some really good new meals if you just try lots of stuff. It’s the same ingredients everyone has, though. I mean, I’m using the same seven notes as anyone else. And they’re the same seven notes that every bird sings in the tree. Same with the lyrics – they’re the same words, and you just mix them all up.

• Following a 2023 sell-out Haircut 100 London reunion show at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and a joyous UK tour, this autumn Nick Heyward sets off on his first solo tour since the critically acclaimed Woodland Echoes tour in 2018. See nickheyward.com for dates

• Haircut 100’s show at The Exchange was an instant sellout. If you missed it, keep your eyes peeled for more shows coming soon, and be quick with the Buy Tickets Now button!

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The Rev Jane Williams looks after the churches and the 4,000-strong communities of the six Dorset villages making up the Red Post Benefice. All images: Courtenay Hitchcock

The Red Post priest

It’s 30 years since the Church of England first allowed women priests. Tracie Beardsley meets the Rev Jane Williams, vicar of six Dorset parishes

On the morning we speak, the Reverend Jane Williams has already helped plan a newborn’s baptism, overseen wedding paperwork for a betrothed couple and finalised her sermon for a funeral. Administrating this ‘circle of life’, her morning coffee has inevitably gone cold.

A priest in Dorset for the past seven years, Jane has been looking after the churches and the 4,000-strong communities of the six Dorset villages making up the Red Post Benefice (referring to the famous red signpost on the A31 near Bloxworth) since last September.

Jane was at the height of her nursing career, a highly respected local hospital matron, when she got her calling from God

Under her protective wing are Sturminster Marshall, Bloxworth, Morden, Winterbourne Kingston, Winterbourne Zelston and the tiny village of Almer. Contrary to expectation, her congregations are not dwindling. There may only be eight people who attend the service in Bloxworth, but that has been the case for years.

The 58-year-old works six days a week: ‘No day is ever the same. Sunday is particularly busy with up to three services in three villages on one day.’

The rest of her week is spent supporting the community. ‘Walking with people through their

lives is a privilege. There’s a huge epidemic of loneliness, and even if I can’t visit, I know how important the small act of a phone call can be.’

It seems her 30 years working in the NHS, starting at 16 in a care home and becoming a nurse at 18, have stood her in good stead.

‘I’ve always worked in a community setting, being interested in what makes them tick. As a nurse the focus was health. As a priest, it’s spiritual needs.

‘I grew up in Pembrokeshire with faith, always a church-goer, and became a Sunday School teacher. I always wanted to be a vicar, but women couldn’t back then. The eldest of four, money was tight so my parents told me to get a proper job.’

Jane was at the height of her nursing career, a highly respected local hospital matron, when she got her calling from God.

‘I remember it vividly. I was driving to a lay minister training session and had to pull over, so overwhelming was this voice in my head prompting me to pursue the priesthood. I felt like Jonah, the reluctant prophet. I just kept asking God “why now?” I know, you shouldn’t really argue with God! I promised Him I’d make enquiries, but thought it’d never come to fruition.

‘Even when I was interviewed by the Bishop of Salisbury, I thought I’d just do it part time, that it would be a bit like a hobby!’

The Bishop – and God – had other ideas. Jane was recommended to train in Oxford, at the UK’s oldest theological college. She completed her degree in just two years and was ordained in the year she turned 50.

‘It was a hard time. I was away all week studying. My husband Nigel was working full time and one of my daughters was sitting her A-levels. I also have a disabled daughter who needs 24-hour care.’

Along with her successful career, Jane forfeited the accompanying good salary. With their income halved, the mortgage was impossible, so the family moved into a smaller home.

She has no regrets. The vicarage is her home now, though it’s tied to her role. ‘Really, I see all six churches as my home here. My base is Sturminster Marshall but I feel like I live in all the villages.’

She won’t be drawn on her favourite church or village, though: ‘That would be like picking a favourite child! Each village is different, with its own history and dynamics. And, like children, sometimes one needs you more than the other.’

Even now, Jane admits to some pre-pulpit nerves. ‘During my first sermon, a friend in the congregation held up Strictly Come Dancing scorecards. And she didn’t give me a 10!’

And does a priest get time for herself? ‘There’s lots of burn-out in the clergy so it’s important to de-stress. My three daughters and my three granddaughters are the centre of my life. My guilty pleasure is going to the theatre or a concert.’

But not today. She has a village fete to help organise, plans for a new church loo to discuss and a church council meeting which she assures me has its “Dibley moments”!

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Dorset and Hampshire clash in annual Pro fixture

The annual match between the Dorset Men’s first team and the professionals of Hampshire CCC takes place on Sunday 21st July. This regular fixture is the only opportunity to see professional cricket in Dorset each year. As part of Dorset’s membership to the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the team are offered an opportunity to play a first-class county in a single game each year to showcase the talents that exist in the NCCA –and in Dorset Cricket! Dorset’s relationship with Hampshire is strong and they are always happy to visit Wimborne for this annual match.

Dorset’s talent pathway is very closely aligned to Hampshire’s and has been used as a supply line to their professional ranks with five players moving from Dorset to Hampshire into first class cricket in the past nine years. Last year, four of those players took part in the match for Hampshire.

Currently, Dorset has two former Dorset Pathway players involved with Hampshire’s Academy – both hope to be the sixth successful graduate!

A grand day out

‘Last year, the weather reduced the length of the match to 22 overs,’ says Dorset Cricket Managing Director, Ben Skipworth. ‘But we counted ourselves lucky – we were one of only two NCCA Showcase matches in the country to see any cricket on the day!

‘Our ‘old boys’ did not disappoint last year: Tom scored a halfcentury, Joseph hit a massive six, Scott bowled accurately and Eddie grabbed four wickets with some fine fast bowling.

‘Despite the weather, around 250 people watched the match last year. We are firmly aiming for 500 spectators this year! There will be food and drink for purchase on the day and our Community Team will be running an interactive zone for our younger spectators to visit during the match.

There will also be opportunities to purchase Dorset Cricket merchandise and for visitors to come and talk to staff and players during the day.

‘The match has been supported by the Hendy Group – our main match sponsor – and No More Stumps, who are the match ball sponsors.

Wimborne Cricket Club will be operating a barbecue all day and Pamphill Dairy will be selling ice-cream. Should any other local businesses want to attend,

please do get in touch with meben.skipworth@dorset-cricket.co.uk. ‘Grab your chairs and come along to support The Leopards (or The Hawks!). Enjoy the cricket and everything else on offer during the day in what will be a great opportunity to showcase the best of Dorset’s cricketing talent.’

• The 2024 NCCA Showcase match – Dorset Leopards v Hampshire Hawks

• Sunday 21st July

• 11am to 7.30pm.

• Wimborne Cricket Club BH21 1DY

• Advance tickets now on sale at £10 per adult, under 18s free when accompanied by a paying adult. Gate price £12, card payment only on gate

• ADVANCE TICKETS HERE

by Fanny Charles

Film Festival has a starry line-up for summer open-air movie season

This year’s Cinema Under the Stars has a starry line-up! Programmed by Purbeck Film Festival, the 2024 season runs across August with seven box office hits at stunning locations including Corfe Castle. The series begins on Saturday 3rd August with Barbie at Knoll House Hotel, Studland – can you picture a more appropriate setting for this clever, funny and utterly sunny film? Totally deserving of its box office success – and

disappointingly unrecognised by the big awards for its brilliant satirical script (and fabulous performances by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling). The screening begins at 8.45pm, and “pinkthemed drinks” (what else!) will be available.

Next up is Ghostbusters (the original) at Durlston Country Park, Swanage, on Saturday 17th August, once again at 8.45pm. Corfe Castle is the atmospheric setting for two films at Corfe

Castle, starting with the first Harry Potter – 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – on Friday 23rd August. It’s amazing how young Daniel Radcliffe looks. It’s followed on Saturday 24th by the eternally boyish Timothee Chalamet as Wonka. If you haven’t seen this musical prequel to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, it is delightful, with Olivia Colman as a thoroughly unpleasant character. Both are at 8.45pm.

On Saturday 31st August at 8.15pm, Careys Secret Garden, a magical location near Wareham, is the venue for Calendar Girls, the original film, which is so much better than both the stage play and the musical, with a matchless cast headed by Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Linda Bassett and Celia Imrie.

The series ends at an iconic Purbeck location: the Blue Pool near Wareham.

On Friday 6th September, the film is A Room with a View – the beautiful adaptation of one of EM Forster’s finest novels, starring Maggie Smith, Daniel Day Lewis and Helena Bonham-Carter.

On Saturday 7th, Baz Luhrmann’s glorious Moulin Rouge, with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, will light up the Purbeck night. Both screenings at 8pm.

Hoofing good time at the G&S Show Show

The Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show is on Wednesday August 14th and Thursday August 15th this year, staying with the two day format which has proved so popular with visitors for the last two years. North Dorset’s biggest agricultural event celebrates 30 years at Turnpike Showground this year, and show organiser Cat Harris has lined up two full days of entertainment for the whole family.

This year, stars of the show will undoubtedly be Joseph’s Amazing Camels – you’ve no doubt already seen them in Disney and Marvel movies – who will be entertainig the crowds in the main ring with some spectacular camel racing.

The main ring will also be the place to enjoy the Shetland pony racing, competitive showjumping and everyone’s favourite, the Grand Parade of Livestock. Agriculture has always been the heart of the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show, and the Grand Parade allows visitors to see the show champions and all the prize-winning livestock parade around the ring – it is a spectacle not to be missed. Plus there’s ferret racing, skilled gun dog demonstrations, falconry displays and heavy horses!

Everyone enjoys a wander through the Horticulture Marquee – last year more than 1,500 entries across the flowers, vegetables and cookery competitions. Due to popular demand, the show has expanded its opening hours this year, and after the main gates close at 6pm on the Wednesday, visitors on a day

ticket can stay into the evening to enjoy live music from great local bands while the bars and pop-up food stalls stay open until 10.30pm

• Adults £18, 5 to 16s £3. Family ticket at earlybird prices £41 (two adults and two children). gillinghamandshaftesburyshow.co.uk

• The G&S Show welcomes dogs on leads and offers mobility scooters for hire.

Kipps, the new Half a Sixpence, comes to Shaftesbury!

A burst of sunshine comes to Shaftesbury this Summer in the form of Kipps, the new updated Half a Sixpence, reworked by Cameron Mackintosh and Julian Fellowes. Shaftesbury Arts Centre has chosen this joyous musical for its summer show, on at the Arts Centre from 11th to 20th July. With catchy music and a whirlwind of dance, you’ll walk away afterwards with a smile on your face as you hum the tunes.

Older readers will remember the original starred Tommy Steele as the hero, Arthur Kipps, who worked for a penny-pinching draper. A chance meeting with a stage impresario reveals Arthur Kipps as the heir to a fortune, and he attempts to become a gentleman – in the process falling for the daughter of a customer. His intended love’s brother has his eyes on Kipps’ fortune, of course, and cheats him. Ann, his childhood sweetheart, helps Kipps to see where his true self lies.

With numbers such as If The Rain’s Got To Fall and Pick Out A Simple Tune you will find it hard to decide on a favourite ... until the iconic Flash Bang Wallop starts!

The cast of 32 ranges in age from ten to 80 – there are more than 100 costumes, 24 musical numbers and an orchestra under the steady baton of David Grierson. What more could you want?

• From 11th to 20th July. Tickets are £15, £12.50 for members and £10 for under 18s, available from Shaftesbury Arts Centre shaftesburyartscentre.org.uk or from the box office 01747 854321, open from 10am to 12.30pm Monday to Saturday.

Shakespeare’s shortest (and wildest) comedy!

The Three Inch Fools are back! The clock is ticking as they rush to untangle one almighty mess in this farcical tale of long-lost twins, hysterical misunderstandings and endless mishaps. With musical instruments in hand, expect a joyous take on this Shakespearean rib-tickler. The Three Inch Fools are an innovative touring theatre company acclaimed for their fast-paced and musically driven approach to theatre. They have built a reputation for staging bold and vibrant productions in a fast-paced, musically-driven style which features all sorts of instruments and plenty of quick costume changes along the way!

• Fri 16 August, 7pm. Higher Orchard, Sandford Orcas. 01963 220208

• Gates open at 6pm - licensed bar, picnics welcomed. Please note this is an outdoor

performance - bring your own chair/blanket to sit on. Assistance dogs only.

• Tickets – artsreach.co.uk

Stunts and spectacles at Dorset County Show

The Dorset County Show returns on the 7th & 8th of September this year, the county’s annual celebration of rural life with an exciting blend of new displays and beloved traditions. This year, the show introduces visitors to Atkinson Action Horses, the nation’s favourite IMPs Motorcycle Display Team, and brand new alpaca competitions. The grand family day out marks Dorset’s end of harvest celebration and still serves as a major networking event for the county’s thriving agricultural sector. The Show combines everything the county has to offer, featuring entertaining new acts, livestock competitions, traditonal crafts, local food and drink and live music.

Atkinson Action Horses are set to thrill with their high-energy,

breath-taking, and death-defying stunt show. Making their Dorset debut, the display promises to be a phenomenal exhibition of skill by both rider and horse. The IMPs Motorcycle Display Team are a crowd favourite, the roar of engines matched by the cheer of the crowd as they perform their billowing fire jump, a suspenseful multiple motorcycle combination ‘crossover’ routine and a rolling human pyramid.

New to the Woodland Area, visitors this year can try their hand at Tomahawk Throwing, completely free of charge.

And you can meet more than 50 alpacas at this year’s Dorset County Show, as they offer competitions for the first time. The Halter Show includes judging in both types of alpaca - the

The IMPs Motorcycle Display Team

Huacaya and the Suri. There will also be demonstrations and activities across the weekend. James Cox, Show Organiser, says, ‘We introduced new attractions and areas or last year’s show, and it was a huge success. This year we’ve built on those changes with even more brilliant new acts that celebrate Dorset agriculture and countryside while bringing fantastic, unmissable displays to the County!’

Annual traditions remain at the heart of the show, with visitor favourites including livestock, heavy horses, crafts, delicious food & drink and much more. Don’t miss the biggest weekend in the county calendar!

• For further information and to book your Show Ticket, visit dorsetcountyshow.co.uk.

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

A whirlwind tour of all that’s coming up in Sturminster Newton this month

Pauline Batstone shares her monthly round up of what’s happening among the town’s collection of community enterprises and events

Welcome to Stur to all our lovely visitors exploring our town this summer! As you explore the town, don’t miss our four individual shops supporting reinvestment into our lovely little town. If you haven’t been to see us yet, you don’t know what you are missing!

1855 is the indoor artisan’s market with more than 90 Dorset-based craftspeople and traders. Find it at the end of Market Cross. Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am til 4pm.

The Pre-loved Boutique has a range of ladies quality clothes and accessories, plus children’s clothes. Find it at 7 Church Street, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.

The Emporium is our own version of a department store on The Market Place, recycling good and useful things. Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturdays 10am til 4pm.

Dapper Chaps is the gentleman’s boutique, found inside The Emporium

Art Gallery is up on the first floor above The Emporium – the name says it all!

Furniture Warehouse is filled with used but good and new-to-you furniture for a replacement, a need or simply an upcycle. Also on The Market Place but not always staffed, so if you find it closed please do pop into The Emporium and ask for us to open up. And for those whose children who go to our local schools, we have FREE school and other uniforms available on the first floor above the Furniture Warehouse (and we are very pleased to accept your outgrown items)

Plus we have a community fridge and assorted free foods available in The Emporium – freely available to anyone, please help us to avoid food waste.

We are often asked where the money raised through SturAction’s shops goes – as an example, over the past month the shops have:

• Helped support the fifth Stur Literary Festival, which brings new people into our town (put next year’s dates in your diary now – the LitFest will be back on 7th to 15th June 2025!)

• Agreed a grant to the third Riverside Family Festival which aims to give a cheap fun day out to our local families while raising money for local charities.

• Supported the Car and Bike Enthusiasts Meet on the first Saturday morning of every month, and we also pay for free car parking that day –again aiming to bring customers into our local independent shops and cafes.

• Been asked to assist The Exchange with their new community project.

• Through our events organiser Jacqui we are organising Sturminster Newton’s own Art Week 13th to 21st July, with more than 30 artists exhibiting their works in our shop windows, plus a couple of exciting events: an Art Race and a mural painting workshop. During that week the town’s own graffiti artist Tom Wolfe will be completing the train mural in the Station Road car park.

• And the summer flower planters which Jacqui organises with our local businesses have arrived in town from Thorngrove (see page 87)

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On Lyscombe

The farmland purchased by DWT was 800acres total, and the only productive agriculture done was on 300 acres of low input grassland. The farm had been organic for 30 years and has had the lowest inputs of purely cattle dung applied to it of any farm in the Poole catchment – as proved by it having the lowest score on the nitrate leaching tool.

DWT and Natural England used a different model, as if it were farmed in a conventional way. They use this model to forecast nitrogen net benefit to the harbour. This farm has never applied an optimum level of nitrogen. Furthermore, the slurry applied to the large area surrounding it remains, as they have not lowered the stock numbers of surrounding farmers. In terms of stock they removed 100 sheep and 50 beef cattle which they intend to replace to holistically graze the site. The community wholeheartedly support a nature reserve being in the middle of the Dorset AONB and being funded with DWT money. The public should be aware the government spent £5million of their money, and if they want support from local farmers they should tell the full picture. This will have negligible effect on Poole Harbour and many, very qualified, people agree with nitrates saving being farcical. But it will undoubtedly be a gain to the wildlife of the area. £5 million may have been better spent at Wessex Water… where human slurry gets pumped into rivers! Will Hiscock, via Facebook

Sweet Sorrow

How wonderful to discover this passionate play at the Exchange, presented by SNADS. Not one of their hilarious pantomimes, farces or murder mysteries but an exploration into bereavement. If that put you off going, what a shame! The audience was rapt, much laughter and a few tears as we witnessed a family joking around, then falling apart and finally recovering. The cast played with absolute conviction, transporting us to their real world with sincerity. I must pick out Hazel Perret and Tom Selby who were particularly impressive, being so young, grounded in the reality of difficult teenage journeys through this splendid piece. Scene-setting via upstage film projection denoting not only location but the quips and retorts of texting was an inspired creation. A most tasteful touch was an aerial panning of Christchurch Estuary with the message of death conveyed by the music of Faure’s beautiful ‘In Paradisum’.

Can one be entertained by tears and sad emotion? Yes! It was a compellingly enjoyable deepening of life around us and, what’s more, the actors told me that they enjoyed rehearsals immensely – and it showed! Fraser Wilson, by email

Crossword

Simply click to complete on your tablet, computer or phone - or there’s a download ‘PDF’ option if you prefer pen and paper.

The walled garden at Mottisfont – just click to complete!

Jigsaw

Educators unite at Bryanston School’s annual summit

More than 300 educators from across the UK gathered at Bryanston School in June for the eighth annual Education Summit. This year’s theme was The Times They Are A-Changing: Future Proof Your Teaching –inspired by Bob Dylan’s iconic song, the day focused on embracing the ongoing changes in the education system. The summit featured a series of inspiring talks by expert speakers and leading educators, addressing the evolution of education in a rapidly advancing digital world alongside traditional teaching methods. A standout moment was Mary Myatt, an education adviser, writer, and former teacher, delivering a compelling talk on the intellectual power of narrative. Mary presented evidence showing that simply reading well-chosen books to children in the classroom significantly enhances their reading abilities. She emphasised that curiosity is a significant motivator for learning.

Amjad Ali, an experienced SENCo, gave a lively and engaging talk on inclusive

Amjad Ali, an experienced SENCo, gave a lively talk on inclusive teaching

teaching, stressing the importance of the language teachers use with children and the need to avoid labels.

Dan Fitzpatrick, ‘The AI Educator,’ had the room talking as he demonstrated various AI tools that could reduce teacher workload and help engage and inspire pupils.

Stephen Davies, Education Summit Director, said, ‘We must run harder just to stand still in schools, let alone make progress and be at the forefront.

Bryanston, with its ‘et nova et

vetera’ motto, has always tried to look both forwards and backwards. The aim of the day was to look forward at how teaching – and being a teacher – could evolve in the coming years. AI is no doubt a big part of that debate.’

Reflecting on the overall event, Bryanston’s Head, Richard Jones, praised the unity of teaching colleagues from primary and secondary schools, both state and independent, especially in the context of the forthcoming General Election. ‘It is crucial for us all to come together to improve outcomes in our education settings. I sincerely hope that politicians recognise the strength of this collaboration, harness this collective strength, and allow us to continue building on the many successful cross-sector partnerships that already exist. The priority is, and must always be, to help drive standards up across all education for children in the UK.’

Abbey104 Album of the Month:

All Again Queen of Jeans

Memory Music

This Sunday (7th July) Sherborne will host its first Pride Parade, so it feels apt that my album of the month features a self-described ‘queer’ band, Queen of Jeans. In fact, the South Philadelphia indie quartet credit the fact that various members had become so frustrated with being the tokenised, queer members of their respective previous bands with the formation of their new project.

Their third long player (and first in five years following the swift one-two punch of 2018’s Dig Yourself and 2019’s If You’re Not Afraid, I’m Not Afraid), All Again finds the band in reflective mood. The chirpy, beat-driven pop of 2022’s Under The Radar song of the year contender Hiding In Place is largely absent in the latest album.

In its place are a set of subtle, expertly crafted and slow-burning classics. The production is silky, enveloping the listener in comforting waves of heartfelt but ultimately positive vignettes reminiscent of Phoebe Bridgers’ more introspective moments.

Throughout the album there is a sense of regret and of opportunities lost.

Books in Bed begins with a simple synth motif as vocalist Miri Devora describes “all the boxes piled up on the floor”. Later, on Go Down Easy,

she reflects “I never should have let you in”. But these sentiments are by no means the end of the story. Elsewhere, refrains of “all my friends around me” (All My Friends) and “I feel better in my mind” (Karaoke) provide balance through moments of cathartic communion. While it is true that the album offers little which could be described as unique or ground breaking, that isn’t the point. All Around is the sound of a songwriter hitting their sweet spot, and of a band fully committing to the cause. As a result, Queen of Jeans have produced one of the most accomplished records of 2024.

• Matthew Ambrose presents Under The Radar on Tuesday evening at 7pm on Abbey104. Broadcasting on 104.7FM and online at abbey104.com.

Matthew Ambrose, DJ at Abbey104

Drop-in healthcare for farmers at market

The Rural Chaplaincy Team of the Salisbury Diocese works across Dorset and Wiltshire, visiting farms and rural businesses, providing support where it is needed.

‘It is about being part of the fabric,’ explains Jo Churchill, the organiser of Church Tent. ‘The team are immersed in everything that happens – big or small, they’re a listening ear or a signpost where it’s needed.’

Each Tuesday, the chaplains visit the Salisbury Livestock Market. The weekly event is more than transactional business for the farmers attending, it is their social network. And not just for the farmers – the chaplains meet dealers, hauliers, agents, caterers, vets and regulatory officers as they reach far and wide into the rural, often very isolated, agricultural community by means of a central, regular meeting place.

Rural chaplains are trained to provide wellbeing and mental health support. But the team are aware that illness and

physical issues are often not being addressed. ‘It’s the nature of farming,’ says Jo. ‘Many are unable to find the time to attend regular GP appointments, and most will prioritise their work over their own wellbeing.’

Inspired by the success of a project in another livestock market, from June NHS healthcare professionals will

Rural chaplains will be working alongside NHS professionals with a drop in clinic at Salisbury Livestock Market

be working alongside the rural chaplains, holding weekly dropin surgeries at the Salisbury market.

• Two rural chaplains will be present for both days of the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show on 14th and 15th August – the Church Tent is providing a base for them. Do come along for a chat.

Bonjour Thornford Primary!

Thornford Primary School played host to 59 French children in June as part of an exchange trip. Thornford Primary is twinned with a school in Hudimesnil, Normandy, and the entire school was excited to welcome the school’s pupils for a visit. The French children visited a number of London tourist attractions plus the Harry Potter Studios and Bath, before heading to Thornford to meet their pen pals. The combined group of children then took a trip to visit Sherborne Old Castle, before heading to Sherborne Abbey. Partnered with their pen pal, the Thornford children got to practice their French as they showed their guests around the local area.

Back at school, all the children took part in a range of activities including making collages and friendship bracelets, reading French stories, and going on a nature scavenger hunt. On Thursday, Thornford pupils laid on a cream

tea for their new friends – they were surprised to find many of the French children had never tried scones with jam and cream before!

Headteacher Neela Brooking says, ‘It was an absolute pleasure to host our French friends and welcome them to the area. It was a great experience for all the children, helping improve their language skills and build new friendships. We very much look forward to them future visits!’

The combined group of French and English children visited Sherborne Old Castle

Sherborne’s new Community Hub and café

Thanks to generous donations and support from many local groups and charities, Sherborne Primary School opened their new Community Hub building in June. The new building in the school grounds will be home to the pupil-run Sherbean Café – open to parents every Tuesday and Thursday morning – but will also be used for a range of community pursuits including parenting courses and social prescribers.

The Community Hub was officially opened by cllr Robin Legg, mayor of Sherborne, and joining him for the grand opening were the local people who helped bring the project from an idea to a reality. Pupils who run the school café were on hand to provide refreshments and talk to guests about the difference this new building will make.

Ian Bartle, executive headteacher of Sherborne Primary said ‘All of the Sherborne Primary School children, staff and community wish to thank the many organisations, businesses and individuals within the town who have raised so much funding to support this truly community led project.’ Sherborne Primary School would like to thank

Primary pupils with (l-r) cllr

all the local businesses and groups who donated money and time, including Townsend Fencing, Bradford Builders, Friends of the Yeatman Hospital, Hunts Frozen Foods, Mogers Drewett Solicitors, Sherborne Churches Together, Sherborne Primary PTA, Sherborne Area Schools’ Trust (SAST), Bruce Duncan and Elizabeth McClen.

Village rallies to save historic school

In the heart of Winterborne Stickland, a village community is rallying to save a piece of their village’s history. The Stickleberries pre-school and day nursery abruptly closed its doors in August 2023, leaving many families scrambling for childcare. Stickleberries nursery had opened in the former school building in 2015. Last August, Ofsted had suspended the nursery’s registration three days before its closure because inspectors believed children “may be at risk of harm”.

The nursery resigned its registration the following day. Now, a determined group of locals has launched a GoFundMe campaign to buy the historic building and reopen it as the Winterborne Stickland Nursery School.

The site in Winterborne Stickland was gifted for use as a school to the Diocese of Salisbury in 1859 by banker Carl Joachim Hambro, then owner of Milton Abbey. It served as the village school until 2013. The nursery which succeeded it offered essential services like after-school and holiday clubs, benefitting children from the village and surrounding areas, including Blandford. When the day nursery closed it triggered a clause which meant the whole site gets handed back to the benefactor’s family.

The building is now under threat of being sold at auction: The Diocese of Salisbury, which is currently holding the site as trustee, said: ‘The legal process to trace descendants has recently finished and there is a valid claim.’

The school being adorned with more than 1,600 ribbons, representing the number of children that have passed through its doors

Locals fear a sale of the site could potentially lead to its demolition. Leading the effort to save the school are locals Anna Way and Carole House, who have formed a Community Interest Company (CIC) to manage the nursery if they can secure the building. The village has shown overwhelming support, with various locals donating their professional expertise free of charge. Anna and Carole are driven not only by a passion to preserve the legacy of the school but also to meet the urgent need for a pre-school with wraparound childcare in the area. Ann says she hopes reopening the school would be the ‘catalyst for really positive change. There’s a terrible shortage of childcare in North Dorset.’

The campaign has already raised over £70,000, but much more is needed to reach the goal. The community is appealing for support to ensure that the school can continue to serve future generations. can be made through their GoFundMe page, Help Save Our School

Sherborne

Robin Legg, Felicity Griffiths (head of school), Dawn Hart (chair of PTA), Kate Scorer (Academy committee chair) and Ian Bartle (executive h eadteacher).

A local expert from Citizen’s Advice provides timely tips on consumer issues. In the postbag this month:

First time renting tips

Q:‘I’m moving house and will be renting somewhere on my own for the first time. Do you have any advice on what I should do when looking for a new home?’

A:Once you have decided whether you want to rent directly from a landlord or through a letting agent, you can use websites to find somewhere to rent – also check the local press, visit local estate agents and you can also ask friends and family to help.

Never pay any money before viewing the property, and if possible take someone with you.

Avoid renting directly from an existing tenant (‘subletting’) as the tenant might not have the landlord’s permission to rent to you. If a tenant shows you around the property on behalf of the landlord they should give you the landlord’s contact details.

Make sure the property is safe and affordable by asking some key questions. For example:

• How much rent is and how it should be paid

• If the rent includes any bills

• How long the tenancy is

• If there’s the opportunity to renew and if

there’s a break clause in case you need to end the tenancy early

• If you need to pay a holding deposit while the landlord carries out pre-tenancy checks

• What documents you’ll need to provide, including evidence of your Right to Rent

• How your tenancy deposit will be protected

• If any furniture or appliances are included in the tenancy

• Whether you can have pets

You should also request any obvious problems with the property are fixed before you move in.

If a landlord refuses to rent to you because of who you are, this may be discrimination, as may a ‘no kids policy’ or refusing to rent to you because you get benefits. You only need to tell a landlord or letting agent you receive benefits if they ask. Some may then require a guarantor. They can still refuse to rent to you if they think you won’t be able to afford it.

Remember, if you need any other advice on renting or you run into any problems, you can contact Citizens Advice on 0800 144 8848.

Take a Hike: Easy Witchampton Circular |

10.3 miles

It’s a rare thing to find a flat Dorset walk – but here it is. Ten easy hill-free miles, also surprisingly free of wobbly stiles through thickly-brambled hedges and hardly any map reading either, as you follow broad farm tracks and wide green lanes. It was a spur-of-the-moment route plan a couple of years ago, when we foolishly thought we might walk from Badbury Rings on a sunny summer’s day. We saw the queue for the car park and swiftly thought better of that plan! Because we were working on the fly, we parked on a broad grass verge, but since then we’ve found that it’s simple to park in the village of Witchampton and pick up the route there. Another option in quieter months is to add half a mile or so and walk our originally plan, starting from the Badbury Rings car park (free if you’re a National Trust member). The route brings you through the pretty hamlet of Manswood, right past The Buildings, its famous terrace of 12 pretty cottages which together form one of the longest continuous stretches of thatch in the country. Moving on from The Buildings, do also pause to appreciate the architecture of Manswood’s Old School as you pass: I’m always fascinated by its odd assortment of timbers, turrets and chimneys.

There’s not much more to add – it’s just a straightforward, delightful and astonishingly hedge-andstile free Dorset walk which we re-visit often!

• CLICK HERE for more images and an interactive map (plus downloadable gpx file)

See all previouslypublished Dorset Walks on the website here. You can also find every route we’ve walked (including many which are unpublished in The BV) on OutdoorActive here (just zoom in/out on the map) – all include a downloadable gpx file.

Beautiful lashes Andrew Burge

Don’t talk with your beak full Miranda Neal

Look both ways before crossing Annette Gregory

Fox

Kim Robinson

Common Blue

Chris Hobbs

Holly Blue

John Young

Marbled white Henry Wincewicz

Damp morning Sharon Towning

Flying dragon Maurice Whitney

Spotted Emma Parkes

We welcome photography submissions from readers – the only rule is that they must have been taken locally in the last month. Our cover shot is always 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 to us on photos@bvmagazine.co.uk

Above the clouds Mike Nelson

Swoop

Neil Randell

Jimmy (Talan Blue) is just trying to stay awake – he had a big weekend at the Kingston Maurward event!

Saddling up for success

Hard work paid off for Team Rimmer at Nunney and Kingston Maurward – but ongoing yard work shows it takes an army to raise an eventer

June has been a really busy, fun month for Team Rimmer. Early in the month we competed at Nunney International Horse Trials. Mattie and Henry both made successful 3* debuts – Mattie in particular really moved us with his performance. With minimal runs due to cancellations, his preparation was less than ideal, but he gritted his teeth and gave each phase his absolute best efforts, finishing in the top third. It is a very special feeling when a horse really tries like that for you!

Henry, being the anxious worrier that he is, slightly let the atmosphere get to him in

the dressage. He jumped really well, though, and made lots of the cross country feel easy peasy. These two horses are like chalk and cheese – Henry has all the ability in the world but struggles to really get his head down, whereas Mattie is just the kindest, grittiest trier! That’s what makes working with horses so fascinating – no two are ever the same.

The young guns have been flying round their events too, with Jimmy and Max both doing well at Nunney, and Max finishing fifth in a lovely, brand new event right on our doorstep at Kingston Maurward.

To make it all the more special, the title sponsors, Andrews Plant Hire, are also Max’s owners. It was a really lovely moment when his owner, Peter, was able to present a prize to his own horse at the prize giving ceremony! Kingston Maurward was a beautifully run competition – one we will definitely be returning to.

Checking the basics

Behind the scenes, the horses have had their mid-season MOTs, all being checked over by our Spillers Horse Feeds nutritionists Katie and Leah,, and our wonderful Devoucoux saddle fitter, Georgia. She came

All images: Courtenay Hitchcock

Jess takes Max through his paces under the watchful eye of Georgia the saddle

fitter

to our yard, and we spent time checking the fit of each horse’s dressage and jump saddles, updating any padding as she found necessary. Not only is each horse’s body a different shape, width and length, but they also change throughout the season as they build muscle, so it’s important to keep checking the fit of the saddles to ensure the horses have maximum comfort and freedom. All my horses are ridden in Devoucoux saddles, and they absolutely love them (as do I, obviously!).

A day later, our local Spillers reps Katie and Leah came by the yard. We spent lots of time with each horse, assessing their weight and condition, chatting about how the horses are feeling as well talking through their current individuallytailored diets. Similar to the saddles, we had done this at the start of the season, but the horses have all changed a lot, so a few tweaks were made to make sure they are all receiving a balanced diet with the correct

vitamins, minerals and protein. So much goes on behind the scenes in any equestrian yard – they say it takes a village to raise a child, but I’ll admit it feels like it takes an army to

raise an eventing horse! Hopefully they are all now feeling absolutely tip-top, and ready for the next few months of competition.

‘All my horses are ridden in Devoucoux

and they absolutely love them (as do I, obviously!)’

Sir Henry Hall is a big fan of a chin scratch

saddles,

Not only is each horse’s body a different shape, width and length, but they also change throughout the season as they build muscle. So it’s important to keep checking the fit of their saddles to ensure they have maximum comfort and freedom.

Kingston Maurward shines at Eventing debut

The inaugural event saw almost 300 competitors, and was praised for its beautiful setting, challenging courses, and exceptional organisation

Kingston Maurward hosted its inaugural British Eventing Horse Trials at the end of June, drawing nearly 300 competitors, ranging from 12 to 72-years-old, over two action-packed days. The event featured busy classes of BE 80, 90, and 100, with some riders travelling more than four hours to participate.

Kingston Maurward is a landbased college set in 750 acres of historic parkland and formal gardens. The show jumping

and dressage took place in the grounds of the Grade I listed Georgian Manor House, and the parkland estate provided the perfect setting for the crosscountry courses, which were able to make good use of the natural terrain of rolling hills which riders do not get to experience at many events.

The courses, designed by Adrian Ditcham, ran over the undulating permanent pasture to produce flowing and educational tracks

and inviting fences. Adrian is a British Eventing A-listed course designer – he was the lead course builder at the 2012 London Olympics.

Despite being a debut event, the class entries featured several distinguished riders, making for a memorable and competitive lineup. Irish Olympic athlete Padraig Mccarthy came third in BE100 in his section on Napoli-H. He said: ‘It’s great to have a new event in the calendar. The cross country is very fresh, with a lot of up and down in the terrain. It could absolutely go up another level to Novice, with terrain like that, it’s very educational for the horses. I’ll be back next year!’

Gubby Leach, the international 5* event rider based near Salisbury entered two horses. Dan Jocelyn, a New Zealand Olympic athlete based near Malmesbury, said: ‘Well worth attending! Top 10s for Emma and Corky, and new kid on the block Pewter finished on his dressage. And a win for golden boy Freelance Z! What a fabulous setting for this new event, loved the rolling hills and big sweeping turns in the Cross Country. Very educational for the youngsters and we will be back.’

Neve Webber is just 14 years old.

She placed on both of her rides, coming fifth in the 80 on Tilly’s Flower, and third on Mr Buzz in the 90 – each time finishing on her dressage score. Even younger, Nancy Mort was one of five 12-year-olds competing. She finished second in her section in the 80 on Dernahatten Coevers Hills on their dressage score (26). For an inaugural event, the response from riders was overwhelmingly positive, with comments that the setting very much gave a mini-international feel with the house and parkland.

Hundreds of spectators arrived to watch each day, and riders and officials alike commented on the special feel of the event.

An old-fashioned welcome

One local rider from Sherborne posted on Facebook: ‘This was, honestly, one of the very nicest events I’ve ever been to (and there have been many). It was beautifully organised, all the officials and volunteers were super friendly, knowledgeable, kind and helpful and the location was stunning. It had a slightly

old fashioned feel, in all the best ways – really welcoming and relaxed and yet had a sense of occasion with stalls and the stunning house.

‘The XC was super for both competitors and spectators. We absolutely loved it and felt it was a sensational addition to the South West calendar.

Thank you to everyone.’

‘The comments are just fantastic,’ says Kingston Maurward’s VicePrincipal Tom Hallam. ‘We’d like to thank everyone who made it such a brilliant weekend. We, the KMC team, have been blown away by the overwhelmingly positive feedback. KMC really is a magical place and the perfect venue for eventing. We absolutely intend to make this an annual event ... This is only the beginning, so watch this space!’ KMC are now working collaboratively with British Eventing to create a brand new eventing venue not just for the south west, but an accessible venue for the whole of the south of England.

by Sally Cooper

Rescuing Blackberry

Rescued Shetland pony Blackberry may be small, but overcame neglect to rule as the farm’s feisty leader with a big personality beloved by all

Blackberry is the quietest member of our herd. As her name might indicate she is a black mare – a diminutive, placid Shetland. But looks can be deceiving... She may be the smallest family member, but she is the absolute queen of the farm and totally in charge. The donkeys are in awe of her big personality, and one look, one flick of the tail, and they are off. Grandma has spoken!

Two years ago I was asked if I would rescue one of four local Shetlands very much in need of a decent home. On the appointed day, a sad and sorry figure walked up the drive, coughing and wheezing. Blackberry had mites and fleas, very little coat and sweet itch had caused areas of raw flesh. Large of belly, she had clearly carried many foals in her time (but fortunately not when she arrived with us!). She was promptly given the full beauty treatment, clipped and bathed, and then the vet assessment commenced. As my husband says: ‘She may have cost just a pound (always pay a pecuniary sum to make sure that the animal is legally yours) but she’s cost a great deal more since! It’s fortunate that I am rather fond of her...’

Ancient and sturdy

Small ponies have existed in the Shetland Isles for more than 2,000 years, and archaeologists have found evidence of them being domesticated since the Bronze Age.

Immortalised by Thelwell cartoons, they are wellloved even by non-equestrians. A hardy breed from the Scottish islands, they have a very thick coats to withstand the extreme conditions of their native home, and their short legs make them very sure-

footed. They average about 11 hands high – the breed standard states they must be a maximum of 42 inches (107cm). Many describe them as docile –but this is not a description I recognise! I prefer feisty, intelligent, extremely loyal... and they are wonderful companions. They prefer to live out all year with rough grazing and are known for having a sixth sense for danger. Blackberry will stay out in a howling gale with icicles hanging from her coat, sniffing contemptuously at everyone else in the barn in their rugs.

The strength of Shetland ponies is legendary –they are the strongest of all horse breeds, relative to their size. For centuries, these ponies have

Blackberry a week after arrival - clipped and sore but treated and on the mend. Image: Sally Cooper

Blackberry is now irrepressibly nosy. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock

cultivated land, carried peat, transported seaweed, and served as transportation for their owners. Fishermen who owned them even used hair from their tails for fishing lines. When children were banned from working in the mines, the Shetland ponies were used instead, and the miners were said to be very fond of them. These days they are used as first ponies, mascots, in carriage driving and many have successful careers as racing ponies. They may have little legs, but boy can they shift … when they choose to!

They are also famous for their longevity. The oldest recorded pony was Sugar Puff, who was a ShetlandExmoor cross and reached 56. The oldest known Shetland pony was Twiglet, who lived a happy retirement roaming free at Forde Abbey – he died at the age of 50 in 2017. Sadly, Blackberry did not come to us with any papers or passport, but the equine vet assessed her teeth and thinks she’s in her late 30s. Blackberry’s teeth were actually the culprits hindering her recovery. Horse teeth are not like human teeth, they grow continually and need to be level for them to grind food correctly. Equestrians will have an equine vet assess their horse’s teeth annually to level the teeth off for easy eating. Our own equine vet took lots of photos of Blackberry’s terrible teeth and jaw for a presentation entitled: ‘How not to look after your horse’s teeth’. When she arrived,

Horse and pony rescue

If you’re now thinking you also have some space for a rescue pony, there’s a few things to consider first. As with any animal, rescuing an equine is a worthwhile and rewarding opportunity, but it is not without its difficulties. There are many challenges that you should duly consider:

• Be prepared: You will need be assessed for suitability – of yourself, your facilities and also your knowledge.

• Health: Mistreated rescues often have ongoing health issues. Be ready for the additional cost of vets, meds, vaccinations, teeth, worms, skin and coat problems, allergies and gut issues. There are often feet and hoof problems for your farrier to sort out too.

• Behavioural Challenges: Rescue animals have often been poorly handled or kept in frightening

Blackberry today, in sturdy health with a thick and glossy coat, ruling the garden with a definite bossy gleam in her eye. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock

they were so bad that Blackberry could only roll and suck her food and then spit it out in wet balls. After several grindings and the removal of two rotten teeth, I am pleased to report that her eating has improved.

She’s the boss

Blackberry is absolutely intolerant of just one thing: vets with needles. When she spots one, the vet declares she transforms from Shetland to Shitland. And being short of stature with an equally low centre of gravity, when she decides that she will not stand still she is an absolute force to be reckoned with. At the (now required) microchip insertion, things almost got out of hand. Bribery was the only course of action.

I am pleased to report that two years on, Blackberry is now very much part of the family. She babysits the big horses when the others are out competing and the young donkeys adore and respect her. Her coat is finally black, thick and shiny, and she is always in the right place at the right time: “No halter required thank you”. She will see out her dotage with us and her motto is absolutely clear: “This Little Lady Is In Charge.”

conditions. Understandably this can make them nervous of many situations.

• Time Commitment: Rescue animals are often slow to acclimatise and trust – you will need lots of time and endless patience to help them settle.

• Long Term Love: Having been let down once it is important that you make a lifetime commitment to your new family member. But over and above all this, remember that in rescuing a pony you give them another chance – and possibly save their life. From personal experience I can say you will develop a close and very special bond. To be trusted by those who have been abused is the greatest honour.

There are many equine rescue charities, but try:

• The Blue Cross

• World Horse Welfare

• RoR Retrained Race Horses

Your garden’s hidden ambush artists

The colour-changing flower crab spider hunts among the summer blooms: they fascinate ex-arachnophobe wildlife writer Jane Adams

I’m watching a spider on a flower, in the garden. The bloom of the pink allium resembles a lollipop perched precariously atop a wobbly bare stick. From the four bulbs I planted last autumn, there are now four perfect spheres, each one covered in bumblebees, honeybees and hoverflies. The spider, more precisely a flower crab spider, has set up shop on one of these blooms. For years, flying insects have fascinated me. Their artful flight and tuneless buzzing are the essence of summer days and warm, soothing sunshine. But I am also fascinated by arachnids. Not that long ago, I had an irrational fear of them, and would run a mile if ever I saw one. However, over time (and a lot of close-up photography), I have grown to love them. The only complication is this particular spider also has a love of my favourite flying insects...

Some party trick

The

crab spider excels in the art of ambush. She will immobilise her prey

–

before sucking out its bodily fluids

Flower crab spiders, or Misumena vatia, are common in gardens throughout the south. The Latin term ‘vatia’ means bent or curved, and as

It can take her up to 25 days to change her shade, but the crab spider can morph from white to yellow, pale green, or even pink, to match her chosen flower

I watch this spider, she sits motionless with her powerful crab-like front legs ready to pounce: I’m mesmerised. Unlike many species of spider, the crab spider doesn’t make a web. Instead, she excels in the art of ambush. If and when she catches something, she will immobilise it by injecting digestive enzymes into its body with her fangs, before eventually sucking out its bodily fluids. I know, I can hear you now. Ewww! How on earth can you love THAT? Maybe love is too strong a word, but I definitely admire a transformative trick she keeps up her hairy sleeve. The female flower crab spider has the remarkable ability to perceive and see colour, and she can adapt and change the colour of her own body. This unique skill means she can blend seamlessly with the flowers that attract the highest number of prey. Admittedly, it can take her a while to change her shade – usually between ten and 25 days – but by secreting a liquid pigment into her body’s outer cell layer, she can morph from white to yellow, pale green... or even pink. Imagine that as a party trick.

Flower crab spider facts:

• Size: Female 5-9mm Male 3-4mm (the female will eat the male before or after mating, if he isn’t quick to escape!)

• Eats: Flies, bees, butterflies, grasshoppers and moths

• Find them: On garden and wild flowers from May to August (but you may need to look hard to discover them!)

The violet oil beetle (Meloe violaceus, shown) and the black oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus) are found across Dorset

The fascinating lives of oil beetles

Easy to identify and a downright astonishing lifecycle – conservation officer

Mariko Whyte takes a closer look at one of our most intriguing native insects

Of the UK’s eight native oil beetle species, three are now extinct and three are extremely rare. All are under threat, suffering dramatic declines due to changes in how we manage the countryside, as their fate is intertwined with some of our most important native pollinators.

The most common species, the violet oil beetle (Meloe violaceus) and the black oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus) are found across Dorset, and are widespread throughout Britain. Up to 30mm in length, both species are black, often with a bluish metallic shine. Despite the names they are not easy to tell apart! Unusually among beetles they are flightless, having reduced wing cases, a sausage-like segmented body and long antennae. The oil in their name refers to a noxious orange fluid exuded from their joints when they are threatened, repelling predators.

The oil beetle’s way of life is just as odd as its appearance, inextricably linked with certain species

of solitary mining bees. Sharing the same flowerrich habitats as their associated bee species, black oil beetles are found mainly in grasslands while violet oil beetles are commonly found in woodland. Adults emerge from the ground in spring and can be spotted bumbling around on sunny days between February and May, grazing on vegetation and seeking a potential mate. Males have modified segments in their antennae which they use in courtship to clasp and stroke the female’s antennae (presumably to get her in the mood).

Bee parasites

The female lays batches of about 1,000 eggs in shallow burrows dug in loose, warm soil – laying an astonishing 40,000 eggs in her short two-month lifespan. For black oil beetles, the eggs hatch into active earwig-like larvae within a few weeks, with thousands of 2mm orange triungulins (the baby beetles) scrabbling to reach the top of nearby flowers, scurrying with frenetic energy. Then they wait for passing insects to grasp onto.

Violet oil beetle triungulins are black and don’t emerge from the ground for a whole year after eggs are laid, so they are active earlier in the spring, overlapping with the adult generation. The oil beetle larvae are effectively parasites of mining bees, hitching a lift from the flower to the bee’s nest. Once inside, the triungulins feed on the egg and pollen stores of their host and quickly moult to more typical grub-like larvae, eventually pupating and overwintering as adults underground before emerging as a new generation in the spring.

• Visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk to learn more about Dorset’s beetles.

Violet oil beetle larvae on a lesser celandine. Image: Mariko Whyte

The farmer who fly tipped

Andrew Livingston calls for action on the relentless litter and flytipping that plagues farms … except for that one case of the rubble ...

Well done to the Labour Party (I’m writing this in the days before the General Election, but I believe the writing is on the wall!). Sir Keir, I have a message for you:

‘Now that you are our glorious leader, would you pretty, pretty please sort out the amount of fly-tipping and litter thrown from vehicles? As a farmer, I am sick and tired of my place of work being spoilt by the empty cans of Special Brew, cigarette packets and bin bags full of rubbish.’ It is relentless. Our farm in Beaminster seems to be the perfect distance from the McDonalds in Yeovil for drivers to have finished their food and launch it out the window and onto our drive entrance. I’ve got nothing against McDonald’s, I could even say I am a quiet fan of a LOT of their work. But I am bored and disheartened by the lack of respect from those who pass through our beautiful countryside.

Twice a year we go traipsing up and down the roadside picking up litter that others couldn’t be bothered to take home and bin themselves.

Can I have my rubble back?

Litter throwers are bad enough, but those who flytip are the lowest of the low. To drive from your own house in the middle of the night and dump bags and bags of rubbish in someone’s hedgeside or drive entrance is abhorrent. It happens constantly to a lot of farmers, and it is the bane of our lives. We have had rubbish bags, rubble, televisions, tables and even a toilet. Just take it to the tip. Please! Not only is it is an eyesore, but why should someone else tidy up your crap?

‘I’ve got nothing against McDonald’s. I could even say I am a quiet fan of a LOT of their work

Figures released this year by DEFRA show that fly-tipping is on the rise. Dorset Council had a total of 1,659 incidents reported between April 2022 and March 2023, compared with 1,575 in the previous year. On top of this number are the countless cases where farmers don’t bother reporting it, deciding to just get on and sort the mess out themselves.

I have to give them their due, Dorset Council is quick on the job if you ever call in a case of flytipping. I’m not sure if they have time or capacity for investigating to discover the culprit, but they are quick to clean up the countryside.

We had a case a couple of years ago where a local dog walker rang the council to tell them a load of rubble had been dumped outside one of our farm’s field gates. The very next day the council had sent a team and swiftly cleared the issue. The only problem was that the rubble wasn’t actually fly-tipped ... It was our rubble. We had left it by the gate to build up the boggy patch of ground through the gateway. Understandably embarrassed for wasting their time, we decided not to tell them of their mistake and thought we’d just let them keep the rubble.

Fly tipping on the Cranborne Chase. Image: Laura Hitchcock

FCN - always there to walk with you

Barrie Cooper, a Blandford dairy and beef farmer, shares his work with Dorset FCN, providing vital support and assistance to local farmers in need

May I introduce myself? I’m Barrie Cooper, joint coordinator for Dorset FCN (Farming Community Network) with Rebecca Hill.

I farm near Blandford – dairy (about 175 cows), beef reared from birth to about 24 months and also arable.

I joined FCN about four years ago. Being a farmer myself I know, and have experienced, a lot of what other farmers are going through. I know the stresses of animal passports for every animal, animal health and paperwork, inspections and the bureaucracy that has to be carried out on a daily basis on a modern farm. I felt that an organisation like FCN was where I can best help others. It is a national organisation with a 24/7 helpline for farmers, their families and those connected to agriculture. If a call imade to the national FCN helpine coems from Dorset it will be forwarded to Rebecca and myself. The Dorset team of volunteers are a mixed group of all ages, every one of us either working in agriculture or retired from a profession that serves the farming community.

FCN is here for you. The confidential, national helpline is open every day of the year from 7am to 11pm and volunteers provide free, confidential support to anyone who seeks help:

Call 03000 111 999

The case work that we get can be anything from a call for help with filling in paperwork for cattle passports or government grants, to a tenancy query through to bereavement and so many other matters.

We work closely with Dorset Council, the NFU, the Environment Agency and other bodies who can all help. Our role is to be there – to listen to a callers concerns and then see if we can either direct them to someone who can help or to work with them ourselves to try and resolve the issues at hand.

Barrie Cooper, the joint co-ordinator for Dorset FCN

Crops and care at Rawston Farm

June at Rawston Farm: with crops finally growing well, James Cossins enjoys the June lull crucial meetings on crop varieties and mental health

The past two months have been exceptionally busy at Rawston Farm. We completed our maize sowing at the beginning of May, and saw rapid germination due to the moisture available in the soil and the lack of cold weather. The old saying for maize is ‘knee high by the beginning of July’ and we’ve certainly surpassed that – my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson Albie is dwarfed by the crop already!

The next task was harvesting our first cut silage, which went well even as we dodged the predicted showers. The clamps are full, but maybe some quality was lost by being a week or two late cutting. We have just recently completed our second cut, which was made during the recent hot spell, allowing the grass to be cut and picked up straight away due to the heat.

We then look to our cereal harvest, which will probably start in the middle of July. The

combines have been serviced and the grain stores cleaned –they will now be fumigated to remove any lurking insects from the previous year’s crop. The crops look more promising than they did coming out of the winter, and the spring crops appear to have caught up, so let’s hope for a reasonable harvest.

A problem shared

The month of June can mean a less intense workload, so I managed to get off the farm and attend a number of meetings. In the combinable crop world, various agricultural supply companies put on open days to show new varieties of wheat, barley and other crops to help growers decide on the best ones for their own farms. We try to chose a new wheat variety each year, and have now chosen one with good disease resistance and good yield. We have already sold some of it for next year‘s harvest – a premium price has been offered by the end user, for bread and biscuit making. At these industry events, various trials are being carried out to see how some of the traditional nitrogen fertiliser can be replaced by using bio stimulants, while maintaining the same yield. It will be interesting to see the results: most growers would like to reduce the amount of nitrogen used, thereby ensuring less is leached away into watercourses, but we need to maintain the yield from the crop.

This month I also attended a mental health awareness workshop organised by Dorset NFU together with the Dorset Farm Community Network (FCN). It was a very interesting morning, hearing about and discussing mental health awareness issues with specific reference to farmers. The day to day of life working in agriculture can bring up many stresses – weather, animal disease, staffing issues, the loneliness of working, financial pressures and family issues, to name but a few. And it’s not just farming. I know many business owners suffer from similar pressures. My take-home messages were that sharing problems with family, friends or fellow farmers can relieve the daily pressure of work – especially when you realise that you are not alone... and it’s reassuring to find other farmers have the same issues. I know we farmers are not great at sharing or talking about our problems, but we must not forget that all those who work on the land have similar pressures with long hours and lone working. The FCN is a great organisation, giving space and time for issues to be shared, talked through confidentially and to provide help where necessary. The FCN farm walks are also excellent –it’s always great to look at other farms and talk to fellow farmers. Finally, let’s hope for some good weather at harvest time after last year’s dismal July and August!

The maize is growing so well it already dwarfs grandson Albie, the seventh generation of our family on this farm

Cereal harvesting at Rawston in the mid 1960s

Love Local Trust Local founder seeks a British Thanksgiving Day

On the 3rd of September we will be hosting the fourth Love Local Trust Local Food Awards at the Dorset County Show Members Pavilion. It makes us very happy to be celebrating and showcasing what has been grown and produced right here in Dorset. In the UK we do not celebrate our food anywhere near as much as we should! The food that is produced in our homeland is absolutely world class. Last autumn I wrote an article about American Thanksgiving celebrations, and how much I admired those traditions and the appreciation of the food on their tables. I truly believe that if we celebrated more of our own British food from our fisherman and farmers, it would bring so much more awareness of what we produce here in England. Rishi Sunak hosted a Farm to Fork Summit at Downing Street recently, and he is planning to

‘British farming leads the world in food security and production standards. We should all be very proud.’

make this an annual showpiece event (as long as he is still at No 10). This is wonderful news and incredibly welcome. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could make it a proper national celebration just like American Thanksgiving? It would definitely help people become more aware of what we British food producers and farmers do to put food on all our tables.

Making sense of it

I also have to once again say congratulations to Jeremy Clarkson on his new series. I love the fact that this series has given our British food sales a real boost. It’s exactly what we need people to think about when they are buying from the supermarkets. They need to look at what is in season, buy it locally, cook it themselves and enjoy it. It’s as simple as that.

We have had the wettest 18 months since 1836... yet other countries are worried that they’ve had the driest of winters and won’t have enough water to see them through this summer. The planet and climate are all over the place and nothing makes sense.

In the middle of all this, please remember that our farmers are out on the front line in all this extreme weather, still trying to produce food for our country. British farming leads the world in food security and production standards. We should all be very proud.

And that date for your diary is 3rd September 2024. If you would like to come and support us on this evening please contact us by e-mail info@ lovelocaltrustlocal.co.uk or phone 07831 184920.

Barbara Cossins Founder, Love Local Trust Local

All images © Heather Brown

Salmon teriyaki bites

This is a simple and oh-so-tasty summer dish, combining the delicious umami flavours of soy and miso with the decadence of honey and sesame. You can remove the chilli oil if you don’t like any heat at all, but in this recipe its designed just to be in the background. I love the cashew nuts here – they add a little bit of healthy fats into the mix, but you can leave them out if you don’t like or can’t eat nuts.

For the sauce:

• 1tbs sesame oil

• 2tbs oyster sauce

• 4tbs dark soy sauce

• 6tbs honey

• 1tsp chopped ginger

• 1tsp chopped garlic

• 1tsp fish sauce

• 1tbs miso

• 1tsp apple cider vinegar

Ingredients (feeds

• 1tsp chilli oil

4)

• Extra sesame oil for frying

• Sesame seeds for finishing

Then:

• 100g cashew nuts

• 4 spring onions

• Stir-fry vegetables (beansprouts, mushrooms, shredded cabbage and

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180º fan/gas 6. and line a baking sheet or roasting tin.

2. Add all the sauce ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Remove any skin from the salmon and cut into roughly one inch pieces. Place them into the bowl with the sauce and gently mix until the salmon is wellcoated. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. In a hot frying pan, heat the cashew nuts in a little sesame oil just until they have a little extra colour from the pan. Remove from the heat and place into a bowl until later.

4. Start your rice cooking – just plain boiled rice, made according to the packet instructions.

5. Remove the salmon pieces from the bowl and spread them out onto the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Keep the remaining sauce!

6. While the salmon bakes, drizzle 1tbs of sesame oil into a large frying pan and leave to get hot. When hot, add your vegetables – use a pair of scissors to snip your spring onions into small pieces and add to the pan with the rest. Stir-fry until the vegetables are just cooked and getting a little colour, then pour in the remaining sauce. If your hob runs very hot, turn the stove down at this point and cook the sauce through with the vegetables.

7. To plate, add your rice, top with the stir-fry, add some of the toasted cashews, drizzle on the sauce and then finish with the salmon pieces. A sprinkle of sesame seeds adds a little razzle dazzle!

carrots etc). For ease you can buy a pre-prepared packet of veg to use here

• Rice for four – 1/2 cup uncooked per person is a good guide

• Salmon fillets – you may need more than four if they are small, just use your judgement

The Langham Team: (from the left) James McLean, Becky Bowyer, Jean Langedyk, Justin Langham, Calum Chance, Tommy Grimshaw, Carl Pinto. All images: © Matt Austin by Fanny Charles

An exceptional vintage

Dorset’s Langham Wine Estate celebrates its 15th birthday with top awards, expanding acreage and a new wine in one remarkable year

This year is proving to be memorable for Dorsetbased Langham Wine Estate – Justin Langham and his team have just celebrated the 15th anniversary of the vineyard at Crawthorne Farm, near Dorchester, as well as an ice-bucket full of trophies for their sparkling wines from the Wine GB Awards and Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), where Langham wines won five gold medals, five silvers and a bronze.

For founder and managing director Justin, the anniversary is an important milestone. He told friends and guests at an anniversary celebration day: ‘I take immense pride in evolving what was once my father’s hobby into the thriving Langham Wine Estate we see today and I am truly delighted to see the estate reach this milestone.

‘After visiting many of the world’s most highly regarded wine regions and having studied viticulture at Plumpton College, I decided to make my dream a reality. We planted 30 acres of vineyard in 2009 and have since expanded to 85 acres. In May, we planted 13,000 new Chardonnay vines on the final 10 acres of our planned expansion and are anticipating bountiful harvests in the years

to come.

‘Behind our success lies a dedicated team whose passion and expertise produce the exceptional wines within our portfolio. I am very proud of what we have achieved so far.’

Low intervention wines

The winery’s main production is sparkling wine. Still wine is only made in exceptional vintages, as 2022 undoubtedly was

The Langham winery team is led by Tommy Grimshaw, who became the UK’s youngest head winemaker when he was just 24 years old. Not your traditional winemaker, Tommy worked his way up from labelling wine when he left school after his first year of A Levels. Now 28, he is constantly discovering ways to be creative in his winemaking, and is particularly focused on a low intervention approach, which includes only using grapes grown on the estate and hand-harvesting the grapes. With a south-facing aspect, chalk soils and a unique microclimate, Crawthorne Vineyard provides a perfect terroir for ripening the classic champagne varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The winery’s exceptional wines are not only recognised in this country, but have won the biggest

international awards, including the coveted Best Sparkling Wine Producer award at the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) in 2020. In addition to the successful core range of wines, including Corallian, Culver, Rosé and Blanc de Blancs, this anniversary year has seen Langham Wine Estate release a new still wine, the first since 2020. The 2022 Chardonnay is named after Search for Enlightenment, by sculptor Simon Gudgeon, who has the gallery and sculpture park, Sculpture by the Lakes, near Tincleton.

The winery’s main production is sparkling wine. Still wine is only made in exceptional vintages, as 2022 undoubtedly was. At harvest, winemaking team Tommy Grimshaw and Andy Wiles agreed that the quality of fruit was great enough to make a still chardonnay, separating a portion of ripe juice from the heavier ‘taille’ fraction of the pressing. Langham’s oxidative style, use of old oak and wild yeast fermentation, has formed a wine of elegance, expressive of the cool climate and pure chalk soils of this corner of Dorset. This 2022 Chardonnay is also the first wine from the estate to be bottled in reused glass bottles.

Representing the terroir

The WineGB Awards highlight the excellence of Britain’s wines and wine producers. The judging panel was this year headed by broadcaster and wine expert Oz Clarke and Masters of Wine Susie Barrie and Peter Richards.

Langham’s Corallian Classic Cuvée NV, Culver Classic Cuvée NV, Rosé NV, Blanc de Blancs NV and Pinot Noir 2019 all received gold medals and there was a silver medal for the new, limited edition, still

Chardonnay, Search for Enlightenment 2022. Tommy Grimshaw said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to receive a personal best from the WineGB Awards with five gold medals. We are dedicated to producing exceptional sparkling wines that truly represent our terroir, using only grapes grown on our 85-acre Dorset vineyard. We believe this commitment is crucial as the English wine scene continues to expand rapidly.

‘Our mission with our traditional method sparkling range is to produce wines which can be enjoyed throughout a meal, not just as an aperitif.’

Now in its 21st year, the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) is the world’s largest and most influential wine competition, renowned globally for the rigorous judging process and world-class judges. DWWA awarded silver medals to Langham’s Corallian Classic Cuvée NV, Culver Classic Cuvée NV, Blanc de Blancs NV and Pinot Noir 2019, and a bronze medal to the Rosé NV.

• langhamwine.co.uk

Langham wines are expressive of the cool climate and the (here visible) pure chalk soils of this corner of Dorset

Brie-lliant Success

When Peter Morgan began making cheese, he sought the advice of people who had more than 120 years experience in the industry between them. Each said the starting point was to “buy some books and read as much as possible. After that it is just bucket science – keep playing until you make something you like!”

In January 2019, with a bucket full of recipes, Peter launched The Book and Bucket Cheese Company It quickly gained a national reputation – the diverse range of cheeses, from creamy brie to tangy blue, winning a swathe of awards. Peter has developed an extensive knowledge of each type of milk, how to perfectly age a cheese, how the right salt can enhance and change a flavour profile and how to create modern flavours from the cultures. If you feel you’ve been missing out, you can try some of the range at the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival this September ‘We wouldn’t miss it!’ Peter says. ‘Of all the shows we do, Stur is one of our absolute favourites!’.

Granola with Shakespeare Brie

In addition to his cheese-making expertise, Peter often shares his culinary creativity with recipes for his cheeses. By kind permission, we can share his extraordinary Granola with Shakespeare Brie – this luxurious and decadent dish is a fantastic way to use up any leftover cheese from the previous night’s cheese board. It pairs perfectly with granola for brunch or serves as an interesting starter for a cozy night at home.

Ingredients

• 1 jar of Truffle Hunter white truffle honey (a little goes a very long way and you can often find smaller jars available to purchase online).

• 1 very ripe room temperature Shakespeare brie (perfect if you forgot to fridge your cheeseboard overnight!)

• 175g melted butter

• 175g honey (can substitute with sugar, golden syrup or maple syrup)

• 1 vanilla pod scraped (or ½ tsp vanilla essence).

• 300g large oats

• 100g various seeds (try sunflower, pumpkin and linseed).

• 100g chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts and pecans all work well)

• 100g desiccated coconut Method

• Preheat the oven to 150ºc / Gas 4.

• Warm your butter with your honey.

• In a bowl weigh all your dry ingredients, then mix in the butter/honey mix. Squeeze the mix in your hand – it should hold together, but also crumble. If it’s a bit too dry, you can add a touch more butter or syrup.

• Line a flat baking tray with baking parchment and add the granola, spreading it out evenly. Bake in the oven but keep checking regularly, turning it over with a spoon, to ensure all of it is being cooked. Bake until an even golden brown all the way through.

• Let the Granola cool and then store in an airtight container.

• To serve, spoon the very ripe Shakespeare into the bottom of a bowl (a bowl is very important for the eating in this dish!). Then drizzle a small amount of the truffle honey over – remember less is more with this.

• Top with your granola and you’re done!

Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival

Always a major event in the local foodie calendar, this year the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival boasts more than 20 cheese makers, alongside a wide variety of other local West Country food and drinks traders. From cheddar to blue cheese, olives to pasties and cakes to chocolates, there will be something to tempt every taste bud ... and let’s not forget the locally-produced gin and vodka on offer!

The Cheese Festival will take place on 14th and 15th September from 10am to 5pm at the Recreation Ground, Ricketts Lane, Sturminster Newton.

Early Bird tickets are available at a discount until midnight on 31 July bvmag.co.uk/sturcheesetickets

by Fanny Charles

Seeing the wood for the trees

Environmental artist Gary Cook explores England’s temperate rainforests –immerse yourself in these watery worlds in his exhibition at Child Okeford

Oak

Since he left Bournemouth University in the late 1980s and worked as associate editor and senior artist for The Sunday Times for 26 years, Gary Cook has come a long way, to arrive back where he started.

Returned to Dorset – he lives in Shaftesbury – he has become deeply involved in the environment, not only around him in the Blackmore Vale, but across the country. His travels with paint brushes and sketch books have recently taken him to Devon, Cornwall, Wales and the Lake District, exploring and recording the mysterious beauty of England’s remaining rainforests.

Temperate rainforest used to cover about 20 percent of the country – now it is less than one per cent

We all tend to think of the Amazon or the deep, dark, wildlife-rich jungles of central Africa or the Indonesian archipelago when we imagine rainforests – but those are tropical. Our English

ones, like the vast and gently dripping rainforest of the Olympia peninsula of Washington State, are temperate rainforests. And they are among the most beautiful and fragile environments in the world, at risk from climate change and other manmade threats. It is estimated that they once covered about 20 percent of the country – now it is less than one per cent.

In his notes on his exhibition of these recent paintings, at The Art Stable, at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, Gary says that there may still be some small remnants of temperate rainforest in Dorset.

His work over recent years has shown a deepening concern for the environment, as he explores our complicated relationship with nature, and the often detrimental impact we humans have.

in the bracken – by the river that runs through the temperate rainforest at Cabilla in Cornwall

Autumn mist – morning mist rising from around an ancient oak tree

Hidden messages

Gary, who is an elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Society of Graphic Fine Art, graduated from Bournemouth in 1987 and was made a fellow of the university in 1999. In part, it was his experience as the Sunday Times artist, during which he won many International awards, that developed his awareness of environmental issues. He says: ‘I often produced diagrams highlighting environmental problems. In the last decade as a painter, including an environmental message in each piece has been very important to me. For example, oak trees provide the habitat for around 2,300 different species from bats to beetles and lichens to mammals. The names and silhouettes of some of these species are discreetly included in my paintings.’

Rainforest remnants

Explaining how the temperate rainforest project began, Gary says he had been reading Guy Shrubsole’s book The Lost Rainforests of Britain, and was struck by the author’s descriptions of the plants to look out for, because they were ‘telltale signs of these magical, enveloping places.’ They include gnarly, moss-covered oak branches: ‘The clue is in the name’, he says. ’They need rain.’ Shaftesbury is surrounded by ancient holloways, of

which Dinah’s Hollow on the C13 at Melbury Abbas is probably the best-known. Gary began exploring these deep, damp byways and valleys around the town. There is, he says, a theory that the oaks that grow here may be remnants of rainforests. You may have walked in some of the places Gary has painted, in Dorset or further afield: ’Some of the small tracts I have painted around the country are actually in popular tourist areas.’

The best-known surviving English temperate rainforest is Wistman’s Wood, the extraordinary, atmospheric, ancient woodland near Two Bridges on Dartmoor. Visiting this wood is like walking into a magical landscape that could have been described by Tolkien. It has been a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest for 60 years, and has additional protection as part of a National Nature Reserve.

Gary is an elected member of the group of artists working in many different media including wood and stone, who call themselves The Arborealists. He contributes to Resurgence and Ecologist magazine.

• The Temperate Times exhibition at The Art Stable continues to 20th July. For more information on his work, and future exhibitions and projects, see Gary’s website cookthepainter.com

Edge of the rainforest – twisted oaks in the temperate rainforest at Cabilla

The

Voice of the Allotment

The June diary

Barry Cuff takes a look at what’s what, as the allotment seems to be bursting at the seams

We are now half way through our 35th year on the allotment – and it’s been a year of unusual weather! Very high rainfall, few frosts but chilly nights. Despite this, most crops are doing well. All our vegetables are raised from seed, bought mostly from Kings, Fothergills, Unwins and Thompson & Morgan, and all are started in plug trays, small pots or seed trays.

Beetroot – first roots were pulled mid month. More sown in May and June (we selected Moulin Rouge and Perfect Three).

Broccoli – Claret and Rudolph will be planted out during July.

Brussels Sprout – these were planted out in May and are looking well (Brendan).

Broad bean – The Witkiem Manita have finished and we are now picking Masterpiece Green Longpod. Blackfly just starting to appear on these!

Cabbage – Red Drumhead are looking well and have put on a lot of growth in the last few weeks. All our brassicas are well protected from hungry pigeons by a net.

Calabrese – Planted out this month (Ironman). This variety will produce a good central head followed by smaller side shoots.

Carrot – We only grow one variety (Early Nantes) and sow part-lines every two to three weeks. We have just harvested a few from the first sowing.

Cauliflower – Planted out (Cheesy, White Step and Cendis). In plug trays for planting out later we have Medallion and Snow March.

Celeriac – Planted out from plugs mid month and currently looking well. A new variety to us (Neon).

Celery – Planted out in a block (Golden Self Blanching) at the same time as the celeriac. Both of these are watered every day,

Chicory – Our usual Witloof were sown direct early in the month and thinned a few days ago.

Courgette – two varieties growing (Defender and Astia), and both have flowers.

Dwarf French bean year, Safari and a Fothergills variety which is new to us, Nautica. Both are growing well. We still have a few packs of last year’s Safari in the freezer!

Fruit – We’ve had a bumper crop of strawberries, though the currants are variable. The Autumn raspberries are now starting to flower.

are doing exceptionally

and we

Our potatoes

well,

are digging Jazzy (salad) and Maris Bard (new) as required. All images: Barry Cuff

Gherkin – About ten plants growing against wire for support.

Leek – growing Musselburgh in pots. These will be planted out in July after the first potatoes.

Lettuce – Only one variety this year (Little Gem).

Sown each month in plug trays and planted out when large enough. We normally have lettuce from March until October.

Mangetout – Sown direct against wire, two varieties and both look well. They were sown at different times to give a longer harvesting period (Carouby De Maussane and Purple Magnolia).

Surrounded by glitter strips to deter pigeons.

Onion – On the whole these look well but a few are going down with white rot – we live with this disease as there is no cure. Despite rotation, we usually expect to lose about 10 per cent.

Parsnip – It’s probably our most successful year for establishment. They have now been thinned to one or two plants per station.

Peas – These are not so good: we have lost a lot of seedlings to the pea and bean weevil, possibly due to the mild and wet winter and spring allowing the larvae to survive.

Potatoes – These are doing exceptionally well, and we are digging Jazzy (salad) and Maris Bard (new) as required. Still in store from 2023 we have a supply of Picasso which are making good chips!

Radish – We sow frequently for a continuous supply.

Runner beans – Have now reached the top of the canes and are starting to flower – two varieties (Moonlight and Scarlet Emperor).

Squash – Two varieties sown this year – Crown Prince and Butterfly – and when planted out

they made a slow start, but are now looking fine.

Sweetcorn – About 70 plants (Swift) and all are looking well after a slow start.

Sweet peppers – All looking well and flowering in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes – All flowering well in the greenhouse. Weeds – We are hand weeding and hoeing most days. Our worst weeds are Bindweed, Gallant Soldiers, Sow Thistle, Fat Hen and Goosefoot. We do allow a few of our ‘special’ weeds to survive –Weasel Snout, Thornapple and Moth Mullein.

The strawberries kept coming all month

‘The Witkiem Manita have finished and we are now picking Masterpiece Green Longpod.’

Our native dog rose, rosa canina, is a scrambling rose with delicate pink flowers which, if left will produce beautiful rose hips, eaten by a wide range of birds – they stay juicy until late winter

Essential tips and tricks to nurture your garden this July

Summer garden care: prolonging blooms, managing invasive species and prepping for next year’s display with expert advice from Pete Harcom

It’s finally time to relax and enjoy the garden – just a few jobs this month to keep things under control. The first is to regularly deadhead the borders to prolong flowering.

This keeps borders free from unsightly dying petals (especially under rose bushes, which can lead to black spot). It also helps prevent plants from wasting energy creating seed heads which may be unwanted. Having said that, many roses produce attractive hips from flowers left on the bush – our native dog rose (rosa canina, a scrambling rose with delicate pink flowers) has hips in winter which provide a good autumn/winter food source for birds. It’s not to be confused with the bright pink Japanese rose, rosa rugosa, which can become invasive and overpower native species of plants. Other roses that produce attractive rose hips include rosa helena, rosa nitida and rosa hans.

Stay on top

Left alone, some plants will produce self-seeded offspring all around the garden, and while in most cases this is good for wildlife, it’s worth mentioning that some can be a nuisance in the wrong place. These pest plants would include buddleia Davidii, (butterfly bush) which will spread prolifically if left unchecked, red valerian and alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle) – while very pretty in any garden, it can

be a problematic invader as its rhizomes grow and spread underground. Buddleia flower on new season’s growth, so I cut the plant back hard in early spring (late March) and then let it grow back: it will flower well and attract many butterflies. It is clearly a favoured nectar source. I then cut off the spent flowers before they set seed, which keeps the plant under control. Be sure to use liquid feed on all hanging baskets and potted plants, encouraging new growth through the rest of summer. Feeding will also help revive tired displays.

A little forward planning

Divide any clumps of bearded iris this month for an even better display next year, and take cuttings of patio and container plants ready for next summer. July’s a good time to sow biennials such as foxgloves, sweet William, wallflowers, honesty and forget-me-nots, ready to plant out in autumn for a stunning display next spring. Sow into large seed trays or a dedicated seed bed, then separate seedlings when large enough to handle. Avoid pruning those straggling hedges until the end of August at the earliest. The main breeding time for garden birds is between March and August, so leaving the hedges gives them time to rear their young in peace.

Blooms and Bargains

Thorngrove Garden Centre’s summer update from Kelsi-Dean Buck –soaking up the garden, new town troughs and the plant of the month

With Summer finally in motion, we’ve been soaking up every possible ray of sunshine, and – like many of our customers – finding any opportunity to enjoy our garden spaces! For me, some of the housework has been dangerously close to being forgotten over the last couple of weekends as I spent more time drifting away on the lounger. As someone who’s only had their own garden for a couple of years now, I can assure you the novelty is showing no signs of wearing off, and my wife has made jokes about turning into her mother as she fully immerses herself in the world of gardening, creating mini havens in every corner, experimenting, and learning, trying to make the most of what we’re so fortunate to have … though we did lose the sweet peas to the wind in the middle of June. Silly us for expecting normal weather in England!

We all love a bargain

There’s lots happening at Thorngrove Garden Centre here in Gillingham as of late. We’re planning for some summer events including Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show and Dorset County Show – we will be attending both, looking forward to meeting visitors, not only offering some amazing plants, but talking about the work we do as Employ My Ability in offering opportunities for young people with SEND. We hope to see you there!

Plus we have more on-site events in the works – keep your eyes peeled for news on those soon too. We also wanted to extend a big thank you to Sturminster Newton Town Council who came by in June to collect their hanging baskets and troughs which are now out in the wild! Have you spotted them yet while out in the town?

Speaking of the weather, it’s time for your regular reminder to keep on top of your watering. Whether you prefer to use a can or a hose, ensuring your kit is in tip top condition will make your life easier (and we have lots of options in the shop, naturally!). Water early in the morning, or later in the evening

when temperatures are lower in order to maximise efficiency. How’re your roses looking with the fluid weather? If any TLC is required, we have a full range of rose care products at Thorngrove to help ensure they’ll continue to reward you with blooms through the coming month (or two, if you’re lucky!)

Looking to fill a gap (or a new pot)? Our plant of the month for July is hydrangea. It makes a versatile and visually striking addition to any garden, offering lush blooms in a variety of colours from vibrant blues and pinks to soft whites and purples. You can also create a hydrangea garden – consider mixing different varieties to achieve a dynamic colour palette with lots of structure and texture.

July will see a few sales in the garden centre so there’s even more reason to pop in this month! Cottage garden plants will have big reductions, and house plants will be 20% off – come and grab a bargain.

Sturminster Newton Town Council

workers collecting the town’s hanging baskets and troughs

A century ago in Sherborne

This month Barry Cuff has chosen century-old postcards of Cheap Street and what was then the Ladies College in Sherborne...

Sent to Miss L Sharp in Pokesdown (Bournemouth was still in Hampshire – it was ‘moved’ to Dorset in 1974) – note the stamp placement, which is significant. This 45º angle was the stamp code for ‘A Kiss’ from disappointed Frank: ‘Dear Lil, I am awfully disappointed you have not wrote as you promised. I quite expected to hear from you. I do not wish you to write by return but as you promised, I think your letter must have got lost. I writing this in shop, by the time I get home I quite expect to hear from you kind regards love Frank

The image is of what is now Sherborne Girl’s School, which at the turn of the last century was known as Ladies College, Sherborne. The card was sent in 1913 to Miss Hatcher, at Boxmoor in Hertfordshire, by Jimmy, who appears to be a teacher at the school – from the message he would seem to be her brother: ‘My darling Pud. This postcard shows you the school. It only shows a little bit of the white lodge, but it takes in our bedroom window, which I have marked. I expect mother has broken the news to you by this time about our returning for a 2nd term. I hope you are surviving the shock. Isn’t it gorgeous to think of 5 weeks today! We may be going to bring a Seoteh (?) girl back for one night, to break her journey! Jimmy’s hands are smelling simply disgusting of onions as he had to chop some onions in the kitchen this morning! Doubtless you would enjoy the scent! I don’t.We are keeping one of the students 21st birthday today, we are going to give her an awfully nice pair of earrings. Please write soon. Heaps of love. Jimmy

Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past and present on the same page, and see the evolution of familiar local places. ‘Now’ images by Courtenay Hitchcock

Piddletrenthide

The Piddle Inn has changed little and is still instantly recognisable, though behind where the horses enjoy their lunch the outbuilding has made way for an extension and some pavement.

On the left, the building which now holds Jaspers Salon is a newer extension to the cottages in the ‘then’ image

Piddletrentide takes the first part of its name from the River Piddle and the remainder from its value in 1086, when it was assessed for the Domesday Book at 30 hides. The village’s Victorian school has gates that are 500 years old and come from Lady Margaret Beaufort’s tomb in Westminster Abbey!

In his Shell Guide to Dorset, Michael Pitt-Rivers explains the Piddle/Puddle issue: ‘All Dorset Piddles and Puddles are named after the river Piddle – Pidele in Doomsday Book.

‘Victorian refinement preferred Puddle and for a long time there was a muddle as to whether each village was called Piddle or Puddle. Parish Meetings drew up letters of protest to the County Council, the Member of Parliament and the Postmaster General. Now they seem to have settled for the names which appear on the map: Piddletrenthide, Piddlehinton, Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Affpuddle, Bryantspuddle and Turners Puddle. It remains to be said that the Piddle is never a puddle but a bright chalk stream.’

by Karen Geary, Nutritional Therapist DipION,

Can eating too much protein really cause cancer?

Experts, including Karen from Amplify Nutrition, challenge current low RDA recommendations, and address the trendy cancer concerns

Protein is a crucial part of our diet, essential for maintaining muscle mass and overall health. Insufficient protein intake can lead to muscle loss, which has been linked to a higher risk of early death. Despite this, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) suggests just 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram (kg) of body weight, per day, (or an easier rough guide of 45g for females, 55g for males). Many experts, including me, believe this is too low. I recommend consuming at least one to two grammes of protein per kg of body weight daily, depending upon age and goals – and yes, that’s a very wide range. For example, for those who are particularly active, or aiming to build muscle, higher levels might be appropriate. However, this raises an important question: can you eat too much protein?

The protein and cancer link

and proliferation.

Since uncontrolled cell growth is a hallmark of cancer, it’s suggested that high protein intake might contribute to cancer development – it certainly seems plausible at first glance.

What does the human data say?

Human studies do not support the idea that high protein intake increases cancer risk. Conducting randomised trials on this topic is challenging and expensive, and animal studies often don’t translate well to humans. Therefore, we rely on large-scale human epidemiology studies, which tend to discredit the hypothesis that high protein intake is linked to cancer.

high protein intake might contribute to cancer development – it certainly seems plausible at first glance

There’s a hypothesis that excessive protein consumption could increase cancer risk, largely due to its effects on certain cellular pathways which are the ones deeply involved in cell growth

A 2020 systematic review and metaanalysis of seven cohort studies found no significant difference in cancer risk between high and low protein intake groups. Another 2020 meta-analysis examining 12 prospective cohort studies also found no association between increased protein intake and cancer mortality.

Re-evaluating the evidence

One study often cited in support of the proteincancer link was published in 2014 by Levine et al., which used data from the NHANES III health survey. They found that adults aged 50-65 with high protein diets were more likely to die of cancer than those with low protein diets. However, among adults over 65, high protein intake was associated with a lower risk of cancer mortality. This inconsistency suggests the data might be influenced by factors other than protein intake itself, such as overall health and lifestyle differences.

Cancer progression vs. development

It’s important to differentiate between the role of protein in cancer development vs. cancer progression. Even if protein levels do not initiate cancer, it might still influence existing cancer progression. Some studies in mice have suggested that protein restriction could inhibit tumour growth – but these results are inconsistent and not easily applicable to humans.

The role of protein in cancer survival

Current guidelines recommend increasing protein intake for cancer patients to improve their chances of survival.

Does it matter where you get it?

Some studies have investigated whether animal or plant protein has different effects on cancer risk. The evidence does not consistently show significant differences between these protein sources in terms of cancer risk. The real issue may be that diets high in red and processed meats are often low in essential nutrients and high in unhealthy components, rather than the meat itself causing cancer. It’s hard to know.

For individuals with cancer, adequate protein intake is crucial

For individuals with cancer, adequate protein intake is crucial. Protein helps maintain muscle mass, which is often depleted during cancer and its treatment, leading to poorer quality of life and survival rates. Studies have shown that higher protein intake is associated with better outcomes for cancer patients.

More is better than too little

The idea that high protein intake could increase cancer risk seems initially logical, but the evidence does not always support this. Instead, getting enough protein is vital for maintaining muscle mass and overall health. Most people do not consume enough protein, and the risks of too little protein – including increased frailty and poorer metabolic health –far outweigh the hypothetical risks of consuming too much. Therefore, it’s important to focus on meeting, if not exceeding, the recommended daily protein intake for optimal health and longevity.

• Karen welcomes questions and queries via Amplify Nutrition for personal advice

What’s next after uni?

The end of uni isn’t the end: Dorset Mind volunteer Annabel Goddard says it’s OK to be uncertain and take your time to find your path after university It certainly felt odd submitting my last ever assignment on a random Thursday back in May. Three years of lecture slides, research, scouring the library and trying to stick to word counts was over with one final click of a ‘submit’ button. I can’t be alone in sitting back and thinking: ‘well, now what?’ A reasonable response, given the years of hard work and dedication being converted into a single Word document, usually in dissertation format. The enormity of dissertations shrinks over time – the monolith of the first year becomes a wish for an extra couple of thousand words by the end of third year. But that document doesn’t represent the life you’ve probably only adjusted to in the last year or so, or the friends you made who may well live in opposite corners of the country (or even the world).

The end of uni is an enormous upheaval – and having to worry about what’s next often overshadows the end-of-uni celebrations. One friend may have an itinerary for a sixmonth trip around Italy. Another may be frantically applying for jobs. Someone on your course has been offered an amazing graduate position at a major PR firm in London...

If you’re looking at everyone else and wondering what on earth there is for you to do now, you’re not alone. It’s hard not to compare, but equally, it’s OK to have absolutely no idea what to do next. In fact, you’re likely in the majority.

After all, you’ve spent the last three years mustering up all your brain power just to get

to where you are now – it’s definitely OK to live slowly until you feel recharged.

Take a breath

Why not take give yourself permission to take a break? Maybe take a few nice trips to the beach or countryside? When you’re ready, have a think about what you’d like to be doing this time next year. Once you know where you’d like to be, just start slowly. Hopefully you don’t have to rush into a job you don’t like. You may decide you simply want to earn some money for the next year – you don’t have to rush into a career path just because you’ve graduated. You won’t regret giving yourself time to think and recover.

If you are like me, you’ll love being outside and exploring the South Coast. If you’ve come to Bournemouth to study, why not get around to actually visiting the places you’ve been meaning to go for the last three years? There are regular bus links which can take you along the

Jurassic Coast and towards Swanage – a few final days out with your house mates, making the most of the area before you leave Bournemouth, possibly for good, will cement your friendships. Studland, Durdle Door and Kimmeridge are all beautiful places to see nature and will all help rebalance your wellbeing before you start thinking about your career path or next move. You may even find some inspiration!

As daunting as it may be, it’s important to remember that the world will always hold a place for you, so enjoy your journey as well as you can – wherever it takes you.

Support for you:

• Visit Dorset Mind for local mental health support and helpful advice

• The Samaritans are there to listen 24/7, call them for free on 116 123

• Call Dorset’s mental health helpline Connection for support on 0800 652 0190

Caring for local families for generations.

Whether your planning ahead with a funeral plan or when a loved one passes away, end-of-life care needs to be dependable, compassionate and ethical. With decades of experience, our trusted funeral services are available whenever you need us on 0800 008 6878. Local to you in:

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