Letters

Cycle routes must be supported by all

Dear Sir, Further to your item, of July 30, 2021, ‘New route for cyclists’: At considerable expense the first stages of the ‘new sustainable travel route’ linking Ferndown, Wimborne to Poole have been completed. Any local resident, pedestrian or motorist, cannot fail to have noticed that cyclists, especially the sport riders, continue to use the main highway and hinder other road users. Question, why do they ignore the much safer cycle way and continue to cause traffic delays by using the much narrower new road? What is their problem? Perhaps it is time for the Highway Code to be amended and, where an identified cycleway is available’ they use it. A classic example being the ring road round Bournemouth Airport. (Currently it is not a legal requirement to use a cycleway). However laudable the road project is it fails totally if there is a lack of understanding of its goals and it is supported by all parties. M Kingdon BH21

Supplying food to Allendale Cafe

Dear Sir, I read with interest Alice Metcalfe’s article on the Cafe at the Allendale Centre, and would like to correct one major detail. Poole Food Bank may have provided some of the food, but by far the largest single supplier for free food over the past year has been ourselves, (Poole Community Exchange) At times we were sending van loads every week to be made into ready meals, most of which were used by The Allendale Cafe, but some we collected for distribution by ourselves. We would be happy to give you more information about Poole Community Exchange, as we are a Registered Charity, entirely run by volunteers, providing food to the whole of BCP and extending into East Dorset. In 2019 we were providing community meals to between 10 and 15 people a week, as well as helping anyone with housing, health, employment needs etc, including exoffenders, homeless and drug addicts, when along came covid. We immediately changed direction to obtain food and distribute, (free), widely across the area, including to several food banks. So far we have fed over 40,000 individuals from a standing start, and at the peak were getting through seven tonnes of food a week! We now have a food pantry which is open four days a week providing ambient, fresh and frozen foods to anyone in need, for which we only ask for a small donation, if affordable. Individuals can help themselves to as much bakery, fruit and vegetables as they need, when available. Anthony Sherman Trustee and Treasurer Poole Community Exchange

Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk

Market is lifeblood of our community

Dear Sir, On my weekly visit to Wimborne market last Friday I was struck again by the fact that this market is a remarkable and precious facility in our town. I have lived in Wimborne for five years and have barely missed my weekly visit, even during lockdowns. The market kept going throughout, and as a spacious, covered but wellventilated venue, provided a safe and friendly place to shop. If we lose our town market on this site, we will have forfeited not only the source of a wide variety of affordable and good value goods (many from local suppliers) and a brilliant opportunity to recycle in the form of the multifarious second-hand stalls, but also an easily accessible hub where people meet, chat, and make the kind of connections that are the lifeblood of any community. Our town would be much diminished without it and I for one will do anything I can to support its continuing life. Pippa Martin Wimborne

By Lorraine Gibson

It’s easy to miss the fascinating stories that hide in corners of the towns we live in but secrets lurk everywhere, so it’s worth taking the time to find them. For example, while there are no prizes for guessing the origins of Ducking Stool Lane’s name, it’s still worth taking a stroll down there for a gander (sorry). Next time you’re on Christchurch High Street on the Saxon Square side, or popping in for a snifter at Ye Olde George Inn, why not follow the street sign to the tiny lane and immerse yourself in some history of the watery-torture variety? Whatever you do, don’t whinge though, for at the end of the lane, on the bank of the river, stands the infamous scold’s ducking stool, in all its medieval glory. Well, that’s not exactly true: the only bums to grace this seat have been purely 20th century onwards, as it’s a replica. A good one, but a reproduction nevertheless. It was erected in 1986 to commemorate the centennial of Queen Victoria’s charter, which gave the town its borough status. The real Christchurch ducking stool first made an appearance in the borough’s records from the 14th century when a property deed, dated May 1350, featured a ‘Schufflyingstol’. Looking at the menacing contraption and feeling the wooden pivot that lowered victims into the drink, one does get a sense of the horrible reality of a ‘ducking’. And if you dare to sit on the ‘stool’ (it’s allowed, since years of silting has rendered the water ankle deep) you can almost hear the baying crowds and the wails of the petrified dipee. The ducking stool was reserved not to punish suspected witches as is often thought, but just for normal women who happened to be a bit moany or shouty. This, presumably, was because men of that era were never shouty and moany... The poor souls were tied to the stool and then dipped in the freezing-cold River Avon, as many times as the mean old judge decided they deserved. The purpose was not to drown the women, but to humiliate them, the plan being that they’d be so embarrassed, they’d just go home and have bit of a moan about it … no, wait. n For more hidden curiosities, check out Ordnance Survey’s new Secret Stories self-guided walking tours app.

SIT DOWN: The ducking stool in Christchurch is near Ye Olde George Inn on Ducking Stool Lane