The Blackmore Vale Magazine (03/03/23)

What’s inside this issue…

Page

Page 22: Lynne Franks

Exotic visitor to the Vale

The origins of this

WE

remain a mystery as it sets up home in Shaftesbury

The charity’s founder, Sir Peter Scott, brought a pair back from Hawaii to Slimbridge, in Gloucestershire.

In 1962, 35 birds from

SAME DAY

Cameras at the ready…

Wincanton Camera Club is celebrating competition success as it claims best small camera club in the West of England

by Brian Stubbs

IT’S OFFICIAL: Wincanton Camera Club is the best small photographic club in the West!

Competing in the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) annual Digitally Projected Image Competition (DPIC) on Sunday February 5 in Exeter, Wincanton was acclaimed as the bestplaced small club in the West of England.

Against much bigger clubs, Wincanton came a very respectable 16= in a competition won by Dorchester Camera Club, with Bristol Camera Club coming in second.

This is a terrific result for a friendly small club based in the town of Wincanton and confirms the increasingly high standard of its members’ photographs – Meyrick Griffith-Jones received a Highly Commended award for his image Approaching Storm

Earlier this season Wincanton won the Shaston Challenge, a competition between local clubs Shaftesbury, Yeovil, South Petherton and hosts Sberborne-Bradford Abbas.

The club has some 17 members, who range in ability from beginners to those enjoying success in national and international competitions. This mixed bunch of enthusiasts with a wide range of interests and skills welcomes new members. The club meets in Wincanton Memorial Hall at 7.30pm every other Wednesday (the next one being March 8).

Meetings are varied, and include guest speakers, practical sessions, trips and visits, as well as internal competitions with external judges that give the constructive critique needed for members to improve their photography skills.

Topics so far this season have included forced perspective, improving your printing, mounting images and selling photos, processing images using software, and guidelines for composition.

The club’s Facebook group is for members only, but if you’d like to find out more visit www.wincantoncameraclub. co.uk

(above) Meyrick Griffith-Jones received a Highly Commended award at the recent Western Counties Photographic Federation competition for his image Approaching Storm; (left) Paul Dyer Female Stonechat; (below) Kit Williams Race Horse (bottom) Paul Dyer Night Glow

Councillors approve EV charge points in AONB

Neighbourhood Plan disregarded as Dorset Council’s Planning Committee votes unanimously in favour of granting permission for eight electric vehicle charge points on greenfield land by the A354 VILLAGERS have been ‘ignored’ after a plan to install eight electric vehicle charging points in a North Dorset village was approved, according to a countryside group.

On January 26, Dorset Council’s Northern Area Planning Committee granted permission for the development – off the A354 at Pimperne – after an application by RTPI on behalf of Instavolt.

The application said the scheme would answer a need for rapid charging points in the area.

“Pimperne currently has no rapid chargers and Blandford Forum currently only has two rapid chargers,” it said.

“The A354 itself serves over 9,000-plus vehicles a day and is an important A road serving commuters from Salisbury to Dorchester.”

It added the chargers would help residents ‘switch to sustainable transport while also serving commuters’.

However, the approval has been lambasted by the North Dorset branch of the Campaign

to Protect Rural England (CPRE), as the site falls outside areas of development earmarked in the Pimperne Neighbourhood Plan (PNP), which is intended to outline where schemes would be allowed.

Derek Gardiner, on behalf of North Dorset CPRE, said: “After a lot of very hard work, this plan became part of the official development plan for the area… The plan was updated and formally accepted in November 2022.

“Roll on four months and you can imagine the feeling of disillusionment among a number of those who supported the PNP, when the Northern Area Planning Committee of Dorset Council voted unanimously in favour of granting permission to InstaVolt Ltd to install eight rapid electric vehicle charging stations on greenfield land outside the Pimperne settlement boundary.

“Additional lighting will be introduced in an area which is part of the AONB’s International Dark Skies Initiative.

“It is however, Dorset Council’s obligation to reduce light pollution, not simply to minimise the increase in light pollution.

“Also, it is naive to assume that drivers will be happy merely to sit in their cars whilst charging takes place.

“It is highly likely that additional facilities such as a protective canopy, a coffee shop and toilets will need to be added

to the site.”

The site is within the Cranborne Chase AONB, he said, and that coming legislation would see neighbourhood plans given more weight when making planning decisions.

“By approving this development, the community led objectives of the PNP have been ignored,” he added.

“It will seem that Dorset Council is undermining the government’s drive for greater local democracy and involvement, setting a very unfortunate precedent for other planning decisions.

“What is the point of neighbourhood plans if planning committees do not respect them?”

Under conditions of approval, a hedgerow at the site would need to be preserved, while further design and lighting schemes would also need to be approved.

A report to councillors making the decision recommended the plan be approved, saying the benefits of the scheme outweighed ‘degree of conflict’ with the neighbourhood plan.

Pimperne Parish Council and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB officer objected to the plans, as well as the Dorset CPRE.

But the report said: “This is a development that, on balance, is sustainable and, therefore, acceptable.”

Councillors on the committee approved the application unanimously.

How the charging points will look once installed off the A354 at Pimperne

Dorset Council lacks a plan, says developer

Mill Street, Fontmell Magna, is earmarked for development

PLANS for 25 new homes in Fontmell Magna have been submitted.

The scheme would see three chalet-style bungalows, five barn-style houses, four cottages, 10 terraced homes and three farmhouse dwellings built on a 1.98-hectare site in Mill Street.

Applicant Hartdene Homes Ltd says the scheme would see Mill Street slightly widened, and the frontage ‘enhanced’.

However, the development site falls outside the Fontmell Magna Neighbourhood Plan, which was approved in a referendum in November 2018 and adopted by Dorset Council later that month.

The application says that due to the age of the plan and with no overarching Local Plan being in place for Dorset, which has ‘demonstrated persistent under-delivery’, the scheme should be determined with a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’.

“The council cannot currently display a five-year supply of available and deliverable housing sites and thus its policies relating to the delivery and location of housing development are out of date,” it said.

On the Fontmell Magna Neighbourhood Plan, the application said: “This Neighbourhood Plan… stands over three years old.”

The plan should not prevent a ‘presumption in favour’ view of the application, it says.

“Fontmell Magna is more than capable of accommodating growth as a sustainable settlement and thus it should be delivering a share of the housing need,” it added.

Benefits of the scheme include a ‘compliant provision’ of affordable housing, improvements for pedestrians

and vehicles in Mill Street, as well as the creation of new public open spaces, the application said.

People can comment on the application, reference P/ OUT/2023/00667, until March 17. For more details and to view the full application, visit www. dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

Developer Hartdene Homes has applied to build 25 properties on the greenfield site at Mill Street

Best bee-haviour at beekeeping school

Dorset beekeepers are beginning to prepare for the new beekeeping season as the weather starts to improve. Join them on an experience day and discover the buzz

by

Robbie Baird, North Dorset Beekeepers Association

THE North Dorset Beekeepers Association (NDBKA) is a charity that has education at the heart of its objectives. A big milestone in the calendar is the Beginner’s Beekeeping Course. This year, the Introduction Day is April 1, and we expect around 25 people of all ages and backgrounds to embark on a new journey as they learn the craft of beekeeping and some of the science associated with the hobby.

By August, our new beekeepers will have learned enough about beekeeping to be able to look after their own bee colonies, and to take the basic assessment exam that’s organised by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA).

And now there’s a new way to dip into the world of bees and beekeeping. This summer, we’ll be running some Beekeeping Experience Days. To take part, you’ll only need a few hours, during which we’ll give you a gentle introduction to the honey bee, get you into a beekeeping suit and take you down to the association’s beehives. We’ll open a hive and you’ll have a chance to see the bees at work. There’ll be plenty of time

They’re planned for June 11 and 25, as well as July 9 and 23. You can book online at https://buytickets.at/northdorsetbka

And, of course, that’s just the beginning! In North Dorset, there’s a whole range of programmes and lectures to build on your knowledge from the Beginner’s Course. This year, we’re running a revision course for those who will be taking their Basic Beekeeping Exam and a Queen Rearing course later in the summer.

We are fortunate to have three Master Beekeepers in our association and they are

A walk around… Winterborne Zelston

Soak up the scenery as you walk with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade

PARK near the church, which is usually open. There’s a lovely patch of snowdrops in the churchyard at the moment. Then cross over the bridge on which you are encouraged to play Pooh sticks and maybe toss a snack to the resident otter. You’ll notice from a plaque that it’s over 20 years since Zelston was a best kept village! I wonder why, because it looks pretty good now.

Walk to the village green at the water’s edge and read the helpful and interesting notice board. Then make your way back past the church and walk north-west uphill for a mile along the private road/ public bridleway through Bushes Farm and into the final field before the woodland where the hedge is the parish boundary. You’ll have to stray into the adjacent Mordon parish as there’s no loop in Zelston. Having gazed at the view enter the woodland where there’s a crossing of bridleways. Turn right and head north eastwards along the edge of the wood for about half a mile until, at the end, the path

massive knowledge and experience.

The world of the honey bee is infinitely fascinating and your local beekeeping club or association is the best way to start exploring. Those who keep bees without learning how to do it properly can cause disease and hardship. Good beekeepers are those who have been trained, and learning at “beekeeping school” can be fun too!

To learn more about beekeeping and the North Dorset Beekeepers Association, look for NDBKA on Facebook or visit www. northdorsetbeekeepers.org.uk.

joins a farm track leading downhill south east for a mile to the tiny hamlet of Mapperton where there’s a junction. Turn right and in a third of a mile you’ll be close to the main road, the A31.

Just before the road there’s a signed footpath that takes you south westward alongside the Winterborne. After a furlong you’ll cross the parish boundary back into Winterborne Zelston at the hamlet of Huish. The path then continues westward along the edge of several fields and passing a pond that might have swans in it.

Then the church will be in sight and you head towards it and will soon be back at your car, having walked a little over 4 miles.

Supper group celebrates charity donations

Residents of one Dorset town have raised more than £23,000 in seven years of super suppers

MARTINSTOWN Circle Suppers, a community-based supper group in Dorset, is celebrating raising more than £23,000 for local charities since its inception in 2016.

Members raise money by taking turns to host and pay for enjoying meals in each other’s homes.

The first charity the group supported was Kennedy’s Disease UK, co-founded by local resident Kate Hopps to raise awareness and funds for research into the rare progressive neuromuscular disease with which her husband Frank had been diagnosed.

Since then, the group has supported five charities, all with a local connection.

It also arranges at least two fundraising events a year, such as auctions, race nights, treasure hunts and themed parties.

Local businesses and organisations have been generous in their support, providing financial donations and prizes.

Last year, the chosen charity was Living

Platinum Award-Winning Care 2022

We have been awarded this much sought after accolade for our work with Gold Standards Framework

with CAH, which offers advice and support to families with a member living with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

The group raised £7,900 for the charity with the support of Ben and Leanne, owners of the village pub, The Brewers Arms, who have two sons with the condition.

Trudy Braithwaite, who has been on the Martinstown Circle Supper Committee since its foundation, said: “We are delighted to have raised £7,900 for Living with CAH.

“The community and local businesses showed overwhelming generosity and support, making the fundraising a huge success.

“We had a busy year of suppers involving 42 villagers and the owners of the village manor opened their beautiful garden for us to hold a successful garden fete, which drew hundreds of guests.”

The group’s charity for 2023 is the Dorset Family Counselling Trust and 24 suppers are planned, along with a clothes swap, an auction and an ABBA evening to raise funds.

Suppers founder and committee member, said: “We are thrilled to have been able to support so many deserving local charities over the years.

“We are looking forward to another successful year and are grateful for the support of our community.”

To donate an auction prize for this year’s fundraising event, contact Trudy Braithwaite at trudyb4@gmail.com

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Brewers Arms, Martinstown, owners Leanne and Ben Carter with one of their sons and Roelie Newman, from Martinstown Circle Suppers, holding the cheque for £7,000 raised for Living with CAH

Library link-up for Science Festival

Dorchester Library will be supporting the town’s Science Festival with themed events for children and families this March

DORCHESTER Science

Festival takes place over 10 days this March at venues across the town. The library will be at the heart of the action, with a range of fun activities planned…

On Saturday March 11, from 11am-noon children aged five-plus can come and build a library reading rocket from ‘space junk’. This fun craft and story session for children and families forms a community art project that everyone can enjoy once it’s complete! .

Then, from 2pm-3pm that same Saturday, Steve Plant from the UK Space Agency will be telling the fascinating story of the UK’s first orbital launch attempt. He’ll also be talking about the work of the Space Agency, and much more!

This afternoon is suitable for adults and children aged five-plus.

On Monday March 13, from 4pm-4.45pm, children aged six-plus can come and learn about the moon and life as an astronaut. Listen to the story of Astrogirl by Ken Wilson-Max, enhanced by fun visual props and facts. Afterwards, experiment and create with playdough!

Rhymetime RockSTARS takes on a space theme on Tuesday March 14, 10.30am11am, (for ages 0-18 months). Join library staff for rhymes and songs, make music with shakers and meet new friends.

For six weeks from Wednesday March 15, BookTrust Storytime enables

under-fives and their families to hear six different stories, as well as sing songs, collect stickers and have time to chat with other families. Storytime runs from 11am-11.30am.

Let your imagination run wild at a family-friendly space-themed Lego session,

Lego on Mars, on Saturday 18 March, 2.30pm-3.30pm. There are limited spaces at all these events. Please book yours via Eventbrite. To find out more please contact Dorchester Library on 01305 224440 or dorchesterlibrary@ dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.

Daft about daffs!

SPRINGHEAD Gardens (Fontmell Magna, SP7 0NU) will be open to the public from 11am-4pm on Saturday, March 18. Stroll the lakeside gardens, spotting spring bulbs bursting into bloom, before stocking up on locally and organically grown flowers ready for Mother’s Day. The cafe will be serving drinks and cakes. Entry to the gardens is free, but donations are appreciated. Dogs on leads are welcome, and there is assisted

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Fiction for fun

Let your creativity run wild at a free workshop event for writers of all levels

READERS and writers will be able to discuss all things literary at a new event in Shaftesbury.

Fiction for Fun will take place at the Grosvenor Hotel from March 22 to 25 and is billed as a ‘celebration of fiction writing by local published and unpublished authors, including creative writing groups’.

The organisers are Fran Hill and Rosie King, both of whom are passionate readers and writers. Fran writes under the pseudonym Tiggy Hayes and Rosie under Rosie Lear.

“The event will be free, and the days will be themed into historical fiction, fiction writing for children, crime novels and finally contemporary fiction,” they said.

“Each day will start with coffee and cake in the ballroom of the Grosvenor with an author present to facilitate discussion. There will be relaxed readings of local authors, questions and answer sessions. The morning sessions will take on a life of their own.

“Afternoons will be more structured, interactive workshops for those who like to write as well as those who prefer to listen and consider. Each evening there will be a speaker from each of the genres who will have had work published.”

Although the event is free to all, tickets will be necessary to ensure safety. Booking details will be well advertised shortly.

“If you love reading fiction and have an imaginative flair, do contact us,” the pair added.

ROKIT Earthquake Appeal concert

ROKIT choirs based in Gillingham, Blandford and Wincanton are coming together to help survivors of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in which more than 40,000 people died.

They are staging a concert at Gillingham Methodist Church with money raised going to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

“Last year we held a similar concert in aid of the Ukraine appeal,” said Mark James, owner of ROKIT choir. Thanks to the generosity of locals we raised an amazing £1,500.

“It always amazes me that sometimes it can feel as if society is drifting further and further apart, but in times of real need we still come together to help where we can.”

Other acts performing include local duo Belle Street, Tim Piper and his sing-a-long ukulele, and soloist Marga Miller.

“This is a very quickly arranged concert” Mark added. “All the acts are giving their time for free and at very short notice. I cannot thank them enough.”

The church is donating the venue so all profits from the event will go direct to the DEC.

Music for the Earthquake Appeal is on Friday, March 10, at 7.30pm at Gillingham Methodist Church. Tickets are available at www.rokitchoir.com – a link allows visitors to the page to give direct to the DEC if they are unable to attend.

Mammoth half marathon effort

Vale runners turn out in force for race organised by the Blackmore Vale Lions Club MORE than 150 runners took to the course for the 30th Blackmore Vale Half Marathon recently.

The wind was chilly but runners kept their spirits up as they tackled the trek, setting off from Bishop’s Caundle on the 13.1-mile route.

“North Dorset and the Blackmore Vale has never looked better, Thomas Hardy would have been proud, as 167 runners set off to tackle the 13.1 miles of undulating Vale roads and countryside,” a spokesperson for the event said.

Organisers, the Blackmore Vale Lions Club, said numbers were down on previous

Win

years, attributed largely to Covid and other illnesses.

“But thanks to generous sponsors the money raised will be roughly the same as in recent years and both the organisers and the runners are grateful to them for all the contributions, big or small, they have made,” they added.

“The money is still being counted so the most important result, exactly how much money the Blackmore Vale Lions and the runners, sponsors and organising team and the supporters raised for charity, won’t be known for a while but will be published when the calculators stop.

“Despite the brilliant weather neither the male nor female records were broken but the speed of the runners around the course pays tribute to their huge dedication and the hard work in preparing for the event.”

The men’s race was won by Michael Sandiford, of Fordy Runs Running Club, in a time of 1hr 13mins 19seconds, followed in second by Chris Wood of Twemlow Track Club, with Anthony Clarke in third.

In the women’s race, Gill Pearson of Running For Time came in first, in 1hr 23mins 59seconds, followed by Victoria Walls, with Helen Anthony of Teignbridge Trotters in third place.

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Tool station

The gentlemen of Gilligham enjoy unrivalled use of fantastic facilities as part of the men’s shed network

SINCE its inception in 2019, Gillingham Men’s Shed continues to go from strength to strength. With support from the community and local businesses, the hard work and persistence of the core team of eight men has resulted in a wonderful space in which gentlemen are welcome to work on their own projects, help out with tasks that benefit the community or simply sit and have a chat.

“We wanted to create a shared space,” explains Chairman Phil Wheatley. “So we approached Blue Diamond, who allowed us to use an area of the Orchard Park Garden Centre. One of our team applied for National Lottery funding, and the £35k we were awarded enabled us to purchase machinery and tools. The sheds were purchased with a loan from an anonymous benefactor

“The Shed really got going in August 2021, when it was finally ready to be opened up to everybody who wanted to join.”

GillShed, as it’s known, now has 38 regular members. Membership subs are £20 a year pro rata and a contribution for tea or coffee. The Shed is open on a Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 1pm.

The Men’s Shed movement is a nationwide initiative (find out more at menssheds.org.uk). Phil explains: “GillShed is mainly for retired men who don’t want to sit around at home vegetating! You don’t even have to make things – if you want to come and sit in our tearoom for three hours and chat, it’s fine by us.”

But if you do have the urge to pick up tools and get creative,

there are plenty of opportunities. Men from GillShed built the noticeboard for the Donkey Field Community Orchard, rebuilt and installed the seat in the Bay area of Gillingham, and tidied up the bench outside the surgery at Peacemarsh. They’ve made bird boxes for the community garden at Fontmell Magna, with swift and hedgehog boxes in the pipeline too.

The sheds are well-equipped, with one fitted out as a dedicated machine shop, another the bench room, while the third is the tea room. Even those with zero experience are welcome, as there’s always a duty manager on hand to guide you – and everyone has to have a safety induction before being let loose!

Phil explains the range of projects on offer at the shed:

“Woodworking has always been a hobby of mine – my dad was a cabinet maker and I picked up most of my skills from him. But you don’t have to be a woodworking fiend! One of our chaps is doing up a Lambretta, and brings in bits every week to work on. While we’re not a repair shop, we do work with NorDDis and so far have made upholstery and mechanical repairs to five wheelchairs.”

If you’d like to find out more about GillShed, the chaps will be at the Spring Countryside Show on April 22-23, where they will be selling some of their creations as well as being ready to chat.

New members are always welcome, so if you would like to take a look around the sheds, email pajcw@btinternet.com

Family Law Advice

Family Law Advice

We realise talking about divorce or separation is very personal and so we are offering virtual appointments by Zoom. As an alternative, we offer a one off FREE telephone appointment for initial advice on Wednesdays 9am – 1pm

We realise talking about divorce or separation is very personal and so we are offering appointments at our offices. For new clients seeking initial advice a FREE appointment can be booked on Wednesdays 9am – 1pm.

To book an appointment please call us on 01747 852377

To book an appointment please call us on 01747 852377

Offices in Shaftesbury – Sturminster Newton – Gillingham

Victor Eason (left) and Gavin Verdin get creative at GillShed

Signs of spring around the Vale

Spring is making its mark on some beautiful gardens in the Blackmore Vale. Now’s the time to visit to enjoy brilliant bulbs in their prime

SNOWDROPS, crocuses and daffodils are putting green shoots above ground, and their colourful flowers brighten up March’s lengthening days. The humble snowdrop has been the favourite flower of National Trust visitors for many years, with over 72 per cent of people looking forwarding to spotting them in their local National Trust Garden.

Kingston Lacy (near Wimborne) is famous for its snowdrop display. The snowdrop walk stretches through the 40-acre garden for one and a half miles. Even without the cold weather needed to encourage the snowdrops to bloom the team are starting to see a good display.

Nestled between the sleeping tree ferns

in the Victorian fernery, the bright white flowers carpet the beds around the twisty paths. The fernery is home to over 35 different varieties, some with fun names like ‘Ding Dong’ and ‘Heffalump’. You’ll spot more if you continue further down the iconic Lime Avenue and on to Lady’s Walk, where Henrietta Bankes, a passionate horticulturalist, first had her gardener plant snowdrops in the early 1900s.

At Stourhead (near Mere) brilliant white snowdrops can be found around the lake. As you follow the winding paths through this world-famous gardens, you can clearly see the lay of the land because its many shrubs lie dormant until later in spring.

Please check the National Trust website www.nationaltrust.org.uk before visiting; opening times may differ from place to place.

We are recruiting!

Seeking someone to support our small existing cheese making team and provide holiday cover……

• Ability to work independently and as part of a small team

• Physically fit as the role does include plenty of lifting and moving

• Approx 20 hours per week over 4 days – flexibility required

• Some early morning starts

INTERESTED? Then please email us your cv or some information to info@dorsetblue.co.uk or call Fiona on 01963 23133

Top: Stourhead gardens are carpeted with daffodils in springtime; above: Snowdrops cover the bank by the path through Lady Walk at Kingston Lacy

For over 30 years we have been making and erecting Timber Gates of all types in softwood, Iroko and Oak. Our gates are made in-house by our team of joiners, so madeto-measure is available. Our experienced installations teams will ensure your gates are professionally installed with the best quality hardware. Automation is also part of our expert gate service. With swing or slide systems we can accommodate most projects (including commercial), plus intercoms as required. Contact us for advice or to request a survey.

©National Trust Images/Richard Pink & Betsy Ogilvie

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Our loose Canon

Why you can enjoy the odd treat during Lent and still keep a clear conscience

by Canon Eric Woods

CHRISTMAS seems a long time ago, but when did it end? For some people, it was on the evening of December 25, with an uncomfortably full feeling and a headache. For others, Christmas ended on Twelfth Night, the eve of Epiphany, when traditionally the decorations come down and the tree is dismantled. But for those who know their Church calendar, Christmas ended on February 2 – Candlemas.

All the big Christian seasons have 40 days: Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, in that order. (In the Bible, before the invention of precise timekeeping, ‘40 days’ always stands for ‘a long time’, and ‘40 years’ for ‘a very long time’). So Christmas did not finish on December 25 – it began. And then came 40 days on which to ponder the meaning of it all – Jesus coming into our world, for me and for you.

So Lent – which started this year on February 22, on Ash Wednesday – also has 40 days. But there are more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day (April 9 this year). Why’s that? Simple. Lent is a penitential season, preparing for Easter. That’s why some Christians fast, and why you may be contemplating giving up sweets or chocolate, sugar or alcohol. But

you can’t fast on Sundays, because Sunday is always a feast, a festival – it’s the Day of Resurrection. That’s why Lent actually lasts for 46 days, because the Sundays don’t count. Why am I telling you all this? Well, not just to let you have a glass of wine on Sundays in Lent with a clear conscience (though you can). Rather, because the old seasons and the old rhythms still make perfect sense, and it’s such a shame when we forget them and ignore them. When every day becomes exactly like every other day, life becomes very boring, and we are all impoverished. Why not put a bit of holy rhythm back into life and living? Everything suddenly becomes so much richer and more satisfying – and without realising it we draw so much closer to God.

Lent’s path to God is penitential. Being penitent is about seeking forgiveness of our sins. The problem is that sin is rather out of fashion at the moment. No-one likes to admit that they have sinned and need to be forgiven. That reminds me of the King of Prussia who was visiting one of his country’s prisons. He asked each prisoner he met for what crime he had been sentenced. They all declared themselves to be innocent, the victims of grave miscarriages of justice – except for one man. He freely admitted the evil he had done and said that he deserved his sentence. The King ordered his immediate release, saying “this man obviously has no business being here among all these innocent people.”

Lent is a time to acknowledge our need of God’s forgiveness and to ask for it. The promise that it will be given was delivered on the first Good Friday. More of that later.

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Conservatories, Solid Roofs, Bi-Folds, Sealed Units, Windows, Doors, Fascia, Soffit & Guttering

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre,

Conservatories, Solid Roofs, Bi-Folds, Sealed Units, Windows, Doors, Fascia, Soffit & Guttering

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre,

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Conservatories, Solid Roofs, Bi-Folds, Sealed Units, Windows, Doors, Fascia, Soffit & Guttering

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Telephone 01747 826888

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre, www.valecraft.co.uk

Telephone 01747 826888

Telephone 01747 826888

www.valecraft.co.uk

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre, Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre, Gillingham SP8 5JG

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Telephone 01747 826888

Gillingham, SP8 5JG (Showroom by appointment only)

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre, www.valecraft.co.uk

www.valecraft.co.uk

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-12pm

Open Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone 01747 826888

Telephone 01747 826888

Showroom in Orchard Park Garden Centre, www.valecraft.co.uk

www.valecraft.co.uk

Tel: 01747 826888

www.valecraft.co.uk

Photo by Kelly Visel on Unsplash

Passion, protest and belonging

AUTHOR Nicola Chester brings her memoir of protest and environmental protection to Shaftesbury, while the Reading the Land festival takes a fallow year.

Nicola Chester grew up with the women of Greenham Common ‘embracing the base’ in plain view and in 2000 was among those at last able to walk in as it was liberated.

She has spent eight years researching and writing a beautifully wrought memoir as she brought up children and worked as school librarian.

In her book On Gallows Down she leads us via “nature, literature and place twining like wild clematis and ivy through a quickthorn hedge”. We can indulge in listening with her for the cuckoo, watching the hare and the otter, learning the origin of the name of the lapwing.

Reading the Land will be back in 2024; until then, Nicola Chester will be reading from On Gallows Down at The Grosvenor Arms, Shaftesbury, on March 11.

Tickets cost £10 and are available from www.shaftesburybookfestival.com

Generous golfers

Rushmore Golf Club celebrated an outstanding year of fund raising, with club members and friends raking in more than £9,000 in 2022

MEMBERS of Rushmore Golf Club were overjoyed to be able to hand over cheques totalling £9,273 recently – the highest amount ever raised by the Club.

Club Captain Trevor Hewitt chose to support the Fire Fighters’ Charity and Ladies’ Captain Gill Smith the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

The bulk of the funds came from the fun charity day in May, when a giant raffle and silent auction, as well as on-course competitions and hole sponsorship, raised over £7,600.

Steve Ansell, Station Manager at Shaftesbury Fire Station, supported by members of his crew, received a cheque for £4,158.47. He thanked Trevor for selecting the fire fighters and said that the money would be put to good use in supporting fire fighters with health or other needs.

Jan Westbury, Lead Advocate Volunteer at the Royal Osteoporosis

Nevertoo late to learn

Charity group Read Easy Blackmore Vale North helps anyone who struggles with reading to improve their literacy

DID you know that 2.4 million adults in England alone cannot read at all, or can barely read? Imagine not being able to fill in a form, read the back of a food packet, follow Facebook – or help your child with their learning.

Read Easy Blackmore Vale North is working to change that with free, confidential and local support for anyone who wants to learn.

This local group, covering Marnhull,

Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Mere, Wincanton, Sherborne, Sturminster Newton and surrounding villages, is affiliated with the national charity, Read Easy UK. You’ll already be familiar with its work if you watched the BBC documentary that followed Repair Shop presenter Jay Blades’ journey to literacy at 51, helped by a Read Easy coach.

The charity links adults of any age or circumstance who want to learn to read or improve their skills with a trained volunteer coach. They meet on a one-to-one basis for half an hour, twice a week in an approved venue. This is all at no financial cost, with no timescale and minimal pressure to the reader.

One of the group’s Shaftesbury readers, Sarah, came to Read Easy because she couldn’t read bedtime stories to her children. She learnt to read with a Read Easy coach, and then went on to give interviews on national television. She also published her

Society, received a cheque for £5,111.89. She also thanked the Club for the generous donation, which would go towards research and support services.

Club Captain Trevor Hewitt said “It has been good to have enjoyed a full year of golf and we are all pleased with the sums raised for the chosen charities this year.”

Sarah from Shaftesbury learnt to read as an adult thanks to Read Easy, and has written a book about her experiences

brilliant book My Dyslexic Journey. Peter, another local reader, says, “the team stuck by me and helped me to grow and to develop my reading skills.”

If you know anyone who would like Read Easy’s help, please contact Mindy on 07857 159431

You can also find information on the Read Easy UK website www.readeasy.org. uk/groups/blackmore-vale-north

Peter, another Read Easy success story, pictured with his literacy coach

Bumper Bridge bonus

CHARITY bridge matches raised more than £500 for good causes. Each year, Sherborne Bridge Club holds two fundraising sessions for a local charity, which for 2022 was the Joseph Weldmar Trust, a hospice charity.

Pictured below (left to right) are Fran Gleason from the Joseph Weldmar Hospicecare receiving the £502 cheque from Glenda Shave, Pip Duncan and Paul White.

Sherborne Bridge Club runs two duplicate sessions a week at the Terrace Football Club and one rubber bridge session during the closed season at the Bowls Club.

New members and visitors are welcome. Full details at www.bridgewebs.com/sherborne

PTSD explained

Fovant’s Independent Ladies recently enjoyed an enlightening lecture about post traumatic stress disorder…

ORIGINALLY a small Women’s Institute group, FILGroup became independent in 2015 in order to reduce running costs and work towards becoming a more informal get together of friends and newcomers.

At a recent meeting, Professor Nigel North, Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist at Salisbury District Hospital, spoke about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – dubbed ‘the hidden menace’ because of its ability to affect any one of us at any given time.

Addressing a full hall, Nigel delivered his lecture with a mixture of humour and sobriety, full of interesting facts and figures to help everyone understand the complex nature of this condition.

The afternoon ended with questions from the audience and a raffle in aid of Nigel’s chosen charity The Stars Appeal, to which everyone gave generously and £50 was raised. The group would like to thank Nigel (and able assistant Viv) for such an interesting afternoon.

Meetings take place every second Thursday of the month in Fovant Village Hall at the new time of 2.30pm. The group enjoys various interesting speakers or organised craft workshops. The next meeting is March 9, at which the ladies will be finding out more about reflexology thanks to Pip Zingg. For further information please email filgroup15@gmail.com.

Mayfair auctioneers Noonans are back in Dorset

Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) will be holding their next Valuation Day in Shaftesbury on Thursday16 March Frances Noble, Head of Jewellery and Associate Director, commented: “We are back in beautiful Shaftesbury for the next of our monthly VALUATION DAYS at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre. We are giving local people the chance to get an up-to-date valuation on their Jewellery, Watches, Coins, Medals, Banknotes, Silver and Objects of Vertu. As specialist auctioneers in Mayfair, we are market leaders in our fields, our experts having unrivalled experience on all aspects of medals, numismatics, paper money, tokens, ancient, antique and modern jewellery, detectorist finds, wristwatches and pocket watches, silver and objects of vertu Highlights from our 2022 auctions include a Royal diamond set brooch by Garrard & Co, 1953, modelled as the initials ER, presented to Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk and accompanied

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by a handwritten letter from the late Queen Elizabeth II, sold in June for £180,000. A fine Lange & Söhne 18ct white gold Chronograph Wristwatch, circa 2005, sold for £20,000.

Items offered for sale in London are attracting extremely strong prices, so do take this opportunity to visit us at the Arts Centre for a free no obligation valuation and the opportunity to consign to our Mayfair auctions. Noonans will be at The Shaftesbury Arts Centre, Bell Street, SP7 8AR on Thursday 16 January 10am-2pm.

Staff making shopping fun pays off at awards for Shaftesbury fashion store

‘NOTHING is too much trouble.’

Those are the words of Shirley Allum, who runs the fashion store in Shaftesbury High Street that bears her name.

She was speaking after the shop picked up two gongs at the recent Shaftesbury Business Awards.

“We were all so thrilled and excited to not only be nominated but to actually win,” she said.

Shirley Allum was named Best Place to Work and Business of the Year 2022/23.

And she said the awards were recognition of the hard work put in by staff to make shopping at the venue a pleasurable experience.

too much trouble, especially in the lingerie department where the girls make every effort to put the client at ease as this can be, for some, a daunting experience.

“We believe laughter is the best tool to use.”

OUR EXPERIENCED SPECIALIST WILL BE AVAILABLE TO OFFER AUCTION VALUATIONS FREE OF CHARGE AND WITHOUT OBLIGATION, WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONSIGN TO OUR SPRING MAYFAIR AUCTIONS

She said staff were excited to showcase the new-season goodies, described as ‘a feast for the eyes and something to tempt even the most discerning of pallets’. Among the specialist items on offer is a range of mastectomy bras from Anita Care, which Shirley says is getting larger each month.

ROMAN IMPERIAL COINAGE, GALBA, AUREUS SOLD ON 13 OCTOBER 2022

“We work hard to make a shopping experience at Shirley Allum a total pleasure so as a result it is lovely to be recognised for all the hard work put in and for other people to appreciate it as well as our customers,” she said.

HAMMER PRICE: £15,000

“Every care is taken, and nothing is

“Together with our bras we also have a range of mastectomy Swimsuits from Anita and a huge range of quality swimwear in sizes 10-26,” she said.

“We also have a successful website which currently we are offering free delivery for the next two weeks for online purchases.”

For more information, log on to shirleyallum.co.uk.

Shirley Allum with the awards

COMPENSATION FOR WORK ACCIDENTS

Rod Dutton, Solicitor

Rod Dutton is a Fellow of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. He deals with injury compensation claims but with a particular interest in accidents at work.

If you have an accident at work, you are not automatically entitled to compensation. Employers must insure their employees against accidents, but remember it is the employer that is insured. For the employee to recover compensation he or she must prove that the employer accepts legal responsibility or ‘liability’ for the accident.

Your lawyer will be looking at three things; cause, breach of duty and damage.

Cause

In most cases the cause of an accident is clear, but the claimant has to prove the cause, or the claim fails.

A worker might suffer from back pain which he or she believes has been caused by repetitive lifting at work. If the evidence casts doubt on this, the claim will be a struggle. The employee has to show that the repetitive process either caused or contributed to the injury.

Breach of duty

An employer has a duty of care to protect the employees. The employer must:

• Provide a safe system of working

• Provide a safe place of work

• Provide competent colleagues

• Provide adequate training

• Assess risks

Your solicitor will be looking to work out whether the employer can be criticised on any of these counts. If so, then the employer will have been in breach of their duty of care to the worker and a claim is likely to suceed.

An employer must assess risks and act on the findings of the assessment. A failure by the employer to assess risk or to assess it properly is often the key to a successful personal injury claim.

Damage

Damage includes injury compensation and any financial losses that reasonably flow from the accident. Typically, these losses will include a claim for loss of earnings, other financial losses, such as medical expenses, travel costs and possibly care costs.

Cause and damage are often closely interconnected. It is for the claimant to prove that the damage claimed has been caused by the accident in question.

It is a sad fact that there are upwards of half a million accidents at work in the UK every year. 100+ are fatal accidents. The figures for 2020, are these:

• 700,000 accidents

• 65,427 more serious accidents

• 111 fatal accidents

• 38.8 million working days lost to accident or work-related illness.

Humphries Kirk offers free initial advice on all accident compensation enquiries. We can offer no win no fee. For advice please call Rod Dutton on 01305 251007, or email him on r.dutton@hklaw.uk or any other member of our litigation team.

If through no fault of your own, you have suffered accidental injury or medical malpractice, speak to one of our highly experienced personal injury solicitors.

Personal relationships built on trust and understanding…

Gamekeeper sentenced for dead raptors

A FORMER gamekeeper has been handed a suspended prison sentence after admitting wildlife and firearms offences.

Paul Scott Allen, whose address was given as Baileys Hill, Brockington, had previously pleaded guilty to a total of seven offences, including possessing poison in contravention of licensing laws and of possessing a live or dead wild bird unlawfully.

He was handed a 15-week suspended sentence and ordered to pay fines and compensation of £2,900 by Weymouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, February 16.

The charges came after the 54-year-old’s home was searched by police and other agencies in March 2021 after reports of suspected bird poisonings on a Dorset estate.

During the searches a number of dead birds of prey were located.

Officers also found a shotgun and ammunition, which were not covered by the defendant’s firearms certificate, during the search.

Further enquiries uncovered a number of prohibited toxins at the premises.

Allen was interviewed by officers and – following detailed enquiries and liaison with experts from the Crown Prosecution Service – was charged with the various offences.

Previously, Allen pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a live or dead wild bird under schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and two charges of failing to comply with the conditions of a firearms certificate.

He also admitted using a biocidal product in contravention of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; possessing an unlawful substance under the Plant Protection Products Regulations 2012 and possessing a regulated substance without a licence under the Poisons Act 1972.

Chief Inspector David Parr, of Dorset Police, said: “We take all reports of wildlife crime and rural criminality very seriously.

“This case has seen us work with partners including Natural England and the National Wildlife Crime Unit to compile evidence before liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service Specialist Wildlife Prosecutor who agreed to the charges against the defendant.

“Wildlife crime remains a key objective of the recently expanded Dorset Police Rural Crime Team and we will continue to work with our partners to investigate criminal offences and deal with offenders robustly.”

Speaking after the sentencing the Shaftesbury Estate – where Allen had worked as a gamekeeper – said he was not employed by them at the time of the offences.

“Paul was not employed by the estate at the time of this incident and is not permitted to work on the estate,” a spokesperson said.

“We strongly condemn any form of raptor persecution and we do not condone illegal activity of any kind.

“The Estate places huge importance on conservation and supports a wide range of initiatives that protect wildlife and important habitats, as shown in our annual ecological monitoring report.”

It added: “We fully support the efforts of Dorset Wildlife, RSPB, Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Foundation – and many more – for the work they do in conservation and we share their passion for protecting wildlife.”

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Carbon Neutral Homecare Company expands service to North Dorset

GoodOaks Homecare, the UK's only carbon neutral homecare company, is now providing its’ live-in care service across the whole of Dorset. This personalised alternative to residential care covers areas such as Blandford, Shaftesbury and Sherborne.

GoodOaks calculates that the homecare sector produces over 484,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, a figure that is growing every year roughly in line with the growth of the care sector. To keep the 1.5*c target alive, that number needs to be reduced, dramatically.

Care professionals are reliant on their cars to visit clients, powered by older diesel or petrol engines, often in stop-start traffic and moving around suburban areas. GoodOaks calculates all the miles travelled by its care teams every year, and offsets the carbon produced by investing in tree planting and green projects.

Co-Founder, Ben Ashton, said: “Becoming carbon neutral was an important investment for us to make. It’s so important we all do what we can to make greener choices, for our generation, and future generations.”

GoodOaks provide live-in and visiting homecare to clients in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes. Their phone number is 01202 125882.

01202 125882 or email enquiries@ goodoakshomecare.co.uk to request a brochure

Counting sheep

Farmers, small-holders, shepherds and enthusiasts alike enjoy the support and camaraderie of Cerne Sheep Group…

PROFESSIONAL shepherd Richard Brown started Cerne Sheep Group 35 years ago. It had about 60 members, all professional shepherds and large sheep flock keepers. In those days the group was sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The Group has evolved over the years, and today only about half of the 30-odd members keep sheep, mostly small flocks. They are united by their interest in farming and the rural way of life. A varied programme of events covers diverse topics – not all about sheep – with speakers including our North and West Dorset MPs, who both have an interest in agriculture.

Vets have presented talks on animal health and behaviour, and other speakers have covered topics including thatching, stick making, and organic and regenerative farming.

This sociable Group is a valuable opportunity for many Blackmore Vale farmers, who can be quite isolated.

During the summer, the Group undertakes diverse visits. Members have

enjoyed days out to see cattle, goat milking (including ice cream making and sampling), racing stables, carriage horses, a wool processing plant, as well as the odd fish farm and brewery!

New members are always welcome. The Group’s subscriptions are not unreasonable, and a nominal fee is charged for a one-off individual visit.

Cerne Sheep Group’s next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday, March 13 at The Fox at Ansty (Dorchester, DT2 7PN). Richard Brown, the group’s founder, will be talking about its history.

Happy birthday WI!

MEMBERS of Blandford Evening WI celebrated the group’s tenth birthday with a quiz, games, ploughman’s supper, bubbly and lots of cake!

The institute, revived after a two-year sabbatical, has gone from strength to strength, re-establishing its connection with the community, being there to provide aid and support whenever needed.

Quiz winner Valerie McKinlay (below) received a trophy; president Vicky Watkinson cut the cake.

FASHIONS & LINGERIE

Photo by Judith Prins on Unsplash

Octagon revamp gets the go-ahead

Planning permission has been granted for an exciting project to create a flagship cultural hub for Somerset in

Yeovil

The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil looks set to be transformed into a centre for the creative arts, thanks to approval of plans for radical redevelopment by South Somerset District Council.

The theatre will provide amazing opportunities for Blackmore Vale residents and bring world class artists to Somerset, as well as spark economic regeneration for the area.

The redeveloped Octagon Theatre will include:

• Increased seating in the main auditorium from 622 to 900

• Two new smaller cinema/studio spaces

• A dance studio and community studio for additional classes

• A better café bar area, open throughout the day

• Improved backstage accessibility

Adam Burgan, arts & entertainment venues manager, said: “This

is really exciting for us all… as we see planning permission granted for a venue that will not only benefit the local community but also bring the opportunity for all to access the world-class arts here in Somerset.”

The Octagon Theatre will close its doors to customers at the end of April. For more information

Lizzie Price Shading Solutions is a newly launched business by husband and wife team Peter & Lizzie Price. Peter has over 40 years of experience in the window and building industry and Lizzie has over 28 years’ experience in the blinds and soft furnishing trade and you may remember Lizzie from working for a local Wincanton based company.

Based in North Cadbury, Somerset they provide a full in-home selection and measuring service.

With Summer fast approaching we need to look towards ways of reducing solar glare into our homes during the hotter months. Lizzie Price Shading Solutions have various ways of achieving this from internal Blinds and Shutters to the more e ective options of External Blinds and Awnings designed to stop the UV rays reaching your glass and stopping the heat from building in your home.

If you enjoy entertaining and spending time cooking and eating outside they can install smart louvred roof Pergolas with optional side screens to create shaded and sheltered areas either o the back of your home or stand alone in the garden. Ideal for outdoor kitchens, seating areas or hot tubs.

free quotations contact: Tel 07879 992000enquiries@lizziepriceshadingsolutions.co.uk www.lizziepriceshadingsolutions.co.uk

Chilmark children support Air Ambulance

Pupils at Chilmark Fonthill Bishop CofE Primary School raise £155.82 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance

The school Council at Chilmark Fonthill Bishop CofE Primary recently held a fund raising event in aid of the Wilshire Air Ambulance.

An image was drawn in the playground and filled in with loose change donated by families and the wider community. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and the coins, totalling £155.82, sparkled in the winter sunshine.

The school council is a formal group of pupils, from each class, representing their classmates to discuss school issues with the head teacher and staff at regular meetings.

The children listen, discuss, share their views and, where necessary, vote on actions that need to be taken. They help to organise charity events throughout the year. Council reps encourage the pupils in their class to be aware of the school environment and to respect and care for it.

Have your say

SHAFTESBURY Town Council has a working group updating and reinforcing its action plan for moving towards Sustainable Shaftesbury.

The plan is a comprehensive response to the emergencies facing climate and nature. It won’t be restricted to town council activities; it will also offer support for actions by others – businesses, community organisations, and individuals.

Planet Shaftesbury has previously hosted sessions looking at the choices that enable households and groups to make a difference –whether that be by reconsidering pension investments, accessing funding for warmer homes, or making space for nature in our gardens.

The next meeting, at 7.30pm on Thursday, March 16, at Shaftesbury Town Hall, is an opportunity to give your feedback and influence the plan’s development… Does it offer the support that townspeople need? How would you like to influence it? The meeting is free and open to all.

Town pays tribute

THE Army Air Corps exercised its Freedom of Wincanton with a parade in the town on Thursday (February 23).

Scores of troops from 1 Regt AAC – based at nearby Yeovilton – lined the streets to acknowledged the town’s thanks for their service.

They were greeted by hundreds of people, many waving Union Flags, who braved the damp conditions to praise the soldiers.

Mayor of Wincanton Cllr Howard Ellard paid tribute to their work, while Rev Alison Way led those gathered in prayer.

The soldiers were inspected and three Army helicopters flew over the parade as the crowds looked on.

Local librarian makes it in print

Sturminster Newton native Willow Wood has a passion for fiction and an enviable work ethic. Her most recent work, A Headful of Skye, is out now

WILLOW Wood is enthusiastic about her job as a library assistant, and not just because she’s surrounded by books all day! “It’s a wonderful and versatile service that can provide help, companionship, and safety,” she explains. But it also provides plenty of inspiration for her real passion, telling stories.

“I’ve been writing stories ever since I was capable of holding a pencil,” Willow says. “I completed my first handwritten novel, which was 250,000 words, at 16 and I just kept on writing.

“I studied screenwriting at university. In fact, my most recent publication, A Headful of Skye, began life as a five-minute film script back in 2009.

“It lingered with me for years and wouldn’t go away. After graduating uni, I finally decided to write it as a novel. I wrote the first draft in 30 days for National Novel Writing Month.”

Willow’s productivity is inspiring – she admits to being a very fast typist and carving out time to write. “The hardest part is sitting down and starting,” Willow says. “Once I’ve started, it seeps into all parts of the day and everything else can wait.”

Willow’s work was first published online in 2013, and received positive reviews from readers. However, finding a publishing agent proved difficult. “My self-esteem began to trickle away,” she says. “I was writing play scripts with local drama groups, two other novels, but always coming back to A Headful of Skye and feeling ‘I’m not good enough’.

It took me a long time to realise I was depressed. It wasn’t until 2020 that the isolation stripped everything away and laid it out plain for me to see. Thankfully, the love and help I’ve received is why I’m here today with a published book.”

In the end, Willow didn’t pursue an agent for her book. “I chose to self-publish A Headful of Skye through Amazon,” Willow says. “Although I’ve always known that publishers and agents want to invest in books that are already bestselling ideas, I realised that I don’t have to hold myself to that opinion to be validated.”

Willow is in the process of getting A Headful of Skye into independent bookstores, but until then you can buy it online from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Not one to stand still, she’s already got her next few projects lined up…

“I’m currently close to finishing the first draft of a novel that’s been close to my heart for a few years, the first of an LGBT fantasy series about a knight who promises her firstborn to a witch. Once that’s done, I will hand the messy draft to friends for initial reactions and feedback.

“While that’s simmering, I’m going to work on the completed draft of Bloodshot Buck, a military sci-fi series.”

Live the life you choose at home

When you’re seeking support to remain independent in your own home, the most important thing is that you receive the support you need to live the life you choose.

Whether you need help with domestic tasks or meal preparation, support with medication or personal care, or simply a helping hand to get out and about in the community, receiving the right care and support can be life-changing. When your needs are taken care of, you are free to pursue your hobbies and interests, and live life to the full. In short, you are free to concentrate on the most important thing of all - being ‘you’.

As a major care provider in Southern England and one of the largest notfor-profit care companies in the UK, Somerset Care’s My Willows community care teams in Wincanton and surrounding areas can help you to remain safe, happy and healthy in

your own home. We can support you as much or as little as you would like, as all care is tailored to you and your individual needs.

What matters to you, matters to us. So, wherever you are on your care journey, we are committed to supporting you every step of the way.

Our friendly customer enquiries team are on hand to answer any questions you might have, and help you to find the care that is right for you.

Call 01823 448150 to discover how we can help you to live the life you choose, in your own home.

International Women’s Day

A potted history of a day that gives global focus to the rights and needs of women

by Lynne Franks OBE

I HAVE celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 for years, as a time when women of all backgrounds, race and nationalities can be seen and heard on the subject of equality and fairness for all.

I started being aware of women’s needs through my work with SEED, the global network for women’s economic empowerment I founded in 2000. I realised that although IWD appeared more than a hundred years ago, many countries (including the UK) didn’t know much about it or acknowledge that it was happening.

I used the date on many occasions to launch new SEED books and projects, including events at the House of Commons and House of Lords; Bloomingdales Department Store in New York and Selfridges in London. And yet I still found a lack of awareness from journalists or politicians on why I always chose March 8 to start my new projects.

Which is why I have been watching with great interest how the British media and society are now happy to acknowledge IWD and the still-challenging situation for women in this country and worldwide.

The first occurrence of women demonstrating together against oppression and inequality was recorded in 1908, when 15,000 garment workers marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

This continued for several years. Meanwhile, in Germany, a woman called Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, suggested that a Women’s Day should be celebrated the same day in every country where women could express their demands for equality. This was greeted with unanimous approval by women leaders from other Northern European countries, and International Women’s Day was born on March 19, 1911.

On February 23 1914, Russian women observed their first IWD while campaigning for peace on the eve of World War I. After discussions, IWD was agreed to be marked globally on March 8.

SEED presents Grow

WINCANTON will be buzzing with activities this International Women’s Day as the team at the SEED Hub, led by Lynne Franks, OBE, host a series of events with the theme ‘grow’.

Following the SEED annual tradition of showing a special movie on the evening of March 8, this year there will be an exclusive showing of the award nominating documentary Nothing Compares on the life of Sinéad O’Connor, followed by a

discussion between Lynne (who has been close to Sinéad over many years) and the women makers of the film. Tickets cost £6, to be donated to Syria earthquake survivors and need to be booked at seedhub.uk/ iwd23

SEED will hold its monthly Spoken Word event on the evening of Thursday March 9 and the men and women poets, writers and singers will be invited to introduce a feminine

Russia and Eastern Europe continued to celebrate IWD very publicly – men and children would often present flowers to women as a sign of respect. In the UK, IWD became the day for women to march in support of women’s suffrage; Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square on March 8, 1914.

IWD was marked for the first time by the United Nations in 1975. There was very little awareness of IWD in many countries, and certainly in the UK, until activities by women’s organisations, including SEED, used the date as a focus to celebrate the achievements of women.

With the support of celebrities; business leaders and women politicians IWD has finally become mainstream, with groups organising activities to support women across the country.

This year IWD 2023 has the global theme of Embrace Equity and I for one am looking forward to the time when we no longer need to even hold IWD as we live in a world of equality and safety for all.

theme to their performances. During the day on Thursday, flower essence specialist Saskia Marjoram will be in her shop in Cole’s Yard doing one-to-ones and there will also be a willow weaving workshop in the yard. March 10 sees an incredible group of women business, environmental and community leaders coming together, including eco-warrior Jo Wood; Councillor Sarah Dyke; founder of Teal’s Ash Sinfield; bee expert Paula Carnell; CEO of Balsam Centre Sue Place and Jenny Moresetti, Chair of

Politics – one woman’s perspective

by Cllr Sarah Dyke, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Somerton & Frome WOMEN

are not a minority, we account for over half of the UK population, yet in both politics and public life in the UK, women have historically been under-represented. There are currently only 225 female MPs in the House of Commons. At 35 per cent, this is an all-time high, but legislative representation is not yet balanced. It seems extraordinary that there have been less than 400 women MPs since Nancy Astor was the first woman MP to take her

seat in 1919.

Politics often excites strong emotions. Politicians occasionally make unpopular decisions and must be prepared to answer for those decisions. But what they shouldn’t have to be prepared for is a stream of threats and harassment.

Just over 100 years ago, Nancy Astor had to push past jeering male colleagues in the chamber to get there and now women MPs often cite abuse as a factor in not standing for re-election.

It seems appropriate therefore that the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Embrace Equity”. The

Sustainable Dorset to speak about how we can co-create a sustainable future for all, including a workshop led by Lynne on making a SEED collage vision poster on how we can all contribute to how this would look.

And finally, March 11 will see an eco-workshop for children at Bootmakers; global food and culture exchange at the Balsam Centre; seed planting at The Growing Centre and workshops on floral art; tea leaf reading and live music at the SEED Hub.

March 8 event honours women of the past, present, and future generations who have fought for change in gender equality.

Equity is not just something we say or write about. It’s something we need to think about, know, and embrace. It’s what we should believe in, unconditionally. Equity means creating an inclusive world and never more so in politics, which needs women representatives at all levels, from Parish to Parliament to stand for election and become decision makers in their communities.

Almshouse plot?

Trustees of Sherborne’s 600-year-old retirement accommodation hit back as anonymous campaigner leaflets the town

A MYSTERY campaigner has distributed leaflets containing ‘factually incorrect’ statements about the possible closure of the Sherborne Almshouse.

The trustees of the retirement accommodation, in Half Moon Lane, have hit back at claims in the document, and vowed to respond to all ‘appropriate and relevant’ questions.

It comes after residents were informed they could lose their homes amid a financial crisis at the venue, run by St John’s.

The leaflet, which has been produced and distributed anonymously in the town, also contained trustees’ personal contact details.

“The trustees are aware of the leaflet that was printed anonymously and distributed in Sherborne more than 10 days ago,” a spokesperson said. “It contains statements that are factually incorrect. We have taken professional advice on this matter and we’re unable to comment further on the claims made at this stage.

“We would like it to be known that the email address and telephone number given for the chair of trustees were personal ones and should not be used by members of the public for contacting the chair on almshouse business.”

It added: “However, on a positive note, we’ve heard from many members of the public now as a result of the flyer and have had some very encouraging and constructive dialogue with them.”

The leaflet hits out at ‘poor management and oversight’ of the historic almshouse, which has provided accommodation to those in need for 600 years.

“A tradition of over half a millennia is at risk,” it said.

“Existing elderly residents, many of whom have sold their homes or made significant financial decisions on the assumption of a secure future at St John’s, now face eviction.”

It went on: “The decision to close is taking place without sufficient public consultation and has been made by unelected trustees who have inadequately managed an institution that enjoys an income from several lucrative commercial properties, as well as its residents.

“St John’s is simply too important for these changes to happen without public involvement.”

The almshouse trustees revealed to staff and residents in January they were consulting over the future of the accommodation, as the finances had proved to be ‘unsustainable’ after the Covid pandemic.

A decision over the building’s future is expected at the end of February or early in March.

Free parking!

Visit Sturminster Newton on March 4 and enjoy free parking while you browse the shops thanks to local charity SturAction

CELEBRATING five successful years in business, SturAction, which runs six retail outlets in Sturminster Newton, is subsidising a day’s free parking in the town.

Sturminster Newton Community Benefit Society Ltd, known as SturAction, was set up to help maintain Sturminster’s reputation as a great place to live, work and play. All profits are used to support projects that benefit the town, including installing a defibrillator in the town centre, putting up Christmas trees, and planting more flowers.

What began in 2018 as a small shop selling clothing, furniture and everything in between is now a thriving network of retail spaces including a pre-loved art gallery and hub for local artisan producers.

SturAction’s volunteers have turned unused, unloved spaces within the town into vibrant shops that enrich the town centre and benefit the community.

“How lucky are we to live in such a wonderful and community-spirited town,” said shop manager Cheryl Basten. “It’s been the most incredible journey with the most amazing volunteers, customers and colleagues and without your support and fabulous donations none of this would have been possible.”

The boutiques’ eclectic mix of pre-loved clothing, art and homewares is enhanced by a new warehouse filled with products created by more than 50 local artisans and craftspeople, in the old Nat West bank, now rebranded 1855.

SturAction is also celebrating the donation to it of the former Lloyds Bank Building by its owner John Romans – a gift to the town in perpetuity. The building has been renamed The John Roman’s Building and will continue to house The Emporium and Dapper Chaps on the ground floor, with an art gallery, meeting rooms and an office used by SturBiz on the first floor. The currently derelict top floor will be turned into office space to help embryonic local businesses.

“Our motto is ‘vision without actions is merely a dream,” said chairman of SturAction Cllr Nick Dobson. “We have a fantastic staff and volunteer group who turn dreams into reality, for the benefit of the town. We are also fortunate to have had tremendous support from John Romans who is a local man, born and bred, and wants to benefit the town.”

HANF0ORD School at Child

Okeford was invited to send delegates to a Mini Model United Nations (MUN) event at Bryanston School.

The MUN is a ‘school version’ of the United Nations and six girls in three teams of delegates from Hanford joined the event. The Hanford delegation represented Ireland.

Arabella and Jessica in the upper sixth sat on the UN Human Rights Council discussing press freedom; Sachini and Emily in the lower sixth were members of the UN Environment Committee discussing sustainable energy; and Vivian and Aliza from fifth form joined the World Food Programme where discussions centred around food insecurity.

Sachini and Emily’s

PUPILS from Charlton Horethorne Primary School were busy with a variety of activities for Safer Internet Day.

The children produced a video which was chosen from hundreds of entries across the country to be featured in Childnet’s live

resolution was chosen for debate by their committee – the resolution went on to be passed and the two girls were awarded ‘Best Delegation’ status and given medals as prize winners.

Head of History Mrs Northey worked with the girls ahead of the MUN to help them prepare for the day, discussing and researching the topics that were going to be debated and coming up with possible resolutions they could put forward.

Sachini said: “I was nervous getting ready for the day but when we arrived that all disappeared. I enjoyed the teamwork, forming alliances with delegates from other schools.

“We had to be very quick thinking as the topics changed a lot and we had to be able to

argue without getting angry!”

Freya, a GAP matron who accompanied the girls, along with Mrs Northey, said: “I was so impressed with their preparation and their performance on the day. They all worked super hard and expressed their opinions clearly.”

Model United Nations (MUN) simulations are popular exercises for those interested in

learning more about the UN. Hundreds of thousands of students worldwide participate every year in MUN at all educational levels – from primary school to university. Many of today’s leaders in law, government, business and the arts participated in MUN as students.

Hanford is a boarding and day prep school for girls aged seven-13.

Girls ‘Best Delegation’ at Model UN Pupils get lesson in online safety

broadcast from BT Tower!

Youngsters opened their own ‘internet cafe’ for the day to talk about the importance of online safety and what to do if they encountered a problem online.

They also made fantastic internet-themed cakes!

Youngsters on board with town’s history

PUPILS at Stalbridge

CofE Primary School were thrilled to receive boards explaining the market town’s history after a year of planning, research and illustrating.

Stalbridge Archive Society members Tony and Lesley Woods presented the boards, which provide a timeline of the town’s history from

Roman times to that late Medieval era, to members of the school council. Much of the information came from fellow archive society member Irene Jones, author of two books on Stalbridge’s history. Sponsorship from Dikes supermarket enabled the boards to be printed.

The Hanford School delegates to the Model United Nations

STOUR VALLEY DOG RESCUE

Prize Bingo Night

Blandford Corn Exchange

Friday 10th March 2023

Doors open 6:30pm

Eyes down 7:30pm

TURNPIKE SHOWGROUND

CAR BOOT SALE

SUNDAY 5th MARCH

Sellers 9am

Cars £5, Vans & Trailers £10

Buyers 10am - £2 per vehicle

Turnpike Show Ground

Motcombe SP7 9PL

Entry from 8.30am at Turnpike

Showground, SP7 9PL

ENCORE SINGERS

PRESENT a concert of popular tunes. United Church, Dorchester. 25.3.23 7.30pm. Free entry. Supporting C’Siders cancer support group

JUMBLE SALE SATURDAY

18TH MARCH – 1pm

50p admission Hooper Hall, Lydlinch DT10 2JA

In aid of the roof repair fund for the Village Hall

BUTTERFLY TALK

6.30pm 11th March

North Barrow Hall BA22 7LZ

Tickets £15/£8 including Curry Supper. Cash Bar

Email:

Butterflys113@icloud.com

Tel. 07590 894455

CHARLTON MARSHALL

VILLAGE HALL

Sat 11 March 2023

10.30am-3pm

Spring Craft Fair

Refreshments - Raffle in aid of The Blandford Food Bank

ST MICHAEL’S SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING CLUB

Thursdays 7.30 - 9.30pm Davis Hall, West Camel £2.00 07972 125617 stmichaelsscdclub.org

BINGO NIGHT 10th March, Wincanton Memorial Hall, Doors open 6.30pm, Eyes down 7.30pm In aid of Matt’s Respite cancer charity

CREATIVE MOTHER’S DAY FUN for all ages! No booking required. Free event. Shaftesbury Library Saturday 18 March 11:00am - 12:00 noon

SATURDAY MARCH 11TH

9-5PM SHAFTESBURY

TOWN HALL. Supporting Weldmar Hospice and Dorset Somerset Air Ambulance.

Lots of small businesses will be selling their products, preserves, art, pottery, trinket boxes, decoupage, jewellery, photography, cakes, a bakery, pet wear, toys, jigsaw puzzles, books, Preloved items & the body shop. FREE entry.

SHERBORNE DIGBY HALL MONTHLY MARKET

1st Saturday of Month. March 4th, 10-3

Antiques, Arts, Crafts, Food & More Tel: 07717 454643

LYN’S BINGO AT MARNHULL ROYAL BRITISH LEGION on Monday March 6th. Eye’s down at 7pm.

Events

ROCK ‘n’ ROLL is back, Tuesday 14th March 2-4pm, Vicarage School Room, Queens Street Gillingham. Teas and Raffle available.

BINGO!

raising funds for GILLINGHAM LIVE At the Vicarage School Room Gillingham March 7th doors open 6.30pm for 7.30pm start.

BIG BRASS SKA AT THE UDDER FARM SHOP East Stour March 25th 7.30pm

Raising Funds For GILLINGHAM LIVE Tickets https://fienta.com/ gillingham-live-ska-night

Place your classified advert today

CLASSIFIED

01963 400186

Clothes swapping event at Blandford Corn Exchange Saturday 18th March

Could your wardrobe do with a bit of a revamp but you’re saving your pennies for other things? Have you had a clear out of your clothes recently and wondering where to take them? Why not come along to Dorset Council’s SWISH event?

is is a FREE event where people literally swap their clothes! Bring along anything you don’t want anymore and then take home some clothes that you like the look of. You don’t necessarily need to bring anything along to attend. Women’s, men’s and children’s clothes are all welcome, plus shoes and accessories such as scarves and hats. Please ensure that items are clean and in good condition.

Come and get lost in the world of travel.

Chaldicott

Shaftesbury

Dorset SP7 9AW

Opening times: Tues-Fri: 10am - 4pm Sat: 10am - 2pm thetravelbookcompany.co.uk

e event will run from 1pm - 4pm on Saturday 18th March. To allow time for us to set up the items, please drop the clothes o from 11am onwards. We will stop accepting clothes from 3pm.

For any further questions, contact us at wasteteam@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

We hope to see you there!

Barns Semley

"The Travel Book Company stocks everything for the curious voyager from children's walking books to obscure tomes on Central Asia."

Wine store tastes success in national awards

AN independent store in Sherborne has put the town ‘on the wine map’ after scooping a top national award.

Vineyards, based in the Old Yarn Mills business centre, took home the Independent Wine Retailer of the Year at the prestigious Drinks Retailing Awards, held at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

The biggest names in off-trade gathered to celebrate the event – and crown the best in the business.

And Vineyards was among them after seeing off strong

competition from fellow finalists The Good Wine Shop and Reserve Wines.

However, after sailing through the rigorous judging process, including a mystery visit and an interview with head judge and business minister Nigel Huddleston MP, they were crowned the winner.

Hannah Wilkins, along with her business partner and wife, Sadie, run the business with a trusted team of wine experts.

She said they offer ‘an extensive portfolio, an excellent personalised service,

Pop-up sites just the job for recruitment agency

A RECRUITMENT agency office in Gillingham is to close this month.

Octopus Personnel, in the High Street, is pursuing a ‘more mobile and proactive’ way of working in response to the cost-of-living crisis and the aftermath of Covid-19.

Instead of having a fixed office, the firm, founded by Sandra Smart, will host pop-up locations in Gillingham and Shaftesbury to help people in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire find jobs.

The firm has also announced

a new head office, in Radstock.

“I am excited about this next phase in Octopus Personnel’s journey,” said Octopus owner and director Sandra.

“With new challenges facing workers and employers following the pandemic and

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and a real community hub, where locals regularly enjoy tasting evenings and workshops’.

“It feels absolutely surreal to think that our little wine shop in rural Dorset has been recognised at such a level,” Hannah said.

“I started Vineyards in 2005, when I was just 24, and I’ve been in the trade 25 years, yet I can honestly say that this is a career high.

“I love great wine, I want everyone to enjoy quality wine, I’m passionate about being

independent – and to get this award in 2023, all these years later, with such fantastic national competitors, reassures me that we’re obviously doing something right.

“I’m not sure when it’s going to start to sink in though –Sherborne is definitely on the wine map now.”

Championing the off-trade market since 1863, the Drinks Retailing Awards aim to throw a spotlight on businesses that excel in product range, customer service and making drinks special.

cost-of-living crisis, we’re on a mission to find new ways of reaching people and matching them with the jobs they want.

“While we have made fantastic memories on Gillingham High Street, we are excited about the new opportunities ahead, and we will continue to be part of Gillingham and the local area.”

The pop-up locations reflect the firm’s close ties with Gillingham and Shaftesbury town councils. People looking for work and employers looking for staff will be able to visit

Octopus team members at:

n Gillingham: Chantry

Community Office, Chantry Fields, Gillingham (next to Gillingham Library), Tuesday between 1.30pm and 5.30pm, and Wednesday between 9am and 1pm.

n Shaftesbury: On Thursday, March 3, and every third Thursday from then in the Mayor’s Parlour at Shaftesbury Town Hall, 11am to 2pm. New pop-ups will be announced in spring 2023 said the firm, which recently celebrated its 15th anniversary.

Sherborne-based Vineyards won the Independent Wine Retailer of the Year prize at the prestigious Drinks Retailing Awards, held at the Dorchester Hotel in London

Staff from the Octopus Personnel, which has closed its office in (left) in High Street, Gillingham

Time to embrace Citizen Assemblies

ONLY those who have actually been in government can ever appreciate just what an extremely challenging job it is. When it’s taken seriously that is, and not just used for personal gain and self-aggrandisement by amoral attention seekers. You can probably guess who I might be thinking of there.

Government is considerably more challenging these days, partly because of our increasingly complex and divided society. We need better government, and we need it now.

Firstly, we need a voting system that allocates seats in Parliament in better proportion to the votes cast. The present ‘first past the post’ system invariably results in governments that have only been voted for by a minority of voters.

Secondly, we need better decision making. Especially when it comes to difficult issues that need urgent action. Because politicians are invariably

Ken Huggins on behalf of the Green Party in North Dorset

focussed short term, with their eyes fixed on popularity polls and impending elections, they are naturally averse to making decisions they fear might be unpopular and lose them votes. Consequently, too many vitally important decisions are being kicked down the road. Left for someone else to deal with, some other time, by when it may well

be too late to avert an unnecessary crisis.

There is a better way, tried and tested. When faced with a particular issue that needs a difficult but vital decision to be made, you put together a group of citizens broadly representative of the entire electorate. They are selected at random to represent all demographics including age, gender, education, ethnicity, location etc. You give them access to experts and all the facts they need in order to learn about every aspect of the issue. Everyone has a voice, and the group is shielded from political interference. After thorough deliberation, the group comes to an informed decision and makes its recommendations.

It is then for the elected politicians to implement those recommendations. No individual member of government has to make a decision, and no decision is based on narrow ideological beliefs.

It’s called Citizens Assemblies, and it has been used successfully in other countries to address important issues. Examples include Canada, Netherlands, Eire, France and Poland.

Here in the UK a Climate Assembly of 108 citizens was set up in January 2020 to establish how best the UK could satisfy its climate change law mandate to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050. The final report was publish in September 2020, but unfortunately the government then rowed back on its commitment to provide a comprehensive response. Consequently, the report’s impact was extremely limited, and considered to have had at best only an agenda-setting influence. An opportunity wasted. Citizens Assemblies need to be taken more seriously than that. We need better government. And we need it now.

Labour’s looking to long-term goals

IT’S great to see Keir Starmer’s five missions for a better Britain. They set out not just what Labour’s priorities in government would be, but our whole approach to governing.

Essentially Starmer wants to end short-term sticking plaster politics. A mission-driven government works relentlessly towards long-term national goals that are measurable. Let’s look at what that means.

n Labour’s first mission is to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7. We don’t just aim for a return for growth. Our mission is good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

n Secondly, to make Britain a clean energy superpower to create jobs, cut bills and boost energy security with zerocarbon electricity by 2030. I’m particularly keen to find out more about how this impacts

rural Dorset. Will we see more onshore wind and solar farms? Would you want to see that if it meant lower bills and emissions?

n Thirdly, we don’t just aim to get waiting lists down. Our mission is to build an NHS fit for the future by reforming health and care services to speed up treatment, harnessing

life sciences and technology to reduce preventable illness, and cutting health inequalities.

n Fourthly, as you’d expect, the former chief prosecutor will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. His mission is to make Britain’s streets safe by reforming the police and justice system, tackle violence against women and stop criminals getting away without punishment.

n Finally, because we are the Labour party after all, our mission is to break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage, for every child, by reforming the childcare and education systems, raising standards everywhere, and preparing young people for work and life.

What’s the most important of these? Our first mission is to grow the economy and all the other missions contribute to that bold aim. Currently growth is being hampered by low business

investment, our failure to get ahead of the game on green jobs, the fact that more than 7 million people are waiting for an NHS operation, the hoarding of power in Westminster and the knowledge that potential and life chances are not evenly spread. Together these problems reinforce each other.

The current model of governing, geared towards delivering short-term results, reacting to the day-to-day political context, simply isn’t going to meet the scale of the challenge Britain faces.

Labour will bring a fresh, collaborative approach to government. Business working with unions. The private sector working with the public sector. And partnership between national and local government.

Our missions add up to powerful modernisation of the economy, public services and government to prepare Britain for the future.

Greg Williams, on behalf of Dorset Labour

MANY people forget that Margaret Thatcher was a keen environmentalist. She was the first political leader to deliver a thought provoking speech at the United Nations. She took the issue of acid rain and CFCs seriously. She introduced fiscal carrots and sticks to support the move to unleaded petrol and the use of catalytic converters. Perhaps her most important stricture was that humans are leaseholders rather than freeholders of the earth.

Many years after, her environmental issues and the climate emergency are, and rightly so, at the forefront of most people’s minds. Caring for our world is not an optional extra. A nice to have. A debating subject. It is of vital necessity. While there are many facets to environmentalism in this article I want to focus on one because it is one that all of us can do something about – litter and flytipping.

I want you to think of our country as our body. I want you now to consider our roads, rivers and streams as our veins and arteries. Our towns, villages and woodlands as major organs. The ocean that surrounds our island as skin. With this picture in our minds I now want you to come with me and my family as we search high and low for our lost dog recently – pausing here

for a moment can I thank from the bottom of my heart everyone in North Dorset who kept an eye out and who have contacted me to offer sympathy. It has been appreciated hugely. We have a reliable Dorset Council waste collection service. Local recycling centres can accommodate larger items, green waste together with household waste etc. So we found ourselves wondering aloud why so many people seem to take so much effort to dump their rubbish in our arteries and vital organs – that is our roads, streams, towns/villages and woods – rather than use the facilities.

A woodland floor just flushing green scarred by rubbish dumped in black bags. A used sofa left at the side of the road. A fridge in the Stour. Twenty-two bags of salad left at a woodland edge. Piles of rubble, wood, pipes, old baths just left there for someone else

to come and pick up – that is even if the dumpers care what happens. Their behaviour does not suggest very much care. Punctured tyres. Fast food cartons. Fag butts.

They are the environmental equivalent of graffiti – they degrade and scar our living world. I applauded the six hardy souls I saw a few Sundays ago doing a litter pick on the main road outside Marnhull. Spick and span. The following morning yet more tossers had degraded the environment. We have to see litter not as a nuisance but for what it is –environmental vandalism. Rubbish blowing around then enters our watercourse arteries running on to pollute our ‘skin’, the ocean. As a species let us ask ourselves who the Hell do we think we are, what does it say about ourselves if we really are prepared to defecate in our own nests? Have we really become that stupid and selfish?

spirit of Ukrainian troops on Salisbury Plain

ROADS minister Richard Holden has written to me about his department’s north-south strategic study which is likely to report soon.

Richard tells me the A350 south of Warminster is unlikely to be involved.

That’s hardly surprisingly given the challenges that would pose, notably at Melbury Abbas but also at Crockerton, Longbridge Deverill, East Knoyle, the long climb up Sem Hill at Semley and Shaftesbury. However, he left open the possibility that the A36/46 through Bath or the A350 at Chippenham could be.

The former would be fascinating given the local council’s declaration of a Clean

Air Zone in Bath and its unneighbourly shunting of traffic through Westbury.

Naturally, I will oppose any move that would put more

traffic through the middle of Westbury or discommode my constituents along the way.

Well done Wiltshire Council leader Richard Clewer for standing up for Westbury and against Bath’s programme of shifting its traffic onto Wiltshire roads.

Still on roads, I’m pleased Highways England will impose a temporary 40mph limit through Chicklade for the duration of a road safety survey which will take about a year.

I hope it will be made permanent in due course to bring it in line with other settlements along the A303.

I also hope it will look at pavements in the village pending the bypass that will

attend the top to tail upgrade of the road.

That’s presently being held up by challenges over the Stonehenge stretch.

It was a privilege to meet Ukrainians training on Salisbury Plain.

They are remarkable – the youngest 18, the oldest 68.

They are extremely able, grimly determined, full of fighting spirit.

As Bonaparte said, the moral is to the physical as three is to one. That’s why they will prevail.

Thank you to UK soldiers and civilians going the extra mile to train these extraordinary people.

Slava Ukraini.

Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire

Dr Andrew Murrison

Conservative MP for North Dorset

Simon Hoare

‘Dropping litter isn’t just a nuisance, it is environmental vandalism...’

‘Fighting

is remarkable’

FOR a year now, the issues surrounding the A30 at Kitt Hill have been the bane of the lives of motorists and pedestrians in Sherborne. In the vast majority of circumstances, it would have been a quick and easy fix. But as has been clear for some time, the situation has been complicated by a multitude of complex issues and has meant this has had to drag on for far too long.

I have no direct control over our road network, unfortunately, but time and time again I use my role and influence as MP to bring the relevant parties together to expedite a solution. Ever since the start of the issue in February last year, I have been helping the very elderly residents affected to get a solution from what has been a hit and run where the council has refused to do any work other than put scaffold up.

However, finally, the good news is that we now have progress with work under way

SOME reflections on rural crime: first, in a spirit of genuine enquiry, a friend recently asked a local hunt what sort of scent it was using for the hounds to follow. ‘Do what?’, they said. No one seemed to have any idea whether or what scent was being laid.

Now, Remainers are told to get on with the future and generally toe the jolly old line because it is the law of the land, passed by a stonking majority in Parliament. Quite so. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Then, the other morning, I stopped for a coffee in a pub. I overhead a conversation whose gist was: “Those unlovely police people won’t renew my firearms licence because of my trivial convictions for driving under the influence and a couple of otherwise harmless misdemeanours. I have to keep the rabbits, deer, foxes,

to sort the wall and re-open the road in a matter, I hope, of weeks rather than months. While I often read the Lib Dem’s column in this paper looking to attack the work I do, I think the Liberal Democrats should ask why their councillor hasn’t been in touch once to help these very elderly residents and why the Sherborne West councillor lives in Exmouth in Devon rather than Sherborne – as he has done for some time.

One of the most rewarding aspects of being elected as your MP is being able to champion and act upon the key issues affecting our communities which, as someone born and brought up in West Dorset, I could see and care about deeply. And through this effort, we are now seeing the pendulum swing back our way in terms of our needs being addressed by the Government of the day. A few examples of this in the last few days alone illustrate this.

I championed and supported the £2 cap on bus fares, originally running until the end of March this year. This week, the Government announced it will extend this scheme to June 30 this year as part of a major bus recovery scheme. It is clear that for our rural bus services to be secure in the longer term, they need to see greater use now. I would urge everyone to make the most out of this initiative.

The Government also

A30 at Kitt Hill could be sorted soon Danger of Aussie and Kiwi trade deals

announced on Monday that Dorset will be rewarded an extra £4.5 million as part of the Household Support Scheme, which has now been extended to 2024, giving Dorset Council extra resources to support the most vulnerable households in our area. Only a couple of weeks before that, I stood in the House of Commons Chamber to urge the Government to up its support for local authorities such as Dorset where we have a growing number of adults reliant on social care and council support.

This, on top of the recent interventions in support of my campaigns for fuel price fairness in Bridport, for example, action to put the brakes on the short-term holiday let boom, and boost to the numbers of inpatient care beds in our hospitals, demonstrates that while I continue to apply the pressure on the Government, the results are very much showing.

buzzards and kites off my land. I shall have to use other methods.”

The danger of the Aussie and Kiwi trade deals is that they will not only cause people like this to take even more drastic measures but that they will have

a much more widespread long-term impact. These deals and continuing excess power of a small number of giant retailers could well lead to land being farmed with exploited labour and poorer environmental and welfare practices, or returned to nature or be solarised. Our food insecurity will do nothing but rise.

We have dispensed with being a part of the continentwide balancing act between the needs of consumers and the interests of producers. But, can our little island now attract the investment required to make us competitive and more selfreliant in food without detriment to standards? More cake-andeat-it double-think seems to be in the air.

Talking of rural crime, water quality remains a major concern and is hampering efforts here to build the houses that are needed. The lobbying power of just a

few powerful companies has been on show again. It is a disgrace that we are enacting potent legislation against filth on the internet but seem incapable of so doing where real sewage is concerned. There is a rottenness begotten of generations of short-term, opportunist, exploitative, visionless politics.

We are becoming increasingly like the United States. On the surface all seems normal but a peep under the covers shows a less civilised, hand-to-mouth existence for far too many. A & E becomes the GP surgery; there is no dentistry; a poor diet and its health consequences are the norm; control is the priority for teachers, the police and social services against a rising tide of violence and criminality. With a different mindset and fairer values there could be better opportunity for all.

Conservative MP for West Dorset

Chris Loder

Mike Chapman on behalf of Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale

Back from Oz and litter everywhere

I HAVE recently returned from a month in Australia and when I did it was RUBBISH – not the weather – but the amount of litter on the sides of the road.

It looks like people have just lobbed cans, bottles, wrappers etc out of their vehicles.

What sort of people do this?

We live in such a lovely county but to see it like this is so sad.

I go on a regular litter picking walk near where I live and a friend and I usually pick up a couple of carrier bags of rubbish.

Yesterday it was two black bin liners full – that was on a four-mile stretch of road.

I know Red Bull is meant to make you fly – but the empty cans do not need to fly out of the car window!

I hope someone wins the lottery soon – then perhaps they will stop scattering their losing scratch cards in the hedge.

Costa Coffee cups, crisp packets, plastic bottles, to name a few of the regular items we pick up.

None of us want our council taxes to go up or the money they have to be wasted on RUBBISH.

So please stop littering the countryside – take your debris home and put it in the bin. Simple!

Tina Doble Via email

AS a farmer I feel compelled to reply to the concerns of H Rawles in his letter referring to the ‘slaughter of hedgerows and loss of wildlife’ – New Blackmore Vale, February 17.

Firstly, there is no subsidy or financial gain from trimming hedges. We do this at our own expense. The reason behind doing so is simple. If we were to leave the hedges to grow wild in their natural state, they would become tall, thin and spindly very quickly.

They lose the thick base which affords much protection for birds and wildlife, particularly the nesting birds

who would be much more easily accessed by predators. They also become completely un-stockproof which means they then must have a manmade fence put around the field inside them to keep the livestock in.

A correctly trimmed hedge will encourage inward growth which in turn provides a nice thick home for the wildlife and a proper enclosure for stock.

Sometimes we will all see a hedge which has been left for too long and then been rather brutally trimmed. It is quite unsightly for that year but, if you look the following year, it will have improved it.

We are not in the business of destroying natural habitat, in fact, we strive for the opposite result.

C Mayo Hermitage

NO doubt many residents of Gillingham have noticed the barriers in High Street at the intersection where it meets Barnaby Mead.

These barriers are protecting a small hole in the road measuring a foot square.

They have been there since before Christmas and SGN is the culprit.

I have spoken to them three times, had one reply but no action.

I have also contacted Gillingham Town Council and written one letter. The hole is still there.

Initially SGN said it had forgotten about the hole, but the work would be done within five working days. That was on February 7. How long does it take to repair one small hole?

And we wonder what has gone wrong with this country!

I hope it will be repaired in time for the Gillingham Carnival Parade in October. We’ll see.

Ron Lambert Gillingham

with Canon Woods – New Blackmore Vale, February 17 – that the Church of England’s recent stance on same-sex ‘marriage’ is a complete fudge that will satisfy no-one, his illustration from Scripture is misleading and unhelpful.

He compares same-sex couples with Christian beliefs seeking a Christian marriage currently being denied what they request to those being offered stones instead of bread, or a snake instead of fish.

This reference to a passage from Matthew’s gospel –chapter 7, verses 9 and 10 – is hardly applicable.

Jesus is referring to the importance of persistence in prayer to His Father, God, and never giving up.

Such earnestness is entirely laudable but the requests must be in line with God’s will revealed in Scripture.

Jesus clearly affirms the Old Testament law on sexual morality that God’s plan for marriage, and sexual relations, is for a lifelong, exclusive, committed, loving relationship between one man and one woman.

No amount of prayer can persuade God to bless what He has prohibited and is outside His declared design for humanity.

Canon Woods is right to denounce the decision to bless same-sex couple’s relationships as a fudge.

The Church of England, instead of taking the lead on the issue which it has sadly abdicated, should follow other Christian churches and indeed the overwhelming majority of its own Communion in the Global South, and emphatically reject any change to its doctrine on marriage.

Ted Winter Gillingham

IN reply to Green Party columnist Ken Huggins – New Blackmore Vale,

would like to remind him that he, or his relatives, might one day be in an emergency ambulance rushing to hospital but held up by the actions of a few naive, selfish protesting individuals.

I support the right to protest but not at the expense of other people’s busy working lives.

If I had my way the protesters would be fined £5,000 and the bailiff would be sent in if they did not pay.

During the recent spell of cold weather wind turbines apparently contributed just ten per cent to the power grid. In dull wet weather solar panels do not contribute much either.

The protesters are the kind of people who drive cars and expect, when they go home, to put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea and for the electricity to flow regardless of how it is generated.

Why don’t these protesters and others turn their attention to the ballooning world population?

At present it is about eight billion. By the end of the century it is estimated to be 15 billion. Someone has calculated the world can cope with 3.75 billion people.

Until another power source comes along, the simple fact is we will need more oil and gas for years to come.

Supplies could well run out before the end of the century. Then what happens? Answers, on a postcard please, to the Green Party columnist.

J L Mulley Sherborne

I WAS disappointed to read the headline ‘Special Care for Dementia Sufferers’ – New Blackmore Vale, February 17 –about a dementia awareness session that Dementia Friendly Gillingham ran in Hazelbury Bryan.

It is no longer acceptable to talk about people diagnosed with dementia as ‘suffering with dementia’.

Dementia organisations have constantly put the message across that we should all start thinking about how we address a person diagnosed with dementia, and it is especially important that all media outlets should use the phrase ‘living with dementia’ not ‘suffering with dementia’.

What would you rather be, ‘living’ with something or ‘suffering’ with something?

Roughly one New Blackmore Vale reader in every 11 is likely to be diagnosed with some form of dementia, and it is important to respect all those people affected by this disease.

Therefore a magazine such as yours should give the right message to its readers.

Anne Kings Dementia Friendly Gillingham

n The New Blackmore Vale thanks Anne for drawing this issue to our attention and will take on board her point in relation to future articles.

IT was with amusement and slight envy that I read the New Blackmore Vale reader’s letter – February 3 edition – which criticised Chris Loder’s attempt to address issues of concern in his West Dorset constituency.

It was not whether this criticism was correct and deserved, but that the issues being highlighted by Mr Loder are the true concerns of his constituents.

The fact is, at least they have someone who cares about the area he represents.

On the other hand, living in the North Dorset constituency, we have Simon Hoare.

We are treated consistently to a regurgitation of the Conservative national party line and general issues in the country.

Issues we are all fully aware of as we are constantly being reminded on television, the internet and national newspapers.

We never seem to know what Simon Hoare MP is doing for our community or the important issues he proposes to address at

a local level.

Perhaps Simon will become more focused on the up-andcoming local elections and not too distant General Election.

Jonathan Evans Buckhorn Weston

THE wilful blindness of Simon Hoare’s piece – New Blackmore Vale, February 3 – beggars belief.

The first four paragraphs praise state education and in particular the role schools played during and since Covid-19. His admiration seems to be for the institutions.

He uses the pronoun ‘they’ five times in two paragraphs, presumably so he does not have to acknowledge that it was the teachers who were so generously giving of their time and potentially sacrificing their health, not some abstract organisation, while most of us were able to follow the Government’s advice and stay at home.

After this he makes the bizarre jump to telling us how appalled he is by most teachers whose actions he now ‘deplores’.

Surely somewhere in his head it must occur to him that there are deep-seated reasons why those who ‘best understand the importance of education’ have been forced to take action?

But no, all we are treated to is how he was able to step in when he was an A-level student to teach younger students, so no one missed out. Amazing.

He then goes on to list areas that might be affected without seeming to realise that some of these groups are also taking strike action.

Mr Hoare, a little humility goes a long way.

Some acknowledgment that there are genuine grievances and that state education has been poorly served over these past 12 years just might help.

He may be interested to know that most teachers – not his selected few – have taken strike action as a last resort.

The Government, his party and indeed he must take his

share of the blame.

I would urge him and his party to think again. As he says, our children – and their families – really do deserve better.

David Cohen Shaftesbury

IN the article written by Ruth Kimber – New Blackmore Vale, February 3 – ‘Dog Owners Must Control Their Pets’, she says: “Multiple dogs can turn into packs and can chase and kill as part of their natural pack behaviour.”

This also applies to the behaviour of hunting dogs – in fact, more so, as they are bred and trained to behave in this way.

While farmers in hunting areas are often forewarned about a hunt’s presence, and many have agreements with hunts for their land to be used and so keep their livestock housed during those outings, many are not, have not and do not.

Likewise, farms which neighbour these areas.

In recent weeks, I am aware of one hunt chasing a heavily pregnant ewe which died as a result, and the death of another heavily pregnant ewe elsewhere, found by a farmer after a hunt had trespassed on his land.

It is a sad omission to focus solely on dog walkers who, of course, should take responsibility for controlling their dogs, while failing to mention hunts which regularly lose control of their dogs and cause terror and the death of livestock.

What would have happened if the hounds had found a fox –how would people explain that to their children?

Considering the recent national news coverage of another West Country hunt, you would think they might want to show a little more awareness and allow families to enjoy this beautiful area in peace.

Amanda Fox

Via email

I WAS interested in the article about the decision deferred by the council on charging second homeowners full council tax.

The sum involved was estimated at £9.5 million. I was appalled as the deadline is getting very near.

Dorset Council seems very quick at making decisions when it wants to, for example, bringing in Universal Credit long before it was obliged to, parking charges and no cash parking.

What can there be to discuss? If the properties are holiday lets their charges are so high –£1,000 a week is not unusual –the owners can afford it and if they are kept for the family, by definition it can be afforded.

It is hardly fair that someone on minimum wage renting a one-bedroom accommodation in a desirable holiday area pays £1,000 a month and full council tax, and a second home only half.

Nothing shows more about our utterly divided society than the massive growth in second homes, in areas where there is just about no affordable housing.

As an aside, I believe the cost-of-living grants can go to second homes as well.

I WAS shocked to read that the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt met in South Cadbury on February 16 and were seen on the lower slopes of Cadbury Castle.

It was half-term and Cadbury Castle, a scheduled monument, is popular with local people and tourists for its lovely walks and wonderful views of the surrounding countryside.

The council is supposed to act for all its residents, 62% , by its own figures, who are low earners. Where is the justice?

My comment to a friend 15 years ago that half the world will have two houses and half the world will live in cardboard boxes, seems truer by the minute.

D. Garner Blandford Forum

Treasure trove of Dorset music

DORSET music group The Ridgeway Singers & Band, led by Phil Humphries and Tim Laycock, have collaborated with the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester to bring to life traditional music, folk songs and carols from the collections hidden in their archives. Their findings will be performed in a special Dorset Music Unboxed concert in Blandford this weekend as part of Artsreach’s county-wide events programme.

Among the musical manuscripts held by the history centre are those of William Knapp, an important Dorset

musician of the 18th century who composed the well-known hymn tune Wareham.

One of Knapp’s pieces being performed in this concert was dedicated to Blandford after a huge fire destroyed most of the town in 1731.

Works from the music book of Benjamin Rose will also feature in the programme. Rose was a farmer and alehouse keeper from Belchalwell, near Okeford Fitzpaine, who wrote down a collection of catchy country dance tunes from his time (1820).

Further songs will be taken from the Hammond

manuscripts, which contain almost 700 folk songs collected in Dorset by the Hammond brothers between 1905 and 1908.

Dorset Music Unboxed! is at

Blandford Parish Church on Saturday, March 4, at 4pm. Further information and tickets are available from 01258 480698 and online at www. artsreach.co.uk

The perfect couple and life-changing secrets

BITTERSWEET romantic comedy The Swearing Jar is full of heartbreak, humour and songs – and is coming to Dorset next week.

It won best of the fringe at the Toronto Fringe Festival on its première in Canada in 2008, and outstanding new play at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2010. A film adaptation of Kate Hewlett’s play was then released in 2022.

Now, this spring, New Perspectives artistic director Angharad Jones directs the

UK premiere of the play, which is coming to Dorset with Artsreach, the county’s touring arts charity.

Finding one true soulmate is fortunate. Finding two, life becomes complicated. Meet husband and wife, Simon and Carey – the perfect couple. He has some news to share but she gets in first with a jar. The swearing must stop. They are having a baby!

When Carey enlists the help of a new musician friend to throw a birthday concert

Love letter to sobriety –down at the village pub

STORYTELLING and song

come together when Callum Patrick Hughes heads to The Gaggle of Geese in Buckland Newton this weekend.

Thirst is his hit show about love – love of pubs, love of community, love of family and a reminder that not everything you love is necessarily good for you.

The 27 Club is an informal list mostly of popular musicians, artists, actors and other celebrities who died at age 27, and in July 2018, two months before his 28th birthday, Callum nearly joined that list and was forced to discover who he is

without looking through the bottom of a bottle.

The audience will join the acclaimed writer and performer for a riotous, warm and musical journey from a small Oxfordshire town, through Beijing’s Hutongs and the

for her husband life-changing secrets of their past emerge.

The Swearing Jar is at Sydling St Nicholas village hall – phone 01300 341777 – on Friday, March 10, at 7.30pm and Sturminster Marshall village hall – phone 07903 057427 – on Saturday, March 11, at 7.30pm.

The production is suitable for audiences aged 15-plus.

More information and tickets are available online at www.artsreach.co.uk

Scottish Highlands, to the bright lights of the ‘Big Smoke’.

Thirst is a love letter to sobriety and a celebration of all things alcoholic – exploring life, family, theatre, religion and the positivity of the pub and how creating a community under the roof of your nearest watering hole doesn’t have to involve alcohol.

Hughes is performing at The Gaggle of Geese on Sunday, March 5, with Artsreach, Dorset’s touring arts charity. More details, including booking information, are available at www.artsreach. co.uk

GUITARIST Dean Carter will be playing material at the CD launch of his album Songs Without Words/Towards Tomorrow in a free event at The Beat & Track Record Store in Sherborne tomorrow (Saturday, March 4) from 2pm.

The Ridgeway Singers and Band are at Blandford Parish Church

Storyteller Callum Patrick Hughes

Lothario is shot – but who did it?

MURDER mystery is coming to the Swan Theatre in Yeovil later this month with Agatha Christie’s The Hollow.

An unhappy game of romantic followthe-leader explodes into murder one weekend at The Hollow, home of Sir Henry and Lucy Angkatell, arguably Christie’s finest comic grande dame.

Harley Street lothario Dr Cristow is at

Journey into French music

FIFI La Mer and Oliver Wilby promise an exciting and uplifting insight into 100 years of French Music when they visit Dorset.

Their acclaimed show features the dulcet tones of chanteuse Fifi on accordion, and Oliver on clarinet, members of the saxophone family and accordion.

Together they take audiences

the centre of the trouble alongside his dull but devoted wife Gerda, his mistress and prominent sculptor Henrietta, and his former lover and Hollywood film star Veronica. The romantic assertions of fellow visitors Edward and Midge are also thrown into the mix.

As the list of romantic associations grows, so does the list of potential suspects

when Dr Cristow is shot dead.

Nearly everyone has a motive and one of them did the deed – but who?

The Swan Theatre Company’s production of The Hollow runs from Monday, March 13, to Saturday, March 18, at 7.45pm. Tickets priced £12.50 are available from www.swan-theatre.co.uk or the box office on 07500 376031.

Rhyming tales of a farmer’s wife

CASTLE Cary farmer’s wife

Margaret Adams has entertained women’s institutes, gardening clubs, farming groups and the like around the South-West for decades with amusing ditties about life as a farmer’s wife.

Now Margaret, who is in her 80s, has been persuaded to put them down in written form

in Living with the Boss, which makes for an amusing read and captures a fastdisappearing lifestyle of small-scale farming in Somerset.

The illustrated collection rhyming ditties is available from Bailey Hill Book Shop, Castle Cary, priced £5 with profits going to the Market House project.

Mechanic’s paintings help good causes

by Nicci Brown

PAINTINGS by the late Michael Wells of Tarrant Rushton went on show in an exhibition at Tarrant Keyneston village hall.

Mike, who died in November last year, was a popular resident of the Tarrant Valley for most of his life, and a much-loved motorcycle enthusiast and member of the Bournemouth Norton Owners Club, which meets at the True Lovers Knot in Tarrant Keyneston, and Dorset Nomads.

A mechanic by trade, he worked for Flight Refuelling/ Cobham in Wimborne and, when Parkinson’s Disease brought his paid employment to a close, since 2012 for the Disability Action Group (DAG)

in Blandford.

During the pandemic, he began painting pictures for friends and family in aid of Parkinson’s UK, raising about £5,000 for the charity with more than 100 images of people, motorbikes and pets.

The pictures were taken

along to the village hall by their owners in celebration of Mike’s life and talent.

A collection was made for Parkinson’s UK, DAG and the Odstock Hospice at Salisbury where he spent the last nine weeks of his life after being diagnosed with cancer.

Top class jazz at church

ART Themen, one of the UK’s best jazz saxophonists, is bringing his group to St Andrew’s Church, Donhead St Andrew, to share his inimitable interpretations of jazz classics.

Art was recently awarded the Musicians Livery Company’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to jazz in the UK.

He is performing on Saturday, March 11, from 7pm. and tickets, including supper, are £18 and £9 for those in full-time education.

To book tickets visit www. eventbrite.co.uk

Events in St Andrew’s Church’s community programme support external charities and proceeds of the jazz supper will help the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Paintings by the late Michael Wells on display in Tarrant Keyneston

• Lower Stour Benefice: Church services for March. Sunday, March 5 – 10.45am, Together Communion –Langton Long. Sunday, March 12 – 9.30am, Communion –Blandford St Mary; 11am Family Service – Tarrant Keyneston; 11am Communion – Langton Long. Sunday, March 19 – 9.30am, Communion –Spetisbury; 9.30am, Family Service – Charlton Marshall; 11am Morning Worship –Langton Long; 11am, Communion – Tarrant Rushton. Sunday, March 26 – 9.30am, Communion – Charlton Marshall; 9.30am, Morning Worship – Spetisbury; 11am, Communion – Langton Long; 11am Communion(BCP) –Tarrant Rushton. Coffee and cake – Spetisbury 10-11:30am, March 6 and 20; coffee and cake – Blandford St Mary 10am-11.30am, March 16; coffee stop – Charlton Marshall Parish Centre 10.30am12.30pm, Tuesday to Friday. Every Thursday, Morning Prayer by Zoom, 9am. Contact Jane Griffin for more information.

• Friends of Holnest Church: Annual meeting on Wednesday, March 8, at 7.30pm at Glanvilles Wootton village hall (DT9 5QF).

• Lent lunches: In aid of Medecins Sans Frontieres and Alzheimer’s Society –Thursdays, 12.30-2pm: March 2

– Village Hall, Semley; March 9

– St John’s, Charlton; March 16

– St Andrew’s, Donhead St Andrew; March 23 – St Mary’s, East Knoyle.

• St Mary’s Stalbridge:

Sunday, March 5 – Family Service 9.30am; Sunday, March 12– Holy Communion 9.30am; Sunday, March 19– Morning Worship 9.30am.

• West Camel Independent Methodists: Meet at All Saints Church BA22 7QB, Sunday, March 5, 4pm – ‘Tea @Four’. A warm welcome to all. Phone 01935 850838 or email Geoff. mead@yahoo.com

• Bell Street United Church, Shaftesbury: Everyone is welcome to join in the World

Day of Prayer, led by members of different churches, on Friday, March 3, at 11am. Christians throughout the world will pray using the same service, which for 2023 has been prepared by the women of Taiwan. Everyone is welcome to join in this simple act of worship. The service is in the Shearer Room – use the entrance in Bell Street. For more information, visit www. wwdp.org.uk, which also gives details of other venues.

• Anglican High Mass at Wimborne St Giles: First Sunday of each month at 11am. BH21 5LZ.

• Blandford Methodist Church: Sundays 10.45am –You are warmly invited to our services followed by refreshments. Thursdays

10am-noon – everyone is welcome to our ‘warm space’ for coffee and chat. Fridays noon – you are invited to our lunch club for the over-55s at £5 per meal; phone Joyce Wild on 07817 505543 to book. We are anxious to offer help to all those in need. If this is you, please call me or leave your message including your name and contact details. John Cornish, church steward –phone 07799 516735.

• Chalbury Church: Fourth Sunday of the month, 10.30am Holy Communion.

• Cheap Street Church, Sherborne, Taize Services: Half an hour of prayer, meditation and music, second Sunday of the month at 6.30pm. Everyone welcome. This informal, ecumenical service is based on the Taize Community’s worship founded by Br Roger in the 1940s in Burgundy, France, and now attracts thousands of young people each summer. Taize music has become part of the worshipping life of churches worldwide. For more details email vicarlesley@outlook.com

• Churches in The Donheads, Charlton, East Knoyle, Semley and Sedgehill: A team of friendly people are available to offer home visits. Contact Revd. Kate at rector@ benofbart.org.uk, 01747

830174.

• Gillingham Methodist Church: Sunday recitals 3pm (about one hour). Admission free, retiring collection. Superb two manual William Sweetland organ restored and enlarged in 2006/2009. Video screen. For details and updates visit the website at www.musicatgmc. org.uk or phone 07817 379006.

• Hinton Martell: Second Sunday of the month, 10.30am Holy Communion.

• Horton Church: First Sunday of the month, 10.30am Holy Communion.

• Horton & Chalbury village hall: Third Sunday of the month, 9am Breakfast Church.

• Kingston Lacy: Second Sunday of the month, 9.15am Holy Communion. Fourth Sunday of the month, 9.15am Family Service.

• Our Lady’s RC Church, Marnhull: Mass Sunday, 9.30am and 6pm.

• Shaftesbury Quakers (Society of Friends): Meets for one hour each Sunday from 10.30am at the Quaker Meeting House, Abbey Walk, Shaftesbury SP7 8BB.

• Sherborne Abbey: Monday to Saturday, 8.30am Morning Prayer; The Sepulchre Chapel. Mondays, 9am CW Holy Communion; The Lady Chapel. Tuesday, noon CW Holy Communion; The Lady Chapel. Wednesday, 10.30am Holy Communion with Homily; The Lady Chapel (alternates CW and BCP). Thursday, noon BCP Holy Communion; The Lady Chapel. Friday, 9am Ecumenical Holy Communion; The Lady Chapel. First Friday of the month, 9am Requiem Holy Communion; The Sepulchre Chapel. Third Friday of the month, 11am Remembering the Fallen. Saturday, 9am CW Holy Communion; The Sepulchre Chapel.

• St Bartholomew’s Benefice: A warm place and a warm welcome at community cafes held every month – first Tuesday – St Andrew’s, Donhead St Andrew; second Tuesday – St John’s, Charlton;

fourth Tuesday – St Mary’s, East Knoyle. Everyone is welcome 10.30am-noon.

• St Benedict’s RC Church, Gillingham: Sunday, 11am.

• Sacred Heart, Tisbury, and All Saints’ Wardour Catholic Parish: Sunday Mass times –Sacred Heart, Tisbury 9am, coffee after Mass; All Saints’ Wardour 11am.

• St Mary’s, Sturminster Newton: First and third Sunday, 11am Holy Communion; 6pm BCP Evensong. Second and fourth Sunday, 9.30am Morning Prayer; 6pm BCP Evensong. Fifth Sunday, 11am Benefice Holy Communion. Wednesdays, 10am BCP Holy Communion.

• St Peter’s, Hinton St Mary: First, second and third Sundays, 9.30am Morning Prayer. Fourth Sunday, 9.30am Holy Communion.

• St Thomas’, Lydlinch: Second and fourth Sunday, 11am Holy Communion. Third Sunday, 6pm Evensong.

• Shapwick: Third Sunday of the month, 9.15am Holy Communion.

• Sherborne Quakers: Meet Sundays 10.30am in the Griffiths Room, Digby Memorial Church Hall. Everyone welcome.

• Witchampton Church: Third Sunday of the month, 10.30am Holy Communion..

• Exeter Cathedral: Saying Goodbye Remembrance Service on Saturday, March 4, at 11.30am. A service for anyone who has lost a baby in pregnancy, at birth or in early years, whether the loss was yesterday or 80 years ago. This event is also for those grieving that they have never been able to conceive. Visit www. sayinggoodbye.org

Every Sunday 8am and 10am Deadline to place your advert is the Friday before publication.

Winning bag pushes 20lb in winter series

by Bill Hanson

ANGLERS fishing in the fourth and fifth rounds of Sturminster & Hinton Angling Association’s winter series had by far and away the best winter results they have seen in years.

Round 4 was held on the river at Colber with 12 anglers taking part. The river was very clear but fished extremely well.

Steve Harvey was pegged on the bend above Edwin’s Boathouse and was immediately into fish after putting groundbait in on the 13-metre line.

A run of skimmers to just over a pound came from fishing double maggot over the feed and he caught roach consistently from then on finishing up with 19lb 7oz.

Jack Stamp was between the white bridge and the railway and put together a mixed bag of roach, rudd and perch. The perch were caught on worm

Winner by an ounce

by Simon Hebditch

ANGLING

over chopped worm on the inside and made up most of his 18lb 14oz total weight.

There were three section prizes and the one upstream of the railway bridge went to Neil McPhillemy with 11lb of waggler-caught roach.

In the middle section Simon Dennis had 14lb of mainly perch caught the same way as Jack.

The lower end section went to Dean Walters with 17lb 3oz, about half of which was rudd caught shallow, the rest being caught on the standard method of maggot/pinkie over groundbait.

On a bright day with a moderate wind and clear water, expectations were not at their highest for the 12 anglers who fished the fifth round of the club winter series at Colber.

The Postman delivers as Rockies win on the road

Alresford Town 1

Shaftesbury 2

SHAFTESBURY faced rock bottom Alresford Town at Arlebury Park on Saturday, the home side having had a season of turmoil but now rejuvenated under new management.

Rockies took the lead with a header from Sam Lanahan in the 11th minute as Sam Bayston beat his man and the ball deflected into the box, with Ash Pope also key in the press.

Alresford levelled six

FOOTBALL

by Avril Lancaster

minutes into the second half through Nathan Whittaker.

Substitute Aiden Shepherd, known as the Postman, delivered with a 65th minute finish from Luke Delaney’s through ball to win the game.

Harry Bunce, on a dual registration from Bashley, had an impressive debut.

Bunce scored 16 times for the New Forest side in their promotion season.

GOLF RESULTS

WINCANTON Golf Club. Seniors Bowmaker – February 14. Winners: Harry Eden/Simon Lenton/Chris Dibben 72 points.

Monthly medal – February 19. Jim Phillips nett 67, David Whitehand nett 70 ocb, Maxine Portnell nett 70.

Seniors Monthly Medal – February 21. Chris Mieville nett 69, Phil Francis nett 71, Steven Ireland nett 72.

But it fished extremely well considering the conditions, including four double figure weights.

First on the day was Jeff Sibley pegged opposite Edwin’s Boathouse who fished the seven-metre whip with maggot and pinkie over small nuggets of groundbait and finished with 14lb 3oz of small roach and rudd.

Second, from the peg above Jeff, was Simon Dennis who fished the usual tactics of full depth rig with maggot and pinkie over groundbait, but found a 4lb tench to boost his weight to 12lb 5oz.

There were two section prizes, above the white bridge went to Dean Walters with a mixed bag of roach, skimmers and perch for 8lb 6oz, and below was Bill Hanson’s 10lb 8oz of roach with two small skimmers.

GILLINGHAM AA’S Dave Hillier Memorial Upper Stour Open on the River Stour between Highbridge and Catholics had 23 pegs.

The river looked to be in condition but bright sunshine put paid to any big weights with chub the mainstay of catches.

Winner was Clive Pettifer (Gillingham AA) who caught three chub on the stick and maggots and three Chub on the feeder to weigh 12-09.

Runner-up, and an agonising ounce behind, was Richard Cake (Gillingham AA), who caught a couple of chub on the float before adding a further four on the feeder to weigh 12-08

Other places went to: 3 Dave Sealey (Gillingham AA) 11-07; 4 Jason Twining Glaston Manor) 8-07; 5 James Kiernan 6-05; 6 Jason Mills 6-001.

This concluded the river matches for this year with the spring series starting in March.

Shaftesbury travelled to Arlebury Park to play Alresford Town

Sport

Mixed competition win for Jennie and Paul

WINNERS of Sherborne Golf Club’s annual mixed winter competition were Jennie Grinter and Paul Bodle.

The unique competition takes place over seven rounds with participants competing with a different player each time.

Players’ best five scores go into the team pot and the final round is played with their original partner.

GOLF

n

Mixed fortunes for North Dorset

Yeovil 1st XV 19

NDRFC 1st XV 13

NDRFC 2nd XV 25

Melksham 1st XV 12

RESULTS have been mixed over the last two weeks for North Dorset Rugby Club. They put out three teams on the weekend of February 25 and the 1st XV went down 13-19 against Yeovil in what was a tight affair.

Prop Jaime Bettesworth scored North’s only try and Tom Stewart, Gritchie Brewing Company man of the match, added six points with the boot.

Meanwhile, back at Slaughtergate, the 2nd XV put

by Andrew Wallace Clune

Melksham to the sword 25-12 with Lewis Munster scoring a hat-trick of tries, and Dave Allen and Zak Peacock also crossing the whitewash.

The Gritchie Brewing Company man of the match went to Gavin Weeks.

The 3rd XV were also at home and accounted for Wimborne 3rd XV comfortably with colts Fergus Neale, Jake Walters, Jake King, Kieron Perry and Christian Willets all getting their first taste of senior rugby against the Black & Whites.

Swanage & Wareham 1st XV

24 NDRFC 1st XV 31

LAST weekend the 1st XV travelled to Swanage & Wareham and the small but boisterous crowd were treated to a great day of running rugby.

North took an early lead through a try to flanker Henry Lunn with Tom Stewart converting, followed by a try to Jake Cannings which was also converted.

Swans hit back with a try of their own before Lewis Munster scored two tries, showing his pace on both occasions. Both tries were converted.

Swans nearly closed the gap and with seven minutes left

were within four points, but a pressured penalty kick from Tom Steward sealed the match in favour of the visitors.

Strong games from Henry Lunn, Mindaugas Kazlauskas and Charlie Jobling saw North making ground regularly while out wide Cannings, Stewart and Munster proved a constant handful.

Australian fly-half Rylie Lewis was the Gritchie Brewing Company man of the match, while Henry Dimmack played his last game for the 1st XV and finished the season as he started it, receiving the Wilhelm Von Dasspiel Perpetual Challenge Shield.

Jurassic Singles ladder set to get under way

THE Jurassic Singles Tennis Ladder, now in its sixth year, will start at the beginning of April.

The competition has gone from strength to strength with more than 40 competitors playing 350-plus matches last summer, with prize money paid to those finishing in the top four.

The area for matches is roughly a seven-mile radius of Dorchester with matches played at tennis clubs, village courts and town parks, including Borough Gardens in Dorchester.

Weymouth Tennis Club coach Clive Stow is co-

TENNIS

organising again with Matt Barrett.

Clive said one of the best ways tennis players can improve their game is by competing on the ladder and the informal structure where players can contact each other and play up to four places above or below makes it easy to organise.

The entry fee of £10 remains the same as last year. For more information contact Clive on 07484 186761 or at jurassictennisladder@gmail. com

RUGBY

Vice-captain Russell Mead (centre) is pictured presenting the Winter Sheppard Trophy to Jennie and Paul.

SHERBORNE Ladies Golf, Ladies Bowmaker. 1 C. MacIntosh /S. McVie/A. Peel 74; 2 J. Whelan / C. Brown / C. Beaumont 66; 3 P. Rawlins / J. Towers / F. Collins 65.

John Samuelson (left), last year’s Jurassic Singles runner-up, and winner Kaiese Brown. Kaiese won the final 6-4 6-2

Arrow words

9 Suffer stoically (4,3,4,2)

10 Openly (8)

Feeling Great

Down

3 Finally understands (8)

2 Greek letter after upsilon (3)

4 Walk like a baby (6)

3 Finally understands (8)

5

4 Walk like a baby (6)

5 Mined rocks (4)

6 In respect of (2,7)

7 Wide open in amazement (5)

8 Excessively theatrical (5)

11 Converted, as in faith (4-5)

13 Parasol (8)

16 Maxim (5)

17 Inhaler target (6)

18 Enumerate (5)

21 Busy doing nothing (4)

23 Mourn; repent (3)

9 3 7 6 8 8 4 6 5 5 6 9 7 1 3 2 8 6

British classic cars are all-white!

TWO white 1970s British sports car are to be entered in Charterhouse’s specialist auction of vintage and classic cars on Thursday, March 9, at Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford.

Richard Bromell, from Charterhouse, said: “There are over 50 classic and vintage cars in all shapes, sizes, values, conditions and colours in the auction.

“However, for me, there are two cool-looking white British sports cars, a Lotus Elan convertible and a Triumph GT6, which I would like to drive home in.”

Both are in great condition and painted in the perennially popular car colour of white.

First up is the 1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE convertible. Bought by the owner in 2016 from a specialist Lotus dealer, this is now ready for some summer fun and is estimated at £20,000-

£25,000.

That car is followed by the 1973 Triumph GT6. It was owned by a family until purchased by the ven-dor as a project in 2006.

The car is now fully restored, costing more than £10,000, and is ready to be enjoyed once again. It is estimated at £12,000-£15,000.

Viewing for the auction is on Wednesday, March 8, from 9.30am-4.30pm. Viewing is also on auction day, Thursday, March 9, from 9.30am with the sale starting at noon.

Alternatively, all the lots can be seen at www.charterhouseauction.com where live bidding is also available.

Richard Bromell and the team at Charterhouse, The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne, Dorset, are available for help and valuations on 01935 812277 or via cars@ charterhouse-auction.com

Wednesday 8th March 9.30-4.30

Thursday 15th Medals, Militaria, Coins & Stamps Friday 16th Asian Ceramics & Works of Art

Car Auction 11th November

The 1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE convertible (above) is estimated

£12,000£15,000

Four collections of model vehicles

CLARKE’S Auctions at Semley is preparing for its March sale on Friday and Saturday, March 10 and 11, with about 700-1,000 lots on offer.

Viewing is on the Wednesday and Thursday before the sale days from 9am-5pm – a colour catalogue can be found at the-saleroom.com and easyliveauction.com

Four private consignments of model cars, commercial vehicles, trains and military vehicles are for sale with models varying in size from 1:12 scale Pocher Rolls-Royce to 1:43 scale Italian Best Ferrari 750 Monza.

Most of the collections have been amassed over several years and are all boxed, and the usual model manufacturers are covered including Matchbox, Corgi, Maisto and Brumm.

Treasures from a true connoisseur

A beautifully hand-painted Berlin porcelain Napoleonic rectangular plaque titled ‘Les Premiers Pas Du Roi De Rome’ is also for sale.

Painted after the French artist Jules Girardet, it depicts Napoleon and his son, called The King of Rome, taking his first steps, with his father seated on a bench, and attended by mother Marie-Louise and another maiden.

This is estimated at £100-£200.

For entries into any of Clarke’s forthcoming sales or enquiries for consignment, probate or insurance valuations, part or full house clearances phone Richard Clarke or Karen Marshall on 01747 855109 at the main offices at Kingsettle Business Park, Station Road, Semley, Shaftesbury.

Clarke’s Auctions

Antiques & Collectibles Sale

Friday 10th & Saturday 11th March

Viewing

A selection of staddles stones to be offered.

Estimates from £50 – £100

Colour catalogue available at the-saleroom.com and easyliveauction.com

DUKE’S is honoured to have been instructed to sell the late Anthony and Judith du Boulay’s private collection.

Anthony was a leading authority on Chinese porcelain, but he had the ‘eye’ of a true connoisseur and a passion for pieces he found to be beautiful – from an early St Cloud vase to an Old Master of the Madonna.

His collection features rare porcelains, fine furniture and paintings with impeccable provenance, including Henry Hirsch, the Hon Stephen Tennant and King Umberto I of Italy.

A superb pair of paintings attributed to Vincenzo Chilone (1758-1839) depicting The Piazza St Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, with a Pope and a Doge appearing to the people on a balcony, and the companion

painting of the Gateway to the Arsenal, were bought at auction in New York in 1978. Duke’s expect them to sell for between £30,000 and £50,000.

The auction on Wednesday, March 8, presents an opportunity to acquire a treasured possession from the du Boulay’s home in Dorset. Viewing begins on Saturday, March 4, at Duke’s Dorchester salerooms.

A pair of paintings attributed to Vincenzo Chilone (1758-1839) is for sale at Duke’s

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Thursday 30th March

Jewellery, Silver & Watches

Friday 31st March

ACREMAN St Auctioneers & Valuers had an exciting two-day sale with many items exceeding their estimates.

Lots included an antique carved coquille nut snuff box in the form of a sailor, sold for£550; a 1766 George III shagreen cased set of three silver tea caddies, £3,600; an antique gold fancy chain, £550; and a Dutch marquetry inlaid longcase clock, £5,200.

Acreman also sold another 40-plus lots on behalf of the New Breast Cancer Unit Appeal totalling £4,500.

The firm this year will be holding specialist sales of Coins & Banknotes, Stamps, Ephemera, Postcards & Photographs, Oriental, Militaria & Textiles, Fashion & Apparel. Acreman can take in

everything from single items to complete collections.

A spokesperson for the firm said: “If you are downsizing or need to deal with a whole house we are happy to help with advice or valuations and are able to arrange a full house clearance at competitive rates.

“We are also very happy to make house visits if required.”

Anyone who has anything they would like to consign can contact Gill Norman on 07908 333577 or 01935 50874 or by email at auction@ acremanstreetantiques.co.uk

Valuation days are held every Wednesday 10am-4pm – free valuations are offered on items being considered for auction at Acreman Auction, 121 Acreman Street, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3PH.

Catalogue available

to view through Saleroom.com & Easyliveauction.com We are now

Good prices in two-day sale

More to gladioli than Dame Edna!

by Sally Gregson

IN many people’s minds gladioli will forever be associated with the gloriously daft Dame Edna Everage.

Every performance ended with sheaves of the flowers thrown individually onto the audience amid shrieks of laughter. It’s probably not the best form of publicity, and perhaps has contributed to the lessening popularity of growing gladioli.

However, there are different species of glads out there, just waiting to grow in a sunny patch in everyone’s gardens. And early spring is just the right time to plant the corms.

Place them on a bed of sharp sand in fertile but well-drained soil at a depth of 10-16cm deep. The sand will drain the excess moisture away from the base of each corm.

They flower best in full sun. Here in the south of England there is no need to lift the species gladioli for winter if they are grown in well-drained soil.

Some forms have very different flowers: G. papilio resembles Dame Edna’s glads the

least. It bears utterly beautiful flowers with hooded buff-purple and green petals with feathered purple and gold markings inside. They do need a warm spot where they enjoy a modicum of moisture without becoming waterlogged.

But. They can be quite shy-flowering and so have not become as popular as perhaps they should.

Some years ago, at the beautiful garden at Hadspen House, long before The Newt was in existence, the late Nori and Sandra Pope selected a totally novel bi-specific cross between G. papilio and a hybrid glad and called it G. ‘Ruby’. It is now thought more likely to have G. ecklonii in its blood.

Gladiolus ‘Ruby’ has rich, velvety crimson, hooded flowers with a dark throat. And it flowers. And, unsurprisingly, is very sought-after.

Recently Avon Bulbs has raised and named seedlings of G. ‘Ruby’. After ten years’ trialling they have selected G. ‘Thunder’ with deep plum flowers. They call it ‘a gorgeous discovery’. It’s bound to be another sensation.

Time to prune willows and dogwoods

by Sally Gregson

AT last March breezes in with cold nights, rainy weeks and brilliant days of warming sunshine. Winter is loosening its grip. The snowdrops are nearly finished, their moment in the sun over now, while other small flowers – the crocus, aconites and grape hyacinth – are taking their moment in the sun.

In the garden borders the shining stems of the dogwoods and willows are still making headlines, but by the end of the month it will be time to prune them right down, almost to the ground. Cutting them down promotes the growth of new, young stems for next year. It’s a hard decision, but a necessary job. They seem to shine in the sun with such innocent enthusiasm. But if left, their continued growth extends upwards and, as the year goes by, the whole shrub becomes ugly and no longer gar-denworthy.

So, take a sharp pair of secateurs and a pair of loppers for the thicker stems, and cut each upright down to about 15-30cm from the ground, or to a bud above the position

where it was cut down last year. This holds true for most of the coloured-stem willows and Cornus alba, but some dogwoods are a little less vigorous. Cornus sanguinea

‘Midwinter Fire’ and its sisters are best cut down every other year. Or just the thicker stems could be cut out each March.

Give the shrub a feed of general fertiliser and a good watering, and, if possible, a top-dressing of garden compost to help lock the moisture into the soil. Dogwoods and willows grow naturally in damp ground and only put up with their enforced time in ordinary garden soil if they are not allowed to become dry.

And now that the snowdrops are fading away, it’s a good plan to lift and split a few clumps, and re-plant them around the dogwoods and willows. They will go back down for the summer under the mulch of garden compost, ready to re-emerge next winter.

Cornus Snowps

The very sought-after Gladiolus ‘Ruby’ has rich, velvety crimson, hooded flowers with a dark throat

Spring Compost Bin Offers from the Recycling Team at Dorset Council

Now that we’re moving into Spring, it’s the perfect time to think about making compost for our gardens, hanging baskets and window boxes.

Composting is great for the environment. It improves soilhelping to create healthy plants and reducing the need to water and fertilise. It’s easy to make, can save money and you only need a small outdoor space.

Dorset Council is offering compost bins at prices as low as £6 and there is an extra buyone-get-one-half-price deal (plus delivery). This is for a limited number of bins so hurry whilst the offer lasts! See getcomposting.com for details.

Free compost bins are also offered to schools. We offer up to two compost bins and two caddies, plus

a visit from a team member. Visit dorsetcouncil/recycle for more details.

Good things you can compost include teabags, plant prunings, cut flowers, vegetable peelings and fruit waste (add citrus peelings sparingly). You can also add cardboard eggboxes and scrunched up paper. These provide fibre and carbon and also allow important air pockets to form in the mixture.

Twigs, grass clippings and leaves can also be added, but they will take a long time to break down if large quantities are added at one time.

The compost is ready when it’s brown and crumbly. Dig into the soil in early spring or late autumn to improve the soil structure and act as a slow release fertiliser.

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Different shades of opinion on colour of the year

THE colour of the year has been announced for 2023 – and you can’t miss it.

Colour firm Pantone has issued the shade that it thinks will be dominating fashion pages and interior design features over the next 12 months.

The colour is Viva Magenta 18-750.

Rooted in the red family, Viva Magenta is described as being ‘rooted in nature’, yet ‘a new signal of strength’.

“This year’s Colour of The Year is powerful and empowering,” Pantone said.

“It is an animated red that revels in pure joy, encouraging experimentation and selfexpression without restraint, an electrifying and a boundless

shade that is manifesting as a stand-out statement.

“Viva Magenta welcomes anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit. It is a colour that is audacious, full of wit and inclusive of all.”

The firm’s experts said it is an ‘assertive, but not aggressive’ carmine red that ‘does not boldly dominate but instead takes a fist-in-a-velvetglove approach’.

“The Colour of the Year 2023 merges the richness, warmth and strength of natural matters with the rich, open horizons of the digital world,” Pantone said.

“The result is a shade of red that expands our horizons of authenticity.

“The metaverse creates new opportunities for us to express ourselves, and the raw fortitude of Viva Magenta inspires us to do so with confidence and bravery.”

For more on the Pantone colour of the year, visit www. pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-theyear/2023

While Pantone has gone strong and bold, Dulux has gone the other way with its selection for colour of the year 2023.

Wild Wonder is described as a ‘glowing tone, inspired by the natural world’.

Picked after an intense period of research and consultation, a spokesperson said: “This year, with the

natural world at the top of the global agenda, we talked about the different ways that nature supports and inspires us.

“Our conversations led us to a theme for Dulux Colour of the Year 2023: seeds of wonder – a phrase that encapsulates the transformative power of nature – and to the shade itself.

“Wild Wonder is a glowing natural tone that offers us a connection with nature and that brings a sense of natural magic into our homes.”

For more on the Dulux colour of the year – including guides on how to incorporate it into your decorating projects – visit www.dulux.co.uk/en/ dulux-colour-of-the-year-2023

Pantone chose Viva Magenta 18-750 as its colour of the year

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CURTAINS AND BLINDS MADE TO MEASURE

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Tel: Sue Marsh 01747 853680

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We clear houses, garages, gardens across Dorset. Our experienced team will bag, box and clear everything. We will purchase some items or advise on those that should go to auction. Free quote on viewing. Where our waste goes – we try to recycle as much as we can however some of the items cleared are not reusable. Our waste is split into categories of household waste, wood, rubble, metals, and hazardous waste such as old refrigeration units, paint and mattresses. Our waste

Petrol head’s a sort of ‘farming hero’

by Barbara Cossins

WHAT a relief that spring is nearly here and its sunshine will bring a much needed smile to our faces.

Mothering Sunday and Easter are just around the corner, and what a joy it is to be able to enjoy our gardens and the beautiful Dorset countryside.

On the farm, the animals are ready to be turned out into the fields, so we have our fingers crossed it’s not going to be a wet one.

Our menus for Mothering Sunday and Easter will be showcasing British lamb at the butchery and the pub – it’s what we should all be doing when we have wonderful, locally reared meat on our doorsteps.

Please think twice about choosing New Zealand lamb that has travelled all the way from the southern hemisphere to

reach your plate. Think about the carbon footprint.

Yes, price is important, but British farmers need your support more than ever now and we all need to keep buying British wherever we can, so please check the labels before you take it home.

On our family farm, we are also worried about milk prices dropping. Back in January we were being paid 52p a litre but now it’s predicted it will go down over the next 12 months as low as 32p a litre. It costs us 45p just to produce a litre, so it makes no sense at all, we will be operating at a significant loss.

Apparently, the reason for this is the increase in European milk production and the lack of demand from China. If this prediction is correct, then it’s a disaster for UK milk producers and completely unsustainable.

With the added irony that imported milk isn’t produced to British farmers’ high standards, yet still we bring it in.

We may even have a shortage like we saw with eggs in the supermarkets last year. The world is going slowly mad. It is a real concern to see how empty supermarket shelves are already looking.

I’ve been watching the second episode of Clarkson‘s Farm. Although he’s a man who’s always getting himself into trouble, and much like Marmite in that you either love or hate him, I have to say he’s done a great job of providing a real insight into British farming.

I know he is not a normal farmer but it’s good to hear so many people say they have been watching the programme and have learned so much about life on a farm and how things work. Who could’ve imagined him to

Somerset butcher, The Blackmore Vale Butchery established butchers since 2006 offers a superb award winning butchery service for small holders and farmers in and around Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire areas. Winning awards such as “Best Farm Business” and outstanding contribution to local food development in Dorset are just a few recognitions the butchery have gained over the past 16 years of trading!

The butchery services are a much needed help to the local community of small holder farmers especially if they are looking to have their very own livestock produce to consume as well as sell direct from the farm gate either in a farm shop or via local farmers markets.

Our local abattoir C&S meats have recently decided to close their butchery depot down to concentrate on offering a fantastic service in the abattoir side of their business and the Blackmore Vale Butchery will work along side them to make sure it is a smooth operation to collect the carcasses then to hang and to butcher at The Blackmore Vale Butchery depot near Henstridge. The team of butchers are ready to answer your needs from dry ageing of beef carcasses to making gluten free produce!

Not only do the Blackmore Vale Butchery offer such services but their very own retail shop is open Monday - Friday 7.30am till 5pm and & Saturdays 8am till 1pm.

be our farming hero?!

When you are out walking look for wild garlic leaves at this time of year. You can’t miss them, they’re everywhere in the ditches and lanes, and smell amazing. Only pick them if you can smell the garlic and remember to wash them well before you use them as they are wild.

You can make an easy pesto, which I love. There are lots of simple recipes on the internet and the pesto will keep in a jar in the fridge for at least two weeks. Perfect to add to pasta, fish, chicken, sauces, butter and much more. And all for free.

Happy spring and happy foraging everyone!

n Barbara Cossins is founder of Love Local Trust Local; www.thelangtonarms.co.uk; www.rawstonfarmbutchery. co.uk; www.lovelocaltrustlocal awards.co.uk

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Arrange the meat into mixed selection boxes IE: 1/2 lamb boxes or mixed 10kg beef boxes freezer ready!

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We can also provide

Get growing for chilli festival!

THE Great Dorset Chilli Festival has announced a return for 2023.

The event is at the Stock Gaylard Estate, near Sturminster Newton, on the weekend of August 5 and 6.

Organisers are promosing a weekend of ‘great food, music, entertainment and competitions, with a bit of added spice’.

To get foodies in the mood, the festival has launched a chilli-growing competition.

The festival’s Chilli Plant Growing Competition will be judged at the event, so amateur gardeners should be sowing their chilli seeds now.

The competition is in two classes: Class 1 is only for the chilli variety ‘Dusk’, a pretty bushy chilli plant with masses

of fruit ripening to red and purple. Class 2 is the open class into which any chilli plant can be entered.

Plants are judged on appearance, development, condition and fruiting.

The winner of each chilli plant competition class will receive a £50 gift voucher from cookware and gardening retailer Harts of Stur based in Sturminster Newton.

Sea Spring Seeds has also provided the festival with a limited supply of Dusk chilli seeds to give away.

For a copy of the rules and to claim your seeds, email info@ greatdorsetchillifestival.co.uk

For more about the festival, visit www.greatdorsetchilli festival.co.uk

Award winners in the spotlight

MORE than 100 people attended the second Love Local Trust Local Awards held at the beautiful and historic Kingston Maurward College.

The event started with a drinks reception and was followed by a sit-down meal and a speech by the organisation’s founder, Barbara Cossins, who acknowledged the achievements of the entrants from small start-ups to established businesses.

Paul Dunlop, of Blanchards Bailey, introduced the judges who announced the winners and runners- up in each of the awards categories.

The winners were:

Bakery: winner, The Little House; runner-up, Dorset Artisan Macarons. Cheese: winner, The Book and Bucket Cheese Company. Dairy: winner – Ewelease Dairy

Organic. Dorset Drinks: winner, Little Waddon Vineyard; runner-up, Dorsetshire Distillery; highly commended, Remedy Oak Brewing Company. Honey: winner, Honey By Ian; runner-up Tarrant Valley Honey. Meat: winner, Dirty Dog Dorset Company Ltd; runner-up, Enford Farm Shop; highly commended, South Paddocks Ltd. Farm shop: winner, Steeptonbill Farm Shop; runner-up, Washingpool Farm Shop. Hospitality, winner, Les Enfants Terribles; runner-up, Black Cat Catering. Business Growth and Development: winner, The Book and Bucket Cheese Company; runner-up Dorsetshire Distillery; highly commended, Black Cat Catering. Conservation and Environment Sustainability: winner, Purbeck Ice Cream; runner-up Meggy Moo’s Dairy. Innovation and Diversification: winner, Boil and Broth; runner-up, Sweet Healing.

Never mind no alcohol for Lent – fancy a digital cold turkey?

by Alice Johnsen

CAMILLA Tominey, a journalist you can take seriously, wrote recently about the week she took mobile phones away from her two older children. I know – brave. Interestingly, the children enjoyed it as much as the parents.

They had access to their friends through an old-style mobile, so all was not completely lost but aspects of life that came back to them included what used to be considered simple pleasures. Watching a film together – the same film on the same screen at

the same time. Talking round the table long after supper had finished. Playing with siblings too young for phones. Getting homework done quickly without distractions. Sleeping well.

Her 14-year-old daughter felt much more productive and realised how time-wasting touch screen devices had become, while her son, 12, concluded the week-long experiment was much easier than he had expected and, crucially, he felt less stressed without social media.

And there it is. The nugget we all need to pay attention to.

Out of the mouths of not-quite babes is a clearly flagged up admission. We can and must all take steps away from our phones.

To aim to live without such technical tools in our lives now would be, for most of us, foolhardy. So, let’s keep it realistic. If this article showed me anything, it was the value of being more aware of our own use as well as of those habits being cultivated by our secondary school angels. Do we have clear enough, maintainable

boundaries for our own phone use that will set sensible and practical examples. I have always had a loathing – and in this house, ban – of phones at the table. There used to be a rule here of no screens upstairs, but I’ll be honest, that needs reinforcing. It’s so easy for sneaky habits to, well, sneak in, hiding in plain sight.

But what about Ms Tominey’s good suggestion of never having phones to hand when watching a film. Double screening and never following a plot properly – sounding familiar? One I want to add to the suggestion pile – walking around outside without your phone. In black and white that looks a bit dotty but ask yourself, when was the last time you left your home to go for a walk without your phone? It could be a small change worth making.

n Alice Johnsen is a life coach based near Sherborne. Phone: 07961 080513; visit www. alicejohnsen.co.uk

PHOTO: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

Conventional and herbal medicine should work together

by Fiona Chapman

MUCH against my herbalist and naturopath training and instinct, I am just coming to the end of a very strong course of antibiotics.

An ear infection which turned into cellulitis – neither of which should be messed with! Silly me.

I have, however, always said that conventional and herbal medicine should work alongside each other. There is a need for both and while I may have got away without taking the antibiotics, I would look stupid if I lost my hearing and got

scepsis!

So, I need to finish the course and then treat myself to counter the damage the antibiotics have done to the whole of my system, not just to the nasty bacteria hanging around my ear!

When relatively healthy, the bacteria in our gut are friendly and will help to digest food and keep our gut environment strong – sadly, antibiotics are not selective and will kill most of these good bacteria.

They also take quite a toll on our liver as it must process all the toxins being released by the infection, dying bacteria and the

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pills themselves. All this activity in the gut and liver can also affect the brain and mood as they are so closely linked.

I will need to repopulate my gut with good pre and probiotics. I can obviously supplement with both, but the best way to do it is through food and herbs.

I don’t really eat dairy products so for me yogurt is out. The best thing to go for is fermented food like sauerkraut, kimchi, water kefir juice – a delicious one made locally by

Bone & Broth – kombucha and green olives, all of which are quite easy to get hold of.

Herb-wise, I will take some Ulmus fulva or slippery elm, which not only soothes the digestive mucosa, but is a prebiotic and the fibres are fermented by the friendly bacteria to produce fatty acids which are healthy for the gut wall.

I will give my liver a little helping hand and take some Taraxacum officinale radix or dandelion root, Cynara scolymus, artichoke leaf and Silybum marianum or milk thistle, which help the liver process toxins, clear it out and encourage healthy cell growth.

Lots of filtered water will wash out any residual nasties and soon I will be bouncing around ready for spring and all the wonderful herbs that will start to pop up.

n Fiona Chapman is a Naturopathic Herbalist (Pellyfiona@gmail.com)

PHOTO: Steve Buissinne/ Pixabay

Meditations in nature: A special kind of frost

by Susie Curtin

I KNEW the morning was special the moment I woke up to the ethereal white light that seeped through my curtains. While we were all sleeping, the ice maiden was hard at work in the Vale. Quickly donning my boots and walm clothes, I have set out to explore the ‘snowy’ landscape that has transformed the ‘usual’ into the ‘unusual’.

As I walk over the fields and towards the River Stour, swirling disorientating pockets of mist and fog come and go adding to the sense of ‘strangeness’ and adventure. The cold air caresses my face and makes me feel completely awake and alive, despite the numbness of my hands. At first glance, I think the land is blanketed by a hoar frost but then I notice the alabaster shards, as fine as needles, that protrude from every blade of grass, bush and tree. This is the unique and exquisite structure of a rime frost. If, like me, you thought that frosts formed in the same way, then you might be pleasantly surprised to know how different freezing weather conditions determine the type of frost that occurs.

A ‘ground frost’ forms on

still, cold and clear winter nights when water vapour condenses and then freezes on solid surfaces. A ‘hoar frost’, however, occurs much less frequently when water vapour in the night air touches solid surfaces whose temperature is already below freezing. In this instance, water molecules transform from a gas directly to a solid. Ice crystals form straight away and continue to grow as more water vapour falls and freezes. The result is a soft, pretty, feathery coating of ice on trees and vegetation. The word ‘hoar’ is derived from old English and refers to how the ice resembles ageing white hair or beard.

A rime frost, on the other hand, is borne from completely different circumstances. It is caused by tiny, supercooled water droplets in freezing fog that land on sub-zero surfaces and freezes immediately. In this case, water is transformed directly from liquid to solid. These rime deposits become long plumes of ice that often point in the direction of the light wind that has helped to form them. They are sometimes called ‘frost feathers’ and remind me of the slightly

frightening pictures of Jack Frost in the fairytales of my childhood.

Walking through the woods and down beside the river, I find it impossible not to stop and take photographs of these strange ice forms as they adorn seed heads and the remains of yesteryear’s bullrushes. But already the sun is shining and the warmth of the sun’s rays are melting away nature’s artwork. All is quiet and still apart from the sound of droplets falling from the trees, like rain, and

FOOT

returning the moisture to the ground in the continuous movement of water within our Earth and atmosphere.

In the distance, I can hear the great spotted woodpeckers that live along this stretch coming alive in the rising warmth of the sun, as they drum the trees to denote their territories. It is lovely to have a reminder that spring is not far away despite the bitter cold of the night before. As I turn for home, the single whistle of a kingfisher announces his presence just in time for me to admire the dash of blue as he streaks downstream. How, I wonder, do these tiny creatures survive these bitter winter nights? But then, nature never ceases to inspire and amaze me. n Dr Susie Curtin (email curtin.susanna@gmail.com)

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The ice maiden had been hard at work in the Vale

Motoring

PEUGEOT 208. 66 PLATE. White. Mot Feb 2024

Tax £20 Great condition. £4,300 Tel 07712 183325

INDEPENDENT LAND ROVER SPECIALISTS

Established 1978

Parts repairs, servicing www.nicholaspaxton.co.uk 01749 880817

HONDA JAZZ RED

72,000 miles

MOT until November 23rd

2 lady owners

Registered 2004

New battery £1,700 Wimborne 01202 801975

2010 LUNAR QUASAR

2 BERTH CARAVAN, 2 awnings bedroom extension, motor mover, large roof box/rails, new tyres, everything included ready to go £6,500. Enquiries 07740 880680 (Ilminster)

STORAGE FOR CARAVANS, boats and cars at Enford Farm near Blandford. 01258 450050 / 07704 813025

WANTED all types of car trailers, cash paid 07736 871092

FOR SALE 2 WHEELED 6ft 3” X 3ft 4” CAR TRAILER with waterproof tarpaulin cover and security wheel clamp. £120, 01980 652823

MOTORBIKES WANTED Non runners and Unwanted Phone Keith on 07966 213344

OLD, INTERESTING & CLASSIC CARS wanted pre 1990s Any condition including unfinished projects

Cash/Transfer

Please Phone Paul 07890 096907

UNWANTED VEHICLES bought for cash ●Mot failures ●Nonrunners

●Unfinished projects

●end of life scrap vehicles

●minimum of £200 paid for complete vehicles. Call Ryan on 07474 737577

2015 (65) LANDROVER DESCOVERY SPORT 6 speed Manual, 1 owner with full main dealer history, only 48,000 miles. Finished in Silver with full Black Leather trim, beautiful inside and out ...............................................£16,995

Arriving soon: 2010 (59) SUBURU FORRESTER

BOXER Diesel, manual 6 speed. With full service history 127,000. Finished in metallic Black with many extras .........................£3,495

Arriving soon: 2009 (58) HONDA JAZZ VTEC

EXECUTIVE (SEMI AUTO) 1.4 Petrol, finished in Black, many extras including factory sunroof, electric folding mirrors etc. Full service history 76,000 miles ....................................…£5,495

PX to clear: 2004 (04) HYUNDAI SANTA FE 100,000 miles with service history, Diesel automatic Useful vehicle ..........................£995

2015 (65) MERCEDES BENZ C CLASS SALON

C200 BLUE TEC AMG LINE, 1.6 automatic diesel, 41,000 miles, silver blue metallic,black leather,all usual refinements sat nav etc, fantastic performance and economy, a real eyeful, only £30 road tax .....................£16,495

2015 (65) MERCEDES BENZ E350 AMG LINE BLUE TEC DIESEL AUTO CONVERTIBLE, black with black hood, black leather, only 59,000

miles with service history, every conceivable extra, what an eyeful ...........................£15,995

2013 (62) BMW 118D, convertible Exclusive Edition Finished in White, with Black fully electric soft top 6 speed manual (Euro 5) 1 former owner, service history 103,000 miles great performance and economy. Excellent value at .................................................£5,995

2012 (12) BMV 320D Sport 4 Door 6 speed manual Finished in Black with Full Black Leather interior, all usual refinements. Comprehensive service record, 155,000 miles ................£4995

2017 (17) TOYOTA AVENSIS ESTATE business edition D4 (diesel 6 speed manual) finished in white, 1 former keeper, full dealer history, 86,000 miles, big specification, sat nav, reverse camera etc, fully loaded, only £20 tax and ULEZ compliant, great performance and economy, great value at ....................... £8,995

RARE OPPORTUNITY 2002 MGTF (SPORT)

Registration M3GTF only 70,000 miles, drives lovely, MOT 10/08/23 (no advisories) will be sold as spares or repairs only ....................POA

1997 BMW 520iSE 4-door 2.5 petrol automatic, black with black leather, massive service record, 140,000 miles, MOT 03/07/23, will be sold as spares

SUNRISE SERVICE & MOT CENTRE

Motoring

MOTS, SERVICING AND REPAIRS ON ALL VEHICLES UP TO 3.5 TONNES INCLUDING HORSEBOXES AND MOTORHOMES

SUNRISE SERVICE & MOT CENTRE

Bodyshop open for all repairs and restorations, from small scratches to complete resprays, insurance work welcome.

MOTS, SERVICING AND REPAIRS ON ALL VEHICLES UP TO 3.5 TONNES INCLUDING HORSEBOXES AND MOTORHOMES

MOTS – class 4,5 and 7

MOTS, SERVICING AND REPAIRS ON ALL VEHICLES UP TO 3.5 TONNES INCLUDING HORSEBOXES AND MOTORHOMES

Bodyshop open for all repairs and restorations, from small scratches to complete resprays, insurance work welcome.

Diagnostics

Air conditioning Valets

MOTs – class 4, 5 and 7

MOTS – class 4,5 and 7

Bodyshop open for all repairs and restorations, from small scratches to complete resprays, insurance work welcome.

Diagnostics

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Courtesy Cars

MOTS – class 4,5 and 7

Air conditioning

Courtesy Cars

Diagnostics

Collections within a 5 mile radius

Valets

Concessions for Pensioners, Armed Forces and Emergency Services

Courtesy Cars

Concessions for Pensioners, Armed Forces and Emergency Services

Collections within a 5 mile radius

Air conditioning Valets Courtesy Cars

Concessions for Pensioners, Armed Forces and Emergency Services

Collections within a 5 mile radius

Concessions for Pensioners, Armed Forces and Emergency Services

15B Sunrise Business Park, Higher Shaftesbury Road

15B Sunrise Business Park, Higher Shaftesbury Road Blandford DT11 8ST Tel: 01258 459798

Blandford DT11 8ST

15B Sunrise Business Park, Higher Shaftesbury Road Blandford DT11 8ST

Tel: 01258 459798

Tel: 01258 459798

Email sunriseservicecentre@hotmail.com

Email

www.sunriseserviceandmotcentre.com

Email sunriseservicecentre@hotmail.com www.sunriseserviceandmotcentre.com

Leisure firm scoops national award

A SHAFTESBURY caravan and motorhome dealership is celebrating after scooping a top national award.

Blackmore Vale Leisure, on Sherborne Causeway, picked up the Best Supplier of New Caravans title at the 2023 Practical Caravan Owner Satisfaction Awards.

Catherine, Vicky, Debby and Linda from the BVL team travelled to Silverstone for the glittering ceremony, where the company was named top supplier after receiving a satisfaction score of 92.4%, which came from thousands of responses for dealers nationally.

Catherine, Manager at Blackmore Vale Leisure, said: “We are thrilled and overwhelmed to have won this prestigious award. We are a small dealership who strive to be the best at what we do.”

In business since 1967, Blackmore Vale Leisure has picked up numerous awards over the years, and is an official retailer for a number of top brands including Swift and Sprite, Knaus, Weinsburg and Tab.

But although dealing with big-name manufacturers, it is the personal touch that makes the dealership stand out, Catherine said.

“We partner with brands who share our customer centric approach and carefully hand pick our pre owned stock,” she added.

“We have a fully approved Workshop for any servicing and warranty requirements and really aim to offer the best possible service.”

Tourism body the National Caravan Council (NCC) says the caravan industry in the UK contributes more than £6 billion each year to the UK economy, with more than 550,000 touring caravans in use across the country.

And since the Covid pandemic, more and more people are choosing staycations over holidays abroad.

Caravanning has become more popular and the Handheld approach to Blackmore Vale leisure customers really help, they offer full tuition on how your caravan works, including an overnight stay to ensure their customers leave confident in the use of their new caravan.

For more information - and for advice on all caravan and motorhome matterscontact Blackmore Vale Leisure via bmvleisure.co.uk or call 01747 851497.

Blackmore Vale Leisure Experience & Service

Brand new and handpicked pre-owned touring caravans and motorhomes, including models from premium brands like Adria, Knaus, Swift, Sprite, T@B and Weinsberg.

NCC AWS Approved workshop on site for servicing and repairs.

Motoring Wincombe MOT

2016 (16) BMW X3 2.0TD X Line Automatic 4x4 SUV 5dr. 190bhp, diesel, 8 speed automatic gearbox, 4 wheel drive, heated leather, Sat Nav, auto lights & wipers, cruise control, hill start & descent control, electric tailgate, parking sensors, head up display, high seating position, decent boot, upto 54mpg, 63,700 miles .......................................£17650

2018 (18) Dacia Sandero 1.0SCe Ambiance 5dr. 75bhp, petrol, 5 speed manual gearbox, exceptional value budget car with air con, USB, Bluetooth, DAB audio, upto 53mpg economy, 26,900 miles ..................................................................................£7350

2020 (69) Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost ST Line 5dr. 125bhp, petrol, 6 speed manual gearbox, multi award winning engine with outstanding performance & economy, Sat Nav, parking sensors, sign recognition, hill start assist, lane keeping aid, Bluetooth, auto lights, heated front screen, 16,500 miles ...........................................................................£13650

2018 (18) Mini Hatch 1.5 Cooper Automatic 3dr. 134bhp, petrol, 6 speed automatic gearbox, Sat Nav, parking sensors, auto lights & wipers, cruise control, Bluetooth, hill start assist, upto 60mpg fuel economy, Mini Demo + 1 owner, only 4,350 miles from new ...................................................................................................£16500

2008 (58) Volkswagen Transporter 1.9TDi T28 SWB Van 4dr. Day Van / Starter Camper. 102bhp, diesel, 5 speed manual gearbox, 3 front seats, rock `n’ roll bed / rear seat, power convertor, fridge, TV, lined & carpeted, glazed tailgate & side door, big alloys, side bars, park sensors, 153,900 miles .....................................................................£9500

COMMERCIALS

£13250

2018 (18) Ford C-Max 1.0 EcoBoost Titanium Navigation MPV 5dr. 125bhp, petrol, 6 speed manual gearbox, high seating position, large boot with a low loading edge, Sat Nav, Bluetooth, cruise control, auto lights & wipers, hill start assist, parking sensors, sign recognition, multi award winning engine, 21,500 miles ..........................................

2014 (14) Ford Galaxy 2.0TDCi Titanium Automatic 7 Seat MPV 5dr. 163bhp, diesel, 6 speed automatic gearbox, high seating position, flat folding 2nd & 3rd row seats, large boot with a low loading edge, cruise control, auto lights & wipers, parking sensors, Bluetooth, heated front screen, hill start assist, brand new automatic gearbox fitted at Ford in 2022, 69,900 miles ................................................................................................£9950

2018 (18) Ford Tourneo Custom 2.0TDCi 310 L2 H1 Titanium 9 Seat MPV Minibus 5dr. 130bhp, diesel, 6 speed manual gearbox, driver plus 8 passenger seats, movable seats with either conference or bus layout, twin sliding doors, touch screen, parking sensors, auto lights & wipers, cruise control, Bluetooth, heated front screen, heated front seats, air con, rear heating, alloys, side steps, hill start assist, 72,800 miles, NO VAT to pay ...........................................................................................................£26500

2016 (16) Ford Transit Custom 2.2TDCi 290 L1 H1 Sport Van 5dr. 155bhp, diesel, 6 speed manual gearbox, lovely Sport model, body styling kit, partial leather, heated seats, park sensors, reverse camera, cruise control, auto lights & wipers, heated front screen, alloys, air con, lane keeping aid, Bluetooth, 3 seats, bulkhead, lined & racked, integrated concealed pop up roof rack, 53,000 miles, NO VAT to pay...........................Available soon

2018 (18) Ford Tourneo Custom 2.0TDCi 310 L2 H1 Titanium 9 Seat MPV Minibus 5dr. 130bhp, diesel, 6 speed manual gearbox, driver plus 8 passenger seats, movable seats with either conference or bus layout, twin sliding doors, touch screen, parking sensors, auto lights & wipers, cruise control, Bluetooth, heated front screen, heated front seats, air con, rear heating, alloys, side steps, hill start assist, 72,800 miles, NO VAT to pay ...........................................................................................................£26500

2016 (16) Ford Transit Custom 2.2TDCi 290 L1 H1 Sport Van 5dr. 155bhp, diesel, 6 speed manual gearbox, lovely Sport model, body styling kit, partial leather, heated seats, park sensors, reverse camera, cruise control, auto lights & wipers, heated front screen, alloys, air con, lane keeping aid, Bluetooth, 3 seats, bulkhead, lined & racked, integrated concealed pop up roof rack, 53,000 miles, NO VAT to pay ..........................Available soon

2008 (58) Volkswagen Transporter 1.9TDi T28 SWB Van 4dr. Day Van / Starter Camper. 102bhp, diesel, 5 speed manual gearbox, 3 front seats, rock `n’ roll bed / rear seat, power convertor, fridge, TV, lined & carpeted, glazed tailgate & side door, big alloys, side bars, park sensors, 153,900 miles .....................................................................£9500

THANK YOU

To the retired doctor and Leanne, the first aid lady, and my son Mark who helped me until the ambulance came, when I fell and badly cut my head open at Anchor Hill Service Station on 18th February. Also, Steven and wife Sally for calling the ambulance and fetching my wife.

BRIAN FUDGE.

THANK YOU ANNIVERSARY

HAPPY GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Janet & John Pistaszczuk

Love Sharon, Mark, Lorraine, Erika, Keris and Billy x x x

DEATHS

RICHARD THOMAS EVERETT

On the 3rd February 2023 passed away peacefully aged 61, beloved father, brother, uncle and friend to many, you will be sadly missed by family and friends. Rest in peace our beloved Richard

LILIAN COULON

Peacefully on 13th February 2023. Lilian aged 83 years of Templecombe. Sadly missed by all her family and friends. Funeral service at St Nicholas Church, Henstridge on Monday 6th March at 1pm. Family flowers only please donations if desired for Cancer Research UK or Dementia UK.

C/o Peter Jackson Funeral Services, Henstridge. Tel 01963 362570

NEVILLE CHARLES

Peacefully on 14th February 2023 after a short illness. Neville aged 84 years of Gillingham. Funeral service at Yeovil Crematorium on Thursday 16th March at 2.40pm. Family flowers only please, donations if desired for Cancer Research UK. C/o Peter Jackson Funeral Services, Gillingham. Tel 01747 833757

WENDY STEELE

Passed away peacefully after a short illness at Dorset County Hospital on 9th February. Aged 82 years. Beloved mother to Ian. A dear friend to all that knew her. Funeral Service to be held at Blandford United Reformed Church on Tuesday 7th March at 11am.

Family Flowers only please, donations, if desired for the British Heart Foundation , may be made online by visiting www.close-funeral.co.uk or cheques payable to the charity

c/o Colin J Close Funeral Service, Peel Close, Salisbury Road, Blandford, DT11 7JU. Tel: 01258 453133

DEATHS

LINDA ANN COFFER

Sadly passed away on 6th February, aged 82 years. Linda will be greatly missed by her loving husband Arnie, her loving sons Paul, Johnathan and Ben, her three grandchildren and all her family. Funeral service at Yeovil Crematorium on Wednesday 8th March at 14:40. Family flowers only please. Donations in Linda’s memory are for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and may be sent to Bracher Brothers, Newbury, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 4QL

IEUAN REES

Peacefully on the 20th February 2023. Trevor aged 92 years of Iwerne Minster. A dearly loved Husband, Dad & Grandad. Private funeral service. Enquiries to Peter Jackson Funeral Services. Tel: 01747 833757

FAGAN Barbara

Passed away peacefully on 4th February 2023, aged 90 years. A dearly loved Mum and Grandma. Funeral Service to be held at Yeovil Crematorium on 14th March 2023 at 10:40am. Family flowers only. To make an online donation in memory of Barbara, please visit her Tribute site at www. funeralcare.co.uk/tributes-and-donations or send cheque made payable to R.S.P.C.A or Alzheimers UK c/o Co-operative Funeralcare, Greenacre House, Salisbury Road, Shaftesbury. Tel: 01747 858968

BERRY Lilian née Wright

Of West Knighton, Dorchester, formerly of Blandford, aged 74 years, died peacefully at Casterbridge Manor Care Home, Cerne Abbas, on Sunday 12th February. Wife of the late Mike, mother of Alan, Mark and Tracy, sister of Anita, grandmother and aunt. The Funeral service has taken place but donations, if desired, to Diabetes UK may be made online by visiting www.grassby-funeral.co.uk or c/o Grassby Funeral Service, 8 Princes Street, Dorchester, DT1 1TW. Please make cheques payable to Diabetes UK.

RUPERT MOGER

Peacefully at home on the 12th February 2023. Dearly loved Husband of Gwen, sadly missed Dad to Sandra & Rosemary, much loved Father-in-Law, Grandad & Great Grandad. Private cremation. A Service of Thanksgiving for Rupert’s life to be held at Holy Trinity Church, Stourpaine on Wednesday, 8th March at 12 noon. Donations if desired for Weldmar Hospicecare. C/o Peter Jackson Funeral Services, Mons, High Street, Henstridge, BA8 0RB. Tel: 01963 362570

MICHAEL ANTHONY RYDE

Passed away peacefully on 13th February 2023 at Casterbridge Manor N/H, aged 77 years. Much loved father and grandfather. Funeral Service at Yeovil Crematorium on Friday 10th March at 12pm. Family Flowers only please, but donations if desired for Macmillan Cancer Relief may be sent to Grassby and Close Funeral Service, 4 Innes Court, Sturminster Newton, DT10 1BB, Telephone 01258 471024 or made online by visiting www.grassbyclose-funeral.co.uk

AIRD Fiona (née

Myddelton) CVO,

widow of Sir Alastair Aird, GCVO died 11th February, 2023 peacefully at Amesbury Abbey Nursing Home aged 88. She will be much missed by her two daughters, Caroline and Henrietta, and her four grandchildren. There will be a Service of Thanksgiving on March 20th at 2.30 pm at St Gregory’s Church, Marnhull. No flowers please but donations if desired to Attend, previously known as The Hospital League of Friends, c/o Bracher Brothers, Newbury, Gillingham SP8 4QL.

MARJORIE EVELYN JEANS

Peacefully on the 14th February 2023. Madge aged 98 years of Milborne Port. Dearly loved wife of the late Kingsley. Much loved Mum, Grandma and Great Grandma. Funeral service at St John the Evangelist, Milborne Port on Monday 20th March at 12.30pm. Family flowers only please donations if desired for Yeovil Hospital Charity (Cancer Unit) or South West MS Therapy Unit. C/o Peter Jackson

Funeral Services, High Street, Henstridge, BA8 0RB Tel 01963 362570

BASIL HENRY CANE

Passed away peacefully in Yeovil Hospital on 12th February after a short illness aged 92. He leaves his wife Jenny of 43 years. The funeral will take place at Yeovil Crematorium on Friday 10th March at 3.20pm. No flowers please, but donations to Cancer Research UK c/o Bracher Brothers, Newell, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 4EZ Tel: 01935 813479

ALAN JESSE BEALE

Died peacefully in Salisbury District Hospital on 26 February 2023 aged 94 years. Farmed at Ansty for nearly 59 years. Dearly loved husband of Beryl, father of Rob and Lydia, grandad of Becky and Kasey. Private cremation. Thanksgiving service on Saturday 18 March at West Barn Lodge, Fovant (SP3 5LL) at 2pm. Donations if desired for TearFund/Barnabas Aid.

CYNTHIA ANN HOUSE née Ellis

Passed away on the 8th February 2023. Funeral service at All Saints Church, Hilton, Dorset at 11.30am on Friday 10th March.

No Flowers by request but donations, if desired for Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, who cared wonderfully for Matthew House in his last days, may be made online by visiting www.close-funeral.co.uk or cheques payable to the charity c/o Colin J Close Funeral Service, Peel Close, Salisbury Road, Blandford DT11 7JU. Tel: 01258 453133

PETER JAMES PETERS

of Stafford’s Green passed away peacefully at Whitecliffe House Care Home, Blandford, aged 94 years, on 20th February. Peter was a much loved partner, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. His funeral will take place at Yeovil Crematorium, on Monday, 13th March at 11.20 am.

WILLIAM HUBERT JENKINS

Aged 96, passed away peacefully at home after a short illness

A loving husband of 76 years to Margaret Jenkins and father to Brenda and Jeff. Much loved by all and will be forever missed.

Funeral Service will take place at Yeovil Crematorium on Monday 6th March, 2023 at 2.00pm. Family flowers only please. Donations if desired for Julie’s House Hospice may be sent c/o A.J. Wakely and Sons, 16 Newland, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3JQ

(Please make cheques payable to the charity)

No flowers please but donations, if desired, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK, can be given at the Crematorium.

WILLIAM

JOHN FOSTER

Best known as John

29-8-1931 - 22-2-2023

Peacefully passed away after a long illness. Lovingly cared for by the staff of the old Rectory Stalbridge. John will be sadly missed by his wife Heather, children Shirley, Malcolm and Paul. His grandchildren David, Joanne and Robert, and great grandchildren Harry and Alfie .

HAYLOCK Doreen

DEATHS

Wife of the late Terry, passed away peacefully in Dorchester County Hospital on 12 February 2023 after a short illness. She will be much missed by Shelley and Roy; Lynda and Malcolm; Emma and Adrian, David and Joanne and Jason; Abi, Hannah, Harry and Alfie. Her funeral will be held at Harbour View Crematorium, Randalls Hill, Lytchett Minster, BH16 6AN on Tuesday 14 March 2023 at 10.30am. No flowers please but donations welcomed to either Diabetes UK or Cancer Research UK

PAUL Christopher John

Known by his family as “Tim”, passed away peacefully at Yeovil Hospital, aged 77. Son to Daphne Franklin (née Diment), he was a dearly loved husband, father, grandfather, brother-in-law. The funeral service will be held at Sacred Heart and St Aldhelm Church, Sherborne on Tuesday 14th March 2023 at 11.30 am. No flowers please, but donations in memory of Tim are invited for Alzheimer’s Society and can be made at the Service or sent c/o A J Wakely & Sons, Sherborne. Tel: 01935 816817

RICHARD STEWART-HANNEY

Died unexpectedly but peacefully at home on 26th January 2023 aged 62. A cherished and much loved husband and son and a good friend to many. Funeral at St Peter and St Paul’s Parish Church, Blandford at 2.00pm on Thursday 16th March. Family flowers only please. But donations, if wished, to Dorset Wildlife Trust (a cause very close to Richard’s heart) C/O Tappers Funeral Service, 32-34 Parkstone Road, Poole BH15 2PG (01202 673164) or on-line at: www.tapperfuneralservice.co.uk

LE MARE Rachel

Passed away peacefully at Dorset County Hospital on 2nd January aged 57 following a long illness that she fought with dignity and courage always managing to remain positive. Rachel worked at Blacks Outdoor clothing store in Yeovil until she became too ill to work. A much loved Daughter, Sister, Mum and Friend she is deeply missed by all who knew and loved her. The Funeral Service has already taken place, Donations in Memory of Rachel if desired are for St. Margaret’s Hospice. These may be forwarded to Eason Funeral Service, 62 South Street, Yeovil, BA20 1QQ. Tel: 01935 422883. Kate and Family send their heartfelt Thanks to everyone who attended the Funeral and sent condolences to them.

Announcements

Daphne Yvonne Gladys Kate QUENNELL

Passed away on Friday 3rd February aged 95. Service to be held at All Saints Church Waterlooville on Wednesday 22nd March at 13.30pm, followed by the committal at Catherington Cemetery at 14.30pm. Flowers welcome

DERMOT BERRECLOUGH HARRISON

Passed away peacefully but unexpectedly on the 10th February at home in Charlton Marshall aged 70 years. Darling Husband of Terri, adored Father of Katherine and Charlotte and dearly loved Grandad Donut to Niamh and Lennan. He is greatly missed by all those whose lives he touched. The funeral service will be held at The Harbour View Crematorium, Lytchett Minster on Thursday 16th March at 2.30pm. Family flowers only but donations in memory of Dermot for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance can be sent to Tappers Funeral Directors, Harbour View, Randall’s Hill, Lytchett Minster BH16 6AN

MAUREEN WAREHAM

Passed peacefully at Dorset County Hospital on Monday 20th February 2023 aged 84. Dearly loved wife to Alan, loving Mum, Nana/Grandma and friend to many. Funeral service taking place on Friday 17th March at 9.30am at Our Lady of Lourdes and St Cecilia Church, Blandford, Dorset DT11 7BN. Family flowers only. Any donations in memory of Maureen, if desired, to the Stroke Association may be made online at www.close-funeral.co.uk or cheques made payable to Stroke Association c/o Colin J Close Funeral Service, Peel Close, Blandford, Dorset DT11 7JU Tel 01258 453133

FUNERAL DIRECTORS

“Golden Charter” Pre-paid Funeral Plans available Memorials in Stone Marble & Granite, etc.

Shaftesbury (01747) 853532 imerefield@aol.com

Gillingham (01747) 835335 www.mhfd.co.uk

“Ridgemount”, Pitts Lane, West Melbury, Shaftesbury, Dorset. SP7 0BU

ORGANISED FULL TIME ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT required for Shaftesbury accountancy practice. Duties include: Payroll, bookkeeping and Company secretarial. Experience in excel and accounts packages essential. Salary competitive. Apply to: adrianthompsonandco@yahoo.com

BRAMALL GARDENS

requires a new team member to join our established Landscape Company, initially with our grass cutting team. Hard work and reliability are essential requirements, along with a clean driving licence . To apply to join our hard working team in Marnhull Dorset, please ring 01258 820394

RECEPTIONIST/OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

(Full Time)

Required to join our friendly team at Fowler Fortescue in Fonthill Bishop. We are looking for a confident and organised individual who is willing to get stuck into a busy role where no two days are the same. A proactive individual with outstanding attention to detail, excellent IT and communications skills both written and verbal, with a positive hard working attitude. For a full job description or to apply with your CV please email: enquiries@fowlerfortescue.co.uk

Based in Wincanton require the following:

Part-time Sales and Customer Service Administrator

We are looking for someone to join our small, friendly team who is confident and outgoing, with a desire to provide exceptional customer service. You will have excellent computer skills and a friendly telephone manner, with good time management and an eagerness to learn.

Monday to Friday: 9.00am-12.00pm.

Part-time Van D river

Driving a 3.5 tonne vehicle delivering picked orders to customers, would also involve some warehouse duties, as necessary. Clean licence preferred. Wednesday to Saturday, 16 hours per week, starting at 6.00am. Send your CV to careers@finefoodco.co.uk

Recruitment

Kedgeworth is a family run business with over 40 years’ experience working with Komatsu machinery. We are an independent company located at Henstridge Airfield on the Dorset/Somerset border offering bespoke solutions to Komatsu earthmoving machinery users worldwide.

Specialising in Komatsu machinery has enabl ed us to gain unrivalled expertise in our field. We hold a vast amount of technical information which is complimented by our working knowledge of the machines. We supply parts and machines to users in the UK, Europe and internationally. We also offer a repair and maintenance service to customers in the UK.

WAREHOUSE OPERATIVE

HOURS: 8.00 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday, with alternate Saturday mornings

SALARY: £26,000 PA

Reporting to our Warehouse Manager, this is a key and varied role in the operation of our modern, clean, and heated warehouse.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Processing goods in and out of the warehouse

• Accurately picking and packing orders, ready for despatch

• Completing all paperwork accurately and timely

• Loading / unloading lorries

• Liaising with external providers to book collections

• Maintaining a clean and safe working environment

Skills & experience required:

• Experience of working in a busy warehouse environment in a conscientious and safe manner

• Mechanical background desirable but not essential

• A team player with the ability to work efficiently on your own when required

• Positive attitude, good communication skills and excellent attention to detail

• Physical strength, fitness, and dexterity, as you will be required to lift heavy packages

• Good IT skills, ideally with experience using computerised stock management systems

• Reach Truck and Counterbalance Forklift licence holder would be advantageous, but we offer training for both

Please contact 01963 363653 for further details or send your CV to admin@kedgeworth.com

Recruitment

SKILLED GROUNDWORKER/PLANT OPERATOR

We are looking for an experienced Groundworker who can also operate a 360° Excavator for local interesting contracts, working as part of a team. Applicants must be con dent in their ability to carry out all aspects of groundwork to a good standard with attention to detail.

We o er a safe working environment with good rates of pay. Local work and an opportunity of long-term employment with a friendly family run business.

If you are that exible, skilled groundworker who can also operate plant to a good standard please call, Martin on 01258 455219 or email admin@farwellplanthire.co.uk

OAKWOOD TAXIS REQUIRE PART-TIME DRIVERS to cover various school runs in and around Dorset. Drivers can keep the vehicle at home enabling them to work more efficiently in their area. Must be over 25. Could suit semi-retired person. No area knowledge test required. All expenses paid for. Average 4 hours per day, school time only. To arrange an interview please ring Andy on 01258 455555 or email oakwoodtaxis@aol.com.

PART-TIME GARDENER AND GROUNDSMAN (20 hours per week) required for a large garden near Sherborne. Some experience preferred. Please email Roland@poyntington.com for further details

D J CHUTTER LTD

are looking for a BRICKLAYER / STONEMASON and CARPENTER for family business in Hermitage, just outside Sherborne.

Hourly paid, permanent job for the right person.

Please call 01963 210354

please ask for Mark.

KNOWLEDGEABLE

GARDENER WANTED One morning per week, all year round for a one-acre garden near Zeals .Contact Philip Schofield, 07788 173522 philipschofield23@btinternet.com

CLEANER / HOUSEKEEPER wanted 8 hours per week. Days flexible. Tollard Royal 07771 677678

WE ARE LOOKING FOR A HIGHLY EFFICIENT AND ORGANISED OFFICE MANAGER for our family business. The role is broad and varied. Your responsibilities will include filing, managing outgoing costs, chasing suppliers and ensuring that building projects are on track. We are looking for an enthusiastic positive person to join our small team. Part time. Flexible hours. Contact Clementina on 07788 787476

Port Regis is a delightful preparatory school, for day and boarding children aged 2 -13, in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

We are seeking to recruit:

SCHOOL DATA & SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR

*LIFEGUARDS

*GYM COACHES

*the necessary training and qualifications for these roles are desired but not essential and can be arranged for successful candidates.

The successful candidates can expect a competitive salary and benefits package; and to join an exceptional working environment and staff team.

For full details of the role s and application procedure, please visit our website - portregis.com/vacancies

Early applications encouraged

Port Regis (Charity No: 306218) is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The successful applicants will be required to undertake an Enhanced DBS and safer recruitment vetting checks.

SECOND CHEF

Millbrook House Residential Home is looking for a passionate second chef to join our team of wonderful staff. The position is for 22.5 hours per week over 3 days including alternative weekends. We will offer you competitive rates of pay, your uniform, a pension scheme and a beautiful working environment with a great supportive team and wonderful residents. Some knowledge of dietary requirements and catering for the elderly is required, full training will be given.

If you think you can provide the WOW! Factor to the residents’ mealtimes Please contact Gini at Millbrook House on 01258 860330 or email gini@millbrookhouse.co.uk for more details

We are recruiting!

Seeking someone to support our small existing cheese making team and provide holiday cover

• Ability to work independently and as part of a small team

• Physically fit as the role does include plenty of lifting and moving

• Approx 20 hours per week over 4 days – flexibility required

• Some early morning starts

INTERESTED? Then please email us your cv or some information to info@dorsetblue.co.uk or call Fiona on 0 01963 23133

CRACKMORE GARAGE

Small friendly company looking for full time NVQ Level 3 Vehicle Technician / MOT Tester to join our friendly team. £24,000 - £40,000, please send CV to crackmoregarage@gmail.com or contact 01963 251221

EXPERIENCED TRACTOR

DRIVER / GFW required on busy dairy farm near Shaftesbury. Range of modern equipment. Farm and machinery maintenance skills an advantage. Regular time off. Accommodation available. Also relief milker required. 07970 925507

FULL TIME/PART TIME SALES, drivers and cleaners required to join our team at Ice Cream Yard in Blandford. Over 25, good rates of pay Call Richard 07966 276612

GREAT OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLE ON PROGRESSIVE DAIRY FARM IN STOUR PROVOST, near Gillingham North Dorset. We are looking for part time or full time employees to assist with milkings, 5am to 9am and 2.30pm to 6.30pm with additional hours available if required. Applicants must like cows. Good rates of pay good team to work with. call Luke Trowbridge 07966 535856

BUILDERS LABOURER required on large refurbishment project. Start immediately. Contact TA Green Builders 01963 34221

Full-time Live-in Caretaker/Dog Sitter/Domestic Help Required

Suitable for a single person or a couple (with additional job opportunities available for a partner if required e.g. driver, household maintenance, estate work, depending on experience).

Detached 3 bed cottage, own enclosed garden Next to isolated farmstead in beautiful rural position, Dorset. Council tax, utilities paid plus £ negotiable (PAYE).

Flexibility essential – non regular and variable hours. Experience of dog care essential. Happy with domestic chores, errands, home cooking, laundry. Regular periods working alone. Other staff kept.

Experience in similar role in a private household desirable. References essential. Own pets considered. Own car essential. Start from April or negotiable. Apply with full CV to gfp.office@btinternet.com

DT10 2RN

TEL : 01963 363372 FAX : 01963 363382

Email: helen@stalbridgebuildingsupplies.co.uk www.stalbridgbuildingsupplies.co.uk

Part-Time Web Shop/Customer Sales Assistant

JOB DESCRIPTION

• Primarily working in the shop & packing areas, processing orders from our webstore, telephone and face to face customers

• Assisting the warehouse team with despatch of orders, contacting customers with order issues and keeping up to date with order despatches

• You will also be required to assist with replenishing stock along with administration work as directed

Flexible hours/working pattern available – staff uniform provided

If you would like to work with our friendly team please email your CV to; helen@stalbridgebuildingsupplies.co.uk

Closing date for applications : Friday 10th March 2023

GILLINGHAM SCHOOL, DORSET

Hardings Lane, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 4QP h�ps://www.gillingham- dorset.co.uk/

CLEANERS

(part �me, permanent & casual)

Cleaners required working from 0600-0800 and 1545-1745.

For further details and an applica�on form, please ring 01747 822222 and ask for Tina Hull. We are commi�ed to safeguarding the welfare of children and will require the disclosure of any criminal convic�ons

Gillingham School will conduct online searches of shortlisted candidates. This check will be part of a safeguarding check and the search will purely be based on whether an individual is suitable to work with children As care must be taken to avoid unconscious bias and any risk of discrimina�on a person who will not be on the appointment panel will conduct the search and will only share informa�on if and when findings are relevant and of concern.

FARM WORKER WANTED on dairy farm in Sturminster Newton. Telephone 01258 472162/472050

HOME HELP/P.A.

required near Sturminster Newton. Tuesdays 10am-12pm Thursdays 10am-2pm

£15 per hour. NS, clear Driving Licence, Refs. Phone 07990 759 838 10-12am only.

CITIZENS ADVICE SOUTH SOMERSET YEOVIL OFFICE

Debt Caseworkers’ Assistant and Administrator

Salary: £21,330 - £23,057 pro rata

Hours: 30 - 37 per week

Location: Central Yeovil office

You will join a busy and friendly professional team of Debt Caseworkers who support the local community through the provision of money advice and casework. We welcome applications from candidates who are highly experienced and adaptable administrators with excellent IT and communication skills.

To apply: please visit our website and use the application documents as provided: http://www.citizensadvicesouthsomerset.org.uk

Closing date: applications to be received by 22nd March 2023

EXPERIENCED BENCH JOINER REQUIRED for a small, modern workshop. Varied and interesting work.

Top rates paid for the right candidate.

Contact 01935 872806 or joinery@jbennettjoinery.com for further details

HOUGHTON SPRINGS FISH FARM, set in the heart of rural Dorset, has an opportunity for an assistant fish farmer. The role is physically demanding and will have you working outside in all weathers.

Weekend/Bank holiday availability is essential as this will be shared between staff.

Experience is desirable, but training can be given for someone with transferable skills.

Accommodation is available after the completion of a trial period. If you are interested in joining our small team in this rewarding role, please give us a call on 01258 880058 or drop us a mail: hanshoff@tiscali.co.uk.

Part-time Pall Bearer / Driver

Part-time pall bearer required to join our friendly team. The role is primarily pall bearing / attendance at funerals and occasionally removing the deceased from their place of death with dignity and respect. No experience necessary as full training given.

Call Brister & Son Funeral Directors 01935 812647.

St John’s Hospital, Heytesbury Live-in Site Supervisor

www.st-johns-hospital.org

The Hospital of St John, Heytesbury is an ancient Almshouse founded in 1472, providing supported living to around 43 residents. The Site Supervisor’s role is ‘hands-on’ and involves maintaining the grounds, carrying out routine building maintenance that doesn’t require a contractor, and overseeing work when it does. Working closely with residents, other staff and contractors the successful applicant will be an enthusiastic multi-skilled allrounder with excellent interpersonal skills and a ‘can do’ attitude.

Previous experience in building and grounds maintenance is highly desirable as is having a friendly disposition.

This is a 40-hour weekday role, living on-site in a fully refurbished 3-bedroom house but accepting that occasional out-of-hour paid work may be required if there is a urgent requirement.

St John’s is a registered charity (No 200669) with a small supportive and friendly staff and it offers an attractive salary package. The position becomes available in August 2023.

Applicants should write or emailed highlighting their interest, ability and relevant experience. Letters should be sent to The Administrator, 33, Hospital of St John, Heytesbury, Warminster BA12 0HW or by email to stjohnshospital2018@outlook.com

The closing date for application is 31st March 2023

Independent Boarding and Day School for Pupils aged 4 -18 GSA/CISC

Independent Co-educational Boarding and Day School Nursery Prep Senior Sixth Form The Society of Heads/CISC

After School Care Provider (Temporary)

Driver Required

10 hours per week

Term Time

Leweston School is seeking an enthusiastic and committed member of staff to join our thriving Prep School, providing after-school care. The successful candidate will run and develop a selection of play-based activities for our younger children aged 4 to 7. We offer competitive rates of pay, in addition to a package of benefits including use of facilities and discounts on childcare. The post-holder will have the opportunity to be involved in our Leweston Holiday Club programme.

We are seeking to appoint a School Minibus Driver to start at the end of August 2018 The role entails driving the School vehicles on designated routes collecting children in the morning and dropping off in the afternoon at prearranged points. You will also assist with some basic maintenance and cleaning of the fleet The primary qualities sought are a genuine commitment to the welfare and safety of young people. You must hold a valid PCV Manual, (D or D1) Licence

The ideal candidate will have experience of working with children, excellent communication skills and a strong work ethic. Experience of working in schools would be an advantage. A natural empathy with young children is essential as well as an ability to work in a strong and committed team and a willingness to participate fully in the life of the school.

This is a part-time role, working 5 days per week from 4.00pm-6.00pm. There may be the possibility of the role becoming permanent.

For further information and to download an application form please visit our website:

Hours: 20 hours per week, Monday to Friday, 0630 to 0830 and 1730 to 1930 Term Time only Rate of Pay: £9 69 per hour plus holiday pay Please

https://www.leweston.co.uk/information/work-with-us

Closing date for Applications: Wednesday 15th March 2023

opportunities employer.

A Catholic Foundation which welcomes pupils of all Denominations Leweston School Trust is a registered charity number 295175

Website maps Alabama Rot

AN online map details all known cases of Alabama Rot – a potentially fatal dog disease.

The map, from the Vets4Pets website, details all reported incidents of the illness – full name Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy (CRGV) – across the UK.

Across the Vale, cases include in Shaftesbury and Yeovil in 2018, Shillingstone in 2015 and West Chelborough in 2017.

Elsewhere, a case of the disease was reported in February 2021, in Poole, and in Wimborne in 2015. What exactly is Alabama Rot? ALABAMA Rot is a disease of unknown cause.

The illness affects all breeds and does not discriminate in terms of age or weight.

BUDGIES FOR SALE, mix of colours £15 each. Please contact: 07902 815851

Book Online

classified@ blackmorevale.net

It damages the blood vessels in the skin and kidneys, causing sores on the skin.

If CRGV is not spotted early, it can lead to severe organ dysfunction and ultimately kidney failure, which is often fatal.

How can you stop the rot?

KNOWING the warning signs is key to treating the disease, Vets4Pets said.

“If caught early your vet can evaluate if your dog has contracted CRGV,” they added.

It’s thought the disease is picked up on the paws and legs on muddy walks, so experts urge dog owners to always wash off woodland mud, check for signs of CRGV, and to contact a vet if in doubt.

Check the full map online at vets4pets.com

FOR SALE,7 YEAR OLD GOLDEN LABRADOR BITCH, not spayed, she is microchipped, lovely temperament, will make a nice family pet, all enquiries welcome. £300 phone 07800 755862

TABLE TOP BIRD/SMALL ANIMAL AND REPTILE SALE on 19th March {more dates available} at Copythorne Parish Hall Cadnam SO402NZ. sellers from 7am buyers from 8am . Well attended, great catering, heated hall! book a table now £5 each . Buyers enter after 8am £2 per head. bird seeds and all animal foods and treats available at amazing prices. Please call Helen on 07895 855699

MINI SMOOTH DACHSHUND Boy 8 months old. £600 07707 646359

2 RED POOCHON GIRL PUPS, parents can be seen. For more info 07522 463444

ITALIAN GREYHOUND PUPPIES

1 girl-£2,800, 1 boy-£2,500 Blue, ready mid-march 10 generation pedigree, deposit secures

Vet checked 07903 468701

BLACK LABRADOR MALE PUPPY KC Registered From working parents Used to children 07783 901639

3 YEAR OLD POOCHON RED GIRL. Personal reasons for sale. Can explain. £1,000 07522 463444

TEDDY BEAR POOCHONS, red,cream,apricot Each £1350 both parents can be seen 07522 463444

It is thought Alabama Rot, which is potentially fatal, is picked up on the paws and legs on muddy walks

PHOTO: Pixabay

When and how to get your bitch spayed

by Lynn Broom Longmead Veterinary Practice

THIS is the second article relating to spaying your bitch. This one covers timing –multiple factors can affect when to do this procedure – and options for the types of surgery available and reasons for each.

Most small breeds can be spayed before their first season without causing any other health problems. However, some breeds – and individuals – are prone to developing urinary incontinence –often much later in life – after spaying. Research suggests this will happen in those individuals regardless of the age at which they are spayed.

Certain breeds appear to be at

higher risk of developing joint problems or certain tumours if neutered before they are physically mature and, as most of these are large breeds, we recommend not spaying a large breed dog before she is 15-18 months old. If other health or behavioural reasons mean that she may need spaying earlier, the relative advantages and disadvantages need to be considered and the best option taken.

The occurrence of intervertebral disc disease in Dachshunds appears to be related to early neutering and, as such, it is recommended that you do not neuter Dachshunds before they are physically mature.

The ideal time to spay a bitch

is four to five months after her season to minimise the risk of any residual pseudo – false –pregnancy symptoms while avoiding the increase in blood supply which develops shortly before her next season. Timing of spaying in bitches which do not have typical six-month cycles should be discussed with your veterinary surgeon.

Veterinary behaviourists have become increasingly aware that long term aggressive behaviour can develop from spaying a bitch while she is having a pseudopregnancy and this should be avoided.

There are broadly two options for spaying. In a ‘normal’ spay the abdominal wall is incised, the uterus and ovaries are visualised, and the ovaries – with or without the uterus – are removed and the abdominal incision closed.

An alternative is a laparoscopic spay where two or three small incisions are made in the abdominal wall and the ovaries are visualised using a camera, cauterised and removed

through one of the existing incisions. This procedure is generally faster and less painful, and recovery is faster and safer, due to the reduced risk of wound breakdown because of the small incision sizes. Laparoscopic equipment is, however, expensive and, as such, laparoscopic spaying is more expensive than a ‘normal’ spay.

Removing the ovaries prevents the bitch coming into season or getting pregnant. The uterus – womb – is often not removed as no higher risk of future health issues exist by leaving it if the ovaries have been fully removed. The exception to this is where disease, such as pyometra – womb infection – or other pathology, is present in the uterus. In this case it is removed as well.

If you are unsure which procedure is right for you and your bitch, please discuss it with your own vet so that you understand all the options available, allowing you to make a fully informed decision.

Trigger, two, black. Very timid chunky chap, needs quiet, patient home to build his confidence

Kevin, one, ginger/white, a very confident happy boy with lots of energy. Needs experienced cat person

Pixie, two, black and white. Very sweet girl with bundles of energy but does need to learn some manners

Tip#34: Benefits of crate-training

by Helen Taylor

THERE are several major benefits to cratetraining your puppy. Crate-trained puppies are usually going through the night without needing a toilet visit within a few weeks of coming home and are housetrained much more quickly.

The ability to confine your puppy to a small space when not closely supervised – and overnight – means that your puppy will learn to ‘hold it’ at a young age. This also means that ‘accidents inside’ can be kept to a minimum.

Outdoors

For details, please call our helpline on 01258 858644 or visit our website, www.cats.org.uk/blandford

LOST CATS

If you have lost a cat, please contact us via our website, phone or Facebook.

Please make sure we have a contact phone number so we can get in touch with you quickly if needed.

FOUND CATS

If you regularly see a cat in your garden or down your street that you don’t think has an owner, please give us a call – it might be a lost cat that could be reunited with its owner.

We are still offering neutering and micro-chipping for £5 in postcode areas DT10 and DT11, SP7 and SP8, and BH21. Phone: 01258 268695.

The more often the puppy toilets inside, the longer it will take to unlearn this, and the slower his housetraining will ultimately be.

The second benefit is that tactical use of a crate makes it very easy for owners to prevent puppies from practising unwanted behaviours. Rehearsing behaviours such as jumping up, learning to steal food, over-boisterous play and chewing furniture when left alone often leads to these becoming long-term habits that can be hard to break.

Thirdly, it is much easier to travel with a dog that can be crated when needed.

Finally, using a crate helps ensure puppies get enough sleep during the day and teaches them to ‘switch off’ regularly, thus helping to prevent difficult behaviours caused by being over-tired. n Helen Taylor BSc(Hons) ADipCBM; certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CCAB); ABTC register of Clinical Animal Behaviourists and Animal Training Instructors; full member APBC & APDT (881); phone: 07951 985193; help@helentaylordorset.co.uk; www. helentaylordorset.co.uk

474380

Feeders & Accessories

BEAUTIFUL WHIPPET PUPPIES. Brindle White, 3 bitches & 2 dogs. Wonderful temperaments for children, fourth generation bred here on farm. Health checked; kennel club registered. Ready for 26th March, £1200 to 5* homes only. 01300 345644

cats looking for homes – farms, stables etc

Daisy, six, black, and Moot, three. Daisy very loving affectionate girl would suit most homes looking for a home with shy Moot

CLASSIFIED ADS

BENTLEY PIANO for sale, good working condition

£300 01258 860272

FRIDGE(60%)/ FREEZER(40%) LIEBHERR

1623Hx600Wx625d good as new & clean £170 Mobile 07717 777511

G10 KIRBY UPRIGHT VACUUM CLEANER with tools and shampooer VGC. Serviced regularly £250. 01258 473211

Book Online

classified@ blackmorevale.net

WENTWORTH WOODEN JIGSAWS for sale. 07753 907200

BRITISH STEAM RAILWAYS MAGAZINES + DVD’s 100 all in all VGC - offers please 01747 854079

JANOME SEWING MACHINE

24 stitches Dropfeed. Automatic button hole Foot conversion Hard cover Little used, good condition £95 01935 817222

ORVIS HYDROS FLY ROD, Orvis Batten Reel. Excellent condition £225. 01258 446329

FREE CLASSIFIED ADS

DVD PLAYER/RECORDER. LG DRT389H - £10 ONO YEOVIL. Tel 07563 105 836. Good working order

MAMAS & PAPS COT/bed + mattress. Used for grandchildren. £20. 01258 472826

MEN’S HARBERRY OF ENGLAND SINGLE BREASTED GREY SUIT with 2 pr trousers wool blend size 40r trousers 34”w £45 01935 851076

SOLID PINE CHEST OF DRAWERS 3 wide drawers 2 narrow drawers £50 07860 969868

ROGER BLACK ROWING MACHINE and Opti folding manual treadmill £50 buyer collects 07952 543283

WAGNER UNIVERSAL PAINT SPRAYER W890 Flexico, boxed and unused £50 Tel 01258 820135

FREE AD up to £50

1 ad per contact number please limit to 15 words or less

classified@ blackmorevale.net

DOG GUARD. SUITABLE FOR SUV. £10. Buyer Collects from Winterbourne Kingston 01929 472871

INDESIT WHITE GAS HOB. 4 burners. LPG convertible 01747 840289 after 4pm

6 WHITE DINNER PLATES, 6 side plates, 6 pudding bowls, unused,£25 the lot. Tel 01747 821538

SINGLE 3FT BED WITH MATTRESS VGC £75 07490 261261

3 CHILD CAR SEATS FOR SALE. Used for grandchildren only. £10 each. Smoke free home. Please ring: 07843 725938

GERBIL CAGE, (Gerbilarium). Excellent condition complete with accessories & bedding material. Good size for maximum of 2. £25. 07874 266213

ONE ITEM. FOR SALE PARKSIDE ELECTRIC LAWN MOWER. cable = 10m.used 3 times.-Tel.01747-228845. £20

SONY SURROUND SYSTEM MULTIPLE speakers all working with wires. No marks in very good condtion.

Contact Cameron on 07549 112851. £50

STAMPS & COINS wanted by collector/ investor. I am very keen to purchase large or small collections at this time.Tel Rod 01308 863790 or 07802 261339

WANTED

OLD BOOKS BOUGHT. Will call by appointment entirely without obligation. Bristow & Garland 07392 602014

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Field & Stream

Spring is here and lambs are on the way...

by A J Selby MARCH – in like a lion, out like a lamb.

The old saying for the month of March is quite apposite given that it’s the busiest month for lambing. Traditionally, springborn lambs were sold through the late summer and into autumn, depending on the speed of rearing – lowland farms with quality pasture could fatten their lambs quicker than those on the hills, where some lambs wouldn’t be born until April or May and not be ready for a year. Conversely, some shepherds lamb early to produce a small animal for the spring lamb market. How does this happen?

Breed: our local poll Dorset and Dorset horn sheep have the ability to lamb at any time of year and this is controlled by melatonin. This chemical hormone is produced during darkness and therefore most sheep become fertile in the autumn as night-time hours increase, but our Dorsets are related to Spanish sheep where the length of day and night are similar all year round and therefore their melatonin clock is set for those climes.

Dorset sheep can be put to the ram in say, July to give birth in December, wherein the lambs can be fed indoors to meet the Easter Market. Working on a dairy farm in the early 1980s we also ran a small flock of Dorsets

that lambed in January. I can still close my eyes and recall the smells and sounds of the lambing shed in the dead of winter, with the warm bodies of the ewes, deep litter straw, wet sugar beet pulp for feed and the background scent of disinfectant.

Some farmers like to ensure that most of the lambs are born in a short time window and to do this they synchronise the breeding of their dams so that they all give birth in a week or so – a busy time for the shepherd but easier to raise the lambs if they are the same age. One method is to ‘sponge’ them – a small ‘sponge’ containing synthetic progesterone is inserted into the ewe with a thin string attached; a couple of weeks later it is gently pulled out and the rams added to the flock two days later. Hey presto, they all come into season together.

A sheep gestates for about 150 days and the easy way to work out due dates is to remember that a sheep that goes to the ‘tup’ – the ram – on bonfire night will give birth on April Fool’s Day. So, if you keep sheep and want them to give birth on March 1, you would put the rams in during the first week of October. To help the shepherd know which ewes have been ‘covered’ – that is, mated – by the tup he may

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attach a shoulder harness to the ram which is strapped under his front legs and to which is attached a block of coloured crayon. When he jumps the ewes, the crayon rubs off over the top of their tails to show he has done his work.

With more than one ram in the flock, different colours can be used, or the flock-master may change the colours after one 16- or 17-day oestrus cycle to see which sheep have been bred. Once the rams are taken out at the end of the breeding period, the ewes can be scanned to see if they are carrying singles, twins or triplets. This procedure helps the pregnancy management of the flock so that those carrying more than a single lamb can receive some supplementary feed if the grass is of poor quality or the weather is very wet. Ewes with multiple foetuses can be susceptible to pregnancy toxaemia, also known as ‘twin-lamb disease’, where the nutrition in their food is insufficient to sustain the growth of the unborn lambs in the last few weeks of pregnancy when the foetus will make 70%

of its growth.

As the lambs grow the ewe will supply them with the extra energy required from her own body fat reserves, which not only makes her thinner but the fat itself is broken down in the liver into ketones, which can poison her if she mobilises too much fat, as she would if carrying twins or triplets. Therefore, identifying ewes with multiple lambs gives the farmer a chance to ensure that she gets a high energy ration. Soon the ewes and their lambs can get out and graze some spring grass. However, as the days lengthen – so the cold strengthens, as the old saw goes – late March brings the blizzard-white display of the blackthorn and with it, very often, a short cold snap. It’s what we call the blackthorn winter and it’s a small blip in the gradual warming of spring. The blackthorn, of course, is the shrub that produces sloes, so you may console yourself during your spring walks that a good display of blossom may result in a bumper crop to fill your gin bottles in the autumn.

A sheep gestates for about 150 days, so a sheep that goes to the ‘tup’ – the ram – on bonfire night will give birth on April Fool’s Day

PHOTO: Stefan Zier/Pixabay

Snowdrops, twins and ginger biscuits

by Tria Stebbing

THE signs are all there, spring is on its way at the field.

I have never seen so many snowdrops, especially under the trees and in the hedgerow – they for most people are a true sign of things getting better. Hard to believe that they were not recorded as growing wild until the late 18th century in the UK. They are not native to the UK and once were viewed as a sign of impending death if growing on their own – more recently a compound in the bulb has been used to develop a dementia treatment. Snowdrop bulbs are poisonous, so treat with caution.

The previously laid hedges are beginning to shoot, and him outdoors is busy laying the remainder of the perimeter hedge before the spring deadline comes. We are keeping our fingers crossed that winter is done now, as a hard frost at this stage would kill off all those young shoots.

The sheep too have noticed that spring is around the corner. The ewe lambs are now headbutting each other, always a sign of good weather or madness. Scanning is about to happen for us. A very late lambing again as we prefer to have the lambs born in line with the lighter evenings and ideally less mud. The need for heat

Equestrian

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lamps is less, and the lambs can be let out of the lambing sheds at a day old, it is hoped to hop and skip in the sun.

Alex the scanner has scanned the sheep for the past four years and is now scanning ewes that were lambs in the first scan. We have an assortment of ages this year but only one first timer. Alex comes out to us with everything he needs neatly stored in his truck. We get the sheep rounded up before he arrives and this also gives us the chance to check their feet, trim hoofs and give any treatment needed.

Why do we scan? Zwartbles are known to carry multiple lambs and will need to be fed to reflect this, in proportion to their needs. Nutrition and trace elements are essential in the run up to lambing, more so if more than one lamb is on board. The optimum window for scanning is 85 days after conception, and we are scanning bang on time.

So today was the big day. We rounded the sheep up and put them into a small space made by fencing them into a square, with not too much room to move or to jump out. While we had them contained, we trimmed their feet and looked for any signs of foot rot, and unbelievably found a tick, a parasite that feeds on the blood

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of animals, which was far earlier than usual. The warmer weather brings them out and warm moist conditions are good for them to breed.

Alex arrived and set up his scanner, and we were off. The first ewe through, although only 85 days into her pregnancy, had clearly eaten too many ginger biscuits and had to be shoved through as she was so fat. A pattern started to develop, as

each one went in and through the scanner, Alex called out ‘twins’ until they had all gone through.

So, we have a flock expecting twins, which will help us to gauge and install a good feeding regime in the next few weeks. It was a joy as usual to scan them as they love the attention and the extra ear tickles, and that extra ginger biscuit for being good!

Wilmot

Milk prices: It’s a case of take a cut or leave it for dairy farmers

by Ruth Kimber

HERE we go again! Milk price cuts for the dairy farmer announced for March – 3p a litre and more in some cases! Just like that, no negotiating, just take what you are given.

Dairy farmers for years have scooted along making ends meet, many relying on diversification or increasingly large herds to balance the books. It was with hope that fairer prices would now put some fairness and confidence

back in dairying to allow for much-needed investment.

As government payments are reducing and regulation and demands on farmers and landowners increasing, delivering ‘the green agenda’ will be a tough ask. Maybe we should go on strike, too!

Food prices have risen but so has cost of production. Maybe more realistic food prices will stem the mountains of food waste generated ever year. The cost to the environment is

massive, not only in producing food and disposing of the uneaten food and packaging, but in the waste of effort, fuel and inputs. Some 30%-plus is a recognised figure.

Dairy farmers are so far behind in being paid properly that the only response will be to produce more to make up the shortfall in income. It’s an ever-decreasing circle. More production will lead to less demand and lower prices. However, if we continue to undervalue our family farms, they will be eaten up by bigger corporate units and lifestyle landowners, changing the face of the British countryside for ever. When will food security rise up the ladder in national recognition? The world over, food shortages are the new normal – it is not going to be as easy for our supermarkets to source from abroad. Nor should they, we have the expertise, land and climate to produce much of our staple needs, with a

smaller carbon and environmental footprint.

We in England, especially in the Westcountry, have some of the most productive land in the world, suited for dairying in particular. Hence the worldrenowned Cheddar cheese. Losing this land to alternative uses will export production outside the UK and often see virgin land rich in wildlife turned over to agriculture, frequently only for minimal benefit for a few short years, before farmers have to move on to another virgin area.

All the talk of fairness throughout the food chain is hollow words – nothing really has changed in our 50 years of dairying. Farmers are attacked on all sides and rarely thanked for their high quality, welfarefriendly produce.

Our rainfall figure for 2022 was 34.31in – 13.9in fell in November and December. We unofficially keep records and have done for years following on

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from Jack, Paul’s father. This January has been about average at 5.29in with a high of 8.7in in 2014 and a low of 1.38in in 2018. One thing for sure, it is one of the biggest factors on any farm.

Nature is coming to life after a particularly cold winter –snowdrops, celandines and catkins give the promise of longer days and spring not too far off. The birds are claiming territories and many of our winter visitors have already left. We have had a big flock of starlings performing their murmurations overhead and with the help of an alarm call haven’t fouled the cattle feed so much as in years past.

n Kimber’s Farm Shop, The Kitchen at Kimber’s, Somerset Trading Barn; Linley Farm, Charlton Musgrove BA9 8HD; phone: 01963 33177; www. kimbersfarmshop.co.uk, info@ kimbersfarmshop.co.uk; opening times Tuesday-Friday 8.30am5pm, Saturday 9.30am-4pm.

Former legal eagle will champion public access

THE Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, has appointed Nicholas WhitsunJones as its local correspondent for the former West Dorset District.

Nicholas will be the society’s eyes and ears in the area, keeping a close watch on paths, commons, greens and open spaces.

Nicholas was in the legal profession for 45 years, specialising in planning and environmental law, including rights of way.

Since retirement he has done voluntary work for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) in Somerset and Devon, and now the Open Spaces Society.

He lives in the country and

very much enjoys rural life and country pursuits, including walking and watching wildlife.

Nicholas said: “I am pleased to be appointed as a local correspondent for the Open Spaces Society.

“West Dorset is varied and beautiful, encompassing

coastline, farmland, and market towns and villages.

“But I know that its paths and spaces are under threat, because of lack of local authority funding, which leads to neglect and deterioration of paths, and also from development.

“My job is to defend these precious assets as best I can.”

Kate Ashbrook, the society’s general secretary, said: “We are delighted that Nicholas has joined our band of local correspondents.

“He will champion public access and people’s ability to exercise their rights to enjoy paths and open spaces, and will help protect them from hostile development. We shall benefit greatly from Nicholas’s expertise and enthusiasm.”

Nicholas Whitsun-Jones

From chef to vet – my unusual career path...

by Paul Doran MA, VetMB, MRCVS, Friars Moor Livestock Health

SEVERAL of my colleagues have suggested that it would be interesting if I wrote about how I became a vet, having started my working life as a chef.

When I tell people I used to be a chef, they are usually surprised and say it’s quite a dramatic career change that I’ve undertaken. I tend to shrug at this and say that as a farm animal vet, I still consider myself to work in food production. I’ve just chosen to focus on a different part of the process.

I gave a lot of thought to what other work I might pursue

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and veterinary medicine seemed to be the ‘best fit’ for me. I had grown up in a rural area, was interested in animals, food, farming and science, and while I had never put it to good use by that point in my life, I knew I was quite academically able.

When I looked into what becoming a vet would involve, I dismissed the idea at first. I didn’t have the right entry requirements for university and places on veterinary degrees were highly sought after. I did consider several other career possibilities, but in the short term, I left the kitchen behind and took a job for a local farm supplies company.

The job suited me quite well.

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The work was a mixture of shop work, warehouse work and forklift driving. I enjoyed the social aspect of being in the shop and got on well with the customers, most of whom were farmers, of course.

After a very short time though, I did get incredibly bored of it.

In the absence of a better plan, I decided to pursue veterinary medicine after all. I had adequate GCSEs to apply to vet school but I did not have the required A-levels and work experience.

My day job turned out to be a bit of a godsend. I accrued enough time off work to facilitate both taking my exams and undertaking plenty of work experience.

During this time, it became more and more clear to me that I really wanted to work with farmers and farm animals. I applied to vet school in 2010 and accepted an offer from the University of Cambridge. The

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first couple of years of vet school were the most difficult, not just academically but emo-tionally, for all of us, as we had uprooted ourselves from everything and everyone we knew.

Over the following years, things got easier, and we managed to adjust better to our circumstances. My studies became more manageable, and I came to enjoy being a studentparent.

I graduated in 2017 and have worked at Friars Moor ever since. I found the practice to have a very friendly, supportive culture that appealed to me right away and they went to a lot of trouble to help me ‘find my feet’ as a new graduate.

It’s also quite a diverse workplace which may have helped my unusual work history seem a little less odd than it might’ve done otherwise. They have really helped me develop as a vet and encouraged me to pursue my specific clinical

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Independent veterinary services for livestock in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire

Independent veterinary services for livestock in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire

Independent veterinary services for livestock in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire

Collection points for livestock medicines and supplies at Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Blandford and Shaftesbury

Collection points for livestock medicines and supplies at Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Blandford and Shaftesbury

Collection points for livestock medicines and supplies at Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Blandford and Shaftesbury

Please call the office on 01258 472314

Please call the office on 01258 472314

Please call the office on 01258 472314

interests.

Although it necessitated a lot of work and determination to change career in the way I did, it re-quired a lot from the people around me as well. Most of all, my wife Juno was incredibly supportive. She encouraged me and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself, and she helped me so much in so many ways. I still love to cook and enjoy

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Local haulier Andrew Frizzle retires after 40 years of serving farmers across the South. Andrew has been a fantastic support of Frome Livestock Market and we wish both him and Lucy all the very best for the future!

A delightful and beautifully renovated 2 bedroom cottage with enclosed garden situated on a quiet no through lane in this popular village. EPC D; CTB C. Freehold Sturminster 01258 473766

A charming 3 bedroom Georgian House situated in an elevated position on the outskirts of the town offered for sale with no onward chain. EPC D; CTB D. Freehold Sturminster 01258 473766

We’re inviting entries for our first auction of the year, to be held on 2 March in Wimborne. Entries so far include a number of properties for renovation, agricultural and building land, and even a barge!

We’re inviting entries for our first auction of the year, to be held on 2 March in Wimborne. Entries so far include a number of properties for renovation, agricultural and building land, and even a barge!

find out how this fast and efficient method of sale and purchase can work for you, please contact:

To find out how this fast and efficient method of sale and purchase can work for you, please contact:

We’re inviting Wimborne. Entries To find out how

Mark Lewis | 01258 473766

Mark Lewis | 01258 473766

Meredith Holmes | 01202 843190

A substantial 5 bedroom farmhouse with large gardens and double garage, situated within a mile of the town. Subject to AOC. Holding Deposit £415; Security Deposit £2076. CTB F; EPC E. Yeovil 01935 423526

Graham Barton | 01297 33122

Meredith Holmes | 01202 843190 Graham Barton | 01297 33122

n attractive 5 bedroom Victorian farmhouse backing onto farmland and located on the outskirts of Sherborne. Holding deposit £507; Security Deposit £2538. CTB G; EPC E. Yeovil 01935 423526

100% success rate at our December Auction

SOLD SOLD

Affpuddle 21% above guide

Affpuddle Sold 21% above guide

West Morden Sold 45% above guide

West Morden Sold 45% above guide

Winterbourne Houghton Sold 233% above guide

Winterbourne Houghton Sold 233% above guide

Sold 21% above

Nr Ilchester £1800pcm/£415pw

Nr Sherborne £2200pcm/£507pw

Marnhull Guide £390,000

Sturminster Newton Guide £550,000

Lower Road, Stalbridge – Asking Price £270,000

Morton New are delighted to offer this delightful family home to the market. With three good sized bedrooms, contemporary downstairs living space plus an easy maintenance garden, this is the ideal property for a growing family.

31 Lower Road is a mid terrace house with its own garage and parking plus front and rear gardens, and is located on the fringe of Stalbridge within walking distance to all facilities and the peaceful Trailway & Nature Reserve.

From the galleried landing to the stylish kitchen fitted with sleek units and counter lighting, double doors with full height windows leading from the fabulous garden room to the beautifully landscaped rear garden, you will be impressed by the amount of loving maintenance and improvements made to the property in recent years.

An early viewing is absolutely essential to avoid missing out - contact our Sturminster Newton Office on 01258 473030.

Established in 2011 Morton New is a dynamic and innovative residential sales and lettings agency focusing solely on the needs and requirements of their clients. This commitment and dedication has been rewarded with excellent 5 star customer reviews and a string of industry awards over the past few years. The latest award for Exceptional Marketing Service and Results has been given by the Best Estate Agent Guide (BEAG), an independent reference source for sellers and landlords to help them find the best sales and lettings agencies in their area.

Marnhull Guide Price £450,000

A captivating and beautifully restored listed detached stone cottage with good ceiling height, two double bedrooms, backing on to pastureland and situated in a desirable and tranquil village.

A well proportioned detached bungalow with two double bedrooms, three reception rooms and enjoying a quiet cul de sac location close to the centre of this well served village EPC D Stalbridge Asking Price £645 000

A delightful detached four bedroom Grade II listed converted school with a far reaching spectacular outlook over the beautiful Blackmore Vale and within easy reach of the town

Exempt

Agricultural tied dwelling in South Cheriton comprising five bedroomed chalet style bungalow set in fifteen acres with an outbuilding

D

Shaftesbury Guide Price £140,000

A very rare opportunity to purchase a sizeable plot of land with full planning permission granted (2/2019/0349/Ful)

to erect a three double bedroom linked attached town house Close to the town

Ryme Intrinseca Asking Price £255,000

A beautiful character cottage with three bedrooms, one reception room, delightful courtyard garden and enjoying a central position in this popular and well served Somerset village EPC D South Cheriton Asking Price £750,000

A delightful mid terraced stone cottage, offering around 662 sq ft (61 sq m) of accommodation with two double bedrooms, no onward chain and situated in this sought after village EPC E

£450,000

£450,000 Templecombe

Attractive modern four bedroom thatched cottage on a small development of characterful properties. Blending modern day living with charm and character enjoying a number of features including a curved wall in the study and third bedroom, sitting room with fireplace, master bedroom with en-suite, dining room, double garage, garden. EPC Rating C. Freehold.

Thinking of moving in 2023?

£325,000

A delightful four bedroom family home enjoying generous living accommodation arranged over three floors. Comprising spacious sitting room, stylish kitchen/breakfast room, master bedroom with en-suite, garage and good size garden. EPC Rating: TBC. Freehold.

NEW INSTRUCTION

We are enjoying a busy start to the year having registered many buyers looking to purchase a property in the local towns and villages.

If you are considering bringing your property to the market we would be delighted to provide you with a free market assessment and valuation.

BRUTON £225,000

Please call 01963 34000 to arrange an appointment or email wincanton@hambledon.net

and en-suite. Spacious lounge/diner, fitted kitchen, private garden, garage and no forward chain. EPC Rating: C.

NEW INSTRUCTION

£230,000

WINCANTON £145,000

WINCANTON £226,500

An exceptionally well presented three bedroom semi-detached house with stunning far reaching views over Wincanton and countryside beyond. Sitting room, stylish fitted kitchen, master bedroom with en-suite shower room, cloakroom, driveway and garage alongside property,

£437,500

An impressive three bedroom detached

An attractive two bedroom mid terrace house situated in a small close on a mature development. Spacious sitting room, kitchen/diner, bathroom, easy to maintain garden, allocated parking, ideal investment or first time buy. EPC Rating: C.

WINCANTON 01963 34000

Shaftesbury 01747 851151

WINCANTON £179,950

A spacious two bedroom semi-detached house situated on a popular residential development. The property is presented in excellent order and enjoys the benefit of a car port, long driveway, enclosed garden, sitting room, fitted kitchen, conservatory and potential to extend (STPP). EPC Rating: D.

in a sought after lane close to river and countryside walks. Spacious accommodation comprising light and airy sitting room with sliding door to garden, kitchen/ breakfast room, utility room, master bedroom with en-suite shower room, newly fitted family bathroom, double garage and sunny aspect garden. EPC Rating: D. Freehold.

HAMLET LETTINGS

01963 34006

An attractive two bedroom house situated within a mews style development set back off the High Street just a short walk from the town centre amenities. This delightful home combines modern day living with a characterful appearance. There is the benefit of a large single garage with an electric door, open plan kitchen/living room, cloakroom, GCH and bath/shower room. EPC Rating: C. Freehold.

Wincanton

Gillingham

bungalow situated

A two bedroom end terrace house situated a short walk of a mainline train station and Co-op store. This spacious property enjoys the benefit of a private driveway next to the property, garage in nearby block with a parking space in front and a good size rear garden. EPC Rating: E. Freehold.

Wincanton

Wincanton

‘More mortgages are now available’

MORTGAGE rates are falling and product choice is increasing as the market continues to stabilise, according to property agent Zoopla.

The firm said a total of 4,341 different deals are currently available, up from 3,643 in January, marking the first time product choice has risen above 4,000 since August last year.

The average interest rate charged on both two-year and five-year deals has also fallen for the third month in a row, according to financial information group Moneyfacts.

The typical cost of a two-year deal is now 5.44%, down from 5.79% in January, while interest on five-year fixed rate mortgages has dropped to 5.20%, from 5.63%.

The latest fall puts the cost of both products back where they were in October 2022, despite the Bank of England Bank Rate rising by 1.75% during the same period.

The average amount of time a mortgage is available before it is withdrawn has increased to 28 days, the highest level since March 2022, and up from just 15 days in

January.

Mortgage lenders withdrew products and hiked their rates in the wake of former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget

number of different mortgages available dropping to just 2,258 at the beginning of October.

But the market has been recovering steadily since Jeremy Hunt took over as Chancellor and reversed nearly all of the measures in the mini-Budget.

As a result, mortgage rates have been on a downward trend, despite the Bank Rate moving in the opposite direction.

Mortgage availability has increased across all deposit levels. The biggest rebound has been for people with a 40% stake in their home, with 606 products now available, the highest level for three years and up from 484 in January.

in September last year.

The turmoil caused by the mini-Budget led to a steep rise in government borrowing costs, which in turn impacted the rate at which lenders borrow money for fixed rate deals.

As a result, banks and building societies pulled products for repricing, with the

There is also good news for first-time buyers, with 149 mortgages on the market for people with only a 5% deposit and 539 for those with 10%.

Rates are also falling across the board, with the average cost of a five-year fixed rate product for those with 40% to put down back below 5%, while two-year fixed rate deals for people borrowing 95% of their home’s value are averaging 5.99% and five-year ones are 5.53%.

WANTED TO RENT. MOBILE PARK HOME OR SMALL PROPERTY, preferably unfurnished.

I am a retired lady who has 2 small dogs and would like to live within easy reach of Wimborne or Blandford. Please contact: 07789 286736

BARN TO RENT, High ceilings, Approx 3600 Sq Ft, Could be split up to suit, Melcombe Bingham, 07725 910364

Handmade natural skincare and jewellery inspired by nature.

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