2p or not 2p; bogger or blogger? Waddon earth! Etc
THIS photograph was sent to me in an email catchlined 2p or not 2p, with the message: “Came across this at Friar Waddon today while on a walk – thought you might appreciate it! Trevor [Bevins]” The terrible thing is, he’s right: I do appreciate it. I mean, you can’t look at this picture and not be [...]
Memorial to dead worker restored as Beaminster Tunnel set to reopen
THREE DAYS before Beaminster Tunnel first opened to the world in June 1832, one of the men working on it died. William Aplin, a labourer, was killed by “a quantity of earth falling on him in widening the road under Hornhill, this side of the tunnel” [that is, the Beaminster side]. The fatal spot was marked by a stone with a [...]
Artist 763, corrugated
ARTIST Liz Somerville is opening up her studio in Cattistock this weekend for a Christmas Sale. There’s something about her technique, and her sense of colour, which both captures and recasts the Dorset landscape, its atmosphere, its boundaries, its contours, its delights… I could write whole alphabets of praise; I really rate her work. Anyway, [...]
Old Bridport to Maiden Newton railway line may become Trailway
The branch line became a well-loved part of the local landscape. Poet and author Sylvia Townsend Warner, who lived in Frome Vauchurch just outside Maiden Newton, described the locomotive as trotting obediently under the shadow of Eggardon Hill like a little horse. She also wrote of the train’s “marmalade” light.
Strummer Pink opens in Beaminster, “the buzz town of West Dorset”
“PEOPLE really do enjoy coming to Beaminster and I’m constantly hearing feedback that suggests that Beaminster is the buzz town of West Dorset and certainly this region. It’s good. It’s exciting.” So says Deborah (‘Debs’) Moxhay, owner of Strummer Pink. For anyone who’s known Beaminster for a while, the idea of it being “the buzz [...]
Take this Sword of Damocles away from our coast, says Dorset Wildlife Trust
DORSET Wildlife Trust claims that 10 oil tankers sitting in Lyme Bay, waiting for oil prices to rise, are “an accident waiting to happen”. Tankers parked off the coast near Brixham are thought to be earning oil speculators £1 million per day. The AA and the RAC claim that motorists will end up paying more for petrol because of hoarding by suppliers. Conservationists are [...]
Pilsdon the model for new woodland commune in Somerset
THE WRITER Tobias Jones has sold his house in Bristol and bought 10 acres of woodland in Somerset so that he and his family can set up a commune modelled on the Pilsdon Community in the Marshwood Vale. Pilsdon is a Christian refuge for people with broken lives, set up in 1958 by a clergyman [...]