TWO anti-tank grenades and a rifle-launched grenade have been found in the loft of a farm in Uploders near Bridport.
Posts from the “Bridport News & Views” Category
YOU'RE SO VANE: The weathervane on top of Bridport Town Hall, resplendent in its new coat of gold. Bridport artist Jemma Thompson is pictured right.
THE WEATHERVANE on top of Bridport Town Hall has been re-gilded – and very fine it looks too.
Bridport artist Jemma Thompson applied sheet gold in her studio on St Michael’s trading estate in the South West Quadrant.
The weathervane is much bigger – and heavier – than it looks from down on the ground.
It’s 2.4 metres long and is made from lead and copper, so it weighs around 100kg.
It took 10 men to get it back up on top of the Town Hall’s cupola.
Bob Gillis, clerk to Bridport Town Council, said: “The dome of the cupola has also been cleaned and the columns repainted. The clock face and surrounding slates are now being repaired and restored and as work is completed from the top down we will be lowering the scaffolding.”
LACKLUSTRE: Bridport Town Hall weathervane and cupola before re-gilding and restoration.
Bridport Town Hall is being restored as part of a £1.2 million Heritage and Conservation Project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Bridport Town Council, Dorset County Council, and West Dorset District Council.
Weathervane was stuck in Somerset cart wheel hub
Bridport Town Hall is Grade 1 Listed but that doesn’t mean it was constructed with impeccable skills and materials first time round.
I was talking about it in The Loders Arms the other evening to structural engineer Simon Brody of Brody Forbes Partnership in West Bay.
He was saying that a key part of the structure supporting the weathervane (the bit the pole was stuck into, in very non-technical terms) had been found to be the hub of an old Somerset cart wheel. He knew it was Somerset because there was a name inscribed which he’d traced back as far as 1823.
Mr Brody wondered whether a cart had come down from somewhere like Taunton or Shepton Mallett and broken down and, rather than try to repair it, they’d salvaged the wheel hub for re-use.
And you have to say: it may have been improvised back in the 19th century, but no one could say that it hadn’t lasted, given that it’s now 2011.
Editor’s Note: Jemma Thompson also gilded the fine golden bull hanging outside The Bull Hotel in Bridport. Pretty cool to have two gold artefacts in Bridport town centre. I can only think of the King George III statue in (say) Weymouth. The statue’s mason, incidentally, was James Hamilton – who also worked on Bridport Town Hall…
A UFO has been reported flying over Dorset for the second time this summer.
PC Scott McGregor, lead officer in Bridport’s Safer Neighbourhood Team, revealed news of the latest sighting on Twitter @BridPoliceSNT: “UFO sightings in the Bridport area 7th June and now another last night #wearenotalone”
Pc McGregor said the first incident reported to Dorset Police occurred on June 7th at 1453hrs in the Bothenhampton area, just east of Bridport.
He went on: “The second one occurred at approx 2140hrs Wed 17th Aug… sighting was again over the area of Bothenhampton. ‘UFO sighted traveling at speed in excess of that of a conventional aircraft… Changing shape several times… with bright lights object was sighted for approx 40mins’.”
Both incidents have been logged by Dorset Police.
Editor’s Note: A few details such as the location of Bothenhampton have been spelled out for the benefit of readers not living in the Bridport area. I know from experience that stories about UFOs tend to attract interest from beyond Dorset. (See, for example, an earlier story on this site – http://www.realwestdorset.co.uk/wordpress/12/2010/ufo-or-moon-photograph-west-milton-bridport-dorset/ - which I’ve been told by several people was a camera freak and not the moon, as I thought it might be).
Immersing yourself in Bridport
David Partridge
This blurb covers the things that I do or know about to do and come from a left libertarian arty anarchic view. There may be a whole different life that can be lived in Bridport, that I do not know about. It also shows me what a foody I am.
Folk/accoustic nights
I send out an sms message to people reminding them when there are folk/accoustic nights in local pubs. These are mostly on Tuesdays at The Woodman in South Street, and pubs in Symondsbury, Chideock & Charmouth. I can add you to this list, it costs me nothing.
Country Market
This used to be called the WI market. Good food available North Street 9 to 11 Saturday Mornings.
Farmers Market
Bridport Arts Centre, second Saturday morning of each month.
Street Market
Big one on Saturday, smaller one on Wednesday.
Highlights for me are McSorsons fish stall on West Street, normally Gerald and Mark.
Quakers
Try anything once except incest and folk dancing. (Thomas Beecham or composer Arnold Bax). Meeting is at 10.30 on Sunday and involves sitting silently for an hour. They/we do not proselytise. I will escort you if you want to go.
Transition Town Bridport
There is a group called Transition Town Bridport that is about making Bridport greener and less dependent upon oil, and being more local in its economics. Email admin@transitiontownbridport.co.uk to get on mailing list.
Autonomous films
Left libertarian films, and talks. Email autofilm1@gmail.com to get on mailing list.
Bridport Peace and Justice Group
Email bpjg@bpjg.co.uk to get on mailing list. This is somewhat dormant at the moment. (Website link: Bridport Peace and Justice Group.)
West Dorset Local Exchange Trading scheme
This is about trading services without the use of money.
Subscribe at membership@swdorsetlets.org.uk
Bridport Arts Centre
I think that you have to join to be on their mailing list, not sure.
Buses
31 Axminster to Weymouth connects with trains to London and Exeter.
X53 (Jurassic Coast) Exeter to Poole/Bournemouth in summer, shorter in winter. Very slow but lots of coast and countryside.
Trains
Dorchester South Trains to London, and by changing at Bournemouth to Oxford and Manchester.
Axminster Trains to Exeter and beyond.
Dorchester West, Slow train to Gloucester
Sources of other info
Window at Good News/Fruits of the Earth.
Notice Board in The Ropemakers and The George.
Others
Yoga, Thai Chi, British Legion, Conservative Club. These are nearly beyond my radar, but I believe that they exist, in the same way that I rather fear that Basingstoke exists.
Editor’s Note: David Partridge compiled this short guide for a friend of his who is moving to Bridport. He sent it to me with the modest suggestion that elements of it might be of wider interest. As I’m a fan of Mr Partridge, one of Bridport’s most distinctive presences, I was always going to agree, so here it is.
Click here to see Mr Partridge at the 2010 Bridport Hat Festival.
Click here to see him in a short political film, still worth watching if only to reflect upon what a lot has happened since it was made.
SHOPS around Bridport are being encouraged to get creative and decorate their windows with butterfly-inspired designs. A competition is being held to promote Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild about Bridport Butterfly Bonanza on June 4.
The contest is meant to colour Bridport’s streets with the splendour of butterflies and to show how anyone can get involved in helping wildlife.
THINGS are moving on at a rapid pace down at Tannery Road in Bridport.
I haven’t heard a cuckoo yet but I have seen the next best thing. A man, a very brave man, canvassing for the Liberal Democrats.