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 [...]

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 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, [...]

ARTICLE UPDATED on November 26, and again on December 5. Watch YouTube video showing train journey from Bridport to Maiden Newton in 1975 by clicking on this link. Note: film is silent WORK may start before Christmas on plans to turn the old Bridport to Maiden Newton railway line into a Trailway for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users. The Dorset Area of Outstanding [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Note: This article was first published in October. It’s been slightly revised and is being republished now because of the Government’s anouncement, in the Queen’s Speech today, that it’s going to legislate for four carbon capture and storage schemes. Sites are needed…   MILLIONS of tons of carbon dioxide could be stored deep underground Dorset to help combat climate change. Only a few [...]

I POPPED in to Bridport Old Books and Caroline said to me: “Here, try this.” So I put some headphones on and listened to what sounded like a conversation with all the interesting bits taken out. Er – pause – like – pause – ah – pause… “You can walk around,” said Caroline. “It’s all [...]

YOU MUST read this: a piece in The Times about how an abandoned garden in Cerne Abbas suggests the giant was created in the late 16th or early 17th century. Click on this link here. The Times refers to a letter in Current Archaeology magazine in which Rob Wilson-North, historic environment manager for Exmoor National Park Authority, [...]