Lesley Waters on food in West Dorset and Kevan Sheehan on his pliosaur discovery

BEAMINSTER is recommended by chef Lesley Waters as a good base for “foodies” who want to explore West Dorset.

Ms Waters says that Mat Follas’s restaurant The Wild Garlic is one of the reasons why this “classic Wessex market town” is “fast becoming a food hot spot”.

It also has “a great butcher’s and greencocer’s”. That’s true, but it is a bit of a tease, because actually of course Beaminster has two butchers; I wonder if she really prefers one over the other. We’ll have to ask her…

Bridport, Burton Bradstock, Evershot and Sydling St Nicholas also earn a mention in a piece in The Sunday Times you can read by clicking on this link.

Before you go, though, let me tell you that there’s also a good piece in The Sunday Times today by Kevan Sheehan, writing about the unveiling this week of the massive pliosaur skull that he found in Weymouth Bay, then sold for eventual display in Dorset County Museum. Mr Sheehan says he used to keep fragments of his discovery all around his house, some bits in his coalhole, others mouldering under the apple tree in his garden. Click on this link to read more.

What I don’t understand is why so many reports (eg, in the Bridport News) said the pliosaur was found at Charmouth. The exact location is being kept a secret by Mr Sheehan and organisations like Dorset County Council who were involved in the skull’s purchase, but wasn’t it somewhere out Kimmeridge way? Weymouth Bay was the only location Dorset County Council was prepared to confirm to reporters.