I WAS thinking the other day about Colin Varndell, because I was trying to draw up a list in my head of excellent West Dorset people and organisations. By excellent, I mean almost gratuitously obsessed with quality, and with the means and the skill to produce superb results. The first individuals that came to mind [...]

A PAIR of ringed plovers have bred in the far west of Dorset for the first time. The wading birds have raised four chicks at Chard Junction Quarry. Site owners Bardon Aggregates and Dorset Wildlife Trust turned a disused part of the quarry into a community nature reserve about a year ago.  Bardon Aggregates are [...]

First things first ONLY the village of Walditch near Bridport boasts a real place called Jellyfields. It’s a 3-hectare Local Nature Reserve off Lower Walditch Lane, with grass, woodland, stream and small pond and it’s managed for West Dorset District Council by Dorset County Council’s Countryside Service. The NEWS is that a resurfaced path is [...]

On Bluebell Hill, overlooking Lush Places, the colours are so intense they are almost blinding. The clean, lime green of the beech trees, the swathe of bluebells, an ocean of them, oh so blue. And then very occasionally, a white one pops up out of nowhere. This place is magical at the best of times and [...]

A BARN OWL called Bob, who’s been living in a box by himself for several years, has found a mate called Brenda. Bob was the solitary occupant of an owl box at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve, near Weymouth. Now he’s been joined by Brenda, it’s reckoned that five or more eggs may [...]

DORSET Wildlife Trust and the Kingcombe Environmental Studies Centre have decided to work together to boost environmental education and participation in nature conservation in Dorset. Trustees of the charities see this as an important opportunity for two organisations with similar aims. Dorset Wildlife Trust has greatly expanded its educational work in recent years, helping many people [...]

PROPERTIES on the eastern side of Lyme Regis will be destroyed by landslides and erosion within five years unless a £20 million coastal protection scheme is carried out. Since the earliest time any major scheme could start is in Spring 2012, and since work is likely to take two years, engineers are now racing against the clock and the [...]

DORSET has been chosen as the first place in England for people to get new rights of access to the coast. The quango Natural England has been ordered by the Government to create an unbroken long-distance walking route around the coast, with some limited possibilities for spreading out for activities like picnics. Work is going to begin at [...]

DAVE SALES, a shellfisherman for over fifty years, has worked the Dorset Coast from Poole to West Bay. In the course of his long career, he has experienced many changes in the industry. He has been a member of the Southern Sea Fisheries Committee for more than forty years and studied the fishing industry in [...]

Notes on the Earthscapes exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre, curated by Sherborne House Arts Part 1: The Project straightforwardly Described A SCALE MODEL of a sculpture to be sited either side of the new Dorchester to Weymouth Relief Road has gone on show for the first time. It’s on display at Bridport Arts Centre as part of Sherborne [...]