Posts tagged “West Bay”
06/08/2010 No comments

Bridport Museum curator leaves for Chartwell

BRIDPORT Museum curator Alice Martin is leaving to become house and collections manager at Sir Winston Churchill’s old house, Chartwell in Kent.

“I went there once when I was a kid,” she said.

“Now I get to live in the house. It will be fantastic.

“I’m also looking forward to working for the National Trust.”

Ms Martin has been in charge of Bridport Museum for almost five years and is universally liked and respected for her enterprise and verve. Visitor numbers have doubled during her tenure, in part thanks to last year’s move towards free admission. Money raised through an auction of promises earlier this year enabled the museum’s free entrance policy to continue, and visitor numbers for 2010 have so far been good.

Ms Martin also helped to secure backing for a project exploring the links between Bridport / West Bay and Newfoundland, and the museum’s currently got extra young staff (such as fundraising officer Emily Weeks) working through the Future Jobs Fund.

Ms Martin has also been heavily involved with Bridport Museum’s proposed move to the Literary & Scientific Institute in East Street, Bridport (more of her thoughts on this should appear on this site soon).

In short, Chartwell’s gain will be Bridport’s loss. Ms Martin said she would miss Bridport but the chance to manage Chartwell was a fabulous opportunity.

She will leave Bridport Museum on September 21 and start at Chartwell on October 12.

Her job is advertised here.

Ms Martin said: “There’s a lot of bright people out there and curators’ jobs are quite sought after. I’m sure there will be somebody comes down to Bridport – or there could be somebody already in Bridport. You know what a range of wonderful people there is around here.”
16/05/2010 1 Comment

Bridport: Much ado about Bucky-Doo

BRIDPORT’S first gig Bucky-Doo has been launched at West Bay.

The weather was drizzly, and the sky was overcast, but the chairman of Bridport Gig Rowing Club Mike Carter was thrilled – even if he didn’t get to go out on the water himself.

“It’s been a fantastic event,” he said, “a year’s achievement has been delivered today, it’s just great to see.”

Mr Carter had to stay on the slipway and pontoon because he hasn’t actually been rowing in a gig before.

“I’m looking forward to pulling my weight in future,” he said.

His novice-status is a sign of how new the Bridport club is – and as a Philip Colfox comments on another story on this site –

It is truly incredible that with only one season’s hard work Bridport Gig Rowing Club has come from zero to lots of members and a boat on the water. Next target is a wooden boat and a boatshed. Then we must set our sights after an all-singing, all-dancing clubhouse with a good view of the water.

The club is indeed now planning for the future.

Five club members are being trained as coxes and gig rowing lessons are scheduled to start in June.

Six new members have joined in the last week, but more are still being sought, and there’s a meeting at The Ropemakers in Bridport this Thursday at 7pm.

Membership secretary Jim Binning was hopeful that the launch at West Bay would inspire more people to join, so taking the number up past 50.

The launch

The launch began in classic Bridport fashion with lots of milling about, and lots of photographs of inanimate objects being taken.

Here’s one of the oars, which only came on Thursday:

Then the Rev Peter Edwards arrived from St Swithun’s in Bridport, with holy water in a cleaned-out plastic milk container, and sidekick Duncan Wilson, a Deacon, who previously served in the Army for 24 years.

Bucky-Doo was moved to the top of the slipway, Mr Carter made a speech, and the Deacon read from the Bible in a stirring voice that suggested he knew how to make it carry across parade grounds. 

The Vicar spoke of Our Lord Jesus Christ being Master of the Sea, and he sprinkled Bucky-Doo with holy water, now transferred into a more religious-looking vessel.

Next it was the turn of Bridport’s Mayor Martin Ray to open a bottle of Cava and wet the nose of the gig.

This took longer than expected…

But the deed was done, to a pop of applause, and Bucky-Doo was carefully manoeuvred down the slipway.

First sitting in the boat with an oar was Lawrence Shillingford, soon joined by other Bridport rowers, with two from Weymouth who’d come to help out and a cox who’d come down specially from Bristol.

And out they went to row off the Jurassic Coast, accompanied by other Bridport members – and some rowers from Lyme Regis – in one of Lyme’s gigs called Revenge.

It’s hoped soon to start a Jurassic League, when Bridport has raised enough money for a wooden gig that enables the club to race against Lyme Regis and Weymouth. There are strict rules governing gig racing and Bucky-Doo is only fibre-glass.

Bridport Gig Rowing Club is being sponsored by Palmers Brewery to the tune of £7,000 and £10,000 will be given by Sport England, if £10,000 of match-funding can be found by August. Planned events include an auction of pledges at The Bull Hotel in Bridport in July.

But for now – after a year – Bridport Gig Rowing Club is a club that has a gig that’s been rowed through the sea. And that is indeed an achievement.
22/04/2010 No comments

Bridport: Children’s gigs to brighten beach

FIFTY ONE cardboard gigs have been painted by children at Symondsbury School near Bridport, and they’ll all be displayed at West Bay this Sunday (April 25).

Bridport’s new Gig Rowing Club has organised the Beach Boats event on East Beach between 11am and 2pm.

Club chair Mike Carter will present a model gig to the maker of the judges’ favourite boat  at 12.30pm.

Club member Nancy Clemance said: ‘This is going to be a lovely, colourful spectacle for East Beach, and completely in keeping with the community nature of the club.

“I hope we meet lots of children and their families on the day.”

The event is being staged partly because the Bridport Club is due to get its first training gig very soon. This gig, made of fibreglass, will be called Bucky Doo. The club also wants to get a proper Cornish wooden racing gig.

More members would be nice too.

Ms Clemance said: “If we can recruit a few mums, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles or friends to row Bucky Doo this summer then we’ll be in excellent shape for the arrival of our first racing gig next year.”

Ms Clemance, a freelance curator and arts outreach worker, moved to Bridport from Cambridge last year. She’s been rowing four times in gigs borrowed from other clubs.

She said: “If I can do it, anyone can.”

Gig racing is a fast-growing sport. Bridport’s club is the 55th in the South West.

Its informative website can be seen by clicking on this link. Photographs of the Beach Boats events taken by students at Mountjoy School in Bridport should soon be posted on there as well.
12/04/2010 No comments

“Yes, yes, yes”: Last chance to see Dorset thriller Dope Under Thorncombe with live music

Dope Under Thorncombe is a feature film about drug smuggling in West Dorset.

It was shot in the late 1930s, mostly at West Bay and along the coast, though some scenes were filmed inland, such as the gunfight at Eggardon Hill.

The producer was Bridport man Frank Trevett, who inspired his friends and family to act in many roles, on screen and off, to splice together his vision.

There is a glamorous heroine, a handsome hero, an evil gang boss from London, rough matelots, caddish behaviour, a chase, a kidnap…

For many years Dope Under Thorncombe survived as a treat for the descendants of those who made it, watched on special occasions in a mood of excited nostalgia.

Then a copy was passed to the Dorset rural media charity Trilith by Frank’s son, the late Rex Trevett (famous as Bridport’s Mr Music as a musician), and then Rex’s sister Vivien Smith provided the original black-and-white silent film. At which point Trilith director Trevor Bailey sensed a very special opportunity; to commission a score to go with Dope Under Thorncombe and present the newly enhanced film to the wider world.

Dope Under Thorncombe from James Harrison on Vimeo.

“Silent films and music to reflect and enhance their mood always went together,” said Trevor. “Here was a chance to show how the imaginative efforts of a group of friends all those years ago could inspire modern creativity.”

Trevor commissioned the composer Rachael Leach to write a score, which was premiered live earlier this year at Bridport Arts Centre and rapturously received.

Among the comments – Brilliant. Fantastic. Wonderful. Yes, yes, yes.

Now there is one final chance to see Dope Under Thorncombe with live performance of its music at Burton Bradstock Village Hall, 7.30pm, 24 April. To book tickets call 01308-897214.

Vivien Smith will give a short talk about how the film came to be made and the memories that her family and other local people have of their roles.

There will also be a full supporting programme of other Dorset archive films from the Trilith collection.

There were 157 people in the audience at Bridport Arts Centre, 83 of whom filled in questionnaires and this is what they said:

Really good. A joy to watch and listen to.

Excellent.

A great historical document.

(On the importance of saving and exhibiting old films) Very important indeed!

Great fun!

Good to see the films giving us the opportunity to realise how people lived many years ago.

(On the music) In keeping if a little loud. I was delighted that Dope Under Thorncombe had been resurrected. I first saw it in about 1939.

Very enjoyable evening. Fascinating films and local history.

To have live music and the composer here was wonderful.

Thank you. A great evening. Wonderful work you do.

Marvellous music. Great fun.

Hooray!

Music brilliant. Complemented film so well. So important to keep these old films ‘alive’! Well done.

A really informative, lively evening!

Great!!  We need more of this kind of ‘living archive’.

Carry on the good work.

A brilliant performance. Well done.

The film could have been made for the music!

Very entertaining. Thank you.

Excellent score. Great musicians.

Musical accompaniment was a bonus!

The music not only enhanced the film, but could have stood alone as a piece in itself.

Very enjoyable. Thank you.

More Reels to your Spools. A great asset to Dorset especially Amplion.

Great evening – good to see a large audience at the Arts Centre with an old-to-young mix. Music and performers excellent. Please continue funding Trilith.

An excellent evening. Most enjoyable.

Brilliant.

Interesting and historical. First half was a little too long.

Great fun and important stuff!

Wonderful. What a fantastic evening and well done to the funders for supporting a brilliant project!!

Fantastic music – really loved it.

Brilliant!

A very worthwhile thing to do!

It was fantastic.

(How well did the music enhance the film?) Yes, yes, yes.

I wish we could see more of the same.

Absolutely fascinating.

Better than the new animations.

Keep going.

Excellent musicians.

Excellent entertainment – more of the same please.

Music was fantastic – well done. It was perfect!!

A great evening – hope it can be repeated and publicised more widely. A real one-off.

Super to see some local footage – excellently presented and very affordable. Thank you.

It was very, very good! I loved the extra parts. My name is actually Jill Hoskins (nee Trevett).

Keep it up!

Highly entertaining. Surprisingly well made film with quality acting.

Wonderful evening.

Music too loud.

Other films very interesting too!  More please…?

We have greatly enjoyed any Trilith showings we have attended – please go on collecting and preserving all this terrific social history.

Would have liked a simple list of films showing and more info about the film-making and makers (where poss!)

Amazing how it made the film really exciting.

Trip down memory lane. Narrator excellent.

A good evening.

Dates at the end of the films would be good!

Let’s hope there will be more in future.
12/03/2010 No comments

Fifty years at the Riverside in West Bay

EXACTLY fifty years ago, on March 12th, 1960, the Watson family took over the Riverside Cafe and Post Office in West Bay.

The Old Riverside Cafe and West Bay Post Office. Courtesy of Keith Alner.

The Post Office was busy and the Cafe was mostly used by holidaymakers staying on the municipal camping ground, and coach parties from Dorchester, Yeovil, Chard, and Taunton. Locals enjoyed playing dominoes there.

A wider view. Courtesy of Keith Alner.

March 12, 2010, and West Bay no longer even has a Post Office while the Riverside – now a restaurant – serves a lot more than the crab sandwiches, cream teas and roast dinners that it used to specialise in. Nowadays it has an international reputation.

Arthur and Jan Watson took over in 1964. Earlier this year, the Bridport and District Tourism Association gave Arthur an award for his lifelong services to tourism. Just think how many people he and Jan have made happy…

Arthur Watson with his award

Arthur Watson

Congratulations to them both, and to their team!

You can read a pdf of the Golden Jubilee Riverside Times, and see lots of great pictures, (including – and this is important – some of Jan!), by clicking on this link.
27/01/2010 No comments

Musical premiere for West Bay melodrama

COMPOSER Rachel Leach has created a dramatic score to bring to life a silent film made in Bridport in the late 1930s.

Dope Under Thorncombe, a melodrama based around West Bay, was made by local people under the direction of amateur filmmaker Frank Trevett.

His daughter, Vivienne Smith, pictured with the camera that captured the story, handed the film over to rural media charity Trilith for safekeeping.

Trilith’s Trevor Bailey said: “It was shot on 9.5mm film, the amateur’s favourite film choice in the 1930s. It was an amazing project for local people to take on and has been crying out to be given its own special music and to be seen more widely.”

The film receives its musical premiere at Bridport Arts Centre on February 11 at 7.30pm.

Mrs Smith, who lives in Bridport, said: “My father bought the cine camera when my brother, Rex Trevett, was born and that was in 1933 for filming the family. Dad was very keen on his hobbies – he’d throw himself with much enthusiasm into any hobby.

“He liked using his cine camera and thought he’d like to do something different to filming the family.”

Thriller writer Andrew Spiller, who lived locally, offered to write the story, which is about dope smuggling under Thorncombe Beacon. Frank Trevett, who was a hairdresser, enlisted his family and friends for the starring roles.

“They did it purely for their own pleasure, their own enjoyment,” Mrs Smith said.

“They would be so thrilled to think that it is going to be seen. Dad would be so pleased, they all would be, that it hasn’t been lost and forgotten.”

Rachel Leach previously worked with Trilith on a ‘radio ballad’, which combined music and the memories of people who worked in Dorset cinemas in their great days. 

She has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Aldeburgh Festival, Glyndebourne Opera, Opera North and many others. Her music has been performed at major venues and she has created music for children and for BBC broadcasts.

West Dorset District Council and the PRS Foundation have funded Trilith to commission the music.

A live performance of the score and film can also be seen at Burton Bradstock on April 24. A recorded version at Eype Centre for the Arts is due to be staged on March 6.

The project has also seen the creation of a website that includes photographs and interviews with local people by journalist Margery Hookings. This will be officially launched later in the year.

Funding for this part of the project came from the new Digital Film Archive Fund, administered by South West Screen.

Trevor Bailey said: “The aim is to draw the website’s visitors from initial interest in the place or in the arts to fascination with films and vice versa. In tourism terms, it will promote the idea of coming to see where the film was shot.”

Tickets for the live premiere cost £6 and can be obtained from Bridport Arts Centre online at www.bridport-arts.com or by calling the box office on 01308 424204.

Note: 1) This is a lightly edited version of a press release issued by Trilith.

2) After the performance at Bridport Arts Centre, the editor of this site (Jonathan Hudston) will be looking to record interviews with members of the audience, to gather reaction to the show. So, if you go, and you’d like to have a chat afterwards, I’d be very pleased to meet you.
14/01/2010 1 Comment

Dried cod to be studied for Bridport and West Bay art project

AN ARTIST is to going to be paid to work on researching links between the heritage and wildlife of Bridport / West Bay and Newfoundland.

Why? Because Bridport Museum and the environmental group Discover West Bay have won a Dorset Pride of Place Award allowing them to commission somebody to produce “some form of interpretation”.

Why Newfoundland? Because it was once terribly important to fishermen from Dorset, Devon and Somerset who would summer there year after year, studying the migration patterns of cod, and catching them for salting, washing and drying.

Eventually, Dorset fishermen set up colonies at Trinity and Bonavista Bays and a triangular trade pattern built up, best described by top local historian Richard Sims in Rope, Net & Twine: The Bridport Textile Industry (Dovecote Press, 2009).

“Every spring the West Country fishing fleet headed west across the Atlantic, their holds laden with goods and supplies for settlers.

“The dried cod was then either shipped to the Caribbean for the slaves on the plantations, or – more commonly – to Catholic Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy) from where the fleet returned home with either Caribbean rum and sugar or Mediterranean wine, olive oil and dried fruit.

The Salt House at West Bay (Bridport Harbour). Photograph copyright Sarah Smith, reused under Creative Commons licence.

 

“The Salt House at Bridport Harbour stands as a reminder of this trade, for it was here that salt was stored before the annual voyage to Newfoundland.”

The manufacture of fishing lines and nets for this trade shaped Bridport and its surrounding villages for decades.

Hence the Pride of Place Award. As Bridport Museum Curator Alice Martin says: “Not only are both communities located on or near UNESCO designated natural world heritage sites but many Bridport people emigrated to Newfoundland in the 17th and 18th centuries and today there are still enclaves of communities in Newfoundland where the residents have Dorset accents.

“The appointed artist will be researching these links and forging new ones. The ultimate outcome will be some form of interpretation that will highlight and inform about the heritage and wildlife links between Newfoundland and Bridport/West Bay, with migration a core theme.

“This may well be housed in the Museum’s courtyard, which is a space that could be developed for exhibition.”

Dr Tom Brereton, chairman of Discover West Bay, which (among other things) promotes interest in bird migration and the marine environment, said that he was “delighted” with the award. He added that he was looking forward to working with Bridport Museum and the Dorset Design and Heritage Forum “to create something special for West Bay.”

Perhaps the old Methodist Chapel at West Bay could somehow be involved?

(1 – note to artist – if I were you, I’d try to think of some way to incorporate some Mediterranean wine – just occasionally…

2 – if readers have any ideas for what the resulting “form of interpretation” might be,  please share them. “Leave a comment” at top of page is easiest way… A giant inflatable cod in the harbour appeals to my silly mind, and it would get people talking, but I suppose it would be too similar in conception to the island that’s going to be towed around the South West for the Olympics…

3 – I definitely think the Riverside Restaurant in West Bay should put salt cod back on the menu, so that when I’ve saved up for one of my sadly very rare visits, I could try it again. It used to be delicious)