Category: Tales from the Vale

The Tales from the Vale section is best described as eclectic!

This is the archive of Andy Palmer’s popular ‘Tales from the Vale’ column for the BV magazine – meandering thoughts and amusing ruminations on life in the Blackmore Vale.

So when we describe this section as eclectic we mean it, it’s that and eccentric in all it’s glorious ways!

It seems as though Andy has been there and done that! And even if he hasn’t, he still sure to have a very big opinion on it anyway. So, you have been warned. Andy will take you there and back again, oh and did I mention the puns? Lord help us!

Dorset community news

Coffee and punctures Tales from the Vale

Coffee and punctures Great new coffee house in King’s Stag attached to the Green Man pub with an attractive almost Scandi-minimally-decorated interior. I was going to...

Editorial team - 10 November 2021

Dorset community news

Off with his head | Tales from the Vale

The slow escape Big hoo-ha in Mappowder: a tortoise has gone missing (easily identifiable – it’s wearing a shell suit) which led my wife to...

Editorial team - 3 October 2021

Dorset community news

Thomas Hardy too miserable to read | Tales from the Vale

I expected a storm of complaints about my last column which had a bit of a go at ‘famous Dorset novelist’ Thomas Hardy -...

Editorial team - 10 September 2021

Dorset Charity

Why is Hardy so popular?

Why is Hardy so popular? A lot of locals revere the writer Thomas Hardy. I hate to be a party pooper but he’s just that little...

Editorial team - 16 August 2021

Dorset community news

A letter from Her Maj

To get a birthday card from the Queen (my father in Law is 100, an absolute miracle – as you’ll read below) you’ve got...

Editorial team - 4 July 2021

Dorset community news

Haggis, the Falklands and DFLs | Tales from the Vale

Great little farm shop and outdoor café up a dirt track near Milton Abbas owned by ‘Steve,’ but run by two self-confessed ‘smiley girls,’...

Editorial team - 9 June 2021

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Dorset’s master of strings

Editorial team - 13 January 20250

Dorset luthier Jeremy Walsh on listening to the wood, a double bass jigsaw, holding a $15m Stradivarius and Friday night rave music In his self-built...

Dorset community news

Abbey104 Album of the Month: You Should Get Some Sleep

Editorial team - 16 January 20250

Aquilo December is a notoriously lean month for new releases, and this year was no exception. Thankfully, I was saved by Lancashire duo Aquilo, who...