Almost 150 runners participated in the first Easter Fun Run organised by Shaftesbury Rotary Club, raising The event raised more than £800. With 5km and 10km versions of the race on offer, runners took part to raise funds for local charities, including the Stars Appeal at Salisbury Hospital. The weather stayed dry ( a rare occurrence this spring!) and Virginia Edwyn-Jones, the Mayor of Shaftesbury, was helped to strat the races by Easter Bunny RotaKids – Marley from Abbey Primary and Charlotte from Shaftesbury Primary. Local charity HOPE was on hand to supply refreshments, and runners from as far as Weymouth and Eastbourne joined the locals; some raced with friends, some with their parents/guardians and some just took their dogs on the circuit around the town. RotaKids from Abbey Primary and Shaftesbury Primary provided water and Jelly Babies at the halfway point, and the Mayor and the RotaKid Easter Bunnies were on hand at the finish line at the top of Gold Hill to award runners with their medals. Shaftesbury Rotary Club strongly hopes that the run will become an annual event. If you want to know more or to get involved with Rotary, please contact: [email protected]
Are you a dynamic, problem solving, ideas driven individual?
Are you excited by a fast-paced role within an ambitious fundraising team? Do you believe in creating innovative solutions? Would you like to be part of our incredible lifesaving charity serving the counties of Dorset and Somerset? If the answer is yes, then we want to hear from you.
The DSAA Fundraising Officer’s role is to provide effective support to the fundraising team and to be one of the team’s contacts for volunteers and supporters within the community. We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated, and creative individual with a can-do attitude, to join our growing and vibrant fundraising team. This role will evolve as the needs of the charity grow, so flexibility is key.
About the charity
Our life-saving charity, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance (DSAA), provides relief from sickness and injury for the people of Dorset and Somerset, by the provision of an air ambulance service, with an air and road delivered critical care capability.
DSAA is a well-loved and respected charity, which relies on the generosity of the public to raise our operational costs of over £10 million per year. Every mission we are tasked to costs approximately £3,500 and the enhanced skills of our team, specialist equipment and drugs that we carry, along with the speed of our response, can make the difference between life and death.
Our people are at the heart of our Charity. Whether you are a member of our Charity, Clinical or Aviation Team, everyone plays a vital role in helping us to be there for our patients and supporters across Dorset and Somerset.
Person specification
Ability to manage a varied workload
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Excellent IT skills including Microsoft
Excellent time management skills
Ability to take initiative and work without regular prompting
Ability to work to tight deadlines
Ability to work within a team environment and able to work alone
Willingness to work unsociable hours if needed
Hold a full UK driving license
Main duties and responsibilities:
Provide administrative support to the Fundraising team.
Assist in providing an excellent supporter journey through channels including our online platforms.
Monitor and answer fundraising queries.
Provide event support and assist the Events Officer when required.
Responsibility for sending fundraising materials to supporters.
Collection box allocation and facilitation of enquiries.
Assist in processing new volunteer applications.
Responsibility for researching and ordering merchandise.
Ensure all fundraising activities are compliant with regulatory bodies.
Desirable but not essential:
Experience of working within a charity
Experience or working within a fundraising environment
Experience of supporting events
Education and qualifications:
Essential: GCSEs Level 5 or above or equivalent in Maths and English.
Previous experience:
Essential: Previous experience of working in administrative role in a fast-paced office environment.
Minimum of 2 years’ experience of working in a people focussed engagement role.
Desirable: Experience of working with volunteers or a charity.
The successful candidate will receive:
Competitive salary: up to £28,000 (depending on experience)
37.5 hours per week/worked flexibly (Wellington office)
28 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
Generous pension scheme (8% Charity Contribution) and benefits package
If you have the right skills, experience and knowledge, and would like to join our passionate and friendly team, we would love to hear from you!
If you would like to ask for more information or have an informal chat, please contact Fundraising Manager, Emma Jones by calling: 01823 669604.
Recruitment process
Closing Date: Monday 20th May 2024
Interviews to take place: Friday 24th May 2024
How to apply
To apply: Please email your CV and a covering letter to: [email protected] or post to: Julie Plowden, Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, Landacre House, Chelston Business Park, Castle Road, Wellington, TA21 9JQ.
This month Barry Cuff has chosen a couple of postcards of East Stour:
Sent in 1909 to Miss Wood, c/o Lady D’Oyly of Newlands Manor in Blandford – the house was built in 1884 by Sir Charles Walters D’Oyly after distinguished military service in India: ‘This is the school where I used to get a caning regularly every day, “pleasant memories”. Lovely weather today, just going visiting etc. Yours G.E.T
Sent to Percy Perrett, Leading Stoker on HMS Canopus, which was on a short deployment to the Mediterranean in 1908–1909. It appears it was a rubbish summer, and it’s clear Percy’s mother disapproved of Percy’s loving sender… ‘(The Dairy House, July 6th 1909) Dear Percy, Thank you so much for the C [card?] from Oban, I like it very much. I thought you would be interested to know I met your mother last Saturday afternoon. I was going up Ada’s & met her with her sister Emily. I suppose they were coming down to the churchyard, to see their father’s grave. She took no notice of me, but your aunt spoke. Thought to myself, I wish you had been here. People are busy here now with the hay, when the weather permits, but it is very stormy still. We do not seem to have had any summer at all as yet. I hope we shall soon get it better. Hope this will find you quite well as I am pleased to say we are. With love, believe me ever yours, sincerely J.T.M.
Throughout Dorset people having been diving into an imaginative world of 1,000 years ago for The Shaftesbury Tales Short Story Writing Competition. SISATA Director Charmaine K, who sat on the judging panel, said: ‘We were blown away by the high quality and amazing variety of stories submitted.’ The eight winners – all in equal first place! – are: Under 11 years: Ferocious F by Giulia Rose Ceccolini, and Kenrics Tale by Jacob Wall 11 to 16 years: The Tale of the Doctors Daughter by Coco Bichard, and The Brothers Tale by Betsy Wragg 16 to 25 years: The Peasants Tale by Lyra Spencer, and ‘The Daggers Tale by Juno-Blake Cree Over 25s: The Traitors Tale by Stuart Edwards, and Ælfthryth’s Tale by Anne Philpott The winners will all enjoy a cash prize and also see their story published in our booklet-programme – and their Tale might get adapted for the stage! Inspired by Chaucer, The Shaftesbury Tales is a collection of stories – both written and performed.
Travelling players in Dorset Performers from Treehouse Theatre will be walking from Corfe Castle to Shaftesbury in July, travelling from village to village, teaming up with local theatre groups and school children to perform hilarious and interactive community shows along the way. Treehouse Theatre will now be working with local theatre groups to adapt some of the winning and highly commended stories for performance. Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society (SNADS), Double Act Theatre Group from Corfe Castle, and Remix the Originals will all be creating scenes in the production. Director Ben Lindsey-Clark said: ‘If you’ve always thought about joining a local theatre group, now could be a good moment!’ For details on where to see the show in July, how to get involved in the project, and read the winning stories, see treehousetheatre.com
In this year of elections – and hopefully welcome changes – look out for attempts by some to portray themselves as environmental champions. West Dorset MP Chris Loder has just trumpeted the steps being taken to introduce stricter regulation of the water treatment industry, including 4,000 water company inspections by the Environment Agency in order to ensure that our waterways ‘remain healthy’. But our rivers can hardly ‘remain’ healthy when only 14 per cent of them currently warrant ‘Good’ ecological status. The Environment Agency has been so heavily de-funded by the government that it has simply not been able to monitor sewage discharges effectively: instead, the water industry has been allowed to ‘self-report’. And those 4,000 inspections? They will need to cover the 22,000 sewage outflows which discharged sewage 370,000 times in 2021. Also, they will be funded partly by DEFRA, but also by ‘water quality permit charges’ levied on water companies … which will presumably go straight onto our water bills. North Dorset’s MP Simon Hoare recently claimed that he has ‘supported consistently the drive towards carbon neutral UK generated energy’. This is somewhat at odds with Simon’s parliamentary voting record which says he’s voted against financial support for low carbon electricity generation, and voted instead for the Climate Change Levy to be applied to renewable energy generation. Simon has also voted 16 times against measures to prevent climate change, versus four times for them. More often than not, he has also voted against improving environmental water quality and has voted against improving biodiversity. I’ll leave it there … There is a national campaign called Project Climate Vote which has active groups in the South West, including Dorset. Although the campaign was launched by Greenpeace, not everyone involved is a member, or even an environmental activist. They are simply reaching out to voters to ask if they will include climate change and the environment among their top priorities when deciding who to vote for. I have personally found that joining with others to do something positive helps me to cope with the relentless tide of bad environmental news. If this appeals to you, then search for Project Climate Vote on Greenpeace’s website and join in. You’ll meet nice people. Ken Huggins North Dorset Green Party
Anyone walking past St Mary’s church, Motcombe on the evening of 13th April would have been treated to the sound of All In The April Evening drifting through the warm spring air as the Gillingham Singers began their Spring Concert. Inside the church, the audience were treated to a wonderful mix of music from modern British composers, ranging from John Rutter’s The Sprig of Thyme and a collection of folk songs, through to Thomas Tallis’ If Ye Love Me from the mid-1500s. The concert concluding with This is Home by Sophia Efthimiou, which came to public attention during the Covid lock-down. This is the first concert Gillingham Singers have sung with their new musical director, Richard Nye, with David Grierson providing the accompaniment. The audience enjoyed other works including Taverner’s The Lamb, where the choir came out from their positions to surround the listeners with a true 360º sound, a selection of songs from Cecila McDowall’s A Fancy of Folksongs and Bob Chilcott’s The Lily and the Rose. This is Home was then sung as an encore, giving the audience a chance to join in the emotive musical item with sign language, voice or both. A delightful evening for all who attended! by Mike Turnbull gillinghamsingers.org
While on the surface, Lucy Rose sits comfortably in the English female folk singer category, her music has always had something extra. From the first 20 seconds of Red Face (the shape-shifting opening track from her 2012 debut LP Like I Used To) the inventive dynamism which sets Rose apart from her contemporaries is clear. Following a burst of creativity between 2012 and 2019, Rose took a lengthy hiatus for the birth of her first child (who features on the track Interlude II), and then to recover from resulting health issues so serious that she was unable to walk or breathe without severe pain (let alone sit at a piano) for many months. It would therefore have been understandable if Rose’s return was a little on the sombre side – she has had plenty to reflect on, after all. But the album Rose and producer Kwes crafted following these momentous life events (and then recorded in a mere two days) is full of life, and Lucy’s boldest effort to date. While those recent experiences have clearly shaped the work, they never weigh it down. On Could You Help Me, Rose asks ‘Could you fit me in your busy day?’ before declaring ‘Now I’m learning how terribly lonely illness is’. But there is a lightness of touch, a deftness in the arrangement of the track, so that it practically skips through its sub-three minute arrangement. While there is introspection and beauty to be found here, the most rewarding moments on the album are the regular forays into jazz, trip-hop and chamber pop. Rose has expanded her palette in such an organic manner that it feels like the most honest presentation of her true musical spirit to date. By the time closing track The Racket has reached it’s free-form, heavy-grooving crescendo, it’s clear that Rose and her band of regular collaborators are now reaching the height of their powers. Long may they continue.
Matthew Ambrose presents Under The Radar on Tuesday evening at 7pm on Abbey104. Broadcasting on 104.7FM and online at abbey104.com.
Ever-hopeful of an end to the wet weather, Lucy Procter has her work cut out with poached fields and the dangers of spring grazing
Woolstone One and her 5 week old Planteur colt. All images: Courtenay Hitchcock
Wet and windy – April has left us the same way it arrived. But it hasn’t all been doom and gloom: the sun and wind through the middle of April quickly dried the land, resulting in frantic rolling of the fields before the ground dried out too much. Rolling is important to level out the ground where horses have been turned out during the winter, the soft ground churned up by the hooves of several half ton horses. The resultant ruts and pitting is known as poached ground, and if this is left to dry hard in the summer, the surface becomes legitimately leg-breaking for horses.
Gawler (3 months old colt) and Randwick (7 weeks old colt) – rough and tumble play fighting is important in young horses, helping them learn vital social and behavioural cues from the other members of the herd
Horses can easily injure themselves by galloping over uneven ground in just the same way that a person is liable to twist or break their ankle over rough terrain. Unlike people who can be warned to walk carefully over tricky terrain, however, turn a horse out in a lumpy, bumpy field and they will most likely will do what horses like to do best – gallop around at top speed to let off steam before stopping to graze.
Roc Royal with her foal Randwick being photobombed by Cairns, keen to show off his patchy, war-paint face, as his foal coat starts to drop out and change colour
Done correctly, rolling also encourages good grass, stimulating growth in damaged areas and improving soil health by increasing soil density, reducing air pockets and improving soil structure. Once the ground has properly dried it will be time to bring out the harrows to help break up any left-over poaching, spread any horse droppings that have accumulated over the winter and remove any dead grass or unwanted weeds.
Belle enjoying a snooze.
Roc Royal’s Walzertakt colt, Randwick, has just come in after being out for a few days and is super, super sleepy. Not sure how comfy the feed bowl is, but he’s obviously not bothered!
Lush spring grass is an issue Most of our horses are now turned out all day and all night. Those with very young foals at foot – or who have not yet foaled and therefore need to stay under camera – are still coming back into stables at night. But turning horses out for the first time, after several months of eating hay in all-weather turnouts rather than grass, is tricky. This year, the relatively warm winter has meant that the grass has continued to slowly grow, leaving us with fields of excessively long, lush, spring grass. A horse’s stomach cannot tolerate drastic changes in feed. If a horse suddenly begins gorging on lush grass having been eating hay all winter, it is in danger of developing severe abdominal pain caused by problems in the gastrointestinal tract. This is known as colic – one of the most common causes of death in horses. We start by introducing field time in short periods of a few hours, followed by time back in the stable or all-weather turnout eating hay. After a week or so of gradually increasing the length of time they are out grazing grass, the horses can safely stay out day and night.
Just look at Belle’s week-old, super-long legs – no wonder she was needing a rest!
The orphaned foal, displaying more warpaint on his face as his bay foal coat changes to a greyer hue
Go The Swede On the racing front we were especially pleased to take one of our homebred horses we have been training, The Swede, to race at Axe Vale Point-to-Point. Although she pulled up before the last fence, our daughter Alice, who was riding her, was very pleased with how she travelled through the race and how well she jumped. We are hoping to race her again in May. While typing this, I can hear the birds singing outside and, although the sky is still grey, it has finally stopped raining. Although last night’s downpour has reduced many of the fields to swamps again, I am allowing myself a tiny hope that we have got through the worst of the winter, and that a drier spring is just around the corner …
Gawler and Randwick still at it – colt foals are more likely to indulge in play fighting than the filly foals.
Regular readers of The BV will know that editor Laura and husband Courtenay Hitchcock are keen walkers, sharing some of their routes – and stunning photographs – in the magazine. But for those who would like even more of Dorset’s dramatic and inspiring landscape, there is a new collection of walks from Dorset’s much-loved folk duo Ninebarrow – James LaBouchardiere and Jon Whitley. For some years, the duo, renowned for their beautiful harmonies and charming original songs, have been leading walks and writing books to introduce their fans and fellow walkers to different areas of their home county, which inspires so much of their music – they even took their name from the Purbeck landmark Nine Barrow Down. Their third volume of Ninebarrow’s Dorset Walking Book contains ten routes in some of Dorset’s most spectacular and exciting scenery – the Purbeck coast, North Dorset’s ancient hillforts and the mysterious landscape of Cranborne Chase where you can find traces of human activity that date back many millennia.
The muse is the wild It is some years now since Jon and Jay gave up their day jobs (Jon was a teacher and Jay was a GP) to become full time musicians. That decision has paid off, with a string of critically acclaimed albums – the most recent is their fifth, The Colour of Night – as well as two books of walks, and a sideline in organising musical walking holidays, which combine three days of walking with fine food and evening concerts. Walking is an essential part of their lives: “The outdoors is our muse,” says Jon. “For Jay and I, walking is a creative experience. We never feel more creative than when we’re out hiking.” There is certainly plenty to inspire your imagination in this latest collection of walks, which are graded from easy to moderate to challenging to hard, and are mostly around five to six miles. The ten routes are: Hambledon Hill and Hod Hill; Badbury Rings; Martin Down; Ballard Down; Ringstead and White Nothe; Lulworth Cove and Mupe Bay; Lyscombe Bottom; Duncliffe Hill; Cerne Abbas; and Tynehgam and Kimmeridge. The walks are well-researched and described, both in words and in beautiful photographs. There are clear maps and directions, and essential advice on the basic facts such as availability of loos, where to leave your car and where you can find refreshment on or after your walk. There are also handwritten side-bars giving additional information on such features as medieval lynchets, Iron Age hill-forts, the origin of place names or what you can see from a particular high-point. The book is a handy size that fits in a pocket or backpack and has a sensible, strong plastic cover. It all adds up to a very useful addition to the walking library of anyone who loves Dorset – and if you don’t already know it, it should also encourage you to listen to Ninebarrow’s music.
Ninebarrow’s Dorset Walking Book – Vol.3 is available to pre-order now from their shop: ninebarrow.co.uk
