Sherborne Primary pupils and staff are celebrating an outstanding year of reading by pupils throughout the school. Competing with schools from around the world, they have been declared winners of the Renaissance Award for Success and Achievement.
The award recognises educators across the globe for their dedication to teaching, and celebrates whole school achievements. The Renaissance software, called Accelerated Reader, helps track a pupil’s reading age and ability throughout their time at school. Children can keep track of how many books, and even words, they have read each year. Felicity Griffiths, deputy headteacher at Sherborne Primary says: ‘Our children love reading – we’re lucky to have a vast selection of books in our library, and they know they can read what they love and what interests them. We centre our English curriculum around sharing amazing reads and promoting a love of literature, and I think it’s because of this that we achieve amazing results. Over 95 per cent of children in Years 2 to 4 are meeting or exceeding their expected reading age, which is truly fantastic! Last year, children in our school read 9,922 books, totalling nearly 64 million words! Pupils can earn awards for the number of books they read, and earn ‘millionaire’ badges when they exceed that many words.’.
Could you buy a book? Sherborne Primary has also teamed up with local bookshop, Winstone’s in Sherborne, to further enrich their library. With such keen readers it is important to have a supply of new books to keep them interested, so the school have created a ‘Buy a book for the school’ wishlist, where families or members of the local community can donate a book to the school via the shop. If you are interested in donating a book, see the wishlist here
At the start of the year, each horse has a plan laid out for the coming season and the building work begins, says eventer Toots Bartlett
Toots and Freestyle R, both wearing ALL the layers to work in the frozen weather
I think I can speak quite confidently for the entire Eventing community that January isn’t anyone’s favourite month! It’s a month that likes to test our determination and motivation when it comes to working outside. I have definitely broken my record for the number of layers worn at one time over the last couple of weeks! With temperatures going down to around -7º and generally not reaching 1º throughout the day, we have had to develop and adapt our riding plan to avoid the icy roads and frozen arenas. I have been incredibly lucky and blessed to be able to base myself at William Fox-Pitt’s yard for the last year. To have access to an indoor school and an all-weather gallop means we have been much more fortunate than others and have been able to keep our horses safely in work. With the yard being purpose-built with rubber matting everywhere in the purpose-built yard means we have been able to carry on safely and get every horse out of the stables.
Toots knows she is ‘lucky and blessed’ to have access to the purpose-built all weather facilities at the Fox-Pitt yard
A new plan With the 2023 season creeping up slowly, all my horses have had their winter holidays; they are rested and recovered and are now all back in work. At this time of year we are mainly working on correct muscle building, increasing strength through their core and back, and fine-tuning any small details which were off last season. We are yet to get them out competing or round a course of jumps, but are focusing hard on polework to improve their strength and flexibility. The first draft of the 2023 season plan has been drawn up, and we can start looking at the details. I tend to work backwards from our spring event goals to make sure we are focused and ready to achieve our hopes and dreams for the coming season. It’s not one general team plan: each horse has its own individual season plan tailored to suit its own strengths and preferences, targeting different events and classes for each. I have been forcing myself back into the gym as well, to ensure I am just as fit and strong for the upcoming season as my horses –it will help to increase the chances of success. It’s a very exciting season ahead. We have lost some local events, due to rule changes, but we have gained exciting classes at top venues, including the recent news of the addition of the Chard BE to the South West fixture list.
Among the 35 awards from the local family brewery were 18 Dorset charities and community groups who will receive vital funds
Hall & Woodhouse has announced the successful recipients of its annual Community Chest grants – 18 of which are Dorset organisations. In total, the company has awarded more than £50,000 to worthy causes. Each year, Hall & Woodhouse (H&W) invite applications from charities and community groups across the south of England, largely from Dorset to Devon. This year, a wide variety of charities were awarded funding, and over £25,000 was awarded to the 18 charitable organisations in Dorset, with a further four charities in Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Devon being recognised at the awards ceremony held at The Brewery Tap in Blandford. Mark Woodhouse, Family Director of H&W, said: ‘Our Community Chest was founded over 20 years ago to support and strengthen the local communities which make Hall & Woodhouse such a vibrant company. This year, we have found the need to provide people with food, warmth, and shelter to be extremely high. ‘With costs rising during a financially difficult time for many, being able to offer necessary support for those in desperate need is more important now than ever before. We are proud to make it our duty to help where we can with this critical fund.’ The Vale Pantry, which provides food aid and support to struggling families in North Dorset, was awarded £3,000. The grant will be used to purchase fresh food to ensure the charity is able to continue making food packages to meet the increased demand for this service. Since 2002, the Hall & Woodhouse Community Chest has donated over £760,000 to more than 850 causes across the south of England. The fund works in close partnership with both the Dorset and Sussex Community Foundations.
It’s February, so obviously Caz Richards of Dorset Food & Drink is thinking love, romance … and pancakes.
Pancakes with raspberries and blueberries and chocolate sauce (shutterstock)
Planning to impress your beloved with gourmet food at home this Valentine’s Day? This month we’re going green for our take on a three-course menu idea from the Watercress Company – bursting with flavour, simple, and delicious. Perfect for Valentine’s Day or just for treating your beloved or bestie to something a little bit special. Start with a classic watercress soup, served with homemade bread you learned to make for Real Bread Week! Follow with Pesto Linguine, and if you still have room for dessert, then a Pavlova Roulade with seasonal fruit, and perhaps a chocolate or two. Our top picks are Chococo’s Valentine assorted caramels and delectable Dark Chocolate Love Bar. If your Valentine is into shoes, then this funky chocolate Leopard Print Milk Chocolate Stiletto from Chocolate Arthouse is sure to please! New on the Dorset chocolate scene are Poco Chocolate. We’ve been working with them at a few of the Dorset Farmers Markets, and their handmade small batch chocolates always go down a storm.
Going out – drinking in Remember that supporting your local pub, café or restaurant is a super cool way to eat locally-sourced food and drink. We love this Valentine’s menu from Weymouth 51, starring four courses of Dorset loveliness. Booking is essential; places at these fabulous feast night pop ups sell out fast! Perhaps treat your Valentine to a glass of classically elegant locally-made wine. Romance in a glass! Whether you’re having a bottle with dinner, or pouring a glass after a date night, a delicious wine is the perfect way to get into the romantic mood. Because Dorset has such a warm climate and good quality soil, it’s an ideal place for growing grapes. Check out our great selection of Dorset wines here. If you prefer something without alcohol, then how about Kombucha? It’s a fermented organic green tea, lightly effervescent, delicious, and available with a range of delectable flavours. Whatever your tipple of choice, have a fabulous Valentine’s Day!
Using up your ingredients If you still have a jar of mincemeat lurking in your cupboard from the festive season, then this Jalousie from Liz Crow aka Lizzie Baking Bird will be just the job!
Flippin’ good fun Shrove Tuesday (Pancake day!) is Tuesday 21st February. Savoury or sweet. Traditional, or something with a nod to those fluffy American pancakes? The choice is yours, but we like this smorgasbord of toppings to give them a Dorset twist. The sweet stuff – Passion Fruit Curd From Dorset With Love. Dorset Sea Salted Caramel Sauce from A JarOf and Lemon Curd from Neil’s award-winning Chutneys & Preserves. Buy online or check the websites for stockists. Spring is just around the corner, so hold that thought. But until next time, keep spreading the Dorset Food & Drink ‘lurve’!
Foaling season has begun, but between the all night camera duty shifts Lucy and Doug have managed to go and see some of ‘their’ foals on the track
Solitairy Girl and her Jack Hobbs filly, foaled 22nd January, 18 days before her due date.
Confident that the mare we had been watching on the foaling cameras all night was quietly finishing up her breakfast and knowing that the girls would be arriving shortly to start work for the day, at 7.30am I relaxed my vigil and went to tack up the first horse I had planned to ride. Not long after, I heard a shout of ‘Sway’s foaled!’ and sure enough, in that short time from having shown no outward signs that foaling was imminent, Glanvilles Guest had got on with it on her own, and there in the straw was a lovely, big, chestnut colt. This season’s first foal had arrived the week before, but with the more usual fanfare warning signs that a mare is in labour. At 11.00pm we watched on camera as Solitairy Girl started pacing the box, lying down and then getting up again. At 11.30pm she was starting to get sweaty, at 11.45pm we could see the bag appear and by 11.58 there was a filly foal, lying in the straw being busily licked by her dam. Again, a nice easy foaling with very little help required. This was the seventh foal out of the mare. Her first foal is a 6yo, 128 rated gelding called Soul Icon, who is in training with Kieran Burke and who has won an impressive seven of the eleven hurdle races he has run so far.
images: Courtenay Hitchcock BV Magazine
Stretch the legs There is another early February foal due to a mare called Seemarye, who is in foal to the champion British jumps sire, Nathaniel. The mare’s pregnancy is looking huge, and being fat and unwieldy she goes into the all-weather turnout and just stands in one place and munches hay all day. Her lack of movement is meaning that her legs are beginning to fill and, as she is too heavily in foal to put on the walker, we are leading her up the track for a really good leg stretch, before she comes back into her stable in the afternoon, just to get her moving and get her circulation going. No more mares are due until early March, so once Seemarye has foaled, Doug and I should get a couple of weeks break from constant night-time camera watching. We might even take the rare opportunity to go away for a few days!
Glanvilles Guest’s Planteur colt, foaled 30th January, six days early.
TGS foals at the races At the same time as the first foal was being born on the stud, Doug was up in Doncaster selling three foals and an infoal broodmare. You may recall I’d talked about their being prepared for the sales in the January column. We had bought the mare, Spirit of Rome, in 2017 as a maiden 3yo filly (which means she was a young horse, had raced on the flat but not won) with a good pedigree. She had since been leased to trainers to add form to her page (a horse’s page in a sales catalogue describes the quality of its racecourse performance plus that of its relatives, going back three or four generations. You can see Spirit of Rome’s here), winning twice and placing seven times over hurdles. We were now trading her on. The foals and the mare were all sold – although some for not as much as we had hoped – and we look forward to following the racing careers of the foals in a few years. From our breeder’s point of view, racing at Wincanton today, Thursday 2nd February* was a real pleasure, with a number of TGS-connected horses running. In the second race, a novices’ handicap steeplechase, Triple Trade, a 7yo Norse Dancer that we bred out of Doubly Guest came a very good second to a horse carrying 23lbs less than him. As this race was a novice handicap, horses are allotted a weight to carry that is proportionate to how good their previous performances have been. The theory being, if the handicapper does his job perfectly, all the runners will dead heat as the weight they are carrying gives all horses an equal chance. So, if today they had been running off level weights (all carrying the same weight) the finishing positions would likely have been very different. But it was a good race nonetheless and the winner did well to beat the other horses in the race with better form.
image Courtenay Hitchcock BV Magazine
The last race, an open, maiden mares National Hunt flat race, saw another TGS-bred horse running: the 6yo Sam’s Amour, a Black Sam Bellamy mare out of the recently retired Aphrodisias (who incidentally is grandma to our first foal born this year!). A second mare in this race, the 4yo Tique, whom we had foaled for her owner Heather Royle and who quickly became a yard favourite due to her extreme friendliness and beauty, was also running. Both ran good races and although they finished out of the placings today, I will never tire of seeing the foals we help bring into the world out doing their jobs on the racetrack. Breeding a racehorse is just the start of the journey and there are so many pitfalls along the route to their first (and subsequent) races that we always say, ‘Just getting a horse to the racetrack is a win in itself. Actually getting that horse to then win a race is the icing on the cake!’
yes, I do tend to send in late copy, apologies editor! (Luckily for you – as usual – I’m now gripped and have therefore forgotten how late you submitted. Again. – Ed)
Pics by Samantha Cook Photography, 27th April 2019. Diverse Abilities 5km Dorset Neon Run 2019, Poole Park, Poole, Dorset, on 27th April 2019.
Diverse Abilities, is looking for volunteers for the coming year to help with ongoing projects and a series of community events throughout the year. Events on the 2023 calendar include:
Diverse Abilities own events:
Dorset Neon Run
Country Challenge
Rugby Lunch
Gala Ball
Christmas Carol Service
The charity’s annual Christmas tree collection service
Community events including Grooves on the Green, Wimborne Folk Festival and Camp Bestival, as well as street collections throughout the year, with further events to be confirmed. Laura Stanley, fundraising officer at Diverse Abilities, commented: ‘We’ve got an exciting calendar of events this year where we need the help of our local community in order to take on a variety of tasks including bucket collections, running stalls, and handing out flyers, as well as raising awareness of Diverse Abilities. You’ll have a great time, as well as helping to raise money to support children and adults with disabilities in the local area.’ As well as events, Diverse Abilities are also on the lookout for volunteers on more a regular basis, for roles such as a transport assistant at the Beehive to support students getting to and from the centre, and gardening or decorating roles across the charities’ services. Volunteers are crucial to the work charities like Diverse Abilities carry out, and donating free time is just as valuable as giving money. In turn, the opportunities give volunteers a chance to learn new skills, meet new people, enhance CVs, gain experience, discover new interests and improve mental wellbeing. Visit the website here for more information about the roles available. Contact Laura on [email protected] if you would like to get involved.
It’s an action-packed February half term at the Fleet Air Arm Museum with amazing circus tricks from StrongWomen Science and the Great British Take Off.
Be wowed by naval aircraft in four halls, including the thrilling new family-friendly Carrier Experience. Refuel in the recently refurbished Warnefords Café, and let the little ones try out the mini play area. FREE activities included with a museum ticket:
Matchstick Fleet 11th and 12th February, 10am to 3pm A display of Philip Warren’s Matchstick Fleet, a culmination of a lifetime’s work. The collection, built entirely from matches and matchboxes, spans 525 ships and 1,000 aircraft. It includes the ships of the Royal Navy and beyond, illustrating the development of warships from the end of WWII right up to the present day.
StrongWomen Science Circus 14th and 15th February, 11am, and 1:30pm Ever wanted to know how to balance a chair on your chin? Or if it’s possible to juggle liquid? StrongWomen Aoife (an engineer) and Maria (an environmental scientist) reveal the amazing science behind their astounding tricks.
The Great British Take Off 16th and 17th February, 10am to 2pm. Get involved building and launching a balsa wood aircraft from the museum’s own model aircraft carrier. Choose a type of wing from a Swordfish to a Seafire or even a new F-35 Lightning and watch it go! Who can design the one which flies the furthest?
The New Carrier Experience Blending the best of technology with the scale of a carrier flight deck to transport visitors from the pioneer years of WWI all the way to the modern HMS Queen Elizabeth class carriers of today. Virtually meet a cast of characters to get a taste – and feel – of what those serving onboard experienced. Fleet Air Arm Museum tickets can be purchased online here
Hogarth paintings are undergoing restoration in London, but what do they have to do with a surgeon from North Dorset? Rachael Rowe reports
The Hogarth stair is part of a £5m restoration of the North Wing at 900-year-old St Barts hospital in London. Image: Rachael Rowe
St Bartholomew’s, the oldest hospital in England, is celebrating its 900th anniversary this year. It was founded in London by King Henry I’s courtier Rahere in 1123. The hospital is famous for many innovative medical developments, including the discovery of blood circulation in 1628 by William Harvey – today it is one of the largest cardiovascular centres in Europe. As part of the Barts 900 celebrations, a major restoration programme is under way, funded by a £5m award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and focused on the Georgian North Wing. The building is famous for its paintings by William Hogarth, but what is their connection with North Dorset?
A local lad John Freke (1688-1756) was born in Okeford Fitzpaine, the son of the village rector. He grew up in the North Dorset countryside and was educated locally. At 17 he was apprenticed to Richard Blundell, a prominent London barber-surgeon. In the days before medical schools became widely established, apprenticeships were often the only route into the profession. Blundell had a prolific practice and also attended the Court of Queen Anne. Freke went on to marry Richard Blundell’s daughter Elizabeth in 1713, and having served a long apprenticeship he qualified as a barber-surgeon in 1720. Four years later, at the age of 36, he was appointed as assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. In the 18th century, physicians were considered the experts in medicine. Barber-surgeons were seen to perform the ‘dirtier’ side of medical treatments; lancing boils, applying leeches and performing amputations. Anaesthetics had not yet been invented,, so the job was harrowing (as were the treatments). They also cut hair, including monks’ tonsures, and were known for styling beards. Today, traditional barber shops have red and white poles signifying the blood and bandages – the legacy of the days of the barber-surgeon.
A surgical pioneer During the early part of the 18th century, the surgical profession we know today began to specialise and develop formal standards in training. Freke was asked by the governors at Barts to pioneer eye surgery. Through the development of a technique called couching for cataracts, John Freke became the first ophthalmic surgeon in 1727. He was also responsible for a number of other discoveries; he modernised obstetric forceps, making them safer, and he was the first to recognise the importance of removing lymphatic tissue in breast cancer. Freke also wrote about electricity, rickets, and recognised the importance of studying the body. He became the first curator of the pathology museum at Barts, which acted as a study resource for the hospital’s medical students. With fellow surgeon Percivall Pott, Freke was instrumental in establishing the College of Surgeons (later the Royal College of Surgeons). This move distinguished the surgical profession and its modern, stringent standards from the old barber-surgeons – who returned to cutting hair. It was a pioneering move, and his legacy has saved thousands of lives through safer training standards.
Art and Science John Freke became a governor of St Bartholomew’s Hospital at a time when it was being redesigned by James Gibbs. Part of the 18th century restoration of the already 500-year-old hospital was to the North Wing, and Italian artist Jacopo Amigoni was about to be commissioned to complete the decoration of the stairs. However, William Hogarth, a local artist and friend of John Freke, stepped in, incensed that an Italian had (almost) got the job. Hogarth offered his services without charge. He lived on nearby Bartholomew Close and had married a Dorset girl – Jane Thornhill, the daughter of Sir James Thornhill of Stalbridge, himself a distinguished artist. Barts Heritage chief executive Will Palin says: ‘We know from the archives that Freke was an advisor to the workings of the hospital building and we can be certain he knew Hogarth.’
Sickness in the paintings Hogarth created two large paintings which still adorn the stairway – now known as the Hogarth stair – which leads to the Great Hall. The Pool of Bethesda and The Good Samaritan were completed in 1736 and 1737 respectively and both depict healing scenes from the Bible at huge scale, featuring figures around seven feet high. But there is more to the artwork than meets the eye. Within the paintings are people with medical conditions, thought to have been modelled by patients from the hospital. It is thought that Freke advised Hogarth on the accuracy of the appearance of some of these diseases. Unusually for an artist known for caricatures, none of the illnesses are exaggerated, and they reflect what would have been seen regularly at the hospital at the time. Within the art are signs of gout, jaundice, rickets, breast cancer (possibly another connection to Freke’s work), and the body language of fear and anxiety. There is also a blind man in the foreground of the Pool of Bethesda, possibly alluding to John Freke’s role as first ophthalmic surgeon. The paintings have served as a unique teaching aid for medical students and nurses for 300 years. They are still used today.
The legacy continues Hanging above the paintings on the Hogarth Stair is an elaborately carved gilded chandelier which was commissioned by John Freke and given to the hospital. It is inscribed with ‘ John Freke, surgeon of this hospital’ in Latin around the centre. Hogarth had specifically requested that the completed canvases never be varnished, but when they were cleaned in the 1930s, seven coats of varnish were removed. As an indication of how much dirt the paintings accumulate, when they were again cleaned in the 1960s it was only then that an inscription in the foundation stone in the second tableau was discovered. Will Palin says: ‘The Hogarth Stair is one part of a much bigger project. The £5m grant will restore the entire North Wing, including the Great Hall. Freke’s chandelier will also be getting a careful clean as part of the project and it will look splendid.’ Today, as the hospital celebrates the past and looks forward to the future, the legacy of John Freke lives on in safer surgical professional standards that have saved thousands of lives.
St Barts has a small museum open to the public, and there are also guided tours of the historic hospital including the Hogarth Stair. More information about the paintings is on the Barts Heritage site.
Winners of the inaugural Shaftesbury Business Awards held at the Grovesnor Arms. Picture: Paul Collins/PC Visuals.
A great success’ was the verdict on the first Shaftesbury Business Awards after 15 of the town’s finest businesses and individuals, were singled out for recognition. The Grosvenor Arms hosted the event with more than 60 business leaders celebrating the range and quality of businesses in the town. Cllr Piers Brown, mayor of Shaftesbury joined the sponsors to present the awards which were spread over 15 categories. Shirley Allum Boutique Fashions & Lingerie was named as the overall Business of the Year. Nigel Reeve, of Marketing West, organisers of the awards, said: ‘We knew there was great interest in the awards from local businesses when we received over 150 entries and nominations. ‘Supporting local businesses has never been more important. ‘They drive the local economy, they innovate and they create jobs. We hope, in a small way, these awards help build their profile and make people realise what a great choice of businesses they have on their doorstep. ‘I’d also like to thank the sponsors, many of which are Shaftesbury businesses, for making these awards possible.’ The awards concluded with the announcement that Gillingham is next in line to have its own business awards, and that the second year of the Shaftesbury Business Awards was also confirmed with the final scheduled for January 2024.
Details of all winners and sponsors, with links, can be seen on our facebook post.
