Employ My Ability offers vocational training for students with learning disabilities and special educational needs and disabilities. One of their students, Maddie Walters, has spent the last term working on her journalism skills with the aim of writing a column for us, highlighting aspects of life in Dorset for a young disabled person. Below is Maddie’s first work, in which she has been considering seasonally relevant content – Ed
Hello there and how are you doing on this sunny day? Since summer is here and the weather’s getting warmer this article is going to be about the best sandy beaches to visit in Dorset. While you can enjoy going on holiday or traveling to another part of the UK, why not find a local beach near where you live?
Studland – Shell Bay The Studland Shell Bay is a beautiful beach in Dorset, and it is a fantastic place to go during the summer holidays. It has amazing scenery.
Lulworth Cove Lulworth Cove is a rocky beach that has a rockpool so you can search for several types of creatures that live in the water or go for a swim in the sea.
Sandbanks Beach Sandbanks Beach is a good place to visit in the UK during the summer and it’s a beautiful seashore. You can do water sports during your visit like swimming in the sea, surfing, going for a walk and searching for different rocks if special needs people can feel the texture of the rocks.
How Much Does It Cost? The Studland Shell Bay car park costs £3 if you travel by car or if they have a disabled parking spot. Some travel organisations can help find the right cost or look up the National Trust website and you will find something for more information https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ I hope you enjoy this article and enjoy your summer holidays. Maddie Walters
Margaret Millward agreed to help with the show’s equestrian classes – temporarily – in the 1990s. She’s still there and does most of the organising, reports Rachael Rowe
Margaret Millward with event horse Garfield Big Idea – she has worked with him since he was four
‘They said: “Can you just help out for a year or two?” That was back in the 1990s, and I’m still here!” British Eventing coach Margaret Millward is vice-chairman of the horse committee and a familiar face in the equestrian ring at Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show. But behind the scenes she organises the schedule, decides the classes for the horse section and helps the stewards. Margaret agrees that majority of the work goes on behind the scenes, unseen by the public, ensuring the equestrian events run smoothly each year: ‘We work on the principle that we are an “agricultural show with horses” and not a horse show.’
Margaret in 1991 when she first got involved in G&S show with daughter Phillippa competing in the leading rein class
What’s in, what’s out I’m curious about how much planning is needed for an event like the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show. Margaret explains: ‘When we first started out I was handing out rosettes from a brown paper bag. There were no proper jumps. It was total chaos! We have worked hard to improve things. Our planning for the following year starts as soon as the show is over – we look at what was supported and any issues that we experienced. For example, this year, we have taken out some of the classes that had low support. However, people liked the large ring last year, so we have kept that in. “We have built up a really good band of stewards. Some have been with us for years. We all work well together. We’re always trying to get younger people involved, to build the team.” So what is it that makes Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show special? Margaret is clear in her answer: “The people – from every section. The camaraderie of the whole team really makes it. If I didn’t do this, I would really miss it.”
Who let the bull out? Margaret says one of her funniest show memories was when a bull got loose and ran around the ground. ‘It ran amok around the stands and rings. Fortunately, no one was hurt,’ says Margaret, ‘And today, health and safety would certainly have an issue with it. My children were with me and they thought it was just hilarious!’ Another year, Margaret got Radio DJ and local resident Johnny Walker and his wife Tiggy to be guest judges. ‘We had a fancy dress class which we all enjoyed, it was a bit of fun. Johnny and Tiggy were great and judged the class for us (to be honest Tiggy did most of it!).’
Skill classes I wondered if shows like the Gillingham and Shaftesbury inspire riders of the future? Margaret is not sure they do. ‘The horse shows are very different now. We encourage local people to come, but it is different from what it was. We have a lot more skills-based classes. It can be difficult to get competitors to come, as we are more about activities than pure showjumping. We do get native breeds and hunters, but not that many show horses. Like I said, we are primarily an agricultural show.’ It is people like Margaret who make the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show happen, working in the wings to organise classes, find judges and ensure everything is in place for the big day – support is vital for events to continue. As you watch the equestrian classes at Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show, spare a thought for the work behind the scenes that makes the day a positive experience for everyone.
A local expert from Citizen’s Advice provides timely tips on consumer issues
A: Firstly, you should do a benefits check to ensure that you are claiming everything to which you are entitled. You can use an online benefit checker such as EntitledTo but if you need more help, don’t hesitate to contact your local Citizens Advice. You should also contact your energy supplier and ask what assistance they can provide.
Winter fuel Once people reach state pension age, they are eligible for a Winter Fuel Payment, which is an annual one-off payment to help you pay for heating during the winter. You should start getting the Winter Fuel Payment automatically once you reach State Pension age, but sometimes you might need to apply. You can find out how to apply for the Winter Fuel Payment on GOV.UK.
Pensioner support Dorset Council’s Household Support Fund is now open to every Dorset household which includes someone of state pension age, provided that person doesn’t have savings of more than £10K. Households can apply online and the application must be made in the name of the person who is the pensioner. Applicants will need to provide evidence of age and ID. If you are doing the application yourself, you will need to be able to upload the documents via the website. If you are struggling with the application process, get in touch with Citizens Advice, who will be able to suggest a way ahead.
Council Tax If you pay Council Tax and your home is in band A-D (or E if you get the disabled band reduction discount) you may have already received the £150 energy discount via your council tax. If you have not received this or have received a letter telling you that you are entitled but have not made a claim, you should take action now.
People who receive means-tested benefits, including Pension Credit, may get a Cost of Living payment of £650 paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324. You do not have to make a claim – the payment will be made automatically. The first of these payments should have been made in July with the second due in the autumn. If you are eligible for pension credit, that may act as a passport to other payments, such as the Warm Home Discount Scheme and discounts such as a discount on your water bill.
Energy support The government plans to give every household in Great Britain £400 off their electricity bill – it is called the Energy Bills Support Scheme. You don’t need to do anything to get the money and you won’t have to pay it back. £400 will be automatically added to your energy account over six months starting from October. If you have a prepayment meter, the £400 will be added to your meter or you’ll be given vouchers – the government will confirm how you’ll get the money nearer the time.
Are you concerned about the integrity of food labelling?
Do you believe that all UK producers should be working to the same ethical standards?
Would you like to see more support and promotion of local produce?
Do you think it’s time for a new initiative to help UK producers fight back?
Please allow us to introduce ourselves and Love Local Trust Local. We are:
Putting consumer trust back into buying local
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LOVE LOCAL TRUST LOCAL; a label you can trust
Our Story We, the Cossins family, are fifth generation farmers. As well as our farm we own a freehouse pub, a butchery, and a farm shop in the Tarrant Valley, just outside of Blandford Forum in Dorset. The Langton Arms, Rawston Farm Butchery and Farm Shop are well-known for their fantastic, local Dorset produce. Every third year we host Open Farm Sunday (OFS) on the farm and take the opportunity to talk to as many local people as possible. Our visitors love knowing the story of the food they buy form us, the miles it has travelled and also that they are buying and eating genuine local produce. We were frequently asked “how do we know that the food we buy really is what it says it is?” At the 2018 OFS it became clear the scare stories in the media had created doubt in many of people’s minds, and the Cossins decided to do something about it. Love Local Trust Local, Dorset’s very own produce label and awards were born.
What We Do We are passionate about Dorset, advocates of promoting British farming and the collaboration of small local businesses working together. Cheap imported food flooding our British market puts our British farmers and producers at an unfair disadvantage. Better food labelling is vital. While we created the label by farmers for farmers and producers here in Dorset, our aim is to roll out this movement nationwide. It is important that consumers start to recognise the county flags, see at a glance what is grown or produced in their own county, and what is in season. To achieve this, education is key. We need to tell the stories of where our food is grown and produced. Hospitality and farming need to work closely together – naturally helping our health and wellbeing, and our carbon footprint will automatically be reduced. We currently import 50% of our vegetables and 75% of our fruit; unnecessary when we could be eating with the seasons. As the creator of the Love Local Trust Local label, I (Barbara Cossins) have appeared on Channel 4’s Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast and also Escape to the Country, helping to raise awareness to a wider audience.
The 2022 Awards In the summer of 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the inaugural Love Local Trust Local Awards were launched for Dorset producers. The third Love Local Trust Local Awards opened for entries on the 1st May this year. There are 14 categories to choose from, with some new ones added for the first time this year. The Love Local Trust Local Awards are FREE to enter and entries close on the 1st September 2022. After this, judging and tasting will take place through the autumn and there will be an awards ceremony in early February hosted at Kingston Maurward College, one of the Love Local Trust Local sponsors.
Work with us Raise the profile of your business Become a champion of the Love Local Trust Local Promote your own business and services to local, forward thinking other businesses Be an early adopter and become part of the Love Local Trust Local family Associate yourself with multi-award-winning Dorset businesses, The Langton Arms and Rawston Farm Butchery & Farm Shop 12 months of promotion and coverage for your business via our social media channels A beautiful plaque bearing the Love Local Trust Local logo to display
The Love Local Trust Local Awards are championed by sponsors who also make up the judging panel. Small, local businesses supporting each other.
Dry crops aren’t always a good thing, says fifth generation farmer James Cossins, as he explains late night combine harvesting and reducing fire risk
Combining harvesting at Rawston Farm in the early 1970s
some dry and warm weather to start our cereal and oilseed harvest off. Little did I know what was coming! Yet again we have broken temperature records in this country with some exceptional heat during July, and taken together with no appreciable rainfall, conditions have been challenging for all farmers and growers.
Dry crops We managed to start harvesting about ten days earlier than normal with our winter malting barley crop. The moisture of the grain should be below 15 per cent in order for it to be stored safely, and our crop was coming in at between 11 and 12 per cent so no drying needed. Instead we will have to blow cool air through it when temperatures drop. We have had a similar issue with our oilseed crop which needs to be between six and nine per cent moisture in order for the crop to be sold without any deductions. During the extreme heat, our crop was coming in below six per cent, so we had to stop harvesting and continue early in the morning or at night. If the crop is too dry the oil cannot be extracted – this is why during a hot spell you might see combine harvesters working late at night, when the temperatures are lower. The alternative is the risk that if the crop is left unharvested and a thunderstorm arrives, the oilseed pods will expand with the rain on them and the tiny seeds will drop out – resulting in the loss of the entire crop. The yields, certainly of the barley, have been encouraging considering the dry spring and summer. Early indications from grain sample results are that it has met the malting standards and we will be able to fulfill our contract with Molston Coors for beer production. We hope now to start our wheat crop harvesting; again ten days early in ripening.
Too hot for cows Our cattle have not enjoyed the heat so much. Many of the grazing fields do have tree shelters for the cattle to get under, but with the milking cows we rotate around paddocks and not all of them have shade. During the very hot days we decided to simply put the cows in the shaded paddocks and give them extra feed in the form of baled silage to keep them happy. I know some farmers bring their cows inside during the heat – great if the buildings are suitable with high roofs and fans to keep them cool. Unfortunately ours are not really suitable for summer housing. If, as climate change experts predict, we continue to get very hot periods more frequently, we may have to adapt our buildings.
A fire started while mowing a clover key
Fire, fire Obviously, during this hot period the risk of fire has increased, obviously, and we have tried to take precautions. The combines are blown off every day with a compressor to stop the build-up of dust around the engine and other hot parts. We always have a tanker of water in place, and also a cultivator on a tractor ready and waiting in case of fire. Luckily we are only three miles from Blandford fire station if there should be an emergency. The local fire crews visit the farm as part of their training, in order to identify the risks and hazards on farms. I would just like to thank the fire service for the support they give the farming community. I am sure the weather will balance itself out sometime – we now need the rain for our grass to grow again. Like most people’s lawns, they are all brown!
After a two years enforced break, the Great Dorset Steam Fair (GDSF) is back until Bank Holiday Monday (29th August)! Seen as the world’s leading heritage event, the spectacle covers the enormous showground – at over 600 acres it’s one of Europe’s largest outdoor event locations.
Steam Fair Managing Director, Martin Oliver said: “We have all missed the Steam Fair massively these past two years and it will be wonderful to welcome everyone back to our Tarrant Hinton showground. You’ll struggle to see and do everything in just one day!”
If you’re visiting this weekend, here are some of the highlights that you won’t want to miss:
For so many visitors, the stars of the show are of course the majestic Showmen’s Engines, standing proudly in front of the ‘Old Time Fairground’. If you stay until dark, don’t miss them lighting up the Great Dorset Steam Fair skyline.
But the steam doesn’t stop at the Showmen’s Engines. There are steam tractors (designed for light haulage work), steam lorries (for local delivery services) and steam cars – once the thing to be seen in, with the World-famous Stanley Steamer being the Aston Martin of its day. Steam road rollers were the last steam engines to be built – some still actively working well into the 1960s, with local councils using them for road building and repairs.
The heritage sections don’t start and end with steam, however. GDSF has one of the most prestigious Heavy Horse displays in the country, with over 100 of them take part in displays each day. In the Working Area, you can also see the heavy horses working the land, farming for the days before steam.
The fairground is the largest travelling fairground of its type in the UK, and is a GDSF special mix of old and new. Take a turn on a steam-driven set of Gallopers (the most traditional of carousels) and then move on to a white-knuckle experience on an adrenaline-fuelled monster ride.
In the Craft and Food Marquees you can browse to your shopping heart’s content through local producers and makers. In the Food Hall Marquee you’ll find a fine selection of provisions; perhaps some real butcher’s sausages and pies, made with the finest prime pork? And while you’re on a roll, don’t miss the Great Dorset Bake-On Tent; crusty bread, light sponges and perfect pastries. The Craft Marquees have the expected eclectic range of traditional country crafts. Look out for stained glass, dried flowers, handcrafted walking sticks, leather artisans, handthrown pottery and original paintings.
All this plus the Wall of Death, the Grand Palace of Entertainment (no, not Palace of Westminster … this is real freak show) and seven stages of live music including Folk, Country, Blues, Rock and Chill-out.
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Dorset NFU county chairman George Hosford gives show visitors an insight to the life of a modern farmer with his July farm diary
Harvest time near Blandford All images: George Hosford
Our winter barley harvest started a little earlier than usual, though only one day earlier than in 2018 (another heatwave year). All 113 hectares was Maris Otter, and the yield was our best ever. Big heap feed barley growers might scoff, but Otter (bred in 1966) is a consistent performer for us. We enjoy growing it and we particularly enjoy testing the results once the skilled brewers at places like St Austell, Flack Manor, Butcombe and Dorset’s Sixpenny brewery have done their best with it! The oilseed rape was ready on 14th July, very similar to 2018 but a good deal earlier than most years. It did not need spraying with glyphosate. It had ripened evenly and in good time. The yields were good where allowed to grow undamaged by animals, but terrible where the farmer (erm, isn’t that you? – Ed) had insisted on grazing sheep (admittedly for all sorts of sound reasons like weed, insect and disease-avoidance). After three years of this experiment, initiated with Innovative Farmers as part of the search for survival techniques in face of the flea beetle onslaught following the ban on neonics, we have got the message. The sheep have been sold, so it won’t be happening again.
A pretty field margain near Dorschester
Wildflower verges Driving back from a bad news session at our local tractor dealer last Saturday, my eye was caught by a very pretty field margin near Dorchester. Closer examination revealed cornflowers, corn marigolds, ox-eye daisies, poppies and others – mostly annuals. The richness of colour and the buzz of the bees helped to sweep away the blues induced by being told that one of our tractors has a near-terminal condition – terminal either for the tractor or the bank account, we just have to decide which. How can a ten-year-old tractor with just 6,000 hours on the clock be rendered almost worthless by a breakdown due to poor manufacturing? Why do we have no comeback on the manufacturer who happily took £100,000 off us in 2012, and walked away after the original warranty expired? Anyway, back to the flowers. I admired their beauty, while wondering which is better; a perennial mix, which only needs to be established once, and can be good for ten to 15 years of pollen and nectar provision (but doesn’t look remotely as colourful as this one). Or are annuals better for attracting insects and providing nectar, with the drawback of needing to re-sow every year? Without doubt the annuals are good for impressing people; planted alongside public paths and roads they are sure to attract the right kind of attention. But for busy farmers who are always time-poor, doing it just once is usually going to be preferable. It’s not so good for the soil to have to re-sow every year, either.
Guatamalan carrots in the local supermaket
Guatamalan carrots I am definitely not the best person to send out for the weekly shop. I always take far too long. Starting at the newspaper rack just inside the door of our local supermarket, just seeing the daily paper headlines makes my blood pressure rise. Stupid puns abound for starters, but what really gets me is the tribalism and narrow mindedness shown. I can’t understand why people buy any of them at all. Moving on to the fruit and veg aisle, things don’t improve when I reach the apples, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms. All of these grow very well indeed in the UK. The modern technology for fresh produce storage is amazing – you can still buy English apples in July that taste nearly as fresh as the day they were picked. And in less than a month the new crop will be available. Why then are we shipping in apples from South Africa and calling them seasonal or the appalling French Granny Smiths or – worst of all – Gala apples from Argentina and calling them organic. English carrots are available for a great deal of the year; stored in the ground for months, they are dug as required to suit the market. Presumably they can also be kept in cold storage. Why then do we need to import ‘Tendersweet’ carrots from Guatemala in July?
Combining at Traveller’s Rest Farm near Blandford
Mushrooms, as far as I can tell, are like many people – kept in the dark and fed on bullsh**t. This can be done anywhere. There used to be a large mushroom farm near Sturminster Newton, but they gave up the unequal fight with their supermarket customer a few years ago. They also used to provide a useful source of compost for neighbouring farmers to purchase. Why are we importing mushrooms from Poland and selling them in identical packaging to the English ones produced in Cambridgeshire? And lastly tomatoes – if our greenhouse is anything to go by, July is peak tomato season in the UK. Modern techniques and innovative heat sources have extended the tomato season hugely over the last ten years – for example using waste heat from anaerobic digester plants or from sugarbeet factories. However, the tomato shelf in our supermarket is dominated by Moroccan, Polish and Spanish tomatoes, even in July. The only UK ones are the premium range, with a limited number of sizes. And yes, I’m aware I should shop more widely and only spend where I will give the right signal to the market with my purchasing. But sadly, convenience has a value too, and there is not much choice in Blandford. It also gives me something to rant write about. So much for taking back control, for levelling up and for ensuring fairness in the marketplace. Our mendacious government has squirmed out of allowing parliament the chance to debate the Australian trade deal before the summer recess, and the Tory majority will nod it through. They seem to be happy to see our own food industry slowly strangled to death. And I haven’t even reached the meat and dairy aisles yet…
George farms near Blandford, and writes a regular monthly farm diary on his blog View From The Hill
