This month, on the outskirts of Shaftesbury, Turnpike Showground is set to be transformed into a hub of creativity and craftsmanship as it hosts a huge ceramics and artisan pottery market. Taking place from12th to 14th July, the event promises to be a celebration of all things of clay.
A Showcase of Ceramic Excellence Featuring an impressive line-up of almost 100 ceramic artists from across the UK – and as far afield as Italy – displaying a diverse array of ceramic works, ranging from contemporary pieces to traditional pottery, fine intricate jewellery to large garden sculpture, from domestic ware to be used every day to fine figurative sculpture. Whether you’re an avid collector, a casual admirer or just ceramically curious, this event offers an amazing opportunity to talk to the artists, learn about their creative processes and purchase one-of-a-kind pieces directly from the makers.
Interactive, Hands-On Activities Potfest South West is not just about observing art, it’s about participating in it. As well as the chance to meet and talk to the artists there will also be the opportunity to glaze your own piece and have it raku fired, there and then! There will also be trade stands for those who are inspired and want to purchase materials and equipment for themselves. Taking part instead of simply browsing always adds an extra layer of enjoyment to an event – Potfest is a memorable day out for visitors of all ages.
Culinary Delights and Live Music No festival is complete without delicious food and music, of course, and Potfest South West delivers on both fronts. A selection of street food vendors will be on-site, offering an array of mouthwatering options from gourmet burgers and artisan pizzas to vegan delights and sweet treats. ‘A string quartet will be performing live throughout the event too,’ says Matt Cox, the event organiser. ‘The aim is to enhance the creative atmosphere as visitors explore the exhibits and chat to the artists. ‘We are thrilled to bring Potfest back to the South West after a hiatus of several years. Potfest is such a celebration of both ceramic art and artisan craftsmanship, and we are so excited to showcase the incredible talent of our artists in the beautiful North Dorset countryside. Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a foodie or simply looking for a great day out, Potfest promises something special. ‘We look forward to welcoming everyone to join us for a weekend filled with inspiration, beauty, artistry and creativity.’
Join us at Potfest South West July 12th, 13th and 14th 10am until 4.30pm Turnpike Showground, North Dorset SP7 9PL Adults £6, accompanied under 16’s free Tickets available online at potfest.co.uk or on the gate each day. For more information and to preview the work of all those artists taking part please visit potfest.co.uk
Are you a qualified and experienced chef who is passionate about food? Sherborne’s Yeatman Hospital is looking for an outstanding senior chef to join the team.
As a senior chef you’ll demonstrate practical experience and knowledge of allergens, modified diets and nutritional content. You must hold a L3 Food Hygiene Certificate or have a willingness to undertake this. Experience of providing catering services in a similar setting, menu planning and portion control is essential.
You will be confident and have supervisory experience to lead a team of catering staff, supporting them to be creative in our high-quality meal provision.
This is a full-time position based at the Yeatman Hospital. You must be able to work flexibly as part of a rota between 6.30am-6pm, including weekends and bank holidays at enhanced pay.
For any queries, please contact facilities manager Alison Lee at [email protected] or call 07775027961.
Main duties of the job
Provide a high standard of catering services to patients, staff and visitors.
To ensure correct standards of cleanliness are achieved and maintained.
To have input into the annual appraisal process of staff.
Skills required for food preparation, use of knife skills.
Organise and manage own workload and the teams to meet with competing demands and deadlines, including an ability to respond flexibly to ad hoc situations and requests.
To lead on the training and workplace induction of other catering staff.
Responsibility for the ordering of stock and management of products, including rotation of stock to avoid wastage.
Pauline Batstone shares her monthly round up of what’s happening among the town’s collection of community enterprises and events
Welcome to Stur to all our lovely visitors exploring our town this summer! As you explore the town, don’t miss our four individual shops supporting re-investment into our lovely little town. If you haven’t been to see us yet, you don’t know what you are missing! 1855 is the indoor artisan’s market with more than 90 Dorset-based craftspeople and traders. Find it at the end of Market Cross. Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am til 4pm. The Pre-loved Boutique has a range of ladies quality clothes and accessories, plus children’s clothes. Find it at 7 Church Street, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. The Emporium is our own version of a department store on The Market Place, recycling good and useful things. Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturdays 10am til 4pm. Dapper Chaps is the gentleman’s boutique, found inside The Emporium Art Gallery is up on the first floor above The Emporium – the name says it all! Furniture Warehouse is filled with used but good and new-to-you furniture for a replacement, a need or simply an upcycle. Also on The Market Place but not always staffed, so if you find it closed please do pop into The Emporium and ask for us to open up. And for those whose children who go to our local schools, we have FREE school and other uniforms available on the first floor above the Furniture Warehouse (and we are very pleased to accept your outgrown items). Plus we have a community fridge and assorted free foods available in The Emporium – freely available to anyone, please help us to avoid food waste.
We are often asked where the money raised through SturAction’s shops goes – as an example, over the past month the shops have: Helped support the fifth Stur Literary Festival, which brings new people into our town (put next year’s dates in your diary now – the LitFest will be back on 7th to 15th June 2025!) Agreed a grant to the third Riverside Family Festival which aims to give a cheap fun day out to our local families while raising money for local charities. Supported the Car and Bike Enthusiasts Meet on the first Saturday morning of every month, and we also pay for free car parking that day – again aiming to bring customers into our local independent shops and cafes. Been asked to assist The Exchange with their new community project. Through our events organiser Jacqui we are organising Sturminster Newton’s own Art Week 13th to 21st July, with more than 30 artists exhibiting their works in our shop windows, plus a couple of exciting events: an Art Race and a mural painting workshop. During that week the town’s own graffiti artist Tom Wolfe will be completing the train mural in the Station Road car park. And the summer flower planters which Jacqui organises with our local businesses have arrived in town from Thorngrove
Nick Heyward looks back on rough school days, dreaming of stardom, David Bowie, naming Haircut 100 … and the joy of reading in the bath
Nick Heyward 2024
Awkward. Embarrassed most of the time. It was the 70s, and my school was … tough. On my first day I saw somebody knock a kid flying by the tuck shop. He had a kind of rock outfit on, huge platform shoes and a silver jacket, and he had a beard, I think was a sixth former. And he just smacked somebody full in the face. And I just thought, “Oh, dear. This is my place of learning.”’ Nick Heywood – singer, songwriter and Haircut 100 frontman – grew up in South London, and doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t dreaming of appearing on Top of the Pops. ‘We lived in Beckenham. I was told that it was more of an artistic, creative school, but I just remember keeping my head down for most of the first year, so it didn’t get punched! This was the mid-70s, and everything was in black and white. I mean, there was colour on the TV, but life felt grey and grim with three-day-weeks and politics even worse than it is today. ‘I grew up in a musical family. My father took me to see Count Basie, Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson at Hammersmith Odeon. That was my first concert. I was blessed with music. Dad was a huge jazz fan –also big band music like Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. And then people like Tubby Hayes, solo saxophone players … we’d always have Dave Brubeck playing in the car. Growing up was switching between that and my brother playing Pink Floyd and David Bowie (the beacon of our area, he also lived in Beckenham at the same time). My brother was music mad. Pink Floyd to Mark Bolan, everything was in Pete’s bedroom. Mum was into The Carpenters – something was being played non-stop.’ ‘I was always interested in song-writing – a schoolfriend of mine, Lawrence, was a jazz drummer, and I used to go round to his house and take my first electric guitar, which I bought in Woolworths for £15 – it was hardly playable, it sounded awful! But you’ve got to start somewhere. Lawrence and I would pretend we were in a band, and we’d just play and listen to records and we’d mime to Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye. We didn’t have a microphone because we couldn’t afford one. There wasn’t any kind of equipment apart from the guitar and that curly lead going into a Woolworths amplifier. And just dreaming. You’re dreaming that you could one day, possibly, be Queen, or Bolen or David Bowie. You wouldn’t believe how strong a lighthouse beam Bowie was in Beckenham. You know, he made it! He lived right here in Beckenham, but we saw him on the telly. Which made me beleive it was possible for me too. Everything was much more vibrant on the television than it was in real life. ‘I left school with a plan to go to art college, but I didn’t get in. I only got one O level and I would have had to stay on at school. And I thought “I can’t. I cannot stay here another minute.” So I left and got a job on Oxford Street in a commercial art company called the House of Wizard. I was on £15 a week, but I would have paid them to let me work there! They did Coca Cola campaigns and Bovril and I was doing all the things I loved. I used to sit and design posters. That was my passion – designing posters and listening to music. Then I got to combine them, beacuse at House of Wizard, we did record sleeves too. We did the Jam’s In The City … Uriah Heep … loads of bands.’
Blatant Beavers But I kept up the music. Les Nemes and I were formidable once we teamed up. I was impatient. We were ambitious. It may have looked like it happened overnight, but we were together playing music a long time. We were in lots of rehearsal studios, played in many bands, through many cultural niches. We thought we were going to be in a ska band, we were going to be punk, new wave … By the time we were 19 or 20, that’s when it took off. ‘Les, guitarist Graham and I lived in a flat above a flower shop in Gloucester Road, living and breathing the band. We were all single at the time, so we’d socialise and go out together, experiencing the magic of being in a band. We knew people like Spandau Ballet, we were all at the same clubs, trying to cut through.’ Music journalist Adrian Thrills remembers it clearly: ‘Nick walked unannounced into the NME offices in Carnaby Street in March 1981. He charmed his way past reception, thrust a demo tape into my hands and began telling me, a staff writer interested in new bands, about Haircut 100. They played fast, chunky pop, a new kind of jangly, poppy Britfunk.’ Adrian subsequently wrote a full page piece on Haircut 100 in the NME, and introduced Nick to the editor of The Face, who also ran a piece on the band. ‘NME had such power and influence at the time,’ says Nick. ‘I don’t think we’d have happened without it.’ And how about the Haircut 100 name? Is it true it was just the silliest one Nick could think of? ‘Well, we’d been Quick Cereals, Blatant Beavers, Napkin Man … we tried out a new one each week on our mates. Haircut 100 just seemed the worst! But people would ask why, or laugh or they’d say “great name!”. It caused a reaction. ‘To me it just said pop art – I loved surreal pop art at that time, I loved the lyrics of Talking Heads that just didn’t seem to make sense. Nothing seemed to make sense in pop music lyrics, even David Bowie’s lyrics were nonsense. Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow? ‘I knew from my design days that creativity comes from Nowhere Land – it’s why Haircut 100 stuck.
It just it went down well with our mates and it seemed to fit us as a band.’ The Haircut 100 look was distinctive, a contrast to what else was going on at that time, the band known for wearing thick Argyle jumpers, Nick for a traditional Breton fisherman’s cap which promptly became a fashion trend. ‘Yeah, it was quite eclectic, wasn’t it? And it was all us, we didn’t have stylists. We got our clothes from Kensington Market and experimented with different looks and styles. London in the early 80s was so creative. And fashion, more than ever, was connected to the music. Everybody that had been a young Bowie fan had now grown up, and they were in bands or the fashion industry or something. We knew that how unique you were was how successful you were. It wasn’t about conforming. We’d wear a sou’wester and fisherman’s socks, or full polo gear to the gig one day, because why not? You just tried things out. And when you’re doing it, you realise that fashion comes from everywhere. And it’s all been done before –you’re just taking it and putting it in a different place. I wore the fishing hat because my father used to wear one when we went on holiday. We went to Port Grimaud – it’s now a holiday resort, but then it was just a a fishing village. And he used to wear that hat to hire this little boat for maybe £1.50 a day. I just remember him wearing that hat. So I wore it, and then you find out that oh, look, John Lennon wore that hat. It’s all been done before. BUT I have yet to find anybody before me who wore fisherman’s waders on Top of the Pops … once, we were on the same show as The Furies, an Irish folk band, and their manager came up to us and said “I’ve been trying to get them to wear Aran jumpers for their whole career and they refuse. Now you’re wearing them, but what have you got to do with folk music?” This year Haircut 100 played a warm-up gig at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton and then went on to play Glastonbury. ‘Later this year I’m off on solo tour – which is always great, but very different. When Les and I are together, we just pick up where we left off. And when we’re playing with Blair, suddenly we’re just alive with the power this man from Memphis has got in his pocket. It’s a thing that you only get in a band. ‘When I’m touring on my own, it’s a completely different thing. Even if I play those same songs, it’s different. But I’ll be just cherry picking from the whole catalogue – and when I play them I go into full joy mode. I never forget – this is my dream I’m getting to do.’
A life in music And so to Nick Heyward’s music choices, in no particular order, along with how and why they have stuck in his life:
Penny Lane The Beatles This sums up the Beatles to me, the optimism of the time, Paul McCartney at his best. There’s a lyric in there where it says “Meanwhile, back” at the end of the verse. And it just links up one verse to the next. Every time I hear that, I think it’s one of the cleverest things I’ve heard. Normally there’s some rhyming and then the bit of link and a chorus and this doesn’t, it just links up the verse to the next. It’s like a daisy chain. Everything about it captures that period so beautifully. It’s like pop brass, it just says it’s celebratory, and it captures Liverpool so well. The instrumentation on it, the baseline, is completely fresh. It’s the same way that you hear something like Gustav Mahler’s Symphony Adagio for Strings, and you think “he captured melancholy”. The Beatles captured the sound of optimism in a single gem of a three minute pop song.
Rocket Man Elton John I love and respect the relationship between Elton and Bernie Taupin more and more the older I get. Bernie is a genuine lyricist, he’s up there with the best. And for these two to find each other … The whole world has benefited from Rocket Man, musically and lyrically. It’s just genius. Decades later, I still listen to it now. The delivery, the vocals, the imagery that comes from the lyrics. I can just put it on, and I’m transported. It was everybody at the top of their game at that particular time. That recording is like a fine wine – every once in a while you just put it on and you listen, and you go “Oh, yeah, there’s magic in the world all right.”
Life on Mars David Bowie There are so many of his songs that I could have picked. But It’s a god-awful small affair, To the girl with the mousy hair … what a way to start a song! Like, what? That’s the power of a lyricist. It’s not a generic pop song about love. It transports you to another place. Music did that, it took me out of the mundane world and into this other realm. It was amazing. And just a few words would do that. You know, We’re back to Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow again. I mean, you just accepted this as the norm, this is what it was in the 70s. It was a glimpse of the new world that was happening, that you were aspiring to. You believed the next decade was going to be even more vibrant. I had no clue then that I was going to be involved in the next decade at all, but because of Bowie, I dreamed that it might be possible. He was such an inspiration. And the melody here is so beautiful. Perfectly crafted, again, by all the people that were at the top of their game at that particular point. The studios were better than they’d ever been, everything that had happened in tape, there were more tracks so they could record more … and they were really good at what they did.
Disco Stomp Hamilton Bohannan This is the disco! For me, this was our local town hall, and a hotchpotch of people from different areas – and most of us were wearing bowling shirts. This record is the most vivid memory for me. It made everybody move in unison, and I’ve never heard anything sound that way. I think it still influences guitar players. I was an aspiring rhythm guitar player at that point, and there’s this rhythm guitar part in the song which goes against the beat. I didn’t even know it was a guitar. I just wanted to know what’s doing that rhythm? What’s making everybody in this room dance together, in unison? And this music, it wasn’t like Tiger Feet by Mud, it wasn’t ska… This was a different thing. It was just this rhythm. And it haunted me for years because it fell off the radar, but now we’ve got YouTube and we can find all this stuff. It was played everywhere in ‘76, and then it just seemed to vanish. But that rhythm, there’s just something about it. It wasn’t a classic melody either, it was just all about the groove.
Down Down Status Quo Before I was going to that disco, I’d be listening to Quo in my bedroom. I was wearing triple denim, cheesecloth, orange platform shoes. I had fake sheepskin around the collar that I got from the market somewhere. I thought I was great. I looked like a member of Quo! And I would play that Down Down intro … In fact, when Haircut 100 got back together at the Shepherds Bush Empire, we came on to Down Down. That was a moment, I can tell you. I went from playing to the mirror in my bedroom, imagining being in Status Quo, to being on that enormous stage with our band. And we played that song. Goosebumps. Again, it’s in the recording – this is the greatest intro to any pop song, ever, I think. I’m really into intros. That’s why I love Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye because the intro instantly makes you want to do something, like when you hear the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody. Just from the first few bars. Down Down’s drum intro, it’s classic: really simple, but it flops in in such a beautiful way. I love everything about it. I learned to play it and realised how simple it was as well. It’s just a capo on the fretboard and playing a minor shape. And I thought “wow, all these years of that magic that I wanted to work out. And now it’s on YouTube, and you can learn this stuff.”
Staying Alive Bee Gees Well, I think stranded on an island, I would definitely need to stay alive! This is some positive affirmation – I listen to this a lot when I’m flying. When you’re landing or you’re bumping through the clouds, sometimes it’s nice to just have something that’s grounding. It’s a positive thing. I love flying now but I didn’t used to. Music can really help you love something – it’s association, isn’t it? If you experience something positive, and you’re listening to music, then every time you go through a difficult time you play that music, you can get through anything. It’s a healing thing. I wasn’t listening to this at the time it came out, though. This was just the music that was around. I didn’t buy it. But it has stood the test of time, and I listen to this track more than I do the songs that I did buy back then. Once again, it’s all in how they were recorded, it’s so expertly and beautifully put together. And the genius of the Bee Gees is working with Arif Mardin: going to Miami and making records that sounded so American. I think he’s got the best Anglo/American pop music – you take brilliant writers, and then put them in America with the best funk producer – and suddenly you’ve got all those great songs. I don’t listen to vinyl – I’ve got vinyl on display, and we’ve got a wonky-looking 60s record player because my wife loves retro stuff. But I love streaming. I love it that I’m listening to all the things that I didn’t get to listen to. I couldn’t afford to buy every 10cc album, but now I can listen to every single one. Every song I could ever wish to hear is there.
Baker Street Gerry Rafferty It’s so dramatic! I was walking around London delivering parcels, learning to be a commercial artist at House of Wizard. I wasn’t listening to the record because we didn’t have Walkmans then. But you would take that song with you, wherever you walked, because it was still playing. Everywhere. That intro was everywhere. I would be at work making the tea for 20 people with that song in the backgorund, and then go off and deliver a parcel and there it was again … I was always walking down Baker Street. That was the soundtrack of the time. But me personally, I was listening to punk. And if someone had said to me then “in three or four years time, your band will have taken off and you’ll be playing in California at a sold out country club. And Gerry Rafferty will be guesting, and he’ll want to play with you…” Never in my wildest dreams. But there we were, playing his song with him. That’s why I feel like saying to anyone “you can make your wildest dreams come true”. Because you really can. I did.
Let Your Yeah Be Yeah The Pioneers Another that has stayed with me. Before my family moved to Beckenham, we lived in Brixton. I used to go to Brixton market with my nan and mum, and Trojan Records was huge in Brixton. This song was always playing, and it is my favorite bassline of all time. And the recording – total magic. You couldn’t recreate this, it’s a moment in time. These historic recordings, they will never be created again. The sound of the 70s has this timeless tape, it was just 8-track, 16-track and 24-track. This Pioneers song was probably recorded on 8-track, so the tape is wider and thicker, which gives this thicker, lovely warm fuzzy sound. I used to record in the 90s and I recorded on a 16-track machine for that, because my guitar sounded wider. I’d play my Gretsch through the 16-track machine, and everyone would ask “how do you do that?” It was just through using old tape recorders. Listen to Let Your Yeah Be Yeah, it’s more bassy than anything you hear now, so warm and round and bassy and I just love it.
Luxury item? A bathtub! Funnily enough, I don’t listen to music in the bath. I read. It’s like I have to have a bath to read. We’ve just gone the longest we’ve ever gone living somewhere without a bath, and we’ve been going to hotels for a bath sometimes just because I really need to read. There’s something about the focused concentration of being so warm. I mean, I can’t recall my mother’s womb, but I reckon it’s probably pretty close! A really safe, warm place. I stay in hours. Hours! Everything is wrinkly when I get out, but I can devour a book. One of my favorite memories is reading Charlotte’s Web in the bath. I’d never read it, and it was that magic of being in the story. I was in the bath in Tampa and the sun was shining through the window and it was dark by the time I finished it. It was just magic. What a book, what a story … and what a bath. So I will need a bath, please. And it should be hooked up to the nearest waterfall, and heated by the sun. The Book I just want an empty journal. I have to be able to keep writing. I never found that Elton John and Bernie Taupin-type of songwriting partnership. So I just have to do whatever comes – sometimes I write the music, then on the way home I’ll find some lyrics. Or sometimes I just come up with the title first, like Blue Hat For A Blue Day and Lemon Fire Brigade, they were titles that I had, and I just had to somehow hope the right song would come along. It’s random and sometimes chaotic. It’s a bit like cooking, you can invent some really good new meals if you just try lots of stuff. It’s the same ingredients everyone has, though. I mean, I’m using the same seven notes as anyone else. And they’re the same seven notes that every bird sings in the tree. Same with the lyrics – they’re the same words, and you just mix them all up.
Following a 2023 sell-out Haircut 100 London reunion show at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire and a joyous UK tour, this autumn Nick Heyward sets off on his first solo tour since the critically acclaimed Woodland Echoes tour in 2018. See nickheyward.com for dates Haircut 100’s show at The Exchange was an instant sellout. If you missed it, keep your eyes peeled for more shows coming soon, and be quick with the Buy Tickets Now button! stur-exchange.co.uk
From mocking the game to becoming a world champion: Alex Kley’s record-breaking achievements all started in a Dorset village hall
SMPT World Masters singles champion 2022/23
When I was 13, of my friends insisted on playing what I called his Old Man game,’ says Alex Kley. ‘I couldn’t resist making fun of it, but thank goodness he didn’t pay any attention, and just said, “Don’t mock it til you’ve tried it – come and have a go, it’s harder than you think!” Now here I am, a decade later and I’ve been No.1 in the world, and I’m current World Masters champion!’ Alex, now 23, grew up in Child Okeford, and it was in the Okeford Fitzpaine village hall that he first tried his hand at Short Mat Bowls. It’s a relatively new sport which grew out of the more familiar flat green bowls in the 1990s: played over a much shorter length, the pre-marked mat is six feet wide and between 40 and 45 feet long (meaning it’s easily accommodated in any village, school or leisure centre hall). ‘I was just so lucky,’ says Alex. ‘The county manager at the time, Brian Baker, was a member of the Okeford Fitzpaine Short Mat Bowls Club – and he taught me how to play. But so many of the older locals spent time with me, encouraging me and teaching me to be a better person as well as a better player. I’m so grateful to them all.’ By the time he was 14 Alex had been selected to play in the county team, and by 16 he was playing for England in both the Under 21s squad and the main team. By this time Alex had switched clubs from Okeford to Hazelbury Bryan – a tiny Dorset village which secretly housed a world class Short Mat Bowls Club where a lot of the county and England team players were members. Last year, at just 22 years old, Alex broke all records, becoming the first person to hold all major singles title in the same season – the English Open singles champion, also the National singles, British Isles singles and the World Singles champion. ‘I won the National Singles in consecutive years, and then I’ve just won the World Masters Singles back-to-back too. That has never been done before.’
Alex playing at the World Championships in Aberdeen 2022/23 season
A tactical game Short Mat Bowls can be played as a singles game, but also as pairs, triples or fours – each with its own tactics and skill. ‘I was selected for the singles game. It’s what I’m best at, although I do enjoy working in a team too,’ says Alex. ‘It’s a very different way of working, sharing and planning tactics with others.’ Alex’s favourite strategy, to which he credits his record-breaking year, has potentially led to a World Council Bowling Association rule change. At both ends of the mat there is a fender, and one foot in from the fender there is a white line, representing the ditch. My favourite strategy was to put the jack long, and then my first bowl would sit perfectly in the ditch – basically it’s unbeatable at that point. It’s the most difficult shot in the book, so to me, if you have the skill to do it then it’s fair play – that’s what lead to a lot of my success! ‘But this year there’s been a rule change, preventing that from happening with the first bowl – basically making sure your opponent still has a chance. ‘I enjoy switching tactics though, so that my opponents never know what I’m going to do. The tactics and strategies are just as important as the skill with the bowls. I was also captain of the England team last year – that was a big step up, testing my leadership skills. I enjoyed it.’ A couple of years ago Alex moved clubs again, this time to Carey SMBC near Wimborne. ‘It’s more convenient for work, but also I didn’t want to be quite so committed, and Carey were able to be more flexible about just letting me play when I wanted to. It’s easy to let bowls take over and I do have other things I want to do too! There’s only a couple of months a year when we’re not playing. I’ve qualified for the Short Mat Players Tour World Cup – the top four ranked players over the season from each country are invited to compete – and that’s held in August. But between now and then, I’m taking a rest. I won’t play at all. ‘I’m very lucky to be sponsored by both Wareham Golf Club and Belltops Roofing – without them, I wouldn’t be able to go to these events.’
Alex Kley with all the trophies he won in his record-breaking 2022/23 season (almost – he wasn’t allowed to keep the Masters globe!)
Interestingly, Alex isn’t the youngest person playing on either his county or national team: ‘My little brother plays for Dorset,’ he says. ‘And there are lots of under 25s on the England team. The older local players love it, they’re excited by the prospect of so much growth in the game. Two years ago we won the Inter County Championship – Dorset was the top county in the country. ‘The Dorset team manager is keen on going into schools and getting the kids to have a go – I’ve done a few talks myself, told them my story and encouraged them to have a go while I’ve taught them. Most clubs have an Open Roll Up night, where anyone can go along and give it a try, and experienced players like me will spend an hour teaching the basics. We always need new players’
If you’re interested in giving bowls a try, contact Dorset County Short Mat Bowling Association to find your nearest club dorsetsmba.co.uk
Dorset CPRE conference criticises government targets, calling for 1,300 homes a year and increased investment in social rent to meet local needs
Hastoe Housing Project in Powerstock. Image: Samantha Cook Photography.
The provision of affordable housing has been a major campaign issue for all political parties. Soaring house prices, the cost-of-living crisis and wages that have failed to rise in line with inflation have exacerbated an already dire situation. In 2021, figures released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities showed that 10,525 households were waiting for an affordable social house here in Dorset – and the true figure is likely to be much higher. At the same time, the average price paid for a first home in Dorset has risen to a staggering £282,000. Dorset CPRE believes strongly that the delivery of housing that addresses the county’s real needs requires careful consideration. To help fully understand the issues that face Dorset, and investigate potential solutions, Dorset CPRE organised a free online conference on Thursday 20th June, with presentations from both national and local experts in affordable housing. The conference was chaired by Lord Richard Best – a life peer and cross bencher in the House of Lords, Lord Best has been a prominent national figure in housing and planning-related organisations. The conference was introduced by Dorset CPRE president and former BBC chief news correspondent, Kate Adie. About 90 people attended the conference, including many parish, town and Dorset councillors, as well as housebuilders, landowners and CPRE members.
How many and who’s paying? Mike Allen from Dorset CPRE set the scene for the conference from a Dorset CPRE perspective. He asked three questions: what homes are needed here in Dorset, how many are needed and who will pay for them? He began by looking at the evidence for how many new homes are really needed in Dorset. The 2021 draft local plan allocated land for new homes in Dorset over the next 17 years, using the Government’s Standard Method (SM) for assessing housing need. This is a crude formula to identify the minimum number of homes to be planned for, using projected household growth and affordability. This showed a need for 1,900 new homes per annum in Dorset – a 40% increase on current rates. A huge negative response to the draft plan caused DC to pause. People didn’t want the Green Belt encroachment or the scale of greenfield development. They said the infrastructure wouldn’t cope and they foresaw that the new homes would be unaffordable for locals. DC has delayed the local plan process.
Housing provider Abri facilitated the £8 million affordable development at Hazelbury Bryan
Is planning really the issue? But does the SM really measure actual housing need in Dorset? Mike explained that in 2021 DC commissioned consultants Iceni to assess local housing need. They found that shrinkage in the natural population is more than offset by net in-migration, mainly of older people, with a growth of about 2,000 people a year. Incomers bring equity to house purchases, and pay up to 12 times local incomes – because they can. This growth pattern distorts the natural population structure of the county. Using the Standard Method of calculation, Iceni found that net inward migration would need to double, leading to an even bigger distortion of the age profile, with big knock-on effects on health and care services. The consultants concluded, not surprisingly, that it was more likely that the industry would not build so many extra homes because developers wouldn’t find enough extra customers. The Standard Method of calculating housing need is intended to increase the supply of homes and thus make them more affordable. So is building land in short supply in Dorset? DC tells us that at present there are more than 13,000 plots in Dorset with planning permission – about ten years’ supply of current demand. There is evidently no appetite in the industry for building at a greater rate. Market development is constrained, either by lack of skilled labour or the sales market, but evidently NOT by planning or lack of permissioned land. Adding 40% more is pointless. Mike Allen concluded that the idea of increasing house supply to improve affordability is neither proven nor a basis for sound planning in Dorset.
The distortion in Dorset’s Age Profile Expected by 2038
The way forward Dorset CPRE believes that the way forward is two-fold: First, we should drop the affordability uplift in the Standard Method, resulting in a reduced – but still sufficient – housing target for Dorset of about 1,300 homes per annum. That is consistent with completions in recent years. Pressure on Green Belt, precious green spaces, historic towns and villages – and on roads and services – would be relived greatly, and it would also be more in line with Dorset’s climate emergency policy.Secondly, we should set an ambitious target to build truly affordable homes, and should be prepared to subsidise them. Affordability is a problem mainly for those who rent. Dorset Council receives more than 500 requests for help with housing every month. Employers say that the local economy is held back by the lack of truly affordable rented homes. Iceni’s Housing Needs Assessment identified a need for 577 social rent homes per annum. But social rent homes – available at 50 or 60% of market rent – by definition require subsidy. So-called viability calculations, undertaken for the Dorset local plan, suggest that the market can provide about 20% of new homes as social rent. A house target of 1,300 per annum would provide about 260 social rent homes. The rest would need to be subsidised in some other way.
Benefits of social rent The Centre for Economics and Business Research, working for Shelter and the National Housing Federation, published a report in February 2024 showing the cost-benefit of building 90,000 social rent homes nationally. They calculated that the long-term benefits far outweighed the initial costs, by more than £50bn, suggesting that each new social rent home would generate a long-term economic benefit of £570,000. Subsidising new social rent homes would bring a handsome return for both society and the economy. Viability data shows there are potential savings to be made in the cost of social rent homes – as much as half the price of those homes which are built speculatively. The high price of land can be reduced using compulsory purchase, and the high profit that developers expect (to cover their risk) can also be reduced by using a development corporation. Of course, no one thinks today that social rent housing should be concentrated alone in large estates. At scale, the preference is for mixed housing, blending owned and rented, designed to be tenure blind. Clever planning is needed. But small-scale, well-designed developments in urban and rural areas could be mainly social rent, and will contribute to solving the problem of so many key workers being unable to afford homes in rural areas.
So what IS needed? Dorset CPRE believes about 1,300 new homes a year would be sensible demographically in Dorset, and would be more sustainable than the Standard Method. Within that, affordability should be addressed directly by a strong target of 577 social rent homes per annum. A third of these might be financed by speculative development sites, but the rest would require extra subsidy. The lack of social rent homes is expensive to society – in Local Housing Allowance, poor health, children’s low educational attainment and more… investment is worthwhile. The new government needs to invest in social housing. Affordable Housing Report The CPRE’s 2023 report, Unravelling A Crisis: The State of Rural Affordable Housing in England made some key findings: The definition of affordable housing in national planning policy – usually ‘homes let out at 80% or less of market rent’ – does not enable the delivery of genuinely affordable homes. Rural social-rented (usually 50 to 60% of market rent) delivery has plummeted with just 3,282 delivered in 2021/22, while general ‘affordable’ housing delivery had increased, with 25,294 homes delivered. It is more viable for developers to deliver affordable housing rather than the social rent homes that are so desperately needed. Rural social housing waiting lists have risen since 2020 in all but two regions in England. It would take 89 years to clear the social housing waiting list under the current build rate. Rural homelessness has increased by 20% since 2020/21 and 40% since 2018/19. Up to half of all parish councils in rural England are not covered by Section157 regulations, which prevent resale of affordable housing units at market prices or as second homes. Rural Exception Site policy is being used to deliver housing in line with locally-assessed need. Such sites are usually located on the edge of existing rural settlements, facilitating the provision of affordable homes for local residents, while ensuring the preservation of the character of the community. However its impact is limited to a relatively few areas of the country and it is not clear whether the mechanism is a particularly effective means of providing social housing.
New village housing provided by the Toller Porcorum Community Land Trust
The current mechanism for securing affordable housing in new developments is via planning agreements, where developers can negotiate down the proportion of affordable homes delivered due to viability concerns. The proposed infrastructure levy regime may lead to an increase in affordable housing delivery – contribution will be non-negotiable, and should therefore be factored into the cost of the development from the outset Changes of use from office space to residential conversions under permitted development rights are delivering limited numbers of affordable homes, or poor quality. CPRE Recommendations Following this, CPRE set out the following recommendations: Government must redefine the term ‘affordable housing’ so that the costs of new affordable homes are directly linked to average local incomes. Where homes are not linked to average local incomes they should not be classed as affordable, as this obscures the type of housing that is being delivered. Hope Value, which factors in what land could be worth if, hypothetically, planning permission had been granted to build properties, should be reformed to increase the viability of social housing provision and enable Local Authorities (LA) to deliver additional social rented homes. National minimum requirements for affordable housing should be increased, with specific targets set for social rented homes. Government should show greater support for rural communities, using neighbourhood plans and rural exception sites to deliver affordable housing on the edge of villages in line with locally assessed need. This includes making grant funding available and aligning planning policy with funding to enable social rented housing to come forward on such sites. Both government and local authorities must show greater support for community-led development, where it meets a local need. Government should more forcefully advise and support local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate to reject developments that do not live up to the design standards set out in both the National Model Design Code and Guide, and other relevant local design policy and guidance. Introduce a second home and short term lets register, with planning controls to regulate the provision of short term lets and powers to levy extra council tax on second homes. Extend restrictions on resale of affordable housing to all parishes with below 3,000 population, as well as larger rural towns where there is particular pressure on the housing stock, so that these houses continue to be used by local workers and not as second homes or holiday lets.
Rachael Rowe looks at the perilous state of many English churches – especially small village churches ‑ and the struggles to preserve them
A major project is under way at Ibberton to save the parish church from– quite literally – falling off a chalk escarpment
More than 3,500 churches in England have closed their doors in the past decade – 900 more are on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, according to the National Churches Trust (NCT). The NCT believes the future of church buildings is the single biggest heritage issue in the United Kingdom today. With declining congregations and buildings becoming harder to maintain, how can churches future-proof themselves?
The pew row Apart from declining congregations, one of the biggest issues facing churches today is climate change. Ancient guttering, roofs and downpipes are unable to cope with the increase in rainwater. Ageing populations find churches less accessible. Traditional pews are awkward for people with mobility problems. Many churches do not have loosand provision of them is often cause for debate. Serveries and loos have been found to increase attendance, as has the use of church buildings as food pantries and other community resources. Communities want the church to be there for traditional hatch, match and dispatch events. But declining attendances make their future more vulnerable.In 2020, the village of Okeford Fitzpaine shot to international fame when the media descended on the village to report on a story about the church pews being removed. Less reported was how the “Pew Debate” caused deep and significant discord in the village. When work finally started to remove the pews, the wooden floor was found to be so rotten that it could have collapsed at any time – yet another example of how much work is needed for churches to have a sustainable future. Restoration work is progressing – as is fund-raising for the installation of a loo … The Rev Andrew Gubbinsk, vicar of the Okeford Benefice, says: ‘Churches need to be thought of less as a building and more as a community space. A building speaks silently as to how it should be used, even before the vicar has opened their mouth. The church’s task is to demonstrate to the wider village that it is vibrant. You are only as good as your latest generation, and the community needs to see the value of supporting the church – not just going to a church service but attending a concert or social event, whether you believe in God or not.’
Trouble on trouble The Church of the Holy Rood at Shillingstone is undergoing a major restoration project, run by some committed volunteers. The first phase was to replace the vestry and North Aisle roof which, thanks to tireless campaigning, is looking significantly better. Unfortunately, leaks appeared as the north aisle roof was being repaired.Scaffolding for the current work made the roof easier to examine and its fragility was discovered. Phase two is now under way as a needed campaign to save the chancel begins. The parochial church council (PCC) aims to raise £110,000 for the repairs. PCC treasurer Anne Powell said: ‘When we saw the collapse of the north aisle roof in November 2022, we were desperately worried by the situation that faced us. But the generosity shown by our community gives me great confidence that we will succeed with this second phase.’ Andrew Gubbins says: ‘What a lot of people don’t realise is that churches receive no government funding or subsidy at all. ‘Everything has to be raised from the local congregation, and the local church has to pay the priest’s salary before any other work like restoration. That’s why there isn’t a full time priest in rural parishes – communities can’t afford them. ‘So when a major restoration project comes up, funds need to be sourced from other grants and fundraising.’
As the north aisle roof of the Church of the Holy Rood at Shillingstone was being repaired, significant rain-water was spotted running into the North Wall below, requiring urgent restoration
Dropping off a cliff Most people who lead a church restoration programmes in the community are unpaid volunteers. In Ibberton, Annette Newman heads a major project to save the parish church from – quite literally – falling off a chalk escarpment. ‘A summer of fundraising is planned in Ibberton to help stabilise the walls of the north aisle of the Grade II* listed St Eustace Parish Church. The 684-year-old church, dedicated to a pagan Roman general who converted to Christianity after he had a vision of the Cross while hunting, looks out over The Blackmore Vale from its perch on a chalk escarpment. Since 1957, signs of failure in the north west corner of the North Aisle have become more marked, with cracks and movement around a window and at the keystone of an arch. The corner appears to be rotating away from the building, which is approximately three metres from the cliff edge. If it detaches, it will tumble over a footpath and land in a neighbour’s garden approximately 20 metres below, clearly making the entire building unstable and unsafe for use. In the early 1900s, the community faced a similar situation when three of the four roof sections collapsed (see Roger Guttridge’s Then and Now from 2021 here). At that time £1,500 was raised to save the church – that’s equivalent to £153,000 today! As local churches are in such a challenging state, is it time to view them as community assets that can be so much more than a religious building?
You can contribute to Shillingstone’s The Holy Rood Church project here: peoplefundraising.com/donations/Shillingstone-church-roof-appeal. Ibberton’s fundraising events include a summer concert by the North Dorset Singers on Friday 19th July in the church (7pm – free entry with a donation plate). There’s also a Ceilidh with Tim Laycock and Friends on Saturday 27th July – 7pm at Ibberton Village Hall, £10 per person with cash barbecue and bar.
With new incentives for sustainable farming, hedgerows are crucial – Andrew Livingston talks to hedge expert John Calder
‘Hedges are the single most important ecological building blocks we have in the farmed landscape, creating corridors for wildlife.’ Those were the words of Steve Barcley, the former Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). When you think of farmland it can be easy to forget the hedge. For the farmer, it is not a commodity (unless you are a particularly keen blackberry picker). But for the wildlife of our countryside, it is a rich haven, a year-round food source and sanctuary for mammals, insects and birds. ‘They are part of the farmed landscape but the part that is not farmed – hedges escape the intensification of farming,’ said John Calder of The Great Big Dorset Hedge (GBDH), which is trying to restore and extend the hedgerows of Dorset. ‘People think of them as corridors, but that would only be right if animals only walk, fly or burrow along them. It’s not quite that way. But they are linked, so seeds will travel up and down hedges and certainly bats find a big hedgerow useful to navigate against and fly along.’ Improving the network of hedgerows across Dorset will help ‘support the biodiversity and protect against the effects of climate change’. The first stage of this mission is being completed by an ever-growing team of volunteers who are out and about in the countryside surveying the hedgerows. Volunteers carry out one of two different surveys, public or private. The former is carried out along public footpaths – the GBDH team walks a footpath and surveys a hedgerow that may be alongside it. A private survey is carried out on a farm, when the farmer has invited the team to come and survey the hedges. Recent alterations to farmers’ government subsidy payments have increased the importance of hedge life to the farmer. The new scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers not for the amount of land they own, but for actions that they take on their farms that will not only improve food production but also grow food more sustainably. As an expert on hedges, John was invited by DEFRA to join the Hedgerow Practitioners Workgroup for the creation of the SFI scheme. ‘Within the Sustainable Farming Incentive there are 23 actions through which you can acquire funding, but three out of the 23 are hedges. ‘Number one, you need to do an assessment of the condition of your hedges. Number two, you have to manage your hedgerows in a prescribed way that is environmentally friendly. And number three, if you’ve got hedge trees in a frequency of at least one every 100 metres overall, there’s some funding for that.’ So far, around 70 farmers have signed up to the GBDH to survey all the hedges on their farms. John says; ’The farmers are motivated by the desire to do the right thing,’ says John. ‘But also the necessity of recovering some of that basic payment scheme through the SFI. All our reports are now written with the SFI hedgerow actions in mind.’
What is a healthy hedge? Typically it will take three volunteers an hour to survey one kilometre of hedge. During that time, they note the species present, the height and depth of the hedge and, most importantly, the lifecycle. The lifecycle of a hedge is measured by the Adams Hedgerow Management Scale. The scale is named after Nigel Adams, a hedge laying expert, who was part of DEFRA’s Hedgerow Practitioners Workgroup with John. To understand the Adams Code, you need to understand a little about the history of hedgerow maintenance. John explains: ‘If you go back before we invented flails on tractors and chainsaws and all that stuff that makes it easier to slaughter a hedge, you’d have a man walking along the hedge side with a staff hook – a long stem with a hook on the end – and he’d be trimming that hedge, possibly every year. These days, that’s not what happens. You’ve got a flail doing the job, and it’s a very efficient tool. ‘In the old days, once the hedge was maybe 20 years old it would become a little bit out of control, and then you’d re-lay it. Every time you lay a hedge you invigorate the root systems to start some new growth – that would be more or less the start of a new cycle of that hedge. ‘So if you go back a few generations they’d be laying hedges every year, but on different parts of the farm. And that means that there are hedges in different stages all over the farm. Turns out that’s what’s ideal for nature.’ When you look at hedges today, they can be placed under four categories of the Adams Code; tightly managed, rejuvenated, well managed and finally running up. A tightly managed hedge would be one that is flailed with a hedge trimmer each year. Eventually, this can cause damage to the hedge to the point it needs rejuvenation. Rejuvenation can come in the form of hedge laying, planting of new hedges and coppicing (fell a tree at its base to create a stool from which new shoots will grow). Eventually, a rejuvenated hedge grows into a well-managed hedge, which, if then left unmanaged, will become a hedge which is running up – the best for carbon capture. They are the largest in size, but they will begin to leave gaps in the bottom of the growth, so they eventually need to be rejuvenated again … and this is the life cycle of the hedge.
The answer to a healthy hedge? John says the formula for a healthy hedge is the combination of each stage of the entire cycle that makes the perfect hedge. These days there are two quite different systems for managing hedges, says John. ‘In one case, it’s coming along with a flail and hitting it back to the same point at the same time every year (tightly managed hedges). Ultimately this will cause their demise, because it’s just too much pressure on the hedge for it to survive. ‘On the other hand, you might have particularly well-meaning people who think that carbon capture is everything, so in order to mitigate against climate change they decide “why don’t we just let our hedges grow up and up and up and up capturing carbon?” That’s now happening a lot in conjunction with rewilding, and it’s not all good because you end up with a row of trees – and a row of trees is something that has merit in its own right, but it’s not a hedge. At the bottom of a row of trees you don’t have that important dense cover for wildlife.’ The life cycle of a hedge may seem trivial, but John insists, ‘hedges have enormous importance and are an area where the farmers can make a relatively big impact environmentally, without enormously affecting their financial operations. ‘Alongside rivers, they are the part of the landscape where the farming community can do the most – can really make a positive impact.’ The Great Big Dorset Hedge is always keen for more volunteers or farm hedges to come and survey. Head to dorsetcan.org to get involved.
Local wildlife photographer is praised by Sir David Attenborough after thrilling snake-frog encounter on school Stour Valley Nature Reserve trip
All images: Kate Fry
Kate Fry works at The Epiphany School in Bournemouth. The school takes full advantage of its proximity to the Stour Valley Nature Reserve, and regularly uses the facilities to support and enhance curriculum teaching. Early in June, Year 5 pupils were studying rivers and the local habitat, and Kate joined the school trip to the reserve to take some photographs for the school’s website. One of the activities was pond dipping, and while a small group were busy with their nets, they spotted a grass snake swimming across the pond. Kate, a keen wildlife photographer whose work regularly appears in the BV’s Readers’ Photography pages, kept watching, presuming it was hunting for a meal. She soon noticed a frog appear to rise straight up out of the weeds: ‘I realised that the snake was underneath it, pushing it up out of the water. The snake had one rear frog leg in its jaw. It couldn’t swallow the frog as the leg was jammed in its throat with the other rear leg outside – like putting just one leg in a pair of tight trousers! The snake and frog continued like this for a few minutes until the snake began to pull the frog back under the water. We all watched while there was a bit of thrashing around, then suddenly the frog jumped across the top of the pond and made a speedy getaway into the reeds and vegetation at the side!
The lucky Year 5s busy pond dipping at Stour Valley Nature Reserve
‘The snake remained in the centre of the pond, head up and flicking its tongue, trying to find the scent of the frog. It eventually swam to the edge of the pond and away into the reeds. I’m fairly sure that the frog, though it got away from the snake, was mortally wounded – there was a fair bit of damage on its side.’ Kate wasn’t alone in her excitement – it wasn’t just the children lucky enough to be present but also the wildlife reserve’s rangers and staff were thrilled to see it. ‘We all felt that we had seen something really special,’ says Kate. ‘I was so pleased that I was ready and able to capture the moment with my camera.’
Later, the Year 5 pupils wrote to Sir David Attenborough to tell him about their encounter, and enclosed Kate’s photos. The school was stunned to receive a handwritten reply from Sir David himself:
“Dear Year Five, Thank you very much for your letter. I am so glad you find my programmes interesting. You are very lucky indeed to have witnessed that encounter between a grass snake and a frog. Like you, I would have been relieved to see the frog escape in the end. Mrs Fry’s photographs really are remarkable. Please give her my congratulations. Best wishes to you all. David Attenborough
‘He seemed genuinely interested,’ says Kate. ‘It felt as though he really enjoyed what the pupils had shared. I was also very proud that he said “Mrs Fry’s photographs really are remarkable”. What an accolade from a man who has witnessed so much in the natural world! ‘The pupils and staff are so grateful to Sir David for taking the time to send a personal reply. Such a gesture is so inspiring for the children. ‘I do enjoy being out in nature and I walk along the Stour with my camera several times a week. Sometimes I get lucky!’
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Britain’s longest snake, grass snakes grow to a metre or more. They are lethal hunters of frogs, toads and other small creatures, and are equally happy on land and in water
