There’s still time to find the nearest farm to you that has thrown open its gates (and fields and barns and tractor sheds…). Check the LEAF website here to find your nearest open day, grab a pair of wellies (and maybe an umbrella) and take the kids for a fun couple of hours exploring the farm.
We opted for Rawston Farm – our nearest, and also home to our farming columnist James Cossins (and our other farming columnist George Hosford was driving the tractor for the trailer rides!), plus the Love Local, trust local awards which we’re so proud to be part of.
Barbara & James Cossins, farmers of Rawston Farm and the force behind the Love Local, Trust Local scheme.
It was our first time at an Open Farm, and we were amazed at just how brilliant it was – there was so much going on! Even as you park in the field there is an array of enormous farm machinery to get up close to, and tractors bimbling up and down offering rides in the cab.
Inside the barns there were stands from local food and drink producers – it was great to catch up with Meggy Moos Dairy (the milkshakes!) Book & Bucket Cheese, Little Waddon Vineyard, Barbara’s Kitchen (the chilli jam!!), and Tarrant Valley Honey. We also chatted to the Damory Vets team, spent quite some time gazing in adoration at a litter of three week old Oxford Sandy and Black Piglets with their mum Peaches as we caught up with breeder Lillie Smith, who we featured back in April.
The tractor & trailer rides are not to be missed, as they include a fascinating introduction to the farm from knowledgeable and interesting ‘tour guides’.
Since the first Open Farm Sunday in 2006, over 1,500 farmers across the UK have opened their gates and, collectively, have welcomed 1.8 million people onto their farm for one Sunday each year.
Each LEAF Open Farm Sunday event is unique. Activities range from machinery displays and tractor & trailer rides through to demonstrations, nature walks and much more. At each farm, visitors are given the chance to discover what it means to be a farmer, how food is produced and how the countryside is managed. Simply check the website and find your nearest event – farmsunday.org/visit-a-farm
James Cossins has had a mixed month, with personal loss and the continuing TB testing saga – but silaging is underway, finally
Silage making at Rawston in the late 1960s
It has been a busy time at Rawston Farm over the last few weeks. Firstly we had our dreaded 60 day TB test on all our cattle. We spent nearly four days testing, delaying the turn-out to grass of the young cattle in order to save the time getting them all back in from fields again. We ended up with a very disappointing result; two reactors and eight inconclusive reactors. The reactors were duly sent to the abattoir, and the results came back as ‘no visible lesions’, which means they probably didn’t have TB, but may have been exposed to it. We made the difficult decision to also send the inconclusive reactors to the abattoir under a special Animal Health licence – at our expense – as we felt it was unlikely that all of them would come clear at the next test, so would have to go to the abattoir anyway. The result from the inconclusive cattle was again ‘no visible lesions’ which now hopefully means the next 60-day test may go clear. We have spent hours and hours testing cattle, without finding definitive positive results. I will be relieved when a cattle vaccine becomes available and we can get back to some sort of normality, selling again on the open market.
Dear Cassie I also had a very distressing time personally with my beloved nine-year-old golden retriever dog Cassie. She suddenly became rather ill and after our local vets had examined her, it was decided to take her to the specialist vets at Ringwood. A flurry of scans found that she had fluid around the heart and a possible tumour on the heart too. The choice was to either carry out major heart surgery or have her put to sleep there. As any pet owner will agree you need a little bit of time to make that decision. I didn’t want to put her through major surgery, even though I had insurance to cover some of the cost, so I brought her home. The next day she initially appeared fine, but by mid morning she really wasn’t well again. I took the very difficult decision to take her into our local vets and have her put to sleep. I cannot praise the professionalism of the Damory vet enough, being nearly as upset as I was. You do wonder sometimes why we keep pets if we have to go through this experience – but the companionship and joy they give us I think far outweighs the sadness at the end.
Too wet, too dry On a more cheerful note, we have been busy silage-making for our cows’ winter feed. After the wet spring, May has been much drier and we have managed to make some quality (hopefully) silage – and a reasonable quantity. The majority of our combinable crops look well, except for any that were drilled into poor seedbeds. The spring crops sown in April have struggled; the ground was probably too wet and cold at the time and now the soil has dried out too quickly. Another issue we have found in one or two fields is black-grass, a nasty weed which can impact seriously on crop yields. We are convinced that it must have come from contractors’ balers which had potentially not been properly cleaned when coming from other farms before baling our straw. There are various ways of controlling black-grass by chemicals, cultivations or changing the type of crop grown, but they have varying degrees of success. We have learned that we must be more vigilant over machines coming onto the farm.
James Cossins’ beautiful retriever Cassie
In other news … We are hosting Open Farm Sunday on 11th June – the last time was five years ago, and we had more than 2,000 people attending! We hope all vistors will have an enjoyable day out on the farm – in advance the whole Cossins family would like to thank all the local farmers and farm staff who are giving up their Sunday to support both us and our industry. Finally, after a very tense football season, it is great that AFC Bournemouth are still in the Premiership. We now look forward to next season!
The man who gave us Boyle’s Law was also Stalbridge’s Lord of the Manor and carried out his early experiments in Dorset, reports Roger Guttridge
Robert Boyle – Stalbridge’s Lord of the Manor, and the father of chemistry
Famous the world over as the Father of Chemistry, Robert Boyle is also Stalbridge’s most famous former resident. The man who gave his name to Boyle’s Law – after spotting that the volume of gas varies inversely to its pressure – carried out his early experiments in Stalbridge almost 400 years ago. He was also the village’s Lord of the Manor for almost half-a-century. The Boyle connection with Stalbridge began through Robert’s father, Richard. As a young man, Richard Boyle left his job as a lawyer’s clerk in London to try his luck in Ireland. After arriving in Dublin with £27, he married heiress Joan Apsley. When she died in childbirth in 1599, he married Catherine Fenton, daughter of the Secretary of State for Ireland. Richard was soon one of Ireland’s richest men, becoming Earl of Cork in 1620 and Lord Treasurer in 1631.
Avoiding the temptations of idleness Robert, born at Lismore Castle in 1627, was the 14th of Richard and Catherine’s 15 children. Believing his offspring should not be indulged, the Earl farmed Robert out to a country nurse to sample a ‘coarse but cleanly diet and the usual passions of the air’. By the time the five-year old Robert returned to Lismore, his mother had died. He was taught reading, writing, Latin and French before being despatched to Eton. In 1636, the Earl bought the run-down Stalbridge Manor House, probably as a potential retreat from escalating troubles in Ireland, and promptly began an ambitious restoration programme. Robert and his elder brother Francis were withdrawn from Eton and moved to Stalbridge, where Robert lodged with Parson Douch in order to continue his education and avoid the serious ‘temptations of idleness’. His lessons included music – only to be told by his teacher that he had a ‘bad voice’. He also wrote poetry in English, French and Latin but was clearly not impressed with his own efforts, as he marked his 21st birthday by burning the lot. When plans to support King Charles I in a Scottish expedition in 1639 fell through, Robert’s father finally gave him the key to ‘all his garden and orchards’ at Stalbridge. Robert believed the Earl was encouraging him to be temperate by ‘freely giving me the opportunity to be otherwise’. The Earl need not have worried. Robert had little interest in wining and dining, preferring to study or walk for hours in the fields, where he was able to ‘think at random’ and indulge his imagination.
Stalbridge House in the time of Robert Boyle
King Charles I in Mr Reeve’s field At their father’s insistence, Robert and the newlywed Francis were sent on a European tour. By the time they returned in 1644, the Earl had died, Robert had succeeded him as Lord of the Manor, Stalbridge House had fallen into disrepair again and North Dorset was engulfed by the Civil War.On 8 October 1644, the ill-fated Charles I and his troops spent the night at Stalbridge House on their way from Sherborne to Blandford, breaking their journey again at Sturminster Newton, where the King dined in Mr Reeve’s field.Robert was probably not at home to welcome the King, preferring to spend his first months back in England with his favourite sister, Katherine, Lady Ranelagh, in London.After a visit to Stalbridge in 1646, Robert commented, with ironic humour, that the area was ‘infected with three epidemical diseases’ – the plague, ‘which now begins to revive again at Bristol and Yeovil…’, ‘fits of the committee’ and ‘consumption of the purse’.‘The committee’ is thought to refer to Parliament’s Standing Committee, set up that same year to sequester the estates of royalist sympathisers until fines were paid.Despite the turmoil, Robert nurtured plans for a chemistry lab at Stalbridge and wrote in the same year to Lady Ranelagh of his enforced idleness due to the non-arrival of the wagon bringing his ‘Vulcanian implements’.When his ‘great earthen furnace’ finally turned up, it was broken into pieces, and Robert complained to Katherine that ‘all the fine experiments, and castles in the air that I had built upon its safe arrival, have felt the fate of their foundation’.He added: ‘I see I am not designed to the finding of the philosopher’s stone. I have been so unlucky in my first attempts in chemistry.’However, his pessimism was premature. Just two years later he wrote to his sister: ‘Vulcan has so transformed and bewitched me to make me fancy my laboratory as a kind of Elysium.’During his stays in London and regular visits to Oxford, Robert met most of the great minds of his era, describing them as the ‘Invisible College’. His Oxford friends he called a ’knot of ingenious and free thinkers’.
Drawing of Robert Boyle’s Air Pump, 1661
Duly eaten alive He moved to Oxford in 1655 and five years later was one of the founders of the illustrious Royal Society. Boyle was a prolific writer on a vast range of subjects, including Dorset Blue Vinny. Commenting that foreigners were despised for eating insects, he pointed out that Dorset’s blue-veined cheese was ‘crawling with insects bred out of putrefaction’, which were duly eaten alive. In the modern world, alas, the custom of maturing Blue Vinny in a dung heap has failed to cut the mustard with the food safety people. They’re no fun! Boyle also knew people, including ‘some fair ladies’, who drank their own and boys’ urine to prevent scurvy and gout. Despite being tall and slim, Robert was ‘pale and emaciated’, and suffered health problems throughout his adult life. Physically weak, he had poor eyesight and such a terrible memory that he was ‘often tempted to abandon study in despair’. He made up for these challenges with a ‘flow of wit’ described as ‘so copious and lively’ that he was the equal of ‘the most celebrated geniuses of the age’. Some of these geniuses were his friends – such as fellow scientist Sir Isaac Newton, East Knoyle-born architect Sir Christopher Wren, antiquary John Aubrey and diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Robert died in December 1691, just a few days after his beloved sister, Katherine. Evelyn records his death and funeral in his diary entries for 1st and 6th January 1692, describing him as ‘that pious admirable Christian, excellent philosopher, and my worthy friend, Mr Boyle, aged about 65 – a great loss to all that knew him, and to the public’. Stalbridge House, which stood far behind the long stone wall we know today, was dismantled in 1822 and the materials sold by auction.
The first convention on the UK food supply chain gave some encouraging signals to the industry, says NFU county advisor Gemma Harvey
shutterstock
The Farm to Fork Summit on food security, which Prime Minster Rishi Sunak hosted at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday 16th May, marked a significant step in the NFU’s campaign for recognition of the strategic importance of British food and farming. The very first food summit of its kind was the culmination of more than a year’s work and campaigning by the NFU, who asked the Prime Minister to convene the whole supply chain. Farmers, food producers and some of Britain’s largest supermarkets came together to discuss the vital measures needed to build resilience and transparency quite literally from farm to fork, thereby strengthening productivity.
Serious commitments NFU President Minette Batters said: ‘I am absolutely delighted that the Prime Minister has delivered on the commitment he made to NFU members last year to host this summit. The number of Cabinet Ministers present shows the ambition for cross-departmental coordination to deliver measures to boost home-grown food production. Many of the farmers and growers I represent will be relieved to see UK food security being taken seriously by the government.’ The summit coincided with several announcements from Government which represent major wins for the NFU: Reviews into fairness, specifically in the horticulture and egg supply chains A new bespoke £1m programme to help dairy businesses export Replacing the retained EU Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organisation Scheme when it closes in 2026 Five additional agri-food and drink attachés who will help spearhead the removal of restrictive market barriers Making it easier to build new glasshouses through changes to national planning policy A commitment that the Groceries Code Adjudicator will not be merged with the Competition and Markets Authority, in recognition of its importance in ensuring our food supply chains function as they should Additional investment of around £20 million to unlock the potential of precision breeding. Minette said that ‘the announcements made today show a recognition and an understanding of the strategic importance of British food and farming to the nation. They recognise the importance of coordinated action across government to support confidence, investment and growth in British food. ‘What we need now is to build on these announcements. We are calling for a set of core agri-food import standards for trade. While it is pleasing government is looking to maintain self-sufficiency at 60 per cent, we believe there’s an opportunity to produce much more of our own food here. We can and should be more ambitious and look to move beyond this target. ‘Vitally, the Farm to Fork Summit should become an annual event, as our food supply is part of the UK’s national infrastructure and will ensure that, across all parties, food security never drops down the political agenda again.’
Last year’s inaugural Classic & Supercar Sunday blew everyone’s socks off with 180 drop-dead gorgeous classic and supercars exhibiting in the blazing sunshine at Clayesmore School.
‘Last year we had a Ferrari F40, offering the rare opportunity to view such an iconic car – we were really happy that the owner even allowed the public to sit inside!’ says organiser Zander Miller. ‘We also had an Alfa Romeo GTAM (one of only 500 examples in the world), and a Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Ferrari’s latest and greatest hybrid technology which reaches more than 200mph. ‘Meridian Modena, the local Ferrari dealership, brought its brand new Ferrari 296 GTB demonstrator car.
‘And then the classic cars ranged from 1920 to 1997; we had an Aston Martin DB2 and an Aston Martin DB11 – the two are 70 years apart!’ Over 1,500 guests strolled the grounds enjoying cars, delicious street food, stunning cocktails and, of course, brilliant music! It was a great vibe, and this year is set to be bigger and better … more exhibitors, more cars attending and a packed programme of activities.
There well be two scheduled ‘REV OFFs’ – everyone’s there to hear the roar of the visiting supers, after all! There will also be guest speakers and judges to help award the Best Club Stand, the People’s Choice Award and more. It’s a family event with plenty of fun for the kids too! Buy tickets here – bit.ly/classicsupercar2023
The organisers are keen for classic & supercar owners and club to sign up to exhibit. Please register here: apertaevents.co.uk/paddock
Plumber Manor, a family-run restaurant with a 500-year past, celebrates its enduring appeal with its unique blend of authenticity and homeliness
Plumber Manor All images: Courtenay Hitchcock
While Plumber Manor may this month be celebrating its 50th anniversary as a restaurant, it has been in the family far longer. In fact, even when Thomas Hardy was living in nearby Sturminster Newton, it had already been the Prideaux-Brune family home for centuries, built by Charles Brune in the early 1600s. Current owner Richard inherited Plumber (pronounced with the ‘b’) when he was 21. ‘It’s a young age to have a place like this. I was farming at the time, I wasn’t even married – not quite anyway. My parents had gone to the Isle of Man, and it just became patently obvious that the pig farming I was doing, although great fun, was not going to be sufficiently profitable to pay for the upkeep of the house. ‘Alison and I were married in 71, and we were friendly with a chap down in Devon who had a similar place. It was quite unusual; very un-hotel-y, you know, rather homely. We stayed with him a couple of times, and he said: “you should have a go, I think you’d be good at it”. ‘We umm-ed and aaaah-ed about it, but he came and stayed with us and gave us lots of advice. Then we got a job in Leamington Spa at a hotel to see if we could put up with … the change of hours more than the actual work. It’s completely different from farming, where you’re finished at seven every night. With this, you’re just starting! We came home and just decided to go for it.’ ‘We opened Plumber in ‘73,’ says Alison. ‘It was exactly ten days after Katherine was born! Then a year later Susie came along. I used to feed them both behind the bar, popping them into a Moses basket while I was working. I was still breastfeeding, so it was five minutes into the basket to take an order, then back for a five minute feed … Susie actually arrived nearly a month early, so for a time I had two children under the age of one.’
Richard and Alison Prideaux-Brune
‘We didn’t have a big staff,’ says Richard. ‘My brother Brian was doing the cooking and we had to have some staff, of course. We couldn’t manage everything ourselves, but in those days it was mostly just us.’ ‘We did split jobs’ says Alison ‘Richard was in the office. I did the garden. But mostly we just all mucked in. In those days I did the early morning teas. If I had a small child that had just been fed, I took the teas round wearing a dressing gown. And no one thought anything of it!’ ‘Things were different,’ agrees Richard. ‘I haven’t seen one single guest that I can remember in the last ten years come down to breakfast in a dressing gown. Years gone by it wasn’t necessarily normal, but you really wouldn’t have remarked upon it. ‘Mind you, people don’t dress for dinner anymore. I think that’s a sad thing. There used to be a formality; if you went out, you went out with a jacket and a tie. You don’t do that anymore.’
The Prideaux-Brune family in the 80s: (from the left) Tom, Alison, Susie, Katherine and Richard.
Alison added: ‘you have been known to say “Can I lend you a pair of trousers?” to the odd person who has turned up in a pair of shorts!’ ‘We’ve always regarded ourselves as a restaurant with bedrooms,’ says Richard. ‘We were lucky enough to get into the Michelin Guide, which was quite important in those days. And people looked for a restaurant et chambres, because they didn’t have the same kudos, the same expense or the same formality. We knew they were very much sought after by our target customers. And it fitted us well – I’ve never thought of ourselves as a hotel, we don’t really give hotel service. We do our dinners. We do our Sunday lunch. We do parties. But we don’t have people having hot drinks and sandwiches and the like during the day. We don’t work like that; but you would be surprised if a hotel wasn’t doing that. ‘People ask why we don’t do lunch, and I’ll tell you exactly why. I’m paying two chefs at the moment. I don’t want to pay another chef just to fart around and do the odd lunch, that people usually want for next to nothing, pretty much. You must be joking! So we’ve never changed the format. ’The restaurant, to start with, was more important than the rooms, because we only had six bedrooms. We didn’t go in for a big advertising campaign, I don’t think we did anything much at all! We were mentioned in a couple of guide books before we started, which did us no harm, and we just rubbed along on word of mouth. But the restaurant, by end of year one, was full every Saturday night. We’ve been in the Good Food Guide every year for more than 40 years now.
The dining room looks wonderful with the newly-revealed original wooden flooring
Not for the toffs ‘The one thing that people do like is the fact that they all get treated the same. You’d be amazed, years ago, how many people thought Plumber was “for the toffs”, and “far too smart” for the likes of them. ‘Now, thankfully, everyone feels comfortable. It was very different when we opened – and it’s good things have changed. I remember one gruff military chap, he wasn’t a bad old stick really, who said: “I do hope you’ll keep the standards here old boy. The day you let ’em take their jackets off is the day you’ll be finished.” That was the attitude back then. ‘But our repeat customers are the best commendation we can get. Christmas is almost the same crew every year – they greet us like we’re family, and each other too, which is lovely; they’ve got to know each other because they’ve been coming here so long.’ Plumber Manor has been a popular destination since it opened, but over the years it’s particularly become known locally as the place for special occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, new jobs … so many are marked by a meal at Plumber. ‘Our local support means so much – and it’s reciprocated. Everything we do is sourced locally where at all possible. Not just the food in the restaurant, either. Some years ago, we needed to change all the room televisions; we needed 20. Someone told me I’d get a deal online, but I said no, I’m going to buy them from Marsh’s. They tried to tell me it’d be far too expensive, but I bet I didn’t pay a tenner a telly more than anywhere else. Marsh’s have always looked after the local people. Harts is another great local business. We will always support the local businesses any time we can. I think that’s what it’s all about. A strong local market means that the chances are you’re going to survive when things are a bit tricky. You’ve got that support, and they’ll look after you in return.’
‘unchanging’ doesn’t mean outdated – recent refurbishments have been gentle and sympathetic
Avocado baths There must have been some tough patches along the way? ‘Possibly the most challenging was when the interest rates went up to 15 per cent in the early 90s. We were heavily borrowed, having extended the barn, and all of a sudden things dried up. Business went down as we were forced into these astronomical rates of interest. That was a very tricky time.’ The original six bedrooms in the main house were added to over the years by converting barns in the courtyard to create ten more rooms. I’m curious to know how much Plumber has changed since 1973? ‘There’s something which is said to me virtually every day,’ says Richard. ‘It’s always “Plumber just doesn’t change, it’s marvellous”. It’s the atmosphere, I think. You know, you can’t change a place like this unless you completely change the ethos.’ ‘Although we have got rid of the avocado baths,’ adds Alison. ‘We had to work on that. Richard was not easily persuaded.’
How the bar (opposite) used to look
‘Listen, I couldn’t give a stuff what colour the bath is as long as the water is hot. But what I didn’t like was having to pay for the replacements. That was the long and the short of it!’ Oldest daughter Katherine has overseen refurbishments in recent years, sympathetically and gently updating and refreshing, but not essentially changing things (she was thrilled when they finally removed the tired floral carpet in the dining room and discovered the original wooden flooring underneath. Not only was it utterly beautiful, it was a much cheaper option. Richard was thrilled!). The Plumber welcome is one of genuine warmth – you get the feeling that Richard and Alison remember every single guest who has stayed with them in the last 50 years. Ultimately, Plumber remains a home at its heart, a fact that makes Alison happy: ‘The house is still the nucleus of the family. We all gravitate back here. One of our daughters has a birthday party here on Saturday. All the family are coming, grandchildren too. And we’ve got a big 50th the week after that, with all the family – and I do mean everyone. They all come here, because Plumber is where we celebrate, too.’
1855 not just a retail experience – it’s also hosting three SturLitFest events this month. On the 5th June Felice Hardy with her book about her grandparents escape from the Nazis. Two days later on the 7th June Liz Copas and Nick Poole present their work on The Lost Orchards of Dorset, accompanied by cider from Orchard 101. And the following day (8th June) Libby Page will be talking about her book The Vintage Shop of Second Chances before a fashion show of pre-loved items from The Boutique. The stage is set ready!
A chance for a browse The Boutique is a great shop for anyone who enjoys good quality clothes and accessories – at knock down prices, naturally – and it’s always worth keeping a regular eye on. And for the gentlement there is, of course, Dapper Chaps over at The Emporium with a similarly ever-changing range of mens clothing for all occasions. The Emporium itself is crammed full of books, music, collectables, and especially homewares and children’s toys. Perfect for those who like to make their money go a little further, or who simply prefer to recycle. The Emporium also houses Stur’s Community Fridge; free food! We thrive on “waste not want not”. The Furniture Store just up the road is great to fill a gap or for a new upcycling project. We welcome anyone who would like to volunteer to help; we are a lively, friendly group, and there’s never any pressure. Just give as little or as much time as you feel able.
Inside 1855 the stage is set for Libby Page, her Vintage Shop of Second Chances and the pre-loved fashion show!
What’s on this month? June opens with a burst of activities on the very first weekend – the Car and Bike Enthusiasts are back on The Rec on Saturday 3rd June, 9am to 12 noon – it’s afree event, and enjoys a wide and eclectic vehicle mix in attendance! The Rotary Club are holding their annual Garden Sale in the Railway Gardens the same morning, and the first of ten weekly Car Boot Sales for charity is taking place on The Rec on Sunday morning. The fourth Sturminster Newton Literary Festival is taking place from 5th to 10th June and there are brochures throughout the town plus tickets on sale in 1855.
Dapper Chaps, inside The Emporium, is bound to have something for the discerning gentleman.
Sturbiz Chamber The monthly SturBiz Business Breakfast will be held in The Coffee Bar at The Exchange 8 to 9am – 9.00 on Tuesday 6th June. It is open to anyone who wants to network with others working in the town, whether that’s voluntary or businesses. The aim is to share information about what is happening in the town and to support each other. Coffee/tea and snacks are available at the Bar or contact Jacqui ([email protected]) ASAP if you want to order a Bacon Buttie!
The Boutique celebrated the coronation with regal purple rather than red, white and blue
What’s On in Stur at a glance
3rd to 5th June The first weekend in June sees:
The Exchange Beer and Ale Festival • The Garden Sale (Railway Gardens)
The Car and Bike Enthusiasts Meet is back in The Rec (at the end of Ricketts Lane)
Free parking in town on Saturday 3rd June! 3rd to 10th June Sturminster Newton Literary Festival The first week in June is the centre of the third annual SturLitFest, with a range of events around the town including fascinating talks by authors, guided literary walks, writers workshops, a book fair, and a chance to learn more about the town’s remarkable stained glass windows. See the website sturlitfest.com for full event and booking details, or pick up a brochure locally – tickets are bookable online or on the door for most events, subject to availability Sundays Charity-run car boot sale on the Rec each Sunday through the summer.
The spires of purple foxglove growing far above our heads in wild corners of Dorset shout ‘June is here!’, says wildlife writer Jane Adams
Wild foxgloves are found scattered across much of Dorset’s hedgerows and woodland
June without foxgloves would be unthinkable. With their purple-pink spikes nodding in the breeze, they are a harbinger of warm summer days to come. No matter what madness is happening in the world, you can always rely on the foxglove spires to appear. But for all their beauty and reliability, they hide a darker, more sinister side – every part of a foxglove is poisonous.
Kill the living But poisons can have their uses. As early as the 13th century, European scholars documented the use of dried foxglove leaves as a treatment for heart conditions. The medical benefits were inconsistent, however and as an ancient saying warns, the foxglove has the power to ‘raise the dead or kill the living.’ With such a potent reputation, it’s no wonder foxgloves feature so prominently in British folklore. Villagers are encouraged to hang dried flowers over their doors to ward off evil spirits. Witches reputedly use foxgloves in their flying potions, and foxes slip the bell-shaped blooms over their toes in order to creep up on unsuspecting prey. It wasn’t until the late 17th century that botanist and physician William Withering isolated the foxglove’s active ingredient. He called his discovery digitalis (after the foxglove’s scientific name, Digitalis purpurea) and soon its medical use became widespread. Even now, a molecule found in digitalis is synthetically produced to treat heart problems.
Look out for bees squeezing their hairy bodies into the flowers in search of nectar – covering themselves in pollen as they do so.
Dead man’s bells Although their biennial blooms are most commonly purple in the wild, pink or white are not unusual, and each spear of bells can contain hundreds of thousands of seeds. Among the pollinators attracted to the plant are long-tongued bumblebees. Look out for them, squeezing their hairy bodies into the flowers in search of nectar – buzzing like mad inside the tubes and usually covering themselves in pollen as they do so. Over the years, the foxglove has picked up its fair share of colloquial names, from dead man’s bells and floppy-dock to goblin gloves and beardtongue. But though I searched high and low, I couldn’t trace a local Dorset name. Maybe you know it? If you do, please let me know. Even though foxgloves are a common sight this time of year in gardens, woodland edges, meadows and on road verges, do beware. You just might glimpse a gloved fox out of the corner of your eye, silently stalking you…
