Late summer and early autumn activities in Stur

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23 September 2022

This month’s news from the unofficial capital of the Blackmore Vale …

Pauline Batstone rounds up a busy month in Sturminster Newton

The John Carrick Financial Services window won the community vote during SturBuzz week

1855
Work is continuing on the 1855 project (the former NatWest building) which is expected to be open for business in the late autumn. The project offers people-facing sales space to artisan entrepreneurs who may have outgrown working solely from home. For more information email Cheryl Basten and Jacqui Wragg at [email protected]

New friends
The Emporium and The Boutique are both looking for more volunteers to work on the shop floor or behind the scenes or both. The volunteers are a friendly bunch and working with them offers a good way to get out of the house, meet new people and at the same time use your spare hours to benefit the community. The team also enjoys social events together from time to time. If you are interested, pop into either shop and leave your details for Cheryl to contact you, or email [email protected]

Pure Hair – joint second in the SturBuzz window competition

Art browsing
The Art Gallery is open on the floor above The Emporium, and it has a fascinating mix of interesting paintings, cartoons and prints at knock-down prices.

… and furniture too
People often don’t realise The Emporium has a wide range of furniture for sale – the larger pieces are stored elsewhere but we can show you photos and take you to look. We can also deliver your purchases – and collect whatever it is you are replacing.

The Boutique, joint second in the contest

How many shopping days?
An early warning about Christmas – Jacqui Wragg is already working with a small team to plan the Christmas events for this year. The Christmas Tree lighting will be on the 26th November, and it is hoped to have an ice-rink in the town that weekend. Father Christmas will of course be on duty. There will also be late night shopping on the Friday evening before. If you want to be involved in the planning, or have time to help on the day, please let Jacqui know – [email protected]

Library sessions
The Friends of the Library are getting back in action after COVID, and have been running craft events for children during the summer holidays. Volunteers are needed to continue the Saturday craft sessions and also the planned after-school club for younger children. If you would like to be involved, please contact Michaela on [email protected]

The Queen’s Green Canopy
During October there will be further contributions to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Green Canopy, with tree planting around the town. A new leaflet has been produced, introducing walkers to the remarkable specimen trees we have in the town. It is available from the Town Council and The Emporium – for information contact Taprisha Seifert – [email protected]

The Friends of Sturminster Library need more volunteers to help the Saturday craft sessions

Car meet
The car enthusiasts will be back in the recreation ground between 9am and noon on Saturday 3rd September, and again on the 1st October. From November to March inclusive they will be meeting either outside the Medical Centre or Hansons and Streeters. Numbers have increased over the summer and quite a collection now gathers every month. It’s definitely worth a wander round, and always good to chat to the owners. If you’d like to bring your car, it’s a relaxed meet and no booking or qualifications are necessary – just an interesting car (with the relevant insurance)!

Next year’s wedding fair
A second wedding festival is being planned for 5th and 6th May 2023, with a wedding fair at The Exchange and support from shops in the town, a display of dresses and culminating in a wedding ball at The Exchange. To help with the planning or get involved in the event, please contact Debbie at Stur’s bridal shop Forever Bridal – [email protected].

Successful Family Fest
The Riverside Meadow Family Fest was a great success, and plans are already underway for a bigger, better event next year – but the plan is to move it to the start of the school holiday rather than have it at the end of the summer. For information contact Ruth Caldwell [email protected]

Thank you
And finally, thank you to all those who supported the Community Fete on Saturday 27th Aug and especially the shops who supported SturBuzz week by decorating their windows. The business voted the best by the public at the Community Fete on Saturday was John Carrick Financial Services with a joint second of The Boutique and Pure Hair. SturBuzz will definitely be back next year!

Sue Hawksley

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Editorial team

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23 September 2022

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Peacefully at home on 8th September 2022.

Celebration service: Buckhorn Weston Church, 6th October, 2pm.

No flowers; donations please to St Margaret’s Hospice c/o Howard F. Miles, Funeral Director 01963 440367

Visiting Artists Tindall Recital Series | Sherborne School

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Editorial team

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23 September 2022

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Huw Wiggin (saxophone) and John Lenehan (piano) join forces in this duo which has been described as “a sympathetic and imaginative partnership”
Thursday 6 October 2022, 7.30pm
Tindall Recital Hall, Sherborne School
Tickets £12.50 01935 812249 [email protected]

Administrative Assistant – Referrals | Mosaic

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Editorial team

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23 September 2022

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Hours 10 hours

Salary £5200 (£19500 fte)

Base: Milborne St Andrew, Blandford, DT11

Would you like to join an enthusiastic, friendly team, working for a children’s charity in Dorset? The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the Referral Team, dealing with schools, local authorities, parents and counsellors. Processing referrals and reports.

Requirements:

Minimum 1yr administration experience

Excellent communication, telephone and networking skills

Excellent organisational skills and time management

Ability to work as part of a team

Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook)

Closing date: Friday 30^th September 2022

Further details and application form available from:

01258 837071, [email protected]

www.mosaicfamilysupport.org

Registered Charity: 1158138

Qualified Sessional Counsellors/Therapists | Mosaic

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Editorial team

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23 September 2022

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Mosaic is a Dorset wide charity offering support to bereaved children, young people and their families facing the death of a loved one.

We are seeking fully qualified counsellors/therapists as sessional workers in North and West areas of Dorset and Purbeck. If you have experience of working with bereaved children, young people and their families and would like to be part of our friendly and supportive team, please contact us for further information and an application form.

Requirements:

BACP or similar accreditation in Counselling

Minimum of 2 year post qualification

Experience of working with children, young people and families

Driving licence

Further details and application form available from:

01258 837071, [email protected]

www.mosaicfamilysupport.org.uk

Registered Charity: 1158138

Stur’s not for cars

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Editorial team

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22 September 2022

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Monthly updates from the various North Dorset Police Teams. This month’s news is from Sturminster Newton’s PCSO 5352 Mandy Robinson

The pedestrianised section of Sturminster Newton’s Station Road comes under attention after reports of an increased amount of traffic

“Local NPT officers have been patrolling areas near to the Steam Fair, a visible deterence to criminals that may be in the area, providing a reassuring presence to locals who feel vulnerable.”

Station Road in Sturminster Newton, the top section, has been pedestrianised for a significant number of years. Recently we have received reports of an increased amount of traffic, with suggestions that some drivers are not permitted to use this section of road. We will be showing an increased presence on this section of road and any driver caught contravening the traffic order will be subject of a fixed penalty notice, resulting in a non- endorsable fine of £50.

“Station Road is pedestrianised; following recent complaints about misuse and unnecessary usage there will be an increased presence from the local team.”

Anti-social behaviour
Making Communities Safer is a nationally-run campaign with the aim of bringing communities and organisations together take a stand against anti-social behaviour (ASB), in order to make communities safer.
During ASB awareness week, and due to recent ASB in Sturminster Newton, the neighbourhood Policing Team PCSO Mandy Robinson and PC Phil Sugrue invited district councillor Carole Jones and town councillor Debbie Mantock to join them in ASB preventative foot patrols in Sturminster Newton.
This was an opportunity for working with our partners and to engage, jointly, with the young people who meet up in the town. We patrolled the Railway Gardens, the town area, Butts Pond, Rixon Rec and Ricketts Lane Rec (also known as the Town Rec). Only two groups were seen and spoken to during the evening.

“Make sure you remember to drive to the conditions. Heavy rain and standing water can take the driver by surprise – often with dramatic consequences. This driver got caught out & tipped over just outside Shaftesbury, fortunately was uninjured.”

Banking scam
Recently a local residence was contacted by phone by a male purporting to be from Barclays Bank. The caller stated that there had been fraudulent activity on the bank account and that it was necessary to move the money to a ‘safe’ account. The caller then shared bank details for this safe transfer account.
The intended victim was told to attend the bank and to phone the caller – the scammer – when they arrived, and to keep the phone line open. Fortunately, the bank realised this was a scam and no monies were lost.
DO NOT ENGAGE WITH FRAUDSTERS AND HANG UP!
Please be on your guard and report suspicious activity to the police either by calling 101 or via the police website www.dorset.police.uk/

If a crime is occurring or a life is in danger, always call 999.

The heat is on, on the … fields?

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Editorial team

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21 September 2022

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The dry summer continues its impact on Dorset farmers as we move into autumn, says NFU county advisor Gemma Harvey

A parched Cranborne Chase during August
image: Laura Hitchcock

We all know by now that July 2022 was the driest July in England since 1911, and it has been the driest nine months (November 2021 to July 2022) since 1975/76. Met Office figures show that there has only been 24 per cent of the average rainfall for July.
The impact of this prolonged spell of dry weather is hugely challenging and causing concern for many agricultural and horticultural businesses across the country.
The dry weather is severely hampering grass growth. In Dorset, as with much of Britain, most livestock is grazed in a grass-based system, meaning that livestock eats grass from the fields in the summer, with farmers harvesting surplus grass to feed animals in the winter in the form of silage. The lack of grass this summer will inevitably hit feed supplies for the winter – many farmers are already having are already having to feed their livestock the forage reserved for winter to compensate for the lack of grass currently available.
For the county’s arable farmers, the dry weather has meant that harvest came early this year, with many having finished in time for the Gillingham and Shaftesbury show, which is somewhat unprecedented.

Fire risk still high
Attention now turns to the planting of winter crops; with the ground still cracked and parched, the establishment of crops such as winter cereals and oilseed rape will be difficult.
On top of all this, as I’m sure many will have seen and heard, the dry conditions are having widespread implications for fire-risk and farm safety. The county has experienced several fires over the past few weeks. This is devastating and dangerous for all those involved but is also a heartening example of how the farming community is able to pull together in times of need. Neighbouring farmers are making great use of WhatsApp to alert one another to fire risks, and coming to one another’s aid with tankers of water to help extinguish fires and cultivators to stop them spreading (see the story our news pages).
This does serve as an important reminder though, with weather conditions so dry and temperatures high, the fire risk remains high. With an increased number of people making the most of the weather and enjoying being out and about in the countryside, there has also been an increase in the use of disposable barbecues.
The NFU is reminding the public to be safe and responsible when out enjoying the countryside.

Sponsored by Trethowans – Law as it should be

Devil’s-bit scabious

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Editorial team

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20 September 2022

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Growing a wildflower meadow in your back garden isn’t quite as simple as you might think – but it’s important to try, says writer Jane Adams

About ten years ago, I decided to grow a mini wildflower meadow on what was a rather forlorn patch of grass. It was lumpy and weedy, and I could tell it really didn’t want to be a lawn. Actually, allowing it to grow seemed an obvious win. I wouldn’t have to mow it and pollinators like bees and butterflies would benefit from any extra flowers. From what I’d read, insects needed all the help they could get.
But I swiftly found out thet proper wildflower meadows are deceptively hard to grow.
In that first year I planted chamomile, knapweed, orange hawkbit, bird’s-foot-trefoil, yellow rattle, and devil’s-bit scabious plug-plants to boost the diversity of plant life. My old lawn buzzed and crawled with insect life, and I felt pretty smug.
The following year hardly anything grew except the devil’s-bit scabious.
I know now what I did wrong. I didn’t research what wildflowers would and should grow in my sandy Dorset patch. I hadn’t considered the rich mosaic of interconnected plants and fungi that were needed to make a lowland meadow – even one as small as mine. In short, I thought copying nature would be simple, and it wasn’t.

The common carder bee on devil’s-bit scabious
Image: Jane Adams

A few fragments
In the UK we’ve lost a staggering 97 per cent of our species-rich grassland since the 1930s. That’s equivalent to 7.5 million acres; and quite a few of those acres would have been in Dorset.
Over the years meadows were mismanaged, undervalued, and unprotected. What took hundreds, even thousands, of years to grow disappeared almost overnight.
But we do still have fragments of flower-rich meadows in our countryside. We just need to join them up so that wildlife can flow from one to another. Which is why conservationists are keen for us to create green corridors for wildlife and plants by growing wildflowers in our gardens. Just imagine if we could sew a giant living patchwork of native flowers right across Dorset.
In the meantime, the devil’s-bit scabious, and the bees that hang from their button blooms, are a joy to watch on my old lawn. And they are a reminder we can all do our bit to help wildlife during this ecological crisis.

Ploughing a new furrow

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Editorial team

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19 September 2022

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Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Marine Awareness Officer Julie Hatcher shares the story of work to monitor the recently arrived furrowed crab.

Furrowed crab Xantho hydrophilus Image © Phil Abraham

The wildlife-rich shallows and seashore of Kimmeridge Bay were designated as a protected area under UK law in 2019 and form part of the Purbeck Coast Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ). The intertidal zone (the region between the high tide mark and the low tide mark) in Kimmeridge Bay is the only stretch with this level of protection along the open Dorset coast and an important part of our work at the Wild Seas Centre is to record and monitor the marine life along this coastline.

A furrowed crab is recorded for the survey
Image © VFogarty

Migrant crabs
One such survey focuses on the furrowed crab, Xantho hydrophilus, a native to the south west coast but a recent arrival in Dorset.
Further west, this crab has undergone a population explosion in recent decades, raising concerns about its impact on other long-term residents. First sighted on the seashore at Kimmeridge in 2019, the survey records the population size and any concurrent changes to other crab species on the seashore, including the edible crab, Cancer pagurus, of which there is an abundance of juveniles. Edible crabs move to progressively deeper water as they grow, so the ones found intertidally are the small, immature youngsters.
A team of trained volunteers records the number, size and sex of crabs, along with the habitat
and associated animals. While the population of furrowed crabs is still at a low level, something interesting has been discovered about the edible crabs; out of the 125 recorded, only four were females. Crab experts appear to have no explanation for this gender discrepancy and
further research is needed to solve the mystery.

The need to monitor
Climate change is known to be altering the distribution and survivability of many wildlife species and it is thought that the furrowed crab may be one of these, hence its recent colonisation in Dorset. The effects of shifting distributions and the fortunes of both winners and losers in these changing times are unforeseeable, so monitoring changes and their impacts is vital to our understanding of how we can help.
Of course, the most urgent need is to slow the global temperature increase, which will at least give species more time to adapt. Meanwhile our volunteers will continue to monitor this most difficult of ecosystems and share our understanding far and wide.