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An extraordinary portrait

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Editorial team
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Dorset artist Jack Dickson features on Bill Bailey’s BBC series, creating a powerful portrait of railway worker Rizwan Javed MBE

Jack Dickson, a member of the art department at Bryanston School in Blandford, was featured on a recent edition of Bill Bailey’s BBC series Extraordinary Portraits.
The programme showcased Jack’s portrait of Rizwan Javed, a railway worker whose quiet heroism has saved 29 lives.
‘I watched all three previous series and absolutely loved them,’ Jack told The BV. ‘As an artist who likes to tell people’s stories, I thought it would be amazing to take part. When the last series ended, I contacted the producers and put my name forward. It was a long shot, and I didn’t expect to hear back, but after a few weeks, they contacted me. There followed months of to-ing and fro-ing, interviews and waiting to see if what I did might suit any of their potential sitters. I finally got the call to confirm early in the summer last year.’
Jack is no stranger to high-profile portrait competitions, having appeared on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020. ‘That was an intense but fantastic experience,’ he recalled. ‘Working under time pressure in that kind of environment is a real challenge, but it was amazing to be part of it. It definitely pushed me as an artist and also turned out to be amazing preparation for opportunities like Extraordinary Portraits.’

Rizwan Javed MBE
Over the past eight years, East Londoner Rizwan, who works for London Underground, has prevented 29 people from taking their own lives. His dedication has earned him an MBE for his work in mental health intervention. ‘As soon as I met Rizwan, I knew this was a story I had to tell,’ Jack said. ‘The more I got to know him and his family, the more I felt I had to do him justice. It is very rare to get so much time with a sitter and to get to know every aspect of their lives – it was a real privilege.’
Describing himself as an ‘artistic magpie,’ Jack immersed himself in Rizwan’s world, observing him at work on the Elizabeth Line and meeting his family.
Rizwan, in turn, visited Jack’s studio in Blandford, accompanied by comedian and presenter Bill Bailey. As Jack worked, he wove together the threads of Rizwan’s story into a multilayered portrait that reflects his ‘humility and dignity.’
Rizwan was deeply moved by the final artwork. ‘You’ve got magic in your hand – you’re truly gifted and it’s beyond anything I ever expected,’ he said. ‘I felt comfortable enough to share deeply personal things with Jack, some of which even my family hadn’t heard.’
Jack responded: ‘I feel humbled by what you have to say – it really has been a privilege to do this and tell your story.’

Jack on Bill
Jack reflected on the unique experience of working alongside Bill Bailey: ‘He has always been one of my heroes, and I’ve seen him live on a few occasions over the past 25 years. The old saying “never meet your heroes” just isn’t true. He was an absolute gent, very funny, as you would expect, but also completely down to earth. It was a little surreal to be sat at home in Blandford having lunch with him … but also strangely normal!’
The experience left a lasting impression on Jack. ‘Rizwan has had the biggest impact on me, and I now have a friend for life. His empathy, bravery and honesty are an example to us all. ‘The painting I made of him was the most ambitious piece I’ve ever taken on, and I think it has been a success. The show has obviously been great exposure for me and has resulted in a few interesting opportunities, but most importantly, I hope I have managed to shine a light on a truly extraordinary person.’
As a teacher at Bryanston, Jack’s day job is to nurture young artistic talent. ‘Young people ask the most challenging questions and take risks in their artwork that adults often won’t. There are a few incredibly talented portrait artists, but even more who are talented artists in general, who might turn their hands to portraits on occasion. I can’t wait to see what journeys they take.’

Extraordinary Portraits pairs talented artists with people who have powerful and inspiring stories to tell.
The episode featuring Jack and Rizwan is available to watch on BBC iPlayer here.
Jack says of the below portrait: ‘Bill Bailey kindly agreed to let me paint him during the filming of Extraordinary Portraits. This is in fact a painting he had a hand in making while he was visiting my studio. It was one of more surreal moments of my life, having Bill Bailey pottering around the house, chatting to the family, eating with us, meeting the dog. Made so extraordinarily normal, however, by how unfazed my mum and my children were and how down to earth and gracious the master of mirth, music and mischief was.’

Grab your needles! Dementia Action Week needs your finest forget-me-nots

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Editorial team
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The Museum of East Dorset is inviting local knitters and crocheters to contribute handmade woollen flowers to marking Dementia Action Week (19th–25th May) with a special Forget-Me-Not display, in support of those affected by dementia.
Forget-Me-Nots are the symbol of the Alzheimer’s Society campaign, which brings people together each year to honour and remember those living with dementia. The museum is requesting crafters use the pattern here, and free wool in blue and yellow is available from its reception desk. The museum team hopes to collect hundreds of flowers to create a striking display.

Museum Director Francesca Hollow said: ‘We’d love people of all ages to take part – whether grandparents and grandchildren, school groups, or craft clubs. It’s a wonderful way to show support for those affected by dementia.’
Completed flowers should be returned by 23rd April so volunteers can assemble the display in time for Dementia Action Week.
Francesca is also happy for forget-me-knots to arrive by post (please send them to 23-29 High St, Wimborne BH21 1HR), and the team are open to fabric forget-me-knots too, if you’re a sewer not a knitter!

Dementia-Friendly Activities at the Museum
The Museum of East Dorset runs a variety of dementia-friendly programmes to support the community, including:
Reminiscence Outreach Project – Using museum artefacts to spark memories and conversation, these sessions are delivered by experienced volunteers in care homes, day centres, and senior clubs across East Dorset.
Times Gone By reminiscence sessions – Held monthly at the museum in partnership with Wimborne Library.
Jolly Days at the Museum – Run by In Jolly Good Company, these engaging sessions focus on music, crafts, and gardening to improve mental and physical wellbeing.
Craft and Chat on the third Monday of the month – A relaxed, social crafting session where visitors can bring their own project, try new crafts, and enjoy a friendly natter.
The museum also provides dementia-friendly crockery in its garden café, along with fidget accessories to help visitors feel more comfortable.

The Museum of East Dorset is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm. For more information about dementia-friendly activities, visit museumofeastdorset.co.uk.

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The woman who built a museum

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1938 Hilda Coles and Sally the dog

In recognition of International Women’s Day, it feels fitting to look back this month at MED’s founder – Hilda Coles was a woman ahead of her time. Born in 1907, she grew up in Wimborne, and was educated at the Wimborne High School for Girls in Allendale House during the First World War. She faced the usual societal constraints, but defied the gender norms of her time. At school she strongly disliked needlework, but excelled in sports, especially football and hockey – she continued to play with Wimborne Ladies’ Hockey Team for many years. Sometime during her schooldays – perhaps because of her great love of sport – Hilda earned the nickname Mick, which she remained for the rest of her life.

Hilda Coles in a duffle coat in front of a car she would have driven during her time in the Wrens


After finishing school, Hilda joined her father, Tom Coles, in running the family’s ironmonger’s business. Though she didn’t enjoy shop work, she absorbed valuable business skills. In her spare time, she became interested in amateur dramatics and helped the Women’s Institute productions behind the scenes, making props and painting scenery. Decades later, several people remembered a spectacular wind machine she had constructed for special effects.

1915 The front of the Coles Shop in the High Street with 2 men standing in the doorway, the one on the left probably Tom Coles

A Scottish adventure
With the outbreak of the second world war, Hilda enlisted in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens), and was posted to Invergordon in Scotland. Mechanically-minded and independent, she worked in motor transport, driving trucks and cars across the rugged landscapes of northern Scotland, a job she loved. Her service was recognised with commendations and a mention in dispatches.
She was discharged in 1946 and much to her friends surprise she returned to Wimborne and the shop. Just like her father, Hilda was interested in the history of Wimborne and they began to collect objects, starting with the unsold stock from the ironmonger’s and stationer’s shops – the latter being the reason the museum has one of the country’s finest collections of Victorian vinegar Valentines’ cards. Hilda was also a keen photographer, shooting the buildings and characters of Wimborne to keep a record for future generations.

Hilda Coles sitting on the running board of the family car

Birth of the museum
Hilda inherited the ironmonger’s business 1953 following the death of her father. But instead of continuing in retail, she made a bold decision – one that would cement her place in Wimborne’s history. Seven years later, she permanently closed the shop to fulfil her father’s long-held ambition of transforming the building, known as the Priest’s House, into a museum.

1945 WRNS football team v Invergordon girls club. Hilda Coles rear, 2nd from right


Working closely with the Wimborne Historical Society, Hilda oversaw the creation of galleries initially in just three rooms on the ground floor, where she carefully curated the exhibits. Hilda’s vision was groundbreaking for the time – she saw the museum as ‘a centre of education and culture, and a place where children are welcome’ – an unusually enlightened view for the early 1960s. The Museum of East Dorset officially opened on 31st July 1962.

Hilda Coles on holiday and making tea

A Lasting Legacy
For 25 years, Hilda managed the museum herself with the help of volunteers and support from the local community. Her business acumen, honed in her father’s shop, proved invaluable in keeping the museum financially viable. She was known for her forthright personality, a trait that – while not always endearing – was instrumental in securing lasting support for the museum.
When she passed away in 1987, Hilda left the museum and its beautiful garden to the governors of Wimborne Minster, ensuring its continued existence. She also provided an endowment income to support its future.

1977 Hilda Coles with some Victorian valentine’s cards


Today, the Museum of East Dorset stands as a testament to her dedication and vision, preserving the rich heritage of the area for generations to come.
Her determination, resourcefulness, and passion for her
community continue to inspire, reminding us that history is not just something to be remembered – it is something to be actively preserved and shared.

A picture of Hilda stood beside the water pump in the Museum garden. She was known to say Sometimes I feel as though I’m beating my head against a brick wall, or trying to fill a basket with water

Photographs supplied by Museum of East Dorset. Copies of photos from the museum’s extensive library are available to buy.
If you have any photos, slides, negatives or film relating to East Dorset that you would like to loan for copying, or to donate to the museum archives, they would be delighted to
receive them.
For either of the above, please email photographs@museumofeastdorset.co.uk

The Museum of East Dorset

John Sergeant answers the random 19 questions

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From Thatcher’s press pack to Strictly’s dance floor – ahead of his visit to Sturminster Newton, John Sergeant shares shocking biscuit news

John Sergeant

Few journalists can claim to have been shoved aside by Margaret Thatcher’s press secretary, reported live from war zones and also waltzed their way (somewhat clumsily) into the nation’s hearts on Strictly Come Dancing. But John Sergeant is no ordinary journalist.
A veteran broadcaster with a career spanning more than five decades, John has interviewed prime ministers, reported from global conflict zones and witnessed history first-hand – standing at the Lincoln Memorial as Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic I Have a Dream speech.
Yet, despite his serious journalistic credentials, it was his gloriously uncoordinated yet utterly charming stint on Strictly that cemented his status as a national treasure.
With the judges despairing and the public voting in their droves, he famously bowed out of the competition in week 10, saying: ‘The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me, that would be a joke too far.’
From Have I Got News For You to insightful documentaries on Britain’s history, John’s career has been nothing if not varied.
He will be coming to The Exchange in Sturminster Newton on Saturday 29th March for an evening of humorous and thought-provoking conversation filled with anecdotes and recollections about his career (and Strictly).
But today, we set aside politics and polkas to put him in the hot seat for some incisive, intelligent (and truly random) questions …

  1. What’s your relationship with Dorset?
    When I was a child we used to holiday here – a fortnight in a wooden hut in Burton Bradstock. No electricity, no running water, and in the evenings our mother would sit by a paraffin lamp and read us stories. It was an unforgettable adventure. Later on, I filmed in Dorset for the One Show and made documentaries, and I often went sailing in Poole Harbour on a friend’s boat. But holidays when you are a child are always the best.
  2. The last song you sang out loud in the car?
    Singing in the car? I don’t do it! At my age, when you’re driving you just spend your time trying not to hit people.
    You can’t just lean back and start singing. That would be madness.
  3. The last film you watched? The last big film I made an effort to see in the cinema was Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott. And it was AWFUL. Dreadfully boring and dull. And whatever you say about the real Napoleon, he wasn’t that.
    We’d gone to all the effort of seeing it in the cinema, too – we were cheated.
  4. It’s Friday night, you have the house to yourself, no work is allowed. What will you do?
    I’d read some newspapers. I use PressReader on my iPad, and try and read half a dozen newspapers a day – around five in English, and one in French. Years ago I was the Paris correspondent for the BBC, and my French was terrible – I’m trying to catch up. I’d definitely do that job better now, just because my French has improved!
    One of the others is the Wall Street Journal, just to try and see if I can figure out what Donald Trump is up to. I often don’t succeed at that.
  5. The best biscuit for dunking.
    I do not dunk. My mother would not have approved – it would have been letting the side down. She was born in Russia, and wanted to climb the social ladder. Dunking was not middle class enough.
  6. What’s a sound that makes you happy?
    Waves on the seashore. It takes me back to my childhood in Dorset. And lots of sailing trips around the world, with me at the helm.
  7. What would you like to be remembered for?
    Being amusing. I really do love to make people laugh. If I have made a joke that people find funny, it genuinely makes my day. Much more so than being brilliantly serious.
  8. Your most annoying trait?
    I am a morning person. And when I wake up I am hungry. My first thought is food, and I immediately need to start talking about it: what will we be eating today? And when? Where will we get it? Who’s going to cook it?
    My wife Mary is not a morning person. She can’t think of a worse way of starting the day. She does get more interested and join in as the day goes along though.
  9. What’s your secret superpower?
    Concentration. Often to the distress of other people around me – I really go into another world. It’s been a very useful skill, and it allows me to remember small important details. It’s weirdly powerful.
‘If you’re going to comfort yourself with food, you’ve got to go over the top’
  1. What was the last gift you gave or received?
    My brother’s not been well, and I bought him a book while he’s been in hospital – called Orbital, it’s the last Booker prize winner. It was written by Samantha Harvey, a woman from Somerset who’s never been in space, and she’s written about six astronauts just sailing around the earth.
    Now I’ve interviewed an astronaut myself, and listened to many others – and my god they’re dull. But this book is brilliant, it’s such crazy writing skill. It really shows the power of descriptive writing. It’s amazing. Pure talent.
  2. What’s your favourite quote?
    It’s an obvious one, but Seize The Day – carpe diem. Don’t waste a minute because life is short.
    I just think any day in which you don’t learn, or do, or achieve, is a wasted day.
  3. What’s your comfort meal?
    In general I’m perfectly happy. But If I do need comforting, then it has to be good.
    Let’s say a dozen oysters, with a very good bottle of white burgundy. If you’re going to comfort yourself, you’ve got to go over the top.

  1. What shop can you not resist?
    La Galcante – it’s a small shop in Paris near Notre Dame that sells old cartoons, and old newspaper cuttings that you just can’t get anywhere else. I have to go in if I’m near. I’ll inevitably spend good money on something that, once it’s home, is never as funny as when I saw it in Paris.
  2. What little luxury would you buy with £10?
    A really expensive tin of speciality tea, preferably black leaf tea from Assam. I was once filming for the BBC on a tea plantation near Darjeeling in India. We were high in the mountains, surrounded by all the local women picking tea – and they all began to giggle, whispering and nudging each other. It turned out that one of them had told the others that I was there to look for a wife. I couldn’t talk to any of them after that without them starting to giggle – it’s such a fun memory. They couldn’t stop laughing at me. So a speciality tea from northern India isn’t just delicious, it reminds me of that special moment. I’ll happily travel 10,000 miles for a good joke.
  3. The best crisps flavour?
    None. It should be just plain crisps, lightly salted. Any other taste seems just silly. If you want cheese or vinegar, go out and buy some.
  4. Tell us about a recent great evening
    I went with my wife to the Royal Opera House – we had a brilliant meal in the Crush Room, and then saw a modern opera called Festen. Mary’s a teacher, and she had taught one of the cast.
    It was an extraordinary show, not an easy watch, but it was a fantastic cast, the staging and lighting were superb … it really was top grade British talent. And I just thought if not London, where? Nowhere.
    We all moan about the decline of Britain, but British talent is fantastically strong. It cheers me up. I spent far too much, mind … but it was a perfect evening.
  1. What in life is frankly a mystery to you?
    Why my wife fancies certain famous people. I just don’t understand the strange fascinations. She’ll sometimes ask me to introduce her to someone and I’ll be entirely blank. I mean, yes, he’s alright, but no need to be silly …
  2. You favourite book from last year?
    The Collected Dorothy Parker.
    She was such a brilliantly witty American writer, famous for founding a writing circle who used to meet at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Just before Christmas I gave a series of talks on the Queen Mary, crossing the Atlantic, and when we got to New York, Mary and I stayed four nights at the Algonquin. It’s been refurbished but they still have a round table in the hall where she and other writers, including Groucho Marx, used to meet.
    One of my favourite quotes of hers is ‘Never complain, never explain’ which of course the British Royal family adopted. It’s such a clever phrase. If you’re thinking about moaning – just don’t. Then if you’re feeling the need to start talking, to explain why the thing is bad, why you want to moan, why someone’s at fault … still don’t.
    The other one I love is ‘Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.’
    It’s just so fun – and every word is chosen with care. The ‘seldom’ is the key word there, it’s just clever word play. And of course, short sighted girls can come right up close to you so they can see you, which is attractive!
  3. You have the power to pass one law uncontested – what would you do?
    Ban adults from riding their bikes on the pavement. It’s a clever one this. Because obviously it’s the teenagers who are the nuisance, but if you ban them, they’ll ignore it. BUT … if you allow little children to do it but ban the adults, teenagers are so desperate not to be seen as children that they’ll lump themselves into the adult ban voluntarily. See? It’s a sophisticated level of control.

An Audience with John Sergeant will be held at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton on Saturday, March 29th at 7:30pm. Tickets £20, available online:
stur-exchange.co.uk

Museum Collections and Experience Manager | Museum of East Dorset

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Wimborne

£28,000 – £30,000 a year – Full-time

  • Monday to Friday
  • Weekend availability

Ability to commute/relocate:

Full job description

Are you passionate about bringing history to life? Do you have the skills to create engaging exhibitions and care for a museum’s rich collection? We’re looking for a Collections and Experience Manager to join our team and play a key role in ensuring our museum remains a vibrant cultural hub.

About the Role

As Collections and Experience Manager, you will be responsible for curating engaging displays and exhibitions that attract visitors while ensuring our collection is well cared for and conserved. You will work closely with volunteers to maintain the highest standards of collections management and visitor experience.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the museum’s offering, ensuring it remains relevant, inclusive, and accessible to all. You will also act as the museum’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, promoting learning and engagement across all age groups.

Key Responsibilities

Exhibitions & Displays: Develop and deliver a dynamic exhibitions plan, with a focus on popular culture and family-friendly themes. Manage installation, removal, and interpretation of exhibitions, including talks and tours. This will

Collections Management: Maintain an accurate inventory of artefacts and oversee conservation efforts in line with ACE Accreditation Standards and SPECTRUM guidelines.

Visitor Experience: Work with the Duty Manager to ensure the museum is welcoming and accessible. Oversee safeguarding policies and DBS checks.

Team & Volunteer Management: Lead and support a team, including a Learning & Family Assistant and dedicated volunteers across collections, research, library, and learning.

Preventive Conservation: Maintain and update collections care policies, ensuring staff and volunteers receive appropriate training.

General Duties: Act as a Duty Officer on a rota basis, manage health & safety procedures, and be a keyholder for the museum.

Who We’re Looking For

We need a motivated and organised individual with experience in museums, heritage, or a similar field. You should have:

  • A strong background in collections management, exhibitions, or visitor engagement.
  • Experience managing and developing volunteers and teams.
  • Knowledge of museum accreditation standards (ACE, SPECTRUM).
  • A passion for making heritage accessible to diverse audiences.
  • Project management skills and the ability to work flexibly, including some evenings and weekends.

Physical Demands of the Role

We are a Disability Confident employer and us such want to be transparent about the physical demands of this role, which include:

  • Lifting and moving objects, including exhibition materials and artefacts, following manual handling guidelines.
  • Climbing ladders and working at height to install and remove exhibitions.
  • Standing and walking for extended periods during duty officer days, tours, events, and installations.
  • Occasional work in storage areas that may involve handling and reorganising collection items.

Reasonable accommodations can be made for qualified candidates with disabilities.

Why Join Us?

We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and welcome applications from all backgrounds. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to shape how our museum tells its stories and connects with visitors.

If you’re excited by the challenge of combining collections care with visitor engagement, we’d love to hear from you!

We look forward to welcoming a new team member who shares our passion for heritage and storytelling!

Experience:

  • volunteer management: 2 years (preferred)
  • collections management: 2 years (required)
  • exhibition design: 2 years (required)

Please Apply here – https://bvmag.co.uk/indeed

Yeovil’s new breast cancer unit

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Yeovil breast cancer unit

After a five-year fundraising campaign led by Yeovil Hospital Charity, the new Maple Unit – Yeovil Hospital’s first-ever stand-alone, purpose-built breast cancer unit is open. The campaign, launched in March 2019, saw support from the community, former patients and hospital staff, with hundreds of fundraising events helping to raise nearly £2.9 million to bring the unit to life.
Fundraising efforts are still ongoing, with Yeovil Hospital Charity continuing to collect unwanted and broken jewellery and watches – a campaign that has already raised more than £210,000 – for much needed funds for other areas of the hospital. Most donations are sold at Acreman Street Auctions in Sherborne, whose generous support has been invaluable. If you have any unwanted jewellery to donate, feel free to drop it off at main reception of the hospital.
Breast cancer affects both men and women at any age, bringing devastating challenges not only for those diagnosed but also for their families. This new unit will provide life-changing care and support for local residents facing breast cancer.

Sponsored by Wessex Internet

Why is Dorset’s culture a competition?

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The Grumbler – the open opinion column in The BV. It’s a space for anyone to share their thoughts freely. While the editor will need to know the identity of contributors, all pieces will be published anonymously. With just a few basic guidelines to ensure legality, safety and respect, this is an open forum for honest and unfiltered views. Got something you need to get off your chest? Send it to editor@bvmagazine.co.uk. The Grumbler column is here for you: go on, say it. We dare you.

The Grumbler – BV magazine

Oh, look – another Town of Culture has been crowned! This time it’s Wimborne for 2026, given £30,000 to ‘celebrate culture’ and, supposedly, benefit the community.
It seems I have officially entered my Grumpy Old Woman phase, because this just rubbed me the wrong way when I saw it. Why is it always one town at a time? What about the rest of Dorset? Why are we being asked to clap along while one place gets all the attention, and the rest of us are left with nothing more?
Dorset is packed with culture from coast to countryside. Thomas Hardy, William Barnes, local theatre groups, festivals, music, art – we’ve got it all.
But instead of celebrating that as a whole, we’re pitting towns against each other like it’s some bizarre talent contest? And for what? A few one-off events that come and go, leaving barely a trace? Take Bridport, for example, which held the Town of Culture title in 2024. It had a Quilt Walkabout, Small World Festival, some exhibitions, and a literary festival – very nice, if you live there. But what difference did it make to those of us in other parts of Dorset? Did my little village get a travelling theatre or a community arts project? Did local children suddenly get new opportunities in the arts? No. It all stayed in Bridport.
And now we’re expected to believe Wimborne’s turn will somehow be different?
And let’s not forget Portland and Weymouth – they’re ‘it’ this year. It will be astonishing if Portland enjoys any economic benefit from this title. I expect the main winners will be the same people who always benefit – not the locals struggling to get by, but the organisations pocketing the funding for ‘consultations’ and ‘strategic planning.’
And then there’s the money. £30,000 might sound like a lot, but a quick look told me that Dorset Council has already handed out £1.45 million over three years to 28 cultural organisations, including museums, theatres and rural touring companies. So, if Dorset is already doing so well supporting the arts, why are we pitting towns against each other? Shouldn’t we be thinking bigger? Maybe there should be a proper levelling-up plan that supports the cultural deserts of rural Dorset – but wait, we already have Artsreach, which does a brilliant job bringing theatre and the arts to forgotten areas on a shoestring budget. If culture really needs investment, why not give it to them instead of creating another shiny but short-lived title?
Meanwhile, the rest of us are dealing with rising costs, disappearing public services, and food banks busier than ever. If Dorset Council has £30,000 spare, why not keep libraries open. Support community spaces. Help families who can’t afford music or art classes for their kids.
I love the arts, but I’d also love to know I can pay my energy bill next winter.
This Town of Culture idea might have started with good intentions, but it feels like little more than an expensive PR exercise, decided behind closed doors with no input from the people who actually live here. Instead of playing favourites, let’s talk about what would really make a difference – culture that belongs to everyone, all the time, not just those lucky enough to be in the right postcode when the money rolls in.

Bryanston School’s charities weekend raises £20,000!

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One of the most eagerly anticipated events in the Bryanston school calendar, the A2 Charities Weekend, once again brought the whole community together, raising an impressive £20,000 for both national and international charities.
Organised by the Heads of School, the Charities Prefect, and A2 (upper sixth) pupils, the event supported Great Ormond Street Hospital, Child Action Lanka, Ayati, and DBA Africa – all charities Bryanston has worked with over the past year.
The weekend kicked off with house-run sweet stalls ahead of the annual Dance Show, followed by a spirited girls-versus-boys hockey match (complete with a choreographed cheerleading intermission). Sunday saw a fun dog show, while the annual fashion show took a new twist, with House Parents and Heads of House swapping outfits. Other fundraising highlights included hamper sales, T-shirt stands and the sale of original fashion designs by two A2 pupils.
A standout moment was the My Voice, My Story performance, a collaboration between Bryanston’s Sixth Form and pupils from the Gill Sherlock Memorial School in Uganda. After months of Zoom meetings, the production combined personal stories, reflections on school life and a shared passion for dance, with all the funds raised going towards performing arts equipment for the Ugandan school.
Thanks to the generosity of staff, parents and pupils, the event raised more than £14,000 from the Silent Auction alone. Bryanton’s head of charities and outreach, Hannah Fearnley, said:
‘This was a very special weekend, once again highlighting the community spirit and compassion at the heart of a Bryanston education. There was such a buzz across the campus with so many activities raising money for great causes. We’re enormously grateful for everyone’s support.’

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From tinware to poetry at The Exchange

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The Exchange has a new display space in the Atrium on the lower ground floor. If you’re coming for a show, looking for somewhere quiet to enjoy an interval drink, or just passing though, The Exchange and the Sturminster Newton Heritage Trust have collaborated to bring some of the Museum’s collection to a wider public.
Their opening display is of tinware made by Fred Cowley in the very early 20th Century, before his family business developed into the plumbing and heating partnership, still trading in the town 125 years later. Alongside this is a screen showing film from and about Sturminster Mill: it will be running whenever The Exchange is open.

Barnes For All
The second space is managed by The Exchange and will show a mixture of local history and what is going on in Sturminster today – an opportunity for local groups to tell a wider public what they do and why. At the moment, and for a few weeks more, there is a display about William Barnes, the Dorset Poet, who started his distinguished life in Bagber, just outside Sturminster Newton.
This has been put in place by the William Barnes Society timed perfectly for the popular ‘Tea with William Barnes’, which took place on 23rd February.
This event, brought into being by Artsreach, is an annual celebration of Dorset culture, proudly hosted by The Exchange, and it sells out well in advance every year. It is also live-streamed across the British Isles and over the Atlantic.
The event includes historic folksongs and tunes collected from the whole county and from the Hardy family songbook, new settings of Barnes’ poetry, traditional work by contemporary musicians and dialect poetry readings.
The culture of Dorset is still in good shape, with much credit for that due to William Barnes, whose poetry and learned works have preserved the dialect he grew up with.
During the 1850s Barnes was instrumental in the setting up of the Dorset County Museum. Now the Barnes For All campaign is aiming to raise £35,000 to fully catalogue and digitise the Barnes archive and make it available to future generations. Do come and see some reminders of this distinguished local scholar and the other items on display now and in the future – and look out for the celebration of Dorset culture in Sturminster Newton, coming in 2026.

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