This is one of our favourite long walking routes in Dorset. At 14.4 miles you’ll need a full day for this one: it takes us six hours including a stop for lunch. But it’s worth it – this is such a beautiful route across the local big ridges, starting at Rawlsbury Camp.
The paths are clearly signed, the views are hige and endless … but expect tired legs by the end. You have to earn those views, there is a LOT of Dorset hill to climb!
Ancient forests, drovers tracks, the Dorsetshire Gap, minimal roads … it’s just a Dorset dream of a walk. One word of warning – a couple of spots will be very muddy after bad weather, so really good boots a must.
Setting off around the side of Rawlsbury Camp, we were set for a pretty wet day.
Following one of the main ancient holloways through the Dorsetshire Gap forest. Spot Courtenay and you will gain the perspective of the trees.
A rare spot of sunshine as we look out across Lyscombe Bottom.
The ancient Green lane to Gallows Corner.
A favourite pause where the bridleways cross on the ridge of Lyscombe Hill.
Wet (very) again on the aproach to Milton Abbey school.
Warmth and love radiates from the countless messages and memories being shared for renowned Wilton RDA teacher Pat Burgess, who sadly passed away peacefully on 4th November at home with her family by her side.
Born and raised in South Africa, she emigrated to England in 1964, and when injury forced a stop to her own show jumping career, Pat turned to teaching.
Her teaching reputation grew and during the 1980’s she coached the British Olympic Eventing team, training such legendary names such as Lucinda Green, Richard Meade and Ginny Leng.
Her greatest passion in life was the Wilton RDA. Since 1975 she was its driving force. She always said she ran the RDA on “love, joy and enthusiasm”. Most importantly for Pat the RDA was never simply about how to hold the reins – it was not a ‘lesson’, it was about fun, freedom, confidence, self belief, generosity and love. With these in place the lesson could begin.
In December 2008 Pat was awarded an MBE in recognition of her work with the RDA. Her family and all her friends were extremely proud of her.
Pat was also given the honour of carrying the Olympic torch in 2012. On a very wet day, Pat was cheered on by her family and friends as she charged up one of the steepest hills in Dorset!
Throughout everything Pat never lost her tremendous sense of humour. Her five children, Pete, Jim, Tracey, Tom and Sally, nine grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and many, many friends will miss her enormously and strive to continue her legacy of love, joy and enthusiasm.
Our next edition is a huge, uplifting and beautiful one, crammed full of local issues & news, latest official info, useful and thought-provoking items (and puzzles!) for a morning coffee read.
And one lucky subscriber will receive a £50 voucher for their choice of groceries store!
All active subscribers on the 3rd of December will go into a hat, and one randomly drawn lucky person will be announced in the December issue, winning a groceries voucher for their store of choice. It’s not for us to tell you where to shop, so you can choose Dikes in Stalbridge, The Book & Bucket Cheese Company or maybe you’ll simply choose ASDA. Just tell us, and we’ll arrange the voucher for you!
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Ah. So here we are, blinking sadly and despondently into another month of our familiar friend The Lockdown.
And yet, this is not like the Spring – this has not rushed upon us unprepared (I think we all saw it coming with the that slow inexorable march of inevitability). We know this beast. And we can do it again.
So – here’s where we are; we’re exactly where you always find us!
Nothing changes for us – the magic of a digital magazine is that you never leave your home, and we come to you.
Our next issue comes out on Friday – if you’re not already subscribed, you can do so here. I can guarantee it will be a huge issue of uplifting, beautiful, useful and thought-provoking items for a morning coffee read. But, aside from bringing your monthly local interest into your home, we want and need to do more.
So we’re putting together a Lockdown Supplement – entirely free to all local businesses, a full magazine with listings of as many local businesses and community resources as we can who will still be operating throughout lockdown in whatever form they can manage. We all need to support them, now more than ever before – they’ve taken a hit once, but managing to get through this twice is going to hugely impact all small local businesses; for many, this time of year is what provides the bulk of their annual income. And this bloody virus is stealing that away.
Whether it’s a pub switching to takeaways, a butcher offering local home deliveries, or a book shop allowing click and collect – they need us now. You may not be leaving your home, but you can still show them your support. So we implore all of our readers not to rely on the ease of the Amazon giant in their phone, but to see who locally could help you instead. Food, wine, gin, gifts, puzzles, books… in the Spring I even purchased locally a new stand mixer when my ancient one decided that weekly lockdown pizza night was one giant dough mix too many. So many things are available locally, provided with love by your neighbours, by the people you walk past in the street every day, who are desperately struggling to feed their families this winter without your custom.
If you run a business or work in a business (or simply know someone who does) that intends to maintain some sort of operating after Thursday, you can give us the details of your business here – it’s a simple form. Entirely free of course – this is not a money-making exercise; it’s just us doing our small part to help out where we can.
Also – our Facebook community group is open to everyone; feel free to post comments, questions and praise for anyone in the local area, and do use it as a resource for your own business news, too.
A few weeks ago I logged in a little late for a Zoom call to discuss a local issue with some Parish Councillors. I explained that a Select Committee meeting overran. After the meeting I received an email from one of the attendees asking me what a Select Committee was. So, I thought this month I would answer that question.
Select Committees were set up by Mrs Thatcher in the early 1980s. Chairmanships were allocated to the main Parties according to the broad balance of their number of MPs. Chairs, and members (which are also allocated according to reflect the balance of the House) were appointed by the respective Chief Whips. Events have moved on and the Committees are more democratic. Chairs are elected by all MPs, while members are elected by their own Parties. Both elections take place with a secret ballot. The introduction of elections rather than appointments has made the Select Committees more independent of Government as they can no longer be stuffed with pliable MPs who will do the bidding of their respective Whips. This is great news for those who serve and an obvious nightmare for the Party Managers.
Each Government Department is shadowed by a Select Committee. It has been my very great privilege to have been elected by MPs across the House to Chair the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee twice, in 2018 and 2020. We shadow and scrutinise the Northern Ireland Office and follow with interest (but with no scrutiny powers) the workings of the devolved NI Assembly at Stormont.
In order to ensure my Committee is as balanced as possible my Party provides two seats to the Unionists while Labour has allocated seats to the Alliance Party and the SDLP. Before the 2019 election there were only DUP members taking their seats in Westminster (Sinn Fein continue to absent themselves). Following the election of SDLP and Alliance MPs the Committee is now better balanced, and our discussions more robust, as we are able to accommodate both unionist and nationalist voices representing NI constituencies.
So, what do we do? We meet weekly, in public, when the House is sitting and hold a variety of Inquiries. Recent work has covered the NI Protocol, Legacy of the Troubles, Tourism and Historical Abuse. We take evidence from interested parties, these can include academics, civil society, local government, trade bodies and the like. We have our own secretariat of House of Commons Clerks who keep me as Chair on the right side of the rules.
We are able to summon witnesses, and we have held two very important sessions with the Secretary of State and Michael Gove regarding post Brexit trading. Our Inquiries are published and then submitted to Government, which then responds to them in another public document. Inquiry Reports can be presented on the floor of the Commons. We visit Northern Ireland regularly and the Republic at least once a year. Over the last weeks I have had a briefing meeting with our new Ambassador to Dublin, and with President Trump’s NI Envoy. The position of Chairman also includes a great deal of media work, never more so than with the NI Protocol being front and centre.
As Chair of the Committee I also sit on the Liaison Committee. This is the ‘senior’ scrutiny Committee of the House and deals with a lot of House business that never hits the airwaves. Our only meeting that does is when the Prime Minister comes before us for cross examination. This takes place around three times a year. I hope the above has been of some interest (if not my apologies). The Select Committees are an extremely important part of in-depth Government scrutiny and play a vital role in our democratic function. Long may they continue!
