The BV is quite the jam-packed treat this month – from the biggest local issues to the maddest local history, from a guide to the Gilingham & Shaftesbury Show to the story of the Dorset Axemen. Plus politics, farming, wildlife, art, photography, a Dorset walk, pages of What’s On … and there’s a Peach & Pecan summer cake to make too. Frankly, it’d be rude not to …
Dorset Council has approved a controversial 190-acre solar farm in the Blackmore Vale – we look at the details
The village of Henstridge is facing 182 new homes – just a few miles down the road to Stalbridge which is currently seeing it’s fifth major development proposal. With access via the already problematic and narrow A357, there are strong concerns about road safety, infrastructure and the impact on the village character
Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show is back! The rural day out is a celebration of community, countryside and tradition – and it’s a feast for the eyes, ears, and taste buds!
In the Trethowans farming section, Andrew Livingston doesn’t have a soapbox, but he happily clambers onto a milk crate to look at the unfair struggle between agriculture and supermarkets
Did you know red kite were once a common sight in Elizabethan London? The bird is a popular conservation success story, says Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Jack Clarke, but is still at risk from poisoning
If you’re attending Dorset County Show this year, you might want to stop and see the Dorset Axemen. Mick Percival went from wood-chopping hobbyist to invincible, record-breaking champion – and now he gives spellbinding showground performances
After four decades behind the cameras on some of the UK’s biggest TV drama and film productions – including Paddington, Dr Who, Call the Midwife, Poldark and Grand Designs – Simon Priestman and his wife Karen decided it was time for a change in lifestyle. They bought bought a boutique vineyard in Dorset – and promptly created an award-winning wine
Two brilliant interviews in this episode (I’m allowed to say that because Jenny and Terry do all the work!) – the first with Rachel from Citizen’s Advice, and the second with an archaeology expert discussing Dorset’s long-running archaelogical dig affectionately known as Duropolis. And we”re thrilled to have Dr Jane Goodall’s Random 19 answers, too.
In an engrossing interview, Paul Cheatham, the geophysical survey director responsible for the archaelogical digs at Dorset’s ‘Duropolis’, effectively gives us a personal guided tour of the site that was discovered in 2007, and what the team have found in the subsequent 12 years of digs as they explore the hillside. He admits that everywhere the team survey they find a new settlement to explore – whether Iron Age, Bronze Age or Roman, from the Mesolithic to the late Roman era, the Dorset hillsides are covered in remnants of early communities. During the medieval period people moved into the valleys and finally left the high grounds, but counter to perceived wisdom, Paul explains that early man did not in fact choose hilltops for defence purposes – and he also talks Jenny through Iron Age fridges.
Rachel Rogers provides some specific advice around what to do when a package holiday goes wrong! Talking to Terry, she provides an interesting look at the work of Dorset’s Citizen’s Advice – no longer the CAB, the organisation does a lot more than is widely understood.
Admittedly a chimpanzee-studying lady in Africa may not have been everyone’s childhood hero, but for editor Laura – an animal-obsessed girl growing up in a big Essex town – the life of her dreams was being lived by Jane Goodall, the renowned ethologist and inspiring conservationist. Even at 89 Dr Jane Goodall remains a powerhouse of action, and her answers to this month’s Random 19 questions are everything you could hope for – from Lord of the Rings to an evocative stream of memories of a life lived in the wild (there’s also a controversial opinion on biscuit dunking).
If you’re looking to find the true rural heart of North Dorset, the untouched landscape that feels unchanged for centuries, then this might be the walk you’re looking for.
Following paths tucked into the rolling countryside that sits below the more glamorous ridge walks, you’ll avoid any big climbs, and yet manage to enjoy almost constant stunning views.
Desite a lack of any hill climbing the far-reaching views on this walk are unbeatable
We took our time with this walk, and it felt like a mini holiday. We didn’t see another person (other than a couple enjoying their own back garden as we strolled past with a wave), and felt like we were lost in Enid Blyton’s Dorset.
The route follows old green lanes and winds through the thick centuries-old hedges that are bounding the small, oddly-shaped fields so typical of old Dorset.
The footpath through the wonderful wild meadow belonging to the Barkhill Shepherd’s Huts
A few paths were very overgrown – we walked in early July, and a sturdy stick was soon collected to beat back the nettle and bramble at regular intervals.
You can just see from the post marker on the left of the image that this is a bridleway…
Stiles through hedges were rarely sturdy and well kept (seemingly typical in North Dorset!), but mostly they did exist and were entirely usable. The ones crossing streams were the most solid, thankfully!
Ibberton church has a wonderful view of Bulbarrow
A couple of times we couldn’t see the exit to a field until we were literally right on top of it – trust the map, the stiles and bridges ARE there, they’re just buried in the hedgerows!
It’s easy to miss the footpath sign on this wall (it’s on the far right) in Okeford Fotzpaine right at the start of the walk!
Parking is easy in Okeford Fitzpaine village – and there’s a lovely village shop as well as a pub for a post-walk ice cream or a pint!
Merry Moos Farm Project is a social enterprise trading as a community interest company. Our aim is to establish a working farm and animal sanctuary in Dorset that serves the community by encouraging individuals to benefit mentally and physically from experiencing farm life, and to provide animals a haven of love and safety.
Farm Required
Merry Moos farm project CIC not for profit is looking for a fifty to seventy acre farm with livestock buildings site in Dorset.
f you think you can help, or know someone who can.
Fancy a night of festival style footstomping, dancing and singing?
It’s an evening with a difference when Old Time Sailors visit The Exchange in Sturminster Newton for the first time on Friday 8th September! You will be sailing back to the 19th century for an immersive experience – seafaring music performed in a way you have never seen before. The motley crew and their plethora of traditional and eclectic instruments will take you back to the time of clashing tankards, and drunken debauchery.
The Old Time Sailors have recently taken Glastonbury and Bestival by storm, as well as headlining at festivals throughout the South West.
Kicking off the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival weekend, guest real ales will be on sale, as well as the full bar, and as dancing is very much encouraged, only the raked seating will be out! There’ll be plenty of space to sing and dance like a drunken sailor as the band perform centuries-old folk and shanty songs.
Fancy dress is encouraged – pull out your best seafaring garments, me hearties, and come join the festivities!
On the date of its ancient predecessor, the 50th anniversary street fair bears more than a passing resemblance to the first one in 1973
In the heart of the Delcombe Valley in 934AD, the town of Middleton was founded – gathered around the Benedictine Abbey, whose patron saint is St Sampson. King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, granted the town a market and a fair, which took place on St Sampson’s Day.
Soon after buying the Milton Abbas estate in 1752, Joseph Damer (later Lord Milton and later still the Earl of Dorchester) took the first steps in an ambitious scheme of demolition, development and landscaping to transform the medieval village and the valley. Sir Frederick Treves says in Highways and Byways of Dorset (1906). ‘He [Damer] found the ancient village squatted indecently near to the spot where he intended to build his mansion, … he ordered the offensive object to be removed. The old, untidy hamlet was entirely demolished as soon as the new Milton Abbas had been erected well out of sight of the great house.’
Milton Abbas Street Fair in 2023. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock
Two hundred years later, the villagers recreated their traditional fair to celebrate its 200th anniversary – on the last Saturday of July, the nearest to 28th July, the original St Sampson’s Day. Local man Chris Fookes says, ‘It all started as a way of fundraising for local causes. In the 60s and 70s, if you had a village fete, you were lucky to make 50 quid. You know, you make 50 quid and think “well, you’ve done all right!” But our idea was to do the village fete thing, but to get it bigger. And we certainly did that with the street fair. In the end, we made about three or four thousand quid!’
The 1973 committee
Chris was asked to open the special 250th anniversary fair this year. His family have lived in the valley for more than 250 years – ‘We were yeoman farmers – you call them tenant farmers now – on the big estate. We had Bagber Farm down at Milborne at one time, and the brewery here (Fookes Brothers the Milton Brewery was founded in 1775) … all sorts of things.’ – and he was on the committee which ran the very first street fair.
Original 1973 committee member Chris Fookes was asked to open 2023’s 50th anniversary fair. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock
He remembers it clearly:
‘In 1973 we had a meeting with the Milton Abbey School, and they came on side. They offered all the playing fields, any accommodation they could spare. They were really with us from day one. That first event was actually a ten day festival. First, we had a Civil War battle, which was a ‘King’s Army of the West against the Cavalry’. But the cavalry were children on ponies! We had it in the valley between the Abbey and the school; King Eddies Drive it’s called, though it’s actually King Edward’s Drive. They made a special route down over the hill for him back at the turn of the century. The cavalry came down over the hill, and the king’s army at the bottom there were all murdered! It went really well, the whole of the abbey drive was packed with people. It was as busy as the main street is now, maybe busier.
Traditional maypole dancing at Milton Abbas Street Fair. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock
‘That was the first Saturday. We had a barbecue and a dance in the evening, and on the Sunday morning there was a service in the Abbey. There were various events the following week, and then the Saturday after was the first Street Fair. And that went really, really well. After that first one, the Street Fair became the principal event.’
Half a century
So how does the street fair compare today, to the first one?
‘It’s almost exactly the same! The man who ran it originally, Lieutenant Commander Dickie Dyer, was a brilliant organiser. He lived just above the almshouses, and he ran the whole thing. It ran like clockwork and it’s almost exactly the same now – it’s still run just the way he set it out.’
