Take a close look at vintage postcards of Twofords Bridge and you’ll see a single, elegant 18th-century stone arch standing peacefully over the River Lydden. Today, the same view includes a surprisingly robust steel neighbour – a Second World War structure never meant to last. Thousands of vehicles cross the pair every day, and while the twin bridges are familiar to locals, the story behind their odd coupling remains little known beyond the immediate area.
The Motor Inn, Bagber – despite the editor’s best efforts, extensive searching has revealed no information about The Motor Inn. The two visible cars are boxy saloons with large headlamps mounted on the wings, upright radiators, and narrow tyres, dating it late 1920s to early/mid-1930s
The term Motor Inn emerged at the same time, as car ownership spread, as did tarmacked roads (it’s not just compacted gravel). The road signs look like early Ministry of Transport types (the white-painted post with circular sign), which were standardised in the 1930sThe Inn is just a house today – dwarfed by the agricultural machinery of the C J Cox yard ‘Now’ images by Courtenay Hitchcock
In spring 1942, a small but significant upgrade quietly arrived in rural Dorset at the height of World War II. The original stone bridge – beautiful but narrow and fragile – simply couldn’t support the weight of heavy modern military vehicles. Tanks and freight bound for the south coast – utterly critical in the run-up to the Allied Dieppe Raid and, later, D-Day –demanded sturdier roads. So, Canadian Royal Engineers erected a Callender-Hamilton (Unit Construction) bridge alongside the stone original. Designed by New Zealand engineer Archibald Hamilton, this modular steel Warren-truss bridge was only ever meant to be temporary. Built from galvanised steel segments – like giant Meccano – it was strong, quick to assemble and has shown itself to be impressively resilient. Dorset was one of the key embarkation points for D-Day: Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6th June 1944. Troops, tanks and supplies moved through North Dorset en route to embarkation points like Weymouth, Portland and Poole, ready to be loaded onto landing craft and ships. The bridge never intended to be a permanent structure has stayed in service ever since, passing into Dorset County Council’s control after the war.
The postcard was never sent, so we have no postmark to date it, but the woman is wearing a long, full skirt with a fitted bodice and puffed sleeves, and a hat, consistent with the Edwardian era, (roughly 1901–1910). The boys are in short trousers with stockings and large collars/bows (up to 1910), and the men are wearing flat caps and bowlers – common rural working attire around 1900 to 1920
This photograph was taken in Chapel Road, Bagber, looking towards the junction with what is now the A357, which runs left to right at the far end behind the carts. The house on the left of the picture, along with the one opposite on the main road, have since disappearedThe view today!
Nearly 80 years later, this “temporary” bridge still carries all A357 eastbound traffic, while the stone bridge manages the westbound flow. The bridge has seen only minor changes to its original design since it was erected. Timber deck repairs were carried out in 1985 and 2009. The only work of any structural significance was to strengthen the bridge in 1996 to enable it to conform to new standards in order to carry 40-tonne lorries. Ted Taylor, Dorset’s chief bridge engineer, said: ‘We have had no real trouble ensuring that this ‘temporary’ bridge is brought up to the new standard. It was in remarkably good shape.’ The bridge was re-inspected in 2014, and found to still be in very good condition – the areas that had caused concern with a ‘slightly weary appearance’ were found to be mostly due to dirt deposits and growth of moss on the steel. Les Lock, the project engineer, said: ‘Despite all that’s thrown at it – floodwater, mud and grit salt – after 72 years the galvanized members are still in very good condition.’ Today, it is used as a case study by the Galvanizers Association across Europe, who praise its longevity and performance as an outstanding example of hot-dip galvanised steel in action. The structure has far outlived its original purpose, continuing its role as a vital transport route, handling modern HGV traffic – a surviving piece of Dorset’s wartime history.
Parliament’s six-week Summer Recess is ending, and I’m returning to the routine of being in London for half the week.
Edward Morello MP for West Dorset
Although the sunny weather hasn’t helped our farmers, it has meant I’ve managed to enjoy some evenings on the beach, swimming with my family. I’m always grateful for time back in the constituency – even if being at home doesn’t actually mean my family see much more of me. It’s a valuable opportunity for me to catch up on the work that Westminster time often doesn’t allow. Over the summer, I’ve had meetings with Dorchester BID, Dorset Healthcare, Royal Mail, Access Wellbeing, the Woodland Trust, Sherborne Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Group, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service, and the new Chief Executive of Dorset Council. I’ve visited Bridport Clothes Bank, the Poundbury Nature Project, Hilfield Priory, three care homes, the Pineapple Estate near Bridport, Beaminster Museum, Fire Pot Food, the Sherborne Steam and Waterwheel Centre, Dorset Downs Vineyard, and Bagwell Farm Touring Park, among others. I spent a day with South Western Ambulance Service to better understand the pressures they face, and visited Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance. I spoke on the NFU panel at the Melplash Show – and I’ve been to more village fetes than I can count! I held dozens of residents’ surgeries, and continued hosting policy round tables – this month’s focused on support for West Dorset’s hospitality sector. I also toured villages I haven’t visited in a while, holding Q&As in village halls to discuss local and national concerns. Over the summer, I held meetings in Broadmayne, Martinstown, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Chetnole, Thorncombe, Netherbury, Litton Cheney, Cheselbourne, Toller Porcorum and Stratton. Each one was well attended – and I’m grateful to everyone who came along to ask questions, give me a grilling, and share what matters to them. This week I was told that since February I’ve submitted 760 questions to Ministers — only two MPs have written more. As I return to Parliament, the last six weeks have given me plenty more to a write to them about!
As someone who was born and raised in Dorset, reading through the recently released Local Plan was, quite frankly, deeply unsettling.
Thomas Gargrave Reform UK Dorset
The level of development proposed across the countryside is unprecedented and, in our view, deeply damaging. Huge swathes of farmland outside of Dorchester, Crossways, Lytchett Matravers and Lytchett Minster will be lost: many villages will see a close to doubling of their size, and almost all towns will see very significant bolt-on developments. Thousands of houses are proposed to be built on “protected” green belt land, thousands within Dorset National Landscape (AONB), and thousands on or near sites of high environmental importance. The total proposed figures for the Dorset Council Area are circa 45,000 houses over the next 17 years: a loss of around 10,000 acres of farmland, a likely population increase of around 97,000, and an additional 60,000 cars on our roads. Around 98.7 per cent of the proposed development sites are greenfield, vs just 1.3 per cent brownfield – making an absolute mockery of Labour’s ‘brownfield first’ commitment. Reform UK Dorset views the proposed plan as nothing short of madness. If taken forward, it will turn very significant parts of our unspoiled rural areas into urban sprawl, brutalising our culturally-important landscapes and having a devastating impact on wildlife habitats. The effect on the quality of life for those already living in Dorset will be as dramatic as the effects on our countryside. Already, our road networks around most major conurbations simply do not function; GP and dentist appointments are under massive pressure, as is the broader NHS, but perhaps more important than all of that, our sense of community in Dorset is being completely eroded. Our view as a party is that it is not possible to have a conversation about housing without first having a very serious one about immigration. It is simply impossible to have net migration running at 900,000+ a year, as the Conservatives did in 2023, and for that not to cause major, major issues with housing demand and supply structures. Historically, immigration has accounted for around 65per cent of population growth, this has, in recent years, jumped to as high as 98 per cent for the year ending June 2024. We view this as a mass immigration crisis first, which has led to a housing crisis. On the former, Reform UK could not be clearer. We will have a net-neutral or even net-negative immigration policy. We will end mass immigration. Period. Locally, we will fight tooth and nail to oppose the Liberal Democrats’ plans. Our Dorset countryside and farmland should be preserved and protected, not concreted over. Without radical measures to preserve what is left of our rural county, large parts of Dorset will ultimately end up resembling not Hardy’s Wessex, but Betjeman’s Slough. A Reform UK-led Dorset Council will make the preservation of our countryside an absolute priority, and we will be outlining detailed plans to this effect over the next several months.
The Farming Community Network (FCN), will mark its 30th anniversary with a traditional Harvest Festival Service at Sherborne Abbey, at 6.30pm on Sunday 28th September. The FCN is inviting the whole community to come and celebrate rural life, farming and the spirit of community.
Organiser Bec Hill says the service will be a joyful, inclusive event: ’The Abbey choir will be performing and the hymns will be ones that everyone knows! Local young farmers are decorating the porch, and we’ve got old tractors arriving on the night … it’ll be a proper celebration of what Dorset does best. ‘It’s not only about looking back at 30 years of FCN’s work, but also about bringing our community together to give thanks and look forward. We’re proud to be hosting this event in Dorset – we’re a county with deep agricultural roots and a strong spirit of support.’ Tea, coffee and cake will be served after the service, and Bec would love an idea of numbers: ‘The Abbey holds up to 1,000 people – I really don’t want to be left with 1,000 cakes!’ A hamper raffle full of local produce – supported by 20 generous businesses – will be drawn on the night, with tickets on sale at the Dorset County Show, and the Cultivation Day on 24th September. While the event is a celebration of the harvest, Bec notes the challenging backdrop to this year’s season: ‘Livestock farmers are already feeding their winter forage. Arable returns are tight. The figures just aren’t stacking up. FCN volunteers understand these pressures – we’re all farmers ourselves.’ The FCN is a UK-wide charity supporting farmers and farming families through times of difficulty and change. FCN Dorset has quietly grown a strong network in the county, offering support through farm walks, breakfast meetings and “walk and talk” pub meet-ups. ‘It’s about showing up for each other,’ says Bec. ‘It might be a single phone call, or it might be a two-year journey. But we’re here.’
6.30pm, 28th September, Sherborne Abbey. To attend the Harvest Festival, or to find out more about FCN Dorset, email Bec on [email protected]
What information should environmental campaigners make widely known? And how should they share it in order to achieve the large-scale societal and behavioural changes that are now needed?
Ken Huggins North Dorset Green Party
Too much doom and gloom leaves people feeling overwhelmed and powerless: but softening the bad news with talk of ‘by the end of the century’ simply encourages complacency. And scientific facts don’t change minds – emotions do. The powerful emotions of fear and anger have historically been the biggest drivers of major societal change. However, we’re up against the billionaire-owned, partly fossil fuel-funded mainstream media that has long shaped the climate narrative, promoting denial and delay through a steady stream of mis- and disinformation. To challenge this, campaigners took to the streets in huge numbers, seeking to persuade the politicians to treat the issue with the urgency it requires. Unfortunately, the politicians have learned that peaceful protests can be ignored – the UK joined the disastrous American invasion of Iraq in 2003 in spite of more than a million people marching through London to protest against it. So environmental campaigners have been forced into disruptive protests that can’t be ignored … but the government is responding with anti-protest legislation – attacking the messengers, instead of paying heed to their message. It’s another example of how dark money has corrupted our democracy. While he was prime minister, Rishi Sunak boasted about the government’s anti-protest laws having been guided by the Policy Exchange … that’s a right-leaning think tank which is reported to have received funding from fossil fuel interests, and where Sunak himself worked before his 2015 election to parliament. Ex-Labour MP John Woodcock, now Lord Walney, acted as the government’s ‘independent’ advisor on domestic extremism. Unsurprisingly, as a paid advisor to the arms and oil industries, he specifically called for bans on groups protesting against defence and energy firms. Some will inevitably view disruptive protests as an unjustifiable disturbance to businesses and the public – but all other efforts to push the government to act on the unfolding climate and environmental crises have failed – so far. Campaigners cannot give up – but time is short, and the clock is ticking ever louder. Ken Huggins North Dorset Green Party
Yeovil care home praised for compassion, consistency and culture of excellence
Staff and residents at Grovelands care home in Yeovil are celebrating after being rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection earlier this year.
The residential, respite and dementia care home has now held the CQC’s top rating for eight consecutive years. The latest inspection, carried out in July and published this month, praised the home as ‘Caring’ and ‘Well-led’, highlighting what inspectors described as ‘a deeply embedded culture of continuous learning and improvement’.
Residents at Grovelands, the report found, are ‘supported by a consistent, compassionate, and dedicated staff team who demonstrated kindness, respect, and genuine care in their interactions’. Inspectors also commended the team’s focus on promoting ‘independence, dignity, and choice’, and creating a ‘culture of empowerment and inclusion’.
Grovelands has also received strong independent reviews, with a 4.9-star Google rating and a 9.9/10 average on carehome.co.uk. One verified reviewer wrote:
‘What an exceptional home!!! Whilst visiting a family member who is being cared for during his final stages of life, I can only say that they are amazing and a blessing to him, such dedication and determination to give him the very best possible care, what an amazing team of professionals. I work as a senior manager for another care provider nationally and can safely say that the team here are absolutely incredible and if I could box what they do and take it away I would!!!! Praise to the team and management team for leading such an incredible home.’
‘I can’t put into words how lucky we have been to place Mum in this lovely home. We feel very privileged. All staff from bottom up and top down are superb, professional and friendly. They look after Mum’s wellbeing in all aspects. Her needs are met often above and beyond, and exceed all expectations. It remains “her home”. A big thank you to you all. You ALL work very hard to achieve this. Thank you again.’
Karen Cheshire, Registered Manager, said:
‘I am incredibly proud that the round-the-clock compassionate care our team provide for our residents has once again been recognised with an “Outstanding” rating from the CQC. To receive and retain this highest accolade from our regulatory body is a reflection of the dedication, compassion, and excellence that our entire Grovelands community demonstrates every day. This rating is made even more special by the response it has prompted from the families of those we care for, who tell me that they expected nothing less than “Outstanding”! It is truly heart-warming to hear that the praise in the report reflects the positive experiences of our residents and their loved ones, as they are the reason we are here. On behalf of the whole Grovelands team, I want to say “thank you” to everyone who trusts us with the most precious thing there is – the care of a loved one. Your trust and partnership continue to inspire us to deliver the very best care and to keep striving for excellence. We look forward to continuing to provide outstanding care together, with your ongoing support.’
Grovelands is part of the not-for-profit Somerset Care Group. For more information, visit www.somersetcare.co.uk
Rupert Hardy from North Dorset CPRE explains why Dorset’s Local Plan Consultation matters – and how best to stop some of the worst housing proposals. Please read this – it is so important!
Once Dorset’s latest housing estate … fresh from the 1600s
Over the last year or so there have been two events of seismic proportions hitting Dorset. The first was the election of a government clearly unsympathetic to rural areas, and the second is this Local Plan (LP). Some people may not be aware that Dorset Council (DC) is preparing a new LP which sets out policies and development proposals for the next 17 years. The current consultation focuses on potential housing sites, with other aspects to follow. The previous Dorset administration tried and failed to do this in 2021, after an avalanche of objections. The draft LP will not be published until summer 2026 – by which time it will be too late for any meaningful influence from the public.
A flawed formula for housing need The government imposes a rigid “Standard Method” to calculate housing need. It starts with existing housing stock, then inflates numbers to reflect affordability – a blunt approach that doesn’t reflect Dorset’s reality. We do not agree with the standard method: local prices are distorted by second homes and wealthy incomers, with much of the county is covered by protected landscapes. But the National Planning Policy Framework requires DC to show that it has examined all avenues for meeting government targets. CPRE considers housing need to be far lower than these targets: DC has said publicly the figures are unrealistic. The government’s target is 55,000 homes over 17 years. Some of this is already covered by existing permissions, neighbourhood plans, and ‘windfalls’ – leaving 35,000 to 40,000 to come from new sites. DC is putting forward even more than this – roughly 15,000 more – to allow for landowners withdrawing, cross-boundary need (though this is unlikely, given most authorities are in the same boat), and sites being ruled out later. To give perspective: Dorset has been building around 1,600 homes a year. The new target is 3,246 homes a year – double the recent rate.
Where are the sites coming from? Most were submitted during the Council’s “call for sites” and assessed under the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA). Sites originally deemed unsuitable – often outside settlement boundaries – are now reclassified as “opportunity sites”. CPRE questions the merits of many of these, particularly the less sustainable ones outside settlement boundaries. The focus has primarily been on finding sites in the towns and larger villages, but given the magnitude of the housing required, DC are now proposing to move settlement boundaries, with new developments of up to 30 homes being added to smaller villages. These changes risk exposing rural communities to speculative development.The rationale is to help small local builders, but settlement boundaries exist for a reason: they are a vital line of defence for the countryside. One of the reasons CPRE was founded was to stop exactly this kind of creeping urbanisation. We’re also disappointed that town centre regeneration is not included in this phase of the LP. With high street retail in decline, we urge more imaginative new uses for brownfield sites.
Who will be most affected? Bishop’s Caundle is likely to be the worst-hit village in the Blackmore Vale – sites have been proposed for 301 homes in a village of around 400 inhabitants, who will be engulfed. Residents of Motcombe, Hazelbury Bryan, Marnhull and Milborne St Andrew will also be pretty unhappy reading this consultation, given the numbers. Sherborne will be the worst affected town, with suggested sites for 2,083 homes: current population is 10,300. The least affected is Sturminster Newton, but all the North Dorset towns and most large villages have to expect more developments on top of what is already happening. North Dorset and Sherborne CPRE stands ready to give advice. Around 8,800 homes are proposed in “opportunity sites” across North Dorset: those next to towns are more likely to proceed. Village sites may well be ruled out down the line due to infrastructure shortfalls or unsustainable locations. Overall, though, North Dorset communities will be drowning their sorrows less than other parts of Dorset (this is no help to those affected, of course). Elsewhere in Dorset, proposed numbers for Crossways, Lytchett Matravers, Lytchett Minster and Upton, Wool and Sturminster Marshall are frighteningly high. Towns like Weymouth, Wimborne and Dorchester face major expansion – and ‘Norchester’ (a large site north of the county town) an ever real threat now a masterplan has been commissioned. The logic for this is that employment prospects are better in adjoining Poole/ Bournemouth and Dorchester/Weymouth. The latter has suffered more deprivation than other Dorset towns – but it has now received £20m in regeneration funds. DC are also preparing to commit to at least one New Town – but most take 10 to 15 years before they are shovel-ready, so that discussion will not impact this LP much.
One of North Dorset’s finest lookouts – the view from Rawslbury Camp across to Nordon Hill, Dorsetshire Gap and Nettlecombe Tout
Consequences if this goes ahead If all these houses are built, the impact will be appalling. Roads will be overwhelmed – and there are no serious plans for transport improvements. Our already-stretched infrastructure, especially healthcare, will struggle to cope. Dorset Council acknowledges this but has limited control – GP surgeries are private businesses, even when they’re providing NHS care. Meanwhile, there’s little here on the affordable and social rented housing which Dorset desperately needs, rather than the four-bedroom executive homes the national housebuilders love to sell, which attract incomers rather than helping the young in Dorset on low, local salaries. Dorset Council would like to build more social housing – but has no clear plan or funding route.
A few bright spots We applaud the Council’s proposal to phase many of the sites, buying time in the hope of a change of government policy in four years’ time, in favour of one less hellbent on concreting over the countryside. We also support efforts to include employment sites alongside new housing. And CPRE is especially pleased to see Design Codes covered, with a push for local vernacular homes built to net zero standards – a welcome shift from the soulless, inefficient “Noddy boxes” developers too often impose.
What you can do If the Council, armed with compelling evidence from local communities, can show that certain sites are unsustainable and unsuitable for development, then they can reduce the housing numbers. Lower targets reduce the risk of failing the Housing Delivery Test – which triggers the dreaded “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, opening the door to speculative development. As some suggest the government focus is on basic LP numbers, rather than the delivery of them. We suspect that many sites will not get developed for other reasons too: in particular the limited capacity of the housebuilders, who are simply not interested in flooding the market with new houses they cannot sell.
How to respond Please respond to this consultation, even if only to challenge some of the most egregious housing sites seeing the light of day. Your local knowledge of flooding, car dependency, wildlife and infrastructure is invaluable. If you have constructive suggestions, Dorset Council also wants to hear them. Visit dorsetcouncil.gov.uk to see the plans and take part in the survey: you have until 13th October to respond. At the very least contact your parish or town council, which will certainly be responding, and which can consult Dorset CPRE for help. Let’s stand together to protect our countryside for future generations.
Simon Hoare MP admits past failings, and warns that if government and opposition don’t deliver, the vacuum will fuel populism and protest votes
Simon Hoare MP
I cannot believe that we are in the ninth month of the year – time appears to be turbocharged at the moment. As the nights (regrettably) draw in, I hope you had a good summer, whatever it is you did. If anyone has ever seen a hard copy of a speech given by a government minister, it always says at the top: CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY. What this means is that the prepared text might not be read out in full. An event that happens before the speech is given may require an off-the-cuff response. A minister (I know I certainly did it) might riff and extemporise to amplify a point or add colour. Alternatively, whole chunks of speeches might not be used, if you read the room and recognise the audience isn’t ‘with you’. So, there is a difference between what has been written down and planned to be said, and what is actually delivered. Therefore, journalists always need to make sure the minister has said what it was claimed the minister would say (thank you, Sir Humphrey) before writing an article declaring: “the minister said …” So. Let me start with a mea culpa on behalf of my party. Too often, we said what we were intending to do … and didn’t always follow through on it. In short, we did not check against delivery. There were events which got in the way of that delivery – Covid and Ukraine, for example – but sometimes it was simply a case of taking the eye off the ball. It is too easy, when in government, to say something in a speech – still more so after a No.10 summit: “this will be done”. The assumption is that simply by the heartfelt saying of it, the thing promised will, as if by magic, happen. That is not always the case. Policy must be driven hard and with a forensic application of energy and will. The current government has fallen into the same trap, but at a much earlier stage. Remember Mission-Led Government? Five departmental, cross-cutting themes that would revolutionise the doing of government. Well we might remember, but the government is apparently suffering from amnesia. Ministers can make all the grandiose pledges they like, but if there is no monitoring of delivery, then it is doomed before the first step is taken. People are also not fools. We no longer fall for the Emperor’s New Clothes stuff. Ministers can tell us one thing, but if we are experiencing or feeling something different – or the complete opposite – then we know exactly who to believe … (hint: it’s not the minister). We see a slowing economy, rising costs, collapsing business confidence, inflation on the up, taxes entering the stratosphere… and yet ministers tell us we are privileged to be living in some sort of Labour nirvana. Saying something over and over again does not make it true – or any more believable – if it is entirely counter-intuitive to daily lived experience. Some current ministers appear to have taken political advocacy classes from Iraq’s Chemical Ali: “there are no allied tanks on Iraq’s soil,” while they were plainly visible in the background. The disappointment in my party when in government – and the growing despair with Labour now – is, of course, fuelling the popularity of Reform. This is understandable, but it will prove to be unsustainable. The only thing Mr Farage has ever delivered is speeches: by his own hand, he has delivered nothing. His easy, headline-grabbing slogans, shouted as he jumps on yet another passing bandwagon, have no substance. Delivering in politics is not about the what, it’s about the how. Farage has drunk too deeply of the Trump Kool-Aid, and he is giddy at the thought of some kind of UK presidential executive power. But in a parliamentary democracy, executive power does not rest in one pair of hands. Farage’s idea of appointing a cabinet from outside Parliament is a nonsense: ministers must be accountable to Parliament. His random plan for deportations is simply not deliverable at the click of a PM’s fingers. So, there is a clear challenge to both government and opposition if we are to deflate the Farage ego. Government must deliver. We in opposition must work up credible, deliverable alternatives. The why, what and how need to be stark. In short, we must both check against delivery.
It’s a delicate balance: rural tradition, public opinion, and the spotlight of a major agricultural show. So when the Hound Parade commentary at this year’s Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show veered into a lengthy diatribe about the need to preserve fox hunting at all costs, it felt like the commentator had misjudged the moment – and the audience.
The Grumbler
While I am not a fan of fox hunting, I have no particular objection to hounds being part of the show. They’re part of rural life, and the packs of foxhounds and bloodhounds parading were fine examples of their breeds. But turning what should have been a celebration into a soapbox for a controversial agenda was, frankly, a betrayal of the show’s organisers – and an insult to the intelligence of those watching. It’s a shame, because the rest of the show was exactly what it should be: a landmark in the farming calendar, showcasing the fantastic work our local farmers do and bringing a bit of joy to what is often an isolating, thankless industry. The main ring at the show acts as a venue for entertainment, education and celebration and, on the whole, it did just that. We were entertained by the motorcycle and jousting displays, educated about the evolution of horsepower via heavy horses, steam engines and vintage tractors, and we celebrated the prize-winners in the livestock parade. Only the Hound Parade struck a discordant note.
‘It’s not as important as mine’ As a historian I am a bit of a pedant when it comes to matters of fact. The presenter started his introduction to hunting with hounds by explaining that it was “introduced to England by the Normans”. This is wrong: hunting with dogs in England goes back way further than the Normans. Vikings, Saxons, Celts and Romans all left behind documentary evidence of using dogs to hunt. What the Normans did do, which he alluded to when he mentioned Cranborne Chase and the New Forest, was to enclose vast tracts of land as hunting reserves for the aristocracy. What he didn’t mention, of course, was that most of our ancestors could have been summarily executed for so much as setting foot on that land. He went on to explain that fox hunting came about from the 18th century – but again, rather neglected to mention the social context in which it was created: a deliberately exclusive and aristocratic pursuit at a time when land was increasingly enclosed and the ordinary man could be hanged or transported to Australia for poaching a rabbit or pheasant. Thankfully, those days are gone … although, of course, only the comparatively wealthy can afford to ride to hounds today. But the commentary would have us believe that everyone in the countryside has forgotten the injustices of the past, and is now squarely behind the hunt. The commentator did concede that many people were opposed to hunting, and that they were entitled to their opinion – although he didn’t really seem to entertain the idea that it was legitimate for a democratically elected parliament to outlaw something that had gone on for a couple of hundred years. The overall tone was that “you’re entitled to your opinion as long as you understand that it isn’t as important as mine”. I think we can count ourselves fortunate that Westminster doesn’t always side with tradition, or we would also presumably still have cock fighting, bear and badger baiting, slavery and witch-burning, on the grounds that they, too, were fine old English traditions. (Mind you, having seen some of the comments on the Daily Telegraph’s recent article about the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show’s decision to ban those hunters with criminal convictions from the show, it seems that some members of the Countryside Alliance probably think that banning those things was all part of a plot by a woke metropolitan elite.) The commentator meanwhile told us how he had been threatened by a large hunt saboteur in a balaclava. This is, of course, totally unacceptable. There is no place for that kind of behaviour, and it has to be said that the violence and tactics of some anti-hunt protestors completely undermines their position. Sadly, hunt followers are not angels either … but this was ignored.
Hounds parading at G&S Show Dorset
Intrinsic, indispensable and inevitable Perhaps the most annoying part of the commentary from the Hound Parade was the element of moral blackmail at the end. If hunting with hounds is banned, the “hounds and horses will have to be put down – and it will all be your fault”, we were told. “Hounds are pack animals which cannot adapt to domestic life” – this seemed a particularly odd statement just at the moment that the children in the audience were being invited to meet and pet said hounds. It was followed up with the equally baffling statement that “without the hunt, the rural economy would pretty much collapse and be left without vets”. Personally, I find it hard to imagine that hunting puts so much into local vets’ practices that it outweighs all their other streams of income. Finally, there was the claim that “hunting is not just fun for the hunters, but for the hunt followers, large numbers of whom would be left with nothing else to do”. The implication was that a lot of the audience were hunt followers, and were naturally on the same side. I wasn’t convinced. I was left with the feeling that an attempt was being made to railroad the audience into backing hunting by implying that it is an intrinsic, indispensable and inevitable part of country life which naturally benefits all who dwell in our rural area. Unfortunately, it was another example of modern-day post-truth history, where a wealthy minority is seeking to manipulate opinion by appealing to a past that never was. Most people who were at the show, I suspect, are like me: the descendants of agricultural labourers or tenant farmers. I dare say that Norman barons and 18th-century fox hunters thought nothing of horse-whipping our ancestors if they weren’t quick enough to tug their forelocks. It’s a bit rich to expect our support now.
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 [email protected]. The Grumbler column is here for you: go on, say it. We dare you.
