It is with great sadness that the family of Robert Frith announce his sudden and untimely death. A wonderful family man and successful businessman, a man of great humour, integrity and loyalty, Robert had an enormous passion for life and lived life to the full until his last breath.
Robert was born in Whitton Middlesex when the first doodlebugs fell in June 1944. With his parents George and Doris and older brothers, Brian and Michael, he spent his formative years growing up in Twickenham. Robert attended Chiswick Grammar School followed by studying Optometry at City University, London.
At an early age, Robert (or Bob as he was known to many of his friends), demonstrated an interest and prowess on the athletics track. He became an active member of Kingston ‘Poly’ Harriers he went onto represent his country in the 100 metre sprint and relay at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica. His many accolades included winning the 60m silver medal at the 1968 European Games in Madrid and the Bronze in 1969 in Belgrade. He held the world record for 50 metres and was four times National AAA champion over 60 metres.
Whilst still at university Robert met Christine, a nurse, they married and set up home in Twickenham. It was here that Robert opened his first independent Optical practice with Mum Doris as Receptionist. Whilst living in Twickenham Robert and Christine’s three children were born, Adam, Zara and Abigail.
In 1977 the family relocated to Dorset, it was the pretty village of Marnhull that Robert affectionately called home for the rest of his life.
In 1981 the Optometrist Robert embarked on achieving his dream of opening optical practices across Dorset and the South West. Maintaining Twickenham as the first flagship practice he went on to develop a strong network of independent Optometrist businesses, the first opening at Goldhill, Shaftesbury. Currently, with Twickenham there are twelve Frith Opticians practices.
Robert was a man of many talents and interests. Beyond running a chain of Optometrist practices his dynamic entrepreneurship went further. When visiting his daughter Abbi in South Africa, an initial hobby creating homemade wine, became an opportunity for Robert to develop a guava orchard into a vineyard. The result, award winning wine, with gold achieved at The London International Wine Fair and 5 stars in Platter’s South African Wine Guide.
At home in Marnhull Robert spent much of his spare time in his garden, producing beautiful roses and plentiful fruit and vegetables. He was a renowned exhibitor at both the Marnhull and Shaftesbury and Gillingham Shows, with many cups and Awards. Latterly he proudly supported the Shaftesbury and Gillingham Show as a wine judge.
After his successful athletics career Robert dusted down his running shoes and from 2003 – 2005 he completed three marathons, two in London and New York, achieving a personal best in 4 hours 41 minutes at the 2005 London marathon. His brilliant effort raised an incredible £20,000 for sight related charities.
Robert lost his wife Christine to cancer in 2009 after 40 years of happy marriage. He later found happiness again with his partner Sue. Robert is survived by his three children, seven grandchildren Sue and her daughter Sophia. Robert will be sadly missed by his family and all who knew him, professionally and personally. He was a force of life that will never be recovered.
Following his sudden death Robert’s wish to donate organs has been respected and, as was fitting for someone whose professional life was all about improving and aiding eyesight, his corneas have been donated so that someone else can see. A fitting tribute to a man who always did whatever he could to help and support others.
Robert’s funeral will be held at St Gregory’s Church, Marnhull on Friday 21st May at midday. The funeral service will be in accordance with Covid rules. Anyone wishing to remember Robert is welcome to be present outside in the church grounds and locality. Family flowers only, but Robert can be remembered by visiting the ‘Just Giving’ Website: bit.ly/robertbench set up in his memory to raise money for charities and causes close to his heart.
The Plough at Manston is run by husband and wife team Peter & Karlene.
How did you end up at The Plough?
I had worked in hospitality in the Caribbean for the last thirty years and it was time to return home. Both Karlene, my wife, and I love the hospitality business and wanted to continue to be involved in it. My family was from Devon and I was born in Salisbury, so the South West was a natural place to look for an old Country Pub to restore and run. After much searching we found the Plough at Manston and quickly realised that the location, the community and the building itself offered us exactly what we were looking for.
We arrived in December 2019 and after a few nights in the wonderful Tick Tock Cottage in Marnull settled into the newly delivered and locally made Plankbridge Shepherd’s Hut, where we lived during the renovation and expansion of the Plough. We had hoped to complete the work and open the Pub before the end of 2020, but the project was delayed by the Covid lockdown and the discovery of the inevitable problems which will be familiar to all who have worked on three hundred and fifty year old buildings.
Surprises included correcting a dramatically leaning West Gable, installing a sewage treatment plant, and filling an old well we found when digging the foundations for the additional dining area, the new kitchen and the bathrooms.
We are finally complete from a practical point of view, and plan to open on the 18th May in the evening. We have built a fantastic team and look forward to many happy years looking after the Plough’s customers.
What are you most proud of?
That Karlene and I are still talking to each other after sixteen months in a Shepherd’s hut!
Which part of the Plough is your absolute favourite?
That would have to be the Snug and the bar. We are very happy to have been able to make subtle, practical improvements to this area yet still retain the original features and character which will be so familiar to all those who made the Plough their local…
Karlene did a fantastic job achieving this. I am sure we will be learning about the Plough’s history for a long time and hope to obtain copies of old pictures from people’s photograph albums. It would be fun to assemble the pictures and stories into a booklet.
Which dish do you think will be your most popular?
I hope our Shepherd’s Pie will be the best ever and we trust everyone will agree. But all our food will be freshly cooked and our menu planned to offer something for all appetites.
What’s next?
The Shepherd’s Hut will become guest accommodation and the old barn will be converted into a guest room. But most importantly, we will be getting to know the local community that has been so welcoming and supportive during this difficult time for all of us.
Future plans?
We want the Plough to become a favourite destination for classic car drivers, and will be offering discounts and other special offers, at certain times, to those who arrive in one. The definition of what is a car and what is classic being at the Landlord’s absolute and sole discretion!
Allow me to share with you a delightful tale of classic Laura-ing. This month we were invited to a press event. An outside event, no less – a day in glorious sunshine.
Marvellous, yes?
No. DISASTER.
On our way there the exhaust dropped off my car. RAC to the rescue, and we arrived at the vineyard over an hour late to find a large proportion of the rest of the group is intimidatingly-knowing London Hipster cool types in big beards, cool hats, dungarees and no socks. You know the sort. FAR above chatting to a middle aged mum
(I suspect they were actually lovely).
Anyhoo, we ended up for lunch, just the two of us, on a table with a very serious winemaker (not serious-serious. Important-serious. He wasn’t actually serious, he was lovely and kind and funny). A truly delicious lunch was served, and a certain female of your acquaintance, chatting away happily, cut through the bruschetta underneath her amazing lobster salad… and didn’t cut but instead flipped the whole thing, at force, firing her lobster directly across the table at her husband.
THEN (oh gods. Mortifying.) said female who shall not be named, proceeded to scoop the utterly delicious well-I’m-not-going-to-waste-that lobster smartly off the (outdoors) table and back onto her plate and ate it.
(*pauses to note with disappointment that neither of her male companions kindly acknowledged it was a ‘slippery little sucker’. I’ve waited my whole life for a Pretty Woman moment, and they missed it*)
Weirdly, it was only at midnight that night, as I was drifting off to sleep, that my brain kindly replayed this entire scene on repeat – and also showed me Serious Winemaker’s face as he watched me casually scoop my lunch up off the (outdoors, remember?) table, plopped it back onto my plate and then carried on eating it. I had clearly seen his face, but my scatty head simply hadn’t registered at the time.
Face BURNING. Again.
Laura
My wife and I have taken to picking up countryside litter on our daily exercise walks. Now is a good time to do this; the council has cut the verges back, last summer’s foliage has died away, and new spring growth isn’t yet too high, so it’s much easier to spot our prey. Picking it up gives the countryside a fresh start. Not for long perhaps but, curiously, litter left lying seems to be a magnet for more litter.
What do you need to pick up litter? Well, first some gloves are essential. Personally, we don’t use a litter-picking tool because we find the stooping and straightening good exercise, but many volunteer pickers do. You need a bag – I’ve dedicated a couple of supermarket bags-for-life to the task. And last, for your own safety, a light coat or even a ‘high-viz’ vest makes sense. If you live in Somerset, contact the countryside charity CPRE Somerset, and they can kit you out with a picker, gloves and hi-viz vest if you commit to a regular litterpick in your area. Details at www.cpresomerset.org.uk
How much do you pick? That’s up to you of course, but I work by the bag-full: one bag per walk, two if I’m feeling particularly virtuous (or cross with the tossers). On some stretches of road it’s surprising how quickly a bag fills up.
It’s extraordinary what motorists carelessly toss into our green and pleasant countryside. Sweet papers, snack packets, face masks and plastic bottles of course. More sobering are the large number of cider and beer cans, and the occasional pre-mixed gin and tonics. This week
I also picked up two vodka, two whisky and a brandy bottle. I imagine the drinkers were disposing of the evidence before getting home. Or to work. On a less sad note, I also found a baby’s dummy, a pair of reading spectacles, a half-full dispenser of anti-wrinkle lotion and a large black bra.
What’s to be done? How can the tossers be stopped?
First we should make clear that littering in the countryside is a serious offence. The fixed-penalty charge for littering should be raised from its present ‘up to £150’ to ‘up to £1,000’, and well publicised. I’d also like to see tossing litter out of a car made a motoring offence, so that magistrates have the power to add penalty points to the driver’s licence and also sentence tossers to unpaid community work.
I’d also like to see periodic roadside campaigns: “KEEP BRITAIN TIDY. TAKE YOUR LITTER HOME” or “FOR THE KIDS SAKE, KEEP OUR PLANET TIDY”, “LITTER CAMERAS OPERATING HERE. TAKE IT HOME.” or maybe just “THANK YOU FOR NOT BEING A TOSSER”
Schools and colleges can help. A series of information films highlighting the damage that littering does to the environment should be part of the curriculum. They need to be interesting, well produced and regularly refreshed. Not old hat. If the message gets through to children, they’ll pass it on to the parents.
Finally, like the speed-awareness courses that speeding motorists can be asked to do, there should be similar litter-awareness courses for motorists caught littering. Or a spell in the stocks being pelted with litter. That would learn them, wouldn’t it?
Martin Roundell Greene
Why is it, that some people in the area treat the wonderful environment around them with such disdain? Here, in a pristine Coombe, only 15 minutes walk from the outer part of Shaftesbury town is a picture of litter horror. Climate change and protecting the environment has become the most vital issue today and has to be the very future of our planet and the lives of our children and grandchildren.
Pippa Mukherjee Environmentalist
The ongoing disgrace of the works on Dinah’s Hollow is a perpetual shambles – we’re all being distracted by this huge spend on fixing the ‘unsafe banks’ (let’s not discuss how this was caused by poor land management, followed by the council stripping all vegetation from the bank – hardly a surprise a slip followed, is it?).
Anyone can see the real and ongoing issue is the volume of traffic and the sheer scale of the vehicles using what is effectively a small lane – the solution is not to piledrive large metal staples into the bank, it is to move the traffic onto an appropriately-sized ‘A’ road.
John F, Shaftesbury.
Many thanks to the BV (and Fanny Charles) for continuine to raise awareness of the futile actions surrounding Dinah’s Hollow and the C13. So they’ll shore up the banks to prevent slippage – will that stop lorries getting stuck? Stop damage to the village of Melbury Abbas? Prevent major incidents caused by huge HGV’s navigating the tight turns and Spreadeagle Hill? What will it take for action to be taken on the root cause of the issues on the C13 – the sheer volume and weight of traffic which has no place on such a small and winding C road?
Anna Phaelen, Shaftesbury
Andy Palmer’s article about the day Prince Charles was out with the hunt at Mappowder prompted a memory. My father also met Prince Charles – probably the same day. Mid afternoon, cows already in the yard at Shortwood Farm ready for milking and the Master of Foxhounds and various others intent on coming up through the field towards the yard.
Aged Parent stomped off in his wellies towards them to say “you can’t come through here, go through that gate there”. Master of Foxhounds interrupted to say “Mr. Batstone this is the Prince of Wales…”. Reply – “Oh ah, well he still can’t go through the yard”. After which they had a pleasant conversation about the Prince’s very nice horse. When Father got back to the farm Mother was ready to start milking and wanted to know who he had been talking to. When he said “Prince Charles” she thought he had finally flipped…
Cllr Pauline Batstone
May I thank you for sharing the school choir video in the April Issue? How wonderful it was to watch, it brought such a smile and I’ve been humming the tune for days. It’s been marvellous to see how many groups have found such clever ways to bring everyone together through a very difficult and isolating period. (may I also say how much I enjoy being able to play the videos in the magazine? I didn’t understand at first, but now rather enjoy my own ‘cleverness’ at watching them!) Helen Wiles, Blandford.
Many thanks for the latest issue – I live in Kent now, but an old friend sadly sent me a link to the Ray Humphries obit a few months ago, and now I look forward to my slice of ‘home’ every month. I always enjoy Roger Guttridge’s peek into the past (I remember equally enjoying his column in the original BVM), but Stur High School took me by surprise. I didn’t expect my own school days to be featured in a ‘Then & Now’ column – I’m used to marvelling at the featured ‘times past’, not finding myself counted among them!
Jenny Paine, Maidstone.
Not trying to be picky, but Honeysuckle actually won The Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, not The Gold Cup!! Rachael also won The Gold Cup of course. Ian Boyce, London
I couldn’t help but notice the error in your April edition, which I just opened. The Cheltenham Gold Cup 2021 was actually won by Minella Indo ridden by Jack Kennedy. Honeysuckle, ridden by the brilliant Rachael Blackmore, won the Champion Hurdle at this year’s Cheltenham Meeting.
Fiona Ball
(Apologies to Glanvilles Stud, Rachael Blackmore and of course Honeysuckle herself. I KNEW it was the Champion Hurdle, honest. The article was correct, it was just that header… sigh Ed)
Thank God for Andy Palmer and his column. What a find – a local publication that’s actually fun to read as well as interesting.
Mike Jones, Sherborne.
Great magazine but do you pay your columnist Andy Palmer by the pun? Some of them are even funny, I will admit. Why don’t you only pay him for the good ones, and fine him, say, £10, for every bad one? He did some funny ones based around cheese in the first issue.
Sally H, Shaftesbury
Sally, two things to bear in mind with Andy (our online stats show he is very popular with readers, and yes, it’s a mystery to me, too). Firstly, if there is a pun to be scraped out of the air, he never shies away from grabbing it. Second, if I was to fine him for the bad ones, he’d be owing us. But he’s fun to work with (if we ignore the perennial big head). And finally, you’re in luck – he’s got some new cheese ones in this issue (see page 41). My fave is The Beatles one. I actually laughed. Ed.
The benefits of a water treadmill for horses aren’t limited simply to rehabilitation from injury.
In recent years, the equestrian industry is increasingly turning to the benefits of aqua therapy for the regular training regime for horses from all disciplines. Use of cold water aqua therapy is now becoming an integral part of a competition horse’s development and training programme, bringing real benefits including improvements to all-over suppleness, increased stride length, better muscle tone and more core strength. This not only maximises performance and training, but also reduces the risk of future injury.
“The aqua treadmill is an advanced form of hydrotherapy, combining the unique healing properties of cold water with safe, controlled exercise in a straight line.” Said Lisa Ford from South West Equine Water Treadmill “excellent as part of a rehabilitation programme, but also extremely beneficial for a healthy horse, developing core strength and improved balance.
“The horses take higher steps to go over the water; it’s a different pattern from their stride on dry land, and by the control of speed and balance the horse is encouraged to ‘sit’ more behind.
This builds an increase in muscular flexibility, tone and muscle mass.”
“Working a horse on the water treadmill helps improve their range of movement and strengthens their musculo-skeletal system, but it puts minimum stress on their front legs and feet.
International Grand Prix Dressage Rider Lucy Straker, recently shared on Facebook:
‘[Hawks] just scored 67.2% in his second ever BD Grand Prix! All the winter work of strengthening and fitness, thanks to South West Equine Water Treadmill, is paying off!’
Lucy explained to the digital BV “I started using the Water treadmill in the winter with my Grand Prix horse to try and
improve his strength a bit more as he gets tired towards the end of my test.
“After 11 sessions the difference has been phenomenal!
Not only is he stronger but it’s improved his walk and straightness.”
“Lisa’s massive amount of experience and attention to how he moves has proved invaluable, and his marks have improved by 4% already!
I am also now taking my 6 yr old to strengthen his top line to try to prevent injuries in the future for him. It’s a great addition to their work programme without unnecessary wear and tear on their body.”
Horses are worked in a strictly controlled environment, with belt speed and water height adapted to each individual horse.
As rehabilitation, this form of hydrotherapy can assist with the repair of tendons and suspensory ligaments, and it can also help with degenerative joint disease, being anti-inflammatory and increasing joint flexion.
Many conditions that horses suffer from are greatly relieved by working, without a rider, in perfect balance in a water treadmill. Some of the most common are a sore back, weak hindquarters, jarring through the shoulders and weak stifles. A study has shown that working at a certain height of water (Carpel) can also help increase the gap between dorsal spine processes, benefitting horses suffering from kissing spine.
Grand Prix rider Yasmin Dadkhah, owner of Loose Reins in Shillingstone, is another local convert
“The water treadmill helped strengthen my Grand Prix horse in his collection work no end,
and became an essential part of his work life.
We are already noticing the development of strength now in my upcoming mare, and I will use it in future for all of my horses routine training.
“The Grand Prix horse went from a small and basic piaffe to really sitting and using himself.”
The treadmill plays a role in the training successes of many top level eventers, show jumpers and dressage horses. It has kept horses sound and working, and the benefits are not exclusive to the elite of the sport – there are horses from every discipline and at every level that are enjoying a better quality of working life thanks to their training on a water treadmill.
Lisa can be contacted via the South West Equine Water Treadmill Facebok page
Lucy Straker is available for 1:1 training & clinics
He was known as the ‘gentleman highwayman’ and is one of the Blackmore Vale’s most infamous sons.
But it’s doubtful whether any of the bad boys of history have turned their lives around quite as comprehensively as John Clavell.
Born at Glanvilles Wootton in 1601, Dorset’s answer to Dick Turpin pursued a career as a burglar, horse thief and highwayman.
But although this ‘ill-led life’, as he called it, earned him a death sentence, he was reprieved and turned over a new leaf to become a poet, dramatist, doctor and lawyer.
John Clavell aged 25
Clavell’s notoriety was recorded by John Hutchins in his 18th century History of Dorset and by various authors of books on highwaymen.
But until 30 years ago little else was known of him.
Most of what we now know is down to John Pafford, former librarian at the University of London, who lived in Dorset from his retirement in 1971 until his death in 1996.
Dr Pafford first learned of Clavell in 1932 when a 17th century manuscript arrived at the British Museum for identification.
‘It was a five-act play called The Sodder’d Citizen, which had long been known by name but which no-one had seen,’ Dr Pafford told me in 1993 following publication of his book on Clavell.
The play, based on Clavell’s life as a highwayman reformed, was published in 1936, after which other fragments of information began to trickle in.
Over the next 60 years Dr Pafford gradually pieced together Clavell’s remarkable story – and developed a ‘certain admiration’ for him.
‘I have a lot of respect for him, although he was boastful and cocky and in some ways never grew up,’ he said. ‘He was constantly active and pulled himself together and made good.’
Clavell was born into a good family, described by Hutchins as boasting an ‘antiquity not to be equalled in this county and very rarely in any other’.
He was the nephew and heir apparent of Sir William Clavell, owner of Smedmore House near Kimmeridge, who shared some of John’s energy and eccentricities.
Sir William was a scholar, poet and a gentleman soldier knighted for his part in dealing with an Irish rebellion.
He was also a disastrous entrepreneur whose schemes – extracting alum from Kimmeridge cliffs, producing salt by boiling sea water and using Kimmeridge shale to fuel a glassworks – brought him to the brink of ruin.
John Clavell’s home at Glanvilles Wootton is now called Roundchimneys but was formerly Golden Grove and was originally the Manor House.
His early home life was unstable and Dr Pafford believed his ‘broken home’ and ‘unsatisfactory father’ had much to do with his later life of crime.
There were financial problems and a document dated 1617 reveals that John’s father, John Sr, ‘hath for many years past lived from his wife and with a woman whom he keepeth in his house, for which he hath been publicly reproved by the Justices of Assizes’.
The misdemeanour was considered so serious that Clavell Sr had been ‘driven out of Dorset for the cause aforesaid’ and was now living in Somerset.
John Jr’s life of crime appears to have started as an 18-year-old student at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he broke into the treasure house and stole the college plate.
He later fell victim to moneylenders and financial tricksters, running up debts which landed him in the debtors’ prison at Newgate.
There is also an account of him running penniless through London streets, pursued by the moneylender’s men.
His other recorded crimes include robberies at Aylesbury and Edgware and horse theft at Westminster.
In 1625 he led a gang on a series of ‘frequent and insolent’ robberies around London.
Clavell himself later wrote that highwaymen were popularly known as ‘knights of the road’, held in awe by the public and called ‘captains’ by alehouse servants.
In 1626 he was sentenced to death but took advantage of an amnesty that marked King Charles I’s coronation.
He languished in jail for two years but was then pardoned and began the reformed phase of his life.
Clavell was already married to Joyce, a girl of humble origin, who had nursed him through sickness and helped him to obtain his reprieve.
Joyce meant everything to him and he wrote about her at length.
Roundchimneys, Clavell’s birthplace at Glanvilles Wootton
Clavell’s notebook lists payments for doctors, nurses and a midwife and a bill for funeral expenses, suggesting that Joyce may have died in childbirth in 1634.
This would also explain a moving elegy to a lady he had lost.
Clavell later moved to Ireland and married a nine-year-old Dublin heiress, Isabel Markham.
Her wealthy father was a friend of the Lord Chancellor, which led to Clavell being made a barrister in November 1635.
He conducted a number of legal cases in London and Dublin and represented his uncle in property lawsuits.
Clavell also practised as a physician and his writings include 23 pages of prescriptions and other medical matters, some claiming to have cured various people.
His talents were recognised at the highest level and he became something of a celebrity.
One of his written works, A Recantation of an Ill-led Life; or a Discourse of the Highway Law, in Verse, was ‘approved by the King’s most excellent majesty and published by his express command’.
It was written while Clavell was still in prison – ‘from my lonely chamber in the King’s Road’ – and includes a personal appeal to the King for mercy.
Clavell died in 1643 of pleurisy. It is not known where he is buried.
Before lockdown, on average we were buying three drinks from a coffee shop each week, spending over £10 billion in coffee shops yearly – most of that contributed by the digital Blackmore Vale team when they’re on a deadline!
So, is our county of coffee loving connoisseurs, deprived of our café caffeine kick during lockdown, heading back to our favourite coffee houses or are we still in hiding? Fuelled with a flat white, BMV went to find out.
Julie Harris, owner of The Black Cactus in Blandford, told us her reopening on 12th April was positive. “Luckily, we have some green space so people really enjoyed finally meeting friends again, so lots of happy customers. People just seem to be happy to be out and treating themselves to great barista coffee and yummy cakes.”
Like many coffee houses, Oliver’s in Sherborne, is still operating reduced hours. Director Jane Wood says it’s definitely busier now customers can sit down. “We’re hoping the next step when customers can sit inside will bring things much closer to normal.”
Young entrepreneurs Emily and James Delport-King got the keys to Seasons of Shaftesbury in November 2020 and have been open merely twenty-six days of those six months. “The unpredictability in our first few months was tough. People have called us ‘crazy’, ‘mad’, ‘brave’ for opening a business in the pandemic. We would both do it again in an instant – we won’t let the pandemic stop us!
“We’ve been blessed with lovely weather and the opportunity to have outside seating while the High Street is closed. We’re thrilled with how busy we’ve been and seeing so many friendly faces returning.”
Covid guidelines mean it’s not just about booting up the coffee machine and turning the sign to ‘Open’ again. Behind-the-scenes efforts have included major menu rethinks, new equipment and lots of PPE. “It’s been a huge learning curve that has been ever-changing. With each change to Covid rules, we’ve had to re-invent ourselves. This has meant financial investment to change the set-up,” explains Julie Harris.
Jane Wood agrees: “At the moment it feels like I’m having to relearn my job after nine years. It’s been hard constantly adapting to new rules and regulations and constantly explaining them to customers.”
And do these small independents feel they have been supported by the government and, closer to home, local councils? Jane Wood feels help could have been better co-ordinated. “The restart grant would have been more helpful if we’d had it before we reopened instead of two weeks later. Sherborne Chamber and Sherborne Indies have been circulating useful information but otherwise we’ve had to dig for help we need.”
Julie Harris: “The government responded quickly and the process was clear to follow. Due to being able to open for takeaway and with such great support from Blandford folk, we didn’t need to furlough the team but kept them all employed on slightly shorter hours. We’ve had great support from our landlord and he understood the difficulties we faced with a reduced income.”
As new business owners, Emily and James were unsure of what support they would receive but told us the communication and advice from Dorset Council and Shaftesbury Town Council was valuable and members of the Town Council were “great at advising what to do.”
And how are we, the customers behaving? Seasons of Shaftesbury have the NHS Track and Trace QR code stuck to every table outside as well as on their café door. “If customers don’t have the app, we have slips available to fill out their details. Our customers have been really good at co-operating and so far we’ve not had to refuse anyone service.”
Jane Wood at Oliver’s agrees: “Most people are pretty good at Track and Trace, although we’ve had a few people think they don’t need to do it because they’ve had both vaccines.”
“The priority all the time is the safety of our staff, who can be anxious about working with the public and with other staff,” says Julie Harris. “Black Cactus has an amazing team and we’re constantly adapting to create a safe environment for them and the customers. It’s been constant brainstorming to survive. The positive feeling in the town is that we’re all in this together and we give each other confidence to survive. We’ll get through this. We look forward to a new normal.”
My last column mentioned the old railway line in Stalbridge which, before the Beeching cuts, had a level crossing to stop traffic on each side of the line when a train was due.
There’s a story of a villager seeing that one gate was open on one side of the track and the opposite gate closed. The station master explained, ‘we’re half expecting a train.’
***
Well, I’d just made that up, but this is true. In my last column I mentioned the farmer’s son whose father did not recognize that the posh huntsman, who he gave invaluable, though earthy, advice to, was actually Prince Charles.
The farmer’s son, my best mate at junior school, was overwhelmed when, a few years later, his father and mother invited him into the kitchen to attend an important meeting with them. The son knew it was important because his father had put down The Racing Post.
‘Son, we’re going to invite you into the partnership of the farm,’ they said, and offered him a small but important stake in the business.
‘We think it time that you took on greater responsibilities,’ the parents explained.
A few days later, the postie delivered a bank statement.
‘You’d better look at this now that you’re a partner,’ said father, passing over the statement.
The son, who knew little about business affairs, was impressed to see that the account read £11,321.
But there was something he didn’t understand.
‘What does OD mean?’ he asked, helpfully adding, ‘they’ve written it in red.’
***
A beam of pleasure punctured those final dismal lockdown days. I was in Dike’s, in Stalbridge, on the search for coconut milk powder (yes, it was essential travel, because I planned a Thai curry for the evening’s feast, and no reader could argue with that, surely).
I asked a pleasant and helpful assistant, who said, ‘If we’ve got some, it’ll be by the desecrated coconut’. I was going to respond with, ‘that sounds grave’, but if I had, she may have asked, ‘why’, and I would have had to explain that maybe she meant desiccated, and she was so sweet that I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. But my mum was delighted by this exchange when I phoned her that evening.
***
Compare and contrast with the attitude of Harts of Stur, where we next went (quite the day out for us) for wine glasses (the sheer use ours endure means they wear out quickly).
Harts, pleasantly and apologetically, explained that they couldn’t sell us any as they were not deemed essential. Wine not essential. C’mon! So I bought some chive seeds and compost instead. However, a few days later they said if we ordered some they’d have them ready on our arrival – so, disaster averted.
***
Nice story in the Stur Facebook. Bloke cycled into town, leant his bike against a wall and went in to buy a paper. He found a group of youths around his bike and thought, ‘trouble’. It was anything but. The youngsters were generous in their admiration of the bike and bombarded him with polite and intelligent questions, then they went for a ride together.
The bloke later went on FB to praise the youths’ parents for bringing up such well-mannered children.
Good to see people in pubs, the charity shops open, along with the florists and hairdressers in Stur. Ref hairdressers, my favourite response to, ‘how would you like your hair cut?’ is, ‘in silence’.
We went for an alfresco pint at The Antelope in Hazlebury Bryan, which has great real ales such as Exmoor Gold and Tribute from the St Austell brewery. When I asked the manageress for a Tribute, she said, ‘Nice jacket, Andy’.
I’ve been missing those everyday social exchanges.
***
I’ve noticed that property companies selling houses in Stalbridge quite rightly refer to Dorset’s smallest town (although it really is Dorset’s biggest village) as ‘pretty’, and they extoll its virtues, ‘with post office, butchers and a pharmacy,’ but no mention of Dike’s. I’d have thought having an excellent family-run supermarket within walking distance, a selling point.
When is a village a town?
To save you Googling it, a village has a ‘few shops, a post office, and a primary school (no mention of church)’. A town ‘is bigger, with a primary and a secondary school and sometimes a railway station’.
Obviously, these guidelines are drawn up by The Temperance Society, as no mention is made of pubs. Pubs are an incredible community asset. Most people met their partner in a pub. I, among millions of people, dearly hope that village pubs will survive. My local, The Antelope in Hazlebury Bryan, rigorously applied every Government guideline, at great cost, and I cannot see why it had to close.
As Joni Mitchell sang, ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’.
***
On the topic of singer/philosophers: what will life be like after Covid?
I am confident and optimistic that it’s going to be great. Look how quickly our economy recovered after the 2008 crash. The US main stockmarket, Dow Jones, hit a record high three months ago, actually during lockdown, as did many Asian markets. The cost of oil and borrowing is low, but above all I think of the ingenuity and entrepreneurialism of normal people. Look how they’ve adapted to build other elements of their businesses, pubs doing take-aways is a clear example.
But, above all, I’m thinking of Government spending. The Treasury has got into the habit of thinking big, and I believe we’re going to get a sort of New Deal, to pump money into the economy, with new schools, hospitals and other community assets.
Now, I did three years’ hard labour studying economics at university, but the best comment on macro-economics I’ve heard, came from ‘Professor’ Noddy Holder (BSc Econ, Wolverhampton University) the main bellower of the 70s pop group Slade, who said of the 2008 crash (and it is applicable to high Government spending and borrowing with Covid).
In a brief lecture delivered on the TV program, HIGNFY, he said, ‘the money that the Government borrows doesn’t really exist, so we never had it in the first place. I don’t know what we’re worrying about’.
Every Government has been ‘borrowing’ billions from the IMF, which has lent around $28 trillion (coincidentally, the GNP of the US) during this crisis. The IMF’s own vaults contain only $4.4 billion of gold, therefore it has lent fictitious money, as Professor Noddy pointed out. So, I say, why doesn’t the IMF just wipe the global slate clean. Every nation will be on an equal footing. We can start again. Until the next crisis.
I’m just glad that Covid cannot spread to animals and birds. We’d really be buggered, then.
***
Which reminds me of a funny from a few years ago: my brother Tim has a mate, Mike, very amiable, but not the brightest (think of Trigger, in Only Fools and Horses).
Over a pint, Tim mentioned that three horses were killed at a race meeting (they had to be put down).
‘Bird Flu?’ asked Mike.
‘Mike, they’re horses,’ explained Tim.
‘Al Qaida?’ asked Mike.
‘Mike, Osama bin Laden may be barking, but I don’t think even he believes that nobbling the 3.15 at Chepstow will bring down Western Civilisation.’
‘Did they just die, then,’ asked Mike.
Tim, thinking this conversation had run its course, said, ‘yes, Mike. They just died’.
‘Sad,’ Mike said, ‘I like horses’.
***
The first Sherborne Sunday market of the year was a jolly affair. A bright, cloudless day, lots of attractive stalls. I’d say half of the customers wore face-masks. One bloke who didn’t sneezed heavily, without covering his mouth, as I went past (he’s on the list) so ‘thanks for that, mate’.
***
I’m missing the local festivals. Shaftsbury Food Fair is a particular high point for me, and I’m missing local music festivals like the one at Warren Farm up by Bulbarrow. I was going to give you a tip, which is to get there an hour after they open so you don’t have to listen to the ukulele orchestra. But that’s unfair. Joining a uke band gives great pleasure to a lot of people and a lot of big bands, eg The Staves, use the uke to write beautiful haunting songs.
My only question is that if you can master the uke you can certainly master the guitar which, apart from being easier to learn, has two more strings and is more versatile with a better sound. I won’t fret about it, though.
But Stur’s cheese fair is going ahead this September (at the time of writing) which is great. Things can only get feta. They may well have the local band, The Sturminstrels, who do a lot of Beatles songs, such as Let It Brie.
(I’m interested to see if the Editor allows these painful puns in her wonderful glossy mag).
As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be rolled out, it is being asked whether employers can insist that their staff be vaccinated. As with most things’ employment law, the answer is not simple.
Getting straight to the point(!) is consideration of whether such a request is a ‘reasonable management instruction’ by the employer? Ultimately, this is a balancing exercise between the employer’s reasons for requiring the vaccine and the individual’s rights and reasons for refusal. The nature of the individual’s role, where they work, their interaction with/proximity to others, and the employer’s health and safety-related duties and workplace risks will be key (although not exhaustive) considerations.
A detailed consideration of alternatives, such as workplace testing, maintaining social distancing, home-working, providing PPE or encouraging staff to be vaccinated instead of mandating it, will also be important.
Factors relevant to the balancing exercise will differ between businesses, e.g. employers in the health and social sector may be in a stronger position to demonstrate that a requirement to have the vaccine is reasonable because otherwise vulnerable people could be put at increased risk. This is in contrast to staff in the typically office-based professional services sector, where staff can more easily work from home.
If an employer can establish that it has given a reasonable management instruction to have the vaccine and an individual has unreasonably failed to follow it, it may be able to lawfully discipline the individual and possibly dismiss them. However, employers should tread very carefully before taking this action, as there is no established case law illustrating how these matters will be determined by an Employment Tribunal, should the individual bring a legal claim.
It’s likely most employers will encourage their staff to be vaccinated, rather than mandating it. However, those employers who mandate the vaccine should take several practical steps before implementing this requirement. These include (but are not limited to) discussing the proposals with staff and unions, and allowing staff a reasonable opportunity to raise questions. Employers should listen to any concerns raised and work with the individual to find an acceptable solution. This should be done before deciding whether to take more formal action, as there will undoubtedly be some who have valid reasons for refusing the vaccine, e.g. those who suffer from a medical condition and are advised not to have the vaccine and those who are pregnant. In either example, there is a high chance that the individual will not have failed to follow a reasonable management. They may also be protected under the Equality Act 2010 from suffering discriminatory treatment e.g. disciplinary action or dismissal, as a result of their refusal.
As the evenings become longer and touched with golden light, and the air becomes warmer and dares us to leave our jackets at home, some of us migrate towards the riverside. The irresistible draw of the tinkling flow over rocks or the reassuring glossy slide of deeper waters calms the mind and soul. Those who stop to peer beneath the water’s mirror sheen will be rewarded with a glimpse of a busy and bustling world, with inhabitants going about their multitudinous tasks, oblivious to the land of giants above. One of these inhabitants, the caddisfly larvae, has a fascinating story.
Caddisfly adult, credit: Magnus Hagdorn, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
My first introduction to caddisfly larvae was when my son showed me one in his hand. “They’re everywhere”, he told me. “There’s a creature inside. I think the creature makes its own case to hide in.” As usual, when it comes to matters of nature, he was right. The caddisfly, or sedge fly, is a large order of insects which can be found in all sorts of wetland. They are known for building cases around their bodies to shelter and then pupate inside. The caddisfly larvae gather sand, small stones and pieces of wood which they spin into a tube-like case with silk secreted from glands in their mouths. In this way, the caddisfly larvae create a portable shelter for themselves that perfectly matches the riverbed. The larvae can emerge their head and legs from the case and scuttle around, ready to shrink back inside at the first sign of danger, looking exactly like a piece of gravel.
Caddisfly Larva, credit: marsupium photography, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
There are almost 200 species of caddisfly in the UK. The adults are moth-like but with fine hairs on their wings instead of scales, and wings that fold back along their bodies. Swarms of adult caddisfly can be seen flying above the surface of water in late spring: a delectable buffet for lurking fish. The adult caddisfly will live for around a month, during which time the females lay eggs on vegetation just by the water’s surface. On hatching, the larvae fall into the water and begin immediately building a case to live in. When they are ready to pupate, the caddisfly larva will seal its case with a stone or piece of wood. It will then spin a cocoon of silk around its body as it undergoes metamorphosis into its adult state, and the cycle begins once again.
River dipping, credit: Sue Crookes
Next time you’re picnicking, paddling or messing about in boats, take a moment to look at the riverbed. There might be more going on than you’d think.
Find out what you can do to help insects on the Dorset Wildlife Trust website: dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/action-insects.
