Margery Hookings visits Chard Museum to find out more about James Gillingham, surgical mechanist and manufacturer of artificial limbs. He was a contemporary and fellow townsman of aviation pioneer John Stringfellow in Chard during the 19th century. Both were ahead Read more »
Margery Hookings has had a look at the Ukulele Opera that nearly wasn’t You can always rely on Bridport to come up with something completely different. And this year is no exception. More than 120 ukulele players, dancers, singers, Read more »
Margery Hookings looks forward to the new—and final—series of Broadchurch, coming to a television screen near you this month. When the first series of Broadchurch was broadcast on ITV in early 2013, I was away in Greece, having exchanged Read more »
A Ghostly Walk around Bridport Dipping her toes into the underworld for the Bridport Ghost Walk, Margery Hookings meets Adrian Clements, the man behind it. He reveals a life-long passion for old horror films and British history, which turns Read more »
Chard has more than its association with the first powered flight as a claim to fame. Margery Hookings has been learning about Margaret Bondfield a native of the town who became Britain’s first female cabinet minister. Chard Museum is a Read more »
If you’re ever on the beach at West Bay and cast your eyes out to sea, the chances are you’ll spot Sally Newman, standing up on a paddle board and skimming along the water. Her silhouette is distinctive because, invariably, Read more »
Waddon Hill, in the very west of west Dorset, is a long ridge, joined at the hip with its parent peak, Lewesdon Hill, which at 279m, is the highest point in Dorset. From the top, the view is rather wonderful, Read more »
A friend of mine has recently become a trustee of the Dorset Community Foundation. ‘They do some terrific work,’ she said. ‘I don’t think people realise all the things they fund.’ To be honest, I had not heard of the Read more »
With the pedestrian route deemed ‘unsafe’ the county council have been paying £250 a day to ferry schoolchildren from the village to the school at Salway Ash. Next month that all changes with the opening of a new footpath that Read more »
In the UK about one adult in six struggles with reading. But it’s never too late to learn. Margery Hookings has been to meet Vee Driscoll from Read Easy, Bridport’s free community-based adult literacy scheme. About 25 years ago in Read more »