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 »
Charity comes in many different guises. Margery Hookings has been talking to an old friend who has dedicated her life to looking after and rehoming racehorses. I still feel slightly guilty that when I was about ten years old Read more »
There’s a fine drizzle (mizzle, we call it, in this part of Dorset) as I make my way across the car park in the dark, towards the all-weather sports pitch at Beaminster School in Tunnel Road. The air smells of Read more »
The grassy banks behind Medway Farm sound like a babbling brook. The paddock nestles on the lush slopes of Eggardon Hill and the field is full of turkeys. They’re burbling like water flowing over boulders and scrabbling around, displaying tail Read more »
Every year, it’s only at the eleventh hour that I remember to ring Sam Trott about my village fun day parade. But every time, he’s always accommodating—one step ahead, in fact, because he leads the procession. ‘It’s all right,” he Read more »
Row upon row of gleaming firemen’s helmets, a bug-eyed fire engine called Barkis from the 1930s and another, older vehicle, made just as the 19th century turned into the 20th, gaze out across each other behind plate glass. It’s an Read more »
There is a scene in the film Shirley Valentine in which the leading lady rounds on her fellow hotel guests who are trotting out all the old stereotypes as they complain about the Greeks. For the life of me I Read more »
Out in the fields, the cattle are moving slowly, chomping on grass, wild honeysuckle and anything that takes their fancy. They’re a cheery looking bunch, these Belted Galloways, and come in three colours—black, dun and red, and each with a Read more »