It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that this month’s Marshwood+ features a strong female voice. From the cover story about Jan Thorne, who is heavily involved with the Clothes Bank, to meeting local photographers and writers, women are prominently featured throughout these pages. It’s not because we’re celebrating USA Women’s Equality Day, which happens on August 26th, nor is it a nod to the ‘Lionesses’, whose remarkable football talent and resilience recently won them the European Women’s Championship; the feature choices are as random as following up on events happening in the community. This contrasts with John Davis’s article. Researching events in the recent past that happened in August, John recounts the story of Mathew Webb, a former sea captain and ‘water baby’ who was the first to swim the Channel. He is said to have consumed cod liver oil, beef tea, brandy, and coffee to keep him hydrated, and John also tells us that at one point, eight passengers from a passing ship stood in a rowing boat to shield him from the wind and rain, cheering him on with several renditions of Rule Britannia. In another article, this time observing rural life in the summer of 2025, Christopher Roper examines the collective response to a party held in woodland near his home. Marked as ‘an unlicensed musical event,’ the gathering provoked furious reactions from local residents alongside milder comments such as ‘weren’t you young once?’ Social media may not have helped. After friction in a WhatsApp group, Christopher concludes that while social media is incredibly useful in many ways, ‘alerting us to hazards, both natural and man-made,’ it also acts as a cross between ‘a megaphone and an echo chamber, exacerbating our differences.’
