January - Dorset In View

This item takes a look through the lens of a mum-of-three who has combined her love of the county with her new found passion of photography.

Suzanne Gale runs In Focus Photography from her home in Bridport and for the last three years has been spending more of her time appreciating the scenery – and making a living from what she sees…    

February - Wish You Were Here!

The West of England is well known for clichés. Cream teas and cider, seaside holidays with donkeys on the beach and kiss-me-quick hats.

But peel away this synthetic layer and you’ll discover a rich and varied landscape full of surprises.

This was true for a former resident of Wiltshire, who, after coming to live amongst the brooding chalk hills around Beaminster in Dorset, was left wanting to find out more about her newfound surroundings.

And it seemed she had plenty of advice available right on her doorstep…

John Bullock, who lives high on a windswept hilltop in West Dorset, arrived in rural Wessex armed with only a lifetime of city living but it wasn’t long before his sensitivities made him appreciate the true essence of life in the countryside.

Two years ago, whilst collaborating on Soundscape, a project to re-connect people with their countryside traditions, John wove together folk songs, sounds and images to open people’s minds to the modern changes taking place around them.

While it galvanised his own thinking, Soundscape was also John’s opportunity to place the English folk song tradition in some kind of context, by performing in the very villages where these songs were first heard centuries ago…

As well as farming playing its role in the rural economy, West Dorset is home to numerous small businesses working hard at earning a decent living.

Furniture designer Roy Tam, who lives at Sherborne in Dorset, continues to work with his former teacher John Bunford at a remote rural workshop at Melbury Sampford, near Dorchester.

Both have developed a way of working in wood that not only produces some ingenious designs but also respects the environment in which they work.

For most of us, the arrival of spring is a special time – one of celebration, renewal and hope for the year ahead.

It’s also a time when England’s Morris Dancers come out of hibernation to bring traditional folk tunes and country dancing to village squares, town centres and, more often than not, pub car parks across the land!

This spring the Wessex Morris group of dancers was particularly busy ushering in the new season in three venues in and around Dorset.

We caught up with them as they finished their busy day at the May Festival in Dorchester, the county town of Dorset…

 

For more than 60 years, WI Markets – now known as Country Markets – have been supplying a range of good food to communities in and around Dorset.

They were originally set up to help members sell-off surplus flowers and vegetables; now Country Markets have extended their range to include items such as breads, chutneys, cheeses and even crafts.

Jo Osment is a member of the busy Sherborne Country Market, which celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year.

For most of its history Jo has spent every week helping her husband, Gerald, bring in a weekly harvest of fresh vegetables and flowers from their hugely productive garden, while also preparing a mouth-watering selection of goodies…

Although it’s true that travelling around England’s West Country is made easier by car, it makes perfect sense to explore the region on foot.

The Blue Badge Guide scheme was established in the 1950s to give visitors access to a qualified local guide who can then show them around region either by coach as well on foot.

For this month’s “Postcard from Dorset”, we hear from one Blue Badge Guide who believes the best way of seeing the hidden sights of rural Dorset is to get out of the car and seek out the green lanes and byways on foot…

Wherever you go in the world, tourism is big business and many livelihoods depend on high numbers of visitors.

But for popular holiday destinations like Dorset, there is a growing concern that attracting too many visitors may ruin the very thing that people have come to see.

The team running the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site is all too aware of this concern and Sally King, the site's visitor manager based at Dorchester, has made sustainable tourism one of her top priorities, particularly around areas such as West Bay and Eype…

 

VIRSA – or the Village Retail Services Association is a hugely successful organisation that helps rural communities in the UK rescue their village shops and post offices from the threat of closure.

The charity grew from the experience of Halstock in Dorset, which, following the demise of its school and village pub then faced losing its shop back in 1992.

The community’s determined spirit kept the stores open – albeit in a new form – and now Halstock enjoys a purpose-built village shop, complete with accommodation, community room and Internet café, all of which are run by John and Karen Prior…

Postcards from Dorset visits the village of Fontmell Magna in the north of the county.

Thanks to a UK lottery grant, the village’s archive society has catalogued over three-and-a-half thousand photographs, maps, and documents relating to Fontmell Magna’s past.

Even the village’s film, made in 1988 to mark the anniversary of its charter, has become an important part of the archive, as has the developing history of a recently planted area of woodland.

Ian Lawrence, the chairman and co-founder of the Fontmell Magna Village Archive Society sets the scene for us…

Conservation groups all over the world are often to be found carrying out a range of practical work, helping preserve some of our rare and endangered wildlife.

In Dorset – and throughout the UK – the Woodland Trust is one such group and for this month’s Postcard from Dorset, we drop in on a Saturday morning working party as they carry out some much needed coppicing work…
 

The magic of Christmas comes alive in the small Dorset market town of Bridport each year when the United Church hosts its annual Christmas Tree Festival.

The colourful, glittery spectacle has become a major fixture in the town's events diary and people from far and wide come to view some 60 plus trees, which have been decorated by local charities and community groups.

By the time we arrive, the church was already filled with a steady stream of visitors, who all seem transfixed by both the trees and the message they convey at this time of year . . .