It is 100 years since Bletchley codebreaker Alan Turing famously rode his bicycle 60 miles from Southampton to Sherborne to attend school. A free exhibition at The Sherborne traces back to May 1926, when at the age of 13, Turing was enrolled at Sherborne School, then an independent boarding school, where he boarded at Westcott […]
A single mum with an aggressive form of breast cancer is using one of the most challenging periods of her life to create a community to support other women. Dawn Eccles, 49, from Dorchester, was diagnosed with grade 3 triple-negative breast cancer in March. In May she began 12 weekly sessions of Paclitaxel, Carboplatin, and […]
We won the right to vote, burned our bras, and ensured equal rights were enshrined in law… and yet still, only one in five business owners in the UK are women. Which makes Dorchester’s Brewery Square something of an anomaly. Not only was the Eldridge Pope brewery, in whose fine 19th century buildings most of […]
World nettle eating champion Mike Hobbs won £30,000 in a competition – and donated it all to Dorset County Hospital (DCH). The father of two from Dorchester has nominated the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) to receive the cash prize. Mike won a competition playing the new Pokémon video game, Champions, in London this summer. […]
A Dorset vineyard first planted by a medieval bishop almost 900 years ago is reaping the benefits of warmer English summers. The Sherborne Castle Estate was a pioneer of English wine-making in 1146 when Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, planted an extensive vineyard to take advantage of the Medieval Warm Period when temperatures in southern England were […]
Stop Portland Incinerator Campaign (SPIC) is planning a mass, family-friendly pre-Christmas action on Saturday, December 5, after the Environment Agency approved 67 more classifications of waste, including end-of-life vehicles, to be burned there. The incinerator at the port, which would feature an 80-metre chimney near people’s homes and sit alongside globally renowned coastline, was approved […]
A campaigner claims a controversial planning application has already been decided after Dorset County Show announced it is moving sites. Organisers say they are moving because the show’s current site at Cokers Frome in Dorchester, its home for the past 26 years, is “earmarked for development”. The Thomas Hardy Society opposes plans for up to […]
Villagers saddled up for a laughter-filled day at the inaugural Piddletrenthide Pantomime Horse Racing. This wonderful village event was held at The Manor House, home to James Boughey, who welcomed some 350 villagers and friends for an unforgettable race day, which raised thousands of pounds for All Saints’ Church. Organised by horse race meet experts […]
Dorset MPs are calling for answers after Leweston School – a 135-year-old private school near Sherborne – shut without warning, leaving staff unpaid, 577 children with nowhere to go after half term, and community groups and clubs with no facilities. In a move described by local MP Edward Morello as a “shock and a travesty”, […]
We are Bird Media – two experienced journalists who have decided to break free and launch
their own news publication The West Dorset Magazine.
Editor Miranda Robertson has worked for a number of local papers, including the Dorset Echo, Salisbury Journal and The New Blackmore Vale. She lives in Maiden Newton with her husband Peter, son Robert, jug PugsieMfanwy, pug Hugo and the ginger ninja Kitten Mitten.
Karen Bate has worked for the Salisbury Journal, Wiltshire Living Magazine, Bournemouth Echo and The New Blackmore Vale. She lives with husband Stuart, daughter Florence, dogs Sir Alfred Sticks and Buddy and cat Milton. There’s also a bonkers horse called Mars in her menagerie.
