Classical music fans will be in raptures as international soloists appear at the Opera in Oborne festival this summer. Every year, St Cuthberts Church in the village of Oborne, near Sherborne, is transformed into a theatre for a weekend of sublime sound. The event encourages first time operagoers and aims to make opera accessible to […]
Eight artists, all living within 15 miles of Eype, have come together to celebrate the colours and landscapes of the Jurassic Coast in a new exhibition. Wessex Artists will present their work in a show called Kaleidoscope at Eype Centre for the Arts. It features original prints, paintings and drawings by Alison Boyland, Sally Bowsher, […]
Dorset Council’s long-awaited Local Plan – which went out to consultation in 2021 then again in 2025 – is now going to be redrafted, and councillors are being asked to approve spending up to £1m on a new plan at their meeting tonight. The move is said to be down to changes in how the […]
Upset residents have flooded Dorset Council with objections to plans for up to 360 homes on one of the last undeveloped pieces of land between Chickerell and Weymouth. Concerned locals and many people from further away have added their comments to a proposal to build on fields north of the Weymouth West police station, west […]
By Viviane Horne Stella New is one of the friendly faces that greet you at Portland Museum. Stella lived in Kingston-upon-Hull until she was 18, when she went to Leeds University to study physiotherapy. Her dad was a GP who sang in the local choir. Sadly she was only 19 when her mum died and […]
Who’d have thought the seismic shock of noise, energy and general mayhem that was punk rock was half a century ago? As a spotty, teenage oik in 1976, I certainly remember hearing John Peel play The Damned’s New Rose and blasting out the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK single (on the EMI label, obvs) […]
Dorset Council’s senior archaeologist has objected to the first phase of the North Dorchester Garden Community, saying the authority cannot make an informed decision because the developer has not dug the site. The North Dorchester Consortium, a partnership between Grainger Plc and Wyatt Homes, wants to build up to 3,750 homes. The first planning application […]
The chair of Cattistock Lawn Tennis Club has been talking to the West Dorset Magazine about their “fabulous” club and the many benefits of playing tennis on grass. Rosie Barfoot, who has served as chair for the past year, originally joined the club when knee pain meant that playing on harder surfaces became untenable. Rosie […]
By Kim Berlin July marks the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology and our wonderful Portland Museum is joining in with their Nature Unearthed event on July 29 and 30, when the buildings and garden will become a ‘living archaeology’ experience from 10.30am-3.30pm. Weavers and dyers will give visitors the opportunity to handle and […]
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.
