Farmer Tim Hey swapped his marine career in Tasmania for a life on the land near Cattistock. Tim and his family produce rare, pedigree black alpacas from Amberley Farm in Higher Chilfrome. Their her is now 400-strong. The wonder of alpacas and their commercial opportunities are not new to Tim, who majored in aquaculture, but […]

A beautiful, bespoke piece of furniture has disappeared from Dorchester’s town centre – and people want to know why. The 11 metres of lovely, windy-windy oak bench outside Waitrose in Tudor Arcade was installed in 2012 – the work of Simon Thomas Pirie, who is based at Rogers Hill Farm, near Briantspuddle. Its unique snaking […]

For over 35 years, Pete Hyde and his family have been helping Dorset residents create magical Christmas memories with their locally grown, sustainably harvested Christmas trees. Trinity St. Christmas Trees is more than just a business; it’s a local tradition. Founder Pete Hyde, along with his family, has dedicated years to perfecting the art of […]

A Dorchester-born ski instructor forced to return home from Japan by the pandemic has found a new calling – selling vintage and retro clothing in Bridport. Charlie Scott, 29, had a ball teaching skiers in Japan, where the -25 temperatures and powdery, fine snow made for perfect conditions. But when covid started to take hold […]

Villagers in Langton Herring behind a £650,000 campaign to buy their historic, seaside pub where the ‘bouncing bomb’ was invented, are calling for royal support. Sir Barnes Wallis drank and lived in The Elm Tree Inn at Langton Herring during the Second World War, while he was testing his famous device, using The Fleet, the […]

Thousands of people who wrote in opposition to the 4,000-home Norchester development may have wasted their time. A 8,400-home ‘garden town’ planned for Sittingbourne in Kent, similar to that planned to the north of Dorchester, was set to be refused by councillors on Swale Borough Council, but Secretary of State Angela Rayner snatched the decision […]

A book celebrating the quirky, the amusing and tales of the downright odd in Bridport over the centuries has been published by the town’s museum. Quirky Bridport, penned by museum volunteer Tegwyn Jones, contains 80 illustrated stories about Bridport and nearby villages, with support from Bridport 24 – Town of Culture. Tegwyn collected the stories […]

There are so few statues of women in the UK. Only in 2022, Mary Anning became the first non-royal woman to be commemorated in this way in Dorset. Now plans are afoot to celebrate another of Dorset’s trailblazing dames, with a statue of writer and LGBTQ+ pioneer Sylvia Townsend Warner in Dorchester’s South Street. A […]

For more than 100 years, motorists have been stopping at Misterton’s garage to get their fuel. And Mark Hillier has been there for more than half a century, having arrived there aged just 18 months with dad Nick and mum Liz in 1971. “There are still customers who come in and call me Nick,” Mark […]