Ahhh, living in the wild… with just cornflowers wafting in the breeze, sheep gently grazing… and a rolltop bath. These are not just shepherds’ huts – these are Plankbridge shepherds’ huts – the original, and arguably the best. Just over 20 years ago Richard Lee, now 52, built his first shepherd’s hut in his garden, […]
Patience paid off for fossil hunter Richard Edmonds, who had to wait five years to get his hands on this Jurassic era giant clam. Richard said he first identified this pinna – pen or shell style fossil – three metres off the end of the East Cliff sea wall at Lyme Regis along with several […]
A farmer’s boy who became fascinated by printing after being given his first John Bull printing set dismayed his family when he left agriculture to chase his dreams. Now that boy is pushing 90, and his granddaughters are busy printing all kinds of materials in the print business he established all those years ago. John […]
Six septuagenarian Channel swimmers frustrated by a governing body’s refusal to ratify their world record-breaking swim have helped stage a coup – to boot out several members of the body’s committee at its AGM. The One Foot in the Wave II team, which has four members from Dorset, were all in their 70s when they […]
The news that The West Dorset Magazine had won the overall Bridport Business of the Year (as well as New Business of the Year) came as a bolt from the blue for its founders, Karen Bate and I. We were overwhelmed, particularly as it came as we marked a year in print, and on the […]
Cancer Research UK had a welcome cash boost thanks to the Wessex Morris Men, who danced their way in Dorchester to raise £226.75 for the charity. The Dance Out was just one of hundreds of events the Morris men attend each year, delighting audiences with their rebel spirit across the county. The team is a […]
The Director of Golf at Wessex Golf Centre has been talking of his delight this week at the club’s success in gaining affiliation to England Golf and obtaining its World Handicap System certificate, set to become the shortest rated course in Dorset. Luke Shaw, a PGA coach who has worked at the centre in Weymouth […]
After almost a decade of planning and fundraising, including 15 months of painstaking renovation works, Tolpuddle Old Chapel – where the famous martyr George Loveless was a lay preacher – will reopen next month. Tolpuddle Old Chapel Trust, chaired by Andrew McCarthy, has spearheaded the project to renovate the Grade II* listed chapel, which was […]
Bridport’s Lyndon ‘Riff’ Tilbury of Steptoes has had quite the journey – showing patience and agility still pays off in retail, despite massive changes in the high street over the past few decades. And the 72-year-old shoe seller shows no sign of slowing down. Though he’d quite like to go back to his real name. […]
A party is planned in August to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Bere Regis Floral Group. Flower arranging societies have a long history in Dorset thanks to Mary Pope, a member of the Eldridge Pope Brewery family. Impressed by the garden clubs of America where she spent time during the Second World War, she came […]