All eight on call fire stations threatened with closure are to stay open – for now. Andy Cole, chief fire officer for Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue, changed his recommendation to the board after a prolonged campaign by concerned residents and thousands of responses to a public consultation. The eight stations – Maiden Newton, […]
Clay Pigeon Raceway, the West Dorset karting track which helped to launch the careers of world champions Lando Norris and Jensen Button, is to be closed and turned into a holiday park. Dorset councillors approved plans to demolish the circuit near Dorchester, along with a static caravan park and a disused clay pigeon shooting ground, […]
The first planning application of a scheme dubbed ‘Norchester’ that will change the shape of ‘Hardy country’ forever has been submitted. The outline planning application launching the North Dorchester Garden Community has been described as “nothing more than cultural vandalism”. The plan for up to 500 houses, a new London Road junction and green space […]
A writer has traced the stories behind 43 names listed on a Weymouth war memorial. Charlie Owen asked readers of The West Dorset Magazine to help locate family members of the fallen from both world wars and the Falklands. They were commemorated on a monument built over 100 years ago in the graveyard of St […]
A developer hoping to build 82 homes on 21 acres of his 131-acre estate has told a national newspaper he is being treated like “the Antichrist”. James Perkins, who bought fire-ravaged Parnham House near Beaminster with the intention of restoring it, told The Times he intended to spend £25million on the Grade 1-listed Elizabethan manor, […]
For hundreds of years, he’s been standing proud, waving his enormous club whilst keeping watch over the sleepy village at his feet. Now, re-chalking of the Cerne Abbas Giant is underway, with National Trust rangers, volunteers and members of the public working together on the steep chalk hillside to restore his distinctive white outline. The […]
By MARY CLEGG, Churchwarden: Tucked away in the timeless landscape of the Halstock Vale stands St Juthware Church, a small rural church with a story that stretches back to the fifth century – and a very present-day crisis in its roof. Today, rainwater is finding its way through a huge hole in the roof, threatening […]
Bridport lawyer tackling ‘wrongful conviction’ in infamous farmhouse mass murder Emily Bolton. Photo by Pete Millson The Bridport lawyer who freed wrongly-convicted Andy Malkinson has taken on an even higher profile case – that of Jeremy Bamber, who was jailed 41 years ago for killing five members of his family. Emily Bolton spent much of […]
In Sherborne, two buildings stand as testament to what happens when history is lovingly conserved – and when it isn’t. The fortunes of The Sherborne – formerly Sherborne House – and Newell House could not be more different, yet their histories are so entwined. Both former schools, with fond memories for former pupils, one now […]
A Dorchester farm is in the running for the ‘Rural Oscars’ for its innovative vending machines selling Dorset ice cream, milkshakes and fresh produce. Eweleaze Dairy, at Martinstown, has been crowned winner in the south west category for best rural enterprise in the Countryside Alliance Awards 2026, which celebrate businesses that go the extra mile. Chloe […]