After seven years in the planning, 22 pylons in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are coming down. The ‘Going Underground’ project will see almost 9km of overhead line now replaced with buried cables and the natural landscape being restored. The work is the first project in the National Grid’s £465 million Visual Impact […]
‘Inequality for women must end in Dorset’, say the Women’s Action Network Dorset. The group has launched a campaign for a Women’s Charter in the county, hoping to tackle inequality. Women in senior and influential positions from many backgrounds including politics, culture, business, education, and finance, joined forces at a meeting earlier this month, to […]
A family-run farm shop is going green after a shock electricity bill for more than £9,000 for just one month galvanised them into action. Simon Holland and his sister Bryony Brock were horrified to receive a massive bill for August’s electricity at Washingpool Farm, just outside Bridport. August had always been a bit of a […]
Despite working in some of the most dangerous places in the world, West Dorset photographer Carlos Guarita reflects on his life’s work with good humour. Insisting he is not a war photographer, Carlos has nonetheless spent much of his working life in African combat zones, often behind the frontlines capturing a first-hand view of how […]
Six septuagenarians have swum into the record books with an epic relay swim across to France in very tough conditions. The team, whose average age is over 75, clinched the record for the oldest Channel relay team after 17 hours 57 minutes in the brine, starting at 12.30am, a time when most pensioners are safely […]
A trading estate in Bridport has earned a following among the cool kids, having been transformed from a derelict netmaking area to something resembling Carnaby Street over its 54 years. One of Bridport’s seven industrial estates – whoever knew that many were squeezed in to such a small town? – St Michael’s is effortlessly cool. […]
The beloved breed of the late Queen, Pembroke corgis like Claire’s four-year-old boy Thegn were originally bred to herd cattle. The fifth generation in a line of Welsh hill farming stock, Thegn – a name derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning servant to a lord – still shows his herding instinct to this day. “Oh, […]
A warm late summer evening greeted the Juniors of Dorchester and District Angling Society. The four finalists had competed over three qualifying rounds through the summer to try to win the inaugural Knockout title, and it all came to a head on the Stock Pond at Revels fishery. Faith Stone, Josiah Wells- Parkes, Oliver Smith, […]
Potential saviours have come forward to save a historic village pub and restore a raft of community facilities. Tessa and Julian Blundy hope to bring a wealth of experience with them if their offer for Marshwood’s Bottle Inn is accepted. Tessa, 66, is a conservation architect and ideally placed to pull the building back from […]
My beautiful, intelligent and funny little girl struggled in many ways as a child. She was a little more anxious than her peers, a little more sensitive, a little less patient. Jessica hated bright lights and busy places and, while she was academic, she hated school with a passion. I, of course, worried. She was […]