HERE IN Lush Places, it is the day of the village flower show. Car boots are open on the hall forecourt, spilling out dahlias, leeks the length of Chile and spikes of gladioli sharp enough to impale yourself on. Gardeners, bakers, photographers and handicraft makers walk into the hall steadily, carefully, so as not to trip. [...]

TRACES of a Roman camp have been discovered near Sherborne in West Dorset. Aerial photographs taken earlier this summer revealed three sides of a lightly built defensive enclosure in a barley field near Bradford Abbas. Marks showed up through the crop because the long hot days of June had parched the ground. English Heritage say [...]

Mike Saunders, chairman of Drimpton Fun Day Trust, reflects on this year’s village event, sadly affected by bad weather, and reveals that the Red Arrows are keen to appear next year.

EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS after it first opened the Electric Palace in Bridport is returning to its original purpose: OPERA. Yes, opera. “The building was originally erected for dual use as a cinema and opera house for the Palmer brewing family, who wanted to bring opera to Dorset.” So reads the citation for the Grade II listing [...]

Once upon a time in Lush Places, the village had a problem with rats. They would scurry from house to house, holding parties under the floorboards, orgies in the airing cupboards and having babies in the boiler. I recall this after hearing the news that a rat the size of a coypu and dubbed ‘Ratzilla’ [...]

A WILD weekend in the woods of West Dorset is being offered to 25 Hardy Women. The exact location is a secret

DORSET COUNTY Council has insisted that Bridport’s historic Literary & Scientific Institute could still house a new centre devoted to the history of West Dorset’s rope and net making industry.

THE LOCAL government website dorsetforyou.com has been redesigned three times in the last five years and costs more than £350,000 annually, according to figures released in response to Freedom of Information requests. Questions were sent to councils across the country by The Daily Telegraph and PeoplePerHour.com, and the nationwide results were published this week. Birmingham [...]

DORSET COUNTY Council is to press for Bridport’s Literary and Scientific Institute to be sold, says the Bridport Area Development Trust.

THE Bridport Arms in West Bay is to start accepting payment in Euros for beer in response to the record-breaking numbers of German and Dutch tourists visiting West Dorset this summer. The seaside pub will sell pints of Dorset Gold and Palmers IPA beer for 3.90 Euros and 3.60 Euros respectively, as well as £3.35 [...]