WATER is flowing through a new Dorset chalk stream created as part of a project to restore the county’s alluring network of winterbournes. Six hundred and fifty metres of land were dug out at Winterborne Herringston about two miles south west of Dorchester. It’s hoped it will provide a habitat for a rare water crowfoot [...]

THE BBC has pledged to start a breakfast radio show just for Dorset – IF it won’t badly affect Wessex FM – and IF the idea is supported by the BBC Trust. The BBC has moved in response to pressure from the Dorset Broadcasting Action Group (DorBAG), which has been striving for six years to [...]

SO, EVEN in these straitened times, Dorset County Council has still managed to bring us yet another edition of that little belter Your Dorset. A 16-page, full-colour publication that unashamedly assures us that the council is constantly striving to make our lot a better one and glorifying in its own spectacular achievements in a way [...]

We have the chance to create and pass on to the future a record of the present realities of Dorset life. Let’s not miss it.

PROPOSALS are being unveiled today for West Dorset’s first solar farm, costing an estimated £10-12 million. Fifteen acres of photo-voltaic panels at Wyld Meadow Farm near Monkton Wyld in the far west of the county could generate 3 to 4 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1000 homes. Wyld Meadow is owned by Clive and Jo Sage, [...]

Dorset-born chef Ashley Palmer-Watts is to launch a new restaurant in London for Heston Blumenthal. Mr Palmer-Watts was originally a protege of Maiden Newton restaurant owners Geoff and Lin Chapman.

There are few, if any, other places in Britain that have been shaped for so long by one industry as Bridport has been by rope, net and twine. The trade probably dates back to the ninth century. Read Mr Sims detailed book and you’ll never look at Bridport and its surrounding villages in quite the same way ever again.

Michel Hooper-Immins feels well restored after a good lunch of Lyme Bay fish and some well-kept real ale.

THE GREEN PARTY is re-launching itself in Bridport. It’s hoping to attract new members who are fed up with Conservative-Liberal Democrat policies on social justice and the environment. The party normally meets once a month in Dorchester, but this Monday it’s gathering in Bridport. Julian Jones said: “Many people are opposed to the policies of [...]

TWENTY varieties of traditional Dorset cider apple have been rediscovered by the award-winning Powerstock Cider Festival supremo Nick Poole and the renowned cider apple expert Liz Copas, author of A Somerset Pomona.

For the last four years Liz and Nick have been hunting through orchards, fields and gardens for apples that used to make Dorset cider.

In the case of Golden Ball from Netherbury, there was only one tree left. Marlpits Late Bittersweet may also have been unique. But no more.