STORIES and tales from behind the scenes of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow will be told by one of the programme’s experts Paul Atterbury

The Old Swan in Toller Porcorum is for sale on a 999-year lease with a covenant that it should remain as a pub. The guide price is £175,000; Palmers’ property agents Chesterton Humberts will conduct the auction on December 16 at 3pm in Toller’s village hall. The pub’s been closed for 12 years, prompting a long campaign for its reopening by the Save Our Swan group.

WEST Dorset artists and makers are getting together for an Autumn show at Eype Centre for the Arts at the end of October.

IN JULY 1953 Philip Larkin stayed at the Royal Hotel on Weymouth seafront. He came on holiday with his mother Eva and was often mistaken for her brother or husband. He didn’t seem to mind this. He enjoyed holidays, despite claiming not to, and he liked Weymouth. This is how he described the resort to his [...]

Work should begin early 2011 on the £60 million redevelopment of the Charles Street site in Dorchester town centre. First up: new offices for West Dorset District Council.

MRS GERRISH’S Rear Window looks intriguing. It’s a thriller and a spoof of the famous Hitchcock film Rear Window; it includes true stories of brushes with the law and music from the era of World War II; and it’s touring West Dorset throughout October. The show’s being put on by the Bristol-based Ministry of Entertainment, [...]

THE ORGANISERS of Maiden Newton at War have donated £8,700 to village organisations following the spectacular success of their World War 2 re-enactment event earlier this year. Committee members have also managed to keep several thousand pounds in their armoury for the next Maiden Newton at War weekend in June 2012. The Friends of Greenford [...]

NINE Dorset breweries are sending real ales to the Weymouth Beer Festival at Brewers Quay on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 October – and if you want to drink them, you’ll have to move fast.

Splendid photographs of Bridport Hat Festival by the brilliant portrait photographer George Wright, who lives in Bridport. Check out a big crowd photograph to see lots more people and read more about Guy Heathcote (pictured above).

FOR THE THIRD time in four years, The Colliton Club opposite County Hall in Dorchester has won the Wessex regional Club of the Year competition, run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). A framed certificate will be presented by CAMRA Regional Director John Buckley at the start of the West Dorset branch’s annual general meeting at the [...]