“Amazing, freezing, and very funny” was the concise and considered verdict on the day given by Jane Read, of Pinks Organics of Hermitage, who organised the event with Charlotte Dick Read, of Reads Coffee, which is based between Sherborne and Thornford.

Cash raised will go to Oxfam ands Shelter Box. “If anybody wants to add to the total, please let me know!” Jane continued.

If you missed it, here is a taste of what you missed. And if you went along, well, let’s hope these pictures serve as a nice reminder of an inspiring day.

A display of Mabbetti confectionery:

An overview of the event, with Sherborne Town Band playing:

A selection of cakes themed for St Valentine’s Day:

Organisers Jane Read and Charlotte Dick Read:

Juggling by Mr Bojangles from Bridport:

And visitors also had the chance to learn origami:

Charlotte Dick Read

WHAT STARTED as a fund-raising coffee morning has turned into a unique community event bringing businesses and locals of all ages together, as the town of Sherborne shows its support for Haiti.

Charlotte Dick Read from Reads Coffee Roasters and Jane Read from Pinks Organics (no relation) decided they wanted to do something different to raise as much money as possible in way that would be fun for everyone.

“We both have young children who are desperate to help and we know we can put together a really special day” said Jane Read. “And with support from both Reads Coffee Roasters and Pinks Organics, Hearts For Haiti evolved.”

She added: “We have tried very hard to make it as much about the children as the adults.”

Sherborne District Scouts, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows are playing an active part in the day, running a Toy Exchange and Valentine Gift Stall alongside local food producers selling and offering ‘tastings’.

You can decorate a Leakers Gingerbread, enter the best Valentine Cake Competition and the fabulous raffle or just listen to Sherborne Town Band. And while you do that your children can learn some Circus Skills from Head For Heights. And don’t forget to buy a cake!

Cheap Street, Sherborne’s High Street, will be playing its part too, running collections and sporting posters. From Town Mill Bakery to Sainsbury’s everyone’s getting involved.

“It’s very exciting to think that so much will be going on and we hope that everyone who comes to Sherborne today has as much fun as we intend to,” said Charlotte Dick Read.

Hearts For Haiti runs from 10am to 3.30pm and is being held in the Powell Theatre, Abbey Street, Sherborne.

Pinks Organic are on Twitter on this link. Whether Jane Read will have time to tweet, we’ll have to see!

SIR THOMAS WYATT competed with Henry VIII for the affections of Anne Boleyn.

Even if you have never heard of Wyatt, a diplomat and a brilliant poet, you can probably guess what happened next…

Sir Thomas Wyatt

In 1533, Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn.

Three years later, Wyatt was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Soon after, Anne Boleyn was executed, probably within sight of Wyatt’s cell.

In July 1540, Wyatt witnessed – with tears in his eyes – the execution of his friend and patron Thomas Cromwell (the central character of Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winning novel Wolf Hall.)

In January 1541, Wyatt himself was accused of treasonable behaviour as an ambassador, and was again taken to the Tower, bound and handcuffed. Historians suspect the real issue may actually have been Wyatt’s relationship with his mistress, Elizabeth Darrell, a Catholic and Maid to Honour to Katharine of Aragon. Wyatt was pardoned by the King – but also told that unless he gave up Darrell, and went back to his estranged wife, he would lose everything he possessed and be killed.

Let’s pause a moment here. It is clear that Wyatt knew intimately how slippery life could be at the court of Henry VIII (“the slipper toppe / of courtes estates”) and people he loved had died “dazed with dredfull face.”

Shortly before Wyatt wrote the poem from which these words are quoted, called ‘Stond who so list’, it was said of him: “Mr Wyatt… doth often call to his remembrance his emprisonment in the Tower, which seemeth so to stick in his stomacke that he cannot forget it…”

The big question is – did Wyatt himself so wish to escape from this terrifying milieu that, in Dorset, he faked his own death so as to go back to living secretly with his mistress?

This extraordinary idea is put forward by the poet Alice Oswald, in the introduction to a new selection of Wyatt’s poems (in Faber’s Poet-to-Poet series).

In October 1542, Wyatt was told by the King to go to Falmouth, to meet an envoy sent by emperor Charles V. The story then is that Wyatt rode too fast, got overheated, caught a chill or a fever, and, stopping in West Dorset at Clifton Maybank, at the home of his friend Sir John Horsey, he died and was quickly buried.

Clifton Maybank. (Photograph by Nigel Mykura, reused under Creative Commons Licence.)

Oswald writes: “Strangely, for a man of his status, he was buried not in his own grave, but in his host’s family tomb [in Sherborne Abbey]. His mistress, Elizabeth Darrell, whom he’d been forced to leave two years before, was living in Exeter, and I can’t help wondering whether, on his way to the West Country, he decided to fake his own death to rejoin her. The beauty of that idea is that it changes the poem ‘Stond who so list’ from a wish into a whispered decision:

in hidden place, so let my dayes forth passe,

that when my yeares be done, withouten noyse,

I maye die aged after the common trace…”

If this idea is true, then this plaque set in the floor of Sherborne Abbey is wrong. Wyatt is not buried here, there is a body missing from the Horsey family tomb, and for nearly 500 years Wyatt’s daring plot has been a secret never even guessed at – until now.

Note: Wyatt wrote some of the greatest and most haunting poems in the English language. The best ways in to his work are probably Oswald’s selection (which has a brilliantly intelligent introduction) and the revolutionary essay ‘Myths, Metres, Rhythms’ by Ted Hughes in Winter Pollen (Faber, 1994). Hughes praises Wyatt’s irregularity, spontaneity, nakedness of feeling: “No poet ever cut so deep into the nerve…”

Unfolded waves of hessian shows beans like cowrie shells

A PILE of hessian sacks filled with raw coffee beans are stacked up on a wooden crate in the corner, while a traditional roasting machine churns its first load of coffee of the day, and the bitter-sweet aroma of freshly-roasted coffee fills the air. 

I almost expect a rugged explorer to come climbing out of a plantation, with a glowing jar of nature’s brightest protruding from his backpack.

Giles Dick-Read. The Read family name can be traced back generations through Reads Flour Millers, of Norwich

Instead I find myself looking on as coffee connoisseur and founder of Reads Coffee, Giles Dick-Read, moves deftly around a converted milking parlour close to his rural home.    

Giles and his wife Charlotte operate their roast-to-order business from their home at Limekiln Farm, just outside of Sherborne. So how did a quintessentially English couple bring a taste of the exotic to the Dorset countryside, and why?

Having set up shop in Oxfordshire eight years ago, the couple, who hail from Buckinghamshire, moved down to Dorset nearly five years ago to be nearer their families.

Charlotte and Giles pause for a chat. A typical working day lasts for ten hours, roasting, bagging, installing machines in cafes, making deliveries... At weekends, they visit farmers' markets or events within a 40-mile radius of Sherborne

Giles said: “What we like about Dorset the most is that there are lots of ‘foodie’ people here – so many are extremely enthusiastic about eating and drinking great produce.”

During a trip around America and Canada in the early 1990s, just as Starbucks was exploding across the USA, and on his return to the UK Giles found himself frustrated: he could not find a decent coffee anywhere.  

A discussion with the doctor about the side effects of caffeine convinced him that good quality Arabica coffee offered a healthier choice, as opposed to the cheaper Robusta coffees, which often have a far higher caffeine content.

So, as his quest for the perfect coffee began, he worked for various coffee operators, including Whittards, before joining Pret A Manger as its coffee man, where he stayed for several years developing the company’s coffee trade.

“I have done a lot of work with cafes, training baristas and educating operators about the mechanics of coffee making – choosing the right coffee, getting the best from their machines, and perfecting how coffee should be prepared.

Records are kept of every coffee roasted

“Great coffee can be a work of art – it is really very simple, but to do it well takes a lot of practice and experience. The skill lies in how it is prepared.  People often say that Italy has the best coffee. The reality is that the Italians really just know how to serve it properly.”

"Great coffee can be a work of art..."

So this is what their business offers: Roast-to-order single estate Arabica coffees, advice for users about coffee-making equipment, personal delivery services, and training about how to perfect the art of making a great cup of coffee.

While working at Pret, Giles met coffee roasters and brokers from around the world, learning first hand from them about sourcing coffee beans by working closely with brokers, to ensure quality and traceability right back to the plantation. 

Coffee is sourced from South America, the Caribbean, Africa, India and Indonesia

Now the company works not only with established coffee house Tomtom Coffee House in London, but also supplies local outlets such as Sabin’s deli in Sherborne, Bramble and Sage in Sutton Montis, Storm in Bournemouth, and other outlets in Oxfordshire and Berkshire including the Wellington Farm Shop at Stratfield Saye.

He was in luck – a contact was selling a roaster. “We found a small roaster which seemed ideal, either as a hobby or as a business venture.”

After meeting Fergus Dowding the couple were convinced to take along some of their roasts to farmers’ markets in Somerset and Dorset.

Charlotte said: “The farmers’ markets were really our start in Dorset, and then everything we went along to seemed to have a snowball effect.”

Giles added: “We would like to grow the business in a manageable way; we are not trying to get large overnight. We try to work with people who are passionate about coffee – they grind beans freshly on the premises and are more interested in quality than cheap beans.”

As he used the cafetiere to froth warm milk, Giles explained about his latest invention which ensures that he can assess the standards he sets for his coffee never fall, from far or near.

Working with a Frome-based engineer, he has developed a Telemetry system, which monitors the coffee machines installed in cafes to make sure they are working properly.

If they are running incorrectly, have a fault or even haven’t been cleaned properly, the system can alert the owners via text or email.

His passion for machines does not end there – he owns several old cars, three motorbikes and four lawnmowers. “I Have an automotive background, and if I wasn’t coffee roasting, that is where I would be.”

The elephant is an Indian motif

To ensure that nothing is left to waste Charlotte has also come up with a crafty idea to reuse the hessian sacks – she has worked with a friend to turn them into cushions and other useful items, which now adorn their home.

It seems that the possibilities are endless for this unique business. When I asked them about the possibility of an in-situ café in one of the farm’s outbuildings, or a coffee training school, both were regarded as very possible development. Click here to link to the Reads Coffee website.