The Bridport News (which, in circulation terms, includes the Lyme Regis News) is down to an average sale of 9,627 across every month of 2009. That’s a drop year-on-year of 116 copies from 9,743 (I was wrong in a comment on another story on this website to rely on my memory and suggest the circulation was 10,001).

Anyway, a drop of 116 copies doesn’t look too bad but the month-by-month figures for 2009 make far more interesting reading. As the official ABC certificate reveals, circulation crept up from 9,451 in January 2009 to a peak of 10,054 in July, and then it went down every month apart from one, until by December it was 8,837. The run up to Christmas can disrupt sales – who wants to spend Christmas Day reading a tedious “Review of the Year” in their local newspaper? – but even so that is a big drop. Hence perhaps the BN’s New Year offensive with more pages, new features, a fresh masthead slogan, and so on.

The Western Gazette is down over the last six months of 2009 to an average of 30, 789 (in December it was 29,192). Over the last two years the Gazette’s circulation has dropped by about 5,000.

Its West Dorset edition now sells on average 2,663 copies; the Sherborne edition shifts 2,841.

The population of West Dorset is about 97,000.

In the blue corner, the BN – 40p, published by Newsquest (owned by the giant American corporation Gannett), 64 pages (including 10 of the crucial property pages),  physically smaller than the VF.  

In the red corner, the VF, published by Lyme Media & Events Ltd (owned by a former St Albans publisher, who also owns the Mariners Hotel in Lyme Regis), 64 pages (including 10 of the crucial property pages), bigger pages than the BN.

First pages, first impressions

The BN has a new battlecry – YOUR TOWN, YOUR PAPER. Good and punchy, but what if you live in a village? Is the BN really going to focus just on Bridport? What about Beaminster? Or does it think that people will read “your town” as covering that?

BN Page 1: Big capitalised white-on-black negative headline: “WHAT A WASTE – Fury over £300,000 cost of finding new transfer site for rubbish”. Nice use of red to pick out the £300,000.

VF Page 1: Smaller lower-case “Leisure centre celebrates windfall”. This is about Bridport’s leisure centre getting a lottery grant of £315,000.

Odd how the two sums of money are so close, in this classic bad news / good news split (or hard news and soft news, depending on which terms you prefer).

At this stage, both papers are definitely looking like contenders. But which lead will appeal more to most local people in terms of their everyday lives? You must decide for yourself, but I’d be inclined to say the latter… 

However, there is also another way of looking at things - old news versus new news - and as my first correspondent has leapt in to say:

“The lottery award was on page 2 of the BN last week. The VF story is in more detail but the news is over a week old.

“VF still has an appalling masthead- far too busy, badly designed and looks cheap. It doesn’t need the bottom strap line announcing it to be Bridport’s very own community newspaper, ­ it’s meaningless and takes up a cm of space at the bottom.

“First round to the BN.”

Another email describes the BN’s lead story as “a move away from the sub-Jeremy Kyle style fodder we’ve been getting of late”.

But continues: “The Your Town, Your Paper thing is meaningless. What does it mean? If it was people’s paper they would already know. It’s like the 1980s, Maxwell’s Mirror, Forward with the people – and we know what happened to him.

“Where do the BN’s profits go? Not to the Bridport paper, not to Dorset, not even the UK….

“The VF still needs to tidy up its page 2. They have the telephone number of its offices in no less than three places.  And do we really need to have the number of the designers?

“It’s too featuresy – the 60 second interview should be moved further back.”          

And another – I ought to be charging Newsquest and Lyme Media for running this impromptu focus group. But do they want to hear what’s said, let alone pay me? (That’s a rhetorical question, not a hopeful plea, by the way).

“Interesting, the Bridport News’s splash is 1,300+ words long. Much longer than the previous few weeks. But clearly the investigating has been done by NOWTS not Bridport News staffers.

“Page 2 BN is ok, the stories are very long (round 2 to BN)

“Page 3 BN is a good story! But is in all the rivals and was covered by the VF, clearly a press release. Good headline though.

“Interesting 4/5 BN, rather like BN was a while back.

“Last week the page 6 BN story would have been the splash – have advertisers complained?

“BN’s page 7 is the VF’s page 3.

“Nice pic on page 8 of BN.

“The VF is still running pancake stories and far too much “charridee stuff” and as for the Axminster-based Summer Holiday it makes no sense for a so-called hyperlocal paper.

“The VF takes no account of design… the BN has a very good design sub and that saves the paper.

“Overall, the BN has it, although this may be because people still send it press releases and the View From needs to work harder on design.

“However, the VF has pushed its Ents coverage and it does look better than the BN’s. If the VF’s new owner cares about news the VF could be a real contender.

“There are still no words on the front of the BN indicating it’s stuck with the tabloid style of the Dorset Echo – which may be fine in Weymouth but not really in Bridport.

“Design aside, the big question is: Is there enough unique content to make the BN worth the 40p cost?

“The answer will be worth noting when the next circulation figures come out.”

Some more of my own thoughts, quickly.

I rather like the bustling feel of the VF’s masthead, although it is suffering by showing Woolworths still open. It closed in Bridport – what – a year ago?

The VF’s Entertainments section is better than the BN’s and should provide a strong basis for the VF’s new Friday online newspaper, the Dorset Weekender, starting in March. More could have been done with the Summer Holiday piece to make, for example, the links across West Dorset clearer. 

The interview on page 2 of the VF is always a good read, and you can make a case for it staying where it is, because it suggests that this is a paper about local people. The whole page devoted to a personal profile further into the paper reinforces this.   

The story about the comedian Reginald D. Hunter not showing up at the Electric Palace  because he was on was the BBC’s new programme The Bubble (VF, p3: BN, p7) is an indication of how so-called newspapers – both the BN and the VF – are being left behind. You could find out about this on Twitter days ago.  

There is indeed a lovely pic on p8 of the BN, by a member of the public (Shane Pym, former landlord of the Bottle Inn in Marshwood, and before that, if memory serves, once a lorry driver in Rwanda).

The pictures in We’re In The News in the BN (pages 26-27) are all taken by professional photographer Graham Hunt. What happened to the idea of people sending their own in? Have people given up already, or is it just a result of the publication day shifting to a Wednesday?

Expanding the Looking Back section in the BN is a good idea, and there’s a great selection of photos this week courtesy of local collector Keith Alner.  Running this kind of feature should allow more time for the BN’s staff to do more original reporting.

That would be good – because what would really make a difference, in all the 128 pages of the BN and VF combined, is more original reporting, more life, more sparkle, not just from the towns, but from the villages too.

Is that too much to ask for these days?

My favourite thing

I’ve spent too long today looking at, and thinking about, local newspapers. I’ve alternated between feelings of admiration for the often resourceful ways they keep on going (genuinely respectful feelings in the case of the VF) and fury – as the BN would doubtless have it – at the pitiful crumminess of some of their content. I can’t bring myself to write about the BN page 9 lead:  man – on Portland – complains about postal surcharge…    

So I’ll end this almost-certainly-never-to-be-repeated exercise with my favourite thing in this week’s BN; the last line of the letter by Geoff Yaxley, of Silver Street, Lyme Regis, about the working party being set up in Lyme Regis to discuss the future of the Three Cups Hotel. Mr Yaxley writes about hundreds of people voting for the compulsory purchase of the Three Cups, then concludes:

“I am the only person who views this new working party with scepticism.”

Good on you mate!      

The move is announced on the papers’ website but not (that I can see) in the papers themselves.

The shift means the two Newsquest publications will come out on the same morning as the free newspapers View From Bridport, View From Beaminster and View From Lyme Regis.

“The Bridport News and Lyme Regis News moving to Wednesday is purely for operational reasons relating to available press slots,” says Toby Granville, editor of the Dorset Echo, who also oversees the two weeklies.

View From editor Philip Evans comments (via Twitter): “@RealWestDorset By moving to a Wednesday publishing date they lose their only exclusive news day to the View. Great decision – for the View!”

Analysis

Myself, I think there are three things worth remarking on.

One: when the News did first move from Friday to Thursday that was done to compete more directly with View From titles and the Western Gazette (which comes out on Thursdays). Yet I know people who still dislike that shift intensely and refuse, as a matter of principle, to buy the News on a Thursday, because they believe it should still come out on a Friday. That’s a powerful testament to the strength of the connection that the News had with people, and to the force of habit. It’s Friday: it’s Bridport / Lyme Regis News day. Friday was a crucial part of the papers’ brand identity. Changing to a Thursday affected that, but perhaps moving to a Wednesday will not, particularly, because the first move was the one that showed the brand could be tampered with. Like ITV’s News at Ten; there are people who have never seen that in quite the same way since ITV began moving it around…

Another comment via Twitter: “oninbridders @RealWestDorset Bridport News belongs to Friday, a nice way to end the week, sort it out @Dorsetecho. Though at this rate it will loop back”

Two: it will interesting to see what effect it has, three editions of the View From and two editions of the News coming out on the same day, midweek. All sorts of permutations are possible. Good for the View because people might choose to pick up a free paper rather than pay for one that is now covering exactly the same last week? Good for the News because it’s got more pages at the moment than it’s had for years and people might think that a paid-for publication is always going to be superior to a free? Or good for them both because, if you’re in the shop, why not get them both? Neither is going to want to have exactly the same content as the other so they should (in theory) both get better and more various.

Three: and what of the 60p Western Gazette, which fewer people in West Dorset seem to care about these days, despite the best efforts of its local reporter Danielle Hoffman? (It was noticeable, for example, that she turned up for the recent South West Quadrant appeal hearing whereas no one from the News was seen – a situation that people commented upon.) Alas for the Western Gazette, it won’t have much of an “exclusive news day” to itself on Wednesdays because the deadline for its West Dorset edition is late on Tuesday. Oh well.

Postscript

View From Publications are now planning something for Fridays called the View Online Dorset Weekender – “a brand new weekly paper you’ll only be able to read online!”

A portrait by George Wright of Cleo Evans, Dorset County Council's visual arts development officer

Offers so far include portrait photography by George Wright, a £100 restaurant voucher, pottery and bread-making lessons, a guided walk along the Jurassic Coast, and a police security check.

Pledges will be auctioned at Bridport Arts Centre on March 12.

Bridport Museum curator Alive Martin said she had been overwhelmed by the generosity of local people and companies.

The museum needs to raise £2,000 so that people can continue to visit for free.

Entry fees were scrapped last year for the first time in the museum’s 77-year-history, and the result was a big rise in visitor numbers.

Ms Martin, who initiated the move, said: “The response has been fantastic, people have been absolutely brilliant.

“A lot of them understood straight away what a great cause this was and were very generous.

“We still need as many lots as possible to keep the museum free, so if anyone has anything they could donate, I’d love to hear from you.

“But, judging by what people have donated so far, I think that we have gone a long way to ensuring it will be a success.

“I think people have really understood the importance of scrapping the entrance charges, ­especially after last year’s doubling of visitors.

“It not only benefits tourists, who get a chance to see our rich local history, but it benefits people from Bridport as a whole because we never forget where we come from.”

Among the offers is the chance to have a portrait done by internationally-renowned photographer George Wright, who lives in Bridport and has work in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Other lots include a pottery lesson from Miles Bell of Symondsbury Potters, a guided walk with Richard Edmonds, Earth Science Manger for the Jurassic Coast, and computer first aid sessions with expert Mark Beed.

There is also a flight for one over Dorset, a historical tour of Bridport, a personal guided tour of Palmers Brewery, bread-making lessons with Leakers Bakery and security checks of a home and business by the police.

Other highlights include membership of the popular Highlands End swimming pool in Eype, a treatment by Beauty and Beyond, and an annual pass to Mapperton House (voted The Nation’s Finest Manor House by Country Life).

Acclaimed chef Mark Hix has donated a £100 voucher to his Lyme Regis restaurant The Oyster and Fish House, while Dorset Life is offering a year’s subscription.

Denhay Farms has simply and kindly donated £300 to the appeal.

The full list of goods and services for auction will be published in a catalogue available soon.

For more information contact Alice Martin on 07956-674866 or Tony Bonnici on 07790-020579.

BRIDPORT TLC is at a crossroads. Our volunteer-led community recycling project is now in its fifth year, having implemented a wide range of reduce, re-use and recycle schemes aimed at supporting the wider Bridport population to ‘do their bit’ and collectively we have kept over 1,000 tons of materials out of Dorset landfill sites.

We consistently reach the top three in National Community Recycling Awards, are the present West Dorset District Council ‘Environmental Champions’, and only last month came runner-up in the Resource/Novelis Community Project awards.

Bridport TLC needs stronger community backing

We know that we (27 active volunteers) are an asset to local businesses and organisations as well as a growing army of individuals from all local parishes who bring in some of the additional recyclable materials that we collect and process – from plastic wrappings and waste cooking oil to milk bottle tops and electrical items – but now need to know if we have full community support before deciding whether to keep going. Contrary to popular belief the financial fundraising from waste materials is very small, particularly when concentrated on a local level as our project is.

To this end we are writing to all local Parish Councils asking for a) indication of support and b) contributions towards the not-insignificant costs of providing the services we provide. As well as local Councils we are seeking feedback and support from other community organisations, needing responses by March 1st to gauge whether we continue from April 1st. If your organisation can support us by pledging a grant/donation for the next financial year, or sponsor a specific area of cost (see below) we may yet continue to operate and will highlight your support on our website and elsewhere.

Our basic running costs are £18,750 per annum of which £15,000 is raised through membership of our collections scheme, donations and the small returns on recyclable materials. Since Jack & Ollies Crisp factory closed we can no longer raise funds through biodiesel sales but the shortfall over the last two years was met with a one-off grant from Grassroots Awards and we include a breakdown of our running costs attached. 

DEFRA recently published research highlighting the major contribution that Third Sector Waste Organisations such as ours make to their communities, from productive volunteer placements and community ‘feel good’ factor to environmental and financial benefits to the wider community – showing that every pound invested invested in them is worth up to £5.89 to the local economy.                                                                   

With the HWRC [Household Waste Recycling Centre] in South Street due to close this summer we need to know whether we can keep going or be swamped with materials we do not have the time or personnel to deal with. We could continue our work towards Zero Waste if we could meet the shortfall in our running costs and purchase a replacement collections vehicle as ours is on its last wheels. Understandably, having already contributed over 16,000 volunteer hours and nearly £18,000 of our own finances and fundraising since 2005, unless we know we have wider public support we feel our significant efforts and achievements are not worth continuing.

Having already introduced bicycle rickshaws, the gull-proof bin bag, a Scrapstore, an affordable waste reduction scheme for businesses, behavioural change promotions, community biodiesel production and plastics recycling to Bridport we are keen to develop more beneficial schemes including community composting and collection ‘hubs’ in surrounding villages. Please support the ‘do-ers’ because we can’t do it on our own anymore. 

We would be most grateful if you could give this letter your full consideration.

In Sincerity

Leon Edwards

Project Co-ordinator (Volunteer)

Annual Running Costs of Bridport TLC

• Rents & Water Rates (£1,211pcm), £14,532.00
• Rates (100% Rate relief WDDC), £ NIL
• Full Public Liability Insurance, £ 1,263.68
• Vehicle Insurance, £290.00
• Vehicle Tax & MOT, £260.00
• Electricity, £456.00
• Volunteer Expenses @ £25 pw, £1,300.00
• Baler Servicing & Twine, £166.00
• Office: Phone, Postage & Admin., £480.00
• TOTAL, £18,747.68 

Editor’s Note: I find myself in something of a quandary over this story, because my wife’s firm Watershed PR is working with Palmers Brewery on The Three Cups. Anything I write about The Three Cups is therefore likely to be viewed as compromised in some way. I have thought a lot about this and decided – in this instance – to do three things – 1) report factual snippets from a presentation to journalists, for the purpose of breaking news (as earlier on Twitter), 2) reproduce word for word the text of Palmers’ press release, so that you can judge it for yourselves, and if you so wish, use it to assess what other journalists write, and 3) show some photographs of the inside of The Three Cups. I am obviously aware that the objectivity of photographs can be disputed, but not many pictures of the inside of The Three Cups can be seen online, and I think it is worth providing a dozen or so more.

AN independent consultants’ report into the viability of re-converting The Three Cups Hotel in Lyme Regis into a hotel has found that the costs of re-conversion are so large that the scheme is uneconomic. Palmers Brewery, which owns The Three Cups, will now consult widely with the local community to find a way forward for the site.

The report by TRI Hospitality Consulting examined two possible re-conversion plans: Option A was for a hotel within the existing building with 13 bedrooms, restaurant, bar and meeting room. Option B was a more ambitious scheme to preserve the historic front section of the building while demolishing and rebuilding the rear to include 20 bedrooms, restaurant, bar and meeting room.

The report concluded that the income likely to be generated from Scheme A would allow a maximum of £830,000 to be spent on the reconversion. Option A was estimated to cost £3m leaving a huge shortfall. The figures for Scheme B were similarly uneconomic.

Nigel Jones of Chesterton Humberts, property agents for Palmers, said: ‘Sadly the affordability gap is so huge that there is absolutely no hope of anyone realistically ever being able to afford to reconvert the building into a hotel. The gap is so large that even if it were somehow possible to halve the costs, re-conversion would still be economically unviable.

‘The re-conversion costs are so high not because the building has been unused but because it needs complete re-configuration to meet modern standards and customer requirements. Radical changes would be needed to room layout and facilities; it is not a case of simple refurbishment. The fact it has stood empty for 20 years has not contributed significantly to these costs.

‘We commissioned this report with an open mind because we wanted to find out what the options were. Now we have it, everyone needs to look forward. We are therefore going to consult with the community with the aim of finding proposals for the site that are both appropriate and economically viable.’

Key facts from report

Building occupies a premium site

Tourist season in Lyme Regis has steep peaks and deep troughs, with too much demand in summer and too little in winter, restricting income potential for hotels

Costs are huge: scheme A (reconvert with 13 bedrooms): £3m. Scheme B (some demolition and new build) with 20 bedrooms: just over £4m.

Shortfall on scheme A of nearly £2.5m

Shortfall on scheme B of £2.6 to £3m

TRI Hospitality Consulting

Independent consultants based in London with wide experience of hotel and hospitality industry. Clients include the largest hospitality and financial organisations in the UK. Also has significant experience in the South West.

Produces the largest full Profit & Loss database of full-service hotels across the UK and Europe.

More than 2,000 hotels (300,000+ bedrooms) supply performance data in absolute confidence.

Runs annual UK budget hotel survey, monthly full-service UK and Europe surveys and quarterly confidence monitor.

TRI’s instructions from JC & RH Palmer Ltd

“…you wish to achieve a development which is appropriate for the town and the site and you require an independent assessment of the market and financial viability of the restoration of the Three Cups for hotel use.”

Other consultants involved in project

Davis Langdon, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, Southampton office; Archial Architects Ltd, Bournemouth

Technical hitches sorted out, and the British do what they still do in places like Broadwindsor: they form a queue.

VILLAGERS in West Dorset today saw Post Office services brought back to their community after an absence of more than two years.

Broadwindsor has not had a Post Office since December 2007, and the reintroduction of services now is mostly down to members of the local Women’s Institute.

Ruth Yarde of Broadwindsor WI said: “I missed it dreafully. I was very passionate about us having a Post Office again because a lot of people were having to travel elsewhere. But this brings people together. It’s a part of the community and living in a rural area that’s we want – that sense of community.

“I’m feeling very excited and positive, and it’s now down to the village and the surrounding areas to use it well.”

Apart from limited opening hours, there are few obstacles to the new PO outreach service in The Comrades Hall being used. Fellow WI campaigner Jean Frampton said: “There’s a mini-parking area and there’s easy access for people to walk because it’s flat.”

Between them, Mrs Yarde and Mrs Frampton probably put about 200 hours of effort into getting services reinstated.

One villager, who asked not to be named, praised the two women: “They worked tirelessly to find a solution, holding meetings with Oliver Letwin [West Dorset MP] and then later our local district councillor Jacqui Sewell.

“For some time they felt they were banging their heads against a brick wall. If it had not been for their terrier-like persistence, we would not be in the position we are now.

“It really was people power.

“The village hall committee is letting the parish council have the hall for a reduced fee and then the parish council is claiming it back through grant funding which has come via West Dorset District Council and Dorset Community Action.

“The village hall committee is also meeting the cost of a phone line in the hall.”

Broadwindsor parish council chairman Peter Hardwill said: “The benefit for the whole community of having this facility will be in bringing people out, meeting each other, talking.”   

Broadwindsor resident Wendy Shields agreed: “It’s absolutely marvellous.”

A full range of services will now be offered between 10am and 12.30am every Tuesday and Friday in the Comrades Hall. The new outreach service will be run from Bridport Post Office. Sub Postmaster Graham Burridge says he will be offering everything that the former Post Office offered and more, including postage, wrapping materials, financial services, foreign currency and a selection of stationery.

Tuesays and Fridays have been chosen because on those days The Comrades Hall is used by various groups. Coffee mornings are also planned and the local Police Community Support Officer will be holding his monthly surgeries at the hall to coincide with the Post Office service. The mobile library visits Broadwindsor every other Friday morning in the Square meaning that people using the library can then just walk up to the hall to use the Post Office services.

West Dorset District Council Leader Robert Gould said: “The situation in Broadwindsor has been less than ideal for the past two years. Some people without cars have had to go to Beaminster on the bus to visit the Post Office and there can be a wait of up to three hours for the return bus. I’m so pleased with what we have all achieved.”

Broadwindsor has shown how determination and joined up thinking can benefit local communities, said Cllr Gould.

Note: They might need the same sort of qualities in Portesham because the Dorset Echo today has a story saying the Post Office there may soon be closed, as the couple in charge at the moment are retiring.

I had another reason too. One of the most under-reported aspects of West Dorset’s economic and cultural life is the number of people who regularly head out from its small towns and villages to work much further afield. It’s a factor that’s had a significant effect on the housing market of West Dorset – and, behind the scenes, on policies affecting the building of new housing. So, I was curious to hear an unvarnished account of how someone came to live in West Dorset but work across the world. And this (lightly edited) is what Mr Harrap wrote…

Tim Harrap

JONATHAN HUDSTON at Real West Dorset has been following me on Twitter and he challenged me to explain my biographical comment: “Nomad in the cheese industry”! Fair enough, such cryptic devices do need teasing out at times.

Wikipedia thankfully defines three types of nomads, the last being: “Peripatetic nomads, who offer the skills of a craft or trade to those they travel among… [they are] most common in industrialized nations.” That will satisfy our needs during the following.

In the 1970s I left school only to find the oil crisis of 1973-74 making life in the UK uninspiring. So, I took off around the world, travelling for eight years, working in oil and mineral exploration in Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. This was my introduction to a nomadic lifestyle, and I wasn’t the only one; there were and still are plenty of folk moving around the planet for work.

For a brief time I found myself milking cows on a kibbutz in Israel, the milk going to the local cheese factory. Little did I know such a seed of an experience would return to flower later in life!

After undertaking a course at the University of East Anglia in Development Studies, (an academic version of nomadism if ever there was one!), and doing a post-graduate research degree on farm forestry, it was time to settle the “yurt” in one place with a wife and young family.

Sadly the recession of 1990-91 hit hard and work was difficult to find. My partner and I decided to up sticks, “retire” to Dorset and allow fate to take its course.

Tim Harrap was an early West Dorset adopter of the internet

Fortunately, after a couple of false starts, I was offered a job at the Ashley Chase Estate cheese house. Mike Harp, the cheesemaker, and Cedric Littman, the owner, managed the farmhouse-cheesemaking at Park Farm in the Bride Valley: quite an idyllic spot as anyone who knows this area of West Dorset will know.

Having established sales of farmhouse cheese in the area, there was at that time no opportunity for me to expand operations further as the business was already committed to working with wholesalers on the national market… but there was perhaps exporting. This was 1995: the Littmans understood the importance of computers to the business and we had the opportunity to go off to see this newfangled internet stuff with the launch of Tim Snape’s West Dorset Internet service in Abbotsbury. We immediately got Ashley Chase up on the internet and waited for things to happen!

It’s the same for everyone isn’t it, surrounding fate – it’s all down to people.

One day James Hamriding the West Dorset District Council (WDDC) Economic Development Officer called into the farm office and the word “export” was mentioned. James suggested that as WDDC was supporting businesses to develop export activity we should look at the upcoming Europartenariat in Lisbon. These EU sponsored “B2B” events were then taking place across Europe twice a year. In for a penny in for a pound – well £150 all in! – I took off to Lisbon.

As a self-certified “nomad,” travelling to Lisbon would be a doddle, I thought. But what a wake-up call. A learning curve like no other – there were 3000 business people at the event from across Europe all keen to make connections – the energy and buzz was quite overwhelming and addictive. Whilst “old school” business mentality had expectations of only selling product and services, EU expectations were for a deeper cooperation to develop between businesses and nations. It certainly was a constructive environment at the outset of the internet age.

The scope to really undertake cheese exports at that time was still in its infancy for a small farmhouse producer (not now by the way), and I moved on to Dorset Cereals who were conquering the world with their fabulous breakfast cereals. Terry Crabb, the founder of the business, kindly gave me the freedom to research and implement an extension to their 24 overseas markets. In three years we managed to open 12 additional markets, taking the cereals to Japan, Canada and Israel to name but a few. Having picked up two consecutive Cereal Exporter of the Year awards in 1997-8 from the Government’s Food from Britain organization and the Queen’s Award for Exports in 1999, I was offered a new role back in the dairy industry with North Downs Dairy – better known through its brand Pilgrims Choice.

Tasting Cheddar in the Middle East

So, since 1999, I have been travelling the world extolling the virtues of British cheese and making sure that people know that cheddar originated from the West Country! We have clients in over 40 countries on five continents and with an exporting business you have to travel and visit the clients and their markets – you learn so much more that way. As well as visiting clients I get to attend many food fairs around the world and meet up with the familiar faces of other “peripatetic nomads” in our industry.

The first part of this journey started in the 70s with one recession, developed further with the 90s recession and now we’re in the depths of a new phase of economic upheaval and one hopes that my knowledge and experience will now lead on to further endeavours on the road.

Officially, the number of full-time jobs in and around St Michael’s Trading Estate is 112. That is the figure previously used in planning applications to redevelop the estate.

But foot-slogging research by the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate suggests the true number is nearly double that – more than 200.

To be exact, the Quadrant hosts the equivalent of 202.5 full-time jobs.   

This figure suggests that there is an urgent need to revise official calculations about the economic value of redeveloping the Quadrant, as those calculations worked with the figure of 112.  

Aside from that, the list compiled by Andrew Leppard has a fascination all of its own. It’s a snapshot of Bridport’s economic and cultural history, captured before it could all be changed forever, depending on the outcome of a planning appeal starting later this month.

Think of it as a kind of Bridport Domesday Book… 

Here you will find theatrical groups, cleaners, an environmental consultant, an archaeologist, bathroom sellers, printers….

Small businesses in the SW Quadrant showing the number of Full-Time Equivalent jobs (FTE)

1. How is FTE worked out? Say five people work one day a week each – that is the equivalent of one person working full time.

2. It should also be noted that, although this list has been carefully checked, things change – numbers can change – and mistakes in transcription can occur. For example, it is possible that there is a spelling mistake in here somewhere! If you spot it, or if you wish to make any other corrections, please get in touch.

Members of the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate

Glen Crawford, Riley, classic cars, 1

Karl McGrady, Upholsterer, Unit 3, StMTE, 1.5

Hazel Murless, Soft Furnisher, 48a, The Studio, StMTE, 1

Bridport TLC, community recycling project, 47b StMTE, 13 (9FT +18PT)

Tolkovsky Furniture Design, 46b, StMTE, 2

ABC Blinds, 36, StMTE, 1.5

Discount Furniture, 37/38, StMTE, 6.5

Burwoods Domestic Appliances, 84, StMTE, 6.5

Wessex Wines, 88, StMTE, 1

West Country Cleaning and Waste, 47 StMTE, 6.5

AB Services, cleaning, 47 StMTE, 9

PNC, plates and plaques, unit 6 StMTE, 5

Les Alles Furniture, 57 StMTE, 1

Old Albion furniture, StMTE, 2

Vintage @ Cornucopia, Unit 4 StMTE, 1.5

Alessandro Botto, artist St Michael’s Studios. 1

Paul Blow, Illustrator, Studio 5. StMTE, 1

Carlos Guarita, photographer, 66 St Michaels Lane, 1

Lucy Guarita, archaeologist, 66 st Michaels Lane, 0.5

Print n Press, StMTE, 1

Beeline Taxis, Tannery Road (bus station), 13.5

Jemma Thompson, Signwriter, 17/19 Barrack St, 1

Nikki McCretton, Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Co, 7

Mark Parrot, Dog House Theatre Co

The Trick Factory, Skate, BMX arena, Stover Building, StMTE, 2

Cornucopia, Unit 10, StMTE, 1

Café Royal, Tannery Rd, 5.5 (2 + av 7)

SJ Bowles, Classic Motor Upholstery, Unit 6b, StMTE, 1

Best’s carpets, 81a St Michael’s Lane, 6

Dave Neylan, Environmental Consultant, Unit 18, StMTE, 1

Michael Wade Waxworks, Sculpture, StMTE, 2

Old Albion Antiques, StMTE, 1

Fiona Neylan, millinery, unit 15, StMTE, 0.5

Peter Watson, Printmaker, The Studio, 48 StMTE, 1

Pine and Painted, furniture, unit 10b, StMTE, 1

PSUK printing unit, 43, 1

Gabriel Hollands, Interior designs, St Michael’s Studios

Snips hairdressers, 3.5

Dan Davies, carpenter, joiner, unit..? 1

Tessa Dickson, Community Arts Projects, StMTE, 1

The Auction House, 1.5

Local Food Links, Unit 17 StMTE, 18.5

Brooks Develin, Unit 17, 4

0404 Web Design, Unit 17, 4

Oxenbury & Sons Coachworks, St Michaels Lane, 4

Karl Dixon, monumental works, 2

Sarah’s clothes shop, Tannery Lane, 1

Non-members of the Friends of St Michael’s Trading Estate

JK Knight, plumbing, 1

Hayward & Co, 4

AJC computers, 1

Cox’s Corner antiques, 1

Ocean Bathrooms, 10.5

Top Gear, exhausts etc, 15

Landsdowne Property Holdings Ltd, 1

Livingstone Textiles, St Michaels Lane, 2

TOTAL FTE 183.5

Artists at St Michael’s

John Rabbetts, artist, Tower Studio, StMTE, 1

Linzi Light, artist, St Michaels Studios, 1

Kate Alder, jewellery maker, studio14, 1

Ian Dunn, artist, unit 16, StMTE, 1

Charles Hallsworth, artist, studio 6, StMTE, 1

Andrew Leppard, artist, studio 5, StMTE, 1

David Brooke, studio 3a, StMTE, 1

Kit Glaisyer, artist tenant, unit 3c, StMTE, 1

Petra Hughes, Young at Art education, Studio6, StMTE, 1

Charlie Fuge, illustrator, 1

Spike Golding, graphic designer, StMTE, 1

Part time (½ equivalent)

S Wootton, artist, studio 14, 1 Stover Place, StMTE

Philomena Hamsworth, artist, St Michael’s Studios

Jan Zoyak, artist, St Michael’s Studios

Kate Alder, jewellery, studio 14

Marion Irons, printmaker, studio 14, StMTE

John Miles, photographer, studio 14

Sally Miles, artist, studio 14

Marion Taylor, artist, St Michael’s Studios

Jo Barnes, artist, St Michael’s Studios

John Boyd, artist, St Michael’s Studios

Pru Hewett-Morgan, artist, St Michael’s Studios

Adrian Everett, artist, unit 13a

Sally Davies, artist, tenant, StMTE

Anna Sullock, artist tenant, studio 6, StMTE

Antonia Fraser, artist tenant, studio 5, StMTE

Caroline Ireland, artist, tenant, St Michaels Studios

TOTAL FTE 19

OVERALL TOTAL 202.5

The couple have six children and a holiday home in Lyme.

They bought the 17 century Mariners hotel and restaurant in November 2007, and have since refurbished it.

Jerry Ramsdale

Mr Ramsdale runs a magazine publishing and exhibitions company in St Albans. Fastener + Fixing Magazine – according to its website – is published six times a year, and each print edition of more than 30 pages of original reporting and interviews is distributed on a free-of-charge, controlled circulation basis to 12500 named professionals across the European fastener and fixings manufacturing and distribution industry.

Fastener + Fixing Annual Business Directories are also distributed to those same industry professionals, as well as being distributed at exhibitions the magazine takes part in throughout the world.

Mr Ramsdale also has other business interests, including part ownership of a fleet vehicle magazine.

This is his first venture into newspaper publishing.

The View From titles – covering Bridport, Beaminster, Lyme Regis, Dorchester and Weymouth – will continue to be run from offices in St Michael’s Business Centre in Lyme Regis.

Mr Ramsdale said: “I am looking forward to working with founders Philip and Jackie Evans and their staff in developing the View group of newspapers.

“They are excellent community publications, very popular with the readers and well respected by advertisers.

“Although these are difficult times for local newspapers I believe there is an excellent future for community publications like the View.”

Mr and Mrs Ramsdale have also acquired the View from Chard, View from Ilminster and View from Sid Vale titles, as well as the View Online website, which you can see by clicking on this link here.

Note: Based on a press release issued by the View From, but including additional material.