West Bay: On top of a pot sits a Nautilus float (British Made, it says on top of the float)

DAVE SALES, a shellfisherman for over fifty years, has worked the Dorset Coast from Poole to West Bay.

In the course of his long career, he has experienced many changes in the industry.

He has been a member of the Southern Sea Fisheries Committee for more than forty years and studied the fishing industry in the US and Canada as a Churchill Fellow.

He is an adviser to the British Government on inshore fisheries. His work for the conservation of fish stocks, especially the lobster, has contributed to the minimum catch size gradually being increased.

With the recent introduction of the no take rule for berried hen lobsters in our area, the future of stocks should be assured.

He will discuss the new Marine Protected Area in Lyme Bay and its proposed extension, as well as the impact of the Marine Bill on the fishing industry both locally and as a whole.

Editor’s Note: this talk by David Sales is one of a series of lectures organised by Mr Morpurgo and his wife Ioana. It’s at 8pm on Friday 12th March, at Marsh Barn, Burton Road, Bridport, ie, just off the main road between Bridport and Burton Bradstock. Entrance costs £6.

The artist Richard Harris has been commissioned to produce a permanent work of art in response to the construction of the Dorchester to Weymouth Relief Road. The Earthscapes exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre shows some initial ideas - and this is one

Some notes on the Earthscapes exhibition at Bridport Arts Centre, curated by Sherborne House Arts

Part 1: The Project straightforwardly Described

A SCALE MODEL of a sculpture to be sited either side of the new Dorchester to Weymouth Relief Road has gone on show for the first time.

It’s on display at Bridport Arts Centre as part of Sherborne House Arts’ Earthscapes exhibition.

The work by sculptor Richard Harris shows some 28 boulders gradually rising on steel poles reaching to 3m (10ft) above the Southdown Ridge.

All the rocks ­- weighing between one and eight tonnes ­- are sourced from the 1.6m tonnes of material moved from the site where work on the road has been taking place.

If it gets the go-ahead, the sculpture will be on both sides of the road and will curve off up the slopes of the cutting following the natural geological strata.

Lines of stones are to be mounted on poles close to where they were dug up

An aerial view of the proposed public art work along the sides of the Dorchester to Weymouth relief road

The poles will curve up the sides of the cuttings

The excavated rocks are between 160 and 65 million years old and started being formed in what would have been a tropical lagoon. The concretions are formed around small matter such as a leaf or a fossil and steadily build up over millions of years solidifying by chemical processes.

Mr Harris said: “I was asked to consider the landscape, context of the whole road and having worked on several proposals for different sites ­ this is the idea that I feel is the strongest and most appropriate. Some of the geology has been exposed by the cutting but will eventually become less visible as the grass grows.

“This proposal puts the geology back where it was ­ but visible­ continuing up above the hill indicating where it would have been before it was weathered away.”

Mr Harris said he had been involved with the project since January last year making many visits to the site and consulting with geologists.

As if an invisible car was driving through in mucky weather and spraying up stones

He said: “This idea came in the late summer and only came about when the work had started and the stones had been revealed.

“The heavier stones will rise up from the ground and will get progressively smaller as they run through the air to the top of the slope.

Big stone...

... Small stone (fascinatingly coloured and shaped)

“What I am trying to do is give an inspiring image as people come into Weymouth and to reveal the geology in a dramatic way.”

 The idea of incorporating art in relation to the road was initially proposed in the Weymouth and Portland Commissioning Plan for 2012.

It stated that public art could be used to make the £87m road ­ which is due to open in Spring next year – more attractive for drivers.

The work is being supported by Arts Council England, South West and Dorset County Council.

Mr Harris is now working with Skanska, the contractors, Dorset County Council and his own engineers to develop the project. 

Part 2: ‘Earthscapes’ as an exhibition title

THERE AREN’T many better words in the English language than ‘scape’. It means so much and is so capable of forming suggestive associations. Brickscape, prisonscape, cityscape, mudscape, hedgescape, landscape, moonscape, earthscape… It’s a brilliant word for conjuring up an external scene or, indeed, an externalised one – as in moodscape or mindscape.

Then there is the word ‘scape’ taken by itself. It’s long been used as a shortened form of ‘escape’ –  ‘scape’ breaks away and soon ends up leading an outlawry of meanings: a ‘scape’ is a fart; a transgression due to thoughtlessness; an outrageous sin; a slip of the tongue; a clerical error.

Shafted / Scaped

‘Scape’ can also be used to describe the shaft of a column, or the long stalk of a flower  rising directly out of its root.

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins used ‘scape’ to denote an impression or reflection of the individual quality of a thing or an action; its quiddity, its real nature or essence.

So you can start to see why an exhibition called Earthscapes is always going to be appealing, even before we get started on that titular coinage.

Why earthscapes and not landscapes? Perhaps because ‘land’ speaks too much of ownership and class, of power and authority – whereas ‘earth’ still escapes from some of those human forms? The earth, physically and mentally, is a space that none of us can ever truly hope to control – not forever – and space of course is an anagram of scape. At which point – at the mention of anagram – your mind can start to run away with possibilities (yes, to scape), because earth is also an anagram of heart.

So you can have earthscapes as ‘heartscapes’ or ‘heartspaces’ or ‘hearts paces’; pluck out the word art and you get ‘she art scape’, or ‘he art scapes’; and so on and on…

Part 3: The Relief Road Art Work as a Work of Art

You might regard everything written above as rather wild, but it is all relevant to the Dorchester to Weymouth relief road, and to Richard Harris’s initial models.

They’re fiendishly difficult designs to photograph, and if you’re interested you should go to see them for yourself, but I hope for now the pictures here show roughly what’s on display.

So, scapes: relevant how?

Firstly: in the crudest way, there will be people who regard what’s proposed as arty-farty nonsense – and, remember, ‘to let a scape’ does mean to break wind…

But let’s chuff on.

Secondly: look at the way the stones are upheld on shafts / columns / stalks – call them what you will – they are all ‘scapes’ and there are many different ways of viewing their form and layout. The stones for the real art work will come from excavations along the route. They will – you could argue – look like the severed heads on poles that used to be stood at the entrances to towns and cities (Dorchester once used to be gristled with the rotting heads of Catholic Martyrs who’d been hung, drawn and quartered). From that perspective, the two lines of scapes, moving down either side of the road, represent a triumphal assertion of power by Dorset County Council and its contractors.

Look what we have done! We have disembowelled the earth! We have built this road and routed our enemies!

Thirdly: and for what?

The stones curve like a sabre tooth, or perhaps a tongue

Or in these daubs like antennae or paw prints?

More still to follow: writer is thinking (when he gets chance)!  

Should I stay or should I go? A speckled bush cricket in a wildlife-friendly Dorset garden. Dorset Wildlife Trust's webmaster Jane Adams, who took this picture, said: "It was a lucky photo. Just spotted it and took it. Within seconds it had moved on." Image copyright Jane V Adams. Reproduced here with kind permission of Dorset Wildlife Trust.

SIX per cent of households in West Dorset are members of Dorset Wildlife Trust. That’s double the average rate in other parts of the county.

So I was told when I went to give a talk at the Trust’s HQ at Forston between Dorchester and Cerne Abbas.

The Trust was discussing Living Landscapes, a new way of looking at relationships between wildlife, people and places. Part of the idea is that creatures should not just be corralled into core areas like nature reserves, they should be able to spread across Dorset, through bountiful spaces shared, enjoyed and valued by us all.

It’s a big project, still crystallising.

One element is a new contest competition to find the most wildlife friendly gardens in Dorset.

Hanging on! Another photo by Jane Adams: "This solitary bee, a Lasioglossum calceatum, looks very happy on the tiny flowers of my garden Heuchera. It's covered in bees for most of the day." Image copyright Jane Adams, reproduced with permission of DWT. More pictures from wildlife-friendly Dorset images can be seen on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/wildlifegardensdorset

Joy Wallis, People and Wildlife Co-ordinator at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “The countryside and other urban open spaces are often unwelcoming and sterile, and they do not have the range of micro-habitats that many gardeners supply.

“We want to encourage gardeners across the county who are providing a haven for wildlife.

“The judges will be looking for gardens, however small, that welcome wildlife and so form a vital stepping stone between other suitable habitats.”

Gardens of all sizes are eligible and entries are welcome from individuals, groups of neighbours, whole streets, schools or communities. Judging will be in different size categories.

A nectar-rich garden border (Nicky Hoar, Dorset Wildlife Trust).

Gardens will need to provide a variety of sources of food such as nectar-rich flowers, seed and fruit planting with various sources of water, shelter and places to breed.

Entry to the competition is free. For more information and to download entry forms go to www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/wgc or www.thegardeneronline.co.uk,or visit Castle Gardens in Sherborne, Poundbury Gardens in Dorchester, or Dorset Wildlife Trust centres at Brooklands Farm, Lorton Meadows and the Urban Wildlife Centre. The closing date is 10 May. For more information, please contact Joy Wallis at Dorset Wildlife Trust on 01305 264620.

Prizes, which include a wildlife friendly collection of plants, gardening vouchers and books, will be presented by gardener Clive Farrell at a wildlife friendly gardening event at Castle Gardens, Sherborne, on 15 July. 

Wildlife Friendly garden features could include:

• Wildlife Pond Bog or permanently wet area
• Bird bath
• Bird Box
• Wild flower meadow
• Long grass area
• Nectar rich flower border and bushes
• Mixed Native Hedge
• Mature native tree
• Log pile and/or substantial decaying tree stump
• Compost heap
• No-go area
• Climbing plants/trellises suitable for nesting and feeding
• Slug pellet free

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 

Does it look like a lighthouse to you? The Chantry, on South Street, behind the lit streetlamp and the red three-wheeler.

THE oldest and perhaps the oddest place you can stay in Bridport is the Chantry, down South Street. It’s let out by the Vivat Trust who mention in passing that it may once have been a primitive lighthouse…

This suggestion is oft-repeated but no one – until recently – ever seems to have stopped and thought: Hang on a minute, how on earth would that work? It doesn’t look like a lighthouse – it’s more than a mile from the sea – where would the light have gone – who would have seen it – and how would they have used it?

Such questions have now been answered in a beautifully simple way by the Chickerell-based Dorset coastal historian, Gordon Le Pard.

First, a quick bit of background. The Chantry dates from about 1300. In those days Bridport’s harbour was close to the medieval town, up the River Brit. Firelight from the top of the Chantry could have acted as a guide.

Bright fire could have burned in an iron fire basket on top of a pole fixed to the south side of the Chantry. On the south side there is an odd-shaped corbel, with “a small round socket in the center of its upper face… aligned beneath a larger circular cut-out in the projecting offset course at second floor level.” This is where a pole would fit. (Archaeologist KA Rodwell surveyed these features in detail; click here to read more from her).      

Anyway, when a new Bridport Harbour was created down at the mouth of the River Brit (where West Bay now is), it seems the Chantry still served as a lighthouse.

So how did it work? This is the clever bit.

Gordon Le Pard notes that two reefs lie just offshore from West Bay, the Ram to the west and the Pollock to the east. They could be dangerous; in the 17th century, the Ram wrecked an armed merchantman, whose remains still linger on the seabed.

Now look at this diagram, which takes into account the historic positions of the East and West cliffs at West Bay, and how they would block the view from sea towards the Chantry:

As Mr Le Pard says: “If you draw lines between the Chantry and the present East Cliff it marks the edge of the Ram, if between the Chantry and the approximate former location of the West Cliff, it marks the edge of the Pollock.

“So a captain steering for Bridport Harbour only had to keep the Chantry in view to avoid either of the reefs.”

Isn’t that smart?

One other thing. When the Chantry was adapted to serve as a priest’s house, one of the priest’s duties was to say regular masses to St Katherine.

Mr Le Pard comments: “St Katherine is the dedication of both the chapel at Abbotsbury, built as a sea mark, as well as the only certain medieval lighthouse on St Catherine’s Down on the Isle of Wight.”

No one will ever know for sure whether the Chantry was a lighthouse as well as a sea mark, but Mr Le Pard finds the evidence he has amassed “especially pleasing” – and so (I think) should all the rest of us.

You can find out more about Mr Le Pard’s research in the latest volumes (numbers 129 & 130) of the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, that is the society which runs the excellent Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.

THE late Gerard Morgan-Grenville lived at Milton Mill in West Milton near Bridport.

He was a charming and fascinating man who had an enviably vivid career in many different areas; the military, kitchenware, French barge holidays, luxury train journeys, Saharan treks, and – for a while – book publishing. In the days when I too used to publish books, I helped to edit his memoirs called Breaking Free.

That title gives a clue to another side of Gerard’s character. He was a very successful businessman, but also a radical and pioneering environmentalist. He founded the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, and was active in the Protest and Survive anti-nuclear movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Locally, after he moved to West Milton in the mid-1990s, he was – among many other things – a founder member of the West Milton Cider Club, one of the most generous supporters of the Centre for Local Food in Bridport, and a campaigner against second homes. I remember him writing about the latter to Country Life, which certainly counts as taking the fight to the enemy’s heartland (if enemy you judge second home owners to be).  

Anyway, on BBC Wales tonight at 10.45pm, Gerard’s life and work is covered in a half-hour programme called How Green Was My Quarry. If you’ve got Sky, you can get BBC Wales on 972.

I have not seen the programme, but according to his widow Margaret it features archive film footage from nearly all parts of Gerard’s life, and Margaret also discloses rather shyly that it may even include excerpts from a recently filmed interview with her.

To quote, finally, the BBC’s own blurb: “David Williams goes on the trail of the late Gerard Morgan-Grenville, founder of the Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleth, in How Green Was My Quarry on Wednesday 16 December on BBC One Wales.

“The English aristocrat was a highly successful businessman who turned his back on high society to start a green revolution in an old slate quarry in North Wales.”

David Williams and Gerard first met many years ago in the aftermath of the mysterious death of the CND campaigner Hilda Murrell.

Note: You can read Gerard’s obituary in The Guardian – and it has a picture of him – by clicking on this link.

Conchoderma virgatum, or the 'pyjama barnacle'

RECENT STORMS and strong south-westerly winds have brought some unusual visitors to Dorset’s beaches. Tropical crabs, birds blown off course and rare barnacles are some of the wildlife reported by Dorset Wildlife Trust.  

Six rare types of goose barnacle have washed up along the coast in recent weeks, including one, Conchoderma virgatum, which Dorset Wildlife Trust staff have nicknamed the ‘pyjama barnacle’ because of its covering of stripy skin.

Julie Hatcher, Dorset Wildlife Trust Marine Officer, said: “These animals normally spend their lives in warmer waters, drifting around the oceans of the world, hitching a lift on any floating debris, whether it be mats of seaweed, bird feathers or plastic bottles.”

The Columbus Crab, visiting Dorset for only the second time in 100 years

Very rarely, other oceanic hitch-hikers find their way to our coastline; a tropical Columbus crab has been found by local marine expert Lin Baldock on Ringstead beach.  This is only the second time in 100 years that Columbus crabs have been found here. They made national news in 2006, when around 30 of them were discovered in Dorset, following extremely stormy conditions.

Among the birds driven by the storms was a grey phalarope, a wading bird blown off course as it headed for the southern oceans from its Arctic breeding grounds. It was seen surfing the waves and picking tiny bugs from the water’s surface just below Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Fine Foundation Marine Centre. Birds, including puffins and petrels that are normally far out to sea, have also been washed up dead, battered by wind and waves and unable to feed.

Julie Hatcher added: “Now is the time to get out on the beach and search among the strandline. After such a stormy period, you never know what creatures you may turn up, and it may even be something never recorded in Dorset before. Take photos and send them to Dorset Wildlife Trust for recording. The more we know about what’s out there, the better we will be able to protect it.”

Send your marine sightings to kimmeridge@dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk or ring 01929 481044.

Note: from a press release issued by Dorset Wildlife Trust.

The terrible thing is, he’s right: I do appreciate it. I mean, you can’t look at this picture and not be curious, can you? Who owns it? Who uses it? Is there a door?

Watch YouTube video showing train journey from Bridport to Maiden Newton in 1975 by clicking on this link. Note: film is silent

WORK may start before Christmas on plans to turn the old Bridport to Maiden Newton railway line into a Trailway for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users.

An old railway bridge at Loders, between Bridport and Maiden Newton

The Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty partnership has given £5,000 towards the scheme, which is being promoted by the sustainable transport charity Sustrans.

Maiden Newton Runners have also donated £500 of funds raised through their annual NewTen Madness event.

Sustrans is also organising a raffle, with prizes including a £2,000 bike.

The Bridport line opened in November 1857, as an offshoot of the main line going up through Maiden Newton from Weymouth to Yeovil. Five trains a day ran from Bridport; it took six hours to get to London. In 1884 the line was extended to Bridport Harbour – or West Bay as it became known when the railway arrived.

The railway company thought that West Bay was a more appealing name than Bridport Harbour; a harbour was popularly supposed to be a place where “the scum of a town was to be found” (I’m quoting – from memory – a statement I once read about the name-change from 1884, or thereabouts…) Anyway, scum wasn’t the image that property developers at the time wanted to convey; their aim was to make West Bay into the Bournemouth of West Dorset. 

Circus animals used sometimes to be carried right down to West Bay; elephants would be allowed on to the beach to splash around in the sea, after their long journey in wagons.

The branch line became a well-loved part of the local landscape. Poet and author Sylvia Townsend Warner, who lived in Frome Vauchurch just outside Maiden Newton, described the locomotive as trotting obediently under the shadow of Eggardon Hill like a little horse. She also wrote of the train’s “marmalade” light.

Nevertheless, the Bridport Railway closed in 1975. John Giles-Townsend and his brother Neil boarded one of the last trains ever to run, and they made the film I’ve posted extracts from on YouTube (with the generous permission of John Giles-Townsend; his brother died in 2001).

So what does Mr Giles-Townsend make of plans to turn the old railway into a Trailway? He thinks it will be difficult. When the line closed, land was parcelled up and sold to individuals, farms, private companies and other arms of the state. (Bridport’s East Street station site is now covered by a roundabout…)

Mr Giles-Townsend, a former chairman of Bradpole Parish Council, said: “I think it would have been a marvellous idea when they closed the railway if Dorset County Council or whoever had bought the whole track, it would have been fantastic.

“But I think now it’s too late. Bits of land have been reclaimed, and I can’t see some of the owners selling up.”

But Sustrans are optimistic. They believe that over the next three or four years a lot can be achieved. To read their take on developments, you can click here.

Or for cyclists’ take on developments, you can read more by clicking on this link.

Note: Historian Richard Sims prepared a guide about the Bridport branch line, and sites associated with it, for Bridport Museum. Highly recommended, and it’s only 50p.

A snatch snot of a squirrel eating an apple, high up in the trees over the old Bridport to Maiden Newton railway line. It carried the apple - which looked as big as its head - in its mouth as it scrabbled and hopped around.

Tankers parked off the coast near Brixham are thought to be earning oil speculators £1 million per day.

The AA and the RAC claim that motorists will end up paying more for petrol because of hoarding by suppliers.

Conservationists are worried about what might happen to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site of Dorset and East Devon.

Dorset Wildlife Trust Chief Executive Simon Cripps said: “This is an accident waiting to happen.  Even a minor spill or accident would devastate one of the world’s most valuable and sensitive coasts, killing animals and plants and ruining livelihoods for years.  This is not a NIMBY approach, this is common-sense risk management.  You wouldn’t allow a 1 million tonne oil tank on the banks of the River Frome.”

The Trust says that when the oil tanker Prestige broke up on the north Spanish coast in 2002,  it took years for the coast and its communities to recover and to rebuild a reputation for healthy seafood and unpolluted tourism.

Mr Cripps continued: “The shipping companies should take this Sword of Damocles away from our coast and place these tankers more responsibly in safe harbours such as Portland, or better still take them away from sensitive areas.  A million pounds profit per day buys you a lot of responsible corporate behaviour.  We would like to see regulations to prevent them from threatening such important areas in the future.”

However, a UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman told Sky News Online the tankers were not a new sight in Lyme Bay and were not a major concern.

“This has been going on for a long time due to the geographical location – it’s like the Clapham Junction of oil storage,” he said.

“It’s a day-to-day business for us and in fact, in some of the daily bulletins sent out by the local coastguard they even list some of the vessels that are staying put.

“We do know that if you add it all up there is millions of pounds worth of oil floating out there,” he added.