THIS IS the story of Lester Cowling’s 15-month battle with Dorset County Council over a parking ticket. It raises some worrying questions

BRIDPORT’s iconic Café Royal has been sold at auction for £260,000 to Nicholas de Savary. UPDATED

TWO WIND turbines reaching as high into the sky as the biggest masts at Rampisham radio station could be erected on the summit of Toller Down in Dorset. Farmer Henry Lovegrove, of Comforts Orchard, Corscombe, wants to put a pair of turbines near the A356, up along from the Rampisham site. The machines could generate [...]

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.

AT LEAST 150 YEARS of Dorset history can be explored in fascinating detail through the archives of Cosens, once Weymouth’s largest employer. The spread of tourism, the fortunes of the Navy, the grandeur of paddle steamers, the fragile life of piers, the differing economic merits of shipwrecks, chimpanzees and striptease, these are just some of [...]

Bridport Hat Festival’s main organiser Roger Snook: “Everybody’s happy, everybody’s wearing a hat – what more could you wish for?”

A FILM about Beaminster’s renowned furniture maker John Makepeace has been produced to celebrate his 50 years at the forefront of British design.

CIDER made by award-winning West Dorset cider maker Nick Poole has gone on sale for the first time in shops and pubs. Unsurprisingly, it’s proving popular – a decade of hard and thoughtful work has gone into it. Mr Poole set up West Milton Cider Club near Bridport 10 years ago – the video above [...]

A VISIONARY scheme putting West Dorset at the forefront of architectural and environmental education is bursting with new life. Hooke Park near Beaminster already boasts some of the most extraordinary buildings in Britain (see video), discussed by architects all over the world. Now the Architectural Association, which owns the 350-acre site, has been given outline [...]

A MUSIC video made for Dorset County Council has been scorned as “truly crackpot” by the Taxpayers’ Alliance. It shows the singing of a song called The Promise, written by the former Burton Bradstock School headteacher David Powell, now Dorset’s principal primary inspector. The Promise was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the UNICEF Convention on the [...]