About £2,000 must be raised this Friday night (March 12) to ensure that entrance to Bridport Museum in South Street collection remains free this year.

Star lots include the use of three holiday homes, one in Chamonix, one in Cornwall, and one in London.

Also on offer are two paintings by artist Philomena Harmsworth, a dolphin-watching session, and a table arrangement masterclass by florists Lavender Blue.

Curator Alice Martin said: “We’ve had an absolutely amazing response from everyone we asked.

“People have really understood how important the museum is to the cultural life of Bridport and have been very generous as a result.

Just what the doctor ordered: Bridport Museum curator Alice Martin with catalogue of promises and a model of historic Bridport apothecary Dr Roberts

“We now have to hope that enough people come along and get bidding so that we can raise the necessary money.

“We are already off to a great start after Denhay Farms gave us £300.

“But so many of the things that people have donated are the kind of items that normally money couldn’t buy.

“So it’s all up to our auctioneer Jim Rowe from estate agents Symonds and Sampson to make up the rest.

“If we can keep the museum free this year it’s hoped that we will be able to scrap admission charges for good.”

Bridport Museum saw visitor numbers double after it dropped its £2.50 admission charge last year.

Anyone unable to attend the auction on the night may still take part by contacting the museum office on 01308 458703 and leaving a maximum bid.

Catalogues ­- which are free – can be picked up from Bridport Arts Centre and Bridport Music.

And people will be able to follow the auction, which is being held at Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, live on Twitter from 7.30pm on Friday.

Doors open at 7pm and the auction commences at 7.30pm. Entry is £2.

The full list of lots:

 £100 voucher for Hix Oyster & Fish House

Leisure Centre induction and joining fee

Fishing trip for one on Ruby Jay

Week’s rental for four in Cornwall cottage

Mini-facial at Beauty and Beyond.

2 x Brace of pheasants.

Family history research.

2 x paintings by Philomena Harmsworth.

Family weekend bike hire from Revolutions.

Round of golf for four at Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club.

Guided walk along Jurassic Coast with Earth Science Manager Richard Edmunds.

Flight for one in a Ran6 airplane.

Jaxson’s Deli Hamper.

Dolphin watching with Marinelife.

Real Tennis lesson at The Hyde.

Pass to Mapperton House.

Computer doctor with Mark Beed.

Bottle of champagne.

Dinner for four at The Bull’s The Stable.

Pottery lesson with Miles Bell at Symondsbury Pottery.

Washingpool Hamper.

Clay pigeon shooting for two at Bridport Clay pigeon club.

£100 furniture restoration by English Home Antiques.

Knitted garment by Sandra Brown.

Personal or Business Security consultation by Bridport Police.

Family portrait by photographer George Wright.

Dinner for two at the Olive Tree.

A tour behind the scenes of the Museum.

One week holiday let for six in Chamonix.

A year’s subscription to Dorset Life.

2x Palmer’s Brewery tour.

Guided heritage walk of Bridport.

Forest Products hamper.

Handmade set of silver ammonite stud earrings by Goldfinger.

Paragliding taster session.

One hour boat trip on the Ruby Jay.

Three night’s use of central London flat.

Horwood’s Landscape Gardening spring clean.

Swimming membership at Highland’s End Leisure Club.

Year’s full membership of Dorset County Museum

The Leaker’s bread-making masterclass.

A Carlton Ware plate.

Peppers by Post seed selection.

Table arrangement masterclass by Lavender Blue.

2 x tickets for Hitler Moustache at the Electric Palace.

Child’s DVD postcard by Margie Barbour.

Haircut and restyle by Designers Edge Unisex salon.

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.

Come to Bridport... We're having a Hat Festival

It could become the world’s biggest celebration of headwear and millinery, and it should provide an additional incentive for tourists to visit Dorset in the early autumn.

The plans are being backed by some of the industry’s biggest names.

The first Hatfest will run for three days from Friday, September 17 to Sunday, September 19. It will include themed talks, demonstrations, gigs, street theatre, workshops, exhibitions and competitions. There will also be a few surprises revealed nearer the time.

The festival will aim to teach us more about hats...

... and particularly to remind us how stylish they can be

The man behind the festival is Roger Snook whose West Street shop, T Snooks, attracts customers from around the globe, including many celebrities.

Roger said: “It is a project that I”ve been considering for a little while now. I think it’s something that would benefit the whole town.

“When I first started thinking about it I was convinced there must already be one already in existence somewhere in the UK ­ but there isn’t.

“Winchester has a hat festival but that’s for street entertainers, the only other ones are in France and Egypt.

“The Bridport Hat Festival is to be an annual event to remind people just how stylish wearing hats can be, and how stylish Bridport can be.

“This should be good for local traders, the town generally and the whole hat industry. There are so few hat shops left in the country, and it’s a real shame.

“I have hat aficionados coming to my shop from as far afield as Derby and Norwich. People that are serious about their hats go mad for them.

“And, apart from anything else, a hat festival would just be great fun. It will attract people to the town and be a great early autumn attraction.

Help fill in the details...

“If anyone has any more ideas than we’d love to hear from you.”

You can contact Roger at roger@rsnook.fsnet.co.uk or by calling 01308 458224.

Roger Snook, in his South Street shop, wearing his own Colonial Panama trimmed white

One of his many achievements is the Practical Insight series of books, written for teachers and parents wishing to entertain and educate their children as they explore our beautiful West Country. First up was a book on fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast, a local best seller which is also sold at the Natural History Museum in London. “Written in a clear and informative style,” said The Marshwood Vale magazine, “it begins with an explanation of just why there are so many fossils in the area, and an overview of Jurassic sea life. It is filled with clear diagrams and drawings,  and makes even the most complicated geology accessible.”

All the books incorporate a minimum of 40 original line drawings by the author, whose artwork has been seen at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers, and The Centre Nationale in Paris.

At the March 4 talk, which starts at 7.30pm, there will also be an exhibition of some of the items he has unearthed in The Undercliff, including this exquisite Victorian penny found in prime condition.

Admission is £2 for members, £3 for non-members, and further information can be obtained from Margaret Rose on 01297-445503.

Margaret Rose is Chairman of The Friends of Lyme Regis Museum

BRIDPORT 1/D/09/002009 & 1/D/09/002010 Conservation area and listed building. Satellite dish Electric Palace, South Street (From the latest list of planning applications issued by West Dorset District Council) 

It's amazing what you can do these days: An artist's impression of the proposed Electric Palace satellite dish. Reproduced with permission.

THIS is a cool idea. Honestly, it is. The 1.2m satellite dish proposed for the south wall of the Electric Palace is not just any old dish. It is bespoke.

It will take in feeds from the National Theatre in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York and let audiences watch live performances on the Palace’s cinema screen. The picture quality is said to be fantastic.

First up, if planning permission is granted in time by West Dorset District Council, and if a few other issues are sorted out, there should be a new operatic production of Hamlet with “an extended mad scene… amongst the greatest in opera”. So the Metropolitan Opera promises for March 27…

Next on April 22 should be Alan Bennet’s new play The Habit of Art, about WH Auden and Benjamin Britten, from the National Theatre in London.

It was the Met in New York that first got this idea of worldwide transmission going, and it’s been copied by the National’s supremo Nicholas Hytner because he wants to provide greater access to top-class work.

His line: “I grew up in Manchester in the 60s. If I had been able to see Olivier’s National Theatre at my local cinema, I would have gone all of the time.”

Apparently it costs the National about £50,000 to broadcast a performance, and the experiment has been criticised as misguided and inevitably inferior, because there cannot be the same flow of feeling between audience and performers, but it seems to me that the Palace should be congratulated for trying to join in. Bridport needs more bold moves.

A long time supporter of the Museum, and at one time co-curator with her friend, the author John Fowles, Ann Jellicoe trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She was a central figure at London’s Royal Court Theatre in the sixties, taking the theatrical world by storm with The Knack: it subsequently played, and still plays, all round the world, and was made into an award-winning film which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

She will also talk of her work in developing Community Plays: a new form which aims to involve as many people from the whole community as possible, working together in setting up and acting a very large caste play about their own town. Many Lyme residents will remember her very first Community Play The Reckoning in 1978. Written and directed by Ann Jellicoe, it told the story of the part played by the town in the Monmouth Rebellion. Its huge success led her to set up the Colway Theatre Trust with its subsequent development of Community Plays throughout the West Country and beyond. In 1984 came the second Lyme play, The Western Women, about the remarkable role played by women in the Siege of Lyme. For this work she was awarded the OBE.

Ever the innovator, she gave a one-woman dramatised reading of The Western Women at the Marine Theatre two years ago. Of this performance, given when she was 80 years old, the Town Mill’s journal said: “This was genius…such an evening is very rare and we were privileged to be part of it.”

Ann Jellicoe has been at the cutting edge of theatre in this country for the past 50 years.   She has a fascinating tale to tell, and guests will have a unique opportunity to question her on all aspects of her work: writing, acting, directing, or creating theatre of the people, for the people, by the people.

Reservations, £25 per person, must be pre-booked by lst February at the latest so that catering arrangements can be finalised.

For further information please contact me, Margaret Rose on 01297-445503.

Margaret Rose is Chairman of The Friends of Lyme Regis Museum

Dope Under Thorncombe, a melodrama based around West Bay, was made by local people under the direction of amateur filmmaker Frank Trevett.

His daughter, Vivienne Smith, pictured with the camera that captured the story, handed the film over to rural media charity Trilith for safekeeping.

Trilith’s Trevor Bailey said: “It was shot on 9.5mm film, the amateur’s favourite film choice in the 1930s. It was an amazing project for local people to take on and has been crying out to be given its own special music and to be seen more widely.”

The film receives its musical premiere at Bridport Arts Centre on February 11 at 7.30pm.

Mrs Smith, who lives in Bridport, said: “My father bought the cine camera when my brother, Rex Trevett, was born and that was in 1933 for filming the family. Dad was very keen on his hobbies – he’d throw himself with much enthusiasm into any hobby.

“He liked using his cine camera and thought he’d like to do something different to filming the family.”

Thriller writer Andrew Spiller, who lived locally, offered to write the story, which is about dope smuggling under Thorncombe Beacon. Frank Trevett, who was a hairdresser, enlisted his family and friends for the starring roles.

“They did it purely for their own pleasure, their own enjoyment,” Mrs Smith said.

“They would be so thrilled to think that it is going to be seen. Dad would be so pleased, they all would be, that it hasn’t been lost and forgotten.”

Rachel Leach previously worked with Trilith on a ‘radio ballad’, which combined music and the memories of people who worked in Dorset cinemas in their great days. 

She has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Aldeburgh Festival, Glyndebourne Opera, Opera North and many others. Her music has been performed at major venues and she has created music for children and for BBC broadcasts.

West Dorset District Council and the PRS Foundation have funded Trilith to commission the music.

A live performance of the score and film can also be seen at Burton Bradstock on April 24. A recorded version at Eype Centre for the Arts is due to be staged on March 6.

The project has also seen the creation of a website that includes photographs and interviews with local people by journalist Margery Hookings. This will be officially launched later in the year.

Funding for this part of the project came from the new Digital Film Archive Fund, administered by South West Screen.

Trevor Bailey said: “The aim is to draw the website’s visitors from initial interest in the place or in the arts to fascination with films and vice versa. In tourism terms, it will promote the idea of coming to see where the film was shot.”

Tickets for the live premiere cost £6 and can be obtained from Bridport Arts Centre online at www.bridport-arts.com or by calling the box office on 01308 424204.

Note: 1) This is a lightly edited version of a press release issued by Trilith.

2) After the performance at Bridport Arts Centre, the editor of this site (Jonathan Hudston) will be looking to record interviews with members of the audience, to gather reaction to the show. So, if you go, and you’d like to have a chat afterwards, I’d be very pleased to meet you.

I suppose it’s true these days that there might be girls and women who genuinely prefer pasta or even rice or cous-cous… and I can think of men who don’t mind eating these potato-substitutes (sometimes), but their inner Homer Simpson soon goes back to craving spuds.

They are irresistible and fascinating, hence:

And it’s just before Valentine’s Day…

One of the organisers is Brian Hesketh, who’s expecting Drimpton’s third annual potato day to be busy: “We have been quite surprised how well supported it was on the first two occasions, it seems to be meeting a need.”

Mr Hesketh has his own gardening blog covering the Dorset / Somerset borderlands near Drimpton (click here to link). “As gardeners,” he writes, in a philosophical moment, “we are amongst the stewards of Nature’s Life Support Systems, offering up not just tasty lunch time snacks, but also practical examples of sustainable methods, environmental awareness and harmonious living with nature.”

He publishes lots of appealing photographs, including this, an orb-like turnip amidst diamonds of ice: 

“Much easier to dig up than parsnips,” comments Mr Hesketh, as proved by this picture:

Which made me think of a fabulous essay by John  Carey, called “Vegetable Gardening” in Original Copy (Faber, 1987). He writes about how “it’s an immense and exacting pleasure to grow” parsnips, and continues:

“Come the summer, you pull out all but one of the seedlings from each cluster – pale gold pencils, with feathery tops, which it always gives you a pang to throw on a compost heap, though there’s nothing else to be done with them.

“Then, as the winter approaches, the great spreading leaves of the survivors rot and yellow, and the parsnips withdraw into their subterraranean existence until, some time after Christmas, the time comes to crack the frosty crust over them and lug them out gross, whiskered and reeking, from their lairs.”

Isn’t that fantastic? Especially the last bit. If there’s a better passage ever been written about parsnips, I’ve yet to read it!

One final thing I would love to know if anyone has the answer: Why do parsnips sold dirty taste better than ones sold clean?

By Category > Activities/Nature (sports, gardens, walks, trails, wildlife)
<http://tinyurl.com/yl6du5u > Flight’s Country Music Club

Top class country music banos – no lice dancing – Last Saturday in the month

Happy Christmas!

(And thank you for this to Trevor Bevins)

Roger Lloyd Pack (aka Trigger) is going to be reading through Pinter’s 1995 play Ashes to Ashes. He’ll appear with Harriet Walter as part of A Pinter Celebration day on January 30.

Also on that day: Pinter’s widow Lady Antonia Fraser will talking about her new memoir Must You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter, and there will be a screening of Working With Pinter, a film about the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pinter had a gift for film; it’s often forgotten that he, and not John Fowles, wrote the screenplay for the film of Fowles’ novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

There are some entertainingly tangy pages about Pinter and Fowles himself in Volume 2 of Fowles’ Journals.

“Another story went round on the first day of shooting. One of the electricians said to his mate, ‘Who are those two geezers over there?’

‘Wake up. That’s the bloke who wrote the book and the script-writer.’

‘Well, I realized the bearded git was a writer. That other one looks like a secondhand car salesman.’

Harold does dress with some sharpness, and never informally.”

Composer Rachel Leach

Another highlight – and another film – is the screening on February 11 of Dope Under Thorncombe, a silent melodrama shot locally in the 1930s with many members of the Trevett family. This should be a tremendous occasion, because the film will be accompanied for the first time by Rachel Leach’s specially commissioned score, played live by musicians in the auditorium. I was talking recently about this to Trevor Bailey, formerly of Trilith, who commissioned Ms Leach, and he reckons it’s going to be fabulous. If Mr Bailey says something is going to be good, you can tell yourself you’re going to be in for a treat.

For more details, see Bridport Arts Centre’s Spring 2010 brochure, available now, or click here to visit the centre’s website.