DORSET’s newest outdoor event, the Spring Countryside Show, at the Turnpike Showground near Motcombe, was a big hit and a 2023 show is already being planned. Around 12,000 people attended the two-day show, which was organised by the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show team, showcasing rural life and crafts as well as featuring live music, steam…
ONE of Britain’s rarest birds, the dimunitive Dartford warbler, which was threatened with extinction, with just a handful of pairs in Dorset in the 1960s, has made an impressive come-back, with 183 pairs recorded on RSPB reserves in 2021. The recently launched RSPB Ecology Report records this good news, which is attributed to concerted conservation…
BRISTOL-based singers and performers including Lady Nade and Phil King will be taking to the stage on College Grain for Bristol’s Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday 5th June, a partnership between the cathedral and local community groups. This year’s Big Lunch is celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It will be a full day free event,…
SUSTAINABILITY is at the heart of a new show which is being held in the walled garden at Stourhead, the National Trust’s house and grounds near Mere in Wiltshire, over the weekend 29th April to 2nd May. Planted Country will include talks, workshops, exhibitions, and stands, with a particular emphasis on brands which champion sustainable…
STEP back in time to 1580, and meet the Martyn family of Athelhampton at an Easter living history event which will take visitors back into the world of a Catholic family in the Tudor period. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and smells of Athelhampton House in the 16th Century. All levels of society from…
THINK of Devon and food and you instantly picture cream teas and the finest fresh fish, but the county has a lot more to offer on the culinary front, from brewery tours to wine tasting to food festivals. Here’s a taste of what’s available across the county this spring and summer: Brewery Tour at Salcombe…
DORSET-based Activate is joining forces with outdoor arts company Walk The Plank this summer, inviting hundreds of local people to come together one evening in June, to create art that connects with the landscape of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The project, Green Space Dark Skies, is part of a UK-wide celebration of…
THE new Shaftesbury Book Festival, running from 11th to 13th March is Reading The Land, an invitation to share in the passion, experience and insight of our authors as we explore the best of nature writing. The theme reflects the experience of so many of us, through nearly two years of lockdowns and the restrictions…
ADRENALINE junkies who are also scaredy-cats can get their kicks in celluloid as the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour returns to theatres around our region with short films that will literally take your breath away (and leave you feeling glad you are tucked up in a comfortable seat)! This year’s crop of short films, from…
SOMERSET Day this year is on 11th May, so with about 100 days to go, the organisers are encouraging people across the county to fly the Somerset flag and support the 2022 campaign, “Fly the Flag for Somerset – Living our Heritage.” As organiser Nigel Muers-Raby says, there is an abundance of organisations within Somerset…