The children of Topsie Rabbit Kindergarten have completed the first term in their new premises and been as busy as ever.

They continue to visit the residents of St Martins Grange; in December they made paperchains for Christmas, in February hearts for Valentines Day. The next visit planned for March will include an Easter egg hunt around the grounds.

They had their annual Remembrance Service with Revd Andy Muckle and a Harvest Festival in St Mary’s Church with Revd Eve Pegler.

They held a joint Macmillan coffee morning with Childminder Sarah Nixon and Wyke Primary School raising money for Macmillan and Keely, a child who attends Topsie Rabbit and is fighting cancer.

Special visitors Anne Kings and Hilary Drake who are Dementia Champions joined the children and Revd Eve in a Christingle Service in the setting. The children came dressed as Elves raising £35 for the Alzhiemer’s Society.

Topsie Rabbit has launched their biggest fundraiser yet to buy a defibrillator for public use in The Square. Sarah Snook, Manager of Topsie Rabbit said she has been overwhelmed by the community support. The Co-Op held a raffle raising £250, then Waitrose and Asda both accepted Sarah’s application for the green token scheme: Waitrose have raised £364 and Asda is still ongoing. Mayflowers, who are located 2 doors down from Topsie Rabbit, won the Elf Trail competition and Sandy, owner of Mayflowers, donated the prize money of £50 to the fund. She also donated money for every balloon sold for Valentines Day.

Farnfields Solicitors saw our appeal and contacted Sarah. They have been fundraising for a while to get a defibrillator outside of all of their offices. Topsie and Farnfields met in January and Sarah is delighted to be working in partnership with them. Farnfields will install the defibrillator on the outside of their building in The Square just a few yards from Topsie Rabbit. The latest fundraising was by the Crafty Ladies crochet group who on 9 February sold the items they had made in the entrance of Waitrose splitting the funds between The British Heart Foundation and Topsie Rabbit’s defibrillator appeal. The fundraising is going so well that Sarah approached Olivia Palmer, Head of Wyke Primary School and along with The Red Heron Club a second defibrillator will be purchased from the fundraiser.

The children are also busy with the planters on the Town Meadow and Gillingham Gardening Society have visited Topsie Rabbit to discuss how they can help the children with equipment.

Next new event for the children will be Woodland Fun at Wyke Primary’s Forest School.   Sarah said “I love working with the community, it adds so much more depth to the learning experience of our children. When we pass St Mary’s Church in the minibus the children shout with excitement ‘our church, our church’, now that is a true feeling of belonging.”

Every four years the International Scouting Family gets together to celebrate, learn and share experiences from their home countries. The next  International Scout Jamboree will take place in West Virginia, USA in 2019.  Dorset is the home of the International Scout Movement with Lord Baden Powell having held the first ever Scout Camp on Brownsea Island in 1907 and continuing that tradition eight North Dorset young people have been invited to join the UK Contingent headed West.

The focus of the 24th World Scout Jamboree is one of promoting ‘unity through peace, understanding and respect’.  Jamboree provides young people from around the world with a chance to push their boundaries and undertake physical challenges on site and learning experiences from the NGOs such as United Nations. Each participant comes home with a greater understanding of themselves and the world. While the seven Explorer Scouts and one Guide are excitedly looking forward to the adventure  that will take place in Summit Betchel Park, West Virginia they first have to raise the funds to get themselves there.

A major part of the preparation is fundraising the money and this is done both individually and as a regional group. The cost for each Scout or Guide attending is £3600. This covers all flights, insurance and  equipment. Given that Scouting as an organisation is about community support and social inclusion a part of these monies go to assisting a Solidarity Troop from  developing country to attend.  Our group of eight have been working hard to construct a collective fundraising strategy and have organised a series of raffles, bingo nights, stalls at Shaftesbury’s Gold Hill Fair, Blandford’s Georgian Fair and the Christmas fairs and supermarket bag packs. As part of the local Scout groups the young people also participate in assisting local groups and organisations like Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show, the Sturminster Cheese Festival and Gold Hill 10KM run.

These eight members of the Jurassic Unit are actively seeking public support and private sponsorship for all their fundraising activities. The fundraising group can be contacted on ndjamboree2019@gmail.com or @northjurassic21 on Twitter.

Shaftesbury Civic Society responds to North Dorset District Council’s Local Plan revision

Following a lively session with Civic Society members and other guests, SCS has completed its response to the District Council’s questionnaire. At the meeting it was clear that local people care deeply about their community and its future direction.

In the survey, North Dorset Council asked whether their target of 366 homes built each year was acceptable. Whilst it was felt not appropriate to answer questions about specific numbers of houses as there was not enough information about the wishes of other the North Dorset towns, Shaftesbury residents made it clear that they felt that they had taken a sufficient share at this early stage of the plan’s life. People wanted time to assimilate properly the new residents to enable a sustainable and coherent community to be built.

Shaftesbury’s unique environment and landscape must be protected and this has been made quite clear in the Civic Society’s responses. As the jewel in the crown of North Dorset, attracting visitors both to the town and to the area, this little town embedded in woodland must be looked after and our slopes preserved to maintain the views both from the town outwards and form the AONB and National Trust lands inwards.

Of great concern was the future of the land designated as a corridor for the Shaftesbury by-pass. This must be preserved and every effort made to find a solution to the destructive pressure caused by HGVs on both the A350, B3081/ C13, the two roads running between Shaftesbury and Blandford.  The heavy traffic along Christies Lane also divides the town into two parts and measures must be taken to influence not only Dorset County Council but Wiltshire and the Bath and North East Somerset authorities to continue to find a national solution for the problem of a trunk route between Poole and the M4.

Shaftesbury cares positively about its future and Shaftesbury Civic Society will endeavour to promote those views.

Gillingham Local History Society – Historic Buildings Register

Do you recognise this?

The Gillingham Local History Society has begun a project to identify and record the details of all historic buildings in the town. The aim is to record the details of all properties built before 1914. The information will include references to architectural features, past and present uses, past owners and occupiers, and any associated historical features or events. The register will be a major contribution towards understanding the town’s built heritage.

The Society would be very pleased to hear from anyone with access to past title deeds to older properties, such as leases, conveyances, etc. Anyone willing to make these available to the Society for viewing should contact the Gillingham Museum at Office@gillinghammuseum.co.uk or on 01747 826235

The picture shows The Barton, Queen Street, Gillingham

Postponed due to the snow and will now take place on Saturday 17th March (see below)

It was a glassy eyed stare that met the class on the first lesson every Monday. Mainly because the English teacher, “Killer” Rodley, had a glass eye. We were never sure which eye was glass and which was real, as Killer always seemed able to see equally well out of both eyes when there was mischief amongst the boys of Form 2B, which was most days. And on Monday mornings after a school holiday, whether six weeks in summer or a scant few days in freezing February, it would be the same.

‘Write at least two pages about, “What I did on my holidays”, you have forty minutes, and complete silence is required.’

The groan from the class on each of these occasions was necessarily silent. Mr Rodley’s     nickname was well earned, and every term he looked for an opportunity to ensure his pupils knew why. Those who lifted their heads from their writing were met with Killer’s baleful glare, and nobody wanted to meet that look more than once.

We found this exercise almost impossible. The likelihood of any of us having been on holiday was less than slim. Time not at school was spent in the park or on the streets, and invariably involved football. A subject as distant from Mr Rodley’s interest as the beaches of the Mediterranean were from the northern council estate we called home. The fate of a boy who had written about football had become legend in the school, and none of our juvenile scribbling risked the subject.

Apart from football Mr Rodley did not care what we wrote about. Attempts to find family events significant enough quickly gave way to imagination. It became a playground             competition to see who could spin the most outlandish stories.

I had completely forgotten Mr Rodley and his exercises until fifteen years later. I happened to be staying in Wells. I was mooching around town when I saw it, filling the window of Waterstones, “What I did on my Holidays – Vol 8, Book Signing Today”. I had to have a look. The book was a collection of short stories. I skimmed a couple then one caught my eye. It felt familiar, I knew what it was about. Names and locations had been changed and the writing was no longer that of a twelve-year-old, but it was my schoolboy story.   I looked at the author’s name, “Rocky Kidler”, it was just too close.

There was a long queue to have copies signed but there he was at the desk, older, of course. I waited in line. At the desk he took my book and opened it to the title page.

‘Who should I dedicate it to?’ he said.

‘Make it out to Turner, Form 2B.’

He looked at me. ‘Ah yes, Turner, I recognise you. You were always one of the more       imaginative ones.’ He signed the book and handed it back saying, ‘now you know what I did on my holidays.’

Gardening Author Anna Pavord At Shaftesbury’s Snowdrop Festival

by Keri Jones

“If you’ve caught the gardening bug then you will be saved for life,” Anna Pavord told me. “When you’re feeling down, gardening helps immeasurably.”

Anna’s unique and uplifting perspective on Britain’s favourite outdoor pastime has delighted her newspaper article readers for decades. And as raindrops streamed down the window, Anna surprised me by sharing her joy in Britain’s unpredictable climate. “It’s that uncertainty that makes the gardener feel gaiety and delight,” she explained. “You don’t have the faintest idea of how it’s going to end up so you make the most of the moment.”

With such unbridled enthusiasm for gardening, I could understand why Anna’s Shaftesbury Snowdrop Festival Study Day talk was expected to be a sell out.

Anna believes that her distinctive writing style is a result of a childhood visit to an Abergavenny chapel, where an orator’s powerful words from the pulpit made a lasting impression on her. “The Welsh love words,” Anna smiled. “You are brought up with wonderful language and singing around you.”

The author’s first copywriting job honed her keyboard creativity and made Anna the perfect choice for The Independent’s gardening column, in time for the newspaper’s 1986 launch. Anna’s journalism duties introduced her to “real snowdrop people” including bulb specialists Matt Bishop and Alan Street, who enthused about Shaftesbury’s celebration.

“These gatherings have become a big thing because snowdrops are a mania,” Anna said. “On eBay, people can pay hundreds of pounds for single bulb.”

Snowdrops haven’t quite reached the historic value of tulips, the subject of Anna’s 1998 best selling book. And even if that happened, Anna’s passion for snowdrops can’t be measured in pounds.   She told me that she’s fond of the flowers because of their simplicity. “They enchant me,” Anna said. “I love the way in which they naturalise, shaking hands between your garden and the wider landscape beyond. I like to see snowdrops growing in valleys and down banks, rather than a special bulb on its own selling for £60,” Anna explained.

Throughout our chat, Anna stressed how gardens and gardening can enhance people’s lives.

“John Sales used to be the National Trust’s Head of Gardening and he brought me two snowdrops, Anglesey Abbey and Lynn, as presents. Our gardens become a web of memories. As we walk through them we remember how we got the plants and recall the people who brought them to us,” said Anna.

Anna’s talk focused on the different bulbs that gardeners can plant on a month-by-month basis to ensure year-round interest in the garden. Anna promised that she wouldn’t be issuing a ‘to-do list’ during her lecture, but intended to inspire her audience.

“I would like people to go away feeling excited about the year ahead and thrilled that they have caught the gardening bug,” Anna told me. And with Anna’s extensive knowledge and her infectious passion, I expect the bug will spread rapidly.

Wonderful news now that anyone living with any form of dementia and memory loss can enjoy the free  ‘Swimming For The Brain’ sessions at Riversmeet Gillingham.

Every GP practice recognises that physical exercise and socialising help with quality of life, improving physical and mental wellbeing.  And since ‘Swimming for the Brain’ started in September the benefits to those who have been swimming has been encouraging; so it’s really good news that anyone who has dementia or memory loss, can now enjoy this activity.

In the beginning it was restricted to just patients from the Gillingham Surgeries, but following a recent meeting it’s been decided to open up the sessions to anyone who wishes to come along.  This will be good news to people who we know wanted to come from places outside the Gillingham area because they will now be welcome.

Everyone is invited to bring a carer or someone who may wish to join them in the water.

The sessions run each week on Thursdays, for an hour from 11am – 12noon. So if you feel you would like to share in the experience of this wonderful water therapy then all you have to do is just turn up, and enjoy this benefiting social activity in the watchful eye of all dementia aware Riversmeet staff.

Contact info@riversmeetgillingham.org     

Telephone 01747 834013

It’s been a phenomenal year for Charlene Higgins the consultant for Shaftesbury Slimming World groups. Not only has she supported more and more people to achieve their weight loss dreams but she has also received awards every single month for her successful groups.

Every month Charlene and her fellow consultants on her team ‘North Dorset and The Sturs’ attend a team gathering with their team developer Tracey Oldfield, also a consultant in Blandford; these meetings are to help the consultants develop within their role and give recognition for a number of awards. Every month in 2017 Charlene has been in the top 3 for the best warm and friendly group for her Tuesday evening group 5.30pm or 7.30pm and her Friday morning group 9.30am or 11.30am. This award is based on a combination of  things from attendance, to  weight loss and retention of the groups themselves.

Charlene says “I feel  so  very lucky to be doing  a job that has so much satisfaction. To see lives transform and health problems improve is a huge honour and I am extremely grateful that the public choose my groups to join week in week out. We really are a company that touch hearts and change lives”.

Charlene is proud to  welcome new and returning members to her sessions in Shaftesbury at the Royal Chase Hotel on Tuesday 5.30pm or 7.30pm or  Friday 9.30am or 11.30am. She also has a group in Gillingham at the Vicarage School Room on Wednesdays 5.30pm or 7.30pm. Her contact number is 07857392682

It was the most humbling experience watching the volunteers and guests arrive for the Gillingham Community Christmas Meal 2017. To see how the community pulled together and delivered the most wonderful day for the people of Gillingham and surrounding towns. The Methodist Church Hall rang out with laughter, music and mayhem as wafts of turkey and gravy pervaded the room. In total we had 58 guests for dinner including some that we took meals to. Over three days we had 60 volunteers, and we had so many donations of foodstuff, gifts and help from the whole community.

Grateful thanks have to go to everyone who helped particularly these businesses, who are listed in no particular order; without all of them the day would not have been such a success:

Even before the day many people had been involved in the build-up and preparation and the wonderful decorating of the hall on Christmas Eve.   As guests arrived for the day they were welcomed by an incredible collaboration of local singers and choir members organised by Gillingham Art Workshop who although had not sung as a group together before came along and led us all in familiar favourite carols. Mayor Belinda Rideout thanked the volunteers and launched the meal service.

The guests tucked into a wonderful 3 course meal with leek and potato soup, turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, fabulous roasties, parsnips, carrots and of course sprouts. To finish off there was cheese cakes, chocolate cake, rhubarb crumble, chocolate fudge brownie and lemon meringue pie, shortbread, mince pies and plenty of juice or tea and coffee to wash it all down.   Some fantastic servers and waiters dished the meal out and made sure everyone had everything they wanted.

Father Christmas made a slightly unscheduled stop on his way back to Lapland to hand out presents to all our lovely guests. Then to finish off the day, the singers from No Fixed Abode took to the floor and entertained the hall, with many guests joining in old favourites and singing along. In the background a small army of volunteers cleared, washed and dried plates, bowls, cutlery, made up party bags for each guest to take home with Christmas cards made by Topsie Rabbit and St Mary the Virgin Nursery children. They added the gingerbread men that had been made by Gillingham Primary School children.

Suddenly it was time for our guests to leave and they began saying their goodbyes and collection of their presents and goody bags. A few volunteers remained for a brief clear up. More volunteers arrived early on boxing day to clear the hall completely. Our grateful thanks to all at the Methodist Church for allowing us to use the hall for three days. It does make a difference.

Our thanks also go way beyond the list below. Many volunteers popped in with bits on the day or helped decorate or clear popping in and out. Others donated presents and food or equipment without which we could not lay on the day.   We thank all the unnamed helpers who did so much and also huge thanks to those below who came along on the day itself:

On a personal note, young people often get a bad press but we were blown away by the number of youngsters in their teens or early 20s who came along to help.   There was a wonderful mix of old and young with both the volunteers and the guests.   It is wonderful to see our youngsters giving so much back.

Just because Christmas has been brushed away, the planning for next year’s meal carries on behind the scenes so if you would like to be part of this please email   gillinghamchristmasmeal@gmail.com and we can update you as things progress.