Campsite Updates April & May 2022
Before Easter it was necessary to employ Bibi and Alex the cleaners to spring clean the cabin after the winter. (1, 2) Then during a PAT test it was discovered that 4 out of 5 of my electric hookup boxes on the site needed replacing. (This was not in my budget!) (3, 4).
On top of that it was found that one of the cables had been driven over by a mowing machine and left unprotected – and then covered up by a block. (5) It is unclear how long ago this happened!
It was also necessary to resurface the hard standing in front of the garden ready for the Easter and Whitsun campers. (6, 7)
I was busy throughout April and we had good weather. (8)
At the end of April Rebecca arrived at the campsite. (9) She was on a 3-week bicycle tour of the South West. She started off in Honiton and then travelled through Devon to Padstow, looped back through to Plymouth and thence on to West Dorset. She was following the National Cycle Route 2.
This was part of the last leg of this particular leg of journey. In each county, Rebecca was climbing the "County Tops" (the highest hill in each county). She was climbing Lewesdon Hill, a few miles from Bluntshay, the following day. She said that it was her second bicycle tour as she was on the Transamerica Trail in 2018. In a few days she was getting back home to the Midlands by train!
The Davies family came with their extended family for a weekend and enjoyed cooking on an open fire. They brought with them a petromax fire pit (10) on which they can use cast iron cookware. You can see a wok hanging from the tripod which they cooked breakfast on – fried rice as they had Thai members within their family. They also used cast iron Dutch ovens to cook meals – sometimes they cooked roast chicken or even pizza in them! (11)
Buy Sylvias Book
Dorset’s Western Vale
After travelling in many parts of the world the author came home to West Dorset to find a much-changed Marshwood Vale from her youth. In order to capture the changes she decided to research the social history of Whitchurch Canonicorum and other parts of the Marshwood Vale from approximately 1880 to 1985 before all recollection was lost of what was becoming another world.
The book also includes 80 black and white photos, a map and legend of the parish of Whitchurch, local sayings a sample of the dialect, an index of people’s names from the text and an index of local place names used in the text.
Farm Updates April & May 2022
The boar, Nelson, finally arrived to spend time with Gertrude and Wilbur, the sows. (12) I have been waiting for this moment for some months! He arrived on 28th May so now we will have to wait for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days for the birth of piglets. This date will be approximately 13th September.
Alisha acquired 5 baby orphan lambs who spent the night in the old stables. They were put out to grass every day in the rick barton (13) until they were big enough, and weaned, to stay out all night.
Easter In West Dorset
The Weller family, who are now regular campers at Bluntshay, organised an Easter Egg hunt for the children in their group. The scene was set with lots of Easter items adjacent to their tent (14) and a few toys close by (15). Markers were laid out (16, 17) to give the children clues. Then the children were ready for the hunt! (18) So off they went (19) and found most of them! (20, 21, 22) They had a great time.
Whitchurch church was beautifully decorated for Easter, and the Resurrection scene was particularly moving. (23). My contribution was an apple blossom (as I had no other flowers). (24)
Also over the same period the Marshwood Vale Young Farmers Club arranged a bingo. (25, 26) Around 110 people attended and £1,146.94 was made on the event including the raffle. £190 from the raffle was donated to Ukraine, and a substantial amount went to the Air Ambulance.
A Visit To Strongate Farm For Cream Tea
We drove down this very long. narrow lane from the Salway Ash road to the cream tea and hoped that we wouldn't meet anything coming the other way!
Strongate Farmhouse is a grade 2 listed building that dates back to the 17th century. (28)
Unfortunately, the weather was not brilliant so after getting our cream tea and a piece of delicious cake (29) we made our way to a small marquee. (30) A few minutes later a gust of wind took one side of the marquee into the air and was rescued just in time before it flew into the next field! (31)
The weather cleared up a little to allow us to browse through some of the stalls. (32) The farm has plenty of relics from a bygone age just like Bluntshay. (33)
I was surprised to see a cockerel and two hens in a poultry ark, (34) and can only think that perhaps the cockerel had to be kept in during the event lest it attacked strangers if it was on the loose! Strongate Farm usually has free-range poultry including geese.
Marshwood Vale Young Farmers' Club Race Meeting 2022
This event was organised by the Marshwood Vale Young Farmers' Club and was held at Whitchurch Village Hall in May. Joanna and Wally were two of the principal players in the event, (36) and Philip was behind the bar. (37) The entrance fee included supper and 65 people attended. (38)
Before each race the "Jockey Silks", and the names of the horses were shown on the screen, (39, 40)
Pat, Sylvia and Joanna were the "bookies" (41) and had a steady stream of "punters" putting on bets for each race.
Then the race was on. (42) I overheard one "punter" complain that all the horses should have trotted around the paddock before the race so that one can choose a horse that has a shiny coat, a nicely arched neck, spring in his stride and alert, energised demeanour.
Once the race was over all the winners made their way quickly up to the "bookies" to get their winnings. Joanna, a trainee accountant, had a spreadsheet programme on her laptop that quickly calculated how much each "punter" had won. (43) The event raised £965 all together. The majority of this went to buying Jubilee mugs for all the children in the Whitchurch area.
Clock Face Returns To Dorst Church In Whitchurch Canonicorum
You may remember that I wrote about the taking down of the clock face in the summer of 2020 in my February 2021 newsletter. During the inspection to ascertain what repairs would be necessary, it was found that the minute hand was wobbling a bit, and also that the clock face would benefit from redecoration. (44)
The wooden supports from behind the dial were in a bad way. (45) They were carefully removed and replaced with seasoned oak shaped to fit the curvature of the dial. The iron rib strip around the perimeter of the clock face had to be removed after all the rivets were taken out. The rib was stripped of paint, and the rust was treated to stop further corrosion.
The rib and the clock was painted with a darker blue shade that matched the blue colour found under the hands, as the original paint had faded since the dial was placed on the tower in the 18th century.
So the clock face arrived back at the church in April this year. The first job was for the steeplejack (Geoff) to climb to the top of the tower and secure the abseiling ropes around the cornerstones. (46)
He then abseiled down the front of the tower. Here he collected the dial (47) (weighing several hundredweight) and with the help of a pulley system operated by Chris Hawkins and David Barrance it was slowly raised until it reached the correct place. (48, 49, 50,51) The hands, which had to be gilded, were hauled up to the clock face. (52, 53). The last job was to attach the hands to the face to show the time as midday or midnight. (54, 55)
Unfortunately, this was not the time shown on the clock face when it was taken down in the summer of 2020. This means that the clock striking mechanism has to be overhauled and serviced to bring everything back into line again. This will be done in the immediate future.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alisha Lambert, Caroline Lambert, Nigel Carter, Adam Peat, Joanna House, Ros Woodbridge, Richard Colby, Chris Hawkins, The Weller family, Tessa Charnley, The Davies family and Rebecca Murphy.
COMMENTS
Good newsletter again.
Liked the overhaul and re-installation of the clock
SANFORD
Hi Sylvia,
Great newsletter! I enjoyed reading about the Weller family Easter hunt at your campsite –
what fun for the kids! I also enjoyed reading about all that was involved in getting the
clock face back onto Whitchurch Church.
Take care,
Maggie
Thank you Sylvia. I was particularly interested in the refurbishment of the clock face belonging to Whitchurch
church. Very striking if you see what I mean!
Liz
Hi Sylvia.
It was a shame you had to replace the hook ups, who was responsible for mowing the cable and covering it up? It looks so much better now that the hard standings have been refreshed. Its nice to see that the campsite was busy, it shows that people enjoy the venue.
Its interesting to hear the stories of some of the people that visit your site.
It looks like the Farm is flourishing with a diversity of life. I can't wait to see the piglets, I wonder how many there will be. Alisha's lamb's look very healthy and it looks like they have plenty of grass to feed on. The Salway Ash cream tea was a welcome distraction and although the weather wasn't kind we all had a great time and met some very interesting people. It was lucky we managed to rescue the marquee from the high winds otherwise we would have been sitting in the rain. A special thank you should go out to the volunteers who served us all and baked the cakes and scones. they were delicious.
It looks like Whitchurch is buzzing, what with race nights, bingo, Easter egg hunts and cream teas, it great to see so many people supporting and enjoying themselves.
I am so impressed with the long awaited refurbished Whitchurch clock face. Whoever did the job should be congratulated, it looks amazing. it was no mean feat reattaching it to the tower. Hopefully it won't be to long before the clock workings will also be done.
I think Sylvia, you should be given thanks, with all you have going on that you still manage to put out this news page among all the other things that you manage to organise and attend.
Keep up the good work
Ray. xx
Hi Sylvia,
I hope all is well with you. Thank you so much for this lovely write up!
I had a fantastic walk up Lewesdon Hill after I left you, and it was nice to know something of the history
of the area from the other newsletter you'd printed out for me. I took a train home from Portsmouth a few days later, after some great cycling in the New Forest.
It was a super trip and I'm grateful for your hospitality along the way!
Best wishes,
Becky
