IF you are a fan of the popular television series The Detectorists you will know that the curious and occasionally eccentric people who head out into the countryside with their metal detectors sometimes make remarkable discoveries. A Dorset detectorist discovered a beautiful Early Bronze Age mirror and another found an equally rare and exquisite crescent-shaped…
CHALKE History Festival, the UK’s leading celebration of history, will return from 22nd to 28th June to bring the past vividly to life through a rich programme of top-class talks, wide-ranging discussions and dynamic living history experiences. The line-up includes classicist Mary Beard, radio presenter and journalist James Naughtie, commentator Anne Applebaum, former White House…
THOMAS Hardy was famously shy, even occasionally slipping out of the back door when people arrived at the front of Max Gate, his home in Dorchester. Now the National Trust has replanted part of a hedge in front of the house, which formerly shielded the writer from prying eyes. Ahead of Thomas Hardy’s birthday on…
A TINY bird that is easy to miss, but which has a distinctive song, is back from the brink of extinction with nearly 100 pairs at RSPB Arne this year. The Amber listed Dartford Warbler suffered from a population crash in the 1960s, leaving only a few pairs in Dorset and the species on the…
ANYONE who watches the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow is sure to have been impressed with the deep knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm of military historian Mark Smith, who is coming to the Electric Palace at Bridport on Wednesday 15th April. Mark Smith, a man who can read a line of medals like most of us can read…
JUST a year on since the first beavers were released into the wild at Studland, the natural eco engineers have been transforming woodland, dramatically reshaping part of the local landscape and turning a previously dense area of woodland into a thriving wildlife-rich wetland. The pair have built an extensive dam which has slowed the flow…
PROFESSOR Sir Ghillean Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is one of the world’s leading tropical botanists and rainforest explorers. He is also the founder of Dorset’s Help Our Planet project and HOP talks. On Thursday 26th March he will be talking at Sladers Yard gallery, West Bay, about Brazil…
AVALON Archaeology, at the Avalon Marshes Centre on Shapwick Road, Westhay, has completed the construction of a replica Iron Age roundhouse, which will be officially opened on Saturday 21st March, by Charlie Taylor from BBC Radio Somerset. Visitors will be able to explore the building and learn more about Somerset’s prehistory with themed activities taking…
ARTSREACH, Dorset’s rural touring arts charity, has been selected to be part of this year’s Big Give: Arts for Impact campaign. From midday on Tuesday 17th March to midday on Tuesday 24th, every pound donated to Artsreach through the Big Give platform will be doubled – meaning twice the support for the charity’s work across…
QUEEN Camilla visited Bath Theatre Royal during rehearsals for the theatre’s epic community play, David Copperfield: A Life, which runs from 20th to 22nd February. Her Majesty has been Patron of the theatre since 2008, and last visited in 2009. As well as meeting some of the cast and crew of the play, she also…