Mayor’s Log Number 4

Saturday  – August 1^st  – Loders Fete

What a lovely start to August this was.  It’s hard to believe, but I have lived in Bridport and West Bay for 70 years and I have never had the pleasure before of attending this stunning Fete.  I am told that it has been running annually for 140 years in the beautiful grounds of Loders Court, home of Mr and Mrs Hood. At one point during the afternoon I stood in front of the imposing house surveying the scene, and imagined what it was like 100 years ago, very similar I thought, with similar stalls but probably less people.  There was everything that you could imagine at this show, including a vintage car display, tea tent, bar and barbecue, Lyme Regis town band, magic show, Punch and Judy show, tombola, very popular raffle with superb prizes and loads more.  I was asked to present winning rosettes at the well supported dog show, and Janice to award the prize for the best flapjack. The weather was fabulous and heralded yet another heat wave.  Apparently, the visitor numbers were up again this year and the proceeds all go to supporting Loders church and other local community organisations.  A very worthy cause and a splendid day for everyone.

The first picture shows the crowd enjoying the Punch and Judy show.

The second shows the winning dog, ‘Doris’, with his proud owner, Bertie Moxom.  The judge is Alice Bowdery.

 

Sunday – August 2^nd – Wimborne Minster. ‘ Kushti Bok’ Service

The stunning Minster of Wimborne was the setting of the 10^th Annual Roma Holocaust Memorial Service, ‘ Kushti Bok’.

This service is dedicated to the memorial of all the Roma and Sinti people who were persecuted and murdered during WW2 by the Nazis. Principally at Auschwitz – Birkenau at the beginning of August 1944.  The moving service was conducted by various ministers and speakers and interspersed with haunting violin music rather reminiscent of Schindler’s List.  All this culminated in the whole congregation walking to the front in a line, passing a flaming taper to each other, and lighting small candles on a table.

It was a very moving experience but of course terribly sad.

Saturday – August 8^th – Bridport Gig Rowing Club – Annual Regatta

This year was a stunner with fine sunshine and a very gentle, South Easterly breeze. I was invited last year as Deputy, but it was unfortunately cancelled because of a strong South Westerly.  This year was perfect with 12 other coastal towns on the Jurassic coast competing. They were all competing in the ‘Jurassic League ‘ but most of the teams do go much further afield for other leagues, such as Cornwall, where the boats originate from, and even the Isles of Scilly.  The club has over 100 members from the age of 10 upwards who regularly train and race in the ‘Cornish Pilot Gigs’.  I watched numerous races from the seafront with the various boats starting at the piers and heading in the direction of Eype, round a buoy and then back again.  It was stirring stuff.

When it was all over I presented various cups for awards such as Men’s Super vets, Women’s masters and Mixed under 25 ‘s.  There was a lot of them but the overall winners and the town that took most awards was Swanage.  ‘The Swanage Sea Rowing Club,’ they were fabulous competitors and obviously had trained very hard or had super human powers.  They wiped the board with their trophies, and winning the overall prize.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and they were all smartly attired in their teams shirts.  A very good natured event.

The first picture is a view of the Gigs lined up on West Beach.  The other two show Swanage winning two of their trophy’s.

 

Thursday August  20^th – Bridport Art Society, Summer Exhibition.

The Bridport Art Society are a thriving club with over 130 members .They have many talented artists in their group working in all mediums. They hold two established exhibitions a year, one in the spring at the Salt House, West Bay and another in a larger local venue in or near Bridport. This year’s Summer Exhibition was held in the Sou-Sou West Gallery at Symondsbury.

I was invited to open the event by Kevin Smith who is the ‘Exhibition Organiser’ and have a special viewing.  There were about 12 artistes from the club there, and it was very interesting to talk to them about their various styles and where the pictures were set.  They weren’t all local scenes because in one I was trying to decide which harbour it was and when I talked to the artist, I found that it was a harbour in Southern Ireland!

The gallery in Symondsbury is a really nice place to hold this exhibition.  It is welcoming, well laid out and relaxing, with plenty of parking. A fine building for these gifted people to display their skills.

The attached photo is a picture of us enjoying the view with Pippa Harvey the chair of B.A.S.

 

Saturday August  22nd – Bridport Carnival

A major Event in Bridport’s calendar is the Carnival. We were collected at home at 5.30 by Brian, the driver of a very nice cream coloured convertible 1920’s Rover. He drove us in sartorial style up to the new entrance of Foundry Lea where we parked and waited for the motorbikes to arrive. They soon arrived, 22 of them, some of them wearing flamboyant Hawaiian style shirts.

I was tasked with judging the best bike and the best shirt, in the style of Dave Myers who sadly is not with us anymore and was one of the Hairy Bikers. I chose a very nice, swish, blue, Harley Davidson Bike ridden by Gary Balman.  The best shirt award was won by Nigel Gardner (please see photo).

After that we joined the front of the procession and headed East and through the town. I have watched the Carnival for many years and have never been in it, so, what happened next was a real eye opener.  The trip through our lovely town was wonderful.  I have never seen so many people, laughing, waving, smiling, eating chips and burgers and generally looking very happy.  We finished up at the football field and later at 9.00pm, I went to Bucky Doo, to the awards and Cup presentations.  There were various cash prizes for all manner of categories and at the end I presented the cups.

It was a lovely evening with super weather. One of the photos shows our new Town crier, Jamie, relaxing and chatting before we moved off.

Wednesday August 26^th – Bridport Musical Theatre Company ‘Our House’

We were invited to go along to the Electric Palace on the opening night of this fabulous production . I have been to see this company of actors , singers & dancers before , last time was’ Shrek’ and they are always so professional and stunningly good.

This latest offering , ‘Our House’, was even better , I say that every time, and featured the riveting music of Madness performed by a live band back stage. They were hidden behind all the marvellous scenery that is altered by a dedicated, large, stage crew hiding in the wings.

The story revolves around the two lead characters, Joe, played by Jacob Cumpstone, and Sarah, played by Iris Stephens.

Joe, makes a mistake and breaks in to a building site.  There is then a Sliding Doors’ play where they both play two different situation characters. In the end, all is ok. Joe gets his girl; they get married, and live happily ever after!!

It was a lovely, not to be missed evening which we both enjoyed so much. Afterwards we went backstage and met some of the cast. The photo shows us with Jacob and Iris.

Thursday August  27^th – Melplash Show

Another , possibly the highlight, of Bridport’s calendar is the Melplash Show. This one-day agricultural show boasts 15 to over 20 thousand people visiting on the day. It has something for everyone, that’s for sure.

We arrived at 8.30am and were soon met by the vice chairman James Bowditch, who showed us around the various tents. We were lucky enough to visit the produce and handicraft tents while they were being judged so there was plenty of room to move around and look at all the marvellous exhibits. The highlight, apart from all the animals we saw was a visit to the ‘Discover Farming’ tents. Here the aim is to educate children in how our crops, and all aspects of farming produce are grown, from soil to the table. They also run education classes for schools throughout the year.

After all this walking, 4 hours, we went to lunch in the presidents, Peter Hardwill, tent, or marquee. After a super lunch we had a chat with the various VIP’s present, whose names I couldn’t possibly mention and very soon after that presented two trophy Cups.

They were both cups created by The Townspeople Of Bridport. One for the best ‘Champion Ridden hunter ‘ and one for ‘The Best Beef Beast’. After that another look around and then, Home James!

The photos, courtesy of Tim Russ, are of me presenting the cups and another with James.