CHESIL Bank Garden Club held a plant sale recently, an annual event, which has proved popular in past years, and certainly that was the case this year.

The Village Hall had tables heaving with annual bedding plants, perennials, shrubs, herbaceous plants and a well stocked vegetable plant section to encourage everyone to ‘grow their own’ produce this year to help with the credit crunch.

There seems to have been lots of articles regarding growing your own vegetables whether you have a massive plot or just a patio and to try and get everybody to have a go and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Raised beds or patio pots seem the trend and certainly the vegetable section was extremely busy and within the hour of opening the doors there was very little left to buy and the vegetable and annual bedding plants were completely sold out!

The ever popular raffle and bacon butties with coffee were available to encourage people to sit and chat after their purchases had been made and all in all the Garden Club had a very successful morning.

  • ARTSREACH have extended their season this year in Portesham and the forthcoming Alec Dankworth Quintet will be performing at the village hall on Saturday, May 16 commencing at 8.00pm presenting “Spanish Accents”, a concert of jazz with a Spanish flavour, folk tunes, flamenco rhythms and classic interpretations.

Alec, a bassist, is from the famous Dankworth jazz dynasty. He is joined by the violinist, Chris Garrick who is very well known by the Portesham concert goers, saxophonist Ben Castle, guitarist Phil Robson and percussionist Fred Thomas, some of Europe’s leading jazz musicians.

Do book your tickets now with either Barbara Fraser on 01305 871780 or at the Post Office and come along to enjoy a promising Spanish musical extravaganza.

For more information look up Alec’s website www.alecdankworth.com.

  • ON Saturday, May 16 from 10.00 - 12 noon the Toddler Group will be organising the Village Café and there will be the usual coffee and refreshments plus the library, now a popular item and good company!

Pop along and relax, catch up on your friends and neighours news and those lucky enough to have been on holiday during the Spring will love to relate their travel experiences and weather (the latter always a good topic of conversation at any time!).

  • WALKING round the quarry of Portesham Farm off Winters Close this Bank Holiday I came across an exposed lime kiln that had been unearthed and cleared of all the brambles, etc. that had previously covered it.

Being curious I tracked down the Chairman of Dorset RIGS (regionally important geological sites) or DIGS and he gave me the following information.

The group has around 60 sites in Dorset and Portesham Farm (off Winters Lane) is one of the flagship sites. As a result of the landowner’s support they have worked over the years to keep the face of the quarry clear and have funded two information boards, one about the quarry site and one about the geology and landscape seen looking south to Weymouth and Portland.

The quarry exposes the top of the Portland Limestone and the base of the Purbeck Beds and to the west of the quarry is the preserved remains of a tree that was living around 140 million years ago when the rocks in the quarry were deposited.

The site is important in itself but it is also part of a self-guided circular walk from the Hardy Monument, which is one of a set of five for West Dorset they have produced. During a recent quarry visit one of the members was taking a break from clearing the quarry and walked west and found a very overgrown lime kiln and this kindled further interest and permission was obtained from the landowner to work on that.

A group worked one Sunday recently to clear the vegetation, first having determined that there were no nesting birds in the undergrowth. They work closely with the Dorset Wildlife Trust in this connection.

At present they know nothing specific about the lime kiln but there maybe someone in the Dorset Building Stone Group who can help. It is hoped they can get some mortar repairs done on the lime kiln by a student working group so that the stone work does not deteriorate any further apart from normal weathering.

The DIGS group intend to continue monitoring the site and make sure that the vegetation does not encroach to conceal anything of interest.

Anyone interested in getting involved and joining this group Alan Holiday, Chairman on 01305 789643 would be pleased to hear from you.