Dorset View Magazine

26/09/2025

Dear Readers!

Back in March, I wrote about my DIY project of putting together a simple bike shed.

When I opened the box and discovered the shed required over 200 screws to put together, I was mysteriously distracted by an urgent matter, and the bike shed parts were moved into the garden shed.

Several months and one house move later; I have finally assembled the bike shed. I nearly had a breakdown after discovering I had lost the instruction booklet during the move. Instead, I had to rely on a terrible two-minute YouTube video provided by the manufacturer, squinting at my phone to try and figure out how part 46b inserted into part 82f.

In the end, it only took a couple of evenings and a lot of swearing to assemble, and now our bikes (as well as the kids’ scooters) are safe from the elements and easily accessible.

Does that mean I actually went cycling during the lovely summer, or in the sunnier moments of September? No, of course not. It’s on my to-do list, though.

I hope autumn is treating you well. While the nights are getting darker, there are still plenty of fun things to do in Dorset, from seeing plays and trying new restaurants (read my review of Ferndown’s Love All Food on page 31) to joining community groups. Check out our listings and Around & About pages for a few ideas.

And if you’re planning on making a bigger change, like moving home, check out our Property & Mortgages guide on pages 41– 44.

Have a lovely month and enjoy the rest of this issue.

📢 Out now! 📢

October issue of Dorset View 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
🪧 Summer of protests in Bournemouth
🚧 Major works planned for Christchurch Bypass
👜 First fashion show for Lewis-Manning Hospice Care
✅ Top marks for girl who missed five years of school
😟 Dorset Local Plan sparks concern from local organisations
🗳️ Lib Dems win BCP by-election
🐝 Buzzing community garden promotes the importance of bees
🍽️ The next step taken by Wimborne Community Garden
🏪 Green light for new Aldi, despite local opposition
🏥 Patient power in action as Martha’s Rule rolled out
🪩 Retro music festival gets Highcliffe hopping
🎙️ Discover the life and times of Dire Straits
🎸 Get up and dance at daytime disco
👻 Delve into Poole Old Town’s spooky history
🎙️ Your Voice Dorset Podcast with local businesswoman Emma Burke
🏠 Guide to moving and mortgages
plus much more

05/09/2025

🎉 It's Carnival time! 🥳

On Saturday 20 September the market town of Ringwood will come alive with a bright and beautiful show of light, colour, noise and flamboyance. Ringwood Carnival is the largest event on the town’s calendar, a festival of fun.

So, what should you expect that weekend, to celebrate the end of summer?

The two processions for a start – the afternoon parade starts at 2pm for families, and then comes alive again at 7.15pm (sundown) for a bright, entertaining illuminated show.

But Carnival is not just the processions. There is a whole host of free entertainment taking place across the town throughout the day.

Read more in the September issue of Viewpoint magazine ⤵️

27/08/2025

Dear Readers!

I’ve moved house.

But not to worry, I’ve not moved far. I’m still in Dorset, still in Wimborne, and even still on the same housing estate. I’ve literally moved round the corner from my old house.

We moved to Wimborne in 2022 and love the area, but we had outgrown our modest two-bed and needed a third bedroom.

The new house is great, with lots of potential and a bigger garden, which has been lovely during the sunny summer weather.

Of course, the move itself was stressful. We underestimated the amount of stuff we had and how long it would take to move it all. There are still several unopened boxes, and a laundry list of DIY jobs to do that I’m putting off, but at least the kids have beds to sleep on.

The most annoying thing was getting our internet reconnected. I called my provider and booked a time for an Openreach engineer to come and sort it out. Then I got an email requesting me to confirm that I would be in for my appointment. Then an automated phone call asking me to confirm. Then a text message. Then a phone call and a voicemail. It was maddening! How many times must I confirm an appointment? Or how often do people miss their appointments that Openreach feels the need to be this overbearing?

Do you have any house moving tips or horror stories? Write in to let us know.

Please enjoy this month’s bumper 56-page issue, and make sure to enter our competition on pages 32–35 for your chance to win £500 in shopping vouchers.

Luke Graham
Editor

📢 Out now! 📢

September issue of Dorset View 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
💷 The Great Dorset Givaway
🔥 Heathland hellfire
✅ Dorset remains a safe place to live
👮 Mobile police stations coming to Dorset
🗳️ Wimborne BID prepares for pivotal ballot
🥇 Medal success for Mila
🏏 Wicket women
🏥 Tranquil garden for hospital patients
📚 Volunteer service brings the library to you
🎂 Former fighter pilot turns 100 years old
💉 Vaccine protecting babies in the South West
🎙️ Your Voice Dorset Podcast with panto dame Jamie Riding
🕺 Get up and dance at daytime disco
🦖 Dinosaur to star in Wimborne Minster flower festival
🅿️ BCP hikes parking fines for bad drivers
👭 New networking event for wellness businesses
🗳️ By-election for BCP Council
plus much more

08/08/2025

Triumphant return for pedal car race

A total of 25 teams put the pedal to the metal at the British Pedal Car Grand Prix in Ringwood on Sunday 13 July.

Despite searing hot temperatures, huge crowds gathered for the return of this epic event, which was cancelled last year at late notice.

The teams raced around the streets of Ringwood in homemade pedal cars for two hours, aiming to complete as many laps as possible.

The winning team was racing duo The Polton Boys from Royce UK, who tallied up 63 laps with an overall time of 1:58:36.6. Second-place team Peletony Racing also managed to complete 63 laps, but with an overall time of 1:59:51.5.

Read more in Viewpoint August issue ⤵️

25/07/2025

Dear Readers!

This month we’re celebrating all things AFC Bournemouth, as this top local team prepare for the 2025/2026 Premier League campaign beginning on Friday 15 August. Check out our excellent spread with club news, details and game fixtures on pages 26 to 33.

If you’re not a sports fan, there’s still plenty to do around the county this month as we enjoy the summer weather. There have been several brilliant festivals this past month, including Westival and Poole Goes Vintage, as well as Shake and Stir in Southbourne in late June. You can read our reports on these excellent events in our Around & About section.

It’s important to support events like these in the county. It’s easy to be complacent and assume that, if you miss it this time, you can simply go next year. But that is not always the case. For instance, if you wanted to go and see the Bournemouth Air Show but had never gotten around to it, I’m afraid you’ve missed your chance: last held in 2024, BCP Council recently voted to permanently ground the air festival as it has been unable to find a new sponsor or commercial operator, and the council can no longer afford to put on the show. You can read more about this story on page 37.

Not to be too pessimistic, but between cash-strapped councils and a cost-of-living crisis, there’s no guarantee that the county’s fun (and often free) events will continue year after year. So please support them if you can.

Luke Graham
Editor

📢 Out now! 📢

August issue of Dorset View 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
⚽️ AFC Bournemouth prepare for the kick-off of the 2025/26 Premier League season
📉 BCP Council faces £171m financial black hole
🔥 Wildfire devastates Holton Heath
↩️ Council U-turns on tip plan
🪖 Ceremonies to mark VJ Day 80
🎨 Wimborne’s new mural unveiled
🧑‍🍳 Top chefs to attend Wimborne Food Festival
🩰 Harry Redknapp opens new Wimborne dance studios
🧜‍♀️ Farewell to the Great Tail Trail
🎉 Friends of Victoria Hospital celebrate 90th anniversary
🛩️ Air Festival has its wings clipped
⛵️ New summer event for Christchurch
🤡 Fun at Westival
💃 Shake & Stir sees Southbourne turn vintage
👩 Meet the woman behind the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show
🅿️ BCP Council shifts gears to reverse parking plan
🪟 The value of a sea view
✈️ Pull a plane for charity
plus much more

14/07/2025

🌟 Starry Skies

By Mark Hardaker FRAS

The warm summer nights of late July might tempt you out into the garden to gaze up at the sky. If so, by midnight, the sky should just be dark enough to catch sight of the Milky Way at its best.

Find a location with a clear view to the south and let your eyes get used to the dark. This takes about 10 minutes. Look for the Milky Way, a faint whitish glow that stretches up from the horizon, heading up and to your left as you look, passing up through the constellations of Sagittarius, Scutum and Cygnus, where it divides into two streams.

According to the latest estimates, our Sun is just one of the 200 billion stars that make up this, our Milky Way galaxy. That’s 200,000,000,000 stars. And our galaxy is one of an estimated two trillion galaxies in the known universe. Our printer doesn’t have enough zeros to print how many stars that makes; these are numbers which human beings simply cannot comprehend.

👀 Read more in Viewpoint July issue ⤵️

30/05/2025

Dear Readers!

I am writing this editorial in mid-May, a few weeks before my first anniversary of working at Pulford Publicity, the publisher of Dorset View and Viewpoint Magazine.

I joined the company in June 2024, taking on the role of editor from the brilliant Janine Pulford, who has been very kind and gracious in her guidance and advice to me as I’ve learned to put this magazine together each month for our wonderful readers across Dorset. Thanks also to my colleagues Ben, Dexter and Louis, who have been very patient with me and are always open to my ideas.

So, this issue is a bit special to me, as it effectively caps off my first year of issues as editor. Thank you very much for sticking with the magazine over the past year and I hope you are still enjoying it.

Feel free to email me with ideas for what you would like to see in this community-focused magazine.

Here’s something more light-hearted. Last week, while parking my car before work, I parked too close to another vehicle on the driver’s side and was unable to get out. That’s fine, I thought, I’ll climb over and get out of the passenger’s side.

But as I clambered across, my knee caught and released the handbrake, and I felt the car begin to roll backwards.

I was able to scramble back into my seat and put the handbrake on before an accident could happen. I took a breath and felt very foolish.

I guess the lesson is to always take the time to park properly with sufficient space to get out, rather than risk an accident.

📢 Out now! 📢

June issue of Dorset View 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
🌶️ Massive chilli festival brings on the heat
🙏 Wimborne holds Civic Thanksgiving Service
🪦 Last resident of Dorset’s ghost village dies
💷 Ferndown Town Council shows support to local groups
🥫 Local lad helps food bank after theft
🎙️ Your Voice Dorset View podcast with Rod Kennedy
🚴 Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance marks 25th year with bike ride
🆘 Desperate call for volunteers in Christchurch
🧶 Forget-me-nots and teddies support dementia awareness
👩‍🍳 TV chef to visit community garden
🤹 Get ready for the Folk Festival
📅 Upcoming Summer events
🛠️ Craft market pops up in Poole
🏍️ See super stunts at summer show
👮 Police target bad drivers in road safety operation
🇬🇧 Dorset marks VE Day 80
plus more

16/05/2025

⛱️ Plan your dream trip

Welcome to Your Holiday!

With summer just around the corner, now’s the time to plan your dream trip if you haven’t done so already.

You could visit Cape Verde, catch a flight to a Greek island, take a cruise to Norway, or go on an exciting coach holiday; the whole world is waiting for you.

May Viewpoint magazine is filled with inspirational holiday ideas to help you decide where you want to travel next, whether you’re looking to book a family vacation, a couple’s getaway or a solo adventure.

As well as destination suggestions, we’ve provided some useful travel tips, including the best travel bank cards, the top holiday essentials, and advice from Dorset Police on keeping your home safe while you’re away.

Read more in this month's Viewpoint magazine ⤵️

02/05/2025

Dear Readers!

Welcome to our May issue. I hope you enjoyed the Easter holidays. My family and I took a week off to visit Crealy Theme Park and Resort in Exeter, and we really enjoyed the break. Easter with small children is also fun, as they get so invested in the Easter Bunny and hunting for Easter eggs. I also took a quick trip to London with my daughter to take her to a West End show – I’m still trying to foster her love for theatre.

Speaking of theatre, there have been several brilliant productions in the area in recent months. You can read two reviews and two previews for upcoming shows in our Around & About section. Do try and attend them if you can, not only to support these groups but also the wonderful venues we have in the county.

At the time of writing, I have still not put up the bike shed I wrote about in the March issue’s editorial. I am blaming the weather for my lack of progress. When it was cold and wet, I didn’t want to be out shivering on the driveway, and when it was warm and sunny, I wanted to be out and about enjoying the bright skies or playing with the kids in the garden. Perhaps by next month I’ll have built it.

We have some exciting content in this issue. There’s an exclusive column from Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner, a roundup of VE Day events, and a profile on Ringwood and Poulner Toad Patrol – an important cause close to the heart of our Creative Director Louis Pulford. Please enjoy.

Luke Graham
Editor

📢 Out now! 📢

May issue of Dorset View 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
🧜‍♀️ ‘Doc Martin’ visits The Great Tail Trail
☕️ Ferndown café to close
🏭 Permit likely for Canford Magna incinerator
🇬🇧 VE Day 80 commemorations
🍾 Golden anniversary for Allendale Centre
🐸 Watch out for toads on roads
👨‍🎤 Dorset musician, 82, releases new album
🍽️ Ferndown’s new dining hotspot
🚒 Fire station break-in
🧑‍🎓 Careers advice for Dorset youngsters
⛵️ Join the Christchurch River Pageant
🌞 Solar power for Dorset hospitals
🚙 Dorset View takes the Puma Gen-E out for a spin
🫰 Drivers risk fine for windscreen obstructions
🚗 20mph zone proposed for Bournemouth
🦋 Charity urges garden owners to let their grass grow
🏗️ Residents continue development fight
plus much more

14/04/2025

🇬🇧 VE Day 80 commemorations

Communities across the country are planning events to mark the 80th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War in Europe which takes place on 8 May — Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Church bells will ring, special flags will be flown, town criers will proclaim the victory, and Beacons and Lamp Lights of Peace will be lit.

Find out more in this month's Viewpoint magazine 👇

31/03/2025

Dear Readers!

Happy Easter to you all. First, let me congratulate Wimborne Minster for being selected as Dorset’s Town of Culture in 2026. The town will receive £30,000 to spend on a year-long programme of art and culture.

Commiserations to the other towns shortlisted for the award: Ferndown, Sherborne, and Swanage & Purbeck. I do wonder — given that Wimborne already has such a thriving arts scene with several drama companies, the Museum of East Dorset and both the Tivoli and Allendale Centre — whether the money might have gone further in one of these other towns? Fingers crossed they will try again in 2027 and beyond and have more luck. However, as a resident of Wimborne, I’m excited to see the results.

Speaking of culture, my four-year-old daughter appeared in her first performance in mid March, starring as the Magic Mirror in ‘Shrek: The Musical’. Next stop, Hollywood. I think she has inherited the acting bug from me. I performed in dozens of plays and musicals throughout school and university. I even considered studying for a degree in drama, but decided against it as I didn’t think it would be a stable career. So I went into journalism instead. I’ll let you decide whether that was the right career choice!

I hope you enjoy this month’s magazine. Do check out page 30, with all the details about our brand-new podcast.

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📢 Out now! 📢 Dorset View April 📰

Read 👀 online 👉 https://www.dorsetview.co.uk/dorset-view-magazine/

Printed copies available from one of over 70 community collection points including CO-OP Wimborne, Colehill, Corfe Mullen, TESCO Ferndown, SAINSBURYS Christchurch and Ferndown.

GPS tracked door-to-door distribution is underway.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
🥚 Easter in Wimborne
🎉 Millennium Tapestry celebrates silver anniversary
⛵️ Remembering Poole sailor Brian Cooke
🇺🇦 Trapped in darkness
💷 BCP Council reveals £24m spending plan
📣 Wimborne Minster named Town of Culture 2026
🥳 Ferndown social club celebrates first birthday
🥞 Huge turnout for Wimborne Minster Pancake Race
🪦 Sad farewell to Wimborne’s Reg Dunningham
🚼 New maternity unit now open
❤️‍🩹 Report claims health services failing community
🕺 Get ready to rock, Southbourne!
🌶️ PREVIEW Christchurch Cheese & Chilli Festival
🧑‍🎨 Art students host free exhibition
⛽️ Cut fuel costs
📈 Energy bill hike
plus much more

17/03/2025

🎙️ Introducing Your Voice Dorset Podcast

Viewpoint Magazine’s publisher Pulford Publicity is excited to announce the launch of a new venture.

The publisher of Viewpoint Magazine and Dorset View, Pulford Publicity, has released the first episode of their brand-new podcast.

Your Voice | Dorset Podcast aims to share stories from the people of Dorset and learn how they help their communities and make life in the county so special. New episodes will be released monthly.

The first episode, released in February, features local music legend Matt Black sharing his story with Viewpoint Magazine’s News Editor Marilyn Barber. In the podcast, Black talks about his life and career as the ‘Piano Man’, his love of performing, and his experience of alcoholism.

Your Voice | Dorset Podcast is produced by this magazine’s Creative Director Louis Pulford. In Viewpoint March, Louis shares some behind-the-scenes information about the new venture.

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️