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February 2021 February 2021
which results in higher speeds and a more stable connection. The subsidy
DORSET’S BEST CHURCHES available is £2,500 per household and £6,000 per business. Residents and
businesses in Waddock have already begun the process and properties at
Ian Ventham recently showed me a book called Dorset’s Best Churches by Rogershill Farm have had full fibre installed for six months now. If enough properties
Brendan Lehane with Photographs by David Bailey. Ian felt that the two articles are willing to pool their vouchers to participate in the scheme, the vouchers can
within the book on our churches in Bere Regis and in Affpuddle, might be of cover the full cost. Affpuddle residents are now considering the scheme as
interest to magazine readers. I contacted the publishers, The Dovecote Press, in internet speeds are particularly slow. Further details are available on the
Wimborne, to get permission to reproduce these. Sadly, the book is now out of Briantspuddle Community Website. Any residents unable to access this can
print but they were happy for me to publish the two extracts. This month is the contact the Parish Clerk for information.
one for St John the Baptist Church in Bere Regis and next month will be St
Laurence in Affpuddle.
Briantspuddle Village Shop
We extend our thanks to David Burnett and Lyn Orchard of the Dovecote Press.
www.dovecotepress.com Councillors have agreed that the Parish Council will meet the cost of fixing a non-
slip surface to the shop steps. This one-off cost of £130 and will improve safe
access to the shop. In part the cost will be offset against the remaining Covid-19
Grant which the Parish Council received from Dorset Council last spring. In
BERE REGIS advance of the work it has been established that no planning permissions are
required.
St John the Baptist

From the 1300s to the early 1700s the
Turberville manor stood over the Roads and Traffic
road to the east of the church. The Councillors have been regularly discussing traffic concerns throughout the parish
country round about was Turberville and have agreed a set of priorities for improving roads particularly through
country. Hardy, in his great novel, Briantspuddle and Affpuddle. Dorset Council is currently looking at 20mph limits in
changed the name to D’Urberville rural areas and a Councillor will attend a webinar which is designed to set out the
and brought Tess Durbeyfield, her criteria for approving a 20mph limit. The matter will be discussed at the January
widowed mother and siblings here meeting.
from Marnhull, hoping for a family
link and chance of inheritance. ……………………………..
There was neither. Unable to find lodging they
camped under the church’s south wall. ‘Isn’t your
family vault your own freehold?’ asked the mother The Parish Council meeting on 13th January was once again held remotely in
vainly. order to comply with Government social distancing guidance. Until restrictions
around movement and public gatherings are lifted, the Parish Council will be
Despite the fictional gloom, and the all too non- holding all meetings remotely.
fictional ranks of dull modern redbrick housing that

nearly encircle it, and the noisy nuisances of a
nearby bypass, the church of St John the Baptist, Full Fibre Broadband
on foundations cut into rising ground, manages to A number of Parishioners in both
assert itself very handsomely. Ageing gravestones Affpuddle and Briantspuddle have
and a line of clipped cylinder-yews like a expressed an interest in the voucher
procession of top hats grace the churchyard on all scheme which would help residents
sides.
and businesses have full fibre
The flint and ashlar chequer of the early 16th broadband installed. It is understood
century west tower, broken by the neat tracery of that contractual discussions are

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