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September 2020 September 2020

BERE REGIS WI
LOCKDOWN STORIES

In an effort to distract us all from current
circumstances, this month we’d like to take you Over The Hill
back to July 1939, when 650 members of Dorset Sitting at my computer has now become something of a rarity for me nowadays
WIs came together to celebrate The Spirit of and I am seriously out of practice of producing articles for magazines but I know I
Dorset in an ambitious pageant made up of a must make the effort as there are so many things I want to write about in our
prologue and eight episodes or scenes from key moments in the history of Dorset. countryside. Firstly I want to talk about the weather and “climate change”.
Today we are experiencing a cool, wet day after a period of extremely high
The only Bere Regis WI record of this
temperatures and lack of rain for what seems to have been weeks.
came in the form of the programme that
was discovered during a recent house Having spent all my
clearance. However, we’ve been able to working life in farm and
find more information online in The estate management, I
really feel for the farmers
R e d r e s s o f t h e P a s t ,
w w w . h i s t o r i c a l p a g e a n t s . a c . u k / of today. They have been
pageants/1201/, Angela Bartie, Linda worrying of poor corn
Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex yields, some as low as 50%
Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘The Spirit of of that anticipated. This
Dorset’. will mean a severe lack of
wheat for flour, which
The pageant was written by Mrs E.A. could mean very
Ramsden, with William Barnes, the Dorset expensive flour products
poet, credited as an additional author. later in the year.
He is included as one of the main
characters in the prologue, adding to an While the milk, beef , sheep and pig producers are worried about the potential
impressive list of key historical figures rise in feed prices because of the very poor barley yields and the resulting rise in
included in the drama: the price of feedstuffs. This coupled with lack of grass for hay, haylage and
silage, as well as poor grazing this summer, has meant that many farmers are
Barnes, William (1801–1886) – poet and having to consider selling stock earlier than anticipated. Which could cause a
philologist glut on the market and extremely low prices. Anyone used to watching the
maize crops growing throughout the countryside will have noticed that it is
Chaucer, Geoffrey (c.1340–1400) – poet scarcely half the height it normally reaches. This maize is used for cattle feed and
and administrator industrial fuel.
James VI and I (1566–1625) – King of Scotland, England, and Ireland What I think we can be more sure of this winter is our vegetable supplies, as most
growers have irrigation systems, and as long as they can find the labour to
Howard, Thomas, First Earl of Suffolk (1561–1626) – naval officer and administrator
harvest them it should be alright.
Howard [née Knyvett; other married name Rich], Katherine, countess of Suffolk (b.
in or after 1564, d. 1638) – courtier Enough of this gloom and doom. I have just taken a few minutes off to help with
the washing up and am changing the subject completely to some notes I have
Jesty, Benjamin (bap. 1736, d. 1816) – farmer and vaccinator found in my folders concerning our English Language. I have no idea where it
comes from and who the author is. So here goes.
Bell, Andrew (1753–1832) – Church of England clergyman and educationist
The English Language – Absolutely hilarious if not confusing.:-
He also appears as a character in the final episode when his poem, Praise of

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