Four Dorset adventurers are teaming up with a famous explorer to take a trip into the unknown. Colonel John Blashford-Snell has recruited a team of specialists to study the relatively unexplored Lake Roja Aguado area of Bolivia.
The groundbreaking expedition – Koto Mama VII – will journey thorough Amazonia’s savannah, swamp and jungle, while meeting ancient indigenous tribes. In January, the colonel appealed for expedition volunteers in the Echo.
An author and historian who has spent his career tracing almost every inch of Dorset’s landscape has now got more time on his hands to discover the parts he has missed. Rodney Legg is retiring as chairman of the Open Spaces Society after 20 years at the helm.
He was previously treasurer of the national organisation and joined its management committee in 1980, but will now become the correspondent for Dorset.
On Sunday 5th & Monday 6th July. A walk which explores old Weymouth, reliving some of its more grisly history, recounting tales of gruesome and ghastly characters whose presence still pervades the narrow streets and alleys of the old town. A little scary, very entertaining and most enjoyable. Suitable for all the family.Pupils from a Dorset school have created a feature length period film, shot on location around the county.
Far From the Madding Crowd based on Thomas Hardy’s novel is the result of eight months work by a cast of 140 pupils from The Gryphon School in Sherborne.
The remarkably professional-looking production was filmed at some of the most scenic spots in the Wessex region Hardy loved, including Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove.
READ MORE - Source: Bournemouth Daily Echo Thursday 2nd July 2009
On Sunday 5th July, The Friends of Rodwell Trail have organised a Tudor Picnic to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation in the grounds of Sandsfoot Castle and Gardens, Weymouth.
- At 11am, 1pm and 3pm
Peter Bowles describes how he is inspired by the ancient sites and countryside of Wessex in southern England. I love the part of southern England that once comprised the Kingdom of Wessex.When I was a bit younger I used to get up at about five in the morning or earlier and drive down to Silbury Hill – the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe – from London and climb to the top in time to see dawn breaking.
Another favourite spot is Maiden Castle in Dorset – the largest and most complex Iron Age hill fort in Britain, which has the most fantastic earthworks.
The views from both are amazing. Plus, I've always been fascinated by these ancient sites and sometimes, when I was restless and depressed as a younger man, I would find going up them quite inspirational. Often I'd be the only person around.
From riderless horses disappearing through castle walls mischievous spirits apparently barging into visitors, English Heritage has compiled a new survey of "hauntings" and unexplained events recorded at its sites. Some incidents are said to have led staff to resign. At one castle, employees have established protocols on how to deal with suspected sightings of ghosts or unexplained events.
One medieval palace is even said to be haunted by a former member of staff.
Many of the events involve staff and visitors seeing mysterious figures, while others involve complaints that people were pinched or pushed, when there was nobody standing near them. Some reports involve items being moved around sites.
At Castle Rising, a 12th century keep in Norfolk, which was once the exile place of Queen Isabella, widow – and alleged murderess – of Edward II, “paranormal investigators” were called in by staff to conduct tests following sightings by visitors, many of whom claimed to have seen figures dressed in monks’ clothes.
Others said they had been pushed or nudged while looking around.
Norman Fahy, head custodian, said: “The most common phenomenon seems to be people getting pushed about. They seem to be prodded and poked. We seem to get these reports about once a week.”
Similar accounts of visitors complaining about being barged into, pinched or even slapped while there is apparently no-one around them have been made at Portland Castle, in Dorset, and Scarborough Castle, in Yorkshire, which, according to legend, is haunted by the ghost of Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II.
Read More: Source - The Telegraph 27th June 2009"The following very singular story comes well authenticate' In many respects the story may be deemed unique in the history of the supernatural. The apparition appears in broad daylight, and is seen of five children, one of whom did not even know the individual it represented when alive, and yet proved its identity by a wonderful piece of circumstantial evidence. The intense pathos of the unfortunate and evidently murdered lad, reappearing amidst the scenes of his childish occupations, and where he had been wont to play with those boys who now could only look upon him as a passing shadow, is most suggestive.
The school of Beaminster says the account, is held in a gallery of the parish churchto which there is a distinct entrance from the churchyard. Every Saturday the key of it is delivered to the clerk of the parish by one or other of the schoolboys. On Saturday, June 27th, 1728, the master had dismissed his lads as usual. Twelve of them loitered about in the churchyard to play ball. It was just about noon. After a short space four of the lads returned into the school to search for old pens, and were startled by hearing in the church a noise which they described as that produced by striking a brass pan. They immediately ran to their playfellows in the churchyard and told them of it. They came to the conclusion that some one was in hiding in order to frighten them, and they all went back in the school together to discover who it was, but could not find anyone. As they were returning to their sport, on the stairs that lead in to the churchyard they heard in the school a second noise. Terrified at that, they ran round the church, and when at the belfry, or west door, they heard what seemed to them the sound some one preaching, which was succeeded by another sound as of a congregation singing psalms. Both of these noises lasted but a short time.
With the thoughtlessness of youth the lads soon resumed their sport, and after a short time one of them went into the school for his book, when he saw a coffin lying on one of the benches, only about six feet away. Surprised at this, he ran off and told his playfellows what he had seen, on which they all thronged to the school-door, whence five of the twelve saw the apparition of John Daniel, who had been dead more than seven weeks, sitting at some distance from the coffin, further in the school. All of them saw the coffin, and it was conjectured why all did not see the apparition was because the door was so narrow they could not all approach it together. The first who knew it to be the apparition of their deceased schoolfellow was Daniel's half-brother; and he, on seeing it, cried out 'There sits our John, with such a coat on as I have' (in the lifetime of the deceased boy the half-brothers were usually clothed alike) 'with a pen in his hand and a book before him, and a coffin by him. I'll throw a stone at him.' The other boys tried to stop him, but he threw the stone-as he did so, saying, 'Take it '-upon which the apparition immediately disappeared.
The immense excitement this created in the place may be imagined. The lads, whose ages ranged between nine and twelve, were all magisterially examined by Colonel Broadrepp, and all agreed in their relation of the circumstance, even to the hinges of the coffin; whilst their description of the coffin tallied exactly with that the deceased lad had been buried in. One of the lads who saw the apparition was quite twelve years of age; he entered the school after the deceased boy had left it (on account of illness about a fortnight before his death,) and had never seen Daniel in his lifetime. This lad, on examination, gave an exact description of the person of the deceased, and took especial notice of one thing about the apparition which the other boys had not observed, and that was, it had a white cloth or rag bound round one of its hands. The woman who laid out the corpse of John Daniel for interment deposed on oath that she took such a white cloth from its hand, it having been put on the boy's hand (he being lame of it) about four days or so before his death. Daniel's body had been found in an obscure place in a field, at about a furlong distant from his mother's house, and had been buried without an inquest in consequence of his mother alleging that the lad had been subject to fits. After the appearance of the apparition the body was disinterred, a coroner's inquest was held, and a verdict returned to the effect that the body had been' strangled'. This verdict appears to have been mainly arrived at in consequence of the depositions of two women 'of good repute' that two days after the corpse was found they saw it, and discovered a 'black list' round its neck; and likewise of the joiner who put the body in the coffin, and who had an opportunity of observing it, as the shroud was not put on in the usual way, but was in two pieces, one laid under and the other over the body. A 'chirurgeon' who gave evidence could not, or would not, positively affirm to the jury that there was any dislocation of the neck. So far as can be learnt, no steps were taken to bring anyone to justice on account of the suggested death by violence of the lad."
An ancient river channel, shipwrecks and giant underwater gravel dunes are among previously unknown features discovered during the most detailed survey to date of the Channel seabed.
The survey, covering 500 square miles off the Dorset coast, is being carried out in advance of the 2012 Olympics. Sailing events will take place off Weymouth and Portland, and organisers are anxious to avoid any unpleasant surprises, such as uncharted rocks, that have holed small boats in the past.
The £300,000 project has already led to the redrawing of marine charts in use for nearly 75 years. It will also enable marine conservationists to record the variety of habitats in the area.
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