The May edition of the dorchester news is now available to read online.

The “Dorchester News” newsletter

During the Covid epidemic WGC has not disappeared! We have not been able to meet but as you would guess like many, we have been active in our gardens tending and nurturing them despite the always changing weather conditions.

Our first club activity of 2021 will be our annual

Plant Sale Saturday 8th May 2021 from 09:30 – 12:30 in the Wallingford Town Square

(With Covid compliance)

Our members are and have been busy sowing and propagating a wide range of flowers and vegetable plants, feel free to come and browse.

Keep an eye on our web site (www.wallingford-gardening-club.com) and Facebook (Wallingford Gardening Club South Oxford) for news of our summer garden visits which will enable us to meet safely and re-establish those friendly links. You can also find useful gardening tips and information on these sites.

We are happy to answer your gardening questions by email gardenswallingford@gmail.com

Full article can be read on: https://www.oss.org.uk/new-public-freedoms-at-dorchester-on-thames-oxon/?fbclid=IwAR19eXH597i1rGJMVnAd0EZ1zg6iymgHOCwokJqm8I8bgTbymE8IupJRUBc

We are celebrating new greens and paths at Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire, after a long campaign which we fought alongside local residents.

A new landowner, Mr Keith Ives, has removed fences erected by his predecessor. These denied public access to the historic Dyke Hills, a scheduled Iron Age settlement, and Day’s Lock Meadow beside the River Thames, cut off an unrecorded path and restricted the width of others. Local people formed a pressure group and campaigned vigorously to get the land registered as village green and the paths recorded on the definitive map. The society offered support and advice.

Happily, Mr Ives has agreed voluntarily to register the Dyke Hills and the meadow as village greens, giving local people rights to enjoy them and protecting them for ever. He has also removed the fences across and alongside the paths, allowing much greater access.

Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘We are proud to have helped save people’s access to this unique prehistoric landscape. We congratulate the residents for their perseverance and determination, and we thank Mr Ives most warmly for his community spirit and generosity. It is wonderful to have free access restored to this beautiful place.’

Declares Becky Waller of the Friends of Dorchester and Little Wittenham Open Spaces: ‘Keith Ives bought Bishops Court Farm at Dorchester in Thames intending to restore it to the heart of the community. We are incredibly grateful for his generosity and absolutely delighted that public access to these precious open spaces is secured and the footpaths widened. This truly is a good news story.’

We’re opening again very soon! Come in and see us!

We’re reopening the Museum on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 May, 2.00-5.00pm

(subject to government guidelines)

After that, we’ll be open every Wed, Thurs, Sat and Sun, 2.00-5.00pm until the end of September, as well as bank holiday Mondays.

So please do come in to say hello and have a look at the exhibits and the wide selection of greeting cards and small gifts in our shop.

Volunteers needed!

Please come and join our friendly team of volunteers who welcome visitors to the Museum. It’s a great way of meeting people from the village and visitors from afar. You don’t need detailed knowledge of our collection; you’ll get plenty of support. Time commitment is not extensive, just an afternoon session a couple of times a month, until the end of September.

For a look round the Museum and a chat about what’s involved in volunteering please contact:

Candy Madeley e mail candymadeley@hotmail.com

Edith Stedman

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Museum’s first opening by Edith, we have a new display board celebrating the major contribution she made to Dorchester Abbey and the village, for which she was awarded an OBE. We are also reissuing Edith’s charming and amusing account of Dorchester life in the 1950s and 1960s, A Yankee in an English Village, with added photos and explanatory notes. Further details in next month’s Dorchester News.