My last Downsman report was written in mid-September. Since then we have had long spells of dry sunny weather interspersed with a week's wind and rain in the first half both of October and November.
From October 6th to the 14th there fell two inches of rain and from November 4th to the 9th we again had two inches.
What a contrast with Herstmonceux in Sussex where the other day they had two inches in under 24 hours.
Looking back to 1986, the average rainfall on Sixpenny Handley for the two months October and November together was seven inches - varying between 8¼ in 1994 and 5½ in 1988. So with only 4 inches so far for these two months this year I am tempted to forecast another wet spell by the time you read this in early December.
By way of explanation as to how it comes about that I have all this data, I have an official rain-gauge calibrated to 0.05 millimetres (tell me, you schoolboy mathematicians, what is that in inches?). I send (postage paid) the daily record each month to the National Rivers Authority (Wessex Region) at Blandford Forum; there the regions statistics are collated and sent on the Met. Office. What they do with them there is nobody's business, but I get an annual Christmas card of thanks!
Any idea of British entry into the Euro currency must go no further. It’s obvious that the villagers of Sixpenny Handley in Dorset are once again being ignored.
Sixpences were rattled in jam jars as a defiant gesture against decimalisation. Five Pence Handley, or even 2½p Handley, didn’t appeal to residents but they kept their heads down, milked a cow or two and got on with life.
But the Euro is a step too far. Euro Handley? Euro Cent Handley? Six Euro Handley may increase status but grates on the ear.
If the inhabitants’ views aren’t sought, I predict a move towards devolution. But does anyone in Government give a Tuppenny Toss?
Jack Loveland, Wimborne, Dorset.
Further to an earlier letter, my 92-year-old uncle gave me the following account of how the Dorset village of Handley came to be known as Sixpenny Handley.
My grandfather, Isaac Gough, a professional rabbit trapper, went to stay with his sister who lived in the village and who told him the lord of the manor was claiming ownership of the common and planned to fence it off, denying the locals its use for their livestock.
Isaac told her to ensure all the people of Handley gave six pence each to procure the best solicitor possible to fight their cause. This they did – and won their case. Ever after, the village was called Sixpenny Handley.
Cynthia Pasroe, Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
Before moving to Wales, I lived for 30 years in the Dorset village of Sixpenny Handley.
The first sixpence was introduced in 1551 and the last in June 1980. The village name comes from Sexpene and Hanlege, two parts of an Anglo-Saxon county.
Olive Cox, Llandybie, Carmarthenshire.
In the last issue, I referred to the District Council's Cranborne Chase Land Assessment document. Because it runs to some 33 pages, I thought it would be better to pull out little pieces that refer specifically to our parish. This is what the District's Conservation Officer had to say about the area under the heading "Archaeology":-
The history of the Cranborne Chase, and its effects in shaping the countryside, distinguishes the area from all other Chalkland landscapes. From prehistoric times man has been attracted to the area. The Bronze Age site at Handley Down is the earliest settlement. There are Iron Age hill-forts and settlements; the most important of which is Badbury Rings. Lesser forts existed at Pembury Knoll and Mistlebury Wood, near Sixpenny Handley.
Elevated downlands were popular sites for occupation during the Iron Age and Roman periods. At Woodcutts, near Sixpenny Handley, on Gussage Hill, Oakley Down (Wimborne St. Giles) and King Down (Pamphill) there is evidence of important settlements.
There are Roman remains at East Hemsworth, near Witchampton, and the remains of a villa at Holwell near Cranborne. The most significant landscape effect of Roman occupation in the area is Ackling Dyke, which connects Badbury Rings with Old Sarum.
There are two important defensive dykes still evident that lie in the AONB: Grim's Ditch near Pentridge, and Bokerly Dyke nearby, but lesser dykes within the area have been destroyed by agriculture.
There are over three hundred barrows and burial mounds dating from the Neolithic period concentrated around the Gussages, Pentridge and Knowlton Circle, but many have been destroyed by the plough. There are prominent barrows at Thickthorn Down, Gussage Hill and Bokerley Down.
Closely associated with the distribution of Long Barrows is The Dorset Cursus, a Neolithic ceremonial monument that extends for over six miles between Thickthorn and Martin Down, parallel with the A354. Another important ceremonial centre was Knowlton Circle, also related to numerous barrows.
Most early Medieval settlements were confined to valley bottoms, a pattern that is evident today. The settlements of Brockington, Hemsworth and Knowlton are now only place names. Further north, away from the river valleys, the settlements comprised dispersed farms and hamlets - Sixpenny Handley being the only significant village.
Later, the Princesses Elizabeth and Augusta, travelling to Weymouth in advance of their parents, also stayed at the Inn after their coach had lost a wheel on Martin Down, just over the Hampshire border. Having walked the final mile to Woodyates they must have taken their meals in that first floor dining room approached from an outside staircase the arches of which, although bricked up in 1870, were still clearly discernible up to the time of demolition.
Perhaps they, too, noted the famous family names inscribed on the windowsills and may even have seen the gallows similarly engraved. By next morning the offending wheel had been repaired and the journey to the sea continued although Mr. Shergold's service did not go un-rewarded for, when the King and Queen next passed through, the landlord was presented with a china tea service as a mark of appreciation.
Our story now moves to the late 19th century when a splendid racing stables was erected adjacent to The Shaftesbury Arms for, even on the 1901 edition of the Ordnance Survey, the building still bears that name. Single storied at the roadside, the other three wings were on two floors and here, seemingly well patronised by the aristocracy, William Day held sway as trainer. His best horses appear to have been kept in the stable block adjacent to the inn where the walls displayed some fine racing murals and, second-hand, from an elderly gentleman who was employed here as a stable lad comes the final, dramatic tale from Woodyates.
Here, it seems, a dark conspiracy was hatched whereby an extremely gifted horse was substituted for a "hack" running at long odds in a major race. Having fleeced the bookmakers as it romped home, this luckless animal was rushed back to Woodyates, shot and beheaded. The head was burnt and the body hurriedly buried in the centre of the exercise yard beneath, appropriately, a horse chestnut tree before the suspicious stewards of the turf authorities arrived hot-foot to set enquiries in train. But once more we must ask ourselves, fact or fable? Certainly reference to sporting records reveals that the 1901 Two Thousand Guineas was won by "Handicapper" at the handsome odds of 33-1. A good price indeed. And the trainer? F. W. Day!
Romans, King Arthur, Monmouth Hanoverian monarchy, and the racing fraternity have thus all passed by Woodyates, each leaving a morsel of history or folklore in their wake. But the indiscriminate 20th century bulldozers cared nought, sweeping aside farmhouse, ancient inn and racing stables alike to make way for road improvements and possible further redevelopment.
Such is progress!
Two contentious issues about planning have come to the parish over the last year, both of which cause me serious doubt about the way in which the District Council operates, especially with regard to Sixpenny Handley. The first concerns the land alongside the surgery and adjacent to Mulberry Court, most of which is outside the 1986 village envelope line; the second involves the development of the Victory Tours site.
The original outline plan to develop the land behind the surgery for residential purposes with eight dwellings and the formation of a residential estate road was eventually refused by East Dorset District Council. This refusal became the subject of an appeal and a local public enquiry was held on the 12th November 1996 and on the 27th/28th February this year. One of the reasons for the refusal was as follows:-
"The development would be contrary to Policy Dl (Development in the Countryside) of the Dorset (excluding South East) Structure Plan, which states:- "Residential development will not normally be permitted in the countryside outside any settlement unless there is an essential agricultural, horticultural or forestry need which cannot be met in other ways". The applicant has not demonstrated any need. The site is located beyond the village envelope as defined in the Sixpenny Handley Informal Village Envelope 1986 and within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty."
In January this year, the District Council's Planning Committee decided that the Sixpenny Handley village envelope line should be moved to include most of the land behind the surgery. This was at a time when the whole matter was, I assume, sub-judice, i.e. in the middle of the public enquiry! In due course the Inspector rejected the appeal, although the District Council did have to pay a partial award of costs. Once the new envelope line was established in the District Wide Local Plan deposited on the 30th of June, the way was open for the developers to present another plan. This they did in August and it was pushed through so quickly by the District Council that even I, as Chairman of the Parish Plans Committee, have never seen it. With an issue so controversial that it needed a public enquiry to resolve the first part of the saga, it should have been almost incumbent upon the District Council to have detailed consultations with the people of Sixpenny Handley in the second part. Oh no, not this District Council! It demonstrates time and time again its absolute arrogance and disregard for local opinions! The sad part about this is that we pay them to do this!
The matter of the Victory Tours site is much more recent, but this too had to be pushed through in a hurry just to satisfy the developers - the Parish Plans Committee only had a week to look at amendments. Apart from the fact that the proposed development lies between the School and the Church and all developments now are supposed to match the existing surroundings (I wonder how they'll do that!), the proposals include a narrowing of that part of the main road which lies between the War Memorial and the School. This stretch of road with two nasty bends, one at each end, must be potentially the most dangerous in Handley and yet the District Council appear to be happy for this to happen. The thought of children embarking and disembarking for school in a potentially lethal situation fills me with horror. But even though the Parish Council objected strongly to these proposals, permission to build eleven houses was subsequently granted by the District Council Planning Committee. It only remains to be seen whether people will, as they tell me, lie down in the road to prevent it happening!
It may seem rather insignificant to many but the wood has recorded an important first with the record of a Bechstein’s bat being found in a nestbox. Colin Morris of The Vincent Wildlife Trust, put up 60 boxes earlier this year and immediately a colony of long-eared bats was established. Discovery of a Natterer’s bat was encouraging but the record of the much rarer Bechstein’s is a first ever record of a box being used by this species. It is quite remarkable that this project to find the bat has been so successful in its first year. Because of the mild weather, long-eared bats have been very late leaving the wood for their hibernation - usually in caves - and some were still around in November.
The story with Dormouse boxes has been rather disappointing but it appears that this is a national problem rather than a local one. 75 boxes are established in the wood and for months there was little sign of dormice, only many bird’s nests. However, by October we were delighted to find that 20 boxes had some form of dormouse nest and 15 individuals were weighed and sexed. It is clear that breeding has been almost non-existent this year, probably caused by the cold, wet spells in the early summer. Nearly all the animals were already up to winter hibernation weight with only two individuals light enough to suggest they are immatures born this summer. Reports from around the country suggest that this has been a very poor year for dormice and we hope for better things next season. Once again there are signs of the boxes being interfered with: Please remember it is an offence against the Wildlife and Countryside Act to either tamper with the nestboxes or handle the animals.
As I have outlined previously, major works are underway in the wood. A large working party has started to clear some of the very old hazel that will be fenced off against deer predation and returned to the ancient coppicing cycle. Non-native trees in the plantation are being removed a little at a time to create scrub habitats that may encourage nightingales back. The Ancient Technology Centre at Cranborne has school teams working again: This year they have to replace large portions of their fencing and will be using natural materials in keeping with their dwellings.
All this may seem little to do with birds which is the main reason for the RSPB’s existence but the new plan for the wood is to encourage all aspects of wildlife, birds butterflies, mammals, invertebrates and flowers as well as provide a pleasant amenity for the local residents. By the end of the work in five years time, it will be much less dark with a wider range of flora and fauna to see and enjoy.