STRANGWAYS Hall is holding a Christmas Bingo in aid of the village hall on Friday, November 19.

There will be a raffle and refreshments Doors open at 7pm for eyes down at 7.30pm

Two special events are coming up in the village this November

The first is a talk by local transport historian Brian Jackson, author of ‘The Abbotsbury Branch Line’ (Swan Publications Ltd, 1989 ISBN 0 906867 80 0).

The talk will take place in Strangways Hall on Friday, 26 November, 7pm for 7.30pm. This is to celebrate 150 years since the line was first built. All are welcome. Entry costs £2.50 and refreshments will be available during the interval. All proceeds will go to the village hall.

THE second is a very special St Catherine’s Day service at St Catherine’s Chapel on Sunday, November 28.

The service takes place at 3pm with music from the Beaminster Quire. Afterwards everyone is invited for refreshments at St Nicholas Church before the service of evensong at 4.30pm. The Beaminster Gallery Quire will sing at this service too and will be dressed in period costume. The choir are part of a countrywide revival in the musical heritage of village churches and chapels of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They perform jolly, down to earth church music rejected by Victorian reformers as “unsophisticated, displeasing to the almighty, and altogether improper for a place of worship” and was replaced by Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Sounds like fun to me!