ONCE again the Martinstown Players brightened up a dreary February weekend with a most entertaining pantomime, Little Red Riding Hood.

The two evening and one matinee performances were a complete sell out. As a result some £1,500 has been contributed to the village hall funds. This has already been earmarked for the refurbishment of the hall flooring.

Any youngsters interested in acting should contact Jenny Jenkins who runs a weekly “After School Drama Club.”

MARTINSTOWN Village Hall’s AGM is on Monday, April 18 at 8pm.

This is an open meeting.

OPEN Gardens will take place during the weekend of July 9 and 10.

As well as beautiful gardens there will be other events taking place on the village green, concluding with a Service, weather permitting.

There will also be a concert by the Casterbridge Male Voice Choir in St Martin’s Church.

AT the WI meeting members were given a talk by Chris McColl on the “Making of Dads Army”.

It was interesting to learn that it was only expected to run for one series! Some members may even have added to Chris’s knowledge of the reality behind this popular programme. Business quickly resulted in Margaret Hearing agreeing to be president with Angela Barrett as secretary and Jan Griffith to retire as treasurer.

Much more appealing was the invitation from Bradford Peverell WI to attend their Coffee and Pancake Morning on Tuesday, March 8, in their village hall.

THE burning question in Martinstown at the moment is the closure of the village shop, at the end of March.

Obviously the heat of the question had a very lukewarm response, out of 700 leaflets delivered only 141 bothered to reply. These were all in favour or relocating the shop to the village hall.

Naturally there are factors to consider for this to become a viable option. It is indeed hard to compete with nearby larger stores near Dorchester as well as on-line delivery services. Time will tell after the next open meeting in the village hall.