AT the last Broadmayne parish council meeting, reference was made to a talk on the history of Broadmayne about brick making in the village.

Eighty people attended and 40 had walked to view a hidden kiln and the site of a medieval village.

PCSO Vickie Hedges reported that she and PC Charlie Dale had increased their visits to the village following reports of problems with youths loitering around the bus shelter near the school.

They had made contact with parents as well as the young people concerned and were introducing the “Parent Support Pledge”.

Under this scheme, parents could register their child with the police and should the child be encountered by police or a CSO late at night, then the parents could be notified to check that this was in order and they would be taken home if necessary.

Vickie also reported that she was working with local schools on speed control initiatives.

Children at Broadmayne First School are designing posters for a “Twenty is Plenty” campaign on Knighton Lane.

Stan Harland presented the Broadmayne Surgery Patient Support Group’s annual report, stating that during its first year of operation 16 volunteers had provided 160 separate journeys associated with medical needs.

Funding had been provided by Dorset POPP, Broadmayne Parish Council, Broadmayne Players and donations from patients themselves.

Councillors congratulated Mr Harland on his achievement in establishing such a useful service and asked for their thanks to be conveyed to the volunteers.

Full council minutes are available on village notice boards and the website at www.broadmayne.org.

The next meeting is on Monday, November 2.

  • A FAYRE and gift day will be held on Saturday, November 7 to celebrate St Martin’s patron saint’s festival in St Martin’s Church and hall from 10am to noon.

    Cakes, preserves, plants, Christmas items, books, tombola and raffle will be available together with tea and coffee.

Further information from Sylvia Dooley on 01305 852866

  • THE President of Broadmayne and West Knighton WI, Wendy Stent, welcomed local novelist Rebecca Shaw and many visitors to a packed meeting, when Rebecca explained her early life and talked about the influences leading to her love of literature.

She had trained as a teacher of deaf children and a course on creative writing, as a result of a desire to write a novel, led to the creation of a contemporary village as the setting for her first series of novels.

Members learned about the process of how a novel moves from the initial idea through to publication, accompanied by many tales connected with this transformation, enjoyed hearing an extract from one of her novels and listened to many entertaining stories about life as a novelist.

At the close of her talk, Rebecca gave members the opportunity to ask questions and it was discovered that the ability to be a good observer was important in creating successful characters with whom readers could identify.

She was thanked for a most enjoyable talk by Kathy Woodrow.

Members are looking forward to an outing to Blithe Spirit and to hearing from delegates’ comments on the autumn council meeting when TV and radio gardener Bob Flowerdew will be the guest speaker.

Several members are also attending a group meeting when David Duffy will talk about Shakespeare’s characters entitled “Will’s women, a nun, a tart and a dark lady”.

Many thanks to Deanna Robinson for organising the excellent social time, identifying authors and book titles from their characters, which was won by Margaret Mortimer with full marks, closely followed by June Salt.

The next meeting, on Thursday, November 12 will include a talk on medieval tile making.