Summer is on its way, and with it the start of outdoor activities and feasts. The fête season gets under way next month, and Jocelyn Crawford is hoping for lots of volunteers to help with the planning of the St Mary’s Church Fête, which will take place on 12 July. Please contact her if you would like to help: 812 333 or jocelyncrawford@hotmail.co.uk (see also page 33).
Among anniversaries this year is the centenary of the founding of the Ward Library in Bruton, built on the site of an old pub. Victoria Glendinning gives a short outline of the library’s history and how it came into being (page 17). Its continued existence is still somewhat precarious, so please give it your support as much as
you can.

For the second consecutive year, the Sunday Times list of the 101 best places to live in Britain, published on 16 March, included Bruton, as well as Frome and Sherborne. We townspeople know this, of course, but it’s nice to have it nationally recognised. And on 22 March the Guardian ran a two-page spread on the forthcoming Hauser & Wirth gallery opening at Durslade. Some see all this coverage as having a down-side – few houses come on the market here. I’ve heard some negative views, too, about the Durslade gallery, which stem more from a lack of knowledge than a real understanding of what H&W are trying to do. Come July, everyone in the town and the villages around will be able to go and see for themselves, when the venue opens to all. The intention is to bring enjoyment and an extra dimension to living in our beautiful part of the world.