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.

We seem to have a lot of fundraising events going on this month, and one of the first articles in Community News is a story about the Somerset Flood Relief Fund, a small but effective arm of the Somerset Community Foundation. You can make a donation, or volunteer to help – see page 17.
More volunteers are wanted to help with Diocesan concerns – the online newsletter Connect gives details. See page 21 for how to access it. The team would be delighted to hear from anyone with a little spare time and a sympathetic ear.

The New Year has brought Weather with a capital W – and we have been luckier here than people on the Levels, who were awash in January. We didn’t escape lightly, though. The spectacular hailstorm that struck on 3 January, with stones the size of gobstoppers (see picture on page 18), did a great deal of damage, and I understand that loss adjusters have been run off their feet. The plastic roof of my conservatory was punched through as if by machine-gun fire, and the boggy area at the bottom of my garden is now a swiftly flowing stream!

This issue of The Dove sees the completion of its first five years. It is unquestionably a joint effort – some forty contributors send in articles or information every month, the distributors do their bit uncomplainingly, and the committee work hard at their various tasks.

The exciting project at Durslade Farm is well under way, and a visit was arranged in September for journalists and those closely involved with the project to look at how the farmhouse has been decorated and refurbished. This is where visiting artists will stay, and to my mind it is stunning – bold and beautiful colour schemes and lots of imaginative touches.

The word ‘Christmas’ when it is mentioned in October can strike dismay as well as delight into the heart of the reader, but prudent societies and organisations have already started planning their festive happenings. The Chamber of Commerce is hoping for a big take-up of the offer of Christmas trees that can fit into the brackets on most premises in Bruton High Street and other streets in the town (see page 17). The trees certainly look wonderfully festive in December with their variously coloured lights twinkling or shining through the gloaming.

It’s good to be back after the summer – an unexpectedly sunny one, in July anyway.

The summer has, however, been marred by the controversy over the proposal to set up a ‘Solar Array’ of photo-voltaic panels at Sheephouse Farm, on the Brewham road. A great deal of anguish was caused, with the vast majority of local residents to whom we spoke being very much against the project. Their reasons were, to summarise: the despoliation of the beautiful Somerset countryside for no material local benefit, but to the detriment of local businesses that depend on attracting visitors; a large acreage (32 acres minimum, the size of the Bruton conservation area) would be covered, with the considerable rise of 44 metres from bottom to top of the sloping site impossible to hide from view.