The first meeting of BEWI’s new Photography group met on one of the hottest days of the year, perfect light for taking photographs.  Ann Hayden discussed how the group could share ideas, knowledge, visit places of interest and ask an expert or two to give us advice.  During August we’ve been set a task of taking photos of a places we visit, choosing one and submitting it on our new WhatsApp group.  We will look at our efforts at the next meeting but most of all, we should have fun taking our photos.

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
― Karl Lagerfeld

Lynne reports on what BEWI’s local History Group has been investigating.  Ingrid kindly opened St Mary’s Church for us to see inside, we particularly admired this Quilted Banner made by the artist Gail Lawther. We explored the churchyard taking notes of several interesting graves, which we have since researched, and then went out for lunch afterwards.

On Friday we met for coffee and cake to share our findings and look at some WW1 and WW11 parish magazines which gave us both sad but also amusing wartime contributions on which to ponder life in Bransgore during those times.

On 15^th July 2021, 4 intrepid members of this History Group, namely Sara, Wendy, Vivienne and Sue visited Stonehenge to find out a little more about our ancient ancestors and their iconic ring of stones.  From recent archaeology it would seem that these stones were first erected in Wales.  The Blue stones were sourced from the Pwlheli Hills and thought to have been pulled on wooden runners to their current site.  The Sarson stones are the upright ones and were more locally sourced.  The building took place between 3000 and 2500 years BC, the Neolithic period and for the first few hundred years was likely to have been used as a cemetery.  The builders of the site lived in a settlement at Durrington Walls which is nearby.

Restoration: In 1740 many stones had fallen and by 1900 one of the tallest Sarson stones was set upright.  Further work was carried out in 1919 and 1920 but between 1959 and 1964 all the remaining fallen stones were re-erected.

A shuttle bus took us up to the stones and we could walk around them easily.  At one point we could get up quite close which was wonderful. It was a splendid time to visit as there weren’t coach loads of visitors, so we had amazing views of the stones, the surrounding countryside and time with the very knowledgeable volunteer guides.  The visitor centre was a nice way to round off our trip.

The inaugural meetings of BEWI Wine Club were on Tuesday 29th June, a day to celebrate and with this in mind, Celia suggested two Proseccos from local supermarkets.   Chilled to the correct temperature and poured into tulip glasses (not flutes!), we sipped and considered the fresh aroma, the delicate colour and the size of the bubbles.  Yes, we can now considered ourselves to have more expertise but most of all, we all had a fun evening.  Interestingly both groups decided the Castellore Organic Prosecco from Aldi was the one we preferred.

You take a sheet of newspaper (The Sun is better for this than The Telegraph), curl the corner and roll on the diagonal up to the opposite corner.  Kim Searle had us intrigued from the start.  She made it look easy – ‘here are some I made earlier!’  Take 4 long, strong rolls and place north to south and then another 4 placed across and weave.  Kim’s nibble fingers soon had the making of a bowl – who would think newspaper and a little glue along with patience would result in a useful, unique (everyone is different) item.  Want to see more, check out Kim’s You Tube