Category Archives: Events in and around Dorchester

The Hurst Water Meadow Trust: River of Life II – update

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The Trust is very fortunate that survey work on birds, the aquatic habitats and archaeology is proceeding on schedule at Old Bridge Meadow and Overy Mead Piece.

As residents may have seen, a team of archaeologists spent three days in late July excavating exploratory trenches in Old Bridge Meadow preparatory to compiling information for the proposed wetland enhancement. They had previously dug trial trenches in the other meadows, on the Wittenham side of the Thames, which also form part of the Earth Trust River of Life II proposal.

Four excavations were made on the periphery of the future work area. Detailed survey was carried out and some fragments of clay pottery and other pieces were found. All the soil profiles were logged and photographed. The excavations have all been backfilled and the soils have been restored.

The full reports of the findings are awaited. These, together with other information, will be presented in a series of local public exhibitions towards the end of October.

 

Shammy Puri (Trustee, Hydro-geologist)
Gillian Johnson (Hon.Secretary)
Richard Farrant (Chairman)
hurstwatermt@gmail.com
www.hurst-water-meadow.org.uk

See www.earthtrust.org.uk for further information on River of Life II

From the Chairman of the parish Council

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What is your parish council for? Well time for me, as your new Chairman to explain what we do. Before I do so though, I’d like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Chris Hill, who has led our parish council with distinction for the past few years. Thank you Chris.

So, on to what we are for. Well we don’t do schools, bins, roads or footpaths. What does that leave? You’d be surprised. One thing we do is provide a distinct Dorchester voice with our District and County councillors on the decisions those bodies make that do affect our village and our lives. But in addition we get a chance to make a difference to the things than can make Dorchester just that bit better, that bit more special.

Over the past couple of years we have spent a lot of our effort on looking after Dorchester’s interest with the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway and where gravel extraction might take place as well as improving things like our cemetery and bus service. But with a new council, this month, we took the opportunity to discuss what we’d like to do in our village over the next couple of years. The themes round the table were ones I hope are familiar to you; smartening up the footpaths, verges and flower beds around the village; doing more on cycle racks and links to the X39/40 bus; doing more to develop more affordable housing; and more.

You may agree or disagree with these priorities. Either way I’d love to hear from you. Its not everybody’s cup of tea to attend a council meeting in the village hall on a Wednesday evening to tell us what you think, but if not, don’t be shy, tell me what you think and would like your council to do for our village. You can contact me on chairman@dorchesteronthames.co.uk

I’ll keep you updated as the months go by on how we get on and hopefully hear from some residents with your views.

 

Mark Williams
Chairman of DoT Parish Council