Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd August 2025
Mark your calendars and spice up your summer! The Great Dorset Chilli Festival returns for its 14th
Dorset luthier Jeremy Walsh on listening to the wood, a double bass jigsaw, holding a $15m Stradivarius and Friday night rave music
Jeremy Walsh
The BV takes a look inside the Countryside Alliance’s fight to protect rural traditions and livelihoods and to drive sustainable countryside policies
A brown
Giles and Annie Henschel’s return to the Mediterranean highlights the crisis facing olive farmers and the resilience that is keeping hope alive
Annie Henschel
Blackmore Vale Motor Cycle Club combines tradition, innovation and community to keep off-road racing thriving after more than a century
Dean WhittyImage © Michael
When Kirsty Sturmey goes to work each morning, she walks across the yard into a space filled with purrs, whiskers and the unmistakable
New issue of The BV
January’s BV is HERE!
Our first issue of 2025 picks up right where we left off – crammed...
Your Community, Your Stories
The BV magazine – our home is in the Blackmore Vale, our heart is rural Dorset
Fish cobbler
This is a simple twist on a classic fish pie, replacing pastry or mashed potato with a cheesy scone or dumpling type topping which...
A wetland revival
How Dorset Wildlife Trust is restoring ponds, protecting species and tackling biodiversity loss with the help of the Species Survival FundDorset Wildlife Trust received...
Same bikes, new mission
Giles and Annie Henschel’s return to the Mediterranean highlights the crisis facing olive farmers and the resilience that is keeping hope aliveIn March 2024,...
‘We’re here to make life better’
Terry Bennett talks to West Dorset’s first Liberal Democrat MP, Edward Morello, who is still negotiating the Westminster jungleWhen Edward Morello walked into Westminster...
Love in triangles – the Bloomsbury set in Dorset
Dorothy Parker famously said of the Bloomsbury Group that “they painted in circles, lived in squares, and loved in triangles.” While this group of...
Winterborne Stickland | Then and Now
Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past...
Sixpenny Handley | POSTCARDS FROM A DORSET COLLECTION
This month Barry Cuff has chosen two postcards from Sixpenny Handley, both sent in 1913, the year before the First World War began.Sent to...
Framing the past – Job Pottle’s story
A prolific photographer from the 1880s to the 1920s, Job Pottle captured local life from children to Churchill, the royal family to railways workers.Job...
THEN AND NOW: Okeford Fitzpaine
Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past...
Frozen Dorset
This month Barry Cuff has chosen two postcards with a suitably wintery feel – Sherbornians skating on the frozen lake in 1907, and the...
Latest Jobs
Blackmore Vale Jobs
Teaching Assistant with combined HLTA responsibility at Milborne Port Primary School
TEACHING ASSISTANT HOURS12.5 hours per week – Worked over...
Blackmore Vale Jobs
School Caretaker, with accommodation | Milton Abbey School
We are seeking to appoint a School Caretaker to...
Blackmore Vale Jobs
HOUSE MATRON | Milton Abbey School
We are a co-educational Boarding and Day school for...
Blackmore Vale Jobs
Cleaner/Porter | Milton Abbey School
Co-educational boarding and day school for ages 13-18Milton Abbey...
Blackmore Vale Jobs
FULL-TIME RECEPTIONIST/ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT | Fairmead School
ABOUT THE SCHOOLFairmead Community Special School transforms the lives...
Blackmore Vale Jobs
Farm Maintenance & Agricultural Engineer Required | M R Tizzard Ltd
M R TIZZARD is a large scale organic dairy...
Death Announcements
Blackmore Vale magazine death notices
Norman Holt
13.07.31 - 31.12.24Peacefully at his home on 31st December...
Blackmore Vale magazine death notices
PETER BRADLEY
Passed away peacefully at home after a short illness...
Blackmore Vale magazine death notices
MARIANNE JANE PARNIER
Aged 86 years, sadly passed away peacefully on the...
Blackmore Vale magazine death notices
Michael Paul Turmris
23rd April 1947 - 12th November 2024Much loved husband,...
The Random 19 Questions
A Dorset man – Tim Laycock answers the Random 19 questions
Folk musician, singer, actor, storyteller, historian, Thomas Hardy expert … Dorset’s Tim Laycock is a man of many talents.Folk musician, singer, actor, storyteller, historian,...
Author Minette Walters takes on the Random 19 questions
Minette Walters’ first full-length crime novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. It took two and a half years to write and was...
TV Judge, Private Chef & Food Writer Philippa Davis answers the Random 19 questions
Philippa Davis is private chef and food writer. She works all around the world cooking for a range of international clients including celebrities, royalty...
The BV magazine is a monthly digital publication which launched in August 2020, and it is in no way connected with the original, much-loved Blackmore Vale Magazine (owned by Reach PLC, and which ceased publication early the same year), nor with any other, more recently launched printed publication with a similar name. Never the free paper you pick up from the floor of the petrol station, The BV is the half hour read you spend a weekend coffee with.
Dorset Island Discs
When every day is a fantastic day
Nick Heyward looks back on rough school days, dreaming of stardom, David Bowie, naming Haircut 100 … and the joy of reading in the...
Dorset Food & Drink
Dorset Farming
Is it the year of the egg? |Farm Tales
Pessimism, promises and poultry: Andrew Livingston asks if 2025’s...
Dorset Farming
Avian influenza – what you need to know
Alarmingly, bird flu is on the rise – new laws apply to backyard poultry keepers too, says NFU county advisor Gemma HarveyThe 2021/22 winter...
Dorset Wildlife
Troglodytes troglodyte – the king of the birds
Wildlife writer Jane Adams greets one of the UK’s...
Graveyards: an excuse for weeds or a space that nature needs?
Rachael Rowe investigates how Dorset’s living legacy of churchyards...
It’s purr-fect inside Dorset Cattery
When Kirsty Sturmey goes to work each morning, she walks across the yard into a space filled with purrs, whiskers and the unmistakable comfort...
Community Pages - in partnership with Wessex Internet
Recent stories
Don't miss the Dorset walks...
Dorset Walks
Hardy Monument walk with big views | 10.5 miles
This day's walk (we took more than four hours,...
Dorset Walks
Win Green to Tollard Royal Circular – 8.5 miles. | Dorset Walks
Win Green Down, the highest point of the Cranborne...
Dorset Walks
Cow Down Hill to the Salisbury Spire Spot
Gorgeous, simple route, with a perfect lunch spot half...
Dorset Walks
Easy Witchampton Circular | 10.3 miles
Easy walking on wide tracks through open farmland between...