The River Path The River Path
Events in the Stour Catchment
A number of events happen reglarly in the Stour catchment which add to its distinctiveness.
Music at the Source, Stourhead, Wiltshire (1st row, left)
A day in which many singing groups and musicians from around the catchment and beyond gather in the beautiful National Trust gardens at Stourhead to perform in celebration of the river's source. This first took place in 2001 as part of Common Ground's music making project Confluence, but the National Trust repeated the event in 2002 and hope to do so in each subsequent year.
Filly Loo, Ashmore, Dorset.
On the watershed of the catchment in North Dorset, this is a celebration of the longest day, held on the nearest Friday (around 24th June),when villagers dance beside this singular village pond (it is high on the chalk). The Hambledon Hopstep Band play and call from a cart decorated in greenery to the crowd, dancing in the street. A Green Man arrives in a procession and takes part in the first dance to start the evening. There are display dances followed by public dancing, then at dusk, the celebrations reach their climax with the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. This is a torchlit procession with six antlered deer-men and four other costumed characters: a Maid Marion, a bowman, a hobby horse and a fool. The procession and dance is accompanied by a haunting solo melody in a minor key. The celebration finishes with the torches in the ground around the pond and everyone holding hands around the pond for the last dance. Contact +44(0)1747 811413, or visit the Hambledon Hopstep Band web-site.
Great Dorset Steam Fair, near Blandford Forum, Dorset (1st row, right)
Formerly the Stourpaine Bushes steam fair, this moved to a larger venue several years ago. A huge and fascinating gathering of steam engines of all shapes and sizes, with fairground and many other attractions.
Cheese Festival, Sturminster Newton, Dorset (2nd row, left).
This has taken place annually since 1999, around the second weekend in September, with events, performances, and an opportunity to sample cheeses from across the region.
Cheeses are just carbohydrates and protein, and around 30% water. Why do they vary so wonderfully from place to place? Cheese depends on the quality of the milk from which it is made; that depends on the pasture the cow feeds on; and that depends on its geographical position. So said Dorothy Hartley in Food in England in 1954 already worried at the loss of variety in farm cheeses.
We can detail more things adding to a chain of quality and particularity which is so threatened by the pull of a market place which now stretches across the world. The type of cattle and the breed's intimacy with local conditions, the richness and complexity of grasses, seasonal differences in pasture, the calving cycle of the cows, the farmer's knowledge of place, animal and process, the passion with which the cheese is made and especially the patterns of inundation by rain and river - all of these things underpin local distinctiveness. The French have long championed appelation controlee for their wines and interest here is increasing in the European Community designation of Product of Defined Origin which both promotes and protects people's pride not only in their product but also in their place. Thomas Hardy in baptising the middle run of the River Stour the Vale of the Little Dairies, acknowledged, through the wonderful cheeses and butter for which the place was famous, the importance of the prime grassland this soggy place can support.
Perhaps a hundred years geared to milk trains serving the capital meant that the national market pulled tradition apart. Certainly it is strange that this rich grass-growing valley has no singular cheese which bears its name.
The cheddar type cheese until recently made in bulk in Sturminster Newton rightly gained accolades, but across Britain farmers are inventing new cheese after cheese, there is plenty of room for small scale surprising dairy delights to emerge and carry some of the names of the Blackmore Vale, the Stour and its many tributaries, linking the farms and their pastures once more with the river which bathes them.
Stour Descent, Sturminster Newton to Bryanston School (2nd row, right)
On the first Sunday in December, local canoe enthusiasts hold their annual downstream race, the Stour Descent.
Starting at Sturminster Town Bridge at 11am, around 100 paddlers brave the chilly December waters to make their way along the nine mile stretch of river to the boathouse at Bryanston school. There are a number of different classes of competitor, so the journey usually takes between 3 - 5 hours depending on experience and stamina! There are a number of prizes in each class. The Stour Descent has been an annual event since the early 1980s, and in recent years it has been organised by the Stour Valley Canoe Club.
It can be quite a dangerous race, and the Canoe Club stress that only experienced canoeists should attempt it. If you are interested in taking part, or would like to watch the canoeists in full pelt, contact Peter Carter of the SVCC for more details +44(0)1202 602757.
