Those of you with Stoke Abbot interests might like this little story which has somehow made the national press. Apparantly a 7am curfew has been rung in Stoke Abbot for generations. This consists of 100 rings of the Church Bell every day from the start of May will the end of September (the current bellringer has been ringing the bell, unpaid, for the last 20 years!) Many villagers apparantly use it as their morning alarm call. Now the time has been put forward to 7.45 due to complaints from the owner of a holiday cottage in the village. He says there have been comments in his guest book along the lines of 'please strangle quasimodo'! Some of the villagers are up in arms about this, claiming that this has broken an old tradition - and they are over-sleeping without the bells. Others can't see what the fuss is about. All in all it has caused a right old fuss which first hit the pages of the local editions of the Dorset Echo and which was then picked up by the some of the National Newspapers (who must be short of news!) Of course here in England papers often like to run features about holiday makers and/or incomers to rural areas trying to change rural traditions because they find them inconvenient - so they liked this story. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the issue, the Daily Telegraph had rather a nice photo of Stoke Abbot! Helen Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list

Hi Helen, I think what isn't said speaks loudly. Where does the owner of the holiday home live ? Is this another case of centuries old tradition being swept away because of 'Human Rights' ? What about the Rights of the village as a whole ? Mary (please reply to yaffles@waitrose.com) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Helen Jones" <hsj@melcombe.freeserve.co.uk> To: <> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 9:19 PM Subject: [DOR-LIFE] Stoke Abbot Bells > Those of you with Stoke Abbot interests might like this little story which > has somehow made the national press. > > Apparantly a 7am curfew has been rung in Stoke Abbot for generations. This > consists of 100 rings of the Church Bell every day from the start of May > will the end of September (the current bellringer has been ringing the > bell, unpaid, for the last 20 years!) Many villagers apparantly use it as > their morning alarm call. > > Now the time has been put forward to 7.45 due to complaints from the owner > of a holiday cottage in the village. He says there have been comments in > his guest book along the lines of 'please strangle quasimodo'! Some of the > villagers are up in arms about this, claiming that this has broken an old > tradition - and they are over-sleeping without the bells. Others can't see > what the fuss is about. All in all it has caused a right old fuss which > first hit the pages of the local editions of the Dorset Echo and which was > then picked up by the some of the National Newspapers (who must be short of > news!) Of course here in England papers often like to run features > about holiday makers and/or incomers to rural areas trying to change rural > traditions because they find them inconvenient - so they liked this story. > > Whatever the rights and wrongs of the issue, the Daily Telegraph had rather > a nice photo of Stoke Abbot! > > Helen > > > > > Helen Jones, Weymouth, Dorset > http://www.melcombe.freeserve.co.uk > List Admin Rootsweb Eng Dorset & Scammell Lists, and > British Genealogy Eng-Dorset, Surnames & Forenames list > > > ==== ENG-DORSET-LIFE Mailing List ==== > Look at the website for the Office of National Statistics for information about the census and ordering certificates > http://www.statistics.gov.uk > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > >

Not so long ago there was a thread "Dorset - a nice place to live?" By selling off our land and houses to profitmakers, we are selling our souls, traditions and even landscapes to the devil. The charm of Dorset stemmed from the fact that it was quite isolated. The "improvement" of train and road services mean that Dorchester is only a couple of hours from London, and people could almost commute! This puts the land prices up, tempts local authorities to sell of land that suddenly becomes available for building, and attracts the kind of people you mention in Stoke Abbot. Let them go to Brighton or Blackpool! Not that I have anything against those places, if you like the perfume of fried onions and tender but over-decibelled voice of the bingo-caller, much better than a lousy, rusty old bell. I live in Provence, have done for 40yrs, and if you have read Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence" you cannot imagine the changes that have happened in what was a totally rural countryside over the last ten years! Up to a point that P Mayle - the guilty party - decided the place was going to the dogs and packed up his bongos and left us with the bus-loads of Japanese looking for his house - which he of course sold off at considerable profit! Down here the examples of zityvolk not integrating are numerous - Farmer had to kill his cock because the neighbouring Paris lawyer (who spends one a month a year in the house) complained to the police - who of course said he was right. - Farmer sued for damages because this other man's car skidded on sheep droppings left on the road. Farmer lost! - Farmer sued for damages because lady irremediably soiled £300 pair of shoes, again because the sheep were badly house-trained! FARMER WON HIS CASE!! HOOORAAAAY! I know it's all part and parcel of the incomprehensible place the world is, but do I really have to find a cave in the outback of Oz to find some peace? I'll have to watch out for the sheep-droppings though!! Geoff