PORLOCK Village Hall was awash with volunteers and community organisations taking part in an inaugural community conversations and connections afternoon.

Organised by Porlock Vale CIC (PVCIC), the topic and theme of the day was on community resilience and creating a stronger Porlock Vale, with the focus on adult social care, signposting services, and connecting people of all ages, as well as enabling people to live well and for longer in their home and in the community.

Porlock Information Centre, which is run by PVCIC, used Tuesday’s event to launch its community questionnaire and the Good Neighbour Scheme, which links in with their ongoing development of the community café at Vale Yard, in Porlock.

Information centre manager Debbie Stanyon gave an update on the café project and outlined the next steps in how they will be expanding their services to the community.

Complementing the theme of the afternoon were more than 20 local and countywide businesses and charities who were invited to attend, including HomeStart, Village Agents, Minehead Dementia Group, Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership, Jan Rogers Counselling, Simpson Family Law, Little Fishes Nursery, Porlock Parish Council, to list a few.

All of the organisations were able to outline to visitors what support they could offer to the community, whether it was on keeping warmer in the winter or maintaining body strength to stay mobile for longer.

Guest speakers from Somerset Council, Wivey Cares, and Spark Somerset shared their experience and knowledge in these areas and raised the importance of volunteering within local communities.

Ms Stanyon said: “We were delighted to see so many members of our community come along this afternoon.

“This was a great networking and information event, which is at the heart of what Porlock Information Centre and PVCIC does.

“We have already been asked to organise more, which we will do once we have collated the results of the community questionnaire.

“The questionnaire is relevant to all living in Porlock Vale and we would ask that as many people fill the questionnaire in, either online or hard copy.

“Full details are available from Porlock Information Centre”

AN exhibition has opened in the Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, offering a new appraisal of the work and life of Exmoor writer and artist Hope Bourne.

Running until January 10, ‘A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor’, is created in partnership with the Exmoor Society which cares for The Hope L. Bourne Collection.

This exhibition considers Bourne’s status as one of the Westcountry’s most significant nature writers, whose work and way of life are especially prescient in this time of advancing environmental crisis.

It draws on new research by writer and Guardian Country Diarist Sara Hudston, whose book ‘A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor’ will be published next year.

Sara is co-curating the exhibition with Kate Best, for the South West Heritage Trust.

Hope Bourne (1918–2010) was a writer and artist who spent almost 60 years recording the landscape, wildlife, history, and changing rural traditions of Exmoor.

Fiercely creative and resolutely independent, she led a self-reliant life that gave her the freedom to write, draw, and paint.

For nearly 40 years, Bourne occupied a series of dilapidated cottages and caravans on the Somerset side of Exmoor, living off the land as much as possible.

Writing provided a small and precarious income, and she exchanged drawings and watercolours for meals with friends.

Bourne was a prolific creator.

She made thousands of drawings and paintings, wrote and illustrated books, authored pamphlets and newspaper columns, as well as keeping a daily journal.

She bequeathed her entire estate to the Exmoor Society, of which she was a founder member.

Lisa Eden, from the Exmoor Society said: “The Hope L. Bourne Collection consists of over 700 books and pamphlets, more than 2,000 sketches and drawings, published and unpublished manuscripts, a mass of cuttings and jottings, photographs, and other personal belongings.

“This vast and fascinating collection offers a window on the life of this remarkable woman and is an irreplaceable record of a place in time.”

Among the objects on loan for the exhibition are Bourne’s paraffin lamp, her Roberts radio, compass, binoculars, and Swiss Army knife.

There are displays of the detailed landscape sketches she made, sometimes on the backs of envelopes and cereal packets - testament to her frugal way of life.

Her personal journals and published works also feature.

To further explore Hope Bourne’s legacy and connection with the Exmoor landscape, a series of events are taking place, including a guided walk on Exmoor and a talk about the Bourne archive with Lisa Eden from the Exmoor Society.

Writer and co-curator Sara Hudston will be hosting a nature writing workshop and an ‘In Conversation’ evening exploring ‘Women Outside’ with journalist and author Meg Clothier.

The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. More information on its website.

NEXT year will see the 50th anniversary of the first steam trains on the revived West Somerset Railway (WSR), it the being half a century since March 28, 1976, when the first services of the new era began to run between Minehead and Blue Anchor.

That was just over five years since British Rail had closed the Taunton-Minehead branch line at the start of January, 1971.

During the ongoing story of the WSR revival the largest support group for the railway has been the West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA), which began its work before those first trains ran.

During that period it purchased three Great Western Railway ‘small prairie’ tank engines from Woodham’s scrapyard in Barry, South Wales, for restoration and future use on the line, numbers 4561, 5521, and 5542.

Two of the trio were sold on and have found new working lives elsewhere but number 4561 was returned to service on the West Somerset.

During that time, it made two on-screen appearances.

One was in the feature film ‘The Land Girls’, and the other in a ‘Miss Marple’ episode, the latter involving it being turned, while in steam, on the Bishops Lydeard by-pass.

The WSRA is funding the latest overhaul work so that the locomotive can play its part in the next period of the West Somerset Railway story.

After it was fully stripped down, the boiler has been sent to the workshops of Ian Riley and Son to be prepared for the future while new water tanks are being constructed by a team in Minehead.

The tanks are being made in line with the original engineering drawings created at Swindon in 1920, thanks to help from the National Railway Museum.

Work on the frames, cylinders, wheels, and motion part is being carried out in the workshops at Williton.

None of these working areas is open to the public.

The association also owns 10 British Railways mark one carriages.

Now well over half-a-century old themselves, they also require overhauls and with West Somerset Railway workshops fully occupied one has been sent to the East Somerset Railway for the necessary tasks to be carried out under contract.

This was number 5024 and the list of work performed by Cranmore Traincare Maintenance Services includes body panels, corridor gangway assemblies, flooring in the vestibule and toilet areas, and passenger door framing.

Among the WSRA vehicles is the quartet that make up the ‘Quantock Belle’ dining car set, which will be part of the West Somerset Railway’s programme of festive trains in December.

Maintenance and overhaul of vintage machinery - 4561 dates from 1924 - is a very expensive business with the cost of returning a steam engine to active life running well into six figures, and clearly the West Somerset Railway Association is also happy to welcome donations.

Cheques, payable to West Somerset Railway Association, can be sent to WSRA, The Railway Station, Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, TA4 3BX, or can be made via the association website, where membership details can also be found.

Not content with having one steam locomotive in its possession, the association also has two more awaiting a new life after they are overhauled in turn.

These are British Railways Standard 4MT 80064 and 7821 ‘Ditcheat Manor’.

SOMERSET Sight, the local charity supporting more than 3,000 visually impaired people across the county, recently held a fund-raiser to help it continue providing vital support to those living with sight impairment.

The fund-raiser took place at the beautiful Yarlington Country House, near Wincanton, and featured a car boot sale and country fair, making a fantastic family day out with traditional games, entertainment, classic cars, a fun dog show, and much more.

A spokesperson said: “We were fortunate with the weather, and the event was well supported by enthusiastic sellers, buyers, and lots of wonderful dogs

“A huge thank you to everybody who came along, braving the elements, your contributions truly make a difference.

“If you would like to learn more about how you can help Somerset Sight, or donate, then please contact our office on 01832 333818 or email [email protected].”