AN instructor from Netheravon took part in a major Reservist exercise on Salisbury Plain Training Area. Exercise Southern Bluebell saw The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) receive hands-on training on current operational vehicles
NOMINATIONS for the pig industry’s David Black Award are now open. The annual award, sponsored by BPEX, started in 1960 and goes to someone who has made a valuable and sustained contribution to the industry. Previous winners have come from
FARMING union leaders from the whole of the UK met in London on June 9 for a summit about the current beef situation. Discussing wide-ranging issues from CAP through to abattoir charges, they were unanimous that the current downward spiral of farm
PLANTING nitrogen-fixing crops such as peas and beans will count towards farmers’ greening measures under new CAP rules. Defra has released further details on how CAP will be implemented from 2015, including an announcement that limited landscape
AFTER a busy surgery last Friday I travelled to Cairo with a group of parliamentarians to meet with the new Egyptian president and some of his key ministers. The purpose of this 48-hour visit was to seek to understand, directly from the key players
HELLO everyone and welcome to the Journal Gang page. The World Cup has started and I expect lots of you are following England’s progress in the competition. There are sure to be many of special events and activities based on the World Cup going
HISTORY is coming alive in the beautiful Chalke Valley next week and there is still a chance to be part of the story. A handful of tickets are left to see stars including Damian Lewis, Dan Snow and Al Murray. And some of the most popular historians
FOR most of us, until last week, ISIS was either the Oxford University student magazine or an Egyptian goddess. Now it has exploded into our consciousness as the most violent and gruesome of jihadist movements. As it massacred its way through
WHAT a farce it all is. Yes, we all want motorists to drive through our streets at a reasonable speed, but there will always be the difficulty in deciding what speed is reasonable. Few would resent an emergency vehicle belting through when circumstances
CAN anyone help? On June 10 I stopped outside Boots, Silver Street, to speak to a lady with a medium-sized white husky-type dog, which had a damaged front paw that it couldn’t use. I asked the owner what had happened and she implied that the dog
THE South Wiltshire Group of the National Charity the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is fully opposed to the Salisbury Gateway proposal for a Sainsbury’s retail store in Southampton Road. We have sent a full written comment on the planning
HAVING just read in the Journal about the state of the toilets in Salisbury, I feel I must write. A friend of mine, who lives in Bexhill, was on a coach trip to Stourhead and used the toilets in Salisbury while on a break. My friend remarked to
EACH week I visit my parents’ grave at London Road cemetery. Like so many other families and friends we tend to our loved ones’ resting place with pride, therefore I was utterly distraught to discover my parents’ grave in a complete and utter mess
WILTSHIRE Council has organised a meeting for parents/ carers of learning disabled children and young people in Salisbury on June 30 at Sarum College in The Close from 10am to 2pm, to discuss provision for overnight short breaks. Lunch will be
TRAINER Richard Hannon senior made a dash from a grandchild’s christening to land a double at Salisbury on Sunday – but not in the way he would have understandably anticipated. Professor had been confidently expected to land the feature sprint
SUMMER is a wonderful time of year and our countryside does not need rubbish thrown all over the place. It’s a place of beauty; if you walk or cycle, you will know what a lovely place it can be. Roadside rubbish and fly-tipping causes rats
SO yet more parking spaces are going to be lost to the city. We are already going to lose a number of spaces in the Central car park. Not only are the coaches going to lose their parking, but where are all the market vans going to park on market
WILTSHIRE Council has serious questions to answer about the recent decision to delay the commencement of the new county waste services contract from August 2016 to August 2017, and to extend the current contracts with Hills Waste Solutions (and FCC
I WISH to thank those of your readers who have sent me the used stamps for Guide Dogs. They are greatly appreciated. I sincerely hope they will continue to send used stamps to me as, being in my 94th year, it gives me something to do in my
LAST week someone picked up a packet of photos from Boots, which were mine. They were of a special cruise we made for my husband’s 80th birthday. If they would please get in touch with me, my phone number is 01722 333782. I would be very
OVER recent weeks the Journal has published a number of letters regarding coach parking and related issues, some of which inevitably refer to Central Car Park and the Maltings. In the interest of keeping Journal readers accurately informed, and
STANDING idly by a group of senior citizens in Butcher Row, I was puzzled by what seemed like their incomprehensible chatter. “Well I’ll be blowed. “I saw this coming a long time back.” “They won’t pick Hudson’s Field, not with Old Sarum
Vincenzo Pellegrino is currently appearing in As You Like It, which runs at Salisbury Playhouse until Saturday. He last performed at the Playhouse as Roger Mason in the stage adaptation of William Golding’s The Spire and his television credits include
NOT surprisingly, Nigel Farage took a few hits in Mark Steel's stand up routine at Salisbury Arts Centre earlier this month. There were rich pickings in the UKIP leader's nowinfamous interview with LBC radio last month. Farage spoke of feeling
JUST ten years ago people were still smoking in restaurants, Top of the Pops was on our screens and mobile phones were just that – not the app factories, mobile information centres and lifelines that they are today. So imagining 5,000 years ago
“YOU can’t change what is happening around you. You can only change how you feel about it.” Pearls of wisdom from a training course this week on dealing with stress. I wasn’t best pleased to be there. I was much too busy to take four hours out
IT pains me to admit it, but Wiltshire Council is doing something right for once. Investing £70m (ok, some of the funding isn’t confirmed yet, but the intention is there) in muchneeded houses for hard-up young families to rent and in flats to enable
TV CHEFS are two-a-penny these days. It seems you can barely move for cooks who want to get out of the kitchen and onto our screens. There’s even a whole channel dedicated to food, not to mention an entire generation of people who not only
AN exhibition of work from the 2013 War Artist of the Year is to be held at Salisbury’s Gallery 21. Richard Salter will be unveiling his latest collection of original artwork, which reflects his emotional response to his time in the army, along
POLITICS has always provided a fertile field of material for comedians. And stand-up comic Matt Forde has been closer than most to the machinations of those who represent us in parliament. In a previous career incarnation Forde, 31, was a political
RANULPH Fiennes is a name synonymous with adventure, discovery and occasional mischief and it is for this that he is a true British hero. I am not one for excessive or unnecessary patriotism but Fiennes’ talk Living Dangerously talk somehow extracted
AT its best, As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s funniest works. Unfortunately, this is not the play at its best. Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Rosalind and Jack Wharrier as Orlando put in attractive performances as the central love-struck characters
A BOY from Fordingbridge has had the trip of a lifetime with MDL Sail Training Awards. John Bratherton was one of six deserving youngsters who won a place on this year’s six-day trip aboard the John Laing. The 230 nautical mile trip saw this
ENTERTAINER Christopher Biggins returned home to Salisbury on Saturday to be best man at his brother’s wedding. In true panto “he’s behind you!” style, the cheeky star photobombed the happy couple’s cake cutting shot, eager to get in first for
YOUNG people aged 16 to 19 can get help with their CVs at Salisbury market on Tuesday, June 24. Wiltshire Council’s youth service is also offering help with interview skills and information on how to apply for apprenticeships, traineeships, jobs
YOUNG footballers in Mere celebrated their achievements during the last season at a presentation evening. Mere Town Youth Football Club teams celebrated a successful year, which saw them compete with larger towns including Trowbridge and Devizes
SALISBURY Shopmobility is looking for volunteers. People are needed to cover a three-and-a-half hour shift on a Monday morning or a Saturday afternoon. Duties include the delivery and collection of scooters, powerchairs and wheelchairs within
CHEERLEADERS, singers, acrobatics and stalls galore were all part of a fun day of community entertainment in Harnham at the weekend. The Harnham Community Fete and Musical Evening also offered a wide range of stalls, workshops for children in drama
CONTRACTORS tasked with mowing roadside verges for Wiltshire Council have had their payments stopped until they get their act together. “The service being provided isn’t good enough,” the council’s deputy leader John Thomson admitted to members
A DOG that went missing from Tolpuddle last Thursday was spotted near Sopley on Sunday and may still be in the area. Cocker spaniel Edward has sparked a huge hunt, with people putting posters up a far away as Hurn, 23 miles from his home, where
