February gave us an unexpected treat after our planned speaker was sadly unable to join us – but in stepped Mike Spencer who kept us enthralled with a presentation about the Mid Dorset coast.
We learned about some of the traits and foibles of the historical residents of Portland, including a great many smugglers and a blind ‘lookout’.
Mike also illustrated much of the history of Chesil Beach and Portland stone. Most of us were not aware that Barnes Wallis tested his famous bouncing bomb along Chesil Beach in an exercise so secret that the anti-aircraft batteries on Portland hadn’t been told of the test flight. On spotting the bomber, they opened fire but fortunately, they weren’t very good shots!
There were too many funny stories to relate here but how lovely to hear so much laughter as Mike regaled us with tales of long ago (and not quite so long ago) and some wonderful images of this lovely part of our county, its history and people.