25 YEARS AGO:

July, 30 1993

SAILING: Money left by a West Dorset woman will help young sailing enthusiasts gain experience at sea.

Veronica Neilson, who lived at Higher Eype, left £10,000 to the Astrid Trust, a fund set up to finance the work of Weymouth's 138 foot long training ship.

Mrs Neilson, who died last October, was the wife of commander Graham Neilson, who bought and restored the two-masted vessel after it had been abandoned by Lebanese drug-runners in mid-Channel.

RETURN: Green-fingered Walditch residents competed in a best kept garden contest, staged for the first time in 55 years.

The competition was inaugurated in 1931 but was abandoned eight years later with the onset of the Second World War.

CARNIVAL: Now in his second year of office, Lyme's Regatta and Carnival Committee chairman Keith Williams is delighted to announce that, thanks to the highly successful 1992 carnival, £3000 was shared between 30 local beneficiaries.

50 YEARS AGO:

July, 26 1968

GIFT: "Scouting is the finest training that any boy can ever receive, and I could never put back into Scouting what I gained from it," says Mr Ron Oxenbury, former group scout leader of the 1st Bridport (St Mary's) Scout Group, who has retired from office after 32 years in the scout movement.

Mr Oxenbury has been presented with a 400-day clock, the gift of members of the group council, Scouts and Cub Scouts of the 1st Bridport group, in appreciation of his long and devoted service.

WALK: Seventeen members of Miss Ballard's form at Colfox School took part in a sponsored walk on Monday from the school to Broadwindsor and back and their sponsors will be contributing, between them, about £45 for the Training Centre for the Mentally Handicapped, at Flood Lane, Bridport.

ORCHESTRA: West Dorset Schools Orchestra, under Mr Goodman, have now established a regular pattern of three concerts per year, one at each of the comprehensive schools in the area.

As has become the custom, local singers and instrumental soloists were invited to perform.