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This is the place for all regular events and dates for your diary!

For listings of everything from fairs, lunch clubs, Artsreach performances and coffee mornings, to concerts, workshops, clubs and open days just click on the sections below.

If you have any upcoming events that you would like added please email editor@forumfocus.co.uk

Regular events  

March 2020

April 2020 onwards

Saturday February 1:

Blandford Museum re-opens after winter closure, daily 10am to 3pm excluding Wednesdays. Exhibition to February 29: Flick Baker – ‘Forests, Fruit and Fossils’

Monthly coffee morning, Pimperne village hall, 10am to noon

Coffee morning, Child Okeford Village Hall

Quiz and curry night,  Child Okeford village hall, tickets £10 from the Cross Stores, for St Nicholas Church

Sunday February 2:

Blandford Repair Café, Blandford Scout Hut, Eagle House Gardens, 10am to 3pm

Round Robin Ramblers meet 1.30pm at Okeford Hill car park for 4.5 mile walk Bonsley Common and Turnworth, details 01258 880044

The Ramayana, Springhead Trust, Fontmell Magna: storytelling and Indian music workshop 2 to 3.30pm and performance 5pm with Emily Hennessey and musician/composer Sheema Mukherjee. Tickets and details from Springhead 01747 811853 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Monday February 3:

Blandford Extinction Rebellion meeting, Blandford Museum, 6.30pm

Tuesday to Thursday February 4 to 6 (and every Tuesday to Thursday): Online Centre (computer help), Charlton Marshall Village Hall, 10.30am to 12.30pm, details 07752 138300

Wednesday February 5: Blandford St Mary Parish Council meeting, Brewery Hall, Hall & Woodhouse, 7.30pm

Thursday February 6: Start of 8-week afternoon Music Appreciation Course on Beethoven and his contemporaries, Dorset Rural Music School, details 01258 452511 or email drmsblandford@gmail.com

Thursday to Saturday February 6 to 8: Milborne Players pantomime Dick Whittington, Milborne St Andrew Village Hall. 7.30pm (Sat. mat. 2.30pm), tickets 01258 839085

Friday February 7:

Forests, Fruits & Fossils – an illustrated talk on reconstructing the world of our fossil ancestors by anthropologist Professor Peter Andrews, with illustrations by Flick Baker, Blandford Parish Centre, 7pm, admission £5

Shillingstone English Barn Dance Evening. (The Hat Band with Sue Perigo calling) at the Portman Hall, Blandford Rd DT11 0SF. 7.30 for 7.45 and every First Friday, first time free, then £6. 01258 861184


‘Back to the 1780s’ with WOR, Winterborne Stickland Village Hall, 7.30pm, (and instrumental workshop Saturday February 8, 10am) details 01258 880920 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Saturday February 8: Jumble Sale in Aid of The Ark Child Okeford, Child Okeford Village Hall, 11am to 1pm, refreshments available

Monday February 10:

Child Okeford Centre for Care and Learning, speaker from Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance, The Ark’s room, St Nicholas School, Child Okeford, 7.30pm, tickets 01258 860767

Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir Open Rehearsal, Methodist Church, The Close, Blandford, 7.45 to 9.45pm, details 01722 710511

Tuesday February 11: Tarrant Gunville WI meets 7.15 pm, Tarrant Gunville village hall. Talk by Peter Morgan on Cheesemaking. £4 for non-members includes supper. Details 01258 456202.

Wednesday February 12:

NHS Retirement Fellowship meeting, 10.15 am Committee Room Blandford Community Hospital. Kevin Patience - “Treasures from the Deep”, details 01929 472441

Blandford Forum Film Society presents ‘BlacKkKlansman (USA 2018 - drama), The Blandford School, 7 for 7.45pm, guest tickets 01258 268139 or by emailing blandfordfilm@googlemail.com

Film Night, ‘Downton Abbey’ (PG), Charlton Marshall New Village Hall, doors open 7.15pm, tickets £6, details/bookings 01258 456572

Thursday February 13:

Springhead Trust, Fontmell Magna, open garden in conjunction with the Shaftesbury Snowdrops’ Festival, 10am to 4pm

Forum Otters Cancer Support Group meet Woodhouse Gardens Pavilion, 2 to 4pm, details 07561 114644

Springhead Trust, Fontmell Magna, harpist Sarah Deere-Jones in workshop 3pm (limited spaces, book early, 01747 811853), and in concert with husband and guitarist Phil Williams, 7pm

Friday February 14:

Windborne present a Vocal Harmony Workshop 5pm and ‘Song on the Times’ 7.30pm, Milborne St Andrew Village Hall, details 01258 839230 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Blandford Evening Women’s Institute Birthday Party, The Parish Centre, The Tabernacle, 7pm

Dorset Rural Music School Murder/Mystery evening, details 01258 452511 or email drmsblandford@gmail.com

Friday to Saturday February 14 to 16: Durweston Pantomime, Cinderella, Durweston Village Hall, Fri/Sat 7.30pm, Sat/Sun 2pm, details and tickets 07554009098

Saturday February 15: Cats’ Protection League Coffee Morning & Stalls at Woodhouse Gardens Pavilion, Blandford, 9.30am to 12.30pm  

Monday February 17:

Blandford Fashion Museum opens for the season, The Plocks, Blandford, 10am

Strictly Come Tea Dancing with the Soggy Biscuit Dance Band, Corn Exchange, Blandford, 2.30 to 4.30pm, admission £7.50 per person (£5 for non-dancers)

Film Night ‘Downton Abbey’ (PG), Okeford Fitzpaine Village Hall, 7.30pm, details 01258 861357

Milborne Movies present ‘Isle of Dogs’, Milborne St Andrew Village Hall, 7.30pm, tickets on the door

Tuesday February 18:

Child Okeford Flower Arranging Club, 'Two storey flowers', A practical workshop , Child Okeford Village Hall, 2.15pm, details: 01258 863775

Pimperne Pre-School Bingo Night, Pimperne Village hall, doors open 6.30pm, eyes down at 7.30pm, fundraising for pre-school garden and play equipment

Wednesday February 19:

Cranborne Chase AONB Stargazing evening with Chasing Stars, Church Farm Caravanning and Camping Park, High Street, Sixpenny Handley, SP5 5ND, 7pm

Angel Heart Theatre present Mazymeg and the Honeybees, Milborne St Andrew Village Hall, 4pm, details 01258 839060 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Dorset Wildlife Trust North Dorset branch meets Fontmell Magna Village Hall (SP7 0PF), 7.30pm, Marine Conservation, MCZs and Plastics – an illustrated talk by Imogen Davenport, DWT Director of Conservation.

Thursday February 20:  Blandford Art Society Talk and Workshop on Artist Books by Joseph Field, Pimperne Village Hall, 1.30pm, non-members welcome - £5, full details www.blandfordartsociety.weebly.com

Blandford Museum Archaeology Group Talk. ‘The Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Act’ with Dorset Council Finds Officer, Blandford Town Museum, 7.30pm

Thursday February 20 to Saturday February 22: COMPACT presents ‘Cinderella’, St Nicholas School, Child Okeford, 7.30pm (and Sat mat 2.30pm), details 01258 861391

Friday February 21: Free half term fun with Mr Merlin & Okey Dokey the Dragon, Corn Exchange, Blandford, 11 to 11.45am

Sunday February 23: Countryside Alliance Point-to-Point Badbury Rings (www.countryside-alliance.org/capointtopoint) First race 12 noon, 6 races; terrier racing; shopping village; licensed bar & bookmakers; food stands For more info call 07974 141933  Patrons packages available Online Auction of Experiences - Log onto app galabid.com/point

Monday February 24: Superfast Dorset Digital Champion session, Blandford Library, 4 to 6pm, details 01258 452075

Wednesday February 26:

Blandford Forum Film Society presents ‘Capernaum (Lebanon 2018 – drama), The Blandford School, 7 for 7.45pm, guest tickets 01258 268139 or by emailing blandfordfilm@googlemail.com

Friends of Blandford Community Hospital Bingo, Royal British Legion, eyes down 7.30pm

Thursday 27 February:

Winter Warmer talk by Rev Jonathan Aitken,  “From Politician to Prisoner to Prison Chaplain”, in and for All Saints Church Tarrant Monkton 6.30pm, wine and nibbles from 6pm, tickets £8 from Fiona MacEwen 01258 830560

Friday February 28:

Alhousseini Anivolla in ‘The Walking Man’, Ibberton Village Hall, 7.30pm, details 01258 860222 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Scratchworks Theatre present WOMANS (Romans with a ‘W’), Sixpenny Handley village hall, 7.30pm, details 07786 79034 or www.artsreach.co.uk

Saturday February 29:

The Inflatable Museum, Corn Exchange, Blandford, 11am to 3pm, details www.artsreach.co.uk

Charity Quiz Night, Farquharson Arms, Pimperne, 8pm