West Country Bylines Real stories, real people, real West Country

West Country Bylines

Real stories, real people, real West Country

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Still Standing: The West Country Venues That Refused to Let Live Music Become a Memory
Food & Drink

Still Standing: The West Country Venues That Refused to Let Live Music Become a Memory

When the shutters came down in 2020, nobody was entirely sure they'd go back up again. For hundreds of pubs, clubs, and small theatres across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, the pandemic wasn't just a pause — it was a near-death experience. We spent time with the venue owners, musicians, and regulars who fought to keep live music alive in the South West, and found out what it really cost them.
Shooting from the Margins: How West Country Filmmakers Are Telling Britain's Untold Stories
Culture

Shooting from the Margins: How West Country Filmmakers Are Telling Britain's Untold Stories

Forget London's postcode lottery for arts funding — a new wave of independent filmmakers across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset is quietly building something remarkable. They're making bold, original work on tight budgets, attracting serious investment, and proving that the best British stories don't always start in Soho. We went behind the scenes to find out how they're doing it.
Let It Go Wild: The West Country Gardeners Tearing Up the Rulebook One Lawn at a Time
Culture

Let It Go Wild: The West Country Gardeners Tearing Up the Rulebook One Lawn at a Time

Across Devon, Somerset, Cornwall, and Dorset, a growing number of gardeners are doing something that would have scandalised their neighbours a decade ago — letting things get a bit messy on purpose. Native plants, pollinator patches, and food-growing corners are replacing the manicured lawn, and the movement is spreading faster than bindweed in a heatwave. We met the people leading the charge.
Under the Counter and Off the Grid: The Quiet Revolution Happening in West Country Food
Food & Drink

Under the Counter and Off the Grid: The Quiet Revolution Happening in West Country Food

Somewhere between a WhatsApp group and a barn door, a different kind of food economy is quietly flourishing across Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. It's local, it's personal, and it exists largely outside the gaze of the supermarkets — and sometimes, the regulators too.
Lights, Camera, Clovelly: The West Country Locations That Keep Upstaging the Stars
Culture

Lights, Camera, Clovelly: The West Country Locations That Keep Upstaging the Stars

From Poldark's clifftops to Broadchurch's seafront, the West Country has spent years quietly doubling as everywhere from Victorian Cornwall to fictional Dorset towns. We went behind the scenes to find out what it's actually like when a film crew moves in — and what happens when they leave.
Heather, Ewes and Hard Truths: The Somerset Shepherd Who's Become an Unlikely Conservation Hero
Culture

Heather, Ewes and Hard Truths: The Somerset Shepherd Who's Become an Unlikely Conservation Hero

On the windswept heathlands above Exmoor, one man and his flock of Exmoor Horn ewes are doing something no rewilding project has yet managed — keeping a fragile ecosystem breathing. But the conservationists don't always see it that way, and that's where things get complicated.
Electric Cars: Are They Really Saving the Planet or Just Saving Face?
Culture

Electric Cars: Are They Really Saving the Planet or Just Saving Face?

The government says go electric, the adverts make it look effortless, and your neighbour just got a shiny new EV on the driveway. But out here in the West Country, where charging points are rarer than a warm January and the nearest motorway services is a forty-minute drive, the gap between the sales pitch and lived reality is hard to ignore.
Dusty Shelves, Sacred Pages: The Woman Saving West Country Church Libraries Before Time Runs Out
Culture

Dusty Shelves, Sacred Pages: The Woman Saving West Country Church Libraries Before Time Runs Out

Tucked behind vestry doors and beneath choir loft stairs, hundreds of forgotten books are quietly crumbling in West Country parish churches. Former librarian Margaret Holt has made it her retirement mission to find them, catalogue them, and drag them back from the brink — one dusty shelf at a time.
Smoke, Starter and Stubbornness: The Village Baker Waging a Quiet War on Factory Bread
Food & Drink

Smoke, Starter and Stubbornness: The Village Baker Waging a Quiet War on Factory Bread

Deep in a Somerset village, a dormant bakehouse has been coaxed back to life by one determined baker who thinks the industrial loaf is one of the great quiet disasters of modern British life. She's not just baking bread — she's rebuilding a food culture, one slow ferment at a time.
One Shutter at a Time: The Exeter Photographer Who Refuses to Let Rural Life Vanish Unseen
Culture

One Shutter at a Time: The Exeter Photographer Who Refuses to Let Rural Life Vanish Unseen

For over thirty years, Exeter-based photographer Della Marsh has been quietly building one of the most remarkable visual archives the West Country has ever produced. From sheep markets in Hatherleigh to harvest suppers in the Blackdown Hills, her lens has caught a way of life that nobody else thought to save. Now she's on a mission to make sure the next generation keeps watching.
Before the Last Speaker Goes: One Woman's Race to Bottle the Sound of the West Country
Culture

Before the Last Speaker Goes: One Woman's Race to Bottle the Sound of the West Country

Somewhere in a Devon farmhouse, an 84-year-old man is describing the way his grandfather used to call the cows in — and a linguist with a digital recorder is hanging on every syllable. Meet the archivist quietly building a sound library that could save centuries of West Country speech from disappearing without a trace.
Mud, Memory and the Magic of the Kiln: One Cornish Potter's Fight to Keep Ancient Craft Alive
Culture

Mud, Memory and the Magic of the Kiln: One Cornish Potter's Fight to Keep Ancient Craft Alive

In a ramshackle studio on the edge of a Cornish village, a retired potter is pulling centuries-old techniques back from the brink — one lump of clay at a time. Margaret Treloar spent decades watching traditional ceramics get swallowed up by factory lines and fast homeware, and she's decided she's had quite enough of it. Now she's passing on what she knows to a new generation before the old ways disappear entirely.
Grease, Ghosts and Glory: The Somerset Man Breathing Life Back into Forgotten Machines
Culture

Grease, Ghosts and Glory: The Somerset Man Breathing Life Back into Forgotten Machines

Deep in a Somerset barn that smells of old oil and older stories, Ray Calloway is doing something quietly extraordinary — rescuing motorcycles and classic cars that everyone else gave up on. Each machine that rolls in carries a history, and Ray feels honour-bound to uncover it.
Pull the Rope, Mind the Ceiling: Inside Dorset's Last Stand for the Ancient Art of Change Ringing
Culture

Pull the Rope, Mind the Ceiling: Inside Dorset's Last Stand for the Ancient Art of Change Ringing

In the flint-walled towers of rural Dorset, a small but fiercely dedicated band of ringers is fighting to keep one of England's oldest musical traditions from falling permanently silent. We spent a Tuesday evening with one of the county's most passionate campanologists to find out what it actually takes to keep the bells ringing — and why it matters more than most of us ever stop to think.
Press, Patience and Printer's Ink: The Somerset Studio Keeping a 500-Year-Old Craft From Going Under
Culture

Press, Patience and Printer's Ink: The Somerset Studio Keeping a 500-Year-Old Craft From Going Under

Tucked behind a market town high street in Somerset, a working letterpress studio is doing something quietly radical — teaching young creatives to slow down. We visited the printer who's spent three decades refusing to let moveable type become a museum piece.
Warp and Weft: The Devon Artist Pulling the West Country's Mill Stories Back from the Brink
Culture

Warp and Weft: The Devon Artist Pulling the West Country's Mill Stories Back from the Brink

In a cluttered studio on the edge of Dartmoor, textile artist Rachel Penhaligon is doing something quietly radical — turning scraps of forgotten industrial cloth and centuries-old weaving traditions into art that stops people dead in their tracks. Her work isn't just beautiful. It's a rescue mission.
Chisels, Dust and Devotion: The Dorset Stonemason Putting Young Hands to Ancient Stone
Culture

Chisels, Dust and Devotion: The Dorset Stonemason Putting Young Hands to Ancient Stone

In a yard tucked behind a Purbeck village, master stonemason Ray Holbrook is doing something quietly radical — teaching a new generation to read the grain of stone the way their great-grandparents once did. His apprenticeship scheme is small, unhurried, and possibly one of the most important things happening in the West Country right now.
Words on the Wind: The Retired Teacher Racing to Rescue the West Country's Vanishing Voice
Culture

Words on the Wind: The Retired Teacher Racing to Rescue the West Country's Vanishing Voice

Somewhere between 'dreckly' and 'proper job' lies a whole world of language that's quietly slipping away. One former Devon schoolteacher has made it her mission to capture it before it's gone for good — one crackling recording at a time.
Light Still Burning: The Passionate Few Keeping the West Country's Lighthouse Legacy Alive
Culture

Light Still Burning: The Passionate Few Keeping the West Country's Lighthouse Legacy Alive

From the craggy headlands of Cornwall to the windswept shores of Devon, a dwindling band of keepers and community campaigners are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the West Country's beloved lighthouse towers. Automation may have silenced the keeper's lamp-room routine decades ago, but these coastal sentinels are far from finished — not if their guardians have anything to say about it.
Salt, Nets and Stubbornness: The Cornish Fisherman Who Won't Let the Old Ways Sink
Food & Drink

Salt, Nets and Stubbornness: The Cornish Fisherman Who Won't Let the Old Ways Sink

Down on the Cornish coast, where the mornings smell of diesel and brine, one fisherman is quietly waging a personal war against the industrial tide. Mick Treloar still fishes the way his grandfather taught him — and he's determined to pass it on before the knowledge disappears entirely.