Dunster Somerset, England

CONNECTING TWO DUNSTERS

BY PETE AMYOONY – DUNSTER, BC, CANADA

January 7, 2017

On December 13th , 2000 I was sitting at my home in Dunster, BC, Canada when the phone rang and on the other end of the line was a fellow with an amazing English accent who was looking to speak to someone from “Dunster Canada”. Thinking it was one of my friends trying to play a trick on me, I decided to play along until I could recognise who the trickster was. As I listened to him explain that he was from the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC) in Bristol England and that his radio program tried to connect with other villages and towns around the world which had the same names as places in the West Country of England. I finally realized that this was no trickster but a real radio personality, Trevor Fry, from BBC Bristol. He wanted to call me every few months and my job would be to tell his listeners what Dunster, BC was like and what kind of things were going on in our community and so on. Being one who loves to talk, I agreed to be called every few months during the different seasons of the year and to just ramble on about our area and what was new in “Dunster Canada”.

For the next fourteen years, I received four or five calls per year and would bring all our British friends up to date about the happenings in our little community and area. They loved to hear about the wildlife that we see every day and the mountains and the Ice Cream Social and other local gatherings. I gave out my e-mail address and was almost overwhelmed with e-mails from that area and tried to keep up with responding to all of them over the years. I also gave out the website address for our Dunster BC website that Lelani Arris, Birgit Stutz and myself had spent time in putting together and many wrote how much they enjoyed seeing that site. A few became “regular pen pals” and we carried on back and forth many times per year. In 2014, Trevor had surgery and a few weeks later he passed away so the program was no longer continued and thus ended the amazing connection we had established.

Dunster is a village and civil parish in West Somerset, England, in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Bristol Channel coast 2.5 miles (4 km) south-southeast of Minehead and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Taunton. The British census recorded a parish population of 817 in 2011.

West Street is the oldest; though quieter than the High Street, it has three specialist shops: a Christmas shop, a kitchenware shop, and a gift shop. At the end of West Street is Dunster Working Watermill. The village has numerous restaurants and three pubs.

Dunster Beach, which includes the mouth of the River Avill, is located half a mile from the village, and used to have a significant harbour, known as Dunster Haven, which was used for the export of wool from Saxon times; however, it was last used in the 17th century and has now disappeared among the dykes, meadows and marshes near the shore. The beach site has a number of privately owned beach huts (or chalets as some owners call them) along with a small shop, a tennis court and a putting green. The chalets, measuring 18 by 14 feet (5.5 by 4.3 m), can be let out for holidays; some owners live in them all the year round.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunster

www.yarnmarkethotel.co.uk

www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dunster-castle/

Activities booklet for the Yarn Market Hotel