And now - the end of the News: 31 July 2009
After a period of testing the new "Blog" I've come to the conclusion that it offers some real advantages and is here to stay. For one thing, it is much easier to post to - and there's the facility to comment on posts, as well. So with effect from today, I do not plan to update this page with "news" any more. For all the latest chat, and details on how various performances went, please click on the new menu button (across the top of every page) labelled "Blog". You may also add your own comment on a post, simply click on the word "comments" after the post.
This was the page for the latest news from Dr Turberville's Morris. It also included notes about any changed pages within the web site. Newest news appears at the top of the page, with old stuff pushed down underneath. You can jump to the news from a particular date using the menu at the left.
Latest News!
STOP PRESS posted 6 July - Somerton Morris Invasion
The Morris Invasion this year is THIS WEEK, Thursday 16th July. More information on the new page: Invasion
Posted 5 July 2009 - Site changes and more pages uploaded
The programme of dance - outs for 2006 and 2005 have been
added to the archive. A page describing and illustrating the kit has also
been created. Links to these pages are in the "Programme" and "About Us" pages,
or click here:
Programme for 2006
Programme for 2005
Kit
I am still working my way through revising the entire site, using server - side scripting to insert common sections into the pages so that if anything has to be changed it can be changed just once and take effect across the entire siet. You shouldn't see any changes from the "viewer" side, although if you look carefully you'll see that I've moved the "last updated" and re-positioned the validation marks! Comments, or anything you spot which has gone wrong (especially in-page links) would be welcome. You could let me know by posting in the new blog at http://dr-turbervilles.awardspace.co.uk/turbsblog
Old News
Posted 28 May 2009 - Programme Updates
The programme of dance - outs for the remainder of the year has been finalised and is now on the "programme" page (click on the link in the menu above to see the whole programme). The main changes are the cancellation of the visit to Bickleigh Mill, near Tiverton, a new booking for an event at Burlescombe (near Wellington) and the 6th birthday celebrations at the Rose & Crown, Bower Hinton.
I am hoping that reviews of these, and other events, will appear as if by magic on the new blog at http://dr-turbervilles.awardspace.co.uk/turbsblog
Posted 21 May 2009 - A new featurette
A first attempt at creating a blog - go to http://dr-turbervilles.awardspace.co.uk/turbsblog
Posted 30 April 2009 - More on Dancing with No mean Feet
A video has been uploaded to the Dr Turberville's Facebook page. This link might take you there: Jenny Lind
Posted 29 April 2009 - Dancing with No mean Feet
Last night Dr Turberville's danced at the Prince of Wales on Ham Hill. We were joined by No mean Feet, who have another new young dancer - they're proof that the average age of all morris sides needn't go ever upwards. Congratulations Charlotte on your first public performance, and well done. A good display and a fun evening.
And I must apologise to Gemma for being over-enthusiastic with the sticks - but that's another story.
Finally, just a note that I am adding the past programmes for 1983 onwards.
Posted 26 April 2009 - Two great evenings out
Last week Dr Turberville's danced out twice, at the Ashill Inn on Tuesday with Taunton Deane Morris Men and on St George's Day at the Bell Inn with Wyvern Jubilee Morris Men and lots of others.
I wasn't able to be at Ashill, but it was a good evening and my informant was very impressed by a very energetic and enthusiastic jig performed by one of the younger members of the Taunton side. It made some people feel very old but was lovely to watch, and good to see that the younger generation don't all think that morris is naff! I look forward to meeting Taunton Deane again soon.
At Ash, Wyvern had arranged a huge evening of entertainment with performances from Treacle Eater Clog, Babylon Border Morris, West Somerset Morris Men and a first public outing from Moonshine Appalachian dancers (who sparkled), as well as themselves and us. There was a large audience from the village and from beyond, plus press, and a neighbour got into the spirit of it by letting off rockets (or was he trying to scare us away? Not quite sure about that!). Right at the end a party of Polish visitors came along so despite the darkness we danced a couple more, before retiring to the bar for a drink, some tasty food which had been laid on and entertainment by the Babylon Mummers. If only every evening could be so much fun! Same again next year, please.
Finally, just a note that the programme for 2009 has been further updated and there are only a few events now awaiting confirmation.
Posted 19 Apr 2009 - Dr T's in the Press, and Programme for 2009.
Recent contact with Caroline, a correspondent for the Mid Somerset Series of newspapers, is described in her latest article, which wasn't online when I wrote this item but may be by the time you read it, so take a look at: Mid Somerset Series and try a search for "Dr Turberville", or go out and buy a copy of the Wells Journal, Shepton Mallett Journal, Central Somerset Gazette or Cheddar Valley Gazette.
Many thanks Caroline for your kind words, and I hope we'll see you again soon!
Some of the newer members of the side have now been immortalised (if that's the right word) in our "people" page, with thumbnail photographs so you can spot them and avoid them in the street.
More details of the programme for 2009 have been uploaded, click on the button labelled "Programme" for details.
Posted 16 Apr 2009 - Programme for 2009.
The programme for 2009 is now available, click on the button labelled "Programme" for details.
Dr Turberville's Morris now has a FaceBook group. It can be found by clicking on the link which follows: Dr T's facebook group
Posted 29 Sept 2007 - Bideford weekend and AGM
Well another season has been and gone and with another of those annual end-of-season events - the AGM.
But before that we had another fantastic weekend with Bideford Phoenix, this time at Hartland where we braved strong winds straight off the Atlantic and strong beers from the pub just a few yards from the campsite. More details to follow.
At the AGM the usual happened - speeches made, elections, food and drink. Following the AGM our new squire, foreman and fool are Andrew; our new bagman is Jo and Neil, our new scrapbook keeper is Tony, and our new moneybags is Heather.
One other thing: the site is now rated (or at least, so far parts are) by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), so you can safely turn on any software you have which screens out unacceptable sites by their content rating. Please let me know if you experience any problems which can be attributed to this cause.
Posted 7 Sept 2007 - Site Matters
Has it really been so long - since April - since I started editing the site and uploading to AwardSpace? I'm afraid I've been busy, once again (and working away from home) so I've neglected it. However, in the past week I've done some more tinkering, added mugshots of some more of our newer members, and even played about with the photograph album. I haven't actually finished the album, but take a look under "New Gallery" and there're some pictures of a "workshop weekend" when we entertained (?) Bideford Phoenix and swapped some dances. We're looking forward to another such weekend, this time to be held at Bideford, in just a week's time.
Another thing that might be of interest - I've discovered "Nvu", and despite everything I've always said about preferring to code my own html I am beginning to see that there are real advantages to using this sort of clever editor. For example, right now I'm just typing, cutting and pasting exactly as I would in a word processor, yet it looks just as the site would in a browser. It preserves all my code formatting and doesn't seem to have too many wierd ways of doing things (but it does create tags in a different order, for image links for example). And the real bonus is that this could certainly make it practical for me to let (sorry, encourage!) the other members of the side to contribute to the site directly - they needn't know the first thing about html (let alone xml and css), they can just pick up and edit a template that I've previously created, almost just as I am now!
Nvu is available from www.nvu.com and I strongly recommend it.
After a long period of mulling it over I'm ready to commit to Awardspace as the new host, so I shall have to post a redirection link on the old site at dr-turbervilles.about.tc (note: no www!) and inform all the search engines and directories.
Posted 2 April 2007 - Another New Host
The Turbs website has been hosted by FreeWebHosting.com since Sept 2006, but sadly as many have noted their servers are very slow. I stayed with them because it is a hassle changing hosts and changing website addresses - every time we move, just like moving house we need to tell everyone who might need to know our address that it has changed. When one moves house at least the telephone directory is probably the only directory entry which needs to be changed, but on the web there are many, many directories (including Yahoo, Google, etc. as well as the specialist sites that list Morris sides and other related activities) and they all need to be told as well.
So, understandably, I've been reluctant to make a move. Now, however, FWH has started to introduce badly - executed automatic advertisements on every site and a side effect is that our main page, which most directories point to, won't load at all in most browsers. So a change is inevitable, and I've decided to try out another host - AwardSpace.com.
Since this means uploading all the files again, this is also the ideal opportunity to complete the job of eliminating frames from the site design, so as a result I'm editing the pages before putting them up and the pages will not all appear at once.
So, please be patient if links do not all work.
Meanwhile, feel free to take a look and all comments welcome!
Posted 1 April 2007 - The Programme for 2007 is HERE!
Neil has been working hard to arrange our programme for the Summer season and I'm happy to say that it is as full as ever with interesting events and places to dance. The programme is now available on this site - follow the link in the top menu bar for more information.
Posted 29 Oct 2006 - New sticks!
Two members of Dr Turberville's attended the open day of the Dorset Coppice Group yesterday at their site near Blandford Forum in Dorset. We discussed our need for Morris Sticks and were shown how and where to cut the best wood, and we came away with supplies of sticks cut roughly to length in both hazel and ash, to season ready for use next year.
The Dorset Coppice Group (website: http://www.dorsetcoppicegroup.co.uk/) is actively seeking users for the materials harvested from a managed typical broadleaved woodland, and would be glad to hear from other Morris sides in need of sticks. They also offer educational visits, and a wide range of finishd woodland products including charcoal, furniture, walking sticks etc.
Posted 10 Oct 2006 - More new pages added
This page(!) has been reformatted to the new layout, so it includes the Dr Turberville's Banner and the menu buttons at the top.
Also new now is the New Gallery of photographs, which has been amended to use the same colour scheme as the rest of the site.
Posted 17 Sept 2006 - New website and new layout
Our free web hosting service has returned in a new form after a long period of uncertainty. In the new form, our existing site layout works OK (the problem was with the site adverts interfering with the frame structure) so it has been uploaded without any changes. Now begins a period of trying out new design approaches!
Posted 17 Sept 2006 - Report on 2006
2006 has been another great season of dancing, including lots of Tuesday evening pub venues, many shared with other sides, and some special events including the Wessex Folk Festival, Bideford Folk Festival, Swanage Folk Festival and Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival. We've also had our own events including a weekend with dancing out, a workshop and barbeque with Bideford Phoenix. All told an excellent year.
Posted 17 Sept 2006 - New members and other changes
We are pleased to report that Ken, Neil, Jo and Nick have all joined Dr Turberville's since the site was last updated. Neil is now Bagman, and Jo is Scrapbook Keeper, so we've made them work too! With the AGM imminent, we can see what new ideas they may bring for the future.
Posted 3 July 2005 - An update at last!
Returning visitors will have noticed that nothing has happened on the site since the Autumn of 2003. This was because I was unable to get access to upload updates - I don't know why. However, on trying again today - the first time I've tried for several months - I find it is all back in business, so here we are.
I have a lot of things to do to revamp the site and improve accessibility, but for now, I've just uploaded a new photo in the gallery - but I haven't modified the gallery page to show it yet, so you'll have to wait a little longer to see a picture of Dr Turberville's and Dartmoor Border dancing a Tinners Rabbit together on the sea front at Sidmouth in Feb 2005.
Posted 31 Oct 2003: Apologies and latest status
To anyone who has been monitoring the site, possibly waiting for some interesting piece of information to appear, or perhaps just curious to see whether it would ever be completed - my apologies. I have just been too busy / idle / hungry / tired to make any more progress of late. And now I can't even find all my files of work - in - progress!
We are now into the practice season 2003/4; all comers are most welcome to join us at the Tithe Barn, Church St, Merriott, Somerset, UK from 8pm each Tuesday evening.
At the AGM held recently, the posts of Squire, Foreman and Fool all went to Andrew; so he's going to be busy! We are starting to learn some more new (to us) Oddington dances, and have worked on a going - off dance for the end of a performance. No doubt more new dances will follow in the weeks to come.
The website seems to be having some accessibility issues, but I find that if ever the usual site at: free.hostdepartment.com/D/DrTurbervilles is unavailable, a copy seems to be online at: freewebhosting.hostdepartment.com/D/DrTurbervilles.
Even older news
For more news from 2003, visit the old news page: [link to be inserted...]