By his own admission, Chris Brown is used to making quite a bit of noise. Wimborne’s town crier has been such a familiar figure around the town for some years, heralding events that are taking place and marking important dates in the calendar.

But sadly, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, he has been silenced, apart from marking the Queen’s 94th birthday on 21 April.

“This is my seventh week of not going out very much, which is strange for me, as previously there was never a day when I didn’t go out,” said Chris. He contracted polio in 1958 at the age of two, and initially was totalling paralysed and confined to an iron lung. Doctors said he would never walk again but he defied this grim prognosis. However, over the years he has had multiple operations and realises he is in the ‘vulnerable’ category.

He said he is missing his other voluntary work at Moors Valley and Shire Hall in Dorchester.

“However, I am doing a bit of gardening and, working from home, have been able to do my shows on Radio Wimborne, Forest FM and KeeP 106 in Dorchester.”

He is also finding time to work on his book Only a Boy which tells the stories of local people who died during the First World War.