Following Paul's untimely death aged 57 on 10th May 2008 so many of us were devastated by his passing that a number of us decided to set up a foundation in his memory. Our aim was to try to carry on what he had been doing. It was then that we discovered just how many things Paul did and why he was so often late and why everything was so "last minute". He was a person of amazing vision. To most of us he dreamed up schemes which were "crazy" or "impossible" but to him they were achievable.

He was the founder of Dorset Doddlers, our local running club, he trained young runners at Bournemouth, he ran art classes in the Exchange on a Saturday morning, he started and ran the Barrelhouse Blues club and his most recent development the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra all while he worked full-time as a teacher of art and design at Bryanston. For a bit of light relief he ran other events and played gigs with the Barrelhouse Blues Band (with Marion Dolton and Alan Edwards) and duoed with his long time friend Mark Skerritt. He was a skilled artist and one of his loves was painting guitars, two of which were painted for Jack Bruce and James Blunt and auctioned for charity.

And here's another thing Paul did of which I only became aware after he died. He recorded an online rural soap called "Middleditch" mainly written by Monique Caddy and you can hear all of the episodes here.

Paul listed among his personal friends Victor Brox, Pete Brown, Bernie Marsden, Gordon Haskell, Robbie McIntosh, Zoot Money and Ben Waters to name but a few and he is mourned , and I don't think this is an exaggeration, by hundreds of other of us lesser mortals too.

• To keep booking The Barrelhouse Blues and Rock Club events at the Exchange - usually on the last Saturday of the month
• To organise the Music Workshops on the third Monday of each month.
• To maintain the Art Classes on Saturday mornings.
• To continue to run the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra.
• To look for ways to maintain the training of young runners in the county.
• To provide musical events for youngsters by supporting them to organise their own gigs and run events.

The Barrelhouse was launched on Thursday 14th September 1989 by Paul Hart and Stuart Booth (co-ordinator of Bob Brunning's "British Blues Connection" as both a club and a band to back visiting musicians. The autumn date was doubly important for the band as it was also the 1st gig with Dick Heckstall-Smith. The night was a resounding success although, sadly, sixty people were turned away at the door. Since then both the band and the club have grown "hand in glove".

The band chosen was the best available in the Wessex region at the time, with the original line-up consisting of Paul Hart, Tim Mycroft, Alan Edwards and Greg Russel. Virtually the same line-up as the "Shunter Smith & The Boogie Train Band" that included Andy Shepard.

The club initially saw Dick, Victor Brox, Dave Kelly, Bob Hall, Stan Webb, Top Topham, John Moreshead, Pete Moody and Eddie Martin band and were really only playing the roll of backing. Greg Russel was to leave and with the addition of a new bass man, Dave Wallace, the band started to do gigs in its own right. Although it still functioned in its other role, playing with American Gene "Mighty Flea" Connors, Johnny Mars and Clarence "Big" Miller (a contempary of Charlie Parker in Kansas city in the 30's) playing many festivals and doing mini tours. The band now with an identitiy has been writing its own material, forging a different fusion of blues and jazz.

In his early years Paul was a National standard athlete at track and cross country running, regularly ranking in the top ten at junior and schoolboy level and was once 3rd for age in the English Schools Championship. He was coached and advised by Bruce Tulloh and Harold Tarraway respectively. He still holds the South Western Counties junior record for the mile, winning the championship twice, and was Dorset mile and cross country champion for 5 years consecutively . He ran for Durham university and became Bournemouth AC senior cross country champion in 1979. In later years he turned his attention to longer races and has a marathon PB of 2:26.

As a teacher Paul has had an interest in coaching from the outset. From his first school in Lymington emerged two promising athletes who went on to become senior Internationals; David Perry, 3:44 1500 metre runner and cross country international and Brent Jones, cross country and marathon international (under 21 record holder). More recently he has been coaching athletics and cross country to national hopefuls at Bryanston school and helping Triathletes with their running - he was adviser to Bernie Shrosbree prior to his commonwealth games performance in New Zealand.

This is a photo of Paul from one of his early performances. Dave Lewis, who kindly supplied the photo, is unsure when it was taken but it looks like Paul has either just come back from running a race or is trying to keep cool.

Paul's first band was "Rusty Blade" which he formed in the late 60's and which ran through to the mid 70's. James Shepherd (on drums) Greg Russel (on bass). Alan Edwards became the drummer when James left. The existence of the band was interrupted by Paul's attendance at Durham.

Shunter Smith's Boogie Train 78 with Greg Russel, Alan Edwards and Mark Skerrit.

The band got the name when Paul and Mark were waiting at Waterloo railway station early in the morning returning from a BB King concert (where Johnny Mars was the support) when an announcement came over the tannoy "would Shunter Smith report to the office" Paul wearing his then trendy waistcoat similar to those the railwaymen wore instantly was dubbed "Shunter Smith"
Impressed by their ability, Andy Sheppard asked to join and, unsurprisingly, was immediately on board.
During this period were regularly gigging at the Camelot Suite in Bournemouth.
Split
Went on to form The Crabs with James Shepherd on Drums, Greg Russell on Bass +Mark & Paul
This band played the major Fiddleford festivals 81-85 Mark left.
Late 80's Paul began the plan to form the Barrelhouse Blues Band backing several prominent musicians
Rivers Arms early 90-91

I think this rates as one of Paul's better attended gigs.

Being a journalist, I'm going to turn the story on its head and begin with the very last thing that Paul said to me. About 10 days before he died, we were discussing an article I was going to write marking the 20th anniversary of the Barrelhouse club. Paul emailed me one or two helpful suggestions and added: "Your memories would be essential of course. Remember Big Joe Turner and his Chitt'lins?"

To be honest, I had only the vaguest memory of this myself so this week I looked up the cuttings. It was 1996 and Paul had asked me to interview Big Joe to publicise his Barrelhouse gig at the Silent Whistle in Shillingstone. Big Joe, who was bass player to B B King among others, told me how, like Jimi Hendrix and others, he cut his musical teeth on the Chittterlin' Circuit, so-called "because only black people ate chitterlin's" (pig's intestines). He told me he had been unable to get them in this country and really missed them so after scouring the local butchers without success, I wrote a story which the Bournemouth Echo published under the headline "Big Joe is missing his chitterlin's". Several readers called to say there was a butcher at Kinson, Bournemouth, who had bought a freezer-full. He phoned him and made a late dash to Kinson, bought his last two packets and took them to the Silent Whistle, where Big Joe's brother rolled up his sleeves and cooked them to perfection - with enough leftover for Joe to take away.

Such were the quirky stories that tended to turn up whenever Paul Hart was involved. And you know this is part of my problem today. Trying to do justice to Paul's talents and achievements in a matter of minutes is a challenge to say the least. But I will do my best.

My own earliest memories of Paul are lost in the mists of the early 1950s. We were born in the same year, 1950, and lived within 200 yards of each other at Rixon through most of our childhood years. Paul was the only son of Hazel, who sadly died in some years ago, and Bill.

My clearest memories of Paul in those days involve the emergence of two of his many talents - his prodigious ability on the running track and his truly infectious enthusiasm. Although perhaps better known today as a musician, artist, teacher, MG enthusiast and devotee of the Gibson Les Paul, back in the 60s he was making his mark as one of the best runners Dorset has ever produced. He broke South West Counties mile records, competed in national championships and came seventh in the England schools cross country. Throughout he was ferried around the UK by his supportive father. I know that that support has always continued in various forms, more recently through their weekly lunches at Poet's Corner, where Paul would bring Bill up to speed with his latest projects.

Paul revived his interest in running in later life, competing in the London, Rotterdam, New York and Miami marathons and achieving a pretty awesome

personal best time of 2 hr 28 min. Paul has also coached many runners and triathletes over the years, some of them to international standard.

When Paul's running took off in the 60s, he and I were choirboys in this very church and there was one particular hymn which had us all giggling as we struggled through the opening lines: "As pants the hart for cooling streams / When heated in the chase…"

As with everything Paul tackled in life, his early running success sent out ripples of enthusiasm which drew in other people. Soon a whole group of us was heading up to North Dorset Athletics Club at Shaftesbury every week and it was a measure of Paul's exceptional ability as much as my own inability that he used to lap me three times in a three-mile race.

I thought I wasn't too bad at running until then. Mind you, I regularly got my own back as we whiled away many a summer's afternoon swimming in the river downstream from the Rec. We were discussing those days only a few months ago and we recalled a little drama that occurred when we were in our early teens. One day we were joined on the riverbank by a friend who turned out to be NOT as good a swimmer as he claimed and halfway across the Stour he disappeared. Luckily Paul saw him go under, shouted to me and when he finally surfaced we were able to get him safely to the bank. Our friend was fine, claiming he couldn't make it across the river so was attempting to walk across the bottom…

I think it was in carnival week that same summer that we heard there was a new attraction at the fair - a stripper. Intrigued, this group of 14 and 15-year-olds handed over a shilling each and filed into a little tent with a stage even smaller than the one at the Rivers Arms Barrelhouse. We made up the entire audience and waited in eager anticipation. Eventually a middle-aged woman appeared and began contributing to our education. She was only 3 or 4 feet away and suddenly one of our number - a visitor from up north - blurted out in his Lancashire accent: "Can we tutch?" Both audience and stripper fell about laughing - but we agreed it was a shilling well spent.

After attending Sturminster Primary and High Schools, Paul studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, Darlington College of Education and, much later, Winchester College of Art, obtaining a range of qualifications in art, design, teaching and music. His career has included teaching or lecturing at Lymington, Sherborne, Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education and since 1994 at Bryanston School. He also worked as a freelance designer for clients big and small.

At Bryanston, Paul taught graphic and textile design and helped to run the school jazz band. I visited him at Bryanston many times for various reasons and it was obvious that he was held in great affection by his students. Since his death, his family have found literally dozens of letters from past students who had clearly been inspired by him. Paul made a real connection with these young people.

The moment when Paul's musical career began is described in his own words in an article about the old Ritz venue in Bournemouth in the late 60s. The article quotes Paul as follows: "As an art student in Bournemouth, I watched Peter Green in awe as Fleetwood Mac played one of their many gigs there and I was hooked on the blues. I bought a guitar and learned to play."

That was the moment of conception but the moment of birth was here in Stur in 1968 or 69, when Paul did his very first gig at the youth club. As I recall, it was fairly inauspicious, but the only way after that was up. The first gig listed by Paul himself in his CV was in 1971 at Salisbury City Hall, where he supported Rory Gallagher. Sounds like a pretty good start to me.

Paul played in various bands through the 1970s and 1980s, composing four of the songs featured on Tony Arnold's Fast Game album in 1975, forming Boogie Train with Andy Sheppard in 1978 and in 1988 winning the South West regional finals of the Banks National Blues Contest.

It was at a gig in 1989 that Paul and a small group of other musicians decided to form a club in order to share their love of blues with a wider audience. They called it the Barrelhouse Blues Club but I doubt whether any of them foresaw that it would become the phenomenon it has or that it would still be going strong 19 years later.

The fact that it is, is almost entirely down to Paul. From the start, he has been the driving force and the binding force which has held the thing together despite the numerous hurdles that have presented themselves. Thanks to Paul, this rural backwater has consistently punched above its weight as a music venue, attracting a veritable Who's Who of blues and rock musicians too numerous to list today.

Of course, Paul had his own unique, individualistic, one might even say enigmatic way of doing things. Enigmatic because despite being one of life's great initiators and an organiser who got things done, there was also a touch of the haphazard about his style - although in a way even that was part of the Paul Hart charm. Many's the time when I and other journalists would receive an 11th hour call seeking publicity for a gig which had obviously been planned for weeks or months. Yet because it was just Paul being Paul, it was difficult to say no.

Mind you, his amazing network of friends and contacts meant that he came up with some very interesting interviews - and not only interviews. One day about 13 years ago Paul sent me off to Bournemouth station to pick up a couple of visitors and entertain them until he could get down to my place at Wimborne. They weren't just any visitors though but Cream songwriter Pete Brown and former John Mayall and Coliseum sax player Dick  Heckstall-Smith,  for  whom  Paul  was  planning  a

benefit gig. I was delighted to help out of course and even my son was able to bask in the reflected glory as he told his schoolfriends next day that we had had a couple of music legends round for tea.

Business acumen was not Paul's strongest point either but then to his credit he was never doing it for the money. Just as well because I'm sure he lost more than he made most of the time. There's a story that after Victor Brox played his first Barrelhouse gig, Paul told him that not enough people had turned up to enable him to pay him but if he'd like to come round to his house, he could choose an item of furniture. Victor chose a small chest of drawers which he still has, apparently. Isn't that just so Paul Hart?

I think Paul's greatest motivation was passion - his passion for music, his passion for art, his passion for running, his passion for teaching, even his passion for Sturminster's history and culture.

A spin-off from his passion was a genuine desire to provide others with the opportunity to pursue their interests. In 1992, I bumped into Paul at the Blandford Music Festival, where my 15-year-old son's band were playing. Before our conversation was over, I had an invitation to take the boys over to the workshop at the Rivers Arms. This in turn led to an additional dimension to the Barrelhouse - gigs where teenaged bands had a rare opportunity to play to an audience of their own generation. I don't suppose Nirvana and Guns n Roses covers were quite Paul's musical cup of tea but such was his joy at the sight of young people enjoying themselves that he could not keep the smile off his face. I know

that these gigs directly inspired many other young people to pick up an instrument, often for the first time. Another generation of local musicians was born. The Paul Hart effect had struck again.

Paul often talked about musical crossovers but he was also adept at combining his various talents. He was a founder of the Dorset Doddlers running club and used his artistic skills to design their banner which flew from Tower Bridge during this year's London Marathon.

Last year I had the pleasure of writing about the Gibson guitars he painted for James Blunt and Cream bass player Jack Bruce in aid of the high-profile Gibson charity auction. Paul spent many weeks planning and executing these two works, which were very well received by the artists concerned and raised thousands of pounds.

The opening of The Exchange last summer provided Paul with a unique opportunity to make use of all his talents under one roof, and he embraced it with his usual enthusiasm. From the outset he was involved in fund-raising. Almost from day one he was performing with the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra AND CHOIR! They couldn't have done that at the Rivers Arms. The Barrelhouse workshops found a new and permanent home. Paul also staged a remarkably varied exhibition of his artwork and, perhaps for the first time, Stur people had a close-up of his versatility as an artist. On Saturday mornings, Paul used his teaching skills with an art class, and I know his students are as devastated as the rest of us. One student went out of her way to stress just how encouraging he had been.

The large stage and auditorium led to more ambitious gigs and it was at one of these, the visit of the Cast Off Kinks a few weeks ago, that I last saw Paul. What struck more than anything was the age range of the sell-out audience - from teenagers to people in their 60s, and all having a good night out. The community flavour of the whole thing inspired me so much that I emailed a magazine editor and suggested I write an article about this remarkable Sturminster phenomenon and the man behind it.

Make no mistake, it is a phenomenon and it is impossible to overstate Paul Hart's contribution. He was a talented man, a man of enthusiasm and initiative, a man who cared passionately about everything he did, a man who touched a vast number of lives.

As a mutual friend said to me a few days ago, Paul not only had a high level of ability but by remaining close to his roots, he was able to use his talents to contribute a vast amount to the community.

Your own back yard is often the hardest place to make a mark on the world but the number of people here today speaks for itself. He has left this area a legacy and I know that his dad Bill and other family and friends are keen that the things he initiated and maintained for all these years should continue.

The Exchange has made that much more possible than it might have been before. The momentum is there and I think the challenge for Sturminster now is to pick up the baton and run with it - metaphorically, of course, because in the literal sense you'd never run as fast as the Paul Hart I knew.