15/04/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. for the news where you are.

Police are treating a huge fire which ripped through a 16th-century

stately home in Dorset early this morning as suspicious.

No-one is thought to have been inside Parnham House

near Beaminster, but the building, which is described as of exceptional

historic importance, has been severely damaged.

Today one of its famous former owners has been

speaking to Clare Woodling, who's just sent this

Hundreds of years of history, up in flames.

The alarm was raised at 4:10 this morning.

20 fire engines were sent to the scene, half a mile

They described it as an extensive blaze.

Of course we were terrified of fire because houses like that

have so often suffered in that way, and we did have a small chimney fire

and that in itself was dreadful, but of course the scale of this

It was heart-stoppingly beautiful and it's just utterly

I mean, it seems very sad that somebody who made it

into a beautiful private home could have suffered such tragedy.

Crews were still battling the fire at lunchtime.

By the mid-afternoon they were damping down.

Onlookers gathered to find out what remains of the building

but there was little to see, only the smell of smoke.

I had my wedding reception there and it was the gardens,

it was an outside wedding and it was all in the gardens

How do you feel finding out about the fire?

Terribly sad and terribly sad for the owners.

I don't know the owners but it's devastating.

There's no access into the grounds at Parnham House except

Police say the fire is suspicious and investigations are under way.

Tourism leaders believe ?200 million will be spent in the South West

A few spots have been catching some fine weather -

A slightly cooler weekend is said to help attractions inland too.

The ticket office at Home Park opened to a long queue of fans today

hoping to see Plymouth Argyle clinch promotion on Monday.

The Pilgrims just need to draw with Newport to secure their first

promotion in 13 years, following the 1-1 draw

I caught up with a few of those waiting first thing this morning.

Yeah, definitely, I think we're going to win this match.

What's it going to be like here on Monday?

We're just hoping they haven't sold out before

Meanwhile, Exeter City's promotion chances are improving.

They beat Barnet 2-1 yesterday and if they can follow that up

with a win at Cambridge on Monday they'd be in with a very strong

However, Yeovil are in relegation trouble.

Their defeat at Newport leaves the Glovers just four points

And Monday could see Torquay United relegated from the National League.

Their 2-1 defeat at Lincoln leaves the Gulls four points from safety -

they face Braintree in a game their manager

On to rugby, and following the Exeter Chiefs' excellent win

at Harlequins last night the Championship season

The Cornish Pirates conceded a late try as it finished 40 points

apiece against Bedford, and Jersey beat Richmond 28-17.

I can't believe I'm about to say these words on a bank holiday

weekend but the weather does seem pretty reliable.

Many of us did actually see some sunshine, particularly

towards the later part of the day, but for most the bulk

The rest of the cloud is starting to break up so initially tonight

There will tend to be a bit of cloud pushing in towards the tail end

of the night but rurally we still could get down as low

as five or six degrees, so some sunshine to come tomorrow,

I think we will see some sunshine coming and going.

Again we've got these brisk north-westerly winds.

The risk of one or two showers, more so further east.

Further west I think it will be dry and temperatures up

So it doesn't look too bad as we head into next week.

For Easter Monday a lot of cloud about, the risk

of one or two showers, but for most of us it will be dry.

I think we'll see more sunshine as we head to the middle part

of next week but it is staying on the cool side.

There's plenty more on your BBC local radio station in the morning.

Good evening. These and but not spectacular is probably a neat way

to describe the weather this Easter weekend. -- decent but not

spectacular. A bit of sunshine, patchy cloud and showers today, but

as we can see from the satellite and radar, the showers are easing, cloud

melting away, so a decent evening if you are heading out. Once it gets

dark, it will be chilly, cold enough