April/May 2012
Valerie Davis (known as Francesca)
Francesca, a human dynamo – a bright light went out in Brightwell when she died in January 2012.
I first met Francesca when she moved from America into The Knowle in Bell Lane. Her bright orange hair, her zest for life zoomed in near us. She was an amazing person, so well read and she enriched our community. We walked to bus stops together putting the world to rights. I gained a lot from Francesca. She could make you laugh – such a character.
You made such an imprint in this world Fran. I miss you friend.
Janet Brewerton
Brightwell School
How lovely to have the longer days gently rolling in and the warmer weather beginning to make an appearance. The Spring bulbs are blooming across the school site and the buds on our apple trees are forming well.
Over the past couple of months we have had many contractors on site completing our switch over to gas. We now have a new path with a fence to guide the little ones towards pre-school more safely, a new area for our bins to be tucked away and new tarmac on the ground. One or two things are still to be finished but we are delighted with the result and thank all of our neighbours for their patience.
Our recent production of “Hoodwinked” was a great success with our ever-talented children giving a wonderfully funny pantomime version of Robin Hood. Well done to all those who took part either on stage or in the audience!
Key Stage 2 pupils have just returned from the 02 Arena where they sang with a massed choir of 2500 children - something the children will remember for years to come. They had the time of their lives, singing with celebrities and dancing to the two hours of songs that they all have spent so many weeks learning. When asked “would you do it all again”, children, staff and parents gave a resounding “YES!” Have a look on our website for some photos of the event.
Looking forward to the next couple of months, the Wallingford Dance Festival is on the horizon and the children have already started rehearsing with Mrs Mason. Our year 6 children will be visiting the Junior Citizens scheme in Oxford to learn how to keep themselves and other’s safe as they branch out into the world beyond Brightwell and, of course, it is SATs time of year again. We wish all of our children the best of luck with their tests – we are very proud of them all.
Liz Hunt
St Agatha’s Church Extension: Pledges all delivered!
Our sincere thanks again to everyone who pledged a donation to the Extension Appeal. All pledges have now been realized and it is proposed that the names of people concerned (unless they have advised otherwise) will be recorded on a list held in the extension. A wall plaque will show the charities and other institutional bodies that have contributed to the Appeal.
Appeal Fund still growing
The Fund now stands at over £175,000, more that £5,000 above target. Revisions to the contractor’s original quotation show that this additional funding may well be essential.
The Appeal Committee is particularly grateful to Annol Boston who very kindly agreed that donations in memory of her late husband Gordon be divided between the Extension Appeal and Practical Action, the latter an international development charity very close to Gordon’s heart.
A further contribution has been made by Alec McGivan from sales of his latest Rabbit and Mole booklet, bringing the total raised by these stories to more than £2,500 which is a tremendous achievement. Many thanks, Alec. Our gratitude also goes to the Parish Council for agreeing to purchase certain fixtures and fittings for the new meeting room.
What now?
Construction should start before the end of March and will take some five months to complete. David Greasby is doing sterling work negotiating with the architects and contractors to ensure all goes well. A major challenge going forward will be to juggle the various flows of grant monies. Each donor has different requirements – at one end the grant has already been paid with the only request being to notify when the project is finished; at the other we have to attend an initial workshop with the donor to discuss how the grant will be provided, complete reams of paperwork each time a part of the grant is claimed and address cash flow implications of each tranch of the grant being paid up to three months after we have paid the contractor’s invoice. Bring it on!
A final word of thanks to all members of the Appeal Committee who have worked tirelessly over the last two and a half years to deliver the requisite funding. What is the next village project, I wonder ?
Tony Lascelles
Easter Message: ‘You’ve got to go there to come back’ (The Stereophonics).
It is all too easy to rush Easter. I’m always amazed how quickly the chocolate eggs and rabbits appear in the shops, often only a week or two after Christmas. We live in a ‘now’ world when nothing can come quickly enough; the next train, the next meeting, the next email.
But you can’t really ‘do’ Easter without experiencing something of Lent. Lent entails loss, perplexity, and the unknown. The Church Extension team has discovered its fair share of perplexity in recent months, and at times it has seemed like, as for the wandering Israelites, a fairly trackless land for the building committee, fundraisers and treasurers alike. I really am impressed how people have ‘hung in there’ and, with a following wind, the fruits of our labours should be available to both church and community before too much longer.
At the Last Supper, which we’ll remember in St.Agatha’s on the evening of Maundy Thursday, Jesus calls for the Holy Spirit to be with His disciples. It is the same Spirit that drove Him into the wilderness after His baptism. The Spirit is there in the highs and lows of all we are as people. When we get the job, when we lose the job, when we fall in love, when we fall out of love, when the troops come safely home, or when we hear of the blast that killed them.
The Spirit is ourselves in the depths of who we are. It is me at the profoundest level of my being, and it is from this place where God and me mingle indistinguishably that I am thrown out into the ‘wilderness’. And it is here we are tempted; tempted to give up, to despair. Tempted to cynicism. Tempted sometimes to cruelty. Tempted not to help others when we know we can, because, we think, what’s the use? Tempted to banish from our life all that we really hold dear, and that is love. And behind each and all of these temptations is the temptation to disbelieve in what we are, the temptation to distrust ourselves, to deny that it is the Spirit which ‘beareth witness with our spirit’; God in us…
The water in the bucket of my soul doesn’t look like an ocean. But each Sunday we affirm that it is, and that the little we bring to God is transformed out of all proportion of the ounce of trust we place in our maker. For in the creed at the Holy Communion we speak of the Spirit as He who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. This glorification or ‘rising’ is never more marked than on Easter Day, which is why you are never more welcome in church than then.
As a Stereophonics album has it; ‘You’ve got to go there to come back’, so it is with Lent and Easter, they are like a journey. Do come and join us for any part of it; from the donkey in church on Palm Sunday (1 April), through the Hour at the Cross (2-3pm Good Friday) to Easter Sunday’s celebration and Easter Egg Hunt. Come along to be affirmed that together we matter, and that there is nothing in life so broken that it cannot be transformed. And, when you’ve made it through Easter, put 5 May in the diary – it’s the May Fair at Brightwell Manor, where the opportunity for tea, cake and community continue!
With every good wish to you and your family, and grateful thanks for all your support in our endeavours.
Jeremy Goulston
WI: New programme
Following our AGM, our new committee begins another year with a fresh programme of events and activities. Thank you to those members who stepped in to ensure that WI could continue at full strength. We have developed such a wide range of activities, that it would have seemed unthinkable to lose our village WI because of a dearth of committee members. Thank you also, to all those members who help the meetings run smoothly by helping with the refreshments, buddying, setting up the raffle or putting out chairs etc.
Our local speakers did not disappoint us. Dr.John Rodda’s fantastic presentation was a very timely reminder of the need to value and conserve our water. We heartily supported his suggestion of bringing water from the River Severn (all that wasted Welsh rainwater) into the River Thames, rather than constructing another reservoir near Abingdon.
Mais Appleton always manages to stir us from our comfort zone to consider the work of the ACWW and women around the world who have to strive, just to provide the very basic food and water for their families. She spoke about the WI’s affiliation to the Associated Country Women of the World. In Oxfordshire alone thousands of pounds has been raised to install clean drinking water in villages and schools in Africa and India as well as to buy goats and chickens providing milk and eggs , the sale of which ensures a free education for children – very important for girls – in Kenya. Money has also gone to pay for milk cows for widows and their families in India, and one very emotive project – a public education and awareness programme of the dangers and barbarity of female genital mutilation in Kenya. On 21 April many of us will be doing a sponsored walk around the village in support of Women Walk the World Day. It is hoped that ACWW members will be walking throughout the 24hours worldwide to raise money to help more women and their families.
We now have copies of our memoir writing, ‘Backward Glances’, which will be on sale at our WI meetings and in the local shop.
For more information-http://www.bcs-wi.co.uk/
Sue Collett
Parish Council
Core Strategy
Submissions on whether Site E (Winterbrook) is an appropriate site for housing will have been made by the time you read this. We have argued on your behalf that it is the only suitable site in Wallingford, although we still believe that an allocation of 555 houses is far too high. It is quite possible that the Inspector will decide to re-open the hearings, thus prolonging the uncertainty. If he does we will be present as needed and will welcome support.
OCC Mineral Strategy
The Mineral Strategy is moving forward without any sign that the OCC is prepared to budge from the proposal to locate a major gravel extraction plant on the Cholsey side of the by-pass starting around the end of this decade. We do not think this will be good for the Parish and Graham Gilgrass is leading our efforts to help those more closely affected to fight the proposal, and we will keep you informed.
Parish Fabric
As many of you will have seen the children’s slide on the Recreation Ground has been renovated. This is just the first step in what we intend to be a concerted programme of improving the standard of maintenance of the fabric for which the Council is responsible during the course of this year. We carry out regular inspections, but if there is anything which you see which you feel needs attention, please let us know.
And finally…..
We are still seeking to fill a vacancy on the Council. We are fortunate to have Terry Burton representing the Shillingford Ward, but would very much like to ensure that all sections of the community are represented. Even if you think you only have limited time, being a voice for those who might otherwise be overlooked is vital to the health of the Parish.
We can easily be contacted on bcsparishcouncil@googlemail.
David Fox
Allsorts Pre-School
There was an international flavour to activities so far this year. Many children took advantage of French lesson tasters with Florence. This was in keeping with the Journeys theme where the children imagined themselves travelling to all sorts of places near and far. Then, as if one New Year was not enough it was time for the Chinese New Year, which was celebrated by making magnificent and not too scary dragon collages (it is the year of the dragon). The celebration of international differences culminated on 1 March with International Book Day. Children were encouraged to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. These books may have been borrowed from the Mobile Library Bus which now visits Allsorts every fortnight, bursting with books of every sort for parents to read and then lose and then find again. Soon, in fact, parents may not be needed to read the books at all as the children are rattling through the letters of the alphabet at quite a pace. This year so far they have tackled A, T, P, N, S, and I, and have enough letters in hand to spell PANTS!
As ever the pre-schoolers were in close touch with their “Big School” neighbours, visiting them every week for P.E. For one of these sessions they dressed up as pirates and for another they had a mini-pancake race. All in all a wonderful three months of non-stop fun, learning and adventure, with some cuddling and occasional slipper mix-ups. As the children have been encouraged to show positive behaviour with a thumbs-up board I am sure that they would be happy to leave space on there for the staff and parents who have all worked so hard through the cold winter months to make our lovely pre-school an ever warm and friendly place.
Helen Rouse has sadly decided to leave us. She has been at Allsorts for seven years and has strongly influenced the development of the pre-school. Helen has decided to move to The Station pre-school at Benson where she will be able to put all her experience to good use and develop further in a larger setting. We all wish her the very best of luck in her new job.
As a result of Helen’s resignation, we will be recruiting for a play assistant in the very near future. Please look out for posters and job adverts, or alternatively, contact Allsorts directly if you are interested.
Just to remind you there are still places available at Allsorts - call 01491 826387 for details. You can also check our new webpage http://www.allsortspreschool.org/.
Barbara Montanari
Environment Group: We need rain!
Have you looked at the Wellsprings lately? For this time of year, the flow from the pond is extremely low, about one twentieth of normal, perhaps as little as one litre per second. How lucky that we do not to have to use the Wellsprings for the village water supply! The Wellsprings relies on water draining from the Chalk under Green Hill where the water table must be must be extremely low. Of course the rainfall amounts recorded in 2010 and 2011 by Angus Dart at Sherwood Farm and by Rosemary Greasby at Highlands Farm have been well below the long term average of 581.9mm. Angus’s total reached only 439.4mm for 2011 about 75% of the average. Rosemary recorded 35.3mm in January and18.1 in February, while the prospects for above average rainfall in March look bleak. Should the rainfall for the months from April to September be about average (some 50mm per month) or below, this summer will see a serious drought of the severity of 1976 or worse. This is because of the existing soil moisture deficit of about 30mm and because evaporation during the summer months exceeds the rainfall by some 150mm. Hosepipes are banned from 4 April so that gardeners will have a difficult summer unless there are a number of cloudbursts.
The water supplied to our village and much of south Oxfordshire by Thames Water comes from boreholes at Goring and should be adequate. Currently Farmoor Reservoir is nearly full as are London’s reservoirs, but others in the south and east of England are less than half full, while water levels in wells and bore holes used are exceptionally low. Flows in most English rivers southwards from the Trent are also exceptionally low. By way of contrast, river flows in northern England, north Wales and Scotland are very high. This always raises questions when a drought is in prospect about transferring water from the wetter parts of the country to the drier part through a water grid. But large scale water transfers are ruled out by the costs―the cost of building large pipelines and the cost of electricity for pumping.
The media become very excited when water shortages hit the headlines. For the remainder of the time water resources are a forgotten topic. That South East England is the driest part of the UK is ignored and that, in terms of available water per head of population, the South East is in the same rank as Tunisia. Successive Governments do not appear to seriously consider lack of water is a limit to growth in South East England. They believe that reducing the demand for water will allow more houses to be built and more people crammed into one of the most densely populated parts of Western Europe. Compulsory metering for households, reducing leakage, household devices which use less water, desalination and other measures are advocated to solve this problem. But new houses have more bathrooms with power showers, more washing machines and automatic sprinkler systems for garden watering. And for the future, climate change threatens with less rainfall and hotter summers, pointing to even more stress on the resource. A reservoir 6.7km2 in area near Abingdon was mooted recently by Thames Water but fortunately it was turned down at a public enquiry. Thames Water were asked to look at other options. One possibility is a limited transfer of water into the Upper Thames from the lower Severn to augment flows in the Thames, perhaps through the Sapperton Canal. This seems to be a cheaper and less disruptive solution environmentally. However the dilemma remains-----how can South East England’s water resources be sustained?
John Rodda
Memories of 'Zonk' the Road Sweeper by Ron Wood
All was quiet in the village. It was very early on a Sunday morning long ago when people were asleep in their beds, but not for long. A strange sound, unheard of before, came from the western part of the village. The sound grew louder and louder. Men could be heard shouting, dogs were barking. At last the mystery was solved. A large flock of sheep was being driven up Brightwell Street. Men were running ahead closing garden gates, others were blocking off the wellsprings path and the road to Sotwell. All these sheep were on the way to a farm at the bottom of Mackney.As quickly as they had come, they all vanished down the lane, and soon the village was silent again.
Of all the people in the village, there was one who didn’t share any interest in all this. He was Mr George Barlow, whose nickname was “Zonk” – why Zonk, I have no idea. He was our very conscientious road sweeper, clearing fallen leaves, snow and loose stones from our roads. Further to that, he sat high in the cricket pavilion during matches, taking down the scores., Also on Saturday evenings, just before the last war, he could be seen in the doorway of the then village hall, a wooden building (still there) half way down The Street. He was collecting entrance money from the younger generation for their dance night. Music was from a gramophone.
Finally it must be said that George Barlow was well liked and his work much appreciated by the people of this village, and deservedly so.
Ron Wood
Sotwell-cum-Brightwell
E.B.W. Chappelow F.R.A.S., F.R.S.A.
Jennie Dobbin sent in this poem. She found it in an old newspaper cutting from The Newbury Herald - Editor