August/September 2005

Parish Church

New Vicar

We are pleased to announce that Revd Jill Chatfield has been appointed as our new Team Vicar. After Serving at Greasley in Nottinghamshire she has spent 61/2 years as a priest and theological educator with Mission Partners CMS and Crosslinks in Johannesburg. Jill is married to Adrian, also a priest who is a Tutor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and they have two grown up children and a young grandchild.

Jill brings many gifts to the post and we look forward to welcoming her to the church and village.

Roy Thorpe and Arthur Procter

Environment Group

With such a warm spell of weather and a serious drought in the offing, the landscape of the village and its surroundings is changing from green to gold and brown. Mr Bush seems to have got his way, for the moment, at Gleneagles over climate change, but the correlation between the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the rise in the global temperature is becoming stronger. Milder and wetter winters are forecast for our part of the world and warmer drier summers punctuated by intense rain storms. Fortunately sea level rise will not have an impact on Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, even if the Greenland icecap melts completely.

Millennium Wood Book

We now have the A3 bound volume which contains a descriptive text, beautiful illustrations by Francesca Davis and the names of all the villagers who contributed to the Wood. The book is being put on display at various places in the village for everyone to see. Thanks are due to Betty Price and Brian Fishwick for their work in bringing the Book to fruition.

John Rodda

Brightwell School

If you came into school on our Open Day in June you would have seen a wonderful range of artwork. Class 1 produced a very colourful tree with leaf designs based on their observations at Nuneham Courtenay's arboretum. Class 2 produced prodigious work around the theme of camouflage: T shirt, pasta shell, and tie-dye designs using animal fur patterns observed at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, and landscape paintings - la Henri Rousseau's Tiger Surprised in a Storm. Class 3, following their visit to the London Aquarium, produced some elegant 3D seascapes and a large collage of an underwater world. Class 4, supported by an artist and a visit to Tate Modern, created familiar London landmarks in a variety of media, St Paul's, London Eye, etc.

The day was rounded off with our School Fete in the evening. Blessed this year with fine weather, the Friends of Brightwell School who organise this event had their hard work rewarded with excellent attendance.

Along with other schools, a small group of "scientists" from Year 5 presented their work on animals and their environment, at The Rutherford Laboratories. A group of children also performed a superb Greek Dance, choreographed by Miss Shinner, at a Dance Festival in Benson. If you attended the Village Fete you may have seen a live performance! Year 2 took part in the annual partnership singing event at St Nicholas's School, performing a jazzy programme entitled Skellybones. It was also a fun way to learn about body parts and how they function. Sadly, due to bad weather, there was no District Sports this year.

Many children attended our "cinema evening" and raised over £50 for the Oxford Children's Hospital when they paid to view a Shark's Tale and Holes. They were fund raising again, this time for playtime equipment, when they undertook to walk to Wittenham Clumps and back. It was a very hot morning but they did exceptionally well and most of the children managed to complete the course. Given that the event followed our Walk To School Week, I think they all did remarkably well.

Finally, as our new entrants complete their phased introductory visits, our Year 6 children prepare to leave us and move on to their respective secondary schools. I want take this opportunity to thank them for being such wonderful ambassadors for our school during their time with us and wish them all the very best for the future.

Roger Grant

Allsorts Pre-School

As we end the holidays and look forward to a new pre-school year, we have much to celebrate at Allsorts. Our theme for Term 1 is Books, Stories and Rhymes.

New Building

We have been awarded £22,500 by SODC towards the new building fund. This brings the total in the fund to £30,000. We still have a long way to go, but we remain very committed and determined in our project. Time is not on our side as the planning permission on our current building expires in Jan 2006. The Planning Department has reluctantly agreed to extend the permission by a year, but no further. This means we have to go ahead with the project in the summer holidays next year (2006). The pressure is certainly on to raise the rest of the money needed.

Coin Boxes

We are very grateful to all of you who have supported us so far in our fundraising, especially those of you who had a Coin Box for us. This scheme raised £1,500! If you still have a Coin Box lurking please drop it in at Pre-school or at Chestnut Cottage, The Street.

We have lots of further fund raising planned, and do hope you will be able to come along to all or any of the events.

Teddy Para Drop

We are joining forces with St.Agatha's Church again for another Grand Teddy Drop on Saturday 17th September, 12 - 2pm. Picnics will be provided at £3 per child / adult. Teddies can have the flight / fright of their life!

New Afternoon Sessions

We are now offering afternoon sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1- 3.30pm. This is intended to increase the number of childcare places available and cannot be used by those already attending a morning session on that day.

Accreditation

Stage 1 of Accreditation (the Pre-school Learning Alliance's quality standards programme) has been submitted and we hope to gain the Bronze award by the end of September.

Event of the Year

Following on from the huge success of the Auction of Promises last March we are pleased to give prior warning of our next big event. On Saturday 11 February 2006 Allsorts invite you to come to their "Wedding Party" - come as a Bride, Groom or wedding guest (dressed appropriately) to the Valentine celebration to end all Valentine celebrations. More details to follow nearer the time, so remember to keep that date free.

If you would like to find out more about Allsorts or arrange a visit please contact Hilary our Supervisor on 826387.

Lydia Cook

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Golf Society

Alistair Butt wins Village Golf Cup

(First gentleman to win the cup!)

The Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Golf Society held its seventh meeting on Tuesday June 7th at The Springs Golf Club using the individual Stableford format. Twenty four villagers competed for the individual challenge cup. Glorious conditions prevailed after several days of poor weather. There was little wind, lots of sun and the greens were fast but true - ideal for good Stableford scores.

During a very convivial dinner, which everyone enjoyed, Gerard Varley presented the Individual Challenge Cup to Alistair Butt who then became the first gentleman to win the cup following previous wins by Pamela McCracken and Jane Fishwick. Prizes for second place were presented to Hugh Roderick and third place to Jenny Robertson. Muriel Templeton won the nearest the pin prize.

Everyone agreed it was a great day and a wonderful way to meet up with other like minded villagers and have some fun. The Autumn meeting is again being held at Goring and Streatley Golf Club on Tuesday September 20th at 2pm. I shall be circulating details approx 6 weeks before the event.

For more information contact me on 837245.

Jamie Robertson

Friends of Brightwell School

To date 2005 has been a successful year for the Friends of Brightwell School (FOBS) with a considerable amount of money raised for the benefit of the school children, both present and future. With another six months of the year still to go, we have more fund raising activities planned for later in the autumn. In early February we held the annual FOBS disco in the village hall. There was a good turnout from many village residents as they danced the night away to music chosen by Pete Roberts.

We were so fortunate with the weather for the school summer fair in June. It was extremely well attended and those who came along enjoyed the balmy summer evening browsing the craft stalls whilst their children took part in a variety of activities - from penalty shoot-out, to an assault course and jumping on the ever popular bouncy castles. The barbeque did a roaring trade (rather hot work for those flipping the burgers) and the fine weather caused quite a rush on the Pimms stall! Our thanks must also go to one of the teachers, Miss Shinner, whose pupils put on a fantastic Greek dance show.

We managed to raise an amazing £1200. This will replenish the bank balance after recent spending. In fact you may be interested to know how FOBS has been using some of the money that has been raised over the past year or so:

In December - we bought much needed cookery equipment.

In February - willow play structures were planted on the school field.

In March - we purchased a fantastic portable sound system.

In June - phase 1 of the adventure trail playground equipment was installed, just in time for the summer fair.

The Friends of Brightwell School would like to thank the pupils, parents and teachers, as well as everyone in the village that continue to support the school and its fund raising activities. We look forward to seeing you at the forthcoming events.

Caroline Alder

Wellsprings Pond

The Parish Council, the residents of the Wellsprings and the Environment Group are embarking on a management plan for the Wellsprings pond. This plan has been drawn up by Rod d'Ayala of the Ponds Conservation Trust, which is based in Oxford Brookes University, following extensive discussions.

The idea is to return the pond and its surroundings to a more natural state, but taking into account the need, particularly of the residents, to maintain the area in good order. By following the plan, it is hoped to maximise the wildlife value of the area, while improving and maintaining its visually attractive appearance.

Work is proceeding, possibly with the assistance of a grant from SODC, mainly in three overlapping areas. One is to remove the more obvious garden plants on the road side of the pond and to replace them by reseeding and plug-planting with native plants more typical of pond margins. Another is to move some of the earth from the edge of the pond to make the slope less steep and use the spoil to construct a small bank to stop vehicles backing onto the grassed area. Then there is the attempt to stop the sediment entering the pond from the ditch which carries water from the Wellsprings road, such as by installing sediment traps and making the ditch meander. The planting of some low native flowering and berry-producing shrubs at one place between the road and the pond is another proposal in the plan.

As the work is carried out, there will be a time when the area may look rather bare when the garden plants have been removed and the native plants are still getting established, but this will not be for too long.

One puzzle is why there is so little aquatic vegetation in the pond and so little life. Is it because from time to time ducks invade the pond and eat what is there, or could there be a problem with the quality of the water? The plan aims to increase the pond plants to cover 50% of the area and to take samples of the water for analysis from time to time to understand its composition.

By recording and monitoring the plants and animals and by rotational cutting of the grass and shrubs, it is hoped to enhance the Wellsprings and increase its value to the village as a place of interest and beauty.

John Rodda

Flower and Produce Show

"Don't worry about size - after all, how big can a teapot be?" someone said when we were planning the men's flower arranging class for this year's show. Moral: never underestimate the inventive powers of a man armed with cow parsley and an accessory borrowed from the grandchildren's toy box. David Greasby's giant yellow plastic teapot - looking like something that had fallen off the Teletubbies set - made a splendid addition to the more conventional brown betties that sat alongside it.

Other star attractions in the tent included some incredibly elaborate fantasy houses, many of them created by members of the Cubs. Allsorts provided a colourful selection of paintings in the youngest age group, and entries in the oldest section made up in quality what they lacked in quantity. There seems to be huge enthusiasm among the 5-9s, but less among the 10-16s. We may need to re-consider our age groupings, or perhaps provide different types of classes. All suggestions welcome.

We had a home-grown committee winner for the first time when Paul Chilton, our chairman, won the Talbot Cup for the most points in the show. I have always been impressed at the way Paul puts in such a good spread of entries while also stage-managing the event, so this was a fitting tribute.

Sally Dugan

Parish Council

Traffic Survey Results - The Parish Council would like to thank all those who took part in the traffic survey on 8 June. A brief summary of the results is listed below, a full copy of all the survey results can be obtained from the Parish Clerk.

Wednesday 8 June - Total traffic movement for all four entrances.

7.00am to 9.00am - coming in 184 going out 423, total 607

5.00pm to 7.00pm - coming in 374 going out 249, total 623

During the 4 hours of the traffic survey the total number of vehicles that used each exit is as follows:-

Style Acre - 417

Slade End - 323

High Road West - 272

Frogs Island - 218

Total - 1230

Comparing these results to the 7am to 9am survey carried out on 11 June 1998, the usage of village entrances during this time period had only increased by 0.5% in 7 years.

A4130 Speed Limit - Plans for Roadside "Gateways" along the A4130 are going ahead and should be installed in August/September. Lord Bradshaw explained that the original plans sent to the Parish Council had an error on the speed shown; it should have read 50mph not 30mph. This has since been confirmed in writing by OCC.

Refuse Collections - We would ask residents to take notice of dates for refuse collections; these are published in the SODC guide. Bank holidays will disrupt normal collection service but as a general rule after a Monday Bank Holiday village collection moves from the usual Friday to the Saturday. In order to prevent unnecessary rubbish blowing around our village we would ask for your co-operation to put your bins out on the Friday evening for the Saturday collection instead of Thursday.

Hedges - The Council wish to thank all those who have already cut back over-hanging boundary hedges. We would ask that other residents would follow suit - please remember it is your responsibility to make sure your hedge does not impede the safe use of roads and/or footpaths.

John Sheard

With Moleicious Intent!

I have been in an incandescent rage for 6 weeks. My allotment has been under attack by a mole. With barely a murmur I put up with bindweed, pigeons, two types of deer, horsetails, Siberian hamsters, pheasants, bean weevil, cabbage whites, rabbits, June frosts and drought. The line, however, was drawn with the mole who did more damage than the rest together. It obliterated the new asparagus bed, broke roots off the courgettes, and destroyed the dahlias. Everything I watered, it uprooted. Parsley, carrots and runner beans have perished.

To try to get rid of the beast I have stuck bottles in the ground, then attached chunks of metal to twine so they would strike each other. I have jumped up and down on the runs. Mothballs in them do not work, nor do children's windmills, or battery operated sonic boomers. I bought an ancient mole trap in Welshpool, which at first he smelt and simply by-passed. I soaked cloths in the last of the creosote (which those nice people in Brussels have banned), and then switched to a supply of Jeyes Fluid, which I subsequently learn is also not allowed. In desperation I even poured "Charlie" perfume down the run. Nothing, nix, nil. The burrowing machine just kept going, sweet smelling, perpetual motion!

Relief has come through Molecolm Sutcliffe, an expert in such matters, if ever I met one. He recommended vast quantities of water down fresh molehills. A first small step to success; moles quite clearly did not like taking baths. With a little improvement and elaboration I have today got him. To those I have bored throughout June, apologies. However, the end was cunning and I need to share. Set the trap in a new mole hill, water the run either side with fresh water. Flood the rest as per Molecolm, but with 1,000 parts water to one of "Charlie" perfume. Stand back and wait!

Age Concern - Stark Warning!

I have to report that one of our villagers experienced a small fire in one of his rooms. Being disabled, he was unable to leap from the house to escape. Could you? No doubt the smoke alarm kept damage to a minimum. He says that when the Fire Service attended, they were very helpful.

I expect we all have smoke alarms. Mine is very sensitive and doesn't know the difference between smoke and steam, even when I tell it I'm only cooking the vegetables. So, there is a temptation to disable it, but I wouldn't dare. Electrical faults can cause fire, it isn't all down to carelessness. Even non-smokers and very careful people cannot sit back. We need to make sure the battery is O.K. "Oh, tell me some news," you cry. No, I don't want to, not on this subject anyway.

If you feel you would like further information on fire safety in the home, or would like to arrange a free Home Fire Safety Check, please contact your local Community Fire Station free on 08000 325 999.

Win Glendenning