August/September 2009

Village Shop

I just want to say how disappointed I have been recently at some negative comments about a new village shop. I find it difficult to think of a response when someone says “it won’t work”. The only reason for it not to work is if people in the village don’t use it. All villages need a shop, most of the villages around us have one, not for the big weekly shop but for all those little things you run out of. The community shops in Radley and Ewelme are very successful, I believe. A couple of pence more on an item is much less than the petrol used to go to Waitrose or Tesco. (I suspect Bob and I will keep it going single handed as I am so inefficient we are always going to Tesco for things I have forgotten!) The need for a village shop is not only to do with what it sells but as a community facility. It’s such an important part of a child’s education to be able go to the shop and buy things – its helps with independence and maths and contributes to lots of childhood memories – who can forget spending ages choosing penny sweets as a queue built up behind you. It is also a place for people to meet and chat. Maybe the back of the village hall isn’t the best place for a shop but we don’t have traffic passing through the village anyway. I know the committee looking into it have worked very hard to explore all the possibilities and this is the best option available. The villagers will know where it is, so let’s make the best of it with a bit of imaginative signage. (And if it doesn’t work at least we have gained a useful community space to use). Lastly let’s not forget that having a shop in the village won’t do house prices any harm either!!

Sue Robson

Community Association

Yet again, despite the most dire weather predictions, the gods smiled on Brightwell-cum-Sotwell’s Village Fete in 2009. And how the village responded, with the second best year ever for proceeds raised!

As usual, the White Elephant stall proved most popular in money raising terms: £1,201.69 was the final tally. The Bottle stall also did well - £608, and the Teas and Cakes stall run by the PCC made nearly £400.

Amongst this year’s ‘new entries’, many visitors clearly enjoyed the opportunity to buy Pimms: FOBS sold £282 worth of it. But of course many of our stalls – like the Whale Slide, Flower and Produce, History Group, and Allsorts’ Sweet stalls – are more about providing fun and variety for all ages and interests than raising money.

The Fete was brilliantly hosted again by Jim and Madeline Sanger at Moreton House, and we thank them sincerely. Many people don’t realise how much effort our Fete hosts put in during the run up to the event, and the ‘closing down’ process. Apart from ensuring their gardens are ready, they cheerfully put up with days of disruption and an influx of tents, helpers, assorted equipment and hundreds of visitors, and still willingly work from morn till eve on the day itself.

Hugh Roderick

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Community Village Stores

The hurdles – not a hundred metre dash….
The article in the last edition of The Villager ended with the words “get set…”. We tempted Fate and have now found that it is a hurdle race not a flat one.

To our surprise, after a site visit and a presentation, the panel of the Community Investment Fund of the SODC did not recommend us for an award. Determined and unbowed, we had our five minutes in front of the SODC cabinet (actually 4 minutes and 57 seconds after some careful rehearsals) and won a partial victory. Our task was helped enormously by the large number of villagers who came along to support us – thank you all!

The Cabinet decided to ask their officials to produce a report covering only our project, stating where funds of up to £101,000 could come from other than the CIF, how the Council could grant aid to our project and what they would recommend. You can see all the gory details in glorious colour on the SODC website! You will not be surprised that we are working hard with the Council to help them answer these questions. And the good news is that we have received funding from others which will reduce the balance needed from the SODC….

Good news
The Midsummer Ball raised a magnificent £10,000. We owe a huge thankyou to the committee for all their efforts for organising such an enjoyable evening. It was great fun and an enormous vote of confidence from the village.

A lot of hard work by Nick Spencer has secured a recommendation of £30,000 from Leader Funds. This funding, like the pledges from the village, depends on our raising all the money necessary to start the shop.

Fit and running fast…
We will know our likely costs more accurately when the tenders for the works are received in mid July and it looks as if the balance needed is now about £70,000 – considerably less than the original £101,000. So we are optimistic and very determined.

Watch this space!

Jim Sanger

Brightwell School

Terms 5 and 6 have been very busy. Children in Year 2 and Year 6 have been assessed at the end of KS1 and KS2 with National Tests and all the other year groups have undergone annual tests. There have also been opportunities for some more creative work and some fun events! Our NAG Parking Poster Competition winners and runners-up were presented with their prizes and certificates at The Cornerstone Arts Centre. Hopefully you will see some of the children’s posters around the village and they will encourage people to park more considerately. Schools in the Wallingford Partnership held a ‘Science Through Story’ week and work was displayed at an exhibition one evening. A group of Year 6 scientists spent the evening explaining science work from the whole school and helping visitors to make spinners, they then went to Rutherford Lab to deliver a presentation. There have been trips out and visitors into school. Classes 1 and 2 have visited St Agatha’s Church, Sherwood Farm and Beale Park. Class 3 went to the British Museum to further their studies of the Ancient Egyptians and Year 6 attended a Junior Citizen afternoon. Our Choir sang at the concert to raise money for the extension at St Agatha’s Church. We have had a visit from a Circus Skills expert who gave an excellent display and many children from our school attended his workshops in the village. A parent organised a ‘healthy’ Fruit Smoothie Making afternoon, which was enjoyed by all and promoted healthy eating. The school nurse has also been in to school to cover aspects of health education with Class 4.

FOBS have been working hard as usual, they entered a float in the Wallingford Carnival,. They organised a very successful Summer Fair, which raised around £1200 for the school. Events before we break up include Sports Afternoon, an Open Evening, Leavers’ Play and a Leavers’ Service.

Two members of staff leave us at the end of term. We have enjoyed having Mr Collison with us for the year and wish him well for the future. Miss Shinner has been at Brightwell for 7 years, teaching the youngest children and running the Dance Club. Her dancers will give a final performance at the Village Fete. We will miss Miss Shinner very much and we wish her well in her new teaching post in Warwickshire.

Sadly, this is my last article for The Villager, as my Acting Headship ends in August. I have really enjoyed leading the team at Brightwell and have felt very much part of the community. I would like to thank staff, parents, governors and the children for making it a special year for me. I wish the school well and I am sure that it will continue to thrive!

Angela Harbut

Parish Council Annual Parish Meeting

Resurfacing parts of Mackney Lane and the loop at Mackney, the impact of the wheelie bins together with the changes in the collection of waste, clearance of vegetation overhanging Sotwell Street and a grant of £2500 for a new bus shelter on the High Road were amongst the matters considered by the Council at its June meeting. Tony Stapleton, the new Chairman, thanked Carole Dennis, the retiring Chairman, for her outstanding contribution over the last two years. A redesigned cover to the parish magazine was approved and John Sheard was reappointed to represent the Council as a school governor Following the resignation of Charles Hunt from the Council applications are being sought from parishioners to fill the vacancy. The Council’s accounts for the year had previously been approved by the internal auditor and were accepted by members. The work on a path around the Millennium Wood has been completed. The cost of the path was financed largely by a grant from the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE). Parishioners are reminded to cut hedges overhanging roads and footpaths.

Possible Housing Development in Wallingford
To cope with the extra activities resulting from the SODC Core Strategy and to oppose the building of 850 houses on site B (the land at Slade End within the Parish on the east side of the bypass), the Council set up a Core Strategy Working Party in the Spring. Numerous meetings of the Working Party have taken place since then, initially resulting in a submission to SODC which was aired at the Annual Parish Meeting in April, followed by a landscape assessment of site B and site E carried out by a Birmingham firm of landscape architects. This report presents a sharply contrasting view of the different sites than the landscape assessment report commissioned by SODC. Assessing landscapes is, of course, a subjective matter, but the SODC report fails to acknowledge the proximity of the conservation area at Slade End to Site B and is written as if Brightwell-cum-Sotwell does not exist.

In its analysis of the responses to the consultation on the Core Strategy which finished on 1 May, SODC found only 4 supporters of the Strategy and 140 against. Those against development of site B were more or less the same as those against site E. But if only 4 responses were in favour of the Strategy, how can the District Council proceed when public opinion is so clearly against what is being proposed? If the words “Listening, Learning, Leading” which are proclaimed on all the SODC literature we receive, then at the meeting of the SODC Cabinet in November a decision must be made to review the process of the Strategy and not to make choices which have virtually no public support.

John Rodda

Flower and Produce Show 2009

It’s not often that you get to see Batman and Superman side by side, but superheroes appear in the least likely of places – even the scarecrow competition of the Village Fete.

Judging was by popular vote, with Alison Bloomfield’s Worzel Gummidge figure taking first place. Brightwell School’s Gardening Club entry – which had forks instead of hands – came a very close second.

This year there was particularly fierce competition for the Talbot Cup, awarded for the most points in the show. Alec McGivan won the trophy for the first time with an impressive spread of 27 entries across all the classes.

Thanks to the support of Allsorts Pre-School and Brightwell School, we had a good spread of entries in the younger age groups. However, we had very few for the 9-12-year olds. As always, if we are coming up with the wrong ideas, please let us know.

Results

1. A Scarecrow (Judged by popular vote)
Winner: Alison Bloomfield.
Runner-up: Brightwell School Gardening Club.

Flower Arranging. Judge: Iris Novell.
2.A miniature arrangement. 1..Janita Clamp 2.Win Glendenning 3.Tony Debney.
3. An arrangement of any five blooms, plus foliage. 1.Olive Sutcliffe 2. Win Glendenning 3. Malcolm Sutcliffe.
4. A bowl of floating flowers. 1. Sue Booth 2. Josephine Butterfield 3. Josephine Butterfield.
5. An arrangement of garden flowers. 1. Olive Sutcliffe 2. Win Glendenning 3. Karen Mason.
6. Men Only Arrangement in an unusual container. 1. James Davys 2. John Rodda 3. Paul Chilton.

Flowers and Vegetables. Judges: Les Novell and Albert Reed.
7. A Vase of Cottage Garden Favourites . 1. Josephine Butterfield 2. Janita Clamp 3. Paul Chilton.
8. A rose, Hybrid Tea. 1. Paul Chilton 2. James Davys 3. Madeline Sanger.
9. A rose, multi-headed. 1. Paul Chilton 2. James Davys 3. Jenny Dobbin.
10. Three stems flowering shrub, not rose. 1. Josephine Butterfield 2. St Agatha’s Church 3. James Davys.
11. Potted plant, flowering or foliage. 1. Tony Debney 2. Roy Thorpe 3. Helena Varley.
12. Dish of soft fruit of one kind. 1.Alec McGivan 2.Alec McGivan 3. Tony Debney.
13. 3 sticks of rhubarb, trimmed. 1. Karen Mason 2. Karen Mason 3. David & Sally Dugan.
14. Box of vegetables – 3 varieties. 1.John Rodda 2. Paul Chilton 3. Jenny Dobbin.
15. Box of salad vegetables. 1.John Bloomfield 2. Tony Debney 3. Garry McCracken.
16. 3 courgettes. 1.John Rodda 2. Tony Debney 3. John Sheard.
17. 6 potatoes. 1. Paul Chilton 2. John Rodda 3. Alec McGivan.
18. 6 pods broad beans. 1. John Rodda 2. Tony Debney 3. John Sheard.
19. 4 named herbs.1. John Rodda 2. Jill Brooks 3. Janita Clamp.
20. Pick of the crop: one vegetable and one flower. 1. Tony Debney 2. John Rodda 3. Malcolm Sutcliffe.

Cookery. Judge: Mrs Jean Calvin Thomas
21.A jar of chilli pepper jelly. 1.Tony Debney 2.Alec McGivan 3.Jill Brooks.
22. A jar of any jam. 1.Alison Bloomfield 2.Karen Mason 3.Monica Sheard.
23. A loaf of bread, brown or white. 1. Olive Sutcliffe 2. Alec McGivan.
24. Men Only Pizza. 1.Alec McGivan.
25.Ladies Only: Swiss Roll. 1.Jenny Green 2. Karen Mason 3. Janita Clamp.

Photography. Judge: Kevin McCarthy
26. ‘A Village Activity.’ 1. Matt Booth 2. Jill Brooks 3. Karen Mason.
27. Wildlife in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. 1.Karen Mason 2. Alec McGivan 3.Matt Booth.
28. ‘Getting fit’. 1.Alec McGivan 2.Josephine Butterfield 3.Alec McGivan.
29. ‘Make us smile’. Amusing, with caption. 1.Tony Debney 2.Alec McGivan 3. Fred Clamp-Gray.

Junior Section. Judge: Pat Owen
9-12 year olds
30. A poster to encourage people to waste less. 1.Amelia Butterfield 2. Amelia Butterfield.
31. Photograph: ‘My family and other animals’. 1.Amelia Butterfield.
32. ‘What I would like to see in the village shop’. 1.Amelia Butterfield.

5-8 year olds
33. A container made from recycled material. 1.Georgia Wornham 2.Louis Wornham 3.Isobel Mason.
34. Miniature garden on a plate. 1.Lizzie Bloomfield 2.Georgia Wornham 3. Louis Wornham.
35. ‘What I would like to see in the village shop’. 1.Isobel Mason 2.Benji Davys 3. Louis Wornham.

Under fives
36. A picture using hand and/or footprints. 1.Ava Gordon 2. Josiah Mason 3. Eve (Allsorts)
37. A collage in a fish shape. 1.Clara (Allsorts) 2. Albert Glendinnning 3. Lilian Allum
38. A playdough model. 1. Josiah Mason 2. Samuel McMillan 3.Ava Gordon.

Sally Dugan

The Bach Centre

The Bach Centre house and garden in the Sotwell end of the village are owned by The Dr Edward Bach Healing Trust, a registered charity. When the new Oxford Children’s Hospital was in the process of being built, the Trust was able to fund two rooms in the hospital for therapeutic purposes. One is the music therapy room, where the hospital's music therapist - who is funded by Rosie’s Rainbow Fund - can work with the children in a special space away from the ward. The other room is for the provision of complementary therapies for parents and for the children's carers. Therapies available include aromatherapy massage and, of course, Bach remedies. Both rooms also provide space for parents and families to take some quiet time, to be by themselves, or talk in private. The Oxford Children's Hospital is a marvellously bright and cheery place, designed to have care and comfort at its heart, and is a perfect place to find music and remedies coming together.

Judy Ramsell Howard, (Trustee)