August/September 2010
Michael Maughan 1940-2010
“Have you got a minute?”
Our village lost one of its longest serving and most tireless workers when Michael passed away on 28 May after a very short illness. He moved to Brightwell 35 years ago, since when no major activity, and only the occasional society has failed to attract his attention, or benefit from his participation and willing help.
Michael, wife Pat with Simon and Adrian, set up home in Church Lane, moving from Portsmouth when transferred for 3 years to the Reading office of Commercial Union. They arrived in time for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and first joined village life helping organise events raising funds for that celebration. Mike became involved with extending that to give the hard surface and tennis club. He helped set up the Community Association, becoming its third Chairman. By this time he was hooked on life here and turned down a move to his firm’s City office.
Very little escaped his attention. He liked full participation, not just attending an odd committee meeting. If it was broke then Mike would try to mend it, or find someone who could help him fix it. “Have you got a minute?” was his universal introduction, trying to draw people into an activity, or simply to a distant member in need of a chat.
Variously Mike has also been concerned with the hospital car service, indoor bowls, badminton, village website, walking and art clubs. He held a TA commission through which in times past he became village Civil Defence co-ordinator, and was the current Chairman of the British Legion. Involvement with fetes, village balls and the Millennium led him to set up Just Right Marquees. At St. Agatha’s he helped maintain fabric and churchyard, and at weekly coffee mornings.
For a while Mike was a Parish Councillor, but his major contribution was as Chairman of the Village Hall. With his committee he has given us one of the best facilities in the area, extending the buildings, enticing and shoehorning the Post Office, and now the Village Shop onto site. Even the Swan Allotments came with this function. Largely neglected 10 years ago, there are now fences, gates, water supply. and a waiting list.
Michael left as he lived, at a great pace, leaving us once again wondering what on earth he was up to.
Tony Debney
My association with Mike (sorry, he’s always been Mike to me) goes back 20 years through the Village Hall. He was a most effective chairman of the trustees and management committee and always strove to promote maximum use of the hall by the villagers. Typically, back in 1991, he was instrumental in borrowing equipment to see if there would be any interest in forming an indoor bowls club – there was, but the bowls club needed about £1500 to buy its equipment, so Mike’s idea enabled the village hall to lend the money, interest free, to be repaid within 3 years – brilliant, the bowls club took off, repaid the loan within 2 years, and in the following 20 years must have paid nearly £30,000 pounds to the hall in rent.
Mike saw the hall, and the church of course, as the centre of our community. He was tireless in his pursuit of all possible sources of grants and donations from parish, district and county council sources to help the funding of so many projects – some of the major ones: complete floor replacement; rear extension for a function room, office and store room; new kitchen; new ladies, gents and disabled toilets; completely new ceiling and lighting; sound and visual media presentation equipment; and recently, enabling the Post office and the upcoming Village Stores on our property.
He was very much ‘hands on’ with maintenance and general DIY – Tony D brought it all back with his “have you got a minute?”, but it often came to me as “are you doing anything this morning?”. Years ago the lighting in the hall was by several large circular fluorescent ceiling mounted units – always, one would be flickering and require a change – I have very clear, and now worrying, memories of building a precarious structure with Mike of 4 tables, then 2 more atop, and finally the wooden step ladder atop that, with Mike finally up there with both hands above his head. We moved on to a marginally safer scaffolding tower, and now have a brilliant ladder – found by Mike of course, on the net.
There were times, when his enthusiasm to present ideas to us on his committee, when his brain would be just ahead of his ability to articulate, and he would finish with flapping hands and “you know, etc etc.” – we usually got it. Ken T says Mike was the only person in the village who would just drop in for coffee and a chat – he would do it to us too … “would you like a coffee?” … “oh all right then, I’ll just ring Pat to let her know”.
Michael Maughan has surely left his mark on Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. We are all the poorer for his absence.
Dave Hurley
Village Fete
Yes, it’s a record! We’ve smashed our best ever Fete profits performance, breaking through the £4,000 ceiling for the first time. The weather was certainly in our favour, which probably explains why the FOBS’ Pimms and ices stalls did so well. But all stalls were successful – helped by a big increase in overall visitor numbers. The WI, with £468, deserves a special mention.
Profits now get split between different village organisations, who want to meet a specific funding need. All groups that want to apply for funds and haven’t received an application form should contact our Treasurer, James Davys on 834195. While the rules are not hard and fast, we do try to favour organisations that have made big efforts to support the Fete, and other fundraising events during the year. We try to vary Fete activities, and there were a number of stalls this year that were firmly about providing information rather than making money – Village Stores and Church Extension Appeal stalls, for example. We hope this change of pace is appreciated.
It is most important thing that we put on what the village wants. In that same spirit of ‘added-value’, it was great to have Jessica Baker with her dance troupe, comprised mainly of girls from the village school. Jess has done her dance GCSE at Didcot Girls, and is soon to be studying A Level at Henley College. Her dance group was very popular. No doubt the Fete should encourage local community arts wherever possible.
We are so grateful to David and Jenny Dobbin, whose Sotwell House garden we took over this year. Apart from ensuring the garden is ready to be tramped over, David and Jenny cheerfully put up with days of disruption and an influx of tents, helpers, assorted equipment, and still work from morn till eve on the day itself.
Hugh Roderick
Flower and Produce Show
Some highly imaginative posters for the new community stores were a highlight of the Junior entries. These will be used for the shop launch in the autumn. We also had the youngest-ever winner of the Joan Sheard Cup, which went to six-year old Harriet Inwood for her ‘Pick of the Crop’ entry: a wonderful wiggly carrot and bright red nasturtium flower.
We were very pleased to welcome Ann Linton to the Produce Show committee this year. We extend our warmest thanks to our sponsors, Busy Baskets and Winterbrook Garden Services, and our volunteer judges; also to all those who helped on the day – by providing drinks, advice or table-moving muscle, or simply by entering.
Sally Dugan
PRODUCE SHOW TROPHIES
Cash and garden voucher prizes sponsored by Busy Baskets and Winterbrook Garden Services.
THE TALBOT CUP : Tony Debney. Runner-up: Shena Luck
TALBOT ROSE BOWL : Josephine Butterfield
JOAN SHEARD CUP : Harriet Inwood (age 6) ‘Pick of the Crop’: the best under-16 entry in an adult class.
JUNIOR TROPHIES
9-12 YEAR OLDS: Amelia Butterfield
5-8 YEAR OLDS: Georgia Wornham
Prizes judged the week before the show:
SWAN ALLOTMENT CUP : Paul Copley
BEST GARDEN TUB : James Davys
WI: Chalk and Cheese
Over the year we have such a diverse programme of events and activities to attract our large and discerning membership. This is reflected in our two most recent speakers. Our female M.E.P. C. Bearder was not able to make the May meeting, but volunteered her husband, Professor Simon Bearder, from the Oxfordshire Nocturnal Primate Research Group, to speak on ‘ Animal Sounds’. He entertained us wonderfully with his own brilliant repertoire, demonstrating the infinite differences in calls within one species alone. May-now for something completely different, rain held off for our, ’Car Maintenance for Ladies’ by Steven Flinders, held at the Pavilion. I’m afraid, with the bonnet up, most of us reverted to the stereotypical, helpless woman. The verdict was ‘Could do better’. However we redeemed ourselves slightly, when tested on our knowledge of the Highway Code. Recently members were lucky enough to have a second chance to visit Highgrove in a different season. Thank you to Sandra Grainge for organising a very successful visit. A smaller group visited Mariners House, Bradfield, Berks, on a glorious summer day, to enjoy beautiful colour -themed herbaceous borders on a sloping site.
WI members were delighted to take part in the hugely successful village ‘Open Gardens’ event on 20 June. A letter of thanks for supplying and serving refreshments was received from Revd. Jeremy Goulston.
Sue Collett
Community Village Stores : “We have lift off.”
Yes, the building is up and was handed over to us by M C Robins on 18 June 2010, another milestone passed. Beautifully built, we are very grateful to them and their sub-contractors, to the architect Mike Orr and his team from Anderson Orr, and especially to Phil Jones who has devoted countless hours from his busy life to mastermind it all. The shop-fitters have been in and, at the time of writing in mid July, are all but finished; the refrigerators have been installed (with some difficulty as we had to get them in through the Village Hall as they were too big to turn at the entrance of the shop); all the multitude of details are being ironed out – CCTV, fire alarms, the list is long but will all be finished in time.
We and the Trustees of the Village Hall have been concerned about the ever present Health and Safety issues. New white lines will be painted on the road beside the Village Hall and notices put up to warn pedestrians about cars and vice versa. Do take care, we don’t want any accidents.
Celia Collett and Corinne Jones have moved fast to set up the operations of the shop. Stock has been ordered, the EPOS system is being learned, multiple permissions have been sought from numerous authorities – local and national – and we have signed up for a credit card system. Stephanie, our manager, is hard at work negotiating with suppliers and is concentrating on local produce. Jane Barker, the greatly experienced but quaintly titled Development Worker from the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, has helped enormously and freely in familiarising over 60 volunteers with the operations of a shop, not just a fun operation but also a commercial activity which needs to pay its way and abide by the many disciplines of a retail outlet. We recruited a number of new volunteers at the fete and there are more, I am sure, in the village, so do contact Madeline Sanger on 833655 if you would like to join the merry crew!
The village has been amazingly generous in the amount donated to the shop – over £75,000 – and we cannot thank you enough. LEADER, a European funding body, The Plunkett Foundation, the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment, SODC, our Parish Council and the Community Aggregates Fund have also be hugely supportive with grants and the Co-operative Loan Fund has advanced us a loan. In total we raised over £220,000 to pay for building and running the shop; David Dobbin and his fundraising group worked very hard and truly deserve our gratitude. We now need to manage our cash flow as we get repaid after we have paid out – but it is under control.
Jim Sanger
Brightwell School
I cannot believe that my first year is coming to an end so quickly. You know what they say about fun and time flying!
We have ended our year with a tremendous sports day. The children took part in collaborative sports during the morning and we were joined for a picnic lunch by Mums, Dads, siblings and Grandparents. The afternoon encompassed the usual sorts of competitive races but also included, at the children’s request, a long distance race which took them off site and around the park. It was a tense moment as we watched them disappear through the gate – despite the marshals around the route – we did not know what to expect! Then in true Chariots of Fire style, the athletes returned, now somewhat spread out, through the gates and along the finishing straight. It was a truly momentous day, enjoyed by everyone.
Many of you may know that the school has had a visit from Ofsted in the last two weeks. Whilst the report is not yet public, I am delighted to say that the Inspectors were most impressed with many areas of the school and also the community of which the School is a part.
They were full of praise for the pupils and their obvious pride in their school, the parents and church members that come in and assist with so many things and the mutual assistance the school and village give to each other. My continued thanks to all of you for your part in this.
This Inspection was closely followed by the Statutory Inspection of us as a Church School. This inspector was also very impressed with the spiritual development of the pupils in school and the opportunities presented to and by the school for working with the you all in the village. Whilst we all feel a little tired after two inspections, the processes was very professional and extremely worthwhile.
staffing news –
Mrs Welton has decided to move to part time from September to spend more time with her young family. We welcome David Herlihy to the Brightwell staff team. Both will share class 4, working two and half days a week each.
Liz Hunt
St Agatha’s Church Extension: Fundraising can be fun!
Enjoyment was certainly on the menu for the Safari Supper in May. Over 100 participants dined across the Village; last minute requests to join in regrettably had to be turned down. Starting with drinks in St Agatha’s and concluding in the Red Lion, the evening raised £1,479.
On Saturday 19 June a Concert in St Agatha’s provided a platform for the display of a wide range of Village talent. Sadly such talent was not evident in some quarters the previous day in erecting a marquee on the site of the planned extension for interval drinks! Nevertheless the event itself was a great credit to all the performers and a further £1,260 was raised for the Appeal.
The following day saw an invasion of the village for our Open Gardens festival, blessed with marvellous weather. Great to see streets and gardens thronging with visitors. An impressive £4,734 was raised with 699 people paying the entrance fee. Sincere thanks to all who worked so hard to make all three events enjoyable as well as successful.
With the planning application submitted we now turn our attention to asking for pledges of financial donations. While almost £30,000 has been obtained towards the £50,000 we seek from the local community, one third of the total project cost, we will not succeed without substantial support from residents.
An appeal leaflet is inserted into this issue of The Villager. Hopefully this will answer any questions you may have about this project. If you are able to help we will be most grateful. The more that can be raised locally, the less that has to be secured from external sources.
Tony Lascelles
Junior Cricket
Sunday the 11th July 2010 will go down as a historic day in the history of Brightwell- cum- Sotwell Cricket Club. At just after 4pm at Abingdon Vale CC, the Village Under 13 team won the Gauntlett Goblett Oxfordshire 8 a-side Cup, after a nerve wracking last over victory over Oxford Downs Cricket Club. Junior cricket at Brightwell is only in it's third season so to secure it's first trophy against clubs with well established and long standing Junior sections is a monumental achievement, and has certainly put Brightwell on the Oxfordshire cricket map.
In other age groups, due to the large numbers (over 20) the Under 11's have been the only Oxfordshire club to run two teamsin the 8 a-side Friendly League. Both teams have had considerable success with the Yellow Team (U11)winning it's firstfour games and the Green Team (U10) winning half of it's matches. The club has once again run coaching sessions for the Under 9 age group and there has been a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and promise shown by the14 boys and girls registered in this age group. Next season the Junior Section intends to expand even further, as we seek to field an Under 15 side in addition to the other three age groups.
The other exciting development at the club will see the installation in early August of two permanent artificial nets at the Recreation Field at a cost of almost £20,000.00. The funding for the project has been achieved by way of grants from Sport England, The Lords Taverners and tireless fundraising efforts over the last two years such as Waitrose bag packs, Quiz Nights etc. This new facility will be a major benefit for the club in recruiting and retaining players. The official opening of the new nets will take place on 3 September at the End of Season Presentation Evening.
Once again the Family Day held at the beginning of July, in conjunction with our partner charity Save The Children, was a major success. Blessed with good weather the day saw 12 teams take part in the softball competition which eventually saw the strong Webbers' team run out winners. It was again great to see children batting with their grandfather, or sons taking great delight in hammering their mother's bowling !!!
All in all 2010 has been an incredible season for Junior Cricket in the village, and the club despite still being in its infancy provides over 50 youngsters of all abilities an opportunity to take their first steps on the cricketing ladder. If you wish to support the club, you can become a Patron of the Junior Section for just £10.00 a year. The club now has over 30 Patrons providing funds to purchase new equipment for the youngsters. For more information about how to become a Patron please contact Club Secretary Chris Davies at chrisandemma.davies@btinternet.com.
Jerry Walters