December 2006/January 2007

More Tails from the Allotment

Many stout hearts have wilted in 2006. Let’s begin with the wilderness between the allotments and the Rec. To many, and unkindly if you are a son of the soil, this is known as a nature reserve. Well it’s certainly a reservation, and so named after the Indian ones! Every night herds of deer and posses of rabbits have come a whooping and a hollering. I’ve managed just 5 carrots from 2 packets of seed. At one stage would you believe, they even ate the tops out of the onions, and then toyed with, but spat out the garlic. Much of what they didn’t get the pigeons did. The allotment pigeons are the size of jumbo jets - I swear Benson helicopters divert around them. Mob handed they bounce up and down on any protective netting. Now I just found what ate the tops out of the potatoes. Caterpillars, 3 inches long, have come up with the spuds. I have an epidemic of Death’s-Head Hawk moths!

Next we come to moles. They appeared in early May, tunnelling from the general direction of Bell Lane. They followed the line of our mysterious “Permissive path”. At the water tank they turned right, then straight as an arrow, went for my little acre. The good news is that I was ready. Kind friends had equipped me with a battery deterrent that worked. A little plastic coil that winds into a knot, then goes off like a cross between a Catherine Wheel and a Jumping Jack. What a joy! The tube it shakes and emits a noise like I imagine a rattle snake makes. Mr Mole, he no likee, and just kept tunnelling along

Unfortunately in late August, I made a molasses of things. For years the first sign of autumn in Church Lane has been squirrels in an ancient coppiced hazel tree outside Mellstock. They first strip it bare of the far from ripe cobnuts, and then charge up the lane to pillage my nut tree. Not this year they didn’t! I dug up the mole deterrent, tied it to my tree, and hey presto, for the first time since 1968, no squirrels, but lots of lovely nuts for Christmas. So what went wrong? Because of the nuts, I have a garden full of mice. Now those mice have cats, and I’m not a cat person either.

Meanwhile, back at the allotment, there was the third plague of 2006, drought. I delayed planting out my leeks till mid-September, but was then forced to water them in. would you believe it, there were moles pushing them back up before you could say “Dave Hurley”. Do you know , they tunnelled in exactly the same places as last year – and they were not the same moles, I guarantee.

Finally, why “Dave Hurley”. Well, despite the drought, Sotwell House spring kept flowing in 2006. It is he who pumped and pumped to keep us allotmenteers a watering. Let’s hear it for Dave, for in a year of adversity, he was a flow of comfort to some very demolerised diggers.

Tony Debney

Parish Church : Preparing for Christmas

Preparations for Christmas are already under way. The pace will no doubt speed up now that Halloween is over. I already experience difficulty finding some of the regular items on my shopping list as some things have been taken off the shelves altogether to provide extra shelf space for Christmas goodies. Others have been moved to less prominent places. Families too are busy as they plan family visits, holidays, gift lists, menus and all the other preparations that seem to be essential at this frantically busy time. I wonder if you have ever thought about the length of time that God spent in preparing for Christmas? Well, nine months before the birth, an angel visited Mary. But that was not the beginning. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born the prophets of Israel spoke of a special messenger or King who would be instrumental in establishing God’s rule on earth. But that was not the beginning either.

To find the beginning you have to go back to the very creation of the world. Bringing the world into being and placing it in the hands of men and women was always going to be a risky business, especially as those men and women were created as free agents. What would happen if they decided to do things their own way, rather than God’s? What if their aspirations for themselves and the world were more self-centred and less altruistic than those of their Creator?

Then it would be necessary to have a plan to deal with the fallout. God would need to woo and win back the affections, the minds, hearts and spirits, of men and women. God attempted to do this through his chosen messengers who were often ignored and persecuted. Eventually God himself came among us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the living, walking, talking God in human form. John, one of the Gospel writers, tells us that Jesus was so full of God’s grace and truth that he revealed God in all his glory, in all his love.

As you prepare for Christmas, remember that God has been preparing the world for Christ’s coming from the very beginning. God gave Jesus to us so that we might once again be reconciled with our Creator God. Think what a difference it could make to you and your life, if you were to welcome him as part of your Christmas celebrations.

Well, it is his birthday after all!

Jill Chatfield

St Agatha’s: Extension ideas and plugging the holes in the roof

The wheels grind slowly, - and you could be forgiven for thinking that our plans for toilet facilities at St Agatha’s had indeed ground to a halt! After all, it was right back at the beginning of the year that we alerted villagers as to what we would like to achieve at the church.

We are still checking out all the possibilities regarding the extension before finally making up our minds about exactly what we want along with what will be best for St Agatha’s and it all takes time; but then, this is only to be expected when you are dealing with a Grade II* listed church. ‘What does that mean exactly?’ I hear you ask. May I offer you the following quotation from an English Heritage Document on New Work in Historic Places of Worship: ‘Most listed buildings (over 90 per cent) are listed Grade II. A small percentage are listed Grade I or Grade II*: these are buildings of particularly great importance to the country’s built heritage.’ So that makes this village church quite special – being part of less than 10 per cent of all listed buildings.

In the meantime, however, there are more mundane issues to address – like the leaking south roof, the many places internally which need replastering, and total redecoration of the interior. Repair of the south roof has been given the go-ahead and we have been promised a grant towards the cost from The Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, for which we are very grateful. Once the roof has been fixed, we hope to push ahead with the redecoration and, as I’m sure many of you will know, this will not be just a case of using any old plaster and a couple of coats of emulsion. Choice of materials is crucial for St Agatha’s ancient walls – to allow them to breathe.

Of course, like any home, there are lots of small jobs which can be done in-house – and we have a small team who are working their socks off – fixing the odd bit of leaded stained glass where it has come loose, cementing back loose floor tiles, attending to the trap door in the tower, replacing/splicing bell ropes etc, etc. The list is endless! And then there’s the Churchyard Gang – (though actually, come to think of it, most of these chaps are also the Indoor Fixers). The Churchyard Gang can be seen most Wednesday and Friday mornings hard at it, keeping the area beautifully tidy, mowing grass, pruning trees and shrubs, planting flowers along the church path and in pots at the door, and maintaining the gates, fences and garden benches. All they ask in return is a mid-morning pot of tea and some cake – and the pleasure of seeing a job well done!

If the churchyard and church is not somewhere you would normally venture, please feel free to do so, have a look inside the church and then take the little walk from the church door, past the old cob wall and along the little shady path which leads you round, via the glebe allotments and through to the current graveyard and the street. We’re very proud of how all this area is being looked after.

In the same spirit, come along to ‘Coffee in Church’ on Thursday mornings and let us show you around and discuss our ideas and plans with you. St Agatha’s is there for all to share.

Olive Sutcliffe

Parish Council : Threats to our Village

The South East Plan foresees about 1 million more people being crammed into south east England, which does not include London, by 2026 to meet government requirements. The Central Oxfordshire sub region where we are located has to take over 10,000 new houses. If you went to the SODC exhibition in Wallingford Town Hall you would have seen the map of the District showing the land that has been proposed to the Council for house building. In addition a SODC/Vale of White Horse/OCC exhibition is moving around the villages surrounding Didcot and shows nine options for another 3,000 houses are to be added to the town, in addition to those being built at the Great Western Park and Ladygrove East sites. In neither exhibition are there solid commitments to improve the infrastructure prior to any development and nothing about their sustainability

In our village West End Nursery and the land to the west of it between Watermans Lane and the Millennium Wood are two sites under consideration. The Old Orchard on the High Road is another, together with the land between Wallingford and the by-pass.

John Rodda

Brightwell Free Church

Since I last wrote we have seen a little growth in our Sunday congregations which are now typically about 15 compared to the 6 or so when I started there in the summer in 2005. Although still small in numbers of people, if you add our ages together you get quite a big number that speaks a lot about genuine Christian faith, commitment and determination.

During the summer we opened the building twice for cream teas. While it raised some money for one of the charities that we support, perhaps more importantly it established contact with several village folk and reminded them that the church is still very much alive. One of those days coincided with the Oxfordshire churches sponsored cycle ride. A lot of people called in and were surprised to find the building open. One cyclist asked when the church was last used for worship to which I replied “last Sunday”. As Mark Twain famously said, having read his obituary in the newspaper, “The news of my death is exaggerated” (or words to that effect). The truth is that many churches in England have bottomed out and are growing again and if you look at the statistics on church growth in China, Africa and South America particularly the growth rate is the highest it has ever been. In fact in these rather bleak days when people are taught from their early school days that they came from nothing and will return to nothing, it is hardly surprising that many people are turning to religion of almost any kind, looking for some sort of meaning to it all, and if that doesn’t work then eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Neville Burt

Birds in the Village

I co-ordinate the village bird survey each year, on behalf of the Environment Group, so I am naturally interested in birds, their habitats and the events which influence their numbers.

I am writing this on Sunday 29 October, clock change day. It is the one day of the year that I never look forward to as it signals the onset of winter. However, today has been glorious, sunny all day and temperatures of 18 degrees C, warm enough to sit in the garden for lunch. This is rounding off what will probably be the warmest October on record. This warmer weather does have consequences. A national survey for the British Trust for Ornithology, which I am involved with locally is counting the numbers of wintering Lapwings and Golden Plovers. The first count in mid October produced nothing, whereas one would expect to see at least a few Lapwings by that time. Because of the warmer weather I have yet to see any winter thrushes (Fieldfare and Redwings).

This year there has been an abundance of all fruits, berries and nuts. Just one old Bramley apple tree in the village has, I estimate, yielded 450kg (1/2 ton) of fruit. This abundance is a result of a generally mild winter last year, some very cold winter days and a frost free spring blossom period, but is not necessarily the sign of a hard winter to come.

Birds have been noticeably absent from my garden lately. Several flocks of mixed species Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tits, Goldcrests, and warblers have passed through, but on the whole birds have been thin on the ground, because of the abundance of food everywhere else, I think.

A cautionary note on bird feeding - a viral disease causing death is affecting some birds, mainly finches, so it is important to wash bird tables and feeders and to change the water in bird baths regularly. This helps to reduce the spread of infection.

On 26 October, I watched 15 Red Admiral butterflies feeding on ivy blossom. I have a love hate relationship with ivy. As a gardener it’s hate, as a naturalist it’s love. Ivy is flowering now and is an important food source for insects and bees when nectar rich flowers are in short supply. Ivy fruits in about March when most berries have finished, providing a vital food source for many birds. So, to end on an environmental friendly note, please don’t remove all your ivy!

Paul Chilton

News from Brightwell School

Looking ahead to Christmas, our younger pupils (5 to 7 year olds) will be performing A Sleepy Shepherd as a musical nativity. If you are a Senior Citizen in the village, there is an open invitation to attend the dress rehearsal in school at 2 p.m. on Tuesday 5 December. Seasonal refreshments will be served to you by our older pupils. Our Christmas Fair will be held at the school on the evening of Friday 1 December from 6.00-9.00 p.m.

You may be pleased to know that, after a long search, we have been successful in finding a ‘handy person’ for the school. Mr Tony Tiscornia comes each Thursday to carry out essential health and safety checks and minor maintenance work. He’s a very nice man! We said a sad farewell to Miss Sam Molyneux, one of our Teaching Assistants, when she chose a new career as a Fitness Trainer. She will be replaced by Mrs Denise Hooper later this term. Mrs Pretty, one of our long-standing Lunchtime Supervisors left us this term due to family commitments. She provided loyal and unstinting service over the years and the children will miss her. We wish Mrs Higgs, our Senior Lunchtime Supervisor, a speedy recovery from a recent operation and hope she’s back with us soon. Thankfully, their invaluable role has been filled temporarily by two parents. Two very nice ladies!

We celebrated Harvest Festival at St Agatha’s Church with the Revd Chatfield. The children performed songs and presented various activities around the theme of ‘Growing and Sharing’. Parents who attended said the children were great (but we knew that already). Heaps of rice, pasta, pulses and other dried foodstuff, generously donated by parents, were delivered to the Save the Children depot near Reading for shipping to Angola.

Our Year 6 pupils spent a super morning at Wallingford School doing a range of PE activities, including wall climbing, and we welcomed The Globe Theatre into school with their production of Beauty and the Beast.

I must give an enormous thanks to the parents and villagers who contributed to our collection of Tesco and Sainsbury vouchers. As a result of your kindness we purchased electronic keyboards, a webcam, and other support materials for ICT together with some PE equipment.

It’s becoming a familiar feature of my articles, but I have a special plea from our very young pupils for large cushions, beanbags, pillows etc for their ‘comfort zone’. Please contact the school if you can help.

Roger Grant