December 2012/January 2013
Editorial
One of the pleasures of being Editor of the Villager is reading your articles as they come in, especially at this time of year when so many are about the forthcoming festive season. It’s really cheering on this dull damp (driech) November day.
Christmas kicked off early in Brightwell with the evening opening of the Village Stores. If you missed it, then do pop in for your festive goodies. There are lots of other treats lined up including the FOBS Christmas Fair, Art Exhibition and Carols evenings, leading us right up to Christmas Eve when Carols will be sung around the village Christmas Tree. But if you can’t wait till the big day, the Red Lion will be serving up Christmas lunches from 1 December, and Sue (or rather Mark, the new owner) will be attempting to beat last year’s record of 300 turkey dinners! Good luck Mark, and thank you Sue for all your hard work over the last 5 years.
Many of you might recognise the poem Santa Rides the Storm in our centre pages. It’s an extract from a recitation by Alec McGivan at last year’s Carols Evening. A big thank you to Alec for sharing it and giving us a bit of seasonal fun as well as a message about our village community spirit. Come along to this year’s Carols Evening on 10 December when hopefully we will hear another amusing composition from Alec as well as much festive frolic.
Amongst all this jollity however, there has been sobering news of the Inspector’s report on the Core Strategy. Despite sterling efforts by the Parish Council, villagers and others, the Inspector has come down in favour of Site B for the 555 new houses in Wallingford. We await the next Council meeting for more news, but I imagine the fight will continue, and we are grateful to those who give up their time to do so.
Though many people help to make the Villager the success it is, it depends to a large extent on your letters and articles. Space is very tight and the font size can only go so small, but we try to fit in as much as we can. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Villager so I hope this might encourage some of you to write about village life back in 1973 when it started, and of course we continue to welcome Ron Wood’s memories from further back. Whilst we stay true to the village’s past, we also aim to look to the future and so we will be starting a new regular feature - ‘Hatched and Matched’ will be your spot for wedding or civil partnership and new baby news.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from myself and the Villager team - and get writing !
Helen Connor
Community Association
AGM – 18 October 2012
Many thanks to everyone who attended our AGM. It was great to have many representatives from the organisations that we assist in attendance. We made grants of £3189 to support village organisations this year in response to their requests for help (see Oct/Nov issue of Villager). We also purchased 20 trestle tables for use by the Village and, together with the Fairthorne Trust , we provided hampers for the elderly in the village last Christmas.
We record our sincere thanks to Jenny and David Dobbin, who this year lent us their garden for the Fete. Also a big thank you to Jim Sanger, our esteemed auditor for this year and many years past.
There have been a number of changes in the Community Association Committee this year. Our hardworking Chairman Hugh and our very efficient Secretary Sue Booth stood down this year, after many years of inspired guidance and support. Other resignations included Ann Linton, David Fox and Julie Carr – their dedicated hard work over the years is greatly appreciated. We were delighted to welcome Sarah Jackson, Caroline Annets, Helen Baines, John Burdass, Andy Lewis, Graham Adlard and Charlotte and Mike Woods, all re-elected. The Secretary (Laura Evans) and Treasurer (Susannah Magnion) and Chairman (James Davys) were also elected.
Eurovision Evening – Saturday 20 October
I never cease to be amazed by the wealth of talent in the Village and it was certainly on display for this wonderful occasion. Andy Lewis and Helen Baines should be congratulated for their inspired ideas and leadership of this event. The enthusiastic performances were fantastic, from all the “countries” taking part and after a very close competition congratulations go to the L’ecole de Brightwell, led by Wendy Murton, the French entry, who were overall winners. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to making this such an evening to remember.
James Davys, Chairman
St Agatha’s Church
Earlier this week I was asked whether it was Advent yet and, in panic, I lurched towards my church calendar and was reminded that there was a month to go, including Remembrance Sunday, before the church could do its equivalent of stocking the shelves with mince pies. I type this just before heading round the M25 to catch up with my mum who has just had a hip ‘revision’. So I write with a mixture of thankfulness that she’s ok and worry that she’s going to continue to be ok.
Advent & Christmas are, if we’re not to be sold all the tinsel, a strange mixture of apprehension and gratitude. There’s a good piece towards the beginning of William Nicholson’s play, ‘Shadowlands’, as Joy Davidman is getting to know C.S.Lewis. It’s one of her earlier poems about the Spanish Civil War, and she recites it a little self-consciously:
This juxtaposition of the gentle with the cruel, the unwounded with the perishing, gets very close to the message of the baby in the manger, especially if we look at the wider picture of what was going on in the holy land at that time, and even to this day. Christ was born into struggle; Romans delegating power to dictators like Herod who ruled by the sword, with the locals just getting by.
We have had more than enough of Recession and just getting by; there have been struggles in Europe, and locally over housing, and vicious little wars rumble on in ill-reported parts of our world. We may have struggles too, with our own jobs, our relationships, our children as they grow up. So it is no small comfort that Jesus, this gentle thing, comes to us just in the midst of such turmoil, and amidst all our striving.
It is surely right to strive for the good things in life. However, in the end, the fight goes beyond material things to ‘powers and principalities in the heavenly realms’ which St.Paul speaks of. Such challenges become more manageable when we claim for ourselves, in our quieter moments, the gentler things like patience, kindness, faithfulness, and humility. They are, beneath the tinsel, distinctly human. And yet paradoxically, they seem to drop from above when we least expect it. They are certainly things, like the incarnation, one does not fight.
Happy Christmas; come and see us soon.
Jeremy Goulston
WI
Paying cash for your flight ticket, looking over-confident in the Green Channel, or, recently, carrying a black handbag – all suspicious signs according to Malcolm Nelson, who worked for HM Customs and Excise at Heathrow for forty years. He was our speaker in October and gave an enthralling talk with many horrendous and hilarious tales of cases he has dealt with. He explained where they get tip offs e. g. MI5 and MI6, which flights to keep an eye on and how they use dogs. We’ll definitely be asking him back again next year.
In November, Mary Acton, in her erudite and entertaining way, explained how art began to look different from 1900 to 1914. She talked about the influence of Darwin, Einstein, Nietzsche and Freud and the fact that the world was being looked at in a new way. Picasso was at the forefront of changes in art along with Braque and Matisse.
In December we have Matthew Collins - writer, public speaker, voice coach, single dad and Special Assignments man on NBBC TV’s Travel show where he was given assignments like “Surviving for a week in a nudist colony with nothing but a camera” ! His talk is entitled “ Budegt travel, borrowed grannies, tax free cash from your kids and shopping for free in the supermarkets”. There must be something there for everyone. We hope that all members will bring a friend, and if you fancy the speaker or title, why not join us?
Mais Appleton
Santa Rides the Storm
Alec McGivan
Allsorts Pre-School
One theme of this term has been “Ourselves”, which has involved discussions about families and our environment. The children especially enjoyed getting out and about exploring the village. Other highlights of the first term included visiting Julie’s allotment to pick pumpkins, making pizzas and eating them (!), making autumn leaf crowns, visits from Maisie’s tortoises and Charlie’s puppy, Daisy's Mr Biggles, and our moment of fame in the village: Eurovision song contest! It had been a busy few weeks and there was more to come. Most will have noticed a chill in the air towards the end of October and fittingly the topic of the second term was “Autumn” to include bonfire night, and the sights, sounds and smells of autumn.
The new school lunches have been a huge success. The children really enjoy a chinwag over a hot meal at the end of a busy morning. Thanks to Natasha and Karen Stevens for setting this up, and many thanks too to all parents who helped with sessions. The children really do enjoy having you there - as do the staff! And even more thanks are due to all of you who have been donating so generously. The Teddy Bear drop was a huge success, so many people made it along and all the teddies were very brave. Over a hundred pounds was raised. We also held a Halloween fundraiser in the pub and we will have a Christmas decoration/craft stall at the FOBS (Friends of Brightwell School) Christmas Fair on 30th November 6-8pm.
After Christmas we plan to start an afternoon session, most likely on a Tuesday afternoon. As many morning sessions are also very busy we are hoping to recruit another Early Years assistant in the very near future. If you are interested in this role/know someone who might be please contact the Pre-school.
The Pre-school is a charity and thrives thanks to the generous help of the community. We already have two amazing volunteers from the village who come in and help with the children on a regular basis. The children love having people visiting from the local community who they then recognise in their day-to-day lives. Please contact us if you would like to come in one day (no pressure for a regular slot) and perhaps do some cooking, gardening, reading, or just to be around and talk with the children; we would love you to come and join in the fun.
Barbara Montanari
Brightwell School 80 years ago
The school had two small classrooms at either end of the school for the infants and younger children. This left a large space in the centre which was equally divided into two classrooms separated only by an old curtain hanging from a wire running across the centre of the room, but not all the way across. Mr Rowe, the headmaster, could see all of his class and the front row of Mrs Steele’s classroom, while she could see all of her class and the front row of the headmaster’s class. A child sitting near the curtain could listen to whichever teacher he or she chose. The two teachers were only several yards apart, in full view of each other. I think they tried to arrange lessons so that one class was reading or writing silently while the other was being spoken to.
Visitors to the school were few and far between. The school’s attendance officer would arrive, leaving his bicycle by the railings outside, then check the absentee list with the headmaster at his desk. He wore shiny brown gaiters which fascinated the children who peered from above their book tops when they were supposed to be reading.
The small playground at the back of the school with its hard surface and no grass produced many grazed elbows and cut knees which had to be attended to by a teacher. At the end of playtime a teacher would appear in a corner of the playground, a whistle would be blown and the three classes would line up and quietly walk back into school.
Ron Wood
Environment Group - Questions about Climate Change
The Autumn talk was held on 6 November when Professor Richard Harding of CEH Wallingford provided a very thoughtful and interesting presentation on this the most serious problem facing humankind. Of course, there are those who think climate change is a big hoax dreamt up by scientists to keep themselves rich in research funds. These people have been disparaging this research and attempting to rubbish the scientists involved in various ways, “Climategate” being one.
In his talk Richard showed that: the global temperature is rising at a rate unparalleled over geological time, with the consequence that glaciers are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is much reduced in the summer and the sea level is rising. The earlier onset of Spring is altering the flowering regimes of plants and there is a movement northwards of various plants and animals. Whether or not weather extremes are due to the increasing temperature is not yet clear. The cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels and the increasing amount of carbon dioxide this adds to the atmosphere. It is estimated that when the Industrial Revolution started some 250 years ago the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 280ppm: in 2012 it is about 390ppm. The 11 year sunspot cycle, volcanic eruptions and changes in the obliquity of the earth’s axis cannot explain this rapid and continuing rise in temperature. We are in the Anthropocene Period when humankind is shaping the planet in such a way that will create enormous problems for our grandchildren and succeeding generations, unless reliance on fossil fuels can be severely reduced and replaced by energy from renewable sources. All life depends on the thin skin of atmosphere that girdles the earth, some 8 miles thick, and we are modifying it at our peril. What hope is there for polar bears?
John Rodda
The remarkable stones of St James
Most churches in our part of Oxfordshire were built using flint from the nearby Chalk hills, or sandy limestone from the Corallian outcrops around Oxford. But the church of St James in Sotwell is different, its exterior walls built mainly of shaped rectangular blocks of a hard grey sandstone. The interior walls are of softer local chalk. The masonry dates from 1884 when the ancient chapel on the site, its original walls made of wattle and daub, was largely rebuilt under the direction of architect S.R. Stephenson. Where did the unusual sandstone come from?
Thanks to some detective work by the retired Reading University Geology professor, John Allen, this stone has been identified as Sarsen stone - similar to that used to build Stonehenge, the Avebury Stone Circle and Wayland’s Smithy near Uffington. His conclusions are contained in a monograph “Late Churches and Chapels in Berkshire” published in the 2007 British Archaeological Report, Series 432.
Sarsen stone has a curious geological origin. It is a relatively young rock, formed from the sand deposited by rivers of the Paleocene Period, some 60 million years ago. Exposed to tropical weathering, the quartz sand grains became locally cemented by deposition of crystalline quartz, to form large slabs of unusually hardened rock. Here and there within the stone, tube-like holes remained where tree and plant roots had once penetrated the sand. The tabular slabs were later broken apart during the Ice Ages and became scattered over the surface of the Chalk downs. They were widespread across the Wiltshire area.
The Sarsen stones were obvious material for construction of megalithic monuments, which have survived intact for thousands of years. But being so hard to break or cut they were not much use as a regular building stone, although smaller, unshaped stones can be seen in rubbly walls of cottages around Ashbury and Uffington. Only in the mid-19th Century did viable dressing techniques develop, leading to a short-lived industry, based in the Kennet valley of Wiltshire, supplying cut blocks, setts and kerbstones. But by the early 20th Century this industry had died away with the lack of available remaining Sarsen stones. These can now only be found in a number of protected sites, such as Fyfield Down and by Ashdown Park.
Professor Allen records very few chapels or churches in historic Berkshire which use this stone. So why did the architect Mr Stephenson choose the unusual Sarsen stone for rebuilding St James in Sotwell? One clue might be the opening of the railway branch line to Wallingford in 1866, greatly reducing the cost of bringing a building stone from as far afield as Wiltshire. Perhaps he intended that the stonewalls of St James should, like the megalithic monuments, also survive for thousands of years.
Bill Horsfield
The Bach Centre
Any villagers who have visited the Centre in the last thirty years have probably met Kathy Nicholson who joined in the 1980s, when we were bottling and distributing remedies from the workrooms at the back of the house. When we began the process of selling that business in 1991, she was one of the team who went to work at the new bottling plant in Abingdon. But she soon came back to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell to run the downstairs office. She combined reception duties with a host of other responsibilities: answering the phone to callers needing help with the system, sending out newsletters, running the shop, dealing with mail order, and showing round visitors, whether in ones and twos or in more organised groups.
Kathy was often the first person that callers to the Centre met, and the first person they talked to on the phone. In many ways she was the face of the Bach Centr, becoming friends not just with members of the Bach Centre team, but with hundreds of others, including many local people. All were bowled over by her friendly welcome. Kathy decided to retire this year, within a year of her 70th birthday. We held a small get-together for her at the Centre.Kathy has asked us through these pages to thank those who came to say goodbye, and the many people who sent cards and good wishes. We wish her a long and happy retirement.
Stefan Ball