February/March 2008

The Great Village Paint

On the wet and wintry afternoon of 5 January some 28 people, the youngest aged two, came to the Village Hall for the Great Village Paint. People were very enthusiastic about depicting what they perceived as of importance in the community. After much painting, drawing, gluing and sticking the end result was some 46 works of art. These, together with some photos we were given are now mounted and on display in St Agatha’s church and will be there until after the February half-term.

The art work formed the basis of the All Age Service at St Agatha’s on 13 January. The diversity of the art work reminded us of the diversity in our community and how, when we combine our talents, whatever they are, the effect is amazing. I am sure that Geraldine Talbot, whose memorial fund financed the Great Village Paint and whose picture, together with her brother Gilbert, is in the middle of the display, would have been delighted to know that so many people were encouraged to have a go and use their artistic skills for a community project. Everyone had such a good time we will definitely repeat the experience. So, watch this space!!

Janice Chilton

Community Association

Village Carol Evening - 10 December
The Carol Evening proved as popular as ever as a milestone in the village’s Christmas celebrations. Andy Lewis led the fun and frolics brilliantly - no mean feat for a man still hobbling after knee surgery. Andy was ably assisted by Malcolm Sutcliffe, who led the singing, Chris and Helen Baines on the production and creative side, and of course Norman Large on piano. Waiting for Alec McGivan’s latest Santa sonnet is as much of an annual tradition as JK Rowling’s next Harry Potter publication. Brightwell School’s choir group just seems to get better every year. Sadly it is impossible to mention here all the contributors on stage, but we are sincerely grateful to them all. Behind the scenes, of course, Derek Brooker kept the mulled wine flowing.

We made a profit of £260.34, all of which was spent on Christmas hampers for the over 70s in the village (with the addition of funds saved from previous events). We are very grateful to Lynn Burridge, Hilary Rogerson and the Brightwell Scouts once again, for packing and distributing the hampers.

Village Quiz Evening - Saturday 8 March 2008
The Village Quiz Evening will be in the Village Hall on Saturday 8 March at 7.30 p.m. Last year’s winners, Highballs will set the questions. The entry date is now closed. Please look out for details about next year’s Quiz Evening in December 2008 if you wish to enter a team.

Keeping in touch
The Community Association is setting up a database of contact details so that we can provide updates about events in plan throughout the year. If you would like to include your details on the database, please contact Dariel Burdass by email to dariel@burdass.com, or by letter to: Cedarwood, High Road, Brightwell cum Sotwell OX10 0PT. We are particularly keen to have contact details for all clubs in the village so that we can disseminate our information to groups of people. Please note that your contact details will not be shared with any other organisation, and will only be used by the Community Association for information purposes.

New blood
There are always dangers that committees become smug and out of touch with the people they represent if they don’t change their memberships regularly. We hope the Community Association Committee is not guilty of this, but it is worrying that at the 2007 AGM we had no nominations for new members. We are working hard in 2008 to identify people from all ages and interest groups who might wish to come forward with new ideas and question the ways we do things. Membership only entails an evening meeting four or five times a year, and help at the four regular events we run. So please give it some thought, and do contact any member of the Committee if you would like to discuss it further.

Hugh Roderick

WI - It’s Not What I Expected!

That headline is a quote from one of our members and it sums us up very well! Since we started in January 2004 we’ve listened to talks on subjects ranging from collecting corkscrews to corn circles, from understanding the Arab world to the healing power of plants, from body language to the great train robbery. We’ve had tutored tastings of wine, sugar and cheese. We’ve tried our hand (or perhaps that should be ‘feet’), at circle dancing and Middle Eastern dancing. We’ve made sushi, Christmas wreathes, flower arrangements and plenty of cakes. Two book clubs, a walking group, a darts team and a thriving quilting group are up and running thanks to member enthusiasm. And we’ve raised more than £2000 for various causes including the Oxford Children’s Hospital, Fair Trade and our village shop.

Just as important as the variety, it’s also been great fun. Our meetings are one of the rare occasions when it’s possible to chat with no ‘hidden agenda’ and it’s a delight to discover so many interesting and talented women in our community!

The new year sees us continuing a fascinating meeting programme with Stuart Bailey of Rowse Honey educating us about the sources and uses of honey on 11th January, followed by Kate Day from Helen & Douglas House on the 12 February, talking about their work and the fundraising needed to support it.

New and prospective members are always welcome at our meetings: 7.45pm in the Village Hall on the second Tuesday of the month. Our website lists our programme so take a look at www.bcs-wi.co.uk and come along to see for yourself!

Catherine Inwood

Brightwell School

Well done again to Miss Shinner and Mrs Welton our Class 1 and 2 teachers, assisted by our support staff and parent helpers, for another fantastic Nativity production. The scenery this year was just amazing and all our youngsters performed to a packed house on three occasions, each of which showed its appreciation with frequent and loud applause. Our school choir, led by parent Wendy Murton, also excelled itself this year, singing at the village carol evening, at the senior-citizen event at Root One, and at Sotwell House. Following our usual round of festive activities in school, the Revd Jeremy Goulston led the children in a telling of the Christmas story at St Agatha’s on the final day of term.

The Friends of Brightwell School held another very successful Christmas Fair and raised over a thousand pounds for the school. They are working closely with us this year to revamp our school library. It is due in no small part to the unstinting efforts of this group, that Ofsted, earlier this year, described the relationship of the school with its parent body as outstanding.

Congratulations to the four Year 6 pupils who attended the Maths Challenge at St Edwards School in Oxford recently. In teams of two, they enjoyed the experience and acquitted themselves very well. In November the whole school visited the theatre at Chipping Norton to see Rapunzel. The event was a curtain-raiser to our themed-curriculum fortnight entitled, ‘Tales of Enchantment’. To stimulate the children’s imagination, the entrance, halls and classrooms were all decked out with displays related to well known traditional and fairy tales. At the end of the project, each class took a turn to visit other classes to look at the range of superb work they had produced, especially in Art, ICT and Writing. The first week in December was designated Anti-Bullying Week. This provided us the opportunity to discuss the various forms of bullying, its harmful consequences and what those people who are being bullied can do to stop it.

Finally, as we bid farewell to 2007 we take great pride in the very good Ofsted report we received at the beginning of the year. This official endorsement was subsequently underwritten by the ‘outstanding’ performance of our Year 6 children, whose achievements in June placed the school in the top five per cent of schools across the country for value added.

Roger Grant

Our Village Shop : Progress Report Number Two

In December we held our first steering group meeting, agreed our brief and the immediate actions we need to take to start the ball rolling as quickly as possible.

Planning consent is the key; we hope to receive an indication from SODC in the first weeks of January and, if we receive it, will put in planning applications by the end of February. Our draft timetable (I may regret mentioning this - all timetables are negotiable and this one is not in our control!) leads to a grand opening in early 2009 and we need now to be getting an architect and a lawyer on board to help us. The first meeting of David Dobbin’s funding and finance group will be held before the planning applications go in and we are beginning the search for a shop manager with retail experience.

As scribe, I have undertaken to write a short piece for each edition of The Villager (I may regret this as well!) to keep everyone up to date on our progress and we plan to hold further Village Meetings during this year to report back and to receive feedback. Do please contact us personally before then if you would like to help in any way - if we have not already contacted you! (Jim Sanger 833 655)

Seven years after we built a new Pavilion we may, just may, get a new Shop!

Jim Sanger

Parish Council

Expansion of Wallingford
You can find SODC ideas about increasing the number of houses in Walling ford and in the rest of the District on the Council’s website www.southoxon.gov.uk/corestrategy along with the “Issues and Options Questionnaire”. Please send your comments to the Council on their proposals as soon as possible. These houses represent the SODC’s share of the South East England Plan for 1million more people to be accommodated in SE England by 2026. The Council’s strategy is to increase the number of houses in several locations, those affecting us will be built on land around Didcot and Wallingford. The likely result is that our village will be squeezed by growth from the east and the west, particularly if land between the bypass and Wallingford is built on. Much of this land is, of course, in our parish. These new houses will mean that the A4130 will be crammed with cars at peak travel times, increasing the difficulty of getting into and out of the village. They will also mean that unless considerable improvements are made to schools, hospitals, surgeries, railway stations, water supplies and other parts of the infrastructure, the services they currently provide will be degraded by the increased numbers trying to use them.

Travel
Bus passes are being offered to the over 60s by SODC for free off peak travel nationally and within the District. For the over 70s, travel tokens worth £20 can be applied for using the forms available at the Post Office and from SODC. The contracts for bus operation are coming up for renewal in 2008 and the Parish Council is making every effort to ensure that the existing services will be retained.

Financial matters
The Council agreed to increase the precept by 3% for the coming year in line with the anticipated rate of inflation. Donations were made to the following village bodies: History Group £100; Stewart Village Hall £300; Junior Cricket Club £200; St James Church £400; Environment Group £100; Friends of Brightwell School £100. It was pointed out that the number of applications for funds had decreased in recent years. The secretaries of bodies who wish to benefit from a donation are asked to submit an application in the coming autumn.

John Rodda

Allsorts Pre-School

Although Christmas 2007 now seems like a world away, it was a very busy time in the term leading up to the end of the year. The children thoroughly enjoyed getting stuck into the topics of “Festivals” and “Autumn”. They made pumpkins come alive as lanterns for Halloween and lit their imaginations with a wonderful, big, paper firework display for Bonfire Night. And, of course, our little ones were very busy making decorations and practising carols for the main event itself, the arrival of Father Christmas just in time for the end of term party.

This current term promises to be no less busy. Our children will be learning about the Emergency Services, with a visit from Didcot’s real life “Fireman Sam” in January. Behind the scenes, our untiring staff continue, not only to do a sterling job with Allsorts’ pupils, but also to dedicate their personal time to on-going qualifications and training, which will directly benefit the Pre-School. It is also anticipated that the Stage 3 accreditation (Quality Assurance Scheme) sees the culmination of lots of hard work towards it this term. Thanks and “Good Luck” go to everyone involved in all these demanding and worthwhile activities.

The hard work of our new Fundraising Team must also be highlighted. They continue to come up with new and innovative ideas to raise valuable funds for the Pre-School. This included wonderful mugs decorated by the children themselves, in time for Christmas presents. The idea of a busy parent’s cook book has proven so popular, it is being extended to include other time-saving hints and tips. Have you any ideas we could include? The simpler, the better, such as getting children into the fresh air by doing “bark rubbings”. Please drop your suggestions into the Pre-School or email the Secretary at: vickiecm@gmail.com.

Both Karen (our New Supervisor) and Tania (our Committee Chair) would like to say a huge thankyou to parents and the many other people in the Village for their on-going, enthusiastic contributions to the Pre-School. Finally...just can’t think what to do with that spare hour once a week or month? Let Allsorts help you! We are always on the look out for a spare pair of hands, particularly someone who may be able to advise us on what we need to do to repair our damaged, soft-surface playground, which is currently preventing the children using the play area at the back of the pre-school. Whether you’ve a flare for fixing fencing or have a pastime that you’d like to share with our little ones, we want to hear from you. Please contact our Committee Chair, Tania Bevis, on 01491 832489.

Victoria Clyde-Matthews

The Red Lion

Well it’s been six months since we took over the Red Lion and as predicted it’s been a steep learning curve. Although I’m sure we still have a lot to learn, I think we are getting the hang of this pub malarkey! Thank you to everyone who came for a meal in the early days and came back! The kitchen is a lot more settled now, the cooking being shared between Sally, who cooks great traditional English food and Youmna, who is from the Lebanon and is particularly talented at North African and Mediterranean dishes (as anyone who came to our Moroccan evenings will testify!) I am really grateful to Alison who worked here with Bill for some time and was invaluable in helping us get started and is staying on the team as ‘reserve chef’.

We are still trying to use local produce as much as possible. Although there is not so much around from the gardens and allotment just now we are lucky enough to be getting celeriac from Viv Moll which makes fabulous soup - served with home made bread it’s a great lunch or starter.(£3.95). We are also still getting lamb from Little Wittenham, meat from Ray Park in Cholsey including his great home made sausages, some eggs from Highlands Farm, and I am using flour from the Wantage Mill for the bread which I am still making twice a day.

The special events we have held in the past 6 months have been really well supported, thank you to all who came. Do look at the web site www.redlion.biz to see some photos. We hope to continue 2008 in the same vein. February’s charity quiz will be to raise money to help with the upkeep of Wittenham Clumps and will be run by The Northmoor Trust. It will be on the 25 February from 8.00 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. We will also be having more speciality cuisine evenings in February (Shrove Tuesday, Chinese New Year, Valentines Day etc!!) Please check the web site or ring for dates and details.

We hope to have a dart board up and running by the time you read this article. We wondered if people would be interested in other games such as dominoes, poker, cribbage, backgammon, etc. Sunday could be a games evening. Let me know if you think you may be interested in this.

If you have always wanted to improve your French you can now do so without leaving the village. Sandrine’s French conversation classes are great fun and only £10.00 an hour including a cup of our delicious coffee. Monday and Tuesday mornings - all levels. Ring Sandrine for details information 01491 834 699 or 07737 444 350.

If you would like to be added to our email newsletter list which will tell you about any upcoming events please either ring me or send an email with your email address. Some of you may have heard that the price of beer is going up. The main reason for this is the wet summer here and in Europe which has caused a shortage of barley and hops. .This has put the price of barley up by 30 per cent and hops have tripled in price. As I write this we have been told that our beer suppliers will increase their prices from January. WE ARE NOT GOING TO INCREASE OUR BEER PRICES! We hope to absorb this round of price increases for as long as possible.

For information enquiries@redlion.biz, www.redlion.biz
Telephone either 0790 5493690 or 01491 837373

Sue Robson

Old Moles Almanac- The 2008 Predictions

The village allotments are thriving. Some of the larger plots have even been divided, providing “veggie gardens” for those who want to grow a bit, but not feed a family. The moles are also alive and well. 2007 was a very good year for them - wet and full of worms. They have therefore spread to other plots, so I am not quite as bothered by them. Indeed, my New Years resolution was to try not to be as molicious as I was.

It is however decision time at the allotment since seeds must now be chosen and ordered. Over four years, as I have moved from novice to expert, I have come to realise that when it comes to vegetables, choosing the right variety is all important. Not only must they suit the site and soil, above all they must cope with the weather to come.

Now few of you realise we are in the midst of plague years to rival those of ancient Egypt. First, there were of course the dreaded Moles, then the year Rabbit and Deer attacked. 2007 saw the Wet Putrefaction - multicoloured mildews, rusts of many hues, neck rot, root rot, stem wilt, water-logging and blights of biblical proportions. So I have determined that if only I can predict the plague of 2008, then choose seed varieties that will work best, I might at last get my hands on the Talbot Cup.

Naturally, for the prediction, I consulted my Crystal Mole. Confusingly, for that is the way of moles, I saw two climatic change prediction scenarios. Perhaps it might be the Great August Heat, with a storm from N. Africa blowing swarms of locusts to ravage a green and pleasant land. Here the strategy would be to plant early ripening varieties, then rush down and pick just before Mackney Lane is reduced to a few desolate sticks.

On balance though, I tend to fancy the moles second prediction - the Big Chill of 2008. This suggests it could be the coldest April in 300 years, with 5cms. of snow blanketing the allotments on 5 May, the May Bank Holiday. For this nothing shall be planted until after the Spring Freeze - late varieties of everything would be the way. With any luck it could be too cold for moles to breed, and any that survived till May would be totally unable to tunnel through frozen soil. I like it, and can tell it’s going to be another great year at the Ponderosa, even though I seem to have broken my resolution already.

Tony Debney