February/March 2012
Patrick Oakley 1928-2011
I want to thank everyone who wrote to me after Patrick's death. It's been wonderful to be reminded by your letters and cards just how loved Patrick was and how missed he'll be.
There were words repeated frequently: twinkling eyes, sense of fun, fireworks, bomb fires, eccentric to name but a few. Some of you reminded me of his campaign against dog mess on our foot paths: he would decorate them with glitter and little flags to embarrass offending dog owners. His other attack was pot-holes when he bought his own can of spray paint and added to the pot holes marked by the council in the hope that they would fill those in as well!
These stories just go to show how much Patrick loved this village - we both felt very lucky when we stumbled upon it in 1992.
Thank you again
Caroline Oakley
Evelyn A M Cobb ( née Boesen)
Dr Evelyn Cobb died at her home here in Brightwell at the beginning of December and a Thanksgiving Service was held in St Agatha’s on 15 December. This kind and gentle lady will be sadly missed within our community.
After qualifying in medicine in 1953 at the Royal Free Hospital in London she went to Presbyterian St Luke’s hospital in Chicago. On her return to London she took up an appointment at the Royal Free Hospital where she pioneered work in the treatment of intracranial tumours with radio-active implants. She was soon recruited to the Royal Marsden Hospital where she joined Eve Wiltshaw and David Galton in the newly formed Department of Clinical Research. Over the next 10 years these three physicians laid down the ground rules for the application of cytotoxic drugs in the treatment of cancer; later called chemotherapy. In this period their offices and clinics became a mecca - attracting doctors from around the world. The ground rules that they laid down were distilled by Evelyn into her textbook ‘Cytotoxic Drugs in the treatment of Cancer’ (E Boesen & W Davis), published in 1969. This influential book was for many years translated and read by a wide audience of physicians anxious to give their patients the best possible treatment.
Subsequently, the Royal Free Hospital invited Evelyn back to start a department of oncology, which under her supervision grew rapidly attracting patients from home and abroad. Her kind and compassionate nature made her very popular with patients – some of whom wrote or visited us in Brightwell decades after their treatment had been completed.
Charles Wallis
St Agatha’s Church Extension: Alleluia!
Following a generous grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation and further donations from the village, funds raised for the extension project now total almost £174,500 - £4,500 over the original target. This is a marvellous outcome and, coupled with the provision of a Faculty by the Oxford Diocese which is the final approval hurdle, ensures that the project can now go ahead.
The next steps?
Ongoing discussions with the selected contractor are aimed at commencing building work by 1 March with a five month construction period. We have not ceased fundraising as any excess over target gives some comfort in the face of inflationary pressures on building costs, higher than budgeted professional fees and additional fixtures and fittings that may be desired. In the encouraging event that the project is completed for less than the total funds raised, the £15,000 contribution from the Church’s own resources will be reduced accordingly with the excess going towards other building needs such as a new heating system. All grants and donations made by individuals and institutions towards the extension project will be used as intended.
It’s been a great journey
Fundraising started in June 2009 and reaching the target in some two and a half years would not have been possible without tremendous support from the village, through donations and fundraising events. The Appeal Committee is extremely grateful for this patronage and hopes that the events – concerts, sponsored walk, open gardens, safari suppers, midsummer ball, bridge drive, art sales, son et lumiere, pub quizzes and many others – have been enjoyable as well as financially successful. No doubt many of these will continue in the future.
Support can be shown as follows:
%
St Agatha’s Building Fund 15,000 8.6
Local events 29,886 17.1
Local donations 32,095 18.4
Institutional grants 97,475 55.9
Institutional grants
It has been very encouraging that, despite the currently difficult economic environment, charitable and other bodies are willing to support worthy causes. The Committee is most appreciative of these grants:
Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd (WREN) 35,600
Southern Oxfordshire LEADER Scheme 20,000
Oxford Diocese 11,000
Garfield Weston Foundation 8,000
Oxfordshire Historic Churches Fund 7,000
NatWest CommunityForce 6,275
Allchurches Trust 3,000
Church and Community Fund 2,000
Brightwell Community Association 1,300
Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Parish Council 1,000
Archdeacon’s Fund 1,000
Brightwell Free Church 200
Abingdon School 100
While all of these grants are very welcome, perhaps the most satisfying was that from the NatWest CommunityForce Scheme, since it was the consequence of some very hard work by so many in the community in getting people to vote for us.
A notable omission?
You may be surprised to see that SODC does not feature in the above list, despite having £500,000 to award to local causes last year. At an early stage in the project visits were made to a number of nearby churches that had built extensions, including those in Elsfield, Goring and Wallingford, to learn from their experiences. In each case a significant grant had been awarded by the SODC Community Investment Fund, ranging from 20% to as high as 45% of the total funding requirement. Last year a presentation of the St Agatha’s project was made to the SODC CIF. Despite sterling support from our own Councillor and from the CIF administration team we were awarded not a penny, while Aston Rowant with a similar proposal received a substantial sum. I hope it is only my cynical nature that suggests councillors were swayed by other issues between SODC and our community!
Looking forward
The Red Lion
(apologies to our Newsletter recipients for whom most of this is old news!!!)
The Festive Season seems a long time ago now but we had a lovely, busy time in the pub with various dinners and parties. You can see photographic evidence on our web site www.redlion.biz. Particularly impressive and fun were the dressing up costumes worn on New Year’s Eve Eve. Santa paid us a visit again in the middle of the month – it was magical to see the looks on the children’s faces when he knew their names and chatted to them. New Year’s Eve was also a busier evening than I expected, salsa dancing and a noisy conga around the outside of the pub were a first!!
By the time you read this we will have had our annual Robert Burns Celebration Supper which, at the time of writing, is fully booked. We are all looking forward to a traditional evening of good food, songs, speeches, bagpipes and lots of tartan!! Again, photos will be on the web site soon.
We have several events planned for February and March but not many details at the time of writing but do look at the website or ring us for information.
Valentines Night 14 February – Special Valentines Menu
Charity Quiz Monday 27 February is for our Village Web group. This is run by volunteers Eric Dore, Sally Dugan and Myron and Veronica Edwards and they need to raise money for the hosting fee and other administration costs so please come and support them.
St David’s Day Keep 1stMarch free as we will be having a special Welsh evening to celebrate St David’s Day. Last year was great with a special Welsh menu (leeks and lamb mainly!!) and some Welsh singing and poems.
Pudding Night Thursday 8 March We haven’t had one of these for ages but people have been asking so here it is. Ring to book and put the date in your diary NOW. We will only do it if we are fully booked as that’s the only way it works really. If you remember you have 1 starter from a choice of about 5 and 3 puddings from a choice of about 13 including cheese and biscuits and a selection of naughty and not so naughty puddings!!
St. Patrick’s Day Saturday 17March Something Irish will be happening!!
Sunday 18 March Mothers Day Lunch - free Bucks Fizz for mothers
Sunday 18 March Evening 7.30pm Open Mic Night, the last few open mic nights have been very well supported with an incredibly high level of musicianship. Why not come long and see for yourself or perform if you would like. All Welcome.
Charity Quiz 26 March Amy Lidstone is organizing this Quiz to raise money for an expedition to Romania
At this point I would like to tell you about our plans for this year. When we took over the pub we had a 5 year plan and in July we will have been here for 5 years (can you believe it?!!) When we bought the pub from Bill he said “after 5 years they are fed up with your stories and you are fed up with theirs” – I think there is a lot of truth in that!! So, we aim to sell the pub sometime in the next 6 months. We haven’t contacted any agents yet as we hope that there will be someone (or a couple of families) around who would like to take over and run it along the same lines as us but if nobody comes forward we will probably contact agents around March.
It has been a brilliant and exciting journey, but I feel I should move on while I am still enjoying it and feeling enthusiastic, (I wouldn’t like to turn into Basil Fawlty). I will miss lots about the pub and am so grateful for your support over the years. I feel I have made loads of new friends with whom I hope to stay in touch. I will keep you posted but if anyone fancies running one of the best pubs in the area, let me know!!
However, we will be here for a few months yet so please keep on coming!!!