February/March 2014

Editorial

It is not too late I hope to wish you all a Happy New Year from the Villager team. 2014 has come in like a lion, deluging us with rain and winds for much of January. Fortunately, we have suffered less flooding than other neighbouring parishes but the surrounding fields are saturated which must make life difficult for our farmers. Although footpaths at North Farm have now re-opened following the closures for the first phase of the Earth Trust's River of Life project, they are very squelchy in places so it is still limited for walking.

Christmas in Brightwell came and went in the usual festive way but this year was tinged with sadness when we heard of the sudden and tragic death of one of our young people, Helen Thompson (nee Sutton), Rose’s elder daughter. Helen grew up in Brightwell and will be remembered by many I’m sure. She was a lovely, kind, fun-loving young woman, filled with a passion to help people. Not only did she fundraise for people in need here and across the world but she went out there also to help them, in Thailand in the Tsunami of 2004 and other subsequent disasters – a real ‘do-er’. She is an inspiration to us all, both young and old, and will be sorely missed but especially by Rose and her family and her young husband James.

Great fun was had at the first village Wassail on Twelfth Night, something I feel sure will become another of our village traditions, see our report and photos on the website (www.brightwellcumsotwell.co.uk). The merry band of revellers ‘wakened up’ trees in three orchards to ensure a good crop of apples next year, ending up at The Red Lion for warm drinks. And talking of the Red Lion, isn’t it good to see the Red Lion sign back, thanks to Martin Dix and Mark at the pub.

As it’s the start of the year, this issue carries the Village Calendar for 2014. Make sure you get some of the key dates in your diaries for the year ahead so as not to miss anything. Note that BrightFest is in June this year, Saturday 14^th, and The Village Fete is on 5 July.

Helen Connor

Helen Thompson (nee Sutton)

Myself, my family, Helen’s new husband the lovely James and his family are truly overwhelmed by all the cards and letters of sympathy and comfort which we have received (over 150 and still counting).

The loss of Helen was devastating to us all but the kindness, support and generosity from this wonderful village has helped us tremendously through this difficult time. We have received so many offers of help - from shopping, support from three Vicars, lifts to Wallingford, food parcels and even a saucepan of delicious hot soup left on the door step. A huge thank you to you all.

The Christmas Eve Carol Service around the beautiful Christmas Tree was incredible. Celia, who usually collects for the Save the Children Fund, very kindly donated half the collection to Helen’s chosen charity - The International Disaster Volunteer Fund. Before Helen died, she set up a Just Giving Page - www.justgiving.com/h-thompson - to raise £200 for the Philippines and since her death the total is now a staggering £14,942 and still rising.

On behalf of both families I would like to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU to you all with much love and appreciation.

Rose Sutton and James Thompson.

Community Association

Save the Children

Many thanks to everyone who supported us on Christmas Eve together with a special thanks to the Hand Bell Ringers, the “Clarinettes”, Angus for the sound, Father Christmas and our two brilliant compères Xana & Natasha. Plus behind the scenes there is the team that makes all this happen; from donating, collecting and lighting the tree, producing and printing carol sheets.

The storms this year nearly destroyed the Christmas tree when it split in half and lay on the ground. However Clive, Mark, Ed and Johnny, plus all our lovely neighbours in the Square rallied round making sure the tree was returned to its full glory.

This year we raised £530. With the sudden and tragic death of Helen Thompson (nee Sutton) we decided to split the collection between Save the Children and the International Disaster Volunteers. Helen and her husband James both volunteered for the IDV in Thailand after the tsunami. Clive and I were fortunate to stay near Khoa-Lak and spend a day with Helen and James visiting some of the projects they were working with. Helen was involved in a Save the Children project with the local school which lead her into a teaching career.

It is no surprise that Helen set up a Justgiving page to raise money for the people of the Philippines. When writing this, the money raised has reached over £10,000 and is growing daily. What a wonderful legacy this special young lady has left, in her short life she certainly made a positive difference to so many lives.

Celia Collett

Parish Church

When he was finally released from jail in 1990, he could so easily have driven out in a large motorcade. Instead he chose to walk, with his nearest and dearest alongside him – fellow humans on the humane path he had chosen towards dignity, not just for himself but for a whole people.

Happy New Year, and may your walk be a gentle and fruitful one as it unfolds.

Jeremy Goulston

WI

We had a glorious Christmas meeting, compeered by Mais Appleton, when we were treated to an evening of Christmas readings, verse and song performed by our members. No WI meeting would be complete without refreshments and this one was no exception. A delicious spread of canapés was provided by the committee, and two of our members made some much-appreciated mulled wine that undoubtedly added to the festive spirit.

This is the time of year for New Year’s resolutions and the WI is no different. Looking back at 2013, we are congratulating ourselves on our successes and wondering what changes we could make, especially where we think things didn’t turn out quite as well as expected! We would also like to ask the opinions of those who do not regularly attend WI meetings; so it would help us tremendously if you could give us your views. Here are a few questions to get you started. There will be leaflets and collecting boxes around the village during February so please look out for them.

Anne Honeyball

Legacy left to the Brightwell Community Stores

I can now reveal that the £10,000 legacy left to the shop was from Sylvia Prior.

Sylvia was a stalwart in her support of local businesses both in Brightwell and the local towns. She was so upset when the Village shop and Post Office closed in 2002; while some of us remember her on her blue tricycle going to the old shop every Saturday morning. Sylvia was one of the villagers that was determined to see both businesses reopen, making sure that when they were re-established, she became one of their best customers and was a determined advocate that they should remain. Indeed she has. By leaving this legacy of £10,000, together with the many other generous donations and fund raising, we can payoff the outstanding loan and secure the future of the shop.

Many would not have realised that this modest lady who lived at No 5 Grove Cottages was a very intelligent woman who liked to follow the stock market. Using much of her financial success to help other people and charities, she valued family, friendship and community above possessions.

Sylvia faced her physical disability full on, always fighting to find solution to anything that got in the way. Sadly, there were times in her life when some mistakenly thought her physical disabilities meant she was incapable in other areas. However, this feisty lady soon put them right and would challenge any injustice to herself or others. A true villager through and through, someone I was very privileged to call a friend

Celia Collett

Parish Council

Clive Collett

Brightwell School

After what has been an incredibly wet start to the New Year I believe we are now seeing signs of Spring in the school grounds. Our September gardening day is beginning to show fruit in the form of bulbs popping up all over the flowerbeds and hedgerows. The veg beds are being prepared and excitement is building – will the sunflowers this year beat the height from last? Who knows – we will have to wait and see!

I am delighted to introduce our new Finance Officer, Mrs Zoe Davis. Many of you will know Zoe as mum to Ben and Mollie. Zoe started her new role at the school in January and has already settled in as part of the team. We are very pleased to have appointed such a talented person to the role.

The upper key stage two children and staff had another wonderful day at the 02 Arena with the Young Voices team. Thankfully this time it was a Friday so the 11.30pm arrival back at school was balanced by a possible lie-in the next morning! The children sang and danced wonderfully and were an absolute pleasure to take along.

Over the spring term, Pippin, Bramley and Worcester classes are all studying Africa. They will be going to The Pitt Rivers Museum where the younger children will be studying masks and the year 4 and 5 children will be learning all about African music. These children will then be taking a trip to the Cotswold Wildlife Park in Burford to study the African animals and their habitat requirements. It will be interesting to understand how these animals who thrive naturally in the heat are coping with our wet winters here in England.

Discovery class, our oldest children, will be visiting the John Radcliffe Hospital’s Injury Management Unit to learn about first aid and taking care of themselves and others in accident situations. This is a skill we hope will remain with them all their lives and enable them to help others if the need should arise.

And finally…..as many of you may well now have heard, I will be moving on from Brightwell School at Easter to take up the Headship of Woodcote School. It has been an absolute pleasure to be custodian of such a wonderful school and to be able to lead it through such changes as we have had over the last 5 years. I shall miss the children and staff so very much but, for now, I am still here and working hard to ensure these children have the very best education that Brightwell can offer.

Liz Hunt

BrightFest 2014

September seems a distant memory now but I wanted to belatedly thank everyone who was involved in and who came to BrightFest last year. We gave the profit from the event, £1500, to the Bone Cancer Research Trust. Although the date and the weather were far from ideal (too dark in the evening), the day was a great success, with Amelia’s dog show, the family games and James’ pram race all adding to the community nature of the event. Thank you to all who made them a reality. Once again I was blown away by how talented all the musicians were. I must particularly thank the people in the tea tent who worked to the bitter end and contributed a huge amount to the overall takings. That tea was very welcome once the temperature dropped.

BRIGHTFEST 2014 – SATURDAY 14 JUNE

Put this date in your diary now.

The charities we will be supporting this year are International Disaster Volunteers (IDV), in memory of Helen Thompson from this village who died, too young, in December last year, and Save the Children. Funding the event is always an issue – if anyone would like to help with this, by organizing a fundraiser, please let us any of us know, as we would be very grateful.

Sue Robson, Angus Devey-Robson, Helen Baines, Celia Collett

Brightwell Art Club

Susan Ganney

"Build your Business" at the Bach Centre

Stefan Ball

Allsorts Pre-school

The nativity play was a highlight of our busy Christmas term with the children looking very cute as angels, stars, shepherds, kings, and other characters. They performed beautifully, walking confidently onto the stage as the staff narrated the story. The children sang six songs, finishing off with lively actions to ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney’. Family and carers filled the playroom to watch the two performances on the play mat that had been temporarily transformed into a stable.

The rest of the playroom was beautifully decked out with a Christmas tree (kindly donated by Root One Garden Centre – thank you), stockings and other festive decorations made by the children. At the end of term, their craft items were tucked into the stockings, along with mini Christmas cakes that they had made, to take home. Christmas festivities also included a party with appearance from the bearded man himself, and watching the nativity play dress rehearsal at Brightwell School.

Earlier in the term, the children at Allsorts celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, by decorating sweetie envelopes with Rangoli patterns, and making candle holders out of clay. For bonfire night, the children made rockets, Catherine wheels, a pretend bonfire, and drew firework pictures. One of the most popular activities was making, and eating, chocolate-dipped breadstick sparklers. The children also loved watching an indoor firework, made from bicarbonate of soda and vinegar by Simon, the pastor at the Baptist Church in Wallingford.

Allsorts still got outside as the weather grew colder, with one week devoted to forest school activities. Trips included going to the allotments, the shop, the park, feeding Julie’s horse, and visiting a childminder’s rabbits and chickens. The children also walked to the war memorial to mark Remembrance Day. Other activities in term 2 included practising for a hand washing certificate, giving a puppet show, making Pudsey biscuits and apple crumble, digging and weeding tyres, and planting bulbs.

In January, term 3, we are welcoming seven new starters into preschool with another three due to start late February in term 4. As demand for places at Allsorts is so high this year, we have added a new afternoon session on Wednesdays, which means we are now open two afternoons, as well as five mornings.

Our next fundraising activity will be a welly walk in March, so watch out for us tramping through the village. Allsorts raised £56 at its stall at Brightwell School Fair. The preschool needs a new fridge (preferably with freezer compartment). If anyone could donate one, we would be very grateful. Please contact Julie Carr, manager, on 826387 or email allsortsadmin@btinternet.com.

We are looking for an extra pair of hands on a Tuesday and Friday morning from 9-12. If you would be interested in helping until the end of the summer term, please contact Julie as above or Sophie George (co-chair on 07960024449). This will be a paid role.

Team Allsorts

Parish Plan

A huge thank you to everyone who filled out the Community Led Parish Plan questionnaire – and also a massive thank you to all those volunteers who helped to distribute it. We now have the task of analysing the results and using the statistics to help write the final report. The information we gathered (regarding housing) will also be used to inform the Neighbourhood Plan that the Parish Council is starting to develop.

It is fair to say that Brightwell cum Sotwell’s questionnaire was a monster and in the spirit of democracy we also asked for individuals to fill out the form rather than as a household. There were simply so many things that we had to ask and we wanted everyone over the age of nine to be able say how they wanted the parish to evolve over the next ten years. Overall we had a return rate of 64% of households who completed the questionnaire. This is an excellent result and at the upper end of return rates when compared to other parishes. We have also been informed by South Oxfordshire District Council that we have set a new standard in community led planning at a national level. No other questionnaire has been so comprehensive and to achieve such a high completion rate for such a detailed set of questions is remarkable. Well done Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

Jason Debney

Chairman Community Led Parish Plan Committee

Wassailing - 5 January 2014

Wassailing has got to be one of the wackiest evenings I have spent in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell for a while (and that is saying something as Brightwell has history on the wacky front). The purpose of Wassailing is to awaken the apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the autumn.

We all met at the War Memorial, that was the Armaleggan Border Morris Group, Myron on guitar, Martin on accordion, Doug Miles with his shotgun, Robert Field finely attired for the occasion as Master of Ceremonies, and around 170 assorted villagers, including around 50 children, with our equipment to make noise that we had been instructed to bring – i.e. pots, pan lids, whistles, rattles etc. After a prayer from Janice we followed the musicians to the first Orchard – Pauline Emerson’s. Once there, a poem was read, a song was sung, children attached toast dipped in cider to an apple tree to attract robins, the good spirits of the orchard, and we all made as much noise as we could with our various ‘instruments.’ Then Doug fired his shotgun twice to drive away the evil spirits of the orchard, and we whacked the apple tree with sticks (I can’t remember what the purpose of this was but it was fun!). As we left the Orchard the Border Morris dancers treated us to a dance.

On to the second Orchard in David Ebbs’ garden, where we did it all again, then over to Nick Spence’s Orchard for a repeat performance. At this point we met a group of people out for an evening walk who were intrigued to know what was going on – we told them and they joined our merry throng. Stopping at Delia and Bob’s for more dancing, we all joined in a dance here which was great as it was starting to get dark and a bit chilly so that warmed us up a bit. Our final Orchard was Rhod Baker’s where we wakened up a few more apple trees and then back to the pub for a glass of Lambswool, which is warm cider with baked apples in it. By now it was fully dark and the Morris dancers has swapped sticks for flaming torches which made the dancing that bit more exciting.

There should be a bumper crop of apples in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell this autumn. Such fun and thanks to Alison Bloomfield, Jason Debney, Robert Field and Doug Miles for organising our first Wassail. I do hope it’s not the last. NB there was talk of starting up a Brightwell Morris group but that could have been people getting caught up in the moment – or is it?

Sue Robson

Further news from Style Acre

At the end of 2013, Style Acre were delighted to win Charity of the Year at the Thames Valley Business Awards. With strong competition, the judges indicated that they were impressed how our beneficiaries are at the heart of everything Style Acre does and the charity’s belief that people with learning disabilities deserve to be part of their local communities, as much as anyone else. Chief Executive Kate Liddle said: ‘From supported living to day opportunities, our person-centred ethos is core to everything we do, as is the belief that people we support have a right to reach their full potential. To this end, we provide skills development and proactively seek work experience opportunities – some of which had led to paid jobs. This award makes us feel immensely proud to be supporting people with learning disabilities in Oxfordshire.’

Philippa Stannard, Fundraising,

Marketing & Community Development Manager

A Mandela Moment

Holy Trinity Church Anglican Church sits in the middle of the city of Geneva on the Rue de Mont Blanc, an incongruous piece of Victorian architecture that could grace any village in England. Some 20 years ago, when we lived in the neighbouring Canton of Vaud, we used to attend matins on Sunday mornings. The congregation was very international, reflecting the heterogeneous nature of the population of the city and its surroundings. One curious feature of the church was that people used to come in late, sometimes well after the service had started.

On one particular Sunday, when we were some distance into the worship, there was a commotion at the rear of the church where a small posse of Africans had entered. One of the sidemen showed them to the empty pews at the front. Suddenly a subliminal signal spread around the congregation, one of these latecomers was none other than Nelson Mandela! People craned their necks to get a view of him.

The service continued as normal, but after the final blessing, unusually, virtually all the congregation remained seated in silence. We were waiting for Mr Mandela and his team to make a move. He did so shortly, striding down the aisle, a tall, smiling, distinguished figure, eyeing the congregation. Sitting on the aisle- end of our pew, I was right in his line of vision and we exchanged glances as he passed close to me. But it was all over in a flash.

We learned later that Nelson Mandela had come to Geneva to visit the World Council of Churches, his first time in Europe since his release from prison.

John Rodda