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Times Issue 84 September 2020 Dates for your Diary: Lockdown Edition No 3 No Events due to Slowly things are opening subject to Covid 19 restrictions. You can read later about how the Village Hall, Library, Old Sodbury Covid19 Football Club and Sunflowers are moving to a new normal..

And a Renewed Playground too: Can everyone make the most of it and respect the social distancing guidelines. Please note that there are still some maintenance actions to be taken on the ‘fort’ and the play bark is to be topped up whilst also repair is needed to the wooden edging. On a different subject, Steve Spooner is seeking views from residents regarding speeding on the Badminton Road from the Smarts Green roundabout to the top of the hill. He has done this via Facebook but wants to mention this in the newsletter so he can get views from as many as possible to determine what actions we should be pressing for. Steve, Councillor for Sodbury Town Council, can be contacted on: [email protected] 200 Club Winners July No 4 Mr Luke Newman £25 Aug No 157 Mrs R.Maggs £25 Welcome to: Sam and Charlie Crocker who have recently moved into Chapel Lane near the railway. Charlie writes: ‘We've moved to Old Sodbury for work. Sam is a GP trainee working in and I am starting a new job at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff. We’ve moved from , where we both previously worked for Hospitals. Sam was born in Winterbourne so knows the area well and her mum still lives there. I am from the South Coast originally. We're keen walkers but have a lot of work to do on the new house first. We have two cats- Mabel and Rupert. We're looking forward to meeting people when Covid starts to settle a little more.’

Meanwhile in Cotswold Lane near the village hall entrance, Louise, Dean and family have also moved in: Dean Hawkins writes: ‘Many thanks to all who have made our move into Old Sodbury a very heart felt welcome. Big thankyou to John and Sue for their home grown goodies and Monica for making us feel like we have lived here for years. Could not be surrounded by better neighbours and a very special thanks to all the lovely cards and flowers received. Dean has been a Rolls-Royce employee for the last 30yrs, Louise, who originally had a catering business, has been a Beautician for last 21yrs, Taylor (17) is a GKN engineering apprentice and Mason (16) is starting his Rolls-Royce apprenticeship. We'd like to say a huge thankyou for making us feel so welcome and look forward to meeting you all at the Old Sodbury events to come in the coming years, whilst trying to make Lascet a very warm family home. ‘ PAGE 2 OLD SODBURY TIMES Old Sodbury School by Jenny Jackman What an interesting end to the school year we have had this year. It has been mixed with sadness, fear and excitement as the school adapted to a whole new way of working. The children have been remarkable and are a credit to their families in the ways that they adapted so quickly to the changes. We had a wonderful send off to our Y6 pupils, and whilst we were restricted in what we were able to do, we were still able to have a lovely ceremony on the field. We wish our Year 6s all the best as they enter the next phase of their education in these uncertain times. In the lead up to the summer holidays, the entire school had to be packed into crates to enable the building work to commence. From September, the school will be structured slightly differently with a separate Reception class that has their own outdoor area, and a brand new Year 1 and 2 mixed class. Many parts of the school are being refurbished at the same time and we are all very excited to enter this new phase of the school building. We are looking forward to welcoming back our existing children and to meeting the new families joining our community. We hope everyone is safe and well and we are all looking to a positive future for everyone. HUGE THANKS To The Cross Hands Pub! The FOSSA PTFA would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to George and Collette of the Cross Hands Pub who were kind enough to do a ‘jar on the bar’ collection for the school and raised a whopping £108! This money will be used to fund this year’s school leavers memory books, which are a chronical of a pupil’s time at school and contain details of their treasured primary school memories. Thank you for your support and please look out for a little thank you from the children. Without the kindness and generosity of the school community – our children would not have access to such wonderful resources and as many lovely memories. That is why the FOSSA Committee are working extra hard and planning how we can overcome any obstacles and reach our fund-raising goals this year. So a HUGE thanks to everyone that supported us last year and we hope that you will get behind us again this year to support our initiatives and any events that we can hold. Here’s to a great new school year for the lovely children of our wonderful village.

FOSSA.

Sunflowers Toddler Group At Old Sodbury Village Hall

Sunflowers is a small, friendly toddler group for children of all ages up to pre-school. It is hoped to restart the toddler group soon For more information Please contact Julie Spooner on [email protected] or 07769 344470.

New families are always welcome. Village Hall Update We are pleased to say that the Village Hall has been open on a very limited basis through August and we are expecting a few more activities to start up again in September. A lot of work has gone in to working with the user groups to agree their method statements for operating in a Covid secure way. Unfortunately with the current restrictions on social gatherings we are still unable to take bookings for one off events and parties, but at least if we can get some of the regular groups back we can keep the hall ticking over.

Green Community Travel is our local community transport provider (you may have recently seen Hagrid driving down the lanes!) and although we’ve been unable to take our passengers out during lockdown, we’ve been able to help with food parcel delivery throughout South Glos, as well as picking up prescriptions and shopping for the elderly, and continuing to do hospital runs. As life slowly starts to return to normal, more people are starting to go out and about but it will sadly be a long time before any lunch clubs, group activities and day centres can re-open. This will have a big impact on our income over the next few months and with that in mind, we are doing some fundraising in partnership with the Bag2School initiative, and would like your help. The good news is it won’t cost you a penny and you can also off-load some of the stuff you collected during your lockdown clear out! We are looking for: - Men’s, Ladies & Children’s clothing, paired shoes (tied together please), handbags, hats, scarves, jewellery, belts, soft toys, household curtains, towels & bed- ding (duvet covers, sheets & pillow cases). Items must be of decent quality and clean please. Bag2School will donate 40p to Green Community Travel for every kilo collected. If you want to donate, you can either bag up your items and drop them off to Michaela Turner at 74 Chapel Lane or ring me on 07923 111606 if you’d like me to collect. The deadline is Wednesday October 7th. Thank you for your support. If you’d like to know more about community transport, please visit our website at www.greencommunitytravel.co.uk.

Sodbury Short Mat Bowls Club

This September it is 25 years since Sodbury Short Mat Bowls Club began in the village. It was started by a group of interested men and women under the guidance of an experienced player and founder member Denis Hanks. We hope that we can celebrate this milestone in our Bowls Club history with a social gathering of members sometime during September. We have not been able play our usual games of Bowls because of the Coronavirus Pandemic and it remains a challenge for us to return to play until risk assessments have been made and safety guidelines are in place. In the meantime we wish everyone well and hope that we can play Bowls again soon. When we resume play on Monday evenings we will be able to accommodate some new members, experienced or otherwise, and invite anyone who is interested to get in touch with Chairman , Richard Gilpin 01454 321323. Old Sodbury Church - Preparing for ‘The New Normal’ Church services are starting at Old Sodbury Church on alternate Sundays at 11:15 a.m. starting from 6th September. This service will be a Communion Service and the one on the 20th will be Morning Prayer. Everyone is welcome!

We will comply with Government guidelines: Please bring a facemask, which must be worn Hand sanitiser will be provided Social distancing must be maintained so seating will be marked (couples and family groups can sit together). Recorded hymns will be played but unfortunately there will be no singing During communion only clergy will take the wine – individual bread wafers will be used by those taking communion We also have to remove the seat cushions - if that is a problem please bring your own cushion.

For test and trace purposes, if you would like to attend the service would you please phone Joy by 6pm on Saturday evening before the service. Tel: 01454 314074

Harvest Service – Sunday 4th October We will be holding a Harvest Service this year in aid of the Yate Food Bank. We ask that only non-perishable items be brought in bags so that they can be easily transported and distributed.

Old Sodbury Churchyard As this photo shows the churchyard has been extended beyond the southwest wall. This will be the location of cremations in the future when planning permission for the change of use has been granted. A kissing gate has been put in the fence on the footpath and another will be put on the fence lower down the hill by the Cotswold Wardens in early September. Meanwhile a gap has been left by the side of the fence to allow walkers access. This path is thought to be the original access from the village to the church.

Library Library is really too small to reopen yet under Covid guidelines but here is some positive news: At the moment if you want to borrow an item from Yate library, it has to be ordered online and then you need a click and collect slot, similar to going to a supermarket. The good news is that from Next Monday the Yate Library will be open to actually go in and borrow off the shelves. Opening times are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am—4pm, Saturday 9.30—12mid day. You need your library card and must wear a face covering. Computer sessions of 1 hour are available; booking by phone: 01454 865022 or emailing: [email protected] (We downloaded a couple of library audio books during lockdown and listened in the evenings whilst doing craft work or jigsaw puzzles. We only had 2 weeks though and no renewal because they were so much in demand.) Fun Page

FUN WITH WORDS Police were called to the day-care centre. A 3-year old was resisting a rest. The other day I held the door open for a clown. I thought it was a nice jester. Need an ark to save two of every animal? I Noah guy. Alternative facts are aversion of the truth. I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it. Atheism is a non-prophet organisation. Did you know they won't be making yardsticks any longer? I used to be allergic to soap but I'm clean now ———————

A lawyer, who had a wife and 12 children, needed to move because his rental agreement was terminated by the owner who wanted to re-occupy the home. But he was having a lot of difficulties finding a new house. When he said, he had 12 children, no one would rent a home to him because they felt that the children would destroy the place. He couldn't say he had no children, because he couldn't lie as we all know lawyers cannot and do not lie. So, he sent his wife for a walk to the cemetery with 11 of their kids. He took the remaining one with him to see rental homes with the real estate agent. He loved one of the homes and the price was right -- the agent asked: "How many children do you have?" He answered: "Twelve." The agent asked, "Where are the others?" The lawyer, with his best courtroom sad look answered "They're in the cemetery with their mother."

MORAL:

It's not necessary to lie, one only has to choose the right words... …so do people who are in sales and don't forget, a lot of politicians are lawyers. ISSUE 84 OLD SODBURY TIMES PAGE 6 OLD SODBURY W.I. “We'll meet again” is the plan for our WI in Old Sodbury. Book Club members met in a beautiful garden in the shade of a large magnolia tree on a very warm day in August. We discussed the latest good read “Found” by Erin Kinsley, a mystery around an 11year old boy who goes missing. Our next books to read by October are “The Beekeeper's Promise” by Fiona Valpy and “Where the Crawdad's Sing” by Delia Owens. Torrential rain meant that our meeting for a “Summer Picnic” was postponed until the next day which fortunately was sunny. Bunting blowing in the breeze greeted the fourteen members who sat by the WI garden in the Village Hall car park. We spent a few happy hours catching up on news with friends some of whom we had not seen since February! All members were presented with a rose and a message of best wishes. Those who were unable to join us had a rose delivered to them by a WI friend. Now we look forward to meeting again in the Village Hall on September 16th when all the risk assessments have been made and safety guidelines are in place. Hopefully our speaker Andy Workman will be brave enough to join us to entertain with his talk on ”What everyone is saying”! The future looks challenging but we are determined to give our members opportunities to meet again with friends, to share ideas and to learn new skills in a safe and welcoming environment. Sodbury Wildlife and Nature

In keeping with the other good news in this newsletter, progress is being made towards the Old Sodbury Community Woodland and Orchard.

Network Rail have taken down the barn on site which had an asbestos roof and which was a sticking point to the transfer of ownership to Sodbury Town Council. The solicitors are now working on the transfer agreement and it is hoped to put it to Councillors at the October meeting of Sodbury Town Council.

Meanwhile an application has been made to The Cotswold Conservation Board for a substantial grant to pay for the trees and materials to plant the community orchard starting this winter.

At the moment Network Rail are doing considerable works in the tunnel and have a compound on site as can be seen on these brilliant photos taken by Ben Wicks. He says ‘One picture shows the diggers on the track leaving the tunnel, and the other, a big train coming out of the tunnel on the other track with 51 carriages of track ballast stone!! Not all the residents get to see the ongoing night and day works so this may be of interest!!’

Network Rail are due to leave in October. Old Sodbury Football Club Fixtures 5 Sep Reserves H After an unbeaten season last year Old Sodbury is now in and 9 Sep Res A District League Division 1. 12 Sep Lawrence Weston A Players will have to change on the field until further notice due to 19 Sep Hartcliffe A Covid 19 restrictions. Hopefully the F.A. will issue guidance soon to 26 Sep Reserves H allow the changing rooms to be used. 3 Oct Roman Glass Res A The club have played 4 friendlies to date. 10 Oct H 17 Oct Lion F.C. A

24 Oct Lawrence Weston H The Village Recreation Field - Thank you 31 Oct Reserves A 7 Nov Hartcliffe H A big thank you from all the village to the football club for 14 Nov Brimsham Green R A maintaining the recreation field during lockdown. When 21 Nov Bristol Barcelona A football ceased abruptly in March the club locked the changing 28 Nov Res A room doors but decided to continue to meet the cost of keeping the field in top condition so the village could continue to use it. Since then villagers have enjoyed picnicking, exercising and playing Games there during lock down. The club funds are now depleted as they have been without income and with the help of a small grant from the Town Lands Charity and the FA the club is now making the changing rooms meet government Covid 19 safety guidelines ready for when they reopen. The balance will be met by the club leaving nothing for grass cutting next year. If you appreciate having the recreation field for the school and village use and would like to contribute to its upkeep ( approx £1,000 pa ) Please contact Laurence Walker 01454 310980 or [email protected] who would be pleased to accept cheques or give details for bank transfers.

Coombs End during the Covid Crisis Most folks have their own tales to tell about their activities in the pandemic. At Combs End we celebrated V.E. day on our small common. Each household appropriately spaced out their own tables, chairs and food for lunch. Bunting graced the trees and music helped the event go down well. So then we had a ‘Western evening’ when everyone dressed up Western style and we took along our own teas. Our family found time to make and do things. I have been busy doing ‘crafty bits and pieces’ and the menfolk (including grandson Sam) have been mending, constructing, tidying, chopping wood and gardening. (Some great vegetables resulted) There was not-so-enjoyable school work via the internet for Sam. (He was furloughed with us during Lockdown). His Mum is a frontline worker and managed to visit several times during the fine weather when we had meals in the garden. Technology has helped us all to keep in touch with family and friends and still stay vitally safe. Corona virus has caused great hardship to many but it has also jolted others out of their habits and inhibitions and brought neighbours and communities closer. Depressing and worrying it may have been but it has given us all a wake-up call. How have others been doing? How do you feel about the current situation? If you have a story, get in touch. In the meantime keep well and carry on! Jill Rumney

Please send your news to Pauline Wilson Tel: 310540 Email [email protected] or Michelle Dash Tel: 07955 170321 Deadline for November edition is 15th October. For Village Hall bookings: Carol Rowland Tel: 314923 or [email protected] THANK YOU TO ALL who have helped with this edition. WE ALWAYS WELCOME MORE CONTRIBUTORS Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed or implied in this publication are not necessarily those of the editors. Any articles submitted are on the basis that they can be edited and must not be anonymous.