Kingsbury Episcopi Area Newsletter - Issue 161 March and April 2021 Christmas Local Railway Station Returns - first Scarecrows glimmers A big thank you to everyone Langport Transport Group who applied and joined in (LTG) was delighted to hear the Christmas Scarecrow recently that its application for and Model competition! The funding to the Department for parish looked so festive as Transport (DfT) under the we headed to towards a very Restoring Your Railway Fund different Christmas. was successful. LTG had applied for funding for a feasibility study to consider the possibility of a railway station on the main line being reopened serving the Langport and Somerton area. All the original railway stations in the area were closed in the Beeching cuts of the early 1960s. LTG has been awarded £50,000 towards the feasibility study which is They certainly cheered us all up! necessary next step in reopening a station. We had around 30 models to view The transport group will now need to work with officials from the on a very wet day. However, DfT as well as local, district and county councils together with safely togged and masked, the Network Rail and First Great Western in order to take the project Christmas Elves wended their way forward. This will take some time and there is a lot of work from Thorney to East Lambrook to ahead but the group are delighted to have been successful in admire all the fantastic handiwork! obtaining the funding. To contact the group please email Phil Edge, its chairman, on It was so difficult to [email protected] choose, but in the end we were able to decide on three winners, as we had Shop News - Annual very kindly been given 3 Members' Meeting postponed hampers by generous As many readers know, Kingsbury Community donors. Many thanks to Shop is a community enterprise and many local Duncan and Sally Palmer people are Members of The Kingsbury (Bower Hinton Farm), Community Enterprise Ltd. The KCEL Annual Kingsbury May Festival Members’ Meeting is usually held in September to discuss the Committee and Kingsbury accounts and overall direction of the business and to elect the Community Shop. Management Committee. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Everyone who entered 2020 meeting was delayed until March, in the hope that it could also received a little go ahead. Unfortunately, ongoing restrictions make it impractical festive treat! to hold the meeting in March and the Committee believes that The winners were Mauveen Stone (Nativity Scene), Maurice electronic meeting methods (e.g. Zoom) would exclude many of and Jillian Fawcett (The Snowman Cycling in the Air) and Jo our members. The Committee has therefore decided that the and Craig Dowding (Toy Soldier and King Rat). next Annual Members' Meeting should be held at the usual time Well done to everyone - a fantastic response! in September 2021. Please contact Photos of all the entrants can be seen at the Community Centre [email protected] if you have any questions about the after lockdown, or if you are able, you can view them online on meeting postponement or would like information about Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kingsburymayfestival becoming a member. Kingsbury Book Exchange REQUEST FOR SPONSORSHIP As you know we have a book exchange in the telephone kiosk We would be pleased to receive any offers to help sponsor a in Church St which Nelleke Storey is kindly managing. We are future edition of Parrett Talk. Full sponsorship is £110. Part delighted that it is being so well used but respectfully ask that sponsorship is any amount you feel able to donate. books are not left in bags or boxes in the kiosk as there is very Parrett Talk is delivered to every house in the parish. limited space and it makes it very difficult for people to browse. Please contact Annie White 01935 823898 Thank you. Sponsored by the Parish Council PARRETT TALK Issue 161 Page 2 Margaret Elliott Time Travellers News The family of Margaret Elliott would Much time and effort has gone like to thank everyone who joined us into the ‘quiet and behind the lining the route from Stembridge to scenes work’ of getting ready St Martin’s Church to say their affec- three new sections for our tionate farewells. content-led website. These Margaret left school at 15 and sections are on – Gloving : WW2 & The People of the worked in a munition’s factory. She Parish : Withies Westmoor & The River Parrett.. Each has a met her husband to be, Bill, at 15 similar format with the use of in living memory recordings, and they married at 19 and 21 years historical documents and maps, photographs and insights. One old respectively, 65 years ago. They of the aims is to produce and add to each section over time became involved with building the and as more contacts are made both in the UK and a across swimming pool at Kingsbury the world. People seem to be really interested and enjoy the Episcopi Primary School. connections and insights. The work we share on Facebook She raised their family and became an efficient seamstress continues to be of great interest and value, and is putting quite working at home for Burfield’s, making golf gloves. All of our a number of people in contact with one another. This shared clothes were made by mum without a pattern and she also and common interest being the parish and its people – past made wedding dresses, quilts, embroidery and delighted in and present. At the same time our on-going projects are running St Martin’s Craft Club. When we were all older she stimulating the quest for hitherto unseen, unshared worked for Good End where she became efficient in horticulture photographs, maps and documents. It all helps to promote an and later on had a plant stall at the May Festival. Margaret also enquiring mind and interest in where we live and how it’s come made flower arrangements for church and socials. to be like it is. Looking at old Parrett Talks we came across We all went to Sunday school so the church was a very im- articles written by Roy White in the very earliest editions about portant part of family life. Mum was also a child minder and Westmoor. This is one of our current interests with new foster mother. materials turning up at the Somerset Heritage Centre from the Mum had the honour of opening the last May Festival before Wyndham Estate. We have also been donated quite a number Covid-19 struck. of original documents which are feeding into our work. One of She took time for all her friends throughout the years, in the these is reproduced below reflecting a sense of resilience and village and further afield. Taken from us, but not alone, she will self- determination on the part of those surrounding Westmoor always be in our thoughts and hearts. Mum would say and its attempted enclosure by the local lords on the Manor of “remember me with a smile”. She is now with dad, resting in Kingsbury and Curry Rivel. Our thanks to Henry Lang for this peace. From all the family. and other original documents. Hand written & copied from the Sherborne, Dorchester & News from the Methodist Church th As a Church, we’re Taunton Journal Dec. 8 1831 still here, and looking forward to opening our doors. There is hope growing that we will be able to do that soon. We have lost some friends along the way in this difficult year. Most recent is Clifford Mounter, pictured above, receiving the WW1 bronze plaque for our Church from the Time Travellers a couple of years ago. Clifford lived in the village for more than 70 years, only moving to South Petherton quite recently. He was a Methodist ‘Chapel’ man to the core, and served our Church as Treasurer for 43 years, and was a steward and Reader too. There was very little Clifford did NOT know about the people and places in Kingsbury! He was the ‘go to’ man for information about the happenings here, and he saw and noted all the changes. We shall miss our friend. We are poised and ready for action as soon as we can start providing some kind of fellowship and gathering for more normal things. It will be so good to be able to bake cakes for sharing again with a cuppa in the Wesley Room. Until then, we watch for the welcome signs of new life emerging “a great number of people, principally of the lower in the garden, if we’re blessed with one. Spring will bring the classes, immediately repaired to the Moor, and took in a hope that Easter always does, and to thank God for the piece each, by digging round about it.” opportunity to do things differently, and better. New beginnings. Watch the noticeboards! Singular Circumstance – Near the parish of Curry Rivel Easter blessings to you all. Christine Weymouth and Kingsbury Episcopi is situated a very large tract of The Parrett Talk team can not be held responsible for any misprint or incorrect information in this newsletter. PARRETT TALK Issue 161 Page 3 Recently in from Brian Lock: Bradford’s withy auction at their Thorney sheds 1963. resent include – Earle Male, Herbie Lock, Raymond French, Fred Best. Who else has any photographs related to the project Withies Westmoor & The River Parrett? Contact 01935 8822654 [email protected] . 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