and Tredington Newsletter

May 2020

A Monthly Message

If ever there is a time to ple who were helping to see faith in action, this is take care of others and it! Faith is not something were busy rebuilding and we have on Sundays in restoring, said: "There. church; faith is something There is God." we have seven days a week, Times like these make it 24 hours a day. Faith is clear that we are all affect- what inspires our thoughts ed in different ways. And and actions. And there are no-one has all the answers so many community initia- individually, but together tives and actions in place we can bring a huge at present, which is truly amount of care and ideas something to give thanks to help each other through. for! It seems that in all Thank you all for every- places communities are thing you are doing. Signs coming together to take of hope and faith in action. care of each other, and es- Peace and blessings to you pecially of those who are all, Ilse' the most vulnerable. It makes me think of some- thing I read a while ago about the aftermath of a disaster. Looking at the devastation, people asked each other: "Where was

God?" And someone else, pointing towards the peo- Tredington Flower Festival 2007— St Georges Day April 23rd. IMPORTANT Council News April 2020.

[email protected]. Parish Council Meetings In Covid-19 Times In accordance with the latest instructions from the Government, ad- vice from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), the So- ciety of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) and Association of Parish and Town Councils (GAPTC), the decision to suspend Stoke Orchard and Tredington Parish Council meetings until fur- ther notice has been taken. This also includes the Annual Parish Meeting. This proposed action by the Parish Council, has been further prompted by the decision of Borough Council to post- pone all Council meetings at this time. TBC Planning Department is to extend deliberation time on Applications to ensure adequate time for comments and observations from Consultees and members of the public to be received. The work of the Parish Council will continue as we have set up a process of delegated decision making and electronic distribution of information. Planning consultations are also still being considered and details will be added to the website when available, thus giving members of the public the opportunity to contribute via email or mail to the Parish Clerk. As soon as Parish Council Meetings re- sume, details will be displayed on the website, on noticeboards, and on social media The website: stokeorchardandtredington.org.uk is being kept up-to -date with useful information so do check, particularly the ‘Latest News’ page. You can still contact the Parish Clerk, Jules Owen by email: [email protected] Please think of others at this time - Help your Neighbours and Keep Safe. The Orchard Store and Amy’s Coffee Shop

Thank you so much for all your support over the last few weeks with purchasing your groceries from us but also adhering to the distancing rules and no more than 2 customers in the shop!

A huge thank you to our fantastic team of staff for their dedication and hard work! To ensure the health and safety of our shop staff and yourselves our wonderful volunteers have in- stalled a screen in front of the till

We are also pleased to an- nounce we have children’s comics and more maga- zines to chose from!

Plants and produce now in stock.

Stoke Orchard Community Centre We are looking forward to seeing you all once the lockdown is lifted. When that time comes we will announce it on social media as well as in the newsletter. Until then, please stay safe and well. The Orchard Store and Amy’s Coffee Shop

STOP PRESS Shop Daily Takings Exceed £1000

This week, on one day, The Orchard Stores took over £1000. We want to celebrate with you as this is a mile- stone in the history of our “Local Store” and marks the way that you, our Community, supports us. Thank you for shopping locally and for making all the extra work that we, and our staff have undertaken, so worthwhile. The 1990/91 Village Appraisal, undertaken to measure the needs, wishes and opinions of those living in the Par- ish, voted A Village Shop as the most important addition needed, 30 years later it is part of our everyday life. The Responsibility for running the shop came about as planning condition to replace the Old Coal Board site with The Orchard Estate Thank you to all those who give so much time to make it happen …….. and thank you for shopping with us! At times like these we all need to support each other to cope with the changes to our lifestyles that we will have to make in order to delay the spread of Covid 19. This Glouces- tershire Community Help Hub is a collaboration of all the lo- cal Councils, Police and Health Services. Access all useful information……...how you can get help - offer help …… how your business can help - how you can get help for a neighbour. https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/gloucestershires- community-help-hub/com STOP PRESS. We have just heard that the Commu- nity Centre will receive the Standard Business Grant which will reduce deficits and enable the important Community Shop support to contin- ue during lockdown. Richard’s Ramblings - May 2020 Communication. I received a phone call two weeks ago asking me to check that all the members of an association I belong to were in good health. I started b with the oldesr first. One gentleman, living alone, had not spoken to anyone all day and he was grateful for the chance to speak. In the end, I spent three days putting in place a “telephone grapevine” cascading down from myself to 5 group leaders who in turn had between 5 and 6 in their group. It is a contact system that we used in Round Table before the days of the internet and the email. So I started to think where and how did this personal communi- cation thing start. In the early days things were written on tab- lets of stone and on Parchment scrolls. Naturally we had the Town Crier, and local newspapers. In Tewkesbury we had our own Tewkesbury Register, which later was incorporated in the Evesham Journal, and the Gloucestershire Echo. However, things were to change and In October 1877, Alexander Graham Bell had made his first telephone call to his assistant Watson in the next room. 18 months later Dr Bond, the Medical Officer for Gloucester, a keen fol- lower of all matters scientific, gave a talk on October 27th at the Gloucester School of Art and Science using the telephone as the answer to the “Problems of Communication between Rooms in a Large House!!” Had those present taken up the innovation, Gloucester would have had the first telephone system and exchange in the world. The original system of communication by wires was the Telephone telegraph system and Bells telephone was initially tested on telegraph wires. Probably the reason we called them telegraph poles. This system used a series of coded bells by the railways to advise of danger or an approaching train. Apparently the Gloucester Wagon Works were im- pressed with the Telephone and installed systems in their factory between departments but it wasn’t un- til June 1887 that Gloucester finally had its own ex- change with 16 companies having their own line, each individually connected by its own wire to the exchange in Berkeley Street. A month later, a line was installed to Bristol and the expansion of the Post Office Telephone system began in earnest between big cities. Of course at that time, the exchanges were all manually run with an operator seated in front of a myriad of sockets into which she would connect the caller. The old stories of those times of the Operator knowing everyone’s business were probably very true as the caller had to ask to be connected man- ually The operator knew therefore who was talking to whom and often what about! (I say Doris- do you know??” Looking back to local publications from 1912 and the adverts in them, we see that Haywards of Tewkesbury were number 39 on the Tewkesbury Exchange and number 7 at Upton Upon Severn. Interestingly enough, Tysoe’s the Grocers in Bar- ton Street were 38 and Tewkesbury Garage 20. However, many stores still relied on the written word and when, in 1912, the Post Box in Cotteswold Road, Tewkesbury had 8 daily collections from 12.30am to 8.30pm and 5 parcel deliveries in town - with many letters delivered the same day - who needed this new fangled telephone machine - an intrusion into daily life? It soon became apparent that we did need the “phone” Exchanges started to appear in all sorts of villages. There is one at the bottom of the hill at Coombe Hill. Our grandparents at Uckington were Coombe Hill 232. Bishops Cleeve Exchange was just off Lane. These small local operator controlled units were gradually replaced by automatic dialling equipment and when full electronic tone dialling came in, many local exchanges were amalgamated by adding extra numbers, 680 to Coombe Hill and 67 to Bishops Cleeve when they joined the exchange. 29 was added to all local Tewkesbury 4 digit numbers (which also incorporates Malvern which start with 5 and Bredon which start with 77) and 780 to Tirley numbers when they joined the Gloucester Exchange. However, in the 1980’s, our lives were to be further con- trolled by the advent of the Mobile phone. The most successful of the original “mobiles” was nicknames the “Brick” as that is what they resembled, however, for Chatham de Leeuw Ltd and Chatham Brothers Ltd, we had the “Suitcase.” The Motorola 4800X. This phone was very useful and when one day, while out delivering in the lorry, driving down the M1 by Nottingham, all the gears dropped off the lay shaft into the bottom of the gearbox - it was a lifeline. However, the mobile phone was quickly developed in to much smaller units. Nokia was one of those that was a leader in this field. Few people know that the many of the printed circuit boards for Nokia were designed and produced for Nokia here in Tewkesbury. Added to the intrusion of the mobile phone came the internet. The World Wide Web came online in 1991, this was a massive step (forward?) but can you remember when it was just the modem - no Router, no fast broadband - it could take ten minutes to get online?. The whole communications thing had gone back 150 years. The internet was using the same old copper wire sys- tem that the telephones ran on. In fact, most of us still use those copper wires as most landlines are even today connected by copper wire - (Often the older the better as it is thicker wire!!) The problems come when the joints go green and corrode. When it rains in Tredington, we often lose internet.!! Right up to date we have fibre. Our Openreach lines are Fibre to Cabinet 17 by the bus stop at the Odessa. Stoke Orchard is at the end of Swan Lane. From 16 individ- ual lines in Gloucester we now have the most amazing lattice work of wires, fibres, telecommunication satellites and under the Ocean cables and yet one friend of mine in Bredon had not spoken to anyone all day. Last week, we dialled in to our daughter in Blackheath in London to talk to her and our grandchildren on Facetime. It was wonderful to bring the family together without compromising the Lock Down and self isolating. Two weeks ago, we had an hour on Messenger talking to our Grandson who is in Australia for a year. He is working on an organic farm at present close to Byron Bay. Three months farm work is compulsory on his one year Visa. Fortunately we could not see too much of the caravan he si living in at present - his grand- mother did suggest a tidy up!! So lets go back to where I started. Yes this is a tough time for all of us but we have the opportunity to brighten someone’s life every day. Whether it be family or friend - go on, take a few minutes out of every day and contact someone who lives on their own. Make them realise that they matter. Loneliness can be a killer in these times. We are surrounded by some wonderful volunteers in our Community, but we can make just as much difference as they do without even leaving our chair. So grab the phone - it does not have to be the Ipad, the laptop or the mobile - ring someone and make them feel loved—NOW! News Pages TheThe Tredington Tredington News Pages News Pages Tredington News Pages

The Tredington News Pages Tredington & Stoke Orchard WI have cancelled all meetings until July. If we are able to meet then we will hold a …... Member’s entertainment evening on Tuesday, July14th in Tredington Village Hall at 7:30pm. This could be a lovely fun even- ing & get together but will obviously be governed by the lock down. We will know more by June & will let everyone know then if we can go ahead, & if we can, what we will be doing! Watch this space & in the meantime, stay safe & well. Do continue to ring & email each other – we are all only a phone call away if anyone needs help or just a chat!

Tredington & Stoke Orchard Gardening Club have sadly cancelled all our meetings & outings this summer. You will be pleased to know that the outings are already re booked for 2021! We do hope that we shall be able to meet in the Village Hall again in September - Monday,21st at 7:30pm when Mrs Ching will be talking on “Making Your Garden more Manageable”. By then we expect all our gardens will be amazing after all the time we have had to tend them! As time goes by there is a possibility that we will be able to hold our Fund-Raising Strawberry Tea at the Village hall on Saturday, Au- gust 22nd. We will update in each newsletter, so keep your fingers crossed & let’s hope we can all meet in August for the best tea ev- er!! Do look at your members lists & ring or email each other. It is so cheering & we all have time to chat now!!! News Pages TheThe Tredington Tredington News Pages News Pages Tredington News Pages

The Tredington News Pages Tredington Village Hall Improvement Committee have had to post- pone our VE Day event on May 8th. Just as everything else, we have put it on hold & hope that sometime in the future we will be able to hold it. We send Good Wishes to everyone in our two villages to stay safe & well. As soon as the lockdown is lifted, we will start or- ganizing more events. If anyone has any good ideas, we would love to hear from you.

Pew Sheets: Every week Vicky Fowkes, our Parish Administrator sends out a Pew Sheet to all the churches in the Benefice. At the moment with no churches open, this is rather difficult & the sheets are emailed to various people in each village. If you would like a copy, please contact Viv Troughton or Paddy Grimshaw.

The Friends of Tredington & Stoke Orchard Churches In line with all other clubs and activities, The Friends wish to an- nounce that our AGM will not take place in May 2020, but we hope to circulate our annual accounts and news letter to all members by email or post. Sadly our plans for a Roaring 20’s Summer Party with Jazz Band in June 2020 will also be postponed.We hope you and all your friends and families stay safe and well during these difficult times and we would welcome any type of communication you would like to contribute during this lock down time. With very best wishes to all who so kindly support our fund raising events. Mary Juckes Tredington Celebrate the NHS.

It must be 8.00pm on a Thursday—joining millions across the great Britain, Tredington Residents salute the NHS

Some of you may recognise this as the setting depicted on the cover of the April Newslet- ter.

Last Month we published a piece about the use of Footpaths in the countryside for exercise using all the regulatory self distancing. Sadly some people had not been following the code and using footpaths as cycle tracks and in groups of more then two which is NOT AC- CEPTABLE . The Footpath Officer has posted notices of regulations so please keep to them. With the number of people out, please keep dogs on leads at all times. DO NOT STROKE other people’s animals as the virus can be transferred on their fur/hair. Thank you for all the comments we have received about this article REMEMBER Keep to designated footpaths at all times. Whether you are in the Countryside or close to Home Please remember—Bag and Bin every time.

Scam Warning

Action fraud have reported a 400% increase in coronavirus re- lated fraud.

These scams take numerous forms, for example:

1. In one case a recorded message greeted the receiver, offering the chance to obtain face masks if they pressed 1 on the keypad, which would take the person through to the ‘payments department’.

2. In another letters had been sent to residents in Cheltenham, seemingly from Cheltenham Borough Council, demanding fines for disrespecting the self-isolation policy and breaching daily exercise guidelines.

During these difficult times, always be alert to fraudsters looking to take advantage. It is important to treat unsolic- ited messages with a degree of suspicion.

Anyone who has fallen victim to a scam or believe that they have been contacted as part of a scam can report it via 101 or Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. Or through the council’s web page www.cheltenham.gov.uk/covid-19-fraud-advice. More information on fraud types can be found at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ Domestic Abuse Being in lockdown with someone who is mentally or physically abusive is a scary reality for people across Gloucestershire.

If you are dealing with domestic abuse or violence, please know that support is available. Visit gloucestershire.police.uk, call 10, or in an emergency always call 999. Remember, help is still available, even during lockdown As has been mentioned elsewhere, all formal Church Services have been suspended until further notice.

Curate Rev. Kay Mundy 01452 780634 [email protected] Priest in Charge Revd Ilse Ferwerda 01452 780880 [email protected] Church Warden Tessa Mills 01452 780434 Hon Associ- Rev. Tom Curtis, 01684 295298 ate Minis- Stonehills Tewkesbury, ter GL20 5FB Readers Mrs Vivienne Trough- 01684 293540 ton Tredington, Tewkesbury GL20 7BW 01684 293540 Children & Young Vivienne Troughton 01684 293540

Tredington Cath Pollard 01684 293617 [email protected] www.tredington.gloucs.sch.uk Treding- Tina Taylor – Play 01684 293617 [email protected] ton Ted- leader/Manager dies Play- Children aged 2 years www.tredingtonteddies.org.uk group & to school age Treding- ton Ted- Monday to Friday Stoke Orchard Community Cen- dies 9am – 3pm Morn- tre Wednesdays, 9.30am – Baby & Toddler ing sessions 11.00am 9am – 12.30pm Village Hall Frank Juckes 01684 294053 [email protected] Stoke Orchard Helen 07437 533 132 info@stokeorchardcommunity Community centre.co.uk

Recycling and Waste Collection Dates for April. - Stoke Orchard and Treding- ton. Blue - Thursday 7th and Thursday 21st May Green. Thursday 14th, and Thursday 328h May

FLOWERS Volunteers are needed to help with flowers and decorating Stoke Orchard Church, especially at Christmas, Easter and Harvest. No skill is required - just a love of flow- ers! Please contact Tessa Mills (Churchwarden) if you can help. Thanks! Tessa’s contact number: 01452 780434

Tredington Flower Rota. May 10th and 17th Vanessa Menzies Wilson May 24th and 31st Paddy Grimshaw

Coronavirus Advice Websites www.gov.uk www.nhs.uk www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

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