Upper Rissington's Newsletter
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Upper Rissington’s Newsletter Where did the summer go to? And how did Upper Rissington manage to find one of the few sunny days (again!) for the Annual Fete? If you weren’t able to get there, check out the report on page 2 to see what you missed. And if you were there, can you find yourself in the photos? Autumn 2017 Once again, we have a packed issue of ‘The Breeze’ Inside this issue: for you this quarter, with all the regular favourites plus the welcome return of ‘The View From Here’ Village News p2-4 (thanks Polly!). As always, many thanks to all our Stargazing p6-7 contributors, it’s great to be able to include such excellent articles. The View From Here p7 Behind the Road Names Thanks also to our advertisers, without whom we p8-9 wouldn’t be able to produce such a high-quality newsletter. You may not be aware that ‘The Breeze’ Rissington Singers p10 receives no other funding, so we depend on our Youth News p11 advertisers to keep us going. If you appreciate ‘The Little Hurricanes p11 Breeze’ and would be prepared to contribute Scouting News p12 something to our costs, do please get in contact with us at the usual address ([email protected]). Sports News p13 We’d also love to hear from you if you have any ideas Gardening on a Hill for the magazine or would like to contribute a news p14-15 item or article for a future edition. CUR:ve News p15 Enjoy the Autumn Useful contacts p24 Sue Handy Social Committee Update Fantastic weather, a great turnout, loads of attractions and a great community spirit from the volunteers and villagers all contributed to the best UR Annual Fete yet. A wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends and neighbours and meet new friends. The UR annual fete just gets better. This years fete raised record amounts of money for so many local organisations. The Social Committee added over £2000 to it’s funds, enabling it to offer immediate support to a number of local organisations, including a donation of £500 to help refurnish the Community Room of the Village Hall, an offer of £250 to help secure the future of our Scouts, and some token thank-you donations to the school and Youth Club for their on the day support. A dog’s life isn't always so bad. The rest of the money will help to do two things. Firstly it will help secure the future of the Social Committee, with enough money in the bank to cover the up-front investments needed to secure events. Secondly, it will help us to develop an ambitious list of community assets such as good quality, large, covered gazebos, barbecue equipment, PA systems, and film and audio equipment, so that we can develop more events for the community. The pull of the fete??? The next event is the Barn Dance at the 2 Village Hall. This is the third Barn Dance we’ve run and they have all been sold out and a great family night out. Take your partners,, to burn off all the food and drink and laugh as you learn… It’s on 23rd September, look out for the posters and get your tickets as soon as they go on sale. The Bees Knees will again call the tunes. The Travelling Kitchen will sort us out with fabulous food, and the bar and barbecues will get another outing to fuel you up for the rootin’, tootin’. hootin’ and a hollerin’. Start time is planned for 6.30pm with a break in the fun for the food, and the evening will finish at 11pm. The Fireworks Display is planned for Saturday 11th November, but look out for other events as we develop a new programme for the next 12 months. If you want to get involved with the Upper Rissington Social Committee you’ll be very, very welcome. Please get in touch with us on [email protected]. It’s often hard work, but it’s a great group to be involved with and there’s a lot of fun to be had as well as being a great way to get involved with the community. New to Upper Rissington? Keen to meet people? Why not come and give Pioneers a try? Pioneers started meeting a few months ago and so far has proved a big success. The aim was to provide an opportunity for people to meet in a friendly, welcoming and relaxed atmosphere, and it seems to be doing just that! We serve coffee and a selection of other hot and cold drinks, and there is usually something nice to nibble as well. We spend a lot of time chatting, but have also enjoyed a visit from a computer expert, an informal tai chi taster, and a bring-and-share lunch, and we’re open to ideas for new activities as we go forward. It’s also a great place to meet people with similar interests and maybe arrange to do things together—dog walking and theatre visits having featured so far! Pioneers meets on alternate Wednesdays (from September 13th) in the Community Room at the Village Hall, and you can drop in any time between 10.30 and 12.30. There is a small charge of £2 to cover the cost of hiring the hall. Do have a look at our facebook page for more information or contact us via email (on [email protected]) or by phone (01451 824328). 3 Village Hall Update It’s been a busy start for the Trust since taking ownership of the Village Hall on 2nd June. Sorting out gas and electric so that the usage and unit costs are significantly reduced. Applying for and receiving 100% business rate relief for the next few years (thank you CDC). Arranging telephone and broadband, online banking, insurances. All of these things that we’d planned for couldn't be done until the day the lease was signed and the first grant from the Parish Council was in the bank. The busy start hasn't been limited to the Trust. You might have noticed a group of busy folk sorting out the planting around the hall. Jackie’s work on re-establishing borders and shrubberies is making an enormous difference. Mark and John’s strimming, digging and weeding has helped in the drive to transform the overgrown borders. The Little Hurricanes work on organising the storage, Ashley North sorting out our boilers, and a wealth of goodwill and support is fuelling our belief in the potential of the hall to form a major hub for the community. The furniture in the hall is in need of updating. The community room is the priority. The existing furniture is wonderful quality, but heavy and difficult for users of the hall to move. So the new furniture will be lighter, will fold up and will store in racks in the community room. We will be keeping some of the older furniture for use on coffee mornings and it can be usefully deployed in the foyer for everyday use. The rest of the furniture will be replaced within the next two years and we hope that we can benefit from grants to develop a more ambitious investment programme to give us more options on lighting, internal decoration and storage. We’ve just committed to a new cleaning machine for the village hall floors. Currently the hard floors, including the sports hall, are cleaned using a bucket and mop. Following an assessment of the different machines available we’ve chosen one that will help us make sure the floors are kept in tip top condition. The real drive is to get the hall busy. And the best sort of busy is the sort that brings new services, events, clubs and social gatherings into the community. The sports committee is looking to get a table tennis club going, we would like to encourage the development of badminton and we’ll be developing our marketing effort to build the use of the hall so that we can meet another of our aims, which is to make the hall self sufficient within three years. Check out our website at URVH.org for details of what’s going on in the hall. Currently booked activities include the Little Hurricanes, Yoga, Dance Classes, Karate, Kids Relaxation classes, Pioneers coffee mornings, local history talks and of course the Barn Dance on 23rd September. We’ve seen the hall being used for private parties with indoor bouncy castles, Panto, the Village Fete and a host of other activities So, for your next big family occasion, talk to us about using your village hall. Get in touch on 01451 821820 or email us at [email protected]. Finally, if you’d like to help and support the community, through working to help the hall meet it’s potential, please email us at [email protected] or leave a message on 01451 821820 and we’ll 4 get back to you. Rissingtons Local History Society In May, following a short AGM, Hugh Collins gave us a fascinating talk on the History of Communication, with lots of humour thrown in – starting with Moses and the stone tablets and finishing with cars phoning emergency services following a crash!!! On a sunny afternoon in June a small group of members walked round historic Stow and Maugesbury with Tony Ellam. We stopped and really looked at the buildings which we had walked past many times before without knowing the history behind them, fascinating! Forthcoming events: Friday 22nd Sep 1.30pm.