Hurstbourne Tarrant Parish Magazine
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HURSTBOURNE TARRANT PARISH MAGAZINE November 2015 St. Peter’s, Linkenholt NOVEMBER 2015 BENEFICE MESSAGE On the 2nd of this month we ‘celebrate’ The Feast of All Souls, the day on which for a thousand years Christians have remembered in their prayers the names of those whom we love but see no longer. There are two parts to this: first the recollection of the ones who have died; and then what that recollection does to us who are left. On the following Sunday we re- member the ‘Fallen’. We find comfort in both these services that the knowledge that our apparent separation from them is only apparent. The church speaks of the church on earth and the church in heaven. Our Lord said to the penitent thief: “This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise”. The Letter to the Hebrews says lovingly, consolingly, “Seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses”. So go ahead and use your imagination when you think of these loved ones. St Paul said “Now we see through a glass darkly”. Well, we can think of our loved ones and comrades on the other side of that mirror. The point is that the living and the dead are both alike in the presence of God. Without God’s continuous presence, we here on earth would have no being. And whatever the form taken by those who have gone before us, they too enjoy that form only because of God’s everlasting love for them. And know this: our families and friends who have died have entered more fully than we into truth, beauty and goodness. First, truth. You can really believe that your loved ones have being and that they are safe. You can know this because Jesus Christ promised it in some of the most wonderfully tender words in the Gospel: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. So you see it is not, as people sometimes say, the dead who have passed away. It is the temporal bonds and restrictions, time and space, pain and crying and death itself which have passed away. So when you grieve for your departed, don’t feel sorry for them. They are safe. And you have God’s promise that you will see them again. As we remember again this year, with love and thanksgiving our dear ones who have died and comrades we recall, let us take strength and courage from the truth of the Gospel and from the triumphant words of St Paul: “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come; nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord. Amen”. I hope to see many of you at these services where we may join together in mutual com- passion, maybe grief, and remembrance. Your friend and parish priest, David Keighley 5 BRUCE BAIRNSFATHER (1866-1959) British cartoonist, born in Murree, India. Served in France during World War 1 It was during the winter of 1914-1915 in the trenches that he began to make comic sketches of life at the Front which proved extremely popular with his fellow combatants. He also became famous for his war cartoons featuring the character “Old Bill” One of Bairnsfather’s most famous cartoons, shown here , “Well if you know of a better ‘ole. Go to it”—was pub- lished on 24th November l9l5. In the Bystander magazine. It shows two soldiers on the battlefield sheltering in the same shell-hole, During World War 11 , he was an official war cartoonist “Well, if you know of a better Old Bill ‘ole, go to it” Some readers may remember “Food Facts” issued by the Ministry of Food weekly during the last war, and the BBC’s Home Service broadcast a Kitchen Front at 8.15 am each morning usually introduced by Freddy Grisewood. See below* There will be more advertisements in this series— it will be well worth your while to collect them. As each Thanks to Trevor Wheeler for supplying appears, pin it up in your kitchen this Notice DIARY DATES November 8th 3.30 pm Farewell Service (see page 7) 10th 7.45 pm HbT Historical Society (see page 15) 12th 2.30 pm Social Club (page 17) 16th 7.30 pm Parish Council (see pages 23/24) 18th 9.00 am Churchyard Working Party (see page 7) 21st 9.30m Church Cleaning (see page 7) 26th 2.30 pm Social Club (page 17) 27th 2.00 pm School Christmas Bazaar (see page 11) 29th 6.00 pm Advent Carol & Spire Celebration Service (see page 9) DEADLINE FOR THE PARISH MAGAZINE The deadline for all articles will now be 6 PM ON THE 20TH OF EACH MONTH. There is no guarantee that anything arriving after that time will be published no matter how im- portant, unless the delay has been discussed in advance. ‘I forgot’ and ‘I was busy’ won’t wash! A PLEA! - Could I ask you to please have your contributions delivered by 6 pm on the 20th of each month at the latest. This will let me make a start on compiling the maga- zine and also get to bed at a reasonable hour!. Ed. FARMING—AUTUMN 2015 A great relief to have got over a difficult harvest but the yields were great! Now the problem is selling the grain as everyone’s harvest was good and the price is pretty low! We have moved on now and got all the autumn sowing finished due to the dry weather and can see it all coming up. This is the wheat, oats and some barley The sheep are well and are all on fresh grass, this is called ‘flushing’. The rams have gone in, in the third week of October. We aim to put 1 ram to 40 ewes! The gestation period is five months. In early January we scan all the ewes to see how many lambs they are carrying, so we can separate them and feed them appropriately. So roll on March when lambing starts. Over the next three months we will be ploughing, hedge-cutting, getting rid of the grain from the harvest 2014 and tidying up! Dinah Murdoch REMEMBER, REMEMBER, THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER GUNPOWDER,TREASON AND PLOT WILL NE’ER BE FORGOT I’m not so sure about the gunpowder and the plot, but if you are plan- ning a fireworks party around 5th November. do remember that most animals can be very disturbed by the noise. I would ask you to let our Parish Clerk know of any fireworks parties— David Baker, Clerk to the PCC, tel. 01264 736 438; e-mail—[email protected] Parish Magazines now on sale at our new Post Office at Londis 25 CHURCHYARD WORKING PARTY AND CHURCH CLEANING Saturday 28th November from 9.00 am onwards sees the Churchyard Working Party make their last appearance for this year sweeping up the fallen leaves. Why not join them. A little exercise, a cup of coffee and a chat makes a good start to a Saturday morning. If you are not free on this date, you might like to work on your own on some other day. Feel free. Just let us know Working party Co-ordinators: Paul Symes tel. 01264 736 510 Nick Willis tel. 01264 736 735 Church Cleaning We shall meet to clean the church on Saturday 21st November from 9.30 onwards. Please join us and enjoy the company and the coffee. Polish and coffee provided. Further details from Viv South (735287) Housegroup The Housegroup will meet on Wednesday 4th November at 2.30 pm at Woodlands, Locks Drove to share ideas and discuss topics of current concern. More information from Richard or Viv South 735287. A REMINDER The Farewell Service for Michael Harley Archdeacon of Winchester will be held on Sunday 8th November at Winchester Cathedral during Evensong at 3.30 pm. GOSPEL HALL VERNHAM DEAN Evening Service - Every Sunday at 6 pm, Communion service on 22nd Family Service - Sunday 8th and 22nd at 10.30 am Prayer Meeting— Every Tuesday at 7.30 pm (please phone for venue) Friday Club — Friday at 6 pm (please note no Friday Club on 6 Nov as we will be at the fireworks) Enquiries - 01264 736514 or 736631 7 CONGRATULATIONS and all good wishes to Mr. Eric Holdway, 15 The Crescent, Hurst- bourne Tarrant, who will be celebrating his 80th birthday on the 28th. November. HURSTBOURNE TARRANT RAINFALL September was a much improved month weather wise to that of the previous month of August, this due in part to high pressure being the major influence on proceedings. There were two periods of unsettled conditions, firstly, between the 13th. and 17th; and secondly between the 20th. and 24th; these two spells contrib- uted to 49.2 mm.( 1.94 ins.) of the month’s total amount of 50.9 mm.( 2.00 ins.), and this was the fifth occasion this year that a monthly total was below average, as September should generally experience 66.0 mm.( 2.60 ins.). The days with the highest rainfall totals occurred during the first of the two unsettled occurrences, namely the 13th; which recorded 10.5 mm.( 0.41 ins.), while three days later on the 16th; September then received its largest volume, with 20.6 mm.(0.81 ins.), the ma- jority of this falling between 1400 and 2000 B.S.T.