AUGUST 2003 ISSUE 114 35P Midgham Team Wins Cup

our muscular young oarsmen F entered as the Coach and Horses team in the Goring and Streatley Regatta on July 19th, and whether in spite of or because of careful priming and preparation work by Glynis and Chris they won their finals to come away with close thing, but Midgham won by a the Davis Tate Challenge Cup. canvas. Congratulations to captain The 2003 Challenge Cup was James Lombardo, Stroke, Chris spread over three rounds, and there Wingham, Three, Robert Jennings, were ten teams competing from Two and Ben Williams, Bow on and Oxford- their success. The Cup is on display shire. Our Midgham crew rowed to victory over the Shire Hall rugby club in their first heat of the day, the went on to a com- fortable victory over The Oarsmen of the Apocalypse in the sec- ond, to meet with the Slide and Glide crew in the final, It was a THE GARDEN SLOT e had some visitors from DOMESTIC AFFAIRS W New Zealand staying with his issue has two cake reci- us in June who were exploring the T pes provided by Sue Pike and great gardens of Europe as part of originally designed for diabetic pa- their vacation. I hasten to add that tients. They are, however, quite mine was not on their list! The cou- tasty enough for anyone aiming to ple in question were recently retired eat in a more healthy manner. The plant nursery owners who were try- first is for Old-Fashioned Ginger- ing to extend their knowledge as bread, which will not keep so well they constructed a new retirement as the traditional recipe, but that garden. has not proved to be a problem! With limited time in the South of 10 oz plain flour some serious decisions 2 – 3 tsp ground gin- were needed. Top of my list was the ger RHS garden at Wisley, where there 1 bicarbonate of soda is always something of interest 4 oz soft margarine whatever the season. This was 2 oz soft brown sugar followed by The Royal Botanic 3 tbsp black treacle Garden Kew, a paradise in the ½ pt skimmed milk bustle of London. Great Dixter was 1 egg, beaten right up there as no gardener could Heat the oven to 150° C (300° F), visit the marvellous garden of or gas mark 2.. Sieve together the Christopher Lloyd without making flour, ginger and bicarbonate of new discoveries. The list then soda. Add the remaining ingredi- became impossibly long with ents to the bowl and beat with a Sissinghurst, Wakehurst Place, wooden spoon until thoroughly Jenkyns Place, Denmans and mixed. Pour into a lightly greased Stourhead all rated very highly. The and base-lined 8 inch square (20cm) more seasonal gardens and shallow tin. Bake for 1 hour or arboretums were left off. until a skewer inserted comes out They managed three of the above clean. Leave in the tin for a few before they returned to the antipo- minutes before turning out to cool des, Wisley, Sissinghurst and Stour- completely on aa wire rack. Cut head but it certainly set me thinking into 16 squares. that I needed to make more time to Now for a change, how about a re-visit some of these great gardens boiled fruit cake? of Britain. 9 oz water 1 oz sugar 4 oz soft margarine C r o w ½ tsp mixed spice (Cycle ride or walk) ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda In aid of St Matthews 1 lb mixed dried fruit church 2 eggs, size 2, beaten th 13 September 2003 8 oz self-raising wholemeal flour Pre-heat the oven to 160 ° C (325° F) or gas mark 3. Place the water, The time has come to think sugar, margarine, mixed spice, bi- about carbonate of soda, and dried fruit A ride or two for CROW in a medium-sized saucepan. Boil We do hope lots of you will together for 5 minutes, stirring shout occasionally, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. ---I want to go! When cooled stir in the eggs and flour and beat well. Turn into a The date is in September greased and base-lined 9 inch The thirteenth to be exact (23cm) cake-tin and level the sur- And we'd like you to remember face. Bake in the oven for 1 hour That it can be fun, in fact! or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cuts into 20 slices.

A gentle ride along the lanes FAMILY SEARCH Really does wonders for your A request came to the website forma- veins! tion on relatives, believed to have So please agree to make this lived in Midgham in the 18th and date early 19th centuries,. Does anyone happen to know the names recorded Ten o'clock at the starting gate on tombstones in the old churchyard, or even if the graves there still carry Contact: A. Jackson readable inscriptions? 0118 971 2540 If you can let me have such infor- For forms and information mation I will contact the lady who is looking for traces of her family by email. ELIZABETH INWOOD n Thursday, July 17th villagers O and many friends from the farm- ing community joined the members of the Inwood family in our church to bid farewell to Betty, who died at the age of 88 years. She had come to our vil- A GARDENING PUZZLE lage with her husband George in 1935 Last year I bought lots of seeds, and lived for the rest of her life at But- mostly of the 6” high annual varie- ton Court farm, which at that time was ties. Just for borders. We planted still part of the Midgham estate and them in trays to start them off. was owned by Sir Robert Black. One tray contained the mini blan- Betty and George supplied the milk to ket flowers above, but t no-one had most of the villagers, using a push-bike time to plant them out properly, to do the round before George, in later and eventually they were shoved en years, acquired the milk van. masse into the edge of the rose-bed. After the war the Midgham estate came on the market and was bought by the Lovell family, who then sold Button Court farm to the Inwoods. Betty rep- resented part of our village history with all the changes that happened during her life-time. One could meet her, dressed in Mac and Wellingtons irrespective of the weather, walking the lanes around But- ton Court, and have a talk with her about "the good old time" when our lanes did not have names but were still known by the people who lived in them. Betty was a strongly independ- CONTACTS ℡ ent person with definite opinions, per- haps sometimes to her own detriment, June Dutton 0118 971 2049 but that made her the person she was, Sarah Henderson 0118 971 3956 liked by all of us, and as such we shall remember her. Our thoughts are with Sheila Tytel 0118 971 2151 her family. Charles Jager Charles Jager 01635 860994 They loyally produced their little inch- side blossoms as above. POST COLLECTIONS But when they should, being annuals, ave you noticed the new col- have died away during the winter, H lection time plates on the they just didn’t. Came the spring, local pillar-boxes lately? Recently and they became active. Now the they were renewed, and now advise edge of the rose-bed has a mass of us that they will be emptied once a flowers, in different shapes and sizes, day, instead of twice as was the shown in the other two pictures. practice till recently. The times ap- They are all four – six inches wide, plicable to the individual boxes var- and about 24 inches tall. Is this nor- ies depending on the route used by mal? the mail-van doing the collection, but Saturday and Sunday collections have been varied slightly too. I got quite a shock when, having rushed to get a letter in the Birds Land cor- ner box for 9am I discovered that it wouldn’t move till 4.15 pm. I suppose that lots of people use email or the telephone these days, so the collections are much lighter and less economic. Sometimes I sus- pect that without the junk mail it would hardly be viable in the resi- dential areas.

ANONYMOUS LETTERS I received an anonymous letter recently, at least it had gone to the wrong address, but seemed to be intended for the attention of Midgham News readers. The surprised recipient passed it on, saying that she supposed I would know what to do with it. I am afraid that anonymous letters can get no attention in this news- sheet. We are always willing to report matters of concern to the vil- lage, but the originators of any news must make themselves known, even if they do not want publicity. We shall always respect peoples desire for privacy. June Dutton, Editor COUNCIL Berkshire Council has the duty of en- he Parish Council meeting in suring that publicity is given and or- T July had a long agenda of plan- ange notices placed on the gates of the ning application decisions to be an- properties concerned, they also publish nounced, though few on which action the lists of applications received in the had to be taken at the meeting. How- Newbury Weekly News. Each Parish ever the question of public involvement Councillor has an area of responsibility was raised, because recent applications and endeavours to visit the neighbours have shown how easy it would be for to obtain their opinion, and ensures that objections to be missed, or public opin- the agendas for Parish Council Meet- ion not fully appreciated. ings appears on the village notice The only new application for discussion boards.. But nothing can avail unless was a request to re-site a garage for the individual residents are also pre- which permission to include staff ac- pared to be pro-active, and stop to read commodation had already been re- the orange notices and check on notice ceived. The new application would move it further back from the drive. As there was already a stipulation that the ollowing June’s very kind accommodation would only be avail- F addition to last month’s able to employees of Highcroft Kennels news, we would like to try to there was no objection. Two other ap- express how much it has helped plications were the subjects of appeals having such valued support over to be heard later in the year. The appli- the last few years. Home means cation from St Martins, School Lane, so much to us all and living in had been withdrawn for re-submission Midgham is truly a special place without the granny annexe. No deci- sion has yet been made on the applica- because of the people who make tion to erect a telecommunications mast it so. When Alex was in France on the Mount. Notifications had been we often spoke of Midgham, and received that the applications for the now it is wonderful when is following properties had been ap- here. Midgham has wonderful proved : - countryside and pure charm, but Plum Cottage, Midgham Green, it is the people that bring it all Old Acre House, Bath Road, together. We would like to 7 Midgham Park Cottages, express our sincere appreciation 6 Midgham Park Cottages, and hope one day to find a way Walnut Cottage, Midgham Park. of saying thank you. Concern was raised that neighbouring With our love, from Linda, dwellings could be unaware of planning Derek and family. applications being submitted. West boards – something it is easy to forget VILLAGE CHAT to do when we all rush past them in est End house, at the corner cars. All Parish Council Meetings are W of the A4 and Cox’s Lane, open to the public, and it would be so is now the West Grange Hotel. helpful if more people would drop in. Once it was West End Farm, the For one thing there would be an op- home of Bryan and Rowena Foster, portunity to sample public opinion. who farmed the place, then it be- There is great pressure to achieve a came the home of Judge Christopher fast turn-round of planning applica- tions, and councillors spend a lot of Hilliard and his wife Anne and it time trying to catch residents at home. was for his security that we had a Please be aware that as residents we police-man living in . also have a role to play, even if it only That is now history and after several to look out for the information shared. years as a private house it is now an The next meeting will be Tuesday Au- hotel with 40 en-suite bedrooms, a gust 5th at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall, 50-seater restaurant, a large bar with and will have a full agenda, i.e. not eating area for bar-snacks and con- only planning matters. Do come.

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Series1 96 106 55 56 88 69 56 52 28 127 208 143 1084 Month ference rooms. For the hungry ones Saturday 30th August 3-5 pm, the and the not-so-hungry, the restaurant Midgham Gathering which is fast offers an impressive menu. becoming a tradition, and a good Congratulations to Annabel Evans, one too! All new and existing who will be head girl at Bradfield villagers are invited for a friendly, College during her last year at the informal gathering at Hill House, college. (I think mother Sue was Birds Lane, to share teas, other even more excited than her daugh- refreshments, gossip and ac- ter). Her duties (Annabel’s, not quaintanceships. You may be Sue’s) include weekly meetings with getting a more formal invitation the deputy headmaster, Junior Com- from the Village Hall Committee, mon room meetings and involve- but even if you don’t, just come! ment with certain events. She is also Saturday 13th September CROW involved with weekly chapel duties and for the latest information about and, no doubt, her experience as a this Cycle, Run or Walk event con- member of our church's P.C.C. and tact Auriol Jackson-0118 9712540. being one of the "sidesmen" will Friday,19th September 8 pm Irish come in handy. Folk Evening in Midgham Village Going through old issues of our Hall, tickets from tel. 9713654 & newsletter, in the November number 9713090 - £ 10 which includes Irish of 1992 there was a list of "Golden Stew provided by the Coach & Villagers" with over 50 years asso- Horse. ciation with our village. Head of the Sunday 30th November 12 - 2pm list is Andrew Nesbit from 1919, the Sue Ryder Christmas Party then Peggy Bowman from 1925, and Sale, organised by the John Goddard 1926, Michael God- Midgham Ladies Support Group but dard 1931,Brian Wickens 1934 and held in the WoolhamptonVillage Francis Vallis from 1941, all of Hall. whom are still with us. That list Friday December 12th, 7pm, (to be dates from 1992 and no doubt others confirmed), a Christmas Concert may have qualified since for the title from the cracker who delighted us in of ‘Golden Villager’. Please tell June April, Lori Tingay. Get your tick- or me of any other residents who ets early from the Village Hall Com- have passed their Jubilee years here, mittee, the last concert was a sell- then we can put them into the De- out, and now we know what a good cember Issue this year. show she gives. Finally some dates for your diary: Charles Jager