Re-opening 12th April

Brunch, BBQ, Boards and Bowls

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WELCOME to the Valley News

Have you been thinking about food country we throw away even more than usual during the ups about a quarter of our food. and downs of lockdowns - where to Does anyone locally plant mangels get it, how to cook it, how much anymore, like the 14 year old farm boy flavour it has and how it has been who saw Spitfires crashing in the fields produced? There was that initial panic near Fob Down in 1944 (page 31)? Kim about ingredients, then the banana Adams has shared a walk which will bread and sourdough phase, and some take you past the memorial (page 33). went on to enjoy local takeaways or to Meanwhile, many of you are still challenge themselves to find ways of enjoying sharing limericks (page 38) and keeping positive through cooking (page this one from Helen Langford sums up 23). the farming dilemma: It’s easy to forget the link between There once was a time on the farm farming and food, and to lose sight of When life in the fields meant no harm where all our food begins: with the soil. But the soil was depleting So I hope you will enjoy reading the While the climate was heating articles about regenerative farming (from page 19). We have taken the soil Now farmers are full of alarm. for granted for a long time and now it Enjoy the spring! Next month’s editor turns out we can’t produce nutritious is Tony Gaster. Verity Coleman food (or beautiful flowers, page 25) News without looking after all those bacteria Chief Editor Vernon Tottle and microorganisms. You might enjoy a Editors Charlotte Appleby, Verity lecture about making a difference in Coleman, Tony Gaster, Fiona McIntosh, Lucy Wolfe our gardens (page 7). Advertising Jenny Sloan Food is a pleasure to be enjoyed but it Distribution Lyn Jones IA&A 07899 922221 is also a responsibility. We know that Gilly Greenwood E&MW 779540 animal rearing can be done badly, but it Treasurer Henry Labram can also be done well, and we can For editorial enquiries, articles, letters or comments, please email: choose to encourage that by the [email protected]. choices that we make, whether buying For advertising enquiries, please email: from the local farmers’ market or [email protected] deciding to buy ethically from further Postal address: Itchen Valley News, Hazeldene, afield for home delivery. Whether meat Road, , SO21 1BE Please send all contributions for May 2021 by Thursday eating or not, we can source our 15 April. All material is published in good faith and the vegetables carefully and those of us Valley News cannot be held responsible for any who have gardens can try to grow at information given or views expressed; neither can it be liable for any loss arising from the use of any least some of our own, which are so information or advertisements contained herein. The much better tasting – Tony Gaster Editorial Team reserves the right to refuse or amend offers advice (page 27). Maybe we can articles or advertisements submitted for publication. offset any extra cost of organic food by Printed by Greenhouse Graphics of Basingstoke. Cover photo by Verity Coleman and other photos trying to minimise food waste; as a from various contributors. 3 have changed yet again. The current Itchen Valley News appeal for timetable is displayed, as always, on donations page 40. The reopening of village halls is still The Itchen Valley News is delivered uncertain and so once again no village free every month to more than 800 hall page is displayed this month. households in the villages of Abbots Some people are already planning Worthy, Avington, Easton, Itchen events for this year - read on! Abbas and . The Team Vernon Tottle members, made up of Editors, Chief Editor, Itchen Valley News Advertising space sellers, Distributors Building Ball cancelled and Deliverers, led by the indefatigable The Building Ball on 18 September has Chief Editor, Vernon Tottle, are all been cancelled: We feel that an volunteers. The News pays just for the expensive fund raising event is printing - a very significant cost - much inappropriate at this time. BUT….. of which is covered by income from Easton Village Hall party advertising, organised by Jenny Sloan, Saturday 11 September at 7.00 pm: a who successfully raises a large amount party in Easton Village Hall to celebrate every year. being able to get together again. Details We now need to ask you for a to follow. donation please. This is entirely Joanna Smith optional, but would be very helpful. You can make an online transfer, my Easton Flower Festival now 2022 preference, to the 'Itchen Valley News' Owing to the still uncertain Covid road account at HSBC (sort: 40-46-39, a/c map, we have decided, with regret, to no: 61856251) with your name as a postpone the Easton Flower Festival reference. Otherwise, you could send until 2022 when hopefully all or deliver a cheque to me, made out restrictions will have been lifted. There to the 'Itchen Valley News', at 1 The will be an update later in the year but we plan to hold the Festival between Old Dairy, Easton SO21 1EU. Cash is another option, and could be handed 16-19 June 2022. to me or to your Deliverer. An Judy Bishop amount of £5, £10 or £20 would be Boules 2021 'spot on’. Last year all the boules events had to You may not remember a request for be off the agenda, but I hope that we a donation previously; the last time can proceed this year, albeit with some was two years ago, since when the restrictions and plenty of caution. You News has been drawing on its will recall that each village organises reserves. social evenings through the summer Thank you everybody! (Mondays for Easton and Tuesdays for Avington, Itchen Abbas and Martyr Henry Labram, Treasurer Worthy). These normally start in April or May, though this year may be a little What’s On later than usual. As previously we have the inter-village Lockdown easing information matches and these are scheduled as With the schools reopening, bus times follows (all are Tuesdays and home 4 team first): Club members will therefore be able to 1 June – League round 1 – Avington v take part in organised outdoor cricket. Martyr Worthy and Itchen Abbas v At the time of writing, we are still Easton waiting for detailed guidance from the 22 June – Triples (all four villages ECB as to what this will mean for knockout) at Easton cricket clubs, but we are currently 13 July – League round 2 – Easton v assuming we will be able to participate Martyr Worthy and Itchen Abbas v in outdoor cricket training, with Avington limitations on the number of people 3 August – League round 3 – Avington mixing. v Easton and Martyr Worthy v Itchen We will therefore work towards Abbas providing activity in the cricket nets For the match on 1 June, the total outdoors from 1 April on the same numbers attending (players and basis as was set up in May last year: supporters) will be restricted to 30 by nets can only be used by club Boris’ Road map, but by 22 June there members, all net use must be pre- should be no such limit. booked with the Club Secretary, and There is a cup for each competition numbers in each net must be limited and these have been tucked away in with no more than two separate the winners’ cupboards for over a year. households involved. Anyone In 2019 Itchen Abbas claimed the interested in joining the Club and using Triples cup and Martyr Worthy the the cricket nets should use the contact League. Will these two current details below. champions be able to hold their We welcome a new sponsor to the positions after a year of lockdown? Cricket Club for this year (and for the Ralph Matthews next three seasons); Station Mill Health & Fitness. I am sure they will be as Greetings from Easton Cricket keen as we are that the road map out Club of lockdown continues to be met and 2021 is the Club’s 75th anniversary. that the gym and studio space in We look forward to celebrating this Alresford can reopen again on 12 April. occasion on 25 July (further details to The new club kit has been designed and follow) and hopefully we will be able to we look forward to wearing the new celebrate this special anniversary in the shirts in the Seniors sides in 2021. presence of our Club President, John We are also delighted to start the Roth – who by a nice coincidence preparations for our Ladies team and celebrated his 100th birthday in January for our Juniors (Colts) programme for this year! the season ahead. We will aim to As the weather gets warmer, great provide training and games for girls and progress is being made on the boys in the U7, U9, U11 & U13 age preparation of the club and the groups. This will only be possible with grounds for a cricket season ahead; the help and support of a lot of local hopefully to be fully enjoyed from May. parents, for the administration and The Government has now published its management of all of this children’s road map and this has indicated that activity. from 29 March, outdoor sports Our normal Club celebrations have activities will be allowed to restart and been planned for the following dates 5 this year: offer friendly matches for them during Tug of War on the evening of the holidays. These are the players you Thursday 22 July will be seeing play for the senior teams Easton Sixes on Friday 23 July in the future, and we want to support 75th Anniversary Celebration game on that player pathway. Sunday 25 July We also have a new sponsor this year; We look forward to the return of Stables Pizza, and I’m sure you will be cricket normality from May this year. as keen as I am to visit their restaurant Please support your local cricket Club in when it can open again! and join up for membership (social or To help strengthen links with parents, playing) in 2021. Friday’s will now be Club Night, when Club contact details: we hope you will come down and Chairman - Adrian Lee enjoy a drink, BBQ, and catch up with [email protected] friends after training. All while watching an U15 match in the sunshine. You Secretary - Seb Stannard never know, it might happen. Now [email protected] wouldn't that be a treat! Club Captain - Mark Dickety Frances Skipwith [email protected] [email protected] Juniors Administrator - Frances Skipwith National Gardens Scheme Best wishes from the Cricket Club Adrian Lee Nothing much has changed in respect of travel, and until 12 April we will still Juniors at EMWCC: only be offering pre-booked tickets to We are working hard behind the visit our gardens. This way, the scenes to prepare for sessions starting numbers can be regulated and we will after Easter for our Colts. Training be following government guidelines. starts in the week commencing After that, things won’t change a great Monday 12 April as follows: deal, but as always it is best to check U11/U13 : Boys Monday evenings, our website for up to date details. Girls Wednesday evenings As we are still limited to local travel, U9 – Friday evenings there is not a lot we can offer by way All Stars (U7) – Thursday afternoons of Open Gardens for April close to the Matches will take place from May, in Itchen Valley. Crawley is listed as eight the Winchester Warriors League. miles away. Ian Stuart will be leading the coaching, Crawley is an extremely pretty little providing expert advice to the other village and is a pleasure to walk round coaches, and making sure our Colts with its plethora of thatched dwellings, are being nurtured and challenged its C14 church and the obligatory duck (hopefully strengthening their love for pond. This year they are offering two the game, whether that be All Stars spring gardens open to visitors:- and age 5 or U15). One of our goals is Little Court and Paige Cottage: finding ways to retain our U15 players, https://ngs.org.uk/view-garden/17567 as sadly we have not been able to field Opening: 2 and 5 April 2.00-5.30 an U15 team in the league for a few Admission £7.50, children free. Pre- years now. This summer we hope to book tickets at ngs.org.uk 6 Refreshments: Due to the current £ You can buy a ticket for 5 through the situation there will be no refreshments Eventbrite platform at available. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/144684907453 We are currently offering Zoom talks and you should for groups about the National Garden be able to Scheme, and are now beginning to take access bookings for actual live talks later in information the year; please contact me for further and tickets. details. Please pass on Pat Beagley this link to any The Valley Gardeners: of your friends Tuesday 13 April at 2.30 and family you The Garden Jungle, a lecture by think may be interested in this lecture. We would Professor Dave Goulson via love you to join us to hear how, with Zoom just a few small changes, our gardens Have you ever could become a vast network of tiny studied closely a nature reserves, where humans and small patch of wildlife can thrive together in harmony soil or grass in rather than conflict. your garden and Please do contact me if you have any seen the myriad questions or problems accessing tickets of tiny creatures for this event. which inhabit that space? It is quite a Catherine Hahn revelation. Even more of a revelation is how important, even crucial, these 779343, [email protected] insects and small animals are to our survival and that of the planet we all Plant of the Month: the live on. Scarlet Elf Cap Do join us for a Valley Gardeners’ lecture on 13 April when Dave They are not common but we saw Goulson from Sussex University gives these locally on rotten wood under us an insight into this extraordinary trees. They could be toxic and should world beneath our feet. Based on his be admired, not touched. Apparently acclaimed book The Garden Jungle or there was once a small trade in them Gardening to save the Planet, this is for table decorations. Fungi like this fascinating and important information lack chlorophyll, and they evolved from which we as gardeners or just residents the ancestors of animals, not plants. of Earth should know. Gardeners Dorothy and Simon Broadley especially are responsible for the patch of ground we love to work on and Dave Goulson will explain how our lives, and ultimately the fate of humankind, are inextricably intertwined with that of earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies, the unappreciated heroes of the natural world.

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8 Events at The Grange buy a bottle to enjoy as the sun sets? Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 June at Hampshire 6.30pm Saturday 7 August at 6.30pm Spend an evening amongst the vines at The Grange Hampshire. £55 a person Burge’s Field Vineyard is where we Places are limited to only 25 for each grow the grapes that go into our award session and need to be booked in -winning Classic Method English advance. To book contact: Sparkling Wine. We are very proud [email protected] that the 25 acre vineyard is one of the Burge’s Field, Itchen Stoke first to be accredited under the UK’s What3words: quote.skinny.unites own sustainable wine production www.thegrangewine.co.uk system – Sustainable Wines of Great Claire Hunt Britain. Using the same grape varieties and the Easton WI same method as Champagne, The Grange Hampshire currently has two In March we welcomed Bill Dawson, a non-vintage wines, a CLASSIC and a retired pharmacist, as our first guest PINK. Our wines have won awards by speaker via Zoom. He gave an the armful - the latest, a 2020 Decanter interesting talk about the great variety Platinum medal for the last iteration of of birds he photographed while cruising the non-vintage PINK, put us in the top around New Zealand and the islands of three rosé sparkling wines in the Antarctica, with photographs of world. beautiful and rugged landscapes. Of the A tour, some snacks and a tasting varieties of penguins, the Fairy Blue Zam Baring will lead a tour before you penguin is the smallest with slate blue taste the vineyard’s award winning plumage on its head. Macaroni penguins English Sparkling Wines accompanied are so called because of their yellow by some of Becka Cooper’s delicious crests, and the largest is the Emperor canapés. penguin. They are very curious birds and inquisitively waddle up to visitors. Thursday 20 May at 6.30pm Terns fly the 25,000 mile round trip Saturday 22 May at 6.30pm from Antarctica to Scotland and back. Friday 10 September at 6.30pm The albatross is the largest bird with an £35 per person eleven foot wing span; they sleep on A tour, a picnic and a tasting the wing and may not return to land Come the summer, the vines will be in for five years, living for 50-60 years. luxuriant leaf, the bees will be buzzing The Ross ice shelf, discovered in 1841, around the flower-filled alleys and we is the size of France with seven eighths invite you to come and join us for a below water. Scott’s original cabin is on picnic in the vineyard. Before we eat, Ross Island and still stands exactly as it Zam Baring will show you around and was left; nothing deteriorates because tell you what makes our award winning it is so cold. When visiting Ernest Sparkling Wine so delicious. You will Shackleton’s grave in South Georgia, it then be able to taste for yourselves and is customary to take a dram of whisky relax with a delicious Becka Cooper in celebration. picnic. Why not bring some friends and 9 Bill showed how beautiful Antarctica is

and, at the end of his talk, we discussed the problem of finding a way to clear the oceans of plastic. Sallie Peake Oar-some! Rowing the Atlantic is one of the world’s toughest challenges: a 3,000 mile journey facing unpredictable weather conditions, sleep deprivation was one of the worst years for and physical exhaustion. Lucy Wolfe weather in the last decade. The great spoke to Itchen Valley resident Calum challenge was managing our Barclay, now back on dry land after expectations as we couldn't control the completing the Talisker Whisky weather and no matter how hard we Atlantic Challenge. pushed, some days it felt we weren't To have successfully rowed across going very far and was quite the Atlantic Ocean is a huge feat - frustrating. but to do it in just 37 days makes it Which was greater, the physical even more impressive! How do you challenge or the mental challenge? feel about your achievement? There were some physically hard days Crossing the finish line was one of the of rowing, combined with the aches most emotional experiences of my life. and sores, but we didn't have any We obviously felt relieved and happy, major issues (we trained hard), so I but as time goes on we miss being part would have to say it was more of a of an amazing event. However, we all mental challenge than a physical one. came home with a huge sense of We each rowed approximately 225 achievement and that will stay with us two hour shifts with never more than for a while. an hour's sleep at any one time, and so When I spoke to you before the trip, it's the relentless nature of the your worst fear was bad weather challenge which can grind you down, and being holed up in a small requiring every ounce of mental cabin - how smooth was the strength to keep getting on the oars. crossing? Highlight of the trip? The crossing was very challenging from The end! Simply put it was a truly a weather perspective as it was very amazing experience to finish. We did changeable and hard to predict, rarely have some memorable moments at sea: favourable. We had large seas, wind a pod of whales followed us for a few and waves on our beam (side) for a days and kept breaching by the boat; large part of the race, which meant it we caught a small tuna and had some was harder to row and created more sashimi; a turtle came to say hello. We sores and aches. We even had led the fours class for the first two headwinds on one day (New Years weeks which kept our spirits high. Eve) which was one of the worst days What were you most looking we had. The head safety officer said it forward to when you reached dry land? 10 www.butterfliesfriendship.com You miss everything at sea; your family, good food, a proper toilet, a cold beer. The Winchester District Local Plan It's a constant source of conversation. consultation is open until 12 April. Go The main aim of your row was to to www.localplan.winchester.or gov.uk raise money – how has your charity, to see the strategic issues and give the Human Practice Foundation your views on the options posed. benefitted? Other consultations are coming this Our original target was to raise £220k summer after the May elections: for to build four schools in Nepal. Covid Hampshire Hospitals’ consultation on hasn't helped fundraising but due to the hospital provision see more at www.HampshireTogether.nhs.uk. For unbelievable generosity of so many Highways M3 Junction 9, go to people we've managed to raise £145k www.highwaysengland.co.uk for details, so far, which is nearly enough to build and to register for updates. three schools. We haven't given up and Extensive flooding alleviation work is will keep fundraising this year. continuing across the division. This has What’s next on the agenda, the been a major focus for me in the last quiet life or another adventure? year. Several sites have been listed but It may be too early to talk about frustratingly, some of the work isn’t another adventure, but I think I'll being done until the next financial year definitely be planning something - due to budgetary constraints or the maybe not rowing! effects of Covid-19 on work teams. If you would like to donate online, search A pilot of School Streets is looking at removing traffic from streets in front of Virgin Money Giving HPF Atlantic school gates, to improve opportunities for active travel (cycling and walking) Jackie’s County Corner into school. We’ll hear the results in the autumn term. The 20/21 HCC Gigabit scheme, being carried out in conjunction with BDUK and Openreach, is very popular after a slower start and as a result, the local residents/organisers are finding the process challenging! Of the 26 schemes registered so far in the county, at least seven are in the Itchen Valley Division! I have appealed to the County to renew their fund of £1m to Hopefully some of you will have ensure their top-up support continues. received notice of vaccination by the We have asked to scrutinise the time you read this. But that doesn’t process because it is resulting in mean that everyone’s problems will be frustration at failure to deliver by over. You can ask for advice on Openreach. You can see extracts of Hampshire’s Coronavirus Support the meeting on YouTube via my 0333 370 4000. Maybe you have time website: search ‘broadband’. to be a telephone buddy to a lonely [email protected] 07973 696 resident? If interested search 085 www.jackieporter.co.uk 11

12 Letter from the Rectory

Dear Neighbours, Many of you will now have heard that, after nine years of ministry in the Itchen Valley (first as curate, then as assistant priest and finally as Rector), I am stepping down from leading the church here during the course of this such as baptisms and weddings and month. My appointment as Rector was moments of great sadness and distress temporary and comes to an end on 15 such as funerals. We have loved April. My last service as Rector is on chatting to you and praying for you as Sunday 11 April. The Diocese is keen we have walked around the lanes. to extend my term. However, I am When someone remarks about an now 65, a time at which a number of English village ‘what a beautiful place’, I people put down their professions and have often responded, ‘a place is only this seems the right time to do so. as beautiful as the people who live in Fortunately, we are able to remain it!’ Midsomer Murders has an endless living in Martyr Worthy and so will supply of plots because beautiful continue to run into you now and again villages can belie the character of their and Lucy (who has been by my side in inhabitants! But the Itchen Valley really everything) and I will help out with the is a very beautiful place with some church from time to time, particularly wonderful people who make up the until my successor is found and begins communities in each of the villages. his or her ministry. So why does this place work in a way We felt a very strong call to this which some village communities just do beautiful place with its wonderful not? In my view, this does not happen inhabitants. I, in particular, found by accident. Over generations many, connections with so many of you many individuals have been willing to through my family, through schooling, give their time (however busy they are) the Army, through my time at my law to get involved in village events, to take firm – Lucy and I stopped counting responsibility for the village jobs which after 20 completely unexpected links to need to be done: to be willing to be people who live here! The time as Parish Councillors, to organise plant Rector has provided the opportunity to sales and village fetes, to stand on the bring all the experiences of my life to committees for village halls, to bear into leading the church and I have participate in litter picks, to look after been able to use them, as many of you grass verges, to be editors of the village will have heard from my preaching. It magazine, to be governors of the local has been a great joy for both of us primary school, to take part in boules getting to know so many of you, both and tennis competitions, to lead the those who attend church regularly, cricket club, to perform in the those who attend occasionally and pantomime; to run village cafes, to those who never darken the doors! It organise the Safari supper, and (under has been such a privilege to be with the umbrella of the church) to visit the you at moments of great happiness, lonely, to help with toddlers and 13 PETER G FISHER OCEAN ROOFING OCEAN GUTTERING SERVICES GAS SAFE registered 219242 AND ROOFING Plumbing, Heating and Gutter Maintenance and Repair Roofing Repair Gas Engineer NewNew FlatFelt Roofing Roofing 33 Victena Road, Fair Oak, SO50 7FY Lead Roofing 80 High Street, Winchester, Phone 02380 600834 Hampshire, SO23 9AT Mobile 07860 401304 PHONE:Tel. 01962 01962 779690 885928 www.guttering.uk.comwww.ocean-roofing.co.uk Credit and debit cards accepted

Save the Dates Please be aware that, given the current situation, events may change. 11 September 2021 Itchen Valley Flower and Produce Festival 11 September 2021 7.00 Party in Easton Village Hall 23 November2021, 9 January and 25 February 2022: Martyr Worthy Lecture Series in IA&A Village Hall in aid of Itchen Valley Churches 16-19 June 2022 Easton Flower Festival

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14 festival (fortunately no-one was hurt although I did have singed eyebrows for a while). Then there was the Who Cares programme when Lucy and I (and several others) knocked on all your doors to ask you to take part in our survey to identify what hurt the most – which gave us such a great insight into the challenges that so many people face. Together we have so teenagers, to cook for our CAMEO enjoyed running Lent Courses, seniors lunch, to act as church Parenting Courses, Marriage Courses wardens, PCC representatives, vergers, and Alpha and getting to know so many sacristans, sidesmen, choir members of you through these. Lucy’s Free to Be and leaders, flower arrangers, fund ministry for those with mental health raisers, lesson readers, intercessors, challenges was another high for her, as eucharistic assistants, band members, was her time as Parish Administrator. coffee makers and bakers, She has so enjoyed her ‘walk and talk’ administrators, and regulatory ministry with so many of you and representatives, to name but a few! hopes that this may continue. In all these activities we get to know We had two periods when we prayed each other. We make friends across as a parish for 24 hours – each taking the generations. We look out for each responsibility for one hour – for Sonia other. We start to see that we all have Cragg who was facing dialysis and then strengths and weaknesses and, as we a few years later for Lou Lou Stirrup do, we become more understanding who was in danger in hospital during and forgiving of momentary lapses and the pandemic. In both cases the Lord selfishness. The result is that it is fun to stepped in. It was thrilling to see. For live here and we build our community me acting as Simon Cowell in the into the lovely group of friends that it Easton Pantomime was quite a moment is. as well. Baptisms in the River Itchen But, of course, it takes every have been another high. There have generation of those moving from been beautiful services, great festivals outside to see how valuable it is to live and moments when the Lord’s in community, when it is quite possible presence has been almost tangible. But to close your door on the world and it has been seeing Jesus in so many of never see anyone, except your friends. you which has been the greatest Each generation has to learn this lesson highlight of all. Thank you. anew and it is easy for that special Revd Alex Pease something which makes a community to slip away. There have been so many highs of our time leading the Parish in Itchen Valley and a few slightly hair-raising moments too. One of course was the celebrated case when I blew myself up at the Itchen Abbas Primary School harvest Posies for sharing on Mothering Sunday 15

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17 Fooled by April are still heard but by It looked a nice enough day and a walk much to Avington was in order. Alas, the smaller clouds gathered and by the time we audiences. reached the village, the rain started to The most come down – heavily. recent ex-president did his best to Fortunately, we were close to the outlaw the game of bridge. He was phone box and squashed inside. But a reported to have said you cannot have rather small space to occupy whilst “no trumps”. But for one who loved waiting for the rain to stop. social media, he has been a little bit How fortunate! A box full of the April quiet in recent weeks. Not for long. The issue of the Itchen Valley Forum was island of South Georgia, close to the on the floor. I hadn’t yet read my copy Falklands is looking for a new governor. so picked one up and started to leaf This small island is of huge political through the pages. The usual adverts significance. After all a major war was plus a couple of gardening articles to read. An interesting double page fought over it not so long ago. spread about Four Marks and then, It’s clear the island needs a person of how interesting, a short piece about strong character and experience and the upcoming Martyr Worthy Plant who is or was a major world player. So, Sale. who better than a former US president Hang on a minute. The Martyr Worthy to take on this role? The island has Plant Sale? I didn’t know they were excellent connections by sea and air. It holding one again this year. I hadn’t only takes a little over a week by sea heard anything about it. Then it struck and the newish airport in the Falklands me. I turned to the front cover. April has international flights. This is no yes but April 2020. remote backwater! I had picked up last year’s magazine and Furthermore, the sheep and penguin hadn’t spotted my error until page 38! population dominate and are unlikely to More fool me. voice opposition. There are plans to Vernon Tottle build a replica Congress and, due to the None of our readers would be an April weather, storming this could happen Fool, would they…..or would they? frequently. There’s plenty of grass for an 18-hole golf course and the planned Where do world leaders go? par of 312 should easily be within reach. We have all been involved with the Iceberg hunting is a favoured pastime, pandemic and then recent royal very different from the humidity of revelations, so that political leaders south Florida. The only negatives in who used to dominate the media have such an appointment are the lack of almost faded into the background. Well internet and the shortage of coiffeurs, not all of them. Many ex-presidents in though hair-raising experiences are the USA turn to lucrative public reported by many visitors. speaking engagements. So their voices Loof lirpa 18 Regenerative Farming: One Worldwide, agriculture is facing a huge challenge as soils are degrading as a result of modern farming practices. In the UK, topsoil is being lost at the rate of 2.2 million tonnes every year through nutrient decline and contamination. In response, many people are now promoting regenerative agriculture as a means of reversing this process. At Burntwood Farm, in Martyr needed for certain species of grass to Worthy, we have already undertaken fully regenerate, the adjacent wildlife many projects to improve the natural habitats, or the water, mineral and environment, reduce our use of fossil energy cycles. fuels, and become more sustainable. Although the grass is grazed for We have planted thousands of native shorter periods, some of it is trampled trees and shrubs, encouraged flower- and the organic matter and manure are rich meadows and invested in a incorporated into the ground. Leaving centralised wood-burning boiler and the grass to rest for longer periods (very discreet) photovoltaics. builds resilience in the soil. More These play their part in mitigating energy is harnessed from climate change but, in order to photosynthesis, creating a stronger and regenerate the soil, different measures deeper root system. This improves are needed. So we are starting to look water infiltration and storage capacity, at an alternative grazing system for our reducing flooding and puddling as well grass-fed and outdoor Aberdeen Angus as making the grass more drought beef cattle where animals move from tolerant. paddock to paddock, mimicking the Using these methods, farmers are natural herd behaviour of wild animals. starting to increase their grass This grazing pattern differs from mob productivity by up to three times and rotational grazing, as those systems without expensive inputs. As well as don’t usually take into account the time improving grassland, this can also help sequester up to 3.5 tonnes of carbon

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per hectare and therefore play a very lying reading in a wildflower meadow important part in the effort to reverse or picnicking beside a gently flowing climate change. river, perhaps listening to the sound of There is also the opportunity to a tractor ploughing the fields with practice mixed farming where grassland seagulls following behind hoping to with improved soil fertility is then used catch the overturned worms. How to grow cereal crops without chemical accurate is this idyllic image and how fertiliser. We will be monitoring the much still looks the same now? Most progress of our management changes of the wildflower meadows have gone over the coming years, including to make way for crops and the tractor measuring the improvements in soil will probably be bigger now. Many of organic matter, and we’ll let you know the old hedgerows between fields will how we get on! have disappeared, as too will many of Robert and Jo Sutcliffe the farmland birds and insects we may remember. How often nowadays do Regenerative Farming: Two we have to wipe the splattered bugs off the car windscreen on a sunny day If you think back to your childhood, because we are not able to see out of what do you remember about the it anymore? fields around you? Some of our What we probably won’t notice or memories may have a lovely, hazy glow even be aware of is the huge change to them, sunny summer afternoons which has been going on unseen in the

20 soil microbiome. This is the community of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms that are part of our topsoil, the top few inches of the earth beneath our feet, that is crucial to sustain life on this planet. At the end of WW2, it was important to find ways to maximise food production as quickly as possible and since then it has more than tripled resulting in an abundance of low-cost food. However, this has come at a significant cost to the environment resulting from the large volumes of chemical fertilisers and pesticides used. Many of these chemicals and some farming practices such as ploughing have a negative effect on the microbiome of the soil, disrupting the soil biology and the complex natural interplay of plants, insects, predators and microorganisms, and damaging soil sound and rich with organic matter health. The health of this microbiome and microorganisms are better able is closely linked to the health of our to retain water and to store carbon. own human gut microbiome, the Soil contains more carbon than the billions of tiny microbes that play a atmosphere and all the world’s plants major role in human health and and forests combined, so farming has diseases. the potential to sequester or absorb Another unhelpful result of our poor carbon out of the atmosphere on a soil health is erosion where the topsoil large scale and to be at the forefront is washed off the fields and runs into of the fight against climate change. the rivers. You may have noticed the There are many different factors little rivers of brown water running involved in this process, affecting not down some of our country lanes just the soil in our arable fields but during the recent winter floods as the every aspect of our land including the soil we need to feed us literally runs water, trees and hedges and off and is washed down our roads into integrating what happens with the rivers. neighbouring farms and whole This is where regenerative farming regions. We have a small farm with comes in. It is one of the terms used both arable and grazing land in to describe the attempt to put soil Twyford and for the last eight years health firmly back in the centre of or so we have been experimenting farming, to improve and restore soils with regenerative farming, which has that have been degraded by rebuilding involved lots of trial and error and soil organic matter and enhancing soil many mistakes along the way. We are biology. Soils that are structurally doing this with many other farms who together make up the South Downs 21 much difference we have made to the soil biology and to the amount of carbon it is able to sequester. We also have a couple of small woods in our Twyford farm and recently, with the help of a very generous grant from Jude’s Ice Cream, we have been replanting areas which have been affected by ash dieback, using a variety of species to benefit different types of wildlife and leaving deadwood standing or lying as a wildlife habitat rather than removing it. We are also using regenerative farming techniques by restoring chalk downland National Park’s Winchester Downs wildflower meadows and by planting Farm Cluster which means we are able new hedges to create wildlife corridors to have an impact on a much wider between fields. We are now starting scale. laying hedges rather than cutting them The main change we have made has with a flail mower. Together with been starting to use a no-till system and having strips of wild bird mix or nectar we are also beginning to experiment and pollen mix down the edges of with introducing grazing animals to the some of our fields, these practices fields after some of the crops have seem to be beginning to have a positive been harvested. This means that impact on the number and variety of instead of ploughing the fields after farmland birds which are making their harvest, we direct drill the seed into home with us. the soil through the remnants of the It is not just farmers who can play a old crop, so that the old crop gradually part in regenerative farming. We can all breaks down and restores organic encourage our farming friends to matter to the soil, as do the grazing experiment with some of these ways to animals. The structure of the soil is not create a more healthy soil and wildlife disturbed in the same way it is when a environment. We can also learn more field is ploughed. We also alternate about where our food comes from and cover crops with our arable crops so try to buy food which is produced in a that the soil is rarely left bare for more sustainable way that helps restore the than a short time, because doing so earth rather than remove even more keeps the soil biology active and means resources from it. that we need to use less fertiliser. It will also help if we learn not to think Other benefits we have found so far about a beautiful field, park or include needing to use fewer fungicides churchyard being a monoculture of one and herbicides and no insecticides. On variety of grass, neatly cut in stripes, the downside, we are having a battle but to look for land which is full of with some varieties of weeds that have diversity together with bees, butterflies become worse since we started direct and other wildlife. drilling. After about ten years of soil Nicky Barber testing we will be able to measure how 22 Fomenting lockdown cabbage, mooli radish, carrot and spring onion met a paste of garlic, ferments ginger, brown miso and gochugaru chilli flakes thickened with a rice flour 23 March heralded the uninvited porridge. Again this is jarred and left to landmark of one year since lockdown infuse for a week or two. For my first life was introduced to us all. It’s been a batch I left three jars outside my flat, tough road, an end is finally in sight and making use of the cool January there’s one question that I know is on temperatures in my building’s stairwell. everyone’s lips: is the alchemy of One of the more dutiful (put politely) fermentation a poignant metaphor for of my neighbours took it upon this great mystery we call life? Answer: themselves to dispose of them in the probably not, but even so there’s communal garbage bin. Maybe the something about fermenting, pickling or heady aroma wasn’t to their taste, but even marinating that has a bit of that it beats Febreeze any day in my book. magic feel about it. This lockdown I Thankfully, no kimchi was harmed… have been staving off the monotony, in part, by carrying out a few minor The latest projects using the above mentioned instalment is a bit techniques. Here, I’m going to focus on of a quest for me. the ferments. Friends of mine will tell you that First came the I’ve been talking humble sauerkraut. about making a White cabbage is hot sauce for as salted and pressed long as they’ve under a weight to known me with release its liquid, nothing to show before mixing in for it as yet. So when these waxy, some whole spices luminous scotch bonnet peppers - caraway, mustard blinked up at me from a local veg seed, juniper - and vendor, I knew the time had come. transferring to a container to sit until After cobbling together the best bits the briny cabbage becomes sour and all from various online videos, I had a the aromatics are infused. It’s a great recipe I was happy with. The peppers I one for rounding off a square meal: halved, deseeded and bathed in a salt meat, mash, kraut. I used a couple of brine for about 10 days until the smell merguez sausages to create a base for was what I can only describe as … sauerkraut soup, a life giving dish I tried interesting. I blended them with slow in Slovakia. roasted onion and garlic and a dash As a spice head myself, something each of good olive oil, vinegar and that’s been on my fermenter agenda brining liquid. The bright orange colour (sorry?) for a long while is the hallowed produced was satisfying enough on its kimchi. You get the feeling that Korean own. The taste was large but this was folk stories have been written about only version 1:1. A few more tweaks this stuff and, owing to the addictive, and I’ll have that winning formula. tangy funk of it, that wouldn’t surprise Lockdown 3 has been particularly me at all. Salted Chinese leaf or napa trying for many. Perhaps the cold and 23 dark of winter

has sent us into hibernation mode to some extent. For me these projects have been one way to break up the repetitive cycles of the days. I think it’s important to do what works for you and not feel any pressure to be super productive or sociable or to help save the world at this time. If you’re struggling, have a word about it with someone (anyone) as the effect can be transformative and even give a sense of achievement. Spring is in the air and who knows - maybe being bottled away for a few this can damage both the blooms and months in the stillness and the dark has the roots. So, after much reading of the allowed a few previously unseen landscape, the first beds were marked compounds and flavours to emerge in out this month with stakes and a huge us all. ball of twine. There was no going back, Charlie Coleman and in a matter of minutes the skeleton Charlie now lives in London and is of a cutting patch began to emerge. furloughed from his restaurant job - Ed Next, I needed to turn the green grass into something I could plant into. I’m Notes from the Field: March growing with a method called No-Dig, or as it’s sometimes called No-Till or James Greig, who has just started a cut Min-Till, as in minimum tillage. This flower farm in the heart of Easton, is going method involves minimum disturbance to share his thoughts each month on the to the soil’s structure, so no ploughing, progress of his new project. In his first rotovating or double digging. In recent diary instalment it’s all about the soil. years our understanding of the There is something enormously importance of soil has grown daunting about standing in a wide-open enormously. Soil is essentially a living paddock and placing the first stake, the organism. One teaspoon has more life first corner of the first bed. Like in it that the total global human starting a painting with a blank canvas, population – billions of where do you make the first mark? For microorganisms, bacterium, microfungi weeks I’ve studied the light, studied the and not to forget the king of them all – shadows, studied the wind. Ideally my the wonderful earthworm. Together flowers need over six hours of they have a symbiotic relationship, sunshine and as little wind as possible – creating a healthy living soil which 24 vitally feeds our plants, so healthy soil chopped-up maize, rye and sugar beet equals healthy plants. By turning the which is pickled for about a year to soil over, this structure is lost and the produce bio-gas to power the soil takes weeks to rebuild it. The Poundbury Estate. The leftover is a other vital benefit to this, which is nutrient rich organic matter. Soon the becoming more and more important, is worms will begin to work it into the the soil’s ability to lock in carbon. soil, feeding the soil life which in turn Carbon sequestration is one of the will draw vital nutrients and water to biggest ways we can combat climate my flowers. With beds now ready, next change, but each time we turn over the begins the fun of planting. soil we release billions of carbon Charles Dowding is the oracle on No- dioxide particles into the atmosphere Dig gardening, and has a very helpful Ploughing is estimated to account for website: www.charlesdowding.co.uk. around 20% of the worlds CO2 levels. Digestate is an ideal mulch and can be The common process for domestic and purchased locally from market gardeners involves covering the www.apsleyfarms.co.uk. If you want to ground with a layer of cardboard to follow my journey you can sign up to a block out the light on the grass or monthly newsletter at weeds, then adding a thick layer of www.stemandgreen.co.uk or follow me compost about 3 – 5 inches thick, on Instagram @stemandgreen. which you can plant straight into. James Greig Commercial arable famers use a specially adapted seed drill to plant Our Wild Valley: Willows their seeds straight through the previous crop or a cover crop. I used a Perhaps we all could do with our magic slightly adapted method and removed wand this month, with hope on the the turf, to make planting larger plants horizon of better times. Willow has a lot easier, I then laid a thick layer of been seen since biblical times as a tree Digestate – from none other than of celebration, but poor Ophelia in Prince Charles’ Duchy Estate. This is Hamlet lent it a sadder mourning feel. wonderful stuff: essentially it is Willows offer medicinal properties for pain relief including the natural compounds that make aspirin. Willow bark is sold online to support many ailments from overexertion to muscle comfort! In the Valley in early spring (1 March) the bigger weeping willow, white willow and crack willow trees show off their younger colourful branches superbly against a background of grey oaks and ash and dark green yew. This is because most willows grow furious and fast, and the younger twigs grow long with a fresh bright colour. The trees are generally short lived: we see the fallen trunks and branches of crack 25 BLB Private Car Hire PETER BRAY Airport, Docks & DOMESTIC long distance transfers APPLIANCE ENGINEER in safety & luxury Repairs to Washing Machines, Dryers, Electric Cookers, and Waste Disposal Units Service Agents for In-Sink-Erator, Tweeny, Maxmatic, Waste King and E.Mail Waste Maid. 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26 willow near the river at Yavington, still and hawthorn leaves are just unfolding majestic in their downfall. Most willows as I write in mid-March. Happy Easter. have a diamond pattern in the bark, as Sophie Rogers do poplars (white in the Time for a change. valley) but these trees I have been living and working in the when mature Valley for the last forty years, farming are more and tending the land at various majestic in locations. After much soul searching I appearance I have recently decided to change my think, with career - continuing to work on the land diamond but at a much smaller scale by focusing shape leaves on garden maintenance. Anything from too. complete garden clearance to regular When the maintenance of already established catkins of the gardens and outbuildings, covering goat and grey willow burst that is the activities such as maintaining lawns, time to pull a branch down and rub the hedging, light chainsaw work, shed soft paw like catkin across your cheek - refurbishment. One particular speciality these are the male flowers and once is the control of those lawn massacring the anthers are out you can see the chafer grubs! So if you need anything yellow clearly. So useful for pollinators, doing in and around the garden, especially those big bumble bees in whether a one-off or regular visits, early warmer days. (The book ‘Dancing please contact me to discuss. with Bees’ offers some great detail on And don't forget, I also do Hog Roasts early emerging bees.) Willow has its for those special occasions!! female flowers on a different tree, the Paul Moffatt 07860 107175 catkins are long and green. Goat or pussy willow is a coloniser species The Practical Gardener growing especially fast in damp ground and spreads easily. It provides plenty of I have been asked to write with a bit foliage which is eaten by many moths more detail on techniques. We all so including sallow kitten, dusky clear often hear and see the experts who wing and the lunar hornet clear wing. pass over such details, and maybe this is (see woodland.trust.org.uk). It is also key to success. Not being an expert in the main food plant for the purple emperor butterfly, as seen in Wilding, this field, I can only share experiences over many years. This year I have just the book about the Knapp Estate th where you can go and join butterfly opened my 40 packet of seeds. safaris amongst other wildlife exploring First of all, growing anything needs the experiences. right conditions and I am a great fan of We have enjoyed playing near willow heated propagators. But they do have and birch trees these last months. I’m issues – controlling light and humidity hoping this Easter we can all have a bit are two. I have mine in the greenhouse, of time to explore further afield and but on a sunny day, they get too hot. It find the signs of spring emerging; elder means I must remove the covers during 27 A H SERVICES Central Heating Plumbing & property maintenance. Gas Safe registered Engineers NVQ qualified & certificated plumbers All aspects of plumbing & heating Installations/Servicing/Repairs Electrical/Property maintenance. SHAUN BARNEY Emergency call outs. Landlord Professional management. Bathroom & kitchen refurbishment/ Painter & Decorator Power flushing, hot water cylinders, gas fires, cookers, drains, water softeners, Local Tradesman with tilling, lead work. 20 years experience Tel: 07533 776 406 or 07847 144 092 Quality Work

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28 this time. Watering is difficult frankly as you can both over and underdo this. When seeds are tiny, care must be exercised not to wash them away (with too much love!). Most vegetable seeds are easy to grow. Beans and peas are large enough to go into plastic trays and heat is not required. I do grow for succession, that is to provide a continuous crop, but it does not always work. Some varieties all come together. So for peas I start with Kelvedon Wonder, an early variety and sprouts. They also have lots of friends go on with Meteor and Hurst Green like slugs, pigeons, caterpillars and Shaft. These have never failed. Dwarf more. or French beans can be more difficult. I Courgettes, squash and cucumbers are much prefer climbing French beans to sensitive little things, best not outside runners as they never have hard skins. until it’s properly warm but once It’s a mistake to transplant root crops. started can be reliable and easy to Carrots, beetroot and parsnips must be grow. I always start the seed inside, one sown where they are to grow outside. to a pot. Believe me, I have tried every shortcut One of my big gripes is compost and I and none has worked. When sowing have included a photo of my potting outside, two things to consider – rain bench. You can see the seed compost and sun. Soil needs to be warming up which I have sieved. Just look at the and broken up so I use gloved hands to lumps which remain. It means about break into a fine tilth. If it’s still cold I half the compost is quite unusable. You cover with fleece. cannot grow anything small with big Most brassicas are easy to grow and lumps of soil. I’ve even tried a hammer they germinate reliably and quickly. But to crush some of the lumps! One tip is brassicas are hard work and can be a bit to allow the compost to dry a bit choosey. Some take a very long time to before sieving. Jacks Magic is the best reach fruition, like purple sprouting or potting compost I have found, very reliable and a good mix. My herbs, having germinated, are now in pots on the kitchen windowsill. Outside the chives are up and some parsley. I like to have many varieties of herbs just in reach for my cooking, - so much better than the dried stuff in pots. Flowers can be more troublesome and you learn what is easy and what is almost impossible. I have found 29 perennials like lupin, delphinium and meeting. As this has to be a remote echinacea quite good, and for annuals meeting we will not be starting with a marigold and antirrhinum. Now the guest speaker. If it is possible we may latter is a really tiny seed, like dust, but consider holding another meeting later grows well and likes our soil. in the year and having a speaker. The One other task that was needed was to second meeting is our AGM which will take place remotely at 7pm on 5 May. recover leaf mould. I hand sieve this to You are welcome to come but it is remove stones, bits, beech nuts and the very much a business meeting where rest. I fill 40 trugs. It’s great as a spring we have to review and approve various mulch. documents as well as organise the On the subject of lawns, I have found a various roles that Parish Council new material to combat moss called members take on. MoBacter. It is said not to leave black Another important date for the diary is patches. I use a small hand spreader to the Litter Pick. With the uncertainty of apply this. I can’t agree with Monty to how and when Covid-19 precautions let my lawns go wild (where would the will be relaxed, it is difficult to be sure children play?) but I do agree having an that this event can go ahead. To give as untouched area in the garden is a great much warning as possible and to fit in idea for wildlife. Happy Gardening! with Keep Britain Tidy’s suggested date Tony Gaster. for the Great British Spring Clean, Saturday 5 June has been selected; From the Parish Council. more information in May. As has been previously suggested, some are already We have been picking up litter while out walking. To holding our help we have managed to obtain on meetings by loan twenty litter pick sticks; five for Zoom for each village. If you would like to over a year borrow them, then for each village and although please contact:- the end may Avington: Christopher Langford, Easton: be in sight, Steve Percy, Martyr Worthy:Yvette Riley, two key Itchen Abbas: Patrick Appleby. meetings, Staying on the environment we are also from which we had an exemption to looking to getting more multipurpose hold them last year, will have to take rubbish bins. Hopefully this may place this time. Both will be held encourage dog walkers not to leave remotely using Zoom. The first is the their bags of “guess what” on the annual Parish Meeting which will take footpaths. Our Rights of Way place at 7pm on Thursday 29 April. Committee is working hard to get This is the meeting when you can find surface improvements to some of the out what we have been doing in the more heavily used paths and to have last year and ask questions. If you some of the overgrown bridleways would like to attend please email our cleared. As ever it is a slow process Clerk, Michelle at and finding funding a limiting factor. [email protected] The Planning and Environment and she will send you the link to the Committees have both been looking at

30 the Winchester City District Local Plan Spitfire pilots’ memorial and so far we have submitted the following comments:- On 22 July 1944, British newspaper We support appropriate expansion of headlines were revealing that the bomb existing settlements in preference to plot of two days before had failed to building new towns. kill Hitler. In Normandy, Montgomery's On the environment we expressed our Operation Goodwood, an attempt to concerns over the detail of the carbon break out from the Caen area, petered neutrality plan. There is a need for out with heavy losses. In Abbotstone specific environmental targets on all that day, fourteen-year-old farm boy council property. Solar farms should Stan Upton was helping men to plant have a requirement to support mangels. Overhead they heard the biodiversity. Other forms of green sound of Rolls Royce Merlin engines, energy generation should be and looking up the men saw pairs of encouraged (wind, water and solar on Spitfires manoeuvring hard, their black roofs). Cycling routes to the centre of and white D-Day recognition stripes Winchester and the new Leisure bright against the sky. Suddenly the Centre must be provided. The lack of a sound changed - a sickening "crump" as central point for buses in Winchester three aircraft collided was followed by and the proposed increase in Park and the scream of two Spitfires plunging Ride spaces will not help reduce into Big Walk Field while the third, carbon footprint. port wing torn off, "spun like a On biodiversity we have expressed the sycamore seed" into Lousy Crates view that the South Downs National Field. All three pilots, F/Lt H.W. Park already provides a green Adams, F/Sgt J.G.L. Hughes, and F/Lt B. environment and a new green belt is Lees were killed. The memorial marks not a good concept. New where the aircraft fell. developments should provide green The pilots were from 26 Squadron, recreational space and Parish Councils RAF, which was not an interceptor unit should be given funding to plant trees. but serving in the army co-operation Overall we have expressed the view role within 34 Reconnaissance Wing, that the current plans are insufficiently 2nd Tactical Air Force, based at Lee-on robust. -Solent. From May 1944 two RAF, four Once again the issue of speeding has come up. On the B3047 we are asking for more speed checks by the police. For Avington and Easton there have been requests for speed limits. This is being investigated. In the meantime let us know what you think about speed limits in these two villages. It looks like another busy year is ahead of us. Let’s hope that, as lockdown begins to end, we can all enjoy more freedom. Until then keep safe. Patrick Appleby

31 Fleet Air Arm and one US Navy squadron shared a pool of Seafire L.III Fob Down walk (navalised Spitfire) and Spitfire L.F.Vb A 4 mile circular walk via Fob aircraft spotting for the naval guns Down and Abbotstone, it includes during the early stages of the the pilots’ memorial Normandy invasion. The Spitfires were Directions : a relatively old model at this stage of the war, frequently referred to in the Start at Drove Rd layby RAF as "clipped, cropped and clapped"; SU 573 327 the beautiful ellipse of the Spitfire wing what3 words: sedated.weedy.signature clipped by having the wingtips SO24 9EX shortened to give higher speed and a From Drove Rd go under the height faster rate of roll, the impellers restriction barrier and follow signs for cropped to optimise the engine for low The Watercress Way and Wayfarers level performance, and the airframes Walk around the base of Fob Down. having seen hard use. That said, under You are treading in the steps of about 12,000 feet the L.F.Vb was still hundreds of years of drovers, and this capable against most of the opposition, path can be traced to The Oxdrove, which was why the US Navy had put South and west to their slow spotter floatplanes (usually Stockbridge and South Wales. Look left catapulted from battleships and across the flood plain of the confluence cruisers) ashore, formed their pilots of the Itchen, Arle and Candover into Squadron VCS-7 and given them a Rivers, where US tanks trained for quick conversion course to handle WWII. In the mid distance is the aircraft with about three times the Watercress Line embankment. power and twice the speed of their At the next height restriction barrier previous mounts. follow the Watercress Way signs by By mid-July, the Americans had turning left to cross the Candover, returned to their ships, but 26 draining Northington Lake. Just to the Squadron was involved in army right are extensive watercress beds,. support, anti-midget submarine and anti At the top of the hill, you meet Folly -E-boat patrols in the Bay of the Seine Lane which joins Itchen Stoke to area. Abbotstone. You can shorten the On 22 July six of their pilots were route by turning right here following tasked with an exercise to practise pair the road downhill. formation flying and deflection sighting. Make sure you read the interpretation F/Lts Adams and Lees formed one pair, board installed in March 2021 on the F/Sgt Hughes, and F/Lt Hartley another. sad tale of three spitfire pilots killed Of course, fighter pilots need to have here on a training exercise. aggression and be willing to take risks For the longer route carry on along but, sadly, sometimes in any training The Watercress Way to a five ways mistakes will be made. junction of bridleways. Take the first Let us then remember these men (all right, signed Three Castles Path, UK citizens) with honour. downhill to Abbotstone. David Wolfe Carry straight along the road climbing uphill and take the first bridleway to the left towards . A small 32

©Crown copyright 2020 Ordnance Survey. Media 022/20. detour down the road with pasture actually a late 12th century planned T- either side takes you to a deserted shaped settlement called ‘Novum village site. Abbotstone has only a few Forum (Latin for New Market), houses and farm today but is one of established by two Bishops of the UK’s 2000 deserted villages. Winchester: Henri de Blois, brother of Indentations in the fields show the King Stephen, and Godfrey de Lucy. outlines of the houses and church and Old Alresford just to the north dates mill recorded in the Domesday Book. back even further, to Saxon times. It flourished until the 12th/13th At the next anti- deer gate drop down centuries and is marked on the map as a small bank, cross the minor road and a Mediaeval Village. Depopulation follow the footpath to another happened over a long time, probably fingerpost labelled The Watercress exacerbated by plague outbreaks. Way. Turn right, back to Drove Lane. Back on the bridleway, carry on gently Kim Adams downhill towards Old Alresford until you reach a crossroads of four paths. From our MP Turn right unless you want to visit Old Alresford’s pretty green, stream We have to start with a big event I was and children’s playground which is pleased to take part in last month - a straight on. first for Winchester, an online rally. On the Oxdrove, or Abbotstone Organised by the Save South Road, turn right then take the first left Winchester campaign group, and the up through a tall anti-deer gate to Dever Society, it was a chance to make climb the NE flanks of Fob Down. You clear our opposition to proposed new will walk through the Pinglestone towns either side of the city. If either vineyard. Fabulous views here to the were ever built, especially east: there would certainly be an impact on Is Alresford really New? No, it’s the Itchen Valley. 33

34 to respond in future. Combining the

health protection capabilities of PHE with NHS Test and Trace, including the UK-wide Joint Biosecurity Centre, and building on the experiences of Covid- 19, I welcome it but am keen to scrutinise and help Ministers get it right. On the international stage, we are leading a global approach. At the UN General Assembly last year the Prime Minister set out an ambitious plan, As I said to the event, the ongoing including a global network of zoonotic review of Winchester City Council’s research hubs to spot new pandemics Local Plan is an opportunity to protect before they begin by identifying the precious landscape setting for many pathogens before they leap from years to come. The need for these animals to humans. There’s also large schemes has never been shown increased R&D and manufacturing and we should be clear Winchester has capacity for treatments and vaccines to no need to build anywhere near this ensure treatments are ready to deploy many houses, so there is no credible against emerging threats as well as route whatsoever to an argument, improved horizon scanning and early framed for RoyalDown or Micheldever, warning systems. This is all positive, which says ‘Central Government made and the UK will use its G7 Presidency us do it’. Please contact your city this year to further the agenda as I councillors and make your voice heard welcomed in the House recently, but within the local plan process. we need all countries onboard. As the Covid-19 road map plays out, I That’s why, in parallel, I am pressing am doing my best to get the Ministers for the Government’s view Winchester view into Government; on the origins of Covid-19 but also the especially around the future of our effectiveness of the WHO’s mission to hospitality sector which is still closed. China and Wuhan. The recovery grants will help – as will US President, Joe Biden, has raised the widening of the Self Employed concerns over the mission and China’s Income Support Scheme for others – lack of transparency and cooperation. but I’m nervous as to what normal What emerges must be robust, open looks like when the dust settles. and scientifically rigorous or we’re As a former Public Health Minister, never going to make progress. who had responsibility for the Steve Brine international health portfolio, I am MP for Winchester & Itchen Valley doing some work on the origins of www.stevebrine.com Covid-19, and building resilience to future pandemics. To build strength in Book review the domestic health system, we are establishing the National Institute for Kiss Myself Goodbye is an intriguing Health Protection which will be book title! Written by the novelist and responsible for ensuring our readiness former editor of the Times Literary 35

36 Supplement Ferdinand Mount, it is the true story of how he unravels the past life behind his mysterious wealthy aunt. Known as Aunt Munca after the mouse in one of Beatrix Potter's stories, she had been very much part of his life counted together was 61! from childhood onwards. But nothing Elaine and Henry Labram was ever revealed about the background to her long and very Itchen Abbas Primary School colourful life. Her story begins in the back streets of We are so delighted that all of the Sheffield at the end of the Victorian children have now returned to school age, with fascinating details of how after such a long time. The staff were both the very poor, and the very rich so looking forward to seeing them all industrialists, lived and how they spent and there were lots of very happy, their time and money. Social history of smiling faces as they settled back into a different kind. their classrooms and met their friends It is a tale of family secrets, wealth and and teachers again. Well done to all of lies. One of the reviews reads “An the children. engrossing story of a woman with Everyone has been so impressed with more layers than an onion”. I the way the children have relaxed back thoroughly recommend trying to peel into the school routine and this is in no back those layers to find out who was small way due to all of the hard work of the real Aunt Munca. the staff who have worked tirelessly to Published by Bloomsbury Continuum, it put in systems that not only keep is now out in paperback. everyone in school safe but also make it Liz Platt feel as normal as possible for the children. Bird of the Month Parents should also be congratulated on making it to the end of home schooling; The wren, though tiny, has a loud, the support they have given their powerful song. This is due to a children during this last year has been resonating chamber in the wren’s wonderful. Everyone has been pushed throat which uses all the air in the into doing things that are new to them lungs as it sings and can produce two and that they may not be confident to notes at the same time. Wrens roost do, but the message from all of the staff communally to help survive the winter is that they have done an amazing job. and the highest number of birds Teachers continued to see the children 37 Can’t get the hang of YOU COULD ADVERTISE HERE! your computer? One-to-one tuition by Contact Jenny at qualified trainer - DBS checked COVID safe sessions or remote available itchenvalleyadvertising @gmail.com Call Christine for details on 01962 735359

hair by We’ve tried doing meetings online Louise We’ve even done one with Steve Brine MOBILE HAIRDRESSER But romantic dinners Previous experience in top Just cannot be winners West End and Winchester salons If you can’t clink your glasses of wine 01264 712037 07788 248378 Alresford Motor Services Memorials New Farm Road Building Stonework Restoration All makes serviced and repaired BLACKWELL & MOODY Ltd MOT test station Stone Masons for five generations Volkswagen, Audi, Saab Magdalen Masonry Works and Volvo specialist Alresford Road Winchester SO21 1HE 01962 733 888 Tel 01962 852476 [email protected]

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Old Francis went fishing for trout I thought about food for this day In the Itchen, a permit without. Not fat or sugar, they say As he sat on the bank But as for more wine The keeper said 'Frank I’m told that’s just fine You are nabbed, there is never a doubt' And one more glass if I may!

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in live lessons and assemblies which has We as Governors would like to been a great advantage and they are express our deepest gratitude to each pleased to see them so happy and and every member of our school staff engaged. whose dedication to the children’s As is always a priority, the school has wellbeing has come before anything concentrated on the children’s (and else. parents’) mental health, and has been Beccy Clark , Vice-Chair of Governors able to offer support and guidance. Self -compassion has been at the forefront Station Mill: come back of this and will continue to be now stronger they have returned to school. This is also a good time to reflect on Station Mill, opposite the doctor’s some of the great things that happened surgery in Alresford, was originally built during lockdown including Book Day to utilise the adjacent railway line, celebrations with a difference. It was a storing agricultural products (including full day of activities on Zoom that watercress), and remains an iconic local brought together children at school building. The building has recently been and at home with a choice of reading transformed into a premium fitness workshops to attend and book sharing facility. A comprehensive but sessions between teachers and sympathetic restoration has ensured it children. There were also some retains its original features and feel, but fantastic costumes to share. the space has been extended and Mr Robbins has been challenging Joe thoroughly modernised. The latest air Wicks with his own morning PE handling systems which constantly sessions for everyone to join in and refresh the air in the gym, combined this has been a fantastic start to the day with full adherence to government for the children, staff and some Covid protocols, ensure a Covid-safe parents! environment for members. Station Mill Health and Fitness has been 39 established as a one stop shop for all April, in line with government things wellness. Each member becomes protocols. The class schedule is part of a health-conscious community expected to recommence (when and steps on board to a journey of permitted to do so) on Monday 17 wellness. May. Why not visit during the open Station Mill seamlessly combines the weeks (12 - 25 April) and take the very latest in fitness technology with its opportunity to meet the team, have a industry exclusive performance cycling tour of the facility and grab a taster studio and state-of-the-art gym floor. pass for the gym and classes. Station Mill is also host to two calm Scott O’Shea www.stationmill.co.uk or and serene studios that provide an 01962 735110 for more details. extensive weekly class schedule, including yoga, pilates and barre classes, Local monthly information all designed with you in mind, allowing you to strengthen, stretch and relax at Itchen Valley area waste your own leisure. collections in April We are proud to be the first facility in Black bins and brown garden bins on England to utilise Technogym’s Skillbike Saturday 10 and Friday 23 April. Green Technology in its performance cycling bins on Fridays 2, 16 and 30 April. classes. These classes create a bespoke Glass boxes on Friday 2 and 30 April. training session geared to improving Farmers Market in Winchester key cycling performance metrics and Sundays 11 and 25 April. areas of general fitness. The classes are run in the immersive performance Parish Council Full Meeting studio where the use of visual data is Thursday 1 April. Via Zoom projected to push you to your max. 67 Bus operated by Stagecoach. Station Mill Health and Fitness is more than a leisure facility - it is a club for its Monday and Thursday to Winchester: members, providing a bespoke and 08:23 09:23 13:53 16:23 17:23 personal fitness and wellness Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to experience. The focus is on the Winchester: individual, supporting members to 08:23 09:23 11:53 13:53 15:23 achieve their health and fitness goals in 16:23 17:23 a relaxed and friendly local club Saturday to Winchester: community. Station Mill Health and 12:23 14:23 17:23 Fitness is reopening its gym on 12 Monday and Thursday to Alresford: 11:49 15:19 17:09 18:09 Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to Alresford: 09:49 11:49 13:19 15:19 17:09 18:09 Saturday to Alresford: 10:19 12:19 15:19 No Sunday or bank holiday service. All times shown are at Itchen Abbas. Times are 5 minutes later (or earlier) at Easton. 40

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